Ragi pakora

Ragi is a healthy alternative to the regular cereals, but sometimes you want to attempt something other than the steamed stuff. I was pretty amused to find a recipe for deep fried ragi pakodas- seems almost a contradiction in terms- but they were absolutely amazing.

1 cup ragi flour

1/2 cups besan

12 large florets cauliflower

1 tsp pepper powder

2 sprig curry leaves

1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

1 tsp sesame seeds

Salt to taste 

Oil for frying

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients well. Add water to make a partially loose batter (similar to idlis batter)

Cut the curry leaves into small pieces

Separate the florets into bite sized pieces

Add curry leaves, cashew nut and sesame seeds to the batter and mix  well. 

Heat the oil. Dip the florets in the batter and fry in the oil, turning around once so both sides are browned. 

Serve hot with a curd based dip. 

Ragi korakattai

I'm trying to mix up the cereals in our diet, and my new favourite is ragi flour. These steamed dumplings are similar to the savoury korakattai made with rice flour, and I absolutely love them because they can be rustled up in a jiffy and taste really good. 

I use only half the indicated quantity of jaggery, but this is the original recipe. 

1 cup ragi flour

1/2 cup grated coconut 

1/2 cup grated jaggery

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

A pinch of salt

3 tbsp water

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients together (keeping aside 1 tbsp coconut), add water gradually to make a firm dough. 

Roll into lemon sized balls and press into an oval shape. 

Steam in a steaming plate or an idli maker for 10 minutes. 

Garnish with coconut and sugar before serving. 

Sheera, with jowar rawa

Sometimes it gets a little difficult to keep inventing things for the kids to have when they get back from school. Left to themselves, they will happily have biscuits every day, but you can't really allow that, can you. This is something I whipped up for them, and was pretty happy with because it introduces a whole new flour into their diet.

1 cup jowar rawa

1 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp raisins

4 tbsp sugar

Method:

Heat the oil, and fry the raisins till browned. 

Add the rawa, and on a low flame, roast till the raw smell goes. 

Add sugar and 2 cups water, mix and bong to a boil. Cover, and let it simmer on a low flame for 10 minutes*

Serve hot. 

*- jowar takes longer to cook than normal rawa, so you need to check before serving. 

Ragi utappam

I am experimenting with different kinds of grains these days, and ragi is top of the list, since it was always there on my list. Ragi and coconut makes an awesome combination, and this proves it yet again!

1 cup ragi flour
1/3 cup grated coconut
A pinch of salt
Oil for frying

Method:
Mix the coconut and ragi flour well, and add water slowly, with constant stirring to get a firm batter. It should not be to runny, and there should be no lumps. Add salt and mix well. Let it stand for half an hour (or more)
Heat the utappam pan, and pour in the batter. Add a touch of oil around the edges. Let it cook on a low flame, till the edges start to rise up. Flip over and cook the other side.
Serve with white butter.

Ragi idiyappan

The packers seem to have lost an entire carton of kitchen equipment, so I had to go shopping for things as basic as kadhais, tawas and pressure cookers. Since this is the first time I have gone utensil shopping since I started cooking seriously, I ended up picking up a whole lot of stuff I never possessed, but which I now feel I cannot do without. One of them was the sevai maker (which can double up as a chakli maker), which I had to try out at once. I could have started with the conventional seat, but thought of making a ragi sevai instead. I've adapted the recipe so it tastes like ragi puttu, and we all loved it.

2 cups ragi flour

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups water

Grated coconut to taste

1 or 2 bananas

Oil for greasing

Additional equipment- idli steamer, sevai maker

Method:

Roast the ragi flour till the raw smell goes. Add salt and mix well. 

Gradually add water, mixing and kneading throughout, till you get a consistency thicker than dosa batter but looser than roti dough*. Knead a bit more, till smooth. 

Grease the idli maker and the inside of the sevai maker with a bit of oil. 

Fill the sevai maker with the dough, and pipe it onto the idli moulds.

Cut the banana into slices and place around and above the piped dough. 

Steam for 15 minutes. 

Carefully demould the idyappams, garnish with coconut (you can mix some sugar with it), and steamed bananas and serve. 

You can also enjoy idyappams with butter and sugar. 

*- I am not mentioning quantities, because the recipes I said 2:3, but i required only 1:1