Category: Bread

Artisan Bread (in Five Minutes)

Posted by foodess on Sun 29th of Mar, 2009 08:31:50 PM

So this recipe has been floating around for a long time, gracing the blogs and the tables of many a foodie. Personally, I was a bit skeptical. I mean, what is the point of making bread if you aren’t going to knead it, fuss over it, watch it rise, punch it around… Making homemade bread is about technique, timing, and experience. Naturally, it comes with some bragging rights. But this bread changes everything. Anyone who can use a wooden spoon can make it. It’s simplicity makes it such that absolutely everyone has the ability to make gorgeous loaves of crusty outered, tender innard-ed bread.

To make the dough, you mix everything in a bowl. That’s it. The initial rise takes two or more hours. But this rise doesn’t need to be babysat, as you let it grow until it collapses in on itself. Then you take the resulting gloriously yeasty, puffy pile of dough, stick it in a tub, pop it in the fridge, and saw off a hunk whenever you have a hankering for fresh, warm bread. Nothing to it.

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Adarsh’s Chicken 65 Curry

Posted by foodess on Fri 20th of Mar, 2009 10:39:51 AM

This sticky, spicy chicken curry is deliciously sweet and packs just the right amount of heat. It is to be scooped up with warm, chewy naan, then licked off of fingers.

Also, it has a very special place in my heart, for two reasons. First, because it constitutes one of the two dinners my boyfriend Adarsh has ever made for me, and second, because I’m not sure it exists outside of his family kitchen. If you ask him, he will call it Chicken 65. But if you then google “Chicken 65″, you will find plenty of recipes bearing that name, but none that are even remotely close to this particular dish… hmm. Considering it stars ketchup as its secret ingredient, I am forced to question its authenticity as a traditional Indian curry. But it is delicious, regardless of whether or not it is regularly eaten off of banana leaves in the kitchens of the East.

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Mixed Grain Bread

Posted by foodess on Sun 8th of Mar, 2009 05:11:50 PM

Cool completely before slicing. I am bad at that. In fact, in my pre-blogging life, I don’t think I ever once obeyed that rule. Other rules I am bad at obeying include: cool completely before frosting, cool completely before churning in your ice cream maker, cool completely before dipping in chocolate, allow the pan to cool completely before making the next batch, cool completely before topping with sugar and torching up a delicious, crackly, burnt caramel crust. It’s torture!

I just don’t possess the self control to allow something tempting to sit there, wafting away its warm deliciousness, while I bite my nails and make myself busy trying to distract myself from the call of the fresh something, sitting on top of my stove. I may be completely cool myself, but “cool completely” is still usually beyond my reach.
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Kerala Parotha, a Flakey South-Indian Flatbread

Posted by foodess on Mon 23rd of Feb, 2009 12:34:01 AM

There are a million good reasons to visit South India. The people, for one, are amazing - warm-hearted, generous, and absolutely vibrant in culture. Then there’s the setting - think, the most amazing beaches you have ever seen. Tropical trees heavily laden with sweet fruit. Winding waterways through villages, making it a “Venice of the East”. But even if none of that existed, I would still make the trek for one inimitable pleasure - flakey, buttery parotha and a creamy curry, consumed without such complications as plates or cutlery, but rather with a banana leaf and bare fingers - and a good dose of utter, shameless delight.

If I had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of my life, this flatbread would be a sturdy candidate. I really don’t think I could get tired of pulling apart buttery layers of chewy bread - with or without a blazing hot curry to for dunking. Quite frankly, it blows my mind that Kerala Parotha, known in some circles as Malabari Parotha (and can also be spelled Parotta, or Paratha - just to complicate things) has not yet taken over the world. Because, in my opinion, once tasted, it is impossible to go back to life without it. And there are quite enough Indians on every corner of the globe to introduce it around… so why it hasn’t spread like wildfire? I’m baffled. Maybe it’s just meant to be one of life’s little secrets, that only a select few outsiders come to know of. Well, now you’re in on the secret! Now go make it and see what I mean about never going back.
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Baked French Toast with Macerated Strawberries

Posted by foodess on Mon 16th of Feb, 2009 12:09:57 PM

When the weekend rolls around, there is nothing that seems more decadent to me than a hot breakfast followed by a long, lazy walk on the beach. Accompanied, of course, by my handsome dog Oliver, who is utterly charming in the way he lies down for every dog or child, and who smiles (full-on toothy grins!), at anyone whom he suspects might find him adorable - most do.

This weekend was perfect for both lazy walking and breakfasting. After a week of being sequestered in a library, hunched over textbooks until every blood vessel in my eyes was visible and the bags beneath them had bags of their own, a weekend of perfect weather and nothing to do was embraced with delight.

As guilty proof that I almost never ate from home, I was left with a stale loaf of bread - it was meant to become lunch sandwiches but, owing to midterm sluggishness, was left to dry up in favour of sushi. A happy outcome, when the weekend arrived, because nothing beats a stale loaf of bread finding new life in a bath of sweet custard.

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