Paneer Florentine

I have been struggling to push myself and blog more on the regular savoury food that we have at home. But often, since I like to prepare food fresh and on time, I seldom get to click pictures and thus post on it. A stronger push was thus necessary to let readers know that I do eat things beyond all the cakes and cookies I keep posting. 

Frankly speaking I rarely eat my own sweet bakes and I bake in small quantities sufficient for my daughter and husband. So the regular everyday meal is just like in any other home though I must confess that I am a little lazy in savoury experiments.

Paneer florentine was born out of circumstances of unavailability. Many years ago, myself and Vishal had a dish called Fish Florentine in a restaurant called One step up on Park street. Vishal being the savoury experimenter at our home, decided to give it a try and it came out quite wonderful.

While trying out the same dish in Allahabad, we were stuck at an odd hour where we could not find fish so we thought of trying the same with Paneer. The dish came out wonderful and we were surprised how the humble paneer fitted perfectly in this French dish. 

The word Florentine (pronounced Flor-en-teen), in culinary world, refers to a recipe that is prepared in the style of the Italian region of France. Florentine recipes typically feature a bed of Spinach on which a main ingredient such as meat, poultry or fish is laid and then topped with a Mornay sauce which is a béchamel sauce with shredded or grated Gruyère cheese and an egg yolk. A florentine recipe may also be topped with cheese which is browned as in au gratin.

Ingredients : For 2-3 servings

• half a bunch of spinach leaves
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 150 gms Paneer, cut in cubes
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 tbsp refined oil
• 1/2 tbsp all purpose flour (maida)
• 1/2 tbsp whole wheat flour (atta)
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warm
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

Procedure : 

Wash spinach leaves very well.

Boil water in a pan and add the spinach leaves. Turn off the heat and immediately drain the spinach leaves and put in cold water. Drain and roughly chop.

Take oil in a pan and saute half of the chopped garlic. 

Add the spinach and saute for a while. Season with salt.

Lay the spinach in a baking tray of your choice.

Place the paneer cubes randomly on it.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Now, make the béchamel sauce (basic white sauce) by taking butter and oil in a pan. As soon as the butter melts, add the all purpose flour and whole wheat flour. Turn the heat to medium and keep stirring till the flour turns a little brown.

Meanwhile keep milk a little warmed up. Pour this warm milk to the pan and stir continuously till the sauce thickens to the required consistency. Warm milk is poured to avoid the formation of lumps in the sauce.

Season with salt and black pepper.

Pour white sauce on the paneer cubes in the baking pan. 

Sprinkle the grated mozzarella cheese on top and some dried parsley. 

Bake for 15 minutes or till the cheese melts and gets a beautiful brown colour. 

Serve with Garlic toasts or plain buttered toasts.  

Happy Florentine-ing

Amrita

Cheesy twists

I have been writing about my missing act for a long time now. And the truth is that I am still struggling to find enough enthusiasm to get back to what I love doing. With Vaanya growing up, I guess my energy level is getting depleted faster. But that does not equal to no experiments in the kitchen. My love for baking continues and I keep finding personal little time to experiment with some bake or the other.
The cheesy twists were made some time in November when the winters was just setting its foot in Kolkata. The warm gooey cheesy bread was a perfect accompaniment to the light nip in the air and a steaming cup of tea. I made a homemade pizza sauce as a dip to go with it where I just did a gentle saute of garlic, chopped onions and tomatoes with seasoning and it paired really well with my cheesy delights. 
With most of the ingredients easily available in the kitchen, this recipe can work as an interesting and an innovative appetizer.  

Recipe : King Arthur Flour

Ingredients : Yields 10 twists

Dough : 

• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp lukewarm water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup all purpose flour

Filling : 

• 2 tbsp grated processed cheese/cheese powder
• 1/2 tsp dried herbs
• 1/2 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 tbsp water
• 1/4 cup grated mozarella cheese
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil

Procedure : 

Dough : 

Take a bowl and add all ingredients. Knead to a smooth dough adding as much lukewarm water required. 

Transfer the dough to a well oiled bowl and cover with a damp muslin cloth. Keep in a warm place and allow to rise for an hour till it doubles in volume. 

Filling : 

In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients except mozarella cheese and olive oil and set aside. 

Roll the dough to a rough 10x10"

Spread the filling mixture all over the dough leaving a 1/2 " border on all sides.

Sprinkle mozarella cheese all over. 

Fold dough in half and press the edges.

Using a pizza cutter/knife slice dough into 1" wide fingers.

Twist strips and lay them on a parchment/aluminium foil lined baking tray.

I did not use a parchment paper on the baking tray and ended up with a cheesy mess on the tray

Brush them with olive oil and allow to rise for an hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius 10 minutes before the rising time gets over.

Bake the twists for 20-25 minutes or till they have browned well. 

Serve with tomato ketchup or homemade Pizza sauce.

Happy cheesy twisting
Amrita

Foccacia Caprese

We at 'We Knead to Bake' have completed a year of baking amazing yeasted goodies together and have now entered another year where we are joined by some more members. I have missed on two bakes and plan to catch up on them very soon. 

The bake for this month was chosen by popular demand and after baking and devouring it, has become one of my favourite ones. I plan to make this again and also experiment with the toppings. 

Foccacia Caprese is basically a flatbread where the toppings are Caprese style where fresh tomatoes, basil and fresh buffalo mozzarella is used. 

Since buffalo mozzarella is not easy to get here, we have substituted it with the one we get readily in the markets. 

The Foccacia came out super soft and yummy and was over in no time. I had baked this for tea time and had to hide 2 slices for Vishal as me and Vaanya were all over it. 

The best compliment was from Vaanya when she in her toddler pronunciation exclaimed that the thing was 'Nummy Nummy' and 'So Taesty'. 

Here is Vaanya enjoying the Foccacia with her winsome facial expressions.

This is a super easy recipe where all you need to do is put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them and then top with the easily and readily available toppings.

It resembles a pizza in appearance but the dough is pretty thick giving it a bready texture. 

Eaten best as it is, this Foccacia can be also paired with soup or salad. 

Recipe source : Kitchen Whisperer and adapted by Aparna

Ingredients : I reduced the recipe to 1/4 to get a 6 1/2"x4 1/2" oval Foccacia which serves 2 

Dough:

• 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup warm water 

Topping:

• 4 slices of a tomato
• Mozarella cheese in 1/4" slices
• 4-5 basil leaves, chopped

Herb Oil:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp dries basil
• a pinch of red chilli flakes
• 2 garlic pods, finely chopped
• salt to taste

Procedure :

Herb Oil : 

Mix all in a small bowl and keep aside.

Dough : 

Take a large bowl and put flour, salt, sugar, yeast and oil. Mix well. 

Add warm water, little by little, and knead till you get a smooth dough.

Shape into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl, turning to coat all sides. 

Cover with a damp muslin cloth and allow to double in size in a warm place for an hour. 

(I place in my microwave oven and keep the light on)
Spread the dough to fit the lined oval baking tray.

Instead you may make a rough oval/round shape and place on a lined baking tray.

Allow to rise for 20 mins.

Lightly oil your fingers and make dimples on the dough.

Brush generously with olive oil.

Preheat oven to 210 degree Celsius.

Bake the bread for 18-20 mins.

Take the bread out and increase heat of the oven to 230 degree Celsius.

Drizzle half of the herb oil on the bread and arrange slices of mozzarella cheese on it. Top with tomato slices and sprinkle chopped basil leaves.

Drizzle the remaining herb oil.

Bake for 5-8 mins or till the cheese just melts.

Remove and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Notes :

• If you want to make it little healthy, try substituting the quantity of flour with half whole wheat and half all purpose flour. 
• You may try other toppings but then it will no longer be a Caprese. 

This recipe is being sent to the amazing ongoing event called 'Yeasty Feasty' by Kolkata Food Bloggers where all the members are going to present their droolworthy yeasty bread creations. To make this event more exciting, food bloggers all over are invited to send in their yeasty bakes. Please read the rules and other details here to participate. 

Happy Foccacia enjoying
Amrita

Cheesy Gougères

Choux pastry or pâte à choux is a pastry that I have tried the maximum number of times and failed the maximum number of times as well. It contains only 4 basic ingredients-eggs, flour, butter and water and employs the high moisture content to create steam during cooking to puff the pastry, leaving a hollow center and light texture. Choux pastry is used to make Profiteroles, Eclairs and cream puffs. It can also be used for savoury pastries such as Gougères.
Though normally baked, very interestingly, the same pastry is also fried as in making churros and also boiled to make Marillenknödel, a sweet apricot dumpling (in that case it does not puff, but remains relatively dense)
Choux pastry has a reputation for being difficult to master, and rightly so as half of my attempts have failed to puff up. The pastry relies heavily on the technique and there are a few things to be kept in mind always. Here are some pointers that I have learnt from all my blunders

• Turn the oven on before starting anything. A pre-heated oven is essential to raise and cook the pastry. 
• Keep all your ingredients ready eg: whisk egg, sift flour. (In this recipe keep grated cheese ready).
• DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN while the pastry is cooking. It will hinder the puffing and they will collapse.

Baking Partner's challenge for this month was Eclairs or Gougères. Having attempted Eclairs before, I chose to try the savoury cousin. Everytime I bake choux pastry, I actually cross my fingers and pray to the Baking God to make the pastry rise. Thankfully, this time it was successful and we enjoyed this savoury version with a dash of mayonnaise and mustard sauce as a filling.

Recipe Source : Buchon Bakery Book

Ingredients: I have halved the quantity

• 1/4 cup+1/2 tbsp water
• 1.1 ounce unsalted butter(2 tbsp)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• a pinch of pepper powder
• 1/4 cup+1 1/4tbsp All purpose flour, sifted
• 75 gms eggs, whisked(A little more than 1 standard egg)
• 1/4 cup grated cheese(I used Amul processed cheese)

Procedure :

Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Prepare a baking pan lined with lightly greased aluminium foil.

Combine water, butter, salt and pepper in a saucepan over medium heat.

Stir till butter melts. Once butter has melted, increase the heat and bring the mixture to a simmer.

Remove from heat and stir in all the flour, at once, with a wooden spoon.

Continue to stir for 1-2 mins till mixture has a paste like consistency.

Place the pan over medium heat and stir rapidly for 1 min, till dough pulls away from sides and bottom of the pan and dough looks glossy and smooth.

Let the pan cool, till you can touch the bottom with a finger.

Add whisked egg, a tbsp at a time, and beat well till absorbed before adding more. (You may not require to add in all the egg.)

Continue adding till when lifted with the wooden spoon, the batter falls off in 1-2 second delay in a triangular way.

Add grated cheese and mix lightly.

Put the batter in a pastry bag and pipe balls 1" in diameter onto the aluminium foil.

Bake for 10 mins(for the pastry to puff up), then reduce the temp to 176 degree Celsius and bake for another 20 mins(for the pastry to get cooked)

 

Linking to Bake fest#21 brainchild of Vardhini
Happy Choux Pastry eating
Amrita

Fish Pie

Sweet'n'Savoury, a blog that started as a journey of a newly married couple experimenting and having loads of fun in their little kitchen, has off late, become synonymous with my wife, Amrita who manages the show all by herself and how well!  Although I, Vishal(the better half of this blog!) continue to experiment and cook on a consistent basis, my involvement with the blog has become limited since my work and the development of my other passion with friends, Boat Safari Adventure Tourism 'midst the world's largest mangrove forest at Crossindia Adventures takes a big chunk of my time. I make it a conscious effort, however, to add an occasional post to the blog just to renew my membership at Sweet 'n' Savoury!!

This time my usual weekend cooking routine coincided with the world celebrating ‘Father’s Day’. I don’t know what Father’s Day mean to the world, which is celebrated or rather reminded once a year, but to me it is an everyday journey to better myself as a father to a beautiful daughter and husband to a wonderful wife. Creating an environment conducive to happiness and growth, forgiveness and love, security and trust, acceptance and tolerance is a matter of consistent choice, which becomes a habit and ultimately a character.     

Cooking is just a medium through which our family connects together on an everyday basis. Amazingly, it just isn’t limited to us but also extends to our respective family as well. An everyday phone call from our mother asking ‘aaj kitchen mein kya ban raha hai’ is as priceless as meeting together after a long gap and cherishing each moment.  

The fish pie was a very simple preparation that came out exceedingly well. It was a welcome change to the normal cooking approach in terms of technique and the spices that we usually use.

Ingredients: For serving 2-3 people

• 400 gms fish(I used Bhetki)
• 1 cup milk
• 2-3 lime slices
• 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 black peppercorns
• 1 thyme sprig/1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp all purpose flour
• 5-6 mushrooms sliced
• 1 onion chopped
• salt, pepper to taste
• 4 potatoes, boiled and mashed
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tomato, sliced and halved
• 3-4 tbsp grated cheese

Procedure:
Put fish, skin side down, in a shallow pan. Add milk, lime slices, bay leaf and black peppercorns. Bring to boil, then lower heat and poach gently for 5 mins until just cooked. 

Strain off and reserve milk. Remove fish skin and flake the flesh, discarding any bones.
Melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook gently for 1 min. Add milk and boil, whisking until smooth and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep aside.
Heat remaining 1 tbsp butter in a pan and saute sliced mushroom and chopped onions. If the mixture leaves water, dry it on medium heat. Season with salt and add flaked fish. 
Mix in the white sauce made above and gently stir to combine. Transfer to an ovenproof casserole.
Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius. 
Beat mashed potato with 1 tbsp butter and little milk till creamy. Season with salt and pepper and spread evenly over the fish mixture. 
Fork up the surface and arrange sliced tomato around the edge. Sprinkle grated cheese.

Bake for 20-25 min or till the cheese gets brown in colour.

 

What started as a lazy Sunday afternoon experiment, became an instant hit family recipe. We loved everything about this dish, from the simplicity in the technique to the simple and subtle flavours. A meal in itself, it can also be wonderfully paired with some Butter or Garlic Toasts.

Happy Fish Pie Eating
Vishal

New York Style Pizza-from scratch

'Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.'

Anna Quindlen

Pizza!!

When we were kids, Pizza and Burgers was such an exotic food item. I remember in Kolkata, there was a joint called Corner Cafe that used to sell the first burgers and we as kids thought of it as a big style statement to stand and eat those humongous pieces, along with a sip of Coca Cola, of course!! These American food items was introduced in our vocabulary by the famous Archies comic books and I would wonder how a Hot Dog or Pizza would taste like. 

Here in India, we love to adapt everything(literally)to suit our culture. And so when the Pizza and burger made an entry here, we twisted and turned and changed the recipe to suit our taste buds. (Ditto with the chinese food). Burgers here was available in its Veggie Avataar than the original Beef/Pork ones and the Pizza was nothing like how it looked in Archies!!

Today, is a little different story though, Big Foodie names have arrived with the biggest bang. Now you can very easily get the best Pizza with a range of toppings and can also choose from the variety of crust options.

This months Baking Partners challenge is the New York Style Pizza, which as I learnt is a thin crusted pizza, hand tossed and made from High-gluten Bread flour. I Indianized the recipe(just like how we do everything!!) and substituted bread flour with All purpose flour. I halved the recipe and so could not create the authentic 18" pizza. 

Recipe   suggested by Archana of Tangy Minds adapted from Serious Eats

Ingredients:I halved the recipe to get 4 medium sized Pizzas

• 2 1/4 cup All purpose flour
• 3/4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp Instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 cup lukewarm water

Sauce:

• 4-5 medium sized Tomatoes
• 1 onion, sliced finely
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp butter
• 8-10 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt to taste 

 

Procedure:

Combine flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add olive oil and mix. Knead by adding little water at a time(about 1 cup) to a smooth ball. Transfer dough to lightly floured surface and knead till it passes the Window Pane test. 
Cover with a damp muslin cloth and let it rise in a well oiled bowl in a warm place for an hour or place in a zip-lock bag and put in the refrigerator for 1-5 days. If refrigerated, take out 2 hours before baking and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Meanwhile prepare the sauce.
Puree the tomatoes in a blender or grate in a grater. 
Combine butter and oil in a pan over medium heat and add garlic and sliced onions. Cook for a few minutes and add tomato puree, sugar and oregano. Bring to a boil and let it simmer till thickens. Add salt as required. Allow to cool. Can be refrigerated for upto 2 weeks.


Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Divide dough into 4 balls. Roll each ball to a 5-6"circle, leaving the outer edge a little higher.
Prick with a fork all over.

Transfer to the baking pan and spread 1/4 of the sauce evenly. Add the toppings of your choice. I added capsicum slices, paneer cubes and sweet corn.

 

Sprinkle grated mozarella cheese over it and bake for 15-20 mins or till the cheese on top melts and browns.
Prepare the remaining Pizza in the same manner.

My pizzas about to go in the oven, showing here one with the toppings and another covered with cheese

And here they are, already digged in !!

Pizza Making and Baking is an amazing experience and is a must try for home bakers. 

Happy Pizza Eating
Amrita