Tandoori Mushroom Stuffed Buns

It had been ages since I made anything with yeast. I don't fear yeast that much anymore, but I do have to keep the weather in mind. I think I'm fairly certain now it is hot enough. We had a hailstorm earlier this week and it felt like February in April. I had a holiday yesterday and decided to make good use of it by starting my yeast baking for 2009. I was extremely happy with the results of my experiment. All 8 buns disappeared within 4 hours of my having made them. And there were only two of us at home.

For the dough:

3/4 cup Flour

3/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 1/2 tbsp Oil
1 1/2 tbsp Yeast
1 1/2 tbsp Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1/4 cup Boiling water

1/4 cup Milk
1/4 cup Coriander Leaves, chopped
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Chilli Powder

For the filling:

1/2 cup Mushrooms, finely chopped

1 Onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup Capsicum, finely chopped

1 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Paneer Tikka Masala

Salt to taste

Take a huge mixing bowl and place the oil, salt and sugar in it. Add boiling water and mix until the sugar dissolves. Add the milk now to bring the mixture to room temperature. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the flours, coriander leaves, turmeric and chilli powders and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a greased vessel and cover it with a damp muslin cloth. Allow to rise until double in size (roughly 45-50 minutes, though I guess it was cooler than I thought in Gurgaon, mine took 2 hours.)

Knead the dough for a minute and then divide into 8 equal portions.

For the filling:

Heat the oil and add the chopped onions and fry for a minute before adding the other capsicum. When the onion and capsicum are fried, add the mushroom, salt, chilli, turmeric and paneer tikka masala powders. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.

To Proceed:

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Take a portion of the dough and spread it on to your palm. Place some stuffing in the centre and bring the edges and seal. Place on a greased baking sheet or tray. Repeat with the other portions.

Allow to rise for 50-60 minutes and then bake for 12-15 minutes.

If you can make small buns out of this mixture, I'd say they would make a fantastic starter. What I really loved about these buns was the flavour. The stuffing was great and the bread was tasty too. Together, they were almost magical. I know I'll be making these more often.

Pooshnikkai Mochai Kootu

This was really my very first attempt at making kootu. I had some chopped ash gourd in my freezer. I also had some soaked and cooked hyacinth beans (rangoon mochai/avro) in the freezer. Even though I try not to use up my frozen goods on a weekend, sometimes I am my laziest best on a weekend. A quick call to Amma and I had the recipe for this kootu. It turned out to be a slight disaster as the consistency wasn't really close to that of a kootu. A real kootu should look more like this. But we still enjoyed it with some rice and yelai paruppu.

1 cup Ash Gourd, cubed

1 cup Hyacinth Beans, soaked and cooked

2 tbsp Chana Dal + 1 tsp Chana Dal

1/2 tsp Asafoetida

1 tsp Udad Dal

1/2 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 tsp Cumin

1/2 tsp Pepper

2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

1 tsp Oil

Salt to taste

For the tempering:

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

7-8 Curry Leaves

Pressure cook the ash gourd with 2 tablespoons of chana dal. Add the hyacinth beans. Add the asafoetida to this.

In a frying ladle, heat a teaspoon of oil. Add the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, pepper, along with the udad and chana dals. Fry for a minute. Grind this along with the coconut to a fine paste.

Add this paste to the ash gourd-bean mixture along with some salt and mix well.

In a frying ladle, heat another teaspoon of oil and add the mustard to it. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this tempering to the kootu.

You have great tasting comfort food on the table. Enjoy this with rice and paruppu and when you're done with lunch, settle down in front of the TV and doze maybe?

Yelai Paruppu

This dish isn't really a dish. I mean, it doesn't classify as a dish. But many meals would be incomplete if this little dish didn't make an appearance. Mixed with rice and ghee, this becomes the staple food of thousands of little children. In fact, at my parents' home, mor kuzhambu, menthi kuzhambu, avial and kootu are never made without this little sidekick. This is just plain old Yelai Paruppu.

Since I talk about this a lot, I decided to share the "recipe" with you.

1 cup Red Gram Dal (Toor Dal)

Salt to Taste

Pressure cook the dal with 2-3 cups of water. Drain the water and keep aside. You could use it to make rasam.

Mash the dal and add some salt. The "dish" is ready.

We usually mix some of this yelai paruppu with some rice and then eat it with mor kuzhambu. You could enjoy this whichever way you like.

Spicy Crackers

There's a limit to the number of fried snacks you can eat or serve at a party. Pop corn is a good idea as is Bhel Puri. I found that these crackers are great with drinks. They're crisp (sort of like thin thattais) and they're baked, not fried. I found the recipe for this in The Cookie Book and modified it. (The recipe called for curry powder which I don't have. Read this for curry powder related amusement.)

1/2 cup Flour

1/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Sambar Powder

1/4 tsp Chilli Powder

2 tbsp Coriander, chopped

2 tbsp Water

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix all the ingredients to make a firm dough. Knead well and then allow to sit for 5-10 minutes. Divide the dough into 15-20 small balls. Roll out each ball thinly, using a little flour if necessary. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes, turning them once when they are halfway through.

These crackers taste great with some salsa on the side. I'm quite sure you could play around with the spices to get different flavours each time. This time, since my crackers have chilli powder and coriander leaves, I'm sending this to FIC: Red and Green. I'm also sending these to JFI: Cilantro.

Moong Kosumbari (Yugadi /Rama Navami Pachadi)

This is a very simple dish that is made on Yugadi as well as Rama Navami. It has a nice tang from green mangoes which is probably the reason I enjoy this the most. (Please note that this is not the Ugadi Pachadi that is made in Andhra Pradesh.)

I made this in bulk last week to take to a slightly belated Yugadi celebration at the New Delhi Konkani Sabha on Sunday. I made this for 70 people. I expected to bring back a lot of it. I even joked to S that we could take a box each to work the next day. As it turned out, we did have lots left when people began leaving. Just when I started to close my boxes, a lady walked up to me and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like to take some of this home." I was thrilled. I emptied all the contents of one box into her container. She eyed the next box. I quickly emptied that as well. She said, "I came back quickly because I definitely wasn't going back without the pachadi." I said, "Thanks, I'm honoured." She looked at me and her expression was one of complete surprise. I probably didn't look like one of those people who could (and would) have anything to do cooking. But hey, I was thrilled.

Such encounters always take me back to this topic. But it could just be me. People who know me also know how lazy I can be. Considering I commute from Gurgaon to NOIDA and back everyday, they probably expect that I would not lift a finger. In a way, I'd like for people to think that of me. (The lower the expectations, the happier they'll be with anything I do.)

Coming to my "nearly award winning" recipe:

2-3 tbsp Cucumber, grated or finely chopped

1/2 cup Moong Dal, washed and soaked for an hour
2 tbsp scraped Coconut
1 tsp Green Chilli-Ginger paste

1 small Raw Mango, grated (or juice of 1 Lime)
Salt to Taste
Coriander leaves for garnish

For the tempering:
1 tsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves

Grind the coconut along with the chilli-ginger paste and make a rough chutney like paste.

Place the soaked moong dal in a large bowl. Add the ground paste, cucumber, raw mango, salt and mix well. In a small kadhai or frying ladle, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and asafoetida, and when the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the cucumber mixture.

Your pachadi is ready. Go ahead and make this on Rama Navami and get ready to get appreciation by the truck load. This is the last of the three part series on Rama Navami. I think I have finally gotten around to at least cooking and posting about things festive.

Panakam

As a continuation to yesterday's post, I present another drink that is traditionally made on Rama Navami at my place. Panakam. During all my growing up years, I must say I preferred this drink over Neer Mor. Today, I think I've moved from sweet to savoury. I wonder if it is me or my waistline.

1/4 cup Jaggery

2 cups Water

1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder

1 tsp Dry Ginger Powder

Dissolve the jaggery in a little water. Strain this mixture. Add the remaining water, ginger powder and cardamom powder. Serve chilled.

As a variation, you could add the freshly squeezed juice from 1 lime. A friend of mine brought me some panakam around 4-5 years ago. That was when I was introduced to the "lime juice in panakam" concept. Last year, I made two batches of panakam, one with lime juice and one without. I loved both.

Neer Mor

As you must have noticed, I am not the best when it comes to celebrating festivals or cooking festival related food. I shared with all of you my first Gowri-Ganesha celebration. And since then, I have tried to do what Amma did during festivals. I worry that my "celebrations" will soon be limited to cooking alone. Some part of me tells me that there's nothing wrong with that.

Last year, I was alone during Rama Navami. I didn't want to cook a feast for one person. I made two drinks that Amma makes every year on Rama Navami. This year, I hope to make those two along with some of the other things that are traditionally made.

Sitting in my drafts for a year now, I bring to you this simple recipe. Customary on Sri Rama Navami but welcome at any time during the long summer months is this spiced buttermilk: Neer Mor.

1 cup Curd

4 cups Water

2-3 Green Chillies, chopped finely

1 tsp Ginger Paste

3-4 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped finely

Salt to taste

Beat the curd until smooth. Blend with the water. Add the salt, coriander leaves, ginger paste and green chillies. Mix well. Serve cold.

I don't wait for this festival to make this drink, but it seemed apt to share this with all of you when the festival is just round the corner.