Announcing "Serve It" Series.. Serve It-Grilled

'Serve It' is a series of event focusing on cooking techniques started by my dear friend Denny of Oh Taste N See and me. After a grand success of the Serve It - Chilled last month at Denny's, the event is happening here this month. The round up of the last month's Serve It event can be checked out here.

This month's theme is Serve It - Grilled. According to wiki, Grilling is a form of cooking

Lemon Rasam

As an asian fruit, Lemon is always available in my kitchen. I use it in my recipes sometimes to get a fresh feeling instead of tamarind. It gives an unique taste when you add it to the food you prepare. Pure lemon extract stored in bottle is available in supermarkets nowadays.

Whenever my mom prepares this rasam I and my sister usually drink it instead of eating with rice :-). It also goes well with hot white rice. Coming to this recipe, it is prepared without tamarind and tomato. If you wish to add tomato or tamarind, you can, but make sure to reduce the lemon juice.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 5 - 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 - 10 minutes

Serves: 2-3



Ingredients:



Lemon - 1 lemon

Toor Dal - 2 tablespoon

Ginger - 1 inch length piece

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon

Garlic - 1 clove

Green chilli - 2

Coriander leaves - 2 strings

Curry leaves - 1 string

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric Powder - a pinch

Asafoetida - a pinch

Salt - to taste



Method:



1) Boil/Cook the dal with 1.5 cup of water.

2) Squeeze the lemon and extract the juice from it.

3) Crush ginger, garlic with skin, cumin seeds, block pepper, green chilli and a string of coriander leaves using a mixer/food processor.

4) Add the crushed ingredients and curry leaves to the cooked toor dal water. (you can either use toor dal with water or only cooked water for this rasam).

5) Add lemon juice, turmeric and salt.

6) When foam forms in the surface of the pan, sprinkle asafoetida and immediately remove it from heat.

7) Now take a kadai and heat oil in it.

8) When the kadai is hot, add fenugreek seeds. Allow them to splutter. Add this seasoning to the rasam.

9) Garnish with coriander leaves.

10) Serve it hot with rice.

Note:
1) Do not boil this rasam, as it will give a bitter taste to it.

2) As soon as you add the salt to rasam, keep the rasam vessel in the heat and start the cooking process as mentioned above.

Barley Mint Stoup

"Barley"  is an another ingredient in the quest of my Healthy Kitchen. Now a days I am more concentrating on using whole grain ingredients into my recipes, as these grains all packed with high fiber and protein, which will make you eat less and at the same time fill your stomach. 

You might be wondering which I called this recipe as "Stoup"....If the readers have watched Rachael Ray's show, this would not be a question in their mind anymore, but I will explain it for those who don't know.....
"Stoup" - I call is "a Rachael Ray word" :) because, when I made this recipe I thought it might look like a soup, but it turned out to be little bit more creamy and thick, but still thinner consistency than a stew, so it's not a soup nor a stew, but a stoup. :)
Finally I decided to add mint to the stoup, which made this recipe taste much flavorful with the peppery mint and green action with was colorful and refreshing.

 Barley Nutrition

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Barley contains eight essential amino acids. According to a recent study, eating whole grain barley can regulate blood sugar (i.e. reduce blood glucose response to a meal) for up to 10 hours after consumption compared to white or even whole-grain wheat, which has a similarglycemic index. The effect was attributed to colonic fermentation of indigestible carbohydrates. Barley can also be used as a coffee substitute.

Hulled barley (or covered barley) is eaten after removing the inedible, fibrous outer hull. Once removed, it is called dehulled barley (or pot barley or scotch barley). Considered a whole grain, dehulled barley still has its bran and germ making it a nutritious and popular health food.Pearl barley (or pearled barley) is dehulled barley which has been steam processed further to remove the bran. It may be polished, a process known as "pearling". Dehulled or pearl barley may be processed into a variety of barley products, including flour, flakes similar to oatmeal, and grits.

Ingredients:

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1 cup Barley ( I choose Pearl Barley) 

3 1/2 cups Water

1 Onion chopped

3 Tomatoes chopped

1/2 tsp Tomato paste (optional)

1 Green Chili chopped

1/4 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste

1/2 tsp Black Pepper powder

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

1/4 tsp Red Chili powder

Salt to taste

1 tsp Olive oil

1/4 cup Mint chopped

1 tbsp Lemon juice

Method:

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1. To soak the barley you can either do it for about 3-4 hours or in a sauce pan add water and barley and bring it to a boil and stir it once then off the flame and let it stand for an hour.

2. In a pressure cooker add 1 tsp oil, when it's medium hot add the ginger-garlic paste, saute it until it turns golden brown, add chopped onions and saute it for 2-3 mins.

3. Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste along with all the spice powders and salt.

4. Lower the flame, cover and cook the tomatoes and the spice powders for about 2-3 mins or until the tomatoes are soft and cooked.

5. Now add the barley with the water and cover the lid and pressure cook it for 2 whistles or until cooked.

6. Allow it to come to room temperature, remove the lid of the pressure cooker and mix it again and finally add the mint, lemon juice and stir it again and serve when it's hot.

Before posting this recipe, I saw a blogger hosting an event called "Cook It Healthy", so thought of participating for this event by submitting this recipe.

"Cook It Healthy" Event - By Sobha

So wish me Luck!! :-))