jaggery coated almonds | easy to make natural unprocessed snack

Caramel coated and chocolate coated nuts you must have eaten a lot and must have exchanged as gifts too. Jaggery coated almonds are a better way to consume sweetened nuts without the emulsifiers and preservatives in the industrially produced coated nuts.

Come winter and North India starts stocking up nuts although it is much more sensible to keep eating nuts throughout the year. But there is a tradition of making panjeeris and laddus using an assortment of nuts in all North Indian families, some spices and edible gum etc is added to prepare oneself for the colder climes that we pretend to enjoy a lot.

In fact our winters are just a respite from the dreaded sultry summer that seems to drain all energy from us. Mangoes are the only solace. And then we enjoy our winters with rich foods of all sorts.

I made these jaggery coated almonds for another reason. I added a few spices to the jaggery syrup to help my frequent headaches and I am glad it is proving good. Long back a friend of mine had suggested a panjeeri made of almonds, poppy seeds and pepper corns when she came to know about my migraine. I remember I was breastfeeding Mithi during that time and used to be hungry all the time. I just started taking a few raw almonds, a spoonful of poppy seeds and a few peppercorns and chewing them all together for a while. Making a panjeeri felt too much work but when this mix helped my migraine I started stocking up this panjeeri and religiously had a spoonful everyday with milk.

But then life kept throwing other challenges and I forgot doing all of that, so much so that I couldn't even remember this magical almond panjeeri that had helped me some 15 years ago. Recently I asked friends on my facebook wall about migraine cures and one of those suggestions was about a panjeeri. It took me back in time and brought back my old panjeeri recipe.

I add a bit of nutmeg too to the panjeeri whose recipe is simple. Raw almonds, poppy seeds, black peppercorns and nutmeg are powdered together in mixie and kept in airtight jars. I make about 200 gm at a time and keep refreshing the stock as it takes just about 5 minutes to make it. If you want the recipe of this panjeeri you can ask in comments, I will update the exact recipe here.

This time when I made these jaggery coated almonds I thought of using some of the pajeeri ingredients so this snack helps me with the bigger issue too. The good news is that it has been working fine. But this snack is for everyone and can be made without these spices too.

ingredients 
(enough to last a month for a family of 2 if they eat sensibly)

250 gm raw almonds
150 gm jaggery
50 gm poppy seeds
5 gm (2 level tsp) ginger powder, you can add more
dash or nutmeg powder
dash of clove powder
pinch of salt

procedure 

Dry roast the almonds on very low heat for about 10 minutes. Cool.
You can roast for longer if you like very crunchy roasted almonds.

Chop the jaggery using a sturdy knife. I use my cleaver for this sweet job :-)

Transfer the chopped jaggery to a deep pan (kadhai) and add just 2 tbsp water to wet the jaggery so it starts melting.

Now place the pan over stove and start stirring it once in a while. The jaggery melts and starts simmering. After about 5 minutes the jaggery mix will start bubbling and then frothing.
The syrup is ready.
To test the readiness of syrup you can drop a small droplet in chilled water and check it. The droplet should get solid immediately. Take off the stove.

Now add all the spices and poppy seeds in the jaggery and mix vigorously. Add the almonds too and stir to coat them all. Keep stirring till the mix looks dry and all almonds are coated. It takes just a couple of minutes.

You may get some loose dry jaggery mix at the bottom of the pan but that is okay. It will be like a spiced sugar you can add to your cereal.

This is an addictive snack trust me. Be warned and be prepared for people stealing it from the jar. Keep it safe if you don't want kids getting loosies after eating too much almonds and adults refusing to have dinner after handfuls of jaggery coated almonds for evening snack.

Ration it. All good things are rationed in life. Jaggery coated almonds are precious.

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quick recipe of tomato ketchup | why packaged tomato ketchup never spoils and how it is so red?

Do you eat tomato ketchup with every meal?

Please say NO. And please ask questions about tomato ketchup.

But you know why I am asking. My heart sinks when I see huge sack like 1 kilo packs of tomato ketchup with a plastic pout on the supermarket shelves. There used to be small glass bottles of tomato ketchup when we were growing up, though we used to call it 'sauce'. And this 'sauce bottle' was taken out when there was some samosa or pakoda being fried and there was no Imli sonth ki chutney on the table. The samosas and pakodas were always served with a green chutney and a Imli sonth ki chutney, the 'sauce' came to the rescue when we ran out of Imli sonth ki chutney. Those were the days when the little dot of 'sauce' on the plate was more of a garnish and was often left untouched.

Leaving the tomato ketchup untouched was helpful once in finding out a startling fact about commercial tomato ketchup. Last year we visited Mysore and were staying at CFTRI (a CSIR unit) guest house. Arvind was on a work tour and I used to wander around town the whole day to come back in the evening and have tea with him. The guest house staff would bring some snacks with tea always and one of those days it was some pakoda with 'ketchup'. We finished chai and pakoda and the ketchup bowl kept lying on the work table in the room where I had kept some fresh fruits too. I noticed the ants kept attacking the fruits and left the ketchup untouched. See the picture I shared on my fb page back then.This piqued my interest and I told the room service guy to leave the ketchup bowl there. it kept lying there for 4 days and no ants came near it, nor the ketchup dried up. What was it made of?

Not only the ketchup is made of more synthetic ingredients than real, it has way more sugar that we perceive and eat it with all savoury foods. It causes us to eat more sugar unknowingly and also makes us eat more salt in the savoury stuff to balance out the sweetness of the ketchup. Unseen culprits these. We need to know more about why the consumption of ketchup in each family has increased manifolds.

Sometime in last 2 decades the glass bottle of ketchup started growing in size and I saw ketchup bottles that the kids couldn't handle any more. It got worse in the last few years when a large plastic pouch that looks like a sack replaced the glass bottles and people started pouring ketchup onto their plates with every single meal. Yes, unfortunately I know a few people who have it with every meal. I was horrified when my dad asked for ketchup with his paratha breakfast when he visited me few weeks back. He was never the one who ate ketchup but somehow he also got the bug. HOW?

We all know the truth. Processed food is designed to be addictive and the addiction grows. With so much sugar per serving one gets used to the sugar rush with every meal and the MSG makes everything tastier of course. Along with these we end up eating a few preservatives, emulsifiers and artificial colours too. Wouldn't we like to stop it?

Say yes please.

I got alarmed after my dad asked for ketchup honestly speaking. He is a diabetic and still thinks it is okay to have a bit of ketchup on the side. Many kids pour about 1/4 cup of ketchup with paratha or even bread, they eat everything with ketchup. Someone asked me how do you eat omelettes without ketchup?

Well, I never knew you needed ketchup for omelettes.

I only knew potato fries were dipped in ketchup just like churros were dipped in a chocolate sauce. Both were rare foods for me. Still are. Closer home it was the tip of samosa that was trickled with ketchup, the TV adverts showed us. Later the TV adverts squirted ketchup on paratha too unfortunately.

Could we choose any better?

My parents used to make their own ketchup long back but we stopped eating ketchup, most probably got bored of it. I wouldn't have posted any ketchup recipe because we simply don't eat ketchup.

Recently I was experimenting with some natural sauces and dips I was developing for a new snacks brand and just thought of mixing a few leftovers to make a ketchup of sorts. And the quick method worked wonderfully.

This ketchup needs refrigeration and stays well for 2-3 weeks easily. It can be made as sweet as the store bought ketchup but I recommend you lower the amount of honey each time you make it, just to make sure you don't end up eating too much sugar in a day.

This ketchup recipe would not make you strain tomatoes or reduce them over gas flame for hours. Just make small amounts enough for 2 weeks in about 10 minutes work and make way for healthier eating. 

Do not go by the looks, the taste is pretty close to the bottled tomato ketchup and you have the flexibility to adjust the taste as well.

ingredients..
(makes about 300 ml of ketchup, takes about 10 minutes to make and stays well for 2-3 weeks)

red ripe tomatoes 300 gm
red bell pepper 50 gm or 1/3 of one bell pepper (you can use pickling red peppers too)
carrot (orange summer carrots) 1 or 100 gm or similar amount of ripe pumpkin
kashmiri chilli powder or deghi mirch powder 1.5 tbsp
garlic powder 1 tsp
ginger powder 1 tsp
onion powder 1 tbsp
dry thyme 1 tbsp
clove powder 1/4 tsp
nutmeg powder 1/8 tsp
cinnamon powder 1 tsp
salt 1 tsp or 6 gm or to taste
olive oil 2-3 tbsp (this is to emulsify the sauce)
vinegar 3 tbsp
honey 4-5 tbsp or as sweet as you want

procedure...

Chop the tomatoes, bell pepper and carrot in small bits and pressure cook with salt. Do not add water as tomatoes have enough water. Cool down the mix.

Now transfer the boiled vegetables mix to a blender and add all the other ingredients and blend till an emulsified smooth ketchup is ready.

Fill in a clean glass bottle or squeezy bottle and refrigerate. Use as required.

If you want a more vibrant colour in your 'sauce', make this sweet chilly-ginger-tamarind sauce and see how it feels so close to the tomato ketchup you are used to. These sauces could be useful in making meals quicker sometimes, use them to make curries in a jiffy.

This homemade ketchup makes great butter chicken when converted into a gravy base. Try that.

Check out the ongoing lunch box series and give me your suggestions about making lunch boxes practical and enter a chance to win a few cute useful things for yourself.

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101 gluten free breakfasts : poha (flattened rice) is for everyone | 4 recipes of a probiotic breakfast

Gluten free breakfasts are easier than the sound of it. There are many ingredients that would surprise you about the variety you can afford to have once you ditch that toast or paratha for breakfast.

I have written about how poha (beaten or flattened rice) is a probiotic and prebiotic food, a good quality ready to eat cereal that can be used in so many different ways that no packaged cereal can beat this. Poha can make sweet breakfasts with yogurt and fruit, smoothies with poha and it makes the popular savoury breakfast called pohe with a prefix of onion, potato or peas whatever you add to it. Kande pohe, batata poha and dadpe pohe all are different ways to relish this native cereal produced and used all over India in some form or the other. My experiments have resulted in some yummy concoctions like poha with mango and coconut. But there are a few versions I am yet to share. Bringing some of them in this post, hopefully you would also like them as much as I do.

1. recipe of pohe with paneer matar (preparation time 15 minutes)

ingredients
(2 large servings)
dry poha 1 cup
fresh green peas 3/4 cup
paneer 50-60 gm (crumbled or cut in small cubes)
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
chopped green chillies 1 tsp or to taste
minced ginger 1 tsp
salt and pepper to taste
chopped coriander greens to garnish
lime juice to finish, as per taste
ghee 2 tsp

procedure..

Rinse the poha under tap water keeping it in a sieve. Keep aside.

Heat the ghee in a wide pan and tip in the cumin seeds. Let the cumin crackle and add the green chillies and ginger, followed by green peas and salt. Mix and cook covered for 5 minutes or till cooked.

Now add the crumbled paneer and stir fry for a few seconds or till the paneer heats up and soaks in the flavours.

Add the drained poha, lime juice and pepper powder, mix well and cook covered on very low flame for 2-3 minutes or till the poha warms up thoroughly.

Sprinkle chopped coriander greens and serve hot.

We like having ginger tea with this kind of breakfast.

2. recipe of kande pohe (preparation time 15-20 minutes)

ingredients
(2 large servings)

dry poha 3/4 or 1 cup
diced red onions 1 cup
finely chopped potatoes (preferably with skin) 1/2 cup
chopped green chillies 1 tsp
chopped curry leaves 1 tbsp
cumin seeds, fennel (saunf) and mustard seeds 1/2 tsp each
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
salt and pepper to taste
fresh grated coconut 2 tbsp
roasted peanuts 2 tbsp
chopped coriander leaves 1 tbsp
lime juice as required
ghee or peanut oil 1 tbsp

procedure

Rinse the poha under running water, keeping them in a deep sieve. Keep aside to drain.

Heat the ghee in a wide thick base pan and tip in the cumin, fennel and mustard seeds. Wait till they all crackle and then add the chopped onions, curry leaves and potatoes. Add salt, turmeric powder, green chillies and stir fry on medium flame till done. You can cover the pan to quicken the cooking process. It takes about 5 minutes for this quantity.

Now add the soaked poha, chopped coriander greens and pepper powder mix well and cover and cook for 3-4 minutes on very low flame. Take the pan off the flame and add the lime juice to taste, adjust seasoning and serve in bowls. Sprinkle grated coconut and roasted peanuts on top and serve immediately.

3. recipe of dadpe pohe (preparation time 10 minutes, resting time 30 minutes)

This dadpe pohe recipe is a Maharashtra special (most poha recipes originated there btw) and doesn't involve cooking and is preferably made with tender coconut water as well as tender coconut meat. But one can make it using regular coconut milk and fresh grated coconut too. Being uncooked poha this recipe provides the best probiotic benefit. This recipe uses freshly grated coconut and packaged coconut milk. If using tender coconut water one can skip rinsing the poha and soak them in the coconut water itself for better flavours.

ingredients..
(2 large servings)

dry poha 1 cup
coconut milk 100 ml (half a carton pack)
chopped green chillies 1 tsp
chopped red onions 3/4 cup
minced ginger 1 tsp (optional)
chopped green coriander leaves 1/4 cup
lime juice 1 tsp
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated coconut 2 tbsp or a bit more
roasted peanuts 2 tbsp (optional)

procedure..

Rinse the poha under running water and drain completely. The poha looks like this after rinsing and letting them soak for 5 minutes.

Now add the other ingredients except peanuts, mix well in a bowl and press with a small plate to cover the poha mix and keep a heavy bowl over this. Pressing the poha is done to allow the poha to soak all the flavours. I find 30 minutes of pressing enough to soak up the flavours but it depends on the type of poha being used. Normally when one cooks poha the heating makes the flavours seep in easily. For this raw preparation this pressing method is very important.

Serve cold (at room temperature) topped with a little more grated coconut or peanuts. The husband loves roasted peanuts but I skip adding them if it is a flavourful dadpe pohe.

This dadpe pohe might not be the best poha recipe for winter months but in summers this recipe is such a refreshing breakfast that we like to make it quite often. No cook recipe get repeated for other reasons too. Convenience doesn't mean eating instant noodles.

4. recipe of microwave poha (preparation time 5 minutes)

This is another instant recipe that involves just mixing the ingredients and microwaving all of them together for 2-3 minutes per serving. This poha recipe gives instant noodles a run for their money.

ingredients..
(2 large servings)

dry poha 1 cup
chopped red onions 1 cup
chopped green coriander leaves 1/2 cup
chopped green chillies 1 tsp
salt and pepper to taste
lime juice to taste (optional, I hardly add lime juice to this recipe)
fresh grated (or desiccated) coconut 1-2 tbsp
roasted peanuts 1-2 tbsp (optional)
ghee (do not replace with any oil) 2 tsp

procedure..

Rinse the poha just like the above recipes.

Mix all the ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and microwave (covered with a loose lid) for 2 minutes. Stir well and microwave again for 2 minutes or till a cooked aroma of coriander greens and fresh poha with a whiff of ghee is noticeable.

Serve hot and see how you like it so much better than any instant noodles.

I add the dry garlic chutney to this poha sometimes to add more flavours but the south Indian gunpowder also works great. Sprinkle it after serving it on your plate and see how you can make it even more hot and tangy.

And here is a microwave cooked poha topped with fried cashews.

This poha is made using the red poha we sometimes get in north east states of India or even in Maharashtra. Thanks to our travels and the tendency to shop for such ingredients, we end up tasting a lot of things that we don't get where we live.

Now with so many ideas with breakfast poha, gluten free breakfast will not be boring at all. I do eat wheat but minimal use of gluten is what I aim for as I feel lighter whenever I eat gluten free food. Thank God there are so many options of gluten free foods to choose from in Indian cuisine.

I am posting these recipes of gluten free breakfast for all those people who are dependent on breads and parathas for breakfast and complaint that this kind f breakfast is filling and satisfying but it makes them slugging after an hour. Try having a plateful of poha and see how it makes you feel different.

PS : these recipes make 2 really large servings. We generally have a large breakfast when we plan a salad meal for lunch but all these poha recipe can be really light if one serves them in smaller portions that suits well for a tea time snack.

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quick aubergine pizza : a grain free pizza that we love

There is a series of coincidences going on in my household. This weekend I was planning to bake a thin crust pizza for dinner and a neighbor couple calls and comes home. No there is no coincidence in neighbors visiting but this couple have young kids who used to come to our place long back when Mithi was alive. These kids were remembering Mithi ki mummy ka pizza and when their parents told us this, I got thinking why I had a thought of a thin crust pizza for dinner and couldn't make because of not having the home made tomato concasse ready that I use for my homemade pizzas. Nevertheless I am baking thin crust pizzas for these kids this week.

And then I was making this eggplant rollatini from World Feast and was reminded of an eggplant (aubergine) pizza that I bake sometimes and was in an impression that I have already shared it on this blog. But when I was looking for aubergine pictures in my digital clutter that the collection of my pictures is, I found these aubergine pizza pictures that were not even processed. Then I realised this aubergine pizza never made it to the blog. This aubergine pizza was made and photographed last December on a weekend, and photographed in day time. We rarely eat any kind of pizza in day time and rarely have the patience to shoot them before the cheese sets again while the pizza gets cold. That explains the absence of pizzas of all kinds on this blog except this buckwheat base pizza that I make when we have fresh rucola growing in the garden.

But none of the pizzas I bake is simpler than this one. Just slice the vegetables, layer up and bake.
No dough no distress ;-)

So coincidence or serendipity brought this aubergine pizza out of the closet and here it is. A delicious pizza can't be any better believe me. Can't be quicker either.

You just have to slice big round aubergines. Take care to use only fresh aubergines without seeds. Brush the slices with olive oil and sprinkle salt on them.

Then you slice really fresh, ripe and the most flavourful tomatoes you can get. Some sliced or minced garlic cloves, some torn basil and oregano, red chilly flakes and salt to be sprinkled. Go by your mood when deciding the quantity of seasoning and herbs. you need not sprinkle any salt over the tomatoes but go by your instinct.

Then bake for 5 minutes at 250 C in a preheated oven. Now is the time to slice some mozzarella cheese thickly and spread over the hot layers of aubergine, tomato and herbs.  Bake again for a couple of minutes till the cheese bubbles.

Serve immediately.

Bubbling stringy mozzarella cheese has a way to enhance the taste of tomatoes and aubergine. The herbs and seasonings help to get it irresistible.

You wouldn't feel the need to have a 'base' for this pizza as the aubergine slices give this pizza a stable base that holds fine. Keep the slices of aubergine a bit thick and let them cook thoroughly in the first round of baking. Sometimes I add minced red bell peppers or minced or sliced mushrooms over the tomato slice but that is not obligatory.

I have done many experiments with making a 'pizza base' using vegetables including cauliflowers, cabbage and even potato slices but the best taste was with aubergines to be honest. Although Arvind likes the potato version too.

And here is the last bit of coincidence that happened just now. I had suggested 'aubergine' as one of the vegetables to be included in the next week's meal plan of a new client of mine who is a young girl not very well acquainted with kitchen and she wrote back immediately asking for what is an 'aubergine'?

I am not joking :-)

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