Pain d'epi

I love the smell of fresh bread and the warmth of a loaf fresh out of the oven. I initially thought of making a baguette and sticking some emu mince in it, but remembered seeing this wheat stalk shaped bread being made on the Hairy Bikers. With the dough having risen, it was just a matter of hitting it with a pair of scissors and shaping the loaf to resemble a wheat stalk.

Add a touch of butter and watch it disappear.



Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup luke warm water
• 1 tbsp yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the luke warm water and set it aside to activate and turn frothy.
2. Mix the flour, sugar salt and yeast mixture and make a soft elastic dough.
3. Knead the dough by pressing down and stretching it with the base of the palm to get the gluten out for at least 10 minutes and leave covered in a warm place to rise.
4. Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and roll into a thick rectangle.
5. Roll the longer sides inwards and roll the dough to produce a baguette and place, seam side down, on a floured baking tray.
6. Use a scissor to cut into the dough at an angle of 45 degrees and through half its thickness. Turn the cut portion one way and continue down the length of the dough, turning each cut in the alternate direction as the previous one.
7. Now that the wheat stalk is ready, let it rest covered for at least 1 hour.
8. Pre-heat the oven to 190-200 degrees centigrade. Once heated, pour 1/2 a cup of water into the oven and stand back to let the steam escape.
9. Add the baking tray to the oven to cook for 20 minutes.
10. Halfway through the cooking time, pour another 1/2 cup of water below the baking tray and stand back from the steam. Close the oven door and let the bread cook.
11. After 20 minutes, the bread should have a golden brown crust. Take it out of the oven and serve buttered.

Chicken Baozi

Little steamed parcels filled with minced chicken. I used to love having these off street vendors in Chinatown, and wanted to make it in Pork, but finding pork mince in Bangalore is far to painful. So, used chicken mince instead to make it much lighter and easier to digest. The quantity of this recipe is enough for 8 baozi, and the same dough can be used to make Liuxiabao, with the substitution of the minced chicken filling with custard. I've served these dumplings with an light soy dressing.
Ingredients

Dough

• 2 cups plain white flour
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• salt to taste

Filling

• 100 grammes minced chicken
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 inch minced ginger
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

1. Activate the yeast by dissolving it in the lukewarm water and setting aside for a few minutes.
2. Once the yeast is frothy, add it to the dough ingredients and knead into an elastic dough.
3. Set aside in a warm place for 2 hours to rise and double in size.
4. Heat some oil in a pan, and fry the ginger and garlic.
5. Once the ginger and garlic start to turn brown, add the white part of the onion.
6. Fry for a minute and add the minced chicken.
7. Turn the chicken around to cook it evenly and add the chili powder, soy sauce and fish sauce.
8. Reduce the heat and let it simmer gently to get the chicken to absorb the sauce.
9. Once the filling mixture becomes a little dry, take it off the gas and let it cool.
10. Once the dough has risen and doubled, punch in down and divide into 8 parts.
11. Roll out the dough, add a bit of the filling and close out the dumpling. I like to make my dumplings using this method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FYCE5DHH4&feature=related and leaving a little hole at the top to let the steam escape.
12. Place the dumplings on a piece of parchment and steam for 15-20 minutes. Leave some room for each dumpling to expand, as they will double in size as they steam.
13. Take them out, pour some of the dressing on it and serve up.

Soy Dressing

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup light soy
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 spring onion chopped
• 2 chopped red chilies (reconstituted in water if dry)

Method

1. Mix the ingredients together to make the dressing.

Appams with Nadan Egg Masala

There's nothing quite like tucking into crisp appams with a sipcy egg curry on a cold wet afternoon. I've been craving appams ever since Nilam decided to flood Bangalore, and while I'm making these on an overcast, but dry, afternoon, I'm telling myself its the sentiment that counts.

The accompaniment is simple enough, a kerala style dry egg masala called Nadan Mutta Roast, but appams are great by themselves with a little sugar or with a coconut based stew. 


Appams

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice flour
• 3/4 cup cooked rice
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 4 tbsp sugar
• salt to taste

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm water and leave it aside to activate and turn frothy
2. Mix the rice flour, 2 cups water and coconut milk together.
3. Grind the cooked rice with 1/4 cup water to make a thick and smooth paste.
4. Add the paste to the rice flour mix, and run the mix through a food processor to create a thin and consistent batter.
5. Add the yeast-water and sugar to the batter and set aside, covered, in a warm place for at least 2 hours
6. After the batter has risen, add some salt and stir the batter once.
7. Heat an appa-chetti and pour one ladle full of batter, swirl it around to fan out the appam and cover and let it cook on a low flame for 2 minutes.
8. Once the appam is cooked, with the underside turning brown, pull it off the appa-chetti and dig in. With the amount of coconut in there is should just slip off the appa-chetti.
9. With respect to the appa-chetti, I used a non-stick chetti, but its just as easy to make it with a flattish kadai/wok with a lid. Just remember to add a drop of oil and swirl that around the kadai if you're using a non-stick one.

Nadan Mutta Roast (Kerala style Egg Masala)

Ingredients

• 3 hard boiled eggs
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup water
• 6-7 curry leaves
• 1 chopped green chili
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 inch ginger, chopped
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt to taste

Method

1. Halve the hard boiled eggs.
2. Mix the garam masala, coriander power, pepper, turmeric and red chili power together with some water to make a thick paste.
3. Heat the oil in the pan and add the mustard seeds.
4. Once they stop crackling, add the ginger, garlic and green chills, and fry for a minute.
5. Add the onion and sweat them out till they turn translucent.
6. Add the curry leaves and let them splutter before adding the tomatoes and spice paste.
7. Stir the mixture so that the spice paste evenly coats the tomatoes and let them soften.
8. Add some water, salt to taste and reduce the heat and cover to let the masala stew.
9. Once the tomatoes have softened and the masala is pulpy, add the eggs, pour the masala over them and cover and cook for a minute on a low flame.
10. Stir the egg curry once and dry it out uncovered if a little wet, and serve up with the appams.

Soymeal Dumplings

With the Navratri on, the only way I could recreate pork dumplings was with the use of soy meal. Also, I had the steamer that I was dying to use so ended up making soymeal dumplings. It has the same texture as pork dumplings, but without fat and since its soymeal, it should keep the entire khandan happy.

Ingredients

Dumplings

• 2 cups flour (makes around 10)
• 3/4 cup boiled water
• 1 tsp salt

Filling

• 1 1/2 cup soybean meal, soaked for 10 minutes
• 1 tbsp honey soy (or 1 tbsp light soy with a teaspoon of honey)
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 inch ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 1 cup cold water
• salt to taste
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

Dough

1. Mix the flour, salt and water to create a soft elastic dough and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour in a cool dry place.
2. Divide the dough into 10 parts and roll out each ball on a lightly floured table into thin roundels.

Filling

1. Heat the oil in a pan and lightly fry the ginger. As it starts to turn colour, add the vinegar and reduce the heat. 
2. Let the liquid in the pan evaporate before adding the soaked soybean and honey soy.
3. Let the mixture cook on a low heat till some of the water evaporates before adding the cornflour water and salt to taste. You can also add some chili powder or paprika for some bite.
4. Stir the filling and cover. Let it simmer for around 10 minutes, until the soymeal is cooked through.
5. Remove the lid and let the liquid evaporate to create a firm mass of filling.

Dumplings

1. Add portions of the filling to the centre of the dumplings and roll to create little parcels. I rolled them into a circular shape, but bringing to sides together to create a half-moon shape, sealing the edges and then then bringing the two edges of the halfmoon together to create a circular dumpling.
2. Make sure to press down on the edges to seal the dumpling.
3. Lightly oil the steamer tray and prepare the steamer.
4. Place in the steamer and let it cook for 6-8 minutes.
5. Hog in with a light soy dressing, made with 4 parts light soy, 1 part sesame oil and chopped red-chilis or topped with some instant noodles.