Blue Cayenne

OK. I’ll admit it. I’m usually the first one to reach for the bread basket.

Apparently, I’m in good company. Bread is the most widely consumed food in the world and maybe the oldest.

Food historians believe that humans first baked flatbreads as long ago as 30,000 years–grinding flours with stones.  At some point wild yeast serendipitously found its way into flour and water batters and leavened bread was born. By 300 B.C. those clever Egyptians were producing “commercial” yeast for bread baking.

Today, we have access to so many great breads–naan, sourdough, pita, tortillas and on and on.

My personal bread obsession is baking sourdough bread. I bake at least twice a week. Lately, there is something particularly  cathartic about pummeling kneading bread dough.

The other day, after enjoying a lunch out (with an overflowing bread basket), I got to craving some plain pillowy dinner rolls. I remembered that someone on the NYTimes Cooking Community bulletin board had mentioned this recipe and I decided to give it a try. It’s wonderful. Slather your rolls with  cultured butter or some good quality honey and settle in for a bit of culinary ecstasy.

Here’s the recipe.

Soft Dinner Rolls

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

• 1 C. whole milk (warmed to about 110 degrees F.)
• 2 1/4 t. yeast (1 standard packet-Red Star Platinum yeast is a good choice)
• 2 T. granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 C. unsalted butter (softened to room temperature and cut into cubes)
• 1 t. salt
• 3 C. all-purpose flour or bread flour
• Butter (melted--optinal topping)

Instructions

1. Grease a 9 x 13 baking tray.
2. Warm the milk in the microwave or in a pan on the stove until it is approximately 110 degrees F. Whisk the warm milk together with 1 T. sugar and the yeast in the bowl of your stand mixer. Set aside (covered) for about 5 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes, add remaining sugar, egg, butter, salt and 1 cup flour (I used bread flour) to the mixer bowl fitted with either the dough hook or the paddle attachment. (I used the dough hook.) Beat this mixture for about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Resume beating and add the remaining 2 cups of flour. Continue mixing until the dough comes together as a ball and pulls away from the sides of the mixer bowl. This will take about 2 minutes.
4. At this point you can either remove the dough from the bowl and knead it by hand on a lightly-floured surface for about 2 minutes or leave it in the mixer and beat it (with the dough attachment) for another 2 minutes.
5. Remove the dough from the bowl (if using the dough hook) and wash and dry the mixing bowl. Grease the mixing bowl (I used grapeseed oil) and put the ball of dough into the bowl. Turn the ball of dough over so that all surfaces of the dough have a bit of oil on them. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let the dough sit in a warm place in your kitchen for 1 to 2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.
6. When the dough has doubled, punch it down to remove the air from the dough and divide the dough into 14 to 16 equal pieces. Shape each of the dough pieces into a smooth ball with your hands. Arrange the dough balls on the greased baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Cover and let the dough rise until it is puffy. This will take about 1 hour.
7. While the dough is rising, prepare your oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange a rack in a lower portion of the oven. Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until they are golden brown on the top. Rotate the tray of rolls halfway through the baking.
8. Remove rolls from the oven. Brush with melted butter. Let rolls cool for a few minutes before serving.

Nutrition

Calories

3396 cal

Fat

62 g

Carbs

487 g

Protein

215 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

222

https://bluecayenne.com/for-the-love-of-bread-soft-white-dinner-rolls

This recipe is adapted from one that appears on the Sally’s Baking Addiction site. You can find the original recipe here.

“I like rice. Rice is great if you’re hungry and you want 2000 of something.”

                                    —-Mitch Hedberg (Comedian)

Yes.  Sometimes I DO want 2000 of something. Often, in fact.

Fill my plate with rice in any of its iterations—rice pudding, rice soups, risotto, pilafs, and on and on. Don’t even get me started on how much I love a good Indian biryani or a crispy-bottomed Persian tahdig.

So it was that a recent lunch and a movie outing with my good friends and fellow foodies Carole, Maria and Joyce rekindled my love affair with Indian rice. We feasted on a buffet of Indian street foods–pooris, idlis, pakoras– followed by a fragrant plate of saffron-hued basmati rice and other delights. The soft spongy steamed rice idlis–often served as a breakfast food in India– were served with a spicy sambar (lentil) soup. The plate of basmati rice was prepared simply and presented elegantly. The meal left me thinking that I need to put more Indian foods, particularly rice-based ones, on my table and feature more Indian recipes in this blog.

Let’s start with a great Indian Tomato Rice recipe. Indian Tomato Rice would be great served with other Indian dishes for the  home cook that have been featured on Blue Cayenne over the years including Poha (click here), Spiced Indian Corn (click here), Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt (click here), Masala Tea (click here), and Cauliflower and Potato Curry (click here)

Indian tomato Rice

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes My Lists My Calendar

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 C. leftover cooked basmati rice
• 1/4 C. canola oil
• 1 t. black mustard seeds
• 1/4 t. ground turmeric
• 6 fresh or frozen curry leaves (optional/available in Indian markets or grow your own)
• 1/4 to 1/2 t. red pepper flakes (to your taste and heat tolerance)
• 2 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
• 1 small yellow onion (minced)
• 3 plum tomatoes (cored and roughly chopped)
• 1/4 t. asafoetida (optional--it is an aquired taste/available in Indian markets)
• Kosher salt (to taste)
• 1/4 C. chopped cilantro
• Sliced tomatoes to garnish
• Chopped red chiles to garnish

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add black mustard seeds, turmeric, curry leaves and chile flakes and cook until seeds pop. (Be careful here. Tiny bursting mustard seeds can burn.) This will take 1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic slices, onion and chopped tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes become soft and release their juices. This will take 6 to 8 minutes. Add asafoetida (if using) and salt. Stir rice into the spice/tomato mixture and continue to saute until the flavors permeate the rice.
2. Serve rice garnished with chopped cilantro and chopped red chiles (optional). Enjoy. This is a wonderful rice dish.

Nutrition

Calories

1399 cal

Fat

107 g

Carbs

98 g

Protein

41 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

219

https://bluecayenne.com/rekindling-a-love-affair-with-indian-food-indian-tomato-rice

This recipe is adapted from one that appeared in 2014 in Saveur Magazine. You can find the original recipe here.

For Julia Child it was Coq Au Vin.

Marcella Hazan’s tour de force was her amazing Tomato Sauce.

Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters rocked the culinary world with her Baked Goat Cheese With Baby Lettuces.

“A signature dish is a recipe that identifies an individual chef or restaurant. Ideally it should be unique and allow an informed gastronome to name the chef in a blind tasting. It can be thought of as the culinary equivalent of an artist finding their own style, or an author finding their own voice,” according to Wikipedia.

This delightful (and delicious) Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric is Alison Roman’s signature dish. Roman (pictured below demonstrating her impressive refrigerator storage skills–skills that, lamentably, she and I share)  writes for the New York Times food page and is the author of the excellent cookbook Nothing Fancy. As I write this, her recipe has a five-star rating on the New York Times food page with 8644 hits. That means that a whole lot of people love this dish–me included.

Here is the recipe.

This recipe is adapted from a New York Times recipe that appears here.