Nachni Palak Muthiya/ Red Millet flour and Spinach steamed dumplings...Go West , part II

Soooooooo while the Methi Muthiya was steaming, I realized I could do the same with leftover Spinach…but the same thing...naaah…trolled the net and found Tarla Dalal had one with Spinach, Fenugreek and Ragi/Red Millet flour…did a few changes and made Nachni Palak Muthiya…well now you know and hopefully understand why I didn’t have the patience to the garnishing bit !!! ;-)

The taste was quite different from Methi Muthiya but I remain undecided about which one I liked more

Note to self: need to make both a few more times to pick a winner.

Nachni Palak muthiya/ Red Millet flour and Spinach steamed dumplings

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• Palak/Spinach, washed and finely chopped, 1 cup
• Ragi/Nachni / Red millet flour, ¼ cup
• Atta/Whole Wheat flour, ¼ cup
• Besan /Gram flour/Chickpea flour, 1 tbsp
• Garlic, paste, 1 tsp
• Ginger, paste, 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder, a pinch
• Curd/Yogurt, 2-3 tbsp
• Salt, to taste
• Baking soda/ Eno salt, a pinch
• Coriander powder, ½ tsp
• Cumin powder, ½ tsp
• Red chili powder, ½ tsp

For tempering:

• Oil, 2 tbsp oil
• Mustard seeds, 1 tsp
• Til/White sesame seeds, 1 heaped tbsp
• Heeng/ Asafoetida, ¼ tsp pinch
• Green chilies, a couple, diagonally cut and seeds removed if you want

Instructions:

To prepare dough, mix all ingredients and knead into a soft dough.( must use yogurt in this one)  

Put the steamer on.

Grease your palms with a little oil and make barrel shaped long rolls – about 1 ½” to 2” in diameter. Place the rolls on a greased container  a few inches apart s they will swell up on steaming. Steam for about 15-18 minutes. Insert a toothpick to check if they are done. 
Don’t over steam – as they will go hard. 
Let them cool slightly and cut them diagonally into ½” thick slices. These slices are called “muthiyas” (we munched on a few right after steaming !! )

There are 2-3 ways to add tempering.  You can either add the tempering mix straight on the steamed “muthiyas” OR add “muthiyas” to the tempering in the pan and let them fry for about 2-3 minutes OR do what I did – since I was making these for the first time I wasn’t too sure whether I would be able to handle them without breaking them.

Heat a non stick pan and lightly fry the “muthiyas” crisp on both sides using about ½ tsp of oil. Lay them on a serving platter.

For the tempering, heat  oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start spluttering add in the rest of the ingredients, mix for about 10-15 seconds and switch of the gas. Pour the tempering on the muthiyas and done!

Garnish: (optional) coriander leaves