Khaliat Nahal (Honeycomb buns/ Beehive Buns)

I loved these beehive like looking buns....Well I loved the taste tooo....I even went ahead and used the savoury version without filling for a grand Pav Bhaji breakfast this morning....

I was happy my buns came out fine....Since my oven is a small one I had only a small honey comb shaped Khalait Nahal .....Well like how Aparna's blog says Khaliat Nahal means bee hive in arabic as suggested by its appearance.They are baked close to each other in a round pan where they form a honeycomb like pattern.They are usually made sweet with slightly sweetened dough filled with cream cheese.After they are baked they are covered with sugar syrup/ glaze which is typical of many Middle eastern confectionery.



This bread is served for Iftar and its shape lends itself to be torn apart easily to serve oneself.Though they are made sweet usually they can also be made with savoury fillings without glaze....
This recipe makes 18 small buns or you can halve the recipe and make 9-10 buns in a6''or7'' round pan.



Source:My diverse kitchen

Ingredients

Milk-1 cup lukewarm

Instant yeast-11/2 tsp

Sugar-1 tsp

All purpose flour-2 1/2 cups

Sugar-3 tbsp(for sweet bread)

Salt-3/4-1 tsp (for savoury bread)1/4 tsp(sweet bread)

Butter-40 gms

Milk-2 tbsp

White sesame seeds-2 tbsp

For filling

1 cup of filling (approximately) of your choice, either sweet or savoury

Savoury - cream cheese OR crumbled feta cheese OR crumbled paneer/ cottage cheese

Sweet - cream cheese (traditional filling), or any other filing of your choice like chocolate,   dried fruit like dates, apricots or raisins, chopped nuts, chopped fruit , sweetened coconut filling, etc.  

Sugar syrup/glaze

Sugar-3/4 cup

Water-1 cup

Saffron-one pinch

Honey-1 tbsp

Lemon-1 tsp

Method


Make sure your melted butter has cooled down a bit before using it. Put 2 cups of the flour, salt,sugar (if making the sweet bread only) and melted butter in the bowl of your processor. Run a couple of times to mix well.

Combine the milk, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and keep for 5 minutes. Add this to the processor bowl and knead until you have a smooth and elastic dough which is not sticky. Add as much of the remaining 1/2 cup of flour as you /need to get this consistency of bread dough. 


Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning it to coat completely with the oil. Cover and let it rise till double in volume, for about an hour.

Turn the dough out onto your work surface. You won’t really need to flour it as the dough is quite manageable as it is. Cut it into 2 halves. With your palms, roll out each half a “rope”  about 9” long. Cut each rope into 1” pieces so you have a total of 18 pieces.

Take each piece and flatten it out a little and place half a teaspoon of filling in the centre. Pull up the sides and wrap the dough around the filling, pinching it closed at the top. Smoothen it into around ball. Place this in a well-greased round 9” cake tin. Repeat with the remaining 17 pieces and the filling. Arrange the filled balls of dough in concentric circles, filling the base of the cake tin.

Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for about 30 to 40 minutes. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle the sesame seeds over this. Don’t use the sesame seeds for sweet bread, only for the savoury one. Bake the buns at 180C (350F) for about 25 minutes, until they’re done and a nice golden brown on top.
Let them cool in the tin for about 5 minutes and then on a wire rack.

If you’re making the sweet version, make the sugar syrup/ glaze during the first rise of the dough. For this put the sugar, water and saffron in a small pan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes until it starts thickening a bit. Take it off the heat and add the honey and the lime/ lemon juice. Mix well and let it cool. Keep aside till needed

When the sweet buns come out of the oven, pour the syrup all over the top of the “Honeycomb”.  The bread should be hot and the syrup/ glaze should be cool. If you want your Honeycomb Buns to be less sweet, just brush the syrup/ glaze over the top.Let it sit for a while for the syrup/ glaze to set a bit. Serve them warm with tea/ coffee.

Pots De Creme

 I saw  a flurry of posts for Pots de crème this summer….I loved the creamy creamy look these little pots of joy carried…So I made a mental note that I will be making them..

My sonny Aniket now goes to play school .So I get enough time to explore my cooking fantasies ….One such afternoon I made pots de crème . They came out really well...When he came back from school I promptly gave him some….he had his bowlful...full....scraped clean..

But more than him my mom  loved her bowl of Pots de crème…..my mother is very frank when it comes to my cooking which is why I always ask her for her unbiased opinion….and this time I loved to hear it from her…..she commented ‘’Could u make me more?''

From: Joy of Baking

Ingredients

Egg-1(50 gms)

Egg yolk-2(35 gms each) room temperature

Granulated sugar-50 gms/1/4 cup

Vanilla extract-½ tsp

Salt a pinch

Heavy cream /heavy whipping cream (30-40 butter fat content)- 120 ml/1/2 cup

Milk-1/2 cup

Cooking chocholate-60 gms

Instant coffee/expresso powder-1/2 tsp(optional)

Method

Beat eggs,yolks,sugar,vanilla extract,salt till light and fluffy for 1-2 minutes.

In a saucepan add cream,milk,chocholate,coffee powder .Heat and stir with a spatula .Let it simmer  till it bubbles  around edges ,at medium heat.

Gradually add the hot cream milk mix to egg mix while whisking it constantly so that eggs do not curdle.

Pour the mix into a saucepan again and heat it till in low heat stirring constant (less than a minute- so that mix  bakes faster).

Drain the mix and pour into ceramic bowls or ramekins.

Put them into a tray  and pour boiling water in the tray halfway up  sides of tray.(water bath).

Cover with aluminium foil with holes.

Put in the oven 30-40 min at 150 C till  set but they are  wobbly.

Take them out of water bath and cover them with plastic wrap after they cool for 1 hr.Chill overnight or for minimum 6hrs.(You can chill it for 5 days maximum) .

Serve cold. 

Peas and Carrot Rice

This is  an easy PEASy recipe .A tasty quick fix .Something you could  make when you  don’t want to go through the long process of making a biriyani but u still w ant to be enamoured by the  delight of flavoured rice .Just boil the peas and chop the carrots add the garam masala and spices and there you are ready with some flavoured colourful good looking rice.

Well I had frozen peas in my freezer and I wanted to make something with it. So I decided to welcome Aniket with the carrot peas rice when he came back from playschool. Aniket loves carrots so he would eat the carrots first when I fed him his afternoon meal .Then he meticulously picked out the peas and ate it,last came the rice.....

As for me what more do I want…..flavoured  rice with a favourite salad….yummy lunch isn’t  it? I loved it…..

From:You Too can Cook

Ingredients

Basmathi-1 ½ cups

Water-21/2 cups

Onions-1 sliced long

Carrots-2 chopped into cubes

Peas-1/2 cup

Green chilli-1

Star anise - 1 

Cinnamon stick - 1 inch long stick  

Bay leaf - 1 

Peppercorns - 1/4 spoon (Optional) 

Cumin seeds - 1/4 spoon 

Fennel seeds - 1/4 spoon 

Salt - As per taste 

Ghee /Dalda- 4 to 5 spoons 

Method

Par boil the chopped carrots.

Boil water and add frozen peas .Cook till peas is soft.

Soak rice for 15 minutes and wash well(3 times)

Take dalda or ghee/clarified butter and sauté fennel seeds, cumin seeds ,peppercorns, bay leaf, star anise, cinnamon sticks.

Add onions sliced. Saute till translucent.

Add greenchilli, peas and carrot chopped.

Add rice and fry.

Add water and close lid of pressure cooker without weight.

Cook in high flame till steam comes

Lower flame and cook for a minute or two

Switch off gas,put on weight  and allow to cool for 10 minutes

Use a fork to mix the rice after opening the pressure cooker.

Serve hot.

Malai Kulfi......

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The best Kulfi I ever tasted was from the little Kulfi shop outside my college. One Kulfi or may be two to beat the heat did wonders….As soon as we would get out of the college we would walk up to the already overcrowded shop for The Kulfi of the day. When we would be waiting for our bus we would still be gulping down the kulfis.

One day we bunked a boring lecture for a surprise kulfi party…..a feast of 2 or 3 kulfis per person….ummm sweet memories…..Sometimes we would sit in college garden chit chatting…our mouths constantly chattering only taking a break to bite the melting kulfi in our hands….. Whatever the occasion whether it my friend topping the class, or a birthday or the college day we would certainly treat ourselves with a Kulfi……

When I first made kulfi at home it was a big mess….the kulfi dint hold its shape and watered down soon…So I used some cornflour the next time they were made and my kulfis came out just fine…..

Ingredients

Boiled milk-11/2 cups

Milk powder-1 cup

Saffron-few strands

Cornflour-11/2 tbsp

Sugar-4 tbsp or more

Cardamom-a pinch

Amul cream-11/2 cup

Almonds-1 cup

Method

Take cornflour and dilute it with water (3 tbsp or more)and keep aside.

Heat  milk. When bubbles come in the sides add milk powder, saffron strands, sugar cardamom. Mix.

Add corn flour and boil milk mixture.

Once milk boils and bubbles up switch off gas and whisk. While mixture is still hot add cream and stir . Add badam also and stir.

Cool to room temperature and pour in moulds. Refrigerate for 7-8 hours or overnight.

Insert ice-cream sticks or toothpicks  and  gently tap the  kulfi moulds on a plate, after 5 minutes of taking the moulds out of the refrigerator. You can also use a knife to detach the kulfi from its mould.

Serve cold.

Clafoutis

I got some plums from the fruit shop just like that. Actually I thought Aniket my son would love them. But they turned out to be slightly sour, maybe not ripe as yet. He actually loved the big juicy plums we used to get him when we visited London last year. So I waited with patience …till they ripened. When they finally did my son Aniket dint like them all that much. I would carefully remove the seed and give him a plateful of plums…..he would eat one  then squish the rest of them into a pulpy mass of fruit sauce…..A two year old toddlers easy  messy tip  to make plum sauce ?Hump….I would go crazy….not to mention about the cleaning up……

So I decided to put my plums to good use….I had seen the recipe for Gary Rhodes Cherry Clafoutis…

Why not substitute the cherry for plums? A few minutes on the net revealed there were innumerable recipes for plum clafoutis too….So my plums went into the baking dish and the batter was ready in minutes .I then spread the batter over my sugar coated plums and send them to bake in my oven and soon I was ready with a batch of warm plum scented clafoutis…

This time Aniket changed his stance. I had put him to sleep just before I started making the clafoutis and he got up just in time to see The bowl of yummy dessert I had baked for him in such a short time….I topped up the bowl with a generous scoop of vanilla whipped cream…. he was quite pleased with the dessert….he asked for more…. I took a large spoonful of the lovely dessert loaded with the sweetness  of plums and the  richness of cream for him once again… this time un accompanied by his usual squish squash session.

So what is a clafouti?  It is a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter… quotes the Wikipedia …Well something in between a cake and custard as I would put it.  

          

      When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is properly called    a flaugnarde.                                                                                                                              Variations  are red cherries, plums,prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries.  The clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm …………You can serve it with crème fraiche or even vanilla ice-cream. I served my clafouti with a big dollop of vanilla whipped cream… and I must say it was bowl full of absolute delight.

 Ingredients

 For the Clafoutis

Eggs- 2

Caster  sugar-75 gms plus extra for dusting and coating plums

Double cream or crème fraiche-100 ml

Milk-100 ml

Butter -1 tbsp plus extra for greasing

Granulated sugar-1 tbsp

Plums deseeded-15 nos

For Vanilla whipped cream

Double cream-150 ml

Castor sugar-25 gm

Vanilla essence- A little

Method

For  Clafoutis

Deseed the plums.In a non-stick pan take 1 tbsp of butter and let it melt.

When the butter bubbles add the plums and cook until the plums are softened and coated with butter for about 2 minutes.

Spread one tablespoon of granulated sugar (or more) over the plums and cook until sugar turns into a syrup and coats the plums.

Whisk the eggs and sugar. Sift in the flour and whisk well.

Stir in the milk and cream and leave to rest for 10 minutes

Butter a baking dish and sprinkle with sugar to coat. Scatter the cherries in the dish and pour the batter over it.

Preheat oven to 180C/350 F/Gas 4.Bake for 20-25 minutes till batter is firm to touch and knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. If the centre is soft bake for 5 minutes more

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For Vanilla whipped cream

Whisk together the cream, sugar and vanilla essence to soft peaks for the vanilla whipped cream

Serve the clafoutis warm with a large dollop of vanilla whipped cream.

Corn and Capsicum Kebabs

I love anything fried…I indulge myself in tikkis and kebabs and eat 3-4 in one go….recklessly…

I am always in search of new recipes for kebabs/tikkis and make sure I make them if I find one….The corn and capsicum tikkis was one experiment among many……

So one more starter to the list…..well a nice one too….capsicum and corn go well together by colour and by taste…the sweetness of corn kernels supplemented by spice of green chillies make the dish a good appetizer.

Well I shallow  fried the kebabs but you can fry them too….which can be kind of risky as the kebabs may break away while frying….here is the recipe for those lovely looking kebabs…

Ingredients

Corn kernels-2 cups

Salt to taste(2 tsp)

Capsicum-4 tbsp chopped into small pieces

Green chilli-3 chopped

Rice flour/corn flour-2 tbsp. or more

Method

Coarsely grind corn kernels

Add salt, capsicum, green chilli, flour and mix.

Make into balls and fry or shallow fry.

Note

You may add red chilli powder and coriander leaves to above

Lemon and Honey Cauliflower

I liked the taste of honey chilli cauliflower I ate last time. We had visited a neabry mall and bought some takeaway dinner which consisted of crunchy ,sweet and  slightly spicy honey chilli cauliflower fritters….and of course...my usual paneer butter masala with chapathis.

 I had about half of a big cauliflower I had bought when I made biriyani the other day. I was eager to recreate the taste of the honey chilli Gobi fritters I had bought.

My travel through the net landed me in a recipe that seemed to be somewhere close to the fritters I mentioned above. Something called lemony, chilli, honey cauliflower. A pretty long name….Well what turned out of the recipe dint taste like the cauliflower I bought from outside but it produced a totally different type of cauliflower dish. And I loved that too.

Sprinkled with sesame seeds and both spicy and sweet at the same time this cauliflower preparation goes well with chapathis,noodles or fried rice…..want to try it out?

Ingredients

For the batter

Cauliflower-1 small cut into florets

All purpose flour-3 tbsp

Cornflour-1 tbsp

Salt to taste

For the sauce

Garlic-1 tbsp

Red chilli sauce/red chilli paste-1 tbsp

Green chilli sauce-1 tbsp

Oil-2 tbsp

Soya sauce-1 tbsp

Honey-3 tbsp

Lemon juice-2 tbsp

Vinegar-1/4 tsp

Roasted sesame seeds-1 tbsp

Spring onion greens-2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method

For the fritters

Mix the ingredients all- purpose flour, cornflour, salt. Add water and mix. Marinate the cauliflower after par boiling it.

Take oil in a thick bottomed pan and fry the cauliflower at medium flame .

For the sauce

Take oil and fry the garlic .

Add red chilli sauce, green chilli sauce

Reduce flame add lime juice, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and honey

Mix in the cauliflower fritters and stir fry.

Garnish with roasted sesame and spring onion greens and serve hot.