Quick Dessert: Kesar Mawa

A sudden desire for something sweet, an unexpected spur from the sweet tooth, an equally unexpected visit from friends or relatives; kesar mawa can come to one's rescue. This recipe, best served chilled, requires preparation time of roughly 10 minutes. Cooling process may take an additional 30 minutes - so in less than an hour, one is ready to plate a delectable dessert. 

Ingredients: 

200g Khoya/Mawa (I use the Milky Mist brand available in Bangalore retail outlets; this one is unsweetened) 

About 100 g sugar (little less than 100g would also do) 

1 tsp cardamom powder

6-8 strands of saffron 

1 tbsp warm milk

A pinch of Kesar Yellow food color (strictly a pinch as excess color will spoil the look of the dessert) 

Chopped Pistachios (for garnish) 

Procedure: 

1. In a kadai, heat sugar in very little water, say for 100 g sugar used, about 3-4 tbsp will be required. 

2. Once the sugar dissolves, add milk and when the mixture is warm, add saffron strands to this. 

3. Mix well and add khoya, stir well avoiding lumps. Stir the mixture for a neat 5 minutes duration. 

4. Add kesar yellow and cardamom powder. Stir the contents well again for about a minute and turn off the stove. 

5. Transfer Kesar Mawa to a flat container and garnish with crushed/sliced pistachios. 

6. Let the dessert come to room temperature and then place it in refrigerator for chilling. 

7. Slice and serve once the dessert is semi solid and chilled. It will sure taste divine. 

An image of yummy Kesar Mawa

Some Crispy Snack as Dark Rain Clouds gather

Recipe for Mosaru Kodubale 

Its been really/tremendously long since I prepared some deep fried snacks at home; the long gap has left an intense craving and it culminated today in making some crispy, crunchy Mosaru Kodubale. 

Kodubale is a favorite snack; a big hit in most homes in Karnataka. These are crispy, crunchy rings made from a mixture of rice flour, grated coconut and roasted chana dal flour. This is usually prepared in large batches and stored for about 2 weeks. The version using Mosaru (curd in Kannada); recipe listed below is a yummier avatar which can be stored maximum for a day and is best when served and eaten hot, right out of wok. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup rice flour

1 cup sour curd - curd must be little thin and watery (if the curd is thick, dilute 1/2 cup thick curd with 1/2 cup water) 

2 finely chopped green chillies

1/2 inch ginger (finely chopped) 

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste 

Oil (while kneading/rolling and for deep frying) 

Water (to boil) 

Procedure:

1. In a big kadai, heat curd (watery and thin as mentioned above) and bring it to boil. Add green chillies, ginger and cumin seeds and salt to taste when boiling and give a mix. 

2. Now to this boiling curd, slowly add rice flour; stir well and leave on stove at low flame for 2-3 minutes to allow cooking. You can sprinkle little water if you find huge lumps while mixing in the flour. 

3. Even when lumps are formed, there is no need to worry. Let the contents of the kadai cool down and you can knead/roll the dough well, applying oil on your hands. I kneaded the soft rice flour dough on my kitchen slab itself. 

4. Now take small portions of this rice flour soft dough, roll out rod like structures using your fingers. You will need to grease your fingers with oil to roll the dough out. This process is much like our childhood/school times when we rolled out long snake like shapes with plasticine/clay. 

5. Join two ends of rolled out rods and make a circular loop. 

6. Make circular loops using all of the dough, line them all on a butter paper. 

7. Heat oil in kadai and deep fry these loops in moderate heat. If the oil is too hot, the loops may open up or cook badly/get dark brown. Ensure right temperature of oil. Fry till mild brown, drain and keep aside. 

8. The crunchy exterior of these Mosaru Kodubale rings; their soft interiors with nice flavor of curd will hook you to them completely. The snack would be super awesome with some spicy chutney, I needed nothing as an accompaniment, I started devouring them right away as they were super good stand alone. 

 A good load of Mosaru Kodubale rings in basket. 

A closer view of few rings on a plate

Reference Used and Many Thanks to: http://www.tasteofmysore.com/2009/12/mosaru-kodubale.html 

Malai Paneer Masala

Paneer dishes form an integral part of buffets in Indian restaurants, reception dinners during Indian weddings ranging from North to South of India and even in homes in all directions of the nation. Roughly two decades back, this ingredient remained restricted to masses in North India. Its nutritive value, taste and softness, and ability to soak flavors during marination process have allowed it to permeate all courses in an Indian meal - from entre dish to main course to desserts. Paneer figures in kebabs, dry tikkas, pakodas; blends well with veggies like tomato, onion, palak (spinach); also nuts (cashew and almonds) to make sumptuous side dishes and satiating taste buds as a dessert - say paneer burfi. I am always deeply satisfied when cooking with Paneer; after all it is a chief consolation prize for us vegetarians against the unimaginably vast spread of non vegetarian fare. 

Without further ado, I come to my recipe of Malai Paneer Masala (a light spice and little milky gravy). The ingredients listed below will make gravy for two and this gravy goes well with rotis and basmati rice based recipes. 

Ingredients

1 big tomato (roughly chopped) 

1 medium sized onion (sliced) 

200 g paneer (I tried out a new brand available in Bangalore stores - Punjabi Paneer; this was soft much like Milky mist brand paneer; make cubes out of paneer) 

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

6-7 full cashew

1 tsp Kasuri Methi (dried fenugreek leaves) 

2-3 cloves

1/2 inch piece of cinnamon

1/2 tsp shah jeera 

Broken Badi Elaichi (Black Cardamom) 

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp chilli powder 

1 tsp kashmiri mirch powder (for nice color of the dish) 

3 tsp oil 

1 tbsp butter 

2 -3 tsp fresh cream (I removed malai from milk boiled at home for this purpose) 

Water 

Salt to taste 

Method

1. In a saucepan, take little water, heat on stove; when warm - add cashews, cinnamon, cloves and shah jeera; then turn off the stove. Add kasuri methi too and allow this to rest for some time. 

2. In a kadai/fry pan, add oil, when warm - add chopped onions, add ginger garlic paste and saute well till brown. Add sugar to this; this allows browning of the onions. Add chopped tomatoes; then chilli powder and salt. Saute well till all the contents combine well and raw smell goes off. 

3. Take a mixer, transfer contents in the kadai. Also, drain contents (cashew and spices) from the saucepan. Do not throw the water in the saucepan after straining. Allow the contents to cool in mixer and grind well to get the gravy.

4. Warm this water (obtained upon straining) on stove for a minute, turn off the heat and then add cut paneer cubes to it. Allow this to rest well for 5-10 minutes. This process will soften the paneer well. Do not add paneer to boiling water with stove turned on, paneer will crumble and break apart. 

5. To the kadai, add butter, add gravy from mixer; cook well (adding little water to obtain volume if necessary). Cook gravy well till oil begins to separate from gravy. Now add kashmiri mirch powder, any salt for adjustment and mix well. Then, transfer the softened paneer cubes and allow simmering of contents of kadai for about 2-3 minutes. 

6. As the last step, add fresh cream and stir well, turn off the stove quickly after addition of cream - this really must be the last step and no additions or delays after this process for completion. 

Note: I could not upload a picture of the gravy as time to serve was infinitesimally small and there was no break to grab a picture. Will sure try to update this post with a relevant picture very soon. 

Bundle up Iron and Calcium!

Recipe for Palak Paneer

Palak, also known as Spinach is seriously a wonder green. Loaded with iron, it is said that 100g of spinach leaves can fulfill 25% of daily iron requirement. Palak is also loaded with vitamins - A, C and K primarily and there are amounts of folate and pyridoxine B vitamins too. 

It is quite ironical that I have written the above lines given that I used to run away from spinach and greens of all sorts when I was a kid. There's a traditional South Indian dish called Keerai Masiyal (a gravy made by grinding greens adorned with a tadka) from which I used to run away at super speeds. Basically, this dish changed the color of my snow white curd rice and I hated it for that. I hated beet root curry too for the same reason. 

But there is no more running !! I make palak parathas and am a big fan of Palak Paneer. 

Yes, this blog post is on a quick and simple recipe for Palak Paneer. 

Now, Paneer is another wonder ingredient, I tasted it for the first time in my class 7 when I went with my family, to eat out in Chennai. Eating out had not sunk in as a trend then as much as it is nowadays. A huge element of suspense was in store for me as I was about to relish Paneer Butter Masala with Naan at Sangeetha hotel, Mylapore, Chennai, back then. The exposure to Paneer was only minimal during school days and it got just as much a big routine during my college days at BITS, Pilani; there began a fondness for paneer which saw no abatement thereafter.

Paneer can be made at home by boiling milk, curdling it with lemon juice or vinegar, straining the curdled milk through a muslin cloth, squeezing excess water and leaving contents in muslin cloth undisturbed for say  an hour. The remains in muslin cloth gets solid and this is paneer, ready to be rinsed and used in gravies and dishes, also known as cottage cheese. Fresh paneer is available in most sweet shops and these have a shelf life of 1-2 days. Once opened, they should be stored in a bowl of water in refrigerator. Paneer is available in all stores under many brands, these have longer shelf life of 15-20 days; must be stored in cool case in refrigerator.

Paneer is a rich source of calcium and phosphorus. There is reasonable amount of cholesterol and fats in it, the usual stuff that tugs along with any dairy product. However, paneer is a very rich source of protein, matters a lot for pure vegetarians and should be included in one's diet in right preparations.   

Now after that brief introduction, let us get down to the recipe of Palak Paneer, a dish that kicks in enough calcium and iron into us in one go :) 

Ingredients (for two) 

Paneer 175 g cut into small cubes ( I used Milky Mist Paneer, available in most Bangalore retail stores, this one is super soft) 

Spinach/Palak leaves (2 medium bundles) 

1 medium sized tomato (roughly chopped) 

2 green chillies (roughly chopped) 

1 medium sized onion (finely chopped) 

1 garlic clove (finely chopped) 

1/2 inch ginger (finely chopped) 

Few sprigs of fresh coriander leaves (finely chopped for garnish) 

1 tsp turmeric powder

1-2 tsp red chilli powder (2 if you like it spicy) 

1/2  tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder 

1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 

1 tsp aamchur powder (used MDH brand, optional) 

1/2 tsp sugar 

salt to taste 

1/2 tsp garam masala powder (used home ground, pretty strong and so 1/2 tsp) 

2 tsp oil 

1 tsp ghee

Milk (5 tbsp) (along with it if you 1 tbsp cream , if you desire) 

Water required for gravy and grinding 

Method 

1. Saute the spinach leaves in a non stick pan after washing them thoroughly in tap water. 

2. Roughly chop tomato and green chillies and transfer (step 1 and step 2 stuff) them to a mixer. Grind using little water to nice gravy consistency

3. In the non stick pan, add oil and ghee, when warm , add jeera and let it splutter. 

4. Now add finely chopped onion, garlic and ginger and fry well with turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder, salt and sugar. 

5. When fried well, transfer contents of the mixer, add little water and combine well. Let the gravy boil and begin to leave oil, reduce in volume. 

6. When the gravy shrinks, add paneer cubes and give a gentle mix. 

7. Add freshly chopped coriander, aamchur powder and garam masala and combine them well on strong flame. 

8. Now add milk and cream (no need for thick store bought cream, the one on top of boiled milk at home will suffice) and do not overheat as it leads to curdling and a sour taste to gravy. Combine well on medium flame and switch off the gas. Steps 7 and 8 are to be done on medium heat, totally towards the end of the process, should not take too long as masalas would lose flavor and curdling of milk/cream is not desired. 

Yummy Palak Paneer is ready to be served with phulkas or naans. 

Curry Leaves Thokku

It is not really uncommon to see people picking up curry leaves used in seasoning and keeping it aside. Sounds a very simple act, as if these curry leaves are meant for goats and other herbivores and not really for man :) 

However, if one knew the benefits of this simple, commonplace leaf used in seasoning, found in almost every dish in South Indian cuisine, the heavy cost of this act, one out of ignorance, can be realized. 

Curry leaves, a few of them, about 4-5, washed and eaten raw in the morning are said to reduce much unwanted abdominal fat. Curry leaves, soaked in warm water, laced with little honey is an age old remedy for constipation. Curry leaves churned along with butter milk not only enhance the flavor but help cure acidity and indigestion problems. Basically, these simple leaves, a rich source of iron and folic acid work wonders in small ways in every meal if we eat them religiously. 

Curry leaves rubbed and added to a ladle of coconut oil, heated lightly and applied onto scalp can promote healthy and jet black hair growth. I can stand a solid witness to this effect. 

Shanti Krishnakumar's Cook book is a blog which I have been following for over an year. Her recipes combine a mix of traditional Tamil recipes and many from the present, modern times. There are lots of useful tips that come in very handy. Please feel free to visit - http://shanthisthaligai.blogspot.in/ for any reference. 

So when Shanti Aunty listed out a recipe for curry leaves thokku in her blog space, I could not waste a minute and immediately set out to try it. The preparation time is about 20 minutes only and I loved the thokku very much. I mixed it with warm rice and a spoon of oil and relished it thoroughly. 

Here is the link to the recipe on Shanti Krishnakumar's Cook book - karuveppilai-thokku-curry-leaves-thokku

I am jotting down the ingredients and the method for any direct/future personal reference. I omitted the use of sundakkai or turkey berry prescribed in the original recipe as I did not have them at home when making the thokku. 

INGREDIENTS:
Curry leaves - 4 cups tightly packed
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball
Dry red chillies - 4 (I used 5)
Pepper - 1/4 tsp (I used a little over 1/4 tsp, may be 1/2)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Ghee - 1 tsp.
Gingelly oil - 1 ladle
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Hing - a pinch

Method: 

1. Soak the tamarind in little water to soften it. 

2. In a thick bottomed pan, add ghee and when warm, add to it pepper and red chillies and fry them well. Add them to the mixer. 

3. Add the softened tamarind as well to the hot pan and saute once, add to the mixer. 

4. Wash the curry leaves and drain all water, saute in the same pan till all moisture is lost, add little extra ghee if needed. Add this too to the mixer. 

5. When all contents in the mixer are cooled, grind well to a paste. 

6. In the same pan, add gingelly oil, when the oil is hot, add cumin seeds, mustard, hing and salt to taste, transfer the thick curry leaves paste from the mixer to this pan. Mix and stir well until oil begins to leave the sides. 

7. At this stage, transfer to an air tight container, clean and free from moisture, store for later use.  


Thanks to Shanti Aunty for sharing such a valuable recipe :) 

Eggless Mango Cake

Come summer and it rains mangoes :) The Senthuram variety has hit many juice junctions in Bangalore and people are guzzling mango milk shakes like never before, may me to a greater extent this year with the heat being unbearable. The Banganapalli variety has just begun to make a meek appearance in local markets. 

Last week, I managed to grab half a dozen Alphonso mangoes from a super market here. Alphonso mangoes are known for their rich orange-red, highly juicy pulp and fibrous texture. I used two of these mangoes, extracted pulp out of them and decided to bake a cake.It was worth trying as the idea was quite different from usual stuff like milk shake, jam and mango burfi fare made using mango pulp. 

There are many eggless cake recipes I have followed from multiple blogs, from all of them I drew cues for the ingredients and their measurements required and eventually constructed a recipe out of it all. Quite a daring challenge, I must say, given the hefty price of Alphonso mangoes. 

Here goes the list of ingredients and the quantity required: 

1 cup atta 

1 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cup mango pulp (used two Alphonso mangoes) 

1/2 tsp cardomom powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

2.5 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup oil 

1/3 cup milk 

a little over 1/2 cup castor sugar (little over can sum up to a heaped table spoon in addition) 

icing sugar for dusting 

Method: 

In a big bowl, add the mango pulp, cardomom powder, vanilla essence, sugar and mix well using a hand mixer at moderate speed for two minutes. 

Add milk to this mixture and baking powder and whisk again using the hand mixer for a minute. 

Now add oil too and give a thorough blend for less than a minute and keep this mixture aside.

To this, add the flour mixture and fold in well using a spatula. No need to use the hand mixer at this stage, just patiently fold in the flour into the wet ingredients avoiding lumps. 

Grease a tin and dust it with flour, alternatively you can line a tin with some parchment paper. I used a 8'' round tin. 

Preheat the oven to 180'C and pour in the cake batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 30-35 minutes till an inserted knife comes out clean, check the center of the cake specially. 

Cool , invert and dust icing sugar all over the top of the cake using a fine sieve. This cake came out little moist and dense with rich taste of mango pulp. Somehow, I found the cake tasting richer and better the day after baking. 

Below is a picture of the cake, a slice cut out from it-

Eggless Mango Cake 

Simple and Healthy: Wheat Dosa

I am sure many of us would have heard this, multiple times from doctors and friends - if you intend to lose weight, avoid high glycemic foods like Maida, Aloo and try to avoid Rice. Now if you are a South Indian, the avoidance of the last item might prove a Herculean task. How can one imagine breakfast without idli and dosa? In hot summers that parches one's throat, to eat rotis only during afternoon might seem next to impossible. Please give me curd and rice will be the appeal. While the ban on Maida should be taken a bit seriously and restraint be exercised on Aloo intake too, rice intake's damage can be controlled if the quantity of veggies and salad that go along with rice as accompaniments are just double the proportion of rice eaten itself.

To start with, all these restraints might feel too strenuous. But to make something a habit, it is widely accepted that all you need is stringent practice and upkeep of rules for a period of three weeks, then things no longer appears difficult.

Dosa is best made when one uses rice and urad dal. There is absolutely no match to this blend. But no need to forgo this completely. If you have restrictions try to insert this simple and healthy wheat dosa in your routine at times and believe me you even get a discount too while preparing this ;)

Ingredients
To make 4-5 dosas 
3/4 cup whole wheat atta flour 
1 big/heaped tablespoon of rice flour (this is the discount I was talking about for the rice lovers) 
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds) 
Few curry leaves 
1 tsp hing 
Salt to taste 
Water and 2 table spoons of curd to make the batter using all of the above

Method
Make a batter using all of the above ingredients. The batter must be little thin and runny, little thinner than our normal dosa batter but not as runny as rava dosa batter also. Sounds confusing? 
Prepare the batter and keep aside for 10-15 minutes. 
If you want to make the process little complex, then add chopped onion and coriander too to the batter. If you are adding onion, you can remove hing. My mother in law says that where onion comes into play, hing is not required at all as it is rendered useless in taste. 
Heat the dosa tawa on flame, pour a ladle of the batter, spread into a circular dosa using the ladle. Cook on both sides and serve with idli chutney powder/dosa molagai podi. You can use any chutney as accompaniment. The hing added and curry leaves actually yield very tasty dosas and surely this recipe is worth a try. 

Big note of advise
I have used all brands of Atta - Aashirwad, Annapurna and Pillsbury; I feel somehow all these brands feign it (big time) when they say theirs is 100% atta and no maida added. 
For the last few months, I have started buying whole wheat grains and get them ground in the flour mill close to my house. This atta which is freshly ground, I must say, is pure and there is a lot of difference when I use them in the same recipes. 

Wheat dosa getting ready!

Nutty Minty Chutney

This is a yummy, little coarse chutney that goes well with dosas, bread sandwich and even rotis too. I learnt this from my mother. And I must say, this chutney works wonders with the main course - 100% 

Ingredients (these will yield chutney required for 2, may be accompaniment for about 10 dosas) 

1/2 cup groundnuts 

1 medium sized onion (chopped into chunks) 

1 big garlic pod 

1/2 inch long piece of tamarind 

1 tsp urad dal

4-5 long red chillies (long salem red chillies is the variety used, adjust according to level of spice, 4 would be apt) 

1 medium sized tomato (chopped into chunks) 

A handful of mint leaves (Pudina), you can add few more sprigs in addition if you love the freshness of Pudina

Coriander leaves (little less than the amount of mint leaves used) 

Turmeric powder

Oil 

Salt to taste 

1 tsp grated coconut (optional) 

Method

1. First in a dry kadai/pan, roast the groundnuts well, until the outer peel turns brown-little black. Add this to the mixer. 

2. In the same kadai, add 1 tsp of oil, fry in it - the red chillies, urad dal and transfer this to the mixer (when chillies and dal change color and give aroma) 

3. Add one more tsp of oil now, add onion chunks, garlic (chopped) , tamarind, tomato chunks, coriander leaves and pudina leaves, saute well adding turmeric powder and salt to taste. Saute well until the raw smell of all these veggies and greens go off. Transfer this all to the mixer now. 

4. As an option, adding little coarseness, add 1 tsp grated coconut to the mixer contents. 

5. Grind all the contents of the mixer adding very little water only (if required). The resultant chutney must not be thoroughly ground and must have a coarse texture. 

Yummy chutney READY :) 

Soft dosas served with chutney

Sugar and Spice and all things nice

It is customary to make kheer or payasam when there is a festival or special puja at home. The payasam or kheer would be made from rice if it was Tamil New year day, from jackfruit and coconut milk if it was Vishu, from rice pieces and coconut milk (Palada Pradhaman) if it was Onam and from moong dal and jaggery if it was Varalakshmi Vratham...many variations of a simple milk based dish to suit different occasions. 

I broke this convention recently on one such important occasion and prepared Atta Burfi; I must say it was a welcome change. My mother makes a certain sweet called 7 cup cake during Deepavali and the Atta Burfi  I prepared takes its cues from this sweet.

So here goes the recipe for this very simple and super delicious sweet which took me a preparation time of 15 minutes. The measure of ingredients can yield about 10-12 medium sized pieces of atta burfi. 

Atta Burfi

Ingredients

1/2 cup Atta (whole wheat) flour

1/4 cup milk powder 

Cardomom powder (3/4 tsp) 

Saffron (about 10-12 strands) 

Ghee (6-8 tablespoons, I used 6 and that was sufficient) 

Sugar (little less than 1/2 cup) 

Method

Prepare a one string consistency sugar syrup using sugar and little water in a non stick pan. When the sugar syrup is just beginning to thicken to the consistency required, add saffron strands and stir well. The syrup would turn yellow due to the saffron strands and leave a pleasant aroma; quite unparalleled. 

Now lower the flame, add atta and milk powder slowly to the sugar syrup. Stir well avoiding any lumps in the flour. 

Start adding ghee spoon by spoon to the mixture in the pan. Stir well to bring all of the contents in the pan together. When mixing with a ladle, the contents of the pan, at some point, will come together as a big clump or a mass. Ghee will begin to leave from this mass onto the sides of the pan. This is the stage when one adds the cardamom powder, gives one final, quick stir and turns off the stove.  

Before you set out on the whole process, prepare a well greased container into which you will transfer the hot sweet from the stove. The contents of the pan are transferred to the greased container and allowed to cool. 

If the sugar syrup was of the right consistency and if you had not turned off the stove in a hurry; the sweet will begin to solidify and set. 

While the greased container is still hot to touch, make lines/patterns on the sweet running a knife so that you can cut and serve the burfi when cold. Strike while the iron is hot :) 

Upon complete cooling, lift cut portions of atta burfi using the knife, serve on a plate. 

Atta Burfi, cooled and cut pieces in an air tight container

Chick peas Sundal 

The black chick peas variety is my favorite and I always make a sundal out of it for every puja or festival at home. After everything sweet and sugary, I really crave for some salt and spice intake. I am sure this is a very widely known recipe. However, I am listing it for the sake of completion. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup black chick peas (soaked in water for about 6-8 hours) 

1 tsp oil 

1/2 tsp mustard

Few curry leaves

Little (say 1 tsp) idly chutney powder (dosa molaga podi) 

Salt to taste
Pinch of turmeric powder

Method 

Pressure cook the black chick peas with water for about 3 full whistles. Add required salt, little turmeric powder while cooking in the pressure cooker. If you want the black chick peas to be cooked well and be really soft, add 1/2 tsp ghee along with salt and turmeric powder. 

When out of the cooker, drain excess water, take a pan, add oil, when the oil is hot, add mustard, curry leaves and transfer the boiled chick peas to the pan. Stir and fry well for few minutes. Add idly chutney powder to the chick peas, give a quick and thorough mix, turn off the stove and serve. 

One can add broken urad dal (1/2 tsp) along with mustard and sprinkle grated coconut (1 tsp) in the end to make the sundal more fanciful.

Chick peas sundal and Atta Burfi - Sugar and Spice and all things Nice :) 

Feasty Yeasty Experiments - 3

Whole Wheat Garlic Pull Apart Rolls 

I tried this recipe some time last week and I must say it yielded really tasty and soft rolls. This recipe is adapted from Divya Kudua's Easy Cooking blog, please follow http://www.divyascookbook.com/2012/04/whole-wheat-garlic-pull-apart-rolls.html 

I am re writing the recipe - list of ingredients and method here for direct reference. 

Ingredients

Whole wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup
Lukewarm Water - 1 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Olive Oil - 2 tsp

For the Garlic spread
Softened butter - 2 tbsp
Garlic cloves - 4-5,finely chopped
Green chilly - 1,finely chopped
Fresh Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp,finely chopped

Method  

There are many illustrations on Divya Kudua's blog for this recipe and they are highly explanatory and more than sufficient. 

1. Warm water, Sugar and Yeast are mixed together in a small bowl and stirred vigorously until frothing happens. Frothing depends on both the quality of yeast in use and the temperature of water - must not be boiling hot as it will kill yeast and not mildly warm as it may be inadequate to activate yeast. When warm water is touched with one's finger, the warmth must just be tolerable. So now this is where it all gets really subjective and that is precisely what makes working with yeast highly challenging. 

2. Add salt too to this yeast mixture and keep aside for 5-10 minutes. 

3. In a bigger bowl, with sufficient space to knead, add the flour mixture, yeast and olive oil and make a soft dough kneading well. Do not add all of the yeast with water mixture in one go, check for softness and stickiness of the dough and then add. Cover the dough after kneading with a moist cloth and keep aside in a warm place, undisturbed for an hour. 

4. Now for making the garlic spread - add all ingredients to warm butter in a pan, mix well. 

5. Divide the dough into two equal halves. From one portion, roll the dough into a rough rectangle using a pin, smearing sufficient flour on the kitchen slab/work space and apply the garlic spread well on to it. Roll the rectangle, cut into spirals. For this step, Divya Kudua's illustrations can be of immense help. Now she's a really patient blogger, I say. Repeat rolling, cutting into spirals with the remaining dough as well. 

6. Grease  a pan with olive oil and place the spirals in an arrangement. Allow these rolls to rest in the pan for about 30 minutes more.

7. Brush the top of rolls with little milk (helps better browning), preheat oven at 180'C and bake at this temperature for 30 minutes. 

8. Upon removing from the oven, cool the rolls, pull them apart, devour them with a cup of hot tea.