Whole Wheat (आटा) Crusty Bread

Usually the first attempt at baking something 'simple' turns out be anything but that... So when I thought of baking bread, I was sure that something or the other would go boink... This one though, worked like a charm... 

One of the advantages of staying in the 'not-so-affluent' part of the Mahim is the proximity of humbler things like an aata chakki (आटा चक्की). On a lazy Saturday, I started thinking of bread as I dozed off on Friday and finally moved/willed myself to the aata guy late in the morning. I realized that he was scalloping the grinding stones of his mill and would not make flour till an hour later. The laziness took over and suddenly it was evening! I woke up with a start and got myself the flour. It was warm and smelt heavenly.


I came back and got the yeast block out of the fridge...

... I sliced off a bit of the yeast and this weighed in at around 52gm...

... I took about half of this (25gm) and about 10gm of sugar and mixed this with some warm water...

Soon the yeast activated and was ready to mix with the dough...

I measured about 3 and a quarter cups of flour to get 501gm and added some salt to it 

Then a quick knead later it put it in a bowl and covered it with a moist face towel.

This I put in the microwave to give dough some privacy while the Mumbai monsoon moist warmth worked its charm. An hour later the dough had doubled in volume and was airy and sticky.

I kneaded this a little more and oiled the tins...

The dough went into the tins and then I poke them with a fork and started preheating the oven. 

The dough went back into the microwave and before I could pop them into the oven, the dough had risen some more...

After about 35min in the oven my bread came out and tasted awesome... 

I carried some for Titin en route to meeting Chandu... :) 

Chocolate Cakey Brownie Cupcakes

The Mumbai rains have started the steady staccato beats across the senses. Guru and Subha just had a son and the weekend expected that I go an meet the trio. 

I was contemplating what to make and take along when Harini chattered over the phone demanding a birthday cake. This combination sparked the idea of either a cheese cake of some sort of a brownie. The latter was a known devil, so after procrastinating the weekend away I decided that a twist to a know devil would do that trick. 

I pulled out a the bake stuff and took a cup of atta (whole wheat), half a teaspoon of baking powder, and less than a cup of sugar. I also got a couple of sachets of instant coffee to substitute the standard spices.

I cracked three 50gm eggs and ...

...dunked the sugar...

...and the coffee into the mixing bowl...

I washed and got the silicone muffins moulds washed and ready before starting work.

I took about 180gm of butter and 160gm of dark compound chocolate out. (Don't worry about the arbit grammage I just made sure I got almost equal quantities of everything and then weighed them to reassure myself that "all is well" :) )

While the oven pre-heated, I whisked the eggs and the sugar...

... and the butter and chocolate melted in the microwave...

... I stirred the chocolate mix to get rid of any lumps and added it to the eggs and sugar...

... and mixed it in with the atta...

Then I quickly poured the heavenly mix into the moulds and in they went into the oven.

I pulled them out when all of them were a little plump (turning them around once) and soon had Harini calling me to hurry up and get to the car...

My Take on Hummus

I have been making hummus for a while now. I picked up the basic recipes from a number of places on the net and a book or two. I have taken the common elements and have added a few things to my version of hummus. After describing how I made hummus I have been at the receiving end of long tirades about how this is not the proper way to make hummus yada yada yada... So... This is my way... To make sure you feel happy please make changes after the first batch. Hummus IS comfort food :) 


Anyways...

I usually take a sesame (তিল/तिल) and chickpeas (কাবুলি ছোলা/छोले) in the same proportion (dry weight) to begin. For this lot, I took 250gm of each. 

I first roasted the sesame (তিল/तिल) in a pan and then cooled it spread on a newspaper to get rid of the moisture. I just can't seem to find the interestingly strong sesame that Chandan brothers sell in Pune as गावरान(gaoran) til in Mumbai. I just get strange looks when I ask and am shown the standard white sesame. So I just went and bought it when I was in Pune... This is a nice and brownish looking till with a very robust flavour compared to the standard sesame you get.

Sesame roasted...

I had soaked the  chickpeas (কাবুলি ছোলা/छोले) overnight and once I drained the water it was a few grams over double the dry weight.

Chickpeas soaked overnight...

To be honest before I bought the digital scale I just did all this by eye and it worked fine. I just went to the grocer and asked him to give me the stuff in multiples of quantities he/she could measure, and hence the 250gm multiple thing. Just made my life easier then :)
Anyways... I dunked the entire thing in a pressure cooker with just enough water to cover the chick peas and cooked it for a few whistles...

Chichpeas and water...

In the pressure cooker...

A few whistles later...

While the chick peas were cooking, I got the garlic in place to make the tahina...

And rough ground it with some sesame...

Then I took the rest of the sesame and ground it into a powder. Then I added the garlic mixed rough ground bit and blended the entire thing with gobs of olive oil... 
Tahina ready... :)

Tahina

By this time the chick peas had cooled enough for me to pop them into the food processor. This has really been a good buy in Mumbai. I've done this for a long time on my trusty Pune grinder but this is just brilliant for things like hummus.

After a quick whirl and before I incorporated the tahina I added the juice from a lemon and a bit of dhannia and jeera powder. This is where I deviate from the purists' version of hummus.

After another whirl in the blender with the tahina, I laced the thing with some more olive oil and my hummus was ready.

The hummus stays for ages in the fridge so it is really worth the effort. Especially since I can do a whole lot of different things with it while it is there... 

Soyabean Kowsha with Meat Masala

This is something that I have cooked over and over for quite a while I was studying in Pune. However, I like that fact that now-a-days the soya chunks are coming in inventive forms like various sizes of nuggets and even granules.

I wanted to make something that visually resembled कीमा/কিমা (keema) but used the soya granules instead of mince meat that keema is.

I have always wanted to neutralize the typical taste and smell of the soya granules since that helps absorb the flavours better to do do this, I roughly soaked a cup and a half of granules in some warm water and then squeezed out the excess water. I repeated the process with some salt water since that would help the tongue identify the tastes better.

Soaking the soya granules 

The hydrated granules

কষানো (Kowshano) is the Bengali way of expressing the process of slow cooking a mix of wet and dry spices (usually in a fair bit of oil). In devanagari the process would be called भुन्नोing (bhunno). The process itself if quite integral in almost all schools of Indian cooking traditions.  

To prepare for this I got the standard garlic, onions, and tomato combination ready.

A couple of tomatoes, a medium onion, and three clove of garlic

I roughly chopped the onions...

Chopped onion

And the tomatoes...

Chopped tomatoes

The garlic I first gently squished with the flat of a knife blade to release the aromatic oils and then chopped...

Squished and chopped garlic

All this went into my trusty mortar and pestle for a quick grind...

A quick grind

To this I added the meat masala, a little হিং/हिंग/hing (asafoetida), a little হলুদ/हल्दी/turmeric powder and a content from a sachet of ketchup...

Adding the masala...

Once this was neatly mixed, I splashed in some oil in the pan and slow কব্ষা/कस्सा/भुन्नो (kowshaoed/bhunnoed) the mix till it looked like this and the oil separated...

Slow fry...

Then I added some milk and water to the the mixture to get a basic gravy in place...

Increase the liquidity...

And added the soya...

Add the soya granules...

And voila! My lunch was ready :)

:)