Benefit Series – Mango

Known as “King of Fruits”, Mango has a lot of nutritional value besides its mouth watering taste & aroma. Mango houses rich enzymes, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. It is a tropical tree cultivated in many regions of India and now it is also the most distributed fruit over worldwide.

Mango is one of the richest sources of Vitamin A and Vitamin C and minerals namely potassium, calcium and phosphorus. It is laden with fiber too. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents, thus increasing our body immunity.

Potassium is an important component of our body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure. Mango provides 16mg of Potassium per 100gm. Sooo healthy right!!! J

Because of its high content of vitamin A, mango is known to promote good eyesight,prevents night blindness and dry eyes. One cup of sliced mangoes supplies 25 percent of the needed daily value of vitamin A. And high content of fiber in it helps keep digestion in check.

Mango is also helpful in beauty treatments, apart from its internal qualities. Mango, if applied directly on the skin, helps in clearing clogged pored and eliminates pimple.

In summer we should try to include mangoes in our daily diet. As in Indian households, after dinner one mango is religiously cut to savor as “Dessert”. Also, there are a lot of food variations which can be worked upon with them like ‘aam raas’ or Mango Milkshake.

Last week our family went on a small vacation to our native town in Konkan. Mango Gardens, there were packed with ripe mangoes. We got boxes full of them back to Mumbai and have been enjoying aam raas since. 🙂

Here is the easiest recipe with Mango –

Aam Raas

Ingredients:

• Mango – 3 Nos.
• Sugar – 3 big spoon
• Salt – Just a pinch

Method:

1. Take fresh mangoes and wash them under running water thoroughly.
2. Now using your fingers soften the mango and take the seed (aam ki gutli) out of the fruit.
3. Using you hands remove the mango pulp from the seed. Then use a spoon to remove the pulp from the cover of the fruit.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for other two mangoes.
5. Transfer the pulp into a mixer. Add sugar and salt. Grind

Aam Raas is ready. Transfer the aam raas from mixer to a bowls for serving. Enjoy as Dessert or with puris.

If you have a sweet tooth, try our other sweet dish recipes as well Ghiya ka Halwa and Dhondhas.

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Happy Mango Season!!
Nidhi

Dahi Bhalla

Curd  has several health benefits during summers. Many recipes will be made time and again in summers such as Kadhi Pakora, raitas and dahi bhallas. Dahi Bhalla is another typical recipe from Punjabi cuisine. My husband is fond of this platter like anything.  Dahi bhalla platter represents lentil dumping along with papdis and boiled potato pieces dipped in creamy yogurt with the flavor of spicy green Coriander and sweet tamarind chutneys.

Dahi Bhalla can be served as side dish with Punjabi main course or can also be served as starter dish. Yesterday on hubby’s demand dahi bhalla was served J

I have used white urad dal without skin, you can use the urad dal with skin. However in the later case after soaking the dal overnight, you have to remove the skin before you could use it for fritters or dumpings or bhallas.

Here we go,

 Ingredients For Bhalla:

• White Urad dal – 1
• Green Chilli – 1 medium (finely chopped)
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Dry fruits – 8-10 cashews and raisins each
• Salt – To taste

 

Method:

1. Wash the urad dal twice in the flowing water. Soak the dal overnight.
2. In the morning remove excess water (if any) and then grind the dal to a smooth batter. Add salt while grinding and if required add little water in between.
3. Add finely chopped green chilli and cumin seeds.
4. Now mix the batter with little force for couple of minutes, so that batter becomes light and fluffy. Add dryfruits. Again mix them.
5. You can check if the batter is by dropping a spoonful of batter in water, if it floats its ready.
6. Heat oil in a heavy bottom wok. When oil is medium hot, take a spoonful of urad dal batter and pour in the oil. Deep fry till golden brown and crisp.
7. Take lukewarm water with little salt in a big bowl. Put the hot bhallas in the water and keep it aside for half hour.
8. Post half hour, take bhalla one by one and press between your palms to drain the excess water. Do not over press the bhallas, otherwise it will break into pieces.

Ingredients For Bhalla Platter:

• Potato – ½ medium (boiled and cut into cubes)
• Yogurt – 1 cup (beaten smooth)
• Green Coriander Chutney – to taste
• Red tamarind chutney – to taste
• Bhallas – 3 nos
• Cumin powder (Roasted jeera powder) – a pinch
• Red chilli powder – a pinch
• Chaat Masala – a pinch
• Chopped coriander – few chopped
• Anar Dana (optional) – ½ tsp

Method:

• Arrange bhallas, boiled potato cubes in the serving tray / bowl. Spread beaten smooth curd on the bhallas.
• Now put some green coriander chutney followed by red tamarind chutney.
• Sprinkle black salt, chaat masala, red chilli powder and cumin powder.
• Garnish with chopped coriander and Anar dana.

Dahi Bhalla Platter is ready!!

I am sure you will be eager have this yum yummy Dahi Bhalla platter, Enjoy!!!!! Do not forget to check out our easy Cholle Bhature recipe!!!!

Check out our most unique recipe Dhondas here!!!!

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Happy Cooking!! 🙂

Nancy

 

Dhondas

Hello,

I am Nidhi. This is my first post @rasoise. I am basically a Punjabi married into a Maharashtrian family. So, I am exposed to two different kind of cuisines on daily basis. My husband loves Punjabi food but never forgets his roots. :p

I am starting here with a typical Maharashtrian dish called Dhondas or Veg Cucumber Cake. When I first saw my mother in law cook a sweet dish with cucumber, I was shocked. I told her I am not going to eat this!!!!!!! :0  But while it was cooking, the smell of it made me change my decision. I was like Ok…I will at least taste it and see how bad it is. And she had specially cooked it for her office colleagues as Ganpatiji’s prasad. 😉

Trust me guys when I tasted the dish, it was one thing I was missing out in this awesome world here.

It is one of the reasons why I thought it is the best dish to start our blog with. Also, cucumber as we all know has lot of health benefits. 🙂

So, here I go with the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Rawa                                                                   1Kg
• Large Size Cucumber                                          1Kg
• Jaggery (Gurh)                                                    800 gms
• Coconut                                                               1 Whole
• Ghee                                                                    250 gms
• Cashew & Almonds                                              1 Bowl
• Raisins (White & Black both)                                1 Bowl
• Cumin Seeds (Zeera)                                           3 Tablespoon
• Cardamom (Elaichi) &Nutmeg (Jaiphal) Powder   2 Tablespoon
• Salt                                                                       1 Teaspoon
• Turmeric (Haldi)                                                    1 Teaspoon
• Turmeric Leaves                                                   10-12

Method:

STEP 1: Preparations

1. Peel of the skin from cucumber and grate it. Keep the water of the cucumber as it is. Please do not throw it off.
2.  Take the coconut. Break it into two halves and remove the fruit from the shell.
3. Cut coconut into smaller pieces and out it in a mixer. Add Cumin seeds, Turmeric & Cardamom in the coconut and grind it. Do not add water to help it grind.

STEP 2: Procedure

1. Take a big cooking pot (karahi) and add 125gm of ghee in it. It is exactly the half of the total ghee taken. Once the ghee starts to melt, add rawa in it. Sauté till rawa turns golden yellow.
2. Remove the rawa from gas and keep it aside in a different bowl.
3. Now in the same cooking pot add 1 tablespoon of ghee and grated cucumber. Remember to add cucumber with its water as it is. Sauté the mixture till there is light color change.
4. Add coconut mixture (already prepared) in the cucumber. Sauté till the mixture boils.
5. Now add Jaggery in the mixture. Sauté till the Jaggery melts completely.
6. Once Jaggery is completely melted and mixed into the cucumber, add prepared rawa into the mixture.
7. Add salt and dry fruits in the mixture. Let it cook for 15 minutes on slow gas.
8. Now take another Pan and apply ghee on all the sides of it. Pour the prepared mixture into this pan. Press gently with your hand to let the mixture settle into the new pan.
9. While the mixture is settling, take a serving spoon and use the rear of it to make holes into the settled mixture. Add ghee into these holes. Put turmeric leaves on the top of it and seal with a tight cap.
10. Take another bigger pan and heat it on high flame. Put the pan with mixture on the top of it and slow down the gas.
11. Cook for one hour on the slow gas.

Notes:

• Keep The water of cucumber as it is. It adds flavor to the dish.
• If you think that rawa is not cooked in the point no 7, then you can add half cup water and cook till the water dries up.
• Do not use oven for this procedure. As oven will not give you the desired dark color at the base of it.

Hope you guys like it and Happy Cooking 🙂