Recap~ 2011

Wishing you all a very happy new year, 2012. May god bless you all.

Hibiscus from my garden

A quick recap of  few things which I enjoyed doing this year, which is going to end in few hours.


Coconut and Carrot Layered Burfi :

Bread Making - I learned to make bread from a colleague. Thanks to her for boosting my confidence towards baking. 

Iyengar Bakery Style "Khara Bread" 

My friends all time favorites : Shavige (Indian "bee hoon" )

Vade/Vadai :



 Christmas Party Winner @ Office: Tandoori Aloo 

 Hope the year 2012 will be more appetising for Taste of Mysore. Sending this post to Srivalli of Cooking4AllSeasons Blog. for her Best of 2011 event.  

See you all next year, till then enjoy your new year party ...

Tandoori Aloo ~ Oven Baked spicy Potatoes

A tasty starter for your parties. Takes a little effort to make, but it is worth the effort. Note the time taken here if you are thinking of making this. Marinating potatoes takes 12-13hrs. Rest of the steps take around 1-2hrs. Plan well if you want to give it a try.

Entire process can be divided into 4  stages; 1. Cook & deskin Potatoes 2. Making of tandoori spice powder 3. Marinating 4. Baking


Clean potaotes with several changes of water. If you wish to keep the potato skin intact, clean potatoes well. Half cook potatoes and remove them from water. Poke a hole into them. They are ready to be marinated. Alternatively you can deskin potatoes and poke a hole into them.
Making of  tandoori spice powder : (enough for 1kg baby potatoes)

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds -2 tbps
Jeera (Cumin) - 3tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1tbsp (increase the quantity if you want it more spicy)
Kasoori Methi - 1tsp
Mace -1 number
Clove - 5-6 numbers
Cinnamon Stick- 2 numbers
Black Cardamom - 4grains (I prefered to use less, you can add more if you like the taste of it)
Red Food Color - a big pinch
Turmeric- 1tsp

Method:
1. In a thick bottomed pan dry fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mace, clove, cinnamon, cardamom separately till they are aromatic. Let them cool down.
2. Powder fried spices with kasoori methi, red color, turmeric and red chilli powder.
3. Tandoori spice powder is ready for use.

Store if extra :

Marinade Ingredients : 200g yogurt, ginger & garlic paste, Tandoori spice powder and salt.
Mix all the ingredients well. Check for salt levels and more if required. Dip all the potatoes which are ready to be marinated. Mix well to coat the marinade over the potatoes. Let the potatoes rest well with the marinade for atleast 12-13hrs. This is very important for getting tasty tandoori potatoes.

Mix potatoes with marinade :

Baking :

Line your baking tray with aluminium foil. Spray oil. Line the potatoes like this :

Bake them at 200 degree centigrade for 10 to 20 mins or till they are done. After 5-7mins or when the marinade on the top is cooked, turn them over and continue to bake till the other side is cooked. 

Tandoori Potatoes are ready to be enjoyed with some cheesy dip. I prepared them for my
office Christmas party and all my colleagues loved them. I am sure, you will love them too.

Potatoes wrapped in a.foil for party.....

Will be back with more party recipes for your new year party. Till then, enjoy tandoori aloo..

Congress ~ Spicy Peanuts

As promised, here is the recipe for Congress Kadalebeeja or Spicy Peanuts.

Roasted and Deskinned Peanuts -  1 cup (approx200g) (read as - as much as you wish)
Red Chilli Powder- 2 tbsp
Pepper Powder- 1tsp
Byadagi Chilli Powder - 1tsp (or you can use kashmiri chilli powder)
Food Color (red) - a pinch (I have not used, but to make it look like commercially available stuff you can use it)
Salt - as required
Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
Oil - 3-4 tbsp
Asafoetida (hing) - a pinch
Curry Leaves - as much as you want

Method :
1. Heat oil. Add asafoetida. When asafoetida becomes aromatic add curry leaves and fry till crisp.
2. Switch off the stove and add rest of the ingredients in the following order - pepper, redchilli powder, food color, salt, rice flour and mix well.
3. Add deskinned peanuts and mix well with the rest of the ingredients.
4. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea or with bakery style bread.

Till next time, ENJOYY!

Iyengar Bakery Style Khara Bread

It was love at first sight with Prathy's Iyengar Bakery style khara bread. Just, finished baking and eating it with some home made congress kadalebeeja. Combo was yummy!!!!!

I made this bread using bread machine. The recipe for our bread machine is very different from Prathy's recipe. If you are baking in a oven please refer to her recipe here. Below recipe suits our bread machine :

Salt -1tsp
Sugar- 1~2tbsp
Egg- 1
Butter- 2-4 tbsp
Milk Powder- 2tbsp 
Milk or Water - upto 280g (if you are using milk, then skip milk powder)

Wholemeal bread flour or Bread Flour - 400g
Instant Yeast- 2tsp

Extra Ingrediants for Khara Bread :

Oil, jeera, finely chopped curry leaves, onions cut lengthwise, finely chopped coriander leaves, black pepper powder, green chilli paste. Heat oil, add jeera and curry leaves. When jeera browns add green chilli paste, pepper powder and onions. Sautee till onions turn pink. Keep it ready to add them to bread dough.

Method:
1. Weigh the baking bowl. Add salt, sugar, butter, milk powder. Tare the weight which simply means reset the weight back to 0. Add egg and fluid (water or milk) upto 280g. Tare the weight again. Add bread flour upto 400g. Add yeast on top of bread flour. Put the baking bowl back into the bread machine and follow the instructions.Our bread machine starts mixing the ingredients and kneading them. Onion mixture is added after 30 minutes from the start time. You can sprinkle some sesame seeds when the bread is ready for baking which happens is last 40 mins. Our bread machine kneads, rests and bakes the bread. It takes 3hrs for the total process. Result is yummy bread like this...

How to make congress kadalebeeja? Come back to read the next post on Taste of Mysore for the recipe of Congress ;) Till then have a wonderful day.

Paani Poori

I just can't resist the sight of paani poori, esp when it is so well presented. Akash also could not stop himself when he saw paani poori post at Prathibha's blog. Poori recipe was something which always bothered me. I tired Prathy's way to make poori and the result was good. Here is my version of paani with Prathy's version of Poori :D

For Paani : (less spicy version, which is pleasent to drink as much as you want!)
Pudina/Mint Leaves - 1 cup tighlty packed
Coriander Leaves - 1/2 cup, chopped
Ginger- 1"
Garlic- 2-3 cloves (adjust accordingly if you like strong garlic flavor)

Green Chillies- 2
Sompu (Dill seeds)/Saunf - 1tsp
Pepper- 8
Black Salt - 2tsp
Salt - as needed
Lemon Juice- from 1 or 2 lemon
Water - 2 litres
Method:
Blend all the ingredients (except lemon juice) with little water to make chutney.
Mix this chutney with 2 litres of water and set aside in refrigerator for 2-3hrs.
Filter paani using a muslin cloth or a cloth filter.
Paani is ready to use
For Poori (recipe from Prathibha- the chef and her kitchen blog)

Chiroti Rava (Very fine semolina) - 1 cup
Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup
Urid dal flour (deskinned black gram)- 1/2 cup
Salt and 2 tbsp of oil
Water
Oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients to make a soft yet firm dough.
Roll them with rolling pin to make a big circle.
Using a round cookie cutter cut rounds.
Deep fry them in oil to get pooris.

Pooris were sold out at home!! I had to hide few of them for taking pictures.

Other ingredients you need to assemble paani poori :

1. Peas and Potato Mixture : Cook green peas and potato. Mash them separately and mix them with little salt.
2. Onion Mix - Chop onion and coriander to small pieces and mix well
3. Khara Sev (Store bought)
4. Dates and Tamarind Chutney aka 'Meetha' or 'Meethi chutney'
Lion Dates (seedless) - 1 cup packed
Tamarind Juice - 2tbsp
Jeera Powder - 1 tsp (fry and powder jeera)
Black Salt - 1tsp
Soak lion dates in little warm water till it is soft to blend. Blend dates with tamarind and water. Bring this mixture to boil. If you have a very thick chutney at this point, add little water to dilute it. Add jeera powder, black salt and switch off the stove. Meetha is ready.

To assemble paani poori :

Make a hole on one side of the poori.

Stuff in little peas n potato mixture, top it with onion mixture and sev.

Dunk it in paani and let it land inside your mouth smoothly...... ummmmm.....!!! nothing more to say