Black Sesame Seeds and Sugar Beet Whole Wheat Fusion Bread - Cooking on a Shoestring Budget

There can be nothing more satisfying than breaking bread with a group of your friends to seal the camaraderie. From time immemorial, breaking bread signifies a shared bond, a sense of togetherness and every warm, fuzzy and friendly feeling.

Baking bread is my favorite pastime. The aroma of freshly baked bread must surely be one of the very best olfactory enticements for a human being. In fact, let me modify that: not just for a human being. The smell of fresh baked bread also entices my normally aloof cat, right onto my lap, licking his chops, smacking his whiskers and staring unblinkingly at my mouth, hoping to grab a fallen crumb!

When I bake, I love to experiment. Mostly, I use a basic bread recipe but will work with a plethora of ingredients, vegetables and spices so I can blend the eastern and western cuisine. And ever since I've switched to whole grains and unrefined carbohydrates, I try to bake bread at home so I can bake with my favorite King Arthur whole wheat flour - so yummy, tasty and oh, so satisfying!

Home-baked bread has many advantages: the aroma of the bread that fills the house for at least a day, the satisfaction of being an "artist" and a "creator", the knowledge that you can control what goes into your body, and best of all, since we are on our Shoestring series - the cost of the bread!

So go ahead and try this wonderful Fusion recipe of Black Sesame seeds and Sugar Beet Whole Wheat Bread. The grated sugar beet makes this bread moist and soft, the black sesame seeds add the crunch, and the whole wheat gives it bulk and texture.

This bread will assault all your senses - visual, olfactory and sensory. It looks enticing with the glorious red of the sugar beets, the shiny black of the sesame seeds, and the earthy brown of the whole wheat. It smells simply heavenly. And it is tasty and filling. In addition, it is healthy and low-fat. What more reason do you need to try this out on a Sunday afternoon?

Here is one more: it costs $1.40 and makes about 25 - 27 slices. Each slice is so filling that you can only eat a slice for each meal. That makes it $1.40 for 25 servings!

So without more ado, let's start.

Here is what you need:
3 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
1/4 cup + 1 tsp sugar (brown sugar, if you want to ensure the bread has no whiff of refined stuff!)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium sugar beet (peeled and grated fine)
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
1 cup water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1 egg white

Here is how you make this:
Heat one cup water in the microwave until warm. Test the temperature by dabbing a drop onto your wrist. The water should be just warm and bearable. Add 1 tsp sugar, salt and active dry yeast to the water and let sit for about 10 - 15 minutes in a warm place until the water froths up.

In a large bowl mix together the whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup sugar, olive oil, grated sugar beet and 1/4 cup black sesame seeds. Slowly add the yeast mixture and knead thoroughly. Cover with a clean, wet kitchen towel and let sit on your warm countertop for a couple of hours. Punch down, knead, and cover once every hour.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Shape the dough into a loaf. Brush the top of the loaf with beaten egg white and sprinkle with 1 tbsp black sesame seeds.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool and slice. Store wrapped in an aluminum foil for upto a week.

Cost:
Whole wheat flour: $0.60
Oil : $0.20
Sugar : $0.10
Beet : $0.30
Sesame seeds : $0.10
Yeast : $0.10
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Total :$1.40 - Serves 25 - about $0.05 to $0.06 a slice!
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Sugar Beet Dessert - Payasam

Are you one of those people who think that Beets are only useful for making sugar because of their high sugar content? If so, you have sadly underestimated this wonderful vegetable.

Beets contain a powerful cancer-fighting pigment called Betacyanin. In addition, Beets protect against heart disease, help lower cholesterol levels, especially triglycerides by nearly 40%, and because of their high folate content, help protect against birth defects. Eating folate-rich foods is especially important during pregnancy since without adequate folate, the infant's spinal column does not develop properly and leads to a condition called neural tube defect. The daily requirement for folate is 400 micrograms. Just one cup of boiled Beets contains 136 micrograms of folate.

So here is your excuse for making this very tasty, calcium-rich, healthy, easy-to-make dessert. Try enticing your children with this payasam. They are sure to love it and ask for more. This is also a wonderful dish to make with your young children. Set them to work grating the red beet with a hand grater. They'll love the mess of having the juice run down their arms and stain their hands! Beats finger painting with chemical paints hands-down! :)

Here is what you need:
1 large beet (peeled and grated fine)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tbsp coconut powder (optional)

For the Garnish:
1 tsp cardamom powder
8 - 10 cashews (chopped)
handful golden raisins
1 tbsp butter

Here is how you make this:
Place the grated beet in a large pan. Add milk, coconut powder and sugar bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the beet is cooked soft and well blended. Remove from the stove.

In another pan, melt the butter. Add the chopped cashews and fry golden brown. Add the raisins and fry for about 20 seconds until the raisins puff up. Remove from the stove and pour the garnish over the payasam. Sprinkle cardamom powder and serve hot or cold.