[Ekadesi] Buckwheat Dosa

I heard so much about buckwheat dosa and happened to taste it in our cousin’s place. It tasted more like wheat dosa. I decided to try it on an Ekadasi day and bought a pack of whole buckwheat long back. But I did not try it as I was not sure about the recipe. Two weeks back I gathered all the courage to try it out when Prabu sadly said ‘Oh! Quinoa again for dinner?’. Gosh! I am getting mad on thinking over new dishes everyday ;) For my surprise dosa turned out very tasty and Prabu loved it. I am going to make it for dinner on upcoming Ekadasi days till Prabu gets bored of it :D

I am sure we can make this on a normal day too. It’s an healthy dosa and makes a very nice dinner option. I made tomato bhaji for the side dish. Kids also loved the combo.

As usual I made star dosa loaded with cheese for my little mj. Next time I will add grated carrots and beetroots and shredded cabbage. Healthy, isn’t it?

Dosa

Ingredients:

Whole Buckwheat – 2 cups

Coriander leaves – 1 handful

Quinoa – 1/4 cup

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Method:

1. Soak buckwheat and quinoa separately for 2 -3 hours minimum.

2. After 3 hours, wash buckwheat completely as it is very gooey.

3. Grind it nicely with quinoa, cumin seeds, coriander leaves to a dosa batter consistency. You can grind coarsely and make it as Adai topped with shredded cabbage and carrots.

4. Make dosas out of it and offer it to the Lord

Tomato Bhaji

Ingredients:

Raw tomatoes – 6

Oil – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp,

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Red chillies – 2 to 3

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Chop the tomatoes finely

2. Heat a pan and add oil

3. When oil is hot add cumin seeds, once it splutters add curry leaves and red chillies and fry for few seconds

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for sometime

5. Add turmeric powder and salt, simmer the stove and cook covered for sometime

6. Once all the tomatoes cooked well mash them well with a dal masher and keep it in the flame for few minutes

7. Bhaji is ready to be offered to the Lord

[Ekadesi] Kadai Paneer

Paneer always takes priority in our list. My Prabhu and my daughter love them even if I give every day. It has a magic that whatever and however you cook, it turns to a delicious recipe. That gives me all the courage to experiment the new recipes. I love paneer butter masala, a rich creamy sabji that goes well with rice and roti, and this is a all time keeper recipe for ekadesi too. Quinoa with paneer butter masala.. yum :) Yesterday I came across a blog post for kadai paneer, that too our version of no onion and garlic, I modified the recipe little bit though. I couldn’t wait to try it, so today our lunch is roti with kadai paneer. It is really really delicious. More than anything it is an easy recipe. That’s what I always need ;)

I always use paneer from Sharma’s kitchen. It is good in texture and softer than the other brands I tried.

Ingredients:

Paneer – 1 packet

Green Capsicum – 1

Tomatoes – 3 or 4

Butter – 1 tbsp

Grated ginger – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp(adjust to your taste)

Cumin coriander powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala – 1 tsp (Skip it on Ekadesi days)

Kasuri methi – 2 tsp (Skip it on Ekadesi days)

Method:

1. Cut the paneer into fingers, chop the capsicum, slit the green chillies and finely chop the tomatoes

2. Add paneer into warm water in a separate bowl. This is to soften the paneer.

3. Heat a kadai, add butter

4. Add grated ginger and green chillies and fry them till the raw smell goes off

5. Add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes mushy

6. Now add red chilli powder, cumin coriander powder and garam masala(if adding) and keep stirring     till the oil separates. This is very important otherwise you will get the smell of tomatoes in the             sabji.

7. Once it reaches the right consistency and capsicum and cook for few minutes

8. Drain the water from the paneer and add it to the sabji and add kasuri methi(if adding)

9. Cook for few minutes and switch off the stove

10. Kadai Paneer is ready to be offered to the Lord

[Ekadesi] Poori

This Poori is very very special to me. I made this for the first time for Guru Maharaj’s Vyasa Pooja celebrations. I made palm size pooris that time. After that I made two or three times only as it takes long time. You need lot of patience to roll it out and especially to take it out of the rolling pan :) I am very busy to do that(FYI I renamed the term lazy as busy ;)) Things you need to know before making this are,

1. Don’t make sticky or gooey dough. Then you will never ever make the poori
2. Try to make small pooris. It will make your work simple
3. Don’t add buckwheat flour if the dough is not in right consistency. It gives an odd taste. Better add     either singoda or rajgira flour

4. Oil should be hot enough to fry. Otherwise it will becoe like a papad

Now it is recipe time :)

Ingredients:

Kuttu(Buckwheat) flour – 1 Cup

Singoda(Water Chestnut) flour – 1 Cup

Rajgira(Amarnath) flour – 1 Cup

Salt as required

Water as required

Method:

1. Make a smooth dough out of the above flours with salt and water

2. Roll it to a poori

3. Deep fry in hot oil

4. Offer the pooris with potato or paneer sabji to the Lord and enjoy the prasadam

[Ekadesi] Quinoa Pulao

When I first tried quinoa, I was pregnant and I did not like its smell when it was cooked due to my nausea. Then I started using moriyo and tried to make different dishes using that. Later I came to know moriyo has more carbs, but quinoa is really a good and healthy choice. That time I was out of those initial pregnancy blues :) From then on I mostly cook quinoa only on Ekadesi days. I made quiona briyani, pulao and then ended up in cooking it like rice, mix it with yogurt and have it with broccoli stir fry. Those are really a yummy combo. Last time Ekadesi fell on Sunday and I had to cook for the Bhakthi Vriksha class. I made quinoa pulao after long time and it got me so much of appreciations :) Now I have all the courage to post my recipe :D

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Quinoa – 2 cups

Water – 2 cups

Thin coconut milk – 2 cups (Please don’t use store bought as it contains preservatives)

Butter – 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts – few

Peanuts – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2

Ginger(grated) – 2 tsp

Cabbage(shredded) – 1 cup

Mint – 1 handful

Coriander leaves – few strands

Method:

1. Wash and soak the quinoa and peanuts in water
2. In a pressure cooker add butter, once it becomes hot add cashew nuts and fry till they turn golden brown
3. Add cumin seeds. Once it splutters, add green chillies and grated ginger and fry nicely
4. Add shredded cabbage and fry for few minutes
5. Now grind mint and coriander leaves to a paste, add it to the cooker and stir them till its colour changed
6. Add quinoa and peanuts, water and coconut milk
7. Add salt and close the lid
8. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles
9. Pulao is ready now to be offered to the Lord

Vallarai(Indian pennywort) Paratha

My daughter is a very fuzzy eater. I need to be innovative to get her eating properly. I can take care of breakfast and dinner. But lunch? That is the biggest headache to me. Whatever I send other than bread butter jam or chappathi with jam, it comes back with some beautiful reasons. But what nutrition she will get? :( So I decided to give lunch for breakfast and bread and jam for lunch. Still I was not happy to give bread again and again. I got an idea when Prabu bought pennywort leaves yesterday. I decided to make parathas and roll it with jam for lunch and with nutella for breakfast. Moreover it is an easy job to me ;) I made Vallarai Paratha today and she had two with nutella in the morning :D Mission successful. I am planning to explore more varieties. I am sure she wouldn't have eaten vallarai if I made chutney.

Please try this recipe and let me know the results. Trust me, it tastes like a normal paratha, no bitter taste in it.

Ingredients:

Indian Pennywort leaves(Vallarai Keerai) - 1 bunch
Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Oil - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Ajwain seeds - 1/4 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Pick the leaves separately and wash them
2. Saute vallarai in a kadai still it shrinks completely
3. Once it is cooled down, add some water and grind it to a smooth paste
4. Mix all the ingredients together well and then add the puree to it
5. Add enough water and make a smooth dough
6. Now make chappathis out of it
7. Apply some oil or ghee before taking out of the tawa
8. Serve it to the Lord
9. Enjoy with yogurt dip

Yogurt Dip: 1 cup yogurt, 1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder and salt. Mix all together and beat well till you get smooth paste without lumps. You can mix mashed avacado to it for variation.

Dal Kichdi for Babies

When I started solids for Hari I did not have an idea what to give him for lunch. I was planning to start with a simple lentil rice. I used same amount of rice and lentils as I wanted to give him more lentils for protein. I used to add few cumin seeds and whole pepper corns while making dal and so I added them to Hari's rice too. One day Hari's day carer told me Hari feels difficult to swallow the cumin seeds and whole pepper corns and advised me not to add them. She suggested me to add powders instead. I tried it and yes, it made wonders :-) It gave nice taste and flavor to the rice. Hari loves my final version of kichdi with the good amount of lentils, veggies, spice powders and ghee :-)

I would suggest you not to grind the food for the babies. If they get used to it, then you will find it very hard to change them to normal food. Please use Dal masher instead. You can mix mashed avacado to the kichdi, it is very healthy and enhances the taste too. Or you can keep it for a variation ;)

Most of the days I substitute millets for rice. Millets are good source of protein and fiber. It is better than rice and wheat. I use kodu millet(Varagu), foxtail millet(Thinai) and little millet(Samai).

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Rice/Millets - 2 tbsp
Dal - 2 tbsp (toor dal/moong dal/masoor dal)
Cumin Powder - 2-3 pinches
Pepper Powder - 2 pinches
Turmeric Powder - 1 pinch
Asafoetida - a pinch
Vegetables of your choice - 3 tbsp(broccoli/carrots/beets/beans/ridge gourd/bottle gourd)
Ghee - 3 tsp (or as you like :-))
Salt - as needed
Water - 1 cup

Method:

1. Wash rice and dal
2. Add water
3. Add a tsp of ghee, cumin powder, black pepper powder, turmeric powder, asafoetida and chopped veggies
5. Pressure cook for 5-6 whistles
6. Once the pressure is released, mash the kichdi nicely with the dal masher to a smooth paste
7. Add salt and ghee and mix well
8. Offer it to the Lord

Now the prasadam is ready to be fed to the little wonder :-)

[Ekadesi] Sabudana Kichdi

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup

Potatos - 2 small to medium size

Roasted peanuts - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves -  1 string

Grated Ginger - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp.

Salt as needed

Method:

1. Soak sabudana overnight or for 4-5 hours. Water should just cover the sabudana. Otherwise Kichdi will be soggy.
2. While cooking, drain the water and wash it well under the running water to remove the starch.
3. Boil the potatoes, peel and chop them.
4. Coarsely grind the roasted peanuts.
5. Mix the peanut powdered peanuts, salt and sabudana.
6. Heat oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds.
7. Once it splutters add the curry leaves and green chillies.
8. Fry them for few seconds and add ginger.
9. Fry it till raw smell goes off and then add chopped potatos and saute it for few minutes.
10. Now add and keep stirring it.
11. When the sabudana becomes translucent, take it off the stove.

Now it is ready for offering to Krishna.