The Whole Bread

On arriving in Tuam, Ireland, we realised that the Indian shops are quite far from the town. So I explored the local stores for our daily food requirements and picked up long grain rice and stone crushed FINE whole wheat flour. The first trial was with the rice which was really good and with more satiety. I was heart broken when I opened the flour pack to actually find the FINE to be quite COARSE for my liking. That's when I decided to make my own BROWN BREAD. That's how this recipe took birth.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour 3 cups
Dried active yeast 1tbsp
Honey                   3 tbsp
Salt                        1 tsp
Oil                         1.5 tbsp
Sunflower seeds    2 tbsp
Warm water           2 cups

Method:

1. Dissolve the yeast in little warm water and keep aside for 5 minutes.
2. Take the salt, oil, honey in a large bowl and add the yeast mix and mix well.
3. Add the flour little by little along with required amount of water and knead into a soft dough.
4. Knead for 10 minutes and don't worry if the dough is sticky and allow it to prove for 1.5 hours.
5. Soak the sunflower seeds in some normal water and keep aside till required.
6. After 1.5 hours, punch down the dough and knead again and again let it prove for 45 minutes.

7. Grease the loaf tin with some oil or butter and put the dough into it and sprinkle the soaked seeds on top.
8. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.
9. Remove from the tin and cool on a rack and cut into desired size.

RasguLLas.. The Bengali Delight.

Rasgullas have a special place in my life. My masters thesis was on low fat and low calorie Rasgullas which I tried with artificial sweeteners and fat re placers of many kind. The actual exposure to the making of this famous Bengali sweet right from boiling of raw milk to shaping of the white balls left to simmer away in fragrant sugar syrup motivated me one fine day to go ahead and try this out and surprise my husband with dessert after dinner, who has a BIG sweet tooth or should I say TEETH.

Ingredients:

Milk 1L + 1/2 cup
Sugar 1.5 cups
Lemonjuice 3 tsp
Water 1 cup + 1.25 cup
Cardamom pd 1/2 tsp
Rice flour 1tsp

Method:

1.Boil the milk and keep it aside for 5 mins. Add 1 cup of water to it and then start adding lemon juice little by little and stirring the milk all the time to check when it starts to curdle.

2. Once it curdles strain the contents using a muslin cloth. Now wash the paneer well to remove any traces of lemon juice in it. Drain all the water well and hang it for 10 mins.

3. Mash the paneer on a flat surface well for 5 min,  add rice flour and mash for another 5 mins till it becomes quite oily.

4. Shape the mashed paneer into desired size balls ( keep in mind they swell and increase in size when done).

5. In the mean while boil sugar in 1.25 cups of water and add 1/2 cup of milk which helps to remove the impurities from the syrup. Skim off the top layer of impurities and add the rasgullas into boiling syrup. The flame should be high all the time but add 2tsp of water from time to time to bring down the temperature of the syrup and to avoid concentrating the syrup.

6. After 10 - 12 mins add 1 ball into a bowl of cold water, if it sinks then the rasgullas are done.

7. Switch off the flame and add cardamom pd and mix well and keep for atleast an hour before serving.

NOTE: The whey water left behind after curding of milk can be used to knead the chapati dough or to make kadhi or mor kozhambu.

Guacamole

The first time I heard about Guacamole was when I was seeing my brother's party pics held in the US. In that he had boldly displayed the names of all the various dishes on display such as CHAKLI, BESAN LADOO, GUACAMOLE etc.

My passion towards international cuisine and interest to learn more & more recipes helped me to know more about this exciting dip. That is also when I realised that butterfruit is also known as "AVOCADO".

After this during my Master's in Food & Nutrition, we went to attend a conference on 'New trends in food packaging", where I felt very proud to introduce my fellow batch mates to this exotic looking fruit, Avocado.

The first ever chance I got to actually prepare it was after we returned from our Goa trip from where I bought them along. But to my horror, I didn't know how to check the ripeness of the fruit & there i cut it into two halves only to realise , I couldn't scoop it as I had observed Nigella Lawson doing it. But I thought of running it in the mixie with the rest of the ingredients only to have ruined the whole fruit and the Accessories..

This time in Kodaikanal, I was hell bent on buying a fully ripe one & was happy to my heart's content to find out - YESSSSSSSSSSSS, I can scoop it...

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

 Avocado chunks - 200gms ( scooped and mashed )

Garlic cloves       -  2-3 ( minced or pressed )

Jalapenos            -  3 -4 ( drained and rinsed )

Tomato               -  1 ( chopped )

Hot & sour sauce - 1 tsp 

Lime juice            - 2 tsp

Salt                     - as per taste

Method:

1. Mash the scooped avocado nicely  and check there are no big chunks left.

2. Mix in the salt, garlic, lime juice, jalapenos, tomato and the sauce into the mashed avocado and mix well.

3. Serve with nachos, breadsticks or veggie fingers.