March 2017

Bitter gourd salad:

March 31, 2017

Bitter gourd is a very healthy vegetable and is considered as a therapeutic vegetable, used mainly in controlling diabetes and weight reduction in Ayurveda. I have come up with this recipe to utilise fresh produce from my terrace garden. We are a bitter gourd loving family and my daughters are very fond of gourd in any form. I usually make dry curry or tawa fry but I tried my hand at this salad and everyone loved this as a side dish with rice and yellow dal.

Ingredient:

Bitter gourd – 2 to 3

Onion – 1 to 2 (chopped)

Green chillies – 3

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tsp.

Lemon – ½

Coriander leaves – 1 tbl sp (chopped)

Coconut Oil – 1 tbl sp.

Method:

-Wash bitter gourd, make bite size pieces, including outer skin and inner seeds. Chop green chillies and put together.

– Sprinkle some salt, turmeric and mix nicely and keep aside for 10 minutes.

-Take one tawa, put oil. When it is hot, put marinated bitter gourd and chilli pieces and fry in a low flame until it is crisp.

– Cool this mixture. Add chopped onion, some more salt, lemon juice and mix nicely and serve.

-It is very simple to make and tastes really great with hot rice and dal.

Kadle Bele –Gerubeeja Payasa / Chana dal and Cashew Kheer:

March 29, 2017

Happy Yugadi! Yugadi is celebrated as the beginning of a new year in India (but through different names). In Bangalore, we start this festival by eating neem and jaggery. Neem denotes the bitterness we face in life, and the jaggery represents all the sweet things of life. By eating the neem and jaggery together, it is a symbol of promising ourselves to face the bitterness and sweetness of life with confidence.

In Mangalore, we celebrate this festival by savouring a kadle Bele (Bengal gram or chanadal) and gerubeeja (raw cashew) Payasa. It is a delicious dessert which is made more delightful because of the cashew nuts which are present in every spoonful.

pic main

We will see the procedure –

Ingredients:

Chana dal/Split Bengal gram – 1 cup

Whole raw Cashew – 1 cup

Coconut milk – 1 tetra pack

Jaggery – 1 ½ block (used Organic jaggery blocks)

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp.

Salt – ½ tsp.

Method:

-At first we have to remove outer cover of the young cashew. Take one bowl, put all those young and raw cashew kernels into it, pour boiling water and keep it aside for 10 to 15 minutes by closing the lid.

-When outer cover of the kernels swells, remove the outer cover and keep aside.

collage 1

-Wash chana dal and cook this in a cooker by putting sufficient water for two whistles.

-Cook dal till it is perfectly cooked. Dal should be well cooked and easily crushed. Doneness is very important, after adding jaggery, dal becomes little stiff and firm.

– When its pressure relieves add cashew kernels and cook. After one whistle, switch off the gas and cool this.

-Now add salt and jaggery and boil till you get a nice aroma and till the raw smell of jaggery disappears.

– When it is done, add one tetra pack of coconut milk and give one boil. That is it. Garnish with powdered cardamom and enjoy.

pic main

Note: –

– If you don’t have access to raw cashew kernels, you can use regular cashew and you can cook this with Chana dal for 3 whistles and proceed by adding jaggery.

– If you are using fresh coconut for extracting milk, take grated coconut (from one coconut), add one cup of water and grind, and extract milk. (This is a thick extract and should be added at the end)

– Once again add little water and grind, to take out thin milk and you can add this while boiling jaggery.

– If you are using regular jaggery, at first self-boil this with little water, make a liquid and sieve this before adding to the kheer, to remove impurities.

Mavinakayi Chithranna/Raw Mango Rice:

March 28, 2017

Chithranna is one such dish,which can be relished for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is a tangy, seasoned rice dish. Usually tanginess comes from addition of lemon juice,bitter lime juice(citron) or Raw mango. Some times we use tamarind too.

Mangos are in season now. My daughters love to have raw mango rice in their tiffin box and this preparation of mine is one of their favourite rice items.

Ingredients:
To make rice: Rice – 2 cups, Salt – 1 tsp, Ghee – 1 tsp, Water – 4 cups.
Grated Raw Mango – 1 cup
Green chillies – 4
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp.
Salt
Capsicum – 1
Grated coconut – ½ cup
Chopped coriander leaves – little.
Seasoning : Oil – 2 tbl sp , mustard – 1 tsp ,urad dal – 1 tsp, chana dal – 1 tsp, jeera – ½ tsp ,asafoetida – ¼ tsp ,red chillies – 2 ,curry leaves – 2 springs .
Method:
– Take one cooker vessel, Wash rice and pour 4 cups of water, ghee and salt. Keep this vessel in a cooker. Cook for 1 whistle and keep it in a simmer for 4 min. You will get perfectly cooked rice. After cooker cools down, remove cooked rice and spread the rice in a bigger vessel to cool.
– Now take one kadai, prepare seasoning by putting oil . When it is hot add mustard. When it starts to splutter add urad and chana dal, red chillies .When dal becomes little red ,add jeera and asafoetida, curry leaves ,chopped green chillies and capsicum.
– After capsicum becomes soft, add turmeric, salt, grated coconut and fry for a while.
– Now add this seasoning, grated mango, chopped coriander to cooled rice.

– Check for the salt and mix this mixture by using your hand. Keep this for a while, so that rice will absorb all the seasoning.

– Serve this seasonal mango rice either with any fritters or as it is.

Basale chutney / Malabar Spinach chutney:

March 25, 2017

Malabar spinach is commonly known as Basale in our coastal area. It is a common creeping vein in the backyard of every household.

Its leaf is very rich in iron, fibre, antioxidants and vitamins and low in calorie. This chutney that I prepare is very delicious and finger licking good!! One can enjoy this as a side dish with hot rice or roti. Here I have used bird eye chilles which is commonly known as gandhari chillies. These are tiny, very hot chillies of our region.

Ingredients:

Basale leaves – 1 bowl (chopped)

Onion – 1 (chopped)

Garlic cloves – 4

Green chillies or bird eye chillies – 2 (as required)

Salt

Jaggery – 1tsp

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Oil – 1 tbl sp

Seasoning: Oil – 1 Tsp, mustard – ½ tsp, cumin – ¼ tsp and curry leaves.

Method:

Take little oil in a pan, add chillies, chopped onions,garlic and fry for a while.
When onion becomes light brown, add chopped basale leaves and fry until it wilts.

Add salt, jaggery, tamarind and cook for a while.
When it is done, switch off the gas.
Cool the mixture and grind this into smooth paste. If required add very little water.

Season with oil, mustard, cumin and curry leaves.

Millet and Oats porridge:

March 23, 2017

A low calorie Diet is very difficult to manage. You feel constantly hungry and can’t concentrate on your work. To attain fullness, we should think of adding millets in our diet as it is very nutritious, gives strength and increases immunity. It is low on starch, high on minerals and fibre.

This is a 3 spoon miracle filling diet. If you have this porridge in the morning, you will surely not feel hungry until your lunch.

Ingredients:

Mixed millet flour – 1 spoon

Finger millet flour – 1 spoon

Oats – 1 spoon

Water – 1 ½ cups

Salt- ¼ teaspoon

Cardamom powder – ¼ teaspoon

Sugar free natura – 1 teaspoon

Method:

Take one thick bottomed vessel, mix all the ingredients.
Boil this mix by stirring in-between.
While boiling, mixture becomes glossy, when it is done.
Switch off the gas and serve.
It is a very good breakfast option for weight loss or diabetic patients.
Adjust the consistency by adding extra water if you want a runny texture.

Orange – Nutella Swirl cupcakes:

March 19, 2017

These millet cupcakes are healthy and delicious at the same time, a very good snack for all the kids who are studying hard for exams.

picture main

Ingredients:

Mixed millet flour- ½ cup

Whole wheat flour- ¼ cup

All-purpose flour – ¾ cup

Ghee – ¼ cup

Egg – 1

Sugar – ¾ cup

Salt – ¼ tsp

Baking powder – ¾ tsp

Baking soda – ¾ tsp

Curd – ¾ cup

Orange zest – 1 tsp

Nutella – as required

Method:

Pre-heat oven in 170 C. Line cupcake baking tray with paper liners.

collage 1

Mix all the dry ingredients like millet flour, whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, baking powder and soda, sieve 2 to 3 times or mix with dry whisk.
Now take one more bowl or food processer, put egg, curd, sugar, ghee, salt and beat nicely.
Grate orange zest from outer surface of the orange (Don’t add any white part) and add this to liquid and beat one more time.
Now pour this wet mixture into dry ingredient mixture and fold in and mix everything lightly.
Don’t over mix.
Pour this mixture into cupcake tray by using the spoon.

collage 2

Drop Nutella on the top of each batter filled cupcake mould, swirl a little.
Bake this in a pre-heated oven for 15 minutes or until done.

picture main 2

Enjoy with evening tea. It is a good option as a snack as well.

Akki Happala/Rice Papad:

March 12, 2017

This is a very light and tasty papad, which is relatively very easy and there is no need to keep it under the sun to dry as it dries under the fan or partial sun at balcony or wherever.

Previously I used to struggle to make this by keeping my tiny 3 steel plates in idly steamer to cook but this year, when I visited Chennai; I bought one papad stand, which is known there as an Elai Vadam Stand and its plates are known as Elai Vada plates. This is my most treasured asset and I wanted to own it from so long. If you don’t have this stand and still want to make this, you can use your thatte idly stand or simply you can keep any small plates or banana leaves and still you can make.

akki happala 1

I usually use Dosa Rice for this and for seasoning; I add chopped green chillies, cumin and salt. You can add any seasoning of your choice.

Ingredient:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Salt

Cumin – 2 tsp

Green chillies – 4 to 6

Method:

-Soak Dosa rice in the afternoon.

-Around night, grind this into smooth batter by adding salt and little water. Batter should be like Dosa batter. Add Cumin and Keep aside for overnight fermentation.

-The next morning, when you are ready to prepare papad, dry grind green chillies in small mixer jar and add this to ready fermented batter.

-Adjust the consistency by adding extra water. Batter should be a little thinner than regular Dosa batter.

-Check for salt and adjust that as well.

-Now keep idly steamer on gas stove with little water at the bottom.

-Apply little oil to steel Elai vada plates. In this stand 6 plates will be there. I recommend you to buy extra set of 6 plates with this stand, so that process will finish off in a jiffy.

– Now pour a little batter on each plate and spread the batter. Place them in the stand and steam cook this only for 2 minutes.

-At this time, take out the other set of Elai vada plates and apply some oil and spread the batter.

-There is no need to apply oil every time, only once at the beginning is more than enough.

-Now remove adai stand from the steamer, remove those leaves from the stand and replace with the new set and keep it inside the steamer for 2 minutes.

-Now remove all those cooked papad’s from the leaves by using other leaf’s edge and slightly lift that and peel off.

-Transfer these peeled papad’s over clean cloth and sun-dry wherever you want. If you have access to sun light, dry under the sun (very partial sunlight is required). If you don’t have access to sunlight, you can dry it indoors, but it will take an extra day or two.

-Dry for 3 days and store it in a tight container.

akki happala main

Fry this whenever you want and Enjoy as it is or with Rice- Rasam/dhal.

Ridge gourd Tambli:

March 10, 2017

Here is a low calorie option with ridge gourd, which is healthy, refreshing as well as soothing in this summer season. This particular Tambli is prepared by grinding tossed ridge gourd with fresh grated coconut and mixing in buttermilk and it doesn’t need boiling. You can savour this like an appetiser or mixing with piping hot rice .It has healing properties and is very good for the digestive system. Recently I tasted this curry at my sister in laws place and just loved this.

ridge gourd tambli

How to prepare this:

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd – 6” with skin

Cumin – ½ tsp

Black pepper – 5

Bird eye chilli – 2

Ghee – 1 tsp

Coconut – ½ cup

Salt

Butter milk – ½ cup

Seasoning: ghee – ½ Tsp, cumin – ½ tsp, curry leaves – 1 spring.

Method:

-Chop ridge gourd with skin intact.

-take 1 tsp of ghee in a small kadai. When it is hot, add jeera, pepper and bird eye chilli. If you don’t have bird eye chillies, instead you can use half green chilli and roast. Then add chopped ridge gourd and fry until it wilts.

– Now take out all these fried items and cool.

-Grind this into smooth paste by adding coconut, salt and little water.

-remove this into a vessel, add buttermilk, and adjust the consistency by adding little water if needed.

-Consistency should be like normal milk.

– Add seasoning by heating ghee, cumin and curry leaves.

– Enjoy this with hot rice.

Sattu ka Burfi:

March 8, 2017

Sattu is nothing but Roasted gram flour, we commonly call this as pappu, Putani kadle or Huri kadle, which is a power house of protein and used mainly in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

In our coastal belt, it is used as a time pass snack and not for cooking. Last week when I came across this flour in our local store, I was curious to know about this new ingredient and asked about the flour in our Facebook Foodie group.

I was attracted to this recipe the most and I tried it, all thanks to Rajendra Shirol who hails from Gadag. According to him, this is also known locally as “Local Karadantu” which is sold in their temple car festivals.

Ingredients:

Sattu powder – 1 ½ cup

Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Water- ½ cup

Dry fruits – 1 cup

Edible gum – 50 grams

Ghee – 2 table spoon

Cardamom powder- ½ tsp

Method:

Chop or crush dry fruits. Here I have taken cashew and almond bits.
Take one steel plate and apply some ghee and keep aside.
Take one thick bottomed tawa, put 1 tsp of ghee and fry edible gum until it puffs, cool and powder it in a small mixer jar.

gum collage

In that same kadai, add one tsp of ghee and fry dry fruits and keep aside.
Mix Sattu powder, dry fruits, cardamom and edible gum in one bowl and keep aside.
Now take sugar, water and milk. Cook until it attains one thread consistency. Add Sattu powder mix, which we have kept it aside by mixing all the other ingredients.

Add remaining ghee and heat this mixture for 5 more minutes, until it leaves the sides of the tawa.
Pour these mixtures to ghee applied steel plate and leave this for half an hour.
When it is cool a little, mark and cut this as desired.

After cooling, store this in an air tight container.
Local karadantu or Sattu ka Burfi is ready to enjoy and it is very healthy too.

Eggless Carrot cake:

March 5, 2017

This flavourful cake happened by chance. I usually make carrot milkshake paste with almonds in the summer. This year I tried this paste by adding pine nuts instead of almonds and it didn’t go very well with my family. To finish off this paste, I tried this by making cake and it was a super-duper hit and it tastes really moist and soft.

Ingredient:

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

All-purpose flour – ½ cup

Fine rawa- ½ cup

Baking powder – 1 tsp

Baking soda -1 tsp

Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Desiccated coconut – ½ cup

Carrot milkshake paste – 2 cups

Clarified butter/ghee – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Salt- ¼ tsp

Method:

-Sieve all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, fine rawa and baking powder for 2 to three times and keep aside. This is our dry ingredient mixture.

-Beat the wet ingredient like carrot milk shake paste, ghee, sugar.

-Mix in baking soda, salt and desiccated coconut, cardamom powder and beat.

-You will see a frothy texture. This is our ready wet ingredient mixture.

-Pour wet ingredient to dry ingredient, lightly mix without over doing.

-Bake this in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 40 to 50 minutes.

-After checking its doneness, remove from the oven, cool and serve.