Friday, May 24, 2013

Bialys (Chewy Rolls topped with Caramalised Onions) ~~ We Knead to Bake#5

After pull apart bread,croissants,hokkaido bread and torcettini cookies, we are here with an another bread, something interesting and savoury as well, yes this month's We Knead to Bake is this beautiful Bialys, an incredible monthly baking event b Aparna. The bialy is pronounced as bee-AH-lee ressembles like bagel but its quite diferent from it. Bialys are baked while bagels are boiled and then baked. Bialys are chewy rolls which are round with depressed middle not a hole and usually filled with cooked onions or else sometimes onions with poppy seeds.People enjoy bialys with butter or cheese but i felt that bialys without any spread itself tastes fabulous.

The name Bialy comes from Bialystocker Kuchen which translates as bread from Bialystok from Poland. Bialys are rarely seen or made in Bialystick nowadays, but earlier its seems that this Bialys are eaten by rich Jews with their meals while its was the whole meal for the poor Jews. In early 1900, many Eastern Europeans including Polish immigrated to US and settled down in New York, obviously they also brought their Bialys making skills with them and that is how the New York Bialys are famous.

Bialys will have usually a thin layer of caramelised onions and poppy seeds, but i prepared my caramalised onions with dry fenugreek leaves and garlic.And this filling was amazing with a wonderful garlic and dry fenugreek aka kasuri methi flavour.


Recipe Source: King Arthur Flour
Dough:
3cups All purpose flour
1tsp Salt
1+1/4cup Water
1tbsp Sugar
1tsp Instant yeast
Milk for brushing the dough

For onion filling:
3nos Medium onions (finely chopped)
1tbsp Oil
2nos Garlic cloves (crushed)
1tbsp Kasuri methi
Salt

Take the yeast,sugar,salt and flour in a food processor,pulse it and add the warm water in a steady stream.

Knead until the dough comes together and let the dough rest for few minutes, this way the dough will absorb the water.

Knead again by adding little water or flour if needed until the dough turns smooth,elastic but not sticky.

Trasner the dough to a greased bowl,cover it and let it sit in a warm place to double.

Meanwhile,heat oil in a pan, add the crushed garlic, saute for few minutes, add the onions and cook in medium low flame.

Sprinkle some salt and saute until they turns golden brown in colour, finally add the crushed kasuri methi and put off the stove.

Keep aside and let this caramelised onions gets cool.

After 2hours, take out the doubled dough and divide into 8equal pieces, dust the pieces with enough flour and roll them as smooth balls and keep aside for an hour.

When the rolls are ready, pick up one and using fingers form a depression in the middle.

Hold the roll like a steering wheel with ur thumbs in the middle and your fingers around the edges.

Pinch the dough between your thumb and fingers, rotate it, gradually make the depression widers without poking a hole.

Once shapped, prick the centre of the bialy with a fork, transfer it over a baking sheet lined over a baking tray and fill it with already prepared onion filling.

Brush the outer dough generously with milk.

Bake bialys at 230C for 15 minutes till the crust turns golden brown.

Cool them and serve when they are slightly warm or at room temperature.



Patri Khichreen/Sindhi Style Khichdi

I have tried couple of dishes from Sindhi cuisine, somehow i feel very comfortable to make dishes from this cuisine eventhough this cuisine was quite unknown for me before entering into this virtual world. Thanks to this bloggy world,been born and brought up in South India, many North Indian dishes are quite unfamiliar even today for me.I learned, still learning and will learn many dishes and cuisines from this tremendous blogger world. You may wonder why suddenly Sindhi style khichdi, coz am running a week of blogging marathon from today and my theme for this week is Sindhi cuisine.

For the first day of this week's blogging marathon, i prepared a Sindhi style khichdi which i picked from Alka's Sindhi Rasoi.This khichdi goes as usual rice and lentils combination but this Sindhi style khichdi will be bit watery and mushy when compared to the other cuisine's khichdi.Simple dish prepared quickly with few ingredients, this khichdi tastes wonderful when served with a dash of ghee and with some pickle. Patri Khichreen is a light meal to relish without any guilt and definitely delicious as well as healthy.I served patri khichreen with grated mango pickle and sindhi aloo.Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this 28th edition.


1+1/2cups Rice
1/2cup Husked green gram
Salt
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
7nos Peppercorns
2nos Green cardamoms
1tbsp Oil
5cups Water

Take the rice and husked green gram together in a vessel, wash well and soak for 15minutes, drain and keep aside.

In a pressure cooker, heat the oil, add the peppercorns,green cardamoms,rice -dal mixture, saute for few minutes.

Add the water,salt,turmeric powder,close the cooker with lid and cook for 5-6whistles.

Once steam released, mash the khichdi, the consistency of this khichdi will be liquid.

Serve it immediately with a dash of ghee with papads,pickles or with spicy potatoes.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Peanut & Kasuri Methi (dry fenugreek leaves) Dal

Just like usual dals, this peanut and kasuri methi dal goes for a quick preparation and tastes very different from the usual dals.This dal goes awesome with rice as well as with rotis. Peanuts gives a wonderful crunchiness to this dal while kasuri methi leaves gives an excellent flavour to this simple dal. This dal is quite easy to prepare with less efforts and you can also add other veggies to this dal to make them much more healthier.

I used tamarind paste in this dal, thats why the colour of this dal is bit dull when compated to the usual dal. A simple,mildly tangy and delicious dal to enjoy with your favourite side dishes and rice. I used toor dal for making this dal, you can use any dal of your choice but somehow i felt that toor dal tastes much better when compared to moongdal or masoor dal.Sending to my event CWS-Peanuts hosted by me.


1/2cup Toor dal
1/4cup Raw peanuts
3nos Green chillies
1/4tsp Tamarind paste
2tbsp Kasuri methi/Dry fenugreek leaves
1/4tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Urad dal
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
1/4tsp Turmeric powder
Few curry leaves
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder
1no Dry red chilly
Salt
Oil

Wash both the toor dal and raw peanuts together, take them in pressure cooker along with green chillies,turmeric powder,salt and enough water.

Pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles.

Meanwhile in a pan, heat the oil let splutters the mustard seeds,urad dal,cumin seeds.. add the asafoetida powder, dry red chilly and curry leaves.

Once the pressure gets released, mash slightly the dal, add the crushed kasuri methi, tamarind paste and bring the dal to boil.

Finally add the tempered spices to the dal and put off the stove.

Put off the stove and serve immediately.