Balanced Breakfast-Ragi Idiappam and Ishtu...

Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day for me..so important that I have no patience in cooking elaborate breakfasts on an empty stomach. But weekends are special and breakfast is a lazy affair over lots of chatter and cups of tea. So I fortify myself on cereal and get cooking. But by the time I get the food ready, it inevitably becomes brunch.
This is my entry to the Weekend Breakfast Blogging hosted by Manasi this month. So how to have a balanced breakfast? Mansi wants whole grains, fruits/vegetables and protein in the breakfast. Whole wheat square cereal topped with nuts and dried fruits and milk would be an ideal entry but wouldn't fly by the rest of the household.:) So this is one of the preferred alternatives to the standard bread and egg combination.



Why "Ragi" or finger millet idiappam? They call it idiappam, we call it nool puttu( puttu in string form).Well, ragi is a great source of plant protein as well as calcium, fiber and minerals. In India, finger millet or ragi is mostly grown and consumed in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. According to wiki, ground Ragi flour is made into ragi munda, dosa and roti. Ragi grain is malted and flour from the malted grain is consumed after mixing with Milk/Boiled water/Yoghurt.

It used to be considered the poor man's food and was not common in my house while growing up, but in this new era of "healthy living", "high Fiber", "whole grain" food, it is making a come back in different forms. I had written about ragi puttu earlier and now here is idiappam which is also delicious if u like the whole grain taste.

I just follow Anita's excellent recipe as it is for making idiappam. This time though I replaced more than half of the rice flour with ragi flour to make the idiappam healthier. You could make it with full ragi flour but it might be too coarse then. Use ragi flour as available in Indian stores.
I don't like supporting any brands as the powders you get in the Indian stores here vary in freshness based on the traffic through the store. Some batches of entire rice/flour etc will be stale tasting and some will be good. Of the lot, I found Eastern ragi and rice four to be of relatively good quality. Still do check the date!! And don't blame me if you don't like the taste.
You will need:
Fine Rice Flour - 1 cup
Fine ragi flour- 1 cup
Water - approx 2 cups or less
Salt - 1/2 teas spoon
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Thick Coconut milk - 1 tsp (Optional)
Preparation:
Heat water with the salt in a pan till boiling point. Pour the hot boiling water to the ragi-rice flour and stir thoroughly to avoid lumps. Keep the flour closed for 3-5 minutes to cool it down and mix with a spoon to a smooth even consistency. Lightly grease the idiappam mold and fill it to three quarters full.
I used to make this in the Idli mold so that each of them comes out nice and pretty but when you are in a hurry, its just as tasty to make it into big plate sized idiappams which you can cut before serving. Another short cut I use is the pasta cooker's steamer basket. For ease of removing the idiappam, I line it with a fresh paper towel and place a layer of coconut on it. Then the idiappam is squeezed out on to it and steamed.
Either way, grease the slotted tray or idli mold, whichever you are using and squeeze out the noodles onto the tray in a circular motion. I use the sev/mixture plate in the murukku mold. If the noodles are breaking up as they come out, it means there is too much water in the dough. Garnish with lots of coconut and cover and steam for 5-7 minutes. After it cools, serve with ishtu. Or it tastes yummier with fresh coconut milk and sugar.

Ishtu/ Potato stew with coconut milk
By now, the blogging world must have made everyone aware that "Ishtu" is a corruption of the word "Stew", and takes many forms with or without meat/fish in it.
This is the simplest form of it, almost as a base for all the other versions.
You Will need:
2 potatoes diced
1 onion sliced
4-5 green chilies
1 piece of cinnamon stick
2 cloves and 2 cardamom
Some curry leaves
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper, coarse
salt to taste
1 cup of coconut milk.
Preparation:
Heat 1-2 teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add the whole spices and onions and then the green chilies. Sauté only for 3 to 5 minutes till the onions gets transparent. Add the potatoes, 1 cup of water and salt. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes on medium heat or till the potatoes get cooked. When they are cooked, mash some of the potatoes lightly. Add the coconut milk and pepper. Garnish with curry leaves and keep covered for a minute or so.

Independance Day and Puri-Bhaji

Happy 60th Independence Day to everyone!
As Saffron Trail pointed out, Hindustan Times has a nice article on K2K Food Court for foodies. Check out the 60 K2K (Kashmir to Kanyakumari) food classics that celebrate the way we are. Additionally, there is an amazing list of 60 desserts for the Independence Day!

Also, in blogosphere, Anita of the A Mad Tea Party fame has nominated or rather declared Poori or Puri Bhaji as the National Favorite with every region having its own version of it. I support this having eaten puri bhaji in myriad forms, from Delhi to Trivandrum. While my version (my family recipe) is a southern style one flavored with mustard seeds and curry leaves, I have relished the dry potato subji and puri in my Punjabi friend's house, loved the puri chole- halwa version at Kanchak and enjoyed the watery potato curry with oily puris and pickle, served in a plate made of dried leaves (Truly organic food) at different train stations. The puris varied from whole wheat ones to pure refined flour ones to those with a mix of both.

I truly appreciated Puris only after I left home for college. During my stay in the hostel, the puris were fried early in the morning and stacked in a giant bamboo basket. So if we were late for breakfast, we used to get the ones left in the dredges of the basket....flat thick puris which resembled super oily papads. Of course, we chewed it quietly while imagining it to be the fluffy soft ones made at home. Hostel food teaches you forbearance, doesn't it?

Now it is a weekend breakfast or a lazy weeknight dinner when you need some rich comfort food. I had blogged about this earlier, but when Anita asked us to blog about it, this week itself, decided to republish it. So here is my version of the classic and I am off to join Anita's party.

You'll need: For about 10-12 puris
Whole wheat flour- 1 1/2 cups
Water- ¾ cup more or less.
Oil -1 tbsp
Salt-to taste
Oil for Frying-1-2 cups

Preparation:
1. Add salt and oil to the flour and make it crumbly. Add water a bit at a time to make dough. Knead well for about 5 minutes till everything comes together.The dough should be smooth but medium hard in texture. Knead it well to make a smooth roll. Cover with a plastic wrap and keep aside for 15 minutes. Divide into even sized balls...about the size of a very small lemon.

Roll it out to a small circle and fry it. Do not roll out more than 2-3 at a time as it hardens if it is not fried immediately. Heat oil in a wok/kadai/cheenachatti/ and when it is hot, slide one puri in from the side. Press down with the slotted spoon to allow it rise completely and then turn over and cook the other side till golden flecks appear on both sides. Remove and drain onto paper towels.

P.S: Do not roll it out too thin. Test the temperature by dropping a speck of dough in the oil and seeing how fast it comes up. The heat should be medium hot consistently.

Potato Bhaji
Potatoes-2 big ones diced into small pieces.
Onion-1 cup chopped coarsely
Green Chilies-6-7 chopped.
Ginger- 1 inch piece, chopped finely
Turmeric-1/2 tsp
Salt-3/4 tsp or to taste
Curry leaves- 1 sprig.
Mustard Seeds- ½ tsp
Oil-2 tbsp
Preparation:
Heat the oil in a heavy pan. After a minute, lower the heat and add the mustard seeds and cover till it finishes spluttering. Keep a safe distance if uncovered. Now add the curry leaves, and onions, green chilies and ginger.

Stir fry for a minute and then add the potato cubes, turmeric and salt. Add 1 cup water (enough to submerge the potatoes), and let it come to a boil. Now cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Open and add more water if the potatoes are not cooked. When the potatoes are cooked, mash them with a potato masher or the back of a spoon. Check seasoning.
Serve hot with the puris.
Food BLog,Breakfast, Poori Bhaji,Fried Bread, Mashed Potatoes, Kerala Recipes, Malabar Recipes Kerala Recipes, Malabar Recipes,

A Bowl Of Oatmeal....

While I enjoy coconut rich food which dominates when parents visit, the day still has to start with something filling but with minimum effort. If there is Godumbu Varagiyathu, an oatmeal like concoction that is made with skinned whole wheat and coconut milk ready to eat, that is perfect. Else its oatmeal with dry fruits and milk. Godumbu varagiyathu will be blogged later but for today lets settle for oatmeal. Just prepare it as per instructions with milk, top with chopped walnuts or almonds, dried cranberries, raisins, dates and flax seeds. Drizzle with honey and you are set.

Flavored Cream Cheese

What's not to like about Cream Cheese on toasted bagels or bread?
My workplace has a tradition of one of us bringing in bagels and cream cheese for breakfast for everyone. We get it from a nearby bakery where the bread and bagels are made fresh on its premises daily. As you walk in, the aroma of freshly baked bread wafts all around you tantalisingly luring you to buy some even if you just went in for a cup of coffee.
They have a display counter (similar to ice cream tubs under a glass case)with endless varieties of cream cheese to choose from. Some very interesting flavors such as strawberry, scallion, maple pecan, olive and some very peculiar (unless you are inclined towards that)such as smoked salmon, anchovies. So each time, we linger over the choices finally settling for one trusted and one adventurous flavor.
After trying out some of those on a regular basis, it just didn't feel right to settle for plain cream cheese at home and that's how the blending started at home.
So here are four different flavors that I like but this is just the tip of the iceberg. So if you have your favorite recipe for a flavored cheese that you have blended, write in and I will add that here.
Preparation: All of them start the same way. Leave a tub of cream cheese outside the refrigerator for about 10-15 minutes to help mixing in. All the ingredients have to be chopped into even and extremely tiny pieces so that the cheese coats it evenly. These blended cheeses will stay fresh for a 3-4 days(except the ones with onions) but I prefer it fresh so I don't keep it for so long. How much you make is based on how much gets used up at a sitting. The proportions are just indicative and feel free to change as per taste.

1. Spicy Jalapeno-Olive:
For the days when you need to kickstart your day..
Cream Cheese: 3 tbsp
Pickled Jalapeno Slices( or fresh green chilies)-3-4
Green Olives-3-4
Finely chop the olives and chilies and use a fork to mix it with the cheese. Add a couple of drops of lemon juice if it looks too thick. The pickled chilies have their liquid so you may not need any more.

2. Walnut-Raisin:
Hmm.. my favorite when I have a sweet tooth..
Cream Cheese-3 tbsp
Walnuts- 1 1/2 tbsp
Raisins/Cranberries/Dried Cherries- 1 1/2 tbsp
Maple Syrup/Honey- 1 tsp
Chop everything finely and blend. The Honey helps in making it a spreadable mix.
This stays well in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

3. Vegetable Spread:
A healthy serving of veggies in the morning..
Cream Cheese-3 tbsp
Carrots finely diced-1 tsp
Cucumbers- 2 tsp finely chopped without the seeds.
Chopped Onions- 1 tsp or substitute with scallions(spring onions)
Chopped Cilantro/Parsley- 1/2 tsp
Green Chilies(optional)- 1
Lemon Juice- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste.
Mix everything together. Take care to scoop out the seeds of the cucumber before dicing as it adds too much water.

4. Sundried Tomatoes:
This is for a true Italian food lover. The flavor of the sundried tomatoes is very strong in this so try it if you like that pungency.
Cream Cheese-3 tbsp
SunDried Tomatoes- 2 tbsp
Dried Basil- 1tsp
Red Chili Flakes(optional)- A pinch
Salt
Blend the sundried tomatoes to a paste in a chopper. Add the rest of the ingredients and adjust taste. Use vinegar if it is too bland to add moisture and sourness.

5.Herbed Cheese:
Sorry, no photos on this one.
Cream Cheese-3 tbsp
Chopped Cilantro or Fresh Parsley- 2 tbsp
Chopped Mint-1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice- 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper-1/4 tsp
Salt to taste.
Blend the ingredients by hand and adjust taste.

Related Links: Some time back, Akshayapatra had blogged about flavored butters here.

And while you are all thinking of summer vacations and planning trips to India, I just wanted to bring to your attention a wonderful resort, Over the Hill, in Kerala designed and managed by my friend and her husband. It is located in Poovar, 30 kms from Trivandrum airport in Southern Kerala. Do check it out.

16 Bean Adai!

I go through a lot of blogs and try out the recipes whenever I am bored with the routine food. Some of these recipes are familiar but not cooked, some are total strangers and these I never know if I got it exactly right. The only clue I have are the other photos and I keep checking to see if the end product looks similar. Most of the time, cooking from other blogs is a leisurely activity compared to the intensity involved in cooking one of the home recipes correctly, chronicling it and photographing it. So I hardly have any photos of other's recipes that I have tried.

Indonsungod's and Saffron Hut's adai is an exception as it had a high curiosity factor for me, being already fond of regular adai. It was a weekend morning and the sun was pouring through my windows when I made these for a late breakfast. So after the family ate, I ran to get some photos.

My mother's recipe calls for 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of assorted skinned lentils such as Massor, Chana, Tuvar,Moong and Urad. So I tried it first with the variety of skinned and unskinned lentils as in Indosungod and it came out delicious without losing any bit of its crunchy texture.

Then emboldened, I made it with 16 beans as did Saffron Hut. So does 16 beans make it a protein powerhouse? Yep! The 16 beans which she ingeniously used in the adai is originally a soup mix but anybody can make these adai with any assortment of beans or lentils. The color of the adai was greenish due to the presence of the beans with skins. The texture and taste is similar but a little rougher. The only issue was how to get rid of the natural bloating due to the beans. I did some of the tricks explained by Nandita here and would further welcome any suggestions that you all have to combat the indigestion.
Do refer to the saffron hut and indosungod's sites for their version of the recipe.

You will need:
16 bean soup mix or any assortment of lentils-1 cup
Urad dal-1/2 cup
White Rice-1 1/2 cup
Green chili-6-8 chopped
Ginger-1 inch
Curry leaves
Shallots-4-5 chopped finely
Cilantro-4 tbsp
Hing or Asafoetida-1/2 tsp
salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Soak the beans, rice and urad dal separately for 6 hrs or overnight.
2. Drain, wash the beans twice and grind them with the ginger, cilantro and green chilies to a semi fine paste with enough water..not too coarse. Add water as needed.
3. When it is ready, add salt, asafoetida , shallots and chopped curry leaves and mix. If you want to reduce the spice, the green chilies can chopped and added instead of grinding it.
4. Pour it and cook it as you would dosa or uttappam. Take care to cook both sides and add drops of oil as needed. Serve this with a spicy tomato chutney or coconut chutney .

Other 16 Bean Recipes:
Linda's 16 bean soup
Asha's 16 bean masala

Puttu/ Steamed Rice Cakes

Puttu is rice soaked and powdered coarsely and then layered with coconut into a bamboo or any other kind of tube and steamed to form long tubes of a soft crumbly texture.The coconut layers impart flavor as well as help in breaking up the tubes into serving sizes. So what is the fascination with puttu that we have? Is it the fresh flavor of steamed rice and coconut in a hollow bamboo or is it its versatility that it can be eaten as a staple instead of rice with any combination of curries?

While growing up, I disliked it immensely (yes, even though I am a Keralite!) and its only marrying a puttu fanatic that I started appreciating it.
It is a staple at my grandmothers and aunts' houses for breakfast. The kids eat it with milk and sugar, with plantains boiled with coconut(my favorite), fried plantains, or with the any of the plethora of tropical tiny bananas such as the Mysore Pazham, Poovan Pazham, Njavali Poovan etc. I remember one of my cousins eating it with milk tea! Then there is also meat puttu (Erachi puttu) and Fish Puttu (Meen Puttu) which is not as common but has meat or fish layered inbetween the rice powder instead of coconut.

The spicier accomapaniments to puttu are fish or Mutton curry, Beef fry, Kadala curry, Cherupayar curry, Vegetable Stew or Egg curry. As kids, we used to call the puttu-kadala breakfast as reinforced concrete with its coarse-soft texture as it would sit solidly in the stomach till late noon.

In Calicut, I couldn't understand how anybody could eat fish curry and puttu for breakfast! But it is in fact a way to use up the previous day's fish curry and start cooking anew with the day's fresh caught fish. The taste of fresh puttu squished into the claypot(chatti)with the remnants of the previous day's fish curry and the flavor of the claypot has us all fighting for it over dinner though. My mother mixes the previous day's Yellow Fish curry (with coconut)and the Red Fish Masala (Moliyar without coconut) to make a unique tasting curry. Some crushed papadams and it is perfect.

There are lots of Puttu recipes already in the blogging world and I thought I should my own recipe also to it. I am not going into the details of the vessel and flour as that has already been covered here and here.

A few pointers that might help..
1. The rice flour should be wet enough to hold together when you try making a fist with it and dry enough to break apart at a simple knock with the thumb. It shouldn't be clumpy or too powdery. Keep breaking it with the hand as you mix. The amount of water varies with the kind of rice flour used. So keep adding in small quantities.
2. The rice flour from the grocery stores use up more water and after leaving it wet for 15 minutes, you may need to sprinkle a bit more water.
3. Grated raw Tapioca or Cassava (1/4 cup or so per cup of rice flour) added to the rice powder while mixing makes the puttu moister as the tapioca cooks inside the puttu.
4. The puttu is cooked when the steam comes out at the top steadily.
5. While reheating the puttu use a steamer to make it soft again.


This is a ragi puttu that is made alongside the white rice puttu.

Ragi or Finger Millet is rich in B vitamins, especially niacin, B6, and folacin and offers calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. It is only grain that retains its alkaline nature when cooked, millet is ideal for those who are allergic to wheat and gluten. Depending on the variety, millet's protein content is very close to that of wheat, with a half-cup serving, cooked, providing 4.2 grams. One-half cup raw millet contains 11 grams of protein. Millet's use is diverse, including in cereals (including porridge), soups, breads and stuffings, fermented beverages, and baby food.

Ragi is full of fiber and vitamins and hence healthier for you. The taste is rougher and more chewy but if you get used to it,it is a healthier version of the traditional one. It is made in the same way as the regular puttu using preroasted ragi flour.

Plantain Pancakes.

I am on my plantain craze. I keep buying them when I see them, nostalgically thinking of all the wonderful Kerala dishes I can conjure up but then they are not ripe enough or get too ripe by the time I find time to cook. Visions of a whole bunch of bananas with the bottom half ripening, hanging in the shops in Calicut dances before my eyes as I pick them from an assorted bunch of ripe and unripe ones here.
I buy them when they are yellow with a little green streaks outside and firm to the touch and let it ripen on my sunny window side. They are ripe for cooking when the ends turn black and dried up. As they get blacker on the outside they are still good for eating but cook too fast and breakdown.

This is for one of those mornings when the kids are having their pancakes and you crave something a little different. It doesn't taste like fritters (Pazham Pori) but it doesn't taste like pancakes anymore. The rice flour and the black sesame seeds gives it a Kerala taste. This same mix can be used for dipping and deep frying the plantains but it soaks up a lot of oil unlike the original fritter's recipe. It tastes very crunchy though. Yum!! So spreading some oil on top and bottom lets it crisp up and cooks the banana too. Use bananas that are ripe but not too ripe.
Use store bought pancake mix (yes, I know it has preservatives but still it is easier to use that on a weekday rushed morning) or make the pancake batter from scratch using this recipe. For those who don't like messing with their Plantain Fritters (Pazham Pori)try the original Plantain Fritter recipe.
You will need: For about 6 pancakes
Fully ripe plantains-1
Pancake Mix-1 cup
Rice flour- 1 tbsp
Sugar -1tbsp
Black sesame seeds- 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil /Butter
Preparation:
Peel and cut the banana into diagonal slices of about half inch thickness.
Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add water slowly while whisking to make a smooth thick paste. It should be lump free and not too watery. If it does become watery, add a little more flour.
Heat the pancake griddle and spread a bit of oil or butter. Lower the heat to a medium and pour the mix as you would for pancakes and place one or two slices of the plantain on it, taking care to let the banana slices sink into the batter. Cover the banana slice with a thin layer of batter.
Cover the pancake with a lid for half a minute. When the first side is cooked, bubbles would cover the pancake surface and begin to pop. Spread a tsp of oil or butter on this side and flip the pancake over and after it gets cooked, remove onto plate. Serve with the syrup of choice or eat it plain.
This definitely doesn't taste good after some time so serve it hot.


Stuffed Pancakes, Pancakes, Food Blog, Plantain, Breakfast