Lauki/Doodhi (Bottle Gourd) Thepla

An healthy and a low fat breakfast perfect for summer mornings, Lauki/Doodhi Thepla. Its very easy and quick to serve in breakfast or in snacks which accompanies well with a cup of hot masala tea, pickle or curd.
I kept my dough kneaded last night and refrigerated overnight, next day bring it out and after 15-20 min of resting, rolled it in to thin theplas (not compulsory to do so, as I was going to be bit busy this morning, prepared it early).
So let's start making it..!!

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Besan (Chickpea flour)
3 tsp vegetable oil
1 cup lauki peeled and grated
2 tbsp curd
3 green chillies, finely paste
1 tsp ginger paste
2-3 pods of garlic, finely paste
1 tsp kashmiri red chilly powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste

Recipe:

• In a bowl, mix whole wheat flour with besan, vegetable oil, spices mentioned above and salt.
• Mix all well and keep it aside.
• In another bowl, grated launki/doodhi. (No need to strain its water)
• Mix grated lauki/doodhi and curd in the flour mixture.
• Start kneading the dough ( don't add water immediately, as lauki has its own water which releases, add the water only if required. Else too much water will be tacky to handle the dough). 
• Dough should be smooth and soft.
• Let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
• Pull out the medium size balls from the dough and start rolling in to thin parathas/theplas, with the flour dusted on the rolling board.
• Place the theplas on the hot tawa with a drizzle of little oil on medium flame.
• Once you see the bubbles on it, flip turn the other side.
• Cook until light pink patches.
• Spoon the oil on the sides of the thepla and spread it evenly. Press it with a spatula and same way flip and again press.
• Here you are done. Serve it with hot cup of tea, curd or pickle..

Baked Gujarati Handvo

Handvo is a baked savory and spicy cake which is a part of Gujarati cuisine and prepared with rice and daals. This can be prepared both on stove top in a nonstick pan with little oil on low flame as well as in oven. Here i have made Handvo using oven in a lightly greased cake pan and it turned out wonderful....Big loud thanks to my mom and her handmade yummy recipes...

First Let's learn how to make Handva Batter Mixture...

For Handva Batter:
1 cup Rice
1/3 cup Chana dal (Bengal Gram)
1/3 cup Tuver dal (Pigeon Pea)
1/4 cup White Udad dal (White gram lentil)

• Wash and Soak Rice and daals in water for 4 hours.
• After 4 hours, grind coarsely all the Ingredients in a mixer grinder jar. (Make sure, handva batter should be coarse and not too thin batter)

Handvo Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cup Coarsely Grind Handva Batter
1 1/4 cup grated Dudhi (Bottle Gourd/Lauki, can also Zucchhini)
1/4 cup sour dahi / yogurt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of Eno Fruit soda
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Garam Masala Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
2 tsp Red Chilly Powder (Can adjust the measurements suitable to your spice level)
1 tsp dry methi powder (fenugreek powder)
2 green Chilly's paste
1 tsp Ginger Paste
1 tsp Garlic Paste (about 3 pods of garlic)
1 tbsp jaggery powder
1/4 cup roasted split peanuts
3 tbsp vegetable oil or can use olive oil too
Salt to taste

For Tempering:
2 tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil
11/2 tsp white Sesame seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp Heeng (asafoetida powder)
1 whole dry red Chilly

Method:

• In a Large bowl, Mix coarsely grind handva batter with oil, sour dahi or yogurt and baking soda.
• Mix all, Cover and allow to ferments for atleast 6-7 hours.
• Pre-heat Oven at 200 degree Celsius.
• Once the batter is fermented, add grated dudhi, Ginger-Garlic-Green Chilly Paste, Turmeric powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, red chilly powder, methi powder, jaggery powder, roasted split peanuts, salt to taste and lastly Eno fruit soda.
• Mix the batter well and pour the entire batter in to the greased cake mould.
• Once the batter is in a cake mould, its now we gonna temper it.
• In a small fry pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds, as soon it splutters, add whole dry red chilly, heeng powder, red chilly powder and lastly sesame seeds. Turn off the flame and immediately pour evenly on to the handva batter.
• Bake it in preheated oven at 200 degree Celsius for 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.
• And here you are ready to serve hot handva with a cup of ginger tea...