31.5.13

Eggless Crispy Cheesy Donuts

This month I joined Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group. Well its no secret that I love baking. I bake a lot and every now and then I like my cakes and bakes to be eggless . While I had been hesitating on whether or not to join another baking group, their last months challenge convinced me that to join the group. They had baked eggless Tiramisu. Now that is something I would like to try but I wonder if I would try to bake it unless I was challenged to do so. so yes. I left a message at Gayathri's Cook Spot and soon enough she added me to the group and mailed me the challenge for May... Eggless Crispy Creamy Donuts. The original recipe that Jayanthi of Sizzling Veggies suggested from All Recipes   included eggs and we were challenged to bake rather fry an eggless version of it.

Though every once in a while we love to pick up donuts from our neighbourhood Dunkin Donuts, to be honest I wasn't very excited about trying these at home. The reason. I hate to deep fry. not just because it isn't the healthiest option but because I cannot fry. getting the correct oil temperature always seems like a tricky business and you know everything goes wrong if the temperature is not correct. the fried stuff is either undone or soaking with too much oil. and no one is happy. anyway since it was the challenge for the month I gave it a try. the first batch of donuts and their little star shaped kins came out fine. but i wasn't very happy with the second and third batch. so though 1 made 13 normal sized donuts and several little star shaped ones, it is only the mini star donuts and 6 of the 13 donuts that I am proud of... its however a different question if I'll ever make them again. probably not. but i do intend to try out the baked version .

Grissini for BBD #59

As most of you know Grissini is the Italian word for breadsticks. though breadsticks are often served as appetizers in USA, in the restaurants in India, it is usually served with soups. so when Ninive from Ninivepices chose  Bread for company / Brot als Begleitung  as the theme for Zorra's monthly Bread Baking Day event, the first bread that crossed my mind was breadsticks aka Grissini.. 


i baked a big batch of these a while ago and we enjoyed the sesame coated ones the best with our bowl of lentil soup....because my stock of sesame seeds got over half way i coated the remaining sticks with semolina. though they go well with the soups,  for whatever reason we are/were a little partial towards the sesame coated ones....

29.5.13

Credit Crunch Munch Zucchini Bread Loaf

It was the day before we were about to leave for a work vacation and there were still two zucchinis left. 
I had bought them when they were cheap but had not managed using the whole lot. the loaf for the night was yet to be made. so i thought zucchini bread. but the recipe called for milk. and there was just enough for my son's after dinner sip. so a replacement was required. of course i could use yogurt but other than the flavored ones which the little one has, there was no other in the fridge. so i decided to use the peach flavored one, the one he likes the least, and to overcome the peachy flavor i added half a  onions, some ginger and herbs to the dough. the result. well it was quite a loaf. we enjoyed it that night with our soup and took the left overs with us for the way. so everything fitted just right and i was a happy mother/wife :) 


27.5.13

Recipe Blog Swap : Lemon Thyme Mushrooms by Faith from The F List...

Happy Memorial Day !! Its also the day for the Old Fashioned Recipe Blog Swap ! Remember. I mentioned it last week. I am really excited to participate in this fun food event organized my 


Julie of White Lights on Wednesday

Kelly of Miss Information &

Rachel  of i love my disorganized life,

who have who have paired up 30 incredible bloggers to trade recipes on each others blogs for the day.

I am swapping blogs with Faith from The F List who has an incredible blog full of healthy recipes, fitness tips and more. Here she is sharing with you  the recipe of her fabulous Lemon Thyme Mushrooms.... I just know you’re going to love what she’s got for you. I know I am loving it and can't wait to try.

I am sharing my special Broccoli Lentil Soup on her blog. I am sure you wouldn't like to miss it. So head that way and check it out! If you want to go see all of the recipes in the blog swap be sure to go and visit one of the host’s  Rachel {i love my disorganized life}, Julie {White Lights on Wednesday} or  Kelley {Miss Information}, to see all the recipes linked up in the swap.

Now over to Faith as she tells you the recipe....

Ever have one of those nights where you have next to nothing in your fridge? That was me tonight. I found tofu, shredded carrots, a lemon, and mushrooms. Kind of hard to make a meal out of…

That is until I remembered one of my favorite recipes – Chicken with Lemon & thyme sauce. This dish got me a 100% on my culinary arts final back in high school, so you know it has to be good. It consisted of a floured/seared chicken breast that was finished with a sauce made of garlic, lemon, butter, thyme, salt and pepper. Delicious, and easy. That's my motto.

Now, I don't eat meat any more, but mushrooms really have a great meaty flavored when they are seared, so I thought I'd give this recipe adaptation a try! The results were fabulous.

Lemon Thyme Mushrooms 
1 8oz. container sliced mushrooms (or slice your own) 
1 T fresh thyme leaves 
½ lemon 
1 clove garlic 
1 T olive oil 
2 T white wine


They key to developing flavor in mushrooms is a very hot pan. Swirl 1 T olive oil in a skillet over high heat. Once the pan is nice and hot, drop your mushrooms in with 1 crushed clove of garlic. You'll remove the garlic once the mushrooms are cooked through. By only crushing the clove (yet keeping it whole) you get the flavor of the garlic without burning it because the pan is so hot for the mushrooms. Your mushrooms will start out looking like this :


Once the mushrooms have turned a nice golden brown, squeeze the juice from ½ a lemon. This will deglaze your pan and get all those delicious baked on mushroom bits off the bottom. You can also add 2 T white wine to assist in the deglazing of the pan. Season with Salt and Pepper to taste. Add your thyme at the very end (you don't want to cook it, just warmed through for fragrance and flavor – keep it bright green!). 
This is great as a side dish on its own but can also be very easily turned into a sauce by adding more wine, butter, cream – whatever you please. I ate my mushrooms over some brown rice, but they would taste great over whole wheat pasta or polenta too. 

I hope you enjoy! For more healthy recipes, workout tips, and musings on the fun of living in Northern Virginia, visit my blog at theflist.weebly.com

Thank you Faith for this lovely recipe and thanks a lot Julie, Kelly and Rachel for organizing this Recipe Blog Swap !





The Kitchen Stars


Sending 'The Kitchen Stars"  to the Black and White Wednesday #85.

Black and White Wednesday is a Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and this week Priya of  The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen is hosting it.



22.5.13

Get Your Chef On ~ Chocolate : Marbled Chocolate Brioche Loaf

Well it is time for yet another GYCO Challenge Reveal ! This month 



though there were numerous chocolate recipes to choose from, it took me a while to decide what i wanted to make for this round of the challenge... and it was Irvin Lin's brilliant photographs that made me finally decide on the 
Marbled Chocolate Brioche Loaf.

it was a good decision because this loaf baked me happy.  it looked gorgeous and tasted divine. 
in fact we were so delighted by how the loaf turned out that following the same recipe i baked a second loaf the next day, this time a chocolate swirl brioche, and took it for my brother's family. needless to say they loved the took of the fancy loaf and were more than happy to dive into it right away. so a big thanks to Jen and Julie for this months challenge. I can now bake marbled and swirled Chocolate Brioche loaves at home ! 

now the recipe of the loaves 

Marbled Chocolate Brioche Loaf  (Recipe for a 2 pound loaf )
ingredients
for the brioche dough
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 21/4 tsp bread machine yeast
  • 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter
for the chocolate layer
  • 1/3 cup semisweet chocochips
  • 1 tbsp orange juice
  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp all purpose flour
  • 11 cloves (spice) + 1 inch cinnamon stick, ground
  • 1 egg for egg wash
  • sugar for sprinkling on top

what i did
  1. i made the brioche dough in the bread machine. for that I all the ingredients expect the butter in the machine pan and  programmed it for the dough cycle. 
  2. when the machine started on the second knead I added 2 tablespoons of the butter and restarted the dough cycle. as the butter started getting incorporated in the dough I handed another 2 tablespoons of butter and continued this way till all the butter was incorporated into dough. i then let the dough cycle complete. 
  3. when the machine beeped at the end of the cycle i inverted the dough into a plastic container and divided the dough into 3 equal parts. next i put 1/3 of the dough back into the bread machine pan along with the ingredients for the chocolate layer. again i programmed the machine for the dough cycle and let it run till all the ingredients were well combined and a smooth chocolaty dough rode on the blade of the pan, about 10 minutes. 
  4. i then stopped the machine and stretched the chocolate dough to a 11x6 inch rectangle over a plastic sheet. i then put half of the brioche dough on top of the spread out chocolate layer and stretched it to the  same size. next inverting the two layers on another plastic sheet I put the remaining brioche dough on top of the chocolate layer and stretched it to the  same size.
    then placing the sandwiched dough in a plastic container i covered it with a plastic cling wrap and transferred the container to the refrigerator. 
  5. 7 hours later, i took out the sandwiched dough from the refrigerator, cut out 1 1/2 x 1/2 inch rectangles from it. then piling the rectangles together in a loaf pan, i covered the pan with a kitchen towel and let the dough double in size. this took about 2 1/2 hours. 
  6. once the dough doubled i preheated the oven to 400 degrees F, then egg washed the loaf, sprinkled some sugar on top and in the preheated oven, baked the loaf for 20 minutes. then turning down the oven temperature to 350 degrees F I baked the loaf for another 10 minutes until surface looked golden brown.
i waited for 30 minutes before taking the loaf out of the pan and cut out the first slice after the loaf had cooled down completely. 

Swirled Chocolate Brioche Loaf (Recipe for a 11/2 pound loaf)
for the brioche dough
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 egg yolks
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp orange juice
  • 3/4 tsp sea salt
  • 1 3/4 tsp bread machine yeast
  • 7 tablespoons of unsalted butter
for the chocolate layer
  • 5 tbsp semisweet chocochips
  • 2 tsp orange juice
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp all purpose flour 
  • 8 cloves (spice) + 1 inch cinnamon stick, ground
  • 1 egg for egg wash
  • sugar for sprinkling on top
what i did

for the swirled brioche loaf i proceeded in the same way as for the marbled loaf except that in step 5, after taking out the dough from the refrigerator, i rolled it out with the rolling pin then folded it as shown in "1st fold"...


then rolled it out again and folded the dough as shown in "2nd fold."i then cut out 1 1/2 x 1/2 inch rectangles from the folded dough and proceeded as above.
the dough before and after the rise...

so those were my gorgeous Chocolate Brioche Loaves. Hope you had as much fun reading about it as i had baking and eating them. Wish me luck for the Challenge and do visit the other delicious entries for this GYCO Chocolate challenge at .....


Until next time...  take care..

These loaves are being Yeastspotted. 
Also sharing these at a couple of weekly food events.

20.5.13

Grape Bundt Cake with Chef Alex's Sauce...

I just realized that last I did not do my A Cake A Week post. Not that I did not bake any.. just that the photos came in late and then i got busy with other things and forgot all about it... anyway... so i baked this gorgeous bundt cake last week...


I baked it for mother's day celebration at my son's daycare. and it was quite befitting for the occasion... since it was fruity and mildly sweet. and Alex's sauce... ohh... it was delicious. after tasting the prepared cake i really regretted for having poured so little of it over the cake.  though the cake was perfect to take to the daycare, those with a sweet-tooth like me might want to bake it with  an extra helping of sugar or serve it with a generous helping of the ginger-grape sauce. at least that is what i intend to do next time. anyway here's the recipe from The Italian Dish that i followed this time .... and in my opinion, with the topping and all this mildly sweet fruity cake easily qualifies as  one of my finest cakes of the season.

16.5.13

Fava Yogurt Soup

The other day I spotted fava beans at the local grocery store. I remembered them from one of Chef Giada De Laurentiis' cookery show. almost in an impulse i bought a bunch. not too many just a few to find out how they taste. and when it was time to cook them i sat browsing the web for fava recipes. Since Mr MN does not have fish Chef Laurentiis' recipe of Red Snapper with Fava Bean got ruled out. so i searched some more before stumbling upon a few fava recipes in the Heath section of  New York Times. Fava and Buttermilk Soup was the simplest one and i decided to try it out last night. just to suit our taste i made some minor changes and wowed Mr MN and baby with this tasty and super healthy Fava Yogurt Soup. 

as i mentioned before, i did not have a lot of fava beans in hand. after skinning the beans i had a mere half cup of beans at disposal. though the soup was nice and flavorful and great as an appetizer, next time i'll probably make it with double the amount of fava beans. with that in mind i have slightly modified  the quantity of ingredients listed for the recipe.


Baking Partners Challenge : New York Style Pizza...

Its the 15th of the month and hence time to reveal this months Baking Partner's Bake !! 
and this month we baked........
.
.
taDaaaa...

Yes ...we baked this month 

      New York Style Pizza......
a thin crust pizza with the signature pizza sauce 
with toppings of our choice.

The recipes at hand were ....
To say the truth though I was excited to make pizza,  I did not feel very challenged when the recipes were suggested. after all pizza is a weekly affair. so what could be so challenging about baking it.  neither the dough recipe nor the sauce recipe seemed challenging enough till i saw this video in Feeling Foodish...



and my reaction was.. oho.. so that is the challenge !! i played and replayed the video several times and tried my best to stretch the pizza dough like the chef. and i think i almost got it right the second time. though the pizza tasted great there are a few issues with my topping that i still need to work on. for starters i think i should stop using preshredded cheese because for whatever reason they tend to brown before the pizza crust is completely done... also i need to control myself when spreading the pizza sauce. somehow every time, i tend to get a little too generous while spreading the sauce on the crust and as a result my slices tend to be a little limp towards the center..


anyway i guess it'll take me a few more pizzas to make that ultimate thin crust pizza at home. however since the challenge things are definitely  looking up and i am hopeful that the next one might be the one !  Many thanks to Pam, Archana and Priya for the challenge and Swathi for initially such a lovely group !

14.5.13

Asparagus with Indian Spices

Did you know that May is National  So the other day I cooked some asparagus  to go with our Indian dinner. It was one of the regular recipes that goes well with dal and rice. but just because it is May I took a few shots to feed the blog...

Just so that you know, we Indians do not always measure out the ingredients with spoons and cups (though for the sake of the post i have done it this time..) so if anytime you wish to cook asparagus spears the Indian way do not hesitate to alter the measurements to your liking... if you do not overdo the spices, you'll most likely get the Indian flavors right.


9.5.13

Coconut Ricotta Bites with Lime syrup

Today is the second Thursday of the month. Hence the reveal day of  
Lady-Behind-The-Curtain-Dessert-Challenge-Banner
The two assigned ingredients for the month were coconut and lime and since that did not seem like a very difficult combination for a dessert, i decided to join in this month. now feeling all adventurous i next decided on trying these flavors on an Indian sweet and the first thing that came up my mind was a famous Odiya sweet namely, Chhena Poda.  Even Mr MN thought it might be a good idea, so i went ahead and baked this authentic Odiya dessert with a twist of ingredients and transformed it into delicious Coconut Ricotta bites with Lime syrup. 

Qubani ka Mitha(Stewed Apricot Dessert) : South Vs North May Challenge

This month Roha from Hydrabadi Cuisine challenged the North Team to make Qubani ka Meetha. Till then I had never heard of this dessert. so out of curiosity i went to the the local grocery store the very next day to got the required ingredients. though i did not get the exact form of dried apricot , i found a close cousin, Dried Turkish Apricots  and decided to make the dessert with it. following Roha's recipe I soaked the dried apricots overnight and prepared the dessert the very next day. we were so delighted by how the dessert looked and tasted that without waiting to take the photographs in daylight we licked it off our plates that very night.  and then i had to prepare a second batch to feed the blog...  

In the recipe Roha had mentioned that the stewed apricots can be topped with malai,  whipped cream or custard. just to keep things fruity I decided to make a apricot mousse instead and we loved the combination of the two.

8.5.13

Pinwheels for Paratha... (BWW #82)

Last week I stumbled upon the pictorial recipe of Kerala paratha at Cooks Joy. Needless to say I tried it right away. though my  parathas' did not turn out as flaky as hers, i thought they were pretty good for a first attempt..
For the recipe hop over to Vardhani's place Cooks Joy. I am sure her clicks will tempt you to try your hands at the pleated pinwheels soon...

Sending the photograph to Black and White Wednesday #82, a photography event started by Susan of  The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and hosted this week by Alex of  Food4Thought.

                   

7.5.13

Plantain Oatmeal Bread with Walnuts & Strawberry Jam

The other day I spotted plantain at the local grocery store. Excited at the prospect of making some plantain chips I picked up a packet and the following day tried baking chips. Oh God ! that was such a mistake ! With my first batch coming out of the oven I realized that things weren't going so well so readjusting the oven temperatures i put in the next batch. only to realize minutes later that  certain savories are best enjoyed when dipped in copious amounts of sin.  else you end up chewing leathery chips rather than crunching them. so i left the rest of the plantains just like that planning to come back to them in a few days. and when days rolled to weeks the plantains became too ripe for chips and had to be used up in other recipes.  and since it was my bread-baking day i decided to use one of them in place of banana in Banana Oatmeal Bread while i saved the other for a recipe i had bookmarked. 

Last Saturday, following the recipe from Beth Hensperger's Cookbook The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, I had made the Banana Oatmeal Bread with Macadamia Nuts(Pg 444).  We really enjoyed that bread. so I naturally turned to that recipe for the Plantain Bread. I made a few minor changes here and there keeping the basic recipe intact. however I would like to mention here that when baking the bread with plantain it is fine if one uses less yeast because this loaf swelled up a lot more in comparison to the banana bread and therefore that noticeable dip that you can see in the picture below.  This is a sweet loaf and its slices are best enjoyed when microwaved for 20 seconds and served with butter or jam. We tried it in cheese sandwich too, but that didn't work so well. so essentially this is a breakfast bread.. 

and since we were at the breakfast table i thought i'll share my jam recipe as well. Its a strawberry jam that i made last week using Ina Garten's recipe as a guideline.. I used jaggery instead of sugar and a hint of salt . and that kind of signatured a Grandma's Home-made  label on the Jam :) 

 i now the recipes....

5.5.13

Chicken kebabs baked in Yogurt Sauce

Chicken kebabs baked in Yogurt Sauce is a dish inspired by the Greek dish Keftedes Me Yiourti aka Meatballs baked in Yogurt Sauce.  I found the recipe in Diane Kochilas's cookbook  The Glorious Foods of Greece. In the original recipe  ground veal is used and I guess that makes everything different. The first time I tried the recipe using chicken in place of veal and the end product was not as delicious as I had expected it to be. so over my subsequent trials I tweaked the recipe here and there
until Mr MN and I were wowed by the present version.

I must mention here that I cut the ground chicken into square pieces rather than shaping them into discs or balls like conventional kebabs. That is just because it was the easier and a less messy thing to do. if you like, you can sweat a little more and shape the chicken mixture the way you like before baking them. But my guess is that the shape will not alter the taste. So why waste your time and energy ;-)



4.5.13

Zucchini Shoes and a casserole with left overs

The Zucchini Shoes recipe has been lying in my drafts for a very long time. I had baked it soon after Easter. the funny thing about this dish it that though we were not very excited about the zucchini shoes themselves, we loved the casserole that i made with the left over  chickpea filling and sauce. and since I had not taken any pictures of the casserole i deferred posting the recipe all together. anyway, last week there was some boiled chickpeas left over from another dish so i decided to bake "the casserole" again. and this time i clicked a few images before we gorged in.

you might wonder why the urgency of posting the recipe of the zucchini shoes if we did not love it. thats because i didn't know what to call my casserole and its easier to tell you the story this way. 

now the recipe of the zucchini shoes as adapted from Aphrodite Polemis's cookbook From a Traditional Greek Kitchen....

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