Healthy Breakfast Cookie

                                        Those who love bakery foods and those who swear they can live on parotta and poori for ever will have to think twice, before reaching for those delicacies made from maida. An article in a daily paper and many others that iterated the ill effects of this white flour has changed my approach towards a healthy cooking. Apparently, this bleached white flour, a waste product from processed wheat, which has no nutrition is one of the causative factor that leads to many lifestyle diseases when consumed in the long run. It’s not just maida alone, but, danger lurks around us in the form of synthetic food colour, ajinomoto, non stick pans, frozen food, foods deep fried over and over again in the same oil, preservatives used in packaged foods and many more, join the band wagon of disease causing agents. I don’t want to sound paranoid, cautioning too much on health issues, but, it is better to be aware than be ignorant. Taking food made from maida once in a while will not hurt, but as it is always said, 'moderation is the key’, but if they are poisonous, then, even moderation becomes questionable.

                                             Lately, I have been using wheat flour, instead of the white flour (maida) after coming to know about the not so good facts about maida and I have started to think of healthy alternative ingredients to use in baking and in regular cooking. So came the thought of using Health mix in a cookie which is totally satiating as a breakfast and as a snack. Health mix is a mixture of cereals, pulses and nuts, which can either be made at home or can be bought from stores. I used Britannia multigrain porridge powder, in this popular oats and raisin cookies. I must say, it tastes so good and better than the regular cookies. Sometimes just two of these cookies with a glass of milk/coffee makes my breakfast complete. Recipe adapted from delicious shots.

Ingredients
Multigrain porridge powder     1/2 cup
Oats                                          2 cups
Soft Dark Brown Sugar         3/4 cup
Vegetable oil                           1/4 cup
Mashed banana                       1/4 cup
Baking powder                        1/4 tsp
Egg white                                 2
Vanilla                                      1/2 tsp
Milk                                          2 tbsp
Raisins                                     1/4  cup
chocolate chips                       1/8 cup

Method
Beat the egg whites until frothy, using a hand whisk.
Add the brown sugar and whip until the sugar melts and turns pale and airy.
Add the oil, beat and add in the mashed banana,vanilla and beat until well mixed.
Whisk the oats with the baking powder and the health mix separately.
Add it to the above mixture and fold until mixed.
Mix in the raisins and chocolate chips.
Freeze the dough for five minutes.
Make small balls and place it in a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
Flatten the balls slightly to a cookie shape and bake in a preheated oven at 180*c for about 13-15 minutes.
( the bottom of the cookie will be light brown when cooked)

Note:
The health mix already has cardamom flavour in it. If desired, still you can use 3-4 cardamoms powdered and mixed with the oats.
                                                                                   
                                                                                      Newspaper clipping

Wheat Bread with Cheese, Cheese toast and a Palak + Egg Stir Fry

                                          Newspapers carrying news about fire accidents, were routinely flipped through with little or no impact, with a usual ’there goes another one’ feeling and some sympathy for the homeless. But, a recent fire accident in a nearby cluster of huts with thatched roof, changed my perception about fire, when I happened to witness it unleash its fury in a form, that created an unknown fear and panic by just looking at it. The visual of the intensity of the burning flames and its uncontrollable thirst for destruction left me shaking for the next few days.

                               
                                      Having never seen anything like this before, I was in shock that I couldn’t recall the number I had to dial for fire service and finally when I did, I was too agitated and shaking to give any coherent information. Thanks to the efforts of the noble fire service men and some good hearted samaritans, the fire was put down soon. In an hour or so, people from the burnt huts moved to a nearby shelter,  carrying their bundle of clothes and their most priced possession, the "T.V". Though it looked ironical, it may be their only medium that helps to fill the empty space created by poverty, hard labour, migration, the foreign land and the separation. Well, I guess, words printed in ink say more than we could fathom and the pain and sorrow behind every natural disaster, now bears more meaning after I witnessed the immensity of the nature’s fury.

                                                Now, cheese toast may sound a little common and familiar for some, but, as I still continue to say the recipe by word of mouth for many, who have never made it, I decided to post it. The cheese toast is an old recipe but the idea of using it 'in the bread' rather than 'on the bread' is new and not a bad one too. Those who cannot make bread at home, can very well use store bought bread and use the cheese and onion mixture to make the toast. It almost tastes the same. With the below given quantity of ingredients I made one small, plain, wheat flour braided bread and one small bread mixed with the onion and cheese mixture.

The palak and egg stir fry is something that I came up with one day,  when I reluctantly added an egg to the palak stir fry, hoping it would taste good, but now it is the only vegetable stir fry, that my son loves to finish the entire bowl. The egg does the magic! Palak and egg stir fry makes a good combination with roti and rice too. For the Wheat bread I just adapted the bread recipe given before for garlic bread and used less honey instead of sugar, used wheat flour instead of flour and used some milk, to make it healthy, other wise the same recipe, with sugar and flour, sans the garlic mixture can be used to make a regular white bread.

Ingredients for Wheat flour bread
Wheat flour                  500 g
Salt                                1 1/4tsp
Honey                           1 tbsp
Olive oil                       2 tbsp
Milk                              3/4 cup
Water                            1 1/4 cup (warm)
Active Dried Yeast      1tbsp

Method
Add salt to the flour and mix well.
Add the yeast to 1/2 cup of warm water and leave it to rise.
In the centre of the flour, add the oil, honey, milk and the yeast dissolved water and mix well.
Add the remaining water and knead to a soft dough for about 10 minutes.
Divide into two portions.
To one portion of the dough add the sauté d onion and cheese mixture and knead again until it is evenly spread.
Keep the two portions in two separate greased bowls, cover and leave it to rise for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
Once the dough has doubled, knead briefly and transfer to 2 greased loaf tins, cover and leave it to rise for another 45minutes - 1hour.
Bake the bread in a preheated oven at 180*c for about 35minutes.
( I had only one mini loaf tin, so I braided the other half of the dough without the cheese filling, brushed with a little oil and sprinkled some sesame seeds.)
Serve the bread with butter and jam if desired.  The sweetness of the jam goes well with the salty and spicy bread.

For the cheese filling/ cheese toast ( quantity for one small bread)
Onion                         2 medium size
Green Chilly              1 long
Cheddar cheese         3 tbsp (grated)
Oil                               1 tbsp
Spring Onions            1/2 tbsp ( green part ) (optional)
Salt                              a good pinch

Method
Heat oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions and green chilly, stir until the onions turn pink and soft.
When it begins to lightly brown, add the Grated cheese and stir. Sprinkle salt and chopped spring onion, stir and leave it to cool.
Mix this in the dough and bake the bread or
For the toast
Spread a small amount of the mixture in a slice of bread, close with another slice and toast it on a medium hot tawa, drizzling a little oil on both the sides.
Serve hot.
I have not toasted the bread in the picture, for display purpose, because once toasted the cheese melts and binds the bread together.

Palak and Egg stir fry
Ingredients
Onion             1 large
Palak              1 bunch
Egg                 1
Oil                  1 1/2 tsp
Salt and crushed pepper to taste.

Method
Heat oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onion and stir until it is cooked and soft.
Add in the chopped palak leaves and stir now and then until it is cooked.
Add salt and sprinkle crushed pepper. Stir to mix.
In the same pan, Push the cooked palak to one side and add 1/2tsp of oil in the centre of the pan, break in the egg, stir until it is cooked, add a pinch of salt for the egg and stir the egg along with the cooked palak. If there is any liquid, increase the heat and stir until the mixture is dry. Serve with Rice or chappathi or bread.
Can use 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds for tempering if desired.

Stuffed Chapathi with Peppery Egg Scramble

                                   What started as my diet food, became my family’s favourite. This used to my lunch, back in those days, when I was trying to lose my post delivery weight. This is something that I made only for me back then, but when people at home happened to taste it by chance, they grumbled, why I wasn't making it for them. I always kept trying different combinations of food that would keep me satiated and it was a bit of a surprise when they liked  this simple, scrambled egg with pepper stuffed chapati. Since then, it has become a part of our regular dinner menu.

This chapathi can be had without any accompaniment at all, but if needed, can be served with any vegetable curry or dal or just onion raitha. The egg scramble with pepper goes well with bread too.

Ingredients for the Stuffing
Onion                      2 (medium size)
Eggs                         2
Salt                          1tsp
Pepper powder      2 tsp
Oil                            1tbsp
Curry leaves

Method
Heat oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions, curry leaves and sauté until the onions turn pink and soft.
Break in the eggs, give a stir, add the salt and stir until the eggs are cooked.
Add the pepper powder, stir for a minute and try to scramble the eggs into small pieces. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Prepare Roti/chapathi dough and divide into portions.

Roll out each portion into a circle, place a small amount of the egg mixture on one half of the circle, cover it with the other half and fold to form a triangle or  place the mixture in the centre and bring the edges to the centre, to form a circular chapathi.
Roll out again gently, cook on a medium hot tawa, sprinkling 1/4 tsp of oil on both the sides of the roti, cook until done.
Repeat the same with the rest of the dough. Serve hot.

Karupatti/Palm Jaggery Chocolate

                                            With the last disc of palm jaggery in hand, I was actually preparing to make a medicinal concoction with ginger. Ginger prepped, jaggery on the stove, a sudden thought of chocolate with palm jaggery sprung up in my mind and that was it, there were no second thoughts and the ginger was stashed away for later use.

                                           Palm jaggery chocolate is not new to me. Every year during navarathri, kuralagam in chennai will showcase pretty dolls, handicraft products for sale, including stalls, that sell many health and medicinal products made by small scale industries, like palm jaggery chocolates, candied ginger, candied gooseberry, ginger based digestive syrup and many other products made from natural food.  I remember buying this chocolate from there, for my son many years ago, which tasted like milk chocolate with a strong palm jaggery flavour. This flashed on my mind and instead of dozing off after lunch, I was actually working on the stove making chocolate at the wrong time and this obviously puzzled others! I couldn’t procrastinate the idea of combining two fantastic dark food, that nature has given us and that too with the given quantity, it’s just a matter of minutes.

                                    The chocolate was not firm enough to snap apart, but it was more like a melt in the mouth texture like a mousse and soft like a silk. I don’t know if it was the quality of the cocoa powder that I used or the taste and the quality of the palm jaggery, the chocolate from this combination was just too good.

Ingredients
Palm jaggery disc    1( 80 g)
Butter                       80 g
Milk powder            100 g
Cocoa powder         50 g
Water                       50 ml

Method
Add water to the palm jaggery in a pan and melt on medium heat.
Boil until it becomes a sticky syrup.
Add milk powder, cocoa powder, butter and stir on low heat, until everything gathers well to a thick mass.
Transfer to a pan lined with baking paper and let it cool.
Chill until set.

The chocolate will be flexible to roll, use the trimmed pieces or roll each square into balls, dust them with cocoa powder.

I did try with the palm jaggery/karupatti that is available here (see picture in glossary) and it tasted more or less the same, but definitely chocolaty. Only this time I used,
50 gms   of palm jaggery,
50 gms   of butter,
50 gms   of milk powder( about 5tbsp),
25 gms   of cocoa (2tbsp) and
1/2 a tsp of cornflour.
I melted the jaggery, adding 3tsps of water and when it was thick and frothy, added the rest of the ingredients and stirred until it gathered well leaving the sides of the pan. Transferred to a greased plate. Let it cool and chilled for a few hours.

Note:
The idea of adding water to the jaggery is to melt it. If using a good quality palm jaggery, add very little water to melt it and when it boils to a  thick syrup, continue with the rest of the step. If the jaggery has grits, then you might have to strain to remove them and boil the syrup until all the water is evaporated and the syrup is thick.
I used cornflour to get a firm chocolate, it does not alter the taste of the chocolate.

The chocolate in the above picture and the one below were made using regular palm jaggry/karupatti that is available here.