Lasagne

Ingredients 

Lasagne sheets – 10 or as needed 

Parmesan cheese grated ( as required) 

Olive oil  

Meat sauce 

Minced beef -250 gm 

Onion - 1 large 

Carrots - 1 

Garlic - 3 cloves 

Tin of  plum tomatoes(200 gm ) - 1 tin 

Water - 1/4 cup 

Fresh Basil - 1 small bunch 

Oregano - 1 1/2 tsp 

Salt 

In a  big saucepan or wok , add olive oil. Add chopped onions and saute until soft. Add chopped carrots and minced garlic and cook for few minutes stirring in between until carrots are soft. Add salt, oregano and pepper  and cook for a minute or so. Add minced beef and stir till they turn brown. 

Finally add tinned tomatoes, fill the empty tin with  1/4 cup water and add that water too. 

Bring the sauce to boil and then simmer it for 1 hour with lid on stirring in between. 

Take the lid off add basil leaves and  cook uncovered for another 15 - 20 minutes, if the sauce is getting dry add little water. 

 
White sauce  

4 TBS butter  

4TBS flour 

3 cup milk 

Pinch of mixed spice /nutmeg  

Salt 

Pepper 

Method

In a pan add butter when it melts add flour. Cook for 2 minutes without burning . Add warm milk, spices and stir continuously until sauce thickens 

 

Lasagne sheets 

I  usually pre cook lasagne sheets for 2 mins in salted  boiling water because we like it soft, it’s totallly optional. if u r cooking it brush it olive oil after u drain it because it will  stick to each other. 

Assembling 

Take an oven proof dish and  brush it with olive oil. Place a layer of  lasagne sheets and  spread a layer of  meat sauce evenly. Drizzle some white sauce on top. Place the next layer of lasagne sheet and brush it with olive oil and repeat the layering. After you place the last layer , pour  the white sauce(not red sauce) and sprinkle grated parmasan cheese generously on top. Bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20-25 minutes until cheese melts and it’s golden brown. 

Let it stand for few minutes before you cut. 

 Enjoy !

Kerala style bakery bread/ Milk bread

 

I think it was last month that I got a DM in Instagram asking whether I am familiar with the sweet bakery bread which we get back home. Until then, I never really thought of making it at home.  It reminded me of those days when we had guests for chaya and Amma serving bakery bread and chicken curry! The soft pillowy bread will soak up all that gravy, the combination of sweet bread with spicy chicken curry was a perfect marriage! I just couldn’t wait to bake it and eat it with some chicken curry. 

I had baked challah and soft dinner rolls recently and those bread tasted similar to our Kerala bread but less sweet. So, I had an idea that this bread has to made with an enriched dough (egg, milk, butter) but to get a clear idea, I looked up on Youtube to see how they are done in professional bakeries . The recipes I saw were all pretty much the standard bread recipe. Some with butter, some with dalda, with milk, milk powder etc..all pretty much the same. 

Though most of the bakery breads are eggless, when we are balking at home without professional equipments, it’s not easy to get the same result. So I decided to add an   egg for a better texture. I jotted down a recipe in a paper keeping all those recipes in mind and voila here it is! The bread was a great success and it tasted almost like the bakery bread and I enjoyed it with some chicken curry just to walk down the memory lane! 

INGREDIENTS 

All-purpose flour/bread flour – 325 gm ( plus extra for dusting)

Egg – 1 large +1 (for egg wash)

Milk powder – 3 tablespoons 

Unsalted butter – 50 gm 

Sugar – 40 gm + 1 tsp 

Instant yeast – 1 ½ tsp 

Milk – 150 ml /3/4 cup + one tablespoon( for egg wash)

Salt – 1/2 tsp 

METHOD

Dissolve yeast in lukewarm milk with one tsp of sugar and leave it aside for 10 minutes until frothy. 

Meanwhile in a big bowl, mix 325 gm flour, milk powder, sugar and salt .

Add butter to it and mix it well with hand. 

Break one egg and mix again. Finally add the yeast solution and start kneading the dough. 

The dough will be very sticky, please do not add flour for the first few minutes. As you knead dough will become less sticky. 

Keep kneading the dough and if the dough is still very sticky after 5 minutes add some flour and knead again. 

Knead dough for another 15 minutes (softness of the bread depends on how well you knead).  

You should get a very soft dough which when stretched should pass the window pane test (should give you a thin translucent membrane) .

Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it proof for 1-2 hour in a warm place until it has doubled in size. 

After 1 –2 hour, knock the air out from the dough and roll it into a rectangle with a rolling pin and then roll the rectangle slowly into a log. 

Place the log in lined baking tin and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rise for proof for another 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 170 degree C . 

Meanwhile break another egg and mix it with a tablespoon of milk and give the bread an egg wash. 

Place the loaf in the preheated oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Timing may vary depending on your oven. 

 

Linzer cookies

 

Recipe adapted from Homecookingadventure

Ingredients (makes approximately 17 sandwiched  cookies)

Plain flour – 185 gm/ 1 ½ cup

Almond flour – 50 gm/ ½ cup

Egg – 1

Unsalted butter (softened) – 115 gm/ ½ cup

Granulated sugar – 75 gm/ roughly 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract – ½ tsp

Cinnamon powder – ¾ tsp

Baking powder – ½ tsp

Salt – pinch

Icing sugar

For strawberry preserve/ jam

Strawberries – 175 gm

Sugar – 110 gm/ roughly ½ cup( ¾ tablespoon more)

Lime juice – 1 tablespoon

Method

In a bowl sift together flour, almond flour, baking powder,salt, cinnamon powder and keep it aside.

In another bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add egg and beat until mixed.

Add dry ingredients to it and fold it until mixed.

With your hands bring the dough together, divide the dough into two and  shape it into discs

Wrap and refrigerate the dough for 2-3 hours.

Meanwhile make the jam

Making jam

I have done a detailed post on making jam back in 2013, please check it out here, but you can use the measurements mentioned in this post(under  ingredients) for jam and it is  enough to sandwich all the 17 cookies.

Alternatively you can use store bought strawberry jam!

Rolling  cookies

 In a clean surface dust with some flour and take  one half of the dough from the fridge and roll it into 1/8 inch thickness  and cut out the desired shapes.

Take the other half out the fridge and roll the dough  into same thickness and cut out the cookies. With another fondant/cookie cutter cut out stars, or snowflakes from the middle.

Gather the scraps and put it in the freezer for few minutes before re rolling and repeating the process.

Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for about 7-8 minutes.

Cool the cookies in a cooling rack.

Take the bottom half of the cookies and spread it with a tsp each of strawberry jam.

Dust the cookies (with shapes cut out from middle) with icing sugar through a sieve to get a snowy effect.

Sandwich both cookies together gently.

Enjoy !

Potato and cheese croquettes

 

Ingredients

Potatoes – 350 gm

Red Leicester cheese /cheddar cheese grated – 75 gm

Onion granules – 1 tbs

Salt

Pepper

Eggs – 2

Flour – for rolling

Bread crumbs – for rolling

Oil – for brushing

Method

Peel and boil potatoes until cooked. Mash it well without any lumps.

Add grated cheese, onion granules, one egg,  salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Shape them into croquettes.

Dust it in flour, then in beaten egg and finally in bread crumbs and place them in a tray.

Finally brush it with oil and bake it in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 mins.