Panettone

I made this Italian bread for Christmas breakfast to cheer up the Christmas atmosphere.

Recipe:

(A) 80g raisin / 80g apricot / 150g rum

(B) 200g bread flour / 30g honey / 3g yeast / 90g water / 20g apple puree

(C) 100g bread flour /20g sugar /1/2 tsp salt / 1 tsp rum / 30g eggs / 20g milk

(D) 80g unsalted butter

(E) 30g sugar powder / 50g plain flour / 5g milk powder / 40g unsalted butter

Methods:

1. Soak the ingredients (A) with rum for 5 hours or overnight. (If you don't fancy about liquor, replace it with orange juice)
2. Mix ingredients (B) at low speed using a dough hook mixer till everything just combine. Place the dough in a clean bow with cling wrap to sit for 3 hours.
3. Mix ingredients (C) with (B) and knead at low speed then turn to medium speed until it become a smooth dough.
4. Add in the butter and knead at low speed until the butter combine with the dough. Turn to medium speed continue the kneading process until it become a smooth and elastic dough.
5. Drain the ingredients (A) then add into (4) until the dough fill up with all the raisin and apricot.
6. Place the dough into a lightly grease bowl and cover with cling wrap to proof for 60 minutes.
7. While waiting for the dough, mix the ingredients (E) with finger tips until it become crumbly texture. Set aside and ready to use.
8. Divide the dough into 3 portions and round them into balls. Place each dough into the Panettone cases and proof for 60 minutes.
9. Egg wash the doughs and sprinkle over some crumble on the doughs. Bake at 180'C preheated oven for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Chivda-Crispy Poha flavored with spices

Chivda is a Maharashtrian snack made of poha(aval) and spices. I added a few more ingredients to my liking. You can increase or decrease the quantity of each ingredient to suit your taste.

Ingredients:
Poha(thick or thin)-1 cup
Instant Oats(optional)-1/2 cup
Corn flakes-1 cup
Dried coconut flakes-1 tbsp
Oil-1 tbsp
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Chilli powder-as per taste
Salt
Sugar- a pinch
Curry leaves- a few sprigs
Dry roasted slivered almonds(optional)-1 tbsp
Dry roasted peanuts-1 tbsp
Hing- a pinch

Method:
Heat oil in a pan. Add curry leaves, turmeric powder, chilli powder, hing. Immediately add poha. Roast on low flame for 5 minutes or until crisp. When it turns crispy(it will still be white in color during this stage), add corn flakes, oats, coconut flakes, salt, sugar, almonds and peanuts. Stir for 1 more minute and turn off the heat. Transfer the mixture to a container. Allow it to cool completely. Then store it in an air-tight container.

Note:Oats get roasted very quickly. So add it after roasting poha well.
Roasted oats give a nice aroma. So I like adding it to the mixture.

Sprouted Kollu (Horsegram) Pongal

After a break, I am back again to blogging. After the vacation, I had planned some posts but both office and home took away all the time and naturally blogging took a back seat.

I regularly sprout moong,horse gram and wheat. Mostly it is steamed and used in salads and stir fries like cabbage/carrot. Occasionally moong sprouts are used in gravies for rotis/rice. I was thinking of using moong sprouts for preparing pongal in place of moong dal. When I planned pongal, I had only horse gram sprouts. Decided to go ahead with my plan of making pongal with the available sprouts. Actually, I was very skeptical of how it will taste and that too I was preparing it for breakfast. If it doesn't turn out well, I won't have time to prepare anything else since my husband leaves at 7:00 in the morning.

But When I opened the pressure cooker, I was completely swept over by the aroma of horse gram and rice combined with hing and turmeric. And with seasoning added to it, it was a winner.

sprouted horse gram (kollu/muthira) - 1/3 cup
raw rice - 2/3 cup
turmeric - a big pinch
hing powder - few shakes
water - 3 cups

Seasoning
Ghee - 3 tblspn
crushed pepper - 1/2 tblspn
jeera/cumin - 1 tspn
small wedge of ginger finely chopped and lightly crushed.
salt
curry leaves

Pressure cook horse gram,rice,hing powder and turmeric in 3 cups of water. Horse gram will not cook mushy. It gives a nice crunch to the pongal. Mash the cooked mixture.

Heat a kadai. Add 3 tablespoons of ghee. Add rest of the seasoning ingredients. When jeera turns into light brown, add it to the cooked rice+gram mix. Mix well. Serve hot with coconut chutney or any tamarind based gravy.

The consistency of pongal remains the same even on cooling unlike moong dal based pongal.

This goes to JFI-Sprouts guest hosted at Ammalu's Kitchen.