Showing posts with label Kambu. Show all posts

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Rajasthani Bajra Khichdi | Kambu Khichadi | Khichdi Recipe

Rajasthani Bajra Khichdi, a healthy one pot meal made from the pearl millet and whole green moong dal. I had some pearl millet in my pantry untouched for long time which i was brought from India , usually i make kambu dosa with it. But the left over pearl quantity was not enough to make dosa, i was searching for some easy recipe with pearl millet, that's when this khichdi recipe caught my attention. It's such a healthy meal, instantly i made a note of recipe and tried it within the next few days. The khichdi turned out so creamy and delicious.
Bajra is very popular in North India especially Gujarat and Rajasthan, since it's known for generating heat in our body, this kind of khichdis are often prepared during winter season. Healthy meal also keep us warm, interesting right?? There are different variation in the making of this khichdi, even in some recipe they have used 1/2 of bajra and 1/2 of rice, but i have followed the recipe from Sanjeev kapoor where rice was not used. Also if you want to add any veggies, go head & add, make it as even more healthy & delicious !!!

Rajasthani Bajra Khichdi

Preparation Time : 4 hrs | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Millet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Bajra - 1/2 cup
Whole moong dal - 1/4 cup
Water - 2 cup
Cumin seed - 1 tsp
Green chili - 1
Ginger - 1 tsp(chopped)
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Ghee - 1 tsp + more for drizzling.

Procedure

Measure bajra and moong dal and add each into separate bowl. Wash it twice and soak it in the water for 4 hrs.

After 4 hrs, drain the water from the bajra and add into the mixie jar and pulse it twice or thrice and keep it aside until use.

Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker, add the cumin seed, let it crackle,then add the ginger and green chili saute it for 2 mins.

Then add the bajra and saute it in ghee for 2 mins and then add the soaked moong dal(discard the soaked water) and saute it for 2 more mins.

Add the water, turmeric powder and salt.

Finally add the asafoetida powder , mix it well and cover the pressure cooker with lid and put on whistle and cook it for 5 whistles.

Once the pressure released from the pressure cooker automatically, open the lid and mix it well with ladle. Drizzle some more ghee on the top and it's ready to serve.

Tasty & healthy Bajra Khichdi is ready.

Notes:

Soak bajra for minimum 4 hrs, it helps to cook the bajra easily.
No need to grind the bajra finely, just pulse it twice or thrice is enough.
Instead of whole green moong dal, you can use the yellow moong dal too.
Add more or less green chili as per the spice level you want.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#88

Monday, April 9, 2018

Kambu Koozh | Kambu Kanji | Pearl Millet Porridge

Kambu Koozh/Kanji, a healthy porridge made from the pearl millet. Kambu is one of the healthy millets and it has lot of micro nutrients in it, but it's been considered as poor man food in Tamilnadu. In our society, we had this illusion in our mind, if any food item is cheap or less in price than we thought that it doesn't have much nutrients in it. But in reality, it's totally opposite.

All the simple whole foods are always less in price and have more nutrients than the processed food and we should include them more than the processed food for a balanced diet.

Though i have been cooking millets regularly at home, i haven't shared many recipes here in the blog, so i have chosen "Whole Grain" as theme for the second week in this Mega BM to push myself to cook & click more millets recipe and share here. Yep, for the whole week, it's gonna be only millet recipe

Now comes to pearl millet, i have known from many article, that the pearl millet is extensively used in Gujarat & Rajasthan state during winter days because of this millet heat generating properties.

But it's total contradict to what we believe in Tamilnadu, that this kambu/pearl millet kanji is considered as good to consume during summer days because of its cooling properties. May be fermenting the cooked millet change the properties of millet from heat to cool?? i don't know. If you guys know, let me know.

As i already mentioned in my kambu kali post, both the kali and koozh/kanji prepared from the pearl millet are an acquired taste. If you're making this for first time, start with this koozh, adding buttermilk into this koozh actually reduce the strong flavor of kambu.

Once you have developed the taste for kambu, then include kali in your diet. Having this koozh with butter milk is really soothing and gives you instant cooling effect on hot summer days . The kambu koozh can be prepared immediately after the kambu kali is cooled, but it's advisable to soak it overnight for that cooling effect.

Kambu Koozh

Preparation Time : 8 hrs | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 4
Recipe Category: Millets | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Kambu/Pearl millet/Bajra - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt - to taste
Buttermilk - as needed

Procedure

Soak the kambu for atleast 4 hrs or overnight, drain the water from it and put it into the blender/mixie jar.

Pulse it few times, till they become coarse powder. Heat the water in the pressure cooker and bring into boil.

Add the grounded kambu and salt and mix it well. Put the lid & whistle on and cook it for 3 whistle in medium flame.

Once the pressure is released from the pressure cooker automatically, open the lid and mix it well with ladle, at this stage, it would be watery, but don't worry, let it covered and set aside to cool.

Once it cooled, again give a good mix, wet your hands and take a portion of cooked millet and roll into a smooth ball. Do the same for the remaining.

At this time, you can have them as kali with any kulambu as i did here and for the kanji, soak all the kambu kali in the water and let it set aside for overnight on counter top. No need to refrigerate.

On the next morning, take the needed kali in separate bowl along with enough soaked water and mix it well with your hands or whisk until it's smooth without any lumps.

Add the needed butter milk & salt, mix it well and it's ready to serve.

Serve with some raw pearl onions, green chili and pickle of your choice.

Related: How to make Kambu Dosai

Notes:

After a day, still you have any leftover kali. You can keep the remaining in the refrigerator along with the soaked water.
If you feel, that the soaked water has more tartness into it, it may happen if the room temperature is high. Take out the kali, discard the water and soak it in fresh water again and keep it in refrigerator.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Kambu Kali | Pearl Millet balls | Bajra Balls

Kambu Kali, a healthy savory balls made from the pearl millets. Pearl millets has lot of micronutrients and it's very good for your health. Since we didn't eat this millets while grew up, it's really hard to include pearl millet in our diet. More over pearl millet is an acquired taste, definitely you need patience to get used to the taste especially when you have it as it is like kambu kali or kambu soru. If you're new to this millets and want to include in our diet, i highly recommend to start off with kambu dosa or khichdi, later slowly you can include this kali, koozh/kanji when you develop a taste for Pearl millet.

Unlike other millets, kambu takes very long to get cook, so it's highly recommend to soak the millet for few hours before cooking. Here in the recipe, i have pulse the soaked millet in mixie for few mins but i have seen lot of recipes where the millet(kambu) is cooked without any grinding. So it's really up to you, it can be cooked with or without grinding the millet into coarse powder. Now let's check out the recipe !!!

Kambu Kali

Preparation Time : 4 hrs(soaking) | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2-3
Recipe Category: Millets | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Kambu/Pearl millet/Bajra - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Soak the kambu for atleast 4 hrs or overnight, drain the water from it and put it into the blender/mixie jar.

Pulse it few times, till they become coarse powder. Heat the water in the pressure cooker and bring into boil.

Add the coarse kambu & salt and mix it well. Put the lid & whistle on and cook it for 3 whistle in medium flame.

Once it cooled, it become a thick mass, again give a good mix, wet your hands and take a portion of cooked millet and roll into a smooth ball. Do the same for the remaining.

Healthy Kambu Kali is ready. Serve it with raw pearl onions & pickle or with your favorite curry. I have included few peanut chiki as dessert :-)

Notes:

Soaking the kambu really helps to cook it faster, so soak atleast for 4 hrs.
After cooling, if the kali doesn't turn out like a single mass, that may happen because of the quality of kambu, put it again on the heat and stir it with ladle for few mins.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Kambu Dosai | Bajra Dosa | Millet Dosa Recipe

Kambu/Bajra Dosa, a healthy crepes made from kambu/bajra(pearl millet),rice and urad dal. When we were in India, i used to make any one of millet dosas like kambu dosa, ragi dosa atleast once in two week.

Later when we moved to us, i totally forgot to make this dosas. Recently i have seen the different types of millets in local grocery sore here. So bought a couple of them to try a few recipes.

If you haven't tried any of these millet dosa before, i would recommend you to first try this simple ragi dosa made from ragi flour.

Now coming to today's recipe, kambu requires long soaking time, other than that you can this dosa batter very easily in mixie/blender and this batter stays well in refrigerator for 3-4 days.If you bored of regular dosa and looking for healthy alternative, then definitely give a try on this kambu dosa.

Kambu Dosai | Bajra Dosa

Preparation Time : 10 hrs(soaking & fermenting) | Cooking Time : 30 mins | Makes : 20
Recipe Category: Dosai | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Kambu/Bajra - 1 cup
Idly Rice - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for making dosa

Procedure

Measure & take kambu in a bowl, rinse twice and soak it for 4-5 hrs , later add idly rice, urad dal & fenugreek seed in a separate bowl,rinse twice and soak it for 2 hrs.

Drain the water from soaked rice & dal, add into the mixie/ blender jar along with fresh water and grind into smooth batter and pour into the large vessel.

Then add kambu into mixie/blender jar along with fresh water and grind into smooth batter and add into the rice batter.

Add enough salt and mix it with your hand until it all thoroughly mix together.

Cover it with lid and let it ferment for 4 to 5 hrs.To make dosa, take the fermented batter, add water,mix with ladle well and make it as pourable batter.

Heat a dosa tava, take a ladle full of batter & pour into tava and spread it evenly with ladle, add some oil over the dosa and cook on both sides until it becomes golden brown on both sides.

Voila, Healthy and tasty Kambu Dosai is ready.Serve it with sambar or/and chutney.

Related: How to make Instant Ragi Dosa

Notes:

Soaking kambu for longer time helps to grind into smooth batter,so minimum 4 hrs is required.
This dosa batter ferment quickly than the normal dosa batter.
This dosa turns into dark color quickly,so cook it on low flame to get even golden brown color.
Mixing the batter with hands helps to ferment the batter quickly.
I have used sesame oil for this dosa, it gives great flavor, but you can use any cooking oil

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Thursday, May 24, 2018