Ingredients
1 doodle or bottle gourd, grated
1 carrot, grated
Methi 1 cup, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 + 1/2 cups Cooked rice
Garlic 1/2 bulb 8-10 cloves, crushed
2 inch ginger, crushed
3-4 green chillies, crushed (change based on preferred spice)
1/2 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste (I added 1.5 tsp)
Juice of 1 lemon or 1.5 small Indian lemons
1 tsp Sugar
1 cup Millet Flour
1 cup Wholewheat Flour
1/3 cup Fine Semolina flour
1 tsp Baking soda
Warm water
Equipment you’ll need:
Steamer Grater
Two mixing bowls
Preparation
1. Wash and peel the bottle gourd and carrot. Then using a grater, grate both of the vegetables thoroughly.
2. In the bowl you’ve grated these in, sprinkle a little salt and begin squeezing the grated vegetables firmly between your hands. Do this with the whole of the grated mixture and place in a separate bowl.
3. Now, in the other mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients starting with the millet flour, wholewheat flour, semolina flour and lightly whisk.
4. Add the turmeric, salt, around 4 tbsp of oil and mix. Add the baking soda and then whisk the mixture well.
5. Now add the dry ingredients; the rice, fenugreek leaves, the grated bottle gourd and carrots, the crushed ginger, garlic and green chillies, sugar and lemon juice.
6. Using your hand, you’re now going to need to knead the whole mixture with your hands, you can add some oil to your hands to do this.
7. Throughly knead the mixture and let it rest for a few minutes.
8. On the hob, place a steamer ready to steam our muthiya. You will want to make sure you’ve got plenty of water, and this will need to be topped up in between steams.
9. Now, rub some oil on your hands and on the steaming plate. Take a big handful of the mixture. Carefully press the dough between your hands, forming a sausage shape. One by one, place these on the steaming plate. Make sure to place the muthiya slightly far apart as they will grow in size once they are steamed.
10. Now, please the steaming tray inside the steamer and place the lid on. We’re going to steam these for 40mins. I have tied a muslin cloth around the lid, so any steam from the lid will not drip onto the muthiya.
11. After 40 minutes, remove the lid and allow the muthiya to stand in the steam with the lid open for a few more minutes. Then carefully remove each muthiya and add the rest to steam.
12. You can enjoy the muthiya as they are, or you can stir-fry them.
13. Chop each muthiya into 2 cm pieces.
14. In a flat plan, add oil. You’ll need sesame seeds and curry leaves. Once the oil is ready, add the sesame seeds and once they begin to splatter, add the curry leaves. Follow this with the chopped muthiya, and stir.
15. Allow the muthiya to grill through and get nice and crispy on the outside. Once they are slightly charred, remove them off the heat and serve.
16. Enjoy muthiya as a breakfast or lunch snack, as a side dish to a main course. It is great with yoghurt or chai and sometimes, I like to have mine simply steamed and with some chilli oil!
