Braided Chicken bread

In case you guys haven’t noticed already, I am a big sucker for creating recipes from leftovers. This is probably because I can never portion correctly and cook for just 2 people.. I always end up either buying extra ingredients or cooking extra food. Former more often than the latter. In the case of this recipe, I had the second problem. I made extra kheema (ground meat), for a get together, and my husband refused to eat these leftovers a second time.. yep, I already fed him the leftovers once before.. but for the second time around, I knew I had to recreate this in a way that he would enjoy this meal, and I would too. So I revamped my kheema(ground meat), by mixing it with some sauces. It was originally a dry kheema(ground meat) dish. Then I stuffed this kheema(ground meat) inside a bread. Easy peasy isn't it. He devoured it, and I finally managed to finish my kheema too. Although, I used this recipe to finish off my leftover kheema(ground meat), this is also a great alternative to make with any kind of stuffing. It could even be leftover vegetables, you can use lamb, beef or turkey instead of the ground beef that I used or you could whip up some fresh stuffing and make this bread. Just one piece of advice would be, to use a filing that is slightly moist. Since you will be baking the bread with this stuffing, the stuffing might dry out if it doesn't have enough moisture. Having said that, do not make the stuffing so wet, or gravy-like, that all your stuffing runs out of the bread and makes it soggy. So without wasting much time on my wet-dry saga, here is the recipe! I follow this bread recipe to the tee - and it never disappoints. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ingredients: 

• For the dough: 
• All purpose flour - 4 cups
• Instant yeast - 1 tbsp
• Fresh milk - 2 tbsp (You could also use powdered milk, same quantity)
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 4tbsp
• Eggs - 2 (1 for the dough and 1 for glazing later)
• Powdered sugar - 1 tsp

• For the chicken filling:
• ground chicken - 1 lb
• Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Tomato - 1/2 cup, diced
• Green chillies - 3, chopped
• All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
• milk - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Cumin powder - 2 tsp
• Hot sauce - 1 tbsp
• Garlic powder - 1 tbsp (you can substitute with fresh garlic
• Ranch - 2 tbsp
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (optional)

Directions: 

1. For the dough, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, milk, yeast, oil and egg. Knead it to a medium soft dough with slightly warm water. I used about 3/4 cups of water. But make sure you little water at a time, so you don't end up with a runny dough.
2. Leave it covered to rise for an hour. 
3. In that time, get your filling ready. To make my filling, I made my kheema(ground meat) previously. Recipe for that was to take some oil, roast some jeera in it, then add onions and saute. Next add chillies, tomatoes & salt and cook until soft and the mixture is like a paste. Now add the kheema and cook until you smell the aroma of cooked kheema(ground meat).
4. For the filling for the bread, I added some oil to a pan. Once hot, I added some all purpose flour and roasted the flour. Then I added milk to it and mixed until it turned into a smooth paste. Next I added some garlic powder, cumin powder, hot sauce and ranch to it. Then I added my previously cooked kheema to this along with some salt and pepper. That was it, my filling was ready.
   
5. Once my dough was risen, divide the dough into 4 parts. Preheat the oven to 400 degree F
6. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape about 1/3 inch thick. Slit the edges with a knife.
   
    
7. Put the filling in the centre (add cheese to the top if you like) and fold each side so they overlap each other. Similar to a braid
8. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds to the top. Place on top of a greased baking tray. I usually cover my trays with aluminum foil before I place the bread on it
   
9. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown at the top of the bread
10. Wait for it to cool before taking it off the tray. Your braided bread is ready to devour! 

I have made this bread and consumed it immediately. And have also, stored it and used it the day after. Either case, the bread stays soft and moist. If storing, please store in an airtight container and refrigerate. You can also make the dough and store it before hand. I have personally stored this dough for up to 3 days in the refrigerator and it has still worked out beautifully. Just make sure, you bring the dough to room temperature before rolling it out. I hope you enjoyed this recipe too! This is my basic stuffed bread recipe, and I will keep going back to it time and again.. Until then dear friends, Live, Love, Laugh and Eat.. Oh yes, EAT! 

Rasmalai cheese cake

Hi everyone, the first month of 2018 is finally over. It was a super busy month for me, but I won't complain. I travelled to 2 countries already this year, so on the travel front, this year seems to be taking shape beautifully. As I sit and ponder on how my January went, I feel the absolute urge to share one of my dessert recipes from last month. I had been meaning to try this fusion dessert for a while now. And since I had a lovely family get together at my place, I finally got to try it out. The get together was around the Indian Replubic day, which further probed me into giving my dinner that Indian touch. I made Green chicken biryani, bread rolls with ground beef filling,  rose rolls with ground chicken filling and the Rasmalai cheese cake. This dessert was my star performer of the night and that's why I'd love to share this recipe with all of you today.
Super quick, super simple and a great fusion recipe to marry the Indian rasmalai and the New York cheese cake.
For this recipe, I bought store bought rasmalai, but I shall hopefully share my homemade ras malai recipe with you all soon, in another post.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• Graham crackers, crushed 
• Pistachios, ground 
• Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup
• Green food coloring (Optional) 

For the cheesecake:

• Cream cheese, softened - 16 oz
• Rasmalai - 12 pieces 
• Gelatin - 1 tsp (can substitute with Agar agar)
• Water - 1/4 cup (to disolve gelatin) 
• 1 cup whipped cream
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• a few strands of Saffron 

Directions:

1. First, grind the pistachios to a granular powder consistency. If you want to make the mixture richer, you can mix other nuts with pistachios, but I chose to go ahead only with pistachios.
2. Crush the graham crackers and mix the two with 1/4 cup of melted butter. Then add a few drops of green coloring to enhance the color. Press this mixture against the base of your springform pan to create the crust. Once the crust is well spread and even, refrigerate it until you make your cheesecake filling.
3. Next, separate the rasgullas from the ras malai mixture and kept that aside to use later. 
4. If using gelatin, sprinkle it over the water and keep aside for 5 mins. Once soaked microwave it for 30 sec until completely melted. Add it to the rasmalai milk. If you are substituting gelatin with agar agar powder, boil the agar powder with the rasmalai milk directly, instead of soaking it in water. 
5. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on a low speed until it is smooth. Then add the sugar in small parts and beat until the sugar is completely incorporated in the cream cheese. You can increase or decrease the sugar as per your taste. Next add the rasmalai milk and gelatin mixture and beat until even. Add a few strands of saffron to this mixture. 
6. Lastly, fold the whipping cream to your mixture and make sure you don't overmix or overfold the whipping cream to your cheesecake mixture. 
7. To assemble, place the pieces of rasgullas on the crust making sure you spread them evenly. Then pour the rest of the cheesecake filling on top of the rasgullas, and keep it refrigerated over night or minimum 5 to 6 hours till set. 
8. Once set, demould and decorate with the remaining whipped cream and pistachio crumbs or whole pistachios. I forgot to save my pistachio crumbs in the beginning so used whole pistachios instead.
9. Serve cold 

Please let me know if you do give recipe a try. If you are a rasmalai and a cheesecake lover like me and my husband, this combination is definitely a must try! Feel free to comment if you have any questions/suggestions and share this recipe with your loved one.. until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!