Tag: Flatbread

INDIAN SUMMER CHICKEN CURRY…CURRY ON THE GO!!

“Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus”
Peter Ustinov
peach+plum+ice+cream,+ricotta+tart1

The North Indian summer is always unbearably hot, & is meant to last a month or so. That is how we are programmed to survive here, because come July, we welcome the rains with open arms & hearts! This year has been different. It’s almost August & zilch; the rains didn’t come. We’ve seen the monsoons fail…The temperatures are still in the 40’s, & the days are HOT + HUMID = UGH!! An odd shower now & then makes life miserable. This year, we’ve seen cities across the globe also trying to cope with high temperatures. Vancouver is bad, & so is Seattle. Melbourne had a particularly bad summer with record breaking high temperatures.

Days like these call for light fare on the table, which is what I attempted to do today. I had chicken & I wanted to make curry. Hot weather calls for light curry. Light curry, full of summer flavour … mint, coriander, lime! Lots of mint because my mint patch is overflowing… A few readers mailed me asking me about my kitchen/workspace. Here are a couple of pictures. The kitchen is my playground & I just love it. It’s a largish kitchen, very minimally done on a very basic level…but I still love it. It is airy & lighted…& on most days I have free run of the place. This is when my recipes are born on the go. I thought of making a chicken curry this morning. Something light, something flavourful…& something that screamed summer. The heat can get to me!!

Stepped out in the morning to find mint reaching out to me. The beds are overflowing with mint. Pretty!! So I picked some & thought, hmmm, this must go into the curry. With no specific direction in mind, I marinated the chicken in basics – lime juice, garlic,salt & chili – to get it going. Lime, garlic & salt make a great first marinade for chicken, usually a first step for chicken tikka, tandoori chicken etc. An hour later, I decided to get more happening on the curry. Summer = light food = lots of yogurt! Yogurt is always a part of my curries, but summer means lots of yogurt. Fresh coriander & mint also sing summer to me, so I held an immersion blender & blended the yogurt with the two. I blended some tomatoes as well just in case I need them if the curry wasn’t ‘up to it’. As things went, the curry was more than ‘up to it’ & the tomatoes were resigned to the fridge. Will use them another day.
Turned out to be a finger-licking good, fresh & tangy curry. Light & breezy, the good thing being it required no spices at all, other than red chili flakes. Just very basic pantry ingredients and fresh herbs in here to give you this delicious curry! I made it with chicken on the bone, but I think you can make it just as well with boneless chicken.

The kids L♥VED it. The curry conversation went something like this…
“Mama, the chicken’s yummy! It’s really very nice & tangy. “
“What recipe?” (I think this generation learns young! I don’t recall ever using the word recipe till I was 16)
“None…made it from my mind as I pottered around… “
“What’s the name? Which book?”
“I said no book. It’s my own.” (Very unbelieving…)
“What’s it’s called? “
(Um mm quick thinking) – “Indian Summer Chicken Curry”…(which is how it got it’s name!)
“It’s YUM!!”(Phew…talk about getting interrogated!)

INDIAN SUMMER CHICKEN CURRY
Ingredients:
750gms chicken on the bone
5-6 cloves of garlic; minced
Juice of 1-2 limes (about 2-3 tbsps)
1/4 – 1/2 tcp red chili flakes
Salt to taste
1/2 cup chopped onions (about 1-2 small onions)
1 cup of yogurt
Generous handful of mint leaves
Handful of coriander leaves
1-2 Green chilies (deseed to decrease heat if you like)
Method:
  • Whisk the lime juice , garlic, red chili & salt together. Marinate the chicken in this for at least 30-45 minutes.
  • Blend the yogurt with the mint & coriander
  • Heat oil in a wok & fry the chopped onions till golden brown. Turn the chicken into it & stir fry on full heat till light golden. This seals the juices in.
  • Add the blended yogurt. Stir well, allow to cook on high heat, uncovered, until the sauce thickens. Stir minimally to ensure that the chicken doesn’t debone. Adjust seasoning if required, add 1-2 slit green chilies & simmer covered for another 5-7 minutes for flavours to mingle.
  • Serve with flat bread or rice. I served it with wholewheat risen flatbread. A simple recipe I’ve made. Knead 1 1/2 cups ot wholewheat flour with 15gms of fresh yeast (dissolved in water) + 1 tbsp oil + 1 tsp salt. Knead well to a smooth dough. Leave to rise in an oiled bowl for an hour until doubled in volume. (I intend to add some mined garlic next time)
  • Note: The curry tends to thicken as it sits. We like it thick. Add a little milk & simmer to thin it out if you like.

♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥

Posted by Deeba @ PAB

LAVASH CRACKERS AGAIN, WITH A ROASTED BELL PEPPER DIP…GUILT-FREE SNACKING!!

“Good taste is as tiring as good company.”
Francis Picabia
There’s something about these crackers. Never has guilt free snacking been this indulgent, this happy! Munch till you drop? These crackers take food addiction to a new level…no stops here. This is the only time I’ve actually repeated a Daring Baker challenge, that too, more than once. The vegan lavash crackers continue to entice me. The dip I made this time is inspired by the one I saw at Meeta @ What’s For Lunch Honey? . The look of it had me absolutely mesmerised…the Ajvar dip; a Middle Eastern eggplant & roasted bell pepper dip. However, I have quite an aversion for eggplant, & have never taken well to it for some strange reason. A lot of people love eggplant, & though I’ve been brave enough to try it a couple of times, it just didn’t work for me. So, I made my dip with roasted bell peppers, & threw in a few roasted tomatoes to add flavour. Meeta served the dip with crackers sprinkled with zatar, a herby middle eastern spice, which I enviously don’t have. I did have the other one she used, called sumac, a tangy spice made from red berries. The lavash recipe is as simple as crackers can possibly be, & once you master the art of getting the dough consistency right & rolling it out really thin, there’s nothing that can come between you & this addictive cracker. The first time I made them for the DB challenge, I did 2 variants, sweet & savoury, & they were both delicious. (I did a sweet cinnamon & brown sugar lavash with slivered almonds; the savoury version was with alternate rows of black & white sesame seeds…fun, fun, fun!)This time I made 2 savoury versions…a Middle Eastern & an Italian. The Middle Eastern ones were tamed into diamond shapes but the Italian ones were broken into shards. Addictive & yum, both of them! I preferred the ones with red chili flakes, roasted garlic & a sprinkling of Italian grill herbs. The jagged edges of the shards won me over!

Roasted Bell Pepper & Garlic Dip
as adapted from Ajvar Dip @ Meeta’s What’s For Lunch Honey?
Ingredients
Red bell peppers -3

Tomatoes -2
Garlic cloves – 3-4

A small bunch of chopped coriander leaves
Juice of 1/2 lime
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Green chili – 1-2/ finely chopped
Salt and fresh cracked black pepper Method:

Grill the peppers, tomatoes & garlic over an open flame as I did, or in a pre-heated oven.

  • Roast them till the skins have completely charred & blistered. Seal into a ziploc & leave for 10-15 minutes. Peel the skins off, deseed. Squeeze the garlic clove out. Place in a large bowl and mash or purée depending how chunky or fine you would like it to be. (I left mine chunky)
  • Add olive oil and the remaining ingredients. Season with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper. Store in air-tight containers in the fridge for up to a week.
    • Lavash Crackers
    from the book, ‘The Art Of Extraordinary Bread’, by Peter Reinhart.
    Ingredients
    Flour – 1 1/2 cup
    Salt – 1/2 tsp
    Instant yeast – 1/2 tsp
    Sugar – 1 tbsp (or agave syrup)
    Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp
    Water – 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 , at room temperature
    Roasted garlic paste
    Sumac, Italian herbs, Roasted garlic, Poppy seeds, Sesame seeds, Roasted red chili flakes or sea salt for toppings

    Method:

    • Stir together the flour, salt yeast, sugar, oil, and add just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water. Knead to a middle-firm dough, smooth & not sticky.
    • Turn into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, & allow to rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until doubled in size.
    • Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square & dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.
    • Preheat the oven to 200 C. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices if you are doing the Middle Eastern/sumac version (or poppy seeds, sesame seeds etc).
    • For the Italian version, brush the rolled out dough lightly all over with roasted garlic paste, sprinkle with Italian grill herbs, red chili flakes & sea salt. Just a light sprinkling is enough.
    • If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter & cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.
    • Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).
    • When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Pull the cut one apart, or break the Italian one into shards & serve.

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    ANOTHER INDIAN FLATBREAD…KHAMEERI ROTI

    “Without bread all is misery.”
    William Cobbett

    Carrying on from my last post, time to blog eloquently about the third Indian flatbread I had a go at making. You can find the earlier two, Naan & Tandoori Roti, in this post here. While the naan I made is a leavened bread but not with yeast, the tandoori roti is unleavened. This current flatbread, ‘Khameeri Roti‘, is also leavened, & yeast is the rising agent in this case. (‘Khameeri‘ means fermented.)

    This is a rustic, moreish flatbread, made entirely with wholewheat flour (aata) & has delicious crust. Like most baked flatbreads, it tastes best eaten hot out of the oven. The dough is kneaded twice; the second kneading is a little involved as you try & incorporate extra liquid into the dough. This results in a smooth silky dough, which is then left to rise. It’s a nice bread to serve with curries, vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

    Khameeri Roti (Leavened Bread)
    from ‘The Indian Menu Planner’
    Ingredients:
    Wholewheat flour – 2 cups
    Clarified butter (ghee) to grease baking tray. (I line the tray with foil instead)
    Salt to taste
    Active Dried Yeast – 1 1/2 tsp
    Flour to dust Method:

    • Dissolve the yeast in 1/2 a cup of warm water, & leave to proof.
    • Sieve the flour with salt onto a platter.
    • Make a well & pour in about 3/4 cup of water, mix gradually & knead to a tough dough. Add a little more water if required. Cover with a damp cloth & keep for 15 minutes.
    • Slowly sprinkle the dissolved yeast mixture, & keep kneading till the dough is smooth & pliable & not sticky. Cover with a damp cloth & leave for 30 minutes.
    • Divide the dough into 8-10 equal balls & dust with dry flour.
    • Press & flatten into 8″ wide discs. Place on a greased tray & bake for 4-5 minutes in an oven pre-heated at 180 degrees C.
    • Drizzle with melted ghee or butter(very optional, yet most delicious).
    • Serve hot with curry.

    This rustic flatbread is off for Yeastspotting at Susan’s @ Wild Yeast Blog, for her weekly wrap on yeast baking.

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    Posted by Deeba @ PAB

    A CRUST OF BREAD & A CORNER TO BLOG IN…LIFE IS!

    “If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens.”
    Robert Browning

    Have been on an Indian flatbread making spree of late. Recently rediscovered a book that I haven’t used in a while…The Indian Menu Planner. The recipes in this book have been put together by the master chefs of the Welcomgroup Maurya Sheraton Hotel & Towers, New Delhi. With loads of naans popping up every now & then, that was the first bread I wanted to try, & the second on my list was tandoori roti, an unleavened bread made from wholewheat flour. Both came out delicious. The naan needs prior preparation as it is a leavened bread, but the tandoori roti can be made with about 30 minutes in hand.
    To make these flatbreads, I use a contraption substituting a tandoor. It is basically a simple ‘black box’, with a heater element, under which a metallic tray slides in like a drawer. It goes up to very high temperatures & is ideal for making these; each bread takes 2-3 minutes.
    The oven serves the purpose quite well though, just takes a wee bit longer! These breads are ideally served fresh & hot with Indian meals like a butter chicken, dal makhani, tadka dal, tandoori chicken, vegetables, smoked butter paneer, kebabs etc.
    NAAN as adapted from the Indian Menu Planner…
    Naan…A light leavened Indian bread that can be made rich by applying butter when ready.
    Naans are traditionally cooked in a Tandoor or earthen oven but can also be made in your oven at home. Serve this delicious bread hot, with popular dishes like Tandoori Chicken or kebabs of different kinds. The dough for Naans needs to be made in advance so factor that into the preparation time.
    “Crusty, yet tender, delicious NAAN…”
    My entry for CLICK:September 2008 @ Jugalbandi
    …the call this month is for ‘CRUSTS’!

    Ingredients:

    Flour -2 cups
    Whole wheat flour – 1 cup
    Soda bicarb – 1 tsp
    Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp
    Milk – 4 tbsps
    Yogurt – 7 tsp
    Sugar – 3 tsp
    Oil – 3 tbsps
    Water -1 cup
    Method:
    • Sieve the flour, salt, soda bicarb & baking powder into a kneading platter / bowl.
    • Whisk the milk, yogurt & sugar together.
    • Make a well in the flour, add the cup of water & milk mixture & knead to a soft, smooth dough. Add more water if required.
    • Cover with a moist cloth & keep aside for 10 minutes.
    • Add the oil & knead again until all the oil has been absorbed by the dough.
    • Cover with a moist cloth, & keep in warm place for 2 hours until the dough rises.
    • Divide the dough into 10 balls. Flatten & sprinkle nigella (onion seeds, not Lawson), melon & sesame seeds. Cover & rest for 5 minutes.
    • Roll & flatten each ball within your palms. Stretch dough to one side to give the naan an elongated shape.
    • Place the naan on a greased or foil lined tray & bake in hot oven, at 190 degrees C for 10 minutes.
    • Brush with melted butter or ghee if desired & serve immediately.

    Tandoori Roti as made from The Indian Menu Planner
    A popular unleavened, wholewheat flour bread, baked in cylindrical clay ovens or the tandoor. It is the staple bread of most of rural North India.
    Ingredients:
    Wholewheat flour – 2 cups
    Salt – 1 tsp
    Water to knead
    Clarified butter/ghee to grease baking tray (I lined my tray with foil & omitted the ghee)

    Method:
    • Sieve the flour & salt into a kneading platter / bowl.
    • Make a well & pour in about 300 ml (a little more than a cup) of water, & knead to a soft dough. Add more water if desired. The dough should be silky smooth & not sticky.
    • Cover with a damp cloth & set aside for 20 minutes.
    • Divide into 8 portions. make into balls & dust with flour.
    • Pat & flatten each ball with the palms of your hand to make 6″ wide discs.
    • Place on greased tray/foil lined tray & bake for 5-6 minutes in an oven preheated at 180 degrees C.
    • Brush with melted ghee if desired. Serve hot.

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    TURKISH PIZZA ANYONE..Serving Pides with Pride!

    “Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.”
    Anna Quindlen
    Turkish pizza anyone?

    …they call them PIDES, street food from Turkey. Quite similar to something called lahmajoun, an Armenian pizza. Scrumptious, I tell you!! I saw this post by Elle @ Elles New England Kitchen while following DB Filbert Gateaus posts 2 days ago & I was sold…hook, line & sinker.
    Pide – Turkish Pizza

    Pide is a staple Turkish food and you’ll find it all over the country. The Turkish eat an astounding four times as much bread as any other nation. Most of this must be mouth-watering pide, the Turkish flatbread sold in every store and baked on every street corner. Pide is also the name of Turkish pizza, the bread topped with lamb, onions, cheese and tomato or any variety of combinations. Pide is a long thin banana shaped bread, rolled with some skill from a small ball of dough. The bread is then covered with the topping of your choice and slammed into a large, solid fuel burning oven for about 10 minutes. The resulting pide is sliced up and served piping hot.

    Serving Pides with Pride!

    Just the words ‘Turkish pizza’ transported me to an exotic land, the land of my dreams; there was no stopping me. Morning broke &, thanks to Elle, I was engulfed with sweet dreams of Turkey & it’s street food.

    This spice, sumac, comes from the berries of a wild bush that grows wild in all Mediterranean areas, especially in Sicily and southern Italy, and parts of the Middle East, notably Iran. It is an essential ingredient in Arabic cooking, being preferred to lemon for sourness and astringency.

    I am the proud owner of a bag of Sumac powder that my sweet niece thoughtfully got for me from Dubai. She often makes the Turkish Adana Kebabs I posted long ago, recipe here, & enjoys them a lot. The bag of sumac, a beautiful purple-red powder, has been beckoning me to use it for a while; pide seemed to present one such opportunity, since I had been longing to use sumac for something other than adana kebabs – delightful, delicious & simple kebabs.

    A small change to the recipe was the use of a fresh papaya tenderizer to soften the lamb…that’s just me because I do not like my lamb chewy. The flavours were great, the process SIMPLE; & the big bonanza…the kids loved them!
    ‘Moreish‘, rustic & delicious!
    For the kids, I used a small amount of marinara sauce as the base sauce first, followed by the the topping & additional Baby Gouda cheese grated on top … was terrified of getting rejected on the ultimate pizza frontier I guess…but they loved them. Served pides to the kids as flat pizzas, the regular way & sliced. Was elated that they enjoyed pides so much; love it when they explore their tastes & experiment with new flavours; HUGE relief.

    Here’s the recipe as adapted from Elles @ Elles New England Kitchen

    Dough: ( I made 1 1/2 times the original recipe, got me 10 Turkish pizzas)
    Active Dried Yeast – 1 1/2 tsp
    Sugar – 1 tsp
    Flour – 4 cups
    Whole wheat flour – 1 cup
    Salt – 1 1/2 tsp
    Oil – 2 tbsp
    Method:

    • Mix the yeast, sugar and 1 cup warm water in a mixing bowl. Proof for 10 minutes.
    • Add flour, salt and oil, mix slightly, then knead the dough on a floured board until smooth.
    • Shape into a ball, cover and let dough rise for about an hour.

    Topping:
    Ground lamb – 500gms (or your choice of meat)
    Fresh green papaya – 1 tsp ; grated fine (very optional)
    Onions – 2 small; finely diced
    Garlic – 6-8 cloves/ 2-3 tbsp minced ( I like plenty of garlic)
    Olive oil – 2 tbsp
    Tomatoes – 4-5; seeded and chopped
    Green capsicum – 2 small; diced
    Coriander – 1 bunch; finely chopped
    Tomato paste – 2 tsp
    Sweet paprika – 2 tsp
    Sumac powder – 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
    Cumin powder – 1 tsp
    Salt and pepper to taste
    Low fat cottage cheese – 300-400gms (I used Le Bon)
    Method for topping:

    • Marinade mince + 1 tsp papaya paste +1 tbsp minced garlic + 1 tsp sumac powder for 30 minutes, in the fridge.
    • Heat a skillet over medium heat, add the oil and saute the onions and remaining garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add the mince & stir fry on high till cooked through well & any liquid dries up. If you use papaya, the mince will have a kind of pasty consistency, not crumbly. Take off heat.
    • To this, add the tomatoes, coriander, green capsicum, tomato paste & spices & mix it all up. Taste and adjust seasonings.
    • Heat oven to 450°.
    • Divide dough into 10 portions and roll out to thin circles. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment, and place 2 dough circles on each. Spread some of the topping on the first 2, top with grated cottage cheese or feta, then put the baking sheet in the oven.
    • Have 1/2 cup of cold water ready, and toss it in the bottom of the oven quickly, then shut the door. (I forgot to do this)
    • Bake for 8-10 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough.
    • Remove from pan to a cooling rack.
    • Roll pizzas up to eat.

    Rolling in the PIDES – Pizza, the Turkish way…

    This one’s on its way to my old friend Ben @ What’s Cookin US for his ‘I Love Baking’ event, a baking event for baking loving people…& to Susan’s @ Wild Yeast Blog for Yeastspotting.

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    Indian Flatbread / Chapati Wraps with Turkish kebabs … WRAPPING IT UP…

    “Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread. Without it, it’s flat.”
    Carmen McRae, Jazz vocalist and pianist
    Indian Flatbread … Chapati / Roti

    Wrapping it up…fresh,healthy & fun!

    Here’s what I did with part of the Turkish Adana Kebabs I made a few days ago. I made Indian unleavened flatbreads, chapati or roti, & made wraps using the kebabs as the filling, with bell peppers, onions, a Yogurt dip & a new discovery…Pomegranate Molasses. Served it with a Mexican corn salad on the side. I find unleavened flatbreads very healthy & versatile. They are made out of whole wheat flour dough only, which just has to be kneaded (as the Daring Bakers tag line comes to mind…We need to knead), no question of leavening agents, prior preparation etc, & above all, no preservatives . I usually leave the dough standing for 30 minutes for the gluten strands to develop…& then am ready to roll!!
    Turkish Adana Kebabs…you can find the recipe here
    A flatbread is a simple bread made from flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened—made without yeast or sourdough culture. They can range from one millimeter to a few centimeters thick. Flatbread was already known in Ancient Egypt and Sumer.
    Chapati is a type of Indian bread eaten in South Asia and East Africa. In many areas of South Asia, particularly the north of the subcontinent, and in East Africa, it is the staple food. It is made from a dough of atta flour (whole grain durum wheat), water and salt by rolling the dough out into discs of approximately twelve centimeters in diameter and browning the discs on both sides on a very hot, dry tava or frying pan (preferably not one coated with Teflon or other nonstick material). Ingredients:
    Whole wheat flour – 1 1/2 – 2 cups
    Water to knead
    Sauteed bell peppers with onions (all sliced); saute in a little oil for just 4-5 minutes till crisp tender.
    Adana Kebabs ( recipe here)
    Yogurt Dip ( recipe here)
    Pomegranate molasses (recipe at the bottom)
    Mexican Corn Salad
    Method:
    • Put the flour in a big bowl, add enough water to make a firm, softish dough.
    • Knead firmly for 5-7 minutes; it should feel pliable & come away cleanly from the edges.
    • If the dough is too sticky, sprinkle on some more flour, 1 tbsp at a time, to get a nice, pliable dough.
    • Leave to stand for 30 minutes if you have time.
    • Heat a flat pan / tava to hot.
    • Make a dough ball about 1 1/2 ” big, dust in flour on both sides, & roll out as thin & as evenly as possible.
    • Put the rolled out flat bread on the tava. Cook for 1 minute till small bubbles form on the surface, flip it over & repeat.
    • Now drizzle a little oil (1/4 tsp) & smear it all over & fry briefly on low heat. Repeat on the other side. Keep warm. Make the rest of the chapatis the same way.
    • Line a chapati with a the sauteed bell peppers & onion. Add some dip, layer it with a kebab or two, drizzle some pomegranate molasses over it…
    • Wrap it up & serve with a corn salad!
    • For the Mexican Corn Salad – Toss sweetcorn with finely chopped coriander leaves, finely chopped green chilies, diced deseeded tomatoes, chopped spring onions with greens, lime juice & salt. Add some roasted cumin powder if you like. Serve chilled!

    This is my entry for Bread baking Day 7 hosted by Chili und Ciabatta…she says “think of indian chapati, naan, dosa or paratha, of italian focaccia, ethiopian injeera, swedish knäckebröd, scottish oatcakes, turkish pide, mexican tortilla, jewish matzo, armenian lavash, south tyrolean Vinschger Paarlen… this list could go on and on”… And that’s exactly what I did!

    And now for the Pomegranate Molasses

    The fruit chosen by Sra @ When My Soup Came Alive for AFAM this month was POMEGRANATE (the red ones are known as Kandhari Anaar’s here). This event was started by Maheswari of Beyond the Usual & has a different host each month. I bought a couple the other day & they have been staring me in the face. Read Rachel’s post of a cake she made with it, & wondered what else could come out of it other than juice, salsa, vinaigrette etc. Arundati knows I’ve been under pomegranate pressure because we spoke while I was staring at the fruit!!Making matters worse is that it’s Feb…fewer days!! To cut a long story short…well, I missed the deadline of Feb 25th! (& to end on a happy note…Sra just mailed to say she hadn’t rounded-up yet…so she accepted my pom molasses!! Thank you Sra… YAY!)

    Surfing brought me to many recipes…one which caught my attention was Pomegranate Molasses on a blog called Nami–Nami & also on Simply Recipes. ‘Pomegranate molasses’ is a traditional ingredient in Middle Eastern cooking and can be used in a variety of dishes. Here’s a bit of it that I made…mainly for AFAM, but also because I thought it would taste great with the kebab wraps…& it did! It’s like a piquant plum sauce…tangy & beautiful. My pictures don’t do justice to it…because ‘hurry made curry’ this time!! Also, the quantity is very little because we used up quite a bit…story of my blogging life….PHEW!!

    Pomegranate Molasses…on the Middle Eastern food trail!

    Ingredients:
    Pomegranates – 4 medium sized
    Juice of 3-4 limes
    Sugar – 1/4 – 1/2 cup (as per taste)
    Method:

    • Take out the pomegranate seeds ( the red juicy pearls) & blend them in a liquidiser.
    • Pour them through a muslin lined soup strainer to collect the clear liquid..the yummy juice! Squeeze the cloth to catch as much juice. The colour is to die for. It’s very tempting to abandon all plans & take a swig of the delicious juice…O well!
    • Put the juice with the sugar & lime juice in a pan & simmer, for 45-60 minutes till beautiful & thick…like molasses. It will thicken a bit as it sits.
    • Cool & store in a jar in the fridge.
    • Elise at Simply Recipes says…”You can also mix it with a little orange juice and club soda for a refreshing punch”. Sounds great…the daughter also said I can make a Kool-aid like drink with it! I’ll keep it as a sauce though, thank you; its beautiful like this!!

    Blended & strained…

    Posted by Deeba @ PAB
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