Chocolates & Dreams

What excitement ! The very first post for Secret Recipe Club this year. Time seems to be flying by, it seems like yesterday when we were all headed into the holiday season with Christmas & New Year upon us. We were all preparing to make new resolutions and think of all the things we would certainly be doing this year.
And, then suddenly it’s the end of February ! ! In the one month break SRC has come of age. The forum that was born from a need to get more exposure to an individual blog has become a phenomenon in the food blogging community. SRC began with 19 members in the first month and has grown to 300+ participating blogger who are now divided into 4 groups and a long waiting list of many who would love to be part of all the fun. Do you want to know more? Go HERE to know all about Secret Recipe Club.
This month I was assigned the blog Anne Jesica’s Healthy Pursuits. A beautiful lady with two adorable little sons she creates wonders in her kitchen. All her recipes are tweaked to be delicious, wholesome & healthy at the same time. What you must visit is her list of desserts, they are mouthwatering delicious. She has also had her very own Home Baking Business for over 2 years, and this lady is not one to keep her secrets to success hidden. Go check out all her wonderful tips on how to start a Home Baking Business. The tips are well detailed and compiled. She is sharing all her love, go give some back.
So after reading about all the bread, bagels, muffins, cookies, whoopee pies, Christmas bake trays and cinnamon rolls that she sells, I choose to make bagels. It is something that I have been meaning to make for a long time now.
Bagels, the very sound of this word makes me go all fuzzy in the brain. I start dreaming, a sun washed balcony looking onto this vast green pasture, a small stream flowing by, the birds chirping in the trees and this tray full of bagels with different preserves and butter and cheese on the table and a mug of the most delicious caramelly hot chocolate ……
I think you know where this is headed. So here are some delicious home-made bagels for your dreams.
Homemade Bagels 
Notes :
•What works best for me is to warm the water in the microwave oven till it is just warm to touch, then adding in the sugar and yeast and giving it a good stir and putting the vessel back in the microwave oven. The warmth inside the oven helps the yeast to grow.
Warm water 1 1/2 cups
Yeast 2 tbsp
Sugar 3 tbsp
Salt 1 tbsp
Wheat flour 2 cups
White flour 2 cups
Egg white, lightly beaten 1
Water 1 tbsp
•In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm water together and let stand in a warm place till the top is foamy.
•Add salt and 2 cups flour. Stir until combined and slowly mix in the rest of the flour.
•Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary. Dough should be fairly smooth and somewhat firm.
•Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double.
•Punch it down. Divide and shape into 12 balls and let rise.
•Make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, making a bagel shape. Place the shaped dough onto a cookie sheet and cover for 10 minutes or until risen again.
•Fill a deep bottomed pan with water. Bring the water to a rolling boil and drop 2 or 3 bagels for about 45 seconds, turning and cook for the same duration.
•Drain bagels on a wire rack.
•Mix egg white and water; brush tops with egg white mixture and top with toppings of your choice. I topped half my bagels with grated cheese and the other half with sesame seeds.
• Place bagels on greased baking sheets. Bake at 175ºC for 35 minutes, rotating them once half-way through baking.
•Bagels when done will be lightly browned and shiny. My second batch got a little to brown, but it was equally delicious.
Makes : 12 bagels.
Enjoy ! ! !

Month ends are exciting times. Today is the Secret Recipes Club Reveal. The SRC is a group of bloggers who come together every month to know each other and their cultures better through there cuisines. Initially form as a means to draw more traffic to her blog by Amanda of Amanda’s Cookin the group has grown to 300+ members in a very short period of time and has become a huge platform for diverse cooking cultures meeting at a common playing ground. Every month each blogger is secretly assigned another blogger from his/her own group and we are to make a recipe from there blog and reveal it on the appointed day. With a list of members from all over the world this is a platform that is really exciting and educating.
This month I was assigned La Bella Vita a beautiful Italian blog by Roz.  La Bella Vita means “The Beautiful Life”. An Italian-American, Roz comes from a lineage of passionate cooks & gardeners. She lives on a peaceful country acreage in Carolina and strives to uphold the traditional Italian way of living, where she strives to lives in harmony with earth and it seasons. She does this through her vegetable and flower gardens.  She is also very passionate about quilting and stitching. Throw her amazing blog I have had a sneak peek into the beautiful Italian way of living. The beautiful dream of recreating delicious Italian cuisine in my own kitchen has come to life through this beautiful encounter.  The Fresh Basil Pesto ,Gazpacho, Marinara Sauce, Garden Fresh Tomato Soup are just amongst the few recipes that I will soon be recreating in my kitchen. But what really caught me attention was the opportunity to be able to recreate Bolognese Sauce that is otherwise a delicacy I have only tasted in restaurants. With a few substitutions the Bolognese Sauce was mouthwatering delicious and the different vegetables into which it can be stuffed or rolled is unlimited. Make this sauce and then bake it inside bell peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, and zucchini or roll them in spinach leaves, lettuce leaves or just serve it as a filling in cold cucumber. The options are numerous, the choice is yours.
Bolognese & Brown Rice Stuffed Peppers & Tomato: -
Notes :
•The original recipe uses different forms of protein. You can find the original recipe at the above link.
•I have added tomato sauce as it gives the gravy a deeper red colour.
Bell peppers 4-8 (green, red or yellow)
Bolognese Sauce 1 cup
Brown rice ¼ cup
Processed cheese (grated) 3 cubes
Red pepper flakes 1 tsp
Coriander leaves (chopped) ½ cup
Salt & Pepper to taste
Bolognese Sauce :
Butter 2 tbsp
Onions, chopped 3 medium
Carrot, chopped 1 large
Celery/Cabbage 1 stalk/ ½ small (I used celery)
Garlic cloves, chopped & pressed 8-10
Mutton/Chicken Keema 500 grams
Tomato paste ½ cup
Tomato sauce 2 tbsp
Red Wine/Port Wine/Grape juice ½ cup (I used port)
Broth ½ cup
Coriander leaves, chopped ¼ cup
•Bolognese Sauce : Boil the mutton with 1 cup of water and 1 tsp salt in a pressure cooker. Keep the flame on high, once 1 pressure is released reduce to low and let the second pressure release, then switch off and let cool.
•Simultaneously sauté the onion, carrot, celery and garlic in the butter till the onion become translucent. Add in the tomato paste and tomato sauce, let cook for 5 minutes.
•Now add in the mutton keema, port wine, broth, salt, pepper and coriander leaves and let simmer.
•This will take about 1 ½ - 2 hours to cook on low heat. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper. It is done when the gravy is thick and has very little water left and has released butter and is a beautiful red in colour.
•While the sauce is simmering cook the brown rice till it is half done and set aside. Wash and cut the bell pepper vertically and remove all the seeds and veins. Chop off the top of the tomatoes and remove the seeds and veins and set aside.
•Once the sauce is done take out 1 cup into a bowl. Add in the brown rice, red pepper flakes, coriander leaves, half of the grated cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.
•Preheat the oven at 220ºC for 10 minutes.  Fill the bell peppers and tomatoes with the filling and decorate with the reserved cheese. Bake in the oven for about 20 – 30 minutes or till the peppers and tomatoes are soft and filling hot.
•The remaining sauce can be used to make spaghetti Bolognese, mutton patties for burgers, kebabs, seek kebabs and whatever else you want to do with the beautiful sauce.
Serves : 4 – 5.
Enjoy ! ! !

To see all the other wonderful creation see the link under the comments.

NEW POST