Egg curry/Dimer Dalna

Egg curry/Dimer Dalna

Dimer Dalna is the versatile egg in a gravy based dish. Have it with steaming rice and you don’t need anything else. It is a simple, no fuss, easy to make dish when your fridge is empty. In the Bengali preparation the egg is fried till bubbles appear on the skin. They taste real good but then I decided to skip the step. Why take in more oil than is necessary?

Ingredients

4 eggs, hard boiled
1 onion, pureed
1 tomato, pureed
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp readymade tomato puree
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp garam masala
½  tsp cinnamon powder
½ tsp cardamom powder

Heat some oil and add the fenugreek seeds. Add the ginger garlic paste and sauté for a few seconds. 
Add the onion paste and fry till the onion turns pinkish.
 Add the tomato paste and ready-made tomato puree. Cook till oil starts leaving the sides. 
Add the salt, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder and garam masala. Fry for a few seconds. Add some water and bring to a boil.
 Add the eggs, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Before taking it off the flame add the cinnamon powder and cardamom powder. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. 

Dal Murg

Dal Murg

My son will eat only chicken. Nothing else. Everything else has to be forced down his throat. My lectures on health and nutrition fall on deaf ears. So I decided to make chicken with all kinds of healthy things thrown into it. Chicken in dal is not only tasty but I think will be a protein boost for him. 

Ingredients

¼ cup arhar/toor dal
¼ cup moong dal
¼ cup sabut masoor dal
500 gm chicken
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 onions, sliced fine
1” ginger
2 green chillies
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
4 tbsp chopped coriander

Soak the dals overnight. Next morning pressure cook them with some salt and turmeric. 
Marinate the chicken in 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste and salt for 1 hour. 
Heat a pan. Fry the chicken pieces for 8 minutes. Remove from the pan. You will see that the chicken has left behind some fat. 
In the same oil add cumin seeds. Add pounded ginger and green chilli paste. Add the sliced onions. Fry till the onion become pinkish. 
Add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder, chopped coriander and salt. Sauté for some time. 
Add the chicken pieces, cover and cook till the chicken is done. Now add the cooked dal and cook for 10 more minutes. 

Homemade Tomato Sauce for pizza topping

Homemade Tomato Sauce for pizza topping

There is something bout homemade pizza. Once you start making your own pizza you will never want to go out and eat one. Apart from the fact that they are obscenely costly the very satisfaction of making them yourself is something else. 

The two main ingredients that go into making a great pizza are the dough and the tomato sauce topping. The topping is best made and eaten fresh. The measurements here are for approximately two pizzas.


Ingredients

5 ripe tomatoes
8 garlic pods
2 tsp oregano
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar

Put the tomatoes, garlic, oregano, salt and sugar to boil with 1 ½ cups of water. Boil till the liquid is reduced to half. Cool. Peel the tomato and discard the peel. Blend all to a fine paste along with the liquid. 
Heat a pan and put the tomato paste to boil till it becomes thick. Your tomato sauce topping is ready. 

Rustic Homemade Pizza Margherita

Rustic Homemade Pizza Margherita

I am now the proud owner of Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. She is amazing and her recipes are amazing. What I specially love about her books are the explanations she gives. You get to learn so much from her. I have made pizza numerous times earlier and it was had always been good. So what is so special about this recipe, you might ask!

Well first let me tell you how I have made pizza crust till now. Mixing yeast, flour and salt I make a smooth pliable dough. I give it a good knead and let it double in size which takes about 1 to 1 ½ hours. Then I roll out a round disc and bake.
When I started going through this book I realised that the recipe was contradicting everything that I have been doing. The dough is wet, it is not to be kneaded and the gluten is not to be activated. It does not have to be a nice round disc. You use your fingertips to spread the dough just like they used to do traditionally. It is best that the dough be kept for 24 hours to give it a light and chewy crust. 

This I HAD to try. And guess what!! My method of making pizza dough has undergone a renaissance. The lady rocks!!! This pizza has to be eaten to be believed. Sure it takes a lot of time and effort but then good things in life don’t come easy. 

And not to forget the rich and delicious tomato sauce for the topping for the pizza.

Ingredients

¾ cup+1 tbsp all purpose flour
½ tsp instant yeast
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
½ cup lukewarm water
4 tsp olive oil

Whisk together flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the water. Gently stir in the flour till the dough just begins to form. It should come away from the bowl and yet stick a little bit.
 Remember you do not have to knead. Do not use a heavy hand. The idea is to just gather the dough into a ball. The dough has to be rough looking and not silky or smooth. Pour the oil into a bowl. Roll the dough gently in the oil, cover and leave for at least 6 hours. 
If you want the yummiest crust leave it for 24 hours. 

When you want to make the pizza, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Pour a little dough on the baking tray. Gently put the dough on the tray and using your fingertips start pressing form the center to the edges. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes. 
Put a generous amount of homemade tomato sauce. Then it is totally up to you what toppings you want. 

I started with a basic Margherita with sauce and cheese.

 But then I got greedy and added a lot more.

 Bake for 14 minutes. 

Makhmali Spinach Corn

Makhmali Spinach Corn

Spinach and corn is an awesome combination. I usually make it with lots of onion and garlic. I am specially fond of garlic. So when I had friends coming over who did not eat any onion or garlic I was in a fix. How was I supposed to add flavour to the dish? Boiled corn and boiled spinach can be very bland if not accentuated by some strong flavour. So I decided to try this out and it turned out very well. 

Ingredients

2 bunches of spinach
2 cups corn
1 ½ cups milk
1 tsp cumin seeds
 Salt to taste
1 tsp garam masala

Boil the corn with some salt and sugar. This makes the corn more juicy. 
Wash the spinach well and chop very fine. Heat a little oil. Add the cumin seeds. Now add the spinach and saute on high flame for 5 minutes. Now add the corn and garam masala and toss for a few minutes. Add the milk and let it simmer till cooked. Add the salt at the last. 

Parsley and sun dried tomato Focaccia bread

Parsley and sun dried tomato Focaccia bread

Baking bread is something I have still not mastered and I keep trying. The two main problems I face are temperamental yeast and inadequate kneading. Coming to an extremely cold place has compounded the yeast problem. 
But I didn’t give up. In the process I burnt a towel!!! What!!! Bread and towel you say!!
The normal day time temperature in this place is about 3 degrees. You can very well imagine what it does to the proofing of yeast. I have tried all sorts of things. Made a tent of my dupatta under the sun, wrapped in foil, put in a warmed oven etc but to no avail. My dough simply wont rise.
In the evening we have to put on keroheaters or we will simply freeze. They make the room quite warm and cozy. So I made the dough, covered the bowl in a thick towel and kept it overnight near the keroheater. The dough doubled beautifuly. For the second proofing I got greedy. I kept the whole towel bundle on top of the kero heater and soon I could smell something burning. Turned out it was my towel!!! 
Anyways the towel incident aside my dough rose beautifully and I baked a beautiful Focaccia bread. 


Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp yeast
½ cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 tbsp sundried tomatoes
Few sprigs parsley, chopped
A pinch of sea salt

Mix the sugar and lukewarm water. Sprinkle the yeast over it and let it bubble. I always use instant  yeast which can be mixed directly into the flour. However I prefer proofing the yeast first to ensure that the dough will rise. 

Mix together flour, salt and olive oil with your hands. Add the yeast mix and knead well for at least 10-15 minutes. The dough will be a bit sticky. Now grease a bowl well. Also oil the dough so that it doesn't stick to the bowl. Cover with a cling film and leave to double. 

At this point I had to leave it overnight because of the extreme dip in temperature. 

Once it has doubled punch it back and put it in a baking dish. I used a springform pie dish. Spread it with your fingers. Sprinkle sliced garlic, chopped parsley and sun dried tomatoes on it.

 Cover and keep for another 20 minutes for it to proof again.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius. Bake the bread for 20 minutes. 

Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie

Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie

Its chocolate time again!! And it is combined with rich chunky Peanut butter!! Can it be any more sinful than this?

 I am shutting my ears against all the nay-sayers, the health freaks, the salad people… it is OK to let go at times, to indulge oneself, to have that lip smacking dish you drool about. After all it is just this one life that you get ..so its chocolate and peanut butter time.

The brownie is the chewiest, the fudgiest. Then you layer the brownie batter with the peanut butter batter. When the cake is ready cut it and you can see golden nuggets of peanut butter peeking through rich, dark, dense chocolate. It is a match made in heaven. 

One of my favorite cooking websites is ‘thelittlekitchen.com’. It has the most amazing recipes. So is this Peanut Butter Cookie Brownie recipe!! Enjoy !!

Ingredients

For the brownie

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2tsp coffee powder
½ cup+ 2 tbsp boiling water
2 oz chocolate, chopped
½ cup+ 2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp butter, melted
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 ½ cups sugar
1 ¾ flour
¾ tsp salt
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut unto ½ “ pieces (I have omitted this ingredient because I felt cocoa powder+ chocolate was already enough )

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Take a big bowl. Whisk together cocoa powder, coffee powder and boiling water. 
Add chopped chocolate and whisk till it melts. Add oil and melted butter. 
Add the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla and beat well. 
Add sugar and whisk till completely incorporated. 
Whisk in the flour and salt. Now your brownie batter is ready. Keep it aside and prepare the Peanut Butter batter.


For the Peanut Butter Batter

½ cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ cup peanut butter
1 egg

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cream butter and both the sugars. Add the peanut butter and egg. Beat well. Fold in the flour mix. Your Peanut butter batter is ready.

To assemble the cake

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9” cake pan. 
Pour half the brownie batter in the pan. Pour the peanut butter batter over it and swirl gently. Cover with rest of the brownie batter. Bake 40 -45 minutes. The cake will be dense. It will be hard on the outside and soft in the inside. 

A Tourtely Apple Tart

A Tourtely Apple Tart

A French tart this basically means a covered pie. I have taken this recipe from the baking queen Dorie Greenspan. She gives this killer pie dough that is crumbly and sweet. It takes a little bit of effort but the result is totally worth it. It is buttery and flaky. When you make the dough you can actually see the little nuggets of butter peeking through. While baking they melt and give that buttery texture to the tart shell. 
Let us make the pie shell first. This dough is also called the pate sable. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups flour
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
¼ tsp salt
9 tbsp butter, cold, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse for a few seconds. Then add the egg yolk and pulse some more. The butter pieces would be of varying sizes. Some will be the size of peas and some smaller. 
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead a little till the dough comes together. Freeze the dough for half n hour.
Roll out the dough.

 Slowly place it over a 9” fluted pie tin. Don’t try to lift the rolled out dough all at once or it will break. Roll it over any cylindrical object. I used a cling film roll. 

Then gently place it over the pie tin. There should be enough hanging from the sides.

 Trim off excess dough.  

Keep the left over dough because you will need it later. Press an aluminium foil lightly against the crust. 

Refrigerate for an hour. Also refrigerate the left over dough.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bake the crust (with the foil) for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 5 more minutes to get a browned top. 


For the apple filling

5 apples, peeled and cut into slices
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp water
Pinch of nutmeg powder
3 tbsp butter
½ cup raisins
1/3 cup almonds, chopped

Pinch of cinnamon powder
Put all the ingredients in a pan and cook for 5 minutes. 

To assemble the pie

Pour the filling over the pie shell. 

Take out the left over dough from the fridge. Roll it out a little bigger than the pie shell. Gently place over the filling. Pinch together the edges. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Bake for about 20 minutes till the top is a golden brown.