Multigrain Bread and Pickled Mushrooms

I have always wanted to bake bread. Each time I went to a super store, I would see range of different kinds of breads and most of them were made by home chefs, and I would think, someday I will bake it too.

 Many times I had even bought yeast, waiting for my moods, the yeast aged and I had to throw it away. Then this lockdown happened, I was not able to go to the store to select the loaf of bread that took my fancy, that’s when I decided that I would bake it.

 

The first one I tried was with just plain flour. I watched about twenty different videos on U tube, to understand the techniques. Baked the first one, it took me about five hours, it did come out good but plain flour bread is not my liking.

 

Then I decided to make multigrain bread and voila! It was just the type I wanted.

 

 

So, before I forget the recipe, I decided to write it down.

 

Just soaked 1 tbsp dry yeast with salt and sugar in warm water for 10 minutes for it to ferment

 

Meanwhile take 1 cup plain flour, plus 1/4 cup Wheat flour plus 1/4 cup Rajgira flour

 

Add 1 tsp of Fennel seeds, 1tsp Poppy seeds, 1tsp Cumin seeds,  1tsp Sesame seeds and a pinch of Baking powder

 

Mix it well and add the fermented yeast

 

Mix it well, it should be wet and sticky, transfer to the greased silicon baking dish...smoothen it with wet hands

 

Cover the dough with mixture of crushed almonds walnuts n pistachio.

 

Keep it for one hour..

 

It will rise to double its size

 

Bake it for 30 minutes, cool and cut into slices..store it in the freezer..

 

Although the bread tasted very good but I decided to make Mushroom pickle too so that I could toast this slice of bread and have it with mushroom pickle.

 

This is how I pickled it

 

Clean and blanch the mushroom and chop into thin slices.

Add crushed garlic, chilies, finely chopped dry fruits like walnuts almonds pistachio, veg cube, lime juice. Pour olive oil and keep it bottled for 2 days.

 

Mushroom pickle can be stored in fridge for 15days and I use it for topping pizzas, or add in fry rice or even with pastas. One spoon should be enough for one serving…

 

Better to pickle it rather than to let it go bad with neglect.

Fish Curry

 When I see the red bubbling fish curry, I get hungry. OMG. It only 12:30 afternoon and its not even my lunchtime, but I just can’t wait to eat it.

 

 I am confined at home since six months already, but cooking has been my favorite pastime, in between catching various webinars, zoom meetings and Instalive. Not that I ever went to fish market to buy fish, (I rarely do) its too slippery for me to walk in the market, although fisherwomen are quite clean and they maintain cleanliness but there is always too much water on the floor.

 

Plus I have a fisherwoman who visits me regularly. I have known her for many years, always came to my doorstep, cleaned, washed and salted the seafood before she left. There was a personal touch in buying fish from her. She shared recipes, discussed interesting stories and spent some time chatting at my doorstep. Now that my building is redeveloped and with new rules, fisherwomen are not allowed to come up, vegetarian folks get offended by fishy smell, so she waits downstairs outside the gate and I have to go down to fetch it. Like many other changes, the personal touch is disappearing too.

 

The picture looked so good on my Instagram, that few of my friends asked for a recipes (It was tasty of course, but only I ate alone and enjoyed it) but you can enjoy it too.

 

This is how I made it.

 

Marinated 250gms of fish with 2 green chillies, 1inch ginger(crushed), 5 cloves of garlic, 1tsp of turmeric powder, 1tsp of coriander powder, 1tsp red chili powder, 2tsp of Malwani powder, 1tsp of lime juice and salt to taste.

 

Cover and keep it for 2 hours.

 

In a pan, fry 1 large finely chopped onions in 2tbsp of ghee, add marinated fish, add 1 large tomatoes and let it cook for 5minutes.

 

Mix it slowly then add 1cup water, cover and cook on slow flame for 15 minutes.

 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with roasted chappatis.

 

PS: Malwani masala is the combination of about 25 spices, that are roasted, mixed, grounded and stored in jars. It is enjoyed in the coastal kitchens of Malvan. You can either make at home (Google it or you can buy from any Indian super store.

Meeting My Foodie Friends During Lockdown On Social Media

 During this pandemic, life would have been very depressing if there were no technology to connect with outer world. I cannot imagine what my life would be? I would read books, yes, or sometimes sit by the window side and watch the skies (and the rains) but what else would I do.?  Luckily, food has been plenty, and cooking has been one activity that has kept all of us occupied and how!!

 Everybody has been innovative in creating dishes, some of them improving on their cooking skills and some learning new skills.

 

My most favourite activityon social media is picking out strands of knowledge from every field. I love watching my friends (on social media) who share their wealth of food knowledge and that has been very rewarding for me. From the comfort of my home, I have been able to catch some Instagram Live broadcast.

 

My foodie friends are really very talented and they have been my companions during this lockdown. I see them everyday, live on Instagram, and catch up on latest trends whenever I have some free moments to spare. On normal days (that is when we lived in a normal confused world) I would meet them only during food events but now, I can meet whenever I wish. I have learnt a lot during these five months in isolation, which actually is not an isolation at all. I am wiser now!

 

Although there are many live events happening everyday on various fields like art, poetry, travel, etc. but today I will talk only about the live broadcast by my foodie friends whom I follow on Instagram.

 

My favourite from this food world is this lovely couple Sam and Saloni Malkani, the founders of TheFBAI  (a social platform for food and everything related to it).. Both are ardent foodies and love to connect with everything food, drink and hospitality. Meeting them is a blessing for me because they have introduced to the inner circle of food industry.

 

 

Sam Malkani has great variety of  discussion on #InstaLive  covering different food topics. Each time I visit his page, there are different kind of topics he is covering, sometimes he is interviewing entrepreneurs, sometimes he is on food quiz shows, sometimes live cooking demos and sometimes a deeper knowledge on products available during pandemic.

 

 

Saloni Malkani is very caring friend and most influential person in food industry. I admire her for her warmth and in cementing everybody together. Last year she created a storm with her partner, Chef Ananya Banerjee by starting Wild Asparagus Table, (a potluck on international cooking) and this got me interested in different cuisines and cultures of the world.

 

Their very latest Newspepper is creating waves on social media.

 

 

ChefAnanya Banerjee  is very glamorous and talented person. Between food and being Chef, she is also a traveller, food curator, food consultant and ex-editor of #BBCGoodFoodIndia  She interviews Homechefs around the globe on #Instalive  (twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays) giving us the insight on the homechefs’ life in general, their cooking methods, the utensils they use in their kitchen and much more.

 

 

I met Inderpreet Nagpal  at  Wild Asperagus Table, an SriLankan potluck organised at her own home at Vesova and was completely awed by her talents in cooking, art world and gardening. Inderpreet Nagpal of Rummy’s Kitchen is a multi-talented homechef who can develop a recipe with any ingredients.  Twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), she comes #Instalive to chat with foodies, where she discusses one particular ingredient with different participants and then she comes back with most exotic recipes.

 

 

 I met Rushina Munshaw first time at one food demo at Nature’s Basket some ten years ago and there is no looking back. I have learnt a lot from Rushina and she was the one who counselled me to get a food blog (Papadchai) if I was really serious about writing on food.  Rushina is a culinary expert, is very knowledgeable about ingredients, cuisines and history of food. Catch her on #Instalive at 11am everyday on her series on #SpiceChroniclesWithRMG where she is exploring the different spices used in different regions of India.

 

 

During one of events organised by Rushina for Women’s Day, I met Shubra Chatterji,  a very friendly and amiable person. She is an award-winning filmmaker and enjoys travelling and documenting Indian Culture and Heritage and in particular the vast Culinary Cultures of India, via travel-based non-fiction programming, visual essays, articles and curatorial projects. Shubhra, (known as Historywali) currently hosts an Instagram LIVE series, History On A Plate, which started off as a Lockdown passion-project but has gained quite a bit of eyeballs, and media coverage.

 

 

Kurush Dalal  is the most interesting person I have met, He is loaded with food knowledge folded under his charm of humour and stories.  Kurush is an archeologist by profession, also an historian, food anthropologist, culinary expert and a very friendly person. You can watch his #InstaLive everyday and listen to his stories on #Knowyourprotiens. You can also watch his recorded IGTV on A to Z series of ingredients, that he completed some time ago, where he spoke in details about all the ingredients found in the kitchen.

 

 

I met Kalyan Karmakar during one of his organised food trails (around Mohammed Ali road, a place that he calls as cultural unifier) and I had a great conversation on our drive back in his car. Kalyan is very well verse with food culture of Mumbai and is a good conversationalist. He has won the title of best food blogger three years in a row, and is very popular. You can watch his #instalive under the handle of  #Thefinelychopped where he talks to entrepreneurs of food industry about how they started their food biz and how do they go about with their business during these rough times of pandemic. A very interesting talk indeed!!

 

 

Who doesn’t know Amrita? She is Social media celebrity, was known for her OMG Bacon Jam which she stopped making after she turned vegetarian. I have met Amrita Kaur several times during food meetings.  She has wealth of food knowledge, specializes in Ayurveda nutrition. You can watch her #Instalive under handle #Amritaforlife where she discusses different interesting aspects of food, nutrition value, recipes and healthy eating habits.

 

 

There is wealth of knowledge on #Instalive and the best part it that it is possible to see the recorded version at IGTV (if you missed live sessions), which are equally good although you might miss the live conversation of the people who were watching that discussion at that time. I am interested in watching all sessions but sometimes I am unable to watch it live because of my first commitment  towards my #Specialchildren of my SBP, school for PWID. Special children need be kept occupied or else they will have behavior issues, so with the help of my staff and the parents of special children, we have been experimenting different methods to keep children busy too and I am glad that I could help them in some way.

During this pandemic my #SindhiCuisine book also went viral on Watsapp, travelling around the world (where I personally have never visited those places), and I was getting call from most remote places around the globe,  (I am told) many of them felt that my book is the treasure of sindhi cuisine and many have learnt to cook simple food, specially the beginners. Well, I was glad of that.  

 

But whenever I get time, I turn to IGTV to pick the missed sessions of #Instalive. It certainly is more interesting than watching those depressing news on TV or some series on Netflix or on Prime Videos….

 

And why not….Food is my passion too!!