Showing posts with label spiked. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiked. Show all posts

20.12.13

PÍO V (Nicaraguan Christmas Cake)
# Baking Partners Dec '13 Challenge

With Christmas just a week away, it was only apt that Christmas cake be chosen as the theme for this month's Baking Partners Challenge. However when Swathi asked me to suggest few recipes I was at loss.. I am a newbie at the food scenario and have very little knowledge of  traditional recipes. I learn and cook from the books and websites that I find attractive and that explains why this blog does not have a specific direction. Anyhow a week later Swathi suggested that I look into Yule log recipes which led me to these ones... 
  1. French Yule Log by Flore of Florilège Gourmand  from Use Real Butter
  2. A Vegan version of Flore's French Yule Log from The Healthy Kitchen
  3. Bûche de Noël (Williams-Sonoma Recipe)
  4. Vegan Buche de Noel from Bon appetit
Besides the Yule Log Cakes, I also found this Nicaraguan Christmas Cake recipe that looked very appealing. So I included it in the list.. and decided to try this before I get started at the French Yule Log..
  

Pío V though called a Christmas Cake is really a gourmet dessert with a cake base and a custard topping that is typically served in Niacaragua during Christmas. It is made up of marquesote, sopa borracha, and manjar. Translated literally marquesote means cake, sopa borracha means drunken soup referring to the a rum-laced syrup that the cake is soaked in and manjar means custard. Apparently, this dessert is named after the 16th century Pope Pius V,  however there is no written evidence or verbal conjecture bearing proofs of it.

11.11.13

Spiced Persimmon Bread with Bourbon Dates and Walnuts
& Weekly Menu Plan

Happy Monday !! How are you ? Around here, its been getting chillier even by the day. So the oven is on full time. well almost. and I have been baking and eating lots of breads, cookies and cakes. Also roasting a lot of root vegetables and loving it all. I am specially in love with this sinfully delicious Persimmon Bread... with Bourbon, walnuts, dates and the chilli flakes.. Yes chilli flakes. Do I see some brows frowning over that ?  Oh please don't. It really is wonderful.


The original recipe is by James Beard. I found it in David Lebovitz blog, made an eggless version of it and spiced it a bit with red chilly flakes.  I borrowed the idea of adding chilli  flakes from a Turkish Persimmon Bread recipe and I am so glad I did. The Bourbon, the dates and the chilli flakes are such a riot of flavors.. and yet so rich and gorgeous. Ever since I made this bread, I have been looking for more sweet bread recipes where I can fit these flavors in. I have found some recipes... will soon let you know how they go. 

This sweet bread is perfect for the season. Its great with tea as well as coffee. also great for pacifying the late afternoon or late night sugar craze (in case you like to give in to that sometimes). So if you are in the mood to indulge yourself bake this delicious Spiced Persimmon Bread with Bourdon Dates and Walnuts  right away.. You'll love it ! 


Spiced Persimmon Bread with Bourbon Dates and Walnuts 
Minimally adapted from David Lebovitz
 Preparation Time : 15 minutes                    Cooking Time: 60 minutes                      Yields: 1 9x5 inch loaf 
 Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter(1 stick of unsalted butter)
  • 1/2 cup yogurt (as a substitute for 2 eggs)
  • 1/3 cup Bourbon
  • 1 cup persimmon puree (scooped out from 2 medium sized squishy-soft Hachiya persimmons)
  • 1/3 cut walnuts, chopped
  • 1 cup pitted dates, chopped
  • 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
-
 Instructions

  1. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  3. Sift together all the dry ingredients except sugar into a large mixing bowl and keep it aside.
  4. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan. 
  5. Switching off the heat beat the sugar into the melted butter. 
  6. Once the sugar has been well incorporated, beat in the yogurt, Bourbon and persimmon puree and beat till all the ingredients have been well incorporated. 
  7. Make a well in the center of the sifted flour mixture. Pour in the liquid bourbon-persimmon puree mixture into the well, then add the chopped walnuts and dates and chilli flakes and using a wooden spoon mix everything well.
  8. Now pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheat heated oven.
  9. After 25 minutes reduce the heat of the oven to 350 degrees F and continue baking for another 35-40 minutes till a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
  10. Cool the loaf completely before slicing and enjoying.

While we'll enjoying this spiced up sweet bread for breakfast and tea... these are the dishes we have for dinner this week....

This Week's Menu Plan


SundayHomemade Chicken Noodle Soup & Apple Pie from the Bakery

Monday

Crepes with and Refried Beans with Pumpkin


Tuesday
Rice, Dal, Fish,  and Steamed Beans for toddler

Masoor Dal, Roasted Roots Vegetables with Sauteed Baby Spinach,  Rice. 

Wednesday 

Pear and Chestnut Soup, Colcannon, Chicken Breasts with Herbed butter

Thursday

Beet Thoran, Moong dal with Peas and Cauliflower, Egg Curry and Rice


Friday

Magic Chicken Biriyani and Raita

Saturday

Leftovers for lunch, Pasta with Beet Greens and Onions for dinner


I shall be sharing this at the following parties.




29.10.13

Spiked Pumpkin Bread & Savory Pumpkin Dip Recipe for Halloween and Weekly Menu Plan

Hi ! How are you ? Is it cold in your corners yet ? Here in LI, it is getting a bit chiller by the evening... but the mornings are gorgeous. Bright and sunny !  Our New Hampshire trip, followed by the trip to my cousin's place and then the preparations for the toddler's  birthday party had thrown me off my routine. but after a lazy week at home, I am back on track. Totally charged up for Halloween and Diwali. 


This will be my first Halloween and Diwali here. Actually my second one.. but the first one doesn't count since it was within weeks of the toddlers birth... and i was still recovering from the C-section. In any case I am excited. We haven't yet zeroed on any costume for the toddler...but with this bandana in mind, we are thinking along the line of pirates... 




that is if he obliges... we'll see....

Now about my Spiked Pumpkin Yeast Bread. In my post on Pumpkin Yeast Bread, I had mentioned that I had been playing around with the recipe. What I actually did was that I spiked it up the dough with Pumpkin Ale. I substituted the milk and water in the recipe with an equal amount of beer and baked my first batch the same way as the Pumpkin Yeast Bread... except that I baked it in the form of a Savory Pull Apart Loaf and 4 buns.


The buns were nice and soft and were perfect for sliders. The Pull Apart Bread was also good..  but I wouldn't really recommend it in the form I made. The bread was good and the pumpkin dip that I had slathered on the rolled out dough was also good and the two tasted good together. but it would have been better if I had baked the loaf by itself and served it with the dip.  the dip somewhat made the moist loaf soggy... and texture-wise less appealing. it was however yummy !

Anyways having learnt my lesson, I ditched the idea of a pull apart bread and decided to try out a beer glazed bread for my second batch. Again I did this in two ways. With the Dutch Crunch topping in mind I prepared a mixture with beer, yeast, rice powder, maple syrup and oil . Then shaping the dough into 6 buns and a 6 inch round loaf, I glazed the spiked loaf and 2 buns lightly with the solution and spooned some of the beer and rice flour mixture over two other buns and left the remaining two un-glazed. I baked the un-glazed buns for 20 minutes at 375 degrees F and the others 425 degrees F.  Initially I was quite excited with how they looked. specially the ones with crunch-topping...


But as they say... All that glitters is not gold. While the un-glazed buns, the loaf and the lightly glazed buns were moist and super-flavorful, the buns with crunch topping were terrible. I could not eat those beyond a bite. it was that BAD. I am not sure what the problem was... but since it looked good I have decided to try it again soon. Will let you know it if and when it works out. For now here are the recipes that worked... the Spiked Pumpkin Yeast Bread and the Savory Pumpkin Dip...

Spiked Pumpkin Yeast Bread (Bread Machine)
Adapted from my Pumkin Yeast Bread
 Preparation Time : 2 hours                                                                                         Baking Time: 30 mins
 Yeild: a 9x5 inch loaf + 4 buns or a 6 inch round loaf and 6 buns 
 Ingredients


  • for the dough
    • 1/3 + 1/4 cup Harpoon Brewery's Pumpkin Ale (UFO)
    • 1/4 cup yogurt +1/16 tsp baking soda (as a substitute for 1 egg)
    • 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin, fresh or canned(I used canned)
    • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
    • 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
    • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1/8 cup light brown sugar
    • 1 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
    • 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
    • 1 tbsp bread machine yeast
  • for the glaze
    • 20 ml Harpoon Brewery's Pumpkin Ale (UFO)
    • 2 tbsp rice flour
    • 1 1/2 tsp instant year
    • 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
    • 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
-
 Instructions
  1. Put all the dough ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order specified by the manufacturer and set it to the dough setting. 
  2. When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, turn the dough into a lightly oiled surface. Shape it into a loaf or a loaf and 4-6 buns and place the loaf it in a well greased 9x5 inch  loaf pan or 6 inch round pan and the buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover the loaf with a greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled 30 to 45 minutes. 
  3. In the meantime preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and mix all the ingredients of the glaze and let it stand for about 15 minutes. 
  4. Once the dough doubles, lightly glaze the loaf and the buns with the beer and rice flour mixture and transfer the pan/ baking tray to the preheated oven. Bake the buns for 20 minutes and the loaf for 30 minutes. Immediately afterwards remove the loaf from the pan, cool the buns and the loaf on a wire rack, then slice and enjoy with savory Pumpkin dip or otherwise...


So that was all about my experiments with pumpkin bread recipe.  Do let me know if  you have any pointers about the Dutch crunch topping. I'll be happy to work on your suggestions.

Sending the first photographs "Spirit of Fall"  The Colour Me Photography Challenge Series" ~ Colour Me Orange , a photography event  at Priya's  place The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen.


Now this week's Menu at Ma Niche


This Week's Menu Plan


SundayChicken Fry,  Leftover Lentil curry with veggies and rice

Monday

Moussaka with Radish Salad
Pasta with yogurtCheese Omlet and boiled carrots for the toddler

Tuesday

Carrot and Pea Stir Fry, Gatte ki Kadhi and Roti,
Deconstructed Oliver Salad and Teff Crepes for Toddler

Wednesday 

 Hurry up and Wait Roast Chicken  and Roasted Potatoes

Thursday

 French Onion Soup and Vegetable Sandwiches


Friday

 Dinner Rolls with Japanese Cream Stew

Saturday

 Masoor Dal and Briami with Steamed Rice



                                       and Meal Plan Monday at The Diary of a Real Housewife.

Yeastspotting the loaf. Also sharing it at the following weekly parties..

16.7.13

the Spiked Asparagus Mustard Tart # Spiked ! Recipe Challenge

Do you know about the Spiked ! Recipe Challenge


It is a bimonthly recipe challenge wherein Julie from This Gal Cooks and Carrie from Frugal Foodie Mama challenge you to feature an alcoholic beverage of their choice in a recipe of your own or adapted to be your own.... Well, this month they chose American Craft Beers as the featured ingredient... since husband had just filled his growler with Black Duck Porter from Greenport Harbour Brewing Company, NY that Friday (the week when the challenge was announced) and i had  the framework of a recipe i wanted to try featuring that beer, i decided to join in the fun !
The thing is i do not drink alcohol or cook with it much. Not unless a storm visits and i decide to deep fry Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakodas  to brighten our day or  i join a challenge and bake a Loaded Rib- cage or a Spiked Asparagus Mustard Tart just for fun ! 

The recipe i had in mind was Dorie's Mustard Tart from Around the French Table. We love Asparagus in the Dorie's Mustard Tart  as much as we love our  Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakodas. So this time i decided to merge the two recipes and make the spiked tart. now i do not mean to sound pretentious, but it was indeed a good plan. the tart with the added bitter-sweetness of the beer glazed onions and asparagus was rather delicious ! We finished most of it for dinner on day one and Mr MN took the left-over for lunch the next day....

the Spiked Asparagus Mustard Tart
Adapted from GÉRARD’S MUSTARD TART (From “Around My French Table”)
    ingredients
  • 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 cloves  of garlic, finely grated
  • 1/2 lb Asparagus
  • olive oil, for frying
  • 1/2 cup Black Duck Porter Beer
  • 6 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tbsps Dijon Mustard
  • 2 tbsps French grainy Mustard
  • sea salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
  • 1 10 inch Tart shell, partially baked and cooled (recipe follows)*
  • thinly sliced sun-dried tomatoes, for garnish
* the original recipe was for a 9 inch tart shell which i stretched to fit my 10 inch fluted tart pan. though i'll mention just in case you prefer a thicker crust !
-
  what i did
  • to begin with, I preheated the oven to 425 degrees F. next, I heated enough oil in the skillet and sauteed the onions and one garlic in it.   once the onions became slightly tender, i added 1/4 cup of Porter to it, simmered until most of the liquid had evaporated, then repeated the process one more time.
  • once the onions were caramelized in the beer, i chopped half of the asparagus into 1/4 inch pieces, added it to the onions, seasoned the veggies and let them cook until the asparagus was tender yet crunchy. 
  • then spooning the cooked veggies into the partially cooked tart shell, i added a till more oil in the skillet, added the remaining asparagus and garlic to it it, seasoned the asparagus and cooked it till it was tender yet crunchy. then switching off the heat i proceeded to make the mustard batter for the tart.
  • for the batter, i whipped together the heavy cream and eggs along with the Dijon and grainy mustard and the chilly powder, seasoned it with salt and pepper and poured the batter over the beer glazed veggies. 
  • i then arranged the remaining asparagus over the mustard batter, garnished it with thin slices of sun-dried tomatoes and baked the tart in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.**
** i set the timer and did not check on the tart in between. but from the colour of the cooked tart i am guessing that it might have been over baked by a couple of minutes.  

so that was it... a simple and delicious tart spiked with Black Duck Porter Beer from the Greenport Harbour Brewing Company. i am not sure if that bit of information about the brewers is absolutely necessary. my husband insisted that i mention it.. and i obliged !

Dorie's Recipe of Partially Baked Tart Shell
 ingredients
  • 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 6 tbsps unsalted butter, very cold, cut into bits 
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp ice cold water
-
  what i did
  • 6 hours prior to baking, i sifted the flour and salt into a big bowl, added the sugar to it and mixed it well. 
  • i then added the bits of cold butter to the flour mixture and mixed with my finger tips till the flour mixture became crumbly.
  • i then beat the egg and water lightly,  drizzled the mixture over the flour and using my hand kneaded the flour until the dough came together.
  • then gathering it into a ball, i  flattened it with the heel of my palm to form a disc, wrapped it with a plastic cling wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill for the next 3 hours.
  • after 3 hours, i placed the chilled dough between two plastic sheets and using a rolling pin rolled it into thin sheet ( about 1/4-1/6 inches thick). i then placed the rolled out dough sheet inside a 10 inch fluted tart pan, pressed it along the floor and sides of the tart pan, pricked the dough sheet with the tints of a fork at several points and then put the tart pan in the refrigerator in order to chill the crust for an hour before baking it.
  • 15 minutes before baking the crust, i positioned a rack in the center of the oven and preheated it to 400 degrees F. 
  • i then baked the chilled crust in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, removed it and cooled it completely before filling it up with the glazed onions, asparagus and the mustard batter....

I'll be sharing this tart recipe with a few weekly food events........... will add the links along the way !

19.3.13

GYCO Reveal ~ The Loaded Rib Cage..

Two weeks back, while making my usual rounds around my favorites in blogosphere, I stumbled upon this fun competition...  

Get your Chef On-Beer

Without thinking any further I simply signed for it... and then spent a good deal of time thinking what to cook ?? Considering the fact that I don't drink at all, coming up with a recipe that included beer seemed like a real challenge. and that is when Mr MN came into the picture and suggested a few combos. he said  " try beer bread or  a beered tandoori chicken. those combos go well.. " so i sat over his ideas for a while and then googled a little, landed on this awesome blog and thought of...... TADAAA... 

THE LOADED RIB CAGE


The experiment a super-duper hit. Mr MN and i LOVED it and we thank the host  

Jen @ Four Mars and One Venus 
 Julie @ White Lights on Wednesday  and
Co-Host Paula @ Call Me PMc 

for bringing home the GYCO - Beer Challenge that brought the chef out in us and made us create a hell of a recipe !
now ready to get a little tipsy... read and try this recipe along with me...
ingredients
for the rib cage (i used 1/2 of the dough to make a 15 inch long rib cage)
3/4 cup Guinness Draught Beer
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon bread machine yeast 

for the chicken filling
3 tablespoons oil
3/4 cup finely chopped onions
1 cup Guinness Draught Beer
1 1/2 tablespoon Swad Tandoori Masala
3 mushroom heads thinly sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas 
4 chicken tenders, and marinated
salt to taste

for the chicken marinade
2 teaspoons ginger-garlic paste 
2 teaspoons vinegar 
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 

1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons of cornflour

what i did.
  • as with all my chicken preparations, 4 hours prior to cooking i cleaned and chopped the chicken tenders into 1/4 inch pieces , whisked the ingredients of the marinade in a bowl, poured it into a resealable plastic bag and added chicken pieces coating them evenly with the marinade. then sealing the bag i marinated the chicken in the refrigerator till i was ready to cook.
  • making the dough for the rib cage was easy. i simply put the ingredients into the pan of my bread machine and programmed it on the dough cycle. 
  • while the dough was being kneaded i began cooking the chicken. to begin with, I heated 2 tablespoons of the oil in my large iron skillet, then added the chopped onions in it. Sauteed the onions for  about 5 minutes, then added 1/4 cup Guinness to it, simmered until most of the liquid  evaporated, then repeated this three more times.
  • once the onions were caramelized in the beer, i added in the tandoori masala, mushrooms and peas and let it cook till the raw smell of the masala was gone, about 4-5 minutes. then i added in the marinated chicken and salt and cooked it with the rest of the ingredients for about  8-10 minutes. i then removed it from the heat and covered it and kept aside.
  • in 1 1/2 hours when the dough cycle completed, I divided the dough into 2 halves. then rolled out a 15 inch by 9 inch sheet out of one half of the dough and using the pictorial guide here, i loaded my dough with the chicken filling and braided close the open rib cage, covered it lightly with a plastic wrap and left it on the kitchen counter to rise for the next 45 minutes...

  • 15 minutes before baking, i preheated the oven to 350 degree F, and once that was done, i put my loaded dough in the oven and baked it for 35-37 minutes. 
the bread seemed a little hard when i took it out from the oven. so i wrapped it in a kitchen towel and left it that way on the kitchen counter. 10 minutes when i unwrapped... i was excited with how soft the bread was... and don't even get me started on the chicken filling... it was AMAZING... my only regret is that i forgot to egg wash the dough surface before putting it in the oven. as a result it did not look as glazy as i would have wanted it...but with a baby clinging to your feet, such details often escape you at the right moment.... so don't hold me for that... this recipe is a real winner and you HAVE to try it to know that :)

14.2.13

Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakoda

If you follow Chef Giada De Laurentiis... then you have probably seen or tried her Beer battered Asparagus recipe. enticed simply by the idea of using beer in the batter i had pinned the recipe few days back... and last Saturday i probably would have given her version a try if  LIPA, our electricity provider , would have been merciful enough. but as things did not quite turn out that way... i decided to cook by own recipe of Beer-Battered Asparagus Pakodas. ... and surprised myself with the subtle -complexity of  taste that i had created. 

the pakodas were spicy with a hint of sweet-bitterness rendered by the beer... the presence and proportion of garlic and mustard was just right...  and the flavors in the batter seemed to marry so well with the freshness of the asparagus. 

I had never tasted asparagus before coming to US... but driven by my passion to cook with the local products, i started trying out various recipes soon after we moved...  and continued my experiments with it till i realized that Nishi and I liked it best... when marinated in ginger-garlic paste and then cooked with onion, cumin-coriander blend and a paste of wasabi-greek yogurt-and-mustard sauce... so the choice of spices in the batter was not completely random... i knew they would work for asparagus... and for the beer i trusted Chef Giada's expertise and my husband's recommendation of which beer to use .. so that was that... a brief history of how the savory Beer-battered Asparagus Pakodas were born.
 ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus 
1/4 cup besan(chickpea flour)
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoon dhana jeera powder(also known as Cumin and Coriander blend)
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 tablespoon mustard sauce(I used Kasundi)
pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste
Dundee Porter Beer 
Oil to deep fry (I used mustard oil)

what i did:


I started by snapping off and discarding the white-hard ends of each asparagus and then cutting them into two halves.

Next I made a batter using all the ingredients from besan to salt, using Porter Beer instead to water. I added the beer a little at a time to get a thick yet smooth batter.(I might have used 1/8 cup of beer. but i wasn't measuring. so i cannot say the exact amount I needed.) The batter was thick enough to be able to 
hold together the spear end and the stem end of the asparagus. 

I then poured mustard oil in a medium sized saucepan to reach a depth of 1 1/2 inches and heated it over medium heat. To check if the oil was ready, I put one drop of the batter in the oil. Once the batter came up without changing color right away I knew that I could start frying my pakodas.

For the Pakodas, I coated the asparagus with the beer batter in batches and dropped them into the oil and fried them until the batter was golden brown. Then transferred the asparagus pakodas to a paper towel to drain of the extra oil.

notes:

On demand, I fried some zucchini and eggplant slices in the same batter the next day... only i substituted the Porter Beer for Dundee Pale Ale this time.  in comparison the taste fell a little flat this time. i am not sure if the batter does not work with zucchini and eggplant or if the substitution of Porter made the difference. Nishi, our house-authority on beer says its the substitution... but right now i can't confirm. for after two consecutive days of fries i was not in the ready for the test-ride..

If you stop by and decide to take the test-ride do fill me with your comments and notes.. I'll love to hear from you and improvise. 

Happy Frying !!


Sharing this with 

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Saturday Dishes St. Patrick's Day - Or All Things Green at Hammock Tracks, Call ME “Call me PMC” and “The Tumbleweed Contessa,” Mop It Up Monday @ i should be mopping the floor, 

Bon Vivant #12 - Quixotic Fixes at Summee's Culinary Bites

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