Main Course | Saute Fry N Bake

Chia seed trifle

Preparation time : 30 minutes
Cooking time : nil
Serves : 4 members

Description
I am a hopeless person when it comes to cooking healthy food but my daughter does it with so much ease. This chia seeds trifle is also a trial from her side. I shamelessly steal all her ideas for serving healthy meals at home. Well being her mother, I do have the liberty of doing so, isn’t it ??

Ingredients

Ingredients	Quantity
Chia seeds	1 cup soaked in 2 cups of water over night
Strawberries	8 puréed
Ripe mango	half a cheek puréed
Hung curd	1 /2 cup
Mixed fruits ( apple , guava , ripe mango , musk melon , papaya , pomegranate)	1 cup chopped
Honey	to taste
Mixed Nuts ( almonds + cashew nuts + walnuts )	2 tablespoons chopped
Dates	2 seeds removed and chopped
Cranberries	1 teaspoon

Method

Mix 1/2 of the soaked chia seeds with the strawberries purée . Add 1/4 cup of hung curd and honey to taste . Mix well . Taste adjust sweetness.
Mix 1/2 of the soaked chia seeds with the ripe mango purée . Add 1/4 cup of hung curd and honey to taste . Mix well . Taste adjust sweetness.
Take a tall glass . Add a big ladle of strawberry chia seed mix . Add 2 tablespoons of mixed fruits . Then top with a big label of rip mango chia seed mix . Add 1 tablespoon of chopped fruits once again . Sprinkle chopped nuts , dates and cranberries.
Do the same with the remaining ingredients. Chill and serve for breakfast or as a snack or a dessert .

Thinai pongal

Preparation time : 15 minutes + soaking fox millet over night
Cooking time : 10-12 minutes
Serves : 3-4 members

Description

Pongal is a very Tamil thing as the word pong or pongu means boil over or spill over from which the word pongal derived. The word Pongal is used to represent the harvest festival or the dish made either as a sweet or savoury one. Oops.. This sounds like a text book paragraph. This dish was a try with the regular pongal recipe that I make at home but here I just substituted rice with fox millet. Having my doubts about the results of the out come kept my fingers crossed. I was surprised that I found no difference at all. It tasted exactly like the normal rice pongal. Now a healthy dish made the traditional way, that tastes nice. Isn’t that a banging bonus. I didn’t mention about the twist to any one as I wanted to know if any one would find the difference. No complaints with the vessel empty. I was happy that this recipe try didn’t end up like a dating service meaning as most of the recipes I try don’t end up like the picture I have in mind ..

Ingredients	Quantity
Fox millet / thinai arisi	1 cup
Moong dal	1/2 cup
Pepper corns	1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds	1 teaspoon
Salt	to taste
Ghee	2 tablespoons
Cashew nuts	1 teaspoon
Curry leaves	few

Method

Wash and soak fox millet in water over night. Dry roast the moong dal to light golden and remove from heat.
Heat ghee, temper with black pepper corns, cumin seeds, curry leaves and cashew nuts. Once they crackle and get to a light golden colour, remove from heat.
In a pressure cooker mix soaked and drained fox millet, washed fried moong dal and four and a half cups of water together.
Pour the tempered ingredients and add salt to taste. Mix well and pressure cook for three whistles or until cooked to a mushy mass of goodness.
Serve hot with chutney and sambar.

Vella Pola

Preparation time : 24 hours / 8 hours to ferment + 3/4 hours to soak the rice + 25-30 minutes to grind the batter
Cooking time : 10- 15 minutes
Serves : 4 members

Description

The minute I got to see these vella pola at a relatives place in Kerala, I was reminded about a similar white steamed bread served to us once a year for Easter feast in boarding school. But this was entirely different from those Easter treats. I made sure to get the recipe and tried it out when I had guests for lunch. Keeping my fingers crossed followed the recipe. Nervousness was killing me as the vella pola’s were being steamed. Removed them and waiting to de – mould them once a bit cool. The first one I de – mounded came out easy, airy and light as it must be. I made sure to taste it and it was pitch perfect. A big hit on the table as well with the North Indian guests who were having it for the first time. These sort of cutting edge regional food’s excite me a lot as you can’t find them in restaurants but only in homes that are delicious tribute to our motherland. These culinary bonanza recipes that you get to learn from one another that are rarely documented but stored in mind through mouth of word from one generation to the other always top popular charts for me. Give the ready to eat kit’s and food court junk a miss and get into making these knock out home made Indian food being loyal to our roots the old school way.

Ingredients	Quantity
Basmati rice	1 cup
Cooked rice	1/2 cup
Grated coconut	1 cup
Sugar	1/4 cup
Yeast	1 teaspoon
Soda - bi - carbonate	1 teaspoon
Semolina Water	1/4 cup
Salt	to taste

Method

Soak basmati rice for four hours. Cook semolina with 3/4 cup of water and Cool completely.
Grind soaked rice with grated coconut. Add cooked rice and grind further to a smooth paste adding very little water.
Mix ground rice mix with cooked semolina, soda – bi – carbonate, yeast sugar and salt. Combine well.
Place covered in a warm place for eight hours or over night to ferment .
Grease small shallow steel plates with oil. Pour two ladles of fermented batter. Steam in a idli vessel for 10 – 15 minutes.
Cool for 15 minutes and de-mould as when hot it’s sticky. Cut into triangles.
Serve warm with mutton / chicken curry or vegetable stew.

Wheat Appam

Preparation time : 10 minutes + 5 hours fermentation time
Cooking time : 40 seconds to 1 minute for each appam
Serves : 6-8 members

Description

Any thing made with wheat flour is a warm welcome now a days. I was so surprised to come across a recipe of appam made with wheat flour that was shared by a fellow foodie blogger beena stephy. I did make quote and give a try the next day itself. with my doubts about the results.. Made sure to spare some dosa batter if the wheat appam gets to be a flop show. It was a big no from my boy but surprisingly hubby dear gave a thumbs up. I was blown away with the results as it was perfect just like the regular rice appams we make always with a crisp lace around and a spongy middle. Shared the results in all the food groups I am a member of with joy even before I could share it with you all. I was requested by the television team of news 7 Tamil channel to cook paya recipe with appam. I grabbed the opportunity and made sure to make wheat appams as well making sure to mention the source of the recipe as I was in a soup for not doing so previously in my blog for another recipe. Any good recipe that excites me I make sure to share it with you all first and then in all the foodie groups. Like wise I did so. As I was going through the comments in one foodie group post, got the shock of my life to see comments on me for not sharing the source of the person in the recipe share. I made sure to clear the problem then and there as I respect this world of sharing recipes for free. From then on made sure to add the source of any recipe that I share. This recipe is for sure keeps as its healthy and uses very few ingredients, less efforts and great results.

Ingredients	Quantity
Wheat flour	3 cups
coconut milk	1 1/2 cup
Water	1 1/2 to 2 cups
Sugar	1 tablespoon
Yeast	3/4 teaspoon
Salt	to taste

Method

Mix wheat flour, salt, sugar and coconut milk together.
Dilute by adding more water to get a lump free batter.
Add yeast and blend well in a food processor. Let it ferment for 5 hours.
Mix the batter and dilute to appam batter consistency and pour into hot non stick kadai and make appams.