Buttery Flaky Croissants With Step by Step Pictures

I never imagined I would make my own croissants.  Like all homemade cakes, breads and cookies, home croissants are also the best.  The buttery smell when you bake these croissants and the flaky croissants straight from the oven to your plate is just amazing.  Well this is not my first attempt in making croissants, I have tried a couple of times before and I wouldn't say my previous attempts were complete disaster, it was good, but this is the best of all croissants which I made.  I know there is a hell lot of butter in this, but you have to forget about your diet and calories if you want to enjoy these.
 Don't worry, once in a while it won't hurt you much ;-)

  The critical think in making this is, your butter has to be at the right temperature and rolling the dough carefully.  Don't worry if your first attempt didn't give  the results you expected, try it again and again , practise will make you perfect.
 I followed the recipe from Annie's Eats, she has explained the recipe well with clear step by step pictures. You can check her recipe from here.  It's like a dream come true for me, making my own croissants in home.  Thank you Annie for this wonderful recipe.  I'm sure you'll enjoy making this at home.

Preparation Time: aprroximately 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes 12 croissants

Ingredients:
All purpose flour- 600 g
Instant yeast- 1 tbsp
Cold Milk- 180 ml
Butter-2 tbsp
Sugar- 40 g
Salt- 1 1/2 tsp

For the butter square:
Butter- 300 g
Flour- 2 1/2 tbsp

For the egg wash:
1 egg beaten lightly with 1 tbsp of water.

Method:
Prepare the dough:
Add about 550 g of flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl.  Slowly add the cold milk to the dry ingredients and start beating with your electric beater fitted with dough hook.  When dough comes together add the butter and start beating again until the butter gets incorporated and dough forms together into a big ball.  If the dough looks too sticky add the remaining 50 g of flour and beat with beater again.  Wrap the dough tightly in a cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Prepare the butter square:
Add the cold butter chopped into small squares and the flour to the work surface dusted with flour.  Smear the butter back and forth with a spoon or bench scraper until it forms a homogenous mixture.  Make the mixture into 7 inch, wrap it in a cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until ready to use.

Start preparing the dough for croissant:

Take the dough out from the refriegerator and roll it into a 11 inch square.

 Place the butter square diagonally in the middle.  Seal the edges together.

Start rolling the dough gently starting from the middle, make sure you dust the work surface with plenty of flour.  Roll the dough gently into 14 inch square.

Fold the dough into third to form a rectangle.

Again fold the dough into third to form a square.  Wrap the dough tightly with a cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Repeat the entire process again twice. Wrap the dough tightly with a cling film and refrigerate it over night.

To make the croissants:

Place the chilled dough in a floured work surface and start rolling gently from the middle to the outwards into a long rectangle.  Roll it about 30 cm length and 20 cm wide rectangle, cut into half.  Place the 1 half covered with a cling film separately.  Then roll the other half until you get 60 cm length and 30 cm wide rectangle.

Cut it into triangles as shown in the picture.

Take a triangle, slightly make a slit at the wide end in the middle.

Start rolling from the wide end to the narrow end to form a croissant.  Repeat the same process for the remaining.  Place the croissants in a greased and lined baking tray.  Space well between each croissants as they spread.   Cover loosely with a cling film and let it rise at room temperature for 40 to 45 minutes or until it looks puffed up.
Preheat the oven to 190 degree celsius.  Brush the croissants with egg wash and bake it in the preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes until it looks golden brown on top.
Serve the croissants warm with tea or coffee.  You can also store the croissants in a airtight box for upto 1 week.

This recipe goes to Bookmarked recipes by Priya and Aipi, yeastspotting, also linking this to Heart and Soul hop# 41

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Meringue filled flower buns for Daring Baker's Challenge March 2011

This is my 8th challenge with Daring Baker's and my last challenge in Germany.  Hopefully I'll continue the challenges in India after a break.  This month our challenge was by Jamie and Ria.  Our challenge was to make Meringue filled yeasted coffee cake.  Jamie's version was sweet buns filled with meringue, chocolate and nuts. Ria's version was a saffron dough filled with meringue, cashews and a touch of garam masala.  I would have loved to make Ria's spicy and aromatic version but this time I adopted Jamie's version, next time Ria's may be.  This was so good, so definitely I'm going to make it another time.  Thank you Ria and Jamie for this wonderful challenge.

Ingredients:
For the yeasted dough:
Flour- 300 g
Sugar- 25 g
Dried yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Milk- 90 ml
Water- 30 ml
Egg- 1
Unsalted butter- 60 g( softened)
Salt- 1/2 tsp

For the meringue:
Egg white- 1
Sugar- 30 g
Vanilla essence- 1/2 tsp
Salt- a pinch

For the filling:
Pecan nuts or walnuts- 50 g chopped
Sugar- 1 tbsp
Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp
Dark chocolate- 60 g chopped

Jam- 1 tbsp( for the topping)

Method:
To make the dough:
Add 150 g of flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl.  Heat the milk, water and butter until the butter gets melted completely.  Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture slowly beating with your electric mixture.  Now add the egg and remaining flour and beat with a electric mixture until it hold together like a dough. Turn the dough to a floured work surface and knead it for 5 to 10 minutes until it looks smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl, cover with a cling film and allow it to rise for 1 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.

Prepare the filling:
Mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl and keep it separately.

Prepare the meringue:

Once the dough has doubled start preparing your meringue.  Beat the egg whites with salt in a clean bowl with a electric mixer.  Once it looks foamy, add the essence and sugar little by little .  Increase the speed to high and beat it until it looks stiff and glossy.

Prepare the buns:

Once the dough has risen, punch the air back.  Divide the dough into 4 equal rounds and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Then flatten each round , spread 1/4 th of the meringue in the middle and sprinkle with the filling mixture.

  Seal the edges and make it into a round again. Dust your working surface with flour and flatten the filled buns slightly. Take a kitchen scissors and make small cuts around the buns.

 Make a deep dimple in the middle and fill it with a tsp of strawberry or any jam of your choice.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and bake the buns in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.  Once they are cooked,  take it from the oven and leave it to cool down in the cooling rack.
Enjoy these yeasted soft buns with a cup of tea or coffee.

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Curried Pumpkin Soup

This is a bit of different soup to my usual ones.  I always go for English style of soup with just vegetables and stock .  This time I made with a combination of lentils and pumpkin with some mild spices.  I would have left just with lentil and pumpkin and made it like a Indian style sambhar,  but since I was looking for a rich smooth consistency, I pureed it after cooking .

The type of lentils which I have used is moongdhal.  In India Moongdhal is generally used for making dhal soup, kootu curry( dry curry), for porridge and also for halwas. Moongdhals are rich source of carbohydrates, fibre and protein. Moongdhal marries well with pumpkin, particularly when it is pureed, the consistency of the soup is perfect with crusty rolls and you'll love the flavours in it.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Pumpkin- 200 gms
Moong dhal- 100 gms
Onion- 1 medium sized roughly chopped
Potato- 1 medium sized( peeled and chopped)
Vegetable stock- 300 ml
Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
Garlic- 3 pods chopped
Coriander leaves or parsley- 3 stalk finely chopped
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt  and pepper to taste

Method:
Wash the moong dhal and add it to the pressure cooker along with peeled and chopped pumpkin, potatoes, onion, stock, half of coriander leaves and spices.  You can add more water if you want a thin consistency of the soup. Pressure cook it for upto 3 whistles.  Let it cool down for a while, then puree it in a blender.
In another heavy bottom pot or pan , add oil, finely chopped garlic then pureed mixture .  Add salt and pepper for taste.  Let it simmer for 5 minutes.  If the soup looks too thick , you can add some water to make it liquidy.  Add chopped coriander leaves on top and serve with crusty rolls.

This can be made easily with less techniques so I'm linking this with my own event Any One Can Cook and for Souper Sundays, also linking this to Treat To Eyes: Series 2 by Spice your senses

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Aaloo Paratha with Paneer Tikka Masala

After Idli and sambhar, if I have to say I enjoy a vegetarian dish it must be these soft aaloo parathas and any paneer dishes.  This is something which I regularly order in a restaurant.  From blogging I have learnt that this is favourite for many like me.  To be honest I enjoy these paneer recipes much more than chicken.
  Aaloo paratha recipe is somrthing which I prepare even in my earlier days of cooking, when I just started to cook.  It never goes wrong and one good thing about these parathas are they remain just as soft even after a long time, you don't have to reheat it again.  So this is perfect for dinner parties or even picnics.
   Paneer Tikka Masala, I learnt from Vahchef.  I know he must be a favourite chef for many foodies.  I enjoy watching his videos.   A good food picture will tempt the viewers, but to me his videos and the way he explains about the food, makes me to try it immediately.  His recipes are always reliable which is presented very interestingly.  I enjoy a lot watching his online recipe, do check it out.

Aaloo Parathas

Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Makes 10 to 12 parathas


Ingredients:
Wheat flour- 300 g
Yogurt- 3 tbsp
Ghee- 1 tbsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
Honey- 1/2 tbsp
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Water just enough to knead the dough
Oil for making the parathas
For filling:
Potatoes- 3 to 4 medium sized
Onion- 1 small sized finely chopped
Green chilly- 1 chopped
Coriander leaves- finely chopped 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Sift the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center add the yogurt, honey and ghee.  Add water little by little to make it into a smooth dough.  Knead the dough in a floured work surface for 5 minutes, until the dough looks elastic.  Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl.  Cover with a cling film  and let it rest for minimum 2 hours.

Prepare the filling:
Boil the potatoes for about 20 minutes until it's soft enough to mash.  Peel the skin, mash the potatoes without any lumps.  Add the chopped onion, chilly, coriander leaves, salt and pepper to taste. Mix it well.

Prepare the parathas:
Divide the dough into 10 equal rounds and divide the potato filling into 10 equal rounds.  Roll the dough into 3 cm diameter.  Place the filling in the middle.  Close the dough and seal the edges.  Apply some flour to the work surface and roll it out into 8 cm diameter.  Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
Heat a non stick tawa, when the tawa gets heated, place the parathas in the middle.  Cook it each side for 2 to 3 minutes, until it looks brown spots on top.  Apply ghee or oil while cooking.
Serve the parathas warm with veg or non veg curries.

Paneer Tikka Masala

Recipe Source: Varehvah
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Marination:
Paneer- 250 gms
Onion- 1 roughly chopped
Red pepper- 1/2 diced
Green pepper- 1/2 diced
Tomato -  1/2 tomato diced
Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
Kasoori methi- 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
Yogurt- 1/2 tbsp
Oil- 1 tsp
Salt and pepper to taste

For gravy:
Ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
Onion- 1 medium sized finely chopped
Tomato- 1 medium sized pureed
Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 1/4 tsp
Flour- 2 tsp
Oil- 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste
Coriander leaves- 2 stalk finely chopped
Note:
To make your own home made paneer click here

Method:
Dice the paneer into small cubes and marinate with all the marinade ingredients for 1 hour.
Take a grilling pan or normal pan, add all the marinated ingredients and cook until the paneer looks brown around the sides.
  Heat oil in a pan, add the  cumin seeds, finely chopped onion and ginger garlic paste.  Cook till the onion looks light brown in colour. Add the flour to the onion mixture and stir well.  Then add the tomato puree and keep stirring until it looks like one whole mass. Add water slowly to the mixture and thin the gravy.  Add the chilly and coriander powderand let it boil for 2 minutes, until the gravy looks thick.  Finally add the paneer and other grilled ingredients to the gravy and let it simmer for 5 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle with garam masala on top. Just before taking off from heat add the finely chopped coriander leaves.

Serve the gravy warm with parathas or naan.


These two recipes goes to AWED- Indian Cuisine hosted by me , started by DK.  Paneer Tikka masla goes to Bookmarked recipes by Priya and Aipi.

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Any One Can Cook : Series 20

Hello Foodies,
    I was about to cancel this week series too, but then I decided to go ahead with it.  Any One Can Cook will be still on even in my absence in the next two months.  I hope I'll get the same enthusiastic support from you all dear food bloggers even in my absence.
If you are new reader to this blog, please check the event rules here.

Just remember a few rules before linking your recipe, your recipe should fall under any one of the following categories. When you are linking your recipe here, please give the short form as I have mentioned to make it easy for the readers. If your recipe falls under any of the two categories or all the three categories also you can mention it.  When you are linking if you forget to give the short form don't worry, no problem about that.

For Beginners- FB

With Less Ingredients- WLI

With Minimum amount of time- WMT

Archived recipes can be sent just by giving a link to the event in your post. Also don't forget to give a link about the event in your post.

If you find any trouble in linking your recipe please mail me your recipe link ayeesha.riaz@googlemail.com.

So let's coming cooking easy.....

The linky will be opened from Monday- Friday( till midnight 12) according to Europe- Greenwich Mean Time

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Mini Pumpkin Bread

If you have read one of my earlier posts  Squash Muffin, you would have known how much I like pumpkin or squash in my baked goodies.  The reason  why I like it is, not just the flavour, the bright golden colour, which attracts me a lot.  There a tons of  yummy recipes for Pumpkin bread which you can find online, but this is my own version.
  
 It's just only two weeks for us to pack and move and I'm still baking and blogging, can you believe it?  Yes since we are moving, my books are already packed and I couldn't look for any recipe.  So I was searching for hours for pumpkin yeasted cakes, yes I did found some with sourdough, but I was looking for something quick , so I thought I'll try on my own.  In  my earlier days of cooking, I used to follow the recipe step by step i.e. if there is any single ingredient missing, I don't try to twist the recipe or making something on my own.  I used to think that the recipe will completely go wrong.  Gradually I developed myself to twist and change the recipes and use the available ingredients in my kitchen.

     When it comes to bread  I always followed the book or any recipe with very minor changes, this one is something which I never tried and I have no idea how it'll work.  You don't have to do any kneading for this bread, it's batter bread made in the cute little bundt pans.  You can also use a muffin tray if you want to. It was quite too airy than I excepted, that is because of the bicarbonate of soda which I added to the recipe.  You can skip the bicarb of soda if you want to, still you'll end up in a nice soft bread.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Makes 12 mini bundt breads

Ingredients:
Bread flour or plain flour- 300 g
Pumpkin puree- 150 g
Melted butter- 60 g
Eggs- 2
Warm milk- 180 ml
Dried yeast- 2 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
Orange juice- 2 tbsp
Grated orange zest- 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon powder- 1/2 tsp
Honey- 4 tbsp
Icing sugar- to dust on top

Note:
If you don't  want to use honey, replace honey with 100 g of white sugar.

Method:
To make Pumpkin puree:
Peel and chop 100 g of pumpkin, pressure cook it for 3 whistles by adding little water. Let it cool down for a while, then puree it in a blender.

Start making the bread by sifting the flour in a large bowl. Add yeast to the flour and mix it well.  Make a well in the center, add honey, eggs, melted butter, orange juice, orange zest, cinnamon powder and warm milk.  Mix it together with a spatula without ant lumps, it should be like a thick cake batter.  Cover the bowl with a cling film and keep it in a warm place.  Let it rise for 1 to 2 hours or until it looks doubled.  Take the bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
    Grease the bundt pans with butter.  Pour the batter till halfway in the pan.  Loosely cover the pan and keep it in a warm place for 30 minutes or until it reaches the top of the pan.  Meanwhile preheat the oven for 190 degree Celsius.  Bake the bread in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Take it out from the oven and let it sit in the pan for 5 minutes.  Then run a skewer around the edges of the pan and flip it upside down to remove it from the pan.  Dust the bread with icing sugar and serve.

This recipe goes to Bread Baking Day 38, Yeastspotting

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Chicken Shawarma

 I can still remember the very first time I had these shawarma.  First things are always special isn'it. It was the very first Eid fair which I attended in UK with my husband.  Since my husband was helping someone in the stall, me and his friend's wife were going through all the shops.  At one point we got very tired and hungry.  Athough there was plenty of food shops, in each and every shop, there was a very long queue.
Finally my friend managed to get these shawarmas for us.  You know sometimes people used to when your hungry, the taste of the food gets doubled. Why I'm saying this is, it was the best of all shawarmas I ever had.  I don't know weather it tasted so good since I was hungry or it tasted really very good and made me eat a lot.  Whatever it is the next five years when I was in UK , I looked for some shawarma like that and nothing didn't much that.  I think by now you should have realized I'm how fond of these shawarma.

  Right I talked all my old stories about shawarma and I didn't mention what actually a shawarma is.  If you haven't come across this word  Shawarma in your life, here is the explanation for that.   Shawarma is a type of sandwich made with meat and salad.  The special element in this sandwich is the meat, the way how it is prepared. Seasoned meat and fat layers are stacked and keep turning around the heat, which is then sliced from the outer and made as stuffing for sandwich along with salad. You can get a clear view from the wikipedia link here.  I think I have used too much of the word shawarma in this post, so let's stop here and go to the recipe.
Recipe adapted from Titli's Busy Kitchen

Preparation Time:45 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Chicken- 500 g
Oil - 3 tbsp
Pitta bread or Naan- 4
Marination for chicken:
Yogurt- 3 tbsp
Lemon juice- 2 tbsp
Parsley- 1 tbsp chopped
Ground nutmeg- 1/4 tsp
Paprika- 1/4 tsp
Ground ginger- 1/4 tsp
Ground cloves- 1/4 tsp
Ground cardamom- 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon- 1/4 tsp
All spice- 1/4 tsp
Garlic- 2 cloves grated
Salt to taste

For the tahini sauce:
Tahini- 3 tbsp
Yogurt- 1 1/2 tbsp
Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves- 2 grated
Salt to taste

For the filling:
Lettuce- few leaves
Cucumber-  1/2 of 1 medium sized cucumber( sliced)
Tomato- 1 medium sized( sliced)
Black olives- 5 to 6
Feta cheese- 2 tbsp
Red onion- 1 medium sized( sliced)

Method:
Marinate your meat:
To get really thin slices of the meat, take the frozen chicken and leave it outside for about 1/2 an hour .  The meat should be in the half defrosted stage, at this stage using a sharp knife  thinly slice the chicken.  Marinate the chicken with all the marinade ingredients and leave it for minimum 2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
Cook the chicken:
Take the oil in a wide open pan, add all the chicken pieces and cook until it looks dry.
Prepare the sauce:
Add  all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix it well.
Assemble the shawarma:
Take the pitta bread, lay it flat.  Spread the sauce in the pitta bread, arrange some chicken pieces on top it then some filling with lettuce, cucumber, tomato, olives, onions and feta cheese.  Wrap the pitta bread and serve immediately.


Note:
Instead of chicken you can also use beef or lamb.  The filling ingredients is also your choice, you can also use red cabbage, pickles etc...

This recipe goes to Souper Sunday

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Baked Oatmeal

  Does your family always say no when it comes to oatmeal, well they won't anymore once you try this baked version.  Good food doesn't have to be bland or unappealing, this is one example for that.  I came across this recipe in Amanda's blog.  The moment I saw this , I know it's definitely going to be on our breakfast table.

     I tried immediately within the next few days.  And our oatmeal enemies have become so friendly with it now.  This humble food taste great on it's own, but it needed some glamour to stand out on the table, so I added some fruit yogurt and fruit compote.  You can enjoy the way you wish, you can also add some fruit and nut while baking.  The good thing is, it's just so easy to make.  So now no excuse to  skip the breakfast.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 to 20 minutes
Serves 2 adults and 2 kids

Ingredients:
Oats- 150 g
Butter- 1 tbsp melted
Brown sugar- 50 g
Honey- 1 tbsp
Milk- 100 ml
Egg- 1
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Baking powder- 1 tsp

To serve:
Fruit compote
Fruit yogurt

Fruit compote:
Blueberry- 100 g
Maple syrup- 2 tbsp

Note:
You can replace brown sugar with white sugar and add more sugar if you want to.  And serve on it's own without fruit compote and fruit yogurt.

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Powder the oats in a blender.  Mix the powdered oats , sugar, honey, baking powder, essence , egg  and milk together without any lumps.  Finally add the melted butter and mix well.  If you are looking for a soft texture pour it in a shallow oval dish or 20 cm square dish and bake it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes.  Until the top layer looks firm.
   If you want it like bars, pour it in a bigger dish and bake till the top looks firm.
  Serve warm with yogurt and compote.

To make the compote:
Add the blueberries and maple syrup to the pan and bring it to medium to low heat. Cook until the fruit gets softened and it looks syrupy.

Linking this recipe with Any One Can Cook, Bookmarked recipes by Priya and Aipi,  B for breakfast, Heart and soul, Tempt My Tummy

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Almond Cookies for Sweet Punch March 2011

  This month Ria of Ria's Collection has chosenthe recipe form Manjula's Kitchen.  Manjula's Kitchen is a very popular Indian recipe, I'm sure all Indian food lovers must have known her recipes .  Our challenge for this month is to bake Whole wheat eggless almond cookies.  Without any doubt Manjula's recipes always taste the best.

   My cookies didn't spread much but it tasted absolutely delicious.  I made only a few batch and it disappeared in minutes.  I haven't changed anything much in the recipe, except for sugar and along with cardamom, I also added saffron. I love the flavour of saffron and cardamom together, since they go well with each other.  I hope you enjoy baking these aromatic cookies in your home...

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time:  10 minutes
Makes about 30 tiny almond shaped cookies

Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour- 1 cup
Butter- 1/2 cup( softened)
Brown sugar- 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Sliced almonds- 1/4 cup
Saffron- about 5 strands soaked in 2 tsp of warm milk
A pinch of salt

Note:
You can replace brown sugar with normal white sugar and also avoid using saffron if you don't want to.

Method:
   Mix the flour, sugar, salt and cardamom powder in a large bowl.  Add the softened butter to the flour mixture and start working with your hand, then add the saffron soaked milk and bring it together like a dough. If it doesn't come together, add some more milk.
    Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.  Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking paper and cut it using a cookie cutter.  Place it in a greased baking sheet, leaving enough space between each cookies.  Bake it in the preheated oven for 5 to 7 minutes, until the cookies looks lightly brown on top.  Remove it from the oven, leave it in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer it to a wire rack and let it cool down completely.  Store the cookies in an air tight container.
   If you don't want to use cookie cutter.  After making the dough, divide the dough into small balls and place it in a baking sheet.  Press it slightly on top to flatten.  Bake it in the preheated oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, until they look brown on the sides.  Take it out from the oven and let it cool down in the tray for 3 minutes.  Transfer it to a wire rack and cool down completely.  Once cooled down store it in a air tight container.
Enjoy these aromatic cookies with your evening tea.

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Any One Can Cook : Series 19

Hello  Foodies,

     Thank you everyone for your participation with Any One can Cook.  This is our successful 19th series.  

New readers check the event rules here.

Just remember a few rules before linking your recipe, your recipe should fall under any one of the following categories. When you are linking your recipe here, please give the short form as I have mentioned to make it easy for the readers. If your recipe falls under any of the two categories or all the three categories also you can mention it.  When you are linking if you forget to give the short form don't worry, no problem about that.

For Beginners- FB

With Less Ingredients- WLI

With Minimum amount of time- WMT

Archived recipes can be sent just by giving a link to the event in your post. 

If you find any trouble in linking your recipe please mail me your recipe link ayeesha.riaz@googlemail.com.

So let's coming cooking easy.....

The linky will be opened from Monday- Friday( till midnight 12) according to Europe- Greenwich Mean Time

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Goulash

Goulash is a typical Hungarian soup.  If you are a regular reader to my blog, in few of my previous posts I have mentioned that I used to think that  food without spices is bland.  This was  my opinion until I started exploring different cuisines.  Spices definitely adds a lots of flavour to the food, but the fact is each and every food say it meat or vegetable have their own flavour.  Chicken with tandoori spices is simply amazing.  But when you taste just roast chicken with a sprinkle of salt and pepper, it has it's own flavour which does taste really good.
  
 Goulash is a very simple stew, traditionally it's kept as simple as possible, with just meat, garlic and onion.  A few vegetables like carrot, leeks and celery adds much more flavour.  Don't try to add any spices and transform this simple stew into curry( I'm saying this for people like me, who tries to add spices in all different types of food).  Prepare the way , how it meant to be, you'll definitely enjoy it and see the difference.
Traditionally goulash is a slow cooked stew, cooked in a casserole for about 2 hours, off course it's hard for me to spend such long hours in cooking, so this is a simple pressure cooker method which reduces the time for cooking.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Lamb- 400 g
Onion- 1 big sized finely chopped
Leeks- 200 g chopped
Carrot- 2 medium sized chopped
Green pepper- 1/2 chopped
Red pepper- 1/2 chopped
Parsley or coriander- 1 tbsp finely chopped
Vegetable stock- 1 1/2 cup( 1 cup= 225 ml)
Tomato puree- 2 tbsp
Paprika- 1/2 tsp
Bay leaves- 1
Cinnamon stick- 1/2 inch stick
Garlic- 4 pods finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Flour- 2 tbsp+ extra
Oil- 1 tbsp

Method:
Wash the meat well, season it with salt and pepper.  Take oil in a wide open pan for browning the meat.  Dip the meat in flour and dust the excess flour.  Add 2 to 3 pieces at a time in the oil and just brown the meat, you don't have to cook it completely.  Take the meat and set aside.  To the same oil, add finely chopped garlic and onions and saute, transfer immediately to the pressure cooker in medium heat.  Add the bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
    Now add the meat, stock, paprika and pressure cook for 5 whistles.  Then add the leeks, carrot and any other vegetable if using , tomato puree and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Finally add the red pepper, salt and pepper to taste.  Then mix 2 tbsp of flour in 100 ml of water and add it slowly to the stew.  Let it simmer for further 20 minutes.Sprinkle finely chopped coriander leaves or parsley on  top of the stew and stir well.  At this stage the meat should look very tender, now you can take it off from heat.
Serve the stew warm with bread or rice.

Note:
Soup or stew taste at it's best when you use the best quality stock.

Linking this soup with Souper Sunday

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