Healthy – Daana – The Small and Marginal Farmers' Network

Mango Kheer

Our favourite fruit, Mango, will fast dwindle away in the next 2 weeks with the summer passing and the arrival of Monsoon. Many sweets, salads and dals are made out of different varieties of Mangoes. The Mango Kheer is a unique dish which tastes excellent, especially when served chilled. Let’s take a look at this easy recipe.

Ingredients

Pulp of 2 ripe Mangoes (preferably Alphonso)

1 ltr whole milk

11 teaspoons of sugar

1 tbsp rice

Cashews

Almonds

Raisins

1 tsp ghee

Method

Boil the milk on medium flame. Add sugar. After adding sugar when the milk starts boiling, add the raw rice. Let the rice cook in the milk. Keep stirring till the milk starts reducing. It will turn to a very light pink colour. Turn off the gas and cool it to room temperature. Blend the mango pulp into a smooth puree. Add this to the cooled milk and mix well. This recipe turns out to be mildly sweet. You can adjust sugar according to your taste even at the end. Garnish with a few almonds, cashews and raisins roasted in ghee. Serve this kheer chilled.

Enjoy the Mango Kheer before the season of Mangoes end!

Cheers!!!

-Bhuvana

Aam Panna

Summer is here in full swing and you can see people gathering at Lemon Juice stalls, Coconut water and Cucumber stalls to quench their thirst and also cool their bodies. It is very important to keep ourselves hydrated in order to avoid heat strokes. Aam Panna is one such cooler which helps in hydrating and also cooling our body.

Here is a recipe worth trying…

Ingredients:

3 Raw Mangoes

Rock salt

4 tbsps Jaggery

3 cups Water

1/2 tsp Roasted Cumin seeds powder

Few Mint leaves

Method:

Peel the raw mangoes and slice them into small pieces. Cook the slices in 3 cups of water. When the mango slices become soft, add the jaggery and switch off the flame after 2 minutes. The jaggery will dissolve in the hot mango solution. Now add rock salt, roasted cumin seeds powder and the mint leaves. Cool it by refrigeration. Add water and ice before serving. You can also add cardamom for flavour.

Enjoy this delicious drink and cool off the summer..:)

Cheers!!!

– Bhuvana

Home cooked Dal Makhni

When I eat at a restaurant, I oftentimes wonder if I can replicate the same dish at home: keep the richness of the flavour, but cut out that cloyingly heavy feeling you get by eating that cream-and-butter-laden restaurant dish.

If you’re like me, you will like this recipe for Dal Makhani, which I made yesterday. “Makhan” refers to homemade white butter. This recipe contains no butter, but tastes just as good.

dalmakhni

Ingredients: (all measurements are approximate. Feel free to add or subtract to suit your discretion)

One cup whole masoor dal (also known as whole red lentil. If you live outside the Indian subcontinent, you will find it in any Indian or middle eastern grocery store)
Half cup rajma (red kidney bean)
One onion, finely chopped
Few garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 green chillies, sliced lengthwise
3 tomatoes, finely chopped
One fistful of cashew nuts
Spices: Salt, dhania (Coriander) powder, jeera (Cumin) powder, haldi (turmeric) powder and optionally some pounded cinnamon, elaichi (cardamom). If you want it light on spices, skip the cinnamon and elaichi.

Method:

Soak the rajma in warm water for a hour. Soak the cashews in warm water separately for an hour.
Cook the masoor dal and rajma in a cooker and ensure they are well cooked, but not too gooey. Mash them with a hand masher so you can still see pieces of the lentil, but they’re soft and mixed together
In a kadai (wide saute pan), heat some groundnut oil, add the onions, garlic, green chillies. Saute until the onions are lightly brown, then add the tomatoes; reduce the flame, put a lid on and cook until the tomatoes turn soft
Now add the mashed dal, salt and other spices and let it simmer a few minutes. (I prefer to add the spices at this time, and not while sauteing the onions as this preserves their flavour and aroma)
Grind the soaked cashews into a fine, slightly runny paste. Add most of it into the dal and mix it up.
Pour into a bowl to serve, drizzle the rest of the cashew paste on top, add a few sprigs of coriander leaves to garnish.
Eat with hot rotis

This is an amazing comfort food during the rainy season. If there is any of it left over, just warm it up and eat it as a snack. Do try it out and let me know how it was.