Mung dal bites - Healthful Indian snacks

I have been sporadic in posting on this blog this past month. That is because I have been planning my sojourn to India, packing and arriving first at New Delhi and then at Chennai. I have many interesting stories to relate, but I first need to get this off my chest: Indian restaurants and eateries have exploded in numbers in both the cities I am visiting. There are all kinds of eating joints: small roadside carts (with dubious hygiene, so please avoid if you visit India), small restaurants (again, eat at your own risk), medium sized ones (a definite yes, you may find a gem), large, opulent, Maharajah style restaurants complete with turbaned waiters running to fulfill your every command, starched lily white tablecloths and napkins, wonderfully cooked meals, fabulous menus....India has become a gourmet delight in all respects.

Leaving aside all those eating places, my vote for the best eating place is at the place I am staying while in Chennai. It is at the home of a friend who has a full-time cook. The cook is a young woman called Ammu, who keeps complete control of the household kitchen. She comes in each morning to whip up delicious breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Ammu's cooking has the guests and family members charging in unseemly haste to the dining table in eager anticipation of every meal. Every dish that she makes is a gourmet delicacy that leaves one feeling completely content, replete and prosperous.

In the next few posts I plan to post some of her recipes. Here is a recipe from Ammu - a very healthy snack made of ground and roasted Mung beans. This is very easy to make and is absolutely delicious. Try it - it stores well unrefrigerated for over a week and is a great snack for your school going child.

Here is what you need:
3.5 cups green Mung beans with skin (great if you can get Mung flour, otherwise, powder the beans as fine as possible in your blender)
3 tbsp brown rice flour
1.5 cups powdered sugar (white or brown, your preference)
Scant 1 cup Ghee or olive oil
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup raisins
7 cardomoms (remove peel and powder fine)
pinch salt

Here is how you make this:
Heat and pan and dry roast the Mung flour and rice flour for about 4-5 minutes. Remove from pan and cool. Heat the pan again and add 5 tbsp ghee or oil. Fry the cashews golden brown and drain on a kitchen towel. Now add the raisins in the same oil. Fry until golden brown and set aside. Cool the cashews and raisins. Chop the fried cashews into small bite-sized pieces. Cut fried raisins in half.

To the roasted Mung flour, add the powdered sugar, powdered cardomom, salt, fried raisins and cashews. Mix thoroughly.

Heat the rest of the ghee or oil in a pan until slightly warm. Pour in a little at the time in the flour mix. Mix and shape into small balls. Set aside. Add more oil or ghee as needed and make the Mung bites until all the flour is used up.

Makes 50-60 Mung bites. Store in a tightly closed container for upto a week.

Green Cabbage and Edamame - Cooking on a Shoestring Budget

My guileless childhood and callow youth was spent immersed in books. Glorious home spun tales, soaring visions, untraveled lands and boundless imaginations captured my every waking moment. I remember spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom and being yelled at by my sisters who were waiting for their turn because I had a book in my hand and couldn't set it down for long enough to get out the bathroom. :)

Books, and their authors, spoke to
me in vivid pictures. My mind wove and embellished the tales I read. I saw, heard, felt and smelled every single event in the book. Thus it was, that the descriptions of the smell of cooking cabbage was always associated in my mind with poor households.

This was because then, as now, the humble cabbage is one of the cheapest vegetables you can get. Humble it might be, in terms of cost, but there is certainly nothing humble about cabbage's nutritional profile. It is the star of nutrition and you would do well to incorporate it routinely in your diet. Cabbage has cleansing and cell detoxification ability, promotes cardio vascular and gastro intestinal health and is a huge powerhouse of Vitamin K.

Regardless of its fantastic nutritional profile, the reason cabbage is generally disliked is because it is cooked so much out of recognition that it loses its texture, taste and color and ends up looking and tasting like a mish-mash of a foul smelling goulash.

So here's a well known secret tip about cabbage: dont overcook or over boil then you wont have to deal with the smell of cooking cabbage, the smell that has been described and immortalized in many many books by many many authors!

The cabbage recipe that I provide today is, in my opinion, the ultimate in culinary perfection. The taste, the color, the crunch and above all the enhanced nutrition because of being combined with fresh edamame beans makes this dish a gourmet addition to your dinner. Best of all, this is one of the easiest and quickest dishes to make. So go ahead and give it a shot. Next time you go grocery shopping, succumb to the temptation of the fresh green cabbage. Buy a whole head and indulge!

Here is what you need:
1/2 head of fresh green cabbage (washed, drained thoroughly and chopped fine)
handful fresh, frozen edamame beans
1 green jalapeno pepper (chopped fine)
1 tsp Olive oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 pinch asofoetida powder
1 tsp skinned, split black lentil seeds (optional, to provide extra crunch!)
3/4 tsp salt

Here is how you make this:
Heat olive oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. Wait for them to crackle and add the asofoetida powder, green chili and lentil seeds. Brown lentil seeds until they are crisp and golden brown. Add the chopped cabbage and edamame beans. Add salt. Cover for no more than a couple of minutes. Remove the cover and stir fry on high heat for another couple of minutes.

Remove from pan and serve with spiced yogurt rice or spicy tamarind rice.

Cost:
Cabbage: $0.60
Edamame: $0.15
Oil : $0.05
Spices: $0.10
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Total : $0.90

Makes 6 servings.

Cost per serving: $0.15