Multigrain Adai(8-grains Adai)/Multigrain Pancake

After making Barley dosa/Barley Adai and jowar dosa/Adai, i m now making adai with all the grains i have at home. This multi-grain adai will be a definite hit at your place,even if you are into regular adai making or not. The batter can be thinned a little bit to be made as dosai also. I make it as dosai for kuttu and bala and for us it is a thick adai. It tastes divine with aviyal (mixed vegetables with mild coconut masala in yogurt). But can be served with hot sambar and mild chutney of your choic.

Ingredients

1/4 Cup of Each of the following

1. Barley
2. Jowar/Sorghum
3. Ragi/Finger Millet
4. Chana Dal/Gram Dal
5. Tuvar Dal/Split Pigeon PEas
6. Horse gram dal/Kollu/Kulith
7. Dhuli moong/split green gram or green gram whole
8. Matta Rice/Palakkad Maata Rice (Optional)

Gingely oil for making the adai's

Other Ingredients

5-6 Red Chilies

1 Large Onion

2 sprigs of curry leaves

a small piece of ginger

Forgot to keep Horsegram/Kulith while photographing!

Method

• Take the grains all together in a big bowl, wash them twice with water. Soak in water for around 3-4 hours. The level of water should be an inch above the grains.
• After the required time, drain the water, take the grains in a mixer, along with other ingredients, add 1/4 cup of water and grind well to a batter.

• Transfer the batter to another vessel. The batter will be very thick. Add 1/4 Cup of water to the batter. If planning to make thin adai or like dosa,then add another 1/4 Cup of water.
• Heat a Iron skillet/Non-stick pan, pour a laddle of batter in the center, and spread it to circle using the back of the laddle.
• Dot the edges with gingely oil. cook until crisp, flip and cook the other side too until crisp. Remove it to a serving plate. 

• Serve Hot with Aviyal or a Chutney of your choice.

Packing this protein-packed adai to Cooking from a Cookbook Challenge, a Weekly event happening @ +srivalli jetti space. MLLA-71, happening @ +Nivedhanams Sowmya Space, an event by Susan, now taken over by Lisa. Let's cook with pulses, happening @ +Nayna Kanabar's space. Come join us for breakfast, happening @ +srivalli jetti space and also to Healthy Diet - Healthy Breakfast, happening @ +nandoos Kitchen , an event by +Priya Suresh space.

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Varagu arisi upma/Kodo Millet upma

Gear up for lot of changes in Enveetu Kitchen's cooking style. You are going to see a lot of Millets here. Yes, after finding a bag of Varagu arisi @ Al Adil here, i m so experimenting with this humble grain. It was Varagu arisi Venpongal previously and now today i m bringing you upma. The most hated breakfast recipe in most of the house-hold. Hey, but when made with proper ingredients it also tastes good. I made this varagu upma for our breakfast yesterday. i added just 2 veggies, but feel free to add veggies of your choice.  I served it with Masoor dal for my family and myself with curd for my lunch. It tasted good with both the condiments, but i would recommend curd. The spicy upma paired well with mild curd.

Ingredients

1 cup varagu arisi/Kodo Millet
2 nos medium-sized onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 medium-sized carrot, grated
3 nos green chilies, slited lengthwise
1/4 cup frozen peas
1/2 tsp freshly pounded coriander powder
Salt to taste

Tempering
2 tsp groundnut oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Hing and turmeric, two pinches each
A sprig of curry leaf

Method

• Dry roast the varagu arisi in a kadai/pan until they turn slightly brown. The grains will flower up and become bit crisp, this helps in getting a fluffy upma. Transfer the roasted grains in to a separate plate.
• In the same pan, heat oil given under "tempering". Splutter mustard seeds, add hing, turmeric and curry leaves.  Saute for a minute.

• Next add chopped onions and garlic. Saute until onions turn translucent. Add frozen peas and grated carrots to this and saute for 2 minutes. 
• Add 2.5 cups of water and salt. Let the water come to a rolling boil, add the roasted varagu arisi to this,  mix well. Cover and cook for 12-15 minutes in a medium  flame or until the varagu arisi is completely cooked.

• When it is done, remove the cover,  add the coriander powder mix well and cook until the liquid is almost absorbed and the upma is fluffy.
• Serve hot garnished with fresh coriander leaves, along with plain curd.

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Whole Wheat & Amarnath Flour Baked Mathri

My Experiment with Millet continues. Today i bring you a thin, crisp and an addictive snack Mathri. It is a popular north-indian snack made using flour, water and cumin seeds. Since these days i have totally shunned the use of All Purpose flour/Maida in our cooking, i have used 50:50 combination of wheat flour and amarnath flour. 

The goodness of this humble amarnath is manifold. It is nothing but our Keerai vidai, also known as rajgira/ramdana.  Originally these are deep-fried, i have again keeping in mind the health factor, tried baking it.  The cookies came out good, crisp, flavorful and they were really addictive. 

The Inspiration for using Amarnath flour  is drawn from none other than Sangeeta khanna. She is doing a series called 101 alternative flours, where she cooks amazing dishes using Multigrain flour, the ones who would have never thought of using in your everyday cooking. Go through it and get inspired.

Ingredients (Makes approximately 20 cookies)

1/2 Cup Whole Wheat flour

1/2 cup Amarnath flour/Rajgira flour

2-3 tbsp butter/coconut oil , @ room temperature

1/4 Cup + 2 tbsp Warm water

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp white sesame seeds

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper powder

1 tsp kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves

salt to taste (approximately 1/2 tsp)

Method

• Take both the flours in a bowl, add coconut oil/butter and rub it into the flour. Add cumin seeds, sesame seeds, pepper powder, kasuri methi and salt and mix well.

• Now add warm water little by little and make a soft pilable dough. Divide the dough into two halves. Roll out one half into a thin circle of 1/4 inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles from the rolled out dough. Repeat the same with the other half of the dough.
• Preheat the Oven to 170C. Line a baking tray with parchement or grease it with a blob of butter. Arrange the cut out cookies on the greased cookie sheet. 

• Bake for 10 minutes, flip the cookies and bake again for another 10 minutes. Take it out, let them cool on the grill completely. Store the cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Sending this to Cooking from Cookbook Challenge, a weekly event happening @ +srivalli jetti space.

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Mullangi Poondu Kuzhambhu/Radish & Garlic Kuzhambhu

A simple gravy to go with steaming hot rice. Normally it is Dal tadka and subzi in our home. Coz, i pack either roti or any mixed rice for my hubby and me don't eat rice or roti. So, it is only during weekend's i get to make sambhar, rasam, a traditional Tamil Nadu style full meals.  
Last 20 days were crazy, Kuttu had practise everyday 3 hrs for a cultural program in his Arts Institute. We literally are going by his timings. Even on weekends he had practice, so this month i still haven't done my monthly provision shopping,sigghh!! With this crazy schedule, I m just relying what i have in my pantry. This Kuzhambhu was made the same way, i ran out of Sambhar powder, though i have all the ingredients to make it, i m not finding time to make it.  So, i made a roast n grind masala, which amma makes in such situations and made this tangy kara kuzhambhu. I paired it with  simple potato curry and rice. 

Ingredients

1 Medium radish

1 medium tomato

1 Pod of garlic (10-12 cloves of garlic)

a small marble sized tamarind

To Roast n Grind

2 tbsp chana dal

2 tbsp coriander seeds

2 nos pearl onions(chinna vengayam)

1 tsp peppercorns

5-6 red chilies

2 tbsp freshly grated coconut

Tempering

2 tbsp gingely oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp ajwain/omam

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 pinches of asafoetida/hing

a handful of curry leaves

Method

• Wash,peel and cut the radish into roundels. If the radish is huge, i normally cut it vertically into two and cut each half into roundels, so each cut piece looks like a semi circle.
• Soak tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes and extract water around 3 cups. Chop tomatoes, peel the garlic and chop each garlic into two and keep things ready.
• In a Kadai/pan, add 2 drops of oil and roast the ingredients given under roast n grind except coconut and onion. Once done, let it cool for 10 minutes, then take the roasted ingredients along with small onion and freshly grated coconut in a small jar of your mixer and add 1/4 cup of water and grind it to a smooth paste.
• In the same kadai, heat oil given under tempering, splutter mustard seeds, add fenugreek, turmeric powder, hing, ajwain and curry leaves. Saute for a minute or two. Add chopped tomatoes, garlic and chopped radish to this and saute for 3- 4 minutes.

• Next add the ground masala and saute for 2 minutes, finally add tamarind extract to this along with a cup of water and mix well. When the mixture starts to boil, add salt.
• Let this simmer in a medium flame, until the rawness of tamarind disappears, and gravy thickens well. Takes around 20 minutes. 

• The gravy should be little thick than normal sambhar. Serve hot with rice and nice curry

Sending this to Cooking from a Cookbook Challenge, weekly event happening @ +srivalli jetti's space

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Varagu Arisi VenPongal/Kodo Millet Savory Pongal - Breakfast Recipe

It is almost 10 days since i posted anything new in my little space. After a month long marathon, there was too many pending work at home, still have some cleaning work to do. But then, couldn't stay away from my kitchen, so here am i with a simple but the most nutritious breakfast recipe. Venpongal, most famous south-indian breakfast, made even more healthy with this humble but something to the level ofsuperfood Varagu Arisi/Kodo Millet.  I happen to stumble upon this document while reading about millets, it has detailed info on all millets and their nutritional benefits. If interested, please find it here

Info Courtesy : Wiki & Sahajasamurudha

What are Millets? It is a group of cereals which are mostly tiny in size, round in shape. There are about 6,000 varieties of millet throughout the world in different colors too. Millets are gluten-free and rich in B vitamins (especially niacin, B6 and folic acid), calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. The bran layers of millets are good sources of B-complex vitamins.  I have tried to give the Millets name in English. hindi and tamil.

Name of the Millet	Hindi	Tamil
Sorghum	Jowar	Cholam
Pearl Millet	Bajra	Kambu
Finger Millet	Ragi	Kezhvaragu
Barnyard Millet	Jhangora	Kuthiraivaali
Foxtail Millet	Kangni	Thinai
Kodo millet	Kodra	Varagu
Proso Millet	Barri	Pani Varagu
Little Millet	Kutki	Samai
Amarnath	Rajgira	Keerai Vidai

While doing Indian Food Odyssey, this was one of the menu i was planning to make for Tamil Nadu state. But didn't have time to make it in time. I was fortunate to find this varagu arisi/kodo @ the indian store Al Adil Super Market here in Sharjah. Happily picked up 2 packets and since then i m enjoying cooking them. This Venpongal is an absolute favorite in our home. Kuttu loves pongal and so these days i make only millet pongal and not the regular rice one. None know the difference until you reveal it. So, go on and bring back the millets in your regular diet and live healthy.

Ingredients

1/3 Cup Varagu Arisi/Kodo Millet

1/4 Cup Moong dal/Paasi Paruppu

1 green chili

1/2 cup milk + 1/2 cup water mixed together

1 tsp freshly ground pepper powder

1 tbsp shredded ginger

Salt to taste

2 tbsp of chopped almonds/cashewnuts 

Tempering

2 tbsp ghee/oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

handful of curry leaves

Method

• Roast varagu arisi/Kodo millet and moong dal separately until they turn golden. Take them together in a bowl, add green chili ,salt and double the amount of water and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.
• Once the pressure releases, take it out. Heat oil/ghee given under "Tempering" in a kadai, add chopped almonds/cahsewnuts to this and roast till brown, remove and drain on a paper towel and set aside until use. 
• In the remaining ghee/oil, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, shredded ginger and saute until aromatic. 

• Add the pressure cooked varagu arisi & moong mix to this add milk and water mix to this, add freshly ground pepper, mix well and let this simmer for 8-10 minutes.
• Once all the liquid is absorbed, add roasted almonds/cashew-nuts, serve hot with sambhar/chutney

Sending this power-packed millet to Kids Delight-Fat Free Kid's friendly recipes, happening @ +Priya Suresh's Space, an event by +Srivalli Jetti , Come join us for breakfast, event happening @ +srivalli jetti  space. Lets Cook with pulses, happening @ Simply Food.

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