Hi everybody, how are you all doing? I am doing very well, a wee bit busy though.  Well, it’s not my mistake for sure, I do try to sit in front of my computer but whenever I look out of my window, my Garden beckons me with longing to fold me in her bare blanket pleading me to print and paint beautiful spring colours.  Summer is definitely around the corner for sure, fingers crossed, I have bought loads of seeds and my little greenhouse is ready.

I didn't pay some  hi-fi price to buy it, hope it can withstand all the weather changes we go through. Last time I had hard time ripening my Tomatoes.  As the weather keeps changing it’s very difficult to maintain the temperature the plants need.  I am  not planning to grow too many vegetables this year, looking after them is a big problem with all kind of creatures crawling and flying around giving me a hard time in getting rid of them.

I have a lot of perrineal and Hardy plants coming back every year to adorn my garden, I have also planted a few flowering plants and love to see them bloom.  It’s this time of the year I get all up my bulbs coming up with beautiful coloured flowers, Daffodils, Tulips, tuberose and many more.

With all the greenery around, and the hot sun drying me out of any hydration in my body craved for something fresh, and juicy,  that was when I started thinking of salads, Fresh vegetables and fruits. Once you put your little grey cells to work, as Poirot says they always come up with different ideas.

Right at that time my daughter calls me to ask, if I did remember what she wanted to eat when she comes back to visit me, I knew what she wanted and said I would keep it ready by the time she is home. when I am in the Garden I keep losing track of  time, so when she called me I had no idea what time it was, she said she has already boarded her train and  is coming home. I got a bit tensed up, she will be home in 1 ½ to 2 hrs time before I could make Burger Buns and the Burgers to go with it, that was when I remembered a 40 minute Hamburger Bun topic in one of the FB groups I follow.  Immediately browsed through my phone and found the recipe from Taste of Home.  I decided on giving that a try.

My recipe is an inspiration and minimally adapted from Taste of Home but with my own little modifications, I mean tweaks, First of all I did not  use egg as suggested so I made it eggless, then didn’t want to use so much Yeast so cut it down and Oil which was wee bit more to my liking.  With all these elements in my mind I came out with this recipe, and believe it or not it was so soft and the house smelled like heaven, kids gave a thumbs sign saying the Buns were very soft.

Recipe source:  Inspired by Taste of Home
Prep time: 5 min (measuring ingredients)
Starter + kneading time: 15 minutes
Rest time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 8 to 13 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
1 tbsp – Yeast
2 tbsp – Sugar
2 tbsp – Potato Starch
1 tsp – Salt
3 tbsp – Oil (I used extra virgin Olive Oil)
1 Slice of Bread (¼ cup of Bread crumbled)
325 -350 ml warm water (around 1 ¼ cup )
350-375 grams or 3 ½ cup of Bread Flour (I used Hovis white Bread flour)

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40 minutes Vegan Burger Buns

40 minute Hamburger Buns very soft and delicious to savour with anything and it is vegan!

Course Breakfast /Brunch /Meal/Dinner

Cuisine International

Prep Time 25 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 9 or 12

Author Jayasri

Ingredients

• INGREDIENTS:
• 1 tbsp – Yeast
• 2 tbsp – Sugar
• 2 tbsp – Potato Starch
• 1 tsp – Salt
• 3 tbsp – Oil I used extra virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Slice of Bread ¼ cup of Bread crumbled
• 325 -350 ml warm water around 1 ¼ cup
• 350-375 grams or 3 ½ cup of Bread Flour I used Hovis white Bread flour

Instructions

• Method:
• In a large bowl take yeast and sugar and pour 2 to 3 tbsp of warm water and let it rest for 5 minutes.
• In a small bowl using a ¼ cup of warm water dissolve potato starch, salt and bread. Let it get mashed up well.
• Meanwhile, you would have noticed bubbles forming up in your yeast mixture, to this add the above potato starch mixture and mix well.
• To this now add flour and warm water, to form a soft dough, you might feel it a bit sticky not to worry everything will be fineJ.
• Turn this dough onto your kitchen counter dust your hands with flour and start kneading until very smooth and elastic at least 7 to 8 minutes. DO NOT LET IT RISE very important.
• Divide this into pieces as per you like either 12 or less I made around 9 pieces perfect for my burger.
• Shape each piece into a ball, place them on a flour dusted Baking sheet giving them 3 to 4-inch space between them.
• Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes. Brush it with milk.
• Bake at 425°, I baked it around Gas Mark 6 as I have a Gas oven and it gets pretty hot, 10 to 13 minutes depending on your oven temperature until golden brown. Once done place it on a wire rack, give 5 to 6 minutes, remove it from the sheet and transfer it on to a wire rack directly to cool completely, this ensures no soggy bottom.

Notes

You can small 12 or 9 Bigger Buns, you can add instead of Butter if you wish, if you don't get potato starch not to worry add 2 to 3 tbsp of cooked potato or cooked Rice just to make it soft. Even try using cornstarch or Tofu you have varied choices to substitute but don't omit the Bread slice

Method:
In a large bowl take yeast and sugar and pour 2 to 3 tbsp of warm water and let it rest for 5 minutes.
In a small bowl using a ¼ cup of warm water dissolve potato starch, salt and bread. Let it get mashed up well.
Meanwhile, you would have noticed bubbles forming up in your yeast mixture, to this add the above potato starch mixture and mix well.
To this now add flour and warm water, to form a soft dough, you might feel it a bit sticky not to worry everything will be fineJ.
Turn this dough onto your kitchen counter dust your hands with flour and start kneading until very smooth and elastic at least 7 to 8 minutes. DO NOT LET IT RISE very important.
Divide this into pieces as per you like either 12 or less I made around 9 pieces perfect for my burger.
Shape each piece into a ball, place them on a flour dusted Baking sheet giving them 3 to 4-inch space between them.
Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes. Brush it with milk.
Bake at 425°, I baked it around Gas Mark 6 as I have a Gas oven and it gets pretty hot, 10 to 13 minutes depending on your oven temperature until golden brown.  Once done place it on a wire rack, give 5 to 6 minutes, remove it from the sheet and transfer it on to a wire rack directly to cool completely, this ensures no soggy bottom.

The post 40 minutes Vegan Burger Buns appeared first on My Veg Fare.

PURSLANE & KALE FATAYER

I came to find out that Fatayer (Lebanese savoury triangular pastries) is a Mediterranean street food, usually made with Purslane (Baqleh) and the one made with spinach called Fatayer bil-sabanegh and she says can be adapted to using any kind of greens we like.

I had started thinking what shall I bake, I had a busy day from past two days, came home late last night had a terrible headache and I was in no mood to bake anything, My baking or cooking always ends up with my kids coming back from school they come home look for something to eat, they love something like a snack, but I always prefer that they eat well, something healthy, always look for something good for them to gorge.

 

 H got me this plant and I have been trying to protect it now as it is so cold in my conservatory, It grew very well in summer with beautiful leaves but I never used it. I was scared that it might die, this plant is grown everywhere in India it is commonly known as Purslane or Verdolaga, in Tamil it is called Paruppu keerai, in Kannada Dudagorai.  Basically it is a weed grown everywhere in India, It is still used in various cooking ways in India.  I still keeping looking for it everywhere here if I could find a bunch of it, As I was googling through I found out that they are very rich in Omega 3 fatty acids, and they are also rich in vitamin C, they are even used in medicine for treating cancer etc.., etc.., Just Google around to see more information on this plant.

I wasn't sure if I could grow it here, for the weather conditions, it seems Googling I have found out that it will be dormant and grows back, I don't want to take any risk so I keep it in my conservatory, not that it is looking any healthy now, fingers crossed it won't die on me.

I was searching for something new I could cook up from this plant, I was surprised to see a few ways now I can use it not only in the India way of cooking, when searching I found this recipe on Anissa's blog, I was in awe with her photography and loved I could try out something new.

I so found out that middle eastern cookery enjoy this nutritious weed, here is how I made it, I have adapted the recipe very much but tweaked it a little bit, as I did not how much my kids would love it, when ever I prepare something new I use what my kids like and see how it goes and then revert back to the original recipe.., kind of making them comfort with their usual food. This is how I made it...

PURSLANE, KALE, SPINACH, WATER CRESS AND ROCKET  FATAYER

Recipe Source: Anissa's blog

Serves : 4

makes : 12 (depending on the size)

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE DOUGH

175 grms ( nearly 1 and 1/4 cup) of All purpose Flour

2 tbsp of Garlic Flavoured Extra virgin Olive oil

1/2 tsp salt
Nearly 3/4th cup of water

FOR THE FILLING

1/2 Cup of Purslane

2 Cups of Kale

2 medium sized onions

1 Cup of Water Cress, Spinach and Rocket

1 tbsp of Sumac

1 tbsp of Sichuan Pepper

1 tbsp Olive oil

1 tsp salt
Cheese (optional)

 METHOD:

In a bowl take all the Ingredients under For the dough mix them well first, resembles like a crumbled cheese make a well in the center and  start from 1/4 cup of water making it into a dough, keep adding water until a firm dough is formed. Knead this dough until it is smooth and elastic and leave it in a bowl covered with a wet cloth until you make your filling ready. In a bowl wash drain and and chop the Greens roughly, to this add chopped Onions and all the other Ingredients listed under the filling mix them well thoroughly and leave aside. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees ( I preheated and baked my pastries on Gas mark 6 as my oven gets too hot).

Take the dough make 12 round balls and one by one, flatten into a disc place some filling on each disc lift two sides 1/3rd of the circle and pinch them together and lift the third side and pinch them like a triangle seal all the three sides with a thin raised inverted Y in the middle.

Be sure to seal the pastry well so they don't open up during baking, transfer them on to a baking sheet and bake 15 to 20 minutes according to your oven's heat.

Bake them until they are golden in colour and serve them warm or cold.

VERDICT:
The pastry was really delicious, my children loved them, they even told me I shouldn't have added the cheese!, Next time I can just stick to the basic recipe without my little tweak of adding cheese in it thinking kids would like it.

Do not use any cheese in this recipe and you will have a wonderful Vegan Savoury pastry to enjoy.

The post Purslane & Kale Fatayer appeared first on My Veg Fare.

HALLOUMI CHEESE STARTER

Ingredients
2 packets of Halloumi cheese
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 to 5 red chillies

METHOD:

1. Cut the cover & drain out the water in them, Press it with a kitchen towel to remove any moisture. slice them horizontally or as shown in the photo.
2. Take a pan & heat it nicely, say sizzling hot, place these cheeses on them & roast them as shown in the photo, until the watery thing in them disappears & becomes nice golden brown in colour
3. In a cup take olive oil to this add the red chillies by deseeding & cutting them into thin slices mix them together.
4. Now Garnish the cheese with the above-said oil mixture, Basil leaves & serve them hot.

Well, it was quite delicious and I thought the saltiness blended with the spicy chilli I think! I liked it, Try you may like it too.

The post HALLOUMI CHEESE STARTER appeared first on My Veg Fare.