Oven baked Muesli

It is not even October and we have started feeling the shivers. Since last week it has been steadily getting cooler, I guess it is because of the cloudy skies with the humidity form the sea or perhaps winter has just decided to pay us an early visit. The air is getting crisper and since we stay very close to the yellow sea and the nearest beach being only 5 minutes ride from my place we would not be doing justice if we did not visit the vast expanse of water and sand at least once a week. I fear our gap may widen more given the temperature dipping every second day.

It is so soothing to talk a walk in the white sandy beaches of Qingdao and see Rohan building his sand castle. His sand bucket is always ready and with a mere mention of the word beach, he is restless.

Last week we hoped to the beach after having a heavy breakfast and although weekend breakfast are always an elaborate affair for me but at times when you don’t feel like being tucked into your kitchen all morning, my oven baked muesli comes to my rescue, I really love the crisp and honey coated cereals baked and not to mention the goodness of oats.

Ever since I have seen this recipe from Ashwini of food-forthought, it has always featured prominent in my kitchen racks and the jar is continuously replenished ritually. We love to carry it when we travel and it helps us a lot. This time I made a small variation to Ashwini's recipe referring to Superfoodideas. It was the aromatic orange rind and fresh juice that rendered a subtle flavor to baked oats. Enriched with wheat germ, sesame and various dry fruits and nuts, I found it very filling and a very nutrious & healthy breakfast and an ideal way to kick start your day.

Here is the list of ingredients

2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup honey
1/3 fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon orange rind
½ cup shredded coconut
1/2 cups toasted wheat germ
¼ cup chopped dried apricot
½ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup sesame seeds
½ cup raisins/sultanas/ cranberries
¼ cup almonds

Method

Combine oats, coconut, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and almonds in a large bowl. Place honey, orange juice and rind in sauce pan over a medium -low heat. Sir and cook for 2 to3 minutes or until the honey has melted.

Remove and toss the honey mixture with oats. Preheat the oven and line a tray with a butter paper. Spread the mixture and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes at 180 ‘c .Remove and cool on tray. Add raisins, apricot and toasted wheat germ. Store in an air container for up to 2 weeks.

Serve it with yogurt and top it with honey or fresh fruits and pour yourself a large cup of steaming coffee to go with it.



Serve it with yogurt and top it with honey or fresh fruits and pour yourself a large cup of steaming coffee to go with it.

Chewy apricot and oat cookies

Gradually the mercury has been dipping and the evenings are getting longer crisper and mildly chilly in the morning and very pleasant too may I add as the day starts to unfold. It is time to dust our woollies that have been folded and tucked away in the chest with scattered aromatic moth balls. In no time winter will start screaming loud at our doors and it gets frightfully cold here with wind chill factor dropping the temperature to below freezing point. Residing just a few meters from the yellow sea, it is windy, moist and cold. I have always been longing to stay very close to a water body even though I originally come from the coastal state of Orissa, my current home to the edge of water is only a mere 300 meters & this is so much better than having to drive 40 Km to the beach back home.

Thankfully the view from our apartment is not obstructed by any high rise building and crystal clear sea beckons me every morning with bright sunshine penetrating our balcony. Life is getting better everyday meeting new people and exploring new things. When you move to a new place it always brings with it excitement and the unexpected. Any kind of information is a boon especially in a place where the medium of communication is Greek and Latin to me! Although this is my third year and by this time I should have picked up the local language to strike a decent conversation but am sorry to say that, I am still a novice and the many tones of the Chinese language still confuse me but all I can say is that I am the better communicator in my family of three.

My neighbors are kind and their body language and expression makes me feel comfortable and warm in my new home. Catching with up own folks over a lunch or a cup of tea does make my day. It is always great to catch up with people sailing in the same boat, sharing the same views and ideas. All I can say is it is adventurous or for a choice of a more politically correct word you can call it exciting!

Well coming back to my coveted place in my den, my pots, pan and oven have stopped oscillating and very well settled as have I. I have started my usual course of baking! With my pantry of overstocked dried apricots, I had no choice than to blend it with oats for a lovely and deliciously chewy cookie. With slight tweak of adding peanuts and crushed pistachios, these cookies are crunchy and nutritious.

Adapted from a lovely website Taste.

Ingredients

½ cup whole-wheat flour

½ cup plain flour

1 1 /2 cup rolled oats

1 cup chopped dried apricots

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 table spoon golden syrup

100 grams butter

1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Handful of nuts crushed of your choice

Method

Mix flour, oats, apricot, sugar, and nuts in a bowl. Place the golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and 1/4 cup (60ml) boiling water in a bowl. Stir until well combined. Set aside for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the butter.

Add the golden syrup mix to the above dry ingredients and mix it well. Set aside for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven at 160' C and line a tray with a non stick baking paper or sheet. Roll into 1 teaspoon sized ball and gently flatten it with a spatula. Sprinkle crushed pistachios (optional) and bake it for 15 to 18 minutes or until done. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When cooled, store in an airtight container.

Rice and Lentil cake - Poda pitta

Last week I was extremely tied settling up our new place, lucky enough to have nestled in a cozy apartment and that too only five minutes drive from my son’s school. I am getting used to the new environment and new surroundings. It is exciting and at times a bit daunting to search for new shops that would to cater to our simple daily needs of vegetable and fruits.

I am quite used to traveling and setting up at a new place very frequently so this wasn’t new for me. I am quite glad that my son has started liking his new school and is well settled.

Last week before we moved I baked this traditional cake from Orissa, “Poda” means brunt and “Pitta” refers to cake. Basically the ingredients are not the usual plain flours but rice and lentils. Surprisingly this divine cake had never caught my attention until recently when my mom mentioned about it. My curiosity rose and it was a must on my baking list.

This cake is a unique combination of fiery pepper blended with aromatic cardamoms and crushed subtle ginger. Since this cake is always part of our festivals and offered to god, so it is absolutely vegetarian (free of eggs too).

In Indian cooking recipes have traditionally been handed down from one generation to another and is always modified according to one’s taste and generation and so as such no accurate measurements were ever recorded. This indeed helps to fire the imagination of every creative cook.

I love contemporary baking since it has accurate measurement and the success rate is higher if one follows the instructions well. I was rather confused when my mom shared her recipe and only place was my life saver Google. I found this recipe very similar and exactly the place it was meant to be at the this website “Hare Krsna”.

Ingredients

1 cup split Urad dal
1 cup Rice
1 cup brown sugar/jaggery
1 cup grated fresh coconut
1 teaspoon black pepper crushed
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
1 inch ginger crushed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ghee (clarified butter)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup raisins
5 to 6 pitted chopped dates

Handful of nuts (cashews, almonds, and pistachios)

Method

Soak rice and urad dal over night. Grind them to a coarse paste and set aside for 2 to 3 hours. Sieve sugar, baking powder, cardamom powder, pepper, ginger and salt. Add them to above mix.

Add coconut, raisins, date, and nuts and mix well. Grease a baking pan (22cm) with ghee and pour the batter. Preheat the oven at 180’C and bake for 30 to 40 minutes till done.

Remove and let it cool down. Slice and serve.

Note – Traditionally dates are not used but I have used them to make the cake moist. You can substitute sweetened shredded coconut if fresh coconut is not available.
If you are using the whole urad dal then reduce the quantity by half

Lentils and Onion pokoras also known as "piyaji"

Last weekend we were occupied with house hunting and meeting Rohan’s new teachers at his school. We are looking for a new place to move in soon as possible and the only criteria was it should be closer to my son’s school. Although he enjoys the bus rides and is used to them since last year in Beijing but I thought if I could drop and pick him up it would be an ideal way to see him off.

But unfortunately we couldn’t find any place that suited my needs so tired and weary by lunch time I was exhausted and nothing else entered my mind except for having a delectable lunch. I was too lazy to even think of cooking. When we ladies decide not to light the kitchen, the restaurants come in great rescue and are a great boon to us at times when we call it day off and let our hair loose.

We headed straight to nice buffet lunch and it was superb! My hubby vowed that two wood apples resting for while in our fruit basket would be his dinner and I too seconded his view and for Rohan, an easy egg roll was enough to satisfy him as long as he had his animation characters flashing across the LCD screen.

This was Saturday’s story and Sunday was equally sane, nothing much, just the routine work of cleaning and gearing up for the week ahead. In the afternoon we just took a hop to a park very close to our apartment and it was relaxing and soothing. The pagoda is part of this park and is surrounded by a small lake and is ideal for boating and fishing.

By the time I glimpsed at my watch it was dinner time and something has to be prepared. I had some oversoaked channa dal, so this recipe just popped into my mind. It is very common to Oriya kitchen and is often part of evening tea. I love the taste of dal coarsely grinded and flavored with curry leaves, coriander, ginger and one of the most dominant of all ingredients is the onion (piyaja), that is how the humble bulb becomes what is called in my local dialect ”PIYAJI”.

The ingredients for the recipes

1 cup Channa dal soaked (5 to6 hours)
1 large onion chopped
1 inch ginger grated
Salt to taste
Few curry leaves
2to3 green / Red chilies chopped
2 tablespoon fresh coriander chopped
Oil for deep frying.

Grind the soaked channa dal with no water or use very little water if need to make a coarse paste. Add all the ingredients expect oil. Heat oil in a pan and make slightly flattened balls and deep fry them on a medium fire. Remove and pat them on an absorbent paper to remove excess oil.

Serve hot with coriander chutney.

Orange Cheese cake

I needed an excuse for utilizing my 8 ounce cream cheese packet that was staring back at me for a while. My neighbor’s mom was visiting her & as a good neighbor decency demanded me to at least have her over for some tea and I could not think of anything other than making my special cheese cake flavored with orange drizzle.

This is one of my keepsake recipes and is no fail cheese cake. I have been baking it since last seven years. I feel really bad for not being able to remember the book and author’s name. Since this recipe had appealed to me a lot on the first glimpse and I had spontaneously scribbled it down on some bits of paper. Glad that I had a made soft copy of the scrap of paper before it was crumbled and dumped.

The season for orange is still to dawn and I found the prices of mandarins a bit steep for my liking. I love the citrus aroma wafting the whole house while baking and also it renders a very subtle flavor. One thing I like about this recipe is that the basic cheese cake can be adapted to various flavors of ones choice.

Here is the list of ingredients for the base.

Blend 200grams Graham crackers or digestive biscuits and mix with 1/3 cup of butter. Grease the base of spring foam pan (22cm) and line it with a parchment paper. Prepare a base of the above mix and press it. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the filling
Shift
2/3 cup sugar
¼ cup plain flour
¼ teaspoon salt

And in a separate bowl whisk
3 eggs and
2 tablespoon of butter. Add
8 ounce of cream cheese at room temperature, mix very well until light and fluffy and then add 1 ½ teaspoon of orange zest and 2 table spoon of fresh orange juice. I had also used few drops of orange essence (optional).

Fold the flour mix and ½ cup of milk alternatively to the above batter. Whisk until well incorporated.

Preheat the oven at 180’C and place the rack on the baking tray filled with water. Bake the cake covered with a foil for 40 minutes. Remove and cool thoroughly. The steam makes the cake very moist.

Orange sauce

Boil 3 table spoon of sugar with ½ cup of water. Simmer till the sugar is dissolved and make a paste of 1 teaspoon corn flour with 1 table spoon water. Add this paste to the boiling syrup. Keep stirring on low fire till it gets to a saucy consistency. Remove from fire and add 1 teaspoon of butter, 2 tablespoon of orange juice, 1/2 teaspoon rind and some drops of orange color.

Cool and refrigerate it. This can be prepared earlier & stored.

Carefully remove the cooled cake and slice it. Drizzle sauce and serve.

It was delicious and I and my son ate our portion before we heard the knock on our door.


For citrus lovers, lemon is also a great substitute, Refer to my lemon cheese cake.

Dahi (yogurt) baigana (eggplant) and a treat!

Separation anxiety has already gripped me! Although it is still a week to go before my little prince resumes his normal chores. It is once again a new school, new teachers and new friends and new surroundings that is making him more enthusiastic to hop into the bus. Although this week has been little hectic for me but still I wanted to treat my little prince. This is my version of choc chip cookies made with a slight twist by replacing the choc chips with M&M’s and adding couple of teaspoon of cocoa powder.

Down memory lane when I started to shape up this space of mine I had always in my mind to showcase some delectable cuisines from Orissa. Even though my knowledge is limited to just a few recipes I constantly buzz my mom and mil to let me know the ways of cooking authentic Oriya recipe. Somehow I feel that I enjoy these recipes while I am holidaying in my state. It is great to relish the real authentic fare. I guess it is the soil, the water and the air that makes the vegetables & fruits and meat more yummier or just perhaps mom‘s special touch that renders the magic to the food. Since getting married to a food lover and living on my own I have tried making some of those nostalgic recipes now & then. I feel somehow I am getting close to that original taste & flavor but still have a long way to replicate the exact magic. This recipe of eggplant with yogurt is a very sought after side dish in any gatherings. I really relish the sliced and spiced eggplant dipped in the yogurt sauce.

It is a very cool dish and common to the Oriya kitchen. The reason I seldom cook is that the eggplants needs to deep fried, so I always look for some occasion to have this yummy dish. It is part of my menu list whenever we have guests at home. My friends have always loved this accompaniment since it goes very well with the heavier curries.

Ingredients

1 cup yogurt
2 long eggplants
1tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon chili powder
1teaspoon pancha putona
Curry leaves
Dry chillies
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
oil for deep frying

Method

Slice the eggplants lengthwise and marinate it with chili powder, salt and turmeric powder. Set aside for 10 minutes. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the eggplants. Remove and let it cool down.

Meanwhile whisk the yogurt and add salt, sugar and chili powder. Add the cooled eggplants to yogurt mix.

Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in pan, add pancha putona, red chilies and curry leaves. When they start to crack, pour the oil over the yogurt and mix well. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve.

This article was featured in Reuters.

Baked cinnamon doughnuts - Any one please!

Foodies are foodies inspiration, a few weeks ago our well known baker dear Deeba had a lovely post on doughnuts. That was instantly bookmarked and honestly wild horses were dragging me crazy to make them as soon possible.

When my Super food ideas (Aussie Food magazine) arrived, I was glued to it as usual digging out any recipe that could be churned out. On a fleeting glimpse my attention struck a chord with this lovely baked doughnut. What a coincidence!

Last weekend I woke up to a heavy downpour with not much option left than to stay indoors. There could not have been a better time than baking these cinnamon doughnuts. I was bit skeptical of the damp weather because the yeast may sink like a stone but having a right temp of liquid does help. The cookie cutter had vanished by the time I made up my mind. Searching it would be a futile attempt for I was certain that it would be somewhere in my Son’ toy chest. I had never used that one so on his request it had become a part of his play dough materials.

Well ideas have no boundaries I finally managed to pull out a toy that could help me to come out with this shape. His curiosity raised manifold and with my fingers crossed, I could see his smile broadening when I showed him this.

Here go the ingredients adapted from Superfoodideas August 2008 edition.

1 cup milk
2 ½ cups plain flour
30 grams butter
1 ½ teaspoon instant dry yeast
¼ cup caster sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg

Method.

Warm the milk, (the temp should be 110’F) and add butter and whisk it. Mix the flour, sugar, cinnamon and yeast. Make a well (hole) in the centre and then add the warm milk and egg to make a soft pliable dough (this is very important). Place the dough covered in a greased vessel. Set aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until it doubles in size.

Line a baking tray and punch the dough. Knead again to soften it. Gently roll the dough with the fist to a flat circle until it is 2.5cm in thickness. Using a cookie cutter (6.5 cm) cut the circle and then using small cutter (2.5cm) cut circle from the centre of each round.

Place the doughnut covered in the tray and set aside for 30 minutes or until it doubles. Preheat the oven to 200’C or 180’C (fan forced oven) and bake the doughnuts for 10 to 12 minutes.

Remove and cool on racks.

Coating
Sugar cinnamon - Mix icing sugar or castor sugar with cinnamon on a plate. Brush the doughnuts with butter and roll the doughnut on the mix so that it coats evenly. Dust the extra.

Glazed - Sift 1 cup of icing sugar and 1 teaspoon of water. Make a thick paste and add the color of your choice. Brush the doughnut with glazed icing and sprinkle 100s and 1000s.

Chocolate - Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Spread the melted chocolate on the doughnut and sprinkle desiccated coconut.

Check out some great varieties of coating on Deeba’s space .She has some mouthwatering coating with honey and sesame that sounds divine! and I also found out these gorgeous ones at Aparna’s space too. She has done it like a pro.


Note - The baked doughnuts are denser than the deep fried ones but they still are delectable.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes till they are soft and elastic.
Stretch the inner circle if they tend to shrink.

Verdict - I would prefer to have them deepfried and this is a must in my little prince’s next kid’s parties. In my opinion if this is the first time some one is keen to try, and then I would recommend to try few baked ones and some deep fried ones for a variety.