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Saturday, December 21, 2013

Crispy Fried Chicken

I'm back with a bang. Here's yet another mouth watering recipe from your very own Smoking Tava. Well, to tell you the truth, I was only able to achieve the crispy texture after several failed attempts. And, there's a trick to get the flaky texture. I have come across many recipes that use either corn flakes, oat meal or even breadcrumbs, well, most of these don't get the desired texture.
Chicken cooked this way is very juicy and succulent and I can guarantee, its finger lickin' good.
 
So, keep watching this space for the recipe...coming soon...
And don't forget to leave your comment.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Italian Bread

Another mouth watering bread recipe from your humble Smoking Tava kitchen. The classic Italian loaf can be enjoyed as a sandwich or an accompaniment to hot soup or pasta. I had made cheesy garlic bread slices out of this wonderful recipe. Unfortunately couldn't capture any photographs of the garlic bread for reasons beyond one's control :).
Ingredients:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 3 cups
Water - ¾ cup, lukewarm
Milk - ½ cup, lukewarm
Oil - ¼ cup
Active dry yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 ½ tsp
Salt - 1 ¾ tsp
Egg - 1, White separated
Cold water - 1 tbsp.
 
Method:
In a bowl, add milk and water, dissolve the sugar and yeast in it. Leave the yeast mixture for around 10 minutes. Whisk in the oil, add salt. Take flour in a large bowl, form a well in the middle, add the yeast mixture little by little, keep mixing the flour with the help of a fork. Use the dough maker if you have one and run it on medium speed. You can also use a hand blender with kneading attachment. If you feel the mixture is quite loose, cover it with a damp towel and leave it for couple of minutes before you start working on it again. Dust a flat surface with flour and knead the dough thoroughly on the surface to activate the gluten. Do this for around 10 minutes. Leave the dough in a bowl, cover it with a damp cloth for 3 - 4 hours (depending on the weather; yeast requires warm and humid surrounding conditions to do its thing and rise the dough).
Your dough would have now doubled (or even more) in size. Lightly dust a flat surface and knock out all the air from the risen dough, knead it couple of times. Split the dough into two equal portions and shape it to form two lovely Italian loafs. Lightly dust baking tray and place the dough in it. Cover the tray with a damp cloth and leave it to further rise for around an hour.
 
Meanwhile, pre-heat oven to 180º C. The dough would have nicely risen by now. Lightly make few slanting scores with a sharp knife or blade. Please take care, the loafs are quite sensitive at this point. Mix the egg white and cold water in a bowl mix well to make a simple egg-wash. With the help of a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg-wash on the loafs. If you would like, you can sprinkle some sesame seeds on top of the loaf.
Bake the loafs for 35-40 minutes @ 180º C.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Chickpea Kofta with Yogurt-Corriander Dip

Posting a recipe after a long gap. This recipe is from a Turkish recipe book gifted to me by friends at work. An easy to make healthy snack, Chickpea Koftas are extremely delicate and they will just melt in your mouth. It was total hit with the family.



Ingredients:
Kofta -
Chickpea - 250 gms canned (these are already cooked) or soaked overnight and pressure cooked.
Extra virgin olive oil - 2 tbsp
Red onion - 1 medium sized, finely chopped
Cumin seeds - 1 ½ tsp, coarsely crushed
Coriander seeds - 1 ½ tsp, coarsely crushed
Paprika/Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Lemon zest - from 1 whole medium sized lemon
Coriander Leaves - handful, chopped
Chickpea flour - 2 tbsp
Pepper powder
Salt to taste
Little water to avoid kofta mixture from drying
Oil for shallow frying the koftas'
 
Dip -
Yogurt - 1 cup
Coriander - 1/4 cup, chopped
Lemon - 1/2
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
 
Method:
Grind chickpea into a paste in a food processor. Add chopped onion, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, paprika, lemon zest, coriander leaves, chickpea flour olive oil. Sprinkle freshly crushed pepper powder and adjust seasoning. Mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Sprinkle water if the mixture is dry. The mixture needs to be sufficiently moist to hold the kofta shape. Now make koftas out of the mixture. This should fetch you around 15 koftas.
 
Heat oil in a flat pan, and shallow fry the koftas on both side until golden brown. Handle the kofta with care, since they are quite delicate.
 
For the dip, mix together all the ingredients. Enjoy these lovely koftas' and don't forget to leave in your comments on what worked and what didn't.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Here's a quick and easy cookie recipe. The chocolate chip cookie is everyone's favorite and the classic accompaniment is hot milk...yumm. Though I like cookies a lot, I have never dared to enter the cookie-territory. Primarily because of my experience with baking cakes (I had my ups and downs...quite literally). This recipe turned out to be quite an easy one and once again I had surprised myself [pat pat]. Follow the recipe and I can guarantee nothing will ever go wrong....well almost ;)
Ingredients:
Butter - 120 gms
Castor sugar - 120 gms
Egg - 1, medium sized
Porridge oats - 105 gms
Milk - 1 ½ tbsp
Cocoa powder - 1 ½ tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1 ½ tsp
Plain flour - 130 gms
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Chocolate chips - 100 gms
Salt - a pinch

Method:
Preheat the oven @ 180º C.
In a bowl, combine sugar and butter, mix until fluffy. Beat in egg, mix thoroughly. Now add oats, milk, vanilla essence, mix till nicely blended. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt into the mixture. To this add and mix the chocolate chips.
Place spoonful of the mixture on baking sheets, slightly flatten with a fork, leave some gap in between (cookie may spread and occupy more space while baking). Bake @ 180º C for around 15 minutes or until the cookies are slightly firm. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool over a wire rack.
This will yield around 13 to 14 delicious and mouthwatering cookies. You may store these in an airtight jar but i would recommend quick consumption as they are quite tempting :)