Chicken Kofta Curry - Day 7

Apologies for the bad picture. It doesn't speak at all about the melt-in-your-mouth quality of these koftas or the mellow taste of coconut milk, studded with cashews. It was a hurried weeknight dinner, thrown together with pantry staples and there just wasn't enough time to find a good angle. Hunger won over the desire to capture the image satisfactorily.

I used the chicken meatballs recipe from this previous post. I had made and frozen a batch the previous week. They were dunked in a simple curry of coconut milk and fresh ginger-garlic paste and scooped up with store bought naans. I really don't remember the proportion, but for the sake of the recipe am going to put down what I think is right. You can adjust your seasoning as you go along.

Chicken Kofta Curry

1/2 can coconut milk
1 onion, chopped real fine or made into paste
2-3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
2-3 small green chilies
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp nigella seeds
pinch of turmeric
1/2 cup yogurt
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cashews, grind some to paste and fry the rest
chopped coriander leaves.

Heat some ghee in a kadai, splutter the jeera and nigella seeds and fry the onion paste and ginger-garlic paste. Add the green chilies, cashew paste, yogurt and both milks. Let the mixture boil for a while and add the cumin and coriander powder. Slide in the meatballs/koftas. Take the curry off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves and fried cashews.

Congrats marathoners! We did it...7 days, 7 recipes. A vacation, a houseful of guests and dozens of pending chores, we still managed to get our posts in by midnight. It feels wonderful to have done it with such a enthusiastic group. Like Nupur said, this helped me clean up my drafts folder and usher in the new year on a clean slate.
I loved your comments and the hurried look I got at your posts. I look forward to getting to read even more in 2010!

Wish you and yours a very happy new year.

Nectarines- a slice of summer- Day 6

There's that time of the year again, where we buy into hype and believe we can change our lives by making resolutions - resolutions that, if you are anything like me, will never come into effect. Nevertheless, I persevere. This year I resolve to quit my whining about winter and simply learn to appreciate the joy of fresh snow, festive spirit, winter sales, cozy sweaters and leafless tress...err, we were talking about the good things about winter, right?
I love the romance of piping hot soups and hearty stews in cold weather- in theory. Its hard to feel this kind towards my least favorite season of the year, when the wind knocks your breath out, your nose turns a shade of purple that would be fetching if it weren't a body part and you need half an hour to thaw after venturing out for ten minutes. I can see the armies of winter-defenders forming right now, 'but its all snow and magic and hot chocolate and more crap'; it is also shoveling till your arms fall off, getting stuck in wicked storms, wearing ten thousand layers of clothes to get your mail and an understanding that you will lose sensation in your toes and fingers within minutes of stepping out of the house.
Have I mentioned that I'm not a winter person yet? Coz' I'm not. Not by a long shot, while the foodie in me rejoices at the changes in eating habits, my summer diet could keep me happy all year round.

Dear Winter
While I see the charm in cuddling in a blanket on a cold night, I don't appreciate freezing my butt off when said blanket is not an option. Also, I don't like it that granny thermals have replaced, umm other stuff, for sexy nights with the husband. All those people writing odes to fresh snow and singing about the romance of winter can stuff it. I want coke with ice, moisture beads forming on the glass, dingy fan stirring up stale air, sweaty armpits airing through sleeveless cotton blouses, melting puddles of kulfi, pepsi cola in plastic tubes, short shorts and tank tops, dusty beams of bright sunlight, all night card games in the garden with mosquitoes, the smell of mangoes ripening in hay, glasses of freshly churned buttermilk, shimmering tar roads in the afternoon sun...everything that is not winter. So, you can keep your lovely winter squash and give me back my sunny days.
Thanks,
Manasi

Now you (and I) see how my resolutions always end up. What brought this rant on was an extremely windy day in NYC, and the fact that I didn't have adequate winter gear. Also, I spied these photos in my drafts folder, of a summer characterised by my indulgent diet of fresh fruits. I haven't met a fruit I didn't like. And summer gave me a chance to pluck and eat some straight off the trees/vines. I ate them raw, sticky juices running down my chin, baked into pies, dumped into salads, sprinkled with sugar and sometimes salt.

This nectarine cake and the nectarine pie bring me memories of my summer. Just look at the sunshiny nectarine upside-down cake. Look how pretty the colors are! I used my tried and tested upside down cake recipe from Susan, simply substituting the nectarines for pineapples.

I also made this pie after I polished off the cake. Its a basic pie, with a rustic homemade quality. I suspect that comes from my lack of experience at making pie crust. I used this recipe and followed it without any substitutions. I'm not going to repost the pie crust recipe since I didn't make any changes to it. For the nectarines, I simply did mixed them with some sugar and spices and stuffed the pie crust.

Nectarine pie

3-4 nectarines

2 tbsp flour

1 tbsp butter

2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon powder

Skin the nectarines, halve and pit them. Mix them with the sugar, butter, flour, vanilla and cinnamon and keep aside for a bit.

Line a pan with the rolled out pie crust and blind bake it for about 10 mins. Pour the nectarine filling in, the nectarine with their flat side down, cover with another sheet of pie crust and bake for another 20-25 mins at 350 degrees till the crust is light gold and looks done. Make some slits in the top crust or use a pie bird to prevent it from exploding in your oven. Serve warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream.

I couldn't get around to reading any posts from the marathoners, but I will before tomorrow. And no, this is not another resolution, just an intense desire to read what you guys have been posting. We are almost at the finish line now, and it feels wonderful!

Butterscotch Cherry Blondies- Day 5

What could compare to the seductive power of brownies, with their fudgy chewy insides and the dark chocolatey goodness? How about it's equally alluring cousin, the blondie? Often relegated to the status of a brownie without chocolate, the blondie relies on dark sugar for a lingering sweetness. Tart dried cherries prevent it from being one note, and butterscotch chips provide the requisite bite. Drizzled with agave syrup (this girl loves her sugar), they turned out perfectly moist and very very addictive.
I used a version of this basic blondie recipe from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from How to cook everything. Like SK says, this is an infinitely adaptable one, I can imagine this with all kinds of nuts, chocolate chips, chunks, some amaretto; or you could just keep it plain and enjoy the star of the show- the deep, complex flavor of brown sugar.

Butterscotch, cherry blondies

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter
1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Mix the brown sugar with the melted butter and whisk till it is blended nicely. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the dry ingredients- the flour, salt and baking powder, soda. Stir in the chopped cherries and butterscotch chips and pour in a greased pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins or till a cake tester comes out clean. You will smell this dessert before you taste it...the bouquet of molasses and butter is quite irresistible.
Pull it out of the oven and drizzle some agave syrup while it is still warm. If you want neat bite size pieces with sharp corners, let cool and then cut into pieces. If you are anything like me, you will eat it warm, right out of the pan, crumbs be damned.

I'll be back from my vacation tomorrow and will respond to comments and catch up with all fellow marathoners. My google reader is overflowing and I'm so psyched about reading all the entries!

Rice Walnut Risotto- Day 4

Rice kheer is no friend of mine. Most of my attempts to make rice pudding resulted in something akin to doodh-bhaat, and not the creamy concoction I desired. Probably because I never took to rice kheer the way I love my seviyaan. Growing up kheer always meant seviyaan- roasted in homemade ghee, sweetened with khoya and garnished with plump, golden raisins and meant to be scooped up with fluffy, hot puris. Well, then I got married and discovered the East Indian kheeri- made with boiled rice, something I didn't quite care for. It took several long years for me to make peace with the hubby's idea of kheer. Even then the rice sensed my hesitation and simply refused to turn into the rich dessert I envisioned. I tried cooking it in the rice cooker, as one recipe advised, cooking it all day on a low flame, adding khoya, condensed milk, roasting the rice, heirloom recipes culled from secretive grandmothers...just about every tip in the book. It just did not work, the kheer was too watery, too thick, the rice lacking any flavor or texture. And then, when I had all but given up, there seemed one trick I hadn't tried yet. This came after a satisfying mushroom risotto dinner, the rice was cooked so perfectly and every mouthful exploded with flavor. So why not cook the kheer like risotto? I love risotto...the starch from the rice binding the dish in gluey deliciousness. Warm, undoubtedly creamy and rich, it would slide down the gullet as only comfort food can. So this risotto was born out of a desire to make the perfect rice kheer...and it happily evolved into something I could call pudding or risotto and not betray my beloved seviyaan.

Rice Walnut Risotto?
2-3 tsp ghee

1/2 cup Arborio rice

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

5 cups milk

1 cup condensed milk

1/2 cup sugar

a couple of pinches of saffron

2-3 pods of cardamom

1 tbsp raisins

The secret to a good risotto is technique and patience. You need to give the rice time to release its starch slowly. Its easier than it sounds though. I used Arborio rice, which is used in traditional risottos, its a lovely starchy long grain that lends itself nicely to this dessert and is available more readily than the other varieties.

To start, pour the milk in a pan with the cardamom and put it on low heat till the milk starts bubbling gently. Dissolve the sugar in the hot milk, add the condensed milk to it and keep it on a gentle simmer till you finish cooking. Add the saffron strands to the milk mixture.

Toast the rice on ghee till it is slightly translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped walnuts and toast them too. Add a ladle of hot milk and stir the rice till the milk is absorbed. Then add another ladleful. Keep doing this till you finish the milk and the rice is cooked through. Keep stirring and cook the rice on low to medium heat.

Risotto gets a bad rap for being notoriously difficult to cook at home, but I find it pretty forgiving. Just make sure the liquid in the pan is all absorbed before you pour in more and you should be good.

This risotto had a wonderful mouthfeel with the nutty walnuts and sweet raisins, and the rice...the rice was infused with most delicate hints of saffron and cardamon. I garnished with slivered almonds, you could eat it out of the pan, on a cold winter night.

This one is for day 4 of the marathon. I am back from my vacation and will check your posts tomorrow. Thanks for the comments, you guys know just what to say to make a girl happy.

Quinoa Hash Browns- Day 3

A disappointing brunch at the over hyped Public yielded this surprise; a quick search on the interwebz turned up the original recipe by Chef Brad Farmerie.
Without much ado...

Quinoa Hash Browns

1 cup quinoa
3-4 medium potatoes, grated
salt-pepper to taste
2 small green chilies
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 cup chopped parsley

Squeeze the grated potatoes and get as much moisture out as you possibly can.
Grind the quinoa in the food processor to a rough powder. Mix it with the potatoes and add the seasonings.
Line a baking dish with parchment paper and pour the mixture in, patting it down firmly. Cover with another piece of paper and bake for about 25 mins in a 450 degree oven. Cool and keep it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, cut the baked quinoa-potatoes into squares and shallow fry till golden brown.

This is such an interesting twist to regular old hash browns, the rough ground quinoa grain making it a wonderfully rustic and hearty addition to the brunch menu. Baking the mixture beforehand also took all the moisture out of the potatoes resulting in the crunchiest hash browns I've ever had. I still maintain that Public is over hyped and you don't need to pay 20 dollars for these babies, mixing them at night and frying them up for breakfast was easier than writing this post!
Day 3 in sunny Miami and I'm still managing to keep up with the marathon. Thanks Nupur for bringing some much needed discipline into my routine,and Sheetal for doubling my enthusiasm by joining the marathon! I will do some extra long posts when I get back.

Blood Orange Cake- Day 2

This marathon thing is such a rush! A big thanks to Nupur for thinking this up; blogging every day is a great way to get back into the groove. Gone are the much abused excuses of 'no time', 'I'll do it tomm' 'hit a bloggers block' and other stuff I come with to explain my procrastination. Now I wake every day knowing there is something on my to-do list that I love doing! And I love sharing this with fellow bloggers, the sense of a shared goal making this mad rush all the more fun!

Today I've got another recipe from my summer, a citrus cake to continue the sugar rush. I knew I had to taste this fruit when I heard the name, how can you resist something called a blood orange! I've never met a fruit I didn't like, but I do have this thing for the fresh, juicy and tart delights of citrus fruits. So when I saw these beautiful crimson-fleshed oranges at the farmer's market, I did something typical of me and picked up more fruits than I could count. I managed to make a serious dent in the first few days, enjoying them plain and then with my last batch made this cake.





I used Ina Garten's lemon cake recipe as a guideline for this one, simply substituting the lemon with blood orange. And yes Ina, I used only good vanilla and picked my own fruit from my massive orchard in Hamptons. Not really, but say what you will about Ina and her Hamptons, her recipes are foolproof. I also used olive oil in place of the butter, not because I worry about the calories or anything, just because I wanted to see if it works. It did, wonderfully.




1 cup olive oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs (at room temperature)
1/3 cup grated orange zest
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup blood orange juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Mix the olive oil and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time. Add the orange zest and essence. Sift the dry ingredients- flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and keep it. Mix the buttermilk with the juice and then add the dry and wet mixtures to the oil-sugar-eggs mixture alternately. Ina suggests doing this by beginning and ending with the flour. I followed her instructions and it sure beats dumping in the entire flour at once and then wrestling with your mixer to keep it from flying everywhere.


The batter is enough for two 8 inch loaf pans. I baked mine in one round pan and one in a bundt pan, it turned out fine. Bake at 350 degrees in a pre heated oven for 45 mins,or until a toothpick comes out clean.


Glaze and syrup


Mix 1/2 cup of the orange juice with 1/2 cup of sugar and cook it over a low heat till the sugar dissolves. Just like simple syrup. Pour this syrup on the cakes and let it absorb.
For the glaze, mix some juice with confectioner's sugar and drizzle over the cakes.

It was a moist, crumby cake with an added dimension of flavor due to the tart oranges; the crimson color of the juice staining it a shade of pretty, I'll let the picture speak. Speaking of which, the cake was demolished within seconds of taking this carefully set up picture.

Thanks guys for the comments, I'm on a vacation right now and can't wait to get back and read your posts!

Gulkand Malai Kulfi- Recipe Marathon Day 1

I understand how people get attached to their blogs. Its so much more than a virtual space, a friend who waits for you, ungrudging, while you deal with your life. Never judging or criticising, just asking for a visit, every once in a while. Yeah, I can see how that bond has power over me.

It has been silent on the cooking front for a while now, my indulgent cooking giving way to quick fix meals and more often than not, a hurried slice of pizza in the school cafeteria.

However, what better way to finish the year off than with a return to the old lifestyle with Nupur's Recipe Marathon!

7 days, 7 recipes, 28 (at the last count) participants!

Here is a recipe that was languishing in my folder for a while now. I made it when summer was on its way out and leaves were already changing color. Rich and creamy with the wonderful floral notes from dried rose petals, its a dessert I crave just as much in the brutal NY winters too. Gulkand is somewhat like a preserve made from dried rose petals and sugar, one of those rare things that are good for you that also taste good. I love it plain, but the I have to admit that the kulfi is sinfully delicious.

I used a modified version of this recipe from Allrecipes, although you can hardly go wrong with just Gulkand, cream and a little bit of sugar. Also, it was just enough for two, you might want to bump up the measurements if you are serving more.

1 cup evaporated milk

2 cups light cream

4-5 tablespoons Gulkand

2 drops Rose essence.

I skipped the bread and any other flavors in the Kulfi; I wanted it to taste like the creamier version of Gulkand but you could add cardamom. Boil the cream, add Gulkand, stir in evaporated milk and rose essence and chill. Try some heavy cream if you are feeling brave, and sugar if you like your desserts extra sweet. And that's it!

The process is simple but the star ingredient can be a little elusive, so if you can't arm twist anybody from India to carry Gulkand for you, I have seen some canned stuff in Indian stores. Having never tried it, I can't really vouch for it, but its sugar and rose petals. That combination cannot be wrong!

So, hope you have a fantastic holiday season and I will see you tomorrow for Day 2 of the marathon!

Peas parathas

There is no story behind this one, just a wickedly awesome recipe. We are apparently all out of words today. A dozen drafts have been written and summarily dismissed, and in the process this recipe has been languishing in the drafts folder for decades. Something as stellar as this paratha deserves a better write up, but maybe something with so much going for it can speak for itself.
I can't spin a yarn to save my life, but I can vouch for the utter harmony of the sweet peas and freshly scraped coconut merging with some hot green chilies, the lovely green hue intensified by the earthy coriander leaves and the pleasure of dipping a hot, butter-browned paratha in some cold, sweet dahi (yogurt) with the malai* strands intact. So, on to just one of the recipes that was sure to have launched some pot bellies in the household.

Green peas paratha


Stuffing

Green peas, 2 cups
Ginger, grated
Shallot, 1
Shredded Coconut, 1/2 cup
Green chillies, adjust according to the level of desired heat, chopped superfine
Fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Coriander powder
Cumin powder
Anaardana
Salt

Heat some oil in a kadai, add the shallot and fry it for a minute or so till it softens. Add the peas, ginger and cook till the peas go soft too. If you are using fresh peas, this might take longer than the frozen ones. Pull it off the heat, mix in the masalas and grind everything together. Do not add any water. Its ok if a couple of peas remain whole. Wring all the liquid out of the coconut and add it to the ground mixture. Throw in the coriander leaves and call it a day.
Well, actually no, make little stuffing balls, or not. If the stuffing is too loose, your parathas will be difficult to roll out. You could add in some mashed potato or paneer to remedy that.
Roll out your usual paratha dough and proceed to make parathas just so.

* It still mystifies me that many people find malai yucky, I, for one, used to scrape it of the bottom of the pan after my mom finished her nigthly ritual of boiling the milk one final time. I scoop it up and dunk it in my tea, spread it on a fresh roti with some sugar, and am generally just happy to eat it by the spoonfuls. If you have never had malai dahi, you just don't know what you are missing!

PS. On an unrelated note:

This post by Varsha really made me sad. Bloggers are a tightly knit community, food bloggers even more so. Who else but our fellow blogger would understand our insane desire to recreate easily acquired restaurant food at home, the painstaking effort that goes into clicking dinner while the the hungry husband/wife grumbles, the joy and fulfillment of an afternoon spend in the kitchen. We read each other, give feedback, offer tips and generally behave like a civilized, loving family. Accusations of plagiarism create serious rifts in this community. When it comes to food, its tricky to prove the accusation unless there is a direct word-to-word lift of the entire content. Surely, I'm not the first one to bake a cake, so my recipe of a cake would be, needless to say, filched from a cookbook, magazine, cooking show, an aunt or something. What makes it different would be an ingredient I added, which again could be an idea that many others have had as well, or it could be a completely copied recipe with my experience of making it. Where do we draw the line between inspired and outright copyright infringement? For anybody, with a little common sense, this line is clear. Original recipes are far and few in between, if you have one, by all means, protect it but don't claim anyone else posting about curry is bloody copying you! While the temptation to jump up and point fingers at anything vaguely resembling our intellectual property is understandably huge, lets just reign ourselves in, gets factual evidence and until then peacefully co-exist, shall we?

I have read Varsha's blog for a while now. She comes across as an enthusiastic and prolific blogger, with a tremendous portfolio of time-tested recipes. There is always a little story before the recipe, how it came her through her grandmother etc. She hardly ever claims to have invented the recipe so in my book the vitriol against her is simply uncalled for. Judging from the tone and number of comments on her blog, I'm not the only one who thinks so. My two paise.

Baking adventures, part I

Baking is something that always has me bamboozled. Sneaky flour and its sneaky little ways. It will go into the oven looking all expectant dough like and make my house smell like vanilla and cinnamon, building my hopes up to a point where I'm dreaming about opening my own cupcake stores and such, and then the said baked product will either...
a. collapse in the middle
b. turn into a rock candy on the outside, with uncooked doughy interiors
c. stubbornly refuse to resemble any cake/pie you have ever seen
d. all of the above

So I always approach baking like an exam. Step one. Find a good recipe. Step two. Memorize it. Step three. Do not mess it up!

That being said, I do love baking and how Martha Stewartish it makes me feel. There is something mysteriously wonderful about dipping your fingers in raw dough, licking the bowl clean, watching it puff up and rise in the oven, pulling out a warm cake and eating it right out of the pan, or breaking apart hot cookies with melting chocolate chips inside...

Here are some recipes I tried, which are well on their way to becoming family favorites. They are tried and tested and sorta idiotproof, if like me, you bungle your way through baking.


Pineapple Upside Down cake
This one comes from Susan of FoodBlogga. Susan always puts up the most tantalising descriptions of fruits and like. Her post on Kumquats had me running around for a week looking for the tiny but explosive buggers. This is a ridiculously simple recipe. The key, methinks, is in beating the egg whites separately. The copious amounts of butter and sugar also help. The first time I made it, I forgot to add sugar in the batter, adding it only to the pineapples and butter layered at the bottom of the pan. The sticky, goey sweetness from the upside down topping was enough to flavor the cake. The cake was slightly denser though. I followed the recipe the second time round and although fluffy, it was a tad too sweet for me. I baked it for picnics, for a Friday lunch in the office, for an impromptu dinner party...it turns out perfect every single time.

The best ever chocolate chip cookies

This is another one from Susan's stable. She baked them with pistachios and dried cherries. I didn't have cherries, so I used raisins and I like pine nuts. That's my only substitution. Double the batter, seriously! You want to pass them around, these babies will make you proud. I baked a couple of dozen big, fat ones and they were over within a week.

Stuff I made, but did not get a picture of - Heidi's Triple Chocolate espresso bean cookies. With a name like that, the cookies had to be good. There was cocoa and espresso in the batter, and chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate chips too. Each cookie was like a concentrated shot of mocha. They were chewy with an almost fudge like interior. The batter was so richly dark, I burnt my first batch trying to figure out if the cookies were brown enough :) They didn't store so well though, and had to be finished in 2-3 days, not that it was a problem.

Coconut Banana Pancakes

These pancakes would have had a serious identity crisis, if they had been around long enough to say c-r-i-s-i-s. Thankfully, eating at the speed of lightening is among my many talents! These breakfast treats were originally meant to be the luscious Bihari Malpua's. It all started when I read about Vikram's tryst with substandard Malpua's in Pune, and then his explanation on what the Malpua should taste like. The minute I read the description, I knew I had to have it.

Vikram had outlined a deceptively simple recipe which went..."Mix this-that, fry, dip in syrup, boom!" So humming to myself, thinking about rich syrupy Malpua's for breakfast, I set to work. Mixed the this and that, let it ferment for a bit, made the syrup, still humming tunelessly, and then when it came to the frying part...well, lets just say this, it wasn't pretty. They just didn't turn out like I had imagined. Soft in the middle, a little crunchy on the outside, dripping with syrup is what I wanted. Thats what it should have been, right? Well, wrong.

I'll spare you the details but I looked at my batter and didn't have the heart to throw it away. So when my cooking experiments gave me lemons, I made lemonade, errr...pancakes. And they were lip-smackingly delicious. I'm not kidding, the smacking noises woke the neighbours up, who, obviously thought the worst! :)



Coconut Banana Pancakes

1 cup flour
1/2 cup fresh grated coconut, (if you are using frozen coconut, thaw completely before adding to the batter)
1 ripe banana, mashed
1 tsp cardamom powder
1tsp star anise essence (you could use fennel seeds/saunf)
1/2 cup yogurt/buttermilk
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
confectioners sugar, to dust

This is a pretty forgiving recipe. So adjust the proportions according to what looks right to you. The batter should be of pouring consistency, but not too thin. The proportions given here are not exact. Mix everything together till smooth, don't overmix or you will end up with tough pancakes. Let the batter rest for a while, about 10-15 mins. Go do some exercise or something. Seriously, leave it alone!
Then pull out your pancake griddle or plain ol' tawa. Pour a ladleful of batter on a hot griddle and let it cook on one side. Once you see bubbles form on the surface, flip it over and cook the other side. Dust with some sugar and serve with syrup or a drizzle of honey


The natural sweetness of the coconut and banana made the traditional maple syrup unnecessary. A light dusting of sugar and a spoonful of honey was all these pancakes needed. The fermentation made the pancaked super soft and fluffy and the cardamom and anise gave it the just the right amount of spice, kicking the pancakes into exotic territory.

Since the last one was hardly a recipe, these head over to join the party at Divya's too!

Sweet mornings

I love jams and jellies and preserves. The time honored breakfast staples don't me feel so guilty about indulging in sugary treats when I should be filling up on oatmeal (shudder!) and such.

A slice of milk toast, drizzled with some salty melted butter and a smear of jam is a perfect beginning to my day.

So imagine my delight when I found a preserves mini sampler at a Harry and David outlet. I haven't heard much about Harry and David's except that they have good fruit, and didn't get a chance to try their products earlier. Well, good fruits make good preserves and I was completely sold on the mini bottles that promise me a different jam every week! And then they are sugar free too.

So far I've only cracked open the Oregold Peach, which was a generic Peach jam, nothing special. I'm more excited about the Dark Cherry and Red Raspberry. There is also a Marionberry preserve which I'm planning to use with crepes. I do hope they will be better than the Peach.

Its been a long time since I updated the blog or taken part in any blog events and Divya's breakfast event seems like the perfect opportunity to jump back in.
So off this goes to D's

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect healthy eating habits, exhibit A: a post on chips, B: breakfast ideas more suitable for 5 yr olds etc.

Is it April First?

This is a joke, right? RIGHT???!!!

"It has long been shunned as a junk food, but now, a new study has claimed
that the humble chip can actually battle cancer.
Chips are rich in vitamin C, which boffins consider could fight the deadly disease.
It is thought the vitamin tackles dangerous free radicals, which are associated
with cancer growth, reports the Daily Star. By eating a portion of chips
- which contains five times more vitamin C than a bunch of grapes - people
may keep cancer at bay. And those already suffering with the disease
could even shrink the size of their tumours with a vitamin C rich,
deep-fried potato diet, the researchers said."

I've died and gone to heaven. (Laughs gleefully while tearing open a bag of Lay's Magic Masala.)

A couple of bags later....alright, it was three! Sheesh! Anyway, much later...

Ok, sobering up, could anybody tell me why wasn't the Vitamin C level compared to oranges or other fruits/veggies with notoriously high levels of Vitamin C, why grapes? Seems like a bullshit study to me, sponsored by chip companies.

I love chips, wouldn't give em up for the world, but even I draw the line at believing they are good for me. Its fried, and flavored with artificial ingredients, does that sound like a cancer-fighting diet to you? Indulge in moderation, get your fix of veggies and fruits, there are few things more delicious than juicy fruits and crisp veggies, eat without guilt, eat with an appetite, run, play, laugh...you will be just fine.

Classics...

Sometimes you just don't mess with the classics. So when a traditional chutney is called for, there cannot be any substitute for creamy coconut, fresh sprigs of coriander, sharp green chillies, nutty dal ground together and topped with a simple mustard, curry leaves tempering.

Maybe one odd dried red chili as well and some hing. That's it.

And then simply serve with hot idlis. Another classic.

The one in which...

...we are a little pressed for time and cannot offer you quality material but will direct you to someone that does. I have always been fond of learning about unique cooking techniques. Its an age old art and I'm amazed there is still room for creativity.

Couple of fascinating articles on truly inventive cooking methods.

The first is from Slate about a method of cooking that involves sealing food in vacuum and slow cooking it in its own juices. I can only imagine what a gastronomical delight it would be.
Sous-vide cooking by Sara Dickerman

The other link if from my favorite boredom busting site Listverse. I can spend several happy days browsing the archives. I'm a geek like that :)
Top 10 Unusual cooking concepts by JFrater.

So go ahead, click on the links. You know you want to :)

And just so I can justify this as a food blog, here is a yummy picture of veggies.

Right now...

...... I'm craving the food generally served at Maharashtrian Weddings. I was never a fan of this food when I was kid, begging my mom to take me out for a Pav-Bhaji instead whenever my sorry ass was dragged to a wedding.

(Long linktastic pointless post ahead. With the potential of being incomprehensible to Non-Maharashtrians. Do proceed with caution.)

But for the fact that I haven't 'attended' (they are always attended, never celebrated or enjoyed!) a proper Marathi wedding in years, I found myself craving the very same. Last night, I had a vivid dream about that thali. I drooled over the colors, could feel the flaky Puris and cold Bhajis* under my fingers. I looked down at my fingers squeezing a wedge of lemon over steaming hot rice and Sadhavaran* and could almost taste it. The dream was made more poignant by the fact that I haven't been able to visit Pune for some time and it doesn't look like I will anytime soon. The cousins and friends, in an ultimate act of revenge for me being annoying decided that the best season to get married was whatever season I'm not around. So I'm having me a pity party with visions of Basundi and Batatyachi Bhaji dancing in my head.

I miss...


The Pangat- Rows and rows of gleaming thalis, already glistening with a green chutney, pinch of salt, lemon quarters, bhajis, pickles, Koshimbir, broken pieces of Papad and snowy white Kurdayi*.

Fluffy puris, that release a cloud of steam on being poked.

Maharashtrian style Batata bhaji and Alu cha Rassa.

The Sadhavaran-Tup-Bhaat at the beginning of a Marathi meal. Sadhavaran is nothing but plain toor dal, unadorned by annoying tadka or masalas. Steaming white rice, shaped in Muud(mound) is slapped on to the thali, then some Sadhavaran is ladled out of a big bucket onto the mounds. Close on the heels comes a Ghee guy, guarding a small silver pot of tup/ghee, stingily doling out one teaspoon per person.

Usal- The only one qualified enough to make an appearance. Birdyachi Usal.

Mattha -Steel bowls of Mattha to wash everything down.

And to round off the meal...

Basundi-Thick, pale yellow, almost custardy Basundi, fragrant with cardamom and saffron, dotted with slivers of malai.

This is all I want from life. For now.

Bhaji- Pakoras
Sadhavaran- Plain yellow dal
Koshimbir- Salad, in this case it would usually be cucumber, chopped fine, mixed with curds, groundnut powder, and chillies.
Kurdai- Fried wheat snack, akin to papad

Things are happy in KisstheCook land...

...because I downloaded Picassa 3 which has better collage options than Picassa 2.

So obviously I went overboard and made a gaudy collage. Wouldn't you?

For a more restrained and completely adorable collage, click here.

Curry Puffs

I get manic periods of restless energy sometimes, which balance my procrastination nicely. Too bad the manic fits are few and far in between. So one such time when I had a huge backlog of utterly awful movies I wanted to watch... (Why do I watch awful movies, you ask? Because they are there.) I boiled a bushel of potatoes, defrosted 4 packs of puff pastry sheets and settled in for an afternoon of absolute suspension of disbelief.

At the end of the whole exercise, I has sore knuckles and a freezer full of curry puffs. Now all I have do every Sunday morning is to pull some out, pop them in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes and we have fresh Curry Puffs for breakfast or as we like to call em in Pune...Pattice. And only the Hindustan Bakery ones qualify as Pattice, others are just poor imitations. Since mine are undoubtedly an imitation, I will keep calling them Curry Puffs. Pattice and leisurely cups of tea remain a time honoured Sunday tradition in most Pune homes and bringing just a little bit of that to my apartment in NJ transports me immediately to my moms home... lounging about in PJs with Chayageet, endless cups of steaming ginger tea, the idle chatter, the cooker whistle going off, sunlight streaming in through open windows, the much loved ritual of oiling and washing hair. It was a happy place.

Fresh out of the oven- crumbly, buttery curry puffs.

Ingredients

Potatoes

Peas

Fresh curry leaves

Fresh grated ginger

Spices

Turmeric

Hing

Mustard seeds

Cumin seeds

Chili powder

Coriander powder

Garam Masala

Chaat Masala

Salt

Boil, peel and dice the potatoes, temper some oil with mustard, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add the turmeric, ginger and hing. Add potatoes, peas and toss with spiced and salt. Mix and stuff into defrosted puff pastry sheets. Bake at 350 degrees till golden brown and serve hot.

These are great for making ahead and storing since they keep forever in the freezer. Just make sure you freeze them on a tray before you put them a Ziploc bag so that they won't stick together. The process could not be simpler but it is a little time consuming.

Also I haven't given measurments for anything because the mixture is so versatile and everybody has a unique way of preparing it. These are not rules, merely a preference.

Seriously, it could not be simpler guys and biting into a warm curry puff on a wintery morning more then makes up for the sore knuckles. Well, almost! :)

These have to enjoyed with Masala chai.

For my masala chai, I boil the tea water with grated ginger, tiny peice of cinnamon, couple of cardommom pods, 1 whole black pepper, and 1 clove. Then add milk, sugar and strong Assam tea. Boil slightly shy of the nice, red color, take off the heat and cover and keep for a minute. Strain and enjoy.

Love is....

...when the hubby gets chocolaty desserts for no reason....just.

So that's the Chocolate Praline cake, Chocolate Caramel Dome, Tiramisu and a Raspberry torte that was scarfed down before pictures could be taken. These were from Financier Patisserie, a place that I have passed often and drooled at. I would highly recommend..well, everything. :)

A BIG blogging break, awards and a heartfelt Thank You!

I started the blog when I was feeling particularly friendless and lonely. I was looking for work and not having a lot of luck with the process and feeling utterly directionless. I envied the easy camaraderie dedicated bloggers had with each other, the comfort they shared in knowing each other's virtual identities, being a part of their virtual worlds. I read about the Arusavai Friendship Chain on several blogs and was truly astounded at how we are all unified in just craving just a bit of human company...with people who 'get' us, who share our passions, our hopes, revel in something as simple as a cake well baked. I miss talking food...simply because I don't have a lot of people in my immediate circle who would obsess for hours on the perfect recipe for bread. Starting the blog gave me a chance to do just that.

I felt like I walked into a roomful of my besties...a total warm and fuzzy place! Thanks to Divya, Sudeshna, Priti, Laavanya, Sheetal, Madhavi and others.

Then as I got a little busy, I ignored the blog...my blog, my baby. Tomorrow, I will update the blog, I would tell myself. Wake up at odd hours to try and write, and then give it up to surf (It's truly pathetic, my addiction to surfing, I tell ya!)

Like some angsty teenager, I convinced myself 'nobody cares'...till Priti jolted me out of my slumber...Sudeshna bestowed a couple of awards. The blog begged to be updated, the awards wanted to visit other blogs and I just wanted my warm fuzzies again.

So now I make a solemn vow that this the longest break the blog will ever get, may the keys of keyboard grow weary with strain, may the clackity-clack annoy the husband into sleeping on the couch, may years of archives build up, may lazy fingers never stop typing or cooking(like I have choice with the latter!)...long live the bloggers!


So the point of the post, Thank You for all those who read and cared. Much appreciated. Really.





The awards...


Passing on the baton to Sheetal, Madhavi, Laavanya, Divya, Kitchen Flavors, Priti and Tee.

Sizzlin' chicken

There was, probably is, a place called Zamu's in Pune which introduced me to the absolute goodness of Sizzlers. A cast iron plate, overflowing with tender chicken pieces, mounds of gooey mashed potatoes, sauteed sweet peas, and other assorted veggies came to the table magician style...in a cloud of smoke, making the beautiful sizzling sound butter makes when it hits a hot pan (I guess, hence the name). Zamu's quickly became my favorite haunt for a Dhansak meal (Sundays only) their famous drunken chicken sizzlers, the tree shaded courtyard, friendly service and the memory of my first wine cooler with a friend.
I love the idea of cooking with alcohol, sometimes I even put it in my food! (Stolen from a fridge magnet, lets not say stolen, lets say inspired!)
So this Sunday, I decided to recreate Zamu ishtyle Drunken Chicken Sizzler. All my searches for drunken chicken yielded a gross looking recipe that involved sticking a can of beer up a chicken's ass or something and while I'm sure the result, judging from the enthusiastic words about it, must have been pretty good, lets just say I wanted to eat what I cooked.
Warning, the process is a little labour intensive. Well, you are chopping something up or sauteing or skewering something, preferably of the food variety. But it can be cut down to the bare minimum...chicken, some type of noodle or rice and whatever veggies you can handle.
Since I couldn't find any recipes for the sizzler I wanted, I just made something on my own. The result was nowhere close to the bone sucking quality of Zamu's but it wasn't bad. There, that's my sales pitch for you. It wasn't bad. :)
I marinated the chicken for about 4 hours in a combination of beer and vodka along with some ginger-garlic paste and jalapeno sauce and served it with oven fried potatoes, peas, corn, spinach, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, onions and peppers. Oh, and I made tomatoes a new way, oven baked them with garlic and that recipe is a winner. Beautiful in its simplicity, the juicy tomato and the almost sweet garlic made a great addition to the plate.

So here goes my Zamu inspired chicken sizzler.

Chicken
2 boneless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into big cubes

Marinade
2 teaspoons garlic paste
2 teaspoons ginger paste
2-3 teaspoons jalapeno sauce
3 tsp cumin powder
1/2 cup mixed beer and vodka
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
salt-pepper to taste

Vegetables
2-3 plum tomatoes, cut into halves
4-6 garlic pods
2 potatoes cut into wedges
1/2 cup peas and corn
1/2 cup baby spinach leaves
1 medium onion, cut into large pieces
1 medium bell pepper, cut into large pieces
4-5 large mushrooms
1/2 cup olive oil
salt, pepper to taste
Italian seasoning
chili flakes

Sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 garlic pod smashed
1/2 tsp cornflour
1/2 cup parsley, chopped fine


Chop the chicken in big cubes and rub in the marinade given above. Cover and keep in the fridge for 4-5 hours. When done marinating, put on skewers and cook in the oven or a grill. Since potatoes take the second place for longest to cook, chop up the potatoes next, mix with some of the olive oil, Italian seasoning, salt-pepper and cook in an oven on 350 till done. Turn them over once while cooking.
I found this way for cooking tomatoes in my new cookbook and it absolutely rocks! Just halve the tomatoes, take the garlic pods, stick them in the tomatoes, brush with olive oil, sprinkle salt-pepper and cook in the oven.
Next chop the mushrooms, onions, bell pepper, brush with olive oil, seasoning and put that on skewers in the oven. Cook the peas and corn with a little bit of salt and add little butter to it(optional).
Saute the spinach with more garlic, if you are not on a date :). Saute the sugar snap peas very quickly too.
Boil everything for the sauce together and add parsley right before pulling off the flame.
Now take your cast iron plate. Heat it properly and pile on your chicken and veggies. Pour on the sauce for the sizzle and smoke. You can put any dipping sauce over it, or just put some butter or vinegar.
Appear magically in a cloud of smoke and serve immediately to delighted customers.



I made it just under the fence for Sri's Chicken Event of Me and My kitchen, who was nice enough to remind me about it. Do people already know about my procrastinating habits?