Kalpesh had clicked pictures of this porridge almost two weeks back, but I decided to wait as I wanted to start off the new year with this particular post. I have already posted one garlic ragi porridge recipe before and it is by far the most popular post in the blog. So I kind of felt starting off this year with another ragi porridge / ragi malt recipe would be a good beginning. The figurine of the boy in the pic is part of Devansh’s toy bus, which doesn’t work anymore because Devansh loves to crash all his toy vehicles. Luckily the passengers in the bus are all fine but the bus doesn’t work anymore. They should come up with auto insurance for toy cars too; Devansh’s cars could surely use it. And the passengers could do with ragi in their diet for strong bones to survive the impact of the crashes. :-)
I made this porridge for Devansh some 6-7 months back. We had gone to a friend’s place in Virar. He and his wife had bought this house as a second home only a few months back and so the kitchen had only the basic utensils. I carried ragi powder, garlic, jaggery, and homemade ghee with me as I had planned on making garlicky ragi porridge for Devansh. Earlier we had bought one big tetra pack of milk, which we couldn’t finish off even after making an all-milk tea.
We needed to finish the milk before leaving the house and so I thought of making ragi porridge using milk. I wasn’t surprised when Devansh liked the porridge; luckily he has cultivated the taste for ragi. However, Kalpesh liking the porridge was a huge surprise. Now between Kalpesh and me, I am the one who is more likely to eat bland food if it is nutritious but I haven’t yet managed to develop the taste for ragi. So I am really glad I started giving Devansh ragi pretty early.
Sweet ragi porridge is so simple to make that I almost always make it for Devansh whenever we are traveling. All I need is ragi powder, milk, and jaggery, and access to cooking stove for not more than 5 minutes. Even at home I make this porridge for Devansh at least thrice a week.
Trying to get Devansh to have one cup of milk is a traumatic experience for both Devansh and me. I have now given up trying to feed him milk in the morning; instead I give him food to which I add milk, like ragi porridge, sheera, sweet poha (flattened rice) porridge, or sweet potato porridge. Two reasons why I prefer giving him ragi porridge often—one it is least labor-intensive. ;-) And two, it is very high in calcium content, which is great for kids’ bone development.
Ragi for Babies, Sweet Ragi Porridge Recipe
Ingredients
- 4-5 tbsp organic finger millet flour / ragi flour
- Approx 1 and half cup milk (breast milk/formula for babies younger than one year)
- Approx 1 tbsp organic jaggery (powdered/grated/crumbled)
Instructions
- Add ragi flour in a saucepan (or any thick-bottomed vessel) and pour half cup milk in it. For babies younger than one year, cook ragi in water and then add breast milk/formula to the porridge later. (After step #6.)
- Stir the mixture so that the flour mixes properly with the milk. Ensure that no lumps remain in the mixture.
- Add the remaining milk in the mixture and put the saucepan on the cooking stove.
- Cook the mixture on low flame for 3-4 minutes while stirring continuously. You must stir all the time to ensure that the mixture doesn’t get burnt.
- Add grated jaggery and stir properly till it dissolves in the mixture. (Don’t cook the jaggery in milk for long otherwise it’ll cause the milk to curdle. Add jaggery, stir and dissolve it, and then turn off heat, all within a minute.)
- Turn off heat when the mixture reaches desired consistency. (You can add some milk in the porridge if the porridge turns out thick. I always add some milk in the porridge after transferring it to the serving bowl.)
Notes
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