PANEER BUTTER MASALA

Ingredients:
Paneer - 200 gms
Onion - 1 medium sized
Tomato - 2 medium sized
Ginger garlic paste - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp to saute onion
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
Chili powder - 1/2 tsp or little more
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Cashews - 6 numbers
Butter - 1 tsp + 1 tbsp


Preparation:
Dice paneer into 1 inch cubes.


Heat oil in a pan and saute onion until raw smell goes


Cool and grind to a paste. If necessary add some water.


Grind tomato to a smooth paste. It can be blanched in hot water, removed skin and then pureed. Another variation: Add diced tomatoes after onion is cooked and when tomato too cooked, cool and make a paste together.


Make a paste of cashews.

Heat oil in a shallow pan and slightly roast paneer, until golden color on all sides.


Place a pan in medium flame and immediately add 1 tsp butter. Add ginger garlic paste and add onion paste and tomato puree.


Allow to cook for a few minutes until raw smell goes.


Now add all masalas and allow to cook for about 10 minutes. Close with lid and let it cook.


Now add cashew paste and leave to cook for another 10 minutes or until a nice flavor releases.


Finally add roasted paneer and butter. Serve hot with roti, naan or poori.

EGG DOSA FOR TODDLER

Ingredients:

Egg - 1
Idly batter - 1/4 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper powder - a pinch
Cumin powder - a pinch (optional)

Preparation:
Beat egg with salt, pepper powder and cumin powder.


Now add idly batter and mix well. This will be more watery than a dosa batter.


Heat a tawa and pour 1 ladle full of batter and rotate the pan to spread the batter all over.


When it's cooked on one side flip carefully and let it cook for just a few seconds.


Serve hot with any chytney.

FRENCH BEANS MINI DOSA

Ingredients:

French beans (cut into small pieces) - 1/2 cup

Oil/ghee - 1 tsp

Dosa batter - 1/2 cup

Salt to taste

Oil/ghee to prepare dosas

Preparation:

Saute beans in oil for about 5 minutes till the raw odor is removed.

  

Grind in a mixer with little batter to a smooth paste. Don't add water. If necessary add little more batter.

Mix with the rest of the batter and add salt to taste.

Let the batter sit for about 30 minutes.

Now prepare mini dosas. Drizzle few drops of oil / ghee to the sides.

Serve with any gravy or chutney.

Mostly kids don't eat beans. In this recipe they get the benefits of beans with the main dish.

APPLE CHAPATHI

My daughter's recipe

Ingredients:

Apple - 1
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup + some extra to add if necessary
Salt - a pinch
Ghee - 1/2 tsp + to add while cooking

Preparation:

Grate the apple.


Then mix with flour, salt and ghee.


Without adding water, make dough of chapathi consistency. If the dough is loose add more flour to make it stiff.


Now roll the dough and cook by adding some ghee.


Serve immediately. Kids will surely love it.

THINAI / FOXTAIL MILLET APPAM

Ingredients:
Thinai - 1 cup
Coconut milk - to grind thinai
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Dry yeast - 1 tsp


Preparation:
Soak thinai / foxtail millet in just enough water for an hour.
Now drain water and grind the millet with coconut milk in mixer grinder.
Mix in sugar, salt and dry yeast. The batter must be a little thin than dosa batter.



Allow to ferment for about 5 - 6 hours.


Now prepare appam in appam pan. Appam pan is like a wok but shallower than wok. Pour the batter to the pan so that the appam must be thin at the sides and thick at the center.


Cover the pan with a lid and allow to cook for about two minutes. Serve hot with any gravy.

RAGI POORI

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Ragi flour - 1 cup
Really warm water but not hot
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Preparation:

Mix wheat flour, ragi flour and salt together.


Make a stiff dough with warm water.


Roll the dough slightly thicker and make pooris.


Serve hot with potato sabji or any other veg or non-veg gravy.

RAGI / FINGER MILLET IDLY (WET GRINDER METHOD - RAGI FLOUR AND WHOLE RAGI)

Using ragi flour

Ingredients:

Black gram splits - 1 cup

Ragi flour - 3 cups

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Soak black gram splits for one hour and grind in a wet grinder. Add water little by little to make a smooth and fluffy paste. When done transfer to a big vessel.

Add ragi flour, water and salt  to make a batter little thicker than idly consistency.

Allow to ferment for atleast 8 hours. Not like rice idly, ragi idly batter must be really fermented and raised. 

Now spoon batter to idly plated and steam for 10 minutes. 

Ragi idly tastes good with spicy gravy or sambhar.

Note:

No need to grease the idly plates before pouring batter. After steaming remove the plates and turn upside down. Pour some cold water carefully over the plate. 

Now let it sit for two minutes and use a spoon to remove idlies. It will be easier to remove and also hot too.

Using whole ragi

Ingredients:

Black gram splits - 1 cup

Raw rice - 1 cup

Whole ragi - 2 cups

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Soak gram splits in a bowl for one hour. Soak rice and whole ragi together in another vessel for one hour. When soaked grind the black gram splits into a smooth paste in a wet grinder until fluffy. Transfer to a big vessel and now grind rice and ragi together to a coarse batter.


Now mix this with the gram splits paste to get a batter of idly consistency. Add salt to taste and allow to ferment.


When fermented prepare idly and serve hot with any side dish of your choice.

When carefully noted some skin of ragi can be seen. Ragi cannot be grinded so smoothly but still the idly turns out very soft.

Note: 

• Grind ragi together with rice. Otherwise it takes a long time to grind and also it wont turn out good.
• Any whole grain millet can be used in this same ratio. 
• If so then grind rice and the millets separately. Only for ragi grinding together is must. Others give good results when ground separately.