Roma's Space

Baby Rasam

Rasam rice is something I have noticed babies of this age enjoy quite a bit. However, we can not use the same rasam powder that we make for ourselves as it is too spicy for them.

By making a rasam powder of our own and with a little variation like adding the juice of vegetables, it can become an excellent alternative to the usual dal.

Rasam powder (for Babies)

• 1 Cup Corriander seeds
• 1/2 Cup Cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 tsp toor dal
• 1 tsp ghee
• Pinch of hing

Instructions:
1. Fry corriander seeds and cumin seeds separately till they release their aroma.
2. Heat 1 tsp ghee and fry fenugreek seeds, toor dal seperately and add hing.
3. Grind the mixture to fine powder.

For the Rasam

Ingredients:

• 1 tomato
• 1/2 carrot
• Small piece of cabbage
• 1/4 cup toor dal
• 1/4 teaspoon of rai
• 1 teaspoon of baby rasam powder
• Few teaspoons of tamarind juice
• Finely chopped Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. When you make toor dal for yourself keep aside some dal water that stands on the dal once its cooked.
2. Extract juice from tomato, carrot and cabbage.
3. Heat oil. Add rai and baby rasam powder. Add the extracted vegetable juice, cooked dal water, tamarind juice and give it a boil.
4. Finally garnish with finely chopped dhania leaves.

Vegetable Dalia

Back in my dieting days I used to eat Vegetable Dalia everyday for dinner. Well, dalia or broken wheat is an extremely nutritious cereal. Its high is fiber and helps relieve you from constipation and other stomach disorders.

This can be given to the baby about once a week to ensure a happy stomach.  Adults can have this everyday for lunch/dinner in order to shed some excess weight. Read here for more details on that.

Ingredients :

• 1 tablespoon Oil
• 3 tablespoons dalia (broken wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon jeera
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tomato
• Pinch of hing
• 1 cup of mixed vegetables: carrot, beans, peas

Procedure :

1. Heat oil. Add jeera, hing and fry onions for a few minutes.
2. Add chopped tomatoes, dalia and continue to fry.
3. Now add vegetables carrot, beans, peas and saute for a few more minutes.
4. Add salt, water and pressure cook in the same manner as rice.
5. Before serving you can add some lime juice and finely chopped coriander leaves.

Please NOTE :

Use sprouted broken wheat to make this dish even more nutritious.

Mini Fried Idlies

After the age of 8 months babies start eating dosas, idlies, etc; Fried idlies is a good choice at this point as the size is perfect for babies and it takes lesser time to make than idlies. Moreover, adding some vegetables can help make it a nutritious choice for your baby.

For this dish you need to get a stand which resembles a tava with molds in it. This is locally called a Kuzhi Paniyaram stand and can be directly used on flame for making these mini fried idlies.

Ingredients :

• 3 tablespoons of dosa batter
• 1/2 teaspoon rai
• 1/4 carrot, grated
• 1/2 tomato, finely chopped
• Few mint leaves, finely chopped

Procedure :

1. Mix a pinch of salt in dosa batter
2. Grease the molds with ghee. Add rai and let it crackle.
3. Fill batter in each mold.
4. Garnish with grated carrot, finely cut tomatoes and mint leaves.
5. Fry each idly for about 5 mins. Flip over and continue frying the opposite side.

Varitation

If this dish is being made for adults :

1. You can add some more salt, finely chopped onions, green chillies and grated ginger to the dosa batter. Add a tadka of rai, channa dal and curry leaves. Use oil instead of ghee here.
2. Please try to use dosa batter thats slightly sour. In other words, you can use up the previous days leftover batter.
3. You can use Spring onion leaves instead of mint leaves. Your baby might like this variation too.

Please NOTE :

1. Try to use a non-stick mold as otherwise you will need to pour ghee from the sides after filling batter into the molds.
2. My stand’s manual told me to use it only on low flame. Please read instructions on your stand before using.

Stuffed Baby Brinjals

This is sabzi where baby brinjals are cooked with bharva or tawa masala. Of all the tava vegetables, Brinjals taste the best.

Even people who usually dont eat brinjals go for at least a couple of pieces. For one, the dressing completely complements its regular taste.

Ingredients :

• 6 baby brinjals
• 3 tablespoons of Tawa masala
• 1 teaspoon of Amchur powder
• 2 onions
• 2 teaspoons of ginger-garlic paste
• 3 tablespoons of cooking oil (Phew!)
• 1 teaspoon dhania powder
• 1/2 teaspoon haldi powder

Procedure :

1. Make a cross – shaped incision on the head of the brinjals.
2. Stuff brinjals with Tawa masala using a knife.
3. Heat oil. Fry onions till they turn glossy. Add ginger-garlic paste and continue to saute.
4. Now add dhania powder, haldi powder and stir for a few seconds.
5. Gently drop in the baby brinjals into the masala.
6. Cover and cook until brinjals are done.

Variation

1. In the above recipe sometimes we skip adding amchur powder to the brinjals and instead fry tomatoes with onions in Step (3). This gives a slight change in taste.
2. This dish can be made in exactly the same way with baby potatoes

Please NOTE :

1. Taste your tawa masala and check if it contains salt. In case it its without salt, please add some before stuffing the brinjals.
2. At home we usually prefer low-oil cooking. So when we make this dish instead of frying the brinjals in too much oil we add 1/2 glass of water and pressure cook them. This is done in Step (6).

Crunchy Bitter Gourd

This is a simple recipe to enhance the taste of bitter gourd. Please try to use baby bitter gourds for this recipe.

Ingredients :

• 5 baby bitter gourds
• Pinch of Haldi powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Mirchi powder
• 1 teaspoon Dhania powder
• Pinch of hing
• Finely chopped Coriander leaves

Procedure :

1. Peal the skin of the bitter gourd to the extend you like. Slit and de seed the gourd, rub salt on the insides and let it rest for a few hours. In case you are using baby gourds then you need not marinate it for that long as they wont be very bitter.
2. Wash away the bitter saline water. Cut the gourd into semi-circular slices.
3. Heat oil and shallow fry the gourd slices.
4. Once done, take out the slices and in the remaining oil add haldi powder, mirch powder, dhania powder and hing. Stir for a minute and mix in the fried gourd pieces.
5. Mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis.