Eggplant Sambal (Vegetarian /Vegan Version)

When I bought eggplant this week, I never thought that they going to become eggplant sambal. Actually I was thinking of making a theeyal or stir fry. Then how come they end up in sambal, yes there is reason for this. I borrowed a book from the library called “Singapore Cooking: Fabulous Recipes from Asia's Food Capital "   by Terry Tan  and Christopher Tan.It has big glossy pictures and looks like college biology text book. My hubby told me all of them are meat what do you want to do with it.

I told him, that I saw some vegetable dishes that I love to try. Since my fasting glucose is slightly creeping I decide to skip sweet dishes and plan to make only one sweet in a month. Rest of my adventures will be with savory. While going through the recipe it seemed too easy except for dried shrimp paste or belacan. When I looked at the substitution, if you are in Singapore then there will be vegetarian belacan paste which is available. Vegetarian belacan paste is fermented bean curd which has similar smell like the dried shrimp paste. 

Sambal is a chili based south east Asian condiment. It is popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, southern Philippines and Sri Lanka and also in Netherlands and Suriname. Simplest form of Sambal olek is made with chili peppers and salt. Other add on will be onion, garlic, lemon grass, lemon juice , tamarind , dried shrimp paste etc. When they add belacan/shrimp paste it become Singapore, Malaysian version. Sambal ikan bilis is made with anchovies in them. Sambal kemieri contains candle nuts.

I made sambal paste with less chilies and lemon grass.  Compared to 6 chilies used in the original recipe, I used two dried red chili and 1 teaspoon of paprika, with pearl onion/shallots, garlic, lemon grass ,soy sauce, tamarind paste and salt. My substitution for dried shrimp paste /belacan was soy sauce. Also added  one onion to sambal as I thought eggplant alone may not enough for making one dish. Pan fried eggplant give slightly smoky flavor along with spice paste, tamarind paste and touch of sugar made the dish slightly sour, sweet, spicy and salt. All the flavors  mingled and their marriage was awesome. Here goes my recipe. If you are lucky enough to find dried shrimp paste then it become authentic dish if not it become closer to authentic one. Usually sambal are enjoyed with rice. We enjoyed with our rotis for dinner.

One year ago:  Strawberry-orange-pineapple-smoothie
Print recipe from here
 
What you need

Recipe adapted from  “Singapore Cooking: Fabulous Recipes from Asia's Food Capital "   by Terry Tan  and Christopher Tan.

Eggplant:5 no ( I used Indian eggplant, sliced into thin long pieces of ½ inch thickness)
Onion: 1 cup (chopped into thin slices)
Paprika: 1 teaspoon
Tomato: 1 no
Tamarind paste: 1 teaspoon
Water: ¾ cup
Salt: ½ teaspoon
Olive oil: 2 tablespoon


Sambal spice paste

Dried red chili: 2no (If you want spicier increase the no up to 6 is fine, soaked in water 2 hours)
Pearl onions/ Shallots: 4no
Garlic: 2 cloves
Lemon grass: 1no
Water: 1 tablespoon

Yield: 2 tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon


How I made

In a small food processor or blender, grind or pulse the soaked dried chilies, pearl onions, garlic and lemon grass with 1 tablespoon of water to form a coarse paste and set aside.

In a small bowl extract the tamarind juice with ½ cup of water by heating the tamarind in a microwave safe bowl for 15 seconds. Strain the juice and discard the solids and set aside. 

In a skillet or pan add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and fry the thinly sliced eggplant for about ½ inch thickness. It took about 10 minutes in slow flame. When one side is cooked flip the other side and also cook well. Remove from the fire and set aside.

In the same pan add the  entire ground paste and fry for 3 minutes then add chopped onion and fry for 5 minutes. To this add chopped tomato,paprika, salt and tamarind juice extract cook for another 3 minutes or until tomato is softened and combined well. Then add soya sauce and sugar and cook for another 2 minutes. To this add pan fried eggplant and mix everything so that all the eggplant get coated with spice paste, or you can serve the warm spice paste top of pan fried egg plant. I mixed eggplant and spice paste so that it get well combined.

Enjoy with warm rice! We enjoyed with Chapathi

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Yield: 4 serving
Verdict: Yummy, Mildly spiced
Will you make it again : yes I will

I  am linking this egg plant sambal to  Gluten free wednesdays hosted by Linda
Full plate Thursday hosted by Miz Helen
World Food Thursdays#4 hosted by Hella delicious
Tracking Mark Bittman and his buddies#6  

Yeasted Coffee Cake With Guava Paste, Cream Cheese and Meringue Filling

This month’s daring baker’s challenge was to make yeasted coffee cake with meringue. First I was skeptical about using meringue in the cake. Finally after seeing lot of fellow baker’s clicks and results I decided to add meringue in my cake too. If you ask me whether this is a cake, I will say no, as it tastes and look more like bread with sweet filling.

Normally when I look at the challenges, first thing coming in the mind is that this is not my cup of tea and I am not going to make it. However when I saw this one, I liked it as it deals with yeast and making a bread. In my home, morning session is always starts with oatmeal not with cakes or quick bread. Indian breakfast dishes always become dinner dishes or weekend favorite. Last week I bought a guava paste. Every time walking through that aisle at the grocery store, I will take a look at guava paste and keep them back, but this time I finally bought it. I know guava paste or goiabada is widely used in South American cooking; in India, people from Goa also use them. However they are not popular in south India, we make preserve with jackfruit called chakka varatti. I kept the guava paste for two –three days in my kitchen table, my hubby was so curious to do a taste test. He asked me to open the packet and try it. To my surprise, it tastes similar to our chakka varatti or jackfruit preserve only difference it has flavor of Guava as supposed to be. I even asked him do you think it will be good candidate to make Payasam/pudding. His answer was try it then only you know the end result.

This coffee cake is from the recipe notes of Jamie’s father. Both Jamie of Life’s a Feast and Ria of Ria’s Collection are the hostess of this month has came up with two versions, the first one adds garam masala to chocolate filling, other just plain filling with chocolate and pecan. I made my own changes to recipe, used bread flour instead of all purpose flour and reduced the amount of butter and yeast. I added cardamom to the dough, cashew nuts to the filling and skipped adding any flavors to the filling. I know filling was flavorful by its own right. The cheese and guava paste is called Romeo Juliet in Brazilian cooking as they make a wonderful combination. The bread recipe was really good as it contains less butter and sugar compared to other recipes, so they are going to stick around for long time. I used only half of meringue than prescribed in the recipe. I don’t want to make wreath shape, so made it as loaf. Only difficulty I encountered was while rolling the dough it was not able to hold them tightly as it was heavily filled. Next time I will skip the meringue and go with only guava paste and cream cheese. Here goes the recipe.

One year ago:  Orange tian.
Print recipe from here
 
What you need

For yeast coffee cake dough
Bread flour: 2 cups (300 g) I used unbleached King Arthur bread flour
Sugar: 2 tablespoon (25 g)
Salt: ½ teaspoon (3g)
Instant yeast: 1 teaspoon( 3g)
Whole milk: 1/3cup (75g)
Water: 1/4cup (55g)
Unsalted butter: 3 tablespoon (40 g) at room temperature
Large egg: 1 no at room temperature
Cardamom: 3 no ( Crushed into fine poweder)

For the meringue

Egg white of 1 large egg: I used ½ the amount
Sugar: 1 teaspoon

For the filling
Guava paste: ½ cup (125g)
Water: 2 tablespoon
All purpose flour: 1 tablespoon ( 18g)
Cream cheese: 2.5 oz ( bring to room temperature or microwave high at 15 seconds to soften)
Sour cream: 1/8 cup/41g
Cashew nuts: 1/3 cup ( 39g) chopped into fine pieces.

Egg wash: 1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoon of water

How I made

For prepare the dough:

In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 cups (300 g) of the bread flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.

In a microwave safe bowl combine the milk, water and butter and heat high for 20 seconds or until warm and the butter just gets melted. Set aside until it gets cooled for 10 seconds. 

In a bowl of kitchen aid stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment add bread flour, the sugar, salt, crushed cardamom, yeast and add milk –water –butter mixture and egg combine everything to form shaggy wet dough. Loosely cover and set aside for 30 minutes to autolyse.

After 30 minutes, knead the dough to 8-10 minutes to form smooth, elastic dough. Transfer the dough to well oiled bowl and coat the dough with oil by rolling it in all sides. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for fermentation for 1 hour 50 minutes. After 1 hour of fermentation, fold and punch down dough and set aside for rest of fermentation.

Prepare your filling:

In a microwave safe small bowl, combine the guava paste and water heat at high for 30 seconds or until guava paste melt to form a jam like consistency. 

In a medium bowl beat room temperature cream cheese, sour cream and all purpose flour to smooth consistency without any lumps and set aside. 

Once the dough has doubled after 1 hour 50 minutes, make the meringue.

In a clean metal bowl add egg white and beat first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add a teaspoon of sugar, as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form. Set aside. 

Assemble the Coffee Cake:

Line a baking/cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Then spread cream cheese and guava paste evenly over the top of meringue one by one. Sprinkle chopped cashew nuts evenly over the filling. 

Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheet, seam side down. Seal the ends together. Keep aside for second rise for about 45 minutes or until they double in size.

By the end of second rise, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Keep an empty broiler pan in the lower rack of oven. Add boiling hot water into the broiler pan when you are ready to bake the bread. (This will create steam, necessary to make the thick crust).

When you are ready to bake make score the bread with 3-4 diagonal slit and brush the tops of the coffee cake with the egg wash. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.

Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.

Just before serving, if you wish dust the tops of the coffee cake with confectioner’s sugar . These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Want a bite?

Preparation time: 3 hours and 45 minutes
Yield: 1 coffee cake
Verdict; Delicious
Will you make it again: Yes I will

I am linking to Hearth and  Soul Hop #41
Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays: 26 hosted by Rebecca Jean of Midnight Maniac
My Meatless Mondays hosted by Chaya of My Sweet and Savory
Just another meatless Mondays hosted by Laura of  Heywhatsfordinnermom
Tuesday night supper club #34 hosted by  Christy
Delectable Tuesdays 
Tempt my tummy Tuesdays  hosted by Lisa
Yeast spotting
Crazy about cakes event hosted by Priya 

Hearth and Soul Hop #41

Welcome to the Hearth and Soul Hop #41

Welcome to another edition of Hearth and Soul  blog hop. As usual I am expecting , wonderful tasty food with favorite moments, stories   etc. Come and join us for  an unique  search for real  food.Real tasty food is always quite a challenge.  From now onwards linky will be open for some more time so that  you don't need to worry about missing the chance to link your favorite food to the Hearth and Soul  blog hop.  Your team of host will be

Alex at A Moderate life
Christy at Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy
Jason at Alternative Health and Nutrition
Alea of Premeditated Leftovers
April of 21st Century Housewife
Michelle of Fit Foodista
Kankana of Sunshine and Smile
and me
Swathi of Zesty south Indian Kitchen


  I look forward to wonderful link ups with awesome real food. Check out our Hearth and Soul Hop blog for past hop as well as mission statement. You can still link up through one of the hosts OR you can link there.

Thanks for stopping by and linking the great real food. I am looking forward to a wonderful array of linkups for this week. Also thanks for just checking back the real soul food links. 

Hearth and Soul Mission:

Food from your hearth, to feed your soul. Food that follows your intuition. Preparing food from scratch to nourish your family…body, mind AND soul! Food made with your own hands…infused with energy and passion and intent. Real food made by real people to feed real families (big and small, in blood or spirit). Ingredients from scratch, be it something grown in your garden or raised on your land…food foraged in the field or woods…food from local farms, farmers, or farmers markets…or even ingredients chosen by you from your local market that will be turned into something that feeds your soul. Tapping the food memory that each of us has stored inside; letting it guide and influence our own time in the kitchen.

We hope to embrace not only the “expected” areas of real food, but also those who want to incorporate healthier choices without sacrificing their love of food…how it tastes, the memories it conjures up, the comfort it brings. Yes, we’re trying to steer clear of packaged, processed, and boxed foods in favor of real foods….without absolutely excluding the sometimes frowned upon white sugar or flour (because the body craves what it craves…and sometimes things just don’t taste the same when you replace these). Making conscious choices and being present in the now with what your body needs…and taking steps towards exploring and enjoying healthier choices. If you take the time to listen, your body will tell you what it needs.

The warm comfort of the home hearth…stories, anecdotes, lessons, adventures, journeys, recipes, meals, beverages…we want to share the “why” of how food feeds more than just our bodies…how it also feeds our souls. After all, aren’t these the essential ingredients in defining real food? Please share links from your Hearth ‘n Soul with us each week.

Rules for linking

-One link per week, please-Must include a link back to one/any of the host sites (through worded link or badge) in individual post, not on sidebar…although we love having links on your page, as well (this benefits all of us). You will be sent a gentle reminder if no link is added to your post, we understand that sometimes people forget…but if it becomes a regular occurrence, (even though we don’t like to do it) your post may be removed. It’s just not fair to those who do take the time and show the grace to link back.

-Try to link a post that you think fits into the mission. You don’t have to link up every week,link up when you can. We welcome posts that are shared in other events. If you have an older, archived post that you want to add, we welcome that…as long as you go in and add a link back to Hearth and Soul.

Please feel free to grab the Hearth and soul blog hop badge, that will help to spread the word.

<a href="http://kitchenswathi.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f290/rrocknrollgoddess/Blog%20photos/HearthandSoulBadge-1.jpg" alt="Hearth and Soul Hop at Zesty South Indian Kitchen" width="135" height="135" /></a>

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50. Brownie Cut Out Bunnies

51. Chickpea Salad

52. Artichoke, Feta, and Lemon Fritters

53. Paneer Bhujiya

54. Chinese Three Cup Chicken Stirfry!

55. Mini Sausage Meatball Minestra

56. Tortellini Soup

57. Homemade Free-Range Chicken Broth!

58. Oven Roasted Chinese Chicken Wings

59. Onion Braised Beef Roast

60. Honey Brownies

61. Thick & Crunchy Peppermint Mocha Ice Cream Shake

62. Sugar Cookies For Easter

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64. "Cool Ranch" Popcorn

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