Basic White Bread

          For more than a month now, I have stopped buying bread, started making them at home. If you have good quality yeast with you, then baking bread is not that difficult. After baking so many breads, finally now I have settled down with this recipe. Today, I am posting the Basic White Bread, using maida/ all purpose flour. Of course, I have baked plain white bread just a couple of times, but I make 100% whole wheat bread regularly, will be posting it soon. The bread turned out really soft and the crust was perfect too..

Ragi Mudde, Finger Millet Balls

          I have heard about ragi mudde ( finger millet balls ) so much, but never really got to taste it. Even, when I went to the Avarekalu festival here, ragi mudde was served with avarekalu saaru, but I didn't taste it. So I made it at home, following the instructions from my maid. It's a healthy and filling dish, couple of these balls with the avarekalu saaru keeps you full for a very long time. Even if you don't get avarekalu, ragi mudde would go very well with any spicy and tangy curry..

Eggless Bougatsa, Custard Filled Greek Phyllo Pastries

          Bougatsa is a sweet custard filled phyllo pastry, it's supposed to be a famous breakfast dish in Greece. After making the baklava and spanakopita, I had some phyllo sheets left, and I wanted to try out this delicious pastry Bougatsa. All the recipes that I saw had eggs in them and I wanted to make an eggless version, but doing an eggless version was not difficult at all. The pastries came out really good. the outer layer was crispy and the sweet custard filling was very delicious, do try this out if you can find phyllo pastry sheets and also if you like custard..

Hitikida Avarekalu Saaru, Hyacinth Beans (Field Beans) Curry

          Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, this Avarekalu season, I had bought a few pounds of it and had tried a couple of dishes with them. Today's dish is the most common dish that's made during the season, Avarekalu Saaru. It's a simple and delicious gravy and it goes very well with rice, rotis, idlis, dosas or if you like Ragi Mudde ( Ragi Balls, post coming soon ), then, this is the best combination with it. We use the beans after removing the skin, so it's known as Hitikida Avarekalu Saaru. Though the season is almost done for this year, if you are in the US, you can still make this dish with frozen surti papdi lilva, or even with dry beans..