Garlic Pull Apart Rolls

My very first experiment with YEAST!!!!!!!!!! Certainly delicious! And the rolls came out so soft that I was literally jumping up with joy! I had tried this out long back! And at that time, I had no intention of starting a food blog. Hence, I never really clicked that many photos. I just have 1 photo of the rolls before they went into the oven for baking.  (sigh!) Anyways, I got this recipe from here. Do check out that site for step by step photographs! It really made my job easy! :-)
To all those who are scared to venture into the yeast-field, I'd like to say - fear not people! If you follow the recipe to the *T*, there's nothing that can go wrong. Really. :-)


Recipe - courtesy Suhaina
Things you'll need-
All purpose flour / Maida - 3 cups
Yeast - 1 tablespoon
Warm Water - 1 cup (around 100-150 ml)
Salt - 2 teaspoons
Sugar - 2 tablespoons
Cheese - as required (optional)
Olive Oil - 2-3 tablespoons (can use normal vegetable oil too)
Milk - 8 teaspoons


How to proceed-
1. Mix together flour,yeast,salt,sugar and warm water till you get a slightly sticky dough.
2. Add oil and knead for 3-4 minutes till you get a smooth dough. Press a finger in the dough to see if the dough springs back.
3. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and allow the yeast to work its magic for 40-45 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, make the Garlic Spread.

5. After 45 minutes, you'll find that the dough has risen to double its size. Knock down the air in the dough & divide into 2 portions.

6. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C

6. Apply some flour to prevent from sticking & roll the dough using a rolling pin into a half inch thick disk.

7. Cut out the extra & make it look more like a rectangle.

8. Apply some Garlic Spread throughout the dough. Add some grated cheese onto it if you want.

9. Using you hand, roll the rectangle dough into a cylinder. Using your hands, close the ends.

10. Cut the cylinder into equal portions. Apply the garlic spread on top of the rolls too.

11. Also apply a teaspoon of milk on all the rolls.

12. Sprinkle some sesame seeds if you want.

13. Onto a greased pan, arrange all the rolls. Bake them at 180 degree C for about 20-25 minutes. 

14. Do check on the rolls with a toothpick to see if they are cooked. 

I don't have any more pictures! :'(  But be sure to check out the recipe here. Beautifully explained with amazing pictures!

Happy Eating!

Garlic Spread

Hey y'all!


Here's the quick recipe for Garlic spread. This one is used to make Garlic rolls, garlic buns, garlic breads etc. Tastes really good when baked ! :-)


Ingredients:
Salted Butter- 50grams
Garlic- 3 grated
Coriander leaves - 2 tbps (chopped)
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp


Method:
1. Bring butter to room temperature.
2. Mix the garlic, butter, parsley/coriander leaves, pepper & chilli powders together.
3. Can be stored in the refrigerator upto one week

Nylon Sev

Hello everybody!!
Remember we talked about Nylon SEV in the Ragda Patties post? They are beautiful, lime-yellow savory which are used as topping in every Chaat dish possible! They're basically fried very thin noodles made of gram flour. You need a special machine to make Sev. It is called as the Sev-Press. In chennai, "Oma-Podi" looks similar to Sev & the machine used for it can be used to make Sev too. Anyways, making Sev is a time consuming process. Hence, you can buy it of Amazon. Check out the link to your left. While it does not exactly taste like the nylon SHello everybody!! Remember we talked about Nylon SEV in the Ragda Patties post? They are beautiful, lime-yellow savory which are used as topping in every Chaat dish possible! They're basically fried very thin noodles made of gram flour. You need aev we get in Mumbai, it IS an excellent substitute! :-)

If you are planning on making the sev at home, then you'll need the SEV-MAKER or the noodle maker. I found this cheap one on Amazon. (look below) Even though the holes are huge, I'm sure they'll taste great. Here's the recipe you have to follow to make the SEV :-

Ingredients:
Besan/ Gram Flour/ Chickpea Flour - 1 cup
Hing/Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Haldi/Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Hot Oil - 2 tablespoons
Oil for deep-fryingSalt to taste

  

Method:

1. Mix flour, Salt, Hot Oil, Asafoetida, turmeric with very little water (around 3 to 4 tbsps) to prepare a stiff dough.

2. Get the Sev-Pressing machine or the noodle maker. Choose the one with very tiny holes. 

3. Fill the dough into the utensil and press out strands to form a mesh directly in hot Oil.

4.  Deep fry on low flame and remove on tissue paper.

5. Let it cool, crush it and store in airtight containers

Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Ganache Icing

Yo!

I've already posted both about the Vanilla Cake & Chocolate Ganache. This post is dedicated to only assembling the cake. I posted both those recipes separately because you can use the Ganache on any other cake. Similarly, you can use any other icing for the Vanilla Cake too!

Here's how you assemble our cake -

Things you'll need
Vanilla Sponge Cake
Chocolate Ganache
Whipped Cream (optional - for decoration)
White & Dark Chocolate Chips (optional - for decoration)
Sugar Syrup (optional - to make the cake soft)

Method
1. Cut the cake horizontally into 2 or 3 pieces. (I was in a hurry, so I cut it into 2 pieces only)
2. Keep the bottom piece on a plate & sprinkle some sugar syrup all over the piece.

3. Apply some whipped cream on top of it. (this step is optional. I had some left-over whipped cream from the Black Forest Cake day, so I applied it on this cake too. If you don't have it, you can totally skip it)

4. Pour some Ganache into a glass or vessel with a small spout. Then, slowly, start pouring the Ganache all over the cake. Start from the middle & keep pouring it until the half cake it completely covered.

5. You can add some Chocolate Chips here if you want.
6. If you want to have a thick filling - wait until the first layer of Ganache has completely cooled & settled on the cake. Then, pour the Ganache again on the piece. But you have to do this BEFORE you close the layer with another layer.
6. Arrange the upper half of the cake right on top of the lower half. Again, repeat the same process of pouring the Ganache on top of the Cake. Let it cool completely. Repeat a second time if you want.

 

7. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes before you serve. This makes the Ganache really settle into the Cake & make it gooey! :-)
8. Use a piping gun & decorate the cake with Whipped cream if you want.
ENJOY!

This was the first time I ever used a piping gun. I put in the whipped cream. But it was probably too frozen in the beginning. Hence, I couldn't write my cousin's name properly. Anyhoo, that's how you learn right? By the way, for people who didn't understand, I've tried to write "Ramji"on the cake! :-)


Points to be noted
- Make sure the Ganache is neither too thick nor too thin. Mine was thinner than what is required. Hence, it didn't really stay on the cake the first time I poured it. So I had to refrigerate the ganache for about 30 minutes, whip it again & then pour it.
- Keep a butter paper below the cake. This will ensure that all the excess Ganache can be collected & used again. I kept the cake at an elevation.
- If you have some excess Ganache, just store it in your refrigerator. It lasts for a long time! :-)

Whipped Cream

Whipped Cream is a must for many of our cakes! Whipped cream is what makes the cake look & taste even better! You can also use whipped cream as a topping for your fruit salad & a whole lot of other things! I thought I'll dedicate a post to Whipped cream alone. Although, I did write about it in short in my Black Forest post. 


Things You'll Need
Heavy Whipping Cream
Wire Whisk (manual or electric)
Mixing Bowl


Method
1. Start by chilling a clean stainless steel bowl, a whisk, and the cream in the refrigerator or freezer for about 30 minutes. Let them get nice and cold, but don't freeze the cream. (Cream is easier to whip when cold. )
2. Pour the cream, when chilled, in the bowl and start whisking. Hold the whisk like a dagger, with the wire part pointing down, and use your wrist and elbow for the motion, not your shoulder
3. It'll take about 10-15 minutes manually & 5-6 minutes via an electric whipper for the whipped cream to be ready for use. Light and foamy is best for topping cakes and desserts as an accompaniment; stiff and firm is best to use as a cake frosting or to make mousse. Keep whipping until you see soft peaks like these - 

I apologize for not clicking more pictures. Even this one doesn't have much clarity! But I hope you get the idea.

You can make whipped cream just for the sake of it! It tastes really good with fruits too!!! :-)

Chocolate Ganache

Heard of Ganache? (to be pronounced as ganaash) It is a spread or filling or icing made from heavy cream and chocolate. It is smooth & velvety! It is very very easy to make! They are different ways of making the Ganache. It can be a thick paste, or a semi-liquid. 

Ingredients

Heavy Cream/ Whipping Cream - 200 ml

Semi-Sweet Chocolate** - 200 grams (cut into small pieces)

Unsalted Butter - 2 tablespoons

Rum/Brandy - 1 tablespoon (optional)

** You get chocolate slabs in the market. Do not use any of the already cooked & sold (?) chocolates like Diary Milk, Hershey's etc.

Method 1

1. Break chocolate into small pieces & set aside. Heat the heavy whipping cream and the butter together in a saucepan over medium flame.

2. When it starts boiling, switch off the stove & pour the cream all over the broken chocolate

3. Allow to to stand for a minute or two.

4. Stir it gently with a wire whisk or a spatula. Don't beat to fast as you'll incorporate air into the ganache making it too thin.

5. If you want, you can add your brandy here! I skipped coz I haven't & will never touch alcohol! :D :P

6. Keep whisking it till you get a nice mixture. If it is too liquid-y, let it set for some time. It'll become thick. Depends upon what you want to use it for. If you want it as a filling for a truffle, you'll need it to be like a thick paste. In such cases, it helps to even keep the ganache in the refrigerator for 30 minutes! :-)

7. If the ganache is too thick, just keep the vessel containing Ganache on warm water. It'll start melting. You can whisk it once more & pour! :-

8. The measurements I've given makes enough ganache to cover a 9 inch cake twice! :-)

unfortunately, I didn't click pics for every step when I made the Ganache because I was in a hurry! But I promise some great pics the next time! :-)

METHOD 2

Got this from a cookbook

1. Break the chocolate into small pieces. Put them in a bowl.

2. Boil water in another vessel.

3. When the water boils, place the bowl with chocolate pieces on the boiling water.

4. Constantly stir the chocolate or it'll get burnt. Also add the butter to the chocolate

5. Once the chocolate has completely melted, check the temperature to be not more than 85-90 C.

6. Pour the chocolate onto cold whipping (heavy) cream.

7. Keep whipping it continuously for about 10 minutes with a manual whipper or about 5 minutes with an electric one.

8. Your Ganache is ready! :-)

If anyone has tried Method number 2, do let me know! I haven't tried it yet! 

So, now that we know how to make Chocolate Ganache, lets proceed decorating our Vanilla cake. :-) Oh, not here! You'll have to wait until the next post! :-P

Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake

My quest for the perfect sponge cake ends here. This is a no-fail recipe. Anybody who tries it has to get a totally spongy cake!

Ingredients
All purpose flour / Maida - 225 grams
Condensed Milk - 400 ml (1 can)
Melted Butter - 100 grams
Baking Powder - 2 teaspoons
Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
Yogurt - 4 tablespoons (I used vanilla flavoured Yogurt.)
Milk - 200 ml
Vanilla Essence - 2 teaspoons
Powdered Sugar - 2 teaspoons (optional)

 

  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Grease an 8 or 9 inch baking pan. (Don't know how to grease a baking pan? Click here)
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and soda bi-carb (Baking Soda) & powdered sugar together. I added extra sugar because of my sweet tooth. You can skip the sugar if you want.
4. Use a hand blender or a Spatula or a wire whisk to thoroughly mix the butter & condensed milk together.
5. Add vanilla esseence & the yogurt and again beat it until you get a smooth mixture.
6. Add one fourth of the flour mixture to the butter-milk micture & beat it. Then add a little bit of milk and beat agai. In this way, keep pouring the milk & flour mixture alternatively until the entire flour mixture is finished.
7. Make sure you don't pour a lot of milk. The whole mixture shoudn't be too liquid-y nor to sloid-y :-D :-D (unfortunately, I didn't click a pic of the mixture. Will do so the next time. Until then, trust your instincts & my recipe! J)
8. Pour the mixture into a greased cake tin. Bake at 200°C for 10 minutes. Thereafter, reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for 20 minutes.
                             
9. Insert a toothpick into the cake. If it comes out clean, your cake is done. If not, bake for another 5-10 minutes. Keep checking with the toothpick every 5 minutes! J

The cake came out really well! Even better than my Chocolate cake, which unfortunately had a single crack! This one was smooth, spongy, & tasted yumtastic! Of course, like I said before, I topped it with Chocolate Ganache (read about it here) But you can enjoy the cake without the frosting too!! Warm cake with tea sounds delicious, doesn't it? So go make it folks! :-D

Ragda Puri (& Dahi Puri)

Heyo People!
Now that I've posted about Ragda Patties, what to do with the leftover Ragda stew? Simple! Make Ragda Puris! :-D :-D They are another famous Chaat dish that taste absolutely delicious! And they are ridiculously easy to make! I'm writing the recipe for Dahi Puri too because they're almost similar.

What you'll need - 
Puris - 8 pieces (you can use how many ever you want to make!) J
Chopped Onions - 1 small cup
Boiled & Mashed Potato - 1 medium sized
Ragda - 1 cup
Green Chutney - 2 tablespoons
Sweet Chutney - 2 tablespoons
Chaat Powder - as per taste
Coriander / Parsley (finely chopped)- 2 tablespoons
Curds (or Dahi) - 1 cup
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Nylon Sev

Method
For Ragda Puri
1. Arrange 8 puris on a plate. With your thumb, gently press the centre of the Puri to get a hole in the middle.
2. Fill in the puris with a little bit of mashed potato & chopped onion

3. Boil the ragda with a little water to make it into pouring consistency. Then fill the puris with Ragda all over.

 

4. Mix some water with 2 tablespoons of the Mint-Coriander chutney. Again, pour them into all the Puris

  

5. Similarly, mix water with Dates-Tamarind chutney & pour them all over the puris

 

6. Sprinkle some Chaat Powder all over the puris.
7. Fill the Puris with Nylon Sev or simply plain Sev.

8. Squeeze some lemon on top of it & decorate with some Coriander / Parsley leaves.

 

For DAHI PURI

- All the above steps remain the same. 

- Instead of pouring Ragda, mix curds with some salt & chaat powder and pour them all over the Puris

- Decorate with Sev.

 

Enjoy! J

Puri / Puchka

Hello folks! 


I continue with my Chaat-making journey. Today, I’m going to talk about the PURI used in Paani Puri (also known as Gol Gappa), Dahi Puri, Ragda Puri et al. If you’re in India, then you’ll have absolutely NO problem finding these Puris in the market. You can find it in almost any general store. However, if you have no access to these Puris, then fret not. We can absolutely make them at home! To be honest, it is a labour intensive process. So if you can get them from out, then please do so! :-D


Here’s what you’ll need -
All purpose flour / Maida – 1 cup
Semolina / Rawa – 2 cups
Rice flour – ½ cup
Black gram flour/ Urad dal atta – 2 tablespoons (optional)
1 tbsp oil or gheeSalt – 1 tablespoon (or to taste)
Water - for kneading
Oil for deep frying


How to proceed - 
1. Combine all the mentioned ingredients (except oil for deep frying), adding water slowly and make a dough. Leave aside covered with damp cloth for 30-40 minutes. (important!)
2. Knead the dough again. Pinch off some dough and make very small balls. Roll out small thin round shaped disks (like Rotis), using the rim of a container to cut out the round shape.
Alternative:- rolling the dough into smalls balls can be time consuming & boring! So what I did was to separate the dough into 4 or 5 big portions. Rolled it out into large round shaped disk. And then I took a very small bottle cap & just cut of small round disks like these - 

3. Heat enough oil for deep frying. It should be on medium high (the oil should not be very hot) Once it is hot, slide few disks into the hot oil and using the back of the ladle, press in the center and along the edges and you will find that it will puff up.
4. Flip over and fry the other side till light golden brown. Don’t fry too much as it will turn too dark. Remove on to absorbent paper.

5. Cool and store in an air tight container and use when required.


These Puris are crispy & can be used for Gol Gappa (Pani Puri), Ragda Puri, Dahi Puri etc. If you have the time, energy & the interest, then do try to make them at home! :-)

Ragda PATTIES

FINALLY! J J J
After covering all the basics of Mumbai Fast foods, (Green Chutney, Sweet Chutney, Ragda, Chaat Masala) I'm finally going to post about one of my favorite fast foods - the Ragda Patties! Insanely easy yet amazingly tasty! What more can you ask for? Having a party? Make Patties. Bored of the usual foods? Make Patties. Have any leftovers? Make patties! J
A Patty is a flattened, usually round shaped serving of vegetables or meat. Of course, since I'm a vegetarian, I'll be showing you how to make Vegetable Patties only! ;-)


Ragda Patties is damn easy! I had already posted about how to make Ragda. If you haven't read that, be sure to read it because Patties taste best with Ragda. Of course, you can have them without it too! You can have them with sauce or any other dipping!

FOR THE PATTIES
Ingredients
Boiled Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized
Bread Slices - 2
Semolina / Rawa - (A palm-full) around 2-3 tablespoons
Any other cooked vegetables - 1 cup (I skipped & made only potato patty)
Green Chilli - 3-4 (chopped)
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 teaspoons
Turmeric (Haldi) powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1 tablespoon (or as per taste)
Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoons
Finely chopped Coriander leaves - 1 small cup
Basil/ Mint etc - 1/2 cup (optional)
Cornflour - 1 tablespoon (to be added only if the mixture isn't too thick)
Oil - to shallow fry


Method
1. Mash the potatoes in a bowl. (if you're using other vegetables, you can add them too. Make sure you don't add veggies that tend to leave a lot of water - like tomatoes, cucumbers etc.)

2. Grind the Bread slices to get bread crumbs. If not, tear the bread in very small pieces.

3. Add the bread crumbs, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, green chillies, salt, red chilli powder, Semolina (rawa), coriander, mint, basil leaves to the vegetables.

4. Mix them & knead them with your hand. Do not smash them to much.
5. If you find the mixture to not be thick, add the cornflour.
6. Make small balls of the mixture.

7. Place one ball in a hand & gently press it with the other to form a diskette. If the sides of the round disk leaves cracks, join them with your fingers.

8. Heat around 1-2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a pan. Place 2-3 patties on the pan & let it cook for about a minute on medium flame.

9. Gently turn the patties so that the other side can get cooked too.

10. Leave the patties on the stove for about 5 minutes each side again on low flame so that they get nice and crispy on both sides.

  

11. Remove & place them on a tissue paper to absorb excess oil
12. Enjoy with Ragda, sauce, mint chutney, sweet chutney or any dipping of your choice! J
****************************************************************


To assemble the Ragda & Patties:-
1. Place 1 or 2 patties on a plate.
2. Mix some already prepared Mint-Coriander chutney with some water. Pour it all over the patties.

3. Now mix the Sweet tamarind dates chutney with water to make it into pouring consistency. Pour it all over the patties.

4. Sprinkle some Chaat Powder all over the patties.
5. If the Ragda has thickened, mix it with water & boil it. (Ragda patties taste the best when ragda is boiling hot!)
6. Pour enough ragda all over the patties. A lot of the stew can flow all over the plate too.

7. Add some chopped onions all over the mixture.

8. Now add some chopped coriander leaves.

9. Squeeze a tiny piece of Lemon on top of it.
10. You can enjoy it this way, or add some Nylon Sev (if you can't find this, then normal Sev. You can make this at home too. Will post about it later on) on top of it & have it! :-)

Your comments are welcome! :-) :-)