Meetha Paratha (Sweet Flatbread)

My grandmother is an innate nurturer. After my grandfather passed away 27 years ago she latched on immediately to us, her grand children, as a coping mechanism to try and fill the gap he left behind. Every memory I have of her involves her being in her kitchen, her domain, where she would move around like a whirling dervish chopping, dicing, stirring, kneading - pouring out her love for us into the meals she prepared.

One of the special treats she made for us on weekends was meetha paratha - a fat, sugary, crunchy, flaky flatbread. She's almost 90 now but still welcomes requests and will lovingly roll out this delicious comfort food for my breakfast each time I'm back home for a visit. Two weeks ago I stood next to her and watched as she dipped a fat ball of dough into the flour bin, shook off the excess, flattened and spread it with ghee and granulated sugar. She then rolled it into a log, smeared it with more ghee and sugar, brought the ends together to form a disc and then rolled it out flat.

The passing years have not changed how swiftly her hands move, how her fingers look as she spreads the ghee on the dough, how she places the flattened dough on the griddle and rotates it before flipping it on to the other side. My grandmothers' meetha partahas are always thick, shaped square and are irresistibly delicious. They have crunchy, crispy edges while their insides are soft and almost syrupy-sweet. It may have been two weeks since I had one but I can still taste it so well. And, because I miss her so very much, I made this indulgent breakfast for myself this morning. My paratha is so lackluster in comparison, not half as thick or as sugary, not even a very good square. To add insult to injury it even has a few burned spots. I'm not sure she would approve. I always fall short. But it's okay. It's a tribute all the same.


Meetha Paratha (Sweet Flatbread)

2 cups atta flour
2-3 tbsp wheat bran (optional)
1 cup warm water
a large pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp raw sugar
3-4 tbsp ghee

Sift the flour, bran and salt together in a large bowl. Pour in the water, half a cup at a time, mix into the flour with your hands and then knead to form a soft dough. Cover and leave aside for half an hour. Meanwhile heat the griddle on medium.

Divide the dough into 8 balls. Dip a ball of dough into flour or dust with flour and flatten into a disc. Smear with ghee and sprinkle generously with sugar. Bring the sides up and roll the disc into a ball. Flatten and roll it out thick. Spread a tablespoon of ghee on the griddle and place the flattened dough on top. Spread the top with a layer of ghee and flip it over when one side is cooked. Serve warm. These parathas are delicious on their own, with a cup of milky tea.









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Coffee + Dulce de Leche = Bliss

I woke up this morning to my kids' conspiratorial laughter as they walked along the back of my legs and then used my back as a launching pad to dive on to the mattress, loud yells and all. 

"what are you doing?" (Duh. Wasn't it obvious? But I'm kind of dull in the morning)

"I giving you a'ssage" (I'm giving you a massage) replied the toddler. 

Oh yeah, I love those. Thoughtful kids, huh? 

"Wake up! It's morning! Wake up! We're huuuuuungry"

Children are so cruel. They always wake up earlier than usual when every particle of your being needs that extra hour of sleep; when you feel like a lump of dough as soon as you open your eyes and nothing, not even a superhuman force can will you to move out of the bed and start your day. 

Those are the mornings when you need a crutch. And a little comfort.

I got both via Pioneer Woman's Dulce de Leche Coffee. Pure genius. Now why hadn't I ever thought of using up my dulce de leche this way before? I've made David Lebovitz's coffee popsicles so many times and this is essentially the same thing.

I had everything on hand:

Pain au Chocolat

I love pain au chocolat. 

It reminds me of solitary walks on cold winter days.

I love just walking around on my own. I do it less for fitness and more because it makes me feel good. In my early 20's when I lived away from home for a year, I used to walk out of necessity. I had to get to places and so I did a lot of walking which invariably led to a lot of thinking and self-analysis. Walking always clears my head and helps me stay calm and focused. 

In the course of all that walking, I used to stop over at a small bakery not far from where I lived. If I got there early enough in the morning, I could get myself some still-warm-and-fresh-from-the-oven heavenly smelling pain au chocolat. Flaky and crispy on the outside, soft in the middle with a center of warm, gooey chocolate. Such a rich treat, but so light and airy, you are deceived into believing otherwise.

It was the best I have ever had. Maybe because it was freshly baked. Maybe it was the kind of chocolate filling they used. Maybe because I was 21 and every experience, culinary or otherwise, seems awesome or exaggerated in hindsight. 

 

Recently watching Meryl Streep making chocolate croissants in 'It's complicated' has had me thinking about that pain au chocolat all week. Then  this blog post I came across here finally compelled me to give it a try and make my own.

Roasted Red Bell Pepper Lasagne

Ok, so it's taken me just a little over a year to get back to this blog ... and I never did that cupcake challenge.. my bad. But I'm back now, and hoping to keep on blogging. 

First blog post, you say - and no photo of the actual lasagne? Here's what happened: the kitchen light bulb needed replacing this morning but I wasn't too bothered because my kitchen gets really good, natural sunlight for just between an hour or two,around mid-morning. And otherwise, there's light enough in there to find my way around till the sun goes down and it's completely dark. So I started taking photos of the Bell Peppers and suddenly realized I was all out of milk. So off I went to the grocery store & by the time I got back, natural light was fading fast. Then it was a matter of getting the cooking over with before it got dark and I couldn't see any more.