Skinny Nutty Laddus!!

Clean & Deliciously tackling the festival calories, with Skinny Laddus.

Holi is right around the corner. And I am determined to show you a way to enjoy this festival of colours in the cleanest and purest form ever. By no means am I going to tell you to not play colours with your near and dear ones. But why not colour this season yellow with turmeric powder. For a geela surprise, stain your friend a deep crimson with fresh beetroot grated. I can go on and on about these clean procedures, but it's food that’s on my mind, and it food I want to write about.

Festivals in India are deliciously decadent. Every corner of this big country has a delicacy especially made for Holi. Neighbours take packets of mithai and visit your apartment. You too have to return the favour. But how about if you can add a healthy twist to this favour? What if you tell people, especially the ones who are struggling with weight issues that they can have this laddu without worrying about calories? Won’t there be a perfect smile on their face, a big thank you to your soul? Just to take that pleasureful thought in, I devised this healthy, yet decadent homemade sweet, that I lovingly named Skinny Nutty Laddus. It’s the technique that is important, and not substitution of ingredients. As I told you earlier, I am not a big fan of counting calories, but a bigger fan of devising such techniques that eliminate calories with ingenious processes. These laddus are made of real ghee/butter, nuts, sugar and condensed milk. It’s made of pure substances, yet you would see how I take out calories off the final product by following simple steps. I am doing all this to just make you understand that going sugar free doesn’t mean to start using chemicalized sweeteners. Ghee and butter are not your enemies. But if you can follow moderation, then enjoy these pleasureful decadence. After all we live just 1 life.

Before I get in with the recipe, let me jot down a few pointers about 3 basic ingredients I have used in this recipe. This would allow you to understand this revolutionary recipe, a bit better. :-P

• First on the list had to be besan or chickpea flour. This is a flour made out of garbanzo/chickpea which is notoriously lumpy in nature. It is actually a good source of plant based protein, and contains a fair amount of minerals and fibres. The sifting process does eliminate some fibres off the recipe, but hey- this is still much healthier than a piece of cake, frosted or not. Now this flour has a tendency of soaking in a lot of liquid. Like the ghee it soaked up in the video below. But if you can cook it to the right temperature and provide another source of liquid in that temperature, it would render out that ghee that it soaked earlier. So now you know, it is one of the best flours to use in a skinny recipe like this. And after the condensed milk was added, it rendered out a considerable amount of fat off itself.

• Nut butters are the second most important ingredient. It’s the good fat in the nut which emulsifies with the fibres and create nut butter. Mostly, you can make walnut and cashewnut butters without adding any additional fat as these nuts are full of essential oils. In the recipe I have used half of walnut and other half of peanut butter. Walnuts are bitter, so decide on your own combination of nut butters. But having said that, walnuts are undoubtedly the healthiest nut of the family. So choose wisely.

• Condensed milk too makes to the list. I used Amul’s tinned condensed milk. This article hasn’t been sponsored by amul at all, but I still mentioned the company’s name as it is one of the cleanest products on shelf. The ingredient list contains just 2 things, milk solids and sugar. And you just need these 2 for the recipe. Also the little tin of 200 gms, is easy to open and can be recycled. So it’s a win win for me.

Enough of gyaan. Hopefully you all feel much enlightened. Now to the recipe---

A step by step tutorial is uploaded on my channel in YOUTUBE. Do click here to see!

Ingredients

1 and ¼ cups of Chickpea Flour or Besan

2 Tbsp of ghee

2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter

¼ cups of Walnuts butter

¼ cups of Peanut butter

¼ tsp of Cardamom Powder

A pinch of salt

200 gms tin of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Step by step tutorial is uploaded on my channel in YOUTUBE. Do click here to see!

Cheers!!

Savoury Whole-Meal Scones with Nando's!!

Clean & Delicious Part 2- I celebrated Valentine's Day with my little family of three, munching on these yummy Whole-Meal Savoury Scones.

The spring garden is one of my most favourite things in the world. The little bees hovering about. The butterflies learning to fly. The leaves beginning to grow back. It's warm, and yet not hot. It is undoubtedly the best time to garden and harvest your fruits of love! And these Wholemeal Scones were conceptualised, sitting right in my terrace, surrounded by my favourite plants.  

Scones are an underrated and hardly ever made variety of flaky morsels of flour, that can be made sweet, savoury; or 'neither-sweet-nor-savoury' kinds. Valentines day being on a busy working day, prompted me to make something easy, yet light and decadent at the same time. My ever busy mister was supposed to return home early today. so i needed to jazz up tuesday tea time to get to a level of Valentine's day worthy. And so upon returning from work, i took a quick stroll in the garden to amass some harvest, and pottered around in the kitchen to make these, timed perfectly so that it bakes just as my boys return home. 

For all of you lovely people tuning in right now, thinking about a special treat for that special someone; make these healthy bites. It's a no egg recipe, perfect for the very commonly practiced meatless Tuesdays of India. It's Easy to put together. Requires just a few ingredients, and they 'should' all be cold. So happy baking !!

Ingredients for 8 Scones:

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda
Salt and pepper to taste

A small handful of leafy vegetables, I plucked baby spinach from my garden. 

1/2 tsp or to-taste mustard powder

1 tsp sweet chilli powder/Cayenne

2 tbsp chopped green leaves of onion and garlic. These green leaves are packed with nutrients and add great flavour too

1 red banana pepper, deseeded and chopped finely.

1/2 cup of cold butter

1/2 cup swiss cheese- gruyere 

1 cup cold buttermilk/Chaas or simply a cup of milk mixed with a tbsp vinegar.

Method

In a mixer grinder/ food processor put in the butter, cheese, leavening powders and flour, and pulse to dispense them throughout the mixture, in even pea like shape. I have noticed that it's easier to start this process when we cut the butter and cheese into cubes.

Now dump the crumbly mix into a flat mixing bowl, and mix in the spices and green veggies with a spoon or fork. 

In goes the cold buttermilk/chaas into the bowl and mixed to form a dough.

Tip it on a floured work surface, and gently gather it to form a rectangle. Fold it in thirds to amass it to form a square. Roll it gently to be evenly thick, about 1/2 an inch. Cut them into your desired shapes and rest it in the fridge for 15 mins to an hour.

Now preheat the oven to 220 degrees, and let it come to the temperature slowly as the dough rests in the refrigerator.

In the same measuring cup where you measured buttermilk, make a glaze with a generous glug of honey, milk and salt; stirred to combine.

Grate some cheese for the top, I used gruyère once again. I salted and Cayenne-ed it for added flavour.

Now take out the chilled dough, brush it with the milk mix and sprinkle on the cheese. Pop it in the oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown and crispy on top and bottom.

Easy crumbly tea time snack, which is healthy and fits our lifestyle perfectly! Cheers!! 

This post was brought out in association with Nando's. If you haven't already, do hop into one of their franchise restaurants in a city near you. they are expanding majorly in India. They are famous for their grilled chickens in a variety of sauces, one of them being this delicious lemony garlicky sauce. It also serves to be the perfect dip for my Whole-Meal Scones.  

Perfectly Imperfect- Strawberry Jam filled Cake!!

Clean & Delicious Part 2- How to make an easy Valentine's Day Dessert with Fresh Homemade Jam!

I have baked a fair amount of cakes in years since I am alive. But trust me when I say that I have never ever baked such a cake as this one. This rough looking broke cake, speckled with red blobs is the best example of ‘love’. Just as love refuses to be perfect, this little treat refused to look perfect. But a bite into this, transfers you to a luxurious ride over the mountains. For the day that we celebrate love, I give it thee- My perfectly imperfect cake; My Strawberry-Jam filled cake!

This year, on Valentine’s Day that is coming tomorrow, make these simple treats for your friends and family. A mid-week Valentine’s Day special dinner should be fast yet comforting. And this is the perfect dessert to end the special occasion with. You can involve your kids in the process of making these beauties, which can be enjoyed fresh warm from the oven, or cooled to room temperature. Additionally, bake it separately in tin foil cups which would make it extremely easy to transport it around as I would be tomorrow!

Ingredients

2 ½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ Teaspoon salt

1 Cup granulated sugar

½ cup or 100 gms butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

12 - 14 Tablespoons milk start with 12 and if required, add the next 2 tbsp. I had to add to get the batter to the right consistency.

4 Tablespoons vinegar

1 cup strawberry jam (I used homemade)

½ cup strawberry cut into small pieces

These ingredients would make 2 cakes in standard cake pan, or 8 little cakes in the small aluminium disposable containers.

Method

Start by tumbling in some halved strawberries in a pan over medium heat and stir in a cup of homemade jam. If you are using store bought jam, then skip the step as most often than not, store bought jam contain addition of pectin and other stabilizers to thicken and improve shelf life. But if you made some fresh jam last week using my recipe, then do this step to thicken and intensify the flavour again. Simmer the jam for 10 minutes on medium heat and then check for sweetness. Once you are happy and the sugar or salt is dissolved, set aside to cool to room temperature. Adding cooked halved strawberries add another textural dimension to these cakes.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Oil and flour your cake tins properly and set it aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and set aside.

In a small jug, mix together the milk and vinegar and set aside to marry and become buttermilk.

Using a stand or hand mixer, combine sugar and butter together. Beat it till it’s light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time; and mix thoroughly till it doubles in volume. Now add the butter milk and beat for 2 minutes on medium speed.

Add the leavened flour to the sugar mixture, and stir until smooth. It would be a doughy cake batter, but the batter should fall off the spatula upon shaking. If yours doesn’t look as smooth as the pic below, then add in a tbsp. more of milk, till it reaches similar consistency as in the pic.

Spoon half of batter into prepared pans, spreading evenly. Top it with a generous helping of freshly made and cooled strawberry jam. Spoon remaining batter over the strawberry layer, trying your best to cover the jam as much as possible.

Optionally, sprinkle the top of the cake with brown sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes, comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing sides from the pans. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Cheers!!

Jamming the Clean & Delicious!!!

Clean & Delicious Part 1- How to make and store Fresh Homemade Jam!

After the very successful Lets Loose Weight Together series, I am hoping you all are a few kgs lighter, and feeling wonderful about it, as I am. If you are reading me for the very first time, then do check this linkwhere I have mentioned 3 wonderful diets along with many tips and tricks to lose weight organically, while sailing through life as usual. Weight loss done the right way by following a structured meal plan assures of it not coming back anytime. But really, more than the weight, I want to emphasize about eating right and carrying on with that little preface, I present to you my next series of articles on Clean Eating, the delicious way!! In this series I want to touch base upon many simple processes that you and I together can follow to get a cleaner lifestyle which is healthy and delicious all the way. Today I want to talk about a basic breakfast staple which if made right can serve you a full year without any tension. And trust me, it is important to have a stock of emergency food that doesn’t compromise on nutrition, but is a bomb in flavour.

In the morning of a busy week day, what is your most important worry? If you are anything like me, then it must be the decision of what to feed my small family of 3 for breakfast and lunch that day. If you are in India, you would have the luxury of hiring a domestic help to tide you over with most of the chores, but really they too need directions from you. So the decision part stays put. Now imagine if you could easily feed a fussy toddler a nutrition packed breakfast before school without worrying much about a dining table battle. Isn’t it a luxury that we mothers dream the most about- a non-fussy weekday morning? Most of the children I have fed in my house, including my super fussy toddler, loves eating sweet. And a good dose of sugar, right in the morning not only paves the path for a better day ahead which is full of energy, but also satiates them enough to take the day with full vigour and humour. And as parents, our most important job is to ensure nutrition and energy for the little ones. So, I like to give my toddler a simple breakfast each day of homemade bread and homemade jam. He doesn’t complain, and neither do I as I know this is nutrient rich and something he would eat without me fussing over him.

Many people don’t realise that making jam in our homes is actually 10 times cheaper than buying it from outside. Plus the use of chemicals that is available in most of the cheaper or moderate level jams, is a cause of concern. Why stuff in chemicals in the little bodies we made from scratch in our womb? Have we not done enough labour (and quite literally so) to get this little life out in the world? So I think we deserve to enjoy these little human beings and their journey in life till the end of our lives. And we parents can make sure of it by tweaking a bit of our busy lifestyles to ensure nutrition for the little ones better. All it takes is to come back from work and wash the fruits thoroughly and let it drain completely. After dinner, and before bed time you could make jam by following these simple steps. If you are willing to travel that extra mile, why not make a kg of jam and can it so that it stays nice and fresh for all of the year. So mark-up moms, 2017 is going to jam!!

Ingredients

2 cups fruit of your choice- I used strawberry but really any fruit in season which is cheap and accessible to you would work.

Sugar maximum to a cup but it would really depend on how ripe and sweet are the fruits that you are using.

A generous pinch of salt

A tsp. of white distilled vinegar  

Optional is to add a flavouring spice of your choice. For example a pinch of cinnamon powder is great to make pineapple jam with, or some cardamom powder would be great to make jam with golden gooseberries that is available in abundance these days. But for strawberry, I just like it as is.

Method

Wash the fruits thoroughly and let it drain completely on a paper towel. A great tip is to ensure that you have the fruit completely ripe before attempting to make the jam. That way you would spend less time stirring as the atmosphere would have evaporated most of the moisture out of the fruit. And the sugars would have doubled in the fruit, so you will end up adding less sugar than before. I have noticed waiting for a day after getting strawberries from the market, perfectly works out every single time.

Now add all your fruits in a mixer and grind it to a paste. Dump the mix in a pan with high sides, along with ½ a cup of sugar and salt; and bring it to a boil. Once it reaches the boiling point, reduce the flame and simmer the mix for 10 mins, stirring once in a while.

CANNING 101

If you want to can the jam in glass jars like I have done here, then simply take clean glass jar and its lid and submerge it in a big pan with cold water. Bring that to a boil separately. 100 degrees of water ensures that all living organisms in the glass jar and its lids are killed. This way the jars will store very well for a year unopened, in a cupboard. You can double this recipe to make as many jars as you would like.

After 10 minutes of steady simmer, check the consistency of the jam. Submerge a wooden ladle in the jam and remove it. Let cool a few seconds and run your index finger through it. If a line stays like in the picture below, then the jam is done. If it merges back then it’s too liquid and you need to simmer it on low for another 10 minutes.

For strawberry jam, I hardly use any flavouring spice. But if you do than the ground spices or liquid flavourings could be added to the jam while it simmers.     

Just before letting it off the flame, add in the vinegar.

Remove the hot glass jar from water carefully and drain by shaking it gently. Add the hot jam in the sterilized hot jar and close the lid. Carefully lower the jars back in the hot water to boil for a couple of minutes again. This would seal the jars completely. Sturdy tongs would be a great tool to use for the caning process.

But if you are making a small batch, then don’t bother caning. Just make sure that you keep moisture away from the cooled jam and store it in the fridge, in an airtight container. Make sure to eat it fast as the fungus would come looking for it soon. The caning process prevents the fungal invasion for a year.

Homemade jam is a classic fast food that is available to you all year around. Living in India, where there are seasonal fruits of all kinds available through winter to summer; spring to autumn is really a wonderful luxury. Use it. Trust me there are many in the world who have not seen a real fruit in years. Kiss you lucky stars that you and I are not amongst them.

Cheers!!

P.S. - a wonderful news to share!!! This article and many more in future would be available to you on Health Enabler. We joined hands together to promote healthy and wise living. Hope to see you following the same!!