Low Fat Vegetable Balls

Vegetable Balls

It is quite natural to fancy cutlet sort of snack on a nice autumn day. But little over four months post childbirth the sight of my tummy just did not let me indulge. I had gone far enough to get the vegetables boiled and had to get on with the rest of the preparation. How do I enjoy a recipe with crispy outside and soft inside spiced up with great flavours without the guilt? As always, mom’s idea came in handy. It was good in more than one way because it not just met my requirement of using very little oil but also put to use a cooking utensil that was otherwise seldom used. The magic mantra was the kuzhi paniyara koodu (the dish in which kuzhi paniyaram is made). I love the paniyarams and was sure I wanted this dish in my kitchen. My husband was concerned I would clutter the house and hence I had to be cheeky to get this. I went shopping in East Ham with my brother. I was about 4 months pregnant and remember not just enjoying the masala dosai and pongal in Vasantha Bhavan but also my victorious shopping. For those of you who have not seen kuzhi paniyara koodu before, here is a picture of mine...

Now for my recipe...

1 cup cubed boiled potatoes

½ cup green peas boiled

½ cup carrot diced and boiled

2 green chillies

1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaves

Chilly powder (optional)

1 teaspoon coriander seed powder (dhania powder)

1 teaspoon cumin seed powder (jeera powder)

Turmeric powder

Salt as required

Breadcrumbs

Cooking oil

In a pan, add about 1 teaspoon oil and put all the powders except chilly powder and green chillies and fry forcouple of minutes on a low flame. Combine all the boiled/steamed vegetables with the powders and mash them. Add chilly powder if desired, salt as required and add the coriander leaves. It is important that you make the balls when the vegetables are still hot else they will not retain shape. To help withstand the heat keep wetting your hands in cold water. Make balls to the size that will go in your kuzhi paniyara koodu. Once you roll to form the ball, roll it in breadcrumbs so each ball is uniformly coated. In the mean time keep the ‘koodu’ on the stove and heat on high flame. Add less than a teaspoon of oil in each ‘kuzhi’ and reduce flame to medium. Once the oil is hot, start putting the balls in carefully. Carefully keep turning the balls so they are uniformly cooked. When you put the top side bottom, put less than a teaspoon oil so that this side can also get cooked well. Serve hot with ketchup !

You could use other vegetables of your choice. Be careful not to add too much carrot or peas as they can make the dish a bit sweet. You may want to add some grated ginger. Enjoy, guilt free!!

Microwave Semiya Payasam/Microwave Vermicelli Payasam

This awesome dish is one of the few sweet dishes I liked as I usually prefer savory food. I was however clueless about how things will change during my pregnancy. I started loving sweet dishes and was craving for semiya payasam. As I had a tough time during my pregnancy, I had to wait until my 7th month or so for my mom to come and make me her yummy semiya payasam. Her payasam will be so creamy and ice cream like. I remember that my brother used to insist on the payasam served chilled for him while I like it warm. Invariably I will not have a chance to have it when I would come home from work as I prefer it being fresh. Mom had and has a habit of making some sweet dish every Friday as ‘neivedhyam’ and semiya paysam was often on the menu.
After our India trip this year, I am trying to pick up some good habits my mom practises so my son grows up seeing our practise, belief and faith. Considering Friday auspicious and giving importance to offer food to God is part of it. May just be a coincidence but for the last few Fridays I have been using the microwave to make the sweet dish. The ingredients and steps are similar for both microwave and stovetop cooked payasam so you could do either. Here is how I did it...
1/3 cup semiya (I crushed it by hand to make strings small)
3 teaspoons ghee (clarified butter)
Pinch of saffron
2 cups milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon raisins/sultanas or more
1 tablespoon cashew nuts or more
3 pods Cardomom (Elaichi) if desired – only seeds required
Microwave safe dish
Take a teaspoon of ghee and just melt it in the microwave (takes about 15 seconds). Add the raisins and heat for 15 seconds until it puffs up. Keep the puffed raisins aside and add cashew nuts, heat for a minute stirring in between and keep aside once they turn golden brown. Put the semiya in the left over ghee and stir well so the strings get coated, add more ghee if needed. Heat for about 30 seconds, stir and heat further for 50 seconds. The idea is to roast the semiya golden brown. Keep aside the roasted semiya. Take about 5 measures of milk (5 times the semiya) and heat for 2 minutes. Stir and continue heating for 3 minutes again stirring in between. This helps the milk reduce and provide nice taste and consistency to the payasam. Add the roasted semiya to the milk and cook for about 3 minutes stirring atleast once every minute. If you do not stir often, you will run the risk of getting clumps of semiya rather than separate strings of it. Check if semiya is cooked. Add one measure of sugar i.e. same measure as semiya, cardamom seeds and heat for a minute. Add more milk if required and also the saffron and heat for 2 minutes. Finally add the raisins and cashews. Semiya payasam is ready!!
Semiya is also called Vermicelli and is made of durum semolina, just like pasta. So, if you are allergic to wheat, I am afraid this is not for you.
Cooking time varies depending on microwave and also the quantity you are making. The quantity I used serves 2.

Radish Raita/Radish Pachadi

Radish Raita/Radish Pachadi
Radish was always far down in my list of vegetables I like. Mom use to make radish sambar but I would so dislike the smell of radish and never bothered to give it a try. It was after wedding that I gave it a shot in my mother-in-law’s place. She had made a salad which my husband usually enjoys. I then revisited my list and moved radish up. My mom used to get a bunch of fresh white radish just uprooted from the ground from a field adjacent to the place where she would go for morning walks. Just the sight of those fresh radish would be tempting enough but there is another great reason why love for radish is well worth it. And that is because it is called free food...hold on, you got to pay to buy it but it is free to eat i.e. it is almost empty on calories with just about 16 calories per 100g. Isn’t that great? The Tesco here stocks Mooli, the white radish but they are not as good as the ones I used to enjoy in India so I buy the British radish. These are small turnip shaped red-pink coloured radishes. Despite their size they are so rich in nutrition including vitamin C, folates and minerals like iron, magnesium, copper and calcium. If all this goodness is not enough, this dish does not need any cooking and is quick to make.
1 packet of radish (about 10-15 radishes)
¼ teaspoon cumin powder (jeera powder)
¼ teaspoon coriander powder (dhania powder)
Salt as required
1 cup yogurt/curd
Wash the radish in cold running water. Cut the root end and holding each of them by the side where the leaves would have been, grate the radish. There is no need to peel the skin. Once salted the radish give up water and could make the raita watery so do the rest of the preparation just before serving. Add curd and salt (if required) and the cumin and coriander powder. Raita is ready for you to enjoy.
I love this raita and can finish a bowl of it all by myself. It goes very well with a variety of rice and breads especially if you have spicy side dishes. Hope you enjoy it.