Aloo Tikki for MBP-Less is More

When Nupur announced MBP-theme, the event started by Coffee, I had the post ready with me. It was intended for the previous MBP. But could not post it then. I tried Aloo Tikki from Sindhi Rasoi. You can visit Alka's website for some mouth-watering Sindhi recipes.

I followed her recipe except that I shallow fried the tikkis. It was no less tastier than the deep fried ones. Here is the recipe that I tried

1) 3 Potatoes

2) 2 Bread slices

3) 1 tspn red chilli powder (Original - Green chilly)

4)1/2 tspn Cumin powder ( Replaced cumin seeds)

5) few finely chopped coriander leaves

salt to taste

Oil for frying

According to the rules of MBP, oil and salt are not counted. Also I could have combined the last three as one , as part of seasoning. Anyways, it adds upto 5.

Method

Pressure cook potatoes. Peel them and mash lightly.Crumble the bread slices in a mixer grinder. Mix mashed potatoes, bread crumbs, cumin powder, salt, finely chopped coriander leaves together. Take lemon sized balls of the mixture and shape into tikki.

Heat a tawa. Spray some oil. Arrange the tikkis. Cook both sides till golden brown. Add few drops of oil when you turn the tikkis.

Serve with ketchup or any chutney of your choice.

Raagi Idiyappam & tomato masala curry

Idiyappam/Rice noodles is a favorite of both me and my hubby. As a child, I had always looked forward to the idiyappams prepared by my neighbor, V aunty. She used to send me few. At my home, it was always Sevai, which is also rice noodles but cooked in a different way. I shall shortly post Sevai too.

Post marriage, I found DH also very fond of this. So I learnt to make those. Got myself the idiyappam press and steaming plates & stand specifically for idiyappam. Here I am giving the recipe for Raagi Idiyappam, which is equally tasty like the rice variation.

Some nutrition facts on Raagi

Raagi contains about 6.7 % protein. Raagi protein is reported to be a good quality. Ragi is rich in methionine, which is an amino acid lacking in most of the other cereals. Raagi is also found to have liberal amount of calcium. Raagi has been traditionally used in infant feeding.

Sprouting of Food Grains increases their digestibility and nutritive value. The vitamins content in food grains, like riboflavin, nicotinic acid and pyridoxine and phosphorus increase appreciably during sprouting.

(Source: bawarchi)

Raagi flour - 2 cup

Rice flour - 1/4 cup

salt

hot water - 2 cups

I used store bought sprouted raagi flour. Steam cook the raagi flour by tying it in a cheese cloth for 10 minutes.

Mix rice flour and salt to the steamed raagi flour. Keep mixing the flour while adding the hot water. You may require little more than 2 cups of water. Adjust the water to get a soft dough.

Pinch a golf ball size dough and with the help of a idiyappam press, press on to idli/idiyappam moulds. Steam cook for 10 minutes.

Serve with chutney/kurma/stew. Any coconut based gravy will suit idiyappam.

I served with tomato masala. The recipe is adapted from Mallika badrinath's Tomato masala kootu. I tweaked it to suit the ingredients in my pantry.
Onions - 2 nos

tomatoes - 4 big

turmeric powder

salt to taste

Seasoning

oil - 2 tblspn

mustard seeds

urad dhal - 1 tsp

red chilli powder - 1 tsp

curry leaves - few

Grind together

grated fresh coconut -1/2 cup

poppy seeds- 1 1/2 tblspns soaked in hot water for 10 minutes

green chilly - 4

cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

mustard powder - 1/4 tspn
Chop onions finely and tomatoes into 1 inch cubes. Heat oil and add mustard urad dhal, curry leaves. When it splutters, add chopped onions and fry till crisp. Add chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and ground paste. Cook till you can smell the aroma of the cooked gravy. Finally add tomato pieces and enough water. Cook till gravy thickens.

I am sending the idiyappam to Mansi for her Healthy Cooking event.

As per the rules, these are the facts I think the 'healthy' tag suits my recipe.

1. I have replaced rice with raagi , where rice is being used commonly

2. Sprouted raagi flour is used.

3. The dish is steam cooked.

4. Oil free.

10 Grain Loaf

I bought few packages of Red Mill whole grain flour from the Market Place Supermarket weeks ago. There are rye flour, wholemeal flour and 10 grain flour. I've used rye flour for a rye bread in my previous attempt whereas wholemeal flour had been used for wholemeal bread or pancakes.

Yesterday, I tried to make another loaf with the 10 grain flour which contains wheat, rye, triticle, oats, corn, barley, soy, brown rice, millet and flax seed. There are finely grounded grains which is quite different from the wholemeal flour I've been used for some time ago. Perhaps the dough would be much smoother.

I purposely left the bread rise without a lid-on as my other half like the caramelized bread edges. Finally, it rise absolutely tall and end up we've got quite a big slice of bread. As for me, I love the outlook of homemade country loaf.

The bread texture was soft as I used a recipe which contains milk and egg. I could hardly tell what is the flavor as too many grains had combined together. Sometimes, it tasted like soy, sometimes like brown rice and sometimes barley. Well, whatever it is, it's a healthy bread.

Recipe:

250g bread flour
80g 10 grain flour
30g sugar
5g yeast
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
65g ice water
100g milk
30g butter

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Gradually add in all the wet ingredients and mix it by a flat beater at low speed until everything just combine.
2. Add butter continue to mix for 1 or 2 minutes. Change to a dough hook continue kneading for about 20 minutes at medium speed.
3. Off the machine and clear the sticky dough at side of the bowl. Continue kneading for few seconds.
4. Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface until the dough smooth but not sticky then shape it into a smooth round dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 20 minutes.
5. Knead the dough and punch out the gas.
6. Flatten a dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough like a Swiss-roll.
7. Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape then roll up the dough tightly.
8. Place the rolled dough in a greased bread tin.
9. Spray water around the tin. Place it in the oven with door close, proof for 60 minutes without lid on.
10. Proof until it rise over the top of tin then take out the tin from the oven and preheat the oven at 180'C.
11. Bake approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown (used an aluminium foil to cover the top after 25 minutes to prevent burning at the top).
12. Take out the bread to cool down before slicing into pieces. Store leftover bread in airtight container without slicing it into pieces to let it stay fresh for the next serving.