Garlic Pull-Apart Rolls Recipe - Step by Step

I had been eyeing this recipe of Suhaina's for a long time. When she brought them for our Singapore food bloggers' meet, I was totally sold. Finally managed to make them this weekend. I would highly recommend this to all those who are dying to bake but fear the yeast monster. Trust me when I say this is really fool-proof and you can feel so proud of yourself when done!

I halved the recipe and got 8 mini rolls, enough to serve 2 very generously. We had one here and one there, through the weekend.

Garlic Pull-Apart Rolls
Recipe source: Suhaina
Makes 8 mini rolls

Ingredients:
Plain Flour - 1.5 cups
Warm Water- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp
Yeast - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp

For Garlic Spread:
Salted butter, at room temperature - 6 tbsp
Minced garlic - 2 tbsp
Chopped coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

How I Made It:

1. Mix flour, yeast, warm water, salt and sugar together until you get a smooth, slightly stick dough.



2. Add oil to your fingertips and knead until the dough springs back when you press with your fingers - about 4-5 mins.



3. Wrap in cling film and allow to double by keeping in a warm place for about 45 mins. Meanwhile, make the garlic spread by simpy mixing all the ingredients.



4. Grease a baking pan or loaf tin with olive oil. I used my Pyrex loaf pan which was the perfect size for 8 mini garlic rolls.

5. Knock down the air in the dough and divide the dough into two equal portions.



6. Transfer one portion of the dough to a floured surface and roll gently into a rough rectangle of 1/2" thickness. Apply more flour sparingly if sticky.

7. Spread about 2 tbsp of garlic spread on one side.



8. Roll from one end gently and firmly.



9. Cut into half and then each half again into two halves to get 4 equal portions.



10. Now place the rolls with the cut side up in the greased pan.
Repeat the same procedure for the remaining dough.

11. Spread a little milk on the rolls and add the remaining garlic spread on top. I am sure sesame seeds as Suhaina has added will make the flavour even better but I didn't have any.



12. Allow to rise for another 20 minutes. In the mean time preheat the oven to 180C / 375F.

13. Bake for about 30 mins until the top is golden brown. My Pyrex glass pan usually takes longer to bake in, so mine took about 35 mins to bake just right.



These are really really soft and have an amazing flavour. Serve fresh and hot!



Suhaina's Notes:

1. The amount of water depends on the type of flour you are using. Use your judgment to get a slightly sticky dough that behaves when you apply oil.

2. The amount of yeast can be reduced if you don't like the flavour of yeast too much in your breads. You can add just 1 tsp and let it double over a couple of hours, slowly.

Click Entry - August '09

This month, I managed a new picture for Click and also learnt a new food-related word - Allium.

Shallots and Garlic

(because I am too lazy to think up a snazzy name for the picture)

Garlic Rasam / Poondu Rasam Recipe

I suck at making rasam. I know that's a strange thing to say just before sharing a rasam recipe but I had to say it. My rasams usually suck. I have tried watching the MIL closely and writing down measurement of ingredients as and when she uses it. I have tried rasam recipes from different sites all over the blogosphere.

Then my rasam became okay.

That was before I devised this recipe. I stripped down all rasam recipes and came up with this uber simple recipe that really cannot go wrong. (TH actually makes better rasam but he has to add tomatoes to it). And Dal? What dal? I never add dal to rasam unless I am making this version which I call parippu rasam.

So in a nutshell, this rasam recipe goes against most Brahmin rules of making rasam:

- no toor dal / tuvaram paruppu (gasp)
- addition of garlic / poondu (double gasp)
- use of readymade rasam powder

Maybe I should rename the recipe mulagutawney like those fancy restaurants. Anyway.. If you don't want to add dal to your rasam, make it without dal. Go ahead, dare yourself ;)

Garlic Rasam / Poondu Rasam Recipe
Preparation time: 20 mins
Serves: 2

What I Used:

A small lime-sized ball tamarind
8 pods garlic, chopped (use as much or as little as you want)
1 ripe tomato
1 tbsp rasam powder (mine has chilly powder so if yours doesn't, add chilly powder to taste)
A generoud pinch of hing / asafoetida
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jaggery or sugar
Salt to taste

For tempering:

2 tsp ghee / clarified butter (or oil)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
A few curry leaves

How I Made It:

1. Soak the tamarind in 1 cup warm water for 10 mins. Extract juice and discard pulp. Add another cup of water to the tamarind juice.

2. Chop the tomato and mash it well with your finger tips.

3. Place the tamarind juice, tomatoes, turmeric powder, salt, hing, rasam powder and the garlic pods in a pan and bring to boil. Once it boils, lower fire and let it simmmer, keeping the pan open.

4. Once the mixture has simmered for about 15 mins, add sugar and adjust salt. Remove from fire.

5. Heat the ghee and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once the seeds start to pop, add to the boiled tamarind mixture. Mix well.

Serve piping hot with steamed white rice and paruppu usili or drink straight from a glass.

Thakkali Chutney / Tomato Chutney

This is one dish that has many many memories associated with it. My grandma used to make it quite often since me and my bro love it. And we call it 'thakkali oorindi' where the word 'oorindi' comes from saying 'noorindi' very often. 'Noorindi' in "our" telugu means ground (past tenst of grind!). Ok this explanation is getting way too confusing so I will fill you in on why I call the word "our" telugu and where in India I am actually from. 'Cuz that's a long (long) story.


My sis took the recipe from amma last summer and I took the picture. Because of that, I get to post it first, I guess. Thanks sis, for sending the recipe over email 'cuz god knows I wouldn't have been able to remember it otherwise. Don't get put off by the roast-remove steps in the directions of the recipe, really. Its worth it!

What I Used:

Ripe red tomatoes, slightly sour - 500gm, diced
Big onions-3, chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves
Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Grated coconut - 1 tbsp (optional)
Red chillies - about 12, depending on taste
Mustard seed - 1/8 tsp
Hing/Asafoetida/Kaayam -1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Oil (preferably gingelly/sesame) - 3 tbsp + 2 tsp + 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. There are four ingredients that need to be fried separately and kept aside. So follow this order.

- In a broad frying pan and 2 tsp oil and the coriander seeds. Fry for 30 seconds and remove.

- Red chillies - roast for a minute - remove.

- Coconut - roast for a minute - remove.

- Now add another 2 tsp oil and fry the onions till golden brown and soft. Remove.

- Finally add the tomatoes and saute them for about 10 minutes on a medium fire, until they are half cooked.

2. Transfer all the roasted ingredients in a blender and add the garlic raw. Blend till smooth, adding not more than half a cup water. The mixture should be thick than watery.

3. Add the 3tbsp oil into the same pan, temper mustard seeds and add curry leaves and hing. Transfer the blended mixture into the pan, add salt and stir occasionally until the oil separates and you left with a thick, red chutney that smells mouthwatering.

This tomato-onion-garlic chutney has a good shelf life and goes well with rice, dosa, idly etc. I have posted a similar yet simpler tomato chutney here before. You can try it in case you are pressed for time.

I am sending this family favourite to Suganya for her Vegan Ventures Round 2.

Grilled Garlic Bread

This is something I made for Sig's Grill It event, but was too busy to post it on time. Its very simple and tastes heavenly. But, you need to be a garlic lover for that. 

TH has sandwiches every morning and generally likes to stay from bread of any form over weekends. The one and only exception is garlic bread. We go out for pizza quite often and invariably end up stuffing ourselves because of the generous portions of garlic bread we ordered in the beginning. I like mine with cheese and TH likes it without. 

This is a grilled version of our good 'ol garlic bread, except that I didn't have baguette in hand, so used normal white bread and that its grilled on a toaster instead of baked. 

What I Used:

Bread - 6 pieces, cut into triangles (Use baguette slices for a more authentic look and taste)

Melted butter - 4 tbsp

Minced garlic - 6 pods

Salt (if butter is unsalted) - 1/2 tsp

Chillie flakes and oregano - for seasoning

How I Made It:

1. Mix the butter with garlic and salt. 

2. Spread this mixture lavishly on the bread pieces.

3. Grill on a toaster till both sides are golden brown.

4. Season with chillie flakes and oregano. 

Enjoy hot!  

You may also like my Toasted Sugar Bread with Honey

Masala Dosa with Garlic Aloo

I experimented a different kind of aloo paratha last weekend. To the potato filling, I added a generous amount of garlic to make it garlic flavoured. Unfortunately, that was made for dinner and were gobbled up too quickly for me to take pics and blog about it. But, with the leftover filling, I made masala dosa the next day and it tasted better than the parathas.

I made the masala dosa Mysore style, with some sprinkled idli podi and it was really out of this world!

How to make yummy Aloo Masala Dosa

To make the dosa batter take rice : urad dhal in 3 : 1 ratio, soak overnight (or atleast 5-6 hours) in water separately, grind separately and then mix together, adding salt. This batter should be kept covered for another 5 hours or so before you can start making the dosa.

For the Aloo Garlic Filling:

Potatoes - 2 big, boiled and mashed fine.
Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 1, chopped
Crushed garlic - 5-6 pods
Red chilli powder - 1 pinch
Coriander/Cilantro leaves - a bunch, chopped
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Mash the potatoes till your fingers cry out in pain (the more sophisticated people can use a potato masher!)

2. Add all the other ingredients to the potato and mix well.

3. Pour one spoon dosa batter on a griddle and spread out into thin dosas. Spread the potato filling and sprinkle some idli podi along with it. Lightly sprinkle gingelly oil over this, cook well, fold, turn around and cook for a while more.

Serve hot with sambhar and chutney.

This hot dosa goes over to Mathy's JFI - Garlic and Srivalli's Dosa Mela.

Simple Tomato Soup with Garlic Toast

I had been racking my brains to come up with a good recipe that focusses on garlic for Sunita's Think Spice event. This is one of my favourite spices and I almost went ahead and made my first pickled garlic. Well, note that I said almost. My laziness got the better of me, of course! So last weekend, I made something much simpler yet really tasty and filling. Tomato soup and garlic toast!

Tomato Soup

Serves 2

What I Used:

Tomatoes - 4
Garlic, crushed - 4 cloves
White pepper - 2 tbsp
Basil leaves - 2 (I used dry basil leaves powder)
Salt - to taste
Sugar - one pinch
Butter - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - for garnishing

How I Made It:

1. Puree the tomatoes with salt.

2. Heat a kadai and add the butter. When it has melted, add the garlic, pepper and basil leaves and stir well for 10 seconds.

3. Add the pureed tomatoes and cook for some time, partly covered. You can sieve the tomato puree if required, I just removed the skin of the tomato before pureeing, that way its easier.

4. Adjust salt and spice, garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

This is a really simple recipe for tomato soup that I tried out on my own. Was pretty okay, but the frothing just wouldn't go off. Any suggestions on that, please pass it on.

Garlic Toast

What I Used:

Wheat bread - 3 slices, halved (Use any bread of your choice, baguette being the ideal one)
Salted butter, at room temperature - 3 tbsp
Garlic - 6 cloves

How I Made It:

I am not a huge fan of garlic chunks in the toast so I blended the butter and garlic nicely before spreading on the bread and toasting till golden brown. It was out of this world!

This simple meal enters Sunita's World to participate in her Think Spice..Think Garlic Event.