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Hitikida avarekalu/ Deskinned Hyacinth bean curry:

December 9, 2017

Avarekai has many names like Lablab or Hyacinth bean.

Avarekai is an integral part of every household of native Bangalore or Mysore region during every winter. People wait for its arrival. Winter special lima bean is called “Sogadavare” and it has double the aroma of what we get normally throughout the year.

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Initially I used to struggle with avarekai recipes and never used to get that authentic touch. Now over the years, I have mastered this authentic, tasty curry and my family started liking it and we do enjoy our share of this traditional curry with soft dosas.

If you are using fresh beans, it is a little time-consuming process. During the season we even get the deskinned ones. If you have frozen beans, curry making is an easy task.

At first, we will see the procedure of de skinning –

-At first take a fresh bean pod, remove outer thick green skin and separate the light yellowish green bean. Collect all the shelled beans, soak it in water for 3 to 4 hours.

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Now starts your time consuming real exercise. Dip your hand in water, remove soaked beans and start deskinning by keeping the bean in between your thumb finger and fore finger and press a little, you will see the transparent outer skin would flip and inner bean will come out. Continue the exercise until it is done and collect deskinned “Hitikida bele” and proceed to make very tasty curry.

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Now we will see the procedure of “Hitikida bele saaru” /Curry

Ingredient-

Deskinned Avarekai – 1 big bowl

Onion – 1 for seasoning

Oil – 3 table spoons

Ghee – 2 tea spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Green chillies – 4 (3 for grinding + 1 for seasoning)

Garlic – 8 cloves (4 for grinding + 4 for seasoning)

Coconut – 2 cups

Tamarind – marble size

Coriander seeds – 2 tea spoons

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Cinnamon – ½ inch

Clove – 2

Ginger – ½ inch piece

Coriander leaves – ½ cup

Method:

-Cook avarekai with required amount of water and salt. You can opt for a cooker or an open vessel. Slow coking gives a better result for this curry.

– Next is the masala preparation. Fry Coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cloves. When coriander becomes light brown, add garlic, ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves,tamarind and coconut and fry until it emits a nice aroma.

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-Switch off the gas, cool the content and grind this in to a smooth paste by adding required amount of water.

-Now do the seasoning, heat oil, splutter mustard, curry leaves, garlic, green chilli, chopped onion and fry until onion becomes light brown.

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-Add ground masala paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add cooked avarekai and add enough water.

-At this time, consistency of the curry should be a little watery, as cooking proceeds and after some resting time, it becomes thick and becomes perfect.

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-Boil this mixture until you see a thin creamy layer at the top.

-Switch off and pour 2 tea spoons of ghee, give one mix and close the lid. Rest this for some time, and serve with dosas, chapati’s or plain rice or jeera rice.

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Note:

-I usually prepare this curry in the night, and re heat and serve with dosas in the morning.

-In this way, it absorbs all the flavours and sets properly.

Akki Rotti Payasa /Rice flat bread kheer:

December 6, 2017

Happiness is when one of your readers messages you regarding this recipe, which he used to relish in his childhood and attempted a couple of times without any success. He wanted to know the exact recipe for the same, with proper measurements. When he explained about this payasam, I was clueless and thought it must be his grand mom’s own creation to fulfil the needs of her big family by making it easier. He patiently explained the process about how his grand mom used to prepare it and What amazed me was, as a small child, he has seen and observed how his grand mom does etc. After listening to his explanation, it was like a dream to me. I couldn’t resist, and wanted to try it out As soon as possible. The next day was my wedding anniversary and I grabbed the opportunity and started my experiment. It indeed was a treat and I was super duper happy with the result. Here is the recipe and I am dedicating it to that great soul from whom this recipe came to light and my reader who has shared his childhood nostalgic memories with me by explaining it patiently.

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Now we will see how I proceeded with the recipe-

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 1 small cup

Salt

Jaggery – 4 small cubes

One fresh coconut – to extract milk

Cardamom powder – 1 tea spoon.

Banana leaves – 2 pieces

Ghee – 1 tea spoon

Cashew pieces – 2 table spoons

Method:

-Wash and soak Dosa rice for 2 hours.

-Grind the rice into smooth paste with sufficient water (use soaked water itself) and salt.

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-Batter should be of spreadable consistency (little thinner than regular Dosa batter)

-Next is a coconut milk extraction:

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-Take fresh gratings, put one cup of water and grind into smooth paste and extract milk through sieve. This milk is a thick milk and is used at the end. Hence, it should be kept aside separately.

-Now once again take roughage of the coconut, put one more cup of water and grind, sieve the paste and it is our second extraction of milk.

-Repeat the process and take out a third extraction as well and if you are using the roughage of the coconut in any other purpose, you can store it in a freezer for future use.

– Take one wide thick bottomed vessel, Pour diluted, very thin milk (3 rd. extraction) and jaggery. Boil nicely.

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-Now pour second extraction of milk (thin milk) and boil further.

-Now start preparing Rotti, take one clean banana leaf, spread a ladle of rice batter and spread as thin as possible and flip this leaf over boiling jaggery solution.

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-Within 2 minutes, it will be ready to remove. Now start pulling your banana leaf by peeling it slowly.

-After peeling, if at all some cooked Rotti part remains, take one flat ladle and remove and put it in the boiling jaggery solution.

-Repeat the procedure, until batter finishes. I did it 4 times.

-Now boil this further for 3 to 4 minutes and mix it in-between by using very light hand.

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-It is the time to use thick first extract of the coconut milk.

-When it starts boiling, remove from the flame. Add cardamom powder and ghee fried cashews and serve hot.

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Note:

We liked this dessert as a Hot option.
When it cools down, at room temperature it tastes good.
Under refrigeration, if Rotti pieces becomes slightly hard, one can relish after re heating.

Red Amaranth and Beet Pulav:

December 3, 2017

Red amaranth is very beautiful and a natural source of energy, rich in iron and a whole lot of micro nutrients and fibre. It is very high in calcium and very good for all ages, from infants to adults.

On the other hand, beets are also packed with anti-oxidants, Folic acid and Iron. Which is considered as a super food to fight anaemia.

When my home grown red amaranth is harvested, this rice dish is what we love to eat, by adding Beetroot chunks to enhance the nutritional value. One can enjoy this one pot super tasty dish with any form of yogurt based side dish or even with plain yogurt and pickle. One can carry this in a tiffin box as well. It is a very good idea to feed greens to those who don’t like them, without they even noticing 😉

This time, when I harvested red amaranth, I thought of using fresh ground masala and it really tasted divine, oozing with flavours.

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Ingredients:

Basmati Rice – 3 cups

Beet root – 1 big

Red Amaranth – 1 Small bunch

Onions – 2 (sliced)

Ghee/oil– 3 table spoons+1 tea spoon

Cumin -1 tea spoon

Bay leaves – 2 (small)

Ginger garlic paste – 1 table spoon

Milk – 1 cup

Curd -1 cup

Brown Bread – 3 slices

For Fresh masala:

Coriander – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Cardamom -2

Cloves- 2

Cinnamon – 1”

Black pepper – 8

Nutmeg – 1 pinch

Dried Red chillies – 2

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Method:

-Wash rice and soak for 15 minutes.

-Wash Beetroot, chop into bite size pieces.

– Wash Amaranth greens, chop.

-Dry roast fenugreek seeds. When it is slightly brown, add all the other ingredients under masala and fry.

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-Make a powder and keep it.

-Now take one pressure cooker. Add ghee or oil, fry cumin and bay leaves.

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-Add sliced onion, fry until it is brown.

-Add ginger garlic paste, fry for 2 minutes.

-Add beetroot, chopped greens, fry until green wilts.

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-Next add fresh ground masala powder, drained rice, salt.

-Mix everything and add milk, curd , 4 cups of water and 1 tea spoon of ghee,close the lid.

-After one whistle, keep it in a simmer for one/two minutes and switch off the gas.

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-Now make small square size pieces of brown bread and deep fry and drain out excess oil.

-When pressure releases, add bread croutons and lightly mix everything.

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– serve with any raita or plain curd and pickle.

Soppavare/Winged beans stir-fry:

December 1, 2017

Soppavare name itself is very much nostalgic. We had a widespread vine in our front yard and we used to relish a whole lot of Mangalorean traditional recipes in our childhood days.

Winged bean is a nutritionally very rich, tropical vine, which needs warm weather, but in the winter season. Almost all parts of the plant are edible, and vine produces unique shaped bean with four-winged edges.

It is rich in vitamins, minerals and many nutrients. When it is cooked, bean has nutty flavour and is consumed in many forms from salad to stir fries or in a form of curry.

My family relishes on this simple stir-fried salad with this simple seasoning.

Ingredients:

Winged beans – 10 -15

Olive oil – 2 tsp

Garlic salt – 1 tsp

Chilli flakes – ½ – 1 tsp

Method:

Wash and slice the beans.
Heat one non-stick tawa add olive oil, add chopped beans, garlic salt and red chilli flakes.
Stir fry for a while and serve as it is or with curd rice or as you wish.

Antinunde /Dry fruit laddu with edible gum:

November 29, 2017

Antinunde aka dry fruits laddu with edible gum is a super food for everyone, especially new moms or girls in their puberty, especially after their first cycle of menstruation. I came to know about this super food through my close friend’s mom, Chandu aunty.

According to her, if you are using it for a girl, after her first cycle. Traditionally it is a practice that, 5^th day onwards girl should consume a little amount of ghee, small piece of copra (which is dried coconut) followed by one dry fruit laddu and a cup of milk for continuous 48 days. It is believed that, all the combined nutrition of dry fruits, edible gum and milk will take care of her and retain the calcium, iron and much needed supplements through the natural form.

If you are using after delivery, for a new mom as a postpartum supplement, method will be slightly different and here we should take care of the new born baby’s health as well. In this case, lady should consume, 1 spoon of postpartum lehya (which is a mixture of so many ayurvedic natural medicines) followed with little ghee, piece of dry coconut, one laddu and a glass of milk from 11^th day onwards until 3^rd month. Initial 1 ½ months content of the sesame should be more (for example 1 cup) other than this one should use ½ tsp of ajwain as well and after 2^nd half one should decrease the quantity of sesame to half and quantity of the dried dates and edible gum should be more to pass on the supplements to the baby as well.

Other than these two instances, one can enjoy these delicious laddu at any given point of time with a whole lot of goodness. I will show you how I prepare this for a regular use –

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Ingredients:

Dates – 300 grams

Almonds – 100 grams

Cashew – 50 grams

Raisins – 50 grams

Fig – 50 grams (optional)

Melon seeds – 50 grams (optional)

Flax seeds – 25 grams (optional)

Desiccated coconut – 50 grams

Edible gum – 40 to 50 grams

Jaggery – 100 grams

Saffron – 10 strings

Nutmeg – 1 pinch (grated)

Cloves – 4

Ghee – 2 to 3 table spoons

Method:

-Chop dates and dry grind this in a small jar of the mixer grinder.

-Chop almonds and cashews

-Dry roast saffron then coconut powder for 3-4 minutes, till you get a nice aroma.

-Dry roast flax seed.

-Heat one teaspoon of ghee and fry one by one, cloves, almond, cashew, melon seed and raisins.

-Put one more teaspoon of ghee to same tawa, fry those edible gum crystals, until it pops up and becomes fluffy.

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-Make powder of this by using mixer jar and keep aside.

-Lastly, fry those chopped or churned dates and add all these items together in a bowl and keep aside.

-Now take jaggery in a small vessel and take ½ a cup of water, boil and sieve this to remove any impurities.

-Put this sieved liquid in a thick tawa, in which we have fried all those dry fruits.

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-Boil this until it reaches one thread consistency. Switch off the gas.

-Mix in all those fried items, nutmeg powder, saffron and mix nicely.

-Rub your hand with little ghee and start to make laddu’s.

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-Eat one laddu a day and enjoy.

Note:

Ratio of dry fruits and jaggery is 600 Grams:150 grams. If Fig is added, you can reduce a little.
I normally use normal dates, traditionally they use dried dates.
Instead of dry coconut (copra) I have used desiccated coconut.
One can use palm jaggery while making it for a new mom or use palm jaggery half and regular jaggery half.
My kids don’t like either poppy seeds or sesame seeds, instead I have added Melon seeds and flax seeds.
I normally add sugar candy crystals to enhance the crunchiness.

Sambrani gadde Palya /Chinese potato stir fry:

November 27, 2017

Chinese potato is commonly known as koorka or kooka. These are tiny tubers, with deep brown skin, unlike potato. Otherwise, it looks like baby potatoes. It is a less known, neglected vegetable and tastes good with a very little seasoning or additives. It is high in nutritional value and carbohydrate.

Ingredients:

Chinese potato – ½ kg

Salt

Coconut oil – 2 teaspoons

Mustard seeds -1 teaspoon

Urad dal – 1 teaspoon

Hing – ¼ tsp

Dried Red chillies – 2

Curry leaves – 2 strings

Onion – 1/2 ( chopped)

Tamarind – 1/2 tsp (soak it in a tbl sp of water)

Turmeric – ½ teaspoon

Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Jaggery – ½ teaspoon

Grated coconut – 2 tablespoons

Method:

-Soak Chinese potato for 20 minutes, it will help in cleaning as well as while peeling the outer skin.

-After washing, peel outer skin by scraping it and keep immerse in water.

-Chop like a match stick and immerse it in water to avoid blackening.

-Now take a thick vessel, add little water, turmeric, salt, jaggery and boil. Add drained kooka pieces and cook in low heat, until it is firm and soft.

-Now, proceed with the seasoning. Take one Kadai, heat 1 a spoon of coconut oil, splutter mustard, add urad dal, hing, broken red chillies, onion and fry for 2 min.

-Add cooked kooka, red chilli powder, little tamarind water, freshly grated coconut and fry for a while.

-Lastly, add 1 tsp of raw coconut oil, curry leaves, mix everything, close the lid and keep this for 2 to 5 min on a low flame.

-Flavour of Raw coconut oil and curry leaves would give a nice aroma to this side dish. Enjoy hot rice and dhal topped with ghee.

Manni / Porridge-Initial Baby Food:

November 23, 2017

Regarding baby food lots and lots of notions are there. What to feed, when to start solids, which age is ideal etc. According to me, each situation or each baby is different than the other. In my condition, it was twin babies and almost 20 days pre-mature too.

With two babies, breast feeding was not sufficient, and I started this porridge in a very diluted form (For 200 ml of water, I used to use 1 tsp of powder) as early as 40 days of their birth. Yes, my father who is a doctor himself, advised me to start this instead of any packaged milk powder or cow’s milk. I used to feed them this a couple of times in a day (100ml at a time) as a top food to suffice their needs.

Jaggery is very good for infants and this is the only way they get their iron supplement, if they are on top food. This is what our paediatrician told me. According to her suggestion, I used to add tiny jaggery piece while preparing porridge.

When days passed by I did increased the quantity of porridge powder and when they became 4 to 5 months old, I started feeding them one small bowl of porridge by using spoon.

If you are raising your brows while reading this, Yes!!! My daughters are healthy grown up teenagers now. I personally never ever recommend readymade food over natural food.

How to Prepare Porridge Powder:

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Ingredients:

Finger millet / Ragi – 500 gms

Whole wheat – 500 gms

Almonds- 100 gms

Method:

Clean Ragi and whole wheat by rinsing couple of times with water.
Drain water completely.
Spread this on a clean cloth and dry in the shade.
When it is dry, take little by little and dry roast for a couple of minutes to remove any remaining moisture.
You can use almond by roasting or without as well.
Cool this by spreading it again.
Take a mixer jar and powder it, sieve it and collect the fine powder and proceed.
Cool this and store this powder in an air tight container.
If you want to store this for too long, keep it in a fridge.

How to prepare porridge:

Take water according to your requirement, add powder and mix thoroughly.

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If you are feeding for two to three-month-old, by using feeding bottle, take ½ to 1 tsp of powder,100 ml of water and boil. (adjust according to the requirement)
If you want a little thicker consistency, take 2 tsp of powder and 100 ml of water and boil.

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Add jaggery or rock candy (kallu sakkare)
Boil this by stirring in a low flame, when it is cooked, it becomes a little shiny and transparent (top becomes glossy).
Remove from the fire. If you are okay with addition of milk, add couple of spoons of milk and adjust the consistency, or adjust with water and feed the baby either by feeding bottle or spoon.

Crunchy Ice cream:

November 21, 2017

I am celebrating my blog’s first anniversary, what more reason do we need to celebrate than this? I chose to prepare our all-time favorite “crunchy ice cream” which I whipped up a couple of years back, after tasting this yummilicious blend of fresh cream, chocolate, Vanilla ice cream with crunchy rice crispies, which we enjoyed during our Malaysia trip at Dip n Dip’s This recipe is a crowd pleaser, child friendly as well as perfect for any family gathering and celebrations.

Ingredients:

Fresh cream – 200 grams

Cooking chocolate – 100 -150 grams

Sugar – 2 tsp

Rice crispy – 100 grams

Vanilla ice cream – as needed

Chocolate vermicelli or sprinkles – little

Method:

-Grate cooking chocolate or make small chunks.

-Take one sauce pan and boil fresh cream, cooking chocolate, sugar into sauce consistency.

-Now Take 4 serving bowls. Pour Rice crispies at the base.

-Next, pour Hot chocolate sauce and place one ball of ice cream.

-If you want, you can sprinkle some chocolate vermicelli/ sprinkles and some more sauce and enjoy with your family.

Mixed millet Masala Cookies:

November 17, 2017

Millets are a very good alternative to normal All-purpose flour or whole wheat flour in gluten free baking. You can’t even recognize the core ingredient. It is gluten free as well as high in nutritional value too.

When I was trying out some recipes for the 2017 Millet calendar, I dished out a couple of recipes, which had turned out super tasty, and at the same time, healthy, filling and as an alternate snack for kid’s tiffin boxes as well.

I tried pizza based seasoning in this cookie recipe and it tasted super delicious.

Ingredients:

Mixed Millet flour – 1 cup

Butter – 50 grams

Sugar – 2 table spoons

Salt – ½ teaspoon

Baking powder – ½ teaspoon

Baking soda – ½ teaspoon

Curd – 2 table spoons

Pizza seasoning or Oregano – 1 tea spoon

Chilli flakes – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Grated cheese – to decorate.

Method:

Mix flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, pizza seasoning, chilli flakes and cumin and keep aside.
Now beat butter and sugar until it becomes fluffy and creamy. Add in curd and beat once again.
Mix in flour mixture and bind all the ingredients together, the resultant dough will be like Chapati dough.

Take dough little by little, roll it into half inch thickness and take a cookie cutter and cut.
Arrange this in a lined baking tray.
Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Bake this in a pre-heated oven at 170 ºC for 10 to 12 minutes.

Note:

Here mixed millet flour is store bought pre- mixed flour.
Alternately one can mix two to three millet flours and make their own flour or use all purpose flour as well.

Moringa / Drumstick leaves powder:

November 15, 2017

In our coastal area, we never used Moringa in any other form than using its pods which we call as drumstick as a vegetable. During my growing age, I tasted only drumstick in our style cooking. After marriage and coming to Bangalore, slowly I got used to its greens and blooms. My house- help, normally brings organic and home-grown drumstick greens in the spring season.

Moringa greens are packed with vitamins and nutrients and it is considered as a new superfood of the world. The leaves are rich in vitamins, calcium, iron and protein. I have read that, one ounce of moringa powder boasts seven times more vitamin C than oranges, 4 times more beta carotene than carrots, 3 times more potassium than bananas and 2 times more protein than yogurt.

Moringa leaves can be cooked like any other greens and included in our day to day cooking. Apart from that, we can dry it and keep it in a powdered form to add in our day to day consumption in the form of juice, smoothie or in seasonings. It is known to help with anxiety, lethargy, acidity, skin ailments and diabetes. After reading so much about this super food, I made an attempt to make homemade powder to include it in our diet and recipe is here –

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Ingredients:

Moringa Fresh leaves

Method:

-Wash the greens as it is with small branches intact, without removing leaves. And drain water.

-Spread these greens on a clean cloth indoors. No sun light is needed for this.

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-After 2 days of drying, you will be able to remove all the tiny leaves without any hassles.

-Remove all the sticks and discard.

-Dry further for couple of days, until it is crisp to touch.

-Powder and collect fine powder by sieving.

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-Spread this fine powder and dry for couple of hours to remove any traces of moisture.

-Store this in a clean jar and use as needed.