No Oil Drum Stick Curry

   This No Oil Drum stick Curry recipe is good for those on a low fat diet. Got this from a muslim friend and ever since i tasted it for the first time, iam a great fan of this. Tastes great with plain rice or kuska rice or Veg pulao.
Chopping onions and tomatoes finely is very important to get a good taste and texture

Moong Dal with Snake Gourd

I used

½ cup Moong dal

1.5 cups chopped snake gourd

2 green chilies

Salt as per taste

Seasoning   

          1 red chili

          2 tbsp. oil

          1 sprig curry leaves

          ¼ tsp. mustard

          ¼ tsp. Jeera

          ¼ tsp. turmeric

          Pinch of Hing

Method:

1.     Wash the dal,  add 2 cups of water ,salt, snake gourd & green chilies and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

2.    Heat oil and season with red chilie, mustard, jeera ,turmeric and hing.

3.    Mix well and serve with rice or roti.

     

Cheesy Grapes

Ingredients

½ cup grapes (I used Australian Red grape)

1 tbsp. powdered sugar

Cheddar Cheese (Paneer)

          3 cups milk

          4 tbsps. Lemon juice or white vinegar

How I made                     

1.     Soak & Wash the grapes, set aside to dry.

2.    Bring milk to a boil on a low flame, add lemon juice to it.

 3.    Stir well, when it starts curdling, switch off the stove.

 

4.    Let it sit for a min, drain it in a cheese cloth, rinse with running water to remove the smell of the lemon juice.

 

5.    Knot the cloth and hang it for about ½ an hour.

6.    Place a heavy thing on the cheese for 30 mins, to remove excess moisture from cheese

7.    Knead the cheese with hand to make it smooth and soft.

8.    Add the powdered sugar and knead it again. Make balls out of these cheese, flatten them little, tuck the grapes in and form round balls again.

  

9.    Chill the balls for atleast 2 hours

10. After 2 hours, cut the balls exactly in the center. Use a good knife to get a clear cut. 

11.   Either serve it chilled or Bake it for 10 mins at 180 C and serve

This is how they look after they were baked

 Superb!! cheesy grapes.

Tips
* Amount of Lemon juice to use for curdling depends on the kind of lemons too. so if your milk doesn't curdle, immediately add few more tsps of lemon juice. if you are left with no lemon juice, you can use white vinegar. but do it immediately, else you might get a hard cheese.
* do not continue to boil the milk after it curdles. as soon as you see the milk begins to  curdle just switch off the flame.

Pressure Cooked Oatmeal | indian oats recipe

Pressure Cooked Oatmeal | indian oats recipe

                 This Pressure cooked oatmeal recipe is for those who do not like to monitor while the oats cook. It tastes better than the one that is cooked in a open pan.  But remember to pressure cook on a low flame else it might burn the oats.

Ingredients

½ cup rolled oats (I use Harvest, from Australia)

½ cup carrot (cubed)

½ cup potato (cubed)

½ cup green peas

¼ tsp. ground pepper

Salt as per taste

Water 1.5 cups (adjust as per your oats, depends on the brand)

Seasoning

          1 tbsp. ghee/oil

          ¼ tsp. mustard

          ¼ tsp. cumin

          1 sprig curry leaves

Method

1.     Dry roast oats in pressure cooker, add vegetables and toss.

2.    Add salt, pepper, 1.5 cups of water and pressure cook for 1 whistle on a very low flame( else the oats can get burnt)

3.    Heat ghee, season with mustard, jeera and curry leaves.

4.    Add this to the pressure cooker , mix well and serve

   

Saffron Jelly Grapes

Saffron Jelly Grapes

              

                      Saffron Jelly Grapes are an unusal kind of fruit dessert that can mesmerize any one. With a flavour of saffron, they are just non sticky and juicy with fruit filled at the center. Check out my other grapes recipes too
Jelly grapes,
Cheesy grapes,
Baked olivo Grapes.
     

 ingredients
 1 cup grapes

2 tbsp. white sugar

2 tbsp. corn flour

Few strands of pure saffron

180 ml water

1 tsp. olive oil

method

1.     Wash grapes with fruit wash to remove wax and grim, dry them and set aside.

2.    Mix sugar with 90 ml water and warm up to melt it.

3.    Mix corn flour with another  90 ml water, remove  lumps, if any

4.    Mix sugar syrup and corn flour

5.    Crush the saffron, mix it with 2 tbsp. of how water and pour to the mixture.

6.    Boil the mixture and bring it to a ball consistency (when syrup is poured in a small bowl of water, a small ball can be formed when rolled with fingers)

7.    Add the grapes and roll in the boiled mixture, few at a time, remove with a spoon and place on a plate each separately. Continue to roll the next batch of grapes in the mixture. The mixture has to be hot or at least warm, if it is cold, warm it up and continue to roll.

8.    Keep these aside for few mins to cool, do not wait for very long else the mixture will be dried up.

9.    Once it comes to room temp, take each of these grapes and roll them in your greased hands to give a good finishing.

Can be served chilled or at room temperature.

Note: Do not touch the cleaned grapes with greasy hands, else the mixture will not settle or fix on the grapes.

Pressure Cooked Broken wheat upma

                   I find pressure cooking is an easy and faster way to cook foods. But the recipe and the water used needs to be accurate else everything can end up being mushy. Since broken wheat is with the bran, the bran doesn’t get cooked well when we do it in an ordinary utensil. More over the cooking time is longer but still the results are not like the ones that is pressure cooked.
               This is a healthier upma than the one made with semolina.

Pressure Cooked Mixed Lentil Veggie Rice

Difficulty:Easy, Time Taken: 50 mins, Active time: 15 mins, Makes 4 Servs

                                                              

I used

½ cup brown basmati rice (optional)

½ cup white rice

4 tbsp. toor dal

2 tbsp. mung bean

2 tbsp.  mung dal

2 tbsp. channa dal

1 tbsp. urad dal (optional, gives a smooth texture to the rice)

1 cup bottle gourd pieces

½ cup carrots pieces

1 cup spinach chopped

1 medium sized tomato chopped

2 slit green chilies

2 sprigs curry leaves

½ cup spinach stems (1.5 inches long)

¼ tsp. mustard

¼ tsp. Jeera

¼ pepper

1 red chili

Pinch hing

¼  tsp.turmeric

2 tbsp. ghee

How I made

1.     Wash and soak rice together with lentils atleast for 4 hours. 

2.    Pressure cook lentils, rice, veggies together with salt, turmeric with 3 cups of water for 4 whistles.

3.    Let the pressure go off the cooker, temper with hing, mustard, jeera, pepper, red chilli.  Add spinach stems , fry for 2 to 3 minutes and add to the rice and mix well.

Aloo Chana masala in pressure cooker

Aloo Chana masala in pressure cooker

                                   Every day I make a pressure cooked dish for Lunch, since it is very easy, does not need special attention. This recipe goes well with rice, roti or even poori. Channa have a lot of health benefits like  digestive track support since it has high fiber,  better regulation of blood sugar, decreased cardiovascular risks etc. I soak the beans for at least 12 to 15 hours to improve their digestibility, since it leads to flatulence if not soaked well. I keep replacing the soaking water with fresh ones every few hours, though this is not essential. But this prevents the bean from getting an odor and keeps them fresh.

Easy Sweet Potato Green Gram Pongal

Easy Sweet Potato Green Gram Pongal

My elder son (7 years old) hates sweet potatoes from the time he was an infant.  All my trials to make him eat a sweet potato were invain until I invented this recipe, 4 years ago. Though he knows that this dish has a sp, he still loves it. I use palm sugar or jaggery in most of my recipes. So as usual I have used palm sugar here. If you are interested to know more about palm sugar read it here

Ingredients

 ¾ cup green gram (whole moong)

 ¾ cup rice
  1 big sweet potato (cut to bite sized pieces)
  Grated Palm sugar or jaggery
  Pinch of edible camphor, (do not add more, can turn your sweet bitter)
  ¼ tsp. cardamom powder,
  ¼ cup of nuts (I used raisins cashews and pumpkin seeds)
  2 tbsp. Ghee

Method

 1.     Wash and Soak mung beans and rice together for 10 to 12 hours. Cut sweet potato to bite sized pieces. 
2.    Wash and Pressure cook the beans, rice and sweet potato with 3 cups of water for 3 whistles.

3.     Once the pressure is off the cooker, open the lid, mash the pongal and add the grated palm sugar and  mix well and cook it on a low flame till the palm sugar blends  well with rice.

4. Fry the nuts and temper with campor and mix well.

chole biryani | channa biryani

chole biryani | channa biryani

 chole biryani | channa biryani is my all time favorite. There are many versions of making this biryani. I prefer to cook my channa in the biryani spices rather than cooking them seperately and adding to the biryani. I feel cooking them in the spices firstly, gives a lot of flavour and taste to the channa, secondly channa is said to aggravate vata if not cooked in spices. so here comes my version.

Sesame Seed Oatmeal Cookies for Toddlers

Suitable:  18 + Months Toddler

Difficulty: easy, Time taken: 40 mins, Active time: 20 mins, Makes 24 cookies

         

          These cookies have slightly crispy edges and are chewy in the center, which are perfect for infants. My younger son (22 months old) enjoys munching them, trying to finger pick the sesame seeds from the cookies. I make these cookies quiet thick to get the chewy texture, spreading the dough thinner can make crispier cookies.

Ingredients

2/3 cups applesauce

1/3 cup melted butter (applesauce + butter = 1 cup)
1/3 cup palm sugar grated
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1 cup Oatmeal flour
1/4 cup nuts (I used walnuts and raisins)
1/2 spoon baking pow
1/2 spoon baking soda
1/2 tbsp. white sesame seeds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175 C, grease the baking tray and set aside.

2. Blend palm sugar and butter till smooth.

3. Mix wet ingredients, then mix dry ingredients, mix wet and dry together.

4. Make round balls of the dough and place them on the baking tray, spread them with your fingers

5. Bake them for 20 mins if cookies are thick (bake for 10 mins if they are thin)

 

How to Identify Pure Coconut Palm Sugar

                    Palm sugar is one of the healthy sugar substitutes that is available in the market today. Unlike sugar, it is unrefined and unbleached retaining all its nutrients. It has a smoky flavor and a rich aroma.

                  There are many kinds of palm sugar. It was originally made from the sugary sap of the Palmyra palm, the date palm or sugar date palm. Now it is also made from the sap of the sago and coconut palms and is sold with different names. Palm sugar is the term used to refer to both Palmyra palm sugar and coconut palm sugar. Though the term is used interchangeably, both are not the same. One is derived from the sap of the Palmyra palm and other from the sap of the coconut tree. Coconut Palm Sugar is made from the sweet flower blossom nectar of the green coconut tree. The nectar is collected, boiled and given different shapes by pouring the mixture in the hallow bamboo molds or granulated.

                  It has gained a lot of popularity in the global health community as an alternate to the already existing sweeteners in the market, since it has high nutrition and low GI & is suitable for diabetics.

                       The Philippine Food and Nutrition Research Institute released the information about their analysis of nutritive values found in coconut palm sugar. 

                  Coconut palm sugar has a low GI of 35.  It has been proved. 

How to identify pure palm sugar?

1.     pure palm sugar melts or acquires moisture by itself when left open in the air for some time (If left uncovered at room temperature for some time).

2.     It should not be hard, should be able to break the block of a palm sugar just with the pierce of a fork or a knife. This shows that it is not adulterated.

3.    It should be dark brown in color to prove that it is minimally processed. Some brands of coconut palm sugar merely have (brown/white)sugar in the center and their exterior is coated with  palmsugar. Since pure palm sugar is expensive than brown/white sugar, they gimmick to fill the hollow part with cheaper one.This is how they look

Adulterated Palm sugar, center filled with inexpensive white/brown sugar

This is how the Pure Palm sugar looks

Pure Palm sugar

Baked Vegetable Frittata

            If you are bored with the usual Indian breakfasts including a masala omelette or a bread omelette,do try this Baked Vegetable Frittata. Though not a quick recipe, it is worth the time and effort. It truly tastes good. Frittata is a egg based italian dished that is often made along with cheese. But this version has no cheese in it. Can be made as a after school snack for kids

Carom Flavoured Potato Rice for Baby / Toddlers

Suitable: 8 months + baby

Carom Flavoured Potato Rice for Baby / Toddlers

Though potatoes are high in carbohydrates, they belong to the category of complex carbs. They make a very good baby / Toddler food. I started giving carom flavored potato rice to my younger son when he turned 8 months. I just started with a tablespoon of this and slowly increased the quantity. I always serve him this for lunch and I give him no more than twice/thrice a week. As my little one grew up, I changed it to a rough texture and thicker consistency. White potatoes are bad for colicky babies, but adding carom seed pow reduces colic and is a very good digestive aid. It is absolutely safe to give carom seeds pow to babies after 6 months of age. It even keeps babies away from building up phlegm, after all phlegm is undigested food that ferments forming toxins in the body. For me and my family, carom seeds work wonders for indigestion and cold. If you want to know more on how exactly to use carom seeds for babies , kids or adults, read here                                                                         Ingredients 2 tbsp. long grain rice 50 Gms white potato 1/8 carom seed pow (ajwain) 135 ml water (depends on the type of rice  that is used) A pinch of salt (optional) A pinch of Turmeric   Method of cooking 1.      Wash and soak rice for at least half an hour, drain and measure 135 ml water,  add peeled potato and pinch of salt 2.    Pressure cook it for 4 whistles or you can cook even in a slow cooker or heavy bottomed pan till the potatoes turn mushy. If cooking in an open pan need to add more water (approximately another 90 ml) and fully cook till the rice and potatoes turn soft.          3. Add carom seed pow and turmeric.  Mash the rice and potato to a smooth      texture, at the end add butter. you can add more boiled water to it to get the desired consistency

Sago Baby | Toddler Cereal

Suitable:  10 + Months Baby

This is one of the most appealing and tasty breakfast dishes for babies and kids. It is very easily digestible and provides instant energy. According to Ayurveda, sago porridge can neutralize high body temperature.  It has high carbohydrates and low protein, vitamins and minerals. So to enhance the nutrition, I prepare this dish with Almond milk. But it must be consumed with in an hour of preparing else, it becomes very sticky and may not be liked by kids.

                                                                                                        
1.5 tbsp. small sago (sabudana)

4 to 6 Soaked Almonds

45 ml Milk (optional, can use water instead)
 1 pinch Cardamom pow                                

 1 tbsp. palm sugar/ Jaggery powder

 130 ml Water

 Method

1. Wash sago and cook in water till they turn transparent

2. Grind the almonds with milk and cardamom

3. Pour the almond mixture in the cooked sago and cook it further for 3 mins

4. Add jaggery and mix well. Switch off the flame. Serve warm

Homemade baby wheat cereal recipe

            

                       when my younger son turned 10 months, I started giving him this cereal twice in a week for his breakfast. Being 22 months old now, he still enjoys it. The cereal tastes amazing with a creamy texture, since I have used palm sugar which has a rich caramel-like taste that smells just as good as it tastes. Unlike other sweeteners, palm sugar is unrefined and unbleached which allows it to retain all of its original nutrients. It has a low GI and is considered healthier than white and brown sugar.

Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour 3 tbspns(45 ml)

Palm Sugar/ jaggery powder 1 tbspn
Ghee or Butter 1/4 to 1/2 tspn
Water 180 ml (can use cow's milk and water, if your baby is 1 year old), (can add little more water if desired to get a thinner consistency)

Method

1. Mix the flour with water, remove lumps if any

2. Boil the mixture on a low flame, keep stirring continuously else lumps will be formed.

3. When the mixture reaches a thick consistency, add palm sugar and stir, when the palm sugar melts, add ghee/butter.

4. Cook it for a minute and switch off.

 Ready to serve when warm.

Almond Milk for Babies and Kids

Suitable: 10 to 12 months old baby (avoid saffron & cow's milk unless the baby is a year old)    

Almond Milk for Babies and Kids

Almond milk is one of the most nutritious drinks for all age groups. Almonds are energizing and balancing for the mind. Though making Homemade Almond Milk Powder is easy and is a good standby, i still prefer soaking them and boiling the milk. The healthiest way of making almond milk for babies and kids (infact for all of us) is to soak them for 6 to 8 hours and then prepare it and it has numerous health benefits. Soaked almonds are easily digestible and nutrients are better absorbed by the body. Almond skin is said to aggravate pitta in the body and can lead to indigestion, so eliminating the skin would be better. This recipe is an age old traditional ayurvedic secret to build up immunity in kids, improve eye sight, build stronger bones, remove constipation, and provide adequate nutrition for picky/fussy eaters.