Thursday, January 14, 2010

Paav


After much thought and a lot of research for the desired texture, later, I tried my hand at making paav and made it a few times to achieve the laadhi paav taste. I am pretty pleased with the texture, the appearance and the taste.  My neighbour, my kids and  a good friend gave me a good review  as they were eating the warm bread, fresh out of the oven..... all the above combination made me one happy baker! I hope it will make the others who try this just as ecstatc.
 Makes 24 paav's
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp dry yeast
5 tbsp oil
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 cups warm water

Method:
In a cup of warm water, dissolve sugar and add yeast. Let sit for 15 mins. The liquid should now look foamy on the surface, which assures the validity of yeast. (If it has no froth, discard & start fresh with a new yeast).

In a wide mixing bowl add flour,oil,salt and the remaining cup of warm water + the frothy yeast mixture. Knead to a smooth dough and set it aside for 3 hrs to raise and let the yeast do its magic.

3 hrs later,the dough should have been proofed up. Punch down to delflate.

Grease the pan with butter. I used 9 X 13 glass pan once and an oval porcelain casserole the other time and had no problem with removal of finished paav with both the kind of bakeware.

Make little balls out of the dough and place then in the pan leaving alittle gap between the bread so it has enough room to rise again. After arranging the dough balls, cover with saran wrap and let it sit in the oven for 2 hrs ( without heating the oven). The dough should now  have risen again and all the gaps should be filled up by now.

Remove pan from the oven. Pre heat the oven to 375F. Brush the top of the paav with beaten egg whites or milk. Egg whites gives a nice glaze and darker color ( the picture with the oval paav) and milk has a lighter colored tops (pic with the rectangle dish). Bake for 20 to 25 mins. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the counter top for about 15 mins.

Remove from pan and serve with the bhaji made for the Paav or the  vada paav. Yum!

Sweet Kichidi +Theel godd




















Happy Sankranthi!!!

The first festival of the year!
Technicaly, accoording to Hindu calender, it isnt new year until April, but now that I have all the time on my hands , I just need a reason for a celebration.
Theel Godd, also known as 'yellu bella' in kannada is shared among the family, neighbours and any visitor coming home today which means spreading sweetness around you. Apart fron the ingredients listed below, back home, it is a tradition to give molded jaggery and cut up sugarcane pieces. Sweet kichidi and pan polo is traditionally cooked today in Konkani homes.
If u look closely, all festivals celebrated serves the same purpose... making food and sharing. In the end, it's all about food!



Sweet kichidi
rice 1 cup
split moong dal 1 cup
coconut 1cup
coconut milk 1 cup
jaggrey
ghee 3 tbsp
cahewnuts and raisins
Elaichi 1 tsp

Dry roast moong dal. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker, roastcahewnuts and raisins. Add rice, roasted dal, jaggrey, elaichi and coconut + coconut milk and 3 cups of water. Cook till done. While serving,(for unknown reasons)it is is garnished with chopped kadali bananas.Yumm!


This the the dry uncooked Theelgodd that are mixed together and served as a prasad.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup jaggrey, Chopped into Pieces
1/2 Cup copra,chopped into small pieces
1/2 Cup Groundnuts
1/2 Cup roasted chanadal, putani
1/2 Cup white til

Method:
dry roast Groundnuts, til and putani
Mix all the ingredients together and share the sweetness.