Sweet Pretzels

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  The first time I had pretzels, it was the hard-baked miniatures.  They are the most tasteless, almost chalk-like things I have ever tasted!  It felt like someone cooked it with the sole purpose of keeping one's mouth busy, and not for taste at all.  Obviously, I never liked it and still don’t.   However, the minute I bit into a spongy, sweet, plump pretzel sold on a cart in the middle of a shopping mall in Antioch, Tennessee, I was hooked. Instant love!  

 




This morning when I decided to skip breakfast, I had no clue the thought of saying no to food could trigger a furious desire to eat.  In short, I succumbed to my carnal self and baked some spongy pretzels just like the one on the cart I had on a rainy, summer afternoon.  Maybe it was not raining, but I am just saying.  The whole pretzel experience was so good that my mind has automatically started associating it with my other favorite feature, the rain.   Breakfast ended up being quite good this morning.  The aroma of baking bread filled the room so much it was almost tangible.  It’s pure pleasure to delve into spongy, moist pretzels, and wash it down with a hot cuppa!  Now I have enough zing to get out and burn some of it off on the treadmill. 




  The recipe for the pretzels is from the Swedish Cakes and Cookies book, but I have changed some of their tedious measurements.  When I tried to convert the dl to cups, I found they were a little off.  Hence, I have made my own corrections, and the pretzels came out well.

While I sweat it out on the treadmill I hope you have a pleasant experience with baking in your kitchen. Ciao!



Ingredients:

Butter - 7 Tbspn
Milk   - 300 ml (1 cup is 250 ml)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Salt    - 1/4 tspn
Active Dry Yeast - 1 Satchel ( 2 1/4 tspn)
All purpose Flour - 3 1/2 cups
Egg - 1 Beaten for brushing

Method:
1. Melt butter on low heat in a sauce pan and add milk when melted and turn off the heat when the mixture is luke warm (115 D F)
2. Add the sugar and yeast and whisk until the yeast is dissolved
3. Add half of the flour and stir with a spatula to combine
4. Add the remaining flour and knead
5. Slide it onto a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into 16 parts
6. Roll each part in the palm of your hand as long as you can and shape into pretzels
7. Make sure there is enough space in between the twist and let is rise for 30 -45 minutes
8. Brush egg and bake in a preheated oven for 5 - 8 minutes or until golden brown on top

Oven Temperature: 475 D F
Convection: 425 D F

Contributor: Sunitha

Apple Cobbler

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    It has been a pleasantly-hectic weekend with family.  We packed in a lot of traveling, eating, joking and general banter over the course of  three days my brother-in-law and family visited.  I enjoyed myself thoroughly and was super energetic through the days!  As soon as they left,  I deflated like a popped balloon.  Here is what happened:



My b-i-l recommends power naps highly. So much that we caught him at it quite a few times through our travelling.  But every time he awoke after these naps, he was super enthusiastic, and I decided it was time to test this theory myself.  I chose my day for this experiment to be yesterday (after they left), and my power nap ended up being embarrassingly long.  That is my excuse for not showing up online yesterday.  Let's blame it on power naps shall we? :) However, I am here to make this all right now.   I have a dessert which will knock your socks off!

 


When the family visited, I made some apple cobbler and it was received quite well. If it's that good, then I know you will be interested to know more.  Here you are, enjoy!



Ingredients:
For the Apple Layer:
Apples        - 3 Gala and 2 Granny Smith
Sugar          - 1/2 cup and 2 Tbspn granulated Sugar
Flour           - 2 Tbspn
Vanilla Essence - 1 Tbspn
Cinnamon Powder - 2 Tspn
Butter - 2 Tbspn
Water                    - 1/4 tspn
Salt                       - 1/4 tspn

For the Crust:

Sugar - 1/2 Cup
Butter - 2 Tbspn
Egg    - 1 Large
Baking Powder - 1/2 Tspn
Flour - 1/2 Cup
Salt    - 1/4 Tspn

Method:
1. Peel the apple and cut into small pieces
2. Mix ingredients under "For the Apple Layer"
3. Grease a 9 inch pan with butter and add apple mixture and set aside

For Topping:
1. Beat all the ingredients under 'topping' and spoon over the top of the apple mixture in small portions around.
2. The batter will spread while baking and cover the top.
3. Space the batter out evenly to allow spreading and covering the top while baking.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 350 D F for 35 - 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown
Don't forget to serve it warm with cold vanilla ice cream.

Pistachio-Date Muffins

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Have you tried Indian spices like cardamom in your muffins? I did for the first time and it is incredible.  Absolutely!  If you like cardamom then you will love this believe me at the cost of sounding repetitive.  The minute I found this in the latest cook book (Flavored breads) I am going through I was excited.  Pistachios and cardamom are synonymous with Indian sweets for me and I was quite excited to try it in a muffin.  Now looking back, the excitement was well worth it because the muffin lived up to the expectation and is becoming a great favorite with the family.  Loved it.. try it you will too.



These are toooo good, loved the cardamom flavor in it. 
PS: These are quite rich too :-)



Ingredients:

Pistachios, lightly toasted- 1 cup
All purpose flour- 1/2 cup
Whole wheat Flour- 1/4 cup
Baking powder- 3 tsp
Granulated sugar- 1/4 cup
Salt- 1/2tsp
Ground Cardamom- 1/2 tsp
Ground Ginger- 1/3 tsp
Pitted, chopped dates/Dried fruits- 2 cups
Unsalted butter- 1/2 cup
Brown sugar- 1/3 cup
Honey- 2 Tbsp
Milk- 1 cup
Eggs- 2

Method:

1.Preheat the oven at 375 degree F.Prepare muffin pans by greasing or by lining with paper liners.
2.Grind together the pistachios and flours together in a blender, until pistachios are ground well.
3.Mix the remaining drying ingredients and mix with with the pistachio-flour mixture.
4.Stir in the dates/ dry fruits and mix.
5.Whisk together the butter and sugar followed by eggs, honey and milk.
6.Using a wooden spoon, fold this into the flour mixture.Take care, not to overmix.
7.Spoon this batter into the prepared muffin pans. It's ok to fill it up, since this won't rise like the other muffins.I filled them little more than 3/4th and they rose only upto the top edge of the pans.
8.Bake for about 16-18 minutes or until the top turns brown.
9.Cool on a wire rack before storing them in an airtight container.

Notes:

1.This is slightly on the sweeter side.
2.The original recipe calls for dates.Since I had only one cup of dates in my pantry, I used one cup, of a mixture of dried fruits :-)
3.The recipe yields 18 standard size muffins.


Contributor: Namitha
Recipe adapted from : Flavored breads by Mark Miller and Maclauchlan

Potato 'n' Spinach

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      The weekend was absolutely delightful with sunshine and the chance to be out in it.  Cuyahoga National Park is about an hours drive for us so we made it there and had a jolly good time.  Sandwiches on the park bench and lots of walking.  I wonder why in spite of all the walking my weight persists.  I suppose it is the growing figure I encounter in my mirror daily that prodded me to make something a little healthier today.    Potato is starch,  I agree,  but when I see the green spinach on my plate it make me feel like I am eating healthy food. 



 Hoping you will enjoy a good dose of greens yourself here is how to make Aaloo Palak (Potato and Spinach)  


Ingredients:

Idaho Potato   - 1 big (I know they are always big but either ways 'big')
Spinach          - 1 Bunch
Oil                 - 1 Tbspn
Cumin Seed   - 1/2 Tspn
Mustard Seed - 1/2 Tspn
Onion             - 1 small (chopped fine)
Green Chilis   - 2
Garlic             - 2 pods
Chili Powder  - 1 Tspn
Turmeric         - 1/2 Tspn
Aamchur         - 1/2 Tspn
Garam Masala - 1/2 Tspn
Lime Juice       - 1 Tspn (optional)

Method:
1. Cut potatoes into big pieces, cook, drain and set aside
2. Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard and cumin
3. Add onions, green chilies and garlic and saute till onions are translucent
4. Add turmeric, chili powder, aamchur and garam masala and saute
5. When oil express add the spinach mix well and cook on low fire until the leaves have wilted and softened.  It will cook down to almost half it's volume
6. Add the cooked potato stir well sqeeze the lime juice if you like and serve

Notes: Serve with rotis or rice

Ripe Banana Fry - A quick snack for kids

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This is a quick and easy snack for kids and for adults who need some extra calories :-) I used to eat this a lot while I was pregnant, which was a very convenient option because it was easy to make.  And the 'icing on the cake,' so to speak,  is that it's delicious.



I love this and I have to admit that I eat more, than the kids :-)



Ingredients:

Ripe Bananas(nendran)- 1
Ghee/Clarified Butter- 2-3 Tbsp
Sugar- 1 Tbsp/to your taste
Grated coconut- 3-4 Tbsp

Method:

1.Peel off the skin from banana and slice it into 1/4 inch pieces.
2.Heat the ghee in a pan and throw in the slices.
3.Cook both the sides,turning the sides after a couple of minutes on medium low heat.
4.Sprinkle the sugar on both sides followed by coconut.
5.Turn the sides and let the sides turn golden brown.
6.If you add more sugar, the channelization will be more.
7.Serve warm.Recipe serves one

Contributor: Namitha

Vegetable Cake

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   About three years ago, my husband and I dined at the Pineapple Room, a restaurant in Cheekwood Gardens (Nashville). It was here that I saw crab cakes for the first time, and ordered it with great excitement!

   Sadly, the first bit was not as exciting.  I guess I had built up my expectation to dizzying, unrealistic heights.  I can’t put it in words what I was hoping ‘crab cake’ would be, but it was more than what came on my plate.  On the flip side, it opened up my view about all kinds of cakes.  Whether it is crab, meat, vegetable or just soda or yeast cake, the chef has the liberty to dish out ingredients put together fried, baked or grilled and call it by whatever name he/she chooses.  Today’s post is one recipe like that which is familiar to most people and in everyone’s hands it takes on a different flavor and taste.  In my hometown, we call it cutlets and anywhere else it maybe known as cakes or burgers.   One thing is for sure, it's liked by both children and adults as we all like deep fried food.

   The recipe for the base can be coated with maida or eggs, and rolled in bread crumbs. It can be  deep fried or simply used inside a tortilla or roti and enjoyed.   Whichever way you choose, don’t forget to enjoy it.



Ingredients:
Potato           - 1 Huge Idaho Potato.
Bean             - 20 nos.. (about a cup when cut into tiny pieces)
Carrot           - 1 medium (about 3/4 cup when cut into pieces)
Peas              - 1/2 cup
Onions          - 1 small
Green Chilies - 6 nos
Ginger           - 1 Tspn
Garam Masala - 1/2 tspn
Canola Oil - 1 Tbspn for sauteeing
Oil - For deep frying


Method:
1. Pressure cook the potato for 1 whistle on high and then on low for one more whistle.  It takes about 20 minutes. If you don't know how to cook potato cook it the way you know but any moisture content in the end will make it difficult to form the cakes as well as moisture tends to break the cake when deep frying.  
2. Cook the peas with a little water in the microwave and drain off the water
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil and saute ginger followed with onions and green chilies.
3. Follow with green beans and taste to make sure the beans is done and then add peas and the carrot and saute for about 3 or 4 minutes
4. The sauteing should be on a medium flame and the end result should not have any water and yet vegetables should not be too fried. Add salt to taste
5. Peel the potato and mash with a fork and add the vegetables in and mix check for salt
6. Form small rounds of cakes this should make about 12.

Batter:
1. 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
2. Salt
3. About 1/2 cup of water

Method:
Add water to the flour and salt a little at a time to make a semi thick batter.  Not too runny nor too thick.  It should be more or less half cup of water a little this way or that may happen due to kind of all purpose flour etc.  Use your judgement

Heat oil for deep frying and when it has heated through (never smoking hot, that's only allowed when we are talking men ;)
dip the vegetable cakes in the batter and deep fry.

Contributor: Sunitha