Baked Cauliflower with dip

    

Ingredients and Preparations

 

Take out cauliflower florets from 1 big cauliflower., wash well.

Heat a pan with enough water to immerse the cauliflower, adding  ½ tsp salt

Cover and cook florets for 5 minutes

Drain well on a kitchen towel.

In a big bowl add 1 ½ cup of breadcrumbs, crush 1 garlic, 5 tsp olive oil, ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese. 2 tsp parsley chopped, 1 tsp Italian herbs mix well.

Break 3 eggs in a bowl, beat well with a fork

Add ½ cup flour in a bowl, add florets, to coat them well with flour.

Now coat the florets well in the egg mixture, then coat well in breadcrumbs mixture.

Then arrange the coated florets separately , leaving little space between them on a baking tray lined with butter paper,

Bake in a preheated oven @180 C/ 360 F for 15 minutes

In a bowl add ¾ cup sour cream and  ¼ cup thick yogurt, mix well adding 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley and 1 tbsp lime juice, along with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the baked florets with a dip. 

 

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Eggless Brownies

 Ingredients

75 gm butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces (5 tbsps see notes)

150 gm dark cooking chocolate, 70% to 75%, finely chopped (see notes)

1/4 cup cocoa powder (21 gm)

1 cup caster sugar (190 gm)

1/3 cup freshly boiled water (80 ml)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup thick, plain  curd (55 gm)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour (90 gm, see notes)

2 tbsp cornflour/cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt if using unsalted butter

It's important to stick to these ingredients and measurements for the perfect brownies.

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 175 C. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with non-stick baking paper, leaving a little overhang.
• Add the butter, chocolate and cocoa to a heat-proof bowl placed over a pot of simmering water, taking care that the bowl isn't touching the water. Stir often till melted and smooth. If a few small lumps of chocolate remain, take the bowl off the heat and stir to melt them completely. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar and hot water, whisking vigorously till the sugar has dissolved 
• Stir in the vanilla extract, then pour in the melted chocolate mixture. At this stage both liquids will be warm so they'll be easy to stir together with a spoon or whisk, until you have a smooth mixture.
• Now stir in the yoghurt until incorporated, then sift in the flour, salt and cornstarch.
• Fold gently to combine into a smooth batter, using the whisk to break up any flour lumps. Spread the batter into the prepared pan, smoothening the top and making sure it's even all over.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until you see a crust has formed on top and a toothpick poked in the center comes out with moist crumbs but no wet batter. If you bake it till the toothpick is completely clean, the brownies will be dry and over-baked. Some readers have said the brownies crumbled along the sides and because ovens do vary, you can also start checking for doneness at 20 mins to reduce the chance of over baking.
• Allow the brownies to cool completely at room temperature before lifting them out of the pan using the paper overhang and slice into 16 equal pieces, wiping the knife down after every cut to get neat pieces. I actually recommend slicing these on day two (keep them loosely covered at room temperature once cooled) because the texture improves. When freshly sliced, the center pieces could feel slightly greasy (see notes for more) but by the next day, they're perfect. Chilling the brownies for about 30 minutes before slicing also helps with neater pieces.
• Brownies can be stored at room temperature in an airtight tin for 4 to 5 days (if it's hot or humid, then about 2 to 3 days at room temperature is best), or in the fridge for about 10 days where they will be extra fudgy. They also freeze and thaw beautifully. 

Notes

*I originally used 85 gm of butter in this recipe, but because eggs and fat emulsify together, it is the absence of eggs in this recipe that makes the brownies a little greasy when just out of the oven, not really the amount of butter that I reduced just a little as an experiment. The large proportion of chocolate that creates the fudgy texture also means there's fat from from the cocoa butter which won't emulsify the same way without eggs either. This is why I recommend slicing the brownies only the next day, giving them a chance to become a little drier and firmer at room temperature. 

*Brownies typically don't use baking powder or soda, giving them the fudgy texture. However  sometimes add a small amount of baking powder for some lift, but found that it wasn't necessary in this recipe.  *Measurements are most important for a dry ingredient like flour. When measuring flour (1 cup = 120 gm but it can also vary between 125 gm and 130 gm depending on what chart you're looking at), always add it lightly to the measuring cup, spoon by spoon, without shaking or tapping the cup. Then use the handle of a spoon or knife to level off the top.

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  

https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

https://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com  for info on cancer and health related topics

https://GSiyers home remedies.blogspot.com   is the latest addition to my blogs

Never wonder, "Wait...do I put the veggies in the water before or after I boil it?" ever again:

 

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  

https://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and health tips  
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Chefs reveal the biggest mistakes most people make while cooking pasta

 

We dare to bet you make these mistakes as well when you’re cooking pasta!

Everybody loves pasta. At least, the large majority of us do. It’s one of the most delicious Italian dishes and most people will have their own go-to recipe they’ve been making for years. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? Well, it turns out there just might be, because in most cases we make a couple of pretty big mistakes when we’re cooking pasta.

Cheap version

Don’t try to save money by buying a cheap dried pasta. A couple of the budget pasta brands choose to take a shortcut in their production process. This is why their products are cheaper, but this shortcut also means the pasta is of a lower quality. The lower quality is especially caused by the type of flour used by budget brands and the speeding up of the drying process.

Boiling water

A lot of people don’t have the patience to wait until the water is boiling completely before they add the pasta to the pot. Don’t drop the entire load of penne in the water as soon as the water surface starts bubbling a little. Wait for about half a minute after the water starts boiling properly and then add the pasta.

Too little salt

“Well-seasoned pasta water should taste like a well-seasoned soup,” is what chef Nate Whiting, a famous chef in the US, said about the topic. He suggests you should add 10 grams of salt to every 1000 ml of water. If you add too little salt, the pasta will taste bland.

Enough water

Make sure you’ve got more than enough water in the pot to boil the pasta in. “Pasta needs room to swim!” according to Nate Whiting. He says we should cook our pasta in a lot of salted, boiling water.

Rinsing the pasta

“One of the most commonly asked questions is ‘Do I rinse the pasta after I remove it from the water?'” says Carmine DiGiovanni, who is the chef at Aunt Jake’s in New York. He explains that it’s a big mistake to rinse your pasta, because the starch that’s left behind on the pasta after boiling it actually adds a smooth, velvet-like richness to the sauce once they’re combined.

Cooking method

One of the most important things when you’re cooking pasta is making sure it’s perfectly ‘al dente’. This is Italian for “to the teeth”, but it means “cooked to be firm to the bite.” Celebrity chef Devin Alexander says: “The biggest mistake anyone can make is serving up what I call ‘elementary school pasta.” Some people have gotten used to eating pasta that’s overcooked because it’s served to them at schools or organisations. They serve it like that because overcooking it can create more volume, meaning the pasta gets bigger. It’s much better to not do this, though, because pasta tastes a lot better when there’s still a little bit of a bite.

Cooking sauce along with the pasta

Are you in the habit of mixing through the sauce as soon as the pasta is done cooking? That’s a mistake. Chef Salvatore Marcello says: “Your pasta should be drained when it’s al dente so that you can finish cooking it in the sauce without it overcooking.” Next, simmer your pasta in the sauce for about 30 seconds and then remove it from the heat.

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  

https://cancersupportindia.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and health tips  
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement