Bhakshanam

Bringing home the new member of family who is so small, fragile and highly delicate is quite adventurous and confusing to the first time parents.  But six long months of fostering will boost a great deal of confidence in you as well as the child and one day you stand up in the corner gazing at the little one crawling and the whole scenario is changed.  After six months all babies are ready to feel and try the world.

With my little one all set to chew between his gums, his grandmother who is equally excited, decided start weaning with her best home food.  The one which her mother and and grand mother always trusted, which provided the best nutrition on which 6 month old can thrive on.  Millet cereal, which is one of the best home made food fed to babies after six months along with introduction of rice, vegetables, fruits and Milk.

In recent years, this heavenly food was replaced with easy making baby cereal that can be bought from store which became popular among urban moms and nuclear families, where making Millet cereal was a tedious process. Packed baby food also gave good number of options with regard to taste and texture.

Now that, mom and her advices are there for me at every step, while I am bringing up my second little one, its like a greatest treasure one can have. Of course, my first one happily grew up with tin foods and relishing wide range of cereal foods available in the market when she was six months old. I never tried any home made food as i was always under the misconception that only a grandmother can do this job.

To my surprise, the procedure of making baby food at home is not all that tedious.  Whether help is there or not in bringing up your little ones, always try variations in food and stick to something what they are comfortable whether it is homemade or out from the shop.  It is a biggest boon for a mother to be with her baby all the time and make best use of it.

Ingreidients (For 8-10 months olds)

Finger Millet powder -  2 tbsp

Water – 1/2 cup

Ghee  -  a dollop

sugar/jaggery – 1/2 tsp

Vegetable Puree- 2 Beans and 1/2 carrot -  boiled and pureed

Salt  – a pinch

Pepper  – a pinch

Method:

Make vegetable puree after boiling vegetable.  Heat water in a small aluminum vessel.  Add the puree to the boiling water. Add up ghee, salt, jaggery and pepper.  Bring it to boil. Mix Finger Millet powder with little water, pour it to boiling water simultaneously stirring.  Lower the flame. Keep stirring till porridge settles to required consistency.

Cool the porridge while stirring and keeping the vessel in cold water.  Feed the baby when it is warm. You can also keep it warm by keeping the serving bowl in warm water.

The older Finger Millet recipe helps young adults to fulfill the nutritional requirement especially urbanized adults who survive on all those food which does not have any nutritional value.  Finger Millet is a pack of carbohydrate and good amount of protein.  Its much more healthier than rice in terms of fat and protein.  Because it is worth to be used in our daily diet, the babies also can get benefited from these grains by making Millet Cereal.

You will need:

Millet – 250gms  (preferably reddish brown)

Procedure:

Step 1:  Soak Millet  in water for 24 hours.

Step 2 :  Drain the water, take out excess water with a cloth and tie the  millet in a cotton muslin cloth. Keep aside in a warm and closed place.  Allow it to sprout for a day.

Step 3 : Take out excess moisture by drying the sprouted seeds in shade and covering the millet with a thin muslin cloth for a day.

Step 4 :  Lightly fry the seeds in a dry wok just for about a minute or two.

Step 5:  Coarsely powder the seeds.

Step 6:  Sieve the powder through a dry muslin cloth so that it gives fine white powder without husk.

Step 7:  Store the fine powder in air tight container.

Step 8:  Use it when required.

Note:  If Millet does not sprout, still the same procedure can be used to make the powder.  Sprouting makes the food more nutritious.

This powder can be used to make porridges for the elder ones and batter it to make Dosas.

Ragi – FingerMillet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_millet

Ragi Muddey – Ragi flour cooked and shaped into balls

Bassaru – ‘Basida Saaru’- Filtered liquid curry

Chikkudu kayi – Chapparada avarey kayi- Indian Broad beans

Oggaraney – Seasoning

Ragi Muddey:

It has been a big break from the blogging.  But always kept updated about blog world, popped in my favorite blogs once in a way though never had time to comment on, cooked few dishes learnt from bloggers.  Some still keeping in touch, loads of thanks to them.

Coming back to namma Bengaluru(my Bangalore) much later after a forced  good stay at abroad, the memories are slowly unwinding, i would rather say my nostril are opening up with olden aromas, which is hard to believe that once Bangalore used to be the place where i could sense these smells.

I am not sure in this so called Bangalore metro anybody can feel these aromas any more, but sure to feel  it in country side if it has still not lost its innocent ambience. That was how my father taught me the ‘culture’ of picking  the aroma of hot Ragi balls that is being cooked outside a hut, as a food for poorer lot  especially while driving or riding back home late evenings.

It used to be kind of very tempting hot smell of wood fire, aluminum vessel and ragi flour getting cooked. Once the smell is sensed, you are assured of a family close by, though there are no lights to be seen anywhere around.  My father just survived on those Ragi balls for those many years and little rice.  Its amazing to know that in many parts of Karnataka, its still a staple food in most of the households,and people with same interest and respect  make those muddey.—————————————————————————————————————————-

For those of you, who are really adventurous foodies and would like to taste a bit of every part of India can try this making at home with little Ragi flour available in most of the super markets. Those of you who really liked the taste can go through the elaborate process of storing large amount of Ragi flour and add  up in everyday diet, as Ragi is rich source of calcium.

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Then goes the following procedure of making muddey.

Try for one person, that is to try with yourself

Ragi flour – 100 gm

Water -  200 ml

salt – little or not required

Ghee- 1/4 tsp

Very simple procedure, but needs a li’l bit of practice.

Boil the water in a aluminum vessel along with salt and ghee and little powder.  Simmer it and add up Ragi flour, little by little simultaneously whisking the ingredient, with a wooden spoon or a small but thick stick, so that there should not be any lumps formed and slowly it gets thicker.

Close the lid and keep on low flame for about 2 min’s. Cook to desired consistency.  Put off the burner.  Take two big spoonful of  paste , place it on a wooden top and roll on it to make balls with wet hands when it is warm.  Eat with Ghee if you are not calorie conscious.  Ruchi also has a variation in ragi mudde preparation, check it out!!

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Bassaru:

This is typical village charu or saaru or watery curry which is cooked with one or more vegetables and lentil or whole moong with different kind of greens.  There is distinct combination when using vegetables for this curry.  What adds up to the curry is the combined flavor of vegetables and masala that goes together. This is a typical curry that goes very well with Ragi muddey.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - Yellow Lentil  -  150gm

Cabbage  – 100 gms chooped

Chikkudu Kayi - broad beans – 100 gms chopped

The quantity of each ingredient varies according to the taste as some can prefer vegetables more or some may prefer lentil more.  But this  can give approximately 4 servings of dry fry.

For masala:

Coconut – 2 Tbsp

Tamarind – half lemon size

coriander leaves – half fist full

onion – one small chopped into two parts

huli pudi – sambar powder (home made or Shakthi Sambar powder) – 1Tbsp

Jeera – 1/4 tsp

curry leaves – two strings

Cooked toordal cabbage chikkudu – 2 tbsp

Pallya oggaraney - dry fry seasoning

Oil – 1Tbsp

Mustard – 1/2 tsp

Red chillis – 2 long one broken into halves

Curry leaves – one string

To start with:

Boil lentil with water in a vessel till Lentil get little more than half cooked.  Add Cabbage and Chikkudu and cover cook till the vegetables get cooked.  Drain the whole ingredient, so that the Lentil and vegetables are separated by thin kattu or liquid of dal water.  Keep aside both.

For Dry fry,

Now the dal and vegetables should be allowed to cool completely, make sure that dal is not over cooked.  Add pallya oggaraney.  Dry mix the vegetables for a minute or two along with salt and oggaraney.

For curry,

Fry one part of onion, cumin seeds and curry leaves in oil till transparent.  Add coconut, tarmarind,  hulipudi, coriander leaves and second part of raw onion. Blend all the ingredients to a fine paste. Add, 2 Tbs cooked toordal cabbage chikkudu mixture.  Grind again to fine paste.  Mix the paste with drained lentil water or kattu. Bring to boil.  Add salt.  Oggaraney with mustard and curry leaves.