Healthy Potato Poha recipe

The most nutritious of all breakfast eats is the Potato poha, which is filling and delicious! Children will not make a fuss to eat this breakfast meal! And the very Indian breakfast, the local produce which is the best for taste and health! In my humble opinion, we must eat local, not processed food like in the West where the sun does not shine all through the year and fresh food is not available round the year! They have to depend on processed/preserved food but we need not, we have fresh seasonal vegetables and fruits available!

Ingredients:

Large onions: 2 (Chop fine)

Tomato: 1 (chopped into small pieces)

Potato: 1 medium size cooked and peeled, and cut to small peieces

Green chillies: 5 slit vertically

Curry leaves: 2 sprigs

Jeera: 1 tsp

Mustard: 1tsp

Urad dal: 1 tsp

Cooking oil: 3 TBSp

Coriander leaves chopped: 2 TBSp

Medium thickness poha (beaten rice): 3 cups (200ml cup) 

Salt: to taste

Procedure:

1) Keep the poha in a large strainer, run water gently over it stirring the poha. Keep aside for 15 minutes to drain fully. Transfer the poha to a large plate, sprinkle salt and gently mix with your fingers so that the salt is evenly distributed

2) Add oil to the pan, when hot add mustard, when mustard splutters, add urad dal and fry till golden. Now add jeera and stir for a minute, urad dal should not get burnt.

Next, add curry leaves, saute, then add onions, saute, add chopped tomato, and some salt for this masala. When tomato is cooked add the potato bits and saute well. Add the chopped coriander leaves and mix well.

3) Transfer the wet and salted poha to the masala in the pan and stir gently so that the masala is mixed well with the poha, if necessary sprinkle a little water, mix well, cover and cook for a few minutes, stirring gently with a flat spatula.

Serve hot! It is ideal for lunch boxes of kids too!

Try it out and let me know in comments how it came out!

Potato Cheese Roast

Ingredients:
Potatoes: 1/2 kg
Butter: 2 Tbsps
Grated Cheese: 100 gms
Red Chilli Powder: 1 tsp or less
Salt to taste

Procedure:
Cook potatoes (not too soft, grateable so to say!) peel and grate, add salt and mix well with a fork.
Heat butter in a flat non-stick fry pan (not Tawa)on the stove and when butter melts spread it all over the insides of the pan by lightly shaking it from side to side. Put the scraped potato in the pan and press down with a flat spoon to make it like a thick pancake. Keep on low fire till the underside becomes golden brown. Now carefully turn it over without breaking it, in one piece. Sprinkle the chilli powder (or flakes)and top it with the grated cheese. Cover the pan and let cook on a low fire for 5 to 10 minutes till the cheese melts. Top it up with pizza seasoning if preferred. Cut into pieces and serve hot. 

Moong dal Halwa

My friend Pushpa Sriram is an awesome cook and makes delicious sweets and she shared this with me, one of her mother's recipe, a halwa made with moong dal which is very nutritous:

Ingredients :  1 Cup Moongdal ; 

                       1 cup sugar; 

                       1 cup ghee; 

                       1/2 cup milk; cardamom  powdered for taste; a pinch of clove powder; 

                       a pinch of nutmeg powder;

                       saffron few strands. 

                       Khova - optional

Garnishing:  slivered almonds, pistas, roasted cashew and raisins.

Soak moong dal for 4 hours. Soak saffron in a little warm milk. Drain water from

soaked moongdal and wash it well.  It has to be washed well many times so that

the raw smell goes away. Grind the soaked moongdal coarsly without adding

water. Heat 1/2 cup of ghee in nonstick pan or heavy bottomed dekchi, add the

ground moong dal, and roast on low heat.  Be careful not to allow to form lumps.

If required add a little milk to make it easier. The moong dal has to be roasted on

low heat. It takes time and patience, keep adding ghee slowly little by little and

as the ghee starts separating, add the sugar and a little more milk and cook well

to halva consistency and add khova (2-3 spoons) .  

Add cardomom powder, clove powder, nutmeg powder and soaked saffron and mix well. 

When cooked well to golden colour remove from flame. Garnish with almonds, pistas, 

cashew and raisins. 

This can be stored in fridge and when heating for serving add little milk and heat, so it 

does not dry out. If required sugar can be increased to suit your taste.

Fruit salad with Sweet Yoghurt

This is a healthy fat-free fruit salad that old and young alike would love.

Peel and chop fresh fruits of your choice and keep in a bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. ( I have used apples,oranges, seedless grapes, and bananas)

Take fresh homemade sweet curd in a large bowl and add sugar to taste and beat well till the sugar is dissolved add a pinch of salt also while mixing.

When the chopped fruits in the bowl is cooled add to the curd above and gently mix. Add honey on top as a decoration if desired. Serve when cool as a dessert. You can also skip sugar and add only honey for sweetness.

South Indian Tomato Chutney

©ashashenoyfineart

This is a spicy tasty chutney that goes with idli/dosa/vada/phulka/chapathi or with a plate of steaming rice topped with ladles of ghee! You can make and preserve it in the fridge for up to a week, don't keep the container out of the fridge every day, but transfer how much ever you need for the day to a bowl and return the chutney container to the fridge!

You need red ripe tomatoes, fresh coriander leaves for this preparation.

Ingredients:

Ripe red tomatoes: 1/2 kg  ( remove the stalk area by scooping and chop into 4 to 6 pieces)

Urad/udid dal: 2 heaped Tbsp

Mustard: 1 tsp

Methi seeds: 8 to 10 (fenugreek)

Asafoetida/Hing: 1 large pinch   ( I mean LG Hing powder)

Dried red chillies: 6 ( to taste)

Green chillies: 2 or 3

Garlic: 2 to 3 pods

Chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro) : 2 Tbsp

Refined oil: 5 to 6 Tbsp ( or a little more, don't cringe on oil usage plz)

Salt to taste

Process:

Pour the oil into a thick deep pan. (Not the flat non-stick types) and keep on the stove.

When oil is hot drop the mustard seeds, reduce to medium flame, when these splutter add udid dal and wait for a few seconds, till the dal turns light brown. Now drop the methi seeds and the dry red chillies and toss til udid dal turns golden brown. Immediately add hing powder, it will give a nice aroma in oil, keep stirring. Next, add the garlic pods, green chillies and the chopped tomatoes into the pan and add salt. Finally, add coriander leaves and stir well and let it fry well till oil comes slightly on the sides.

💥DO NOT ADD WATER at any stage.💥

Let this cool completely.

Transfer to a mixie jar and blend till done but the paste should not be too smooth. The dal should be seen in the chutney. Transfer to a dry airtight jar. 

💥Do not use water while grinding or transferring to the dry jar. 💥

Yummy chutney is ready. 

You can use cleaned peels of ridge gourd instead of tomatoes in this recipe. For this, first, peel the hard ridges on the gourd. Wash the gourds thoroughly and wipe dry. Now peel the skin off the gourd and in the above recipe use it instead of the chopped tomatoes. This will be another chutney treat to relish with hot rice, yummy!😋😋

Instant rasam/saar

Sorry folks, long time since I posted recipes. This is a good "saar" or rasam in these days of high cost of pulses! And good for health too.

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds : 1 Tbsp
Jeera : 1 tsp
Pepper corns : 1 tsp
Chana dal : 1 Tbsp
Red chillies : 2
Grated coconut : 3 Tbsps
Tamarind : lime size soak in water
For Seasoning : Oil 1 Tbsp, mustard 1/2 tsp,curry leaves 5 or 6


Method : Dry fry all the above (except coconut and tamarind)to golden color and grind to a smooth paste in a mixie with tamarind and coconut and 1/2 cup water. Transfer to a vessel and add 2 cups of water and salt as per taste. Bring to boil. Season with mustard and curry leaves.Serve with hot rice.

Apple Ginger Jam

Ingredients:
Apples: 1 kg
Sugar: 1 kg
Ginger: 50 gms
Limes: 2
Citric acid: 1 tsp
A few drops of colour if desired

Method:

Core apples and cut into small cubes, scrape and clean ginger and chop fine. Pressure cook these with a little water for 8 mins. ( You can also cook these in Microwave)
Extract puree by passing through a fine strainer or mesh. You can also use a crusher and then strain to extract the puree.

Add sugar, citric acid and lime juice to the puree in a thick vessel and boil rapidly, stir with a wooden spoon and remove scum from the top of the mixture. When the setting point is reached remove from fire, add colour and KMS ( optional). Bottle while still hot in a clean dry glass jar. Don't forget to keep the bottle on a wooden surface lest it cracks when hot jam is poured.

To test if the jam is done, drop a blob of jam in a bowl of cold water and if done it will remain as a shiny blob, if not it will start dissolving.

Bhaghara Baingan (Brinjals)

©ashashenoyfineart

Ingredients:
Step-1
Fry the following on slow fire to light golden brown:
Groundnuts            : 3 Tbsp
Til seeds                 : 2 Tbsp
Coconut scrapings  : 3 to 4 Tbsp
(or roast 1/4th dry coconut /copra roast on flame,
poke a fork into the coconut and turn on flame)
Cool the above, make a coarse powder in the mixie, add water and complete the grinding, remove the paste and keep in a bowl.

Step-2
Eight to ten small, fresh and tender brinjals.
Wash and wipe dry the brinjals. Remove the stalks. Slit the bottom of each brinjal into 4 sections at right angles till a little before the stalk
In a kadai (thick pan) pour oil. Keep on stove and heat the oil till very hot (drop a tiny piece of brinjal, it should pop up in the oil immediately and not sink and stay at the bottom) but don't over heat.
Drop the brinjals one by one and fry till the color changes, you can reduce the flame slightly to avoid over frying. When done remove with a frying ladle and place in a colander to drain the oil.

Transfer the oil used for frying from this pan, leaving behind about 6 Tbsps oil.

Now take two medium size onions. Poke a fork in the onion and tun over a medium flame till the onions turn translucent. Now slice the onions and blend in a mixie. Keep aside.

Step-3
Ingredients
Mustard seeds:  1 tsp
Black til    : 1/2 tsp (kalonji)
Red chillies:  2
Methi seeds:  8 numbers
Karbev: 10 leaves
Onion paste: as in Step-2
Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp
*Salt: to taste

Dhania powder: 1 level tsp
Jeera powder: 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder:  1 tsp

Lime-sized tamarind, wash well add water and extract thick juice.


Now heat the oil in the pan, and drop one by one of the above ingredients up to salt*. Fry well on a slow fire and then add dhania, jeera, chilli powder. Fry again and then add the paste made in Step -1, mix well fry again, add oil if necessary and 1/2 cup water to blend. Keep frying till oil leaves the sides of the pan. Now carefully place the fried brinjals, add tamarind juice, and cook for 10 mins slowly turning the brinjals in the masala. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes on slow fire. Put off the flame and add chopped coriander leaves. Bhagara baingan is ready to serve!!

Pepper Chicken

Ingredients: 

(A) Broiler chicken : 600 gms (good pieces) 

Ginger-garlic paste : 1 Tbsp each 

Curds/yoghurt                    : 150 ml 

Vinegar : 1 Tbsp 

Salt : 2 tsp 

Chili powder : 1 tsp 

Haldi/Turmeric powder : 1/2 tsp (B) 

Large onions : 2 Chopped and ground coarsely in a mixie 

Ginger garlic paste : 1 Tbsp 

Coriander/dhania powder : 1 Tbsp 

Pepper : 2 Tbsp pepper corns freshly powdered 

Garam masala powder : 1 tsp  (you can buy a branded pack of Garam masala

Green chillies (slit) : 4 

Tamarind lime size : soak in water and extract thick juice 

Curry leaves(karbev) : 10 to 15 

Refined oil : 6 Tbsps or 100 ml 

Salt : 1 tsp ( adjust salt) 

For seasoning : Coconut oil/rice bran/sunflower oil, 1 tspfull mustard seeds ,2 dry red chilies and few curry leaves. 

Method: 

Mix the items under (A) and marinate the chicken pieces in it for 1 hour. Take a thick pan and pour the oil into it. Keep on stove and when hot add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté. 

When the raw smell goes, add the onion paste and saute, add the the garam masala, pepper, dhania/coriander powder, slit green chilies and karbev(curry leaves) leaves next and saute well. Keep turning till the mixture is fried nicely and oil is leaving the sides of the mixture. 

Add salt and the marinated chicken pieces, pour the tamarind juice. Mix well and cover and allow to cook adding very little water to help in cooking the chicken pieces. Instead of water you can also use 1/2 cup of coconut milk for cooking the chicken in the gravy. This enhances the taste of the curry.The chicken pieces should cook well in about 15 minutes. Finally season with the seasoning items and decorate with chopped coriander leaves . Serve hot with chicken biryani. This is a spicy Southie Indian chicken curry.