Shredded Chicken

When there's a steady supply of bread in the kitchen, sandwiches are always on the menu. Its easy to whip up a quick peanut butter snack for junior, a buttered toast for the missus or a complicated all-you-can-stuff sandwich for yours truly.
Apart from the normal chutney powder  (yum!), peanut butter and cucumber and tomatoes, I'm always on the lookout for options. An easy protein addition here is cooked and shredded chicken. With the profusion of clean poultry outlets, chicken is easier to get and there's no messy cleaning involved anymore (apart from a quick wash before use.

I look at chicken, both as sandwich stuffing as well as broth. On a winter's day, there are few comfort foods apart from chicken soup and rasam (or a combination of the two!).

Chicken soup is probably the simplest food to make, and I like mine with few frills/spices. Pour in about half a litre of water into a saucepan and add in 2 cloves of garlic, a few peppercorns, an onion(quartered), salt to taste and a piece of star anise. The latter sweetens things up just a bit in addition to the aroma. Add your cleaned chicken in (with or without skin - your choice). Cook on a medium flame for about 20mts or until the chicken is white till the bone. Skim the froth on top with a strainer and filter once more through a sieve to get your clear chicken broth. I prefer gulping this down as its made!

What you have left in your sieve are the spices (including the onion) and cooked chicken. Lay the chicken out on a cutting board and using a fork, shred the chicken. It should come of fairly easily if it has cooked till the bone. I keep most of the spices with the chicken, apart from the star anise, which has done its job by then. This is your sandwich filler - and a great one at that.

My typical pairings are sun-dried tomato pesto or basil pesto, either of which is great. You could also squish in the onion along with some salt, chilli flakes and olive oil.
The chicken lasts refrigerated about a week. I wouldnt recommend any time longer than this (if it lasts that long!)

Cream Cheese

Cream cheese is probably the easiest of the lot of cheeses to make, apart from maybe paneer. With a weakness for cream cheese based dips and spreads, I find it difficult to stay away from this sinful treat.
The basic of cream cheese is equal parts milk and cream coagulated to form cheese. Fankhauser has an amazingly simple recipe for this on his website which to most cheesemakers is the bible to start with.

Cheesecake and dip recipes to follow..

Fish In A Bag

They say you can never go wrong with fish. Cooks easy and tastes yum anytime. My experience is that it can go horribly wrong if you don't get the cooking time right or try a marinade that doesn't go with the fish you've chosen.
I happened to cook an interesting dish at the Herbs and Spices restaurant, courtesy the missus, ireboot & Manjeet (the guy who owns the place) a few years ago. The lady g'gifted' me an experience on my B'day and Manjeet was there to guide me in the kitchen. Needless to say, it was an unforgettable evening, probably my best b'day till date.
Back to today. I'd wondered whether I'd be able to replicate this dish at home with an Asian variation. The first time, the marinade and accompaniments were continental with fennel and white wine. Here's the recipe

Ingredients
1 whole fish (preferably one that will fit in your oven easily. I chose black pomfret), cleaned
2tbsp dark soy sauce
1tsp oyster sauce
1 stalk lemon grass, crushed
1tbsp grated galangal
1tsp oil
salt and pepper
1/2 cup white wine

Prepare the fish by making slits across the body.

To make the marinade, add the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Pour this over the fish. Gently rub the marinade into the slits and make sure you've coated the fish well. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1hr.
Preheat the oven to 220C and begin preparing the bag. Cut out enough length of parchment paper so you'd be able to place the fish in and fold over. Before folding, add in 1/2 cup of white wine. I did this to allow enough liquid to create steam in the bag.
Start folding the parchment from one end, folding over as you go along so it resembles the picture below

Place in the oven over a rack and let cook for 15mts. My biggest fear was the bag would give way at the bottom considering the liquid in it. This seemed to be unfounded since the label on the packet said it was built to withstand temperatures upto 420F. Here is what it looked like in 15mts and on my plate.

Cut out the parchment carefully making sure you allow the steam to escape before opening it all out. Eat as is  or with some hot fragrant rice.

Notice the marinade had no chillies. I kind of liked it that way. The marinade had turned into a sweet/salt syrupy mix that you could spoon onto the fish as you ate it. Happy with the result. Cooked 4yrs ago, and hadn't forgotten. Thanks Manjeet :-)

Soupy Sundays - Potato and Leek Soup

I'd decided on cooking soup for Sunday dinners for the rest of the year, so in essence, that gives me 5 more weeks of doing this. It's more to get into the habit of cooking and writing than anything else. Its also an opportunity to taste the great foccacia the missus makes for the soups.

Well, this weeks soupy Sunday was about simplicity and treading a beaten path. With showers on over the weekend and junior's cough taking its time to settle down, I thought a thick one-pot meal would be ideal. Potato and Leeks soup is a very common soup and a great one to cook if you want to just get things done in the kitchen and retire to bed early. Here's the recipe

Ingredients

2 medium potatos, skinned and diced into 1/2 cm cubes
3 leeks, stalks removed, cleaned and diced finely
1 cup milk
2 cups water
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic (optional)
Finely chopped green stem of leeks to garnish (optional)

Start with cooking the garlic cloves in a mixture of 1tbsp butter and 1/2 tsp oil. Cook on low for 10mts till the leeks soften. Add the potato's and cover with just enough water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for 20mts or till potato's are soft. Remove the mix and place in a blender with about half a cup of water from the soup.Blend as desired. I let a few chunks of potato lie in the mix. Add this back to the remaining liquid in the broth and stir in the blended mix. Add the milk and stir, all the while simmering the soup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle out hot into bowls and serve with bread.

Playing with Fire - Roasted Pepper Dip

Roasting red and yellow peppers has gotten really addictive since I tried it a while ago. The process is simple enough and for the amount of baking we do, it certainly is convenient, especially as you pre-heat the oven when making bread.
Once roasted, the skins peel off real easy and the resulting pepper is sweet as ever. Turning this into a dip is super easy - depends on what you want the final product to turn to muhamara or just a plain dip with fresh baked pita pockets.

Ingredients
4 roasted and skinned peppers
2tbsp olive oil
1tsp balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of chilly powder - as per your taste,remember, these peppers have a hint of heat still left in them


Blend all the ingredients together. The resulting dip can be used as a spread, dip or marinade for light meat like chicken. My pairing was with some terribly good sourdough from Breadworks which, in my opinion, continues to be the best sourdough source in Bangalore.

Soupy Sundays - Mushroom Soup with Focaccia

Winters here in Bangalore and it sure is chilly. The bright sun doesnt seem to be warming things up a lot so the garden is suffering. Wilted Poblano's and Jalapeno's and dying papaya saplings make a sorry tale.
Once the moping is done, its time to satiate the stomach. Decided to make the rest of the Sundays in the year 'soupy dinners'.
With the missus' ability to churn out breads at the drop of a hat (foccacia seems to be the mood), I added a complement of Mushroom soup with some really fresh looking button mushrooms bought over the weekend. This one is real easy and takes less than 20mts to make.

Ingredients
1/2 an onion, chopped into slices, dont worry about cutting these fine
1 packet of button mushrooms cleaned and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup of red wine
1/2 cup milk (optional)
3 cups water (no broth here, I prefer it to be all 'mushroomy')
1/2 cup cream (optional)
1tsp cornstarch
salt & pepper to taste

 Add the garlic to hot oil in a saucepan . Add onions and cook till they brown. I like them to carmelize before deglazing the pan with the red wine. Once done, add the mushrooms and let them cook for about 5mts, taking care not to crowd them in the pan.

Once cooked, place all contents in a blender and puree to a fine paste. Remove and replace in the pan with the water. Bring to a gentle simmer adding the milk and cream. Simmer for a couple of minutes more and add salt and pepper as per your tastes. Pour and garnish with whatever you have lying around. I used Chopped chives from the garden and some roasted pepper dip. Serve with warm toasted bread. Luckily, we had freshly made foccacia

Notice there's no chilly here. I like my soups muted and like the main ingredient to stand on its feet with just a hint of salt and pepper.

Roast Chicken - Beer Style

Maggie Beer's got a great recipe for roast chicken using verjuice which looks really awesome. Though i didnt have verjuice, I thought i'd substitute a rather local ingredient which I have used before in other recipes - pomegranate juice.
Roasting a whole chicken can be quite an exercise if your oven is not big enough. With a 40L oven, i just about had enough space for the right air circulation, coupled with a convection fan, not something you see very regularly on most ovens you get in India. Here's the recipe

Ingredients

1 whole clove garlic
1 chicken with skin and cleaned
1 sprig rosemary, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lime juice
1 cup pomegranate juice (fresh, no canned)
Salt and pepper for the rub

Maggie suggests cooking the garlic in hot water for a few minutes before you roast it. I stuck with keeping them in foil for the entire period of roasting

mix the salt, pepper and rosemary and slather over the chicken, making sure you go under the skin and inside the cavity as well.

The rest of the recipe pretty much resembles hers, so I'm no going to repeat, except where I substituted verjuice for pomegranate, which gave it a bit of a delicious sweetish taste. Accompaniments were fresh baked bread and a side of guacamole.

Junior's Day Out

Junior's starting to develop a taste for fish. That gives me some company at home. The missus suggested I use no pepper or chilly to start off. That left me with a simple lemon-butter sauce to pour over a simple broiled fish.

Sunday mornings are always busy at the local fish stall. Junior wanted anything with a tail and zeroed in on a basket of medium pomfret. He proudly picked one up and handed it over to the owner to get it billed and specifically mentioned that he wanted the tail on ! That was probably the best entertainment that those gathered at the stall would have had in a while.

Here's the recipe

1 whole fish, cleaned, preferably one that will fit in your oven
salt and turmeric rub - 1 tsp salt and a pinch of turmeric

For the lemon butter garlic sauce
juice of half a lime
2tbsp butter
1 tsp oil
2 cloves garlic

Make slits on the fish and rub in the salt and turmeric. Keep this marinated for a couple of hours.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C and place the fish on a grill with a drip pan below to catch any droppings.
For the lemon butter sauce, start with lightly heating a pan with a blob of butter and oil so that the butter just melts. Add chopped garlic and cook for a minute. Take the mix off the flame and add the lime juice with a little salt to taste. This sauce is fairly bland and made specially this way for junior. You could spice it up with some chilly flakes and a touch of soy sauce.

Remove the fish from the oven and pour the sauce on just before eating. Enjoy !

Hide and Seek Summer

The last week has been absolutely crazy in terms of weather in Bangalore. April showers are starting to resemble monsoon deluges. Instead of cold summer salads and tangy coolers, were looking to winter soups and warm bread! Bright sunny afternoons give way to ominous clouds and torrents of rain in the evening.

One such afternoon demanded a true blue summer soup and I could think of nothing better than cold cucumber soup. Its simple to make and with cucumbers always being around, its a refreshing dish which still keeps you light. I got some general recipe's on the web and then went ahead and used my modifications wherever I felt I could weak things. Here's the recipe

2 cucumbers skinned, seeded and roughly chopped
2 cups yogurt - homemade is the best
1/2 to 1 cup milk
2 heaped tablespoons cream cheese (optional, but I'd rather use this than cream)
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 heaped teaspoon mint leaves
1 onion slivered
salt and pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to the blender, except for the onions. Pulse till you dont see any large pieces of cucumber. Refrigerate for at least an hour - the garlic works its way in over time.

For the garnish, start with sweating the onions on low flame for 10mts. Add about 1/2 cup of red wine and raise heat to high for 2 mts till all the wine has been incorporated.

Pour soup into bowls, garnish with onions and a dash of olive oil. Serve chilled and enjoy those baking Bangalore afternoons!!!

Cheesecake Riot

Cheesecakes are probably the best way of moving cheese out of your refrigerator once made. That’s actually an excuse to make the easiest and probably tastiest dessert ever.
Continuing with the fascination for cheese, last week was cream cheese time. The fact that you have an even 1:1 milk to cream kind of puts me off at times, but the finished product can always be paired with fresh bagels which makes the excuse to make the cheese all the more appealing.
The recipe for cream cheese is available at Fankhauser’s page and is very easy if you have the rennet. What I have found is that if you make the cake almost immediately after draining the cheese, without refrigerating it, you get an amazing consistency. Here is the recipe I used

Crust
1 packet (around 30) biscuits – I use non-flavoured. Marie is the best
150gms chilled butter, chopped into rough cubes
¼ cup sugar

Filling
400gms fresh cream cheese
1 ½ cups sugar (normal is fine)
½ cup coffee liquor (replace with appropriate vanilla essence if you like)
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Glaze
300g strawberries washed and roughly chopped
Sugar as desired (I didn’t measure this, adjust to your level of sweetness)

Process

1. Preheat the oven to 160C
2. Start with making the biscuit base of the cake. Crush the biscuits (don’t powder em) and add the butter and sugar to make a rough biscuit-like dough.
3. Use a spring-form pan and pat down the mixture so it forms a base.
4. Bake for 20mts making sure the crust does not get burnt
5. Remove from oven and let cool
6. Beat the cream cheese on your lowest setting of your hand mixer (invest in one, its worth it) till the cheese is smooth and no lumps remain
7. Add in the rest of the ingredients and beat on ‘mix’ till you get a thick ‘liquidy’ texture – kind of like cake batter.
8. Place the mix in the oven turned up to 170C and bake for 30mts or till the mixture has set.
9. Remove from the oven and let it get to room temperature. I’d put it out for at least 3-4hrs so the insides have cooled as well. Figured this out the hard way this time with the cake breaking apart when in the refrigerator
10. Chill in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours
11. Serve cold with the fresh strawberry glaze


Strawberry Glaze
Cook the strawberries with enough sugar and water to form a syrupy mix. Cool this down to room temperature and pour it over the cheesecake when serving.

Cinnamon Rolls

I am having a love affair - with a book - a book about food or to be more precise a book about bread. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhardt. I have always loved bread, but this book makes it feel like manna from the highest heavens. When I first read this book I dreamed that I was a baker in a quaint European town and would conjure up the magical loaves by the dozens. It had me on a high for weeks. And there was a time when I contemplated buying flour wholesale considering the amount of breads I was baking but immediately shot it down due to space constraints.

This wishful sinful wicked cinnamon roll recipe is an adaptation from the recipe by the Master himself. I have substituted yoghurt for eggs since I still haven’t found a source for free range eggs. I have tried the recipe with eggs and with yoghurt and there isn’t noticeable difference in the taste or the texture for a novice like me.

Ingredients:

6 tbsp Sugar (powdered)

5 tbsp Butter (at room temp)

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Grated zest of one Lemon

3 tbsp Yoghurt

3 ½ cups All Purpose Flour/Maida

2 tsp Instant Yeast or 1 ½ tsp Active Dry Yeast

1 to 1 ¼ cups Milk (at room temp)

½ cup Cinnamon Sugar

Cream together the butter, sugar and salt till light and fluffy. Add yoghurt and lemon zest and whip it all together. Then add the flour, yeast and milk. If using active dry yeast, proof the yeast by soaking it in a quarter cup of warm milk for 10 minutes before adding to the flour and creamed mixture. Mix till the dough becomes smooth and doesn’t stick to your hand. Knead the dough for 10 minutes till the dough is springy but not sticky. You might have to add a little extra milk or flour to achieve this texture. Form the dough into a ball, lightly oil the surface of the dough and keep it in a covered bowl. Let it rise at room temperature for about 2 to 2 ½ hours till it doubles in size.

Lightly dust the counter with a little flour and roll the dough into a rectangle ½ an inch thick. Spread the cinnamon sugar evenly over the surface from end to end leaving about a quarter inch area on one side along the length for sealing the log. Roll the dough into a tight log and seal it with a little milk. Cut the log into 1 inch thick slabs and place them flat - spiral side up on a lightly floured baking tray. Leave an inch to two inches gap between each roll so they can rise well without squeezing into each other. Cover with a lid or cloth making sure that the rolls don’t touch the covering allowing them to rise well. Let it proof at room temperature for about an hour or till they have almost doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and place the tray in the middle rack. Bake for 20 to 30 mins till they are golden brown. Cool on a rack before serving.

The best part of baking cinnamon rolls is the aroma in your house as they are baking. A tip - you need not wait till they are completely cooled if you are as impatient as I am. They taste good even hot, but make sure you are careful or you might burn your tongue.

Stewed Squid with Sannas

Squid has been a revelation. My first tryst with the cephalopod was in Goa about 15 years ago. It was love at first bite!
There's something about squid, you either love it or hate the thought of downing a tentacled creature. Cooking time is critical to this one. The oft found rule of 2 or 20 mts was my guide when making this dish. I found what looked like a great recipe a this site.
The recipe called for using an anise flavoured liquor as well - I substituted this with fresh ground anise instead along with a few more changes along the way. Here is the recipe

Ingredients
2 cups of squid rings, cleaned and washed
1 tbsp roasted fennel seeds, powdered
1 onion finely diced
1 pack of tomato puree
2 tomato's, chopped into rough pieces
1 tsp chilly powder or 1 green chilly
1 cup red wine

1. pour out 2 tbsp of oil into a flat pan and add the roasted fennel on a low flame.
2. After 30 sec, add the chilly powder/finely sliced green chilly to this.
3. Add the onion and let them brown (2mts)
4. Add the chopped tomato and let it cook
5. Add the wine and reduce the stock
6. Add the squid and start your timer. Set it for 20mts
7. Add enough tomato puree to cover the squid. I transferred this to a saucepan at this stage.
8. Season with salt as needed.
9. Garnish with coriander when done

The missus had made sanna's in the morning for breakfast which was an excellent accompaniment to this dish.

Hurried Breakfasts

With the wife at the in-laws place and a refrigerator stacked with left-overs, there was really no inclination to cook an elaborate breakfast. The plan was to scrounge around to see I could put together with the leftovers.
Junior had a runny nose the week before which was partly treated with fresh chicken broth made at the spur of the moment. That left me with a box of shredded chicken waiting to be finished. There was a half-cut apple and my faithful bottle of home-made mustard lying around as well. With bread in abundant supply after the missus' baking extravaganza for Christmas, the only accompaniment left was for a quick warm chicken salad.
Here's the recipe

1 cup boneless chicken cooked and shredded into cubes
1/2 an apple, skinned (if you wish) and cubed
1 tbsp mustard
2tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp marjoram leaves roughly cut

Heat some olive oil in a pan and when slightly hot, add the chicken. Add the mustard, apple and marjoram and take the pan off the fire. Mix together and serve warm with bread. The mustard gives it that slight kick and the marjoram provides that earthy flavour.

Durum Does The Trick!!!

The constant mention of whole wheat durum wheat flour made me wonder where in the world I would source a steady stream of this if I wanted to keep to the purists version of pasta.
Turns out the answer was very close to home, less than a km away.
Durum wheat is characterized as a 'hard' wheat, very similar if not actually what we call rava. Not surprised that wiki had a nice write-up about it here. The question was how to get this ground fine. The home blender did not do a great job and rightly so. Rava is fairly hard and does not powder like sugar crystals do. The neighbourhood miller stepped in and helped out here. I got a kilo done to see what would happen.
Recipe's call for a water:semolina flour ration of 1:2. That was a little over considering how quickly rava absorbs water when making upma. The resultant dough was soft and very pliable - not fit for rolling in the pasta machine. Since the idea was to experiment, I went ahead and added about a cup of normal wheat flour. Rolling this out was a breeze. I made the easiest of the lo - fettucini with prawn and tomato's. Simple and wholesome. The garnish was some agriforma that was lying around waiting for something like this.
Moral - this is THE pasta flour to use. No going back to anything else for a while. Next stop, penne. Not sure how it'll hold up, but worth a try.

Dried Tomato flavoured Havarti

The posting here mentioned 3 new havarti's created in July. My initial plan was to age them around 2 weeks to see what would happen. Part of the excitement in getting the recipe fairly correct was tempered by a miscalculation in the salt content.

Consequence was the cheese took on a slightly different flavour about 2 weeks after drying and went its own way when it was cut nearly 3 months later. What was great was the ageing process produced lovely holes in the cheese as well as a bit of sharpness in taste which was well balanced with the creamy nature of havarti.

I was able to correct the salt content later on in another batch that should be ready by early December. This one though would need to be saved by some table salt added before eating.
The cheese experiments continue

My First Cheese Cake

Cream cheese is a weakness, especially the Philly style that you can slather on fresh onion bagels. With the missus busy with her glass, I realized there was a tub of cream cheese waiting for its bagels. with time running out, I decided to bite the sugar bullet.
Me and sweets, especially cakes are poles apart. I excuse myself at the ubiquitous birthday celebrations at work citing a dislike of commercial butter cream. At home however, temptations rule, especially cheesy ones.
The time also coincided with breaking open the second of four havarti's - this one flavoured with cracked pepper.
To prevent any further digression, lets talk about the cream cheese. The tub sized quantity and late night work was all I needed to try my hand at a cheese cake recipe. 11pm is probably not the right time to hunt for ingredients. You pretty much pick what you have. Here's a basic recipe that I used

For the base
1 packet of biscuits - the plain ones. Marie are the best, but I made do with the missus' tea biscuits
2tbsp melted butter

For the filling
The tub of cream cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp coffee liqueur

Method
Crush the biscuits into a rough powder and mix in the butter to form a rough mixture. Press this into a spring form cake pan. Bake at 180C for 10mts. Remove and cool till base reaches room temperature
Mix the cream cheese and milk together to loosen the cheese. whip on low setting till the mixture takes on the consistency of a semi solid batter. Add in the sugar slowly and continue whipping till all is dissolved. Add the eggs and liqueur and beat to a smooth mixture. Pour this over the base and bake at 150C for 40mts or till the centre of the mix is firm to touch. Refrigerate for a couple of hours and eat cold - a cheese cake at room temperature is just awful tasting.
The tasting session the next morning elicited wide eyes from the missus, always a good sign for the husband.

New Cow, New Cheese

With the summer setting in, milk production somehow seems to get scarce in the local 'dairies' (if you could call them that). I was curtly shut out by my regular lady. She mentioned something about not having any extra milk to sell. Considering she sells about 300+litres, I guessed she didn't want me around. With that, my cheesemaking came to an abrupt halt. Not that I was into it full time, but the occasional Saturday or Sunday would be spent anxiously hovering around the milk vessel to make sure temperatures and times were adhered to.

Recently, I bumped into one of those cycle-borne milkmen - the kind that were in abundance when we were kids. I managed to strike a deal on sourcing a gallon every weekend. I've been sourcing for the last 3 weeks and have a pretty tidy collection going - feta, mozzarella and a couple of flavoured havarti's ageing in the refrigerator. Looking forward to at least 1 havarti a week for the next couple of months along with some cream cheese once in a while. The 3 month ageing for havarti's should be perfect. That way, I have one roll of Havarti a week for the next few months. Pure JOY!!!

Passion Fruit Curd

Fruit curd is sinful, plain and simple. You're using copious amounts of cholestrol-filled ingredients and topping it with generous helpings of sugar.

The complicated taste however is definitely worth a few spoons on a cracker. We had a large number of passion fruit land up at home, courtesy of a generous grower. The first thing that came to mind was to dunk them in some potent spirits and let them stew for a couple of weeks. A majority of the fruits went into glass bottles drowned in vodka to rest for a couple of weeks.
The remainder aged in their place till they had to be either eaten or thrown away.

The idea for passion fruit curd came from a recipe on Meeta Weimar's website. She has an amazing blog with some pretty recipes. I doubt I'd have the patience to make her cakes and biscuits simply because I'm not into it at this point. What caught my attention was her recipe for fruit curd. It looked crazily simple and the wife confirmed the same.

Here is what I finally used

1 egg (the recipe asks for yolk)
2 passion fruit pulp
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter

Method

1. whisk the egg thoroughly to make sure the whites are not separate. You want the mass to be as homogeneous as possible. Create a double boiler where only the steam from the water heats the vessel with the egg and stir continously

2. Add the sugar and pulp and continue stirring until the mixture thickens.

3. Remove from the heat and add the butter. Mix to blend in the butter. The recipe asks for chilled butter, but I just used normal home made butter that was at room temperature

4. Once the mixture has cooled down to room temperature, transfer to a container and chill.

This is best eaten with a fruit bread or something that allows the taste of the citrus curd to mix with a bland base. All I had at hand were some strawberries which I drizzled the curd over. Lovely smooth taste with the crunch of the passion fruit seeds.

You could supposedly try this with any citrus fruit. Its a great appetizer to have with even plain bread.

Pita Pita

Pita's are probably the simplest breads to make. They're quick and you can have them on the table in about 3 hours flat. Simple veggies, preferably the salad types slathered with some amazingly simple dipping sauces - hummus, babaganoush, tzaziki and muhammarah are some of the common complements.
I'd made pita's about 5 years ago but was disappointed with the irregular pockets that it developed. I believe my rolling has improved since then and I can roll out a chapathi fairly evenly.
I decided to do a wheat mix, not so much to make this healthy than to have a better texture to the bread. Here's the recipe for the pita I made

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flower
1 cup water, warmed to a little higher than ambient
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp instant yeast

Mix all the ingredients till they come together. You can vary the water to suit your mix. What you need in the end is a slightly wet ball of dough. Let this double in size (about 1hr for me). Knock the dough back down, make equal size of balls (a little larger than golf ball size) and place them under a wet towel allowing them to rest for 10 mts. Pre heat the oven to the highest temperature possible (250C for me). If you have a stone, that would be perfect. I have a stoneware tava that I used upside down.
Roll out the ball of dough to the thickness of a paratha and cook in the oven for between 3-4mts. Take out the pita and place them in a paper bag for them to retain the moisture and remain soft for a while.

I made the muhammara sauce by eyeballing the ingredients - roasted red bell peppers, toasted pecans (can use walnuts), bread crumbs, garlic, olive oil & salt. The only ingredient that required a bit of prep was the pomegranate syrum that I created by slowly boiling pom juice over 15mts. Whip these in the blender till you get a smooth paste.

I created the pita pocket by just cutting through the middle of the bread.
Slather the sauce into the pita pocket and add basically any veggie you can find. I had some left over chickpea and gherkins along with a bit of thick curd.

Mungaru Male - Runny Nose & All

The unofficial announcement of the arrival of the south-west monsoons has happened - cloudy days, intermittent rain, wet apparel on the clothes lines and runny noses. Chicken soup comes to mind as a natural remedy in such situations. However, I wasnt keen on a heavy meaty broth early in the morning. Decided I'd try something lighter and quicker to make.
We've had some very good peaches available in the market over the last few weeks. They cost a packet, but taste divine. With our whacky ideas, a couple of them were dunked in vodka to infuse over the next few weeks. We've got a batch of coffee liquor and passion fruit in progress. Looks like we'll have a fair variety to choose from when the rains are in full swing.
Back to the morning preperations. I've never been a tea person, but with left over fruit offal (peach skin), I thought I'd make an exception. A peach tea seemed a good idea with muggy weather for company. Here's the recipe

2 cups water
1/2 cup peach skins (you can use the peach flesh, but I think thats a waste of expensive fruit)
1 tsp tea (any variety is fine)

Add the water to the peach skins and bring to a simmer. Add the tea and let simmer for 5mts, strain. Add a touch of honey (not too much, honey overpowers prety much anything else) and drink!