Paneer Tikki

Beautiful, gorgeous weather in Seattle for the last few days. We had a glorious weekend and a even better Monday! When there aren't very many days of sunshine in a place like ours, we learn to appreciate the sunny days a little more than what you blessed folks do. All we talk about is the "weather" when we meet with friends or anyone on the street!
This was so not the time to stay indoors and cook but there was one dish that I enjoyed making for a quick snack - Panner tikkis/cutlets. My daughter seemed to love it, so that means it should have been good!

Paneer Tikki




Ingredients

Paneer - 2 cups shredded
Potatoes - 2 medium boiled and mashed
Onion - 1 medium chopped finely
Cilantro - 1 cup chopped
Bread slices - 2
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp (You may use green chillies)
Salt - To taste
Olive Oil - About 1 tbsp for every 4 tikkis
Bread crumbs - To coat
A.P flour - 2 tbsp mixed in 4-6 tbsp of water. It should be pretty runny.

Method

Soak the bread slices in water. Squeeze out the excess water, tear it apart with your hands into small pieces and add to the mashed potato and paneer.
Add the rest of the ingredients to this (except the oil) and mix well.
Pinch out even balls and flatten into a disc shape.
Dip in the flour and water paste and then coat evenly with breadcrumbs.
Heat a non-stick pan (works better because of the less oil) and roast the tikki in batches, and on both sides.
I used about a tablespoon or two for every 4-5 tikkis/cutlets.

Serve with onions, mint chutney or ketchup.

Notes:

*Clean pan in between batches of frying the tikkis. It prevents the loose breadcrumbs from burning further.

* Dust off extra breadcrumbs before frying and ensure a good even coating

* Freeze the paneer for 30 min before shredding. This will make the grating a little easier.

* Use the cookie cutter to cut out the tikkis into fun shapes for the kids.

Avocado Bruschetta

A little different from the regular tomato bruschetta, this avocado variant is lemony, fresh and vibrant. All that we need here for the gloomy, wet weather we have been enduring for a really long time. I served it on whole wheat mutligrain bread drizzled with some EVOO and baked in the oven prior to adding the avocado. You could alternatively toast using a toaster. The stove top method did not get the bread toasty enough to hold the avocado topping.
So the next time you have some bread and avocado sitting in your counter, you know what to do!



Avocado Bruschetta

Ingredients:

Avocado - 3 medium
Vinegar - 2 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Red Chilly flakes - 1/4 tsp
Salt - To taste
Garlic - 1 small pod finely chopped
Cilantro - 2 tbsp
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Whole wheat bread - About 4 slices

Method:

Take out the seed in the Avocado. Score the avocado flesh into little squares and scoop out leaving the skin.
In a mixing bowl, mix the lemon juice and vinegar. Slowly stream in about 2 tbsp of Olive oil mixing vigorously. It should form a nice emulsion. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Add the dressing to the avocado and toss to coat.

Serve on a slice of toasted bread. I put my oil drizzled slices in a preheated 425F oven for about 5 min.

Potato Caraway Whole Wheat Bread

I happen to love rye bread for its aroma and slightly pungent taste. Caraway seeds are usually added to Rye breads which gives this very unique taste. Caraway is related to the fennel/cumin variety and that type of flavor is not unknown to Indian cuisine. So when I was trying to come up with a recipe that used these seeds into an easy simple bread, I just couldn't wait to get baking.
The potato gives this bread a nice softness on the inside. The crust is just beautiful and thin, and this is by far the best flavor I have had in a bread. It would blend beautifully into a panini or a simple grilled sandwich.



I finally got a well aerated bread. Here is a macro shot to prove what good hydration can do to your bread. Spraying the insides of the oven with water and placing a small bowl of water in the oven while the bread is baking are all methods which also help with hydration.



Bread baking by far is the most fulfilling experience in the kitchen.

Potato Caraway Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - 3 cups
Whole wheat pastry flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Vital gluten - 2 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Bakers yeast - 3 tsp
Warm water - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Mashed boiled potato - 1 large
Caraway seeds - 2 tsp
Olive oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

Combine all the three flours, salt and vital gluten and set it aside.
In another large bowl, take the warm water and add the sugar. To this sprinkle the yeast and let it bloom for about 10 minutes. It should start to foam up.
To this add the dry ingredients, mashed potato, caraway seeds and olive oil. Add water as needed to form into a soft dough.
Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes by hand, lesser if you are using a kneader attachment on your stand mixer.

The dough will be pretty sticky. Do not add more flour, the dough should be very soft and supple.
Grease a large bowl with oil, and toss the dough around allowing it to coat well in oil. Cover and set in a warm place to rise and double in size. It should take about 2 hours.



After the first rise has taken place, punch down the dough (it will be sticky and kneading again is kind of tricky, so skip handling the dough too much.)
I just shaped mine into a round, and let it rise for another hour or so. If you'd like, use two loaf pans and divided the dough equally and let it rise again.



Bake at 375F for about 60 min or the bread manages to give a hollow sound when tapped at the bottom.



Allow to rest, and slice.

Nutty Stollen Wreath Bread (Whole wheat)

Stollen is usually a holiday bread made with dried fruits and nuts and citrus peel.
When I say "usually" you might have gotten the drift. Yes, my recipe here is not the traditional one, neither is it holiday time, nor is it sweet.
I know someone in the far corner of this world is probably shaking their head, going... why does this woman have to twist up every single traditional recipe that ever existed!
Sorry, can't help it!

I do like the sweet kind, but once in a while I do like them savory especially when I load them with nuts like this one. Oh, those delightful little mixed nuts that come in a jar! What is your favorite kind of nut in the medley? Mine is hazelnuts. Why, oh why do they put so few of them in there?
But that said, not many can keep their hands off of the salty golden brown cashews in them.
Ahem... the cashews in the jar keep disappearing magically and ever so slowly in our household! Just when there are just a few broken lone peanuts left, the vanishing act stops. If that person is reading this, then I think its time to own up!



So, for this recipe I also used some roasted sunflower seeds (I always have a few of those and pumpkin seeds on hand.) Like I have mentioned in the past... Always keep nuts in the freezer (especially if you have a large quantity), this prevents the natural oils in them from turning rancid quickly. They stay fresh longer, and if you are worried that they might turn hard, not to worry...they do not freeze.



Nutty Stollen Wreath Bread (Whole wheat)

Ingredients:

Whole wheat pastry flour - 3 1/4 cup
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Vital Gluten - 1 tbsp
Sea Salt - To taste
Baker's yeast - 2 tsp
Warm water - 1/4 cup (to activate yeast, more for making the bread dough)
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Roasted sunflower seeds - 1/4 cup
Salted mixed nuts - 1/3 cup (Peanuts, Cashews, Filberts, Pecans, Hazelnuts, Walnuts, Brazil nuts)
Coarse chop them if they are too large.
Egg wash - For brushing on top (One whole egg, mixed with a teaspoon of water) You will not need the entire egg.

Method:

Mix warm water, yeast and sugar and let it sit for about 10 min. The water should not be too hot or too cold. The former kills the yeast and the latter fails to activate the yeast. Yes, it is a little tricky if you are a first timer.

After the yeast starts to bloom, add the flour, vital gluten salt and form a dough by adding more water. Just enough to form a soft loose dough.

Knead for about 15 minutes by hand or use a dough hook attachment and knead till it is soft and supple.

Oil a large bowl, and let the dough sit in it covered for about a couple of hours. This is the first rise.

After it has doubled in size, add the nuts and knead just enough to distribute the nuts evenly.



Time to pre-heat the oven to 375F.

Using a rolling pin, roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness and slightly elongated as shown in picture.



Roll the dough (just like you would roll the cake for a jelly roll)



Seal both edges by inserting one into another and making into a round wreath shape. The seam will be visible.



Let it sit for about 10 minutes on a baking tray that you are going to use to bake. This is the second rise.

Then, using a pair of scissors cut the wreath partially (not entirely) into sections. The round shape should still be intact.



Brush lightly with a egg wash if desired.



Bake at 375F for about 45-50 min till golden brown, and it should sound hollow when tapped.



Let it rest for 10 minutes. Serve with warm butter/spread. I like mine with a little dollop of jalapeno jam.

Parsley and Curry Leaf Buns

Last week has been kind of busy and I really, really wanted to post this today for fear of giving an impression that I was on another break!
I have been putting this off just because I wanted to get something else done, and ended up doing neither this nor that. Sounds familiar? :)
I have been doing some cooking and baking meanwhile, never let the stomach starve of yummy foods.

I am kind of getting a hang of how to make bread and buns without a standard recipe.
The permutation and combination of different types of flours, ingredients and techniques just make the experience of baking much more pleasurable.
By no means, I claim to be an expert in baking bread, but haven't really made one that was inedible :) At least. so far...

I made these buns as a fond remembrance to the savory bread I am used to back home.
I used vital gluten since I did not use bread flour which is specifically made for baking bread and buns. The gluten gives it a nice rise and that is not easily attained by using dense flours like whole wheat varieties.
You may substitute different herbs of your choice and customize this to your liking.
Toast these buns and drizzle some olive oil for a heavenly warm bite.
I used them as burger buns and they were amazing.



Parsley and Curry Leaf Buns

Ingredients:

White whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Whole wheat pastry flour - 2 cups
Vital Gluten - 2 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Baker's yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
Warm water - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Yogurt - 1 tbsp
Olive oil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
Parsley - 2 tbsp chopped
Pepper - 1/2 tbsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp

Method:

Soak yeast in warm water along with sugar and let it sit for 15 minutes to foam and activate.

Meanwhile in another bowl, mix the dry ingredients - flour, vital gluten, salt and pepper.

Mix the dry ingredients with the activated yeast mixture, add oil and yogurt. Add the herbs and knead on a floured surface. Knead for 13-15 minutes by hand, or use a kneader attachment on the mixer. The dough should be soft and smooth.



Cover and let it sit in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours or till it doubles in size.



After that, take the dough, fold it over 3 or 4 times, releasing the air bubbles. Pinch into smaller balls, roll them neatly and firmly. Place it on a baking tray with enough room to expand while baking.



Cover with a cloth and place in a warm place again to rise. This method is called proofing.



Preheat oven to 375 F.

After an hour, brush them with oil or an egg wash on top. Sprinkle sesame seeds and bake till the buns are golden brown on top.

Let it cool and slather with a spread/butter of your choice and devour.

No-Knead Garbanzo and Fava Bean Bread - Breadline Africa

I don't think there exists such a bread, neither did I think there existed a flour which was made with Garbanzo and Flava beans. Very intriguing in fact.
What does one make with such a kind of flour... I have no idea!
I still have a huge crush on making breads and I make them out of anything I can. That is how this bread was conceptualized.

"Weird" one may call... Or call it "bold", but someone has to do it. I knew it was somehow going to be a dense bread. I added more moisture than I would for a normal bread to make it lighter and get those darn little air pockets which I love in my bread (more on that technique later... later as in... the next bread post)

This turned out to be a no-knead bread, just because the dough was not ideal for kneading. And this way it was quicker and effortless too. I added vital gluten, to add to the protein value.

I would request whoever is reading this to take up the tag and bake something that you are comfortable with for a good cause. I am not tagging anyone in particular.
But if you can, do bake and make it count. More information below.

Thanks to Ann, Usha, Uma, Navita, Yasmeen, Soma and Sanghi for tagging me.
____________________________________________________________

Breadline Africa is a registered charity in South Africa that is seeking to put an end to poverty in South Africa and further afield in Africa. Their aim is to break the cycle of poverty and help communities to achieve long term self-sustainability. Breadline Africa was founded in 1993 by social workers and communities in South Africa with minded colleagues in Europe, (who were well placed to source out donations). They are geared to help fund small ground level projects in Africa which are most likely to succeed with financial help.

It launched the Worldwide Blogger Baker Bake-Off Challenge aiming at raising $ 1 M in funds. This bake-off gives us baking bloggers the power to make a difference in this world. What do we do? Bake bread. Give Dough. Feed Africa. Vals says, "You can sign up for the campaign, make a donation, upload your bread recipes and document your culinary adventures in the media center to spread the word. You don't have to donate money but simply just mention the campaign and create awareness."



From the Breadline Africa Bake-Off site:

On 15 October, we launched The Breadline Africa Worldwide Blogger Bake Off.The Blogger Bake Off is an online campaign that challenges bloggers to get involved by baking bread, and then acting by donating to end poverty. And then, challenge their readers and five other bloggers to do the same.

With the money raised, we will be supporting grass roots community projects aimed at ending poverty and hunger in Africa. We’ll be placing container kitchens, vegetable gardens and more in poor communities, sending emergency food relief where needed and helping these poor communities to help themselves.


The rules for bloggers are outlined below:

1.If you are tagged, copy and paste the rules into your post.
2.Bake bread, do something you wouldn’t normally do, and blog about it. Upload your picture and recipe.
3.Give dough, donate to Breadline Africa and help us end poverty.
4.Tag five bloggers, and ping us so we know you’ve done so.
5.The person who raises the most funds will get to name a Breadline Africa community kitchen and win $500 Amazon Vouchers. There are also three minor prizes of $250 Amazon vouchers for people who receive the most votes in the following categories:
Most Unusual Recipe; Most Nutritious Recipe and Most Traditional Recipe.



No-Knead Garbanzo and Fava Bean Bread

Ingredients:

Garbanzo and Fava bean flour - 2 cups
Whole wheat pastry flour - 1 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup (just to lighten the bread)
Vital Gluten - 3 tbsp (mandatory)
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Baker's Yeast - 2 tsp
Sugar - 1/4 tsp
Warm water - 1/3 cup

Method:

Mix sugar, yeast and warm water and rest for 10 min.

Sift the flours, salt, vital gluten.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the flour. Mix it with the yeast mixture.

With a heavy wooden spatula mix everything together. There should be no lumps or unmixed spots.

Grease a large bowl and transfer the dough and let it sit for 2 hours.



After two hours it should have risen a little. It won't double in size like a regular dough but close enough.



Punch down the dough. You wont be able to knead it, so just pushing it down will do.

Sprinkle a little corn flour or grease a loaf pan, and transfer the dough into it.

Let it rest again for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Bake for about 30-40 min. And then rest for about an hour.

Slice and serve with butter/spread.

The flavor and texture of this bread is different from the regular ones, but it tasted good.



This goes to Srivalli's and Susan's My Legume Love Affair - Seventh Helping
and
JFI - Chickpea by ms

Eggless Savory French Toast crusted with Chickpea flour

A quick and tasty recipe for those who can't have eggs either by choice, by dietary restriction or for the sake of change, like me.

I adapted this recipe from Mahimaa's blog. I did make some little changes to the recipe, which I have listed below. The thing that caught my attention was the ease of making it, and of course the nice change it brought during breakfast time. I am a big hearty breakfast person, just can't kick off my day without it.

The one thing that was a challenge was making those onion bits stick to the bread/batter. Next time I am going to chop them really fine. Other than that it was perfect. I used my potato bread (I will post the recipe soon, turned out my best so far, yay!) as the base for this dish. But really, any kind of bread would work nicely.

The chickpea & rice flour formed a nice crust and struck a lovely balance of soft on the inside and slightly crusty on the outside.
You can find chickpea flour in almost any grocery store (not just the Indian ones).
Rice flour (if you can't find any) may be substituted by cornflour for the added crusty finish.



Eggless Savory French Toast crusted with Chickpea flour

Ingredients:

Whole wheat bread slices - 3 (or as many as you want)
(Adjust the following ingredients according to the number of bread slices you are making)
Chickpea flour/Besan - 1 cup
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Water - Enough to make a paste with the flour
Red onions - 1/2 cup (very finely chopped)
Cilantro - 1/4 cup (finely chopped)
Red Chilly flakes/Pepper - To taste
Salt - To taste
Olive oil - Just enough to cook on both sides

Method:

Mix the chickpea flour, rice flour, chilly flakes/pepper, salt and water to make a thin paste.

Add the red onions and cilantro and mix well.

Heat a non-stick pan, drizzle a little oil on medium heat.

Dip the bread slices in the batter, the onion bits may try to fall off, try to add them on top after laying it on the pan.

Cook on both sides till lightly golden brown.

Serve hot with chutney or tomato ketchup.

Spinach Potato Naan/Flatbread - Stove top method

Notice the difference in my pictures in this post? My image copyright appears smack in the middle of the pictures. I used to think it was not very aesthetic to put my copyright overlaying in the middle of my images. But now with the frequency of plagiarism I see around, I would rather compromise with the beauty of my pictures rather than make it eye candy and leave it out there in the open. Thanks Sangeeth for caring enough to make me understand how important this is. She did mention that adding the copyright at the corners would be too way too easy for people to crop it out and re-post (which makes perfect sense.)

Seriously, it is not worth making your blog, pictures, and post look nice and perfect (without proper precautions) when somebody else is going to be effortlessly lifting it right in front of your eyes.
Here are some good articles from Sangeeth and Cham on how to protect your blog and pictures. Read them, implement them if you care.

If you remember, I had done a Garlic and Red chilly Naan/Flatbread using the oven method. It was my first try and I am sure getting better at this.
Who needs an oven when you can make these in a jiffy with resources that you have on hand?

Here is another nutritious version using the stove top method.
Requested by a reader, I have tried to make a better illustration this time for those who really would like to try it out.
Points to note:
That tiny bit of potato adds a nice softness to the bread. So I would call that ingredient mandatory.
I used 100% stone ground Atta (Indian whole wheat flour, it does give best results for this type of bread.
The dough is a sticky one inititally when you start to put everything together, so please be mindful of the water that you add while kneading.
Roll the dough out thin (check in the illustration below), it does tend to puff up when you toss it on the hot pan.

Head out to restaurants for naan?... nah! I think mine worked like a charm.



Spinach Potato Naan/Flatbread - Stove top method

Ingredients:

Atta/White Whole wheat flour - 3 1/2 cups
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Frozen Spinach - 2 cups (Thaw and squeeze out moisture completely)
Potato - 1/2 cup (Boiled and mashed)
Caraway Seeds - 2 tsp
Salt - To taste
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Yeast - 2 tsp
Warm water - 1/4 cup

Method:

Add yeast to warm water and let it rest for 10 min.

After the yeast has frothed, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. You may or may not have to add more water depending on the moisture content from the spinach and potato.

Add warm water and combine to form a nice loose dough. Knead for 15 min by hand on a floured surface. Dust with flour as and when needed during the kneading process.
The dough should look like this when you are done.



Cover and let it double in size, which would take anywhere from an hour to two. Mine took two hours. It should look like this.



Fold the dough over about 4-5 times.

Heat a non stick pan on medium-high heat.

Dust a board with flour and pinch out a ball and roll it out with the help of a rolling pin. (Spreading with hands does not work for me)
I divide my dough equally, they will rise a little as you make the rest, so knead each ball slightly right before you roll it.

The rolled out dough should be thin, as it tends to puff up on cooking, giving it a flatbread texture. You can see how thin I rolled it out.



Transfer the dough gently onto the pan and cook till you see bubbles start appearing.



At this point, I like to smear a wee bit of little oil/butter on the top side and then flip it over.

Cook on both sides till you get a nice brown color and the bread is cooked through.

It will continue to cook for a while after it comes off the pan, so let it rest for a few minutes.

Dab a little butter/spread on top, and serve warm.

I store them out for a couple of days without refrigeration. You may re-heat by wrapping them up in a paper towel and microwave them till slightly warm. Alternatively, you may wrap them in aluminum foil and warm in the oven.

Yields: Around 10 flatbreads



Some great events that I am sending this to:
Susan's Yeast Spotting
Sangeeth's Eat Healthy - During Pregnancy