From many days I am terribly missing these khara (spicy) buns available in Bangalore bakeries. These buns are nothing but very soft bread stuffed with some kind of very spicy vegetable. But I have a very bad history of baking breads. I must have attempted it atleast 5-6 times(that I know of) and consistently I got rock hard products which I am sure would work great as cricket balls :). But no matter how many times I failed, I wanted to try it again, I am pretty optimistic when it comes to cooking.
Then last week when I was blog hopping, I came across Sunitha’s amazing bread creations . While reading through her post, I came to know it was November daring baker ‘s challenge. Now my next stop was Meeta’s blog . I have been reading Meeta’s creations for this “event” for last few months. I didn’t know Sunita was also a part of daring bakers till now, as soon as I came to know, I spent next few minutes digging her old posts. I am always bowled over by the amazing creations by these two for the challenge every month. Though all of their creations were very tempting, they looked very difficult to me. But this bread looked very very simple. With lot of difficulty, I postponed the baking for over a week. Finally I baked it yesterday.
I had very less hopes because of my previous attempts, but since all the daring bakers had created such nice results, I ordered my mind to keep cool ;). When the bread dough beautifully rose, I was sure the bread would come soft. It was amazing :). Very soft and very tasty.
Since I am not officially a daring baker (or to be honest, I missed one step while reading it), I kind of took a slight shortcut – I added all the flour at once instead of adding it in steps. It made my life much easier, because the dough was not very sticky and therefore easily manageable. I made a very small batch, I didn’t want to throw a big batch if I messed up this time. Try it, its the best. Thanks a lot daring bakers and to Tanna for coming up with this recipe . Here is the measurements I used-
I use the measuring cup+spoon set , so measuring was exact.
Method: Put the peeled and chopped potato in 1 cup water, 1/4 tea spn salt and bring it to boil. Cook till the potatoes are very tender. Drain the water (save the water). Mash the potatoes. Measure the saved water. If it is less than 3/4 cup, add extra water to get a total of 3/4 cup. Take the mashed potatoes and water in a big bowl. When the mixture is cooled to about 70-80F (ie, when it is still a bit warm but not hot), add the active dry yeast. Add all purpose flour, mix and leave for 5mins ( According to original recipe, at this stage only 1/2 cup all purpose flour is added. so the dough was not at all sticky ). Add remaining salt, softened butter and wheat flour and mix well. ( According to original recipe, at this stage 1/2 more cup of all purpose flour is added. Remaining flour is used to dust the surface where the bread is kneaded. I am not sure what difference it makes if I add the flour at once because the dough rose well without any trouble ).
Now take the dough on a clean surface and knead it well for 10mins ( if you follow the original recipe, the dough at this stage has only 1 cup of flour, so dough is very sticky. Keep adding flour to get a dough that can be easily managed . Since I added all the flour earlier, I didn’t dust the surface at all ). Leave the dough in a warm place for about 2hrs or till the dough doubles in volume.
Stuffing: 1 cup onion 3-4 green chilies 1/2 tea spn garam masala 1 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves A pinch turmeric Oil Salt
Method: Heat a little oil and add green chilies, onion, turmeric, salt and fry till the onions are translucent. Add a little water, close the lid and let it cook. Add garam masala , coriander leaves. Cook till onions are completely cooked and the mixture has become very dry. Take off the heat and let it cool to room temperature.
How to make the buns Preheat the oven at 400F for 10mins. Take the dough and knead for some more time. Make big balls of the dough. (For above measurements, divide the dough into 8 equal parts). Divide the stuffing into 4 equal parts.
Take one ball of dough and keep one part of stuffing on it. Cover with second half of dough and Cover properly from all sides. Make sure all the edges are sealed properly, otherwise the buns open up while baking. Slightly flatten with hand.
Drizzle some olive oil or butter on top of the bun. Spread some oregano on top (optional). Repeat same for remaining dough and stuffing to get 4 buns. Leave it aside for atleast 30mins for the buns to proof again. When they are almost double the size, they are ready to bake. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 mins (or the top becomes brown). Cool on a wire rack.
Note : This is by no means a simple recipe . As you all see, it’s a daring bakers challenge recipe. Daring bakers is a group which takes up very difficult challenges every month and tries to bake them. Whatever I knew about the recipe, I have already posted here. So, try on your own risk :).
At my native, people add shrimps and clams in many different gravies. But I never knew cabbage and shrimps could be paired. When my aayi told me about this, I said, “you must be kidding!!!, shrimps with cabbage? how does that taste?”. So instead of arguing with me, aayi went ahead and prepared this. Ohh it was so tasty.
While growing up, I had a very strong dislike for cabbage. Apart from cabbage vada , I would not eat any dishes that had this vegetable. That must be one of the reasons I don’t remember eating this gravy. Now that I have started liking cabbage, I simply loved this combination. The shrimps give a very nice aroma as well as taste to it. Try it to know what I am talking about.
Ingredients: 1 cup shredded cabbage or shredded radish 3/4 cup toor dal 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 5-6 red chilies 3/4 cup chopped onion 3/4 cup shrimps 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract or 1 piece tamarind A pinch turmeric 1 tea spn coriander seeds Oil Salt
Method: Cook toor dal with turmeric in pressure cooker. Similarly cook cabbage and 1/4 cup onion. You can cook both together in pressure cooker, use bottom vessel for the dal and topmost vessel from cabbage-onion. Heat a little oil and fry coriander seeds. Grind them with coconut, tamarind, red chilies. Heat a little oil and fry remaining onion till they turn brownish. Add shrimps and fry till they become white. Add the ground paste, salt, dal , cabbage-onion. Cook for about 5-6mins. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 4-5 Preparation time : 20mins
