Bread upma -- an Indian version of bread stuffing

There are so many things that I miss about living in Japan. High on the list is crustless sandwich bread. I know…how hard is it to cut crusts off bread, right? Not to sound spoilt, but really, there was something joyous about opening up a perfectly vacuum sealed package of delicate crustless bread, just begging for translucent discs of cucumber to be sandwiched between the slices. But since I no longer have the luxury of such laziness, I have be content with cutting the crusts off my bread for those occasions that just demand a crustless sandwich – like when the Queen is over for tea, for instance. To come to my point…what do you do with all the left over crusts from such an endeavor? If you don’t want to throw away perfectly good food and are up to trying a new recipe, here’s one that never disappoints in my house.

Upma is a savory dish made in Southern India, usually involving cream of wheat or cream of rice. This bread upma, which is best described as an Indian version of American stuffing, is usually made when we end up with several end pieces of bread accumulating in the fridge. It’s very easy to make and is generally eaten for breakfast in India. If a spicy or savory breakfast is just not your thing, you can certainly eat this for lunch or dinner or anytime in between. And of course, you don’t have to wait till you have a bunch of crusts before you make this – you can also cheat and just chop up perfectly whole slices of bread.

Bread upma*

Ingredients

1T canola oil

½ t turmeric powder

½ t mustard seeds

1 red onion, diced

2 yellow potatoes, diced

5 green chilis, julienned

1T red chili powder

Salt to taste

Juice of half a lemon

8 slices of bread, cut into 1” cubes

1T fresh or frozen coconut**

4 T finely minced cilantro

Heat oil in a pan and add turmeric and mustard.

When mustard seeds start popping, add onion and sautee till browned

Add potatoes, green and red chilies, and salt

Cook covered until potatoes are fork tender

Toss in bread and lemon juice and cook for about 5 minutes until bread is tender and has absorbed some of the spices from the potato mixture

Add coconut and cook a minute longer.

Take off heat, and garnish with cilantro and additional lemon juice, if desired.

*The consistency of this dish should be a little dryer than American stuffing. If bread starts to look too dry while cooking, sprinkle some water and allow bread to tenderize.

**If all you have is dessicated coconut, soak 1 T of this in some warm water for 5 minutes before adding to the upma. If all you have is sweetened coconut flakes, just throw it away, and don't ever buy it again!

Banana Pumpkin Bread

Different cultures have their own way of ringing in the New Year with special foods that are considered lucky. For instance, in Japan, eating long buckwheat noodles or soba is considered a way of ensuring a long life, provided they are slurped without breaking them.

In Mexico, fruits are generally eaten at New Years with some practicing the custom of popping a grape into their mouth for each stroke of midnight. They symbolize each month of the year, and if you should end up with a sour grape for one of the months, consider yourself forewarned for the year ahead.

I can’t really think of anything specific that Indians eat for New Year’s except that most occasions call for a little something made to sweeten your tongue. In this spirit, I wanted to make something sweet for New Year’s, but I too am not immune to the trend of making New Year’s resolutions to eat healthier foods. So, as a compromise, here is a lightly sweetened Banana Pumpkin Bread. It’s made with whole wheat flour for extra fiber, bananas for potassium, pumpkin puree for carotenoids, pecans for antioxidants, canola oil for unsaturated fats, raisins for iron, cinnamon as an anti-inflammatory, and a touch of sugar to wish you a sweet and healthy New Year.

To make this Banana Pumpkin Bread, you will need:

2 eggs

1/3 generous cup cultured buttermilk

1/2 C vegetable oil

2 medium very ripe bananas

1 C pumpkin puree

1 scant cup white sugar

1 and ¾ C whole-wheat pastry flour

1 and ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

½ C chopped pecans

½ C raisins

Preheat oven to 325 deg F

Spray 1 9x5 loaf pan and a few ramekins (optional)

Beat eggs with buttermilk and oil

Add bananas, mashed, and pumpkin puree

Sift together all other ingredients except nuts and raisins

Combine dry ingredients with egg mixture

Stir in pecans and raisins

Fill loaf pan 2/3 full

You can bake this whole recipe in one loaf pan, but I find that it takes too long to do so. Instead, I fill the remaining cake mix into either a mini muffin tin or a few ramekins to make some individual cakelets.

Bake for 60 mins or until knife inserted in center comes out clean

If cake is browning too much on top, tent with aluminum foil

Invert out of pan, and let cool completely before cutting

Cake will keep well, covered, at room temperature for a week

Aloo Parathas - the breakfast of champions

New Year’s Resolutions vary based on the personality of the resolver, but they usually follow the same trend. They are ways in which we seek to improve ourselves, based on self-perceived flaws, whether real or imagined. But often times, I think they are aspirations to be better at something that one is already good at. This isn’t a completely thought out hypothesis, so it’s possible I’m off-base. But don’t you think it’s usually the well-organized 'Type A' personalities that resolve to be more organized next year; the globe-trotting 'living-it-up' folks who resolve to travel more in the upcoming year; the health-conscious 'eat-no-evil' types who promise to frequent the gym more?

So it follows that when you ask a foodie for a New Year’s Resolution, it often involves making and sharing some exotic new delicacies in the upcoming year. If you count yourself among this final bunch, I will aspire to provide you with inspiration for your forays into the kitchen with stories and pictures from my own experiments. In that spirit, here is a recipe that you can cook up for a novel breakfast (or lunch or dinner). It’s a slightly different take on a traditional Indian recipe for Aloo Parathas, which are often eaten as a special breakfast treat in India.

Aloo means potato in Hindi, and parathas are a type of flat bread that you may have seen on Indian restaurant menus. Aloo parathas are flat-breads stuffed with a mix of boiled potatoes, peas, and spices and cooked on a hot griddle. While not generally leavened, I made these recently with a yeasty dough that lent a very different flavor and texture to the dish. With a little planning and a little last-minute shopping, you too could be serving up this dish to rave reviews in your kitchen, as early as your first breakfast in the New Year.

Happy New Year, dear readers!

Aloo Parathas

Ingredients

For the dough

3 C unbleached all-purpose flour, or use half whole-wheat flour

2 C warm water

2 tsp yeast

1 T sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 T oil

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1 C warm (not hot) water, and set aside for 10 minutes

Mix other dry ingredients, and knead into a dough using yeast water and remaining 1 C warm water

Add more water by teaspoons, until dough comes together

Roll dough in 2T oil, and set aside in a covered bowl for 2 hours or until doubled in volume

For the filling

3 medium starch potatoes, like Yukon Gold

1 C peas, fresh or frozen

4 T chopped cilantro

2T roasted cumin powder

(You can make this by roasting cumin seeds on a dry griddle and then powdering them)

2T red chili powder (optional)

2T dried mango powder

(If you don’t have this, you can add the juice of ½ lemon for a slightly different taste)

Salt to taste

Boil or pressure cook 3 potatoes until tender. I prefer a medium-starch variety like Yukon Gold.

Steam or boil 1 C peas, until tender.

Mash potatoes in a large bowl, add peas, cilantro, spices, and salt to taste

To make the parathas

Split off dough into 8 equal pieces, and roll into 8 balls

Flatten each ball slightly with the palm of your hand

Make 8 balls of the potato mixture and place in the center of each of the dough disks

Pinch dough closed around the potato mixture, so that you have a ball of dough with the potatoes encased inside

On a lightly floured surface, flatten out the balls again, and roll out to a circle of about 6-7 inches in diameter

Don’t worry about the potato mix coming out of the dough in places; these areas will be the tastiest parts!

Heat up a flat griddle with 1 tsp of oil

Add the paratha, and cook for about 2 minutes or until speckled with brown spots, over a medium flame

Flip and repeat

Serve hot with thick Greek yogurt and an Indian-style pickle.

Popovers

Saturday mornings are a special time in my house. An alarmless start to the day is followed by a large steaming mug of coffee and serious contemplation about something ‘special’ to whip up for breakfast. This Saturday, I finally decided to make something that has enchanted me for most of my adult years, despite my never having eaten or seen one– popovers.


Armed with a brand new popover pan from World Market and 4 simple ingredients, I started whipping these up – 40 minutes later, I popped them out of my oven for a truly special Saturday morning breakfast! I have no idea why these are not more ubiquitous on breakfast menus or in bakeries– they are so easy to make and lend themselves to endless topping options. We ate ours with a dollop of butter (well, margarine, but butter sounds better) and a smear of homemade jam.



Popovers
Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk (I used skim)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray a popover pan or six custard cups.
2. Beat eggs slightly with a wire whisk. Gently beat in flour, milk, and salt until just smooth – do not overbeat.
3. Fill popover cups ½ full.
4. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 20 minutes more. Do not open oven while cooking.



Slide from cups and serve piping hot.