Friday, February 21, 2014

Sweet Potato Recipes-1


Sweet Potatoes are root vegetables, starchy and sweet. We all have eaten it as children and many of us like them a lot. 

Sweet potatoes contain high amounts of complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, and also contain Vitamin A,  B5, B6, and C, magnesium and potassium etc. It is ranked highest in nutritive value. 

You can read more about them here:

I remember that in my child hood sweet potatoes made a very delicious snack. They are used for making many delicious dishes. I will post some at a time. Before using them, they should be thoroughly washed to remove the dirt (as they are dug out from the soil)and patted dry with a cloth.

1. Sweet Potato as Snack: Steamed/Boiled: After washing they are cut into pieces the size of the pieces depending upon the size of the tuber. Some are really big where as some are slender and long. Now they are boiled in water or steamed till they are done. 

The skin is then removed and eaten as it is or with a bit of salt or other spices. This makes a great snack for children and elders too. 

These boiled potatoes are used for many a dish as you will see in my posts. 

2. Sweet Potato as Snack: Roasted: Clean and cut the tubers into long pieces. Smear oil all over and prick with fork a few times. Put them in hot coals and roast over them. when they are almost black on the outside they are done. Or check by piercing it with a knife or fork. They must be soft. Cool them, peel them and eat as it is or with a little bit of salt and pepper or spices of your choice sprinkled on them. 

When the winter in India is at its peak, people sit around coal fires, roasting sweet potatoes, gossiping, chatting and enjoying. Entire family sits around the iron Chullahs (stoves), roasting sweet potatoes and soaking in the warmth of the coal fire. It is time for bonding. My grandmother used to roast a large number of these tubers and we all used to sit around and enjoy the snack, listening to our grand parents, uncles and aunts talking about various things. 

So one chilly Sunday me my brother and my niece roasted some sweet potatoes over coal fires in a clay tray. Though she did not like the taste much, she liked the process of roasting. Here are the pictures.
I brushed oil on the pieces after cleaning them and pierced them with fork a few times.
 Then roasted over red hot coals on sand in a clay tray.
Then we snacked on them. It is as simple as that. They taste very delicious when roasted on coals.

Note: One thing is sweet potatoes are hard to digest and should be avoided in late evenings as far as possible by the people who have poor digestive systems.

Watch out for more recipes of sweet Potatoes in my next posts....

Hello

Guys, today as I was going through my blogs, I was shocked to notice that I have not posted even one single post during the entire last year. Well I have been facing some tough times since last year and I am trying to come out of it step by step. So keeping up with three blogs is real difficult.

But now, here I am, determined to put back everything that is worst behind me and start afresh.. So watch out I am going to post more and more recipes....

Just support me follow my blog and keep watching my blog...I promise you that you will not regret it...

So keep an eye on my blog for some yummy recipes...

Monday, October 1, 2012

Coconuts

Coconut belongs to Palm family. Coconut is the fruit of Coconut palms and is found mostly in tropical areas. It is a staple food of the tropics. In South India it is used almost daily in one form or the other. It has got religious and cultural significance too. That is why every house has at least one tree, especially in the coastal areas. 
   The Coconut palms
The sandy and salty soils and hot and humid atmosphere near sea is good for cultivation of coconuts. The matured coconut is buried in the soil for sprouting and this is the seedling from which the palm grows. The shoot comes from one of the eyes of the nut.
   The seedlings from the nut
Coconut is known as Naarikella (Sanskrit), Naariyal (Hindi) and Kobbari Kaaya (Telugu). Actually a coconut is a drupe- the seed or kernel is surrounded by the hard shell which is surrounded by the fibrous cover or the husk.
   The flowers and nuts on the palm
   Nuts of some varieties are golden yellow in colour

Tender coconuts are green in colour, contain more water and almost no meat. This water of tender coconuts is very good for health and more so in hot summers. 

As the coconut matures, the water content decreases and the meat increases. Meat of tender coconut is very soft, jelly like, sweet, nutritious and healthy. During summers, people drink coconut water and snack or tender meat to stay cool and healthy.
   Fresh Coconut
As the coconut matures, its meat becomes hard and quantity of the water decreases when compared to tender ones. Once the husk becomes hard, it is harvested and used as fresh coconut. 

When left on the trees, the coconut ripens, its husk turns brown in colour and the husk becomes soft and dry. At this stage it falls from the tree. But by now the quantity of water is very less and bitter in taste and the meat is hard and oily. These ripened fruits with the brown husk are left alone for months together till the water inside disappears and the meat dries out naturally. These are used for producing dried coconut and oil extraction. The husk is first removed and is used as the coir used for ropes and many other products. The shell of the coconut is broke open and dried to get dried coconut known as "Copra". 
   Dried Coconut
Coconut tree and its products are useful and no part of it goes waste. Hence it is known as Kalpa Vruksha (meaning a tree which provides all the necessities of the life or is useful in many ways) in Sanskrit. Let us see how:
  • Tender coconut-water and meat are used as as drink and snack. Tender coconut water contains, sugar, proteins, salts, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It is considered to be equal to saline water used for patients.
  • Meat of slightly matured coconut is consumed as food, used in making of desserts, sweets, curries, chutneys etc. 
  • The meat is also grated, grounded and pressed for obtaining the milk. This coconut milk is used in Indian and Thai recipes especially for curries. 
  • The dried coconut or copra is also used in various recipes of desserts, spicy powders and curries. 
  • Coconut oil extracted from dried coconut is used as cooking medium in the state of Kerala. The oil is used in cosmetics like soaps, skin tonics and hair tonics. It is considered as a hair tonic and applied to hair by the South Indians as it helps in growing hair and keeps it black. 
  • The trunk is used as walkways across aqua ducts or water bodies in rural areas. They are hollowed out and used as boats. Trunks are also used for construction, furniture etc. 
  • Green coconut leaves are woven in different designs and  used for decoration purposes in marriages, or by the rural folk as hedges or roofing materials. They are also used for making baskets, small bowls for cooking some recipes and also for serving. 
  • The veins of dried leaves are used as broom sticks in South India.
  • The shells are used as cups as ladles, serving bowls, storing and also used for various handicrafts including musical instruments, jewelry.
  • Coir is obtained from the husk and is used for making ropes, mats, carpets etc as well as for filling of mattresses.
  • Dried leaves, husk, shells etc are used as fuel.
  • The fruit and the roots have got medicinal uses too

You can read more about coconuts here:

How to break open a coconut:

Since we use coconuts very frequently, we are familiar with how to break it. 

One method is to hold the coconut firmly in left hand and use an iron rod or something hard to break. First the coconut is struck with the rod once, so that it cracks a little. the water is drained out. The nut is hit with the rod again once or twice to break it open completely into two halves. One should be careful in holding the nut so as to not to injure the fingers or the hand.

The most common method, which I also use is holding the nut in right hand firmly and hitting it on the floor(made of stone or cement) or a hard rock (granite type). It should be hit lightly first to make a crack, so that the water can be collected with out spilling. Then it should be hit again till it breaks.

if you observe the nut it has three eyes on one side. It should be held in such a way that two of the eyes face down. This way the break into two halves is equal and clean.

However since these days the floors are either made of wood or tiles, it is better to follow this procedure as explained in the link below:
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/crackcoc.html

Visit my other blog for crafts of coconut:

Watch out for recipes using coconut-fresh as well as dried in my next posts.....