Friday, May 22, 2015

Rava Idli A Healthy Start to the Day

The summers are on in full swing in Kolkata. Hot and humid days really affect us all. The palate craves for soft, bland food. Deep fried and spicy food is a big no-no.

Little S has her swimming classes on Saturday morning. So, I need to give her a nutritious and hearty breakfast in the mornings. Plus, Saturday is also our vegetarian day so that puts up a further challenge.

This Rava Idli recipe is one such breakfast. I often make it on Saturday mornings. It is healthy and quite filling. Also, you do not need to buy any ready mixes for this. All the ingredients are found at home. I generally serve it with coconut chutney.


Here is how I make it

Recipe

Ingredients

Rava / Sooji / Cream of wheat: 1 and a 1/4 th cup
Curd/Yoghurt: 1/4 th cup
Rice flour: 2 tablespoon
Eno (fruit salt) / Baking soda: 1 teaspoon
Black mustard seeds: a pinch
Curry leaves: 8 to 10
Toor dal or Bengal gram: a pinch
White oil: 1 teaspoon
Red chilli: 1
Salt to taste

Process

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add 1 red chilli, toor dal, mustard seeds, and curry leaves. Add the dry rava in the pan. Dry roast the rava. Make sure that the rava does not turn brown. Take off the pan and spread it in a plate to cool.

2. Once the rava mixture is cool enough to touch, add curd, salt, baking soda, and rice flour, Add just enough water to make a thick batter.

3. Grease the idli molds. Add the idli batter a spoonful in each mold. Steam on simmer flame for 12 minutes. Turn off the gas but don't open the steamer. Wait for 5 minutes and then de-mold the idlis.



For the coconut chutney

Ingredients

Scraped coconut: 1 cup
Garlic: 2-3 cloves
Ginger: a small piece
Curry leaves: 2-3
Green chilli: 1
Curd 1 tablespoon

For the tempering/tadka: 

A teaspoon of white oil
Black mustard seeds: a pinch
Curry leaves: 2-3
Green chilli: 1

Process

1. In a mixer, grind coconut, garlic, ginger, and curry leaves and green chilli together with a tablespoon of curd. Add water if required to make a thick paste.
2. In a pan, heat oil and add all the ingredients for the tempering. 
3. When the mustard seeds start to crackle, pour this tadka over the chutney and mix well. Add salt to taste.

Serve the hot fluffy idlis with coconut chutney.


I am sending this recipe to the ongoing event at Kolkata Food Bloggers, "Summer" for all summer related recipes.



Saturday, May 9, 2015

Watermelon Smoothie Breakfast

(Adapted from a recipe by my Hubby man)

Kolkata is burning hot! Hot blazing days are followed sweltering nights. During such a heat wave, the digestive system goes for a toss and the appetite is low. 

My hubby man makes this wonderful smoothie using watermelon. A glass of this chilled smoothie, acts like a breakfast if you are not in a mood to have any cooked breakfast per se. This smoothie can be savoured at any part of the day.

Just look at this lovely light pink color.


Here is how he makes it:

Ingredients:


Chopped watermelon: 1 medium bowl full
Yoghurt/curd: 1 cup
Glucon D or Tang (Orange Flavor) powder: 2 tablespoons
A pinch of salt
Sugar: 2 teaspoon
Crushed ice (optional)
Cumin (Jeera) powder: 1/2 teaspoon

For garnish: Mint leaves (optional)

Process:

1. Take a medium bowl full of watermelon and de-seed the pieces.



2. Take the Glucon D powder and watermelon in a big bowl.

 3. Add chilled curd and mix well with a spatula. Also add salt, sugar, and cumin powder.
 4. Blend the mixture using a hand blender. You can also add crushed ice and mix in a mixer.
Voila! Your chilled smoothie is ready. You can also keep it in the fridge for a few minutes before consuming.

I am sending this recipe to the Kolkata Food Bloggers event "Summer Splash: Coolers" for this week.


Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Eggless Croissant-shaped Rolls

(Adapted from a recipe seen on the Home Baker's Guild: Facebook)


For a long time I wanted to make croissants. But the recipe takes complete three days to make. This fact has always put me off.

I saw these crescent-shape rolls on a group called Home Baker's Guild on Facebook. From then on I planned to make these.


Here is how I made them:

Ingredients:

Whole-wheat flour: 1 cup
All purpose flour: 2 cups
Sugar: 2 tablespoons
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Instant yeast: 1 and a half teaspoon
White oil: 1 and half tablespoon (any refined oil)

For stuffing:
Tutti-fruiti: 1 handful
Jam: 3 tsp

Process:

1. Take the lukewarm water in a pan. The water should be such that you can comfortably dip your finger into it. 
2. Add the sugar and yeast into the water. Mix and keep aside undisturbed for about 10 minutes.
3. Next, take the flours and salt in a pan. Mix the yeast mixture with the flours and knead into a dough. You can use your stand mixer with a dough hook to do so. I always knead by hand.
4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes till it is smooth and pliable. The dough should spring back on touching.
5. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough in it. Keep covered with a kitchen towel in a warm place for one and a half hours.
6. The dough will double-up to twice its size. 
7. Next take the dough out of the pan. Sprinkle some dry flour on your working surface and place the dough on it.
8. Divide the dough into two sections. Roll each dough ball into a roti of 1/2 inch thickness. Cut the top and bottom edges as shown in the picture.


9. Cut into a rectangular shape and further cut into triangular pieces as shown. Decorate with a sprinkling of tutti-fruiti. Also add 1/4th tsp of jam.

10. Now roll the triangular piece as shown.
11. Now grease a baking tray. Place the rolls on the tray and keep undisturbed in a warm place for 20 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.
12. Place the tray in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Grill for 2-3 minutes on Grill mode.

13. Take out of the oven. Brush with butter. Serve hot!

Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Perfect Sandwich Loaf: Pullman Loaf

(Adapted from the Pullman's Loaf: Donna Currie)

What is a Pullman loaf? It is the perfect, rectangular shape loaf that is suited for the toaster....makes lovely sandwiches.



According to Wikipedia, these loafs were first made in the Pullman railway cars. In these railways, the bread was baked in lidded pans to give this perfect shape.

The Pullman loaf pan looks something like this:
The Pullman's Loaf Pan (Courtesy: www.williams-sonoma.com)
Bread baked in this pan will give the perfect shape. 
The hubby man had got this bread pan long time back but I had no clue how to use this type of pan.
One day, while randomly surfing the net, I came across the recipe for Pullman loaf. Then, there was no looking back!


You can have a look at the original recipe here.

Here is how I made it:


Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour: 1 and a half cups
All purpose flour:1 and a half cups
Sugar: 2 tablespoon
White oil: 2 tablespoon
Salt: 1 teaspoon
Instant yeast: 1 and half teaspoon
Water (lukewarm): 3/4th cup + 1/2 cup

Process:

1. Take the lukewarm water in a pan. The water should be such that you can comfortably dip your finger into it. If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast.
2. Add the sugar and yeast into the water. Mix and keep aside undisturbed for about 10 minutes.
3. Next, take the flours and salt in a pan. Mix the yeast mixture with the flours and knead into a dough. You can use your stand mixer with a dough hook to do so. I always knead by hand.
4. Knead the dough for 10 minutes till it is smooth and pliable. The dough should spring back on touching.
5. Grease a deep-bottom bowl and dunk the dough in it. Keep covered with a kitchen towel in a warm place for one and a half hours.
6. The dough will double-up to twice its size. 
7. Next take the dough out of the pan. Sprinkle some dry flour on your working surface and place the dough on it.
8. Knead the dough and create a log shape. To learn how to create the log shape, refer to this recipe
9. Now grease the loaf pan and the inner side of the lid of the Pullman pan. Place the log inside the pan.
 
10. Keep the tin in a warm dry place and allow it to rise. Make sure that the loaf should rise such that 1 inch of the pan should remain empty. Make sure that the loaf does not spill out of the pan.

11. Pre-heat the oven for ten minutes at 177 degrees C. Cover the pan with the lid.

12. Keep the loaf tin in the pre-heated oven. Bake at the same temperature for 35-40 minutes. (Also keep a small bowl of water in the oven while the b read is baking.)
13. Remove from oven and de-mold carefully. Brush the top of the loaf with milk/butter.

Allow the loaf to cool down completely before slicing it. Your wonderful sandwich loaf is ready
.