Badam Ragi Malt - Healthy teatime drink | Healthy Diet Plan #5

The healthy diet series is back!! You can check out the previous posts here. We use ragi in our weekly diet either in the form of dosas or kozhukattais or this porridge. This is my favourite as its easy to make and is healthy too. My tummy never kicks for the 6pm snacks when I have this for 4PM teatime :)

Badam Ragi Malt Recipe Ingredients :

• Ragi flour - 4 tbsp
• Milk - 2 cups
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 2 tsp
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Badam powdered / chopped finely - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Dry roast ragi flour till nice aroma comes, it may take 3-5 mins. Set aside.
2. Take 1/2 cup milk add a tbsp of ragi flour to it and make it to a smooth paste. Set aside.
3. Heat boiled milk then add the ragi milk paste, sugar to it. Stir continuously making sure no lumps are formed. Add 1/2 cup water and mix well.
4. Keep stirring till it becomes slightly thick like porridge but still in pouring consistency. Add cardamom powder, give a quick stir and then switch off. Garnish with powdered almonds and serve hot or warm.

My Notes :

• Stir continuously as after adding the ragi paste, the mixture starts thickening faster so take care to avoid lumps.
• If you are making in advance before serving, then add little milk while serving to make it to drinking consistency.
• You can also add a tsp of MTR badam mix for extra flavour.

This tastes best when served hot and is very healthy too. If you have it for teatime, you will feel full till dinner time as its very filling.

Ulundhu Kozhukattai / Uppu Kozhukattai | Vinayagar Chathurthi Recipes

Its Vinayagar charthurthi special for a week so the diet series will resume after this festive special :) I am excited about the long weekend coming up have so much plans right from cooking, relaxing, spending time with family and shopping so am very much looking forward for it. You can check the modak(pooranam kozhukattai) sweet version kozhukattai here (have updated with stepwise) which I posted last year so I'm posting savoury kozhukattaiai this year.

Ulunthu Kozhukattai Recipe - Inner Ulunthu Stuffing Ingredients :

• Urad dal(ulutham paruppu) - 1/2 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Coconut - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste

To temper :

• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Hing (Perungayam ) - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method:

Soak urad dhal for an hour. Drain water and grind it with green chillies very coarsely. Just run the mixer once or twice to make it coarse. Do not make it pastey. Set aside.

Now heat oil, add mustard seeds let it crackle then add curry leaves,turmeric powder and hing. Next add the coarsely grinded urad dhal green chilli mixture and saute until it becomes dry and raw smell completely leaves, it may take 7-10mins. Add required salt. Then add coconut mix well and switch off. Now your inner stuffing is ready.

Ulunthu Kozhukattai Recipe - Outer Dough Ingredients :

• Rice flour / Idiyappam flour - 3/4 cup
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Water - as required to form a dough

Method for the outer covering:

You can check how to make rice flour at home here

First sieve the rice flour 2-3 times, keep aside. Boil water, Take rice flour in a wide bowl.

Add the boiling water little by little and mix it with the help of a wooden laddle. Mix it till it gathers to a smooth dough. Allow it to cool for 2-3 mins then knead once with your hands to make a smooth dough but it will be slightly sticky.Keep aside.

To make ulunthu kozhukattai :

Grease ur hands with oil make small lemon sized balls then flatten it slightly thin (or make it as cup) then add a tsp of ulunthu stuffing / filling and seal it as shown below.Repeat this until the entire dough finishes. This is the easiest method I am following till date :)

Press the ends and seal it completely and make the design by pressing ur thumbs. You can also make designs with fork or use readymade shapes.

Steam the kozhukattais for about 10-12mins or until the outer cover turns shiny which shows thew kozhukattais are ready.

The stuffing can be anything sweet too like coconut channa dhal stuffing or sesame jaggery, it tastes good too.

My notes:

• There are few other ways to make savoury kozhukattai too even without filling. Just make the kozhukattai balls, steam it then temper it with the above said items which is called ammini kozhukattai.
• Be very careful to run the mixie just once or twise else the urad dhal will get pastey.
• You can either use homemade rice flour or riceflour that we get ub shops, the fine variety thay call it as idiyappam flour.

The stuffing is simple and flavourful that it can get over in a jiffy by itself :) I always make the stuffing ready after that making kozhukattai outer dough is just a breeze.Savoury modaks are ready to be served. Tastes best when served hot or warm. We make both sweet and savoury kozhukattai and I luv both :)

Baked Bread Rolls - Healthy teatime snack | Healthy Diet Plan #4

Hope you are enjoying this series as much as I do, please be a part of the voting poll on the sidebar. Its a short break now...No no! I am not taking a break, only this series is taking a short break, will resume this series by next weekend with the remaining teatime drink and a dinner idea. It is sure better than the deep fry way so when I saw it in Tarladalal site I instantly want to try it and just luved it.

Baked Bread Rolls Recipe

Recipe Source : Tarladalal



Ingredients:

• Wheat Bread - 5 slices
• Ghee / Oil - 2 tsp

For the stuffing:

• Onion - 1 finely chopped
• Potato - 1 medium sized
• Carrot - 1
• Peas - a handful
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Fennel(Sombu) powder - a pinch (optional)
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped finely
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - as required

Method :

For the stuffing :

1. Cube the veggies and pressure cook them with water and turmeric powder until soft. Keep aside. Mash the potatoes well and combine it with other veggies.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add sombu powder, ginger garlic paste, saute for 2mins. Then add chopped onions saute until slightly browned. Then add the veggies, chilli powder and garam masala powder, required salt and give a stir.Sprinkle little water just for the masalas to combine well with the veggies.
3. Cook covered for 5mins, giving it a stir inbetween.Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.Now the stuffing is ready.

For the bread rolls:

First cut the sides of the bread for the 5 slices. Then roll slightly using a chapathi roller, cover it with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 5-10mins.Then add the stuffing inbetween, add water at the edges and seal it.

Seal it completely on all sides.As I used wheat bread it was a bit difficult to roll it as it was very small too. Try to use sandwich sized breads so that rolling is easier, mine was normal bread.





Apply ghee evenly on all sides. Meanwhile preheat oven at 200 deg C for 10mins and bake it at 200 deg C for 15-20mins or till the rolls turn golden brown. Check inbetween and turn over if required. Serve it with tomato ketchup the best combination.

My Notes:

• The timing differs from oven to oven so check exactly after 15mins then proceed with remaining 5mins.
• If you feel uneven cooking, you can turn over in between like what I did.
• If you want you can add more ghee or butter as per liking.
• The stuffing can be of your choice, you can use mushroom, paneer, corn etc

Homemade butter and Aval Urundai | Gokulashtami / Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

Last week during a chat session, my cousin sis gave me the idea of posting homemade butter and aval urundai for gokulashtami. Though I had planned for a stepwise homemade butter post, it didnt strike me for the occassion so a big thanks to her for motivating me for this post. Butter and aval are lord krishnas favourite so here I am with this post. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making, clicking and writing this post :)

Tanjore painting done by amma

Homemade Butter Recipe :

Ingredients :

• Curd and Milk Malai (Paal , Thayir Aadai) collected - 2 cups
• Water - 1 cup

NOTE : You can use malai from both curd and milk

Method:

While boiling milk a thick layer of malai forms so collect them (you can collect curd malai too)store it a container. Collect it daily for about 15 days or till your container is full and refrigerate it. But take only the thick malai formed on top.

NOTE: The collected malai/cream can be used for your gravies. I have been using this cream for all my gravies, sure better than the store bought ones. As its salty use it only for savoury dishes which calls for cream.

When your container is full or when you are prepared to make the butter, transfer the collected malai in a wide bottomed container and add water to it.

Beat it well in circular motion with a mathu till frothy.You can use mixie and use the whip option too but we prefer mathu as it avoids the work of cleaning the messy buttery mixie after the process :) The first stage is when the froth forms a top layer . Continue beating it for 10mins.

The second stage is when the froth slightly starts collecting in one area. You can see it in the below pictures - It may take around 10-15 minutes. Once the froth completely turns to a collective buttery mass stop beating. The buttermilk reserved at the bottom can be served with salt and hing, tastes best!

Collect the butter and wash it 2 times in water until water is clear. Allow the butter to float in water for 5mins. Your homemade butter is ready for use :) Collect it in a clean container and refrigerate it.

After started taking butter at home, have been using homemade butter for all my cooking and baking. So its homemade ghee for my little as she does not like butter :)

Aval Urundai Recipe :

Ingredients:

• Aval / Poha - 1 cup
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Elachi powdered - 1/2 tsp
• Coconut grated - 3 tbsp
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Cashews - 1 tsp broken

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan, add the cashews till golden brown. Set aside. Now add the coconut and roast it for 2mins without letting the color change.
2. Soak the aval in water for 3-5 minutes. Drain water and squeeze the aval to drain the extra water
3. Mix jaggery, roasted coconut, ghee fried cashews, elachi powder and mix well.
4. Make lemon sized balls, your yummy aval urundai is ready to be served.

My Notes:

• The butter keeps well for about a month or even more when refrigerated. Use a clean spoon everytime
• You can dry roast aval for few minutes, powder it and then proceed with the steps above

Can you see my kutty krishnar walking towards his favourites aval and butter in the above pic? :) Blogging has made krishnar come into our homes well in advance :)

Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes

When I first told the idea of making seedai to amma, with a eyebrow raised she warned me not to as she had heard so many bursting disaster stories. But seeing my excitement gone down in seconds, she gave her binding book(old recipes in papers binded together to form a recipe book) and asked me to try it from there as it was well explained with tips too.After putting mittu to sleep, I read it atleast thrice and had the feeling of reading for exams yes I almost memorised the recipe and the tips :) The next day morning I made the rice and urad dhal flours ready as I wanted to make it from the scratch.

I reserved the bursting part he he I mean making seedai and the clicking part to the weekend. I put some 4 balls and went out of the kitchen for few seconds, peeped out to see whether any disaster happened. My seedais popped out beautifully with the golden color, no splits no bursts - I felt like shouting Yayy!! my first seedai attempt is a success....:) The small pebbly balls is no more a terrorist bomber to me ;)

Again a new risky recipe learnt just for blogs sake and to share it with you all and am sure this is going to be my keeper. I have given few tips in my notes section to avoid bursting, hope this helps!

Uppu Seedai Recipe :

Ingredients (For making from the scratch):

• Raw Rice -1.5 cups
• Urad dhal - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 2 tbsp
• Butter - 4 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
• Salt - as required

Ingredients (For making with readymade flours):

• Rice flour(fine variety) - 1 cup
• Urad dhal flour - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 1 tbsp
• Butter - 3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - as required

NOTE : If you are using the second set of ingredients(readymade ones) then dry roast both the flours (it is a must), sieve it well and follow from the step3 titled as 'method for making seedai'.

Step 1:

Method for Making rice flour :

First rinse the raw rice twice, drain water completely. Then spread the raw rice in a soft towel and allow it to dry completely for an hr.Then heat a tawa and dry roast the dried raw rice - this is to ensure that the moisture is completely gone. (You can skip this step, grind the raw rice after drying and then dry roast the rice flour)

Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it well. Add the remaining coarse powder to grind in next batch and grind it again and then sieve it. The powder should be very very fine.

Step 2:

Method for making urad dhal flour:

Heat a pan, dry roast urad dhal in a pan until only slightly golden browned and nice aroma comes. Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it once.

Method for making seedai:

Step 3:

Mix both the rice and urad dhal flour and sieve it once more to ensure they are very fine, now ur flour for making seedai is ready. Dry roast the coconut just for few seconds to remove the moisture and also sesame seeds till slightly browned(optional). Then add it with the flours, butter, sesame seeds and required salt mix it well once.

Step 4:

Add water little by little to form soft dough. Then roll small balls a round bigger than peas and arrange it in a clean cloth. Dont roll them tightly just pinch , roll them once and put it on the dry cloth. Let it sit for 1/2 an hour for the moisture to leave. Prick a single hole in each ball (optional but I did it randomly but didnt have the patience to prick for all the balls :)) with a toothpick or pin. Heat oil and add the balls in batches.





Step 5:

Keep the flame in medium and fry till golden brown and drain it in a kitchen towel or tissue paper. Dont be tempted to take it in slight ivory color then the inside would not have been cooked - my first batch was like that so I made sure to fry the rest till golden brown and they were crispy and perfect.

Allow it to cool and store it in an airtight container.

My Notes:

• Make sure both the flours are sieved well before use.
• Roll the balls very smooth but gently not tight so that no splits are shown outside.
• Do not attempt to make bigger balls, for proper cooking inside make small balls a slightly bigger than peas.

Reasons for seedai bursting and tips to avoid them:

• The moisture or air trapped inside the balls will make the seedai burst so pricking with holes with a needle and resting it in a dry cloth for 30mins were the tips given by my friends brahmin neighbour. And as its the first time I patiently pricked holes for most of the balls :)

• If the rice and urad dhal flour are not grinded and sieved well they will end up having small grains inbetween which will cause the seedai to burst. So make sure both the flours are sieved well and are very fine.

• Do not roll the balls tight, do them as smooth and gentle as possible. If you roll it tight then air bubbles might get trapped inside making them burst. Also dont expect to get perfect rounds just pinch roll and allow it to rest.

As this is the first time I am making seedai, I wanted to make it from the scratch and it was worth the effort made. I made the flours 4 days before making seedai so the flours can be made in advance too. Though my favorite is vella(jaggery) seedai, amma warned me to make uppu seedai first then proceed with vella seedai so sure to make it next time and post it here sure :)

Eggless Banana Muffins (Eggless Banana Nut Muffins)

I know many of you might get surprised when I say I dont like bananas in their true form. The only disguise of banana I can have is in the form of milkshakes but after trying these banana muffins I changed my mind :) I found the url while googling for banana muffins and I instantly tried it by halfing the measurements and it came out soo good.

Eggless Banana Muffins Recipe

Recipe Reference : Paajaka

Ingredients:

• Flour - 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp (125 gms)
• Banana - 2 big sized (I used moris yellow variety like the ones in the pics)
• Oil - 1/4 cup (60 ml) - You can replace with butter too
• Granulated Sugar - 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp (65 gms)
• Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Walnut finely chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking soda and baking powder atleast twice, keep aside.
2. Peel the skin of the banana and mash them well (I grinded it to a smooth paste). Add oil, milk, vanilla essence and mix well. Fold in sugar and mix well until sugar completely dissolves.
3. Add sieved maida , baking powder and baking soda mixture and mix well until a creamy mixture is formed. Add the chopped walnuts, reserve little for topping.
4. Preaheat oven to 190 deg C. Meanwhile spoon the mixture in the muffin tray till 3/4th, , add in the remaining walnuts and bake it for 20-27mins. Check in after 25mins and bake accordingly.

My Notes:

• I have tried with the same measurement with 1/8 cup of oil and 1/8 cup of milk instead of full 1/4 cup oil and the muffins texture and tastewise there was no much of difference.
• You can use any type of banana, I used Moris yellow variety. Adjust sugar according to the banana variety you choose.
• The muffins raise up well in the first 15mins of baking itself. For the above mentioned measurement I got 5 medium sized muffins.
• It is very soft and fluffy and keeps well for 2 days.
• Dont skip adding nuts the crunchiness is too good with the banana flavour.

When I tried it for the first time the top was cracked, though I took these set of pics, I thought I have gone wrong somewhere so didnt mean to post it. Once when I saw banana muffins in a famous english bakery here the top was fully cracked, also after discussing with friends I made up mind that I had not gone wrong anywhere. And now me and hubby who are so aversed to banana enjoy these muffins to the core.

My hubby tasted these muffins and just loved it that he wanted another batch the next day itself :) Its kind of addictive the vanilla essence with the banana flavour tastes out of the world. Though vanilla essence is not given in the orginal recipe we liked the blend of flavours so I recommend adding it.

As usual my texture showing technique ;)

My only plight while baking muffins is the muffin liners as the ones I had were too small for the muffin tray I own so this time I didnt use liners at all. Now finally I've found one that fits my tray though not so colorful and fancy. Wait for my other muffin posts to see them in action :)