Carrot and methi puri (deep-fried flat-bread with carrots and fenugreek)

This is my first post on this blog about deep-frying. Puris are delicious puffed up flatbreads, which are made by rolling a ball of dough and frying it on high heat so that it puffs up. As an occasional treat, this bread is lovely. Usually, Indians have it for breakfast or during festivals. I make puris for my kids for their after school snack or school bento. Puris with alu (potato vegetable) or chana (chickpea curry) is a yum breakfast/brunch combo. 

This recipe is about puri made with added vegetables and spices, which can be had just by itself or with some pickles. I have served my puris with my friend Aruna Mani's pickle which she gifted me  :) Recipe for the Mango thokku pickle is on her blog here.

A well made puri, should puff up and have a deep pocket, something like this....:)

Chicken curry with fenugreek (methi murgh)

I had an unexpected visit to Little India again. I had a lunch with a dear friend and a food blogger Aruna Mani at a popular Bengali and Punjabi cuisine restaurant named Mustard. We had  "sarson ka saag"(a popular Punjabi cuisine vegetable made with mustard leaves)  and "makki ki roti"(a flat bread made with corn flour) for the very first time. The food at Mustard restaurant is absolutely awesome. I went to an Indian cuisine restaurant after a very long time, and I was amazed by the authenticity of the cuisine in a foreign country.  If you ever visit Singapore, you have to try this restaurant....:)

Some pictures of our lunch....!!

After lunch Aruna and I, looked around in the market for a particular store which sells Maharastrian grocery items, but it was closed.....so bought some other Indian vegetables instead. I bought cluster beans and fenugreek. 

I am trying to include more greens in my family's diet and methi is one of the favorite greens. You can use it with lentils, flat-breads or as just a dry vegetable sauteed with some garlic. Today's recipe uses fenugreek with chicken and it is a mouthwatering recipe. It is quite simple and easy to make, just put in one ingredient after the other, saute it for a while..and the curry in ready in about 25-30 minutes...!!

Picture of fresh methi/fenugreek leaves here.

Dau miu theplas (An Indian flat-bread with Chinese greens)

As I mentioned in my previous post here, I am trying out new ingredients and new methods of including local and fresh ingredients in my daily cooking. Dau miu greens are available cheaply in Singapore and can be used in Indian home cooking too. I used them to make a Japanese condiment which I posted before. Here, I will post a recipe of how I used them to make a flat-bread traditionally made with fenugreek green leaves. The fragrance and flavor or dau miu is lighter than fenugreek, but a bit similar.... to make "theplas" .... I feel the easiest way to make the "greens" enjoyable for kids is through a flat-bread. The green color makes it look very pretty and as you chop, mince it finely to mix with the dough you hardly can "see" it as a vegetable.... :) My facebook friend Hemali, shared the recipe !