Wheat Halwa

 

The first time I learned this recipe from my paternal grandmom when I was studying. After awhile I was so caught up with my degree and job that I realised I had almost forgotten it. This also happens to be one of the few sweets I would even touch before the pregnancy changed me to more sweet friendly person (I hear you, that is not going to help shed the baby weight!!). My maternal grandmother does such a great job of this that my mom never even had an opportunity to do this. It was a bit funny when I asked my mom to make this yummy halwa during my pregnancy. She had made so much that we were running out of sugar to finish it. It turned out great at the end and we did finish it off. I usually buy the medium ground wheat flour and that is not ideal for halwa. This time I bought a small pack of fine atta and tried this last Friday as part of my 'neivedyam' (offering) to God. My grandmother usually makes it from scratch i.e. with wheat grains but as they are so hard to come by in this part of the world, I stuck to wheat atta. I did a very small batch but you could easily make more using these proportions...

¼ cup atta (I took a little over ¼ cup)

1/2 cup milk

¼ cup sugar (if you have a sweet tooth, you can use more but the minimum is 1:1 atta and sugar)

5-6 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter)

Handful of raisins (optional) and cashewnuts

I did not put cashewnuts in my halwa this time as I was going to have my baby give it a try and he has not had nuts so far.

To start, mix the atta and milk so that you have a batter like consistency. Leave this for 30 minutes.

In a thick bottomed dish or wok, heat 1 tablespoon ghee, add the raisins and let them puff. Roast cashew nuts until golden brown in the same ghee.

Add another tablespoon of ghee and after it melts, add the atta milk mixture and keep stirring. If you find it too thick dilute with not more than ¼ cup water and keep the flame low.

Add small amount of ghee frequently and couple of minutes after you added the atta, add the sugar and keep stirring.

Keep adding ghee little by little and stir. If desired you can add a few strands of saffron or food colour (use manufacturer instruction). Once the sugar has dissolved and the atta starts coming together, increase the flame to medium high.

Keep stirring until the halwa comes together in the centre of the wok. Add the cashews and raisins and give a quick stir.

Put the halwa on plate rubbed with ghee and cut into pieces. Wheat halwa ready !

Ginger Rasam/Ginger Soup

I seem to have surprised myself by not posting any rasam recipe yet on my blog considering that was the only thing along with vegetables I would eat while growing up. But here is the first variety of rasam. Rasam means essence in Tamil language. True to its name, this dish draws it taste, flavour and aroma from the essence of each of its ingredients. In my community (Iyengar) rasam is called Sathumudhu. It actually means ‘Saadhathuku Amudhu’ and in English it implies it is almost the ultimate combination with rice. As I said rasam rice was my staple diet while growing up. The best part about rasam is that it is awesome with rice and equally great just by itself, like a soup. People generally use a special spice powder to make rasam but this one is a far simpler recipe to start with and it is optional to use any powder. I know some people try to avoid tamarind in their diet for the fear of acidity and this is a great recipe for them too.
1.5 inches long piece of ginger grated
3 tomatoes cut into chunks
3 green chillies slit lengthwise
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
½ cup toor dal (pigeon peas/tuvar dal)
Asafoetida
Handful of fresh coriander
1 teaspoon sambar powder or chilly powder (optional)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
Salt as required
Cooking oil for tempering
1 lime (optional)
Pressure cook the tuvar dal so it is well cooked and mushy.
In a deep dish add the ginger, chillies, turmeric powder, asafoetida and tomatoes. As ginger is the hero of this recipe, you can be generous with it depending on your taste. Add about ¾ cup water and allow to boil.

Add the mushy tuvar dal and sambar powder if you wish to use. Add some more water to achieve desired consistency.

When it is boiling add finely chopped coriander leaves. It is ok to add the coriander stems too as they are very aromatic and nutritive. Season with required amount of salt.

In a deep bottom pan add less than a teaspoon cooking oil, once hot add mustard seeds. After they crackle, add the curry leaves. Add this to the rasam.

Based on your preference squeeze the juice of a lime before serving.Remember the only source of sourness otherwise is the tomatoes as we do not add tamarind. The dal serves as a good source of protein and iron.

Potato & Green Beans Poriyal

 

Many moms may find it hard to make their children have green vegetables. Infact, I do not think it is just the kids, even some adults find it hard to take green vegetables. My mom used to tell us not to be fussy about food and just eat what we get. That said, she always made great effort and took care to give us yummy food. I remember she used to wonder how someone could dislike a vegetable and not eat it. As I understand, it was not an option when she grew up. My grandparents were in a joint family and also used to have visitors almost always. As it was no restaurant to suit everyone’s taste, my grandmother would cook what comes to her mind (which by the way is awesome) but the kids had no options and just had to eat what was cooked. But for me and my brother, it was just the two of us and our preference was always given importance. I guess this is why many adults, especially in my generation are more fussy about their food. While I respect preference I think health is more important. For this reason, I try to give a bit of both and this dish is very handy for that. Here is how I do it

Half a packet fresh green beans (the more tender they are, the better) cut into inch long pieces

1 cup of potatoes julianed

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 dry red chillies (optional)

1 sprig curry leaves (optional)

Salt as required

½ teaspoon chilly powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Asafoetida (optional)

Cooking oil

In a thick bottomed pan or deep dish, add about a tablespoon oil and once it is hot add the mustard seeds.

Once the seeds crackle, add dry red chillies and just break them into two before doing so. Now add curry leaves, turmeric powder, asafoetida, beans and potatoes

Cook on low or medium flame until both vegetables are done. You can confirm this by forcing the ladle into them and if they split effortlessly, then its done.

Add desired amount of salt, mix and add chilly powder, mix and cook for couple of more minutes.Serve.

You can use urd dal and even channa dal in addition to mustard seeds for the tempering. I liked to chop the veggies long for this as it made it look appealing and also quicker to chop and cook.

Jeera Peas Pulav

I am sure everyone has days when they have almost no time to make a good meal and are on the run. But limited time to cook need not mean you need to grab a pot of food to microwave or starve. For whatever reason, I have such days very often and have certain easy and quick to make recipes that always save my day. One such dish is the easy peasy jeera peas pulav. Peas is a very nutrition rich vegetable and finds its place in atleast one of our meals almost everyday. As it also has onions, this rice will help you have two of your five a day vegetables which I think is good. Here is how I make it...
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1 big onion, thinly sliced
1 cup peas (fresh or frozen)
2 green chillies slit
1-2 teaspoons ghee or cooking oil
Salt as required
1 cup cooked rice
In a wok or thick bottomed pan, add the ghee or oil and allow it to heat. Add a generous spoon of cumin seeds and once they start turning dark add the onions, chillies and peas. I used to boil peas separately but my mother taught me I could directly stir fry it and it turns out even more flavour filled.



Cook until the peas get cooked and add the rice, required amount of salt and mix. Jeera Peas pulav is ready!



If you like you can add turmeric powder after the jeera so your rice looks yellow. If you have time, then you could add ginger and /or garlic. Depending on your taste, you could even add whole spices like bay leaf, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom before adding the jeera. It is great served with thick yogurt or some raita.

Dal Dhokli

Dal Dhokli

I had recently written an article on vegetarianism that got published on a website. I did touch upon the common fear that vegetarian foods lack in protein and explained how it need not be the case. Since then, I am taking extra effort to get some protein rich food on my recipe collection. What better protein can come to my mind immediately other than our very own lentils. There are a wide variety of them and probably about three (mung dal, channa dal and tuvar dal) of them are very common especially in South Indian cuisine. I think the best part about lentil is that they are an excellent source of protein, two B vitamins, and six minerals with almost no fat. Not to forget, they are probably the best source of iron in vegetarian diet. For these reasons it is recommended that you include lentils in atleast one meal of the day.

I was looking for dal recipes and came across this primarily as a Gujarati recipe on Tarla Dalal’s website. As always I was looking for other ways to do it and again as always sought vah chef to find his spin on this recipe. Interestingly he had put Rajasthani dal dhokli. I took the ideas from the two and made a hybrid version which I could call TamilNadu dal Dhokli!! Jokes apart, it is not until I made this dish that I realised how versatile it is. It can serve as a starter, like a soup, the main dish as it has proteins, iron, vitamins and carbohydrates as well or it can be served as a side dish for rice.

My husband had been complaining about my cooking getting too hot with chillies and I had decided to mellow down but I think I underplayed this one so much that he thought I could have done better. So you may want to add more heat to your dish than I have suggested. Here is my version...

1 teaspoon methi seeds (fenugreek seeds)

2 teaspoons jeera seeds (cumin seeds)

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

3-4 garlic cloves chopped

2-3 green chillies finely chopped

Asafoetida

½ cup tuvar dal

½ teaspoon chilly powder

2 tablespoons peanuts

1 sprig curry leaves

Salt to taste

Cooking oil

Water

For the Dhokli

¼ - ½ cup wheat flour (depending on whether you want to make starter or side dish or main meal)

1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ teaspoon chilly powder

Asafoetida

Salt to taste

Water

To make the dhokli

Take the wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Unless you intend to serve this as the main meal, I would suggest ¼ cup wheat flour or little more than that. You may want to increase it seeing how this dish goes down. Mix all ingredients mentioned for dhoklis.

Add required amount of water to make a stiff dough like puri.

 

Divide the dough to form smaller balls and roll them to make chapatti.

 

Cut the chapatti in such a way you get several diamonds. Do not make them too thick or too thin.

To make the dal

Wash the dal once and pressure cook the dal and peanuts. I usually add turmeric powder to the dal so it comes out nice yellow and not dull. I prefer the dal to be mushy.

 

In a saucepan add a teaspoon of oil followed by cumin seeds. Once the seeds crackle add the methi seeds, turmeric powder, asafoetida, curry leaves, garlic and chillies.

Add the dal and peanuts and some water along with chilly powder and allow it to boil in low flame and add salt

Once the dal boils, add dhoklis one by one. After dropping all dhoklis, allow the dal to boil for about 15 minutes. As it boils, you may have to add some water to achieve the desired consistency and also ensure the dal does not burn.

 

Sorry for a poor photo, the lens was covered by the steam from the rice! We had it along with oven roasted potatoes!!

If you wish you can add about 1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste to the dal. Usually Cocum is added to this recipe, but as I had none, I did not add it. If you are hardcore south Indian then to retain your touch, you could add sambar powder instead of chilly powder in the dal. Endless possibilities... have fun!

Serve hot with rice or just as a soup.

If you are allergic to nuts, then skip it.

Low Fat Vada/LowCalorie Vadai/Low Fat Crispy Lentil Dumpling

In South India, one can find a variety of vadas ranging from Urd vada to even banana flower vada. Apart from the fact that they are all very tasty they also share something else in common – fat! The deep frying makes them a high calorie snack and for some, they are barred from consuming it. I think it is a bit unfair that one cannot eat this lovely snack and here I come with a solution for them.

Having said that this is going to be lighter in oil, we can now actually talk about the goodness in them. I will be sharing the recipe for kadalai paruppu vada (channa dal vada). As you know dal is a good source of protein and form an important part of a balanced diet. You can take these vadas as a snack especially if your other meals have been low on protein. It is just a matter of balancing as you know.

½ cup Bengal gram (channa dal/kadalai paruppu)

¼ cup red gram (spilt pigeon peas/tuvar dal/toor dal)

5-6 dry red chillies

Few curry leaves

Few small onions finely chopped, shallots or pearl onions will be best

Salt to taste

Asafoetida

Turmeric powder

Soak the dals together for atleast one hour. Grind them coarsely along with red chillies, asafoetida, turmeric powder and salt. Do not add too much water, they should be in a consistency wherein you can roll them in your hand and they just begin to fall off. Add finely chopped onions and tear up the curry leaves and mix with the dals. Remember that onions do give up some water so be careful not to add too much water and also add the onions just before to fry the vadas.

Put your kuzhi paniyara koodu (I have talked about this in more detailed in my post on Low Fat Vegetable Balls) on the stove on high flame. Add less than a teaspoon oil in each of the provision (‘kuzhi’). Take the dal mixture in a teaspoon and drop in such a way that you manage to get the shape of a turtule’s shell (Aamai vada). If you don’t manage, never mind, taste is more important that shape! Reduce the flame to medium. Keep turning until all sides are golden brown. When you put the originally top side to the bottom, add some bit of oil to ensure even cooking.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or just by itself. If you think it is ok to treat yourself, just deep fry the vadas, eat it and go for a brisk walk!!

Cabbage Rice

Can you believe this vegetable is actually packed with a lot of goodness and that even one serving of this every week can reduce risk of prostate cancer in men? While there are numerous benefits of this vegetable, I somehow am unable to get myself to like it. My husband’s dislike for this vegetable is even worse; he would just rush me past the place where the shop stocks cabbage so I do not buy it. Though I may dislike this vegetable I really like the colours that it comes in. The red (appears more violet to me) cabbage and the green cabbage have such beautiful colours. The cabbage we used to get in supermarket used to be quite over mature and not tender. We then tried to get some occasionally from the farmer’s market.

I did get a cabbage couple of weeks back and yes it did take me over two weeks to gather the willingness to eat it. I am glad cabbages we get in this part of the world last this long. I was sure I will have to disguise it quite well so it is palatable for me and my husband. If you indeed like cabbage then this is a different recipe and a nice change. Here is how I did just that..

A small bunch coriander leaves

1 tablespoon Channa dal (optional)

1 teaspoon Urd dal (optional)

1 inch long ginger piece

3 green chillies

1 tablespoon grated coconut or coconut powder (optional)

1 cup shredded cabbage (you could grate if you like)

1 onion sliced

1 teaspoon mustard seed

1 cup cooked rice

Salt as required

Asafoetida

Cooking oil

Dry roast the channa dal followed by urd dal until golden brown. After it cools, grind along with chilles, coriander leaves, ginger and coconut. If you are running out of time or stock, then skip the dals. In a wok or saucepan add 2 teaspoons oil and allow the mustard seeds to splutter in it and add asafoetida. Add the onions and cabbages and cook until done. I would prefer not to overcook the cabbage as it may be nice if left a bit crunchy but if you wish, you could cook it very well. Add the ground paste and cook for until raw smell goes away. Add the cooked rice and required amount of salt and cook for a couple of minutes. If you wish, squeeze some lime juice before serving. Enjoy the rice with some raita.

Low Fat Potato Roast

Low Fat Potato Roast

If you have heard anyone say I do not like potato, please let me know because I am yet to come across such a person. Some people may try to avoid it thinking it causes gastric problems but still not because they dislike it. What a globally loved vegetable it is. Interestingly, potatoes are not considered one of the five a day vegetables although you may happily finish even two servings of it. It is considered a vital part of the diet but more as a starchy vegetable. It is probably well known that it contains a lot of carbohydrates but it also contains other goodies like phytochemicals (carotenoids, polyphenols). With skin, it also has a good portion of vitamin C and vitamin K. It has so much goodness and it is a shame that it needs quite a bit of oil to create one of its best form – roast! But not anymore. I tried this method having two things in mind. One was that the oil consumption must be less but still have a crispy outside. Second point was that my brother used to tell me that his attempt to make roast would always result in charred potatoes. This recipe is fairly failure proof and obviously needs far lesser oil. Here is how I did it...
Potatoes (I used about 10 baby potatoes and you do not really need baking potatoes for this)
½ teaspoon chilly powder
2 teaspoons oil
Asafoetida
Turmeric powder
Salt as required
Mustard seeds to temper (optional)

I prefer to peel the potatoes, but that is upto you. Cut them into bite size pieces. Typically baby potatoes that we used to get in India will be so tiny you do not have to cut them but ones I get here are still big. You can use normal white potatoes also. In a saucepan add 2 teaspoons oil, the potatoes, chilly powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and mix well. In a baking tray, put a sheet of aluminium foil and preheat the oven to 230 deg Centigrade. Cook the potatoes in the oven and keep moving them around in between so all sides get evenly cooked and they do not stick to the foil. It took about 30 minutes for mine to be done. If you wish, you can splutter some mustard seeds in few drops of oil and add to the potatoes finally along with desired amount of salt. Yummy, crispy roast is ready !!

Carrot Chutney/Carrot Dip

Carrot chutney

Carrot is not just a beautiful looking vegetable with its orange colour but is also a versatile vegetable. It can be used to make savoury and sweet dishes and even cakes!! Carrot is a must have in my kitchen. Surprisingly, until I got married I was not a big fan of carrot. As I almost always had rasam rice with vegetables I found carrot’s sweetness actually destroyed the flavour from the spices. But my take on carrot now is so different. I make carrot poriyal (karamudhu in Iyengar language), carrot halwa and many other tiffin with it. As I keep saying the more colourful your meal is the more healthy it is. Most of the goodness of carrot is attributed to its beta-carotene content. This makes it very good to help prevent several cancers including lung cancer. Most kids would have heard their mom say carrots are good for eyesight and this is due to its vitamin A content. It is also said to help prevent stroke and reduce blood sugar.

I always keep looking out for different chutney varieties as they just make life a bit easier when I am busy. I particularly like chutneys which is also healthy and this is one such nutrition packed chutney. Some of you may find it wiered to think of carrot chutney but trust me, it is good.

2 carrots grated

Handful of roasted peanuts

1 tomato

1 sprig curry leaves

2 tablespoons coconut powder

1 green chilly

1 dry red chilly

1 tablespoon grated ginger

Asafoetida

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

Salt as required

½ teaspoon mustard seeds for tempering

Take about 1 teaspoon cooking oil and add turmeric powder, asafoetida and chopped tomatoes once hot. Allow the tomatoes to cook well and add the carrots and cook. Add green chilly and ginger and once the carrot is cooked add curry leaves and cook for a minute. Once it cools down grind it along with roasted peanuts and coconut. Season with salt. Add one teaspoon oil in a pan, put the mustard seeds and add it to the ground chutney after it splutters. If you wish, you could skip the coconut from the recipe.

I find it easier and quicker to roast the peanuts in microwave by heating for a minute and then stirring and cooking another 2 minutes. Repeat this until you hear the nuts cracking (it is more their skin cracking) and stop at this point. Remember it will be crispy only after it cools. The duration of roasting will depend on the quantity you take. It is a good idea to keep some roasted nuts ready as it makes a good snack as well.