Malaysian Sprial Puff

Malaysia is a beautiful country. I did get a chance to visit Malaysia some 8 years ago. We had gone to Malaysia through bus from Singapore and the greenery all the way was quite amazing. I still remember each day of our trip and their food. Various Kuihs (snacks) and their delicious fish head curry were fingerlicking good. I found them similar to many dishes seen at our place. I don't know whether they got inspired from our place or the vice versa. Spiral Curry Puff and Kuih Lapis are among those which I've tried in my kitchen. They came out really well.

Spiral puff is an oil fried snack but you can't find a single drop of oil in any bite. It has got an  amazing crust; flaky and crunchy. Jab was asking me whether it was baked  or not. The filling I used in here is Punjabi samosa filling as I didn't had Malaysian curry masala for trying the original recipe. So I thought of adding Indian tadka to it. Potato filling alone or accompanied with chicken is found in the original curry puff.




Ingredients: (16 pieces @ 9cm in diameter)
Courtesy:Do What I Like


Water Dough:
210g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
100ml warm water
25g lightly beaten egg
1 tbsp or 14g margarine

Oil Dough:
100g plain flour
60g - 70g margarine

Filling:


Potatoes 500g, boiled and mashed
Oil 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Green peas 1 cup
Ginger-garlic paste 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2tsp
Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli powder 1-2 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Cumin powder 1 tsp
Garam masala 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Tamarind pulp 2 tbsp
Lemon juice to taste

Method:

Filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan and splutter cumin seeds in it. Saute ginger-garlic paste and green chillies in it for a few seconds and add mashed potatoes to it. Add the spices , tamarind pulp and sprinkle coriander leaves to it. Check the taste and add lemon juice if needed to taste. Keep it aside.

Dough:

2. Mix all ingredients for the water dough in a mixing bowl and knead till you have a soft and pliable dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes.
3. After the water dough is rested for 30 minutes, mix everything for the oil dough till you get a workable dough. You may add 1 or 2 tsp of water to it , if needed.
4. Divide water dough into 2 pieces about 175g each. Divide oil dough into 2 pieces about 78g each. Work on one piece of water dough and one piece of oil dough. Keep the other pieces in a bag to retain moisture.

5. Wrap oil dough in water dough.

6. With sealed edges facing upwards, roll this into a flat long sheet.

Fold from one side like this and....

fold the other side too to the middle.

7. Roll this again to flat long sheet .

8. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a thin rectangular flat sheet. Roll it up tightly in swiss-roll style again. Trim away the left and right edges to tidy it up.

9. Divide into 8 pieces and you will get this.

10. Flatten each piece into a round disc and wrap in the filling.

11. Fry the puff in medium heat and when they are about to be cooked, turn up the heat to force the oil out of the puff. Drained well and serve.

The only thing I felt is I must add li'l bit more salt to the dough next time :)

Know your cooking oil event

What's with my cuppa? Event hosted by Avika originally hosted byUK Rasoi

Mushroom Sandwich

'Eat Healthy, Do Not Waste' is my mantra this Ramadan.

 Oil fried snacks are not at all a good idea to have during Iftars. But that has turned to a custom since years in many regions including ours.  To change or to revolt against the year old tradition is a big task in itself- to fight with our family members and with our own minds. As Jab is a doctor and health concious too(obviously) , I find it a bit easy to convince them.

We always break fast with fruit salads ,juice and water, as recommended by Prophet (PBUH) and now scientifically proven. We feel so good and refreshed after that. Sometimes we do make fruit custards, but most of the days we add fresh melon or orange juices to our fruit salads. Just a little but it tastes so good. Then, after prayer comes the teatime when we usually eat oily snacks. But the change we tried (to avoid oily stuffs) helped us to feel active during Tharaaveeh (prayer after) . One hour long prayer helps digesting these snacks easily and then it's time for a light meal. Suhoor (Early breakfast)defenitely should be a wholesome meal which help us to stay active the whole day. Eating dry fruits during Suhoor is highly recommended.

Ingredients:

Button Mushrooms 1 box
Oil 1tbsp
Onion 1/2
Garlic 4 cloves
Pepper 1 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves 1 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and saute onion till it changes it color.

2. Add garlic and saute a little more.

3. Pop in mushroom slices into it. Saute till it turns golden brown for about 10-12 minutes.

4. Once it is done, throw in coriander leaves.

5. Toast breads and assemble the sandwich ingredients.

6. Place cheese slice first, then mushroom filing, tomato slice, cucumber slice. etc and close with another toast.Microwave this for 20 seconds

Variation:

You can either assemble the sandwich and then toast it, if you like melted cheese.
Adding olives, mayonnaise, lettuce etc. may add variation to the taste, depending upon your choice.

Freeze your Kaayada/Unnakkaaya(Stuffed plaintain snack)

Some things in this world need no introduction at all... I think this is such a snack about which I'm sure many of you; infact almost each one of you might be knowing . Ripe plaintains are steamed and then blend to be stuffed in with sweet scrambled egg. This is then deep fried to nice golden color. This snack is usually served alongwith tea- an unavoidable snack in Malabar parties.

The plaintains should be ripen to perfect for this. Not too much and not that raw. If it is over ripened, then it'll end up in oily adas(snacks) and you may find difficuilt to shape them up too.. While picking up the plaintains choose the one whose skin started getting black spots-just few.

Ingredients:

Plaintains 2kg
Eggs 7
Sugar 7tbsp
Ghee 3 tbsp
Cashew nuts,chopped 3 tbsp
Raisins 2 tbsp
Cardamom powder 3/4 tsp

Method:

Egg stuffing:

1.Beat in the eggs and sugar untill the eggs get mixed up nicely. No need to mix it until the sugar dissolves.

2.Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashew nuts until brown and take these out. Pop in the raisin and fry until it puffs up . Take them out as well.

3.Add egg mixture to it.  Cook eggs while stirring continously. It should resemble Indian scrambled eggs; but little moist because of sugar. Add cardamamom powder and mix in the nuts and raisins. Switch off the flame.

my kids hate raisins, so i avoid it

Preparing the Ada:

1. Wash and steam the plaintains  until it turns soft. You can either cut them into pieces and steam if you have a small steamer. Steaming as a whole is good though.

Uncooked: as you can see two colors there.

Cooked: Single color there

 2. Now remove the skin and grind this in food processor, table top grinder, using egg beater etc. You can place this on a chopping board and mash this using a potato masher, rolling pin or a glass. Mash this with no lumps and should resemble a chappathi dough.

3. Make small balls. Then flatten these balls into a small circle just like puris (size depends) . Fill them with fillings and close it to form a semi-circle. (shall soon update with pictures). Stick the ends together and shape them like Ada or Ghujiiya.

4. Heat oil in a kadai or frying pan and deep fry these in oil until it turns golden brown. This is traditionally fried in ghee.

 How to freeze:

Freeze this the same way as I explained in my previous post Freezing cutlets. Layer kaayadas in an airtight box. Place clingfilm on top of that; then again kaayadas and so on until all those are placed neatly. Cover this with clingfilm on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in your freezer.

Note: While frying, the oil should be steaming hot as adding frozen adas might turn the temperature down instantly which may result in oily snack.

Linking this to Foodabulous Event hosted by Saju's Tastes

Freezing Meat Cutlets-Ramdan Preparations

Cutlets can also be freezed. Cling film is used to separate cutlets inorder to prevent sticking. If you freeze them correctly, you can use this as and when needed for 1-2 months.

Ingredients:
(makes 100 depending on the size)

Beef/Mutton 1kg
Poatato 1kg
Ghee 2 tbsp
Oil 4 tbsp
Onion 4 cups
Garlic 8 cloves
Ginger 2" piece
Green Chilli 10-13
Turmeric powder 1 tsp 
Pepper powder 2 tsp
Garam Masala 2 tsp
Curry leaves few
Coriander leaves 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Cut the onions lengthwise into 2 or 3 equal parts and then slice them.


2. Cook the meat till done in a pressure cooker alongwith salt,pepper and 1/2 a tsp of turmeric powder. Let it cool.

3. Shred the meat using a food processor or a grinder or even using hands.  Just pulse them if you are using a grinder. If you grind it more, the meat will return to kheema consistency or a meat paste which we do not want.


4. Now heat ghee and oil in a pan. Add the sliced onions to it and saute it for a while till it turns translucent. Add ginger-garlic & green chilli paste to it. It'll take about 10 mts or so in medium -high flame. Adjust the flame so that  there is no moisture left in the pan.

5. Now add salt and turmeric powder to it. Mix in the shredded meat to it.


6. Season with the remaining spices like pepper and garam masala. Pop in the Curry Leaves and Coriander Leaves. Let it cool

7. Boil potatoes till tender and mash them nicely.

8. Mix poatoes into masala nicely to make a dough.

9. Make small balls out of it and flatten a bit to circle or oval shape. You can make heart or anyother shape if you are having moulds.

10. Beat eggwhites and a tbsp of milk until frothy using a fork.

11. Take some breadcrumbs in a plate. Now dip these patties into the eggwhites ,take it out and then coat with breadcrumbs nicely. Do this individually on all cutlets.

How to Freeze:

Take an airtight containter and layer cutlets on it. After doing a single layer, place a sheet of cling film on it and then layer cutlets again. Place clingfilm, then cutlets and so on till all the cutlets are placed in the box. place one more sheet of cling film on top and then close the lid tightly. Keep this in the freezer. This would stay fresh for about 2 months or so. 

How to Fry:

While frying, no need to defreeze. Heat oil in a pan to smoking hot and then pop in the cutlets and fry till it turns brown on both the sides. The oil should be extra hot as these cutlets are cold and may turn the oil to too low temperature which may cause these cutlets to break or  oily.

Linking this to Foodabulous Event hosted by Saju's Tastes

Ramadan Preparations-Frozen Almond Paste

Ramadan is on its way -the month of revelation of Quran`; month of fasting and praying; a month of excitement for the muslims. Muslim houses start preparing for this month as early in sha'ban-a month before Ramadan. As Ramadan is to be spent in reciting Quran and lots of salah(prayers) , we do not get much a chance to do our daily responsibilities. So we do a lot of preparations beforehand.

                          

Food plays an important role during Ramadan.We work at daytime ,but can't eat or drink anything then. So we have to have enough food and drink enough water for next day's energy to work . We eat fibre rich foods, lots of fruits and juices. We invite guests for Iftar(breaking fast) too. It is a festive month for us.

 Some of us find it difficult to follow our spiritual plan in Ramadan, despite our true desire for change. We spend a lot of time in cooking and daily chores. Doing some preparations beforehand like freezing Almond paste for almond milk (Badam Juice), freezing some snacks, roast coconut for curries etc.make it easier. I would like to publish few posts on that; let's see whether I can make it or not.

Soaking,blanching and grinding almonds take a lot of time. I've an easy method. make almond puree in bulk and store it in airtight containers in freezer and just scoop out and blend it for few seconds with milk to make delicious smoothies for your Iftar. You can use this otherwise for unexpected guests as well. You can store certain fruits like mangoes, chikkoos ets. in freezers for smoothies as well. Deskin & deseed them, cut into chunks and freeze it on a tray first. When it is frozen, remove and store in freezer bags. This way you can get the fruit chunks separated and could be blend easily with milk and sugar to make smoothies later.

Ingredients:

Almonds/badam 1/2 kg

Milk- enough to blend it and as less as possible

Sugar 3-4 cups

Method:

Soak almonds in warm water for 5-6 hours and deskin them. You can either boil almonds for few seconds and then remove its skin. 

Grind them into paste using minimum measure of milk (considering the type of blender you use)into a smooth paste till the grainy feel disappears . Transfer the paste into an airtight container. Close the lid and let it freeze for half an hour. 

Now, take it out and add the sugar. Do not fold too much as the sugar shoould not be allowed to dissolve. Freeze it again until you use it.

*sugar is the factor which allows easy scooping of the paste. So it should not be dissolved.

*adding too much milk may make it difficuilt to scoop.

BADAM MILK

Ingredients:

1.Frozen paste 2 heaped scoops

2.Milk 2 cups 

3.Cardamom powder a pinch

          or 

vanilla essence few drops

Method:

Take the frozen paste out of the freezer and scoop out 2 tablespoons. If you find difficuilt to scoop, keep it on kitchen counter for 5 minutes and then scoop. You can also scoop it in whole or cut into chunks and store in freezer bag, once frozen, to save space in your freezer.

Blend everything fr few seconds ,adjust sugar and serve chilled. 

Linking this to Foodabulous Event hosted by Saju's Tastes