What is muthia? First let me explain this! Muthia are pan fried dumplings. Different flours are mixed with dry spices and wet spices and some vegetable like grated bottle gourd or finely chopped fenugreek leaves, bound into a dough, shaped into logs, and steamed. Then they are cut into thin slices, and pan fried till slightly brown, and you have it hot with masala Chai and some delicious cilantro mint chutney! This is muthia in a crux. The dry spices here are red chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin seeds, carom seeds, fennel seeds. The wet spices are garlic, ginger, green chillies, grated onion.
Muthia originates from the state of Gujarat, which is on the West Coast of India. This snack is very traditional. It is one of the snacks that are made for tea time, to have either in the morning as breakfast, or mid afternoon snacks, or even with lunch and dinner! It is an accompaniment and one that is really tasty and wholesome! My mom would make this often and the aroma in the home would be amazing! They are a bit dry, and hence they require the chutney and the chai to accompany them. You could add more oil to make it slightly moist, but I do not like to add more oil, such that they remain healthy.
I had been mom’s follower in the kitchen ever since I could understand kitchen tactics :), that would be age 8-9. I would follow her every move in the kitchen, holding onto her saree end, and just following her like a little puppy. I learnt all of my indian cooking from her. With much ease, she would make many dishes, within no time. She was like a tornado in the kitchen, but at the end of the night, the kitchen was spic and span. She would get up at 7am and start cooking lunch, to get it done in the morning itself. I was always amazed, with the ease she prepared food, and laid it on the table for us to devour every single day.
So coming back to the Muthia, I used fresh bottle gourd from the farmer’s market to make them. They are very nutritious, and a cooling vegetable. There are cool vegetables like not hip cool, but cooling for the body ;), which are good for you. I used all gluten free flours to make this #uglydelicious snack. I used sorghum flour, buckwheat flour, and chickpea flour to make them. The color is dark because of the buckwheat flour, but It really tastes delicious with chutney and chai. They are not difficult to prepare, but there are a few steps to follow.
The recipe for the green chutney is on the blog here.
If you do make this recipe, please do not forget to tag #thejamlab on Instagram and/or leave a comment on the blog.
Hope everyone is having a fantastic June! The kids are off school, but they are in summer school now, which is all fun and games, and no studies! So they are happy campers :). We had a wonderful trip to Big Sur this past weekend…(This was in June, when I had the post ready but I completely forgot to post it!).
Now in October, I am loving the beautiful weather here, chill is in the air, and kids are already a month into school. Life is super busy, but we all feel blessed with what we have.
Have a great rest of the week and a fantastic weekend!
XO
Amisha
Ingredients
- Muthias:
- 1 cup sorghum flour
- ½ cup chickpea flour
- ½ cup buckwheat flour
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 green chillies
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 2-3 grated garlic gloves
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 ½ bottle gourd(dudhi) grated(after squeezing the water out of it – keep the water)
- ½ cup grated onion(after squeezing the water out of it – keep the water)
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- A pinch of asefoetida
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp carom seeds(ajwain)
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup water if required to bind the dough.
- Tempering/garnish:
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- A pinch of asafoetida
- 8-10 curry leaves
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro for garnish
- 3-4 sliced red chillies.
- Extra vegetable oil for steaming
Instructions
- Muthia:
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients like sorghum flour, buckwheat flour, chickpea flour, salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, ajwain seeds, brown sugar, asafoetida and baking soda and whisk until combined. Now add in the wet ingredients like, the grated bottle gourd, grated onion, garlic, ginger, green chillies, lemon juice, cilantro and vegetable oil and mix. It will be dry. Now add in the reserved squeezed water from the bottle gourd and the onion and bind with your hands to form a nice dough. Now if the mixture is still dry, add in ½ cup of water and bind again. Add 1 tbsp at a time afterwards to form a dough that is not too sticky and has a good consistency to it.
- Wash your hands! Use extra vegetable oil to coat the plate in which you will steam the flour mixture. With the same oiled hands, divide the dough into 6 portions. Roll our each portion of the dough into a long roll with your hand, that is about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. You can roll it out thinner if you want smaller dumplings. Gently lay them on the plate, giving it room to rise due to the baking soda. I put 3 on a plate, cause that was the size of my steamer.
- On medium to high heat, setup a steamer with water. Let the water come to a boil. Now add one plate at a time into the steamer. Close the lid, and let it steam for about 20 minutes. Once done, remove from the steamer, and let it cool for about 7-10 minutes. Repeat with the other plate of rolls.
- To temper:
- Cut each roll into ½ inch slices.
- In a large pan, on medium to high heat, add the vegetable oil. Add in the asafoetida, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, curry leaves. After 20 seconds or so, add in the sliced dumplings and saute stirring continuously to make sure all of them are coated well with the mixture, for about 2 minutes. Let it pan fry through, by not stirring for 30 seconds, then again stirring, and then again not stirring to brown the edges of the dumplings. Do this process for about 5 minutes. Garnish with the chopped cilantro and ½ sliced red chillies.
- Serve with cilantro chutney and masala chai!
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