Mushroom Cheese Pesto Bread

This one is completely inspired by Mrs.Jambu's "mushroom bread" from her 7th workshop series that I attended at Singapore's Ulu Pandan CC last Friday 22 Feb 2013.

It was modified to include some homemade pista pesto from garden basil I had sitting in the freezer, some Coon cheese I wanted to put to use and yes a healthier amount of mushroom and onion than was in the original recipe while avoiding the Campbell soup (which I figured was essentially for flavour). Also I decided to use plain old wheat germ for graininess and texture and not resort to buying a whole packet of special 5 grain hot cereal (Bob's Mill from Cold Storage Jelita).

The bread flour I use is local Prima (this time) or BakeKing and most of my baking supplies come straight from Phoon Huat, Holland Village.

So here goes

Starter:
50 g bread flour
1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
4 tbsp water

Mix and keep at room temperature (covered and in sunshine) for 1-2hr. The starter should be bubbly if your yeast is active and the temperature near optimal.

Bread mix
500 g bread flour
20 g wheat germ
6 g instant dry yeast
15 g sugar
5 g salt (optional especially if cheese is processed and salty)
175 g mushroom-onion-cheese-pesto mix.
(Stirfried finely chopped button mushrooms with red onions and when cooked/semidry folded in crumbled cheese and a few spoons of pesto).
100 ml water (guideline)
40 g melted butter, unsalted

Mix the starter into the bread mix without including the mushroom-onion-cheese-pesto mix.
Add more or less water than the 100m as needed and machine (Kitchen Aid) or hand knead the dough to get a slightly loose and easy texture.
Finally fold in the mushroom mix.
Cover the finished dough in the bowl and allow it to rise for at least 30 min till increase in size is evident (short of double the original volume).
Then shape (2 loaves or buns of 60-80g) and allow to proof on a greased baking tray/pan for anther 30-45 min.
Bake centrally positioned in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for 30-45 min untill golden brown.
Switch of oven, remove and cool untill you pry out the bread from it's tray/pan
Enjoy as is or as an accompaniment with soup, buttered preferably

Beastly Breads

In October 2011 I embarked on a journey to learn how to bake bread. The calling had been loud and clear for a few months preceding. I was starved of access to 'artisan' breads in Singapore and just didn't have an alternative to rice as main course for weekend night meals with friends at home. When guest numbers were few,  Ro Ro our angelic helper would muster up chappatis on the go but if numbers went beyond 4-6 we were literally stuck. Sometimes we'd buy baguettes from the speciality bakeries and build continental meal plans around them...but the honest truth was I just wanted some good old, healthy, country loafs to go along with Indian curries as well as soups and have the assurance that it was homebaked, fresh, whole grain as far as possible and preservative free (to the extent one can avoid chemicals in these times).

True to the Gandhian saying "Find purpose and the means shall follow",  Mrs.Manomani Jambu arrived on the scene. I walked into Buona Vista Community Centre (CC) quite by chance and signed up for a bread making workshop (4 sessions) that happened to be starting the following week. My first lesson and I was clearly sold. What also helped was that the classes began at 7:30pm so I could slip away like a mouse post an early dinner even while Mr. Spouse was busy on a conference call. If I hadn't gobbled up the samples I'd arrive back with tasty warm bites for all at home...yes hungry Kona included.

Mrs.Jambu was soon re-baptized to Ms.Moneypenny (M for short)  by me and by the time my mother arrived into Singapore in January 2012, she had another moniker assigned to her lovingly so viz: Mary Poppins...yes that one came from Mom.  The bond between M and me has developed much like bread and butter...she now refers to me as "sayang" and since my mother passed away in July 2012 has been a foster Singaporean mother of types.

More on M & M later, for now lets get to some basics with bread. Am not an expert just a budding amateur so would recommend a few reads before you get started with a recipe off the internet or then any of mine for the latter are experiments of the "luck by chance" types so if they work out for you that's great...if you however fail just don't blame it on Big Green Dot!

(1) First and foremost get to know your flours
http://allrecipes.com/howto/all-about-flour/

(2) Then a pulse of the spectrum of whole grains, especially the anatomy of wheat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_grain

(3) Finally just get going hands-on...incorporating locally available brands of flour. Here's a website that's inspiring me to replicate and innovate, viz: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/

Am also of the humble opinion that if you're not a natural baker and haven't exactly watched or helped make bread, you opt for a few virtual video lessons or better still real life ones for starters, textures and the feel for gluten is not something that can come by reading my blog!:)

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Woke up this morning to a pleasant surprise....yes an e-mail with a snazzy contribution from my 10 year old niece Little Miss T (as named by my husband Jawahar) or then Star Light (literal translation of her name) officially known as Tara Noor Joshi.


Its so delightful to see my dear sister's daughter with a little bit of herself (she's so proper), a little bit of her mother Sarita (warm with empathy), a little bit of her Nani i.e.grandmother viz: Ratna Khemani (sense of colour and design) and a little bit of me (very "Mum helpful" plus her "scrubbing the corners tendency":))


Jawahar and me love her as does everyone in the family for her giggles and hugs, storytelling and dress sense.


What's also lovely to recognize in Tara is her already evident love for creative cooking...and that we think is possibly a gene from the Khemani side of the family:)


Tara attended this "From Farm to Table" Little Chef course last summer at Cincinnati where she resides and had so much to share with the family when we caught up over her "munj" (thread ceremony) trip last July to India.


I was as excited as her to hear the works, especially since Green Dots (the "go green", "science with fun" outfit I've started nearly 2 years ago) runs a Little Lavoisier programme.


This incidentally is a hands-on workshop comprising 8 sessions that deals with health and nutrition through the medium of cooking with food science experiments thrown in so that every participant can recognize they have a laboratory right at home in their kitchen! I'm always on the lookout for internationally appealing vegetarian recipes that map to the food pyramid so that subsequent runs retain the essence of the workshop format...yet need not have the same recipes!


Here's Tara's first contribution (from the food camp "From Farm to Table") for Food Crossings which I think should map well to the "Protein" session of Little Lavoisier.


Thank you Miss T and keep them coming!

Ingredients
1. 1 small lemon, juiced
2. 2 cups of garbonzo beans, drained (also known as chickpeas or then "chole" in hindi...the ones without skins)
3. 1/2 cup roasted red peppers, drained and chopped (that's red capsicum or bell peppers)
4. 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
5. 2 tbsp of tahini (that's a sesame paste, also easy to put together at home)
6. 1-1/2 tablespoons water
7. 1 tbsp olive oil
8. 1 tbsp cumin (jeera)
9. 1/2 tsp salt
10. 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Method
Combine all the ingredients in the food processor untill smooth

Serve with fresh vegetables and/or pita chips. Yum!

Her masi (that's aunt in hindi and your's truly) is planning to make this hummus very soon...jar it under a layer of olive oil and use it as a bread spread (while reducing her intake of butter & peanut butter!)


Also discovered a nice variant of this recipe with vinegars (that might improve its shelf life) and some tomato paste (wonder if one will be able to taste it's presence)


See http://middleeasterncuisine.suite101.com/article.cfm/mouth-watering-roasted-red-pepper-hummus

Soyabean & Chana Dal Biryani

Sunday evening meals over the weekly TV movie back in India (Pune) during our childhood years (1980s) were special in so many ways.

Mum would dish out these fabulous, self-conceptualized meals that tasted out of this world and have left memories to last our lifetimes.

Like her they were wholesome, colourful and full of surprises...and yes they were oft one dish or rather one plate/bowl meals...so made TV style dining very comfortable indeed.

Who the heck could have thought of a combination of soyabean granules...bhuna hua like keema (minced meat) with adrak (ginger), lasoon (garlic), pyaaz (onion) interlaced with basmati rice and sukha (dry) yet lightly moist channa dal, with crispy potatoes underneath?...only my creative Mum!

We'd have a generous helping of this with a tamatar (tomato)-kakdi (cucumber) raita and cleverly try to get the most of the crispy, round sliced potatoes at the bottom of the flat pan.

Yes...sometimes we would cheat and scoop out the potatoes spreading well underneath our share of rice and dissappoint the next family member who'd come around for a second helping only to realize...hey I have no potatoes beneath my rice!

Sometimes the crispy potato base of the biryani would also include lambe (long), crispy fried onions.

Periodically Mum would give a twist to the biryani with a thickish, tangy tomato chutney layered in between the other layers of the biryani (typically above the chana dal & rice layer) or then as part of the garnish.

Don't have a picture of this fabulous vegetarian biryani at the moment...but when Mum's with me next month we'll recreate this special, family recipe together once again and put out a snazzy picture as well.

Meanwhile here's the recipe for those already bee-lining:).

The quantities mentioned feed a family (4 adults, 2 kids) comfortably.

Do try and think of the cooking experience beforehand in a modular manner (sorry, that's my scientific mind speaking!)

(A) Rice as the base (white)

(B) Soyabean as the proteinaceous add-on (brown) layered in between

(C) Chana dal as the complimentary proteinaceous component (yellow)...the 3rd layering component

(D) Potatoes at the bottom.
Know its another carbohydrate, but don't ever skip this special element that makes the biryani worth digging down to!

(E) Crispy fried onions and tangy tomato chutney (red) as garnish...either or both.

Ingredients:

(A) 3 cups basmati rice

(B) 1. 100 g (1.5 cups) dry soyabean granules

2. Approx. 1-1.5 cup low fat milk

3. 1 cup finely chopped red onions

4. 1 cup finely chopped tomatoes

5. Grated ginger (less than 1tsp) to taste

6. Grated (or minced) garlic to taste (about the same as the ginger)

7. Turmeric (a pinch)

8. Salt (to taste)

9. Vegetable cooking oil (approx. 2tbsp)
10. Garam masala powder (home-made or any good brand)

(C) 1 cup chana dal (yellow, split, without skin...same one as used for puranpolis & dal-pakwan!)

(D) 3-4 medium potatoes

(E) 1. 4 onions

2. 4-6 tomates

3. 6-8 cloves garlic

4. Salt to taste

5. Pinch of sugar

6. Turmeric (optional)
7. Green chillies (chopped fine) or red chilli powder (to taste)

Method:

(A) Rice...as for any good biryani

• Cook the rice "al dente" pasta style i.e. 80% done.
• To do this, take an oversized vessel (a non-stick pot or large pan works fine).
• Add a dash of oil (approx. 2-3tsp) to the hot pan. Let the oil heat up.
• Add in the washed rice and mildly stir the raw rice into the oil (almost as if stir-frying) so that the grains are "oil coated" (invisible to the eye).
• Pour in 3x water.
• Add a pinch of salt and let the rice boil in the water open on a full flame untill cooked 'al dente'.
• At this stage I typically pour out the excess water through a large strainer and wash my rice under a cold/room temperature tap.
• To arrest the rice from cooking further, I oft toss in a few ice cubes into the rice while in the strainer.
• Spread the rice in a large platter/thali and allow to rest/cool and stay "grainy".

(B) Soya...kheema (minced meat) style

• Rinse the soya granules in water.
• Soak for approx.2-3hr in milk till just covered (like for sago or sabudana). They should swell at the end of the soaking process and there should be no excess milk and/or water around them.
• Take a thick bottomed pan. Add the oil in when hot.
• Fry the finely chopped onions on an open flame untill pink.
• Now add the softened soya granules, presoaked in milk. Keep frying and frying till nice and brown.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, salt and turmeric. Continue sauteing untill the tomatoes are integrated into the onions & soya granules. When nearly done introduce the grated ginger and garlic to blend in.

Mum recognized that frying the ginger and garlic with the onions tends to render a lovely aroma during the prep process but ironically the ginger-garlic flavours vanish thereafter, so this tip of adding much lesser ginger and garlic at the near final stage is really useful and can be adapted to other dishes that call for ginger/garlic as well.

As for the milk and its role, Mom figured the soya got a khoya like, mughlai style feel when soaked and cooked this way!

(C) Chana dal...just plain and well done without being mushy

• Soak the chana dal in water overnight (8hr typically)

Mum recommends this for all lentils (dals). If in haste 4 hours might do.

• Add enough water (typically 1.5-2x in a pressure cooker or 3x in an open pot) to cook the chana dal with the namak (salt), haldi (turmeric) and a dash of oil (to prevent the grains from sticking to each other).
• When the dal is cooked (tender to touch...not overdone though...typically 1 whistle in a pressure cooker with 10-15min on low flame thereafter), drain out the excess water if any.

Don't discard the "dal water (pani)"...its great for a shorba, soup or amti (Maharashtrian style rasam).

• Spread out the dal in a thali (platter) so that it remains "khula" (grains *don't* stick to to each other).

(D) Potatoes...for the bottom style gratin

• Just cut them into round slices (if you like on a slant)...neither too thick (will remain raw), nor too thin (will char), say 1/2 cm in width and keep them immersed in salted or plain water untill use. This way they won't air-oxidise.

(E) Garnish

• Chop onions fine, fry well in oil till crisp. If brave - deep fry and drain.
• Make tomato chutney with or without onions but definitely with plenty of chopped garlic, salt and a pinch of neutralizing sugar in a frying pan the easiest way possible viz: fry the onions, add the garlic just before they're done to brown, then the tomatoes and finally the salt. Let all the water dry out as the tomatoes cook in. If you like you can add some chopped green chillies or red chilli powder to taste.

Biryani Assembly:

• To a thick bottomed, flat but reasonably deep pan add a little vegetable oil to grease the bottom of the pan well
• Sprinkle salt all along the bottom.
• Layer the potatoes in a single layer, partially overlapping if you like.
• Now layer the rice-soya kheema-rice-chana dal and so on till there's no more left.
• Mom would typically have 2 sets of layers.
• Over the rice layer atop the chana dal layer, powder sprinkle good quality garam masala powder
• Keep the pan on a slow flame with a lid on, allowing for little to no steam to escape.
• Allow the rice to finish cooking and the potatoes to get crisp at the bottom.
• The garama masala smells permeates through the rice layers upwards and downwards, giving this delectable vegetarian biryani a divine aroma

Then garnish with dollops of tomato chutney and fried onion crispies

If you're gutsy, turn over the entire biryani 180 degree in one swift move so that your crisp potatoes are facing upwards. Alternately scoop out servings this way on to everyone's plate.

Enjoy with a raita of choice...nothing like a kakdi-tamatar one!

The biryani keeps well in the fridge for a next day repeat.

One can also prepare the soya and the chana dal components a day earlier...maybe even freeze the former in for another batch.

Sol Kadi...Curry for the Soul

Back from a fabulous monsoon wedding at Goa this July...I tried the sol kadi at every place I could in the brief stay, viz. Mum's Kitchen and Taj Exotica.

Regrettfully they didn't quite get it home-style right!

And so I decided to reverse engineer the recipe based on my recall by taste and appearance of what I've had at our friends Bal & Shailaja Pangam's place.

Guess what...it lucked out perfect...or then so was endorsed by our Maharashtrian guests (Pendses) who got to have this as an apertif in wine glasses pre-lunch last weekend:)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 4-6 pieces wet kokum

2. 1 fresh coconut (1 medium-large, finely grated)

3. Approx. 800ml drinking water

4. A pinch of hing/asafoetida

5. 1 clove of garlic (finely grated through a cheese grater)

6.1/2 cm of ginger (also finely grated or pounded)

7. Salt to taste

8. 4-6 green chillies (slit lengthwise)

9. Handful of fresh coriander leaves finely chopped

10. Pinch of sugar (optional)

11. 1 drop of Cochineal (crimson red) food colour

This is optional should the kokum be dry and not impart the final, desired pinkish colour

Method:

1. Blend the grated coconut with half the water in a food processor or immersion style blender.

Strain through a fine sieve or muslin cloth.

2. Add half the remainder of the water to the extracted coconut. Repeat the first step and pool the extracts.

The coconut extract is really dilute, looks murky white and quite like zero fat milk!

3. Extract the kokum for its sourness and colour in the remaining water made hot (not warm, not boiling). With fresh kokum this requires typically no more than 30min of immersion.

4. Mix the cooled (room temperature), strained kokum extract with the fresh coconut extract.

5. Add in the asafoetida, garlic, ginger, chillies, salt and sugar (optional) and food colouring (if required) at this stage. Adjust these ingredients to get a blend that suits the palate

6. Mix well. Drop in the chopped coriander leaves and chill for 2-3hr before serving.

While the sol kadi is apparently, traditionally had with steamed white rice and fried fish (pomfret) its just great by itself...literally a curry in a glass that's good for the soul!