Whole wheat and sorgum bread with black sesame seeds and sunflower seeds

Bread baking is the new found love and currently experimenting on millets. Its jowar again !! Let me pamper jowar enough before I handle the next millet flour.

Bread baking is therapeutic and the aroma is sensational, if you know what I mean :) Start baking your healthy breads right at home. 

Ingredients

Water – 1 cup

Yeast – 1.5 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Whole wheat flour – 1 .5 cup

Jowar flour (sorghum flour) 1 cup

Sesame seeds – 2- 3 tsp

Sunflower seeds (crushed) – 2-3 tsp

Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.

Method

• Microwave the water in a heat proof glass bowl at high for one minute ( this is for one cup of water )
• Sprinkle the yeast and sugar and stir well.
• After 15 mins you will see a frothy yeast mixture (else repeat this step).
• At this stage keep a sieve over the bowl and sift in one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of sorghum flour and salt into the dough.
• Use the dough hook attachment of your egg beater and knead the dough for about 10 mins.
• Add the olive oil and knead again for another 5 mins.
• Finally add the sesame seeds and crushed sunflower seeds in the dough and knead for a minute.
• Now using your fingers gently bring the dough together, use a little olive oil if you find the dough very sticky. Cover and leave the dough to rest in the bowl for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
• Once risen preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and scoop out the dough into a loaf tin. Don’t forget to grease the tin before you dump the dough. Sprinkle sesame seeds and sunflower seeds on top (optional) and also sprinkle a little flour on top (optional). Score the bread with sharp knife (optional). And just leave the bread to proof for the second time (that’s about 20 mins approx.)
• Don't let the bread prove (rise) for a longer time for the second time. 
• By then oven would be hot, place the loaf tin in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is brown and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.

Notes:  

• It’s safer if you could get your frothy yeast mixture right in the beginning than proceeding ahead.
• Sifting is to make the flour airy and light before it falls into the yeast mixture.
• Dough hook attachment is the spiral attachment which we get along the egg beater set. This is helpful in not making our hands messy while making the bread dough.
• It’s safer not to go by the exact measurement in the recipe and make sure your dough is on a wet side (sticky dough). Initially put ¾ flour mentioned in the recipe and then proceed until you still get wet dough and not stiff dough.
• You could alter the measurements of seeds used according to your convenience.

Enjoy baking 

Thanks

Chaithanya

Quickie dosa | No fermentation crispy dosa | Rava dosa recipe

By now you all would have understood that I am not regular with keeping dosa batter stored for the simple reason that I forget soaking, grinding and the bulb in my brain only lights up just before I hit bed. So it was a similar night yesterday and I remember this recipe from a book I read and I thought of giving it a go! Just soaked a cup of urad dal and hit the bed. 

Next day I made this dosa as per the recipe, yea it’s not my recipe, no credits for me please... my dear husband couldn’t stop eating this dosa, kids loved it too.. I am so happy that another quickie dosa is added to the list, I can’t get happier. And no, I have never bought ready-made batters in my life. Ever! 

Excited to share this simple and yummy recipe, can’t wait. 

I picked  the recipe from my favourite book ' Banana goes to the heaven' , love the easy Indian recipes in the book. 

  

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup

Chirtooti rava (fine rava, usually used for making sweets) - 1/2 kg

Water - as required

Salt

Method

• Soak the urad dal overnight or at least 3-4 hours.
• Grind it well into a smooth paste.
• Add the rava into the urad dal batter, add sufficient water and mix well.
• Add salt and leave it to rest for about 20-30 minutes
• Heat the cast iron tava (I don’t use non-stick) and then keep the sesame oil/gingelly oil ready and a small bowl of water too. (now that’s my way of making any dosa ) I love the theatre while cooking ;).
• Heat the tawa to maximum heat, drizzle the oil and sprinkle some water, now this is done to balance the heat of the tawa.
• Take a ladle of batter and keep spreading in circular motion.
• Close the dosa with a lid for about 30 seconds, open and drizzle a little more oil on top.
• Slowly and gently flip the dosa and let it crisp.
• Serve hot crispy dosa with sambar, chutney,  pickle, all or any or any of your preferred combinations 

Variations : You can add green chillies, coriander and spices into the batter 

You could use the usual semolina as well, but check the consistency of the batter before you start making dosa, or you could even grind it. 

Will try the normal rava next time. 

Whole wheat and sorgum focaccia (atta and jowar) recipe

Whole wheat and sorgum focaccia (atta and jowar) recipe

Once upon a time when I bought few cherry tomatoes I just crushed few and put in my pots. Been religiously watering the pots without but my expectation of seeing the tomatoes had died. But to my surprise after a couple of months I started seeing the saplings and one fine day I see my cherry tomatoes have showed up.

Now when someone has surprised me so well, I wanted to treat them special and hence this recipe. I wanted them to show them up, yea, I agree salads are one option but unfortunately I am not a salad person. Hence thought of making a focaccia since I got about a dozen of those cutie pies. But then again thoughts will try whole wheat and jowar focaccia. Why not, when you want to make someone feel special, take an extra step always J

Alright so I am eager to share the recipe now

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – ¾ cup

Jowar flour – ¾ cup

Water ¾ cup

Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Olive oil – 2 tbsp.

For the topping

Cherry tomatoes – 1 dozen

Oregano, chilli flakes, basil (seasoning of your preference)

Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.

Method

• The temperature of the water for the yeast to work is crucial, I have mentioned this every bread baking post. So for this measurement I microwaved the ¾ cup water in high for about 30 seconds. 
• After removing the glass proof bowl I sprinkled the sugar and the yeast into the water and stirred well. After 15 mins it would have frothed up.
•  Sift in the flours and salt and knead well (I use the dough hook of my egg beater attachment) once the dough has come together, add the olive oil and start kneading with your hands for a while.
• When  you get the soft dough let it rest in a well-greased bowl for about an hour or until the dough has risen and doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 10-20 mines. Meantime, knock down the dough and flatten in a preferred pan and make a lot of holes by using your finger. Pour in some olive oil and half the tomatoes and place in it. Sprinkle the seasoning all over and leave it to puff up again until the oven is preheated.
• Once the oven is heated place this pan in the oven and bake for about 20 – 30 minutes or until you see a nice golden brown crust on top.
• Remove and let cool.
• Serve it with some extra virgin olive oil or a garden salad

Thanks

Chaithanya

Puttu with homemade puttu podi and kadala curry

Puttu and kadala curry is a typical Kerala breakfast. The beauty of it is it has carbs, proteins, minerals and other nutrients and is tasty too. Keralites  can’t avoid this sumptuous breakfast hence we make it once in a while. 

Before, I used to buy the flour for making puttu but recently started making the flour at home. So in this blog post I will include the recipe to make the puttu flour, recipe to make puttu and the recipe to make kadala curry. Kadala curry recipe is of my mother-in-law

Ingredients for homemade puttu podi

Red rice ( I use a variety called jolaga)- 1 cup ( you could use any other variety brown or red raw rice too)

White rice – 1 cup (I use sona masuri)

Basically the rice should be raw rice and not boiled rice  ( I am not talking about cooked rice here : )

Method

• Wash, clean and soak both the rice together for about 4-5 hours.
• Drain the water and spread the rice in a clean cotton cloth, so that it becomes fairly dry but still retains little moisture. That’s for about an hour.
• Now take the rice and grind in the mixer, remove the jar from the mixer and shake it often so that all the rice is ground (I do it, hence).
• Rice will not be finely powdered, but that’s ok, ignore.
• Repeat this process with the remaining rice.
• Now keep a huge skillet or a kadai or a wok on the stove and put this rice flour into it. Take a huge turner (the biggest you have) and tart stirring the flour. If you see lumps forming try breaking it as soon as possible. Else it gets hardens, but worry not it can be broken while making puttu too.
• Now while you keep stirring it, you will see the moisture starting to vaporise and a nice aroma of roasted rice flour starts to come. Keep doing this for a minimum of 15 – 20 mins. Remove the wok from the stove and empty the flour to another big plate to let it cool.
• Now this flour stays good outside the refrigerator for weeks. But make sure the moisture is completely gone.
• So here your rice flour is ready

Puttu recipe

Rice flour – 2 cups (for the about homemade puttu podi recipe you will get two cups of roasted rice flour)

Water – About 1.5 cups

Salt – 1 tsp

Method

Now take a huge bowl and put the flour into it, mix well with the salt. Add water to it.

Mix the flour and water with your fingers just until the flour is damp.

Test: when you gather the flour it should form a ball in your fist and when you break it should fall back as powder ( I am trying my best to explain this  J )

We have a different appliance to make puttu, lower portion i filled with water and in the top portion we fill this damp rice flour layered with grated coconut.

Pic courtesy :http://www.hotdishes.net/Indian_kitchen_Appliances/Stainless_Steel_Products/Puttu_Maker/Puttu_Maker_*Puttu_Kudam~/

• Fill water half way in the bottom portion( the vessel shaped )and place it on the stove.
• Take the upper portion or the cylindrical portion it will have a small circular plate with lots of holes as the base, sprinkle some grated coconut, add a portion of rice (approximately that much you can hold in your palm) then layer with coconut and repeat until the cylinder is full. Top and bottom layer with grated coconut (preferably).
• By then the steam would start coming from the vessel in the stove, place the cylinder on the mouth of the steamer. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from stove, wait for about 5 minutes before you push the puttu from the cylinder. Use a ladle to push out the puttu ( recipe might sound funny, trust me its fun ;) )

So puttu is done.

Ingredients for kadala curry

Brown chana/brown gram  - 1 cup

Onion – 1 medium

Ginger – one inch

Green chillies – 1- 2

Coconut – ½ cup grated

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Coriander power – 2 tsp

Pepper power – ½ tsp

Garam masla – ½ tsp

salt

For the seasoning

Coconut oil  - 1 tbsp

Mustard- 1 tp

Dried red chillies – 2-3

Curry leaves –

Cried coconut pieces

Method

• Soak the chana/ gram overnight.
• Make a paste of coconut and keep aside.
• Wash the chana well and cook in the pressure cooker along with onion and ginger.  After the first whistle keep it in sim for about 20 minutes to let it cook well.
• Once the chana is cooked add all the spices and salt and coconut paste and let it boil.
• Remove the curry from the stove.
• Season it by keeping a small kadai on the stove, add oil and then add the mustard to splutter, add the curry leaves, red chillies and coconut and pour it over the curry  also  sprinkle some garam masala on top.

Thus you platter is ready J

 Serve it hot. 

You could also serve with green gram curry, banana, sugar and pappadam.

thanks 

Chaithanya

Raagi ilayada recipe (ilayada using finger millet )

Raagi Ilayada recipe

Whenever I get banana leaves I made ilayada, as my son loves eating it. Ila means leaf and ada means a flattened rice dumpling( tried my best in explaining). It’s usually made using fine rice flour but today gave it a twist by adding raagi flour (finger millet flour). My daughter loves raagi in any forms and since its healthy and rich in nutrients I thought of giving it a go. Hence the experiment and product was yummy and as soon as I finished making the adas it just got vanished.

Alright,  so when it comes to the recipe

Ingredients for the outer covering

Fine roasted rice flour – 1 cup

Fine roasted raagi flour- 1 cup

Hot water – 2 cups

Salt – 1.5 tsp

Oil – 2 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients with a fork and cover it and let it to come to room temperature so that you can knead well. Once a little warm knead well until soft dough is formed.

For the filling

Grated coconut – 2 cups

Jaggery syrup – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – a pinch

Method

In a thick bottom kadai or wok add the ingredients for the filling and stir well until it reduces to a thick consistency. You don’t have to stir for too long either.

Assembling 

Once the rice- raagi dough and filing is ready you could proceed with making adas.

Take a small square portion from the plantain /banana leaf and take a small portion ( size of a big lemon) of the dough and flatten it to a circle on the leaf by wetting your fingers in between, once well spread put the filling in the centre and cover the leaf midway. Slightly press on the sides so that the semicircle is sealed well.

Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.

Keep the steamer on the stove and steam these adas for about 15 mins. If you steam for longer time, the adas dries out and breaks. Hence just keep a check of time.

That’s it; serve it hot or room temperature.

No words to describe the aroma of the ada as it gets steamed in banana leaves and the sweet filling adds to it grace.

You could use turmeric leaves for the same.

Thanks

Chaithanya

Crispy masala dosa recipe

We don’t often make dosa which contains urad dal as my daughter detests it. But being a weekend I just went ahead to make masala dosa and I had all the ingredients at home. wowie :P

I will jump on to the recipe soon :)

Ingredients

Urad dal - 2/3 cup

Rice ( any good quality raw rice)- 1 1/2 cup

Chana dal - 1/8 cup

Toor dal - 1/8 cup

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Method

• Wash and soak all the ingredients for about 4-5 hours.
• Grind it together to a fine paste. Make the batter a little thin and leave it to ferment overnight.
• Next morning or when the batter is well fermented, add salt to the batter, mix well.
• Heat the cast iron tava on stove, heat it to maximum flame. 
• Sprinkle few drops of gingelly oil, and then sprinkle some water to balance the heat of the tava ( thats my way of doing) 
• Take a ladle of batter and spread thin on the tava.
• Close it with a lid for few seconds and then remove the lid, if you want you can pour few drops of ghee and once the dosa is cooked, remove gently by sliding the turner all over at the bottom of the dosa.
• Don’t flip!!!

Serve dosa with potato sabji, and coconut chutney and sambar.

Potato sabji: chop half kg potatoes and one medium size onion, an inch of ginger and add half a cup of water and pressure cook for two whistles. Once the pressure is gone season it with mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, chilli, and curry leaves. Sprinkle daniya on top

For chutney: grind coconut, chutney dal, ginger, green chillies and optionally coriander leaves.

You may use nonstick tava too, but i dont use nonstick in my ktichen. Cooking is cast iron vessels is healthy, food has a nice texture and tastes different and good too :)

enjoy cooking

thanks

Chaithanya

Whole wheat breakfast loaf recipe

What to make for breakfast is a question of every household and I am not the one who makes lots of idli/dosa batter and dump in the fridge. That’s for none other reason but my darling daughter hesitate to eat anything fermented...

So it was another Saturday night when I had to think 'what to make for Sunday breakfast', thought for some time and then realised I had fine organic whole wheat flour. Yes fine flour works best for breads, it doesn’t crumble much and remains a little lighter than breads baked with coarse flours.

I just went ahead and baked and hence the Sunday breakfast was a breeze. You don’t have to work too hard for breakfast on a Sunday morning and yet wholesome breakfast. 

No, I never trust store bought breads whatever label it has!!! ha, that’s just me! Sigh!

The recipe follows

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – 3- 3.5 cups

Yeast - 3 tsp

Sugar - 3 tsp

Water - 2 cups

Olive oil - 2-3 tbsp.

Salt - as required

Method

The temperature of the water is crucial for the yeast to react. Hence as a tip I would say microwave the water in high for 1 mins 30 seconds. It should be slightly warmer than being warm. 

Sprinkle the yeast and sugar and let the mixture rest for 10-15 minutes or until you see a nice frothy mixture.

Sift in the flour and salt into the yeast mixture.

Next step is a little messy if using hands, hence either use a fork to stir in the flour or use the dough hook of the hand mixer as I do. I don’t prefer kneading with hands.

When you see the dough has formed, add in the olive oil and knead with your hands for couple of minutes. Smear a huge bowl with a little oil and put this dough into it and cover with a damp cloth for about 1 or 1.5 hours or until the dough has doubled.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and in the meantime knock down the dough and bring it together and place it in a bread tin or glass proof bread bowl.

Once the oven is heated place the tin/bowl in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes until the crust has turned golden brown and also you hear a hollow sound when knocked or tap the bread with your knuckles.

Few tips :'

• Make sure your whole wheat flour is finest, else sift it 
• Do not put all of the flour as mentioned in the recipe at once. First add 3/4 flour as said in the recipe, then gradually add so that you still have a wet soft sough. The softer the dough better the bread :)

I sliced the bread and served as

Butter and bread for daughter

Garlic bread with grated cheese for son

Chilli cheese toast for husband and me  

thats the bread saga..

enjoy baking and feeding wholesome 

thanks

Chaithanya.

Chocolate genoise cake recipe

It was that day when a friend posted  the above pic on Facebook and the chocolate cake took all my attention... lol  I shared it on my Facebook wall as well. Few of my friends hinted about baking a cake. And it was a time when I have not baked a indulging cake for a long time. And decided to go ahead with my gut, don’t waste time when you want to bake a chocolate cake :)

I wanted a rich, soft and moist cake and I checked into my reference book which is nothing but ‘Joy of cooking’ oh I treasure this book like anything. I thought of baking a black forest cake but I dint have cherries in stock. So instead I thought of making the genoise and layer it with chocolate whipped cream. The whole effort was so worth as the cake turned out delicious and my son kept asking for his second helping, he dint even stop at his fifth helping …yes trust me on this. I happened to share it with my neighbours too and they loved it.

Ok without delaying much let me get into the recipe

Ingredients for the cake

All-purpose flour -¾ cup+1 tbsp.

Cocoa powder - ½ cup + 1 tbsp.

Sugar- 1 cup

Eggs- 6 eggs

Butter – 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract – 1 tspn

Method

• Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and keep aside.
• Melt the butter and keep aside.
• Set the bowl of eggs and sugar in a skillet of barely simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is warm to the touch (about 110 degrees F). Remove the bowl from the heat and beat on high speed until the mixture is lemony coloured, has tripled in volume and has  reached the stage where when the batter dropped from a spoon  should flow like a continuous flat ribbon, approximately 10-15 mins if using a hand held mixer. In 3 additions, sift the flour mixture over the top and fold in very gently with a rubber spatula.
• Add in the melted butter mixture and also a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter and fold gently.
• Scrape the batter and pour in a 9 inch pan and bake for about 30 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and remove it from the tin to a wire rack. Let it cool.

Ingredients for moistening syrup

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup water

• Mix, cook stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

Ingredients for the chocolate whipped cream

100 gms of cooking chocolate

3 tbsps. Of boiling water

One cup of fresh cream

2-3 tbspns – icing sugar

• Whip fresh creaming keeping the bowl of fresh cream over a bowl of ice or cold water and whisk until puffed up and form soft peaks. Don’t over whip as it might split.
• Pour the hot water over the chocolate and wait for it to melt and whisk well until the chocolate is smooth.
• Fold in the chocolate mixture slowly into the whipped cream and mix gently.

Assembling the cake

• Slice the cake into two discs.
• Take one disc and place on a board or a plate and sprinkle the moistening syrup.
• Spread the chocolate cream over the moistened cake.
• Moisten the top of another layer with the syrup and place the moist side down to the chocolate cream. Press to level.
• Moisten the top of the layer. Spread the remaining chocolate cream over and sides of the cake.
• You could decorate or pipe rosettes.

Tip. You can use the same recipe for black forest cake by filling the layers with cherries and decorate the cake with cherries and chocolate shaving.

Refrigerate the cake for at least 12 hours before serving.

Happy Baking :)

Thanks

Chaithanya

Buttermilk dosa using unpolished rice

 

I always make curd at home and once in two days I remove butter and I have lots of buttermilk in hand. Mostly I make spiced buttermilk and make curries. I give a lot of spiced buttermilk to my help too but since she has been on a holiday I had lots of it. I dint want to make any curry either hence thought of grinding the rice for dosas.

I used unpolished rice and beaten rice ( poha /aval in malayalam) for this recipe.

 

 

 

 

The recipe is as follows

 

Ingredients

Unpolished dosa rice/ sona masuri rice - 2 cups

Butter milk - 2-4 cups

Beaten rice - 1/3 cup

Baking soda - a pinch

Salt - as required

 

Method

Wash the rice well and soak in 2 cups of buttermilk overnight.

Next morning drain the excess buttermilk and grind the rice fine. Also grind the soaked beaten rice.

Add in the buttermilk until you get a right consistency of the batter which is a little more thinner than the usual dosas and a little thicker than neer dosa batter, if I may say.

Add salt and a pinch of baking soda and let the batter rest for about 10-15 minutes

Make dosa as usual in the tava, no need to flip.

 

• You could take one portion of ordinary sona masuri rice and one portion of unpolished rice
• If you dislike sourness make sure you use buttermilk which is fresh and has not turned sour ( it turns sour once you leave in room temperature for few hours )
• Serve it with sambhar, chutney or pickle.
• I used cast iron tava and used sesame oil to smear on the tava.. the dosas came out good an did not stick to the tava.
• Serve hot!!!

Thanks

Chaithanya