Thursday, October 15, 2009

carrot juice

I remember tasting this drink in my childhood when it was first introduced by a nature cure Dr AVG Reddy. He was our neighbour for some time before he started with his nature cure camps & clinic. He first advised my mom to give this juice for my brother who suffered from a cardiac disease from his newborn stage. And this miracle drink actually worked. From then on carrot juice was an essential part of our everyday diet. The recipe I have given here is exactly how the Dr told. It has lots of nutritional benefits & cures many illness without our knowledge.

Soon i will try to add its nutrition table but for time being here is the recipe.

Ingrediants:

Carrots - 4 large - peeled & sliced
Coconut slices - 1 handful or cup
jaggery or maple syrup - according to taste
cheese cloth - 1or a tea filter

additional spices:
cinnamon or cardamom.

Method:

Grind well the coconut & carrot in a mixer or juicer to extract the full juice. Add a cup of water to while grinding if the mix is too thick. Now place the cheese cloth or tea filter over a cup & pour the well grinded mix , squeeze finely to collect all the juice. Add the powdered jaggery or maple syrup according to taste & spices if necessary. This drink is just ready to taste now.

Benefits:

1. Very good for people suffering from cardiac dieases especially when there is "hole" or bleeding in the heart.
2. can be consumed in all ages. infants above 6 months.
3. Diabetic patients please consult with your doctor or dietician.
4. Reduces power levels in the eyes.
5. Its a no cholestrol food as the coconut extract is fresh not heated or boiled or pasturised.
6. Above all very good source of energy for every one especially mommy to be & new moms can be taken while lactating also.

Tip: Always carrots & coconuts should be fresh not frozen. after extracting the juice you will have the leftover which can be used in salads.

disclaimer: What i have shared with you in this page is my real experience & not a medical advice. Please be sure to consult your doctor or dietician for individual needs.

http://www.carrotjuice.com/

Thursday, September 24, 2009

vegetable semiya

Vegetable Semiya is one healthy dish topped with strawberry pieces & garnished with chopped cilantro & parsley will be a lip smacking food. you can serve this dish for a get-2-gethers or flatter your loved ones. Use all or vegetables of your choice or availability.

ingredients:

vermicelli - 300 gms

onions - chopped -1 cup

jalapeno chillies - 1 cup - cut in to their shapes

red radish - 1/4 cup - cubed

beans - cut - 1/4 cup

potato - cubed - 1/4 cup

squash - cubed - 1/4 cup (any variety)

peas - 5 tbsp

corn - 5 tbsp

leeks - 10 tbsp

ginger - 2 tbsp - finely chopped

curry leaves - few

mustard seeds, urud dhall, cumin, Channa dhall - seasoning

parsley- chopped - 3 tbsp

cilantro - chopped - 3 tbsp

salt - to taste

oil- 1/4 cup sesame or olive oil

coconut oil - 3 tbsp

coconut - seasoning - scrapped

Strawberries- fresh-cubed-5.

Fry the semiya in a spoon of oil & keep aside. Fry the seasoning ingredients then with onion, leeks, ginger,jalapeno's & vegetables. Add 11/2 cups(150 ml) of water & cook them tender. add salt to taste give a stir & semiya stir them often in medium-low heat. finally scrapped coconut,parsley, cilantro to mix well with the upma. Now top the chopped strawberries over & serve hot.

tip: semiya needs half its quantity of water to get a non-sticky upma.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

squash tawa r squash kadai

ingredients:

choyte squash - 1/4 cup

pumpkin - 1/4 cup

yellow squash - 1/4 cup

butternut squash - 1/4 cup

summer squash -1/4 cup

winter squash - 1/4 cup

Korean melon - 1/4 cup

long squash - 1/4 cup

preparation:

cut the squash into square pieces wash them & fry it in little olive oil or coconut oil. then cook till soft & add them in to prepared vegetable tawa masala & boil for few mins. sprinkle with parsley.

vegetable tawa masala:

buy a good brand of masala or just go with pramapara vegetable tawa masala mix in curd as per pack direction.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Strawberry cake

I started baking cakes while i was spinster but now & then. When there is an appreciation for what you do encourages but when your loved ones relishes that same makes one feel heavenly.Now a days when i take out the baking materials my toddler simply understands he gets a fresh cake to munch on & would just give hugs & kisses before i start to bake. Thats an advance thanks from his side for what hes going to get after an hour. This is heavenly isnt it?

And one more thanks to Mrs Ambika srinivasan one among the couple of best friends who kindled the idea of baking cakes once again. That was a surprising instant may be its her personal but i believe she will not mistake me if i click it down here. She baked a lovely fruit cake for her husbands birthday in my house as to make it very surprise for him. within 10 days from then i baked one chocolate cake & then started my cake journey with a fierce when my toddler enjoyed what i baked for him.Not only cakes she gave a couple of best ideas for other pastries too which i would put on these pages in near future.

Ingredients

To bake:

Cake flour - 3 cups

Baking powder -1 1/2 spn

Baking soda -1/4 spn

Salt -1/2 spn

Unsalted butter -2/3 cup softened

Sugar -11/2 cups

Eggs - 4

strawberry syrup - as needed 3 spoons full (for strong flavour N taste)

To frost:

Sour cream - 1 box

Strawberry jam - 1 bottle (small smuckers)

Sugar -2 cups

Red food colour - as desired. 1/4 spn

To decorate:

Fresh strawberrries - 10 nos

Slivered Almonds - 1 cup .

any other according to your imagination.

Bake: Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Mix the cake flour, baking powder , soda & salt in a mixing bowl. Another mixing bowl with a handmixer mix butter & sugar on high till frothing up. Add eggs & strawberry syrup & blend in medium speed. Pour the dry ingredients & blend them in for 2 mins more. In a cake pan 2 8" square pan or 9" round pan pour the mix & bake for 20 mins approximately or a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake in a wire rack before frosting.

Frost: Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting with sour cream. mix the color, flavour if any, sugar with sour cream on high speed to froth up. cut the cake in to layer of 11/2 inch size.

frost the middle layer with strawberry jam. place the other layer on top. if there are only 2 layers of cake then frost the full cake with sour cream mix. if more layers you have cut then all middle layers should be put jam & cover up fully with sour cream.

Decorate: sour cream frosting has one disadvantage its not very thick like cream cheese or butter frost. so while decorating add some almonds or fried cashews on the edges to stop the sour cream from flowing down.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

healthy cooking oils

Have you ever wondered how your grand parents who crossed 90 - 100 years lived without any health problems like cholesterol, diabetes, cardiac disease & other threatening illnesses? Do some research for your self & the answers you find will amaze you.

cooking oil is as essential as sugar & salt in everyday cooking. But choosing one such good for health and easy for cooking is very important. Recently i went through some sites and researched a few to find which oil has health & nutrition benefits in the modern day cooking. Surprisingly it was the olden day oils which won the credibility of health with researchers & not the modern refined variety. So here will be some facts & updated links to follow about these oils.

olive oil, sesame oil, coconut oil all there we know have their base from ancient days. They hold same old good qualities even now. Those who cooked with these three oils & still believe they enrich ones cooking taste here is your relief they also add lot of health & nutrition to your food source. In this preferred group joins the ghee or clarified butter. Everybody's concern about ghee is its full fat. on the other hand ghee holds less fat than butter is true because once the butter is melted in a process the heavy fat gets to the bottom of the vessel. So as long as a person don't consume that heavy fat crystal down in the vessel you shouldn't be afraid of cholesterol problems.

Recently lots of attention is diverted towards cooking oils and articles coming up in local grocery magazines too. one such kind recommended all refined oil variety should be used only for light cooking like baking, deep frying etc. And one researcher quotes that people turned to refined oil variety cooking only for the reason either the healthy oils where unavailable or costlier.

I am quoting here some links and books & web pages which do provide a healthy insight to a curious mind that searches truth supported by references. So i allow you do the job for your satisfaction. Now a days surfing on Internet will fetch you humpty number of information than you could possibly imagine. Go to books.google.com/books & give a search on anything. Again just a word is enough to bring more info's.