Portuguese Cornbread/Broa

Broa, famous corn bread made with yellow or white cornmeal is the daily grain food of Portugal..This corn bread has a crisp, even hard crust and a very soft, fine textured interior..It goes well with soups and stews or when served with butter or olive oil or with cheese..Broa is made with a mixture of cornmeal and wheat or all purpose flour and is leavened with yeast..This yeast bread tastes fantastic and a prefect pair for soups..I tried out this bread yesterday with stone ground yellow cornmeal and all purpose flour which had a rustic flavour and texture..I got 3 round loaves and they vanished within few hours, everyone at home enjoyed with melting cheese or with butter with a bowl of soup..

4cups All purpose flour or Bread flour + flour for dusting
2cups Stone ground yellow cornmeal
2cups Luke warm water
2tbsp Active dry yeast
3tbsp Butter (room temperature)
1+1/2 tsp Salt
1tbsp Sugar

Mix the yeast,sugar and salt in a cup of luke warm water and keep side for 5minutes until the yeast mixture turns foamy.. mix the cornmeal, butter and flour in a large bowl, pour the foamy yeast mixture; luke warm water and knead everything as soft dough..cover with a lid and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for atleast for an hour..punch down the doubled dough, knead slowly the dough dusted with all purpose flour and make 3 or 4 round loaves..arrange the round loaves over a baking sheet, cover the loaves with a towel and let the loaves sit again in a warm place for an hour..

Preheat the oven to 450F and place the loaves in the middle rack and make some slashes over the loaves with a sharp knife, place an another baking tray to hold water on the bottom of baking tray and pour 2cups of tape water..this helps to make the crust crispy, close the oven door immediately and bake for 30minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and firm top..

Allow to cool completely and enjoy!!

Red Chori(Karamani) & Oats Dosa

Red chori well known as cow peas/red beans is a leguminous seed which is made of 25% protein and its rich in carbohydrates, a group of vitamin B,as well as vitamin C, which is needed for maintaining good health and fighthing diseases..Its contains calcium,vitamin A, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc and many more dietary fibre, its totally trans fat and cholesterol free..Red chori can be cooked very faster than beans and they are used in many cuisines, cow peas are used in making peas casseroles,purees, cakes,gravies, main courses in many more parts of the world...Usually i used to make out sundals with this red chori and pressure cook them upto 1 whistles, this time i went crazy and pressure cooked them for a long time, the result was over cooked cow peas, i dont want to throw those over cooked peas which i turned as puree with hand blender  and prepared this dosa with oats, rava, rice flour..for my surprise this dosa tasted fantastic with sambar and chutney and even my H liked it..Such a healthy dosa and delicious dish suits prefect for dinner can be prepared instantly which is quite ready within half an hour..Am sending this dosa to MLLA-19th Helping guest hosted by EC of Simple Indian food,event started by Susan..

2cups Red chori puree
1/4cup Roasted rava
1/2cup Quick cooking oats
1/4cup Rice flour
Salt
1tsp Cumin seeds
Oil

In a large bowl, add the red chori puree, roasted rava, quick cooking oats and rice flour,turn everything as dosa batter (add water if needed);let them sit for half an hour..heat a nonstick pan and pour a ladle of this instant redchori & oats dosa batter, drizzle the oil and cook on both sides until the dosa get well cooked..

Serve hot with any chutneys!

Portuguese Bean Soup/Sopa De Feijao

Portuguese bean soup which is quite an easy, healthy, filling and fantastic soup with plenty of veggies and beans..This portuguese bean soup is one of the local favourite and this soup tastes incredible when its cold or rainy days..Its seems each and everyone had their own personnal interpretation of this dish and traditionally this dish is mainly prepared with tomato base ingredients and gets its rich flavour from smoked ham hocks which i completely omitted in this recipe and prepared with plenty of veggies like carrots, potatoes, cabbages, celery ,diced tomatoes cooked with tomato paste and herbs with tinned red kidney beans..We enjoyed having this fantastic, filling and hearty soup for our dinner yesterday and we loved it...These soup goes directly to AWED-Portuguese which am hosting,the event started by DK..

2nos Yellow onions (chopped)

1cup Carrots (diced)

1cup Celery (diced)

3nos Potatoes (cubed)

3cups Cabbage (chopped coarsely)

4nos Tomatoes (diced)

2tbsp Tomato paste

3nos Garlic cloves (minced)

2cans Red kidney beans

5cups Vegetable broth

1/4cup Parsley leaves (chopped)

3nos Bay leaves

3/4tsp Pepper powder

Olive oil

Salt

In a large pot, heat the olive oil and saute the bay leaves, chopped onions and minced garlic cloves..once the onions turns transculent, add the chopped parsley leaves, followed by diced carrots, diced celery, diced tomatoes,diced potatoes and saute for few minutes, finally add the chopped cabbages,tomato paste, salt, pepper powder and cook everything again for few minutes, now add the red kidney beans and vegetable broth, keep the flame in medium flame and cook everything for 20minutes..finally put the flame to simmer and cook until the veggies get well cooked..

Serve hot with chopped parsley leaves and with buttered bread slices..

Chocolate Mousse

Wishing you all again a Wonderful Happy New Year friends, we had a great time at my SIL's place and had a wonferful new year eve...To start this year, am here with a fantastic, easy and delicious chocolate mousse which i used to prepare often at home since its takes really few minutes to prepare with simple ingredients like chocolate, eggs, sugar and sometimes with butter...Chocolate mousse is such a great dessert which looks pretty and everyone gets their own serving and you can make it a day before to serve this delicious dessert..I prepared this chocolate mousse with dark chocolate pieces.. chocolate mousse is quite an easy dessert at the same its bits trickly too, if you add the egg yolks when the chocolate is too warm, it will get cooked while if its cold it will not get well mixed with the other ingredients when they are added...If u dont fold the egg whites to the chocolate egg mixture, your mousse will not be fluffy,but dense...We just love this chocolate mousse and everyone at home relish these soft fluffy mousse whenever i prepared at home..Am sending this chocolate mousse to Umm's Iftar Moments..

250gr Dark chocolate bar
1tbsp Butter
4nos Eggs
1/4cup Sugar
Pinch salt

Separate the yellow yolks and white yolks..meanwhile break the dark chocolate into small pieces and heat in microwave oven with butter for 3-4minutes in high,mix well and let them sit for few seconds(chocolate mixture should be slightly warm but not cool)..Beat together the yellow yolks,sugar in a bowl until they turns creamy, pale yellowish, add the melted chocolate to this egg mixture and beat until they get well mixed...

Whip the egg whites in a bowl with a pinch of salt until they turns foamy, beat until the soft peeks forms..now fold the whipped egg whites to the already prepared chocolate-egg mixture little by little until they get well mixed..

Spoon the mousse to serving bowls or glasses..arrange in fridge for atleast 6-8hours, i usually keep them for overnite..Serve with whipped cream or any seasonal fruits..