Phool Gobhi ki Bhaji | Cauliflower Saute

With the temperatures diving into the 70s, the weather has turned rather autumnal around here. The leaves on the trees are still green, and there is no fall. But the sunshine seems to have acquired that mellow quality that makes autumn so incredibly beautiful. The flowers are still in bloom and we are seeing a lot of bumblebees, geese, and squirrels!! Its wonderful to enjoy the great outdoors and we have been stepping out every evening to enjoy the longer daylight hours too! That often leave me with a rather short window to rustle up a hot and fresh meal for dinner.

Patta Gobhi ki Bhaji | Sauteed Cabbage | Farm Fresh Produce

Cabbage is a wonderful vegetable. Apart from belonging to the family of cruciferous vegetables, it is packed with beta-carotene, Vitamin C, and fiber! My last visit to the farm yielded some beautiful heads of cabbage, kohl rabi, beets, and cucumbers. I was also able to get some glossy banana peppers and some fragrant lemon grass.But more about those later. Today I want to share a cabbage recipe I developed for the farm fresh cabbage I got last weekend.

Panch Phoren Tarke Wali Chana Dal | Bengal Gram Lentils with Five Spices

The first time I came across Panch Phoren was in university. Invited for dinner at a Bengali friend's home, I enjoyed some delicious vegetables prepared with these spices. Of course, this was not the first time I had tasted this spice mix - but it was undoubtedly the first time my attention was drawn to it as a cook!! After dinner my friend showed me a bottle of this mix - a delightful combination of mustard seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds. A bit like a spice combination for a typical pickle from Uttar Pradesh!! No wonder I loved the flavours.

Achari Baigan / Eggplant / Brinjal | Aubergine in Pickling Spices

The eggplant is as versatile as it is delicious. With the summer crop of fresh tender eggplants coming in in the farmers market, I am raring to try so many lovely recipes that I have collected. I always make an eggplant pickle every summer - in fact we are enjoying last years batch presently, and Eggplant Pakoras (fritters)! Both are simply divine.

Oven-Baked Spiced Savoury Canape Cups

For the Daring Cooks April 2011 Challenge, I made some edible containers well suited to Indian-style savoury canapes. Inspired by Chaat-Papdi, Dahi-Puri, and Raj Kachoris, I made a hybrid savoury container that can hold all your favourite chaat fillings! And its not deep fried!! Indeed, instead of frying, I baked these delicious cups in the oven to get a crisp biscuity finish that is perfect in both taste and crunch.

Phool Gobhi ki Bhurji | Scrambled Cauliflower

Mashed cauliflower - always reminds me of school dinners - tasteless, dull, watery!! Now think cauliflower bhurji - creamy, melt in the mouth, divine. Bhurji (scrambled) is a popular way of cooking vegetables in the north of India. Deliciously spicy vegetable bhurjis are in fact quite common in a Uttar Pradesh Kitchen. In a bhurji, the vegetables are overcooked just a bit so that they soften and can be coarsely mashed. Then suitable spices added, and the vegetable refried at the end of the cooking process to get a creamy well cooked consistency. Cauliflower is one vegetable that makes for a wonderful bhurji - select a tender, fresh, organic piece for this recipe.

Pretzels with Nigella Seeds

There is nothing that can beat the smell of fresh baked bread. Fresh bread is my weakness. I love granary rolls, rye bread, multi grain bread, french loaves, sourdough, Irish soda bread - hey where do I stop?? A current favourite in my home is the pretzel. My very first memory of pretzels is buying them off a roadside cart in Munich and chewing them ever so slowly as I walked round the city and the famous English Gardens. Shortly after, I encountered them at Munich's famous Hofbrau Haus, once a royal brewery for the Bavarian court, where they accompany beer!! Needless to say these were king sized versions of the one I'd been munching.

What I loved about the pretzels was their soft yet chewy texture and the coarse salt crystals on the top which just added a great crunch. Ever since I have wanted to try them at home and today with a small tweak to the basic recipe I did just that.

Ingredients:
1 tsp Yeast
1 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp softened butter or softened margarine
1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp nigella seeds to sprinkle on pretzels before baking
1 tbsp baking soda mixed in 4 cups water


You will also need:
1 pair tongs
Greased baking sheet


Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Put yeast, sugar, and salt into a cup and pour in the warm water. Mix until the yeast starts to froth.
3. Place the flour into a mixing bowl, rub in the butter, and then stir in the yeast mixture. Bring together the flour with this mix to make a dough
4. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Place in a bowl in a warm area until it rises to double of its original height.
5. Grease the baking sheet. Then prepare the baking soda-water mixture in a saucepan that is not aluminium, and bring to a boil on stove. Leave to simmer.
6. Once the dough is ready, knead it once again for a minute. Next divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Roll it with your fingers into 12 inch long rolls. Shape these into the pretzels.
7. Place the shaped pretzels on a parchment paper for 3 minutes. Then using a pair of tongs place them in the boiling water-baking soda mixture one at a time.
8. Let the pretzels boil for a minute on one side, then turn them over with the tongs and boil on the other side for another minute.
9. Remove form the water, drip excess water off them, and then place them on the greased baking sheet. Repeat this for all the pretzels, then sprinkle them with the nigella seeds.
10. Bake for 14-15 minutes or until the pretzels are golden brown.
11. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Let stand for 30 seconds. Use tongs to pick the pretzels off the sheet, and place on wire rack to cool.
12. Serve warm or cold.

These pretzels are great just on their own or with a bowl of your favourite soup. The nigella seeds gives them a distinct flavour. My entire kitchen was fragrant with the heady smell of fresh bread and nigella! The boiling step ensures that their skin remains firm, enriches their texture and enhances their flavour. You can skip the boiling step, but I certainly recommend it unless you like pretzels that rise and taste like white bread. Its very easy to do and lends that touch of authenticity to the pretzel.These Pretzels with Nigella Seeds are my entry for Bread Baking Day #12: Small Breadshosted this month by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

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