Jalapeno Cornmeal Bread

Though I have a great appetite for sweet dishes, I got bored with sweet breads. For a change, I baked a couple of savoury breads few months back for my hubby who is not a big fan of sweet breads. When I was browsing, I found this bread with a spicy hit of jalapenos from closet cooking. Bookmarked it immediately. Luckily, I had all ingredients with me and so I started baking it immediately.

We enjoyed it for tiffin with a hot cup of tea. Also I prepared Bread pizza with cheese topping. The bread was soft, moist and little crumble.



Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Serves: 6-7 people

Ingredients:



Milk / Buttermilk - 1 cup

Oil / Butter - 1/4 cup

Eggs - 2 nos

Cornmeal - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 tablespoons

Baking Powder - 2 teaspoons

Baking soda - 1/4 teaspoon

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Jalapeno Peppers - 2 nos, finely chopped

Method:



1) Grease the loaf pan (I used 2lb, 25CM X 12CM pan) with butter and dust it with flour.

2) Preheat the oven to 375F (190C).

3) In a mixing bowl, mix milk,oil and eggs. Beat well.

4) In another large mixing bowl, mix cornmeal, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make sure to incorporate all the dry ingredients well.

5) Add the wet ingredients to the large bowl with dry ingredients. Mix well.

6) Add the chopped, seeded jalapeno peppers. Mix again.

7) Pour this batter to the prepared loaf pan(as said in step 1)

8) Bake it in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean. It took 35 minutes for me.

9) Once the bread is ready, cool for while and transfer to the wire rack to cool completely.

10) Slice and serve with hot tea.

Note:

1) Use soft cornmeal for baking this bread.

2) Increase the number of jalapeno peppers for extra hit of spiciness.

 

The east  back door, this was used for the employees to come into the house.  www.bettermadecabinets.com

 

The east  back door, this was used for the employees to come into the house.  www.bettermadecabinets.com

How to Boil Fresh Peanuts / Boiled Peanuts

The husband got me a bag of fresh peanuts when he returned home yesterday. I am a big fan of fresh peanuts and eat it in raw form any time. As I got them in large quantity this time, I was thinking what to prepare using it. Nothing came into my mind but in the mean time, I finished eating quarter quantity of the raw peanuts. So before I complete all the raw peanuts, I decided to boil it in the same way my mom does every time when she buys it. 



I have chosen the pressure cook method which makes the job easier. You can also boil in a large pot with extra water, but this method will take longer time than the pressure cook method. When you choose to boil it in a pot, check for salt and softness of the peanuts at even intervals to get perfect boiled peanuts.

Basic Information:
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:


Fresh peanuts in shell / Raw peanuts in shell - 5 cups
Salt - 2 teaspoons or as per taste
Water - 2 cups

Method:

1) Wash the peanuts in running water until the water runs clean. Make sure to remove mud and other dusts while cleaning.

2) Soak the washed peanuts in big bowl of water for 15 minutes.
3) After 15 minutes, drain the water completely and add the peanuts to the pressure cooker.

4) Add 2 teaspoons of salt. Increase / decrease the salt as per your taste.
5) Add 2 cups of water or add water just below the peanut level. Refer the below picture. Stir well.

6) Cover the pressure cooker with lid. Turn on the flame and wait for pressure cooker to release 4-5 whistles.
7) Wait for the steam to release from the cooker.  Once it is done, open the lid and drain the water.

8) Transfer the peanuts to another bowl.
9) Allow it to cool for a while and eat them.

Note:
1) You might need to decrease or increase the number of whistles according to the maturity of the peanuts.
2) As soon as you cook, remove the peanuts from the salty water. Otherwise, the peanuts become messy and salty.