Another Fancy Chapatti (Onion and Radish)

We awoke to a crazy wind, bending trees with frantic leaves sailing through the air.  Bravely I went out with my coffee and found the wind was warm.  Almost unheard of in these parts, especially first thing in the morning.  I sat in the sun and recalled the warm breezes of Goa.  That did it. I needed an Indian breakfast.

Luckily I still had some kala channa masala on hand, and as always plain yogurt and Indian pickles.  All I needed was a nice chapatti and I remembered I had lovely radishes in the crisper.  I raced back indoors and started making these, and in less than thirty minutes I had four of these lovelies.

3 radishes, grated

1 piece of red onion, grated to about 2 tablespoons

2 cups whole wheat flour (I live in Alberta and I believe in sourcing local ingredients, hence no Indian atta for me!)

½ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

½ cup or less of warm water

Extra flour for rolling out dough

Ghee

The reds make the chapatties look pretty too.

Grate the radishes and onions, and place in a medium size bowl.  Add the flour, salt and yogurt.  Using your fingers, stir and gauge the moisture levels in your dough.  Normally I use about 1 cup of water to 2 cups of flour, since this is a dry climate.  But as the onion and radish added moisture, I had to go by feel.  

You want the dough to be on the sticky side.  Not liquid, but definitely not dry.  Once you’ve slowly mixed in water, a bit at a time, knead the dough in the bowl, using just one hand.  It should be pliable, and a bit sticky.  Knead for about five minutes, till you have a smooth elastic feeling ball.

 

Heat a griddle on medium heat.  Break off a piece of dough about the size of a golf ball, or a bit larger.  With extra flour on your hands,  roll in your palms to get a nice round ball.  Put it on your floured rolling surface, flatten it with the palm of your hand, and roll it out to as circular a shape as you can get.  (Mine still look like maps.  Maybe when I’m 80 will I master the perfectly round chapatti.) 

You want it to be very thin.  Peel it off the surface and dust it with flour, and flip it over and dust again.  Keep rolling till it’s about 1/8 of an inch thick.

Place on the griddle and start on your next ball.  Keep a careful eye on the griddle.  When the chapatti changes colour and texture, and starts to puff, flip it over, and press it gently with the back of a spoon to encourage more puffing.  When the puffing commences nicely, flip it again and brush ghee over it.  Now it will puff more.  Flip it once more and brush more ghee onto it.  In a few seconds, take it off the griddle and place it in tin foil.  Cover it and go to work on the next chapatti, until all are done and resting nicely in the tin foil.

If I’d had time to make South Indian coffee, I would have been totally satisfied, but I didn’t want the chapattis to get cold, nor did I want to become frantic with hunger  My coffee recipe doesn't take long, but sometimes I have little patience.. 

Chapatti, plain yogurt, pickles, kala channa masala, all I needed was the good coffee...

Have I mentioned that I’ve renamed our deck ‘Goa’?  For now, while our temps are in the 30s, I can pretend, as long as I don’t look out onto the soccer fields across the street.  Try as I might, I cannot pretend they are the Arabian Sea.  

Looks exactly like Goa, right?  

Apple Ginger Muffins

Winter lingers on, mornings are late and evenings are early, and only something hearty and comforting will lift my soul.  Warmly baked apples spiked with cinnamon and a whack of ginger, nestled into sweet muffins are the answer.  Whole wheat, bran and walnuts ensure they’re way more healthy than commercial muffins, and avocado oil makes them even better.

This recipe makes two dozen cheerful muffins, takes about thirty minutes to eating time, and cooks at 425 F.

Slice thinly then chop.

2 large ambrosia apples

1 cup walnuts

4 to 6 pieces candied ginger

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ cups bran

¾ teaspoon kosher salt

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground dried ginger 

1 egg

2 cups yogurt

2 tablespoons avocado oil

½ cup molasses

Preheat oven to 425 F and line muffin tins with paper cups.  (I’ve recently found that parchment paper cups work better than plain.  Muffins easily slide away from the parchment so you’re not obliged to scrape your teeth against paper, frantic to consume every last crumb.)

Quarter and core the apples, then thinly slice, then chop into pieces.  Chop walnuts.  Set apples and walnuts aside.  You can use commercial candied ginger, or make your own.  Home made candied ginger is the bomb!  Place candied ginger into blender and reduce to small bits, mostly powder.  You need about three tablespoons worth, once powdered.  Set aside.

My bowl was a little too small eventually.

In a large bowl, combine flour, bran, salt, soda, cinnamon, powdered ginger and powdered candied ginger.  Mix well with a large slotted spoon.  Add apples and walnuts and combine again. 

In a smaller bowl, beat egg.  Add yogurt.  Pour oil into a half cup measure, then add to egg and yogurt.  Pour molasses into the measure and it will smoothly pour into the egg mix.  Combine well.

Adapted from 1971 "New York Times Natural Foods Cookbook"

Stir the wet mix into the dry as briefly as possible.  Spoon into muffin cups.  Bake approximately fifteen to twenty minutes, till they smell great and are no longer shiny or wet looking. 

Cool a few minutes, then place on racks to cool.  You can eat these while they’re still warm.  If you’ve used parchment cups, you can enjoy them more easily, but if you used plain paper, they will glue themselves to the paper till they’ve completely cooled.  I am regretting my cheapskate ways this morning…

These muffins are healthy and delicious.  If you adore ginger like I do, you could double the ginger amounts, and be even happier! 

I've never had too much ginger, have you?

Parchment would have made eating these easier!

Ginger, Date and Walnut Whole Grain Muffins

The frosty winter is upon us, and so we crave sweet carbs.  One way to slow down your carb consumption is to make the goodie textured, so textured you are obliged to chew for a while.  Adding protein also helps.  Also the more complex and warming the flavours, the better they satisfy.

These muffins are sweet, gooey, spicy, salty(ish) and very grainy, and filled with protein. Everything you want when you’re experiencing those cravings.

This recipe makes two dozen, and is ready to eat in about one and a half hours, including cooling time. Preheat your oven to 425 Fahrenheit.

1 cup pitted dates

3/4 cup water

30 or so scrapes of peeled ginger ( potato peeler will do)

1 tablespoon white sugar

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 ½ cups porridge oats (contain oats, flaxseed, wheat germ and oat germ) You can use plain oats if you want less chewiness.

¾ teaspoon coarse salt

2 tablespoons jaggery powder (raw Indian sugar or brown sugar)

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon powder

1 heaping teaspoon dried ginger powder (more if you love heat)

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 and 7/8th cups plain yogurt (nearly 2 cups)

1 egg

2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or ghee, which is clarified butter available on Indian grocery shelves)

½ cup molasses

Ginger is translucent and sticky when ready.

Combine dates, water and strips of ginger in a pot and set on medium high.  The idea here is to soften the dates and let the water evaporate till about a quarter of a cup is left.  Meanwhile, get to work on the muffin batter.

In a medium size bowl, combine dry ingredients with a fork.  Add walnuts and combine.  Set aside.

In a second medium size bowl, add the yogurt.  You want almost two cups worth, but not quite. Remove the dates from the pot, and gently pull apart.  Set aside.  Add sugar to the ginger and water, and set to boil. 

Make more candied ginger and go hog wild, unlike me!

When the syrup from the ginger pieces has reduced to about a tablespoon, add it to the yogurt to bring the measure up to two cups. Plop those date pieces into the batter.  Coming across these gooey lovelies makes eating these delightful.

Stir the date pieces and syrup into the yogurt, then stir the egg into the yogurt.  You can use vegetable oil or ghee, but I used ghee.  (The devil made me do it.) Pour oil or ghee into a measuring cup, coating halfway up the sides of the cup, then add that to the yogurt.  Pour the molasses into that cup then into the yogurt.  (An oily cup releases the molasses easily.)  Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture.  Gently stir till ingredients are combined.

Recipe adapted from my 1971 New York Times cookbook.

Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin tins.  Place a strip of candied ginger on top of each muffin.  Some lucky muffins get more than one, but don’t go hog wild if you’re thinking of calories. 

Bake about twenty minutes, or till a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool off a bit on racks and enjoy while still warm.

These are nowhere near as sweet or greasy as store-bought muffins, but they are lovely indeed. Fragrant, chewy, sweet in spots, oh my.  Please try them and let me know how they turned out!

Breakfast never tasted so good.

Wilma’s Miracle Cheese Biscuits

I’ve been making baking powder biscuits since forever, and never knew they could be this easy.  When Wilma set these out for the bookclub ladies, and told us how she’d made them, I thought she was forgetting a few ingredients.  She later emailed the recipe, and I was still doubtful till I tried them myself.

As usual, I’ve dolled them up with chilies and herbs, (my additions are in Italics) but I’ll list the basic ingredients first, so you can see how ridiculously easy these are.  I’m contemplating a sweet version to use for a shortcake recipe, but that’s for later this week.  For now, we’re sticking with this flavourful and spicy version. 

Mix dry ingredients and cheese with a fork.

  

These take about forty-five minutes, from when you begin assembling ingredients to when you’re popping these lovelies into your mouth.  This recipe makes about eight biscuits, but it can be doubled.  Bake at 400 F.

1 cup flour  (use whole wheat)

1 cup grated sharp cheese  (use a good one)

2 tsp baking powder

2 garlic scapes, chopped (scallions would be good too!)
two stems cilantro, chopped

1 chili, finely chopped

½ teaspoon chili flakes

1 tablespoon black poppy seeds

a pinch of Kosher salt

1/2 cup ice cold water

1 tablespoon (plus) butter for greasing cookie sheet

Once well mixed, add the ice-water but don't stir too much.

Preheat the oven and generously butter a cookie sheet. Leave bits of butter here and there.  

Combine the dry ingredients with a fork.  Add the ice-water, and stir just to combine.  You can use a spoon to drop the dough onto the cookie sheet, or use your hands, like I did.  Bake at 400 degrees F for eight to ten minutes.  Cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes, then move to a rack to cool a bit more.

Serve warm or chilled, either way you'll love their flavourful cheesiness, and be congratulating yourself on how easily these are made. 

I moved these bits of butter closer to the dough. Yummmm

I made a batch over the weekend, and have been pretty much living on them.  Delicious with a cup of strong milk coffee for breakfast, but great with eggs bhurji too!

Great with more garlic scape eggs bhurji...

Sweet Parothas, stuffed with dates and walnuts

I’ve been dreaming about sweet parothas forever, always throwing in new imaginary ingredients until I decided it’s time to try these out.  Flavours here include coffee, dates, walnuts and a hint of chocolate.  Oh, such a decadent taste, yet not that bad nutritionally speaking.

I have other notions for sweet parothas in my head, but I got this particular idea from a temptress at Cobs Bread.  I’d only gone in to buy sensible dinner rolls, but after offering me a slice of their coffee and date loaf, she then proceeded to wink as she slipped in several free slices with the dinner rolls I needed.  If I didn’t cook, I would have been a slave to her desires, going in to buy more and more loaves until the franchised company made billions.  

Instead, I’ve recreated the flavours, with an addition of my own, and created this recipe.

Cinnamon goes into the dough.

The dough

2 cups whole wheat flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup coffee

a bit of extra water

a bit of extra flour for rolling out 

The filling

½ cup walnuts

6 medjool dates  or 1 cup hydrated cooking dates

2 tablespoons coarsely grated unsweetened bakers chocolate

1 tablespoon melted ghee (clarified butter)

pinch of coarse salt

ghee for roasting the parothas

Begin with the dough.  Mix the flour, cinnamon and salt, and slowly pour in the coffee, stirring with your clean hand.  I had a scant cup of coffee, and needed more liquid.  I added a bit more, till the dough was moist enough to gather into a ball, but not really sticky. 

Coffee for the dough's liquid!

Depending on your flour and humidity levels, more or less liquid is required, so add the liquid very slowly, to get the right consistency.  Knead it till it’s elastic, (just a few minutes) and set it aside.  Already it smells amazing!

For the filling, put the walnuts into a sturdy bag.  I wash out old plastic ziplocks, and used one of these.  It won’t be any good after this trick, so I don’t mind using an old used beat up bag. 

Using a heavy rolling pin, bop the walnuts steadily until they’re mostly broken up, then roll them out till they are all in small pieces and even powder.  Pour into a bowl, then pit and dice the dates.  I used table ready medjool dates, but if you hydrated cooking dates beforehand, that would be okay. 

The pointy chocolate chips were too hard to roll out.

The dates will clump up into a sticky mess, but add the ghee and chocolate, and gently stir the mix with a spoon and fork, pulling the dates apart. 

Getting back to the dough, break it apart into six pieces.  Using extra flour, roll each piece into a ball, then as you roll them out, slightly flatten with the palm of your hand.  

Roll out to about five inches in diameter.  Drop a tablespoon or two of filling into the centre, pinch up the dough, and roll out again.  I had used chocolate chips, which I regretted, as they interfered with the dough, popping through and creating holes. 

But you will be smarter, using just grated chocolate so that you can make your parothas as thin as possible.  Don’t worry about it being unsweetened, the dates will adjust the flavours well.  If you’re a crazy sweet tooth, go ahead and use sweetened chocolate.

Have your griddle on middle heat.  (Every stove and every griddle is different, so be prepared to adjust the heat.)  When it’s hot, put down the first parotha.  

I go ahead and start rolling out the next, but I have the rhythm.  You may need a partner for this.  Watch the parotha, and when the colour shifts slightly, flip it over.  Spread a tiny amount of ghee over it with the back of a spoon, or a brush.  Check the underside, and when it’s golden with a few spots, flip again, and brush a bit more ghee over it.  Remove from heat and place on a pretty plate.

Continue on till all the parothas are made.  I served these with a glass of plain milk.  They’d also be gorgeous with coffee.  These make a luxurious breakfast or snack.  The walnuts and whole wheat up the protein factor, and dates are healthy in moderation.  Unsweetened dark chocolate is high in anti-oxidants.  I won’t make any health claims for the ghee, although some Ayurvedic types do.  

One of these days I’ll get cracking on one of my other ideas for sweet parothas, but perhaps you could send me some brilliant ideas for fillings?  What about my homemade Seville marmalade with almonds? Oh my oh my…

Beautiful Granddaughter's already taken a bite.

Cauliflower and Red Pepper Paratha

Back to my delicious Indian breads, we’re focussing on the stuffed paratha served at Allison’s birthday party.  Although paratha and rotis are considered easy as making toast to many Indians, to me, they are a labour of love.  

I have an Indian friend who is unfazed by making them, but she does admit she spent many hours of her youth perfecting her breads, feeding the imperfect specimens to the family dog.  As much as my little dogs would love me to perfect mine in such a fashion, I’m afraid imperfection will be the rule around here.  After all, neither I nor my dogs have that many years left!

The filling is where the flavours will happen:

2 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter) or a mix of canola and ghee

1 teaspoon cumin seed

10 curry leaves

½ minced red onion

½ minced sweet red pepper

1 minced Thai chilli

1 tablespoon garum masala

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

salt to taste

Put a skillet on medium high heat, and add the ghee or ghee mixture.  When it’s hot, add the cumin seed which will immediately splutter and pale.  Add the curry leaves, then the minced onion.  Reduce the heat to medium, and cook the onion till it’s transparent and golden at the edges.  Add the minced cauliflower and peppers, and cook about ten minutes, till they’re soft. Add the garum masala and turmeric and cook, stirring,  for another few minutes.

Taste for saltiness and spiciness.  You want it a bit oversalted and spiced, as the bread will soften these flavours.  Adjust with spices and salt as desired.  Set aside to cool till luke warm.  While that’s happening, make the dough.

The dough for this paratha recipe is very simple, since all the flavours will come from the stuffing.

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour (plus some extra white)

1 cup (approximately) water

ghee for brushing onto the cooking parathas

In a large bowl, combine the two flours and slowly add a bit of water to them.  Using your fingers to stir, incorporate the water into the flour by moving in large circles.  Slowly add more water as needed.  At about the one cup of water stage, all the flour will be sticking to the dough ball, as you move it around in circles. 

Have ingredients handy!

At that point, stop with the water, and begin to knead.  You may knead in the bowl itself, or take it out and onto the counter.  You will need a little more flour to knead, and you’ll definitely need more at the rolling out stage.  Once kneaded a little, (maybe five minutes max) set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Pinch off a piece about the size of a large golfball, and roll into a ball.  Set on a floured surface, and use the palm of your hand to flatten it.  Flip it onto the other side to get more flour over there.  Use a rolling pin to roll it out to about five or six inches, then drop a couple of spoonfuls of filling in the middle.  Pinch up the edges, then roll out a second time.  It should be about six inches in diameter when rolled out. 

a closeup of the filling

Have a griddle on medium heat.  Carefully lift the first stuffed paratha, brush off excess flour, and lay on griddle.  

Start rolling out the next paratha, while keeping an eye on the griddle.  Once the dough has changed colour, flip the paratha, and get back to rolling.  Once it’s changed colour again, brush a scant amount of ghee over it, then flip again for a few seconds.  Flip again, brush more ghee over that surface, and remove to a warming plate.  

It’s tricky to get into the rhythm of rolling and stuffing and flinging on the griddle, flipping and brushing and rolling and stuffing and so on, so you may need a partner. If small holes appear during the second roll out, do as I do and keep going. 

Tightly seal your package before rolling out again,

This recipe will make about six or seven parathas, which make a lovely lunch.  

I served these with my regular sag paneer, although I had extra cauliflower which went into the sag paneer before it was blended.  Yum.  

Along with the parathas and sagpaneer, we also had caramelised onion raita, a shredded radish salad, and for dessert, a magnificent Pavlova. 

Of course we also had white wine, but also a Rose Milk drink which will bring up the last post in the Allison’s birthday party series.  Meanwhile, here’s a pic of the festivities.  

And another of the ladies...

and yet another of our birthday girl

She's lost her 'y' in the glories of the day...

If you need help finding any of these ingredients, please drop me a line.  Tune in tomorrow for that Rose Milk beverage to wrap up these birthday recipes.

Coconut Swirl Buns aka Little Miracles

 

Coconut Swirl Buns aka Little Miracles

I’m not very good at following directions.  Even when baking, I just blast off and do my own thing.  Some voice in my head nudges me to add a bit more of this, and some of that, and the next thing I know, my recipe is wildly different from what’s printed in the directions.  Craving the taste of the fabulous coconut buns at the Chinese bakery, I intended to save my last package of yeast to pull off something like those fluffy but not too sweet confections.

Originally I’d planned to use the dough recipe from last week’s cinnamon buns, but then I came across Radhika’s recipe for Hokkaido Milk Bread.  Hokkaido is a Japanese term, but the secret in this dough is tangzong, a Chinese word, so that got me to wondering if this dough is the secret behind those light fluffy sweet clouds at the Chinese bakery.  Radhika’s pictures show breads that look very airy and light.

Perhaps if I’d actually followed directions, I might have made them.  But no, that would be too logical, and I prefer the theological route to baking: prayers.  In a very Chinese way, I invoke all my ancestors who might know a thing or two about baking, I include recently departed strangers who loved the kitchen and are kind hearted, and whatever Goddess may be willing to help me out. 

Radhika’s directions advised me to constantly stir the tangzong, keeping it on a medium heat.  Well, I had to adjust my camera settings, and when I finished, my tangzong was stiffer than setting concrete.  Thus I had to pray, adjust, pray more earnestly, and hope for the best.  Here goes:

My Tangzong (apparently different from everyone else’s)

1/3 cup white flour
2 cups water
1/3 cup milk powder

My Dough

Left-over sugar from Candied Ginger

1 ¼ cup white flour
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
4 tablespoons vanilla scented sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk powder
2 teaspoons active dry yeast*
¼ cup cream
all the tangzon*
1 tablespoon softened unsalted butter

Extra butter to grease a large bowl 

My Filling

1 tablespoon softened butter
½ cup ginger scented sugar*
1 cup shredded dried coconut
Extra butter to grease an 8x8 inch loaf pan

Tangzong is basically a cooked flour slurry that is supposed to make the dough swell and get very airy.  I think it works a bit like the mashed potato I used in last week’s cinnamon bun dough, a concoction of broken down starch for the yeast to feed on.  Anyway, every recipe I eventually googled advises one to make up this entire amount, and then use only half of it.  Why make so much to use only half? I don’t know, but every recipe I found insisted on this practice, without explanation.  

Whisk the flour into the liquid, cook on medium heat stirring constantly.  (As I mentioned earlier, I originally used half the liquid, but my slurry wasn’t stirred, so it got too thick too fast, without being properly cooked, so I added more liquid and turned my heat to medium from high, and whisked till I appeased the cooking  Gods, and properly cooked off the flour, knowing I’d have to reduce liquids later.)

When it thickens to the consistency of a pudding, take it off the heat, whisk a few more times and let cool.

The Dough

Using the dough hook setting in your stand mixer, blend half the tangzong, flour, sugar, salt, milk powder, butter, cream and yeast.  Set the rest of the tangzong aside.

*The yeast… 

I have never added dry yeast to a dough.  Usually yeast is mixed with warmish water and left to wake up and get frothy.  When I went to research other recipes, I discovered all the other recipes advised using instant yeast.  Yikes.  Too late for me, but not for the next time I try this recipe, or for you!

Put the mixer on and the mix will become dry and crumbling.  Because I knew I needed more liquid, and am a firm believer in waste not want not, I added the rest of the tangzong.  Ha!  Now I’ve gone and shown the whole InterWeb what to do…

Anyway, after lots more prayers and invocations, I put the mixer onto a higher speed, and let the hook do my mixing and kneading.  In about fifteen minutes I had a nice, soft and sticky dough.  After greasing a large bowl, I put the dough into that, turning the dough around till a thin sheen of butter protected the dough from drying out. 

Put in a warm and protected spot and let rise till double.   Mine never quite got to double, wrong yeast and all, but it did proof fairly well, so when it had proofed for about an hour, I gave it a good punch, and the air wheezed out of it.

I then rolled it out on a lightly floured surface, to about a half inch thick, into as rectangular a shape as I could manage. 

The Filling

Hands work best for spreading butter and filling, so use them.  The warmth of hands spreads the butter evenly, and it feels good to spread the coconut and sugar around, knowing you have a fairly even sprinkling.  I didn’t want these too sweet, as I was aiming for the taste of Chinese Coconut Buns, but you can use more sugar if you like.  I used ginger scented sugar. 

This one isn’t listed with my other scented sugars, but it gets automatically created when you make my glorified candied ginger.  The extra falls off the candied ginger, and as it’s the culinary equivalent of flaked gold, I gather it up and use it for adventures like this one.  I intend to rim cocktail glasses with it too, one day, soon…

Anyway, never mind the looming cocktail, focus on this recipe for now.  You can use any kind of sugar you like if you don't have a fancy scented one on hand.

Once the filling is spread evenly over the dough, begin rolling at the long end of the rectangle.  Roll as tightly as possible. 

Grease a loaf pan, slice the dough roll into half inch pieces, and place swirly side up in the pan.

Because of my yeast and rising issues, I let the rolls proof a second time, for another thirty minutes.  They rose adequately. 

Bake at 350 F for about thirty minutes, or till they look golden.  Cool on a rack for about ten minutes.  Invert and shake out of pan and let cool another ten, and then serve.

I will keep trying this recipe till it is as light and fluffy as the Tangzong breads in everyone else’s blog.  I would have preferred to stick with just white flour, as that is traditional, and more cloud like, but I ran out this morning, and had to use half whole wheat.  I’m sure the tangzong is best when properly measured and stirred on the right heat.  Instant yeast has to increase the rising results as well, although Radhika’s pictures show the cloud-like puffs that I am trying to emulate, and the non-instant yeast was her idea.  

So thank you to Radhika, as well as all the other bloggers who have attempted this bread.  And above all, thank you to my ancestors, helpful recently departed bakers, and my favourite Goddess from the Ganges River.  While my first attempt was full of failures and prayers, at least it tasted quite lovely, which is after all, a little miracle.  

She took pity on me and helped out.





Adjust, Pray and Hope...