KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI RASAM great to health

KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI RASAM great to health

Kokum rasam (or soup if you prefer it that way) can be had before meals. Warm kokum rasam is really tasty to sip. It is said that Kokum aids weight loss, relieves indigestion, constipation, acidity and flatulence. This rasam goes well when we serve chicken/mutton etc.

Kokum juice is very popular in South India all through the year especially during summer. As tempting as it looks, it cools the body. It helps in preventing dehydration and sunstroke in hot summer. In South India many herbal stores (granthike shops) sell dried skins of kokum. Please see  KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI JUICE  for pictures.

You Need

6-8 pieces of dried kokum skins

Red chilly powder – 1/4 tsp

Onion – 1 small, sliced

Garlic – 3 crushed

Red chilly -1 broken into pieces

Curry leaves

Oil – 1 tsp

Jiggery – ½ tsp (optional)

2 glasses of water

Sugar as per your taste

Salt – a pinch (black salt tastes better

¼ tsp cardamom powder (optional)

1.    Wash the dried skins of kokum and soak in water for a minimum of half an hour or more in half a glass of water.

2.    Squeeze out the juice out of soaked skins changing the water twice. Sieve the squeezed juice to get rid of small pieces of skin. Keep aside.

3.    Heat the oil in a nonstick pan, when hot, add crushed garlic, leave for two minutes stirring once or twice, add curry leaves.

4.    Add the onions, fry for 2-3 minutes, till they are translucent, but not browned. Add broken red chilly. Give a stir.

5.    Now add the squeezed out Kokum water (step 2), add salt and chilly powder. let the rasam boil, check the taste, add jiggery if you like.

6.    Leave the lid ajar and boil for 3 minutes in slow fire. Turn off heat.

Tip:

·        You can soak the skins and squeeze out the juice whenever you are free. Store the juice in a clean glass jar in the refrigerator.

·        You can cook more rasam doubling the quantity of ingredients given above. Transfer the excess rasam to another vessel immediately after cooking, cool it and refrigerate.

If you have dried kokum skins, you may also like to try this thirst quencher  KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI JUICE 

KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI JUICE easy to make, great to health

KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI JUICE easy to make, great to health

Kokum juice is very popular in South India all through the year especially during summer. As tempting as it looks, it is very cooling to the body. It helps in preventing dehydration and sunstroke in hot summer. In South India many herbal stores (granthike shops) sell dried skins of kokum.

It is said that Kokum aids weight loss, relieves indigestion, constipation, acidity and flatulence. This juice is very easy to make. After eating the fruit, preserve the skins by drying in the sun light which have a shelf life of more than a year.  

            

                               Kokum Whole Fruit                                   

 The edible part inside        

Kokum skin  when fresh     

 Skin when dried

You Need

6-8 pieces of dried kokum skins

2 glasses of water

Sugar as per your taste

Salt – a pinch (black salt tastes better

¼ tsp cardamom powder (optional)

Pinch of pepper powder (optional)

1.    Wash the dried skins of kokum and soak in water for a minimum of half an hour or more in half a glass of water.

2.    Squeeze out the juice from the soaked skins changing the water twice.

3.    Sieve the squeezed juice in to a vessel and add sugar, salt and pepper and cardamom powder.

4.    Stir well and serve.

Tip:

·     You can soak the skins and squeeze out the juice whenever you are free. Store the juice in a clean glass jar/steel vessel in the refrigerator. Just before serving add the other things.

·        Fried and powdered cumin/jeera also tastes good if you don’t like pepper/cardamom flavour/taste.

     If you have kokum dry skins at home, you may also like to try  this easy rasam KOKUM/ BINDA/ PUNARPULI RASAM

CHURIMURI / MURMURA / PUFFED RICE MASALA

CHURIMURI / MURMURA / PUFFED RICE MASALA

Easy to make, great to health Street Food

This snack is very easy to make. Now that the children are at home during summer holidays, who always like to munch on something, this comes very handy as this never goes wrong. Also it is liked by kids and grown- ups just the same.

You Need

3 cups of puffed rice/churumuri

Chilli powder – a pinch

Salt – a pinch

Raw mango – 1 small  (preferably tothapuri)

Onion – 1 medium

Carrot – 1 medium

                                                              

           

1.    Wash and grate/shred the raw mango and carrot.

2.    Chop the onions finely.

3.    Mix well finely chilli powder, chopped onions, grated mango and carrot.

4.    Finally add the churmuri, give it a quick mix, check the taste

5.    Serve  immediately to the waiting hands.

Tips

·         You can always chop/grate the onion/mango/carrot and keep it ready. When you want to serve this, just add the salt and chilli powder and puffed rice.

·         It is always best to mix the puffed rice just before serving, lest it becomes soggy.

·         If the raw mango is sour, use more salt and chilli powder to balance the taste.

·         If you don’t have raw mango, or out of season, use finely chopped tomatoes.

·         You can also sprinkle fine sev while serving for extra crunch and shop like taste.

·        

Home Made Twistato

HOME MADE TWISTATO

These days in Bangalore you find Twistato very popular which costs anywhere from Rs.50 to Rs.100 for each. Same thing can made at home in 15 minutes. Use your imagination to change the flavours!

You need (for 2 twistatoes)

Small potatoes - 2 

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt & Chilly paste - 1/4 tsp

Oil to fry

Method

Wash the potatoes well. Using twister, carefully cut the potato into a swirl. 

Marinate the potato with the Salt & Chilly paste and deep fry in oil.

For the second potato

Mix 1/4 tsp of oil with salt and pepper powder. Marinate it to the potato and deep fry

If your pan is big you can fry both at a time. Or fry individually. Serve with chat masala.

Repeat as many potatoes as you like. I used the small potatoes as showed in the pictures. If the potato is big they may break while frying. You can have it, however your kids may not like. One kg potato costs only Rs.20/-.

You may also like to see few more easy snacks like sweet corn on the cob
Vanilla Custard or one pot meal Methi Pulao or Carrot Rice

SILVER FISH GRAVY (Erli/Netholi)

SILVER FISH  GRAVY                                

You Need

Silver fish - 50 no (scales and fins removed, cleaned)                            

One small onion sliced thinly

1 tbsp coconut or any cooking oil

For the masala to be ground to a fine paste

Long red chillies - 4

Jeera - 1 tsp

whole pepper - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - half tsp

Tamarind – 1 small marble sized (or amchur powder which will give a slightly different taste)

2 medium sized onions              

1.     Heat  oil, fry the onion till brown.  Add the ground paste and fry for 5 minutes

2.     Add the masala water (which you used to rinse the mixi jar or grinder),  bring to a curry consistency and let it boil.  Add salt to taste and check the taste and thickness of the curry.

3.     Add cleaned fish. When it starts boiling, lower the heat, give the vessel a gentle swirl.

4.     Give a good boil, turn off the heat. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Serve it with rice or ragi balls..

Tip:      Avoid putting spoon in the curry once you have added fish because fish may break. Gently swirling the vessel does the job, keeping the fish intact. Add raw mango pieces in season for extra taste. In that case reduce the tamarind.Boil the raw mango pieces separately with little water and add to fried masala and add salt.

You may also like to fry this fish for which you can use Meet Mirsang

Bafat Powder - Multi Purpose Spice Mix

Bafat Powder

You need

Red chillies – 100 gm

Coriander  - 50 gm

Jeera – 25 gms

Black pepper – 15 gms

Turmeric powder – 20 gms

Cloves – 15 gm

Cinnamon -15 gm (or 2” piece)

1.    Dry grind all the ingredients except chillies in a dry mixi jar

2.    Empty the contents ina  wide mouthed clean dry vessel

3.      Grind the chillies and empty the contents in the same vessel

4.    Mix the powders well and transfer half the quantity in to mixi jar

5.    Dry Grind well and repeat the process till you get a fine powder

6.    Store the powder in a clean dry box or glass bottle once it is cooled.

7.    Use it in variety of vegetable sukka or subjies, to cook chicken or pork. You can also substitute this powder in the place of sambar powder

Tips: If possible sun dry all the ingredients before making the powder. Not only the shelf life will be longer, it grinds faster and finer.

Every Day Morning Blues

Getting Rid of Everyday Morning Blues

To avoid the morning rush, prepare some of the things the previous night like cutting vegetables. The little chores which you do the previous night, leave you with ample time in the morning to talk to your kids and spouse peacefully. The stress level reduces so much that it reflects on the way you carry out your work at office.

Measure the rice and dal required for the next morning and keep it in the vessel in which you are going to wash the rice.

Measure the water required for cooking rice and keep it ready.

If you have the habit of eating fruits like papaya before or during breakfast, peel and keep it in the fridge the previous day. As soon as you enter the kitchen take it off the fridge and it will be ready to eat in 1-2 two hours.

Pack your fruit box the previous night and refrigerate it. Just before leaving home slip it in your bag and it is ready to munch for mid day snack.

Keep the snack box ready for your little ones like biscuits and other knick knacks. Ensure that the tiffin boxes are air tight.

Fill the water bottles previous night itself.

Keep separate all the lids of tiffin boxes which you intend to fill the next morning.

Home Made Masala Pastes

Storing of  Home Made Masala Pastes

While grinding the masala for veg curries or fish, always double or triple the quantity. After using the desired quantity, freeze the rest in small containers. So next time you want to cook the curry or pulav, use the frozen one. It saves you a lot of time in assembling ingredients, washing the mixer/grinder, grating coconut etc. whenever I grind masala, I see that I make it at least for 3 more uses and freeze it.

Label the ground masala containers. You may tend to forget which masala is stored inside after a few days as in the picture.

Keep the ground masala container outside the freezer for at least 2-3 hours.

If you need to cook early morning, it is best to transfer the ground masala box to refrigerator from freezer, the previous night.

If you forget to keep out the ground masala box and in a hurry to cook, just defrost it in the microwave. For this you need to store the ground masala in a microwave safe container.

Grind the coconut with only tamarind and freeze for future use. Depending on the vegetables/sprouted pulses available, you can add the sambar powder made by you or store bought to make delicious curries.

You may also like to read about avoiding every day morning rush