Jeeraga(Cumin) Kashayam| Home Remedies| Postpartum Diet|BM #13

Kashayam is a drink made at home very easily, which is very helpful for digestion, gastric problems, stomach bloating and also for all the pregnant and nursing moms. I learnt this from my mother-in-law and she knows a lot of home remedies.
This drink is made using 'Cumin Seeds' known as 'Jeerga Kashayam' in tamil is mainly helpful during labor and after delivery.
During Labor pain if we make this Kashayam and drink. If the pain subsides then it is false labor and if the pain still increases then it is true labor pain. My mom made this for me everyday after delivery for few months and she used to force me to drink. Since i hardly drink water:-)

Here goes the recipe,
Jeera/Cumin Seeds- 3 tea spoons
Water- 2 cups
Palm Jaggery- as required [Optional]
Ghee- 1 tea spoon

• In a small frying pan dry roast Jeera/Cumin seeds until it almost turns dark brownish in color and has a nice aroma.
• Add 2 cups of water to the Jeera and allow it to boil until it reduces to half.[The water turns into golden yellow color]
• Add palm jaggery if required and allow it to melt and mix well.[It tastes good even without jaggery]
• Add 1 tea spoon of ghee and switch off the stove.
• Drink this when it is hot/warm.

Note:
The Jeera/Cumin seeds has to be roasted well until it is dark in color. Only then it gives a good effect.
This is good to have everyday after meals or at bed time.
This can be given to anyone in the family.
You can substitute Cumin seeds with Saunf (Fennel Seeds)
This helps for people who have constipation also.
You can avoid ghee if you do not have any pain. Drinking Jeera water everyday instead of plain water is also very good for health.


This goes to Srivalli's Blogging Marathon 13
This also goes to 'Taste of Pearl City' Healthy Morsels

Keerai Masiyal| Postpartum Diet|BM #13

Ingredients
1 Bunch Spinach or 2 cups of chopped spinach
1 Green Chilli
1/2 Lemon
1 1/2 tea spoon Asafeotida
1 tea spoon Mustard seeds
1 tea spoon Urad dhal
1 tea spoon oil
salt to taste

Method
Chop spinach.
In a pressure cooker add the chopped spinach,green chilli, salt and very little water. Cook up to 1 whistle.
Once cooked, mash well with a masher.
In a small pan add a little oil, mustard seeds,asafeotida and urad dhal and allow it to splutter.
Mix well with the spinach and then finally squeeze the lemon and serve with rice or roti.

This is the most simplest recipe ever to make.


Note:
This is very high in fiber and contains no fat at all.
This is very good for postpartum women since it contains lot of fiber.This is good to have a cup everyday.
It can be cooked with any kind of greens. I used spinach.
Green chilly can be avoided if necessary.

This goes to Srivalli's Blogging Marathon 13

This goes to Tickling Pallets- Let's cook Green

This also goes to Healthy Morsels- Pregnancy

 

Milagu Kozhambu- Pathiya Samayal| BM #13

Milagu Kozhambu, where 'Milagu' is called 'Pepper' in English. This Kozhambu helps a lot in digestion of food after delivery of  a child.It is good for anyone at home. I make this pretty often. I learnt it from my aunt.Even my mother and mother-in-law make it the same way.

I am sending this entry to Srivalli's Blogging Marathon 13

Here goes the recipe,

To Grind
2 tea spoons Channa Dhal
2 tea spoons Dhania (Coriander seeds)
1 tea spoon Urad dhal
2 tea spoon Black pepper
1 Red Chiili (You can avoid this if it is just after delivery)
1 tea spoon Asafeotida
2-3 Sprigs of Curry leaves
1 tea spoon oil
For the Kozhambu(Gravy)
2 cups water
1 tea spoon Tamarind paste
salt to taste
1 tea spoon Turmeric powder
To Tempering
1 tea spoon Mustard seeds
1 tea spoon Methi seeds
2-3 Curry leaves
2 tea spoon Sesame oil

Method
In a small frying pan, add a tea spoon of oil and fry for a minute the items to grind from the above ingredients and grind to a smooth powder.
In a vessel pour a little oil and add the items to temper and once the mustard seeds start to splutter.
Pour 2 cups of water,tamarind paste,turmeric powder,asafeotida,salt and allow it to boil till the raw smell of the tamarind goes away. (May be for 10-15 minutes)
Once boiled well, add the ground powder and boil for atleast 5 minutes.
The gravy will start to thicken and once it is thick. Milagu Kozhambu is ready to serve.

The way to eat this.
In a plate, add the required amount of rice, add 1-2 tea spoons of Ghee and a little of this gravy (Kozhambu). Mix well and eat. This will taste really yummy.


Note:
The shelf life for this Kozhambu (Gravy) is pretty long. At-least 1-2 weeks.
This can be taken atleast 2 times a week after delivery of a child. 
This is good for digestion. 


This also goes to "Taste of perl City" Healthy Morsels-pregnancy event

Pathiya Samayal| Postpartum Diet| BM #13

Pathiya samayal is generally special cooking  for mothers after Delivery of a child.

Mainly only black pepper is used and green chilli and red chilli are avoided in most of the food for few days after delivery. This is followed to help the mother recover from her pregnancy and also to serve nutritious food to the baby. When i had a baby one year back, i followed some of them for few days.

Gastric vegetables and food are to be avoided for few months until we feed the baby.

It was really helpful to follow this rule after delivery.There are lot of recipes for pathiya samayal. I will be listing few of them.

This goes to Srivalli's Blogging Marathon 13 Day 2

Manathakkallika vathal Saadham

Manathakkallika vathal 2-3 tea spoons

Sesame oil- 2 tea spoon

Ghee - 1 tea spoon

Cooked Rice- 1/2 cup

In a pan add the sesame oil and fry the vathal until it puffs up.

Take some hot cooked rice, mix the fried vathal and ghee and eat this when it is hot.

Note: We can do the same with Dried Sundakkai also.

This is good to eat at-least once a day for 2-3 months after delivery.

Benefits

This is very good for stomach and will keep the stomach light and prevent from in-digestion.

This does not affect the breast milk in anyways. It is rather good for baby's digestion too which passes through mothers milk.

This also goes to Healthy Morsels- Pregnancy

Postpartum Diet - Methi Seeds|BM#13

After a long break in Blogging, I am glad to be back and hoping to come back to form again and post many recipes for this year. My 14 month old Toddler keeps me on my toes.

I am also glad to be back to Blogging marathon by Srivalli. When i saw the topic "Postpartum diet" for this marathon. I thought of taking this one and post useful recipes and tips before i forget about them, since it has just been a year.

For today Day 1, We will just see a simple thing to follow everyday for all the breastfeeding ladies.

Fenugreek Seeds (Vendayam in tamil or Methi in Hindi)

Method 1

Take about 2-3 tea-spoons of Fenugreek seeds and allow it to soak in a glass of water for 4-5 hours.

Drink the water and the eat the seeds together.

Method 2

Dry roast the Methi seeds and grind to a smooth powder.

Add to all possible dishes or tea.

It can also be added to dishes like Dosa, Idli, Roti, Sambar, Rasam, tea or any side dishes.

Benefits

This helps in increasing the supply of breast milk if had regularly.

This really helps to cool our body or is very good for skin.

We can start doing this right from the day of the delivery.

This herbal seeds does not affect the baby in any ways.

Enjoy and i will see you with more tips and recipes tomorrow.
This also goes to Healthy Morsels- Pregnancy

Cashew-Pista Roll

This sweet i wanted to try for a long long time and finally got a chance to make it. I wanted to send some sweets to my close friends and got a nice chance to make it. Hope they will like it.

Cashew Barfi

Ingredients

1 cup Cashew powder

3/4 cup Castor sugar(Powdered sugar)

1/4 cup water

Method

Grind the cashew to fine powder.

In a kadai add the water and sugar powder and allow it boil. No need to check for string consistency.

Once you see the white bubbles at the bottom of the pan, add the cashew powder and mix well.

Keep stirring and you will see that the dough is getting thicker and will form a semi dough then switch of the stove. (The best way to check is, Drop a little in a plate and check it. It should form a soft ball).

Transfer it to a plate and allow it to cool.

Once it is cooled a little bit, Knead the dough with your hands well and it will form like a chappathi dough.

If the dough is too dry and you are not able t roll, You can add a little milk to make it soft dough.

Roll it and cut into desired shapes.[This is for Kaju kathli]

Pista barfi

1 cup unsalted pista

1/2 cup powdered sugar

less than 1/4 water

Follow the same procedure as the Cashew barfi and keep the dough aside.

For cashew-Pista Roll

Take a small ball size cashew dough and roll it a littlle bit.

Place a small ball size pista dough and cover it and cut it into half.

cashew-pista roll is ready.

Enjoy..

Happy Diwali to all of you.

Jalebi|ICC Challenge

After a long time i am taking part in Indian cooking challenge for August hosted by Srivalli.
For a long time i wanted to try Jalebi at home. When i saw the recipe from her, It was really simple and easy to do. Hence thought of taking part this month. Here goes the recipe for the month.
Ingredients
For the Batter
1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
1/4 cup Corn starch
1 table spoon hot oil
1 tea spoon squeezed lemon/lime
1 cup curd/yogurt
Pinch of safforn/yellow color (I did not have any color, Hence used a pinch of Turmeric powder)

Method to make the batter:
In a bowl mix all the above ingredients and allow it to ferment one full night or for atleast 7-8 hours. The batter has to be really thick like pancake batter. If it is watery add some corn starch to make it thick.

For the Syrup
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 lemon

Method to make the syrup
Boil both sugar and water to form a light syrup consistency and then squeeze the lemon to avoid crystallization.keep the syrup warm.

oil for deep frying
I used Ketchup bottle to squeeze the batter into hot oil.

To form jalebi's
In a deep frying pan pour the oil and once the oil is hot squeeze the Jalebi's using the bottle or zip top bag with one corner snipped.
Keep the stove in low flame so that the Jalebi does not become brown too fast.
Once they turn light brown and crisp.Remove from the stove and directly drop in the Sugar syrup and leave it for couple of minutes and serve warm.

Salted Paniyaram|Snacks

Got this recipe from one of my close friend and wanted to try for a long time.The recipe turned out too good.Thank you very much for the recipe S.
It is really fast and easy to do this dish. There is no fermentation required for this dish.
Ingredients
4 cups Raw rice
1 cup Urad dhal

To Temper
1 tea spoon oil
1 tea spoon Mustard seeds
1 tea spoon urad dhal
2-3 Green chillies
Few curry leaves
1 Chopped Onion
Salt to taste.

Method
Soak the rice and dhal for 1-2 hours
Grind the Rice, dhal and salt to a semi thick batter like Idli or Dosa batter. [I used Mixie to grind, You can grind in Grinder also]. You can add water if the batter is too thick to pour.
No need t ferment the batter You can make paniyaram right away after grinding.
In a small pan, add oil,and all other ingredients to temper and mix in the batter.
Heat the Appam/Paniyaram pan and add a drop of oil in each hole.
Pour one laddle full of batter and allow to cook for few minutes and turn the side and once it turns little brownish color, you can take it out.
Beautiful salted paniyaram is ready.

Dates and Almond payasam|5 Ingredients or less

Had lot of dates at home and was wondering what can i do with that, and then came up with Payasam. Today is last day for the Blogging Marathon #8 hosted by Srivalli

Ingredients:
5-6 pitted dates
2 table spoon of Jaggery
1/2 cup Coconut milk
3-4 almonds
1/2 tsp cardamon powder
1/2 cup milk (optional)

Method:
Boil the pitted dates in little water in either Microwave for 2 minutes or in stove till it becomes soft.Grind the pitted dates, almond into a coarse paste.
In a vessel heat the Jaggery, coconut milk, milk and cardamon powder and allow it to boil for 3 minutes.
Add the dates paste and allow it boil for 5 minutes
Paysam is ready.

Note:
Milk is optional.
Add milk if the coconut milk is very thick. Else we need not add milk.
I used Coconut milk tin available in stores. hence i had to use milk to make it liquid.

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Tea Masala|Condiments

Tea masala is easiest powder to grind and also very flavorful. It gives a very nice flavor and smell to the tea.
Ingredients
3 tsp pepper corns
Piece of dry ginger (I used 3 tsp dry ginger powder)
1 Cinnamon stick
6-7 Cloves
3-4 Cardomon seeds

Grind all the above ingredients and add 1/2 to 1 tea spoon while boiling tea water.
And then add milk and serve hot.

Check out the other Marathoners here