CARROT STIR FRY

This is pretty simple to prepare and does not involved grinding. Despite its easy method, this is truly delicious and healthy stir fry. Moong dhal is added along with carrot. The dhal is soaked then boiled until soft but still retains its shape.

Besides moong dhal you could substitute with grated coconut, using the same method.This vegetable dish is great if served with rice, capati or roti as the side dish.

CARROT STIR FRY

4 Medium carrot
1 Big onion
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp split black gram (urad dhal)
1 tsp cumin seed
2 green chili
2 dry chili
1/2 C moong dhal (soaked and boiled)
2 T cooking oil
salt to taste
curry leaves

METHOD

* Scrap the outer skin of the carrot, cut into small pieces. Slice the onion and green chili.

* Heat the oil, add the mustard seed, when it pops up, add urad dhal, cumin seed , stir until urad dhal turns light brown.

* Now add the onion, green chili, dry chili and curry leaves, cook until the onion is translucent.

* Add the carrot and salt, stir and add a few spoons of water, cook until carrot turns soft using medium heat and close the lid.

* Now add the cooked moong dhal, stir well and remove.

OATMEAL BREAD

For a change we baked this Oatmeal Bread, most of the time I did sweet bread on a regular basis. I need new and healthier ways to bake bread. This seems a perfect recipe to add to my collection.

After going through various sources, I re-create them since most recipes called for molasses, soaking the oat for several hours and using bread machine. I opt for brown sugar and used butter instead of shortening, done it manually.

When heating the milk and the rest of ingredients you could use microwave but make sure they are not piping hot. If not cool down to lukewarm before proceeding.

This recipe is still among my absolute favorite yeast bread recipes. It turns out great with nutty flavor of oat, right amount of salt and lightly sweetened. It's my hearty breakfast of the day!

OATMEAL BREAD
Yield  :   One loaf

2 1/2 C all purpose flour
1/4 C warm water
2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
3/4 C milk
1 C rolled oat
1 tsp salt
3 T brown sugar
2 T shortening
1 tsp sugar

METHOD

* Combine water, 1tsp sugar and yeast in a small bowl, let stand for 15 minutes until frothy.

* In a glass bowl, combine milk, oat, salt, brown sugar and shortening, heat until lukewarm using microwave oven.

* In a mixing bowl, combine milk mixture and yeast, gradually add the flour until stiff dough is formed.

* Knead by hand for 10 minutes or use stand mixer until elastic.

* Transfer dough onto oiled and covered bowl, let rise for 1 1/2-2 hours.

* Punch the dough, flatten into rectangle then fold into 3. Shape into loaf.

* Place the dough into greased 9 x 5 loaf pan, covered and let sit for 60 minutes. Towards the end of rising time, preheat the oven @ 190 C.

* Bake for 35-40 minutes. Remove and cool on rack.

Linking to  Yeastspotting 10-29-10
                 Bread Baking Day 34 : Bread With Grains
                 Bakers Sunday 4 

HOT & SPICY FRIED CHICKEN

Any time of the day, fried chicken sounds great and appetizing snack for chicken lovers especially the aroma at the time you're frying them. It is a great appetizer or side dish to serve along with main course. It is quite easy to prepare, just require time for marinating, the longer time it takes will make them more tastier.

Using dry chili but chili powder works well too, adjust to suit your taste. If you're using wet blender, kindly add some water to grind. In case the lemon grass is not available at your place, do omit them, this is for fragrance only.

This is my favorite recipe, do you believe that one of my sons can complete them in one sitting. What you need are:

HOT FRIED CHICKEN

12 pieces chicken drumstick/breast
salt to taste
oil for shallow frying

GRIND

1 in ginger
4 cloves garlic
2 stalk lemon grass
15 dry chili - soak to soften
1 tsp turmeric powder

METHOD

* Place cleaned chicken, ground ingredients and salt in a bowl. Mix well.

* Marinate for at least 1 hour in a refrigerator.

* Heat the oil, shallow fry the marinated chicken until both sides turn golden brown. Transfer onto plate lined with kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.

* Serve hot.

BAKED POTATO WEDGES

Once a while, my kids love to eat western food and instead of buying from popular fast food joint, I cook my own, not only cost effective but healthier and delicious.

For the potato, you could leave the skin on but I peeled them, first half the potato, then cut into wedges. If possible cut almost all the same size to ensure even baking. Do adjust the chili used according to your taste. These tasted great even without any chili or tomato sauce, just eat on its own.

MILK ROLLS

As you all know the aroma of homemade roll is irresistible. These are really easy to prepare and the taste is far superior from the store bought. These could easily serve as a snack, lunch or party food and you can decide how big or small you want them to be.

Kneading is essential for bread making in order to develop gluten, you need about 10 minutes to do this which help rolls to retain the shape and accumulate a volume of carbon dioxide gas while rising. Try not the add too much flour during shaping and rolling. This makes the dough tougher.

Rising or proofing brings out flavor especially from the yeast. If your kitchen is on cool side, leave the dough in the oven with pilot light on.