Chocolate Éclairs With Eggless Orange Cardamom and Mocha Pastry Creams: Daring Bakers Challenge August 2008

Its another Daring Bakers challenge and this time its something French. Our hosts this month, Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey? and Tony of Tony Tahhan set us to bake some chocolate éclairs from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé. Éclairs are made from baked choux pastry, filled with pastry cream and decorated on top with a chocolate glaze or ganache (I’m sure there are few of us who need this explanation). And for the first time since I joined the Daring Bakers, I really didn’t have any problems with the challenge. Everything turned out just right. I almost couldn’t believe it!
Another first for me. I know what chocolate éclairs are and have seen them decorating the shelves in many a bakery. But I have never eaten one before this challenge. As odd as this seems, I really don’t like cake or confectionery filled or decorated with cream or frosting/ icing and such sweet stuff. I have found the home-made versions of these quite nice, but even then I limit myself to small portions.

Before I proceed, I have to mention that my home computer succumbed to a viral infection and had to be taken to the doctor. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t backed up my pictures so they’re all on my machine and I am posting only the two pictures I had put up at the Daring Bakers forum. The good news is that my computer has recovered and will be coming back home tomorrow and I shall add other pictures to this post then. If there is anyone out there who hasn’t backed up their pictures (I have backed up my posts and have learnt my lesson well), then this is the time to do so.
Update (1st September, 2008): My computer is back and I have updated this post with more pictures.

A printable version of the recipe can be found here.

My French Éclair Experience:

Éclairs consist of three elements- the Pate a Choux or Choux/ Cream Puff pastry, the pastry cream and a chocolate glaze. For this challenge, we were to follow the Choux pastry recipe but were allowed to get creative with the pastry cream and glaze/ ganache as we retained one chocolate element in either.

Cream Puff Dough:

After hearing that many fellow DBs felt their Choux pastry had an “eggy” taste, I reduced 1 egg. This was partially also because of health reasons and partially due to the fact that the éclairs would have no takers. The Choux pastry was easy to make. The only problem was with piping them out.

I really did not have any idea as to how much they would puff up so I ended up piping out rather mini-sized éclairs and some profiteroles as well. I have a table top convection oven so I baked the éclairs and profiteroles at 190C for 25 minutes straight (they needed this long to brown) and then made small slits on the side as soon as they came out of the oven, to release the steam.

They did puff up really well with a huge empty pocket in each. I was quite thrilled to see that they came out well. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of the monsoons here and humidity is pretty high, so the profiteroles started becoming soft after a while. Looks the weather here is never appropriate for the month’s challenge. Usually I battle with weepy buttercreams because of the warm tropical temperatures!

Chocolate Pastry Cream:

Since we were allowed to experiment here (and given the number of eggs that went into the Choux), I decided to try making eggless pastry creams. Being new to this, I searched the net for a good recipe but found only vegan versions, most of which used alternative ingredients not available here. So I came up with a recipe of my own. Nothing extraordinary, I just used the recipe provided and added some cornstarch and left out the eggs. I made a mocha version and an orange version.

Eggless Mocha Pastry Cream:


Ingredients:

1 cup + 3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

½ cup chopped up bittersweet chocolate

1 ½ tbsp salted butter

3 tsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 2 tsp milk


Eggless Orange Cardamom Pastry Cream:


Ingredients:

1 cup + 3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

½ cup chopped up white chocolate

1 ½ tbsp salted butter

3 tsp orange rind

1tsp orange essence

½ tsp powdered cardamom


Method:

In the case of both the pastry creams, melt the chocolate and butter in a pan over hot water. In another pan, dissolve the sugar in the milk (and coffee for the mocha version) and bring to boil. Take the milk mixture off the heat. Add the melted chocolate and the corn starch dissolved in 3 tbsp of milk. Whisk well till everything is blended. Add the remaining ingredients and put back on the stove and keep whisking till the pastry cream thickens. Cool and refrigerate till needed. This pastry cream pipes well.

Chocolate Glaze:

I used the recipe given, with the chocolate sauce, but halved the quantity and used 25% fat cream instead of heavy cream which is not available here.

Assembling the éclairs:

No problems here, just followed the instructions. It was when I was piping the pastry cream into the éclairs that I realized that the cavities inside them can hold a whole lot of pastry cream!

I used a chocolate glaze for the orange cardamom pastry cream filled ones and a white chocolate glaze for those filled with mocha pastry cream. I just lightly dusted the filled profiteroles with powdered sugar. You can see my profiteroles have become a bit soft due to the humidity.

Verdict:

Ok, so I can make a good Choux pastry now, and without getting the “Choux on my shoes” as Alton Brown would say! I also have a recipe for Eggless Pastry cream now. Not bad, I guess.

Despite reducing one egg, we still got an “eggy” taste and smell from the éclairs, though the”eggy” taste did diminish a bit after filling the éclairs. So I don’t think I would make these, unless I can find an eggless recipe or one that uses maybe 1 egg, but I guess then it wouldn’t be quite a Choux pastry.

Personally, even then, I’m not sure I would be able to manage the amount of pastry cream that goes into each even with the temptation of the chocolate. But I’m sure my husband and daughter would definitely be ready to try the eggless version. I’m going to be checking the eggless versions that our alternative/ vegan Daring Bakers would have come up with.

I have to thank Meeta and Tony for expanding my baking repertoire with this challenge; after all, I am a Choux Pastry maker now! Do step across to my fellow Daring Bakers blogs to see some very creatively presented Eclairs and keep watching for what we’re going to be baking next month. See you all then.

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Multi-Wholegrain Flour Bread

I recently bought the Tassajara Bread Book and was going through it when I saw variations of their basic bread recipe using various flour combinations. So I got a little adventurous and decided to experiment with some wholegrain flours I had in my kitchen while following the basic recipe from the book. I was very pleasantly surprised with the results.

My bread was surprisingly soft and crumby with a soft crust. I say “surprisingly” because I thought the flours I used would give me a very dense bread. Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp active dry yeast

1 tbsp honey

1 ¼ cup warm water

2 ½ cup wholewheat flour

½ cup corn meal

½ cup oats

1 tbsp amaranth flour (rajgire atta)

1 tbsp soya flour

2 tbsp skim milk powder

1 ½ tsp salt

1 tbsp oil

sesame seeds or nigella seeds for topping (optional)


Method:

In a big vessel, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add the honey and 1 cup (of the 2 ½ cups) of wholewheat flour and mix well to form a thick batter. Now beat the batter well, using a wooden spoon. The book says 100 strokes but I must have done about 40 or so. Cover this and allow it to rise for about 45 minutes.

Now add the salt, oil, remaining wholewheat flour (keep aside 2 tbsps for dusting when kneading the dough), the other flours and milk powder. Add enough water to make a dough that is firm. I did this part in my food processor. Then tip out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead by hand, adding a tsp of water at a time until the dough is smooth and just beginning to feel a little sticky.

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to this, cover and allow to rise till double. I had to go out at this point, so I kept it in the fridge and took it out after about 5 hours, by which time it had risen perfectly. It should take about an hour or so, if kept outside at room temperature. Of course, I live in a warmer climate! The book recommends two rises, but I did it only once. Please keep it for the second rise if you prefer, I shall the next time I bake this bread. After the rise, lightly press down the dough and shape into loaves and/ or rolls. I divided the dough into two halves (approximately) and made one small loaf and 6 rolls.

Lightly oil your loaf tin and muffin tins (for the rolls). Put the shaped dough into these and allow to rise for about 25 minutes. You can brush the tops with egg wash. I used milk and sprinkled the top of my loaf with white sesame seeds and the rolls with nigella (kalonji) seeds .

Bake the loaf at 180C for about 50 minutes to an hour and the rolls for 30 to 35 minutes till they’re golden brown. Remove and cool on a rack. This bread is very nice when warm and best eaten the same day. It tends to dry out and become a bit hard the next day.

Even though I did not make this bread with BBD in mind, since it fits in with the theme of “100% Wholegrains”, I’m sending this over to Jude of Apple Pie, Patis and Pate.

I’m also sending this to Sia at Monsoon Spice who is hosting Indira’s JFI this month where the theme is “Soya”. I’m sure this is not quite what Sia had in mind when she announced the theme, but I’m hoping she will accept this bread because it does have a bit of soya flour in it.

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Vellayaappam (Lacy Yeasted Rice Pancakes) And A Mixed Vegetable Stew (In Coconut Milk)

Printable version here.


Vellayaappam and Stew (usually a Potato Stew which is locally referred to as “Ishtoo”) is a favourite combination for breakfast in Kerala. It is also one of our favourite Sunday breakfasts and occasionally makes it to our dinner table as well. While I usually make the potato stew to serve with the vellayaappam, I sometimes used a combination of mixed vegetables in the stew just for a change.

Vellayaappam is a leavened rice and coconut/ coconut milk pancake and the traditional leavening agent is toddy tapped from the coconut trees, which are plentiful in Kerala. Since any form of alcohol never makes an appearance in our homes, yeast is the choice of leavening in this recipe. The yeast (or coconut toddy) and the special pan, called an “Aappachatti”, in which the pancakes are cooked result in a spongy centred pancake with a beautiful lacy and crisp edge. By the way, the “vella” in the Vellayaappam means white while “aappam refers to any spongy steamed (and sometimes fried) preparation made from a batter where rice is the main ingredient.

The Aappachatti (meaning vessel for cooking the Aappam) is a small wok-like pan with a lid and non-stick versions are available today, so making these pancakes is easy with a bit of practice.

Ingredients:

For the Vellayaappam:


1 ½ cups raw rice

1 ½ tsp dry active yeast

2 tsp sugar

½ cup of coconut water (plain water)

1 ½ tbsp cooked rice

½ tsp salt

About ½ cup thick coconut milk or freshly grated coconut



Method:

If you are preparing these pancakes for breakfast, the preparation has to be done the previous night. Soak the raw rice in water for about 3 hours. Drain and keep aside. Then dissolve the yeast and sugar in the coconut water or plain water (at room temperature) and allow the mixture to froth (about 10 to 15 minutes). Now grind drained rice to a smooth batter using the yeast mixture. If you are using freshly grated coconut instead of coconut milk, then add to the batter and grind well. Add enough water to make grinding comfortable but ensure the batter is on the thicker side, consistency-wise. When the batter is almost done, add the cooked rice and grind well so everything is blended.

Pour the batter into a vessel, cover, and allow it to ferment overnight. Next morning, add the coconut milk (if using this, otherwise use water or a mixture of water and milk), salt and some water, if necessary, to dilute the batter to a somewhat thin batter (a little thicker than milk).

Heat the “aappachatti” (mine is non-stick), put a few drops of oil into it and wipe using paper towel so that a thin film of oil remains in the vessel. Turn the heat down to low and pour a small ladle of the batter (about 3 to 4 tbsp in quantity) in the middle of the pan. Now hold the pan by its ears/ handles, lift it off the stovetop and tilt the “aappachatti” in a cicular motion so that the batter is spread all over the pan, just short of the edges. Put the pan back on the stovetop. The excess batter will settle back in the centre of the pan creating a thick middle and thin lacy edges to the pancake. Now cover the pan and allow to cook for a couple of minutes. All this has to be done very quickly as the batter cooks very fast.

After a couple of minutes lift the lid. The centre should have cooked and puffed up a bit. If not, cover and cook for another minute taking care that the edges do not brown. Using a thin spatula, dislodge the pancake and remove. Repeat with the remaining batter and use it up.

Serve these Vellayaappams hot with the stew. They don’t taste too good cold. This batter should make about 15.


Mixed Vegetable Stew:

As I mentioned before, I’m using mixed vegetables here. If you wish to make the Potato Stew, just substitute the vegetables with potatoes and the rest of the recipe is the same.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups diced mixed vegetables (I used potatoes, green peas, French beans, carrots and sweet corn)

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

2 tsp oil

1 ½ tsp mustard seeds

2 tsp minced ginger

2 or 3 green chillies, slit lengthwise

1 sprig curry leaves

4 cloves

3 pods cardamom

1 ½” piece cinnamon

¾ cup coconut

1 tsp rice flour

salt to taste


Method:

I usually cook the vegetables in the microwave. I MW them at 100% for about 8 minutes. Otherwise, cook them as below.

Heat the oil, and add the mustard seeds. When the splutter add the cardamom (split the pod open and add whole), cloves and cinnamon (broken smaller). Stir twice and then add the ginger, chillies and onions and sauté till the onions are translucent. Add the vegetables and curry leaves and a cup of water and the salt. Bring to boil. If using uncooked vegetables, turn down the heat and allow them to cook till soft but not mushy. Otherwise, simmer for about five minutes.

Mix the rice flour in the coconut milk and add to the vegetables mixing quickly. The rice flour thickens the gravy and ensures the coconut milk does not split. Turn down the heat and once it starts boiling, take it off the heat. The stew should now be a slightly thick coconut milk gravy with vegetables in it.

This serves three very comfortably.

This is my submission to Nandita's WBB which is being hosted by Masala Magic this month, with a theme of “Combination breakfasts”.

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Jowar Roti (A Indian Sorghum Flatbread)

Printable version here.

The past week has been quite eventful for me. It all started on last Friday night. We were having guests for dinner on Saturday and it was my husband’s birthday on Sunday. I had planned to make a Black Forest cake (a favourite of his) but that story will keep for another post.

I was getting our dinner together on Friday night when a bee flew in through the kitchen window (yes, at night) and stung me on my upper eyelid. It took two visits to the doctor, an injection and some medication to get rid of the pain and swelling in my eye! The dinner guests were taken care of as my husband pitched in with the cooking and washing up.

That’s when our home computer succumbed to a viral infection and is now getting checked out by its doctor. Hope fully it shall recover by this weekend or else I’m in trouble. I might end up losing a lot of my pictures (don’t ask what I was doing by not backing them up) and am just hoping those guys looking into the computer will be able to recover everything for me. So I might not be making it to all your blogs very regularly till our machine comes home.

Today’s post is a Bread Baking Day post. This is one event I try not to miss and this month is no exception. This month’s BBD #13 is being hosted by Jude of Apple Pie, Patis and Pate and the theme is “100% Wholegrains”, so no refined flours but only whole grain flour to be used in baking bread. Other than whole wheat flour and oats, I’ve never tried using any other such flour in bread. A popular whole grain flour suggested in many bread books is rye, but this is not available here. I couldn’t really decide on what to bake when it struck me that a lot of our Indian flatbreads (such as rotis and bhakris) are made with whole grain flours like bajra (pearl millet), ragi (finger millet) and jowar (a type of sorghum) to mention a few.

Jowar Roti is an unleavened Indian flatbread which is made from Jowar, a grain similar to Sorghum. The flour is gluten-free and so making these rotis (chapattis) is not as easy as making whole wheat rotis/ chapattis. Despite not containing gluten, Jowar rotis are quite soft and have a somewhat nutty flavor. Traditionally, eaten for lunch or dinner with a dollop of unsalted home-made butter and garlic chutney, these rotis can be served with any vegetable “curry” or subzi.

Ingredients:

2 cups Jowar flour (atta)

3 cups of water

½ tsp salt


Method:

Pour the 3 cups of water into a pan, add the salt and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat. Add the flour to the water and mix well with a spoon till the flour absorbs all the water and comes together as a ball of dough. Allow this to cool enough to be handled comfortably. Tip the dough onto your worksurface or a large plate and knead the dough by hand till soft and smooth (about 3 to 5 minutes).

Divide the dough into 15 balls. If the dough is sticky, lightly wet your hands with water before forming the dough into balls. Traditionally, these balls are flattened using wet fingers into very thin rounds, but this is a practiced art.

Instead, cut a piece of aluminium foil about 9” by 9”. Lightly grease the surface of the foil with a few drops of oil. Place this on your work surface and roll a ball of dough on the greased foil, using a rolling pin, into a round approximately 6” in diameter. Dust very lightly with some Jowar flour, if needed, while rolling out the dough. Keep the other balls of dough covered during this time.

Heat an iron griddle or non-stick pan. When hot enough, turn the heat down to medium. Place the foil with the rolled out dough on your left palm with the dough side facing down. Using your right hand, slowly peel off the foil so that the roti is resting on your left palm. Now flip the roti onto the griddle or pan. Sprinkle or spray the top of the cooking roti (this is done only on one side of each roti) to just moisten it.

When the roti looks cooked and starts developing brownish spots, turn it over so the other side can cook. Fold a clean kitchen towel into a pad and using this press down on the roti in short intervals, along the circumference and the middle. This ensures that the roti puffs up and also cooks well. This can be uncomfortably hot work if you are not used to it. You may do this using a spatula with a long handle.

Once the other side is also cooked, remove and keep aside. Repeat with the balls of dough. You may brush the top of each roti with unsalted butter or ghee (clarified butter). If served very hot, the butter or ghee can be avoided.
I have served these rotis with Tomato Chutney and also Oil-free Kabuli Channa.

This recipe makes about 15 Jowar rotis.

Do check out what's been baking at The World In Our Oven.

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CLICK: August 2008 – Citrus, A Mixed Vegetable Xacuti and Some Spring Onion Pancakes.

This is a post with one picture post and two recipe posts. Since all three are related in some way to Jugalbandi, they’re all under one header in one post.
First the matter of CLICK, the monthly photography theme is event. This month’s “Citrus” and this picture is my submission for the event.

Unravelled?

I was peeling an orange to decorate my chocolate mousse when inspiration struck me! How great, I’m not sure. But if someone else would have taken a picture of me (in the middle of the chocolate mousse-making mess, half peeled orange and a camera in hand) trying very hard to take the perfect(?) orange picture, it would definitely have had everyone in splits.

Mixed Vegetable Xacuti:

Zlamushka’s Tried and Tasted event is featuring Bee and Jai’s blog this month. Their blog, Jugalbandi, showcases their unique style of writing (whether about food or in general), their exotic garden produce and beautiful photography. If you haven’t seen the blog, then please go over and take a look and you won’t be disappointed.

They have an interesting variety of recipes but what caught my eye was the Xacuti. Xacuti is essentially a non vegetarian dish that Goa is famous for. Bee’s vegetarian version was just right for me. After doing some research, on the net and otherwise, I made a few changes and cooked up this version of a vegetarian Xacuti.We had it with Basmati rice. Each household/ recipe has its own version of the combination and amounts of ingredients that go into making the spice paste for Xacuti.

Bee used cauliflower and potatoes while I used a mixture of vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, some frozen peas and potatoes). My version can be found here.

Verdict:

It was good and tasted a lot like the vegetarian versions served at some of the better restaurants here. To describe it, I would say it tastes a lot like a Vegetable Kurma with a greater variety of spices. We think it would taste best served with rice based preparations like Idiyappam or Vellayappam.


Spring Onion Pancakes:

Bee's Spring Onion Pancakes was another recipe I had bookmarked to try out from Jugalbandi, as the idea of savoury pancakes appeals to me. I made some changes to this one too (I find it difficult to resist tweaking recipes!:D), to suit our taste.
I added some cornmeal, a tbsp of wheat bran, some mustard, asafetida and curry leaves to the pancake mixture. My versioncan be found here.

Verdict:

These pancakes made a tasty and filling breakfast, served with a spicy coconut chutney or powdered jaggery. You could try it with honey too, if you feel a pancake needs a sweet element to be perfect.

These two recipes are going over to be a part of Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen for this month's Tried and Tasted.

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Eggless Dark Chocolate and Orange Mousse

Printable version here.

The three of us love chocolate and I really cannot think of a better way to celebrate anything, food wise, than with chocolate. August is a month of celebrations in our home and Akshaya’s birthday in July starts off the festive season for us. From the 15th of August onwards, it’s the beginning of the end of the monsoons and time to celebrate traditional festivals, one after the other, and a couple of personal anniversaries too.
It was our wedding anniversary four days back. Wednesday was in the middle of the week and with my husband busy at work and daughter in the middle of reviews/ tests at school it wasn’t the best time for any kind of celebration. We shall celebrate it quietly, in our usual manner sometime this month. But I wasn’t going to let the day slip by without making an extra special dessert and the obvious choice was something “chocolate”. As a Scott Adams’ Dilbert says, “Life is unsure, eat dessert first”! We did have a good lunch first, though.

Most mousse recipes use eggs, or gelatin or agar. I wanted to avoid eggs, gelatin was out of question, and I didn’t have agar at home. So I came up with a recipe for a mousse without any of these. The mousse was absolutely delicious and creamy. The combination of a dense and very chocolatey mousse topped with a lighter orange mousse was really good. And the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate was balanced out by the sweetness of the orange mousse.

Ingredients:

For the dark chocolate mousse:
1 ½ cups chopped dark semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp butter (I used salted)
2 tbsp powdered sugar
5 tbsp water
200 ml cream (I used 25% fat)
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the orange mousse:
1 ½ cups chopped white chocolate
2 tbsp butter ( I used salted)
1 tbsp powdered sugar
5 tbsp orange juice
200 ml cream
zest/ rind from 1 orange
½ tsp orange essence

Method:

For the dark chocolate mousse:
Pour the cream into a bowl and beat with an electric beater till the cream fluffs up and forms soft peaks. Keep aside.
Put the chocolate pieces, butter and cocoa powder in a bowl and melt the chocolate over hot water. Once the chocolate has melted, whisk (by hand) the mixture so it is blended. Add the 5 tbsp water and continue whisking till the chocolate mixture is smooth. Take off the heat.
Adding water to the chocolate here will not cause it to seize. The butter added to the chocolate will ensure this. Normally, unsalted butter is used in most desserts. It is difficult for me to find this here. I also find that the salt in the butter balances out the extra sweetness in most desserts.
Now add the beaten cream and the vanilla essence and slowly fold in the cream into the chocolate mixture till well blended, trying to keep as much of the fluffiness in it as possible. Pour into 6 glasses and chill in the fridge.

Make the white chocolate mousse similarly, adding orange juice and orange zest.
White chocolate is usually sweeter, but the tang of the orange juice reduces the sweetness, so I added 1 tbsp of sugar here to adjust for that. You may choose to leave out the sugar.
Add the orange essence to the cream and make the mousse as above. Pour the orange mousse over the chocolate mousse in the glasses. Chill for at least 5 to 6 hours. Decorate as desired and serve.
This mousse serves 6.

Many people do not like white chocolate. You can make the chocolate orange mousse using the above ingredients for the dark chocolate mousse, substituting the water with orange juice and adding the orange zest and essence. Leave out the vanilla essence. You could also make this with milk chocolate instead of semi sweet chocolate but reduce the sugar to your taste.
Whichever way you choose to make it, orange and chocolate is an unbeatable combination.

Meeta’s latest edition of Monthly Mingle has a theme of Fruit and Chocolate and this mousse is perfect for it.

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Just 4 days to go!

This is just a final reminder that there are ony four days left for submissions to MBP: Fruit Fare. The deadline is midnight of the 25th August (whenever midnight is in your part of the world).
So all of you who planned to be a part of MBP and those who promised me those entries, I’m waiting for them or else the round-up for this edition of MBP might turn out to be a square-up!

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Tomato Rasam (A sort of Indian Tomato and Lentil Soup)

Printable version here.

That English translation of Tomato Rasam as soup is the closest I can come to describing Rasam. Rasam can also loosely translate as “enjoyment” or as “the essence of” something. Whatever the meaning I am, once again, in that minority of south Indians who does not like rasam. I can only assume that this could be partially because, in my mind, food served when one was ill. A milder and non-spicy form of Rasam was usually considered the most suitable (with rice) form of nourishment when one was ill with fever. And I’m sure this is true because Rasam is very easy to digest and the pepper and cumin in it would bring down the temperature of a fever. The other reason I don’t like it is because it is very watery in consistency and I don’t like my rice to be very wet with whatever gravy I’m eating it with.

There are many types of Rasam. Of these, some are made to be taken will with a fever and/ or a cold while others are served with a regular meal or festive meals called “Sadhyas”. In the scheme of being served at a festive Palakkad Iyer meal, a Rasam is served with rice and papads after the sambhar and rice but before the payasam (a milk or coconut milk based sweet Indian pudding also called Kheer in Hindi).

But please do not go by my dislikes. All the other people I know, except someone I met recently, love Rasam. My sister and daughter will not only have it with rice, but also follow this up with a glass of Rasam occasionally!

Here is the recipe for Tomato Rasam which I make the way my grandmother and mother have always made.

Ingredients:

3 medium sized tomatoes

¼ cup cooked and mashed red gram (tuvar/ thuvaraparippu) dal

a marble sized ball of tamarind

2 tsps of sambhar powder/ rasam powder (see below)

¾ tsp coriander powder (don’t use if you are using rasam powder)

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp powdered jaggery

salt to taste

1 ½ tsp ghee or oil

¼ tsp asafetida powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 big sprig curry leaves

1 ½ tbsp chopped coriander leaves


Method:

Blanch the tomatoes in 1 cup of boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes. Don’t throw away this water but use it to soak the tamarind. Remove the tomatoes from the water and peel off the skin. Cut the tomatoes into quarters, saving the pulp but throwing out the seeds. If all this seems like too much work, you can just cut the raw tomatoes into quarters and proceed from here onwards, but longer way makes for a tastier Rasam.

Pour the tamarind extract into a pan/ vessel and place on the stove. Add the tomatoes, curry leaves, turmeric powder and the salt and allow the tamarind and tomatoes to come to boil. Simmer for a few minutes till the tomatoes are cooked.

Add about ¾ a cup of water to the dal and mix it so it that it becomes a watery dal-water mixture. Add this and the powdered jaggery to the above tamarind-tomato mixture. Once it boils, let it simmer for about 5 minutes. If the Rasam seems too thick in consistency add a little water to adjust to desired thickness. Rasam should have the consistency of a clear soup.

Now add the sambhar powder and coriander powder, after dissolving it about 2 tbsps of water. This will ensure that the powders mix well in the rasam. Just let it simmer for a minute. Do not allow the Rasam to boil too long after this point or the flavours of the spices will not come through. Take off the heat and add the coriander leaves.

Just before serving, heat the ghee or oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the asafetida, take off the heat and pour this into the Rasam. Serve the Rasam hot, with rice, a tsp of ghee, pappad/ appalam (sun and a dried and deep fried crisps) dry vegetable preparation on the side.

This recipe will very comfortably serve 4.


Note:

Rasam can be made with Rasam powder which has roughly the same spices as Sambhar powder, just a little more coriander powder. I usually do not make my own Sambhar powder but buy it readymade (surprisingly for someone who makes a lot of other things at home, I know). I get a brand I’m satisfied with and find this easier to use. But the flavour and aroma of a Rasam made with the home-made powder is wonderful.

If you would like to make the Rasam powder at home, here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coriander seeds

½ tbsp red gram (chana/ kadala parippu) dal

½ tbsp yellow (tuvar/ thuvara parippu) dal

¼ tsp pepper

1 to 2 dry red chillies

½ tsp cumin seeds

Dry roast the above spices, till they give off an aroma. Take off the heat immediately, allow to cool a bit and grind into a powder.

The tomatoes in it lend this Rasam a lot of red colour so this goes to Harini, the Sunshinemom of Tongue Ticklers whose event Food In Colours is Red this month.


Donate For A Heart:

Anita Lakshmi is a 28 year old and suffers from Coronary Artery disease. She has two children, aged three and six, is financially dependent on her parents and is not getting any help from her husband. Surgery and other medical expenses are estimated to cost about Rs.5 to 6 lakhs (US$ 15, 000). Lakshmi's state of health requires her to undergo surgery as soon as possible.

Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons is organizing a fund raiser with some raffle prizes to raise as much as possible to help Lakshmi. It would be nice if we could all help any little way we can. You can make donations using the ChipIn button on her blog or through cheques in Indian rupees.

Further details are available at Srivalli’s blog.

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Aloo Methi Bonda (Batter Fried Spicy Mashed Potatoes) With Coriander-Mint Chutney And Grilled Bonda Sandwiches

Printable version here.

Y eah, we’re going to Anita’s,
Yeah, we’re goin to have a party……….
Before I get on to talking about the party, I just wanted to mention the question I had asked in the previous post.
Yes, it was a dried out coconut, also called copra, without the shell. I knew most of you would recognize it. I had tried to crack a coconut and the shell split to reveal a whole coconut! This usually happen when the coconut has been kept for a long time and the water inside it dries out. Copra is what coconut oil is extracted from. Copra is also used in various Indian dishes and also to make a very tasty dry chutney powder, which I shall post at a later date.

So, Anita is having an “Aloo Bonda” Party to commemorate the anniversary of A Mad Tea Party. When she issued the invite at her blog, I was suddenly reminded that it had been ages since I had made this perennial Indian favourite at home. And what better time than right now, when a hot deep fried snack is perfect in the monsoons.

An Aloo (meaning potato in Hindi) Bonda is a spicy mashed potato ball which is dipped in a chickpea flour batter and deep fried. This is a snack that has crossed state and language boundaries across India and can be found everywhere, masquerading in one form or the other. One such version is the famous “vada pav” where the aloo bonda is placed inside a small bun, a sort of local burger if you will.

Frankly, I’m not sure how a party could to survive on a surfeit of batter fried mashed potatoes, no matter how differently they’re dressed. But going by the fact that her last year’s party was a huge success, this one is sure to be loads of fun, given the enthusiasm of the host and many of the invitees. So I’m going over there with these delicious round little balls of spiced mashed potatoes, coated in batter and deep fried to a crisp golden brown.


Ingredients:


For the mashed potatoes:

2 cups mashed potatoes

¾ cup fenugreek leaves (methi), cleaned and chopped

2 big onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

2 tsp oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 ½ tsp black gram (urad) dal

¼ tsp asafetida

¼ tsp turmeric powder

1 ½ tsp cumin powder

¾ tsp chilli powder

1 tsp garam masala

salt to taste


For the batter:

1 cup chickpea (besan) flour

½ cup rice flour

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp chilli powder

½ tsp baking powder

salt to taste


Oil for deep frying


Method:

Mix all the ingredients for the batter with enough water to make a batter thick enough to coat the mashed potato balls for deep frying. Keep aside.

Add the chopped coriander, salt, turmeric, cumin, chilli and garam masala powders to the mashed potatoes and knead so that everything is well mixed.

Heat the 2 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, mix once and add the asafetida and immediately add the chopped onions and the ginger-garlic paste. Sauté till the onions are soft. Now add the fenugreek leaves and sauté till they wilt. Add the mashed potato mixture and mix till everything is well blended.

Take off the heat and allow to cool. Divide into 12 portions and roll each into a ball.

Heat the oil for deep frying. When the oil is almost at smoking point, dip each mashed potato ball into the chickpea batter and deep fry till golden brown and crisp. Drain the “bondas” on paper towels and serve warm with date- tamarind chutney and coriander-mint chutney, or coconut chutney or even tomato ketchup. I like them best without any accompaniment, just plain crisp bondas with hot masala chai preferably watching the rain.

For the Coriander-Mint Chutney:

A big bunch of coriander leaves

A small bunch of mint leaves

The juice of a lemon

2 to 3 green chillies

A pinch of sugar

Salt to taste

Grind all these together with very little water to a fine paste. This chutney should be prepared fresh and doesn’t really keep in the fridge. It keeps in the freezer for a week. Or you can mix leftover chutney to make sandwiches or add it to some butter to make a lovely herb butter.

If you have any aloo bondas left over after everyone has had a go (this does occasionally happen), then you can convert them into another version of “vada pav” or grilled bonda sandwiches. I did. I refrigerated the bondas and made the sandwiches the next day.

For one sandwich, spread some coriander-mint chutney on one side of two slices of bread. Place the aloo bonda between them and grill in your sandwich maker/ press till lightly browned. The sandwiches are ready and make a great snack.

RC at Red Chillies is hosting this month’s Herb Mania, where Fenugreek is the chosen herb. As these bondas will fit in with that theme, they’re heading there as well.

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A Question, A Couple of Long Due Memes and Some More Awards!

H ere’s the question.

Any ideas on what this could be? I'm sure everyone has the answer. It is edible and not of animal origin. This is still a vegetarian blog.

Meme(s):


Now for the memes. Allergy Mom of the Allergic Kid and Lynn of Lynn’s Cooking Blog had tagged me for a “Random Things” meme some time back. I have already done a version of this meme.  Two other bloggers tagged me for memes, one way back and the other pretty recently.

Before I go on with this post, let me warn you that this is going to be boring. Now, you can exit this page at this point or continue to torture yourself. You may want to find yourself a cup of tea/ coffee or something stronger to keep you awake if you choose to read on. Remember, I did warn you.

Since I have sat down to a non recipe post today I shall do both the memes here. I really can’t imagine why anyone would want to know about my dislikes. But Harini, the Sunshinemom of Tongue Ticklers did ask for this, so here goes.

As Harini herself said, hate is a negative emotion. I’m also not given to really hating but I do dislike many things, though I’m not sure I can find 10 dislikes!

1. I dislike hypocrisy. And I find it difficult to understand why people have to pretend to be something they are not. There is a dignity in being oneself.

2. I dislike having to make small talk and I’m terrible at it. So you know I’m not very good party material.

3. I cannot stand cockroaches. That’s not to say I like other vermin. Its just that I’m extra paranoid about you know what (as they keep saying in the Potter books). So if you are passing by close to where I am and hear an unearthly shriek (this doesn't happen very often, thank God), you know what I’ve (it could have been my daughter too) just laid my eyes on!

4. I don’t like having to pick up after others as much as I hate untidiness. Having to search for things drives me mad.

5. I dislike messily presented food and will not eat it even if it is ambrosia. I might change my mind on this if I didn’t have anything else to eat, who knows.

6. I don’t particularly like (and will avoid them if I can do it without making a fuss) dishes cooked with chenai (yam), vazhaikkai (raw plantain), chakkai (jackfruit), to mention a few. Difficult to believe I belong to Kerala, isn’t it?

7. I used to dislike people asking me why I stayed at home doing nothing (?), when I could be going to work doing some thing worthwhile. I stopped being bothered a long time ago. If those people cannot figure out that I was lucky to make such a choice and am actually happy with it, it’s their loss.

This is tough. It’s almost like figuring out answers to exam questions! I did try very hard with this one.

And this is where I hand in my answer paper!


The request for this Book meme came from Nidhi of Sizzling Bites. For this meme, one picks up the nearest book and opens it to page 123, finds the 5th sentence and posts the next three sentences.

If I picked up the nearest book, we would all get a lesson in Human Resource management, which I can assure you we don’t want.
So I went to the bookshelf and picked out one at random. So here is what follows the 5th sentence on page 123 in it.


1. I had brought the story to Morrie this morning because I wondered if Turner ever found himself in my old professor’s position, his breath disappearing, his body turning to stone, his days being crossed off the calendar one by one – would he really be crying over owning a network?

2. “Its all part of the same problem, Mitch”, Morrie said.

3. “We put our values in the wrong things and it leads to very disillusioned lives.”


This is an excerpt from "Tuesdays with Morrie – an old man, a young man and life’s greatest lesson" by Mitch Albom.

I have read the book, of course, and seen the movie in which Jack Lemon was brilliant as Morrie, Mitch’s former professor. The movie had me in tears and I very rarely cry watching a movie. Do read it if you can.

I have seen both these memes on so many blogs, that I’m not going to tag anyone.


The Awards:


For some time now, many fellow bloggers have been conferring this little blog of mine with various awards. They seem to think my blog is worthy of them (I would like to believe, naively perhaps). As far as I can see, most of these awards come with conditions attached to them, such as please pass these on to “x” number of bloggers and further conditions of linking back and forth. Fair enough, I guess this is all about spreading a bit of “link love” in a statistics driven blogger world.

I do not understand this business of conditional award conferring as it seems, to me, to defeat the very purpose of giving out a token of appreciation. Bee of Jugalbandi has a very interesting and humourous take on this.

Having said this, I believe that all those bloggers who passed on these awards to my blog did so in good faith because something on this blog appealed to them. My thanks to them all. As a mark of my appreciation of the awards given to this blog by fellow bloggers, I shall feature them here, but please do not misunderstand me because I do not pass them along.

As I was writing this post, Bharathy of Spicy Chilli has passed a bouquet of the above 3 awards to me. Thank you Bharathy.

And Harini of Tongue Ticklers has just passed on a "Blogging Friends Forever" award too.

Truly appreciate the gesture, Harini.

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Savoury Herb and Pepper Cookies

Printable version here.

T hink of cookies and the first thing that generally comes to mind are sweet, round or shaped crunchy or crisp baked dough. I make different types of cookies quite often as my daughter loves home-made ones.
While I do enjoy cookies, I prefer savoury snacks to sweet and am always on the look out for something that’s salty, rather than sweet, as that perfect accompaniment to coffee or tea.

This cookie is the result of some experimenting with some flavours we like. The butter and the pastry making sort of technique produce a flaky and and slightly crisp cookie.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup salted butter, cold (cut into small pieces)

½ cup finely grated cheese

1 egg, beaten

½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp freshly crushed pepper

1 tsp mixed herbs

1-2 tbsp chilled water



Method:

Rub the butter into the flour till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Now add the cheese, egg, pepper, herbs, baking powder, and enough of the chilled water to bind the mixture into a dough that comes together and can be rolled out. Do not knead or handle the dough much.

Put the dough onto a lightly floured surface, roll out to about ¼ inch thickness and cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheet and bake at 190C for about 15 minutes till golden brown.

Cool on a rack and serve with coffee or tea.

(Picture courtesy of Mellisa Anthony Jones at Wikimedia)

Today, in India, we are celebrating our 61st Independence Day.

Happy Independence Day and festive wishes to all who are celebrating Raksha Bandhan and observing Avani Avittam (like we are).

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Apple Tartlets and Rough Puff Pastry Twists

Printable version here.

P uff pastry is another one of those things I’ve always thought I should love to make but hadn’t the courage to attempt. It always seemed like a very complicated thing to do and I was almost sure that it wouldn’t turn out right. But ever since I has reasonable success with Danish pastry, I have been thinking that maybe I could try my hands at puff pastry.

Now readymade frozen puff pastry or anything of that sort is not something that is available in stores here. As I was looking for an uncomplicated way of making puff pastry, I discovered that there was something called “rough puff pastry”. I don’t know what exactly is rough about this recipe, unless it is that the pastry is not treated too gently as seems the general case. Apparently, this is I a great recipe to use when you need to put together some pastry in very little time.

That’s when I came across Gordon Ramsay’s Rough Puff Pastry at the BBC Good Food site. We have been watching quite a bit of Gordon Ramsay on TV where he generally lords it around playing God (or should I say the Devil) in Hell’s Kitchen! I can understand that he has very exacting food standards but I cannot figure out why he needs to behave in such an ill mannered and inconsiderate way to achieve it. Maybe he’s really a nice guy just trying to find his own unique way of driving up the TRPs for his program!

Getting back to his puff pastry recipe. I thought I’d give it a go and see if it really would work for me. It did.
The pastry was flaky and crisp, very easy to make and didn’t take too much time either. Of course, considering the amount of butter in the dough, it would be a surprise if it wasn’t crisp!


For the Apple filling:

Ingredients:

2 medium sized apples (peeled, cored and thinly sliced)

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp honey

2 tbsp butter

a large pinch of salt

½ tsp cinnamon powder

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

¼ tsp powdered dry ginger (I used this ginger glaze)

Heat the butter and and add the sugar, honey and salt. When the sugar dissolves, add the sliced apple and allow to soften. Now add the cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger powder. Mix well. By now the filling should be almost dry and ready. Aloow to cool.

Assembling The Tarts:

Roll out the puff pastry into a long rectangle and cut it into smaller rectangles measuring 4” by 3 “. Cut each rectangle into half. In the picture below you can see three 4 by 3 rectangles cut into half.

From one of these, cut out and remove a smaller rectangle from the centre (see picture below).

Now place this rectangle with the hole exactly on the other half and press down on sides to ensure that it is stuck to it.

In the small hollow put a bit of the apple filling. Repeat this with all the other rectangles.

Bake at 220C for about 20 minutes or till golden brown. Serve while still slightly warm or cold.

(This is what the tarts look like if the two rectangles are not pressed together well enough. They look a bit weird but still taste great.)

Gordon Ramsay does say not scrunch up the scraps and reuse them as the pastry layers would be lost. I didn’t have the heart to throw them out and most of the scraps I had left were too small to do much else with them. So I just put them together (didn’t knead them), rolled the dough out again, cut it up into small strips and twisted each one once into a small bow. Then I baked them at 190C for 15 minutes till they turned a lovely brown.

The twists/ bows were nice, crisp and made a great snack at tea time. Mine were plain, but you may sprinkle herbs, flaked chillies, or pepper on them before baking to spice them up.

I made 10 tartlets with this recipe and the scraps were made into twists.

Instead of making these tarts, the puff pastry can be rolled out and you can cut out small rounds or squares using a cookie cutter and top them with cheese, pepper and herbs (or any topping of your choice) before baking them. Another idea is to cut the pastry into circles to fit your muffin pans and make mini quiches using whatever filling you want. The options are endless.

Dhanggit of Dhanggit’s Kitchen is celebrating her daughter’s first birthday and had written asking us to share some food ideas for her party. She has some pretty good ideas herself and do check them out at her blog, if you haven’t yet.

These tarts are bite sized an a great idea for dessert or a party and so are going to join some more celebratory food at Dhanggit’s Perfect Party Dishes.

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Skewered Grilled Fruit With A Spiced Ginger Glaze

Printable version (of my recipe) here.

When Sig announced that she was hosting Meeta’s Monthly Mingle this month and the theme was “Grill It”, I took it up as a challenge of sorts.
Why?
Because my oven has a grill and I hardly ever use it. I make my grilled sandwiches in the sandwich press. The first step to the challenge was finding a recipe. I wasn’t to keen on grilling vegetables this time only because I wanted to make something “different”.

I finally found what I wanted at Matt Bitman’s blog. His Skewered Grilled Fruit with Ginger Syrup sounded good. He suggests using bananas with the skin on and pineapples. With the monsoons here, this is not the best time for fruit and the variety of fruit available is somewhat limited. I had some nice ripe plantains and very sweet apples. I also used paneer. This idea was an inspiration from a recipe of Jude’s at Apple Pies, Patis & Pate.

I also made some changes to the ginger syrup, adding some cardamom (my favourite spice), cinnamon and nutmeg while using brown sugar instead of white sugar. I lightly crushed the ginger (rather than slicing it) so it would release more flavour.

Here’s my version. But please see the original recipe at Matt’s blog for a better idea of this recipe.


Ingredients:

(for 6 small skewers):

Fruit of your choice, cut ino uniform chunks (I used 1 ripe plantain and 1 big apple)

Paneer, cubed (about 20 cubes)

For the Spiced Ginger Glaze:

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup slightly crushed fresh tender ginger

4 pods cardamom, powdered (about ½ tsp)

¼ tsp cinnamon powder

¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

a large pinch of salt

For the chocolate drizzle:

(optional)

¼ cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

1 tsp oil

1 tbsp milk

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and whisk, over a pan of boiling water, till the chocolate melts and is smooth.


Method:

In a pan, combine the ginger, brown sugar and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for about 3 to 5 minutes till the glaze appears to be thickening. Add the salt, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir well and take off the heat. Allow to cool. Strain and refrigerate till needed. According to the original recipe, this keeps in the fridge for a week. I found this quantity just correct for about 10 fruit skewers.

Soak the wooden skewers in water for about 2 hours. This will ensure they don’t burn during grilling.

Arrange the cubed fruit and paneer alternately, on the skewers. I have a grill (in the top part) in my oven and this is how I grilled the fruit.

Place the skewers in a suitable pan and brush with the glaze. Grill for about 5 to 7 minutes, till the paneer just starts browning. If the paneer browns too much it will lose its softness and become chewy. Turn the skewers so that the other side is uppermost. Brush well with the glaze and grill for another 5 to 7 minutes or so.

Allow to cool a bit and serve warm.
If using chocolate, drizzle over the fruit and serve.

This makes a wonderful yet light dessert when one wants something sweet and simple. Lovely spiced ginger flavoured soft and juicy fruit with paneer and chocolate.
The ginger glaze/ sauce also pairs up wonderfully with vanilla or honey ice-cream.

This is my submission for the “Grill It” edition of Monthly Mingle hosted by Sig.
This also goes across to Sunita’s Think Spice, Think Favourite as the Ginger Glaze has cardamom which is my favourite spice along with cinnamon and nutmeg.
This is also my submission for MBP: Fruit Fare which is being hosted right here.

I’m once again reminding all of you who have plans to send in something for MBP: Fruit Fare, that the deadline is 25th August and that means another 2 weeks. That’s plenty of time.

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Kanni Maangai (Baby Mangoes In Brine) and Kadugu Maangai (Spicy Baby Mango Pickle)

Printable version here.

I can hear some of you thinking, “Not another mango post”!
True, but I’d like to think that this is a mango post with a difference. If you have ever had either one of these pickles you would, perhaps, be able to appreciate how different. Of course, I could be biased, but the taste of these mango pickles eaten with curd (yogurt) and rice is a wonderful gastronomical experience and a “comfort” food of sorts for me.

Summer time in India is also pickle making time and mangoes are a favourite. Pickle making styles and traditions vary across India and of these, some pickles are identified with a particular state or community. This doesn’t mean others don’t make or enjoy them. Mango pickles like “Avakkai” come from the state of Andhra Pradesh and “Chundo” from Gujarat. Similarly, “Kanni Maangai” and “Kadudgu Maangai” are pickles that the Iyer community is famous for.

Kadugu maangai is also referred to as Vadu maangai by some.

The name Kanni maangai comes from “kanni” meaning short stem of the mango and “maangai” meaning mango. The “kadugu” in Kadugu maanga means mustard seeds and these are the main spice used in this pickle. Both pickles contain absolutely no oil and depend largely upon the salt for preservation. These pickles do not require refrigeration at all.

These two pickles are usually the first mango pickles to be made in summer, as they utilize the first crop of baby/ tender (about an inch in length) mangoes of the season. The mangoes for both pickles are first pickled in salt. Then those for the spicy version (kadugu maangai) are further pickled with spices. The baby mangoes used here are very tender and the seed inside is so soft that it can be bitten through very easily, and can be eaten in the pickle.

Only certain types of mangoes are used to make these pickles. The preferred mango for these pickles is a variety called “Chandrakaaran”, though some others (I don’t know their names) are also used. Usually the mango sellers come asking if we want mangoes for pickles and bring them if we do. They know which kind. Back home in Kerala this is a kind of annual ritual, as the same mango seller turns up every year asking if we want mangoes for “pickling” and in what quantity. The mangoes have to be pickled as soon as they are picked, preferably the same day or else the next day. The other thing is that only mangoes which have their stalk/ stem or “kanni” (hence the name of the pickle) are used to make these pickles. The stem ensures that the “sap” (liquid which appears when the stem is separated from the mango) is retained and the mangoes are fresh. Such mangoes do not spoil in the pickle. It is also most important that the mangoes are not bruised. Thus only those mangoes which are picked off the tree are used here. Mangoes which have fallen to the ground are made into other pickles or can be used to cook a wide variety of dishes.

Plucking mangoes is a sight to watch. A long bamboo pole with a hook and a ring, to which a small rope netting is attached, is the implement used. The mango plucked with this is collected in a big wicker basket and lowered to the ground using a thick rope. All this is to ensure the mangoes are not bruised. Of course, the mango sellers always include a few “not so good” mangoes in every lot hoping to sell it to some unwary customer.

Buying and selling these mangoes was (still is) a big business. There are lots of places where these mangoes are grown in orchards. But a lot of the mangoes come from mango trees growing in home gardens/ backyards. The mango sellers would pay the owners of the trees a mutually agreed upon sum of money in exchange for the entire crop of mangoes, and then make a huge profit from selling these to the pickle makers (us).

These days pickle making has become something of a cottage/ home industry in Palakkad. Mangoes are bought up in huge quantities, made into pickles, sealed in leak proof packaging and find their way to homes in India and abroad.

I remember pickle making activities, from my childhood, at my maternal grandmother’s house. Pickles were made in huge quantities and were meant to last the whole year, till the next mango season.

First of all, the huge ceramic containers called “bharani (s)” were cleaned out and sun dried to make them sterile. If this was not done properly, the pickles would be attacked by fungal growth and the whole pickle making effort would come to naught! It also didn’t do much for one’s reputation as an expert pickle maker in the neighbourhood if this happened!!

Then my grandmother would spend a lot of time checking out the “pickle worthiness” of the mango seller’s wares, telling him off and asking him if he thought that she was silly enough to be taken in by his “marketing” spiel. Then both of them would haggle over the price, finally coming to some mutual agreement about it.

The mangoes would be counted in “hundreds” under my grandmother’s eagle eye. This was a sort of routine, enacted every year, enjoyed by the buyer and humorously tolerated by the mango seller. I have known an occasion, though, when the mangoes did not measure up to my grandmother’s standards and the mango seller came back after two days with a new lot.

I have even witnessed this mango buying “ritual”, on a smaller scale, 4 years back at my mother-in-law’s house.

Once the buying was done, the mangoes would be sorted and trimmed to leave a little bit of stalk/ stem on each little mango. Then they would be washed and towel dried to ensure that no moisture remains on them. Then the pickling is done. All through the pickling, a very strict control would be maintained over the process right from washing and drying of the containers. Children wouldn’t be allowed anywhere in the vicinity. In the olden days, women having their periods were considered “unclean” and not allowed anywhere near the pickle jars, even long after they had been made, for fear of contaminating them!

After the pickles had been made, they were filled into the “bharanis”. Where the pickle in question was Kanni maangai, after the ceramic container had been filled, a layer of sea salt (kallu uppu) would be spread over the pickle before sealing the container.

Then a clean square piece of cotton cloth would be dipped in sesame seed oil (nalla ennai) and spread over the mouth of the container. The wooden or ceramic lid would be screwed over the cloth to make it airtight. All this ensured that the pickles stayed sterile.

Later, when the pickles were ready, small amounts (a month’s requirement) would be transferred out of the large containers into smaller ones. This transfer was also a ritual in itself. Of course, no kids were allowed nearby. The big container was carefully opened, and a clean and dry ladle was used to transfer the required amount of pickle. Then a fresh square of cotton cloth would be dipped in sesame seed oil and placed over the mouth of the container before sealing it.

Once made, the pickles would not be touched for about 2 to 3 months, except for shaking the containers to ensure that all the mangoes get evenly coated by salt/ the spices. This is where the able bodied men folk at home contribute to the pickle making. During this time, the mangoes would lose their crispness a bit and become soft enough for eating while having fully absorbed all the flavours of the pickle. In the meanwhile, one made do with the previous year’s pickle if there was any left, or else looked forward to the new pickle hoping it would be served sooner than later! My grandmother had total control over this decision. I remember my grandfather asking “Antha puthiya kadugu maangai edukkarathukku aayirukkumaa? meaning “Would the new kadugu maangai pickle be ready to eat?”

I have been making these pickles every summer for quite a few years now. For the first time since then, I didn’t make any this summer because of our move back to Goa and my being unwell during this time. But I had made plenty last summer, and what I have from then will see me through till next summer!

The quantities of ingredients in these recipes are not very exact and slight differences one way or the other do not make too much of a difference. The amounts of salt and the spices mentioned here would need to be adjusted depending on variety of mango used and how sour they are. So it would be wise to start with a little less than the mentioned quantities and then adjust these according to taste. These pickles are meant to be quite salty.

I do not have large enough “bharanis” and also find it much easier to use glass jars with airtight lids for my pickling, but it is important to ensure that they are sterile and dry. I just wash the jars well, towel dry them and keep them in the summer sun for a couple of hours. I have never had my pickles go bad so far.


Kanni Maangai (Baby mangoes in Brine):

I like this pickle with a meal of rice and curd (home-made yogurt). There are many other preparations like araitchukalakki (a coconut and yogurt chutney-like preparation eaten with rice) or thogayal (thick coconut and lentil chutney) made with softened/ aged Kanni maangai.

Ingredients:

100 small mangoes, with a small part of the stem intact (this would be about 2 kg depending on size of the mangoes)

about ½ kg salt (start with about ¼ kg and increase as needed)


Method:

Wash the mangoes and towel dry them well ensuring the stem stays intact. Spread them on a large cotton towel and leave them for about an hour, to dry well (not in the sun). Now pack them well into a jar, 2 layers high, and sprinkle a handful of salt. Pack another 2 layers and sprinkle another handful of salt. Repeat this till the jar is full and the topmost layer is salt and a slightly thicker layer. Close the jar and ensure it is airtight. Do this till all the mangoes and salt have been used up. Remember this salt has to be evenly distributed between the mangoes.

The jars must be shaken well 2 or 3 times a day, to ensure the the salt does not settle at the bottom of the jar and is redistributed among the mangoes. What happens now is that the salt draws out the liquid in the mangoes and dissolves in it. Each day the liquid in the jars will increase till mangoes would be immersed, more or less, in the liquid at the end of 2 or 3 days. The mangoes will lose their rounded appearance and start looking wrinkled.

The pickle making is done but this will be ready for eating only after 2 months. This keeps for a long time, over a year, provided reasonable precautions are taken to see that the pickle doesn’t get contaminated.


Kadugu Maangai (Spicy Baby Mango Pickle):

I am assuming that a quarter of the Kanni maangai would be kept aside and only the remaining three quarters would be used to make this pickle, for the purpose of ingredient measurements. You may not make this pickle at all preferring to keep them all in brine or else may make all of it into Kadugu maangai. Please adjust the quantities of ingredients according to your requirement. As I mentioned before, please remember to start with a little less than the mentioned quantities. If the mustard or fenugreek powders are added in excess, they would lend a bitter taste to the pickles.

If you are going to make this pickle, it is important that you do it within 2 to 4 days (the time it takes for the liquid in the jar to almost submerge the mangoes) of pickling the mangoes in brine.

Ingredients:

mangoes in brine, from above

300 gm chilli powder

1 ½ tbsp mustard powder (freshly ground)

1 ½ tbsp fenugreek powder (freshly ground)

½ tsp asafetida powder


Method:

Strain the liquid from the mangoes into a sterile pan and keep the mangoes aside. Keep on the stove top and bring to a boil. Take off the stove, cover and allow to cool, almost to room temperature. Add the chilli, mustard, fenugreek and asafetida powders to the liquid. Using a clean and dry spoon, mix everything well. The resulting liquid will be a little thick in consistency. Add all the mangoes to this liquid and mix. Equally distribute the mangoes into the jars (from which you removed them) ensuring that the spicy liquid is also evenly distributed between the jars. Close the jars, making sure they’re airtight.

The pickle is ready but not for serving yet. After about 2 months, the mangoes would have softened enough to use. The liquid part of the pickle, called “maanga vellam” which translates as mango water, is also great on its own with rice and ghee (clarified butter), uppuma, dosas, or any south Indian food where pickle is usually served as an accompaniment.

You can cut up carrots and add them to the left over “maanga vellam” to make another very nice pickle! If you leave the carrot to steep for a couple of days before serving, they absorb the flavours of the pickle really well.

I like pickles very much and have become a bit of a “pickle snob” as I prefer the home-made variety and very rarely buy it from the store. Mango pickles are my favourite and like I said before, I may be biased but for me, Kadugu maangai is the best pickle there is.


A note on “bharanis”:

“Bharanis” are ceramic jars (and used to be brought over from China in those days), traditionally used to store pickles and tamarind. Ceramic containers are inert and wouldn’t be affected by the acidic nature of pickles or tamarind.

This picture shows my mother-in-law’s tamarind jar, which I inherited and now decorates my living room. This most probably is Chinese in origin as it has been in my husband’s family since his great grandfather’s time. My sister-in-law has similar but more ornate one decorated with dragons’ heads!

This, by the way, is my “puli bharani” (or tamarind jar) and this one definitely didn’t come from China!

Picking tamarind fruit from trees, removing the outer covering and de-seeding it and drying it in the sun for preservation, was also a summer time activity in most houses. These days, most of us buy it off the supermarket shelves!

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Oil-Free Kabuli Chana (Garbanzo Bean/ Chick Pea in a Spicy Gravy)

Printable version here.

Chana/ Chole is one thing that keeps finding its way to our table in one dish or the other. There is something about its buttery taste and soft texture that enhances the flavours whichever way it is cooked.

Here is one recipe, that I often use, which cooks up a very tasty Kabuli Chana without the use of any oil. The recipe was copied from a magazine, many years ago, and I have made minor adjustments to suit our taste.

Ingredients:

1 cup chana/ chole (garbanzo beans/ chickpeas)

½ cup grated onion

¼ cup blanched and chopped tomato

1 tbsp ginger julienne

½ tsp garlic paste

¾ tsp cumin powder

¾ tsp coriander powder

½ tsp garam masala

½ tsp chilli powder (or to taste)

½ tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

chopped coriander laves, for garnishing


Method:

Soak the chana/ chole overnight and cook till soft but firm. Take a handful of the chana and mash well. Keep aside.

Heat a non-stick pan or kadai. Add the cumin, coriander and turmeric powders and lightly roast for less than a minute. Take care they do not burn.
Quickly add the grated onion, chopped tomato, ginger julienne, garlic paste and chilli powder along with a quarter cup of water. Mix well an allow to cook for about 5 minutes till the water evaporates, while stirring occasionally. By now the raw smell of the onion should have disappeared. If not add about 2 tbsps of water and cook till the water has almost evaporated, again stirring frequently.
Now and add the cooked chana, salt and a cup of water and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes till some of the water evaporates. Add the mashed chana and the garam masala and simmer for a few minutes till the Kabuli Chana has a thick gravy.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot with pooris, chappathis or rice.
This recipe serves four.

(The coriander garnish is missing in this particular picture because I ran out of coriander the day this was taken!)


Another Blog:

Rachel of Tangerine’s Kitchen and I both enjoy baking. While talking sometime back, we were discussing this and came up with the idea of baking together. So we decided to try out baking, while following the same recipe at a time, and compare notes .
Do join us in our fortnightly experiences while discovering the world, one bake at a time, at The World In Our Oven.

I’m also taking this opportunity to say a “thank you” to Srimathi of Few Minute Wonders who has honored my blog with a Brilliante Weblog award. I appreciate this very much.

Finally, just a reminder that the deadline for MBP: Fruit Fare is the 25th of August.

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Bread Baking Day #12 - "Small Breads" : Round-up Part 2

Welcome to the second part of the Bread Baking Day #12 - "Small breads" round-up. As in Part 1, there is no particular order in this presentation of breads, either.

Here are the remainder of the 63 65 (plus one of mine) breads:

Orange Scented Brioche from Meera of Dindin Tonight (Dallas, TX, USA). She was worried that these wouldn’t turn out right after an earlier disastrous attempt at muffins. She needn’t have, as her brioche spread the scent of oranges in her kitchen and were finished off by family.

Bread Knot Buns from Renuka of Fusion (Trichy,Tamilnadu, India). Though her first attempt at making bread wasn’t a success, the aroma of bread baking in the oven persuaded her to try again with these lovely knot shaped buns.

Sourdough Ciabatta Rolls from Susan of Wild Yeast (Californa, U.S.). These hand mixed rolls were made using the double hydration (wet dough) method. All the details about this method of making bread can be found at Susan’s post and the texture of these rolls is just fabulous.

Delicious and Easy Crumb Buns from Madam Chow of Madam Chow's Kitchen (U.S.). She describes these buns as “little pillows of warm, yeasty goodness, sprinkled with a streusel topping”. And I thought only cakes came with streusel! Made of a sweet dough which freezes well, these buns can be baked on demand.

Home-made Pita Bread from Jaime of Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats (Dallas, Texas, U.S.). When Jaime found that her grocery store no longer carried pita bread, she set out to make some of her own which turned out really soft and fluffy.

Baid Alqata or Salouq from Zainab and Meedo of Arabic Bites (Jubail Indl City, Saudi Arabia). Some of these pretty breads, perfect with tea or coffee, are filled with cardamom flavoured walnut filling and others with date and walnuts.

Knot-a-Breadsticks from Michelle of Big Black Dog (Barrington Hills, Illinois, U.S.). Michelle wanted to make something different for BBD and decided to shape her favourite fennel breadsticks into easy to handle crisp knotted bread.

Crispy Cornsticks from Petra of Chili und Ciabatta (Geiersthal, Germany). Made from corneal, these delightful looking quick breads are made using a cornstick pan (something I’m seeing for the first time) and great by themselves or with soups/ stews.

Fennel and Poppy Seed Rolls from Lien of Notitie van Lien (Netherlands). These rolls are an unusual combination of fennel and poppy seeds and Lien baked them because baking always makes her happy.

Some Dinner Rolls, Breadsticks and Sourdough Muffins from Judy of Judy's Gross Eats (Ventura, California, USA). That’s really three different ”small” breads from Judy but I’m including it as one entry as it in one post at her blog.

Her dinner rolls are not only delicious but quickly and easily made.

The breadsticks were made from an English Muffin recipe and so good that she had to fight for her share.

And finally, Judy made Sourdough Muffins with sour cherries to complement the tang of sourdough.

Fougasse from Houdini of Dinihou (Switzerland). I was under the impression that fougasse was a larger bread. But Houdini assures me his beautiful fougasse are single serving breads, which is how they are made in France and in his home.

Spicy Veggie Buns from Yasmeen of Health Nut -Are you eating Nature's best? (Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.) These spicy buns are chock full of vegetables too. Very healthy.

Le Petits Pains au Lait from Gabi of Lavaterra (Munch, Germany). I believe these translate as “small breads with milk”. An all time family favourite, she says these well flavoured rolls are not too sweet and wonderful with butter and fruit preserves.

Cranberry Apricot & Ginger Muffins from Mansi of Fun and Food (San Francisco, U.S.). She says that these “capture the essence of summer in a muffin” and her favourite breakfast muffins paired with a cup of Ginger-Cardamom tea.

Sauerkraut Rolls from Stefan of Panino'teca (Solingen, Germany). He made these rolls from his bread book as he thought they seemed perfect to post on a German bread blog! Stefan has never seen them in a bakery but found them different and easy to bake.

Sorelle Simili's semi-sweet rolls from Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka kochtopf (Andalucia, Spain). Zorra used the quick method of thie recipe to make these yeasty rolls in two versions, plain and chocolate chunk. No prizes for guessing which one I’m going to be trying out!

Chocolate Chip Pillows from Alexandra of Addicted Sweet Tooth (New York State, U.S.). These layered sugar encrusted bread pillows (if you read the post, you’ll realize they can’t be called rolls) are full of chocolate goodness.

Blackberry & Lemon Cream Scones from Joelen of Joelen's Culinary Adventures (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.). She says these are” light, fluffy, creamy and perfect scones bursting with blackberries and a nice hint of lemon”.

Richer Biscuits from Temperance of High on the Hog (Texas, U.S.). The quintessential American small bread, Temperance started making them when she was 11. She made these biscuits using the recipe she grew up with.

Hamburger Buns from Deeba of Passionate About Baking (Gurgaon, India). These buns were light with a nice wholesome chew to them” and very tasty.

Fake Subway Sandwich Rolls from Arundati of Escapades (Hyderabad, India). She used a basic brown bread recipe to make rolls for some Subway style sandwiches which are a favourite in her home.

Sweetened Plum Sauce Bread Rolls from Rachel of Tangerine’s Kitchen (India). She made these rolls, topped with home-made plum sauce and sugar crystals, for her little daughter and her best friends.

Paneer Rolls from Raaga of The Singing Chef (Gurgaon, India). She made these Indian style spicy stuffed rolls and wanted to stash away some for later but never got the chance as the rolls were all eaten by then!

Lavender-scented Brioches from Astrid of Paulchen's FoodBlog?! (Vienna, Austria). Astrid made these lavender scented fluffy little breads in muffin moulds to create very beautifully patterned little brioches.

Little French Flatbreads from Lysy of Munchkin Mail (Warwickshire, UK). These breads, now the flatbreads of her choice, started off as French boules but the dough just refused to rise. So Lysy made them into flatbreads with some toppings and they turned out tasty and crunchy.

Corn Flour Rolls from Manuela of Baking History (Massachusetts, U.S.). These soft rolls with lemon zest are chewy and slightly sweet without a gritty texture. Manuela made these from a recipe collection published in 1918, meant to help conserve the use of wheat and sugar.

Pumpkin Rolls from Sus of CorumBlog (Griesheim, Germany). She converted a recipe for pumpkin bread and used up her frozen vegetable stock to bake these pumpkin/ squash rolls (I’m not too sure of the difference, myself) for BBD.

Pretzels With Nigella Seeds from Apu of Annarasa (U.S.). Freshly baked bread is Apu’s weakness and her current favourite are soft, chewy are pretzels topped with coarse salt.

Sacaduros from Eva of Sweet Sins (Sydney, Australia). These intricately shaped breads are topped with a cube of butter and flaky salt, covered with strips of dough and are baked to a crisp bread which opens up to reveal a buttery inside!

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Buns from Jacqueline of Toxo Bread (Burlington, Vermont, U.S.). She decided to be adventurous and tweak a white bread recipe a bit, adding some whole wheat flour and raisins. It paid off with a happy ending and some buns for breakfast.

Petits Pains Feuilletés - Flaky Rolls from Sandra of Le Petrin (Paris, France). These delicate flower shaped rolls have the texture of a croissant without the sweetness or the fat, and they're easy to make.

Welsh Cakes from Laura of The Spiced Life (SW Ohio, U.S.).Rather than make muffins or ordinary pancakes, Laura decided to challenge herself by making these pancakes which were sweeter and richer.

Doubleknots With Cherries from Chaosqueen of Chaosqueen's Kitchen (Lübeck, Germany ). Her knots, made with a simple yeasted dough with milk and cherries, are perfect for a weekend breakfast.

(I'm including this particular entry late because she was unable to send me the details due to a server problem)

I'm finishing this round up of 64 66 small breads, with my own entry, Onion and Paneer Calzone from My Diverse Kitchen (this blog). Italian fare is a favourite at our table and this is my version of the calzone.

I have discovered many new breads and different variations to some breads I knew, because of this event. I’m in a sort of “small bread paradise” and there’s plenty here to keep me and my oven busy for a while to come.

I hope that it is the same with you. I believe that I have included all the entries that were sent in, but if I have mistakenly left anyone out please leave a comment at this post and I will add your entry.

The next Bread Baking Day is being hosted by Jude of Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté so please watch out for the BBD announcement on his blog which should be posted there around the 6th of August, 2008.

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Bread Baking Day #12 - "Small Breads" : Round-up Part 1

When Zorra was kind enough to give me a chance to host Bread Baking Day (BBD), it was a bit like a dream come true. But looking for a theme for the event was not easy. When I took a look at all the themes the past hosts had chosen, the ideas I which came to my mind had already been done! Some more serious thinking resulted in the “small breads” theme. Actually my husband deserves most of the credit for this theme, as he came up with it.

It seemed a great idea, to me, as I find it convenient to bake smaller loaves or “small breads” for our family of three. It looks like a lot of you thought so too, looking at the number of entries I have received for this event.

There are 63 65“small bread” entries in all and then my own entry.

I have to say I never expected so many submissions. Thanks to all of you for making this Bread Baking Day a whopping success and leading me on a discovery of some more bread.
Since there are so many entries, I am presenting the round-up in two parts. There is no particular order in the grouping of these breads.

Here is the first part of this round-up:

Bagels, crisp and chewy on the inside from Harini, the Sunshinemom of TongueTicklers (Thane, India). This is her plain version, but she has some “creamier” ones on her blog.

 

 

 

Pretzels also from Harini, the Sunshinemom of Tongueticklers (Thane, India). Her second entry here, these delicious pretzels are made with all purpose, whole wheat and amaranth flours and the result of some experimenting with different flours and pretzel making methods.

 

 

Crescent Rolls from JZ of Tasty Treats (Minnesota, U.S.). She decided to make them with “a little less butter” after being tempted by all those Daring Baker Danishes last month.

 

Two breads, both glutenfree, from Sea Maiden of The Book of Yum. Her Archimedes' Gluten-Free Bread Rolls are tasty and easily made.

Sea Maiden has also made some Gluten-Free Wholegrain Naan flatbread with all the fluffinss of a traditional naan, yet sturdy enough to take heavy fillings.

 

 

Cheese and Garlic Biscuits from Asha of Foodie’s Hope (North Carolina, U.S.). Asha made these specially for “her favourite event of all”.

 

Sourdough Pan De Sal Buns from Sara of What Smells So Good (Ontario, Canada). Sara came up with these “crispy edged melt-in-your-mouth bun” in an effort to cater to her stepfather’s “salt tooth”.

 
 

 

Stout, Oat and Honey Knots from Ulrike of Küchenlatein (Northern Germany). These knots are full of fibre and easy to make and, according to Ulrike, filled her kitchen with a great smell. She also has a video on how to shape the rolls, along with this post.

 

Mini Espresso Fig Loaves from Caitlin of Engineer Baker (Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.). She compares these to fig newtons with built in coffee!

 

 

Olive and Carrot Bread Sticks from Ivy of Kopiaste (Athen, Greece). Braving the heat of summer, Ivy made these breadsticks and also a whole variety of different shaped rolls which were a perfect snack after a swim.

 

 

Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls from Simran of Bombay Foodie (Mumbai, India). She decided to make these plump and delicious looking rolls as a prelude to baking larger breads.

 

 

 

Pretzels from DK of Culinary Bazar (California, U.S.). She revisited the Daring Baker’s recipe to make these soft yet crunchy Pretzels which were worth every bit of effort that went into them.

 

 

 

 

Bolillos (Mexican dinner rolls) from Ben of What’s Cooking? (Columbus, Ohio, U.S.). Ben has finally conquered his fear of yeast which is a good thing as he has baked up a whole lot of other breads as well.

 

 

Panecillos de leche (Milk Rolls) from Tartasacher of Mil postres /1000 desserts (Spain). These sweet rich rolls are soft and perfect for breakfast or even as a snack.

 

 

Burger Buns from Divya Vikram of Dil Se (Los Angeles, U.S.). Divya loves burgers and this is the first time she has made these soft, fluffy buns at home.

 

Feta, Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Scones from Lisa of Lisa’s Kitchen (London, Ontario, Canada). Made with her favourite ingredients, these scones are a great snack or can be served with a soup and salad for lunch or light dinner.

 

Meteils au Bleu from Boaz of Grain Power (San Diego, U.S.). Boaz wishes the smell of these little blue-cheese rye sourdough loaves baking in the oven could be bottled and sold!

 

 

Italian Bread Rolls from George of Culinary Travels Of A Kitchen Goddess (Staffordshire, U.K.). Baked to serve at dinner, these rolls are are crisp outside yet chewy on the inside and great to mop up sauce with.

 

 

 

Best Buttermilk Pancakes from Rebecca of Foodie With Family (Southern Tier, NY, USA). She cooked these up as part an effort to feed her family of “six men” healthy and filling food and wean them away from cereal.

 

Poilâne's Mint Brioche from Jude of Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté (Chicago, Illinois, U.S.). These cute minty rolls, made of egg and butter, are irresistible but have to be eaten in moderation if you’re counting calories. Not an easy thing to do.

 

Zuccini and Parmesan Bread from Dhanggit of Dhanggit’s Kitchen (Aix en Provence, France). This delicious looking crusty yet soft bread is easily made and is perfect with salad and soup.

 

 

Onion Bread from Danielle of Gatinha da Cozinha (Kittens in the Kitchen) in Switzerland. Having just moved to Switzerland, Danielle had fun baking these soft and aromatic buns in her new oven.

 

 

Mascarpone Sourdough With Raspberries from Tommi of Brown Interior (California, U.S.). These very unusual little rolls are in keeping with Tommi’s belief that “Everything is good baked into bread, especially rich, creamy, borderline sweet cheeses like mascarpone”.

 

Dinner Rolls from Bhags of Crazy Curry (U.S.). Not feeling very brave about venturing into baking bread, Bhags made these soft, fluffy looking rolls as a first step in this direction.

Donuts from Pam of the Backyard Pizzeria (Victoria, Australia). Pam decided to make these Copycat Krispy Kreme© Donuts which are so good she hopes that the donut franchisee take a very long time coming to her town! She also filled the “holes” with home-made lemon curd which taste even better.

Stuffed Buns from Karuna of Foodie By Nature (San Diego, California, U.S.). Memories of delicious stuffed masala buns for her college days set Karuna off to bake these buns filled with ricotta and spinach.

Cherry Rose Rolls from Padma of Padma’s Kitchen (New Jersey, U.S.). These unusual sourdough rolls went along with Padma to a picnic and were finished off by an appreciative group of friends.

Pogácsa with poppy seeds from Dulmina of 'Dulmina tündérkonyhája' ('Dulmina's Fairy Kitchen') from Szeged, Hungary. Small savoury cakes made from yeasted dough, pogácsa are popular all over Hungary and in their folk tales. It seems school leavers are given these with a little wine and a coin.

Sweet Buns from Cham of Spice-Club (California, U.S.). Cham wanted to use two of her favourite food flavours, chai masala and the pain au chocolat, in a sweet bread. So she made some sweet buns, the first time she’s baked bread, with a chai masala glaze and some more with nutella!

A Skewered Bread Medley from Cinzia of Cindystar (Bardolino, Verona, Italy). This is an unusual presentation of a medley of different flavoured and shaped “small” breads on a skewer.

Sourdough Sundried Tomato Rolls from Bee and Jai of Jugalbandi (Northwestern U.S.). A lack of good bread anywhere near where they live, and a starter that refuses to give up the ghost no matter how badly they treat it, contributed to these delicious rolls.

Pretzels from Natashya of Living In The Kitchen With Puppies (Ontario, Canada). Slight adjustments to a recipe from her baking book produced these wonderful pretzels.

Pepper Tomato Rolls from Ranjitha Prabhu of Ranji’s Kitchen Corner (North Attleboro, MA, USA). Ranji made these light, soft anfd fluffy rolls using sweet pepper pasta sauce and she says they are the best rolls she’s ever had.

Jelly Filled Scones from Sweatha of Curry Leaf (New Jersey, U.S.). Though she had baked white bread before, she wasn't to happy about her baking skills but was pleasantly surprised with how well these scones turned out.
(I'm adding this entry beyond the deadline as Sweatha had sent in her entry but the mail didn't reach me.)

This part of the round-up ends here. The second and final part of the round-up will be posted within two days. Please keep watching this space.
If there are any mistakes here, please leave a comment at this post, or send me an e-mail and I will make the correction.

The next Bread Baking Day is being hosted by Jude of Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté, so please watch out for the BBD announcement which should be on his blog around the 6th of August, 2008.

P.S. (4th August, 2008):

If you have been here to see you the round-up before, you might see that there is a difference in the presentation. This is because I understand that those of us who are using Mozilla Firefox and Safari, were having difficulty in viewing this page as the pictures and corresponding text were not appearing in proper alignment.

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The Think Spice, Think Nutmeg Round-up

When Sunita announced that she was inviting guest hosts for her event, Think Spice, Think….., I thought it would be nice to host an event even if it was somebody else’s idea. I immediately wrote to her and she agreed. I was quite thrilled with the whole idea of playing host to a food blog event.

It was at the beginning of June that I realised that I didn’t have a clue as to how to go about it. I had to choose a spice (this was the easiest part), do a write up and make a logo (how do all those hosts come up with such beautiful ones?). I still don’t know how they do this. Any ideas or advise, anybody?

Then I discovered that there were forums where the announcements could be put up to publicize the event. I only needed to write in to some forums where as at IMBB, I had to grapple with CSS (it took me over an hour to do this) to submit the announcement!

Ok, so I posted the announcement and the entries started coming in. At this point, I realized that I had to have some organizing/ cataloguing system in place. Arundati was kind enough to help out with some advice here as she had just hosted an event.

All in all, my first hosting experience has been just that, quite an experience. I have enjoyed it, most especially seeing the entries in my mailbox. I also realized just how much time and effort is required to go through the entries, check out the posts, answer queries on time, and generally keep track of everything.

Before I get to the round-up, I just want to say a thank you to all of you who sent in entries and helped me discover the world of Nutmeg.

I am presenting the 31 entries in two broad categories of Savoury and Sweet and one traditional remedy using nutmeg.

The first entry here is not really a food preparation. It is a traditional remedy.

Grandma’s Remedy from Padmahja of Seduce Your Tastebuds (presently in India). This is not a recipe but some information about uses of Nutmeg in traditional remedies. Padmahja says that this spice can be effective relieving colic and has digestive properties. I, for one, never knew this.

Savoury Preparations:

A Nutmeggy Green Sauce (which is really yellow) from Funky of The Meatless Chulent (Midwest U.S.). She felt her life could do with one more challenge, decided to challenge herself with nutmeg, and this sauce is the result!

 

Rice Plate Chole from Apu of Annarasa (U.S.). With this spicy chickpea curry, Apu revisited memories of her days at college in India when a similar curry and rice at a place near the University library used to be her destination of choice whenever hungry.

 

Creamy Mushroom Pasta Sauce from Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats (Venura, California, U.S.). Judy uses her favourite spice mostly for sweet dishes but looking for something savoury this time, found the recipe for this delicious sauce in her heirloom cookbook.
 
 

Ravioli Nudi from Julia of AyurWhat (Australia). Naked Ravioli, an over 600 year old Florentine recipe, is ravioli filling without the pasta covering. Julia’s version is made without eggs and parmesan.

 

 

 

Savoury Biscuits/ Cookies from Lore of Culinarty (Romania). These biscuits, baked in the microwave, are the result of Lore’s permanent savoury craving and an attempt to cook more often with nutmeg.

 

Creamy Penne with Spinach and Peas from Chandrika of AkshayaPatra (U.S.). This version of pasta is made with Béchamel sauce which is known for its distinct flavour of nutmeg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are the Sweet Preparations:

 

 

Instant Coffee With A Touch Of Nutmeg from Mints of Vadani Kaval Gheta (U.S.). She recreates this traditional styled coffee that her mother used to make which was very much appreciated by her friends and family.

 
 

An Apricot Almond Delight from Sireesha of Mom’s Recipes (Paris, France). This is a great thirst quenching and naturally healthy, delicious smoothie.
 

Some Éclairs from Asha of Foodie’s Hope (North Carolina, U.S.). She made these trying to recreate the taste of Iyengar Bakery Éclairs and to celebrate her blog’s second anniversary.

 

 

An Irish Cream Flan from Smita of Smita Serves You Right (Rochester, NY, U.S.). Smita made this flan to use up some extra egg yolks she had on hand. She also had to deplete her alcohol reserves before mom and grandmom came visiting!

 

 

 

 Some vegan Nutmeg-Yam Muffins from Katie of The Summertree Café (Kansas, U.S.). Made especially for this event, Katie says these moist muffins are great with margarine or cream cheese.

 

 

Blueberry Spice Muffins from TBC of The Budding Cook (U.S). She made these spicy muffins to use up blueberries leftover from making clafoutis.

 

A Carrot Cake from Lakshmi of The Yum Blog (India). Her delicious looking carrot cake is fat free, yet so moist. She also offers an easy substitution for eggs if you would like to make an egg free cake.

 

 

Chakra Pongal from Srimati (foody.guru) of Few Minute Wonders (San Diego, California, U.S.). Her version is diary free and nutmeg is the unusual twist to this traditional south Indian sweet preparation.

 

 

Some Banana Muffins from Miri of the Peppermill (Delhi, India). Full of the goodness of milk, walnuts, honey and bananas and the distinct flavour of nutmeg, these muffins were the result of a baking session with a 6 year old and 3 three year olds assistants.

Greek Balaklavas from Ivy at Kopiaste (Athen, Greece). Ivy gave in to her son’s demands and made this wonderful sweet using her mother’s recipe which she modified a bit to add pecans, walnuts and nutmeg.

 

 

Sweet Buns from Cham of Spice-Club (California, U.S.). Cham wanted to use two of her favourite food flavours, chai masala and the pain au chocolat, in a sweet bread. So she made some sweet buns, the first time she’s baked bread, with a chai masala glaze and some more with nutella!

 

 

 

 

An Orange, Date and Almond Salad from Dee of Ammalu’s Kitchen (U.S.). Dee needed break from studying for an exam and came up with this summer salad spiced with Ras el Hanuot. The salad was so good that she ate it all up for lunch and then made some more for dinner!

HoneyB’s Nanny’s Cookies from Rachel of Tangerine’s Kitchen (India). Rachel is a fan of these soft delicious cookies even though she doesn’t particularly like nutmeg.

 

 

A Spiced Apple Tart, also from Rachel of Tangerine’s Kitchen (India). This delicious fruit tart was inpired by Jerome K. Jerome’s book, “Three Men in a Boat”.

 

Jumbles from Manuela of Baking History (Massachusetts, USA). Jumbles are ring shapes cookies dating from colonial times. Dry, crunchy and very light, these cookies are also not very sweet and perfect for dunking.

 

Nutmeg Pound Cake from Deeba of Passionate About Baking (Gurgaon, North India). Deeba creamed some butter and sugar, originally intended for cookies, but changed her mind at the last minute and converted it into this delicious cake with a heart of mocha.

 

 

Mascarpone and Nutmeg Ice Cream from Petra of Foodfreak (Hamburg, Germany). Petra, after a lot of thinking, came up with this winning combination of nutmeg and blueberries in a smooth and creamy ice-cream.

 

 

 

  

                   

           


  Honey Muffins from Jayasree of Experiments in Kailas Kitchen (Kerala, India). These healthy muffins are eggless and made with jaggery and Jayasree served them with honey for those who wanted some more “sweet”.

 

 

A Nutmeg Sorbet from Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar (Bristol, U.K.). Nutmeg brought Angela memories of her honeymoon in Grenada where this spice is the national fruit and features in a lot of food. So she made this sorbet which she says is the silkiest, smoothest sorbet she’s ever made and her little son seemed to agree.

 

An Oatmeal Walnut Shortcake with Nutmeg from Red Chillies of Red Chillies (U.S.). This healthy shortcake was made from one of her cookbooks picked up at Barnes and Noble which is a family favourite.

 

 

 

 

Indonesian Nutmeg Tea Cookies from Jude of Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté (Chicago, IL, U.S.). Jude made these refrigerator cookies, also called Kue Kering, in a bid to begin using up a lifetime’s store of nutmeg!

 

 

Jaiphal Shrikand from Arundati of Escapades (Hyderabad, India). Shrikand with an unusual nutmeg (jaiphal) flavouring, wholesome an easy to make, happens to be Arundati’s favourite dessert.

 

 

 

I made a Peachy Mango Milkshake which came together as I wanted to use up some not so sweet peaches which had no takers. The milkshake was a hit!

 

 

 

 

 

And a Spiced Apple Cake With Streusel Topping, a cake I’ve made many times before but turns up here in a “nutmeggy” avatar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that ends the Think Nutmeg round-up.

The Think Spice, Think….. spice trail now moves onto its next destination and is going back home to Sunita for the month of August. Please watch her blog for next month’s spice.

 

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