Saturday, February 15, 2014

Oatmeal Buttermilk Bread

I stumbled upon this bread recipe with oats as main ingredient, while looking for whole wheat bread. Oats add a very nice soft texture to the bread.  I adapted the recipe using more of whole wheat flour, and less of all purpose flour. I have made the bread using the exact recipe, and sometimes modified version using less oil, and sugar. In all instances the bread comes out good in taste in all methods.  So one can tweak the ingredients per one's taste buds. This bread recipe yields 2 loafs one big and one small. The 2 loafs go easily for my family for a week. And several occasions I share one of the loaf with friends.
Hope you get to enjoy this too.

Recipe has been adapted from here (Clockwork Lemon)


Recipe from Leslie Mackie's Macrina
Ingredients, and Steps
Step one:
1 1/4 cup rolled oats
1 cup boiling water
-combine and stir until the water has been absorbed
Step two:
2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
-combine in mixers bowl, let sit for five minutes then stir to dissolve
Step Three:
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (it turns out great with regular milk, I have used the unflavored yogurt for buttermilk substitute, and also sometimes used mix of both milk and yogurt)
1/2 cup canola oil (I use 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used 1/4 cup)
- I usually combine these in a bowl while I let the yeast sit
(I used more of whole wheat and less of white flour, so have modified this below)
1 cup white flour + 1/2 - 3/4 cup extra (even with 3/4 cup dough should be very sticky)
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp kosher salt
- add these to the mixing bowl with the yeast in it. Mix the flour and yeast on low with the paddle attachment while you pour in the milk, oil, and sugar mixture
add the oats and mix until combined
-switch to the dough hook and knead for 15-20 minutes. The dough will be sticky.. very sticky. Resist the urge to dry it out with more flour. I usually turn the dough over by hand half way through the kneading to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom and not getting kneaded. (the dough will stick to your hands while you do this. don't worry its fine)
Step Four
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to double (one hour or so)
Step Five
Gently flatten the dough into a 12x6 inch rectangle. Cut this in half and then pat into two slightly bigger rectangles. Fold the two sides to overlap (like folding a letter) then roll the dough away from you to form a loaf. Flip the loaf over and let it sit on its seam for a minute. Repeat with second piece
 Place the formed loaves on  trays or loaf pan. Cover in plastic and let rise for 30-45 minutes. Preheat the over to 385. For 15-20 minutes bake at 385 F, and once the bread starts settling in, cover the bread with foil, and  bake for additional 20-25 minutes at 350 F until done.



Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Eggless Oreo Cookies

I went to a friend's home today, and my daughter got to eat Oreo cookies. After returning from my friend's home, my daughter asked me to buy Oreo cookies for her. I generally do not buy these cookies, as I mostly bake cookies at home for my kids. Though my husband likes to buy these Oreo cookies while going on any fun trip.  Most of the time the big packet would go wasted.  This triggered me to try making these oreo cookies at home.  I googled for eggless Oreo cookies recipe. and finally adapted the recipe from here Gayathri's Cook Spot.


The changes I made to the recipe is to use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose flour. I had to bake the cookies for approx 15 minutes, but this can vary. The dough was hard to roll and cut, so I made round shape cookies with hand. The first batch of cookies was uneven. The second batch was atleast better in shape, though still not perfect. I placed the cookies in airtight container in the fridge per the notes in Gayathri's blog. Hope you get to make and enjoy these cookies for your kids too!

Sending this to Baked Treat for Kids event hosted by Seduce Your Tastebuds , Thanks PJ
Thanks Srivalli for the Kids Delight Post






Sunday, February 9, 2014

Black Chana (Chickpea) Recipe

Kala Chana as it is called in local Indian Hindi language is one kind of legumes that can be cooked in various ways. It is very rich in protein. It is available generally in Indian grocery stores in United States. One can make lentil soup with kala chana, make it as part of salad, and/or make main dish in form of curry.  The trick is to make sure to boil this legume properly. Per my mom, best way to cook this chana is to soak overnight or 6-8 hours before cooking. Soaking kala chana not only doubles the volume but also reduces the cooking time. If one is pressed on time, add water to the chana in pressure cooker, let it boil on medium high heat for 5 minutes, turn off the heat. Let the chana sit covered for approx an hour and then boil as directed below.

Kala Chana/Black Chickpea

There are different ways of making the curry/gravy dish with black gram. One way is to saute in onion-tomato-ginger-garlic paste, and masalas listed below, and pressure cook together the soaked chana with the prepared gravy. 2nd way is to boil the chana and make the gravy separately and then mix/prepare both together as the main dish. Both the above methods give good results. It depends on one style and preference of cooking. My kids love chana in the boiled version, so I saute boiled black chickpea with olive oil, cumin powder, salt, and black pepper as a quick accompaniment for  rice/chapati.

Pressure cooker method:  Soak the chana in atleast 4 cups of water for 6-8 hours. Place the soaked chana with soaked water in pressure cooker, and add approx 3-4 cups of water. If the pressure cooker whistles, cook the chana on medium-high heat for approx 5 minutes, and let the pressure cooker give 3-4 whistles. Then reduce the heat to medium low, and cook for 40-45 minutes. Turn off the heat after 40 minutes, and let the steam go off by itself. This much time is needed to boil the chana to make sure the chana is cooked properly.  During the time chana is getting boiled one can prepare the gravy.

If not using pressure cooker, boil the chana on medium high heat, and then cook on slow heat for approx 1 hour on low medium heat, stirring in between, and adding water as needed until fully boiled.

Ingredients (Mom's recipe)
1 Cup Black Chana
1 medium size onion
1 medium size tomato
1 Tablespoon grated ginger
1 Tablespoon grated garlic
1/8 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon haldi ( turmeric)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon(or per taste) red chili powder
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon amchur or use l tsp lemon
1 teaspoon garam masala
3 Tablespoon Oil
1 tablespoon chooped cilantro to garnish

Method
Chop the onion into small pieces, tomato can either be chopped or pureed using grater. Similarly chop/grate the ginger and garlic. Add oil the pan, add jeera, asafetida, add onion, let it fry, add ginger-garlic, add tomato, coriander powder, haldi, red chili powder, and garam masala. Once the masala is cooked, mix the boiled chana in it. Add salt. Use a spatula to mash some of the boiled  black chickpea well in the gravy. This extra step gives nice taste to curry, and also thickens the curry. Simmer for few minutes, and garnish with lemon/amchur, cilantro, and pinch of garam masala. Serve with rice/chapati.

Sending this to the monthly event My legume love affair # 68 hosted by Lisa thanks, and thanks creator of this event Susan