Basic Bread

When I was small, one of my favourite books was the Famous Five series. Often, in this book, there would be instances when the Five would go to farms and the 'wife of the farmer' would prepare freshly baked bread for them. The way the bread was described, I began to fancy baking my own bread. And then, as I grew big, and began following blogs, I read people's stories on how they prepared bread. According to them, it was super easy, and when the bread is ready in the oven, the whole house is filled with this smell that is incomparable. This inspired me to bake my own bread, and I got this recipe from Shilpa akka(aayisrecipes.com). The bread was ready in a jiffy, with very little hardwork(though you should wait for it to proof, and and you will find yourself getting restless). However, I have one complaint--my house was not filled with that smell. Though the bread smelt great, it did not act like a 'house freshener':D. Nevertheless, it is a simply great recipe that I have been using since quite a long time and it has never failed.

Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 and 3/4 cups water(approx)
1 tea spn honey
1/4 cup chopped olives/roughly ground flax seeds
2 tea spns active dry yeast
1/4 tea spn red chilli flakes
1 tea spn salt
2 tbl spn butter
For brushing:
1 tbl spn butter
Dried oregano or basil

Method:
Add salt and honey to luke warm water. Add yeast and leave it for 10mins to get active.

Add all other ingredients.Roll into 2 balls. Mix and leave it in a warm place till the dough doubles in volume (It took approx 1hr for me).

Now take the dough on a clean surface and knead dough for about 2-3mins. Shape it into desired size and keep on the baking tray.

Leave it for another 30mins till they proof again. With a knife, put a cut on the dough. Preheat the oven at 450F for 10mins.Bake the bread for about 15mins.

Take out and brush some butter on the bread. Sprinkle oregano on top.Bake again for about 15mins. Serve with olive oil and zaatar.

Baked chicken

A couple of days back, we had a small get together at home. Umma asked me as to what I would be preparing, I began to rack my bains for something different. I settled for oven baked chicken as I felt it would be healthy. The chicken baked beautifully, not too hard and not too soft, with a perfect blend of spiciness and tanginess. I didn't even get a chance to click pictures, so if anyone of you tries it out, you are welcome to send me the photos and I will upload them.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg chicken, cut into small pieces

1 tsp coriander seeds

3/4 tsp cumin seeds

6 cloves garlic(you can reduce the amount of garlic if you are using the larger variety)

1 small piece ginger

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp vinegar

1/4 cup yoghurt

2 tsp chilli powder

salt

ghee

potato wedges, onion rings, quartered tomatoes(optional)

Method:

Marinate chicken with salt and juice of 1 lemon. Keep it aside. Grind ginger, garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, cumin and corinader seeds to a smooth paste. Mix with curds, chilli powder and salt. Add the chicken and mix it well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Place the chicken pieces on a greased baking tray and bake for 10 minutes on moderate heat. Turn the chicken over and baste ghee over the chicken. If you wish, you can add veggies now. Bake on high heat until the chicken becomes charred brown(similar to tandoori chicken). Turn the chicken again and baste ghee. Bake until the chicken becomes brown and all the liquid evaporates. Serve hot.

Microwave chocolate cake

The first time I read about these cakes (about 1 year back) I was like "WOW! No more waiting for half an hour for your cake. Now I can have a hot steaming cake in 5 minutes, and that too all to myself." So I quickly went into the kitchen and whipped up all the ingredients in my mug and mirowaved it. You know what came out? A long cake with a texture close to rubber and taste- well the lesser said the better. What made me even more angry was Nada's *I told you not to try it. Now I will not eat it for you* look. About a week later, I saw another recipe of the cake. I felt it would come out good this time as it was from a blog I followed regularly and the people who had commented also said it was good. So I rushed to the kitchen and began preparing them. Alas! Yet again, I had to finish the whole cake myself. You would think that I had learnt my lesson by now. But no...when I recieved another recipe of a 5 minute cake in my inbox, I was just as much excited to try it out, as much I was the first time I had seen it. But I never got an opportunity to try it. I was always busy with one or the other work, until recently, when one evening, all the ladies had gone shopping, Noora and Naila were with the usthaad and I and Nada were babysitting Maahi. Nada, in her helpless tone, asked me to prepare something. When I announced that I would prepare these cakes, she was like "Please...no..anything but 5 minute cake". But I did not heed to her and prepared it anyway. And you know what, this time it was perfect. It was perfectly sweetened and the smell of uncooked flour was also not there. And I was glad the recipe yields 2 mugs of cake, as 1 wouldn't be enough.

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• 5 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp coffee powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp vamilla essence

Method:

• Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
• Add oil, milk, vanilla and egg. Mix well.
• Pour into 2 microowave safe mugs. It might cover only 1/3 of the mug, but don't worry, its going to rise.
• Microwave the mugs on medium for 1 minute. It will rise.
• Leave it for 10 seconds and then microwave for 30 secondson medium.
• Make sure not to overcook. The center mght look a little undercooked, but that's fine.
• Invert the mug onto a plate, or simply dig into your mug with a spoon.

Mango curry

When I was small, this was prepared annually. Every year, during the mango season, we'd get these small fibrous mangoes called "kaatu maanga" translated "wild mangoes" from India. This was one of my fav curries. Then after some time, we stopped bringing them from India, though I don't know why. Anyway, when Uppa came to Qatar last week, he brought these mangoes, and I was delighted. After so many years I got an oppurtnity to taste this again. Mmmmm...my mouth is watering.

Ingredients:
10 kaatu maanga/ wild mangoes
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 springs curry leaves
3-4 dried red chillies
2 green chillies, slit open
1/2 cube jaggery
1/2 cup coconut milk(optional)
salt
water

Method:
Peel the mangoes.

Soak the peel in 2 cups of water, changing the waer about 3-4 times, so that the peel becomes thin and you have about 6 cups of mango water. Keep the water aside and discard the peel.

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add curry leaves and both chillies. Fry for 1 minute.

Add the mango water, jaggery and salt. Add mangoes, one by one. If you wish to add coconut milk, add now. Heat the curry, till it boils vigorously. Switch off the flame and keep it covered for 2-3 minutes.

Pour the curry into individual bowls and add one mango into each of the bowls. You can serve it with rice, though I prefer to have it plain.