Sev the day

Sev Batata Paratha 

What do you when your best laid plans of cooking up a hearty brunch of alu parathas before heading out shopping with the girls are foiled?

Eat out? Not if I had my way.

Last night I had boiled some potatoes and kneaded dough so I could quickly fix brunch after a sleep in and still make it to the shops – shopping for our new home.

All shopping expeditions in the last few months have surely started with well meaning targets and goals, but have ended up as weekend outings, when a much debated lunch or brunch lulled us into a post-prandial tristesse.

With the move to the new home very imminent, we have to get things moving, literally and figuratively.

No lunch on this trip, I had announced last night, snuffing any possible dissent about - when we should eat - as soon as we head out or later? What we should eat - pasta or sandwich, salad or fries? Where should we eat – at the food court or go in for some fine dining?

This morning, feeling chuffed as if it were a project going per its Gantt chart, I got down to preparing the stuffing.

Someone had been at my boiled potatoes… must have been the husband on his mid-night snacking trips…

How can I feed a family of four with just two and three quarters of a potato?

Even if I keep the skins on?

I started enlisting - some sev decided to participate on a whim, a handful of thick poha gallantly volunteered to stockade - chest doubled with pride, some lovelorn panipuri masala loyally followed the sev into the mixture, so how could best buddy pudina forsake its mate?

The usual onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies, amchur, fresh coriander and garam masala were shamed into doing their jobs as per contract.

The result was spectacular.

The sev indeed saved my day.

Sev Batata Paratha

Ingredients

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 tsp ginger and garlic paste

¾ cup sev

½ cup medium thick pohe, washed and drained

2 ¾ of medium potatoes, boiled and mashed (I kept the skins on)

1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

1 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tbsp chopped pudina

1 tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp garam masala

1 tbsp panipuri masala

A pinch of hing

Oil to make parathas

For the dough

Wheat flour

Salt to taste

Water

Method

Knead dough for making paratha and keep it aside for some time – or overnight.

In a pan heat a little oil and sauté the chopped onions, garlic and ginger paste and the green chillies. Remove from heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and divide into equal portions and make loose balls out of the stuffing.

Heat a tava. Roll a small ball of dough into disc and place a ball of the stuffing on it and pull the edges of the disc to cover the stuffing with the dough and flatten it. Flour the surface and gently roll the flattened balls into a paratha. Cook it as you would your usual alu paratha, with some oil.

Serve hot with sweet date and tamarind chutney, some sev and a salad made with mandarin segments, diced cucumber, salt, chilli powder, hing and lemon juice.