Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Homemade Herbed Pasta

Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 3 extra-large eggs
  • 3 tbsp chopped finely chopped basil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp olive oil


Directions

  • Mound the flour and salt in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour.
  • Using a fork, beat together basil and eggs. Pour the mixture in center of the well and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape (do not worry if it looks messy). The dough will come together in a shaggy mass when about half of the flour is incorporated. Add olive oil it will make your dough very smooth.
  • Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. Add more flour, in 1/2-cup increments, if the dough is too sticky. Once the dough is a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature.
  • Roll it with a rolling pin to as thin as possible. (If I had pasta machine it would be more smooth as edges remain a lil fat) .
  • Cut it in desired shape. I made thin strips. Don’t forget to put lot of flour while cutting or else it will be sticky and desired shape will not be achieved.
  • Let the cut pasta rest for 15 minutes, post that dust the extra flour.
  • Boil water and salt. Add pasta for 1 and half minutes; check if it’s perfect or else keep for 30 seconds more.
  • Your homemade Herb pasta is ready. I served it with pesto sauce.


Note: Do not skip the kneading or resting portion of this recipe; they are essential for light pasta.







Beetroot Chapati with Jerk Chicken

Ingredients
  • Chicken boneless ½ kg

For Roti:
  • 1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour
  • ½ cup Saffola oat meal
  • Water (Using yoghurt or milk will give you super soft Chapattis)
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tbs vegetable/ canola/ sunflower cooking oil
  • 2 tbs beet juice
  • This recipe makes roughly 12 Chapattis.


For the jerk marinade
  • 1 big bunch spring onions, roughly chopped
  • Thumb-sized piece ginger, roughly chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • ½ a small onion
  • 3 chilies, deseeded if you want less heat
  • 1 tbsp thyme leaves
  • Juice 1 lime
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp ground allspice

Method

  • To make the jerk marinade, combine all the ingredients in a food processor along with 1 tsp salt, and blend to a purée. If you’re having trouble getting it to blend, just keep turning off the blender, stirring the mixture, and trying again. Eventually it will start to blend up – don’t be tempted to add water, as you want a thick paste.
  • Taste the jerk mixture for seasoning – it should taste pretty salty, but not unpleasantly, puckering salty. You can now throw in more chilies if it’s not spicy enough for you. If it tastes too salty and sour, try adding in a bit more brown sugar until the mixture tastes well balanced.
  • Make a few slashes on chicken and pour the marinade over the meat, rubbing it into all the crevices. Cover and leave it to marinate overnight or minimum 3 hours in the fridge.
  • To cook in the oven, heat to 180C. Put the chicken pieces in a roasting tin with the lime halves and cook for 45 mins until tender and cooked through.
  • While the chicken is cooking, prepare the Roti by forming dough out of the Roti ingredients.
  • Let the dough rest for ½ hour
  • Prepare parathas with 3 drops of oil
  • Make fresh salad of cabbage, tomatoes , lemon juice, salt and pepper and 1 tsp olive oil
  • Assemble the roll by placing salad first then jerk chicken and rolling the chapatis.







Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Neer Dosa

Ingredients

  • Raw rice - 1 1/2 cups (you can use Sona Masuri)
  • Fresh coconut - 2 tbsps, grated (optional)
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil to grease pan


Method

  • Wash and soak rice for at least 3-4 hours.
  • Drain the water and grind the rice along with the grated coconut to a fine paste adding water as required. The batter has be like a flowing liquid (the consistency of water) and must be ground smooth. The batter when rubbed between your fingers should feel smooth and not coarse.
  • Add salt to taste and mix well. To test the consistency of batter, the batter should not form a coating on the back of the spoon. If it does, add more water to the batter. It should appear like buttermilk consistency. There is no need to ferment the batter. You can use the batter immediately to prepare neer dosa.
  • Grease an iron tawa and heat it on high flame. Do the sprinkle test. When you sprinkle a few drops of water on the hot pan, it should sizzle. Reduce flame and pour a ladle full of batter (a little more than 1/4 cup) from the sides of pan in a circular motion. Fill the center and holes if any with more batter.
  • Place a lid over the pan and cook on medium high flame for approx a minute. The dosa will remain white and not brown. So do not overcook it. The sides will leave the pan and the upper lay will appear dry. At this point slowly lift the sides with a spatula, fold in half and again fold it in half to form a triangle.
  • Remove from pan, place on a serving plate and serve the neer dosa with chutney of your choice, egg curry or chicken curry.

Tips

  • Use aged rice. Sona masuri works well.
  • Ensure that you season the pan well with oil before pouring the batter. If you do not season well, the dosa will stick to the pan.
  • If the batter is thick, the dosa will stick to the pan.
  • Each time you make neer dosa, enusure that you mix the batter well before pouring on the pan.
  • Once you pour the batter, there is no need to add oil along the sides or in the holes like we do for rava dosa.
  • There is no need to flip the dosa and cook the other side.
  • Cast iron pan works best but you can use a non-stick pan too. If using a non stick pan, use a pan that has a lip (sides). Once the pan is hot, pour the batter in the center of the pan and swirl it all around so that it forms a uniform thin layer. Since the batter is of a watery consistency, you should be able to swirl it all around the pan.
  • This dosa batter is not spread like a masala dosa batter. The batter is splashed on the pan like one would for rava dosa.
  • Left over batter can be refrigerated and used the next day.



Manglorian Chicken Curry

Mangalore (Kundapur) Chicken Curry is one of the versatile coastal curries, which goes very well with almost anything, neer dosas, Idlis. I tried my hands on it and loved it

Ingredients

  • Chicken 500g
  • 1 whole garlic and ½ inch ginger minced together for marination
  • Red chilly 2
  • Pepper corn 8 -10
  • Coriander seeds 2 tbsp
  • Fenugreek seeds ¼ tsp
  • Tamarind 10 gm
  • Coconut ½ cup
  • Oil 3 tbsp
  • Onions chopped 2
  • Ginger garlic paste 1 tbsp
  • Turmeric – 2 tsp
  • Green chilly 2
  • Curry leaves 3 sticks
  • Salt
  • Coconut milk 2 tbsp
  • Coriander chopped 1 bunch


Method

  • Marinate chicken with garlic and ginger paste and salt for 2 hours. 
  • Take a pan add red chilly, pepper corn, coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, tamarind, dry roast the ingredients and add coconut and water, make a paste, 
  • Heat oil in a pan add chopped onions, salt, ginger garlic paste, turmeric, green chilly, curry leaves, add masala paste, and till cook for till oil leaves and add chicken mix it, and put the lid on and cook in a slow flame, and add salt, coconut milk, and cook for 10 minutes, add chopped coriander and switch off the flame.