Dal Parantha

When we were younger, we used to visit my mom’s side of the family in India almost every summer vacation. I remember those days; those hot humid months were so much fun, with so many memories to cherish! I’ll never forget running outside to pick up drying clothes as soon as the rains hit(!), getting hot samosa and jalebi from the local vendor (yum!), and cycling all over town with friends while our parents slept during their afternoon naps! It was such an innocent time.

In between our childhood antics and all the local shopping my mom and aunts wanted to do, there were so many treats for my brother and I to enjoy. One of them was my grandmother’s square shaped paranthas. Paranthas are a layered flatbread made from wheat flour. They can be made ‘plain’ with just salt, and red chili, or ‘stuffed’ with a wide variety of sweet or savory items.

I’ve eaten (and loved) paranthas my entire life, but they’ve generally been round or triangular in shape. And yet, I’ve always thought the square shape my grandmother made was such a simple way of showing love for the person eating it. A couple Saturdays ago, I suddenly remembered my grandmother’s secret and decided to make some square paranthas for my mom and dad for lunch. While trying to figure out what to stuff the paranthas with, I remembered there was some masoor dal (yellow lentils) from the previous night’s dinner and decided to use that. If you don’t have any on hand, feel free to substitute any other cooked lentils you have, or omit it from the recipe below and just enjoy an onion parantha (square of course). Just keep this recipe handy for the next time you have left over lentils from a previous meal. (Or make yourself some dal specifically for these paranthas. There are many recipes you can find online on other food blogs, or Google.)

Here’s the recipe and steps I followed to make my dal paranthas. If the finger licking and lack of talking my mom and dad did while eating them is any indication, your guests will thank you for a delicious meal. Enjoy your paranthas with yogurt, pickle, or any other vegetables you’ve cooked up! And although you can make any shape you want, you may find a little bit of heart is cooked up in the square shape these turn out.

Dal Parantha

Ingredients:
4 cups wheat flour
1 cup cooked masoor dal (yellow lentils)
½ cup chopped red onion
1 to 2 cups water
salt
red chili powder
oil
extra wheat flour to coat paranthas while preparing

Method:
Place wheat flour in a large deep mixing bowl.
Sprinkle the chopped onion over the flour and add the dal.
Knead dough to incorporate the ingredients until combined.
Now slowly begin to add the water a little at a time while continuing to knead the flour. Keep adding water and kneading until your flour has formed a soft dough. It will be rough looking at this time.
Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, and then knead again for approx. 2 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth. (You may want to wet your hands during this kneading to add a little more moisture to the dough and prevent it from sticking to you.)

Once the dough has been formed, take a portion about the size of 1.5 golf balls and form it into a round.
Dip this round in extra wheat flour and roll it out into a flat disk about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. (Dip the round in wheat flour while rolling anytime you feel it is sticking to the surface you’re rolling it out on.)
Coat the disk with a teaspoon of oil and sprinkle ½ tsp of salt and red chili powder on the round. Fold the dough into thirds, and then thirds again to form a square as shown below: (In the second folding, fold 1/3 of the dough in front and 1/3 behind)

Roll the square out, dipping in wheat flour as necessary, until you get a parantha about 8 to 10 inches wide.
Cook on a tawa (griddle pan) on medium high about 1 minute on each side until cooked through. When you’re cooking on the other side, and the parantha is almost fully cooked, press on the sides of the parantha to puff with hot air.
After cooked, coat one side of parantha with ½ tsp of oil, and flip on pan to sizzle for 5 to 10 seconds. If desired, coat other side, flip, sizzle again for 5 to 10 seconds and remove from heat.

Repeat all of the above with remaining dough.

Keep your paranthas warm wrapped in a kitchen towel and stored in a canister.

Enjoy your warm paranthas with the condiment of your choice!

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Have you ever met anyone who didn’t like cookies? I mean absolutely didn’t like any type of cookie? I don’t think I know anyone like that. Every single person I know swears by some kind of oooey gooey bite of goodness. Some can’t live without those toll house kind and others crave the powdered melt in your mouth kind. But whatever’s your favorite, I’m sure part of your love is rooted in the depths of childhood. (Psychology tells us everything else is.) If you grew up in the States I’ll bet part of that cookie love came from those endless field trips as children. You know, the kind where all 30 of your classmates are crammed in a yellow school bus playing who stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Remember how fun that was? The bus driver would be driving back from a fun filled day of no class and pure sugar and on the way home someone would pick a name and start …

All: Tina stole the cookie from the cookie jar
Tina: Who me?
All: Yeah you
Tina: Couldn’t be
All: Then who?
Tina: Ricky!!

All: Ricky stole the cookie from the cookie jar ….

You get the point.

And who can forget that ever loveable blue monster on Sesame Street? Sunny Day, sweeping the clouds away … Coookie … rawrr rawwrr rawwwrrr. Come on, admit it, there was a point before fourth grade where you wish you could be the cookie monster. And I’m sure there were was a day or two when you actually pretended to be him. I know my brother and I definitely did.

So it’s probably no surprise that to this day we still love us some warm fresh baked cookies. In fact every time I’ve visited my brother, or he’s changed jobs, I’ve always brought him one or other of his two most favorite kind: chocolate chip and double chocolate chip. So how could I go to Statten Island for thanksgiving and not bring him and his friends a batch?

Of course I couldn’t. And since this is the best holiday of the year, I decided to make both the night before thanksgiving. Lucky dog

Here they are, pics, recipes and all …

The original and still the best, Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies – Makes 30 medium sized cookies



Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks, ½ lb) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated white sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups Nestle semisweet chocolate morsels (a whole extra cup more than the original recipe. Told you I loved chocolate)

Method:
Preheat oven to 375*

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugars; cream until pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in the flour mixture until it is all incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chip morsels.

The batter will be choc full of chocolate.

Place soft batter in the freezer for about 5 to 7 minutes to firm up.
After 5 to 7 minutes, take the batter out and shape it into 1 to 1.5 inch balls.
Place the balls 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and slightly flatten.

Bake at 375* for 9 to 11 minutes until edges are golden brown.

Cool baked cookies on a wire rack and repeat with remaining batter. You may find that you need to return the batter to the freezer and take it out again in between different batches. What you’re trying to achieve is a dense batter that will still mold into a ball, but not stick all over your hands.

Give it a try, it’s a bit different from the normal drop method, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll never go back!

All recipe’s Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies II – Makes 30 medium sized cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup cocoa powder
1 cup (2 sticks, ½ lb) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated white sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 cups Nestle semisweet chocolate morsels (again an extra cup more than the original recipe)

Method:
Preheat oven to 375*

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter and sugars; cream until pale yellow and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Gradually beat in the flour mixture until it is all incorporated.
Stir in the chocolate chip morsels.

The batter will be very soft and chocolate heaven!!

Place soft batter in the freezer for about 5 to 7 minutes to firm up.
After 5 to 7 minutes, take the batter out and shape it into 1 to 1.5 inch balls.
Place the balls 2 inches apart on a baking sheet and slightly flatten.
Bake at 375* for 10 to 12 minutes until tops are cracked.

Cool baked cookies on a wire rack and repeat with remaining batter. You may find that you need to return the batter to the freezer and take it out again in between different batches. What you’re trying to achieve is a dense batter that will still mold into a ball, but not stick all over your hands.

Enjoy warm cookie with a tall glass of milk!

Bake Twice, Cut Once

We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘measure twice, cut once’; but what if I say bake twice, cut once? What does that make you think of? Hopefully it’s the twice baked Italian cookie called biscotti. Last winter, I had the privilege of learning an amazing biscotti recipe from Chef Bill Bradley. (You locals may know him through his Bricco and Rustic Kitchen fame.)

Naturally then, when my brother’s friend’s mom invited us over for thanksgiving, I remembered the chocolate dipped biscotti Chef Bradley taught us. I fervently tried to find the recipe in my mish-mash binder full of recipes. This binder, one of my prized possessions, always sits underneath a small table in my room. After searching for a few minutes, I found what I was looking for: a step by step recipe to replicate the Italian treat of that February day.

Recipe in hand, I now searched my cupboard and realized I didn’t have all the ingredients needed for Chef Bradley’s biscotti. Bummer, that meant a trip to the grocery store. The trip proved to be much longer than expected. It seems hazelnuts, a key ingredient in the biscotti, are in high demand during the Thanksgiving holiday. After traveling to three different stores, I finally found a bag of the coveted nut. (Of course it is entirely possible that I missed finding a bag at store number 2, but let’s not dwell on such minor details.)

When I finally got home after all my other errands and events, I was really hungry. I unloaded my grocery items and ate some dinner before setting out to bake a trial batch of the biscotti. I know from past experience, it’s never a good idea for me to make sweet items on an empty stomach. Somehow they always end up becoming a very filling dinner! Not exactly the mission I’m trying to accomplish here.

With a full stomach, and a cleared kitchen, I finally set out to test drive the biscotti recipe below. It’s slightly altered from Chef Bradley’s original recipe. I’ve halved it and decided not to dip the biscotti in delicious dark chocolate. Although chocolate is my favorite substance in the entire world, I’m not sure it’ll survive the trip to Statten Island without melting. And, who wants to eat biscotti in chocolate soup?

Here it is my trial run of Chef Bradley’s Orange / Cherry Biscotti. Here’s hoping my family, and my friends in Statten Island enjoy the actual batch just as much!

Recipe follows, Enjoy!

Chef Bradley’s Biscotti – Makes 12 biscotti cookies (and two delicious end pieces)



Ingredients:
1/4 cup unsalted butter
3/8 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
7/8 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts
1/4 cup chopped dried cherries
3/4 tsp grated orange peel

Method:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream the butter until fluffy & pale yellow. Add sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your finger & thumb.
Add egg and beat well
Beat in vanilla until blended

Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon & salt.
Gradually add flour mixture to egg mixture & mix until just incorporated.
Mix or stir in the hazelnuts, berries & orange zest until even incorporated.
The batter will be soft.

With well floured hands, transfer batter onto baking sheet and shape into a log, about 12” long and 1.5” in diameter.
Bake log at 350*F for 25 – 30 minutes, until edges are brown.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack & let log cool for 10 minutes.
Using a serrated knife, still on the pan, on the diagonal into 1/2 “ wide slices.
Carefully turn the slices on their sides & return them to the oven.
Bake until the edges are golden, about 10 minutes longer.
Let cool completely on pans on wire racks.
Store in airtight container.

For an extra special touch, although I didn’t do it this time, dip in melted chocolate and let dry. Then drizzle melted white chocolate on top.

A New Beginning

Days have come and days have gone
Sometimes leaving us quite alone
But with each passing we can atone
A new me has been reborn

Each passing day leaves a wish
A wondrous enjoyable delectable dish
Perhaps some carrots atop a fish
Just look I think I’ve found my niche

I can remember all the talks
About the food during my walks
As one of my friends laughingly mocks
You’ve got to do something with all those smocks

So here’s to life’s nuggets of joy
Fit for every girl and boy
I really hope you did enjoy
This cutely written wondrous ploy

Happy Holiday Season All!

For as far back as I can remember I’ve loved all things cuisine. I love the process of making food, reading about it in books and magazines, watching TV shows dedicated to its secrets, and making delectable dishes for my near and dear. I mean, doesn’t it seem like most of life’s events are centered on what’s going to be gobbled up afterwards anyways?

Of course, my philosophy in all of this is that food and its methods of preparation should provide us with comfort and warmth and sustenance towards a healthy lifestyle. The bites we place in our mouths should provide us with nourishment and delight … they are after all our nourishing delights.

Good night!