Garlic Pull Apart Rolls

Making your breakfast before and having it on a lazy Saturday morning is something you can do easily if you bake... I used this strategy yesterday and made some Garlic Pull Apart Rolls. They are again from Monika's blog.

Its a fairly simple recipe and since I wanted to use wholewheat - I used 2 cups of wholewheat in this recipe...This is Monika's recipe with my notes and pics inbetween :)

Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
•All Purpose Flour - 3 cups (I used 1 cup Maida and 2 cups Aashirwad Whole Wheat Atta - the strategy i use to measure is scoop the flour into the measuring cup, tap it once and even it out with a spatula)
• Warm Water- 1 cup (tipd keep 20-30 ml more water as atta needs more water - warm the entire quantity and keep 1 cup aside. Use this first and the rest if required
• Dry Active Yeast- 1tbsp (easily available Eagle Brand)
• Salt – 1tsp
• Sugar- 2 tbps
• Olive Oil- 3 tbps
• 1 tbsp milk for basting the buns before baking
For the garlic filling
• Salted Butter- 50grams
• Garlic- 6-7 finely chopped
• Parsley and Thyme – 3 tbps (chopped)
• 3/4 tsp chilli flakes


Method:

• Mix abt 2 tbsp of warm water (from the one cup mentioned), sugar and yeast together and leave aside for 5 minutes till it looks a little frothy. Thats when the yeast has been activated and is ready to use
• Mix the above starter with dough and knead lightly till everything comes together as a dough. No need to over knead it.
• Add oil to it and knead for another 5 minutes till it starts springing back
• Keep the dough for resting covered by cling film for about 30-45 mins till it almost doubles depending on the weather. (My dough doubled in just 20 mintues.)

• While the dough is proofing u can make the garlic spread ready by mixing all the ingredients together at room temperature.
• After its doubled in size, knock down to remove the air and roll in to a half an inch thickness sheet. Use dry flour to prevent it from sticking
• Apply the garlic filling/spread evenly on the dough and roll the dough from one end to another.
• Using a knife or a thread cut it into 8-10 rolls of equal size (I used a combination of thread and pizza cutter for the cutting) and got 14 rolls or so
• Line them in a greased loaf pan, spread the left over garlic spread on top and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top.

• leave it for proofing again for 30 mins or so
• Apply egg wash (optional) (I used a milk wash)and bake it in a preheated oven at 180C for about 20-25 mins
(If you are using a milk wash, top the baked rolls with some butter for a soft crust, empty over a wire rack after 5 minutes of cooling in the pan else the rolls get stuck)
• Pull them apart and eat fresh and warm.

Update on 25/Nov/2014 I made these rolls again with stone ground coarse organic wheat flour in the same proportion mentioned instead of store brought one. The difference to the texture of the bread is to be seen to be believed. Its definitely worth the effort to buy grains and mill your flour. The filling this time had the coriander-mint chutney, grated carrot, dried basil. I was a little sceptical of how the combination of mint-bail-coriander-garlic and carrot would work - but they really pair well. Try out this variation too, but make sure that the chutney is on the drier side...

Healthy Multigrain Rolls

I have been following a blog of Monika Manchanda regularly and found the recipes very interesting. Found a recipe for baked
Baked Spinach Balls – High Protein Delight and decided to adapt and use it for lunch the next day.


I used oats flakes and peanuts and mashed potato instead... and used chat masala for flavouring... and got inspired to make it into a roll - lettuce acts as a barrier and doesnt let the roti get soggy. cheese is for the kids - used ketchup for them and a tabasco-tomato chutney filling for S and me..i doubled the recipe and that yielded 7 such cylindrical cutlets..

Here's my version

Multigrain Rolls - Baked Oats-Potato-Peanut Rolls
For the Roti
• 2 cups of Multigrain flour
• ½ tsp salt
• Water as required
• Oil for coating the dough

For the Baked Rolls
• 2 cups of finely chopped Spinach
• 1/2 cup of oats flakes
• 1/2 cup of peanuts (roasted and crushed)
• 1 tbsp grated cheese
• 1/2 cup of boiled and grated potato
• 2 tsps Chat Masala
• Salt as desired
• 2 tsps of oil

To Assemble
Melted butter, lettuce leaves, ketchup or tomato chutney-Tabasco in a 50:50 ratio

Method
Make a soft and elastic dough – remember softer your dough is, the phulkas will be that much softer. Coat with a thin film of oil. Let it rest for 30 minutes. Roll it out into pulkas, lightly roast on the tava till small brown spots appear. Take off the tava and wrap it up in a soft cotton cloth. Keep it loosely covered in a box.

For the Baked rolls
• Dry roast the oats flakes, grind to a coarse powder after it cools.
• Combine all the ingredients together and roll into rolls. Add corn flour if binding is required. The above mixture gives about 6-7 rolls.
• Bush with olive oil
• Grease the baking tray and place them on it.
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 185 C for about 10 mins or so. The rolls will have a nicely browned crust.
To assemble
• Spread some melted butter/ghee on the phulka and place half a lettuce leaf on it. Place it such that it covers the length of the phulka but only quarter of the width. lettuce acts as a barrier and doesn’t let the roti get soggy
• Smear the ketchup or chutney on the lettuce leaf.
• Place one roll on the phulka and wrap it up tightly.
• If these rolls are being sent in a lunch box, wrap in a foil too.

Latest in the baking marathon - Veggie calzone

Vegetarian Calzone

For the covering
250 gms APF
7.5 gms Fresh Yeast (or 3.75 gms Active yeast)
10 gms sugar
5 gms salt
10 gms butter
150-180 ml water
Italian seasoning and chilli flakes depending on your taste

For the filling
1 tbsp oil
Bell pepper, mushroom, onion (sliced/ cut finely) – abt 1 – 1.5 each
Sundried tomatoes – abt ¼ cup
Grated Mozzarella cheese – 75-100 gms
Chilli flakes – according to taste (I didn’t use any)

Method:
For the filling
Sauté onion, peppers and mushroom in abt 1 tbsp of oil till crisp and cooked. Add sun dried tomatoes and salt to taste. Remember there will be cheese too, so adjust salt accordingly. I did not add any extra flavouring as the herbs in the sundried tomatoes were very strong. You can use normal tomatoes (discard the seeds and the water parts) and add fresh herbs (basil/thyme/rosemary or a mix of all) and garlic. The filling should be well cooked and dry. Let it cool.

Keep the grated cheese handy along with the filling – do not mix them. You can use grated paneer instead of cheese – and mix it in the last state of preparation of the filling too.

For the covering
Measure out 150 ml of water. Then in a bowl add sugar and yeast and add enough water from the measured water to submerge the yeast. I used fresh yeast. Sieve the flour once and then add the seasoning and salt. Mix. Make a well and pour the yeast mixture into it. Mix well and add water and knead till you get a dough that is like that of Poori dough in consistency. Add abt 20 ml more water and knead. Add the butter (u can melt it after measuring it) and ensure that it is incorporated well. Keep kneading for 15-20 minutes, keep adding water as required. When the dough passes the Window Pane test, you can keep it for the first proofing. Let it rise for abt 15 minutes (it becomes puffy but doesn’t double). The puffy state is important – timing can vary depending on the climatic conditions.

Preheat your oven to 185 Celsius degrees. The test being that the temp for calzone is abt 15 degrees Celsius lesser than that what you bake a pizza in. So reduce accordingly.

Knock down the air and you can divide the dough into 8 portions. Roll out each portion into a small roti, brush with some melted butter, place filling in the centre, and add some cheese and some chilli flakes. Wet the edges with water and close the puri to form a crescent. Use a fork to seal the edges by pressing on the edge. Keep aside in a greased tray (that you will use for baking) for proofing for 15-20 minutes. Brush the tops with oil and put into the oven for baking. It takes about 10 minutes or so. If you want the crust more browned then increase the temperature to 200 degrees Celsius and bake for abt 2-3 minutes more.


Cool on a wire rack and brush the tops with more oil/butter. Serve with Ketchup.

Weekends? What are those???

I had just run to the local supermarket late evening on a Sunday. Normally, I never shop on a weekend evening close to the beginning of the month. After all, who wants to bump into your neighbours discussing the merits of buying daliya over Oats for breakfast or meet a your kid’s friend’s mother well ahead of you on the checkout counter… But this time I had to get my daughter’s preferred Horlicks flavour or risk a mutiny in the morning before they leave for school on a Manic Monday.

As my luck always, I was in the last in the long line of the checkout counter and there was no express counter that was working. And much like Murphy’s law, the other two checkout counters were definetly moving faster than mine.

That gave me time to reflect over what I had done on a supposedly Lazy Sunday. Well for a start I woke up a whole two hours after my normal weekday wake up time and then rushed to get a heavy brunch ready, got lots of stuff done in the kitchen as pre-preparation for the week, gave my daughters a quick oil bath and ran to get my vehicle serviced. Came back home, helped my daughter prepare for her Maths exams, ran out with her to her library and then stopped by to return the DVD of this neat Tamil movie (more about that later) and then stopped by in the supermarket before heading home. Whew…..

Well, my turn was still long time away so I was thinking back on how things were when I was probably 9 years old. Well those days all of us (Dad and us) had work and school 6 days a week. There was no concept of a weekday. Sundays meant lazing around, eating elaborate lunches and then seeing some lovely programs on the TV. I think we had Star Trek in the mornings and then we had time to go visiting in the evenings. We had no car back in early eighties so we used to walk to the nearest bus depot a good 15-20 minutes walk from our place, take a 30-40 minute bus ride, visit and come back home well in time and be fresh for the next day. The way life was those days was definitely more relaxed and easier on everyone. I don’t remember my mom fretting over her shopping not done on a Sunday, and to think they used to go to different wholesale markets to buy things right from veggies to masalas!

Not so these days, we rarely go beyond a 10-12 km radius over a school weekend. Anything else is postponed for three day weekend or vacation time. Weekends are no more for relaxing. Weekends are for supermarket errands, bank work and all miscellaneous items that we never get time to get done on weekdays. Saturdays is probably when we have a little more fun; kids go for their weekend activity classes or we get some shopping done or probably catch a movie. But these 48 hours just fly past our eyes.

So here comes another week and starts the mad run again….Have a great week folks…

Sunita's Nook

Sunita's Nook

Summer vacation fun
Another week to go and then starts my overtime. Yes my daughters start their summer vacation. All these years, I never sent them to any summer camps – I used to think that I could do a better job of keeping them entertained at home – when I have done it for 9 and half years I can do for 60 days no big deal. But this year I am having second thoughts…

Well there is no major paradigm shift in my thinking so to say, but then the options available are so interesting that it makes more sense to send them and get them to have a whole new experience.

For my older one, there are options ranging from a Theatre/Drama course to a Science-experiment based one. Of course we have ‘I do everything’ kind of camps where u can pick a couple of indoor, couple of outdoor activities and have peace for 4-5 hours every weekday.  My younger one who is almost 6 can take a pick from craft classes, art classes, cooking  dance and music and the like. No heavy duty learning stuff for her. Some places even offer a once a week field trip to a farm, planetarium and the like. Then there is the usual swimming and tennis reserved for noons and evenings. They love to read, I am sure there will be couple of visits to the library over the week. So I think that if they doesn’t get tired by the end of it, they can look at me for inspiration and flop down on the sofa to look at her eyelids….Notice how my husband is missing from the action in all this. Vacations may come or go but his office ensures that they schedule some important project release close to the holidays and make a mess out of any longish vacation plans.

I have never attended a summer camp all my life and don’t think I have done badly for myself. I remember two months long holidays in my granddad’s place where we cousins used to get together and laze around in the mornings, followed by a relaxed breakfast and lunch and follow it up with long Monopoly/carom sessions and end the day with long walks to the beach and get a Aavin cone /Ambika puff as a treat at the end of it all. I remember the many stories my granddad used to conjure up for us. I learnt to play a game of ‘Chozi’, make a cup with the jackfruit tree leaf and maybe a little bit of gardening too from him. But those days are all gone. When we were in high school, during the summer vacations, my dad took us for 10-15 days to show us places around India. We never went just to Shimla, we took time to explore Chandigarh, the Kumaon range, check out Bhimtal and other such way off places along the way. It helped that he worked for a PSU so he had sufficient leave for a long holiday. Those memories stay a lot longer than a 3 day 2 night package in a lush resort that we tend to favour these days.

These days, parents cannot be away from their home base for that long. Kids also get bored and miss their friends back home. And there are only so many stories /games the poor grandparents can think of. And add to that the blessed IPL matches during the summer holidays and you can ensure that come evening and no one wants to step out of their homes – so there is no scope for any socializing in the evenings…. Lalit Modi I hate you for this….


So that is pretty much my summer plan for this year – get the kids off to a camp, get them to do a sport in the afternoon / early evening and then send them out to play later and I can see days zooming past.

So will my daughters like it? Well ask me that on June 1st :) Happy holidays to all the kiddos and their moms…

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Samyukta and Shreya posing for a sanp in Chennai. This was on 21-Oct-06. The day of Diwali

Shreya and Apppa posing for a snap together. Shreya is busy looking at appa's face rather than at the camera.















Shreya is sampling Diwali sweets from Srini. Shreya is where the goodies are!!













Sammy is looking at the sweets and decided to do without it..
 

Saw this on cyberspace and found it quite funny. Thought it might bring a smile to your face too
To those of us who have children in our lives,whether they are our own,
grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students...Here is something to make you chuckle.

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that
even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children.

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. And the first thing he said was
"DON'T!"

"Don't what?"  Adam replied.

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said.

"Forbidden fruit? We have forbidden fruit? Hey Eve, we have forbidden fruit !"

"No Way !"

"Yes way !"

"Do NOT eat the fruit!" said God.

"Why ?"

"Because I am your Father and I said so!"  God replied, wondering why
He hadn't stopped  creation after making the elephants.

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break and He was ticked !

"Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit?" God asked.

"Uh huh," Adam replied.

"Then why did you?"  said the Father.

"I don't know," said Eve.

"She started it!" Adam said.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"DID NOT! "

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve
should have children of their own.

Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed.

BUT THERE IS REASSURANCE IN THE STORY!

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they
haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. If God had trouble raising children, what makes you
think it would be a piece of cake for you?

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend
the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children
more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY:

Be nice to your kids. They will choose your nursing home one day.

AND FINALLY:

IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS
ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE: "TAKE TWO ASPIRIN" AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

Check out the snaps that we got when Shreya, Rhea, Tanya and Samyukta got together on Monday, 26th June. Here Shreya has just woken up from her nap and was quite surprised to see such a large gathering around her. She is busy observing Tanya. Rhea is lending a helping hand to Samyukta in stacking the egg-face together.