Venting

These days I'm replete of all mental energy after spending just shy of half a day hanging around alone with the placid, independent and easy-going baby of the first year who has now morphed into not only a tantrum-throwing whirlwind of dangerous activity but also a constant, clingy shadow. The rest of it is just her being her toddler self, asserting her place and presence in the family, and I know it's a phase but the clinginess. . the clinginess, people!

After 4 p.m. I'm checking the clock every five minutes, counting down ... dinner: 5:30 p.m.  ... kids in bed: 6:45 p.m ... 7:15 p.m., complete silence: the moment I was waiting for all day. When I can flop on the couch, unwind, have a peaceful dinner with the man when he gets home a half hour later and catch up our individual days. And then, most evenings, fall into dead slumber before 9 p.m.

To say the least, this is a frustrating phase. I dislike how anxiously I count down the hours between her two naps & bed time. And then what a tyrant I am with the older kids about sticking to the schedule each evening and how it's 'hurry, hurry, hurry - everyone eat and get into bed already!'. It seems really mean. Especially considering I have only 3 hours with the older two, between their getting home and going to bed. But I'm failing to get most productive things done and a sense of urgency is beginning to creep up as several deadlines approach. I feel completely inadequate and don't know how anyone with young kids at home finds their balance. For one, they must have really sedate children!

Because today is the first chilly day of the season, and because I can't do much more than fiddling my thumbs while the toddler sleeps, and because I have a dozen things-to-do carried over from yesterday: dinner today is Pea Soup and, hopefully, some kind of sandwiches. The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson. I saw it on one of the early episodes of her tv show on BBC Food very, very long ago and it popped into my mind today because I was trying to think of something I can make very quickly, without having to dice or finely chop anything. This fits the bill quite nicely since all it requires is frozen peas, a shallot and some vegetable stock. And the fact that it is called Slime Soup should hopefully appeal to my kids.

Oh, I so want to be Nigella Lawson when I grow up

Meanwhile we can pretend I look as rapturous and Domestic Goddess-like as Nigella when she is working in the kitchen, that I magically whip up delicious and impressive daily meals ... despite the toddler clinging to my leg, the kitchen counter brimming with every utensil, jarred spice and whatever else I am cooking with, the sink full of dishes, remnants of breakfast yet to be cleared from the dining table and the puddle of juice the toddler has managed to spill on the floor and is happily splashing with one hand, the other chubby hand firmly holding on to my leg . . .

Slime Soup
by Nigella Lawson (found here)
makes 1 litre

4 cups frozen peas (I used petit pois)
1 scallion
3 cups boiling water
vegetable broth concentrate or a stock cube (I used 3 oxo cubes of vegetable stock)
1 ball mozzarella

Cook the frozen peas and scallion in the boiling water with the stock concentrate/stock cube until soft and cooked through. Remove and discard the scallion.

Roughly chop the mozzarella and put it into a blender along with the soup. Blend, return it to the pan to make sure all the cheese has melted. Serve.

Mango-Almond Kulfi

I know what you're thinking, 'Mangoes again?'

I realize I sound mildly obsessed, working mangoes into every recipe possible. But it's August now, almost the end of mango season. And I'm reluctant to let go.

Since it's too warm to bake, I decided instead to experiment with making Kulfi. Traditionally Kulfi is made by cooking milk till it is reduced, but this 'cheats version' is ridiculously simple and very close to the real thing. Since the possibilities for playing around are endless, I worked crushed almonds and mangoes into this version. The result: fantastic, of course.

Give it a whirl!

Mango-Almond Kulfi

Add the following to a blender:

1 can (14-oz) evaporated milk
1 can (14-oz) sweetened condensed milk
enough whipping cream/half-and-half to make 1 liter
1 slice of bread, crusts removed
1/4 - 1/2 cup sweet mango
a handful of chopped almonds
1 heaped tsp cardamom, powdered  (or seeds from 8 - 10 cardamom pods, crushed)

Whiz everything together until blended. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for 6 hours or overnight.

I sprayed my molds very slightly with cooking spray and dusted with ground almonds (used my coffee grinder for this) before pouring the Kulfi mixture in.

If you'd like to make a plain version, omit the mango and/or almonds. Personally I like it best the traditional way: with just chopped pistachios and cardamom.

Cherry Frozen Yogurt

So I've been on a bit of a frozen-yogurt and sorbet kick lately.

With temperatures at 109F, can you blame me? It's hard to think about eating anything that isn't cool and refreshing. And once I got started, there was no stopping me: I now have a couple of kinds of frozen yogurts and sorbets stocked up in the freezer and am constantly dreaming up new ways to whizz fruit with simple syrup. 

This recipe is actually a spin off from the strawberry frozen yogurt that I made some time back. I had on hand a box of cherries that turned out too sour for consumption and I figured I could not really go wrong if I used David Lebovitz's recipe with cherries instead of strawberries. 

The only thing I did differently was that I cooked the cherries with the sugar prior to adding them to the yogurt and also used far more sugar than the other recipe had asked for. I may have added a little too much sugar, but you can change that when you try this out for yourself - for you must: because this frozen yogurt was, in one word, awesome. 

Cherry Frozen Yogurt

slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

450g cherries, pitted

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (I used somewhere between 3/4 -1 cup sugar and it was just a tiny bit too sweet for my taste)

1 cup low-fat yogurt

1 tsp lemon juice 

Add the cherries and sugar together in a small pan and cook over medium heat for approx. 10 mins. There's no need to add water because the sugar helps to release the cherry juices and helps soften them. 

Once the cherries are cooked, remove from heat and cool before adding to the yogurt and lemon juice in a blender. Whizz everything together until well-combined. There will be lots of un-blended cherry bits that you can either leave in (if you like the texture) or strain the yogurt mixture if  you'd prefer a smoother frozen yogurt. 

Cover and cool the yogurt mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour and then freeze according to the manufacturers' instructions on your ice cream maker. 

If like me, you don't have an ice cream maker , cover and freeze for 1 hour. Remove from freezer and either use a fork to break up the frozen edges and mix everything up. Or whisk again (I used a hand blender this time to blend everything up and felt I had a creamier texture this way). 

Repeat this process 2 more times and then finally freeze for 4-5 hours before digging right in. 

David Lebovitz's No-Recipe Cherry Jam

Part of the fun of having a food blog is that you get to make things you wouldn't ordinarily think of. 

Like .. cherry jam. My inability to find cherry jam at my local grocery store was all the inspiration I needed to make it from scratch for the BWD challenge  two weeks ago  (Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte).

An online search for a simple recipe that wouldn't require preservatives led me to DL's no-recipe cherry jam . And that's what it was - not a recipe,  but step-by-step instructions on how to make the jam. It seemed simple enough, not much unlike my previous attempts at making strawberry jam.

I wanted a thick jam - almost like cherry preserves. So, here is what I did:

from David Lebovitz's recipe for no-recipe Cherry Jam

2 pounds cherries (half sour, fresh ones + half dark, sweet & pitted frozen)

2.5 cups sugar (roughly - since I had just under 4 cups of cooked cherries)

zest and juice of 2 whole lemons

a few drops of pure almond extract

Rinse cherries, remove pits and stems. Chop them roughly into small pieces - but leave some whole or simply halved to get texture. 

Add the cherries to a large stockpot. Add  just enough water to cover & mix in the lemon juice and zest. 

Cook the cherries over medium heat until they are wilted and completely soft. This took me about 25 minutes. Once they are cooked, measure how much of the cherry & juice mixture you have and add in 3/4 of the amount of sugar. I somewhat under 4 cups so I added roughly 2.5 cups of sugar. 

Stir the sugar and cherries and cook over moderate to high heat. While you are cooking the jam, place a small plate in the freezer. 

Keep stirring the jam and scraping the bottom as you go so that you don't end up burning the mixture. If you use a thermometer - you'll see that the jam will jel at around 220 - 230F. 

If you don't have a thermometer - use the frozen plate to test the doneness of your jam. Once it begins to look thicker & seems to be gelling, take it off the heat and spoon out a small amount onto the plate and return it to the freezer. Remove after a few minutes and test by nudging with your finger. If it wrinkles, it means it's done. If it seems runny, cook the jam a little longer and test again. 

Once it's done, take it off the heat and add a few drops of almond extract. Ladle into jars, seal and let cool at room temperature before putting it in the fridge to cool.

According to DL, the jam keeps for a few months. In my case, it has lasted barely two weeks and I was able to save only a few tablespoons of jam in order to take these photos. 

Here, I smothered it on the Tender Shortcakes I made this week. And what a blend of flavors this was: slightly sour cherry from the jam and the hint of ginger in the shortcakes. 

One word: yum.

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

Lately my kids have complained that I am too grumpy & busy and don't do anything remotely fun with them. 

I don't know about you - but I just can't take it when they pull at my heart-strings like that! The weather has been completely uncooperative lately. It has been either too wet or too warm to do anything outdoors. So I did what I always do: got both the kids in the kitchen, presented them with lumps of cinnamon-roll dough and told them to take a go at it. 

Now there's no way to make a cinnamon roll healthy. I've tried & failed. The best I could do was to try and find a recipe using whole-wheat flour so I could feel all virtuous & dupe myself into believing that I came up with a 'healthy' version of this sinful treat. 

I stumbled across a great blog that had a recipe for Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Rolls. It was just what I wanted, except I tweaked the frosting a little bit because I just could not resist. Can you blame me? These are Cinnamon Rolls we are talking about: what's the point of being cautious or counting carbs and calories when you've gone as far enough as making them?

This recipe makes many, many cinnamon rolls. I didn't count but I can safely say I made at least 3-dozen and had to send 3/4th of those to my husbands workplace the next day because there was no way I was going to let them sit around and be tempted to scarf down a few every couple of hours.

Because they were that good. 

For the purpose of taking these photos, I thickened the frosting a little by adding more confectioners sugar but, otherwise, I made it thinner and when I drizzled it over the warm rolls it melted into them and made the rolls gooey and sticky & deliciously soft (but not pretty!). 

Here's the recipe: 

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from Heavenly Homemakers

For the rolls:

1 cup warm water

2 tablespoons yeast

2 teaspoons honey

2.5 cups milk

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup honey

4 teaspoons fleur de sel

8 cups whole wheat flour

For the filling:

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup granulated white sugar +1.5 tbsp ground cinnamon

For the frosting: 

approx. 3-4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

1/8 tsp salt

To make the dough:

Mix 1 cup warm water and 2tbsp yeast & 2 tsp honey in a large bowl. Stir and let sit for 5 mins. 

Melt a stick of butter in a large saucepan and add the 1/2 cup of honey, fleur de seul and 2.5 cups of milk. Bring to about 120F and then remove from heat and pour over the yeast mixture and stir. 

Stir in the flour, 2 cups at a time. Turn everything out on a floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes. I divided the dough in two & let the kids punch the heck out of their respective balls of dough before covering them and leaving them to rise for 1.5 hours. 

After 1.5 hours, take 1 ball of dough and roll it out into a rectangle on a floured surface. I got a pretty large rectangle and I may have also rolled it out very thin. 

Use a pastry brush to spread half of the melted butter all over the rectangle. My 2 yr old used her pudgy hands to do this & my son sprinkled on  half of the cinnamon and sugar mixture. It was great fun & I only wish I could have taken photos - dark, dungeon kitchen or not. 

Roll up the rectangle - I read somewhere once that the thinner you roll out the dough and the tighter you roll it, the more swirls you get - and so you get  lots more of the cinnamon filling - which is what we were trying to get. Once it is rolled up, pinch sides and cut into 1/2" thick slices. 

Place all the rolls in a lightly greased 9 x 13" pan. Cover with clingfilm and allow to rise for about 1/2 hour while you repeat the process with the remaining dough. 

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. 

Let the rolls cool for 5 mins while you beat together the ingredients for the frosting & then drizzle the frosting all over the warm rolls.

I am also submitting this post to Yeastspotting, a weekly bread showcase at  the Wildyeast blog.
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Oh So Easy Homemade Cottage Cheese

Now why would anyone possibly want to make their own cottage cheese when they can easily buy it from the grocery store? 


Except - I can't. Because it's not locally available where I live and so I had to figure out a way to make it myself a couple of years ago. It is the simplest thing ever & I made it again just last week to use in the Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte I made for the BWD challenge.


All you need is milk & a few tablespoons of vinegar. Really - that's it. 

Homemade Cottage Cheese

1 litre milk (I used low fat)
3-4 tbsp vinegar

Bring the milk to a boil in a large pan over medium heat (it should reach about 120F).
 
Lower the heat and add the vinegar a couple of teaspoons at a time, stirring well after each addition.
The milk will get cloudy and the curds will start floating on top in large and small clumps. 

After you have added all the vinegar, remove the pot from heat and let it cool for around five minutes before straining the curds through a strainer lined with a cheesecloth.


When most of the liquid has drained away, gather up the sides of the cheesecloth and squeeze to get any remaining liquid out. 


Place the cheesecloth & curds back in the strainer and place over a bowl for 1 - 2 hours to let all moisture drain away. 


Use the cheese right away or store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Baking With Dorie: Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

Dorie Greenspan: where were you my entire life? 

My husband and I love a good cheesecake & so I've attempted to make it a couple of times in past years and always found it to be one of those elusive things that I just can't quite get right. Either I would burn the crust, under-bake the filling or the filling would split in the middle - making a very messy looking cake. In fact, I've never been able to make a cheesecake with a filling that didn't crack. And I've always found the recipes I've tried to be too sweet, too heavy.

When Elizabeth of Gluten Free Baking 101 chose this recipe for this weeks' Baking With Dorie challenge, I was prepared for cheesecake-fail. But then I thought: so far Dorie hasn't let me down & so maybe this time I would finally succeed in making a good & smooth-looking cheesecake!

The ingredient list called for cottage cheese which isn't available locally where I live & Ricotta is prohibitively expensive, so I told my baking partners Susi and Elizabeth that I would be making my own cottage cheese. 

That is easy enough. But then I couldn't come up with cherry jam and decided to make my own jam as well. I used David Lebovitz's directions for making cherry jam using two pounds of cherries; half fresh sour cherries and half frozen, dark & sweet ones. The directions are available here. Since I wanted a very thick jam, I used only enough water to cover the cherries, added the zest of two whole lemons and followed the rest of David's directions. The jam was ready in around half an hour & I've had a very, very hard time restraining myself from eating any of it before I could use it for the baking challenge today. It is so good & I like it even better than my homemade strawberry jam. 

Susi joked that I've turned this week's challenge into a Daring Bakers challenge by making all the ingredients by scratch. It's been a bit of work in that sense & I've stretched it over a couple of days like I did with the lemon tart we made for the last challenge, but I enjoyed it so much. 

I finally got around to baking the torte this morning. Dorie's instructions are easy to follow, and I thought I got everything right. . . 

But: my cake split again :( 

I got past my disappointment, waited for the cake to cool slightly and dusted with icing sugar. 

I released the sides of the pan but didn't try to remove the base of the spring-form pan that I baked in - just in case I broke the bottom of the crust and I didn't want to deal with that kind of disaster at this point.

Then I cut myself a slice of not quite-as-yet-cold-cheesecake. Pure heaven. I can only imagine how much better it will taste when completely chilled.

I think I finally succeeded in making the perfect cheesecake: perfect crust, smooth filling (except for the cracks) that wasn't too sweet. or too heavy Simple to make. Thank you Dorie! I've gotta tell you: I really love you!

For the recipe, check out Susi's page & do go over to Elizabeth's blog and see how she made a Gluten-Free version of this torte. 

Our next challenge is Tender Shortcakes on Pages 423-424, picked by Susi. If you would like to join the challenge, please drop me an email.

Hot Cross Buns

Ok, so I went out some days back to buy some heavy cream & Oreos but came home with a Bread Maker instead. 

I blame my impulsiveness on cabin fever: my kids have had chickenpox and as a consequence we've all been confined inside the house far too many days. Add to that, the stress of meeting deadlines and finding time to study.

Ever since I've gone back to school, Wednesdays are the longest and most stressful days of the week for me. It's the last day of the study-week and I have huge assignments due. So I treat myself by giving myself Thursdays completely off. I don't think/read/write or do anything else the entire day if I can help it. 

That is just what I was doing last night after we got home from having dinner out. I was poking around in the kitchen to come up with 'something sweet' (and ready-made) for my dessert-craving husband when it struck me to finally unpack the much coveted bread maker and give it test run. It didn't really matter that it was past 9 p.m. I just had to try it out: according to my husband, I don't  understand the concept of 'chilling out'. 

After a brief search online, I came up with a recipe for Pull-Apart Hot Cross Buns on Allrecipes. I was initially going to go with a recipe for a basic loaf of bread but the cardamom in the ingredient list drew me to this recipe. 

I had all the ingredients on hand except ... the flour! But I discovered a bag of whole-wheat flour and decided to substitute with that instead. The recipe required me to dump all the ingredients into my bread maker and set it on the 'Dough' cycle. Sounds simple, right? Only if you follow the instructions on your breadmakers' manual: I dumped everything in and an hour later, it didn't look very dough-like. 

Took a look at the manual. Duh! Pour in the water or other wet ingredients first. Which I  . . hadn't done. 

No big deal, I just took the very, very sticky dough out and kneaded it only slightly with well-floured hands. I added in some raisins, divided the dough into 12 as directed and left the balls of dough to rise in a 9x13 pan. 

They rose to gargantuan size. I thought about taking them all out and dividing them further into 24, but then (feeling lazy) baked them as they were. 

Result: Aromatic, soft  and huge hot cross buns that are subtly spiced and not overly sweet. We waited till this morning to eat them for breakfast and let me tell you how they tasted in one word: delicious.

Pull- Apart Hot Cross Buns

adapted from Allrecipes

1 x 0.25 oz package dry active yeast

1/4 cup water

4 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 1/4 cup lukewarm milk

1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled

1 egg

1/4 cup raisins

Frosting: 

1 1/8 cup confectioners sugar

1/8 cup milk

1/2 tsp almond extract

Sprinkle the yeast over warm water and let it stand for 5 mins. 

Place the flour, salt, sugar, cardamom, milk, butter and egg into the bread machine (as per manufacturers instructions). 

Pour the yeast on top. Close the lid and set the machine for dough setting. Add raisins, if using, when it beeps. 

When the dough is finished, divide it into 12 portions and shape into balls. Place them into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish, cover with clingfilm and set aside to rise till double in size (about 45 mins).

Remove clingfilm. Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes. 

Set aside to cool completely. Whisk together the milk, confectioners sugar and almond extract. Drizzle over cooled buns in a cross shape. 

Now that I own a bread maker, watch out for more Yeastspotting on this page ;-) 

Baking With Dorie: The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart

I have been more than ready for BWD Monday: this has been the longest, most exhausting and emotionally draining week for me. And so this recipe for Lemon Cream Tart, chosen this week by Elizabeth of Gluten Free Baking, was just what I needed to help me unwind. 

I turned it into a weekend project, and let me tell you: making this tart was a real labor of love. I started by making the lemon cream a day in advance. Now I love all things lemon - and any desserts with 'lemon' in the title sound wonderfully light and refreshing. Which is why I gawked a little when I read the recipe and discovered how much butter just the lemon cream requires: 21 tablespoons!! Yes, you read that right. 21. And 9 more in the tart. Did you just feel your arteries clog up upon reading that? I did! 

This was a tough one: I had to decide whether to play around and reduce the amount of butter or just go ahead and make it the way it is. But since this was my first attempt at making any kind of tart, I didn't want to mess it up. So, I chose the latter option, and decided to make mini-tarts and spread the love, so to speak, instead of making one large tart. 

The lemon cream: let's just call it extraordinary and leave it at that. Because I can't find a better word to describe how lovely it is: less sweet than lemon curd, tangy and silky with a burst of citrus flavor. In short: the stuff MY dreams are made of. 

Now if only it contained less butter! 

It took me just a little over 10 minutes to prepare the cream. I don't own a double boiler so I prepared it in a stainless steel bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. I wasn't really sure if I was getting it right - my candy thermometer crept up to almost 180F but the cream didn't look very thick to me. So I left it on for a few more minutes and then strained it into my food processor. My butter was very, very soft so it got incorporated pretty quickly. And my food processor didn't even protest, like Dorie had predicted it might. 

I still don't have much of a sense of smell and can only catch faint whiffs of stuff. Most of the time it is undertones that other people can't smell at all which makes me a freak of nature, so all I could smell was the eggs in this cream while I prepared it. I couldn't smell the lemon at all. While pouring it out into a jar for refrigeration, I decided I was going to give all the tarts away because I was definitely not going to like eating something that smelled so egg-ish. 

And then I licked my spatula. Oh my. 

I decided right then: I'm not sharing! 

And I also decided that I had to do one better than just simple Sweet Tart Dough and make it with either pecans or almonds. The lemon cream really deserved that little extra attention to detail.

So I reduced the amount of flour and made the Sweet Tart Dough with ground pecans like Dorie suggests. And I wasn't disappointed. I really loved the hint of nuttiness they lent to this tart.

Once again, the dough was easy to make and I didn't need to knead it at all because I figure I over-processed it and it formed a ball of dough right there in my food processor. I didn't have mini-tart molds with removable bottoms so I lined my mini tart pan with foil, which I greased lightly, pressed the dough in and froze the pan for half an hour. 

Since I have never made tarts before, I wasn't sure how thick the shells should be. And I had been warned by Susi that the dough could get flaky, so I kept them on the thicker side and made just 6. 

I ended up over-baking a little because I forgot that I was using a dark pan and should have reduced the temperature. No harm done: the tarts came out great. They were a little puffy in the middle so I pressed them down gently with the back of a spoon as soon as I got them out of the oven. I didn't put them back to bake longer even though the middles looked like they might be a little under-baked - I was too afraid I'd burn them because the edges were brown already. 

The only problem I had with this recipe was that when I took out the lemon cream out of the fridge the next morning the texture was not soft and pillowy as I had imagined, but a little on the harder side. I figured, I must have added a little more butter than called for: that is the only explanation I could come up with. Our sticks of butter here are not marked with tablespoon measures so we really  have to eye-ball it. 

Leaving the cream out on the counter for a short while solved the issue - it softened up and then I simply whipped it a little before adding to the tarts. The whipping seemed to have done the trick because I refrigerated the filled tarts, and hours later the cream was still soft. So it wasn't the quantity of butter after all. 

Will I make this again? Yes : but only if I can find a way to reduce the amount of butter in the cream. I really, really loved the lemon cream and artery-clogging it might be, but I am still going to save the leftover cream in my freezer and think up other uses for it. I dipped some gingersnaps in it & I loved the combination of flavors so it could be great as a filling for gingersnap sandwiches. Or something. I'll find a way to use it.

I'm beginning to think that every recipe in this book is extraordinary & I'm loving Baking With Dorie.

Check out what my fellow bakers Susi and Elizabeth have done with their Extraordinary Lemon Cream Tarts. 

For the recipe, follow me . . 

Date Bars

I've been trying to write a blog post all week. Then stopping, deleting what I wrote or abandoning it altogether. And coming back to it later, only to repeat the entire cycle.

To be perfectly honest with you, I haven't much to say. I've had a lot of worrisome stuff on my mind these past several days. Initially I was going to throw in a funny story about my kids and a pair of Goldfish called 'Sparky' and 'Dolphin'. But I'm just not inspired enough today to tell that story. Maybe later. 

 

For now, here's a recipe for Date Bars that will fill your kitchen with an irresistible, buttery, toffee-like smell. Go on, you know you want to try them out.

Date Bars

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 stick butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup, roughly chopped dates

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease the bottom only of an 8" x 11" dish.

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. 

Fold in the flour and mix well. Add chopped dates and nuts, if using. 

Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake 30 - 35 minutes. 

Let cool completely before cutting into bars. 

Baking With Dorie: Lots-Of-Ways-Banana-Cake

One of the very first kinds of cake that I ever made, years and years ago, was Banana Cake. 

It was out of a book that my best friend and I co-owned. Or she owned it and I borrowed it so often, that I began to think of it as my own. To cut a long story short, I was bitten by the baking bug back then and so, feeling over-confident and using my newly acquired 'skill', I made banana cake to take to school.

Everyone seemed to love it. Except a smart-mouth who said, 'You couldn't have made this. And it surely doesn't contain any real bananas: it's just banana extract'. How mean!

In the years between then and now, I've made banana cakes and banana bread dozens of times. But never without thinking of that smart-ass comment.

And I thought of it today as well, while I assembled the ingredients for this weeks Baking With Dorie challenge. 

I chose this weeks' challenge as well and I am so glad that I picked this recipe. Let me just say I love the dense sweetness of this cake.

I halved the recipe and made a single layer, dusted with icing sugar. 

The moment I smelled this cake baking, I regretted not making the whole recipe and smothering it with chocolate whipped cream as I had originally planned. 

It is wonderful on its own but begs for a scoop of ice cream.

It does seem a bit lonely out there on its own, don't you think? 

This cake is really good. 

Contains real bananas. 


Toasted coconut too ;-)

Lots-Of-Ways-Banana-Cake

(Pages 205 & 206, Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan)

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1.5 sticks butter

1 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 ripe bananas

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cup sweetened , shredded coconut. preferably toasted.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a medium bowl. 

In a large bowl, beat the butter till creamy. Add the sugars and beat for a few minutes. 

Add the eggs and vanilla. The mixture will be silky smooth - add banana and lower speed. 

Mix in the flour and coconut milk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in toasted coconut. 

Pour into two 9" pans and bake for 45 mins. Cool for 5 minutes in pan before inverting on wire rack to cool. 

Dorie suggests lots of ways to serve this cake. I chose the simplest possible & dusted with confectioners sugar. 

The next challenge will be posted on April 26th, and fellow blogger Elizabeth has picked The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart (pages 331 & 332) for the next recipe. 

If you'd like to join the challenge, please drop me an email. 

Broccoli Chicken Cups

To be completely honest with you, I haven't really been able to get my act together since I moved exactly a month ago. 

I had thought of several new things to try out in my kitchen and then blog about, but time just seems to get away from me these days. I'm back in school after a 3-month break and am now trying to work on my non-existent time-management skills. 

Even simple tasks are over-whelming lately & so the thought of having people over really throws me over the edge. Although I love the whole process of entertaining, I find it nerve-wracking. Especially because I belong to the school of thought that "more is less". So I am very capable of adding last-minute things to the Smorgasbord and making DH run to the grocery store at the last minute for some essential ingredient for an unplanned-for addition to my menu. 

And so I am that person standing over the stove, stirring a pot of something or the other while throwing orders at the rest of my petrified family to run around fetching things for me seconds before our guests arrive. 

We had a replay of all of the above this past weekend because it was a people-filled one both days. I had a huge assignment due (for school) right before the weekend started so, much to my disappointment, out of the ten things I had planned to make; I could only manage a few (read 7 - why are you surprised? didn't I say, 'more is less'? ).  

These Broccoli Chicken Cups were one of several appetizers made (but the only ones photographed) and our friends loved them so much that they took along all the leftover ones home with them. I managed to sneak away just two - so I could take a photo of them in the morning! 

The recipe is adapted from Taste of Home. 

Broccoli Chicken Cups

2.5 cups roasted chicken, shredded

1 can (10 3/4 oz) reduced-fat, reduced-sodium condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup chopped fresh broccoli

2 small tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 small carrot, grated

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

1 - 1.5 tsp freshly crushed black pepper

12 frozen low-fat puff pastry squares

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375F.

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients except the Parmesan cheese. 

Gently press puff pastry squares into muffin cups coated with cooking spray.

Spoon chicken mixture into pastry cups. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. 

Bake 25-30 minutes. Serve warm.

 

Dark Chocolate Dipped Apples (Magazine Mondays #1)

This is a really good twist on your regular candy apple. 

I made these for my kids several weeks ago, right before we moved. And since it was meant to be a submission for 'Magazine Mondays', I needed to locate the Heart Healthy magazine I got the inspiration for these apples from in the first place.  

No such luck. I packed the magazine away or threw it out? some time before we moved and, as of yet, I've been unable to find it. I finally located the recipe online on the Heart Healthy Living website.



I didn't add the nuts or cranberries because I didn't have any almonds and these were meant for the kids so I was pretty sure they would not at all like the addition of cranberries. I was glad I stuck to plain chocolate because the kids loved these apples and I can see many, many chocolate-and-chopped-almond-covered Gala apples in their future (and mine). 

The original recipe can be found here. 

If you want to go with plain chocolate: 

Wash and dry the apples and insert a wooden Popsicle stick into each after removing the stem. 

Melt dark chocolate in a double boiler. Dip the bottom of the apples in the chocolate, set on wax paper to cool for at least 20 mins in the refrigerator. 

Meanwhile, melt white chocolate in a small pan. Place in a small zipper bag (corner snipped off). Hold the apple upside down with the stick, drizzle  white chocolate over the dark chocolate. Place back on wax paper and let cool in the refrigerator for half an hour, or until the white chocolate sets.

Aloo Paalak: Potato and Spinach Curry

While I was preparing dinner last night, I reminisced fondly how my grandmother would always scold me over the mess I made in the kitchen while I cooked.

According to her, I used too many utensils due to my constant need to measure things precisely and, in doing so, cluttered up her kitchen. I've improved only slightly over the years and so she wouldn't be too impressed if she were to see me now!

She lived with us while I was growing up, and the kitchen was her personal territory. Her repertoire was limited to very basic, every day food but the amount of love and attention she paid to its preparation belied the simplicity of her meals. 

Aloo Paalak is one dish that she makes extremely well. It is a very simple one to prepare but regardless of how many times I've made it; I still can't get it to taste like my grandmothers version. I'm not saying it's not good - it just doesn't taste like hers.

Lately I miss her immensely and don't know when I will be seeing her next so for now, Aloo Paalak mingled with comforting memories will have to do. 

Here's the recipe: 

Aloo Paalak

Spinach, 1 kg

Potatoes 2 medium, peeled and diced

Onions, 3 medium, thinly sliced

Tomatoes, 2 medium

Coriander powder, 1 tbsp

Salt, 1 tsp

Red chili powder, 1/2 tsp

Kasuri Methi (Dried Fenugreek Leaves), 1 tbsp

1-2 tbsp cooking oil

2-3 green chillies (stems removed) and approx. 2 tbsp chopped, fresh coriander leaves, for garnish

Rinse Spinach well, pat dry and chop. Don't discard the stems - they contain a lot of flavor - chop along with the Spinach leaves.

Fry the sliced onion over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Add the tomatoes, coriander powder, salt and red chili powder along with a splash of water and stir fry over medium high heat until the tomatoes are pulpy and the oil has separated.

Add chopped spinach, stir fry for a couple of minutes.  Fresh Spinach releases its own water, let it cook in it over medium heat till the water is reduced.  Add approx. 1.5 cup water and simmer for a few minutes till the spinach is tender. Add potatoes, reduce heat, cover and simmer around 15 mins or until the potatoes are cooked (shouldn't be mushy or falling apart). 

Increase heat and stir fry a couple of minutes to dry  any excessive  water. 

Sprinkle the Kasuri Methi and mix well. Throw in the coriander leaves and green chillies, cover and turn off the heat.

Allow the aromas from the coriander leaves and chillies to infuse for a few minutes, serve.