Plantain/Raw banana flour:

Plantain flour is a powdered form of dried banana, which can be a good raw material for any healthy baking or cooking, for people who follow Paleo, Vegan, gluten-free diet and it is diabetic friendly and organic too. Last month when I was thinking about gluten-free baking and options regarding its flours, what immediately comes to mind is our day to day available ingredient- the cheaper, more nutritious alternative to commercially available gluten-free flours. I have seen banana flour as baby food in my native and people prepare this flour at home and feed their babies as a healthy top food. Keeping that in my mind, I headed towards preparing homemade banana flour. I took small varieties of homegrown bananas from my native and started my journey.

pic 1

Ingredients:

Raw bananas – 1 kgs

Method:

-Select firm and raw bananas.

-wash, peel outer skin and immerse in plain water.

collage 1

-Take one wide, big plate. Line with one clean towel.

-Slice bananas directly on towel. Keep this in bright area, either near window sill or under sunlight.

collage 2

-If you keep under sunlight, it will take 2 days to dehydrate and become crisp.

-If you keep indoors, it will take 4 days to dehydrate.

-After it becomes crisp and dry, powder this in a dry grinding jar in a mixer grinder.

-Sieve the mixture and collect the fine powder.

pic 2

-Such a simple method and you will be ready with your gluten-free healthy flour for any of your bakes or for cooking!

Home-Style Pineapple Jam:

Some things are such that, it brings back lots and lots of fond memories from your childhood. This pineapple jam is one among the list, which is so flavourful and has lovely texture of grated pineapple. This week, when I saw a pile of pineapples over the carts in every nook and corner of our streets, immediately my mind went back to my grandparents farmland, loads of pineapples and home style pineapple jams, which I used to cherish with breads, Roti’s or Dosa’s. My urge to have that taste in my taste bud was so strong, I couldn’t resist it and I bought one pineapple and made this jam.

Now we will jump into the recipe part  –

pic-4

Ingredients:

Pineapple – 1

Sugar – 1  to 1 ½  cups (adjust according to your taste)

Lemon juice – 1 teaspoon

Method:

-Remove outer skin and make 4 vertical pieces.

-Grate the fruit.

pic1

-Now put these gratings in a thick bottomed Kadai and start cooking on a low fire.

-Mix in-between to avoid burning.

-When pineapple is cooked and all the water, which oozed out while cooking has evaporated, add sugar and mix.

pic2

-Cook until pineapple mixture leaves from the sides of the kadai.

-Add lemon juice, give one stir and switch off the gas.

pic-3

-Cool this mixture and store this in a glass bottle.

 

Herbal Hair Oil :

Oil massage is very useful for the hair. It helps in preventing dandruff, hair fall and split ends. At least once in a week we should oil our hair and scalp to prevent it from all these problems.

pic-main

 

Traditional home made Herbal hair oil which we used to apply during our childhood contained so many rare ingredients like Bhringaraja, Bilvapatra etc. After marrying and settling in a bigger city, I had no access to these things and over the years I made some modifications to attain that goodness by mixing easily accessible ingredients from our surroundings.

This is how I prepare my yearly stock of very useful herbal hair oil.

Ingredients: Take some leaves from your surroundings like

-Brahmi (potted or any Mangalore store has it) you can use Brahmi powder as well.

-Rose leaves or Flowers.

-Curry leaves.

-Leaves of any variety of Jasmine.

-Tulsi leaves/Holy Basil

-Ixora flower bunch.

-Hibiscus flower and some leaves.

-Methi leaves or Stem or both combined.

-Little raw methi/Fenugreek seeds.

1- lemon.

-Coconut oil -1 liter.

pic-1

 

Method:

-wash all these materials (other than raw methi) very well.

-Take your mixer jar. At first take raw methi and powder. Then add leaves and chopped lemon (with skin) .Grind this with sufficient water. Now Herbal concentration is ready.

-Now take one thick bottomed vessel. Mix this ground mixture with one litre Coconut oil and boil nicely.

-it is exactly like ghee making, but will take much longer time. At first you will see a frothy texture, but slowly the bubbling will stop and the liquid will become transparent .At the bottom you will see a brown thick fibre like structure. Now switch off the gas and keep it for cooling.

When it comes to room temperature, sieve this and collect this fragrant herbal oil in a clean vessel and discard bottom fibrous part. After collecting this oil, store this in a dry airtight bottle. Use this at least once a week and enjoy.

pic-2