white chocolate bars with mixed sun dried fruits and hint of mint : perfect gifting ideas

These white chocolate bars or bark if you prefer to call them like that, were made in the first week of February when we had planned a reunion of our classmates in Banaras. Now that both of us (Arvind and me) were classmates for our post grad, we were looking forward to it keenly. And since most of the other classmates follow my food and blog updates and keep nudging me teasingly to make them taste any of those, I decided to carry some edible gifts for all of them. I made a few fruit jams and marmalade, some cookies and these white chocolate bars with sun dried assorted fruits.

Now there is nothing technical involved in making chocolate bars, or very little technicality to be honest, one can always get a good quality bar or pellets of any chocolate, melt it over double boiler or in microwave and set it again along with whatever one likes. Long ago I used to make white chocolate with a prominent minty taste, just because I did not like white chocolate and someone had gifted me a kilo of Callibout white chocolate couverture pellets. That mint infused white chocolate bark had changed my perception towards white chocolate as I made about 3-4 batches of the same till the chocolate lasted.

The idea of bringing colors to a white chocolate bar was there on my mind for quite long and I once tried such bars with mixed nuts and some prunes and cranberries from Del Monte.  Yes I had started stocking white chocolate couverture after my tryst with the minty white. But it so happened that last year I sun dried so many fruits that I broke all my previous records of doing so. To make it clear I do not follow actual 'sun' drying procedure always but use low temperature oven dehydrating method mostly or a mix of the two processes to make the sun drying faster and better.

If you sun dry any fruit or tomatoes in the sun it may take days to completely dehydrate, so I just slide a semi sun dried fruit laden tray into the oven at 80 C or so and let it dehydrate more for an hour, repeat the process after 3-4 hours again and the method works well for me

Here is the strawberries I dehydrated last year when I had bought too much from the outskirts of Dehradun while traveling there, I had no option to just dehydrate them. I am not regretting one bit.

These perfectly chewy slivers of strawberries get so intense on flavours that you would feel like dehydrating more whenever you get a chance. The ones you get in stores is candied or 'sun dried and coated with glucose syrup' strawberries FYI. Better to make your own if you can.

I even dehydrated peaches last year and those have been so good for snacking..

These were peaches from Mukteshwar, brought from my Te Aroha visits where I am currently working on the menu and training the kitchen team. These peaches had very nice sweet and sour taste and sun drying converted them into perfect bites of fruity indulgence.

I dehydrated black grapes and apples too just to see how different the taste is from the glucose syrup coated ones. I was right in my assumption they would be better and will be rightly sweet and intensely flavoured. For these white chocolate bars I dug out all these jars of sun dried fruits and chopped them up.

ingredients...

good quality white chocolate bar or pellets ( I used Callebout white couverture pellets) 1 kilo
sun dried strawberries 100 gms
sun dried apples 200 gms
sun dried black grapes 100 gms
OR a mix of any colourful sun dried fruits 400 gms
sun dried mint leaves or powder 10 gm or to taste

You can always use sun dried fruits from brands like FabIndia or Del Monte or others.
And if you are making bigger batch of this you can follow the procedure of melting the chocolate in two batches. The way I did as I made double this recipe.

procedure..

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.
To make a double boiler contraption in home kitchen you can take a saucepan or stockpot (pateela) and a deep bowl that fits the rim of the stockpot. Fill the stockpot half with water and let it come to boil. Place the deep mixing bowl over the boiling water stockpot and place the chocolate in the bowl to melt. Stir a few times to see if it is melting evenly.

In the mean time line a baking tray with silpat. I used 2 baking trays of 9"X11" size.You can use any convenient size according to the thickness you want in these bars.

Chop all the dried fruits and half the mint crushed and mix with the white chocolate and incorporate everything together.

Pour the melted mix onto the silpat lined baking trays, sprinkle the rest of the mint leaves over it and press a bit. Let the mixture cool completely before cutting bars with a sharp knife.

These jewel studded bars of white chocolate will be loved by everyone who tastes them. I am planning to make them again as Arvind was cribbing he didn't get to taste last time.

 Never use chocolate compound to make such bars because chocolate compound has trans fats, all the cocoa butter in real chocolate gets replaced with trans fats when they process it to make the compound. Choose the best quality for your family, it will be great in taste and good for health too.

No extra sugar is added to these white chocolate bars, the sweetness of assorted fruits and the couverture is great together and a small bar of this treat will not hamper any health goals you are working towards.

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101 gluten free breakfasts : buckwheat-cabbage savoury pancakes with a sesame dip

Although I have been sharing a lot of breakfast recipes here, these actually make my brunch most days as I am not an early morning person generally. I start my day early only when required else I have my brunch and set out for the day's routine work. I think most of the people working from home find brunches convenient as there is no rush to leave for office. So many of my breakfast recipes are more suitable for a relaxed breakfast for someone who works from home.

Those who have to run to the office rely on cereal or banana and milk or eggs and milk etc., Arvind loves his sweet breakfasts and I find it convenient to give him ragi malt, bananas, granola mix or some such convenient instant kind of breakfast while I cook his lunch box. Sometimes I do him a favour and make banana pancakes or jaggery and fennel pancakes for him but I never have liked a sweet breakfast so I cook my brunch in leisure after finishing some more chores.

But this buckwheat savoury pancake was made last weekend, the official brunch kind of days for both of us. This recipe takes just 20 minutes to cook for two servings if you have chopped cabbage in the fridge else add 5 more minutes to the chore. The sesame dip also gets ready while the pancake cooks on the stove. Note that I cook 4 small pancakes at once on a bigger cast iron pan (dosa tawa).

ingredients...
(2 breakfast servings)

buckwheat groats or flour (kuttu sabut or daliya or flour) 1/2  cup (150 gm)
finely chopped cabbage 2 cups packed (about 350 gm)
salt and pepper to taste
yogurt 2 tbsp
ghee to shallow fry, 1 tbsp is enough for 4-6 pancakes done on a large pan

for the dip
toasted sesame seeds 2 tbsp (about 50 gm)
sumac powder 1/4 tsp
tomatoes 2 large
fresh red chilly 1 or more to taste
garlic cloves 1-2
salt to taste

preparation...

Buckwheat powders really quickly in the mixie blender. You can powder within a minute so do it fresh when required, else the buckwheat flour may turn rancid. If you buy buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta) you can use it directly.

Mix the cabbage in the flour and add salt, pepper and yogurt. Mix well and add a bit of water if required to make a pliable mixture.

Grease the pan, heat and spread small pancakes over the pan. Let it cook on low flame for 10 minutes, flip and cook on the other side too. It gets crisp on the surface but the cabbage retains the bite.

While the pancakes are getting cooked, chop the tomatoes and chilly and blend all the dip ingredients together in the mixie blender. Powder the sesame first and then add the wet ingredients so the dip is smooth.

Serve with hot buckwheat pancakes. We had leftover tomato chutney as well with this breakfast but you don;t need anything sweet with it in my opinion. Else you could have this mango chutney too.

The buckwheat pancake has the nutty taste of buckwheat which is so characteristic of this seed (not a grain). I have not used much seasoning or herbs in the pancake so the taste of buckwheat shines through and a generous amount of dip or chutney can be had with it. You can always add more vegetables or some herbs to this pancake and have it without any dip if you wish.

Look at the buckwheat groats closely if you are wondering what kind of a grain it is.

It makes wonderful pancakes and fritters that get crisp on deep frying or shallow frying, whatever the way you like to cook them. The nutty flavour is very different form any other grain or seed and I have seen some people like buckwheat raw as well. I have never tried raw buckwheat myself.

Shallow frying on low flame is the best way to bring the nuttiness I feel. This amaranth greens and buckwheat pancake is a a much repeated recipe during summer months. Cabbage is just a seasonal variation but the taste is very different in each case.

You would love this buckwheat base pizza too I am sure. Buckwheat pizza is great when you have loads of fresh toppings and good quality cheeses to make a pizza. Buckwheat pizza base adds a nuttiness but stays soft.

Let me know if you cook with buckwheat. I have been cooking with it a lot lately as I have found a store in my neighborhood that stocks it always and not just in Navratri season.

Please tell me where do you get buckwheat in your part of the world as I get a lot of queries regarding it's availability. Your inputs would help other readers and friends as well.

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review : a relaxed lunch at Amreli, Diplomat Hotel ; a wonderful Indian Bistro menu designed by Chef Sabyasachi Gorai

Hotel Diplomat is about 10 minutes drive from home and we got an an extended weekend when we were not traveling. We decided to hop to the newly launched Amreli, the Indian Bistro at the Hotel Diplomat whose concept and menu is designed by Chef Sabyasachi Gorai. I have been a fan of Saby's work, he infuses his passion for arts on his plate and the food transforms into an experience well cherished.

I have been to Hotel Diplomat a few times when it used to house the erstwhile Olive Beach, once the occasion was special when a few blogger friends met the celebrity Chef George Columbaris of Masterchef Australia fame, the other time we went for and early dinner with a few friends. The menu even then was by Chef Saby but very different from what it is at Amreli. The ambiance is still the same, wide open spaces for al fresco dining, lush green lawns, comfortable cane chairs and sofas and a wood fired oven turned into an art installation in one corner.

Saby took us to a tour of the kitchen, the pantry and the dining areas and I was amazed to see such efficient use of space. Indoor dining areas give very different vibes, upscale kitsch decor with unique wooden log stools for seating niches, walls lined with paintings of all genres, a quite bar in one corner and a smaller dining room with a library theme wall paper. Many conversation pieces to be found here, I enquired and got to know that the owner of this property is an avid collector. No wonder.

Our chilled beer was already finished and we started with the Diplomat Caesar salad with chicken and bacon and loads of grated Parmesan. Crisp mixed lettuce, batons of Zuchhini and all the cheese was really good. I would have liked the chicken in smaller bites but the taste was good. Jalapeno cheese naan turned out to be quite a big portion for starters but the taste was good, I was actually expecting miniature naans but these were super thin cracker like naans served with chutneys.

Char grilled mushrroms stuffed with jalapeno and cheddar was good too, served with a portion of slaw and green chutney. But the absolute winner was the Crispy Filo wrap naan. I was not ordering it thinking it will be too heavy on flaky pastry but the pastry was very thin and the filling was very flavourful and generous. Good value for the calories consumed. Loved it totally.

While we talked about the pretty ceramic ware and cutlery, the mains were served. We had chosen Sole meen moily, Chettinad chicken and Appams and patted our own back for making the right choice for the day. Meen moily was very creamy coconut curry with fish rightly cooked, spices mild, just the way we like it. Chettinad chicken was a bit more creamy and milder on spice quotient than expectation but tasted really good. Not authentic but tasting great, fine tuned for a wider acceptability I understand.  

The Appams were the cherry on the cake. So soft, spongy and melt in the mouth type, dusted with Milagipodi these appams would make you overeat but we had no scope for that.

I loved the colorful ceramic ware, innovative plating and attentive service. I had seen the Anda paratha being plated for some other guests in the kitchen, it was plated on a jute weaved manji ( a small cot like stool), Chef Saby's creativity is admirable.

Oh there were more cherries on the cake, actually the desserts of different types. Saby was testing an apple pie recipe that day and I liked the innovation in it, it has cashews and raisins along with apples, topped with ice cream and drizzled with caramel. Too rich an indulgence but tasting good. I tasted one bite of all of these. Chef Amit Naithani had sent a few more desserts to try.

I don't like New York cheesecake much but this one was made well. Even chocolate is not my favourite but Death by Chocolate was really well made. My favourite was the Creme brulee set in a miniature frying pan, the crust perfectly crackling and the custard so good, topped with a flame browned marshmallow.

We took another round of the kitchen after finishing our relaxed meal. Admired Saby's creative ideas a little more and made him pose against a rattan wood installation.

 He is the most charming person you would meet if you do. His idea of totally Indian Petit fours is amazing. An assortment of sesame brittle (til ki chikki), peanut brittle (mungphali chikki) miniature coconut laddoos (narkel nadu) and such things make interesting small bites.

 Such a diverse menu that includes Indian food suited for anall day dining bistro, some European dishes to cater to the foreign guests frequenting the diplomatic enclave and a few fusion elements to create interest. I found the food value for money too.

Thanking Saby for his time and his food that will take me back to Amreli frequently. That it is so close to home is a blessing.

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green goddess lemonade | the best natural thirst quenchers for summers

This green lemonade I have been making with an assortment of the herbs that I grow in my garden. I named them as green goddess just to make them sound fancy. I pluck herbs that I like in the season and blend them together along with strong citrus elements like the Pomelo leaves, lime leaves, lemongrass etc and refrigerate in a small jar mostly. Just a heaped spoonful of this paste dissolved with honey or sugar and a generous glug of lime juice is all what it takes to make a green goddess lemonade my way.

Yes I did that. It so happened last week that I had made the herb paste fresh and was planning to serve this herb infused lemonade to a friend who visited. But when I suggested would she like to have shikanji she took plain water and later had lemongrass tea. Shikanji or shikanjvi is the Hindi/Punjabi name for a lemonade FYI. Later I realised she must have thought about the plain lemonade made with just lime juice and sugar and hence refused. How would she know if I did not tell her the details of what this lemonade actually was. That is when I decided to name it as green goddess lemonade and corrected a mistake.

This lemonade tastes really great with soaked subza seeds (sweet basil seeds) or falooda. I am now running out of my stock of basil seeds I have been using them so much. Had bought a bag from one of my travels last year and had gifted some to my friends too. Time to look for more subza in old Delhi markets now, I hope to find it here and not burn holes in my pocket paying for it.

Note that these are not chia seeds, chia seeds are the seeds of Salvia hispanica while subza is the seeds of Ocimum basilicum. Chia seeds are brownish in colour while subza is black.

Green goddess lemonade recipe

ingredients
(2-3 servings)
Thai basil leaves 10 (or mint leaves 20)
pomelo (or kaffir lime) leaves 2-3
lemongrass shoot 1
honey or sugar to taste
lime juice 3 tbsp
soaked subza seeds 5-6 tbsp

procedure...

Chop all the leaves and lemongrass shoot in small pieces and grind them all together in a blender jar. This paste can be kept in a jar or refrigerated in ice trays for longer shelf life.

Add the paste to 500-600 ml chilled water, stir well and let it stand for 10 minutes. Strain, add lime juice and honey, dissolve well and pour in tall glasses. Top with subza seeds and serve right away.

This is an intensely flavoured lemonade, rich with layers of citrus flavours imparted by the lime juice, pomelo leaves and lemon grass. Pomelo leaves are used to make herbed salt and chutneys in Kumaon mountains, I love that too but we rarely use herbed salts at home so drinks are the best way to use herbs.

Another green goddess lemonade I love is a salty one. Yes we do love our nimbu pani and I like having some variety there as well. 

Blending curry patta leaves to make buttermilk, to be used in idli mixes and poha is something I keep doing regularly. The curry patta powder and the calcium rich curry patta chutney is another way to use loads of curry patta.

To make a savoury lemonade also curry patta is very useful. You might have tasted buttermilk flavoured with curry patta but lemonades are not that common. In this recipe I combined curry patta with tamarind and lime juice both for an intense salty-tangy taste that tastes so good one feels like having 2-3 glasses of it in one go.

ingredients 
(4-5 servings)
curry patta springs 20-25 (or a cup of leaves)
tender lime leaves 10
tamarind (deseeded) 2 pods or a lump about the size of a small lime
peppercorns 5-7
salt to taste
lime juice 1 tbsp

procedure..

Make a paste of everything together. Keep refrigerated if required or make the lemonade right away.
Dissolve the paste into a jug or water, adjusting the seasoning and sourness. You can actually make this recipe like a panna (like aam ka panna) or a buttermilk but keeping it simpler is always better. That way you get the intense taste of the herbs used.

Strain the lemonade and serve in tall glasses with or without ice cubes. The combination of curry patta and lime juice and lime leaves make a tingling drink. Add kala namak (black rock salt) if you wish and see how this drink seduces you.

All these herbs provide essential minerals, much needed Vitamin C and hydrate during summer months, teasing your taste buds all at the same time.

The best thing is that they look attractive too, so the kids would lap it up readily when you offer them such lemonades instead of packages juices and cola. Now don't tell me you don't grow herbs so you can't use them. We get all herbs readily in the markets and can grow them in pots if required. Blending them to make the paste is just a matter of 2 minutes and another 2 minutes to strain and serve.

Please don't let the convenience of packaged foods and drinks overpower your sense of freshness and real taste. Make green goddess lemonade and stay happy.

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review : Tamra, the all day dining restaurant at Shangri-La | good food that lifts spirits

Last weekend we tried the food at Tamra, the newly launched all day dining restaurant at Shangri-La hotel here in Delhi. I was a bit sad as we walked upstairs realizing Tamra has actually replaced the 19 Oriental Avenue, the restaurant we have been to several times and have loved the dimsums,  sushi  and teppanyaki there, I thought we will miss our favourites from the older restaurant. We were in for a pleasant view of a beautifully designed spacious restaurant with a theme of Copper (Tamra means Copper in Sanskrit). A beautiful amalgamation of rustic and modern, the use of jute ropes as screens, wooden rolling pins as canopy, copper hued upholstery and crockery and pure Copper pots and pans making a hanging installation brings a very interesting vibe to this place.

You see the beautifully designed bar on your left side as you enter. We decided to stay off alcohol and enjoy the food more. The welcome drink was a guava based refreshing chilled drink (named as The big wave) served in an interesting glass. I loved the intense guava-cranberry combination with hints of Litchi and citrus. The mocktail was just rightly sweet for us.

Then we took a tour of the whole restaurant that actually boasts of five live stations with different cuisines. The Japanese counter and teppanyaki grill made me happy, we ordered sushi and tenderloin and prawns from the live grill. Was glad to see the Japanese food has not changed one bit, it was as good as the erstwhile 19 Oriental Avenue. The soups and dimsums from Asian counter were perfect too, you can actually make your own soup by choosing the ingredients of choice from the counters.

There is buffet as well as a-la-carte options you can choose from. The signature paneer wrap is presented well, signifies street food and is well done. But there are far better options on the menu than this I must add.

The Continental counter is interesting and very functional with aesthetic hot plates and cast iron pans. The background at this counter has a wall of planter boxes with wheat grass growing live. There is a huge elaborate salad counter where one can make a salad of choice. One is spoilt for choice here too. There were some ready salads on the platters as well, I loved the red cabbage and corn and an apple orange and walnut salad too.

I tried the polenta and lasagna too, polenta was very good while lasagna was okay. The good thing is, you can find something or the other that interest you or can get it made to taste at the live counters. Win win situation for a diner in fact.

The Indian counter has an elaborate station for chaats that I gave a miss. But this chaat selection would be a delight for chaat lovers I know. Various pickles and chutneys are added attraction to the Indian menu. I tasted the fish tikka and found it really good.

Chef Nattasak Montri from the Thai counter sent a massaman curry and fish in black bean sauce for us to taste and it was so good with warm jasmine sticky rice. I strongly recommend the dimsums, the soups and curries from the Asian counter.

They have a separate counter for made to order home style Indian food too, so you can choose your vegetables and they would cook a simple daal chawal subzi meal for you as per choice. How cool is that to have in an all day dining restaurant.

I will be back to try more foods from the Oriental, Japanese and Continental counters, may be more salads as I found the selection of salad dressings really impressive.

The ice creams and gelatos, fruit yogurts are all done in house and made fresh everyday. The dessert counter is elaborate, you can get crepes and cakes made to order as per your choice. There is an antique oven installed at the dessert counter to serve freshly baked hot desserts like lava cakes, creme brulee, souffle etc.

The Tamra chocolate is a specialty that they serve on the table. Hot toffee sauce is poured over a globe of chocolate that melts and oozes more chocolate from inside. I liked it but being a person who doesn't appreciate chocolate much I would go for the gelatos and frozen yogurts with loads of fresh fruits on offer. There are ample choices for everyone, every palate I must say. Go experience the fun if you like food from all corners of the world.

Last but not the least I loved flipping through the pages of the coffee table book by Shangri La. It has very informative snippets about Chinese-Oriantal ingredients and detailed recipes too.

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101 gluten free breakfasts : lentil fritters with home grown greens #calorieefficientmeals

There has been a deluge of seasonal greens on #healthfooddesivideshi as my garden is flooded with spinach and fenugreek greens. Although I have been traveling almost back to back since the first week of February, I found comfort in the greens that the garden treated me with whenever I was back home.There is some baby bok choy and some kale too but these remained stunted during the harsh winter and then they suddenly started bolting. So the best use was to chop them up and stir fry or mix with lentils and make fritters. But to be honest I was using them in everything possible, the everyday dal or khichdi, the quick soups and even in flat breads like this thalipeeth. You wouldn't want to waste any home grown organic produce once you know how difficult it is grow food.

This mixed lentil spinach soup topped with sour cream is one of my favourite meal these days. Now you see I cannot get bored with spinach. Cooking with home grown spinach is always fun.

It helps that I love green vegetables and I assure you even you would love them if you find the best quality available in your part of the world. Cooking them well is also important but that is a skill everyone must have if one wants to know what one is eating. Right?

Including the greens is not as difficult as it sounds to many. I know many who dread cleaning and rinsing the greens to get rid of the dirt and then chopping them for hours. The easy way is to buy in bulk when you have time, clean them well and steam to compress and then freeze in portions. The frozen greens are very easy to chop. I do the same with all the garden produce and now I have frozen greens for a couple of months.

Using the fresh or frozen greens for breakfast wouldn't be a very common thing to many, including my husband who loves his pancakes or porridge for breakfast but one can make healthy breakfast with them in a jiffy. Being prepared is the key, I prefer soaking the lentils overnight and it takes about 15 minutes to cook breakfast for 2 including the chopping and blending time.

This is red lentil and spring onions from the garden, both make a wonderful spongy pancake that can be enjoyed with herbed yogurt of any other dip you wish. Note the ratio of greens to lentil paste and how the mix looks more green and less pink.

Spinach and split chickpea fritters recipe
(2 breakfast servings)
split chickpeas 1/3 cup or about 100 gm (soaked overnight)
ginger root grated 1 tbsp
peppercorns 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
chilli as per taste
salt as per taste
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
finely chopped spinach 3 cups or about 350 gm
ghee 2-3 tsp to shallow fry on a cast iron pan

procedure 

Grind the soaked lentil along with everything except the ghee and spinach. Do not add water.
Mix all the spinach in the lentil paste, massaging it softly so the spinach gets almost blended with the paste. You would need to quickly shallow fry the fritters after mixing as it releases water after mixing.

Make small portions of the mixture, spread on the pan and shallow fry on both sides as you would do with small pancakes. I prefer cooking these on low flame, often covered with a dome lid to make them cook faster but you can drizzle a bit more ghee or oil to cook them faster. If you want lesser amount of ghee being used you have to cook them on low flame.

Serve hot with any mild chutney, salsa or dip that you like.

For these spinach fritters I made the most common and quick chutney that I make. A cup of red ripe tomatoes, 1 clove of garlic, 2 dry red chillies and salt blended together to make a chutney. Sometimes I add coriander greens or mint in the same.

A similar kind fritters I made with a mix of kale and some baby bok choy mixed with red lentil paste. The procedure is similar, you can adjust seasoning and make small or big fritters. Making them thinner would help in faster cooking but they taste good any which way.

The anardana dip..

The above bowl of dip is very interesting. It is a sweet and sour dip with a kick of roasted red chilly flakes (or just lightly roast a couple of dry red chillies over gas flame). This is actually made of sun dried pomegranate seeds.

Blend together 2 tbsp of good quality sun dried pomegranate seeds, 2 tbsp of roasted sesame seeds, 2 large ripe char grilled ( on gas flame) tomatoes, roasted chilly or chilli flakes to taste and salt to taste. Serve as desired.

Another such pancake is made with green peas included in the lentil paste. The one below is made with home grown fenugreek leaves, some green peas and chopped onions. The dip with it is the most convenient tomato-garlic-red chilly blended together with a dash of mustard oil.

The leftover paste was made into smaller fritters with tea the other day. Always shallow fried for convenience as well as health.

These lentil fritters made with a truckload of fresh greens is a really healthy breakfast or even dinner if you want something quick and healthy. Truckload of greens wouldn't sound like a hyperbole once you would mix the greens with the lentil paste as lentil paste is just used to bind the greens here.

This fluffy pancake is made with red lentil paste and rocket leaves that my garden was flooded with last year. Those yellow cherry tomatoes were from the garden to. The dip served with it is a mushroom and caramelized onion dip that I use as a sauce over my steak sometimes too.

If not using soaked lentils you can always use besan (chickpeas flour) and sprinkle over chopped greens while massaging them to bind well. This one with spring onions is a favourite as breakfast or an evening tea snack that becomes our dinner sometimes.

With cabbage it makes easier fritters as cleaning and chopping the cabbage is always easier than other greens.

These lentil fritters can be served as starters for an elaborate meal, make them smaller in that case and serve with 2-3 types of chutneys and dips for variety. I sometimes have these fritters along with my dinner soups as well.

You see how 100 gm of dry lentils can bind about 300-350 or even 400 gm greens when soaked and blended. More nourishment, lesser dense calories, real fresh food that satiates the taste buds as well as the tummy.

Calorie efficient meals to sum up. Each calorie consumed brings in great nourishment with it. What is not there to like. I love it.

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101 gluten free breakfasts : sabudana khichdi or a pilaf made with sago pearls : fasting recipe

Sabudana khichdi is a popular snack, breakfast dish and one pot fasting meal for some Indian festivals. Many of us believe the fasting foods are the tastiest even though they are made with restricted ingredients, although we all know it is not the meager ingredients that make the food tasteful it is the way the ingredients are cooked and seasoned that matters most in this regard. And sabudana or sago pearls is one ingredient that is tasteless. odourless and sticky when cooked. Not an easy ingredient too cook if you are a new experimental cook but responds well if you know it well.

No I am not scaring you from cooking sago pearls, sabudana or tapioca pearls. But it will be good to know that once soaked in water they cook evenly and become soft and gelatinous. While making this sabudana khichdi we need to soak them well to get the best texture and to coat them with a seeds or nut powder so they don't stick together and get clumped. Read on the recipe to know better, not too complex I promise.

Sabudana is also accused of being a high calorie food but it is not the whole truth. The calories are almost as much as buckwheat, rice, barley or wheat by weight but sago pearls (or Tapioca) doesn't have any other nutrients than starch and almost no fiber. But the good thing is that the Glycemic index of Tapioca is 85, a little lower than potatoes, cooked rice etc. So not such a bad food choice if the serving size is moderate and there is enough inclusion of proteins, good fats and some greens in the same dish. It helps that it is a gluten free ingredient too and can be used to make an energy packed gluten free meal. 

This recipe of sabudana khichdi uses peanut (roasted) powder traditionally, but after a talk with a friend who is allergic to peanuts and wanted sabudana khichdi for herself, I told her to use seeds and nuts instead. She reported that she loved the khichdi and then I was tempted to cook it for myself too. I would say I liked it better than the peanut version as I like sesame and flax powder more for the rich flavours and keep using them to make chutneys and pestos too. You can use any seeds and nuts of your choice.

ingredients..
(2 breakfast servings)
sago pearls 75 gm (soaked overnight, the volume becomes more than double)
one medium potato about 80-100 gm
sesame seeds 1 tbsp (30 gm)
flax seeds 1 tbsp (30 gm)
chopped almonds 5-6
chopped coriander greens 1 cup
ghee 1 tsp
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
chopped/minced ginger 1/2 tsp
chopped green chilly 1/2 tsp
salt and pepper powder to taste (use pink salt if fasting)
lime juice to taste

preparation..

Soak the sago pearls overnight in about 120 ml of water. The sago looks dry and swollen after the soaking, fluff up the pearls and proceed for the next steps. It looks like the left picture in the collage below.

Powder the sesame and flax seeds together and mix with the soaked sago along with half of the salt required (just enough for sago) and pepper. It looks like the right side picture after mixing the seeds powder.

Wash and chop the potato in very small cubes. Keep the peels on if possible.

Heat the ghee in a pan and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till they crackle. Add the chopped ginger and green chillies followed by the potatoes. Add half of the salt, just enough for the potatoes and fry on low flame till the potatoes start turning pinkish brown. It takes about 5-8 minutes.

Now add the sago and seed powder mix and give it a good stir. Cook covered for a couple of minutes and stir again. Add the chopped coriander greens and stir to cook more for a couple more minutes. The sago pearls start looking translucent and that is a sign of getting cooked.

Adjust seasoning and add lime juice too. Serve hot with chopped almonds over it.

This is one of the most satiating foods you would eat. The taste and texture of the sago pearls transforms in this particular recipe and that is the reason why it is popular all over India not only for fasting meals but for occasional snacking and breakfast too.

This recipe is enough for breakfast for two and I must tell you that I had it for a late breakfast with a nice buttermilk and felt full till the evening when I had a plate of papaya and black grapes.

Some friends were concerned about the calories when I shared this picture on my facebook page so I calculated the calorie count as well. The total calorie count for one serving will be around 350 calories even if you are a bit generous with the chopped almonds. Great for a breakfast in my opinion for a normal active person.

Sabudana khichdi is not a such calorie dense food. You can include a few slices of raw cucumber and tomatoes if you want a bigger meal with almost the same amount of calories. Knowing portion sizes is a key to eat right sometimes. And now that you know about sabudana khichdi you wont be scared to enjoy it occasionally.

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