101 alternative flours : jowar methi paratha | flat bread made with sorghum flour and fenugreek leaves | how to cook millet flours

Jowar flour is gluten free, a millet that grows all over India, even in arid and semi arid regions, but since wheat and rice have become major staple grains owing to the yield supported by fertilisers and irrigation facilities, the millets have taken the beating and very few farmers still grow it. Thankfully we can still get sorghum flour in the markets during winter months and now I even know a farmer who grows these millets organically. Thankfully more people are realising and coming back to millets. Let's learn how to cook millets now.

I had visited Aiyor Bai farm in Hyderabad recently if you remember, and had met Madhu Reddy who left a promising career in the US and came back home to grow organic food at her farm. She had sent some sorghum flour my way through a friend and some aromatic fresh methi was growing in the garden, I made this jowar methi paratha and shared multiple times on intagram and facebook. A few friends wanted to know how to make such perfect looking jowar methi paratha as most people experience very brittle and dry flat breads when they cook with jowar or other millets. I had promised jowar methi ka paratha and here it is, along with the instructions regarding how to make the jowar flour more suitable for flat breads.

I had done a post about how to use ragi flour to make perfect flat breads and this is next in the series.

Note that some traditional folks have mastered the art of making jowar rotis just by hand and that is the best roi I have ever had. Jowarichi bhakri is a hand patted flat bread slow cooked on an Iron skillet and served with traditional curries. But that skill is not easy to come by so we resort to innovation.

How to make flat breads (roti and paratha) with jowar (sorghum) flour...

Since jowar flour is gluten free and has complex carbs and lot of fiber in it, the dough is not sticky and cannot be managed easily. The best way is to knead the dough using hot water for a longer duration so the starches release and make the dough sticky enough to roll well if you are making the traditional jowar ki roti or jowarichi bhakhri. But this method still requires some skill.

The other way is to use a binding agent to the flour that is not too starchy, doesn't alter the Glycemic index of the flour and adds softness to the dough as well.

#I have experienced cooked rice flour into a slurry works well and I had used a red rice flour that was available at Aiyor Bai fam when I cooked the jowar mooli paratha there. Just cook 2-3 tbsp of rice flour with water to make a slurry and knead about 2 cups of jowar flour with it. You can add some grated vegetables of chopped greens to the dough as well. Cook roti or paratha as required.

Here is a methi paratha I made using rice flour slury as the binding agent to jowar flour.

This was about 4 months ago when water chestnuts were in season and I was adding them to most of my stir fries. These methi parathas we love with a spot of amla chutney on the side.

#You can use leftover cooked rice to knead the flour too. Just add some water, cook the rice once again to make it mushy, blend if required and use this slurry to knead the dough.

#The other easy way is to peel, cube and pressure cook a large potato (150 gm) with a cup of water, puree it to make a slurry and use this slurry to knead about 2 cups of jowar flour dough. You can add grated vegetables or chopped greens to this too, along with some seasonings, herbs etc.

#If you don't want to cook a slurry and to add any more starches to the jowar flour, You can add besan (chickpea flour) to jowar flour (1: 3 ratio) and knead a dough using warm water. I use this method quite a lot but the cooked roti or paratha gets dry when cold with this method. It is good only when served really hot. 

Here is one jowar gobhi pyaz paratha with besan as a binding agent. I use grated cauliflowers and chopped onions, chopped coriander greens and some grated ginger in this paratha. Omum seeds (ajwain) is generally used in these parathas to make them easily digestible.

I served it with plain yogurt and amle ka achar (Indian Gooseberry pickle). The jowar paratha with besan feels a little heavier than the other variants.

Recipe of jowar methi paratha

ingredients 
(6-8 parathas enough for 3-4 meals, jowar parathas are heavier than wheat parathas)

jowar flour or sorghum flour 1.5 cup
leftover cooked rice 2 tbsp
finely chopped methi (fenugreek leaves) 2 cups packed
ajwain (omum) seeds 1/2 tsp
anardana powder (dry pomegranate seeds powder) 1 tsp
chilly powder 1/2 tsp
salt 1/2 tsp
water 1/2 cup
ghee 1 tsp for each paratha

procedure..

Cook the leftover rice with 1/2 cup water till very mushy. I did this in microwave, for 3 minutes.

Mix all the other ingredients except ghee and massage them together so most of the water from methi greens comes into the flour. Add the ricr gruel into it slowly and knead a soft dough. Make 6-8 portions and smoothen them into balls.

Roll out each ball using a rolling pin and flip the flat bread over to a hot griddle, preferably an iron griddle. Cook both sides till small patches appear. Brush with ghee and cook till the brownish patches enlarge and the paratha gets crisp and flaky.

Serve hot with curry or chutney, pickle and yogurt.

Leftover parathas can be reheated and had with tea or coffee as a snack. I sometimes fall for this kind of snacking ans skip the next meal because these parathas are quite filling.

Jowar methi ka paratha or jowar gobhi or mooli paratha will not be too difficult to make now. Parathas are made for breakfast all over north India and is had with a dollop of white butter or fresh clotted cream (malai). Arvind loves such parathas with malai and it makes a complete meal for him many a times. I love these with malai too but then such a breakfast keeps you going till evening. This is one of those meals that would have kept a hard working farmer active through the day.

So keep active and eat good food even though it is a bit rich by skewed modern standards. Eat plenty of vegetables and hydrate well to balance. Practice intuitive eating and see how you never over eat and balance out over the course of the day.

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101 alternative flours : how to use ragi flour and a recipe of ragi thalipeeth with seasonal vegetables

Millet flours are not too easy to work with. They don't bind well and become dense after coking. But they pack great flavours and nutrients for good health. Ragi flour is my favourite of all the millet flours because of easier availability as well as the rustic flavours it imparts to everything you cook. Some people say ragi is too gritty or sandy and that it doesn't take flavours well. I agree to the flavours part because ragi is itself a earthy nutty flavour that doesn't take delicate flavours too well, but add the Indian spices to ragi and see how ragi rocks. Regarding ragi being sandy and gritty, I say you haven't experimented enough with ragi if you say so. Or you haven't had ragi the traditional way.

How to use ragi flour in that case? I was reminded of this ragi based thalipeeth I had cooked and photographed last year when a friend from Assam told me she has procured 2 kilos of ragi with great difficulty and asked me how to use it well. Obviously she doesn't want to waste her efforts and the ingredient procured with much difficulty.

One thing to note about all millets in general is that these have a thicker seed coat that results in a coarser flour and since there is no gluten in them the kneaded dough is not sticky and doesn't bind well. But once you add hot water or cook the millet flour with water to make a thick slurry, the starches are released and make the dough sticky enough to roll easily. This slurry can be made thin and use to knead more flour into it or it can be cooked really thick and later can be kneaded to make the dough. See how ragi roti is made using this method.

Ragi idli steams after a long soaking time and fermentation too so the idli is also really soft and you never find the dryness or sandiness you fear about ragi. Dosa made with ragi is perfectly crisp without any trace of the dreaded dryness for the same reason of prolonged soaking time and fermentation.

If ragi is being used for something instant like a ragi cake, waflles, pancake or a flat bread, the best way is to use more grated fruits (in the case of sweet recipes) or vegetables along with the batter so the ragi particles hydrate more while cooking and result in a soft texture. Ragi bread bakes well with added potato slurry for making it moist. Also to note that the serving portion of ragi roti or flatbread will be almost half of the regular wheat bread because ragi is much more filling than wheat and keeps one full for longer. The wonders of low Glycemic index grains.

Now let's see the recipe of ragi thalipeeth with seasonal vegetables, some seeds and amla thrown in for boosting immunity. Thalipeeth is a savoury pancake or flat bread or something in between the two and it is a specialty of Maharashtra, made using roasted mixed grains and lentils flour. You get thalipeeth bhajni (the roasted mixed grain flour for thalipeeth) in stores and just make thalipeeth the way you want it. This ragi thalipeeth will be very different in taste from the authentic one but since ragi flour is as corse as the thalipeeth bhajni, I call this recipe a ragi thalipeeth.

ingredients
(2-3 meal servings and leftovers if you are a small eater)

ragi flour 3/4 cup or 1 cup
grated cauliflower 1 cup
finely chopped onion 2 tbsp
chopped green garlic 2-3 tbsp
chopped coriander greens 1/4 cup packed
minced green chilly and ginger to taste
grated amla 1 or 1 tbsp
mixed seeds 1 tbsp (I used sun flowers and sesame seeds)
flax seed meal 1 tbsp
salt and pepper to taste
thin buttermilk 1/2 cup or as required
ghee for cooking the thalipeeth on a flat skillet 1 tsp or a bit more for each one

procedure..

mix everything except the ghee and buttermilk together and massage the mixture together so the water from the vegetables makes the flour mixture moist. Add the buttermilk slowly and make a loose dough. Divide in 6-7 portions.

Now heat a skillet, preferably a cast iron flat skillet (tawa) and grease with ghee. Take a portion of the dough and flatten it over the skillet using your fingers or a wet spatula.The consistency is like a butter cookie dough or even looser than that. Once the flat bread is about 6-8 mm thick make three holes using the tip of a knife to drizzle ghee into them. This allows even cooking and crisp textures both sides of the thalipeeth.

Flip and cook both sides till crisp outside and still soft in the middle. Serve hot with raita and tomato salsa or whatever you feel like.

This is a perfect weekend brunch for us as we tend to delay our day on those days and have a few cups of darjeeling tea and green tea before our breakfast. This kind of late breakfast also means skipping lunch and working in the garden or reading through all the weekend news papers at leisure. It keeps you really full for very long. Some of the leftovers are again reheated when we have tea later in the day. Minimal work in the kitchen on weekends is what we believe.

Here is another thalipeeth made with the authentic thalipeeth bhajni my dear friend Suranga sent me from Bombay. This one I made with chopped methi (fenugreek greens) added to it and made only one hole in the center as the dough was a bit more crumbly than ragi dough. This authentic thalipeeth tastes a bit more toasty and nutty due to the roasted and then milled mix of lentils and grains. These are the traditional ways to neutralize phytates found in grains and lentils.

This made a perfect breakfast for me along with a sooran ki chutney, idli podi and a small masala omelet. I have serve thalipeeth with my soups several times, just a quarter of thalipeeth is enough for a soup. Thalipeeth makes perfect crusty crisp flatbread for a soup.

Thalipeeth will make it easier to accommodate more vegetables in the meals and use more and more millets too for everyday meals. Try it with ragi or other millet flours, use any seasonal vegetables and have a new bread every day. Thalipeeth must have been developed over the years to bring more variety into the flat breads of rural homes back in time.

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Thai sesame garlic dressing with calamondin juice | a red cabbage salad and a ripe papaya salad with Thai sesame garlic dressing

A cabbage salad sounds unimpressive unless you have a killer dressing. This red cabbage salad with Thai sesame and garlic dressing blew my mind away. This salad is so good there is always a competition while eating from the same bowl. You must know it has been repeated a few times already.

Inspired by the Thai masterclass I made another Thai salad even though I have been having hot soups more in this season. A cold salad doesn't always feel right in winters but I experimented with a Thai dressing one day that turned out to be so good I used it up immediately with some red cabbages that I had in the fridge at that time. The Thai sesame and garlic dressing was supposed to be used for a salad for lunch the next day and I had kept a jar to fill and refrigerate but I took out cabbages and coriander greens instead, chopped them patiently and tossed the salad with the dressing being poured right out of the mixie jar. Some meal plans change like that. For the good.

My tiny Calamondin tree is giving me some fruits but Deeba had given me a bagful when we met last time. My tiny tree is loaded with small unripe calamondins but since I allow some Citrus Butterflies to breed on this tree, many fruits don't get to ripen and then the Bulbuls and Barbets come and pick them up, the ripe ones. Thank God I can get calamondins from friends.

The calamondin chilly marmalade that I had planned was not happening and I made the calamondin infused tea a few times and then I thought of using it's juice for a nutty salad dressing. This is one of the best salad dressings I have experimented with.

ingredients for the dressing 
Recipe inspired by this one
(makes about one cup, enough for 2-3 large servings)

sesame seeds (raw) 2 tbsp
calamondin juice 3 tbsp (from about 10 calamondins)
honey 1 tbsp
fresh red chillies chopped (preferably thai bird chillies) 2
garlic cloves 5
sesame oil (cold pressed) 1 tbsp
salt 3/4 tsp
light soy sauce 1 tsp
chopped lemongrass (white bulbous part) 1 tbsp

Blend everything smooth in mixie except the red chillies. Pulse once after adding the chillies so they just get macerated in the dressing and not completely blended. Add water and dilute to make it flowing consistency. Taste and adjust sweet-salt balance.

ingredients for the salad
(2 large servings)
finely chopped red cabbage 2 cups
finely chopped green cabbage 1 cup
chopped white parts of spring onions 1/3 cup
chopped coriander greens 1/2 cup
roasted chopped cashew nuts 2-3 tbsp

Procedure..

Mix all the chopped vegetables first. Pour the thick dressing paste over it and mix well again. Let it stand for about 15 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with chopped roasted cashew and serve. This salad stays good for about 2 hours even after mixing so you can take it in lunch box or make it well ahead for a party too.

This salad is so good I finished half of it while just tossing it. And then felt guilty to finish a good thing all by myself and not sharing with the husband. But the good sense prevailed and I saved for him too. He loved it too, even suggested this could be a lunch box regular. I made a large batch of the dressing the next day and refrigerated to toss quick salads for his lunch box in the morning.

With some tender baby spinach plucked fresh from the garden, I can toss a salad with just anything if there is a good dressing on hand. Else I would admit I eat salads even without dressing if there are citrus fruits that lend their own zing to the salad once the salt is added.

The coriander greens are flowering now and packed with more aromatic oils. The flowering stalks of coriander make nice aromatic addition to any salad. I chopped some along with spinach and added to a papaya salad.

Ripe papaya salad with baby spinach, coriander greens and a couple of strawberries.

I made this ripe papaya salad with the same dressing and loved it so much I might eat papaya like this whenever they are not sweet enough. This was a papaya that turned out to be less sweet than we like and I was thinking of making a smoothie and gulp it down in one go. But now papayas will be consumed in a fancier way thanks the calamondins and the love for sesame. I added some mixed seeds to this papaya salad and loved it. Use any nuts or seeds you fancy.

Another salad I make with not so sweet papayas is here with pickled beet roots and that is another favourite. You know I would eat a large bowl of salad anytime.

You might like to add some arugula or lettuce instead of spinach and orange segments instead of strawberries, may be some pickled beets too but try and not let this salad stay for very long time as the enzymes of papaya start working on the sesame dressing and it looks curdled. Though the taste doesn't change much.

This sesame and garlic Thai salad dressing with calamondin juice and lemon grass definitely has strong citrus notes, but you do get the kick of the fresh red chillies, the sweetness of honey, nuttiness of sesame and the umami lend by the soy sauce. Imagine the flavours.

There is still a jar of this Thai sesame garlic dressing in the fridge, I might toss some sprouts and roasted peanuts in it next. A good thing must be used in a good way right?

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a Thai masterclass at Neung Roi, learning some extremely healthy delicious recipes from Chef Yenjai Suthiwaja

 I love Thai food so much that I grow lemon grass, galangal and turmeric in my garden and there is a grapefruit tree whose leaves I use instead of kafir lime leaves whenever I cook Thai soups or salads.

I make Thai pomelo salad with the grapefruit my garden treats me with. This salad was made last season but now I realise I never shared the recipe on the blog. I will share the recipe next for sure as it is really a simple procedure but one needs to take care of a few minor things while making this salad.

I have a better thing to share today, way more exciting than the Thai pomelo salad. And that is a masterclass with Chef Yenjai Suthiwaja, the culinary Goddess who teaches recipes and cooking with a childlike excitement. This masterclass was held at Neung Roi, Radisson Blu Plaza and Ruchira, The Cookaroo invited a few of us food bloggers to learn the simple tricks and tips of Thai cooking from Chef Suthiwaja. I just loved the way she enjoys handling the ingredients and assembling them to make soulful food to say the least.

Before I share all the food that we learnt and ate there at Neung Roi I must tell that we had a very very good Thai pomelo salad there as well. We learnt Pla Yang Kamin ((grilled sea bass with fresh turmeric and herbs, served with tamarind chili dip), Yam Tuea Plu (winged beans salad with roasted coconut and tamarind dressing), Tom Kha Gai (chicken and coconut milk soup with Thai herbs), Gai Kaprow (stir fried minced chicken with chili and hot basil) and the famous Thai dessert Tub Tim Krob (water chestnut in coconut jasmine syrup). And then we tasted these and more for lunch that day.

We started our meal with the Pla Yang Kamin, the delicately grilled fish bursting with flavours of galangal and lemongrass and yet very light. The dipping sauce that came with it was so good I couldn't stop licking that sauce. It was a very flavourful hot-sweet-tart tamarind chili dip sprinkled with sliced shallots.

Deep fried corn fritters were served with sweet chili sauce and this was the only dish that I found useless for myself. The other vegetarian starter with mushrooms on a stick was appreciated by everyone, I should have tasted that one too. But no regret, I had so much of flavourful and healthy food to eat.

The Thai pomelo salad (Yam Som O) was recommended by Ruchira and we all just loved this light citrus salad sprinkled with fried onions and roasted coconut. This salad is the best example of how fresh ingredients need very simple recipes to make great tasting food.

Then we had another salad that confirmed the same 'law of simplicity in making the best recipes'. It was the Yam Tuea Plu, winged beans salad and this was the first time I tasted winged beans. The salad was just so good I prayed for the winged bean sapling I have planted, so it grows well and gives me loads of winged beans. Crunchy slices of the beans were coated lightly with roasted peanut powder and coconut, shallot slices, kafir lime and coriander leaves complementing the tamarind dressing so well. I had another large helping of this salad.

Tom Kha Gai, the soup came and I was expecting great flavours as I had seen Chef  Suthiwaja creating this soup with oyster and enoki mushrooms along with chicken breast and herbs. The soup was able to cast a spell on every one as there was pin drop silence as we all sipped on the goodness of this white pristine soup drizzled with chili oil.

Pad See Eeu (pad Thai noodles), plain boiled rice and Gai Kaprow (stir fried minced chicken) were served for mains and were all nice. Chicken mince was cooked with some long beans (lobiya) bits and I like this kind of food for my everyday meals too. But I must add that this Gai Kaprow was not as flavourful as the salads and the soup.

Tub Tim Krob, the cubed water chestnuts in sweetened coconut milk was out of this world. Mildly sweet, just as I like it and great texture of water chestnut that we always love. I have tried making this dessert at home but have not been able to make it perfectly as yet. Now after this masterclass I am going to make it next season for sure. This is one of those delicious and healthy desserts that we love.

Roasted coconut ice cream was served on the side and was really good. It was hard to find roasted coconut taste but it was rich in coconut flavours and texture.

Fugtong Chum (candied pumpkin in coconut milk) was too sweet for my taste although I like pumpkin in desserts. But I liked the idea and might make it with adjusted sweetness for my taste buds.

It was one gloomy looking winter day when I headed for this masterclass but the happy chatter of friends and good food made the day. It was a big gathering after a long long time as Ruchira, Parul, Himanshu and Deeba were there and I met Om Rautray and Maneesh too.

Happy meals end with a craving for some more chitchat, some more nostalgia and a bit of overeating sometimes. With this kind of healthy Thai food where you can go gluten free if you wish and make a meal out of those yummy salads, the overeating is well worth it. I was wondering why I haven't been to Neung Roi already with Arvind, will be correcting that soon.

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broccoli, green garlic shoots and quark cheese dip, making snacking healthier

Cheesy-creamy dips never fail to impress. Making them with homemade fresh cheese and enriching it with flavours of the season is a great way to eat for nourishment. There is a misconception that taste is inversely proportional to nourishment and this blog is here to correct that notion. You know your food well if you are reading this right now and I want you to learn some simpler ways to cook delicious food from scratch because learning how to cook will ensure great quality of ingredients and nourishing food on the table every single day. The feedback that I get from all of you reading this blog encourages me to try and bring more simple, seasonal, affordable, doable recipes that go a long way for a healthy lifestyle.

This broccoli and quark dip is very quick once you have some quark ready in the fridge. Making quark cheese at home is not at all difficult as it is a simple curd cheese with a little higher fat content for creamy texture. Just whip a kilo of plain yogurt with 100 ml single cream (25% fat), let it sit for an hour and then strain it through muslin lined sieve propped on to a large bowl to collect the whey that can be used to knead bread dough later. Keep the sieve along with the bowl refrigerated overnight and collect the thick creamy quark in the morning. Keeps well for a week in non reactive containers once refrigerated. Use as required.

You can whip this quark cheese to make fruit based desserts like strawberry-quark mousse as well as dips using various base ingredients. Quark provides richness in texture and taste and is a healthy ingredients rich in calcium and good fats.

Since I had loads of farm fresh broccoli someone had sent 2 weeks ago, I used that to make this dip to take to our family potluck one day. Everyone loved it and I was regretting why I did not make more. This dip also keeps well for 3-4 days in the fridge.

ingredients..

quark cheese 1 cup or about 300 gm
nuts soaked for 2 hours about 30 gm ( I used cashews and walnuts)
broccoli florets chopped in small pieces 3 cups (about 500 gm)
fresh green garlic shoots with white bulbs chopped 1 cup (about 150 gm)
salt to taste
pepper powder 1 tsp
olive oil 1 tbsp

procedure

Heat a pan and drizzle olive oil to coat. Add the chopped broccoli and salt and stir well to coat lightly with oil and sweat the broccoli. Add the chopped green garlic and mix, cook covered for 5 minutes or till everything is wilted. Cool to room temperature.

Now mix everything else and make a smooth paste in your trusted food processor or mixie.

Serve as desired, drizzled with some extra virgin olive oil.

I served this dip with home made whole wheat crackers. You can serve this with any kind of whole wheat or ragi or millet crackers you like. You can make a variety of dips with many lentils and vegetables with added yogurt, quark or nuts paste and add zing to everyday meals.

This broccoli and quark dip had a mild sharpness provided by fresh green garlic that we get in abundance all through winters. If you don't have access to it you can use garlic cloves but in smaller quantity. Roasted garlic would also taste really good in this dip.

This dip makes a great bread spread as well.

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review : Quote Bar, not just a watering hole

Winter evenings have been dull and boring and we need to perk up the spirits after slogging on the desk the whole day. Weekday evening outings are rare for us but we do indulge ourselves sometimes. This time it was well worth accepting an invite from Quote Bar.

When on a chilly winter evening you are served a shot of flaming Absinthe made right at your table, the dinner looks really promising. We were not disappointed a bit.

This drink is labeled TNT on the menu of Quote Bar (Connaught Place) but it is neat Absinthe served flaming with sugar on the table, adding a lot of drama to the dining experience. It was really good, both of us loved it. But I strongly felt this flaming drink should be served with a good quality glass straw as the plastic straw was utterly useless dipped in flaming alcohol. Hope the establishment gets my feedback o this wonderful drink.

The food is delicious and very creative, covering a vast array of popular cuisines. And does justice to it fairly. We loved the crispy fried fish with spring onions, the fish was a bit firm, not 'melt in the mouth kinda fresh' but the crisp crust doused with oriental sauce was quite good. The lemon teriyaki chicken and bacon roll was really nice too, here also the chicken was a bit hard to bite but well balanced flavours and a really nice way to serve it like lollipops.

We ordered an Indonesian citrus salad and this was really really good. Crunchy crushed peanuts, sweet sour and hot sambal ulek dressing, thinly sliced apples, fresh lettuce and citrus bites make this salad really enjoyable.

We ordered two platters from Quote Bar specials. A platter of chicken with shitake and asparagus with oyster sauce was really good. It is served with pineapple rice and a side of green salad that makes it a complete balanced meal. The other platter was a grilled fish in banana leaf wrap, served with nasi goreng topped with fried egg and shrimp crackers. We loved the nasi goreng and the shrimp crackers but the fish was not fresh and lacked the taste although the Malay style masala paste was really good. I wish the fish was fresh and soft and had taken the flavours of the masala. Else this platter is a must try.

The decor has a youthful spirit and quirky walls, a great place to visit when one needs to perk up or party with friends.

The flaming shooters are presented well. My only suggestion is to please bring some glass straws for these shots as plastic is injurious to health when dipped in flaming alcohol.

It is a spectacle for sure.

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olive oil revolution | is olive oil suitable for Indian cooking? | which grade of olive oil is best?

I get a lot of queries about usage of olive oil for Indian kitchens. There are so many brands available and so many variants of olive oil that one gets confused about which one is right for cooking what? And if it is worth the money even if one takes the plunge. I know many people who actually cook all their meals in olive oil exclusively (*olive pomace oil actually) now and many more who have been planning to move to olive oils for everyday cooking but the cost is the inhibitory factor.

Else all the TV commercials are here to announce that you can fry your jalebis and pooris in pomace and that it is still healthy. How much more contorted it could get.

The goodness of cooking oils is only measured on the scale of how much high temperature it can withstand because all Indian homes deep fry all their food everyday. Right?

I say wrong. We don't deep fry all our foods and we do need other qualities in a cooking oil too. A cooking oil should be rich in omg3 and NOT have a higher omg6 ratio to omg3 as it becomes inflammatory in nature. But that is not the concern with olive oil because it has all the goodness of omega 3s and good amount of polyphenols if it is good quality.

Good quality olive oil is a genuine concern in our country because olive oil is labeled WRONGLY here. While extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is great if the brand is good and trusted but there is no virgin olive oil. All the oils labeled as 'virgin olive oils' are a mix of extra virgin olive oil and 'refined olive oil' and that is an absolute sham.

Normally virgin or pure olive oil should be olive oil that is not cold pressed but thermal process has been used to extract oil but that is not as bad. The oil still has it's goodness. Read the label carefully before buying this category of oil and see whether 'refined olive oil' is added to it.

Now one needs to know what is 'refined olive oil'. Refined olive oil is nothing but *olive pomace oil and we need to read the label carefully to ensure before buying. Olive pomace is the oil cake leftover after the cold pressing process and the olive pomace oil cannot be called as olive oil as per law of many countries that produce olive oil. The process of extracting oil from pomace involves the use of chemical solvents and the resultant oil is industrial quality fit only to be used as a lubricant or saponifying agent at the most. Marketing olive pomace oil as a healthy product in India is WRONG and is misleading people. Jalebi fried in pomace oil CANNOT BE HEALTHY.

I attended a masterclass with Chef Kunal Kapoor recently at Le Meridien hotel where he cooked a few recipes with Olive oil and a nutritionist Dr. Seema Singh spoke about the health benefits of it. As I mentioned, cooking with even extra virgin olive oil is okay if one is cooking a pasta sauce or is quickly stir frying vegetables as the temperature in the pan doesn't go beyond 110 C in that case. Chef cooked a chicken kabab with avocado in olive oil and made everyone taste it too. A pineapple chutney was also cooked and served to all.

Extra virgin olive oil is great as a source of antioxidants and omega3s but we must include many more types of antioxidants and omega3s in our diet so we are not dependent on oils for them. We must remember that cold pressed mustard oil is as healthy as cold pressed extra virgin olive oil if we use it sensibly. Remember not to smoke any oil during cooking.

Using only olive oils is no guarantee that you will lower your cholesterol level if you have switched to it for this reason. If you keep eating refined foods, refined ingredients (like white flour, white sugar, HFCS or corn syrup) and less fresh produce you may get prone to high levels of inflammation, metabolic disorders, high cholesterol and related symptoms. Fixing the lifestyle is the solution, none of the healthy ingredients can fix it in isolation.

I love using extra virgin olive oils myself a lot and many of my salads and ALL pasta dishes use EVOO freely. But I would never switch to EVOO for my Indian food.I cook my north Indian food in mustard oil or ghee, south Indian in sesame and coconut oil, pakodas are fried in mustard oil, poori and parathas are fried in ghee.

I would be really glad if Olives are grown in India and we get access to good quality cold pressed EVOO closer home and can enjoy the best flavours in Mediterranian and Italian foods that we love. Till then I would look for my EVOO and would not bother about pure virgin olive oil even if comes without a mix of refined olive pomace oil.

To supplement my food I have my extra virgin cold pressed mustard oil and extra virgin cold processed sesame and coconut oil along with ghee and butter to use every day. It is not saturated fats that increase cholesterol in the blood, it is high degree of inflammation caused by processed foods and faulty lifestyle that leads to increased levels of cholesterol.

To manage cholesterol one needs to minimise inflammatory load on the system. The best way to do so is to live an active life, exercise regularly, switch to cold pressed natural oils (not refined processed oils and margarine) and ghee, use them judiciousely (not fry everyday food) include more and more fresh produce, fruits, seasonal greens and vegetables in everyday diet.

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