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Showing posts with label Fresh from the oven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fresh from the oven. Show all posts

Healthy Baking : Savoury Rosemary Coconut Cookies


After this healthy Ragi-Ginger cookie, I've been wanting to try out a savoury version using my favourite herb, rosemary. Rosemary features in one of my all time favourite cookies, the Rosemary Shortbread, but that's very heavy on butter. This is my attempt to feature rosemary in a healthier cookie. I've used black pepper and lemon zest to give a flavour boost. Desiccated coconut along with rice flour gives these a nice light texture. These are perfect for those who are trying to avoid sugar, or as holiday gifts for people who don't have a sweet tooth, or simply because you are fed up of too much sugar in the holiday season. Try this healthy cookie and let me know how you find it!





Recipe for Savoury Rosemary Coconut Cookies
Makes 24
Time taken - Under 30 minutes


Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup ragi flour
1/4 cup rice flour
2 tbsp milk powder
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
Zest of one lemon
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
3-4 tbsp cold milk
1 tbsp crystal sugar

Method
  1. Preheat the oven at 180° C.
  2. Keep a baking tray ready, lined with silicone mat or a greased tin foil or parchment paper.
  3. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except butter and milk, until well combined.
  4. Add the butter pieces and with finger tips rub the mixture together until it feels like bread crumbs
  5. Add milk 1 tbsp at a time and knead gently till it comes together like a dough. 
  6. Divide into 24 equal balls, rolling each between lightly greased palms.
  7. Lightly press into a disc and place on the lined baking tray, leaving some space between each disc so that there's place for cookie to expand.
  8. Sprinkle a few crystals of sugar on top of each cookie. This is optional. You could stick a rosemary leaflet on each cookie instead.
  9. Bake for 12 mins or until the tops turn lightly golden. Remove on a wire rack and cool. The cookies will crisp up on cooling. Save in airtight container.
You can substitute rosemary with fresh or dried thyme for a different flavour.


Healthy Baking : Savoury Rosemary Coconut Cookies

Posted by admin


After this healthy Ragi-Ginger cookie, I've been wanting to try out a savoury version using my favourite herb, rosemary. Rosemary features in one of my all time favourite cookies, the Rosemary Shortbread, but that's very heavy on butter. This is my attempt to feature rosemary in a healthier cookie. I've used black pepper and lemon zest to give a flavour boost. Desiccated coconut along with rice flour gives these a nice light texture. These are perfect for those who are trying to avoid sugar, or as holiday gifts for people who don't have a sweet tooth, or simply because you are fed up of too much sugar in the holiday season. Try this healthy cookie and let me know how you find it!





Recipe for Savoury Rosemary Coconut Cookies
Makes 24
Time taken - Under 30 minutes


Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup ragi flour
1/4 cup rice flour
2 tbsp milk powder
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp ground black pepper
Zest of one lemon
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
3-4 tbsp cold milk
1 tbsp crystal sugar

Method
  1. Preheat the oven at 180° C.
  2. Keep a baking tray ready, lined with silicone mat or a greased tin foil or parchment paper.
  3. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients except butter and milk, until well combined.
  4. Add the butter pieces and with finger tips rub the mixture together until it feels like bread crumbs
  5. Add milk 1 tbsp at a time and knead gently till it comes together like a dough. 
  6. Divide into 24 equal balls, rolling each between lightly greased palms.
  7. Lightly press into a disc and place on the lined baking tray, leaving some space between each disc so that there's place for cookie to expand.
  8. Sprinkle a few crystals of sugar on top of each cookie. This is optional. You could stick a rosemary leaflet on each cookie instead.
  9. Bake for 12 mins or until the tops turn lightly golden. Remove on a wire rack and cool. The cookies will crisp up on cooling. Save in airtight container.
You can substitute rosemary with fresh or dried thyme for a different flavour.


Lemon Blueberry Muffins - with the kid in the kitchen

Saffron Trail Kitchen Update
The Zesty Salads class of 5th October was much fun (pictures). The registrations for the class of 19th October are closed now. There's a weekday class on 23rd October morning with a few seats open. Please follow the Saffron Trail Facebook page for all updates on upcoming classes and share this with your friends in Whitefield & rest of Bangalore who may be interested.



The two week holidays are back and it's that time of the year when I struggle to find ways to interest my pre-schooler boy outside of the iPad or DVDs. Last afternoon, it was baking time. I pulled out the Muffins Bible from the bookshelf, read out the recipe for Blueberry muffins to the son, made him wear his spiderman apron, spread newspapers on the kitchen table and we were all set to bake together. He promptly recruited my househelp as the sous chef's sous chef, i mean, his sous chef. We measured out the dry ingredients, and the boy threatened to stir it with so much enthusiasm that I thought there would be more flour outside the bowl than inside it. When it was time to crack the eggs, he wanted to do it all by himself, breaking each of them like coconuts on the tines of the fork. My househelp's heart was in her mouth, in the fear that how much clean up we'd have to do if he broke the eggs on the floor. Thankfully, it wasn't that much of a disaster. We managed to fill up the muffin cups and when I turned around to put it in the preheated oven, guess what I see? When my attention had turned elsewhere for a nanosecond, he had cranked up oven temperature to 250C, changed the oven setting to 'grill' - one crazy sous chef indeed. After some rectifications, the muffin tin finally went inside and then he sat almost burning his nose by touching it to the oven glass, to wait for them to be ready.



Finally when it was out, he didn't mind his tongue getting burnt but he had to taste them immediately. This morning, I asked him if he could recall how we made the muffins, this is what he drew. This made me a happy mom :)




Lemon & Blueberry Muffins
Makes 15 medium sized muffins






Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil or 1/2 cup oil + 1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup milk (at room temperature)
Zest of two lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup blueberries* (frozen or fresh)

Directions
Preheat the oven at 190°C.
In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and mix well with a fork or a whisk.
Whisk the oil / butter, vanilla extract, eggs and milk in another bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, give it a quick whisk and add this to the big bowl of dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the blueberries.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners or grease them well with butter.
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin holes. If there's any extra, make in the next batch, or bake a baby cake with left over batter.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Shopping Guide
I used frozen blueberries that goes by the brand Delishh, found in the freezer section of Auchan Supermarket (Gopalan Mall), KR Puram. Rs.215 for 200 grams, they were of reasonably good size and freshness. This freeezer section also stocked frozen raspberries and blackberries. 


My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com

Lemon Blueberry Muffins - with the kid in the kitchen

Posted by admin

Saffron Trail Kitchen Update
The Zesty Salads class of 5th October was much fun (pictures). The registrations for the class of 19th October are closed now. There's a weekday class on 23rd October morning with a few seats open. Please follow the Saffron Trail Facebook page for all updates on upcoming classes and share this with your friends in Whitefield & rest of Bangalore who may be interested.



The two week holidays are back and it's that time of the year when I struggle to find ways to interest my pre-schooler boy outside of the iPad or DVDs. Last afternoon, it was baking time. I pulled out the Muffins Bible from the bookshelf, read out the recipe for Blueberry muffins to the son, made him wear his spiderman apron, spread newspapers on the kitchen table and we were all set to bake together. He promptly recruited my househelp as the sous chef's sous chef, i mean, his sous chef. We measured out the dry ingredients, and the boy threatened to stir it with so much enthusiasm that I thought there would be more flour outside the bowl than inside it. When it was time to crack the eggs, he wanted to do it all by himself, breaking each of them like coconuts on the tines of the fork. My househelp's heart was in her mouth, in the fear that how much clean up we'd have to do if he broke the eggs on the floor. Thankfully, it wasn't that much of a disaster. We managed to fill up the muffin cups and when I turned around to put it in the preheated oven, guess what I see? When my attention had turned elsewhere for a nanosecond, he had cranked up oven temperature to 250C, changed the oven setting to 'grill' - one crazy sous chef indeed. After some rectifications, the muffin tin finally went inside and then he sat almost burning his nose by touching it to the oven glass, to wait for them to be ready.



Finally when it was out, he didn't mind his tongue getting burnt but he had to taste them immediately. This morning, I asked him if he could recall how we made the muffins, this is what he drew. This made me a happy mom :)




Lemon & Blueberry Muffins
Makes 15 medium sized muffins






Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil or 1/2 cup oil + 1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup milk (at room temperature)
Zest of two lemons
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup blueberries* (frozen or fresh)

Directions
Preheat the oven at 190°C.
In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and mix well with a fork or a whisk.
Whisk the oil / butter, vanilla extract, eggs and milk in another bowl. Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, give it a quick whisk and add this to the big bowl of dry ingredients.
Gently fold in the blueberries.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper liners or grease them well with butter.
Divide the batter between the 12 muffin holes. If there's any extra, make in the next batch, or bake a baby cake with left over batter.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.

Shopping Guide
I used frozen blueberries that goes by the brand Delishh, found in the freezer section of Auchan Supermarket (Gopalan Mall), KR Puram. Rs.215 for 200 grams, they were of reasonably good size and freshness. This freeezer section also stocked frozen raspberries and blackberries. 


My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com

Easy Eggless Choco-Vanilla Cookies


"If I hear "I'm hungry" one more time, I'm going to check myself into a nearby hotel and switch off my mobile phone!"
 That's me telling my four year old, who tells me he's hungry every 15 minutes and the minute I rustle up something, he conveniently forgets about his hunger and runs off to rebuild a Lego castle for the 500th time. But yesterday, I went out for a beautiful wine evening at The Sheraton #socialhour- it's when people at Sheraton Hotels around the world come together for a toast at the decided time. What's more, the wine served at each hotel across the world is from the same winery, for that week. After multiple cabernet sauvignons & rieslings, a good night's sleep at my cousin's place & breakfast with a wonderful friend at the legendary Veena Stores, I'd had enough of me time and couldn't wait to get back home to my mischief monger boy. So today, when he said "I want cookies, mummy" - my guilt pushed me faster than a runaway train to start the oven and then think of something to bake on the spur of the moment.


It started with creaming some butter & sugar, added flour and one thing led to the other. I ended up with these oh-so-cute brown & cream cookies. When I posted the pics on Twitter & Saffrontrail FB page, I was goaded into doing this quick post on how I made them. I'm sorry I'm unable to provide very exact measurements, I hope it's very close to the quantities I've used. Anyway cookies aren't as unforgiving as cakes, so they should turn out okay! They only take 20 minutes, and I promise it will make your child (or the inner child in you) smile :-)


Recipe for Half & Half Cookies
Takes under 30 minutes
Roughly 30 cookies of ~ 2" diameter

Ingredients
4 heaped tbsp soft unsalted butter (if salted, reduce the salt by a pinch)
1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 tsp sea salt - pulsed in mixer for few seconds
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
few tsp cold water 
1-2 tsp cold milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven at 180 C.
  2. Line a big baking tray with tin foil or parchment.
  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar-salt mix with a spoon for 2 minutes, adding in the vanilla extract, until well combined.
  4. Sift the flours and baking powder together on a sheet of paper or mix it with a fork in a bowl and add it to the creamed mix.
  5. Mix well until it forms a dough, adding 1-2 tsp of cold water or milk to bind, if required.
  6. Divide roughly in half. Keep one half aside. To the other half, add the cocoa powder, a few drops of cold milk and knead gently to make a smooth but stiff dough (or you cant slice them).
  7. Now you'll have two rounds of dough, one white and one brown.
  8. Divide each into two logs, to get two white logs and two brown logs.
  9. Join one white log and one choco log and roll into a log on a clean smooth surface. It's not necessary, that the white and brown parts are exactly half and half, don't stress out over this-just make sure each log as some white and some brown.
  10. At this stage you could refrigerate for 15 mins or so and then slice into 1.5 cm thick slices or go ahead without chilling.
  11. Place each slice on the baking tray leaving some space between each cookie.
  12. Bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes, until the white parts start turning golden. At this point they will still be very soft, so don't overbake. They will crisp up as they cool
  13. For chewy cookies, remove them a little earlier.

Note
You can bake as many as you want at a time and freeze the remaining logs / slices to bake as and when required. You dont need to thaw the dough. Slice frozen dough and bake as it is in a preheated oven-adding 1-2 minutes extra for fresh cookies on demand :)

What people who tried this have to say!



Easy Eggless Choco-Vanilla Cookies

Posted by admin


"If I hear "I'm hungry" one more time, I'm going to check myself into a nearby hotel and switch off my mobile phone!"
 That's me telling my four year old, who tells me he's hungry every 15 minutes and the minute I rustle up something, he conveniently forgets about his hunger and runs off to rebuild a Lego castle for the 500th time. But yesterday, I went out for a beautiful wine evening at The Sheraton #socialhour- it's when people at Sheraton Hotels around the world come together for a toast at the decided time. What's more, the wine served at each hotel across the world is from the same winery, for that week. After multiple cabernet sauvignons & rieslings, a good night's sleep at my cousin's place & breakfast with a wonderful friend at the legendary Veena Stores, I'd had enough of me time and couldn't wait to get back home to my mischief monger boy. So today, when he said "I want cookies, mummy" - my guilt pushed me faster than a runaway train to start the oven and then think of something to bake on the spur of the moment.


It started with creaming some butter & sugar, added flour and one thing led to the other. I ended up with these oh-so-cute brown & cream cookies. When I posted the pics on Twitter & Saffrontrail FB page, I was goaded into doing this quick post on how I made them. I'm sorry I'm unable to provide very exact measurements, I hope it's very close to the quantities I've used. Anyway cookies aren't as unforgiving as cakes, so they should turn out okay! They only take 20 minutes, and I promise it will make your child (or the inner child in you) smile :-)


Recipe for Half & Half Cookies
Takes under 30 minutes
Roughly 30 cookies of ~ 2" diameter

Ingredients
4 heaped tbsp soft unsalted butter (if salted, reduce the salt by a pinch)
1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 tsp sea salt - pulsed in mixer for few seconds
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour (maida)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
few tsp cold water 
1-2 tsp cold milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven at 180 C.
  2. Line a big baking tray with tin foil or parchment.
  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar-salt mix with a spoon for 2 minutes, adding in the vanilla extract, until well combined.
  4. Sift the flours and baking powder together on a sheet of paper or mix it with a fork in a bowl and add it to the creamed mix.
  5. Mix well until it forms a dough, adding 1-2 tsp of cold water or milk to bind, if required.
  6. Divide roughly in half. Keep one half aside. To the other half, add the cocoa powder, a few drops of cold milk and knead gently to make a smooth but stiff dough (or you cant slice them).
  7. Now you'll have two rounds of dough, one white and one brown.
  8. Divide each into two logs, to get two white logs and two brown logs.
  9. Join one white log and one choco log and roll into a log on a clean smooth surface. It's not necessary, that the white and brown parts are exactly half and half, don't stress out over this-just make sure each log as some white and some brown.
  10. At this stage you could refrigerate for 15 mins or so and then slice into 1.5 cm thick slices or go ahead without chilling.
  11. Place each slice on the baking tray leaving some space between each cookie.
  12. Bake at 180C for 10-12 minutes, until the white parts start turning golden. At this point they will still be very soft, so don't overbake. They will crisp up as they cool
  13. For chewy cookies, remove them a little earlier.

Note
You can bake as many as you want at a time and freeze the remaining logs / slices to bake as and when required. You dont need to thaw the dough. Slice frozen dough and bake as it is in a preheated oven-adding 1-2 minutes extra for fresh cookies on demand :)

What people who tried this have to say!



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!

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

Posted by admin


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!

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.




Breaking Bread with Pesto Pull Apart Loaf

Posted by admin

“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.




Savoury sweet potato bake with a peanut crumb



Ideas lurk everywhere. The other day I was at my son's classmate's house after school as the kids wanted to play and I was hanging around in the kitchen with the parents, drinking tea and chatting up. The dad was preparing an early dinner and one of the dishes was a savoury starchy bake using potatoes and sweet potatoes. I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but I've always loved the Tamil style sweet potato stir fry curry with sambar-rice or in desserts (yes, brownies!) or randomly in some other dishes. I find that sweet potatoes that we get here need a lot of flavour boost to taste great.

This time, I wanted to try out a savoury bake with them. I had noticed our friend preparing a kind of béchamel sauce to go on top of the layered sweet potatoes, topped with cheese. But since we had no cheese at home, I had to improvise with something else. And that's how the peanut crumb happened. It did provide a fantastic texture to the otherwise melty dish, not to mention upping the protein content of the dish.



Recipe for Savoury Sweet Potato Bake
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
2 cups milk
1 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup roasted peanuts, skins removed (you could use ready available roasted salted peanuts too)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven at 180 C.
  2. In a large pan, bring 2 litres water to a boil with 1 tsp salt.
  3. In a mixer / food processor pulse the peanuts till coarsely crumbed.
  4. Meanwhile, scrub the sweet potatoes well with a scrubber and lots of water to remove all the soil. Do not peel. Finely slice them, and add them to the boiling water. Add the peas too.
  5. Check in 4 minutes, if they are partially cooked. If yes, drain the water in a colander and keep aside the veggies.
  6. In a saucepan, heat butter. Add flour and make a 'roux' until all the flour is absorbed in the butter and turns lightly aromatic. Add the milk with constant whisking. If a few lumps remain, it's okay with this dish. Add the salt, dried rosemary, pepper and nutmeg. 
  7. Lightly grease a mid-sized baking dish. Place the partly cooked sweet potato slices and peas, gently flattening them down. Sprinkle some pepper over the top.
  8. Add the sauce, lightly smoothening it out with a spatula.
  9. Top with peanut crumbs.
  10. Place in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or so. 
  11. Serve warm with a salad or a soup.
Notes
Feel free to try with other vegetables, similarly sliced - eg: Potatoes, carrots, turnips etc.
If you wish, you could add chilli flakes or chopped chipotle chillies to make this dish spicier. This recipe turns out reasonably seasoned but not spicy at all, suitable for kids of all ages.
You could substitute the peanut crumb with a mix of bread crumbs and grated cheddar. I'm sure that tastes better :)
Leftovers can be warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds and had the following day.


Like what you see here? Follow my Facebook Page. I promise that it's updated much more regularly than my blog with engaging content on food, nutrition and food news and a lot more insights into my kitchen. 

The first picture is also my submission to the Food Photo Contest being run by the most awesome Town Essentials from whom we get most of our vegetables, groceries and other home supplies. If you are in Bangalore, you MUST try their service at least once. It's a fantastic experience to be able to shop for stuff at 5 am sitting under the quilt and knowing that you'll get the freshest produce delivered later that evening. 

Savoury sweet potato bake with a peanut crumb

Posted by admin



Ideas lurk everywhere. The other day I was at my son's classmate's house after school as the kids wanted to play and I was hanging around in the kitchen with the parents, drinking tea and chatting up. The dad was preparing an early dinner and one of the dishes was a savoury starchy bake using potatoes and sweet potatoes. I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but I've always loved the Tamil style sweet potato stir fry curry with sambar-rice or in desserts (yes, brownies!) or randomly in some other dishes. I find that sweet potatoes that we get here need a lot of flavour boost to taste great.

This time, I wanted to try out a savoury bake with them. I had noticed our friend preparing a kind of béchamel sauce to go on top of the layered sweet potatoes, topped with cheese. But since we had no cheese at home, I had to improvise with something else. And that's how the peanut crumb happened. It did provide a fantastic texture to the otherwise melty dish, not to mention upping the protein content of the dish.



Recipe for Savoury Sweet Potato Bake
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
2 medium sized sweet potatoes
1/2 cup fresh or frozen green peas
2 cups milk
1 tbsp butter
1.5 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup roasted peanuts, skins removed (you could use ready available roasted salted peanuts too)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven at 180 C.
  2. In a large pan, bring 2 litres water to a boil with 1 tsp salt.
  3. In a mixer / food processor pulse the peanuts till coarsely crumbed.
  4. Meanwhile, scrub the sweet potatoes well with a scrubber and lots of water to remove all the soil. Do not peel. Finely slice them, and add them to the boiling water. Add the peas too.
  5. Check in 4 minutes, if they are partially cooked. If yes, drain the water in a colander and keep aside the veggies.
  6. In a saucepan, heat butter. Add flour and make a 'roux' until all the flour is absorbed in the butter and turns lightly aromatic. Add the milk with constant whisking. If a few lumps remain, it's okay with this dish. Add the salt, dried rosemary, pepper and nutmeg. 
  7. Lightly grease a mid-sized baking dish. Place the partly cooked sweet potato slices and peas, gently flattening them down. Sprinkle some pepper over the top.
  8. Add the sauce, lightly smoothening it out with a spatula.
  9. Top with peanut crumbs.
  10. Place in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or so. 
  11. Serve warm with a salad or a soup.
Notes
Feel free to try with other vegetables, similarly sliced - eg: Potatoes, carrots, turnips etc.
If you wish, you could add chilli flakes or chopped chipotle chillies to make this dish spicier. This recipe turns out reasonably seasoned but not spicy at all, suitable for kids of all ages.
You could substitute the peanut crumb with a mix of bread crumbs and grated cheddar. I'm sure that tastes better :)
Leftovers can be warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds and had the following day.


Like what you see here? Follow my Facebook Page. I promise that it's updated much more regularly than my blog with engaging content on food, nutrition and food news and a lot more insights into my kitchen. 

The first picture is also my submission to the Food Photo Contest being run by the most awesome Town Essentials from whom we get most of our vegetables, groceries and other home supplies. If you are in Bangalore, you MUST try their service at least once. It's a fantastic experience to be able to shop for stuff at 5 am sitting under the quilt and knowing that you'll get the freshest produce delivered later that evening. 

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