Portrait of a Pretty Pink Carrot

These pretty pink carrots are exclusively available in the winter months in Northern India, and eagerly waited upon to be snapped up by eager foodies like us. Their irresistible color adds a rosy flair to dozens of dishes, in both dinner and dessert spreads. Light raspberry pink in color, long and spindly in form, they taste mildly sweet and juicy, and are eaten both raw and cooked – in salads, breads, stir-fries and halwas. When we laid our hands this month on the first bunch of the season, we wanted to make a dish that would highlight their every facet before they disappeared into a warm salad with early peas or melted into a blush milk broth.

We cut them into fingers, added a few select spices to bring out their peppery nuances and when we roasted them, the flare of their rouge morphed into gorgeous rusty reds, and streaks of golden yellow emerged from the pale insides. With the kick of the spices providing a foil to the sweetness and zest of the carrots, it took only a few freckles of sesame to make them the star of the meal that night.

Sesame Carrot Sticks with Garam Masala

(Serves 4)

• 6 Pink carrots or a Pound of regular carrots
• 2 Tablespoons sesame* or light olive oil
• ¼ Teaspoon salt or to taste
• ¼ Teaspoon garam masala
• 1/8 Teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne
• Tiny pinch of turmeric
• Fresh cracked black pepper
• 1 Teaspoon sesame seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/220°C. Line a baking sheet with foil and grease well or just use parchment paper.
2. Wash and dry the carrots. Trim the top and bottom ends and lightly scrape the skins. Cut them into sticks all about the same size. Pink carrots are almost a foot long – cut them into halves, and leave the top half whole if it is not too thick. Split the bottom part into 2 and then each of those pieces into 2 or 3 sticks.
3. In a small bowl, stir together the oil, salt, garam masala and turmeric.
4. Lay out the carrots on the baking sheet and brush with the spiced oil. Toss well and then spread them out in a single layer. Add a few twists of fresh cracked black pepper.
5. Place in the middle rack of the oven. Roast for about 25-30 minutes or until tender, tossing once.
6. Take the carrots out, sprinkle the sesame seeds and return to the oven for 8 minutes. Serve warm.

* Use sesame oil available in Indian stores here and not toasted sesame oil.

We like to serve these on their own, at the start of the meal or as a side with a simple lentil stew and steamed rice.

Find more Indian-inspired recipes using everyday ingredients in our new eBook – MANGO MASALA: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket..now available on Amazon.com.

Give An eGift With A Tasty Twist!

The holidays are inching closer and everyone seems to be scrambling to buy their loved ones something memorable, something special, something fun. Food is such a great unifier and for everyone who loves good food, there’s never a dearth of fresh and innovative gift ideas. Here are some novel takes on how you can gift our eBook, MANGO MASALA: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Supermarket.

What makes it even more unique is that our eBook is not just for lovers of Indian food, but for everyone in the Western world who is passionate about nutritious, home-style meals that they can whip up with ingredients readily available in their local Supermarkets.

To give our eBook as a gift via Amazon, select the ‘Give as a Gift’ button on the product page. You can choose to email the gift directly to the recipient by entering their email address. Or, you could have the gift delivered to your inbox and then forward it to the recipient, or take a print-out of the email and hand it over personally.

And here, we show you how you can augment that with elements of spice, sparkle, yumminess, or glimmer with these creative ideas..

A beautiful bag of select spices with a little tag that introduces them to, well, Mango Masala, “masala” being the word for a melange of spices in Hindi, India’s national language!

*****

A jar of tangerine marmalade rather delectably complements the mention of our eBook, Mango Masala!

*****

A glittering, festive candle for that long-pending candle-lit dinner, with food cooked right out of Mango Masala recipes!

*****

For the hungry homecooks who are always looking for new tools and ladles..nothing less than a # Bestseller will do, as a tag on..bring it on, with Mango Masala!

*****

For those who love a splash of color in their kitchens, a motley collection of kaleidoscopic serve-ware that will stir them to do a happy dance, especially with the able aid of our very own cookbook, Mango Masala!

*****

Good ol’ chocolates with a twist of something spicy, savory and a little more sweet..Mango Masala has all the tastes covered from cover to cover!

*****

For the coffee-lovers, a special blend for a unique brew..to sip and browse through the delicious recipes in Mango Masala!

*****

Got any more ideas to gift our eBook this holiday season? Share them with us, we’d love to hear from you!

Download, Sync, Enjoy! An eBook Exclusive.

Is this your first time buying an eBook? Want to give one as a Christmas gift? Wondering how to read one if you do not own an eReader device? Well, when we were writing our first eBook – Mango Masala: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket, we had lots of similar questions running through our minds.

Buying our eBook -

We’ve been getting messages from folks who have seen the preview of our eBook, and would like to buy and read it on their PCs, Macs, tablets or phones. There are ways around this and here we’ve listed out a few of them:

• You can buy the eBook on Amazon, and enjoy it on your – Kindle OR your PC/ Mac/ iPhone/ iPod Touch/ Android phone/ Android tablet/ Windows phone/ Blackberry, by downloading the free Kindle Reader App by Amazon.
• You can buy the eBook on our publisher’s website, and enjoy it on your - iPad, by downloading the free eReader App.
• You can buy the eBook on our publisher’s website, and read it on your PC/ Mac, by installing Adobe Digital Editions 2.0. Here’s how:

Visit http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html

1. Click ‘Download now’ button under ‘Next Steps’. This will take you to the ‘downloading’ page. There are two installers – for Windows and Macintosh OS.
2. Click and download for Windows on your preferred location on your PC Or Mac.
3. Start installing the application by double-clicking it. Follow the process as directed.
4. If your system is updated for .net framework as needed it will continue. Else it will ask you to download the required file.
5. If your system is not updated for requested .net framework, you will need to install this first.
6. Then proceed with installing ‘Adobe digital editions’ installer again. Follow the guidelines as indicated.
7. When opening this application for the first time, it will ask for activation. If you have an Adobe Digital Id, use the user-name and password to activate it. Else, follow the link to create a free one.
8. Your ePubs will automatically be associated with this file and you can open and read the eBook.

Gifting our eBook - 

To give our eBook as a gift via Amazon, select the ‘Give as a Gift’ button on the product page. You can choose to email the gift directly to the recipient by entering their email address. Or, you could have the gift delivered to your inbox and then forward it to the recipient, or take a print-out of the email and hand it over personally.

The world of digital books can be less intimidating once you get your hands on a good eBook on any device to leaf through when you’re bored, excited, commuting to work, waiting to pick up your child, or traveling, among other things.

Of course we wouldn’t recommend plonking your device on the kitchen counter while trying to work your way through one of our Mango Masala recipes, but you can bookmark the page to refer to when you’ve put the turmeric away and gotten the pungency of garlic off your fingertips. Oh, and for that, a rub with lemon and salt will do, or perhaps a wash with vinegar and lemony kitchen soap. But coming back to our eBook, have you bought a copy yet?

Our eBook – Mango Masala: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket

Drumroll, with the deep tone of a dhol (Indian-style barrel drum) thrown in!

And..it’s HERE! Our first eBook, and we’re thrilled to share it with you.

Mango Masala: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket.

You can order it online at Amazon, eBooks2go, iTunes, NOOK, Sony, Kobo and Overdrive.

On the cover – Red Beans Curry with Aromatic Basmati Rice

So why did we write yet another Indian cookbook, and how will it benefit you? We didn’t really have a plan to begin with, no months of planning or strategizing leading up to this project. Rather, the book found us.

Let us explain: we’ve lived outside India for years and on many an occasion, in small towns with no Indian grocer in sight for miles. Consequently, we’ve had to run our kitchens on a limited supply of out-and-out Indian ingredients. But that didn’t deter us – we simply reached out into the deep pockets of our local Supermarket, and made the best of what we had access to. That is what this book is all about, and it’s virtually an extension of us and our kitchens.

Our one big goal is to help you cook well-balanced, nutritious Indian-style meals to share with your family just the way we do. Many of our recipes are vegan or vegetarian, while some are even gluten-free or dairy-free, and can be adapted to suit your preferences. And we won’t send you on a trip to the dusty bylanes of India to source the spices or condiments used in them. Instead, we’ll show you how to cook Indian food right out of your fittingly stocked Western pantry, and what a cinch it really is, right from breakfast to snacks, and full-fledged lunches to dinner spreads.

We hope you pick up a copy, dig right in, try out some of our recipes and enjoy them as much as we did, putting them together for you. And, as always, we love to hear your reviews and comments, so please keep them coming!

About the eBook - 

This book includes simpler, healthier, at-home versions of many of your favorite Indian restaurant classics. Pick from Tandoori Chicken, Masala Poppadoms, Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Sagwala, Baigan Bharta, Naan, Raita, Carrot Halwa and Rice Pudding for an Indian-style dinner party or just a special meal for your loved ones.

You will also find a treasure of easy home-style Indian recipes that we grew up eating, but are seldom found on restaurant menus, like the Masala Omelet, Green Beans Coco-nut-ine, Honey-nut Yogurt. The cover that you see above features Red Beans Curry with Aromatic Basmati Rice, served with poppadoms/papads.

Our hearts and kitchens are always open to ingredients and ideas from cuisines all over the world. Whether we’re making Southern Biscuits or Cornbread, Granita or Couscous, we instill a tiny bit of Indian flavor in them, and love them all the more for it.

For those following a special diet, we have a host of Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free and Dairy-free recipes. Our family meals traditionally include lots of Vegetarian protein and side dishes, and a myriad ways of preparing these ensures that no one gets bored eating repetitions.

Reviews from Amazon.com

FOUR 5-star reviews and still counting! THANK YOU! Here are some highlights -

“Tadka Pasta’s Mango Masala cookbook of 60 Indian recipes is top-notch, with healthy ingredients that are easy to find, accurate measurements, and clearly-described methods.”

“I am thrilled to own Mango Masala: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket. It is exceptional in every way, the writing, the photography and most importantly the simplified and de-stressed approach to cooking.”

“The recipes in “Mango Masala” are scrumptious, and the writing is delightfully witty. If one were consciously looking for a perfect marriage of form and substance one need look no further than this beguilingly crafted piece of seduction through salivation..”

“This is one of the most exciting cookbooks I’ve read in ages! I hope the authors write more books like this!”

So..fire up those Kindles and kitchens, get your copy NOW! Give the gift of delicious words and scrumptious food this holiday season!

Protein Packed, Goodness Squared – Whole Wheat Lentil Loaf

When weekends go by like a blur and the weekdays sneak up on us from their distant blimp-like position to a spot somewhere between the eyes, we look for recipe ideas in the pantry, the belly of the refrigerator, and sometimes, in the snatches of memories from weekdays past, when all we had to do was eat what was put on the table by our Moms before heading out to school. Breads, for us, were not defined by neat little doughy squares toasted to an agreeable crispness and slathered with butter. Breads, rather, were round and packed with all kinds of things that were ordinarily frowned upon, like greens and lentils.

Of course it is hard to say, all these years hence, if it was the dollop of ghee that hissed so softly on top of those breads that lured. But what’s easy is taking these memories, stretching out in front of us like mesmeric, endless skies, as if lending themselves to inspiration..and peppering them with fresh ideas that can turn a round missi roti into a slab of feel-good morning breakfast for our little girls. The geometric variations notwithstanding, there’s a whole sea of nourishment to chew over, between our childhood and theirs.

Whole-wheat bread with lentils

(Makes 1 hearty loaf)

• 1½ Teaspoons active dry yeast
• ½ Cup warm water (use as needed)

• 1 Teaspoon plus 2 Tablespoons oil
• 1 Onion, minced
• 3 Hot chillies, minced
• ½ Cup chopped coriander/cilantro

• 3 Cups coarse-ground whole-wheat flour
• 3 Tablespoon vital wheat gluten
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1/8 Teaspoon each turmeric and red chilli powder/cayenne
• ¼ Teaspoon each ground coriander and cumin

• 1 Cup leftover cooked black lentils 
• 2 Tablespoons sugar or honey

• A few slices of onions for topping

1. Dissolve the active dry yeast in ¼ cup of the warm water and set it aside to froth up.
2. Lightly stir fry the onion and chillies in 1 teaspoon of the oil. Take off the heat and stir in the coriander/cilantro and cool for a few minutes.
3. Combine flour, gluten, salt and spices in a large bowl, and mix well with a sturdy wooden spoon. Stir in the lentils, honey, onions and the soaked yeast with the water. Cover the shaggy mass and allow it to rest for 15 minutes, this will hydrate the flours and give a head start to the kneading.
4. Knead for about 10 minutes, adding more water if the dough is dry. While kneading, grab and fold the dough over and then push away with the heel of your hand, turn and repeat. The dough should become smoother and bounce back slightly when prodded. Roll the dough into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it rise for 1 hour.
5. Gently flatten the dough, and fold it over like a letter, one fold overlapping another, fashion it into a loaf shape with a smooth top. Place the log in a well-greased 9” x 5” loaf pan. Cover with greased plastic wrap, and let it rest for about 60-90 minutes in a warm place, or until almost 1″ above the rim of the pan.
6. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Brush the loaf with milk and add some sliced onions on top. Bake the bread for 35 to 40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 190°F/88°C. If the top appears to be browning up too quickly, make a tent-like cover with aluminum foil over the pan for the last 10 minutes of baking.
7. Once its done, transfer to a baking rack, and brush the hot loaf with a little butter if desired, for a softer crust. Cool the bread completely before slicing in.

Whole wheat bread with lentils

Our Whole-wheat bread with lentils is headed to MLLA #54, an event that was started by Susan – The Well-Seasoned Cook.

A Bowl of Red Velvety Goodness

Seldom does a packaged food that comes with a keenly inscribed shelf-life inspire a recipe in the Tadka kitchens, even if we’re all for easy-does-it ideas to liven up the dinner table from time to time. A Trader Joe’s special that prompted this quest, after a couple of tasty but long-drawn endeavors, resulted in a winning recipe that turned out to be an instant hit in our circles. Oven roasted red peppers and tomatoes, suffused with the smoky aromas of a typical fired-up grill, pureed to a lush smoothness, seasoned with touches of home-spun spices and dressed up with a delicious avocado-corn topping..this savory soup is quite simply a red-hot sensation to say the least.

Roasted Tomato and Red Bell Pepper Soup

(Serves 2-3)

• 1 Large ripe tomato, halved
• 1  Large red bell pepper, cut into big strips
• 1 Medium-sized onion, halved
• 3-4 Garlic pods, de-skinned and mashed lightly

Line all of the above on a baking sheet and roast in a pre-heated 375 F oven for 25-30 minutes. Let cool and puree to a smooth blend in your food processor or blender.

For the soup -

• 1 Teaspoon butter
• 1/4 Teaspoon cumin powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon coriander powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon pepper/ red chilli powder or a combination of the two
• A dash of cinnamon powder
• Salt according to taste
• 1 Teaspoon brown sugar (optional)

In a pot, warm the butter and add the dry powders, stir for a minute and then pour in the puree, salt and sugar (if using) and bring to a simmer on a low flame, for about 12 minutes. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, or any toppings of your choice. We used a delicious avocado-corn mix for a nice touch of color and crunch to complement the mildness and the creamy texture of the soup.

Avocado-corn topping

• 1 Avocado, cut into small cubes
• 1/4 Cup corn kernels, cooked and cooled
• 1-2 Tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
• Salt or rock salt to taste
• 1 Green chilli, finely minced (optional)
• A squirt of lime juice

Mix all of the above in a bowl and top soup with it, or serve on the side with tortilla or naan chips as you prefer.

Another fabulous Roasted Red Pepper recipe from Tadka Pasta – Paneer in Roasted Red Pepper Curry

Find more Indian-inspired recipes using everyday ingredients in our new eBook – MANGO MASALA: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket..now available on Amazon.com.

Potato Kababs with Avocado Nuggets

We are very excited to announce that our first eBook is in the works and will be available on your favorite online retail stores soon! Watch this space for details..and while you wait we have these gorgeous Potato Kababs for you, each stuffed with a plump nugget of avocado.

UPDATE: For Indian-inspired recipes using regular supermarket ingredients, check out our new eBook: MANGO MASALA: 60 Indian Recipes From Your Local Supermarket..now available on Amazon.com.

This Thanksgiving, we have enough to be thankful for. The daily square meal to share with our families, for instance. These simple and scrumptious Kababs, golden and crackling on the outside, beefed up with soft, mashed potatoes and the snap of wrinkly walnut bits, come with hidden nuggets of nutrition at their cores. Creamy, warm, melt-in-your-mouth blobs of avocado, like emeralds tucked in a sea of buttery deliciousness. A filling, satiating snack experience for the time between the bleep of the Turkey or Tofurkey getting done in the oven and when drippings of cranberry sauce are being licked off the ladle. Or, perhaps, before dinner is laid out on the table, and when eager hands are either being clasped together or rapped on the table, in anticipation of what’s to come and in appreciation of the things that invoke a silent prayer or two..

Potato Kababs Stuffed with Avocado 

(Makes 16)

• 6 Medium potatoes
• ½ Cup walnut pieces
• ½ Cup each mint and cilantro/coriander leaves
• 1 Jalapeno or 2 Green chillies, seeds and ribs removed, if prefered
• ½ Teaspoon salt or to taste
• ½ Teaspoon garam masala
• 1/8 Teaspoon each – Ground pepper, cinnamon, fennel/sonf and cayenne/red chilli powder
• 1 Tablespoon cornflour 
• 1 Small avocado
• Canola or vegetable oil for shallow frying

Boil the potatoes with about 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker until tender, then drain and remove the peels. (See Note for alternative cooking methods)

Mince the walnuts, mint, cilantro/coriander and chillies.

Place the potatoes in a plate and then mash them into a smooth paste using a fork, ensuring that there are no lumps. Add the walnuts, mint, cilantro, chilli, salt, all the spices and the cornflour. Mix well.

Cut the avocado into half inch pieces. Take a golf-ball sized piece of the potato mixture, roll it into a ball. Make a deep indentation into the potato using a finger and place a chunk of avocado inside. Close the potato mixture around the avocado and roll smooth. Flatten the ball slightly and set aside on a plate. Make patties with the remaining potato mixture the same way.

Warm a skillet with a tablespoon of oil. Place a few of the patties in the hot oil and cook on medium-high heat until the bottoms are deep brown. Turn once and let the other side brown up, adding another tablespoon of oil all around to ensure a crisp crust. Remove and serve with green chutney.

Note: If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you could also use baked potatoes or cook your potatoes in a microwave. Another option is to peel and cut the potatoes into cubes and cook in salted water until fork-tender. Drain well before using.

Do not overcrowd the pan or move the patties about while cooking. This will help the crust to get really thick and crispy, while the inside remains soft and delicious.

Another fun avocado treat from Tadka Pasta – our A-wow-cado Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

All-natural Treats, No-sugary Tricks

Come October and your life seems suddenly to take on a colorful edge – be it the flare of bloodshot, copper-veined leaves carpeting the backyard or the piebald piles of candy. While the former is at least easy on the eyes, the latter is taxing on all your senses.  In these times where you can find an entire waxy jungle, replete with its flora and fauna, right on top of a sheet cake for your children to bite into, or chemical rainbows in a box of sour belts, it’s hard to help them make the right choices. There’s not much you can do to keep them from devouring the bulks of Halloween treats they rake in every season, except, maybe feign interest in parts of those and demand a share. We’re going a step further this year, by tricking them with our naturally sweet globs of fun that can turn, at the drop of a witch’s hat, into a monster pop, or a snow-dusted ghoul. Enriched with the super power of dates and galvanized with a trace of cocoa powder, these deep, dark edibles come curiously alive with kisses of tiny seeds and licks of dry fruits, making even the finicky little fiends reach for seconds..

Cocoa-Date Halloween Treats

(Makes 12-16)

• 1.5 Cups seedless dates
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 Teaspoon neutral tasting oil (optional)
• 2 Teaspoons honey (or as required)
• For decoration – poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, dried cranberries

Place the dates, cocoa powder and vanilla in a food processor and process until it breaks down completely and rolls into a ball. This will take some time, keep running the processor, adding the oil if the mixture seems too dry to come together.

Place the dough in a small container. Break off about 1″sized pieces and roll them into the desired shapes. Use chopped nuts, seeds and dried fruit to make up eyes, noses, hair, ears and teeth. To make these adhere you can lightly brush the spot with honey using a thin brush. Other natural items that could be used are slivered and sliced almonds, raisins, pistachios, dried pineapple and pecans.

To make the ghouls/ghosts, roll the date mixture into the shape shown above. Brush with honey all over. Stick 2 small raisins for the eyes and then sprinkle desiccated coconut. You can then remove the raisins as we did or just leave them on.

To make the hats, form the shape of a witch’s hat and then brush the rim with honey. Dip in a bowl of poppy seeds to coat them all around. The sesame seeds can be used to make a ribbon around the base of the hat.

To make the monster pops, flatten the disk and roll into a rectangular shape.  Insert a bamboo skewer or cake pop stick into one end.

• To make the hair, brush a little honey on the top of the pop and dip that area into a small bowl of poppy seeds.
• Stick on 2 sunflower seeds for the eyes
• For the mouth brush the honey in a straight line and sprinkle a few sesame seeds. Use a toothpick to push them together into line.
• The ears are 2 small dried cranberries.

Here’s wishing you a very Happy All-natural Halloween! If you’d rather make something savory and wipe out traces of sweet altogether this Halloween, we have a fix for that too – re-visit our Eggs-quisite Eats For Li’l Devils from last year.

Braid up for World Bread Day – Seeded Braids

In honor of bread, on this World Bread Day, we braided up seed-stippled, squashy, doughy ropes to make lovely plait-like loaves, which, when toasted and slathered with soft swirls of butter and our popular Red Hot Pepper Jelly, took us right back to the family-owned bakery in our hometown in India, where eager early birds stood in line to get a whiff of what mornings are made of. Bread may have come a long way since its earliest manifestations, about 30000 years ago, in floury loaves of ground cereals and water, but no one can steal from its star status as the quintessential breakfast centuries hence, whether in white, wheat, whole grain, oats, cinnamon, or honey-nut form. Even on days that don’t allow for much moving or shaking in the kitchen, the hands invariably reach for the toaster, as if the flu that plagues one or the world’s problems that hang like a dark cloud above one’s head will let up once a crisped-up slice of bread has been devoured and washed down with a warm cuppa. To this insatiable hankering after the yeasty, brown-rimmed bulks, we toast our seeded braids, with deep-seated love.

Seeded Braids

(Makes 2 Loaves)

For the dough -

• 1¼ Cup lukewarm water
• 2 Tablespoons butter, very soft or melted
• 2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ Cups whole-wheat flour
• ½ Cup quick-cooking oats
• 1½ Teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• ¼ Cup powdered milk 
• 2¼ Teaspoons active dry yeast
• ¼ Cup chopped walnuts
• ¼ Cup cracked flaxseeds

Topping - 

• ¼ Cup milk or cream or beaten egg white
• 2/3 Cup seeds including – ½ Teaspoon cumin, 2 Teaspoons each fennel, flax and nigella/kalonji and the rest sesame seeds and poppy seeds. 

Dissolve the active dry yeast in the warm water along with 2 pinches of sugar and wait for it to froth up. Place all the remaining dough ingredients, except the walnuts and cracked flax in a large bowl. Pour in the yeast/water and mix well with a sturdy wooden spoon. Cover the shaggy mass and allow it to rest for 15 minutes, this will hydrate the flours and give a head start to the kneading.

Now knead the dough for about 8-10 minutes, adding a little more water if the dough is too dry. While kneading, grab and fold the dough over and push away with the heel of your hand, turn and repeat. The dough should become smoother and bounce back slightly when prodded. Finally knead in the walnuts and cracked flax. Roll the dough into a ball, place in a lightly greased bowl, cover and let it rise for 1 hour.

Note – The dough should not be too loose else the loaves will bake up flat.

Mix together all the seeds in a small container and set aside.

Clean a large work surface and place the dough on it. Gently deflate the dough and roll it into a ball. Divide the ball into 6 equal parts by cutting in half and then each half into thirds.

Roll each part into a rope, about 15″ long. Brush each rope with the milk and sprinkle some of the seeds all over it. Keep turning it, brushing with milk and adding more seeds until the rope is coated with seeds all over. Repeat with the remaining ropes. Allow the ropes to rest for about 15 minutes.

To braid the loaves, take 3 of the ropes and pinch them together at one end. Braid, bringing the outer rope over the middle and pinch and tuck the ends under when you are done. Repeat with the other 3 ropes. Scrape up whatever seeds are left on the work space. Brush the top of the loaves with more milk and sprinkle the remaining seeds. Transfer the braids carefully to a parchment lined baking sheet. Cover lightly and let rise for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C.

Spritz the loaves with water and bake at 425°F for about 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 350°F/180°C and bake for another 15 minutes or until the loaves are golden and the internal temperature is at least 190°F/88°C.

Cool the loaves on a wire rack before slicing. You can just make out the swirl of seeds inside the braid and each slice will have an interesting shape. Eat toasted for breakfast with butter and jam or serve alongside hot soup.

Adapted from here - Crunchy Seed Braid

Full-flavored, Fall-spiced – Peanut Butter

The standard jar of peanut butter from the supermarket shelf doesn’t score any brownie points with us..the hydrogenated fats (added in the factory to prevent the oil from separating) that leave a waxy coating in the mouth are a put off, as is the vaguely congealed texture. What is attractive though is the whop of nutrition that it comes loaded with. Barring the fact that it is a high calorie food, it delivers protein, good-for-you mono-unsaturated fats, Vitamin E and a healthy dose of minerals. So, we’ve learnt to turn to the freshly made nutty butters that stream out of the grinders at specialty food stores, the all-natural varieties that need only a quick stir with a sturdy spoon to be transformed into a decadent spread, or better yet, our own homemade pots of plush peanutty smoothness.

Nut butter is so simple to make that it barely calls for a recipe. Churn roasted nuts in a food processor long enough, and they will turn into butter. With a dash of salt and a drizzle of honey, you can even elevate its simple status by a lengthy whisker. We, in quintessential Tadka fashion, like to throw in a little spice or extract to make each batch taste unique. In this instance, we roasted the peanuts a second time with a spoonful of honey to add a deeper, nutty flavour. An appealing Fall-inspired spice blend together with the rich oils of the peanuts sure makes this butter taste warm and toasty, like a still-steamy pumpkin muffin on a crisp October morning.

Honey Roasted, Fall-spiced Peanut Butter

(Makes about 1 Cup)

• 1¼ Cup Raw Peanuts
• 1-2 Tablespoons honey, based on desired sweetness
• 1 Teaspoon butter
• 1/8 Teaspoon salt
• 1½ Teaspoon Fall spice (recipe follows)
• 1 Teaspoon oil, optional

1. Lightly roast the peanuts and remove their outer skins. You can roast them on the stove top, oven or microwave. Or, skip this step and just use roasted, skinned nuts.
2. In a large, flat microwave-safe plate or bowl, mix the peanuts, honey and butter. Spread the nuts in a single layer. Microwave for 3-5 minutes, stirring often, until the peanuts are well browned and sizzling. Stir in the salt and Fall spice mix. Allow the peanuts to cool completely.
3. Place the peanuts in the bowl of a food processor and process on high speed. You can drizzle in the oil if you feel the butter is too dry. It will take a few minutes, but eventually the gritty mixture will turn into smooth butter. Transfer the peanut butter to a container for storage.

The peanut butter can be stored in a closed bottle in the refrigerator for a few days.

Notes -

• You can also make this recipe using a package of honey-roasted peanuts. Just add the Fall-spice blend and process until smooth and creamy.
• To make crunchy PB stir in 2 tablespoons of finely chopped roasted nuts into your PB after making it.
• The Fall spice mix is terrific in most pumpkin-flavoured bakes or stirred into pancake batter.
• The honey roasted peanuts are totally addictive. You may want to make an extra batch just to munch on while the processor is working.

Fall Spice Blend

• 1 Teaspoon powdered cinnamon
• 1/4 Teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 Teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 Teaspoon powdered cardamom
• A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Stir all the spices together and use as needed.

Featured in Family Fresh Cooking’s 50 Amazing Peanut Butter Recipes