Happy New Year 2011

Been missing almost for a year. It wasn't that I haven't been baking. Just didn't have enough time to take photos and blog about the same.

I recently bought a book called 'Baking for all Occasions' by Flo Braker. Till now I thought as long as I could find the recipe online I dont need the books, but this book just proved me wrong. A recipe online is never what the original author intended, it usually changes from person to person, or rather cook to cook. And this book is a very very good one. I have tried almost 3 things from it in the short period that I have had it, and all of them have been brilliant. The open-faced galette was the best apple pie I ever tasted. Spritz cookies tasted good but since I was piping for the first time, I have to get used to the shapes. And finally the dish of the day, Congo Brownies. I was just intimidated by their look and the procedure, but they did come together in a cinch. The house smelled fragrant when they were baking and they taste awesome.


The recipe is already out there.

Orange Tart

I have been intrigued by pies, ever since I encountered them in the books I used to read. The first of them would be Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was never tired of reading it, for that entirely different world that it showcased to me.

I managed to finally eat a pie when I was in US in my 20's. It was an apple pie. Homemade, it was delicious. But I was not interested in the mechanics of making it at that time. Or the nomenclature for that matter. I have eaten many since then in McDonald's & Corner House, etc. But never a homemade one again. And it never met my expectations.

Now I know the difference between a pie and a tart. I know how they are made. I read up on most of the things online. BUT I have never made one at home. I was terribly scared of rolling out the crust, lining the pan, and then also about the filling. What if it is too soggy, what if it is too runny, what if the thing never came out of the pan. Finally, I dared and made one. It was easy. It took a lot of time, more than to make a cake, but more of it was resting time than actually hands on work. I baked it in a glass dish. It flowed out of the pan even though I didnt have a removable base pan. I was so pessimistic about the result that I didnt even take pictures of my crust or filling.

The mandarin orange season here is in its peak. Oranges everywhere. And I have more on my hand than that can be eaten in a week or two. Eating two-three per day also will not be enough to get them over with. So I usually bake a cake or juice them up and finish them. This time I wanted to be adventurous and chose Orangenkuchen recipe from Backen. It was straightforward and didnt ask for fancy ingredients. Though I substituted the bread crumbs with cracker crumbs gone soft.

Orangenkuchen (Orange Tart)
(Makes a 6 inch tart)

For the Crust:
75g Whole Wheat Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
60g Butter, cut in small pieces
1 tbsp Water

For the Filling:
Zest of an Orange
5 tbsp Orange Juice
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
75g Cream
25g Fresh Breadcrumbs/Cracker Crumbs
25g Butter
25g Sugar
1 Egg, separated
1 pinch, Salt

• Mix Flour and Sugar together. Add butter in small pieces to the flour mixture. Rub with fingers till all of it is incorporated and add the water to make a soft dough.
• Fold the dough with plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 30 min.
• Press the dough on to a 6 inch springform pan/pie pan/tart pan uniformly. Poke with a fork all over to stop it from rising during baking.
• Rest in the refrigerator again for another 30 min.
• Blind bake the crust for 20 min at 180 C. Remove the baking beans and bake for another 20 min.
• Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice, cream and the breadcrumbs together.
• Heat the butter and sugar in a pan on the stove on a low flame carefully, till the sugar melts.
• After removing from the stove, add the yolk, 1/2 pinch salt and Cream mixture.
• Beat the egg white with the remaining salt until foamy and mix into the filling.
• Pour the filling into the baked crust and bake at 160 C for 50-55 min till the filling seems set.
• Cool the tart briefly. Serve warm.

Note: The egg can be replaced with a mixture of 4-5 tbsp milk with a tbsp Cornstarch and added to the filling mixture.

Methi Buttermilk Buns

Going to the Madiwala market is one of my favorite things to do on a sunday. Its chaotic, its filled with heaps and heaps of fresh fruits and vegetables, its colorful, its just beautiful. I want to take an armload of everything that I see. And this time I was tempted into buying a lot of greens, they were so fresh.

So I had loads of greens on my hands to finish up, spinach, mint and methi (Fenugreek). I needed some recipes to use them up. I made spinach soup, without the chicken. Let me tell you, it was the most delicious green soup I have ever tasted. If not for making coconut milk from scratch, I'd eat it every week. Spinach, check.

Mint leaves were ably used to make the Pani for Pani Puri and the remaining went into a pachchadi (Pickle so to say, but more like to be finished in a day or too).

Come to methi, I used up one bunch for my Methi Lobhia, a great simple recipe from 660 Curries. (Someday I will take a photograph of it cooked and will make a blog post of it). I had another bunch weighing on my mind and then I ran across this delicious photo of buns on JFI greens roundup.

I get a lot of inspiration from checking out Food Blogging Event Roundups. :) Most of my current favorites are usually trials from the recipes bookmarked during such fishing. And one of my favorite haunts is JFI. Especially the roundups. I am usually late to participate in them myself, mostly see them after they are done. I am going to rectify this situation by the end of this post.

Methi Malai Buns from Jugalbandi needed paneer and I had none at home, but I had a cupful of Buttermilk waiting to be used up. So I used that instead and made small minor changes as per my taste buds. And the result was very tasty. I'd tweak the recipe more to make it spicier like the Masala Buns that we get in Iyengar Bakeries here in Bangalore. Maybe some mint, some minced green chillies, more ajwain, definitely more methi. Hmm, looks like I will be making more variations of these.

Now I want to send them to Bread Baking Day #28: Buns. :)

Methi Buttermilk Buns
(Makes 8-10 Buns)

2 tbsp Water, slightly warm
1 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 tbsp Honey
280g Whole Wheat Flour
140g All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Ajwain Seeds (Bishop's Weed) (Can use thyme in its place)
1 bunch Methi Leaves (approximately a cup), finely chopped
1 bunch Spring Onion Greens, finely chopped
1 Small Red Onion, grated/minced
1 Green Chilli, sliced finely/minced
125ml Buttermilk (1/2 Cup)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

• Dissolve the active dry yeast in the slightly warm water. Add the honey to the water. Stir to dissolve the honey.
  
• Mix the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, ajwain seeds and Baking Soda in a big bowl.
  
• Add the chopped methi greens, spring onion greens, onion, green chilli and mix well.
• Add the Olive oil and buttermilk to the flour mixture.
  
• Pour in the water. Gather together into a dough and knead it for 6-7 min till it is slightly springy or elastic.
  
• Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl, turn to coat the other side in oil.
• Keep the bowl covered and let the dough rise till double, for 1 to 1 1/2 hr.
  
• Overturn the dough gently on to the counter, divide it into 8-10 parts. Gently roll them to make into small balls.
  
• Place them slightly apart on a baking sheet. Cover and let them rise till doubled. (30-40 min)
• Preheat the oven to 180C and bake them for 20-25 min.
• Cool them on a rack after taking out of the oven.
  

Handmade Pasta

I wanted to eat Pasta since I came back from Germany but I wasnt satisfied with what I ate. Not that there are no places to eat it at, Italian food is available in abundance in Bangalore. :)

The pizzas were excellent, but the lasagna we got from Little Italy was tooooo creamy as if richness was filling in for taste. And the spaghetti, I dont even want to talk about it, I had a hard time finishing it. Neither the mushroom baked casserols at Indijoes satisfied me. Even after all these my pasta cravings hadn't gone and what more, they were increasing. And I didnt like the brands of dried pasta available in the supermarkets, and they do cost a little too much. (I think I have gone stingy, as most of the times what motivates me to make stuff at home is the alternative cost of eating out or buying it). And there was no choice of getting a whole wheat version of it either, atleast I feel better for eating all that cheese if it were made of whole wheat rather than all purpose flour or maida.

So I looked through the internet, and saw that it was not that hard to make pasta. It was intimidating, people keep telling you how a pasta machine will make things easy and how it is hard for a first time to roll it thin. I didnt have one. I was going to rely on my chapati making skills to get through the kneading and the rolling.

I thought I was going to learn on the go and fix any problems as they come up. So I plunged in. I mixed the dough, kneaded till it felt supple and smooth in my hand. I had to add a tablespoon of oil and a dash of water before it came through to that stage. I let it rest for 30-45 min. Then cut the dough into small lemon sized pieces. I didnt know how big they were supposed to be, so I erred on the smaller side.

Since everyone stressed so much about flour, I put an overdose of flour on everything. Then I started rolling. I rolled and rolled till it couldnt go any thinner, I could see the black countertop through the rolled dough. The best part was the dough didnt tear the way usually it does on chapati when you go thinner than it can bear. This dough wanted to stretch. :) Then I floured some more and folded it and cut into neat thin strips. I was making tagliatelle, a wider and flatter noodle than spaghetti. (This is a fun game I loved playing, identifying how many shapes of pasta you know, a quiz.)

Well, after rolling three lemon sized pieces, I had a lot of pasta in my hand, so boiled it and ate it tossed with some Olive Oil, vinegar and veggies. No pictures there. I was hungry by then.

I had 2 more lemon sized balls remaining, I planned lasagna for the dinner. I made some marinara sauce and bechamel sauce, roasted some eggplant and was ready to go for the lasagna. I assembled it with homemade lasagna sheets, topped with a no-name cheese I got for my kid to eat, and it went into the oven and turned out like this. It was yummy. I'd make more next time.

I never thought the process would be so easy. If only I had tried this in Germany, I would have made lasagna so many times at home and that too with all those cheeses at hand, and wouldnt have burnt my hands with the store bought kind. The last attempt at lasagna was made more difficult with the not-fitting lasagna sheets to the casserole or auflauf pan I was using.

Fresh pasta is way way way better than store bought dried pasta. Its easier to make, faster to cook with, lighter and you can always make it with whole wheat flour than all purpose flour. When cooking for more people, you can always ask for some help for cutting and drying. I just have to read about and figure out better ways to store it after rolling and cutting, then I can even have it for entertaining.

Trying new things always makes me happy, especially when they are this successful.

Bread and Butter

This weekend I was having my breakfast, the usual toast with jam. No, weekends are so busy, that I dont get time to make elaborate breakfasts, it doesnt help that I wake up quite late either. So its the usual, bread toasted with butter and jam. Then it struck me that I was actually eating homemade bread toasted with homemade butter. Pity, it was not homemade jam along with it. But it's only a matter of time, where I will make jam too . Orange season is ahead, and am waiting to lay my hands on a few to make this marmalade.

Firstly, the butter.

I have been making butter for sometime now. And there are multitude of sites which teach you how to make butter. And the process is straightforward. Internet doesnt need one more person telling you how to whisk cream long enough to make butter. But the butter I made this time is different and is worth a mention as it tastes really wonderful.

I learnt how to clarify butter in Germany because of the exorbitant cost of store bought Ghee. And the butter there was alright, I never used the fancy butters there, just the regular and my Ghee used to turn out to be rather nice. However here in India, the butter is costly and smells of something else than what am used to, I believe there is some mix up of Dalda somewhere. So I stopped buying butter from outside, and buy Ghee which tastes ok.

I dont like the cream layer that ends up on top of the milk after boiling it, so I avoid it all costs in my morning cup of milk. And I dont like throwing it, so when I set the remaining milk to make curd, I do end up with a layer of cream on top of it. Now I dont like to eat it either, and I dont like to throw it either, so I collect all of it in a jar and store it in the refrigerator till I atleast fill it fully, which gives me close to 80-90g of Butter. And also gets me fresh buttermilk for some tasty More Rasam, Menthi Majjiga, Majjiga Pulusu or some cake of mine in waiting because of afore-mentioned butter unavailability.

I find that the cream on top of curd stays fresh longer than the cream on top of milk. I dont let it sour though. I make butter as soon as I can, in fear that I will lose all the cream if I let it sit for long and it will go bad. But this time I was in Hyd for 3 weeks and totally forgot about the cream sitting in the fridge before leaving. After I came back I looked into it thinking I'd find a thick green layer of fungus on top of it. Surprisingly there was none of that, but I could smell that it went sour. So I googled and found this. So I thought why not try and make butter from it. And the resulting butter is so delicious, its everything Melissa says it is. Ummmm... It made the toast taste wonderful. Now this is my way to make butter every time.

Coming to the bread.

I bookmarked Light Wheat Bread way back when I read it first, even before I thought I would ask my friends to get me this book. But I didnt remember that. When my friend got me The Bread Bakers Apprentice from US, I was itching to join the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge.

I have been drooling all over that site seeing them bake all those wonderful breads. But when I saw that they were proceeding chronologically through the books index, I was worried. Here I was, a novice, all my attempts towards making bread resulted in stuff which lacked something or the other. When there was a decent crust, the bread was dense. When the bread was airy then there was no salt and there was no crust. All I had success in baking was Cinnamon buns.

I decided to not step into the world of bigas and poolishes in a hurry and think of making a baguette just because am holding a book which tells me how to. I wanted to proceed slowly, cautiously, build my confidence and then attempt something complex. So I zeroed in on a sandwich bread which didnt have a lot of instructions or rising times or any complexity. Light Wheat Bread it was.

I accidentally switched the amounts of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour, doubled the amount of honey, added milk as I didnt have milk powder, reduced water as I thought there was more liquid in the manner of milk and the dough rose in the refrigerator as I thought I had guests coming and didnt have time to bake it right away. Even after all these, the bread did turn out to be fantastic. Not too dense, not too airy. Perfect for a sandwich. Now I found my to-go recipe for sandwich bread. :)

The Vegetarian Hundred

I have come across The Omnivore's Hundred but being a pure vegetarian I really didnt give it much thought but when I come across Barbara's The Vegetarian Hundred, I wanted to give it a shot.

If anyone wants to repeat it onto their blog, please link to Barbara's post, paste the list in your blog, bold any items you have eaten and strike out any you would never eat.

So here it is.

1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked
2. Tabouleh
3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven (preferably with homemade strawberry jam)
4. Fresh figs
5. Fresh pomegranate
6. Indian dal of any sort
7. Imam bayildi
8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu
9. Freshly made hummus
10. Tahini
11. Kimchi
12. Miso
13. Falafel
14. Potato and pea filled samosas
15. Homemade yogurt
16. Muhammara
17. Brie en croute
18. Spanikopita
19. Fresh, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes
20. Insalata caprese
21. Stir-fried greens (gai lan, bok choi, pea shoots, kale, chard or collards)
22. Freshly made salsa
23. Freshly made guacamole
24. Creme brulee
25. Fava beans
26. Chinese cold sesame peanut noodles
27. Fattoush
28. New potatoes
29. Coleslaw
30. Ratatouille
31. Baba ganoush
32. Winter squash
33. Roasted beets
34. Baked sweet potatoes
35. Plantains
36. Chocolate truffles
37. Garlic mashed potatoes
38. Fresh water chestnuts
39. Steel cut oats
40. Quinoa
41. Grilled portabello mushrooms
42. Chipotle en adobo
43. Stone ground whole grain cornmeal
44. Freshly made corn or wheat tortillas
45. Frittata
46. Basil pesto
47. Roasted garlic
48. Raita of any type
49. Mango lassi
50. Jasmine rice (white or brown)
51. Thai vegetarian coconut milk curry
52. Pumpkin in any form other than pie
53. Fresh apple pear or plum gallette
54. Quince in any form
55. Escarole, endive or arugula
56. Sprouts other than mung bean
57. Naturally brewed soy sauce
58. Dried shiitake mushrooms
59. Unusually colored vegetables (purple cauliflower, blue potatoes, chocolate bell peppers…)
60. Fresh peach ice cream
61. Chevre
62. Medjool dates
63. Kheer
64. Flourless chocolate cake
65. Grilled corn on the cob
66. Black bean (or any other bean) vegetarian chili
67. Tempeh
68. Seitan or wheat gluten
69. Gorgonzola or any other blue veined cheese
70. Sweet potato fries
71. Homemade au gratin potatoes
72. Cream of asparagus soup
73. Artichoke-Parmesan dip
74. Mushroom risotto
75. Fermented black beans
76. Garlic scapes
77. Fresh new baby peas
78. Kalamata olives
79. Preserved lemons
80. Fried green tomatoes
81. Chinese scallion pancakes
82. Cheese souffle
83. Fried apples
84. Homemade frijoles refritos
85. Pasta fagiole
86. Macadamia nuts in any form
87. Paw paw in any form
88. Grilled cheese sandwich of any kind
89. Paneer cheese
90. Ma Po Tofu (vegetarian style–no pork!)
91. Fresh pasta in any form
92. Grilled leeks, scallions or ramps
93. Green papaya salad
94. Baked grain and vegetable stuffed tomatoes
95. Pickled ginger
96. Methi greens
97. Aloo paratha
98. Kedgeree (the original Indian version without the smoked fish, not the British version with fish)
99. Okra
100. Roasted brussels sprouts

There are lots of things on this list that I have never even heard of, these I am putting in Italics, this would be for my next-to-try list either when I come across them or by actively pursuing them. And there are others that I have heard of, want to try but haven't so far. Maybe atleast to make the entire list bold (am a list-maniac). :)

Beetroot Cake

We are going on a month long trip to India. So what has that to do with a cake? Well, am trying to clean my refrigerator of all old veggies that have accumulated. And have been searching for something to make with the two beetroots lying around. I bought 3 for some variety and also in the hope that I will think of something interesting to make with them. I made soup with one long ago.

I was thinking of making halwa, but since there was a shortage of milk in the house, didnt go there. Finally I thought of making a cake in the style of carrot cake and searched throughout the net for some inspiration. But most of them had chocolate and I was not in the mood to buy more groceries. Then I looked to the recent Baking book that I bought. Its in German, but nevertheless I found a good deal when I was looking through in the supermarket and it does have a varied set of interesting recipes that I've always wanted to try.

It was called 'Möhrenkuchen' meaning Carrot cake, but I substituted Beetroot for Carrot. I changed the recipe according to the stuff I had at home, forgetting the walnuts and coconut and using butter for oil.

It turned out with nice crumbly interior and wonderfully fluffy which I have never seen so far in my baking experience. Though the batter was purple in color, I was expecting a brown crust, but it had a pink crust and red flecks inside a brown batter. I think in the future I can further reduce the fat in the cake, maybe by 1/3rd, as it was a little greasy.

Adapted from Backen by Fiona Black
Beetroot Cake

150g Wheat Flour (Type 405) / All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
a pinch Salt
65g Sugar
65g Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
100g Butter
200g Beetroot, grated

- Preheat the oven to 180 C and butter/grease a pan and line with parchment in the bottom
- Beat together butter, white and brown sugar till the mixture is creamy
- Beat in the eggs till everything is a soft yellow mass
- Sift together all the dry ingredients, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder
- Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix together till everything comes together
- Add the finely grated beetroot and any nuts
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20-25 min. Cake is done when it leaves the sides of the pan and a knife/toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.