City-based home chef and well-known baker, Arundati Rao, from Escapades Culinary Studio, has two recipes to make sure that none of your breakfasts as you stay at home are boring! Albeit, given the stressful times we are in, the focus is right on keeping the nutrition intact, so you can expect ingredients like ragi, jowar, fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits.
Some of the recipes she has come up with can be stored for a few days, saving you some time as you finish working from home. Arundati is a self-taught cook and baker who bid adieu to the corporate sector a while ago as she started writing a blog to document her love for food and cooking. You can also look out for her Instagram cooking sessions starting next week.
Multigrain waffles with fruit compote (Makes 8 waffles)
Ingredients for waffles:
¼ cup Ragi flour
¼ cup Jowar flour
1/2 cup Powdered oats
¼ cup Whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon Baking powder
Baking soda just a pinch
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon sugar or honey(optional)
1 Egg
1/2 cup milk2 tablespoons melted butter or ghee
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method for waffles:
Into a large mixing bowl, add the two kinds of flour, baking powder, salt, soda and mix well to combine.
Into the same bowl add the egg or egg substitute, milk, melted butter and vanilla essence and whisk well till the batter is free of lumps.
The batter should be thick.
Keep the batter aside for five minutes while the waffle iron is getting heated.
Brush both sides of the waffle maker with melted butter.
Check the batter before adding to the waffle maker. You should be able to pour it easily. If not, add some water.
Add a spoon of batter onto the hot waffle pan, close and allow to cook for about three minutes.
Remove onto a serving plate, serve with fresh fruit compote.
Tips: If you do not have a waffle maker, make them as pancakes on a nonstick pan and drizzle a little oil. Wait for the batter to bubble up well (about 30-40 seconds), edges to turn crisp and flip over, cook another 10-15 seconds. Repeat with all the batter.
Ingredients for fruit compote (makes ½ cup)
½ cup fresh fruit of choice, either a single fruit or a combination of fruit
2 teaspoons brown sugar/ honey
Salt just a pinch
2 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon lemon juice
1 small piece cinnamon or clove or star anise for flavour (optional)
Method for compote:
Add all of the above to a thick bottomed pan, allow to rest for 30 minutes to squeeze the juices of the fruit. This helps to use less sugar.
After 30 minutes of keeping it aside, heat this mixture gently on medium flame and cook for seven to ten minutes until the fruit is cooked but still retains some chunks.
Should be thickened but the consistency such that it can be poured easily.
Cool it down and it is ready to be used.
You can refrigerate. The shelf life is around five days
Savoury veggie-filled breakfast muffins (Makes 8)
Ingredients for muffins:
Dry ingredients
⅔ cup Whole wheat flour
½ cup Plain flour or maida
1 teaspoon Baking powder
¼ teaspoon Baking soda
½ teaspoon Salt
Wet ingredients
⅓ cup Melted butter or vegetable oil
½ cup Milk
1 egg or ½ cup curd
¼ cup Room temperature water
½ cup assorted finely chopped vegetables (bell peppers, carrot, onion, tomato, cauliflower, peas, spinach, etc)
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs or any other herbs of choice
⅓ cup grated cheese or paneer
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and set out paper muffin cups or grease a muffin pan with butter.
In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk to make sure everything is well mixed.
In another bowl add all the wet ingredients and whisk well for 30 seconds.
Add the dry into the wet in two parts so that it is easy to mix. The batter should be thick, but pourable and not lumpy.
Fill the muffin cups to ⅔ full and place the cups in the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 22-25 minutes depending on the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool it down for 10 minutes before serving. It can be refrigerated for up to four days.