My Experiments with Food

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T02:01:00.000-08:00

Been missing almost for a year. It wasn't that I haven't been baking. Just didn't have enough time to take photos and blog about the same.

I recently bought a book called 'Baking for all Occasions' by Flo Braker. Till now I thought as long as I could find the recipe online I dont need the books, but this book just proved me wrong. A recipe online is never what the original author intended, it usually changes from person to person, or rather cook to cook. And this book is a very very good one. I have tried almost 3 things from it in the short period that I have had it, and all of them have been brilliant. The open-faced galette was the best apple pie I ever tasted. Spritz cookies tasted good but since I was piping for the first time, I have to get used to the shapes. And finally the dish of the day, Congo Brownies. I was just intimidated by their look and the procedure, but they did come together in a cinch. The house smelled fragrant when they were baking and they taste awesome.

The recipe is already out there.

Orange Tart

2010-03-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

I have been intrigued by pies, ever since I encountered them in the books I used to read. The first of them would be Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was never tired of reading it, for that entirely different world that it showcased to me.

I managed to finally eat a pie when I was in US in my 20's. It was an apple pie. Homemade, it was delicious. But I was not interested in the mechanics of making it at that time. Or the nomenclature for that matter. I have eaten many since then in McDonald's & Corner House, etc. But never a homemade one again. And it never met my expectations.

Now I know the difference between a pie and a tart. I know how they are made. I read up on most of the things online. BUT I have never made one at home. I was terribly scared of rolling out the crust, lining the pan, and then also about the filling. What if it is too soggy, what if it is too runny, what if the thing never came out of the pan. Finally, I dared and made one. It was easy. It took a lot of time, more than to make a cake, but more of it was resting time than actually hands on work. I baked it in a glass dish. It flowed out of the pan even though I didnt have a removable base pan. I was so pessimistic about the result that I didnt even take pictures of my crust or filling.

The mandarin orange season here is in its peak. Oranges everywhere. And I have more on my hand than that can be eaten in a week or two. Eating two-three per day also will not be enough to get them over with. So I usually bake a cake or juice them up and finish them. This time I wanted to be adventurous and chose Orangenkuchen recipe from Backen. It was straightforward and didnt ask for fancy ingredients. Though I substituted the bread crumbs with cracker crumbs gone soft.

Orangenkuchen (Orange Tart)
(Makes a 6 inch tart)

For the Crust:
75g Whole Wheat Flour
1 tbsp Sugar
60g Butter, cut in small pieces
1 tbsp Water

For the Filling:
Zest of an Orange
5 tbsp Orange Juice
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
75g Cream
25g Fresh Breadcrumbs/Cracker Crumbs
25g Butter
25g Sugar
1 Egg, separated
1 pinch, Salt

Mix Flour and Sugar together. Add butter in small pieces to the flour mixture. Rub with fingers till all of it is incorporated and add the water to make a soft dough.
Fold the dough with plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 30 min.
Press the dough on to a 6 inch springform pan/pie pan/tart pan uniformly. Poke with a fork all over to stop it from rising during baking.
Rest in the refrigerator again for another 30 min.
Blind bake the crust for 20 min at 180 C. Remove the baking beans and bake for another 20 min.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the orange juice, orange zest, lemon juice, cream and the breadcrumbs together.
Heat the butter and sugar in a pan on the stove on a low flame carefully, till the sugar melts.
After removing from the stove, add the yolk, 1/2 pinch salt and Cream mixture.
Beat the egg white with the remaining salt until foamy and mix into the filling.
Pour the filling into the baked crust and bake at 160 C for 50-55 min till the filling seems set.
Cool the tart briefly. Serve warm.

Note: The egg can be replaced with a mixture of 4-5 tbsp milk with a tbsp Cornstarch and added to the filling mixture.

Methi Buttermilk Buns

2010-03-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

Going to the Madiwala market is one of my favorite things to do on a sunday. Its chaotic, its filled with heaps and heaps of fresh fruits and vegetables, its colorful, its just beautiful. I want to take an armload of everything that I see. And this time I was tempted into buying a lot of greens, they were so fresh.

So I had loads of greens on my hands to finish up, spinach, mint and methi (Fenugreek). I needed some recipes to use them up. I made spinach soup, without the chicken. Let me tell you, it was the most delicious green soup I have ever tasted. If not for making coconut milk from scratch, I'd eat it every week. Spinach, check.

Mint leaves were ably used to make the Pani for Pani Puri and the remaining went into a pachchadi (Pickle so to say, but more like to be finished in a day or too).

Come to methi, I used up one bunch for my Methi Lobhia, a great simple recipe from 660 Curries. (Someday I will take a photograph of it cooked and will make a blog post of it). I had another bunch weighing on my mind and then I ran across this delicious photo of buns on JFI greens roundup.

I get a lot of inspiration from checking out Food Blogging Event Roundups. :) Most of my current favorites are usually trials from the recipes bookmarked during such fishing. And one of my favorite haunts is JFI. Especially the roundups. I am usually late to participate in them myself, mostly see them after they are done. I am going to rectify this situation by the end of this post.

Methi Malai Buns from Jugalbandi needed paneer and I had none at home, but I had a cupful of Buttermilk waiting to be used up. So I used that instead and made small minor changes as per my taste buds. And the result was very tasty. I'd tweak the recipe more to make it spicier like the Masala Buns that we get in Iyengar Bakeries here in Bangalore. Maybe some mint, some minced green chillies, more ajwain, definitely more methi. Hmm, looks like I will be making more variations of these.

Now I want to send them to Bread Baking Day #28: Buns. :)

Methi Buttermilk Buns
(Makes 8-10 Buns)

2 tbsp Water, slightly warm
1 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 tbsp Honey
280g Whole Wheat Flour
140g All Purpose Flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Ajwain Seeds (Bishop's Weed) (Can use thyme in its place)
1 bunch Methi Leaves (approximately a cup), finely chopped
1 bunch Spring Onion Greens, finely chopped
1 Small Red Onion, grated/minced
1 Green Chilli, sliced finely/minced
125ml Buttermilk (1/2 Cup)
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Dissolve the active dry yeast in the slightly warm water. Add the honey to the water. Stir to dissolve the honey.
Mix the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt, ajwain seeds and Baking Soda in a big bowl.
Add the chopped methi greens, spring onion greens, onion, green chilli and mix well.
Add the Olive oil and buttermilk to the flour mixture.
Pour in the water. Gather together into a dough and knead it for 6-7 min till it is slightly springy or elastic.
Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl, turn to coat the other side in oil.
Keep the bowl covered and let the dough rise till double, for 1 to 1 1/2 hr.
Overturn the dough gently on to the counter, divide it into 8-10 parts. Gently roll them to make into small balls.
Place them slightly apart on a baking sheet. Cover and let them rise till doubled. (30-40 min)
Preheat the oven to 180C and bake them for 20-25 min.
Cool them on a rack after taking out of the oven.

Handmade Pasta

2009-11-24T21:09:00.000-08:00

I wanted to eat Pasta since I came back from Germany but I wasnt satisfied with what I ate. Not that there are no places to eat it at, Italian food is available in abundance in Bangalore. :)

The pizzas were excellent, but the lasagna we got from Little Italy was tooooo creamy as if richness was filling in for taste. And the spaghetti, I dont even want to talk about it, I had a hard time finishing it. Neither the mushroom baked casserols at Indijoes satisfied me. Even after all these my pasta cravings hadn't gone and what more, they were increasing. And I didnt like the brands of dried pasta available in the supermarkets, and they do cost a little too much. (I think I have gone stingy, as most of the times what motivates me to make stuff at home is the alternative cost of eating out or buying it). And there was no choice of getting a whole wheat version of it either, atleast I feel better for eating all that cheese if it were made of whole wheat rather than all purpose flour or maida.

So I looked through the internet, and saw that it was not that hard to make pasta. It was intimidating, people keep telling you how a pasta machine will make things easy and how it is hard for a first time to roll it thin. I didnt have one. I was going to rely on my chapati making skills to get through the kneading and the rolling.

I thought I was going to learn on the go and fix any problems as they come up. So I plunged in. I mixed the dough, kneaded till it felt supple and smooth in my hand. I had to add a tablespoon of oil and a dash of water before it came through to that stage. I let it rest for 30-45 min. Then cut the dough into small lemon sized pieces. I didnt know how big they were supposed to be, so I erred on the smaller side.

Since everyone stressed so much about flour, I put an overdose of flour on everything. Then I started rolling. I rolled and rolled till it couldnt go any thinner, I could see the black countertop through the rolled dough. The best part was the dough didnt tear the way usually it does on chapati when you go thinner than it can bear. This dough wanted to stretch. :) Then I floured some more and folded it and cut into neat thin strips. I was making tagliatelle, a wider and flatter noodle than spaghetti. (This is a fun game I loved playing, identifying how many shapes of pasta you know, a quiz.)

Well, after rolling three lemon sized pieces, I had a lot of pasta in my hand, so boiled it and ate it tossed with some Olive Oil, vinegar and veggies. No pictures there. I was hungry by then.

I had 2 more lemon sized balls remaining, I planned lasagna for the dinner. I made some marinara sauce and bechamel sauce, roasted some eggplant and was ready to go for the lasagna. I assembled it with homemade lasagna sheets, topped with a no-name cheese I got for my kid to eat, and it went into the oven and turned out like this. It was yummy. I'd make more next time.

I never thought the process would be so easy. If only I had tried this in Germany, I would have made lasagna so many times at home and that too with all those cheeses at hand, and wouldnt have burnt my hands with the store bought kind. The last attempt at lasagna was made more difficult with the not-fitting lasagna sheets to the casserole or auflauf pan I was using.

Fresh pasta is way way way better than store bought dried pasta. Its easier to make, faster to cook with, lighter and you can always make it with whole wheat flour than all purpose flour. When cooking for more people, you can always ask for some help for cutting and drying. I just have to read about and figure out better ways to store it after rolling and cutting, then I can even have it for entertaining.

Trying new things always makes me happy, especially when they are this successful.

Bread and Butter

2009-11-16T00:11:00.001-08:00

This weekend I was having my breakfast, the usual toast with jam. No, weekends are so busy, that I dont get time to make elaborate breakfasts, it doesnt help that I wake up quite late either. So its the usual, bread toasted with butter and jam. Then it struck me that I was actually eating homemade bread toasted with homemade butter. Pity, it was not homemade jam along with it. But it's only a matter of time, where I will make jam too . Orange season is ahead, and am waiting to lay my hands on a few to make this marmalade.

Firstly, the butter.

I have been making butter for sometime now. And there are multitude of sites which teach you how to make butter. And the process is straightforward. Internet doesnt need one more person telling you how to whisk cream long enough to make butter. But the butter I made this time is different and is worth a mention as it tastes really wonderful.

I learnt how to clarify butter in Germany because of the exorbitant cost of store bought Ghee. And the butter there was alright, I never used the fancy butters there, just the regular and my Ghee used to turn out to be rather nice. However here in India, the butter is costly and smells of something else than what am used to, I believe there is some mix up of Dalda somewhere. So I stopped buying butter from outside, and buy Ghee which tastes ok.

I dont like the cream layer that ends up on top of the milk after boiling it, so I avoid it all costs in my morning cup of milk. And I dont like throwing it, so when I set the remaining milk to make curd, I do end up with a layer of cream on top of it. Now I dont like to eat it either, and I dont like to throw it either, so I collect all of it in a jar and store it in the refrigerator till I atleast fill it fully, which gives me close to 80-90g of Butter. And also gets me fresh buttermilk for some tasty More Rasam, Menthi Majjiga, Majjiga Pulusu or some cake of mine in waiting because of afore-mentioned butter unavailability.

I find that the cream on top of curd stays fresh longer than the cream on top of milk. I dont let it sour though. I make butter as soon as I can, in fear that I will lose all the cream if I let it sit for long and it will go bad. But this time I was in Hyd for 3 weeks and totally forgot about the cream sitting in the fridge before leaving. After I came back I looked into it thinking I'd find a thick green layer of fungus on top of it. Surprisingly there was none of that, but I could smell that it went sour. So I googled and found this. So I thought why not try and make butter from it. And the resulting butter is so delicious, its everything Melissa says it is. Ummmm... It made the toast taste wonderful. Now this is my way to make butter every time.

Coming to the bread.

I bookmarked Light Wheat Bread way back when I read it first, even before I thought I would ask my friends to get me this book. But I didnt remember that. When my friend got me The Bread Bakers Apprentice from US, I was itching to join the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge.

I have been drooling all over that site seeing them bake all those wonderful breads. But when I saw that they were proceeding chronologically through the books index, I was worried. Here I was, a novice, all my attempts towards making bread resulted in stuff which lacked something or the other. When there was a decent crust, the bread was dense. When the bread was airy then there was no salt and there was no crust. All I had success in baking was Cinnamon buns.

I decided to not step into the world of bigas and poolishes in a hurry and think of making a baguette just because am holding a book which tells me how to. I wanted to proceed slowly, cautiously, build my confidence and then attempt something complex. So I zeroed in on a sandwich bread which didnt have a lot of instructions or rising times or any complexity. Light Wheat Bread it was.

I accidentally switched the amounts of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour, doubled the amount of honey, added milk as I didnt have milk powder, reduced water as I thought there was more liquid in the manner of milk and the dough rose in the refrigerator as I thought I had guests coming and didnt have time to bake it right away. Even after all these, the bread did turn out to be fantastic. Not too dense, not too airy. Perfect for a sandwich. Now I found my to-go recipe for sandwich bread. :)

The Vegetarian Hundred

2008-09-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have come across The Omnivore's Hundred but being a pure vegetarian I really didnt give it much thought but when I come across Barbara's The Vegetarian Hundred, I wanted to give it a shot.

If anyone wants to repeat it onto their blog, please link to Barbara's post, paste the list in your blog, bold any items you have eaten and strike out any you would never eat.

So here it is.

1. Real macaroni and cheese, made from scratch and baked
2. Tabouleh
3. Freshly baked bread, straight from the oven (preferably with homemade strawberry jam)
4. Fresh figs
5. Fresh pomegranate
6. Indian dal of any sort
7. Imam bayildi
8. Pressed spiced Chinese tofu
9. Freshly made hummus
10. Tahini
11. Kimchi
12. Miso
13. Falafel
14. Potato and pea filled samosas
15. Homemade yogurt
16. Muhammara
17. Brie en croute
18. Spanikopita
19. Fresh, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes
20. Insalata caprese
21. Stir-fried greens (gai lan, bok choi, pea shoots, kale, chard or collards)
22. Freshly made salsa
23. Freshly made guacamole
24. Creme brulee
25. Fava beans
26. Chinese cold sesame peanut noodles
27. Fattoush
28. New potatoes
29. Coleslaw
30. Ratatouille
31. Baba ganoush
32. Winter squash
33. Roasted beets
34. Baked sweet potatoes
35. Plantains
36. Chocolate truffles
37. Garlic mashed potatoes
38. Fresh water chestnuts
39. Steel cut oats
40. Quinoa
41. Grilled portabello mushrooms
42. Chipotle en adobo
43. Stone ground whole grain cornmeal
44. Freshly made corn or wheat tortillas
45. Frittata
46. Basil pesto
47. Roasted garlic
48. Raita of any type
49. Mango lassi
50. Jasmine rice (white or brown)
51. Thai vegetarian coconut milk curry
52. Pumpkin in any form other than pie
53. Fresh apple pear or plum gallette
54. Quince in any form
55. Escarole, endive or arugula
56. Sprouts other than mung bean
57. Naturally brewed soy sauce
58. Dried shiitake mushrooms
59. Unusually colored vegetables (purple cauliflower, blue potatoes, chocolate bell peppers…)
60. Fresh peach ice cream
61. Chevre
62. Medjool dates
63. Kheer
64. Flourless chocolate cake
65. Grilled corn on the cob
66. Black bean (or any other bean) vegetarian chili
67. Tempeh
68. Seitan or wheat gluten
69. Gorgonzola or any other blue veined cheese
70. Sweet potato fries
71. Homemade au gratin potatoes
72. Cream of asparagus soup
73. Artichoke-Parmesan dip
74. Mushroom risotto
75. Fermented black beans
76. Garlic scapes
77. Fresh new baby peas
78. Kalamata olives
79. Preserved lemons
80. Fried green tomatoes
81. Chinese scallion pancakes
82. Cheese souffle
83. Fried apples
84. Homemade frijoles refritos
85. Pasta fagiole
86. Macadamia nuts in any form
87. Paw paw in any form
88. Grilled cheese sandwich of any kind
89. Paneer cheese
90. Ma Po Tofu (vegetarian style–no pork!)
91. Fresh pasta in any form
92. Grilled leeks, scallions or ramps
93. Green papaya salad
94. Baked grain and vegetable stuffed tomatoes
95. Pickled ginger
96. Methi greens
97. Aloo paratha
98. Kedgeree (the original Indian version without the smoked fish, not the British version with fish)
99. Okra
100. Roasted brussels sprouts

There are lots of things on this list that I have never even heard of, these I am putting in Italics, this would be for my next-to-try list either when I come across them or by actively pursuing them. And there are others that I have heard of, want to try but haven't so far. Maybe atleast to make the entire list bold (am a list-maniac). :)

Beetroot Cake

2008-07-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

We are going on a month long trip to India. So what has that to do with a cake? Well, am trying to clean my refrigerator of all old veggies that have accumulated. And have been searching for something to make with the two beetroots lying around. I bought 3 for some variety and also in the hope that I will think of something interesting to make with them. I made soup with one long ago.

I was thinking of making halwa, but since there was a shortage of milk in the house, didnt go there. Finally I thought of making a cake in the style of carrot cake and searched throughout the net for some inspiration. But most of them had chocolate and I was not in the mood to buy more groceries. Then I looked to the recent Baking book that I bought. Its in German, but nevertheless I found a good deal when I was looking through in the supermarket and it does have a varied set of interesting recipes that I've always wanted to try.

It was called 'Möhrenkuchen' meaning Carrot cake, but I substituted Beetroot for Carrot. I changed the recipe according to the stuff I had at home, forgetting the walnuts and coconut and using butter for oil.

It turned out with nice crumbly interior and wonderfully fluffy which I have never seen so far in my baking experience. Though the batter was purple in color, I was expecting a brown crust, but it had a pink crust and red flecks inside a brown batter. I think in the future I can further reduce the fat in the cake, maybe by 1/3rd, as it was a little greasy.

Adapted from Backen by Fiona Black
Beetroot Cake

150g Wheat Flour (Type 405) / All Purpose Flour
1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp Cinnamon Powder
a pinch Salt
65g Sugar
65g Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
100g Butter
200g Beetroot, grated

- Preheat the oven to 180 C and butter/grease a pan and line with parchment in the bottom
- Beat together butter, white and brown sugar till the mixture is creamy
- Beat in the eggs till everything is a soft yellow mass
- Sift together all the dry ingredients, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking powder
- Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and mix together till everything comes together
- Add the finely grated beetroot and any nuts
- Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20-25 min. Cake is done when it leaves the sides of the pan and a knife/toothpick inserted in the center comes clean.

Baked Fusilli

2008-06-04T04:29:00.000-07:00

With no energy whatsoever to make myself an elaborate lunch I decided to go for a one-dish lunch like Pasta. I wanted to bake Pasta, so that my lunch will be ready by the time I put Baby to sleep. I searched through the ones I had bookmarked, but then I didnt have sage or the other 3 kinds of cheese needed. Then I stumbled upon this. I had all the required ingredients on hand, considering it only needs onion, garlic and spinach and of course Mozzarella.

I know that when you are baking pasta, it is supposed to be some hollow shape which can hold on to the sauce like shells, Rigatoni or Penne. But all I had was Fusilli, so I decided to go ahead with it. My only addition to the recipe was of a green chilli and some generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. I did skip the lemon zest and the almonds as I had no energy to grate a lemon and toast almonds, but next time am including them as well.

Am going to make this again and again and its lip-smackingly good as it is. Next time maybe with some mushrooms, blanched carrots, dry red chilli flakes, mint. This is going to be an often made dish at my place.

Baked Fusilli (Serves 1)
Fusilli Pasta - 100 g
Onion - 1/2 big or 1 small
Garlic - 1 pod
Spinach - 20g
Mozzarella Cheese - 20-30 g
Green Chilli - 1 to 2 depending on how hot you want
Olive oil - 1-2 tsp
Salt - As needed
Freshly ground Black Pepper - to taste

- Preheat the oven to 180 C
- Boil Pasta as mentioned on the package, and taken off just before it is al dente. Like a minute or 2 less than the prescribed amount of time
- In a pan, saute onions first in some olive oil, then add garlic and spinach
- Add pasta to the pan and mix it thoroughly.
- Oil a deep dish and layer the pasta in it alternately with Mozzarella cheese. (I only got 2 layers of each in mine) See to that the top layer is of cheese.
- Bake it in the oven for 30-35 min.

Leftover Ganache Cake

2008-05-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

We had a party to celebrate the 2 month birthday of the Baby. It was an evening snack party. The menu was Vegetable Puffs (Puff Pastry stuffed with Potato curry), Pakodas (Onions with Gram flour batter Fritters), Bread Halwa for the dessert and Ice cream as the second dessert. Since there wasnt much to do for the ice cream, I planned to make a Ganache to go with it, though later I included even a Berry Sauce.

It was my first time to make both the sauces. I used this recipe for the Ganache and the Berry Sauce was from Orangette. Both of them turned out to be really delicious. Since the berry sauce was a huge hit, I had a huge amount of Chocolate Sauce leftover. Like close to 2 cups. I had frozen 3/4 of it to use for Hot Chocolate, but I didnt know what to do with the rest. I searched everywhere for a cake which would use cream instead of butter, the only recipe I could come across was this.

I used it as a base and made a Chocolate Cake with it. The taste was really good, reminded me of a brownie, but the cake collapsed a bit after it came out of the oven and also was on the denser side. Wish I read all the comments before making it, I definitely would have added more.

Leftover Ganache Cake
Chocolate Sauce - 100 ml
Egg - 1
White Sugar - 100g
Wheat Flour - 100g
Baking Powder - 1tsp
Salt - 1 tsp

- Preheat the oven to 170 C and prepare the pan by lining it with parchment paper
- Beat egg in a bowl
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl
- Add sugar to the egg while beating well
- Slowly add the chocolate sauce to the egg mixture, alternating it with the flour mixture
- Mix well until incorporated and pour the batter into the prepared pan
- Bake the cake till a toothpick in the center comes clean, for 40-45 min

First Savory Post

2008-05-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

I have tried making soups twice before. First was a asparagus cream soup, which turned out not that great, we just managed to finish it, but really there was no impulse to make it ever again even after seeing Spargel (Asparagus) on the stores in Spring. Second was a minestrone soup which turned out really good with the Bio-stock cubes that I managed to find in the supermarket. I am looking forward to making it again.

But the soup I want to mention is the Leek Lemon Soup that I found from here. I have a few more recipes earmarked from there. I did make some changes to the recipe like substituting white wine vinegar for white wine. It turned out to be a successful attempt, and am going to make it again and again and maybe next time increase the amount of garlic the next time to make it have a pronounced garlicky taste. Served them with a Onion Baguette (Zwiebelbaguette) and they all went well together.

I have always wanted to try out leeks (Lauch/Porree) but didnt know what it went with or how to cook it. When I found the soup recipe, I thought it would be a better choice than as some main course.

Leek Lemon Soup (Serves 2-3)
One whole leek
3-4 Cloves Garlic
2 tsp Butter
1 lemon zested
1 tbsp lemon juice
500 ml vegetable broth
2 tsp White Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

- Cut the leek into pieces and smash and peel the garlic cloves
- In a pan, heat the butter and then fry the leek pieces and garlic cloves till they are soft
- Meanwhile make the vegetable broth from the stock cubes and bring it to a boil on low heat
- Add the lemon zest, lemon juice, white wine vinegar to the broth
- Add the softened leek and garlic pieces to the broth
- Let them boil in the broth for 30-40 min
- Then make a puree out of the leeks and add it back to the broth

Maybe next time I will make a Garlic Cream Soup.... :)

Cookies which look and taste like cookies

2008-04-25T00:14:00.000-07:00

After several cooking disaster with cookies, finally I have made the perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. Exactly followed this recipe, which means I didnt even halve it, though I didnt use the egg as recommended. But used milk instead.

I had to bake them in 2 batches. The first batch turned out to be runny and spread and became one baking sheet sized thin granola bar. I had to cut them into individual sized cookies. The taste was awesome, but they didnt look like cookies. So for the second batch, I added a little flour to the mixture and spread them far enough from each other and also used more batter per cookie. They turned out like the perfect ultra large Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. The consistency, the taste, the crispiness was exact. :) Finally I have a working recipe for cookies, I am going to soon try Chocolate Chip Cookies.

These got over so fast that I had to bake another batch to remember how they tasted. This time I used Chocolate Chips instead of Raisins. I used Dorie Greenspan's idea of chopping chocolate and using it, instead of buying chocolate chips. And they were as outstanding as the earlier batch and I also got the chance to take these photographs.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
170 gm Butter
100 gm White Granulated Sugar
100gm Brown Sugar
100gm Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
260gm Oats
2 tbsp Milk + 1 tbsp Flour
a handful of Raisins

- Cream Butter, white sugar and brown sugar together
- Sift flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder together
- Mix in the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix till incorporated well
- Add milk and flour to the batter
- Mix in the oats and the raisins
- Preheat the oven to 180 C
- Using 2 spoons, scoop out batter and place them on the baking sheets lined in the pan.
- Space them at a distance of 4-5 cm as they spread while they bake.
- Use a tbsp batter for each cookie.
- Bake them till they are brown at th edges for 12-15 min.

Thought a disaster until tasted later

2008-04-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

Didnt do much of baking, though made a brownie cake, which I really should attempt properly once again, this time it turned out more dense and evenly cooked rather than last time where it had a highly buttery crust.

Despite all the lined up recipes, I was really tempted by this one, so it jumped before all of them. It was a breeze to mix it up and was even happy with the fat content as I wasnt using much of butter/oil. It halved rather well as I used half of all the ingredients listed out and used only one egg. When it was in the oven and in the last stages I thought it was turning out well. But when I pulled it out and left it outside, it immediately collapsed and turned out very very soggy. I decided it was a disaster, tasted it, it was so sour because of all the berries that I substituted, that I left it on the counter. Didnt even offer it to P, though I told him to expect a cake when he came home. The next day he tells me why I left the cake outside when it was so good. I thought he was making fun of me. But it tasted so good that it didnt take much time for the loaf to be over from then, though it was really dense and not the airy cake I thought it'd be. I'd be really glad to know why it turned out the way it did. What did I do wrong?!

Lemon Yogurt Mixed Berry Cake
70g + 3 tsp (to mix with the berries) Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
125g Yogurt
100g + 1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1 egg
Grated Lemon zest (didnt measure)
1/4 tsp Vanilla Sugar
60 ml Sunflower Oil
30g Mixed Berries (frozen, thawed and mixed with flour)
10ml Freshly squeezed lemon juice

- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line the loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Mix oil, sugar, yogurt, vanilla sugar, egg, lemon zest in a bowl
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt together
- Slowly add the flour to the oil mixture and mix well till incorporated
- Fold in the berries and add to the pan
- Place the pan in the oven and cook for 50-60 min
- Mix lemon juice and sugar together and heat it in the microwave till the sugar's melted.
- Pierce holes in the cake after its outside with a toothpick and pour the syrup over it evenly.

Update: Submitted this post to the Berrylicious event of Nutriferia.

Next in line...

2008-02-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

My baking trials continue... Here's a list of planned cakes and desserts.

Brownie, Chocolate Cake, whatever you wanna call it

2008-01-31T06:05:00.000-08:00

Finally I made a brownie, or so I seem to think.

Last month I tagged these into my "to make" list, but getting mascarpone just for them did feel like a trouble. So I looked out for a basic recipe which involved only the things I had at home. Stumbled onto this . But what hooked me really was Dorie Greenspan's Recipe of French Chocolate Brownies, I stumbled onto it through NY Times, though now it asks me to subscribe. :( You can still find the recipe here.

The results, oh my god, I love it. Its delicious and more so when it has stayed out for quite a while. I did burn my mouth trying to taste right out of the oven, and then it tasted more chocolatey, now it tastes more like a cake. As usual I tinkered with the recipe, but from the previous baking disasters one thing I did learn is to keep the proportions intact. This time the major achievement would be I didnt change any of the ingredients (not that there are many to change). Its very basic, atleast in those terms. Though, I did struggle a little with the metric conversions.

French Chocolate Brownies
60g Butter
60g Bittersweet Chocolate
60g Sugar
1 Egg
40g Flour
A pinch salt
(Totally forgot about the vanilla flavor and the nuts)

- Sift flour and salt together.
- Melted the butter and the chocolate together in microwave, stirring in between. Smoothed out any lumps and stirred it till it became a smooth liquid.
- Whipped the egg with sugar in the ble nder till it was thick and pale yellow. (I dont think I could have whisked it that well with hand)
- Mixed the Egg-Sugar mixture with Butter-Chocolate mixture till they looked one mass.
- Slowly stirred in the flour and salt mixture.
- Baked in a circular dish for 60 min at 160 degrees C.

Ginger Cake

2008-01-24T07:02:00.000-08:00

I dont know why this recipe fascinated me so much that I starred it to come back in my Reader. Maybe because of all the spices or maybe the look reminded me of the plum cake that I love so much which I cant find in Germany. Maybe it can be found but I dont know how to find it.

Anyways I finally decided to try the loaf pan I bought with this cake. Earlier I had made a fruit cake but that was in a mould and it was a little on the denser side. But I had to try my new pan with this cake and the results were so spectacularly magnificent that I am going to make this again and again and again. :) Thank you Melissa and David Lebovitz for this recipe.

The cake was over before I could have my fill. Not that all the others ate it, but I kept back going for more so often that I craved it even when it was over! I might have to make it again. I thought making a cake for 8 people was a bit too much for just the two of us. So I halved the recipe. We enjoyed it plain. But maybe next time I can serve it warm with some ice cream or just cream or quark.

Ginger Cake
60g Fresh ginger (chopped fine)
125ml Honey (I didnt have access to molasses)
100g Brown Sugar (I thought the mixture of brown sugar and honey might make it similar to the one with molasses)
125ml Sunflower Oil
175g Flour
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Clove Powder
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper Powder
125ml Water
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 medium Egg

Mix honey, oil, sugar and ginger in a bowl.
Sift flour, Cinnamon, Clove powder and Black pepper powder together.
Boil the water and add the baking soda to it. As soon as it starts bubbling, mix it well and pour into the honey mixture. Mix well till the water is incorporated.
Add the flour mixture slowly to the liquid and stir it in.
Finally add the egg, and mix well.
Bake at 170 C for almost 1 1/2 hour.

Maybe my oven takes more time to heat but I needed to lose the egg smell before I could proclaim it done and the top did brown well before the cake was done. So I covered it with aluminium foil and let it bake.

Jalapeno Focaccia

2007-12-04T01:05:00.000-08:00

Adapted from Bake or Break's Jalapeno Focaccia and took some dough mixing instructions from Apartment Therapy's Kitchn. :)

I did scale the Focaccia down and made some indecent changes to what Jennifer suggested, and I mixed it by hand and proofed it overnight. The recipe was fair enough to tolerate all my meddling around.

125 ml water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 tea spoon active dry yeast
Flour, mix of all purpose and whole wheat flour (I have no idea how much I added, as I kept on adding till I got a near together dough) :(
Salt
A pinch of sugar
Freshly ground Black Pepper, to taste
Chilli Powder, to taste
Cummin Powder, to taste

This was what went into the dough. The toppings when I shaped the loaf were a little different.

Black Pepper
Cheese (A mix of Emmenthal and four other cheeses, that I picked up for using in Pasta)
Olive Oil, a generous spread
Chopped Garlic
Chopped Green Chillies

I wish I had taken some pictures! :( Better luck next time.

New experiments

2007-07-12T06:02:00.001-07:00

I have been making quite some experiments in the past year, especially in the past few months, and many of them were successful. And many of them I vowed I will never touch the recipe again. :) But I still keep continuing to try new stuff out.

So far the successes are, the cinnamon buns, the butter cookies, Cinnamon Brioche, some Indian recipes like Moru Kuzhambu, Vada, Masala vada, Pesarattu, etc. Failures had Panna cotta twice :(, Oatmeal cookies which didnt cook properly, Apple Marmalade (somehow it didnt taste right).

Now its the time to try more stuff. Here's the list.

Granola

Apple Crunch Muffins

Apple Sauce

Apple Tart

Mis(sed) trial

2006-09-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

My cinnamon buns went all astray. The smell while they were cooking was divine, but they were as hard as marbles and burnt in the bottom and didnt rise as I expected. So many things went wrong, maybe I should just bake basic bread first instead of trying all these fundoo things!!!! :>

I got confused with the measures and the time to keep it in the oven. I think this will help a lot in my future baking trials.

Long time no try?

2006-07-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

I have been alternately busy and sick, so couldn't bother to try new stuff. Cant even call it trying to perfect what I already have. Anyways the latest try was for making Garlic Bread. It was a hit with him, but then anything covered with a garlic is a favorite with him. But the aroma in the kitchen while it cooked also made me think that it turned out well. No recipe this time. Just plain trials.

Using mortar and pestle, ground up some garlic. Mixed cheese spread with it as opposed to butter, as I only had clarified butter with me. Spread it on bread, sprinkled with some salt, dried coriander powder and toasted it. They were decent.

With the latest addition to the kitchen, convection microwave oven, I want to get a little baking done. Especially something with yeast in it.

The things that I want to try out:

Focaccia, if this succeeds then a pizza.
Pretzels
Oatmeal Cookies (Tried twice but came out pretty bad)
Cinnamon buns
Wheat Bread Loaf

They are in increasing level of complexity (I feel so). Lemme see how far I can be successful. First step is to get some yeast. I am not sure where to get the fresh one, so I will be using the dry yeast for the time being.

Noodle salad

2006-04-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

I have had several bad tries with noodles for like around 6-7 times, and this time they ended up rather perfectly in every sense. Maggi atta noodles were a bit too steeply priced for me, so decided to check out some co-op's wheat noodles. Though the upside was price, the downside they dont come with any cooking instructions or recipes. Each time I tried cooking them, I always ended up with some goo.

This time, well it was different. I started off with this and this in mind. No one was there in the house, so I decided I will boil the noodles and try two recipes on the same day. Atleast I could try 2 different boiling techniques. But I just couldnt cross the first one. I havent had such lip-smackingly good noodles since a long time. I tweaked the recipe a bit, but the result was outstanding.

Let me start with the boiling part. I boiled water with 3 times my regular input of salt in it (the water should definitely taste salty). Added the noodles right after the water started boiling. They became soft in 2 minutes. Removed them from the water and that was it. Not too uncooked, not too soft. Just right.

I had some onion and raw mango cut and 2 dry red chillies pounded into flakes in the meanwhile. Had . Seasoned the noodles with the chilli flakes. Added honey, dark soy sauce a spoon each. One half of a lemon went in. Sprinkled with some mint leaves and voila, the noodle salad was ready.

It was so good, I had the second noodles made with the same recipe. :)

Mint chutney with Pakodas

2006-04-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

Havent tried much lately. With him being gone for a month and taking ill after returning back, there's no time nor intention to try new recipes.

I found two new guinea pigs who came to visit him, so I made some ridge gourd pakodas and mint chutney. Both for the first time and with little time to test. And they turned out to be quite good. I am assuming they came out quite well, was that the plate was quite empty with just some crumbs. :)

Chutney was what I really liked. Pretty basic, just grinded a bunch of mint leaves and one green chilli with some water and lime juice. It was hot and tangy, a perfect partner for the crispy, somewhat bland pakoras.

Back to basics

2006-03-01T23:31:00.000-08:00

I am not cooking at all these days, but learning the basics of cooking. Experience helps. :)

Recently learnt the difference between puri dough and chapati dough, how to identify early on when the dough's getting harder, how to ensure fluffy chapatis while mixing the dough and as well when making them on the stove. Have already learnt how to make them go round and round using the rolling pin.

Plan to make wraps with wheat flour... or maybe maida... hmm...

Apple Orange Spicy Marmalade

2006-03-01T23:28:00.000-08:00

I was reading this delicious blog, and I was inspired by this post and also this one. I dont know who wouldnt want to eat such nice looking Jams. Moreover having bread for lunch, I am completing Marmalade, a bottle in a week!!! So thought why not try my hand at making one. Got hold of this recipe and some tips from DeliciousDays's Recipe, the stage was set.

Didnt want to try huge amounts, so took one apple and one orange and half-a-lemon, and less than recommended 1-1 cup sugar, I skimped on a quarter and used 3/4th Cup. The result can definitely be improved with more water, less cloves, more fruits, etc. But whatever product I have right now is incredible. The spicy aroma wafting around the kitchen while cooking it, the rich golden brown color of the jam as it was finishing and the tangy, spicy after-taste it leaves in the mouth, was worth the time and energy I spent on it. It filled a 200g bottle with something to spare for the morning breakfast.

It turned out rather well and I have decided that whenever its possible, am going to make Jam rather than buy it. and I even want to experiment with other fruits.

Sandwich

2006-02-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

I think this blog is slowly turning to a food blog! I read about the cheese sandwich day and was wondering how long would I be eating bread and jam for breakfast. I wanted to try something new. I bought cheddar cheese after being inspired by all these sandwiches.

Opened the fridge, saw that I had plenty of tomatoes. Decided to use one. Sliced the tomato and chopped a green chilly finely, for the heat. Arranged them on top of a cheesed bread slice. Sprinkled some finely sliced almonds, for the crunch, and a bunch of raisins on top of the tomatoes, along with a small sprig of coriander/cilantro. Joined two bread slices together and toasted the bread on a pan on low heat.

The sandwiches tasted divine. Slightly crunchy on the exterior, softly mushy on the interior. And they made a wholesome breakfast. I fell in love with the cheese sandwich. I am going to experiment further with different kinds of chutneys and veggies. Maybe I will make a cucumber sandwich for tomorrow's breakfast.

Date Wontons

2006-02-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

I am calling them date wontons now, but I didn't know what to call them when I did make them. I started out to thinking that I'd make Bhakshalu with recipe from here. She made it sound so easy when I read it first. I didnt have enough time as well as a grinder, which could roughly grind up the dal. So I thought why not stuff something else, maybe something made with dates since I had a lot of them at home. I remembered reading about date bars .

So I pitted some dates, chopped them up, tried boiling them in water for a while along with raisins. No sugar added, since dates contain more than my tolerance level of sugar. This eventually turned out to be a little soggy, not exactly dry, so that I can stuff and make a paratha style bread with maida (all purpose flour) cos it'd make my rotis all runny. so I just stuffed them like samosas and didnt try to roll them after. Then I shallow fried them. They turned out to be pretty good considering the changes I have made all along. When he asked me what they were, I didnt know what to call them, but I remembered an item in a chinese restaurant's dessert menu called "Date Wontons". So there u go. Although the wrapping had to be a lot thinner than it was. The filling was good.

All about food...

2006-02-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

Last week there was lot of restaurant visiting and lots of new food was tasted. In fact my tummy was a wee bit upset, so I decided to go against the decision on saturday, but when I was reminded of Sahib ka panna at Sahib Sindh Sultan, I had to go there and drink it. It is made out of roasted raw pineapple. Never thought pineapple could be so tasty.

Sunday it was chinese/thai time. We went to Bamboo Shoots, right next to Angeethi. I tasted dimsums for the first time and they were excellent. There were two sauces given with them, one made out of red chillis and one from black pepper. I tell you, they were mouth-watering. I have to catch hold of the recipes somewhere and make a guinea pig out of him. Had pad-thai cos I heard about it a lot but it didnt live upto its name. It was not really that good. Maybe I had a lot of expectations. But the Thai rice with roasted chili made me see red and was pretty good. The sizzler dessert more than made up for the heat generated because of the rice. The restaurant was a bit on the pricey side, but there was a huge variety. Especially for people who eat non-veg and sea food, you have to go there atleast a few times to taste all of them.

Mom turned the house into a fruit stall. The entire kitchen platform is overflowing with apples, oranges, bananas and grapes. Didnt know what to do with the loads of apples, so tried my hand at stuffing and baking them. Surprisingly they turned out rather well. So thinking of trying new variants and also planning to make a jar of orange jam or marmalade.

Somehow I have a craving for egg tonight. Maybe will make bhurji.

Discovery of food blogs

2006-01-28T22:59:00.000-08:00

Staying at home I never had to worry about the menu. All I had to do was make a request and it used to be present either by lunch/dinner. Now I have to, right from the vegetables to get home to what to make with what combination. So far trials have been good except one mishap, where I ended up with a VERY HOT rasam as I had boiled green chillies along with it. >:) A memorable day for him, he still shudders at its thought. :))

Food blogs are my recent discovery. I have been googling for recipes that I can think of with the veggies that I have/can buy. I stumbled upon this excellent food blog with emphasis on Andhra Cuisine, and through that went to Meenakshi Agarwal's Hooked On Heat and also Mahanandi. I also found how to cook desserts in a pressure cooker here, which fulfils my wish as I dont have an oven to bake.

I also have a few restaurants to try in Indiranagar. One is called Little Italy, it looks so quaint and cute, that I feel I have to eat in there and the food will be great. Samarkand, have been hearing its praises from quite a while. And Shiok, the famous Madhu Menon's Far Eastern Cuisine Restaurant.