Palak Paratha / Spinach Paratha

Todays special is  a dinner or tiffin item. A very healthy tiffin, a roti or chapathi using palak.. The best way to use greens. You can also make palak puri using the same dough, you will get soft puris. Kids will love it for sure! My kiddo loved palak puris. 

Acc o Wiki, Spinach has a high nutritional value, especially when fresh, frozen, steamed, or quickly boiled. It is a rich source (> 20% of the Daily Value) of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate and iron (table, right).

Iron

Spinach, along with other green leafy vegetables,^[10] is considered to be rich in iron. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture states that a 180-g serving of boiled spinach contains 6.43 mg of iron, whereas a 170-g ground hamburger patty contains at most 4.42 mg. However, spinach contains iron absorption-inhibiting substances, including high levels of oxalate, which can bind to the iron to form ferrous oxalate and render much of the iron in spinach unusable by the body. In addition to preventing absorption and use, high levels of oxalates remove iron from the body.

Calcium

Spinach also has a moderate calcium content. However, the oxalate content in spinach also binds with calcium, decreasing its absorption. The calcium in spinach is the least bioavailable of calcium sources.^[14] By way of comparison, the human body can absorb about half of the calcium present in broccoli, yet only around 5% of the calcium in spinach.

 Ingredients:

• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Palak puree - one cup
• Garam masala - 1 tsp
• Water - if needed
• Salt
• Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

• Knead the ingredients into a soft dough using all the above ingredients in a vessel and keep it aside for 30 mins.
• Take small balls from the dough and slightly press it.
• Dust the balls and make chapathies. Make it as thin as possible.
• Heat tava, cook the chapathies using little oil.

Wonderful soft chapathies are ready. I have served it with vegetarian healthy version is palak Chapathi with curd and sprouts. 

Non- veg version is Palak chapathi with naatukozhi curry! My mouth is watering when i Type in here.... Enjoy foodies..

Varagarisi Payasam / Kodomillet Kheer

In this new year, first post happened to be sweeet recipe using millet. wishing all my irends a very happy new year!

My first try of the millet is varagarisi.. I though being a sweet tooth, try the simplest sweet using this Kodo millet. Tried my hands on Payasam. My all time fav. 

Wiki says, Paspalum scrobiculatum, Kodo millet, is an annual grain that is grown in primarily in India, but also in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and in West Africa where it originates. It is grown as a minor crop in most of these areas, with the exception of the Deccan plateau in India where it is grown as a major food source.^[1] It is a very hardy crop that is drought tolerant and can survive on marginal soils where other crops may not survive, and can supply 450–900 kg of grain per hectare .Kodo millet has large potential to provide nourishing food to subsistence farmers in Africa and elsewhere.

Coming to the recipe and ing

redients:

Ingredients:

• Varagarisi - 1 cup
• Milk - 1/2 litre
• cardamom power - 1 tsp
• Cashews - 10
• Raisins  - 10 (optional)
• Sugar  - 1 cup or as desired or condensed milk - 1/2 tin

Method:

• Take the millet and wash and soak for 10 mins,
• Cook the soaked varagarisi in a pressure cooker upto 5 whistles. let the rie to smash nicely.
• Add milk to a pan, bring to boil and in simmer ,allow the milk to reduce a little.
• Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved. If you are adding condensed milk, add it and stir nicely. 
• Take the rice from the cooker and smash it with a ladle before adding it to the milk.
• Fry the cashews and raisins in ghee and it to the kheer and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
• Remove the kheer from heat and serve either warm or chilled.

So divine to eat the small rice , awesome when you chew it! enjoy the cup of kheer today!

Pudhina Poori / Mint Poori

This week ,we are seeing tiffin varieties . Today's special is Pudhina poori. It can be done in a jiffy.. Everybody will like this flavorful poori. I can be had with or without side dish. If you are health conscious, you can make it as chapathi also. I have made it in poori version. 




Ingredients:

• Wheat  flour - 1 bowl
• Water - required
• Mint chutney or paste - 2 tbsp
• Salt if required

For chutney:

• Mint - 1 bunch
• Urad dal - one handful
• Red chilly - 3
• Tamarind- small piece
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Salt
• Oil

Method:

For chutney:

• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add urad dal, red chilly,tamarind and garlic.
• Fry till golden brown.
• Add the mint leaves and stir it.
• Allow it to cool down and grind it coarsely.

For pooris:

• Mix all the ingredients together. 
• Add the required ground mint chutney.
• Knead them using water into a soft dough.
• Keep it aside for 1 hour.
• Take small balls and dust it using flour and make regular pooris.
• Heat oil in a pan, fry the pooris. 

Serve hot with curd .

Savory Kuzhipaniyaram/ Kara kuzhipaniyaram

Paniyarams raining here. Since I posted sweet paniyaram yesterday ,today it is savory. Its ultimate to have both of this for dinner. These dumpling are easy to make and you can make variations in this paniyaram.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 3 cups
• Par boiled rice - 3 cups
• Urad dal - 1/2 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 handful
• Water
• Salt
• Corinader leaves - chopped

For tempering:

• Onion - 2 chopped finely
• carrot - 1 grated 
• Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
• Gram dal - 2 tsp
• Green chilly - 2 chopped finely
• Curry leaves chopped
• Oil

 

Method:

• Soak rice, urad dal an fenugreek seeds for 5 hrs.
• Grind it like dosa batter in a grinder. Allow it to ferment.
• In another pan, add the oil and all the tempering ingredients. fry the onion and carrot nicely. Add the chopped coriander leaves and keep it aside.
• Take the required batter in a vessel and add the tempering and mix well.
• Add the required salt to the batter.
• Heat the paniyaram tava, Add a tsp of oil in all the holes.
• Add the batter in the holes.
• Fry them on both the sides slowly and keep turning until it is cooked on both the sides.

Perfect kuzhipaniyarams ready to be served along with spicy chutneys.

Sweet paniyaram/ inippu paniyaram

Todays special is yummy kuzhipaniyarams. This version is sweet. It is very simple to make paniyarams. Enjoy these cute little momos along with the savory version.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice - 3 cups
• Par boiled rice - 3 cups
• Urad dal - 1/2 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 handful
• Jaggery - required
• Oil
• Water
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Method:

• Soak rice, urad dal an fenugreek seeds for 5 hrs.
• Grind it like dosa batter in a grinder. Allow it to ferment.
• Take the jaggery and add water in a pan. let the jaggery dissolve.
• Strain the jaggery syrup and keep it aside.
• Take the required batter in a vessel and add the jaggery syrup according to the sweetness of the jaggery.
• Mix the cardamom powder to thebatter and mix well.
• Heat the paniyaram tava, Add a tsp of oil in all the holes.
• Add the batter in the holes.
• Fry them on both the sides slowly and keep turning until it is cooked on both the sides.

Yummy mouthwatering paniyarams ready to serve!

Chicken Stirfry

Chicken starter is alltime favorite for most of us. This recipe is a simple and tasty starter. It can also be used as a side dish for rice varities. It can also be stuffed inside parathas as wraps. I got the idea of this recipe in a TV show with few variations. Chicken lovers will definitely relish this. My blog was empty these many days without my posts. Hee come this recipe to decorate my blog. Enjoy and have  fun!




Ingredients:

• Boneless chicken - 250 gms
• Lemon juice - one lemon
• Egg white - 1
• Garlic chopped finely - 10 cloves
• Curry leaves - 2 strips
• Salt
• Red chilly paste - 3 tsp
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Coriander leaves - chopped for garnish

Method:

• Wash and chop the chicken into small cubes.
• Take a vessel, add the chopped  chicken. Add the rest of the above ingredients to the chicken except coriander leaves. Marinate and leave it for 30 mins.

• Heat a pan, add some oil and add the marinated chicken and cook on low flame.
• Keep stirring often. Close and cook it till the chicken is boiled. saute it nicely.
• Ad oil if necessary. stir it occasionally till the chicken and the masala combines well with one another.
• Finally add the coriander leaves.

Tasty smoky chicken stir fry is ready as a starter.

Garlic Naan

After the naan post, I update here Garlic naan recipe ... One of my favorites...




Ingredients:

• Maida/all purpose flour -2 cups
• Curd or sour curd - 1tbsp
• Baking powder -1/2tsp
• Salt
• Water if needed.
• Butter
• Sugar - 1/2 tsp
• Oil -3tsp
• Gar;ic chopped - required
• Coriander chopped

Method:

• In a vessel take all the above ingredients and knead well into a soft dough.
• After 2 hrs, you can see the dough will be fermented and loosened.
• Apply oil on it and knead well and keep aside for 10 mins.

• For rolling it, take a rolling pan, take a ball from the dough. Roll it in oval shape. Spread it well.
• apply butter to the naan on both sides and sprinkle thechopped garlic an coriander leaves.
• Heat a nonstick tava, sprinkle some water to it and place the rolled oval naan to it.
• It will get stuck to the tava, because of water.after few mins, turn on the tava to cook the other side in the flame directly
• The naan will puff up and you will get a perfect tandoori naan.
• yummy tasty flavorrful garlic naans ready

Softy, spongy,aromatic naan is ready to serve with paneer or any subji!