Bajra Kitchadi

Bajra is good for health and especially for winters it makes good choice for dinners. I made instant bajra kitchadi today with the moong dal sprouts I had.

Ingredients:
1. Bajra - 1 cup
2. Moong sprouts - 2 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Ghee - 1 tbsp
5. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
6. Asafoetida - 1 pinch
7. Turmeric powder - 1 pinch
8. Chili powder - 1 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Clean and course grind the bajra in mixer jar.
Step 2: Pressure cook the broken bajra, moong sprouts and some salt with 3 cups water for 5-7 whistles.
Step 3: In a non stick handi, heat ghee and crackle the cumin seeds; then sprinkle asafoetida, turmeric, chili powder and pour in the cooked kitchadi.
Step 4: Stir well, adjust salt and consistency by adding water if required and cook for 2 minutes and switch off stove.
Step 5: Serve hot with roasted papad and pickle.

Sabudana Kitchadi

Like idly-sambar is for south-Indians, sabudana kitchadi is for maharastrians. Once a colleague of mine Roselin brought this to office, that was the first time I tasted it, loved it and I learnt to prepare this from her. Until I dug into the web, I thought sabudana is no healthy ingredient and had a dumb taste but for the condiments used to prepare it. But the internet lit upon me the goodness of these tiny pearls. Sabudana is made of tapioca and is non-gluttonous and very very healthy and cooling to the body. In olden days sabudana or sago was made in cottage industries and were mostly unhygienic which is another reason we at home used to avoid it for, but now with industrial manufacturing in place this is not an issue; so all of us can happily relish it.  I would call this a wholesome breakfast as this is full of multi-nutrients. 

Ingredients:

1.       Sabudana – 1 cup

2.       Potato – 2

3.       Peanuts – 1/3 cup

4.       Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

5.       Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

6.       Green chilies – 2 chopped

7.       Curry leaves -1 sprig

8.       Asafoetida -1 pinch

9.       Salt as per taste

10.   Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Soak the sabudana in water for 30 minutes, then drain the water and leave it covered overnight. Some people leave it soaked in water the whole night and others soak just for 2 hours; it depends upon the type of sabudana grains you use. Just make sure they neither get dissolved nor are hard in the centre.

Step 2: Dry roast the peanuts, let it cool for some time and then grind it coarsely in the mixer.

Step 3: Wash, peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes.

Step 4: In a non-stick pan, heat oil, splutter mustard & cumin, sprinkle asafoetida, add curry leaves & green chillies and then sauté the cubed potatoes in it with some salt until they are done.

Step 5: Now add the sabudana, peanut powder, salt and mix with light hand so as to not mash the Kitchadi.

Step 6: Once mixed well, turn off stove immediately; not much cooking is required; else sabudana would become lumpy.

Step 7: Serve hot with curds if necessary. Actually this goes best without any accompaniment.

Dal Dhokli

There is nothing comparable to having steaming hot dal dhokli for dinner on a cool rainy evening. This is a one pot meal with packed nutrition. Though this is a proper Gujarati recipe we learnt it from our neighbor who is from west bengal; kudos to national diversity cum integration. Thank you Urmila aunt for introducing this wonderful recipe to us, amma had made it a custom to make dal dhokli on rainy days. It can be described as a parallel dish to south Indian sambar-idli in which, bite sized idlis float in sambar; in dal dhokli bite sized rotis float in dal. Believe me, it is so ecstatic for rainy day dinners.

  

Serves: 2-3

Preparation Time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

1.                  Tuvar dal – 1 cup

2.                Channa dal – 2 tbsp

3.                Groundnuts – 2 tbsp

4.                Moong dal with skin – 4 tbsp

5.                 Turmeric powder – 1 tsp

6.                Cumin – ½ tsp

7.                 Tomatoes - 3

8.                Chili powder – 1 tsp

9.                Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp

10.            Garam masala – 1 tsp

11.              Asafoetida – 1 pinch

12.            Wheat flour – ½ cup

13.            Gram flour – ½ cup

14.            Oil – 1 tbsp

15.             Ajwain – ¼ tsp

16.            Ghee – 3 tbsp

                   17.     Salt as per taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash all the pulses together and pressure cook them with turmeric until mushy.

Step 2: Take wheat flour, gram flour, salt, some chili powder, a pinch of asafoetida, some garam masala, 1 tbsp ghee in a bowl and knead to get a soft dough.

Step 3: Heat 1 tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan, sprinkle asafoetida and splutter cumin seeds and sprinkle asafoetida in that. Now, add tomatoes and sauté for 2 minutes and then add the cooked pulses.

Step 4: Add about 4 cups of water and let it boil in simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in salt, red chili powder and garam masala. Stir occasionally to avoid burning at the bottom.

Step 5: Roll the dough into large circles slightly thicker than rotis. Cut them into small 2“ squares or diamond shapes.

Step 6: Drop the dhoklis one by one in the dal while it is boiling making sure they don’t stick to each other.  If it is too thick, add some water, adjust salt and spices and let it cook in low heat for another 15 minutes or until the dhoklis are cooked.

Step 7: When done, turn off heat and mix coriander.

Step 8: Serve the dal dhokli in a soup bowl, squeeze few drops of lemon juice and drizzle generous drops of ghee and relish it when hot.

 TIPS:

* Amma added moong dal with husk to the recipe and I added groundnuts as it seems to be a common ingredient added in Gujarati recipe of dal dhokli.