Tarla Dalal is my unquestioned guru. Her books helped my husband and me to survive a marriage and pluck up the courage to be able to call people over for a meal. If you followed her recipe to a T, you were sure of the outcome. This is a recipe that I came across in 1990 and subsequently tweaked and recreated to arrive at the present avatar. This is my ode to her, in memory of her magic with food.
Grate the carrot and paneer separately and keep aside. Chop the green chilli very fine. Mix them all together, adding half the melted butter, mustard paste, salt, and pepper.
Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 200°C. This is the tricky part. Ensure that the bread is very fresh since it has to be rolled out with a pin. Old bread or bread from the refrigerator will crumble. I do not remove the crust but you may choose to. Flatten the bread with the rolling pin, as you would a chapatti. This makes it pliable for rolling. Roll out all the slices.
Put a generous amount of filling near one edge in a row leaving a gap of at least 1 inch from the end. With a firm hand, roll it up ensuring that the stuffing doesn’t spill out; you may secure it with a toothpick so that it doesn’t open. Do the same with the remaining bread slices.
Arrange on a greased tray and gently brush the top with the remaining butter. This ensures an attractive golden colour on baking. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until golden. I keep the temperature at around 200°C. Time taken for baking depends upon the size of the OTG that you use, so keep an eye on the colour.
Remove from the oven and remember to remove the toothpick if you have used it. Serve with tomato ketchup or green chutney.
Room temperature or hot
The bread needs to be fresh and preferably white. Wholewheat bread tends to crumble. You may want to gradually graduate to wholewheat bread once you are comfortable with flattening the bread and rolling it.
The mustard and green chllies give it a distinct flavour. It rarely needs an accompaniment. Not even the ketchup.
The green chilly needs to be chopped really fine. You don’t want a chunk in someone’s mouth.
This is a really wholesome snack and can be served as bite-sized pinwheel sandwiches for a cocktail party. You may want to omit the mustard if that is the case.
