Vegetable puff pastry

Anyone hailing from India surely loves veg./egg puffs! It was something available at every bakery in any street corner and perfect to quench the hunger pangs that struck with renewed fervor especially when one crossed by the bakery. That fresh-baked aroma and the convincing crunch of the puff made it an instant favourite with one and all. Fast-forward to France. Sure we have a Hot Breads at Paris and they make excellent Indian baked goods. But lets be practical. Who’s going to go 10km to eat a puff? Well, we might.. if it wasn’t so easy to make them at home! Here’s a first look. I apologize for the poor quality of the photographs. It gets dark very soon these days and I had very less enthusiasm to setup the soft box and such. So I used one of our corner lamps as lighting and hence the unfortunate yellowish hue. The picture below though is from one of our exploits at Cincinnati with making puffs (thanks PT, VV and VR).

  Vegetable puff pastries hot off the oven.

Considering I don’t make the pastry sheets and they’re store-bought the entire process of making a filling batch of puffs takes a little over 30 minutes. Which is next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

If you’re interested, here’s what you need

Ingredients

For the exterior
Store-bought pastry sheets – you can find this in the refrigerated section of your store	1-2 packets, depending on how many puffs you plan to make
For the filling
1. Onions	1 large, finely chopped
2. Potatoes	3-4 medium sized, peeled, boiled and mashed
3. Peas	1/2 cup
4. Carrots	1 medium-sized, finely chopped and preferably boiled. Hint: Put  in the potatoes and carrots together in a pressure cooker to boil.
5. Green chillies	2, slit length-wise
6. Garlic	2 cloves minced
7. Salt	To taste
8. Oil	1 tsp
9. Turmeric and asfoetida	a pinch each

How?

1. Set out the pastry sheets by unwrapping them from the package and let them thaw at room temperature while you get the filling ready.

2. For the filling.. use a heavy bottomed pan and heat the oil.

3. Throw in the asfoetida, followed by the green chillies, garlic, onions and the salt. Allow the onions to cook very well on a low flame.

4. Add the potatoes, carrots, peas and turmeric. Stir well and allow it to cook. If it becomes too “hard”, add a little water to make it’s consistency pasty. Think thick and not watery.

5. Once everything’s cooked, give it a taste test to see if you’d like to add anything to this mixture. I like to add a hint of amchur powder (dry mango powder) and jeera powder to it to enhance the taste. Also, 1/4 tsp of sugar gives it an enormous boost.

There.. you’re done with the filling! Set it aside to cool a bit while you work with everything else.

6. Turn on the oven and set it at approximately 180°C.

7. Get a baking tray ready with aluminium foil to protect the bottom. Spray gently with baking spray or coat with a thin layer of oil.

8. Cut squares from your pastry sheets, large enough to fold into triangles reasonably big enough to stuff with the filling you’ve just made. Think 8cm x 8cm types.

9. Fold it into a triangle and seal 1 side by pressing it together. Stuff some filling on inside the pocket you’ve created and then seal the other side. Note: If you let the sheets thaw too much, you might have a hard time holding shape while filling. It’s better to do it when it still hasn’t defrosted entirely.

10. Repeat 9 for as many puffs as you want to make and lay them on the tray. Shove them in the oven for about 10 minutes. This brown ands hardens the “bottom”.

11. Now you’d want to transfer them to a grilling tray so that you get the nice browning lines evenly everywhere. Alternately, you could do the entire thing on the grilling tray. Note: Place the “top” side of the puff face-down on the grilling tray to get those lines. Bake for another 10-12 minutes.

12. And that’s it! Take them out, allow to cool a bit and serve with ketchup, chai or both!

Bon Appetit! Enjoy!

 Up close: Croissant style vegetable puffs!

PS: Any of the fillings can be altered to suit your taste. Experiment and enjoy!

Aloo parathas

It’s comfort food. But a lot of people I know are turned off by assuming that there’s a lot of effort involved. That it takes too long. That its hard to roll. But guess what? Its none of that. Aloo parathas are a great variety of Indian bread and you can just as easily replace the aloo (potato) with any other filling of your choice (think onions, garlic, cabbage or cauliflower). Here’s a first look.

Aloo parathas, fresh from the griddle.

How?

Well, I am not going to go into the details. The method is pretty similar to most Indian bread varieties. But the way my mom makes this is by boiling potatoes separately, seasoning them separately and then individually rolling a small ball of the potato filling into each ball of paratha dough. I find this method tedious and have as usual found a shortcut. I boil the potatoes, mash them and then mix them directly into the dough and blend everything with adequate amount of salt and spice, turmeric and other seasoning that I want. I then let it sit for about 2 hours to soak in all the flavour. And then when I roll them, they roll out as easy as anything else and then it’s just about adding a wee bit of oil on the griddle and cooking both sides as required. Easy-peasy!

Serve hot with chutney, pickle or daal or good old' raita. Anything works!

And so there you have it.. easy, simple, tasty and very filling – aloo parathas. Bon Appetit!

Last of the tofu: Tofu masala puris

I didn’t plan on this one. I actually wanted to make tofu ice cream but S discouraged me of the idea in such a manner that I was a bit apprehensive to try. And so? Tofu puris.

Crispy soft tofu masala puris.

Interested enough? You should be. Of all the 3 tofu dishes I’ve made over the past week, this was hands-down my favourite. It was crispy yet soft, flavorful yet subtle. The perfect dish to conclude the long weekend. So here’s what you need -

Ingredients	Quantity
1. Tofu	300 g, finely crumbled with your hands
2. Atta	400 g or 2.5 cups
3. Oil	2 cups for deep frying and 1 tablespoon for mixing into the dough
4. Water	Enough to make dough of the right consistency, approximately 1 cup
5. Dry spices	Salt to taste, 1 tsp of dhaniya-jeera powder, 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp of sugar, a pinch of turmeric

Serve with any hot subji and you’ve got yourself a killer combination.

How? Just mix all the ingredients to make a consistent dough like chapathis or parathas. Let it sit for at least an hour. Use some fresh atta  to make small balls from the doiugh and roll them out into puris of the size you desire. Heat the oil for deep frying sufficiently before frying your puris. Test with a bit of dough. Do not keep the flame too high or the puri will cook only externally but not all over in addition to “drinking in the oil”. Next.. just deep fry and drain the excess oil on a paper towel before serving piping hot with the subji of choice. Bon Appétit!

Served with Mughalai Subji (Holler if you want a recipe).

One thing’s for sure though… I bet all of you are as done with tofu as I am. Whoosh! Here’s hoping for wider ingredients to feature here soon. :D

Saturday Brunch: Bread Upma

So it’s typical… you get up late on a Saturday morning. In a short while after a tea/coffee your stomach starts signaling to you that it’s about time to break its fast. But you are just not in the mood to make anything elaborate. And something like cereal or toast just seems boring. Bread upma is perfect for those days… minimal effort, mildly spiced, the perfect, warm, carb-fest to kick start your senses for the weekend.

Getting started. Bread slices broken into bite-sized pieces.

I am sure every house has a “different” recipe for this dish. My house has a minimalistic delicious one. What do you need? Of course you need about 6 slices of bread broken into small bite-sized pieces. Additionally,

Veggies: Just one small onion and tomato, finely chopped.

Spices: Salt to taste and red chilli powder. I’ve also used a pinch of turmeric.

Seasoning: 1/2 tsp each of mustard seeds and channa dal.

Garnishing: 1/2 a sprig of fresh coriander.

And how to? Please, I am sure you know how. Heat 1/2 tsp of oil, add the seasonings, fry the veggies, add the dry spices and finally the bread. The bread should not get soaked by the masala, it should remain dryish and just get coated with all of the spices and the veggies. Turn of the gas once the bread gets “heated” and garnish with coriander.

So there you go.. under 10 minutes you have a simple, sumptuous and tasty breakfast/brunch. Serve piping hot. Bon Appétit!

Pictured here garnished with curry leaves.