Semolina Bread

A Different Kind Of Bread

 As children, one of our pet hates was Uppuma which my Mum made every Monday without fail  for breakfast.  It is one dish that I seldom make.  I was quite surprised to see this recipe online a while ago from Sanjeev Kapoor's Khazana and was eager to try it out.  So when my husband bought sooji or semolina instead of the sago I wanted,  it was the right time  to make this different kind of  bread, tweaked to suit our taste.  It passed our taste bud test and am looking forward to making it again.  Surprise, surprise!

The Recipe:

1 3/4 cups fine sooji; 1/4 tsp salt; 3/4 cups water; 7.5 gm instant yeat; 1/4 tsp brown sugar; 1 1/2 tbsp warm water; 2 tbsp olive oil; 1/2 tsp mustard; 2 green chillies, minced; 1 sprig curry leaves, chopped fine; 2 spring onions, minced; 1 medium tomato, chopped fine; coriander leaves for topping; 2 tbsp nuts for the topping; 1 tbsp olive oil for drizzling on top.

Additional 1 tbsp olive oil for seasoning.

Add the yeast and sugar to the warm water in a glass bowl and keep aside for 10 minutes.  Next, mix the sooji, salt and water together with a wooden spoon and add the yeast to it.  Mix really well and add 2 tbsp olive oil.  Mix together and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes to prove.

In the meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a non stick pan.  Lower flame and add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, chillies and spring onions.   Stir fry till the onions are glazed.  Throw in the tomatoes and fry till mushy.   Remove from the fire and cool for about five minutes.  Add this seasoning to the sooji and mix well.  The dough must be moist and of a dropping consistency.   Transfer to a 9 inches x 4 inches rectangular loaf tin.  Scatter the nuts of your choice and chopped coriander leaves on top.  Drizzle the olive oil all over and bake in a preheated oven at 175 C for 20 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Remove from oven, cool , unmould, slice and enjoy plain or with your favourite curry.

NB: the tomato can be omitted.  My Mum never used it while making Uppuma.  

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Spring Onion Bread

Spring Onion Bread

 While browsing the internet I came across many versions of this bread and I liked the way it looked.  I was sure it would taste good and so many days later, since I happened to have a surplus of spring onions in my refrigerator I made this bread using my convection oven and the result was a bread that tasted like a crusty pizza.  Super yum.

For original recipe go to 

http://kirbiecravings.com/2014/12/chinese-sesame-bread-with-scallions.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+KirbieCravings+(Kirbie+Cravings)

I made a few changes.

The Recipe:

       2 1/2 cups bread flour; 1 tsp brown sugar;   1 tsp olive oil; 1 tsp sesame seed oil for oiling pan; 1 tsp salt; 1 cup warm water;     1 tsp instant yeast; 1 cup chopped spring onions;  4 tbsp white sesame seeds.

     Place the flour, salt, sugar, water, oil  and yeast in a large bowl.  Using the dough hook of your mixer combine ingredients until the dough comes together ( I used medium speed 3).   Lower speed to 2 and knead for 2 to 3 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic and one smooth bmass.  Grease a glass bowl and place the dough in it.  Cover with cling film and leave to rise for an hour until it doubles in size.  

     Roll out the dough into a rectangle on a floured surface.  Spread the spring onions on it and roll it up  and then coil it into a spiral.  Gently roll out into a large round.  Sprinkle both sides with sesame seeds and rest for about 30 minutes.  Oil and heat a non stick pan and cook the bread for 1 minute each side.  Transfer to an oiled pizza pan and bake in a preheated oven at 400F or 200 C for 10 minutes or until brown and crisp.  Cool and slice.

     This bread is so tasty, it can be eaten plain.

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Raisin Walnut Bread

My journey with baking bread continues and my guinea pigs are very pleased with the results.  Here is another recipe I made a while ago.  It barely lasted for a sitting.  So I made it again and yet again.  I am sure, you will too.  

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Red Tomato Bread

Red Tomato Bread

I have been madly baking bread and going through various sites and recipes ever since I learnt to use my bread maker.  It sat on the shelf for a long, long time until I plucked up the courage to unpack it, read the manual and install it in my kitchen.  The first loaf was a total disaster as I pressed all the wrong buttons.  I improved with practice, however and now all I do is measure the ingredients accurately, put it into the bread maker in the right order and relax or multi task while the bread maker does it's work and tap out the loaf when I hear the beep, beep beep.

NB:  The light loaf is a result of using fresh tomatoes whereas the bright red loaf came from tinned tomato puree.  Both tasted delicious though and it's up to you to choose what you want to use.

I used Tulsi leaves (Indian Basil) as I grow a few plants at home.  Basic Recipe from Bread Machine ( Now You're Cooking).  Thank you Sheela for the book.

The Recipe:

1 1/4 cups warm water; 1 tbsp olive oil; 1 tbsp chopped shallots; 1/2 tsp minced garlic; 2 tbsp chopped tulsi leaves;  4 tbsp tomato puree; 2 tsp brown sugar; 4 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour; 2 tsp instant yeast.

Place ingredients in the bread maker in the order listed.  Switch the machine on and press the required buttons.
Programme:  Basic

Size: Medium

Colour:  Medium

Relax and unwind and switch the machine off when the loaf is ready.  (  It will beep).  Take the loaf out and enjoy.

For those who do not have a bread machine:

Place the flour in a deep mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.  Knead for 20 minutes until smooth and elastic.  If you happen to own a cake mixer use the dough hooks to knead the mixture for 10 minutes.   Cover with cling film and keep in warm place to rise until double in size.  This takes about 1 hour or so.  Punch it down and knead again for 5 minutes.  Shape into a round loaf and place 

1. on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
2. With a sharp knife, cut a large "X" in top of loaf. Bake in a preheated oven at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.  Slice and serve with garlic butter, mixed vegetables and cheese or Roast Chicken.  

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Apricot Bread Pudding

An Old Favourite

This is

 An Old Favourite with a twist.  Instead of steaming or baking this bread pudding, I merely drenched it with an extra large Herbalife French Vanilla  Shake and left it to soak overnight in the refrigerator.  The result was stupendous and this is a dessert we have frequently because of it's taste, nutritional content and low calorie count.

The Recipe:

For The Shake:  500 ml low fat milk; 4 scoops (60 gms Herbalife French Vanilla Nutritional Mix; 30 gms almond powder/ meal; 1 tsp vanilla essence.  

Blend together for one minute and keep aside till required.

For The Bread Pudding: 8 slices, brown bread, buttered on one side only; 20 apricots.

Soak the apricots in warm water just enough to cover them, overnight.  Next day stone them and boil apricots in the same water till thick and soft.  Extract the kernels from the seed.  

Heat a large nonstick pan and toast brown bread on medium flame both sides till crisp and golden brown.  Layer in a glass dish.  Pour the shake over and leave to soak in the refrigerator.  When well soaked decorate with the apricots and kernels.  Drizzle the juices over.  It is so delicious, it leaves you wanting for more.

Family Trade Mark

Bread Mince

I drool whenever I think of this recipe.  The delicious smells wafting through the house and the scraping of the kitchen spoons against the pan filled me with anticipation of a wonderful meal cooked by my Mum or dad.  My Mum would always use this as a filling for mince patties for our birthday parties and other special ocassions and they had to be rationed out to the guests who greedily fell on them without exception.  To this day, there's no one who can cook like my Mum and whenever I make this recipe I think of long, long ago and the glorious birthday parties we had.

The Recipe:

1/2 kg mince; 2 onions, chopped; 2 spring onions, chopped; 3 flakes, garlic, minced; 1 inch ginger, minced; 2 green chillies, minced;  few coriander leaves, chopped; salt to taste; 2 tbsp oil for frying; a handful of green peas; 2 slices stale bread, crumbled; fried egg tofu - optional.

Wash and drain mince.  Heat oil and add chopped onion, spring onion, ginger, garlic, corriander leaves and minced chillies.  Stir fry on medium heat until onions are golden browm.  Add the mince and fry till brown.  Add peas and 1/4 cup water and cover and cook 5 minutes.  Add salt to taste and the crumbled bread.  The bread will soak up all the liquid.   Garnish with sliced tofu and serve hot with dhal and rice or chappathis.  This is a hot favourite and I love this recipe even today.  Enjoy.