Kohlrabi Salad 2

Ingredients:

Kohlrabi - 2-3 tender bulbs

Peanut oil - 2-3 Tb

Mustard seeds, hing powder, turmeric
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Peanut powder - 3-4 tsp

Green chilis - 1 cut into 1/2" pieces

Sugar - 1 tsp
Fresh cilantro leaves - washed and chopped 3-4 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 Tb

Salt - to taste

Recipe:

Wash and peal kohlrabi.

Grate kohlrabi on larger holes on the grater and steam in microwave for 4-5 minutes.
Cool and add yogurt.
Add peanut powder + sugar + lemon Juice + salt to taste
Prepare oil seasoning and green chillies and add this to kohlrabi.

Notes:

1) Use the same recipe for cubed and steamed white gourd (also called as Dudhi or Lauki)

2) Wash and cut french beans at an angle into long thin slender strips - about one cup. Steam them in microwave for 4-5 minutes. Follow the recipe.
3) Add 1tsp urad dal to oil seasoning after mustard seeds pop. Let urad dal turn lightly brown. Add
7-8 curry leaves, chilis and hing powder and add this to kohlrabi or Dudhi or french beans
4) Add 4 Tb fresh grated coconut ( adds fiber and a bit different taste).

Kohlrabi Salad 1

Ingredients:

Kohlrabi - 2-3 tender bulbs/ roots

Peanut oil - 2-3 Tb

Mustard seeds, hing powder, turmeric

Peanut powder - 3-4 tsp

Green chilis - 1 cut into 1/2" pieces

Fresh cilantro leaves - washed and chopped 3-4 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp

Lemon juice - 1 Tb

Salt - to taste

Recipe:

Wash and peal kohlrabi.

Grate kohlrabi on larger holes on the grater

mix with peanut powder + sugar 1  + lemon Juice + salt to taste
Prepare oil seasoning and green chillies and add this to grated kohlrabi.

Notes:

1) Use the same recipe for grated cabbage, grated carrots, grated turnips
2) Use the same recipe for grated white radish (with tender green leaves). Use about 3/4 cup grated radish. Squeeze a little to remove some water. Chop green leaves fine and mix with the grated radish and follow rest of the recipe.

3) Use the same recipe for finely cut iceberg lettuce, romain lettuce. Also add 1 bunch of chopped scallions or 1 small finely cut onion to a cup of shredded lettuce.
4) Wash and cut french beans at an angle into long thin slender strips - about one cup. Steam them in microwave for 4-5 minutes. Follow the recipe.
5) Add 4 Tb fresh grated coconut ( adds fiber and a bit different taste)

Fresh black eyed peas

Ingredients:

Fresh black eyed peas - 1 cup (clean and wash well)
For oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric, hing powder
Chili powder - 1/4 tsp (or to your taste)
Black masala - 1 tsp
Gud or brown sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 tsps
Freshly grated coconut - 3-4 Tb (look in the frozen section of your grocery store).

Recipe:

Heat a pan and add 2 tsp peanut oil.
Prepare oil tempering and add fresh peas.
Add 1/2 cup water. water, cover the pan with the lid and cook for 5 minutes.
Add gud, black masala, chili powder and salt and stir well.
Check if the peas are cooked.
If they are not cooked, add little water and cover and cook some more.
When cooked, they should not be mushy and very little water should be left in the pan.
Sprinkle with cilantro and coconut.
Serve as a side dish with Indian bread, or rice.

Notes:

1) You can use any other fresh beans for this recipe.
2) Fresh beans do not need to be cooked in pressure cooker.
3) For the dried beans (soaked or roasted) use pressure cooker to cook them quickly.
4) Adding turmeric powder (1/4 tsp) to the beans in pressure cooker will help cooking faster. Turmeric powder makes things permissible to enter the vegetables, beans so spices, salt can get infused in them and not remain only on the surface. When you bite into them it is the same taste through and through.
3) You can find fresh coconut (unsweetened, unsalted) in the frozen section of your grocery store. You can take out a small portion and thaw it in microwave before using it. Coconut adds flavor, fibers and a little thickness to your vegetables, curries or beans.

Vegetable Masala Bhat (Spicy Rice with vegetable)

Ingredients:

Basamati rice - 1 cup (don't use old rice)
For oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric, hing powder
Green chili paste - 1 tsp (to your taste)
Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp (to your taste)
Curry leaves - 2 branches or about 20 leaves
Ginger - freshly grated - 1 Tb
Vegetable - 1 cup - cut into 1" pieces (potato, eggplant, green peas, cauliflower, cabbage, bell peppers)
Black masala - 2 tsp
Raw masala powder - 1 Tb (or to your taste)
Gud or brown sugar - 1 Tb
Salt to taste.
Cashews - handful and raw - roast them in Microwave or fry them in little oil
Chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 Tbs
Freshly grated coconut - 3-4 Tbs

Recipe:

Heat 2.5 cups water in a pan on another burner.
Wash basamati rice at least 3 times and keep aside.
Heat pan and add 4 tsp peanut oil.
Prepare oil tempering and add curry leaves and green chili paste.
Add cut vegetables and sauté. Cook them half way.
Add Raw Masala and cook for a minute.
Add washed rice (and green peas if using) and stir well and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
Add 2 cups boiling water. Keep 1/2 cup water warm on the side to use if needed.
Add black masala, chili powder, gud or brown sugar, ginger and salt to taste.
Let the rice cook until you see holes in them.
Check if the rice is al dente.
If not, add hot water and cook more until the rice is al dente.
Cover the rice with the lid and keep it on low flame to simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Sprinkle with cashews, cilantro and fresh coconut (a must).
Serve hot with ghee on top or yogurt on the side.

Variations:

1) Rice will taste different depending on the vegetable used.

2) If you use eggplant - cut eggplant into 1" cubes and soak them in salted water (1 tsp salt to 2-3 cups of water) for 10-15 minutes. Remove from water and use the eggplant. Discard blakish water that has removed bitterness of eggplant.

3) If you use cabbage - cut lengthwise into thin 2-3" pieces.

4)  You can use frozen green peas with other vegetables.

5) If you want to use frozen peas, add them with rice and saute them together and then add hot water to cook the rice.

6) As a variation - Before you cover the rice with the lid, add 1/4 cup of yogurt (full fat), stir and cover with the lid and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

7) As another variation - After the rice is all cooked, add 3-4 tsp ghee from the side of the pan and stir with a fork and serve.

8) You can add handful of raw peanuts with washed rice brfore adding water.

9) This rice recipe is specifically from my state Maharashtra.

Notes:

1) I use Tilda basamati rice from Indian store. It is not old and has no old smell. Many people like to
use old basamati rice as it absorbs more water and gets fluffier after cooking. If you cook the rice as I
have suggested, rice will be fluffy. As we are not using onions and garlic in the recipe, the smell from old rice won't be covered up)
2) You can serve the rice with ghee (add 1 tsp ghee on top of the individual servings).
3) You can serve the rice with yogurt on the side.
4)  Serve with mango pickle (buy it in Indian store and serve as a condiment - 1 tsp) and fried papad (buy them in Indian store - they have many variety of papads like moong, urad, potato, poha)
5) You can serve the rice with slices of red onion, tomatoes and cucumbers.

Mustard seeds

The earliest reference to mustard is in India from a story of Gautama Buddha in the fifth century BC. Gautama Buddha told the story of the grieving mother (Kisa Gotami) and the mustard seed. When a mother loses her only son, she takes his body to the Buddha to find a cure. The Buddha asks her to bring a handful of mustard seeds from a family that has never lost a child, husband, parent, or friend. When the mother is unable to find such a house in her village, she realizes death is common to all, and she cannot be selfish in her grief.

Mustard seed is a rich source of oil and protein. The seed has oil as high as 46-48%, and whole seed meal has 43.6% protein.

It has high amounts of calcium -52%, potassium - 15%, magnesium - 84%, phosphorus -120 %, 

Zinc - 60%, Iron - 77%, and Vit. B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, Vit. E, small amounts of Vit. C and Vit. K

I use mustard seeds in oil tempering. When mustard seeds are added to the oil, they start popping when the oil reaches right temperature so that curcumin becomes available when turmeric is added and oil gets blended well with whatever is added to it.

Medicinal Turmeric

The bioactive compounds found in turmeric are called as curcuminoids. Curcumin is one of the most important or the main active ingredient in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant.

However, the curcumin content of turmeric is not that high… it’s around 3%, by weight. Also curcumin is poorly absorbed into the blood stream. It helps to consume black pepper that contains piperine, a natural substance that enhances the absorption of curcumin by 2000%. Curcumin is soluble in fat.
So to extract the optimum benefits of turmeric

1) Activate turmeric with some cooking heat
2) Boost turmeric’s absorption by 2000% by adding some black pepper that has piperine in it.
3) Skyrocket bioavailability and healing potential by adding healthy fat like ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil.
4) So warm up some ghee on gentle heat and add turmeric and black pepper to it so that curcumine from turmeric will be available for it’s medicinal use.
5) Cut root – 1.5 to3 gms per day or powder – 1 to 3 gms per day

 I like to use peanut oil as it blends in very well with the Indian food and actually enhances flavors of the spices we use. It has 17% saturated fat, 46% unsatutaed fat and 32% polyunsaturated fat. It as smoking point of 437 degrees F. It has 33% lenoleic acids (omega 6), and 48% oleic acids (omega 9) and traces of alpha-lenoleic acids (omega 3).  I make flax seed chutney to get omega 3 

I add turmeric powder in oil tempering that is used in almost all the vegetables, many salads, snacks, and legumes/beans/dal preparations for the two meals we eat every day.

Even thogh each person eats only part of these dishes, by the end of the day one should get the required amount of turmeric without even knowing it. 

Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans)

Ingredients:

Chickpeas - 1cup
Yellow onion - 1 chopped fine
Tomato - 1 large chopped fine
Ginger - 1" piece grated fine
For oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric, hing powder
Raw masala - 1 Tb
Chili powder - 1/4 tsp (or to your taste)
brown sugar - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste.
Chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 Tbs

Recipe:

Soak chickpeas in the morning. Change water every hour.
In the evening cook chickpeas in the pressure cooker.
Heat pan and add 2 tsp peanut oil.
Prepare oil tempering.
Add chopped onions and cook until lightly brown.
Add tomatoes, stir well and cover with a lid for 3-4 minutes.
Add raw masala, chili powder and cover for a minute or two.
Add cooked chickpeas and mix well.
Add ginger, brown sugar, salt and stir well.
Add water if necessary and cook more.
It should not be mushy and very little water should be left in the pan.
Sprinkle with cilantro.
Serve as a side dish with Indian bread, or rice

Notes:

1) Changing water many times while soaking the beans reduces gas rom the beans.
2) Adding asafoetida works as antigas. 
3) Ginger helps for digestion as beans are higher in proteins.
4) Adding turmeric while cooking in pressure cooker helps all the spices and sourness of tomatoes, salt infuse the chickpeas.
5) This recipe can be used for all kinds of chickpeas (garbanzo, red gram, black gram, green grams).
6) The chickpea or chick pea ( Cicer arietinum) is a legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily
Faboideae. It is also known as gram, or Bengal gram, garbanzo bean and sometimes known as Egyptian pea, ceci, cece or chana or Kabuli Chana (particularly in northen India). It's seeds are high in protein. It is one of the earliest cultivated legumes: 7,500 year old remains have been found in the Middle East.

Spice Boxes

Spice Box 1

Start from chilies and go clockwise

1) chilies

2) Fenugreek

3) Turmeric

4) Black Masala (Goda Masala)

5) Chili Powder

6) Asafoetida Powder

7) Mustard Seeds (in the center)

Spice Box 2

Start with Cinnamon and go clockwise

1) Cinnamon

2) Shahajeera (Black Cumin)

3) Ilaichi

4) Cloves

5) Star Anise (Chakriphool)

6) Bay Leaves

7) Black Peppercorns (in the center)

Raw Masala

Ingredients: 

Coriander seeds - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1/4 cup
Shahajeera (black cumin seeds) - 2 tsp

Cloves - 10-15

Cinnamon - 2" pieces - 4-5

Peppercorn - 10-15

Recipe:

Dry roast all the spices one by one on a medium flame so that they become crisp.
Keep stirring so they don't splatter.
Transfer them to a plate and let cool a little.
Grind them in a mixer/blender and store the masala in a tight lid glass jar.

Notes:

1) Be careful while roasting cloves and peppercorns as they can splatter and jump from the pan and cause burns.

2) Store all your spices and masalas in tight lid glass jars in a freezer. This way they don't go rancid and last a very long time.

3) I have 2 masala containers in my kitchen close to my stove. I just take out a little bit of all these 

spices in these containers and save the rest in the freezer.

Basic Garam Masala

Ingredients: 

Coriander seeds - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Shahajeera (black cumin seeds) - 2 tsp

Cloves - 10-15

Cinnamon - 2" pieces - 6

Peppercorn - 10-15
Masala Ilaichi (badi Ilaichi) - 5-6
Black mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek - 1 tsp
Bay leaves - 6-7
Nagkeshar - 1 tsp (optional)
Dagadphool - 2-3 (optional)
Oil to fry

Recipe:

Add 1/2 tsp oil to a nonstick pan. Roast cloves, fenugreek and black peppercorns on a medium flame
so that they become crisp. Keep stirring so they don't splatter.
Transfer them to a plate.
Then roast remaining items one by one in the same pan (don't add more oil) so you can grind them in a mixer/blender and store the masala in a tight lid glass jar.

Notes:

1) Be careful while roasting cloves and peppercorns as they can splatter and jump from the pan and cause burns.
2) Store all your spices and masalas in tight lid glass jars in a freezer. This way they don't go rancid and last a very long time.
3) I have 2 masala containers in my kitchen close to my stove. I just take out a little bit of all these spices in these containers and save the rest in the freezer.

Moong Beans

Ingredients:

Moong beans - 1 cup
oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric (no hing)
Onion - 1 medium chopped fine
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 Tb
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Chili powder - to your taste
Kokum ( Garcinia Mangostana L) - 2 pieces (optional for sourness)
If you don't have kokum add 1/4 tsp tamarind paste or squeeze 1/2 lemon while serving (optional)
chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 tsps
freshly grated coconut - 3-4 Tb (optional)
Gud or brown sugar - 1 Tb
salt to taste.

Recipe:

Remove stones from the beans. Soak beans for at least 2-3 hours. Remove water and tie them in a thin cloth and keep them in a dark place to sprout. (I keep them in my oven).  Check the beans every day. If you don't have time to sprout them cook soaked beans in the pressure cooker.

If you don't have time for soaking the beans, add 1tsp peanut oil in a pan and roast them on the stove on low flame until lightly brown or you smell the aroma of beans. Then wash the beans, add water and cook them in pressure cooker.

Heat pan and add 2 tsp peanut oil.  Prepare oil tempering and add chopped onion and let it cook until
lightly brown. Add cooked moong beans.
Add ginger garlic paste.
Add brown sugar or gud, coriander and cumin powders.
Add chili powder to your taste.
Add kokum or tamarind paste and salt to taste.
Add 1/2 cup water if necessary and cook for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with cilantro and coconut.
Serve as a side dish with Indian bread, or rice

Notes:

1) I usually cook beans with garlic for evening meals.
2) You can use black eyed peas, lentils, green/white peas, green/red/black chana (garbanzo beans) instead of moong beans.
3) If you don't have time to soak beans like lentil, black eyed peas - dry roast them in a pan on top of stove before cooking.
4) You can sprout almost all the beans before cooking.
5) If I am going to serve them with Indian bread (chapati, roti, naan etc), I cook the beans until most of the water is evaporated. If I am going to serve it with rice I keep more water in them.
6) Add 1 Tb onion-garlic masala instead of ginger garlic paste.

Lentil beans

Ingredients:

Lentils beans - 1 cup
oil tempering - peanut oil, black mustard seeds, turmeric, hing powder (or 4 large cloves garlic cut into thin slices lengthwise)
black masala - 1 Tb
chili powder - to your taste
kokum ( Garcinia Mangostana L) - 2 pieces (optional for sourness)
If you don't have kokum add 1/4 tsp tamarind paste or squeeze 1/2 lemon while serving (optional)
chopped cilantro leaves - 2-3 tsps
freshly grated coconut - 3-4 Tb
gud or brown sugar - 1 Tb
salt to taste.

Recipe:

Remove stones from the beans. Soak beans for at least 2-3 hours. Cook the beans in pressure cooker.

If you don't have time for soaking the beans, dry roast them in a pan on the stove on low flame until
lightly brown or you smell the aroma of beans. Then wash the beans, add water and cook them in pressure cooker. 

Heat pan and add 2 tsp peanut oil.
Prepare oil tempering and add cooked beans.
Add brown sugar or gud, black masala.
Add chili powder to your taste.
Add kokum or tamarind paste and salt to taste.
Add 1/2 cup water if necessary and cook for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with cilantro and coconut.
Serve as a side dish with Indian bread, or rice.

Notes:

1) I usually cook beans with garlic for evening meals.
2) You can use moong beans, black eyed peas instead of lentils
3) If you want to use moong beans roast them in a little bit of peanut oil before cooking or soak them for 3-4 hours and then remove water and tie them in thin cloth and keep them in a dark place to sprout. Check every day. Once sprouted use them right away or refrigerate.
4) If I am going to serve them with Indian bread ( chapati, roti, naan etc), I cook the beans until most of the water is evaporated. If I am going to serve it with rice I keep more water in them.
5) Add 1/2 Tb cumin powder for a little different taste.

Asafoetida

Ingredients:

Compound Hing (asafoetida).
You can also buy hing powder already prepared to save time.

Recipe:

1) Heat a pan on medium heat. Add compound hing to the pan. Keep turning until you see white spots on the surface. Hing will also swell in size. Let it cool. Transfer it to a mortar and pound it with a pestle to make into powder.

2) Place the compound hing in a glass bowl. Heat it in the microwave oven for 30 seconds on 50% power. Repeat until the compound swells and almost doubles in size. Pound it to make smaller pieces and then into fine powder using spice blender ( I use coffee grinder).
Store in a glass jar with a tight lid.

Note:

Powder made from the compound hing is very pungent so you will need only (1/3) one third  the amount of the store bought powder.

Read this article for more information on this super spice.

Vaidyanathan Pushpagiri / 6 yrs ago / 

  22

 

                                                                                                                          http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2674/4082645318_980d458b0a_o.jpg                   (L)

Dr. K.T. Acharya in his book, “A historical dictionary of Indian food” and “Indian food – a historical companion” refers to a food item which has been imported into India from ancient times.  It was known as a food item, in the Vedic times and the epic Mahabharatha describes meat cooked at a party, with black pepper, rock salt, pomegranates, lemon and this import, Hing.

This spice, is a resinous gum, which has a strong flavour. It is exuded from the roots of three kinds of plants belonging to the family of Ferula - a close relative of the carrot and fennel plant.  It boasts two varieties - the water soluble and the oil soluble.  

Another worthy, Dr. Chip Rossetti, calls this resin as "smelliest spice of the world".  When the farmers remove the soil from around the plant and make an incision in the top thick carrot like root, for about three months, it exudes the resin which coagulates on exposure to atmospheric air and gradually turns brown.  

Asafoetida, the European (coined by the Italians) name for this resin is a combination of  - "Asa”  from Persian meaning “resin”, and "foetida” meaning “stinking” in Latin.  It is a stinking resin because its major component is 2-butyl 1-propenyl disulphide, which can  easily  be replicated in the school / college laboratories by using the Kipp's Apparatus.    It has a more colourful name, which mercifully is not in use any more.  Devil’s Dung - both for its shape and smell !!

In India, we call asafoetida, as Hing [In Farsi it is called Angozad. The “Ang” from Farsi became Hing in Hindi] or Perungaayam(Tamil) or Kaayam (in Malayalam) meaning the big lump and is not a native of India.  It is imported as Ferula Asafoetida, from Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and central Asia. 

It is used in our daily cooking, as well as in medicines.  As a medicine its most common use is in treating indigestion and flatulence.  It relieves locked gas from the intestines and allows it to gush southwards as Kizh Vayu.  One reason, the Indian housewife includes this spice to almost all her cooking, as well as add it in making her masalas. 

The family of lentils, has a tendency to produce gas, in humans who eat them, and hence our forefathers have found a way to naturaly neutralise this upavadham in our stomachs.  To a great extent, garlic is also used for the same purpose, other than adding their fragrance to cooking. But most people do not know, that one should never add Garlic and Hing together in cooking.  Because one neutralises the effect of the other, and the very purpose of adding these spices to our cooking is lost irretrievably or forever.   

Ayurveda Materia Medica says it is good for goiter (iodine metabolism), bronchitis (anti-infective), baldness (hair follicle stimulant)  and even to bring on the recalcitrant monthly menstruation in females, sort of a female hormone moderator?

Very recently, a farmer in Kodumudi  Tamilnadu Mr. Chellamuthu, had used this Perungaayam  in it raw form as an insecticide by putting a bag of  asafoetida in his irrigation channel in the field, killing caterpillars, thus helping  many vegetables to grow better and infection free.  Plants flower better and turmeric flourish because the planted area is free of insects.  

According to the biochemists  “this resin, has a component, that inhibit the growth of insects in the field.  This component Ferulic Acid acts as an antifungal, but is also known to disturb plant nutrient balance, and inhibit the effect of plant hormones. There must then be a balance of these effects that benefit the plant". 

In our daily cooking we do not use this resin in its virgin state.  We adulterate it with atta and an edible gum used as a bonding agent, like gum Arabic in the ratio of 60:30:10.

A hundred grms. of the famous LG.Compounded Asafoetida contains 10 grms of this resin, 30 grms of  gum Arabic and 60 grms. of wheat powder. Hence it is a compounded item? 

We use minute lumps of Hing embedded in a small piece of ripe banana and swallow, as an immediate antidote for neutralising the poison of spiders and other home insects whose bite / sting give pain and an eruption.  

[Contains Hing (Asafoetida), Kali Mirch (Black Pepper) - gastro-intestinal stimulant, Zeera (Cumin) - antispasmodic Saunth (Ginger extract) - digestive and tonic, Nimbu Saar (Lemon extract) - digestive stimulant]  Rs. 15/- per bottle of 100 tabs.

"The natural way to relief from gas. Containing herbs and spices like hing, trusted and used for generations to stimulate digestion."

Ayurveda uses it as a Gas expeller, especially the OTC Medicine Dabur Hingoli, that saves  one from many an embarrassing situations.  Taken regularly, twice a day, it expels the accumulated obnoxious gas, while one is cleaning the teeth in the morning.  

A lot of churnas, and powders are available, with Hing as the major ingredient for almost all ailments concerning the stomach.Notes:

1)