Ragi Putma

The name sounds weird  huh?! But ‘Ragi Putma’ seems to me a more appropriate name because ragi puttu is made and then converted into upma in this recipe making it Puttu+Upuma=Putma. I’ve heard of and had ragi upma in the past, all of which included lots and lots of oil and were tough in texture (I don’t mind the chewiness part though). I loved the taste of it but for the oil because it almost gets cooked in oil; so I always kept exploring on options for a less-oil ragi upma. Yesterday, I happened to search for steamed upma and to my surprise hit many blogs that used steaming approach for ragi upma (which is why I’m not able to quote one). This is definitely worth a try for everyone who like and don’t like ragi. It came out very soft and delicious.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time:  10 min

Cooking Time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1.       Ragi flour – 2 cups

2.       Coconut – 2  tbsp

3.       Salt to taste

4.       Oil – ½ tbsp

5.       Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

6.       Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

7.       Bengal gram – ½ tbsp.

8.       Dry chilies – 2

9.       Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.   Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

11.   Onion – 1

12.   Garlic – 4 cloves

Method:

Step 1: Mix warm salted water to ragi flour and rub it to get moist puttu mix and cook puttu by filling it between coconut gratings. (Elaborate explanation on puttu making can be seen from the post ‘Puttu With Kadalai Curry’)

Step 2: When the steamed puttu has cooled down, crush it to get a course powder.

Step 3: Heat oil in a kadai: splutter mustard, fry Bengal gram & urad dal, sprinkle asafoetida, thrown in torn curry leaves & dry chilies and sauté the finely chopped onion & garlic in it till soft and slightly brown.

Step 4: Sprinkle some salt and add the crushed puttu and toss well. Turn off heat.

Step 5: Serve hot and eat it plain or with curds if you like.

TIPS:

* I prepared two batches: Served the first batch with ghee, sugar & banana and prepared upma with the other batch; that creates a balance in the palate.

*Leftover puttu can be made into upma.

*If serving for old people and kids, you can avoid frying dals in tadka leaving it a very soft diet.

Senai Kizhangu Masiyal

Elephant yam that is called senai kizhangu or karunai kizhangu in Tamil is usually preferred as fry. Elephant yam is low in glycaemic index and rich in omega 3 fatty acids while it renders a very cooling effect to the body. I had cooked ‘masiyal’ which is like a chutney variety; I slightly modified this recipe which is an inspiration from kamalascorner.com on the flow just for convenience.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:

1.     Elephant yam – 1 cup chopped

2.     Shallots or Madras onion – 5

3.     Tamarind – 5” long strip or 2 tbsp pulp

4.     Salt to taste

5.     Oil – ½ tbsp.

6.     Sambar powder – ½ tbsp.

7.     Mustard seeds – ½ tsp.

8.     Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

9.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.  Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method:

Step 1: Wash, peel and chop yam roughly; steam cook it with salt.

Step 2: Sauté shallots in few drops of oil.

Step 3: Grind boiled yam, shallots, soaked tamarind or its pulp with enough salt into a thin paste.

 Step 4: Heat a pan and prepare tempering by: spluttering mustard seeds, frying urad dal, sprinkling asafoetida and adding curry leaves.

Step 5: To it add the ground paste and sambar powder and stir well.

 Step 6: Once you see bubbles in it and the raw smell goes, switch off the stove and transfer to serving bowl.

Step 7: Serve with hot steamed rice drizzled with ghee.

 TIPS:

*My mom adds red chili to tadka and avoids sambar powder so that no double cooking is required.

*You can sauté the chopped onion in tempering and just mash the cooked yam with the help of masher so that no mixer is required to grind.

Aapam & Thengaipaal

Aapam with coconut milk is a classic combination relished very dearly in Tamilnadu. This is generally had as a holiday breakfast as it is considered sedating and the recipes slightly vary from household to household due to choice of taste and texture. I have inherited the recipe for aapam from my mom and adapted part of the coconut milk recipe from my mom-in-law. Coconut milk is known for healing ulcers though high in saturated fat while poppy seeds have nerve soothing effect and are slightly tranquilizing.

Serves: 4

Preparation Time: 60 min (Soaking & Fermenting time excluded)

Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:

For Aapam:

1.       Raw rice – 1 cup

2.      Idly rice – 2 cups

3.      Fenugreek – 2 tbsp

4.      Salt to taste

5.       Oil as required

For Coconut milk:

1.       Coconut – 1small

2.      Milk – ½ cup

3.      Water – ½ cup

4.      Cardamom – 3

5.       Poppy seeds – ½ tbsp.

6.      Cashew nuts – 4

7.       Sugar – 5 tbsp

Method:

Aapam:

Step 1: Wash and soak both the rice together and fenugreek separately for 2 hours.

Step 2: Grind the fenugreek for 2 minutes first and then add to it the rice and grind until a very fine texture is obtained.

Step 3: Now add slightly less salt than for dosa batter and mix it to thinner than dosa batter consistency.

Step 4: Let it ferment overnight or until it is fluffy and you smell it fermented. Then refrigerate it until use and between uses.

Step 5: For preparing aapams, heat the aapam tawa and slightly grease with oil if required; pour a ladle full of batter in the centre and rotate the tawa by holding in both the hands to flow in circle and form a nice aapam.

Step 6: Cover with lid for 2 min and take out when the centre is cooked and borders look brown. It forms a shallow bowl shape and is soft & porous in the centre and crispy on the edges.

Step 7: Serve hot with coconut milk.

Coconut milk:

Step 1: Soak poppy seeds and cashew nuts in water for an hour.

Step 2: Break and grate or chop the fresh coconut.

Step 3: Grind well the coconut, poppy seeds, cashew nuts, cardamom and sugar in the mixer jar along with the milk.

Step 4: Strain it using a mesh and collect the coconut milk in a bowl. Grind the residue once again with plain water and strain it into the previously obtained coconut milk.

Step 5: Repeat if you think the residue had some juice left in it, else discard it.

Step 6: Stir the coconut milk; adjust sugar and consistency. Refrigerate it immediately, and use within a day or two.

TIPS:

*Prepare Coconut milk an hour in advance and refrigerate it for better taste and convenience.

*Aapam requires minimum or no oil when prepared in non-stick aapam pan.

*Generally grinding in wet grinder renders better batter than mixer ground batter.

*Usually coconut milk is prepared by simply grinding the grated coconut with some water, squeezing and filtering out the milk and adding cardamom powder and sugar to it. If using ready coconut milk, thin it with water or milk, mix cardamom and sugar.