DELICIOUS Loving food and living [ Part -2 ]

          

         Next comes the breakfast.  In the order after coffee is over, we will go for this. The breakfast may be either grand or simple,  followed after a moderately long time by lunch which is usually grand , with some days of in between tea & snacks.  The routine South Indian breakfast items  are  idli,  dosai,  poori, semia , pongal  and the like .  The varieties of dosai or dosa are plain  dosa, roast, onion roast,  uthappam, onion ,tomato uthappam, ghee roast, masala roast, kal dasai  alike, to name a few. These can be prepared in the house itself . Only you need a proper dosa pan or dosaik kal. I have a thick indolium dosa pan.  Along with the routine break fast items, we used to prepare one item known as  ' muttai paladai ', made with rice flour, egg, little onion, little turmeric powder with sugar and grated coconut filling.  It will come like a roll.

     Now, I tell about a breakfast combo, two types of  kozhukkattai or kolakkattai .  Why referred as ' combo ' is I always prerare  kozhukkattai , pongal,  and aval ( a pre prepared rice flakes ), both sweet and spicy variety.  So, here comes the Kozhukkattai combo. 

     Ingredients - Rice flour, sometimes mixed with ragi (finger millet ) flour, jaggery, coconut pieces ( small cut pieces, not grated coconut  . The coconut pieces must be of the size of approximately  about four to four millimetre cubes), cooking oil, salt, onion, green chillies, mustard, curry leaves, black gram and bengal gram dhals for sauteing. 

    Preparation method - divide the flour into two parts and keep them in two vessels. For the sweet variety , prepare jaggery syrup ( Pagu ), add the syrup to the flour and add coconut pieces, mix it while hot , then when it reaches the temperature at which you can handle with easy, make small oblong shaped kozhukkattai with your palms & fingers in a closing grip, make it to a beautiful shape  ( before that you take an Idli chatti or idli plates with a cooker or any steam cookware ). Arrange them over the plate whichever you use for steam cooking and cook . wow. Serve hot

     ( Side story -  This  kozhukkattai was one of my daughter's friend Priya's favourite . When she goes to school I have to pack separately  in a small tiffin box for her,  and her boarding point  was at next stop and she would eat the hot hot kolakkattai immediately in the school van itself. )

     For the spicy one, in a pan add oil , saute few mustard seeds, curry leaves, black gram and bengal gram seeds, onions, and green chillies  . Once sauted this is to be added to the flour while hot and the necessary quantity of water and salt to be added and mixed to make dough and then the proceeding is the same , namely the preparation of oblong shapes and steam cook. Both the sweet  & spicy kozhukkattai can be cooked in the same pot or vessel or cooker.

                

        Eat while hot. While adding jaggery syrup to sweet variety and water  to the spicy variety, it is better to add little by little at the finishing of the dough making,  to get good, proper consistency.  

       I have a stuck chart of food planner in my kitchen for easing out the cooking ideas of any day, whenever necessary. In that the horizontal rows have the days starting from monday to sunday and vertical columns have the morning, noon and night varieties of dishes.                          

       Chia seed pudding : -

                                          

                        This pudding is not only for the weight conscious, also for the low carbies like diabetic and hypertensive people. Soak  the seeds in water  till it absorbs water and swells. Add little milk and a drop or a pellet of  sweetener- many low calorie sweeteners are available like stevia, sucralose, aspartame etc.  The best artificial sweetener is said to be the plant product stevia, the powder of which is green in colour with a little bitter after taste. But, when it comes as small sachet it is white in colour. So, some chemical might have been added to bleach it. The artificial sweetener without after taste is sucralose. If you have a liquid just one or two drops is enough. Stevia's one trade name is Sugar free stevia and sucralose's is Sugar free natura. Or little sugar or honey can be added as according to the preference. Add some pieces of plantain, banana, mango ,
apple, or few grapes or any fruit as you may like or as available. Mix - makes upto a tumbler, or a small bowl.  Add some fried cashews just before eating. Eat & see. A healthy pudding and it will satisfy your sweet tooth  also.

           Complex carbohydrates ( like oats ) and mixed carbohydrates ( instead of taking just one carbohydrate , taking  a mixture different varieties of carbohydrates like multigrain flour, multigrain biscuits , mixed fruit salad etc )  are better for health than consuming one variety of carbohydrate in a large quantity.  Cooking as well as eating are likeable. Even the people who do not know or do or do not like cooking also would like to try cooking traditional or little variations from traditional or other new recipe's once they get used to eating food with different tastes.