Eat Your Dals without Bloating and Belching

 Being trained in the allopathic system, I was always uncomfortable with the fact that allopathy doesn’t address the cause of a disease and correct it, instead,  symptomatic treatment is given. This type of treatment maintains the diseased state, and brings in side effects of the medicines that have to be taken for long time.

The Biological doshas

The ancient science of Ayurveda recognised the existence of three doshas (Vata, Pitta, Kapha) that determine the process of life, growth, and decay. Each dosha is derived from a different natural element. Vata corresponds to air, Pitta to fire, and Kapha to water. These Doshas are the three primary life forces in the human body, and every deficiency, disease, or disorder is primarily caused due to a shift in the optimum levels of these Doshas.

Vata dosha

Vata is the air or wind Dosha. It is responsible for movement in the human body, making it a very important Dosha since the other two Doshas are found to be incapable without the presence of movement. So in effect, it regulates the functions of Pitta and Kapha as well.

Common vata disorders include flatulence, tics, twitches, aching joints, dry skin and hair, nerve disorders, constipation, and mental confusion. The Vata Dosha is manifest primarily in the abdominal cavity below the navel – colon, pelvis, pelvic organs, as well as the thighs, skin, ears and brain.

Lentils and stomach problems

Consumption of  pulses, like beans, lentils, and peas can cause gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, gas, and stomach cramps. That's because pulses contain large amounts of indigestible carbohydrates (fibers) that are fermented in the GI tract resulting in the formation of gas.

It is better to consume dals during daytime , but moong dal is light and easily digestible, so it is okay to have it at night. Actually moong dal helps balance the digestion process. Soaking or spouting the lentils  make them much easier on the digestive system. Soak them overnight or at least for 4 hours. Throw away the water in which it is soaked and give the beans/lentils a good rinse before cooking to wash away those gas-producing carbohydrates.

While cooking

When using the pressure cooker, do not close the cooker straightaway. Put the water and beans/lentils in the cooker, put on flame and let it boil. You will see the surface being filled with froth. 

Remove this froth with a ladle.

 Then you can add salt and other condiments, close it and pressure cook.

Apart from alleviating the stomach discomfort on eating the preparation, I have even found an improvement in the taste.

Bengal Gram (Chana Dal) Halwa

This is an awesome sweet dish which is very easy to make.

Ingredients

1 cup Bengal gram (chana dal)

1 cup water

¾ cup sugar OR jaggery

½ cup grated coconut

½ tsp cardamom powder

1 tbsp cashew nuts

1 tbsp Kismis (raisins)

1 tsp ghee

Instruction

- Wash and soak chana dal for about 6 hours. Pressure cook with 1 cup water for 8 minutes. Cool and open.

- Heat a thick bottomed pan, put the cooked chana dal and sugar. It becomes watery now. Keep stirring on low flame.

- When it becomes thick, add grated coconut, cardamom powder, cashew nuts and kismis. Mix thoroughly and remove from fire.

- Smear a plate with ghee and pat down the halwa. When it cools down slightly, cut into pieces.

- Can be served immediately, or after refrigeration.   

Dosa with sago

 This has an awesome flavour and texture that I just love.

Ingredients

2 cups rice ( for 10 dosas)

1/3  cup beaten rice

2 tbsps sago

2 tsps fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Wash and soak all the ingredients except salt, for about 6 hours. Grind to a thick batter and allow it to ferment overnight

-          Add salt, mix well and make dosas. If the batter has not risen well after fermentation, add a pinch of baking soda to the batter.

-          Serve with coconut chutney.

Banana Bread

 This bread is easy to make; it is soft, with nice aroma, heavy and quite filling. You can have it with fresh cream, butter, or jam.

Ingredients

1 cup refined flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ cup oil

1 egg

1 banana mashed

¼ cup milk

2 tbsps jaggery

1 tbsp melon seeds (optional)

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (optional)

Instruction

-          Sieve the refined flour with baking powder and keep aside.

-          Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

-          Beat the egg, add the mashed banana and oil, beat again.

-          Add the jaggery, milk, and mix well. Finally add the refined flour with baking powder, the melon seeds and mix.

-          Pour into a baking box lined with baking sheet, spread pumpkin seeds on the surface.

-          Put inside the pre heated oven and bake for about 40 minutes, till a tooth pick when inserted, comes out clean.

Phirni

 

I tasted this awesome sweet dish in Libya in late 1980s when we went to a friend’s house on Eid. I just loved it, took the recipe from her, and it is a common item at home. This is prepared with rice, sugar and milk, just like the rice kheer is prepared. But phirni is made with broken rice, it is always served cold after refrigeration, and fried cashewnuts and kismis are not added.

Ingredients

Rice can be washed, dried, ground roughly and stored in air tight bottles to prepare phirni any time.

3 heaped tbsps of broken rice

6 cups milk

1 cup sugar

A few strands of saffron soaked in water

¼ tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of edible camphor (optional)

¼ tsp nutmeg powder (optional)

Instruction

-          Add ½ cup milk to the broken rice in a bowl and keep aside.

-          Bring the remaining milk to boil. When it boils, add the rice milk mixture to this and mix well.

-          Reduce the flame and keep stirring in between till the rice is cooked and it thickens, which takes about 15 minutes.

-          Now add sugar, mix well, keep on low ire, stirring in between till it thickens again ( another 10 minutes).

-          Add the cardamom powder, saffron, edible camphor, and nutmeg powder. Stir well and remove from fire.

-          Let it cool, then refrigerate and serve.

Kerala Barotta

 From childhood I have relished this dish in hotels. Later when I moved out of Kerala, I learned to make it at home.

                                                    Barotta with egg curry and banana raita

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour

Salt to taste

2 tbsps oil

About ¾ cup water

Instruction

-          Knead the refined flour with salt, 1 tablespoon oil and water. Keep adding the water slowly to make smooth dough. Cover and keep aside for 10 minutes.

-          - Divide the dough into two portions. Spread one into a big rectangle. Smear oil on the whole top surface and along the longer side, fold it like making sari pleats.  Coil this rope like dough into a round and spread with a rolling pin into a large round. See this tchnique below:

-          Heat thava on medium flame and cook the barotta from both sides, applying oil on both surfaces.

-          Serve hot with egg curry.

Baingan (Brinjal) Bhaja

This is an easy and delicious preparation that goes well with rice or chapatti. I learned this from my daughter’s Bengali classmate.

            You can see some potato wedges also being cooked alongside, for my potato lover husband 

Ingredients

2 large sized brinjals

Salt to taste

½ tsp turmeric powder

¼ cup oil to shallow fry

Instructions

-          Wash and dry the brinjals. Slice them into 1 cm thick pieces

-          Sprinkle turmeric powder and salt on both sides and spread on a plate. Keep the plate slightly tilted so that the water that comes out collects at the lower side of the plate and can be discarded.

-          Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan on high flame. Now reduce the flame to medium and drop the brinjal slices.

-          When the bottom side is cooked, turn them upside down and let the other side also get cooked.

-          Remove them from the pan and serve hot with rice or chapatis

  

Baked Macaroni

In the early 80’s this dish was served to us by a German lady who had married a Kannadiga man, in Manipal. I loved it, took recipe from her and it used to be a regular item at home.

Ingredients

200 gms macaroni (in the pictures I have used pasta)

Salt to tast

1 large Brinjal or 2 to 3 small ones

1 tsp garam masala powder

2 to 3 tomatoes

2 large onions

½ tsp nutmeg powder

½ tsp pepper powder

2 tbsps milk

1 egg

1 tbsp butter

½ cup grated cheese

½ tsp oregano

Instruction

-          Keep 4 glasses of water with salt and ¼ tsp oil to boil and drop the pasta. Let it cook (takes about 12 minutes) and then drain and keep aside.

-          While it is being cooked, slice the brinjals into rounds of 1cm thickness. Sprinkle salt and garam masala powder on both sides and keep for about 15 minutes.

-          Slice onions and tomatoes into rounds.

-          Fry the brinjal slices till brown on both sides. Then lightly fry the onion slices.

-          Grease a baking dish and spread half of the cooked macaroni on the bottom.

-          Arrange fried brinjal slices on top of it. Arrange sliced tomatoes over it, and then fried onion slices.

-          Now put the remaining macaroni on top.

-          Beat the egg, add milk and nutmeg and pepper powder, beat again and pour over the macaroni.

-          Arrange butter on the top, and finally the grated cheese. Here I have used Amul cheese slice pieces.

-          Bake on a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for ½ hour till cheese is melted and a little brown.

-          You can also bake for 25 minutes and then grill for 5 minutes.

-          Can sprinkle oregano on top. And serve hot with tomato ketchup and salad. 

Ragi Dosa with fermented batter

This is a dosa loaded with nutrients of ragi flour and tastes almost like ordinary dosa.

                                       Ragi dosa, sambar, dosa podi with ghee, and fresh papaya

Ingredients

1 cup udad dal ( for 9 dosas)

½ cup rice

½ tsp fenugreek seeds

1 cup ragi flour

Salt to taste

Oil or ghee

Instruction

-          Wash and soak together the udad dal, rice and fenugreek seeds for 6-8 hours and grind to a smooth paste.

-          Mix in the ragi flour, make into a thick batter, adding water if needed. Leave it overnight to ferment and rise.

-          Add salt and make dosas, smearing oil or ghee on the thava and cook from both sides. The fire should be medium.

-          Serve hot with sambar and chutney. 

Capsicum Raita

 This is one raita with a typical flavour that I love. Only salt is added to keep the original flavour of capsicum intact.

Ingredients

2 capsicums

1 cup beaten curd

Salt to taste

Instruction

-           Hold the capsicum over gas flame and let the skin gets charred on all surfaces.

-          Let it cool and peel off the charred skin, cut it into two and remove the seeds. Cut into small pieces.

-          Beat the curds, add salt and mix in the capsicum pieces. And it is ready to be served.

Rice Flour Pancake (Sweet version)

After having succeeded in making eggless pancakes, I ventured to make rice flour pancakes, which is a boon for gluten sensitive individuals. And they turned out awesome!

Ingredients

1 ¾  cups rice flour (for 5 pancakes)

2 ripe bananas

1/3 cup grated coconut

2 tbsps grated jaggery OR liquid jaggery (adjust as per your taste)

A pinch of baking soda

A pinch of cardamom powder

½ cup water

2 tbsps Ghee or oil

Instruction

-          If you are using grated jaggery, add ¼ cup water and put on medium flame. When it liquefies, sieve and keep aside.

-          Mash the bananas nicely with a fork. Add the rice flour, jaggery, coconut, cardamom powder and baking soda.

-          Mix well and add water slowly to make a thick batter.

-          Heat an oiled thava on low flame, spread a ladleful of batter, taking care not to spread it too thin.

-          When the underside is cooked, pour some ghee on the top, turn upside down and cook the other side.

-          Serve hot with ghee, honey or jam. 

Sauteed Suran Leaves

 I have always loved suran sabzi, chips, and snacks. After venturing to make thoran with its stem, I went ahead and sauteed its leaves and was amazed how delicious it was. It is so easy and fast to prepare too.

Ingredients

2 cups finely cut suran leaves

½ cup grated coconut

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp fennel seeds

1 small onion sliced

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add fennel seeds, and the sliced onion.

-          Stir for a minute and add the cut suran leaves. Keep stirring in between, for about five minutes till it is cooked. The color becomes dark green on cooking.

-          Add salt, grated coconut, mix well and remove from fire.

-          Serve hot with chapatti or steamed rice.

Suran Stem Thoran

Elephant foot yam (suran, jimikand, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) is a good source of protein as well as starch and is very popular as a vegetable in various Indian cuisines. It has copper and vitamin C, is an Immune booster, eases digestion, reduces inflammation, and has cancer-fighting properties.  It contains high percentages of fibre, potassium, and manganese, improves cholesterol levels, maintains a healthy heart, and is good for skin and hair. Jimikand is full of good gut bacteria and can help rebuild the digestion process.

The interesting fact is its stem and leaves are also edible. In Kerala we make thoran out of the stem. It tastes very much like the banana stem thoran, which is my favourite. Sometimes sprouts are also added to the thoran.

Ingredients:

2 cups of finely cut suran stem, after removing the thick skin and washing thoroughly.

½ cup water

Salt to taste

1 cup cooked sprouts (optional)

Grind together:

½ cup grated coconut

3 flakes of garlic

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

¼ tsp cumin seeds

For seasoning:

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

2 red chillies broken to pieces

A few curry leaves.

Instruction:

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add red chilli pieces, curry leaves and the finely cut suran stem. Saute it for two minutes, add water, cover and cook for 5 to 7 minutes.

-          Meanwhile pressure cook sprouts with water and salt for 4 minutes.

-          Rough grind the grated coconut with garlic, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and cumin seeds.

-          When the suran stem is cooked, add the cooked sprouts, mix well. 

       Finally add the ground coconut, cover and cook for a minute.

-          Open, adjust the salt, mix well and remove from fire.

-          Serve hot with steamed rice and dal.

Tandoori Rota on Thava

Ingredients:

¾ cup lukewarm water

2 tsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

2 cups wheat flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp yoghurt

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

Instruction:

-          Take ¾ cup lukewarm water, add the sugar and yeast, keep covered for 5 minutes.

-          Take the flour, add salt and the yeast mix. Mix them together, add the beaten yoghurt, oil,  and knead into soft dough. Smear oil on the surface and keep covered for one hour for it to rise.

-          Knead the risen dough for two minutes.

-          Smear oil on a thick iron thava. Spread the dough into a round, of 1 cm thickness and keep on the thava.

-          Apply oil on the surface and sprinkle sesame seeds on the surface and pat them. Cover and keep for 15 minutes.

-          Keep the thava on high flame, as soon as the thava is hot, reduce the flame to low and cover.

-          Cook for 8 minutes, then turn it upside down and let cook covered for another 5 minutes.

-          Serve hot with any curry.

 

Corn Gratin

Starting early 80s for many years, our Saturday dinner used to be vegetable gratin and tandoori roti or nan in the Valley View hotel in Manipal. Later I started making them at home. Once children left home, it became infrequent. Today I just felt like making corn gratin and attempted making the tandoori rota on thava, to great success!

Ingredients:

2 cups corn kernels

Salt to taste

2 Cheese slices 1 tbsp butter

 ½ tsp pepper powder

For white sauce:

2 tbsps maida

2 tbsps ghee or oil

2 cups milk

Instruction:

-          Boil water with salt in a vessel and drop the corn kernels. Partly cover, reduce the flame and let it cook, takes about 10 minutes

-          Meanwhile, make the white sauce. Heat ghee in a pan, add the maida and keep stirring on low flame till it turns brown and nice aroma comes. Pour the milk slowly, stirring continuously. When it becomes thick, remove from the fire.

-          Drain the cooked corn, add it to the white sauce. Add salt if needed and mix in some pepper powder.

-          Transfer it to a greased baking dish, arrange cheese slice pieces on the top and add some butter.

-          Grill it for five minutes, till golden crust develops.

-          Serve with tandoori roti or nan.

PS. You can make mixed vegetable gratin by adding cooked potatoes, carrots, cauli flower and green peas instead of corn kernels to the white sauce. 

Bajra Khichdi

 

This is my soul food; I feel it is fit for Gods. I had it for the first in ‘Apno Gaon’ in jaipur and went totally gaga over it. It is easy to prepare and very nourishing in the cold season.

Bajra refers to the edible seeds of pearl millet plants. The seeds are typically cooked as a cereal grain or sometimes finely ground and used as flour. It’s gluten-free and a suitable choice for people with gluten allergy. The cooked millet is a good source of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals and a decent source of fiber.

Bajra is high in beneficial plant chemicals like antioxidants, polyphenols, and phytochemicals, all of which are known for contributing to optimal human health in many ways. However, the presence of beneficial polyphenols may also inhibit some of the minerals in bajra, such as iron and zinc, from being fully absorbed by your body.

Ingredients:

1 cup bajra

¾ cup skinned green gram (mung dal)

1 potato (optional) cut into cubes.

4 cups of water

Salt to taste

Ghee

Jaggery (powder)

Instruction:

-          Soak bajra and mung dal separately for two hours

-          Drain bajra, run in the mixer/grinder for rough grinding.

-          Pressure cook the roughly ground bajra,  drained mung dal, salt, potato cubes and 4 cups of water for 8 minutes.

-          Cool and open the pressure cooker. Mix the cooked bajra well.

-          Serve with ghee and jaggery (powder). It can be eaten as it is, without any accompaniment too.

Bajra khichdi, ghee, jaggery, Sliced fresh ginger pieces with salt and lemon juice, and sauteed ridge gourd.