Meat Balls (Kari Urundai / கறி உருண்டை)

Meat Balls are one of mother's signature recipe. But, all these days I was forfending to do because of the fear of fat (cholesterol) after realizing / experiencing the goodness of Fat. For the first time I attempted to recreate my mother’s recipes in the HFLC style and enjoyed the goodness of meat balls without any guilt. 

Ingredient – 500gms of mined Mutton      ;     2 tsp of ginger garlic paste     ;     chopped medium onion       ;     2 chopped green chili       ;        salt to taste     ;      curry leaves & finely chopped coriander leaves      ;       ½ tsp of turmeric powder      ;      2 tsp of chili powder     ;       10 no’s of chopped cashews     ;      2 tsp of coconut oil       ;        2 tsp of  powdered  fried chana dal       ;    Coconut oil (VCO) for deep fry 

Add turmeric powder to the mined meat and sprinkle with water, pressure cooker for one whistle and remove the cooker from heat.

Meanwhile, fry onion until it change its color. Add green chili, ginger garlic paste, chili powder, curry leaves and coriander leaves and fry for 2 -3 minutes and remove the pan from heat.

Take out the pan from the pressure cooker, strain the water if any. (mutton milagu soup can be made out of this water) add the fried items, cashews, and powdered fried chana dal into the meat and mix well with hand and shape into small balls.

Heat the oil and fry the mutton balls (either shallow or deep fry) till in turns into brown in color. Since, I need the medium chain fatty acids in my diet, I used VCO coconut oil. You may even bake the balls (after brushing with butter or oil) in the 180◦c preheated oven for about 40 min.

Serve them hot with the squeeze of lemon with onion topping or tomato or mint chutney.

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Stuffed Onion rings

After two consecutive sweet kind, (desert / confectionery) Thought of something spicy and crispy non-continental.  

Cutlets are the most preferred vegetarian starter for the gathering. Usually, cutlets are shallow fried but, I wanted to bake the same cutlet mixture, stuffed in-between the onion rings. I must say, baked onion rings turn out well with good texture and taste.

 Ingredient –   one big size onion {cut into (horizontally) ring shape about 1 inch thickness}        ;        one boiled (med-size) potato       ;        1 cup of finely chopped mix vegetables (carrots, capsicum, cabbage, green peas )         ;        One (small) onion finely chopped        ;     one green chilli      ;         1 tsp of ginger garlic paste        ;        1 tsp of chilli powder       ;       salt to taste        ;        1 tsp of lemon juice       ;       chopped coriander leaves      ;       1 /2 cup milk       ;       all purpose flour for dusting     ;      bread crumbs      ;      1tbsp of coconut oil

In pan pour oil and fry the finely chopped onion till light pink in color then add green chilli, ginger garlic paste, vegetables and stir for while. Add chilli powder, salt, mashed potato and continue to stir in low flame till all blend together. Switch off the flame and squeeze a lemon and sprinkle chopped coriander leaves and keep aside.

Place the onion ring on the greased baking tray and fill the onion ring about 2 tbsp of potato filling. Press firmly the stuffing sits inside the onion ring. Keep the tray into the fridge for about 30 -40 min.

Remove the tray from the fridge and dip the onion ring along with stuffing into the milk and into the all purpose flour and again into the milk and into the bread crumbs. Just make sure the flour and bread crumbs coats well and uniformly. 

Transfer the baking tray into 180°c pre heated oven till it becomes brown in colour. Turn the rings and bake again till (other side) it becomes brown.

Remove from the oven and brush with melted butter both side and sever hot.

Turmeric Onion Bread

Lately, my husband shown few white papers published about the medical properties of Turmeric. Though, we all know turmeric is a good antiseptic Agent. But, the white paper revels much more about turmeric’s curing and healing properties. Even it has ability to fight against cancer cells.

Since then, I had been using Turmeric in raw form in my day today cooking. Apart from its healing / curing properties, I liked its aroma and color. So, why can’t in baking too……..?

Turmeric rhizome, which is the underground stem, looks very much like ginger (member of the ginger plant family) quite popular spices in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking and is widely used in Ayurvedic system of traditional medicine in India. 

I thought, along with turmeric, adding the Onion and Chilly will give a unique taste and flour to the loaf. As I thought, it turns to very good (savory kind of) bread. I pat myself.

Ingredients :  3 cup of whole wheat flour     ;        1/2 cup of all purpose flour      ;      1 tsp of sugar       ;        1 tsp of salt        ;        1 tsp of yeast      ;        25 gms of soft butter     ;     2 tbsp of grated fresh turmeric        ;          1 small chopped onion           ;         1 green chopped chilli       ;     1 ½ cup of lukewarm water

Procedure : In a bowl add  lukewarm water, sugar,  yeast and mix well and kept aside for 10 -15 minutes. In another bowl, mix the whole wheat and all purpose flour and salt and mix well.

Add salt, butter, onion, turmeric, 2 cup of flour mix in to the yeast mixture and start kneading the dough. Add the remaining flour little by little and knead until it is smooth and elastic.

Form a ball shaped dough, coat with oil and cover with damp cloth and leave it at room temperature for about 60 – 90 minutes or allow it to rise, double in volume. 

Deflate the dough and place the dough on a flat surface and roll it into a greased loaf and cover the loaf pan with damp cloth for about 60 minutes. 

Transfer the loaf pan into a 180°C pre-heated oven and bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes or till it done well. (Tent the loaf with aluminum foil if it begins to brown too much)

Take away the loaf pan from the oven and after a minute turn it out onto a wire rack and brush with melted butter and allow to cool.

Serve the bread with Cheese and Green Chutney………..imm Its Divine.

YeastSpotting

the YeastSpotting page.

the YeastSpotting page.

Pita Bread Pizza

Pita bread means, A small round bread that can open into a pocket for filling. In Arab world Pita bread is quite popularly known as Khubz (خبز)  (Quite similar to  Chapathi. But, chapathi cooked on a griddle and Khubz baked at Oven)

The famous Middle East  sandwich Shawarma (شاورما) is made out of Pita Bread or Khubz (خبز.)  (Meat, mayonnaise, finger chips and lettuces filled and rolled in a Pita bread is shawarma)

Though the pita bread is known for filling, I want to try an Arab – Italian fusion “Pita Bread Pizza’’  i.e  Pizza Toppings on Pita Bread !

Pita Bread Pizza was baked for we knead to bake 21 : Make your Pizza challenge

 

As usual, the making process is split in two parts, one is making the Pita bread (as a base) and the second part is topping. The Pita bread recipe source is from http://www.thefreshloaf.com

Ingredients for  Pita bread :  2 cups of All purpose flour   ;     1 cup of wheat flour    ;   1 ½  tsp  Salt  ; 1 tsp  Honey   ;    2 tbsp of Instant yeast    ;    1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup of Water @ room temp.   ;    2 tbsp Olive oil.

 

Ingredients for  Topping  :  1/8 cup of Pizza sauce    ;   Bell pepper (green, yellow & red colour)   ;   1 Onion -1  (cut onion and bell pepper into thin dice shape)    ;       ½  tsp of Chili flakes   ;  ½ tsp of  Oregano    ;    ¼ cup of  low fat mozzarella cheese  ;   Olive oil for topping.

Procedure for Pita bread :  Mix all the ingredient (flour, salt, honey, olive oil) and add 1 ¼ cup of water stir/whisk well till all ingredients combine well and to form a ball. (if required, add extra water) and knead the dough about 10 minutes.

Kneading is important, to make a dough stretch and elastic so that the bread rise well in the oven. (very often, people ask me, how to make a chapatti puffy ?…….. “It’s quite easy all you need to do is, Knead the dough well”)

After knead, palace dough in a greased bowl, cover with damp cloth and allow it to rest about an hour or till become double in volume. Punch down the dough and divide it into 8 equal balls and place it in the same bowl and cover with damp cloth for about 20 – 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, Pre heat the oven with baking stone to 200ºC. Using the rolling pin, roll the ball shaped dough into thin circular shape. (like chapatti)

Place the pita (one by one) on the hot baking stone and bake about 3 minutes or puffy. (if you need a little dark texture pita, keep it in the oven for another 2 minutes . this is only require if you need to use the pita for filling / shawarma. For Pizza, we are going to bake again with topping)

Spread the sauce on the pita bread and arrange the peppers, onion, spread the cheese sprinkle chilly flakes, oregano and olive oil.

Keep in the 180ºC pre heated oven for about 35 minutes or till the cheese melts and bubbles. Serve it hot with tomato sauce.