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Showing posts from December, 2011

sweets

I made doodh peda ,  coconut laddu ,  mysore pak  and  sunnundalu  yesterday. It was quite an experience. I usually dont make sweets. All these sweets need ghee, but I used butter. I started with doodh peda. Recently I learnt of my sister's affinity for peda. Peda is a sweet we enjoyed a lot as kids. My parents got her a big box full of peda. I didnt think I would get a chance to use this recipe. I had to make 4 kinds of sweets. Another restriction was that they had to be solid with no syrup or run. What a convenience it is that safeway's dry milk has 3 packets in it, each of 1.5 cups, just the size the recipe asks for. While making it I realised that the mixture was leaving the sides of the pan. Why is this important? The next coconut laddoo was a breeze. Mixing condensed milk with cocnut. I used the shredded flakes for its shape even though the recipe called for dessicated coconut. If you ask me for the definition of perfect - 2 words - condensed mi...

Hydrophobic baker's choice

It being Christmas, my husband thought it cannot go without a cake. I liked this  chocolate fruit  cake but I didnt like the so many vaious gm measurements. This Mazurkas  cookie recipe is so inviting to make. But what we want is a cake right now.  Christmas fruitcake  recipe is it. I saw another fruitcake recipe that started with 5 cups of water. i am going to stay away from recipes that call for water in a cake.
southern living 2011  has many sweet tea  recipes. I wonder how sweet tea vinaigrette, sweet tea rice, swee tea brined chicken, sweet tea tiramisu taste. quinoa 365

potluck

Today my husband had to take something for a potluck. He boiled kabuli chana. I had channa chaat  in mind yesterday. But today I made chana chaat and coconut chana dal stir fry . I forgot to use the onions I chopped for the stir fry. He came back with Queen Anne's chocolate, pie, candy cane, cake, egg rolls, wheat snacks wirh chile and lemon, a big bottle of picante sauce. Today I had Hazelnut Mazel coffee . It was not very ceamy, rife with hazelnut flavor.
I made idlis  using rice flour. It didnt work for me. They were too hard. the chutney with peanuts and putnala pappu was good. Mom suggested not using rice flour. Thats the next trial then.

Hospital food

We had 'pasta bake' yesterday at a hospital in between classes. We had a chicken bowl but couldnt find anything else interesting. threr were many menus hanging but those stations were not open. The instructor pointed us to the pasta bake idea. After eating the bowl of salsa over beans over rice over chicken over lettuce, I recalled the bowl my friends used to rave about the bowl. I am at a stage where I feel hungry and when I have had half of the food, my stomach feels like its full but I know I am still hungry. I thought hospital food might be tastless and expensive. It was neither. But somehow looking at people in scrubs with fried chicken and fries on a plate, burger and fries on another plate, it seemed like they were sinning.

Latin food

New latin classics Lorena Garcias book has a recipe for baked arepas. Now I like a recipe that requires deep frying converted to baking. Tiradito  is Latino sushi. Sun dried tomato brulee
biggest loser flavors of the world You never know what you might like in a ccokbook. In this book I found sushi stuffed in th hollow of cucumbers. I like the sound of chicken tinga .
Good bite weeknight meals  has recipes from food bloggers. They also answer the following questions. I liked the idea of using halibut in making kebabs. What do you always have in your shopping cart? Vegetables. Whats your go-to week night dinner? rotis with any curry. whats your favourite kitchen tool? Blender. It transforms dishes. Is there anything you just cant eat? Cheese White on rice couple Simply recipes Recipe girl Dinner with julie coconut and lime Andreas recipes Matt bites  - one of the pictures of a dish shows empty plates around. The composition of the photo places the dish in a place in time. No recipes Our best bites  - sweet tortilla snowflakes - kid inspirations. Kath eats Picky palate  - Jenny Flake - I like the idea of Inside out chicken pot pies . Southern plate Lauras best recipes Gluten free girl Weelicious  - breakfast on a stick.

Food art

Bite by bite Potted shrimp. Just a look at few of the photos in the book will make you wonder if you are 'Alice in the foodland'. Looking at the mini blinis I am reminded that this morning we had mini pancakes with custard and  coconut stuffing. I tried taro bun too expecting the bun to be made of taro flour if such a thing is possible. Everybody that I am intrdoucing to red bean bread seems to like it. I still have to have the custard bread. Now I need to know how to make the custard. Will make this Baked Custard . watermelon lollipops. stuffing in potato cones plantain cones onion rings presented as over tower of Hanoi. Creme brulee oatmeal Pheasants under glass mintini hot mulled cider in an apple lemonade in a lemon. When I called my friend-colleagues home for dinner, they bought me cuties and grapes. The other day when I saw crabapples, I bought  abag home so my parents could try them. They are too many. I have to pitch in too in the name of snack pangs to ...

Cake time

I found  lavender tea cake  from Cooking Light recipe interesting and made the tea cake without lavender. This cake has a distinct flavour of yogurt in it. Sundae pudding cake  from Cooking Light is for those times when you dont have eggs in your fridge or the time to do the electric mixer routine. While putting the water on the batter, I wondered if I should use my sense and just reduce the amount of water. I didnt heed to it. Now I have an oven which needs cleaning. Let me taste it when its done and decide if its worth the effort. It isnt. Theres a mocha mousse recipe. I was surprised to find white chocolate cocoa at Safeway. Fig clafouti recipe reminded me of he cherry clafoutis I made once.
Italian cooking Sauteed risotto, black risotto - colour from cuttlefish, mushroom sauce maiale el latte  - When reading about brined meats, I had read about cooking meat in ,ilk. chine - backbone/spine of an animal.

Crunch and Dip

I saw Bostock at Essence bakery.  We had French crepes, Croque madame, Mediterranean roasted veg sandwich. I liked the cold sandwich for its stuffed greens and a wedge of sweet potato. Parisian hot chocolate Their restroom keychain has a cookie cutter in it. We like Aioli at Oreganos.  Last time I had it with sweet potato fries. Cant have too many of them. But this time with Veggie Weggie. We had Lemon meringue pie  at Saguaro lake.

More paneer

On a flight I had Paneer lababdar . Looking for more recipes I found another Paneer Khurchan  recipe. There are other lababdar recipes but I chose this one as it uses whole spices like you would for a biryani. Curious how that will turn out. Molten chocolate cake

Now I know better

I made Overnight Bread Pudding . Now I am trying to figure why the milk didnt soak into the bread. For one, the eggs got set so quick that they couldnt run into the bread. And two in my impatience, I forgot/didnt see the reason for waiting overnight.