Thalipeet powder (Bhajani)

There is an earlier post I have put up for Sathu Maavu Ganji Recipe (Multi-cereal Health Mix porridge). This post is related to that…. After I started making this porridge powder for my son, I realized that I was getting some things into my pantry like Jowar, Bajra etc which I would not normally use otherwise. The issue is that I do not get very small quantities of this at my grocery store and I land up with a lot of it being left over after I prepare the porridge powder.

So I decided to start making a very healthy Thalipeet powder. Thalipeet is a popular Maharashtrian dish and is made out of a flour called Bhajani which is a multi-grain powder.

Similar to what I did with the Ganji powder, I decided to sprout the cereals in this recipe too. It is extremely nutritious, flavourful and tasty too!

Ingredients –

• Red rice – 1 kg
• Channa Dal – 2.5 cups
• Urad dal – 1 cup
• Sprouted Moong dal (green gram) – 1.5 cup
• Sprouted Jowar – 1.5 cup
• Sprouted Bajra – 1.5 cup
• Sprouted Ragi – 1.5 cup
• Corn – ½ cup
• Wheat – 2 handful
• Poha – 2 handful
• Dhania – 1 handful
• Jeera – 1 handful
• Cinamon – 1 handful
• Black pepper -1 handful
• Cloves – 1 handful

Procedure –

– Out of the above ingredients

• Raagi, Bajra, Jowar – Wash each separately in water and soak for 2 days and tie in muslin cloth for 2 days in a dark place for sprouting. Then dry in shade till completely dry.
• Green gram(Moong) – Wash in water and soak for 1 days and tie in muslin cloth for 1 days in a dark place for sprouting. Then dry in shade till completely dry.
• Red rice, Wheat – wash and dry in shade till completely dry.

Rest of the ingredients use as-is.

– Mildly Dry roast all of the above ingredients one by one.

– Mix all the ingredients and blend into a fine powder – if you are in India, you can do this in the flour mill.

Once powdered, your Bhajani powder is ready. If stored in an airtight container in a dry place, this can be kept for 3 months.

Thalipeet Recipe

 

Thalipeet

 

Thalipeet can be prepared with this flour –

– Take a cup of flour in a mixing bowl

– Add chopped onions, coriander, finely chopped green chillies

– Add a tablespoon of cooking oil

– Salt to taste

– Pour water little by little and knead into a soft dough

– Divide the dough into small balls (like you do for chappathis).

-Place this on a banana leaf/plastic sheet/butter paper smeared with some oil.

– Using your hand, pat it to make round flat breads (use water so that it does not stick to your hand). This is similar to what you would do for Akki roti/raagi roti.

– Transfer this to a heated tava and roast on both sides with a little oil. (If you try to skip the oil, it would be too dry.). The thinner you have made it the crispier it will be!

Tips :

1) Note that these will not be easy to roll and transfer like the chappathi dough as the dough will not be too elastic. You can use some wheat flour for dusting.

2) To make the dough easier to work with, you can add some wheat flour while kneading it.

3) This Bhajani flour can also be mixed with dosa batter.

4) Serve it with some yoghurt, pickle, chutney or any other side dish of your choice.

5) You can add vegetables (grated carrots, mooli, boiled mashed potatoes) as required like you do for parathas.

IMPORTANT – Keeping the Bhajani flour for too long gives it a bitter taste!

Eat it hot as it is best-tasting directly out of the tava 🙂 Great for a nice heavy breakfast/sunday brunch!

Thalipeet Dosa style

Try this and let me know how it turns out….

Til Gul (Ellu Bella) Recipe

This is not really a recipe as there is no cooking involved in this but I am just listing the ingredients that go into Til Gul (Ellu Bella).Til is Sesame seed and Gul is Jaggery.

This is traditionally made on the occasion of Sankranthi. Til Gul is distributed to all saying ‘Til Gul Gya Goda Goda Bol’ – meaning, ‘Have Til Gul and Speak sweetly’!

Let me quickly jump to the ingredients that go into this. (I am also mentioning some rough quantities but ideally you can chose the proportion that works for you)

Ingredients –

Til (Sesame seeds) – 3/4 cup

Cut Jaggery – 1/2 cup

Cut Copra (dried coconut) – 1/2 cup

Fried gram (Pottu Kadalai) – 1 cup

Peanuts – 1 cup

Sugar coated jeera (cumin seeds) – a handful (makes it colorful too)

Mishri – 2-3 tsp

Procedure-

– Dry roast the Til/sesame seeds

– Chop copra and jaggery into fine small pieces

– Dry roast the groundnuts and remove the skin after cooling. Also split them. (If you are using roasted and de-skinned peanuts, then you can skip this step)

-You can also optionally dry roast the fried gram

– Mix all the above along with the copra pieces, sugar coated jeera and mishri.

(You can leave out the sugar coated jeera and mishri if it is not readily available. These are just optional)

Til Gul ready!

Til Gul is ready for Sankaranthi. You can put them in covers/small boxes for distribution.

I will put the details of the Sankranthi function in another post very soon 🙂

Til Gul ready for distribution with some Sakaricha Achha 🙂

Sathu Maavu Ganji Recipe (Multi-cereal Health Mix porridge)

In this post I am writing the recipe for a healthy Multi-cereal porridge. I try to give this to my son on a daily basis but this can be consumed by adults as well.

There are a lot of ready-made versions of this available in stores (in India) but as far as I have noticed none of them contain as many ingredients as I like to include in it. You  also  have the flexibility to omit a few ingredients if you prepare this at home.

I also like to sprout most of the cereals/pulses as I feel it makes it healthier – this is also not done in most of the store-bought ones.

So here goes my recipe –

Ingredients –

Cereals –

Raagi (Finger Millet) – 2 cups

Red rice – 1 cup

Parboiled rice (white)/Puzhungal arisi – 1 cup

Bajra (Pearl millet) – 1/2 cup

Jowar (Sorghum) – 1/2 cup

Wheat – 1/2 cup

Oats – 1/4 cup

Sabudana (Javarisi/Sago) – 1/4 cup

Corn – 1/4 cup

Barley – 1/4 cup

Pulses –

Green gram (Full moong) – 1/2 cup

Soyabean – 1/4 cup

Chickpeas (Chana kabuli) – 1/4 cup

Fried gram (pottu kadalai) – 1/4 cup

Nuts –

Groundnut – 1/8 cup

Cashew – 1/8 cup

Almonds – 1/8 cup

Cardomom – 1 handful

Flax seeds – 1 handful

Procedure –

– Out of the above ingredients

• Raagi, Bajra, Jowar – Wash each separately in water and soak for 2 days and tie in muslin cloth for 2 days in a dark place for sprouting. Then dry in shade till completely dry.
• Green gram(Moong), Soyabean, Channa – Wash each separately in water and soak for 1 days and tie in muslin cloth for 1 days in a dark place for sprouting. Then dry in shade till completely dry.
• Red rice, Boiled rice (puzhungal arisi), Wheat – wash and dry in shade till completely dry.
• Rest of the ingredients use as is.

– Mildly Dry roast all of the above ingredients one by one.

– Mix all the ingredients and blend into a fine powder – if you are in India, you can do this in the flour mill.

Once powdered, your Sathu Maavu Ganji powder is ready. If stored in an airtight container in a dry place, this can be kept for 3 months.

Porridge Recipe

The porridge can be made by dissolving 2 tbsp of this powder in some water. Then add to this glass of milk/water and cook on low flame stirring continuously. Depending on how thick you want your porridge you can vary the amount of porridge mix and the water/milk. Sugar can be added to taste and you can even add a few raisins if you like.

If you would like to have a salty version of the porridge cook the porridge as mentioned above in water, cool it and then add some buttermilk, salt, asafoetida (hing). However for this you might want to leave out the cardamom from the powder as it might not suit the salty version.

Nutritious Ganji Ready!

The process is pretty long but the end product is so nutritious and wholesome that the effort is justified 🙂

Tips :

– Do not get overwhelmed by the ingredients listing – you can leave out whatever is not available

– The quantities I have mentioned will yield a lot of powder – so if you are not going to make it regularly please reduce the quantities proportionately.

– I started making this for my son from when he was 2 years old but if you want to give it to younger kids, check with your doctor first.

– If you plan on making the salty version, leave out the cardamom.

– Vegans can replace the milk with soya milk or any other suitable milk

Sweet Corn Kosambari

Kosambari is a salad that is usually served along with festival food or at marriages and other functions. Traditionally Kosambari is made out of yellow moong dal (the salty version) and channa dal (sweet version).

However, nowadays at functions, caterers have become very innovative in coming up with new kind of kosambaris such as Sweet corn kosambari, Green moong sprout kosambari etc.

I tried out Sweet corn kosambari and it came out very well. So I thought I will share this very very simple recipe in the blog.

Sweet Corn Kosambari

Sweet Corn Kosambari

Ingredients –

• Sweet Corn
• Pomogranate
• Grated Coconut
• Grated Raw Mango
• Corriander leaves
• Salt to taste
• For seasoning –
  • Urad dal – 1 tsp
  • Mustard seeds
  • Cooking oil – 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida (hing)- a pinch
  • 1 green chilli – finely chopped

Procedure –

Boil the sweetcorn till tender and remove the corn kernels.

In a bowl mix the cooked corn kernels along with all the ingredients except the ones mentioned for seasoning. In a small kadai, heat cooking oil, put in the mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter. The put in the urad dal, green chilli and hing. Pour this seasoning into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and toss it up like a salad.

Your Sweet Corn Kosambari is ready :)! The sweetness of the corn, tanginess of the mango, flavour of the coconut and the richness of the pomogranate will definitely make this dish yummy and a visual treat!

Tips –

• You can add a few more ingredients like Grated carrots, finely chopped cucumber and leave out a few like coconut as per your taste and preference.
• You could omit the cooking of the sweet corn if you like it raw.
• This could also be served chill – so put it in the refrigerator for sometime if you like cold salads!

Appicha Kheer (Appi Payasa)

Appicha Kheer or Appi Payasa is one of the special sweet dishes prepared for special ocassions, festivals etc. It is very rich, heavy and tastes really divine. It is considered to be one of the more complicated kheers in terms of procedure and time but in reality it is not as difficult as it seems.

Ingredients

• Fine Rava/Sooji – 1/2 cup (If you can get Chiroti rava, that is best)
• Water – 1/2 cup (approx)
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Milk – 2 cups
• Sugar – 1/4 cup
• Oil/Ghee for frying
• Cardomon powder – 1/2 tsp
• Nutmeg powder (Jaipala/Jaadhikai) – a pinch
• Cashews – few
• Raisins – few

Procedure

1. Mix the Rava with water and mix well to form a hard dough (like Puri dough). Dont put all the water at once, mix the rava along with 1 spoon of ghee and add the water little by little and mix well to form a dough (like a puri dough).
2. (If you are using Chiroti rava, then you can skip this step) Split the mixed dough into small parts and blend it in the dry jar of the mixie in installments. Work this dough again with your hand and it should be a bit rubbery and elastic in nature. If you have used Chiroti rava, the dough should be elastic without putting it in the mixie.
3. Make the dough into small balls and roll them into circles (like puri) – you can use some ghee/maida to roll it without sticking onto the surface.
4. Fry these papads in hot oil/ghee
5. After the fried papads have cooled, break the papads into small pieces.
6. Boil milk in a wide vessel and put the broken papad pieces into them. Once the papads are well cooked and the milk is thickened (condensed), put in sugar and let it boil for 2 more minutes.
7. Put the cardomon powder, nutmeg powder, saffron and mix well.
8. Garnish with Cashews and raisins roasted with ghee.

Delicious Payasa is ready 🙂 Enjoy!

Appi Papads

Tips

• You can prepare these Papads and keep them in an air tight container. They would stay good for a week. Then on the day you need to make the kheer, you can prepare it very quickly.
• While cooking the papads in milk, you can also mix some water if you do not want the kheer to be too thick.
• If after the kheer cools down all the milk has been absorbed by the papads, you can add some boiled sweet milk and mix.
• If you need to get back to work after having this kheer, be careful with the amount of nutmeg powder you use – this can make you really sleepy 😉