Recipe – Pearl Millet

PEARL MILLET

Description

Millets are becoming increasingly popular among health-conscious owing to their immense health benefits. It is called Bajra in Hindi; kambu in Tamil and Malayalam, Sajjalu in Telugu, Bajri in Gujarati. Kambu or Pearl Millet is considered as one of the best foods that can provide nutrition and health to your body. It is a high energy food which is packed with Iron. Kambu has 8 times Iron content higher than in Rice. The rich Iron content in Kambu aids in improving the hemoglobin level in the blood and prevents anemia.

o It is very rich in Calcium, Protein, & Magnesium. It helps to reduce the bad cholesterol level in our body.

o It’s a great body coolant.

o It’s consumed as porridge during summer. It helps to improve the digestion power & heals stomach ulcers too.

o It helps to improve bowel movements & prevents constipation. It makes our body strong. It helps to increase the secretion of milk for lactating mothers

o Used to maintain normal blood sugar level.

o It helps to reduce the cholesterol.

o Lowers the risk of gall stone formation.

o Prevents calm feeling; and fights off insomnia.

o Ensures a stress free day without headache.

1. PEARL MILLET PORRIDGE

Ingredients

Pearl millet flour : ¼ cup

Water : 1 cup

Butter milk : ½ cup

Small onions : 3

Green chilli : 1

Salt : as needed

Asafetida : 1 pinch

Onion : ¼ teaspoon

Procedure

Mix the pearl millet flour with water and ensure that there are no lumps. Add 1 more cup of water and cook it to consistency of the porridge. Leave it aside for 6 hours. After that add butter milk and salt. Fry pepper cumin seeds, chopped onion, green chillie, and asafetida in oil and mix well the porridge. This porridge can be had for breakfast especially during the summer.

2. PEARL MILLET SUNDAL

Ingredients

Puttu rice flour

Pearl millet flour : ½ cup

Ponnanganni keerai : ½ cup

Grated coconut : ¼ cup

Chilli powder : ½ teaspoon

Salt : 1 ½ teaspoon

Seasoning : 1 red chilli, asafetida, curry leaves

Procedure

Take in vessel, puttu rice flour, pearl millet flour, ponnangani keerai, grated coconut and fry for 3 mins. When it cools, sprinkle water and add salt. Mix it well and make it like chapatti dough. Make small balls like pebbles and steam cook it by placing them on idly plates. Keep oil in the frying pan and add all the ingredients for seasoning and when fried add the marbles and mix well.

3. PEARL MILLET KOZHUKATTAI

Ingredients

Broken pearl millet : 1 cup Raw rice : 2 tbsp Salt : as per taste Dried red chillies : 2 ghee : for drizzling Grated coconut : 3-4 tbsp

Tempering:

Ghee : 1 tsp Mustard : 1 tsp curry leaves : few Bengal and urad dal : 1 tbsp Asfoetida : 1/4 tsp Grated ginger : 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Take a kadai dry roast both millet and raw-rice together till nice aroma comes out and the rice will puff to white color. Take out this in a plate and let it cool and then grind it to a coarse powder by adding chillies and necessary salt for the whole recipe. Keep kadai with oil add mustard to splutter, and then add curry leaves with both dal to become golden. Add hing, then grated ginger to it. Now pour 2 ¼ – ½ cups of water and bring it to boil. When it’s boiling add the ground powder to it, keep the flame medium and stir without lumps till it becomes semi solid dough, at last add coconut and mix well. You will be able to rollout with hand, when it cools it will become even more stiff. Add some ghee to it, switch off and let it become manage-ably warm to steam. Now start making shapes with your hands like pidi kozhukattai. Boil a steamer or idly pot with plates greased. Place these dumplings in the steamer and cook for 5 minutes or till done. Don’t remove it immediately let it cool for some time, now you can remove one after other without breaking and relish.

4. PEARL MILLET ENERGY BALLS

Ingredients

Pearl Millet Flour : ½ cup

Powdered Jaggery : ¼ cup

Cardamom Powder : ⅛ tsp

Melted Ghee : 4 tbsp

Procedure

In a pan melt the ghee and set aside. Pulse the kambu flour, jaggery, and cardamom in a mixer jar. This step ensures that all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Take this in a big plate and two tbsps of ghee and mix it thoroughly. Now take a small batch, and add little ghee and shape it into a small round ball. Press the laddu tightly so that it stays intact. Similarly, make laddus with the remaining flour.

5. PEARL MILLET VEGETABLE ADAI

Ingredients

Pearl Millet : 1 cup

Moong Dal : ¼ cup

Boiled Rice : ½ cup

Raw Rice : ½ cup

Ginger : a small piece

Red chilli : 3 nos

Cumin seeds : ½ tsp

Fennel seeds : ½ tsp

Turmeric Power : ¼ tsp

Onion : ½ cup

Carrot : ½ cup

Drumstick leaves : 1 cup

Salt : to taste

Coriander leaves &

Curry leaves : a few (optional)

Cooking oil : 3 tbsp

Procedure

Wash and Soak Kambu, moong dal, boiled rice and raw rice in water for about 2 hours. Then drain it completely and add it to the mixer to grind. Add ginger, red chilli, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, salt, and turmeric powder and grind it coarsely. While grinding the above, add small quantity of required water. If you want to prepare then the batter should be in thicker consistency or if you are going to make dosa crispy, then alter the water quantity, so that to liquefy the batter similar to dosai batter consistency. In the meanwhile, heat a pan with a spoon of oil and add chopped onion, grated carrot, cleaned drumstick leaves and roast it for a minute. Then add it to the batter and mix well. You can easily prepare pearl millet adai and serve hot with white or Red chutney!

6. PEARL MILLET IDLY

Ingredients

Pearl millet : 2 cups

Urad dal : ½ cup

Poha : ¼ cup

Fenugreek seeds : ½ tsp

Salt & Water : As needed

Procedure

Wash and soak pearl millet, methi seeds and poha together for 5 hours. Wash and soak urad dal separately in another bowl for 2 hours. Grind urad dal to a smooth paste adding the soaked water. Collect in a bowl and then grind millet + Poha mixture to a smooth paste adding enough water. Mix both the batter with hands and let it ferment overnight. The next day, mix the batter well and make idli. Enjoy with tomato chutney or coconut chutney!

7. PEARL MILLET DOSA

Ingredients

Pearl millet : 1 cups

Urad dal : ¼ cup

Fenugreek seeds : ½ tsp

Salt & Water : As needed

Procedure

Rinse and wash urad dal and pearl millet seperately.Soak urad dal and fenugreek seeds in a bowl, then in a separate bowl soak kambu. Let it soak for atleast 5-6 hrs. Add kambu first to the grinder and while its coarse add urad dal+fenugreek seeds and grind it a smooth batter adding required water. Sprinkle water then and there to avoid sticking. Collect it in a container Add required salt, close the container with a lid. And ferment it overnight, set aside in a warm place. Then the next day you can see the batter has raised, then add little water to make it little runny so that it’s easy to spread. Heat dosa tawa, make your delicious dosa. Serve with idli podi / any chutney of your choice.

9. PEARL MILLET PUTTU

Ingredients

Pearl millet flour : 2 cups

Water : as needed

Grated jaggery : ¾ cup

Cardamom seeds : 2 nos crushed

Grated coconut : ¼ cup

Salt : as needed

Procedure

Take the kambu maavu/Pearl millet flour in a wide bowl. Mix salt in little water and sprinkle it in kambu maavu. Mix well. Add water such that u should be able to shape it roughly. Now spread this kambu maavu in idli plate and steam it for 10-15 minutes till the color of flour is

changed. Remove the idli plate and take the cooked kambu maavu in a mixie jar. Grind once or twice to powder it because as u steam the flour, there may be lumps formed. So we are grinding the steamed flour to break the lumps. Take the ground flour in a bowl. Add sugar, cardamom powder & grated coconut. Mix well and serve. If u wants to add jaggery, proceed to the next step. Melt jaggery in a bowl adding little water. Strain the syrup and again boil till it starts to become thick n frothy. Switch off the flame. Add cardamom powder and mix this syrup with the cooked & ground kambu maavu. Add the required amount of syrup and mix well. Lastly add grated coconut, mix well and serve.

10. PEARL MILLET RASAM

Ingredients

Pearl Millet : 2 tablespoon

Tamarind : 1 small lemon size

Tomato : 1

Salt : To taste

Curry Leaves : few

Hing : 1/4 teaspoon

Coriander Leaves : 2 tablespoon

Ingredients for Grinding:

Ghee : 1 teaspoon

Coriander Seeds : 2 teaspoon

Thur dal : 2 teaspoon

Pepper : 1 teaspoon

Red Chillies : 1

Cumin Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Ingredients for Seasoning:

Mustard Seeds : 1 teaspoon

Ghee : 1 teaspoon

Procedure

Wash the kambu and Soak the kambu in hot water for about an hour. After an hour, cook the kambu till they are soft. When they are done, allow it to cool off and grind it to a nice paste Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice Heat a pan and fry the grinding ingredients other than cumin seeds and fry them till the dal turns golden brown color. Take these grinding ingredients to the mixer along with cumin seeds and grind it to a nice powder. Keep this Rasam powder aside Take a sauce pan and add tamarind extract, chopped tomatoes, curry leaves, salt and hing and keep it in flame and allow it to boil for 5 minutes for the tamarind to get rid of its raw smell. Add the cooked and ground kambu to the tamarind juice and bring the Rasam to boil. When the tomatoes are nicely done, add 2 cups of water and bring it to boil finally add ground Rasam powder and stir well. When the Rasam starts to become frothy, switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. Heat ghee in another pan and add mustard seeds, when the mustard seeds start to sputter, add the seasoned mustard seeds to the Rasam. The health and delicious Kambu Rasam is now ready to serve!

11. PEARL MILLET BUTTER MILK

Ingredients

Pearl millet : 2 tablespoon

Curd : 1 cup

Water : 1 cup

Mor milagai : 3

To grind together:

Curry leaves : few

Green chilli : 3

Coriander leaves : 1 tablespoon

To temper:

Oil : ½ teaspoon

Mustard seeds : ¼ teaspoon

Procedure

Soak pearl millet in water for an hour. Rinse well, transfer to mixer jar. Pulse it few times to break it. Now take this in a mud pot. Add 1 cup water to it and cook until soft. It should be cooked soft by then water will be absorbed. Switch off at this stage and let it cool down. To a mixer jar add the ingredients listed under to grind together then add curd. Add water and blend it together until frothy. Transfer to strainer and strain it. Whisk well, Add cooked millet to it. Whisk well. Add remaining 1/2 cup water. Whisk well. Heat oil add mustard seeds, let it crackle. Add the tadka to buttermilk. Fry mor milagai in that oil itself. Add salt to buttermilk. Mix well. Crush and add it. Mix well and serve.

12. PEARL MILLET MURUKK

Ingredients

Pearl Millet Flour : 1 Cup

Rice Flour : 1 cup

Gram Flour : 2 Tablespoon

Pottukadalai Podi : 2 Tablespoon

Salt : To taste

Red Chilli Powder : 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin Seeds : 1/2 teaspoon

Butter : 2 Tablespoon

Oil : For Frying

Procedure

In a mixing bowl, add kambu flour, Rice flour, Besan, roasted gram flour, salt, red chili powder, cumin seeds and mix everything well. Add butter and mix with the flours. Then add water little by little and mix together till you get a smooth dough consistency like Chapatti dough. Heat oil in a pan to fry the murukku. Take the press & mould. Use the Star mould for this murukku. Take handful of murukku dough and put it inside the press. Check if the oil is hot by dropping a pinch of dough to see if it rises immediately. If the pinch of dough rises then oil is hot. Now close the press and squeeze it in the oil to make muruku shape. Deep fry the muruku till they are crispy. Flip the murukku to fry evenly in all the sides. Take out the deep fried kambu murukku and place it in a tissue to drain excess oil. Store the murukku in an air-tight container to have longer shelf life Serve the crispy Kambu Murukku (Pearl Millet Murukku) with hot cup of tea / coffee

14. PEARL MILLET BISCUITES

Ingredients

Pearl millet flour : ¾ cup

Wheat flour : ¼ cup

Cane sugar : ½ cup

Melted butter : ¼ cup

Cardamom powder : ¼ teaspoon

Milk : 3 to 4 tablespoon.

Procedure

To a mixing bowl add bajra flour, wheat flour, cardamom powder, sugar and salt. Mix this well first then add melted butter. Mix well to form crumbly. Add milk little by little to form tight dough like shown below. Place a butter paper on the dough and start rolling. Roll it slightly thin to 1/4inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter cut into desired shapes. Collect the extras, gather to

dough then start rolling again. Repeat to finish dough. Prick with a toothpick. Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg C for 8-10 mins or until the edges starts to turn golden brown. Cool down then store.

15. PEARL MILLET KESARI

Ingredients

Palm Sugar powder 1/2 cup

Cahew 1/2 cup

Raisin – as required

Ghee – 1/2 cup

Water – 2 cup

Procedure: Take Kambu in a pan and dry it well till a nice aroma arises. Then cool it and grind it to a fine powder in a mixer. In a pan add ghee and fry raisins and cashews in it till golden brown. Remove it and keep it aside. In the same pan add the kambu powder and fry well till its cooked. Then add 2 cups of water slowly and mix well. Then add palm sugar powder and mix. When it starts thickening add remaining ghee and stir continuously for 10 mins. Finally add fried nuts and raisins and serve.