Semolina Bread

Semolina Bread

Today on the last day of the BM #52 I am paired with Mir and I wanted bake a bread. I had my eye on the bread that Mir had set out for us in Taming the Yeast; it was a whole wheat bread. You know me I cannot leave them alone so I tried it. The bread had a mind of its own; it did rise to the occasion.

My discussion with Mir gave me an understanding of the reason.  The whole wheat flour in India has greater protein content  lesser protein content so it does not rise as much as the bread made with the whole wheat flour made in US. The solution is to add vital wheat gluten. 

Since I do not have access to gluten I decided to make this Semolina Bread.

The bread flour was what Kalyani gifted to me.

Family of course loved the bread.

Semolina Bread, 

Semolina Bread

Recipe Source: The Schizo Chef

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

Semolina Bread, 

• 2 cups warm water
• 1 tblspn instant yeast
• 1 tblspn sugar
• 1 tblspn salt
• 3 ½ – 4 cups bread flour 
• 1 cup semolina
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tblspn milk
• 2 tblspn til/ sesame seeds

Method:

• Dissolve the sugar in the water.
• In a large bowl, combine 1 ½ cups of the flour, salt, yeast and water, with an electric mixer, mix for a few minutes.
• Add semolina, 1 cup of flour and olive oil.
• Mix well and using the dough hook attachment, start to knead the dough.
• Add flour, ½ cup at a time until the dough wraps itself around the dough hook.
• Knead for 5 minutes. Dough will be elastic and slightly sticky.
• Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl.
• Cover with greased plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
• Leave to rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.
• On a floured board, knead dough for a few minutes, sprinkling a little flour on top as needed.
• You can shape into a rustic round loaf. But I preferred to make it in a loaf. I rolled it in a thick rectangle and rolled it up from the narrow end in the thick roll.
• Sprinkle a greased loaf pan with rava/semolina or corn flour.
• Cover with kitchen towel and leave to rise another 45 minutes, until doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven to 190°C/375 F.
• Brush the top with milk and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
• Bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
• Cool and slice.
• I served it with a delicious  mushroom dip. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 53

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How to make Chapattis/Rotis/ Indian Flat bread

The diversity of Indian cuisine is reflected in the sheer variety of flatbreads and crêpes.

Most Indian breads are flatbreads, that is flattened by rolling and are mostly without the addition of leavening agent.

So what is a leavening agent?

A leavening agent also called leavening or leaven is a substance used in dough and a batter that causes them to rise. The triggers could be moisture, heat, acidity. The leavening agent reacts to produce gas (often carbon dioxide) that becomes trapped as bubbles within the dough.

In northern India breads are primarily from milled flour, usually whole wheat flour / Atta or maida/ all purpose flour, and water.  Paratha may be stuffed with vegetables and layered with either ghee or butter or they may be kneaded in the dough itself.

The Atta is kneaded with salt and a little oil with water/ milk and then rolled on the “chakla with the belan” or on a floured board with the rolling pin and then baked on a hot tava/skillet. Puri, lucchi, baturas etc are deep fried.

 Different varieties of Indian bread include are  Chapatti, Phulka, Puri, Roti, Bajra Rotla,  Thepla, Paratha, Naan, Kulcha, Bhatoora,  Luchi, Puran Poli/ holgi ,Pathiri, Parotta and many more. The difference arises from on the kind of grain used to prepare them, and also on the fillings they contain.

In southern India and the West Coast, most flatbreads are basically crêpe made from Urid dal and rice, generally the kinds of lentils used in India especially south India is mindboggling.

The batter of rice and dal is prepared and ladled in small amounts onto a hot greased or tava/skillet, where it is spread out into a circle and fried with oil or ghee until golden brown.

 In Western India (including the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan) bread may be made from coarse grains such as bajra, sorghum or ragi, though wheat is the staple in these regions. These breads are known by various names rotlo (Gujarati), bhakri (Marathi), roti (Rajasthan) or rotti (North Karnataka). Rice is also used to make rotti.

The Appam is fermented bread usually prepared with finely powdered rice flour.

Who can forget masala dosa and its variations also a South Indian staple food.

The famous naan and tandoori roti which are baked in a tandoor are of Central Asian Origin. Naan is leavened with yeast.

Most of this gyan is from Wikipedia, of course.

So let’s begin out journey about Indian breads with the plain everyday chapatti.

Something each girl learns at her mother’s place, the first chapatti where mum guides you to make it, the thrill of eating “my chapatti”!

I still remember how my father in my Std. IX used to tease me about the maps I made every day for his breakfast.  Till, I gave him perfectly round circles, not one of them smaller or bigger than the next one.

He started his next hunt how does she do it? The mystery remained mystery till he caught me using a plate with a sharp edge and removing the uneven edges. :D

So let us get down to make e chapattis, here is what you need.

Chapatti

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour+ some more for application
• 1 tblspn oil+ some more for application in a bowl
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Water as needed

Method:

• Mix the flour, oil and salt.
• Add a little water at a time to make a soft dough.
• Knead the dough well.
• Apply some oil and keep aside covered for ½ an hour at least.
• After ½ an hour knead the dough again.
• Divide into 6 portions dredge.

• Roll out each portion into small circles the size of your palm
• Dip your fingers in the oil and apply to the circle. Fold in a semicircle.
• Apply some oil to the semicircle and fold again. Now you have a quarter.
• Dredge in dry flour and roll out thin rounds. Use flour to prevent the chapatti sticking to the board or the rolling pin.
• Cook on a heated tava/skillet.

To cook:

• Keep the flame low and transfer the chapatti on the hot tava/skillet.
• As the chapatti cooks you will get slight bubbles on the surface of the chapatti.
• Gently turn the chapatti so the side on the tava/skillet is now facing up. Raise the flame to high.
• Now your chapatti will cook faster and if you have rolled out the chapatti well it will fluff up.
• With a clean kitchen cloth or a spatula press the edges turn the chapatti. The idea is that the chapatti should be browned lightly   even on the edges. Once all the edges are done.
• Turn the chapatti again for the final time.  Repeat the pressing of the edges.
• Set aside.

Notes:

• The rolling of the chapatti has to be tin on the edges and thicker in the centre.
• If your rolling is correct and even then you need not press the chapatti. But I prefer to do it as the chapatti fluffs up and the edges are not done.

 Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#49

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Whole Wheat Tomato Basil Loaf

For Nov Taming the yeast Veena has shared her Whole Wheat Tomato Basil Loaf that is adapted from Italian cookbook by Tarla Dalal.

It is very flavourful bread with all the goodness of the whole wheat, tomato and basil.

Since half the flour is whole wheat flour, the bread tends to be a little dense.

As Veena suggested I have used both regular whole wheat flour and Maida. Varada suggested that I quarter the tomatoes and bake on low heat for 4 hours in the oven to get my sun dried tomatoes. Thanks Varada!

Whole Wheat Tomato Basil Loaf

Yield: One loaf

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour     
• 1 ½ tsp active dry yeast  
• 1 tsp sugar        
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup sun dried tomato (soaked in warm water)
• ¼ cup fresh basil    
• 2 tbsp tomato puree 
•  3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/3 cup to ½ cup warm water   

Method:

• Mix the flours together with salt.
• Add the yeast to 1/3 cup of   warm water with sugar and let it rest for 2 minutes.
• Add this mixture and tomato puree to the dry flours and knead well for 5 to 7 minutes to make it into soft pliable dough.
• Oil a wide mouthed bowl and transfer this dough to it.
• Keep it covered in a warm place and let it double for nearly 1 hour
• Now punch down the dough a little and add the  sun dried tomatoes, basil  and knead again.
• If need be add a little more flour and knead applying olive oil.
•  Dust the rolling surface and roll it into a rectangle approximately ¼” in thickness and then shape it into a loaf by rolling it from long side.
• Grease a baking tray.
• Place the shaped loaf on a prepared tray, cover it loosely and let it rise again for 30-40 minutes.
• At the end of 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 180°C or 356°F
• Now brush the top with egg wash or milk and bake it at 180°C /356°F for 20 minutes or till done.
• Let it cool and slice it.
• I served it with Garlic Cheese Dip to others I preferred it plain with tea!

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

Whole Wheat Flour Thin Crust Pizza

Whole Wheat Flour Thin Crust Pizza

For this month’s We Knead to Bake we were to make a Pizza. We all love pizza so the girls were waiting for me to make the pizza.

This pizza I made from Shammi’s Passion a Wheat flour base thanks to PJ!

The sauce was from here.

 You can use any topping I forgot the corn and the girls do not like pineapple so I did not get any.

Whole Wheat Flour Thin Crust Pizza

Whole Wheat Flour Thin Crust Pizza

Preparation Time: 20 minutes 

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Makes: 3 pizza bases

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour chapatti atta + some more to dust
• 2 tsp active dry yeast (I used Crown brand)
• ½    cup + ½   cup water
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tblspn olive oil
• A few leaves basil shredded
• 1 cup pizza sauce ( approx.)
• Capsicum, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives
• Mozzarella and gruyere cheese and parmesan cheese
•  Sage, oregano, thyme, sweet marjoram, garlic.

Method:

• In ½ cup warm water add sugar swirl let the sugar dissolve a bit add the yeast mix well set aside for 10mins in a warm place.
• The mixture will start frothing this means that your yeast is active.
• In a mixing bowl add the yeast solution and oil, salt, basil whisk it well. Add wheat flour and mix .Add the remaining ½ cup water. (I needed about 2 tblspn more).
•  Mix well and knead it to form smooth pliable dough. Cover with a kitchen napkin and let it rest in a warm place in a greased bowl till double in size or 2 hours.
• After the end of the rise time the dough will have risen punch it down.
• Preheat the oven for 150 °C.
• Grease a baking tray with little oil.
• Divide the dough and make 3 balls for 3 pizzas.
• Dust the ball with the dry flour and roll the dough to a thin base and if you want you can cut it out with a lid to get perfect circles. I did not.
• Prick the base with fork for even cooking and to avoid puffing up.
• Transfer the rolled pizza base to the baking tray.
• You could bake in preheated oven at 150 deg C for 7-9 minutes.
• The base will leave the sides and brown it will also move easily in the tray. Your base is done do not over bake.
• Cool down completely and store in zip lock bag and keep it refrigerated.
•  You can bring the base to room temperature when you want to make the pizzas and make it with your toppings.

• This is one way but if you are as inpatient to eat a pizza as we were then you need not store them.
• Spread your  sauce on the raw base and toppings to make your pizza.
• This is my pizza sauce and for toppings I have used capsicum, mushrooms, tomatoes, olives and mozzarella and Gruyere cheese and Parmesan cheese. The herbs I used are sage, oregano, thyme, sweet marjoram, garlic.
• The temperature I used is 180°C and baked it for 20 minutes.

Whole Wheat Flour Thin Crust Pizza

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 45

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

 

QuroosAsal Khubz a Traditiona Bread from Oman

QuroosalAsal

For the alphabet O we have a choice do it with Oman or OMAN in our Mega Blogging Marathon !!

Come on can we not have some more countries with O?

Cuisine of Oman is a mixture of several staples of Asian foods.  Food basically revolves around chicken, fish, and lamb, with rice as the staple food.   Omani food is a rich mixture of spices, herbs and marinades.

Omani food is different for different regions of Oman   but the staple food is curry, cooked meat, rice, and vegetables.  

Soups are also common and are usually made from chicken, lamb, and vegetables (e.g., smoked eggplant). (This I need to check).

 So far Oman I could not find any street food but then somewhere I saw this bread being made. It was a video of some fair and I loved this bread. I just caught the name Khubz, which is bread in Omani.

I searched and was lucky to find the Times of Oman featuring the bread called QuroosAsal

I quote here what Ms.S. Kamal has said in her write up,” Quroos, which means circle in Arabic language, is a bread baked by many tribal people to celebrate the birth of a child in the family. She said that many people in Oman as well as the Gulf mark the festive event by making the honey bread.”

But the actual recipe I got here . 

Loved it so much that I had to make it. The original recipe said use maida but I used whole wheat flour. I scaled down the recipe to get only two of these beauties. As you can see I need some practice before I get the perfect smooth layer. But that is for later.

Needless to say these were done in a hurry and were finished by yours faithfully for breakfast( but will taste yum with any curry) as I did not expect a warm reception from the family,for they seemed like Neer Dosa only made from wheat flour!!

Later when Apeksha, my elder one asked me what I am making for O I mentioned that I had finished making O!

“How did I not get a taste? When was this? Where was I?” She will make a great Police Inspector, I know!!

My sheepish replies did not satisfy her. Needless to say I need to make them again.

QuroosAsal

QuroosalAsal

Recipe Source: Times of Oman and here

Ingredients for the QuroosAsal:

• ½ kg whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
•  water as needed

For the filling:

• Grated cheese Or Honey

Method:

• Mix salt, flour and water (add water slowly as needed)into soft, sticky dough. 
• Put flat dosa tava or griddle on low heat.
• Coat griddle with the dough with one hand.

• Spread the desired filling on the QuroosAsal. I used cheese.

QuroosalAsal

• Remove from the griddle after about 30 seconds. 

QuroosalAsal

• Makes about 30, enough for a meal for four.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

According to Wikipedia which I am quoting verbatim,

”Lebanese cuisine or "Levantine kitchen" includes an abundance of starches, whole grain, fruits, vegetables, fresh fish and seafood; animal fats are consumed sparingly. Poultry is eaten more often than red meat. When red meat is eaten it is usually lamb on the coast, and goat meat in the mountain regions. It also includes copious amounts of garlic and olive oil, often seasoned by lemon juice. olive oil, herbs, garlic and lemon are typical flavours found in the Lebanese diet.

Most often foods are either grilled, baked or sautéed in olive oil; butter or cream is rarely used other than in a few desserts. Vegetables are often eaten raw or pickled as well as cooked. Herbs and spices are used and the freshness of ingredients is important. Like most Mediterranean countries, much of what the Lebanese eat is dictated by the seasons.

In Lebanon, very rarely are drinks served without being accompanied by food.  Mezze is an array of small dishes placed before the guests creating an array of colours, flavours, textures and aromas. Mezze may be as simple as pickled vegetables or raw vegetables, hummus, baba ghanouj and bread, or it may become an entire meal consisting of grilled marinated seafood, skewered meats, a variety of cooked and raw salads and an arrangement of desserts.

Although simple fresh fruits are often served towards the end of a Lebanese meal, there is also dessert, such as baklava and coffee. Although baklava is the most internationally known dessert, there is a great variety of Lebanese desserts.”

In spite of all kinds of delicacies jumping at me when I was researching for L one thing that kept on attracting me was this video. Finally I decided to make Falafel wraps! So today for the “Around the World in 30 days” let us eat Falafel wraps. A versatile dish where you can eat just the falafels or wrapped them up!! The wraps   can be tortillas or even our plain old chapatti or like me fulkas.

Falafels are Lebanese deep fried balls or patties made from Kabuli Chana/white chick peas and/or fava beans.

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

Falafel Wraps

Cuisine: Middle Eastern

Recipe Source: Veg. Recipes of India ,Taste.com, Utube  

Serves: 6-7

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Kabuli Chana/white chick peas, soaked overnight
• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped or minced
• 2-3 garlic crushed
• 1 tsp dhania/ coriander powder
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder/jeera powder
• ½ tsp kali mirchi/ pepper corns crushed
• 2 tbsp atta /whole wheat flour
• 3 tbsp fresh parsley
•  1 tsp coriander leaves
• Salt as required
• Oil for deep frying

Method:

• Cook the soaked Kabuli Chana in the pressure cooker with 2 cups of water for 2 whistles. Cool.
• In a mixer/ blender add the drained Chana and mash/ coarse grind.
• Add all the other ingredients except the oil and grind to get a paste.
• Transfer from the mixer to a bowl and mix everything well.
• With your hands form small or medium sized balls or patties.
• Deep fry in hot oil like you would do for pakoras/fritters.
• Flip over to the other side whilst frying to ensure that the falafels are evenly fried.
• Drain falafel on kitchen tissues to remove excess oil.
•  You can serve falafel hot with pita bread or serve as snack/starter with some sauce.
• But I served it like this fulkas, hummus, cheese slice, falafel and pickled cucumber and onion and dhania/ coriander leaves as garnish.
• Very very yum!!!

Falafel Wraps for Lebnon

 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 44

An InLinkz Link-up

Hi! First time here? Well then you are Most Welcome! I hope you keep coming back for more here. If you are my regular visitor then Thanks, for you encourage me to experiment more!! I would like you to please click on my link below and like my Facebook Page. I will be happy if you can follow me on on Twitter too!

Potato Pancakes

Potato Pancakes

Potato pancakes are shallow-fried pancakes of grated or ground potato, flour and egg, often flavoured with grated onion or garlic and seasoning. Potato pancakes may be topped with a variety of condiments, ranging from the savoury (such as sour cream or cottage cheese) to the sweet (such as apple sauce or sugar), or they may be served  without any garnish. Potato pancakes are sometimes made from mashed potatoes to produce pancake-shaped croquettes.

Maybe I am doing a disservice by posting potato pancakes under Germany, in my trip “Around the World in 30 Days”, for they are associated with cuisines of many European and Middle East.

Potato pancakes are an old traditions in  Austrian ,  Belarusian ,  Czech,  German ,  Hungarian ,  Iranian,  Jewish , Yiddish,  Hebrew,  Latvian ,  Lithuanian , Luxembourg ,  Polish,  Russian,   Slovak ,  Ukrainian  and any other cuisines.  It is the national dish of Belarus.

In Swiss cuisine, the Rösti differs as it never contains egg or flour. It is a traditional favourite in southern Indiana during holiday festivities.

In the North-East of England (particularly County Durham), there is a popular dish known as tattie fish, because the pancake resembles a deep fried piece of fish. The pancake consists of flour, eggs, shredded potatoes and onions. You may add tomato or cheese to the mix. A form of potato pancake known as boxty is a popular traditional dish in most of Ireland. It is made in a similar way but using more starch. The British also brought the potato pancake to Zimbabwe, Africa when Zimbabwe was a colony of Britain. They are still eaten today too.

The Swedish version of unbound potato pancakes is called rårakor  When prepared with a batter of wheat flour, milk, egg, and shredded potatoes and fried like thin pancakes, they are called  raggmunk,  the word "ragg" means crispy and "munk" derives from the Swedish "munkpanna", which is literally translated as donutpan. Both kinds are enjoyed with fried pork and  lingonberry  jam.

 In Germany, potato pancakes are eaten either salty (as a side dish) or sweet with apple sauce, blueberries, sugar and cinnamon; they are a very common menu item during outdoor markets and festivals in colder seasons.

Lihapulla /Meatballs (sans the meat )Finnish way

For alphabet F I choose Finland!! Somehow it’s always fascinated me. Why because Santa lives here officially, yes really I am not kidding check it here. The land of midnight sun, northern lights, and saunas. I wish can live there…

I knew almost immediately I was making meatballs!!

Aw! Come-on you are on a vegetarian site and I have to live up to my reputation at home of being a mad scientist! The Mad Scientist is getting seriously eroded… so here is what happened.

For Egypt, yeah alphabet E I made stock for the Koshari  as the mixture was merrily boiling away my daughters came to the bedroom where I was busy on the laptop asking me what I was making? 

“It’s delicious Mamma, my mouth is watering. “ they had already investigated and Apeksha, my elder one was  asking, yes the elder one!! will wonders never cease, asked me to make something out of the boiled vegetable. It’s delicious and healthy!!!   Yeah unbelievable!! I know that’s why I said will wonder never cease!!! 

Now I have in the past made  spaghetti and vegetable balls and wanted to make these meatballs different! My reading on street food in Finland indicated that meatballs are street food!

I found this site here and  I made Finnish meatballs.

Poutine/ Fries and Gravy from Canada

Poutine

Welcome to day 3 on The Blogging Marathon “Around the World in 30 Days”!

Let’s stop at alphabet C today…

Actually I had planned a different Country beginning with C, cooked it too but then Canada kept popping in my head continuously!

My fascination was because I heard my teacher talk about the country from inside the class when we were doing world geography. Either she forgot to throw me out or gave up on me realizing that I will never be able to draw maps to her satisfaction! Then there were Mills n Boon and instead of reading the antics of the fair damsel and the dark hero and the villain thrown in I used to love to read about the countryside….!!

 Gastronomically I got interested since Manali went to Canada for a year long course.  Vivek, her husband and she told me about warm people who live there and the different foods, authentic food available not like our Indo- Chinese, they have described the Japanese etc. food available too.

So C-Canada naturally won out!