How to make a Dutch Baby Pancake

We've been in isolation for more than week and it's getting a little hard to keep our spirits up. Resources in the kitchen are also beginning to get restricted, with fresh veggies nearly over. We like a lot of variety in our meals and the hubby had been asking me to make a Dutch Baby for the last couple of days. I had the ingredients in stock and decided to make one this morning, though it was actually after noon by the time we actually had it - we have been starting our days really late thanks to insomnia and restless sleep patterns and end up sleeping in most mornings. 

Anyway! Here's the recipe adapted slightly from the one on cooking.nytimes.com 

Please note - you will need a cast iron pan (this is a baked pancake that is cooked in the pan in the oven)

Dutch Baby Pancake 

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp butter

You can also use nutmeg/cinnamon/cardamom powder - each will give a lovely flavour to the pancake

Make sure your ingredients are all at room temperature. 

Preheat the oven at 200C

In a clean bowl mix all the ingredients except the butter.
Whisk well to make a smooth lump-free batter and incorporate as much air into the batter as you can, but no need to whip up a big froth. 

Put the butter in your cast iron skillet and put it in the oven to melt. Don't let the butter burn or even brown. 

Remove the skillet carefully holding the hot handle with a thick kitchen towel. Pour the batter into the skillet and put it back in the oven. 

Let it bake for around 20 minutes till you see it nicely puffed up. Now reduce the temperature of the oven to around 170C and bake for a few minutes more till the pancake gets a nice golden brown colour with darker edges. 

Serve immediately with honey, maple syrup, berry compote, assorted jams, or just with a dusting of icing sugar. 

Green Garlic, Spring onion, Bacon, and Egg Tart

Green garlic season is on and as it's one of the favourite ingredients for Parsis I've been seeing it very often in my kitchen. One dish that we made quite often is leela lasan (green garlic) ne leela kanda (spring onion) per eeda which is eggs steamed on a bed of the two greens with salt, pepper and a light spicing of cumin or jeera. To be honest, I got a bit bored making this same thing so often and decided to play with basic concept and do something fun while still retaining the basic character of the dish.

I always have puff pastry sheets in my freezer and I also found a packet of bacon in there. And the idea of a tart was born.

Leela Lasan, Leela Kanda, ne Bacon per Eeda Tarts


1 bunch green garlic
1 bunch spring onions
1 onion
1 tsp cumin seed
salt
pepper
oil

1 sheet puff pastry
a few rashers bacon

To make the filling.

Wash the greens well and then chop as fine as possible. Use the roots of the green garlic too, they pack a lot of flavour.
Chop the onion fine.
In a pan heat some oil and add the cumin seeds and let them sizzle. Chuck in the chopped greens and the onion and saute on a slow flame till it is all cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Keep the heat on medium to low as you cook because the onions and garlic mustn't brown at all. Stir frequently as you cook.
You can make this mix in advance and store it in the fridge up to two or three days, ready to use whenever you like.

To make the tarts

Preheat the oven at 180C

Fry the bacon rashers lightly and then chop into small pieces. Don't let the bacon become crisp - remember it will be baked on the tarts later.

Let the pastry sheet thaw a bit and then cut into four equal squares. Run a pizza wheel or a knife lightly along the edges to trace a 'frame'. Don't cut through the pasty. With a fork poke the middle of the pastry till the entire surface has been marked. Once again, don't go through the pasty.

Line your baking tray with parchment or baking paper and arrange the pastry squares on the sheet.
Arrange the leela lasan filling on each square in a thin layer making a slight hill along the edges. This will help keep the egg in the middle when you add it later.

Once all the squares are done pop the tray into the oven and bake for around 12-15 minutes till you see the pastry puffing up along the edges. 

Remove the tray carefully and get ready to add the eggs. Now this gets a little tricky so it's best if you break each egg into a cup or bowl instead of directly onto the tart. The egg white can spill all over and out of the tart so you have better control if you break it in a cup first. Use a tablespoon and carefully pick up the yolk and place it in the centre of a tart. Arrange bacon pieces around the yolk (it strengthens the 'fort' and helps keep the egg white in). Spoon over the egg white carefully. I found it harder to keep the egg white within the filling.

Crack fresh pepper over the tarts once you have placed eggs and bacon on each and then put it all back in the oven to bake at 160C till the eggs are set to your liking. This could take anything from 6-8 minutes to longer depending on how set you want your eggs but once the whites turn opaque it's good to go.

Enjoy the tarts hot straight out of the oven!

These are great for breakfast and work well as an evening snack too. Kids and adults will enjoy the crunch of the pastry and this is a great way to get your family to eat some greens :)

Poached to Perfection - An Easy method for Poaching Eggs

Being married to a Parsi means eggs feature very often at breakfast in our house. Though I don't cook egg curries very often, fried eggs, omelettes, french toast, akuri, etc., are a very regular feature in the mornings. Breakfast is our favourite meal and we like to make a fuss over it adding cold cuts, cheeses, and of course, eggs to the meal. Over the years I have learned how to fry eggs perfectly but the perfect poached egg was still elusive.

I'd seen plenty of videos showing different techniques but I couldn't really master any of them. All that swirling the water and popping in the egg only resulted in a mess of stringy egg whites that looked like very ugly noodles instead of those perfect poached eggs ones saw demonstrated. I needed to find a way to keep the white together and without buying another rash of gadgets and doodads (yes, I'm trying hard not to buy stuff!).

After fooling around with various saucepans, bowls, and ladles I have finally figured out a simple technique that has worked very well, and repeatedly. This is one science project that has yielded good results!

Here's what you will need -

Fresh eggs
1 tbsp vinegar
Water
oil

A small deep saucepan
A large milk ladle
A flexible rubber spatula
Patience

And here's what to do -

Fill the saucepan about halfway up with water. Bring the water to a boil with the vinegar added to it.
Rub the ladle with a drop of oil. This helps release the egg once it's cooked.
In the ladle crack one egg and sprinkle with a little salt. Carefully lower the egg on to the water but don't submerge it. Let the lower side of the egg set with the heat from the water.

Tip the side of the ladle just a little and let very little water run onto the egg. Once again, be careful not to let the egg run out of the ladle or too much water get in. Be patient and do this with confidence and a steady hand. Alternatively pour hot water onto the egg using another ladle. Do this if you are sure you can keep the egg steady and use the other hand simultaneously.

Once the top of the egg is set let more water in and slowly submerge the ladle into the water. The water will foam up so keep an eye on things and don't let it spill over. Reduce the heat if required. Don't leave the egg submerged - let it stay under the hot water just a few seconds at a time.

Pour off any water from the ladle once the egg is done to your level of preference. Try to ensure that all the white is cooked.

Gently prise off the egg using the rubber spatula and slide it onto your ready plate or on a slice of toast. You can slide the poached egg onto a slotted spoon to drain off all the excess water if you like. Be sure not to break the egg.

It takes around three to four minutes to do each egg from start to finish so I make these on days when I'm not in a hurry. Patience is the key here so don't rush things. Make sure you have your equipment in place before you start. And use fresh eggs.

Did you know many Bengalis refer to the good old fried egg as 'dim'er poach'? You should have seen the hubby's face when my mum offered to make him a poach for breakfast when she visited the first time after we were married, and presented him with a perfectly fried egg! Well, my mother has also been educated in the finer points of egg dishes and their correct nomenclature since then, lol! 

Pahadi Limbu infused Hot Buttered Brandy Pound Cake

I have become a little obsessed with citrus - every sort of citrus fruit seems to occupy my mind these days. And of course, the cosmos conspires to provide me with plenty of variety! Not only have I had top quality sweet limes or mosambis as we call them, from Luv Thy Farmer, which I used to make this amazing Mosambi Cake, I got Meyer lemons from Imtiaz and Sue which I used in these beautiful Lemon Cakes, and then Rushina gave me a couple of Pahadi Limbus that she'd got from her in laws' village in Garhwal! My cup of happiness was overflowing. Did I mention I have been haunting gourmet stores, making a beeline for their fresh veg sections and getting busy scratching and sniffing the lemons looking for the fresh and flavourful ones?!

Anyway, coming back to the pahadi limbus. They are huge. Bigger than your average apple, in fact. The skin is thin and must be zested carefully. But what a burst of freshness when you give it that light scrape against the microplane!

The limbus waited patiently for me to find a recipe worthy of them and I chanced upon this Hot Buttered Rum Pound Cake recipe. The recipe uses oranges but I thought the pahadi limbus would shine here, and oh they did!  A look in the drinks cabinet for something instead of rum, a hunt through the pantry cupboard for the rest of the ingredients, and I was set.

The recipe has three elements - the pound cake, the soaking syrup, and the hot buttered brandy. I'm going to give you the recipes in the order they are made so you're not going back and forth between ingredient lists and the methods, thereby giving you less room for error and confusion. Though I have largely followed the recipe above, I have made a few adjustments and replacements to make it more suited to what the hubby likes.


Pahadi Limbu infused Hot Buttered Brandy Pound Cake

Brandy syrup for soaking cake

1/2 cup sugar
zest from one pahadi limbu
2 to 3 tbsp brandy
water

Mix the zest into the sugar with your fingers and help them release their oils. This gives more flavour.

In a small pan heat the sugar-zest mix with the brandy and a little water. Bring it to a boil stirring gently till all the sugar is dissolved. Boil the mix on a medium flame for another minute and then leave it to cool as you make the cake.


Pound cake

1 1/3 cups ground sugar
zest from one pahadi limbu
2 cups maida, sifted
1 tsp cinnamon powder
6 green cardamoms, seeds pounded
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Amul butter
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Set the oven to preheat at 180C.

In a clean mixing bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon powder, and the crushed cardamom seeds with a whisk.

In a small bowl mix the zest into the granulated sugar till it starts getting clumpy. This step helps release the oils from the zest and extracts maximum flavour from it.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, or in a regular mixing bowl beat the butter on medium speed till it is light and fluffy. Add the sugar-zest mix to the butter and beat for a few minutes till it's all mixed and light. Beat at a high speed for a few minutes. Make sure you stop the beater and scrape the sides of the bowl and the paddle to mix everything properly at least once.

Now it's time to add the eggs. Add one egg at a time and beat well to mix completely before you add the next one. Once all the eggs are added in  pour in the vanilla extract. The original recipe has zest and a flavour extract - I opted not to use the flavour extract because I was sure it would mask the flavour from the zest completely. I'm glad I did because the cake was full of natural lemony flavour and didn't need any help at all.

Once the eggs and vanilla have been fully incorporated add the flour mix next. I do this a little at time with the help of my 1/4 or 1/3 cup measuring cup, whichever is clean and at hand. Keep adding a scoop of flour and continue beating till you have a smooth batter. This cake has a thick batter beautifully speckled with the crushed cardamom seeds and cinnamon powder.

Though the original recipe says a 9x4 loaf pan will do, I found it was not big enough. I used a disposable loaf case for the leftover batter and had two beautiful bars of pound cake. I think two medium loaf tins should work well. Line the tins with parchment or grease well and dust with flour before you pour the batter in. Level the top with a spatula and it's ready to be baked

Pop into the preheated oven and bake for roughly an hour at 180C, till the cake is a nice golden colour. It should ideally split along the middle too. If your cake is browning too fast reduce the temperature to 160C and bake it longer till it is cooked through. Test with a skewer to check for done-ness.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for around 10 mins or so and only then remove to a wire rack to cool further. Place a tray under the rack to catch any drips, poke the surface of the cake with a thin skewer and then brush it with the brandy syrup you have left to cool. Be generous and keep slathering the cake - it will absorb a lot of that syrup. Do this while the cake is still quite warm. Let it cool on the wire rack.

Hot buttered brandy glaze

50 gms Amul butter
1/3 fine sugar, preferably brown
2-3 tbsp brandy

Heat the butter in a small pan till it begins to foam and turns brown. It will start to smell nutty. Stir with a wooden spoon or heat proof spatula to brown the butter evenly. Take off the heat and let it cool for a minute. Now add the sugar (preferably brown) and then the brandy. Stir nicely to combine. Use a fine grain sugar for a smoother glaze.

Spread the glaze on top of the cake with a pastry brush. Slice and serve your Pahadi Limbu infused Hot Buttered Brandy Pound Cake immediately. Keep any leftover glaze in a covered jar and warm it slightly to serve with any remaining cake.

This is another beautifully flavoured tea cake that has the freshness of lemon and cardamom along with the warmth of cinnamon. Since the pahadi limbu is difficult to get, you can use regular oranges as in the original recipe. The cake has many sugary elements and therefore I have cut down the sugar slightly in the cake. You can adjust the sugar according to your preferences. Meyer lemons would also work very well in this recipe as would mosambis or sweet limes. Use more zest if you're using mosambis as they tend to be quite mild in flavour.

You might have noticed there's no baking powder or baking soda in this recipe. As in the classic old pound cake recipes, this one has none. Yet, I had a wonderfully light and well aerated cake. It's all in the slowly added ingredients and the many minutes of beating. In spite of a thick 'heavy' batter, the cake rises perfectly. The more recipes I explore, the more I learn :)

Of Microplanes, Meyer Lemons and Lemon Cake

It's no secret that I love baking. It's no secret that I love kitchen gadgets. And it's no secret that I like playing with new ingredients either.

I had wanted to add a Microplane to my small tools drawer for a long time but somehow never actually got around to it. This year the hubby gave me a stash of money to spend on random things I wanted, as a birthday treat. I bought that Microplane finally! I'm not fond of fruit in general but I do love the citrus ones. I saw Meyer lemons at a gourmet food store and decided to indulge myself, their steep price-tag notwithstanding.

And there I was! Armed with the ultimate zesting tool in creation and a variety of lemons I'd been drooling over from a distance for a long, long time - it was time to bake!

I have spent many hours looking at lemon cake recipes and even bookmarked quite a few to try out once I had everything in place. But somehow, I couldn't settle on any recipe when I set out to bake. After hours of back-ing and forth-ing between recipes I decided to just wing it and do my own thing. After all, I'd been baking for as long as I could remember and how hard could it be?

Lemon Cake

1 cup Maida or APF
3/4 cup Sugar, powdered
3 Eggs, at room temperature
125 gms Butter, softened
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Meyer lemon, zested, and juice extracted
1 -2 tsp Sugar for the drizzle
a little zest, reserved for the drizzle

Grease and flour an 8 inch cake tin. Set your oven to preheat at 180C.

In a clean bowl sift the maida with the baking powder.

In the bowl of your stand mixer or in a mixing bowl using a hand held mixer cream the butter with the sugar till it's smooth and pale.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue beating. Add the vanilla extract too.

Once the mixture is smooth, chuck in the lemon zest. Mix till it is combined nicely.

Add the flour into the mix in small amounts. I use the 1/4 cup measuring cup from my set, and whisk well after each addition. Mix in all the flour to get a smooth batter.

Pour batter into the cake tin and bake at 180C for 35 to 40 minutes. Check with a cake tester in the centre and if the tester comes out clean your cake is done.

In the mean time make the lemon drizzle. Combine sugar into the lemon juice and mix well till the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the reserved zest. Taste and check for a good balance of sweet and lemony sourness.

Sprinkle the drizzle randomly on your cake while it's still warm. Let the cake cool completely before you unmould it. I didn't soak the entire cake with the drizzle but just randomly splashed it on the surface. This resulted in surprise lemony explosions of flavour while eating the cake, which I loved.

Serve this beautiful cake at tea time, add slices to lunch boxes or, like me, make them in disposable cases and distribute to your friends. Deliciousness, like happinesss, must be shared. So go on, get baking!

Boti ni Akuri

When you marry into a different culture you never stop learning about it and my curiosity about Parsi food is relentless. That's hardly surprising considering just how good their food is and how different it is from Bengali food, the food of my own background.

We're constantly casting about for new things to try to make our mundane meals a little more exciting  without being too complicated to put together, and boti ni akuri fits the brief perfectly.

Boti ni Akuri is something I had vaguely heard of and it was on my long list of Must Try Parsi dishes. Akuri itself is one of my favourite breakfast dishes and the addition of boti or chunks of mutton took it to another level entirely! The easiest way is to reserve a few pieces from the mutton curry or any other mutton preparation that you've made for dinner, to be used for this akuri the next morning. A tiny bit of planning can get you awesome rewards!

Boti ni Akuri 

6 eggs

1/4 cup milk

6 chunks of mutton, cooked and deboned.

2 onions, sliced and fried till brown

1 small tomato, chopped fine

3 green chillies, chopped fine

2 tbsp fresh coriander, washed and chopped fine

1 tbsp fresh mint, washed and chopped fine

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp Dhansakh masala

1/2 tsp pepper powder

butter

salt

Prep all the ingredients and keep them ready. Chop the mutton pieces into really small cubes. If you're using mutton leftover from dinner wash off the gravy from the pieces or your akuri will taste strongly of dinner. 

In a nonstick pan heat the butter gently. Use a couple of tablespoons of butter at least. Once heated, add the chopped chillies, mint, tomato, coriander, and spices and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the cooked mutton chunks and then the fried onions.  Mix it all well and let it cook.

In a clean bowl beat the eggs with the milk and a little salt. 

Pour the beaten eggs slowly into the mutton mix and stir as you go. Keep stirring slowly allowing the eggs to cook and everything to mix nicely. Once the eggs are done to the consistency you like take them off the heat. Garnish with chopped coriander and fried onions if you like. 

Serve the Boti ni Akuri with hot chapatis, sliced bread or fresh pav from your local bakery. 

This recipe appeared in the August-September Anniversary issue of CaLDRON Magazine

Cherry Chocolate Cake

My pantry was suddenly full of cherries. No, not fresh ones though it's the season for them now, but bottled cherries. I'd bought a couple of kinds from my favourite shop in Crawford Market where I shop for goodies occasionally, and then Saee gave me some more. While I'm not a fan of fruit the hubby loves them and always waits eagerly for me to make something exciting with fruit in it. With such a flood of cherries it went without saying that I'd be making something with them soon.

I browsed around on Pinterest, my favourite source of ideas and inspiration, and came across this exceptionally simple yet delicious sounding recipe for Cherry Chocolate Cake on this lovely blog called Tutti Dolci. I ran it by the hubby and once I had his approval I set about making it. It goes without saying that I have made my own adjustments and changes to the recipe and here is what I did, though I followed the method exactly.

Cherry Chocolate Cake

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup or 60 gms butter
2 tbsp preserving syrup from cherries
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk with a tsp of lemon juice stirred in
enough cherries preserved in syrup to decorate

Preheat the oven at 180C.

In a clean mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients.

In another bowl whisk the sugar and butter till light and creamy. I did this in my stand mixer. You can do it in a bowl with a hand held electric mixer or even by hand with a whisk. Use small grain sugar. I added a couple of tablespoons of the cherry syrup at this stage.

Once the sugar and butter are creamed well add the egg and the vanilla and beat well. Slow down the speed of the mixer and pour in a bit of the flour mixture and mix. Add some of the lemon and milk mix. Beat to mix. Add the dry mix and the liquid in alternates and blend it all in well to make a smooth satiny batter.

Smear the insides of an 8 inch round cake tin thinly with butter. Pour in the batter. Dot the top with as many cherries as you can but don't squash them too tight. The cherries will sink into the cake and, since they're preserved and not fresh ones, might even disintegrate into the cake. Don't worry, the cake will be delish anyway. Bake for around 25 minutes. Check with a thin skewer to see if it's done -the skewer should come out clean.

Cool the cake in the tin before removing. Ideally, use a loose bottomed tin so you can unmould it more easily. If, like me, you're using a regular tin wait patiently till the cake is cooled before you try to remove it or the cake might break.

Dust the top lightly with powdered sugar if you like and serve. A scoop of vanilla ice cream alongside a warmed slice of this cake would also be magical!

Marathon Bloggers

Chocolate Fudge Cookies - A Sweet Beginning for a New Year

In the years when I bought cook books like a woman possessed I bought one called The Colossal Cookie Cookbook. It sat among the other books and I always felt a thrill of joy seeing on my shelf anticipating the wonderful cookies I would make from it. I guess we get caught up in the anticipating and forget to actually make time to really use the books and the treasure of recipes within. I did make a recipe or two but then got caught up in other stuff and the book sat on the shelf, though not gathering dust because I am devoted to my books and I like to take good care of them :)

Sometime around November I saw a frenzy across Facebook where everyone seemed to be baking cookies. I wanted to bake cookies too! I surfed the net, like we automatically do these days, and after browsing quite a few sites I suddenly ground to a halt. What was I doing?! I have enough cookbooks to start my own little library - what was I doing searching on the net?

I pulled out The Colossal Cookie Cookbook and, finally made cookies from the book again. I'd shopped over the previous months and had gathered a decent hoard of cookie making ingredients in my pantry. So now there was no excuse left. Chocolate Fudge Cookies were zeroed in upon and what a success they turned out to be!

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

200gms dark cooking chocolate. I used Morde's
1 1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. I used Hintz
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
110 gms butter.
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
white chocolate for decoration

Set your oven to 180C and let it preheat.

Melt the cooking chocolate and set aside to cool. You can use a microwave like I did, or a double boiler.

In a clean bowl sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the salt together.

In a separate bowl cream the sugar with the butter till it's well blended and fluffy. Add the eggs and the vanilla and beat further. You can use an electric hand blender for this. I plan to use my stand mixer the next time and make a double batch.

Pour in the cooled melted chocolate and whisk till it's all mixed in well. Now add the sifted dry ingredients in small quantities and incorporate. The dry ingredients will fly around so do this stage with a spatula or large spoon. You should have a smooth thick batter once everything is mixed in well. Give it a whizz with the electric beater for a minute and you're ready to bake the cookies.

Take two cookie sheets and line with baking parchment. Take a generous scoop of the cookie batter in a tablespoon and drop onto the parchment. Line up the scoops of batter leaving a couple of inches of space between the cookies. They will spread as they bake. You can use a piping bag to make it easier to drop the cookie batter onto the parchment. Use a plain nozzle, the cookies will not hold any fancy shapes.

Bake the cookies in your preheated oven for approximately 18 minutes. Let them cool on the parchment for a minute before you put them on a cooling rack to cool and harden. Don't worry if your cookies seem soft when you remove them from the oven.

Once the cookies have cooled you can decorate them. Melt white chocolate in a bowl and dip a fork into the melted chocolate and drizzle over the cookies. I think melted dark chocolate will also work quite well.

This recipe yielded 16 large cookies. Make a double batch and send some over to your BFF. Spread the love!

Now make a mug of coffee, pick up a few Chocolate Fudge Cookies, grab the book you're reading and settle down in your favourite chair for some delicious me time.

Sheermal - My First Indian Bread

Things have been a bit hectic for me and one of the things that got seriously neglected was the monthly bread baking with the We Knead to Bake group. I have missed five or six months of baking for one reason or another and I had to get back into it or the year would be gone and I would have hardly baked this year. I joined the WKTB group to learn different kinds of bread and to practice and learn new techniques. I was doing nothing, much to my disappointment. Well, there's no way to get back on to wagon apart from doing just that - getting back on. And so this month I'm back on the WKTB wagon, barely by the skin of my teeth.

The chosen bread for November is Sheermal. A mildly sweet, soft flat bread, sheermal has saffron and milk in it and can be quite rich because of the addition of ghee/butter and egg. This beautiful bread is commonly eaten in the regions spanning Persia, across the Indian sub-continent, as far as Bangladesh.

Incredibly easy to make, sheermal takes approximately three hours in all, including proving time. This is the recipe Aparna gave the WKTB group and I followed it mostly to the T. The only change I made was instead of rose water or kewra essence I used Orange Blossom water which comes from the Middle East. I didn't have rose water or kewra essence and I was looking for a chance to use the Orange blossom water anyway and the sheermal gave me the perfect opportunity.

Sheermal

2 1/4 cups sifted flour or maida
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup ghee
1 egg
1 -2 tsp Orange Blossom water
1/2 cup milk
a generous pinch of saffron strands

In a cup add the yeast to the warm water along with the sugar, if you're using active dry yeast or fresh yeast. This has become such an automatic step for me that I do it even with instant yeast though it's not necessary.

In your mixing bowl pour in the flour and sprinkle the salt and mix lightly. Now add the yeast mix and stir to combine. Beat the egg lightly and then add it to the flour mix. Give it a stir and now start adding the ghee a little at a time. Continue mixing till the ingredients come together to look like large crumbs. You can do this in a food processor if you have one. I didn't add all the ghee as I didn't require it.

Now add the milk a little at a time and bring the dough together. Once the dough formed a rough ball I took it out onto my work surface and kneaded it for a good 10 minutes adding milk, a little at a time, to ultimately get a beautiful and soft dough. I didn't use up all the milk either. I brushed my mixing bowl with a little ghee and put in the dough to prove. Cover the bowl with a damp napkin and leave it in a warm place, undisturbed.

Soak the saffron strands in a little warmed milk.

Once the dough has doubled (this can take anything from an hour to two hours) punch it down gently and knead for a couple of minutes. Put it back in the mixing bowl and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Set the oven to preheat to 180C.

Remove the rested dough onto your work surface and divide into four portions. Shape each into a ball. Gently flatten each ball to form a disc approximately 6 inches across. Brush the top with the saffron and milk generously and then prick the entire surface neatly with a fork. Place the prepared discs on your baking tray and bake at 180C for 12 to 15 minutes till the sheermal turns a beautiful golden colour.

Brush with butter as soon as you take them out of the oven. Serve with your evening chai or with a spicy gravy main course for dinner. I'm going to make some chicken to go with my sheermal :)

We Knead to Bake #22

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Chicken Sandwiches with Homemade Mayonnaise

A simple sandwich can occasionally become a religious experience, it can be so good! This chicken sandwich was just that and I am so eager to write about it, I haven't finished eating it as yet! I have spent the morning running from the kitchen to the dining table and from there to my little 'studio window' where I now take most of the photos for this blog, just so I could capture everything in glorious detail. Of course the hubby contributed to the circus with his creative inputs and also cut the sandwiches for me so I could take that droolworthy photo you see above :)

The hubby made a fresh batch of mayonnaise, and there were leftovers of a wonderful Lebanese style roast chicken that he'd brought home yesterday as a treat for me.

We also had fresh crunchy celery in the veggie basket. Sandwiches were on the menu, no question!

The chicken was duly shredded and the celery washed thoroughly and then cut into tiny pieces, but large enough to give crunch and texture to the filling. A fresh loaf of regular white bread was bought and the mayonnaise made.

All you do is slather on the mayo onto a slice of bread, sprinkle a good pinch of that fresh crunchy celery, arrange your shredded chicken and slap on the top slice, duly slathered with mayo of course.

Here's how you can make mayonnaise at home

2 eggs
2 tbsp white wine or apple cider vinegar
2 heaped tsp sugar
neutral oil as required, in an oil can or jug so you can pour it easily.
a pinch of salt

In your blender jar crack the two eggs. Add all the other ingredients apart from the oil. Give it a whizz.  Now slowly pour in the oil in a steady thin stream, keeping the blender running,  till the emulsion comes together and you get the thick wobbly consistency of  mayonnaise.

You can also make this in a stand mixer with the whisking blade. Mayonnaise is traditionally whisked by hand, but why that when there are beautiful machines to do the hard work for you?

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Plum Clafoutis - A Simple French Dessert

The hubby saw the box of plums I had bought and demanded a Clafoutis made with the fruit. The word Clafoutis always made me imagine a light frothy French confection that would be decadent, and difficult to make. Now I had to make it.

I looked around on the Net and found, much to my surprise that a Clafoutis is a ridiculously simple dessert and it would be quite a doddle to make. This baby was right up my street!

Plum Clafoutis

8 -10 semi ripe plums, washed, halved and stone removed
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup cream or fresh malai
butter
4 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tsps brown sugar
2 tsps maida

Method
Preheat the oven at 180C.
Halve the plums and remove the seed. Try to keep the hemispheres of fruit as intact as you can. The seed can stay stubbornly stuck so use a knife to prise it out.
In a saucepan heat the milk, malai/cream and vanilla till it just begins to bubble. I used fresh malai off the top of a pan of fresh full fat milk I had boiled earlier and cooled in the fridge. Stir it and take it off the heat. Leave aside to cool.
Whisk the eggs and the powdered sugar till combined. Add the flour a little at a time and continue to whisk till it is all blended in. Make sure there are no flour lumps.
Wipe your pie dish clean and melt some butter on it. Just pop it into the preheated oven and wait for it to start bubbling. Place the plums cut side down on the butter. Now sprinkle the brown sugar on the plums and the spaces between and put the pie dish back in the oven. Cook the plums for 5 to 8 minutes.
Combine the egg and sugar mixture with the cooled milk and cream. Whisk it well and pour it onto the plums carefully. Put the dish back into the oven and let it bake for 25 to 30 minutes till the custard is set and has a nice golden look.
This tastes best served hot. You can serve it with ice cream and also dust it with icing sugar if you like. The hubby devoured it as it was :)

I adapted this recipe from here. I have halved the quantities approximately and fiddled around with the ingredients to suit our tastes.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Mousse Daruwala or Chocolate Mousse with Booze

It's been a while since I made chocolate mousse. I used to make it on order when we lived in South Mumbai and in those days I even made a few hundred portions at a time for large orders. I made it so often I could make it in my sleep. Once we moved to Kharghar it wasn't practical especially since mousse is a delicate dessert and needs proper refrigeration at all times or it becomes loose and runny. That happens because I make mousse the classic way, with eggs.

A bunch of friends decided to get together for a dinner at home and I volunteered a big bowl of Mousse Daruwala as my contribution to the dinner table. A simple dessert, if made right, it can be absolutely fabulous. Use the best chocolate you can find and it will be even better. However you can use the regular non gourmet cooking chocolate available at your local supermarket and still have a damn good mousse.

Gather the ingredients.

Make space in your refrigerator before you begin. Make sure your equipment, utensils and mixing bowls are squeaky clean and dry. And then follow this recipe that I added to this blog around six years ago. I have yet to find a recipe that can match it in simplicity and dependability.

Dig out a nice bowl and let the mousse set in it. Decorate with whatever you have at hand - I grated some 85% dark chocolate and lined the sides of the bowl with white chocolate chips, after letting the mousse set for an hour in the fridge. You can also set individual portions in whiskey tumblers or wine glasses if you want to be fancy.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Chocolate and Cinnamon laced Banana Bread

I am quite addicted to baking and the fact that I have a devoted audience in my hubby makes it even more fun. On his nearly endless "when are you making this" list was Banana Bread. Now I dislike fruit and bananas are particularly revolting for me. But I like to make stuff the man likes so I finally made some.

This one, in fact, is the second attempt, and apart from a couple of mini disasters, it was quite successful. I surfed the Net for a recipe that didn't seem too daunting and I chose this one from the BBC GoodFood website.I tweaked the recipe as I am invariably inclined to do.

My pantry cupboard is full of a variety of ingredients sent by my friends from all over and I am now on a mission using up these ingredients instead of leaving them forgotten in the cupboard or refrigerator. For the banana bread I decided to use up the cinnamon flavoured chocolate chips my brother had got me from Dubai. I also doubled the recipe to make more than one loaf.

Here's my recipe -

Chocolate and Cinnamon Banana Bread

250 gms butter (I used Amul)

150 gms castor sugar

120 gms brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs, beaten

7 mashed bananas

Approximately 200 gms Hershey's Cinnamon Chocolate Chips (that's what was left in the bag)

400 gms white flour

2 tsp baking powder (I forgot to add this)

120 ml milk


In a largeish saucepan melt the butter. Keep the flame lowered so the butter doesn't boil quickly and turn into ghee. Add the sugars and the vanilla and stir gently to mix. The butter can splash out of the pan so be careful. Let the sugars and the butter meld together Do this on a low heat - you don't want the sugars to caramelise, you just want it all to mix.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the mashed bananas. Stir to combine. I was nervous about adding eggs to this mixture while it was hot so I let it cool for a couple of minutes and then added the eggs.

Once the eggs are blended in it's time to add the flour and baking powder. You can just sift them in together. Pour in the milk and mix it all well to get a smoothish batter. If the pan is not big enough pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl and then add the flour. That's what I did.

Add the chocolate chips and give it another stir. You can easily add walnuts if you like. Use regular chocolate chips and some powdered cinnamon if you can't get your hands on cinnamon chips.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tins and bake at 150C for 45 minutes in the fan mode with both elements on in your oven. If you don't have a fan in your oven bake at 170C. You can sprinkle demerara sugar on top of the loaf if you want a crunchy sweet topping on the loaf, if you like, as the original recipe suggests. I didn't because there's already plenty of sugar in the recipe and in the chocolate chips too.

Cool the loaf and remove from the tin. Slice and serve.

You can also bake individual cup cakes using this batter. Banana Cinnamon cup cakes will be great to add to your kid's tiffin box and even the hubby's lunch box :)

I had a couple of mishaps as I made this batch - I didn't read the original recipe properly so I didn't notice the 'self raising' bit about the flour! Then, once the loaves were in the oven the electricity went off! Thankfully that was for only 10 minutes and since I had left the loaves undisturbed in the oven, the final result was not so bad.

I made three loaves in disposable cases and had enough batter left over to make three little cup cakes.  One loaf was sent with the hubby to be shared at his office, one I took to share with my girlfriends and one was made for a friend who misses good home baked stuff.

This recipe is ridiculously easy. Just gather your ingredients together and then it's a matter of mixing them in one by one. No need to crank up the stand mixer, all you need is a saucepan, a mixing bowl and a spatula. Even though I seriously dislike bananas this is one recipe I'm going to be making often.


Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Kanda Papeta per Eedu - A Parsi Classic

Parsi food is not always lavish and complicated. There are plenty of simple comforting dishes that will make you weep with pleasure. Kanda Papeta per Eedu is definitely one of them.

K asked me to have Kanda Papeta ready so he could make Kanda Papeta per Eedu for breakfast. The Parsis' love for eggs is legendary and their repertoire of egg dishes is vast. Kasa per Eedu or eggs on something is a huge category in their cuisine and the something can range from a simple onion tomato base to the elaborate kheema or lamb mince, the crisp and crunchy sali or the delicately flavoured kanda papeta.

Kanda papeta is simply onions and potatoes slow cooked with minimal spices or oil. It's delicious with rotlis or bread and is often part of a simple dinner at home. The addition of eggs takes it to a different level.

Kanda Papeta per Eedu

Serves two

2 potatoes, peeled and sliced finely
1 Onion, chopped medium
mustard seeds (optional)
1 or 2 green chillies, chopped fine
a few sprigs fresh coriander
salt
pepper
oil
3 eggs


Heat up your nonstick pan and splash some oil into it. Splutter the mustard seeds if you're using them and then reduce the heat. Add the sliced potatoes and chopped onions along with the green chillies. Spread and tamp down slightly and let it cook slowly. Add salt. Cover the pan and stir every five minutes. Add the pepper.  Take care not to brown the onions. The potatoes must be sliced finely so the cook quickly and the onions don't risk getting brown. Once the potatoes are nearly cooked level it all across the pan. Sprinkle the washed and chopped coriander all over. Cover and cook for another minute or two and your Kanda Papeta is done.

There are three ways of adding the eggs to this. You can add the eggs whole cracking them on the kanda papeta layer. Sprinkle salt and pepper and cook covered till desired done-ness. Garnish with extra coriander and chopped chillies.

I prefer the Faetela or beaten version. In a bowl whisk the eggs with a little salt and pepper and then simply pour over the kanda papeta in the pan. Cover and cook till desired level of done-ness.

Now within the faetela version you can either tightly pack the base to prevent the beaten egg from running through so you have two distinct layers or you can leave the base a little loose and let the beaten eggs seep through the gaps. Let the bottom brown a little - the top layer will soft eggs, onions and potatoes and the base will give you a delightful crunch.

All three versions are divine!

Serve hot with rotlis or bread. I like to have it on it's own :)

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Ham, Cheese and Leek Quiche

The hubby spied leeks in the veg box in the fridge and asked me to make a ham and leek quiche. I had, of course, scant memory of what lay in that veg box and was quite surprised to find out that we had leeks. Well, there was no excuse and I set out to make the quiche.

I have never made quiche before and had absolutely no idea where to begin. Vague ideas of sautéed leeks and chunky ham baked in an eggy custard floated around in my head and I had no clue how the crust should be. Puff pastry seemed requisite but it turned out that shortcrust would do as well.

I trawled the Net for some basic recipes and then looked through my cookbooks for more ideas. I cobbled together a workable recipe for the pastry case and the filling and this is what I made.

Ham, Cheese and Leek Quiche

1 cup grated cheddar or Grano Padano cheese
250gms ham, diced or in chunky cubes
1 cup sliced leeks
2 tbsp Olive oil

3 eggs
200ml Amul cream
salt
pepper

1 1/2 cup maida or white flour
100gms butter, very cold, cut into small cubes
2 tbs chilled water
1 egg


Start with the tart shell. In a clean bowl put in the flour and the cubed butter. Combine with a fork or a pastry mixer till crumbly. You can also do this in a food processor. Add the egg and a tbsp of the cold water and mix gently to form a loose dough. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead very lightly to bring together into a ball of dough. Work it minimally and quickly with just your fingertips. It just needs to stay together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 to 30 mins.

Dust your work surface lightly with flour and roll out the chilled dough into a large disc at least 15 inches in diameter. Lift gently and place over your loose bottomed pie ring. Gently press the dough into the sides and the base of the ring. Trim the edges with a sharp knife or simply pinch off with your fingers. Press into the sides so the dough sticks to the fluted edges of the tin. Cover the pie shell with parchment and fill it with dried beans, rice or baking beads - whatever you have. I used black eyed peas.

Bake the tart shell blind at 200C for 15 minutes in a preheated oven. Remove and take out the beans and the parchment paper carefully.   Put the tart shell back in the oven and bake for another 7 to 10 minutes till it is a pale golden colour.

In the mean while  heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the leeks and then the ham lightly. Remove to a plate and set aside. Grate your cheese and keep it ready. In a clean jug whip the cream with the eggs. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the pie shell is baked to a pale gold it is time to assemble the quiche and put it to bake. First scatter the cooked leeks and the ham. The sprinkle the grated cheese to cover. Finally pour the eggs and cream all over. You can add some fresh or dried herbs if you like.

Now bake the quiche at 180C for 20 to 25 mins. It will be puffed up considerably but will settle as it cools.

Let it cool for 5 minutes and then remove to a pretty plate. Cut into wedges and serve hot.

You can use a slightly smaller pie ring so the filling is deeper. You will also have some pastry left over. Just pop it into the freezer and use it later to make a mini quiche or a fruit tart or something. Be careful while handling the baked pie shell. The constant putting it in and out of the oven is a delicate operation - I cracked my pie a bit and so some of the egg custard dribbled out leaving me with a flatter filling than I would have liked. But this was my very first time and it's a lesson learned :)

Use a jug to pour the egg custard. This is something the hubby saw Jamie Oliver suggest on one of his programmes and it's a genuinely handy hint that ensures less mess.

The egg cream custard is a must in a quiche. You can fool around with different combinations for the rest of the fillings - use chopped and cooked salami, chunky sausages, vegetables, shredded chicken, whatever you like.

Marathon Bloggers Project 52

Potato, Rosemary and Pecorino Bread

We have a friend who is a food importer and every once in a way he summons us to his warehouse and we come back laden with goodies. Cheeses, meats, condiments, varieties of flours and fancy ingredients - it's like an Alladin's Cave of foodie treasures! Summons came again this week and the hubby came back laden with a mountain of goodies once again.

Among all the loot were these wedges of Pecorino Romano cheese. Hard and salty, this Italian cheese is made from sheep's milk and, according to the Wikipedia article, is one of the oldest cheeses of Italy.

Now that I had a pile of this cheese I started looking around for recipes and as I wandered around the Internet I chanced upon this recipe via Pinterest. As I read through it I realised not only was it a very easy bread to make, I also had all the ingredients. It was perfect! Well, I didn't have fresh rosemary so I used dried, but that much adjustment is always allowed.

Potato, Rosemary and Pecorino Bread

(This recipe makes two loaves)

1 cup boiled potatoes
20gms Instant yeast
1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup olive oil
2 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
2 cups grated Pecorino Romano cheese
2 tsp dried rosemary
6-7 cups plain white flour

Boil the potatoes with a good pinch of rosemary. Reserve 1 cup of the water that the potatoes have been boiled in.

In the reserved potato water sprinkle in the yeast if you're using active yeast or fresh yeast and a tsp of sugar. Though I used Instant I forgot it didn't need soaking, but that didn't harm the bread, thank God!

In a clean mixing bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer mix the boiled potatoes, butter, oil, eggs, cheese and the rosemary. Roughly mashing up the potatoes before helps if you're using a stand mixer. If you're mixing by hand make sure there are no lumps of potato in the mixture. Once roughly mixed add the yeast water and stir to combine.

Add two cups of flour sprinkling it in, a little at a time and mix till you get a sticky dough. I used the paddle blade till this stage.

Add the remaining flour slowly, cup by cup, letting the dough firm up. I changed to the dough hook at this stage and it didn't take more than a few minutes for the dough to come together. Roughly 6 cups of flour were enough to get a soft dough.

Clean your work surface and sprinkle some flour on it. Knead the dough for 5 -7 minutes and once it is smooth you can put it aside to rise. Transfer the dough into a clean, floured bowl and cover with a cloth. Let it rise for an hour, undisturbed.

Once the dough has risen all you need to do is punch it down, divide into two and bake. Since my oven could accommodate just one loaf at a time I refrigerated half the dough while the first loaf baked.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and place your loaf on the tray. Cut a square on top of the loaf and put it in to bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Let it cool and then slice and serve with butter if you like.

Kheema par Eeda - Eggs on mince. A well loved Parsi breakfast

Breakfast is the husband's domain and though we usually have simple stuff like bread and spread, or muesli/cornflakes, or simple fried eggs, once in a way there's something special.

Yesterday I'd made chicken mince and there was quite a lot of it and so I asked the hubby to make Kheema par Eeda for breakfast the next morning. Ideally I prefer mutton or goat mince but chicken is what we had so we made do with it.

An easy recipe that leads to a sumptuous dish, you might end up making extra kheema more often just so you can indulge in a lavish breakfast more often!

Kheema par Eeda

4 eggs
Goat mince, cooked Indian style with onions, spices and loads of fresh coriander and mint
salt
a dash of oil

Take a flat nonstick pan and set it to heat. Spread the cooked mince evenly across the base of the pan, about half and inch thick.

Take an egg and press it gently into the kheema to make a depression. Make four such depressions. If you're using more eggs, make more! These depressions keep the eggs from running into each other while they're cooking.

Now crack an egg into each depression. Sprinkle a little salt.

Let the eggs cook on a slow flame. You don't want the kheema to burn while the eggs cook! Cover the pan with a loose lid or plate.

Cook the eggs to your desired level of 'done-ness'. The hubby likes them runny and I like mine cooked to death :)

Serve up with toast, butter, jam, mayo and a glass of fruit juice on the side. 

An easy but posh breakfast - Herbed Chicken Omelette

Breakfast was never my favourite meal and I often skipped it in my younger sillier days. Better sense has prevailed and now I cannot function without it. Leave me unfed in the morning and I am so crabby I can't stand myself!

Making breakfast is the hubby's duty and usually he keeps things simple with toast and spread, porridge, cereal and milk, or fried eggs with toast and spread. While I do like eggs I don't like fried eggs. I do love omelettes, however, and once in a way he gets creative and whips up an interesting omelette for breakfast. The interesting element often depends on what's lying in the fridge and occasionally a simple but sumptuous creation arrives at the table.

This morning it was a herbed chicken and cheese omelette.

Here's how -

3 eggs
2 slices Britannia cheese
1/2 cup leftover roast chicken
a splash of olive oil
salt
pepper

Beat the eggs nicely in a clean bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Heat your omelette pan and add a splash of olive oil. Once the oil is heated well pour in the beaten eggs. Let it just set and then arrange the shredded deboned chicken on one half of the omelette.

Place the cheese slices on top. Fold over the the omelette to cover the filling. Cook the omelette till it is set to your preference. Remove to a plate and serve with hot toast, butter, jam and whatever else you like.

Use any leftover cooked chicken. I make roast chicken very often because it's easy to make and is convenient to have in the fridge for impromptu sandwiches and stuffed omelettes like this one :)

Cup Cakes Conquered!

Sometimes the simplest things can seem like an intimidating mountain. Cup cakes seemed like that to me. I saw friends churning out cup cakes in a jiffy for their kids' lunch boxes, for gal pal parties, for the neighbour's kids birthday party, as gifts on special occasions... it seemed effortless for them and I was always awestruck at how easy they made it look. And here I was, never even tried making a basic cup cake, let alone the beautifully iced and decorated confections that are all over the Internet.

Over the years I had amassed muffin pans, cup cake liners, decorating nozzles for frosting and even sprinkles to decorate with. But no cup cake ever emerged from my oven. Sigh.

I was chatting with two of my dearest friends yesterday (both expert bakers) and I finally demanded a fool proof basic recipe for cup cakes. I couldn't believe how simple it was! With much encouragement and a whole lot of enthusiastic cheering from both I finally took the plunge and made cup cakes.

Here's how

Ridiculously Easy Cup Cakes

In a mixing bowl take

100gms powdered sugar
100gms butter
100gms flour
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract

Beat them all together with your electric hand mixer till it's mixed into a batter. Add a little dahi/curd if the batter is too thick. Don't over beat.

Prepare a muffin tin with your cup cake liners. Drop in a dollop of batter into each cup cake liner and bake in your preheated oven for 15 - 18 minutes at 180C.

Voila! That's it. To think I wasted all these years wondering about the mysteries of cup cakes and how everyone else churned them out so easily! Well, now I know ;)

I didn't get a chance to decorate these babies because the hubby and I couldn't wait to eat them. Well, since they're so easy to make I'll decorate the next batch. Saee and Medha, I promise!