Croissants - Butter and Chocolate

Laminated dough recipes are lengthy! That is important to remember as you start on this recipe. The first time I made a laminated dough was when I was in 6th grade. I made a puff pastry, under the watchful guidance of my mom who walked me through what each step meant. And the main thing I remember about that was that it took us the entire day to make it. So, I'd not been tempted to make such a pastry again till a few weeks ago.

I came across a video in which they showed a bakery processing dough and laminating it and then finally adding a layer of chocolate dough and baking beautiful chocolate filled croissants. That was motivation enough for me to attempt the croissants. The main difference between croissant dough and puff pastry is that the former is a yeasted dough. You still need a lot of butter, refrigeration between steps and a lot of patience. Now that I am older (and hopefully wiser) I had enough patience to spend a day and half in preparing these. The end result was fantastic! Beautiful lamination, very buttery and flaky!

I used the King Arthur Flour recipe and made modifications as I tried to attempt the beautiful technique I had seen in the video of making the chocolate croissants. I weighed out most of the ingredients and for some noted the volume measurements too which I have noted below in the recipe.  I used only half the dough (the rest is in the freezer) and was able to shape 18 medium sized croissants out of these.

Watch the video to visualize the key steps which has the key techniques and tips that go along with the method described below.

Ingredients
2 Eggs
Water, room temperature (read method for quantity)
660 gms + 1 cup all purpose flour (this is about 7 cups of flour in total)
2 1/4 tsp yeast
32 tbsp (4 sticks)  unsalted butter
1/2 cup dry milk powder
2.5 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tsp of cocoa powder
2-3 tsp water

Method

For the sponge
In a measuring cup which can hold 2 cups of water, add the two eggs. Then add enough water, so that the mixture measures a total of 2 cups. You will need about 1 and 3/4 cups of water for this.  In a bowl of a stand mixer, mix together 1 tbsp sugar, 360 gms of all purpose flour and the yeast. And then add the water and egg mixture to this and mix well to create a sticky dough. Cover it and let it rest while you get the butter ready.

For the butter slab
Cut out the 2 tbsp of butter from the 1 of the sticks of butter, so that you have 30 tbsp butter. The butter should be at room temperature so that it is malleable. Mix together 60gm (1/2 cup) of all purpose flour with the butter. The easiest method is to use a stand mixer and use a paddle attachment to mix it till you cannot see the flour. Or you can cut the flour into the butter with a fork and then use a spatula to mix it together. Do not whisk it! Then place it on a plastic sheet and then shape it into a 8 inch square.  Cover it well and place in the fridge till you work on the dough.

For the dough
Switch out the paddle with a dough hook on your stand mixer and in the same stand mixer bowl which has your sponge, add 2 tbsp of softened or melted butter. I added butter which was very soft and was easily mixed in. In a separate bowl, mix together 3 tbsp sugar, 300 gm of flour, dry milk  and salt. Use a whisk to mix these thoroughly and then add the flour mix to the sponge and knead till a dough forms. Add the vanilla. Knead it for 5 minutes and if it is still sticky add more flour till the dough is no longer sticky but still soft. I used about 1/2 cup of flour for this. Once the dough is ready, place it onto a plastic wrap sheet and using your palms and fingers push it out into a 9 inch square. Don't worry if your corners are rounded. Cover it and place it in the fridge to rest for 30 mins. This is to relax the gluten before we start the lamination.

For the final chocolate dough layer, separate out about 1/4 cup (a fistful) of dough and mix in 2-3 tsp of cocoa powder into the dough. Add a couple of tsps of water as needed to make sure that the dough consistency remains the same. Refrigerate this till we are ready to start rolling out the croissants.

Lamination
Remove the butter after about 15 mins of refrigerating the dough. If you have been doing other tasks while getting these components ready, make sure that the butter is not so solid that it will be very hard compared to the dough. The idea is to have the two be of the similar stiffness so that when the dough is rolled out with the butter sandwiched, the butter will spread evenly.  My butter was a little harder and I had to let it rest for a bit as I tried to roll it out,  and the edges did not have a lot of butter, but after 4 folds, there was no impact to the lamination.  If the butter is too soft  in comparison to the dough, it will start to spill out. In that case, place it back in the fridge for 10-15 mins.

Turn 1
Roll out the 9 inch square dough into a 12 inch square. Place the slab of 9 inch square dough on the rolling surface which is well floured. Then, place the slab of butter at a 45 degree angle (so it looks like a diamond) and place it on  the dough square. Now, there will be 4 triangular corners of the dough which can be seen. Now, bring each triangle of dough into the center of the butter and join all four corners to completely package the butter inside the dough. Use a little water if needed to seal the edges and pinch them so that they are well sealed.  Now, flour the rolling surface well, flip over the package and then gently roll out the dough into a rectangle which is 20x10 inches, ensuring that the butter is getting spread.  Flour the surface by picking up the dough as you roll it so that it does not stick to the surface and rip. Once the dough is rolled out into the desired size, bring 1/3rd of the dough and cover the center 1/3rd of the dough with it. Then fold the remaining 3rd onto the center to create a package. This will look similar to how a business letter is folded and is called a letter fold. Use some water to seal the edges so that the folds do not slip while rolling the dough. If the dough and butter have softened too much, refrigerate for 15 mins.

Turn 2
Now, turn this by 90 degrees and roll it out again into a 20x10 inch rectangle, rolling out the longer side to 20 inches and shorter one to 10 inches. Then do a letter fold again. This completes the second fold.

Turns 3 and 4
Now repeat steps 2 and 3 to complete a total of 4 turns. Refrigerate in between these steps, as needed.

Once 4 turns are completed cover loosely with plastic and refrigerate. Now refrigerate this for a few hours. I refrigerated it for 4 hours. The dough had started rising and created a dome in the center. Now, cut the dough into two equal halves. You can freeze haf for later use or refrigerate remaining half of the dough while you work on the first half, so that the butter does not melt.

Now, roll out the chocolate dough, which we had kept aside, to a thin sheet which is about 3-4 mm in thickness. Place it on as the final layer and make sure it adheres to the surface and then refrigerate if needed.

Now flour the rolling surface well and roll this out into a 12 inch by 18 inch rectangle. Trim the ends that are not open and are fold ends along the edges, so that the layers are revealed from all sides of the dough. The folded edges can impact the rise.  Then cut it into 3 equal halves width wise to create strips that are about 4 inch by 18 inches.  Then cut these strips into approximately 3 equal pieces to create a total of 9 rectangles. Now, you can cut each rectangle along the diagonal to make triangular pieces which can then be rolled into crescent shaped traditional croissants. Or you can cut them into smaller rectangles (length wise or width wise) and then shape into log shaped rectangular croissants.

About 1/2 of my dough had was laminated with a top chocolate layer and I used those pieces to make the log shaped chocolate croissants. The rest which had just a little bit of chocolate or no chocolate layer, I rolled into crescent croissants.

Shaping the croissants

For rectangular filled croissants, stretch out the dough a little (use a rolling pin to lightly roll it into a wider and longer piece, but not too thin) place chocolate chips in the center, along the width (shorter length) and then roll the dough similar to a letter fold and then score just the top chocolate layer with a knife to reveal the dough underneath. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet for final proofing.

For crescent shaped croissants, stretch out the dough a little (use a rolling pin to lightly roll it into a wider and longer piece, but not too thin). Now make  3/4th inch long slit  in the center of the shortest base of the triangle. Then start rolling the croissant from the base to the tip, till completely rolled. Pull on the two ends, to shape into a crescent and place on a parchment lined baking sheet for final proofing.

Let this prove at room temperature and rise and get puffy for at least an hour to upto 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 400F. Bake this for 7 mins at 400F and then reduce the temperature and bake it for 5-10 mins at 350F till a deep brown.

Let the rest for 10 mins before serving warm!

These are delicious and flaky and perfect!!

Tips
If using salted butter, reduce the quantity of salt in the recipe to 1.5 tsp.  I was only going to laminate 1/4th of the total dough with chocolate dough covering, and that is why I only separated out 1/2th cup or a fistful of dough.
I followed the steps of refrigerating the butter and then the dough and when I did the first fold, the butter was too hard. So, make sure that the butter and dough have a similar stiffness when you fold the butter in. For that you must bring out the butter at least 15 mins before you get the dough out. Dust  the rolling surface with flour often and liberally to ensure that the dough does not  stick to the surface. Dust off excess dough gently using a brush before folding.
Keep an eye on the croissants while baking to make sure they don't burn.

Sweet Red Bean Bread

This is a delicious bread filled with a sweet red bean filling. It is inspired by the Japanese anpan bread but is not a traditional recipe. This has been shaped as a star.  You can get really creative and shape it in any shape, like how we shaped it into a pretty bun earlier. This is a really great breakfast recipe but we often enjoy it as dessert as well. And it pairs really well with milk or coffee.

You can find a detailed tutorial on how to make the bread at the youtube link below.

Video, detailed Instructions for the sweet red bean bread

Ingredients
For the filling
3/4 cup uncooked red beans (we need only 1 cup of cooked beans)
4 cups of water
3/4-1 cup of sugar

For the dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup potato flour (optional)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water (minus 1 tbsp)
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg - well beaten to be used for the egg wash

Method
Soak the red beans in 2 cups of water for at least an hour. Then discard the water and add the beans to the pressure cooker (or instant pot). Add 2 cups of water and then pressure cook the beans till completely cooked. I cooked it in the instant pot for 30 mins on the beans/chilli mode and then let the pressure release naturally.

3/4 cups of beans cook to make 2 cups of cooked beans. I blended one cup of cooked beans and added 3/4 cup of sugar and made a puree. Then cook the bean paste in a pan to thicken it. Let it cool down.

While the beans are cooking, make the dough. First add the milk, 1/2 the water, sugar and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer, and set aside for 10 mins to activate the yeast. The mixture will get frothy.  Sift the flours together, so that there are no lumps. Then add the salt, vanilla essence and butter to the frothy liquid. Turn the mixer on and using the dough hook, add the flour. Then slowly add the rest of the water, a little at a time till till a soft dough is formed. Then knead for  about 7-10 mins. Scrape the bowl down as needed.

Shape the bread into a ball and transfer to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rise for about an hour till it is doubled.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and shape into balls and let them rest for 10 mins. Divide the bean filling into 3 equal parts.

Now roll one dough piece into a circle with a 10 inch diameter. Place this on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Then, apply the egg wash. Dot the surface with the filling and use your finger tips to spread it. Then, repeat this process 2 more times. Once the final circle of dough is placed, then it is time to shape the dough

Place a small bowl/cookie cutter/measuring cup with about a diameter of 1.5-2 inches in the center of the dough. Then make 16 equal part of the dough. The bowl in the center will prevent the dough from getting cut through. At the end of this there will be small circle in the center where the bread is joined together and 16 strands. Take two strands, and twist them outwards twice (opposite in direction to each other) and then pinch the ends together to form a sharp point. You will have 8 star petals and the bread will look like a star or a flower.

Cover it lightly with plastic wrap and let it rise for 45 mins to an hour till it is risen and puffy. Then, apply the final layer of egg wash.

Preheat the oven to 400F and then bake the bread for 15-20 mins. The bread is ready when the internal temperature reaches 200F, which takes about 20 mins. You can also tap the bread to check for the hollow sound.

Cool the bread for 10 mins on a cooling rack and then it is ready to eat. You can also bake it the previous night for breakfast. Heat it in  the oven at 350 F till it is warmed through, about 10 mins and then serve warm. It tastes great with milk.

Tips
The potato flour helps retain moisture and keeps the bread moist after baking. You can skip this ingredient. Use room temperature water and milk so that you do not accidentally kill the yeast. Resting the  dough relaxes it makes it easy to roll out. If you try to spread the filling with a spatula, you may stretch or tear the dough and it is easier to gently spread it using the finger tips. When shaping the dough, pinch the edges well, so that they don't unravel when the dough proves the second time. Instead of a star, you can shape it into any other shape and then let the dough undero a second rise. 

Whole Wheat Pancakes with Blueberries

I have made been making pancakes for the longest time, but I have never had a go to recipe that I knew would always taste good. Most of the times I used to fall back on using multigrain flour pancake mix from the local store. Or once in a while I tried out a new recipe, though nothing really stuck as "the one".

I am a fan of America's Test Kitchen, and while perusing their cookbook, I came across their recipe to make blueberry pancakes. This has now become my go to recipe for whenever I want to make pancakes. The main reason is that all the ingredients needed to make the pancakes are generally always available in the pantry and fridge. I tried this recipe a few times as and then substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose flour.  The all purpose ones are great and I like the ones with whole wheat pastry flour even better. The whole grain adds texture and depth to the taste and this is my go to recipe to make pancakes.

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk

1 tbsp lemon or lime juice

1 egg

3 tbsps unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tsp oil
blueberries (optional)

Method
Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Whisk together milk and lemon juice and set aside. The milk will thicken (the solids start to separate from the liquid in the milk. It is more noticeable if the milk is at room temperature than when milk is cold). Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Whisk together egg, vanilla essence, and add to the milk. Add the butter as well and mix the liquid ingredients together. Make a well in the center of the flour and add the liquid ingredients slowly to the flour. Mix the ingredients together with a whisk until they are just combined. Some lumps will remain. Do not overmix.

Heat your pan or griddle, and add some oil to the pan. Pour one ladle or about 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan. If using blueberries, sprinkle about 8-10 blueberries onto the pancake.  Cook until bubble appear for 1-2 minutes and then flip the pancake over and cook in the other side till golden brown for another 1-2 minutes. If pan is large enough, you can make 2-3 pancakes at a time.

Tips
Do not overmix the batter. Once the batter looks mixed in and you cannot see the dry flour anymore, stop mixing. Even if you see clumps in the batter, do not give into temptation to mix and make the batter smooth. Over mixing the batter can lead to chewy pancakes. The original recipe calls for all purpose flour, however I have used whole wheat pastry flour.
Note: Whole wheat pastry flour is different from whole wheat flour. Whole wheat pastry flour is closer to all purpose flour in color and texture whereas whole wheat flour is darker in color and heartier in taste.
I have used cold milk directly from the fridge and also milk at room temperature and haven't noticed any change in taste or texture.
You can substitute buttermilk instead of the milk and lemon juice mixture. Use 2 cups of buttermilk instead, if available.

Buckwheat Crepes

The first time I ate crepes was about a decade ago. I was was at a very upscale French restaurant for dinner and ended up ordering the crepe with cheese and spinach. While it was tasty, I couldn't eat more than a fourth of it because it was just too heavy. So, I was a bit put off by crepes after that experience. I didn't order crepes again for  a while.  The next time I tried dessert crepes. These were delicious and had fruits fillings. I thoroughly enjoyed them. However, I was never motivated to try making these at home.

All this changed after a visit to Montreal. There was a shop there selling amazing ice cream and crepes. We ordered the desert crepes there and I noticed that there was something different about the crepes. They didn't seem like they were made of all purpose flour and had a great texture and taste. They didn't get chewy even when they had cooled down as all purpose flour ones do. We enjoyed the crepes so much, that I finally asked the person making these what was different about these crepes. This was when she told me they also had buckwheat flour in addition to the all purpose flour. I had never heard of this grain before and I looked for it as soon as I cam back home.

I experimented with the recipe and was able to create one which tastes the same as the one we had in Canada. Once you have the crepe batter ready, you can use it to either make savory or sweet crepes.

Ingredients
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 all purpose flour
3 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence (necessary for sweet crepes. optional for savory ones)
1/4 tsp salt (if using to make savory crepes. do not add for sweet crepes)
2 tsp sugar (if using sweet crepes. do not add for savory crepes)

Method
Melt the butter. Put all the ingredients together in the blender and pulse a few times till the batter is well mixed. The batter is ready to use.

The key to making good crepes is to have them be very thin. For this just enough batter to cover the base of your non-stick pan in a thin layer. You may have to make a couple to figure out how much batter you need. I generally need one large layer for a 12 inch skillet. Heat your pan and coat it with a little oil. You can either use a spray or a paper towel dipped in little oil.  Oil is needed because you don't want to heat an empty non-stick pan.  Once the pan is hot, pour the batter using a ladle into the pan and swirl the pan around in one direction to coat the base of the pan. Since the pan is hot, you will not have enough time to use a spatula to spread the batter before it starts cooking. So it is important to swirl it fast enough to spread it around.

Cover the pan for a minute or so. Remove the cover and check if you can easily move the crepe. If so, flip the crepe over and cook it on the other side for another minute.

This is the basic technique to make the crepe. Stack the crepes on top of each other.

You can stuff it with any stuffing you want. Desert crepes can be stuffed with a combination of berries, banana,  sweetened cream cheese or nutella. You can stuff crepes with savory filling of spinach and ricotta cheese. Last time, I made a stuffing of fresh mozarella, spinach, basil and tomato.  This was based on the caprese salad. The crepe was delicious.

You can be creative and try out different options.

Tips
Always use a non stick pan. Do not apply oil after the first crepe. Since oil is applied to the pan surface before the first crepe is made, this crepe may not spread well. You can heat your oven to 200F and keep the stacked crepes in it on a wire rack to keep the stack warm.
The batter will last for a couple of days, if refrigerated.
If you are making savory crepes, and do not want to taste the egg, you can add some spices like a mix of oregano, basil and rosemary or any one of these spices to mask the egg taste. If you decide to add vanilla, reduce the amount you add because vanilla essence makes the crepes smell sweet. 

Oats and Whole Wheat Bread

The last month was filled with cooking a lot of Diwali sweets and snacks. I also made cakes for a couple of birthday parties. It was a great month. We ate a lot of great food and had fun with all the different celebrations. However, in the midst of all this activity, I just didn't get time to do any leisurely baking. I had been wanting to bake bread, but I just didn't get to it. I have been wanting to make some whole wheat breads, and I finally got to bake a loaf  last weekend. This is a recipe from the book "Whole Grain Baking" and the first one that I tried from it. Considering the success of this recipe, I am looking forward to trying the other bread recipes from this book. Since, all the recipes in this book include whole grains, they should be healthy as well.

This bread recipe contains whole wheat flour as well as rolled oats. It turns out very delicious and moist. A perfect sandwich bread.

Ingredients
1 and 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup old fashioned rolled oat (not the quick cooking ones)
2 tbps unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
1.5 tsps salt
1/4 cup honey
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 and 2/3 cups unbleached all purpose flour/maida
1/4 cup milk powder
2 tsps instant yeast
some oil to grease the bowl and pan
1-1/2 tsp melted butter (optional)

Method
Mix together the oats, salt, honey and butter and pour the boiling water and stir. Let the mixture cool to a lukewarm temperature. This will semi cook and soften the oats. Also, make sure that the temperature is lukewarm and you can easily dip your finger (clean) in the mixture and hold it for a minute without burning it. If it is not cool enough and you add the yeast, the yeast die.
Then add the flours, milk powder, yeast into this mixture and knead the dough. Knead well till the dough is soft and smooth. If you are doing this by hand then you will need about 10-15 minutes kneading time. Shape the dough into a ball.

To see step by step photographs of the process see the Whole Wheat Bread recipe.

Then, place this in a well oiled bowl and roll the dough in the bowl, so that the dough is lightly covered with oil. Then, cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise till it has doubled in size. This will take about an hour to an hour and half, depending on the ambient temperature.

Then, deflate the dough and shape it into a log which can fit in your rectangular bread pan. Now cover this lightly with a plastic wrap and let the dough rise again till it has doubled in size, which will take another hour to hour and half.

Preheat the oven to 350 and bake the bread on the center rack in the oven for about 45 minutes.  After 20 minutes have passed, check and if you see that the top has lightly browned, then take a piece of aluminium foil (large enough to cover the pan), fold it in the center to create a crease, then  open it up and create a tent on top of the baking tin. Let the bread bake for the next 25 minutes, covered with foil.

Take the bread out of the oven and set to cool for 5 minutes before removing it from the tin. If you want, you can lightly brush the entire bread with some butter. This will help retain the moisture and keep it soft and moist.  Slice it as you go.

Tips
Yeast should never be added to hot water or hot mixtures, as that will kill the yeast. If you are not sure, add the yeast to room temperature ingredients. If the temperature in the room is very cold, it will take longer for the dough to rise. You can keep the dough in the oven, with its light on to provide the warmth for the yeast, so that the bread will rise. Else, add additional time to the rising process. The key to look for is, if the dough has doubled in size. Similarly, if the room temperature is really warm (think hot summer weather), then you may need just 45 mins or an hour for the dough to complete doubling in size. For photos on how to shape the dough into a loaf after the first rise, see the Whole Wheat bread recipe.

Upma - A Farina/Semolina Dish

Upma is a popular snack found almost everywhere in India (well at least the places that I have visited). It is a snack which is as popular as "Poha" and is just as widespread in availability. It is called many names like Uppit, Uppitu, Rava Upma, Sooji Upma, Sanja and so on (just the various names I know it by). It is made out of semolina, which is a wheat product.  It can be made using just onions for seasoning or with a lot of vegetables. It is a very flexible dish, u can use fine or coarse semolina, add as many vegetables as you want and totally make it your own. However, there are some basic principles that must be followed when making it, else the end product becomes dense and lumpy and is not appetizing at all.

Though this is a relatively easy dish, that I have made several times, I had never gotten results that would make me take a picture of the dish and I was never been happy with it. In fact it is one dish I try to avoid cooking, if possible. However, three weeks ago I finally had the bright idea to ask my Mom for her recipe (you would think that I would have the good sense to ask earlier, no??).  After talking to her I realized where I made an error and was able to satisfactorily correct it. Within the past two weeks I have already made this recipe twice with fantastic results and a lot of compliments. I  am quite sure that I will now be making it as frequently as I make my other go to snack - "Pohe". So for all of you out there that see upma as a challenge, this recipe will help you get great results.

Ingredients
1/4 cup oil/ghee (clarified butter)
1 cup semolina/sooji/rava/farina
2-2.5 cups water
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1  tsp urad dal
a pinch of asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves
a couple of green/red chillies, to taste, sliced into a couple of pieces
1 tsp ginger and green chilli paste
1/4 cup onion, diced finely
1/2 tomato, diced finely
1/4 cup cauliflower florets, diced/separated into small florets
1/4 cup potato, diced
1/8 cup peas
1/8 cup green beans, diced finely
1/8 cup carrots, diced finely
3-4 black pepper pods
1/8 tsp cumin seeds

Method
In a pan, take the rava and roast it on medium heat. You  need to roast it till you start smelling the cooked aroma of the semolina and it no longer has the raw smell. It will be lightly browned. Keep aside.
Start heating the water. The water must be boiling when it is used, so it is important to start heating it in parallel while starting to work on the seasoning. Crush the cumin seeds and peppercorns to a coarse powder and keep aside
In a deep pan, heat the oil/ghee. To it add the mustard seeds and once they crackle, add the urad dal, curry leaves, green/red chillies. Once the urad dal turns slightly brown, add the onions and the ginger-chilli paste. Cook the onions till transparent, then add the rest of the vegetables. Cook the vegetables completely. Then add the salt and add the sugar. Then, add the roasted rava and stir till the rava is well coated with oil. Cook it for a couple of minutes.
At this phase add the crushed cumin and peppercorn to the boiling water. Then pour the water to the rava and stir well. Cover the pan and let it cook. Cook this covered for about five to seven minutes, stirring it occassionally, so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
The rava will fluff up and the volume will double. Add cilantro and turn off the heat. Then when it has cooled for a couple of minutes, squeeze the lemon juice and mix. Also, at this phase you can add a tsp of ghee/clarified butter. If you have cooked it in ghee, then it is not necessary to add ghee to at the end.

Tips
You can also roast the rava in the microwave. Stir after every minute and after the first couple of minutes, roast it in 30 second intervals. Do this till the rava loses its raw smell. You can then store it as well.  Store it once it has cooled down.
Do not skimp on the oil. The main reason why my upma turned out not so good was because I was using about 1 tbsp oil and that is very less and will make the rava sticky. Also fry the rava for a few minutes in oil, so that it gets coated with the oil, so it will not stick to each other that much when you add water. You can also use ghee/clarified butter instead of oil to make the upma. This will make it very rich and tasty.
The water that is added in at the end must be at a rolling boil and not just hot. It is convenient if you start heating the water in a pan at the same time that you start heating the oil or even a couple of minutes before that.
You can use a combination of any of the vegetables listed above. For one cup rava, you can use a maximum of about 1 cup of vegetables (upto 1/4 cup less or more). Try and cut all the vegetables to about the same size.
You can also skip all the additional vegetables and use only onion to season it. It even tastes great with just onions and a little tomato.
To make ginger and chilli paste, grind together 1 inch ginger along with 1-2 green chillies and some salt. Then use the required amount.

Pineapple Jam

Over the last two years (ever since I started blogging), I have collected many pictures of food. I cook everyday and enjoy trying out new recipes. So, it follows that I end up taking pictures at least a couple of days a week, of new food items and my photo collection keeps growing. The challenge is to keep up with the blog updates as I make new dishes. I was going through the various pictures and trying to decide which recipe to write up next, when I came across pictures of my homemade pineapple jam. It is an easy recipe, to make and to write up too, so it is the perfect choice for blogging on a rather busy day. I had used a method similar to my strawberry jam. It tastes delicious. It has a slightly tangy taste depending on how sour the pineapple is. It is a great accompaniment for bread or hot chapatis.

Ingredients
1 pineapple, finely chopped or grated or coarsely pureeed
sugar (about 1.5 to 2 cups) - quantity will depend on the cooked down quantity of the pineapple
1/8 tsp citric acid

Method
Cook the pineapple on medium heat. You will know that the pineapple is cooked once the color starts to become darker and the puree starts to thicken. At this stage, measure the amount of the cooked puree. Measure out two times the sugar compared to the quantity of cooked puree. I had one cup of the cooked puree and so I took two cups of sugar. Mix the puree and the sugar and heat it on a low flame. The mixture will become watery as the sugar melts and then start to thicken. When this mixture is thick enough where your spoon leaves a slight path when its dragged through it, it is ready to be taken off the heat. Take a little mixture in a small bowl and add the citric acid to it, stir thoroughly so that the citric acid is completely dissolved. Add this back to the warm mixture. Let it cool.  Do not cover the jam as it cools down. Store it in the fridge upon cooling.

Tips
If you puree the pineapple, keep aside a slice of pineapple and cut it into fine pieces. The puree and pineapple pieces will provide the best texture for the jam. Store it in the fridge. Use only dry spoons when scooping the jam out of the container. Introduction of moisture will speed up the spoilage and it will not last for too long.

Banana Bread - Have Banana Bread Toast for Breakfast

I make banana walnut cake very often. In fact, most of the times the bananas don't get eaten and I finally need to use them up to make the cake. Of course this is advantageous to my family as well as friends since all of us get to eat home made cake often. I have been toying with the idea of making this recipe healthier by subsituting all purpose flour with whole wheat and cutting back on the added butter. I finally decided that I should experiment and see what the result would be. I was quite worried that the bread may be too hard or tough or even flavorless, but to my surprise it was moister, fluffier and seemed to have more depth of textures and flavors. This is definitely not as sweet as a cake would be and the fat content is also extremely low. So, I would definitely recommend making this as an alternate to the bread you use in your morning breakfast. Warm it up and eat it with a glass of milk or toast it and spread a little honey on it. It tastes great, has whole grains and is very satisfying.

Ingredients
1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
3 bananas, over ripe - mashed
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup apple sauce
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1/4 cup butter milk (can substitute milk if you don't have butter milk, also see tips)
1/4 cup yogurt
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a baking tin and keep aside. You can use a standard bread/loaf tin or an 8/9 inch baking tin.
Since we are reducing the fat content significantly to just two tbsp, it is necessary to aerate all the components so that the resultant bread will be spongy. The apple sauce and yogurt help add the necessary moisture.
Sieve all the dry ingredients, i.e. whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Do this at least a couple of times. In a bowl whisk the two eggs till the mixture is frothy. Add the vanilla essence and mix again.
In another bown, mix together the mashed banana, apple sauce, sugar and the melted butter. Mix this well using an electric beater or a whisk. To this add the yogurt and the butter milk/milk and mix well. Add the eggs next and beat well. Then add the sieved flour mixture to the wet ingredients, a little at a time and fold it in with a spatula. Add 1/4 cup of flour then move the spatula in a circular manner, moving the batter from the base of the bowl to the top and incorporating the flour into the batter during this process. This is called folding the flour into the batter. You don't want to over mix the batter and so avoid the temptation to just dump the flour and mix with the whisk. Last, fold in the walnuts.  Pour the batter and bake for about 20-30 minutes. The house will fill up with the aroma of bananas and cinnamon as the bread is baking. Use a knife or toothpick and insert it in the center of the bread. If it comes out clean, then the bread is completely baked. Let it cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. Then place the bread on the cooling rack as it continues to cool. This will ensure that the bread doesn't get soggy from the moisture being released as it cools down.

Tips
As bananas start to ripen and get dark spots on the skin, I freeze them. Then they are readily available for whenever I want to make banana bread or cake. If you make yogurt at home and it's not very thick and has plenty of water, then use 1/2 cup of this yogurt along with the water component. To make apple sauce at home, peel apples, remove the seeds and inedible core and then cook these with very little water. Turn off the heat when the apple is cooked. Puree the apples to make apple sauce. This should have the consistency of baby food puree or ketchup.