Sprouted Moong Juice / Panaka

Whole Moong /Green gram is filled with proteins. I have prepared juice, using this sprouted moong.
Whole Moong juice or  panaka is one of the traditional panak / juice of South Canara.

The sun shines and the heat waves reaches up to 50 degree during summer. To keep ourselves cool people of South Canara do make use of natural things and keep them selves cool, happy and fit.
This particular panaka/juice, used to be prepared my doddamma where I grown up. She used to prepare varieties of panaka and we do enjoy drinking it.

Let us see some benefits of Sprouted Green Gram :

Whole Moong sprouts are low in calories and they are rich in fiber. They are full of B Vitamin, Vitamin C, Vitamin A, B2, B5 and Vitamin K. They are rich in minerals like folic acid, zinc,copper, magnesium and protein. They are rich in antioxidants and excellent source of vitamins and minerals. They helps us to get good immune system. They are easy to digest. They are good for weight loss and  good remedy for hair loss. They are good for acidity problems.

Let us see the recipe now :

Ingredients :

Sprouted Moong : 4 to 5 Tablespoons
Jaggery : 2 Tablespoons
Dry Ginger Powder : 1/4 Teaspoon
Salt : A pinch
Water : 2 Glasses

Method :

1. Put Moong Sprout to mixi jar. Add 1/2 Cup of water and grind. Grind into thin paste consistency.

2. Remove it from mixi jar to a big bowl.

3. Add jaggery, a pinch of salt and required water. Mix all the ingredients nicely.

4.  Add dry ginger powder and mix it well.  You can grind it a bit to get froth ( ನೊರೆ ).

5. Shift it to glasses and serve. Adding ice cubes or use of cold water to prepare the panaka is optional.

Note :

Add more sprouts to get thick consistency. Adding salt and pepper to panaka is optional. Adding sugar instead of jaggery is optional. Remember jaggery is the healthy option. Jaggery helps to keep our body cool and energetic.

Diabetic patients needs to reduce the jaggery amount while you prepare this PANAKA.

Time : 10 Minutes.
Serves : 2 to 3.

Brinjal & Chayote Squash Sambar

Brinjal / Egg plant /badane kai / Kattari kai is loved by most of the people in South India .
Here I have used Chayote Squash and Brinjal ( special brinjal from Udupi ) and prepared Sambar.

Brinjal and Chayote Squash / Seeme badane Sambar /Curry goes well with all the main dishes.
Let us see the recipe Now :
Home prepared Sambar Powder is used here and it is very easy to prepare Sambar Powder at home.
No Onion or No Garlic is used in this Sambar. /Curry.

Ingredients :

Brinjal : 2 ( Medium sized )
Chayote Squash : 1 ( Big Sized )
Toor dal : 2 to 3 Tablespoons
Sambar Powder : 2 Tablespoons
Tamarind Pulp : 2 Tablespoons
Jaggery : 1 Tablespoon ( Optional )
Methi seeds /Fenugrik seeds : 1/4 Teaspoon
Green Chilly : 1
Salt : As required
Seasoning :
Mustard seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Curry Leaves : 5 to 6
Cooking Oil : 1 Teaspoon.
Ingh /Asafoetida : A pinch.

Method :

1. Wash and cut brinjal in to small pieces. Soak in a big bowl of water. ( It helps to remove the bitterness in brinjal)
2. Wash and remove the outer layer of chayote squash and cut the squash into small pieces.

3. Cook chayote squash separately till soft and keep it aside. Wash and cook toor dal with little water. (Pressure cook for 5 minutes).

4. Soak a marble size tamarind in warm water for 5 minutes and squeeze out the pulp. Keep the pulp aside.
5. Now cook cut brinjal with little water till they turn bit soft. Add tamarind and salt. Add little turmeric powder. Add cooked dal and mix it well. Let it cook for a minute.

6. Add cooked chayote squash to brinjal and cook for 2 minutes. Add jaggery and mix it well.

7. Add methi seeds and mix it well. Wash and slit green chilly and add it.

8. Add 2 Tablespoons of sambar powder and mix it well. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

9. Shift the curry to a serving dish and add mustard seasoning on the top.
10. Brinjal - Chayote Squash Sambar is ready to serve.

Note :

Cooking chayote squash separately helps the pieces to cook soft and it does not get smashed. Adding jaggery is optional. Adding onions or garlic to the curry is optional. Taste differ. Adding moong dal instead of toor dal is optional. Toor dal taste better for sambar. Let the jaggery be very little if you are diabetic or cooking for diabetic patient.
 Time : 30 Minutes.
Serves : 3 to 4 

Home prepared Sambar powder :

Dry roast or fry with a tsp of oil.
Coriander seeds : 3 Tablespoons
Methi seeds : 1/4 Teaspoon
Urid dal : 1/2 Teaspoon
Channa dal : 1/2 Teaspoon
Red byadagi chilly : 5 to 6
Jeera /Cumin seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Curry leaves : 6 to 8
Ingh /Asafoetida :  A little

Dry roast or fry methi seeds till it turns golden brown. Add urid dal and channa dal and fry nicely.
Add coriander seeds and red chilly and fry till they turn slightly golden colour. ( Or crisp).
Add jeera, curry leaves and jeera. Mix it well and put off the fire.
Let it turn cool. Dry grind and use the powder.
The above said measurement for Sambar is only one time. Do not use oil if you prepare more sambar powder at a time. The oil smells bad and the powder smells stale.

Cucumber Lassi / Chaas: Sweet & Salt

Lassi /Chaas /Butter Milk whatever you call it, it is one of the healthiest drink in Summer Season. 

The summer is here. Already screeching son shows his heat. The hot air blows through out the day. You need to keep your mind and body cool. So let us have some Cucumber Lassi /Chaas Sweet or Salt. Both are easy to preapre and good for health.
I think You like my idea of having this cucumber Lassi. It is yummy, delicious, quick and simple.
All I have used is curd / butter milk, salt and jaggery, cucumber and water.
Let us see some benefits of having Cucumber in our diet. 
We know that cucumber helps to keep our body cool. It is full of nutrients. It has a rich source of anti oxidants that is good for our health. Cucumber is low in calories and it is fiber rich. Good for dehydration and good for loosing weight. It helps in easy digestion. Control the blood sugar level. helps in controlling the blood pressure. It is good for bones. It is good for hair and skin. Cucumber contain Vitamin C, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B5 and minerals like protein and magnesium.
Cucumber Lassi is good for all aged people.  
Cucumber Lassi is diet friendly.
  It is diabetic friendly 

I have used pepper pods and salt for the Salted Lassi 
2. Jaggery for Sweetening the Lassi.

Things needed : 

Curd : 1/2 Cup
Cucumber : 2 ( Small Variety).
Pepper Pods : 3 to 4

For Salted Lassi / Butter milk 
Salt : As required
Ingh : A little

For Sweet Lassi 
Jaggery : 2 Tablespoons : Powdered or liquid

Method :

1. Wash and peel off the skin of cucumber and cut into small pieces.

2. Grind cut cucumber and pepper pods with little water. Grind it in to paste.

3. Add curd and  2 glasses of water and churn for 2 minutes.
4. Remove the done butter milk to a bowl.
5. Divide cucumber lassi two bowls.

6. Add required salt and a pinch of ingh/ Asafoetida to salted lassi and mix it well.

7. Add a tablespoon of jaggery to sweet Lassi and mix it well.

8.Sweet and Salt Lassi / Chaas /butter milk is ready to serve.

9. Put the lassi to glasses and serve. ( Adding ice cubes are optional ).

Note : 

Adding more curd is optional. You can also add little green chilly and cut coriander leaves to salty lassi. I have not added because in summer it is good to use pepper pods instead of green chilly.
Adding sugar instead of jaggery is optional. Remember jaggery is good for health. It helps in keeping your body cool.
Time : 15 Minutes
Serves : 2 to 3.

Cucumber -- Millet flour Pesarittu / Dosa

Pesarittu is a type of dosa, prepared using moong dal. Pesarittu or green gram dosa is very famous in Andra Pradesh. But now a days you can get Pesarittu in most of the places in the world.
Just check this recipe and try it out. YOU are going to say  " Wow ", I am sure.
This time Pesarittu - Moong dosa is a combination of moong dal, millet flour / Jolada hittu /Sorghum and cucumber.

Ready to serve Cucumber - Millet Pesarittu /Moong Dosa

As I said this Pesarittu is very famous in Andra Pradesh, may be because it is so hot there and moong dal or whole moong helps the body to keep cool.
When I think of Pesarittu , I do remember the experience we had when we first visited Hyderabad. My first son Ravi got his first job in Satyam which was very famous and one of the top software company. So we wanted to visit him and spend some time with him. Since he was living alone and not much of facility to cook at home we had gone to one of good hotel near by his house. I think it is Chutneys. Chutneys are the big chain of hotels and the food was really good I should mention here.
We were going through the Menu card and I saw a dish name as
" CHIEF MINISTER PESARITTU ". I was wondering how it might be. Even Ravi did not know the clue about the dish, though it mentioned Pesarittu. We ordered and there it came a big Pesarittu filled with Upma. It is just like filling Potato Palya in Masala Dosa. Uppittu/Upma was kept and Pesarittu was folded. After seeing Uppittu inside we started to laugh and could not control it. By the we were all almost full after eating so many idli, dosa, uppittu, kesari bath, Vada etc. So my self and Ravi gulped the whole dosa with Uppittu and believe me until 5 in the evening we never felt hungy. It was so heavy and full.
Coming back to This Dish Cucumber - Millet Pesarittu is one of the healthy, aromatic and healthy.
It is good for breakfast, as snack or even dinner. Try and enjoy then let me know your opinion.
Using millet helps the diabetic and diet friendly people. Use of jeera, peeper, curry leaves, ginger  adds to the healthy point of view and green chilly can be avoided if you are not keen to use. Now a days they say green chilly helps to digest food easily.
Let us see the recipe now :

Ingredients :

Moong Dal : 2 Cups
Millet /Jola /Soghum flour : 1 Cup
Cucumber : 2 ( Small type )
Ginger : An inch
Curry leaves : One handful
Coriander leaves : One handful
Black Pepper : 5 to 6 pods
Green chilly : 1
Salt : As required
Cooking Oil : 3 to 4 Tablespoons

Method :

1. Soak Moong dal for 1 hour and drain out the water.
2. Wash and cut green chilly, curry leaves, coriander leaves and ginger ( remove the outer layer
3. Wash and remove the outer layer of cucumber ( You can use the cumber peel for chutney) and cut into small pieces.

4. Put millet flour in a big bowl, add a glass of water and mix it well. ( Just enough water to mix).

5. Now grind moong dal, curry leaves, coriander leaves, cut green chilly, cut cucumber pieces and ginger.

6.Use water if necessary. Cucumber leaves out the water and is enough for grinding.
7. Add millet flour batter to moong mixture and grind it for 2 to 3 minutes. Add salt and churn for a minute.

8. Shift the batter to a big bowl.  Add water if required.

9. Keep dosa pan on the fire. Add little oil on dosa pan. Clean it out completely with a kitchen tissue.
10. Reduce the flame to low. Take a ladle of Cucumber- Millet flour Pesarittu batter and spread it on the tava in circle shape.
11. Now increase the flame to be medium. Put some oil on the top of dosa/Pesarittu.
12. Turn the other side to cook. Cook for another 1 minute and remove dosa from the pan and serve with side dish you have prepared.

13. Cucumber - Millet dosa Pesarittu is ready to serve.

14. Serve with the side dish you have prepared.

Note :

Use only required water when you grind. Mixing millet flour with water helps to mix the flour with moong batter. Use of jeera and pepper helps to avoid gas in the food. Adding millet flour is a healthy option. Adding cucumber helps the dosa to be soft and nice.
Time :
Soaking time 1 hour + grinding 5 Minutes + Preparing dosa 30 minutes.
Serves : 3 to 4 .