Laapsi porridge

This is a healthy dish as it has no milk .It can be called a water payasam.My mom makes this once in awhile for breakfast.It is quick & easy.Ingredients are few.

Ingredients : 1 cup laapsi rawa( use finer variety as it will cook faster ) ,1 tbsp ghee( optional ) ,1 cup jaggery, 1 /2 tsp cardamom powder,a few dry fruits  chopped  to garnish.

Method : Take a thick bottomed kadhai.Put the laapsi  & 3 cups  water in it.Mix nicely.Warm the kadhai by putting the gas on.Keep stirring with a spoon so that it does not stick to bottom.Always keep gas burner on slow mode.Slowly laapsi will get cooked.After 15 minutes or so add jaggery & mix nicely.Slowly jaggery will melt due to the heat.After Keep stirring with spoon so that no lumps of jaggery remain.After 10 minutes,all will have got alight brown colour.If you feel that it is very thick,add some water & mix nicely.Let it simmer for some more time.Put off gas.Add cardamom powder & mix nicely.Serve in bowls.Garnish with grated dry fruits like almonds ,cashews etc.

Add a tsp of spoon on the top if desired. If no ghee is added,this is a vegan dish.

Til barfi

Sesame seeds are full of calcium.They are a rich source of iron too.Til sweets are a must at Makar Sankranti.

I have learnt this from my Atya ,a very simple recipe of Til barfi.

Ingredients: 1 cup unpolished white sesame seeds,1 cup chikki  jaggery,a tsp of ghee,1 /2 tsp cardamom powder ( optional ).
Unpolished white sesame seeds look brownish in colour.

Method : Dry roast sesame seeds till they start spluttering.Put off gas.Keep turning the seeds with a ladle even though gas is off.Keep aside.

In a pan ,heat the chikki  jagerry till it melts completely.Be careful as this chikki jaggery melts fast.If it gets overheated,it will get hard.Put off gas.

Add the roasted sesame seeds.Add cardamom powder.Mix nicely till all seeds are coated with jaggery. Take a plate to which ghee has been applied all over on the surface.Now remove  the semisolid jaggery sesome mixture with ladle & on to a plate.Roll the mixture with a chappati rolling pin to spread the mixture evenly.Then cut into desired shapes.

After the spread has been made uniform.Wait for 5-10 minutes.Cut into desired shapes.If left on plate,it will become hard.Then ,one may have to warm the plate so that the barfis can be removed smoothly without breaking into uneven shapes.If it has hardened ,while it is in pan,it can be warmed slightly to make it soft.

Nowadays I have started using ordinary jaggery in place of chikki jaggery & it turns out equally good ! And following Sangeeta Khanna's recipe, I use  1 cup til & half a cup jaggery. The idea is to make it less sweet & more nutritious !

Chappati laddoos

I have tried making chappti laddoos earlier & had failed miserably.This time I googled for the recipe.I learnt from creative saga 

I made some changes & my recipe is as below....

Ingredients : 2.5 chappatis,approx 1/4 cup jaggery or even little less than 1/4 cup,1 tsp ghee.

Method : I crumbled the chappatis to powder in the mixer.Mix the crumbled chappati powder with grated or powdered jaggery.Take a kadhai & heat the ghee.Add the chappati -gur mix to the kadhai & with a ladle roast the chappati gur mixture on the ghee.After five minutes,put off the gas.

After another 5 minutes,take a small amount of the mixture on to your palms & shape it into a ball.Repeat with the remaining of the chappati-gur-ghee mixture.I got nearly 6 laddoos.

Pundi palya chutni

I love pundi playa chutni.Pundi palya is Kannada  for Gonghura or Ambadi leaves.It is said that Ambadi & Alu leaves are the freshest in monsoons & must be consumed in monsoons.Whenever this chutni or dal with gonghura leaves is made ,I eat till my tummy is ready to burst.I can eat chappatis & rice with this chutni or dal.I can eat it just like that .In other words, I tend to overeat whenever this pundi palya is cooked either as chutni or in dal form.I love it so much.

Gongura or sorrel leaves are rich in iron & folic acid which helps in absorption of iron by the human body. So for anemics, Gongura leave are a good source of iron. And consuming this in any form like chutni or gongura dal will help in improving iron deficiency.

Ingredients : 1 bunch of Ambadi leaves ( it is available as a bunch -tied by a jute string ) ,1/2 tsp mustard seeds,1 tbsp oil,1/4 -1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, 5-6 green chillies, 1-2 tsp red chilli powder ( optional ),1/2 tsp hing,1/2 tsp haldi,1/3-1/2 cup jaggery shavings  or jggery bits, salt to taste.

Method : Remove the leaves from the stems & clean them in water as any leafy vegetable.The leaves can be chopped roughly or the leaves can be used as such after washing .I used whole leaves.I did not cut them.

Take oil in a kadhai & heat it.Add mustard seeds followed by methi seeds.When they splutter ,add chopped green chillies,hing & haldi.Mix all .Now add the leaves .Mix the leaves with green chillies,haldi hing mixture.Cover the kadhai with a lid & let it cook.After 5-6 minutes,remove the lid & the leaves will have contracted into a grennish brown mass.If some leaves are still green ,mix again & cover with lid.Remove lid & if the whole mass is greenish brown ,add jaggery or gur & mix again.Cover with lid & cook.After five minutes,remove lid.Check with spoon  for any chunks of gur remaining in the veggie mass.If all gur has melted,add slat & mix again.Allow to cook for another 2-3 minutes till it becomes little dry.Remove from gas.

If chunks of gur are still there,cook till all jaggery has melted & then add salt.

I tasted the chutni thus made & found that it was very sour.I added 1-2 tsp red chilli powder & mixed again .Then the taste was somewhat less sour.

The amount of red chilli powder or green chillies ,gur & salt depends on how sour the ghungaroo leaves are.Many times ,one may have to add more chillies or jaggery or salt or all three to make the chutni less sour or lessen the tanginess !

This dish is very rich in iron as it has jaggery as well. Jaggery is a rich source of iron as well.So this chutni has twin benefits of sorrel leaves & jaggery , both rich sources of iron .So this chutni has twin advantages of iron!

This is my #livogenironchef entry for the Iron Chef contest on IndiBlogger.

Mango lapsi sheera

My neighbour makes lapsi sheera with gur.Even my mom makes lapsi sweet - kheer consistency with sugar & jaggery mixture in equal parts.I checked out some recipes on net about mixing mango & lapsi & jaggery.I failed to get any such recipe.So I made up my own.I tried this earlier with different amounts of the ingredients & mango taste was unnoticeable.Hence ,in this second attempt ,I changed the quantities & was quite satisfied with the dish.

Ingredients : 1/2 cup thin lapsi rava,2.5-3 cups water, 1tbsp malai ( optional ),1 tbsp ghee,1/3 to 1/2 cup jaggery,1/3 cup mango puree ( I used Langda variety of Mango ),1 clove & 2 cardamoms ( peeled ),grated or thinly sliced 5-6 almonds for garnish.

Method : Roast lapsi rava on  a low flame in a kadhai  for 5 minutes.Add ghee & roast again.On another gas burner, keep water for boiling.Add malai, if using, into this water, so that it will get broken up ( I hate malai -so try to use it in dishes where I cannot make out taste of malai).

Now add jaggery & boling water to the lapsi rava & mix nicely .Cook it with a lid covering the kadhai..Keep removing the lid & mixing the contens in the kadhai every 2-3 minutes.Add powdered spice mixture ( 1 clove & 2 cardamom )to the kadhai .As the sheera thickens add ,the mango puree & mix.Cook it covered with lid.After 2-3 minutes,if it is done -mango puree has been absorbed,put off the gas.

Garnish with sliced almonds & serve.

The sweetness was just right.I was able to make out that mango had been added.If more sweetness is needed,one can use more jaggery or more of mango puree.