Artistic Focaccia Bread

This delicious bread is infused with the flavors of garlic, rosemary & thyme. Not only is it scrumptious & beautiful to see but oh so much fun to make!

Ingredients:

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves - finely chopped

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 cup of warm water

2¼ teaspoon active dried yeast

¼ teaspoon honey

2½ cups all purpose flour

½ teaspoon salt

18 cherry tomatoes

7 green sprigs of spring onions

Few leaves of fresh coriander

Step 1 - Making the flagrant oil

In a pan add olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary, pepper and stir well. Place the pan on very low heat and let it become hot. Keep stirring the mixture occasionally and let the oil heat for about 5 to 7 minutes until you get the amazing aroma coming out of it. Make sure that the garlic does not change its color (that's why we keep it on very low heat). Keep the oil aside to cool down completely.

Step 2 - Making the dough

In a large bowl mix together the warm water, honey and yeast. Let it activate for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl sieve 2½ cups of flour. Now add one cup of the sieved flour into the yeast along with ¼ cup of the garlic olive oil mixture. Combine the same - I have used a stand mixer and let it mix for about 2 minutes. Now add the remaining 1½ cups of flour along with the salt and let the mixer knead the dough for about 7 minutes. Grease a bowl with oil, using a little flour on your hands remove the dough from the stand mixer, shape it into a round, place it in the greased bowl and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Let the dough rise for one hour - it will double in size.

Step 3 - Creating your artwork

After an hour of the dough rising, preheat the oven to 232 degrees C . Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and remove the liquid and seeds from within - we don't want that to make the bread soggy. Line the bottom of your baking pan (preferably 9 inch by 13 inch size) with parchment (baking) paper and brush about 2 tablespoons of the remaining garlic infused olive oil mixture over the parchment paper and the sides of the baking tray. Transfer the dough to the baking pan, press it down and gently spread it to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Using the tip of your fingers make tiny dents in the dough.

Now comes the fun part - use the spring onions as stems of a plant and place them one at a time on your dough, gently press them down into the dough so they stay there. Place the cherry tomatoes at the end of the spring onions so they resemble tulips (flowers) and lastly place a few coriander leaves between the spring onions so they look like leaves of the plant. Press everything down in the dough gently. Let the dough rise for about 8 minutes and now again using your finger tips make dents on the dough. Now brush the remaining garlic olive oil mixture on the top of the dough including the tomatoes and spring onions. the dents you made will hold a bit of the olive oil as well - this makes the bread more fragrant.

Place the baking tray in the oven and let it bake until golden brown in color for about 15 to 20 minutes. Let it cool down and enjoy this truly amazing bread!

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Caramel Custard

Such a simple yet utterly comforting dish that will always make you smile. So here goes...

Serves 8

Ingredients:

For the Caramel:

4 tablespoon of water

½ cup sugar

For the Custard:

2½ cups of milk

6 tablespoons of sugar

4 eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:

We start with making the caramel. In a pot heat the sugar and water. Try to swirl the pan instead of stirring the sugar. It takes a little patience but once the sugar starts getting golden in color you need to switch off the gas. Ideally a thermometer inserted in this caramel should read between 180 to 182 degrees C for the perfect caramel. Heating it further into a darker shade will make the caramel bitter. Immediately pour the caramel into your ramekins or baking dishes/cups to cover the base of the dish only (I have used heart shaped silicone moulds for this recipe). Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

Now we prepare the custard. In a bowl start beating the eggs and sugar and add the vanilla essence to it. At the same time heat milk in a pot but only until slightly warm (remember only slightly warm!). Now carefully and in a thin stream pour the milk in the eggs mixture stirring continuously to prevent the eggs from getting cooked. Adding of the milk has to be done slowly and not all at once. Once everything is mixed well, using a tea strainer pour this custard mixture on your caramel (caramel has to be completely cooled down).

We need to bake these custards in a water bath. Boil water in a pot. In a large baking dish place your caramel custard cups. Gently pour the hot water into the large baking dish to reach about half-way of the sides of the custard cups. The water needs to be this much and not less. Carefully (using oven mitts) put the large baking tray in the oven for about 25 - 30 minutes. The center of the custard should be set and it will jiggle a bit when shaken.

Once done carefully remove the custard cups from the large baking dish and leave to cool. Cover and chill in the fridge for about 2 hours. If you want to un-mould them you need to run a knife all around the edges and then put a plate over the cup and turn it upside down. Enjoy your amazing Caramel Custard.

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Papeta Par Edu - Eggs On Spiced Potatoes - A Parsi Treat!

This very simple, humble yet mouthwatering dish is made by steaming eggs on spiced potatoes, lets start making this amazing dish!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes

4 medium sized red onions

½ cup cut fresh coriander

4 eggs

2 green chillies - finely chopped

¾ teaspoon ginger garlic paste

¾ teaspoon lasan jeeru marcha masala - garlic, green chillies & cumin paste (recipe in magic mixed section on this website)

½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder

½ teaspoon sambhar powder

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

3 tablespoons of oil

Salt as per taste

Instructions:

We start with peeling the potatoes and slicing them into thin slices as shown in the picture below. Keep the sliced potatoes in a bowl of water until you cook them, this will stop them from changing their color.

Chop onions and fry them in the oil until soft along with the green chillies and cumin seeds. Once the onions just start to turn lightly golden add the ginger garlic paste and lasan jeeru marcha masala and sauté everything for a while - make sure you keep mixing to avoid it from burning.

Now add the Kashmiri red chili powder, sambhar powder and salt and mix everything for about a minute very well. Add the potatoes (without water) and give everything a good stir. Sprinkle half of the cut fresh coriander on this potatoes mixture and mix. You need to let the potatoes cook on medium flame while stirring them often until they are done (no adding any water).

Once the potatoes are done turn off the gas and flatten this potatoes mixture completely in the same pan - it should be flat and firm so the eggs don't seep down into the pan but stay on top of the potatoes. Carefully break 4 eggs in the pan (near the four corners), sprinkle the remaining fresh coriander on the eggs, start the gas on medium flame, cover the pan with a lid and let the eggs steam. You will see the color of the yolk change once done. Enjoy this delicious meal with any type of bread you like or have it just as it is!

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