If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would be aware of my new strategy of emptying out my pantry before I buy anything new. My recipes are also mostly those which help me in this regard. I have a list of about 58 recipes which make use of various stuff in my pantry. I am checking them one by one. It also sometimes happen that for certain events, I have no choice but to buy new ingredients. Like for example – I had to buy Sweet rice flour and Tapioca Starch for making these gluten free Graham Crackers. So one of the recipes for making use of Tapioca starch which I had made note of were these yummy looking Pao De Queijo which are classic Brazilian cheese rolls.

Because of this New Year resolution of reducing the ingredient explosion in my freezer + Pantry, I am not cooking specifically for events now. But if it meets/matches one which helps me in this regard then its all OK! And that’s precisely what happened with this cheese bread. When Canela y Comino announced this months Bread Baking Event theme to be Latin Breads I was relieved:) Participating in BBD is like a must for me since I love breads but for some reason or the other I have been absent for last few themes. But not this time

Pao de Queijo is Brazilian cheese bread made of flour – sour or sweet plus eggs, salt, milk, lard, pork, oil and vegetable cheese from cow’s milk. The eggs is for the color and richness, the fat (here I use Butter and vegetable oil instead of lard) is for texture and Cheese is for…Oh well..Do you need reasons to add cheese to anything?? The flour  used is Tapioca which is similar in texture to that of Cornstarch. I used this recipe from southamericanfood.about.com where the measurements were way off! Only in the middle of making this recipe did I realize that something was terribly wrong. Coming back to verify if I copied down wrong instruction I came upon this review where it described the same issue I had. The consistency turned out to be like a broth than that of dough! Makes me wonder if its cos of the quality of Tapioca flour since few others did not seem to have problems. Anyway, I added few more cups of flour and it came out perfect. I have the corrected measurement – but you try it with discretion just in case the fault lies in the quality of Tapioca flour.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix milk, salt, vegetable oil and butter in a pot, and bring to a boil.

As soon as it boils, remove from heat. Stir tapioca flour into the milk and butter mixture.

Stir in the eggs and the cheese, and mix well.

Let mixture cool for 15-30 minutes, so that it will be easier to handle.The recipe mentions refrigeration for 15 minutes. But if you see the picture below with the measurement they provided it was more of a bread broth

and when I added extra flour it became like this. Much better. The measurement I have provided makes it easy to roll into balls.But then as I mentioned previously add it with discretion.

Its still sticky but flouring your hands make it easier.

With floured (tapioca flour) hands, shape the dough into small balls.

and place them on a baking sheet.

Lets zoom out the camera now shall we? A reader of mine sent me a mail asking me if  my claim ‘about my kitchen being small’, was true then how come I manage to keep it so neat during cooking!  HaHaHa! Its a good thing I did not tell my house mate about this – he will laugh his hearts out – for at least 15 minutes Further he will get more fodder to tease me and say ‘You have been misleading your readers!’. Well see how the place, where I was shaping the rolls, looks? I usually tend to hide it with a good intention – I don’t want to distract your attention from the food (see what a good soul I am? ) . And also did you notice another important thing here? I finished the Tapioca Flour! Another ingredient done with!

Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are puffed up and are golden. They will rise slowly and puff up mostly in the last 5 or 10 minutes. You know they are done when there is amazing aroma wafting (tapioc’ish (#!#$?) smell?), the bread puffs up with lots of cracks (looks like some dinosaur egg hatching!) and it gets this v. slight yellowish glow with flecks of yellow here and there (cheese flecks?)

Serve warm.

Related posts:

1. Wholegrain Milk & Cheese Bread
2. Jalepeno & Cheese Cornbread
3. Ricotta Cheese Fritters
4. My Comfort Food : Mac n Cheese
5. Spinach Cheese Swirls
6. Blueberry Cheese Pancakes

© DK for Chef In You, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cheddar, eggs, milk, mozzarella, tapioca flour, vegetable oil

I do not usually bake as and when desire strikes fancy! Its usually planned out. I have this list of to-do bakes for every month with specific ones planned for each week. I have to do it to accommodate my time and schedule not to mention the availability of ingredients in my pantry! Another thing, I try to generally avoid blogging/blogging based activities like drafting, researching, photos, cooking etc. during weekends. For a good reason of course! The reason – ‘my better half’.

If I don’t like to cook when he is around, he doesn’t like me to do blogging while he is around! Works fantastic . Another thing I don’t do is to take photos at night! I like a healthy dose of light around esp. since I do not own those fancy photography lights/ studio. That so called white light in my kitchen makes all my food look yellow which I hate! With so many “no-no’s”, this chocolate bread is sure a first timer. Yesterday, while I was watering my plants, I heard this sudden wail from the other side of the fence. The kid was crying its heart out and after straining my ears to eavesdrop after few minutes, I heard the mother’s voice shouting at the kid “NO MORE NUTELLA! You finished half the bottle already”! I don’t know why, but after hearing that I had this sudden craving for chocolate and nuts. I do not have nutella at home (OK don’t look shocked! I don’t like chocolate that much remember?)(...)
Read the rest of Chocolate and Hazelnut Bread at Chef In You

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Post tags: almond extract, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, eggs, hazelnuts, semi sweet chocolate, vanilla extract, yogurt

This month’s ICC-Challenge spoiled my precious ‘never-to-end’ diet. I mean I was all about following this diet, which I started just the previous day of making these, diligently! But Valli spoiled it! So I am off my diet ..yet again! Before I go to the post, I have one important disclaimer - These photos were not taken by me. It was my split personality ‘KD’ and anyone who is familiar with the local Tamil slang and lingo will laugh at this! (...)
Read the rest of Kachori (Khasta, Pyaz & Peas ) at Chef In You

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Post tags: asafoetida, bay leaf, chickpea flour, chilli powder, cilantro, cumin, curry leaves, fennel seeds, garam masala, ghee, ginger, mango powder, nigella seeds, onion, peas, yellow lentil

Adding fruits to breads has been always been a passion for me. I started it as a way to overcome my handicap. I dunno why, but I simply don’t have this habit of consuming fruits on a day to day basis! “What’s so hard about it?” – you might ask. Well nothing so to speak – but I would conveniently forget to eat it! In the place of eating the recommended 2-4 servings every day I was having nothing!! So I started adding fruits to my breads as a way of kick starting eating fruits in some way or the other. Have to accept – now I am much better though I still have a long way to go.

I got these amazing looking Grapefruits recently. (...)
Read the rest of Grapefruit Ginger Bread at Chef In You

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Post tags: baking powder, baking soda, eggs, ginger powder, grapefruit, milk, pecans, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, vegetable oil, wheat flour, yogurt

When I made Khaman Dhokla with amazing results, I had one reader Kavita interact with me about Khatta Dhokla! I promised her a recipe and here it is – 2 months later. Well its late indeed and I really apologize to many of my readers whose request is still in the queue. I assure you, its not cos I am slapdash about the request. Hell no! I am not! Its just that when I give you a recipe, I want to be first personally happy with the results. Like for example, I remember trying making the Khatta dhokla ages ago – so long ago that I really don’t remember what the result was. Only that – it was not a disaster. Then I tried out the recipe I had and well it was clear that I was thoroughly spoilt by the spongy Khaman Dhokla since the recipe I had did not give me that level of sponginess. The pores were missing and then it had a more hardened batter type texture than the spongy one I was looking out for.

Thus started experiments where I tried out at least 7 different recipes each with not very satisfactory results. (...)
Read the rest of Khatta Dhokla at Chef In You

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Post tags: black gram, Eno Fruit Salt, peppercorns, sesame seeds, yogurt

Its been raining cats and dogs, literally! OK agreed that the cat jumped down from a roof to the ground to escape the pouring rain and the neighbor’s dog jumped up and down seeing the cat – its still rain, cat and dog in the same picture. If you can welcome Modern Art, you should be able to digest my abstraction of this scene too!! Anyways, coming back to the rain part. I LOVE RAIN. Period. I sort’a blossom with every pitter-patter of droplets of water falling down from the dark jacket adorned clouds above! So all this excitement had to wear me out now, right? Hence was in the mood for some crunchy fried snack. Now, now how do I cheat my ‘dratted’ sub conscious of mine promptly directing my eyes to the weighing machine? (thinking..)(thinking….) OK too much thinking only makes me more hungry! Just went into my kitchen and collected ingredients, whatever caught my fancy.

Panko Bread crumbs, Oil, Salt, Garam Masala, mmmm………., Oh yes, Potatoes, spring onions, little cilantro and mint. That felt good. I placed a pan for shallow frying (see, no deep frying! Good girl, me). Then my eyes fell on my bamboo steamer which I use for sprouting and I saw some fresh sprouted Ragi…mmm…

(thinking to myself – “OK you plan to enjoy frying, so while you are at it, why not add some healthy ingredients? You wont feel bad now, would you?”)

..Ragi it is. But now that we are starting on the healthy route

*burrowing deeper into pantry and finding..*

Aha..Black eyed Peas. mmm..lets cook black eyed peas (it does not need pre soaking and cooks fairly quickly), Pressure cooker comes up and the peas are cooked in 10 minutes flat. Mushy works fine in this case since I am going to mash them anyway. Steam Potatoes on the side…I am all excited now! – Another Sprouted Ragi recipe goes into my repertoire. of course you can deep fry, shallow fry or bake them. Whatever strikes your fancy. This is protein rich and delicious snack. If your kids dont like sprouted ‘anything’ leave alone ragi, this is one good way to hide it dress it up along with black eyed peas.

Without further ado, lets go to the recipe shall we? I basically eyeballed everything and hence I have given you approximate measurements. Use your discretion while making them.

You might also be interested in:

Ragi Related Posts: Sprouted Ragi Dosa, How to Make Ragi Flour,How to Sprout Ragi, Thalipeeth

Patties and Croquette recipes: Baked Quinoa and mixed bean Croquettes,  Baked Falafel Burgers, Falafel, Brown Rice Patties, Soy Burger, Zucchini Patties,  Tempeh Cutlets(...)
Read the rest of Sprouted Ragi & Black Eyed Peas Cutlets at Chef In You

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Post tags: Black eyed peas, cilantro, finger millet, mint, onions, potatoes, ragi, soy flour

Its getting to be too hard getting up early nowadays. (Ignoring the jibe on my side about “When have you ever been able to?” #$#$$). Anything before 8am, seems to look and feel like 4 am to me! Regular readers of this blog would know about my blah blah’s for wholesome breakfast. Sounds great – as long as there is someone else whipping it up that is . But since my mother has ditched me and given me away to a person who thinks just like me in this matter, its not helping.

So what’s one to do? Prepare it before hand obviously. Something that fills you up with wholesome ingredients and gives one the much needed boost in the morning. For me that means something with wholegrains, something with milk and fruits. Pancakes are great – but one needs something different, hence zeroed down to scones. I have been experimenting with triticale for a while now and have come to like few recipes with it.

Among the ones I tried, these triticale and currant scones was one. I have adapted this recipe from Oat scones by Chef and author Peter Berley to use my Triticale flakes and ingredients which I had on hand. No butter , No Sugar and No eggs are the special points. Dried fruits, wheat pastry flour, yogurt , honey and sun flower seeds give these scones the nutrition kick, making it delicious and hearty. I especially loved the addition of sunflower seeds since it gave these goodies some yummy crunch.

These were so hearty that, I did not have room for any toast and just about finished my Ginger Tea along with few slices of apple! It also made sure that I remained full until noon thus avoiding mid morning snack.

Like this? You might also like other breakfast recipes : Wholewheat Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes, Strawberry Pancakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, Blueberry Scones with Sour cream, Wholemeal Banana Walnut muffins, Indian Holy Basil tea(...)
Read the rest of Eggless Triticale and Currant Scones at Chef In You

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Post tags: cinnamon, currants, honey, pastry flour, sunflower seeds, triticale, vegetable oil, yogurt

When Valli announced this month’s challenge for ICC, I was ECSTATIC! The making of it sounded and in fact looked exactly like my childhood favorite which in Tamil is known by ‘Kola Vadai’. There was this fav. restaurant in Chennai where they used to sell packets of these and we used to literally splurge! Of all the things to splurge on . Now don’t ask me why in God’s name something which does not taste anything like Vadai per se, is called similarly! I have no idea – may be cos it resembles slightly like one! Anyone who knows about the reason/origin for the name, kindly lemme know.

Anyways, I got to know that this is called as “Chegodilu”, “Chekodilu/ Chekodi” in Andhra and is pretty famous snack – rightfully so, I might add. The minute you put one in your mouth, the next few seconds are followed by “Crunch”,”munch”,”crunch”,”crunch” and “gulp”. That’s how crispy they are!!! Valli had given us two recipes and we could choose any of them. I chose the one which I felt was closer to the one I have tasted and it sure was – almost. During the making of it, I made few observations and that which I have given by way of my notes below each of the steps (wherever applicable).

You might also like : Cashew Kunukku, Wheat Diamond Biscuits, Murukku (chakli), Thattai, Uppu seedai, Vadai
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Read the rest of Chegodilu (Fried Rice Flour Rings) at Chef In You

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Post tags: cumin, ghee, rice flour, sesame seeds, yellow lentils

This is the Best Snickerdoodle Cookie recipe EVER! From all the ones that I have tried (well its not as many would think, but anything more than 3 is many in my dictionary. I am lazy remember?). This recipe is from All Recipes where for once, at least for me, the term “best” has been used precisely. I know of so many of these “The best” recipes that turn out to be “oh hum” at the end. I scaled the recipe to yield about 24 cookies. I added a little cardamom powder and some more cinnamon for that aroma and taste

There are some do’s and don’t for this recipe which I read in the comment section of the original recipe. I am providing them here along with few of my own observations. I am sure they will help you to make some amazing cookies ever. Snickerdoodle is a cousin of Sugar Cookie. The addition of Cream of tartar to these cookies helps these cookies to rise well. Wikipedia says -
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Read the rest of Snickerdoodle Cookies at Chef In You

© DK for Chef In You, 2009. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardamom, cinnamon, cream of tartar, eggs, shortening

There is something to be said for combining Spinach with feta and ricotta cheese! The sensation that it creates is amazing! The Greek do know how to eat! The creaminess of the ricotta, the saltiness of feta combine with earthy spinach to create a wholesome taste. Spanakopita is a Greek savory pastry belonging to the Burek family ( may be that’s where borekas come from??!!) enjoyed either by way of Pie or cut into triangles.

According to Wikipedia “Spanakopita is similar to torta pasqualina, a traditional dish from Liguria, that is very common in Argentina and Uruguay.” The world gets closer and closer in so many ways than just internet! Since I was planning to make it for a get together potluck, I thought of making it into triangles which makes it a great appetizer. Somehow making it into a pie gives me a main course feel! But if you want to make the pie version see this video (thanks to you tube) below.
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Read the rest of Spanakopita triangles at Chef In You

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Post tags: dill, feta cheese, nutmeg, onions, Parmesan, parsley, phyllo, Ricotta, spinach