Kuttavalakki ~~Karnataka recipes

A Brahmin south Indian dish which is light on tummy yet amazingly tasty that can be served as a snack or as a breakfast. Kuttavalakki takes hardly 10 minutes to prepare and is loved by all age groups.

Kuttavalakki is Powdered poha and it has 2 versions one being what I have prepared here and is also called Gojjavalakki. The other version is  the dry kuttavalakki (a dish from Mysore) where the poha is powdered finely with other spices and served with yoghurt. Kuttavalakki/Gojjavalakki is prepared in many ways in different parts of Karnataka.

The recipe I have shared here is from my granny. My mom makes the similar poha only without powdering. This type of poha is made during festivals mainly on Janmashtami since this dish is little Krishna's favorite. :) It is also served as prasadam in many temples and when it is eaten as prasadam, Kuttavalakki actually tastes divine. I had completely forgotten about this dish since I moved here. When my neighbor brought me a bowl of Kuttavalakki few days back, I felt a longing for home and nostalgic. Now, I make it once in 3 days as a snack with a cup of coffee for hubby and he absolutely loves it.

I have used melted jaggery in this recipe instead of the grated jaggery. Usually grated jaggery is used in this dish by Bangaloreans. In our native and at mom's place, jaggery is used in Semi-Solid form and is stored in huge cans. They used to prepare jaggery from fresh sugar cane juice at every household and these days, only few homes do it. But Jaggery is still used in its purest form and can be bought at selective stores around North Canara. We call it Joni Bella. The jaggery blocks we buy at stores contain a lot of chemicals and I even found a dead insect once. (Blehh!!! ~X( ) So I usually melt the jaggery as soon as I buy, filter it when it is hot, cool it completely and store it in semi solid form.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	185		Calories
Fat	9		%
Carbohydrates	23		%
Dietary Fiber	3		%
Sodium	19		%
Vitamin A	8		%
Vitamin C	29		%
Calcium	4		%
Iron	22		%
Protein	6.8		Grams
Sugar	2.5		Grams

Ingredients
Poha/Beaten Rice	2 cups
Turmeric powder	a pinch
Rasam powder	1 & 1/2 teaspoons
Salt	to taste
Water	as required
Oil	2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds	1/2 teaspoon
Urad dal	1/2 teaspoon
Chana dal	1/2 teaspoon
Peanuts	2 tablespoons
Red chillies	2
Curry leaves(optional)	4 or 5
Tamarind pulp/paste	1 tablespoon
Jaggery melted/grated	1 tablespoon

• Grind Poha/Beaten rice to a coarse powder. Make sure the powder is not fine. It is ok if all the poha does not get powdered.
• Transfer the powder to a bowl, add turmeric powder, Rasam powder and salt. Mix well.
• Add just enough water to soak the mixture. Stir once and add a little more water. Let it rest for a minute and give it another stir. 

• Make sure you stir the mixture once or twice and sprinkle more water if the mixture gets too lumpy. 
• In a pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds. Once they start to splutter, add Urad dal, Chana dal and peanuts. Fry till they turn slightly brown. Then add cut red chillies and curry leaves.
• Add Tamarind pulp and jaggery. Simmer the flame and bring it to boil.

• Add powdered poha mixture and mix well. Adjust the salt.
• Cook under low flame for 2-3 minutes and serve hot. 

• If you like it on the spicy side, add half a teaspoon of chilli powder.
• Add fresh curry leaves if available, they taste better.
• You can serve them with a cup of thick yogurt, they make the best combination.
• If available, garnish with fresh grated coconut. It tastes extra delicious.

Oh, I had forgotten to say that I am contributing this post to the first blog hop of our lovely group. Do check out the great posts and recipes from my Blog hop friends.

• Anu's Bulgur Wheat Idli – Diabetic Friendly
• Deepa's Lehsuni Jowar Paratha (Fresh Green Garlic Sorghum Flat Bread)
• Ritu's Whole wheat Khasta Kachori with aloo ki sabji 
• Shuba's Chow Chow Bhath ---> Sweet and Savory Semolina Breakfast Combo
• Jayashree's Upma
• Vani's pea eggplant recipe (Dosa)/thuthuvalai dosai
• Piyali's BREAKFAST PERSONAL PLATTER

Beetroot Halwa

A delicious Indian dessert with a pleasing color, Beetroot Halwa is a wonderful and tasty treat, be it for a party or for a simple Sunday meal.

Beetroot is one of the veggies I hate to eat but still try to include in the meals only because of it's innumerable health benefits. To be honest, I also hate the way it ruins the nice creamy color of my cutting board while cutting/grating and the way it sprays it's color on the pure white coating of my kitchen stove top. My mum makes an aromatic and very tasty sambar with beets but it never tasted the same even when I follow her recipe. So I had to make this Halwa to consume Beets once a while since it contains a lot of nutrients like potassium, magnesium, iron, vitamins A, B6 and C, folic acid, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants and soluble fibre.

When you are on a weight management diet, you tend to concentrate on the "Low calorie" foods but unintentionally you start to swing towards Low-fat and Low-sugar foods. It is good for your health if you manage to get all the nutrients with Low fat and low sugar diet by including different kinds of veggies and fruits. If not, it may work for a short time diet plan, but for a long time plan, your body will be deprived of so many nutrients. You will definitely lose a lot of weight, but not in a healthy way. For that moment, you may feel light, lean and weight-less but that will affect your health in the long run. So, you need to be very careful about what you choose to eat or cook. It will take a lot of effort and a lot more time to lose weight.

Beets are one of those veggies which can provide your body with a lot of nutrients you need everyday and Halwa is the recipe I chose to include it in my diet. As usual, I have not loaded the halwa with sugar or Ghee but a little amount once a week would not hurt your diet. If you are not on a weight loss regime, feel free to increase the quantity of sugar and ghee as you please.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	180		Calories
Fat	5		%
Carbohydrates	4		%
Dietary Fiber	11		%
Sodium	3.5		%
Vitamin A	2		%
Vitamin C	4		%
Calcium	16		%
Iron	2		%
Protein	4		Grams
Sugar	13		Grams

Ingredients
Beetroots	2 large
Milk	2 cups
Sugar	2 tablespoons
Ghee	1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Nuts of your choice and raisins	a handful

• Grate Beetroot. Heat a pan, add grated Beet and milk. Cook under simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add sugar and give it a mix. Cook under medium flame till most of the milk is evaporated.
• Also add Ghee and Cardamom powder and mix well. Cook for 5 more minutes till the aroma starts to fill up.

• Heat ghee in a pan and add nuts and raisins. Fry till the cashew nuts turn slightly brown.
• Add them to the halwa and give a stir. Serve hot or chilled or with some vanilla Ice cream.

• There are many variations to this recipe and one of them being adding Khova. You can also add more nuts.
• If you are lactose intolerant, you can cook the beets in water.
• You can also add slightly roasted Poppy seeds if you dont like the soft halwa.