Ragi Halwa Using Jaggery in 15 minutes - One Pot One Shot (OPOS) Recipe

Ragi is a super wonder grain which is perfectly suitable for Indian climatic conditions. It is rich in fiber, calcium, good carbohydrates, amino acids, Vitamin D and also an excellent source of iron. I learnt this recipe from one of the OPOS facebook groups. It was super easy and my son loved it the most.  I have not added any nuts or dry fruits in this, you can add them if you wish. 

Ingredients

Ragi Flour - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp + 1 tsp
Water - 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery - 1/3 cup, heaped
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Cashew nut - 1

Method

1. Heat a pan, add 2 tbsp of ghee, ragi flour and the cashew. Roast the flour in low flame until a nice  
    aroma rises. The cashew will turn golden brown when the flour gets roasted. It takes approximately    10 minutes for this.
2. Once the flour gets roasted set aside. Take a 2 or 3 liter pressure cooker, add 1 cup of water,   Jaggery powder, cardamom powder, 1 tsp of ghee and cook for 1 whistle.
3. Turn off the pressure cooker. Remove the pressure manually, do this very carefully using a spoon.
4. Add the roasted ragi flour immediately to the boiling water and mix well quickly.
5. Close the lid with the weight on and leave it for 15 minutes. (Do not have to turn on the stove, it         will get set in the retained heat).
6. After 15 minutes, you can transfer it to a mould and slice them to pieces or can just serve them in       a bowl with spoon.

Note :

While roasting the ragi flour, if you over roast the flour halwa might have a bitter taste in it. In case, if your cashew doesn't turn golden brown for some reason and meanwhile you get the nice aroma, just go with your instincts. 

Sweet Ragi Kali - Kezhvaragu Kali - Keppai Kali - Ragi Urundai - Ragi Mudde - Ragi Sankati Using a Pressure Cooker

I always prefer including millets in my routine. Generally, Ragi Kali is consumed for breakfast as it highly nutritious. Learnt this sweet version of Ragi Kali from the OPOS group. As it is a sweet version I made it as an evening snack for my family. It doesn't take much of your effort as you mix in the flour with hot jaggery syrup and allow to sit for a while and then make the balls; no vigorous mixing as we do in the traditional way. They turned out super soft and so delicious.  If you have a picky eater, you can name it a chocolate ball or jamuns. Even you can just flatten it a bit, place a layer of cheese or peanut butter and give it as a cheese or cream biscuit; kids will never say a no to it. So, here is the recipe I followed. Below mentioned quantity yields 20 balls.

Ingredients

Ragi Flour - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Powdered Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp
Ghee - for greasing your palms while making balls

Method:

1. Heat a pan and dry roast the ragi flour until the raw smell goes. May take 3-5 mins. Once roasted set aside.
2. In a pressure cooker, add water, jaggery and coconut oil. Cook in high for 1 whistle. Manually release pressure immediately.
3. Add the dry roasted ragi flour and mix well until no dry flour is seen.
4. Close the cooker lid with the whistle. Let it sit for 20-30 mins. By this time the ragi would have been fully cooked
5. Now make them into gooseberry sized balls, use ghee for a smooth and shiny texture. Place them in an idly tray and steam for 3-5 mins as we do for kozhukattai. Alternately, you can also keep them in a vessel and put the vessel in the pressure cooker and pressure cook for 5 mins. Sweet Ragi Kali is all ready to be gobbled. 

Before Steaming

After Steaming

Note

• For roasting the flour, don't go by time. Believe in your nose. 
• After you steam or pressure cook the balls, when you touch them it should not be sticky, but soft and spongy. That's how you know your balls are perfectly cooked.
• If yours turn out to be chewy or hard, it means you had overcooked them.

Instant Ragi Dosa Recipe Using Leftover Idly Batter

Ragi (Finger Millet/ nachni) is a nutritious grain which is staple food in most of the South Indian states. If you have some left over idly batter then this ragi dosas are quick and easy to prepare. You can also check the other method of preparing ragi dosas here

Ingredients

Dosa batter - 1 cup
Ragi flour - 1/2 cup
salt and water as needed

Method

Mix the ragi flour along with the dosa batter and add required amount of salt and water. The batter consistency should be similar to our regular dosa batter.

Heat a tawa, when it is hot, pour a ladle of batter and spread it in a circular motion. Drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa.

When the corners start lifting up, flip it over to the other side. Let the other side also get cooked.

Then remove the dosa from the tawa and serve hot with any Chutney or Sambar of your choice.

Check out the other method of Fermented Ragi Dosa where ragi is soaked along with idly rice and urad dal, ground and allowed to ferment.

Ragi Dosa Recipe - How To Make Ragi Dosa - Fermented Ragi Dosa

Ragi is known as finger millet in English, Kezhvaragu in Tamil and nachni in hindi. It is rich in calcium, protein, iron and is also a good source of fiber. It is said to be good for diabetic patients also. It is said to be a poor man’s grain since it is cheap and highly nutritious. The most interesting fact is that this grain needs no fertilizer and no pesticide while growing up. Rarely do they get infestations. In such cases very minimal quantities of pesticides are used. This is one of the main reasons why it is preferred by most people especially in small towns and villages. Now, here comes the recipe

Ingredients

Ragi - 1 cup
Idly rice - 1/4 cup
Whole urad dal - 1/4 cup
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
Salt as per taste

Method

Wash and soak all the ingredients together for 6-7 hours or overnight.

Grind it to a smooth batter adding little water needed. This doesn't require as much water as we use for our regular idly/dosa batter. Once ground, add needed salt and mix well.

Keep the batter in a warm place for 8-9 hours so that it gets fermented. Prepare dosas just as you make regular dosas.

Heat a tawa, when it is hot, pour a ladle of batter and spread it in a circular motion. Drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa.

When the corners start lifting up, flip it over to the other side. Let the other side also get cooked.

Then remove the dosa from the tawa and serve hot with any Chutney or Sambar of your choice.

Ragi Wheat Chapati - How to make Ragi Chapati

These days I have been preparing chapati's frequently for dinner. So, my son would love to have variations in it like Aloo Paratha, Cheese stuffed chapati, panner paratha, raddish paratha (will share the recipe soon) etc. And to this list got added this Ragi Wheat chapati. Ragi flour makes you feel filling too. Try this simple recipe!

Ingredients
Wholewheat flour/ atta - 1 cup Ragi flour - 1/2 cup
Oil - 1 tsp Salt - little to taste Warm water - 1/2 cup or less to kneed dough
Method




Take a wide bow and add the flour, salt and oil. Mix well.
To this slowly add water little by little and form a pilable dough. The dough should be really soft, only then you will get soft chapathi's. 
Keep covered with a wet cloth for 10-15 mins. Then divide it to equal size balls and flatten using a rolling pin into chapatis. 
On a hot skillet add the rolled chapati dough and cook on both sides until done. Refer to my Chapati post for more tips for soft chapatis. Serve hot with subji of your choice.