Occasionally I get delusional and I think I can bake. “How hard can it be?” So I go through my wish list of recipes that I compulsively collect. Thankfully, even my subconscious brain knows enough to keep away from my bête noir – baked desserts and breads – and veer towards savoury recipes for the oven.
This recipe I found going through my dad’s stash of hoarded recipes. His wish list, carefully cut out from the recipe sections of various magazines and newspapers over the years comprised of all the types of cuisine that wouldn’t get made usually at home. He would occasionally pull out a recipe from his stash and ask mom or Daadi to try it out.
The love for food runs through the family and I remember my father as the most enthusiastic victim of my adolescent culinary experiments. On holidays from work, he loved going to the local produce markets, specialty food stores and seasonal markets to bring home something new and exciting for the family to try out. Good food for dad was never in restaurants but lovingly made together as a family. He didn’t cook very often but cross my heart, his mushroom risotto is to the day the best risotto I have ever eaten.
I inherited his giant scrapbook and as I leafed through it, I was amazed to discover that the recipes on his wish list were the very ones I would’ve chosen from those magazines. These scones caught my eye since they didn’t look as complicated as the recipes that Hitesh recreates. They are quick to make, use basic ingredients and taste really delicious. They are also flexible in terms of the ingredients available at home and the olives, tomatoes and onions can be interchanged for bacon, chives, sweet peppers, sweet corn, mushrooms, dill etc. making them my staple for impromptu Sunday brunches when friends are over.
Freshly baked savoury scones, a kheema macaroni pot pie, a chicken and green apple salad and a bottomless pitcher of sangria. A menu my dad would’ve surely asked for. Miss you, papa!
Ingredients
2 cups Flour (maida)
2 tsp Baking powder
Pinch of salt
¼ cup onions, diced
2tbsp olive bits
1 tsp minced garlic
½ cup sundried tomatoes, diced, rehydrated and drained
Coarsely ground black pepper
Red chilli flakes
½ cup grated cheddar, preferably sharp
2 tbsp oil
1 cup sour thick buttermilk.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 450f. Gently combine flour, baking powder, salt, onions, olives, garlic, tomatoes, black pepper and cheese by hand.
- Stir in the buttermilk and oil and mix with a light hand till combined. Do not knead.
- Drop blobs of the dough on parchment paper or cookie sheet or place carefully in cupcake moulds. Reduce the heat to 400f.
- Bake for 12-15 mins till lightly golden.
The Barefoot Bistro 