Rich, healthy dry fruits chiki (bar), (Almond, Pistachio, Cashews and Sesame seeds Jaggery bar) - (brittle or paak)

Rich, healthy, dry fruits chiki (bar), (Almond, Pistachio, Cashews and Sesame seeds Jaggery bar) - (brittle or paak)

You can choose whatever nuts and combinations you prefer. This is what I had so I used whatever was at hand.

1/2 cup Almonds,
1/2 cup Cashews
1/2 cup raw Pistachio
All the above chopped as per the size of your liking,
1/2 cup sesame seeds as well.

1 cup Jaggery (unrefined and non-distilled brown sugar available from Indian or Mexican stores. It comes in a solid form dark or light brown color and you can grate it or break it before heating it up.)

2 tablespoon ghee/butter (Optional)
1 teaspoon or so cardamom powder 

1 teaspooon ginger powder

(some people put various other edible seeds, and oatmeal or rice crispy, chocolate or honey and sugar as well so experiment as you like) 

1. Heat the butter/ghee and jaggery on low medium heat until the jaggery is soft and melted.

Alternatively you can first roast the nuts before doing the jaggery syrup. So start with roasting Sesame seeds on its own in a heavy bottomed pan on low heat. Do not let it change color, just enough to let it be crispy. Do the same with rest of the nuts if you prefer, and set it aside as you make the jaggery mixture. 

2. Please do not overcook the jaggery and do not put on high heat as it will burn and the taste will be bitter. In 5-7 minutes, when it softens and thick enough, add the chopped nuts and cardamom powder. 3. Mix it well evenly.
4. Spread it gently and carefully as its hot, on a wooden or any chopping board you use in the kitchen or any plain surface. Put a plastic wrap over it and roll over it gently with a rolling pin, to give it a uniformed flatness. Do not make it too thin, it should have a little more than the 1/4 inch thickness.

5. I like to cut the pieces when its little warm in about a minute or so, so you can remove each piece after its cooled completely on its own at a room temperature. If you chop later, you may have to use a sharp knife and may have to struggle to uplift it.

Store in an air tight container. It stays good for about 2 months. 

8 Ingredients

• 2 tbsp(s), Ghee
• 1 cup(s), gur
• 8 Tbs, Sesame Seeds, Raw
• 1 tsp, ground, Spices, cardamom

• 0.50 cup, Raw Cashews
• 0.50 cups, Raw
• 0.50 cup, Raw Almonds
• 0.30 tbsp, Ginger Powder for Cooking

Nutrition Facts
Servings 20.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 113
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 7 g	10 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	8 %
Monounsaturated Fat 1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 1 mg	0 %
Potassium 19 mg	1 %
Total Carbohydrate 10 g	3 %
Dietary Fiber 1 g	4 %
Sugars 5 g
Protein 2 g	4 %
Vitamin A	1 %
Vitamin C	0 %
Calcium	4 %
Iron	5 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S.

Chapati (Roti) made with plain homemade whey liquid

Many of you know how to make chapatis (Roti) or Fulka Rotli (puffed Roti) so I tried and used left over whey liquid when I made Paneer (Indian curd un-aged cheese). The Rotis came out softer and remained softer even after putting it in the fridge for couple of days. Please note that the paneer whey when made with lemon juice is milder in taste compared to the whey drained from yogurt.

                     

   
Here are my 3 ingredients and measurements. (Makes 32 Rotis, depending upon your likeness of the bigger or smaller (thicker or thinner) chapatis.

• 800 gm (3 cups), Wheat Flour (Any 100% whole wheat Atta)
• 2 cups or just a little more if you need, Paneer Whey Liquid
• 1 tablespoon, Oil 
• Method:
• Mix the flour and oil together and add the Whey liquid slowly and kneed the flour well. If you need to coat it with oil and flour you may do that. Keep it aside covered for 10-15 minutes. 
• Roll the Rotis and first cook it in a skillet on medium heat and then roast it directly on the gas stove. It puffs up really well. You have to be quick to turn it and take aside immediately, so it does not burn up. 
• They come out very soft and even if you keep it in the fridge they remain soft. When you need to use, remove from the fridge and microwave it or heat it on the stove for 10 or so seconds before eating. 
• Blessings
• KC -Kalpana Christian Sharma (Mrs)

Nutrition Facts
Servings 32.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 100
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 1 g	1 %
Saturated Fat 0 g	1 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 0 mg	0 %
Potassium 0 mg	0 %
Total Carbohydrate 19 g	6 %
Dietary Fiber 4 g	16 %
Sugars 2 g
Protein 4 g	8 %
Vitamin A	0 %
Vitamin C	0 %
Calcium	2 %
Iron	0 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

• 
  

Homemade Paneer (Indian curds/ un-aged cheese)

Homemade Paneer (Indian cheese) Recipe:

This is very economical and healthy option compared to store bought cheese. Only 2 Ingredients needed:

1 gallon of milk (you can use any fat free/1%/2% or whole milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
(1 gallon of milk will produce 19 oz that is 1 pound and 3 oz of Paneer.)

Method:
1. Heat the milk on medium low heat so that it does not burn at the bottom, always choose a heavy bottomed pot when heating milk; when it is almost to a boiling point, turn off the heat, add the lemon juice and let the whey and curds separate. You will see it form.

2. Take a cheese cloth/muslin cloth/a thin lining cloth/or a thin clean pillow case and line it up in a colander with a vessel below to collect the drained whey as you pour your 'messed up' milk that you have just turned to curds and whey. :)  (You can use this whey too for many other stuff so I would advise you not to drain it down the sink)

3. Tie the curds carefully in that cloth and hang it in a secure place to let it drain (check my yogurt recipe on this blog). When all the whey liquid is drained you can squeeze out the whey by twisting the the curds still in the cloth, with your hands. To further get the wet/dry consistency, flatten it while still in the cloth and in a colander and add a little heavy weight on it, either a plate or heavy pan/pot filled with water to add weight..etc. Let it flatten to an inch or so size and let the excess water(whey) continue to drain. I kept it overnight/8 hours.

4. You can then see it will look thick unformed curds and ready to use it; you can crumble if the recipe requires, in your salads, samosas etc.. You can cut into cubes and eat it as fresh. Or You can fit it in an air tight container and refrigerate.

Now know that if you try to deep fry or grill it it may crumble at this level so in order to have hard and more firm consistency I needed to bind it. For that I have tried two things. I have tried corn starch and it holds cube or whatever shape you want really great.(Corn starch would be added carbs) And another time I tried 2 egg whites, that works well too. And hey, that egg white is added protein. So this is the new thing added in this recipe recently.

I added 1/4 cup of corn starch in the 2 plus cups of ready soft paneer. Yes, this increases calories but if you want firm cubes cornstarch works really good. Add cornstarch and mix well and microwave it for a minute or two to further make it firm. I take out after a minute and mix it well and put it back in the microwave for another minute to heat and mix well and then after cooling it well, put it in an air tight container and refrigerate it for few hours before cutting it into cubes. (if you prefer egg whites then add 2 egg whites instead of the corn starch and follow the above procedure. )

You can eat them like cheese cubes, or marinate and grill those cubes, or gently fry. You can use in making "Mutter Paneer" or "Malai Paneer" or "Green Pepper (chili) Paneer", or Mutter-Paneer Pulav.

You can read on the internet that home made 1 oz. (1/8th cup) paneer has about 80 calories and good protein and its low Carb as well. Of course the added cornstarch will be added calories. (1 tablespoon of corn starch is 30 calories so feel free to use 2 tablespoons to try out as 4 tablespoons will be 120 calories added to it.) Or 1 egg white is 17 calories but 3.6 or 4 g protein), so try one or two and see how that works)

----

Note: The left over whey liquid can be used if you do not want discard off.
1. You can use it to make Chapati ( Roti) (Indian flat bread) or puris instead of water; the Rotis will be softer.
2. Or use it in making pie crusts, breads, etc..
3. Use in smoothies or lemonade drinks.
4.Or I have heard people use it for conditioning hair after shampooing. I know my grandmother used to use it to wash her hair. :)

PS. On the other hand, going progressively, after doing some reading I have learned that people discard off the liquid whey because it has carbs that they do not want to consume. So see what you want to do with it, discard or use it in something else!

Blessings, KC - aka
Kalpana Christian Sharma.
kalpchristiansharma@gmail.com

Low Calorie baked or shallow fried/roasted whole wheat Kachoris (Protein balls)

Low Calorie Kachori, packed with vitamins and High Fiber. You can bake it or use an aebleskiver pan so minimum oil is used while shallow frying or baking. Or you can deep fry if you only like it that way.

Here are 4 stuffing options for your kachoris. Baked/shallow pan fry with little or no oil, or deep fried as per your liking.

Stuffing Option 1: Lightly boiled Whole Mung Daal kachori. Makes 20 or if you want smaller, perhaps a few more.
• 1 cup (207 g), Mung Beans, Whole, Dried, Uncooked
• 3 cups, Water for soaking over night
• 30 g, Besan (1.4 cup gram flour) lightly Roasted 


For pastry
• 226.80 g, Whole Wheat Flour for Roti (Chapati). 
• 2 tablespoon, Oil - Olive
• 0.50 cup, Water


For Vaghaar/Tadka (tempering) 
• 0.50 tbsp, Spices, cumin seed
• 0.50 tbsp, Spices, coriander seed
• 0.50 tbsp, Spices, fennel seed
• 1.00 gms, Compounded Hing (Asafoetida Powder Yellow)
• 1 g, Curry Leaves Green
• 2 tablespoon, Oil - Olive
• half a tea spoon Chat Masala (National) 

Soak the 1 cup dry whole mung (green lentils) overnight. It becomes nearly 3 cups. Add a little more water if you need to, for boiling it the next day for few minutes, until its tender, but not so tender and not so liquid-ish. Drain the liquid and let it cook before you coarsely pound it with a rolling pin. 


Meanwhile, roast the gram flour lightly, keep it aside.
 
For pastry covers, take 1 cup of whole wheat Atta and add about 1 tablespoon of oil and about half a cup of water slowly and knead the dough. Keep it aside covered. 

In a separate pan add the stuff for Vaghaar/Tadka (tempering) and let it heat up for just a minute or two then add roasted Gram flour lightly and eventually the coarsely ground Mung. Let it cook for a minute or two until everything mixes well. Turn off the heat and let it cool. (you may add salt, and/or green chilies as per your like, for this option of stuffing I did not)
 
Make 20 balls of the stuffing and make 20 balls of the flour. Roll each flour ball and cover each stuffing ball nice and neat by rolling in your palm evenly. 
I used the aebelskiver pan to cook healthy ones. You can roast it for 20 or 25 minutes or you can deep fry if you like! (of course deep frying will increase the calories) 
===========
2nd stuffing option: 
(If you have already prepared really thick/condensed whole mung (green) lentil, you can use that too, just not liquid-ish!) then add the gram flour and rest of the spices before covering with the pastry. Follow the same method as option 1. 


3rd stuffing option: 
Baked whole mung kachori! 
• 1/2 cup dry whole mung lentil soaked
• 1/2 cup dry powdered Mung lentil
• 1.50 tbsp(s), Besan (Gram Flour) (roasted)


For Vaghaar/Tadka/ tempering 
• 2 tbsp, 100% Corn Oil
• 1.00 gms, Compounded Hing (Asafoetida Powder Yellow)
• 0.30 tbsp, Spices, fennel seed
• 0.30 tbsp, Spices, coriander seed
• 0.30 tbsp, Spices, cumin seed
• 1 dash, Salt, table
• 1 or 2 Finger hot/Thai pepper (crushed green Chillies) These are hot!!!! 


Follow above method and bake it for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown color is desired. (Baked ones are crispy) NB: before baking just lightly grease the tray and roll the prepared kachoris in it as you put in the over at 350/375 F. 
4th stuffing option: (no Mung lentil but garden peas)
1 and half cup garden peas, lightly crushed. (Same above spices) Same method! 
Of course in all these curry leaves give that unique taste!

Please know that when you use whole Mung lentil with the skin it has more fiber so I like to use that rather than daal without skin. :)

If you can get this panyaram pan or its called aebleskiver it becomes healthier option to cook on stove yet no oil or just brush a little so it's healthy. This version of kachori comes softer also. The baked ones become crispy and healthy too. While deep fried, well you know what calories would that add so try this pan even for healthy vada or pakoda/bhajia with no or very little oil. :)

Blessings,
Kalpana aka KC Sharma (Mrs.)

Baked Butternut Squash Fingers

Baked Butternut squash fingers. 

Ok for healthy nuts like me: Try this. It looks like fries right? But SO healthy n minimum calories. I named it Baked Butternut squash fingers. 

Recipe: 3 ingredients only

Butternut squash
Any seasoning of your choice - I used Bihari kababs masala mix
Few sprays of oil

Wash and cut the butternut squash, keep the skin on. ( I like to keep the fiber n it tastes good. Remove the seeds and chop it like fries. 

Coat it with 1 tablespoon of Bihari kababs mix masala (national brand) and few sprays of oil. Keep it marinated for 2-3 hours. 

Bake it at 400F for 15 or so min. Add salt just when it's done. Enjoy! 
You get about 75 fries/fingers and it's hardly 3 calories per finger so you can hog as much as you like. 

Blessings,
Kalpana aka KC ;)

Blessings 

Ble

Simple homemade Plain Greek Yogurt/Strained/Drained Yogurt

Yogurt making is very easy and extremely economical if you follow the right steps. You can use nonfat/full fat/ 2% whatever milk type you prefer and it will still come out great yogurt depending upon how much fat content you wish to have. Some add half and half so go for it, whatever you wish to add or not add.

Needed things:
1. A gallon of milk which is 16 cups. This will yield 6-8 cups of Greek Yogurt and about the respective amount of whey liquid. (Depending on how much you choose to drain)
2. Yogurt starter one or two tablespoons (if you have plain yogurt at home, use it) or buy Greek Yogurt at any store. Meijer now has a small size for only .79 cent. (Yesterday for half a gallon of milk, I used only half a tablespoon.)
3. Cheese cloth/thin cotton cloth/or muslin cloth like a thin cotton curtain lining material. A clean pillow case would even do.
4. A good heavy bottomed pot to hold milk and heat up.

Here are 6 stages:
1. Heating the Milk to a boiling point on a low heat.
2. Cooling it to a lukewarm temperature.
3. Fermentation: Add a tablespoon or two of the yogurt starter to your lukewarm milk to ferment it for 6-8 hours or overnight. (after this stage yogurt is actually ready and many use it like this. For years we have done up to this point unless we were making a dessert then we would drain)
4. Cooling in the Refrigerator for 4-6 hours (This helps to thicken)
5. Straining/drain- (3-5 hours: this is an additional step to make the thick Greek yogurt)
6. Cooling back in the refrigerator. (This helps thicken a bit more) and final product

So here step by step method.

1. When you heat the milk on the stove top make sure that the pot is clean and rinsed in water before adding the milk so the milk does not burn at the bottom. Use a heavy base pot and please keep the flame low so that it heats up well. If you keep it high flame, it will burn your milk and smell not so good. As it progresses you may later on turn up the high flame but you will have to be present to keep stirring it constantly so it does not burn at the bottom. (If you multitask like me, you may want to keep it on low heat.)

2. Let it cool to a room temperature or like what you can drink. Not too cold and not too hot.
3. Now take your yogurt starter and add into the milk and mix well with a ladle or a hand mixer so it goes evenly in every part of the milk.

4. Cover and keep it in a warm place like in an oven that is turned off and is not hot. Do NOT turn the oven on. Leave it overnight. Please know that during summer's warm/hot days it gets done quickly due to hot temperature but during winter you may need to wrap a towel and keep it warm and perhaps overnight.

Next day morning your yogurt is practically ready and you can have it as is or keep it in the fridge for few hours and it will thicken a little more.

Now for Greek yogurt the process goes on two steps further.
5. Take a colander and line it with a clean muslin/cheese/cotton cloth big enough to hold the yogurt.

You may do 3-4 pouches as I have done here so it drains evenly all round well inside and outside too. Leave it to drain for 4-6 hours.

6. Carefully remove from the cloth and transfer it in the containers and store it in the fridge. If you find the yogurt is too dry you can add some of the whey liquid back into it as per your taste/texture.

Eat as is or you may keep it in the fridge for few hours to cool and thicken.  So rich and creamy and full of protein. You may eat it plain as is, or you may want to add your own flavors like cardamom/vanilla/ and just before eating add nuts or fruits. 

Enjoy! ------------

Now regarding the left over liquid/whey:

1. instead of discarding off the whey (drained liquid) you can use it in smoothies, or what I do is put in the jars. (You can add sugar or sugar substitute if you like) or drink it on its own as my husband does before he goes for a work out. Its low calorie, low sodium, good protein. I like to add a little sweet taste and a teaspoon of cardamom, it tastes SO yummy!



2. You can also keep the yogurt whey liquids is in the refrigerator and whenever you want to make yogurt Kadhi(Curry) just add back the whey into the Greek yogurt and follow the kadhi recipe procedure.

3. Make Chhaas (lighter sort of buttermilk type drink that has less yogurt and more water/whey) People make Lassi drink from it too. You can make it salty or sweet.

I hope you enjoy making this and let me know how it goes. Please do not give up. Try with a smaller amount first like half or a quarter gallon of milk and see how it goes if you are in doubt.

Blessings!
Kalpana Christian Sharma (KC)