Month: June 2018

Palak paneer Parata:

June 28, 2018

Palak aka spinach and paneer is a classic combination from North Indian cuisine. It is usually in the form of Palak gravy with paneer chunks. If we convert this into Palak in a roti form and grated paneer as a filling it is a mind-blowing combination in a very healthy form. Here I have used Palak in the raw form as well as paneer.

It is a healthy option for breakfast, brunch, dinner or even in an office or school lunch box.

Palak or spinach is a healthy green which is a power house of nutrition. It contains Iron, anti-oxidants, vitamins and calcium.

On the other hand, paneer is also a very good source of calcium and if it is made from low fat cow’s milk, it is less in fat as well.

It is one more favourite from our lunch box item –

Ingredients:

For the dough:

Palak/ spinach – 1 bunch (only leaves)

Salt

Sugar – 1 tea spoon

Garlic – 2 cloves

Curd – 2 table spoons

Water – as required

Oi – 1 table spoon

Whole wheat flour – as needed

For the Filling:

Paneer – 200 grams (grated)

Coriander powder – ¾ tea spoon

Cumin powder – ¾ tea spoon

Red chilli powder – 1 ½ tea spoon

Garam masala – ¾ tea spoon

Salt

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup (chopped)

Method:

-Make chapati dough at first and keep aside.

-For the dough, make a paste of chopped Palak, salt, sugar, garlic, curd and little water in a mixer grinder.

– Take out the liquid and pour oil and whole wheat flour. Knead it into a soft pliable dough, cover and keep.

-For filling, take one bowl, mix in grated paneer, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, salt, turmeric and mix it.

-Add chopped coriander leaves and mix once again. Now, Stuffing is ready.

-Now comes the rolling part.

-Now take lemon sized chapati dough in hand, spread as a small disc by using fingers, by applying little flour.

-Keep this in your left palm, in a cup shape, put filling (smaller in size) and cover it.

-Now take extra flour for dusting and spread or roll this ball with light pressure by using a roller.

-Cook both the sides by using either oil, ghee or butter.

-Enjoy this either with sweetened curd, boondi raita or pickle.

 

Mango Truffle Cake:

June 25, 2018

It is a ritual at our home to make mango stuffed chocolate cake every year when king of fruit is in season. This year, I had a lot of over ripe mangoes and wanted a way to utilize it in this cake itself. I tried mango sauce as a topping and it worked out wonderfully and kids gang liked it too.

Truffle cakes are melt in the mouth chocolate and cream cakes but when fresh fruit is added as a stuffing between the layers it tastes rich with a natural fruit flavour. I normally prefer less cream or high calorie stuff when I am baking for my family and friends. If you are looking out for healthy options for truffle cakes, this recipe is for you.

Now we will see the procedure, how I went ahead –

First – For the chocolate cake:

Ingredients:

Very fine semolina – 1 ¼ cup (Known as Chiroti Rava)

Ragi / finger millet flour – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – ½ to ¾ cup

Baking powder – 1 tea spoon

Baking soda – 1 tea spoon

Eggs – 2

Butter – 100 grams

Sugar – ¾ to 1 cup (if you want less sweet use ¾ th cup)

Milk – ½ cup

Instant coffee powder – 1 tea spoon

Hot boiling water – 1 cup

Method:

-Pre- heat oven @ 180 °C and line a baking tin with butter paper.

-Take one bowl, prepare dry mixture. Take semolina, Ragi, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda by using wire whisk or you can sieve all these twice or thrice.

-In another bowl we will prepare wet mix, beat egg one by one, add milk, sugar, butter and beat until frothy.

-Boil water, mix in coffee and pour this into wet mix and once again beat and make a homogenous mixture.

-Now fold in dry ingredients by using wooden spatula. Don’t over mix this content.

-Pour the batter to lined baking tin, bake for 40 minutes in a pre-heated oven.

-when it is done, remove, cool and keep it ready for stuffing.

Second – Mango filling:

Ingredients:

Mango – 1 or 2 (depending on the size)

Icing sugar – 2 tea spoons

Method:

-Peel the skin, hold the mango flat on your left hand. Mark so many cuts in horizontal and vertical manner and make tiny square pieces. Finally squeeze the seed to extract remaining pulp.

-Add icing sugar or sugar powder, mix nicely and keep this in the fridge until you are done with the sauce making and slicing the cake.

Third- Mango sauce for dressing or to drizzle:

Ingredients:

Mango – 1 or 2

Icing sugar – 1 or 2 tea spoons

Butter – 1 table spoon

Juice of Lemon – 1 tea spoon

Method:

-Remove outer skin of mango, chop and make a puree.

-Take one sauce pan, add mango puree, butter, icing sugar, lemon juice and boil it nicely and switch off the gas.

Fourth: Now Comes the assembling part:

Step 1: Take the cake (completely cooled one) and slice it horizontally. You will get 2 discs.

Step 2: Take out mango filling, equally spread this on one of the flat disc.

Step 3: place another halved disc on mango filling.

Step 4: If you like mango, go ahead and pour the sauce as a dressing to cover the top of the cake and slice it or you can drizzle the sauce while serving as well.

NOTE:

-One can use 2 cups of All purpose flour as well in place of 2 combined flours OR Use 1 ½ cup of All purpose or whole wheat and ½ cups of Ragi as well.

– To substitute eggs, use flax gel and recipe is here.

-I have used is ¾ cup of brown sugar. Cake was less in sweetness and it tasted more like coffee and was chocolatey.

-You can use less or more chocolates according to the quality of brand which you use.

 

 

Jack seed and Mangalore cucumber palya:

June 22, 2018

Jack seed is halasina beeja, which is a seed of jackfruit and most underrated protein rich nature’s gift to mankind. All thanks to our elders, who have gifted us with the knowledge of lots of combinations of ingredients, vegetables. One such combination is coloured cucumber which is also known as Mangalore cucumber/ sambar cucumber with jack seed.  It is an ultimate, tasty side dish from our region and I am eager to share this recipe with you all –

I normally preserve jack seeds in a frozen form and procedure is already shared in my blog as well.

Ingredients:

Coloured cucumber – ½ or 1

Fresh or Frozen jack seeds –2 fists full

Grated coconut – 3 table spoons

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Salt- as needed

Jaggery – as needed

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

 Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Method:

-Wash Mangalore/Coloured/sambar cucumber.

-Chop off 2 ends, slice in to 4 pieces and remove inner core (seed part) and chop into thin slices. (see the picture)

-Check now for the taste. If it is bitter in taste, soak the pieces in plain water for 5 minutes.

-Discard the water and proceed.

-If cucumber tastes good, no need to soak in water and you can directly proceed in cooking.

-I normally crush and store the jack seeds. So, no need of chopping or crushing. If you have fresh seeds with you, please crush the seed by using hitting stone and remove outer stiff cover and use inner seed.

– Take one pressure pan or cooker, do seasoning. Heat oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal. When dal becomes light brown, add cumin, red chilli and curry leaves.

-Now add in crushed jack seeds, little water and cook for one whistle.

-When pressure releases, remove cooker lid and proceed to make palya.

-Switch on the gas, Add Red chilli powder, salt and jaggery, required amount of water and chopped cucumber pieces.

-Close the lid and cook this in a low flame, until cucumber is cooked or up to water drains.

-If water drains first, add some more water and make sure to cook cucumber.

Garnish with fresh grated coconut and mix, cook for 2 minutes and switch off the gas.

-Serve with hot rice and enjoy as a side dish.

Red cabbage Sandwich:

June 17, 2018

Red cabbage or purple cabbage? This vegetable has an identity crisis. Red or purple, it is one and the same and this vegetable has numerous health benefits as well. It is a cruciferous vegetable and can be consumed both raw and cooked.

It is a power house of Vitamins, Minerals such as Iron and calcium and dietary fibre . I normally avoid buying cabbages, due to its high pesticide content. Now a day, we do get organic cabbages here in Bangalore. Hence, there is an opportunity to have this beautiful veggie in a raw form as well. When we were shopping, my daughter remembered my Red cabbage sandwich, which I used to prepare for her when she was small and asked me to prepare the same. So, picked up and made this sandwich and tried one rice recipe as well. In coming days, you can expect my new recipe of Red cabbage and sweet corn one pot meal.

Now I will share my sandwich recipe from the scratch-

Ingredients:

Shredded red cabbage – 2 cups

Onion – 1 big

Garlic mayonnaise – 2 table spoons

Honey mayonnaise – 2 table spoons

American mustard – 1 tea spoon

Hung curd – 1 to 2 table spoons (to adjust the consistency)

Oregano – 1 tea spoon

Tomato ketch up – 1 to 2 tea spoons

Red chilli flakes – ½ tea spoon

Grated cheese – 2 table spoons

Bread of your choice – 1 loaf

Butter – to apply while roasting.

Method:

-Take one bowl, put shredded cabbage, chopped onion, garlic mayo, honey mayo, American mustard and hung curd. Mix nicely.

-Now mix in Oregano, chilli flakes, tomato ketchup and grated cheese.

– Mix and make a spreadable mixture. Now your sandwich stuffing is ready.

-Take one slice of bread, spread this mixture and close another bread slice over this.

-Apply butter on both the slices at outer side and keep it in a pre-heated sandwich maker.

-When outer surface becomes light brown, remove and proceed to make remaining sandwiches.

-If you want an extra zing, you can serve this with tomato ketch up or as it is.

Potato Sagu:

June 13, 2018

Potato Sagu is an ultimate combo for Rava idli, here in Bangalore. I came to know about Rava idli or Sagu only after coming to Bangalore, after my marriage. Earlier, we never found this combo in Mangalore. I like potato Sagu which is served with Rava idli in MTR hotel, Bangalore. It is here, that the invention of Rava idli happened, during the world war II. At that time, making of idli was so difficult, due to short supply of the rice, this is how they experimented with semolina to prepare idli and it is now history and Rava idli has become a staple diet of south Indians throughout the world.

Earlier I used to use MTR or Mayya’s Potato Sagu masala to this side dish to get a taste as close as their Sagu. But, now they have stopped the product. To replace it, I started using my own masala. 

My preparation goes like this-

Ingredients:

Potato – ½ kg

Onion – 2

Ginger – ½ “

Green chillies – 2

Tomato – 2

Coriander leaves – 2 table spoons

Salt

Sugar/ jaggery

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Sagu masala powder – 1 ½ to 2 tea spoons (Mixture of Puffed chana/ Putani powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, little garam masala and tamarind powder) 

Seasoning:

Cooking oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Chana dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Hing – one pinch

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Method:

-Wash potato, cut it into half and cook in sufficient water for 2 whistles in a pressure cooker.

-When it is cool, remove skin, mash and keep aside.

-Chop onion, ginger, green chillies, tomatoes and coriander leaves.

-Take one deep pan, add oil for the seasoning, when it is hot, splutter mustard, fry urad dal and chana dal. Next add hing, cumin, curry leaves.

-Next- fry onion, green chillies, ginger. While frying add turmeric powder as well.

-When onion is light brown, add tomatoes, salt, sugar or jaggery, Sagu masala and fry until tomato is mushy.

-Add 2 to 3 cups of water and when it starts boiling, add mashed potato, coriander leaves and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until it becomes a homogeneous mix in a low fire.

-Serve with Rava Idli Or Rava and Oats idli  as a dip.

 

 

 

Rava idli with Oats/ Semolina idli with Oats:

June 10, 2018

I normally used to make plain Oats idli, earlier. It is our favourite breakfast item and I wanted to make a slight change while preparing and used my Rava idli making method with oats added in it and served with Potato Sagu as how I serve normal Rava idli. It tasted good and we started liking this method instead of making plain Rava idli. This is one more instant and handy recipe for me and works just fine even in kid’s lunch box as well. Addition of oats increases the nutritional value of the dish. So, whenever excess curd is there, this is one more recipe to indulge in that too without any grinding and prior planning.

I normally prepare the dry mixture the previous night and keep it ready to cut short my early morning job. It works very well. Dry mix consists of seasoning and roasting part.

How I make –

Ingredients:

Normal Rava / Semolina – 2 cups

Oats – 2 cups

Curds – 2 cups

Water – 3 cups

Eno fruit salt – 1 tea spoon

Salt

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup (chopped)

Seasoning:

Ghee or oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1tea spoon

Chana dal – 1 tea spoon

Hing – ¼ tea spoon

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Cashew bits – 2 table spoons (optional)

Curry leaves – 2 springs (Shredded)

Method:

-Take one kadai, do seasoning part. Heat ghee, splutter mustard, then add urad and chana dal.

-When dals become red, add cashew, hing, cumin, curry leaves and fry for 1 minute.

-Add Rava and roast for a while (until it is grainy) and add oats and proceed the roasting process for some more time. (May be 2 minutes more).

– Add in chopped coriander and mix until it distributes evenly and wilts a little.

-Switch off the gas and leave this mixture to cool. (I usually prepare this much in the previous night and keep it ready)

-Next comes the batter preparation. Use room temperature mixture. Don’t use hot Rava mixture to make idli batter.

-Take one big bowl, pour in curd and water (here I normally take one cup of liquid to each cup of oats and 1 ½ cup of liquid to each cup of rawa) It is a very simple calculation 😊

-Add salt and Eno fruit salt (you can use cooking soda as well) beat a little to attain frothy texture.

-Add seasoned Rava and oats mixture to this and mix.

-Now comes the idli steaming part.

-Take one cooker, pour one cup of water at the base and heat.

-Rinse idli mould by using fresh water. (it is an alternate to greasing the mould)

-Pour ready batter to idli mould, keep it in a steamer and steam cook for 10 minutes.

-Remove, cool, de mould and serve with chutney or potato Sagu.

 

Alasande Palya / Yard long beans dry curry:

June 7, 2018

Alasande aka yard long bean is very popular and one of the age old cultivated crops of Mangalore coast. It is tender, immature pods of black eye pea. In rainy season, most of the vegetable kitchen gardeners grow this super tasty veggie for day to day use.

Immature pods are one of the favourite food for little birds as well. It is a low calorie, high in fibre vegetable and tastes little sweetish and texture is little chewy and watery.

Alasande side dish is one of the very popular dishes during the festivities- either in weddings, festival cooking or day to day cooking. For day to day cooking, we normally toss this veggie with mild seasoning and for festivity cooking, we use coconut masala. Today I am going to share the recipe of my house hold which my family relishes whenever I prepare.

Ingredients:

Alasande / Yard long beans – 500 grams

Red chilli powder – ½ tea spoon

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Salt

Jaggery – 1 tea spoon

For seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Red chilli – 1 (optional)

Curry leaves – 1 spring

For Masala:

Coconut – ¼ cup

Roasted Byadagi Red chillies – 2 to 3

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Tamarind – ½ tea spoon

Method:

-Wash, remove two ends of yard long beans and chop as required.

-Dry grind coconut with roasted chillies, cumin and tamarind for masala and keep aside.

-Now take one kadai, heat oil for seasoning, splutter mustard, add urad dal. If you are adding red chilli add that as well.

-When urad dal becomes red, add curry leaves, chopped beans, turmeric, salt, jaggery, red chilli powder and toss for two minutes.

-Add one small cup of water and cook until it is soft and firm.

-Add dry ground masala and mix everything. Keep it covered for two to three minutes and switch off the gas.

-Serve with hot rice or with thali as a side dish.

 

 

 

Mango mini cake doughnuts:

June 3, 2018

Mini cake doughnut is an eye pleaser for any one. As summer is coming to an end and it’s school reopening time, wanted to try my hand at this Mango cake by using my protein rich millet health mix instead of All purpose flour. Usually I make this cake by using All purpose flour /Maida. I don’t like the taste of whole wheat with mango. When I was thinking to replace Maida in this recipe, I thought of using millet flour and proceeded. It turned out very tasty and soft. It worked out just fine as a short break snack for my ever-supportive daughter V, who tastes and gives her feedback in every step of my kitchen experiments. 

It is an eggless recipe as well as healthy and I don’t consider this as a dessert. It is a 100 % snack and very filling as well as filled with goodness and natural flavour from summer fruit Mango. If you are into healthy baking and want to try it out, I am sure, you will like this recipe.

I’m excited to share this recipe with you all –

Ingredients:

Millet health mix – 1 ½ cup (you can use all purpose flour as well)

Salt – ¼ tsp

Chocolate chip – ¼ cup

Cardamom powder – ½ tea spoon

Baking powder – ½ tea spoon

Baking soda – 1 tea spoon

Mango puree – ¾ cup

Butter – 100 grams

Sugar – ½ cup

Curd – ½ cup

Method:

-Pre heat oven at 180°C. If you are using a baking tin, line the tray with butter paper or apply some butter, grease the mould and keep it ready.

-Mix all the dry ingredients together – Flour, salt, Choco chip, cardamom powder, baking powder, baking soda.

-Dry whisk everything and mix properly and keep aside.

-make mango puree from the cut pieces of mango’s. You can take any good variety of mango.

-Now take another bowl, take melted butter and beat. Add in sugar, mango puree, curd one by one respectively and beat nicely.

-Fold in dry ingredient and make homogenous mixture by using wooden or rubber spatula or with a light hand with a wire whisk.

-Pour the batter in cake tin, here I have used doughnut shaped mould.

– Bake the cake in a pre-heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until done.