Raagi Idly using whole raagi grains

Mercury in my area is been touching new levels before its officially summer. Cases of sun burn is reported on a daily basis and is something unheard of previously. Days are warmer. Even early morning is not so pleasant. I usually finish my cooking by 7 before husband leaves for office. That is to say I don't have to be in the kitchen when the day warms up. But even during the early morning hours,Iam sweating profusely. I prefer breakfast which gets done quickly. Idlis are great saviors since it gets done in a batch. Other than the normal idlies, I make idly with rava, wheat rava and semiya too. It was then I thought of trying raagi idli. Raagi is supposed to have the cooling effect on the body and its ideal for the summer heat. I followed the usual idli recipe where in 2 cups of rice was replaced with ragi grains. It turned out soft and taste of ragi was mild too.

You need

Parboiled rice/idli rice - 2 cups

Whole ragi grains- 2 cups

Urad dal -1 cup

Methi seeds - 1 tspn

Salt to taste


Method

Wash and soak rice,ragi urad dal and methi seeds separately for 6 hours or overnight. First grind urad dal till light and fluffy. While grinding urad dal, don't be tempted to add more water. Add enough water to keep the batter moist. This will ensure fluffy batter. Next grind rice and ragi together till it is smooth. Add the soaked methi seeds also while grinding rice and ragi together.  Add salt and mix the ground dal and rice-ragi mixture . Give a thorough mix with a ladle or better use your hand which aids in fermentation. Leave the batter to ferment for 6 hours.  Make idlis the usual way.

I am planning to increase the quantity of ragi to 3 cups and reduce rice. I think it should turn out well.  I am sending this to JIHVA for breakfast hosted by Suma, an event started by Indira

Apple Pancake and an Award

This is the first time i m trying out a pancake, Pancake Event is going @ Priya's and i was looking for a good recipe to send one. Lucky Me, got this recipe from my monthly magazine supplementary. Came out well.

Ingredient
1 Apple, grated
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Corn meal - 1/4 cup
Groundnut/Peanut powder - 1/4 cup
Medium sized Bananas - 5 nos
Honey - 1/2 cup
Salt to Taste
Method

Mix Wheat flour, Groundnut/Peanut powder, shredded apple, cornmeal and salt with enough water to Dosa Batter Consistency.  I added a pinch of Cinnamon powder to the batter for the arom!!!!.
Peel and Chop the Bananas and mix with honey. Heat the pan, pour a griddle of the batter and spread it, add ghee/butter to the sides. Cook both the sides in a low flame. Wrap the pancake with some honey bananas or drizzle them on top with the mixture. Enjoy

Wrapping them to Priya's Pancake Event And to Jihva-Breakfast Event hosted by Suma of Veggie Platter, Event Started by Indira.

An Award

Thanks a ton to Jagruti of Joy of Cooking for passing this award.
I would love to share this award with Priya, Lataji, Srivalli, Kitchen Queen, RV, Suma, Raks, Vidhya Iyer

Thanks a Lot My Blogger Buddies!!!!!

Promotional Giveaway for my readers

The CSN promotion team at counter stools contacted me sometime back  about a promotional giveaway to my readers. After few email exchanges I decided to go about it. But then life intervened and two days back I

mailed them again to check if the offer is still open. They were kind to say yes and here I present two choice of gifts to my lovely readers. If you are interested in having a counter stool at your kitchen, do visit their exclusive site for counterstools.

Inspired by Srivalli, I followed a healthy diet plan for sometime. In between I had to break. Now I am back at it, though I  cheat at times. Its fine even I am able to follow atleast partially, since its better than no diet plan at all.  I find any other fellow bloggers inspired to follow the diet. If any of you want to follow a strict diet in terms of wieght and nutrition facts, then this is for you.

Nutritional Label Scale

Enough of dieting topic. How about  some home made waffles. Thanks to Bangalore Baker, I got to know about this from one of her posts.Various possiblities of waffles came to my mind. Hope this interests you as much as it did to me

Chef's Choice International WafflePro

To win one of these, all you have to do is leave a comment here. If you are non-blogger, leave your email id so that I can contact you if you happens to the lucky one. This promotion is open for 10 days ie till 5th of April. If you also tweet about it, you will have an additional chance of winning. The giveaway will be shipped to only US/Canada.

I chose to do this post today, since not everyday do I turn a year older. For a change, this year, I get an opportunity to give the gift. Thanks to my lovely readers who visit here often and to those who take time to leave their comment here.