Puffed Rice Laddus – Pori Urundai

Method

1. Prepare the Jaggery syrup and coconut pieces just the same way as illustrated above.
2. Add the puffed rice and coconut piece and mix till incorporated
3. Let it cool a little bit and shape them into balls.
4. The same rule as of Peanut urundai follows.
5. The mixture should be still relatively hot to touch.

Eating fish, bread makes kids smarter

Wondering how to make your kids smarter? Well, giving them fish once a week and feeding them with bread and cereals four times a day can make a
Eating fish, bread makes kids smarter
Eating fish, bread makes kids smarter (Getty images)
lot of difference, claims a Kiwi study.

The study from University of Otago revealed what parents should feed their children to make them smarter. It suggests that eating certain types of food may boost or significantly lower kids’ IQ. Eating margarine has shown strong links with lower IQ scores.

The thesis by University of Otago research fellow Dr Reremoana Theodore, calls for further research into margarine and says children from disadvantaged families could be most at risk as margarine is often cheaper than other spreads. She found that children eating margarine daily have “significantly lower intelligence scores”.

It is believed that trans-fatty acids in margarine could be to blame might be responsible for low IQs. Richard Swinbourne, a dietitian who works with schools in the Taranaki region, says the findings need to be seen as part of a wider picture.

“You could have a child having margarine but if they were having a couple of bits of fruit a day, and going to school with breakfast, and physically active…I’m sure they would overshoot someone that wasn’t having the margarine, alone,” the NZPA quoted him as saying.

Along with the fish and bread Swinbourne also emphasises the importance of children eating breakfast. In the study conducted over 600 New Zealand European children, as well as detailing the pregnancy of each mother. Theodore studied the effect of certain factors on children’s intelligence. She found that mothers who drank moderate amounts of alcohol while pregnant had children with much higher IQs, than those who did not.

However, Alcohol Advisory Council says this result seems to be “at odds with the great body of evidence linking alcohol to poor health outcomes for the foetus”. “There is no known safe level of consumption of alcohol during pregnancy and both Alac and the Ministry of Health advise pregnant women to avoid all alcohol,” said council’s acting chief executive, Dr Andrew Hearn.

Dietician Jacquie Dale says children don’t need margarine, butter or other “blended” spreads on their sandwiches instead, parents should look for substitutes that are low in saturated fat, not overly processed and that contain some “goodies”. This may include peanut butter, hummus, cottage cheese, a thin slice of cheese, or chutney.

Pongal Special – AVAL PAYASAM

Aval Payasam

Aval Payasam Ingredients: 1 litre whole cream milk. 1/4 cup poha (beaten rice) 1 cup sugar 4-5 pinches cardamom powder 4 cashews, broken 5 almonds, slivered thinly 5 pistachios slivered thinly 15-20 raisins Method: Wash poha, drain and keep aside for 10 minutes. Loosen poha with finger till each grains separates. Boil milk in a large deep vessel. Once it starts boiling well, add poha, stir gently to resume boiling. Simmer, stirring occasionally, to almost half in volume. Add sugar,cardamom, stir and cook to dissolve. Add cashews, raisins, boil for 2 minutes further. Garnish with chopped pistachios and almonds. Serve hot. Making time: 30 minutes Makes: 4 servings Shelflife: 1 day

Pongal – CHAKKARAI PONGAL

Chakkara Pongal

Chakkara Pongal Ingredients: Raw Rice – 1 cup green gram dal – 1 cup (not the whole one but the broken one) jaggery – 1 to 1 1/2 cup (according to your taste) ghee – 2 tbsp cashew (broken), raisin – 1 tbsp each   Method: Cook rice and dhal together till they’re well done. Put jaggery in a kadai with 2 tbsp of water and let it melt. After it melts, you can filter the liquid using a fine sieve if needed. Add rice and dhal mixture to the jaggery and cook stirring continuously. Add ghee little by little and cook till the mixture thickens to be of the consistency of khichdi. Take off from flame. Fry cashew and raisins in a little ghee and add to the Pongal. Mix well and serve hot or cold. It’s be really yummy!

Pongal Special – URUD VADA

Urad Vada Ingredients: 1/2 kg urad dhal, soaked 1-2 hrs Red chillies 2, cut Ginger small piece Green chillies 3, cut Salt to taste Spring curry leaves few, broken Oil for deep frying   Method: Wash and grind the urad dhal to a thick paste. While grinding add green, red cillies & ginger remove. Mix with curry leaves, salt. Next, keep karahi with enough oil to deep fry vadas. Once the oil is heated, form small balls of the made paste and drop into the karahi, fry on medium fire untill light brown. Drain and remove them on the paper (so the excess oil is absorbed). Serve hot with chutney or any available sauce. Serves: 3-6

Lemon Rice with Curd

Ingredients: 1 cup cooked rice
2 tsp oil
20 curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp rai
1/2 tsp ginger
2 green chillies
4 whole red chillies
2 tsp urad ka daal
2 tsp channa ka daal
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste
3 tsp water
fresh coriander to garnish

Method: Boil the rice, drain and keep aside.

Heat the oil, add rai, asafoetida, curry leaves, ginger, chillies, urad daal, channa daal and the turmeric.

Add the lemon juice, salt, water and simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the rice and mix well. Finally garnish with coriander.

For the curd, whisk well, add cucumber and put a tarka of curry leaves, red pepper powder, rai and urad daal.

Vegetable Sizzler (Fusion)

Ingredients: 2 cups mixed vegetables-blanched and chopped
1 cup potatoes-boiled and mashed
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp ginger-chopped fine
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp powdered dry mango
2 tsp green chillies-chopped fine
1/2 cup refined flour
1/4 cup oil
sizzler plates

Method: Heat 2 tbsp of oil and add the cumin and ginger. Stir-fry till well mixed and add the mixed vegetables and stir over high heat to dry off the excess moisture.

Add the coriander powder and the mango powder, salt and chillies, mix well and turn off heat.

When cool mix in the potato. Form into round or oval cutlets.

Dust the cutlets with the refined flour. Heat the oil and pan fry to brown on both sides.

To serve, heat the sizzler plates to very hot; wet the cutlets on both sides and quickly place over the hot plate. Sprinkle some more water to increase the sizzling, and serve immediately, accompanied with potatoes or vegetables of your choice.

Pav Bhaji (Microwave Method)

Ingredients: 1 cup potatoes – chopped and boiled
2 cups mixed vegetables – chopped and boiled
green chillies – chopped
1 cup grated onions – ground with 1 tsp garlic and ginger each
1 cup tomato – grated
1 cup tomato puree
1 cup oil
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp salt or to taste
1 tsp pav bhaji masala
1/2 tsp red pepper – powdered
6 pav breads
6 tbsp butter – for the bread

1200 W Microwave

Method: Mix together the oil, cumin seeds and cook covered at HI for 3 minutes. Mix in the onion paste and cook covered at HI for 5 minutes, stirring once till fat separates. Cook for some more time if it does not.

Add the potatoes, mix vegetables and green chillies and cook at HI for 5 minutes, stirring once.

Add the tomatoes and tomato puree, green chillies, turmeric, salt, pav bhaji masala and red pepper and continue cooking at HI, stirring every 4 minutes, till the fat separates. Keep mashing the vegetables as they cook.

To serve, heat some butter, slit the bread horizontally and fry in the butter till brown.

Serve with the vegetables.