Hot cross bun

It’s officially spring now! Weather in this part of the world is still chilly but we are getting more daylights which make it feel a lot like spring. Alarm doesn’t go as siren waking me up from middle of a deep sleep, In fact some days I am up before alarm ! Ah the joys ..Such small small things definitely make me happy :)

Every year closer to Easter I see Hot Cross buns floating around in the blogs. So last weekend I decided to bake some with my little baker. He enjoys every bit of baking, sometimes a bit over enthusiastic which drives me crazy! He did pretty much everything expect the kneading. Waiting for the dough to proof is something we need to work on as he kind of lost interest after that. I baked it in the night and went to bed letting it to cool down and next day morning it was ready to get iced with a cross. It was a special weekend treat for our breakfast and we enjoyed every bite of it!

Before signing off let me all wish you a Happy Easter and a Happy Holi. It’s Easter break for us for the next two weeks so hopefully I will be back here soon with another post soon, until then bye!

Recipe source- Joy of baking

Plain flour - 500 gm

Instant yeast – 2 tsp/7gm

Granulated sugar – 1 tsp

Milk – 400 ml ( luke warm)

Light brown sugar -  ¼ cup (55gm)

Ground cinnamon – 1 tsp

Ground cloves – 1/4 tsp

Ground nutmeg – ¼ tsp

Ground all spice – ¼ tsp( optional)

Salt – ½ tsp

Melted butter – 70 gm ( 5 tbsp)

Egg – 1 +1 (large)

Candied fruit and peel – 1 /4 cup (80 gm)

Raisins – 1/2 cup( 100 gm)

For glaze

Icing sugar – ½ cup /60 gm

Milk/cream – 1 1/2 tbsp

Method

• Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk. Add a teaspoon of sugar and keep it aside for 5 minutes.
• In a mixing bowl measure the flour. Add the spice powder, sugar and salt. Mix until combined.
• Add the yeast solution to the flour and mix until moistened.
• Gradually add the melted butter and mix.
• Lighlty beat an egg with fork and add it to the dough, mix /beat until it’s incorporated.
• Add the raisins and candied fruit peel and mix. Knead the dough until it’s soft.
• Place the dough in a slightly greased bowl and loosely cover it with a cling film (greased) until its double in size. Takes might take about 2 hours. It depends on how hot your kitchen is.
• Punch the air from the dough and divide it into 14  -15 equal size balls in a baking tray leaving enough space between them.  Allow it to prove for another one hour covering it with a cling film.
• Before baking make an egg wash with 1 egg and I tablespoon of milk and brush it on top of the buns.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees until its golden brown or a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Allow it to cool completely.

For Glaze

• Combine icing sugar and milk until smooth (it should be thick). Pour the glaze in a piping bag and pipe a cross on top of each bun.

Fish Molly/ Kerala fish molly/ fish stew

Back home fish was a daily affair, the only dilemma we had was which fish to buy .The fish here lack that flavour we grew up eating with. From eating it daily we went down to eating it only maybe fortnightly. 

One cold January morning during our normal grocery shopping weekend, we came across this Asian shop which sells fresh Indian fishes. It was quite an accidental discovery and we were very thrilled. The options were also  quite impressive. Being fish lovers, me and my hubby were like kids in a candy shop. We usually end up buying a lot more than we need and some weekends I would prepare three different dishes with fish ! Anyway we have been buying regularly from that shop and enjoying our fish ever since. When I found some fresh Pomfret last week, I bought it with the plan of making this fish molly, a Kerala special fish curry. I paired it up with Appams and it went down as a treat for us.

I really wonder how this curry got the name Fish molly. Molly is a female name quite common in Kerala, perhaps it was one Molly who developed this recipe :)

Ingredients

Pomfret / kingfish / or any firm fleshed fish – 500 gm

To marinate

Salt

Pepper – 1 ½ tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Lime juice – 1 tbs

Cinnamon stick – 1 small

Cloves – 3

Cardamom - 3

Fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Bay leaves – 2 ( fresh or dry)

Onion ( medium) – Thinly sliced

Tomato – 1

Ginger minced – 1 1/2 tsp

Garlic minced – 1 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves – 2-3 sprigs

Oil preferably coconut oil

Very thin Coconut milk - 1 cup (  if using tinned coconut milk dilute 1/4 cup  coconut milk with 3/4 cup water)

Thin coconut milk – 1 cup (½ cup tinned coconut milk with ½ cup water)

Thick coconut milk – ½ cup

Fried onions – 2 tbs (optional)

Method

• Marinate the fish with ingredients mentioned under to marinate and keep it aside for ½ an hour.
• In a pan add some oil and shallow fry the fish on  medium flame until ¾ th done by flipping both sides, takes about 7 minutes.
• In another pan add some oil and sputter fennel seeds.
• Add in cinnamon sticks, bayleaves, cardamom and cloves and when nice aroma comes out add the sliced onions and  few curry leaves.
• Saute the onions until soft.
• Add minced ginger and garlic and fry until raw smell goes.
• Add very thin coconut milk and few  curry leaves let it boil.
• Add the fish along with thin coconut milk and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Finally add the thick milk and chopped tomatoes when it starts to boil remove from fire.
• Garnish with fried onions.