Croissants?!? Yes Please!!!

My family and I went on a little hiatus from South Asian life this past year.  We were in the US from August to the first of February.  We returned to our South Asian city, only to find it was time to move to a different apartment.  It's been a good move for us, but now, about a month later, we're finally settled in and getting back to a routine.

I've been wanting to try making croissants for a long time, but never really had the courage (or a good reason to muster up the courage).  A friend in my city had received a package with a special ingredient, and wanted to make her grandmother's chicken salad and have us all over for lunch.  Well, if that's not a reason to figure out how to make croissants, I don't know what is. I spent some time looking over lots and lots of recipes, and finally settled on this one. It has really cool .gifs. (If you don't know what those are, it's okay, I didn't either before I saw them here!)  They're moving pictures, not like a movie, but sequenced to show action, that gave me a fantastic idea of what the process was supposed to look like.

I learned a lot through the process. Like, the butter inside melts much faster in north Indian heat. : )  And, if I were to do it again, I would roll (and fold) them out twice each time I took them out, to get more layers, because mine didn't have as many layers as the original recipe did.  But all in all, for a first attempt, they turned out great.

One thing that surprised me is that it was about one hour of active work.  And that was spread out over about 15 hours.  I started in the afternoon, made the dough, let it rest in the fridge, and then took it out ever hour on the hour to roll and fold four times (I think!). I lived by the kitchen timer that day. : )  Then the dough rested overnight, and in the morning, I got up, rolled them out and shaped them, and let them rise 2 hours, then baked them.  It wasn't near as hard as I imagined it being. : )

Here's pictures of how mine turned out, and a link to the original recipe!

Be brave in your kitchen! Tackle something previously scary this week! : )

Croissant Tutorial at Top With Cinnamon . com

This is the dough after it's final roll and fold, when it's cut and ready to rise overnight in the fridge.  I was surprised at how many layers there were, but it's nowhere near what the original poster's dough looks like.  Mine definitely looks hot and tired, thanks to the Rajasthan heat! :)

Finished product!  They were yummy with that chicken salad! :)

Shish Taouk (Lebanese Chicken)

This is one of my favorite Lebanese dishes to make.  I got the recipe from Nita Mehta's Lebanese Cooking for the Indian Kitchen.

This will require some planning ahead because you will have to assemble your Lebanese spice mix and also marinate your chicken for at least 4 hours (I usually marinate overnight), but the results are well worth the extra planning. I usually double this for my family.





Serves 3-4
250 gms boneless chicken - cut into 3/4" pieces
1 medium sized onion- cut into 8 pieces

Marinade
1 egg
1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste (I usually just use fresh grated ginger and minced garlic)
4 Tbsp. thick curd (yogurt)
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. salt
1 onion, grated
1 tsp dried thyme or oregano
1 tsp Lebanese spice mix
1 tsp roasted cumin (bhuna jeera) powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder or paprika (degi mirch) powder (I always use paprika b/c of the little people)
2 tsp tomato ketchup
2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp oil

1. Mix all ingredients of the marinade in a bowl.
2. Add chicken pieces and onion.  Keep in fridge covered for at least 4 hours.
3. Preheat oven at 180 C for 10 minutes.
4. Grease the wire rack with oil.  Place the chicken pieces on it. (I always use the skewers that came with my oven.)
5. Bake at 180 C in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is well cooked.

This goes great with some hummus, and carrots, cucumbers, and Megan's pita bread for dipping.

Lebanese Spice Mix

This is a great Lebanese spice mix that I use with several recipes. You can find all of these easily in an Indian grocery store. I have re-purposed my husband's old coffee grinder to grind my spices. I quadruple this recipe to make the grinding easier, then I store the extra for later use. The ground spices will keep for 6 months.

Makes 2 tsp.
1/2 tsp. black pepper corns (saboot kali mirch)
4-5 cloves (laung)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (jaiphal) - grated
1/4 tsp.  fenugreek seeds (methi daana)
1/4 tsp. ginger (sonth) powder
1/2 tsp. green cardamom seeds (chhoti illaichi)
1 star anise (phool chakri)
1" stick cinnamon (dalchini)

 Grind all ingredients in a small mixer (or coffee grinder) or crush with a pestle and mortar to a powder. Store in a jar with a tight fitting lid and use as required.

Bierocks!

I grew up eating these.  My family has a German background, and I guess that's where it came from.  : )   

Since I have a spouse who doesn't appreciate the simplicity of the bierock itself, I've had to tweak it a little to make it an enjoyable meal for everyone in my house. : ) You can also make it a good vegetarian option by substituting channa deal(yellow lentils) for the chicken.  One of my favorite things about this recipe is it makes 12 bierocks, which means two meals for us!  I always freeze 6 of them (wrapped in saran wrap and foil) and pull them out later for a quick meal.  

Here's what I do!  It's a nice little comfort food meal, especially if you serve it with onion rings. : ) 

Bierocks


Dough:
2 ¼ t. Dry Yeast1 c. Warm Milk¼ c. Sugar¼ c. Vegetable Oil1 t. Salt 2 Eggs, Beaten4 c. Bread Flour, More As Needed

Filling:
½ c. Onion, Chopped1/2 kg chicken keema2 T. Vegetable Oil.
4 c. Cabbage, Cut Fine
3-4 T. Amul creamy cheese
1 t. Worcestershire sauce

Salt, Pepper And Cayenne Pepper To Taste


Directions:
Dissolve sugar and yeast in warm milk. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine oil, salt and eggs; add yeast mixture. Add 1 cup of flour and beat for 1 minute. Beat in ½ cup of flour at a time, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl.
Knead in remaining flour until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
Place dough in a well-oiled large bowl and loosely cover. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. 

To make filling, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat and onion and cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Add cabbage and cook until wilted. Add cheese and worcestershire.  Season with salt and pepper. Let cool. 

Punch dough down and let rest 5 minutes. Divide dough in half. 

Roll each half into a letter-sized rectangle (roughly 8 by 11) and cut each rectangle into 6 squares. 

Spoon ¼ or ⅓ cup filling into center of each square. 

Bring opposite corners together at the center, pinching corners and seams to seal.

 Place seam side down on a large baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise 20 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

PW's Strawberry Sparkle Cake: SA Style

I love the Pioneer Woman.  I look at her blog weekly. I think almost every week, I'm trying a new recipe from her, and loving every single one.  On the fourth of July, I saw her post of the Strawberry Sparkle Cake... I didn't even read the post, because I saw the strawberry filling and knew there was no way I could pull it off... strawberries have been gone here for months.

But a few days later, on a whim, I went back and read the recipe.  And I had a stroke of genius. Strawberry crush.  Have you ever bought a crush?  I bought a bottle just out of curiosity a few weeks ago, and turns out, the strawberry crush has real whole strawberries and is really sweet and yummy.  It made the perfect filling for this cake!  It turned out great, except for the whipped cream frosting, which I didn't expect to work anyway.  The regular Amul cream is only 25% fat, and to properly whip cream, it needs to have at least 40% fat... anyone had success getting a heavy high fat cream for whipping? What's it called?!?

Head on over to Pioneer Woman for this recipe, grab a bottle of Strawberry crush, and make this yummy cake this week!

Apricot Ginger Chicken with Make-Your-Own Rice A Roni

I've had this recipe in my stash for a long time, and never tried it until this week.  The Rice A Roni kept putting me off, because I just didn't really know how to do that... until I found a blog post with a make your own Rice A Roni!  I immediately thought of this recipe and decided to try it this week, and it was a huge hit with dad and the kids.  Quick and easy too... I was able to make it with no husband home while being responsible for four children, so that tells you how quick and easy it is. : )

Apricot Ginger Chicken with Rice A Roni
2 T. butter
4 Boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 c. apricot jam (I used Druk brand)
2 t. Dijon mustard
2 t. American mustard
1/2 t. ground ginger

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt 1 T. butter.  Add chicken.  Cook 5 minutes on each side or until browned.  Remove from skillet, set aside.  In the same skillet over medium heat, sauté rice-pasta mix with remaining 1 T. butter until vermicelli is golden brown.  Slowly stir in 2 cups water and Special Seasonings; bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low.  Cover; simmer 10 minutes.   Stir in broccoli.  Place chicken over rice, return to a simmer.  Cover; simmer 5-10 minutes or until rice is tender and chicken is no longer pink inside.  In a small bowl, blend jam, mustard, and ginger.  Spoon 1 T. glaze over each chicken breast and drizzle remaining glaze over rice.  Cover; let stand 3 minutes before serving. 


For the Rice-A-Roni:

½ c. Vermicelli
¾ c. Uncooked Long Grain Rice
3 c. Water, Plus More As Needed
2 T. Butter Or Oil
⅛ t. Salt 
⅛ t Paprika
⅛ t Pepper
⅛ t Onion Powder
⅛ t Garlic Powder
2 cubes Chicken Bouillon 
1 Medium Onion, Diced

Directions:
In medium skillet sauté onion.  When translucent, add broken pasta pieces and rice in butter, stirring constantly, until the pasta is golden brown. Carefully pour in water, spices and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Greek Pizza

Normally when I make leftover pita pizzas, I do a simple tomato sauce with some mozzarella and toppings.  This weekend, however, I had so much feta cheese left, I thought I'd try something different.

Here's what I came up with that we will definitely be adding to the regular rotation.  My husband loved it!

Greek Pizza
3/4 of a green zucchini, halved and sliced
3/4 of a yellow squash, halved and sliced (feel free to change up these vegetables to things you can find!)
1 onion, halved and sliced,
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 slices cooked bacon, chopped (this was leftover too, so we thought why not? Easy to omit for a veg meal)
Seasoning of your choice (I used a seasoning jar called "Montreal Chicken", no idea what's in it!)
1 T. olive oil
1-2 tomatoes, sliced
Feta Cheese
Leftover pita bread

Heat olive oil in a skillet.  Add onions and garlic and sauté 3-4 minutes until tender.  Add zucchini and squash and bacon, and seasoning. Sauté until vegetables are cooked.

Divide cooked vegetables between two pita bread rounds.  Top with sliced tomatoes and crumbled feta.  Bake in 180 oven for 5-10 minutes.

Really, could it be any simpler?  But oh my, was it amazing!