402: Carrot and Raisins Salad

This is a great Healthiest Way of eating recipe that you can enjoy for lunch, dinner, or snack. And it's loaded with healthy Vitamin A.

The modern carrot gets its characteristic bright orange color from β-carotene, which is metabolized into vitamin A, a requirement for healthy eyesight, skin, growth, and infection resistance. Carrots are also rich in dietary fiber, antioxidants, and minerals. Carrots have higher natural sugar contents than most other vegetables (with the exception of beets)—for this reason, they make a wonderful snack when eaten raw.

When shopping the carrot, pick carrots that are deep orange in color and avoid ones that are crackled, shriveled, soft, or wilted.

This salad is a beautiful combination of sweet, sour and salty.

Ingredients

Big Carrot                                 1 no.                  

Chopped English Cucumber         ½ cup

Chopped Tomato                        ¼ cup

Raisins                                     ¼ cup

Finely chopped Green chilies        2 no.

Roasted Peanuts                        2 tbsp.

Chopped mint leaves                  1 tbsp.

Chopped Cilantros                      1 tbsp.

Lemon Juice                              1 tbsp.

Salt                                         to taste

Method    

• Wash all vegetables well.
• Shred carrots in food processor or use a hand grater.
• Take a big bowl, Add the all the ingredients together. Mix well.
• Chill for at least 15 minutes before serving.

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401: KATHIRIKKAI RASAVANGI/ Baby Eggplants in Spicy Tamarind

Brinjal Rasavangi

This is a very traditional and authentic Tamil Brahmin recipe prepared with Brinjals. Simple recipe and easy to cook also. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Small Indian Brinjals                         6 no.

Cow peas (Karamani  )                       1/4   cup

Tovar Dhal                                         1/4 cup

Grated Ginger                                   2 Tbsp.

Curry leaves                                      few

Salt                                                    to taste

Turmeric Powder                              ¼ Tsp.

Tamarind                                           a half lime size

For Grinding

Coconut oil                                          ½ Tsp.

Coriander seeds                                1 Tbsp.

Chenna dhal                                        1 Tsp.

Urdh dhal                                           1 Tsp.

Shredded coconut                             1/4 cup

Curry leaves                                      few

Red chilies                                         5 nos. 

Asafetida  powder                           ½ Tsp.

For Tadka

Coconut oil                                         1 Tsp.

Mustard Seeds                                 ½ Tsp

Red chilies                                         2 no.

Curry leaves                                     few.

Method

• Soak the cow peas & Tovar dhal in hot water for 1 hour. Cook it in the pressure cooker for 3 whistles, set aside.
• Soak tamarind in 1 cup of hot water for 15 minutes and extract the juice. Keep aside.
• Fry all grinding ingredients in coconut oil till they turn light brown. Grind with grated ginger to a fine paste by adding little water when completely cooled.
• Now wash and cut the Brinjals into medium size cubes.
• Heat a oil in  a pan, fry the Brinjals pieces for 2 minutes in a slow heat.
• Now add tamarind water, turmeric powder, cooked dal and salt and bring to boil.
• When brinjals are cooked, add the grounded paste and mix well and cook for 8 minutes in a slow heat. Now turn off the heat.
• Heat a oil in a kadai , season with all tadka and add to the rasavangi and mix well.
• Now Kathirikai Rasavangi is ready to serve. Serve with steaming rice.

Note:

• You can substitute ash gourd/winter melon for eggplant in this recipe.

400th Post - Soft Mysore Pak

Mysore pak is one of the most popular sweet from Karnataka. It is made of generous amounts of ghee (clarified butter), sugar and gram flour. I love Krishna Sweet’s Mysore Pak. It has golden color, soft and ghee laden and neatly arranged in blocks in a plastic box. They put liberal amount of ghee to makes it soft.

 Here I tried to make like Krishna sweets, I could not completely recreate like that , but almost 90% succeed .The original Krishna sweets recipe is Besan: Sugar : Ghee in the ratio 1:3:3. Because of health reasons in my recipe  I  used 1:1 1/2:1.

Try my recipe and share your feedback.

Ingredients:

Fresh Besan                       1 cup

Sugar                                1 1/2 cups

Homemade Ghee                1 cup

Cooking oil                        ½ cup

Water                                ¼ cup 
Lemon color                         1 drop (optional)       

         

Method

• Grease the dish with a little ghee and keep aside.
• Dry fry the Besan till you get the aroma.
• Sieve the flour and mix with oil, without any lumps and keep aside for 20 minutes.
• In a pan heat sugar and water. Boil until you get a one string consistency. Add lemon color(optional)
• (Drop the syrup on a plate; it should be like a pearl, without moving).
• In mean time, heat the ghee separately and keep aside.
• Once you get the one string consistency, add some ghee and slowly add the gram flour mixture and keep stirring continuously without any lumps.
•  Reduce the stove heat. Cook on low-medium heat
• Add ghee little by little stirring continuously.
• Keep stirring till the Mysore pak will gather like a halwa and ghee starts leaving sides and mixture comes out from the vessel.
• Pour it into the greased dish and spread it evenly.
• Let it cool for 15 minutes and then cut into rectangular or your desired shapes.
• Store them in an airtight container.

TIPS

• Before start to make Mysore pak, all making materials should be ready and keep it one place.
• Always use fresh Besan flour. Otherwise the Mysore pak will not taste good.
• Stove heat should be medium.
• The consistency of the sugar syrup is very important so wait till you reach one string consistency.
• Use pure ghee, preferably home made ghee, to make soft and delicious Mysore pak.

Here is how to test the sugar syrup:

• Take out the spatula from the sugar syrup. Touch the sugar syrup with your index or middle finger.
•  Press the finger you touched the syrup with the thumb and then move apart the fingers. The syrup must stretch like a string.
• If the syrup does not stretch, heat the mixture for some more time and test again.