HESARU KAALU- MOONG SPROUT

Sprouted moong is a very common item in our kitchens as an ingredient to make salads, as you know.  Since it is such a healthy food item, I was just  wondering how to make a more interesting salad out of it.  Most important for me was that the raw smell of the sprout should go. So I tried this method and it so happened that the consistency of the sprouted moong also changed for better! So, try this. I am sure you will love it!

Ingredients:

Sprouted moong                                     1 cup

Salt                                                         1 teaspoon                              

Roasted peanuts                                    1 tablespoon (crushed)

Grated carrot(optional)                           1 tablespoon

Grated coconut                                       1 tablespoon

Lemon juice            

                             

For seasoning:

Oil                                                           1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds                                        1/2 teaspoon

Ingu/hing/asafoetida)                              1 pinch

Green chily                                             1 (finely cut)

Coriander leaves                                    1 tablespoon (chopped)

Procedure:

Heat oil in a  kaDai. Add mustard seeds. When they sputter add cut chilies, hing and chopped coriander leaves. Join in the sprouted moong and salt, and immediately turn off the flame. (By doing so, the moong stays crisp and this is what gives that special consistency for the dish). Stir well. Keep the kaDai closed for a few minutes. When cool add grated carrot, coconut, crushed peanuts and lemon juice and mix well. The dish is ready to serve!

By just doing this, the raw smell of the moong disappears and you can consume four times the usual quantity that you consume  This can even be more of a `between meal' very healthy snack than just a salad. Usually in mixed vegetable salads, the the proportion of sprouted moong is about one fifth  the quantity of vegetables. Here you may or may not use vegetables- choice is left to you!

A rare combination of nutrition and good taste :)

Try now!

PUMPKIN BREAD

This is the recipe I got from the land lady of the chalet amidst red wood trees, where we stayed during our Yosemite National Park trip. To welcome us to her holiday home, Ms.Debby had brought for us this hot,  freshly baked bread with an  appetizing aroma . The bread tasted just wonderful. I requested her for the recipe and it is really nice of her to share it with me. I baked it. It came out really great! You must try this. Cake recipes  usually have maida/flour as the main ingredient, but now a days I use it whole wheat flour. Cakes turn out quite well

You need:

Maida/whole wheat flour                                                 1 ½ cups

Sugar                                                                               1 ¼ cups

Egg                                                                                  1

Butter                                                                              ¼ cup

Cold milk                                                                         ½ cup

Baking soda                                                                     1 teaspoon

Baking powder                                                                 ¼ teaspoon

Pumpkin puree                                                                 ¾ cup

Salt                                                                                   ¼ teaspoon

Ginger grated/powder                                                      ½ teaspoon           

Clove ground                                                                   ½ teaspoon

Cinnamon ground                                                           1 teaspoon

Chopped nuts, preferably walnuts                                   ½ cup                      

Procedure:                   

To make pumpkin puree:

Take thin slices of pumpkin (sihi kumbaLakai) and microwave for 2 or 4 minutes till it is half cooked. Blend coarsely in a mixer.  If you need 3/4 cups of puree, you need to take about 1 1/2 cups of sliced pumpkin. Cooked pumpkin looks like this.

For the rest of the recipe:

Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger powder, clove powder powder and cinnamon powder. (If you take grated ginger, beat together with egg, butter etc.).


Now, beat the butter and sugar, preferably with an electric hand mixer. Add egg and beat well. Now add cold milk and pumpkin puree and blend very well. Blend in chopped nuts.

Pre heat the oven for about  5 minutes.

Add the sieved flour mixture to the egg mixture and blend them together. Pour the mixture into a 8" loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.  Test whether the baking is complete by inserting a knitting needle or a knife in the middle of the bread. If the batter sticks to the needle, it means that the baking is not complete. Bake again for 5 or 6 minutes more. When done, cool to room temperature before cutting.

Now, ENJOY!!!!

DHOKLA

As you know, this is a Gujarathi dish. If I am right, the original recipe is one in which mixture of dals is used. That requires a little planning and also time. (Plan to post it some time later)! But this is a very quick method and the ingredients except Eno's fruit salt are always available at home. But you can always keep a stock of  a few 5gm. sachets of fruit salt at home.  Fruit salt comes in different flavours, but take care to buy the `regular'  one which  suitable for this. It is available in all medical shops and for those who live outside India,  it is available in Indian Stores. It is important to check the expiry date.

A very tasty, protein filled, non greasy, healthy and any time snack! If you come to know about the arrival of your guests three to four hours in advance, you can make and keep this ready!

So, here are the

Ingredients:

KaDale hiTTu or besan                                          3/4 cup
Chiroti rava                                                            1/4 cup
Sour curds                                                              About 3/4 to 1 cup
Thick tamarind paste                                             1/2 spoon (to be used if the curds is not sour)
Ginger                                                                    1 teaspon (finely grated)
Green chillies                                                         1 or 2 (finely cut)
Turmeric                                                                 1 pinch
Sugar                                                                      1 teaspoon
Eno's fruit salt                                                        5gm (1 sachet)
Salt                                                                         1 level teaspoon

For garnishing:

Oil                                                                           1-2 teaspoons
Mustard                                                                   1 teaspoon
Grated coconut                                                        2-3 table spoons
Coriander leaves                                                      2-3 table spoons (finely chopped)
Ingu/hing/asafoetida                                                2-3 pinches teaspoon    



Procedure:

Mix besan, chiroti rava, salt, turmeric, salt, ginger, green chilies and sugar together. Add curds and mix well till you get a consistency of idli batter. Remember to add tamarind paste if  curds is not sour. Leave it for about three hours. (If you are short of time, you can leave it just for 1 1/2 to two hours).

 Grease a 4"-6"  flat aluminium/steel pan.

Heat water in a pressure cooker on a high flame.  Keep a steel ring or a narrow container to give a bit height to place the pan. Wait till water starts boiling.

Now, the next step is to be done a bit quickly. Cut open the fruit salt sachet and quickly sprinkle over the above mixture.  You can see bubbles of gas (carbon di oxide) coming out. Now stir the contents well very quickly with a spatula and pour it into the greased pan.  It is good to finish the whole process within one minute. Now place the pan in the pressure cooker, close the lid and wait till steam starts coming out uniformly. Then steam it for about 10 minutes on a medium flame. Turn off the flame.

Allow the contents to cool for about half an hour. Take a knife around the Dhokla to make sure that the sides of the Dhokla is not sticking to the wall of the pan. Now reverse the pan on a plate and pat its base.  Transfer it the plate. 

Now your  Dhokla is ready!

Garnishing:

Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When the seeds  sputter, add ingu.  Spread this uniformly on the Dhokla.

Spread grated coconut and chopped coriander.

The Dhokla is ready to serve. Tastes great when hot.

This is usually served with tamarind chutney and or coconut chutney. But if you have enough of salt and chillies, I dont find the need of these.

SPICY CRISPY CAULIFLOWER SABZI (a quick recipe)

Got bored with same old recipes to make cauliflower sabzi. I tried gobi manchurian type masala. Turned out to be quite easy and tasty. It is very quick also.

I used:

Cauliflower                                            1 kg.
Garlic                                                     7-8 cloves, finely cut
Green chilies                                         3-4, finely chopped
Coriander leaves                                   about 1/2 cup finely chopped
Salt                                                        1/4 teaspoon
Tomato ketchup                                     1 cup
Oil                                                          1 tablespoon

Method:

Wash and cut cauliflower into small florets. Sprinkle salt and microwave for 2-3 minutes till half cooked, tossing once or twice in between.

Heat oil in a pan.  Add cut garlic and fry till brown. Now add cut chilies, stir and after about 10 seconds and tomato ketchup. Once it starts boiling add florets of cauliflower, mix well and cover with a lid.  After one minute add chopped coriander leaves, turn the contents again, cover with lid and turn off the stove. After about five minutes turn the contents again. The sabzi is ready.  The florets are still crispy and ready to serve.

HALASANDE KAALU and SOPPU `MUDHPALYA'

Protein packed dish which goes well both with rice and chapatis. Very easy to make. Got bored of usual stuff and tried this and came out well.

You need:

Halsande kaaLu(bharbhati/lobia)                1/2 cup
Togari beLe (Tuvar)                                    1/4 cup (mainly to get thick palya)
DanTu/Chakota/Palak                                  3 cups (finely chopped)
Salt                                                              1 teaspoon
Tamarind extract                                          1/2 spoon if thick
HuLi puDi(sambar powder)                        1 teaspoon
Grated coconut                                             1/2 cup
Oil                                                                1 teaspoon
Ingu (hing)                                                     1 pinch
Turmeric                                                        1 pinch
Curry leaves                                                  about 10
Jaggery                                                          1 teaspoon (optional)

How to make:

Soak halsande kaaLu and togari beLe for 2-3 hours.  Pressure cook till soft.
Cook greens.
Take oil in a kaDai, heat it. When hot add mustard. When it sputters, add ingu, curry leaves, turmeric and then add the cooked kaaLu and beLe, cooked greens, salt, tamarind juice, huLi puDi, jaggery and grated coconut.  Mix well and bring to boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes and turn off the stove.  Mudpalya is ready to serve or to eat :)

I enjoyed this with hot rice. Why don`t you try soon and let me know it came out?

PS: You can use other pulses like hesaru kaLu (whole green moong)

RAVE UNDE / RAVA LADDOO

As you know, this is actually an ancient dish! I vaguely remember  that my ajji, i.e.your thatha's mother, used to make tiny unDes specially for me and place one in each of my three year old  tiny hands, since  they say I used to ask for two pieces every time!

The procedure is very simple and  the ingredients are almost always readily available on the South Indian kitchen shelves. That is the reason the ladies those days prepared this in no time if the guests were to arrive within a short notice.

So, here are the ingredients:

Chiroti Rava                               1 cup
Sugar                                          1/2 cup
Grated coconut                           1/2 cup
Ghee                                           2-3 table spoons
Water                                          Enough to cover sugar in the kaDai
Cardamom powder                    1/4 teaspoon
Cashew nut pieces                     1-2 tablespoons
Raisins                                        1-2 tablespoons

Optional:


How to proceed:

Take about a teaspoon of ghee in the kaDai and fry cashew nuts till golden brown and raisins till they bloat. Transfer them to a small bowl.

Take  the remaining ghee in the kaDai and when it melts add both the rava and grated coconut and roast till the rava turns golden brown and the rava together with coconut give a pleasant aroma. Transfer the contents to the same bowl.

Next take sugar in the kaDai, add water just enough to cover it, and bring to boil till you notice foaming of the syrrup. Turn off the burner. Add cardamom powder, mix well and then transfer the contents of the bowl to the kaDai and mix well.  When the mixture is cool enough for you to handle, take small portions and make balls. Store in an airtight container. Can stay fresh for about a week.

From this amount you can make about 10 balls.  Enjoy!

PARANGI KAI ( RAW PAPAYA) CHUTNEY

My daughters  liked this sweet-hot chatni I used to make out of  parangi kai or thothapuri mavinkai (thothapuri raw mango).  I had learnt this when I attended the course on fruit preservation conducted by The Ministry of agriculture in Bhopal 35 years ago.

But nowadays  raw papayas have become a rarity since nobody grows the trees in their garden (and garden  itself has become a rarity),  and they are rarely available in shops.  Even papaya vendor has failed to get one for me. But last week I was lucky to get one unexpectedly from a cousin who offered one to me  which she had grown in her  garden.  I was quick  enough to grab it and was equally quick to make this chutney. You can try this if you a can get a papaya or make this with raw mangoes during the season.

This is how a fully raw papaya looks when cut. You have to choose one like this. So shall I go ahead with the ingredients and procedure?

Ingredients:

Raw papaya                   1 kg
Sugar                             1 kg
Onion                            50 gms ( 1 medium sized)
Garlic                            5 gms (4-5 pods)
Ginger                           20 gms.
Salt                                20gms.(2 1/2 teaspoons)
Red chili powder          10 gms. (2-3  teaspoons)
Jeera powder                 1 teaspoon
Garam masala               5 gms or 1 teaspoon (made of cloves, cinnamon and cardomom)
Pepper powder              3/4 teaspoon
Citric acid                     1 teaspoon
Dry fruits                      50 gms (optional)
Glacial acetic acid        2 teaspoons
        OR
Vinegar                         1/2 cup
Water                            1 cup

Procedure:

Wash and peel papaya.  Grate it. Add grated onion, ginger or garlic.  Add water and cook till it becomes a bit soft. Or you can even microwave it for about  5 minutes. When soft, add citric acid, sugar, salt, red chili powder and dry fruits.  Cook till it thickens. Then add all the other spices and mix well. Remove from fire and add acetic acid.

Now a days I dont get acetic acid, so I use white vinegar which is dilute acetic acid.  So, if you add vinegar, there is still water content in this and so you have to boil till the end point.

To know the end point:

1.Best thing is to use a chemical thermometer. When the content reaches a temperature of 222 Degrees Fahrenheit or 105 degrees celcius,  you can remove it from fire.   OR

2. You can do what is called a plate test. Here add the contents on a plate and tilt it a bit. If the drops of liquid or syrup do not flow fast, it means that it is done.            OR

3. If the syrup has reached one string consistency, it means it is ready to be poured into bottles. 

How to fill in bottles:  After reaching the end point, note that the chutney still has liquid content in it.

Place wide mouthed bottles (eg.jam bottles) in a plate filled with water. Keep a long spoon in the bottle. Pour the hot chutney into the bottle immediately after removing fire. It is important that that the bottle is under water and has a spoon in it, since they absorb heat or else the bottles may break due to sudden exposure to heat. Fill to the brim. Place the lid over the bottles till the contents cool. Then close them tightly.

This chutney goes well with phulkas, chapatis, different types of dosaes, and even bread.  The chutney stays for a few months, even without refrigerating. From one kg of papaya, you can make about three bottles (usual jam bottles) of chutney.