Better-Than-Pita Grill Bread

Khubz is the Arabic bread known as pita in other parts of the world.
Usually this is made in the traditional wood burning oven. It can also be made in the modern oven.
Since I dont have either, I tried this lovely grilled bread from Epicurious

Credit: Epicurious

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fast-acting yeast from 1 (1/4-oz) package such as Fleischmann's Rapid Rise yeast
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon warm water (105-115°F)
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon beaten egg

Special equipment: a lightly oiled ridged grill pan, cast-iron skillet, or griddle

Method:

Whisk together flour (2 cups), sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl until combined. Whisk together water, oil, and egg in another bowl until combined well, then stir into flour mixture until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead, working in just enough additional flour to keep dough from sticking, about 2 minutes (dough will not be smooth). Form dough into a ball and put in an oiled bowl, turning to coat, then let rest in bowl, uncovered, in a warm draft-free place 10 minutes.
Note: I required almost 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup oil to get a dough. To be safe and to get the required consistency, first add 1/4 cup each and then add little by little as you go.



Cut dough into 10 pieces and form each into a ball. Working with 1 piece at a time, flatten balls, then roll out into 6-inch rounds (less than 1/8 inch thick) on lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin.



Mine of course turned in shapes other than rounds. To ensure that you get a pocket in the middle, fold it in half as shown below, and roll out again.



Preheat grill pan or skillet over moderately high heat just until smoking, then reduce heat to moderate and grill bread rounds, 1 at a time, turning once, until marks appear and bread is cooked through, about 2 minutes. It will puff up on the hot pan and deflate once taken off the pan. Keep breads warm, wrapped in a cloth napkin.



Cooks' notes: If you have a 2-burner grill pan, you can grill 2 bread rounds at a time.
Bread can be made 1 day ahead and cooled completely, then kept in an airtight container at room temperature. Reheat bread, loosely wrapped in foil, in a 350°F oven until heated through.

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Chicken pie Sambousek (Chicken Samosas)

I just came back from probably my last visit to the country where I was brought up, Saudi Arabia. I will surely miss that country for the abundant ingredients and the mind boggling varieties available in the numerous hypermarkets. One would simply get spoilt for choice. And the vegetables, I dont know how they keep it so clean and beautiful. The best hypermarket in Bangalore is put to shame!
So I bought these Switz Sambosa leaves which my mom used to make samosas with when we were little. They're lovely for making samosas and I dont know why its so darn hard to find such things here in India! Rarely do I see the spring roll pastry available in their deep freezer.
Being brought up in Saudi Arabia, I loved the ramadan season for the iftaar parties. Being non-muslim I never fasted, but we used to get invited to various muslim families' houses for iftaar. A common item on the menu would be meat samosas or sambousek as Arabs would call it.
I made these simple chicken samosa last year for Eid and tonight again as a snack.
I bought chicken breasts (skinless and fatless) from the supermarket and minced them in my food processor. Much better and leaner than the minced chicken they have in the stores. You can use and ground mince (chicken, beef or mutton) for these. There's also another lovely vegetarian variety called the spinach and feta sambousek which I will post some other day.

Ingredients:

Sambosa leaves
Vegetable oil for frying

For filling:
Chicken mince - 250 grams
Onions minced - 1 large
Black Pepper - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Lebanese seasoning - 1 tsp (optional)
Shawarma seasoning - 1 tsp (optional)
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Frozen green peas - 2 tbsp (optional)
Salt to taste
Olive oil - 1 tbsp (you can use any oil of your choice)

For paste:
All purpose flour (maida) - 1 tbsp
Corn flour 1 tsp
Water - 2 tbsp

Method:

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Add onions, black pepper and cumin powder. When onions turn translucent, add lebanese seasoning, shawarma seasoning and minced chicken. Stir and cook till the chicken changes colour completely and starts to brown. Add frozen green peas if using and toss for another 2-3 minutes.
Allow to cool.

Assembly:
Mix all ingredients to make the paste and keep aside. This will be used to glue the edges of the samosas.
Take out a sambosa leaf. Prepare samosas easily using this video posted below.
Place 1 tablespoon of meat filling and seal.




Deep fry until golden brown turning once - about 6-8 minutes.
Drain on paper towel and serve with any sauce you like.

By the way... I have completed a year since I started this blog. Yayy! Its been quite an eventful year for me and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope better things are yet to come. :-)

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Potato Thoran - Potato stir-fried with coconut

2nd January 2012
Happy New Year!
Just got back from the place where I grew up - Riyadh. Its probably the last time I would visit this country, so feeling a bit sad and homesick.
I made sure I jotted down most of the recipes of what my mom cooked during my stay :)
Will post em when I make it on my own and take a picture of it.
Had an annoying journey back, with a 5 hour long wait in Mumbai.
Reached home and a serious jet lag set in. So I just logged in to work from home and set my status as 'Away. Call if urgent' and went to sleep.
Woke up 4 hours later but still feeling tired. I had brought some of my mom's fried prawns and beef cutlets. So dinner was almost set. I cooked some rice, made some kerala dal and wanted a thoran too. As there was no vegetable available in the fridge, I saw a few potatoes lying in my vegetable rack. I had no idea if a potato thoran even existed. But what the hell, I just googled it and apparently it does exist lol.
So I gave it a try since its really no effort if you have some grated coconut lying around in the freezer.

Ingredients:

Potato - 1 large
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Shallots - 2-3
Garliic - 1 large clove
Green chillies - 2-3
Mustard seeds
Turmeric powder
Curry Leaves

Method:

Peel potato and cut into long thin slices. Put in a bowl of water to avoid discoloration.
Chop shallots, green chillies and mince garlic.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds to splutter. Add shallots, green chillies and garlic. Stir for 3-4 minutes on medium heat.
Add potatoes and mix. Then add grated coconut, turmeric powder and curry leaves. Stir, and bring everything to center of the pan. Pour about 2-3 tablespoons of water into the pan, cover and allow to cook for about 5-8 minutes. Wait till water almost dries up and mix again. Serve with rice.

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Aviyal - Mixed Vegetables in a Coconut and Yoghurt gravy

Credit: Kairali Sisters' e-book pg.20

These precautions you must follow in preparing Aviyal:

1. All vegetables are cut only lengthwise (2inch by 1/2inch)

2. Do not overcook or you'll end up in a soup.

3. The following vegetables are never used:

· Beetroot - as it discolours the entire Aviyal as red

· Tomato, Cabbage and Ladies Finger(Okra) makes Aviyal watery

· Sweet Potato, Radish, Turnip, Cauliflower & Mushroom are best avoided

· Instead of Tamarind use Raw Mango & a splash of Natural Yoghurt to get the

sour taste

4. Depending upon availability the following Vegetables go well together:

1. Plantain(Raw Green)
2. Yam - Chena
3. Brinjal
4. Carrot
5. Beans - Long Runner Beans
6. Drumsticks(with proper Indian/Sadhya Vegetables)
7. Green Raw Mango
8. Potato
9. Snake Gourd -Trichosanthes Cucumerina
10. Ivy Gourd - Kovakai - Tindora
11. Courgette - Zucchini instead of Cucumber

Ingredients:

1. Raw Green Plantain – 50 grams

2. Brinjal - 50 grams (optional - I did not use)

3. Tindora - 50 grams (optional)

4. Yams- 50 grams

5. Carrot – 50 grams

6. Green Beans/Long String beans - 50 grams (I used french beans)

7. Courgette/Ash Gourd - 50 grams (I did not use)

8. Potato - 50 grams (optional)

9. Drumsticks - 50 grams

10. Green Chillies – 2

11. Raw Mango -1/2

12. Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp

13. Salt – to taste

14. Water - 200ml

15. Grated Coconut – 1 cup

16. Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp

17. Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs

18. Curd – 2 tbsp

19. Coconut Oil- 2 tbsp

Method:

Mise en Place [10 mins]

1. Cut all vegetables into 2 inch by 1/2inch pieces like French Fries. Keep them

separate.

2. Grind Coconut, Cumin seeds, Green Chillies to a fine paste. Keep aside.

Golden Touch Steps [40 mins]

1. In a deep bottomed pan, add all Vegetables, add water, Salt, Turmeric powder &

slow cook for 20 mins.

2. Now add the Coconut paste, mix well, sprinkle the Coconut oil & Curry leaves,

leave on low flame for another 10 mins, by now it will be dry & done

3. Allow to cool.

4. Mix in the Yoghurt and leave it covered.

Note:

** Place the slow cooking Vegetables at the bottom of the vessel. Eg: Drumsticks,

Carrots. Place Yam & Brinjal in the middle layer. Place the fast cooking items in the

topmost layer.

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Koottu curry - Chick peas and mixed vegetables

The Kairali sisters' e-book contains two types of koottu curry - one spicy version and the other sweet version. I actually liked ingredients from both and kind of combined it into my own version. I loved it the way it turned out. I intended to add chena(yam) into this as per the recipe, but I realized that I ran out of it by using it in the other dishes. So I replaced it with Chembu(taro) and it still tasted divine!

Ingredients:

· 1 cup Black Chickpeas, soaked in water for at least 3 hours
· ½ cup Plantain(Pachakkaya) cut into chickpea sized pieces
· ½ cup Elephant Yam(Chena)/Chembu(Taro) cut into cut into chickpea sized pieces
· 1 medium Carrot, cubed
· ½ cup grated Coconut
· 4-5 pearl Onions, skinned
· ½ tsp Turmeric powder
· 2 tsp red Chilly powder
· ¼ cup Sarkara/Jaggery
· Few Curry leaves
· Few dry Coconut chunks(Thenga kothu)
· 1 tbsp Coconut oil
· ½ tspMustard seeds
· ½ tsp Cumin seeds
· Salt as required
· 2 dried red chillies
· ½ tsp black pepper or pepper powder
· 1 tbsp Oil

Method:

1. Cook the Chickpeas with Water and Salt until soft (Use a pressure cooker to
cook fast, or soak in boiling water for at-least 8 hours).
2. In a thick bottomed vessel, cook the Plantain and Yam/Taro, Carrots with enough Water to
just cover the Vegetables.
3. Add Turmeric powder and Salt.
4. Keep the vessel covered to prevent drying out.
5. When the vegetables are soft add the cooked Chickpeas, along with some of the
Water used to cook Chickpeas.
6. Adjust Salt, ¾ tsp Turmeric powder, 2 tsp Chilly powder and ¼ cup of Jaggery.
6. In another pan slightly fry the grated Coconut, cumin, black Pepper with the pearl Onions.
Coarse grind this mixture and add to the cooked Chickpeas.
7. Mix well and let the Water evaporate. Splutter the Mustard seeds in Coconut Oil
and then add the dried Chillies and dry Coconut chunks (Thenga Kothu).
8. Pour this over the prepared Koottu curry.

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Chena Vanpayar Erissery - Cow peas and Elephant Yam in a spiced coconut gravy

Credit: Edible Garden
Note: You can also make another version with Pumpkin instead of Elephant yam which is also quite popular.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups cubed elephant yam / chena
• 1 cup cow peas / vanpayar - preferable soaked for at least 2-4 hours
• Salt to taste

Grate together:

• 1/2 cup grated coconut (frozen will work but not dessicated)
• 1 tsp minced fresh garlic
• 1/4 tsp pepper powder
• A large pinch of turmeric powder
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder

For tempering:

• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 dry red chillies, torn into small pieces
• A few curry leaves
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (I used normal vegetable oil)

Method:

1. Wash the vanpayar and sift out any stones that may be there. Transfer to a pan with 3 cups water and cook on a low fire until semi-soft. This will take about 20 mins or so. Add the yam to the vanpayar and cook until both turn soft and almost mushy.
2. Once the vanpayar and yam are cooked, add the grated coconut mixture and mix well, cooking on low flame until well combined and the coconut loses its raw smell - about 3-4 mins. Add salt. Mix again. Remove from fire.
3. Heat oil for tempering and add all the ingredients mentioned in the list. When the mustard seeds pop and the red chillies glisten, remove from fire and dunk into the cooked mixture. Mix well and serve hot with rice and moru curry.

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Kaalan - Plantain and Elephant Yam in a spiced Coconut-Yoghurt sauce

Credit: Pazham Pappadam Payasam e-book pg.33
 Prep. Time: 55 mins.

Ingredients:

• Yam ¼ cup, cut to chunks
• Plantain 1 small, Skin peeled off and cut to diagonal chunks
• Yoghurt 4 cups
• Turmeric powder ½ tsp
• Black Pepper powder 1 ½ tsp
• Green Chilly 2 nos
• Cumin seeds ¼ tsp
• Grated Coconut 1 cup
• Fenugreek powder a pinch, roasted
• Salt as needed
• Curry leaves
• Mustard seeds ½ tsp
• Dry red chilly 2 nos
• Oil 1 tbsp
• Ghee 1 tsp

Method:

1. Heat a wide mouth pan at medium heat and add the Yam and Plantain pieces
with a cup of water.
2. Add Turmeric powder and Pepper powder. Allow the Vegetables to cook well and
then add Salt.
3. When the liquid from Vegetables are almost dried up, add 1 tsp. Ghee and mix
well.
4. Mash the veggies gently, reduce flame to low and add the beaten Yoghurt to
this.
5. Throw in Curry leaves and stir well until Yoghurt starts to boil.
6. Meanwhile grind together Coconut, Cumin seeds and green Chilly to a fine paste
with 20ml Water.
7. When the liquid from Yoghurt is completely evaporated (4 cups Yoghurt will get
reduced to almost 2 cups), add the Coconut paste and mix well. Cook for a few
more minutes.
8. Add a pinch of Fenugreek powder and switch off the stove.
9. Heat 1 tsp Oil in another pan and splutter Mustard seeds and dry red Chilly with
some Curry leaves. Pour the tempering.

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