Ragi Kanji for babies/toddlers

This is a simple and healthy porridge that can be given to babies (8 months+) for breakfast.

Ingredients:

1.5 tsp sprouted ragi flour
1/2 cup water
A pinch of crushed cardamom
Sugar or jaggery as needed
1/2 tsp ghee (optional)
2-3 tsp mashed banana (optional)

Method:
Take ragi flour in a bowl. Add water little by little until it mixes well.
In a pan, add this mixture and heat on low flame till it becomes thick and gets cooked fully. Keep stirring now and then to avoid forming lumps.
Add cardamom powder, mashed banana and sugar or jaggery. Drizzle ghee.
Mix and serve warm. 

Spicy Thukkada / Thukudi / Diamond cuts

I present you one my favorite recipes from my childhood days. As I released a spoiler of this dish in advance in My Kitchen Experiments's Fb page, by now many of you would have come to know this recipe. Yes, its the Thukkada. It is nothing but crispy, savory diamond cuts which perfectly pairs with tea/coffee.



My Mom makes it often when no snacks are available for us to accompany coffee/tea time. My sis and myself always fight for making the diamond shapes when my mom prepares this recipe. I was recollecting those sweet wonderful memories when I prepared this.



There are 2 versions (Sweet and Spicy) and I know many of you like the spicy version a lot. I will be posting the sweet version soon. The one which I posted here is a generic version of the spicy thukkada. You are free to innovate and bring out different variations of this dish.



I have heard that this recipe is also known as Shankerpale in Kannada. The Kannada variant is a bit thicker.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Makes: 5 cups approx.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 3 cups

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tablespoon, preferably hot oil

Dry red chillies - 11-12 nos

Garlic - 2 cloves

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Ajwain seeds - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)

Asafoetida - a big pinch

Oil - for deep frying

Method:

1) Grind dry red chillies, cumin seeds, ajwain seeds, garlic cloves to a fine paste by adding small quantity of water.

2) In a mixing bowl, take wheat flour,oil (I added oil while making a dough) and salt. Mix well. Add the ground spice paste(as said in step 1) to this. Mix again.

3) Start adding water slowly and make a very tight dough. Taste and adjust the salt if required.

4) Divide the dough into equal sized balls.

5) Roll each of the balls into round shape like how we roll for chapatis. Use wheat flour or oil for easy rolling.

6) Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut into diamond shapes.

7) Transfer them to a wide plate and keep aside for 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile roll and cut diamond shapes using remaining dough.

8) After 5 minutes fry them in oil. The temperature of the oil should not be very hot and not very low. It should be in medium temperature.

9) Once thukkadas become crisp and changed in colour, transfer them to a plate covered with kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil.

10) Enjoy well.

Note:

1) Instead of dry red chilli and garlic paste, you can simply use red chilli powder along with cumin seeds and ajwain seeds.

2) The colour of the thukkada is purely based on red chilli powder and level of frying.

3) Make thin diamond shapes for very crispy thukkadas.

Chocolate brownies

This is my next recipe using the foodie ingredients, chocolate brownies! With a twist I used the scrummy chilli chocolate.

Melt 7oz chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Cream together 8oz butter and 10oz soft brown sugar until smooth.

Add 4 eggs and the melted chocolate and beat in.

Fold in 3oz plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp cocoa powder and 4oz chopped nuts (I use walnuts).

Pour into a lined and greased tin about 9"x9" and bake at 180C fan for about 25 mins.

Enjoy!