Delightful Healthy Recipes





While people prefer gifting traditional mithai when it comes to festive gifting, many people now consider chocolate as an alternate option. Keeping the importance that gifting has in Indian culture in mind, especially during festivities and with the recent adulteration realities in headlines having definite bearing on health, it isn't surprising that chocolate gifting has become a clear option. Chocolates are soon replacing traditional sweets as a gifting option on occasions like Diwali, Raksha Bandhan, Christmas, Eid, Valentine's celebrations etc.With the increasing incidences of health hazards in traditional sweets, chocolates are perceived to offer hygiene and quality standards that make them a safer option. The exotic variety and tailor-made gift-packaging options along with customisation adds a person alised touch. At Birdy's, they have artists, who create the finest chocolates of different assortments, which have become a tradition in itself.
Birdy's chocolates are hand crafted to perfection and made using the finest ingredients, without adding any preservatives or colours that make them a perfect gifting option for all occasions. Drop in at any of the brand's outlets to pick up a box and make your festive season a special one.
Where: Birdys Bakery & Patisserie.
Chocolates starting from: ₹ 275 onwards.
E-mail: festive.season@Birdys.co.in Call: 90040595058454048200.









WHAT IT IS ABOUTThis is essentially raw food or food that has not been cooked, processed or microwaved. It follows the principle of how humans first ate -when they hunted and foraged for fruit, berries and more.

IT INCLUDES...
Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds berries, beans, coconut milk and herbs in their natural state. Some also eat raw meat and certain fish.

DOES IT HAVE BENEFITS?
The diet has received both popularity and criticism with advocates of this theory believing that the process of heating food and cooking it leads to losing the diseasefighting enzymes it has.
These enzymes are also said to aid digestion. Another view is that eating raw foods also means consuming lesser calories, so you might lose weight. But others believe it might not be ideal as cooking can actually boost nutrients in food and kill the bacteria in it. In any event, it is not recommended you take up the diet unless you check with a qualified nutritionist first.

DOS AND DONT'S BEFORE STARTING OUT
Get a blood test first to see where your nutritional deficiencies lie.
Do not give up on other foods as just greens or juices can never be enough. Make sure you get enough carbs. Start gradually, by incorporating raw foods into your mid-morning snack, at tea, then increase the input of raw veggies in lunch and dinner.
If you eat nuts, soak them first to avoid getting constipated Do not starve or overindulge.

WHAT TO MAKE:
There are quite a few interesting things you can dish up...
Make a blend of smoothies (try banana, spinach and honey or kiwi and honey) or make savoury sauces.
Make fruit desserts like puddings with peach and pear.
Try a fresh vegetable salad with lettuce, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots and raisins.
A zucchini and celery soup is apt for a cold, rainy night.
Make pureed avocado and use it as a substitute for mayonnaise.
5 delicious ways to add blueberries to your dessert
Use them in a sauce over your ice cream or pie.
Stew them with sugar and top them with cream and shortcake.
Add them to a fruit compote with cream and chopped nuts. Thinkstock Warm blueberry muffins or cupcakes can also make for be an ideal tea-time treat.
Make blueberry ice pops with honey for a natural fruit fix.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF THE FRUIT
The firm little berries are packed with anti-oxidants, which strenghten the immune system. They are also low in fat and provide almost 25% of the daily requirement of vitamin C.
They have folate and niacin. A study suggests blueberries reduces the risk of heart disease and can ward off urinary tract infections. They also slow down the loss of vision.









If you haven't prepared biryani at Eid, try different ways to make it now...

Very little compares with the aroma that wafts through the kitchen when a biryani is cooking.
Derived from the Persian word `biriyan' (meaning fried before cooking), the elaborately prepared layered meat and rice dish goes back as far as 2,000 years! Today, you will find delightful variations through India -from Hyderabad's Kacche Gosht style, to the nawabi `Dumpukht style' in Lucknow and Hyderabad, the Arab-influenced Moplah biryani with the fish or prawns, a Kashmiri version with asafoetida and the spicier Kolkata version with its generous use of potatoes.

Here are a few recipes to try out...The Kacche Gosht ki Biryani at The Sahib Room, the new signature Indian restaurant at Palladium Hotel, is a classic preparation. For it, soak the leg of lamb in milk overnight and cook it with raw, longgrain basmati rice and whole earth spices. It is made in the dum style where the pot is covered with a thick layer of dough that ensures that the flavours from the spices seep into the rice and meat.
-Chef Paul Kinny

ACCOMPANIMENT: MIRCHI KA SALAN
This is a must-have side dish with Hyderabadi biryani. Food blogger Priya Ranjit shares a recipe... METHOD No Heat oil in a skillet and fry 15 jalapenos for 3-4 minutes. Drain. In the same skillet, fry the 12 cup peanuts and 3 tbsp dried coconut desiccated coconut. Add 2 tbsp sesame seeds and dry roast it. Transfer to a plate.

In the same skillet add cumin, fennel, fenu greek (all 12 tsp), red chilli, hing and mus tard seeds (14 tsp). Add some curry leaves and a chopped onion. Let the onions turn golden. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook. Grind the roasted and cooled ingredients along with a few green chillies, to a smooth paste. Add all the dry masalas and the smooth thick paste to the onions and some salt. Let the oil separate from the paste.
Add a cup water and bring to boil. Add the jalapenos and 2 tbsp tamarind paste and let it cook for four minutes until all the flavours combine.
Serve it with Hyderabadi biryani.

Remember...
Sesame tends to burn soon, so do not dry roast it along with peanuts.
Slit the jalapenos before frying or else they will burst during the process.

SAFED BIRYANI
SAFED BIRYANI INGREDIENTS Lamb curry cut 500g Onion 4 to 5 Ginger-garlic paste 4tsp Whole ginger and garlic pod 2 g Fennel seeds 1 tsp Whole garam masala 2 tsp Small muslin cloth Rice 1 kg (soaked for 1 hour) Salt to taste Chaat masala 1 tsp Turmeric powder ½ tsp Green chilly paste about 8 small Coriander powder 2 tsp Jeera powder 2 tsp Garam masala powder 2tsp Black cardamom 2pc Oil 200ml METHOD Make a potli in muslin cloth of whole garlic, and ginger, sliced onion, whole garam masala, car damom, saunf, black cardamom and salt.

Take mutton. Add enough water to a pressure cooker. Add the potli and cook for 40 minutes.

Remove the meat with the potli in a clean vessel and squeeze it's juice over the mutton.
Keep aside.

Heat oil and sauté onions until golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste. Add mutton from stock and sauté well add garam masala, green chilly paste, coriander and jeera powders until the masala is well cooked. Add the balance stock to the mutton and boil. Add soaked rice (soaked for half an hour).
Let all water evaporate. Stir once and leave it on dum (put a tava under the vessel).
The rice cooks after about 40 minutes.
-Chef Navidakhtar Sayyad

MASTANVI JHEENGA BIRYANI
INGREDIENTS Prawns 2kg (jumbo size, in salt and garlic) Long grain Basmati rice 1kg (pre-soaked 30 mins in water) Ghee 250g Onion, sliced 2pc Ginger-garlic paste 2tsp Yellow chilli powder ½ tsp Cardamom powder 1tsp Clove 5pc Cardamom 5pc Mace powder ¼ tsp Salt 1tsp Star anise 6pc Yoghurt 150g Cashew paste 1tsp Sweetened tin milk 2tsp Mint a bunch Dissolved saffron 1g PRAWN KORMA: Heat ghee and sautee onions. Add ginger garlic paste. Add the prawns and salt, half the quantity of cloves, half the cardamom, some star anise and simmer for 20 minutes (add water so it does not stick). Now, add mace and car damom powders, yoghurt, yellow chill powder, cashew nut paste and thick cream and cook for five minutes.

FOR THE RICE: Add 1.5 litres water to the soaked rice, plus salt, remaining cloves, star anise and cardamom. Boil the rice till half done. Drain the water.

FOR THE DUM BIRYANI: In a copper handi arrange the prawn with the curry at the bottom and cover with boiled rice. Put saffron water, chopped mint and apply some amount of ghee on rice. Seal with a lid or wrap with silver foil and cook over very slow heat for 15 minutes on dum. Serve hot, with a rich raita.
-Chef Mujeebur Rehman