Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Dr. Mantena's Ramzan Special Dahi Vada
Friends, last year during the month of Ramzan, I
published a recipe on Dahi Vadi which went viral. Again this year we tried to
make the same recipe improvising from what we did last year. Instead of
roasting the vadas on a pan without oil, we tried to steam the vadas and
believe me my dear friends it came up really well.
So today’s update in Dr. Mantena’s Kitchen is “Ramzan
Special - Dahi Vada” with a twist. The regular dahi vada is prepared with urad
dal in most parts of the country. But this Ramzan special dahi vada is made
with chana flour (chick pea flour). If you are a Hyderabadi, then you are
familiar with this recipe. “Ramzan mein kaun bade? Dahi Vade…!” I think every
Hyderabadi is familiar with this popular slogan on Dahi Vada. Such is the
popularity of this dish in Hyderabad. This is especially prepared during the
month of Ramzan for breaking the day long fast by Mohemmadan brothers. It is so
popular during Ramzan that it is sold in every Irani hotel, haleem and tea
points in the evening. Hyderabad is not only famous for Biryani but also for haleem
during Ramzan season. Whether it is Hindu or Mohemmadan or Christian everyone
cherish these dishes. Dahi Vada is the next popular Hyderabadi dish after
Biryani and Haleem that is loved by one and all including the vegetarians.
The regular dahi vada available in the market or
prepared at home by many is deeply fried in oil which is really harmful to the health.
This dahi vada is really nutritious, healthy and delicious as well. We haven’t
used any harmful taste such as salt, sugar, ghee, oil, tamarind, red chili
powder etc. which Dr. Mantena Satyanarayana Raju considers as 7 poisons that
take our life slowly. So without wasting much time let us go into the details
of making it.
Cooking Time:
35-40 mins
Serving:
4 people
Ingredients:
1. Chick pea flour - 300
2. Yogurt - 800
3. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
4. Turmeric - ¼ tsp
5. Green chilies - 5 nos.
6. Curry Leaves - 5 nos.
7. Coriander Leaves - 1 bunch
8. Mint Leaves - 5 – 8 nos.
9. Onion - 1 medium size
10. Lemon - 1
11. black lentils - 1 tsp
Preparation:
We prepared this recipe in three steps:
Step 1: Making of
Vada:
1. Take around 300 gm or 2 cups of chick pea flour in
a pan add 200 ml of yogurt (preferably sour) and mix the flour with a spoon. Then
stir the flour with a spoon adding water till fine batter as shown in the
picture. Make sure that lumps dissolve completely.
2. After making a fine batter cover the pan with a lid
and let it ferment for 6-8 hours preferably let it ferment overnight. After fermenting
the batter puffs up as shown in the picture. The batter now turns sour which
gives great taste to our vada.
3. Finely chop onion, coriander leaves, green chilies
and add it to the fermented batter; squeeze a lemon and mix them well in the
batter with a spoon as shown in the picture below. The fermented batter gives
great tangy taste and onion, coriander, green chili add spicy zing to your
tongue after cooking.
4. Take a idli maker, and cover up the idli plates with
a thin cloth as shown in the picture below. Then fill the idli cups with the
batter and cover it up with a cloth as shown below.
5. Fill the idli cooker/steamer 1 or 1½ inch with water
and place the idli plates over it and cover the lid as shown in the picture
below. It is always better to measure the height of the idli plates and pour
water accordingly. Sometimes if there is more water it may overflow on the
plates and spoil the vada. If the water is less then it might not steam
properly.
6. Put on the stove, place the steamer over it and let
it cook on a low or medium flame for about 35 to 40 minutes. Make sure the
flame is low or medium because high flame can spoil the vadas as the water
might overflow over the plates.
7. After 30 minutes remove the lid and insert a knife
of fork into the vadas and remove. If you find the knife or fork comes clean
without any batter that means it is fully cooked and ready. If the batter comes
along with it then it still needs to be cooked. You don’t have to see every
layer of the cooker as checking the top layer would do.
8. Once the vadas are cooked keep them aside to cool
down. If the vadas are hot they stick to the cloth. Now remove the vadas and
keep it in a bowl. Look at those beautiful and mouth watering vadas. Aren’t
they tempting your tongue? Wait… wait the work is half done. W need to do some
finishing work. We still have to do some tampering and make yogurt salad. So
without wasting any time lets go on to it.
Step 2: Tampering:
1. Roast cumin
seeds, black lentils and coriander leaves in a pan till brown. Then add half
glass of water into it and cook for few minutes.
2. Once the water
starts boiling pour into the pan of vadas and let it soak for few minutes as
shown in the picture below.
Step 3: Making of
Yogurt Salad:
Now we are into the final step of making a yogurt
salad.
1. Take 600 gm of yogurt in a bowl, add few chopped onions,
green chilies, coriander leaves, mint and coriander leaves into it and mix it
well.
2. Now pour this yogurt salad into the vadas and now
your yummy delicious salad is ready. Serve and enjoy. We made all the hard work to make healthy, nutritious and tasty vadas and the hard work doesn’t go in vain.
Making dahi vada in this manner is though time consuming and needs little hard work but its worthy. Try it! Keep watching the space for more updates.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Dr. Mantena's Hyderabadi Special - Khubani ka Meetha
Last year during Ramadan month I brought before you a
very famous Hyderabadi recipe “Dahi Vada” Dr. Mantena style. This year I
decided to bring another Hyderabadi delight and today’s Mantena’s special is
“Khubani ka Meetha”. A Hyderabadi needs no introduction to this world famous
dessert.
Khubani ka Meetha is served in every Mohammedan
marriage and other function and is available at most of the restaurants in
Hyderabad. It is often served after food with ice cream and custard which is
not good for health. Keeping the health as a prime motive I tried to moderate
the recipe slightly in Dr. Mantena style without missing the flavor and taste
of the dessert.
Khubani means Apricot. Khubani ka Meetha is actually
made with dry apricots that are usually found in dry fruit shops. These days
golden apricots are available in almost every super market. But we need the
traditional Indian apricots that are dry as shown in the picture below.
Apricots are rich in Vitamin C, A, copper, fiber and
potassium that helps in protecting the body from free radicals, protects your
eye sight, skin from inflammation and helps in digestion and free bowel
movements.
So without wasting much time lets go into preparation
details.
Ingredients:
Khubani (Dry Apricots ) - 250 gms
Honey - ½ cup
Water - 750 ml
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serving: 6
Procedure:
The process of making khubani ka meetha is quite
simple. You only have to follow some of these simple steps.
1. Soak the
apricots for 6 – 8 hours, preferably soak over night for better results.
2. Once soaked, stain the water in another vessel and
keep aside.
3. Now press the apricots with your hands and remove
the nuts as shown below and keep them aside in a bowl. These nuts can later be
used for dressing the dessert.
4. Now put the apricots in a cooking pan and add the
water used for soaking as shown in the picture below.
5. Put the pan on the stove and cook the apricots on a
medium flame for about 20 minutes. Cover the lid of the pan.
6. 20 minutes later take half cup honey and put into
the pan and saute it well and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
7. By now the apricots are almost cooked. Now take half
bowl of apricots from the pan and mash them into a fine batter in a blender as
shown in the picture below.
8. Now add this batter into the pan and mix it well and
keep mashing the remaining apricots into small pieces with a ladle as shown in
the picture below. This will make the concentrate thicker. You will enjoy both
paste and pieces of the apricots together. It gives a great taste to the
tongue. Cook for another 5 minutes and remove it.
9. Finally break the nutshells of the apricot and you
will find apricot almonds in it which are very tasty. Roast them for a while
and remove the skin of the nuts and season the delicious Khubani ka Meetha
along with a cashew on top of it.
Believe me my dear friends, it turned out to be really
delicious dessert matching neck to neck with the dessert prepared by any
professional. But remember the difference we have not used any harmful taste
like others. I would like to advise you to serve this hot for better results. I
found yummier when it is served absolutely hot or when it is chilled in a
refrigerator. I hope you would like to make and enjoy this Hyderabadi delight.
Keep watching the space for more updates.
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Dr. Mantena's Special - Pineapple Juice
Hello
friends, I am back with another seasonal fruit juice this time in Dr. Mantena’s
Kitchen. So, Today’s Dr. Mantena Special is a “Pineapple Juice.” This Ramadan
season pineapple is available everywhere in the market of Hyderabad. So, pick
up a ripe pineapple from the market and make this nutritionally rich health
drink.
Drinking
pineapple juice in the morning prevents sugar and fat cravings, thus good for
obesity people to maintain weight loss. Pineapple boosts immunity system
because of the presence of Vitamin C, A and selenium. It helps to cure constipation
and irregular bowel movements due to the presence of rich fiber in it. Drinking
pineapple juice also kills the intestinal worms. Regular intake of pineapple
juice will help in curing sore throat and bronchitis.
People
often prefer to drink juices in the market place out of laziness to make it. You
will get a juice full of ice or water in its absence. You can make a thick and
flavored pineapple juice at home by putting little effort. All you have to do
is my dear friends, pick up a pineapple from the market and put little effort
and I bet you don’t regret in making this healthy homemade juice with a little
twist of black pepper, honey and black salt that add spicy zing to its sweet
flavor. It takes hardly 10 minutes to make. So without wasting any time further
let us go into details of making it.
Ingredients:
Pineapple - 1 medium size
Honey - 2-4 tbs
Black
Pepper - ¼ tbs
Black
Salt - ½ tbs
Water - 1 glass
Servings: 4 glasses
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Procedure:
1.
Take a pineapple and remove its outer skin with a long knife as shown below.
2.
Then cut the pineapple into two halves and chop them into big chunks of each
half. If you chop them into smaller chunks then it will be difficult to grind
as they miss out the blade of the grinder.
3.
Pour chopped pieces into the jar of a mixer grinder and add honey, black
pepper, black salt and water in the quantity mentioned above in the ingredients
and make a smooth puree.
4.
After grinding those into a smooth puree strain them into a vessel or jar as
shown in the picture below.
5.
After straining the juice serve them into your glass and enjoy.
You
will find this juice very tasty as the black pepper and black salt give great
spicy zing to its flavor. Salt and pepper are against the teachings of Dr.
Mantena Satyanarayana Raju and I very well understand this. In spite of the
fact I recommend them because both of them have medicinal values that are good
for health especially in this rainy season. If you are making a pineapple juice
on regular basis I recommend excluding these two ingredients from the juice.
The taste still remains good.
Since
this juice is prepared keeping the rainy season in mind where you need more
minerals, vitamins and enzymes for your body, include black salt and pepper in
it.
I
hope you will make and enjoy this wonderful nutritional drink. Keep watching
the space for more updates.
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