Thursday, March 10, 2016

Bok choy stir fry

Bok choy also known as Chinese cabbage belongs to the cabbage family. Unlike cabbage , the greener leaf tastes mildly like kale or drumstick leaf (my view) and the white stems taste like lettuce. This is one vegetable that is always sold in the nearby Asian store. So I buy this and simply make a stir fry by water-saute method. It can be enjoyed as a side dish or added to cooked noodles too.

The recipe is very straight forward and even a child can do this :) I hesitated to write it as a post, but still wanted to show how cooking can be done quicker and healthier too.




Ingredients:
Bok choy - 4
water / olive oil- 1 tbsp
salt and pepper - to taste
lime / lemon - 1/8 of  a fruit.

Method:
Rinse the bok choy thoroughly (no need to separate the stems).
Chop to 1 inch pieces.
Heat water or oil in a wok.
Add the bok choy and saute without closing the lid for 2 minutes.
Switch off.
Add lemon juice , salt, pepper.
Bok choy stir fry is ready !

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish.
Add to noodles or pasta, just like spinach.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Protein rich laddu

This is my own version of a homemade protein bar (say protein ball) / சத்து மாவு உருண்டை , which I prepare whenever we need to buy a snack bar. Hope my readers like it too.

Happy Valentines's day !
Snack balls.

keep it covered to prevent drying.

Ingredients:
Almond - 10
green gram - 1 cup
puffed channa dal - 1/4 cup
peanut  - 1/2 cup
brown sugar - 3/4 cup
ghee / coconut oil - 2 tsp
coconut - 1 tbsp
salt - 1/4 tsp
cardamom powder  - 1/4 tsp
dry ginger powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Dry roast the almond in a frying pan (or microwave 1 minute) and let it cool.
Dry roast the green gram in a frying pan in low heat till it smells good (takes nearly 5 minutes).
Then take it out and let cool.
In the same pan, dry roast the shredded coconut, peanut separately.
Let everything cool.
Grind together everything to a fine powder except sugar and butter.
In the same pan add the brown sugar, heat at low with 2 tbsp water and dissolve. Switch off.
Add the powder , cardamom powder, ginger powder and mix with a spatula. If needed add few drops of coconut oil and mix well. Let cool.
Make lime size balls. Apply little ghee or oil in palm to get a smooth ball.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack or dessert.
We can use honey instead of brown sugar too.
It can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 days and after that keep refrigerated up to a month or more.
Makes nearly 20 balls.

Chow chow Paruppu koottu and peel thogayal

Chow chow / Bangalore Kathirikai / Chayote  A dal curry paruppu koottu with chow chow and a spicy chutney using it's peel (chow chow tho...