Baked Vatana Na Ghughra

Yesterday was another 'snow day' here. As a result, both hubby and child were home. So I made these Baked Vatana Na Ghughras to go with afternoon chai.

Here's how I made them:

For the stuffing -

1.5 cups frozen peas
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp salt or to taste
pinch of sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp green chilli paste or 1/2 tsp red chilli pwd
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/2 cup shredded coconut (I use frozen)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

For the covering - I use ready made pie crust.

To prepare the filling heat oil and saute the cumin seeds for 2 - 3 mins. Add the peas and cook uncovered for 5 mins till they soften. Add ginger paste, green chilli paste/red chilli pwd, salt & sugar to taste. Mix well and let it cook 2 more mins. Take off heat and stir in the lemon juice, cilantro and fresh coconut scrapings. Let this mixture cool before using for stuffing the ghughra.

To proceed, thaw the pie crust sheet per directions on the box. Divide into about 12 parts and roll each into a ball. With a rolling pin, flatten each ball into about 3 to 4 inch circle. Fill with 1 - 2 tbsp of the peas filling. Fold over and press the edges together to join. You can trim off excess edging with a knife or karanji-cutter. Pinch & slightly fold the edges at small intervals to get the pretty ghughra edge pattern.

Bake in a preheated 425F oven for about 15 mins, turning the ghughras over once during the baking.

Serve warm with chutney or ketchup.

This yielded 12 ghughras. I did have little peas filling left over, which tastes good just by itself too. Also, I tend to make the filling mild and serve the ghughras with spicy chutney or hot ketchup.

This Baked Vatana Na Ghughras go to the AFAM - Green Peas event at Richas Kitchen. This event was started by Priya.