Cabbage, carrot roll - evening snack for kids

Good evening

I made a simple vegetable roll for kids as evening snack. Its filling and nutritious. 

Ingredients

Maida - 1 1/2 cup
water - 1/2 cup
salt as required
oil - 1 tsp

For the filling

Cabbage - 1/4 slice
carrot - 1
onion - 1 (baby onion)
green chilly - 1
ginger - 1 tsp (chopped)
coriander leaves - 1 tsp( Chopped)

jeera powder - 1/4 tsp
coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
cinnamon powder - a pinch
clove powder - a pinch

Sunflower oil/groundnut oil for frying

Method of preparation

In a bowl add maida, salt, oil and slowly add water and knead a soft dough. Keep aside
Chop cabbage, carrot  onion, green chilly and ginger into very small pieces. I used tupperware smart chef. Pour oil in a pan add all chopped vegetables one by one and saute. Now add jeera,coriander,black pepper, cinnamon and clove powder. Mix well. Cook in high flame for just 3  minutes and off the stove. We have to just cook the vegetables as once we fill it in maida dough it will be fried. So avoid over cooking the vegetables. 

Using a roller pin roll out small poori sized discs and fill a table spoon of mixed vegetables. Make sure you cover the vegetables very well. Stick the edges using a little water so that when you fry the roll vegetables should not come out! 

Fry the rolls into golden brown. 

Use a perforated ladle to carefully remove the rolls in a kitchen napkin. Allow the oil from the rolls to be absorbed. Cut the rolls into two pieces and serve with chilly tomato sauce.

Adai/lentil crepes

Hello,

Today I will share with you recipe for adai/lentil crepes. There few variations for adai. Its made as a neivedyam during karthigai festival. But in most of our homes adai is made as a morning breakfast/dinner. The day I make aviyal we have adai with aviyal its very tasty and is the best combination. I will soon post aviyal recipe. have to show you step by step preparation! I have posted aviyal recipe, Please see the post.

Ingredients

Raw rice - 1 cup
Boiled rice - 1 cup
black broken urad dal - 1/4 cup
tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
channa dal - 1/4cup
green chilly - 4
curry leaves - a few
red chilly - 2


Ingredients
Added to the batter



hing powder - 1/2 tsp
jeera powder - 2 tsp
black pepper crushed - 1 tbsp
salt as required
onion - 1 cup finely chopped(optional)

Method of Preparation

Wash and soak raw rice, boiled rice, black urad dal, channa dal and tuvar dal together for 3 - 4 hours.  Grind green chilly, curry leaves, red chilly, soaked lentils and rice add salt to it and grind to a coarse paste. Keep the batter outside for fermenting for about 5 to 6 hours. Before making adai add hing powder, jeera powder, crushed black pepper and onion. Mix well. Prepare thick adai in a heated tawa pour gingelly oil for frying. It takes more time to cook so adjust the flame and cook well. Turn both sides and roast it till crispy and crunchy. Serve adai with curd crushed with green chilly and curry leaves, chakka varattiyathu/jack fruit jam/ jaggery/ honey. 

Curd with green chilly and curry leaves

Curd - 2 cups
salt as required
green chilly - 2
hing powder - 1/4 tsp
curry leaves - a few

In a mortar and piston add green chilly, hing powder, curry leaves and salt, crush it to a coarse paste add to the curd an mix well.

If you like the brine of vadu mango pickle you can ad a little to curd.. It also taste good.
















Aviyal

Aviyal 

Ingredients

Drum sticks - 2

raw banana - 1

carrot - 2

beans - 10

payar - 10

brinjal - 2

mango - 1

yam (chenna) - a small piece (100 grms)

mathan - a small piece 

elavan - a small piece

kanni vellarikka - a small piece

Coconut - 1/2 cup

curd - 1/2 cup

salt as required

curry leaves - a few

green chilly - 6

jeera - 1 tsp

Method of Preparation

* Cut, peel and chop chenna into very thin 2 inch long pieces. Add little salt and stem it. Keep aside.

*Wash peel  mathan, elavan, kanni vellarikka and cut into 2 inch long thin pieces. Cut rest of the vegetables like brinjal, drum stick, beans, payar etc also into 2 inch long pieces. 

* Grind coconut, jeera, green chilly, curry leaves into coarse paste by adding very less water. 

* whisk curd .

* In a thick bottom pan pour water add drum sticks, salt and turmeric. Cook till soft. Now add rest of the vegetables and cook till all veggies are tender. Add chenna to it, now add coconut paste, mix well, add whisked curd, and allow it to cook for about 5 minutes. Adjust salt. Off the stove pour raw coconut oil on top and serve with your roti, adai or rice.

Note : Those who wish to make aviyal as a side dish can avoid adding curd and can steam vegetables.

Gongura pickle

Hello, 

A simple but tasty pickle made with seasonal

gongura leaves. Gongura leave are sour in taste. I

sometimes make tuvar dal for roti and add few 

gongura leaves - for its tangy taste.  I make small quantity of gongura pickle. As its available in summer and taste great with just cooked rice!

Gongura pickle

Ingredients

Gongura leaves - 1 bunch

Red chilly - 6 (spicy)

coriander seeds - 1/2 tsp

chana dal - 1 tsp

black urad dal - 1 tsp

green chilly - 1

cumin seed - 1/2 tsp

sesame seeds - 2 tsp

hing powder - 1/2 tsp

fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

salt as required

garlic - 1 pod(optional)

Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp

mustard seed - 1/2 tsp

Method of Preparation

Remove gongura leaves from its stem. Wash and spread the leaves on a clean towel. Allow the towel to absorb all the water from the leaves. The leaves should be dry.

In a heated pan add chana dal,black urad dal, red chilly, cumin seed, coriander seed, fenugreek,sesame seed. Roast all the ingredients and make a coarse powder. Keep aside. 

Pour 1 1/2 tbsp oil in the same heated pan add chopped green 

chilly and garlic saute for a while, now add dried 

gongura leaves, cook in high flame add salt and hing powder. Make sure gongura is fried well. Spread this into a plate. When its cool grind to a fine paste. Add roasted powder to the mixer and grind further. Remove the gongura paste.

Again pour 1/2 tbsp oil in pan and add mustard seed to it. Allow mustard to splutter. Add gongura paste to it and cook further for a while. Off the stove allow the gongura pickle to cool down. Store in a dry container. 

Muskmelon juice - to beat the heat

Good morning,

What about a cool muskmelon juice.  Sounds great? Here you go

Ingredients

Muskmelon - 1
Sugar - 4 tsp
water - 1 cup
pudina leaves - a few
cranberry - 2
Lemon  - 2 (thin slice)

Method of Preparation

Wash and peel and deseed muskmelon. Cut into big pieces, add sugar and water. Blend in a mixer to a fine smooth juice. Pour into  long glass. Garnish with pudina leaves and just one cranberry. Decorate with a thinly sliced lemon. Serve immediately. 

Note : Please do not make muskmelon juice and store in fridge. It becomes bitter! Serve immediately once you prepare the juice. 

Poori, Dum Aloo(Kashmiri) Mango pulp - After school snack

Hello,

Good morning. I think we mothers spend most of our time thinking about how to make our growing children eat well. Kids just love pizza and pasta but when it comes to more nutritious Indian food they do fuss. Atleast I have seen my children fussing over every day rice and roti!! Yes I know what we always try to convince them as its our staple food...all goes in vain when the youngster have decided not to eat rice for lunch! There comes your maturity and creativity handy in making the same rice and roti to a more acceptable version. Tough job you might say, yes its is my dear!  A little creativity and a little magic your kids will thoroughly enjoy eating various kinds of rice preparations and of course rotis too. For today after school snack I thought of making aloo dum, puri and mango pulp. I know my kids enjoy it. So try it for a change and do write to me your feedback. 

Mango pulp

Ingredients

Ripe banganapalli/ malligai - 2
sugar/powder jaggery - 2 tbsp(optional)
elachi - a pinch

Method of Preparation

Wash, peel and cut the mango flesh. Make sure you remove the entire flesh from the mango, use you hands to remove the excess pulp from the seed. In a mixer add mango cubes, sugar/jaggery and elachi, Blend to a fine paste. Remove to a serving bowl. Keep it refrigerated till you serve. 

Poori

Ingredients

Atta - 2 cups
sooji rawa - 2 tbsp(optional)
salt - as required
Ajwain - 1/2 tsp
water for kneading the dough

For frying

sunflower oil- sufficient quantity to immerse poori.


Method of Preparation

In large bowl knead atta, sooji, salt and ajwain by adding less water at a time. Make fresh pliable dough for poori. Do not make dough very tight as you may find it difficult to roll. Or make it too soft as it may absorb oil. So make sure your poori dough is just right! Keep aside. In a heated kadai pour oil and heat it. Roll small poori using very less powder or just using little oil. Immerse in the hot oil and allow the poories to puff. Remove in a plate. Make sure you spread a kitchen napkin which will absorb the excess oil from poori. 

Aloo dum

Ingredients

Baby aloo - 1/2 kg
Kashmiri red chilly powder - 2 tsp
garam masala - 1 tsp
curd - 1/2 cup
saunf - 2 tsp
coriander powder - 2 tsp
sugar - 1 tsp
salt as required
ginger powder - 1 tsp
hing - a pinch

For tadka
cardamom - 2
clove - 2
cinnamon stick - 1
Bay leaves - one
Ghee - 2 tbsp
sunflower oil - 2 tbsp

Method of Preparation

Wash potatoes and pressure cook for two whistles by adding salt and turmeric. Peel potatoes and prick them with a small fork or toothpick. Make sure you prick the potatoes well so that potatoes absorb all the delicious masalas and rich flavour added to it. In a thick bottomed pan pour oil and deep fry potatoes till golden brown. Keep aside. 

Heat ghee in a non stick pan or heavy bottom kadai add clove, cinnamon, cardamom, sauf, bay leaves and saute. Now use a hand blender to blend the curd add kashmiri chilli powder and hing to it. Add this to the whole masala. Add 2 cups of water, ginger powder, coriander powder and salt. Allow the mixture to boil keep stirring. When bubbles come in water as it boils add roasted potatoes and mix well. Cover the pan and reduce the flame. Allow the potatoes to further absorb all the rich masalas and delicious flavours for about 10 - 15 minutes. Now you will notice that the gravy has already thickened and potatoes are floating on the sides and top. Now it time to add sugar, garam masala and fresh coriander leaves. Mix gently make sure you don't break the potatoes. Serve hot with freshly made puri and mango pulp.

Children will  thoroughly enjoy the rich gravy in potato and mango pulp!!
                                    

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Kappa, kandari mulakku chutney and Dahasamani

Good evening,

I want to share with you a very ordinary but most popular food from Gods own country - Kerala. Its kappa, kandari mullaku chutney. (Tapioca and green chilly chutney) In  Srilanka also kappa is grown and cooked almost same way we cook in Kerala. In Vietnam kappa is steamed and eaten with peanut powder and sugar. Its a popular street food.

Kappa, kandari chutney and pathimukham(Dahasamani)

Kappa

Ingredients

Kappa/Tapioca - 1

Salt as required

Water for cooking tapioca

Method of Preparation

Wash cut and remove outer skin from tapioca.  Cut into half and further cut into big pieces. In pressure cooker add water, salt and tapioca. Cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Drain water and arrange in the serving plate or bowl.

For kandari chutney

Ingredients

Kandari mullaku - 10

coconut - 2 tbsp

tamarind - a small piece

salt as required

coconut oil - 1 tsp

garlic - 1 pod

baby onion - 1

Method of Preparation

Peel and chop onion and garlic into small piece. Add rest of the ingredients into a mixer and grind to a coarse paste. Put in the serving bowl pour coconut oil. Enjoy kappa with this spicy chutney.

Dahasamani (pathimukham)

Boil 2 glasses of water add just a pinch of pathimukham, strain and serve in beautiful transparent glass along with kappa. 

Dahasamani is a blood purifier and cools your body. In most of the houses in Kerala people drink dahasamani/pathimukham boiled water. 

Tehri and cucumber raitha - kids menu

Good afternoon,

For morning breakfast I made Khandvi. The recipe is already posted. For lunch I made Tehri - vegetable rice with lots of vegetables. This recipe is especially for children who are very fussy eating food. You can prepare it for lunch or for dinner. 

Vegetable Tehri

Ingredients

Basmati Rice/Sona Masuri(Raw) - 1/2 cup
salt as required
water -  1 1/2 cup

potato - 1
carrot - 2
peas - 1/2 cup
onion - 1
ginger - a small piece
green chilly - 1
coriander leaves - 1 tsp (chopped)

garam masala - 1 tsp
jeera powder - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Star anise - 1
clove - 2
elachi - 2 (peeled and crushed)
Cinnamon - 1 small stick
crushed pepper - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
jeera - 1/2 tsp

Method of Preparation

Wash and drain water from rice. Keep aside for about 10 minutes. 
Chop all vegetables into very small cubes. Chop ginger and chilly. 
In a thick bottomed pressure pan pour ghee add jeera, star anise, clove, elachi and cinnamon allow it to release aroma, Now add chopped onion, green chilly and ginger, saute. Add potato, stir for a while, now add rest of the vegetables and peas. Mix well and add rice add salt, turmeric, garam masala, jeera powder and coriander powder. Make sure rice is well mixed with the vegetables and masalas. Its time to add water(use room temperature water) Pressure cook for about 2 whistles. Remove from pressure pan. Just before serving add coriander leaves and crushed pepper. Serve with your choice of raitha. I made cucumber raitha.


Variation : Add a handful of soaked channa and two tomatoes chopped into large pieces with vegetables, aloo channa tehri ready. 

Cucumber raitha

Ingredients

Cucumber - 1
curd - 1 cup
red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
jeera powder - 1 tsp
green chilly - 1(chopped)
coriander leaves - 1 tsp(chopped)
salt as required

Method of Preparation

Wash, peel and chop cucumber or grate it. I prefer to chop as when grated cucumber  release its juice. In a bowl add curd, salt, green chilly, coriander leaves, red chilly powder and jeera powder. Mix well add chopped cucumber and serve with Tehri. 

I am sure your children will enjoy this simple recipe. Please do post your comments.