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A Indian kadhi generally is a spicy, yogurt based gravy which is thickened by the use of chickpea flour. Other flours are substituted for chickpea flour aka besan especially during the Navratri fasting season, a tidbit I have learnt from the blogging world over the years. I tried recently amaranth flour based kadhi aka rajgira kadhi and it turns out that even a basic version kadhi without all the frills can taste good too. No chickpea flour, onions, tomatoes, asafoetida, mustard seeds, turmeric or dried mango powder in this version but one wouldn't call this gluten free gravy a flavorless one. We at least didn't mind even a bit and I am sure that any kadhi lover would enjoy this amaranth flour kadhi as well. The lackluster color of the kadhi may be a giveaway that it may not be the regular version kadhi but one would probably just assume the lack of turmeric in it.
Whisk the yogurt well to a uniform consistency. I was lazy to do so when I made this and that's why the kadhi looks curdled but it is not so. If not using this as a fasting meal, feel free too use turmeric, mustard seeds, asafoetida, onion, salt and other stuff one would prefer in a kadhi. Even buckwheat flour or chestnut flours can be used in place of amaranth flour in the recipe.
Ingredients: (2 servings)
1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup amaranth flour
2 tsp. ghee / oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. ginger paste or grated ginger
2 finely minced green chillies or 1 tsp. green chili paste
Rock salt to taste
Minced cilantro to garnish
Directions:
* Whisk yogurt well in a bowl. Add amaranth flour to the yogurt and mix until there are no lumps. Yogurt and flour together can be whisked in a blender as well.
* Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds. When they start to brown add ginger and chillies. Saute for few seconds and then add water. Next add yogurt - amaranth flour mixture and rock salt to the pan. Continue to cook on low flame stirring intermittently until the mixture thickens. If the mixture appears to be thicker than the preferred consistency, add extra water and bring the mixture again to a boil and turn off the stove.
* Garnish with cilantro and serve warm. It can be served with any cooked grains allowed during fasting or rice / rotis.
The idea for this healthy breakfast option came from
Kalyani's post from last blogging marathon though I overlooked the details at the time of preparation,
ending up altogether with a different variety of idlis if I am not wrong. My husband loves his idlis as my daughter does her macaroni and cheese. The man wouldn't be complaining if idlis are the only thing that get served at breakfast table all his life while I am the opposite. I would eat them only as my last option though I make good quality idlis, thanks to my south Indian upbringing. The healthy infusion of moong beans in the idli captivated my attention though I wasn't sure how my husband would receive the idea. My husband considered me crazy to try to mess up with the perfected, traditional version of fluffy idlis though he wasn't that vehement about the idea after tasting them. They were a little heavy when compared to the standard version idlis and a few will fill you up good for a longer time. I used idli rice, forgot the seasoning part before filling the idli moulds and so, my idlis ended up looking different than Kalyani's. I am sure that the seasoning would make them more flavorful and there is always a next time to try them. :) These idlis make a healthier meal option and a great variation if looking out to try a different variety idli.
Ingredients: (Yield 18 to 20 idlis)
1/2 to 3/4 cup whole green gram / sabut mung
3/4 cup split, skinned black gram / urad dal
3/4 cup idli rice
Salt to taste
Method:
* Rinse green gram, black gram and idli rice twice and soak in water (submerging them well) for 3 to 4 hours. Drain the water used to soak before grinding.
* Finely grind the soaked ingredients adding salt and enough water into thick batter. Transfer the batter into a container that can hold more than the ground batter since it is going to raise during the fermentation period.
* Cover the container and keep it in a warm place to ferment overnight. (I usually grind the batter in the evening and leave it in the oven with the light on. I do not turn on the oven. I live in a cold place and this method works for me resulting in a good fermented batter in around 12 to 14 hours.)
* Grease the idli plates and fill the moulds with the batter and steam them on low flame, about 20 minutes.
* Serve them with chutney / sambhar of your choice.
This goes to Blogging marathon #69, under the theme 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Check here to find out what the other marathoners are cooking as part of the BM.
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Srivalli asked the bloggers why they chose to join the blogging marathon and today's post is one of the reasons. Not the post but posting today on my blog, I mean. Let me be clear. If not for BM#4, there would have been no post today here. As I told during marathon 2, I post leisurely at my pace, probably 2 - 3 recipes per week. There have been times when I did not post at all for months. I cook everyday, I read everyday but blogging everyday seems like a big chore and in fact it is one. A single post approximately takes 1 - 2 hours of my time including cooking, capturing the dish and publishing the recipe. And lazy me don't like to invest that much of energy and time on recording recipes, each day. I am in really awe watching people posting recipes each day as if they are on a mission. :) Just kidding. I really admire their passion, commitment and patience.
You join like-minded people during a marathon and fellow bloggers inspire you to cook and post each day during the marathon. It makes you think and plan since you go by a particular theme. I feel the rush and like the spirit and even the stress behind it. Last week, I had to sit and type after 11 pm for a post and ditto today. Why, because of the marathon and I have to go by the rules of the game. I was busy from the morning, had to go out in the evening and am sitting now in front of the computer. If not for the marathon, I would have been asleep by now. :)
And though I was planning to post something else, I am going with this healthy and nutritious ragi drink on the fourth day of this marathon. I chose this one just because I could draft it in less time since the recipe is so ridiculously simple one.
Ragi / Finger millet / Nachni is a millet grain that has been cultivated in India from ancient times. It is a gluten free, diabetic friendly grain and is rich in calcium, iron, protein and some rare nutrients such as methionine. The readily available factor, the cheap price, the versatility and the nutrition makes it a popular grain, especially among the rural / poor class in South India.
Here, I have used the huri hittu (popped ragi powder), bursting with flavors enjoyed by kids and adults alike. And you don't even have to cook it like ragi flour.
Ingredients for 2 servings:
1 cup fat free or 1/% milk
4 - 5 Tbsp ragi huri hittu
Splenda / sugar / any sweetener to taste
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
1 Tbsp chopped walnuts & almonds (Optional. Even raisins, chopped dates or any dried fruits may be added, especially for kids.)
Preparation:
1. Warm the milk in microwave for about 90 seconds. (If using unpasteurized milk, boil it on stovetop.)
2. Add ragi huri hittu, cardamom powder and the sweetener to the milk. Mix well with out any lumps.
3. Garnish with nuts and dried fruits, if using and serve.
Bloggers who are participating in this marathon are
Diabetes Diet/Management: Me, Kamalika, Smitha
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli
Linking this to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela.
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Today marks the third day of BM#4 and I am here with a mixed vegetable upma, prepared with rediscovered, protein rich, super 'quinoa'. I have been in love with this pseudo grain for some time now and keep cooking it in all the ways I can think of and this is one of them.
Bloggers who are participating in this marathon are
Diabetes Diet/Management: Me, Kamalika, Smitha
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli
Ingredients for 3 servings:
1 cup quinoa
1 & 3/4 cups water
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup mixed veggies, chopped fine
Salt to taste
2 Green chillies (I used Serrano Peppers. Adjust the spiciness to taste)
For tadka: 3 - 4 tsp oil, 1 tsp each - chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds & cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and few curry leaves
Note: I have used carrots, peas & potatoes in this recipe. These can be substituted with other vegetables like beans, capsicum and tomatoes when serving diabetics.
Making upma:
* Lightly toast quinoa and keep it aside.
* Heat the oil in a deep pan or a kadai. Add the tadka ingredients and toast until the dals start turning reddish. Then add the chillies, saute for a few seconds and then add the onions and vegetables of your choice. Stir once and cook covered until the vegetables are tender.
* Next add water and salt to the pan. Bring the water to a rolling boil.
* Lower the heat now and add quinoa. Stir well and cook again covered until quinoa is done, about 15 - 20 minutes. When cooking is complete, the quinoa seeds should become translucent and the white germ has partially detached itself, appearing like a tail.
Squeeze some lemon juice while serving, if desired. Or serve with yogurt.
Regarding the discussions during BM#4:
Now 'behind the scenes' of this marathon. The marathoners keep discussing various issues thru emails during the marathon session and everyone gets to learn a thing or two in the process. Srivalli who is organizing this blogging marathon has posed us some questions like why do we blog, what do we look for in other blogs & so on and also asked us to introduce ourselves so that the fellow marathoners get acquainted with each other. This particular exercise is proving helpful since I get to know more about the fellow bloggers. Though it is not required to post about it on the blog, I thought of doing so.
To start with, I think people who follow this blog already are familiar about my recipes and me but nevertheless here we go.
About me:
1. My name is Suma and I blog at this space known as Veggie Platter. As the name indicates, the blog emphasizes on vegetarian, home style meals and is predominantly Indian. Whatever you see on this blog is solely my creativity and my responsibility. I am the one who is cooking, writing and taking pictures for this blog for the past 4 + years.
2. I have a degree in teaching and worked for a while as a High school math teacher in India. I do have immense patience when dealing with kids and I do love teaching. Right now for personal reasons, I choose to stay at home.
3. I have been happily married to a wonderful guy for over 15 years now. We have a son who is going to be a teenager later this year and a 9 year old daughter.
4. I have lived most of my life (more than two decades) in Bangalore, India and have been in USA for the past 13 years.
5. I try to find joy and peace even in everyday, mundane things. I am usually a very calm, stress-free person.
* I do prefer books over people or for that matter, even cooking. I can read anything and everything as long as it is interesting / informative.
* I used to watch TV shows when kids were younger and now I totally avoid it when they are around. Now, I watch news and reality shows like amazing race. Our princess would be glued to cartoon network while our son to sports shows and we adults have no control over remote.
And any day, I would prefer home & garden television to the food network. I can't stand chefs ooh-aah ing over some dead animal and there are barely shows that fit my style.
* And regarding movies, I can enjoy any decent one in English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. I can fluently speak, read and write in the first four languages and understand about 60 - 70 percent of Tamil. BTW, I like to read or watch thrillers.
* I do like visiting new places but hate the part of travelling since I have a serious motion sickness problem. I hate riding in a car / bus.
6. Why do I blog?
I have already posted it here.
7. What do I see in other blogs?
I recently started following my favorite blogs. Some I do for being informative, some for the writing style and a few for recipes. However, when I visit a food blog, I do read from the beginning to the end; how uninteresting the post may be. That's the least I can do to appreciate a fellow blogger's investment of time and efforts. I usually consider it lousy just saying 'yummy or delicious' though sometimes I do, not knowing what else to say.
8. I prefer a blog with simple layout and neat presentation. When it comes to writing, I think that even a plain introduction with out spelling/grammatical mistakes and reiteration would please any visitor.
9. Food Photography
My husband keeps telling me to do a photography course at a community college and I keep refusing. :) I am not an expert in photography but try to present a dish appealingly. I prefer natural light to take pictures and do not attempt food photography on cloudy days. I am not interested in artificial light setting. I therefore plan according to the weather forecast since I happen to live in Midwest where half the year, it would be gloomy. It is working for me since I have a privilege of staying at home. I pay more attention to the texture of the dish than the props. In fact I pay no attention at all to props and I think this should change. :)
I cook and take pictures leisurely in the morning when everyone is out. If I have to take pictures on a weekend, then I dish out a portion. And then I picture leisurely so that the entire family enjoys the meal with out waiting for my photography session to end. However everyone at home has developed the etiquette to ask about my pictures before eating. :)
Family Support:
10. My husband is very proud of my work and is my super supporter, more than myself I should say. He is a very jovial person and he is rarely seen with out a smile on his face. I am the opposite and the serious kind. I don't make friends easily and feel awkward talking to strangers. And so it must have been amusing to my husband watching me blog on a public platform and making "all these strangers" friends. He has subscribed himself to my blog, reads each post of mine and keeps offering suggestions to better my blog. I never talk about my blog with my friends but my husband and some of his colleagues who have enjoyed my food do canvass about my blog. When non blogging readers send appreciative emails after trying my recipes, I am overwhelmed with joy and sometimes even pride.
11. My husband and son enjoy food and primarily are the sources of inspiration for my cooking and blogging. I don't hesitate to try new vegetarian dishes at home because of them.
12. And most important of all, I should thank my son who happens to be a gifted child. Touch wood. He learnt HTML when he was 8 to help me around with this blog. He is the one who deals with any technical difficulties that arise during the blogging process.
Hopefully I covered all the topics that were discussed during this marathon.
Linking this post to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela.
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Erra karam dosas with blueberry - banana milkshake
Here are some nutritious, multi legume - grain crepes on the second day of this BM#4.
Bloggers who are participating in this marathon are
Diabetes Diet/Management: Me, Kamalika, Smitha
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli
Of all the dosa / crepe batters I prepare, I would label this particular one the healthiest. Basically, all grains and legumes found in any Indian kitchen can be sneaked in here. The recipe can be altered depending upon one's preference and the availability of the ingredients. I got hold of this recipe from M's aunt, who had taken the trouble to write all the recipes she knows, neatly categorizing them for her daughters. Usually, folks in our family who are interested get copies of it.
You can use each ingredient in their whole form and get them ground in a flourmill, if you are fortunate enough to have one near by. A large quantity of flour can be ground and stored in this way. Or else grind them at home in a mixer / blender in small quantities.
Ingredients in the original recipe:
1 kg wheat berries
100 grams barley
50 grams soya flour
1/2 kilogram (All combined)- Toordal, urad dal, moong bean (whole, green colored), chanadal, jowar, millet, rice, ragi, peanuts and sabudana (tapioca)
My adaptation:
I used the flours I had and ground the remaining ingredients. Additionally I added red chori beans, green lentils, quinoa and flax seed meal.
Ingredients (Make 5 cups):
2 & 1/2 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup barley
2 Tbsp each - brown rice, ragi, millet, quinoa, soya flour, toordal, besan/chanadal, urad dal, moong dal, red chori beans, green lentils, peanuts, sabudana, flax seed meal
Grinding the flour:
Combine the flours in a mixing bowl. Finely grind the remaining grains and lentils in a blender / mixer. Sieve if needed and add them as well to the bowl. Mix all the flours well and store in an air tight container.
Making dosa batter:
Add water (or even butter milk may be added) to the flour as needed to form a batter of pourable consistency like dosas. Mix in salt as per taste and your dosa batter would be ready.
Making dosas:
Heat a tawa / griddle. To check whether the griddle is ready, sprinkle a few drops of water on it. The water should sizzle and evaporate. Pour a ladle full of batter on the griddle and spread it into a thin circle with the help of the backside of the ladle. Take 1/4 tsp of oil and spread around the edges of the dosa. Cook until the lower side starts to brown. Flip the dosa, spread some oil around the dosa again and cook for a few seconds. Repeat the process with the remaining batter.
It can be served with any chutney or sambhar. Our dosas were done erra karam style - spicy onion chutney was applied while making dosas and no side dish was needed.
For erra karam recipe and how to apply them on dosas, check
1. Erra karam dosas
2. Erra karam masala dosas
This goes to
1. Krithis's Breakfast Club - Pancakes, an event originally started by Helen.
2. Srivalli's Breakfast Mela.
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My both kids love to read books and especially the little one has a 'mini library' (as she calls it) of her own in her room, basically the books we have collected over years. Few of them are her favorites and she keeps reading them over and over again. One of them happens to be a book about a grumpy kid whose day turns out terrible when nothing goes right for him from his point of view. I couldn't stop but chuckle every time I read that. The story is aptly titled "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good and very bad day". That title itself is a mouthful, isn't it?
Right now, I am in the same state of mind as Alexander's as nothing is going right from yesterday morning. First I dropped my camera and broke it. I woke up to see snow covered grass in the middle of April with a chilly 30 deg F weather. Just now I saw mouthwatering strawberry ice cream on someone's blog only to recall that 10 oz of them are costing 4$ right now here. And when I am at it, let me also tell you that the greedy grocery chain store in our area sells milk around 5$ per gallon while the gas is going around $4.30. Can you believe that? Additionally, we are the highest sales tax paying county in the country.
And most important of all (of course after the camera thing,) I am not ready with my marathon posts as usual. :) Yes, you read it right. My grumpiness aside, I am joining the third group as well after my last week marathon blogging.
This time, I am going with the Diabetic Diet / Management theme and the other bloggers who are going to be a part of this BM#4 are
Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree, Pavani
Seven Days of Cakes: Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli
And I am beginning this part of the marathon with one of the healthiest and nutritious sandwiches that work as breakfast / snack for anyone, including diabetics.
While bread is a 'convenience' to me, it is nothing but an 'annoyance' to the other adult at home, especially if it is store bought one. I am therefore on a look out for interesting sandwich ideas to please the family. Naturally, my interest piqued when I received two captivating sandwich entries while hosting Jihva Breakfast. Though Priya Mitharwal called it 'Bread & Sooji ka Pizza' and Cooking Foodie named it 'Rava / Rock Toast', they both were on the similar lines. They were healthy, wholesome sandwiches for the entire family and this recipe was the first thing I tried among that colorful array of dishes even before I published the round up. Now, it is one of our favorite sandwiches and no one is complaining even if they have to eat them once or twice a week. :)
Ingredients:
10 whole wheat bread slices
1 cup fine cracked wheat (godhuma rava) / semolina
1 cup finely chopped, mixed veggies (I used green and red capsicum, tomato, onion and grated carrot)
1 cup fat free yogurt (or substitute half the quantity with water)
Salt and chili powder to taste
(Olive) oil / butter to toast
Method:
Combine the rava, salt and chili powder in a mixing bowl. Then add the vegetables and mix. Gradually add the yogurt and make a paste of spreadable consistency.
Take a bread slice and spread the semolina - veggie paste on one side.
Heat a tawa or griddle and spread about 1/2 tsp oil or butter at the center. Place the bread slice with paste side down on the griddle and toast it on low - medium flame until golden brown. Flip and toast the other side too. Use another 1/2 tsp oil if needed. Repeat the process with the remaining slices.
Serve them plain or with some ketchup.
Linking this to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela.
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