Aloo (Potato) Stuffed Roti

Roti (Indian bread) is a staple food of North India. But it is eaten throughout other parts as well. There are many different types of roti from plain to stuffed to oven baked to deep fried. When making stuffed version there are different options for the stuffing. The most commonly used are: potato, cauliflower, fenugreek leaves, and paneer (home made cheese).

Ingredients:
1 cups atta (flour)
1 medium potato
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp amchur (mango powder)
chopped cilantro
touch of cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Mix the flour with salt and approximately 1 cup water to make dough. Add 1-2 tsp oil and knead for 1-2 minutes. Cover and set aside.

Cook the potatoes with the skin. Peel and mash the potatoes. Add amchur, cumin seeds, cumin powder, cayenne pepper, salt and chopped cilantro and mix well.

To make the roti, divide the dough into 4 parts. Using both hands smooth each part into a ball. Press the ball of dough into flour to prevent sticking and roll out into a circle using a rolling pin on a flat surface or rolling board. Place 1-2 tsp of stuffing. Fold over the rolled out roti to form a ball again. Press the ball with the joined side down into more flour. Roll it again into a circle with a rolling pin.

Meanwhile place a flat frying pan on medium heat. Once the pan is hot enough, place the roti on the pan. Add 1-2 tsp oil and cook until lightly brown. Flip and cook other side adding oil as necessary.

Serve hot with a cup of fresh home made yogurt. I also like to add some lemon pickle. Delicious!

It’s all about the flour…

…. and maybe the yeast!

A few months ago when Jenna from Eat, Live, Run posted this Oatmeal Sandwich Bread recipe, I was hooked. I  really wanted to bake this. As can be expected, I started to make changes, missed the fine print, ignored the warning and deviated from the original recipe. It went straight from oven to trash.

With no kitchenaid handy and not too fond of the kneading step involved in the bread baking I was almost ready to call this whole thing off. Until my  friend Cole, shared some cool pictures of the bread she was baking and forwarded me the link to the recipe she used: the ever popular New York Times No Knead Bread recipe. There was hope yet.

Bread after bread lines the aisles in groceries such as Whole Foods and Trader Joes. Fresh and baked same day. So easy to grab one and forgot about baking it at home. If you see the time involved in the No Knead Bread recipe you will agree it is much easier to just hop on over to the nearby Whole Foods and be done. Almost.

There is a reason why I had started down this path. Every time I am in a grocery story I always like to check out the bread. Always hopeful I will find some wonderful, whole grain and exotic variety that is just perfect. Most groceries I am out in no time with no bread. What happened to that lovely rosemary bread at Trader Joes? Or how about that corn and jalapeno bread that I always loved to pick up at my local bakery? There are so many other varieties that I could think off and not find it in my local bakery or grocery.

So the choice was clear: I had to tackle this beast and master it. It seems I still hadn’t learnt my lesson. This time off I went and wanted to try at least a whole wheat variety of the no knead bread rather than the all white flour one. I stayed true to the recipe although I did toss in some chopped jalapeno and waited almost 24 hours before the bread was out of the oven. Edible. That is all I can say about it. After eating a piece of it, the next day I knew it had to go into the trash!

Third times the charm isn’t it what they say? This timeI decided I would stick to the recipe. Even before I put it in the oven I knew it was not going to make it. The dough was too runny and not taking shape,. I almost threw the dough away. But couldn’t quite get myself too. So off it went into the oven and later the trash!

It was time for some strong action. I have never been any good with reading user manuals. It seems I even missed the Bread Baking for Dummies. If it is true that a four year old is capable of following directions and baking this bread, I was surely missing something key?

Try, Try , and Try again till you succeed.

I felt like the spider, I was not ready to give it up. If a 4 year old could do it, there was something terribly wrong with my ingredients since I knew I was following the directions correctly.So off I went finally to troubleshoot and understand the ingredients. So it seems a bread flour is different from a pastry flour is different from All Purpose and Cake Flour. That gluten content is different in each of these varieties and it is the gluten that allows the yeast to rise and how the water content you use is different with different types of flour.

So yeah, I hopped to the store, brought some fresh McArthur Bread Flour and started a fresh batch.

There is certainly something to be said of rolling out fresh bread from the oven, slicing into it and making a sandwich with it! And yes, I haven’t forgotten about the original Oatmeal Sandwich Bread.

Now that I have mastered this beast, check back often to check out fresh recipes of exotic bread from my kitchen. The sky as they say is not the limit!

Goat Cheese & Apricot French Toast

Ingredients:
1 tbsp goat cheese
2 tsp apricot jam
2 slices whole wheat bread
1/4 cup egg or egg substitute
1 tbsp fresh chives snipped
1/2 tsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup grape tomatoes
1/8 tsp herbes de Provence
salt and pepper to taste

Spread cheese and jam on on slice and top with the other slice. Whisk egg and chives in a shallow bowl.

Coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set on medium heat. Add butter. Dip sandwich in egg mixture and cook on the skillet till golden brown. Flip once to cook other side. Transfer to  a plate.

Meanwhile coat a skillet with cooking spray. Stir in tomatoes, herbes de provence, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on medium high heat until lightly softened. Serve with french toast.

This recipe is  another healthy recipe from Prevention Magazine that was delicious.

Celebrate fall with Amaranth Pumpkin Loaf

If it’s fall, it’s gotta be pumpkin!

I have been itching to make this since I saw it. And as can be expected I made minor changes. Key one being to substitute 25% of white flour with amaranth flour. The final product ended up being moist and tasty. I took it in to work and it was gone in a couple of hours 🙂 Here’s how I made my pumpkin loaf.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup amaranth flour
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
some pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl mix together flour, amaranth flour, salt,baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, salt and ginger.

In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, oil, sugar and water.

Mix the wet ingredients with the dry. Add chopped walnuts and mix well.

Grease a loaf pan and add the batter. Sprinkle some pumpkin seeds and bake for 60-80 minutes.

Cranberry Orange Bread

I love just about anything that has orange in it: fresh or flavored. Dried cranberries is another of my favorite fruit . Mix the two of them and I just can’t get enough of it. I have a particular weakness for orange cranberry scones. I see one in a coffee shop, I just have to  try it. So when I came across this recipe I just had to make it, right away.

With perfect timing, fresh cranberries are already available in abundance in grocery stories. I have never used fresh cranberries before so this was a fun recipe to bake. This is adapted from the recipe posted on Eat, Live, Run .

The orange flavor in  a lot of baked items is too subdued for me. So I ramped up the orange in this recipe. I added more rind than the original recipe recommended and I also added some orange juice. I quite liked the result.

Other change I made is of course add some super food grains: flax meal and hemp. Next time I think I will try to substitute amaranth flour for some of the white flour.

The final bread turned out more crumbly that I was expecting. It looked like a perfect cranberry crumble coffee cake. And the taste was delicious.

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 stick butter (4 oz)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
zest of 1-2 oranges
1 tbsp flax meal (optional)
1 tbsp hemp (optional)
1-2 tbsp orange juice (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl whisk egg, melted butter and sugar. In a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients. Combine the dry and wet ingredients. Fold in cranberries, orange rind and walnuts. Mix well. Transfer to a greased 9in bread pan. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes until the tooth pick rule passes.

Cool and Enjoy!

Zucchini Bread

Each time I walk into a Starbucks I eye the bakery section, each time hopeful to catch sight of a slice of Zucchini bread. Each time I am disappointed. To think I had my first introduction to zucchini bread at a Starbucks. I recently came to know that the assortment of baked goodies offered at Starbucks vary by locality. So likely no chance of seeing it here! Lately having resumed my baking adventures, I of course wanted to bake zucchini bread and found the perfect healthy recipe for it at Whole Foods.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup canola oil
1/3 cup applesauce
2 tbsp yogurt
1 cup grated zucchini
1/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tbsp hemp (optional)
1 tbsp flax meal (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Meanwhile in a separate bowl whisk together egg, oil, apple sauce, yogurt and vanilla extract. Combine all ingredients. Fold in zucchini and walnuts. Being me, I tossed in some flax meal and hemp.

Lightly grease a bread pan. Pour in the dough and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the toothpick test passes.

Cool and enjoy with a fresh cup of coffee!

Mango Tea Bread

The moment I saw this recipe, I was itching to try it!

Check out the full recipe here.

The only thing I will change next time I make it is to use grated mango instead of pureed mango. I will add some walnuts which though tempted I resisted this time. Make it cholesterol free by using only egg whites.

Enjoy with some Mango Black Tea!