Mini-Brötchen with Olive Chutney

Winter this year in frankfurt is relatively mild. And, different. Different in the sense that, it is not snowy and white, as i have witnessed the last three years. It is just cold, gloomy, rainy and windy. Last winter, Frankfurt saw record level snow fall. In December 2010, it snowed in Frankfurt like never in the last year 40 years. It caused complete chaos in the highways, trains ran with unbelievable delays and even the international airport saw a complete still stand. This time, we hardly spot snow fall. I just wonder what's happening. Anyways, there is still more than a month to go, before we could say Winter is over. Let's see!!

Ok. Let's move on to the topic. What I'm going to share this time is a speciality in one of our favorite eat-outs. Pizza Pasta Factory is a chain of restaurants and they specialize in Italian dishes, like the name says. After we order our favorite pasta, we get this lovely combination of Brötchen and Olive Chutney as our starters. I like it so much that I wanted to make it at home for a long time. Last weekend the idea materialized. Believe me it is damn easy and tastes awesome.

Basically, Brot means bread and Brötchen means bun in German. German breads and buns are quite different from those in other places, especially in North America. The Germans like their buns to be a little hard with crisp crusts. During my initial days here, I used to wonder why are breads and buns so very hard here and it is a pain to just chew them. I was used to only the soft "Modern Bread", "Milka Bread" and the milk buns and coconut buns, back in India. Here, white breads are not common, if not rare. Crisp crusts are seen as a sign of good quality bread/buns. I got slowly used to these and I'm just loving them now.

These little buns or Mini-Brötchen are such crusty buns made out of the basic pizza dough. Well, we just have to prepare pizza dough and roll some of it into small berry sized balls and bake it. The rest of the dough can, of course, be reserved for our favorite pizza. I'm providing the recipe anyways, just in case, you haven't prepared pizza dough on your own.

Mini Brötchen:

Recipe Source: Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Pizza Dough
Preparation Time: 15 mins
Setting Time: 1 hr
Baking Time: 30 mins
Makes: around 30 pieces

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 400g
Dried Yeast - 1 packet
Brown Sugar - 1 Tbsp
Extra Virgin Olive oil - 2 Tbsp
Sea salt - 1 tsp
Lukewarm water - 300 ml

Method:
Sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Add yeast, brown sugar and olive oil to the luke warm water and leave for about 5 minutes. When the water becomes frothy, start adding it little by little to the flour and mix well. Knead well with floured hands for about 5-10 mins until the dough becomes soft and springy.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Cover with a wet clean cloth. Set this in a warm place for about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to about 180C. Now, take the dough in a well-floured clean surface. Punch the air back and knead a little. Start taking berry sized balls out of the dough. Roll them a little and arrange the cute balls in regular intervals on a baking sheet placed on a baking tray. Bake them for about 25-30 mins or until the upper crust turns golden brown.

Olive Chutney:

This one is absolutely easy to prepare and tastes awesome with any type of bread.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Makes: 1 1/2 cup chutney

Ingredients:
Olives - 300 g, pitted
Red Chili - 1, like the one shown in picture, chopped
Garlic - 3 small pods, chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil - as needed

Method:

Blend everything except oil in a blender until coarse. Store in refrigerator until serving time. Just before serving, drizzle enough olive oil as needed for the consistency you like. This goes well with any bread.

We loved the combo very much. This is so simple, yet it would be a show stealer when inviting guests or in a party. Hope you enjoy them as well as we did.

Sending this as an entry to Zesty Palette's New U and Girlichef's Bake Your Own Bread. Also sending to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone can Cook: Series 40 and to Now Serving's Dip In - Chutney Chow Down.

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Basil Pesto

It has been one week into Ramadan. On the Almighty's grace, the past week has been really good. Though it ought to be simmering hot in August here, with temperatures soaring as high as 35°C, this year has been very different. Pleasant sunshine keeps alternating with cool showers followed by mild soothing breeze in the evenings. I don't know how long this could last, but as long as it lasts, my spirits are high are bright.

The good thing about the long days here is that, I get enough time. I mean, after returning from office, I'm finding ample time to prepare for Iftar. We didn't have busy plans for the weekend too. It was quite relaxing to be at home. As with most of you, I have a loooong list of things to be tried. One among them is to make Home-made Pesto. Last Sunday proved to be a perfect time to try that.

Basil - hmmm... the name itself smells fresh, unique and exotic. I was introduced to this excellent herb only in Germany, by the name Basilikum. I was so much attracted to this lovely smelling herb that I wanted to put my favorite Mint in the second place. Did I really wanted to? Ohh, I'm not sure myself! Anyways, I wondered why I missed Basil all these years in India. Whenever visiting a tourist place or even in my office canteen, Pasta with Basil Pesto has been my option so many times. I must confess, it saved me from starving, many a times.

Even at home, when preparing Pasta, Basil pesto remained my favourite. But, I had been using store bought Pesto sauce till now, which of course, was good too. Nevertheless, the craving to make Pesto at home lingered for a long time. So, I made it a point to buy lot of Basil leaves this weekend. I got two bunds of fresh Basil leaves from the farmer's market. You know what, the entire kitchen caught the fresh smell in the little time it was exposed to.

Making our own Pesto could be as simple as 'mix and blend'. It could also be as time consuming as preparing a party meal. The trade-off lies in how authentic and flavourful you want your end product to be. I read in several pages over the internet and was convinced, to make something close to the authentic Italian Pesto, it takes patience and commitment!!



Some suggest to chop the Basil leaves sooooo long into tiny tiny pieces, that it resembles a blended one. Some suggest to just grind the Basil leaves little by little in a mortar and pestle. So, I decided to combine the both. Here is a draft of how I prepared my Pesto.

Preparation Time: 30 to 45 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
Fresh flat leaf Basil - 2 bunds
Garlic - 2 to 3 cloves
Pine nuts - 50g
Parmesan Cheese - 150g
Extra virgin Olive oil - 150 to 200 ml
Walnuts - a few pieces
Salt and pepper - to taste

Method:
Separate the Basil leaves from the stalks. Wash and let them dry. Dry roast the pine nuts very lightly and keep ready.

Take a really sharp knife and a cutting board. Start chopping a little of the Basil leaves. Now, add a garlic piece and chop together. Add more Basil leaves and chop again. Add a few pine nuts and chop together. This way, keep chopping the Basil leaves together with garlic pieces and pine nuts little by little. You can add walnuts in-between. This might take well about 20mins, depending on your chopping talent :p

Grate the parmesan into thin strands. Now, take a mortar and pestle. Add a little of the chopped leaves and about a spoonful of cheese and grind together, just to blend them well. This would infuse the taste of Parmesan into the Basil. Do not press too much, as it might darken the pesto. Collect in a bowl. Repeat the process with the rest of the leaves.

Now, add required amount of olive oil till you get the desired consistency. Adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Your hand-made pesto is now ready. :)

Mix the required amount of Pesto with your favourite freshly prepared Pasta. You can store the Pesto in a fully sterilized bottle, covered with a layer of oil and keep in the refrigerator.

Note:

• All the measurements I have given above are completely indicative. You can vary the measurements according to your requirements and taste.
• Original Genovese Basil leaves are flat and young. You can try with any kind of Basil leaves, as per availability and the taste is said to vary accordingly.
• I used just 2 garlic cloves of the size shown in the picture. If you do not like too much garlic, just go light on it.
• Try combining with coriander and mint leaves too for a taste pep. Sure, they would taste even better.
• You can add almonds, cashews too. Walnuts are again optional.

There might be reasons for you to think that this is not for you. Like, you might not have so much time to put into pesto making. Or, you might not possess a mortar and pestle, nor a sharp knife. In that case, just put all the ingredients mentioned in a food processor/blender and blend to the right consistency. Adjust oil to the right consistency. But believe me, the hand-made one is surely worth the try.

I'm sending this delicious Pesto to PJ's Herbs and Flowers: Basil guest hosted by Kaarasaaram. The easy version goes to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone can Cook Series 29.

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Risotto ai Funghi

Today, it is a beautiful Sunday here and quite sunny out. It is bright and a little bit warm too, not typical of February. For quite sometime now, I was craving for Risotto, and today looked perfect for that. The first time I tasted Risotto was in a restaurant in Chennai, when we went for a Team outing and ever since, I've been a big fan for it. Love Italy for its wonderful cuisine!! This is my first attempt with mushrooms. A simple tasty Italian flavour at home!!

Preparation Time: 30 Mins
Serves: 2 - 3

Ingredients:
Risotto Rice – 1 cup
Mushrooms – 250 g
Spring Onions – 2
Vegetable stock – 600 to 800ml
Butter – 60g
Olive oil – 3 Tbs
Mascarpone Cheese – 3 Tbs
Parmesan Cheese – 40 g (grated)
Salt – to taste
Pepper – to taste

Method:
Wash the mushrooms and cut them into thin slices and keep aside. Wash the spring onions and cut them into rings and keep aside. Prepare the vegetable stock and keep it hot.

In a thick, heavy bottomed pan, add a tablespoon of butter and a table spoon of olive oil. After the butter melts, add the sliced mushrooms and sauté them. When the mushrooms are soft and cooked, remove them from the pan and keep aside.

In the same pan, add the remaining butter along with the remaining olive oil.  When the oil is hot and butter melts, add the cut spring onions and sauté them. When they turn translucent, add the rice and sauté them nicely until well coated with the butter. After a minute, add a ladle full of stock and stir nicely. The rice starts to absorb the stock and cook along. When it looks dry, add another ladle full of stock and keep stirring. This has to be repeated until the rice is cooked and creamy. This may take about 20 mins. Continuous stirring is essential.

Note: Depending on the type of rice used for the risotto, the amount of stock needed to cook the rice varies. So, it is better to keep about a liter of stock ready (for a cup of rice). I used Arborio rice and it drank almost 900ml stock. If you run out of stock and still your rice isn’t cooked, you can add hot water too.

When the rice is almost done, add the cooked mushrooms and the mascarpone cheese and give a final stir.
Just before serving, sprinkle the parmesan cheese and pepper over your hot plate of risotto and enjoyyyy….

Note:

• Risotto should be consumed immediately after cooking, hot.
• The consistency of risotto should be such that it is not too gluey and not too liquidy and running out of the plate. When prepared correct, it would be creamy rich and would melt heavenly in your mouth.
• Chanterelle type of mushrooms is ideal for this type of risotto. Since I couldn’t get it, I used the button shaped mushrooms and they were never a compromise.

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