Oats Pakoda - Healthy Snack

Oats has become a common ingredient at home used in every other form these days. I have been adding them to almost all the milk shakes to make it healthy. 

After all the sweets that were made with oats, all at home demanded for a savory, so me and mom came up with this yummy Oats pakoda. 

It turned out to be a crispy, delicious and healthy tea time snack :) 

Ingredients:

Saffola Oats – 2 cups

Roasted gram flour – 1 cup

Besan flour – 2 cups

Rice flour – 4 cups

Ghee – 8 tsps

Cooking soda – 1 tsps

Ginger – ½ inch piece

Garlic – 5 pods

Green chillies – 4

Chilly powder – 2 tblsp

Salt – for taste

Curry leaves – 20

Cashew nuts - 20

Method:

Grind ginger, garlic and chillies by adding a little water into a fine paste. Chop curry leaves finely. Break cashew nuts into small pieces.

Take the ghee and cooking soda in a broad mixing plate. Beat the soda and ghee nicely with your palm until frothy.

Now add saffola oats, roasted gram flour, besan flour, rice flour, ginger garlic paste, curry leaves, cashew nuts, chilly powder and salt to it and mix well with your hands until well combined.

Now in a smaller plate, take 1/5 of the above mixed powder and add water little by little to it and make it into dough. The dough should be crumbly and not wet. (Pakoda dough consistency)

Heat oil in deep pan and drop small portions of the mixed dough and fry until golden brown in medium flame.

Collect on a paper towel to remove excess oil and seal it in air tight containers. 

Tips:

Do not make large sized pakodas. They would turn out to be soft and uncooked inside which would obviously get spoilt soon. 

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here. 

Sago Idly

Those cute little tiny white balls have been enjoyed by me since my childhood days. Yes!! I'm speaking about the humble sago (Javvarisi / Sabbubiyam). Upma or payasam, be it in whatever form I would simple enjoy it :)

Sago idly!!!! I exclaimed when my mother in law made this last week. I got lost in the taste that I forgot to take pics of it for a post. I requested her to teach me and make it again this week and she did it completely for me and for my readers :) Isn't that sweet of her!! :)

I'm sure you and your kids would love this idly :)

Ingredients:

Sago - 1 cup

Par boiled rice rava - 3 cups

Curd - 1 1/2 cups

Oil - 5 tsp

Urad dhall - 1 tsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Channa dhall - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 3

Curry leaves - 10

Cooking soda - 1/2 tsp

Salt - for taste

Method:

Take the sago and rice rava in a bowl and wash with water. Now drain the water completely and add the beaten curd and mix well. Let it get soaked over night.

Now add oil to a pan and crackle mustard seeds, urad dhall and channa dhall. Fry for a min and add chopped curry leaves and chopped green chillies and fry for one more minute. Add it to the batter along with salt and cooking soda and mix well. Just in case the batter is too thick and dry add a little more curd and mix. The batter should be of idly batter consistency.

Now grease the idly plates with oil and fill it 3/4th with batter and steam cook for 15 mins in medium flame.

Delicious sago idlies are ready to eat :)

Serve hot with chutney.

Tips:

Do not use sour curd for this idly. Use fresh curds.

This idly goes well with tomato, onion or garlic chutney.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Fourth Sense Cooking Cooking Book On Sale

I'm Happy to announce that my First Cook Book is on sale for the public now :)

It contains 50 unique and simple recipes with beautiful clicks, all from YOUR FRIEND :)

Do you wish to own a copy?!!!

Want to gift it to your mom on mother's day?!! (May 13th)

Like to impress your girl by gifting a cook book?!!

All you need to do is to write to me at fourthsensesamayal@gmail.com

or

Leave a comment with your mail id and I shall mail you the details.

or

Send in your order by clicking here.

With luv,

Ragi Sankati / Ragi Rice Balls

Ragi Sankati is a traditional dish that has been made and enjoyed by generations of people, but still I wasn't aware of it until the weekend that passed.

OMG!!! Mummy dint make this for me :( She claims to have done it two decades back when I was a baby ;) No wonder I don't remember and no use of making it that time, I wouldn't have wanted or enjoyed healthy stuff by then :P

My mother in law introduced this healthy dish to me and I promise I really enjoyed eating it. Anyways I wouldn't boast of its taste when eaten as it is. It becomes delicious only when brilliant combinations of side dishes are made for it.

Kaaram (spice powder) is a simple side dish made for this dish and I bet you would love the combi. The fiery spice makes my tongue drool :)

Jaggery combination is the second best since I love making any dish sweet :) Ghee muddha with jaggery was terrific.

The other good combinations are typical sambhar and salted butter milk. They go really good as well.

Ragi is a natural body coolant hence this dish is so perfect for this scorching summer. Do you need any better reason than this to try it out right away!!!

Ingredients:

Ragi flour - 2 cups
Rice - 1 cup
Water - 7 cups
Salt - for taste

Method:

Soak rice in water for 1 hour.

Boil 7 cups of water in a heavy bottomed vessel. Drain the rice and add it to the vessel when the water boils. Allow it to boil until the rice gets well cooked.

Simmer the stove and add salt and ragi flour as a heap on top of the rice. Do not mix it, close with a plate and cook for 5-10 mins in medium flame.

Once done remove from flame and immediately mix well with a wooden masher or large wooden ladle until it is all well mashed and combined.

Once it becomes warm roll make large balls of it.

Poke a hole in the center of the ball with a finger and pour some ghee in it.

Serve it warm with spice powder, sambhar, jaggery or butter milk.

Delicious and super healthy ragi sankati is ready :) Enjoy the healthy dish :)

Note:

Pinch small portions from the sides of the ball and dip it in ghee first and then in the side dishes and eat them :) yummmmmm

Spice powder / Kaaram

Ingredients:

Garlic - 3 pods
Chilly powder - 4 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp

Method:

Grind garlic, chilly powder and salt together until fine powder. Serve it with ragi sankati. This goes well with idly and dosa as well.

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Oreo Espresso Mousse - Million Hits Celebration

I'm getting back to normal from my sickness and yes I have a reason and a medicine that cured me to let you all know :) Its nothing but the motivating MILLION hits (plus more) that have been registered for my little baby blog - www.4thsensecooking.com :) I'm definitely in for a happy feet dance for this :) Hoooorey!!

Many thanks for all the pairs of eyes that viewed my blog and the pairs of hands that appreciated me in the form of comments :)

I have been waiting to celebrate and mark this occasion in my blog and its going to be today with this little dessert that I created :)

I have fallen for Oreo cookies ever since it was introduced and wanted to include them in my dessert. Mousse became our family favorite after the triple chocolate mousse that I made. So I came up with a combination of both in a cute bite-able dessert form :)

I'm sure you too will fall for it :)

Ingredients:

Oreo cookies - 1 pack

Whipping cream - 2oo ml

Sugar - 50 gms (skip if your cream is sweetened)

Espresso - 10 ml

Gelatin - 1 tblsp

Method:

Take the gelatin powder in a microwave safe bowl and add 2 tblsp of water to it. Microwave this for 30 seconds or until it melts completely. Keep it aside.

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the sugar(optional) and espresso slowly until well blent. Now mix the melted gelatin.

Fill the whipped espresso mousse into a piping bag.

Place one oreo cookie each in cup cake liners. Now pipe swirls of coffee mousse on top of the cookies.

Set them in the fridge for at least an hour and serve chill.

Enjoy biting into a coffee & chocolate cookie dessert :)

Tips:

Do not beat the cream after you add the espresso to it. Just fold in gently and pipe them.

Remove the cup cake liner gently and hold the mousse with the cookie and bite in :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.

Choco Milk Balls - A quick fix

Do we ever exclaim or jump in joy if something gets spoilt!!!!!! NOOOOO is the answer isn't it.

But I do. I celebrate and enjoy when milk curdles :)

Its summer time and power cut schedules are haphazard that we really cant plan to boil milk and preserve them properly. Last week, it so happened that a pack of milk curdled while boiling and what a sweet psycho was I to smile wide with sparkling eyes! :)

Days back mom used to add sugar to the curdled milk and make a khova kind of sweet and give me and thats when I started loving it. Now the chocolate lover and the 4th sense cook in me hinted an instinct to add cocoa powder to it and roll them into balls to make them as interesting as possible :) Ummmmmmmm simply delicious :)

Ingredients:

Milk(Curdled) - 1/2 ltr

Sugar - 4 tblsp

Cocoa Powder - 2 tblsp

Method:

Once you find your milk curdling, just jump in joy to make this interesting dessert :)

Pass it through a sieve and collect the cuddled milk.

Take it in a pan and add sugar and cocoa powder. Mix well and cook on medium flame until it becomes thick and rolls into a balls.

Remove from flame and allow it to come to room temperature.

Pinch small portions of it and roll it into balls and refrigerate.

Enjoy eating choco milk ladoos :P

Tips:

If you desperately want to make these choco - milk balls, boil milk and when it starts to raise, simmer the stove and add a tsp of lemon juice. The milk will curdle immediately and you can make this dessert as per the instructions above :)

Do not throw the whey water once you filter the curdled milk. Collect it and use it for making chapathi dough. Chapathis would turn out to be really soft this way :)

Written by: Nithya
Send in your queries by clicking here.