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For the past couple of months I have been substituting brown rice for white rice to prepare Brown Rice Pongal and Brown Rice Bisi Bela Bath. Another dish is adai and I feel that adais with brown rice tastes better than ones with white rice. I have also been using a mixture of beans (like pinto, soy, black beans, kidney beans) instead of the regular daals for preparing adais. So this time I thought why not combine brown rice and these beans to prepare adais. In the US you can find this ready made mix of legumes in the canned beans section. It’s called the 16 beans mix, which is used to make beans soup . You can simply use any combination of beans you have at home. I also had some barley, so added that too. The adais tasted very good.

Something very funny happened at home the day I prepared these. While watching TV if some ad shows up for some meat/seafood stuff, my son asks me whether we can eat it and I tell him we cannot eat it because it is “non-vegetarian”. This has been happening for about a month now and he knows that we can’t eat anything “non-vegetarian”. The day when I prepared these adais, I gave him. As usual he did not like it and I was coaxing him to eat few bites. He gave me an answer which I didn’t least expect. He told me that “it’s non-vegetarian and we should not eat it”. That was unbelievable! I was wondering whether we were as smart as these children when we were younger. At least I was not!

Ingredients

Brown Rice 1 cup

Barley (I used Pearled Barley) 1/4 cup

16 beans mix 1 cup

Red and green chillies 2 and 1 or as per taste

Ginger, grated 1-2 tablespoons

Salt as per taste

Grated coconut or finely diced onions optional

This is my entry for:
My Legume Affair hosted by Srivalli. The even originally created by Susan.

We have started using brown rice quite often these days. The first dish I ever tried with brown rice was pongal and I have to agree that I did not get it right. Only after 2 failed attempts I figured out the ratio of water and brown rice. Cooking brown rice in a pressure cooker is a breeze. The brown rice, water ratio is 2 and 1/2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice, if you are preparing dishes like pongal, bisi bele bath etc. For these dishes the rice has to be cooked well, so leave the cooker on for 5-6 whistles. If you are going to make fried rice or any other dish which doesn’t require sticky rice, the ratio of water is 2 and 1/4 cups of water and leave it just for 1 or 2 whistles and remove the cooker from the stove.

These days I prefer brown rice pongal to the traditional white rice pongal. This is healthy and definitely very filling. The only one negative thing I observed with brown rice is, it may give stomach cramps initially. Let me stress here again on “may”. My husband did not have any problems at all. On the other hand I developed severe stomach cramps on the second day after eating brown rice consecutively for two days. I spoke with my nurse to find out the reason and she explained that since brown rice is whole grain, drinking more water would help with easy digestion of the fiber. Now don’t make this an excuse to avoid using brown rice because it’s not the case with everybody. Since our(my) body is used to white flour and rice, it may take some time to tolerate the extra effort it has to put to digest whole grains. So increase your consumption of brown rice gradually and also drink a lot of water.

Sometime back I purchased readymade brown rice which cooks just in 5 minutes in the microwave. I made Chinese fried rice and it tasted very good. It had a nice chewy texture and was also very filling. So I wanted to try the regular brown rice and got it from the grocery store last week. While at the store I compared both brown rice and white rice and found that both have same calories, carbohydrates, fat and protein. This really made me wonder what’s the difference then. I bought it anyway thinking that I’ll do the research later.

I found some interesting facts about brown rice. Below is the synopsis:

Now let me proceed to the Dosai recipe. The original recipe is from a Tamil magazine. I’ve changed it a little bit. These dosas/adai can be prepared immediately after grinding the batter. Fermentation is not necessary.

This is my entry to the following food blog events:
1. Aparna’s WBB – Grains in my breakfast. WBB created by Nandita.
2. Suganya’s JFI – Whole Grains. JFI created by Indira.
3. Siri’s Herb Mania – Coriander. Herb Mania created by Dee.
4. Sunshine Mom’s FIC – Green.

For long time now, I have wanted to prepare vegetarian burgers, or rather it was my husband’s long pending request and I finally made it yesterday from Jai and Bee’s blog. Their Spicy Kidney Bean Burgers is a fantastic recipe. I was able to prepare it for dinner in no time.

I used canned and drained kidney beans (2 cans, 15.5 oz each). It was also the “No Salt Added” store brand canned beans, this allowed me to control the sodium content in the burgers.

I don’t have a food processor, so at first I just drained one can and rinsed it well and mixed all the other ingredients listed in the recipe and blended it using my Indian mixer. And let me tell you, it was little tricky to get the right consistency. Initially it did not grind at all and once I added a little water it became very mushy. I was glad that I reserved the other can. Now I opened the 2nd can, drained and rinsed it and mashed the beans nicely with a potato masher and mixed the ground mixture to this. Even then I was not able to make balls out of it. So instead of adding flour to the mixture as they had mentioned, I added a handful of quick cooking oats and I got the desirable consistency to shape them into burgers.

I also used curry powder and Maggi’s tomato chili ketchup to give it a desi taste. The original recipe mentions to use either ajwain (omam) or cumin, but I strongly suggest to go with ajwain, because I felt that it gave a very good flavor and aroma to the burgers. I also did not have nutritional yeast, so used roasted chick pea flour (besan) instead. Also don’t forget to add the 1/4 cup of chopped almonds, because this gives a nice crunch to the burgers, which you don’t want to miss.

I used a stove top non stick griddle to cook the burgers. Sprayed the grill with non stick canola oil spray and placed the burgers on it. It took around 8 -10 minutes for one side. Let it cook completely on one side, don’t be in hurry and bother to turn them immediately, because it will lose it’s shape. After 8 minutes or so, slowly flip it over the other side and let it cook for another 7-8 minutes. For 2 cans of beans I got 8 medium size burgers.

For the buns, I used Arnold’s Select 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Thins. It is a mere 100 calories, with 6gm fiber and 5gm protein and it doesn’t taste like mulch also

We had our burgers on a bed of iceberg lettuce, grilled zucchini with a side of potato/sweet potato fries. (Ya I know, was trying to reproduce their original menu!)

Jai and Bee we loved them absolutely. Thank you very much for such an easy and healthy recipe. Your Recipe Rocks!

This is also my entry to Zlamushka’s Tried and Tasted event.

Inspired by Priya’s Rava Idli and Cham’s Cracked Wheat Idli, I came up with this idea of using grits to make instant idlis. Yet another time grits has proved to be versatile. The idlis came out very well and especially it tasted so good with sambar for side dish.

Mint is my favorite herb and until recently I didn’t know that I can grow it myself. I usually buy mint from the grocery store. When my mother in law visited us last winter she took few thick mint stems (after using the leaves for cooking) and potted it. Both my husband and myself couldn’t believe our eyes when it started growing small leaves. Initially it took sometime to grow but later it started leafing rapidly. One week I completely forgot about watering it. Because it was winter we had the pot indoors and we got the bulb which is available for indoor plants and we forgot to switch it on also. When one of our friends were visiting my husband was boasting about our mint plant and then only I really remembered about it and when we checked, the plant had dried out completely. I was so upset, but without losing heart I started watering it again and to our surprise it started growing.

Ingredients
Water – 2 cups
Tea powder - 2 teaspoons
Ginger, grated – 1 small piece
Sugar – 3 teaspoons or as per your taste
Lemon juice – 2 tablespoons
Mint, finely chopped – 10 leaves

Step-by-Step Procedure with Images

(Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view)

1. Boil water in a saucepan.
2. Add the tea powder.
3. Grate the ginger root and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the sugar for your taste.
5. Let it simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Filter the tea.

7. Let it cool at room temperature. Add the lemon juice.
8, Then add the mint leaves and chill it in the refrigerator.
9. Serve it cold.

My Notes
1. Above I have reproduced the recipe as it is in the magazine. I followed the recipe and found that the tea was little bitter to my taste. So I added a couple more teaspoons of sugar.
2. The tea tastes good even when it is hot, but is excellent when it’s cold.
3. Check out the health benefits of mint here

Thanks to each and everyone of you for the words of support and wishes.   My mom made the journey without any problem.  The only negative thing was her flight was delayed by 2 hrs due to bad weather.  

We made the mistake of not checking the flight’s status before leaving to the airport.  My mother was taking the British Airways flight from Chennai via London and it was supposed to reach here at 7.30pm.    We started around 6.15pm, but that day the traffic was unbelievable and we reached the airport only at 8.30 pm.  I was worried that my mother would get panicked that we had not come.  Only a handful people were there in the arrival hall and my mother was not there.  Is this not enough to panick me?  Then we saw the message board where they have the list of flights coming into the airport with their arrival time and status.  We were so tensed that we could not locate my mom’s flight.  Then after a couple of minutes we located it and confirmed that the flight had not yet arrived and was delayed by 2 hours.  Then only I was able to breathe.  By the time we reached home it was 1.00 am.

My son is already having a blast with her.  When she was in India she used to come online daily and we used to have conversation via web camera.  So he easily recognised her and yesterday night he slept with her only.  It’s like he has totally forgotten me.  He wants his grandma to do everything for him, from brushing his teeth, giving him a bath and what not!

I wanted to bake something for my mother, but she has brought us a lot of sweets and snacks from India.  I think I’m gonna put on a couple of pounds easily.

For dinner yesterday I made adai using corn grits.  I usually prepare adai using Idli rava, instead of rice.  So I thought why not try it with grits, which has a similar texture.  I used Quaker brand, quick grits, which cooks in five minutes and enriched with hominy.

Ingredients:
Quick Grits – 1 cup
Channa Daal – 1/2 cup
Toor Daal – 1/2 cup
Moong Daal – 1/2 cup
Urad Daal – 1 tablespoon
Green and Red chillies – as per taste
Ginger, grated – 1 tablespoon
Coconut, grated – 1/2 to 3/4 cup (preferably fresh)
Salt – as per taste
Coriander/curry leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing – optional

Procedure:
1.  Lightly rinse the grits and soak it with 1.5 to 2 cups of water.
2.  In a separate bowl add all the daals, rinse it and soak it in 3-4 cups of water.  Also add the red chillies with the daal.
3.  After 4 hours either using a blender or wet grinder first grind the daals (adding water little by little) along with the chillies, also add the green chillies, ginger and coconut.
4.  Once it is grinded coarsely add the grits also and grind it for another couple of minutes.  The batter should not be very smooth and also not very corase.
5.  Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and coriander leaves.
6.  Now prepare the adais as usual.

I got around 14 medium size adais for the above measurement.  It was so delicious, especially with avial.

My Notes:
1.  I usually use a combination of red chillies and green chillies in my cooking.  The taste is definitely different and very good when compared to using either one.
2.  Using fresh coconut and a lot of it really enhances the taste of adais.
3.  Check this recipe for preparing adais using sweet corn. 
  
This is my entry for Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy – Protein Rich, event.