Jowar puri

This is a speciality of Belgaum and I got the recipe from Dr. Roma Alhad Bagi. It can be even served with only yoghurt or butter.

Ingredients

2 cups jowar flour

1 cup rice flour

½ cup wheat flour

½ cup besan (gram flour)

½  tsp ajwain seeds

1/3 tsp sesame seeds

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

A pinch of asafoetida

1 tbsp finely cut coriander leaves

Salt to taste

3 cups water boiled

Oil for frying

Instruction

-          Keep the water to boil.

-          Take Jowar flour, rice flour, wheat flour, besan, Aajwain, sesame seeds, freshly chopped coriander, asafoetida, salt, and red chilli powder in a vessel and pour the boiling water into it, mixing with a spoon.

-          Pour the water slowly; you may not require all of it. Knead into smooth dough. Divide into ten small balls.

-          Spread each ball on a plastic sheet with moistened fingers. Or, you can put the dough between two oiled plastic sheets and roll it out.

-          Heat the oil till it smokes, gently slide the rolled out dough and fry from both sides. 

-          Here jowar puris are served for lunch, with black matar sabzi, curds, salad, lemon pickle, roasted taro roots, and freshly made mango murabba

Ada with Jackfruit filling

 This is a favourite Kerala dish made with rice flour. It is easy on stomach and as a twelve year old girl, it was my duty to make this every day for my baby brother’s breakfast. That time it was only grated coconut and sugar for the filling. Now I add sliced bananas too. But today I added finely cut jackfruit bulbs. When it was being cooked, there was this sweet aroma filling up the whole kitchen!

Ingredients

2 cups rice flour, for 5 adas

2 cups water, boiled

Salt to taste

I cup grated coconut

 ½ cup grated jaggery

¼ tsp cardamom powder

½ cup finely chopped ripe jackfruit bulbs

5 Pieces of plantain leaf or 5 turmeric leaves

Instruction

For the cover

-          Bring the water to a boil and add this to the flour and salt in a pan. Mix with a ladle, close and keep aside for ten minutes.

-          Meanwhile ready the filling by mixing the grated coconut with jaggery, cardamom powder and chopped jackfruit.

-          Knead the rice flour, sprinkle more water if needed, into smooth dough. Divide into five balls.

-          Take one leaf and spread one ball of dough into round, moistening the fingers in between.

-           Spread the filling on half the portion and fold the leaf into half, pressing down the edges to stick the dough together.

-          Now you can steam them in a pressure cooker for ten minutes or cook them on a thava as shown HERE

-          Enjoy as it is, or with ghee!

July 2022

---Today I prepared ada with jackfruit filling in turmeric leaves. The aroma is just divine!

J

Spinach soup

Spinach is an extremely nutrient-rich vegetable, with high amounts of iron, carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin K, folic acid, and calcium. It  also contains several other vitamins and minerals, including potassium, magnesium, and vitamins B6, B9, and E. Studies have found that eating cooked spinach – versus raw – results in much higher blood levels of beta-carotene, an antioxidant thought to guard against heart disease and lung cancer.

A word of caution:  People who are prone to kidney stones may want to avoid spinach. This leafy green is also very high in vitamin K1, which can be a problem for people on blood thinners.

Spincah soup is a very nourishing, filling, delicious soup, especially on a rainy day.

Ingredients

2 packed cups of washed, cleaned, cut spinach leaves

2 bowls of water

2 tbsps of milk

2 flakes of garlic, peeled and sliced

1 ½ tbsps of milk cream or malai

Salt to taste

¼ tsp pepper powder

Instruction

-          Put the cut spinach leaves, sliced garlic, milk, and water in a saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce the flame and simmer for 6 to 7 minutes till the leaves are cooked.

-          Let it cool and then liquidize it, adding half of the milk cream.

-          Add salt to taste and keep it on medium heat. When it is hot enough, transfer into two bowls, sprinkle pepper powder and add remaining milk cream on the top and serve.

Tender Jackfruit (Kathal) Dum Biriyani

This is a very delicious preparation. During the season, the tender jackfruit can be skinned, cut into large chunks and pressure cooked for 5 to 6 minutes. I keep these in the refrigerator to make different preparations.

         Biriyani served with roasted papad, tomato onion raita and chilli garlic in lemon juice

Ingredients

For marination

200 grams cooked tender Jackfruit  cut into chunks

¾ cup Yogurt

2 tbsps Ginger garlic paste

¼  tsp turmeric powder

½  tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp  Garam masala powder

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt  to taste

For biriyani

1 cup rice – I use sona masuri rice, soaked in water for ten minutes

2 tbsp ghee

2 onions sliced thin

1 inch cinnamon stick

2 cardamoms

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

1 Star anise

2 green chillies

2 tbsps cut coriander leaves

Some mint leaves

Salt  to taste

1 tablespoon Ghee

Some yellow food color 

To garnish

Some cashew nuts toasted in ghee

Fried onions

Insstruction

-          Heat oil in a kadai on low heat, fry onions until they turn into brown colour. Drain and keep on kitchen tissue paper .

-          While the onion is getting fried, marinate the cooked tender jackfruit chunks with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, ginger garlic paste , yoghurt, salt, lemon juice, and keep aside.

-          Boil water in a saucepan with salt. Add the soaked and drained rice and all the spices, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf, star anise, green chillies and cinnamon stick.

-          Cook the rice until 70 % done. I cook soaked sona masuri normally for ten minutes, here I did for 7 minutes.  Drain the rice and keep aside

Assembling the biriyani

-          Smear ghee on a deep, wide pan, sprinkle some fried onions, mint leaves and coriander leaves.

-          Now spread the marinated jackfruit chunks.

-          Add the 70% cooked rice, pour 1 tablespoon of ghee, spread mint leaves, coriander leaves , some fried onions (leave some fried onions for garnishing).

      Pour some yellow food color on the surface in three four areas

-         Cover the pan with aluminium foil and keep on low flame for 15 minutes.

-          Remove the aluminium foil, lightly fluff up the biriyani.

-          While serving, garnish with toasted cashew nuts and fried onions.

-          Serve with tomato onion raita, pickle and papad.

Roasted Sponge Gourd

The high fiber content of sponge gourd contributes to healthy digestive system. It also contains high amounts of  vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamine, iron, and magnesium. It can be used in salads. Roasted sponge gourd is a delicious preparation.

Ingredients

2 sponge gourds

2 tbsps of oil

Salt to taste

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

Instruction

-          Scrape the surface of sponge gourd, wash and cut it lengthwise and cross wise to make four pieces

-          Preheat oven to 180 degrees

-          Smear oil on aluminium foil, arrange the pieces over it, cut side up. Sprinkle all the masala powders, salt and drizzle oil over the surface

-          Keep it inside the oven. After eight to ten minutes, turn them over and cook for six to eight minutes more  and they are ready

Setting curds with red chilli

 We used to travel a lot and on coming back, to start setting the curds again, it was a difficult job to hunt for starter curd. When the starter was used from factory made curd, it used to take a couple of batches to get the proper taste. So it was a real boon when I got this easy method to set curds.

Ingredients

1 cup boiled, slightly cooled milk

1 red chilli along with its stalk

Instruction

Bring the milk to boil and allow it to cool a little.

-          Drop the red chilli along with its stalk into the warm (almost hot) milk.

-          Cover it and keep in a warm place. It may take 12 to 18 hours to set nicely.

-          This can be used as starter curd to set further batches of delicious curd.

-          Since the curd set with the red chilli will have the strong flavour of chilli, you may not enjoy eating it as it is, but can be used to make kadhi.

Khoba roti

Khoba roti comes from Rajasthan, where I got married. The word khoba means indentation. The indentations are made by pinching the surface to create the design. It is a lot thicker than regular rotis and the indentations serve to cook it evenly. First time I made it by baking, then I started cooking it on a thava (skillet), which is much easier and less time consuming.

Khoba roti with methi malai matar, cucumber carrot beetroot salad and lemon pickle

Ingredients

2 cups wheat flower, for one roti

2 tbsps melted ghee

Salt to taste

1 cup water

Instruction

-          Take the flour, add salt and ghee.

-          Rub the flour between the fingers to coat the entire flour with ghee.

-          Add water little by little to knead stiff dough. Coat with some ghee and let it rest covered for 15 minutes.

-          Roll into a round of about 1 cm thick, without dusting with dry flour. Keep the thava on low flame.

-          Make slashes on one side with a knife to prevent it from puffing up while cooking.

-          Turn it upside down and make the floral design by pinching it, starting from the center, going round and round to the periphery.

-          Put the slashed side down in the hot thava. Keep the flame low.

-          When the underside is cooked (in 6 to 8 minutes), flip upside down gently and cook the side with floral design ( takes about 4 minutes).

-          Finally, you can take the floral side over the flame directy for a few seconds.

-          Put butter or ghee on top while serving.