Immunity boosters

Source : The Hindu :Shruthi. A :17 Jan 2012

Seasonal fruits ward off seasonal flu

Temperatures across the state dropped by 10 degrees over the last one week, increasing the chances of seasonal flu. The best way to boost your immunity is by eating seasonal produce. With an easy access to imported freights, we can now find winter fruits throughout the year. Several studies have, however, confirmed that eating fruits that are in season is more beneficial than indulging in imported fruits during off-season. Seasonal fruits are fresh, rich in taste, cost effective, available in plenty and packed with nutrients.

“Seasonal fruits never go out of demand.

 When they are in such abundance in India, why should somebody prefer imported ones?” asks Seetaram Reddy, Selection Grade secretary, Gaddiannaram Fruit Market. While India stands second in world fruit production after China, the major fruit-producing states are Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

 The chief seasonal fruits available this winter are apples, oranges, pomegranates,and to a small extent, strawberries. “These winter fruits are great sources of Vitamin C and help you ward off common cold and flu apart from keeping skin smooth and heal cuts and wounds. They help in prevention of micronutrient malnutrition and are beneficial even in case of cardiovascular diseases, cataract, diabetes and cancer. Their high mineral and fibre contents also aid in curing constipation during winter,” says M. Sowmya, nutritionist at National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). She advocates consuming fresh, locally available produce.

Oranges that come to the city from Nagpur, are cultivated in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. Local markets also offer oranges grown in sub tropical regions of AP. Oranges, being excellent sources of vitamin C, keep skin problems, common cold and flu at bay. These round and juicy citrus fruits are vital for hale and hearty bones and teeth. They also help in healthy functioning of mind and heart.

Pomegranates are supplied to the city from parts of Andhra and Maharashtra, in particular Solapur. Also called as ‘miracle fruit', they help fight cardiovascular diseases and anaemia. Apart from purification of blood, it is found to be beneficial in treatment of cough, piles, diarrhoea and constipation. It acts as an effective agent against certain cancers. It also prevents ageing of the skin.

Grapefruits also come to the city from subtropical regions of Maharashtra. They serve as blood purifiers and cure diseases related to skin, heart and obesity. These tangy tarts are also suggested to patients of hypertension. However, people under medication should consult their physician prior to its intake as they may have a negative reaction against few drugs.

Powerhouse on your plate!

Source : The Hindu :Shonali muthalaly:23 Jan 2012

Easily accessible and affordable, millets are making a comeback to Indian kitchens, says Shonali Muthalaly

Jowar, Bajra, Ragi. High school geography has ensured you can reel off the names. However, do you know the rest of India's millet family: Kodo Millet (Kodon), Foxtail Millet (Kakum), Little Millet (Kutki), Proso Millet (Barri) and Barnyard Millet (Sanwe). In addition to Sorghum (Jowar), Pearl Millet (Bajra) and Finger Millet (Ragi), that's eight in all. Meet the millets that could save your lives.

In a country wracked by lifestyle diseases, millets are a powerhouse of easily accessible, affordable nutrition. A rich source of minerals (calcium, iron, manganese, phosphorus and magnesium), they're high fibre, low fat and gluten-free. Their low glycemic index makes them ideal for diabetics. They lower cardiovascular diseases, bring down the incidence of colon cancer and enhance the body's resistance to chronic diseases.

Four decades ago, millets were India's staple food. Now, they're being replaced by rice and wheat to an extent that people have forgotten how to incorporate them into their daily diet.

“Millets have much more calcium, protein and iron than rice and wheat,” says Sandeep Kandicuppa (programme coordinator of the Deccan Development Society which runs the Millet Network of India) explaining why he's a passionate supporter of the crop. “Now they're slowly being re-introduced into the urban scenario, as millet flakes, millet noodles, breakfast foods. Unfortunately in rural areas they have been sidelined — the current generation has forgotten how to cook them — ever since the public distribution system began offering rice and wheat for Re. 1 (in Tamil Nadu it's free of cost).” In the last four decades of the Green Revolution, Kandicuppa says several million hectares of area that was under millets have been lost, costing the nation many million tons of these grains and compromising the food security of millions of poor households.

Reviving sustainable agriculture

The Millet Network of India (MINI) unites civil society groups working on reviving traditional, sustainable systems of agriculture. “We have been working with women in the Medak district, Andhra Pradesh, for 25 years, training them to process millets, revive land, and market surplus seed.”

“Millets are suited for a harsher climate,” he states, explaining why they're an ideal way to feed India. “They need less water and no chemical inputs. Studies show a two degree increase in temperature can kill wheat. Rice releases methane — a green house gas. We are living in times of climate change: Under these circumstance millets are one answer, one very solid answer.”

However, despite being a powerhouse of nutrition, millets are catching on disconcertingly slowly. “Rice polishes in one or two efforts. Millets take an effort to process and cook,” says Kandicuppa. “Also, because of the predominance of rice and wheat, the transfer of knowledge from the previous generation did not take place, so people don't know how to cook them anymore.”

Nevertheless, thanks to the many resources online, and organic shops sprouting in every city, it's not difficult to add them to your daily menu. Dinesh Kumar's practical, informative website http://millets.wordpress.com/ is a great place to start. It lists an astonishing range of recipes, ragi orange cake, foxtail millet pesarattu, kodo millet mango rice, little millet kichdi and pearl millet rotis.

Kumar's a founder member of the Timbaktu Collective, a registered voluntary organisation initiated in 1990 by activists interested in developing alternative models of sustainable development in drought-prone Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

Powerhouse of nutrition

Explaining why millets are as good for the country as they are for your health, he says, “You need 5,000 litres of water for 1 kilo of paddy. Millets require less than one fifth of that. They are the best option since they have minimal requirements, need no pesticides and can grow in multiple soil conditions. With their extensive root systems they improve soil fertility and thrive in stressful conditions.”

In the Thar desert, for example. “They have 100 millimetres of rainfall in one year. This is one of the country's poorest soils, yet pearl millets sustain people here.” Millets are the hardiest highest yielder in low input agriculture. “India's eight different millets produce fodder for cattle and rich food grains for people. They have a long lasting shelf life and are not affected by pests. They drought proof the country.”

When Kumar first moved to Anantapur, he says a lot more people cooked with millets. “Within 10 years they stopped because rice and wheat were so cheap via the Public Distribution system.” He adds, “Polished paddy rice is one of the worst foods one can think of. It's one of the reasons we have the largest diabetic population in the world. Millets, on the other hand, are complex carbohydrates, providing people with slow digesting, normalising sugar.”

Despite the efforts being made, he says progress is slow. “We are developing seeds, influencing farmers, and trying to make millets available in the market in whole grain form. They are Nature's gift to humanity, so we don't want to over process them into a starch.”

To make a difference, he says, they need to influence Government policy and reach many more people. “I'm just back from Bengaluru where we had a four-day millet mela. There was a great response: we sold millet laddo, muruku… People are showing more interest. However, it's not enough.”

Compare nutrition:

Ragi, Rice & Milk:

100 gm Sprouted Ragi Flour: 350 mg of calcium, 4 mg of iron and 8 mg of protein.

100 gm rice: 28 mg of calcium, 0.8 mg of iron and 7 mg of protein.

Same amount of milk: 115 mg of calcium, 0.1 mg of iron and 3.5 mg of protein.

Ragi buttermilk

1 tbsp Ragi flour

1 cup Water

1/2 cup Buttermilk, Salt to taste

Bring the water to a boil. Mix ragi flour in cool water.

Add to boiling water. Stir well to remove lumps. Simmer till the mixturethickens.

Once it cools completely add salt and buttermilk. Mix thoroughly.

This cooling drink, rich in protien, calcium and iron is ideal for a hot summer day.

Door delivery servises in Chennai

Founders of YO Potato !


Source : Anusha parthasarathy : 30 Jan 2012

Hungry and want to order in? Here are a few delivery services in Chennai that customise your orders, keep track of your favourites, help you mix and match, and deliver what you want right on your doorstep

Yo! Potato

Childhood friends Krishna Chidambaresh and Showkath Jamal recently crowned themselves the “food people”, who took new career paths and began an exclusive food delivery service Yo! Potato.

The point behind this start-up is simple; you only have to remember one number to order anything from any restaurant in and around the city. “We've realised that a lot of people want to order in, but are restricted to one restaurant because of the minimum order or basically because they must track many. Through our service, people can order anything from any restaurant. We can get you an ice tea from a café and a burger from another place, and deliver it together,” says Showkath.

Yo! Potato was started in November 2011, piloting in and around Nungambakkam. Recently, it expanded to other areas. “We're trying to look at the city in the form of clusters, and currently deliver in Nungambakkam, Alwarpet, Kodambakkam, Chetpet, and a few other places,” says Krishna. “Currently, a lot of companies use our services for placing bulk orders from different restaurants.”

Apart from restaurant-based food, Yo! Potato hopes to delve into a more cultural scene. “Recently, we began delivering birthday cakes, which is kind of tricky. But, we'd like to go beyond just restaurants, and tap into some culture-based food — such as basha hHalwa that you get only in a particular shop in Triplicane. We'll soon be connecting with small eateries that offer such signature dishes,” says Showkath.

Call Yo! Potato at 4554-1111.

StorElf

Inside white-painted rooms that have charts with colourful arrows running amuck on the walls, Sahil Gore and Siddharth Padmanabhan are the chief technology elf and sales manager elf. And, with their team of other friendly elves, they run StorElf, a food delivery service.

“Amrutash Misra and Sahil run StorElf under its parent company LifeOnline, which also powers iloveread.in. We started off in January because we had already worked on deliveries, and we thought we could use this experience to expand our business,” says Siddharth, while Sahil adds: “We were wondering what people need, and a lot of our library members were asking us about food delivery and we thought ‘why not?'. According to a market survey, Chennai has the lowest home delivery order quantity because people here like to dine out. We thought we could take home delivery to the next level.”

With a call centre and a centralised number, StorElf caters to most of South Chennai's food needs. “We have tie-ups with different restaurants, and we use their delivery system to get our customer's food across. There is a minimum order the restaurant sets, but we also customise orders, in that, we can tell someone what they last ordered, or even make a list of their favourites. Most of our customers know what they want, but don't know where to get them, and some who just want to order in. We suggest restaurants, cuisine and dishes based on their preferences,” continues Sahil.

StoreElf looks to develop the delivery business as a whole. “We haven't advertised except in neighbourhood weeklies, and most of our orders have been through word-of-mouth. It's exactly like calling a restaurant for delivery, except that your experience with us will be better at no extra cost. Right now, we're catering from Alwarpet up to ECR, but we hope to expand soon. We work shifts, and our hotline is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.,” says Siddharth.

Call StorElf at 2446-2012.

Dinein.in

Vineet Chordia is a vegetarian who didn't want to spend hours waiting in long queues to eat at his favourite restaurants. To make things easy for his kind, he began dinein.in with Bushan Kalaiah, who also runs Pizz Deli, a delivery-only pizzeria.

“A lot of restaurants don't invest in manpower for delivery because of the hassles involved. That's where we come in,” says Bushan. “We register hotels on our website, and people can order online or call our centre to place an order.”

Dine In currently delivers in and around Nungambakkam. “The service is free for those in Nungambakkam or four km around it. Beyond that, we deliver if they meet a minimum order rate, and there'll be delivery charges too,” says Bushan.

It not just customises order, but helps make the customer's job easier. “A lot of customers want food they like, but not necessarily be interested in going to the restaurant. While their favourite restaurant might not have an active delivery service, we help them get their order,” he says.

Bushan hopes to not restrict the delivery to food. “Delivery is a vast service, and we hope to offer anything the customer wants — jewellery, gifts, cakes… We've started with food, and the feedback from restaurants and customers have been good. Restaurants are happy because they don't invest in anything, and customers are happy to get their order customised and delivered.”

dinein.in

Contact Name:  Anirudha Das
"Prakash Presidium" 4th Floor, 110 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Nungambakkam, Chenn
Chennai
TamilnaduIndia
600034
04442141516
Mob: 4442141516
Category: services
http://www.dinein.in

Call dinein.in at 4214-1516

Black tea may help lower blood pressure: Study

Source :The Hindu :PTI:Washington: 24 Jan 2012

Suffering from blood pressure? Then, drink at least three cups of black tea daily which may help you lower your pressure, scientists have claimed.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia found that people who drank three cups of black tea a day managed to lower their blood pressure (BP) levels by an average of two to three points.

That may not sound like much, but even small reductions in BP levels can have a major impact on the prevalence of high blood pressure (hypertension) and risk of heart disease, the researchers said.

“At a population level, the observed differences in BP would be associated with a 10 per cent reduction in the prevalence of hypertension and a seven per cent to 10 per cent reduction in the risk of heart disease and stroke,” study author Jonathan Hodgson was quoted as saying by WebMD.

In the study, the researchers looked at the effect of black tea on blood pressure levels among 95 men and women who were regular tea drinkers.

Their average systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) was between 115 and 150 at the start of the study.

Half of the participants drank three cups of black tea per day for six months, and the other half drank a placebo drink with a similar flavour and caffeine content. Both groups were similar in terms of gender, age, and weight status.

By the end of the study, those who drank black tea experienced an average reduction of between two and three points in their 24-hour average systolic blood pressure level and about two points in their diastolic (the lower number in a blood pressure reading) level.

This is the first time that long-term use of black tea has been shown to lower blood pressure in people with normal to high-normal blood pressure, said the researchers who detailed their finding in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

According to the researchers, there are a number of potential explanations for this health benefit.

Recent studies have shown that drinking black tea can improve the function of the endothelial cells, which line the interior of blood vessels. Endothelial dysfunction is an early indicator of blood pressure changes.

Other research has suggested that the flavonoids found in tea can improve the blood vessel’s tone and reduce body weight and abdominal fat.

These findings have important public health implications in light of the high rates of high blood pressure worldwide and the importance of high blood pressure as a risk factor for heart disease and death, the researchers added.

Top 3 Healthy Indian Curries

Source :ET :Mansi Kohli : Jan 29th 2012 at 6:30AM


Known for their wide variety, aromas, flavours, spices and gorgeous colours, Indian curries are loved across the globe. Unfortunately this global love for curries is marred by a common perception - most people consider them greasy and unhealthy. 


But today, Chef De Cuisine Ankit Sharma at JW Marriott, Chandigarh, shares with us his healthy versions of much-loved, popular Indian curries. With the right balance of seasoning and aromas these recipes are perfect for healthy winter indulgences.



1 . Dal Makhni


 Ingredients: 


800 grams Black Gram,
 800 grams Butter, 
50 grams Chilli Powder,
 50 grams Cumin Powder,
 20 grams Garam Masala,
 50 grams Coriander Powder, 
30 grams Garlic Paste, 
30 grams Ginger Paste, 
800 grams Tomato Puree. 

Method: 


Wash the dal thoroughly with salt, vinegar and water. 
Boil for 10 to 12 hours till mashed thoroughly.
 Sauté ginger-garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder and add tomato puree.
Cook for some time, add salt and cooked dal. 





2 .Hari Mirch ke Mushrooms. 


Ingredients: 


600 grams Mushroom button, 
100 grams Chopped onion, 
10 grams Garam masala powder,
 1tbs Ghee, 50 grams Garlic, 
20 grams salt, 
200 ml Cream cooking, 
2 grams Pickle chilli green, 
20 grams Cumin powder, 
15 grams Morrel, 
10 grams Javitri ellaci powder,
5 grams Ginger, 
10 grams Chopped mint, 
10 grams Black pepper powder, 
2 grams Green chilli pickle. 


Method: 

Dice mushrooms and wash. 

Heat ghee in a pan and add chopped garlic. 

Then add chopped onion and sauté it along with diced mushroom and salt. 

Then cook it on a slow fire.

 Soak the morels in hot water, cut them into roundels, once soft. 

Add morels (gucchi) to the sautéed mushroom mix.

Add double cream, cumin powder and black powder. 

Finish the dish with come chopped mint, javitri ellachi powder and green chillies.

3.Parcha Paneer

.Ingredients:

 300 grams Paneer, 300 grams cream, 

a pinch of black pepper pd, 

150 grams chopped onion, 

10 grams chopped green chilli, 

100 grams kaju paste, 

a pinch of salt, deghi mirch, turmeric powder, green cardamom,

0 grams of tomato chopped and 1 tablespoon of ghee.

 Method:

 Cut paneer cubes into small pieces and keep aside. 

Heat ghee and add chopped ginger, green chilli and crushed black pepper. 

Add the mixture of cream and kaju paste and cook until done. 

Add salt and black pepper powder. 

Now pour the gravy over the top of paneer cubes and serve.

Healthy Breakfast :Upma with Oats

Source :ET:Mansikohli;3 Jan 2012

Delicious, time-saving and healthy too, Upma is a much loved breakfast across India. An excellent dish for post-menopausal health, weight loss and packed with vitamins, fibre and minerals, upma is a full meal in itself. You can make it with sooji, rava or oats, with coconut water instead of plain water, or even with olive oil! Here's a simple and healthy Upma recipe that we recommend for healthy breakfasts.

Ingredients 
(4 Servings)

• Oats - 2 cups
• Minced ginger- 1/2 tsp
• Yellow gram- 2 tsp
• Curry leaves- 5-7 leaves
• Black gram - 1 tbsp
• Asafetida- a pinch
• Mustard seeds- 1.5 tsp
• Chopped green chilies- 3 
• Dried red chilies- 2
• Olive oil- 1 tsp
• Finely sliced onion- 1
• Coconut water– 5 cups
• Salt as per taste

Method
 

1. Heat a pan on a medium flame and roast the oats for 3 minutes. Make sure you are not using oil while roasting oats. Keep the oats mixture aside. 
2. Now, in the same pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, green chillies, dry red chillies. Stir fry for sometime till the dal turns light-ish golden brown in colour. 
3. Now, gently add in finely sliced onions, curry leaves and ginger to the pan. Sauté the mixture, till the time onions are tender. Now add salt and asafoetida.
4. Gently pour in coconut water and let it boil for some time.
5. In no time, add the roasted oats and keep stirring the mixture well.
6. As soon as the oats are thoroughly cooked, remove from pan and serve steaming hot. 

*Image courtesy: © Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images

Gourmet Files : The chana way

Source : The Hindu::Vasundhra Chauhan:14 JAN 2012

It is the versatile chickpea that saves the day.

Chickpea, garbanzo bean, Bengal gram, Kabuli chana or 

chhola... very complicated and overlapping names

. I've grown up with the terms Kabuli chana, meaning the larger straw coloured one — now improved upon and plumped up, and which my local grocer calls “dollar chana”; and kala chana, the smaller, darker, wrinkly variety. K.T. Achaya (A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food, Oxford University Press), says that

 in English it was called Bengal gram because it was first encountered by the British in Bengal, and

 that in Sanskrit it is chanaka,

 in Hindi chana, 

kadalai in Tamil, 

chickpea in English and

 botanicallyCicer arietnum. 

Alan Davidson (The Oxford Companion to Food) writes that the chickpea was first grown in the Levant and ancient Egypt but is now used in the entire region between India and North Africa as well as places to which the Arabs took it, like Sicily and Spain.

 He explains that the botanical name, arietinum, is accounted for by the likeness of the seed, which is curled at the sides, to a ram's skull. (Aries is ram.) And the generic name, Cicer, is said to come from the famous Roman orator Cicero, whose family had an ancestor with a chickpea-shaped wart on his face!

Both Achaya and Davidson seem to say that the Kabuli chana (which came to us from Afghanistan) is large and the kala chana small. And they all take hours to cook, despite overnight soaking. But in Goa recently I met yet another kala chana. This was dark, a nice nutty brown, but large.

 And it cooks in a few minutes, after being soaked the night before. Lakhan produced it at breakfast one morning, as the course following plump, pinkish-gold chikoos, homegrown; deep orange papaya, also homegrown, that was so sweet that lemon juice added to the flavour; and large red strawberries (bought).

 It tasted like kala chana but felt like Kabuli because kala chana, no matter how much steam you force into it with pressure cooking, remains hard. This was firm but tender, and absorbed the flavours of the tempering. A small squeeze of lemon juice was optional.

Aromatic lemon

The other revelation was the lemon.

 I could go on about the distinction between limes and lemons, without coming to any conclusion.

 This was another variety I've never seen. It grows locally — in this case, in the kitchen garden — and looks like the usual green type you buy everywhere, only larger. I wasn't surprised at the flavour — most varieties that are not mass produced have a fresher flavour.

 Possibly the time lag between harvest and sale is so short that the volatile aromatic oils are still abundant and you just have to squeeze one wedge to have perfumed fingers all day. 

The beautiful surprise came from the colour inside: Bright orange. The skin was thin — not the sweet kind you can nibble — and the flesh a glowing, fruity orange.

A cut wedge was as beautiful as a flower with its green skin and pomegranate blossom orange flesh. So we had it squeezed on the sookha kala chana, over diced ripe papaya, on strawberries, quartered and sprinkled with sugar, and cut into long wedges in tall glasses of iced water, like some exotic cocktail, in which the green and orange segment glistened between diamonds of ice.

My Grandma's Recipe: How to make...Cream of rice

Source :The Hindu:Nazreen Jehangir:19 Jan 2012

I learnt this dish, a family favourite, from my mother. 

Though it is made from simple ingredients it is rich in taste.

What you need

Curd - 11/2 litres

Broken basmati rice – 350 gm

Ghee - 4 tbsp

Milk - 250 ml

Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup

Salt - to taste

For the stuffing

Chicken kheema - 250 gm

Onions, chopped - 2

Tomatoes, chopped - 3

Green chillies, finely chopped - 2

Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp

Turmeric – 1/4 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Chilli powder – 11/2 tsp

Garam masala powder - 1 tsp

For tomato double ghatta

Tomatoes, finely chopped - 4

Onion, finely chopped - 1

Green chilli, finely chopped - 2

Tomato ketchup - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Pudina leaves – a few

Cooking instructions

Blend the basmati rice in a mixer for two minutes and make cream of rice. Sift and discard the flour. Wash the cream of rice (350 gm) and mix with curd, coconut, milk, salt and ghee in a thick bottomed pan. Stir occasionally. After 20 minutes when the dough becomes thick, switch off the stove and set aside.

In a pan heat oil, add chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add ginger-garlic paste, chicken kheema and salt and stir for five minutes. Then add turmeric, coriander powder, green chilli, red chilli and garam masala powder. Then add chopped tomatoes and allow the chicken to cook. When it is almost done add coriander leaves. Cook for three minutes till its dry.

Divide the cooked cream of rice dough into two portions. Grease a pan with ghee and lay half of the dough stuffed with the chicken filling over it. Add the remaining dough. Level it and bake in the oven for 50 minutes till golden brown. Cut into wedges. Mix the ingredients for tomato double ghatta in a bowl. Serve hot with tomato double ghatta.

Nazreen Jehangir is a homemaker who spends her free time trying out new dishes and experimenting with different flavours.

Warm and spicy mint pulav

Source :The Hindu::Parvathy Menon:19 Jan 2012

A lip-smacking rice dish to brighten up your day

Ingredients

Basmati rice – 2 cups

Water – 4 cups

Cloves, cardamom –

4 each

Cinnamon – 1 piece

Bayleaf, broken – 1

Onions – 2, chopped

Ghee - 2 + 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 1 tbsp

To grind with a l

ittle water:

Ginger – A small piece

Garlic – 4

Green chillies – 4

Grated coconut –

one fourth cup

Fennel – 1 tsp

Mint leaves – 2 handfuls

Method

Soak Basmati rice for 10 minutes. In two tablespoons of ghee, sauté bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and the chopped onion until the raw smell goes. Add salt. Add the freshly ground paste. Sauté well.

Add the drained rice and fry well. Once the rice granules are crisp and become stiff, pour in water. Pressure-cook for two whistles. In tablespoons of ghee, fry the nuts and add to the mint rice.

Serve hot with cucumber raita, pickle and pappad.

For cilantro/ coriander pulav, use coriander leaves as per the same recipe instead of mint for .