Sathumaavu Urundai /Multigrain Balls

In South India, health drinks are available which is a powder made from roasted multi grains and few nuts flavored with cardamon. Some brands sell the roasted grains and nuts, packed in individual packets and sold as one unit. And all we have to do is to powder them. I find the roasted ones cost effective than the powdered one. I usually buy the roasted one and get it powdered from a near by flour mill. For breakfast, we usually have the sathumavu kanji along with the tiffin.

The idea behind making the balls is from a traditional sweet - Poruvalangai, which was a common sweet in most Iyer households. Its almost a forgotten sweet now. I do make Poruvalangai once in a while. Since this powder is always in stock, it is easy to make these urundai/balls with the instant powder at hand. Once my hubby got the powder instead of the grains that we usually buy. I made this using the store bought sathu maavu. Since it has all the ingredients in it, only jaggery is required to prepare this.

Sathumaavu/Multi grain flour - 2 cups

Powdered jaggery - 1 cup

The store bought flour has cardamom added to it. So no need to add any extra flavor.

Mix jaggery in just enough water to immerse, simmer on low heat till it dissolves. Strain & boil again till it reaches the soft ball consistency. The consistency is reached when ½ teaspoon of syrup added to 1 tbsp water, can be rolled into a soft ball. Remove the syrup from fire.

To make balls, take 1 cup of powder in a wide bowl, add syrup & mix well simultaneously with a ladle. Care should be taken while adding the syrup. The quantity of syrup added, should be just enough for the whole flour to get coated and the mixture should resemble bread crumbs.

While hot, form small balls. Don’t make the balls very tight. If the syrup added is more, the balls will turn chewy. As you bite into the ball, it should be powder like. I warn you, its not easy to bite into, as in ordinary laddus. This is a bit hard kind. And the fun of eating those balls lie in that.

Note: There is a possibility for the syrup to caramelize as you finish the first batch. To keep the syrup in the same consistency, keep the syrup vessel in a double boiler on a low flame.

This nutrition packed flour with jaggery makes an ideal sweet for all. All our traditional sweets have taken care of the nutrient requirements and the health concerns. With out any ghee or any other fatty ingredient, an yummy sweet is ready. Jaggery is always recommended in place of the white sugar. This sathumaavu urundai is a favorite in my house, that it gets over in no time.

This guilt free healthy sweet is making to Mythrayee's Sweet Series which calls for Chikki and Laddu for the current edition.

Sunita has asked to send a dish with our favorite spice. Cardamom, the most commonly used in my kitchen, is my favorite. So this goes to the Think Spice:Think Favorite anniversary edition.



Whole grains being a good source of calcium, I am sending this to Sangeeth's Eat Healthy - Calcium Rich event.

Raisin Stuffed Apples for MBP

When Aparna announced MBP, I knew what I wanted to make. So for this month's MBP, no patroling done. Ever since Uma posted raisin stuffed apples, I wanted to make it. I tried with one apple. Even though I reduced the cooking time(3 minutes) since its only one and she had used 3, it slightly got over cooked. But it was tasty. I almost followed her recipe to T. Only change I made was, I added powdered sugar and cardamom powder in place of cinnamon. Do visit Uma's post for the detailed recipe with step-by-step pics

This goes to the MBP-Fruit Fare, hosted by Aparna, which is the brainchild of Coffee

Bagel 犹太面包 (贝果)

I remember the first bagel sandwich I had was at the Heathrow Airport. Till now, I still remember the chewiness of the bread.
There are many recipes of bagel and different ways to form the bagels into a donut shape. Some people likes to roll the dough into a “snake” and pinching the ends together. The other way is to shape the dough into tight balls and poke a hole through the center then stretch out the dough into a ring with fingers.

Since this is my first attempts I would like to go for the basic and simple one. This rustic bagel I made didn't looks very round in shape.

By the way, did you realize that there were actually five bagels in the above image?

These aren’t the giant-sized bagels as I purposely make it for breakfast or a snack.

I am now looking for whole wheat bagel recipe. Would you please share with me if you've got one. Cheers!

Method:

1. In a large bowl of a stand mixer combine all the ingredients. knead dough with the dough hook until elastic, about 10 minutes on a low speed.
2. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let proof for 1 hour.
3. Get ready a large bowl of hot water and preheat the oven to 400F.
4. When dough has risen, divide into 10 portions. Shape each piece into a tight balls.
   When all the balls are shaped, let the dough rest for 30 minutes covered with a clean dish towel.
5. Once dough balls have rested, poke a hole through the center of each dough ball with your fingers. Stretch out the dough into a ring and make sure the hole is slightly larger than you want the finished bagel to have, as the bagel will expanding during the baking process.
   Let bagels rest for about 10 minutes.
6. Drop the bagels into the boiling water. Boil for 2 minutes on the first side, then flip and boil for an additional minute.
7. Transfer bagels to a clean towel to drain for a moment, then place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Egg wash the boiled bagel bake for 20-24 minutes, until golden brown. (I garnished it by adding some sesame seeds)