This is a favourite recipe that I use to make in the bread machine. It is a slightly denser bread that goes well with soups and stews. The slight sweetness of the raisins cuts the spiciness of a stew.
Ingredients
(For 1 lb loaf)
Milk 3/4 cup
Bread flour 2 cups
Cinnamon 1 tbsp
Yeast 3 tsp
Brown sugar 2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Raisins 1/2 cup
Method
Add all the ingredients to the bread machine in the order given and use the Basic setting.
Cool the bread in the pan and slice when cool.
I could never understand how much time my aunt would spend on making Vegetable Pulao, ensuring each piece was of the same size, blanching and frying each kind of vegetable separately and then bringing it all together to make the final dish. Till the Covid-19 pandemic locked us in our homes. I found myself enjoying the care in cooking and the precision of each step in the making of a dish. I learnt to enjoy the magic of botany and chemistry in the process of cooking.
Ingredients
Basmati rice 2 cups
Cauliflower 1 cup of florets, each 1” thick
Carrots 1 cup of 1” cubes
Frozen peas 1 cup
Potatoes 2 medium, cut into 1” cubes
Onion 1 medium, sliced
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Cinnamon 1” piece
Ginger 2” piece, crushed
Bay leaf 1
Peppercorns 1 tbsp
Cloves 4
Oil 5 tbsps
Method
Soak the rice for 20 minutes and drain.
Boil a pan of water with 2 tablespoons of salt and blanch the vegetables separately. Don’t blanch the peas.
Heat the oil in a iron pot — I use Le Creuset — and fry the onion slices till they are brown and keep aside.
Fry the blanched vegetables separately and keep aside. Don’t fry the peas.
Add the cumin seeds. When they stop sputtering, add the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves and peppercorns.
Add the crushed ginger and sauté for a few minutes.
Add the peas and the drained rice. Add the fried vegetables and salt to taste.
Mix well and add enough water to cover the rice and 1” above.
Bring to a boil, reduce the flame, cover and cook till the rice is cooked and the water is completely absorbed.
Garnish with fried onions and serve hot.
Ingredients
Soya chops, frozen or freshly made 200 g
Tomatoes 3 large
Onion 1 large
Garlic 5 cloves
Ginger 1” piece
Green chillies 2, sliced on a slant
Coriander leaves for garnish
Turmeric 1 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Vegetable oil 2 tbsps
Salt to taste
Method
If using frozen, boil in water for 10 minutes. Drain. If using fresh, follow this recipe.
Grind the tomatoes, onion, ginger and garlic in a blender.
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the cumin seeds. When they stop sputtering, add the ground paste.
Fry till oil leaves the sides of the pan.
Add the chilli powder and turmeric.
Add the drained chops. Add salt to taste.
Add 2 cups of water. Cover and cook till the gravy thickens.
Garnish with green chillies and coriander leaves.
Serve hot with rice or bread.
Samin Nosrat, Netflix 🥄🥄🥄🥄🥄
From this week, I will be reviewing a food show that I watch as I eat dinner off a tray. I am starting with the show Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat showing over Netflix.
Based on chef Samin Nosrat’s bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking, the four-episode show is infotainment at its best. Nosrat takes us through Italy (fat), Japan (salt), Yucatan (acid) and California (heat), inspiring us to throw dieting out the window and eat sensibly to enjoy the richness of taste and flavour of food.
Each episode shows the joy of cooking as we are taken to the source of excellent ingredients and traditional ways of making condiments including soy sauce and honey.
By the end of the series, I felt a sense of satisfaction usually experienced when you return home after travelling the world. The satisfaction also comes from seeing how good food is cooked, retaining all the flavour and essential wholesomeness of vegetables and meats.
This is a series I would recommend without reservations. Go ahead and enjoy your TV dinner with Nosrat. I give it five stars — or five spoons.
Gayle Shockey Hockster; Better Homes and Gardens; Des Moines, 1994
I picked up this book when I was a novice with the bread maker and it soon became my go-to volume. I loved the recipes, which are easy to follow, and the tips given by the side or at the bottom are invaluable, especially if you are just starting to bake your own bread.
Baking bread has been something that we seem to have adopted en masse as we cope with the pandemic. Stores have been running out of bread flour and yeast, but people are continuing to bake. I agree that there is something magical about bread, watching the loaf rise and then bake to golden perfection.
Maybe it is an attempt by man to gain some control in a world that is spiralling out of control. That warm loaf of bread not only smells wholesome and delicious, it is life giving. Bread was what Christ broke with his disciples. Bread is essential to every culture in the world, to human being’s very survival.
One of the most popular breads that people around the world have been making during the current Covid-19 pandemic is sourdough bread. One reason could be that once you make the sourdough starter, the recipe for which is given in the book, you can continue to replenish it without adding more yeast. So even if yeast disappears from the store shelves, you can continue to bake your bread.
This book has a whole section devoted to sourdough breads.
I have tried many of these breads and each one has turned out perfect.
My favourite is the sourdough cheese bread, which is a fail-safe recipe. I make it pretty often as it goes so well with soups and stews and also makes a great sandwich.
I use spaghetti instead of linguine to make chicken tetrazzini as I feel it holds its shape better. Also the sauce adheres better, making for a tastier dish. The combination of full cream and garlic lends a rich flavour to the chicken tetrazzini.
Ingredients
Spaghetti 500 g, cooked al dente
Boneless chicken breasts 3
Vegetable oil 1/3 cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter 1 tbsp
Olive oil 2 tbsp
Button mushrooms 250 g, sliced
Onion 1 large, chopped
Frozen peas 1 cup
Garlic 5 cloves, minced
Full cream 2 cups
Full cream milk 500 ml
All-purpose flour 1/3 cup
White wine 1/3 cup
Italian herbs 3 tbsps
White bread 6 slices, toasted and ground coarsely into crumbs
Cheddar cheese 1 cup, grated
Method
Cook and drain the spaghetti and keep it aside.
Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper on the chicken breasts. Pour the vegetable oil into a heavy bottomed frying pan and fry the chicken breasts till they are golden brown. Let the chicken cool and shred roughly.
Add the butter and olive oil to the same pan and fry the mushrooms till they are brown. Add the onions and fry till they are soft and translucent.
Add the minced garlic and fry for a few seconds. Add the wine and cook till it evaporates. Remove to a bowl.
Add butter and olive oil to the same pan and add flour. Roast till the raw smell of the flour disappears.
Add the milk, constantly stirring to prevent any lumps from forming. Add salt and pepper.
Add the cream. Simmer for two minutes.
Add the shredded chicken, the mushroom mixture and frozen peas to the sauce.
Switch off the heat and add spaghetti to the sauce.
Grease a baking casserole with olive oil and add the spaghetti and sauce.
Mix the bread crumbs with Italian herbs and spread over the spaghetti.
Sprinkle generously with the grated cheese.
Bake in a 180 degree C oven for 25 minutes till the cheese bubbles.
Serve hot with focaccia bread and salad.
Spinach with mutton is a combo that few can say no to. Winter is a season when spinach is available in plenty and this is something that tastes delicious as temperatures plunge.
Ingredients
(Serves 5)
Mutton 500 g
Spinach 500 g
Yoghurt 1 cup
Red chilli powder 2 tbsps
Salt to taste
Turmeric 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
Ginger 2” piece
Garlic 6 cloves
Onion 1 large, chopped
Tomato 1 large, chopped
Bay leaf 1
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Cinnamon stick 1” piece
Cloves 3
Vegetable oil 2 tbsps
Method
Divide the ginger into two and crush one half with three cloves of garlic. Slice the other half into slivers. Slice the rest of the garlic cloves.
Marinate the mutton with the crushed ginger-garlic paste, yoghurt, chilli powder, salt, coriander powder and pepper powder. Rest in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Boil the spinach and purée in a blender.
Pour oil in a pressure cooker and add cumin seeds. When they stop sputtering, add the bay leaf, cinnamon and cloves.
Add the onions and sauté till they turn translucent.
Add the garlic slices and fry for a few seconds. Be careful not to burn the garlic or the curry will turn bitter.
Add the marinated mutton and fry for five minutes. Add the tomatoes.
Add about half a cup of water and cook on high for one whistle. Reduce the heat and cook for three whistles. Let the cooker cool.
Add the puréed spinach and cook till the gravy thickens.
Garnish with the ginger slices and serve hot with rice, paranthas or whole wheat bread.
This recipe was shared with me by a friend and I would make it very often for my son when he was a teenager. This is certain to be a hit with every hungry teenager and it is quick as easy to make. It makes a hearty meal because of the meat, potatoes and cheese, and it is easier to make than ordering takeout.
Ingredients
(Serves 2)
Streaky bacon 200 g
Potatoes 3 medium, sliced
Mushrooms 1 cup, sliced
Oil 1 tbsp
Italian herbs 2 tbsps
Cheddar cheese 2 cups, grated
Salt and pepper to taste
Method
Snip the bacon roughly with a pair or scissors into 1” pieces and add it along with the mushrooms to heated oil in a frying pan. Fry till the mushrooms are brown and the bacon is cooked.
In a baking tray, pour a tablespoon of bacon grease. Arrange a layer of potato slices. Add a layer of the bacon and mushroom mixture. Add a layer of overlapping potato slices. Sprinkle a layer of cheese and Italian herbs. Add another layer of potatoes.
Repeat the layers again. Finish with a thick layer of cheese.
Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and herbs.
Bake in a 180 degree C oven for 20 minutes till the cheese is bubbling.
Rest for 10 minutes and serve with a green salad.
I love carrot cake, but hesitate to have it often because of the amount of butter, eggs and sugar that go into its making. So I decided to experiment with a healthier version. This has no eggs or butter. Only four tablespoonfuls of oil goes into the cake. This is a moist cake that melts in your mouth.
Ingredients
All-purpose flour 1 cup (136 g)
Baking soda 1 tsp
Baking powder 1 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Vegetable oil 4 tbsps
Apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence 1 tsp
Carrots 1 cup, grated
Method
Mix all the liquid ingredients together. Add the sugar and whisk till the sugar is mostly dissolved.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
Add the liquid mixture to the flour mix.
Mix till blended well. Add the carrots, folding it into the batter.
Pour into a greased cake tin and bake at 170 degrees C for 30-40 minutes till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Cool and cut.
A version of the Indian puri or fried bread that has the nutty flavour of caraway seeds. It is easy to make using the recipe given here by adding caraway seeds when making the dough.
Ingredients
(Serves 5)
Wheat flour (atta) 3 cups (400 g)
Caraway seeds 3 tsp
Salt to taste
Water as needed
Oil for frying
Method
Follow the method given to make puris.
Chills & Chillies 