Quick Bite : Indian Bruschetta

I baked this partly whole wheat bread with flaxseeds this week. The only problem with baking your own bread is you can't stop eating it. The possible upside is that you can slice your bread as thin as you want to :) I can almost see all those of you who bake your own bread nod your heads solemnly. I usually try and avoid starting my day with bread, but when it's homemade, you are looking for every possible excuse. So this is what I had for breakfast today - thinly sliced bread, toasted on a low heat on the tava, rubbed with a clove of garlic and topped with a simple paneer mixture. This breakfast ticks all the boxes - good carbs, protein, veggies, fibre. Yay!

I've announced my first class on Baking Basics for 21st September. Do check the details on my Facebook page and do write in with your suggestions and queries.

Bruschetta - Indian style

Bruschetta - Indian Style
Serves 1
Time taken - 15 minutes

Ingredients
2 slices of wholegrain bread 
1 clove of garlic, peeled
1 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp finely chopped onions
1 small tomato, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander
1/4 cup paneer, cut into small cubes
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of red chilli powder

Directions
On a skillet or in the toaster, toast the bread till golden and crisp.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a small wok and saute the onions till translucent (~2 mins). Add the tomatoes, coriander and saute for another minute. Don't fry the tomatoes to a mush. Add the paneer, salt, red chilli powder and stir gently till seasoned through. Remove from heat and keep aside.
Rub the clove of garlic all over the toasted slices of bread(one side).
Divide the paneer mixture equally between the two (or three, depending on size of bread) slices.
Eat immediately.

This makes for a wholesome breakfast or good for lunch too, when paired with a soup.

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When we got grilling at Weber & Neetha's recipe for the best pizza ever

Bangalore weather, an open terrace and a grill when put together, the possibility of fun times are endless and that's what we were shown at the Independence Day celebration grilling workshop at the Weber Experience Center. 

My kinda play-doh :D

I 'grill' stuff in the oven, on the stove top grill pan, but grilling on an actual grill is a different ball game altogether. Lighting the charcoal, getting the grill to optimum temperature, where to position the food on the grill, how to clean the grill, safety precautions, there's a lot to understand and learn about this cooking technique.

The kitchen all set before the workshop

The fun part is grilling is not just about steaks or paneer tikkas. You can make delicious grilled pizzas, roast a whole chicken (or any other bird you fancy) and even make an apple pie on a grill. Once you know how to make the grill work for you, the possibilities are endless. 

Charcoal ready to be put into the grill

Our cooking instructor, Neetha and the grill expert, Shiva were our teachers for the afternoon. We started with some of the basics like how to fire up the grill, safety mechanisms etc. Weber not only sells grills but also everything you need for grilling such as uniformly shaped charcoal made from coconut fibre, the cakes to light the grill with just a matchstick, the steel wool grill cleaners and so on. Armed with a few of these accessories, it seemed like quite a breeze to light, cook and clean up. 

Pizzas going into the grill

We started by making the pizza dough - a regular one and a multigrain base with flaxseeds (which I loved). Neetha also showed us how to make a cheese burst pizza, which most of the participants were happy to upgrade their pizza to, but their wait to get their pizza out of the grill was somewhat longer than us regular pizza folks, as a thick pizza takes longer to get done. There was also a whole roast chicken with delicious mushroom stuffing, I could almost eat the stuffing raw, it was that good. 

One of the show stoppers of the session was the paneer & veggie skewers. Big chunks of paneer, squares of bell peppers in all colours and mushrooms, marinated in a special mix of spices, skewered and grilled to perfection, these were absolutely divine. 

Apple pie-fresh off the grill

The other show stopper of which we could not stop taking pictures were the apple pies made on the grill. The tops turned stunningly golden brown and glossy and insides were melt in your mouth. The others also made a chicken skewers sizzler with barbecue sauce. By this time, so much food had been consumed inhaled  eaten that the choco lava cakes which were the last thing on the menu had to be looked at with 'sorry-i'm-too-full' eyes!

Top 4 tips about grilling

1. Add the fat / oil to the marinade to the food and not on the grill. This will ensure food does not stick to the grill and it gets a nice golden colour on grilling.
2. Wait for the grill to heat up to the required temperature before placing the food, or it will stick to the grill.
3. Foods that need to be cooked over longer period like a whole roast chicken or apple pie need to be placed away from the hot charcoal and not on top of it. This is indirect grilling. Foods like vegetables, paneer etc which get cooked in no time, they can be kept on the grill directly over where the charcoal is burning- this is direct grilling. 
4. Do not keep opening the covering lid to check the progress of the grilling. Each time you open the cover, the temperature drops and takes time to come back to the optimum temperature, resulting in a longer time taken to get the food cooked / grilled.

Grilling workshops at Weber (Bangalore) There are 3 kinds of workshops conducted at the Weber Experience Center. The basics of grilling which is free for all, an intermediate and an advanced session. Complete details available here. It's also a fun quality time for couples to learn grilling together.For regular updates on workshops, you could follow them on Facebook here.

I'm sharing with you Neetha's pizza recipe, which I made the following day at home and it turned out to be the best pizza I've made in ages.

For the multigrain base 

Makes 3 medium pizzas (medium thickness crust)

1 cup lukewarm water

2 tsp sugar

1 1/4 tsp instant (or active dry) yeast or 2 1/2 tsp fresh yeast, crumbled

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

2 tbsp flaxseed powder (grind flaxseeds to a coarse powder in the chutney jar)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

2 tbsp olive oil

For pizza sauce

2 tbsp olive oil

4 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 small onion, finely chopped

200 g tomato puree (tetrapack is fine)

1 tsp chilli flakes (or less)

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp dried herbs of choice (basil, oregano)

1 tsp sugar (the recipe says 2 tsp, but it was a tad too sweet)

1/2 tsp salt

For base:

In a large bowl, mix the water, sugar and yeast. Let it sit for 5-10 mins until frothy. This means that the yeast is active. Add the flours, flaxseed, milk, salt and knead until it comes together. Add the olive oil and knead till the dough is smooth (around 5 minutes). Cover and keep aside until doubled in volume. This could take 30 mins-1 hour depending on the weather.

Divide into 3 or 4 balls and keep aside.

For sauce:

Heat the oil, saute the garlic and onions until soft (around 3-5 mins), do not brown the onions. Add all remaining ingredients, and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove into a bowl and keep aside. You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate in air tight container.

Keep the toppings of your choice and mozzarella cheese ready.

Preheat the grill to around 200C / oven to 180C.

Grease a large square of tin foil with olive oil. Place the ball of dough and with fingers stretch it out by pressing, into 7-8" diameter circle. Brush with oil and allow this to rest for 5 minutes. Spread the pizza sauce (2 tbsp) evenly over this. Top with cheese (sliced or grated) and then with the toppings of your choice (olives, jalapenos, bell pepper, onions etc.). Bake for 25 minutes at 180C or grill for 10-15 mins (not directly over the coals), add more time for a stuffed (cheese burst) pizza.

Cut into wedges and eat immediately.

I'd like to thank Weber India for inviting me to this very useful and fun workshop.

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My experiments with baking a basic whole wheat bread (Recipe inside)

At the beginning of 2013, I asked for your feedback on my Facebook Page on the kind of things you'd like to see on the blog this year and that I'll try and incorporate some of your recipe requests. And the one thing that was a popular demand was a healthy loaf of bread. So here's my attempt to share with you a detailed recipe for a sandwich loaf.

I've tried baking whole wheat bread on several occasions. It has led to a variety of results- my househelp giving me puzzled looks on what that seemingly edible brick is doing on our counter top, me wondering if I should let it dry out in the sun to be used later as a weapon for self defense, my son making me swear that I will not sneak it inside his lunch box, me quietly disposing it in the main trash can of our community, so it can never be traced back to me. But yes, I'll say this one thing. I never gave up. I kept trying from a variety of sources - books, blogs, my own improvisations. Recently, I came across this recipe in the kitchn and there was so much confidence in the tone of that post, it almost felt like a friend had her hand on my shoulder and told me that "this will work!" and work it did. 

Other breads you can bake - Cinnamon Rolls | Pesto Pull Apart Loaf

You can be rest assured that this bread is a 100% handmade. No food processors, Kitchen Aids, Bread Machines were involved in the making of this work of art. Oven, yes - I did use an oven :)

You may ask if this is Whole Wheat bread a 100% whole wheat? To be honest, this one has 50% all purpose flour (maida) and 50% whole wheat flour (atta) - so if you trust your Atta to be 100% wheat, you can be sure that this bread is 50% whole wheat. And that is quite healthy given that the soft, spongy, melt in your mouth sliced bread labeled as whole wheat available in supermarkets is definitely NOT even 50% wheat, or they've added a ton of other ingredients to make it soft and fluffy. The goodness of this bread is once you've mastered this basic loaf, you can keep playing with it in terms of other ingredients added to it such as a variety of other whole grain flours, seeds, flavourings etc. But I'd surely request you to try it just like it is if you are a first timer.

This makes 2 loaves of roughly 600 grams each


Ingredients
2 3/4 Cup Atta (whole wheat flour)
2 3/4 Cup Maida (all purpose flour)
2 tbsp flaxseed powder (optional)
1 tbsp salt
1 cup lukewarm water (very slightly warm) plus some more
2 tsp instant yeast or active dry yeast
1/3 Cup Liquid Jaggery or Honey
2 tbsp olive oil / vegetable oil / melted ghee
1 cup lukewarm milk

You also need two 9x5 loaf tins greased and kept aside.

Directions
THE FIRST STAGE - ROUGH DOUGH
In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over 1 cup lukewarm water-stir with a spoon, cover and keep aside for 5 minutes, until it becomes slightly frothy.
In a large bowl, add the flours, flaxseed meal and salt, stir with a fork and keep aside.
In another bowl, mix all the liquids- liquid jaggery/honey, milk and oil with a fork and keep aside.
Once the yeast gets frothy, make the well in the flour and add the yeast-water and other liquids. Stir with a wooden spoon until all the liquids are absorbed by the flour and it sort of comes together.
Remove this onto a clean counter top or working surface and gently knead, adding up to 1/4 cup more water if this dough is too dry. Knead for 2-3 minutes until it all comes together to a rough ball. Cover this with a big bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes. This allows for the liquids to be well absorbed by the flour particles yielding a softer loaf at the end.

THE SECOND STAGE - KNEADING & PROVING
Once the dough has rested for 20 minutes, you'll find this easier to handle. It has to be kneaded (here, you could use a Kitchen Aid or Food Processor) for 10-12 minutes. By kneading I mean-pushing the dough away from you and folding it back on itself towards you. Repeat this process for at least 10 minutes, you'll the the dough getting progressively more elastic and soft. Once this is done, shape into a ball. Grease a huge bowl with oil, place the ball in this - cover with a fitting lid + tea towel and keep in the warmest area of your kitchen. You need to give the dough 1-2 hours for it to double in size and this totally depends on the weather conditions, which is why I cannot give you an exact time. If you wish you could keep the dough ball in a plastic transparent box, marking the level with a marker and then marking the level where you expect the doubled dough to reach, so you know that it has indeed doubled in volume. 

THE THIRD STAGE - MINI REST
Once the dough has doubled, with a sharp knife divide it into two equal parts. Do NOT be rough with this and punch any air out. Gently shape each half into a ball and keep aside to rest for 10 minutes. This will make the final shaping easier.

THE FOURTH STAGE - SHAPING LOAVES
After 10 minute rest in the previous stage, follow the shaping procedure for each ball. Gently push out into a rectangle and go ahead with the step-by-step shaping instructions given here. I followed them to the tee each time and they worked perfectly. The end result should be a taut dome shaped top of each loaf. And I cannot emphasize enough to do the shaping with light, gentle hands so that you don't push any air out of the loaves. Place the shaped loaves into two 9x5 loaf tins. You could brush water on the loaves and sprinkle any whole grains or seeds on the top to give it a more gourmet look - for eg: whole oats, millets, sesame seeds, or sift 1 tsp of all purpose flour over the top.

THE FIFTH STAGE - PROVING THE LOAVES
Cover the tins with a tea towel and keep in a warm place until the dough rises to the edge of the tin. If you are impatient with this stage and put it into the oven prematurely (which I have done many times and suffered), you will not have well risen loaves, because this bread will only puff mildly in the oven, maximum rise is before it goes into the oven. This takes around 40 mins-1 hour, like I said, do not rush this stage. The middle of this stage is when you turn on the oven to preheat at 220 Celsius / 450 F and let the oven heat at this temp until the loaves rise outside to final level. 

THE SIXTH STAGE - BAKING THE LOAVES
When the loaves have risen to just above the tins, brush them with some water. Using a sharp bread knife, make an incision along the length of the loaf. This not only makes the bread look good, but also helps it rise well.  Reduce the oven temperature to 190 Celsius / 375 F and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the top is nice and golden brown.

THE SEVENTH STAGE - COOLING
Turn out the loaves from the tins. If you have greased the tins well, you wont have problems with this. Turn them upside down on a cooling rack and keep them covered with a breathable cloth like a muslin or so. You could leave them like this overnight or at least aim for an hour or so. During this stage, the bread continues to cook inside and it becomes easier to slice the following morning. If you try to slice the bread as soon as it is out of the oven, consider all your effort wasted, because the inside of the loaf WILL be wet and you will be disappointed with the result. Loaves HAVE to be cooled fully before trying to slice them. If you want to experience the joy of breaking into warm bread just out of the oven, reserve it for the small dinner rolls.

THE EIGHTH STAGE - SLICING
You've been patient - allowed the loaf to cool overnight. You will now be rewarded with sweet smelling, delicious bread slices for breakfast. Place the bread on a chopping board and with a sharp bread knife, slice it as thick or thin as you want. 


Tips

1. I get started with the process at around 5/6 pm in the evening & it gets baked by 9/10 pm or so, then let it cool overnight before slicing them in the morning. This process works well for me. 
2. The original recipe says 8-10 mins of kneading in food processor (second stage), so make sure you knead at least for 10-15 mins when you are kneading manually. And following the push away-bring back technique for kneading.
3. If you don't have loaf tins, looks for bread shaping instructions that show you how to shape a free form loaf like focaccia or a dome shaped loaf. The proving and baking times have to be adjusted accordingly. Just make sure that during the final proving, the shaped dough rises really well before putting into the oven. 
4. Don't be afraid to make two loaves at one go, unless of course your oven will only take one tin at a time, in which case, halve all the ingredients and proceed accordingly. Do note that proving times may be less after the second stage.
5. I buy liquid jaggery from here (Bangalore) but you can mix some crushed jaggery to water, let it liquify on low heat and keep aside to use in recipe or use honey instead. This provides a mild natural sweetness to the loaf and also the brilliant colour without using any additives or artificial colouring agents.

Lastly, bread making is an exercise in patience. You have to allow the bread to pass through each stage and it depends on a lot of factors. You cannot rush through. You may think- WHOA this takes 3-4 hours, but most of it is inactive time, it only requires your passing attention for a few minutes at a time. It's good to keep a little notepad or keep track of the times on your phone, so you don't miss the time windows for kneading, resting, proving etc. A bit of precision and a lot of patience goes a long way in baking that perfect loaf of bread. Don't let the number of steps or the huge number of words written to explain the process overwhelm you. It's quite simple actually. Try it and let me know how it turned out!

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Breaking Bread with Pesto Pull Apart Loaf

“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight... 

[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world's sweetest smells... there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of meditation in a music-throbbing chapel, that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” 
― M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

The food-blogging world is full of inspirations. And there are some bloggers (now friends) whose blogs are bound to leave you with an instant urge to try out something. Aparna's blog Diverse Kitchen is one such blog for me. So when she called out to people last month to bake with her by saying "We Knead to Bake" some 60 other foodbloggers joined her in baking bread and the theme was 'Pull-Apart Breads'. 

Pull apart breads are just perfect for a little group of family or friends, sitting around a table where food and conversations flow freely. These breads are totally rustic and they make for cozy eating together where no fancy cutlery is required. I would give you a tiny little warning before making this bread if you live alone. These loaves are so addictive that you'll go 'just one more slice' a few times and before you know you've eaten a whole loaf by yourself. Bake this for others and this bread will win you many friends. Eat this alone and you'll end up...never mind. 

You should have this one basic pull apart bread recipe in your repertoire because there are a lot of variations you can do with this. Make a sweet cinnamon bread by omitting the garlic in the dough and using cinnamon, sugar and butter instead of pesto. You can also make an Indian Masala Bread by smearing coriander chutney or using finely chopped coriander, green chillies and garlic with some toasted cumin seeds. The sweet version can be customised for Christmas time by using orange zest, cinnamon, marmalade, ground cloves. Use your kid's favourite jam in the filling for a kiddie's party. 

Either way, this bread is a showstopper - truly a rustic beauty, so much so, that within 5 minutes of me posting this picture on my Facebook page, a friend who runs a bistro in Chennai wanted the recipe so he could add it to his menu. So try it out this weekend and if you don't have pesto on hand, use your imagination and whatever is available in the kitchen and don't forget to share this with loved ones.

You'll end up with some leftover dough- for which keep a couple of foil tins or smaller tins handy-you could use the same stacking technique or roll it out into a rectangle, smear with butter and pesto, roll lengthwise and cut into one inch pieces. Place these pieces cut side up in the smaller tins and proceed with second round proving. Brush with milk and bake similarly. Note that smaller tins will take lesser time to bake.

Recipe for Pesto Pull Apart Bread

Makes one regular sized loaf plus 2 baby loaves or a few pesto rolls extra

Takes roughly 3-3.5 hours in all, including proving time

Recipe adapted from My Diverse Kitchen

Ingredients

½ C warm milk

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp instant yeast / active dry yeast

3 cups all purpose flour (maida)

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp soft butter or 1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp olive oil

3-4 cloves of garlic, grated or ½ tsp fresh garlic paste

¾ cup milk (at room temp)

½ cup Pesto

2 tbsp melted butter

Directions

1. Dissolve sugar in ½ cup slightly warm milk (slightly over room temp, any warmer and yeast will be killed)
2. Mix the yeast into this and cover for 5 minutes. Milk with froth and bubble, indicating yeast is active.
3. In a large bowl, take flour, salt, grated garlic, soft butter / olive oil, add this yeast mixture and use upto ¾ cup more milk at room temp. Knead to make a soft pliable dough.
4. Grease a large bowl with oiled fingers. Place the ball of dough in this and allow to prove for 60-90 minutes, until dough doubles in volume.
5. After doubling- punch down air gently, make a ball again and on a clean floured surface, roll this out to a rectangle –roughly 20 x 12 inches. Using a measuring scale, cut out the rectangle into a square of 12 x 12 and use the remaining strip of dough to make other baby loaves or rolls.
6. Brush surface with melted butter and then smear pesto  (or any other filling such as coriander chutney, tomato pickle, cheese for other flavours) all over the surface.
7. Cut this square into 6 equal strips 2 inches wide (a pizza cutter works well for this)
8. Stack the strips one on top of the other, pesto side up.
9. Cut these stacked strips again into  2” wide squares (6 squares). So you will get 6 square stacks of 6 layers each.
10. In a parchment / foil lined loaf tin (not the very broad kind) – line the stacks next to each other like pages of a book, making sure the pesto smeared top of the stack are all facing one direction.
11. Cover with damp towel and allow this to rise in a warm place for one hour.
12. Preheat oven at 180C. Gently brush the top of the risen loaf with milk and place this in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-40 minutes, till it’s lightly golden on the top. Serve warm with pasta or eat as it in like an appetiser. 

You can make plenty of variations as mention in (6) – choose from spices like panch-phoron, chilli flakes, roasted ajwain, cumin seeds to sprinkle before cutting into strips and stacking.

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Raw banana (plantain) kababs

Vazhakka or plantain is one of my favourite vegetables. There are at least three favourite ways I make this in true Tambrahm style. One is a roast, where it is sliced thinly and slow roasted until it turns crispy. The other way to make it is to cube it, cook it and saute it with whole red chillies, udad dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves with a garnish of coconut. The third one is a vazhakka podimaas. All three taste yummy with rasam-rice or mor kozhambu and rice. 


Since there are three yummy ways to make this vegetable, I rarely end up making anything else. This time I picked up the plantains with the sole idea of making kababs so they don't end up in one of my favourite curries. I did a quick google search for plantain kababs and the one that appealed most was from Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma. Mine is an adaptation of that recipe.


Kababs are best served with roomali rotis, which are not that difficult to make at home provided you have a tough aluminium/ cast iron kadai that you can turn upside down on the flame and cook the roti on the upturned kadai. Please don't try this with your expensive teflon coated non-stick kadai. 


Also, there is no need to indulge in the dramatics of the chef in the Punjabi restaurants of the 80s and 90s where they would throw a roomali roti in the air in open buffet counters to grab the interest of the diners. 

Roomali Roti

 For the dough, I use a mix of 3 parts atta and 1 part maida, salt and water, rest it for 30 minutes and then roll them out into big sized rotis as thin as i possibly can. I cook this on the upturned kadai kept over a big flame for a few seconds until golden spots appear and repeat on the other side. Fold into quarters and keep in airtight casserole until ready to eat.

Carrot-Radish-Rocket Salad

You can serve this with sliced onions soaked in vinegar for some 30 minutes. I shredded a radish, carrot and sliced a small bunch of rocket leaves-dressed it with lemon juice, salt, pepper and tiny pinch of sugar. It tastes better if you cover this bowl and leave it in the fridge for sometime.

Dinner is served

Recipe for Raw Banana Kababs
Makes 16-20 1" kababs




Ingredients
2 raw bananas
1 potato
1 medium carrot
3 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp grated ginger
1/4 cup grated paneer / tofu
handful of finely chopped coriander
1 heaped tsp amchoor powder
1-1.5 tsp salt


Dry roast till fragrant:
1 tsp caraway seeds (shahjeera) or cumin seeds
1 tsp aniseed (saunf)
1 tsp coriander seeds
5-6 whole black peppers
4 cloves
2 green cardamoms


Once cooled, grind to fine powder in spice grinder


Directions:
Halve the raw bananas. Place 1 L water to boil and put the halved bananas. Boil for around 10 minutes, until bananas are tender. Remove from water. Cool, peel and grate.


Pressure cook potato, peel and grate.


Peel carrot and grate.


Add the grated raw banana, potato, carrot along with all the other ingredients included freshly ground spice powder and 1-1.5 tsp salt to the mix and knead until all ingredients are well mixed to make a smooth dough.


Roll into small lemon sized balls and flatted on palm to make 1" sized patties. Place on hot greased tava and cook on medium flame until golden brown. Flip and cook on other sized for 5-7 minutes until golden, adding some oil around the sides, if required.


Serve with roomali roti, salad and chutneys.


I served it with a simple shredded radish-carrot-rocket salad seasoned with salt, sugar, pepper & lemon juice and spicy green chutney.

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