My son is a fussy eater. Consequently, I have had to hone my cooking skills almost to the point of perfection.
Cooking is not a difficult job. At the same time, its not as easy as it seems. The outcomes can be seen sitting pretty on the dining table but the invisible chores are indeed back breaking. A lot of new mommies, who are bodily-iron-compromised do lament over the lack of cooking help. Simple and quick recipes prove to be a boon here.
Again, offering variety is a tricky game. Many babies do not like to eat the same food over and over again. Nutritionists too suggest varying diet content with each day or every two to three days.
Thankfully, the matrons in my family tree contributed extensively to my repository of baby recipes. Not to mention recipes picked up from neighborhood ladies, off conversations in buses and public transport, from friends, from nice gentlemen, doctors, nutritionists......
I have to mention that every recipe here is whetted by a professional nutritionist who has patiently added the technical details like nutritive values, calorific values and so on. Ms. Gamedar can be reached on niharika.jemedar@gmail.com.
Uggu (ఉగ్గు) - The quintessential early baby food.Most babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months followed by mashed bananas, cooked apples. In this line comes Uggu, a telugu staple for telugu babies. The word Uggu is very much ingrained into culture and parlance and 'Uggupaalu', 'Ugguginne' are some of the commonly used words in everyday conversation.
Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Sprouted wheat - 1 cup
Sprouted raagi - 1 cup
Peanuts(with the cover off) - 1 cup
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
One or two Cashews and almonds - optional
Wash, sun dry, slightly roast and grind all these to rava (semolina) consistency separately. Mix all and grind again briefly. One must be careful not to reach talcum powder consistency.
Store this powder in an airtight container. Its ideal to make small quantities which will last only for a week. Afterall, one cannot be too careful with ones baby!
How to feed:
Bring two cups of water to a boil. Meanwhile, dampen one full tablespoon of Uggu in a separate bowl with a lil water. (This is to ensure that the powder mixes with the water without forming lumps). Add the moist Uggu powder when the water is bubbling.
When the uggu is half cooked, it begins to turn transparent at this stage, add salt. Mix well and take the dish off the stove. Let cool and serve while warm. Ghee is added to Uggu to make it nutritively complete.
Boiled potato pieces or tomato or palak or grated carrot or grated beans can also be added once the baby is older than eight months.
Uggu can be fed plain or along with curd or pappu kattu or tomato rasam.
Cooking is not a difficult job. At the same time, its not as easy as it seems. The outcomes can be seen sitting pretty on the dining table but the invisible chores are indeed back breaking. A lot of new mommies, who are bodily-iron-compromised do lament over the lack of cooking help. Simple and quick recipes prove to be a boon here.
Again, offering variety is a tricky game. Many babies do not like to eat the same food over and over again. Nutritionists too suggest varying diet content with each day or every two to three days.
Thankfully, the matrons in my family tree contributed extensively to my repository of baby recipes. Not to mention recipes picked up from neighborhood ladies, off conversations in buses and public transport, from friends, from nice gentlemen, doctors, nutritionists......
I have to mention that every recipe here is whetted by a professional nutritionist who has patiently added the technical details like nutritive values, calorific values and so on. Ms. Gamedar can be reached on niharika.jemedar@gmail.com.
Uggu (ఉగ్గు) - The quintessential early baby food.Most babies are exclusively breastfed for the first six months followed by mashed bananas, cooked apples. In this line comes Uggu, a telugu staple for telugu babies. The word Uggu is very much ingrained into culture and parlance and 'Uggupaalu', 'Ugguginne' are some of the commonly used words in everyday conversation.
Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Sprouted wheat - 1 cup
Sprouted raagi - 1 cup
Peanuts(with the cover off) - 1 cup
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
One or two Cashews and almonds - optional
Wash, sun dry, slightly roast and grind all these to rava (semolina) consistency separately. Mix all and grind again briefly. One must be careful not to reach talcum powder consistency.
Store this powder in an airtight container. Its ideal to make small quantities which will last only for a week. Afterall, one cannot be too careful with ones baby!
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How to feed:
Bring two cups of water to a boil. Meanwhile, dampen one full tablespoon of Uggu in a separate bowl with a lil water. (This is to ensure that the powder mixes with the water without forming lumps). Add the moist Uggu powder when the water is bubbling.
When the uggu is half cooked, it begins to turn transparent at this stage, add salt. Mix well and take the dish off the stove. Let cool and serve while warm. Ghee is added to Uggu to make it nutritively complete.
Boiled potato pieces or tomato or palak or grated carrot or grated beans can also be added once the baby is older than eight months.
Uggu can be fed plain or along with curd or pappu kattu or tomato rasam.
thank you v.much 4 the recipe
ReplyDeleteHello Pravallika,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the post! i didn't find this recipe anywhere. It is of great help. I have one question though. I do not have sprouted wheat or raagi. Shall I use the same measurements for the remaining ingredients?
failed 6 times in making this. Every attempt, it was not cooked properly. your help is much appreciated.
Mridula
Hi Mridula...was unsure if my email reply reached you and hence amd writing here again. Wheat and Ragi are two of the ingredients which make the base for this recipe. No harm if you don't have those. They can be added later too. I suggested the sprouted version of both because of the higher nutrional value. You may add unsprouted ones also.
DeleteComing to preparation failure, can you be a lil more specific? Maye then I can help you.
Thanks a ton, Pravallika! My first baby is about to enter 6th month, and I am so much worried about what I have to feed her next..I have heard from so many that Uggu is the best food to start, and I had no idea how to make it. I was elated on reading your blog..Thanks a lot again. Is there anyway to get in touch with you through a mail or something? I have so many things to clarify! I hope you did not mind me asking this!
ReplyDeleteHi Mridula and Shanti,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for going through the blog. You could reach me on c.k.pravallika@gmail.com for further queries. For any nutrion related queries, you could always contact Ms Gamedar whose details are there on this blog.
Hi Pravallika ,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post.
My baby is not eating if i add salt in Uggu.Can I add Sugar for 7 montha old baby?
Thanks.
Hi there....I hope you haven't over salted or under salted your dish . Inspite of getting it right, if your kid still doesnt like the salted version, do go ahead and try the sweetened version for once. If it works, well and good. I'd personally suggest adding powdered jaggery instead of sugar.
Delete