Chips Nu Shaak / Batata Nu Shaak And An Award

Yummy name for a dish right?? I don't know anybody who doesn't love taters. You can seldom go wrong with them. Which makes the humble potato a great choice when entertaining people, particularly when you are not sure about their preferences. Nine out of ten times, when I ask my kids to guess what they would get to eat at a meal, they chorus potato curry!! So all I need to do to make my kids happy is make a potato curry with some rasam and rice.

Hubby is not much of a rasam person, though he will not mind a bit eating it with a very generous serving of potato palya. Well, I wouldn't mind either.. piping hot rasam with hot steamed rice, some ghee and plenty of potato palya. Aahh... heaven!!

This extremely versatile vegetable finds its home in baskets in most Indian homes. What life savers these can be when you have no other veggies on hand!  A look at the menu of  a dhabha can give you quite a number of combination this vegetable can be cooked in:-) Unlike a lot of other vegetables, this one can be cooked directly in the pressure cooker or microwave without even chopping. Well, peeling hot potatoes in a hurry is another story and I have scalded my fingers many a times, trying to do this in the morning rush hour.

 A culturally rich and diverse country like ours has innumerable ways of cooking potatoes among hundreds of other things that is. This is a Gujarati dish called Chips Nu Shaak or Batata Nu Shaak.

I think this dish is traditionally cooked only in oil, which helps it keep fresh for a day or two outside the fridge too.  Supposedly a perfect accompaniment with theplas while travelling. Reminds me of the tall multi-compartment lunch boxes filled with a variety of yummy food which Gujaratis carry on long train journeys. Boxes replete with rotis, subjis, dal, rice, farsan, pickles and dessert too!!! How many times, I have felt so envious of those guys, having gourmet food on journeys too, while we would eat our humble puliogare, curd-rice-pickle / chapati-curry/   sitting just across the seat. Sigh!! Have a heart people!! Its tough to tear eyes away from such sights or close your nose to the delicious wafting aromas.

I loved this recipe for its sheer simplicity and quite unique taste. It is also very delicious, and on its way to becoming a regular on our dining table.


I have eaten potatoes fried, potatoes cooked in a coconut based masala, with onion-ginger-garlic, cashew and spices, but never with crunchy sesame seeds. The addition of the sesame seeds certainly sets this dish apart in taste and novelty factor, at least for me. It is slightly sweet, slightly sour and quite spicy, very delicious... 


This is a Sanjeev Kapoor recipe, yes, I do it again!! I have roasted the potato strips instead of frying them in oil,  using a tablespoon of oil instead of three.

Ingredients:

Potatoes- 5 large, peeled.
Oil - 1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon
White sesame seeds - 1 tablespoon
Coriander powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons
Jeera powder  - 1/2 teaspoon
Red Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Lemon Juice - 1 tablespoon
Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander

Procedure: Cut the potato into long, thin strips, put them in water. (Thinner than what I done should work better) If you are going to fry them in oil, remember they will become much thinner when fried, so do not cut them very thin.  Drain thoroughly.

Heat a large non-stick skillet and brush with very little oil or spray with oil. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat to minimum. Place the potato strips and cook till golden on both sides and crisp, flipping once or twice in between.(Two spoons work best for this).  I used 3 skillets simultaneously to make the process quicker. You could bake the potatoes, but I find it very time-consuming in my small OTG. Now if you happen to have a huge oven and can bake potatoes for a huge crowd at one go, don't even tell me about it:-). Yes, yes I will be 'upgrading' my oven shortly, hopefully!!. Once done, keep the crisp potatoes aside.

Optionally, as done in the original recipe, cook the potato strips in 2 tablespoons of oil, in a large skillet. Heat one more tablespoon of oil and continue as mentioned below.

Heat one tablespoon oil in a non-stick pan. Reduce the heat and add the sesame seeds. Saute till the seeds change color. Add the crisp potatoes, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, sugar and salt. Mix well and cook for 3-4 minutes.

Add the lemon juice toss again. Take off the fire. Garnish with the chopped coriander and serve hot.

Please note: The method of pan-roasting may work well if you are cooking for 3-4 people. Baking (in a big oven) may be more convenient for larger crowds.

Padmajha of Seduce Your Tastebuds has shared an award with me. Thank you so much Padmajha!!

I would like to share this with

1.Suman Singh of Incidental Cooking
2.Shruthi Singh Traditional Secrets
3.Sneha Rao Sinless Delectables
4.Sayatani of A Homemakers Diary
5. Deepti Pawar Some Salt To Taste
6. Nithya of 4th Sense Cooking
7. Aparna of Apy Cooking
8. Sweet Artichoke Sweet Artichoke
9. Pratibha of The Chef And Her Kitchen
10. Srimathi of Few Minute Wonders

Please accept!!

haaaaappy halloweeeeen!

i hope you're having a spooky spooky day! i currently am stuffing myself with pumpkin everything {you'll see}...i love this holiday.

R.O.Tack Water Technology

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

R.O.Tack Water Technology

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Potlakaya Kobbari Vepudu ~ Snake Gourd and Coconut Stir Fry

Ingredients :

Chopped Snake Gourd : 1 cup
Dry Coconut Powder : 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds : 1/2 tsp
Chanda Dal : 1/2 tsp
Urad Dal : 1/2 tsp
Whole Red Chillies : 1 or 2
Red Chilli Powder : 1/4 tsp
Curry Leaves : 1 stem
A pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
Oil : 2 tsp

Method :

Wash and chop the snake gourd into small pieces and set aside. Heat two teaspoons of oil in a vessel. Add the mustard seeds, chana dal and urad dal and let them splutter. When the seeds stop popping, add the curry leaves and red chillies and stir for another few seconds. Now add the snake gourd pieces, salt and turmeric powder. Mix well, cover with a lid. Let it cook completely. When it's done, add the red chilli powder and coconut powder and mix well. Turn off the flame and serve hot with steamed rice or roti.

reposting for the event

I am sending some of my recipes to the event "Only - Festive Event" .

1. Badusha
2. Alasanda Sunni
3. Palli Pakoda
4. Sukhadi
5. Vermicelli Halwa
6. Carrot Kheer
7. Puffed Rice with Coconut
8. Spicy Roasted Peanuts
9. Sattu Pindi
10. Rava Kesari
11. Ridge Gourd Fritters
12. Ulli Garelu
13. Bellam Pongali
14. Mokkajonna Pakam Garelu
15. Sabudana Chivda
16. Katte Pongali
17. Plantain Fritters
18. Aratipandu Appalu
19. Mint and Rice Crackers

Badusha

Ingredients :

For the dough :

Maida : 3 cups
Butter : 1/4 cup
Oil : 1/2 cup
Sugar : 1 tbsp
A Big Pinch of Cooking Soda

For the Syrup :

Sugar : 1 cup
Water

Oil for deep frying
Method :

Mix the maida, sugar, butter, oil and cooking soda together and make smooth dough by adding water as necessary. Keep it aside for one hour. Mix the sugar and water. The amount of water should be just enough to soak the sugar and make a syrup of one thread consistency. Remove from the flame and set aside. Divide the dough into small lemon size balls. Flatten them a little and make a dimple in the middle. Heat oil in a pan for deep frying the badushas. Deep fry the badushas on medium flame till golden brown color. When they turn to golden brown color, remove from the oil and put them into sugar syrup. Soak the badushas in sugar syrup for 5 minutes. Take the badushas out of the syrup and let it cool completely. Store in a airtight container.

Other Names : Badhusha, Balushahi.

Alasanda Sunni ~ Black Eyed Beans Laddu

Ingredients :

Black eyed peas / White Kidney Beans : 1 cup
Jaggery : 1 cup
Melted Ghee : 1/2 cup
Cardamom Pods : 2 (Optional)

Method :

Dry roast the black eyed peas on a low flame until light brown color. Don't burn them. Remove from the flame and allow it to cool. Grind the roasted beans along with cardamom seeds into a powder. Add the jaggery and grind again. Transfer the powder into a bowl. Add the warm ghee and mix very well. Divide into equal portions and shape them into round balls. Store in a airtight container.

Other Names : Bobbarla Laddu, Alasanda Sunnundalu, Alasanda Undalu, Black Eyed Bean Laddu, Cow Peas Ladoo, Alasande Unde, Vella Payaru Laddoo, Vellai Karamani Urundai, Lobia Ladoo.

Biyyapuravva Majjiga Upma ~ Cracked Rice and Buttermilk Upma

Ingredients :

Rice Rava (Cracked raw rice) : 1 cup
Sour Buttermilk : 2 cups
Mustard Seeds : 1 tsp
Chana Dal : 1 tsp
Urad Dal : 1 tsp
Peanuts : 1 tbsp
Cashews : 2 tsp
Red Chillies : 2 to 4
Curry Leaves : 2 stems
Salt to taste
Oil : 3 tbsp

Method :

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal and peanuts and let them splutter. When the seeds stop popping, add the cashews, red chillies and curry leaves and fry for few seconds. Add the cracked rice, buttermilk and salt and mix well. Cover with a lid and cook on a low flame for 8 to 10 minutes. Turn off the flame and serve with chutney or spicy powder.

Other Names : Biyyam Nooka Majjiga Upma, Buttermilk Upma, Rice Rava and Buttermilk Upma, Majjiga Pindi, Biyyam Rava Challa Upma.

a blast from halloweens past.

i was looking through some old facebook photos and found these beauties.

halloween 2006.

halloween 2007 - i may or may not have dressed up as sharpay evans from high school musical...love that movie.

halloween 2008 - the first with my lover boy. ohh man i was so tan from my cruise with my bffs!

i just love how old photos bring back so many memories. i hope you have a spooktacular halloween weekend!

Pappula Podi ~ Spicy Dalia Powder

Pappula Podi ~ Spicy Roasted Bengal Gram Powder

Ingredients :

Roasted Bengal Gram (Dalia) : 2 cups
Chopped Dry Coconut : 1 cup
Garlic Pods : 3 to 5
Red Chilli Powder to taste
Salt to taste

Method :

Chop the dry coconut into small pieces and grind into a powder. Then add the dalia, salt, red chilli powder and garlic pods to it. Grind into a coarse powder. Serve with dosa, idli or hot steamed rice with dollop of ghee.

Other Names : Pappula Podi, Putnala Podi, Putnalapappu Podi

Palli Pakoda ~ Peanut Pakora

Ingredients :

Peanuts : 1 cup
Besan : 2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder : 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method :

Mix the besan, peanuts, salt and red chilli powder. Sprinkle very little water and mix well. Heat oil for deep frying. Deep fry the peanuts in hot oil till they turn golden brown color. Remove from the oil and let it cool completely. Store in a airtight container and serve as a snack.

Sukhadi ~ Wheat Flour Burfi

Ingredients :

Wheat Flour : 1 cup
Jaggery : 3/4 cup
Ghee : 1/4 cup
Cashews : 10

Method :

Fry the cashews in ghee and set aside. Dry roast the wheat flour in a heavy bottomed pan till it turn light brown color and allow it to cool. Heat little water in a vessel, add the grated jaggery and mix well. Allow the jaggery to melt and cook until the syrup is sticky. Add the roasted wheat flour and ghee and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir continuously and remove from the flame. Spread in a greased plate and cut into small pieces. Garnish with fried cashews and serve.

i've been in the kitchen.

isaac has been home for a full week from his business travels {which hasn't happened in quite some time!} so i've been cooking and baking up a storm. i've posted two of my favorite recipes and i thought i might share some link love so you can give them a try!

find the recipe for this delicious baked stuffing chicken over at a few scrumptious things...

and my recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies over at just cook already...

yum!

Semiya Kesari ~ Vermicelli Halwa

Ingredients :

Vermicelli : 2 cups
Sugar : 1 cup
Cardamom Powder : 1 tsp
Chopped Cashews : 1 tbsp
Chopped Almonds : 1 tsp
Raisins : 1 tsp
Ghee : 1/4 tsp
A pinch of food color (Optional)

Method :

Melt the ghee in a vessel. First fry the chopped cashews, chopped almonds and then raisins to the light brown color. Now take them out and set aside. In the same pan, add and fry the vermicelli till golden brown color. Add 3 cups of water and food color and cook until soft. Add the sugar and cardamom powder and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes and turn off the flame. Add the fried nuts and serve.

Butter Sponge Cake

The name reminds me of the cake I had eaten a couple of times as a kid,  from a famous bakery by the name Butter Sponge in Bangalore. There is one by the same name now, am not sure if its the same one though.  Naive me had then thought that the vanilla loaf cake was a bread and how amazed I was by the super delicious tasting 'bread'. But back then, in our sleepy hometown, even cakes sold in the bakeries did not hold much appeal as they were too sweet or were slathered with the over sweet, greasy butter cream..aaagh!!! So it was not all that of a pleasure to eat cakes. We would prefer eating the other savory stuff on the few occasions we would eat bakery stuff.... If we can't get fat eating cakes, let us get fat eating puffs... makes sense right?? lol!!

I had bought a baking book from a railway platform while traveling almost 8 years ago. I did not have an oven , but would just read the book now and then. I have baked a couple of cakes from this book before I got seduced by the glossy glamorous books. The author calls this cake a Butter Sponge Cake and I was tempted to try this out to see if the results would be as good as the name sounds. And I must say, though it was not a buttery butter sponge, it made a delicious, wonderfully light textured tea cake.

 

 The good thing about this recipe is its pretty quick and easy. Doesn't need the butter to be at room temperature, no need to cream the butter. So a good recipe for a beginner.

The recipe goes like this

All Purpose Flour (Maida)- 1 Cup

Baking Powder 1 teaspoon

Butter, unsalted  - 1/4 Cup

Sugar - 3/4 Cup (The original recipe uses 1 cup, 3/4 cup sugar tasted just fine)

Eggs, 6, Yolks only (gulp!!)

Hot Milk- 1/2 Cup

Vanilla Essence - 3/4 teaspoon

 Procedure:  Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C(375 degrees F). Grease and line an 8'' tin. (I have used a 9'' tin, dunno why I keep doing silly things like this, would have got a better looking cake!!!)

Sieve the flour and baking powder twice. Add the butter and vanilla essence to the hot milk, cover it to keep it hot. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks till very thick. That would be for about 4-5 minutes on medium high speed with a hand mixer. Add sugar beat till well incorporated about 30 seconds or so on low speed. At this stage check if the milk is still hot, if not heat again and keep it covered.

 Fold in the flour mixture gently and quickly. Stir in the hot milk mixture. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the tin and cool on the rack completely.

  

     

     Doesn't this look pretty??

Vani, my one and only serious-about-baking- friend-near-where-I-live, very generously lent me her stencils among other things. What a fabulous thing for decorating  cakes, specially for artistically challenged folk like me!! Thanks a ton gurl! 

The cake reminded me in a way about the Golden Cake which was also moist apart from being light and delicious. This one was  undoubtedly a lovely tea-cake, light in terms of weight too. Surely a cake worth trying.

This cake is on its way to Champa's Bake-Off .

i wish...

{image}

i want so badly to have a beautiful porch to display my beautifully carved pumpkins. unfortunately we live in an apartment complex in which no one comes to trick or treat. boooooo. so sad. at least i don't have to buy candy...?! you know me, always looking on the bright side.

do you have any fabulous halloween plans? we're still trying to get our weekend all planned out. i'm kind of thinking we need to take a ride on the creepy heber valley railroad. has anyone done it? if so, please fill me in on if it's creepy or dumb. thank you very much.

p.s. it is a winter wonderland outside...i feel like i should be planning christmas not halloween!

Raid the Cupboard

In the last few weeks I've been trying out some 'unusual' ingredient cupcakes with the idea of entering the "Most Unique Ingredient" at Cupcake Camp this weekend.

First up was the tomato soup cupcake as featured in the new book from Baked Explorations: Classic American Deserts Reinvented, the new book from the guys behind Baked bakery in New York. The recipe was featured in  Daily Candy so I thought I'd give it a go. I really didn't like it very much at all. The tomato soup overpowered the cake and I didn't even bother to make the frosting as I knew I'd never eat the cakes. Alas the weekend I made these was the weekend my camera broke so the pic is a bit dodgy. Also Manny had a cold so could taste nothing so I can't give a second opinion as the only other thing to taste them was my Brabinta. The second photo below shows how it should have looked when finished. My looked more like giant tomato muffins (that tomato soup really fermented when you added the baking soda - it was like something out of a horror movie!). I keep thinking about re-trying this recipe but with a lot more spice, as the spices really didn't come through in the cake in my opinion. Maybe trying it with Heinz soup, rather than the condensed soup as well as I'm told its makes a nicer, sweeter cake.

my tomato soup cupcakes

Baked's tomato soup cupcake

Next up was a cupcake I think I invented, as I've looked and can't find any cupcakes that are similar - if you've made them sorry! The reason I thought of this was all because the lady loves this....

the cornflake milkshake from Hawksmoor. Drooooool. One of the nicest things I've ever tried. I figured I would make some 'cornflake milk' by toasting the flakes lightly then adding to some ice cold milk, which I then left to soak for about 30mins or so. I then made a plain cupcake with the cornflake milk added. I added some cornflake crumbs to some of the cupcakes for extra taste (so I thought!). I was quietly confident this would work as the batter tasted really cornflake'y - like the milk that's left at the end of the bowl once you've scoffed the cereal. Alas the flavour baked out and what we were left with was a flavourless cake, and in the case of the ones I crumbled some cornflakes into, a flavourless cake with some soggy cornflakes in. Bugger.

Not willing to give up I made some cornflake milk frosting hoping it would save the cakes but it really didn't. Manny still ate them though! He really is the best taster in the world - and because he goes to the gym he works it off!

Next up was this weekends attempt. An yellow cake (ie no egg whites) infused with cardamom and saffron with a white chocolate and cardamom frosting. An Asian friend at work told me to ensure I used LOTS of cardamom to enhance the flavour. She suggested grinding it into the base but I wasn't that keen, instead I infused some hot milk with about 9 cardamom pods and a little bit of saffron and left to infuse for about an hour or two. The milk smelt very fragrant and I used equal quantities of  butter, caster sugar and baking powder and then 2 egg yolks, making up the remaining weight with the infused milk. The result was an incredibly moist, flavoursome cake. A little bit too flavoursome for me - I felt the cardamom was a little overpowering, but Manny happily scoffed them. I made a white chocolate and cardamom frosting using some of the leftover milk - I must say I'm not that fussed about white chocolate frosting, I find it a little too sweet.. Oh, and I baked some apricots into a few of them and Manny seemed to enjoy those when hungover yesterday, which didn't please the lady at work who was keen to try them!

I've just noticed that both cakes look kinda similar as they both have white frosting and I used the same cases for them - ooops. Honestly they're not - they're different cakes - you can tell by Manny's expanding waist-line, and the cardamom ones are more yellow inside!

the innards of the cardamom and saffron yellow cake

I have one more thing to try for Cupcake Camp with an unusual ingredient and then if that doesn't work I'm opting out of the comp! There are only so many odd(ish) things a girl can think of!

Btw, I've decided to name some of my posts this week in tribute to some of my favourite bands/songs for Halloween - this one is a tribute to Nunslaughter's Raid the Convent.

Gorgeous cupcake gift idea!

It's not long till Christmas (!!) and what cupcake fan wouldn't love to receive this gorgeous bird cupcake stand, as featured in Daily Candy's baking supplies that'll warm your kitchen list.

Hand-made by Whitney Smith, it is available via her Etsy store in pink (my favourite), red and blue. It can also be made in custom colours, sizes to match your kitchen.

Photographs used with thanks to Whitney Smith.

booties.

i love boots. i strongly believe that spending a little extra money for a good pair always pays off and you can wear them far longer than any cheapy pair. and they don't let your feet get wet like some of my cheapies, which is the worst in the winter. the worst. i love this pair by steve madden at nordstrom so much. i don't have any brown boots and i think it's high time i get me a pair.

dear mom, buy me a pair for christmas please. shall we take a trip to nordstrom this week?! i think yes.

silver lake.

last thursday isaac and i took advantage of the last lovely day of fall {pretty sure it might snow today...grrr} by doing a little hike/picnic at silver lake. we munched on pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw, chips, honeycrisp apples and pumpkin cupcakes. it was perfect.

if winter seriously takes over today i am going to be so mad. i just love fall so much.

Gummadikaya Pulusu ~ Pumpkin Stew

Ingredients :

Red Pumpkin Pieces : 1 cup
Onion : 1
Tamarind : small lemon size ball
Green Chillies : 2 or 3
A pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder ; 1/2 tsp
Rice Flour : 1 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds : 5 seeds
Mustard Seeds : 1/2 tsp
Oil : 1 tsp
Curry leaves : 1 stem
A pinch of hing


Method :

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 5 minutes, then squeeze the extract out of it and set aside. Wash and chop the pumpkin into medium size pieces and set aside. Peel and chop the onion into big size pieces and keep aside. Place the pumpkin pieces, chopped onion, green chillies, fenugreek seeds and water in a vessel. Cook till the pumpkin is soft. Then add the salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, tamarind extract and two cups water to it and mix well. Dilute the rice flour in the water. Then add this mixture to the pumpkin stew and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Switch off the flame. Heat one teaspoon of oil in a pan for seasoning. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. When the seeds stop popping, add the curry leaves and hing and fry for few seconds. Add this seasoning to the pumpkin stew and mix well. Serve hot with steamed rice, ghee and some papads.

Orange Bread

Well, yes, you could say I am on a 'caking' break. Cakes and More hasn't seen a cake this month, the 'More' taking up the space happily. I have baked a couple of cakes, but nothing new, so nothing to blog about.
With the son becoming more chubby, me on a diet, the hubby on an enforced diet (enforced by yours truly, without any doubt) whatever cakes I bake, is restricted to a slice or two for the kids and the rest shared with neighbors, and friends. Well, the itch to bake a new cake will soon resurface and I promise a shining new cake here soon...

I have been trying out breads, the healthier way to scratch the baking itch. Baking breads, I must tell you, has been like an edge-of-the-seat thriller in a way. You guessed it -Yeast features in this one. If you live in India, trying to learn baking bread with our locally available dried-active yeast, you can relate to my banter here. My inexperience apart,  poor quality of yeast has been a contributing factor to the 'Ooops' factor in my breads. I have had to discard the yeast mixture 4 times on one occasion as the yeast did not quite proof..oops, rise to the occasion. So while my yeast is proofing, I pace back and forth, will it froth well within the critical 10 minutes, or will I have to start all over again..?? The 'phoren' yeast is supposed to be much more potent, it WILL froth for sure in 10 minutes and froth even when close to the expiry date. Guys in the US and elsewhere - how I envy you!!

I will be getting my bag of goodies from the US shortly and you bet yeast is going to be one of them. My sister got me a packet of instant yeast called Gloripan from General Food Additives, Seshadripuram. I was so excited,  I just had to fit in baking a bread on the same day as I had to bake 3 cakes in my 14 liter OTG for a celebration in our office. And am I over the moon the yeast proofed its worth:-)

  I tried Orange Bread from Champa's blog, with a few modifications made as I baked with APF instead of whole wheat. I would have loved to bake with whole wheat as in the original recipe here , but was too chicken to add another element of  uncertainty by adding the vital wheat gluten, not to disregard the kneading factor. So after some, alright, quite some mails to Champa, I decided to bake it with APF.

As I learn, the ratio of the liquid to the flour is imperative to good texture of the bread. So if you are learning baking bread like me, make sure any bread recipe you attempt is very specific in these terms. A skewed ratio may result in a dense bread.

Here is what I did.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour(Maida) - 3 Cups( I added about 1.5 tablespoons more while kneading)
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Orange Juice 3/4 Cup (I used Tropicana)
Water - 1/4 cup(divided use)
Honey - 3 tablespoons(Add a tablespoon more if you want the bread sweet)
Oil- 2 tablespoons
Dry Yeast - 2 teaspoons ( I used instant yeast, same quantity)
Orange Zest, grated - 1/2 teaspoon

Milk for brushing the loaf before baking (optional)
Oil or butter for brushing after baking(optional)

Procedure: In a large bowl, combine the honey and 2 tablespoons of warm water (out of the 1/4 cup). Sprinkle the yeast on top, allow to froth for 10 minutes. If it does not froth in 10 minutes, the yeast is no good and you will have to start the process all over again:-(.  Note: Instant yeast does not need to be proofed, but I proofed just to see if it would froth well. And it did!

Mix the flour and salt well in another bowl. Keep aside. Add the oil, grated zest, the orange juice and the remaining water to the yeast mixture. Slowly add in the flour and mix into a dough. Dust your working area with very little flour. Knead well for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. If you find the dough sticky, oil your hands and continue with the kneading. I have added 1.5 tablespoons more flour as the dough was extremely sticky and difficult to knead in spite of oiling my hands repeatedly. I used my dough scraper for the first time.  Note: Adding more than a couple of tablespoons of flour in addition to what the recipe specifies is not a good idea for a beginner. Form the dough into a ball, coat with oil. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel and rest it in a warm place for an hour or till it doubles in volume.

Once the dough doubles, gently deflate it and shape into a dough. This part is scary as I am not sure how much of handling the dough is OK at this stage. Now you know why my loaves don't look pretty most of the times:-). You are supposed to be using a 9*5 loaf pan here. My tins are smaller, so I have made one big loaf and another mini braided loaf. Cover the loaf with a greased aluminum foil and let it rise again for about 45 minutes or till the dough doubles in volume.

Towards the end of the final rise, pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F). Just before placing the loaf in the oven, brush with some room temperature milk. Bake for 20 minutes. The loaf turning golden brown around 20 minutes is a good sign, I have realized. I have baked for 25 minutes at this stage. Slide an aluminum foil over the loaf if you find it browning too much. Lower the temperature to 160 degrees C (325 degrees F) and bake for 10-15 minutes more or till the bottom sounds hollow when tapped. I have again baked for more than 5 extra minutes as I was not sure if the bottom sounded hollow. I have over baked the bread as is obvious from the thick-ish crust. I now need to add an Instant-read thermometer to my wish-list. This helps check the done-ness of bread. Cool gadget, eh?:-))

Remove the loaf from the oven, brush with some butter and allow the bread to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack till the bread comes to room temperature. Slice only after it comes to room temperature.

The bread had a good texture, slightly tangy, slightly sweet, soft and flavorful with the hint of orange coming through...The crunch of the flaked almonds on top contrasted well with the softness of the bread.

If you do not want the bread to taste tangy, add more honey. If you prefer the bread sweetish, try adding just the 3 tablespoons honey, use 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup water, step up on the zest.


Thanks for sharing this wonderful keeper of a recipe Champa! The bread goes your Bake-Off.

 Am so very happy to also be sending my humble bread to Meeta's Monthly Mingle hosted by my favorite, favorite, favorite-est blogger Deeba this month. Being a huge PAB fan, I just wouldn't miss up on this, not for the world!!

Also to Susan's Yeast Spotting

Pumpkin soup

It's that time of the year again...

The nights are closing in and there's a nip in the air, who wouldn't want some pumpkin soup? This is one I made last week for myself and my uncle Kazik who is staying with me right now, doing my floors and finishing off all the stuff that the builders have given up on. Soup is always better, in my experience, when you take your time with it. Therefore, I cooked it one night, left it to cool, then blended it the next morning, adding the cream. We then warmed it up and ate it for dinner for two nights running, the second night with penne pasta, which worked really well, and made it into a more complete meal

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin, cut into chunks, with seeds taken out

1 leek, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 parsnip, chopped

1 green chilli 

Chicken or vegetable stock

1 tblsp butter

1 tblsp olive oil

1 small single cream

Salt and pepper

Roast the pumpkin in olive oil, with salt and pepper, at about 180 degrees C for about an hour. In the meantime, fry the leek, chilli, carrot and parsnip in the butter. Once they are translucent, add the stock (or water if you prefer) and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer. Once the pumpkin is ready, peel it and add the bits to the soup, then carry on cooking for another half an hour or so, seasoning at the end. At this point, I turned the heat off and left the soup to infuse overnight, before blending and adding the cream. There's a Polish saying about relationships, which translates as "I don't like my soup reheated". It means that you shouldn't go back to old relationships and try to "reheat" them. I find it so strange, because soup is definitely better reheated, everyone knows that.  Conclusion: sayings that don't make any sense are annoying

a little tidbit.

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this week one of my particularly busy patients {a 15 year old boy} said to me after a very hectic shift together, "thank you for being so patient with me, it really means so much to me." i can't describe how good it felt to know that i had made a small difference in his hospital stay. i love my job so much and feel so happy that i am able to not only work to help support my little family but i also get to do a little good each day in this very crazy world. children are amazing! i feel so blessed.

the end.

Zombie Apocalypse

You wait ages for a gruesome cupcake event then two come along at once. Lily Vanilli, queen of the gory cupcake is holding the official launch for her book A Zombie Ate my Cupcake on Friday 28th October at Harrods.

The event promises a beautiful zombie set in store - featuring a huge haunted house backdrop (below) designed by Paul Parker (who illustrated the book). There will also be a zombie raffle, book signing, interactive zombie waiters, a zombie cupcake feast and lots of cake!

The event will also celebrate the official launch of the new Lily Vanilli counter in Harrods Food Hall patisserie, where her cakes will be exclusively available all year round, which will be selling a selection of cakes from the book for Halloween including a couple of my favourites from the book, the shattered glass and the eerie eyeballs. Those worms look just a little too real for me as I suffer from Scoleciphiobia!

Lily will be signing copies of A Zombie At My Cupcake from 1-2pm, further details here. I'm aiming to get there as I've taken the afternoon off work so fingers crossed nothing urgent comes up that stops me leaving at midday on the dot!

So I realised the other day I've not gotten round to reviewing the book itself which I've had for about three months. I'm not going to lie, when I first got it I was a little disappointed with how few recipes there are in there - about 10. But, the book is full of awesome ideas and when you think about it most recipe books are just the same ones over and over again with a little addition so I would definitely recommend this book if you are a fan of unusual cupcakes and want to try something different than a dollop of frosting on top of your cupcake.

Although I love baking and love anything gory, I'm not the most artistic and I think some of the cakes are beyond my skills, the day of the dead skulls for example, or one of my favourites the crazy crabs,

however I think I could manage the Devil's Food cupcakes, below, and these are on my to do list for baking after Cupcake Camp. There are great ideas in the book and if yours doing turn out as pretty as Lily's well they're kinda meant to be gruesome so it doesn't matter!

If you'd like the book and can't get to Harrods on Friday, The Book People have it for the bargain price of £3.99!

Finally if you're wondering where the title of this post came from, Zombie Apocalypse by Mortician \m/

Kobbari Putnala Pachadi ~ Coconut and Dalia Chutney

Kobbari Putnalapappu Pachadi ~ Coconut and Dalia Chutney

Ingredients :

Roasted Bengal Gram (Dalia) : 1/2 cup
Fresh Coconut : Half shell
Green Chillies : 3 to 5
Salt to taste


Method :

Chop the coconut into small pieces and set aside. Place all the ingredients into a blender and grind them into a paste. Add a little water and grind again to a smooth paste. Transfer the chutney into a cup and serve with dosa, idli or upma.