How To Make Dal Pakwan, Traditional Lentil-Based Sindhi Breakfast

Traditional Indian breakfasts can be an indulgent affair. Be it stuffed parathas, chhola bhaturas, kachoris, nihari, or poori sabzi, India has an array of greasy and sumptuous breakfasts. Sindhi cuisine is famous for its rich and fiery curries, but a quintessential Sindhi breakfast spread makes for a flavourful ride too. One of the most popular Sindhi breakfasts is dal pakwan. Dal, here refers to a toothsome chana dal preparation that is tempered with chillies and a range of eclectic spices. Dal is paired with thin and crispy bread made with maida, cumin seeds, black pepper and ghee.

This recipe of dal pakwan by noted vlogger and YouTuber Manjula Jain is an ideal recipe for those who are trying their hands at the dish for the first time. The decadent dish is ideal for lazy weekend brunches. A hit with kids and adults alike, cooking this Sindhi delicacy is fairly easy and does not take very long either. This recipe was shared on Manjula's YouTube Channel 'Manjula's Kitchen'. If you have friends coming over, you can always surprise them with this classic Indian vegetarian recipe. The ingredients used in the Sindhi preparation are also not so elaborate. For the dal, you would need some chana dal, turmeric, ginger, green chilli, black pepper, garam masala, mango powder, curry leaves and cumin seeds. For pakwan, you need all-purpose flour, semolina, cumin seeds and oil. Dal Pakwan is traditionally served with tamarind chutney and onions.

Eating Junk Food During Pregnancy May Up Risk Of Autism In Kids

Processed food has been blamed for a number of lifestyle ailments including increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and even poor mental health. Processed foods include microwave-ready meals, packaged cheeses and breads, frozen pizzas, as well as cakes, cookies and sugar-sweetened beverages. All these foods have been pegged by health experts as the root cause of a variety of different ailments. A new study has now linked processed foods to autism as well. The study has indicated that consuming processed foods may increase risks of autism, which is a development disorder that affects a person's ability to clearly communicate and interact.

The study titled, "Propionic Acid Induces Gliosis and Neuro-inflammation through Modulation of PTEN/AKT Pathway in Autism Spectrum Disorder" was published in the journal Scientific Reports and it indicated that a rise in autistic children may have been resulting from consumption of junk or processed food by pregnant women or expectant mothers. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Central California. The researchers have claimed to have identified the molecular changes that take place in neuro stem cells when they are exposed to an acid that is present in processed foods. The acid is called Propionic Acid (PPA) and it is used abundantly in packaged or processed foods to increase their shelf-life.

This acid, the researchers have now found, may affect and reduce development of neurons in the fetal brain. The scientists have said that earlier studies have showed higher levels of this acid in stool samples collected from autistic children, whose gut microbiome were also found to be different. Excessive amounts of the acid were shown to shorten and damage neural pathways as well. This combination of reduced neruons and impaired neural pathways, impede the brain's ability to communicate, resulting in behaviors that are often found in children with autism. The study concluded by saying, "This study is the first to link PPA and ASD-microbiome by-product to gliosis, disturbed neural architecture, and increase in inflammatory response, all of which may translate into dramatic neuro-complications including ASD."

How To Perfectly Brew Flavourful Cup Of Kadak Masala Chai

It would be an understatement to say that Indians love their cup of milky kadak chai. Tea lovers in India like their tea prepared in a certain specific way. Some enjoy it with full-fat milk while some like it with skimmed milk, some others may like it cloyingly sweet while another group of people may like with just one sugar cube. There's a section of people who don't like their tea flavoured with any spice barring fresh ginger, while some others may want a whole range of spices to be cooked along with the milk and the tea, lending their cup an aromatic quality. Some may even demand special maska chai with a generous helping of fresh cream or malai, while some others can't even stand the sight of malai in their mugs of chai!

Whichever camp you may belong to, you will probably agree on one thing- there is perhaps no 'best way' to prepare masala chai. The characteristic feature of Indian chai is the presence of one or more spices in it, giving it a unique soothing and perhaps nutritious quality. Some of the most popular spices that are used to prepare masala chai include ginger, cinnamon, green cardamom (elaichi) and cloves (laung). You may mix and match and use these spices in combination, or put all of these in, while preparing your tea. While it may be a task to individually store and use all these spices for preparing chai daily, some people prefer the sight of whole spices brewing in their tea pots to conveniently skipping them out.

Tips To Get Kadak Masala Chai Every Single Time

For those who want to go all the way and use all the spice ammunition in their kitchen arsenal, there is a way of ensuring that their cup of chai is perfectly aromatic and strong or kadak to boot! Follow these tips to get a strong cup of masala chai every single time:

1. Spice Mix: Although a lot of people nowadays go for store-bought chai masalas, it's always better to make your chai masala at home from fresh and whole spices. You can simply grind all the whole spices of your choices together in a grinder until they form a fine or medium-coarse powder. Make sure you grind equal quantities of all spices together and store it in an air-tight jar for daily use.

2. For Milky Tea: If you like your chai kadak, but still creamy and milky, then make sure you boil the milk and the water together until it comes to a boil, before putting the tea leaves in.

3. For Chai With Less Milk: For those who like their chai with just a smidgen of milk, boiling the tea leaves and spice mix in water before putting the milk in, is ideal. Let the spice mix and the tea leaves brew in plain water for just a few minutes, until it starts bubbling. Then add little bit of milk, as per your requirement and then boil again for a few minutes.

You can also adjust the quantity of tea leaves, depending on how mellow or strong you want your tea to be. Also, make sure you don't put too much masala in your tea, otherwise it may end up overpowering the taste and flavour of the leaves.

Adding This Spice To Your Milkshake May Trick Your Brain Into Thinking It's Sweet

A tall glass of cold, sweet milkshake is perfect for lifting our spirits on a sweltering summer day. From chocolate shake to strawberry shake; a creamy and flavourful concoction with the right mix of flavours makes for an ideal summer beverage. These milkshakes are healthy for their high content of calcium and other nutrients coming from milk. However, the only point of contention that may put a milkshake in the spot is its high content of sugar. Milkshakes are purposely sweetened with sugar for that delectable sweetness that finds favour with everyone's sweet tooth. But, we all know that too-much sugar is bad for us. To help us keep enjoying a hearty glass of milkshake without any guilt, a study has come up with a solution.

The study that was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference, suggests that in order to limit the consumption of sugar, add vanilla to milkshakes. The study discovered that the flavour of vanilla makes the drink seems sweeter and the human brain buys it. In fact, by adding vanilla, the level of sugar in milk beverages can be cut down by 20 to 50 per cent, as suggested by lead researcher Gloria Wang who conducted the research at Pennsylvania State University in the US. It is believed that congruent or harmonious odour of vanilla essence enhances the taste of milkshakes.

Helene Hopfer, Assistant Professor of Food Science at Pennsylvania State University in the US said, "Reducing added sugar in products, just like reducing fat and salt, is the holy grail of food science."

For the study, a blind taste test was carried out that analysed taste enhancement by an aroma. It was found that participants who did not know that vanilla had been added to the milk kept on rating samples with vanilla significantly sweeter than their added sugar concentrations.

"We maintain the sweetness perception by having this congruent odour -- this learned, associated odour -- basically trick the brain into thinking that there is still enough sweetness there," said Wang, now an associate scientist in product development with Leprino Foods Co. in Colorado, US.

The researchers have termed the findings as a great way to reduce the intake of sugar in the consumers' diet and help them live a healthier life.

Serve This Healthy Cheese And Fruits Platter As A Fancy Party Appetiser

Nowadays, people are adopting many great ideas to throw unique, eyeball-grabbing parties. From colour-pop decor to quirky themes, people are experimenting in various ways. Then why, food that is an intrinsic part of any occasion should be left ignored? Serving spring rolls, paneer/chicken tikkas and French fries as party snacks has become too mainstream now. If you are planning to throw a fancy party, serve something that pulls all the attention. Cheese tray or cheese platter has started making a regular appearance in chic and plush gatherings. And yes, it's happening in India as well.

If you are a novice in international culinary craft, here's a great idea of an easy party appetiser that will help you leave the right impression.

Cheese And Fruits Platter

There are numerous kinds of cheeses you can serve on your platter, like cheddar and ricotta. Here, we are using smoked Gouda cheese to create this incredible party appetiser.

Why Gouda Cheese?

It is one of the healthiest cheeses out there. It is made from cow's milk, which has low fat content in comparison to buffalo milk. It stacks up on calcium, Vitamin B12, proteins and iron. Gouda cheese is pale yellow in colour and has a hard rind with soft, creamy cheese inside. It has a distinct smoky, nutty flavour that goes well with other foods, especially fruits.

How To Make Cheese And Fruits Platter

You need the following things -

1. A wooden cheese board. But, if you don't have time to buy one, any flat serving tray would do.
2. 1 packet dried cranberries
3. 1 packet prunes or blueberries
4. One apple cut into thin slices
5. Green olives
6. 1 packet of smoked Gouda cheese (you can get it easily in grocery stores and supermarkets)
7. 1 large pack of sugar-free, wheat crackers. These are flat square or round-shaped biscuits that are easily available in the market.
8. Ideally, a cheese knife or else any other knife would do.
9. Toothpicks

Method:

On a large serving plate, line up the crackers as is. Remove the cheese cover and keep the cheese brick on the tray with the knife alongside it. Fill small bowls with cranberries, prunes and olives and place them on the vacant space on the tray. Place apple slices and toothpicks on the tray. Your guests can cut and scoop out a cheese piece or slice, place them on a cracker and top it with olive and eat it. They can pick up the fruit of their choice and can have alongside the cheese cracker.

The platter must be decorated creatively and should look like an interesting mix of colourful sweet and sour foods. You'll know you've done a good job when this cheese and fruits platter will garner everybody's attention at your party.

Lack of access to sufficient food may be damaging Indian children's ability to learn

There has been an impressive expansion in school enrolment in India since the early 2000s. Despite this, India is in the midst of a “learning crisis,” with improvements in learning, lagging behind increases in enrolment.

Worldwide, India also has one of the highest rates of child undernutrition and household food insecurity—that is, inadequate or inconsistent access to enough safe and nutritious food to sustain a healthy life. Both of these issues have negative implications for the long-term health, well-being and productivity of young people, as well as for the economy more broadly.

In our recent study, we used survey data from the Young Lives study of childhood poverty to examine whether there is a link between food insecurity and learning for Indian adolescents.

There are good theoretical reasons why learning and food insecurity may be linked. When households experience food insecurity, they may have to make difficult decisions in order to meet the family’s nutritional needs.

For instance, households that need money for food might reduce spending on school fees and materials. Children might miss school, have less time available to study, or even drop out altogether so that they can contribute to the household economy.

Food insecurity can also cause children to experience hunger, undernutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. This can lead children to have problems with concentration and memory. It can even impair their cognitive development. Children who experience food insecurity might also feel irritability and shame. This could impact negatively on their interactions with their parents, teachers and peers.

In the Young Lives data, 47% of 12-year-olds had experienced household food insecurity at some stage during the observation period. And even 18% of the wealthiest families had experienced food insecurity; food insecurity is not exclusively a matter of poverty.

Associations with learning

The study followed the same children over time, beginning in 2002. It tracked both food insecurity and children’s learning outcomes in four domains: reading, English, maths, and local language vocabulary.

In order to test for a link between food insecurity and learning, we applied statistical modelling. We used information on whether households had experienced food insecurity when the children were aged five and eight, and when they entered adolescence at age 12.

We found that food insecurity was negatively linked to learning outcomes in all four domains. This was true even after we accounted for other important factors.

For example, it could be that poverty affects both food insecurity and learning—and so any link between these outcomes is actually the result of poverty. We accounted for this and other possible explanations in our robust models, and still consistently found a negative association between food insecurity and learning across domains.

We also considered the timing and persistence of food insecurity. Do early life experiences affect later learning? Or can adolescents recover from earlier food insecurity? Are there differences if adolescents experience shorter versus longer periods of food insecurity?

We found that both timing and persistence do matter, but they have different effects in different learning domains. For vocabulary and reading, early and persistent food insecurity were very detrimental for learning. English and maths were more complex.

For English, early food insecurity didn’t matter as much, but later and persistent food insecurity were linked to poorer learning outcomes. This may reflect that, at the time of the study, English language learning happened later in the curriculum.

For maths, food insecurity at any time was strongly and negatively associated with learning. This may reflect the fact that maths learning at one level is built directly on learning at a previous level. In other words, a child who does not learn basic addition due to food insecurity will struggle with more complex maths. In contrast, for subjects such as reading, once foundational skills are established, some catch-up for missed material may be possible in the short term.

Feeding the future

Our work demonstrates the lasting effects of early life experiences. Addressing food insecurity may be an important part of resolving India’s learning crisis.

It may also contribute to achieving some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Goal #2 aims to end hunger and achieve food security. Our findings suggest that meeting this goal may have ripple effects by reducing inequalities (goal #10) and ensuring inclusive, quality education for all (goal #4).

As we have argued elsewhere, early intervention to prevent food insecurity is important to ensure that children are not disadvantaged while learning foundational skills. Scaling up early childhood feeding programs may be useful for targeting early food insecurity.

Offering free remedial learning classes for children who experience food insecurity may also enable them to catch up with peers. Finally, where social protection is inadequate to prevent children from working, providing safe, well-paid employment opportunities over school breaks may help children to work without missing learning opportunities.

Onigiri and specialty Japanese foods make their Tucson debut

If you've never had an onigiri rice ball before, we don't blame you. These triangular treats may have been a Japanese staple since the Nara Period, but they just arrived in Tucson for the first time this week.

Kukai opened quietly at the Mercado Annex the other day, making it the second food vendor in the westside shopping area after Beaut Burger. You may recognize the familiar face of Setsuko Mochizuki inside the shipping container kitchen. Her husband Kazuo Senda is the owner of Samurai on Oracle Road, which has been Tucson's go-to rice bowl joint for more than 30 years.

Kazuo is partnering with his son-in-law Michael McCormack at Kukai, crafting a menu that feels like Samurai meets Instagram. Michael assured me they're still working on the menu and changing it up before their grand opening Feb. 28. But right now the small space is making everything from ramen to those takoyaki octopus balls you may have lined up for at Tucson Meet Yourself.

We stopped by for a quick lunch yesterday and shared a few things on the small but eclectic menu. Michael had also worked at Raijin and was very proud about his pork-based Hakata ramen ... but unfortunately was still in the process of simmering his latest batch while we arrived for lunch. (I'm definitely coming back to try it soon.)

But no problem, that allowed us to really get into the onigiri. To put it lightly, this was a special moment for me. These utilitarian triangles of rice and pickled vegetables or fish are known for their convenience and portability. They're popular all over Japan because they're simple and cheap and can be eaten on the run.

I made them a regular part of my diet while I was living in the Bay Area, picking them up at the grocery store and unwrapping the delicate plastic covering when I was ready for lunch. Needless to say, the onigiri at Kukai are worlds better than the grocery store variety: the rice is fresh and warm, and the seaweed wrapper retained its snap.

Unlike sushi, onigiri are often made with salty pickled vegetables that preserve the triangle from the inside. So Kukai has a lot of vegetarian options on the menu. We tried the umeboshi salted plum, which was cut into bright purple little slivers that were nestled in the center of the rice. We also tried the tuna mayo, which was a little richer and more substantial if you eat fish. Right now they also have a pork belly and an unagi freshwater eel option for the rice balls, which range from $3.50 to $4.50 apiece.

Kukai's handrolls are also much better than your average teriyaki joint, as evidenced by the buttery salmon roll we enjoyed yesterday. And if you're going to get a rice bowl, Setsuko recommended the Mt. Fuji Don, which was basically a spicy tuna volcano bowl. Like everything here, it really hit the spot.