Easy ways to cure acidity

I came across this article at timesofindia website and it was quite intersting and useful one for me so I thought why not share this with you all as everyone at some point or other might have suffered from this problem and it might be useful to you all and if you havn't read it already here it is .... 

Acidity occurs when there is excess secretion of acids in the gastric glands of the stomach. When the secretion is more than usual, we feel, what is commonly known as heartburn, which is normally triggered off by consumption of spicy foods. Here are some home remedies to cure acidity...

- Skip the aerated drinks as well as the caffeine
- Have a glass of lukewarm water everyday.
- Include banana, watermelon and cucumber in your daily diet. Watermelon juice is    great for curing acidity.
- Tender Coconut water is known to soothe the system if you suffer from acidity.
- Drink a glass of milk - everyday.
- Have your last meal at least two to three hours before you hit the sack.
- Keeping long intervals between meals is another cause for acidity. Have small but regular meals.
- Try to avoid pickles, spicy chutneys, vinegar, etc.
- Boil some mint leaves in water and have a glass of this after meals.
- Sucking on a piece of clove is another effective remedy.
- Jaggery, lemon, banana, almonds and yogurt are all known to give you instant relief from acidity.
- Excessive smoking and drinking will increase acidity, so cut down.
- Try chewing gum. The saliva generated helps move food through the esophagus, easing symptoms of heartburn.
- Ginger aids in digestion. Either buy powdered ginger in capsule forms or add the herb to your recipes.
- A simple preparation of lemon water with sugar can be sipped on an hour before lunch to reduce uneasiness.
- Have vegetables like drumsticks, beans, pumpkin, cabbage, carrot and spring onions.

Sugar Cookie with icing

Of course, who would say “No” to cookies, such a delicious snack for any age and especially when they are baked at home. Baking the cookies at home is always fun and easy if you know the exact measurement and by using the proper tools and ingredients. While making this sugar cookie I little messed up the measurement and the dough which is suppose to be very smooth turned out very sticky and I had to add more flour to make it up and surprisingly the cookies came out really good. My boy had real fun in adding the sprinklers to the icing on the cookie and I suggest every one should try this recipe.

Ingredients
For Cookie
All Purpose Flour - 2 ½ Cups
Margarine – 1 Cup
Sugar – 1 Cup
Egg – 2
Baking Powder – 1 tsp
Cream of tartar – 2 tsp
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Salt – ½ tsp

For Icing
Butter – 4 tbsp
Confectionery Sugar – 1 Cup
Vanilla extract – 1 tsp
Milk – 2 tsp
Sprinkler

Method
Oven temperature – 350*F, Baking Time – 8 to 10 mins
In a mixing bowl, beat egg and add sugar and margarine and mix well.
Add flour, baking powder, tartar, salt and vanilla extract and mix well to a soft dough.
Knead the dough on a clean flat surface and roll the dough with a rolling pin to a ¼ inch thick and keep dusting the rolling pin and work surface slightly with flour, if necessary, to prevent sticking and cut to your favorite shape of your choice using cookie cutter and transfer to the baking sheet and bake them in a pre-heated oven at 350* F for 8 to 10 mins in batches.

For Icing
The butter should be at the room temperature before mixing. Combine butter, sugar, milk and vanilla extract, this recipe is very flexible, if you feel its too watery add the flour and if you feel too thick add milk and bring to the consistency that would allow you to  spread  on the cookies and decorate the cookie and put the sprinkler on the top.
Enjoy the delicious cookies.

Chettinad Pepper Chicken

No introduction is needed for chettinad cuisine as it is a widely popular for its well-known spicy taste and you can get thousands of hits when you google for this dish and its always difficult to find the correct authentic way of preparing this chettinad dishes unless someone from that region tells us what the exact recipe is and this dish is one such recipe passed on to me by my friend and very special thanks to her.
Chettinad dishes are incomplete without garlic and pepper and in this dish pepper being the main ingredient, there is no need to mention the fiery taste is what that makes dish more special and simply very delicious. Always use the freshly grounded pepper for this dish to get the original wonderful flavor.

Ingredient
Chicken – 1 lb
Onion - 1 chopped finely
Tomato – 2 medium chopped
Curry Leaves – 10
Coriander Powder – 2 tsp
Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Pepper Powder – 3 tsp (freshly crushed)
Cumin Powder – 1tsp
Garlic – 3 cloves chopped
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tsp
Whole garam masala – cloves – 3, cinnamon – 1”, cardamom – 2
Salt to taste
Oil – 4tsp

Method
Heat oil in a pan and add the whole garam masala and when you get the good fragrance from it add the garlic and onion and sauté for few mins and add the ginger garlic paste and mix well and add chopped tomato and fry till the oil separates from it and add the curry leaves and all the dry masalas and add the chicken and add some water and close and cook for 10 mins, stirring in between and if needed splash little water to avoid burning. When removing from stove, add a addition half tsp of pepper powder and mix and add the chopped cilantro. This dish goes very well with sambar rice, or plain curd rice and enjoy!!!

Chicken Sandwich - A Hubby Way

Though I have passion for cooking and I strongly believe that we can share the love of life through cooking as it feeds the soul, both who cooks and also who eats. But sometime I feel bored and frustrated of the same cooking which I love to do for all day and I want someone to cook for me and I eat. If I was in India I can go around to relatives house or just say at mothers house for 10 days and I get to sit and do only eating, I feel it would be a kind of refreshment but unfortunately or fortunately I am living here in US that makes me eligible to cook for all 365 days. Sometimes my hubby understands my feelings and he insists on cooking for me, though he doesn't know how to cook but his intension is what I appreciate and this chicken sandwich is one such dish he prepared for me and this was a excellent chicken sandwich I would have tasted. He got this recipe from some cook book and it was very tasty and I wish he cooks more often like this me...ha ha....I know next time he would purposely gonna spoil it....

Ingredinets
Boneless Chicken Breast halves - 2
All Purpose Flour - 3 tbsp
Salt and Pepper to taste
Mushroom Chopped - 1/2 Cup
French Onion Soup - 1 tin
Sandwich Bun - 2
Cheese Singles - 2
Garlic Chopped - 1tsp
Olive Oil - 3 tsp


Method
Mix salt and pepper to the flour and coat the chicken with the flour on both the side and fry in a pan with 2 tsp of oil until its cooked and nice brown on both sides and set aside.
In the same pan, add garlic and fry for few secs and add chopped mushroom and cook until its soft and add the french onion soup and allow to boil.
Now add the cooked chicken and make sure chicken is well coated with the soup.
Roast the bun in a skillet or in oven until its crisp.
Place the cheese slice on the bun and place the chicken on it and top it with mushroom and chose the bun and enjoy the wonderful sandwich.

Mooli / Radish paratha

Stuffed paratha always reminds me of Bangalore, there are plenty of small paratha stalls in Bangalore where they serve different varieties of  stuffed parathas. Me and my sister- n-law  make sure to go on all friday evenings to one such paratha stall and eat  all our favorite parathas, actually the paratha size is not too big and we can easily eat 3 to 4 parathas. Of all the stuffed paratha, mooli is my second favorite to aloo paratha. I get tempted when ever I the see the mooli paratha in a restaurant menu. Here in US I don't get to eat much of mooli paratha in the restaurant so I end up making this dish myself at home. Making perfect round paratha without the stuffing oozing out is an art. You can't make it perfect for the first time but after many practice you can master this art. I am still learning this art. Here is the recipe of this mooli paratha.

Ingredients

For Stuffing

Mooli/Radish - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
Red Chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Cilantro - 2 tsp chopped
Salt to taste
For Dough
Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Water - 1 cup
Oil for making the mooli paratha

Method
Sieve the wheat flour and salt. Add water and knead to soft dough. Cover and keep aside. Peel and grate the radish and squeeze out all the water.
Heat the pan and fry the radish for some time and add the ingredients and fry for sometime until the raw flavour is gone.
Take a lemon sized dough and roll to a small round say 4 inch in diameter and place 2 to 3 teaspoon of fillings in the center and cover and seal the ends and roll again gently to a thick round paratha.
In a hot griddle cook the paratha on both side until golden brown using little oil on both sides. Serve hot with tomato fry or just yogurt and pickle. Refer my earlier posting for tomato fry recipe.

Lemon Soufflé

Soufflé is a light and fluffy French cake made basically with combining egg yolk and beaten egg whites with other ingredients.
I can't believe I making a dish from a food network channel, usually I think they make only fancy foods, which is very far from my reach, but this one I felt very interesting and quite easy for a amateur baker like me and not to my surprise this dish also came out really good. I used lemon juice and lemon zest (grated lemon skin) hoping it would give a nice fresh taste and it did actually but only disappointment is that my boy didn’t like the lemon flavor and said its very lemony, promised him will do chocolate version next time.

Ingredients
Freshly squeezed Lemon juice – ¼ Cup
Lemon Zest – 1 tsp (Grated outer lemon skin)
Eggs – 2 (Separated)
Milk – 2/3 Cup
Flour – ¼ Cup
Sugar – 2/3 Cup
Salt – ¼ tsp
For Baking You’ll Need
Ramekin or Soufflé bowl or I used small cake pan - 3 or 4
Big rectangular Cake pan just in a size to fit the small cake pans

Method

•  Pre-heat oven to 350*F. Boil 3 Cups of water.
•  Separate egg yolk from egg white and make sure not even a single drop of yolk falls in the white, if  so  repeat the process again.
•  Combine egg yolk, milk, juice, zest, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add the flour and mix well.
•  In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until you get a stiff peak, better to use a power mixer.
•  Add the egg white to the yolk mixer and fold slowly, don’t mix it as it would loose all the aeration in the white.
•  Butter the soufflé bowl and add the sugar and coat evenly by rotating the bowl slowly and repeat this for all the bowls.
•  Pour the mixture evenly on all the bowls and this is not gonna raise.
•  Fill half way of the big cake pan with hot water and place the soufflé bowl in the water.
•  Bake for 30 mins or until the top turns light golden brown.
•  When done, allow to cool down and gently invert into a plate and enjoy..

 

Mint Flavored Delicious Fish Fry

Fish fry is a very popular dish all over India, especially in Kerala, a beautiful state famous for its backwater and lots of coconut trees and not to forget Kerala is one of the a great place for honeymoon.
I still remember a trip to a dam(forgot the name) from my school in Tamilnadu where you get to see people fry and sell the freshly caught fish everywhere neat the dam and you get nice fish fry smell(feel sorry for who hates fish), the one which you can’t avoid but I didn’t get a chance to eat one that time, later when we went to Okanakal dam with my family, I got a chance to eat it and it tasted good.
This fish fry is different to the usual one, I used mint and cilantro and it added more fragrance to the fish and it tastes really good. Looking at the picture don’t conclude I burned my fish, its just the bright green color looks like burned, sorry about that.

Ingredients
Tilapia Fish Fillets – 4
Ginger – ½ “
Garlic – 3
Mint and Cilantro – 1Cup
Curry Leaves - 4
Coconut – 1 tsp
Green Chilies – 3
Lemon Juice – 2 tsp
Coriander Powder – 1tsp
Garam Masala – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry (I used Coconut oil)

Method
Grind all the masalas and marinate the fish in that and set aside for minimum 2 hrs. Shallow fry the fish I until its roasted on both the sides. Enjoy!!