Ganji powder recipe / Nutritive porridge powder recipe

Ganji or Porridge is made in many different ways with different ingredients. There are very simpler ones with lesser taste but tummy friendly ( the ones we have during our sick days). But this recipe I'm sharing here is healthy and tasty as well but it is made with 21 ingredients. That may sound a big lot!! Yes, it is!! But a lot more nutritive..
 This recipe came as a boon to me from a friend. We decided to give it a try and one day we thought of feeding the ganji to my 8 month old son. Coincidentally or not, my baby who was never sleeping throughout the night, started sleeping without a noise. And from that day to fast forward 6 years, it has been his favourite food. My son is a fussy eater and he just hates all the legumes. Making him eat Dals and legumes is a hectic task for me. The only protein intake for him is through his this favorite ganji, which he has every morning for breakfast. Though the number of ingredients is more and procedure of making is bit time consuming, the resulting product is worth it. And once prepared it can be stored in the refrigerator for months together. It's a perfect, power packed breakfast for kids and even adults who are in the rush every morning. So let's move on to the ingredients..

Ingredients:

1. Raw Rice ( any variety of rice like sona masoori ) - 1/4 kg
2. Red rice - 1/4 kg
3. Ragi - 1/4 kg
4. Sabudana/ Seeme akki/ Tapioca - 1/4 kg
5. Wheat - 1/4 kg
6. Jowar - 1/4 kg
7. Roasted Gram/ Hurigadale - 1/4 kg
8. Brown Channa / Kadalekaalu - 1/4 kg
9. Green gram - 1/4 kg
10. Horse gram - 1/4 kg
11. Tur dal - 1/4 kg
12. Urad dal - 1/4 kg
13. Peanuts - 1/4 kg 
14. Soyabeans - 1/4 kg
15. Cardamom - 10gms
16. Poppy seeds - 25 gm
17. Almonds - 150g
18. Cashew nuts - 150 g
19. Pista - 150 g
20. Dates - 1/2 kg
21. Rock candy/ Kallu sakkare (red variety) - 1 kg

Preparing Ganji Powder:

1. Clean all the ingredients to remove any dirt in them. 
2. Clean, deseed the dates, chop them and dry it in sun.
   
3. Chop the almonds, pista and cashew nuts into small pieces and dry it in the sun.
4. Pound the rock candy into small pieces and make a powder of it.
   
5. Take a thick bottomed vessel, and dry roast the rice in low flame for 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer it onto another vessel to cool.
6. Similarly dry roast all the ingredients from 2 to 16 separately and transfer into the vessel to cool completely.
   
7. Then dry roast the chopped and sun dried almonds, cashew nuts , pista and dates. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Let all the ingredients cool down completely. Then, all the ingredients are mixed together and  powdered in a flour mill.  
   
   
   
   
   
9. After it's powdered, it's allowed to cool , then sieved to get a fine powder. Later, it must be stored in an airtight container. 
   
10. It yields around 4 to 5 kgs of ganji powder, which can be stored in refrigerator for longer time.
    
11. Ganji can be prepared by cooking this powder with water/ milk. In another post, I will write in detail on how to prepare ganji with this ganji powder.

Notes:

1. If you want to make little quantity of ganji powder, then take 1/4 th quantity of each of the ingredients and follow the rest of the procedure. 
2. Those who don't have access to flour mills, they can use either coffee grinder or mixer to powder the ingredients. I have a small flour mill at home, which can be attatched to our regular mixer, which makes my work easier.
3. Powdering Dates in a mixer is almost impossible. Alternatively Dates syrup can be used to sweeten the ganji just before serving.
4. For those who don't want it too sweet, rock candy can be omitted. Rock candy is added to make the ganji palatable for kids. Dates is a natural sweetener and it makes the ganji still taste sweet, in case rock candy is not added. 

It's easy to make an instant porridge with this powder by mixing it with cold water/ milk and cooking it over low flame without allowing formation of lumps. A cup of this ganji/ porridge made from this powder,  is enough for us to keep a busy morning go strong. So, this was the recipe of ganji powder which i use to make everyday breakfast for my son. It's a little bit time consuming procedure with standing long for dry roasting the ingredients, but it's high protein and nutritive ingredients motivate us to make this. Especially when it's for our fussy kids, we will be ready to go a step further and do this. Adults can equally enjoy this ganji ( avoiding candied sugar, of course) as like our kids.. So please be sure to try out this recipe and I will catch you all with my next post soon.. Bye..