Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Hesaru kalu Saru, Usli (Sprouted Greengram Rasam and Sundal)

When it comes to everyday food, a lot of consideration has to go in so as to make the menu interesting, non monotonous as well as healthy. Making the same repetitive stuff everyday makes people to just boycott it. And there should be some change in the menu and in the taste. That does not mean we can ignore the nutrition part as well.

This is one recipe which is totally different from the usual rasam and filled with protein and is loved by everyone. A rasam with whole moong and better, with sprouted ones! Keeping some sprouted moong really helps to quickly dish up these two - a rasam and a palya/usli/sundal. Make s great combo for a simple wholesome meal.



Hesaru kalu Saru / Sprouted Green gram Rasam

Preparation time : 10 min (apart from the soaking and sprouting time)
Cooking time : 30 min
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
Green gram / Whole Moong / Hesaru kalu - 2 cups
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Coconut - 1 Tbsp, grated
Onion - 1 small, chopped into chunks
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Jaggery - 1 inch cube
Tamarind pulp - 2 tsp
Coriander - A few sprigs

For spice powder:
Coriander seeds - 1 Tbsp
Dry red chilies - 8-10 (byadagi or guntur variety based on your taste buds)
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Fenugreek /Methi seeds - ¾ tsp
Cinnamon - one small stick
Maratha Moggu - 2

For tadka / Oggarane
Cooking oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Asafetida - a small pinch

Method:
• Sprout the whole moong - soak it in water overnight, drain, cover loosely and keep aside for one day till it sprouts
• Cook it in pressure cooker along with the tomatoes with sufficient water till tender - it usually takes less than a whistle - switch off just as it starts to blow the first whistle or even earlier
• Meanwhile in a skillet, roast the spices under ‘Spice powder’ till aromatic
• Allow to cool slightly and grind to a smooth paste along with cooked tomatoes, raw onion and coconut. Add water to facilitate the mixie/blender
• Drain the cooked green gram and separate the liquid. Keep the gram aside for usli
• To the liquid, add tamarind pulp, jaggery, salt, ground paste, coriander and bring to boil.
• Adjust consistency by adding water if required. Let it boil for at least 10 minutes.
For tadka / Oggarane
• Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow to splutter
• Add asafetida
• Garnish the rasam with tadka and a few coriander leaves
• Serve hot, with piping hot rice and ghee.
• It tastes great when cold too

Notes:
• Cooking in open vessel takes a lot of time and gas; I prefer doing it in pressure cooker, and carefully watching over and switching off in time
• You can use the usual rasam powder instead of roasting and grinding the spices, I generally do so which is faster too
• You can use un-sprouted moong too, in which case the time required to cook would be about 3 whistles

Usli / Sundal

Ingredients:
Cooked Green gram / Sprouted Moong - 1 1/2 cups
Coconut - 1 Tbsp, grated
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste
Coriander - A few sprigs

For tadka / Oggarane
Cooking oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 1 tsp
Black gram dal - 1 tsp
Green chilies - 4-5 (based on your taste buds)
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Method:
• Heat the oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
• Add the dals and stir till golden brown
• Add slit green chilies, curry leaves and sauté
• Mix in the cooked gram, add salt, grated coconut and stir well
• Garnish with a few coriander leaves chopped
• Serve with rice and rasam.


Monday, June 20, 2011

Avalakki Dosa


So here is another type of dosa to make on a Sunday morning! Made out of rice and avalakki/poha, it comes out extremely fluffy and soft. Accompany it with a coconut chutney of choice and it makes a perfect weekend breakfast! To make it better, make some Mango Seekarane also and sever along with chutney and the weekend is made!



Ingredients:
Dosa Rice - 3 cups
Avalakki / Poha - 1 ½ cups (1 cup if you want a little denser dosa)
Fenugreek / Methi seeds - 2 tsp
Curds - ¼ cup
Salt - 1 ½ tsp, or as per taste

Method:
Batter:

• Soak the rice and methi in enough amount of water for 4-6 hours
• Wash avalakki and soak in curd and more water for 30 minutes
• Grind both together into a smooth paste and let it ferment overnight
• Next morning, add salt and mix well

Dosa:
• Heat the griddle
• When the griddle is hot, smear a few drops of oil
• Pour 1 to 1 ½ Tbsp of batter on the griddle. Spread it like a normal dosa - thick or thin as you want. The dosas come out fluffy
• Smear a few drops of oil
• Cook on medium heat, covering
• Serve hot with a coconut chutney

Notes:
• Increase the amount of curd if you want a sourer tinge
• Do not cook the dosa on high flame. It’ll brown too soon


Monday, June 13, 2011

No Knead Focaccia with Whole Wheat Flour

The problem for me with baking an a weekday is lack of time. With a full time job, and the need to cook something indigenous for the family, baking generally takes a back seat with no more time or energy left. Especially for yeast breads, where you need to knead and knead and then wait till the dough doubles, shape it and again wait for the second rise, it is almost impossible for me to bake on weekday, unless I’m planning to stay awake for most of the night!
Since weekends are busier with a lot more things to do and places to go and other hobbies to spend time for, it would make me wait for that weekend over which I’m home for most part of the day, with no guests and with enough time and energy and many more conditions to be met before I actually bake! For people like me, there are these no-knead bread recipes that work equally weel, with less than half the time and almost no energy required.

Got this from Champa’s Versatile Kitchen (again! Well, I can’t still take risk otherwise!). Made this one evening after work and it required almost no special preparation or lengthy process. A simple ‘Measure and mix the ingredients - wait for the rise - bake’ formula really helps me try out more of baking often, without having to plan and wait for a suitable day to bake...
Focaccia had been something I wanted to try for a long time and I was happy I tried it. Especially since it uses more of whole wheat flour, this big bread was polished off quickly, without any guilt. I’m so happy that even the in-laws have started loving Italian flavors (first pastas and now this!) and that makes it easy for me!!

Thank you Champa for the nice easy-breezy recipe...

Preparation time : 20 min + rising time + 10 minutes
Baking time : 20 min
Makes : ~15-20
Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 ½ cups
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups - 2 Tbsp
Vital Wheat Gluten - 2 Tbsp (Not in original recipe, I added)
Warm water - 1 ½ cups
Olive oil - 3 Tbsp
Salt - 1 ½ tsp
Sugar - ½ tsp (I added this; not in original recipe)
Instant yeast - 2 ¼ tsp
Chili flakes - 1 Tbsp - I used red chili powder since I didn’t have enough
Fresh ground pepper - ¼ tsp

For Topping:
Olive oil - 1-2 Tbsp
Mixed Italian herbs - 1 Tbsp
Crushed chilli flakes - 1 - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Black pepper powder - to taste

Method:
Grease a 9x13 pan or equivalent with some olive oil and set aside. I used a 10” round pan
Mix APF, WWF and gluten if using and keep aside
In a large bowl, add warm water and sugar and mix
Add in the yeast and let it proof for 5 minutes. If the yeast does not create bubbles, then it is bad
Once the yeast proofs, add olive oil, chili flakes/powder, pepper powder and salt
Mix in the flours with a wooden spoon; mix thoroughly so that there are no lumps of flour
This is a sticky dough, but since you don’t have to knead, it does not matter.
Grease you hands with some oil and pat the dough on to the prepared pan evenly, into about an inch thickness
Keep it covered in a warm place to double.
In about an hour, it doubles in volume
Pre heat the oven to 190 deg C or 375 F
By then, heat the olive oil for topping slightly and add the herbs, salt and clili flakes and/or pepper powder
Make dimples in the risen dough with your index finger and drizzle the olive oil mixture all over
Bake in the pre heated oven for about 35 minutes - mine took about 32 minutes, till, as Champa says, a golden crust is formed
Take it out of the oven and in about 2-3 min, take it out of the pan, and cool over a wire mesh
Slice when warm - mine crumbled a bit when I waited for too long...
Serve warm as is or with a bowl of soup later

Notes:
I felt the water/liquid can be increased a bit, when using WWF. May be a couple of TBSP more.
Champa says it crumbles when sliced hot, but mine was the other way round - it crumbled after it was cool, where as when still warm I got better pieces