Category Archives: Indian

Methi Miracle

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Methi (Fenugreek) is used in many different forms in Indian cooking.  Its use as greens, herbs and the seeds are innumerable. Its rich nutritional value (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenugreek) has invaluable health benefits ranging from being hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic [Kassaian et al. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2009;79:34-39] effects to being used in treating a variety of digestive conditions such as gastritis, and constipation. It is also known to have anti-inflammatory properties and is widely popular as a galactagague which is to boost the production of breast milk. The mechanism of its action on increasing the production of breast milk appears to be from its ability to stimulate the production of sweat and the breast happens to be a modified sweat gland.

Below is a popular recipe using methi.

Masala Dosa (Crispy Rice and Lentil Crepe)

Rice flour – 2 cups

Split black gram lentils – ½ cup

Split chick pea lentils – 1 tbsp

Split mung lentils – 1 tbsp

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Water – 3 cups

Oil for shallow frying – about ¼ cup

Salt – to taste

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Soak the lentils and fenugreek seeds for at least 4 hours. Drain and grind into a fine batter adding water a little at a time. Blend in the rice flour and salt adding the remaining water. Ferment overnight.

Heat a griddle on medium. Pour a ladle of batter and spread thin. Add a tea spoon of oil on the edges. Cook for a minute or till golden brown. Serve with chutney and potato curry (Recipe in the cookbook, Bengaluru Brunch).

Is it Bengaluru or Bangalore?

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I am a proud Bengalurian and in fact several generations of my family come from this very special place. I am a little frustrated with its current situation of having two different names “Bengaluru” and “Bangalore“. The original name of Bengaluru is actually Bendakaluru which I guess was shortened by the local community to make it easy to use it.  It was transformed to yet another new name during  the British rule in India as Bangalore probably due to pronunciation issues.  During the recent revolution with the names, perhaps by a patriotic group, we were supposed to go back to use the original names of most major Indian cities. With this rule, Bangalore is supposed to be replaced by its original name Bengaluru. Although the goal of reversing the name back to its authentic name was a great idea, it appears that the steps taken towards revising the name has not been adequate thus leading to this confusion. I sure wanted to show my support to the original name of my beautiful city and thus the title of my book, Bengaluru Brunch.