Balanced Breakfast-Ragi Idiappam and Ishtu...

Breakfast is definitely the most important meal of the day for me..so important that I have no patience in cooking elaborate breakfasts on an empty stomach. But weekends are special and breakfast is a lazy affair over lots of chatter and cups of tea. So I fortify myself on cereal and get cooking. But by the time I get the food ready, it inevitably becomes brunch.
This is my entry to the Weekend Breakfast Blogging hosted by Manasi this month. So how to have a balanced breakfast? Mansi wants whole grains, fruits/vegetables and protein in the breakfast. Whole wheat square cereal topped with nuts and dried fruits and milk would be an ideal entry but wouldn't fly by the rest of the household.:) So this is one of the preferred alternatives to the standard bread and egg combination.



Why "Ragi" or finger millet idiappam? They call it idiappam, we call it nool puttu( puttu in string form).Well, ragi is a great source of plant protein as well as calcium, fiber and minerals. In India, finger millet or ragi is mostly grown and consumed in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. According to wiki, ground Ragi flour is made into ragi munda, dosa and roti. Ragi grain is malted and flour from the malted grain is consumed after mixing with Milk/Boiled water/Yoghurt.

It used to be considered the poor man's food and was not common in my house while growing up, but in this new era of "healthy living", "high Fiber", "whole grain" food, it is making a come back in different forms. I had written about ragi puttu earlier and now here is idiappam which is also delicious if u like the whole grain taste.

I just follow Anita's excellent recipe as it is for making idiappam. This time though I replaced more than half of the rice flour with ragi flour to make the idiappam healthier. You could make it with full ragi flour but it might be too coarse then. Use ragi flour as available in Indian stores.
I don't like supporting any brands as the powders you get in the Indian stores here vary in freshness based on the traffic through the store. Some batches of entire rice/flour etc will be stale tasting and some will be good. Of the lot, I found Eastern ragi and rice four to be of relatively good quality. Still do check the date!! And don't blame me if you don't like the taste.
You will need:
Fine Rice Flour - 1 cup
Fine ragi flour- 1 cup
Water - approx 2 cups or less
Salt - 1/2 teas spoon
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Thick Coconut milk - 1 tsp (Optional)
Preparation:
Heat water with the salt in a pan till boiling point. Pour the hot boiling water to the ragi-rice flour and stir thoroughly to avoid lumps. Keep the flour closed for 3-5 minutes to cool it down and mix with a spoon to a smooth even consistency. Lightly grease the idiappam mold and fill it to three quarters full.
I used to make this in the Idli mold so that each of them comes out nice and pretty but when you are in a hurry, its just as tasty to make it into big plate sized idiappams which you can cut before serving. Another short cut I use is the pasta cooker's steamer basket. For ease of removing the idiappam, I line it with a fresh paper towel and place a layer of coconut on it. Then the idiappam is squeezed out on to it and steamed.
Either way, grease the slotted tray or idli mold, whichever you are using and squeeze out the noodles onto the tray in a circular motion. I use the sev/mixture plate in the murukku mold. If the noodles are breaking up as they come out, it means there is too much water in the dough. Garnish with lots of coconut and cover and steam for 5-7 minutes. After it cools, serve with ishtu. Or it tastes yummier with fresh coconut milk and sugar.

Ishtu/ Potato stew with coconut milk
By now, the blogging world must have made everyone aware that "Ishtu" is a corruption of the word "Stew", and takes many forms with or without meat/fish in it.
This is the simplest form of it, almost as a base for all the other versions.
You Will need:
2 potatoes diced
1 onion sliced
4-5 green chilies
1 piece of cinnamon stick
2 cloves and 2 cardamom
Some curry leaves
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper, coarse
salt to taste
1 cup of coconut milk.
Preparation:
Heat 1-2 teaspoon of oil in a pan. Add the whole spices and onions and then the green chilies. Sauté only for 3 to 5 minutes till the onions gets transparent. Add the potatoes, 1 cup of water and salt. Cover and cook for 10-12 minutes on medium heat or till the potatoes get cooked. When they are cooked, mash some of the potatoes lightly. Add the coconut milk and pepper. Garnish with curry leaves and keep covered for a minute or so.

Chicken Malai Tikka

Some more soups were left to blog but I have no photos for them so decided to post them later. Meanwhile my family craved something spicy and meaty and so here it is...Chicken malai tikka.I am sure my readers in the metros in India have their favorite tikka/kebab corner, which they frequent regularly and hence wonder why we bother making this at home.

If I could access Nizamuddin, Karims, Delhi Durbar or Bade Miyan here, I would choose to just sit back and eat. But the food in the Desi restaurants here look reasonably desi, smell good but the food is a watered down version of the real thing. All color and no flavor. So when we meet up, my friends and I take turns making the grilled tikkas as appetizers and each of us have a wonderfully unique recipe.

And on a week night, this is good for dinner....A green salad, some tortillas or pita and a tzatziki sauce or yogurt sauce, all wrapped up makes for a sumptuous meal.



This is one of the typical marinade for chicken kebabs or tikkas or whatever you want to call them. The names have been used interchangeably by everyone for small bites of chicken marinated in a yogurt based spice mix and grilled.The literal meaning of tikka is "pieces of chicken" and the word Kebab or Kabob is generally used for minced meat or cubes of meat on a skewer, usually marinated before cooking. The malai in the name comes from the addition of yogurt, sour cream or cream(malai) in the marinade and even butter to baste it. It adds a creaminess to the chicken's texture and makes it soft. Traditionally made in the clay oven, tandoor, the tikka is cooked surrounded by the high heat for a short time. It imbibes the smoky flavor and cooks fast, leaving it crusty outside and juicy inside.

In the summer I grill it on the backyard gas grill but all through winter, its done in the broil setting in my cooking range. (It does run up my gas bill though!!)

Since my version uses just a whole chicken cut up into small pieces, some with bone in it, I call it tikka. Kind of a smaller version of tandoori chicken. You could make it with boneless cubes too for ease of eating but the flavor is entirely different.. So its your choice, really. The boneless version is good for making chicken tikka masala, a very popular creamy chicken curry.

I have tried many recipes for the malai tikka, some with cream and some with sour cream or yogurt but this combination is what I end up using week after week. The others are really good too and when you do have sour cream or leftover cream at home, its great to use them but who wants to inject fat unnecessarily? So I stick to yogurt which is thickened and that gives it a rich flavor without too much fat. To make thick yogurt, hang the required amount of yogurt in a clean tea towel and place in a large strainer over a bowl. Leave it for as long as you need. After about a hour or more, the whey would have drained out leaving behind thick yogurt. You could also buy Greek yogurt instead and use that.

You will need:
A whole chicken cut up into small pieces. Use a 2 to 3 pound size one.
For the Marinade
Thick Yogurt-1 cup
Juice of 1 whole lemon
Ginger paste-2 teaspoon
Garlic paste- 2 teaspoon
Red Chili Powder- 1 and half teaspoon(Use less if you want it less spicy)
Paprika-3/4 teaspoon
Turmeric-3/4 teaspoon
Coriander Powder-1/2 teaspoon
Cumin Powder- 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala- 2 teaspoon
Cilantro - 1/2 cup finely minced.
Salt to taste
Olive Oil( traditionally butter is used, so u can use either.)-3 Tablespoons

Preparation:
Blend all the marinade ingredients in a blender . Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours or over night in the refrigerator. Skewer the chicken on either wooden or metal skewers. I usually make it without skewering out of laziness and it tastes just as good. To keep bamboo or wooden skewers from burning, soak for several hours in water before using.

Outdoor: Clean the grill grating and oil with a cloth. Preheat to the maximum heat and grill for 15 minutes, trying not to keep turning them over all the time. Just turn once midway and baste with oil.

Indoor: Preheat the broiler or set the oven to the highest setting say 500 F. Place a grill grating on top of an aluminum foil lined tray. Brush with oil and spread the chicken on the grate. Grill for 7-10 minutes on one side and then turn them over.Total maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Baste with butter or oil in between if it looks too dry. The timings may vary based on your oven's heating and type so use your judgment. If the quantity of chicken is less, it will take less time. When they are done, the pieces would not stick to the grate and only a clear juice will run out.

Garnish with onions, cilantro and lemon wedges..enjoy! Serve hot with Mint Chutney.

Related Links:Mandira's Chicken Malai Kabab

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

The last of the current series of soup..The weather is thankfully turning the corner and spring is peeping through the buds on the trees. Hmm.... Time to do preventive weed treatment and fertilize the yard!!And maybe open the grill.:)

This is the easiest of the soups and for the longest time I associated it with the Indo-Chinese restaurants in India and thought it was something very complicated! Then my friend's mom should me this non soy based, non ajinomoto based healthy soup and it became a regular in our house. Maybe in India it is complicated, but here with the advent of canned Sweet Corn Creamed Style, it is so easy! Maybe you do get creamed corn there too! The addition of scallions and ginger garlic gives the soup it the flavor we are accustomed to.

Vegetarian Version: Just replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. Add the white stem of the scallion or leeks for more flavor.


You will Need:
Chicken- 1 pound
Sweet Corn cream Style -1 can
Green part of Scallions/spring onions-one handful
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh Ginger -Garlic paste -1 teaspoon
Corn Starch - 1 to 2 teaspoon
Egg- 1 ( beaten)

Garnish-Mix 3 Green chillies chopped with 2 Tbsp white vinegar and let it sit for some time.

Preparation:
1. Pressure cook the chicken with bones with 1 heaped teaspoon of fresh ginger-garlic paste and 4 cups of water for 1 whistle. Open the cooker when it cools, strain the stock and keep aside in the cooker. Remove the chicken from the bones and cut into bite sized pieces. Add this to the stock and return the pressure cooker to the flame.

2. Add the entire contents of the corn can and pressure cook again for a whistle. Alternatively you could slow cook for 15 minutes, add corn and cook for a further 15 minutes. Open the cooker and return to the flame,add salt and pepper and check the consistency.

3. Depending on the corn, it may be sufficiently thick or thin. Add 1 teaspoon of corn starch mixed with some of the stock if it looks too thin and let it boil. As it boils, add 1 beaten egg and remove from flame. The egg is optional. I mostly don't add it as it tastes good without it too. (I haven't added it in this photo.)Garnish the soup with fresh cilantro (a bit) and fresh cut scallions and top it with vinegar chilies.

P.S.Be careful of the corn starch..too much can spoil the taste and make it too thick. Also as it cools, it congeals further so stop when it is just short of your desired thickness. For those who don't get creamed corn in a can, just boil or pressure cook corn till tender and blend it with 1/4 cup milk till it is slightly creamed. Some like it very smooth so you can blend it all the way, else leave it chunky.

Easy version:
You could make this with boneless chicken too but the bone-in-ones taste better.
Instead of the step 1, use Chicken Boneless- 1 chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces, pressure cooked with 1 can of creamed style corn and 3 cups of water. Then proceed as above.

Related Links: A Veg version of the Sweet Corn Soup

Vegetable/ Tomato Soup

This is my version of a tomato soup, initiated when my not-so-little one got hooked on the tomato soup and the grilled cheese sandwich meal at pre-school. Tomato soup in itself is too tart for one or too sweet for the other person and its very uni dimensional in taste for me. "No Flavor", says my little one.:)
Playing around with different variations over time, we have a standard soup acceptable to everyone in the house now. And all I did was add a handful of carrots, onions, celery or leeks or fennel, and a small piece of potato to thicken it. Pair with a crusty bread, grilled cheese sandwich or Panini and that's our Sunday evening meal!

Panini itself is another addiction if there is some good bread available. So if there is soup, we make a beeline to get some bread and if there is bread, then soup has to be made. The panini can be as varied as you like it with whatever leftover meat and veggies going into it, all grilled to a crisp.

That's it. Each of our taste in soups are unique and one person saying "this is the best soup ever" never works. So try this soup, vary it to your taste, add or subtract the ingredients as you like it and you will get a soup that everyone in your house likes.


You will Need:
Tomatoes-2 big ones(beef steak or 3-4 plum ones)
Potato-1 half of a small sized one.
Onion-1 small one
Garlic-1 fat clove
Carrots- 2 thin full ones
Celery-1 stalk (substitute with 3 scallions or 1 piece of fennel)
Pepper-1/4 tsp or as per taste
Paprika-1/8 tsp
Salt to taste
One bay leaf
Good EV olive Oil-1 or 2 tablespoon
Water-2-3 cups of water (or low sodium chicken stock)

Preparation:
In a pressure cooker, heat the olive oil and add the garlic, onions and celery. Saute for a minute and add the rest of the ingredients except salt. Saute on medium heat for about 5 minutes, add the water, close the lid and pressure cook for a couple of whistles. When it cools down,, open, remove the bay leaf and puree using a hand blender or the blender jar. Add salt and add more water if it feels too thick. Serve with a dot of butter and pepper to taste.

Variations: The amount of carrot and potato determine the taste of the soup so be careful before you get excited and add too much. It may end up as a carrot or potato soup. So if the carrot or potato is too big, reduce the quantity. If you have leftover tomato diced or tomato sauce in a can, add that too as that really gives a nice flavor and color. Add cilantro or parsley or basil as desired.

Aatukaal Soup/Paaya Soup/ Mutton Soup

I know I am not going to find much takers for this soup, given the effort and that its a pure non vegetarian soup from my hometown. It's similar in taste to the French Onion Soup but its without the cheese and the bread. It's a clear soup back home but I like to chew on some tiny morsels of meat and cooked shallots to add texture so I added some of that to the soup.

As a kid I never used to like this soup due to its intense meaty taste and murky coloring but I like it sometimes now. My mom never made this frequently during my childhood but now she fed me this, post-delivery to regain strength and vitality. I used to laugh at the restorative powers of this soup but now my mom and other aunts make it often as their backs are catching up with their age.

My grandma always says this soup is good during monsoons and cold weather to get rid of all body aches and pains, probably due to the medicinal properties of the fenugreek and shallots. She makes it with the leftover mutton pieces after Bakrid or any big family function. I don't know how true it is, but apparently the bones also add to the medicinal powers of the soup.
But I do know that the fenugreek is known for its extensive value for nursing mothers and is excellent for post-delivery recovery and for any kind of arthritic pain. It's also good for recovering patients and convalescents.

I am sure some of my cousins and family members will remember this soup and try it at least once. For the queasy ones, the next one is a vegetarian one..



You will need:
Mutton - 1-2 pounds
Onion-1 medium sized one
Red Shallots- A handful(10-12)
Fennel Seeds- 1 tablespoon
Black Pepper (Whole)-1 teaspoon
Fenu greek Seeds-one and half tablespoon
Water- 4 cups
Cilantro to garnish
Salt to taste

Preparation:
Clean and wash the bones. Select some pieces with a bit of meat on it too.
Chop the onions and powder the fennel seeds.
Take a pressure cooker and cook the pieces with the onions, and all other spices as specified above. You would have to cook for about 20 -30 minutes on very low heat after the whistle.
Remove the lid after the cooker has sufficiently cooled down and remove the pieces with meat on it. Reserve the meat and a couple of spoonfuls of the fenugreek-onion from the stock. Remove all the bones and then mash the remaining stock and the onions with a blender or back of a spoon. Strain the liquid through a medium sieve.
Adjust the salt of the strained soup and add the reserved onions and the meat pieces. Garnish with fresh cilantro and pepper. Serve hot.

Related Links:
Another spicy version of the Mutton Soup.