The tea party is going to be the new brunch. Remember you heard it here first. Thanks to Will and Kate, in a while, kitty-party ladies will be going coffee and biscotti and tea and finger foods. Society sirens, diamonds flashing crimson in the sunset, will gently segue into gin o’clock. And gentle folk of all kinds will want sophisticated nibbles that satisfy the salt-craving but still retain a hint of sweet. Most of all, they should be light and complex — not simple and stodgy.
What’s flash about this bunch of the baked recipes is that you could serve them with tea, coffee, Irish coffee or a nice young red wine. They can be tarted up to augment the savoury or festooned to enhance the sweet. The Indian inspired recipe is best because it has a lovely bhajiya element to it, but in form and presentation it is reinvented making it perfect for crotchety Mrs Xyz who thinks your cooking is far too fancy-pantsy for her taste anyway.
You can start a conversation with the author about food at http://loveinthekitchenlaughteratthetable. blogspot.com
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Sunflower Seed Oatcakes
I whacked this recipe off Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s column. He credits an island manager, Bill Cowie, who runs a place called Rona in the Inner Hebrides with the invention of these oatcakes. The original recipe calls for half oatmeal and half oats but I used only rolled oats and a large amount of sunflower seeds. They’re delicious but they didn’t brown well enough for us. It may be our eccentric oven so we brushed them with olive oil and browned them on a pan. Will go beautifully with chutney, marmalade, ham or cheese (see tip).
Ingredients:
300 gms oats
3 tsps freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
½ cup sunflower seeds
75ml extra-virgin olive oil
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 C. Have a glass of boiling water on standby. Mix all the ingredients except the oil into a bowl and thoroughly mix. Make a well in the centre of the mix and pour the oil in. Pour in a little hot water and start working the mix with your hands. You want firm dough that is not sticky. If it does get sticky because you’ve put in too much water, then add some more oats and a pinch of salt. Make a ball with the mix and leave to stand for about 10 minutes. Dust a flat surface and rolling pin with flour and gently, firmly, quickly, roll the dough out to about ½ cm thick. Because you’ve only used oats, the dough will be crumbly, so use your rolling pin to work the bits that crumble away. Cut out round shapes using a cookie cutter or a glass or katori. Place on flour dusted baking trays. Bake for 20 minutes on one side and then 10 minutes on the other. Cool on a rack or serve immediately with herb butter, cheese or anything you have handy.
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Jowar Digestive Biscuits
Oh my, these were a big hit with the kids. And the kids in their thirties and sixties as well. The recipe yielded about 20 large biscuits and there was not one left in 15 minutes, but if you don’t trust the cookie jar to go untampered with, you can put some of the dough in a plastic bag and freeze it. Then defrost, roll out, cut and bake another day. They’re super quick too so it’s a nice activity to do with the kids. The oats and jowar flour make these also super healthy.
Ingredients:
250 gm jowar flour
250 gm medium porridge oats
250 gm cold unsalted butter
125 gm brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp baking powder
½ cup of milk
Method:
Take a big bowl and mix the flour, oats, butter, sugar, salt and baking powder and using a handheld beater, mix everything together until you get a crumbly mix. Pour in a few tablespoons of the milk and start kneading until you get a firm dough. Put it back in the fridge for a bit if the butter has melted and it’s all going soggy. When it’s firm again, cover with a sheet of baking paper and then roll out to a 5 mm thickness. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Cut cookies out using a cookie cutter or thin edged katori. Arrange on lightly greased baking trays leaving some distance between each cookie. Bake for 15 minutes or until pale gold. Leave to cool on a rack (the biscuits will harden as they cool) and store in an airtight cookie jar.
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Usha Sanghani’s Bhajia Leaf Layers
Growing up in the Middle East meant, for my mother and other 70’s pioneers, you were immediately thrown into a thriving, multi-racial community. This had wonderful impact on all concerned. We shared customs and curiosities and of course, cuisine. Usha Sanghani taught my mum, Dolma, how to make several proper Gujarati treats. My mum has changed the recipe a little and serves it in thinner slices to show off the beautiful layers. You can eat this with spiced yoghurt or chutney.
Ingredients:
2 bunches of ‘maya’ leaves *
1 cup besan
2 tbs chilli powder
1 ½ tbs coriander powder
½ tbs haldi powder
1 large pinch salt
1 ½ tbs sugar
¼ cup oil
1 tbs mustard seeds
1 tbs jeera seeds
½ tsp hing
* Large leaves, that are usually battered and fried are called ‘maya’ leaves in Mumbai. You could also use taro leaves or large spinach leaves.
Method:
Wash the leaves well and set aside. In a bowl, mix together the besan, chilli, coriander and haldi powders, salt, sugar and oil until well amalgamated. Take a large can or steel vessel that fits snugly into your cooker or a deep pan. Oil the vessel. Place a layer of leaves at the bottom. Then cover the leaves with besan mixture to a ½ cm thickness. Place the next layer of leaves down over the mix, pressing lightly. Cover this with another layer of besan. Carry on until you finish with a final layer of leaves. Cover the vessel with foil and pierce a few small holes in the foil. Put about 2 cms of water into the cooker or pan. Now take another steel vessel, fill it with water (so it doesn’t float about) and place this in the centre of the cooker. Place the vessel with the leaves and mix on top of this vessel in the centre of the cooker, above the water level. Close and steam for about 45 minutes. Pierce a toothpick in the centre to see if it’s cooked (toothpick should come out clean). Heat a couple of tbs of oil and make a tadka of mustard, jeera and hing. Pour over and then cut into slices and serve.
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Cheese and Almond Shortbread
And once more, Niloufer Ichaporia King’s fabulous recipe book, My Bombay Kitchen, provides a delicious, different take — here on a teatime classic. She calls them “crisps” but they’re more like shortbread, a crumbly, cheesy, piquant nankhatai. She suggests serving them with red wine but they’d work well with anything. Because they’re quite flavoursome, you don’t need to dress them up but you could put out last week’s green garlic aioli.
Ingredients:
1 cup porridge oats
1 cup maida
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup grated parmesan or regular cheddar
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1 teaspoon ajwain seeds
1 tsp salt (less if using parmesan)
1 large egg
½ pound butter
Method:
Lightly grind the oats to pulverise them a bit. In a bowl, mix the ground almonds, pepper, chilli powder, ajwain, cheese, maida, salt, ground oats and mustard powder. Taste the mix. It will give you some idea if the salt is adequate. Make a well and add the egg. Stir briskly. Then add the butter. Now use your hands and knead all the lumps away gently. Make a ball. Roll out a length of clingfilm. On the film, roll out into 1 inch diameter logs. Wrap them gently and work the shape (in the clingfilm). The butter will have started to melt by now, so put the logs in the fridge for at least 2 hours. (I stored the dough overnight in the chiller.) Preheat the oven to 160º C. Use a heavy knife and after unwrapping the logs, slice them as finely as you can manage — about ½ cm. On two baking trays (no need to grease them, though you can line them with paper) arrange the shortbread closely. Bake for about 15 minutes but start checking after 10. The biscuits will be gold on the top and get burnished on the bottom, so turn one over to see that it’s not getting burnt. Remove and serve when still warm. Though they will stay in an airtight box for a few days and taste as good.
Source: The Asian Age
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