Vegetable Fried Rice - Chinese Style

What is different about fried rice as compared to regular pulav. My little girl calls it while biryani rice. She is partly correct. The idea is that it is a little mildly flavoured compared to our pulav, unless ofcourse you are talking about Schezwan fried rice.

So here is a quick easy way to make Veg fried rice. I some times add egg scramble and convert it into egg fried rice.

Recipe
Ingredients Rice - 1 cup, cleaned and soaked

Following Vegetables - totaling to 1cup
Carrots - finely diced
green peas
Bean - thin slices
Finely sliced onions.

Spring onions for garnishing
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste. 

Method Cook the rice with a little salt and oil and allow it to cool down. It is better to cook it in the pan instead of using the cooker. The rice grains will separate easily when cool. Separate the rice grains and keep aside.

Fry some oil in a large bottomed heavy pan. Add the vegetables, a little salt and pepper and stir fry until cooked. If you want to cook the vegetables in water you could do that and reduce the oil added. 

When the veggies are cooked, add the rice and mix well, tossing around every few seconds. Sprinkle some pepper to taste. 

If you wish to make egg fried rice, use the same procedure and add scrambled eggs to the rice while mixing with vegetables. 

Garnish with spring onions.

Serve hot with soy sauce, tomato sauce and Vinegar dressing.

Verdict Simple, quick and easy fried rice. You can make some chinese style vegetable gravy to go with this too. Watch out for the next recipe.

Conchas de Colores Naturales - Baking Eggless (May Challenge)

Is it already June 2014? It just seems like yesterday when we welcomed the new year... Phew! time flies, literally and I have missed 3 challenges... Sorry but work at office has been keeping me away from the blogosphere for the last 3-4 months. So when things eased out a little, I decided I will not skip this month's challenge and here it is :)

I admit it, it is a exasperating recipe. Too many different things come together for this, each with its own preparation time and rising time... But it is totally worth it...

Here is the original recipe... I have given the substitution tips below the original recipe.

Yields 16 rolls

Time:
Mix and ferment sponge: 2 hours

Mix final dough: 10 minutes

First fermentation : 30 minutes, then 8 – 16 hours in the refrigerator

Divide and shape: 20 minutes

Proof: 3 hours

Bake: 20 minutes

Sponge Ingredients:
113 g flour
3 g instant yeast
1 T. warm water
50 g (one large) egg, lightly beaten

Final Dough Ingredients:
450 g flour
180 g sugar
3 g (1/2 t. salt)
45 g unsalted butter, softened

220 g egg
57 g warm water
7 g instant yeast
all of the sponge

Topping Ingredients:
114 g all-purpose flour
114 g powdered sugar
91 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

Colors/flavors as desired. The original recipe specifies, 2 T. cocoa powder for half, and 1 T. cinnamon for the other half. I divided the dough in quarters and used 1 T. coarsely ground cacao nibs, 3 g dehydrated raspberries, 3 g dehydrated blueberries (both berries finely ground in a spice mill with a bit of granulated sugar), and 1.5 t. acai powder.


What did I use? 1 Tbsp Cinnamon for the brown ones
1 Tbsp dried cranberries for the light pink hue. 

Method:
In a medium, combine the sponge ingredients and mix until well incorporated. 
Cover and ferment until double in bulk, about 1.5 hours.
In the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine all of the final dough ingredients except 60 g of the sugar. 
Mix on medium-high speed (I used Kitchen Aid mixer speed 5) for 5 minutes.
Add the remaining sugar and continue to mix for another 3 minutes, until the dough more or less holds together around the dough hook. It should be soft and sticky and shiny.
Using a little flour around the sides of the bowl to help loosen the dough, turn the dough into a lightly buttered container. 
Cover and ferment in a warm place for 30 minutes, then place in the refrigerator overnight (8 – 16 hours).
Before removing the dough from the refrigerator, prepare the topping. 
Sift flour and powdered sugar together, then cut the butter into the mixture and work it together into a paste with your fingers. 
Divide the paste and add the colorings.
Turn the main dough into a lightly floured counter. Divide it into 16 pieces of approximately 60 grams each.
Shape each piece into a ball by cupping your hand over it loosely and rolling it around on the counter. 
Place the balls on two large parchment-lined baking sheets.
Divide the topping paste into 16 balls. Press each ball out into a 3-inch disc and place it on top of a ball of dough, using the palm of your hand to flatten it out a little.
Using the tip of a sharp knife, score through the topping paste in a shell pattern. (Don’t worry if the topping disc cracks at this point, or during baking; this is characteristic of conchas.)
Proof  in a warm place, uncovered, until they have increased in volume by about 50%, about 3 hours.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with racks on the middle and top thirds, to 375F.
Bake for the conchas for about 20 minutes, swapping the positions of the pans at about 12 minutes to ensure even baking. 
The topping should feel set and the rolls underneath should be slightly browned.
Cool on a wire rack. 
Now for the eggless recipe: 220g egg is about 4 large eggs (each egg is about 55 grams in weight and 1/4 cup by volume).

The eggs can be substituted with any of the following

1. 1 cup milk
2. 1 cup yoghurt
3. 1/2 cup cream + 1/2 cup milk
4. 1/2 cup dry evaporated milk + enough milk to make 1 cup in total

I used option 4. 

Why are there large cracks you ask? I delayed making the shell pattern by more than 20 minutes after fixing the topping. By then the bread had risen again and started cracking the topping paste.

I baked at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes. Since I baked in a convection oven, I did not have to rearrange the buns midway. 

Verdict

I am sure the topping would have turned out picture perfect if the pattern was done on time. If you love to serve some fancy looking sweet buns say at a party or a get-together make mini version of these and they will be gone in a jiffy.

Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt Cake

Is there anything called over-indulgence with respect to bundt cakes? As the new owner of bundt pans it is indeed natural for one to try out various recipes. This is with a large bundt (12-cup) pan.

I once again turned to Divya's blog for a chocolate-cinnamon-bundt cake.

Ingredients
Butter – ½ cup

Water – 1 cup

Vegetable oil – ½ cup

Cocoa powder – 5 tbsps[I used Cadburys]

Plain flour – 1 ½ cups
Wholewheat flour – ½ cup

Sugar – 1 1/2 cups

Salt – ½ tsp

Buttermilk – 1 cup (replaced 2 eggs with half a cup of buttermilk)

Baking soda – 1 tsp

Cinnamon – 1 ½ tsps

Vanilla extract – 1 tsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). I set it to 180 degrees C.

Grease a large bundt pan with cooking spray.

Put butter, water, oil, and cocoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, whisk together both flours, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well.
Then, add the buttermilk and baking soda.

Add the cinnamon, and vanilla to the batter. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake 35-40 minutes.[Mine took 10 minutes extra]. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan.

Verdict: Wonderfully rich and moist cake. But I usually prefer cakes that do not use oil. That is just my taste I suppose. But for the glossy look and moisture in the cake, I loved the taste.