Garlic and sapphires, and Reichl’s chocolate cake

                                               
If you have ever wondered how you will be treated in a snooty, fancy restaurant, Ruth Reichl will tell you in Garlic and Sapphires. It is Reichl’s candid memoire of her stint as a restaurant critic for New York Times, which turns out is one of the most powerful positions a newspaper critic in New York could have.

Besides transitioning from the laidback LA Times to the more staid and rigidly structured NY Times, Reichl has to go through the pains of getting used to the wrath of readers faithful to her predecessor not to mention donning disguises to review restaurants incognito (apparently, every restaurant in NY has her photo tacked in the kitchen).

The disguises turn out to be the most fun part of her job till she finds herself competing with one of her assumed identities, an elegant blond named Chloe, with whom everyone including her husband and son seem taken with. She even gets hit on by a middle aged rich guy and agrees to a date with him at a restaurant she has to review.

Reichl narrates her adventures with a sense of humor and total honesty that makes you want to befriend her. She is generous in her praise and brutally honest with her criticism. Like the time she gets treated differently at a high end restaurant when she dines dressed as a middle class housewife (longer wait, bad table and horrible service) and later as the critic of NYTimes (the King of Spain waits in the bar but her table is ready even when she shows up early!).

However, all good things must end as they do for Reichl when she realizes she no longer likes the person she is disguised as, a bitter, sarcastic *itch. With the realization comes the offer to edit Gourmet, where she has continued to break culinary ground with the same enthusiasm for good food that etched her name as one of the finest food critics of NYTimes. Check out her new PBS series, Gourmet Adventures with Ruth that she sums it up in these words: There’s no better way to experience a culture than to stand at the stove with a wonderful cook.

A Red Bird Christmas and Peter Reinhardt’s Cornbread

Confession: I had never read Fannie Flagg till Simran picked her up for our book club’s second anniversary. I had seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes based on her book by the same name but had no idea at the time that it was based on Flagg’s book. The movie won an academy award nomination for best screenplay in 1991, so I can imagine how good the book must be.

Flagg is an accomplished writer who sets her book in the small Southern town of Lost River, population: 80. Think RK Narayan's Malgudi, except set in a small southern town along a meandering river with fabulous sunsets. Instead of the dusty roads of Malgudi, imagine pretty little bungalows with neatly tended lawns and streets lined with trees so old they form a canopy overhead. The weather is pleasant even in the peak of winter and the flora and fauna are bountiful.

The residents are friendly and welcome the arrival of an elderly bachelor, as an opportunity to get one of the seven unhitched (three single, four widows) women hitched. Oswald T Campbell, named after a can of soup he was found with on the steps of the orphanage, is a retired army man with emphysema, a limited pension and an even limited time left to live. He comes to the little town to recuperate and falls in love with the slow pace of the town, its residents and by the end of it not only gets a new lease on life but a new bride.

Flagg weaves a beautiful tapestry of friendship between Campbell, an abandoned six year old girl Patsy, a flightless redbird named Jack who lives in the town’s only store, owned by Roy. She embroiders the details of the town’s secret society that goes by the name the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society and weaves in the history of Roy’s broken love affair with his childhood sweetheart with the skill and artistry of one of Oswald’s nature paintings.

Best, easiest almond cup cakes ever

What is the difference between cupcakes and muffins? I have not the faintest clue.

Ten years ago when I stepped foot in a nearby Walmart for the first time I encountered muffins, which looked like the cupcake’s chunkier older sibling. I did not for a moment suspect that the difference in name equated to the difference in taste. After all, coriander was cilantro, okra was American for ladyfinger and lady fingers were Italian dessert not to mention brinjal was eggplant! So who could blame me when I decided to get the 12-pack of muffins anticipating the delicious, subtly flavored cupcakes that the local bakeries sell back home.

It is to be noted that I was forewarned by him of the huge difference in taste. I, of little faith, did not want to believe him. To me, it was a slice of home and I had to have it.

Ten years to that fateful day I haven’t gone near a muffin for money or love. A cupcake is another matter altogether. I will eat it any day of the week, if I can just manage to find them in a country obsessed with mass production of everything including baked goods.

Was it any wonder then that when I chanced upon a cupcake recipe, it was from a French chef? Yes, one of the most venerable and exalted of French chef’s in America, Jacque Peppin. Regular readers of this blog will remember my paean to him when I posted his Tibetan Skillet Bread. If you thought the bread was easy, wait till you try these almond cup cakes which Jacque’s calls mini almond cakes.

The recipe is simple, with just five ingredients and a splash of vanilla, I added to simulate that home like taste. It all comes together in the time it takes to preheat the oven and best of all, no fancy baking equipment. A food processor is all you need.

Here’s a video of him making the aforementioned mini cakes.


In theme with the simple to make cupcakes, this post will also be short and simple. Without further ado, here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:
Makes: 4 cupcakes*

1/4 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup AP Flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter
Splash of vanilla (my addition and optional)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with liners.
Grind the almonds to a fine powder. Add the flour, sugar and baking powder. Give it a whirr to mix.
Add the melted butter, egg and splash of vanilla. Mix till everything is incorporated, about a minute.
Divide equally in the muffin cups and bake for 12-15 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool and serve with fruits, ice cream or just eat them plain.

*Measurements can be doubled, tripled or quadrupled to make 8, 12 or 16 muffins.

A research into difference between cupcakes and muffins came up with these views on an internet forum. The most interesting post was this:

If you threw a cupcake against a wall, you would hear something of a “poof”! If you threw a muffin, you would hear a “thud!”

Sounds good to me (no pun intended).

The delicious cupcakes are being shipped to the Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen's weekly bake off event.

On the fringe and back

November was a tortoise/ rabbit month for me. I had my final papers due in college, a group presentation, a PP talk at my writer’s meet besides taking care of a friend’s kid for a few days and carting him and my son to school. Of course, other regular chores like cooking, cleaning and entertaining go on as usual. At the end of the day, what little energy I had left I chose to spend on catching up on missed episodes of Fringe instead of blogging. After all, I reminded myself, a wise man once said about blogging “blog only if it is fun”.

It was hard not to blog though. In the eight months that I have started blogging, it has become an extension of me. In the few weeks I have been absent from my blog, I was constantly taking pictures to post and mulling over my text to write. But at the end of the day, sitting in front of my laptop, my hands would pause, the mind would turn blank. I would hit the shut down button and go back to watching Fringe.

If you are into sci-fi/ paranormal genre, you can understand how addicting it is to watch Fringe. It airs every Thursday on Fox but clashes with my other favorite genre, comedy. At the moment, there is nothing more hilarious on TV than NBC’s Thurs nights with The Office and 30 Rock. Thank the technology for Hulu, where I can watch my other favorites the next day, especially if I missed the first season but can catch up with the click of a button.

Did I just digress from blogging to TV talk? Well, that is what happens when you take a break and come back after a few weeks. Hopefully, I am back for good, at least for a while. My college doesn’t start till middle of Jan and even though my next three weekends are busy, my weekdays are relatively free. So, brace yourselves for a barrage of posts (fingers crossed).

Before I leave, here’s a bunch of photos I clicked on my brief hiatus. More details and recipes coming soon.

Methi Theplas with potato cauliflower sabzi and carrot, tomato, onion koshimbeer (salsa).
 

Found this simple but yummy recipe for Eggplant Talasani at Manisha's Indian Food Rocks.
 

Eggless Banana Walnut Bread made with semolina (rava). Recipe on Supriya's Red Chillis.
 

Jammy Biscuits baked from Curry Leaf's Experiments, Emotions, Experiences with Food .
 

"I'll eat the jam first, cookie later."
 All those concerned parents out, don't worry. He didn't get to eat the whole plate of cookies. I took away the plate after he polished off two. So don't send me any concerned, anonymous comments like this one.

Doughnut muffins with chocolate and strawberry jam

I would like to give a big thank you to all my readers for their birthday wishes and sympathizing with my lunch fiasco. This month’s Sweet and Simple Bake’s jammy doughnut muffins are for all of you.
Being a chocoholic I had to try adding some chocolate chips to half of them. The result, I was sorry to find out, was not as nice as the one with the jam filling.
The strawberry jam was made a while ago by chopping and cooking some on the verge of going bad strawberries with 1/2 cup of sugar and some lemon juice.

Quick Strawberry Jam
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon
Method:
In a heavy bottom pan cook the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice till thick. Cool and store in a clean glass jar.

Now for the jammy doughnut recipe all my Sweet and Simple bake friends will be posting all over the world.

Ingredients:
2 cup all purpose flour
1/2cup + 2 tbsp superfine sugar
3 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
7 oz milk
4 oz butter
1 tsp vanilla
Jam and semisweet chocolate chips

Method:
In a microwave safe mixing bowl melt the butter and let cool. Meanwhile crack the eggs, measure the milk and sift and combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and baking powder).
When the butter is cooled add the milk, eggs and vanilla to it. Whisk to combine before adding the dry ingredients. Combine to incorporate but do not over mix. It is ok to have a lumpy batter. Preheat oven to 375c and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

Method:
Fill with the batter half way and add a tsp of jam or chocolate chips. Top with the rest of the batter and bake for 15 -20 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Finishing touches:

To decorate, I just brushed the muffins with a cold stick of butter and rolled them in white sugar and red sprinkle sugar. The original recipe calls for melting 4 oz of butter and dipping the muffins in it before rolling on the sugar.

The muffins were delicious and were presented to the new neighbors across the street as a welcome to the neighborhood gesture.

Thank you Maria and Rosie for another Sweet and Simple bake recipe.

Carrot cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting

My maiden entry for Rosie and Maria's Sweet and Simple Bake blog was a delight to make not to mention it was literally sweet and simple. I used store bought raspberry cream cheese frosting instead of the one M & S had on their blog. Mainly because my 3 year old eats with his eyes and as I thought he did like the purple frosting. Not to mention the M&Ms I put on top. Tushar and Jr. finished off a slice each in no time and were ready for more!
If you want the recipe for traditional cream cheese frosting, visit Maria and Rosie's blog.


Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 cups shredded carrots
2 eggs
5 oz vegetable oil (I used corn oil)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
4 oz raisins
4 oz chopped pecans

Method:

Beat the eggs and combine the oil, sugar, carrots, raisins and pecans. Sift all the dry ingredients and mix with the wet ingredients.
Preheat the oven to 300 degree. Oil and line with parchment paper a 9 by 5 loaf tin. Pour the batter into it and smooth the top.
Bake for 40 – 50 minutes till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost with store bought raspberry cream cheese and your choice of sprinkles or in my case with M&Ms.

I am getting ready to go for a vacation with a dear friend in Atlanta. I will be back in a week. Till then stay cool and have fun.

Whole Wheat Herb Triangles

I reached the TPSG meeting place and found plenty of parking. I had reached a week early. The meetings are held on last Wednesday of the month and not on third as I had thought. I felt a bit stupid but hey, that is not the most stupid thing I have done in my life.
On my way back, I decided to tackle Madhuram’s Whole Wheat Eggless Baking challenge on reaching home. The recipe for these whole wheat Herb triangles is from The Low Fat Cook’s Companion, a Hermes House publication.

The measurement of the ingredients is simple enough to be halved, which is what I did.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp chili powder (I used 1 tsp)
1/8 cup of soft low fat margarine (I used butter)
2 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (I used mint, rosemary, and cilantro)
½ cup skim or 1 % milk
½ tbsp of sesame seeds

Method:

Put the whole wheat flour in a mixing bowl and sift the remaining dry ingredients.
Rub in the soft butter and add the herbs and milk. Mix quickly to a soft dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface.
Knead briefly or the dough will become tough.
Roll out to a 6-in round and place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Brush lightly with water and sprinkle evenly with the sesame seeds.
Carefully cut the dough round into 8 wedges, separate and bake in a 425 degrees preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cook. Eat fresh out of the oven with butter or cold with some soup.

Exploring the British isles beyond Tandoori Nights

Vegan Spotted Dick

The closest I have come to the British culture is speaking Brit English and watching Black Adder, Fawlty Towers, Are You Being Served? and Tandoori Nights. A couple of years ago our local PBS channel started showing Coupling, which is a much funnier and very risqué version of the American series Friends.
As much as I enjoyed the Brit comedies, I did not know much about the British cuisine mainly because I never got an occasion to do so and I stay in the US. Although, I suspect the Indian vegetable sandwiches are inspired by the English petite tea sandwiches which are a thinner and much blander version of our loaded with green chutney and cucumber, onions and boiled potatoes sandwiches.
Last week, I had to sit up and take notice of British cuisine when Vaishali of Holy Cow announced her IVW:British event. Since, it is a vegan world at Vaishali’s blog; the challenge was to find a recipe which did not have eggs, meat or dairy in any form. A tough one since British food mostly consists of all these.
My first thought naturally was to take the easy way out and make the thinly sliced cucumber sandwiches I mentioned before. But then I like a challenge, a dessert and a good laugh, so when google turned up Spotted Dick as one of the popular English desserts, I had to make it. It had eggs, cream and something called suet flour and is typically eaten with custard which may or may not be cooked with it.
There were as many recipes as innuendos and tongue in cheek references to its origins. None of the recipes, however, were adaptable to be converted into a vegan version. One day, looking through my 1000 Vegetarian Recipes book, I found a simplified low-fat version called The New Age Spotted Dick.

I had all the ingredients in my pantry and I decided to omit the sauce since the cake/ pudding in the picture looked light and airy. My instincts were right. The recipe calls for 2 eggs which for the vegan version I substituted with flaxseed powder whisked in water.

Ingredients:
1 cup raisins
½ cup corn oil, plus a little extra for brushing
½ cup superfine sugar
1/3 cup ground almonds
½ tsp flax seed powder whisked with 1/2 cup of water (In place of 2 eggs)
1 ½ cups self—rising flour

Method:
In a pan, boil the raisins with ¼ cup of water. Remove from heat and let steep for 10 minutes before draining the excess liquid.
Whisk the oil, sugar and ground almonds until thick and syrupy. It should take about 8 minutes on medium speed with an electric whisk.
Add the flax seed water and mix for another minute. Combine the flour and raisins. Stir into the mixture.
Line an 8 inch cake pan or 4 cup heatproof bowl with parchment paper and oil it. Transfer the sponge mixture to the pan and bake in a preheated oven at 340 degree for about 30 to 40 minutes till a toothpick comes out clean.
Lay a piece of parchment paper across the top of the pudding if it starts to brown too quickly. Let cool for 5 minutes before turning* on to a serving plate.
*The cake is very delicate and may break if not taken out carefully, the way mine did.

The spotted dick turned out moist and delicious even without the sauce. But if you want to try it with the sauce, here’s the recipe. It calls for skim milk which for a vegan version could be substituted with soy milk. But I am not sure how it will turn out.

Ingredients:
½ cup chopped walnuts
2/3 cup ground almonds
1 ¼ cup skim milk
4 tbsp granulated sugar

Method:
Put all the sauce ingredients into a pan. Bring to a boil, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.
Transfer the sponge mixture to a 4 cup/ 1 liter heatproof bowl, greased with oil, and pour on the hot sauce.
Bake in a preheated oven at 340 degree for about an hour or until well risen. Lay a piece of parchment paper across the top of the pudding if it starts to brown too quickly.
Let cool before turning out on to a serving plate. The sauce is in the center of the pudding and will spill out when the pudding is cut.

The Spotted Dick also goes to DK's AWED-Britain event, hosted this month by Simran of Bombay Foodie .

Dislike bananas; Love banana chips

Banana Walnut Bread

Very few people dislike bananas and I am one of them. So why would I make a bread out of ripe, old bananas? Well, I wanted to see if I would like them in bread the way I love snacking on banana chips. Also, it was another opportunity to entre Mena’s Banana bread recipe on Tried and Tested being hosted by Kitschow . I love Meena’s Hooked on Heat blog and though she has not written since Dec of 2008, being busy with writing a cookbook, it is an adventure to try her different recipes.

I have not modified the recipe in any way but have substituted pecans instead of almonds and also added ¼ cup of semi sweet chocolate chips*.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup butter
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup dry shredded coconut
1/2 cup pecans or almonds
¼ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a loaf pan on all sides.
Melt the butter in the microwave and add flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda. Stir to mix.
Add the mashed bananas and mix to make a smooth batter.
Stir in vanilla extract, pecans, coconut and chocolate chips.
Pour in the pan and bake for 30 minutes or depending on your oven, till a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Serve with tea or as an after dinner dessert. The bread is not too sweet, loaded with banana flavor and tastes yummy. Yes, I liked the banana flavor in the bread.

This banana bread also goes to Madhuram's Low Fat Eggless Baking event.

*Note: If you add chocolate chips, the toothpick may come out coated with melted chocolate. In that case insert in another part of the cake.

Not so good cookies

There are a very few pre packaged cookies that I like and I am not a fan of store bought pre packaged cookie mixes and dough. I find them too sugary and synthetic to taste. Besides, it takes maybe 10 minutes more to prepare cookie dough from scratch as compared to opening a packet of pre mix.
Today, however, I broke my rule and decided to make cookies from a Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. It had a recipe for making cookies by adding 2 eggs, 1 stick of butter and ¼ cup of brown sugar to the cake mix. I was skeptical of the recipe but followed the instructions and put the cookies in the oven.
Now because the main ingredients were that of a cake, my guess is there was too much baking powder and baking soda in it. It made the cookies expand a lot more than normal cookies. As a result my first batch of cookies was almost as big as a dessert plate. Also, the time specified on the box was way too much (14 – 16 minutes) for the cookies. If my oven light was not on I would have most certainly burnt them. It took about 8-10 minutes for the cookies to be done.
That can be a good thing when you have an impatient toddler hanging around the kitchen asking every two minutes, “Are they done yet?” They did look good too, all brown and chocolaty. Also, there wasn’t a lot of cleanup to do afterwards, just the mixing bowl and spoon.
So, what is the flip side? Well, for one the taste. As I said before, they were far too sweet and didn’t taste as good as the ones made at home. There was no texture to it and the chocolate flavor wasn’t intense even though I used the dark Chocolate Fudge flavor and added good quality chocolate chips for extra measure.
I will stick to my tried and tested kitchen sink cookies recipe.

Everything but the kitchen sink cookies

Baking cookies and giving them to your neighbors or friends is a great way to personalize your thanks for their help. Yesterday, a neighbor helped us fix our fence gate and I decided to bake some of these easy but delicious cookies.
They do not require fancy stand mixers or a lot of fluffing and beating. Plus as far as baking recipes go, this one is very flexible. If you don’t have pecans you can substitute walnuts. If you like chocolate chips or raisins in every bite of the cookie, you can add a cup of them instead of half. Plus you can double the recipe if you want 4 dozen cookies instead of 2.

Some ingredients halved or doubled from the original recipe.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 large egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats

The following ingredients can be further increased or decreased according to your personal preference:

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (or white/ dark/ milk)
½ cup sweetened flaked coconut (I use 1 cup)
½ cup raisins (or cranberries)
½ coarsely chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Beat butter and sugar till creamy. I usually let the butter sit on the counter the whole day to soften it up. If you forget to do that, just melt it in the microwave for 30 seconds.
Beat in the egg and stir in the vanilla.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gradually stir it in the butter and egg mix.
Once the flour is incorporated in the butter, add oats, chocolate chips, raisins, walnuts and coconut flakes. The mixture will be a little bit dry and lumpy.
Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Drop 1 tbsp batter for small cookies and 2 tbsp for large cookies on to the parchment paper. Press the batter down with the flat bottom of a glass or measuring cup to flatten the cookies evenly.
Bake till golden brown – about 14 – 15 minutes.