Bottle gourd Rajgara paratha Canapé .

This is one starter item made using Bottle gourd and rajgara flour. Rajgara flour is normally we use as staple food for the days when we observe fasts. At my mom’s place certain religious days like Shivaratri, Ramnavami and Janmashthami are the days for fast .
I used to observe fast before marriage just for the fun of eating those yummy food which mom used to make for those fasting days and believe me it was not a break for stomach , as it should be, rather we were eating double than normal having variety of different meal that day. Well, after marriage I never thought about that to keep fast for religious purpose, but some how after we came to USA the with the generous idea of keeping our traditional things alive , I bought some rajgara flour for Ramnavami .And the whole matter ended when the other day on call I was announcing proudly to Mom that this year I am going to observe fast on Ramnavami .

As she told me that it was 2 days before that ,the whole matter ended as big nice joke for all others family members , with some poor consolation from D that no matter what my intention was good .

And since that day the rajgara flour I bought was waiting in my pantry to see when the day will be fortunate enough for it , to have my touch :D . And that lucky day arrived when I saw Tarla dalal’s recipe for Rajgara paratha canapé and it reminded me of this flour . Also it uses bottle gourd, so what else can be the perfect time for me to post this !!!

I made it, I loved it for its taste and I loved it more as it was simple to make, I love it even better as it makes a wonderful appetizer dish . And I love this recipe coz it was nice way to use my bought rajgara flour, which otherwise might be resting in a my pantry corner ignored for years to come :D.

Here is my little variation to the original recipe .

Ingredients :

For Paratha canapés
½ rajgara flour (also known as rajgira flour- available in any Indian grocery store)
¼ cup grated bottle gourd
1-2 tsp oil
Little oil for cooking
Salt to tast
Pinch of turmeric powder
½ tsp red chilli powder or green chilli paste

For potato subzi :

1 medium potato
½ tsp cumin seeds,
Pinch of turmeric powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp oil

1 tsp shredded coconut for garnishing
Green chutney for garnishing

For recipe of green chutney click here.

Method :

To make dough for paratha , first squeeze the juice from shredded bottle gourd and keep it aside . Mix the shredded bottle gourd, salt, red chilli powder or green chilli paste and turmeric powder and with rajgara flour and knead the dough. Try making not so soft dough of that, if needed add little bottle gourd juice to it to knead dough .

If its your first time kneading rajgara flour , remember it will get too soft even if you add little water to it . keep on adding little bottle gourd juice just enough to knead the dough . also keep little rajgara flour aside for powdering when rolling the paratha and for safely in case your dough gets too soft you can add some more flour on it to make it perfect .

When almost done add 1-2 tsp oil and mix it well that will make dough smooth. Make big lemon sized ball from it and roll out into big chapati like , cut them in 1.5 -2 inch diameter circle or in any shape you like with cookie cutter.

Heat a nonstick pan and cook this on both the sides brushing very little oil to it. cook n low to medium heat till it is brown on both sides.

Keep it aside and make potato subji next. Cut potato in to small cubes .Heating 1 tsp oil add cumin seeds to it , when they start crackling add potato cubes , salt and a pinch of turmeric powder to it.

When done place the round parathas in a serving dish, top each one with a spoon full of potato cubes and on top of that add little green chutney. Garnish with shredded coconut and serve.

This dish taste as good as it looks and as Tarla dalal says it’s the best way to make kids eat healthy veggie like bottle gourd.

Along with this paratha , Lauki thepla, and haandvoh are such dishes with bottle gourd which any bottle gourd hater will love to eat .

Check out my another dish with Bottle gourd – “ Lauki-chanadal “ - a traditional Gujarati way to cook lauki .

This goes as my another entry for VoW- Bottle Gourd.