North east voyage

Last month when mom and dad were here, we went on a week long north east trip, which spanned over Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya and involved a travel of around 1600 km. The trip was beautiful and though we didnt finally go as per the original plan, the trip was great nonetheless. The intial plan was to go to Bomdila / Tawang in Arunachal, however weather and landslide in the hills made us restrict our trip to a place called Bhalukpong. Nothing much there, except a nice river, hills (hills just start here) and good weather. Here are some photos of the drive to bhalukpong -









Since the road trip up to Tawang was doubtful (in our car) and to hire a taxy was working out expensive (around 12grands for 3 days) we changed to plan 'B'. We set course for Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya. The drive was nice,and when we reached Shillong, we realised why it is called Meghalaya - we were in clouds and it was raining continuously. Shillong is also known as the Scotland of the east - there are lush green meadows and the gently sloping hills have a great feel. In Shillong we visited the Elephant falls which is in three steps, very picturesque, but without too much of publicity - hardly anyone advertises the fact that there are so many beautiful places to be visited around shillong. We wish that there is more publicity and these places are made more tourist friendly - presently it is the typical indian tourist spot - lots of small shops selling chips, biscuit and tea. here are some snaps







Then we went to cherapunjee - had read about it for a long time in the geo books in school as well as the GK books. the place was very very picturesque, the drive amazing, hardly hill driving as it was more like driving on a plateau, waterfalls along the way making the beautiful green mountain even more beautiful.

Banana Bread

I picked up this recipe from the net. The problem was that I couldn’t find brown sugar here and instead of home made buttermilk (I didn’t want to wait for M to make some) I substituted it with Amul Buttermilk (which is spiced butter milk) and I didn’t add the salt which is given in the recipe. It turned out very nice. And since I halved the ingredients from the original recipe, I reduced the baking time as well. What’s given here is what I made -

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/4 cup soft butter (since I was short on butter I made up the rest with ghee and didn’t really feel any difference)
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar (again since I didn’t have brown sugar I substituted it with Palm candy, to make a total of ½ a cup of sugar)
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cups all-purpose flour (maida)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (which I didn’t add as the buttermilk I used was already salted)
• 1 teaspoon baking power
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (in addition I added some more nuts and raisins on my own and it turned out pretty decent)

Topping:

• 1 sliced banana
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

o In a large bowl peel the bananas and break them into small pieces. Use a masher and mash the bananas. Set aside.

o In a separate bowl cream the soft butter, white sugar and brown sugar all together with a wooden spoon. Add in the beaten eggs and mix till smooth. (I found that after 5 min it was still lumpy and I didn’t have the patience so I put it in the mixer grinder/ blender and gave it a beating)

o Add in the buttermilk and vanilla. Continue to mix together till well combined. Add in the mashed bananas, then mix.

o In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Using a wire whisk mix together. Pour the flour mixture into the liquid. Mix together till just combined. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

o Pour batter into a well greased 9x 5 loaf pan (I used the thumb rule of filling up half of the baking dish giving enough space for the bread to rise). Peel a banana and slice into pieces. Place the banana slice down the middle of the loaf. Top the banana slices with chopped walnuts. Bake in a 350 degree (180°C) oven for 30 minutes (I used my LG microwave in the Convection function). Bake until a skewer inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow the banana bread to sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool on a wire rake.

Note: After a long time of experimenting with using different proportions of whole wheat flour (atta), we tried using only atta (whole wheat flour) and it turned out great.

Rezala Chicken

Last weekend we had called some friends over for dinner and we wanted to try out some chicken dish with a mild gravy (so that the kids could have it easily). Then we came across this recipe in Outlook traveler of a Bhopali chicken dish called REZALA CHICKEN. Seemed do-able so we made it. It turned out very nice. Here it goes

REZALA CHICKEN

Oil - 8 tablespoons

Chicken (cut in pieces) – 1 kg

Onions (ground into a paste) - 4 tablespoons

Haldi (turmeric) – ½ teaspoon

Curd – 6 tablespoons (well beaten)

Coriander leaves – 13 tablespoons (chopped fine)

Birista paste (equal portions of poppy seeds and crisp fried onions) – 3 tablespoons

Water – 2 cups

For garnish –

Boiled egg – ½

Lime – ½

Whole green chillies – 3-4

Heat 2 tbsp of oil, and fry a kilo of chicken pieces till golden brown. Set aside.

Heat 6 tbsp of oil and fry 4 tbsp of ground onions with half a tsp of haldi for a minute. Add two tsp of garlic paste and ginger paste. Fry, stirring well, for 5-7 min till nicely browned. Add 6 tbsp of beaten curd. Stir continuously to blend the curd in with the gravy. Add 13 heaped tbsp of chopped coriander leaves, stir into the gravy and immediately add three big ladlefuls of poppy seed and birista paste (made of equal portions of poppy seeds and crisp fried onions ground in water). Stir till gravy tightens and a heavenly aroma arises.

Add the fried chicken pieces to the gravy. Coat them well and pat them down in the pan. Pour two cups of water and bring to boil. Simmer for 10 min, add salt and cook till the chicken is done (about 15 min). Garnish with a half boiled egg, a halved nimboo (lime) and whole green chillies. Serve hot with crisp rotis.

French Breads

The bread that we get here is not too hot and we were having to drive a long way to get some good bread. So we thought why not try out some bread at home... we searched the net for some good recipes and the recipes given here are definitely not our own... we picked them from two sites; first from www.aayisrecipes.com, where a fellow amchigeli chelli has some great recipes, and the other from this blog of bread chicks.
Though we didnt get the color of the bread as given in the pics, we managed to get some great tasting bread. Of course S being the son of a scientist had to experiment, so we changed the quantity of whole wheat flour, and used regular maida where all purpose flour was supposed to be used. Now being desi and not knowing too much about the techie sounding terms used by bread chicks we settled on maida. For the french bread, we cut all the measures by half.

Making French Bread:
Step 1: The Dough Mixture – le fraisage (or frasage)

1 cake (0.6 ounce) (20grams) fresh yeast or 1 package dry active yeast (now we weren't too sure about what active yeast was or one package of active dry yeast was in indian terms, so we used 1 teaspoon of the dried yeast we got from the local grocers)
1/3 cup (75ml) warm water, not over 100 degrees F/38C in a glass measure (we used regular water warmed up for 10 seconds in the microwave)
3 1/2 cup (about 1 lb) (490 gr) all purpose flour, measured by scooping dry measure cups into flour and sweeping off excess (we used 1 cup of maida for the dough and some more for brushing the dough during the later stages and we put 3/4th cup of whole wheat flour and 1/4th cup of sattoo ka atta)
2 1/4 tsp (12 gr) salt (we put around 1 1/2 tsp)
1 1/4 cups (280 - 300ml) tepid water @ 70 – 74 degrees/21 - 23C (we put in water as the dough was being made, if you go by feel as you make the dough i think you will put just the right amount of water)

Stir the yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water and let liquefy completely while measuring flour into mixing bowl. When yeast has liquefied, pour it into the flour along with the salt and the rest of the water. We added the whole wheat flour and sattoo ka atta in while kneading the dough. Knead the dough like you would for roti, till it feels nice, doesnt stick to your hands and the shapes comes back when you press it in. Add more water or flour if it is too dry or too sticky.

Turn dough out onto kneading surface, scraping bowl clean. Dough will be soft and sticky. Let the dough rest for 2 – 3 minutes while you wash and dry the bowl (and the dough hook if using a stand mixer).

Step 2: Kneading – petrissage
The flour will have absorbed the liquid during this short rest, and the dough will have a little more cohesion for the kneading that is about to begin. Use one hand only for kneading and keep the other clean to hold a pastry scrapper, to dip out extra flour, to answer the telephone, and so forth. Your object in kneading is to render the dough perfectly smooth and to work it sufficiently so that all the gluten molecules are moistened and joined together into an interlocking web. You cannot see this happen, of course, but you can feel it because the dough will become elastic and will retract into shape when you push it out.

Start kneading by lifting the near edge of the dough and flipping the dough over onto itself. Scrape dough off the surface and slap it down; lift edge and flip it over again, repeating the movement rapidly.

In 2 -3 minutes the dough should have enough body so that you can give it a quick forward push with the heel of your hand as you flip it over.

Continue to knead rapidly and vigorously in this way. If the dough remains too sticky, knead in a sprinkling of flour. The whole kneading process will take 5 – 10 minutes, depending on how expert you become.

Shortly after this point, the dough should have developed enough elasticity so it draws back into shape when pushed, indicating the gluten molecules have united and are under tension like a thin web of rubber; the dough should also begin to clean itself off the kneading surface, although it will stick to your fingers.

Let dough rest for 3 – 4 minutes. Knead by hand for a minute. The surface should now look smooth; the dough will be less sticky but will still remain soft. It is now ready for its first rise.

Step 3: First Rising – (3-5 hours at around 70 degrees F)
You now have approximately 3 cups of dough that is to rise to 3 1/2 times its original volume, or to about 10 1/2 cups. Wash and fill the mixing bowl with 10 1/2 cups of tepid water (70 – 80 degrees) and make a mark to indicate that level on the outside of the bowl. Note, that the bowl should have fairly upright sides; if they are too outward slanting, the dough will have difficulty in rising. Pour out the water, dry the bowl, and place the dough in it.

Slip the bowl into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic, and top with a folded bath towel. Set on a wooden surface, marble or stone are too cold. (Temp being what it is here, and since we have a marble top in the kitchen, we put it in a microwave bowl, covered it, and set it up on a preheated tawa with a towel below and above the bowl to keep it warm). Or on a folded towel or pillow, and let rise free from drafts anyplace where the temperature is around 70 degrees. If the room is too hot, set bowl in water and keep renewing water to maintain around 70 degrees. Dough should take at least 3 – 4 hours to rise to 10 1/2 cups. If temperature is lower than 70 degrees, it will simply take longer.

When fully risen, the dough will be humped into a slight dome,

showing that the yeast is still active; it will be light and spongy when pressed. There will usually be some big bubbly blisters on the surface, and if you are using a glass bowl you will see bubbles through the glass.

Step 4: Deflating and Second Rising – rupture; (1 1/2 to 2 hours at around 70 degreesF)
The dough is now ready to be deflated, which will release the yeast engendered gases and redistribute the yeast cells so that the dough will rise again and continue the fermentation process.

Dislodge the dough from inside of bowl and turn out onto a lightly floured surface, scraping bowl clean. If dough seems damp and sweaty, sprinkle with a tablespoon of flour.

Lightly flour the palms of your hands and flatten the dough firmly but not too roughly into a circle, deflating any gas bubbles by pinching them.

Lift a corner of the near side and flip it down on the far side.

Do the same with the left side, then the right side. Finally, lift the near side and tuck it just under the edge of the far side. The mass of dough will look like a rounded cushion.

Slip the sides of your hands under the dough and return it to the bowl. Cover and let rise again, this time to not quite triple, but again until it is dome shaped and light and spongy when touched.

Step 5: Cutting and resting dough before forming loaves
Loosen dough all around inside of bowl and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Because of its two long rises, the dough will have much more body. If it seems damp and sweaty, sprinkle lightly with flour.

Making clean, sure cuts with a large knife divide the dough into:

• 3 equal pieces for long loaves small round loaves.

After you have cut each piece, lift one end and flip it over onto the opposite end to fold the dough into two;

Cover loosely with a sheet of plastic and let rest for 5 minutes before forming. This relaxes the gluten enough for shaping but not long enough for dough to begin rising again.

While the dough is resting, prepare the rising surface; smooth the canvas or linen towelling on a large tray or baking sheet, and rub flour thoroughly into the entire surface of the cloth to prevent the dough from sticking

Step 6: Forming the loaves – la tourne; la mise en forme des patons

Because French bread stands free in the oven and is not baked in a pan, it has to be formed in such a way that the tension of the coagulated gluten cloak on the surface will hold the dough in shape.

For Long Loaves - The Batard: (Baguettes are typically much too long for home ovens but the shaping method is the same)

After the 3 pieces of dough have rested 5 minutes, form one piece at a time, keeping the remaining ones covered.

Working rapidly, turn the dough upside down on a lightly floured kneading surface and pat it firmly but not too roughly into an 8 to 10 inch oval with the lightly floured palms of your hands. Deflate any gas bubbles in the dough by pinching them.

Fold the dough in half lengthwise by bringing the far edge down over the near edge.

Being sure that the working surface is always lightly floured so the dough will not stick and tear, which would break the lightly coagulated gluten cloak that is being formed, seal the edges of the dough together, your hands extended, thumbs out at right angles and touching.

Roll the dough a quarter turn forward so the seal is on top.

Flatten the dough again into an oval with the palms of your hands.

Press a trench along the central length of the oval with the side of one hand.

Fold in half again lengthwise.

This time seal the edges together with the heel of one hand, and roll the dough a quarter of a turn toward you so the seal is on the bottom.

Now, by rolling the dough back and forth with the palms of your hands, you will lengthen it into a sausage shape. Start in the middle, placing your right palm on the dough, and your left palm on top of your right hand.

Roll the dough forward and backward rapidly, gradually sliding your hands towards the two ends as the dough lengthens.

Deflate any gas blisters on the surface by pinching them. Repeat the rolling movement rapidly several times until the dough is 16 inches long, or whatever length will fit on your baking sheet. During the extension rolls, keep circumference of dough as even as possible and try to start each roll with the sealed side of the dough down, twisting the rope of dough to straighten the line of seal as necessary. If seal disappears, as it sometimes does with all purpose flour, do not worry.

Place the shaped piece of dough, sealed side up, at one end of the flour rubbed canvas, leaving a free end of canvas 3 to 4 inches wide.

The top will crust slightly as the dough rises; it is turned over for baking so the soft, smooth underside will be uppermost.

Pinch a ridge 2 1/2 to 3 inches high in the canvas to make a trough, and a place for the next piece. Cover dough with plastic while you are forming the rest of the loaves.

After all the pieces of dough are in place, brace the two sides of the canvas with long rolling pins, baking sheets or books, if the dough seems very soft and wants to spread out. Cover the dough loosely with flour rubbed dish towel or canvas, and a sheet of plastic. Proceed immediately to the final rising, next step.

Step 7: Final Rise – 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours at around 70 degreesF

The covered dough is now to rise until almost triple in volume; look carefully at its pre-risen size so that you will be able to judge correctly. It will be light and swollen when risen, but will still feel a little springy when pressed.

It is important that the final rise take place where it is dry; if your kitchen is damp, hot, and steamy, let the bread rise in another room or dough will stick to the canvas and you will have difficulty getting it off and onto another baking sheet. It will turn into bread in the oven whatever happens, but you will have an easier time and a better loaf if you aim for ideal conditions.

Preheat oven to 450 degreesF / 230 degrees C about 30 minutes before estimated baking time.

Step 8: Unmolding risen dough onto baking sheet –

Dough is now lying along one edge of the unmolding board: rest this edge on the right side of a lightly buttered baking sheet. Gently dislodge dough onto baking sheet, keeping same side of the dough uppermost: this is the soft smooth side, which was underneath while dough rose on canvas. If necessary run sides of hands lightly down the length of the dough to straighten it. Unmold the next piece of dough the same way, placing it to the left of the first, leaving a 3 inch space. Unmold the final piece near the left side of the sheet. (since we didnt have any unmoulding sheet, we just kept the dough covered in cotton cloth which was dusted with flour. We covered this plate and kept it aside for sometime.)

Step 9: Slashing top of the dough – The top of each piece of dough is now to be slashed in several places. This opens the covering cloak of gluten and allows a bulge of dough underneath to swell up through the cuts during the first 10 minutes of baking, making decorative patterns in the crust. These are done with a blade that cuts almost horizontally into the dough to a depth of less than half an inch. Start the cut at the middle of the blade, drawing toward you in a swift clean sweep..

Step 10: Baking – about 25 minutes; oven preheated to 450 degrees (230 degrees C).

As soon as the dough has been slashed, moisten the surface either by painting with a soft brush dipped in cold water, or with a fine spray atomizer, and slide the baking sheet onto rack in upper third of preheated oven. Rapidly paint or spray dough with cold water after 3 minutes, again in 3 minutes, and a final time 3 minutes later. Moistening the dough at this point helps the crust to brown and allows the yeast action to continue in the dough a little longer. The bread should be done in about 25 minutes; the crust will be crisp, and the bread will make a hollow sound when thumped.

If you want the crust to shine, paint lightly with a brush dipped in cold water as soon as you slide the baking sheet out of oven.

Recipe II - Bread with potato. Once again this is a good bread, we made Focaccia bread with it, which turned out great.

Ingredients for bread:
1 medium potato
1 cup water
1/4 tbl spn + 1/4 tea spn salt
1/2 tea spn active dry yeast
2 and 1/8th cups all purpose flour
1/4 tbl spn unsalted butter
1/4 cup wheat flour

Method:
Put the peeled and chopped potato in 1 cup water, 1/4 tea spn salt and bring it to boil. Cook till the potatoes are very tender.
Drain the water (save the water). Mash the potatoes. Measure the saved water. If it is less than 3/4 cup, add extra water to get a total of 3/4 cup.
Take the mashed potatoes and water in a big bowl. When the mixture is cooled to about 70-80F (ie, when it is still a bit warm but not hot), add the active dry yeast. Add all purpose flour, mix and leave for 5mins (According to original recipe, at this stage only 1/2 cup all purpose flour is added. so the dough was not at all sticky).
Add remaining salt, softened butter and wheat flour and mix well. (According to original recipe, at this stage 1/2 more cup of all purpose flour is added. Remaining flour is used to dust the surface where the bread is kneaded. I am not sure what difference it makes if I add the flour at once because the dough rose well without any trouble).

Now take the dough on a clean surface and knead it well for 10mins (if you follow the original recipe, the dough at this stage has only 1 cup of flour, so dough is very sticky. Keep adding flour to get a dough that can be easily managed. Since I added all the flour earlier, I didn’t dust the surface at all).
Leave the dough in a warm place for about 2hrs or till the dough doubles in volume.

Forming the Bread:
At this stage, we have the liberty to shape and season the bread as we please..so we made an 8 inch square focaccia (about 1/2 the dough) cut a couple of green chillies on top. The green chillies gave the bread an amazing flavor.

To make focaccia- Take 1/2 of the dough and spread out with your fingers to an 8 inch square on a baking tray lined with foil. Dimple all over with the fingertips. Brush generously with olive oil mixed with crushed garlic, rosemary and thyme and cut a couple of green chillies on top. The green chillies gave the bread an amazing flavor.. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for about 20 minutes. Dimple all over again before baking.

Kaziranga

We visited Kaziranga National park on the 28th of march. It was an amazing experience. It was something that we had been planning for almost a month, but didn't materialise due to some reason or the other.
The weekend getaway was amazing, starting from the drive to the accommodation to having a look at the Indian Rhino up close.
To start with, the drive from Dibrugarh to Kaziranga is extremely relaxing. Both sides of the road were lined with Tea gardens. The road , though only a two lane highway, was good all through except for a small patch between Dibrugarh and Moran. With very little traffic, we made good speed (much better than what i had expected). Here are a few photographs of the drive -









We stayed at this place called Koliabor Manor, which is a refurbished bunglow of British vintage (built in 1925). Its known as the Old directors bunglow, other than the fact that it was built in 1925, it is hardly old, the place has all the major amenities (except Television). The service there was very good, and the staff was very friendly.

The furniture at the Bunglow was all cane and teak. Some of it was antique. We were lucky to get the 'bada sahib's room'. We spent the time after lunch sitting in the cool veranda sipping freshly brewed tea.
The staff there had planned a Bramhaputra cruise to see the birds and river water dolphins but due to the strong winds and state of the river it had to be canceled. Instead we went for the Gypsy (jeep) safari.
Kaziranga consists of 4 ranges of which the westernmost range was closed at the time due to Poaching. We went to the western range which is basically a lake and grasslands. The jeep safari was very good. We saw a Rhino as soon as we started the safari and as we were watching the Rhino a flock of cranes flew over us in perfect formation. We were also lucky to have a male Rhino chase us as we stayed in his vicinity for a little longer than he cared. He snorted and came up the track and we beat a hasty retreat! After the safari, all we spoke was of the Rhinos, the elephants, the deers, wild buffaloes and the birds that we saw... and we had a great place to sit and talk - the dimly lit verandah of the bunglow. The bunglow had these low wattage bulbs which gave it the colonial candle light look. And there was this amazing breeze blowing outside.
The Next morning we woke up early to take the elephant safari only to find that it was pouring outside, we wondered if rain was planning to play spoilsport. We set course anyways to catch the 0715 safari. Adu was most excited about the prospect of sitting atop an elephant and watching rhinos. With due preparations to brave the rain if required we reached the park, and the rain stopped. There was a mad rush but we managed to get an elephant thanks to the planning of our 'tour guide' from Koliabor manor. The elephants started on their trek through the grasslands. The first 15 min we wondered if it was good luck that we managed to see so many animals the previous day on the jeep safari, as there were hardly any animals to be seen. The elephant kept picking up grass and munching it was it walked through the grassland, it was an amazing site, something like eat on the job. We were wondering if we would see any Rhino and voila, there was a mother and baby rhino behind the elephant grass!!! It was an amazing sight, the mother kept getting between us and the baby and when like paparazzi we kept hounding her, she turned around and snorted at us, indicating to keep our distance. So we moved on, to find another magnificent creature giving us dirty looks as we spoilt his early morning siesta! And then it was wild animals galore, we saw two more pairs of mother and baby rhino, lots and lots of deer. Total paisa vasool.
The basic kharcha paani for the trip was as follows -
Drive from Dibrugarh - approx 290 kms to Koliabor manor (Jhoklabanda, approx 40 km from Kaziranga towards Guwahati)
Stay - thanks to this introductory offer, we got complimentary stay, and we only had to pay for the food.
food - this was a little expensive if you ask me they charged 250 per head per meal except b'fast which was 250 for all three. For adu they charged 100 for the lunch and dinner. The food though good was a mite too expensive for 250 per plate. It had good home made food, a chicken / fish, daal, roti, rice, pakora, papad, a dry veg and sweet.
Gypsy safari - 1200/- (this was on the higher side as the gypsy ride if organized yourself can be done for around 900 for two including guide, entry fee, camera charges etc)
Elephant safari - 300/- per head + 50 for still camera.

On the way back we found this great dhaba just outside kaziranga 'Pelican Dhaba' which gave a assamese thali for 35/-. wonder why we found it so late, we could have cut down on our costs by having this food instead of the 250/- per plate food (not that that food was bad, just that it was expensive) In this thali they gave two assamese dishes, two veg gravy dishes, daal, two dry veg dishes, rice and papad; and we ordered some local fish fry to cater for our fish taste buds (all of us being such major fish freaks)