The White Ramekins

food & photography

Daring Bakers | Empanadas…go veggie

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Beginning every month, I eagerly wait for the Daring Baker’s challenge to be announced soon on their portal. Some new exciting recipe, which is to be tried and published. But ironically, there’s already so much to be picked up before I can start thinking about it.

And then the procrastination starts, hoping to finish the challenge as early as possible. Though that early moment never comes. Sometime I feel, that this delaying of things kind of gives me a real challenge in disguise. Finishing the challenge on a busy weekday a midst long maddening working days in office, prioritizing the mundane chores at home makes it a bit more daring. And I feel I have started liking it this way.

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

I was feeling a bit relieved that this time I will be doing a savory recipe. It is not often that you see a savory recipe here.  I went for the the filling of a humble mix of vegetables, chickpeas and some fresh homemade ricotta. The creamy ricotta gave a body to the humble vegetables like eggplants, red peppers and shallots which I put in to them. For ricotta, I used David Lebovitz recipe.

Ingredients

Empanada Dough

3 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
200ml water
1 tsp white vinegar
1 egg
60g margerine, corsley grated

Filling

2 medium eggplant, cut into 2cm chunks
4 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots, peeled & finely diced
2 cloves garlic, grated
2 cup chickpeas, boiled and coarsly mashed
1 tsp cayenne
1 cup fresh ricotta
1 small handful coriander leaves, chopped
milk, for glazing

Instructions

For dough:

  1. Place flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Make a dam in the centre and add the remaining ingredients.
  2. Stir until well combined and then turn onto a lightly floured bench top.
  3. Knead for 3-5 minutes until the dough looks like a nice smooth ball or until you get sick of it.
  4. Cover tightly with cling wrap and allow to rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour but preferably 2.
  5. Divide the dough in half and roll out on a lightly floured surface until it is large enough to cut out 6 circles approx 14cm diameter.
  6. Using a saucer or small plate as a guide, cut out 6 circles.
  7. Repeat with the remaining dough.
  8. Preheat oven to 250C. Take empanada circles and place 2-3 tbsp filling {recipe follows} in the centre of each.
  9. Using a pastry brush (or your fingers) brush a little milk around the edge of half the circle.
  10. Fold dough over to form a half moon and roll the edges together to form a good seal.
  11. Brush milk over the surface of each and transfer to 2 trays lined with baking paper and generously sprinkled with flour.
  12. Reduce oven to 230C (450F) and bake for 20minutes or until golden. Serve hot with mint and coriander yogurt dip.

For filling:

  1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add oil and allow to warm up then add eggplant cubes and stir fry until golden and starting to soften.
  2. Add onion and peppers and continue to cook until they are soft. Stir through chickpeas and cayenne and season to taste.
  3. Allow to cool. Stir though crumbled ricotta and coriander.

Olive Oil Wheat Crackers

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It was day two of the week long vacation and I was half way done with pleasing the young ones with these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes. I was enjoying totally basking in the warmth of the attention and the affection which I got in return from them.   Though I found myself highly busy on the very first day, I was equally enjoying being on my toes.

So right after we finished our lunch and all the elders were ready for the afternoon nap, I heard a loud voice. It was my mommy to me. “What’s in afternoon tea time surprise today, honey?” And it occurred to me that why shouldn’t I bake her something which is acceptable to her palate. I have a very sweet tooth mouth actually which you might have guessed it right by now. Quite easy to know…huh? But my mommy, she is just the opposite. She likes her food intensely spicy, tangy; in nutshell completely full of Indian flavors.

I had previously thought of baking something sweet for the kids again, but then I changed my mind at last moment and opened my to-bake list and started to look down the list for something savory, snacky, which is perfect for tea time. And then my eyes stopped at these Olive Oil Crackers recipe from 101Cookbooks.

Original one is wonderful, but I needed to adjust it to my mother’s taste buds. So I adapted the recipe by adding some cayenne pepper and some paprika for color. I also adjusted the proportion of flour and added some leavening agent to it. And trust me, the adapted recipe did some great wonders.

Ingredients

100 gm plain flour
50 gm whole wheat flour
50 gm semolina flour
1 tsp baking powder
120 ml water
50 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon paprika
cayenne pepper adjusted to taste
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp mixed dried herbs {oregano, thyme, rosemary}

Instructions

  1. Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a ball of dough for 5 minutes.
  2. Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll into circular discs and wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 3o minutes.
  3. Take out the dough from fridge, place between two large sheets of cling wrap and roll it using a rolling pin as thin as you can. It’s nice tip to roll this kind of dough by placing it between two sheets of cling wraps. This helps avoid using extra flour for dusting over the work surface.
  4. Cut into any shapes you like. Place them on to a baking tray lined with parchment paper and prick them using a fork to prevent from puffing up.
  5. Brush lightly with olive oil and bake for 8-10 minutes in a 220 degree Celsius preheated oven or until golden brown in color.
  6. Once cooled, serve them with any kind of dip or cheese you like.

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta With Mango Coulis

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I just get thrilled about having a dessert which has got some fruits in it. Fruits give a whole new life to a dessert, by their mere freshness. And if it has to be the King of all the fruits, it just leaves you wanting more of it. Yes I am talking about Mangoes, the gorgeous golden and super sweet flesh of mangoes added to a dessert.

Summer is upon us now in it’s full swing. You could see them everywhere, with carts loaded with them and hawkers selling them by the roadside. And I had been looking out for a dessert recipe which calls for Mangoes, because I didn’t want to miss out on this special seasonal fruit, which lasts here for around four months only.

And then I came across this wonderful Panna Cotta recipe by David Lebovitz.  God…why I hadn’t stumbled upon this earlier??? Panna Cotta is basically set cream, which gets it’s body from gelatin. And I tell you that the texture of it is so luscious and smooth that resisting something like this is almost next to impossible.

David’s recipe calls for double cream. But I took the liberty on adapting it minimally by cutting down the calories by substituting half of the double cream by low fat cream and the rest half by hung yogurt {to lessen the whey}. And the result was still so creamy. I have saved the original recipe for some future special moment.

I paired my Panna Cotta with Mango coulis, which I had frozen in the serving glasses for two hours, so that the weight of Panna Cotta doesn’t make it sag into the fruit puree below it. This is the kind of dessert which you can prepare for a dinner party well in advance, stock them up in refrigerator, and I am sure your life becomes all sorted out.

Recipe adapted minimally from David Lebovitz

Ingredients

Panna Cotta:

250 ml low fat cream {i used 25 % fat}
250 ml hung curd {hung for 24 hours in refrigerator}
50 gm cane sugar
1 vanilla bean pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp gelatin powder
3 tbsp cold water

Mango Coulis:
flesh of 3 ripened mangoes
sugar adjusted to the sweetness of mangoes
1/2 cup water

Instructions

  1. For the coulis, Blend the mangoes and water in a liquidizer. You may skip the sugar, if mangoes are enough sweet.
  2. Divide the fruit among for glasses/ramekins equally and freeze them up for 2 hours.
  3. Mix cream, yogurt and sugar well in a saucepan.
  4. Scrape the seeds from vanilla bean and add to the cream mixture.
  5. Heat the cream mixture till the sugar gets dissolved, taking care not to boil the cream.
  6. In a separate bowl, sprinkle the gelatin powder over cold water and let it stand it for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Pour the warm cream mixture over gelatin and mix. Let it cool for some time.
  8. Pour the Panna Cotta mixture over the frozen fruits and let them stand in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
  9. When serving, top them up with fresh mango cubes/nuts/mint leaves and enjoy them chilled.