Achaari Baingan

Achaari Baingan/Brinjals

I love all things achaari(having pickle masala) whether it is baingan/brinjals or bhindi/ladyfingers and I am sure there are many more. Infact ,give me any dish with nigella and big fennel seeds and I am going to like it blindly.

Ingredients

Baingan/Brinjals, small 6
Mustard  oil ( (sarson)  3 tbsp
Cloves  2
Bay leaf  1
Asafoetida (hing), soaked in 1 tbsp water a pinch

For Achaar Masala

Cumin powder 1/2 tbsp
Fenugreek  powder 3/4 tsp
Fennel (moti saunf) powder 1 tbsp
Yellow mustard seed powder 3/4tsp
Nigella seeds (kalonji) 1 tsp
Fennel seeds 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tbsp
Carom (ajwan) seeds 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder 1 tbsp
Turmeric  powder 1/2 tsp
Dry mango powder (amchur) 1 tbsp
Ginger Garlic Paste -1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Wash the brinjals and slit crosswise along the length, and keep aside. 
2. Heat the mustard oil in a pan on high heat until it starts smoking. Remove an cool. 
3. Mix the Achaar masala ingredients together in a bowl. 
4. Fill the brinjals with the achaar masala. 
5. Reheat the mustard oil; add cloves, bay leaves, asafoetida.
6. Add stuffed Brinjals, cover with a lid, and cook on low heat for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

The recipe has been modified from Headlines

Nutella Pinwheel Cookies

Confessions of a novice baker - Until recently I didn't even know about Nutella's existence. From the time I have started baking frequently , I have read almost every baker talking about their love for Nutella. I got my Nutella jar few weeks back from Arife at Andheri, Mumbai , but kept postponing making something out of it. My sister has demanded to bring lots of cookies for her, so this was a good time to make few different varieties  Yesterday, I spent quite some time finalizing the cookies recipes. The recipe is from PurpleFoodie, an accomplished blogger from Mumbai whose blog is a storehouse of information for bakers in Mumbai. Everything I learnt when I just started baking is from her blog, from where to get the ingredients to what to make.

I wanted them in small size ,so kept the width of the rolled rectangle less. If you want many layers, increase the width.

Ingredients
For 25 small sized cookies
125g / 1 stick butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 heaped cup sifted flour
¼ cup Nutella to spread

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 175C/350F.
2. Mix butter and sugar together till creamy.
3. Mix in the egg yolk and the vanilla essence. The mixture should be light and well combined.
4. Stir in the flour to form a dough.
5. Cover the dough in a cling film and refrigerate it for 15 minutes  in deep freezer to facilitate rolling and cutting as the dough is very delicate.
6. Roll out the dough into a rectangle of ¼ inch thickness between two large cling films. Once rolled,remove the upper cling film.
7. Spread the Nutella leaving 1/4 inch on all sides .
8. Roll the dough to a log starting from longest side. Put it into deep freezer for another 5-7 minutes.
9. Cut into 1/3 inch slices using a taut sewing thread between the fingers of both  hands .This would give clean slices.
10. Lay the slices 1 inch apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 12-15 minutes till slightly golden at the edges. 
11. Once done, keep them on baking sheet for few minutes before transferring them on wire rack.

Pistachio and White Chocolate Burfi

This weekend was all about food and Mumbai. My brother in law and his wife were here in Bombay/Mumbai and wanted a taste of Mumbai life. Animesh and I have been here now for almost 3 years but there are still so many popular hangouts that we have not visited.Cafe Leopold  and Candies being few of them. You may have read or heard about Cafe Leopold  in the novel ShantaRam and also because it was the first

target of the 26/11 terrorists attacks . Cafe Leopold was not a place for us teetotalers so it would be unfair to judge it.The food was average. Late midnight on Friday, we stopped at Bachelors at the marine drive. It is a road side stall which is open entire night and has the best chocolate shakes and their menu include Ferroro Rocher chocolate shakes too!

On Saturday, me and my sis-in-law went to Candies for lunch and were wowed by its ambience. Such a green and spacious budget restaurant was totally unexpected in Mumbai. The food was good, salad was great. And even though I was full,I wanted to taste the desserts to compare with what I make, to know how much scope of improvement I had. I bought two mini cupcakes in lemon and chocolate flavor. I would be immodest ,but I found mine better . The ones at Candies were dry and nothing great. But , it is a place worth many revisits.

Sunday was even more foodilicious. We had  pav bhaji and chikoo shakes at Amar Juice Centre, golgappes and chaats at juhu beach, Kulhad tea  at Tea Centre ,Churchgate and finally the foodie weekend ended with  pizzas at the Pizzeria, Marine Drive. 

Now coming to the recipe :)  I had no idea about the Pistachio day on Feb 26 until my friend asked me what I had planned for it. I only needed a reason to make something new, but the weekend was going to be busy eating out , so I made these on Monday. These are easy to make but it was hard work for me, as the first recipe I tried did not come out pretty and was a bit sticky. My pistachhio burfi's were bottle green color  instead of bright green.  

I was not satisfied with the color and I couldn't have shared this recipe with others to make.

So, I tried another recipe, which involved blanching the pistachio first and then peeling it to give it a vibrant colour. I had almost used all the pistachios that I had for the first recipe, and there was only half cup left for the 2nd one. The colour would have been even more vibrant if all the pistachios were green.The ones I used had mostly yellows. I was happy with the 2nd recipe, but I had to do something to the first one to remove the stickiness and make it appealing. I had a brainwave to use white chocolate to cover it ,which would harden after freezing and voila!! The new dessert has been invented. Can I patent this !!! :-)  

And I knew I had made a great sweet dish when the first words my husband uttered was "Wow!! This tastesl like a premium dessert ! 

So, my suggestion to everyone who is going to make this- Though you can simply make it without the white chocolate, go for the white chocolate cover to make this extra special!

For 12 small burfis

Ingredients

1 cup  + 5 tbsp shelled pistachhio

1/3  cup+ 2 tbsp  sugar

1/4 cup water

Ghee/Clarified Butter 1 tbsp

2 Cardamom powdered

White chocolate - 4oz

Preparation

1. Blanch the pistachios in boiling water for 2-3 minutes
2. Drain the water and remove peels.  
3. Chop 5 tbsp blanched pistachio and keep aside.
4. Grind 1 cup pistachios to a paste without adding any water
5. Heat water and sugar to make a sugar syrup till it reduces to 1 and half Tbsp syrup.  
6. Add the pistachios,cardamom powder and ghee/clarified butter and start stirring continuously till you see the mixture forms into a soft ball.
7. Spread it onto a greased plate and smoothen the top.
8. Cut it into desired shapes when cooled for burfis
9. For White chocolate cover. 

• Melt white chocolate and mix till it smoothenes. 
• Cut parchment papers double the size of the burfis. Put a layer of chopped pistachios on it. Cover it with melted chocolate and smoothen the top using a spatula.
• On one half of the parchment paper,place the burfis. Cover it with second half and freeze for 30 mins till the chocolate hardens.
• Remove the parchment paper once the chocolate is set

You can check this video on youtube to see the consistency required. I don't understand the language but the way they make gives you an idea how to go ahead.Recipe Video