Cold drink

With hot summer and soaring temperatures in India, all we want is a cold drink to beat the heat. I know, when we talk about cold drinks, the first thing that comes to mind are those soft drinks that fill the refrigerator. OK, I'm not talking about Pepsi or Coke on kid's blog ;-)....they hardly make our refrigerator. If you already saw the pictures on the post, you guessed it right, it is the refreshing and healthy Buttermilk.

It hardly takes 10 minutes to prepare and makes everyone crave for it to break the heat bubbles on the head. My kids love it...if it's not ready, they patiently wait and watch how their mommy prepares and fills the glass for them to gulp. Try it for yourself....

Ingredients:   

• 3 or 4 cups home made curd/yogurt
• Coriander leaves
• 1/2 or 1 Green chilli (optional)
• Salt
• 2 tbsp Cumin seeds(jeera) 
• 1 inch Ginger
• And of course the precious cold water

Yummy....home made curd:

More green chillies in the plate are to make it picture perfect. Measurements are as per user discretion ;-).

Preparation:   

Make paste of ginger, jeera, green chilli and coriander leaves with little bit water. Add curd, salt and more water and run the mixer for few more seconds. Strain the buttermilk.

 

Refrigerate the buttermilk and serve it whenever you want.

 

Drinking chilled butter milk is a treat in summer and much better than soft drinks. Click on the link to know more healthy facts about buttermilk Why Drink Buttermilk?

So..are you ready to beat the heat in a healthy way?

Mini Veg Uthappam

Next item on my list with Dosa batter is Uthappam. Usually Uthappam is famous with Onions and Tomatoes.

Rather than making Onion and Tomato Uthappam all the time, I add Broccoli, Carrot, Mushroom and baby Corn to make it more interesting and healthy for kids.

 

Preparation   

After spreading Dosa batter on the pan, cover it up with lid for sometime.

Add a coat of Chutney and then, add a layer of vegetables. Add oil/Ghee and cook on both sides and serve it hot...sorry, serve it warm for kids ;-).

You can try with other vegetables as per your kid's choice. As Uthappam is bit heavy, try mini uttappams or if it is big, cut it with Pizza cutter.

Make it more fun for kids...you can even try smiley faces. btw, my daughter took an extra step of cutting the vegetables and decorating the Uthappam.

I can't leave this post without a link to Broccoli's health benefits. Do add Broccoli (if you get it) to your diet.

Pappula podi (Bhuna chana powder)

This is one of the quick and easy powder that goes well with Dosa, Upma, Capsicum fry, Borugula (puffed rice) upma and many more. It hardly takes 5 minutes to prepare with the following ingredients:

• 1 cup pappulu
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder or as per your taste
• Salt
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 5 garlic cloves unpeeled

You can add dry coconut or skip garlic. I prefer unpeeled garlic as it saves time, keeps the fiber and tastes great...better option than eating raw garlic alone or taking garlic supplements ;-). But if you believe in Viswamitra's trisanku swarga and don't eat garlic, then simply skip it. Grind all the ingredients in mixer or food processor. Olaaaa....powder is ready to eat.

And here is the picture borrowed from Mini Dosa.

Sarson Ka Saag with Paneer/Tofu

This is one of my favorite Punjabi dish and my first choice to go with Tandoori roti, even though Makki ki roti is its true companion. I love the color and taste. To make it kids friendly, add Paneer or Tofu. 

Ingredients:  

• 2 bunches Sarson ka saag  (green mustard)
• 1 bunch Spinach
• 1 medium size Onion
• One large size Tomato
• 2 tbp ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• Salt to taste
• 3 tbp makki ka atta (maize flour)
• 3 tbp ghee
• 3 green chillies
• Paneer/Tofu cubes 

Preparation:   

Wash and clean the greens, chop them, add 2/3 green chillies and boil in 2 cups of  water until cooked. Please don't pressure cook the green vegetables.

In the mean time, shallow fry Paneer/Tofu cubes in oil and keep them aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add onions, ginger garlic paste and fry for sometime. Then add tomatoes and fry until tomato pieces become soft. Add makki ki atta and stir for some more time. You can also add paste (makki ki atta and water) instead of powder directly.

Note: You can skip Tomatoes, but I don't mind throwing some antioxidants. If you are worried about Kidney stones with Tomato and Spinach combination, do skip tomatoes.

Grind the green vegetables and make a rough paste. Make sure not to over paste the greens. Add the paste to pan and stir fry. Add chilli powder, garam masala, salt and fried Paneer/Tofu at the end. Add butter or ghee and serve with Rotis.

Also check out Mini Dosa for kids....

Mini Dosa

OK.. Dosa batter is waiting for me to put Dosas on the blog. Most of the Indians know how to prepare Dosa... but I'm adding the instructions to make the blog post complete for others:

• I use multipurpose Dosa batter for preparing Dosa, Uttappam, Idli, Masala Dosa and Ponganaalu.
• As the consistency of the batter is bit think, take the batter in a bowl, add little bit water and mix it well.
• Heat non-stick tawa and pour half a ladle of batter in the center and then spread it with the back of the ladle. Spread it from inside to the outside. 

• To make Dosa interesting for kids, make it small. Kids love mini Dosas over regular Dosas. This is a small trick to attract kid's attention.
• I don't like giving crispy Dosas to kids as they hardly fill their tummy. So make it bit thicker than regular Dosa. Instead of using too much oil, cover the Dosa for one minute. 
• Uncover Dosa and then add little bit oil or Ghee.

• When the dosa is red, turn the dosa and cook on the other side. 

 

• Dosa is ready!!

My kids love Dosa with Pappula podi (baked chana daal powder). It hardly takes any time to prepare and it's my favorite too. I use ghee for kids and Olive oil for big kids.

 

If there is chutney, spread the chutney over dosa. This makes it less messy for kids and keeps the plate clean for us to wash ;-).

Pachi pulusu

On Bhogi festival, the kid within me was craving to eat typical Andhra menu. When I was a kid, my mom used to prepare Pulagam, Pachi pulusu(raw rasam), mixed vegetable curry, sajja rotte(bajre ki roti) and peanut chutney on Bhogi day. The magic of that taste inspired me to prepare the same menu last week.

One thing I always forget is Pacchi pulusu preparation. As usual, called my mom and asked the recipe and now I'm blogging it.... with the hope to not bug her next time ;-). Anyways, here are the tools and techniques to prepare Pachi pulusu.

Ingredients:   

• 2 big lemon sized Tamarind
• 1 Onion small
• 2 dry red chillies
• 2 green chillies
• 10 Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves 
• 1 tbs sesame seeds
• 3 tbs baked chana daal (pappulu/putnaalu/buna chana daal)
• 1 tbp jaggery (add as per your taste)
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
• Little bit red chilli powder
• Jeera and mustard seeds for seasoning
• 1 tbs oil

Preparation:   

• Soak Tamarind in water and prepare 4 cups of soup.
• Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and jaggery powder. Mix well.
• In Mixie, make sesame powder and then add baked chana daal  to make it into fine powder.
• Add the above powder to Tamarind juice and mix well.
• In a pan, heat oil and add jeera & mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves and dry red chillies. Add this seasoning to Tamarind soup. 
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Pachi pulusu is ready. Enjoy it with Pulagam (rice cooked with moong daal) and ghee.

And this was our Bhogi meals. Enjoyed drinking Pachi pulusu ..mmmmmmm...yummy. Kids wanted more...but we ran out of soup in no time :-)

Kamaranga pickle

If you never heard of the name Kamaranga...don't worry...this is a fruit. Even I never heard or saw this fruit until yesterday. We were on our way back from Chilukuru Balaji temple near Hyderabad. We stopped at a farm house to enjoy our lunch under the shade of fruit trees. We picked up one tree that had enough shade to cover all of us. Here is a snap of the tree and that's my husband taking nap after lunch :-).

While having lunch, we realised that the tree is filled with lots of fruits...which were hard to spot as they blended well with the green leaves..but in digital pictures they are standing out... they know how to pose for the camera :-). With great amusement, myself and my sister-in-law were talking about the unknown fruit in the farm. My husband looked with great surprise at both of us and told that it is Kamaranga fruit and its pickle tastes good. Initially we thought he was joking. But on the way we saw people selling those fruits...and trust me, they are very expensive. When we asked the lady selling the fruits, she told that it is called Pulla Beerakaya in Telugu.

Little research on the internet revealed its name as Star Fruit /Carambola. If you want to know more facts about this fruit, read http://www.answers.com/topic/carambola-1.

As per my husband's recommendation, we got these fruits. Thought we'll eat them raw...but the tart taste didn't allow us to take more than two bites. Thanks to my husband who volunteered to prepare Kamaranga pickle. But the moment he told pickle, I was bit skeptical as it reminded me of sweet tomateo pickle in West bengal...which never makes my plate. So I didn't pay much attention as I was sure he'll add sugar to the pickle. After 15 minutes he was done with the preparation and we all sat for lunch. The dish looked like curry rather than pickle...but to keep up my husband's spirit, I'll call it pickle.

Trust me, this is the last item I served as I thought it'll be sweeter. But the moment everyone tasted it, all the other items went to bay. No words to express...the taste is awesome and it made its way to this blog as kids truly enjoyed licking it. In no time, we ran out of the pickle. And to my surprise, my brother was asking my sister-in-law to learn the preparation.

My husband's answer "It is simple to prepare and only a two step process. First step, add oil in pan and put whatever masalas you find in the kitchen. Second step, add the cut fruits and water and boil it. DONE" :-). Hehe....and my brother's response "Jo bhi mila vo daal diya...aur voh instant hit ban gaya..." and he asked why he couldn't find coffee and tea powder in the kitchen. So my husband's disclaimer "No coffee powder and tea powder" :-).

ok..here is the preparation after carefully observing the masalas near the stove and digging my husband's memory:
- Heat oil in a Kadai/pan and then add jeera, mustard seeds and curry leaves.
- Add cut onions, tomatoes, green chillies and stir well.
- Now add all the powders (turmeric, salt, Dhaniya and little bit sugar) and stir well.
- Add sliced Kamarangas <sounds odd ;-)>, water and cook well.
- At the end, garnish with Coriander leaves.

That's it, the pickle or curry is ready...NEW dish for NEW YEAR...what a good start.