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.