Michael – Page 39 – Westchester Supper Club

November 20, 2012July 30, 2014 » by Michael » Theme: Indian

Aloo Paratha (Potato-stuffed Indian bread)

The following recipe makes about 4 paratha’s and feeds 2 people.
Method:

Step I – Making the dough – You will need:

Wheat Flour

* 2 cups wheat flour

* 1 cup warm water
* 3-4 tablespoons full-cream milk
*1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
– Take a large, deep bowl and put all the flour, oil, milk & salt in it. Mix coarsely with your fingers.

Mix the flour, oil, mil and salt mixture coarsely with fingers

Mix the flour, oil, milk and salt mixture coarsely with fingers

– Now slowly add the water, 4-5 tablespoons at a time, while mixing well with your fingers. Keep adding water till the flour and water have mixed to form a soft, but firm mass. In case you add too much water by mistake (It happens!), add flour to the bowl, little by little, continuously mixing the dough, till it reaches a soft consistency.
– Now pummel the dough with your fist into the bowl for about 2-3 minutes.

Pummell the dough

– Once done, keep the dough aside for about 1/2 hour before making the paratha’s.
Step II – For the potato stuffing:
* 3 medium sized potatoes washed, boiled and peeled
* 4-5 tablespoons chopped onion
* a handful of chopped coriander
* 6-7 leaves of mint, finely chopped
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon chili powder
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
* 1 teaspoon Dhania – Jeera powder (available ready in Indian stores)
* 1 teaspoon Chaat masala (available in Indian stores)
* Juice of 1/2 lemon
– Mash the potatoes well, in a large bowl. Add Onion, chopped Coriander & Mint and all the dry spices along with the lemon juice. Mix everything well together.
Assembling the Paratha: You will need –

* A rolling pin and a rolling stone – if you don’t have a rolling stone, roll out the paratha on your clean kitchen counter
* Some dry flour in a flat, large bowl or box
Method:
– Take a small quantity of dough (about double the size of a golf ball) and knead it into a ball with both your palms.
– On a rolling stone, flatten the ball of dough with your fingers. Cover it with some dry flour, on both sides
– Start rolling the pin across the ball of dough, with some pressure, so that it the dough now looks like a flat oval
– Turn the oval around, so that it is now horizontally lying in front of you on the rolling stone, and roll the pin from top to bottom, toward you, to flatten out the dough in the other direction, to make a circle

Flattening out the dough

– Once you have a roughly circular, fairly thick piece of dough, you can begin the stuffing.
– Hold the rolled out dough in the palm of your left hand, and take a spoonful of the potato mixture. Place it between the circular piece of flattened dough

Place the potato mixture in the middle of the dough

– Now, carefully, close the dough around the potato mixture, and seal the stuffed ball of dough.

Seal the ball of stuffed dough

– Put 1/2 a tsp of ghee / Oil to heat on a non-stick pan on medium high, at this point
– Put the stuffed dough back on the rolling stone and gently roll out the dough in a circle, flattening it out, in one direction at a time

Roll out the stuffed dough

– Continue to gently roll out the dough till you can see a very thin layer of dough covering the potato stuffing inside.

The rolled out stuffed paratha

– Check if the pan is hot enough, and place the paratha to cook. Allow to cook on medium heat, for at least 2 mins on each side, or till the dough is cooked golden-brown.

Cook the paratha till it is golden-brown on each side

– Enjoy the paratha fresh off the pan, with some spiced yogurt, or Mango pickle.

October 29, 2012November 8, 2017 » by Michael » Theme: Spooky

Fresh Beet Pasta

I forgot to take pictures so I’ll post the pictures that came with the recipes.

For the pasta I used the wrong kind of beets my pasta ended up light pink instead of red. I can’t find the exact recipe I used so here’s one that I just found that looks better.

FRESH BEET PASTA – LINGUINE

4 tbl pureed red beets (about two medium beets)
7 egg yolks
1 tbl milk
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting beets
¼ tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour, plus more for kneading dough
Preheat oven to 365˚. Wash, dry and lightly coat beets with olive oil. Tightly wrap beets in aluminum foil and roasted in oven for about an hour (or until the beets can be easily pierced with a knife). Set a side. Once the beets are cool enough to handle, peel and puree in a food processor until they reach the stage of a smooth puree.
In a medium bowl, mix together the egg yolks, milk, 2 teaspoon of olive oil and salt. Stir in beet puree.
Mound the flour on the countertop creating a well in the center large enough to hold the beet mixture. Pour beet mixture into the flour well.
Using your finger or fork, begin making a circular motion in the beet mixture to slowly start incorporating into the flour. If needed, occasionally push a little of the flour into the well. Continue until the beet mixture becomes incorporated with the flour. Once the dough begins to form, mound it together into a rough ball (see unkneaded dough photograph above). Knead the dough on a clean, lightly floured area of the countertop. The dough will be sticky at first, but will be come smoother as you continue kneading. Sprinkle with a bit of flour if the dough is too sticky to work with. Knead the dough by pushing down and away from you with the palm of your hands and turning the dough onto it self. Knead dough for no less than 10 minutes. After kneading, the dough should have a smooth texture (see kneaded dough photograph above). Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour.
Cut dough into 6 equal parts. Starting at the widest setting, run each piece through the pasta press attachment of KitchenAid mixer. Gradually, press the dough through smaller and smaller settings until you get about 1/8″ thick (setting “5″ on the KitchenAid pasta press). Once you have pressed all six pieces. Run the pasta strips through the linguine cutter attachment. Separate and hang (or layout) linguine until ready to cook.
Alternatively, you can roll out the pieces of dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured counter top until you reach the desired thickness. Roll pasta into loose cylinders and cut into strips of linguine.
Bring a large sauté pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until done, up to 2 minutes – overcooking will drain the pasta of its rich color. Drain and serve.
http://ceramiccanvas.com/2009/05/fresh-beet-pasta-cod/

For the final dish, I followed the recipe below but I ended up adding a roasted beet to the final dish and blending it in. The final effect was more of a dark pink. I also trued to overcompensate and added too much sauce so it was really heavy. Also, I had nested the pasta and froze itr. Some of the pasta didn’t end up unnesting so there were some clumps of uncooked pasta.

September 24, 2012July 30, 2014 » by Michael » Theme: Spice Grab-Bag

Smoked Paprika and Chickpea Soup Recipe

Hands-on time:10 minutes | Total time:30 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoonolive oil
1 red onion, peeled and minced
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 celery stalks, strings removed with a potato peeler and chopped small
2 teaspoonsfinely chopped rosemary leaves
2 cups cooked chickpeas (yup, you can swap a 14.5-ounce can of rinsed, drained chickpeas in place of soaked, dried, cooked chickpeas)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
2 bay leaves
1 level tablespoon tomato paste
1 14-ounce candiced tomatoes, undrained
4 to 5 ladlesof water (or you instead slip in stock of any kind that may be languishing in your freezer)
Coarse salt and black pepper
A small handfulflat-leaf parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot and add the onion, garlic, celery, and rosemary. Sauté for a few minutes until the vegetables and aromatics begin to soften, then add the chickpeas, smoked paprika, bay leaves, tomato paste, and canned tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Add the water, season, and bring back to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Discard the bay leaves. Let the soup cool slightly and then process about half the mixture in a blender or with an immersion blender. Stir the purée into the chunky soup in the pot. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the parsley and reheat gently if needed. Ladle into warm bowls.