Garlic Knots - Italian recipe

Garlic knots is an Italian appetizer and is made from pizza dough. It is nothing but knots made from stips of pizza dough which are baked and topped with butter and garlic parsley mixture. It can be served warm as a snack.

After searching the internet for the recipes I settled for the Garlic Knots from Simply Recipes 

I have modified the original recipe and below is my version of the same.

Garlic Knots - before baking

Garlic Knots

Ingredients:

2 tsp instant dry yeast
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cooking oil (I have used both sunflower and canola at different times)
salt as per taste (1 tsp)
3 tbsp crushed garlic
1/4 cup parsley
7 tbsp unsalted butter (if using salted check the salt used in making dough)
1 cup warm water

Method:
1) Mix all purpose flour, instant yeast and salt together.
2) Now add warm water (I warmed the water in the microwave for about 30 sec) to it slowly and knead to make a soft dough. Do not add all the water at the same time. Add just enough to knead the dough. Add cooking oil while kneading the dough
3) Let the dough sit in a warm place till it doubles in size. It can take anything between 1 -3 hours.
4) When the dough is ready, line the baking sheet with parchment paper and keep it aside.
5) Now on cutting board or any flat surface take half of the dough and flatten it to form a rectangle about 5 inches in length and 1/2 inch thick.
6) With the help of a sharp knife, make strips of it and now tie it like a knot.  If the dough is sticky along the edges dust it with flour. Repeat the same process with the remaining dough.
7) Place each knots on the baking sheet, and leave some space in between. The dough will continue to rise and also it will rise during baking. Leave it aside to rise. This may take anything between 1 to 3 hours.
8) When the knots are ready, preheat the oven to 200 C for 10 minutes.
9) Now apply some oil on the top of the knots and place them in the oven and bake it for 10 to 15 mins, till they are browned on the top.
10) In the meantime, in a skillet melt butter, add crushed garlic, parsley and salt(if using unsalted butter)  and cook till the raw garlic smell goes away.
11) When done, remove the garlic knots from the oven and let them cool a little.
12) Now brush the knots with the garlic-parsley mixture and serve warm.

 

My Notes:

1) You can sprinkle pepper powder as well on the top of each knots after brushing with the garlic parsley mixture.

2) If you love spicy food you can add chili flakes to the garlic parsley mixture while cooking and use the mixture to brush the knots.

3) I have also made this recipe giving different shapes as well.

Salmon fry in Green masala

Salmon Fry in Green Masala

A few days back I have posted a Salmon Fry recipe, which was made using red chili powder. Here I have made use of green masala (paste of green chillies, ginger, garlic and coriander leaves) . Generally we make stuff some fishes like pomfret with green masala and then fry. Unfortunately we dont get pompfret here in South Africa.

Since salmon is a very soft fish I could not stuff it with green masala. Instead I coated it in green masala and fried them and trust me they were delicious.

Ingredients
4 salmon fillets
1 cup chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
2 green chillies
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
5 tbsps rice flour
5 tbsps oil for shallow frying
salt as per taste

Method :

1) To prepare the marinade, grind cilantro, green chillies and ginger garlic paste to form a smooth paste.

2) Make some slits on the salmon fillets.

3) Apply the marinade and salt to the salmon fillets and also apply it inside the slits on the salmon.

4) Leave the salmon fillets aside for 10 - 15 minutes.

5) Now apply the rice flour to the salmon fillets such that they are coated with it completely.

6) In a frying pan heat oil and once the oil becomes hot, gently slide the salmon fillets.

7) Cover the pan with a lid and leave it for 2-3 minutes.

8) Flip the fillets so that they cook from both sides.

9) Remove from heat once they are cooked and serve with rice or any Indian bread ie roti, naan etc

Spicy Prawns Chili Fry

Prawns Chili Fry

A quick and easy to make recipe which can be served as a starter or you can have it with roti, chapati or any indian bread. I have added green chillies to make it hot as both my husband and me enjoy spicy food. You can adjust the chillies as per your taste.

Ingredients:
20 deveined and cleaned prawns
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp coriander powder
3 green chillies slit
1 onion finely chopped
few curry leaves
4 tbsps oil
salt to taste

Method:
1) In a frying pan, heat some oil.
2) When the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and when the splutter add curry leaves.
3) Now add green chillies and chopped onion and fry till the onion turns brown.
4) Add prawns, salt and mix so that it gets coated in the onion and spice mixture.
5) Cover with a lid so that the prawns cook.
6) Remove from heat once the prawns are cooked and serve hot as a starter.
7) It can also be served with roti, naan or any indian bread