Instant Oats Delight

As per my standard stretchable time, I am finally here with my recipe of “Oats delight”.

I keep promising myself to improve my deliverables for timely blog update but like any other pro performer; I keep breaking my old records. I can only hope to set a new standard by maintaining timeliness sometime in near future.

As they say- Never let it go till you want to change paths….

Well, I already shared my love for oatmeal in my previous blog post and also the obvious reasons for the same.

All around the world, Oats are overlooked as the breakfast food but there are plenty of ways to include this yummy grain throughout the day. Dishes prepared with oats are not only delicious but also helps to reduce your hunger and thereby helps in the weight loss by sticking to your diet plan. This takes place because oats are good source of fiber and form gels to fill you up. The emptying of stomach is delayed by these gels so you don’t feel starving hastily. As well, oats help to reduce bloating and cholesterol at some extent. They are also rich in thiamine and iron.

Since I am working and constantly juggling between my professional and personal life balance, I do not find quality time to sit and bake a whole lot of breads/cookies using oats. I had to find my own ways to incorporate oats other than the usual cereal/baked methods. One of the easiest and tasty ways of using these nutrition powerhouses is to try my enchanting “Instant Oats Delight”

Ingredients:-

Instant Oats-1 cup (Saffola oats i am using)
Wheat Rava-1/2 cup (if u want u can use white rava)
Curd-1 cup
Water-3/4 or as required
Carrot -1 (grated)
Mustard Seeds-2 tsp

Green Chillies-2 tsp (finely chopped)
Hing-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves-few

1/2 tsp chana daal
1/2 tsp urad daal
Eno fruit salt-pinch

Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil-to grease idli plates and for seasoning


Method:-

Dry roast oats for 3 minutes and set aside. Cool it completely then grind it to a fine powder.

Dry roasted rava and oats powder

Dry roast rava till nice aroma rises.It may take 3 to 4 minutes, and then set aside. Transfer to mixing bowl

 Add a tsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds,let it splutter then add curry leaves,hing and grated carrot, green chillies,urad daal, chana daal and coriander leaves. Sauté till raw smell of carrot leaves.

In the mixing bowl add oats, rava, add curd, salt, baking soda, eno fruit salt and sautéed tempered carrot mixture. Add required water to make a batter consistency of our normal idly batter.

Batter

Grease the idli plates with little oil. Gently put the batter on idli plates with ladle.Steam it for15 minutes or until done.

You can serve it directly with your preferred dip but I like to present it slightly tossed with little amount of oil in the frying pan with the usual stuff used for tempering to give it a crisper bite.

Yummy Oats Delight

Happy Tasting and savor the food for life!

My new found love-Oatmeal and my effort to stay healthy!

Until recently I thought staying healthy is something which is god gifted and you can only maintain your weight provided you have a fast metabolic system. While it's true that metabolism is linked to weight, it may not be in the way you expect. In fact, contrary to common belief, a slow metabolism is rarely the cause of excess weight gain. Although your metabolism influences your body's basic energy needs, it's your food and beverage intake and your physical activity that ultimately determine how much you weigh. I always knew that I have a strong willpower and if I decide to do something, I attain it without faltering a bit. So, one fine day I decided to let go off my weight and try leading a healthy life for the sake of many beautiful things around me. I come from a family where everyone loves to eat and invite others for a tasty meal. Both my parents were diabetic so it was always prevalent in my mind somewhere that I should be careful about myself.

Not that I was very bulky but I just wanted to shed some unnecessary load. I started my Journey in March 2011 by finding an appropriate nutritionist for myself who can guide me about the appropriate ways of eating healthy food and the best food that suite my body type. I was very lucky to find one nutritionist who acted as a superb help in introducing me to a world full of healthy and tasty food. I always thought that healthy food doesn’t really taste good but she totally broke my existing myth and changed my perception about the eating and staying healthy. Today I can happily say that I lost 10-12 kgs in three months by changing my food habit and I am proud to continue the same status by following some basic rules.

What I learnt from the whole experience is that, in today's hectic world, cooking has become a luxury, while eating out is seen as a necessity. This is unfortunate, however, for, there are many benefits for people who cook their own food at home.

One benefit is that cooking at home allows people to de-stress. During the weekdays, people have to rush from home to work and then to run other errands. By taking the time to cook food, people can slow down their schedule and go through the step-by-step process of creating food from scratch.

Another benefit of cooking is that people have more control over what they eat. They can choose what ingredients to use, how to cook the food, and how much to cook. This allows people, for one thing, to save money by only cooking the food they need instead of eating out and being forced to pay for food they may not eat. Also, by having control over the food they consume people can also eat healthier. They can use the best and the freshest ingredients and ensure that their food is properly cleaned and prepared. In restaurants, on the other hand, people can never be completely be sure that fresh ingredients are used or that healthy ingredients are used.

Like any drug, if you abuse it you suffer the consequences, but when used properly, food can...

• Give you the energy you need to get through your days and still have energy to spare.
• Help to eliminate or at least greatly reduce mood swings. This was a big one for me. I saw my moods level right out.
• Significantly reduce hunger pains and cravings. Great news when you want to lose weight.
• Reduce the risk of serious and not-so-serious disease. More and more illnesses are being linked to the food you eat on a regular basis. Proper nutritional habits are your best insurance policy.
• Reverse existing health challenges. Diabetes and high blood pressure are two of the most common health challenges. By properly using food, you can greatly improve - if not eliminate - these two conditions.
• Sharper mental focus. Rather than walking around in a fog, imagine being alert and focused as you go through your day.
• Reduce overall body fat.

My Golden Food Rule:

1. Eat a moderate amount of high-fiber carbohydrate at each meal. Eat lots of fibrous veggies, a small amount of high-fiber fruit (apples, oranges, berries) and if you eat processed carbs, make them high-fiber as well. Oh, and eliminate any beverages containing sugar. Personally, I rarely get more than 40 percent of my calories from carbs. Often it's around the 30 percent mark.
2. Eat protein with every meal and most snacks. Again, for me personally, I get about 30-40 percent of my calories from protein - usually paneer, beans, whole grains, nuts and yoghurt.
3. Eat fat. Forget everything you've ever heard about low-fat eating being the healthy way to go. Your meals and snacks should include a healthy dose of fat. Ideally, it should be mono or polyunsaturated fat, but some animal fats certainly won't hurt. My fat intake stays pretty steady at about 30 percent from day to day.
4. Eat 5-6 meals, evenly spread throughout the day. You've heard it before, you'll hear it again. You may as well accept it. Eating two or three meals won't cut it. Eating small meals throughout the day prevents overloading your body with more carbohydrate than it can handle, which in turn controls blood sugar levels
5. By far one ingredient which I think is high in nutritional content and works like a magic is oatmeal. It is absolutely magical and you can substitute it for everything in the world. Use it as a binding agent or a topping ingredient and it works perfectly. You can invent your own little recipes with it.

Now days, I am on a spree inventing new recipes with oatmeal, starting from the appetizers to the main course. Can you imagine you can make amazing drinks out of oatmeal? Yes, it does sound weird but it’s true. Initially, I thought oatmeal is good for making porridge and a healthy substitute for ailing patients :)

Health and Nutrition Benefits of Eating Oats

·         Oats comprise of one of the best sources of Inositol, which is very important for maintaining blood cholesterol level. In other words, eating oats regularly can help keep your cholesterol in check.

·    They contain very high levels of calcium, potassium and magnesium, coupled with Vitamin B-complex. All these vitamins and minerals are very essential for the nervous system.

·  Cooked oats can help relieve fat from the body, while unrefined oatmeal can reduce stress.

· Because of the high fiber content present in oats, they are said to be helpful in preventing bowel cancer.

·  Since oats have lots of fiber, having them regularly can help cure constipation.

·    If consumed on a frequent basis, they can help lower the chances of having heart disease.

·  Apart from being a good source of protein, oats also provide vitamin E, zinc, copper and iron to the body.

·  They have also been proven to act as an effective anti-depressant. In other words, having oats can calm you down and help treat depression as well.

·   Oats, with more soluble fiber than any other grain, can slow down the digestion process and provide an extended sensation of fullness. This makes them good for people who want to lose weight.

·  If you eat regularly, the rise in blood sugar level gets spread over a longer period of time. This helps prevent many of the complications associated with diabetes.

·   Oats contain phytochemicals (plant chemicals), which are believed to protect the body from chronic diseases, such as cancer.

So the question is: If I know how magical oatmeal is? Then I should share the wonderful recipes made out of oatmeal with all my friends. My first creation can be attributed to the family of appetizers and I have already gone through the christening ceremony for this particular recipe and you can call it “Oats Delight”- Some can prefer to call it Oats Kebab(like my adored husband) My mum in law thinks that it somehow taste like rava idli. I was very happy when it came out very well – soft, tasty and filling and less time consuming.

Watch out for this space for the recipe of Oats Delight and many more oats dishes to follow.

Till we meet again don’t forget to savor the food for life!

Food for Life !: Guilt Free Kebab (Myversion of Dahi ke Kebab)W...

Food for Life !:

Guilt Free Kebab (Myversion of Dahi ke Kebab)

W...: Guilt Free Kebab (My version of Dahi ke Kebab) When I first heard about Kebabs made from curd, I was a bit hesitant to try consi...

Guilt Free Kebab (My version of Dahi ke Kebab)

When I first heard about Kebabs made from curd, I was a bit hesitant to try considering my limited noble experiences with vegetarian kebabs. The only motivating factor was my love for curd- I simply love curd and any food item that has curd in it, grabs my attention. From the childhood we have been told about the positive effects of including curd as an important part of our daily meal.

I have decided to name it guilt free kebab especially to highlight the positive effects of using yogurt as the main ingredient for the kebabs.

You will find this recipe as an integral part of the menu for almost all Indian restaurants. However the taste differs and the cooking style too. I have developed my own healthy version for these delectable tangy kebabs to make it light and perfectly balanced with the addition of simple aromatic spices.

Usually the common condiments used for this recipe is onion and cashew nut but I chose to try a variation without the use of onion and cashew nuts. I use the shallow fry method as opposed to the usual deep fry method.These tangy kebabs that are a Mughlai specialty taste as unusual as they sound. Paneer is used to balance the tanginess of the curds and besan is used to help bind the ingredients. Traditionally ghee is used for frying kebabs however oil has been used in this recipe. You can mix a few spoons of ghee with the oil to provide a lovely flavor. To add extra zing to the recipe, I prefer to use roasted almond chopped.

Here are the ingredients for the recipe:

1)500 gms of hung curd- You need to hang 1 kg of yoghurt in a muslin cloth for almost 4-5 hours to get a thick sticky resulting mixture. I usually hang the curd overnight to completely get rid of water in the curd.

Hung Curd

2)300 gms grated paneer

3)8-9 raisins

4)1 tsp of grated ginger

5) 3-4 tsp Besan(Gram flour)- you have to adjust the use of besan as per the consistency of the paste/batter. You have to add more besan if you find your batter too thin.

5)1 tsp of ajwain seeds

6)1 tsp of haldi

7)1/2 tsp homemade special aromatic garam masala powder

8) 1 tsp grounded coriander powder

9) 1-2 tsp green chilies as per taste

10) ½ tsp turmeric powder

11) Finely chopped coriander leaves

Mix all the ingredients together to get a thick batter. You need to make small disked shape kebabs from the batter. Use wet hands to shape the kebab ( you might find the better a little sticky). 

Batter for the Kebab

The final step is to shallow fry them on open frying pan. You have to be careful of the flame. Ideally you have to fry them in medium flame and keep a watch to ensure that the kebabs are not burnt and it retains the original brown kebabish color. You can serve these with any green chutney (preferably mint and coriander)

Shaped Kebabs ready to be fried

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Final look

Fara…UP Style Desi Momos-(Steamed Lentil Stuffed Dumpling)

I have been promising lot of my friends to share this interesting traditional desi recipe from Uttar Pradesh….Traditionally it belongs to the spiritual and cultural capital of UP-“Varanasi”

Cooking a traditional recipe is always a fascinating experience for me and my way of adding magic to it is to have my own little innovation or rather adding my style of cooking to make it more palatable and enjoyable to suit the contemporary liking.

I have to admit that I owe this one to my mother in law. Although she never cooked it herself before I started pestering her to find out the recipe from her sister in law. I often heard her talking about it and somewhere I was sure that this recipe will be good to taste as well as a very healthy food   compared to other traditional dishes. I almost forced her to take the recipe on phone and had the courage to make an attempt to cook it on my own without actually tasting it before ….However, I do admit that my way of cooking might not be the authentic way but it is surely very healthy way of cooking.

It is no doubt very labor intensive and a time consuming recipe but I totally enjoy doing this and I love when I see happy faces around me ......... as I always believe that food always succeeds in spreading happiness.

I have been promising to share the recipe of “fara” to a lot of my friend’s for a while now but finally got time now to pen it down… Cooking time including the preparations done for the recipe was about 6 hrs. ...........to soak n grind and then actually cook the fara.....it took about 2 hrs on the kitchen counter............and it was all worth doing it.

The first step to cook “fara” is to soak chana daal and urad daal for 4-5 hours and to ground it in the grinder with appropriate spices.....

Now see the ingredients for the filling...

For the Filling

1)   Equal quantity of chana and dhuli urad daal soaked for 4-5 hours.

2)   Green chillies 5 nos

3)   Garlic cloves 5-6 nos

4)   Ginger 2 inch piece

5)   Cumin seeds 2 tsp

6)   Black pepper corns 2 tsp

7)   salt to taste

Grind all the ingredients mentioned above together with no minimal water. The paste should be grainy in consistency and not a ketchup one which will  be difficult to use as a filling.

 Once the paste is prepared mix Asafoetida ,Aromatic garam masala and pinch of turmeric powder to it.

8)    Asafoetida 1 pinch

9)   Aromatic garam masala 1 tsp

    10) Pinch of Turmeric powder



Coarsely grounded filling for the dumpling



Ingredients for the outer shell..

1)Rice flour 2 cups and some more
2)Whole wheat flour 2 cups or as needed
3)salt to taste

To make the whole wheat dough you just mix whole wheat flour n rice flour in equal amounts , add salt to taste and make a medium soft dough by adding appropriate amount of water. Adding the rice flour to the wheat dough makes the fara have a nice bite , and it is more moist even when cold.

Now is the time to shape the faras, pull out small portions of the dough, roll small disks about 1 cm thick and place the dal mixture over it, fold and make a semi circle and seal the sides by pressing the corners with a fork to ensure that the filling doesn’t come out while steaming them.

Giving shape to the aromatic fara's

All the dumplings will submerge on top at once, but they will start coming up as soon as they start cooking .........let it cook for another 3-7 minutes after they float ........3 minutes for the smaller ones and 7 minutes for the bigger ones ...

Getting steamed

Take out one of them and prick with a pointed knife , if it comes out clean it's cooked .

Use a slipped spoon to fish them all out , you may need to boil them in two batches but this is the easiest step and you'd feel like popping one of them in your mouth as soon you fish them out.......

It will give you an enchanting experience of a wonderful bite full of aromatic spices inside .. The covering is a perfect wrap for a soft crumbly spicy filling ...........a bite into the doughy shell leads to aromatic spicy interiors.........a perfect alternative to regular daal -roti and it’s definitely a much healthier and exotic food option.

Another option is to slice them into half after steaming and pan frying them with mild spices to make them a perfect choice for an evening snack.

Ingredients for the Fried Fara’s

1) Black Mustard seeds

2) Pinch of Asafoetida

3) 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder

4) Salt to taste

5)2-3 Whole Dry Red Chilli

6) Pinch of turmeric powder

7) ½ tsp Roasted Cumin Powder

8) One Tsp Refine oil

9) 1 tsp amchoor powder

10) 4-5 Curry leaves

Take a pan and put 1 tsp refine oil and wait till it gets hot. Slip in the black mustard seed, curry leaves and Asafoetida powder. When the seed starts crackling lower the heat of the flame and add whole red chilly and the remaining dry masala into the oil. Stir all the ingredients nicely and ensure that it doesn’t get burn. Once the raw  aroma of the dry spices are gone, you can slip in the cut pieces of the steamed fara’s and fry tem or rather toss them well so that it gets quoted nicely with all the spices. You don’t need to cook/fry them for long as they are already steamed before. Just make sure that you are giving them nice light crispy brown color by tossing them gently over low flame.

Now to finally add some beauty and a ting of magic- green chutney or even a sonth chutney is a great accompaniment, but I prefer making the chutney with green garlic and tomatoes.

Ingredients for the Spicy Green Garlic Tomato Chutney

1)   2-3 sprigs of green garlic with the stem and leaves

2)   2 green chilies

3)   One big ripe Tomato

4)   Salt to taste

5)   Few sprigs of green coriander leaves

6)   1 tsp of whole cumin seeds

Place all the ingredients together in a mixing grinder to make a smooth paste.



Yummy Chutney



Some people have come back to me with little amusement because of its name. My take on it is-What's in a name when the end product is so yummy ............ You can make it for a week and store it in the fridge to savor it through the week........... Warm it with a sprinkling of water in microwave and enjoy it steamed for dinner with a soup.............. Or fry them for a snack.........

Now it’s time for you to try it out at home and rest assured you will simply love the experience and most importantly the taste…I am welcoming all your suggestion or feedback that you might have for the recipe. Hopefully my next blog will not take so much of time and I am able to get you some really tasty and simple food. A treat for your eyes…

Fried and Steamed Fara's with Geen Garlic Chutney

 While you are shaping the faras, boil water (with a little salt and a tbsp of oil) in a big wide pateela, when the water starts boiling, slip the faras into it taking care not to scald yourself.