Bhakshanam

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.

The other day I saw a flyer pinned up  on our apartment notice board.  A helpful handy option for working, non-working but lazy, non-working but busy moms.  A place where they can take order for lunch boxes of school children.  And menu was what exactly “new kids”  loves to gobble everyday.  Sandwiches, burgers and finger chips.  The charge was quite reasonable and affordable.

Long ago, my mom who is not so busy or lazy, had invented a better and healthy menu for quick lunch boxes.  Though it was not very popular but worked well once in a week. It was curd rice and the best liked pickle. The “new kids”, are very selective and fussy with their taste, are not ready to even give a  try to this food.  The reason being “burger kids” just have too many options to list out for their lunch boxes.  We parents, also do not want to see the unfinished boxes.

Okay, still there goes some taste buds that nibbles anything for the pickle.  The list goes on with pickle as main dish for them, and sides go with chapathi, curd rice, dosas, rotis, only rice and ghee.  As for me, pickle and curd rice, the taste rediscovered, when we made mango pickle.  That might trigger the taste buds of our “Burger kids”.

And here is how we cut heaps of raw mangoes at home and pickled to perfection.

You need:

Raw Mangoes – 1 Kilo, squarely chopped

Pickle powder – 100 gm (Easter pickle powder)

Oil – 4tbsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Green chilies – 1/2 cup, chopped

Ginger – 2″  finely chopped

Curry leaves – a handful

Fenugreek – 1 Tbsp, roasted and powdered

Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp, powder

Salt to taste

How to pickle:

• Cut the raw mangoes into small pieces along with the skin. Mix with salt and keep it aside for half hour.
• Toss raw mangoes with the pickle powder to a semi liquid consistency. Do not add water.
• Heat the oil, crackle the mustard seeds, add up green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Lightly saute it.
• Roast fenugreek till brown and finely powder and add to the above ingredients. Sprinkle Asafoetida.
• Mix all the above ingredients along with mangoes and stir well for 30 seconds.
• Allow it to settle.
• Once settled and cooled, fill it in a glass jar or Bharani.
• Heat up little oil and pour it over the stored  pickle so that it should not get exposed to the air.
• Close it air tight. You can use a cling film along with tight lid.
• Ready to use it after 3-4 days.

Note :

Do not cook the mangoes. But mix it with hands.

Refrigerate the pickle if you are not using it for months since there is no preservative is added.

Preparing curd rice:  There is a method to make curd rice taste like curd rice.  Add up simple tadka with mustard seeds, curry leaves, urad dal, ginger and green chilies to the cooked rice.  Mix the rice with a table spoon of curd, salt and fill up as much milk as you want. Keep the rice closed.  You can use the curd rice after 4 -5 hours.

Tava – round griddle

Kadai – round bottommed deep vessel – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karahi

Long back  Ashwini, LG(if LG is checking the blogs, we miss you!!)  and Nabeela tagged me for a meme, and one of my all time favourite as I mentioned in the meme was Masala akki rotti.  This is one of the signature dish of karanataka. When we were young, moms made this dish an extra elaborate affair, considering the  present version, as this dish is even sold as hot stuffs  in selected restaurants in Bengaluru.  One such eat out is Ganesh darshan in Jayanagar 3rd block, (Can check rest of the eat out joints here in Vikram Chadga’s blog)makes this dish which is liked by all categories of people.  They make it neat and tidy too.  It used be Sunday breakfast dish as the preparation used to take time, and till the rottis reached our plate, stories would unfold on the table while savoring the dish.  One such was, my father when he was a school kid, would pack akki rotti smeared with butter and chutney powder and hide it in his trouser pocket to munch during  class hours.  And one of the day, cat smelled the rat and his teacher caught him eating and grabbed it from my father, but could not resist himself taking a bite!!

Of course,  my mother is a wonderful cook, always made these hot rottis and one of the hit tiffin food among us.  Any recipe why is it liked so much if it is made out of mom’s hand?  its simple. It is loads of love and lots of experience.

Take a look at the recipe

Raw Rice powder   -    1/4kg (fine powder)

Onion   -   3 small (finely chopped)

Cumin – 1/2 tsp

Green chilies  2-3 chopped

Coriander leaves -  one handful

Coconut – 2tbsp(grated)

Hot Water -  as much

To make:

Add hot water to the raw rice powder and keep aside with out mixing.  Chop oninons and grate all the vegetables.  Add onions, chillies,  cumin, coconut, coriander and salt to the rice powder and water.  Mix thoroughly with hand.  The consistency should be little soften than chapathi dough.  It sticks to hands.  Before patting on the tava or kadai make sure you make your hands wet with water or smeared some oil so that you avoid sticking back to your hands. Divide the dough into 4- 5 balls(in this recipe).

There are two ways of preparation one using Tava and another using Kadai.

For Tava:

This is the best and tasty preparation as we use plantain leaf.  Take half of the plantain leaf.  Smear it with oil.  Oil or wet your hands. Take a ball of rotti dough and pat it evenly and softly starting from the centre and patting out wards achieving required thickness.  Once done, slowly place the plantain leaf with rotti side on the Tava and dislodge the leaf with a flat spoon. Rotti should remain on Tava.  Fry both sides till golden brown. Even a thick plastic sheet can be used replacing plantain leaf, but have to be careful not to burn the same on the Tava.

For Kadai:

This is very old way of preparing and so is the name “tappaley rotti”(kadai rotti).  Pour a tsp of oil in a round bottommed vessel preferably alluminium. Oil or wet your hands. Take a ball of rotti dough place it on the oil in the centre of kadai.  Start patting from the centre, so that that the centre remain little thicker and proceed outwards little thinner.

This is to apply heat evenly from the centre to the sides and not to burn.  Make sure to put a small groove in the middle at the centre and pour some oil in it, so that the rotti does not get burnt. Keep it closed for few minutes.  Make sure to check in between.  Wait for the smoke to come and you can reverse the rotti to fry on the other side too.

Variations :

1. Couple of tbsp of cooked rice can be added to acheive extra softness. It should be nicly mashed and added at the time of mixing the dough.

2. Vegetables -(capsicum carrot cabbage) – 1 cup grated can be added along with the dough to make it more tastier and healthier.

3. Rice powder can be made at home by washing the raw rice and drying it in shade.  Mill it to fine powder.

Cashew fruit

Its hot in Kerala, and it was a shortest possible vacation at Kannur, with our second little one.  The humidity was choking unable to breath deep.  Little one’s visit to his great grandparents to take their blessings was amazing moment.

But this summer, there was something more to do. It is a business long forgotten after childhood, a cashew nut project.  Kashuvandi as it is called locally is is a major cash crop in Kerala.  Kashumanga is the fruit, for insensitive tongue.  The fruit has distinct odour and rough taste.  Locally they make wine out of it.

As for the nut, its inside the cashew seed attached to the fruit and you literally have to dig in few layers of seed to meet the nut. Its ‘hard to crack the nut’.  There is small time process locally made to get freshly roasted edible nuts which ofcourse requires enough patience.  But the best of all is if you are single handed in this project, like pluck the fruit burn the cashew seed and take the nut out and eat it too, there you are, you know how to survive and enjoy as well !!!

The process goes like this,  first of all you have to go battling all the ants that are climbing the cashew tree, and pluck few of those fruit. And take out the see part of it. These seeds and dried up in the sun for few days.  Once the color changes from fresh green to raw brown, it is put in adupp or firewood stove, where you have hot coal.  Once the cashew seed gain its black burnt texture, it is removed and kept for cooling.  Then each of the shell is broken from the top to take care not to damage the nut inside.  Then come a layer of thin skin attached to nut has to be peeled out carefully.  Now the nut is ready for eating.

If you are lucky enough, probably staying away from family, this is picked and packed and sent to you. Certainly to make a few hundred grams of cashew you need to have enormous patience.

Sadya – festive food

Eenthapazham – Date fruit – Khajoor

Achar – pickle

What is the fond memory of beetroot that is common to every woman during their childhood?   -  a dash of Magenta on the lips when mommas used to chop beetroot for some dish.  I see these days, two year olds also licking on mom’s lipstick.  Personally, i never liked the taste of beetroot, but, I always liked cutting, with all that bright purple color smearing the hand.

Till i attended my sister in law’s wedding at our house in kannur, all i knew with beetroot is some dry fry – palya and some soup though never tried. In wedding lunch,  I could barely make out this licking sensation sitting in the corner of plantain leaf, with all those 12 – 14 variety of dishes that usually covers up the leaf leaving behind no gaps in between them, except the combined taste that goes as tradition in any wedding sadya in kerala. To a meager eater the set up on the leaf looks belly full even before starting the meal.  But this achar once t(a)ested has to be hint of every bite you take from that leaf till you complete the sadya.

The preparation of pickles happens almost a week before the sadya and stored to get ‘that’ taste that goes along with every bite. Of course any taste changes if prepared in large quantity.  Here goes the smaller version of Eenthapazham- beetroot achar.

What do you need

Date fruit – 250 gms de-seeded and chopped lengthwise

Beetroot – 1 cup grated long (~ 200 gms)

Ginger – 1tbsp grated

Garlic – one small bulb – slit into halves

Green chilies – 4 long ones – 1tsp – chopped

Curry leaves – 1 big string

Vinegar – 150 ml

Pickle masala powder – 3 tbsp ( I prefer Eastern pickle powder)

Salt – adjust to the taste

Sugar – 2tsp

Method:

Mix all the Ingredients mentioned above nicely, preferably with the help of a masher, so that all the ingredients blend with each other.  The main part of preparation is adjusting the taste.  The tanginess or the saltiness  can be varied by the addition of salt and vinegar depending on the taste that is liked.

This can be stored for a month. Color of the pickle changes as it gets older but the taste almost remains the same.  Make sure to store it in a clean and dry bottle.

while chopping Date fruit, smear the knife with little bit of oil so that it does not get sticky.