Vacation

I am going to India for 3 three weeks from tomorrow. So I may not able to do visiting and blog hopping as usual. After coming back with new ideas of recipes from mother in law and sister's in law. I will resume blogging.


Swathi

Muringa Ila Parippu curry/ Drumstick leaves and Toor dal in spicy gravy

Dal is one of the curries my hubby cooks. When I first met him, he told me he cooks and generally goes out to eat only burgers, sandwiches, pizza and so on. He cooks dal, sambar (very unique combination adding broccoli , spinach in them, which I never heard of. ) egg burji , chicken curry and Pav bahji . Among the above dishes I like his dal, egg burji and pav bhaji . Whenever I make dal, he will say it is not the taste he was expecting, something missing in them. I will tell him to make his dal; it is good for me too. 

Last year I planted a Muringa (Moringa oleifera) / Drum stick plant. I had started from 4 seeds and I got 1 plant, which was happily growing till the last big frost. It died during the frost. I was sad, because I didn’t even pluck a single leaf, saying that they are babies, I don’t want to hurt them. This year I planted the rest of muringa seeds and got two plants, one is happy healthy one; other is slender and says I don’t want to grow fast. This time, I thought I need to take some leaves, if I am sentimental I may not able to cook healthy dishes.

Muringa leaves are highly nutritious, being a significant source of beta-carotene ( 4 times more than carrots) , Vitamin C, protein (two times than the milk), iron ( three time iron than spinach), and potassium (seven times more than Bananas). These leaves help to improve the immune system, nourish eyes and brain, and even reduce the wrinkles and fine lines etc. Read more from here and here). They taste bitter like chard or bitter gourd. If you like bitterness or willing to eschew the bitterness for the health benefits try muringa/Moringa leaves some time. As I don’t have a lot of muringa leaves to make thoran or curry alone, decided to add dal and make it curry. This is tasty and healthy with double addition of protein in them. Only thing I hate about drumstick leaves is plucking them from the stem, it is tedious, laborious job but in order eat super healthy dish you need to work. End result is worth all the effort.

I made muringa paprippu/drumstick leaves toor dal curry with them. Dal masked the bitterness of drumstick leaves. I added some garlic and tomato along with chili coriander, cumin powder and garam masala to make it spicy curry. We like the dish a lot. 

This time I have added some videos in between the steps; I will appreciate if you can give me some feedback on that. If you think the videos make the recipes easy to follow, I will try to incorporate videos on certain recipes; not all, as my camera man cum taste tester is not around all time. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

 Drumstick leaves/Muringa leaves: 4 cup
Toor dal: ½ cup
Tomato: 2 no
Onion: ½ no
Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon
Mustard seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
Coriander powder: ½ teaspoon
Gram masala: ½ teaspoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder: ¼ teaspoon
Red chili: 2 no (halved in two)
Garlic: 3 no
Ginger: 2 inches
Curry leaves: 1 sprig
Coriander leaves: 1 tablespoon
Oil: 2 tablespoon (I used olive oil)
Water: 2 cups



How I made

Pluck and clean the drum stick leaves, remove as much stem possible, wash them in running water and set aside.

In pressure cooker cook the toor dal with 1 ½ cup water for 3 whistles (it takes about 15-20 minutes) and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan heat 1 ½ tablespoon of oil and add cumin seeds once they starts splutters add chopped onion  and curry leaves fry them until they become translucent or change color it takes about 6 minutes.

To add ginger garlic paste and fry for another 2 minutes. Add salt, turmeric, cumin, coriander, gram masla and chili powder and fry for 1 minute.

To the above mixture add tomato cook for another 2 minutes or until tomato become soft. To onion tomato masala mix add cleaned drum stick leaves and cook until they are wilted it takes about 7 minutes.

Once they are well done add cooked toor dal and let it boil for another 2 minutes with stirring in between. Adjust the spice and salt if needed. Add water if needed to make desired consistency. 

In a small pan heat rest of the oil and mustard seeds halved chilies and coriander leaves. When mustard seeds starts popping switch of heat and add to cooked dal muringa mixture. 

Enjoy warm with rice or roti.

Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will

ഓണം; Semiya payasam/ Onam and Vermicelli Pudding

Wishing you all my blogger friends, Happy Onam

Athapookalam courtesy: My Sister-in-law's Husband

Onam is important harvest festival in Kerala, India. We celebrate this festival with lot of enthusiasm. Thinking of the times I spent Onam at home with my parents and sister makes me feel nostalgic, we used to get new clothes, and grand feast on the day. Amma cook lot of dishes. When we are young, we will be waiting for the Onam as we get 10 days school vacation. 

Onam (Malayalam: ഓണം) falls during the first month of the Malayalam calendar which is Chingam (August–September) and marks the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali. Story behind Onam is that during King Mahabali’s reign, Kerala was prosperous, people were happy, no worries, no lies everywhere peace and prosperity. Because of this he got lot enemies among the the Gods, ( Mahabali was considered a demon King) and they hatched plan to overthrow him. After Mahabali was defeated by a trick played by God Vishnu, his wish of visiting his people once every year was granted. In order to honour his visit there will grand feast and flower decorations etc – the Onam festival.

You will amaze to see a vegetarian banquet with lots of variety in appearance, taste, smell in all the dishes. It usually starts 4-5 curries, payasam etc served in Banana leaf. It is difficult for me to cook all dishes, so I made, sambar( Lentil and vegetable gravy), Avial( mixed vegetables in coconut sauce) and Mezhukupuratti( stir fry with vegetables) , mango pachadi, vendakka kichadi( okra in yogurt cake) and payasam.
This is our Onam Sadya.

Here is a simple humble Semiya Payasam. I make this more often. I used amma recipe for this. I didn’t add any extra sugar. If you want you are feel free to add sugar for some more sweetness. 

What you need

Vermicelli: 1 cup
Milk: 1 ½ (I used whole milk)
Sweetened condense milk: 3 oz (1 small tin, Fat free)
Cardamom: 2 no
Water: 1 cup
Salt: a pinch
Cashews: ¼ cup
Raisins: 1/5 cup
Ghee: 1 tablespoon









How I made

In medium sauce pot heat ghee and add cashew and raisins. Fry them till raisins become plums up and cashews become golden color. It takes about 1 minute in medium flame. Remove them and set aside.

In the same pan fry vermicelli until they become golden color it takes about 2 minutes. To this add water and cook them for 15 minutes or until they are done. To this add milk and cook for another 10 minutes. Add sweetened condense milk and cook for 5 minutes or until it reaches desired consistency. 

Add crushed cardamom and fried cashews and raisins. Enjoy warm or chill. I prefer to enjoy as warm.

Preparation time: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Yummy
will you make it again: Yes I will

Swathi

Stollen

Stollen is a traditional German Christmas yeasted fruit bread. You are wondering why I am celebrating Christmas in the month of August. Nothing special I need boozed bread for this month bread baking day. 

During Christmas in Kerala there is a custom of making plum fruit cake, which are soft, moist not like the rock like fruit cake here in US, which is used for fruit cake throwing competition. In Kerala, bakeries carries fruit cakes on any regular day also, appa used to buy it for our tea /after school snack. 

I was thinking of making coconut milk and tequila bread, but then I read that this combination will be a sour one just like fermented toddy (alcoholic beverage created from the sap of coconut plant). What about Pina colada bread I thought, but I don’t have coconut rum or pineapple in hand. Again ‘No’ for beer bread from the primary taste tester of house. Then my hubby told me why you want to invent the bread that has not existed, sometime yeast may not like your invention. If that is case, entire project is going to be doomed. I don’t like a doomed project, however I can’t help it and it happens more often. Couple of my disaster projects is soybean burger and vegetable scones. Instead I began searching the internet and my favorite bread baking book. In the mean time I found a box of candied fruits playing hide and seek in my refrigerator. While looking at them, they said we are going to expire soon, use us please. Thus I decided to make a fruit bread, the choice comes done to Greek celebration bread and Stollen. I settled with Stollen recipe.

Stollen is bread like fruit cake made with candied fruit, yeast, water and flour with zest of orange or lemon. I forgot to add candied orange zest so added lemon zest to the dough. Stollen is baked during Christmas time, the loaf symbolize the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling blankets. Read more about Stollen history from here. I used the Stollen recipe from Peter Reinhart’s book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. I changed the recipe a little bit by soaking the candied fruit, raisins, apricots and cranberries in Triple sac for 24 hours instead of 1 hour, and also reducing 1 tablespoon of butter. Also I scantly dusted with powdered sugar, rather than dusting powdered sugar twice on loaf. Even with this scantly dusted powdered sugar, I got a group of new unwanted guest in my house, Ants; I hate them because if they bite me, it will take 3 days to get cured from a single bite. I used this you tube video to shape my loaf,  it is in German, I don’t understand any words. For me watching a movie, cookery show, don’t need any language, visuals help you to understand. 

The bread was not too sweet, delicious, tasty and good with coffee and tea. I thought one loaf will last for a week, it finished with 4 days. I am going to make this more often. Keeper recipe, try some time if you like fruit cakes for tea then sure you are going to be fan of this one. 

What you need
Sponge

 Milk: ½ cup
All purpose flour: ½ cup
Instant yeast : 4 teaspoons (or 2 packets)











Fruit

Dried fruit (Candied fruits, golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, etc.): 1 ½ cup
Triple sac: 1/2 cups ( you can use Grand Marnier, brandy, rum, or schnapps)










Dough

Unbleached all-purpose flour: 2 1/4 cups + 1/2 tablespoon
Sugar: 1 tablespoon
Salt: 3/4 teaspoon
Cinnamon: 1 teaspoon
Zest of lemon: 1 no
Cardamom: 2 no
Egg: 1 no
Butter: 4 tablespoons (1/2 a stick), softened
Water: 3 tablespoons
Almond slivers or marzipan : 1/2 cup
Topping
Butter or oil
Powdered sugar







How I made

Soak the chopped candied fruits and dry fruits in ½ cup Triple sac for 24hours or overnight. Drain excess Triple sac using strainer before adding to the dough.

In a microwave safe bowl warm the milk in a microwave to 20 seconds high to approximately 100 degrees. 

In a mixing bowl whisk in the flour and yeast  to this add warm milk. Cover with plastic wrap  set aside to ferment for 1 hour until the sponge is very foamy.

When the sponge is ready, in a bowl of electric mixer, combine the remaining flour, salt, sugar, cardamom, lemon zest and cinnamon . Then stir in( or mix in on low speed with paddle attachment) the sponge, egg, softened butter, 2 tablespoon of fruit soaked triple sac and enough water to form soft but not sticky dough. This should take about 2 minutes. Stir in the  soaked  and drained dried fruit and knead in a mixer (using a dough hook) or by hand for 5 to 10 minutes so that fruit mix get distributed evenly add extra flour( I added ½ tablespoon of flour)to form soft and satiny dough not sticky one. 

Place the dough in an oiled bowl, rolling around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and set aside to rise for 1 hour 35 minutes. The dough will rise to an extent but not double.

On a floured surface, shape the dough into 9 by 6 inch rectangle, either by rolling it out or pressing it with your hands. 

Place the slivered almonds in the center of the loaf. Fold the dough from the sides first and roll closed and shape the loaf into something resembling a crescent.

Place a hand or roller near the two ends of dough meets so that it looks like slit.

Cover the loaf loosely with plastic and set it aside to rise for approximately an hour to an hour and a half. While it is rising, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When fully raised, bake the stollen for approximately 35 minutes. Rotate it in between around 20 minutes and bake it until the internal temperature is approximately 190 degrees or until top of the loaf get dark brown color. 

Remove the stollen from the oven. While still hot, brush the top of the loaf with butter or vegetable oil and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Cut after 1 hour, I couldn’t resist waiting that long, so I cut it immediately and enjoyed with my tea. 

Preparation time: Soaking dry fruits: 24 hours or overnight (you can reduce it to 1 hour)
Sponge: 1 hour, Dough: 3 hours, baking: 35minutes
Yield: 1 loaf
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will.

 I am sending this delicious Stollen to

Twelve day of bloggie-mass ; third day hosted at amoderate life.

Bread baking day #33:  Breads with Booze hosted by Adriana of Baking Powders originally started by Zorra 

Also to  This week's Yeast spotting by Susan of Wild  Yeast.

Swathi

Lauki ka kofta aur Kashmiri puri/ Bottle gourd balls in spicy tomato gravy and Deep fried Flat bread

If you visit Indian restaurant outside India, you will find North Indian recipes like malai Kofta , palak paneer, saag paneer, chana masala etc in their vegetarian menu. Usually kofta are made of paneer/cottage cheese, and vegetables for veggie version and chicken and lamb for non-veggie version. The word Kofta is originated from Persian means, beat/grind/ meat ball. Along with chicken tikka / Paneer tikka masala , Tandoori chicken and so on are the other dishes in their menu.

If I feel like eating something I would have to make it, as we rarely enjoy food from restaurants. I do go out to eat at fast food joints where I would get a takeout veggie burger or a taco with beans. It is really hard to handle a 15 month old who wants to explore, all taste, looks and touch of everything. She makes me crazy and gives me all the happiness in the world with a single innocent smile.

Last week my hubby’s friend at work gave him a big Lauki/ bottle gourd from her vegetable garden. I am not a fan of Lauki/bottle gourd, because it a mundane vegetable that has no taste of its own, but if you add some spices or other veggie combo it gives out good flavors. While growing up, amma rarely bought lauki/bottle gourd and when she did she made curry with them. Last time when he got a lauki, I tried my usual stir fry style curry it doesn’t have much appeal from my taste tester. So I thought I will make some halwa with them. Then again I got a no from my hubby. So I decided to try Kofta with lauki/bottle gourd, earlier, I have made Kofta with cabbage and zucchini. We liked both the dishes, so it was okay to give a try with Lauki. 

The bottle gourd/lauki belongs to cucumber family; the tender one is consumed as vegetables and mature ones are used to make utensil or music instruments. It was cultivated for making utensil than as vegetable in the past, read more about them from here. It has high in dietary fiber, vitamin C, riboflavin, zinc, thiamin, iron, magnesium and manganese. It also contains moderate amount of vitamin-B complex. Due to its high water content, it is thirst quencher. Read more health benefits bottle gourd from here and here.

Last week I took a book of 660 curries by Raghavan Iyer, from the library. It is a good book, and I liked the all spice mix recipe he has given in that book. I need to compare the difference between his garam masala recipes stated to be from various states in India. While turning some pages I found the lauki ka kofta and Al Yakhini recipe both made with bottle gourd. So I decide to give a try. I used his kofta recipe and added little bit ajwan/ Carom seeds and baking soda. Where as sauce is mine with more spices than his version. 

To go with lauki ka kofta I decide to make Kashmiri puri, recipe which I got from Chef Sanjeev kapoor’s website. I got hooked to this recipe, because it uses yogurt and my new found cooking sensation yeast. Furthermore, for me Kashmiri cuisine is one of the unchartered territories. However, I ended up modifying the puri/ poori recipe and got somewhat similar recipe that of Kashmiri roti, due to use of whole wheat flour. I didn’t use sugar and was unable to smear the yogurt, saffron mixture in poori before frying them. I was pleased by the job did by yeast. Puri’s are soft and puffed without drinking a bit of oil. The inside was hollow. It changed my outlook towards poori. For me poori’s are always oil drinking puffed tasty ones.

These two combinations are wonderful, grand dinner or lunch dishes, if you get some time try this one. You will be happy with the end result. Here goes the recipe. 

What you need

 For kofta
Bottle gourd/Lauki/Doohi: 2 cup (Peeled, seeded and grated)
Onion: 1 cup
Ginger: 1 inch
Garlic: 3 cloves
Cashews: 10 no
Baking Soda: 1/8 teaspoon
Salt: ¼ teaspoon
Ajwan/carom: 1/8 teaspoon
Besan/Chickpea flour: ¼ cup
Rice flour: 2 tablespoon
Green chili: 1 no (I used Serrano pepper)
Red chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Coriander leaves: 2 tablespoon (chopped finely)
Oil: 4 cups for frying

For sauce

Oil: 2 tablespoon (I used olive oil)
Ginger: 1 inch
Garlic: 3 cloves
Fennel: ½ teaspoon
Cumin: ½ teaspoon
Cloves: 3 nos
Cinnamon: 1 inch (2 pieces)
Cardamom: 3 no
Bay leaf: 1 no
Mace: ¼ teaspoon
Cashews: 10 no
Red Onion: 1 no
Green chilies: 1 no
Tomato: 4 no
Salt: 1 teaspoon or to taste
Red chili powder: ¼ teaspoon
Garam masala: ½ teaspoon
Cumin powder: ½ teaspoon
Coriander powder: ½ teaspoon
Turmeric: ¼ teaspoon
Poppy seeds: ½ teaspoon
Ghee/clarified butter: 2 tablespoon
Heavy cream: 2 tablespoon
Water: 2 cup

For Kashmiri puri/poori

Whole wheat flour : 2 cup
Fennel seeds/saunf: 1 teaspoon
Yeast: ½ teaspoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon or to taste
Milk: ½ cup
Water:
Oil: 4 cups for frying.



How I made

Kofta

Peel the skin of bottle gourd and remove the fluffy middle parts with seeds, after that it will look like a boat. Grate using a vegetable grater let it stand in a colander for 30 minutes with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Bottle gourd will drain the juice; collect the juice if you want uses it into the gravy replacing the amount of water. After 30 minutes, squeeze the bottle gourd tightly so that all the water from bottle gourd will be drained as much possible.

While bottle gourd is in the colander, add onion, cashews, green chilies, ginger and garlic to a bowl of food processor/chopper, pulse it 2 or 3 times, so that you get a coarse paste. Add red chili powder and mix well and set aside.

In a bowl add besan, rice flour, baking soda, and ajwan and mix well and set aside. To this add onion cashews red chili mixture, chopped coriander leaves and grated bottle gourd or lauki. Mix everything to form smooth dough. 

Heat oil in sauce pan and when it reaches 375 F, pinch a small lemon sized bottle gourd besan dough and gradually drop it into hot oil. Cook for 1 ½ minutes or until it turns to golden brown in color, flip it and cook the other side also for another 1 ½ minutes. Cook them in small batches of 4-5 koftas. Drain them using a slotted spoon into a paper towel to remove excess oil. Set aside.

For Sauce

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a sauce pan, add cinnamon, cloves, mace, cardamom, cumin and fennel seeds. When cumin and fennel seeds starts spluttering, add onions, ginger, garlic and green chilies fry them till onions become translucent or change color. Add chopped tomatoes to this mixture and cook till they become tender and soft. It takes about 9 minutes. Switch off the flame and let it cool for 5 minutes.

Grind the onion-tomato-ginger garlic mixture along with cashews and poppy seeds to thick paste adding less amount of water.

Heat the rest of oil and ghee/clarified butter in a pan and add the ground paste of onion-tomato-cashew–ginger-garlic. Cook the gravy with turmeric, bay leaf, garam masala, chili, cumin powder, coriander powder, salt and water for 5 minutes. Now add heavy cream and simmer for another 3 minutes or until the gravy reaches desired consistency. Switch of the flame.

When you are ready to serve add kofta in sauce and garnish with chopped coriander.

For Kashmiri poori

In a large bowl sift together, wheat flour and salt and set aside. To this add yeast, ghee and fennel seeds and mix well and set aside. 

Gradually add milk and water to wheat flour-fennel seeds-yeast salt mixture to form smooth dough. Knead well for fifteen minutes until the dough become soft and shiny. Keep the dough in bowl coated with oil. Cover with plastic wrap of damp cloth for four to six hours or overnight. (I kept it in refrigerator for overnight. Bring it to room temperature and set aside for another 2 hours before you make the puri). Divide the dough into 15 small golf sized balls. Roll out each ball into a four-inch diameter round puri and set aside.

Heat oil in thick bottomed pan when it reaches 375 F, fry one puri at a time until they puff up well and become golden brown color on both sides. Using slotted spoon drain them into a paper towel 

Serve hot with kofta curry. Enjoy.

 Crust and inside of Puri

Preparation time:
For kofta: 1 hour, Sauce: 25minutes, Kashmiri puri/poori: Overnight for doubling+ 1hour and 25 minutes
Yield: Kofta,14 no Puri/pooi: 15 no. Sauce : 6 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make again: Yes I will

Swathi

Anadama bread

If you want to bake the simplest bread, then it is Anadama bread. It consists of a few ingredients blended together to form a good sandwich bread. One important component that you need is a soaker made of cornmeal. You have to soak cornmeal in water, the day before you want to bake the bread. Most of the time I would forget to soak anything the night before, like the other day I had to wake up around 1 clock in the night to soak urad dal and rice for dosa/rice lentil crepe (a savior during the breakfast, dinner times). From this episode you can see that how cautious I am in soaking my grains. Because I would forget the soak the corn meal, making of this bread was delayed for a long time.

Finally the day before yesterday I was able to make the soaker, and made the bread the next day. Anadama bread is traditional bread from New England .It is mostly served as warm breakfast toast. There is a funny story behind the name of this bread. It goes like this” "A fisherman, angry with his wife, Anna who is not interested in much cooking, served him nothing but cornmeal and molasses porridge every evening. One day, he added flour and yeast to porridge and baked the mixture as bread, while cursing, "Anna, damn her."The result was tasty, sweet bread. If you want read more about this bread from here. And here.

I stopped buying bread from stores and have resorted to baking it, this way we were able to taste all kinds of breads. Further when warm bread comes out of oven, satisfaction which I get is not easy to put in words. Because of this, my poor hubby has to taste all kinds of bread, whether likes or not. He is good taste tester though and gives frank opinion. I used the recipe from the book The bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart I like his book, it is straight forward one, no confusion, and easy to follow. I want to taste the original bread, and hence strictly followed the recipe. Result was chewy, tasty, dense bread. Mine was not dark as it was supposed to be, may be the molasses that I used is not giving the much color. If you like dense bread give it a try to this recipe. 

What you need

For Soaker

Coarse cornmeal /polenta: 2/3 cup

Water: 2/3 cup at room temperature

For Dough

Unbleached bread flour: 3 cups ( I used King Arthur flour)

Salt: 1 1/4 teaspoons

Active dry yeast: 1 1/2 teaspoons

Molasses: 4 tablespoons

Water: 1 ½ cup luke warm ( 90 0 F to 100 0 F)

Shortening: 1 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon at room temperature.

Corn meal for dusting ( optional)

How I made

For soaker. Day before making the bread, in a small bowl mix the cornmeal and water Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature overnight to initiate enzyme action.

On the day of bread baking : for dough

In a bowl of an electric stand mixer, stir together the 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the yeast, soaker and water. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and ferment for 1 hour, or until the sponge begins to double.

Add remaining 2 ½ cups of flour, the salt, molasses and shortening and stir or mix on low speed with paddle attachment until the ingredients form a ball. Add water if necessary to make soft, slightly sticky mass.

Change to dough hook and knead the dough for about 6 to 8 minutes in the electric mixer and then knead using hand for another 3 minutes to form a firm, supple and pliable non sticky dough. The dough should pass the window pane test and register 77 to 81 F. If you are kneading by hand it takes about 15 minutes of kneading. 

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Ferment at room temperature it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size.

Remove the dough from the bowl into slightly floured area and degas it and Shape the dough into loaf, and place them into lightly oiled loaf pan. Mist the top of the loaf with spray oil and loosely cover the tops with plastic wrap. Proof the dough at room temperature for 70 minutes, or until the loaf crest fully above the tops of the pans. (If you want to hold back any of loaf, place them in the refrigerator without proofing, where they will hold, or retard, for up to 2 days. Remove them from the refrigerator about 4 hours before baking and proof them at room temperature or until ready).

Pre heat the oven to 350F with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Place the pans on a sheet pan and remove the plastic wrap. Mist the tops with spray of water and dust with corn meal

Place the sheet pan in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Rotate the sheet pan for even baking and continue to bake for another 20 minutes or until the loaf are golden brown, including along the sides and bottom and register at least 185 F to 190 F in the center and make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

when the loaf is finished baking, remove them immediately from the pan and cool on rack for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, before slicing and serving.

This bread is going to This week's Yeast spotting by Susan of Wild  Yeast.

Also to Dish name starts with A  by Akila  of Learning to cook

Preparation time: soaker: over night, Dough: 16 minutes, First rise: 1 hour 45 minutes ; Second rise: 70 minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

Verdict: Tasty

Will you make it again: Yes I will

 Swathi

Mullapicha pattani Sundal/ Sprouted green peas stir fry

Evening snack is major problem in my house. After coming home from work, hubby likes to munch on something with his favorite tea. Store bought crackers and chips are okay for a day or two. If you give him the same dish two days in row he won’t say I don’t need it, but would say I need only the tea no snack. This means that he doesn’t need the snack; he doesn’t like the one you are giving. He is good in putting it very politely that you won’t realize that he actually telling the opposite.

Then my job is to hunt some snack recipes for our tea. I make fried plantain fritters, boiled plantain, fried onion fritters etc. Now days I become slightly calorie conscious, so does few deep fried items. I can’t abandon them from the kitchen as they are really yummy. I tried to discover deep fried ones in baked forms. Some are good; still you can’t compare remakes with original.

Snack in a jiffy according to mom is making some sundal. Sundal traditionally prepared during Navarathri a 9 day festival in the month of October-November every year. During that festival in every house they make different kinds of sundals. Sundals are cooked legumes with seasoning like mustard seeds and coconut. There are two varieties of sundal one is sweet version made with jaggery/brown sugar, and the savory version is made with adding mustard seeds and red chilies. During childhood days, we will go to each house and ask aunt’s what type of sundal they have made for the day. If they make sweeter version, we will try to get some portion of it. Savory then was not in demand. 

However, nowadays I make savory sundal most of days for our evening tea. Occasionally I would make sundal with sprouted beans too. I have tried sprouting of chickpeas, moong dal, and green peas. I have not yet tried other legumes. I will try them in future, because I need snack for my tea. Sprouting requires time, first day you soak, next day keep them wrapped in damp cloth in colander, and occasionally water them to prevent from drying. But, it is really fun to watch them sprouting, every beans compete themselves to sprout at single rate. By 4-5th day sprout will be reasonable size and available to make dishes with them. Sometimes I feel bad, as sprout is meant by nature for plant to reproduce and we are consuming it. If I am going to worry too much I won’t able to make healthy dishes, so I ignore this feeling most of times.

According to Wikipedia Sprouts contains higher energy, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, and phytochemicals, necessary for a germinating plant to grow. I have read that sprouting peas will increase the sweet content. When root reaches 2 inches long they read to consume and require only 5 minutes cooking read more from here.

This is simple dish you can put it in 15 minutes. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

Sprouted green peas: 11/2 cup
Grated coconut: ¼ cup (I used fresh ones)
Red chilies : 2no ( halved into 2)
Salt: 1 teaspoon or to taste
Mustard seeds: ¼ teaspoon
Oil: 1 teaspoon (I used olive oil)












To sprout green peas

What you need
Green peas: 2 cup
Water: 6 cup
Water: 3 cup


How I made
For sprouting the green peas

Soak green peas in 6 cups of water for 24 hours, and then drain the water using a colander. Line the same colander with cheese cloth or muslin cloth and add soaked green peas and warp them in such way that peas will be covered with cloth and set aside in a kitchen table.

Every 7 hours wash colander containing peas should be rinsed with water and set aside. Continue this process until you will see sprouts. Normally it took about 4-5days. When roots are about 2 inches long they are ready to consume.

In a medium sauce pot add 3 cups of water , sprouted green peas and salt and cook for 12 minutes or until they are done but not mushy. 

In a small sauce pan heat oil and add mustard seeds, halved red chilies. Once mustard seeds starts spluttering add cooked sprouted peas and coconut and cook for 2 minutes with stir in between. Add salt if needed. Switch off the flame and enjoy warm

Preparation time: For sprouting: 4-5 days, cooking time: 15 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: Yes I will




Swathi

Kallappam/Palappam/ Laced Rice and Coconut pancake

The Kerala breakfast consists of puttu and payrau, dosa and chutney, idly and sambar and Kallappam/palappam with potato stew etc. If you are non-veggie, there will be meat dishes. Look closely at all these dishes, and you can find amazing combination of balanced carbohydrates and protein contents. Puttu and idly are steamed dishes, where as Dosa and kallappam are crepes and pancakes. 

As typical of a south Indian home, I usually would have dosa/idly batter in stock in my refrigerator. My little one loves Dosa but is not too fond of Idly. Amma used to makes dosa or idly every day and puttu and appam on weekend. I don’t have that luxury, so I make it whenever I get some time. I was planning to make this kallappam for long time, and finally made it for our dinner. Next agenda is to make famous vattayappam/ Steamed sweetened rice cake. 

Kallappam means pancake made from Toddy/ Kallu in Malayalam. Here getting “kallu” is not possible, instead I used yeast to help fermentation of pancake batter. I also used fresh coconut and coconut water along with cumin, cooked rice and some red onion. Usually shallots are used instead of red onion, which I didn’t have in my hand. When you give some job to yeast, if it likes it will work at its maximum ability and final product will be delicious laced pancake. Now I think I am establishing some friendship with yeast. Some places in Kerala this kallappam is also called pallappam, however amma make a different method for palappam using raw rice, some semolina, grated coconut and yeast. I used the kallappam recipe from this blog. You need a spicy curry to go along with it. I depend on my same old faithful chana masala you can try any curry you want. Here goes the recipe.

What you need

Raw rice: 2cups (soak the rice for about 6 hours or overnight)
Cooked rice: 1 cup
Grated coconut: 1 cup ( I used fresh )
Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon
Red onion: 1 tablespoon (use shallots if you have in hand)
Yeast: ¼ teaspoon ( I used active dry yeast)
Salt: ¼ teaspoon
Sugar: 1 teaspoon (if you want sugar add 1 more teaspoon)
Coconut water: 1 cup ( if you don’t have in hand, substitute with water)
Water: 3 tablespoon+ 4 cup water for soaking the rice



How I made

Soak the raw rice for 6 hours or overnight.

In a small bowl add 2 tablespoon of luke warm water, sugar and yeast set aside. 

Grind all ingredients expect salt, sugar and yeast into a fine paste.  To this add yeast sugar mixture and set aside for fermentation about 8 hours.

When you are ready to make the kallappam add salt  and set aside for 5 minutes.

Heat a griddle or skillet over medium low heat  until a drop of water sizzles when added. Then add  or brush the skillet with   one teaspoon oil  ( if you adding oil, you need to swirl the skillet to make it spread uniformly) to  prevent pancakes from sticking to the bottom. Using a ladle pour the batter into the pan.Cook the pancakes on 1 side until they are set by covering  with lid, after 1 ½ minutes flip the pancakes and cook until golden on both sides it takes another 1 ½ minutes. Transfer pancakes to a plate while you make the rest.

Enjoy with any spicy curry

Preparation time: 1 hour and 10 minutes+ 6 hour soaking time+ 8 hours fermentation time.
Yield: 18no
Verdict: Tasty
Will you make it again: yes I will


Swathi

Low Fat Blueberry Banana Oats Muffin

I like muffins, makes them occasionally too. Now I have new found fondness towards blueberries. Whenever, I see them I will buy them. I usually use them in smoothies and along with breakfast oat meal. If you ever had oat meal with strawberry and blueberry, they give wonderful make over to same jade breakfast cereals. I love to have with little yogurt and touch sweetness. Discoveries are needed in order to incorporate blueberries as much in the diet. As they are rich in antioxidant, it helps in lowering cholesterol and blood lipid levels thus reducing heart disease. Read more about blue berries from here .

In order to dress up my spotty bananas I decided to make them as muffins. Make them healthy I added agave nectar a natural sweetener instead of sugar read about them from here. Added yogurt, olive oil, rolled oats and lemon zest. I added one egg and one egg white. I have not much success with eggless cakes and muffins that is untouched territory to me. If you want to make these muffins healthier you can make without egg. As I used agave nectar for the first time, quantity I used is less, so muffins are lightly sweet. If you want you can increase the sweetness too. 

These are good for breakfast or as afternoon snack. This recipe is a keeper I am going to make these muffins more often as I have no problem in finding spotty bananas in my house (Most of time they are the problem). Only change will be availability of fresh berries, whatever available I am going to make with them. I think fresh berries are must frozen ones may not give out the flavors as fresh ones. Here goes the recipe

What you need

All purpose flour: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon ( I used King Arthur Unbleached Flour)
Whole wheat flour: ½ cup ( I used King Arthur 100%  Whole Wheat Flour)
Bananas: 2 medium
Egg: 2no (I used 1 whole egg and 1 egg white)
Lemon zest: 1 lemon
Rolled oats: 1/3 cup
Yogurt: 1/3 cup
Blueberries: 1 cup
Agave nectar: ¼ cup+1 tablespoon (if you are using sugar use ¾ cup) use more ( 1/4 cup) agave nectar for more sweetness
Salt: 1/8 teaspoon
Baking powder: 1 ½ teaspoon (I used aluminum free one)
Baking soda: 1 teaspoon
Extra virgin Olive oil: ¼ cup


How I made

Pre heat oven to 350  Fahrenheit and lightly oil and line the tins in muffin pan and set aside.

Wash and dry the blueberries using a paper towel, remove the stems add 1 tablespoon of flour and mix well and set aside.

Mash the bananas with fork and set aside,

In a large bowl sift all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt set aside.

In the bowl of Kitchen aid stand mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat the egg, egg white and agave nectar until everything gets combined well. It takes about 2 minutes. To this add yogurt, Vanilla and lemon zest and beat just until incorporated. Add the flour mixture, rolled oats (Keep aside 1 tablespoon rolled oats for garnishing the top of muffins) and stir just until everything gets incorporated. 

Gently fold in the mashed banana until everything gets combined well. To this add blueberries and gently fold again to combine that also.

Pour one tablespoon of batter into the prepared muffin tins. Garnish with rolled oats.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the cake portion comes out clean.

Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Yield; 12 no
Verdict: Yummy
Will you make it again: Yes I will

Swathi