Mini Palmiers - A French Dessert/ Breakfast

Viennoiserie--- It’s a French word for baked goods such as Croissant, pastry, Palmier, Snail rolls, Danish Pastry….list goes on… for various varieties of breakfast or snack French recipes . For some ‘buttery’ , ‘cheesy’ reason, I fell in love with Italian and French cuisines. But the amount of butter, sugar and wine needed for most of the recipes made me to stay away from making those at home. PAUL – A new branch of Authentic French bakery opened recently in the mall. The richest aroma or the cheese made me to stop at Pauls almost store closing time. I was so disappointed that they ran out of every variety and I hardly got a chocolate croissant. It made me to dream about the Palmier all night long, and my dreams forced me to made these mini varieties of Viennoiserie J for my breakfast J

For this recipe, I used ‘Pepperidge farm’ Puff Pastry Sheets. This recipe is only for Palmier.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry Sheets – 1 sheet ( I used Pepperidge Farm’ Puff Pastry Sheets, store bought)
Sugar – ½ cup
salt – a pinch
Powdered Cinnamon – 2 spoons (Optional) – I prefer Cinnamon in these recipes, but it is your choice.
Butter – 3 spoons or 1 small cube 
Egg  - 1 large
Milk – 1 spoon (To prepare Egg Wash)

Preparation:
This recipe is very easy to make. Technique is only in the folding of the sheet. You can also make it ahead, throw it in fridge and keep it in oven 20 mins before your guests arrive. Thaw the Pepperidge Puff Pastry Sheet as per the instructions given in the packet. For Egg Wash- Mix Egg, Milk and a small pinch of sugar in a small bowl using spoon or fork. Heat Oven 400°F . Mix Sugar and Cinnamon Powder. Sprinkle Sugar and Cinnamon Mix on the floor or plain wooden board. Unfold Puff Pastry Sheet on the Sugar mix. Roll the pastry sheet to make it with smooth surface. Apply Egg wash on the surface of the pastry sheet. Sprinkle Sugar and Cinnamon Mix.

Roll one side of the pastry sheet like a pleat (One over other) and bring it to center. Roll the other side (Opposite) similarly like a pleat and bring it to center. Fold both the sides like a book. Slice the rolled dough into ½ inch pieces. Apply butter to the baking sheet and place the slices in baking sheet (Make sure the cut side is up). Apply Egg wash with brush on the upper portion of each slice. Sprinkle sugar little bit on top of each slice.

Keep it in pre-heated oven and Bake it for 6-10 mins. Time varies depending on your oven. Remove when the pastries turning to caramelized brown and let it cool. Serve with Hot Coffee or Tea. This is perfect for breakfast or evening snack.

Tip: Use the same recipe with a little twist to make the rolls. Sprinkle semi sweet chocolate chips or dried raisins along with sugar on top of pastry sheet. Instead rolling the pastry sheet like a book, roll spiral role. Cut into small one inch pieces. Place it in the oven by keeping the cutting side up. bake it for 6-10 mins or till the rolls turn golden brown. Serve with Coffee or Tea. 

Step By Step Preparation (Including How to roll the sheets):

Raw Tamarind Chutney (Chintakaya Pachadi)

Raw Tamarind Chutney (Chinatakaya Pachadi):

I found Raw Tamarind pods and Sugar Cane in Indian Stores. I felt happy and posted the picture in my facebook. My friend laughed like anything and said she hasn’t had any of these ingredients, and she is so curious to know what I make.

I make few varieties with Raw Tamarind Pods. Today I made a tamarind chutney. This recipe needs tender tamarind pods. Matured pods contains seeds and the shell also is very hard. It doesn’t taste good if the seeds are matured. Removing seeds or shell from Matured pods are very tedious.

Ingredients:

Raw Tamarind Pods – Washed and cut into small pieces – 1 cup
Mustard Seeds – ½ spoon
Cumin / Jeera Seeds – ½ spoon
Coriander Seeds – ½ Spoon
Urad Dal – ½ spoon
Chana Dal – ½ spoon
Red Chilies – 4
Salt to Taste
Turmeric – ¼ spoon
Garlic Cloves – 3
Oil – 2 spoons

Preparation: Fry Mustard Seeds, Jeera Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Red Chilies till turns to golden brown color. Transfer to the mixer, grind coarse. Add tamarind pods to the pan, Saute for 3-4 min. Cover with a lid and let it soft for 2-3 mins. Add tamatind pods, salt and turmeric to the mixer and make it as a coarse paste. Heat oil in the pan, Saute garlic cloves for a min in low heat. Mix the Oil and Garlic to the TAramarind Paste. Serve with Hot Steamed Rice. 

Raw Green Mango Rice (Mamidi Kaya Pulihora)

Raw Green Mango Rice (Mamidi Kaya Pulihora):This is one of my all time favourite, the most simplistic yet delicious recipe. Mangos…I eat ripe or unripe raw mangos. Raw Mangos are Tangy in Taste, high in B and C vitamins, very good for health. It is difficult to get really Tangy raw mango in USA. I prefer making many varieties with Raw Green mangos when I get those. This recipe is one of the festive recipe in South India, People make this mostly during the festival of Ugadi (New Year for Telugu people in India). 

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice – 3 cups (Use Left Over rice too)
Mango – 1 Raw Green Mango (Small or Medium Size) – Peel and grate
Salt – for Taste
Turmeric – ¼ spoon
For Tampering:
Oil – 3 spoons
Ginger – ½ inch, grated into a thin pieces
Green Chilies – 2 , Washed  and slit long
Mustard Seeds – ½ spoon
Jeera Seeds – 1/2spoon
Urad Dal – ½ spoon
Chana Dal – ½ spoon
Red Chilies – 2
Cashews –8
Peanuts – 8
Curry Leaves – 8-10
Coriander Leaves – 1 spoon for garnishing

Preparation: Cook Rice and make it fluffy by separating the rice with a fork. Spread it in a plate or bowl to cool. Heat Oil in a pan, add Mustard Seeds, Jeera Seeds, Urad Dal, Chana Dal, Cashews, Peanuts and red chilies and  fry till it gets  golden brown. Add Green chillies, Grated Ginger, Grated Mango, curry leaves and saute for 2 to 3 mins.  Don’t cook grated mango. Over cook spoils the mango taste and kills the tanginess. Add salt, turmeric and coriander leaves.  Add cooked rice and mix it gently with a spoon until the rice fully covered with the mango mixture on low heat. Serve with Papad or Curd.

Stuffed Eggplant- Stir Fry ( Gutti Vankaya Fry)

Stuffed Egg Plant – Stir Fry (Guthi Vankaya Fry) with Fairy Tale Eggplants:

I found beautiful purple ‘fairy tale’ egg plants in farmers market. These eggplants are very tender, tiny , tear drop shaped, purple striped eggplants. I simply smiled when I read the label. I make many varieties with eggplant, but I simply observed that eggplant lose its color when cooked. I just don’t want to cook in a regular way for these fairy tale eggplants and lose the gorgeous color. So I decided to use ‘Oil Blanching’-a very rare technique which I have seen in one of the Iron Chef program in food network. This technique I used only to retain the color and texture of the eggplant. Oil Blanching is a real quick deep fry of the ingredients in hot Oil. The vegetable has to fry just a min and quickly to be removed from oil.

Ingredients:

Eggplants – 10-12 in number  (preferably small or medium size)

For Stuffing:

Methi seeds – ½ spoon

Coriander seeds – 2 spoon

Jeera seeds – 1 spoon

Peanuts – 2 spoon

Sesame Seeds – 1 spoon

Poppy seeds – 1 spoon

Dry Shredded Coconut – 2 spoon

Ginger Garlic paste – 1 spoon

Red Chillis – 4 or Red Chilli powder – 1 spoon (as per taste)

Tamarind – a small lemon size (soak it in a very little water and use the water by removing the pulp)  (add ½ spoon of tamarind paste if you use paste)

Turmeric – ¼ spoon

Salt – as per taste

Oil – 3 cups of Oil (for Oil Blanching) – Optional , Exclusive for this recipe to retain the color of the eggplant

For tampering:

Oil – 3 spoons of oil for stir fry

Curry Leaves – for garnish

Coriander leaves – for garnish

Jeera seeds – ½ spoon

Mustard Seeds – ½ spoon

Preparation: Roast Methi Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Jeera Seeds,  Peanuts, sesame seeds, poppy seeds and shredded coconut separately till the seeds turn golden brown in color. Grind all these ingredients into coarse mixture. Add salt, turmeric, ginger garlic paste and tamarind paste and mix into a coarse tight paste.  Do not add water to make the paste liquid.

Wash Eggplants, pat dry with paper towels.  Make two slits for each eggplant (Like a plus sign, one is vertical and the other horizontal) starting from the bottom towards the stem. Keep the stem on if the stems are fresh.

Take a small amount of stuffing and stuff inside the eggplant without breaking the eggplant. Stuff all eggplants and keep aside.

(Oil Blanching (This is Optional): Oil Blanching is the technique I used in this recipe to retain the color of the brinjal. This step is not necessary.  Take a wok or deep fryer, pour oil and bring the oil to medium hot. Take one or two eggplants at each time, deep fry quickly for 1 min in the oil and then Keep aside on paper towel. This allows the flash cooking of eggplant without losing the color and texture.) Please make sure you have prior experience in frying with oil when you try Oil Blanching method.

Heat 2 spoons of oil in the pan. Add Mustard seeds, Jeera seeds, Curry Leaves and fry till gets brown. Add the stuffed egg plants (oil blanched) slowly to the pan, cover it with the lid, let it cook on low- medium heat for 10-15 mins (Till the egg plants get soft). Remove the lid and stir the egg plants under high heat for few mins (1-2 mins). Garnish with Coriander leaves, serve hot with Rice or Roti.