Apricot Yogurt parfait

Parfaits are layers of yogurt or cream or ice cream, granola, fruits and dry fruits drizzled with or without a sweetener. Parfait is a single serve breakfast or dessert that consists of layers of cream or yoghurt, fruit and occasionally other variations such as nuts or muesli.A French parfait is typically frozen custard, but in America the dessert is most known for the tall glass that it comes in while the ingredients can vary widely. Ice cream is common favourite in a parfait, but you can also use sorbet, sherbet, yogurt, and myriad other ingredients for a sophisticated dessert.

It takes almost no effort in layering yogurts with seasonal fruits, creating a treat that looks as appealing as it tastes. It’s a real pleaser, as welcome for breakfast as well as desserts, and a good way to get kids to eat more fruit.Sweet, golden-orange apricots with full of fragrance and are rich source of dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Dried apricots have an intense sweet-sour flavour and are high in fibre. They make an excellent substitute for fresh apricots out of season.

 INGREDIENTS

•   800gms plain yoghurt
•  1 cup powdered sugar
•  a pinch of nutmeg powder
•  250gms Sundried Apricot
•  1 cup warm milk
• 10 to 12 dry roasted Cashew nuts
•  Toasted walnuts for serving

Lets Learn how to do parfait:

• Transfer the yoghurt to a fine cloth and hung for minimum 3 to 4 hours till all the water from it flows away preferably overnight in the refrigerator.
•  Soak the apricots in warm milk and keep aside.
•  Toast the cashew nuts and grind along with the sugar to a fine powder form.
• Puree the apricots and pass through a sieve to have a smooth puree.
• Now take the hung curd and the powdered sugar and cashew nuts mix in a blender along with the nutmeg powder and blend till it smooth and creamy.
• Pour this mixture into small glass up to half of the glass.
• Pour in the Apricot puree . Refrigerate, uncovered, till the time of service.
•   Serve  topped with chopped apricots and toasted walnuts.

Minced Chicken with Green Peas QUICHE

If you haven't had quiche before, it is time to remedy that situation. Quiche is a savory, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of meat, seafood, vegetables and topped with savory custard with cheese. Quiche can be served hot or cold. It is part of French cuisine but is also popular in other countries, particularly as party food. Quiche is an especially good dish for a Sunday brunch or other gathering. You make it the day ahead, slice it just before serving, and then pass out the plates. This fool-proof recipe has yet to disappoint.

Baking was never my strength and I would find excuse to avoid this...until I cam across this beautiful blog called zestysouthindiankitchen.com by Swathi  who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. According to her, Baking a Homemade bread, cake, cookies will give us the best outcome.  However in order to achieve the perfect recipe, techniques is required.  You can check her recipes at zestysouthindiankitchen.com.

This month challenge was suggested by Arthy Shama  of Cook with Arthy shama, make sure to check link for some amazing recipes.

Ingredients for Pie Crust

• 150 grams of all purpose flour
• ½ tsp of salt
• 85 grams of butter, cut into tiny cubes
• 1 to 11/2 tbsp of cold water

• First, cut the butter into tiny cubes and refrigerate them.   In a dry bowl, combine flour and salt.  Mix them.  Add in butter cubes and rub through the butter so that it is dispersed in flour.  

• Now add in cold water, little by little.  Slowly, start combining the dough along with water. After a while a soft dough should be formed.  The dough when pinched should hold its shape when pressed, and not fall together.  This is an passing test for an crust dough.  

• Cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum of two hours or overnight.  This will help in moisture getting evenly distributed throughout the dough.  I have kept the dough in the refrigerator for 4 hours.

• Remove the dough from refrigerator and let them sit under room temperature for 15-20 minutes.  Either you can roll them into an 9’’ circle by dusting the surface with flour, or by sandwiching them in between two baking sheets.  

• After rolling, remove the baking sheet and turn the silicon mat upside down over the greased pie pan. Adjust the dough and press them down the pie pan, so that they cover the base and sides.  

• Prick them throughout the base and sides with a fork.  Pricking will help in non-raising of the dough during baking.   Refrigerate this set up for fifteen to twenty minutes.  Meanwhile, preheat the oven for 200 degree Celsius.  
•  After refrigeration, cover them with baking sheet and add some dried pulses.  These weights push down the crust and prevents uneven rising. Bake these for twenty minutes, later on remove the beans and sheet and bake for another fifteen minutes till the base turns brown.  You should be able to see the crust has left the edges of the ring.  Now our crust is ready for filling .

Ingredients for Filling

Chicken Green Peas Keema

• 300gms Chicken Mince
• ½ cup green peas
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbspn of oil
• ½ tsp of chilly powder
• 1 tbsp of coriander  powder
• 1/4tsp turmeric powder
• Salt, to taste

For the custard

• 200ml amul fresh cream
• 1 large egg
• ½ tsp of chilly powder
• ½ tsp of pepper
• Salt,  to taste

For Toppings

• 50 grams of cheese/ paneer

Let's learn how to do it:

• Marinate the chicken mince with salt and turmeric and a 1 tsp of oil and keep aside  for 20 minutes.

• In a pan, heat oil and saute onions till they turn brown.  Add ginger and garlic paste.  Saute for another two minutes or till the raw smell of the paste goes away.  Finally add chicken mince.

• The mince will leave out its stock.  Saute and cook till the water content is evaporated.  Add all the spices and the green peas.  Be careful not to add too much of salt, since we are also going to add cheese here.  So, add salt, according to the content of the fillings. Cook till all the water evaporates and the chicken is perfectly cooked.

• The reason for cooking beforehand is to get an dry filling, if we use uncooked filling, they may leak out their stock during baking, leaving an soggy quiche.   

• Keep the filling aside to cool.

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

• For the custard,  Separate the liquid contents from the Amul cream pack and use the cream part. 

• In an large bowl,  add ½ cup of  amul cream, one large egg, chilly powder and salt.  Whisk them, till they are completely dissolved.  

• For assembling quiche, take the baked pie crust, spread the base with few grated cheese.  Here I have used the normal Paneer I had at home.

• Spread the chicken keema filling throughout the surface.  
  
• Now pour our custard into the quiche.

• Finally sprinkle rest of the cheese into the quiche.

 

• Bake them in oven for 25 minutes or till the filling is firm.  The  Chicken quiche was light, fluffy and tasted delicious. 

Sending this recipe to the Baking Partners ....October Challenge..Quiche

  

Whole Wheat Paneer Capsicum Galette

A pie is homey. A tart is fancy. And a Galette splits the difference, but is easier than either one.

I didn’t even know what a Galette was until this past year or so and now I’m kind of obsessed with them. Galette is a term used in French cuisine to designate various types of flat round or free form crusty cakes. They are pretty simple once you get the habit of making the crust, and you can pretty much bake any fruit or veggie in one of these free spirited pies.

            Galette which is also called a crostata if you’ve got an Italian connection is a free-form pastry, baked without the stability of a pie pan or tart ring. The dough is rolled out flat, then folded around the filling. The appeal of a galette lies in its rusticity. Its juices can leak, the pastry can tear, the filling can sink at the top; it doesn’t matter. As long as you’ve used good fruit or vegetables for the filling and real butter for the dough, it will bake up into something golden brown and utterly gorgeous, the kind of pastry you’re happy to whip up anytime, not just on special occasions.

 

  If you are trying your hand at baking , mastering a galette before trying pies and tarts will give you confidence. For the baking expert, galettes offer ample opportunity for personal expression. Once you have the basic formula for making the galette, you can change it up to suit your tastes, the fruit in season, the leftover vegetables in your fridge.

 

   

          

A savory galette is the easier and more streamlined cousin of a classic quiche. Quiche is a savoury, open-faced pastry crust with a filling of savoury custard with cheese, meat, seafood and vegetables. Quiche can be served hot or cold. It has a buttery pastry filled with any combination of vegetables, cheeses and meats, but without the need to make a custard to anchor it all. In this galette recipe, roasted paneer and green capsicum are combined with tomatoes and fresh herbs for a ratatouille-like mix with a bite, all nestled into a hearty whole-grain crust. Feel free to use any combination of cooked vegetables instead, even leftovers from the fridge.  Serve it as you would  with a salad for lunch or a light dinner. The outcome was delicious. Crusty, crispy and yummy, filling tasting like grilled paneer. Even typing it is creating a desire to eat it again :-)

Ingredients:

For the PASTRY Base

• Whole Wheat Flour - 1 ½ cup
• Chilled Butter – ¾ cup
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Ice cold water - 1/4 cup water

For the Filling:

• Paneer - 250 gms ( cubed)
• Green Capsicum- 1 (Cubed )
• Onion- 1 ( Cubed)
• Tomato-2 cut into circles
• Tomato puree- 2 to 3 tbsp 
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• I tbsp coarsely ground pepper
• 1 tsp red chilli flakes
• Salt
• Oil-1 tsp
• Melted  Butter - 2 tbsp and 
• Mixed Herbs-1tsp for brushing 

METHOD:

• Mix together flour and salt  Mix in the butter chunks and combine till the flour looks like bread crumbs. Sprinkle ice water little at a time to bring the dough together. Don’t knead. Add a more ice water little by little if you prefer pliable dough without cracks.

• Cover this dough with cling foil and keep it in fridge for an hour.

• Cut the paneer , onion and capsicum into cubes and keep aside.

• Rub the paneer with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and Italian seasoning and keep aside.

• In a pan put, 1 tsp of oil. Once hot, add the onion, capsicum and toss for 1 minute on high flame so that the capsicum becomes tender.

• Add the tomato puree, salt,coarse pepper powder and cook for a minute or so.

• Stir in the Paneer and toss well so that the masalas are well coated with the paneer.  Do not over cook.

• Check the seasoning and take off from the stove.

    

• Preheat the oven at 180C. Take out the dough. Divide into 4 equal portions and make round balls , roll each into a rough circle and place the filling in the centre for Galette.

• Line a baking tray with butter paper. Place the rolled out galette on the tray. Scoop out the capsicum paneer mixture and spread on each disk, leaving 1 and a quarter inches on the sides for folding.

 

• Place a slice of tomato covering the paneer .sprinkle salt and Italian seasoning over it and start to fold the side overlapping one fold over the other.

• Bake them at 180 degrees for approximately 30 to 35 minutes or till the pastry is crispy and golden . 

          

  

• Transfer to a cooling rack , leave for 10 minutes . Brush the Galette with warm butter and mixed herb. Serve warm along with a dip of your choice.

This recipe has been adopted from http://masterchefmom.blogspot.in/ which has some great collection of recipes from Traditional to Modern, Street food to Home Cooked, Tiffin Box to Party recipes, Breads, Cakes and many more. With step by step pictures for every recipe MASTERCHEFMOM will excite you to try!!!

Happy Cooking..........

Sending this Whole Wheat Paneer Capsicum Galette dish  to " FOODIE MONDAY BLOG HOP" event