Good excuses.....

While I got my Internet connection resolved, I have been venturing to visit a few restaurants, test cooking here and there, including testing "Spicy Brinjal Tomato Curry" that Mahas made.     I am so pleased with the spices in that recipe that I even made my own concoction tonight with the cauliflower.... this and all others I have, yet, to find time to upload the photos and share my journal with my family and friends.     I also got the e-mail for the May Bake Along Challenge, too, so I have a lots of things to catch up with, and not to forget this is "May is Bike Month" here in California.   I need to ride 50 more miles to meet my goal.    It's really good to see a lots of different recipes from all around the world and finding new cooking methods and techniques to prepare the food.   A broccoli or cauliflower would remain as just that if it weren't for all the spices and cooking methods.    I recall throwing them away a couple of times in my life with the full intention of cooking them when I bought them, but only to find it not so attractive and motivating to cook them into a  same old dish.     So, Cook Away!  Have fun cooking with the family and friends!  

Back Online Again

If you have been posting comments and were wondering why there is no response, please accept my apologies.    I thought the AT&T U-Verse DSL connection was fixed over the weekend, but it totally went kaput the last few days.   I finally got it fixed by a good tech who knows what he is doing - Sanjesh!   Thanks, Sanjesh.    So, my modem thus far has not turned "Red blink blink" since he left... a good sign.   Hope the connection issue is now resolved... actually for the entire neighbors.
I will try to catch up with the posting as much as I can.
Thank you for your understanding.

Curried Lentils with Tofu

What kind of dishes can you make with all these ingredients that you see?     Well, quite a few, if you ask a professional chef.    Add a green French Lentils and some curry spices and voila - curried lentils with Tofu to go with the Naan I made.

 

 

I think this can be considered as a vegetarian dish?   Naan does have Greek Yogurt in it though.

Polly's First Naan

 

I love all kinds of different breads from different cultures.     When I go to Indian restaurant, I consume more breads - chapati, naan than the meat dishes.     This naan recipe is from one of the blogger's site that I tested.     Since I like mine puffier, I rolled it out to 1/4 inch thickness.   

So, the recipe I used is from this site:  http://tete-a-tete4food.blogspot.com/2012/03/naan-bread.html  by Miss C.       Now I remember why I didn't have the information in the beginning... because my printer ran out of inks, and I hand copied the recipe on a piece of scratch paper.    Luckily the printer managed to print the URL before it ran out of the ink and I found that page.    So, please visit the site for the recipe details.        Yummm.... Love it!

 Knead the dough well until gluten is formed.

 

 Should have rolled it out into much smoother dough, but alas!  at the last minute, I remembered that I forgot to add the oil ingredient into the dough.      When I added it in while rolling the dough out and folding and rolling again, .... well, this is as smooth as I can produce because I was not about to re-proof the dough, again.    (too impatient)

 Enjoy with Curried Lentils with Tofu

Polly's Harissa

Gathering the ingredients were bit challenging as far as the different types of chili peppers needed.      I wished I had found Fresno Chili Pepper and Guajillo Chili Pepper.     But normally, they are not found at the local markets.  I end up improvising and substituting.      It is quite aromatic and taste delicious in meat dishes.
Some of the ingredients I used are: fresh Jalapeno Chili Pepper, fresh Red Bell Pepper, Cayenne Pepper (home grown & dried), fresh Anaheim Chili Pepper.... perhaps, I should have used dried chili peppers instead of the fresh ones as they are more flavorful.      

 Love the food processing power of the NINJA four blade core.

Top it off in the jar with some Olive Oil and store in the refrigerator.

"Window Pane" - a well formed bread dough gluten

Some times ago, I posted about the kneading power of my Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer not living up to it's power and kind of non-functional "C" hook that it came with.    Since then, I have been kneading the dough manually.      Last year, while perusing one of the cookbook Culinaria France one of the picture caught my eyes.      It's a French bread baker holding up a large piece of dough right out of Kitchen Aid Profession mixer - kneaded and formed into a perfect "window pane".     That got me persistent to get the same result with my Artisan.     And here are the photo journal of it.     I hope you will get encouragement and have a great bread baking result.
Tip:  Use paddle attachment for 15 minutes to mix the flour mixture with water.    Water:Flour ratio per your recipe but the moisture content of every bag of flour varies with season the flour is manufactured and type of wheat, etc, so use some "common knowledge / grand-mother's tip / family secret" sense of "ear lobe" touch test.      Then, switch to "C" hook and knead until the dough forms into a ball and separate itself from the side of the mixing bowl.   Stop and pull out to test.     Depending on the dough's flour and water ratio, it will take anywhere from 30 min to 45 min for the window pane to form.    **Flour used:  All Purpose Flour

 Depending on the type of bread formula, the crumb textures will vary.      The general tip is that the well kneaded dough will have finer crumb textures.     Less kneaded, for example, Ciabbata, wet and less kneaded, will result in larger open pores.

Polly's Quick Banana Muffins

While I am on the roll with the banana, why not make another one.    It's time to go pick up my grand-children for fun vacation time together.     I made this quickly in the morning so I can drive down with them.      The recipe is very similar to the other banana bread recipe I posted.

6 Muffin cups and one Muffin Top baking pan
Ingredients:
1 stick butter - soft
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C  light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
1 C AP flour
heaping 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 firm banana  - may be with 5 dots on the peel, but no more than that.
Ceylon Cinnamon and sugar mixture - e.g. 1 tsp cinnamon to 1/3 C sugar

Procedures:
Beat butter and sugar until fluffy and pale.    Add vanilla paste and egg.    Beat well.
Shift flour and baking powder and salt 4 times.     Add to the butter mixture.
Separate  banana into chunks with fingers, then, add to the butter mixture and mix well.
Scoop the batter equally into muffin cups and Muffin tops pan.    Sprinkle the tops of a few muffins with sugar cinnamon.     For the grand children - without sugar cinnamon.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400'F or until the tester come out moist, but not wet.

(Pictures to follow a bit later.)

Polly's Chocolate Chip Cookies

After so many trying of chocolate chip cookies, it's time to decide on my own.
I think this recipe (my recipe) turned out the best for the type of cookie crispness and crumbs that I like the best.

Ingredients:
1 stick (1/4 lb) soft butter
2/3 C sugar
1/2 C light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
1-1/2 C Flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C+ Guittard Real Milk Chocolate Chips

Procedures:
Preheat oven to 350'F
On 2 baking sheets , place Silpats.
Shift Flour, baking powder and salt 4 times and set aside.
Beat butter till fluffy and pale with sugars. Add vanilla paste. Add egg and beat well.
Add flour mixture and Chips. If you like more chips than 1/2 Cup, please don't be shy and add some more. Mix well just enough so there is no signs of unmixed flour showing in the batter (as it usually is the case when chocolate chip and flour are mixed in together instead of mixing the flour first, then, mix in the chips. But the idea here is mix less to avoid gluten development.)

(Squash down with the palm of your hand)

Use any size cookie scoop of your desire choice - 1 TB or 2 TB size and place on Silpat to bake.     Bake for 8 min >> when you see 1 to 2 mm of sign of brown edge, the cookie is done.       *Depending on individual oven power. I noticed on the regular Silpat, it bakes in 8 min.     In Martha Stewart's baking pad, it took 10 min to brown. I am not sure why the difference, except the Silpat is brownish tan colored pad and the Martha Stewart's baking pad is light parsley green.
Do not bake to wait for the top of the cookies to brown << that's over baked - for this particular recipe I created.
Remove from the oven and cool 2 - 3 minutes before transferring to the cooling rack.  
*The idea is to let the butter and sugar to solidify so the cookies would hold its form or your cookies would crack/crumble.

   Two different Silicone baking mats, two different results.
Tip:   Take out of the oven as soon as you see 2 mm of brownings at the edge <<< but this depends all on your oven size, manufacturer, and heating BTU.    (My oven is extra large GE gas oven.)