Masoor murgh

I was thinking of making chicken with lentils, but not exactly Dal murgh, and thus came up with this preparation. I used the very basic massor dal (red lentils) from everyday Bengali cuisine. However, I decided to the whole lentils instead of the split one, to give a bit of texture and bite. The split lentils tend to melt more easily and can easily form mushy gravy.  The rest I kept simple with basic onion, garlic, ginger. The ginger was julienned so that it is more prominent in the bites. I generally like chicken with the aromatic spices, but this time only coriander powder was chosen. The chilies gave the nice heat and spiciness along with the ginger, exactly as I imagined it to be. It was an interesting chicken dish and yummy!

 You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

(Serves 3)

400g chicken

3/4cup whole masoor (red lentils)

1big onion

1.5inch ginger

4 cloves garlic

4-5 green chilies

1sp coriander powder

Oil, salt, sugar

METHOD:

1.      Finely chop the onion, garlic, chilies. Julienne the ginger.

2.      Boil the lentils in 1.5-2cups of water with a little bit of salt. Boil the lentils just enough so that it does not turn mushy but remain whole. Drain the water

3.      Heat oil in a pan. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, chilies.

4.      Fry on medium-high heat until it is golden brown, and starts leaving oil.

5.      Add the chicken. Cook on medium heat until the chicken lightly browns.

6.      Add the boiled lentils. Garnish with salt, sugar.

7.      Cook for a couple of minutes more on high heat.

Walnut potica

Potica is a traditional Slovene dessert. The thin rolled pastry dough stuffed with different sweet fillings is not only delicious to eat but like a delicate art. Blaž was saying how he likes the walnut potica more, and therefore, this time walnut potica was on the menu. His mama got this recipe from her colleague. I was very excited to make it. This time I was more focused on trying to roll the potica and thinly as possible and make many nice thing layers after I tightly roll it. After it was sliced through, I was happily satisfied. It looked pretty good, almost like the ones made my grandmas or like the ones one gets in stores. And Blaž loved eating them!

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

  

INGREDIENTS:

For dough:

600g BONI flour (a dry flour mix that contains dried eggs)

25ml rum

250-300ml water

30g yeast

50ml milk

1tbsp sugar

1tbsp flour

For filling:

1.5l walnuts (by volume)

250ml cream

200g sugar

1 egg

2tbsp apricot marmalade

150g raisins

Rum

100g cooking chocolate or cocoa

7g vanilla sugar

1sp lemon rinds

1 egg

Vanilla sugar for dusting

METHOD:

1.      Soak the raisins in rum.

2.      Warm 50ml of milk with 1 spoon each of sugar and flour. When the milk is lukewarm, remove it from heat and add the yeast. Cover it and allow it to rise for 15min.

3.      In the flour add the rum, yeast and required amount of lukewarm water to make a smooth soft dough. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 30-60mins.

4.      Grind the walnuts, such that they are still crunchy and not too fine. Keep aside half of the portion.

5.      Boil the sweet cream.

6.      Add half of the walnuts in it. Remove from heat.

7.      Add sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon rinds, chocolate/cocoa, marmalade, soaked raisins, and the remaining walnuts. Mix well.

8.      When it is a bit colder, add one egg and mix.

9.      After an hour when the dough has risen, roll it into a ~3-4mm thin big square. (Use the dining table and one clean tablecloth dusted with flour for rolling. The thinner it is the better, but take care to not make holes)

10.   Spread the filling evenly on it and tightly roll it into a log.

11.   Put it in a greased round baking tray. Cover it and let it rise for another 30mins in a warm place.

12.   Smear it with beaten egg (for color). Prick the dough several times with needle.

13.   Bake it in a preheated oven at 170°C for 1-1:15hr. (Cover the potica with a foil if it is getting too brown).

14. When cold, dust with powdered vanila sugar and cut in thin slices for serving.

NOTE:
The recipe calls for flour with pre added eggs and hence no eggs are added while making the dough.

Cheese snails

These cheese bread rolls are super easy to make, and oh so yummy. The soft texture of the bread and the tempting smell of molten cheese just do not allow one to stop eating them. I love the taste of sesame and the occasional salt crystals. We made a batch of them and they were finished in no time. Yum!

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:

Dough:

1kg flour

84g yeast

1tbsp sugar

Salt

100ml oil

400ml milk

Filling:

400g grated cheese

2eggs

Garnish:

1 egg white

Sesame

Salt crystals

METHOD:

1.      Warm 50ml of milk with 1 spoon each of sugar and flour. When the milk is lukewarm, remove it from heat and add the yeast. Cover it and allow it to rise for 15min.

2.      Add the yeast to the dough. Add salt, oil, and lukewarm milk.

3.      Make a smooth dough. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 1hr so that it rises.

4.      Roll it into a square 1/2cm thick. (Use the dining table and one clean tablecloth dusted with flour for rolling.)

5.      Smear it with beaten egg and spread the grated cheese evenly.

6.      Tightly roll the dough. Cut it into 3cm thick wheels. Arrange them in a baking tray and gently squeeze them a bit.

7.      Let them rise again for 15mins.

8.      Smear with egg white. Sprinkle sesame seeds and little salt crystals.

9.      Bake them in preheated oven at 180°C for 15-20 mins.

Ocvrtki (fried cooked-dough dumplings)

These little fried balls made from cooked-dough are really good with different heavy meat dishes, roasts etc. While making the dough, the flour is actually cooked in boiling water, and hence the name cooked-dough. They are easy to make, and tastes good as you pop one in mouth just like that.

You can print the recipe for your kitchen here: PRINTABLE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:
(Serves 2)

250ml water

30g margarine

160g flour

2 eggs

Salt

METHOD:

1.      Boil the water. Add salt and margarine.

2.      When it starts boiling again, reduce heat and add the flour.

3.      On low heat, mix the flour with a blender to get a smooth elastic mass.

4.      Put the mixture away so that it cools a bit.

5.      When the dough cools a bit, add the eggs, one at a time and mix blend again on low heat to form smooth soft elastic dough.

6.      Shape it into small balls (like gnocchi or little dumplings) and make dents with a fork.

7.      Deep-fry them in oil heated at 180°C for around 16mins.

NOTE:

Use a bit of semolina if the dough turns out to be too sticky and soft.

The dumplings can be cooked in boiling water for about 15mins instead of deep-frying.