Veg Momo With Chilli and Peanut Chutney:

Should I say, Momo’s are everyone’s favourite or teenager’s favourite 😉 .

 If you have teens at your house, you can relate to me 😀 . Yes, it is the easiest, cheapest and tummy filling, in their language, it is healthy too 😉 . My daughters were missing their friend group as well as their usual outing to eat Momos with 3 dipping sauces 😀  I had the recipe of Momo as well as an easy chutney recipe ,which I had noted down during our Gangtok trip from a couple of local people there.

Tried my hand at an elaborate procedure and felt happy to see a happy face as well.

You can prepare chutney in the beginning and keep it ready, before making momos.

For Momo: It gives around 15 momos

At First: Outer covering/Dough:

Ingredients:

All-purpose flour – 1 cup

Salt

Oil – 2 sp

Water – to bind.

Method:

-Take a flour, add salt, oil. Rub for a while and make a pliable dough. Cover with a wet towel and keep it for rest, while preparing stuffing.

Second: Inner stuffing:

Ingredients:

Cabbage – 1 cup (grated)

Carrot – ½ to 1 cup (grated)

Onion – 1 (chopped)

Ginger – 1 tsp (grated)

Salt

Method:

-Mix everything, keep aside for 5 minutes. Drain all the water, which oozes out by holding/ placing in your palm , folding, and squeezing properly.

-Drain the liquid and keep it ready.

Final step: Folding and steaming

-Take ready dough, take a small portion , make a ball, apply little oil to flat surface as well as to wooden roller.

-Prepare a small disc by rolling, place a little filling at the centre. You can then either close it by folding like how I did . (Lift one side make pleats and fold to the other half and seal the edges OR gather all around and close it at the centre top like a cone.)

-Prepared Momos  should be under wet towels to avoid any dehydration.

-After making some , you can start to steam, by placing it in an idli /Momo steamer. Line the steamer either by spreading banana leaf, parchment paper/ butter paper or by oiling.

-Steam for 10 minutes and serve with any kind of chutney or sauce.

Now we would see how to make,

Hot chilli Chutney and Peanut Chutney to go with steamed momos:

It is sort of a one by two preparation. At first, we are going to make chilli chutney, divide into half and add roasted peanut to one half, grind and make really tasty additional dish.

For Chilli Chutney:

Tomatoes – 4

Red Byadagi chilli – 4 to 5

Garlic cloves – 5 to 6

Roasted sesame seeds – 2 tablespoons

Salt

Method:

-Take a half cup of water, boil and add red chilli, halved tomato, and boil for 2 more minutes.

-Remove outer skin from the tomato , cool.

-Take a mixer jar, powdered sesame, add peeled tomato, cooled red chilli with water, salt and grind smooth.

-It is our Hot Chilli chutney.

For Peanut Chutney:

Roast fistful of peanuts, cool and powder it. Add half the quantity of chilli chutney , little salt, and grind into paste. Voila!!! Your two sides are ready to indulge .

If you like Mayonnaise ,fill the third cup and indulge 😊

Note:

Don’t discard  the vegetable water, which can be used while kneading the dough for any kind of roti’s. 

If you want to serve these momo’s to any kind of parties, prepare before hand, keep inside the fridge /freeze, steam on that day, before serving.

Lemon Tart with Healthy Flour:

Lemon tarts are a real pleasure to have. When I have homemade lemon curd, usually I make it a point to use it in my baking and enjoy the tangy taste. Usually first preference would be Lemon thumb print cookies by using healthy flours. Then comes the Braided bread and lastly, lemon tart, which my daughters just love to have and this time, one of my daughters tried to bake it and she enjoyed the healthy baking process. At first, we did try by using Oats and whole wheat together and second batch with only whole wheat flour. Both the trials worked out just fine. Oats and whole wheat tart shell was more like a cookie with added flaky texture and whole wheat shell was like any normal tart shell.

We normally like mini cup cake size of lemon tart, due to its tangy and sweet taste. So, giving the measurements for 12 – 14 mini tarts.

This is an Egg-less version and I will update both the versions.

How we did:

Ingredients:

Flour – ¾ cup

Salt – ¼ tsp

Cold butter – 50 grams

Brown sugar – ¼ cup

Cold water – as needed.

Lemon curd – As needed

Method:

-If you are taking whole wheat flour, take ¾ cup. If you want to mix oats or any other flours of your choice, go ahead and use half the quantity of oats flour (by grinding ) or any other flour and half whole wheat flour.

-Now, take flour of your choice, salt and dry mix nicely. Add sugar powder and mix thoroughly.

-Add cold butter by cutting into chunks. Mix everything by using hand or processor. Until mixture looks crumbly.

-Now add couple of tablespoons of chilled water and make a dough. Keep it in an airtight box and allow to rest under refrigeration for 45 minutes.

-Pre heat oven at 170°C . Remove dough and roll the dough by using flour dusted platform.

-Take a cookie cutter, lay those circles in greased  mini muffin pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

-Remove, fill with lemon curd, once again keep it in the oven and continue baking for 5 more minutes.

-Remove, cool and enjoy sweet and tangy/ lemony treat.

 

 

Peperomia Herb / Neer kaddi Raita :

Pepperomia Pellucida also known as Vietnams Crab claw herb. which is known as Neer kaddi/ Neer panthi in our coastal line. Even though it is known for its medicinal as well as culinary use, we never use this in cooking.

Whenever I see a Peperomia herb in my small kitchen garden, feel nostalgic by thinking about my childhood activity. During that time, we used to play with its watery stem and used to wipe our writing slate with it 😀 It is a common weed, which is shallow rooted, water filled stem and light green transparent leaves with a tiny granule kind of flowers.

Which has a peppery taste with a pleasant aroma. Entire plant is an edible and known for its medicinal properties such as anti-arthritic, diuretic as well as analgesic . It is very popular as a salad herb and here I have used it in a curd-based dish.

Ingredients:

Peperomia herb – one small bunch

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard – ½ tsp

Urad dal – ½ tsp

Hing – little

Curry leaves

Green chilli – 1

Salt

Curd

Onion – 1 (small)

Coriander leaves

Method:

-Remove root, wash and drain the herb. Chop herb, green chilli.

-Do seasoning- heat oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal and fry. Add hing, curry leaves, green chilli and fry until green chilli wilts.

-Now add chopped herb and toss until it wilts.

-Cool the mixture, add chopped onion, salt, curd , coriander leaves.

-Tastes good as a side dish with hot rice or whole wheat paratha.

 

 

Apple Pie Pancake:

Pancakes are always a boon to our busy morning schedule or during the weekend brunch. When you are locked down at home, due to our recent Corona virus scenario, it is an ideal thing to use the ingredients that are available in your pantry to make filling healthy meal than to prepare apple pie, by rolling, filling and baking, this pancake is the perfect answer for your Apple pie craving and a much more healthier option due to the usage of varieties of healthy flours, as it has room for addition or deletion of flours and choice is yours.

Here I have used ground oats, whole wheat and brown rice flour with caramelised apples as well as with the goodness of flax seed to give extra fluffiness without adding any eggs. So, it is eggless too.

If you want to make gluten free version, replace the whole wheat flour and add any flour of your choice. I love this cinnamon flavoured pancake ,which is a perfect variation of the classic dessert and tastes really yum! With Maple syrup.

How I made: For 4 people

Ingredients:

Apples – 1 or 2 (chopped)

Salt 

Jaggery – 2 tsp

Cooking soda – ¾ tsp

Flax seed powder – 1 tsp

Cinnamon powder – ½ tsp

Milk – 1 cup

Oats – 1 cup ( powdered)

Whole wheat flour – ½ cup

Red rice flour – ½ cup

Method:

-Mix Apple, jaggery , cinnamon and keep aside for 5 minutes. Add milk and cook until apple cooks and becomes soft.

-Switch off ,leave aside for 5 minutes. Add in cooking soda, flax seed powder and mix vigorously until it is frothy.

-Add all the flours ,salt, water to make a batter pourable consistency.

-Heat tawa, when it is hot, pour a ladle of batter, sprinkle some ghee or butter, cook in a low flame.

-When it is almost cooked, flip and roast the other side. Serve with maple syrup and enjoy.