Baking With Dorie: Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

I have not done any baking in months.  Thanks to a very long & tiresome renovation and the fact that my oven refused to work. So I've been impatient to bake again and to also fall back in step with all the BWD bloggers who have been carrying on without me for weeks and weeks.

No baking and no cooking means a neglected blog . . I keep meaning to come back here and at least write about my holiday but I've been immensely busy. Too busy to write & too busy to keep up with all the blogs that I follow. Has it really been a whole month since I got back? But that's another blog post . . and I promise to get to it this week.

For now, I bring you crumbly, buttery, melt-in-the-mouth, lime-scented shortbread cookies with a surprising crunchiness.

Who would have known cornmeal could take shortbread to another level? I absolutely love these cookies! I substituted lime zest for the lemon zest because limes were what I had on hand & made only half the recipe. My kids have been sick all week so I didn't expect them to have much of an appetite. Had I known what a hit these would be with them, I would have made double the batch!

Rivki of Kosher Cooking for Ordinary People is the host this week. Please head over to her blog for the recipe, or to Page 130 of Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan. Please check the blogroll here to check out everyone else's posts. 

Next up we're baking Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, picked by Shahieda. If you'd like to join our baking challenges please drop me an email at needfulthings at ymail dot com. We'd love to have you bake along with us! 

Curry-Palooza: Rajmah

As far as indian food goes, Rajmah is one of my favorite things to order when we eat out at Indian restaurants. I'm also guilty of throwing in the occasional packet of 'Gits Rajma Masala' into the grocery cart, unhealthy as it might be.

I have actually never tried  making it myself & simply presumed that I wouldn't be able to get it right. The thing about Subcontinental cooking is that some recipes seem simple and unassuming yet getting the right flavor can seem so elusive.

For this months' currypalooza I wanted to pick something flavorful yet simple that could be put together quickly. I've been back home for over two weeks but things have been so chaotic that I simply don't have the time to make anything labor-intensive in my not-yet-quite-functional kitchen. Blogger croquecamille had introduced me to the Quick Indian Cooking website and after testing out one of the other recipes there last week, I decided to pick Mallika Basu's Rajmah curry for this challenge.

Since it uses canned kidney beans, it was a snap to make this morning though I let it simmer longer than needed so that the masalas would really infuse the beans. The only down side of using canned beans is that they tend to remain quite bland regardless of how deeply flavorful the base-curry itself is. However, simmering them on low heat for almost an hour seemed to do the trick for me. And the resulting curry was almost like the one I eat at restaurants. I had been aiming for a thicker sauce and had added only just enough water to cover the beans. This was a mistake and I should have simply added more and gotten a slightly thinner sauce. That said, the flavors in this curry were spot on & we enjoyed it as part of a more elaborate indian-themed meal this evening. 

Please head over to Sage Trifle to check out Rocquie's version of this curry and for the recipe please follow this link. Currypalooza is a monthly event and we take turns picking random Indian recipes instead of following any particular book . I hope others will join us!

post-note: I've been unable to upload photos because blogger keeps telling me my post cannot be saved. I'm publishing this without them for now & will try uploading tomorrow morning.

Baking With Dorie: Great Grains Muffins

I'm sitting out this weeks' challenge as well - unfortunately my oven has a malfunction & isn't working.
Please check out the other bakers here & head over to Laurie's blog for the recipe.

Countdown to Paris

Two days to go! 

Bags packed - check.

camera packed - check.

enthusiasm - check. (well, almost. currently suffering immense anxiety at leaving my kids behind; especially this one)

My wish-list of things to see has grown. I don't expect that I will be able to do everything because most of my time on this trip is eaten up by the workshop I'm doing with Sophie Pasquet, but there's no harm in expanding the list all the same:

1. re-visit Musee d'Orsay to see their new Manet exhibit

2. Institut du Monde Arabe

3. Sainte-Chapelle

4. Tour Montparnasse just before sunset

5. check out the exhibit 'Charmed life of the Brothers Caillebotte'

6. bread & cakes at La Fougasse 
7. coffee at Merce and the Muse
8. Musee de l'Orangerie

write to you from paris!

Baking With Dorie: Links to BWD bakers this week (Big Bill's Carrot Cake)

My entire kitchen had to be packed up earlier than anticipated as our renovation comes to an end & so I have not been able to bake this cake despite every intention to make it ahead of time.

A few others are skipping the challenge so please head over here to check out the blogroll & the links to bakers this week. For the recipe, please head over to Rebecca's blog Beurrista or page 254 of Baking from my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Wordless Wednesday

Curry-Palooza: Aloo Gobi

Rocquie & I have been discussing curries forever. 

A new cooking event/group seemed the best idea to take things a step further: Rocquie gets to further explore her love for Indian cuisine and I get to try out new things because I'm not entirely new to curries. So curry-palooza was born & we decided to blog about our endeavors in curry-making on the first Friday of each month. We're not cooking from any particular book and so far the only rules are that we take turns hosting the event & that we will blog once a month. I hope others will join us!

Aloo Gobi is an every day dish and I must admit that I usually turned up my nose at it as a very young child. Since then I enjoy cauliflower a lot better but have not attempted to cook this curry more than once and, needless to say, it was terrible the last and only time I made it. I use my Grandmothers' cooking as a benchmark because she lived with us when I was growing up and all the curries she made were wonderful. I never learned to cook from her while I had the chance and much later, I had to rely on her advice and instructions over the phone but could never quite get my food to taste like the dishes she had lovingly prepared for us. 

This recipe turned out to be like a deliciously warm, comforting hug: it is as close as can be to my Grandmothers' version & I was very, very happy to finally get it right. 

The recipe can be found here on Rocquie's blog Sage Trifle.

Paris Encore

 

(photo credit: taken by my son last summer)

I'm going to Paris again!

Here I am again, less than one year after my previous (and first) visit, counting down the days. Only 18 more to go! 

A friend and I made a spur of the moment plan to make a trip to Paris together for une petite vacance & it seems luck was on our side because once the decision was made, everything else fell into place. Our immense excitement overrides any trepidation we might feel over the prospect of leaving our respective spouses in charge of our kids while the two of us enjoy our week away. 

On the agenda: staying in & exploring the Marais, strolling through the Marche aux Puces on our first morning there, trying out Poilâne's famous bread (something I missed out on last time), wandering around the city & taking photos with Sophie Pasquet & a group of photographers, meeting the lady behind Promenades Gourmandes,  and visiting the home & gardens of Monet at Giverny. So far these are the few big things on my list. In the midst of it all I expect to unwind & get my groove back. 

I can only hope the weather cooperates.

I may not blog a lot between now & then but I hope to make some updates during my trip. 

à bientôt!

Baking with Dorie: Brrrrrr-ownies

I couldn't make these because, where I live, peppermint patties have been impossible to find & I wasn't able to make my own (no peppermint extract either).

Everyone else in the group seemed to have loved these. Have a look at the blogroll here to see their posts & for the recipe. 

Perigee

A lot of people said the full moon looked no bigger than average Saturday night. But to me it seemed so much brighter that night. And as always, spectacular.