Singapore Fried Rice

Have not made this in a long time, but I know Sheetal and Sonu are waiting for this information, so here goes:

Ingredients:
Makes 4 servings
Boiled Rice: 1 cup
Carrots: 2 big or 3 small, finely diced
Spring onions: leaves and stem: 10, chopped
Beans: 10 thinly sliced
Onion: 1, chopped
Ginger-garlic paste: 1/4 tsp
Tomato sauce: 1 tbsp (add more if you want to make it less spicy)
Chili sauce: 1 tsp
Soy sauce: 5 drops
Vinegar: 1 tsp
Sugar: 1/4 tsp
Green chilies: 4 to 5
Pepper: 1/2 tsp

Method:
To 2 to 3 tsp oil, add onions. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add beans, carrots. Saute uncovered for 2 minutes.
Add green chilies, pepper, salt, ginger garlic paste. Cook for 2 minutes.
Add boiled rice, salt to taste, sugar, chili sauce, tomato sauce, soy sauce.
Add vinegar. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes.
Serve hot garnished with spring onions.

Nutritional Information:
Per serving or 127 gms
Calories: 152
Calories from Fat: 62
Total Fat: 7 g (11% of DV)
Saturated fat: 1 g (5% of DV)
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 628mg (26% of DV)
Total Carbohydrate: 21 g (7% of DV)
Dietary Fiber: 1 g (5% of DV)
Sugars: 4 g
Proteins: 1 g

Vitamin A: 9% of DV
Vitamin C: 141% of DV
Calcium: 2% of DV
Iron: 4% of DV

Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet and may vary based on individual requirements.

Caloric Breakdown:
Carbohydrates: 54% Fats: 41% Proteins: 5%

Anti-oxidants in Chutneys??

Tomato Mint Chutney




I call this a chutney, but essentially this is a wonderful dish to make ahead and always have handy. I usually make this recipe with cilantro, but running low on cilantro one day, I decided to use the only fresh herb I had on hand. The result was absolutely wonderful. The main reason I have this recipe here is because I want to add to my list of spreads for Sheetal. Well, this is another wonderful base for whole wheat sandwiches. Not only can it be used as a chutney and a spread, it can also be used as a dip for fresh vegetables (baby carrot, celery, even rye crackers!), or as a pasta sauce, or a pizza sauce. And it is so versatile, you can convert it into hot tomato soup in two steps!




Oxidation and anti-oxidants: Oxidation, to put it very simply, is the removal of electrons from an atom. Why is this bad? When electrons are lost from an atom (which in this case is a part of your body), it becomes highly active (free radical). Its like a missile with no particular target to attack, so it goes ahead and attacks other atoms, or parts of atoms to get back its lost electron. Formation of one free radical can start off a cascade which could ultimately result in complete damage to a living cell. So, what causes the formation of free radicals? A small number of free radicals are formed by our body due to metabolic activities. These are however taken care of by the body itself. Our problems arise when too many free radicals are formed. When does this happen? This occurs when we are exposed to pollution, cigarette smoke, certain chemicals or UV rays.

Another problem with free radicals is that they accumulate with age, damaging DNA (the genetic material) in some organelles. This causes cells death and aging of individuals. Well, there's no need to worry though! Nature has provided us with ample means to combat free radicals. There are a bounty of anti-oxidants available to us which can give the boisterous atom an electron before it creates any havoc. Some of these include tomatoes, citrus fruits, berries of all kinds, carrots, papaya....

Tomatoes are one of the most common anti-oxidants available to us all year round, affordable and easy to incorporate into anything. The red color of tomatoes is due to the presence of "lycopene", a pigment to which the anti-oxidant properties of tomatoes have been attributed. I was looking at some interesting studies on tomatoes and this is a summary of what I found: tomatoes have been proved to be helpful in the prevention of numerous cancers, especially cancers of the prostrate, colon, rectum, stomach, lung and breast, to mention a few.

Things to look for when you are buying and cooking tomatoes:
Always buy tomatoes as darkly colored as possible. The redder the tomato, the greater the amount of lycopene it contains.
When cooking tomatoes: lycopene is present in the cell walls of tomatoes, so peeling tomatoes is not really a god way to consume them.
Cooking tomatoes in oil helps make the lycopene available, so try and cook this wonderful vegetable in some extra virgin olive oil.
For all those people who love the comfort of canned tomatoes (I am one of them), good news! Canning does not reduce the health benefits of the tomato!
Another very interesting thing I read about tomatoes: Never cook tomatoes in aluminium... Well, if you really think about it, it makes sense, aluminium, WHFoods says, reacts with the acids in tomatoes and introduces aluminium into our food, which can be very harmful.

Some interesting links:
World's Healthiest Foods
BBC News/Health
Council for Biotechnology Information, Q&A


Ingredients:
Makes 4 cups of spread:
Tomatoes: 12 (chopped)
Red onion: 1 (chopped)
Fresh Mint Leaves: half a bunch, leaves only
Garlic: 6 cloves
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Olive oil: 1 tbsp
Green chilies: 6 (adjust according to taste)
Chili powder: As per taste
Turmeric: 0.25 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tsp (Dhania powder)

Method:
To a saucepan, add olive oil, cumin, garlic, green chilies and onions.
Saute till onions become translucent.
Add the tomatoes and mint leaves.
Cover and cook stirring occasionally for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add salt, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder and mix well.
Simmer for 5 minutes.
Let cool and grind.
Store in an air tight box.
For longer storage, freeze in Ziploc bags for up to 6 months.

To make this into soup:
To a large sauce pan, add 1 tsp olive oil, add 2 tbsp all purpose flour (or maida), saute till the raw smell disappears. Add one cup of the chutney and 3/4 cup of water or vegetable stock. Heat till the soup thickens. Serve with garlic croutons, or plain croutons.

Nutritional Information:
Per serving Per serving (1 tbsp) or 1/50th of the recipe (50 g)
Calories: 15
Calories from Fat: 4
Total Fat: 0 g (1% of DV)
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 g
Sodium: 52 mg (2% of DV)
Carbohydrates: 3 g (1% of DV)
Dietary Fiber: 1 g (3% of DV)
Sugar: 0 g
Proteins: 1 g

Vitamin A: 7% of DV
Vitamin C: 19% of DV
Calcium: 1% of DV
Iron: 2% of DV

Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet and may vary based on individual requirements.

Breakdown of caloric information:
Carbohydrates: 65% Fats: 26% Proteins: 9%

Walnut Brittle

Walnuts- the best nut :I guess I am one of the few who feel this way, but I simply love the walnut, raw or roasted, by itself or in brownies, or pies, or cakes... its gives the crunch to every munch! I remember being so happy the first time I read about the walnut and all the good fats it contains. My love seems justified :)
Anyway, I have been trying for decades to get my dear dad to have walnuts, and mom tells me he is just starting to try them out, so I thought, "Hey! Why don't I post one of my very own modification of the walnut, so they become as big fans of the cranial nut as me!!" So here goes:

A LINK to the health benefits of walnuts.
An article: Cholesterol and Walnuts
News headlines, NutraUSA: FDA backs the heart healthy benefits of walnuts
What Nutritionists are saying about nuts.

I use just 2 main ingredients for this recipe: Molasses and walnuts. How simple does that get??? How much molasses? Well, I don't really make this recipe like a brittle or chikki, but instead make it like, maybe, honey roasted walnuts; meaning you can choose the number of walnuts you want to have. In order to do that, I use more nuts ( 3 cups instead of the 2 I mentioned in the recipe) for the same amount of molasses.

I made a big batch 2 weeks back, but my husband whisked it off to snack on at work, so I will have to take a rain check on posting the picture! :)

Ingredients:
Molasses: 2 cups (packed, grated if using gur or bellam or jaggery)
Walnuts: 2 cups
Ghee or Olive oil: 1 tsp

Method:
Roast the walnuts at 250F for 12 to 15 minutes, they shouldn't get too dark. If you want to do it stove top, you can dry roast the nuts on a thick bottomed skillet for 5 minutes on low-medium or till the walnuts are dark cream color inside when broken.
To a thick bottom pan, add the ghee or oil, and add the jaggery/molasses. Let it melt on a low-medium flame for 1 to 15 minutes, the jaggery will change color a little. Keep stirring and do not let it over-cook at this stage, or it gets burnt.
One way to check if the consistency is right is to place one drop of the melted jaggery on a place and then see if it is crisp after it cools down.
Once the consistency is right, add the nuts and mix thoroughly to coat all nuts as evenly as possible. You can adjust the amount of the nuts to suit your tastes. If you like it less sweet, add more nuts; if you like it chikki form, this ratio should be good enough.
Spread out on an aluminum foil and let cool. The advantage to this is that you can easily peel the foil off.
Store in Ziploc or air tight boxes.

Nutritional Information:
This is for 1/10th of the recipe i.e., 91 g
Calories: 353
Calories from Fat: 132
Total Fat: 16 g (24% of DV)
Saturated Fat: 2 g (8% of DV)
Trans Fat: 0 mg
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 25 mg (1% of DV)
Carbohydrates: 54 g (18% of DV)
Dietary Fiber: 2 g (6% of DV)
Sugars: 38 g
Proteins: 4 g

Vitamin A: 0 % of DV
Vitamin C: 1 % of DV
Calcium: 16 % of DV
Iron: 21 % of DV

Percent daily values are based on a 2000 calorie diet and may vary based on individual requirements.

Caloric Breakdown:
Carbohydrates: 58% Fats: 38% Proteins 4%

I want to mention that though this is a healthy snack, you should try and consume it in moderation because of the high carbohydrate and fat content. Though the fat is good fat, it still is fat, and so requires much more effort to burn.