I managed to lay my hands on some fennel – not very
usual in India. So I decided to build dinner today around it. So there was
fried fennel, roasted corn, grilled paneer (cottage cheese), capsicum and onion
and a salad.
Fennel: Slice the fennel into fairly thick slices and
boil in salted water till just soft. Drain, dip in beaten egg, roll in breadcrumbs
and fry till golden. For the breadcrumbs, I ground fresh bread with cheese and
some celery and a pinch of salt.
Corn: I roasted it on the stove and rubbed it with
some lime juice, salt and chilli powder.
Grilled Stuff: Cut the capsicum, onion and paneer into
large cubes and marinate in a mixture of yogurt, garlic, mint and olive oil for
half an hour. Skewer and grill till done.
Salad: Tear up salad leaves, mix with cherry tomatoes
and cucumber slices. I prefer to serve the dressing separate. I used vinegar,
olive oil, honey, salt and chilli flakes.
The other day, a friend dropped in and mentioned her cinnamon buns
recipe. Now my daughter just loves all things cinnamon so we couldn’t wait to
try some rolls or buns. We made mini rolls – they’re so much easier to eat and
best eaten warm from the oven.
2 cups flour
1 heaped teaspoon powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
½ cup mixture of milk and water
1 egg beaten
½ cup butter melted
Mixture of powdered sugar and cinnamon powder
For the glaze:
Melted butter, icing sugar and a little milk
Heat the milk and water mixture to a little more than lukewarm and add
the sugar and yeast. Leave till it bubbles up. Make a well in the centre of the
flour, add the beaten egg, powdered sugar, salt and the yeast mixture. If too
dry, add a little milk and if too sticky, add a little flour. Knead well and
keep covered till it doubles in size.
Roll out into a rectangular shape, around ¼” thick. Spread all over with
the melted butter, sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mix and roll up tightly. Cut
into ½” discs and leave for over an hour till it doubles. You can heat the oven
till warm, switch off and leave the rolls inside. Bake for 20 minutes to ½ an
hour in a fairly hot oven till done.
When still warm, brush the butter-sugar-milk glaze over it.
It looks like the monsoon has come to an end and barring a few 'goodbye' thundershowers, it should be blue skies and sunny days ahead. And the fishman begins his rounds with such a wide variety of fish for sale! Though Pune is not by the sea, it is a few hours away so the fish we get is fresh. We were in a hurry to eat, so I apologise for the 'shaky' picture!
Fish - depending on the size, one or half a large slice per person. I used Surmai or Kingfish - any fleshy fish is fine. Marinate the fish for a few hours in a mixture of barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, a chicken cube, salt, pepper and some red wine (optional). In a food processor/grinder, coarsely grind a couple of slices of bread, some basil leaves and a little bit of cheese. Dip the fish in the breadcrumbs and shallow fry in oil. (I use olive oil, any oil is fine.)
Potatoes - I boiled and peeled some baby potatoes and smothered them in mayonnaise.
Stir-fry Veggies - I chopped up carrots, beans, zucchini, cabbage and green capsicum and stir-fried them, adding salt,pepper and a dash of lime juice.
Salad - To a bunch of mixed salad leaves, I added a dressing of olive oil, honey, sugar, salt, vinegar and red chilly flakes.
My daughter
and I were watching a cooking show on TV and she reminded me that we hadn’t
made a lemon curd tart in a while. So we decided to make one for dessert. I
pulled out my much-thumbed-through cookbook and it wasn’t too long before we
had a tart ready.
For the
pastry:
2 cups
flour
I cup
butter
1
tablespoon icing sugar
A pinch of
salt
2 beaten
eggs
Cut the
butter into small bits and mix it into the flour till it resembles breadcrumbs.
Add the icing sugars and salt. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, a
little at a time till the dough comes together. You might not need all the egg.
Wrap the pastry dough in cling wrap and refrigerate for an hour. Then, roll it
out between two sheets of cling wrap and line a pie dish. Blind bake till done.
For the
lemon curd:
4 eggs,
beaten
Juice of 2
large limes +zest of one
½ cup
butter
1 ½ cups
sugar
Mix all
together and cook on a double boiler till it gets thick.
It’s the
best comfort food there is and it makes a perfect accompaniment to your
favourite show on TV. It’s so easy to make and it’s ready in a jiffy.
Boil your
pasta in salted water and drain. Mix some olive oil through it. Blend together
baby spinach or any greens (I use fresh greens from my garden), a tablespoon of
pesto sauce, grated cheese, a soup cube, a dash of salt and pepper and a little
milk. Once it is pureed fine, heat it up, take off the stove before it boils
and stir in a bit of cream. Now mix in the pasta and enjoy!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Chocolates
Chocolates are so easy to make at home and they made such great gifts. Here’s a step-by-step method to make delicious chocolates.
Step 1: Break dark cooking chocolate into small bits (wrapping it in newspaper and whacking it a bit with a hammer is just the way to do it). Then put it into a double boiler and stir with a wooden spoon till it is all melted. You can use any kind of chocolate – dark, milk, white but if you want a good finish, couverture chocolate is best. (Couveture in French means covering).
Step 2: Now, you need to temper the chocolate so it doesn’t melt at ambient temperature and holds its shape when moulded. Here is a great video that explains how to do it.
Step 3: With a spoon, fill the moulds – about one third. (Optional: If you want a thin covering, paint on the chocolate with a brush).
Step 4: Put in your filling – we’ll give you a choice of fillings later.
Step 5: Cover the filling and make sure the mould is full.
Step 6: Leave it to harden and when it does, gently slip them out of the mould.
Step 7: Wrap in thin foil – optional.
Fillings
-Powder a few Polos or any mints, mix with an equal quantity of icing sugar, add a few drops of cold water and bind together. Make little balls out of these.
-In half a cup of brandy, put in 1/3 cup raisins and leave aside for an hour to soak.
-Caramelise half a cup of sugar, put in some powdered nuts – almonds, walnuts, cashew nuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts or a mix of whatever nuts you want. Roughly powder the nougat and use as filling.
-Melt some milk chocolate with a little butter, cool and use. You can add any liqueur you want.
-Crumble a piece of cake – never mind if it is dry or stale. Add melted chocolate – enough to bind it loosely and use.
Gifting Ideas
-Buy a cheap and cheery glass or plastic bowl, put in a few chocolates, add a bit of confetti, wrap with cling wrap.
-Wrap the chocolates in a shimmering piece of gauze and tie with a huge satin ribbon.
-Make your own chocolate boxes. Here’s a good one to start off with:
Paneer Masala
What is paneer? It’s the Indian version of cottage cheese except that the milk is coagulated with an acid, not rennet. The milk does not contain any culture either. It’s very easy to make. Take a litre of milk and bring it to the boil. As it is about to boil, turn the heat down a bit and stir in a teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar. You’ll notice that the milk starts splitting. As it gets lumpy, put in another teaspoon of lemon juice or vinegar and boil for a few minutes. Turn the heat off and strain it through a fine colander or sieve. You can leave the paneer like this, soft and crumbly, or you can put a weight over it and when it’s formed, cut it into cubes. The great thing is, you can make it with skimmed milk and watch your calories! You might be able to pick up packed paneer at Indian stores.
Of course, if you don’t want to go through all this extra work, you could use cubed tofu or mozzarella cheese.
To make the curry:
In 2 teaspoons of oil, put in a little cumin seed, then add ½ a chopped onion and fry till transparent. Add 1 tablespoon of the red masala paste and fry for a minute, then add a cup of water, 1 tablespoon yogurt and bring to the boil. Boil till the gravy is reduced to half, turn down the heat, add the paneer that you made from the one litre of milk and stir gently. After a couple of minutes, turn off the heat and sprinkle chopped cilantro or coriander leaves on top.
Variations:
Paneer masala tastes great with peas. Boil a handful of peas till soft and add it to the masala before you add the paneer. Or you could blanch a few leaves of spinach and add that after you’ve added the paneer.
This is a great accompaniment to rice or rotis – like the rice roti.
You could also eat it with thin pancakes. Don’t use sugar in the pancake mix, make it a bit thinner than usual, make the pancake, put in the masala and roll up. You might want to make the mixture a little thinker so it doesn’t run.
Paneer masala also tastes good in pita bread. Just stuff it in, add chopped cabbage, chopped onion and enjoy.
