SRC: My Hobbie Lobbie Bhature Bread

Each month, of the Secret Recipe Club, you are given a new blog to visit upon.  Then you are to choose a recipe that the creator of that blog has made and make it yourself. This month I was the lucky one given the blog My Hobbie Lobbie.  I say lucky because she has some fabulous Indian recipes... I happen to LOVE Indian food!  Seems to me like it was a match made in heaven!  I have drooled over many of her fabulous recipes and printed off a good dozen as well.  Since the rest of my family isn't as fond of Indian food as I am, I decided to make one of her bread recipes... I mean, who doesn't love bread??? Bhature is a deep fried bread that is commonly served with Chickpea Curry.  Since I didn't make the Chlo (which is the curry) we opted to just sprinkle powder sugar on it and eat it.  Is it traditional to eat it with powder sugar?  Probably not.  However even the plain fried bread was just delicious!  We did have a bit of a problem and not sure what happened.  The bread is supposed to "puff up" and ours just didn't.

Bhature
Recipe by: Sanjeev Kapoor

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
A pinch of baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup natural unflavored yogurt
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar, powdered
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Oil, for deep frying

Directions:
Place the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well to combine.  Take the yogurt and oil, add to dry ingredients and knead into a soft dough.  At this stage you will also have to add a bit of water... I used a couple tablespoons, to make the dough soft and pliable.  You want the dough just soft though and not sticky.
Cover the dough and let it rest for half an hour.

In a Skillet, heat oil for deep frying.  Divide the dough into golf ball portions and roll out into a disc. Deep fry until a nice golden brown, drain on paper towel and serve.

curry revisited

     Last month's Daring kitchen challenge was to do a traditional Southern Indian dish.  No problem, right?  Wrong! I found that the meat dishes all involved curry leaves... not to be confused with curry powder. It took a trip to out of state to find this elusive ingredient! Ok, so we didn't go out of state to just get curry leaves.  We went on a mini vacation and for us that involves either hitting an amusement park or visiting all the ethnic markets we can find.  We couldn't find any curry leaves in Portland but our lovely Indian hotel manager advised us to go to his favorite market in Vancouver, Washington. There I was not only able to find curry leaves but I gathered up several other interesting items off the shelves as well. Unfortunately, these leaves needed to be kept frozen.  I bought a small package and hoped and prayed that using our tiny cooler would keep them fresh enough.
     We later drove on up to Seattle to visit our son.  One of the best things about Seattle is their Pike Street Market.  I love browsing through all the fresh vendors! There are literally hundreds of shops throughout Pike street and right across the street we found an Indian market.  They carried dried curry leaves so I bought a package in case my frozen ones did not survive.  There are tons of ethnic markets in Seattle we just didn't have enough time to visit all of them.  Looks like we will have to do a return visit!
    Luckily, now that I have my ingredients, the August Monthly Challenge was to make an ethnic dish.  I wish to revisit the curry challenge and make a curry dish using the curry leaves. Totally worth the effort of seeking out the ingredients!  Yes, all of these ingredient can be bought online, but really, is there any fun in that?

Marsala Beef With Ginger and Curry Leaf

adapted recipe from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3 bay leaves

1 (1 inch) piece cinnamon stick 

5 cardamom pods

2 whole cloves  (recipe called for 4 but I am not a huge clove fan)

2 teaspoons fennel seeds

10 whole black peppercorns

2 pounds cross rib roast, cubed

3 cups chopped onion, divided

2 pasilla peppers,chopped

1 (1 1/2 inch) piece fresh ginger root, grated

6 cloves garlic,chopped fine

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon whole mustard seeds

4 fresh curry leaves

1/2 cup coconut butter

1/2 lemon, juiced

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. To make the masala powder: Grind the bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, fennel seeds and peppercorns in a spice grinder until mixture is a fine powder. I used a coffee grinder that I set aside for grinding spices only.

2. Place the beef cubes, masala powder, 2 cups chopped onion, green chiles, grated fresh ginger, garlic and turmeric in a large, heavy pot. Add water to cover (about 1 cup) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes until beef is cooked through. Add salt. Stir and continue to simmer about 10 minutes or until mixture is almost dry, but do not allow it to burn (add a bit more water, if necessary). Set aside.

3.  Over a large skillet over medium-high heat, add oil and mustard seeds; cook until they begin to pop. Immediately add remaining 1 cup chopped onion and stir over medium heat until onions soften and begin to brown, about 10 to 12 minutes. Add curry leaves and cook until brown, about 3 minutes. Add coconut butter ( used the butter found at the top of an unshaken can of coconut milk)

4.Stir in the beef mixture and black pepper,. Cook until heated through. Top with lemon juice just before serving.

THE DARING COOKS, AUGUST 2011 CHALLENGE--Appam and Curry

blog check in line:  Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread 


The appams, and at least one South Indian/Sri Lankan accompaniment, or more, if you like! You must use the appam recipe in the challenge.


     I love living in a small-ish town, but it does have its down side.  One of the most frustrating things is the lack of ethnic ingredients.  some of the time I am lucky enough to find the ingredients in Spokane, but unfortunately this was not the case for the August challenge.  Thankfully it was only the ingredients for a curry dish that I struggled with and not the appam.  I did to a version of beef curry, but I know, from looking at other curry recipes, that without the curry leaves it was not a true curry dish.  Curry leaves are supposed to give a bold flavor that is not to be confused with curry powder.  Much of my research shows that curry powder was created by the British... go figure.  I just always figured curry powder equaled Indian cuisine!


    I know that the next time I venture into Seattle I will be able to find curry leaves but who knows when that will be.  Until then, I will have to stick with the beef curry recipe I found that didn't use the leaves. 

Appam
Servings: Makes about 15. I find 3-4 are enough for a serving

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups (360 ml/300 gm/10½ oz) raw rice
1 ½ teaspoons (7½ ml/5 gm) active dry yeast
2 teaspoons (10 ml/9 gm) sugar
½ cup (120 ml) of coconut water or water, room temperature
1 ½ tablespoons (22½ ml/18 gm) cooked rice
½ teaspoon (2½ ml/3 gm) salt
about ½ cup (120 ml) thick coconut milk (from the top of an unshaken can)

Directions:

1. Soak the raw rice in 4 to 5 cups of water for 3 hours.
2. Dissolve the sugar in the coconut water or plain water and add the yeast. Set aside in a warm area for 10-15 minutes, until very frothy.3. Drain the rice and grind it in a blender with the yeast mixture to make a smooth batter. You can add a bit of extra water if needed, but I did not. Add the cooked rice, and grind/blend to combine well. You can see that it is not completely smooth, but very thick—that’s about right.
4. Pour into a large bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for 8-12 hours. You not only want the mixture to rise and collapse, but to ferment. When it is ready, it will have a slightly sour and distinctly yeasty smell. Don’t worry--they are mild tasting when cooked!

after the mixture has been set over-night

5. Add the coconut milk and salt, and a bit of water if necessary, so that you have a batter that is just a bit thicker than milk.I recommend test-cooking one before thinning the batter.  I had to add quite a bit of extra liquid, but others had to add little, to no extra liquid.

the coconut milk, unshaken

 6. Heat your pan over medium heat. Wipe a few drops of oil over it using a paper towel. Stir the batter and pour in 3-4 tablespoons, depending on the size of the pan. Working quickly, hold the handle(s) and give the pan a quick swirl so that the batter comes to the top edge. Swirl once only, as you want the edges to be thin and lacy.
7. Cover the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Uncover and check. The center should have puffed up a bit, and will be shiny, but dry to the touch. When ready, loosen the edges with a small spatula and serve immediately. These need to be served hot out of the pan.
8. Make another, and another... Here you can see some that were made in regular skillets.
9. I have found that the leftover batter can be refrigerated for a day or 2.

Beef Curry
adapted from food and wine magazine


3 tablespoons cooking oil
1 onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon turmeric
1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup coconut milk


Directions:

1. In a large frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the coriander, cumin, red-pepper flakes, turmeric, salt, and water. Add the paste to the onion and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
3. Add the meat to the pan and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Raise the heat to moderately high and cook to your taste, stirring, about 2 minutes longer for medium rare.  Add the coconut milk and stir in the cilantro.
4. Serve over rice or with appam.