Whole Grain Banana bread

This wholesome bread makes a good morning breakfast with a glass of milk or as a dessert after a meal. The sweetness to this bread comes mostly from the ripe bananas and the nuttiness from the wheat and millet.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup millet flour
2 ripe bananas mashed
1/8 cup buttermilk(or thinned yogurt)
1/8 cup sugar
2 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp soda powder
1 egg
1/4 cup fruit cake mix (optional)

Method:

1. Beat egg in a bowl, add butter followed by sugar and whisk so that the butter mixes well into the sugar and egg.
2. Add mashed bananas followed by fruit cake mix, buttermilk and again whisk.
3. Next add both the flours little by little and keep whisking.
4. Finally mix in vanilla extract and soda powder
5. Pour this into a greased baking dish and bake at 350F for 30 mins or until a knife pierced through the cake comes out clean.

Instant Rava Idli

Ingredients:
1 cup Bombay Rava or Suji
1/2 cup yogurt
2 dry red chilies
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp udad dal
1 tsp chana dal
Salt to tastehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
1 tbsp oil

Method:
In a pan dry roast Rava to make it golden brown,take care not to burn the Rava. Take off the Rava and in the same pan start roasting all the spices. Add oil and once its heated add mustard seeds wait until it pops and then add jeera, udad dal, chana dal, curry leaves and red chilies. Take it off the heat and add it to the rava.
Mix in yogurt and salt to the Rava mixture and stir well. Leave it for about 1/2 an hour. Before you start steaming the idlis check the consistency of the batter it should be like traditional idli batter consistency. If its too dry add some more yogurt.
Steam them in idli molds and serve with any chutney of your choice. I have served it here with Mango chutney.

Tri colored Vermicelli

Vermicelli is one of those dishes that is hassle free and gets ready in a jiffy. I spent 10 mins in the kitchen(including cooking time), awesome dish as a breakfast or an evening snack. A cup of hot tea to go along with it is a bonus. Tri-colored vermicelli gets its name from the 3 vegetables we use, namely peas, carrots and corn.


Ingredients:

1/4 cup of mixed vegetables - Peas, diced carrots and Corn (I used frozen)
1 cup vermicelli
1 cup water
2 tbsp oil
1 green chili chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp jeera seeds
1/4 tsp sugar
salt to taste
lemon for garnish

Method:

1. Lightly roast vermicelli in 1 tbsp of oil to get a golden brown color
2. In a separate pan heat a tbsp of oil and add mustard followed by jeera
3. Next add green chili and veggies, saute it a bit
4. Add water and let water boil.
5. Next add vermicelli and cook covered on a medium flame
6. Take off heat when done, garnish with a lemon wedge when serving.

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rava
1/2 cup rice flour
1/8 cup maida
1 tsp cumin
1 green chili finely chopped
4 tbsp finely chopped onion
Salt to taste


Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and make a runny batter(buttermilk consistency). Set aside for 10mins before making dosas.

Batter consistency and tava temperature play an important part in the final outcome. For Rava dosas batter should be runny like buttermilk and tava temperature should be high, so leave the gas on a setting close to high.(somewhere between high and medium-high)

Wait until the tava gets hot, spread a few drops of oil on it and rub it all around the tava using the cut top end of a onion that you usually would discard. Take a ladle of batter and spread it on the tava in a circular motion. If you see it accumulating on one side then tilt tava slightly in the other direction so that the excess batter spreads on other side of the tava. Wait until you start seeing a change in the texture, you will also see the corner of the dosa turning golden brown, this means its time to flip it over and cook the other side.

I served it with potato sabzi and coconut chutney, like masala dosa :)

Ragi Idli

I first tried these Idlis using a ready-made pack of Ragi Idli mix. It turned out so good that I wanted to try making it from scratch. It wasnt really difficult the recipe is just like our normal idlis except you subsitute rice with Ragi. The Udad daal-Ragi combo is so healthy and filling, I am thinking of making it more often.

Ingredients:

1 cup udad daal and 1 tsp Methi soaked together in water for 2 hours
2 cups ragi flour
For seasoning:
1 tbs Jeera, 3 Red chilies broken into smaller pieces, 1 tsp channa dal and oil.

Method:

1. Grind daal to a smooth consistency and add water only to help with the grinding process.
2. Add the ragi flour to the ground daal
3. Heat oil in a small pan and roast the seasoning ingredients, pour this on top of the batter
4. Add salt to the batter, mix well and leave it to ferment overnight
5. Once its fermented steam them and serve it with chutney of your choice.

Ragi Dosa (Millet Flatbread)

Millet or Ragi can be compared to wheat for its protein content. Also its high in VitaminB and Folic acid. There are several millet dishes some that I have tried out are, Ragi mudde(millet flour cooked in water and then rolled into round balls) which is a common meal served with a whole Onion in south India, Bhakris(flat bread) in Maharashtra, Kasaya(millet flour cooked in milk and sugar added at the end). And finally Ragi Dosa which was an occasional tea time snack my mom prepared.


Ingredients:
1. 2 cups Ragi flour
2. 1 cup rice flour
3. 5 cups water
4. 2 tbsp curds
5. 1/4 cup onion finally chopped
6. 5 green chillies chopped
6. 1 tsp cumin
7. 1 sprig each of cilantro and mint chopped(optional)
Salt as per taste

Method:
1. Whisk all the ingredients together
2. Heat a greased griddle on medium heat and pour in a ladle of batter, spread it by slightly tilting the pan so that the batter has spread all over the surface of the griddle.
3. Let it cook for about 2-3 mins and flip over when its golden brown on one side.
4. Let it turn golden brown on the other side before pulling it off.
Serve with chutney or ghee.

Avocado Salad

Living in california has its advantages and one of them is access to plenty of avocados. I first saw them here in california, but my friend says its available in Bangalore and are called ButterFruits. I try to include avocados in my diet for their obvious health benefits and I have one avocado almost everyday :)
This recipe is inspired form the avocado salad I tried at a local sandwich place. Its a refreshing start to a warm summer day :)


Ingredients:

1. 2 Hass Avocados, stoned and cut lengthwise(refer pic)
2. 1/4th of a small onion finely chopped
3. 1 small tomato finely chopped
4. 2 tbs Olive oil
4. 1 tbs lemon Juice
Salt+Pepper as per taste

Method:
Toss all the above ingredients together and serve.