October 2017

Choco Almond Biscuits:

October 29, 2017

These are melt- in- the -mouth and loved by all, kind of cookies or biscuits. Added to all that, it is rich with all the healthy stuff. I got an opportunity to taste this goodie at “RAGA” Mangalore and it was prepared by Nalini akka who is a super talented and down to earth person. Our acquaintance started in 2012 through a Facebook group named “FOODIE” and I got to know her through her hubby Sadashiva Rao Mailankodi, who started our group and has shared this recipe on the group long ago. It was in my “to try” list and after tasting these cookies at their residence, I couldn’t wait much and prepared it immediately. I am posting it over here by thanking Nalini akka for this wonderful recipe.

Ingredient:

Whole wheat flour – 3 cups

Almond – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – ¼ cup

Powdered sugar – 3 cups

Ghee – 1 ½ cup

Butter – 3 table spoons

Cooking soda – ½ tea spoon

Salt – a pinch

Method:

-Roughly Crush almonds.

-Mix all the dry ingredients like flour, cocoa powder, cooking soda and salt.

Ribbet collage 1

-Sieve couple of times or use dry wire whisk to combine uniformly.

-Now beat ghee, butter and sugar by hand or food processor.

-When it becomes like a cream, add flour and make a dough.

-Add in crushed almonds, mix well. Dough will be little crumbly and will not be like a smooth dough.

-Now shape these dough into whichever shape you like.

-Keep in a lined cookie tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 170°C for 10 to 12 minutes.

– I have exactly followed her method to give shape by using bigger steel spoon. It was a cute oblong shape.

-After baking, cool and store it in an air tight container.

Pizza with Homemade Spinach Pesto:

October 27, 2017

Who doesn’t love Pizza? I love Spinach and paneer in all forms. So, thought of clubbing my spinach pesto recipe into veggie pizza and prepared this for the kids. Should I say, even I loved it too: D

Usually I make pizza by chopping vegetables into bite size pieces and mixing it with the seasoning that one likes and mixing some chopped cheese too. It will surely give a more tastier pizza than normal veggie one.

In this way, veggies absorb more flavour and because of cheese it gives a little texture too.

pizza 3

Now we will see how I did this nutritious treat –

Ingredients:

For Spinach Pesto:

Spinach – 1 small bunch

Walnuts – 2 table spoons

Garlic salt – 1 tsp

Olive oil – 2 tsps.

Red chilli flakes – 1 tsp

For Pizza:

Pizza base – 2 numbers

Vegetables – 1 bowl (Paneer – 100 gms, yellow and red capsicum – ½ each, Boiled sweet corn -2 tbl sp)

Onion – ½

Hot and sweet tomato ketch up – 2 tbl sp

Mozzarella cheese – 2 tbl sp + 2 table sp (to garnish at the top)

Method:

Grind all the items under spinach pesto and make a smooth paste and keep aside. It is for pizza spread.
Now chop all the vegetables and onion.

Ribbet collage 1

Take one bowl, put all the chopped items, Tomato ketchup and 2 tbl spoons of grated cheese and paneer. Mix everything and keep it ready. This is for the toppings(fillings).
Pre-heat oven at 180 C
Take a Pizza base on lined baking tray, Spread Spinach pesto over the pizza base.

Ribbet collage 2

Top with veggie mixture, which we have mixed and kept ready.
Spread this topping equally and grate some more cheese and spread evenly on top.
Bake this for 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese melts and becomes bubbly.

pizza 1

Remove from the oven and cut and serve.

pizza 2

Usually it doesn’t require any seasoning, if you feel like adding some, you can add and enjoy.

Turmeric Milk /Turmeric Latte:

October 26, 2017

This is an age-old remedy for sore throat during flu season in India. Turmeric is a key ingredient in Indian cooking and has a very important place in our kitchen shelf. It offers many health benefits since it has both anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiseptic and anti-oxidant properties. It is considered as a “natural aspirin” in Ayurvedic medicine. In our family we combine turmeric and pepper with milk to make concoction to soothe sore throat. Pepper corns is said to help in absorption of turmeric by the body.

pic main

How we prepare –

Ingredients:

Water – ¾ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Black Pepper corns – ¼ tsp (crushed) or pepper powder-2 pinch

Sugar – 1 tea spoon

Method:

-Boil water, add turmeric and pepper and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

Ribbet collage 1

-Add milk and sugar and heat a bit, sieve the mixture and drink as warm as possible.

-It really gives a soothing effect.

Note: Vegans can use any other form of milk.

Spaghetti squash palya/stir-fry:

October 24, 2017

Spaghetti squash is oblong shaped spring vegetable. Like any other squash it has creamy yellow outer hard skin and inner core and seed part. It is rich in vitamins, rich in antioxidants and low in carbohydrate. Hence it is loved by weight watchers and one can enjoy this super magical veggie in many forms after baking it for a half an hour. After initial baking/cooking ,inner flesh tends to become thread like texture and which can be enjoyed in many ways as salads, as substitution for noodles etc.

I wanted to try this vegetable from so long. In my recent visit to USA, I asked my sister to bring this veggie when I was at her place. She did struggle a lot to find this vegetable in the Summer and finally managed to find one and handed it over to me. I knew it was extensively used as a substitute to noodles in salads, hence I wanted to incorporate it in our south Indian cooking and tried simple palya and it tasted great with rice and Rasam.

Ingredients:

Spaghetti squash – 1

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Jaggery – 1 tea spoon

Grated fresh coconut – 2 table spoons

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli -1 (broken in to half)

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

How to remove or prepare spaghetti, out of squash before making palya-

If you have not used spaghetti squash before, there are couple of things one should know. First you should cut this veggie into half lengthwise and carefully remove the seeds and attached fibre. Place these two pieces on a lined cookie sheet or any baking tray. Next spray some olive oil or any other vegetable oil and bake this in a pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes at 180 ®C or until it is cooked and water oozes and accumulates at the centre hollow region.

Next, remove from the oven, cool a bit. Take one fork and scrape all over and see the magic. Yup!!! You will see lots of noodle like strands and collect all these and keep it ready for further cooking.

How to make Palya:

-Take one kadai/wok add oil and heat. Splutter mustard, add urad dal, cumin, red chilli.

-When urad dal becomes light brown, add curry leaves, collected spaghetti squash strands, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and little water.

-Cook until veggie absorbs all the flavours and water dries up. Garnish with coconut gratings.

-Serve with rice or roti.

Lemon Rasam:

October 21, 2017

After all these festivities and indulgence, our digestive system surely needs some soothing, healing and a simple lunch. This lemon Rasam surely fits the bill and we can enjoy this Rasam with some hot rice, vegetable Subzi and little pickle. This time I had some huge lemons from my native. which we call as Dudle huli /Citrus medica. This Rasam is very good for treating sour throat as well. You can enjoy this as a soup and heal the throat pain.

Ingredients-

Toor dal – 1 cup (cooked)

Green chillies – 4

Ginger – ½ inch

Hing – Toor dal size

Salt

Jaggery – 1 table spoon

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Lemon juice – ½ of big lemon or 1 small lemon

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli – 1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Chop green chillies, cut ginger julienne and keep.

-Take Four to five cups of water in a pot, put ginger, green chillies, curry leaves, salt, jaggery, hing and cook for a while.

-When ginger and green chillies are cooked, add cooked dal and adjust the consistency, check for salt and jaggery.

– Boil for 3 to 5 minutes and switch off. Now add lemon juice by removing the seeds if any.

-Do the seasoning by heating oil, add mustard and splutter. Next add cumin, broken red chilli and curry leaves and mix all these and add this over ready boiled Rasam.

Close the lid and rest this for 10 minutes to absorb all the flavours and then serve.

Besan Laddu:

October 20, 2017

Besan laddu is one of the most popular Indian sweets prepared during the time of Deepavali or Diwali festival. Besan laddu is pretty simple and contains three main ingredients- Gram flour/ Besan, ghee and sugar. These melt in a mouth laddu’s are my family’s favourite.

Ingredients:

Gram flour/ Besan – 3 cups

Sugar – 2 ¼ cups

Ghee – 1 cup

Dry fruits – 1 cup

Cardamom powder – 1 tea spoon

Method:

-Chop dry fruits. I normally use half cup of cashew bits and half cup of slivered Almond bits.

-Dry roast almond and cashew bits and keep aside.

-Powder sugar and keep aside.

-Take one thick bottomed wok, roast Besan in very low temperature.

-When it is a little hot, start adding ghee little by little during the roasting process.

-Don’t add or pour all the ghee at one go. It will not help to roast evenly and it will make muddy consistency, and will affect in even roasting.

– I took exactly 30 minutes over a very small flame.

-When it roasts and after adding all the ghee, mixture becomes very runny and colour will turn into reddish brown.

-At this time your house will filled with roasted flour’s aroma. This is the time you should switch off the gas and leave this mixture to cool completely.

-It will take anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes.

-Now add powdered sugar, cardamom powder and roasted dry fruits and mix everything properly.

-Now start using your hand and mix it once and start making small roundels by taking very little mixture at a time.

-At this time, you will feel that the laddus are a little wet and glossy and shining.

-Arrange these over a clean, dry platter. Because of the wetness, it tends to loosen its shape.

-After some time (one hour) laddu’s will be dry and glossy texture will vanish.

-I usually take these shapeless roundels and once again try to give shape and store it in an airtight container.

Ash gourd peel chutney:

October 20, 2017

In our native, we get very good, thick fleshed Ash gourd and usually outer skin (we call it as Odu) will be hard and usually remove ¼ an inch thick. After this we usually scrape the outer green part and use it in a dry curry/Subzi/palya. But what I get it in Bangalore has very thin outer skin and I usually peel only outer green part and use it in a really tasty chutney and it is very healthy as well as pairs very well with hot rice or Dosa or idly.

Ingredient:

Ash gourd peel – Whatever is available.

Green chillies – 2 to 3

Salt

Tamarind – ½ tea spoon

Coconut – ¼ cup to ½ cup

Method:

-Chop the peels and cook this with green chillies, tamarind and salt by adding very little water.

-When it is cooked, switch off the gas and cool the mixture.

-Grind with coconut by adding little water.

-Add seasoning as you wish.

-Serve either with rice or Dosa.

Kumbalakai/Ash gourd Dosa:

October 19, 2017

When I prepared Kashi halwa, so much quantity of the inner fleshy part was left and I was not in the mood to throw it away. I immediately made a couple of breakfast options from the remaining inner fleshy part, which can be made by adding ash gourd pieces as well. I feel that the inner core has more flavour than real ash gourd: D Ash gourd is considered as super food which has many healing properties and it is very good for the human body. It is low in calories hence it is good for weight watchers as well as diabetics.

This Dosa batter is like normal urad dal Dosa and one can prepare paper thin roasted Dosa or thick set Dosa as you wish.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice / White normal rice – 3 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Ash gourd inner soft part – 3 cups (you can use ash gourd pieces as well)

Salt

Method:

-Wash Ash gourd, peel outer skin and remove inner core with seeded part. (Core part can be used to make Dosa batter)

-Remove seeds and take white part and keep it ready.

-Wash rice and dal together. Soak for 2 hours.

-Grind soaked rice and dal with ash gourd core part or pieces by adding sufficient salt.

-Batter should be smooth and consistency is like normal Dosa batter.

-Ferment this ground batter for 8 hours or overnight.

-Next day prepare Dosa as you wish.

-If you like crisp roasted one, spread as thin as possible on heated iron griddle.

-If you wish soft, porous kind, spread like a set Dosa and enjoy with coconut chutney.

Ash gourd Sweet Dosa:

October 18, 2017

Ash gourd or winter melon or white pumpkin has so many health benefits and it is literally the most ignored veggie of all. In our native we prepare so many varieties of dishes from this white coloured veggie. This Dosa is prepared by using the inner core of the vegetable by removing its seeds. You can make it sweet or plain, that is your choice. I like the sweeter version. It is very soft and melts in your mouth. Today we will see how it’s made.

ribbet 3_Fotor

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 3 cups

Poha – 1cup

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Ash gourd inner soft part – 1 cup (you can use white part as well)

Coconut gratings – ½ cup

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Salt and jaggery- to taste

If you want sweeter versions add jaggery or else you can omit.

Eno fruit salt – ½ tsp

Method:

-Wash Ash gourd, peel outer skin and remove inner core with seeded part. (Core part can be used to make Dosa batter)

Ribbet collage 1

-Remove seeds and take white part and keep it ready.

-Wash, soak rice, fenugreek seeds with sufficient water by putting beaten rice as well.

Ribbet collage 2

-After 3 to 4 hours of soaking, grind this by putting Ash gourd, jaggery, salt, turmeric, coconut into smooth batter. Check for sweetness or salt.

– Keep this batter for fermentation. In Bangalore weather, I usually grind any batter around afternoon, so that the next morning it will be perfect.

-The next morning add Eno fruit salt, mix nicely and keep aside for 10 minutes.

– Then you can start making Dosa on heated iron griddle. Take one serving spoon of batter and pour, don’t spread. Keep gas flame in simmer, spread little ghee, close the lid and cook. Don’t flip the Dosa. Only one side cooking is needed for this. Here I have used half serving spoon of batter for each small roundel. Personally, I like to serve this as small cute roundels.

-This Dosa tastes good with honey or onion and coconut chutney with red chillies.

Kashi Halwa – Ash gourd Halwa:

October 17, 2017

Ash gourd halwa is very popular in Coastal belt of South Canara region. It has many names like Kushmanda halwa, Dumroot,Kumbalakai halwa or Kashi halwa. All names are one and the same. Basically, grated Ash gourd is cooked until its water evaporates, further cooked with sugar and some ghee and flavoured with cardamom. Which is a very laborious job, but once you taste it, you will never regret making it.

We will see how to prepare this tasty dessert –

Grated Ash gourd – 3 cups (tightly packed)

Sugar – 1 ½ cup

Ghee – ½ to ¾ cup

Salt – a pinch

Cardamom powder – 1 tea spoon

Roasted Cashew nut pieces – ½ cup (as needed)

Method:

-Wash Ash gourd, peel outer skin and remove inner core with seeded part. (Core part can be used to make Sweet Dosa or Plain Dosa batter)

-Grate ash gourd and collect gratings and water which is oozing out while grating.

-Put all this in a thick wok and keep it in a fire. Cook until water dries up.

-When water dries up, add salt, enough sugar, and cook. Once again you will see lots of liquid.

-Don’t worry, mix in-between and wait until it is dries up. Now it is time to start adding ghee at intervals.

– Now onwards it needs continuous stirring and in-between add 2 table spoons of ghee at a time.

-Keep on stirring until mixture leaves the sides and becomes like a mass.

– When it is done, you will notice three things. When you flip the mixture from the bottom, you will notice little whitish parts (like roasted), when you drop the mixture it will not stick to the spoon and drop like a mass and ghee oozing out at the edges.

-This is when it is perfectly done and time to add Roasted cashew nut pieces, cardamom powder mix thoroughly and switch off the gas .

Now leave this ready Halwa to cool or Serve Hot.

-When it attains a room temperature, store this in an air tight container.