Sprouts Stuffed Paratha

Do you think, oh..another paratha recipe. Then you are wrong. Here is my sproutilicious paratha. Trust me, each bite was very much full of flavor, like out of this world kind and any kid even picky will eat it with tomato ketchup or yogurt. I always keep one or the other sprouts in hand. I made parathas with these sprouts instead of just making curries with them. It is a very simple, tasty and healthy sprouts paratha with the spices cumin and fennel. Fennel added an extra flavor which gave me further ideas to use these sprouts which I would be posting soon.  

Ingredients:

For the stuffing:

Sprouts - 1 cup (I used a sprout mix of black garbanzo, yellow peas, horse gram and whole moong)

Onion - 1/4 cup, chopped

Cilantro - 1 tbsp

Green chilli - 1

Salt

Cumin- 1/4 tsp

Fennel seeds - 1/4tsp

Oil

Water - 1 cup

For the dough:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups

Water - 1 cups

Salt 

Ghee - (optional to spread on parathas)

Method:

For the dough, mix wheat flour, salt, water and knead to a smooth ball. Rest for sometime.

In the meantime, wash the sprouts a couple of times, and boil it with a cup water and salt for 15 min till it is cooked. Cool this, run in a blender with green chilli and cilantro till it is coarse in texture. Heat a tsp oil in a pan, add cumin and fennel seeds, followed by onion. Saute till onion is cooked and add the blended sprouts mixture. Cook for a minute just to mix completely. Cool and divide it into 7 balls.

Divide the dough into 7 balls too. Take a ball of dough, make a small cup shape and keep one ball of the sprout stuffing mix and cover to make a smooth ball. Then with a rolling pin roll into a 7 - 8 in. diameter. Repeat the same for all the balls of dough and stuffing.  Heat a pan, when it is hot enough put one of the rolled paratha and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Flip and cook the other side. Smear with ghee or butter if you like and sproutilicious parathas are ready. It is best eaten with a little pickle or raita. It was great with soup too.

Notes:

• I used a mixture of sprouts but the same could be made with any one kind or even a mix of some more kinds. 
• These make a amazing accompaniment for any soup as a tasty flat bread. So go ahead and try it.

Sprouted Pearl Millet Soup

Who would say no to soup when you bring a hearty soup bowl to the table for lunch or dinner. That's why I made a simple soup with a few lentils and sprouted pearl millet. Sprout are famous as "health food" for a very long time. They are easily digestible and so they get their name as energy powerhouse. So sprouted pearl millet was my choice today as I try to incorporate sprouts in our meal regularly. And guess what, -  it was really tasty with everyone having smiles in their faces. 

Ingredients:

Sprouted Pearl Millet : 1/2 Cup

Onion - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Carrots - 1/4 cup, chopped

Beans - 1/4 cup, chopped

Bell Pepper - 2 tbsp (yellow used here)

Whole green gram / Moong dhal - 1 tbsp

Split Red lentils / masoor dhal - 1 tbsp

Toor dhal - 1/4 cup, cooked

Lima beans or peas - 2 tbsp (fresh or frozen)

Salt

Pepper

Water or stock - 31/2cups

Oil - 1 tsp

Cilantro - 1 or 2 tsp, for garnish

Method:

Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add onion and saute for 2 min. Next add the veggies followed by sprouted pearl millet, whole green gram and split red lentils and continue sauteing for a couple more minutes. Then add the stock or water with a little salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the cooked toor dhal and simmer for 2 min. Adjust the taste for salt and pepper if needed. Ladle the nutritious and healthy soup into bowls, garnish with cilantro and add some sliced green chilli if needed for spicyness (you could add sliced green chilli in the soup itself, but I didn't since my kids do not eat spicy). This soup and some yogurt made a great lunch for us.

Now, say who wouldn't be ready to savor this delicious soup?

Jackfruit Seed and Peas Masala

One can spot jackfruits (both tender ones which can be used as a vegetable and the jumbo ripe ones) everywhere in the market easily and I am enjoying this special fruit after a very long time. Though I love all kinds of fruits, jackfruit and mangoes are my favorite ones. In some ways, I am really happy to be in India this season, as I can enjoy lots of fresh, sweet, and tasty jackfruits. I and my daughter are gobbling up this fruit like the Cookie Monster in Sesame Street. Our taste buds are having a treat and are we are cherishing the sweet moments not to mention that seeds are piling in a bowl. 

The boiled seeds are a very nutritious and tasty snack. They are rich in complex carbohydrates, fiber, and vitamin B's. They taste similar to chestnuts. 

My mom used to make sambhar or sundal (a dry curry, which I would post later) with the seeds or add it in a vegetable gravy (we call the gravy as kootu). Sometimes, these are just tasty to roast on the fire and eat as a snack. Well, now this is like going down a memory lane. What to make now was the question, and a suggestion for a side dish to chapathi came. So this dish was made and was definitely great and so for some time now, you can see a lot of posts with the tender veggie, fruit, and the seeds. 

Ingredients:

Jack fruit seeds - 20

Peas - 1/4 cup, fresh or frozen

Onion - 1/2 cup

Tomatoes - 2

Green chilli - 1

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Cashew - 2 tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Water - 11/4 to 11/2 cups

Salt

Chilli powder

Cilantro - 1 tsp, chopped for garnish

Cream - 2 tbsp

Method:

Peel the white outer layer of the jackfruit, slice each one lengthwise, and pressure cook it with a little salt and 1/2 cup water. 

Grind together onion, tomatoes, green chilli, 1/4 tsp jeera, and cashew to a smooth paste. Heat a pan with 2 tsp oil, add cumin and the ground masala and cook till the raw smell disappears and it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add the peas, salt, turmeric cook for 2 min. Now add the cooked jackfruit seeds and 3/4 cup water. Adjust the salt and add chilli powder if needed. Simmer for another 5 minutes. If the gravy is too thick, may be add a little water to adjust the consistency. Transfer to a bowl, add cream and garnish with cilantro.

It was really tasty and this can be had with pulao, plain rice, or roti. The seeds were soft, meaty and mildly sweet like paneer and surprisingly a big hit in our home. Healthy nutrients of the seed could be enjoyed very easily in this dish.

Xiaomi / Foxtail Millet / Thinai Blondies

Now a days I try a lot of recipes with the different millet varieties that are available here. They are very nutritious.  I was craving to eat something more chocolatey.....and thought of baking something. My kids (not only them...me too) like brownies. The other day they were happily emptying the batch I made with pearl millet (I have to change the ingredients slightly and then would post it here). Since last week they had brownies, this week I wanted to try the blondies. I made the vegan version using coconut milk and it sure was a super hit and the kids were chomping it down (me too.....and was happy since it was more healthier version using nutritious millets). The entire family loved it so much and were surprised to know that it was made with foxtail millet. These blondies are vegan, gluten free, just perfect in sweetness and ABSOLUTELY DIVINE.

I am submitting this to the event Dish Name starts with X, hosted by Akila of akilaskitchen.

Ingredients:

Foxtail millet flour - 1 cup

Almond powder- 1/4 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Dark brown sugar - 1/2 cup

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Flax seed - 1 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Coconut milk - 1/2 cup

Vanilla  - 1 tsp

Ghee or melted butter - 2 tbsp

White chocolate chips - 2 tbsp

Butterscotch chips - 2 tbsp

Method:

Preheat the Oven to 350F.

In a bowl add the millet flour, almond flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, keep aside. Add the water to flax seed powder and set aside for 5 min. to make flaxed egg. Add brown sugar, flaxed egg and coconut milk to the dry ingredients and beat well for 2 min. Then add ghee and vanilla essence, beat well again well for another 2-3 minutes. Fold in the chocolate chips. Pour into a lined 8x8 pan and bake for 32 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. After complete cooling (hardest part is to wait. See even before taking a pic, I started to cut and tasted too, then realized and took a picture), cut the blondies.

Delicious vegan and gluten free blondies are ready to be gobbled up anytime. I was very happy to see my son eating, if I tell him, it was made from millet, probably he wouldn't eat. The fact is he loves brownies, cakes and cookies. These healthier and nutritious version also scored great with him.

Notes:

• I was out of this flour (couldn't wait that long to go to the stores and had to bake these immediately) and hence ground mine in blender and made these delicacies. It was a little grainy as the blender could only do that much. You could use the fine flour for not having a little grainy texture.
•  Instead of coconut milk, you can use almond milk or soy milk too.
• Make sure to line up the baking tray. 
• Be really patient to wait till it is really really cool, may be an hour or so. This makes it easier to cut and take out the blondies.

Tomato Kuzhipaniyaram

I love kuzhipaniyarams (aka pancake puffs), a true Chettinad delicacy which is great as breakfast but can be enjoyed any time of the day. Who will not? -  As you can see many of the restaurants and fast food joints have this on their menu now a days. They small bite size delights are yummy and easy to make. These are generally made with rice but sometimes made with semolina or maida (all purpose flour) - sweet or savory version. If you are a little busy (or on lazy days), you can make this with leftover idli or dosa batter. Adding vegetables also increases the flavor and nutritional value of these tiny spherical delicious gems. 

I chose to make the tomato version of this kuzhipaniyarams today because:

• I love tomatoes.
• Tomatoes add a great color and flavor to any dish. 
• Simple addition but a huge difference in the flavor.
• Adds to the variety of the recipe.

I always make batter with the proportions that follows.

Ingredients:

Regular or sona masoori rice: 1 cup

Idli rice - 1 cup

Whole urad - 1 handful

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 1

Tomatoes - 11/4 cup, chopped

Cilantro - 2 tsp chopped

Oil

Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp

Cumin - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Method:

Soak rice, urad dhal, fenureek for 4 hours and grind to a smooth batter. Add salt and ferment overnight. Just before you make the paniyarams, grind the tomatoes with a little salt and red chilli and add it to the batter. Season with mustard, cumin and curryleaves and add the chopped cilantro. Mix thoroughly.

Heat the kuzhipaniyaram pan (I prefer nonstick ones as they consume less oil), ladle spoonful of batter into the pan.

Drizzle a little oil. Once you see a lot of holes on the paniyaram, its time to flip them and cook the other side.

Look at the color, isn't  these truly awesome!

After a couple of minutes, delicious and tasty kuzhipaniyarams are ready. Since it is tomato kuzhipaniyaram, it is best eaten with coconut chutney for breakfast.

Thinai / Xiaomi / Foxtail Millet Adai

Foxtail millet or Thinai (in Tamil), is not new to anyone around here. It is known as Kangni in Hindi, Navane in Kannada, Thina in Malayalam and Korra in Telugu. It has been staple food for a very very long time and is quoted in many Tamil literature. It dates back to the time period when Lord Muruga met Valli who was guarding the thinai fields. The flour mixed with honey is made as a special neyvedhyam (prasadam) for Lord Muruga. So no need to explain its nutritional values.

I just tried making Adai, (which are usually pancakes made with rice and dhal mixture). I substituted thinai for rice. Thinai adai was extremely tasty. It came out exactly crispy but soft, just like the regular ones. Got a thumbs up from the critics in my home. No words to describe my happiness, when the food made by you is eaten by your loved ones, smiling and asking for extra helpings - simply just great!

In Mandarin, this millet is called Xiaomi and hence I am entering this for the event "Dish name starting with X" hosted by Akilandeswari of akilaskitchen.com

Ingredients:

Foxtail millet or Thinai - 1 cup

Channa dhal - 1/2 cup

Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup

Moong dhal - 1 tbsp

Urad dhal - 1 tbsp

Salt

Red chillies - 7

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Hing - 1/4 tsp

Coconut - 2 tbsp (optional)

Cilantro - 2 tsp, chopped

Oil for pan frying

Topping for each adai (optional):

Onion - 2 tsp,chopped fine

Pudina - 1 tsp, chopped

Carrot - 2 tsp, grated

Round zuchini - 2 tsp, grated

Method:

Soak the millet and dhal separately for 3-4 hours. Grind the millet with the red chillies. Grind the dhal mixture and add it to millet. The batter should be a little thicker than dosa batter in consistency. Add turmeric, salt, coconut, hing, curry leaves and cilantro. Mix thoroughly. In a heated pan, pour a big spoon of this batter and flatten it similarly to dosa.

If you want top the adai with your favorite toppings. Add a tsp of oil, let it cook, flip and cook for a couple of minutes. Tasty, crispy nutritious adai is ready!

The best accompaniments for adai are butter, jaggery and avial. I love the combination of plain adai with avial  and enjoyed my hearty dinner.

Baby Aloo / Potato Pulao

I vary the recipe whenever I make pulao. I do it differently most often. One time may be grind more pudina, next time cilantro, or with coconut milk or made with both mint and cilantro ground together with a little coconut or just plain. It is just according to what I think that minute when I make. I do accept some small changes made in the recipe, make it somewhat different each time and hence there is some variety added to the regular ones. 

I usually ask my son to try the potatoes. Unbelievable but true, he doesn't like potatoes. Many of you may be surprised! Almost all the kids like potatoes, especially fries and tater tots are most loved. I have seen him, dunk the fries in ketchup and just eat the ketchup alone without the fries being bitten. Once it becomes a little soggy, he will take a new fries. Accidentally, while licking the ketchup a little teeny tiny piece of potato enters his system. 

Three four weeks back I made baby potato pulao with a combination of cilantro and mint. When I told him these are tiny baby potatoes, it didn't really make him accept to eat that. But for the past week, he has been asking me to make baby potato curry, baby potato pulao........we were surprised with the changes all of a sudden...him saying potatoes are his favorite.......that's what is new here. Well, I decided to make pulao for a quick fix lunch and wanted to check whether he would ever touch it. He requested for lots of potatoes, and so I made with the following recipe (surely, almost every bite would have a baby potato in it). It was a super hit! He loved it so much, and said he will only eat this everyday. That's great. The other two potato lovers in my home enjoyed it too. It was tasty and simple. Weekday or weekend, this would be a certain hit with everyone. But for now, I guess I will make this pulao often so that he will enjoy his new favorite vegetable, potato.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 11/2 cups

Baby potatoes - 40 nos., cooked and peeled

Peas - 1 cup, fresh or frozen

Onion - 1/2 cup, thinly sliced

Ginger - garlic paste - 2 tsp

Green chillies - 4 slit lengthwise

Mint - 2 tsp, chopped

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp

Cilantro - 2 tsp, for garnish

Water - 2 and 3/4 cups

Seasoning:

Cardamom - 1

Cloves - 2

Bay leaf - 1

Cinnamon - 2 one inch sticks

Oil / Ghee - 2 tsp

Method:

Wash and soak the rice.

Heat oil in a pan and do the seasoning. Then add onions, green chillies followed by ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell goes away and the onions are translucent. Drain the water from rice, add it to the pan, fry for 2 mins. Then add the potatoes, peas, mint and salt. Mix thoroughly, add the water. Adjust for salt, cover and reduce the flame. Let it cook covered for 12 mins. Then switch off the flame, keep it covered and let the pulao continue to cook in the steam which is built-in and blend the flavors well for another 10 min. Garnish with cilantro. Voila! Simple and tasty pulao is ready. We had ours with mirchi ka salan and onion raita. Now I can ask, who wouldn't say no to potatoes especially baby aloos.

Rainbow Cake and International Women's Day!

Last year for St. Patrick's Day, I made rainbow cake, which everyone adored, my daughter and her friends enjoyed it very much. My daughter was asking me to make this again for this year St. Patrick's Day. I thought to make it ahead (St. Patrick's Day which falls on March 17) and for International Women's Day too. This way I will use up the cream sitting in my fridge which I got to make icecream (my icecream maker burned......). So sad ...but the idea of making this was delightful and cheered me up. Just did a simple frosting with fresh whipped cream.

Today, March 8 is International Women's Day (IWD) celebrating the achievements of women in all fields in the past, present and in future. Every year IWD has a theme, and this year's is "Inspiring Change". Right from early days, women worked very hard locally and globally  that we have come to achieve in all fields in this world now. My honors to those who worked hard for us  the past, cheers to everyone who are doing now and to those in the future. Proud to be woman, wishes to all of you out there and with my rainbow cake. Let's create rainbows in everybody's life.

I made this simple fool proof cake with condensed milk which my mom used to make when we were little (but for one slight change of adding vinegar). Anyone can follow this age old recipe and make delicious eggless cake. I did two batches and I divided each batch into three portions and colored according to rainbow colors. Once cool, stacked each layer with a little frosting and finally frosted the whole cake with the same fresh cream.

When you slice the cake, it is beautiful and colorful bringing out a WOW and you can look at these forever (if it lasts that long). A special friend had come to our home . The kids decorated the cake with m&m's each one taking turn and decorating their portions. It was a little tricky to serve the cake, they had fun when it kind of jiggled and one layer fell down from the slice. Baking, decorating and eating is supposed to be fun and hence it served the purpose. Anyway, I managed to do it better by slicing the cake right after it was taken out of the fridge. It was easier and my friend was surprised to see the colorful layers.

Look at the beautiful layer of colors! Isn't it great?

Ingredients:

Maida / APF - 21/4 cups
Butter - 1/2 cup, softened
Condensed milk - 400 g can
Milk - 1 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 2  tsp
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 11/2 tbsp
Apple cider vinegar - 2 tbsp
Food color - rainbow colors

In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat butter, condensed milk, milk and vanilla till fluffy. Add the dry ingredients slowly a few tbsp at a time and beat till blended well. Continue this process till all the mixture are added. Now add  vinegar and beat well. Divide into 3 portions, add violet, blue and green food color and pour into three greased bowls.

Bake at 180C for 12.30 min, until, the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack before inverting. Repeat the same process and bake red, orange and yellow.

Stack the violet color, apply a little bit fresh cream frosting, spread and lay the blue color cake layer on top of purple. Continue doing this process till all the cake layers are arranged according to the color order in a rainbow.

Apply the frosting on the sides and top, smoothen out. Keep in fridge after crumb coating and whenever needed to enable easy frosting.

Do another layer of frosting and refrigerate until use. Delicious colorful bright rainbows are ready to sliced up and enjoyed!

How beautiful the cake is!

Fresh cream frosting

Fresh cream or heavy cream - 3 cups
vanilla essence - 2 tsp
sugar - 8 tbsp

Beat all these together till you get stiff peaks.

Once again, Happy International Women's Day and St. Patrick's Day!

Sprouted Horsegram Idlies

Sprouted legumes are very healthy since our body can easily assimilate the nutrients from them. This reddish brown legume is tasty and provides vitamin B, iron, protein and fiber. So regular intake of this legume is highly beneficial for people of all ages. Also, horsegram is excellent choice for people who would like to lose a few pounds.

I usually make kollu or horsegram idli atleast once a month. This time, I used the sprouted ones to make idlies. The ratio of rice to horsegram is same (1:3) as in regular idli's  rice to whole urad dhal. Sprouted horsegram idlies were very very tasty. Simple, nutritious yet very flavorful. I always make red chilli chutney whenever I make horsegram idli or dosa and so today too, we had the sprouted horsegram idlies with the same chutney. Dosas also come out pretty great with the same batter.

Ingredients:

Sprouted Horsegram - 3/4cup

Fenugreek - 1 tsp

Idli rice - 21/4 cups

Salt

Water

Method:

Soak rice and the sprouted horsegram (this way it is much easier to grind the horsegram) for 4 hrs.

This is how it looks:

Grind, add salt, ferment overnight. Pour this batter on to the idli mould pans and steam for 5 min.

 Delicious and nutritious sprouted horsegram idlies are ready for breakfast (or anytime too).

Coconut Pancakes and Waffles - eggless!

Hawaii...................wonderful place, nature's jewel......the beach, the waterfalls......the drive, the view......the list goes on and on.....and food... who can forget the coconut pancakes and waffles. Nearby where I stayed, the bakery made all these delicious breakfast not to mention the guava doughnuts. Now where I live, I can see the plumerias (my favorite) everyday that reminds me of our trip to Hawaii. Along with all the other souvenirs, I also got some passion fruit jelly, macadamias, chocolates, coconut macadamia nut pancake/waffle mix and syrup (Hawaiian Sun brand). I just mixed a little water with the mix, made pancakes, my son ate happily many days for breakfast and went to school. Sad news.....one day all the pack ..... empty. Well....the pack doesn't have any magic and so when making it often has to become empty naturally. He was not happy and he wanted to go to Hawaii and get it. I am ready for another vacation in Hawaii but in reality............it has to wait ........may be indefinitely or...ok for now....period.

I had to make it from scratch as he started to pester me a lot. I kept postponing and today morning, I too wanted to have it. I was searching in the net but none of them suited for me as they all had lots of eggs and we don't eat eggs. Finally, thought to make one of my own. I was skeptical about the result, but anyway wanted to give a try. It came out great, couldn't stay calmer, was excited, since it was so so perfect and delicious. My daughter, though she likes coconut to a certain extent, is not a big fan of coconut pancakes. I used to make the coconut macadamia pancake for him, and make the regular Bisquik ones for my daughter. She tasted this, and ate ONLY this for breakfast. That's a double success! Coconut milk and flaxseed worked wonderful. The texture of the waffle was awesome. My little boy came in the evening said, "I am hungry and could you please give me coconut pancakes". I was in cloud nine.....why not? .........eggless coconut pancakes and waffles.....perfect recipe that was accepted by the little ones. Hence I would be making it often.  The small difference that I felt when compared to Hawaiian Sun was, mine was a little less sweet and I didn't add any macadamias. He doesn't like nuts and was mixing the batter with me. No way, I was able to add it. Next time, I will have some macadamias powdered ready, so I could sneak it in. I wanted to try making pancake puffs too, but that was all the batter I had, a few small pancakes (8, to be precise) and one nice big waffle. A great morning for the beginning of week. Smiles!

Ingredients:

Maida or all purpose flour - 1 cup

Coconut powder - 3 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Coconut milk - 3/4 cup

Flax seed meal - 1 tbsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Syrup, butter (optional) and sweetened coconut (optional) for topping

Method:

In a large bowl, combine AFP, coconut powder, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Add 1/4 cup water to flax seed meal, mix and leave for a couple of minutes. Then add this, coconut milk and 1/4 cup water to the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly the ingredients to make a smooth batter without lumps.

The little helpers hands mixing!

Heat a pan, add the batter,cook for 2 minutes on a medium heat. Once you see lot of bubbles or holes, flip and cook for a min. Stack, enjoy the pancakes with a little butter (optional) and syrup.

I used my smiley pancake pan and made smileys!

I topped mine with a little colored, sweetened coconut.

For the waffles, turn on the waffle iron (I had set it to 4). Once it is all ready, pour the batter (for the amount of the batter to be poured, check with your waffle maker handbook), close and cook. Thats all and it's all ready to be eaten topped with syrup.

Do you have a fork ready to dig in? Better be fast as these are going,

 going     

..........and gone! 

Folks, Give a try, enjoy the weekend by starting with a delicious breakfast and post me your comments. Thank you!

Notes:

• I didn't add any oil to the batter, and it came out all nice, because of the coconut milk.
• The pancake was not very sweet, but it is ok for me and moreover it is topped with syrup (in my kids way---may be lots sometimes)
• Coconut syrup (now I need to work on a recipe that tastes just like the Hawaiian Sun coconut syrup..............it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good - my son's favorite and already he had requested me to make it at home) was best with it, but maple syrup also tasted good (my daughter's choice).
• Salt could be increased to 1/4 tsp,since we felt it was a little less.
• I used store bought coconut milk can.

Update:

 

Mangoes are starting to come in the market. Fresh mangoes and pineapples along with toasted coconut and a drizzle of honey would be very perfect tropical way to enjoy. I would make and post a picture here!