Raagi malt with butter milk

This is an immensely nutritious drink. We can prepare this as Hot or Cold and Sweet or Savoury varieties.

I prefer to have the hot / Sweet variety during moist days and love to have the cold / butter milk variety during hot summer season.  The sweet variety / porridge can be served as breakfast. 

Ingredients:

Raagi flour - 1 tbsp

Water - 2 cups

Yoghurt - 1 cup beaten into smooth paste

Salt

Cumin powder - 1 pinch (Optional)

Method:

Mix the flour in 1/4 cup of water without any lumps and keep it aside.

Heat a deep pan with water.

When the water reaches the boiling point, reduce the flame and add the flour mixture to water by stirring it constantly.

Continue stirring until the mixture is cooked well and gets consistent. 

Allow it to reach the room temperature and mix it with beaten yoghurt, salt and cumin powder.

Serve it at room temperature or chilled.

Note:

If you would like to drink this, make it bit more watery and if not make it bit thick and have it like porridge.

Raagi idly

A healthy recipe both for kids and older people.  It's in fact the staple diet in many villages across South India. Ragi also known as finger millet, is rich in calcium and Iron. Can be consumed as a porridge with Milk or butter milk.

To make idly, instead of having just rice and urad daal, I have added Ragi flour also. 

 

Ingredients:

Whole Ragi Flour- 1 cup
Idli rava -  1 cup

Urad daal / Black gram - 1 cup

Methi seeds -1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Baking Soda - 1 pinch

Method:

Soak the urad daal and methi seeds for about 6 hours.

Using a blender or wet grinder, grind the urad daal into smooth paste.

To this add idly rava and ragi flour. Add water if necessary. The consistency should be the same as any other idly batter.

Ferment the mixture for about 8 hours in a warm place.

When it is fully fermented, add salt and baking soda, mix thoroughly and scoop the batter into idlymoulds and steam for 15 – 20 minutes.

Serve them warm with your favourite chutney, sambar or even spicy powders with a dallop of ghee.

 Ragi Idly

Note:

Instead of using the idly rava, you can use normal rice and soak it seperately and grind it coarsely and mix it with the urad daal paste. If you are using rice, then use only 3/4 th cup.

 

Raagi Malt - Sweet variety

This raagi malt is a very nutritious drink for all age groups. I have added a pinch of cardamom powder to give the sweet flavour. This is a very nice substitute for coffee and tea. Those who are under homeopathy medication can drink this as a beverage and avoid coffee and tea completely.

Raagi maalt

Raagi is also known as finger millet. It constitutes a little over 25% of food grains grown in India. It is widely consumed in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu States. Ragi malt is very nutritious for children and weak people.

Ragi is rich in cellulose or dietary fibre. Therefore its regular use is an excellent laxative for chronic constipation. It is rich in calcium and iron. In fact it is the richest source of these minerals among all cereals. Ragi malt or Ragi preparation foods are good to eat in case of iron deficiency anaemia.The major proteins of ragi are prolamins and glutelins and they appear to be adequate in all essential amino acids, It contains B vitamin but is poor in B2.

Ingredients:
Soya Milk – 1 cup (200 ml)
Honey – 1 ½ tsp
Raagi flour – 1 ½ tsp
Cardamom powder – ½ pinch (Optional)

Method:

Heat the milk in a sauce pan along with cardamom powder. Mix the raagi flour in 3-4 tbsp of water in a cup and keep it aside. When the milk is hot enough, add the raagi mixture and stir the milk constantly to avoid forming any lumps.

Adding the raagi flour mixture to the hot milk

Continue boiling until the malt becomes bit thick and the raw taste of raagi flour goes away by stirring continuously. It is good to take a bigger pan to avoid the overflow.

Note: You can also substitute Soya milk with normal milk or even with just water. Honey can be substituted with either jaggery or sugar.

A nice substitute for Coffee and Tea

Raagi Sangati / Millet Rice

Sangati with Bullet chilli curry

This is the recipe prepared at almost all house holds in Rayalaseema especially in the villages. This sangati is rich in Iron and easy to digest, as we use Raagi / millet flour in it. This is also the poor man’s most common recipe as it requires less quantity of rice that too of broken variety. There are two reasons for using the broken rice. One, broken rice are cheaper than the whole rice and second, gets cooked quickly than the whole rice. Hence I have also used the broken variety. Another interesting thing is, making the rice balls / Sangati mudha which is an art. In villages they use trimmed coconut branches which resembles the wooden spatulas. These sticks are very strong and they are bit longer than the usual wooden spatulas.

Here are the benefits of Ragi;

- Ragi meal is an Ideal food for diabetes and obese because its digestion is slow and glucose is released from the intestines very slowly into the blood.

- By eating ragi preparations the constant desire to eat will become less and supplies less calories for obese people.

- Due to its rich cellulose it is excellent laxative for constipation.

- Malt is a good food for children and supplies calcium in good proportions for bone growth and body development.

- Its regular use protects from malnutrition, degenerative diseases, premature old age and increases longevity.

Ingredients:

Broken Rice – 1 cup

Raagi Flour – ¼ cup

Salt – ½ tsp

Method:

Wash and soak the rice in 3 cups of water for at least 30 minutes and cook the rice along with salt until it becomes very smooth. Now reduce the flame and add the raagi flour and cover it with cooked rice and close the lid for about 5 minutes.

Raagi flour added to the cooked rice

Now remove the lid and stir the sangati with wooden spatula or a wooden rolling pin and make it smooth without any lumps. Take a portion of sangati into a plate, dip your hand in cold water and  roll the sangati in the form of ball.

I prepare this recipe at least twice a week for my kids as this is very healthy and easily digestible. This can be eaten by 6 months baby to 60 years old person. We normally add a dollop of ghee to this raagi sangati and feed the babies. Adults or grown up children will eat with any gravies made up of vegetables or meat.

You know what, I love to eat with yogurt as well. Yummy..yummy

Sangati mudha with bullet chili gravy