Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Long time no see...a dream come true, a disater and a long due regards to all..

Hello all....

It's been long long time since I have made a post here....my blog was almost on the verge of Rest-ing in Peace..while yesterday, was a "Dream-come-true" day for me, and I cant help showing it off!

Yes..I baked my own bread!!!..yeaaahhh...!!!!..eurekaaa

For no God known reason, was I always pulled back from trying it out...but deep within was this serious desire to do it...and going on for months now...and finally yeah...!!!!! (my! I am all still excited about it. )
I know..i know... baking is not a great deal for many out there...but for me, it was a giant leap!
After many search clicks on bakes, buns n breads..in various blog sites, net.. emails n questions to couple of experienced bakers.."why do we use this kind of yeast, why not the other?..should we do like this..why not like that??? and....finally decided on this simple recipe from Arabic Bites, and bingoooo !!!

Am I not really greatful for this less timetaking procedure .... more details here.

I truly recoment this to all new starters and impatient ladies like me, who needs to get "things done now!" ..not patient enough for the dough to rise, then punch it down..then rise...then overnight..hummm.
I made no variation in the quanity mentioned in the recipie..so, it was a big ball of dough after it has risen...and the end-products were.....

....
....

.....

....

...

...

...

..

..
..
...
..

..
...
Oooh llaaa llaaaa..I am soo happy..I could do it!!! (please excuse if you feel my excitement silly..but again as I said..this was definitely a giannntt leapp for me!!!)


For the quanity taken here...you get 5 pizzas, 6 fatayers...about 15 rolls and a challah..(not neatly pleated though) all medium sized. But again, when the dough is done..what shape it takes is all up to you. You are the boss..so play around...and mess aound with it.



Fatayer (arabic word for pies)- Labnah-zatar.



Peanut butter-cinamon-jam-roll. All in one!



This is what I felt looked the most cute...looked like flower buds to me...tip of the dough after slicing for the rolls...was in truth, the leftover, but finally came out to look the best.



Making cookies for the first time was also a great accomplishment for me. Did this over the last weekend. That's homemade strawberry jam filled in some of them. Courtesy to all jams goes to Viji of VCuisine. Never knew jams are so easy to prepare unless I saw her posts. thanks Viji.

Assorted vanilla cookies. Recipie adopted from Viji again. Followed the same quantity.


Tiny cookie flowers..this is all that I have got to show...the by-product was right all gone (courtesy : hubbie-bie and junior 1) even before I got to take a snap of the small cute flowers.


Oh well..I am again going back to my yesterday session...this was one sight that I had longed for a looong loong time ... the fatayers blowing up in the oven. It was a heavenly sight for me.

And now for some what was prepared while I was at home...enjoying my 75 days maternity leave.


Chicken majboos....whole chicken cooked in water with various spicesn browned in the oven and rice cooked in the same water used to cook the chicken.


Shrimp Fajita, cooked shrimp with sauted onion and capcicum with my additonal touchings of corm and green peas.


Flower puffs, with spring roll pastry sheets..didnt come out well as you see.


Usmania....chicken here, a single pot meal...rice cooked in the same pot after preparing the curry. Arabic dish.

First trial with puff pastry sheets..had nothing to keep in as filling, so it was just leftover cabbage thoran from afternoon lunch, and hence the name...Cabbage-Thoran puff.

And a few which was taken long back...(while I was carrying, that is) but never got itself up on the blog then...

Paachoru..(sorry I forgot from whose blog I had taken the recipie ) Rice cooked in coconut milk...sorry again, I forgot the exact measurements and what else I had used.



Masala peanuts...done in MW...which you have seen in many of the blogs...



Purple (plum) jam from Viji of VCuisine

And now again...going back to my yesterday experiments...done while the dough was raising...




These white pretty lovely angelic melt-in-the-mouth sweets were my ever favourites from childhood..Meringues....happened to read some recipies which looked like.."aah, this is sooo simple to do...why not give it a try....beat egg white till fluffy, add sugar n essence ..again beat, and bake....easyyyy...was i not happy to get such a simple thing to doo....
and...
...
....
.....
......
.......
look how it turned out to be....
...
......
.......
..........
....
.....
......
......
........
Oooh My dear holy God!!! am I not the least ashamed to be showing it out in public to all the master-chefs reading this post !!!!..naaaeeehhh
aah, well anyways,....every valley has a rise n deeep falll...

later today, did i see this link here.....my! this is not as easy I thought it would be.
Aaaahhh..so much of the cookery side...
.
and now..for all those who had the patience to reach uptill here...
I am posting you the link to my orkut album where I am very much around...and my family....
so, even if this blog reaches its coffin again...you will find me in there, always live!
Thanks and cheers and warm regards,
Lots of lov,
Sona Santhosh - the kitchen scientist

16 comments:

  1. I understand ur excitement completely as i always have some problem with my doughs....should muster up courage to try it again....btw, a lip smacking spread...especially the meat fatayer...i love it....and for that chicken majboos, is there any stuffing..? sounds interesting especially cooking rice in the stock....

    ReplyDelete
  2. mishmash, try this dough..its perfect...but leave it for some time after mixing the full ingredients..more it stays ,more softer it became..but i also noticed that rolled out ones are less softer than just hand-flattened ones..i mean, the pizza, fatayer etc were more softer than the challah...and its not meat in the fatayer, its zatar..a mixture of green herbs found very commonly here.

    majboos u can do it with or without filling...the one in the snap is without any filling..but definitely rubbed on the insidetoo with some ginger-garlic paste n tomato paste..the next time i made it..it was filled with light masala paste n boiled egg, but u have to stitch the opening to keep it closed.to avoid the stitching part, u need not fill anyhting in..

    ReplyDelete
  3. haha! great to see you back and its lovely , ur experiments. so what if the meringue didnt come out! the first pic of the meringue is so pretty, on the tray.

    hope to see you post more often :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful Spread Sona!!!I also got the Meringue the same way in the pictures, my aunt told me to keep the temp low and leave it overnight in the own.Then it came out well.Not shapely tho .
    Please do post recipes for the Arabic dishes you have pictures here. Would love to try them out.
    Great to see you back!!
    Pearlin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow..beautiful spread of dishes Sona...saw your pictures in orkut..both your kids look so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cabbage-Thoran puff has to be a first...get it patented!!;-P

    ReplyDelete
  7. see, mshamash and i zoomed on the exact same thing.. fatayer!! nice to see u back after so long! and congrats too. take care of urself.:)
    i had a baking craze last year, this year its a little low key with all other responsibilities. i have had and made the chiken machboos.. yum thing though too bland so i spice it up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hey.. its been so long.
    Honest to God, seeing the pics made me so hungry.. its like torture, showing this to a guy who's stuck eating soggy rice, brick chapatis and crap masala potataoes everyday in a tiffin box !!! Amazing stuff.. looks so tempting.
    How are u doing ? As for me..
    I'm doing good. at home presently on parole for a week. Then back to hell.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sona!!!! I was so happy to hear from you on my blog. :-)

    How are you? I think you are a great cook, I loved browsing all your lovely pictures.

    I had just eaten but I am hungry again seeing all of the tasty food you cooked.

    The bread looks brilliant, let me tell you Sona that when I make bread dough I too make a selection of different bread recipes because it is so much fun to do. :-)

    Feel free to pop pver to my blog anytime. :-)

    Take care Sona

    Jeena. x

    ReplyDelete
  10. good to have you back!! :)thats a lot of goodies in one post!! thanks for dropping by..im doing gr8..married life is absolutely great!! :):)hope to see more of ur creations!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice tries and I still could remember the first muffin picture Sona. See, anything is possible if we try till we succeed. Don't pur on weight by eating all these stuffs. Baking is an addiction :) Take care. Viji

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey Sona,
    Welcome back! And congratulations too! :D
    Baking breads is something I've not yet tried out. It seems a little too labor-intensive for me.
    I'm so glad you put up a pic of your meringue. I've bookmarked a few of these recipes mainly 'coz they all sound super simple to make. The link you have given is very helpful.:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yayyyyyyy! Congratulations! You have outdone yourself! Look at how many fantastic things you baked. I am so proud of you. And I love the excitement in your writing!

    Congrats on the little addition to the family!

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is wonderful that you are bakc.
    You have been cooking up a storm. All of them look delicious.
    Isn't it wonderful to have the delicious aroma when you are baking at home.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for coming over , Anu

    Many thanks Sagari ansd Sri...

    do try it out Mathew..honeslt speaking its much easlie to prepae than our indian dishes..and cabbage thoran puffs!!..yes, done!!..its all mine!..yeaah

    Mallugirl...yes bajboos as such is very blaaannngg, esp for spicy people like us from kerala...we ahve to spice it up to suite our tastebuds

    you take care , okie, Roshan..and thanks for the regards..we doing fine by Grace of God

    Seeena kutty..vilichirikkunnu..eppoya kuwaitilottu??

    thank Jeena..you make my day!

    Thanks Lavanya and superchef...glad that u are having a great time!

    Viji..yes the muffin -cookie - burnt out one...yup! and yes, weight..hum...i have that in plenty..have startd the gym

    Cynthia..theres something in you that i realy relly respect.might be the fact that you are aa teacher, writer..dont know...but rellya ppreciate your presence n comments..thanks dear

    sig..recipies, most of them are in the links given..others, as i have given..hummm..one line ones..i know its not the right thing to do...but was not in the mood to be writing that day..sorry about that

    thanks happycook!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. the bread looks so awesome! I was thinking of trying the south beach diet-no carbs...but looking at all this bread I'm thinking to hell with diets!

    ReplyDelete

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Long time no see...a dream come true, a disater and a long due regards to all..

Hello all....

It's been long long time since I have made a post here....my blog was almost on the verge of Rest-ing in Peace..while yesterday, was a "Dream-come-true" day for me, and I cant help showing it off!

Yes..I baked my own bread!!!..yeaaahhh...!!!!..eurekaaa

For no God known reason, was I always pulled back from trying it out...but deep within was this serious desire to do it...and going on for months now...and finally yeah...!!!!! (my! I am all still excited about it. )
I know..i know... baking is not a great deal for many out there...but for me, it was a giant leap!
After many search clicks on bakes, buns n breads..in various blog sites, net.. emails n questions to couple of experienced bakers.."why do we use this kind of yeast, why not the other?..should we do like this..why not like that??? and....finally decided on this simple recipe from Arabic Bites, and bingoooo !!!

Am I not really greatful for this less timetaking procedure .... more details here.

I truly recoment this to all new starters and impatient ladies like me, who needs to get "things done now!" ..not patient enough for the dough to rise, then punch it down..then rise...then overnight..hummm.
I made no variation in the quanity mentioned in the recipie..so, it was a big ball of dough after it has risen...and the end-products were.....

....
....

.....

....

...

...

...

..

..
..
...
..

..
...
Oooh llaaa llaaaa..I am soo happy..I could do it!!! (please excuse if you feel my excitement silly..but again as I said..this was definitely a giannntt leapp for me!!!)


For the quanity taken here...you get 5 pizzas, 6 fatayers...about 15 rolls and a challah..(not neatly pleated though) all medium sized. But again, when the dough is done..what shape it takes is all up to you. You are the boss..so play around...and mess aound with it.



Fatayer (arabic word for pies)- Labnah-zatar.



Peanut butter-cinamon-jam-roll. All in one!



This is what I felt looked the most cute...looked like flower buds to me...tip of the dough after slicing for the rolls...was in truth, the leftover, but finally came out to look the best.



Making cookies for the first time was also a great accomplishment for me. Did this over the last weekend. That's homemade strawberry jam filled in some of them. Courtesy to all jams goes to Viji of VCuisine. Never knew jams are so easy to prepare unless I saw her posts. thanks Viji.

Assorted vanilla cookies. Recipie adopted from Viji again. Followed the same quantity.


Tiny cookie flowers..this is all that I have got to show...the by-product was right all gone (courtesy : hubbie-bie and junior 1) even before I got to take a snap of the small cute flowers.


Oh well..I am again going back to my yesterday session...this was one sight that I had longed for a looong loong time ... the fatayers blowing up in the oven. It was a heavenly sight for me.

And now for some what was prepared while I was at home...enjoying my 75 days maternity leave.


Chicken majboos....whole chicken cooked in water with various spicesn browned in the oven and rice cooked in the same water used to cook the chicken.


Shrimp Fajita, cooked shrimp with sauted onion and capcicum with my additonal touchings of corm and green peas.


Flower puffs, with spring roll pastry sheets..didnt come out well as you see.


Usmania....chicken here, a single pot meal...rice cooked in the same pot after preparing the curry. Arabic dish.

First trial with puff pastry sheets..had nothing to keep in as filling, so it was just leftover cabbage thoran from afternoon lunch, and hence the name...Cabbage-Thoran puff.

And a few which was taken long back...(while I was carrying, that is) but never got itself up on the blog then...

Paachoru..(sorry I forgot from whose blog I had taken the recipie ) Rice cooked in coconut milk...sorry again, I forgot the exact measurements and what else I had used.



Masala peanuts...done in MW...which you have seen in many of the blogs...



Purple (plum) jam from Viji of VCuisine

And now again...going back to my yesterday experiments...done while the dough was raising...




These white pretty lovely angelic melt-in-the-mouth sweets were my ever favourites from childhood..Meringues....happened to read some recipies which looked like.."aah, this is sooo simple to do...why not give it a try....beat egg white till fluffy, add sugar n essence ..again beat, and bake....easyyyy...was i not happy to get such a simple thing to doo....
and...
...
....
.....
......
.......
look how it turned out to be....
...
......
.......
..........
....
.....
......
......
........
Oooh My dear holy God!!! am I not the least ashamed to be showing it out in public to all the master-chefs reading this post !!!!..naaaeeehhh
aah, well anyways,....every valley has a rise n deeep falll...

later today, did i see this link here.....my! this is not as easy I thought it would be.
Aaaahhh..so much of the cookery side...
.
and now..for all those who had the patience to reach uptill here...
I am posting you the link to my orkut album where I am very much around...and my family....
so, even if this blog reaches its coffin again...you will find me in there, always live!
Thanks and cheers and warm regards,
Lots of lov,
Sona Santhosh - the kitchen scientist

16 comments:

  1. I understand ur excitement completely as i always have some problem with my doughs....should muster up courage to try it again....btw, a lip smacking spread...especially the meat fatayer...i love it....and for that chicken majboos, is there any stuffing..? sounds interesting especially cooking rice in the stock....

    ReplyDelete
  2. mishmash, try this dough..its perfect...but leave it for some time after mixing the full ingredients..more it stays ,more softer it became..but i also noticed that rolled out ones are less softer than just hand-flattened ones..i mean, the pizza, fatayer etc were more softer than the challah...and its not meat in the fatayer, its zatar..a mixture of green herbs found very commonly here.

    majboos u can do it with or without filling...the one in the snap is without any filling..but definitely rubbed on the insidetoo with some ginger-garlic paste n tomato paste..the next time i made it..it was filled with light masala paste n boiled egg, but u have to stitch the opening to keep it closed.to avoid the stitching part, u need not fill anyhting in..

    ReplyDelete
  3. haha! great to see you back and its lovely , ur experiments. so what if the meringue didnt come out! the first pic of the meringue is so pretty, on the tray.

    hope to see you post more often :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a wonderful Spread Sona!!!I also got the Meringue the same way in the pictures, my aunt told me to keep the temp low and leave it overnight in the own.Then it came out well.Not shapely tho .
    Please do post recipes for the Arabic dishes you have pictures here. Would love to try them out.
    Great to see you back!!
    Pearlin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow..beautiful spread of dishes Sona...saw your pictures in orkut..both your kids look so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cabbage-Thoran puff has to be a first...get it patented!!;-P

    ReplyDelete
  7. see, mshamash and i zoomed on the exact same thing.. fatayer!! nice to see u back after so long! and congrats too. take care of urself.:)
    i had a baking craze last year, this year its a little low key with all other responsibilities. i have had and made the chiken machboos.. yum thing though too bland so i spice it up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. hey.. its been so long.
    Honest to God, seeing the pics made me so hungry.. its like torture, showing this to a guy who's stuck eating soggy rice, brick chapatis and crap masala potataoes everyday in a tiffin box !!! Amazing stuff.. looks so tempting.
    How are u doing ? As for me..
    I'm doing good. at home presently on parole for a week. Then back to hell.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sona!!!! I was so happy to hear from you on my blog. :-)

    How are you? I think you are a great cook, I loved browsing all your lovely pictures.

    I had just eaten but I am hungry again seeing all of the tasty food you cooked.

    The bread looks brilliant, let me tell you Sona that when I make bread dough I too make a selection of different bread recipes because it is so much fun to do. :-)

    Feel free to pop pver to my blog anytime. :-)

    Take care Sona

    Jeena. x

    ReplyDelete
  10. good to have you back!! :)thats a lot of goodies in one post!! thanks for dropping by..im doing gr8..married life is absolutely great!! :):)hope to see more of ur creations!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice tries and I still could remember the first muffin picture Sona. See, anything is possible if we try till we succeed. Don't pur on weight by eating all these stuffs. Baking is an addiction :) Take care. Viji

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hey Sona,
    Welcome back! And congratulations too! :D
    Baking breads is something I've not yet tried out. It seems a little too labor-intensive for me.
    I'm so glad you put up a pic of your meringue. I've bookmarked a few of these recipes mainly 'coz they all sound super simple to make. The link you have given is very helpful.:)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yayyyyyyy! Congratulations! You have outdone yourself! Look at how many fantastic things you baked. I am so proud of you. And I love the excitement in your writing!

    Congrats on the little addition to the family!

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is wonderful that you are bakc.
    You have been cooking up a storm. All of them look delicious.
    Isn't it wonderful to have the delicious aroma when you are baking at home.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for coming over , Anu

    Many thanks Sagari ansd Sri...

    do try it out Mathew..honeslt speaking its much easlie to prepae than our indian dishes..and cabbage thoran puffs!!..yes, done!!..its all mine!..yeaah

    Mallugirl...yes bajboos as such is very blaaannngg, esp for spicy people like us from kerala...we ahve to spice it up to suite our tastebuds

    you take care , okie, Roshan..and thanks for the regards..we doing fine by Grace of God

    Seeena kutty..vilichirikkunnu..eppoya kuwaitilottu??

    thank Jeena..you make my day!

    Thanks Lavanya and superchef...glad that u are having a great time!

    Viji..yes the muffin -cookie - burnt out one...yup! and yes, weight..hum...i have that in plenty..have startd the gym

    Cynthia..theres something in you that i realy relly respect.might be the fact that you are aa teacher, writer..dont know...but rellya ppreciate your presence n comments..thanks dear

    sig..recipies, most of them are in the links given..others, as i have given..hummm..one line ones..i know its not the right thing to do...but was not in the mood to be writing that day..sorry about that

    thanks happycook!!!

    ReplyDelete
  16. the bread looks so awesome! I was thinking of trying the south beach diet-no carbs...but looking at all this bread I'm thinking to hell with diets!

    ReplyDelete