Healthy N Nutritious Snacks-2

Pidata kindi Pappu Or Masala Maramaraalu-2

In continuation of my previous post some more recipes are here...

1.  Simple Recipe-2

Ingredients:

Puffed rice                    1 cup
Ghee (clarified butter)   1 tsp or 1 Tbsp

Corrainder seeds            1Tbsp

Red chilli Powder           1/4  tsp
Salt                               To taste
Lemon juice                   to taste

Method:

• Roast coriander seeds in a hot pan carefully. Cool it and grind it to a fine powder
• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve. 
• Roast the puffs for crispiness
• To maintain crispness of the puffs, mix the ingredients just before serving.
• But I like it a little soggy as the flavours of the spices take a few minutes to get absorbed into the puffs.
• Adjust spices according to your taste as this may be too spicy for Western Platter

2.  Puffs N Nuts Mix Recipe-1

Ingredients:

Puffed rice                       1 cup
Roasted Peanuts                 1-2 Tbsps
Puffed Chickpeas               1-2 Tbsps
Roasted Sesame Seeds        2 tsps
Dried Coconuts shredded    1/2 Tbsp
Ghee (clarified butter)       1 tsp or 1 Tbsp
Red chilli Powder              1 tsp
Salt                                  To taste
Lemon juice                      To taste

         Puffed Rice

         Roasted  Peanuts

        Puffed Chick Pea

          Sesame seeds

         Dried Coconut

        Red Chilli Powder

        Coriander seeds

Method:

• Some like to remove the skin of the Peanuts after roasting and cooling them. That can be done just by rubbing them between the palms. But I prefer no to remove it for its nutritional value.
• Dried coconut is readily available in markets in halves as well as in scrapped form. 
• Sesame seeds should be roasted carefully as they have the tendency to pop out.
• Sesame seeds can be used as it is or ground into a coarse powder.
• Its better to slightly roast puffed chickpea too so that it is crispy.
• Adjust the spices according to your taste as this may be too spicy.
• Mix all the ingredients and serve.
• This can also stored for some time say a week or so. Mix peanuts, puffs, coconut and sesame seeds. Avoid the lemon juice, ghee, spices including salt. Just before serving add all these, mix well and serve.
• This mixture is also eaten without, salt, spices or lemon juice.
• This combination if eaten at least a fistful once in a day or once/ twice in a week is very good for health

More recipes to come ...keep an eye on my blog.....

Healthy N Nutritious Snacks-1

It is already hot here. Days are hot with temperatures rising day by day. But mornings and late nights are still cool. Though some snacks are supposed to be eaten during winter time, I feel that one can eat any time as they are tasty nutritious and healthy. These are spicy, tangy, a combination of sweet and sour-one can adjust the tastes to ones liking.

Chats, bhujias, pakodas,...the list of such snacks is endless.These are our traditional snacks  undergoing some changes now with the influence of  other cuisines. But the basic recipe remains the same. I also add my twist to these snacks now and then to create something new.

But Health experts may say that Chatpata snacks may always be not healthy-that is more oily, more spicy and may affect our digestive systems as well as our health in general. I am not saying that our traditional recipes are not healthy. They are healthy. It is our changed and sedentary life styles or the change in ingredients or cooking styles which make it difficult for us to eat that stuff now.  

However there is a way out for this. We need not simply abstain from eating these snacks. There are ways and means to cook them in a healthy way. How it is you will learn in the coming posts. I will post the traditional recipes with improved methods of cooking...

Here is the first one...

Pidata kindi Pappu Or Masala Maramaraalu

This is one of the most common snacks sold on the streets of India especially South India and was most popular till a few years back and still is to some extent. I love this and just thinking about it makes me drool. Pidata means a small earthen ware pot. Pappu means lentil. Pidata kindi pappu is a snack where, the puffed chick pea lentil (even boiled) and spiced chickpea, puffed rice along with other ingredients is kept hot by a small earthen ware pot with burning coals in it. It is spicy and a very light snack. Its healthy, requires no oil, easy to make and any time snack. Children or grown ups all will like this once they get to taste it.

This snack is made in many parts of India. Recipe may differ form region to region. It is known as Jhaal Muri or Masal Muri in Bengal or Bhel puri in North India.


Before going into the preparation and the recipe, let us see what Puffed Rice is.

          Puffed Rice-Maramaraalu
Puffed Rice known as Maramaraalu (Telugu) and Murmure (Hindi). It is made by roasting  the rice on hot sands. Its some thing like how pop corn is made from corn. It is eaten as a snack in most of India. Some snacks or dishes are also made out of it.


Read more on it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffed_rice

Now for the recipes...


1. Simple Recipe


Ingredients:
Puffed rice                    1 cup
Ghee (clarified butter)   1 tsp or 1 Tbsp
Salt                               To taste
Red chilli powder           1/2 tsp to 1 tsp
Garam Masala Powder     1/2 tsp
Lemon juice                   to taste


Method:

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve. 
• Roast the puffed rice slightly in a pan to give it crispness.
• Alternately, while roasting add the ghee and other ingredients, mix well and serve.
• Depending upon the amount of the puffed rice and calorie counting, you can use 1tsp or 1 tbsp of ghee.
• If you are dieting and want to avoid calories, avoid ghee all together as lemon juice will help in binding the  spice powders.
• This is very easy to make, simple, low calorie, healthy snack one can eat any time.
• This is good for children too but adjust spices according to their taste.

More recipes to come ...keep an eye on my blog.....

Authentic Andhra Cusine

I am so busy these days travelling around so much that I have practically little time to catch up with my chores at home. I am also not able to post much on tow of my blogs, including this. I feel frustrated at times that I am not able to share with you all so many things, like recipes, Tips-health, beauty and nutrition and much more. Cooking is one of my passions and these days I don't have much time to cook a proper meal, leave alone experimenting for new recipes or creating something new. But then that is life.

On my recent visits to some of the interior places of Andhra Pradesh, I was lucky enough to interact and collect some very authentic recipes. I am eager to share them with you. But what stops me is that unless I cook and have some pictures, it may not be easy you to follow it. Any way I will still try to post giving step by step in detail.

Just keep a watch on my blog...Many recipes to be shared with you all...

Confectionery from Andhra

JEEDI (జీడి)

I happened to visit some places in coastal areas. In one of the villages, we were standing in front of a temple. We completed our tour of the shrine and were waiting for others from to catch up with us. Just then an old man approached us carrying some packets. He was selling a confectionery known in Andhra as Jeedi (singular) or Jeellu(plural). At once I was reminded of my child hood days.

In those days, we did not have so many varieties of chocolates, biscuits or other confectionery goods. When ever a child cried, it was given some home made snacks or goodies. Mostly it was a small lump of jaggery. Which child does not like sweets? There were so many varieties made at home. Buying from out side was frowned upon. It was an insult to the lady or ladies of the house.


One of the popular confectionery was Panchadara Chilakalu. Read about them here:
http://spiceomylife.blogspot.com/search/label/Panchadara%20Chilakalu

The other is Jeedi. This is what it looks like:

                            JEEDI
The Jeedi I am talking about is made from Jaggery syrup. Jaggery is made into a very thick syrup. Jaggery is mixed with water till it dissolves and cooked on low fire until a thick syrup is got. It is made into balls or cubes or what ever shape one likes. When hardens, it can be eaten. It is very sticky or rather chewy and sticks to the teeth when eaten. I don't know how to describe it. Perhaps, it is like chewy toffee or chewy candy. These are simple Jeedi.


There is a saying or rather a simile in Telugu which means as sticky as the syrup made for Jeedi. When a person is troubling some one and does not leave easily despite best of efforts, this simile is used to say he is as sticky as the syrup made for jeedi and is not leaving.


These are rolled in roasted sesame to make Nuvvu Jeedi. I don't have them right now. I will try to post a picture of them if I get hold of some. 


Both these varieties  could be made at home or could be bought from the corner shops. These were also quite popular with children and were sold very cheap- one per 5 paise or so depending on the size of the candy. 


In North India these sesame confectionery is made with sugar and rose essence is added. It is not chewy like the one I described above. It is very delicate and tasty one.


But the jeedi made of jaggery are now almost extinct. These days children go for pizzas, burgers, chips and other snacks. Locally made candies or confectioneries have disappeared. 
I was so surprised, but bought a pack doubting how they would taste. When we came back to where we were staying, we all had a go at them. they tasted just like I had as a child. I searched the market for more but found none. So I took back the few that were left so that my  niece could also know about it.