Alton Brown's French Toast

I followed Alton Brown's French Toast Recipe to the letter and the result was very good.
The recipe is at:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/french-toast-recipe/index.html

Karamani (Long beans) Curry (as in stir fry)

This is a very simple curry/fry. Long beans is very simple to cut. You chop off the ends and then chop it into bits of 1/4 of an inch (or about 1/2 centimeter). 

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil 

Pinch of asafoetida

2 dried red chillies, broken

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp urid dal

2 cups of chopped yard long beans

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sambar powder

2 tsp fresh coconut 

Directions

1. In a large wok / kadai, heat the oil. 
2. Add asafoetida, immediately adding red chillies, mustard seeds, urid dal. 
3. Once mustard seeds splutter and dal turns golden, add the chopped beans, salt - stir well and sprinkle water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low flame. 
4. Check on the beans every 3 minutes or so, sprinkling some water, if it is too dry or catching at the bottom of the pan.
5. Once done (tender, but still retaining some crunch), sprinkle sambar powder, stir to mix well.
6. Remove from flame and garnish with coconut.

Fastest Way to carmelize Garlic

From the nytimes website:
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/04/19/dining/100000002179029/the-fastest-way-to-caramelize-garlic.html

To make it, smash several garlic cloves and then peel off their skins. Heat 1/4-inch or so of olive oil in a skillet and add the garlic. Let the garlic cook over medium to medium-low heat until the edges turn golden, about 2 to 6 minutes. If the garlic starts to turn dark brown, lower the heat.

The garlic and garlic oil will last for at least 2 weeks in the refrigerator if you don’t use it all before then. And if you do, making more is a snap. 

Veg Paella

From Mark Bittman's Paella Recipe. I have to try this yet, but recently I had Paella served during a Business Lunch. I thought it was light and flavorful and the overall texture was different than the Pulao or Biryani. I will be trying this out soon.

Paella Master Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, minced
• 2 cups rice
• 1 pinch saffron
• 3 1/2 cups liquid (vegetable stock; water; wine, etc., or a combination)
• 1/2 pound vegetables, like olives, tomatoes, snow peas, mushrooms

1.

Put 3 tablespoons olive oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add one chopped onion and some minced bell pepper at the same time if you like and cook until soft. 

2.

Add 2 cups rice and (if you have it) a pinch of saffron and cook, stirring, until shiny. Add 3 1/2 cups of your liquid of choice, heated, and stir until just combined.

3.

Cook over medium-high heat, undisturbed. If the pan is too big for your burner, move it around a little; but after that initial stirring, leave it alone. When the mixture starts to dry, begin tasting the rice; if the liquid amount seems O.K., keep going. If the rice seems quite tough, add another 1/2 cup or so of liquid. And if you can smell the bottom starting to burn, lower the heat a bit. About halfway through the cooking (about 10 minutes), add any vegetables, adjust seasonings and stir gently, just once.

4.

The rice is done when tender and still a bit moist; if the mixture has stuck to the bottom of the pan, congratulations: you have socarrat, a characteristic of good paella. This should be served in the pan, in the middle of the table, and dinner guests — up to six — should fight over it.

Vegetable Soup with a light broth

This is the soup that I made for tonite's dinner. Yum!

It is a wonder that a simple mix of vegetables add so much flavor in this simple but immensely satisfying soup.
Flavor base: 2 cloves garlic, 2 carrots; 2 stalks of celery; 1 med onion - all diced and lightly sauteed in olive oil.
To this add coarsely sliced vegetables: 3 small potatoes, 1 red peper, 1 yellow squash, 3-4 tomatos, 1/2 cup spinach, 1 cup frozen green peas (or other veggies in similar amounts, not a whole lot). Sautee some more.
Add 1 carton of veggie stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 40-60 mins after adding Seasoning: i.e. 1 tsp of thyme powder (or dry thyme), 2 tbsp chopped basil, 1 tsp red pepper flakes, 1 tsp pepper, salt to taste

Croutons make this into a meal. Cut white bread slices to triangles (it is more fun that way), sprinkle 1 tbsp olive oil and optionally dice 1 tbsp butter into small pieces and sprinkle over the bread slices. Bake at 350 deg for 8 mins; turn the broiler on for 2 mins watching carefully in the oven so it doesn't get burnt.

Pita Bread

I got this recipe from: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread
and I am going to try this tomorrow. Since I baked Naan Bread on my pizza stone and it came out always good, I am going to try this one.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar or honey
1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons active dry yeast)
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

Steps

• Warm the water in microwave for 30 secs and add sugar/honey in it. 
• Add active dry yeast to proof it for about 10 mins. If you are using instant yeast skip this step and add the yeast to the dry ingredients.
• Mix all ingredients in a bread machine for 10 mins
• Put the dough in a bowl coated with oil/spray and cover it with kitchen towel and let it raise for 90 mins
• After this punch down the dough; divide into 8 balls; put it back into the bowl and let it raise for 30 mins.
• At this point you can make the pitas or store the dough in the fridge for several days
• Load the pizza stone into the oven and put the oven on maximum temperature, in the broil mode.  
• Roll each ball into 1/8 or 1/4 inch thick disc
• Place the discs on the pizza stone and bake for about 3 mins until they are puffy. 
• If you need them crispy bake them for an additional 3-5 mins.
• 
  

Mushroom Pulao

I made this today and it turned out to be a fairly easy recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 Med onions thinly sliced or diced
• 2 med tomatos diced
• 2 Garlic pods chopped finely
• 1-2 cups of sliced mushrooms 
• 1/2 cup of peas (optional)
• 2 Green Chillies
• 2 Cloves
• 1 Stick cinnamon
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 Star Anise
• 1 tbsp Garam Masala Powder
• Salt
• 2 cups Basmathi Rice
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp ghee/butter
• Coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

• I used a Pressure Pan for this dish. You could use a wide skillet with a lid also but you need to adjust cooking time and water accordingly.
• Soak rice for 10-20 mins and drain water and set aside
• Heat oil and ghee in pressure cooker.
• Add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and star anise.
• After a few seconds, add garlic, onion and green chilli. Saute for a couple of minutes.
• Add mushroom and peas and Sautee for 5 mins
• Add rice and saute for 5 mins
• Add Tomato and Saute for 5 mins
• Finally add 4 cups water and cover the pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles.
• Cool and garnish with coriander leaves.
• Serve with Raita.

Naan

I adapted this recipe from Aarti Sequeira's recipe.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/naan-indian-oven-baked-flat-bread-recipe/index.html. I reduced the yeast a bit as using a whole teaspoon will make the naan very yeasty and flaky and somewhat not Naan-like. Also I used 50% whole wheat and 50% all purpose flour to add whole grain goodness. It came out quite well. If you dont have yogurt, you could use Kefir instead. Buttermilk wont be a good substitute I think. 

• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast (instant yeast also worked)
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 cups Bread flour, plus more for rolling, (Alternatively 1 cup whole wheat and 1 cup all purpose)
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon kalonji (nigella seeds), optional
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, optional
• Ghee or Butter for brusing on finished naans

Directions

• First dissolve 1 tsp sugar with 3/4 cups warm water and add yeast. Let it sit for 10 mins.
• Put all the other ingredients into a food processor or a stand mixer or a bread machine and mix. Add water as the flour forms into a ball of dough.
• This dough should be somewhat sticky. But if it is too sticky reduce water.
• Coat Oil in a mixing bowl put the dough in it and cover with a wet kitchen towel.
• Leave for 2-4 hours or more.
• Punch down and divide the dough into about 6 balls, You need to coat your hands with oil and dust with flour as the dough will be sticky. Leave for another 20 mins or so.
• About 1 hour before making naan, leave a pizza stone in the oven at the maximum temp in broil. Pizza can be in the top Rack in order to take maximum advantage of radiated heat from the top heating elements. If your oven is convection one, turn it into convection broil.
• Now, take a ball, moisten your hands with water and pat the dough between your hands shaping it into a tear drop shape.
• Put it on your Gaddi and then slap it into the pizza stone.
• (You can make gaddi by rolling a few kitchen towels into a small pillow shape. If you dont have Gaddi, you can use your mittens as well)
• Naan will be done in about a min or so. Keep watching it and as it turns brown take it out.
• You may want to have a flat spoon handy for taking it off the stone, just in case it sticks to the pizza stone.
• Once you take the Naan out of the oven, brush it with Ghee or butter. 
• You can have Naan with curries like Mutter Paneer, Chana Masala, etc.

Minimize the time the oven is open so that the pizza stone keeps at the hottest possible temperature. You could finish baking the whole batch of 6 naans in about 15 mins.

This Naan came out quite good and was very comparable to the Naan you get from the Tandoori Oven. It was chewy and remained moist even after cooling down. It can be reheated in the toaster oven before serving.