May 25, 2014

Cinnamon swirl banana bread

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread
Ingredients
For the bread:
·         3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up
·         1/3 cup melted butter
·         3/4 cup sugar
·         1 egg, beaten
·         1 tsp vanilla
·         1 1/4 tsp baking powder
·         dash of salt
·         1 1/2 cups flour
For the swirl:
·         2 Tbsp cup sugar
·         1 Tsp cinnamon
Directions
1.        Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a loaf pan. 
2.        Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. Sprinkle baking powder and salt around on top of the banana mixture. Then gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix!
3.        In a small dish, mix together the  2 tbsp sugar and 1 tspn cinnamon.
4.        Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter.
5.        Bake for 50-60 minutes, I used preheated  microwave oven in convection mode for 55 mins.


Apr 6, 2014

Chhole Bhature

Chhole Bhature
Making chhole bhature at home is more exciting as it has very less oil and is not at all heavy. My folks just love  home made chhole bhature  more than anything else.
Chhole
You need
Kabuli chana- 1.5 cup
Onions - 2 sized
Tomatoes- 2
Ginger- 1"
garlic cloves- 4-5
green chilli- 1
posto seeds (Khus khus)- 1 tspn
black pepper balls- 10-12
tea bag- 1
cashew nuts- 7-8 make paste or grind them
chhole masala- 3 tbspn
tamarind paste- 1 tspn
oil 4-5 tb spn
Rai (mustard seeds)- 1tspn
zeera (cumin seeds) - 1 tspn
salt to taste

  • Soak kabuli chane for 5-6 hours. Add salt, hang tea bag from the sides (or add 1/2 tspn tea -optional to give black colour to chhole)  and pressure cook on high flame for three whistles and slow flame for 15-20 mins. After it cools down, take off the tea bag.
  • make a paste of onion, ginger, garlic, green chilly, khus khus, black pepper balls.
  • Make paste of tomatoes
  • Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and onion paste. Cook till it is light brown in colour , add tomato paste and cook till the gravy starts leaving the sides of the pan. 
  • Add chhole masala, cashew nut paste, tamarind paste, salt for the gravy and cook for 4-5 mins on slow flame.
  • Take out 1/2 cup cooked chhole and mesh them.
  • Add chhole, and meshed chhole  to the gravy and add water if required to get the desired consistency. Cook 7-10 mins or till you get desired consistency.
  • Garnish with chopped green coriander, slit green chilly.
Bhature-
Maida- 4 cups
soozi (semolina)- 1/2 cup
curd - 1/2 cup
salt 1 tspn
sugar 1 tspn
curd- 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1 tspn
Mix all these ingredients well, and knead the dough with warm water. Take 1-2 tbspn oil in hands and knead the dough, coating it with oil. Keep the dough for 3-4 hours in warm place.
Take 1" balls of dough and roll them into 6" bhaturas using oil, and deep fry them in very hot oil on high flame.
Serve hot with chhole and sirka onion rings. To make onion rings slice two onions in thin slices, separate the rings, add 2-3 tspn vinegar, and salt keep it for 1 hr.


Mar 16, 2014

Cinnamon rolls

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/microwave-caramel-sauce/

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/caramel-apple-cinnamon-rolls-recipe/


http://picky-palate.com/2012/06/11/perfect-cinnamon-rolls/








Mar 15, 2014

Puttu with kadala kurry


Puttu with Kadala curry ( Kadala curry is ideally made with brown chana but I used kabuli chana)



This recipe is from Kerala, and all in my family love south Indian food. We had puttu with kadala curry in Kadmat island, Lakshadweep for the first time  and my folks just loved it...Puttu is a popular breakfast in Kerala and people in Lakshadweep cherish kerala cuisine especially the seafood. Since last two months I had been trying to source puttu kudam (puttu maker) in Delhi and finally managed to get it from a local street vendor. Then began my search for puttu and kadala curry recipes.....sifted a couple of blogs before I decided to make it in my way.....drawing something from each of them ..but I largely followed this source-(http://www.sharmispassions.com/2011/08/kuzha-puttu-kadala-curry.html)

While kadala kurry is made with brown chana or kadala, I decided to use kabuli chane as  I had puttu with white kabuli chole in Lakshwadeep and we liked it that way, infact I was a little wary if my folks will cherish brown chana...you can use either...

To make puttu you need-
Rice rava- 3 cups
grated coconut - 1 cup
curd- 1/2 cup (nowhere it was mentioned to use curd but I used it and it came out well)
salt to taste
  • To make puttu, add curd (optional) and very little water till the flour resembles breadcrumbs...when you tighten it in your fist, it should take shape.
  • Let the flour soak for 30 mins to one hour and if you find the flour too dry, sprinkle some water. I added a little more water in the first go and had the right thing after an hour.

  • Let water boil in puttu maker (or cooker, if you use the one used over cooker), and fix the lower perforated disc well. Add alternate layers of grated coconut (1/4 inch) and puttu flour (11/2 inch) till the rim (leave an inch from top).
  • Steam the puttus for ten minutes and when it is cooked push it using a wooden stick from the bottom on the serving dish.
To make kadala curry-
Brown chana (1 1/2 cups) or kabuli chana (white chick peas)- 1 1/4 cup (soak overnight for 8 hrs)
Add salt and water to kabuli chana and pressure cook it for four whistles on high flame and ten minutes on low flame.
For curry take-
Shalots 8-9 or one large onion 
tomatoes- 2 medium (make a paste)
Dry red chilly- 2 nos
ginger paste- 1 tspn (you can use garlic also)
garam masala- 1 tspn
grated coconut- 1/2 cup
coriander seeds- 1 tbspn
cloves- 2
cinnamon- 1 inch piece
coriander powder- 1 tbspn
red chilly powder- 1 tspn
turmeric- 1 tspn
mustard seeds- 1 tspn
heeng (asofoetida)- pinch
oil- 3-4 tbspn

  • Heat one tbspn oil and add garlic paste,  4-5 shallots cut into half (or slices of half medium sized onion), stir for a  minute or two. Add coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon and roast all till onions are pink. Add grated coconut and roast for 2-3 mins. 

  • Add garam masala and take off the flame. Grind it in mixer with some water.

  •  For tempering- heat 3 tbspns oil, add mustard seeds, asofoetida, curry leaves and 4-5 shallots (onion). Cook till golden brown and then add tomato paste. Cook till the paste leaves oil and then add coriander powder, chilly powder and turmeric powder. Saute for a minute, add the coconut paste prepared above and salt , mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes.



 Add boiled chana and mix well and cook for 10 mins till required consistency.
  • Serve with hot puttu.

Mar 14, 2014

Garlic buns

I was always tempted by the pins related to breads and wondered if I could make bread in my convection microwave. One day while looking for microwave cooking I stumbled upon this  blog ...  http://www.cakesandmore.in/2013/03/how-to-use-convection-microwave-for_7.html       and yay! now  I had to try something  ...I decided to try garlic buns given here...
http://www.cakesandmore.in/2013/03/how-to-use-convection-microwave-for_7.html (similar other recipes on my pinterest board - http://www.pinterest.com/deepalisharma/tasty-bites/)

The picture of the garlic pull apart buns was too tempting to have a try at it and recipe also seemed easy, but ugghhh yeast, how to get that particular gloripan yeast..well I looked for the yeast packet I had bought some time back with the idea of making home baked fresh bread..and it was some wonder yeast..but this was not letting my spirits down! Any ways..I decided I will go ahead with whatever I have..and here is what I did...



What I used for bread-
Maida (plain flour)- 3 cups
warm water- 1 cup
dry active yeast- 1 tbspn
salt 1 tspn
sugar 2 tspns
olive oil 2 tbspns
1 egg + 1 tspn milk for basting the buns before baking
sesame seeds- 1 1/2 tbspn

For the filling I mixed 5-6 large cloves of crushed garlics in 50 gms salted butter, added 3tbspns chopped coriander, 1/2 tspn chilli flakes and 1/2 tspn pepper.
Working-

  • So I went by the recipe step by step..it was my first chance, even if I decided to experiment with some other yeast-  warmed water for half a minute in microwave, added sugar and then yeast.
  • Since it was pretty cold in Delhi , I kept this mixture in preheated microwave (4 mins convection at  180 deg centigrade) for 30 mins till the mixture got frothy. I  found this idea of using preheated oven for frothing yeast and poofing dough to be too good. 
  • To the mixture I added maida and salt and mixed well. Added olive oil and kneaded it for 5 mins.
  • I kept the dough in a glass bowl, covered it with cling film and placed it back in my preheated oven for around 2 hours till the dough doubled in size. It took too long for me- may be it was too cold or the yeast, so the time may vary for you. Keep a watch on the dough.
  • When the dough was ready I first made the filling by mixing all the ingredients.
  • I took out the dough and knocked down to remove locked air. I dusted the table top with plain flour and rolled the dough into  less than half an inch thickness sheet (oval).
  • Applied little more than half of the garlic filling on the sheet and rolled the sheet from one end to another (smaller side).
  • Using a thread I cut around eight no.  1"long rolls and placed them in a round pan.
  • I then applied the leftover garlic mixture on top and sprinkled sesame seeds on top.
  • Covered the pan with cling foil and kept in in preheated oven for poofing again for around two hours till the buns doubled in size.
  • Preheated the oven at convection for ten minutes again .
  • Applied the egg basting  and kept the buns for baking for 35 mins on convection at 180 degree Centigrade.
  • The freshly baked buns smelled so good and tasted yummy..

A MUST TRY if you want to try something in breads...