German Roasted Potato Salad

Dear All,

When I first started to explore various cuisines I always went for simple and easy dishes which require minimum buying of ingredients. I usually go for bakes as I truly love to bake and the materials required are more or less the same ie eggs, flour, butter etc. I love to try different salads and soups too usually for my dinner, as i like my dinner to be light and fulfilling. Some weeks back i had this delicious salad with mustard sauce dressing in my office cafeteria and fell head over heals in love with the dressing. I have made this dressing many a times at home as its quite easy and personally I love the tangy taste of mustard and vinegar together.

When i came accross Boby Flay's German Potato Salad, i couldnt resist my self and gave it a try right away as the dressing used here is very much similar to my fav mustard dressing. This salad is also known as the Hot German Potato Salad, basically because its served warm. This is a traditional salad from Germany and usually made with bacon. Originally the recipe calls for boiled potatoes but i have used roasted potatoes. 

German potato salad, actually from southern Poland, is a popular variation which is generally served warm. It is typically more sour in taste and contains pork or bacon. Potato salad from northern Germany, however, is generally based on mayonnaise and quite similar to its US counterpart - Source Wikepedia.

Sending this to A.W.E.D German - Hosted by Laskhmi of Kitchen Chronicles an event started by DK of the ChefInYou

Original Recipe can be found here

Ingredients:
4 big potatoes peeled and diced
2 medium onions sliced
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp of mustard sauce
Salt and Pepper as per taste
1 tbsp of freshly chopped parsley

Proecudure:

•  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
• Arrange the potatoes in an oven proof vessel, drizzle the olive oil and some salt and pepper. Mix properly so that potatoes are well covered with oil and seasoning.
• Bake the potatoes for 40 to 45 mins until they are cooked. Make sure you turn the potatoes every 10 to 12 mins.
• In a seperate pan, add little olive oil, about a tsp and saute the onions for 3 to 4 mins, until soft.
• Carefully add in the vinegar and mustard paste, along with salt and pepper.
• Take the pan off the heat and mix properly.
• Now add in the oven baked potatoes and mix to cover the potatoes with the dressing.
• Add freshly chopped parsley, adjust the seasoning and serve warm.
• You can serve this salad with some sour cream as well. 

Verdict? An easy and delightful salad when served with sour cream serves as an excellent accompanient for soups and breads !!
 

Modak for Ganesh Chaturthi and Indian Cooking Challenge

Dear Foodies,

This is the first time i made modak at home for ganesh chaturthi and as you can see i wasnt very successful in my attempt. The only problem i faced was that i couldnt give them proper shapes, the dough was sticky and becoz of which it kept on tearing in between. Even though the shapes of modak were not proper i did go ahead and served them to lord ganesha after all what matters is your honesty, sincerity and your undying faith. The recipe followed was the same as mentioned by Srivalli on the ICC post. 
These are off to Indian Cooking Challenge by Srivalli and Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi event by Purva and Priti

Modak from Mints
Ingredients Needed


For the Stuffing -
2 cups freshly grated coconut (she says you can use frozen unsweetened coconut)
1 cup jaggery (grated)
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp cardamom powder
one pinch nutmeg (optional)
2 tbsp water (i used rose water)


For the outer layer or Cover -
1 cup rice flour
1.25 cup water
pinch of salt
1 tbsp oil

Procedure for Stuffing:

• Roast the poppy seeds in a small skillet and let it cool down. Grind it coarsely and keep it aside. If you have roasted poppy seeds, its fantastic no hassles!
• In a heavy bottom kadai, take the grated jaggary, add 2 tbsp of water and melt to liquid. Sieve to remove impurities if any.
•  Then add the liquid back to the kadai and add the grated coconut. Keep stirring so that it does get burnt in the bottom.
•  In about 5 -7 mins you will see the mixture getting solid, at this stage add the cardamom and nutmug powder if you are using it.
• When you see the mixture turning yellowish, more like golden and sticking to the sides, you can turn off the flame add the poppy seeds powder, mix well and set it aside to cool down. 

Procedure for outer cover :

• Take a thick bottomed vessel with a lid. Start boiling water in that vessel, add salt and oil.
• When water starts boiling, lower the heat and slowly add rice flour. Please do not dump all the flour at once.
• As you add, start mixing vigorously with a ladle. Once all the flour is done, keep mixing well till you see a smooth well mixed mixture.
• Now close the lid and take the pot off the heat. Let the covered pot cool down for 15 minutes or so. Then using a ladle, mix the dough properly. If you want to mix with your hands, you can dip your hands in water and quickly mix the dough. But ensure you don't use too much water.
• Mints suggests 1-2 tbsp of All purpose flour to be added to get the dough a bit more sticky. But I just went ahead with just rice flour.

Making the Modak:

• For making the Modak divide the dough into 20 balls and the stuffing into equal size of 20 balls. You can use those Garlic shaped mould or else in your palm you can press them and gather them together as a tear shaped.
• I used the modak moulds you get, grease the molds with oil. Then close the mold, stuff one ball into it and press it against the shape evenly making a hold in middle. Then take the suffing, press it into the hold in the middle, close the opening with extra dough and press tightly to ensure its all sealed well. Continue with the rest until you are done with all.
• Even in this you may have extra dough in the tip, which after steaming can get hard. So you can remove the excess before steaming. Retain just enough to form the shape.
• If you don't have the molds, you can make these easily in your palms. Take one outer ball, gently press in the middle getting it in shape of bowl, with the sides being thinner than the center, fill with stuffing, gather the sides towards the center, seal well and continue making till you are done
•  I used my idly cooker to steam the Modak. Grease the plates with oil and place the Modak over it. Just as you do the regular Idli steaming, fill the bottom with water and put it on the stove.
• This takes about 15 - 20 mins to get cooked. Take the steamer off the vessel and let it sit for 5 minutes before removing Modak from steamer.

My First Daring Baker's Challenge - Dobos Torte

Dear All,

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge and i am very much excited about it. I wanted to join the Daring Baker's league from a very long time but never got enough courage to do so. Last month finally i convinced myself to give it a try and here i am with my very first challenge. The challenge was to make this exquisite 6 layered Dobos Torte. The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!). It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties.

I used half of the recipe given as i had used an 7inch baking pan instead of 9 and still managed to get 6 layers. Making the cake wasnt difficult just a little time consuming with lots of patience. I wasnt too keen on using the butter cream as the filling as personally I am not fond of buttercream but as this was my first challenge i did stick to the recipe, only that i didnt use any eggs in the butter cream, just butter, icing sugar and dark melted chocolate did the trick! I used powdered halzelnuts and some chocolate sprinkles to decorate the sides of the cake.

My Recipe for the Dobos Torte Sponge Layer: 3 large eggs seperated 90 gms of icing sugar, divided 60 gms sifted cake flour 1 tsp vanilla essence Chocolate Buttercream: 100 gms dark chocolate chopped 1/3 cup of softened butter 1 cup confectioner's sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence Caramel Topping: 1/2 cups of super fine sugar 6 tbsp of water 4 tsp of lemon juice Finishing Touches: Finely chopped or powdered hazelnuts Chocolate sprinkles
Directions for the sponge layers:

NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.

• Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).
• Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)
• Beat the egg yolks, 45gm of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)
• In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 45 gms of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.
• Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet.
• Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack.
• Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of 7 layers (6 for the cake and 1 for the top caramel one).

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required

• On a double boiler, melt the dark chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool completely.
• Once the chocolate is cooled, add in the softened butter and beat together until smooth.
• Slowly add in the icing sugar, little by little and beat together to form creamy icing.
• Finally add in the vanilla essence and once again give a quick beat.

For Caramel Topping:

• Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into equal 6 to 7 wedges, this would depend upon the size of your cake.
• Heat together sugar , water and lime on medium heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Now turn the heat at high and let it boil for few mins until a dark caramel color is obtained
• Immediately pour the caramel on the wedges and with lightly greased spoon or spatula cover all sides of the wedges with caramel.
• Remove them to a seperate sheet and cool completely.

Assembling the Dobos Torte:

• Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
• Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 inch cardboard round or a plate and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 5 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
• Arrange the caramel wedges on top of the cake.
• Decorate the sides of the cake with chopped hazelnuts and chocolate sprinkles.