The bread budding of the Arabs: Um Ali

Every Ramadan my mother will announce that she "at last" found the perfect recipe for Um Ali. While she still searches for the perfect recipe I found mine, when it comes to cooking I follow the motto " if it ain't broken , don't fix it", if it tastes good I stop my search. The only change I made is that I don't use raisins, I never have been a fan of them as a child and I still don't like them much. 

Potato filled flat bread: aloo paratha

 For a long time my family always have had paratha plain and only accompanying keema, sometimes we will be "adventurous" and eat it with some egg and cheese. But it was always plain unfilled, and never homemade.
when I graduated from the university I was unemployed , so I started exploring cooking and world cuisine, and started learning more about types of bread and cheese etc. And there was a world of parathas to explore. but of all the types out there, aloo paratha stole my heart; it's a carb feast: bread filled with potato, perfect.


I personally don't like my potato filling to but overly spiced , for a more authentic paratha check the recipe from the source

Aloo Paratha Adapted from ( Manjula's Kitchen) 
makes 6
Ingredients

[Dough:]
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup water 
Pinch of salt

[Potato Filling]
2 medium potatoes, boiled
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala 

Directions:
Mix the flour and salt, and add the water bit by bit and mix until a soft dough is formed, knead it on a lightly  floured surface for 5 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes 

divide the dough and roll it into 6 golf sized balls and cover with a wet tea towel and again let it rest for 10 minutes while you prepare the filling.
for the filling, mush the potatoes with the salt, herbs and all the spices, and divide in 6 balls that are slightly larger that the dough balls.

now to make the bread, take one dough ball and flatten it a little with your hand and then place the filling ball in the middle and wrap it with the dough, try to cover the filling completely, roll it a bit. press it to form a disk and roll it with a rolling pin untill it's as thin as possible, the filling might poke out of the dough but it's a;right.

heat a frying pan, once it's hot enough (drops of water should sizzle) place the paratha and fry for few secons, once it starts to puff flip and press it to let the air out. prush it lightly with oil (or ghee) and flip while pressing the air pockets few times to get an even colored bread.
enjoy it with milk-tea

Yamanote atelier

Not to long ago something amazing happened in my city, the first proper Japanese bakery opened.
Four years ago I had my first taste of a Japanese cake, it was a bite of a vanilla roll cake, but it changed the way I think of cakes; it was fluffy and airy while the cream was so light , the whole thing melted away in my mouth like a piece of cotton candy.

new start

Boy how time moves so fast, or as put by the brilliant Hugh Laurie : "time...where  did you go?" . few things happened since I last updated this blog, I'm not sure anyone will notice; I got married , moved 100 Km away from my hometown (To Dubai) and now one year later I became a mother to a little bunny who takes up most of my time. so, eh ...what's new? not much.

Hopefully in the few days to come I'll have more energy and creativity to update this more often, till then... ta ta

Holiday Baking

Finally I managed to get again in the kitchen and cook something, although it wasn't very intense session, all I did was to bake few biscuits for the holiday ( Happy Eid al Ad'dha), but I feel so satisfied and productive.

(continue reading to see what all I made)