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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Walnut-Fig Honey Wheat Loaf

Another variation to the humble loaf. Walnut and figs are match made in heaven.
Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - 2 cup
All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup
Water - ¾ cup, Luke warm
Milk - ½ cup, Luke warm
Vegetable oil - ¼ cup
Dried active yeast - 2 tsp
Honey - ½ cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Walnuts - 80 gms, chopped
Figs - 80 gms, chopped
Semolina to sprinkle on baking tray
 
Method:
In a bowl, add milk and water, honey and yeast in it. Leave the yeast mixture for around 15 mins. 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. Dust a flat surface with flour and knead the dough thoroughly on the surface to activate the gluten. Do this for around 4-5 minutes. Leave the dough in a bowl, cover it with a damp cloth for 2 - 3 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. Dust a flat surface and knock out all the air from the risen dough. Incorporate the walnuts and figs and shape the dough into the desired shape. Leave the dough to rise for around 2 more hours. Take a baking tray and sprinkle some semolina. Gently transfer the risen loaf into the baking tray. Pre-heat the oven @ 180º C. Bake the bread for about 40 minutes.
Once done, take it off the oven, brush some oil on the top to avoid a hard crust. Transfer the loaf onto a wire rack for cooling. This bread needs no accompaniments, but my personal favorite is peanut butter (gives it a nice nutty flavour).

Monday, July 30, 2012

Stuffed Bread

Another exciting bread recipe from your favourite home cook and friend. My parents who had visited us recently were pleasantly surprised with my newly acquired bread making skills.
Hope you would definately enjoy this recipe - Spicy, peppery filling with chicken, mushroom and onion stuffed in braided buttery bread is a match made in heaven :)
Ingredients:
Bread-
All purpose flour (Maida) - 3 cups
Water - ¾ cup, Luke warm
Milk - ½ cup, Luke warm
Butter - 100 gms, melted, cooled to room temperature
Dried active yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 ½ tsp
Salt - 1 ¾ tsp
Egg - 1 small, beaten with 1 tbsp water (egg wash)

Filling-
Onion - 2 large, finely sliced
Pepper - 3-4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - ¾ tsp
Curry leaves - 3 strings, chopped
Chicken - 200 gms (breast or boneless thigh) , cut into thin slices
Button mushroom - 200 gms, sliced
Lemon - 1 medium sized, squeezed
Oil - ¼ cup
Jeera - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup, chopped
Garlic - 10-12 cloves, ground
Garlic - 2", ground
Salt to taste

Method:
In a bowl, mix milk, water and butter, dissolve the sugar, salt and yeast in it. Leave the yeast mixture for around 15 minutes. 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. 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 4-5 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).

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan. Now add the mushroom, saute for a while. Let it sweat out all the water, add 1 tsp black pepper and salt. Saute till all the water has been evaporated. Now sprinkle some ½ of the lemon juice. Take it off the flame and let it cool down completely. Once cooled, spread it on a cutting board and roughly chop the mushroom.
Marinate chicken in the rest of the lemon juice and some salt for around 30 minutes. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, add the marinated chicken, saute and cook till just done. Switch off the flame. Once cooled, spread it on a cutting board and roughly chop.

In a shallow pan, heat the rest of the oil, splutter some jeera, add in the sliced onions. Saute till translucent and just about to turn brown. Throw in the ginger and garlic paste, saute till it gives off the raw flavour. Now add the curry leaves, saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add coriander powder, garam masala and rest of the pepper powder, mix for a minute. Add mushroom and chicken. Adjust the seasoning, cook for another 5 minutes. Switch off and let it completely cool down.

Your dough would have now doubled (or even more) in size. Dust a flat surface and knock out all the air from the risen dough, knead it couple of times. Divide the dough into two equal parts. Roll each of the dough balls into rectangular shape roughly sized 8" by 12" and about 1 to 1.5 cm thick. Leaving around 3" in the middle (3" by 12" for laying the filling), make inclined cuts to form 1" finger strips on either sides. Now place equal amount of filling in the both the dough batches, sprinkle the chopped coriander over the filling. Fold the top and the bottom edges of the dough on top of the filling. Now fold the finger strips laying it over the filling to form braid like structure. Place it over a baking tray and let it proof for around 1 to 2 hours.
Now brush the egg wash gently (do not apply pressure, they are very delicate at this point). Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC. Bake the bread @ 180ºC for around 35 minutes. Once done, take it off the oven, brush some oil on the top to avoid a hard crust. Take the bread out of the tray and on to a wire rack for cooling.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Mutton Chettinad

Chettinad style recipes originates from the Chettinad region in Tamil Nadu. Its one of the most aromatic curries from South India and is a culmination of variety of ground spices. It has the most distinct flavour among all the Indian curries one would have tasted. Yesterday I tried out the recipe with mutton. My preparation turned out to be quite delightful with the home crowd :).
It has a bit of sweetness coming in from the onions with a light tangy flavour from tomatoes. Though the recipe has a whole gang of spices in it, every bite seems to brings an unique flavour experience. The best accompaniment to this dish would be steamed rice, but it goes well with dosas as well.

Ingredients:
Mutton - 750 gms, cut into medium chunks, boneless preferred but not necessary
Ginger - 2"
Garlic - 10-12, medium sized, if large cloves 5-6 should do just fine
Onion - 2 medium sized, finely chopped
Tomato - 3 medium sized, finely chopped
Curry leaves - 1 string
Shallots (small onions) - 110 gms, peeled
Cinnamon - 2"
Cloves - 4
Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
Fennel seeds - ½ tsp
Pepper corns - 1 tsp
Black stone flower - 1 tbsp, Its a kind of fungus (look for it in google images)
Marathi moggu - 3, i don't have the English name (look for it in google images)
Star anise - 2
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp + cup
Coriander leaves (optional) - cup, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Method:
To prepare the marinade, grind all the ingredients into a coarse paste except onion, tomato, curry leaves and oil. Add mutton to the paste, mix thoroughly, add salt and keep it aside for around an hour.

In a pressure cooker, heat 3 tbsp of oil, add the mutton and keep stirring for a minute. Put the lid on and pressure cook till one whistle on high flame and two on medium flame till just done (no need to add water).

In a pan, heat cup of oil, throw in the curry leaves and chopped onion. Add some salt and cook till onions are translucent. Now add the chopped tomatoes. Cover and cook till the tomatoes are pulpy. Add the mutton from the pressure cooker, mix thoroughly. Cook on high flame for 5 minutes (I'm assuming there is some water in the cooked mutton or else add ½ cup) with lid on. Adjust the seasoning, simmer and cook for another 10 minutes with the lid off. Optionally you can garnish with coriander leaves.

Mutton chettinad is ready. Enjoy this unique recipe with your loved ones and don't forget to write in your feedback and comments.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Classic White Bread

Simple and easy to do recipe for a perfect sandwich bread. The aroma coming out of the hot oven baking your bread is simply intoxicating and I just love it. Hope you enjoy the recipe as much as I loved baking it
Ingredients:
All purpose flour (Maida) - 3 cups
Water - 1 cup, luke warm
Milk - ½ cup, luke warm
Oil - ¼ cup
Active dry yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 2 ½ tsp
Salt - 2 tsp

Method:
In a bowl, add milk and water, dissolve the sugar and yeast in it. Leave the yeast mixture for around 10 mins. 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. 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 4-5 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. Dust a flast surface and knock out all the air from the risen dough, knead it couple of times and then get it into the desired shape. Lightly grease the bread tin. Place the dough into the tin. Cover the tray with cling wrap and leave it to further rise for around 2 hours. The dough would have nicely risen by now.
Pre-heat the oven @ 180º C. Bake the bread for about 40 minutes. Once done, take it off the oven, brush some oil on the top to avoid a hard crust. Take the bread out of the tin and on to a wire rack for cooling.
You can make your favorite sandwich or simply settle down with jam/peanut butter/nutella.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Spinach and Mushroom Quiche with baby Potatoes

Another classic French recipe from the Smoking Tava, Quiche is an open faced pastry-crust (shortcrust pastry) filled with savory custard and meat or vegetable filling. In this recipe I have used Spinach, mushroom and baby potatoes but you can go wild with your imagination and make your own filling. This is my first attempt and I'm quite impressed with the outcome.
Ingredients:
Shortcrust pastry-
All purpose flour (Maida) - 200 gms
Butter - 100 gms, chilled, cut into cubes
Egg - 1 medium sized, beaten
Pinch of salt

Filling-
Baby potatoes - 4-5, peeled and boiled until just done
Button mushroom - 150 gms, sliced
Spinach - 200 gms, large leaves with stalks removed.
Eggs - 4 medium sized
Double cream - 250 ml
Dried chives - 1 tsp
Chilly powder or Cayenne pepper - ½ tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Nutmeg powder - a pinch
Parmesan cheese - 25 gms, grated
Olive oil (cooking) - 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - from ½ lemon
Salt to taste

Method:
For the shortcrust pastry, add flour, butter and salt into a food processor and run it briefly. Add half of the egg and run it again. Add more egg, just enough to make the mixture moist and to bring it together. On a flat work surface, make a ball out of the mixture and then flatten it until its around 1 cm thick. Wrap it in a cling film and place it in the refrigerator for around 30 mins. Pre-heat oven to 180º C. The pastry needs to be blind baked first before we can add in the filling. Line a 9 inch tart tin with the pastry and then with a layer of foil or butter paper. Fill with baking beans or dry pulses/rice (so that the edges of the pastry are held together and does not fall in). Bake in the oven for about 20 mins or till the pastry is just dry. Take out the foil/butter paper, brush the inside of the pastry with the leftover egg. Place it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Once done take it out and let it cool.

Now prep the filling - Put spinach leaves in boiling water, just as the leaves turn slightly dark and still green, take it off and immediately put in cold water. Squeez excess water and shred the spinach leaves into small bits using your hands.
Heat a pan, add olive oil. Now add the mushrooms, let it sweat out all the water, add ¼ of the black pepper and salt. Saute till all the water has been evaporated. Now sprinkle some lemon juice. Take it off the flame and let it cool down completely.
In a bowl, beat 4 eggs, add cream, chilly powder, black pepper, dried chives, parmesan cheese, nutmeg. Nicely blend the mixture. Add spinach to the cream mixture. Slice the boiled potatoes around ½ cm thick. Spread the potato slices on the pastry almost covering the bottom. Evenly spread the mushroom. Now spoon in the creamy spinach mixture until the pastry is about 95% filled (the mixture may rise further because of the eggs). Bake in the oven @ 180º C for about 40 minutes until its golden brown and is just set in the center. Remove from the oven, allow it cool for around 10 minutes.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pav Bhaji - Indian Street Food

I have lived in Mumbai for almost 23 years of my life and like any other Mumbaikar am a total sucker for Vada Pav, Misal Pav, Ussal Pav, Dhabeli, and Pav Bhaji. I have had tried several recipes for making pav (bread, also known as laadi paav) bhaji (healthy vegetable mash with aromatic spices), but none of them have come this close to match the flavours and aroma of a busy Mumbai street "Pav Bhaji Thelawala" (hawker selling Pav Bhaji on a cart, typically outside railway stations, parks or right on the beach). I have done some improvisation here to make the recipe as authentic and flavourful as possible. Hope you like the recipe as much as I loved cooking.
Ingredients:
Tomato - 800 gms, chopped
Coriander leaves - ½ cup, chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Kashmiri chilly powder - 2 ½ tsp
Green chilly - 4-5, roughly chopped
Potato - 300 gms, boiled, peeled and roughly mashed
Green peas - ½ cup, if frozen, thaw. If dried peas, soak overnight to re-hydrate
Capsicum - 2 medium sized, de-seeded and roughly cut
Cauliflower - 200 gms, grated
Kasuri methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) - 1 tbsp, crushed on palm of your hands
Pav bhaji masala - 1 tbsp
Butter - 175 gms
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Asafoetida powder (Hing) - ¼ tsp
Onion - 1 large, chopped
Lemon juice - from 1 medium sized
Salt to taste
Lemon for garnishing
Water for cooking vegetable
Laadi pav
Butter for toasting pav

Method:
Heat a large pan, throw in tomatoes, potato, green peas, capsicum, green chillies and cauliflower. Add 1 tsp of kashmiri chilly powder, 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, ¼ of the butter. Add little water to cook the veggies on a medium heat. With the help of a masher, keep mashing the vegetables. You can add some water if the mixture gets too dry.
Once the vegetables in the mash are almost unrecognizable, add ½ tbsp of pav bhaji masala, salt to taste and ½ of the chopped coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly, continue to mash them. Once the mixture is totally mashed, lower the heat.
Heat the remaining butter in a pan, lower the flame, add ¾ of the chopped onion, 1 ½ tsp of kashmiri chilly powder, 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste, ½ tbsp of pav bhaji masala, kasuri methi, asafoetida, ¾ of the remaining chopped coriander leaves, lemon juice. Though I have avoided adding color, you can add red food color to the mixture (bhaji on the street shops add color to get the definitive red bhaji). Saute for few seconds and then add this mixture to the vegetable mash. Cook the mash for a minute or two and we are done.
Now, lets assemble. Slit open the batch of 4-5 paav from the middle, in a hot pan, add a butter, pinch of pav bhaji masala, sprinkle a little coriander leaves. Place the pav over the butter mixture and toast them lightly on both sides.
Garnish bhaji with remaining chopped onion and coriander, serve with the toasted buttery pav and a wedge of lemon.
Enjoy the mouthwatering pav bhaji. Please leave your comments, they inspire me to carry on.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Tortilla Wrap

Tortilla wrap with fresh tomato salsa and a mouth watering shredded chicken filling is to die for. My first attempt at making the whole recipe ground up was an absolute winner and my family loved it. I have made the tortilla myself cause I like to keep it very rustic and if you are adventurous too go ahead and give it a try. But if you are unsure you can always get the machine made tortilla (very monotonous) available in stores.
Ingredients:
Tortilla-
Corn (Maize) flour - 1 ½ cup
All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 ¼ cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Warm water
Salt to taste

Salsa-
Cucumber - 1 small, peeled and diced
Tomato - 2, de-seeded and diced
Green Chilly - 1, de-seeded and finely chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves, finely chopped
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped
Lemon juice - from ½ a lemon
Salt to taste

Filling-
Chicken breast - 300 gms, cut into strips of
Red bell pepper - 1, roughly cut into small pieces
Onion - 1 large, sliced
Garlic - 5 medium sized cloves, pounded
Black pepper powder - 1 ½ tsp
Balsamic vinegar - 1 tbsp
Sugar - a pinch
Oil - 4 tbsp (I used olive oil here)
Salt to taste

Garnish-
Cheese
Jalapenos - 4 to 5, chopped

Method:
Salsa-
Mix all the ingredients except salt. You can add the salt just before you assemble the wraps (Salt will make the veggies shed out its water content and will make your tortilla soggy).

Tortilla-
In a bowl, nicely mix corn and the all purpose flour. Add the oil and salt to taste. Add enough water to make a soft dough. Keep it aside for 5 minutes. Make balls out of the dough and then roll it into tortillas of around 9 inches dia. On a hot pan, cook for about a minute on each sides (one thing to take care of is to make sure the tortillas are not over cooked, they tend to become hard). This batch will fetch you 5-6 tortillas.

Filling-
Add salt and pepper powder to the chicken pieces and let it stay for about 5 minutes or so. Heat oil in a pan, put the chicken. Cook till the chicken is tender. Leave the oil in the pan, take out the chicken. With a knife and fork, roughly shred the chicken pieces. Meanwhile, in the same oil that we cooked the chicken, thrown in the onion. Saute till they turn translucent. Add garlic, cook till the garlic gives off its aroma. Add sugar and salt. Add the bell pepper and saute for about 2 minutes. Now add balsamic vinegar and the shredded chicken. Cook for another minute or so and switch off the heat.
Now to assemble, take the tortilla (re-heat the tortilla on a pan if you feel the tortillas are cold) and spoon in a bit of salsa and the shredded chicken filling as in the picture above. Garnish with some jalapenos and grated cheese on top. Wrap the tortilla and heat on a hot griddle on both sides for cheese to melt and create the fusion of flavours.

Do post your comments and requests.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Popcorn Prawns

Weekends are here, enjoy your movie with a bowl of popcorn prawns and ice tea. Thought of having a twist to the popcorn prawns by covering it with coconut instead of the usual bread crumbs. The result turned out to be too good to resist. The light sweetness and crunchiness of coconut is pure bliss and I would suggest everyone to try out this very simple recipe.

Ingredients:
For the marinade-
Prawns (Medium) - 500 gms, de-veined, cut to 2 cm chunks
Lemon juice - from 1 medium sized lemon
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup, finely chopped
Red chilly powder - ¾ tsp
Salt to taste

For frying-
Egg - 1, beaten, add ¼ tsp of salt to this
Dried coconut - ½ medium sized coconut, grated
Cornflour for patting the prawn chunks
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix in a bowl, lemon juice, coriander leaves, chilly powder, salt. To this add prawns, mix and leave it for 15-20 minutes.

Coat the prawn chunks in the corn flour, pat it to remove any extra corn flour. Dip into the egg and coat it with grated coconut. Deep fry on medium flame for around a minute till they are golden brown. Do not over cook the prawns else they become rubbery.

Enjoy popcorn prawns. Try out and let me know how it turned out for you.


Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Pudina Paratha


Ingredients:Wheat flour - 2 cups
Chickpea flour (besan) - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - ¼ cup, chopped
Mint leaves - ½ cup, chopped
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Water
Ghee


Method:In a bowl, mix wheat and chickpea flour. Add oil, salt, mint and coriander leaves. Add enough water to form a soft dough. Make balls out of the dough and then roll it to form chapatis around 15 cm diameter. Cook on a hot tava, drizzle some ghee, and cook until both sides are well done.

Mutton Rogan Josh

Here's another mutton recipe inspired from the Kashmiri delicacy Mutton Rogan Josh. There are quite a lot of variations from the original recipe. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients:
Mutton - 500 gms
Oil - 4 tbsp
Onion - 400 gms, finely sliced
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Black cardamon - 2
Bay leaf - 1
Kashmiri chilly powder - 2 tbsp
Fennel powder - ½ tbsp, lightly roast the fennel seeds before grinding
Dry ginger powder - ¾ tbsp
Curd - 250 ml, beaten
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Water
Salt to taste

Method:
Heat oil in a pan, add all the dry whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamon, bay leaf). Add sliced onion. Saute till onions are browned (take care not to burn the onion). Now add ginger and garlic paste, saute for a minute or so. Add the mutton, saute for 2 minutes on high flame. Add water just enough to cover the mutton, add salt. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for about 30 to 40 minutes on medium flame or until the mutton is cooked. Top up with water if you feel water has evaporated during the cooking process. Now, in a small bowl, dissolve the chilly in some water and add to the mutton, mix thoroughly. Now add fennel and ginger powder, mix thoroughly. To this add curd, adjust the seasoning. Cook for another 5 minutes or till the sauce thickens. At this point, add the ghee and switch off the heat.

Enjoy mutton rogan josh with rice or naan.