Oven-baked potatoes - Klyftpotatis

It's been eerily quiet in here for a while so I decided to post this simple potato recipe that I made today. It's one of my favourite vegetables and one of the few vegetables that you can never go wrong with. They taste delicious whether deep-fried, baked, roasted, mashed, curried or made into soup. They are not only a comfort food to many, potatoes are also a staple in many countries. Here in Sweden, one of the popular ways to prepare potatoes is by cutting them into 6-8 pieces and baking or roasting them, usually with the skin, with herbs and spices. This way of preparing the potatoes is called klyftpotatis in Swedish. You can season klyftpotatis with endless herbs. I have used a classic Swedish combination, dill and potatoes. You could replace dill with thyme or rosemary.

Egg Biryani

Today I made an attempt to make egg biryani, in the rice-cooker, adapting recipes from Vahchef and Sailu's Kitchen. This biryani was quite easy to make, as I did not include any meat that called for elaborate marinating and cooking. This biryani made for a hearty meal today. A biryani is as much about the flavours as it is about the aroma. Spices such as cloves, cardamom and cinnamon play an integral part in making the biryani, if you or anyone in your family don't like the pungency of whole cloves and cardamoms, you can grind these into a powder, instead of excluding them.

Rice:
1 cup basmati rice
Water (as required)
1/2 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1/2 tbs oil
1-2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt

Masala:
2 cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod
1/2 star anise
1/4 tsp shah jeera or cumin

Saute:
4-5 boiled eggs
1 onion
1/2 cup salted cashew nuts
3-4 tbs ghee or oil
2 green chilis
2 tbs coriander leaves (adjust)
2 tsp garlic-ginger paste
1 tsp chili powder
2-3 tbs curd or sour cream (adjust)
Salt to taste

Method:
Boil the eggs and peel them. Put aside. Grind the masala ingredients into a fine powder. Slice the onion and green chilis. Finely chop and grind the garlic and ginger into a fine paste. In a large pan, heat some ghee or oil. Add the masala powder, chili powder, onion, green chili, salt and saute until fragrant and golden brown. Add the cashew nuts and saute. The cashew nuts have a tendency to get burnt if you add them initially with the onion so don't add the until the onion is sauted at least half way or pre-roast the cashew nuts.

If you like, you can add the boiled eggs at this stage and marinate them in this onion masala, slit or whole. Put aside the eggs and half of the onion-cashew mixture in a bowl. Now add garlic-ginger paste and the coriander. Add the curd and mix. You can adjust the amount of coriander and curd according to your preferences. Take the saute away from the stove.

Add the water required to boil the rice in the rice cooker and bring it to a boil. Meanwhile, rinse and drain the rice properly. When the water is boiling, add turmeric, salt, oil, and the spices (whole). Mix a little. Then add the rice into the rice-cooker. Add the sauted onion-curd mixture and lightly mix. Close the lid and let the rice boil with the sauted onion-curd mixture and all the spices into an aromatic one-pot meal. Serve the biryani with the boiled egg and the sauted onion-cashew nuts and other side dishes of your choice.

I have sent this post as my entry to the "Royal Feast - Biryani" event and a Giveaway at Kaarasaaram.

Kothu Roti

This is the ubiquitous street food 'kothu roti' recipe. Kothu roti literally means chopped roti, but from what I have observed at the roadside kothu huts, it is usually paratha. There are many different types of kothu rotis. When we make kothu roti at home, we usually make "chicken kothu".

To make the chicken kothu, you need to prepare the chicken curry separately and the roti/paratha separately. These two items are then chopped and fried together with various vegetables and egg. At the kothu huts a heated iron sheet and blades that look like dough scrapers are typically used to make this. We prepare kothu roti in a large pan and it works just fine. 

Roti:
2 1/2 cups flour
Water (as required)
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
Oil

Chicken curry:
1 chicken
1 onion
1/2 tsp cumin
3-4 garlic cloves
2-3 green chilis
1 tbs curry powder
2-2 1/2 cups water
Lemon juice to taste
Salt to taste

Stir-fry:
Pinch of mustard seeds
Pinch of cumin
Curry leaves
6 green chili
2 small onions
2 cups cabbage/leeks/spring onion
2 carrots
2 eggs
Salt to taste

In a bowl, add flour and mix flour and salt. Then pour 1 cup of water in small quantities and knead the dough. Add some more water if needed. If you are inexperienced when it comes to kneading doughs this may be a troublesome step for you but don't give up. With some will you can get it together. When you are finished kneading the dough, add some oil and roll the dough in oil. Wrap up the dough in a plastic sheet so that it doesn't get dry and let it rest while you prepare the chicken curry.

First clean and chop the chicken in small sizes. In a large cooking pot, heat some table spoons of oil. Add cumin seeds, chopped onion, garlic and green chili and fry until light brown. Add the chicken chunks, mix and fry. Close the cooking pot with a lid and let it cook for about 10 minutes on medium to high heat, but take the lid off and stir every once in a while until it's half-cooked and has changed colour. Then add the curry powder and mix well. Drizzle the water, salt and let the chicken curry cook for about 30-40 minutes. Add the lemon juice last before taking the chicken curry off the stove. Taste and adjust spices before taking it away from the stove.

Chop the vegetables needed to make the kothu roti. I like cabbage but you could also use leeks or the green part of spring onions depending on your preferences. I would advise to make the kothu roti in 2 batches. Chop all of onion, green chilis, carrots, curry leaves and cabbage at once and then divide into two batches.

Roll out the roti on a lightly oiled surface. Heat a pan and heat the roti on both sides. Then cut the rotis into small pieces with a knife or a food scissor. In a large pan heat some oil, add mustard seeds and let splutter. Then add cumin. In the same pan, fry onion, curry leaves, and green chilis. Then add the cabbage and stir-fry well. Lastly, add the carrots and salt. Shove the vegetables to the side in the pan or take it out and place it in a plate. Whisk an egg and add some salt in it. Pour the egg in the pan and scramble it. Mix the vegetables and the scrambled egg, add the roti pieces and mix. Then spoon in the chicken curry (chicken chunks as well as curry) and mix. Serve warm!

Pizza

This is a vegetarian/vegetable pizza. This recipe produces 2 pizzas.

Dough:
25 g fresh yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (37 C)
2 tbs oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 cup flour

Tomato sauce:
3 mashed/sliced tomatoes
1/3 cup water
2 tsp olive oil
2-3 tsp tomato purée
2 tsp dry oregano (or fresh)
Some fresh basil leaves
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:
Tomato purée
Tomato sauce
Mushrooms
Onion
Capsicum
Fried eggplants (optional)
Tomato (optional)
Jalapeno (optional)
Oregano
Cheese

If you decide to make the pizza sauce yourself, make it first, because you can't spread a warm/hot pizza sauce on the unbaked pizza. You can make your own tomato sauce by cooking mashed tomatoes, water, finely sliced garlic, olive oil, basil leaves/oregano, salt and pepper. Let it cook until it gets a gravy like consistency.

Heat the water to 37 C. Crumble the yeast into a bowl and add the lukewarm water and stir with a spoon or your hand till water dilutes the yeast completely. Add oil and salt, lightly stir. Add the flour and knead and work the dough for 10 minutes. Let it rest covered in a bowl for 30 minutes. Meanwhile cut the pizza toppings. You could virtually add anything edible on your pizza. My mother likes fried eggplants on hers and I like jalapeno, for instance.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface and place it in a pizza tray or roll it out on a oven sheet directly. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes covered or covered. This will help the dough rise more. Spread the toppings. Start with the tomato puree/tomato sauce and finish with oregano/cheese. Bake in preheated oven at 200 C (almost 400 F) in the middle part of the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Potato gratin

6-8 medium potatoes
1 onion
3/4 cup fresh cream
2/3 cup milk (preferably with a high content of fat 3-4 %)
2 garlic cloves
25 g butter (room temperature)
Dill/leeks/spring onion
Salt to taste
Cheese

Saute the onion until light golden brown and put aside. Brush an oven safe porcelain or glass plate with butter. Peel and slice the potatoes thin. Add potatoes, salt, garlic and onion in layers in the oven safe plate. You can also add dill/leeks/spring onions for more flavour. Mix the cream and milk together with the dill. Add some salt if desired. Pour it over the potatoes and add a rich cheese layer on top. The milk/cream mixture should preferably be at equal level with the potatoes so that the topmost potatoes also get cooked. However, the milk will boil and rise a little bit when it gets really hot in the oven. Cover the plate with an aluminium foil so that the gratin does not get burnt. But do not cover too tightly and leave some holes so that the hot air moves freely.

Place it in the lower parets of the oven and cook at 200 C for about 30-40 minutes. You can insert a skewer and check if the potatoes cooked and soft. You can remove the aluminium foil towards the end. Let this creamy potato gratin cool down before serving. I think this is the kind of dish that tastes better on the second day. Good luck!