It is quite easy to get me to like a dish. Just add coconut milk! I couldn’t stop eating this the first time I tasted it. And now it is the same story every time I make it.
This is another of those super healthy AND super tasty dishes. One may wonder where the taste even comes from, because there are barely any spices here. But make it once, and you’re hooked!
Traditionally, ginger is not added, but it is an addition I love.
Time taken: 25 min (Overnight soaking required)
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 cup lobhiya / van payaru or black eyed peas
1 cup cubed elavan/ ash gourd/ white pumpkin
2 green chilies
1 cup coconut milk
2 tsp ginger (optional)
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 tbsp coconut oil
Salt to taste
Method
Soak the lobhiya in enough water overnight, at least 8-9 hours.
Pressure cook the lobhiya for 8 min, or open cook until done.
Cook the pumpkin with a little water, salt, green chilies and ginger.
When done, add the lobhiya and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and simmer until it reaches the desired consistency. Check for salt.
Heat the coconut oil, add the curry leaves and pour it over the dish. Serve with rice.
Did you know that ragi has about 8 times the calcium that rice and wheat contain? Half a cup of ragi flour will take care of a third of your daily calcium needs and half of your daily vitamin B1 (thiamine) needs. How cool is that!
It is also a wonderful food option for diabetics, as it contains no gluten. It also has 3 times the fibre content that rice and wheat have, making it a wonderful digestion aid.
Making ragi puttu is one of the best ways to cook ragi, as it primarily involves steaming, which preserves much higher nutrition compared to other methods of cooking.
Serves 2
Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
2 cups ragi flour
1 cup freshly grated coconut
½ cup water
Salt
Special Equipment:
The puttu vessel is traditionally used to prepare puttu
Substitutions: A coconut shell with one eye pierced and placed over the valve of a pressure cooker might be used as a substitute.
A steamer could also be used.
Method:
Mix boiling water into ragi flour in small quantities. The water is mixed in by rubbing it into the flour, so that the flour becomes granular, resembling the texture of bread crumbs. It should not be too dry or too wet.
Mix 5 tbsp of grated coconut and salt into the flour..
Place a layer of 2-3 tbsp of coconut at the bottom of the puttu vessel and then put the rice flour mixture, followed by another layer of coconut.
Steam for 10 minutes.
Remove the puttu from the vessel and serve hot with kadala or payar curry, plaintains or just sugar and ghee.
6 big green bell peppers (capsicum) de-seeded and cut into cubes
1 onion, cut into large pieces and separate the layers
¾ cup drumstick flowers, stem removed and washed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups water
2 tbsp oil
½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
1 bay leaf (tej patta)
2 pods cardamom (elaichi) salt to taste
For the masala:
2 tsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
6-7 cashew nuts
2 tbsp peanuts
2 tbsp grated coconut
1 onion, chopped
1 green chili, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
½ tsp turmeric powder
⅓ tsp red chili powder
1½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala powder
Method:
Dry roast the pea nuts for about 8 minutes, add cashew nuts, poppy seeds and sesame seeds till they lightly brown, add grated coconut and stir for another 3 minutes. Remove and put on a plate to cool
Add 1 tbsp oil to the same pan, fry the finely cut onion and green chilli. When the onion browns, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a few seconds.
Add the tomato pieces, stir and cook till it is cooked. Add all the masala powders (ingredients # 10 to 13), and cook till it starts leaving the sides.
Remove from the flame and let it cool completely
Grind the dry roasted ingredients and the onion tomato mixture with a little water to a smooth paste
Heat the pan again with 1 tbsp oil, add jeera, bay leaf and cardamoms.
When the cumins splutter, add the cubed capsicums, potato and drumstick flowers and fry till the capsicum pieces soften.
Add salt and 1 cup water. Cover and cook on low flame for about 8 minutes, till the potato pieces are almost done.
Now add the ground masala, stir well and add the remaining 1 cup water slowly, to adjust the consistency.
Simmer for about five minutes and remove from the flame.
It is a great accompaniment for chapatis, and goes well with steamed rice too.
There are two kinds of cooks. Those who plan ahead, and those who open the refrigerator when they are hungry and wonder what they should make. I belong to the second category. I have, believe it or not, had to train myself to plan ahead, because as a result of my nature, I ended up never getting to make things like idly, or anything that needed planning.
Anyway, this dish came about as a result of exactly that lack of planning. I was visiting my sister, it was a lazy afternoon and suddenly we realized that we didn’t have a plan. It turned out that there was some soaked kala chana. And rice. I was too lazy to make kadala curry AND rice. So I just threw everything into one pot. We liked the result so much that I had to note the recipe down and email it to everyone 😀
Serves 2
Time: 30 min
Ingredients:
1 cup kala chana
1 cup rice
1 cup chopped vegetables – baby corn, potato, carrot
½ cup chopped onion
1 tsp chopped green chili
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 tsp chopped garlic
½ tsp haldi/ turmeric powder
¼ tsp chili powder
½ tsp dhania/ coriander powder
2 sprigs curry leaves
½ tsp mustard seeds
¼ cup fresh coconut, grated
2 tbsp coriander leaves
1 tbsp coconut oil or ghee
Method:
Soak overnight, and pressure cook kala chana in 2-3 cups water for 10 min.
Drain and reserve the water.
In a pressure cooker, heat oil or ghee, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, chopped ginger and garlic, and green chili. Add onion.
Add the vegetables and chana and cook for a couple of min, then add the rice. Add 2 cups water (can use the water in which the chana was cooking), salt, haldi, chili and coriander powder. Pressure cook for 5 min.
When done, add grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves. Yummy pulao is ready!!
If you ever meet a mallu away from home, just mention puttu kadala and you will be friends immediately. I am yet to meet a mallu who doesn’t sigh dreamily at it’s mention. Or for that matter, anyone who’s eaten it. This is something special. Beware though, for it is also deceptively filling!
What’s more, the kadala is one of the healthiest vegetarian forms of protien to have. Pairing these two along with coconut makes it a nearly perfect breakfast.
Ingredients:
2 cups coarse rice flour or chemba puttu podi (red rice flour)
1 cup freshly grated coconut
½ cup water
Salt
Special Equipment:
The puttu vessel is traditionally used to prepare puttu
Substitutions: A coconut shell with one eye pierced and placed over the valve of a pressure cooker might be used as a substitute.
A steamer could also be used.
Method:
Mix half of the grated coconut and salt into the rice flour.
Mix water into it in small quantities. The water is mixed in by rubbing it into the flour, so that the flour becomes granular. It should not be too dry or too wet.
Place a layer of 2-3 tbsp of coconut at the bottom of the puttu vessel and then put the rice flour mixture, followed by another layer of coconut.
Steam for 5 minutes.
Remove the puttu from the vessel and serve hot with kadala or payar curry, plaintains or just sugar and ghee.
Almost every time I am at a darshini, this is what I order. I really think I can eat idly everyday and still love it. Hold on, I do eat idly nearly everyday and still love it!
It was hard initially for me to get the idly batter to rise, so I’d simply stick to the store-bought batter. Not a satisfying thing for someone like me. Then I found it, just through trial and error.
One thing I do very differently is that I use a lot more dal than other people. Why not, I wonder, because that makes the idly infinitely healthier and doesn’t seem to affect the texture any. I make a LOT of variations of idly, this is just the basic recipe.
Before I begin, I must also mention to the uninitiated, that the same, normal white idly is made in a variety of ways. Kerala idly is waayyyy different from Karnataka idly. This is the idly Kerala style, also similar to what you would find in Saravana Bhavan.
Ingredients:
1 cup parboiled rice
1 cup black gram/ uraddal (traditionally, this would be ½ cup)
¼ cup beaten rice/ poha or cooked rice (optional)
¼ tsp fenugreek/ methi seeds
water, oil, salt as needed
Soak the rice and poha together, in sufficient water.
Soak the dal along with methi seeds.
Let these soak for atleast 4 hours. I’ve let them sit for up to 15 hours and it seems to do just fine. About 8 hours of soaking is ideal.
Drain the rice, as well as the dal. Reserve the water. Grind both of them separately, using the reserved water to bring it to a smooth, thick batter consistency.
Mix both the batters together. Place this batter in a vessel that can hold twice the amount, because it will rise.
Cover with a cloth or a lid and let it ferment for about 8-10 hours.
This process works great in summers, but if the room temperature is under 25°C, the results can be a bit disappointing. To counter this, you could place the vessel with the batter inside a casserole, warmed up pressure cooker or pre-heated (40°C) oven.
Mix the batter, add salt.
Prepare the steamer. If you are using a pressure cooker, remember to remove the vent, pour about an inch of water inside, and bring to a boil.
Oil the idly moulds, pour the batter into them and steam for 10 min. For best results, let the idlies rest for another 5 minutes before you take them out of the moulds.
Serve hot with chutney and sambar.
Makes 12-14 idlies.
Note: The batter can be refrigerated upto 3 days.
Tips: I know we all love to wash the rice and dal to remove any chemical residues, but this also washes off the precious bacteria that help in the rising process. I’ve seen better results when I don’t wash the rice and dal. Use organic ingredients to skimp on the chemicals.
Special Equipment:
