This lockdown has finally given me the opportunity to revive my food photography and blogging love. I have created a recipe section for this website so I can post both my photography and blogging stories in one place.
Yesterday was a highlight as I created a fusion of two of my favourite foods into one delicious combination. Dad is a guinea pig for my experiments these days. He is a big foodie like me and gives me an honest critique. He loves Eggplant Baos from Fatty Bao. One bite and he said, this is even better!
So now to the recipe.
There are two stages to this recipe. Making the Baos. Preparing the Ghee Roast
For the Baos:
Ingredients:
350 gms All-Purpose Flour
200ml warm water
3 tbsp Oil
2 tbsp Milk Powder (or milk)
1 heap Tbsp Sugar
7 gms Yeast
1 tsp Baking Powder
Salt
For the Chicken Ghee Roast
Ingredients
500 gms Boneless Chicken (marinated in yogurt, turmeric and salt for minimum 30 mins)
1/4 cup Ghee (more if you want a richer Ghee Roast)
Curry Leaves
1-2 tbsp Jaggery
Masala Paste:
10-12 Kashmiri Red Chillies
2 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp peppercorns
1/4 tsp peppercorns
1/4 tsp Fennel seeds
4-5 Cloves
6 Garlic pods (3 large)
1 tbsp tamarind (whole/paste)
Method:
For the Ghee Roast:
– Heat the ghee and put in the chicken and cook till 60% done. Strain out the chicken pieces and keep aside leaving the cooking liquids behind in the pan.
– While the chicken cooks, dry roast all the masala paste ingredients except the garlic and tamarind.
– Grind the spices along with garlic and tamarind with a little water to a smooth paste.
– Add this masala, salt and jaggery to the liquid remaining in the pan after removing the chicken pieces. Let it cook well and thicken up.
– Now add the semi-cooked chicken pieces, curry leaves and roast away till the chicken is fully cooked. Ghee roast is ready!
For the Baos:
– Activate the yeast in the warm water mixed with sugar for 15 minutes
– Now add in all the remaining ingredients and knead well to form a soft, stretchy dough for 10-15 minutes.
– Coat the dough with oil and let it rest for 1.5 hours to 2 hours.
– Once risen, punch out the gases and knead again.
– Roll out the dough to a 1 cm thickness. Take a cookie cutter and cut out cirlces.
– Place each Bao circle on a small parchment paper. Brush some oil on the top side. This is very crucial for Baos to open.
– Fold in half. Smooth out with a rolling pin. And let them rest again for 30 minutes.
– Take a bamboo steamer or a regular one and steam for 12 mins on high heat and let it rest for 5 minutes before opening the lid.
Assemble Baos
– While still warm, separate the baos gently and fill in the spicy ghee roast.
– Add some fresh salad of your choice as Baos need some crunch to complete the experience.
– Serve immediately.
Notes:
– Both the Baos and the Ghee roast can be made a day in advance.
– Baos can be steamed for 5 minutes, and ghee roast heated up in a pan.
– Use parchment paper or banana leaves to avoid the baos sticking to the steamer
– Milk powder is better than using milk. This batch was made with milk and came out perfectly though.
