Ragi Buttermilk

Another healthy and traditional drink from Odisha. A few days back I had posted the recipe for Ragi Sharbat (sweet) on my blog which elicted quite a few surprises. Most people were not aware that Ragi can be consumed in the raw form. Here is the savory version of the drink which can be best as 'Ragi Buttermilk'.
There is yet another version in which Ragi flour is dissolved in 'Torani', the water that is discarded after cooking rice. But I will leave it for some other time.

Read on for the recipe-

Preparation Time - 5 mins

Ingredients -

• 1 tall glass buttermilk
• 2 tsp Ragi flour
• 1 tsp chopped coriander leaves
• 1/3 tsp chopped green chilli
• 1/3 inch ginger (finely grated)
• salt to taste

Preparation - Throw in all the ingredients in a blender. Buzz for a few seconds.

Pour into a tall glass with a few ice cubes thrown in.

Serve immediately.


Note - If you do not have buttermilk available, make your own. Take 3-4 tsp yogurt with a glass of water in a blender and buzz for 1 minutes. Throw in some ice so that the fat separates out and floats to the top.

Homemade Multigrain atta

While a whole lot of high-fibre products are flooding the markets, targeting those who want to lose weight or those suffering from diabetes, natural or homemade still remains the best. I have chosen to write about the so called fortified flours that re being marketed aggressively as rotis are an integral part of the Indian diet. For those who have checked the labels on the packets of multigrain atta easily available these days, the proportion of other grains remain quite low as compared to wheat.

Hence I decided to make my own version (tailor-made for my needs) at home. Used high fibre stuff like soya and oats. Calcium rich ragi is also added to fortify it further while flax seeds add a good dose of Omega-3 and minerals to it. One can also add more soya flour to further lower the GI value of this flour.

Ingredients -

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat atta
• 1/4 cup ragi
• 1/4 cup soya ( used 99 % fat free soya granules )
• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 tbsp flax seeds

Preparation - Take the ragi, soya, oata and flax seeds in a grinder jar. Buzz for a few minutes to get an almost fine powder. (Or take it to the neighbouring chakki if you prefer a very fine powder)

Take all the flours in a decent sized container. Close and lid and give it a good shake so that they get mixed. Store and use as required.

One can use this flour for making rotis/parantha/puri/dosa and even halwa!!

A super healthy lunch made with my special multi-grain Atta

Khoya Paratha

If there is one food hotspot of India that gets featured over and over on television, its the -'Paranthe wali gali' in Delhi. Ofcourse the 'Khao Gali' in Mumbai comes close. Or maybe its a tie between the two for the Numero Uno position. I guess it just depends on how many times an individual has caught it on television. But coming back to the 'Paranthe Wali gali', the last time I caught it on TV inspired me to try out atleast a dozen of the varities described. Some really sounded exotic like this 'Khoya parantha'.

Preparation Time - 12-15 mins

Ingredients -

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat atta
• 2/3 cup unsweetened khoya
• 1/4 cup chopped raisins and cashews
• 2-3 tsp sugar
• salt to taste
• milk for kneading the dough (optional)
• 3-4 tsp oil or ghee for frying the Paranthas

Preparation - Take the dough on a kneading plate/ wide vessel. Sprinkle salt and mix in.

Add milk little by little and make a smooth and soft dough. Apply little oil or cling film over the dough and keep aside.

Cooking - Heat a frying pan. Add 1/2 tsp oil/ghee. Add the raisins and cashews and fry for 10-15 seconds.

Next add the crumbled khoya and fry till it turns light brown in color. Sprinkle sugar and cook on low flame till sugar melts in. Switch off flame and keep aside.

Pinch small balls out of the dough and roll into small circles. Place a little of the khoya mixture over one circle and apply little water around its circumference. Put another circle over it and press lightly to close the ends.

Heat a flat tawa and place the parantha over it. Drizzle ghee/oil and cook on medium flame till little brown spots appear. Flip over to the other side and add some more ghee/oil. Cook till brown spots appear and then remove from tawa.

Repeat for the remaining paranthas.

Serve as it is or with some sweet / savoury side dish. ( This is usually accompanied by 'kele ki chutney' in Paranthe Wali Gali. Will post the recipe soon. )

Note - Any leftover khoya mixture can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for upto a month (as per my experience). No need to warm it before using. It reverts to its original texture as it gets cooked with the paranthas.

Fish Cutlet

Yeah..it seems to be raining cutlets in my kitchen and everyone is loving it!! Thank God for it!! Finally those long missed out posts on cutlets are making their way into my blog. Simple and easy to do without much oil or spices, they make for a tasty snack or even a side dish. So when I had some leftover fried fish sitting in my fridge, I did not think twice before making it into cutlets. (Actually we had bought over 2 Kgs of Rohu fish last weekend and had made fish fry, besara and masala jholo with it. So the cutlets actually added some variety.)

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 20 mins

Ingredients -

• 4 large pieces/slices of fried Rohu fish
• 1 cup boiled potato cubes
• 1 large sized onion ( finely chopped)
• 1/2 tsp grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp grated/crushed garlic
• 1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp garam masala
• a pinch of turmeric
• 4-5 tsp oil
• salt to taste

For the outer layer

• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of chili powder
• 1 cup breadcrumbs

Preparation - Remove any bones from the fish pieces and lightly crumble with your fingers.

Mash the potatoes. Break any lumps but do not make it too smooth.

Lightly beat the egg with some salt and chilli powder.



Cooking - Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok. Add the onions and fry till translucent.

Add the ginger and garlic and fry for 2-3 mins. Now add the fish and fry for another 2 minutes. Then add the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle all the powders except garam masala. Mix and fry for 4-5 minutes on medium flame. (add a few spoons of water if it is getting too dry

Sprinkle garam masala.. Mix and switch off flame.

Allow to cool down to a tolerable temperature. Then pinch small balls out of the mix and fashion into round or fish shaped cutlets.

Dip into the egg and gently roll over the bread crumbs to make a uniform coating. Make similar cutlets out of the remaining mix.

Heat a non-stick tawa/frying pan. Drizzle with a little oil or use a oil spray.

Place the cutlets over it and cook on both sides for a few minutes till little brown spots appear. Remove from the tawa/frying pan.

Serve immediately with some onion rings and lemon juice.

Mandiya Sharbat (Ragi/Finger Millet drink)

Summers in the Western parts of Odisha are a scorching affair. Temperatures that hover around 50 degrees Celsius and hot searing winds make life miserable. Apart from having Pakhala, a watery rice dish that is known to have cooling properties, people prefer all sorts of chilled/cooling drinks . Little wonder that the sale/intake of soft drinks shoot up sharply. ( If you tend to disagree, try and remember when was the last time you were served a traditional drink at someone's house.)

But there are a whole lot of natural drinks that were very popular in Odisha till a few years back. Bela-panna, Lembu pani (lime juice), dahi sharbat (kind of lassi) , gholaa dahi (buttermilk) and mandiya sharbat (ragi drink)were the drinks of choice.

Ragi or Mandiya is known for its cooling properties on the boy and is regularly consumed as Ragi malt/porridge(palua in Odiya) down South. While it is usually consumed in the cooked form, people in Odisha make a simple cooling drink with Ragi powder and a little sugar/jaggery/mishri. Some fresh curd and very little cardamom may also be added to improve the flavor. The drink is usually consumed in the morning on an empty stomach but one can have it at any time of the time.

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 5-6 mins

Ingredients -

3 tbsp Ragi powder (Mandiya Chuna)
2 tsp powdered jaggery
1/2 cup fresh yogurt
180 ml water
a pinch of cardamom (optional)
2-3 ice cubes (optional)


Preparation - Take the ragi powder, jaggery, water and cardamom powder in a blender jar. Buzz for 1-2 minutes till jaggery gets dissolved.

Strain the liquid to remove any undissolved solids. ( One can also drink it without straining. )

Pour into a tall glass and stir in the fresh yogurt.

Add ice cubes and serve immediately.

( The drink tends to separate into layers if allowed to stand. Nothing to panic about. Just stir again and drink it. )

Notes - There is also a savory version of this drink. Will publish it soon.

Pasta in Mango Sauce

I have come across a lot of people who are totally clueless when it comes to preparing pasta. They believe that pasta needs to be smothered in a whole lot of cheese and sauce. And they somehow end up choosing recipes that are unnecessarily complicated and lengthy.

But the reason I love pasta is its simplicity. For me it is something akin to roti. Quickly rustle up a subzi or get some yogurt and you are good to go. A simple marinara sauce or some mayonnaise-yogurt combo with pasta does it for me.  Hence I am forever on the lookout for such super simple recipes. This time I had some ripe mangoes and red peppers sitting in the fridge and I decided to incorporate them in my pasta. Added some raw mango for that extra zing and I loved the end results. A beautiful dish which was quite something on the tongue. Eureka...I had discovered another summery pasta recipe.

[Did you know ?? - White spaghetti made from Durum wheat  and boiled for 12 minutes has a GI of 34 which ranks it among the low GI foods. But when it is boiled for more time, for example 20 mins , the GI value increases to 58.]

Read on for the recipe:

Preparation Time - 15-18 mins

Ingredients -

1 cup farfalle pasta
1 cup peeled and diced ripe mangoes
1/3 cup thinly sliced red bell peppers
1 tbsp grated raw mangoes ( u can also use paste instead)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
3-4 finely chopped garlic flakes
2 pinch oregano
1 1/2 tsp Fortune Rice Bran oil
salt to taste


Cooking - Bring 7-8 cups of water to boil in a saucepan. Add enough salt so that the water so that it tastes too salty. Once it gets to a rolling boil, add the pasta. (Depending on the brand it takes 12-15 mins to become al-dente. Do give a stir 2-3 times in between.)

Once the pasta has cooked for 7-8 minutes, heat a wok. Add the oil. Once oil has warmed, add the garlic and allow it to turn a light brown.

Add the chilli flakes and wait for 10-15 seconds before adding the raw mango. Stir for 1-2 minutes and then add the ripe mango cubes/chunks. Cook for a 4-5 minutes till they become mushy.Sprinkle the oregano.

By this time, the pasta would be done. Strain the pasta while retaining a few tablespoons of the water used to cook it.

Add the pasta to the wok along with the red peppers. Give it a shake of two and cook for 1 minute. Add a little of the pasta water if its getting too dry. Remove from the wok.

(The flavor of the ripe mango is reduced while being cooked. Mix in more ripe mango while serving.)

Garnish with a few mango slices and serve immediately. (But it tastes good even when cold)

Note - Using the pasta water in the sauce has a dual purpose. It adds saltiness and the starch content in it acts as a binding agent which ensures that the sauce binds well with the pasta.

Saunth/Soonth Chaas ( Dry Ginger Buttermilk )

Quite unexpectedly, I ran out of ginger yesterday. Had become addicted to adding it to my buttermilk. So, I thought of experimenting with its closest substitute, dry ginger. It is quite difficult to powder this ingredient. I dry roasted a bit of it on a tawa and then transferred it to the masala grinding jar of my mixie. When it did not get powdered completely, I just passed the coarse powder through a sieve and used the fine portion for adding to the buttermilk. The taste was different from the usual ginger flavored buttermilk but it was quite nice and I ended up with a new variant.

Read on for the recipe-

Preparation Time - 10 mins

Ingredients -

• 1/2 glass yogurt
• 1 1/2 glass water
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger powder
• salt to taste

Preparation - Take all the ingredients in a blender. Buzz for a minute.

(Add some ice cubes to the blender jar. This will not only chill the drink but all the fat will also float to the top and can be easily removed.)

Pour into glasses and serve.

Pudina Paratha (Mint leaves Indian bread )

Parathas are wholesome, filling and can be made with a variety of stuffings. With the kids at home these days, it is time to treat them to such a leisurely breakfast. This is another variety of paratha that I made yesterday. Also made a cooling aam-panna to go with it.

Read on -

Preparation Time - 10-15 mins

Ingredients -

• Whole wheat flour ( 1 1/2 cups)
• onion ( 1 small, chopped )
• mint leaves ( 3 tbs, finely chopped )
• cumin seeds ( 2 tsp )
• ajwain(carom) seeds ( 1 tsp )
• dry chilli  ( 1 no )
• crushed green chili (optional)
• salt to taste
• oil/ghee for frying paratha ( 2 tsp )
• buttermilk/yogurt for kneading the dough

Preparation - Dry roast the cumin, carom seeds and red chili till the seeds start to pop. Grind into a fine powder.

Take the flour in a plate. Add the chopped onion, mint leaves, green chilli, 1/3 tsp of the roasted masala powder and salt. Mix well. Add buttermilk/yogurt little by little to get a stiff dough. Cover with moist cloth and keep aside for 15 mins.

Make 4-5 balls out of the dough. Roll out the balls into parathas/circles.

Cooking- Heat a non-stick tawa. Put one paratha, add little ghee/oil and cook for 1-2 minutes. Flip and add some more oil/ghee. Cook till done.

Repeat for the other parathas as well.

Note -Serve hot with some cooling aam panna / lassi or shikanji. ( Kneading with buttermilk/yogurt ensures soft parathas even when cooked/fried with very less oil. )

Paper Boat Drinks (Review)

The schools have closed for the summers and most kids are now grounded at home. The heat and the hours spent playing is definitely taking a toll on them and one can see them demanding stuff like cola and other chillers. After all that is the stuff being played out on TV all day.

But the question is do we want our kids to grow up without sampling a bit of our foodie heritage. What about all those natural stuff that we grew up on. Those drinks that form an indelible part of our childhood memories and were much cherished by generations. While loving grandmothers and mothers had all the time in those laid back days to make it with their own hands, Paper Boats brings that very same goodness packaged in a quite innovative manner in eco-friendly pouches.

I must say it was an ad in the TOI that drew me to these drinks. I quickly bought and sampled four of the flavors and have repurchased them a few times too. Got it online from Bigbasket.com. You can order them Here . And BTW i paid a visit to their website which is quite fun. I especially loved the bit where they show how to make a paper boat. Yep, you can find it on the landing page itself. So sweet.

Loved the packaging!!!

Aamraas turned out to be my favorite followed closely by the 'Jamun Kala Khatta' (Maybe you can blame this on the fact that I am a huge fan of mangoes and that might have colored my judgement. But the sweet thick nectar-like stuff does make me go crazy.)

The flavours is in order of my preference.

Aamraas

Jamun Kala Khatta

Kokum

Jaljeera

I liked the 'Jaljeera' flavor the least. It was maybe too sweet for my liking.


Ratings -

The drinks score a 4.5 for their packaging, quantity and overall appearance.
They are true to the natural taste and free of any preservatives. Hence taste takes a 4.5.
Priced at Rs 30 each, they are easy on pocket too. (But if you compare to drinks like Maaza and others, they are slightly expensive which might influence some customers.) Hence I would give it a 4.5.


Overall, I rate it a 4.5/5. And yes, I have re-purchased Aamraas and Kala Khatta. Also looking forward to trying out the new flavours 'Imlee ka Amlana', 'Golgappe ka Pani' and 'Aam Panna'. 

Beetroot Raita (Detox Mondays)

Though beetroot is one of the healthiest vegetables known to us, some people avoid it owning to the rather strong and distinct flavor it has. Same is the case with my in-laws who otherwise have quite healthy eating habits. While it can be a bit overwhelming in the raw form, adding to the curries and stir fries tends to tone it down and make it more palatable. However, if you still want to have it raw despite being unable to stand it (believe me there are quite a bit of people who fall in that group), you can add it to raita, lassi or even smoothies. Curd seems to enhance the natural flavor of beetroot and I am quite in love with this combination.
( A small tip though. Try using grated beetroot instead of pureeing it as it gives a better taste. )

Read on for the recipe -

Preparation Time - 5 mins

Ingredients -


1 medium sized beetroot
1 cup fresh yogurt
1 green chilli (crushed)
salt to taste
fresh coriander for garnishing

To roast and make a powder -

1 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
2 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1 dry red chilli

Preparation - Wash and peel the beetroot. Grate it and keep aside.

Beat the yogurt lightly.

Cooking - Heat a pan. Add the seeds and broken red chilli. Allow seeds to start popping before removing from flame. Once cooled, make a fine powder using a spice blender or even a regular mixie.

Take the beetroot, yogurt , green chilli and 1/2 tsp of the above powder in a mixing bowl. Add salt to taste and adjust the water. Mix thoroughly.

Serve immediately or chill it for 20 mins in the fridge.

Garnish with coriander and serve with rice, rotis or paratha.

Lagan ka Murgh ( Hyderabadi Chicken Curry )

Have been watching a lot of Khana khazana and you tube these days. While there are so many impressive recipes that I do want to try out, I have been rather partial to recipes that offer a higher ROI in terms of taste. For some reason(s), I dread spending more time in the kitchen these days.

This is one such recipe that I caught on youtube. The mind-blowing taste belies the minimal effort that goes into its making. It was a chef from Marriot (Hyderabad) who was detailing the recipe. He just threw in all the ingredients in a lagan, gave it a mix and put it on the stove. It can hardly get simpler than this. By the way, the lagan a wide and deep vessel with a thickened bottom used in Indian cooking (more like Mughlai cuisine me thinks). But the only problem was that he was measuring everything in grams. Since I do not have a weighing scale (kitchen purpose ones are easily available these days), I have converted everything into spoons and cups.

Read on for the 'asan sa' recipe -

Preparation Time- 35 mins (Includes a lot of standby time)

Ingredients -


500 gm chicken on the bones
1 tbsp poppy seeds
3 tbsp broken cashew
1 tbsp chiroli (charmagaj)
2 tbsp grated dry coconut (copra)
1 tsp red chilli powder ( I only had the Kashmir variety in stock which gave the dish a reddish hue )
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
2-3 clarified butter or desi ghee
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 cups tomato puree (freshly made)
1 1/2 cups fried onions ( I used two medium sized onions, sliced thinly and deep fried )
1/2 cup finely chopped mint leaves
1 cup finely chopped coriander leaves
3-4 crushed green chillis
1/2 cup yogurt (and just a little more)
salt to taste


Preparation - Dry roast the poppy seeds, cashews, chiroli and dry coconut. The coconut should start turning brown. Remove and allow to cool down. Grind into a smooth paste with as little water as possible.

Take a lagan or a deep and thick bottomed vessel. Put in all the ingredients except for chicken
(take care to crush the fried onions before adding to the vessel ).Add 1/2 cup water and mix together.

Wash and marinate the chicken with salt and a pinch of turmeric.

Cooking - Put the vessel on medium flame. Allow the contents to come to a boil. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

Add the chicken pieces, mix thoroughly and cover the vessel with a heavy lid. Cook covered on a medium low flame for 15 mins (give a stir once in a while).

Check if the chicken is done. Else cook for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from the vessel once done.

Garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Note - I did not use coconut as I did not have any in stock but the curry still tasted heavenly. However, if you are partial to the flavor of coconut, do add it. One can also add some thick coconut milk instead.