Stuffed Bread at Potluck

During my visit to super market, I chanced upon this box of flatbread mix. I read the instructions on the box, it was easy to follow. It was just mixing and baking, as simple as that. I was naturally interested.

The packet had flour with herbs and a packet of yeast. I brought it home then waited for some occasion to try this out. Making only for my self is not my idea of fun. Sharing with friends and enjoying the meal has different kind of pleasures.

The opportunity finally arrived when my friends planned a potluck lunch. I told them I would make stuffed Pizza with spinach and mushrooms. But what I had planned did not happen. I had ordered Spinach but my vegetable fella ditched me the last minute, and also, one of my friends warned me not to use mushroom, (she hates it, she said) so I was to make changes and think of more friendly veggies.

I don’t normally follow the instruction on the box, I like to create my own recipes.  So although the box said plain flat bread, I had other plans. I decided to make stuffed bread instead.

I made the dough using yeast and milk

Left it in a warm cabinet for over two hours till it grew double its size.

In the meantime, I prepared other ingredients.

Grate the cheese and keep it aside

Chop onions, capsicum and green chilies, boil corn and green peas, and crush dry fruits like almonds and walnuts. Keep them aside

Prepare tomato pure,  fry in oil with garlic and black pepper, add little sugar and tomato sauce.

Back to the dough after two hours, I spread the dough on a plate

Spread the tomato puree

Spread all the vegetables and dried fruits

Cover it with grated cheese

Add spice powders such as Chili lime seasoning, cheese powder, cinnamon powder, paprika and garlic powder

Fold the dough over the veggies 

Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil. Asahi Kasei is the best brand that I have used so far, specially when I do not want to use oil, I just layer my tray with this foil and the food does not stick to trays.

Transfer the bread roll on to baking tray

Make cuts on the bread roll

Baked it for 15 minutes in pre-heated oven on high heat

Slice, top it with grated cheese and served it warm.

You had to be there to taste……everybody loved it…

Chili and Chocolate Potluck

Chilli and chocolate, now that is an odd combination, therefore when my food blogger friend, Rushina, suggested this theme for potluck lunch, my mind did some somersault. I love chilies but am not too fond of chocolates, but thinking out of box is being creative, so I was game for it.

I thought of many dishes, and many combinations, changed many menus, finally decided to make a snack using Oreo chocolate, spicy Sambal of kidney n liver, topped with grated cheese and pickled red chilies.

It was too spicy, even though it had sweet chocolate biscuit as the base. Also it is important to develop the taste for kidney and liver. Therefore I am not sure whether others liked it, but I loved it.

It was a fun afternoon, being it Wednesday afternoon, a working day, not many of the food bloggers could attend, but all those who attended, enjoyed it a lot.

Two days prior to the event, I had pickled the chilies with lime, salt, sugar and soya sauce. On the day, this made a colorful ornament on the melted cheese.

There were many other interesting things too…Some of the other creations that I liked were

Stuffed Chillies dipped in white chocolate and the tequila induced filling inside  the chili gave quite a kick…

I am not too fond of Mexican, but this Veggie Mexican chilli was quite a favorite with the rest of the group.

Churro was crispy and spicy. When I dipped churro in hot chocolate, I was transported back to Spain, pity that Spanish would not be able to eat because it was spicy….

The salad was utterly delicious with candied chilies and it had sweetish strawberry flavor.

This one was nice roasted chicken with chocolate folded over it.

And finally came the dessert, we were anxiously waiting for…

Melt in mouth chocolate cream pots with mint-basil syrup

It was an interesting meet, chit chat over cups of hot chocolate and meeting new people is always a pleasure.

Mumbai Food Bloggers Potluck Treat

It was a potluck party with a difference. All the food bloggers were invited by Rushina at her APB cook studio

I got interested to go for this meet-up chiefly because it had been quite some time since I had interacted with other food bloggers.

Also I was curious to see the newly opened APB CookStudio that I was following since many days on FB with series of cooking events conducted at regular intervals.

And this get together was to meet Alan D’mello and Aditya of Street Smart Organization.

Reaching this place was quite frustrating, especially since I was going for the first time and I had to find my way through traffic jam, with no clear cut landmarks.  The Google maps were of no help. After many U-turns and wrong turns, I finally reached the venue passing through the dirt path into a small lane behind the main road at Chandivili.

Once I reached the ABP Cook Studio, I was transported into a new world, surrounded by pantries containing exotic sauces, several cook stations placed side by side, ovens, fridges, and the shelves containing cook-books and kitchen accessories, the mouth-watering aroma of food hung in the air.

One by one, we tasted the dishes as were presented by the food bloggers, a five course meal, starting with soup, snacks, drinks, main dishes and followed by desserts.

Towards the end of the session, Alan D’Mello and Aditya spoke about Street Smart, a non-profit organization for supporting the street children. The restaurants that are partnered with this cause places a card with al logo of sweet smart at the dining table, that  indicates  a small percentage of the food bill is siphoned out to support children and elderly to lead a better life. This is very successful venture in London and has improved the lives of the street children; it is recently introduced in the metropolitan cities of India and hoping to spread awareness of this cause amongst diners and hoteliers.

It was a wonderful evening, I was happy to share my Mirchi Bhajiya (Chili Fritters) soaked in imli (tamarind) sauce and it gave me immense pleasure when friends took extra helpings and relished it. This is a typical Sindhi cuisine, served as a snack.

Chili Fritters in Tamarind Sauce.

Ingredient:

200gms tamarind

4tbsp sugar

1tbsp cumin powder

1tbsp red chili powder

2tbsp chopped coriander leaves.

200gms gram flour

1 pinch Soda bicarbonate

200gms large green chilies

1tbsp Mango powder

Method

Step One

Make the tamarind sauce by soaking tamarind for one hour. Squeeze out the pulp, add sugar, salt, cumin seeds powder, red chili powder and coriander leaves. Keep it aside

Step two

Make the gram flour batter by adding water to gram flour, just enough to make it a pouring consistency, add salt, soda bicarbonate and red chili powder. Keep it aside

Step three

Slit and boil the chilies, remove the seeds.

Step four

Stuff the chilies with mango powder, salt and red chilies

Step five

Dip the marinated chilies in the gram flour batter (step 2) and deep fry the fritters.

Step six

Transfer the fried chili fritters into the tamarind water (step one), soak it for 2 minutes

Step seven

Arrange it in the serving dish and Serve it cold.

Food culture in my zone

The vegetable seller at the end of my street will sell only the regular vegetables. They don’t sell exotic vegetables like broccoli, mushrooms, purple cabbage etc. These are expensive vegetables which an ordinary vegetable seller is unwilling to risk (or maybe because they don’t have the knowledge about its quality and freshness. Even the ones who come to sell them from door-to-door service will not bring these veggies.

 So, if I wish to make something exotic then I have to visit a special supermarket or a particular stall that specializes in these vegetables. I am happy with these farmer’s markets that is held regularly in different suburbs of Mumbai and these are the places where I am assured of fresh and organic supply of my food stuff. These veggies are useful for preparing stir fries or salads, which are not only healthy but also can be prepared quickly.

Recently I attended a buffet party where there was live cooking, food hot from pan to the plate. Such cooking is the inspiration which makes us believe how easy it is to cook. I am always surprised by the people who grumble about the inconvenience when they have to cook and it takes them hours to prepare a meal, even though they have helpers for chopping and cleaning..

 Have simple food nah!

Having an elaborate meal can be done on special days like festivals or family together unions but on regular days a simple meal is quite reasonable.

Most of the families in India have just dhal, rice, curd, chappati, one cooked vegetable/meat dish and salad on regular basis.

 How long does one take to cook such a simple meal?

During my travels I have noticed that even in the European and American families, cold cuts or fast food are quite popular and elaborate meals are reserved for special days.

 During my stay in Tenerife, I attended the Pinolere craft fair at Orotava.There were many stalls which exhibited the local food, fresh fruits/vegetables grown locally and different kinds of cheese, wine and sweets that were famous in that region.

Europeans have lots of traditional dishes that can be found only in that region. The food and taste varies from region to region and may not be available just 100 kms away. Europeans prefer cold cuts and salads. They eat more cheese, more yoghurt, and on an average drink more wine and hard drinks than Americans.

In Spain, natives have laid back attitude. It’s more about savoring the food, enjoyment, drinking and having long chats. They are more relaxed as compared to Americans. In America there is fast food culture and sticking things in the microwave. But for both, American and northern European, a ‘full meal’ would be a main course flanked by vegetables/meat and perhaps followed by dessert.

For the Italian, on the other hand, a ‘full meal would be a pasta dish followed by main course (usually meat or fish) accompanied by vegetables or potatoes, then salad and finally dessert and/or fruit.

In India, people have developed the taste for all kinds of food. Indians like experimenting with the food and are quite creative in adjusting the taste to their palate. They will add ginger to the Chinese dishes, hot green chilies to bland Spanish dishes and will mix all kinds of sauces into a chicken burger.

To quench this hunger, they bring back sauces and soup-packets from the countries they visit, some of them reach beyond their expiry date before they can be consumed.

 Is this food healthy?

 Is it not better to eat locally grown food more than to eat the packed food imported from foreign land?

As the result of this mix-up the authenticity of the regional food is disappearing. In no time at all, people might forget the traditional dishes and will opt for quick and fast food.

On December 10 the global network of Slow Food and Terra Madre comes together to celebrate Terra Madre Day and promote local food.

Slow Food is an international movement founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986. Promoted as an alternative to fast food, it strives to preserve traditional and regional cuisine and encourages farming of plants, seeds and livestock characteristic of the local ecosystem. It was the first established part of the broader Slow movement. The movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 132 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products.

 Terra Madre is a network of food communities, each committed to producing quality food in a responsible, sustainable way. Terra Madre focuses on the relationships between food communities, cooks, universities and scientists.

I am quite excited to be the part of the Mumbai Food Bloggers and we have planned a potluck party on Terra Madre day where, each one of us will be preparing the unusual regional food. There will be discussions and sharing of the food culture.

Hmmmn ..looking forward to this..watch this space!

Coming back to fast food with fresh vegetables, here is the rice plate made in jiffy

This is the rice dish with fresh peas, mushrooms and Broccoli and just takes not more than five minutes to prepare if you have boiled rice ready in your fridge.

If you chance about visiting these restaurant kitchens you will see that all the vegetables, sauces and ingredients are chopped and neatly arranged around the cooking area. We can do the same into our kitchens too, isn't it?

With little oil (if you are diet conscious) just fry garlic and chilies in a pan. The trick in fast cooking is the fire..on high flame cooking, the juice traps inside the veggies, making it crunchy and tasty, whereas on low flame, the juice escapes  from the veggies and coats all the other ingredients in the whole dish leaving the veggies soft and limp..

Boiled rice and vegetables are added and continues stirring is required.

Rest of the ingredients like salt, spices and sauces can be added according to one's taste.

Tossing is fun, you lift the pan and shake and toss the rice up in the air (careful..not up to ceiling..beware!).......

Another dish of vegetables can be prepared separately to go with the rice place.

This kind of cooking is suitable for small portions and a very good option for the single people who compalin 'What to cook for just one person?"

So now you know!!!