Summer Special | Banana Gulkand Milkshake

With the temperature soaring, I have given up on my evening cup of tea. It becomes impossible to enjoy anything hot even in the evening. So my cuppa chai is replaced by milkshakes now. Since bananas are a staple in my fruit basket and since they taste great in milkshakes, i find myself making banana milkshakes oh-so-often. The latest twist to the milkshake is from the addition of gulkand to it and it tastes out of the world.

The milkshake utilizes just two main ingredients other than milk- sliced bananas and gulkand.

I don't add ice cubes to the milkshake. I normally set aside 2-3 glasses of boiled milk in the fridge these days specifically for milk shakes. I don't like the milkshake too thick, so I water it down sometimes too, since the bananas already add a lot of body and thickness to the milkshake.

Gulkand is a welcome addition since it adds a whole new taste to the milkshake and prevents the need to add extra sugar. Gulkand is made from rose petals and sugar and is an ayurvedic remedy to cool down the body during summer. It regulates the body temperature, alleviates constipation and acidity and soothes any kind of inflammation in your digestive tract. What more do you need to cool yourself down this summer?! Onto the recipe now.

Preparation Time - 3 Minutes
Cooking Time - Nil
Serves - 2

Ingredients for Banana Gulkand Milkshake  

1 Banana sliced ( I use the large robusta variety, use 2 if using yelakki) 

1 and 1/2 tsp Gulkand 

1 glass chilled Milk 

1/2 glass water (skip if you like a thick shake)

Method to prepare Banana Gulkand Milkshake 

Simply add the banana and gulkand in a blender with a little bit of milk. Whizz for a minute to make a smooth paste. Add the milk and the water to this and mix well. Serve immediately. You can pair it with you breakfast or like me use it for an energy boost in the evening. 

Healthy Watermelon Dosa

What do you do with the watermelon peel after you have eaten up the juicy fruit? Or what do you do if unfortunately your watermelon is not sweet and ends up tasting like cucumber? Well, you make a dosa out of it either ways! The watermelon that I had picked up in this weeks grocery was nice and juicy. Once I finished chopping up the watermelon into slices, I was sighing at the amount of peel that had to be trashed. That's when I remembered about this watermelon dosa that is made in parts of South India. What is done is, the white part of the watermelon, remaining after the red part is cut out is ground with the dosa batter to make a Healthy Watermelon Dosa.

Ingredients for Watermelon Dosa

2 cups of Dosa Rice or Parboiled Rice
1 cup of watermelon peel
1/2- 3/4 cup of coconut shavings
Salt to taste
Oil for greasing

Method to make Watermelon Dosa

In order to make the dosa, soak two cups of Dosa Rice/ Parboiled rice in enough water for about 4 hours. Coming to the watermelon, make sure that you had washed your watermelon thoroughly before you started cutting it. After you have scooped out the inner flesh for eating, gather your watermelon peel. Proceed to use a peeler and peel out the green part of the outer cover of the watermelon. What will remain is the white portion. You need about one cup of this peel. Grate some coconut such that you get about 1/2 to 3/4 (the more you add, the softer your dosa turns out) cups of coconut shavings.

Grind all these ingredients to a fine batter, adding very little water, since you get enough water from the watermelon itself. What you get is a light pink dosa batter that you need to leave for a couple of hours to ferment. The batter will not rise like the regular dosa batter since we do not add any urad dal to this.
I generally soak the rice in the evening, grind it in night before sleeping and use it for breakfast the next day.

To make the dosas, heat your griddle and pour a little oil on it. Now pour a ladle of the dosa batter on the griddle and with gentle hands spread it as thinly as possible. Remember that the batter will be a little runny and the dosa is not as easy to make as the urad-rice dosa. If you use a non-stick pan, you can pour the batter and swirl it around like how you make a crepe.

Pour a few drops of oil over the dosa. Cover it and allow it to cook for a minute. Now flip the dosa. Cook it evenly on both sides such that it gets a light brown tinge here and there.

That's about it. Your healthy watermelon dosa is ready to be served. I served it with some fiery hot red-chilli peanut chutney and a spoonful of sweet liquid jaggery.

Aloo Methi Paratha for Breakfast

It is not everyday that I make aloo parathas for breakfast. Methi or radish is ok, but the whole potato filling coupled with curds on the side tends to make me lethargic through the early morning. So aloo paratha is reserved for the weekend and makes for an awesome lip-smacking breakfast.
Make it at home and you will be able to down a sizable number of parathas cause they are lighter than the ones at the restaurant and also come with the goodness of being homemade. This time, I added some methi that was lying in the fridge to the mix to make a wholesome Aloo Methi Paratha for breakfast.

Ingredients for Aloo Methi Paratha

For the stuffing:

3 potatoes pressure cooked and mashed
1/2 cup of fenugreek leaves
2 green chillies thinly sliced
1 inch ginger grated
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp of ajwain
a pinch of chat masala powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp oil

For the dough:

2 cups of wheat flour
1 tsp salt
Water as required
1 tsp oil

Method to make Aloo Methi Paratha

Make a stiff dough out of the wheat flour and salt mixture by adding water to it. Knead really well, for about ten minutes. Top with a tsp of oil and knead again. Cover and keep it aside.

Wash and chop the methi well. 

Now, in a bowl, take the potatoes, chillies, coriander, ginger and mix it well together. 

In a pan, heat some oil and add to it the chopped methi. Add turmeric, jeera powder, ajwain to this and stir for minute. Turn off the heat and add this to the potato mixture. Sprinkle some chat masala on top and adjust the salt. Knead it really well without any lumps such that all the masala is uniformly mixed together.

Divide the stuffing into equal sized balls. Roll out the chapathi dough slightly and place one medium sized ball of the stuffing in the center.

Fold the edges together and seal it back and roll out the paratha with soft hands.

On a hot tava or griddle, cook the paratha evenly on both sides on low flame by brushing a little bit of ghee on each side. The ingredients mentioned here make 6 large sized parathas since I make my parathas a little thinner so as to keep them light.

Cut the paratha into halves and serve hot with some mango pickle or chutney and a cup of curds on the side.

P.S This is my entry to the Healthy Veg Side Dishes event hosted by Nandoo's Kitchen and Priya 

Healthy Snacking | Lunch Box Series

My parents leave home at regular government office timings. Living in a not-so-crowded place like Mysore, they can afford to dwell on the newspaper with a cup of tea and biscuits, then have a leisurely breakfast everyday. Yours truly is rushed most of the time, having to leave early to work. Does not mean i skip breakfast. I wonder how people sustain without it! There are so many people i know who do not eat a full breakfast. A cup of tea, a piece of cake, some fruit are some of the replies i get when i ask them what they normally eat before getting to work. I would feel really giddy and tired if i was in their place. Maybe my body is conditioned like that.
But the problem with eating an early breakfast is that at around 10 o clock, the stomach starts rumbling. In keeping with eating 6 small meals a day, it certainly is a good habit to feed the stomach something filling and healthy at that time, to sustain until lunch.
I normally carry cut fruits or some salad to munch on as a morning snack. It is loaded with fiber, is filling and loaded with nutrients! Here are some healthy snacking ideas. It will take you about ten minutes in the morning to put it together. Just make it a habit to soak pulses twice a week- green gram, channa, horse gram- anything that you like! Or else, buy lots of vegetables during the weekly grocery that are high in water content. It's that simple!

Diced english cucumber, red bell peppers, boiled sweet corn, coriander leaves with a lime juice +olive oil+salt+chili flakes dressing.




Go the South Indian way. Tadka of mustard, curry leaves, green chili and hing. Simply add pressure cooked sprouts with salt. Toss and carry. High on protein and great to taste!

Want to eat sprouts in a more healthy way? Have them raw. Make the salad interesting with cucumber, tomato, pomegranate, salt and pepper. Add a dash of lime to finish it off.
So you see, it is really simple to make something to carry along for that odd time hunger pang. Next time you feel like reaching out for that biscuit packet at the supermarket to carry as snack, stop yourself and try making something like this. Sure to save you some calories for the day! ;)

Notes:

Adding salt does make the veggies leave out water. So go slightly easy on the salt when carrying these for the box.

Poha | Quick Breakfast

Not everyday do you get sufficient time to make dosa or rotis for breakfast. On days when you are in a rush or short of options, there are plenty of alternatives for breakfast. One of my most favorite options is the avil/ avalakki or poha. At home, we normally make it with a heavy lemon flavoring or a tamarind based like puliyodharai. Otherwise plain and simple with a tadka and lots of grated coconut. But i really like the maharashtrian way of making it- with potatoes.  I had some leftover corn kernels. So i decided to throw that in for a good measure along with the potatoes. Adding peanuts makes sure that you have a really crunchy poha.
What's more, if you try it the way i tried, it gets done fast, is great to taste and filling too.

Preparation Time: 5 Mins
Cooking Time : 10 Mins 

Ingredients:

1 cup of Beaten Rice , i used the thin variety
1 potato, chopped into thin pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp Mustard
1 tsp Jeera
A pinch of hing
A handful of corn kernels
3 green chillies, slit
3-4 curry leaves
A few sprigs of coriander, finely chopped
1 tsp channa dal
2 tbsp peanuts
Salt to taste
Lemon for extra zing
1 tbsp oil

Method:

Wash and slice the potatoes into small thin pieces. Add the corn kernels to it, some salt, sprinkle some water and microwave for 2 minutes.

In a pan, add some oil. Once it heats up, add mustard. When it starts spluttering, add the jeera, hing, channa dal, curry leaves and peanuts.

Once they start browning, add the chillies and the onions. Add some salt to taste. Allow it to fry.

At this point, depending on how thick your beaten rice is, you will have to wash or soak it. I use the thin variety- the paper avil.

So all i needed to do is to put it in a colander run it under the tap. If you are using the slightly thicker variety, do soak it for a couple of minutes before using. It takes some trial and error to figure out the optimum soaking or washing time for the beaten rice. I have ended up with white color lumps at times when i have over washed :)
Once the beaten rice is moist, add it along with the potatoes and corn into the skillet. I turn off the heat here and leave it to cool for a few minutes. Mixing the really wet beaten rice along with the hot aloo with make the poha mushy. Once it cools down, add some salt and toss it well so that all the ingredients get mixed well.
Top it with some lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves. If you want some more flavor, add half a tsp of sugar to it and mix well.
Serve hot!

Strawberry Sauce | A quickie

If you go grocery shopping to the supermarket, you can't miss the strawberries these days. Not just the big stores, even the local fruit vendors are selling the ubiquitous boxes of the pretty red fruits. But it always so happens to me that if the fruit is sweet, a couple of them in the box turn out to be bad. Sometimes it so happens that the fruits look nice and plump but are sour on the inside.

When they are sweet, i can't think of a better way to eat them than by dipping them in chocolate sauce. Heaven is right there. When i was faced with the prospect of finishing some not-so-sweet strawberries lest they went bad, i thought of turning it into a sauce.
To me, any sauce or chutney should be a good balance of uppu-puLi-kaaram-inippu (salt, sourness, heat and sweet, in that order ). So this simple sauce had the sugar for the sweetness, pepper lending heat, ginger adding a tang and the strawberry itself a little sour.
No measurements actually. Just take a ramekin. Go chop chop and add the strawberries upto 3/4th the cup. Add a spoonful of sugar or more according to your preference, some salt and pepper to taste, dry ginger powder and maybe some unsalted butter on top. Well, all you need to do now is to microwave this for a minute and a half.
Ta-da! Your sauce is ready!

You could make it overtly sweet, like a jam. Or keep it light and make it a nice mix of different fresh flavors. Maybe even try it with some mint. Serve it for breakfast with toasted bread or pancakes.