Date:13/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2007/10/13/stories/2007101350950300.htm

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Mother knows best

Mom’s cooking makes you big and strong. But when you finish growing up and start growing sideways, it’s time for innovation, says MONISH GUJRAL

Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Light and tasty! A platter of haryali tikki

Since childhood we get a taste of the love of our mothers and grandmothers through their cooking skills, and their passion to make us eat a hearty and satisfying meal. As we licked our fingers clean, the greater satisfaction was probably theirs ra ther than ours, seeing the children eat.

Not surprisingly, most people, when asked who their favourite cook is, answer “my mother”. The taste is derived purely and solely because of the love they mixed into every recipe or the dish. So it was in my case, too. Since my early years I loved the way my mother cooked spinach tikkis with a hint of cardamom flavour.

She would say. “This is power ball full of all the nice veggies which will help your grow.” Whether she meant in length or width, I didn’t understand till much later. But it was the width part that made me reinvent the tikkis and decide to slightly heat them on the non-stick pan to be eaten crisp, rather than dripping with oil after deep frying. However, one does have to deep fry to save time when one serves the tikkis in a big party.

This tikki is a vegetable delight powered with the goodness of spinach, carrots, beans, potato and peas. Spinach being the foremost among the chlorophyll group of veggies whose molecules are similar to the design of the molecule of the haemoglobin of our red blood corpuscles. It is extremely rich in vitamin A and E, iron and potassium, sulphur and chlorine. It’s the combination of sulphur and chlorine that gives spinach its cleansing properties.

I have added paneer to the recipe, because for the iron in spinach to be utilised by the system, it has to be eaten along with some form of calcium. And paneer, our own homemade cheese, is a good source of calcium.

Peas are rich in soluble fibre, also in iron, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine and vitamin B. Peas help in lowering LDL cholesterol and also blood sugar. Carrot is a rich source of vitamin A. It is one of the finest alkalis, with a lot of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sulphur, and sodium. All this makes it one of the best tonics. On boiling most of its nutritional values are drained off, hence it should be cooked or steamed for good results. Carrots also nourish the optic system.

I have tried to use all the veggies in this recipe as they all complement each other and give us the desired nutritive results along with taste.

Haryali tikki

Ingredients

50 gm spinach

50 gm beans

25 gm carrots

25gm peas

1 boiled potato, mashed

1 tsp corn flour

25gm cottage cheese

(pa neer), mashed

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Salt to taste

1 tsp red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala

1 green chilli, chopped

1 gm fresh green coriander,

chopped

1 gm ginger, chopped

Oil for frying

1 tsp chaat masala

Method

Boil all the vegetables and drain off the water in a sieve. Mix them all in a blender along with the other ingredients except the oil and chaat masala.

Make 10 equal parts of the mixture and make a round ball and then slightly flatten with moist palms.

Heat oil in a wok and deep fry, turning them lightly for about three to five minutes. Weight watchers can make a low-fat version by using a non-stick pan and heating the tikkis with few drops of oil.

Remove from wok. Place the tikkis on blotting paper to remove excess oil. Sprinkle chaat masala and serve with mint chutney.

(Monish Gujral spoke to Anjana Rajan. He is the MD, Moti Mahal chain of restaurants and can be emailed at motimahal@vsnl.com)