Mediterranean cous cous salad

Its the most delightful weather here, with winds, rains and the earthy scent of wet soil and blooming flowers. Most pleasant to the eye and to the soul. It makes me want to put the kettle on, bake scones and muffins, sit down with a Brontë, and harp about the weather saying 'how delightful' with a stiff upper lip and a crisp English accent!

 

Most of my lunches this week have been salads and soups, experimenting with fresh produce that I buy in the local market and gourmet ingredients that I indulge in every once in a while. Cous cous is a very versatile ingredient. It is not easily available in India yet, but it sure is a nice change for the palate. Best of all, it tastes wonderful with raw vegetables and fresh herbs. 

This salad was a very spontaneous one. I just seemed to have everything Mediterranean at home and wanted to go light on lunch. So, I did a salad version of cous cous with some simple Indian raita. Just like the weather outside, it was most pleasant to the eye and to the soul.

Ingredients

Cous cous

200g cous cous, cooked with 400 ml of water

Red and yellow bell peppers, chopped

Fresh mint, chopped

Fresh coriander, chopped

Cherry tomatoes, halved

Boiled and drained chick peas

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of cumin powder

Juice and rind of 1 lime

20 g feta cheese, cubed

Raita

Plain yogurt/curd

Pinch of red chilly powder

Pinch of cumin powder

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

1 chopped green chilly

Fresh coriander to garnish

Method

Place the cous cous in a non-stick pan and add boiling hot water to it. Cover it and set it aside for 15 minutes. The cous cous should have absorbed all the water and should have become plump and cooked.

For the raita, beat the curd in a mixing bowl with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and chill till serving time.

Place the cous cous with all the salad  ingredients in a large mixing bowl (except the feta). Mix gently with the tips of your fingers. Spread the feta cubes on top of the salad and set aside. Your salad is now ready.

Caterpillar bread with chicken sausage & parsley

Its been a beautiful week, full of soft drizzles, maddening rains, gentle breeze and blooming flowers. In the spirit of mother nature, I was inspired to innovate and be creative with shaping my breads. One gets bored of the mundane buns and loaves. Here, I have attempted to create a cute little caterpillar with the bread dough. It was not only fun shaping it but also waiting for it to rise and then jump around in ecstasy as it browned and glowed in the oven. You can use any filling, really. I have used chicken sausages with some fresh parsley, onions and tomatoes.

A note of caution here. You will see that this bread, unlike many others, has just one rise for the yeast. The second rise is just for about 10 minutes, any longer and the caterpillar will lose its shape. So, do not wait for the dough to double or triple; 10 minutes on the stop watch and straight into a preheated oven.

The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of cream cheese, but if you prefer it, you could use 1/2 cup butter and avoid the cream cheese. The cream cheese adds a golden crust and lightness that butter cannot compensate for, but cream cheese is a gourmet product in India and not too easy on the pocket, so use butter if that works out better for you. Also, cream cheese is available in packages of 250 grams or 600 grams and has a relatively short shelf life (just about 2 weeks when sealed with cling wrap) even in the refrigerator. So, if you are buying cream cheese, keep at least 3 recipes ready to explore on your 2-week ticking time. You will find several here, under tags bread, biscuit, crackers, cheese cake etc.

Ingredients
Dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast or 50 g fresh yeast
1 egg
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup mascarporne cream cheese (can use butter instead)
1/4 to 1/2 cup lukewarm milk

Filling
4-5 garlic cloves chopped fine
1 green chilly, deeseded and chopped fine
1 medium red onion, chopped fine
2 medium tomatoes, chopped fine
2 sprigs of fresh flat leaf parsley
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp salt (sausages are already salted)
1/2 tsp red chilly paste
A dollop of butter (you can choose the size of the dollop)

Method
Dough and first rise
Place all the ingredients in a wide bowl and knead to get a soft, firm dough. Place the dough in a warm place, covered with a wet cloth such that the cloth does not touch the surface of the dough. Allow the dough to rise to one and half times its size, approximately one hour.

Filling
In the meantime, make the filling. Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan. Add the garlic, green chilies and onions. Saute till golden brown. Add the chopped tomatoes and the fresh parsley. Season with salt and red chilly powder. Add some red chilly paste (more if you like heat). Allow the tomatoes to simmer and cook through. Add a small dollop of butter along with the sliced sausages. Allow to simmer for 5-8 minutes. Cover and set aside. You can also add some feta cheese for added flavour and yumminess.

Shaping and second rise
I forgot to take pictures while I was actually shaping the dough, so you have to manage with my attempt at good prose and these silly pictures taken with a piece of paper. I will try and update with real pictures soon.

Place the dough on a generously floured work top. Roll out the dough in a flat rectangle, keeping the thickness even (about 2 mm). With your knife mark (not cut) three points on the short side of the dough that divide it into 3 equal parts: 3a, 3b and 3c. Now, score 3c with 8-10 horizontal cuts making 8-10 horizontal strips (these will form the caterpillar strips). Place the filling at the junction of 3a and 3b and start rolling from the long side of 3a. Roll till you reach 3c. Now, use some egg wash and brush the surface of the rolled dough. Slowly and neatly, place one strip after the other on the rolled dough. Close off the two caterpillar ends by pinching them with your fingers, and turn the roll into a half-circle with the strips pointing outwards (like sun rays). Place two cloves to make the caterpillar eyes. Transfer the roll very gently to a greased baking tray and allow to rise in a warn place, covered, for 10 minutes. Brush with some egg wash and set aside to bake.

Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes or until gorgeously brown.

Slice and enjoy warm with some soup or as an evening snack.

Wholesome salad with feta and walnuts

Any salad goes from being average to incredible with these two additions: feta and garlic. Feta cheese is my most favourite cooking/baking ingredient because it turns something routine into something exotic, something edible into something finger-lickin good. Its my weekly indulgence (when I can get my hands on it; we know its not easy to find in small Indian towns/cities) and I just love the way it sticks to my fingers when I'm working with it, so I have the perverse pleasure of licking it off my hands! 

And garlic, well, its the next best thing. If you follow my recipes, you know that I use garlic generously. It could be raw, cooked, roasted, pickled or caramelised, as in this case. For caramelised garlic, see my post and recipe here.

I enjoy making and eating salads (just as much as I enjoy eating pizzas and fried chicken, so no brownie points there)! And if you know me (or have seen me), you can tell that I definitely don't live on soups and salads, but I most definitely appreciate a soup-and-salad day in winters and on rainy days. In our own way, Indian homes always have some version of a salad on the everyday menu- whether it is in a raita form or a simple homely salad with Indian spices. However, introducing new flavours with salads always lends an element of surprise to the usual vegetables and helps make the experience an enjoyable one. Here, I have to borrow the tagline from 'Maggi'; "taste bhi, health bhi" although I would not say that Maggi lives up to its tagline. My salads, however, do.

Ingredients

1 red onion, cubed

1 large tomato, cubed/50 g cherry tomatoes, halved

1 small cucumber, half mooned with peel

1 red bell pepper, cubed

4-5 black olives, pitted and sliced

8-10 fresh basil leaves

3-4 walnuts, roughly broken

1 tsp roaseted and powdered flax seed

6-10 black raisins/sultanas

50 g feta cheese, cubed

1 tsp white wine vinegar (for a change, use Worcestershire sauce)

3-4 caramelised garlic cloves 

A sprinkling of dried chives

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Toss all ingredients together and enjoy a complete, wholesome, delightful meal.

Bread rolls with tomato, basil, feta and caramelised garlic

Greek salad is one of my favourite salads and this bread is inspired truly and completely from this salad. Cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, fresh basil and garlic, all common and signature ingredients of a classic Greek salad. The good bit about these rolls is the absence of any fat to soften the dough; the only fat content is the small amount of olive oil and its hardly anything. The show stopper ingredient in these simple, earthy rolls is the caramelised garlic. I have a separate blog entry for this recipe and strongly recommend that you try it at least once. For garlic devourers, this is a must-have.

The bread speaks for itself: soft, moist and high on the flavour quotient. Enjoy baking it and eating it!

Portions: Makes 18-20 rolls
Ingredients
Dough
1.5 tsp of instant dry yeast
1.5 to 2 cups of lukewarm water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups flour
1/4 tsp dried oregano
15 g freshly grated cheddar cheese
 
Filling
125 g  cherry tomatoes or 3 large tomatoes, cubed
1 pod garlic (caramelised); for recipe and details see here
100 g feta cheese, cubed
bundle of fresh basil leaves

Method

First rise

Place the flour, oil, salt, grated cheese, dried oregano and yeast in a bowl. Add lukewarm water and knead till you get a soft dough. Place it in a bowl, covered with a wet cloth such that the cloth does not touch the surface of the dough. Place in a warm place for one hour and allow the dough to double in size. 

Filling and second rise

Now the dough is raised and ready to be rolled. Roll the dough into a flat rectangle about 5 mm thick. Place the tomatoes along with the feta and caramelised garlic cloves, on the flattened dough. Now, place the fresh basil leaves on top of the tomatoes. Fold the dough, placing one short side inside till midway. Now fold the other short side slightly beyond midway such that there is a small overlap between the two folds. Make sure the filling is secure within the roll, without any cracks or tear. Cut thick slices from the roll, about 2.5 cm thick. Place them on a greased baking tray and cover with a clean, wet kitchen towel; allow them to rise for about 30-45 minutes. Place in a preheated oven at 225 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Once they are out of the over, brush them with some olive oil (use the oil floating on top of the caramelised garlic sauce).

Serve warm with coffee or a soup and salad. 

Breakfast buns with garlic, thyme and cheddar

Breakfast buns are versatile in so many ways. They can be eaten as a snack, as a meal, as a complement to soups, salads, casseroles or just with a warm cup of hot chocolate. They are incredibly soft and store well in the refrigerator for about a week. The fillings can vary to match your palate and your mood. They are definitely softer and moister than the ones you would buy at your local bakery. So, it is no surprise that fresh bread fills the senses and satisfies the soul like nothing else. Oven-fresh, warm and moreish, these breakfast buns make you want to have just one more. Or maybe two.

Portions: Makes 8-9 large buns

Ingredients

450 g all purpose flour
1 cup lukewarm milk
2 tsp sugar
75 g butter (cubed, room temp)
1 tsp salt
 2 tsp instant dry yeast
1 egg (room temp)
50 g grated cheddar cheese

1 pod roasted garlic (see how to make here)

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Grated lemon zest

Dried onion seeds (kalonji) for decoration 

Method

First rise

Heat the milk till it is lukewarm. Add the butter to the milk and allow the butter to slowly melt. Add the yeast to this mixture and set aside. Whisk one egg lightly. Place one thirds of the flour, sugar, salt and eggs in a bowl. Add the milk mixture. Knead slowly, add the rest of the flour little by little. Knead for about 5 minutes until you get a smooth dough. The dough is ready when it is firm and leaves the sides of the bowl. The dough must be sticky and loose. Allow the dough to rest, covered with a wet cloth (such that the cloth does not touch the surface of the dough), in a warm place. The first rise should take anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the type/potency of the yeast. The dough should double in size.

Stuffing and second rise

After the first rise, place the dough on a floured surface and divide it into 8 or nine equal sized pieces (you could use a weighing scale for precision). Take a piece of dough and flatted it (not too much or else you will lose the airiness). Place the roasted garlic, some thyme and some cheddar in the middle and fold add sides against the middle, securing the filling gently in the center. Place it on a greased baking tray with the folded side down. Proceed similarly with the rest of the dough. Brush the tops of the buns with some melted butter and grate some lemon zest onto the surface. Sprinkle some dried onion seeds on the buns and keep them covered in a warm place for the second rise (approximately 30 minutes or until doubled).

Bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Once they are out of the oven, brush them with some olive oil to keep them soft and moist, and also to add some shine to the crust.