Italian Bread

Few weeks back, it was a cold rainy day when we visited this nice, cozy Italian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto (Bay Area). We had given up on a hike in the hills earlier because of the extreme cold weather. We searched for Italian restaurants around on the GPS and found one called Bella Luna and decided to try out this restaurant. Both of us were cold and hungry, and the soft, warm and sweet smelling bread they served looked like heaven. They serve this comforting bread with garlic and olive oil dip. It was only 6 pm, so we had our dinner leisurely. That's when I decided I should try baking Italian bread at home. Italian bread is such a versatile dish- it can be made into bruschetta, served with soup or any other entree. Or it can be served in a simpler way, like with just some cracked pepper, salt and olive oil. I tried making this bread with both white flour and also using whole wheat flour or roti atta. Both the version turned out to be very tasty. The best part is that it doesn't take much time to make this bread. The dough can be made prior and stored in the freezer and can be baked whenever needed. The online recipe called for water, but I used milk to knead the dough. I am so excited with the success of this recipe that I am planning to bake different breads like olive bread, garlic, jalapeno bread and spice bread with this basic dough.

Ingredients
2-2 1/2 cups flour. All purpose flour or maida can be used. I used 50% whole wheat flour and 50% all purpose flour
1 packet rapid rise yeast
3 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
warm milk or water

Method
Combine yeast, salt and flour and mix well. Add olive oil and warm milk and made a smooth dough. Add rest of the flour and knead for 8-10 minutes till a smooth dough is obtained. Cover with a cloth towel and keep aside for 15 minutes or till the dough doubles in size. Knead again for 4-5 minutes. Grease the bread pan with olive oil and pat the bread dough inside the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or till light brown on the bottom at 400 degrees. Glaze the top with olive oil as soon as the bread is removed from the oven.


Garlic-Olive Oil dip:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil
5-6 garlic cloves very finely chopped
sea salt
pepper

Method:
Mix all the ingredients together and leave aside for 5-10 minutes to allow the flavor of garlic to infuse into the olive oil. Serve with warm Italian bread.

Peanut Chutney / Moongfali Chutney

Peanut chutney is another of my mom's speciality dishes. This chutney is heavily influenced by Maharashtrian cuisine and it uses peanuts as its main ingredient instead of coconut. It is ready within minutes when one doesn't want to spend time grating coconuts. It goes well with spicy dosas (Indian crepes), rava idli, rava upma and I specifically love to have this with sabudana khichdi. I am re-posting this post sending this recipe to My Legume Love Affair hosted by Sra and Susan.

Ingredients
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 teaspoon chana dal
1 tablespoon grated coconut (optional)
1 teaspoon oil
small piece of tamarind (size of 2 peas )
3-4 tablespoon coriander leaves
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
5-6 curry leaves
2-3 thai green chilies/ 1/2 Jalapeno or as per taste
salt for taste

Method
Fry the chana dal on low flame till light brown. Roast the peanuts till crisp and brown on all sides.
Grind all ingredients except mustard, oil, curry leaves and asafoetida into a fine paste with as little water as possible. Season the chutney with mustard, curry leaves, asafoetida.

Val Usal / Valachi Usal / Field Beans Curry

Vaal or Bitter field beans are apart of the Maharashtrian staple diet. These beans taste like Soy beans but have a little bitter taste. I find these at Cash & Carry in Sunnyvale but I have not seen these at my other regular grocery stores. When I bought it the first time I used the field beans without removing the skin. The curry was good but the beans had a leathery texture. Then my mother told me that these beans were to be used after being skinned. The skinning process is a little tedious but worth the trouble for the fabulous tasting usal.

Soaking the vaal beans in warm water for 12-14 hours makes them absorb water and puff up. I change the water every 5-6 hours. Drain the water and put them in a muslin cloth. Cover the beans with the edges of the muslin cloth and keep it in a warm place for another 12-14 hours. The Vaal will have small sprouts. It is very similar to sprouting moong gram. Once the vaal beans have sprouted, keep the vaal bean between the index finder and the thumb and press them to separate the skin. This procedure needs to be done with every bean. The best time to do this procedure is while watching TV. The whole family can be involved in this procedure and if you have kids they will have a lot of fun skinning the beans.


Usal is a Maharashtrian or Konkan dish which is made with a variety of lentils including moong. It is similar to the Konkani Usli but has a addition of spices like turmeric, cumin and coriander. Usal gets its sweetish taste from the jaggery. The sour flavor comes from the kokum which is commonly used in the coastal areas. I use byadgi chili powder which imparts a deep red color to the dish without imparting a very spicy flavor. Kashmiri chili powder can also be used as an alternative. Here is the recipe for making vaal usal. I am reposting it and sending it for the RCI MUMBAI event orgamized by Lakshmi event and Lakshmi.

Ingredients
2 cups skinned vaal beans
4-5 kokum peels or 1/4 teaspoon tamarind paste
1 medium red onion
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
2 pinches asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon crushed jaggery
1/2 teaspoon goda masala (optional)
1 teaspoon byadgi or kashmiri chili powder or as per taste
5 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves or cilantro
1 tablespoon oil
salt for taste

Method
Soak the kokum pieces in water for 3-4 hours or overnight. Peel and finely chop the onion. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Add chopped onion and fry it till onion is brown. Add the vaal beans and add 2 cups of water. Cover and cook till the vaal is soft. Crush the kokum with your fingers to extract all the juice from the kokum. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder, chili powder, kokum juice or tamarind paste, jaggery, goda masala, coriander leaves and salt for taste to the vaal. Mix well and cook uncovered for 5 minutes and serve hot with roti.

Solkadi

Solkadi is a drink made with kokum. To know more about kokum click here. Kokum is also called bhirand or amsul. It is abundantly available near the western region of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. Fresh kokum is used when in season. The fruit is dried with salt and preserved for using all year round. The fruit is dried and the dried kokum skin is used to impart tangy sour flavor to dishes like daal and kadi. Dry kokum skin is usually soaked preferably overnight or for 6-8 hours before use.


The kokum fruit also has medicinal properties and is considered good for digestion. Solkadi is made up of two words- sol which means skin in Konkani (pronounced as "sole" or as "sol" as in "solution"), and Kadi, which is liquidish soup, and can be had with rice or simply like soup. This drink is famous all over the Konkan region in India which has an abundance of coconuts and kokum. This is a cool and refreshing drink to have during the hot summers, with lunch or dinner. Solkadi is served with fried fish, or spicy fish or chicken curry.

The recipe uses coconut milk, which can be easily found in Indian stores in the US or can be prepared using the following recipe.
I am reposting it and sending it for the RCI MUMBAI event orgamized by Lakshmi event and Lakshmi.

Ingredients:

around 10 dried Kokum skin
250 ml coconut milk (for thick consistency solkadi. you may use 150 ml for a thinner consistency)
1-2 green chili
salt to taste
2 tablespoon chopped coriander or cilantro
1 clove of garlic (optional)

Method:

Soak kokum in 1 cup water for 8-9 hours. Squeeze the soaked kokum to extract maximum juice. Gring coconut milk, green chili, garlic, salt till well blended. Add this mixture to the kokum juice and mix well. Serve with chopped coriander leaves. To get more flavor of the cilantro, I added 4-5 cilantro leaves while griding the coconut mixture and used the rest to garnish the solkadi. Serve chilled as a side dish with rice or roti.

Preparation time: 10 minutes excluding soaking time
Serves: 2-3

Beetroot Chutney

This is a very simple chutney and a great way to use the nutritious beetroot leaves. I got amazingly fresh beetroot from the farmer's market. I used the tender and fresh leaves to make this chutney. It goes well with roti and rice.

Ingredients
1 cup beetroot leaves (washed and coarsely chopped)
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon urad dal or split and skinned black lentil
1/2 teaspoon chana dal or bengal gram split
2 roasted red chilies
pea size tamarind
1 tablespoon oil
salt for taste

Method
Put oil in a pan and add the chana dal and urad dal. Roast till light brown. Roast the red chili till crisp. Add finely chopped onion and fry till light brown. Add the beetroot leaves and cook till soft. Grind the leaves with rest of the ingredients into a smooth paste. Serve immediately.

Custard

Everyone at my home are very passionate about fruits so it was a great idea to end our dinner with a healthy fruit custard. Every week we return home from the farmer's market with bagful of organic apples, mangoes, blueberries, oranges, grapes, pomegranates (which are in season now), guavas and many more. This egg-less custard with fruits is a very healthy way to increase the daily intake of fruits especially for kids. It also does not require much effort to make this colorful dessert. As kids, both I and my sister N loved to eating custard with strawberry jelly . My husband is also a great fan of this dessert. So I make an extra batch and store it in the refrigerator for the next day. Fat free milk can be used to make it a healthier recipe. I am re-posting this recipe and sending it to the CFK-Veggies and Fruits event and Food for 7 stages of Life – Kids (4-14 yrs) event.

Ingredients
3 tablespoon mango custard powder or any other flavor
3/4 liter milk (I used low fat milk)
7 tablespoon sugar or as per taste
2 cups of fruits ( pick from pomegranate, chopped mango, chopped apple, grapes, sliced banana, strawberry, chopped chikoo, blueberries, sweet limes, oranges)

Method

Dissolve the custard powder in 1/4 liter of cold milk. Boil the rest of the 1/2 liter milk. Dissolve the sugar in the hot milk. Add the cold milk into the hot milk and stir it well. Get it to boil while continuously stirring it to avoid lumps. If there are any lumps, blend the custard in the blender to make it smooth. Chill the custard in the refrigerator.

To serve, put the custard in a bowl and top it with fruits. Sponge cake and jelly can be added to the custard. The custard can be topped with nuts like walnuts, almonds, cashewnuts and raisins too or served with a dollop of ice cream.