Neeragaram

When I was discussing summer recipes with my family, my father in law said about this neeragaram. He recalled how this was this only his breakfast for so many years. It is considered to be so nutritious.

In those days with no fridge, there will be much left over rice which they pour water and leave it overnight in an earthen pot.  Since it is fermented for long hours it’s highly nutritious. Rich in iron, potassium and calcium.

It is best to have it as breakfast, since it is very filling.

Ingredients:

·         Left over rice with water

·         Butter milk

·         Water

·         Salt to taste

·         Asafetida / Hing / Perungayam - 1 pinch

·         Small onions – Few – finely chopped

·         Curry leaves, Coriander leaves – Finely chopped

Method:

Pour water in the rice and leave it overnight. Keep it in the kitchen counter. No need to keep in fridge.

Add butter milk to the rice water mixture. I dint have butter milk, so I added curd and diluted with water. Mix it well.

Add the chopped onions, greens and hing.

Add salt and dilute it well. It should be watery.

Serve immediately. 

Notes:

·         Next day, check if it has any stale smell. If then, discard. It should not be consumed in that condition. If not, then proceed.

·         You can also add some seasoning with mustard seeds. I like it without seasoning.

Sago Tikki

Bored of Alu tikki ? Try this new version. I bet you will love it.

It has almost ingredients as Sabudana Khichdi AKA jevvarisi upma.

I added onion in this, you can also skip onion for a vrat version.

Ingredients:

·         Sabudana / Jevvarisi / Tapioca Pearls – 1 cup

·         2 large size potatoes – boiled and mashed

·         Onion – 1 finely chopped

·         Ginger – ½ inch finely chopped

·         Green chili – 1 finely chopped

·         Jeera powder – ½ tsp

·         Roasted peanuts – a fist full (Coarsely crushed)

·         Coriander leaves – finely chopped

·         Salt for taste

·         Oil for shallow fry.

Preparation:

Wash and soak Sabudana overnight. (Atleast for 6 hours). It should be nylon variety, not the white mavu variety. The water level should be just as the Sabudana level.

Cook the potatoes and remove the skin and mash them.

Dry roast peanuts and crush it coarsely.

Finely chop the onion, chili, ginger, coriander leaves.

Method:

Drain the water completely from the Sabudana if there is any excess water. If you have used correct proportion of water, there will not be any excess water.

Mix all the ingredients except oil.

Make them into round balls and flat them into patties. U can grease ur palm with oil so that it does not stick in the hands. Don’t make it too thin, so flipping might be difficult.

Heat the pan, drizzle oil, roast them by flipping both the sides Careful while flipping as it may break. Cook them till they are slightly brown both the sides.

Serve it with any chutney or sauce.

Homemade Ragi Malt

I have been telling nonstop about millets.. not sure who is listening here.

Ragi / Finger Millet Benefits : Taken from Internet..

·         Rich in calcium: - No other cereal comes close to ragi when it comes to calcium content. Calcium is a significant factor when it comes to bone development and prevention of osteoporosis. Replacing calcium pills with a ragi kanji or porridge and including it in the diet of growing children is a good way to reap its benefits. 

·         Helps in weight loss

·         High fibre content

·         Regulates blood sugar levels

·         Battles anemia

·         Gluten-free

·         Excellent baby food

·         10# Boosts lactation:

After making this ragi malt, I skip coffee once and have this daily. Kids like it too.

This version is healthier as it is made with sprouted ragi.

First let’s see how to make ragi malt mix.

Ingredients:

·         Ragi  - 1 cup

·         Badam  + Cashew – ¼ to ½ cup

·         Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

·         Saffron Strands - few

·         Palm Sugar candy – powdered – 3 tbsp and more

Wash the ragi and soak it overnight.

The next day, drain the water thru a strainer and cover it with a lid, so that it will sprout. It takes a day or 2 to sprout.

Next day, just dry them inside house in a cotton cloth. Let it dry completely.

When it is dry enough, dry roast the ragi and nuts (Badam and cashews) separately for about 5 mins. Let them cool completely.

Add palm sugar candy, cardamom powder and saffron strands and powder the ragi mixture into a fine powder using a mixer.

If you are doing this in bulk, then you can powder it by giving it to outside vendor powdering machine and will get a fine powder.

Store this in a clear dry jar. It holds up well for a month .

Notes: 

·         I used more almonds than cashews to make it healthy. You can also use equal amount of them and add other nuts too.

·         I used palm sugar, you can go with normal sugar / brown sugar of your choice.

Ragi Malt:

Ingrediants for making a cup of ragi malt:

·         Mik – 1/3 cup

·         Water – 1/3 cup

·         2 tbsp of Ragi malt powder.

Bring water and milk to boil. Add the ragi malt mix and mix well without lumps.  Heat it for a minute and switch off the stove. Check for sweetness, add sugar if you want.

Serve hot or cold.

Note: I used 1:1 water and milk, instead u can use milk without water. But my idea is to make the milk intake less.  When I get all calcium from ragi, why should I drink this milk anymore?

Pazham Pradhaman - Vishu Special

Nendram pazham is one of my fav variety of banana. My mil buys that almost twice a week. My MIL born and brought up in Palakkad, so there will always a kerala touch in our menu. This is a perfect payasam for vishu.

Ingredients:

·         Nendram banana – 4 – ground into smooth paste

·         Jaggery – as much as the quantity of banana paste

·         Water – 2 cups

·         Semi thick Coconut milk – 1 cup

·         Ghee – 2 tbsp

·         Cashews – around 10 roughly chopped.
·         Cardamon powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

Extract thick milk from half a coconut. You can also use store bought coconut milk, Or dilute store bought coconut milk with about 1 cup of water.

Roughly chop cashews and fry them in ghee till golden brown.

Cut nendram pazham into slices and grind it into smooth paste. Keep it aside

Method:

Measure same amount of jaggery as the banana paste.  1:1 ratio. You can also reduce a lil if you prefer a less sweeter version.

Heat a thick bottom vessel, add jaggery and a cup of water and let the jaggery melt completely in the water. There is no need to attain any string consistency, just melting should be fine. Switch off the stove and strain the impurities from the jaggery syrup if any.

Now in another vessel, add the banana paste and a cup of water and heat until the banana gets cooked well and attain a shiny consistency. For about 5 mins.

Add the jaggery syrup into the banana paste and let it cook for about 10 mins with occasional stirring till it starts boiling. 

Switch off the stove, add the coconut milk.

Add fried cashews.

Add cardamon powder. Mix well.

Payasam ready.

Serve it either hot or cold. 

Tamil New year Special

Tamil new year special dishes.. What are u planning?

                               Thinai Sakkarai Pongal                                Kalkandu Pongal   

  Caramel Payasam

Kavuni Arisi

Masal Vadai                                         Puliyogare

                       

       

Medhu Vadai

Cucumber Butter Milk

Summer is super-hot these days.  During week days I don’t even realize since I will be in office enjoying the AC all the time. Weekends are tiring. So to cool down myself I make a big jar of butter milk and keep it in dining table to quench my thirst.

For a change I added ground cucumber to the butter milk to enjoy a cooler version.

Ingredients:

·         Cucumber - 1 medium size

·         Butter milk – 4 cups

·         Water to dilute

·         Salt to taste

·         Chaat masala – 1 pinch.

Method:

Slice the cucumber and make it a smooth paste.

Mix the paste with butter milk, dilute with water.

Add salt and chaat masala, mix well.

Chill it and serve.

Note:

I made shrikhand on the same day, so I used the whey from shrikhand for diluting the butter milk. Do not waste the whey water, its highly nutritious.  

Jowar Roti / Chola Mavu Roti

I try to add millets in my daily food. I usually replace rice with millets. I mix millet flour with dosa / idli batter and use.  So this time included with wheat flour and made roti. Its not as soft as Normal wheat roti, but a healthy alternate.

Jowar is very recommended food for diabetic patients. Rich in fibre and protein. 

Ingredients:

·         Jowar Flour / Chola mavu / sorghum flour – 1 cup

·         Wheat flour – ½ cup

·         Salt as needed

·         Water as much as needed

·         Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Add Jowar flour, wheat flour, salt in a wide bowl

Add hot water little by little and knead into soft dough.

Add oil and knead well again.

Cover it and let it rest for about half and hour.

Make it into small equal size balls and spread with help of rolling pin. The dough breaks easily, so roll it gently. Roll it by dusting it with dry wheat flour so that it doesn't stick in the rolling pin. I have heard that they don’t even use rolling pin for this, they use hands to spread it. But I haven't tried.

Heat a pan, cook the roti both the sides. I heated the roti a little till the moisure is gone and cooked in direct flame, that makes the work little easier.

Note:

It becomes very dry when not hot.

You can add some spices as well while kneading the dough, it improves the taste.