Corn Panini

Tired of having the same items for breakfast? Try corn panini. It is super easy and super fast and will add a spurt of healthy taste to the start of your day.

Ingredients

1 corn on the cob or 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels

2 tbsp unsalted butter or ghee

2 tbsp plain flour

1 cup milk

2 tbsp grated cheese (optional)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Bread slices

Corn Panini

Remove the corn kernels from the cob and blanch till soft. If using frozen kernels, thaw them and blanch them.

Blanching keeps corn juicy and soft and retains the flavour.

Drain and pulse in a grinder till half the corn kernels turn into a coarse mixture.

Heat butter in a pan and add the flour. Roast till slightly pink.

Remove from heat and add the milk. Whisk to remove lumps. Put it back on the gas and simmer till you get a thick sauce. Remove from heat. Add salt, pepper and cheese. Mix till cheese dissolves.

Spread in between two slices of bread and toast in a sandwich maker. Serve hot.

Pav or Milk buns

Baking bread is one of the simplest tasks in home baking. The recipe is easy and fool proof. The product tastes great and the best part is that the bread can be baked into any shape. Just let your imagination run wild.

Makes 12 roles

Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour + more for dusting

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast

2 tsp sugar

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 tsp salt

1 cup warm milk

Rolls, Challah, Soup rolls and a little Tortoise

Light and fluffy inside of the buns

My whimsical tortoise

Prove the yeast by mixing yeast with sugar and water and letting it stand for 5 mins. When the yeast starts frothing slightly, add the salt and the flour. Slowly add milk till the dough starts coming together.

Flour the chopping board surface and knead the the dough with the ball of your hand till it is smooth. Keep aside a few tablespoons of milk.

Let the dough rest in a bowl covered with cling film till it is doubled in size. This will take about 2 hours. Make a cut in the shape of a cross on the dough. This will help it rise better.

Punch the dough and knead it again. Dust the surface with flour if required.

Roll the dough into a rough rectangle and make 12 cuts. Knead each piece like you are tucking in the sides. This will give a nice smooth ball.

Place the dough balls close to each other on a greased baking tray and let them rest for about 1 hour till they are doubled in size.

Wash the dough balls with half the leftover milk.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 mins at 180C for 30 mins. Wash the dough balls again with the leftover milk and turn the tray around for even baking. The double wash will give a better gloss and colour to the bread.

Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Banana Muffins

One of the recipes where overripe bananas can be utilized in is muffins. It is quite simple and makes for a good breakfast or after dinner snack.

Makes 12 mini muffins of 6 large ones

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup oil

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 cup raspberry jam or any other jam (optional)

1/4 cup sunflower and pumpkin seeds (optional)

Banana Muffins with Raspberry Jam filling and Topped with Sunflower and Pumpkin Seeds

Peel and chop the bananas and whisk them till they are completely mashed. Add sugar, oil and the egg and whisk till combined.

Now add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla essence and mix well. Mix in half the sunflower and pumpkin seeds as well.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with paper cups.

Pour batter into the cups till they are half full. Gently drop 1 tsp jam in the middle of each cup. Cover with the rest of the batter till the cups are 3/4th full. Sprinkle the rest of the pumpkin and sunflower seeds.

Bake at 180C for 20-25 mins. Cool completely before serving.

Croissants and Patties

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child

Chocolate Croissants

Chocolate Croissants

Savoury Patties

Spinach, Corn and Peanuts filling

Poached Egg

Poached egg is a breakfast classic but I never had the courage to try out myself. That is unless I received this amazing cookery cook called Cookery School with recipes by Richard Corrigan. It teaches how to make poached egg with pictures and the steps seemed quite simple. So I said, onward ahoy!

Heat water in a pot. Add a dash of vinegar if the egg is old. This will help to hold the egg white together.

Poached Egg with Toast and Ketchup

Break the egg in a ramekin or a cup. When the water is simmering, stir the water to encourage the egg to swirl around and set compactly.

Dunk the egg in the middle of the whirlpool and leave it to cook for a few minutes. Ideally the egg white should be cooked while the yolk should be runny. However, if you like your egg well done, you can leave it in for a few more minutes.

Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper or a tea towel before serving.

Lifafa Paratha

Sometimes it is good to put a twist on the ordinary things. Same goes with Lifafa paratha. It is the same as a wrap but folded like an envelope and then cooked on a pan. The filling can be of your choice. I have used a mixed veg sabzi for the filling.

Ingredients – For Rotis

1 cup wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp oil

Mix all the ingredients and knead with water to form a dough. Divide the dough into golf sized balls and roll them into rotis.

Cook the rotis on a pan without oil till brown spots form on both sides. Keep aside.

Ingredients – For Stuffing

1/2 cup cauliflower florets

1/2 cup sweet corn

1/2 cup green peas

1/2 cup chopped bell peppers

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tomato, chopped

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp kasuri methi

1 tsp dry mango powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Heat the oil in a pan and cool the tomatoes. Add the rest of the veggies with the spices and cook. The result should be a dry sabzi.

Lifafa Paratha

Assembly

2 tsp oil

Place sabzi on a roti. Fold the roti like an envelope so that opposite sides overlap each other.

Spread 1 tsp oil on the pan and cook the folded paratha. Press slightly to seal the edges. Flip and repeat.

Serve hot.

The Perfect Sabudana Khichdi

It is truly said that cooking is an art. Everyone can do it but it takes time and patience to master it. Take the simple dish of sabudana khichdi. I learnt to make it 3 years ago and I have been beating my head as to how to get the perfect khichdi.

My sabudana khichdi used to be sticky and gooey. I had been told that peanut powder helps to separate the sago pearls but no matter how much peanut powder I added, it stayed that way. The worst thing is people rarely divulge their trade secrets so I had to go on my own quest to perfect my khichdi. Here are some tips to get it just right.

1. After soaking the sabudana, wash it in rice sieve to get rid of the small particles.

2. Squeeze the sabudana to remove as much water as possible.

3. Always prepare the khichdi in ghee to get the best results.

4. Saute the sabudana in ghee for a few minutes till it gets translucent. This will help in separating the pearls too. This will also ensure that a small quantity of peanut powder is required.

5. Now add the peanut powder and other spices and mix. Cover and simmer for 5 mins before serving.

Bread Pudding

Sometimes you just crave for something sweet at the end of a meal or for breakfast. One of the easiest recipes is bread pudding. My mom would make Shahi Tukra which is fried bread dipped in sweet creamy milk. Bread pudding is similar but a baked variation. I have used plain brown bread and skimmed milk but the dish can be elevated with the use of a fancy bread like Challah and half and half. It will be more decadent. Addition of nuts like walnuts or pecans and a bit of drizzled icing on top can add more color to the dish.

Ingredients

3 bread slices

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp raisins

1 tsp vanilla essence

Break the egg and egg yolk and mix. Add milk, honey and sugar along with vanilla essence. Whisk together.

Place the bread slices on a china porcelain baking tray overlapping each other. Place the raisins in between the bread slices. This will prevent the raisins from charring when baked.

Pour the milk on the bread. Press the bread slightly so the milk is absorbed and leave it for five minutes. The drier the bread the better as it will soak up the milk better.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170C for 30 mins. Serve hot.

Tip: You can add orange rind or cocoa or spices like cinnamon and nutmeg also to the bread pudding.

Mini Chocolate Croissants

My mother always encouraged me to cook and gave me various ideas to work with. Now that I am married, it is my hubby who has taken up the role. These mini chocolate croissants were his idea completely. Right from getting puff pastry roll to making chocolate croissants out of them instead of boring old veg puffs. Good for me the goods were in the house….he he he. Well, I had always fancied making them after seeing It’s Complicated….but them who hasn’t

Ingredients

Puff pastry dough (I used ready-made)

Chocolate spread

1/2 cup Walnuts (chopped)

Plain flour

1 egg + 2 tsp milk for egg wash

Thaw the pastry dough as mentioned on the cover and roll it out to the required specification.

Cut it into squares and then the squares into halves to get triangles.

Chocolate Croissants

Place 1 tbsp chocolate spread and a few walnut pieces near the largest edge of the triangle. Roll from this largest edge till the very tip of the triangle. Press lightly all over the croissant to make sure all the edges are sealed so the chocolate does not seep out. Form a crescent and place on the cookie sheet/baking tray with the triangle tip facing downwards. This will prevent the croissant from unravelling while baking.

Whisk an egg with 2 tsp milk and give an egg wash to the croissants to get a shiny surface.

Bake for 35 mins at 165 C in a preheated oven. Leave to cool on a wire rack before storing in an air tight container.

Choco Vanilla Pinwheels

Cookies are a great snack. The best thing is you can make some and keep them for later for the snack attack. Chocolate and vanilla cookies are beautiful to look at and taste great too.

Ingredients

2 cups and 1 1/2 tbsp plain flour

13 tbsp unsalted butter

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 cocoa powder

1 egg

2/3 cup sugar

Chocolate and Vanilla Pinwheels

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and vanilla essence. Mix in the baking powder, salt and flour to get a firm dough.

Divide the dough in half. To one half add the cocoa and to the other, add the remaining flour.

Roll the vanilla dough and cocoa dough separately into equal rectangles on plastic wrap. Place either vanilla or cocoa dough on top of the other depending on which flavor you want on top.

Slowly roll the layered dough with the help of the plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge overnight.

Heat the oven to 170 C. Cut the chilled dough into 2 mm width circles and bake for 25-35 mins.

Cool on a wire rack and store in an air tight container.