Ragi Drumstick Leave Adai

This is a healthy food for whomsoever looking for an iron and calcium rich food.By the way as many of us might know about the health benefits of ragi,which is rich in calcium and so the drumstick leaves too is rich in iron.It's easy to prepare excluding the cleaning process of drumstick leaves.If you are looking a change in your regular food, then ,why don't you try this?I made this adai for our morning breakfast accompanied with a sweet and hot chutney/dip.I have included the procedure of making this quick dip too.

Ingredients

For the Ragi Adai:

Ragi Flour - 1.5 Cup
Drumstick Leaves - A Handful
Big Onion - 1 no
Jeera Seeda - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - few
Salt ,Water  & Oil - As Reqd

For the dip:

Tamarind - A small lemon size ball
Grated Jaggery - As Reqd
Red Chilli Flakes- 1/2 tsp
Gingely Oil - 1 tsp
Water - As Reqd

Procedure

For the dip

• In bowl add lukewarm water and drop the tamarind leave it for sometime and extract the tamarind juice.Transfer the juice to another bowl and add the grated jaggery .Mix well until the jaggery has completely dissolved.Finally add the chilli flakes and gingely oil .Its ready to go with the adai.

• For the Adai
• First clean the drumstick leaves and wash throughout to remove the dirt.In a pan add some oil and splatter the mustard seeds .Add the leaves and saute until cooked.

• Once cooked remove the drumstick leaves from fire and let it cool.In a separate bowl add the ragi flour,chopped onion,jeera,salt and mix once.Then add the cooked drumstick leaves and give a mix.

• Add water little by little to form a dough.Keep a polythene sheet spread some oil on to it.Take a small sized ball from the dough and place it on the greased sheet.

• Gently tap with your palm and fingers and spread the dough to form adai.Meanwhile heat the tawa pour some oil and transfer the prepared adai and cook both sides.Spread some oil to the outer surface of the adai.Serve hot with sweet dip/tomato thokku or coconut chutney.

• Its ready to be served.

Read More..

Dates and Nut Roll

Are you looking for a sugarfree sweet this diwali?.Then this would be the perfect choice.Recently i purchased chef Sanjeev kapoor's book and found this interesting sweet,and started to give my try.This is an easy and interesting sweet to make.The good thing about this is we are not adding sugar ,which the date and fig's will give you a sugary taste.Also loaded with all nuts its a healthy one to make.You could use your choice of nuts like cashews,raisins,and even pumpkin seeds,but ensure that you are adding more dates compare to nuts.Dates is the binding agent here.Lets look into the recipe

Ingredients

Dates - 2 Cup (chopped)
Figs - 1 Cup (chopped)
Almond - 1/2 Cup (chopped)
Walnut - 1/2 Cup (chopped)
Pista - 1/2 Cup (chopped)
Edible Gum - 1.5 Tbsp
Poppy Seeds - 3 Tbsp
Ghee - 2 Tbsp

Method

• In a pan add a tsp of ghee and fry the edible gum.Fry them until they are puffed,as shown in the picture and keep aside to powder them in a mixer .to a fine powder and keep aside.

 

• Chop the dates,figs and the other nuts.Now in a mixer powder the edible gum and keep separately. 

• In the same mixer coarsely grind the dates and figs separately(If you have food processor chop dates and figs using them) and keep aside. In the same kadai which was used to fry the gum add the remaining ghee and heat.

• Add the chopped nuts,then the dates and figs .Add the powdered gum and mix them under heat for a minute

• Transfer the mixture to a wide plate and allow to cool.Knead the mixture with your hands and form a ball.And gently make the ball to a roll of 2.5" width.Place a foil below the roll to cover.

• Wrap the roll covering the sides.Once wrapped, with the help of both hands mildly roll the date roll in a table and make them even allover.Place them in refrigerator and wait for an hour.After an hour take the roll out of your refrigerator ,keep a knife ,poppy seeds and a box ready.

• Remove and unwrap the foil carefully bring out the roll.With the help of a knife cut the roll of 1/2" thickness each.(After cutting the date roll i shaped them again to a perfect round shape)Dip the roll in the poppy seeds and cover allover the edge's and place them in a box.

Its ready to serve.

Read More..

Sweet Aloo Mixture

I have tasted this sweet aloo mixture in Adyar Ananda Bhavan ,and tried to recreate this mixture which came out to be a success in my first attempt.Its simple to make provided you have a readymade aloo mash to lighten the process.I had a huge stock of aloo mash at my home and gave it a try using them.It was good and less messy when compared to the fresh preparation,where it needs potatoes to be boiled and finely mashed.If you find the aloo mash in stores you could give a try using my method.I found this mixture to be heavy and filling one,as it contains aloo starch and nuts.But for a special occasion it gives a rich appeal.

Ingredients

Aloo Mash (Readymade) - 1 Cup
Rice Flour - 1/2 Cup
Sugar(powdered) - 1/4 Cup (Can increase/decrease according to your taste bud)
Nuts and raisins- less than 1/4 Cup (I used badam,cashew and raisins)
Water - as needed
Salt - a pinch
Ghee- 1 tsp
Oil - for frying

Method:

• In a vessel add the aloo mash and add some water,leave it for a minute and work on the aloo mash to form a dough.Then add rice flour,salt and make a soft dough out of it,sprinkle water if needed while forming the dough.Do not add water all at once. Meanwhile heat oil in a frying pan.Using the dough press take a small amount of dough and fry them.

• Fry the aloo sev in a medium flame.Turn the sides and fry them.Once done remove it from the oil and place them in a tissue paper to drain out the excess oil.Repeat this for the remaining dough.

• In a mixer grind the sugar to a fine powder and keep aside.In a kadai add oil or ghee roast the cashews.

• In the same kadai roast the badam and raisins and keep it along with cashews.In a separate vessel add the fried aloo sev ,roasted nuts mix well.

• Add the powdered sugar and mix well.

• Transfer to an airtight container.

Read More..

Thinai Vennai Murukku / Foxtail Millet Butter Murukku

Are you looking for something healthy and a traditional recipe ? If yes,then you are on the right track.Yes today my post is going to be a simple twist in the regular murukku.In the regular murukku flour we add rice flour,here iam going to replace the rice flour with homemade thinai/foxtail millet flour.Eventhough there is not going to be a much variation in taste compared to the regular rice flour one's,but you will get a satisfaction of consuming something even more healthier ,since foxtail millet is said to be a good source of protein,minerals an iron.Also it has a good quantity of betacarotene compared to rice and wheat.So why not give a try with a healthy millet?

This murukku came out so crispier and tastier.The flour is yellowish by nature so by default this murukku came out in golden color.

Ingredients

Thinai Flour - 1 Cup  (Click Here for Homemade flour version )
Urad dal - 3 Tbsp
Jeera Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Butter - 1Tbsp (softened)
Salt - as needed
Water - as needed
Oil - for frying

Method

• In a vessel add the thinai and urad flour,salt ,hing ,softened butter and jeera seeds.Mix well with your fingers so that the butter is incorporated well with the flour.

• Add water little by little to make a dough.The dough should be soft and loose.Meanwhile heat oil in a frying pan.Take out a small portion of the dough and fill it in the murukku press.

• For convenience you can make murukku's on back of a ladle .If you can manage the heat you can simply shape out the murukku's directly in frying oil.Flip the sides of the murukkus to get fried in the other side too.Take out once fried or golden in color.Keep the flame in medium only.Do not keep it either in low or high flame.

• Store the murukku's in airtight container once it's cooled down.Its shelf life time is upto 3 weeks.

Read More..

Thattai / Nipattu

Diwali around the corner,after this pooja functions the process of making sweets and savories would gear up everywhere.There are lot of savories that capture the diwali season and one among them is thattai or nippatu.Nippatu is the name called around karnataka and also even around dharmapuri region,which belongs to Tamilnadu.But apart these places it's called as thattai within Tamilnadu.Thattai ,a  mild spicy savory is made with gram dal,rice and roasted dal.There are lots of varieties in making this.This is the one of the most tasty and honestly perfect savory.Its one of my favorite.During each diwali season my mother had never missed to make this wonderful savory.Its a little bit time consuming effort,by the result will be absolutely delicious.

This is my basic version which we usually make at home.For variations you could add broken peanuts also for even more crispness and also til seeds also.Make this healthy homemade snack at home and enjoy your festival.Am giving a small portion amount which yields about 12 to 18 thattai.You could double the quantity as per your need.

Ingredients

Yields - 12 to 18

Idli Rice - 1 Cup (Soaked for 2 hour)
Roatsed gram dal (powdered finely) - 3/4Cup (it may require more or less depending upon water in the batter)
Channa dal- 1 Tbsp (Soaked in water for 1 hour)
Red Chilly - 2 no's
Curry Leaves - few
Coconut slices - 1 Tbsp
Hing / Asafoetedia - 1/4 tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - for frying

Method

• Soak the idli rice and channa dal in water for 2 hours and 1 hour respectively.After 2hours drain the rice from water and grind them along with red chillies and salt.Add little water and grind.Do not add water all at once.And keep aside the ground batter.

• Transfer the rice batter to a bowl.Add the soaked and drained channa dal.Add the sliced coconut bits,hing and curry leaves.Mix well And the add half the portion of gram dal powder and see that you get a soft dough.If needed you could even more dal powder.

• The dough consistency should be neither too hard nor to loose.Keep the dough ready.Take a polythene sheet.Keep some oil nearby.Apply oil to the polythene sheet.

• Heat oil in a pan aside.Take a small pinch from the dough ,make it a ball and keep it on the polythene sheet ,apply your fingers with little oil and make small disc shaped thattai out of it.Dip your fingers with oil and mildly tap it around to get the shape.You can 4 to 5 such small thattai in a single sheet.And once the oil is hot enough.(To check the oil temperature put a small dough it should pop up immediately after adding it to the oil) gently flip the thattai one by one and fry them.

• Turn the other side of the thattai once the one side is well cooked.Keep the flame in medium high.Once done transfer the thattai to a bowl and store them in an airtight container when its cooled down.

Notes

• You could use mixer or grinder for making the rice batter.Grinder would be a better option.

• In the middle of grinding process,check to the spiciness of the chilli in the batter.If you need more spicy add 1 or 2 chillies to the grinding batter.Salt is added for this purpose to find the correct spiciness.Without salt you could not judge the correct amount of spiciness.

• To make the roasted dal powder take the required amount of dal and grind in mixer.The dal should be finely done.Then sift the dal and keep aside.

• Once the dough is ready check to the salt and spiciness.These both should be little more extra in final dough,because the frying process will minimize the salt and spice.

• This stays good for more than 2 weeks.

Read More..