Dorie's Salted Butter Break-Ups

Ever since I have set my eyes on these cookies on Purplefoodie's blog I haven't been able to keep my mind off these. I have been dreaming about these with my eyes open and sometimes I feel I can just taste them but haven't had the chance to make them!

Now, I have to usually get books shipped to India which becomes way to expensive and so I don't know a lot of cookbooks that I would love to - I have added Dorie's Around the French Table to it obviously... also, with her recipes you don't seem to go wrong and they somehow come together perfectly and all the ingredients complement each other to form some of the tastiest of treats!

Now, like I mentioned I have read the recipes a couple of times but haven't been able to get my hands on "fleur de sel" and have been on the look out for it for a long time... I thought that it would have added the extra bit of zing to my recipe but since I haven't been able to find it - I had to settle for baking it with regular salt and they were I must say scrumptious and once you started eating them you couldn't put them down!

It was a weekend and I hadn't been able to get much sleep as my toddler who is still sleeping with us kept kicking me all night and I could hear some loud blaring truck horns on the road (yeah, thats what you get for living face the Gurgaon-Faridabad highway). So I got up at around 4am to make the dough and at about 6am to bake it. By the time my help was in making my morning coffee the house was smelling full of scrumptious (yes, I am using it again to describe these) biscuits and my son literally followed his nose to the kitchen.

Once you get your hands on this recipe - you should go give it a try and not even think about waiting for any extra days or leaving it on the backburner... all the ingredients are most definitely going to be in your pantry - tea time will be a treat, your kids will love it and coffee breaks will be a delight. So go ahead and try it.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I added 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
2/3 cup castor sugar
9 tbsp cold butter
3-5 tbsp cold water
2 tsp salt (I didn't have fleur de sel) and more for sprinkling

Glaze:
Egg yolk with water - but i used fresh cream

Recipe:
Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl and give it a quick mix.

Add the butter and start rubbing it in the dry ingredients till it forms coarse pieces - pea sized and bigger is fine.

Now add some cold water and start getting the dough together to form a ball. (I had a very soft dough even after chilling - maybe coz I did it with my hands). Wrap the dough in plastic and let it chill for an hour.

 Preheat the oven to 350F/ 170C.

Remove the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin into a rectangle. She has recommended putting a criss cross pattern with your fork on it but mine was too soft to get a pattern - so I just put a glaze. Also I rolled it in two of my fluted pastry tins so it got a nice pattern around the edges which was later hardly seen.

I then baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes and they were more golden than they should have been - I guess I should have pulled them out a little earlier.

I liked mine really crisp but they were buttery and soft inside and I cut them into triangles and they were perfect with my morning cuppa and a magazine on a lazy Sunday morning...

Crepes, a regular on my breakfast table

A little time back I did a post on Crepes (click, for recipe), a great simple dish to put together whether you want a chic dessert or want to given in to a special craving or want to cook something special for your loved one. I didn't seem to get pics on my camera...so they are some on my phone that I haven't been able to transfer yet! But, these seem to have been a regular on my table nowadays. I like them with fruit and honey and fruit of the season as usual is "Strawberry" - am sooo sure you are tired of being snowed down in a pile of strawberries from my blog but they seem to have become my weakness (umm, after Chocolate, ofcourse!).

I would have loved to drizzle this with some icing sugar and chocolate sauce and added a hint of strawberry jam inside the crepes to sweeten the slightly tart strawberries but as you see I have decided to keep it simple... no maple syrup also - only Honey!

Now, a little while back I chanced upon a brilliant blog called What's For Lunch Honey and I have been wanting to participate in the Monthly Mingle forever... it is a great event and gets hosted by a different blogger each time! It helps you meet new bloggers and brings to you a variety of new recipes to feast your eyes on. This month's mingle is being hosted by Maison Cupcake and this blog is a must visit too. Now, when I looked at the Think Pink theme - I was left wondering about what is something that I haven't already created with strawberries this month and I had something like a writer's block and couldn't think of something very innovative. Also, my son seemed to be in a mood of pancakes and I have been trying to be on a so called health trip so thought about re-creating these crepes and they made a perfect Sunday brunch!

Oat Scones with Strawberries

The heat has set in and the temperatures are soaring in Bombay and Delhi both. Feel like eating something sweet but light and dreamy without the calories (ofcourse!) 'coz summer clothes do not hide pounds! I saw an Oats and Maple Syrup scones recipe on the SmittenKitchen page and ever since then I haven't been able to think about baking anything else... there is something about healthy food that has me obsessed but the 160gms of butter used in this recipe doesn't make it very healthy! Ever since I have been a child hooked on to Enid Blyton books - I have always dreamed of munching on scones for tea like the Secret Seven or Famous Five. When I went to London with my parents I kept looking for scones. Little did I know that one day I could actually be able to bake them in my kitchen and without much running around with simple ingredients on hand. If you have ever read Nigella's recipes, she always like to use cream of tartar to add an extra lightness to her scones but for the life of me I have no idea about how to get my hands on it in Gurgaon!

Anyways, I was hooked on to the idea of baking the scones but was almost out of maple sugar and didn't want it too sweet so googled a few recipes and came across one very nice one from www.marthastewart.com - a mish mash of both recipes is what I am going to present here and it tastes mighty good except my lil toddler didn't seem to like it (Not sweet enough, Mom!). With the hubby away - I have about 8-9 scones to eat my way through and am enjoying each and every bite I must say :)!!!!!

I had this done and in the oven in about 15 minutes and it was great way to start the day knowing that the hubby is away for the week. I am hoping they last in the fridge and don't taste too stale tomorrow but I have been warned...

You can serve these with clotted cream, whipped cream, jam or butter or have as is with just a sprinkling of powdered sugar. How do you like your scones?????

Ingredients:
13/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oats
1 heaped tablespoon baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon caster sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup cold butter cut into cubes

Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mix the dry ingredients together. Now you can add the butter to the dry mixture and rub it with your hands till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs or you can pulse it together - apparently both work equally well.
Then add the milk to this mixture and work it together into a dough softly.

Now, I divided the dough into two equal halves and brought it together. In one 1/2 of the dough I added some chopped strawberries that brought a lovely sweet and tart flavor to the scones. The other ones I left as is.

You can be fussy and cut it out with a a round pastry cutter or shape the dough into a large rectangle or square and then just cut it into traingles... that worked for me! Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes after giving the tops of the scones a quick wash of milk, cream or egg whites.

I must say with a cup of coffee, my breakfast was divine. And with a sprinkle of icing sugar and some jam it was a lovely after lunch treat!

Now I am sending my entry to the Oats Recipe Event - though my scones are not 100% oats - you can look up the event at http://myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/03/oats-recipes.html

Am back...

As promised I am back with my pictures...

The first one I have updated is the Gondh and Atta Ladoos, especially for my users who are not Indians who may have never seen what is a ladoo - hope you decide to try it. The process is laborious but really worth it.

I shall try uploading more pics over the weekend... and the one above is one of my cakes that didn't ice and photograph well but it was over by morning so all the night pics don't look that great!

Vegetables cooked with spices...

I wanted to give my readers visiting me from different countries a taste of what it is to eat vegetables in India. Vegetables, usually don't just form a "side" but are part of the main dishes in India. So, instead of a soup, salad or sandwich an average Indian may be eating Indian flatbread (roti / parantha) and a curry or lentils with a vegetable for a meal.

I think lentils are pretty much easy to make and you have some darned good recipes out there on allrecipes.com, nigella.com (She even does chick peas really well...) but I feel that no one seems to do vegetables the Indian way! Now, I must warn you that each state (over 20) have their unique style and each household has their unique style.. so I will give you a few basic recipes from my "Mom's Kitchen" and if you like it, I will give you some more. Again, I am sorry, pictures will have to follow later as I am blogging from my Mom's place and don't have access to my pictures... but I promise some this weekend.

Checklist for cooking any Vegetable Indian Style (just a few things you should have on hand when starting out)
1.  A large wok or deep pan (non-stick)
2. Onions - I prefer Red but White would do to
3. Tomatoes
4. Potatoes
5. Ginger
6. Garlic
7. Cumin Seeds (if you have it great... otherwise just cook those veggies any way)
8. Tumeric Powder (Yellow color - has antiseptic properties and gives a nice warm color to the veggies)
9. Red Chilli Powder or Paprika
10. Coriander Powder - if you can lay your hands on it otherwise no worries
11. Salt - any kind you have :)
12. The veggies we usually cook - Okra or Lady Fingers, Bottle Gourd, French Beans, Cauliflower, Brinjal or Eggplant, Green Bell Peppers

Recipe 1:


Cauliflower and Potatoes
You will need  1 Onion chopped thin and fine, 1 Potato chopped into about 8-10 pieces and 1 small cauliflower chopped into medium sized pieces (about the same size pieces as the potato but the size of the cauliflower should be about 2-3times that of the cauliflower ), 2 pods of garlic chopped finely and the same amount of ginger and spices

Steps:
1. Add about 1 tablespoon of oil in the wok or pan and add the cumin seeds if you have and let them splutter else start from Step 2

2. Add the finely chopped ginger and garlic to the oil and saute for about 30 seconds. Add the thinly sliced onion to this and coat the oil evenly around this. Now sprinkle a little bit of salt on this - it helps bring out the water in the onions and they want burn easily, instead they will soften.

3. Add the potatoes (you can use slightly boiled potatoes to save time) into the wok after the onions are slightly brown. Add salt (as required), 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp paprika, 2 tsp coriander powder and mix it well. Now add 1 tablespoon water and cover the wok. Keep stirring to make sure this doesn't burn.

4. After about 5 minutes, add the chopped cauliflower florets and mix well. Add a little water (2-3 tablespoon) if your vegetables are sticking to the bottom of the pan and cover the vegetables so they can cook in their own steam. Once the potatoes and cauliflower have softened and can be broken easily with a butter knive - they are ready to be served. Make sure you dry the water in the vegetable.

5. Serve as a side garnished with coriander or can be eaten in a panini with onions and tomatoes.

Note: If you want to shorten the process, you can always steam the cauliflower and use slightly boiled potatoes (both these should take only a couple of minutes in the microwave).

Use spices that you are comfortable with and have tasted before.

You could easily substitute the coriander powder for oregano - but then the Indian flavor would not be found in the dish. You can also use a bit of "garam masala" powder or 1 tsp of curry powder if that is more easily available.

In this recipe you can substitute cauliflower for any green beans (chopped finely), small eggplants (quartered), green leafy vegetables like spinach (chopped finely and boiled), fenugreek leaves, green bell peppers (chopped into similar size pieces as the potato) or just the potato itself. The method will remain exactly the same.

Recipe 2:

Okra or Lady's Fingers

When I first went to the US to study I had no idea that Ladyfingers are long thin biscuits used to make tiramisu and I kept wondering how could okra taste soo yummy in a tiramisu till I discovered the real secret ;)! Outside of the US, Okra is commonly known as Lady's fingers or Bhindi and it is one of my favorite vegetables. It is time consuming to cut and I would often use the frozen variety when putting together a meal in a hurry.

You will need about 1 pound okra - washed and chopped into small pieces. 1 large onion or 2 medium sized onions thinly sliced. Spices as required.

Steps:

1. In a large wok  add 2-3 tablespoons of oil (any oil will do). Add cumin seeds if you have them or skip to step 2.

2. Add the onions and sprinkle with a little salt and saute.

3. When the onions are soft add the chopped okra. Add salt, turmeric, paprika and coriander powder. Stir well and cover.

4. This vegetable tends to stick to the bottom of the work easily - so you have to keep stirring it. If it is burning - add 1-2 tablespoon more oil (yeah it's not as healthy as the other vegetables)

5. You cannot add water to this recipe. Keep stirring till okra is cooked (softened) and serve as a side or main dish with tortillas or Indian flat bread.

Note:

They are other ways to cook okra which is much easier and tastier but uses up a lot of oil is - Okra Fry

Cut the Okra lengthwise into pieces about half the size of your finger. Add turmeric and paprika to this and mix well. Now heat oil in a work and fry the okra in batches. After it is deep fried - remove, add salt, mix well and enjoy!

I hope this tempts you to try a new side for your dinner table or next party and if not you can ask me any amount of questions about it before you decide to experiment! These are must haves for any vegetarian as it gives a new twist to the vegetables!

For my Indian readers.. I am sure your mom's have different ways of making the same recipes and would love to hear about any innovative techniques they use while cooking to save time!