Homemade Croutons

When we make sandwiches we cut the hard brown edges of it and we throw them. Don't do that from now on. You can make croutons with that. Croutons are crispy cubed and baked bread which can be added to soups and salads. You can also make croutons with the left over white or brown bread pieces but I prefer making these with the edges of the bread because of the texture. 

 Today I made croutons with a flavour of Italian Herbs and Coriander. You can try your flavours with garlic, ginger etc.

Ingredients

Edges of 10-12 Bread Slices or 4 Slices of White / Brown Bread  

1/2 cup Melted Butter 

1 teaspoon Italian Herbs 

1 tablespoon Chopped Coriander

3/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Ground Pepper Powder

1. Cut Bread Slices into small cubes. In a bowl, add corinder, herbs, salt and pepper to melted butter. Mix it well.

2. Add bread slices to the bowl and mix it. Pre heat oven at 180 degrees. Place an aluminium foil on baking tray and spread bread cubes on it. Bake them till the bred cubes turn golden brown. Takes about 10 -12 minutes. Turn them in between. 

3. Store these in an airtight container once they are cool. Add these croutons to salads or hot soups .

Homemade Basil Pesto

You can make your own version of Pesto at home in a jiffy!!!! Why to buy processed food when you make them at home. This simple, delicious homemade pesto tastes so good and can be stored for an year in freezer.  Try it. 

Traditional Basil Pesto is made with cheese and pine nuts / walnuts, but I tried it with almonds. Tasted excellent. I made with just a cup of basil leaves which I finished that day itself. If you can also make large quantity and can store it in freezer. Pour few tablespoons of Olive oil on pesto as a layer to keep the pesto from darkening. 

This Pesto can be used in pastas and in sandwiches.

Ingredients

1 cup of Tightly packet Basil Leaves

3 tablespoons Pine nuts / Walnuts / Slivered Almonds

1 teaspoon Garlic Paste / Crushed Garlic 

1/4 teaspoon Salt 

Black Ground Pepper Powder as required

1/4 cup  + 2 tablespoons Olive Oil

1. Process Basil leaves and nuts several times then ad salt, ginger and pepper. Process it again. Bring the pesto together by scrap the walls of the processor. Now while processing, add 1/4 cup of olive oil.  

2. Process it till you make a smooth paste of it. Transfer this to a air tight glass container. Pour 2 tablespoons of olive it on the pesto.

3. Keep it refrigerated. 

Nuvvula Podi / Sesame Seed Powder

A very simple recipe which my mom often used to make. She makes many varieties of curries with this powder. Just a little quantity of this makes any curry extra delicious.

You know the recipe of this powder means you can make many curries!!!!! Today I am posting the simplest way of making Nuvvula Podi / Sesame seed powder for everyday cooking.

Nuvvula Podi is a spicy powder made with White Sesame seeds. This powder can be eaten with rice or added to curries. Andhrites can just live on spicy powders. We can finish our meals with one of these spicy powders. There is a big list of powders like Bengal gram powder, Curry leaves powder, Sesame sees powder, Garlic powder, Coconut powder, Coriander Seed powder etc. Getting tempted!!!!! Will post all these recipes in my blog.

    

Ingredients

1 cup White Sesame Seeds

5-6 Red Chillies

1 teaspoon Salt

1. Heat a pan. Add white sesame seeds, dry roast them on a low flame by continuously sauteing it till sesame changes colour and looks puffed up. 

2. Transfer this into a plate and it cool. Then dry roast red chillies for a min. First grind red chillies to flakes, add roasted sesame seeds,grind these to a coarse powder.

3. You can store like this or after adding salt. If you don't add salt you can use this in curries, and can add salt to the curries. Nuvvula podi with salt can be eaten with rice. ( You can keep half portion of this powder with salt and other half without so that you can use both in curries and with rice.)   

Boondi Mixture / Kara Boondi

Boondi Mixture is a snack made with Boondi . This is a crispy, salty, spicy  tea time snack and is our all time favouite.

I didn't have the boondi laddle but I always wanted to make this at home. With the boondi laddle you will get perfect round shaped boondi. But I tried without that. Shape of the boondi is not perfect but the taste is.  

Ingredients

1 cup Besan Flour

2 tablespoon Rice Flour

1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt 

Sprig Curry Leaves

1 tablespoon Broken Cashewnuts

1 tablespoon Peanuts

Oil for deep frying

1. Mix Besan flour, rice flour, salt and red chilli powder. Add a little more than 3/4 cup of water. Do the back of spoon check for batter. Batter should drop like a small round bubble from the back of the spoon.  Heat oil for deep frying.

2. You need 3 laddles to make boondi. Pour the batter on the ladder with a hole into hot oil.
 
3. Always wipe off the batter from the back of the laddle with holes.Fry boondi till it turns to golden brown colour and remove from oil to absorbent paper.

4. In a small pan, add a teaspoon of oil fry cashewnuts and peanuts. Keep them aside. Then fry curry leaves. Add all these to mixture. Check for taste and more salt and red chilli powder if needed. 

5. The best timepass snack ever.

Boondi

Make these crispy bondi once and use it to make Boondi Raita, Sweet Boondi, Boondi Laddoo, Boondi Mixture and so on.

I tried making boondi at home and failed twice never could get nice round shaped Boondi. I still don't perfect shaped Boondi. But waste wise no compromise. Shape of Boondi depends on the consistency of the boondi batter, temperature of oil and the height from which the batter drops into oil. I need to bring boondi laddle in my next trip to India. 

Ingredients

1 cup Besan Flour

2 tablespoon Rice Flour

1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

Oil for deep frying

1/2 teaspoon Salt 

1. Mix Besan Flour, Rice flour, red chilli powder and salt in a bowl. Add water to it. Add 1/2 a cup initially. Mix it and then add little by little.  I added a little more than 3/4 cup of water. 3/4 cup of Water should be enough for 1 cup of Besan flour. Consistancy of this batter is very important for nice round shaped boondi. I also do the back of spoon test. When you turn the spoon with little batter on it, the batter should drop down from it like a small round bubble. Heat oil for deep frying. You can also drop the batter from spoon in hot oil to check the shape of boondi.

2. You need 2 laddles for making boondi(one for pouring the batter and another laddle with holes) and another laddle to take boondi out of oil. Pour batter in the laddle with holes and slowly spread the boondi by moving the laddle all around the pan. Keep the laddles a height to get nice shaped boondis. Don't overcrowd the pan. With a boondi laddle this step will be much easy.

3. Clean the back of the laddle(the laddle with holes.) When the boondi turns to light golden brown colour, drain it from oil and transfer those to a absorbent paper. 

4. When it is cool enough, store that in a airtight container and enjoy.

Indian Tea Masala Powder / Chai Masala Powder

 

Indian Chai or Tea is a everyday beverage for most of the Indians. Everyday we start our day with Tea made with ginger, Cardamom and Cloves. Sometimes to make tea more spicy we add Cinnamon and pepper. 

It is always good to make our own version of tea masala powder and keep it handy. Add a pinch of it while boiling tea. There is no rule to make tea masala, we can add more or less of any of of the spices according to our taste.  You can also add more spices or other ingredients like lemon grass, nutmeg or herbs if you want.

Here is my version of the tea masala powder.

 

Ingredients

30 Cardamom / Elaichi

A small piece of Dry ginger / 1 teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder

1 teaspoon Black Pepper 

20 Cloves

2 small sticks Cinnamom 

1/2 teaspoon Fennel Seeds

Directions  

1. Collect al the ingredients you want to add to tea masala powder. It is always better to dry them in Sun for 1/2 an hour or place them on a hot tava/ pan for a min. To do this , heat a pan for 2 minutes. Switch off the stove and place the ingredients on it for a min. Now grind them to a fine powder.

2. While boiling tea, add a pinch of it for 2 cups of tea. Enjoy your version of masala tea.

How to make Eggless White Bread

Homemade bread is not only tasty but also easy to make. We don't need a bread machine to make this. This recipe makes two small loaves or one big loaf of bread with a light center and crunch crust. Let see how?

1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoon of Yeast 

1 cup of Warm Water (40 degree centigrade)

1/4 cup Milk

1 1/2 tablespoon Sugar

1 teaspoon Salt

1 1/2 tablespoon Butter

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of Bread Flour

1. Add warm water to yeast. Mix it and let it rest  for 10 minutes. You can bubbles in that.

2. Add this mixture to a mixing bowl, salt, sugar,melted butter and milk. Add 2 cups of bread flour. Stir it well. Add remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough is slightly sticky and starts leaving the sides of the bowl.

3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Place the heel of the palm and press the dough, turn 1/4 turn.Knead it in this way by hand for 10 minutes.Shape thae dough into a ball. Grease another bowl with butter. Place the dough in that and cover it with wrapping sheet or a damp cloth. Let it rise.

4. The dough rises to double the size in 1 to 1 1/2 hour. Remove the dough from bowl, shape that into a loaf. Place the dough in bread pan.( I wanted my bread size to be half the normal size so I placed the dough in two pans. You can place in one.)

5. Let it rise again to almost double the size . Takes about 1 hour. Now bake it at 200 degree centigrade for 20 - 30 minutes or until you see a hard crust.

6. Have a delicious homemade bread.