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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A Better Challah Bread Recipe

The Challah bread recipe I posted earlier didn't turn out well- but this one was really good. I used the same recipe, but incorporated changes from reviewers.

Ingredients


1 1/4 cups warm water
2.25 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 whole egg and 2 yolks
0.5 tablespoon salt
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (keep about another cup on the side to make dough unsticky)

For eggwash:
1 egg
1-2 tablespoon honey

Directions
1.In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast over barely warm water. Beat in honey, oil, eggs, and salt. Add the flour one cup at a time, beating after each addition, graduating to kneading with hands as dough thickens. Knead until smooth and elastic and no longer sticky, adding flour as needed. Cover with a damp clean cloth and let rise for about 45-50 minutes or until dough has doubled in bulk.

2.Punch down the risen dough and turn out onto floured board. Knead for five minutes or so, adding flour as needed to keep from getting sticky. Divide dough into thirds and roll into long snake about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Pinch the ends of the three snakes together firmly and braid from middle. Either leave as braid or form into a round braided loaf by bringing ends together, curving braid into a circle, pinch ends together. Grease baking tray or use parchment paper, and place finished dough. Cover with towel and let rise about 30 minutes.

3.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

4.Beat an egg and honey. Brush a generous amount of the mixture over dough.

5.Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes. Cover with alumunium foil after the first 20 minutes.

6. Cool on a rack for at least one hour before slicing. Pat yourself on the back if you're able to wait that long.

7. Brush with butter if you're feeling indulgent :)

Recipe from: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/challah-i/Detail.aspx but with a LOT of changes using suggestions from reviewers.



Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Glazed Whole Wheat Buns (with Cinnamon)

This recipe is a variation of the white bread recipe posted earlier.

Ingredients

1 cups warm water
1/3 cup white sugar
2.25 teaspoons active dry yeast
0.75 teaspoons salt
0.125 cup vegetable oil
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
0.75 cups confectioner sugar
1.5 tablespoons butter


Directions
1.In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2.Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Add cinnamon or leave out if you don't like the flavor. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3.Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes. Divide into 12 equal balls and place in 4 rows of 3 in a greased 9x13 pan. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans. Keep covered with oiled saran wrap.
4.Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.
5. As the bread bakes, beat the butter and confectioners sugar. Add little water to make it runny, but not watery. When bread is done, brush glaze on warm bread.

Challah Bread

Posting this because it's pretty, but it didn't turn out well. Got the recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Challah-I/Detail.aspx

I didn't have enough honey, maybe that's why it failed. I also used half the recipe. The picture above is half the loaf yielded by half the ingredients. The texture was good, but flavor was missing. The crust was also too tough. I'm in the search of a good challah recipe if anyone has one!

White Bread

After several failed attempts, this is my first successful bread. Now I'm hooked, and have gone through more flour in a week than I do in months.

Got the recipe from Allrecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/amish-white-bread/Detail.aspx
Ingredients

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2/3 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour

Directions
1.In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2.Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3.Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

I used half the recipe for the bread above and made only one loaf, and brushed with melted butter right before baking. I also scored the top of the loaf with a knife.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Delicately Spiced Fried Rice starring Star Anise

In Dhaka this summer, I went to Mainland China- a Chinese restaurant chain originating from India. Everything they served was very different from my idea of "Chinese food", but DELICIOUS! I had "Claypot Rice" that was one of the the best things I've ever had, and I have been craving it ever since. So I tried to conjure up what it tasted like, and created this recipe, and it's one of the best rice dishes I've had, if I may say so myself :)

Ingredients
2 cups basmati rice, cooked

6-8 tablespoons peanut oil (or other vegetable oil)
8 dried red chilies, julienned
6/7 star anise seeds, whole (i think this is the star ingredient of this dish)
2 star anise seeds, ground (optional, add if you like the sweet-spice flavor)
1 clove
6-8 black peppercorns
0.5 a large onion
2 cloves of garlic
0.5 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste

Make two cups basmati rice in a rice cooker or pot.

In a wok, heat peanut oil and turn down the heat. Put julienned dried red chilies, whole star anise seeds, clove, and peppercorns in the oil. Let it infuse in low heat for about 10-12minutes, turning up heat will burn spices. Slice the onion very thinly. Mince the cloves of garlic. Put the onion and the garlic in the infused oil, and stir fry on medium heat. Put the sugar in the oil without stirring. Let it sit for few minutes.

Add the cooked rice to the wok. Sprinkle with salt and ground star anise (optional, add if you like the sweet-spice flavor)

The shrimp is optional and can be added at the end and tossed. To make the shrimp, I coated shrimp with eggwhite, cornstarch, salt, and then fried.
Star Anise on FoodistaStar Anise

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Moist Chocolate Cake with Whipped Mocha Icing

Icing Recipe:
Butter 6tbsp
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder 3-5tbsp (to taste)
Pinch of Instant Coffee
1 cup icing sugar
Evaporated Milk (as needed)

Take soft, but not melted, butter. Whip with mixer. Add sugar and coco powder, little at a time, and keep mixing. Add the coffee. Pour in evaporated milk, a tablespoon at a time, until desired texture achieved (about 5-6 tablespoons). Spread on cake.

Cake: The cake is Hershey's Moist Chocolate Cake Recipe. Apply icing on cooled cake. Keep icing in refrigerator until ready to apply.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Simple Butter Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
2 and 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
0.25 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Cream together softened butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour and salt and stir (dont beat). Knead the dough. Make a cylinder with the dough of an shape (I made a rectangle), and wrap plastic wrap. Put in freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 F. Take an ungreased cookie sheet.Take out the chilled dough and slice about 0.4 cm thick. Place one sheet slightly spaced apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until edges are golden. Take out and cool, preferably on a wire rack.

Cookies will be slightly soft, will become crispier as it cools.

If you want to add chocolate, melt some chocolate (milk/dark/white). You can melt in a bowl in the microwave. Stir every 10 seconds for about 40 seconds. Spoon some melted chocolate on the cookie and cool. If you're in a hurry, pop it in the freezer for a few minutes.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Luchi

Flour 1 cup
Salt 0.5 teaspoon
Oil 3/4 cup
Water 1/4 cup

Put two tablespoon oil in flour and mix with finger tips. Dissolve salt in water, then add to flour. Knead well. Let it rest for 10 minutes.

Divide dough into ten sections. Make balls. You can use a tortilla press- I use Revel Tortilla Maker. You can also roll out with a rolling pin. Make little rounds.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the luchis. Don't put too many in at a time. Luchis need the space. Fly till slightly golden. Drain on paper towels to get rid of excess oil.

Luchi

Sweet and Sour Shrimp

Recipe is from 1000 Classic Recipes with some ommissions:

Ingredients

To prep shrimp:
6-9 ounces of large uncooked shrimp
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon egg white
1 teaspooon cornstarch paste (dissolve corn starch in water)
vegetable oil

For the sauce:
oil
bell pepper (optional- i used demembraned chili as i didnt have any)
carrots, julienned
water chestnut (optional- did not use)
salt
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon sugar (adjust to taste)
3 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon ketchup
3-4 tablespoon water
2 teaspoon cornstarch paste (dissolve corn starch in water)
few drops sesame oil
crushed red pepper

Mix shrimp with the salt, egg white, cornstarch paste. Fry in oil about 1-2 minutes. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.

Heat oil in wok. Add the veges and stir fry. Add the sauces and water and bring to a boil. Add the cornstarch paste to thicken sauce. Sprinkle with sesame oil. Add crushed red pepper. Serve!
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