.
It's been a while since the last post. We've spent four magical weeks in Finland,
and on our return we both suffered a long bout of bronchitis. I've now been to
my first regular walk here in Sydney's Pittwater Peninsula, with my camera in my
pocket as usual. Lovely as the walk and scenery were, somehow I wasn't inspired
enough to take any photos. Consequently I decided to give the 'today's walk'
posts a break for the time being.
However, I did carry my camera during the whole time in Finland. I'll be doing a
series of posts on the trip, concentrating on the sublime two-week Kuhmo
International Chamber Music Festival we attended.
Here are a couple of 'previews', followed by images of my trip to the local Indian
spice shop.
Myhinjärvi Lake in Central Finland at midnight
Two wonderful artists, composer Kaija Saariaho, and pianist Natacha Kudritskaya
at Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.
On our return to Sydney I'd decided that a visit to our local Indian spice store
was on order: we'd run out of whole black peppercorns, and they're so much
cheaper purchased from an ethnic grocery, but more importantly, my stock of
Indian spices needed freshening. This time I also decided to get a Masala Dabba
to have easy access to my most commonly used Indian spices. Masala Dabba is a
metal container with a lid, fitting in seven smaller metal bowls for one's favourite
spices. The amount of the spices above in my Dabba is a bit too much, since the
flavours tend to mix over time, thus diluting the individual aromas. On the other
hand, Garam Masala (bottom left) is a mixture of a few common spices, so I
don't see too much of a problem with the aromatic mixing, since they'll work
together in the dish anyway. You can control the effect of a single spice by using
more or less of it, anyway.
Cumin seeds.
Garam Masala, Bombay Curry, Turmeric
Cloves
Atta is a great general purpose flour. It is wholemeal and stone ground and
generally used in making Indian breads. However, I've found it, surprisingly,
wonderful in making pizza bases! It kneads well, rises well, and all in all is a
please to work with, and makes the healthiest pizza bases there are, and all this
for a tiny cost (I just calculated that a Atta base for a medium pizza costs only
about 20 cents (not including the cost of the yeast, olive oil, and salt)! This is my
second 10 kg Atta purchase.
My Pizza Base (makes two medium bases, the other one I freeze for future use):
1 cup of lukewarm water
2 7g sachets of instant yeast mixed with the water
--
300 grams of Atta flour
a teaspoon of salt
a tablespoon of olive oil
--
Let the yeast react with the warmish water until there're some bubbles forming
(about 10 minutes). Add salt to the flour, mix, and make a well, add the olive oil,
and the yeasty water. Mix first with a large fork, then knead with your hands for
some 7-10 minutes. Put the dough into a greased bowl, and let rise for about 45
minutes in a warm place covered by a teatowel. When doubled in size, punch the
dough, and knead a further two, three minutes. Split the dough in two, and store
the other one in the freezer for future use. Grease your round pizza oven tray,
and when flattened, place the dough onto the tray (don't form the base on the
tray, because the olive oil on the tray will be shifted towards the edges of the
dough, thus making the centre susceptible to sticking to the tray).
Green cardamon pods. The other spices I purchased this time were: Yellow
mustard seeds, Nigella seeds, cardamon seeds, saffron essence and sumac (I'm
sure I've missed one or two...).
Kuhmo's Lammasjärvi lake during the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Festival.
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