Shortbread with fresh Orange flavor

Shortbread is a tender and crumbly kind of cookies which melt in the mouth.  It is Scottish in origin and was once served during Christmas and New Year’s Eve only.  Originally shortbread was made with only four ingredients; butter, sugar, vanilla extract and white flour, but today they are made with different ingredients and varied shapes.  I have made this shortbread with oats, white and wheat flours.  This shortbread is citrus flavored as fresh orange zest is added to the dough.  With every bite you feel a very refreshing taste.

Ingredients:

¾ cup sugar, 1 ½ cup white all purpose flour, 1 cup wheat flour, 1 cup oats(powdered), ½ cup butter on room temperature, ¾ cup canola oil

For Orange Flavor
¼ cup sugar, peel of 3 oranges.

Method:

Scrape off the white of the orange peels or grate the orange peels.  Make sure that only orange skin and not the bitter white pith is grated.  Puree the zest with ¼ cup of sugar in a blender until minced.
Beat butter and oil together.  When it gets well blended add ¾ cup sugar to it.  Now add minced orange peel and sugar mix to it.  Whisk it well.  Now add white flour, wheat flour and oats to this mix.  You may use food processor for it but make sure that you do not overwork the dough. Dough will look like crumbs.  Transfer dough to two pie pans, spreading it out as evenly as possible.  Press and flatten using your hands over the top.  Cut the dough into 12 triangles while still in the pie pan. Prick gently with fork.  Bake in the 350 degree F (210 degree C) for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown from the edges. Let it cool off for five minutes and then re-cut the bars along the previous cuts. They can be stored in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Stuffed Dum Aloo(Potato)

We recently visited our son’s family at Aurangabad, not too far from Bombay in India.  This city is famous for ancient caves, Ellora and Ajanta of Hindu and Buddhist era and religious pilgrimage of Shirdi’s Sai Baba.  After one of our excursions, we went to a hotel for lunch.

We were seven of us and were totally famished by lunch time as we had started from home very early that day.  One of the dishes on the menu which caught our fancy was Dum Aloo Kashmiri style.  We all opted for that and did not regret for ordering such a scrumptious dish.  These potatoes were stuffed with khoya (solidified milk) and then cooked in the thick gravy.

I came home and the taste of this awe-inspiring dish was lingering for ever in the mind and the mouth.  I made a few changes.  I omitted Khoya as that is very fattening.  I replaced it with hung yogurt which has much less calories.

Once the dish was ready we tasted it and realized it came very close to what we ate at the hotel.  Of course it did not have the same richness because I was trying to make it a healthier version.

Ingredients:

4 medium potatoes boiled and peeled, 2 ½ cups of yogurt, 4 medium onions chopped, 4 cloves of garlic crushed, ½ inch piece of ginger grated, 1 tsp cumin seeds, ½ tsp brown mustard seeds, 1 tsp coriander powder, ½ tsp garam massala, ½ tsp turmeric powder, salt to taste, 12 cashews ground, 4 raisins washed, ½ tsp of lemon juice, 3 medium tomatoes, 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves chopped finely.


Method:

For stuffing
Hung 2 cups of yogurt through a muslin cloth for 3-4 hours.  Save this water for the gravy.  Use the thick creamy part for stuffing.  Add one crushed garlic, half onion finely grated, little salt, ½ tsp of lemon juice to the thick creamy yogurt and mix it well.  Cut boiled potatoes in two halves.  Scoop out the middle of each potato and fill it with creamy yogurt mix and place one raisin in each potato. Save this scooped out potato part to be mixed in the gravy.  Over fill the potato and close it with the other half so that the original shape of the potato remains the same. Now deep fry this filled up potato gently till golden brown.  Do the same with all the potatoes.

For the gravy:
Heat one tbsp of oil in a pan; add cumin seeds and mustard seeds.  When they stop spluttering, add ginger, onion and garlic and sauté them for a couple of minutes till they turn pink.  Turn off the flame and let it cool off.  In a mixer grind this mix, tomatoes and scooped out potatoes. Take this mix out and put in the same pan and cook on the medium flame by covering it.  Add turmeric, red pepper, coriander powder and the leftover yogurt and the water left from hung yogurt to this mix.  Let it simmer for five minutes or so. Add ground cashews, salt and garam massala to it.  When you are ready to serve add fried potatoes and warm it up.  Garnish it with fresh coriander leaves.  Enjoy with Nan, roti or parantha or rice.