Baking at Midnight!

Molten Lava Chocolate Cake

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

S loves chocolate more than I do and he picks chocolate based desserts or pure chocolate over any other dessert! He enjoyed drinking a glass full of molten chocolate (so called hot chocolate) from Bent spoon in Princeton and finished a pack of twenty baking chocolate, Scharffen Berger, without me even getting a chance to bake something from it.

So I always had some motivation to make desserts out of chocolate which do not take too much effort like chocolate coated strawberries. To increase this simplistic list, I started sharpening my baking weapons (oven, pans, chocolates) specifically to make molten lava cake.

Serving size: 8 small ramekin cups

Ingredients:
13 tablespoon unsalted butter
6.4 oz chocolate Scharffen Berger (65% dark)
4 large eggs
6.5 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
3 teaspoon all purpose flour

Garnish
18-20 pieces of raspberry (or small pieces of tangerines/oranges)
1/4-1/2 cup confectioner sugar or cocoa powder

Sauce
1/2 cup raspberry jam (or orange jam if using oranges for garnish)

Procedure
- Preheat oven to 425 C
- Melt butter and chocolate pieces into a cup in microwave for 30 to 60 seconds
- Mix together to get a liquid mixture and let is cool slightly
- Beat eggs, sugar and salt until sugar dissolves in the egg mixture
- Combine egg mixture with chocolate mixture
- Add flour to the mixture and stir gently
- Grease small ramekins and divide the mixture equally into eight ramekins
- Bake for about 8-10 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft and when top part starts to crack
- Invert onto a plate.
- Combine sugar (or cocoa powder) and raspberry/orange and decorate the inverted cake with few pieces
- Melt raspberry/orange jam in a small pan and serve on side to be poured on the cake

Enjoy!

Shakarpara "sweet little devils"

2011-11-12T16:37:00.001-08:00

Shakarpara's are often made during diwali festival in north India, with every family having a favorite recipe which has been passed down to them through generation.

For diwali this year, I wanted to make something traditional. Natural step was to ask MIL for her amazing shakarpara recipe. For the last five years, I have always got two boxes from her upon departure, one full of home made mathri (my favorite), other of shakarpara (S's favorite). Five years back I was not a big fan of Shakarpara and S. was not a big fan of Mathri. Now, we both love mathri and shakarpara!

Also, did I tell you ? In addition to thanking my MIL for the recipe, I have to thank two gadgets without which this would have been very difficult. These are my new electronic weighing machine for kitchen and Kitchenaid stand mixture. I resisted electronic weighing machine for years. S kept suggesting that I should get it. Finally, he gifted it to me on my birthday. I am not exactly sure if it was a gift for me or him:) By doing so, he saved himself from the "last minute weight to cup conversion through google for various ingredients"- that were forced on him often in the crisis state. Jokes apart, this is really handy and totally worth it. Now I can easily make european and indian recipes without worrying about the conversion. Thanks S.

Second thing that has made my life super easy for making mathri and shakarpara is the kichenaid stand mixer. The key to fluffy mathri and shakarpara is the kneading process. More you knead softer they turn out to be. Well stand mixer can knead for you as long as want :) This was gift from my dear sister (thanks didi !). I also enjoy it a lot for making dough for pizza, naan, puri etc. Its quite handy if you are making anything at large scale:)

Now time for the shakarpara recipe:

Ingredients:

500 gm (1/2 KG) all purpose flour (Maida)

150 ml oil for kneading (2/3 cup)

~ 3/4 cup warm water
oil for frying (~2-3 cups)

For syrup
1 and 1/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup water

- Add all purpose flour and oil in the stand mixer and mix/knead on low setting for 15-20 minutes
- Add little warm water (about 1/4 cup) at a time to make a tight dough (you will need little water so add slowly)
- Leave it covered for 15-20 minutes
- Divide the dough into four equal parts
- Roll out one of the parts into 1/4 inch thickness
- Cut parallel lines in the circular part and then perpendicular (at an angle) lines to make small pieces out of the rolled dough
- Heat oil for frying in a kadai/deep pan on low-medium settings and place all the pieces once the oil is hot and let them fry for 10-15 minutes until golden brown color and remove with a slotted spoon on a paper towel
- While first batch is frying, roll out the second ball of dough and cut into pieces
- Repeat for 3rd and 4th ball
- Let them cool in a wide pan

Syrup
   - While frying the fourth batch of shakarpara, start making the syrup
   - add 1 1/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water in a pan and place it on medium heat
   - Once the mixture starts boiling reduce heat to low-medium setting
   - Make 2 taar chasni (sugar syrup) by heating it on low for 20 minutes
   - Meanwhile spread the cooled fried shakarpara in a wide pan and spread the sugar syrup on it.
   - Mix the sugar syrup and shakarpara gently and quickly with spoon for five minutes to  evenly coat them with sugar syrup
   - Leave the mixture open for 30 minutes and then let it cool covered over night and the next day your shakarpara are ready to be eaten. Pieces might stick to each other so gently separate them.

Enjoy your shakarpara with Tea or as is!

Aata ka Halwa

2011-08-07T12:27:00.000-07:00

I remember waking up in late morning hours with an aroma in house. Often it was from aata (wheat flour) halwa in winters. Behind the aroma was a trick. A trick played by my mom to wake me up. As she new I would want to eat it as soon as it is removed from the gas. Sizzling hot halwa eaten with fingers is one of my favorite breakfast in the winters . This is one thing that I feel does not taste good if you eat it with spoon :) You can eat it plain or with papad for breakfast or after aloo puri as dessert.

This is one of the favorite sweet dish prepared in India for guests, during festivals and celebrations. At times, this is the first dish prepared by a new bride at her in-laws place. If someone bought a new car or new house, first thing that was done was to make halwa at home and offer it to god. I have made very few attempts to make halwa at home. Even though it comprises of three simple and essential ingredients: Flour, Ghee (clarified butter) and Sugar. Some people may find it easy to make it but somehow I always thought its quite complicated precisely for the same reason: it only has three simple ingredients!

I am very picky with this dish as I really like it when it is well cooked and looks dark brown in color in comparison to the less cooked (light brown) version. When I would ask my mom for the recipe, she always says andaje se daal lo, 20 logon ka khana banoge to measuring spoons mein hi aadha din lag jayega ( Just add ingredients with approximation, if you have to prepare food for twenty people every day, half the day will be spend in using measuring spoon). I am amazed how she never tastes the food while she is making it and yet all the spices are perfectly balanced.

When she was visiting me last summer, I convinced her to use the measuring cups to take out each of the ingredients (although she was still making it with her "andaja" but I had my numbers right :)

Ingredients for ~ 1 1/2 -2 cup halwa

1/2 cup wheat flour
6-8 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 cup sugar
about 3 1/2-4 cups hot water

- Put a karahi (a deep pan) on gas stove on medium heat. Immediately add wheat flour and ghee to the karahi and mix them. Slowly cook them, stirring often so that flour and ghee mixture does not stick to the karahi

- After about 15 minutes, flour mixture will change color from light to dark (if you like your halwa really well done continue to cook for another couple of minutes)

- In parallel, boil 4 cups of water in a pan

- Add hot boiling water to the flour ghee mixture and stir everything really fast. Mix everything properly for about 3-4 minutes or until it becomes a thick mixture. It is very important to mix it properly to remove any clusters of aata in the water/flour mixture. A special type of flat ladle is used to make halwa so that it is easier to mix and scrap while making the halwa.

- Add sugar and continue to stir for another 2 minutes. The mixture will become darker after adding sugar
- Enjoy this for breakfast or eat with papad and add some nuts for garnish

Mango in Estyle!

2011-06-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

" What diamonds are for women, mangoes are for Indians! "

American: What do you miss most about India in summers ?

Indian: Mangoes man!

After putting things in perspective, let me share the legendary story of mango flower with you.

When I moved to Santa Barbara a year and half back, I heard from a friend about a roadside cart that sells mango (on a stick) on a Sunday afternoon in front of a church in downtown. I wanted to try that but somehow forgot about it during last summer.

Recently, I have been going to Coffee Cat Cafe to work (or pretend! to work) on Sundays. One such Sunday, I was buried in my laptop screen and was suddenly distracted by a person who just sat next to my table. He had a mango (on a stick ) and for the two hours that I was there he kept that on a plate. Hardly eating it. I looked at that mango every now and then from the sides of my eyes. After every glance I thought: Why on earth is he not eating that mango ? I would have finished it in minutes. Since I knew, I didn't ask where he got his mango from.

So I waited. Waited for a whole week. Next Sunday, I was (with Sid) at the cart with a huge mango flower (not just mango on a stick, sprinkled with lemon and chilli powder) in my hand. Coffee Cat was three blocks from the cart. Sid and I walked to the Coffee Cat, happily sharing one mango flower. Mango flower was huge and we had no plans of finishing it just yet. We kept it on a plate in Coffee Cat.

Five minutes later, the guy on the table next to us asks "Where did you get the mango from"......and the Coffee Cat mango (on a stick) SAGA continues...

Recipe for Mango flower:

Ingredients: 1 mango

- Peel the mango

- Take a wooden BBQ stick (pointed on one side) and insert it in the center of the pit (the point where the mango was connected to the tree) with some force

- You have mango on a stick, lift it to make sure that the stick can handle weight of the mango. Otherwise, try to insert it further with your hand

- Now cut it in a systematic way starting from the top to get your own mango flower (see picture)

- If you are using Mexican mango which are little tarty, sprinkle red pepper and some lemon juice on the flower otherwise eat your mango as is

- Go to Coffee cat!

Cauliflower Soup

2011-05-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for disappearing for a while. Things are kind of busy at my front and I really missed not adding anything on the blog. Today's post is about "soups". Somehow I have never been a soup person. Really strange, I know. The first soup that I really liked was creamy carrot soup, which I learnt from a Chef in Philly, perhaps because it was full of cream and butter.

Recently, I was introduced to cauliflower soup at a friend's (thanks M!) place. This was a instant hit for me. Soon enough, I found myself repeating it in my Kitchen. Here, I share this healthy soup with you.

Ingredients:
(Inspired by this recipe)
4 tablespoon butter or olive oil
4 garlic clove (optional, avoid if you don't like garlic)
1 large onion
2 medium size carrots (chopped)
2 large potatoes (chopped)
1 medium size cauliflower (chopped in small pieces)
2 (14.5 ounce each) vegetable broth
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon mint or parsley or cilantro
1/4-1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- Heat butter or oil in a pan and add garlic and onion and saute for 5-8 minutes until translucent but not burnt
- Add carrots and potatoes and cook for 5 minutes
- Add broth and bring to boil
- Add cauliflower pieces and bring to boil again
- Reduce heat to low and cook for 20 minutes
- Switch off gas and let is cool for 10 minutes
- Puree in food processor or using any other gadget!
- Add milk, salt, pepper, nutmeg and continue heating at low flame
- Serve in soup bowl by garnishing with mint and one tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
- You can add any other vegetable of choice in the soup. Potatoes are essential as they provide the thickness and you can make soup with milk instead of heavy cream.

Breakfast Parfait almost from Nanihal

2011-04-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Like many kids, I went with my mom to my Nanihal/Nanera (Maternal grandmother's house) during summer vacations. I played with other kids without any time restriction and got pampered by zillions of Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents. Like everyone's Nani (Grandmother), my Nani pampered us by cooking delicious food. Her cooking style was very simple. Yet she made the best moong daal (lentil) I have ever had and perhaps the reason that moong daal is by far my favorite daal till date. She cooked the lentils on a Chulha (Stove) in a dekchi (vessel) using coal without pressure cooker and cooking gas in 1-2 hours. She is no longer with us but her lovely memories will always remain with us. Here is a picture of the Haveli where my maternal grandparents used to live. The place where I have spent countless hours/days/months full of fun during summer vacations.

Another distinctive memory of those days is the thandi bajara roti (Cold millet bread) eaten with dahi and cheeni (yogurt and sugar) every morning. Nani took utmost care to crush the roti into small pieces, almost granola sizes, with her tiny hands and mixed it with homemade yogurt and sugar. This has been one of my favorite breakfast of all time. Its not possible to eat it now as the trips to nanihal have decreased exponentially. Then things changed couple of years back. I was introduced to Parfait. For me it was closest to my favorite childhood breakfast plus some fruits.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
Greek Yogurt: 1 cup
Granola: 1/2 cup
4 medium size strawberries (any fruits of choice: grapes, berries etc.)
2 teaspoon granulated brown sugar
2 teaspoon pistachio (chopped)

- In a clear glass, add 1/2 cup greek yogurt as the bottom layer (you can use flavored yogurt as well)
- Add 1/4 cup granola on top of the yogurt as a middle layer
- Chop 2 strawberries in to small pieces and spread evenly on granola as a top layer
- Sprinkle 1 teaspoon sugar over strawberries
- Decorate with 1 teaspoon pistachio in the center
- Repeat the same in another glass

Note: If you want to eat it later, it is better to have the second layer of fruits and then top it with granola to make sure granola stays crisp.

Zucchini Pancakes with Sweet Tomato Chutney and Greek Yogurt

2011-04-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

These little savory pancakes are rare. Rare because pancakes do not ring a "healthy" bell that often. These little angels are as healthy and delicious as it can get for breakfast. Alternate pieces with greek yogurt and sweet tomato chutney (or tomato ketchup) give the right satisfaction. The satisfaction that you need on a weekend morning after having morning tea. The morning that really wants you to get out of your comfortable bed and help you plan your day. These little angels provide the energy exactly for that.
I used a Nordic Ware silver dollar pancake pan for the first time. Uniform 3 inch pancakes look rather cute. I am already looking forward to try this pan for other little pancake recipes.

Zucchini Pancake (Serves 2 for breakfast or 4 for appetizers)
(Adapted from recipe - winner for Food 52 contest in pancake category)
(Make about 14 small pancakes)

2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated potato
1 tablespoon cilantro leaves (chopped)
1 green onion (chopped)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed black pepper
1 egg (2 eggs if making in larger size pan to hold the pancake together)
zest of 1 lemon
~ 1 tablespoon oil

- Grate zucchini and potato with a large size grater
- Mix them together and leave in a colander for 30 minutes to remove water
- Squeeze out excess water and dry with paper towel
- In a separate bowl, beat egg. Add chopped cilantro, green onion, lemon zest to the egg mixture. Add salt and pepper and mix well
- Add zucchini and potato to the egg mixture
- Grease each spot on pancake pan with oil
- Put the pancake on medium heat and place about 1 heaped tea spoon into each section and spread it evenly. Drizzle some oil on sides of the pancake. Flip after 2 minutes and cook for two minutes on the other side and remove from the pan
- If you want, you can preheat oven to 200 C and keep the cooked pancakes on a baking sheet to keep them warm.
- You will approximately make 14 small pancakes in two batches
- You can use any kind of pan to make them in small size. You can also make large size pancakes. It may help to use two eggs to make large size pancakes to make sure they remain intact while turning them.
- Serve with greek yogurt and sweet tomato chutney

Sweet Tomato Chutney
Ingredients:
2-3 garlic cloves (crushed)
1 green chilli (optional)
3 medium roasted or ripe tomatoes
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 and half tablespoon sugar

- In a pan, heat oil. Add cumin seeds and crushed garlic and cook for a minute
- Meanwhile make puree of roasted tomatoes (or grate ripe tomatoes)
- Add tomato puree to the pan
- Add all spices except sugar and mix with laddle
- Cook for two minutes
- Add 1 cup water and let it cook on low to medium heat for ten minutes until water is evaporated
- If you are not using roasted tomatoes, simmer for additional 5-10 minutes to cook the tomatoes
- Add sugar and let it cook for another 2-3 minutes
- Taste and add more sugar if you like
- Enjoy this sweet chutney instead of tomato ketchup for many dishes.

Sahi Tukre/ Double ka meetha

2011-03-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

I read about Sahi Tukre (Egg less bread pudding) through a recent post by Shayma of The spice spoon. Shamya writes beautiful stories with each post and I always look forward to reading them. Pictures of Sahi Tukre looked so delicious that I couldn't resist making them at an earliest opportunity. Apparently, these are similar to a dessert called "Double ka meetha" in Hyderabad. It was such a treat. I will surely be making this on a regular basis now.

(Adapted from Shayma's recipe to make half the quantity)
Serves 4
5 white slices of bread
3/4 cup half and half (I made this with half heavy cream and half milk)
3/4 heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoon water
3 cardamom
1 teaspoon saffron
1 tablespoon slivered almonds
1 teaspoon pistachio
1 teaspoon resins
2 teaspoon oil
2 tablespoon unsalted butter

-Preheat oven to 350F
- Remove edges of bread and cut diagonally or horizontally to make 10 pieces
- In a pan, put one teaspoon oil and one and half teaspoon butter
- Toast half of the bread pieces in the pan until crisp. When one side is toasted, place one and half teaspoon butter in the pan and flip the bread pieces and toast the other side
- Repeat for the next set of bread
- In another pan, mix sugar, water and cardamom in a pan. When the mixture starts boiling reduce heat to low and add crushed saffron and let it simmer for 10 minutes
- Now grease a 8X8 oven safe dish with butter
- Arrange bread slices in single layer in the dish to cover it completely
- Now evenly distribute half and half over the bread slices with spoon
- Then distribute the sugar mixture evenly over the half and half
- Finally, distribute heavy cream evenly over the sugar mixture
- Bake in oven for 30 minutes at 350F
- Decorate with almonds, resins, and pistachio
- Serve warm

Almond Brittle (Badam ki chikki)

2011-03-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

This recipe is quick yet very complicated. It is extremely easy to mess up while caramelizing the sugar. After failing couple of times while caramelizing the sugar, I finally found a recipe to make it consistently (most of the times!) It surely brings back the memories of "chikki" (Peanut brittle).

Ingredients:
1 cup slivered almonds (I get roasted slivered almonds from Trader Joe's)
1 cup sugar ( I used brown)
2 tablespoon butter

- Preheat oven to 325 F
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper (Parchment paper is the best gift you can buy for yourself for baking purposes! No sticking and super easy cleaning)
- Add sugar in a saute pan at medium heat. Stir continuously for approximately 4 minutes until sugar melts and caramelizes with golden brown color. Be careful to stop as soon as sugar caramelizes otherwise you may get a burnt taste. You also have to make sure that sugar caramelizes otherwise it will have taste of sugar crystal and can be difficult to make it crisp
- Add 2 tbsp butter to the above mixture and whisk together until sauce like consistency (~ a minute or so)
- Switch off the gas and add almonds to the caramelized sugar and mix properly
- Spread evenly in a thin layer with spatula on the baking sheet
- Place the baking sheet in oven for ten minutes until the nuts spread out into a flat sheet
- Remove from oven and let it cool. Break it into small pieces
- You can make this with mixture of nuts or any other type of nuts

Egg Biryani

2011-03-10T23:56:00.000-08:00

One of my dear friend, Rashmi, in Philly often raved about an Egg biryani that her friend would prepare who belongs to the "biryani" city - Hyderabad. When Rashmi narrated the recipe it did sound exotic and perhaps closer to Mugal heritage arising from the mannerism in which mint and coriander leaves are utilized. Mint and coriander leaves are quintessential for many Indian recipes in raw form. Use of these in fried form brings different flavors and aromas all together.

Slowly infused flavors of mint, coriander, caramelized onions and yogurt in rice with minimal spices certainly makes it quite an enjoyable and elegant dish. Replacing eggs with grilled or fried eggplants could be an interesting twist which I am yet to try.

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
4 eggs(boiled)
2 cups yogurt
2 large onions (cut into thin slices lengthwise)
1 bunch coriander leaves
1 bunch mint leaves
1 teaspoon red pepper
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tea spoon mined garlic (optional)
1 teaspoon minced ginger (optional)
2 teaspoon green chilli (optional)
1/3-1/2 cup oil

- Boil basmati rice in a deep-wide pan in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes until barely cooked and certainly not overcooked (khile khile). You should be able to see individual grains of rice. Drain through strainer and keep rice aside
- Boil eggs for 15-20 minutes until well done. Remove skin when cold and keep aside
- Wash mint and coriander leaves separately and dry them either on counter top or with paper towel. Remove stems.
- Fry mint and coriander leaves separately for couples of minutes in oil until crisp. Make sure not to burn the leaves
- In the oil remaining after frying the leaves, saute onions, garlic, ginger and green chilli for ten minutes on slow-medium flame. Add turmeric, red chilli, salt, coriander, garam masala and continue sauteing for another 10-15 minutes.
- Switch off gas and add yogurt to the onion mixture and mix properly.
- Preheat oven to 275 F
- Take a 8X8 Pyrex dish and apply a thick layer of ghee or butter.
- Spread half of the rice evenly on the bottom of the Pyrex dish
- Cover rice with thin slices from two boiled eggs
- Distribute half of the onion yogurt mixture on top of eggs
- Sprinkle fried coriander and mint leaves on top of onion mixture
- Repeat layers of rice, boiled eggs, onion-yogurt mixture, mint and coriander leaves
- Cover the pyrex dish with aluminum foil [One can also use a pressure cooker (or a thick bottom pan) instead of pyrex dish, cover the cooker or pan with a plate and heat on gas top at slow flame for 1-1 1/2 hours]
- Bake in oven about an hour to let all the flavors infuse together ( I forgot to take pics after it was baked!) You can also make this at 300 F with baking time of about 40-50 minutes (Use your judgment according to oven type)

Enjoy!

Warm Chocolate Tart

2011-03-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

French are leaders in pastry making among many other things! Often recipes from famous chefs are long and time demanding given the perfection desired. Not surprisingly, I have been looking for recipes by French chefs which are short and sweet for some time now! One of my favorite places to go and work (or to pretend) on weekends is the public library where I happily take rather frequent breaks to search through the cookbook sections.

On one such occasion, I noticed a book titled "Simply Sensational Desserts: 140 Classics for the Home Baker from New York's Famous Patisserie and Bistro" by Francois Payard who is originally from France and now owns a bakery in NYC. His bakery is definitely on my "go-to places" for next NYC trip. Pictures in the book are beautiful and most of the recipes are in comfort zone of the home bakers. I learnt about dessert soups, for the first time, which are made of fruits from his book. I tried two of his recipes "Warm Chocolate tart" and "French Pear Tart". Even though both were good, I really enjoyed the warm chocolate tart because its relatively less time consuming and tastes really good. The book also has a section on what types of pans home bakers should have for uniform baking. Upon his recommendation, I ended up ordering 9.5" aluminum tart pan from amazon which I really liked and also got me thinking: Do we really need non-stick pans for baking?

One of my good friend from undergrad and her husband visited us last weekend. I wanted to make the Warm Chocolate Tart for them but the book was checked out at the library (lazy me didn't write down the recipe last time). Google Maharaj came to rescue and luckily I found the Warm Chocolate Tart recipe from Francois book on a website which basically publicize books from authors and share few recipes from the book, chosen by authors, on their website. Here is the dough and chocolate tart recipes from Simply Sensational Desserts.

Without doubt, the key ingredient in this tart is chocolate. I can't stress more about the importance of a good quality chocolate for this tart. One of my favorite baking chocolate is Scharffen Berger (semi-sweet) which I have previously used for making Sachertorte and chocolate coated strawberries with great satisfaction. Good deals for this can be found on amazon in ended up using it frequently.

Warm chocolate tart is on my "go-to" recipes list!

Surprise breakfast: Dukkah, honey glazed onion polenta and chocolate cake

2011-02-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

Somehow weekends have been pretty hectic for the last couple of months and I didn't get much time to have a relaxing breakfast. Either we had to rush somewhere or high carb breakfast choice was on the plate!! To surprise Sid (or perhaps treat myself!), I woke up much earlier than my usual Sunday mornings to have the following on the table:

(1) Griddled polenta with caramalized onions, honey and goat cheese [winner of Food 52 contest for category " Polenta"]
(2) Dukkah (Egyptian mix of nuts and spices) with boiled eggs! Recently I learnt about it at the amazing blog Chocolate and Zucchini. I replaced chestnuts with walnuts in the recipe. Later on we also enjoyed dukkah in a more traditional way with olive oil and bread)
(3) Simple chocolate cake! [winner of Food 52 contest for the category "Best Chocolate Cake"]. I used instant coffee in this recipe.

All are easy to make and taste really good. Highly recommended!!!

Venetian Polenta with Swiss Chard

2011-01-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Somehow I have never been tempted with restaurants right across the street from our apartment in the past. I don't have a solid reason but some hypothesis which I would rather not explain here:) Somehow, one fine Sunday night, with no desire to cook at home and company of my lazy legs, we found our way to have dinner at Spiritland Bistro which is right across the street from our apartment. It is a cute little, fine-dine restaurant with European style ambiance. Their menu has large number of vegetarian options from many cuisines around the world (something that I have always dreamt of). Food was delicious so much so that we ended up eating here again in less than a week with some friends! Both the times, we tried their tasty appetizer - Venetian Polenta Cake. Here is a reasonable attempt to replicate this dish in our own kitchen!

Ingredients:
Polenta
3/4 cup polenta
2 and 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp dried italian herbs
1 tbsp grated cheese (eg. Fontina or Parmesan)
3/4 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 tbsp olive oil

Toppings
~ 3-4 tbsp blue cheese
- 8-10 leaves of swiss chard
- 2-3 garlic
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
-1/4 tsp salt (or to taste, chard and blue cheese are pretty salty)
balsamic reduction (to taste)

- Heat water in a non-stick pan over medium flame. Add oil, salt, herbs. Once water starts boiling, add polenta and mix continuously until all the water evaporates and everything becomes one big lump. Will take about 5-8 minutes.
- Now grease another small non-stick pan with olive oil. Transfer polenta in this pan and even out with spatula. Transfer this to freezer for 15 mins.
- Meanwhile wash 8-10 swiss chard leaves. Remove stem from center and cut the leaves into two pieces along the stem.
- Saute garlic, swiss chard (add salt) in olive oil at medium flame until soft for about 5-10 minutes.
- Now remove polenta and transfer the pan to gas. Cook for 5 minutes until polenta is slightly brown. Transfer this onto a plate (upside down).
- Now cut polenta cake into 8 triangular pieces
- Apply a thin layer of blue cheese onto each triangle about 1 teaspoon on each. Adjust according to your taste as blue cheese is usually strong.
- Place two pieces of half swiss chard leaves onto the triangles with some garlic pieces
- Arrange one piece on serving plate. Put another piece in perpendicular direction as shown in the picture.
- Drizzle some balsamic reduction about 1-2 teaspoons (or 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar if you don't have balsamic reduction).

Baked oatmeal

2011-01-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

As promised, I am here with a post on Baked oatmeal. Picky I am with what I eat. Perhaps like everyone else, I enjoy certain things cooked in a particular style otherwise they are avoided using my best possible behavior :) Oatmeal falls in such a category. I never enjoyed oatmeal in its default form - served in hot milk- despite knowing its endless benefits. A Bed & Breakfast place named Pomaika'i "Lucky" Farm at Big Island (Hawaii) served baked oatmeal which I throughly enjoyed. Naturally, upon return to mainland, I began my hunt for baked oatmeal recipes. After much needed browsing on internet and an experiment in my Kitchen, here I present the recipe to you fellow readers.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups oats
7 tbsp brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup dried cranberries or resins
1/4 chopped walnuts
1/2 cup milk or soy milk
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Preheat oven to 350F
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. You can use any combination of nuts/resins according to your taste.
- Mix lightly beaten egg, butter, vanilla extract and milk in a separate bowl
- Combine everything and mix uniformly
- Transfer this mixture into a 8X8 oven safe dish and bake for 25 mins or until it turns golden brown
- Cut baked oatmeal into pieces and serve hot as is or with milk.

For eggless veriation you can replace egg with 1/2 mashed banana which I want to try next time. You can also replace 1 tbsp of resins with 1 tbsp of dried coconut for additional flavor.

Besan Ladoo

2011-01-10T23:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday mornings were special for a little girl as her mother would give her 11 Rupees to get Besan Ladoo for lord Ganesha from a Mithaiwala (Sweet shop) next door. On special occasions, she tried two varieties of besan ladoo after visiting Ganesh temple on Wednesdays with her sister and brother. Time flies and now she enjoys Besan ladoo made by her mother-in-law (MIL) while remembering her childhood days. Then, one day thousands of miles apart from her memories, she attempts to make them with an andaaza (approximate) recipe - remembering bits and pieces of how MIL moved the ladle effortlessly with a lot of patience and love and yet, thinking about the little girl running to the sweet shop.

Ingredients:
3 cup besan ladoo flour (thicker than regular besan flour)
1 cup ghee (clarified butter - u can add 1/4 cup more if you want the traditional touch!)
1 cup powdered brown sugar (or more if u have a sweet tooth)
1/2 cup chopped almonds (adjust depending upon your taste)

- Melt ghee (clarified butter) in a thick bottomed pan (Kadai - you can also use a nonstick pan)
- At very low flame, add besan flour to the pan. Cook the mixture for 60-70 minutes while mixing regularly to prevent from burning (This is the key step otherwise the mixture will either remain uncooked or will burn quickly. If you get tired/bored, you can switch off the gas and return to it anytime you want)
- Add chopped almonds about 10 mins before you finally turn off the gas
- Let the mixture cool down for 5-10 min. Add sugar and mix well
- Make 20-25 small ladoo with your hands. It might take some effort to assemble the ladoo because this recipe uses less ghee than usual. This much amount of ghee is good to slowly cook the mixture at really low flame. Of course you can adjust this amount according to your taste.
-Enjoy and Happy New Year!

Polenta Tart/Pizza

2010-12-30T13:05:00.000-08:00

I am excited about this post for two reasons. First, this is the last post for the year and also 52nd post on this blog which started in 2010. I am happy that I could post one recipe on an average per week. At times I got lazy, others overexcited but overall I really enjoyed this hobby:)

Second reason is that this post is about a healthy and delicious dish from a friend's blog - Isha of Intrepid cook. It has become a stable entry on our menu now. You can certainly experiment with different fillings and toppings.

Tart/Pizza Base:
3/4 cup Coarse grain polenta
2 1/2 cup water
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tbsp mixed Italian herbs (or according to taste)
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Filling:
3 tsp olive oil
4 tomatoes (pureed)
2 tbsp herbs
2 chopped garlic
2 tbsp cheese (parmesan or any other)

Topping:
5-6 slices of mozzarella cheese (abt 3 cm diameter and 1/4 inch thick)
5-6 lime basil or basil leaves

- Heat water in a pan. Add salt, olive oil, herbs and let is boil. Add polenta and stir frequently. Stir rigorously as water evaporates until the mixture become one big lump. Add cheese and mix again. Switch off the gas.
- Spread the mixture evenly on a greased 9.5 inch tart pan. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator for 1-2 hours or in freezer for 15-20 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat oil in a pan. Add garlic, tomatoes, herbs and salt. Heat until the sauce thickens. Add cheese and switch off the gas.
- Remove polenta tart base from refrigerator. Spread the tomato mixture evenly. Arrange mozzarella cheese and basil.
- Bake for 15 mins in preheated oven at 400F.
- Serve hot!

Whole tomato bruschetta

2010-12-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

We went to Hawaii earlier this month. I was wondering how different would it be considering we live in Santa Barbara which is on the coast. It is so beautiful! For me the temperature of water and snorkeling almost everyday were enough reasons to go to Hawaii. I have never spent so much time splashing in ocean water; it was a great feeling.

Vacations for me are about surprises and exploring new places, people and of course food. Out of all the meals we had, we really enjoyed whole tomato bruschetta and baked oatmeal. We had half-heartedly ordered tomato bruschetta at a Spanish tapas restaurant in Hanalei, Kaua'i, as usual lacking in its vegetarian options.The waiter was very upbeat about it and almost coerced us to order it. It was great!

Thanks to Sid, I got to eat the whole tomato bruschetta really soon :) and I am yet to make the baked oatmeal!

Ingredients:
5 large red tomatoes
2 garlic, optional
1/4 onion or 2-3 scallions
1 tbsp mixture of dried Italian herbs (basil, oregano etc..)
5 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- Preheat oven to 400F
-Make three batches of dressings: (A) 1 tbsp oil, (B) 2 tbsp oil + 1/2 tbsp vinegar, and (C) 2 tbsp oil+ 1/2 tbsp vinegar, dried herbs and chopped scallions and garlic
- Grease a Pyrex dish and place 5 large tomatoes close to each other.
Sprinkle dressing (A) on the tomatoes and put it in oven for 20 mins
- Pour dressing (B) after 20 mins
- Pour dressing (C) after 20 mins
- At this point, tomatoes will leave a lot of juice which will be really to eat with you bread.
- Cut slices of bread and apply Olive oil and grill them.
- You can serve one baked tomato with couple of pieces of grilled bread as one serving.

Isn't it easier and tastier than the usual bruschetta?

Red and geen salad - Christmas special from Sid

2010-12-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

This winter salad is about bold tastes and vibrant colors. Roasted beets and pomegranate seeds are red and make the bulk of the salad. The green comes from the strong herbs: lime basil, mint, cilantro, arugula and green onions. Soft mild crumbled feta provides texture, contrast and balances sweetness of pomegranate; could be replaced with goat cheese. Roasted pecan and walnuts provide the crunch. Anjana suggested a sour lime and orange dressing, which was almost perfect.

Ingredients:
2 roasted beets sliced : wrap in foil and bake at 400F for 40 minutes
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
2-3 green onions chopped (1/4 inch pieces)
Few springs of lime basil and cilantro (chopped)
1-2 oz soft feta cheese
Handful of roasted pecans and walnuts (chopped)
Dressing: juice from 1/2 lime and 1/2 orange with 2 tbsp olive oil and salt/pepper to taste

Mix everything in your favorite salad bowl and put the dressing in the end.

Sooji Dhokla (Semolina /Yogurt Steamed Cake)

2010-11-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

If I have to pick one "goto" dish which is tasty, repeatable and presentable, it would be the Sooji dhokla by Isha of Intrepidcook. It is easy to make "hard" dhokla - believe me I have done that so many times until this superb recipe came along to make the softest dhokla ever.

Although you can make this by using a cake pan that fits well into another pan, it is much more handy to use a dhokla maker. I own a dhokla maker vessel (Special thanks to my MIL) which is similar to a pressure cooker with three stacks of plates. It reduces the steaming time to 10 minutes and is capable of making bite size dhokla pieces.

I have made this recipe zillion times with great satisfaction :) Isha thanks for sharing this.

Enjoy!

Babagnoush (Eggplant Dip)

2010-11-23T15:45:00.000-08:00

Babagnoush is cousin brother of Hummus that uses chicpeas instead of Eggplant (baigan). Interestingly, there is a third cousin called mamagnoush which uses Zucchini instead of eggplant.

When it comes to Mediterranean cooking, DeDe is my favorite. She has recently opened an Arabic food stand at a Marine Base on West Coast (Isn't that nice ?). Below is my take on her Babagnoush recipe.

Ingredients:
1 medium size Eggplant (not small)
1/3 Tahini (or just 2 tbsp if you want strong flavor of Eggplant)
2 garlic (mashed)
2 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tbsp lemon
2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2-3/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tsp paprika ( or red pepper if you handle it!)

- Preheat Oven to 400 F.
- Insert knife in eggplant at several places (to avoid explosions inside the oven) and put it directly on the oven rack
- Roast the eggplant for 40-50 minutes. Take it out of the oven and put it in plastic ziploc bag for 15 minutes
- Peel the skin and remove the top joint of the eggplant and transfer the eggplant flesh into a bowl
- Mash the roasted egg plant with spoon. Add tahini sauce, garlic, salt, yogurt, lemon and mix well either in bowl or in a food processor for smooth texture (I was able to mash it with a spoon quite easily).
- Now transfer is to serving plate and decorate with olive oil, cilantro and paprika.

Pita Bread

2010-11-15T13:21:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite cuisine is Mediterranean. The central item on table in this cusine is pita bread which is easily available in grocery stores. I appreciate home made Indian roti(bread) so much over the store bought roti that I have been thinking of making pita bread at home for a while now. In a way they are quite similar to Indian bread.

I have talked about a universal dough recipe for various breads from different countries before. Pita bread is the latest addition to the category by using same dough recipe that I have used to make bhatura, pizzabase and naan.

Once you have your dough ready:
- Heat up a baking sheet (optional: use parchment paper over baking sheet) in your oven at 450 C. Once the oven temperature is at 450C, roll out dough into a 4-5 inch diameter circle with 1/8 inch thickness.
- Transfer the rolled dough onto the baking sheet and let it cook for 4-5 minutes. Change sides and cook for another 2-3 minutes or u can experiment based on your taste level. You can make multiple pita breads at the same time depending on the size of your baking sheet.
- Enjoy this with falafel, hummus, baba ganoush.

Khandvi - Chickpea flour cigar's

2010-10-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Khandvi (Chickpea flour cigar's - as referred by Raghavan Iyer) - is a very popular Gujarati dish which is quite easy to make (well ..almost other than spreading the batter). These delicious cigar's can be a show stopper for your finger food party. Like all the other dishes, there are slight variations in the quantities and the sequence in which ingredients are added for Khandvi recipe. Here is my take on the recipe :)

Serve 2-4 for appetizer
1/2 cup besan (Chickpea flour)
1/4 cup yogurt (Dahi)
3/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp haldi (Turmeric)
1 tsp ginger paste (optional)
1 tsp chilli paste (optional)
1 tbsp oil

Tadka (Seasoning)
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3-4 green chilli (thin slices, seeds removed)
1/4 teaspoon Hing

- Cut two pieces ( about 9 inch in length) of aluminum foil or clean ur kitchen slap of approximately same area and grease them slightly. Alternatively you can also grease the back of two large steel plates.
- Take besan in a bowl (or in a steel pan) and add yogurt and mix properly so that there are no lumbs.
- Add one tbsp of oil and mix again
- To this add salt, haldi, ginger and chilli paste and again mix properly
- Now add 1/4 cup of water at a time and mix to remove any lumps until all the water is absorbed
- Now take this pan directly to the gas at low-medium heat and cook while continuously stirring until the water evaporates and the mixture becomes one big lump. This step will take approximately 5-10 minutes.
- Take half of the mixture and quickly spread onto the greased aluminum foil as thin as lasagna sheets (1/8th inch) with a flat spatula. In my opinion, this is the most complicated step in the recipe and I found this video on showmethecurry really helpful. Quickly spread the remaining half of the mixture in a similar way.
- Cut the sheets to make 3-4 vertical columns and two horizontal rows or readjust according to your taste if you want to make them thicker. Let them cool for 5 minutes.
-Gently roll each one of them to make a cigar. Be careful so that you do not break them while rolling. You also have option to sprinkle grated carrots, coconuts before rolling them to make the stuffed version. I made mine without any filling but may try that in future.
- Now in a small pan, prepare tadka by heating some oil followed by heating the mustard seeds, hing, chillies
- Shift the cigar onto a serving plate and sprinkle the tadka over it
- Your show stoppers are ready to eat with some mint-coriander chutney!

Handvo/Handwa - Gujarati Appetizer

2010-09-16T09:44:00.001-07:00

Gujarati food, in particular the appetizers Khaman, Dhokla, Khandvi and Handvo are quite unique both in terms of cooking method as well as taste. After getting a really good recipe for Sooji Dhokla from my friend-Isha (which I have made zillion times with exceptional results each time), I was eager to try Khandvi and Handvo. Khandvi is perhaps the quickest (Stay tuned for a post on Khandvi!) while Handvo is the most time consuming.

I got even more excited about it since I had no idea how it would taste. That ofcourse meant doing some research to select a good recipe and I relied on trusted sources yet again. Recently, a friend introduced me to showmethecurry (an online cooking show) by Hetal and Anuja. I was very pleased with their Paneer Makhani, Pakora Kadhi and Samosa recipes so I decided to try their recipe for Handvo.

Handvo is a savoury lentil cake prepared in oven either in a regular pan or muffin/cupcake pan. The cupcake size is perfect for parties and picnics!

The recipe was quite straight forward with a good outcome overall. However, I need to develop a taste for it:) I am guessing that I would have had a similar feeling after eating DOSA for the first time :)

Next time, I might use less sesame seeds (slightly roasted) and perhaps try already prepared Handvo mix for a quicker version.

I definitely need to stockup ENO now!

Pecan Tart

2010-09-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

Tarts are wonderful desserts and almost always I would pick a tart over a cake for dessert:) Joy of tart making is both in the pastry and the filling. Once you have your numbers right for the pastry, the whole new world of fillings open up to make fruit tart, chocolate tart, pecan tarts, cheese tart... the list is endless.

This recipe is adapted from a cookbook (500 fabulous cakes and more) to make a 11 inch tart pan. For a 9 inch tart pan, you can divide the ingredients by 1.5

Serves 9 to 12 people
For the pastry
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoon superfine sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoon cold sweet butter(cut in pea size pieces)
1 1/2 egg yolk
6 tablespoon whipping cream

For the filling
4 1/2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup generous dark brown sugar (I used light brown)
3/4 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
9 tablespoon butter, melted
1 7/8 cup pecans (chopped)
3/4 cup pecan halves

- Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter (cut pieces) and rub with your hands for about 5 minutes until the mixture looks like a coarse bread crumbs
- Slightly mix the egg yolk and whipping cream in a bowl and then add to flour mixture. Knead the mixture to make a ball
- Grease a 11inch tart/pie dish. Roll out the ball with a rolling pin into a circular shape. Once the diameter is about the size of the tart pan, roll out carefully to an addition inch and half.
- Carefully transfer the rolled dough into the tart pan and set the edges and press slightly on the side so that the you see the tart dish completely linedup with the dough. If needed, stretch little bit with your hands and press gently to get the shape especially around the edges.
- Cover with a plastic wrap and chill for 20 minutes
- Preheat a BAKING SHEET in the oven at 400F.
- For the filling, lightly whisk the eggs and salt. Mix in the sugar, maple syrup, lemon juice and butter. Stir in chopped nuts
- Transfer the mixture carefully into the pastry case and arrange the pecan halves in concentric circles on top. You can plan to make 3-4 concentric circles. Be careful while arranging the pecans.

- Bake on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 325 F and bake for 25 minutes more or until done. Adjust according to your oven, the pastry color will be slightly golden brown when done
- Take the tart out of the oven and let it cool down for half an hour. Just before serving, cut into really thin slices and serve.

The flexible "Signature" Sandwich

2010-09-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

This post is a research proposal for the most flexible "signature" sandwich highlighting its flexibility with respect to the ingredients and amazing taste :)

In my opinion, bread contributes the most to the taste of a sandwich. My style used to be the well toasted (& buttered) bread with a strong dislike for the Kaccha (ungrilled) sandwich made from white bread. My hunt for those "ungrilled" good tasting sandwiches was over when I spotted the cute little mixed herb bread rolls, ciabatta squares, and the baguette halfs. The identification lead me to "die-for-sandwiches" (ungrilled & eaten during a hike) and "suicide-for-sandwiches" ( grilled at home for a low-maintenance meal).

The flexible sandwich bar includes:
Bread of choice: Mixed herb roll/Ciabtta squares/buguette halfs
Spread choice: Pesto/Hummus/Coriander Mint Chutney
Greens choice: Baby Spinach/Basil/Aragula/Spring mix
Cheese Choice: Mozzarella/Feta/Paneer
Veggie Choice: Slices of tomato/cucumber/onions (raw or grilled)
Optional (Actually must include): Ripe avocado slices
Salt and pepper to taste

- Take the herb roll and slice it into half
- Spread one tablespoon of spread on inside of each half (or as per taste)
- Place 3-4 greens on top of one of the slices (arrange on top of the spread)
- Arrange thin slices of cheese on top of the greens (as per taste)
- Sprinkle some salt and pepper
- Arrange three four slices of tomato and/or cucumber on top of the greens
- Arrange two-three thin slices of avocado on top of veggie's
- Top the assembly with the other half slice of the bread
- If having at home, insert a toothpick in the sandwich assembly or plastic wrap it if you want to enjoy this later after a hike :)

Enjoy!

Daring Baker's August Challenge - Petit Fours with Brown Butter Pound Cake

2010-08-28T22:31:00.001-07:00

The Daring Baker's Challenge for the month of August was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. We were required to make a brown butter pound cake, an icecream and then use them to make either Ice Cream Petit Fours or Baked Alaska. Due to shortage of time, I decided to make brown butter pound cake and then Petit fours from only the cake while having store bought icecreams on the side:)

Brown Butter Pound Cake

Ingredients:
8 and 1/2 table spoons Unsalted sweet butter
1 cup sifted cake flour (not self rising, sift before measuring. use two table spoon of corn starch + 14 tablespoon of all purpose flour)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/6 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

- Place butter in a 10# steel skillet over medium heat. Add butter and let it melt until the milk solids are dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. Be careful to constantly observe the butter and not over burnt it.
- Pour the butter into a bowl (don't include the milk solids) and put it in the freezer until just congealed (or about to solidify). It will take about 20-30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 325 F
- Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt
- Beat brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixture until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
- Stir in flour mixture and mix gently
- Grease a 9X4 not-stick pan and transfer the batter into the pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until golden brown on top and when toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes
- Cool the pan for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert with right side up onto a cooling rack to cool completely
- Level the top of the pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler and cut the side off to make all the sides even.
- Cut the pound cake into 1.5#X1.5# pieces

Chocolate Glaze

4.5 ounces (125 gm) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 tablespoon light corn syrup (or honey)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Stir the heavy cream and honey in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil
- Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds. and then stir to completely melt the chocolate
- Stir in the vanilla extract and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours

Petit Fours

- Glaze the petit fours one at a time. Place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it
- Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Enjoy them alone or with icecream on the side :)

Thanks Elissa for the wonderful Challenge and good luck with your college.

Walnut Ladoo

2010-08-27T15:55:00.001-07:00

Tired of eating Aata Ladoo or Besan Ladoo [Most of you are thinking (including myself) - not possible !!), try these delicious and healthy walnut ladoo for a change!

Yield: ~ 32 small ladoo

4 cup walnuts
4 cup milk (whole milk or 2%)
1 and 1/4 cup sugar (you can increase if you like )

- Roast walnut in a skillet for 2-3 minutes
- Allow the walnut to cool down a bit and then grind them in a food processor
- Add milk and sugar in a deep pan and let them cook over medium heat to reach a thicker consistency (~ 30-35 mins)
- Add the crushed walnuts and let the mixture cook for another 15-20 minutes until the milk gets absorbed in walnuts completely and the mixture become very sticky and comes together as one big ball
- Turn off the gas, let the mixture cool down for half an hour and then make small ladoo with your hand.

Basil Pesto

2010-08-25T22:32:00.001-07:00

Basil pesto is super easy to make and once you make it at home, you would think twice before buying it from store :) The classic use of pesto is for pasta, sandwiches, and bruschetta.

Yield: 1 and half cup pesto

Ingredients:
2-3 clove garlic
1/3 cup nuts (walnuts/pinenuts)
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 bunch of basil (Washed and dried) ~ 2-3 loosely packed cups
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon pinenuts

- In a food processor, first grind garlic and nuts.
- Add parmesean cheese, basil leaves and oil and grind them to make a smooth paste.
- Add salt and pepper to taste and just spin the processor once.
- Transfer in a serving bowl and decorate with pinenuts

Swiss swirl ice cream cake - July Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-07-27T06:52:00.001-07:00

The daring Baker's Challenge "Swiss swirl ice cream cake" for July 2010 was rolled out by Sunita of Sunita's world life and food. Not only did we have to make swiss roll, two different flavors of ice creams and a chocolate fudge sauce were experimented in my little kitchen for the first time. Without doubt, this was the most time consuming challenge that I have done so far. Perhaps as I didn't have an ice cream maker but it was well worth the effort.

My grad school friend Uzoma visited me in Santa Barbara this month. Some of my early adventures into baking were carried out with her. Out of all the things she had to do at Santa Barbara, the daring bakers challenge was added on to her list by me as this was a wonderful way to re-live some of the grad-school memories ;) We spent almost a day and half (on & off) preparing this cake while watching World Cup Soccer finals and occasional trips to the beaches while ice creams and cake were settling in.

Making a dessert for a special occasion increases my enthusiasm towards it and this seemed like a perfect cake to bring to Prajna's going away BBQ party on the Beach. Attached picture is taken after the cake was kept in a cooler for about an hour - hence some signs of melting! Enjoy the recipe from the Daring Baker's site. This challenge has added some wonderful memories. Thank you Sunita for an excellent challenge.

Italian Love Cake

2010-07-06T21:09:00.001-07:00

This was my first baking exploration and I always associate this with hunting the grocery store for cool whip cream, instant pudding mix, ricotta cheese and measuring cups. The path was quite irresistible especially after tasting a piece of it at an annual senior graduation party and an interesting name!

I must warn you that you have to like ricotta cheese to enjoy this cake. Its a three-layered cake and interestingly I haven't seen it in any baking book so far.

Ingredients:
1 pkg fudge marble cake mix
2 lbs ricotta cheese
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1 Pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup milk
8 oz cool whip

- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Prepare fudge marble cake mix according to the instructions
- Spread the cake mix onto a greased 9X13 cake pan
- In a separate bowl mix ricotta, eggs, vanilla and sugar
- Evenly spread the ricotta mix over the marble cake mix in the pan
- Bake for 60 minutes and remove the pan from the oven. As the cake bakes, the cheese layer will move below the marble cake layer
- Cover and keep it in the refrigerator for at least six hours or overnight
- For icing, mix instant chocolate pudding mix with milk. Slowly fold in cool whip
- Spread the icing evenly over the cake and enjoy this heavenly cake:) This tastes really good after 2-3 days

Mexican Wedding Cookies

2010-06-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I made the mexican wedding cookies for the first time with some changes to this recipe. Since then I have made them thrice:) DO NOT eat more than a cookie at a time - these are calorie devils!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (Kept at room temperature for 3-4 hrs or microwave for 10-15 seconds)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp water
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup chopped pecans

- Cream butter and sugar together. Add water and vanilla extract and mix gently
- Add flour and chopped pecans and mix properly
- Refrigerate the dough for one and half hour
- Preheat oven to 325 F
- Make small balls of the dough with hands, flatten them and put them on a cookie sheet. Keep the cookies about 2 inches apart. You can make about 3 dozens small cookies from the dough
- Place the cookie sheet in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes
- Take them out of the oven and let them cool.
- Enjoy!

Thumbprint Cookies

2010-05-12T15:20:00.000-07:00

My all time favorite cookies/biscuits are from Venus bakery in Jaipur. Along with mom's hand made ladoo and mathri, Rawat misthan's pyaz kachori, I would always have them in my suitcase when I went back to the hostel in middle school after holidays and to all the other subsequent hostels thereafter:) I was introduced to these cookies by my sister like the other zillion things in my life :) Since both my sister and brother were also at hostel's at that time, all the goodies would get divided in to three parts. Even now, mummy makes three packets of anything that even one of us asks her to bring and obviously has hard time packing them in suitcases!
One of my Italian friend brought homemade cookies called "thumbprint" cookies around Christmas sometime back. As soon as I saw them, Venus bakery biscuits started floating in front of my eyes and I knew what cookie recipes I have to look for :) I really love the shape and size of these cookies. After searching for various recipes, I finally made the recipe here and really liked them.

Yield: 36 cookies
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large egg yolks (room temperature)
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (unsifted)
1/4 cup raspberry preserve (or any other preserve of choice)

- Soften the butter either by keeping it out of refrigerator for long or heating it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds (make sure that you check after 10 seconds)
- Cream butter, egg yolks, and sugar together
- Gradually add flour (about 1/2 cup at a time) to the above cream mixture to make a smooth dough with no lumps
- Make approximately 36 (1") balls out of the dough and flatten them little bit and place them on a greased cookie sheet at about 2 inches apart. You will need about two cookie sheets
- With your finger, make a small well in the center of the cookies and put about 1/4 tsp of preserve/jam in the center
- Place the cookies sheet in refrigerator to set for 10-15 mins
- Bake in a preheated oven at 375 F for about 10-15 minutes (original recipe required about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown at the bottom but for me it took about 15 minutes perhaps because I kept them in the refrigerator for 10-15 mins)
- Enjoy these wonderful cookies and I hope they last longer in your Kitchen!

I am all excited to tryout some variations in these with nuts as filling and also in the dough :)

Goat cheese ravioli - Sid's entry

2010-05-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

It is clear to some of you how spoiled I am getting. Also, since "the chef" has been training for half-marathon, I decided to cook something nice to cheer her up on her long-run days!

Stuffed french toast, which was the first one of this series, was a tried and tested recipe. This time I got a little more ambitious and tried to make Ravioli's.

I chose Yottam's recipe with goat cheese filling. I followed the recipe closely except I used semolina flour instead of pasta '00' flour, which was surprisingly hard to find (I may try to buy this online next time).

Some tips: The edges of the ravioli's turned out a little thick for some, still tasty though. Also, be careful to not roll your dough too thin else your Ravioli's may burst open!

Vols-au-Vent

2010-04-29T15:56:00.001-07:00

When I am looking for something new to bake, I enthusiastically search on the Daring baker's site for the challenges that were rolled out before I joined this group. Usually these recipes are very reliable and most of the times fun to work on. The Vols-au-Vent challenge was rolled by Steph of a wish and a spoon in September 2009 which looked particularly interesting as they can be twisted towards savory or sweet mood/need.

This challenge required the group to first make puff pastry and then use that to make Vols-au-Vent. Making puff pastry from scratch seemed a lot of work but the idea of making Vols-au-Vent from the store bought puff pastry sounded perfect. Vols-au-Vent are really presentable and can be made in different sizes and shapes - your chance to go creative here!

Ingredients:
1 puff pastry sheet (thawed according to instruction on the packaging)
1 tbsp water
Filling of your choice (I used guacamole)

- Preheat an oven to 350 degree.
- Roll out one sheet of puff pastry.
- Using a 1.5" round cutter, cut 16 pieces.
- Using a 3/4" cutter, cut centers of eight of the 1.5" pieces and remove the center 3/4" pieces carefully. The 3/4" can be the cap for your vols-au vent.
- Prick the remaining eight 1.5" pieces. Be careful that your fork don't get all the way through. Apply some water to the circumference of these eight pieces
- Place the parts with 3/4" holes (left after removing 3/4" piece) on top of the pricked eight pieces of 1.5" diameter pressing them little so that outer edges of whole pieces and pieces with 3/4" holes are coincided. You can also look at the original post by steph where pictures of these steps are shown.
- Place the assembled eight pieces (1.5" + 1.5" with hole) and the eight pieces of the 3/4" pieces on a greased baking sheet.
- Check oven after ten minutes and remove the 3/4" pieces if they are done. Depending upon the intensity of your oven it may take 10-15 minutes for the 3/4" pieces to be done.
- After 15 minutes from the initial time, check the 1.5" pieces and if not done keep them in the oven for another 5-10 minutes. Be very careful at this stage because it may take very little time for them to go from done to burnt stage. During my trial, the 1.5" pieces were ready in 15 minutes although Steph's recipe mentioned that it will take about 30 minutes. I guess it depends upon the intensity of the oven.
- When done, remove from oven and let them cool. Fill with your favorite filling (I used guacamole) and enjoy vols-au-vent.
- You can use 4"/2.5" combination instead of 1.5"/3/4" for larger pieces for main course or dessert.

Traditional English Pudding (Steamed Resin) - Daring Baker's April Challenge

2010-04-27T00:11:00.001-07:00

The Daring Baker's Challenge for April was hosted by Esther from The Lilac Kitchen. The idea was to make a British pudding using suet. Before this challenge, I used to think that puddings are like custards but England seem to own a world of puddings which are very different from custards and are more in-line with cakes.

Esther gave us a number of options: (1) savory or sweet (2) crust or steamed (sponge) type. I made a sweet sponge type resin pudding and savory mixed vegetable crust pudding. Having never tasted a British pudding before, in my opinion, sponge type puddings are like dense cakes and crust pudding are more like stuffed pies. If I end up visiting UK in near future, I would surely try them at restaurants and would have some basis to compare to:)

Being a vegetarian, I had to find a substitute for suet. After a lot of search for a good substitute, I ended up using grated frozen butter as a replacement for suet. Overall, it was easy to put together and quite interesting to make puddings by steaming for up to 3-5 hrs.

Steamed Resin Pudding
Ingredients:
7/8 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup frozen butter
1 large egg
6-8 tbsp cold milk
resin/current: 1/2 cup
2.5 tbsp orange + lemon peel

- Sift flour, salt, baking powder in a big bowl
- Grate frozen butter
- Add breadcrumbs, sugar and butter to the bowl
- Beat egg in a bowl and add milk
- Add the egg and milk mixture to dry ingredients and make a soft batter
- Add resins and orange & lemon peel to the batter and mix
- Butter a 1 litre pudding basin ( I used a one litre steel bowl with shape similar to pudding basin)
- Transfer the batter into the pudding basin, cover first with wax paper and then with aluminium foil and secure properly using a rubberband or rope.
- Steam for 2.5 to 3 hours. For detailed instructions on how to steam puddings please refer to this video.
- Remove the pudding basin from steamer. Remove wax paper and aluminium foil.
- Place a big plate on the top of the basin and invert such that the basin is on to top of the plate. Remove the basin slowly to get pudding on to the plate
- Serve with sweet sauce to taste such as custard, caramel or sweetened fruit sauce.

Thanks Esther for a wonderful challenge!

Naan

2010-04-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

I often wondered about differences in the dough for pizza base, pita bread, naan, flat bread, bhature, bread loaf and thought that there should be a single recipe which can turn into any one of them based on the shape, thickness and mode of cooking. Recently, I found a recipe by Marion Cunnigham for pizza dough which I have used to make bhature and naan with great satisfaction by using some tips for baking naan in oven from the recipe here.

Yield: 8 (approximately 3 X 9 inches each)
- Use all the ingredients in the above suggested recipe to make pizza dough (you can let the dough rise for 1-2 hours more if you like). Once you have basic pizza dough, divide that into 8 equal sizes.
- Place cookie sheet(s) into the oven and preheat the oven to 500 F.
- Using some dry flour and rolling pin, roll out each one of them into desired shape with 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. I usually roll the dough really thin to get crispy naan.
- Carefully transfer your rolled out dough onto the cookie sheet(s) and let them cook in the oven for 6 mins
- Remove the naan from oven and heat them on the gas stove for 30 seconds on each side to get the burnt look (optional)
- Apply some butter and serve hot.
- For a flavored naan, you can also add minced garlic and coriander to the risen dough.

Stuffed French Toast

2010-04-14T12:04:00.000-07:00

Quiz: What happens when a wife goes out of town to attend a conference and the husband wants to have a quick homemade bite using only the ingredients inside the fridge?

Answer: Wife gets treated with an innovative stuffed french toast when she returns. Fabulous, isn't it and of course she wonders if her "out-of-town" travel frequency should increase? ;)

Serves 2
Ingredients:
4 slices of french sandwich bread
1 large egg or 2 medium eggs, beaten at room temperature
2 tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp butter

For stuffing:
1 ounce cream cheese (softened)
1 ounce (~ 1 tbsp) raspberry jam or orange marmalade or jam of choice

For topping:
2 tsp butter, whipped
- 1/2 tsp confection sugar

- Mix cream cheese with the jam. Spread half of the mixture on to a slice and cover with another slice to make a sandwich. Repeat to make two sandwiches.
- Combine egg, cream, nutmeg in a bowl and mix well.
- Using a spoon spread half of the egg mixture on both faces and all sides of a sandwich. You can also dip the sandwich in the egg mixture but the first one may soak most of your egg mixture leaving little for the second sandwich and can also make the first one a bit soggy
- Melt 1/2 tsp butter in a nonstick pan and place the sandwich in the pan and toast well. Repeat on the other side of the sandwich using 1/2 tsp butter.
- While toasting the second sandwich, cut the first one in half or leave as is. Put a dollop of about 1 tsp softened butter in the center and sprinkle some confectioners sugar. Serve hot with fresh fruit (preferably the same fruit as used for the jam)
- Enjoy this delicious stuffed french toast. Use fresh (home made) jam for amazing taste

Chocolate Avocado Truffle

2010-04-13T22:09:00.000-07:00

Chocolates/truffles are a girl's best friend - Aren't they ? Despite loving them and enjoying my monthly FREE truffles from the King of Chocolate 'Godiva', I never ever dreamt of making them.

When I stumbled on to a chocolate avocado truffle recipe, I couldn't resist reading it and my eyes popped out - Can it be that easy? The truffles which I thought are from heaven, can they be born in my little kitchen? Yes they did with a vague similarity to making ladoo - oh yeah at least the shape!

Yield: 25-40 Truffles
Ingredients:
1 large avocado (really ripe)
1/2 cup butter
1+1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2+ 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
1+1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2 tbsp chopped nuts (optional)

Coating:
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp confectioner's sugar
2 tbsp shredded coconut

- Melt butter in a saucepan
- Remove pit of avocado, slice them, add 2 tbsp of melted butter and make a smooth puree in grinder or processor
- Once pureed (completely smooth), add it to the remaining melted butter, add vanilla extract (optional) and mix well
- Add cocoa to the mixture and mix well until cocoa is evenly distributed
- Add sugar to the above mixture and again mix well. The entire mixture will be very sticky so make sure everything is well blended.
- Refrigerate this mixture for 3-4 hrs or overnight
- Using a spoon or hand, take out small portions of the mixture and roll with your hands into round shapes for plain truffles
- For stuffed truffles, put chopped nuts or caramel sauce into the center and make a round shape
- For coating, put confectioner's sugar or cocoa or dried shredded coconuts in separate plates, and roll the truffles over them
- Store them in refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before serving

Frozen banana

2010-04-06T18:03:00.001-07:00

Summer is almost here and so are light colors and frozen desserts! How about a frozen Hawaiian banana adapted from a recipe by Clementine Paddleford (1898-1967) - the first journalist in American history who truly defined the American food. A jewel who brought freshness of food to the newspapers which were primarily sources of politics at that time.

I heard about her on a radio show while driving through North Carolina as someone who often piloted a piper club to travel around America to gather recipes from locals. The show was an interview of Kelly Alexander (who lives in NC) on her critically acclaimed biography Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate.

"At a time when few people in Philadelphia knew what enchiladas were and few in Chicago knew what cioppino was, Ms. Paddleford described them both in loving detail, along with New Orleans-style red beans and rice, Lindy's cheesecake and Hungarian-American stuffed cabbage from Cleveland," wrote the late R.W. Apple Jr., New York Times correspondent and food writer.

The recipe of this creamy dessert originally contained cream, banana, and sugar. My love for nuts forced me to add almonds without disturbing the visual purity :)

Serves 4
1 cup heavy cream
2 large or 4 baby bananes (ripe)
8 tsp sugar (more if you prefer)
6 tsp blanched and grounded almonds or 6 tsp crushed pine nuts

- Peel bananas and wrap wax papers around each one of them. Twist both ends of the wax paper for a tight seal and put inside the freezer for 3-4 hrs or overnight.
- Blanch 1/4 cup almonds and grind them in a food processor
- Freeze wide mouthed tall glasses or individual serving size small glass dishes for 5 mins
- Take out glasses from freeze and put 4 tsp cream in each glass
- Sprinkle 3/4 tsp of grounded almonds on top of the cream in each glass
- Take out bananas from freeze. Slice 1/2 of the small banana or 1/4 of a large banana into 1/8 thick slices and evenly spread them into the glass
- Sprinkle 1 tsp of white sugar on top of the sliced bananas
- Repeat another layer of cream (4 tsp), grounded almonds (3/4 tsp), banana (1/4 large or 1/2 small) and sugar (1tsp) in the glass
- Top with 4 tsp of cream again
- Decorate with a single 1/8 inch slice of banana in the center (checkout how the banana slice is smiling at you:) and serve immediately
- Feel free to increase or decrease quantities of any of the ingredient according to you taste.

Apple Cake

2010-04-04T16:46:00.000-07:00

I own a dozen or so books on cooking/baking. Some are gifted, some I bought, and others have interesting stories behind them. One such book in the later category is Walter C. Black School cookbook. People used to donate books at our Princeton apartment common room to share with other people for various reasons. Once I found this cooking/baking (spiral binding form) book which had a collection of very simple recipes by a community. I just loved the simplicity of recipes in this book which has about three recipes on a A8 (1/2 of A4) size page with 12pt font. Isn't it amazing ?

Anyways, it has couple of apple cake recipes and I have been making one of them (titled as 'Gran's Apple Cake') quite regularly. Every time I serve it to a group of friends or relatives, someone in the group always requested for the recipe:) I am very appreciative of the amount of apples in this recipe as at times I am put off by the huge apple chunks in apple cakes recipes. Well, someone else may like them for exactly that reason but somehow I prefer the thin slices. Enjoy the recipe below (adapted from the above mentioned source) in the morning with a cup of coffee or during your afternoon tea parties:)

Ingredients:
3 cup all purpose flour (Sifted)
2 cup sugar (or less if one prefers)
1 cup oil
4 large eggs (room temperature)
3 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 large apples or 4 small apples

Topping:
5 tsp sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

- In a bowl, sift the flour. Add sugar and baking powder to the flour and mix.
- In a separate bowl, lightly beat eggs, add oil, orange juice and stir.
- Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture to make the batter.
- Peel and thinly slice apples.
- For topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Pour half of the batter into a greased and floured 8X8 pan (or any other pan of choice).
- Add half of the topping mixture on the above mixture.
- Arrange half of the apple slices on the topping mixture.
- Add the remaining half of the batter mixture on apple slices and spread evenly.
- Add the topping and then arrange apple slices.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F for 50 to 60 minutes or readjust according to your oven type.

Orange Tian-Daring Baker's March Challenge

2010-03-31T12:33:00.001-07:00

Orange tian (March 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge) was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate savings. At first glance, this orange tian felt within my comfort zone because of its similarity with tarts but I knew that this feeling will certainly change soon:) I was particularly excited for this contest because we had an orange tree in our apartment complex and picking up oranges was a lot of fun!

I feel very happy to be part of the Daring Baker's group as I am slowly and steadily learning recipes which were far beyond my baking horizon. Five different pieces were needed to assemble the orange tian: Pate Sablee (pastry crust),marmalade, orange segments, caramel sauce, and whipped cream. The detailed recipes of these five pieces and subsequent assembly of orange tian can be found at the daring baker's website. In this recipe, I only replaced gelatin with equal quantity of guar gum. Out of all the pieces, the toughest for me was the caramel sauce in which I ended up burning the sugar during first trial as I had never made any type of caramel before.

After completing this challenge, I am a proud owner of pectin, guar gum, english muffin rings (special thanks to my dear friend Isha of The Intrepid Cook for the suggestion to use them to assemble the tian). Enjoy this delicious and light dessert which can be eaten any time of the day!

Banana Walnut Loaf - Cake or Bread ?

2010-03-30T12:23:00.001-07:00

One can find banana-walnut loaf at almost every cafe. This along with marble loaf cake are my favorite. Usually, I don't miss a chance to eat these calorie-devil's while pondering- Is this a cake or a bread? Regardless, a slice is perfect for breakfast with a fresh cup of coffee!

Apparently, this bread loaf exploded in households after the discovery of baking soda and baking powder in 1930's and perhaps have found a place in every baking cookbook ever since with certain twists - different nuts and chocolates. Recently, I tried a recipe published in Cuisinart bread maker booklet and really liked it as it was perfectly moist and had ingredients which can be found at any baker's pantry. Initially, I thought that its too moist in comparison to what I get in store's and after two days it tasted exactly like the store ones and I started thinking again - fresh ones surely taste different - Don't they?

Yield: 1 pound loaf
Ingredients:
Buttermilk: 1/4 cup (Add two and half tbsp water to one and half tbsp yogurt and then mix well if you don't have butter milk)
Unsalted butter: 1/3 cup (small pieces at room temperature)
Egg: 1 large at room temperature
Vanilla extract: 1tsp
Mashed Bananas: 1 cup (usually two ripe banana's)
Salt: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 2/3 cup
All purpose flour: 1 and 1/3 cup
Baking powder: 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: 3/4 tsp
Chopped walnuts: 1/2 cup

- Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar) in a bowl
- Mash ripe banana's to obtain about 1 cup
- Heat butter milk for 30 sec and add pieces of unsalted butter, egg, vanilla extract and mix everything together
- Add ripe banana and the mixture of dry ingredients to the butter milk mix.
- Mix everything together for 2-3 minutes
- Pour mixture in a greased 8X4 pan and bake at 325 F in a preheated oven for 60-75 minutes or until done
- Enjoy!

Eggless Prune Cake

2010-03-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

To diversify my baking portfolio, I wanted to learn how to bake an eggless cake :) I read about the "cake fever" which was spread by the eggless date cake in aayi's recipe. I looked into my refrigerator and found prunes instead of dates, so decided to try eggless prune cake with little modifications. Overall, it is an easy, tasty, and refreshing cake which I make quite frequently especially because of the 15 min preparation time.

Ingredients:
22 dried prunes (pitted)
1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
3 tbsp chopped walnuts
2 tbsp sliced toasted almonds

- In a processor, add prune, milk, and brown sugar. Grind to make a smooth paste
- Add baking soda, oil and walnuts to the processor. Pulse twice in the processor
- Sift flour in a bowl. Add the above paste to the flour and mix everything
- Grease a 8X8 pan and add the above mixture to the pan
- Decorate top with slices of toasted almonds
- Bake for 35-40 min at 350 F until done
- Spread the cake fever!

Mango or Strawberry Sandesh

2010-03-14T20:21:00.001-07:00

When I am hosting a party, I am most excited about the dessert. However, I can't really ignore the main food and at the same time don't really want to serve store bought desserts either. As a result, I always find myself looking for dessert options which are easy to make.

A twist to traditional Sandesh (a Bengali sweet) is a good solution especially during summers. I usually make mango sandesh but I tried strawberry sandesh recently as the farmer's market is flooded with ripe and tasty strawberries. Enjoy this refreshing recipe!

Ingredients:
1/2 gallon milk (2%)
juice of 1 lemon
4 tbsp sugar (or more if you have a sweet tooth)
8-10 ripe strawberries or 2-3 ripe mangoes (thinly sliced)

- Boil milk and add juice of 1 lemon to the boiling milk to make paneer (Indian cheese)
- Soon, water and paneer will separate. Switch off the gas and drain-off excess water and keep paneer
- Add sugar to the paneer and taste. You can add more sugar if you like.
- Take a 8X4 pan (or 4 individual small bowls) and make a thin layer in the pan using half of the paneer mixture. Make sure that you spread it evenly and the pan is fully covered. If you feel that you are not able to cover the entire pan - use a smaller pan.
- Prepare a second layer using sliced ripe strawberries or mangoes on top of the paneer layer (you might be putting two layers, one on top of other, of strawberries depending upon the thikcness of ur slices. Make sure that the mangoes or strawberries taste good)
- Finally, spread the third layer with the remaining paneer mixture
- Cover the pan with foil or plastic wrap and keep this in the refrigerator to set for 2 hrs or in freezer for 1 hr
- Cut into 4 pieces and serve :)

Muhammara - Remembering Turkey

2010-03-11T23:55:00.001-08:00

Like Guacamole for Mexicans, Chimichurri for Argentinians, Hummus for Middle Easterns, Muhammara (a walnut and red bell pepper dip) is for Turks. Now, I don't remember why we zeroed down for a vacation in Turkey (couple of years back) but it was an excellent idea! Baklava, Turkish apple tea, historical monuments, Turkish delights, Turkish carpets, Turkish Haman's and the people ---oh I want to go again......

Like in India, street food was big in Istanbul with slight differences like roasted chestnuts on roadside instead of peanuts and baklava shops instead of sweet shops. We went wild with ten thousand varieties of Baklava in a single shop and ended up stuffing 1 KG of Baklava within 10 mins after a full meal. Even though main attraction of their food are perhaps kabab's, mezze (aka Tapas) are predominately the vegetarian attractions. Turkish breakfasts are also quite unique serving apricot, Turkish toast and coffee, their special light feta cheese, olives etc. A very famous saying is "Once you drink a Turkish Coffee you will not forget it for 30 years". We were fortunate to have it at Crazy Ali's (an antique shop owner) who claimed that we won't forget his coffee for 40 years - I totally agree!

On our return, we often craved for that food (its strange how eating something for a week can make you crave for it for the lifetime). Back in Philly, my PhD co-advisor (who is from Turkey) invited me over for an evening snack and I got reminded of all the great Turkish delicacies and immediately asked her where I can buy them. Soon after, we were at a deli owned by a Turk who also kept Turkish groceries in the back of the store. This well of happiness prompted us to throw a house warming party in which we only served Turkish food. Considering our liking for Turkish food, my co-advisor also introduced us to a small Turkish cafe - Fulya (owned by a mother and a daughter). It became a good hangout place and where we even hosted a PhD graduation and Birthday party for Sid before biding farewell to Philly.

Coming back to Muhammara, I researched several recipes and each one had their own twists like Indian dishes. After an extensive review and several trials with different ratios and steps, here is my version of the recipe:

Yield: 1 cup
Ingredients:
1 medium onion (chopped, big pieces)
1 and half large red bell pepper (chopped, big pieces)
1 red dry chilli
1/3 cup walnuts
2 tbsp bread crumbs
5-6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp red pepper
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp pine nuts

- Heat oil in a pan. Add dry red chill and onions and saute them for 5 mins
- Add red bell pepper and saute for 10 more mins
- Add cumin, red pepper, salt, bread crumbs and saute for 5 mins
- Switch off gas and add walnuts and let cool for 10 mins
- Grind the above mixture in a grinder and serve with pine nuts in center
- Enjoy it with pita or as sandwich spread

Almond Butter and the Extensions!

2010-03-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

Almond is one of the most versatile nut in the families of nuts. Many Indian kids eat almonds (soaked overnite) every morning to increase their brain power (however I am yet to find any scientific study behind that until then I would assume that its a strategy used by parents to make the kids eat almonds). Anyways, other than their brain enhancing powers, I like almond (Badam) Burfi and badam halwa which are common desserts in India. Marzipan is probably the counterpart of badam halwa in Europe and US wherein its used in chocolates, tarts, cake decorations and what not!

My most recent learning about almonds is Almond Butter which is probably the simplest butter recipe of all time only if you have a good grinder (please note - Not a blender) otherwise it may lead to undesirable results.

Yield: ~ 3/4 cup almond butter
- Roast one cup almonds in oven at 300 F for ten minutes
- Put almonds in the grinder, add 1/4 tsp sea salt and grind for a while (approximately 5-10 mins depending upon the power of your grinder) with occasional stirring of the ingredients with spatula to avoid them from sticking on to the walls of the grinder
- Soon you will notice that almond mixture leaves oil and the mixture will transition from a dry fine mixture (also called almond meal) to a paste looking consistency which is essentially the almond butter
- Enjoy it on toasts, scones, sandwiches etc...

The classic butter making phenomenon doesn't end here:) Extend this for pecan, walnut, pine nut, and cashew butter and of course don't forget the classic peanut butter. Also, feel free to mix two or more nuts to a get a fusion nut butter.

Blood Orange Salad

2010-03-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

Well, the farmers started having blood oranges in the farmer's market recently. This week's recipe by Allegra McEvedy in Guardian about blood orange salad caught my attention. I had tried the vegetarian Moroccan pie by Allegra from her clickalong recipe series which I totally loved.

My increasing fascination for salads and a reliable source for recipe left no option but to try the blood oranges. Why the name- Blood orange ? Only because you have blood all over your hands when you work with these oranges:) Enjoy this seasonal recipe from Guardian. I replaced butter beans with fava beans and used some seasonal salad leaves instead of watercress.

Scones

2010-03-01T12:24:00.001-08:00

Many would agree that most of the food that is just taken out of the oven tastes thousand times better than when it sits on the counter for two hours or more but scones taste billion times better when they are just taken out of the oven.

This is an all time favorite recipe because of its inverse relationship between the effort and the taste. I have been using this Scotland to Savoy to US Scones recipe for quite some time and have been super-delighted with the outcome every time. Since, I don't have sour cream usually in my refrigerator, I always replace that with the equal amount of plain yogurt. One can make all sorts of variation to this recipe by using different types of nuts or cheese. These are perfect for a brunch menu or can be eaten alone with jam.

Tiramisu -Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-02-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

When I had first made Tiramisu couple of years back, it wasn't remotely close to Tiramisu in looks however it tasted okay. I decided to give it another try when the Daring's Bakers Challenge for Feb was rolled out wherein the challenge was to make Tiramisu including ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

I had all the doubts about making the mascarpone cheese but the real trouble turned out to be the ladyfingers. Most of it was because I didn't know what it meant when they say "beat white eggs until stiff peaks appear". After an unsuccessful attempt and watching how stiff peaks look on youtube, I started my journey all over again. White eggs can be beaten to foamy stage, soft peaks, and stiff (hard) peaks. Pay careful attention to the demand of the recipe!

After resolving the mystery about eggs, I was able to put together the different pieces of the Tiramisu puzzle which was mind blowing. One of the other excitement about this recipe is that I can even try to make it in India as I don't have to figure out where to get the lady finger biscuits and mascarpone cheese from.

For the detailed recipe, visit Aparna's and/or Deepa's blog who co-hosted the event and special thanks to both of them!

Rajasthani Churma

2010-02-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

While growing up, I ate this delicious churma made by my mom quite frequently. I have heard stories about how churma's were made either by hand or by huge wooden mortar and pestle when grinder's were not available easily and of course they used to taste so much better.

This is all time favorite dish of my brother. Now, one of the main excitements for Sid when he visits Jaipur or when my mom is visiting us is to eat this churma made by her. Below is the recipe of churma originally from mom and also adapted by my brother:)

Yield ~ 4 cup Churma
Ingredients
2 cup wheat flour
6 tbsp ghee (purified butter)
2/3 cup superfine sugar (white or brown)
1/3 cup almonds
1/3 cup cashews
1/3 cup kismis (sultana) optional

- Make dough with 2 cups of wheat flour and 3 tbsp of purified butter (ghee) using approximately 1/2-3/4 cup water (or as needed).
- Make three thick rotis out of the dough and cook them at a slow flame first on the tava and then directly on the gas.
-In a good quality small grinder, break the roti into pieces and grind them one at a time.
- Add sugar and 3 tbsp of ghee to the grounded rotis and mix everything.
- Grind almonds, cashews, kismis (optional) separately and add them to the above mixture.
- Mix everything again and your churma is taiyaar. It can be kept in the freeze for a week.

Nani ki Mathri

2010-02-24T22:49:00.001-08:00

My all time favorite snack in Indian cuisine is Mathri and as you can imagine, I have tried to sample them in every possible chance. One can make different variation's of mathri with varying proportion's of all purpose flour(Maida)/oil/water. However, it is indeed quite difficult to make the "soft" mathri's which melt in your mouth. Mathri's made by my naniji-in-law fall in the category of "melt-in-mouth" and are undoubtedly the best I have tried so far. Enjoy this recipe from Naniji:

Yield: 25-30 mathri
Ingredients:
1.5 cup All purpose flour (Maida)
1/4 cup oil for dough
3/8-1/2 cup warm water
1/4-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ajwain
1/2-1 cup oil for frying

In a wide& deep plate (parat), mix salt, ajwain, flour and 1/4 cup oil. Rub this mixture with hands for about 10-15 minutes. More you rub, more oil will be absorbed by flour and less water will be needed to make the final dough.

Sprinkle small amount of luke warm water and slowly rub the dough between your palms. If you prefer, divide the dough into three portions and work with individual portion. Once all the water is used, divide the entire dough into 25-30 equal parts. Finally rub each of the parts and slightly roll with a rolling pin to get 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. Keep aside all the rolled parts.

Now heat oil in a frying pan at low flame, put 6-10 mathri's in the pan depending upon its size. Fry until golden (~ five mins) and then increase the flame and quickly turn them in oil until slightly red in color and take them out. Decrease the flame again and repeat for all the batches. Make sure that they are cooked at low flame otherwise they will be uncooked from inside.

PS: you can use the same recipe with slightly more water (1/4-1/2 cup extra depending upon the crispiness you like) and roll them really thin for making the semi crisp papri for papri chat.

Chocolate-coated Strawberries

2010-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

Chocolate coated strawberries are perfect example of "practice makes a man perfect". I first ate Chocolate Coated Strawberries at my PhD Advisor's place and they certainly looked exotic. I was told that they are easy to make. After several attempts, I finally feel that they are easy to make:)

Below are some tips/steps that would make it easier: (Yield -10 Large or 20 small strawberries)
- Wash strawberries and dry them thoroughly by paper towel.
- Use double boiler (I don't have one) or create one using a wide & deep pan and a steel bowl which fits well onto the circumference of the pan. Add 2-3 cups of water in the pan (make sure that the bowl fits well and is not floating. If water is in excess,remove some) and start boiling it without the bowl. When water starts boiling, put the bowl on the pan and turn off the gas after two minutes. Add 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips/chunk (I use nestle brand).
- You will notice that chocolate starts melting soon. Stir the chocolate couple of times with a spoon until completely melted. It should not take more than 5 mins. Now you can quickly start coating the strawberries
- Insert a wooden BBQ stick on the top of stawberry and dip it about three-quarter of the way and put it on a plate covered with wax paper. Repeat it for all the strawberries. You can approximately make 10 big strawberries or 20 small one with this.
-Put the plate in the refrigerator for 30 mins to an hour. Take them out and they are ready to serve.

Postdoc Salad

2010-02-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

In princeton U. cafeteria, salad bar use to sell salad with title: Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD salad where one could choose 2, 3, 5 ingredients, respectively. The postdoc salad is our own extension of the series with 7 or more ingredients and its eaten quite frequently for lunch during weekdays. Make sure that individual ingredients taste good for a superb salad!

Serves: 4 for appetizer or 2 for lunch

Salad Ingredients:
3 cups organic spring mix
1 ripe avocado
1 big tomato or 4-5 grape tomatoes
1 seedless cucumber
4-5 small mozzarella balls
1/2 cup sprouts (lentils, onion or fenugreek)
1 big orange or two tangerines
1/4 cup grapes
3-4 strawberries
2 tbsp nuts (cashew or pine nuts)
2 tbsp sweet nuts (resins or cranberries)

Dressing: Balsamic Vinaigrette
4 tbsp extra virgin oil
1 and 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 garlic minced
salt to taste
pepper to taste

- add all the ingredients of the dressing in a small bowl and mix with fork
- mix all the ingredients of salad in a big bowl except dressing, avocado and mozzarella
- add dressing to the big bowl when you are about to eat the salad and toss everything together
- finally add the mozzarella cheese & avocado and slightly toss again. Your salad is ready to be served!

PS. Make sure that you add dressing only when you are about to eat the salad. If traveling or at work, replace dressing with pure olive oil and it still tastes great

PPS. Remove or add any other ingredients (boiled chickpeas, radish etc) according to your taste and make sure that there are at least five ingredients and not more than ten.

Mexican Tapas: La Super-Rica

2010-02-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

La Super-Rica Taqueria is a Mexican shack and probably the most famous restaurant in SB. Several times, I have been to this place two nights in a row. The highlights are the hand made mini tortilla's which form the base for most of the dishes and are made in front of the customers using the poori maker:)

After one of the satisfying meal at La Super-Rica, we were lucky to ran into its Chef in a mexican super market across the street and ended up buying "Masa-The instant corn flour". Enjoy pictures of the homemade Tortilla, Gorditas De Frijol (aka mexican bean kachori), Chile con queso, Hongos y chile con queso (our own creation) and Guacamole.

Homemade Tortilla Recipe
Yield: 12 small corn tortilla
Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cup Instant Masa Corn Flour
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
one pinch baking soda

- Mix salt, flour, baking soda and milk. Make dough and let it sit for 15-20 mins.
- Divide dough into 12 equal parts.
- Put wax paper inside tortilla press. Use the press to flatten out all the 12 tortillas
- Cook tortillas on hot pan for about 1-2 min on each side. Enjoy the supersoft homemade tortilla.

Lemon Squares

2010-02-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

If you have a "lemony tooth" and have less than twenty minutes for preparation, you got to try these lemon squares. I usually add a drop of vanilla extract in eggs to dilute their aroma and also reduce sugar by 1/2 cup in the filling. Once you get a hang of the base, you can replace lemon filling with caramelized almonds, pecan meal and many more.

Beetroot and bramley soup

2010-01-31T01:09:00.001-08:00

I must admit that I am not a big fan of beetroot. However, this time of the year its hard to avoid beetroot at the Santa Barbara Farmer's market. Soups don't remind you of their ingredients, at least visually. Therefore, I proudly admit that my only contribution to this post is to search for a recipe and rest goes to my collaborator "Sid", who insisted on buying beets!

Pizza

2010-01-31T00:53:00.001-08:00

In memories of uncountable pizzas from Conte's (Princeton) and Giafranco (Philly)!

Moroccan filo pie

2010-01-28T21:49:00.000-08:00

Simple and amazing recipe with full of middle eastern flavors which can be made in an hour! Make sure that you get your units right:) Perfect way to use the six sheets of left over phyllo dough after making baklava.

Popovers

2010-01-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

I ate popovers for the first time at the Popover cafe in NYC with some berry butter. Its interesting that popovers are really puffed up when you are about to take them out of the oven but its kind of difficult to maintain that status even for a minute. Need to figure that out!!! Perhaps popover pan can solve the problem.

Falafel from scratch

2010-01-18T14:18:00.000-08:00

Maoz falafel were haunting me since we moved from Philly. Dede's recipe for hummus was amazing and her falafel recipe was on the "try out" list for a long time. Ankita and Neha were visiting us for the long weekend and it seemed perfect to try out Falafel from scratch while remembering Philly:)

Falafel adventure led to many more where Sid, Ankita, Neha and I ended up spending a lot of time in Kitchen & watching classic movies in breaks (or vice versa) with numerous thanks to stormy SB weather! The other adventures were Crossiant, Mapo Tofu and Shushi and will be posting them soon.

Croissant - The little Chef

2010-01-15T12:03:00.003-08:00

Princeton has a small pastry shop called "The Little Chef". Many would agree that this is probably one of the best pastry shop for croissant, scones and many other delicacies which I don't even know names of.

Somehow, I thought of learning croissant from the Chef of "The Little Chef". It took me almost a year to convience him that I am serious about it. Finally (Fighter hamesha jitta hai), I was asked to report at 6am on a "freezing" Saturday morning at the shop as croissant and scones are baked fresh in the morning.

It was indeed an interesting experience. For the first time, I was on the other side of the counter in a Pastry shop baking/learning stuff and watching different ppl who came to the shop (Apprantely most of them were regular customer on Saturday mornings). Croissant needs a lot of planning (almost 10 hrs for different steps) and most of it needs to be completed the previous day/night if one wants to eat them in the breakfast!!! So far my frequency for baking them has been annually and I still don't have a good control over the shape but they taste great!!! Thanks Little Chef!!!!

Cherry Tart

2010-01-07T17:53:00.001-08:00

Cherry Tart with pecan base and fresh cherry's. A small twist to pecan tart - replacing pecans with cherries on the top - filling is still pecan based. Will upload the recipe soon. Miam-miam !!

Fruit Cake -Spicy Loaf

2010-01-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

Spicy loaf cake! Can't believe that coriander is among ingredients. Enjoy this recipe by a 4th generation French Pastry Chef.

Hummus

2010-01-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

After multiple unsuccessful attempts at making Hummus along with making Tahini, I finally gave up on Tahini. Little did I know that all the trouble was Tahini. Some things are better store bought :) Enjoying the homemade hummus ever since...

Baklava - Heaven on earth!

2010-01-07T12:09:00.001-08:00

I had no idea one can make Baklava at home until I ate some made by Guillaume. Since then I have made it number of times and it doesn't last for more than two days!!!

Potato Anna - Julia Child's recipe

2010-01-07T12:05:00.001-08:00

My love for Potatoes and browsing on "Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child" got me excited about Potato Anna. They were amazing!

Cannoli - Daring Baker's Challenge

2010-01-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Chrismas Special - Cannoli making experience as a participant of Daring Baker's Competition was amazing. Thanks to Isha for introducing me to Daring Baker's Challenge.