See the bubbles that have formed as the dough ferments.
Look at that bubbly batter! I was thrilled when I opened the oven this morning to check whether my dough had risen and indeed it did! Marvellously. It was my first time soaking, grinding and fermenting amaranth and to be on the safe side I used equal parts of amaranth, rice and urad dal to make batter for idli and dosa.
Use equal parts of rice, urad dal and amaranth.
The recipe is quite simple. Read the rest of this entry »
My friend Hema in New Jersey asked me, how can I use local grains in the United States? While there are several wonderful cookbooks featuring such American staples as buckwheat, barley, rye it is not as easy to find recipes using millet and many recipes using these traditional yet less common grains call for even more specialized ingredients. Of course it is well worth the effort, but what if you want to make something simple with millet right now?
Proso Millet Idli
One way to jump right into using locally grown millets is to make idlis with them. Black gram, water and salt are the only other ingredients you need. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you torn between buying one more appliance for the kitchen, and one more box of store-bought waffles?
If you need one more reason to start making fresh home-made waffles, here you go: millet waffles!
Millet-wheat waffle topped with blueberries.
Millet-wheat waffles, that is. These are easy to make and use equal parts of millet and whole wheat flour. This recipe uses mashed ripe banana in the batter. If you don’t have a ripe banana on hand, you may use 1 TBS honey or molasses in its place. This will provide a mildly sweet tone to the background without overwhelming the hearty flavor of the waffle.
(Alternatively, you may use the same batter for millet pancakes.)
In the waffles pictured above I used sprouted millet flour which I got from a company called To Your Health in Alabama. Read the rest of this entry »
So I have waxed enthusiastically about sama, korra, kodo, ragi, and other millets grown in India. Readers in the US have asked, how can we use local grains? What can I do with the millet available in the grocery stores? And: what kind is the millet available in the grocery stores in the US? And is it as wonderful for our people and planet as all the millets we hear about in India? Read the rest of this entry »
Kodo millet idli served with pacchadi and sambar
If you were looking for a way to eat more and different millets, then you have come to the right place. After years of talking about millets I realized I had only been using finger millet and more recently foxtail millet whereas there are so many more kinds of millet! Was I ready to expand my millet horizons? Read the rest of this entry »
Voila! Whole wheat bread.
Mostly for the sake of bread aficionados in India who pine for a loaf of really whole grain bread every time they see the third-rate impostors in the market, I posted Baking Bread at Home, which you can do either in a bread machine or in an ordinary oven. You can also use a convection oven, adjusting time and temperature. Note: Do not try this in a microwave oven, even if it claims to have a convection setting.
Please. Just don’t.
Friends in Mozda tell me that they get delicious bread out of their solar oven and I take their word for it. Everything tastes better out of those solar ovens.
For those who have no solar ovens, here is a interesting development: I recently learned that someone is selling bread machines in India, Read the rest of this entry »
We are certainly not the first to post a recipe for కొర్ర పులిహార, but we just may be the most popular – that depends on you 😉 Fortunately we have millet champion Sunitha from Seattle who has a direct link to the Millets Initiative in Ananthapur and brought home a variety of millets last time she went to visit the farmers there. Foxtail Millet is a small grain that cooks easily. Just as we eat different vegetables every day, why not different grains? asks Dinesh of village Kadri. Dinesh coordinates the Millets Initiative in Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh. As someone who eats rice every day, all I can say is, “what a concept!”
Sunitha makes it look so easy and we lose no time getting the good news to you. Read the rest of this entry »
Made with whole wheat, sprouted ragi and dates, these chocolate muffins are wholesome enough to have for breakfast! Or any time of day – not to mention they are so easy to pack for travel. Stun your friends at the next potluck. When we saw Chef Disha proudly display her creation, we asked her Amma to share the recipe.
Basic Vegan Chocolate Muffins (recipe adapted from Veganosaurus)
Disha shows us how it’s done.
Today’s loaf of bread
When I first baked bread I used the recipe in Laurel’s Kitchen. For years I followed this and usually baked one loaf every weekend. It would be an afternoon’s undertaking, with all the mixing and kneading, waiting, kneading again and rising and baking. It tended to be crumbly but we inhaled it all the same. Read the rest of this entry »
Quinoa Upma
This Recipe comes to us from Meenal Amma in Rockville
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cups water
1 medium onion, chopped
1-2 green chilies, finely chopped
dash of jira (cumin seed)
handful of peanuts
salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon
handful of kothimira (cilantro), chopped
Steps:
Bring Quinoa to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes – it should split up during the boil so you know its done. You can also cook this in a pressure cooker or the EZ Cooker.
In minimal oil, saute onions, jira and peanuts till peanuts are brown but not burnt.
Add green chillies. Saute lightly if desired.
Add boiled quinoa and salt. Mix it up, squeeze in some lemon juice and top with kothmira.
Amma suggests: Try walnuts in place of peanuts.
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