DOCTORS and nutritionists
are watching with
horror the expanding
Indian waistline. There was
a time when a bigger middle
was accepted resignedly as a
natural corollary to prosperity
and ageing. Not so any
more. Indian children are
growing in breadth.Metabolic diseases like diabetes
are striking the young.
Research shows that such diseases now begin 10 years
earlier than they used to.
The Indian diet is loaded
with calories. Combine that
with a sedentary lifestyle of
watching TV or fiddling
with a PC and you have a
recipe for disaster. The
Diabetes Foundation of India which has
been fanning across
schools to educate
children, parents and
teachers on a healthy
lifestyle has produced a
range of posters and educative
material. We present
their mix of nutritious
recipes so that your child
can eat right, stay light and
be bright.
Frozen fruit
delight
Ingredients
Toned milk: 1 glass (250
ml)
Rice flour: 10 gm (2 tsp)
Sugar: 10 gm
Apple: 20 gm
Pear: 20 gm
Pineapple: 20 gm
Pomegranate: 40 gm
Orange: 20 gm
Method:
Boil milk with rice
flour. Simmer for five minutes.
Add 2 tsp of sugar and
allow to cool. Add half teaspoon
of vanilla essence.
Dice apple, pineapple, pear,
pomegranate and orange.
Add the fruits to the milk
mixture. Place dessert in
the refrigerator and serve
chilled.
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Grilled corn
kebabs
Ingredients
Corn: 40 gm
Cabbage: 20 gm
Potato: 70 gm
Carrot: 20 gm
Oil: 1 tsp
Method:
Steam corn and
finely diced carrots. Allow to
cool. Grate cabbage and mash
the boiled potatoes. Mix all
the ingredients after adding
salt and pepper. Divide the
mixture into small balls of
uniform size. Put kebabs on
greased skewer over sticks
and grill in a pre heated over
of 175 degrees for 10 minutes.
Serve hot with mint
cucumber chutney.
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Brown bread
upma
Ingredients
Brown bread: 25 gm (1 pc)
Peas; 20 gm
Capsicum: 20 gm
Beans: 20 gm
Carrot: 20 gm
Oil: 1 tsp
Method: Finely chop the
vegetables like carrot, beans,
capsicum and
shelled peas.
Splutter mustard seeds
and curry
leaves in 1 tsp
of refined oil.
Add the vegetables
and sauté.
Grind fresh brown
bread in grinder and
mix it withthe sautéed
vegetables. Cook for a
while and then squeeze
fresh lemon juice. Serve
hot.
Brown bread
sandwich
Ingredients
Brown bread: 60 gm (2 pcs)
Capsicum: 20 gm
Cucumber 20 gm
Carrot: 20 gm
Curd: 40 gm
Method:
Grate cucumber, carrot
and capsicum. Mix it with
curd. Add salt and pepper
and make it a smooth paste.
Cut whole wheat/ brown
bread in circular rounds.
Spread the vegetable paste
evenly on both rounds and
seal the edges with water.
Grill in a preheated oven at150 degrees for 10 minutes or
on a non-stick tawa for five
minutes. Serve hot.
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Vegetable
cheela
Ingredients
Besan: 30 gm
Curd: 20 gm
Cabbage: 20 gm
Carrot: 15 gm
Oil: 1 tsp
Method:
Mix besan with
curd to form a batter of
dropping consistency. Keep
aside and allow to ferment
for 2 hours. Grate carrot and
cabbage. Add these to the
fermented batter along with
salt and pepper. Prepare
cheela on a non-stick tawa
like a pancake. Serve hot
with chutney.
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Tofu tikka
Ingredients
Tofu: 80 gm
Capsicum: 20 gm
Tomato: 20 gm
Toned curd: 50 gm
Turmeric: ½ tsp
Black cardamom powder:½ tsp
Method:
Mix curd with salt,
black pepper, cardamom powder
and coriander powder.
Keep aside. Cut tofu, tomato
and capsicum into cubes or
different shapes and mix the
pieces with the curd mixture.
Allow to marinate for half an hour. Put these marinated
cubes into a greased skewer
and grill in a preheated oven
at 175 C for 15 minutes.Serve
hot with chutney
Purba Kalita
Jodhpur
KERALA cuisine is an amalgamation of spicy combos. The food gets its flavor from a superb range of locally grown spices. The cooking methods of Europeans and settlers from the Middle-East who came here centuries ago merged into Kerala’s cuisine, adding to its unique tang. As journalist Lekha Menon puts it, "Our cooking means rice and more rice, coconut and more coconut." Rice ground in varying degrees is used to make different preparations. Here are some easy and tasty recipes from Kerala.
Kaipagya Pachadi
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Ingredients
Bitter gourd: 200g
Ground coconut: 1 cup
Curd: 2 cups
Curry leaves: 5-6
Green chillies: 2-3
Dry red chillies: 2
Mustard seeds: ½ tsp + a pinch
Oil: 1 tsp
Method: Grate bitter gourd and boil in salted
water till tender. Strain and keep aside.
Grind coconut. Add ½ tsp mustard, chillies
and grind together again. Mix this with curd.
Add bitter gourd. Heat oil. Splutter pinch of
mustard seeds, dry chillies and curry leaves.
Add seasoning to side dish. Best eaten with
steamed rice.
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Thoran
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Ingredients
Beans: 250g, finely chopped
Coconut: ¼ of whole
Mustard seed: 1 tsp
Coconut oil: 4 tbsp
Garlic: 2-3 flakes
Green chilli: 1-2
Cumin seeds: ½ tsp
Turmeric powder: ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Method: Heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds in
it. Add beans. Coarsely grind coconut, garlic,
cumin and chilli. Add to beans. Add turmeric
and salt. Cook for five-seven minutes and
serve hot.
Moong pradhaman
Ingredients
Split moong dal: 250g
Coconut milk: 2 cups
Jaggery: 250g
Cardamom: 5-6, deseeded
Cashew nut/raisins: 50g, chopped
Ghee in small quantity
Method: Roast moong dal, wash properly
and boil. Grate coconuts and squeeze out
milk. Add cardamom seeds to extracted
milk. Melt jaggery in two cups of water and
strain. Let syrup boil. Mash boiled dal properly.
Add syrup to dal. Add coconut milk
and stir. Bring it to one boil and remove
from fire. Fry dry fruits in ghee and add to
pradhaman. Enjoyed even when warm.
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Chakkapradhaman
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Ingredients
FOR HALWA: Jackfruit flesh: 500g
Jaggery: 250g
Ghee: 3 tbsp
FOR KHEER: Coconuts: 2, grated
Jaggery: 400g
Cardamom powder: ½ tsp
Coconut: ½ cup, chopped, fried in ghee
Ghee: 2 tsp & water: 6 cups
Method: Grind jackfruit in blender to get a
thick pulp. Add jaggery to the pulp and boil.
When mixture reduces, add ghee. Reduce
further to get jam-like consistency.
Let it cool. Grind coconut with
two cups of water. Strain
and extract thick coconut
milk. Add four glasses
to ground coconut
and repeat procedure
to get thinner
milk. Keep it
aside. Mix sweetened
jackfruit
pulp in second
extract. Add jaggery
and boil it
for 5-10 minutes.Reduce flame and
add first extract of
thick coconut milk.
Keep for five minutes on
low flame. Garnish with cardamom
powder and chopped,
fried coconut.
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Purba Kalita
Jodhpur
THE festival of colours is here. It’s time for bonfires, songs, dance, music, bhang and special food. Holi, which also marks the arrival of the warm season, is celebrated with great gusto, especially in North India. The hotspot of Holi is the temple town of Vrindavan and its neighbour, Mathura. The exploits of Lord Krishna are recounted and feted. The city of Varanasi too is a close contender for the top spot. The Army lives in complete national integration. There is someone from everywhere. Army wives at the Jodhpur cantonment have their own regional accounts of Holi and ways of making local delicacies too. Sushma Singh of Varanasi says, “We celebrate Holi over three to four days because we have to visit friends and relatives. Potato chips,snacks for visitors. In the evening, says Bijarnia, villagers set blaze cow dung cakes strung together and the image of Holika in cowdung. “There is a muhurat or slated time for Holi and that is usually after undown, sometimes as late as 2 am,” explains Bijarnia. While waiting for the muhurat when they can daub dry gulal on one another, villagers spend the time watching plays and taking part in music programmes. papad and gujjia are made at home ahead of the festival.
On Holi we treat ourselves and guests to puri, kachori, sevaiyan and other sweets too.” Monica Bhargav from Lucknow talks about dahi vadas, a cool snack that reinvigorates revellers tired after all that running around on Holi. In Uttarakhand, the festival of colours fills the air with music. “A few days before Holi, people gather in different homes and sing phag, songs that are meant for this time of the year,” says Kanchan Pokhariya from Nainital who reserves her gujjia-making only for Holi. In Khandesh, Maharashtra, Jayshree Adhav, says the refrain of ‘Holi re Holi, puranachi poli, fills the air. This is the time when kheer, ragi papad and kadi with garam masala are made in most households. Sashikant Sonawane from Dhule district says: “Phunka crumbs with salt and chilli powder, sevaiyan with milk and pana tamarind and jaggery mixed in water) are special items on Holi.” Phunka, a steamed snack made of moong and chana dal, is added to he blazing Holika, the effigy of king Hiranyakashyapu’s sister. Holika here is set ablaze on Holi evening, while all the smearing and splashing, called Dhuli Vandan, takes place the next day.
In Rajasthan, the festival is usually a three-day affair. Holi-eve is celebrated as Bhayya when people dance to dholak beats and have kheer and churma (a sweet dish of roti crumbs mixed with ghee/butter and powderedMeethe chawal is a must on this day. The third day, called Dhulendi, is seeped in colour and water. Bijarnia tells us about a ritual that takes place on Holi between the sister-in-law and her brother-in-law. “The sister- in-law in mock rage beats up her brother-inlaw using a rope made of a dupatta.” A similar custom, we are told, is observed in Haryana. Kavita Jha from Bihar says Holi elebrations are similar to north and west India where people bid goodbye to all evil. Old clothes are burnt in the Holika bonfire. “On Holi morning, we celebrate dhur khel, when apart from splashing water with balloons and pichkaris, we also smear mud.” Holi evening is reserved for subdued celebrations but with no less fervour. “We bathe and dress up in new clothes,” says Jha. In the Army, where each and every festival is celebrated with unmatched zeal, Holi has a special place. For Colonel Tejinder Jaggi from Punjab, the commanding officer of a battalion in Jodhpur, this festival has always spelt fun. “Holi is a time when I am closer to my men as demarcating lines get blurred. We dance, play and sugar), says Sushila Bijarnia from Jhunjunu in Rajasthan. On Holi morning people prepare. eat together,” he says. Here are some recipes you can try out this Holi.
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Pua
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Ingredients
Flour: 500 g
Milk: 400 ml
Sugar: 250 gm
Aniseed: 50 gm
Cashew, pista, almond: 150 gm, sliced fine
Cardamom powder:
¼ tsp Oil for frying
Method: Mix flour, sugar and milk. Leave batter for 15 minutes. Add aniseed, dry fruits and cardamom. Heat sufficient oil in pan. Drop one big ladle of batter to oil. The pancake is better when it’s thin. Fry till golden brown. Store in an airtight container when cool. Pua can be kept for 15 days.
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Thandai
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Ingredients
Water: 1 litre
Milk: ½ litre
Sugar: 250 gm
Almond: 1 tbsp
Watermelon seeds (skinned): 1 tbsp
Poppy seeds: ½ tbsp
Aniseed: ½ tbsp
Whole peppercorns: 1tsp
Cardamom powder: ½ tsp
Rosewater: ½ tsp
Dried or fresh rose petals: ¼ cup
Pinch of saffron soaked in milk
Method:
Mix sugar in ½ litre of water. Keep aside. Soak dry ingredients, except cardamom powder, in 2 cups of water for two hours. Grind soaked ingredients to a very fine paste. A stone grinder works best. Mix paste in remaining water. Strain mixture many times through muslin cloth to extract maximum pulp. Add milk, sugar water, rosewater, cardamom and saffron to extracted liquid. Mix well and chill for one to two hours before serving.
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Papri
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Ingredients
Gram flour: ½ kg
Mustard oil: 1 tsp
Salt: 1 tsp
Red chilli powder: ½ tsp
Water: 1 cup
Fenugreek leaves: 1 tsp,
chopped fine
Flour for dusting
Oil for frying
Method:
Mix besan, salt, chilli powder and oil well. Knead mixture. Add methi leaves and knead again until dough is soft and smooth. Heat oil. Rub some oil on your palm and roll out dough into oneinch thick strips. Cut roll into one-inch pieces. Roll out pieces into papris or small puris, while lightly dusting both sides with maida. Fry papri on low to medium flame till golden-yellow. Drain oil and store in airtight container.
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Gujjia
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Ingredients
Flour: 500 gm
Milk: 3 litre
Raisin: 50 gm
Aniseed: 1tsp
Sugar: 300 gm
Oil for kneading and frying
Method: Boil milk and simmer till it dries up resulting in khoya. Add sugar, raisins and aniseed. Simmer mixture till it turns dry. Leave aside and let cool. Pour six tablespoons of oil in flour and mix to let it bind a little. Add water bit by bit to knead flour into smooth and soft dough. Set aside and cover with damp cloth for 15 minutes. Roll out small and slightly thick puris and fill with mixture. Fold each puri into half and seal edges using mould or by twisting inwards with fingers. Gujjia looks like a half moon. Deep fry gujjia till golden brown. Drain oil and let cool. Store in air-tight container.
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