Ragi Recipes, Finger Millet healthy Delicacies

by Radha Deep

What is Ragi?

Ragi or finger millet is round, soft yet firm and rich brown in color. It is probably the only edible solid you are advised to swallow not chew. . It is known for its nutritional properties and is a dietician’s delight. It is the Mudde, a staple diet in parts of Andhra and Karnataka. States in India.

Mudde is made out of the cereal Ragi. Ragi, (Botanical name: Eleusine Coracana, also known as finger millet), is a versatile cereal that can be cooked in various forms and is absolutely safe and easy to digest. In fact flour of sprouted ragi is introduced as the first semi solid food for babies.

100 grams of ragi has 328 kilo calories of energy

A gram of ragi has

72% carbohydrate,

3.6% fiber, 7.3 grams of protein,

vitamin B and a good combination of minerals, especially iron, calcium and phosphorus.

More importantly, ragi contains methionine, an essential alpha amino acid that is not present in other cereals like polished rice or maize. Deficiency of methionine causes impaired growth. .

Cooking ragi

The flour that is extracted from the husk forms the basic ingredient for ragi preparations like mudde and porridge.

Mudde or Ragi Kofta

Mix one cup of ragi flour with three quarters cup of water until it is a thick dough without lumps. Heat one cup of water along with ½ a teaspoon of cooking oil and a pinch of salt. When the water comes to a boil, add the ragi flour and water mix. Stir on a low flame. Keep stirring with a flat wooden spoon or spatula until the mixture solidifies to a firm but pliable dough-like consistency.

Remove from fire. Use the spatula to transfer some dough onto a plate immediately. With your hand, roll the dough into a sphere of 4 to 5 inches diameter. (If you are not using kitchen gloves, keep a bowl of cold water nearby. Dip your fingers in the bowl before rolling the mudde, so it is not too hot to hold). In this manner make the spheres with the remaining dough.

Prepare mudde just before the meal, so you can have them hot. Vegetables in gravy usually accompany mudde. There are a variety of these “sambars” that go well with the food. The spicy and sour cooked lentils complement the bland, but distinctive taste of the mudde. To eat, break of a piece of the mudde, dip it in the gravy and swallow without chewing, as ragi tends to stick to the teeth.

Here is a basic recipe for sambar.

Ingredients:

For seasoning Oil – 2 tablespoons; mustard seeds- ½ teaspoon; curry leaves – a few; asafetida – a pinch

For the sambar: Sliced onions – 3; chopped tomatoes – 2; tamarind extract – 1 tablespoon (you can add a little less or more depending on how sour you would like the sambar to be); chilly powder – ½ teaspoon; sambar powder – 2 teaspoons; cooked toor dal – ½ cup; cooked vegetables – 1 cup; salt to taste.

Method:

In a pan, add oil and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add a couple of curry leaves, and a pinch of asafetida. Add to the pan onions and sauté, on a low flame, until they are pink and transparent. Now add tomatoes, along with of tamarind extract. Cook until the tomatoes are done.

Add chilly powder and sambar powder (available in malls) and cook for a few minutes. Now add cooked toor dal (a yellow lentil grown in India) Add cooked vegetables of your choice. Add salt to taste and water of necessary for the gravy consistency. Stir well and remove from heat, when it comes to a boil.

The vegetables in sambar can be potato, radish, spinach, pumpkin, or a combination of mixed vegetables like carrot, peas, beans, potato and so on. All vegetables are optional. For instance, you can leave out the onions and tomatoes if you do not relish the taste and still the sambar will taste good enough for the mudde!

The protein rich lentils, and vegetables with their nutritive and antioxidant properties, combine with the goodness of ragi to create well balanced meal, rich in nutrition.