The "F" word

and Peanut –coconut chutney

Not that F word. I know what you are thinking….Get your mind out of gutter will ya? I am thinking of FAT- the other F word.  Since I had the baby ( gosh  almost 3 years ago) I am trying to lose some weight and I think about fat quite often.  Even though fat has such a negative connotation when comes to dieting and losing weight, to survive we need fat. Fat has vital role to play in terms of the energy storage, absorption of Vitamins ( fat soluble vitamins such as A, D etc), provide insulation and production key hormones.

The recipe I am working on today is the absolute favorite chutney of our entire family. We eat it with Dosa, rice, poori and anything you can imagine.  This is one of the recipes I have perfected over years and I make all the time. You can use this chutney on the sandwich as  a spread....mmm so good.

Ingredients:

Peanuts : 1/2 cup

Fresh Coconut : 1/2 cup

Red chilies : 4-5

Tamarind paste : ½ TSP

Or

Tamarind : Size of small marble

Jagerry/ Brown sugar: ½ tsp (Optional)

Salt to taste

Preparation Method:

 Dry roast peanut on a skillet till they change color a bit.

    Add Red chilies to the skillet at the last minutes before taking it off from the heat.

   Let the peanut and chilies cool to room temperature.

   Grind the peanuts and red chilies to a powder. Don’t add any water at this stage

 Add coconut, tamarind , salt, Brown sugar   and water to the above mix and grind till smooth.

Tadka :

You don’t have to add any tadka for this chutney to taste good but if you want you can add mustard, curry leaves tadka to the chutney.

Good, Bad and the Ugly of the fats : When it comes to fats, not all of them are created equal.  Based on the role these fats play in our system fats can be classified into good and bad fats.

Good fats:  The good fats are the unsaturated fats (Mano and poly) which paly number of beneficial roles in our body including improve the blood cholesterol levels. These fats are usually liquid at room temperature and are from plant sources such as nuts and seeds and fish. Avocados are very good source of monounsaturated fats while fish, flaxseed and soy bean oil are good source of Polyunsaturated fats.

Bad fats: saturated fats are considered bad as they have negative impact on health specifically on the heart and our body is capable of producing these fats and hence we do not need to consumer saturated fats through food. The main sources of these fats are usually from animal such as chicken and from dairy products.

Ugly fats:  These are the really bad fats which cause lot of the health issues related to the heart. The ugly fats a.k.a trans fats are mostly originate from the processing of the fat and oils such as during the  partial hydrogenation  which is the process of converting liquid oil into a solid fat that has beneficial functional properties such as heat stability. Hence the partially hydrogenated fats are used in the fast food restaurant for making French fries.  The source of trans fat in our diet is from processed food specially fried food.

For more information on the fats please check :  http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html

The other good thing I found while researching for this article is the daily plate which talks about a balanced diet (from http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/ ).  

When Life hands you Lemons

………..you make Lemon rice

          Month of October always brings the memories of festival of Dasara. I grew up in city of Mysore which is well known for its Dasara celebrations. The Dasara festival represents the winning of good over evil and in Mysore the legend is that this is the day Goddess Chanmundi killed the demon Mahishasura. Dasara is a 10 day festival and the last day of the festival is Vijayadashmi (Vijaya : Winning/ winner and Dashmi is : 10^th day of lunar cycle). On vijayadashmi, in Myosre, we have the yearly tradition and it is known for its elephants, the parade and whole grandeur of the festivities. I still remember when Dad took me and my siblings to watch the parade and it was the whole day affair. The Mysore palace is lighted up for all the 10 days and the parade stars at the Palace. Mysore used to be the capital of Wodeyar dynasty and till date, the festivities start with the royal family performing special offerings (puja) at the chanmundi temple on the chamundi hills and holding the court at the Mysore palace. Here is a nice blog that has lot of pictures from the Dasara parade of Mysore. : Bangalore View: Mysore Dasara 2008.

        Other days of Dasara include the Ayudha Pooja (worship of the weapons) which is celebrated on the 9^th day. According to Hindu mythology, this was the day, when Arjuna retrieved his weapons from the Shami tree (Banni tree ) and went to war with Kauravas. In the present time, we celebrate this symbolically by performing pooja of all our weapons or tools of the trade such as knives and the automobiles. All the tools and the automobiles are cleaned and decorated with flowers, banana leaves and turmeric. A few thousand lemons and pumpkins (filled with Kumkum-red dye as symbol of blood) are scarified on this day as part of the offering to the tools and automobiles. Here is link to the blog that talks about this festival :  http://melissaenderle.blogspot.com/2008/10/ayudha-puja.html
   
So in memory of all the Lemons that get scarified on Aydha puja, I decided to sacrifice my own and make Lemon rice J

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice : 1 cup                    

Coconut : ¼ cupGreen Chilies : 4-6
Mustard seeds : 1 TSP

Lemon : 1 medium sized                                                                     


For Tadka,
Oil :1 tsp
Mustard : 1 tsp
Urad dal (black gram)
Channa Dhal (green gram)
Peanuts 1 TSP
Turmeric : a Pinch
Curry leaves : 2-3


Preparation method:
Method 1 : Heat the oil and add mustard seeds. Let them splutter before adding peanut, Urad and channa dal. Roast for couple of minutes and add turmeric and curry leaves. Take of from the stove and let it cool.
Blend coconut, mustard, green chilies into a smooth paste in a grinder and add this paste to the Tadka (from step 1). Add salt to taste. Mix the cooked rice and lemon juice to the tadka. I prefer to mix by hand to get a better mix and hence I cool everything before I start mixing. You can add coriander leaves ( cilantro ) as garnish if you like.
This is the typical way the Lemon Rice is done for the festival dinner/lunch
Method 2 : Second method of making Lemon rice is to add cut onions (One medium sized onion) to the tadka (Step 1) and sauté till brown. In this method you can skip adding the ground paste (Step 2) and directly add cooked rice and lemon juice and mix well. You can garnish with Cilantro and coconut if you like. This type of Lemon rice is made for breakfast when mom wants to use up the extra rice from night before.

Did you know ?
Lemon juice is rich in Vitamin C . Lemon is used as a cure for Scurvy- a disease caused due to Vitamin C. British sailors used to carry Lemon with them when going on long trip on the ship and hence earning the nickname Limey!


Mane Maddu (Home remedies)
Lemon is one of the most useful fruit you can find in your kitchen. I was looking through mom's book for lemon and I found about 3 pages worth of home remedies. Here are some common ones:

• Equal parts of Lemon Juice and honey (1 tsp each) mixed well is a good remedy for nausea.
  
• 1 tsp Lemon juice and pinch of Sodium bicarb can be used as a cure for indigestion. In general adding few drops of lemon juice to water and drinking it helps with digestion.
  
• Lemon Juice with water is a good coolant (Hence Lemonade is a popular drink in summer months)
• Lemon juice is beneficial for people with kidney stones ( For more info : http://www.uwhealth.org/files/uwhealth/docs/pdf/kidney_citric_acid.pdf)
• Lemon juice is used to cure dandruff. Rubbing lemon juice on the scalp and leaving it couple of hours and then washing it takes care of dandruff and apparently makes the hair shine too.
   

Butter milk(y) way

           Other day I told my DH(Dear Husband) to get some butter milk. Since Dad is visiting us from India, he prefers butter milk over yogurt and I always tend to keep a quart (about 1L) of butter milk at home. Without realizing that I already had 1 quart in the refrigerator, DH brings home 3 more quarts of butter milk. Now I am refrigerator full of butter milk!!!! I had to quickly find a way to use it and decided to make majjige huli (Buttermilk based sauce with vegetables)

Ingredients:

Vegetable: You can use most of the gourds (Pumpkin, Squash etc) Okra or eggplant.  Tomatillos also goes very well with this recipe
Coconut: 2-3 Tsp (Either freshly grated or frozen)
Green chilies 2-4
Uncooked rice: 1 tsp
Channa Dal: 2 tsp
Mustard seeds: 10-15 seeds
Butter milk: 2-3 cups
Salt to taste
Turmeric

The pre-preparation is to soak channadal, rice and mustard seeds in 1/4 cup of water for couple of hours. You can use hot water and cut the time to 30 min. Another way is to use rice flour and Bessan (Chickpea flour) and skip the soaking step.

Preparation method:

          If you are using Okra or Eggplant or Tamotillos, saute them in little bit oil till the vegetables turn light brown. In case of Okra, the aim is to remove all the gumminess.  For other vegetable such as Pumpkin or coyote squash (Seme Badne Kayi), you can cut the vegetables and boil in water till soft.

         Grind soaked channa dal, rice, coconut, mustard seeds, green chilies and turmeric with little bit of buttermilk in the blender to make it to a smooth paste.  If you are looking for low fat recipe, then skip adding coconut.

        Heat oil in small pot and add mustard seeds and let seeds the splutter. Add curry leaves and the ground paste(From step 2) .  Add cooked vegetables and remaining butter milk and cook till the mix gets little thick (2-3 min). Add salt to taste and simmer.

This creamy and rich recipe goes very well with Rice.

Science of Butter milk:  Traditionally buttermilk is what is left over after the butter is churned out of the milk and usually slightly sour in taste. If you look at any ayurvedic book or talk to old timers, they will say there are 4 kinds of butter milk (The differences are in terms of amount of fat and water and if the butter is removed or not).  But the basic principle of making the butter milk is the same. Ferment the milk with the right kind of bacteria to make curds/ yogurt and churn the curds/yogurt to buttermilk with or without addition of water. In US, most grocery stores have cultured buttermilk which is done in the similar way by adding active cultures.

Benefits of Buttermilk:

Buttermilk is known to have lot of health benefits especially related to digestion.

• It is beverage of choice in summer months as it is considered a good coolant.

·    For indigestion and upset stomach (Now I sound like Pepto Bismol ad :-) ), buttermilk is supposed to help to reduce the pain and symptoms

·     Few seeds of Fenugreek (methi seeds) with a spoonful of buttermilk helps with indigestion

       

      To understand the health benefits of buttermilk, let us talk about microbiology.

           The first step of buttermilk making process is to ferment milk. This is achieved by using the yogurt from day before (What mom used) or using starter cultures (what industry uses). In both methods what we are doing is adding live bacteria known as Lactic acid Bacteria (LAB).  The most commonly used bacteria for yogurt/ buttermilk fermentation are Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus and/or Lactococcus lactis.  These bacteria are known as the Lactic acid bacteria as they convert the milk sugar Lactose into lactic acid which gives the sour taste to the yogurt/buttermilk.

  

        Human gastrointestinal tract has number of bacteria mainly belonging to  Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteir species. These organisms play a vital role in our existence as they produce some of the vitamins (B and K), enzymes such as Lactase and acts as competition with pathogenic (bad bacteria) for the colonization in our gut . These organisms are also known to produce anti-bacterial and fungal substances to protect against pathogenic fungus and bacteria, production of anti-carcinogenic substances and help with the development of immune system.

        When the balance of the natural gut flora is affected due to antibiotics or infection/ illness, resulting in Diarrhea and other related issues, it has been shown that  eating yogurt/ buttermilk or other probiotic (Literally means "For life") containing foods restores the natural microbial balance.

Lactose intolerance and cultured milk products: If you suffer from Lactose intolerance, yogurt/buttermilk is considered better for you.  Lactose intolerance happens in people who lack the Lactase enzyme that breaks down the Lactose sugar in the milk to its constituents: Glucose and Galactose which are then absorbed by the intestinal walls. If your system lacks the Lactase enzyme, the Lactose can not pass through the intestinal wall (too big to go through) and will be attacked by the gut microbes producing gas. Your body tires to get rid of the gas by contraction (hence the abdominal pain) and flushing with water (Diarrhea).  Since in the cultured milk products, the microbes have already done the breaking down of the Lactose into lactic acid, when you consume the cultured diary product the chain reaction that leads to the abdominal discomfort.

Useful web pages :

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/ekende/lactose.htm

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/lactics.html

Pleasure of simple food (Science)

As I sit on my couch on this fall morning and thinking about what to cook for lunch, I think about comfort food: something warm,something soothing. I am thinking about Rice and Dhal. Simple to make yet so delicious. It takes me back to my childhood when mom used to feed dahl and rice with ghee. When my son was 6 months old and we started him on the solids, this was his first bite -mashed up dhal with rice and ghee. Like the diverse people of India, we have lots of ways of making Dhal. The recipe I use is what my mom is used to make when we were kids. For making Dhal you will need :

Basic Version                                                                                   Spicy Version

1 cup of toor dhal                                                                          1 cup moong dhal
Pinch of Turmeric                                                                          Turmeric
Salt to taste                                                                                   1/2 cup coconut
Oil                                                                                                1/2 tsp Jeera
Mustard seeds                                                                               2-4 green chillies
                                                                                                     Oil
                                                                                                     Mustard seeds
                                                                                                     Salt to taste


Boil the toor dhal in water (2 cups of water with pinch of turmeric added ) until they are very soft.
The usual way I cook dhal is by using a pressure cooker.   Lately I use pressure cooker lot more as food cooks so much faster and evenly. If you are using a pressure cooker, let it whistle for 3-5 whistles. On a side note, my 3 year old son like to scream  with the whistle every time the whistle goes off  and it is hilarious to watch him scream his head off and he knows he is being funny and hence the pitch goes up higher as we laugh :-)

 If you are not using a pressure cooker, it will take 30-45 minutes cook the toor dhal to the right consistency ( Cooked dhal should not have any hard areas in the center and should become a paste if pressed).

Freshly cooked Dhal

Once you have the dhal ready, you can add tadka to it. Tadka is again very specific to your taste. I like to heat oil and add mustard seeds. Let the seeds splutter  and then take off from the stove and add it to the cooked dhal. Add salt to taste and boil for few more minutes. Other things you can add to the tadka are curry leaves, Cumin (Jeera), onions (Fry them till brown), garlic etc.

For the spicy version, combine coconut, jeera and Chillies and using a blender make it to a smooth paste. Add this paste to the cooled dhal  along with salt and tadka and simmer. This recipe goes well with chapathi and rice.

Now for the fun part: Science behind why we eat dhal and what it provides

 

This simple dish is a staple for most of the Indians. We eat some version of dhal everyday. When I tell people we are vegetarians, usual question is how do you get your proteins?  Of course from lentils is my normal answer. 

To examine this question from a Food Scientist point  view, the question is not how we get our protein but do we get a  "Complete Protein"?  A complete protein is the one that has all the "essential " amino acids ( For those of you who have forgotten biology completely, Amino acids are the building block of  proteins. They are 20 amino acids and our amazing body can make most of them except for few that need to supplied through food) .  In nature not all proteins are created equal and most of the proteins derived from animal source are "complete protein" with all the essential amino acids. Proteins from plant source usually lack one or more essential amino acids.

But don't worry yet!!   Indian diet tend to have a mixture of all different kinds of proteins (coming from rice, wheat etc) . What is missing lentils is supplied by what we eat with dhal  i.e rice or roti. We get all the essential amino acids we need by combining various sources of protein in our daily diet (There is growing body of evidence suggesting that even in lentils, the amount of essential amino acids are enough to sustain an adult human and combining food is not necessary).  One cup of cooked lentils has about 18 g of protein and an average adult weighing about 160 lbs needs about 65-70 g of protein everyday. If you are looking to increase your protein intake ( to help with weight loss), Soy is a great source of protein for vegetarian diet. A cup of cooked soy (175 g) has about 28-30 g of proteins. Bottom line is to eat a well balanced meal with a variety of protein source to provide with enough calories and proteins. 

If you are curious about finding out levels of proteins in your food, USDA web page has a good resource : http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl .

Other good resources I found on protein writing this blog:

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein/