Leavening agents...

I used to think Baking soda and Baking Powder were one and the same -
how wrong !

Baking soda is an alkali. When mixed with an acid ( Buttermilk, Yogurt ,
lemon juice/ vinegar), it gives off carbon di oxide. Baking soda will
not work without an acidic ingredient.

Baking powder is a blend of acid and alkali. So it does not depend on
external acid for rising dough.

Double acting baking powder( the most commonly used version) releases
gas on contact with water and again on heating. ( That is why you should
sift baking soda with flour well before adding water). Good baking
powder should bubble as soon as water is added to it. If ti does not,
toss it out. ( Similarly good yeast should start bubbling in 5-10
minutes when added to some water - sugar mixture. Adding salt reduces
the growth of yeast)

As baking powder has an inbuilt acid,avoid adding more acid ( buttermilk
etc). More acid reduces the gas produced.

At high altitudes, gas expands more and so less baking powder is enough.

Whipped egg whites trap air in bubbles, which expand on heating, thus
mimicking the action of other leavening agents. Crushed ice serves the
same purpose.

Showering in the campervan

For the past few days, I've spent most of my time in my campervan. I've slowly beginning to accept it as a living space, instead of a locomotive device. It has been an enjoyable experience.

Learnt another tip today - the Navy shower. This technique teaches you how to shower with very little water. Fresh water is at a premium in Naval ships and sailors have to go to great lengths to minimise the use of fresh water. The Navy shower was born out of this necessity.

1. Turn on the water
2. Wet the body
3. Turn off the water
4. Soap up and scrub body
5. Turn the water back on and rinse off the soap
   
   With a handheld sprayer, I guess you can just spray yourself all over, soap, spray again  a couple of times and wipe off with a towel.  This should use up less than half a litre of water. Sounds good in theory !
   

Volcanoes & Earthquakes Primer

Did a chart for Ravi's daughter . Found some new interesting stuff too..

Pressure cooking eggs..

Learnt another time saving technique yesterday. To make easy hard boiled
eggs you just need to pressure cook for 1 whistle. i suspect a dozen
eggs can be cooked this way at once, though I cooked just 5 ( and they
were overdone). Would be a handy tip while cooking outdoors where you
have to have a lot of food cooked up in a jiffy.

Cooking for a crowd

Cooked for over 7 guys yesterday. It is actually easy if a few simple
principles are followed.

1. Get the base ready - Kneaded half a kg of maida and it is enough for
6-7 guys. This can be made into chappatis, parathas or stuffed parathas.
Once the kneaded dough is ready it takes just a couple of minutes to
cook up a flatbread.

2. Prepare onion-tomato base. Once this base is cooked and ready, it can
be used to cook up a wide variety of side dishes / gravies or snacks.
Sauitee chicken, mix with the gravy, add some readymade chicekn masala
and chicken is ready in under 10 minutes. Replace chicken with paneer/
cauliflower and you either have a gravy or dry curry ready in under 10
minutes.

3. Have some milk / curd.
To round off a meal, a variety of milkshakes / lassi / buttermilk can be
made fast - even without a mixie. Just pour the necessary stuff into a
tall glass and shake till they are blended.

Pita Bread

Made my first pita bread today. Realised how versatile this bread can be.

Recipe: Make regular chappati dough but remember to add some baking powder as this will puff the bread up and make a pocket.

Roll it into thickish rounds and cook on a hot skillet. The bread with puff up after a while. Toasting it over naked flame will puff it up even bigger. Remove from fire, cool and cut into two semi circles. Slit them open and you have two pockets which can be filled with almost anything.

Ideas:

Coat the insides with ghee/ butter/ mayonnaisse/ cheese
Tahini/ Olive oil. Line with lettuce / cabbage . This prevents the filling from soaking
through the bread. Now fill the pocket with salad poriyals /cheese / hummus/ chicken or almost anything you can imagine.

Add ketchup on top, fold a tissue paper around the bread and serve.

Pita can be made in advance and refrigerated. While serving, pitas can be toasted in an oven / skillet / microwave.

Last week was parotta week, when I satisfactorily mastered the flaky parota making skill. This week would be Pita Week. One of these days this would appear in the Rotiwala menu.