Ragi porridge - Kurakkan Kenda (Sri Lanka’s finger millet porridge)

Finger millet porridge is another breakfast item we tried in Sri Lanka and I immediately fell in love with. So, I had to make it at home and today I prepared and my husband loved it. Got guidance for recipe from the net, which I modified for my convenience.

Finger Millet is a rich source of Calcium, Iron, Protein, Fiber and other minerals and is a gluten-free food. The cereal has low fat content and contains mainly unsaturated fat. It is easy to digest and does not contain gluten; people who are sensitive to gluten can easily consume Finger Millet

Ingredients:

-          1 tbsp ragi flour

-          1 cup boiling water

-          ¾ cup milk

-          1 ½ tbsp. grated coconut

-          1 tbsp grated jiggery

-          ½ tsp cardamom powder

Instructions:

-          Dry roast the ragi flour in a thick bottomed vessel. Keep stirring to avoid it sticking to the bottom and getting burned.

-          When the color slightly changes and nice aroma comes, add boiling water slowly, stirring it to avoid lumps.

-          Let it cook and become a little thick, now add the jaggery and mix well.

-          Slowly add the milk and then the grated coconut.

-          Add cardamom powder, stir well and remove from fire.

-          Serve hot. 

21 August 2018

   Today when I prepared ragi porridge, added some chia seeds while roasting the ragi flour. It just took the porridge to another dimension in taste!

Cucumber Raita

This is a very soothing dish which always accompanies a fried item like puris and it is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

- 1 medium sized Cucumber

- 3 cups yoghurt

- Salt to taste

- 1/3 tsp black salt

- ½ tsp red chilli powder

- ½ tsp roasted cumin powder

- 1/3 tsp black pepper powder

Instruction

- Wash and grate the cucumber, squeeze out excess water.

- Beat the yoghurt, add salt , black salt and pepper powder and mix in the grated cucumber.

- Add the red chilli powder and roasted cumin powder. You can add these in a design, refrigerate and take out at the time of serving.

- You can make raita with other ingredients like beet root too.

Kiribath (Sri Lankan milk rice)

The first breakfast we had in Sri Lanka was Kiribath. It had the divine fragrance that only coconut milk can impart and tasted awesome. I wanted to prepare it at home, but the cooking process was long. I love cooking, but find ways to do it fast and easy. Today morning the idea clicked and I made it. Here it is for you to try and sample this great dish. It can be served with red chilli sambal or any gravy you like.

You need to use sticky rice. In Sri Lanka they have special rice for making kiribath. I thought the Indrayani rice that is available in Belgaum should be alright, and I was right!

We had for today’s lunch kiribath with bread fruit thoran, red chilli sambal and boondi raita.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Indrayani rice, soak for ten minutes

- 1 ½ cups water

- 1 ½ cups coconut milk

- Salt to taste

Instructions:

- Pressure cook the soaked rice with water and salt for 2 minutes.

- Allow the pressure cooker to cool. Open it, add the coconut milk and pressure cook for three minutes.

- Cool and open the pressure cooker, take out the rice, put it in a try and pat down.

- When it is slightly cold, cut into pieces and serve.

Sri Lankan rotti

As we were passing through the villages in Sri Lanka, it was time for breakfast and we stopped at a shack on the way. He told he could serve us rottis, tender jackfruit sabzi and red chill chutney. As we settled down, he started making rottis and we got them right from the thava. My husband got totally hooked on and today I made them for him. In Sri Lanka, they use refined flour (maida) for rottis, but I am not a great fan of maida, so I used wheat flour.

Rotti is similar to oratti that we make in Kerala, with slight modification.

1.       For oratti, we use grated coconut about 1/4 the quantity of flour, but for rotti, it is half the quantity of flour.

2.       Rotti has almost double the thickness of oratti, so it has to be cooked for longer time on low fire, which means.,

3.       A thick thava needs to be used for making rotti.

Thava used to make oratti

Thick thava to make rotti

Ingredients:

 100 gm wheat flour for one rotti

 ½ cup grated coconut

 Salt to taste
1 teaspoon oil

Instruction:

-          Mix the coconut gratings well with the wheat flour combined with salt. Add water slowly and knead into soft dough.

-         Heat the thava, when it is hot, lower the flame.

-          Apply oil on the thava.

-          Press the dough between palms moistened with water into a thick round and place on the thava.

-          Turn it over when one side is cooked and let the other side also cooked. 
       Serve hot with red chilli chutney.