Buckwheat Roti or Kuttu atta chapathi

Few days back I was reading through an article in NDTV food column, where they had given a good list of vegetarian protein sources. One of them I use regularly in my cooking is Quinoa (pronounced as "keen-wah") is a south american grain/seed that contains all the essential amino acids. It is very suitable for a vegan or strict vegetarian diet. Next in that list is buckwheat (called kuttu in hindi). Buckwheat sounds like its another type of wheat right? The answer is a no. Its an edible seed like quinoa. There's no relationship between buckwheat and wheat whatsoever.

It looks like this,

If you are thinking to be on a low carb diet for whatever reason, you can happily include buckwheat in your diet. Buckwheat is gluten free, rich in essential nutrients like manganese, magnesium and copper, prevents gall stones in women because they are rich in insoluble fiber etc etc. All these tells that buckwheat is one of the healthiest (non)grain to include. As a matter of fact, in India some people take it during their ekadhashi fast when they follow a strict no grain food. 

What are the viable cooking options of buckwheat? well you can make porridge aka kanji by cooking buckwheat in water and add cardomom, little milk and brown sugar or honey (similar to oatmeal), make buckwheat dosa, buckwheat chapathi etc. You even get soba noodles (japanese style) made of buckwheat. 

Last week sometime while I was browsing through the aisles of my local Indian grocery store to find something interesting to cook, found this nice pack of buckwheat flour. They look like red wheat flour. I immediately came back home and swung into action. Had a hot hot buckwheat roti and a nice gravy for dinner. It turned out the rotis were super soft even after a day. It was really light in the stomach that night. Wanted to share this recipe with you all.

Buckwheat Roti 

(the below quantity makes 12 to 15 chapathis)

Ingredients:

Whole wheat atta - 1 1/2 cup

Buckwheat flour - 1 1/2 cup

salt and water as required

Recipe:

- Make a pliable dough with whole wheat atta, buckwheat flour and salt by adding water little by little.

- keep the dough aside for 15 mins and make chapathis as usual.

Note:

- You can add warm water instead of cold water, it naturally get a soft roti.

- I sometimes add a little bit of curd if I want to keep it for the next day too. 

- This chapathi goes very well with a nice gravy. 

- The rotis will be in a chocolate brown color, don't mind that. 

We loved hot hot rotis. I have decided to add buckwheat regularly in my roti preparations now. What are you waiting for?

Enjoy :-) 

Down by the memory lane - A nostalgia

"Paal ice, cup ice, cone ice" - the voice sounded loud and grave. In that scorching heat of April when schools remain closed for summer the iceman is strolling his ice cart and selling the morning made ice creams rather I would say "popsicles". Kids in the streets are playing outdoors not too responsive of that sultry heat. Hearing the bell and voice of the iceman they run to their respective homes to get coins (yes just coins). "Give me a rose milk ice", "give me paal (milk) ice", "give me orange ice", the kids asking for their choice of ice cream handing 25 paise to the ice cream man. Some are still contemplating over what to pick waiting to see what kajana (treasure) he has. He slowly opens his crate and takes out one by one those popsicle and hands off to the kids. His price for cup ice (ice cream cup or cone) is at the max one rupee. All kids got their deal and started enjoying their no plastic wrapped, mildly sweetened popsicles.

This was how most of our childhood days were spent especially those summers. There were no summer camps, no tuition and no extra curricular classes. All we did was play! play! and play! till we all got tired or hungry.

Remember the times when we used to run to a neighborhood anna's (brother) shop and ask for a then mittai (honey chocolate), orange mittai (a naturally flavored candy), murukku etc with no other thoughts in mind. Those shop owners filled their glass jars with such goodies every morning and by evening most of them got emptied. Though sugar was naturally involved we never had cavities or tooth decay. Parents never feared that kids will get fever or catch cold because of infection or poor hygiene though there'll be air of warnings at times but not much. The shop owners just used to hand off these goodies with their bare hands, not using disposable gloves. All wrappings were done with just plain papers that were bio-degradable. Plastics were hardly involved!

Tired of playing, we would run home to eat those steamed panam kizhangu (sprouts of asian palmyra palm tree) or steamed yams, boiled corn or peanuts. Our friends had a regular vendor for panam kizhangu (pictured below), an old lady. She gives the best kizhangu and gives us a piece of advice to eat jaggery after having the kizhangu as these shoots are supposed to increase your "pitha" (reference to ayurveda) and hence the jaggery.

(picture sourced from internet)

My friend's friend's parents were running a mobile cart stall infront of a high school near our home, in which they sold hot hot spicy peas sundal. The taste of it is incomparable. The usually store the sundal in a glass container covered well so it stays fresh. Indeed at later times I tried recreating this recipe with no big success. I couldn't really get close to that taste. It had a subtle taste of masala and saunf. This couple used to bring their cart in the afternoon and park it in a shade and make their hot sundal waiting for the school bell. By the time the school is empty their cart would have been emptied. If I wanted to buy this sundal (which usually happens almost every weekend) I would usually go early afternoon else I'll have to see the empty cart.

Some snacks like roasted pattani (dried peas), nellikkai (goose berry or amla), elandha pazham (jujubi or bher) and elandha vadai (sweet and spicy jujubi patties), javvu mittai (those stretchy candies which can be made into watches and shapes) all flashes into memory at times. We were surrounded by such traditional snacks those days. What we get now are those boxed, processed snacks rich in trans fats and hydrogenated oils that's been stored for days in plastic bags. Along with snacks our kids taste chemicals too. Study reveals, plastic release dioxin which can cause hormone imbalances leading to early puberty in girls. It is a potential carcinogen and can cause reproductive issues in humans.

Our next generation will never get to experience such a carefree life anymore. Kids are put under pressure to do good, they are racing now leading to all childhood stress, obesity and even diabetes. Environment is polluted. Everywhere it's plastic! plastic! and plastic!. In a tropical country like India all the wastes were usually bio-degradable and became compost that fertilized the lands. This has become a thing of past. We are leaving our great practices and rich culture behind to follow something that cause cause an un-repairable damage. Shouldn't we stop and think what we are feeding to our new generation? Can't we spend that extra minute to make some unprocessed snack for our kids? Afterall they are the pillars of support for the next generation. It is our job to curb use of plastics, recycle/reuse things, eat healthy, feed healthy and stay healthy.

Hope you all got a nice flashback of your childhood days. Enjoy!

Forgotten past - a little chatter

India is very rich and diverse in culture as everyone know. We were good innovators too. Even in olden times we got ways to use best tools to grind, sort, mill all the grains. These mechanical tools are forgotten these days. My post is intended to bring back all those good old memories of the forgotten past :-)

Ammi Kal (mechanical stone grinder) - First and foremost is famous "Ammi kal" which is basically a very thick granite stone that has been surfaced and a thick granite stone roller rolls on top to grind masalas (spices), chutney's etc. The items to be ground/crushed are placed in the bottom slab while people move the roller with their hands to grind/crush them. The chutneys or spices ground this way usually had some "extra" flavor in it. I remember there would be people coming on the streets shouting asking if your ammi kal needs to be resurfaced or made rough. They used to shout in their loud voices like this, "Ammi kuthardhu kodakkal thurardhu". In mid 90s, the ammi kal slowly lost its luster and got replaced by an electric blender/mixer that does the job with a press of button. Luckily till this date my parent's home has this ammi kal and my mom uses it at times though not regularly.

Kal Ural or Kuda kal or Aattu kal (Stone grinder) - Years back when we were kids, there used to be a big stone bowl shaped thingy with a small round pit and a roller like the one above sitting inside that pit, in almost everyone's backyard. It was used to grind batters for idlis/dosas/adai or vadai. My grandmother used to soak rice and dhal every few days and hand grind religiously in that stone grinder. She would keep moving the urad dhal with one of her hands and swing the roller into clockwise rotation or anticlockwise rotation. Idlis made with the hand ground batter fermented with no issues and were fluffy and soft. Those stone grinders called "Kal Ural" or "Aattu kal" in Tamil, used to be a part of everyone's household. Ladies never had to go to gym to do upper body strengthening or pushups or weights. Their arms went naturally stronger with this equipment. Now with time constraint and stress we lost this wonderful equipment to what we call the current day "Wet grinder" which is again a push button electrics.

Yendhiram - India is a land of agriculture. The countries produces a lot of pulses, grains. seeds etc. Each family owned some piece of land and did a self sustained life. Now in-order to process these grains what they used is a again a type of stone grinder which had 2 heavy round stone slabs with a hole to put the grains in and a wooden handle on the top slab. The bottom slab stayed still why the top slap was rotated (holding the wooden handle) to crush the pulse or grain to hull them. It was how women in the neighborhood and family also socialized. They used to sit with this chore in the mid afternoon after lunch and do it all the way until evening while singing songs, telling stories etc. During my school days one aaya (helper) used to come to our home to husk moongdal and urad dhal. She would usually start the process in the morning and take a break for her lunch and a coffee. By evening most of it will be done. The husks were used as a fodder for cattle. My brother and I used to sit with mouth opened to watch this whole process. I have even used it a couple of times. I tell you its very heavy and takes 2 people to do this chore. Imagine how stronger the arms would get. This tool is called "Yendhiram" in tamil meaning "machine". We have given this to grain mills now that are commercialized and forgotten them.

picture sourced from internet

Muram (winnowing basket) - Muram or winnowing basket looks like a flat tray or dust pan with no handle. It is typically used to remove stones or dust or husk that are still mixed with grains/seeds. They were usually made out of bamboo. The grains or seed mix is first layered in this pan, the mixture is fanned and thrown into air. Wind blows away the lighter chaff leaving the actual grain behind. In old times it is usually the job of old ladies in the family to do this work while younger ones attended other chores. I remember when I was young, my grandmother used to grind paper and apply it on the basket. This is usually done to protect the basket from any pest infections. This again was a kind of workout for the ladies during those no gym times.

There are more like brass uruli (brass vessel) that cooked authentic foods, kalchatti (soapstone saucier to make special dishes like sambar, kootu kinds), eeya chombu (a heavy vessel with an alloy of tin and zinc used to make rasam in), man chatti (clay pot) that cooked the best fish etc.

With this fast paced world, we are all in a hurry. We left all these treasures behind and run to gyms or look for personal trainers. These equipment used to be the trainers those days. Our kids get to see all of these in museums or if luck would prevail in their ancient villages. Isn't our duty to bring back all those good that were part of our very own society. Lets start thinking about it. Till then Enjoy!

Uma 

Tomato Onion chutney

This is a simple chutney I make very often to go with idlis and dosas. It tastes well with even upma or pongal but incomparable complement to idli/dosas.

Tomato Onion Chutney

Dried red chillies (whole) - 2 to 3 depending on the spicyness

Big onions - 2

Tomatoes - 2

salt - required

oil - 1 tbsp

To season : mustard seeds, urad dhal, curry 

Recipe :

- In a skillet add 1 tbsp of oil, saute red chillies till crisp. 

- Add onions and saute till they turn a pale brown. 

- Add tomatoes and saute them till the tomatoes turn pulpy or their skin shrink.

- switch off the flame and add the required salt.

- cool and grind (no water needed as tomato gives juice for grinding)

- season with mustard seeds, urad dhal and curry leaves in 1/2 tsp of oil and add it to the chutney.

Note:

- Dried red chillies can be substituted with fresh red chillies or green chillies. Taste might be a little different.

- A handful of coriander leaves can be added to the mixture before grinding.

- Add or remove chillies if finding it too spicy or bland for your taste. 

- This chutney served with a drop of seasame oil on top tastes divinely with steaming hot idlis.

Taste and Enjoy!

Uma

Whole grains - Finger millet (Ragi) idli

Finger millet aka Ragi is originally from East Africa, that came to India later in 2000 BC.

source : wikipedia

Finger millet is especially valuable as it contains the amino acid methionine, which is lacking in the diets of hundreds of millions of the poor who live on starchy staples such as cassava, plantain, polished rice, or maize meal. Finger millet can be ground and cooked into cakes, puddings or porridge. It is also used for a flavored drink in festivals. Finger millet is very rich in calcium, can be considered as a good substitute of milk for lactose intolerant people. A 100g of cooked finger millet contains almost a day's worth of calcium (370 mg).

We can prepare a lot of foods with finger millet powder; like idiyappam (string hoppers), idli (steamed rice cakes), dosa (pancakes), puttu (steamed crumbled powder), ragi kanji/koozh (porridge), ragi mudde etc. While I use the powder form for many preparations, my to go for idlis are whole finger millets. 

Finger millet aka Ragi Idli 

White whole urad dhal - 1/2 cup

Whole Ragi - 1 cup

Idli Rice - 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds (methi) - 1 tsp

- Wash urad dhal once or twice to remove dirt and soak it in cold water for 4 to 5 hours along with unwashed fenugreek seeds. 

- Wash rice and ragi few times to remove any stone or mud grits and soak them for 5 hours. Ragi might contain lot of mud or stone, take care to clean it thoroughly. 

- In a blender or stone grinder, grind urad dhal very fluffy by adding water a little by little. Use the same water as the dhal was soaked in. Remove and keep in a vessel. 

Note : The amount of air that gets incorporated in urad dhal decides on how soft the idlis would turn out. This process might take 30 mins if its a stone grinder. This might vary for blender grinding.

- Grind rice/ragi mixture to a sooji rava like consistency.

- Mix both the batters and add required salt. The consistency of batter should be not too thick and not runny. To check this, if you drop some batter from hand it should fall down as a blob not flow. Too thick batter may lead to hard idlis while a runny batter may give flat idlis. Add required amount of water when you mix salt. Don't add any water once fermentation is done. Keep the batter for fermentation in a warm place. For people living in colder climates, can keep the batter inside their convection oven preheated to 170 degrees for 3 mins and turned off or leave the pilot light inside oven on for few hours.

- The batter would ferment in about 8 to 10 hours or longer depending on the climatic conditions. 

- Make idlis in idli moulds and steam them for 8 mins. Have them with tomato chutney or coconut chutney or sambar whichever you prefer.

Note:

- For those who are using blender to grind the batter, you can keep the urad dhal in fridge for 2 to 3 hours and add that cold water to grind the batter to prevent motor from burning out.

- In order to improve fermentation, leave the soaked dhal + fenugreek open so it can attract wild yeast.

- Fermentation mostly depends on how fluffy urad dhal is being ground and climatic conditions while it can also depend on the water being used and salt. If you have problems in fermentation, use crystal salt (non-iodized) and filter water instead of tap water.

- Idlis can get hard if there's more rice/ragi than urad dhal. It might not puff if there's more urad dhal than rice/ragi. So a balance should be maintained. The above recipe is almost fool proof if followed correctly. I have been making ragi idli for years now.
- same batter can be used to make dosais.

Will post a quick and simple tomato/onion chutney recipe soon. Till then Enjoy!

Uma

Tips - tried and tested

We often get tips from people or might have read somewhere and tried it but later end up forgetting them. I'm trying to get them together and post it here. The page will be updated from time to time.

Household:
- Add a drop or 2 of essential oil (lavendar/peppermint etc) instead of fabric softener in the washer. It will give sweet smelling clothes.

- Fill a spray bottle with some distilled vinegar and few drops of essential oil. Use it to wipe countertops and dinner tables. Vinegar has a good anti-microbial property to kill germs.

Kitchen/Cooking:

- to avoid scorching of milk when boiling, first add an oz of water like a flat bed and then add milk. Don't stir in the middle.

- In cold places making curd will be a deal. You can put the warm milk inside a hot casserole (like milton) and leave it inside a pre-warmed oven. Make sure the oven is just warmed to 170 degrees Fahrenheit or 60 degrees celcius or whichever is the lowest temperature setting, for few minutes. Same works for idli batter too.

- To keep mint/coriander leaves fresh, dry them out of moisture, wrap them in a cotton cloth or paper towel and store them in airtight boxes in the fridge. It stays well for 2 to 3 weeks even. I usually use the brand called snapware with locking lids which we get here in the US.

- To remove bitterness from cucumber, slice the ends and rub the open part with cut ends. Rubbing that sliced end against the cucumber will release a white, foamy substance, which contains an organic compound called cucurbitacin. This is the cause of the bitterness. Keep rubbing till it stops producing foam. Wash and use the cucumber.

Homemade moisturizer - no fuzzy chemicals

A friend of mine living in Australia makes her own moisturizer cream. She gave me the recipe to share with the readers.


A guest post by Meena Aravindan, Australia.

I make my own moisturizer at home. Having gone through itchy/dry and sensitive skin, this stuff works out wonders. Good bye to chemicals.

Blend virgin coconut oil, shea butter, lavender/cedarwood/pepperment essential oil (any one is enough) till it comes like a whipped cream using a hand mixer. Store in an airtight container and use. Works good even for kids when we shy to use heavy chemically loaded moisturizing creams. It has a very good shelf life.

Enjoy!
Uma