Garma garam Poori/Puri

And there are times, however healthy you try to eat, you want a heavy greasy breakfast. It may feel absolutely sinful but a couple kilometers run will help you get over that feeling. Poori accompanied with any curry of your choice. Bhaji, kala chana, chole vegetable korma or even halwa; best weekend breakfast. Easy, simple and straightforward.

This recipe serves 2 people and makes 6 pooris. Each puri gives approximately 107 calories.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp oil

½ tsp salt

Water as required

Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Sieve the flour and add salt and oil to it.
2. Mix together and slowly start adding lukewarm water forming stiff dough.
3. Knead well for 5 minutes and rest the dough covered for 20 minutes.
4. Make small portions out of the dough and roll it out into 4 inch diameter.
5. Heat the oil and test with a small portion of dough if the oil is well heated.
6. The dough should bubble and rise, Once the oil is heated, fry each puri at a time.
7. Slowly lower the rolled out puri into the oil and immediately splashing oil on top and pressing gently with the back of a spoon.
8. Once the poori puffs up, turn the other side.
9. Once it turns golden brown both ways, remove it out on a kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.
10. Serve hot or keep it in a casserole.

NOTE:

• While kneading, make sure the dough is stiff unlike regular chapatti.
• While rolling do not use more flour to dust it. A good dough does need flour for dusting. If required use little oil to help roll.
• Fry, only when the oil is well heated. The heat should be medium high.

 Also try Potato Masala in The Kitchen Counter column.

Recipe by Zohra Sada

Carrot - The root for health!

Sweet, delicious and healthy. A root vegetable that adds crunch, colour and fibre to the diet. Eaten fresh or cooked, this nutritious food is exceptionally rich in Vitamins providing very low calories and almost no fat.

Although we get to see mostly orange carrots in the markets, purple, red, yellow and white varieties do exist. Most of the health benefits of carrots are attributed because of its high beta carotene and fibre value. Carrots are also a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B8, pantothenic acid, potassium, folate, iron, copper and manganese.

According to ayurvedic sources carrot's cool nature and mild bitter taste purifies the blood. Carrot has a cool and relaxing effect on the eyes. Beta-carotene, which gives carrots their bright orange color, is metabolized into vitamin A in the presence of bile salts in the small intestine. Vitamin A nourishes the liver, and purifies the blood. These actions improve vision, complexion of the skin, and generally reduce inflammation. Carrot helps make the skin noticeably softer, smoother, and firmer. Carrots increase the quality of the breast milk. During pregnancy, carrots reduce the risk of jaundice and enhance baby's complexion. 

Health benefits:

1. Improves Eyesight: Deficiency of Vitamin A causes night blindness or the inability to see in dim light. Carrots being a rich source of beta carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin prevent these conditions including cataract.
2. Digestion: Carrots like most other vegetables give good amount of fibre to the diet which bulks the stool and acts as a laxative. It stimulates peristaltic movement and secretion of gastric juices.
3. Diabetes: Despite its sweetness and natural sugars, carrots stabilize blood sugar because of the presence of carotenoids. Carotenoids inversely affect insulin resistance and help lower blood sugar. 
4. Cancer: Antioxidants and beta carotene present in carrots play a role in cancer prevention.
5. Carrots have numerous other benefits associated with it like;  prevention of heart diseases, reducing blood pressure, lowering risk of stroke, preventing cancer, boosting the immune system, increasing the rate of fertility, nourishing the skin and the pregnant lady.

Keep in mind the nutritional values of vegetables change if eaten raw or cooked and also depend on the different methods of cooking. For example, boiling the carrot and draining the water may cause loss of vitamin C and folate while on the other hand research has shown that cooked carrots have more amounts of antioxidants compared to raw.

A bowl of warm carrot soup, a plate of fresh carrot salad, carrot into vegetable curries, carrot halwa or pickled carrots – blend in your diet the way you want - or freshly extracted carrot juice which can do wonders on the liver. Most diseases can be cured by improving the functioning of the liver. Fresh carrot juice is often compared to blood detoxification.

How would you use up your bag of carrot??

Also Read: Carrot Pudding/ Gajar ka Halwa, Carrot Cake and Carrot Pickle in The Kitchen Counter column.

Post by Zohra Sada

Coconut Masala filling/topping for Puttu

 This masala of coconut and chicken is a match made in heaven for puttu. It works perfectly well as a filling for other recipes calling for a coconut filling like chapathi foldovers too. 

Here is what you’ll need:

2 chicken breast pieces

2 large onions

1 ½ cup fresh coconut shredded 

6-7 green chillies

10 curry leaves

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp oil

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp garam masala

½ cup chopped coriander

½ cube stock (optional)

Salt

Method:

1. Sauté the onions, chilli and curry leaves on low flame till the onions reduce. Sprinkle salt.
2. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry on medium heat till the raw smell goes. Fry in the turmeric powder.
3. Add the rest of the masala powders  and then add in the chicken.
4. Let the chicken cook in its own juice. If the masala sticks to the bottom, add a couple of tbsp water.
5. Once the chicken is completely cooked, remove it from the masala and shred it finely.
6. Put back the shredded chicken in the masala and mix well.
7. Mix in the coconut and chopped coriander and cook on low simmer for 10 minutes till steamed.
8. Use the filling for your favorite recipe.

 Recipe by Zohra Sada

Puttu - Rice powder and coconut delicacy

Making of the puttu podi:

Puttu: Steamed cylinders of finely powdered rice and coconut layers. A favorite breakfast in the Kerala cuisine. Most of the recipes for puttu ask for buying ready made rice flour or puttu podi meant for making puttu. I have often heard friends complaining that puttu made of ready puttu podi turns out very stiff and hard. We like our puttu crumbly and soft. So here is the puttu recipe from scratch.

I have used a mixture of brown or Kerala Parboiled rice along with just normal parboiled rice. The brown parboiled rice tends to make the puttu even softer. Wash and soak the rice for 3 hours atleast. Once soaked, drain the rice and spread it out on a cotton cloth to dry the rice for 10 - 15 minutes.

Dried rice is easier to grind and does not clump together.  Once dried, use a heavy duty grinder to finely powder the rice. Remember, the powder should be extremely smooth. It may take 5 minutes of grinder time. Do not powder all the rice at once. Make it into 2-3 batches. Your rice powder for the puttu is ready. This puttu powder can be done in bulk and stored in freezer for a couple of months.

Once ready to assemble the puttu, take rice powder in a deep dish, add a tsp of salt and 2-3 tsp of sugar. Add 2 tbsp of water and mix well. The water is added bare minimum to help the puttu cook with steam. If the mixture becomes wet or if the coconut filling is moist and you are using a puttu maker, you are inviting disaster. The pressure builds up and the whole cylinder of puttu will jump out with a blast. Literally. Been there done that. Be careful.

The layering of puttu can be done with plain coconut or spicy coconut masala with shredded chicken. Check out the recipe of Coconut Masala. Plain shredded coconut can also be used as a topping and a side dish of chicken/ sambhar can be served.

For assembling in a puttu maker, start at the bottom with a layer of plain shredded coconut. The second layer will be the rice powder. The third layer will be either the coconut masala or plain coconut. This will go on repeating till the last layer will be a coconut/masala layer. You can now steam your puttu. The doneness of your puttu is when your puttu maker steams.

If you want to make puttus and you don’t have a puttu maker, use your steamer and idli vaatis/bowl. Each individual bowl will be a puttu. The base layer will coconut filling and top it with rice powder. Pop these into your steamer and steam for 5 minutes.

If you like your puttus sweet make plain puttus with plain coconut topping and whilst serving add a tsp of ghee and sugar.

This recipe will serve 4 people. Each serving (3 puttus) of puttus give 414 calories approximately.

Here is what you’ll need:

¾ cup Kerala parboiled rice

¼ cup parboiled rice

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp water

Method:

1. Wash and soak the rice for 3 hours
2. Drain the rice and spread it out on a cloth and dry for 10- 15minutes
3. Grind the rice into a fine powder
4. Add salt sugar and water
5. Assemble the coconut filling and rice powder in a puttu maker and steam

Recipe by Zohra Sada

The Pep Talk: The Desperate Housewives - Bad Habits

DISCLAIMER:  This post is meant as a chiding for me and me to be a better wife, mother and woman.

I know your life is busy or busier than any other woman. Your pile of chores and to-do lists won’t just get over. And then there are kids to look after and you have to update your social network and watch that serial. Give me 48 hours in a day, it will still be insufficient. Oh did I forget about, ‘to cook’, sorry! You have to cook and cook and cook. For your husband, and your kids and then feed yourself if you have any energy left, (after all that TV watching.)

Hah! Just kidding… No. Seriously. No jokes. Somehow the housewife manages to get more tired and exhausted than any other job. Pardon me, I said housewife, not a home maker. I’m not a sexist, just said so, because this article is more pointing towards women.

So, women. Yeah!

Every woman’s dietary lifestyle is different depending on her age, marital status, education, lifestyle and economic and family status.

A well educated woman, with a good family and economic status tends to adapt a healthier lifestyle for her family and herself compared to a woman who may be in a well off family but is not educated well enough. A healthy lifestyle may also depend on the place or economic condition of residence. For example, a woman staying in a developed country depends more on ready-to-eat meals or frozen and packaged food. The same woman if staying in a rural and under developed area goes to the market to buy fresh organic food and needs to burn double the calories.

All in all, there are few common BAD habits in modern housewives:

1. Waking up late and skipping breakfast: This one is the latest trend for mothers with kids going off to school. Once the kids are off, you go back to sleep and wake up to cook for lunch. And before lunch you don’t really skip the breakfast but indulge in a slice of nutella or coffee. Really?
2. Nibbling in between cooking: So your cooking bread rolls for dinner. The chicken filling is ready and so is the bread dough. You go ahead and start filling, and…Oh! Why is the pot of chicken filling half empty. I just tasted a spoonful. It was so tasty I tried another spoonful. Naaa.. Never mind. There was extra anyway. (Extra layer fat on your tummy. Hah!)
3. Eating the leftovers of the children’s meal: So little Katy left her plate half empty and so did Kai. Oh God ! children! They don’t understand, it’s not good to throw away food. L I’ll finish their plates and then I’ll go eat mine too. (Woman! You need to keep your plate in the fridge)
4. Saying No to milk: I’ll scream my lungs off at my kids to drink their milk. “How will you grow up to be a tall strong boy if you won’t drink any milk” And I’ll break my bones because of osteoporosis. Most women hate milk.
5. Saying No to greens: I won’t have a lettuce salad. I don’t mind a bit of coriander. Your garnish of coriander and mint don’t count for greens. ANEMIA.
6. Chocolates, sweets and fatty foods: The intense cravings, the erratic behavior they cause. Chocolate and fatty foods are an addiction. If your kids wipe out your secret stash of chocolates, you start scrounging every nook and corner. It’s an addiction. Cut it out.
7. Heavy Dinners: Have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper said some wise man. And here we are putting all our energy and calories to laden the dinner table with exotic meals.
8. Too much for two: Most women just can’t cook enough for two. They end cooking too much and all the extra leftovers go down the drain…I mean their stomach.
9. Going hungry: If your husband or kids are not home for the day. Its holiday from the kitchen for all you beautiful housewives. No breakfast, no lunch, no dinner. Just lots of chips, chocolate and whatever ready to eat junk is available.
10. Whatsapp dietician : So someone got a forwarded message from whatsapp that eggplants aka brinjals cause cancer. And here I was thinking that eggplants prevent cancer. Ladies, cooking one big eggplant for your whole family even twice a month wont cause you anything. No, not even kidney stones. Chill. Eat up that brinjal.

No. Don’t laugh. You know it’s true. And you all do that.

Stay tuned for the next article of “The desperate Housewives”. Till then Eat smart, Eat healthy.

Post by Zohra Sada

Sweet Momos / Hatha Welli Nawari

Only for ease of understanding I have named them as sweet momos. Though the recipe is very similar to that of momos, this is a traditional bhatkali recipe going by the name of “hatha welli nawari”. 

The method of preparation is similar to that of momos. But here the filling is sweet with a coconut base. I have used jaggery as a sweetener. Sugar works extremely well too.

The skin for the momo is made of semi cooked dough. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, switch off the flame.  Add the salt and ghee and dump in all the dough at once and then go ahead and knead to medium soft dough.  Once the dough is ready, pick out small pieces and roll out into chapathi.

On one half side of the chapathi spread a thin layer of the filling .Now fold the chapathi and seal the edges.

The momos are ready to get steamed.

This recipe makes around 20 momos. Each serving (1 momo) gives approximately 92 calories.

Here is what you’ll need:

For the filling:

1 cup fresh coconut

1- 1 ½  cups jaggery/sugar

1 tbsp rose water

¼ cup almonds and cashew nut chopped

1 tsp sesame seeds (til)

For the dough:

1 cup water

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour (maida)

1 tsp ghee

½ tsp salt

Method:

1. For the filling mix the coconut, jaggery and nuts in a heavy bottom pan and let it cook on low flame till the coconut cooks, jaggery melts and the mixture steams. Add a tbsp of rose water.
2. For the dough, in a large pot bring the water to a boil.
3. Add salt and ghee to the water.
4. Once the water comes to a rolling boil, dump in all the flour at once and start mixing it with a wooden spatula.
5. Once the dough starts clumping together, lay it out on a flat surface and knead it well till it forms soft dough.
6. Pick out tiny lemon sized balls of dough, knead each of them and roll out skin thin chapathi.
7. Add the prepared filling to one half and seal shut by pressing the edges together.
8. Keep the prepared momos on a  paper.
9. Bring the steamer to a boil. Grease the steamer plate with few drops of oil to avoid the  momos sticking.
10. Once the water boils, arrange the momos on the steamer plate. Take care that each piece don’t touch the other.
11. Steam for 10-12 mins.
12. Serve cool. 

Recipe by Zohra Sada