Zucchini Bread

Last weekend I realised that I had a packet of fresh bakers yeast which waas getting old and I needed to use it to make something or I may have to throw it away. So, I decided to make something with Zucchini and since I also got to know about the World Day of Bread, I thought it fits perfectly.
And how perfect it fit...! The bread was just perfect, it rose perfect, it smelled perefect, it looked perfect (well... almost!), and it was a perfect dinner for us, which we -sunny boy, hubby and me - enjoyed with some butter and my home made tomato-apple-onion chutney, which I had made on the same day. Now my list of jams and chutneys which I want to post about is getting bigger, but somehow I am just not getting the time for it. But, I plan to do it this month for sure.


Now coming back to the bread, I used a recipe from the book I talk about a lot. These were just guidelines for making a bread with vegetables, but good enough for me to be able to make my own proportions and I was happy that it turned out good. And I must say that I had actually planned to make a whole wheat version, but when I started collecting the ingredients, I realised that I had no whole wheat flour anymore, but enough of type 1050 and 550. So, I thought " well....that's even better", as that was like a guarentee that the bread will rise well. But, I will try it out with whole wheat flour too.

Zucchini Bread

Recipe from "Backen Köstlich wie noch nie (GU)"

Baking temp. : 200 °C (180 °C Convection oven)
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Proofing time: about 2 hours in total
Baking time: 40-50 minutes**

Ingredients:

300 g wheat flour type 1050
200 g wheat flour type 550
1/2 cube (21 g) fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
50 ml lukewarm water
200 g Zucchini, grated coarsely
1 tbsp coriander seeds, freshly ground
1 tsp cumin, freshly ground
1 level tsp salt
150 ml yoghurt or buttermilk


Method:

• Mix both the flour types in a deep bowl and make a deep well
• Add the sugar in the well and crumble the yeast over it and mix with sugar
• Wait for 3 -4 minutes before adding about 50 ml lukewarm water to the yeast
  
• Dissolve the yeast gently with the water, sprinkle with some flour
  
• Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and keep at a warm place for 15 minutes
• Add the remaining ingredients unless using buttermilk, add it slowly, and mix everything quickly and knead throughly
• When using buttermilk, add it in small portions while kneading the dough
  
• Make a round ball in the bowl, cover again with a kitchen towel
  
• Let it rise at a warm place for an hour or until the dough doubles in volume
• Punch it down and and knead it again throughly and place in a rectangular bread tin or simply over a baking tray
• Let it rise again for about 30 minutes
• make a few slanting cuts or one long cut on the bread surface
• brush with some olive oil
• Place in the preheated oven at 200°C (180 °C Convection) and bake for about 40 to 50 minutes**

** If the bread is baked in a bread tin, then bake for 50 minutes or
if put directly on the baking tray, for 35 - 40 minutes

As I already said, it was a delicious bread and we enjoyed eating this warm bread that evening fully and on the following days as well. And this is by far the best bread I have made so far. The crust was so good to bite into, which surely got the good flavour from the olive oil which I used quite generously on the bread. But, my journey with bread baking has just begun, which can only get more interesting. And I'm looking forward to some more experiments.

This is my entry to the event World Bread Day being hosted by Zorra of 1x Umrühren bitte.



Update: by mistake I had published the post yesterday itself while I wrote the post. So, if you were here just aroud that time and were wondering then I'm sorry for the confusion!

Pumpkin baked with Potatoes

Yesterday, it was a Sunday and I saw this lovely red organic Hokkaido pumpkin lying in my vegetable basket for much too long. With pumpkins you always take it easy. You buy when you see something nice and let it rest there with its other friends in the basket , thinking "it has time...."as you want to prepare something nice on a weekend when you have more time at hand". Now, I felt, it really was time and I also knew what I wanted to make.
Hubby dear was playing with Rishab or, so to say, giving in to all his demands of " Now...we'll do this ...." and a while later "..now let's read a book...this one of Rabe Socke..." So, I had the peace of mind to prepare the meal and many more things I had planned for the day. For me to be able to spend time in the kitchen at length undisturbed has become a luxury, now that sonny boy also requires his attention and I always loved to be in the kitchen, especially on weekends, as that was the best way I could relax... to cook a nice meal and enjoy it. Earlier I didn't have the time to cook so often like I do now, but the fun factor has still not gone and now blogging has surely added the icing on the cake.
Since I had chosen a recipe which has almost become like our family recipe, there wasn't much thought I had to give while preparing it. It just comes from the heart. You know what I mean...? I came up to it without referring to any recipes or books (blogs were unknown to me then). I have created it entirely trusting my own instincts and after trying to get a feel for the new fruit (variety) which it was then. Ever since the recipe has remained more or less constant with only a few small variations depending on my mood. As, this is our family favorite and we love to eat it this way every year in Autumn.
So, this time I did not put whole coriander seeds, but ground them in my coffee mill. And used a small bunch of fresh thyme leaves which I think go quite well with the Indian spices. Though, dried fenugreek leaves taste splendid with the pumpkin. And I always have pumpkin nuts and I somehow feel they should not be missing in the dish either.

Ingredients:

1 large Hokkaido pumpkin, seeds removed and cut into small pieces
6 potatoes, washed, peeled and cut into thick long slices / wedges
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, optional
2 large cloves garlic, grated or thinly sliced
2 medium red onion, thinly sliced
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated or chopped fine
2-3 large tomatoes, sliced
1 tbsp fresh or 1 tsp dried herbs like thyme or dried fenugreek leaves
3 tsp salt, or to taste
4-6 tbsp olive oil

Roast separately:
1 tsp Fenugreek seeds,
2 tbsp coriander seeds,
1 tsp cumin,
6 cloves
2 star anise and
2-3 black cardamoms,
2 red chillies (or to taste),
10 peppercorns

Method:

• Roast the whole spices one by one and, clean and cut the vegetables.
• Mix all the ingredients together in a large porcelain baking dish
• Bake for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 175°C (160°C Convection)
• In between, take out and mix the vegetables
• At the end check if the potatoes are done with a fork, if not extend time as required to up to 20 minutes or until done
  

Both of us just love this very nutty flavour of Hokkaido and its smooth texture as compared to other pumpkin varieties and this fruit stays quite high in our list of favorite vegetables. And this time it was no different.
We ate this pumpkin with some Arabic whole wheat flat breads (they are just like Indian rotis) which hubby had bought at a shop in the city centre. We had made them warm on a cast iron pan before eating. But, this is also a perfect side to a nice pan fried fish or chicken breast. A bowl of fresh green salad would have made it even more better, but we were happy with it alone this time, as we had already had large portions of fruit salad I had made as a small midday snack for us.
Now that I am writing this post, I'm thinking that I haven't tried using pumpkin seed oil which I have been wanting to since a while now. But, I could imagine that a green salad with white wine vinegar vinaigrette with a drizzle of pumpkin seed oil must be a perfect match to it. I really have to get a small bottle and try it.
This one goes to Sensational sides at Meeta's What's for lunch Honey being hosted by Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments this time.

And I'm sending this off to another wonderful event World Food Day created and being co-hosted by Val of More than Burnt Toast and Ivy of Kopiaste.


Update:
This recipe also goes to the AFAM Event started by Maheswari at Beyond the Usual and being hosted this month by Madhuram of Egglesscooking.com.

Savoury Pumpkin pie (Pikante Kürbis Torte)

This is a pie I saw at Kopiaste in her savoury pies event and it was her own entry to it. I instantly liked it and bookmarked the recipe and since the pumpkin season has started now, which means not just Hokaido, which you start getting in August itself, I didn't have to wait long to try it out.
And the results were just as I expected : Wonderrrrr...ful! Dellllll...icious!
Now this is one recipe which I know I will use to impress others at partys! " you know....this is a greek........... and ......called Badjina........." Ha! :D ( :[ as if I'm celebrating partys every month.....
:)
Ivy, thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!
I have actually tried another recipe of hers but will post it as soon as I get time for it.

Since I'm sending this recipe off to a "German" event -my very first ever(!!), the remaining post will be in German (for the original recipe please visit Ivy's blog here)Für den Fall, daß es tatsächlich jemandem aus dem Deutschen Sprachraum gibt, der das obige nicht versteht, ich erwähne es hier nochmals und noch mehr dazu.....:

Diese pikante Torte habe ich auf einem Food Blog "Event", wie es so schön heißt, entdeckt and mir lief schon das wasser im mund zusammen und wollte es unbedingt probieren. Da der Kürbis Saison schon angefangen hat, mußte ich nicht lange warten. Es ist eine Griechische torte Badjina, und wird ein ksevrakoti genannt, was so gut wie "die torte ohne unterhosen" heißt, da es dem der Teigboden fehlt. (Das Rezept findet ihr auch hier auf English auf Ivy's Blog Kopiaste).


Backtemp. : 180 °C (160 °C Umluft)
Vorbereitungszeit: 45 Minuten
Backzeit: 1 Stunde

Zutaten:

1,3 kg Fruchtfleisch von 1 mittelgroßen Kürbis, geraspelt (geschält und ohne kerne gewogen)
500 g Mehl (405)
500 g Maisgrieß
1 gestr. TL Backpulver
1 1/2 Tassen extra natives Oliven Öl
1 TL salz
500 g Feta (ein Teil musste ich mit Gouda ersetzten)**
100 g Ziegenkäse ( habe mit Camembert ersetzt )**
3 kleine Eier
2 EL Margarine oder Butter zum einfetten der Backform

(Das nächstes mal werde ich wohl genauer auf den Zettel schauen :P)

Zubereitung:

• Kürbis schälen, und mit einer Reibe raspeln
• Alle Zutaten bis auf eine Tasse Käse (ich habe dafür Gouda genommen) mischen, es müßte eine ordentlich feuchte Masse sein
  
• Ein Backblech einfetten und die Kürbismasse reinfüllen
• Im vorgeheizten Backofen auf 180 °C (Umluft 160 °C) für 1 Stunde backen, wenn es anfängt oben braun zu werden, dann ist es auch fertig
  
• Warm mit ein paar Blätter Petersilie garniert servieren (diese waren sogar aus meinem eignen Garten!)
  

Guten Appetit!

**Da ich die Mengen für Feta falsch eingeschätzt hatte und beim Einkaufen nicht daran gedacht habe Ziegenkäse zu kaufen, habe ich sie dem entsprechend ersetzt. Was für ein Glück, daß ich so viel käse noch parat hatte! :´´( *wein*
Trotz der Pannen mit der Käsemengen und fehlender Käsesorten, war das Gericht einfach super lecker!! Sehr empfehlenswert! Wir haben sogar daraus unseren Hauptmahlzeit gemacht, mit einem einfachen Rukola-Gelbepaprika-rote Zwiebel Salat mit Viniagrette als Beilage. Aber trotzdem blieb einiges überig, das jetzt in unserem Gefrierfach ruht....
Wir sorgen für die Speckfalten für den bevorstehenden Winter, wo die Gas- und Öl-preise so wie so so hoch steigen..... können wir da vielleicht ansparen?!!


Diese Torte schicke ich zum BLOG-EVENT XXXIX - Quiche, Tarte & Co. , daß von Genial Lecker bei Zorra's 1x Umrühren bitte ausgerichtet wird. Es ist mein allererster Beitrag zu einem deutschen Blogevent, und daher bin ich doch irgendwie aufgeregt!

Going green...

....NO! not with envy!:)
But, with broccoli for an Event. These pictures were mainly inspired by this event started by the wonderful Sunshinemom at her blog Tongueticklers . Unfortunately I didn't manage to post them in time.
But, then I don't want it going waste. Delicious as it was.
It is a very simple recipe, but my favorite way of eating broccoli: when it is still crunchy, stirfried with lots of freshly ground coriander seeds and rape seed oil.

Ingredients:

1 broccoli , washed and cut into small florets
1 large red onion, sliced into thick pieces
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 inch ginger, peeled and julliened finely
2 small tomatoes, sliced into wedges (I used two from my kitchen garden)
2 tbsp rape seeds oil
1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
2 tbsp corinader seeds, ground
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder, or to taste (I used a little lesser for my sonny boy!)
salt to taste

Method:

• heat oil on medium heat in a wok or saute pan, add all the spices, stir once - the spices will throw out bubbles and cumin should splutter and add turmeric, garlic and ginger, stir once again shortly and add onion and keep stirring
  
• soon after the onion starts to turn golden brown add the broccoli and stir again.
• reduce heat, add a few tbsp water and salt and cover for about five minutes
• remove lid and stir, if required one more tbsp of water let cook uncovered stirring in between for another few minutes
• add tomatoes about a couple of minutes before the broccoli is done and has turned soft.
• eat it with some basmati rice, or some daal (lentils) of your liking

NOTE:

• cook broccoli to your desired crunchiness or softness. It can also be blanched before stir frying - thast helps it to turn softer from inside as well than stir frying. The crunchier, the healthier, and the rest depends on your liking.
• before adding the spices in the first step, make sure the oil has turned hot. To test this, add one or two cumin seeds into it, they should immediately turn whitish because of throwing out steam bubbles in the oil and maybe make some noise too, if that is the case don't wait and have everything ready to add the spices to prevent the oil from getting too hot and preventing the spices to burn.
• keep the vegetables ready before adding the spices to the oil. add them as soon as the spices have been stirred once and have spluttred (if that is the case, depending upon the vegetables), to prevent the spices from burning.
  

Although the broccoli turned out to be crunchier than expected (for hubby, for e.g., :I) Rishab enjoyed them, just like me. I find it hard to get the broccoli right and I try to keep it crunchier than making it too mushy, as that is something which none of us like. So, if you like it, keep it uncovered throughout, to prevent it from loosing its fresh green colour, which happens really fast.
But, on the whole it was just wonderful and we had it with arhar (toor) daal, my favorite daal and steaming hot basmati rice for dinner.

Home grown radishes

Rishab was being quite wild when it came to plucking flowers and leaves all the time. I thought that I might help him develop a little bit more sensitivity towards plants, if I let him sow the radish seeds I wanted to sow himself. Though I know he is quite young (3 years) and I keep hearing from mothers that it is normal, but I thought it was worth trying. Both Rishab and I sowed the seeds in the soil as per the instructions on the package. And now that I think of it, it seemed to have worked, at least to a certain extent.
Although we got quite a lot of radishes - about 2/3rd of all that we planted, I realised that they had not been planted deep enough. In the package they just said, 1 cm deep and I think many a times (luckily!) we sowed the seeds 2 cm deep. So, in many cases, though they grew (the leaves), the radish tuber didn't get thick and were protruding out of the soil and were thin like any other root, to our disappointment.
This was the first summers where I actually planted or sowed seeds for vegetables and I also got something at the end. Also the first time for radishes, but I think that is the easiest thing to do. Last year the slugs ate aways everything one by one, even before they could grow. This year I had sworn not to plant a single plant! :D "Why waste my energies with the bad weather here - cloudy and wet, cold and no sun, which in any case doesn't allow plants to grow", I thought.
But, come summer and the warmer days with it, and I again became optimistic about it. The last year was also a bad summer - wet, cold and little direct sunlight. These summers were again nothing so special, but good enough that I at least had some small successes, enough to motivate me to do some more gardening next year. Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Yes, this is no big deal I know, when I see so many blogger gardeners doing it in a big way, but this is my very first time ever!
So, what all did I plant this year in my garden. I planted some new herbs. I already had mint, oregano and a small plant of thyme from last year, but since I chose a wrong spot to plant them, where they were always in too much of shade, they didn't like it. So, last Fall I changed their position to another well lighted spot. It helped a lot this year. I planted some more herbs -sage, another variety of mint, and a wilting pot of organic chives which I had used up (it came so well) and two different strawberries. One of them I had mentioned in my earlier post. Tomatoes, this time they grew much better than I had expected, unlike last time. And bore fruit heavily, but, now that it has become cold, they don't like it any more. And i am forced to pluck the remaining ones which are not compeletely ripe. I think I waited too long to buy and plant them. It was a very spontaneous decision when i saw them and couldn't resist buying them. Don't know if it makes sense to buy a small glass house for it next year, if it will keep the tomatoes warmer. I realise that they don't like it wet and cold at all. well, time will tell. I am learning so much with such small experiments. And the best thing is the only fertiliser I used was this organic horn and hoof chippings /meal (German: Hornspäne) which help enrich the nitrogen content of the soil and is allowed for organic farming under the EU law.
But, I also have to mention that I actually had also bought zucchini seeds (or was it cucumber, I had cucumber seeds too) and wanted to plant them too. I had sown them in small pots in the house in Spring time. It was almost summers and after two weeks and already about 18-20 °C outside, I thought that I might as well transfer the seedlings outside. But, as it looks like, they got a climate shock and all wilted one after the other, to my big disappointment. That I didn't even bother to plant the other set of seeds (either cucumber of zucchini). Will have to check that in the packets I still have.
But, whatever, next year I will surely do some more sowing and planting and see what I get.
So, here is my humble recipe for a simple salad which we ate as a side with Italian dressing (oliveoil, white wine vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper, ad i also added some dijon mustard) which everyone added to his own salad bowl at lunch. I think key to a good sald is the dressing, which again depends on a good vinegar, which makes a world of difference in the taste. So, it is worht it to use natural vinegar, any kinds one likes. Some of my favorites are white wine vinegar - a lot of times flavoured with different herbs, sherry viengar, balsamico - white and dark, apple cidre vinegar. Right now I bought one flavoured with elderberry (Sambacus) must, a sweet and mild one - tastes good.
For the salad, I just cut up some cucmber and organic Iceberg from the local market, and radishes and chives from my own garden. The radishes were especially tasty. Spicy and pungent that my son found it hard to eat them! It was a totally new taste for him. I have noticed that here in the market you also get spicy radishes, but only during summers. I'm sending this to Grow Your Own event initiated by Andrea and taking place this fortnight (1st to 15th Oct.) at Maria's A Scientist in the Kitchen.

Oregano Omelet

Are you puzzled or startled? Or may be even shriek at the very thought of oregano in Omelet?
No...No...No! Don't worry...go ahead and read. Believe me. It is one beautiful, humble but tasty recipe.
It was weekend. Of course it was, as that is the only time I prepare eggs for breakfast, or eat eggs for that matter. All three of us got up and I saw these pink flowers of oregano blooming in my kitchen garden, looking so beautiful. Since I knew that these flowers are edible, my first thought was " why not make an omelet with these flowers?!" I asked Rishab, if he wanted eat an omelet with oregano flowers and he was so happy to hear that "Yaaaa....I want to eat it. Yaaa! with oregano flowers!...."I went and cut a few sprigs, before they all wilt and cannot be used anymore.
Servings: 3-4 servings
Preparation: 10 minutes
Baking: 3-5 minutes

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 tbsp milk
salt to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper from the mill, or to taste
1 tbsp butter
8-10 fresh oregano leaves
6-8 fresh oregano flowers (bunches)

Method:

• Beat the eggs with the milk and salt till light and frothy. Ideally it should become quite stiff
  
• heat a fry pan on medium heat and add butter, spread evenly on the base and the sides by tipping it and swirling it
• place the leaves and flowers evenly on the surface
  
• add the egg froth over it carefully with a spoon or gently letting the froth to flow down while moving the and sprinkle with pepper
• reduce heat a little, add a little more butter, if required from the sides to prevent it from sticking to the pan, and cover the pan with a lid until the omelet is almost not fluid anymore
• turn the omelet carefully but quickly with a large spatula and switch off the heat and leave the pan on the stove for another minute before serving with bread rolls or toast
  

Added later: I forgot to mention about how it tasted. This was a wonderful taste, very new to me in an omelet and still was the right instinct to use it an omelet. Even my son enjoyed eating it. It is a very mild taste, nothing to be compared with dried oregano. I love this taste of fresh oregano in food and anybody who likes fresh oregano would surely love it in an omelet too.

This is my entry to the event 101 Recipes #1: Omelets I found just a couple of days back at the wonderful blog of Sangeeth.
Right now there are about 33 recipes and if nobody else has already submitted, mine is the 34th, so those still interested, go ahead and post your favorite omelet recipes.

cauliflower broccoli soup

I was looking for a good recipe with cauliflower, something simple but still to fill up the stomach and satiate the soul too. And I was also in the mood of trying a soup. But, didn't really know what. I had already bought some nice hazelnut bread rolls too. So, I googled with Food Blog Search and came upon this recipe from her blog. I think most of you know her. I had seen the name of her blog listed at quite many places (blogs), but never had a chance to really go through it. But this time I did it and found a number of wonderful recipes. Yes, I'm talking about 101 Cookbooks !
And this recipe really caught my fascination, and I knew that this would be our meal that evening. I followed the recipe as truly possible. Since I had bought one small cauliflower and one small broccoli , both being organic, I also added broccoli to the recipe and instead of using Gorgonzola - for two reasons - I didn't have any and secondly it would have made the flavour for us, at least for my sonny boy, too strong, I opted for some alpine cheese and some Grana padano instead, which she had also talked about in her post - of substituting the cheese. And I used lactose free sour cream (10% fat) instead of creme fraiche. And I also added a chopped potato and a piece of ginger to the soup.For the garnishing, parsley had been suggested, which I think is a wonderful combination.
But, I wasn't keen on cutting the parsley in my pot on the terrace yet, which wasn't as optimal in its size - it was still growing. So, I thought of giving the recipe another PG-twist! I made a totally different garnishing - with an Indian touch. I cut up one large potato into fine cubes and fried it in olive oil along with cumin seeds and finely cut onion rings. For hubby and myself, I also fried a couple of whole red chillies in the oil at the end. And served it with the flavourful hazelnut bread rolls, which is a speciality of a bakery nearby.
Now i have made broccoli and cauliflower soups and usually don't even look for recipes for that. But this time it just so happened. And it was very good change to our regular meals, as I am not so much into soups generally, but every now and then I do feel like it. And this was a new recipe for me. Rishab, like always ate up all the bread and had to be practically blackmailed to eat his soup. NO soup - NO "Princessin" (author Tony Ross), a 10 minutes programme he is allowed to watch along with the 10 minutes "Sandmännchen" which follows it where Sandmännchen carrys a bag of "sleep-sand" and at the end of the cartoon he throws out a handful to make the children sleepy (at least in the cartoon!).
Usually he does try the food and a lot of times he realises that it wasn't bad at all, and he ate a little bit of the soup in fact, which means it has to be a good one.
The meal made a wonderful combination in my opinion and I can recommend it further to all, especially who are on the look out for simple and quick but tasty meals.