Laura's Portuguese Sweet Bread, A No-Knead Bread from Jugalbandi and Meeta's Achari Aloo

Laura’s Portuguese Sweet Bread

For this month’s Taste & Create, Nicole at For The Love of Food paired me up with Laura of the Spiced Life. This event requires us to recreate a recipe of our choice from the collection of the blogger we have been paired up with.
Being a vegetarian living in India, I sometimes find myself narrowed down on choices of what to cook from the assigned blog. First because, of course, I’m vegetarian, and then I find that many of the listed ingredients are just not available here.
Going through Laura’s blog I came upon a Portuguese Sweet Bread which I thought I would try.

My bread doesn’t look like any Portuguese sweet bread you’ve probably seen. My fault entirely. I thought the amount of dough I had wasn’t enugh for two small loaves and I didn’t have a big loaf tin. So I used my cake tin thinking I would get a nice roundish bread. Well, the dough had other ideas! It rose quite a bit and ended up looking like this.
I followed Laura's recipe with two exceptions, one intended and the other one accidental. I used only one egg instead of the two she suggested. But after I had kept the dough for rising, I realized that I had misread 6 tbsps of sugar as 6 tsps. So I went back to the almost doubled dough and kneaded it again adding 2 tbsps of honey. Then I allowed the dough to double again before baking it.

The bread was just sweet enough for us (so maybe it was a good thing I misread the recipe) with a soft and spongy texture with a very dark yet soft crust. It made great toast the next day.

Jugalbandi’s No Knead Bread

Anyone who has been following my posts would know that I enjoy baking, especially bread (so much that my blog is close to becoming a bakers’ blog). Sometime back Bee had suggested that I could try making their No Knead Bread. After all, what could be easier than swishing all the ingredients together, plopping everything into a bowl, allowing the mass to rise and baking it into a great bread?

So make it I did. Not just once or twice, but many more times. But I have neglected to post it or acknowledge the recipe. So when Nupur of One Hot Stove, who is hosting this month’s Monthly Blog Patrolling (MBP), announced “Less is More” as the theme, this was the perfect opportunity for this bread to see the daylight on my blog. This bread is made with four ingredients – flour, yeast, salt and water. As Nupur’s event guide lines state that water and salt would not count as ingredients for this event, this bread is made with only two ingredients!!

The recipe is the one at Jugalbandi but I couldn’t resist substituting half the flour with whole wheat flour. The result has always been a very crusty wonderful bread which is soft “holey” inside. This bread is on the way to becoming a “regular” at our table.

Meeta’s Achari Aloo

Zlamushka of Zlamushka’s Spicy Kitchen has chosen to showcase Meeta’s blog, What’s For Lunch Honey, through her Tried and Tasted event. Meeta’s blog has a varied collection of recipes and extremely beautiful photographs.
I chose to make her Aachari Alu - Potatoes in Mango Chutney Sauce to serve with chappathis and plain yogurt.

I stayed with Meeta’s recipe except for the mango chutney sauce. I didn’t have this so I used 1 ½ tbsps each of mango chundo and mango thokku. The result was a delicious potato preparation with a wonderful mingling of spicy, tangy, salty and sweet flavours. This is a dish worth trying.

I would like to finish this post by saying a “Thank You” to the Foodbuzz team for the lovely tote bag and badges they sent me.

Lump-Proof Vegetable Rawa Uppuma/ Upma (Semolina Cooked With Vegetables)

Printable recipe here.

What is Uppuma (or uppumavu)?
In Tamil, “uppu” means salt and “ma” means flour. While this doesn't quite explain it, uppuma is a savoury dish somewhat like couscous. This south Indian preparation, usually served for breakfast, can be eaten as a snack or brunch and is a wholesome meal in itself. Usually made with coarse rawa (semolina), uppuma can also be made with broken/ cracked wheat, broken rice and semia (vermicelli).
There are plenty of people (including my husband and daughter) who don’t particularly like uppuma (or upma as it is mostly referred to as), but I’m not one of them. I really like uppuma, especially when it is served hot, and made with lot of vegetables.
Traditionally, in our homes, uppuma is made using coconut oil and without vegetables or onions. Sometimes, freshly grated coconut is also added at the end, just before taking the uppuma off the heat.
Uppuma is usually served with coconut chutney, though it can be eaten with Indian pickles/ sugar/ banana or even plain yogurt! I like it without any accompaniment and occasionally with the small sweet variety of bananas.

But one thing I avoid eating is lumpy or sticky uppuma. I know many people make it and enjoy it this way. Then I’ve seen some people adding a lot of oil to the uppuma just before taking it off the stove to ensure it doesn’t cool down to a lumpy mass. I prefer my uppuma to have a crumbly and fluffy texture and learnt how to make it this way from my mother. And it has worked for me every time, well almost. Occasionally, though, the quality of the rawa (semolina) can play havoc with the best of recipes. Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rawa (coarse semolina)
1 ½ tsp ghee/ oil (optional)
3 cups water
salt to taste
1 cup finely chopped assorted vegetables (carrots, peas, cauliflower, beans, potatoes, sweet corn)
1 big onion, finely chopped
2” piece ginger, minced
1 -2 green chillies, chopped
2 tsp oil or coconut oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp urad dal (black gram dal)
2 tsp chana dal (Bengal gram dal)
1 sprig curry leaves

Method:

If pre-roasted rawa is available, then that’s best for this uppuma. Otherwise, heat the ghee/ oil and add the rawa. Roast the rawa over low to medium heat till golden in colour and an aroma emanates from the rawa. Using ghee gives the uppuma a very nice and unique taste. If you prefer, you can avoid the ghee and oil here and dry roast the rawa. Keep aside.
Add salt to the 3 cups of water and keep to boil. Cook the chopped vegetables (not onions) in the microwave till just done. If not using the microwave, add the vegetables to the water kept for boiling. They will cook by the time the water boils.
In a wok, heat the 2 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the urad dals and sauté till golden brown. Now add the ginger, onions and green chillies. Sauté till the onions are soft. Add the curry leaves and vegetables (if microwaved), stir and add the rawa. Stir everything so that the rawa uniformly coats the vegetables. Turn down the heat to low. Slowly add the boiling water (with or without the vegetables) because at this point the mixture tends to spit. Stir everything so it is well mixed. Keep mixing occasionally till the rawa absorbs all the water and the uppuma is fluffy. This should take about 5 to 10 minutes.
Serve hot. This recipe serves 3 to 4 people.
Sia of Monsoon Spice is guest hosting Nandita’s WBB and this month’s theme is Summer Feast. My Vegetable Uppuma goes there. Mansi of Fun and Food reminded me that this preparation would be right for the event she's hosting right now. Uppuma is a great way to start off the day as it is full of vegetables, fibre, low in fat and extremely filling. So this is goes to Healthy Cooking too.

I just realised (actually my husband pointed this out, or I wouldn't have noticed) that this is my 101st post.

Natashya of Living In The Kitchen With Puppies has been kind enough to think my blog deserves a Yum-Yum Blog award. Thanks Natashya for your kind words too.

Reminder:
Just a reminder that the last date for entries for Think Spice, Think Nutmeg is the 27th of July and BBD #12 - "Small Breads" is the 1st of August.

A Mango Coconut Kulfi and A Peachy Mango Milkshake

Printable recipe here.

This is a recipe which started out as with a different end result in mind. I gathered all these ingredients planning to make a mango fudge when halfway through I realized that the fudge wasn’t going to materialize. So I froze the custardy mixture and to make it a kulfi. This recipe could qualify as a gelato as well but it had all the classic features of a kulfi (milk, sugar, cardamom and pistachios).
A kulfi is an Indian frozen dessert some what like an ice cream. Traditionally, kulfi is made with full fat milk, sweetened with a lot of sugar and boiled to reduce it to a thick creamy custard. It is then flavoured with cardamom, saffron and pistachios and frozen. The best kulfi is the one that comes in matkas (small earthenware pots) with no other flavour additions.

This kulfi has mango and the coconut milk in it lends a barely discernable flavour but gives the kulfi a very creamy taste and texture. And needless to say a lot of calories!
I haven’t mastered the art of photographing frozen desserts and the temperatures here don’t help in this matter. So please don’t be driven away by this picture. This kulfi is absolutely delicious, especially on a hot summer day.

Ingredients:

1 can (400g) sweetened condensed milk (I used Nestle Milkmaid)
1 ½ cups fresh mango puree
1 cup milk
1 pack coconut milk (or thick coconut milk from 2 small coconuts)
¼ tsp salt
3 – 4 tbsp chopped pistachio
1 tsp powdered cardamom

Method:

Put the condensed milk, milk, mango puree and salt in a heavy bottomed pan. Stir everything together and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes. Now turn down the heat and add the coconut milk and mix well till blended. Make sure the mixture does not boil as the coconut milk will split. Take the pan off the heat. Add the chopped pistachio and cardamom. Mix well again and allow to cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming on the kulfi custard.
Pour into kulfi or popsicle moulds and freeze. If you don’t have either, pour into a metal/ plastic container and freeze. Serve like ice cream.
Kulfi becomes very hard when frozen like icecream. So you may have to keep it at room temperature to soften slightly before serving.
I'm sending this to Meeta for her Monthly Mingle: Mango Mania.


Peachy Mango Milkshake

Why am I doing a two recipe post today, and pairing these two recipes?
No particular reason, I’m just doing it. If you really want to connect up the two recipes, the common elements would be milk and mangoes. This recipe got made up because I needed to empty my fridge of perishable items as I would be away from home for about a week. So some peaches left over from my last recipe and some mangoes became a milkshake and my fridge is fruit free for the present.

This is one of the few devious methods I use to get my daughter to have certain fruits she doesn’t like!

Ingredients:

4 small peaches
2 mangoes
½ litre cold milk
Sugar as required (depending on how sweet/ or not, the fruits are)
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Method:

Chill the fruits till quite cold. Peel and chop the peaches and mango. Put all the ingredients into the blender/ liquidiser and blend into a smooth milkshake. Serve immediately. This would make 3 large or 4 small milkshakes. This is great with breakfast.

This recipe of mine is going to join others at Culinarty's Original Recipes and the event I'm hosting Think Spice, Think Nutmeg.

I shall take this opportunity to thank Sireesha of Mom's Recipies who has bestowed my blog

(and me) with a Bear Hug and Ivy of Kopiaste who made my day by giving me a You Make My Day award.

I truly appreciate the gesture and my apologies to both of you in taking some time to acknowledge them.
I shall be travelling out of Goa and be away for the next six days and so will not be able to acknowledge your comments or e-mails till I get back. See you all next week.