Ragi Kali, Ragi Koozh, Kambangoozh - Finger Millet And Pearl Millet Porridge

                                My hands are itching to type about the pleasant weather and the food, but my mind with disturbing thoughts is not correlating, my beautiful memories of these foods are bursting to be poured out in words, but my thoughts are withheld for some reason. I never thought I would say this, but I hope this post is not my 'swan song' and I certainly don’t intend to draw the curtain so early, but I guess it’s going to be a while, before I write here again. For now, enjoy this village fare.

Ragi Kali / Keppa kali/Kezhvaragu kali
Ingredients
Ragi flour                      1/2 cup
Broken Matta Rice      1/2 cup
Water                            1 1/2 cup + 4 cups
Salt                                1tsp

 Method
Wash the broken matta rice well, add 1 1/2 cup of water and pressure cook for 20 minutes on low heat.
( If you don’t want to pressure cook, cook the rice in a heavy bottomed vessel until soft)
Add 4 cups of water and salt to the cooked rice and bring to a boil.
Add in the ragi flour and stir. Constantly stirring, cook on medium heat till the ragi is cooked.
( Wet your hands and press slightly, if the ragi is cooked it will not stick to your wet hands). This will take approximately 20 minutes. To make kali, continue to stir for another 10 minutes, until the mixture thickens.
When the mixture cools down, shape into balls and serve with karuvattu kuzhambu or fish curry.
Note: When adding the ragi flour to the boiling rice + water, initially you will find lumps, but as you stir and continue to cook, the lumps will disappear. If still apprehensive, ragi flour can be mixed with a little water to form a thin batter and then added to the boiling water + rice mixture.

                      Ragi koozh/Keppa koozh is traditionally prepared by fermentation method, as it was convenient to have it as breakfast or carry it for lunch to work. But at times when we forget to ferment, the following method comes handy, which is quick to make,  but taste wise, it definitely differs.

To make Ragi Koozh/Keppangoozh/Kezhvaragu koozh Finger millet Porridge, Method I
Cooked Ragi kali       2 cups
Curd                            1 cup ( 200g)
Water                          1 1/2 cup
Shallots                       3/4 cup
Salt                              1 tsp

Method
Combine water, salt and whipped curd.
Add the liquid to the cooked rice and stir to get a pouring consistency.
Add chopped shallots, stir and serve with spicy fish curry or dried fish curry or any spicy curry and sautéed greens.

Ragi Koozh/ keppa koozh - Fermentation Method - Method II
Ragi flour         1/2 cup
Rice                   1/2 cup

Water

Mix ragi flour with water to make a thin paste.
Cover with a muslin cloth or with a plate slightly ajar and leave it by the sunlight for about 8 -10 hours to ferment.
Cook rice with enough water and add the fermented ragi flour and stir. Continue to cook, stirring constantly until the right consistency ( as mentioned in method I) has reached and leave it to cool.
The next morning add whipped curd mixed with water and salt to the prepared koozh to a pouring consistency and serve with chopped pearl onions.

Note:
Instead of matta rice, any rice, like broken rice ( arisi noi) or  broken samba wheat ( udaitha samba kodumai)or Bansi rava or even previously cooked rice can be used to make koozh.

Kambangoozh - Pearl Millet Porridge
Broken Matta Rice                     1/2 cup (see glossary for picture)
Broken Kambu (pearl millet)   1/2cup or 3/4 cup
Water                                            5 cups
Salt
Curd
Shallots

Method
Rinse rice and kambu well, add water and pressure cook for about 20 minutes on low heat.
When cool, add whipped curd mixed with water and salt to the cooked rice and kambu mixture.
Add chopped shallots and serve with sautéed vegetabes, greens or spicy thuvaiyal and crisp vadaams.

Note:
I have pressure cooked because it saves a lot of time, which other wise would take at least an hour to cook. But you make the choise of how you prefer to cook.
Following the Ragi Koozh method, add curd, salt and shallots to taste.
You can increase or decrease the amount of rice used, as desired. Sometimes I would use just 1/4 cup of rice and use 3/4 cup of Kambu to make the Koozh for better health benefits. As kambu generates heat, depending upon the weather and body condition, I adjust the amount of rice I add.
To make kambu saadham, follow the method given for Chola Saadham or you can pressure cook by adding 3 parts of water to 1 part of the millet for about 20 minutes.
I always prefer to pressure cook millets not only because it saves cooking time, but it is also the best way to cook the millets retaining all its nutrients. But I would not suggest to pressure cook polished white rice( raw rice, par boiled rice ) because it will only add calories and some extra inches to our waistline, which I don’t think is a good idea.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

                       I had this habit of eating a chocolate bar on every last day of the week, during college. Except for an occasional samosa or a movie, the 50 bucks that my mother gave every week for my daily expenses was always saved for this little fetish of mine. I would buy a bar of chocolate and walk home slowly, enjoying the silky chocolate melting in my mouth, little by little and would reach home with chocolate stained teeth and hands and the price I paid for this addiction; before I turned thirty, all my wisdom teeth were extracted. Visiting a dentist has always been mocked as a scary affair throughout the world. My first extraction went smoothly at the age of nineteen, but only with an extra dose of anaesthetic to my doctor’s surprise. My second tooth extraction in my mid 20’s, was the worst, as the pain from the tooth decay that made me immobile, failed to respond to several heavy doses of antibiotic, my dentist decided to go ahead with the extraction, even though the anaesthetic had very little effect. With a loud screaming and an agonising pain,  my ordeal came to an end, when the tooth was extracted. But  the episode left a ghastly effect on his other clients, who were waiting outside, as they all looked pale and petrified, on hearing my loud cry and they did not show any haste in entering when they saw me leaving with a swollen mouth and a painful expression on my face! When the last of my wisdom tooth was extracted in my early 30’s, I was warned by my dentist that, if I came back again, there’s going to be only root canal treatment and no more extraction,which I guess is more painful! At this rate, initially, I thought I was going to look like a toothless witch, but with controlled portions, I have managed to save the remaining teeth so far and I have no complaints about the little dimple on my cheeks( unless, it gets wider ! ) No matter what, I will always celebrate chocolate.

              Triple chocolate cookie, that resembles an elephant's foot, is more like a fudgy cake in the form of a cookie, soft and delicious.  I was thinking of making it a quadruple chocolate cookie by sandwiching the cookies with nutella, but once I started eating the cookie the thought never came to my mind, as it was already sweet and fudgy and when it did, everything was gone! These triple chocolate cookies suits well for one of those chocolate craving moments and one that will leave everyone asking for more, for its rich chocolate taste and moist texture. Just try it.

Adapted from 'makinglifedelicious'
Ingredients
Flour                                   1 cup
Cocoa Powder                    1/4 cup
Baking Powder                  1 tsp
Salt                                      1/2 tsp
Dark Chocolate                  225 gms
Eggs                                     2
Vanilla                                 1 tsp
Instant Coffee Powder      1 tsp
Butter                                  100 gms
Light brown sugar             3/4 cup
Granulated sugar               1/4 cup
Chocolate chips                  125 gms

Method
Combine and sift, flour + cocoa+baking powder+salt
Melt chocolate in a double boiler, stir until smooth and keep it aside.
Beat eggs+vanilla lightly with fork.
Sprinkle coffee powder to dissolve.
Beat butter at medium speed until smooth and creamy.
Beat in sugars until combined ( will look granular).

On low speed beat in egg mixture, until blended.
Add in melted chocolate and mix until combined.
On low speed, add flour mixture and mix just until combined.
Add in the chocolate chips.

Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and chill for about 30 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with a greased baking paper and scoop 1/4 cup of the dough on to the lined baking sheet.
Chill for 10 minutes.
Bake at 180*c for 10 minutes only. Let it cool completely. It will firm up.

Chola(m) Saadham - Sorghum/Jowar Rice

                            Here’s another village food or gramathu samayal, chola(m) saadham, as promised. Cholam, kambu, ragi may all sound very fascinating now, for those who are newly interested in these millets. But, for people in villages, these millets have been their daily food, that provided them with the nutrition and the stamina to work in the fields for long hours and that kept them healthy. Rice or Idly, was something these people cooked only on occasions, like Deepavali, not because they did not like it, but because, ironically, these people who produced rice were not able to afford it. Hence, they lived and live on millets which is cheaper than rice and also healthy. It might be true that millets guarantee a healthy life, but let’s not forget that, it is not just food that keeps the people healthy, but it is also their unbelievable hard work and their disbelief in something called ‘boredom'.

                       One of my aunt’s grandmother who is almost 100 years old now ( not sure, may be more, no one actually knows), still works in the field and when  I last saw her a decade ago, she was a ripe old lady of thin frame, with a heavily wrinkled skin, but still strong enough to help them in the field work. Their tiny hut, where a person has to stoop low to enter and sit in cow dung washed floor, or the long distance we had to walk in the blazing heat to reach the hut, or the lack of electricity, never bothered us, rather we savoured every moment we were there, the spicy mutton curry, the afternoon nap under the neem tree, on a coir cot, embracing the cool wind from the tree, the short walk around the groundnut and spice farm, their warm parting words when we left, are all still fresh in my memories. Their life may look very attractive outwardly, but we cannot overlook the hardships these people endure to live in such calm atmosphere. Following their foot step, eating millets might have a considerable effect on our health, but continuing with the sedentary lifestyle will not help.

Millets are usually hand pound in a ural using ulakkai ( a large size mortar and pestle) and the husks are removed patiently sifting in a muram. For a long time I preferred making idly batter, in a mortar and pestle  with my grandmother sitting beside me to help me through, though it took a long time than what a mixie jar would do in few minutes, but when I moved, lack of space forced me to rely on electric appliances. But, now, I adore my little mortar and pestle which I use to make all my fresh spices and once, during a power cut, I even managed to make Urundai kolambu using only my mortar pestle, right from the scratch, which is not an easy task if you know what I am talking about, but I loved it.
Here, I have used a mixie jar, to make chola(m) saadham, which makes the work easier and cooked like  rice. Chola saadham can also be prepared by pressure cooking. (will explain in the following posts)

Serves 1
Ingredients
Cholam             1/2 cup
Water                3 cups + 3 1/2 tsp
Salt                   1/2 tsp

Method
Sprinkle a tsp of water on cholam and pulse in short intervals in a mixie jar. Add another tsp of water and pulse again briefly.
Transfer to a Muram (Winnow basket) or a plate and tap gently under the muram. While tapping the husk will separate from the millet, blow away the husk.
Transfer back to the mixie jar and add a tsp of water and pulse again briefly. Again transfer to the muram and remove the husk. Repeat this until all the husk is removed and the cholam looks like coarse idly rava.
Rinse the cholam well.
In a heavy bottomed cooking pan, take the rinsed cholam and add 3 cups of water.
Bring it a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for 40 minutes, ( Time starting from the minute it is on heat) stirring the mixture now and then to avoid forming lumps and stir continuously towards the end of the cooking procedure, to avoid sticking to the bottom. Add salt and give a final stir. The rice will begin to gather to a mass. Remove from heat.
Let it cool. Serve with a spicy veg curry or  fish curry or thuvaiyal or with sautéed greens( keerai masiyal). Here I have served with a slightly sweet and spicy Garlic curry and Jackfruit seed porial.

Palakottai porial - Jackfruit Seed Stir fry
I am not going to give the exact quantity because I did not measure anything, so just a rough guidance, adjust according to taste.
Jackfruit seeds
Onion
Green chilly
Ginger garlic paste
Fennel
turmeric powder
Chilly+ coriander powder
Grated coconut
Coriander leaves

Pressure cook the jackfruit seeds and keep it aside.
Heat oil and add the fennel and curry leaves.
Add the chopped onion, green chilly and sauté  until it begins to change colour.
Add the ginger garlic paste and stir.
Add turmeric powder, chilly powder, salt and stir.
Add the cooked jackfruit seed, stir and add the grated coconut and stir.
Stir in the chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Note:
The left over chola saadham can be stored by keeping them immersed in a bowl of water.
The same method is used to cook Kambu saadham ( Pearl millet rice).
The idea of sprinkling water in cholam is to slightly moisten, to remove the husk. When it is pulsed in a mixie, it becomes dry, sprinkle more water( little by little, 1/2 tsp at a time) and continue the process.