White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

I have been baking a Christmas cake for the past two years and it has become nice way to bring in the holiday spirit - right from marinating the fruit to baking it on Christmas Eve. This was the first time in the last eight years we weren't at the our friend's house in Chennai for Christmas - but the cake still managed to please new friends. And the special part of baking it this year was that a couple of months back I got to meet my friend in London who had given me this recipe some years back. We have only been emailing each other for almost 8 years now so it was wonderful to actually get to meet her!



This year, I also baked some cookies - adapted this recipe which was itself adapted from this one
from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated. I love crispy cookies much more than the chewy ones so I loved the idea of these. They are actually not so much crispy rather than this kind of absolutely gorgeous vehicle to transport some rich chocolate and oatey goodness into your mouth!! I did away with the sea salt and reduced the oatmeal, threw in some dried cherries and Voila! - absolutely delicious cookies. I had to stop myself from eating the dough while waiting for the first batch to cook :)

Sending these cookies to Neivedyam's Cookie Baking Event which is being hosted by Sharmi.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups
Oats - 1 cup (I used quick cooking oats)
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 200gms
White chocolate(chopped) - 170 gms
Egg -1
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dried cherries - 50gms
Sugar - 1 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl till smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and place it inside a bowl of heated water and microwave in 30 second intervals till melted and smooth.
3. Beat the egg and add to the creamed butter and sugar mixing lightly till combined.
4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and then add gradually to the egg mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate to the bowl and combine with a wooden spatula.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for about half an hour so that it can be shaped into balls - do not skip this step!
7. Pre heat the oven to 180C (350F), cut butter paper to size and spread on a baking tray.
8. Shape the cookie dough into balls, flatten slightly and place on the baking tray atleast 2 inches apart (they will spread and flatten as they bake). Don't handle the cookie dough for too long since the chocolate and butter will start melting.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the butter paper with the cookies on it and set aside to cool. They are very fragile before they cool so don't try to remove them from the butter paper when hot.
10. Bake more batches in the same way till the dough is used up.

Kozhi Vartha Curry

Secrets and scoops, clothes and coffee, wisdom and wine - girlfriends share it all. And what better way to do all this than over a long, lazy lunch on a lovely winter's day?! A mid week holiday is one of the best things to happen to a working woman trying to juggle half a dozen things. So when one came my way last week I started thinking of all the chores I could finish - the gas ordering, buying winter clothes, claims, bank work.

Midway I paused and thought to myself - life is too short to let a whole day pass by without enjoying it. I decided to spend time with my daughter and do something for myself too. Called up the usual suspects - girlfriends I have made in the past one year and who have become really good friends. Two of them couldn't make it but two others did. R's daughter is my daughter's best friend so she came along too and they had a ball while the three of us chatted and caught up over lunch.

I planned some simple home food - Sambar, cabbage porial, steamed rice and salad. I decided to make a spicy chicken curry. Kozhi Vartha Curry seemed to be the perfect dish to go with the Tamil meal, so I dug out my trusted recipe - it is heavily (very heavily) adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe and I have found it works best for me. Kozhi means chicken in Tamil, Vartha refers to frying the chicken pieces.

It turned out quite fiery and had the right amount of sourness to make it a perfect accompaniment to the steamed rice. The sambar ended up being slurped out of bowls in true non-South Indian style :) - the same as this one but with pumpkin in it.
It was one of those really nice afternoons when you really don't know how time passes - we discussed everything under the sun - school admissions (trying), the terrorist attack (outrageous and tragic), the Faberge exhibition on at the National Museum (fabulous), Dostana(terrible), the new Bond movie (disapoointing), pending book lists (long) - and before we knew it it was 5 pm!

I'm glad I picked the lunch over chores - my inbuilt guilt mechanism ensured I finished my chores over the weekend. So what would you have chosen - hope my story encourages some of you to treat yourself sometimes!

Kozhi Vartha Curry

Ingredients:

Chicken - 800 gms cut into 12- 14 pieces

Marination:
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - pinch
Yoghurt - 1/2 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp

Masala paste:
Ginger - 2 " piece
Garlic - 6-8 cloves
Red chillies - 4
Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5-6
Onions - 2 chopped fine
Tomatoes - 3 chopped fine
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Crushed black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp

Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp or a juice extracted from a marble size ball.

1. Clean the chicken and marinate in yoghurt, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt mixture for atleast 2 hours.
2. Grind the masala ingredients to a smooth paste adding water as needed.
3. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add the curry leaves and the chopped onions and saute for 4 minutes on low.
4. Add the chicken pieces along with the marinade and masala paste and fry on high for 5-7 minutes allowing each side to sear till it turns a bit brown before turning it over.
5. Add the chopped tomato and fry till it is mushy, then add the coriander powder and salt and fry for about 2 minutes.
6. Add 1 cup water and bring to boil, reduce flame and cook covered for about 12-15 minutes till the chicken is tender.
7. Adjust the salt, add the tamarind pulp and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
8. Add the garam masala and crushed black pepper and remove from flame - serve with steamed rice.

Notes: the recipe is quite spicy, reduce a couple of chillies if you like it less spicy.
I also removed a couple of pieces from the marinade and grilled it for about 20 minutes at 180C - it was well flavoured and juicy.

Carrot & Mustard Bread

It's funny how certain things you buy seem to acquire a vibe or a kind of reputation attached to them. Like that dress which you seem to be perpetually running late in or spilling things on or the car which always seems to be getting into scrapes while the other one you owned only reminds you of all the lovely, long road trips you have taken.

Of course, it could be that you always spend time looking for matching earrings for that particular dress, which is why you run late or you love wearing a particular dress for lazy lunches - and if you're anything like me that's a guaranteed recipe for splotches and stains!. And of course we took more road trips as a cozy couple and handed over the car to a driver when the kid came along!!

Inspite of all the rational explanations, these things seem to stick in our mind. The same thing happened with a lovely loaf tin my friend picked up for me when she saw a dealon while shopping. This was in June and immediately after that I somehow simply stopped baking! It had everything to do with the fact that I went back to full time work in July, but of course I blamed it on the poor loaf tin.

The best way to break that jinx? - bake something in it! So, I brought out my Sara Lewis book and saw this lovely Carrot & Mustard bread. I started quite late (around 7.30pm) and realised later it would only become colder as time wore on - definitely not ideal bread baking time. But I just can't seem to give up an idea once it takes hold, so I soldiered on. The yeast was fine and bubbled over, but when I kneaded the bread and left in a warm oven, it really didn't rise as much as it normally does. So I left it for almost an hour and 45 minutes before the second proofing. Kneaded it again and shaped the dough into three small buns and one oblong loaf.

30 minutes later it had not risen much at all and I was really sleepy and didn't think it was going to rise much anyway, so popped it into the oven to bake after glazing it. It baked quite beautifully and the glaze made it a nice golden top. But the inside of the bread, though cooked, was not the lovely spongy texture I look forward to....I guess, now that it's winter, I should stick to baking in the day when its a bit warmer. Or maybe it was the fact that I had used whole wheat flour instead of "granary flour" and plain flour instead of "strong white flour" and did not change the proportions. The flavours of the carrot and mustard were excellent though - definitely worth a second attempt.

Ah, well, atleast now the jinx has been broken and I can stop blaming the loaf tin........on the other hand, maybe I can blame the loaf tin for the bread!*evil grin*

This loaf of carrot bread specially to dear Cooker who is hosting this month's edition of JFI - where the ingredient is the Carrot. Jihva for Ingredients (JFI) is the brainchild of Indira and is probably one of the longest running Indian food blog events. Thank you Cooker for extending the last date!

Carrot & Mustard Bread
Recipe adapted from Sara Lewis's The Bread Book

Ingredients:
Wheat flour (atta) - 200gm (approx 2 1/4 cups)
Refined flour (maida) - 150gm (approx 1 3/4 cups)
Water - 200ml (1 cup)
Dried active yeast - 3 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Honey - 1 tsp
Mustard - 2 tbsp
Carrots - grated, 1 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Egg yolk - 1

Method:
1. Warm up the water, dissolve the sugar in it and when lukewarm add the yeast to it. Keep aside for about 15 minutes till it bubbles and froths.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flours with the butter, rubbing till it resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add the salt, honey, mustard, grated carrot and the yeast mixture and knead for 10 minutes to a smooth dough.
4. Cover with an oiled clingwrap and set aside in a warm place for about an hour or till it doubles in size.
5. Knead again and shape into an oblong loaf or form into a thick rope and twist from one side like a corkscrew.
6. Put into a greased loaf tin (I used a 1 litre loaf tin for the loaf and made the rest of the dough into three small rolls) and set aside for another 30 minutes till it rises to the top (depending on the height of the tin).
7. Pre heat the oven to 200C, brush the egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp water on to the top of the loaf and then bake for about 30-35 minutes. If the top is browning too much after the first 15 minutes, cover with foil and continue baking.
8. Remove from oven, the bread should sound hollow when tapped. Remove from tin carefully and keep on wire rack to cool.

Sweet Corn, Pepper & Pumpkin Stew

Winter evenings are magical, especially when you have a bowl of steaming "something" to warm your insides. No wonder people put on weight during the winter, my appetite seems to increase by leaps and bounds as the temperature drops. But winter is also when some of the best vegetables are available so it's also the best time to come up with healthy recipes.

I came across some fresh sweet corn on the cob at the local Mother Dairy and it was reasonably priced too - surprising considering even French beans are Rs. 40 a kilo!! So after my daughter polished off a couple of them - microwaved and buttered - I was wondering what to do with the rest.
I remembered a dish my friend made for lunch sometime back - it had sliced sweet corn on the cob in a thin gravy with coconut - apparently an African dish in origin. I also remembered seeing something with sweet corn and coconut on Cynthia's fabulous blog Tastes Like Home. I couldn't wait to ask either for the recipes - I wanted to cook it NOW!

So, I decided to make a stew. Stews are very forgiving....you can put pretty much anything you want in them, flavour and spice them as you like and it will turn into a dish you can peg into some kind of cuisine or the other.
I kept the spices to the minimum - bay leaf, garlic, chilli powder and thyme - and used a stock cube by Better than Bouillon. This is a brand which I have seen much recommended by Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi so when I was in London last month I made it a point to pick it up. It added lovely flavour to the stew and I don't think I will return to Maggi cubes till I run out of these!

Black eyed peas or chowli / karamani/lobia added some much needed thickness to the stew; I soaked them and cooked them in a pressure cooker for two whistles so that they would cook at the same pace as the vegetables in the stew. The sweet corn was simply amazing in the stew - juicy and dripping with flavour as you bit into the tender kernels. I served the stew with brown basmati rice. Perfect for the start of winter!

Sweet Corn, Pepper & Pumpkin Stew

1 big sweet corn-on-the-cob sliced
1 carrot chopped into big pieces
Pumpkin pieces - 1 cup
1 green pepper sliced
1 big tomato chopped
1 big onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 bay leaf
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt to taste
Olive oil - 1 tsp
1 stock cube dissolved in 500 ml of water (I used Better than Bouillon vegetable stock cube)

1/4 cup of black eyed peas (chowli/karamani/lobia)
soaked for 1 hour and cooked in the pressure cooker for 5-7 minutes (1-2 whistles) till just done

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add the bay leaf and after one minute add the garlic and onion and saute for 5 minutes.
2. Add the red chilli powder and the chopped vegetables (carrot, pepper, sweet corn,pumpkin) and the black eyed peas and the warm stock. Add salt and bring to boil.
3. Turn down the flame and cook covered on low for about 15 minutes till the vegetables are cooked.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and some dried thyme and cook for another 10 minutes. Turn off and serve warm with brown rice.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I know I have been away for too long - this post has been languishing in my drafts for a whole month!! Blame it on work, travel, school admission stress and having a life outside of the blog! To make up - here is a simple but favourite of mine.

This post on stuffed jalapenos triggered a long lost memory of some amazing stuffed capsicums my mother used to make when we had just bought our new OTG (Oven-Toaster-Grill) so many years ago. Then the novelty wore off and with it the oven recipes too. My brother and I loved those cheesy potato stuffed morsels encased in the roasted cup of a capsicum. There is something completely addictive in that combination.....

I instantly abandoned the baingan bharta plan I had in mind for dinner and switched allegiances to the bell peppers instead. Boiled some potatoes, mashed them along with spices, stuffed them into the peppers, topped the peppers with cheese and baked them. In half an hour, there was my childhood memory on a plate - still as delicious as ever! Called my mother and told her about it - she was surprised I even remembered, she says she hardly made it a few times....I wonder what my daughter's favourite memories will be.

I had some stuffing left over so I decided to add some tomatoes - they were good, but not as good as the peppers. Though I know some people like tomatoes better.

I am definitely going to try the recipe with the cheese stuffed jalapenos. The different cheeses and jalapenos may be a bit difficult though, so I might do some tweaking of my own. The egg wash and bread crumbs is a good idea though.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Bell Peppers (Capsicum) - 6-8 small
Boiled potatoes - 4 medium
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
Oil to smear on the peppers
Grated cheese - 1/2 cup

1. Mash the potatoes and mix with red chilli powder and cumin powder and salt.
2. With a sharp knife, cut the tops of the peppers out and scoop out the seeds and stalks from inside without damaging the pepper.
3. Fill the peppers with the potato stuffing and top with grated cheese.
4. Smear the outside of the peppers with oil and then bake in a pre heated oven at 350F or 180 C for about 30 minutes, turning once in between.
5. Its okay if the peppers don't stand upright, if properly stuffed, the stuffing won't fall out.

Olive and Feta Cheese Spiced Rustic Bread

Haven't baked bread for a long long time now though I have been itching to get into the kitchen for a spot of baking. Oh the joys of full time work! It's worse when you know one of your birthday gifts was a book on breads by Sara Lewis and you have been using it as bedtime reading, drooling over the pics instead of sinking your teeth into one of them!

Well, though I had a very long Saturday (AGAIN!) I was determined to bake bread. So, broke out the yeast and set to work. The book had some excellent recipes for flavoured breads and I loved the Spiced Potato and Onion bread as well as the Olive and Tomato Tear and Share Bread. So what does this Gemini do when faced with making a decision - combine the recipes and modify them of course! :)

I didn't have time to boil the potatoes since it was already 7 pm. So I decided to use only the fennel and cumin from that recipe and stick to the olive bread for the most part. Since I didn't have any sun dried tomatoes at home, I decided to use feta cheese instead. I know, I know - bear with me - it gets better, I promise. Then to stir things up some more, I fried some chopped onions with the fennel and cumin seeds and kneaded it into the bread and replaced two thirds of the flour with whole wheat flour.

I was a bit worried after this whether the bread would even rise with the different proportions I had used, but I needn't have worried; the flour didn't know about my penchant for experimentation. It doubled beautifully the first time and when I added the olives and feta cheese and kept it for the second proofing, it rose again.

I baked it for 25 minutes and then covered it with foil to prevent it from browning too much and continued baking for another five minutes. The crust was beautiful and the insides were nice and soft. The flavours were really nice - the fennel and the feta cheese being a great combination!

I an sending this to the 3rd World Bread Day being hosted over at Zorro's in celebration of World Bread Day '08 which falls on October 16th this year.
The original World Bread Day - an event created by UIB International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners - wants to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance as well as their future.

Olive and Feta Cheese Spiced Rustic Bread
(Adapted from The Bread Book by Sara Lewis)

Whole Wheat flour - 3 cups
Refined flour - 1 cup and upto half a cup more if needed
Active dried yeast - 2 1/2 tsp
1.5 cups water
1 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil

Chopped Olives - 1/2 cup
Feta Cheese - 1/2 cup crumbled


1 big onion chopped fine
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
Chilli flakes - 1 tsp
1 tsp oil

1.Warm the water and mix in the sugar and yeast and leave for about 15 minutes till it froths and bubbles.
2.Heat the oil in a pan, add the cumin and fennel seeds and when they crackle, add the onions and chilli flakes and fry on low for 5 minutes till soft and browned.
3. Mix both the flours along with the yeast, onion mixture and salt and knead well for about 10 minutes to a smooth dough. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place for about an hour till it rises and doubles in size.
4.Punch the dough down and knead again for about 5 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball 8" inch in size, place on an oiled baking tray and pat in the chopped olives and sprinkle crumbled feta on top.
Keep aside for another half an hour to 45 minutes till it rises again.
5. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180C or 350F for about 25 minutes. If the crust is getting too brown in the last 10 minutes, cover with aluminum foil till done.
6.Remove from the tray and cool on a rack till completely cool.

Eral thokku (Prawns in spicy tomato sauce)

I cook prawns at home about four times a year....and the frequency has gone down even more after moving to Delhi. One of the reasons is that I like my prawns delivered home, fresh and cleaned. A rather difficult combination - you usually get frozen prawns cleaned and delivered, fresh prawns are not that easy to get delivered. The other reason is that we tend to order prawns for our meals if we go out to a seafood restaurant and not being big meat eaters don't really miss it all that much.

So, I was more than a little surprised when Hubby suggested we have prawns for Sunday lunch at home. At first I thought he was joking, then closer to lunch time when I asked him again, he said the same thing. Well, I decided then, that at such short notice we would have to do with frozen prawns from the local frozen meats guy. C R Park has an amazing sea food market and is just 5 minutes away from home, but there was no way I was going to negotiate that smelly territory, bargain with the guy and then wait there while it was cleaned!

I usually choose medium sized prawns - I have found that the Jumbo prawns, while they look great aren't as tender as the smaller ones. Marinated them and then stepped out for some grocery shopping. Back after an hour, an onion - tomato base sauteed with spices and the prawns added at the end for about 5 minutes and presto! one lip smacking dish ready for lunch!

I'm sending this dish to this month's edition of Monthly Mingle - Sensational Sides - being hosted by Ruth. Monthly Mingle is the brainchild of Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey.

Eral thokku

Prawns - 300gms
Onions - 2 big finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 big finely chopped
Garlic cloves - 2-3
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-8
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
1. Clean the prawns (devein and shell if not already done) thoroughly, making sure they don't have any veins left.
2. Marinate with half a tsp of tumeric powder and a little salt and refrigerate for about half an hour.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add the mustard seeds and when they splutter, add the curry leaves.
4. Put in the chopped onions and garlic and saute for about 5-7 minutes till it is translucent.
5. Add the chopped tomatoes and saute till they become pulpy.
6. Put in the chilli powder, coriander powder and salt and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add 1/4 cup of water and bring to boil.
7. Reduce flame and simmer, add the marinated prawns and cook covered for 3-4 minutes. Prawns when overcooked tend to get rubbery. If they are fresh they can be cooked for about 5 minutes, frozen prawns may be pre cooked and require lesser cooking time.
8. Turn off the heat, serve warm with rice or rotis.