“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.”
Linda Hogan
CHRYSANTHEMUMS…
Nature continues to amaze…In the first week of December ’07, I posted a picture essay about ‘Chrysanthemums’…from bud to flower. I tracked another set of plants over the next few days, the ones pictured above. Most of the chrysanthemums are sadly on their last few days now, having given us endless pleasure day after day. With just a few flowers remaining, they continue to provide a platform for butterflies & bees to land on…& proudly showcase the colours of nature!
Just sitting in the garden the other day, DH asked me to quickly click the blue bumblebee ( I think that’s what it is) that landed on a flower near him. Before I knew it, the bee, undisturbed by my close presence, dived right into the heart of the flower for nectar! Hot on its heels was the butterfly, checking out nectar in the last remaining flowers!
CHECK THESE OUT….
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LOOKING INTO THE HEART OF THE MATTER!
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GOING, GOING, GONE!!
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REVERSING OUT TO PERFECTION!!
‘The goal of life is living in agreement with nature.’
Zeno
AND HERE’S THE ELEGANT BUTTERFLY!
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AS DAINTY AS THE FLOWER…
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ITS MANY DIFFERENT HUES…
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UP CLOSE & PERSONAL…YOU CAN ALMOST COUNT THE DOTS!!
“If you get melted chocolate all over your hands, you’re eating it too slowly.”
Author Unknown
CHOCOLATE TARTLETS…
…Mini pastry tarts filled with a ganache, topped with marzipan.
Ever since I’ve seen these mini bites, I’ve been fascinated by the little things & was looking for an opportunity to make them. There’s something very attractive about single sweet morsels because each piece has a ‘complete‘ look . Eventually made them for the daughter’s birthday, & coordinated them to match the colours & look of her ‘YIN YANG Chocolate Cake‘, pictured below.
The recipe for the pastry cases / pie shells is from a quaint little book of contemporary recipes called ‘What’s Cooking Chocolate’ by Jacqueline Bellefontaine. I made these & somejam tartletstoo, using the same pastry recipe. On Latha’s request, am posting these as soon as I can.
Here’s the recipe as adapted from her book… Ingredients:
Flour – 1 1/2 cups Butter – 1/3 cup ; chilled & cut into pieces
Castor Sugar – 1 tbsp
Chilled water – 3-4 tbsp
Method:
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
Rub in the chilled butter with your fingertips to get a breadcrumb like mix.
Stir in the sugar.
Add enough water to make a soft dough.
Cover & chill for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Roll out to 1/8″ thickness, cut with a round 3″ cookie cutter (use appropriate size cutter) & line the mini muffin trays with them.
Cover the pastry with foil, put in pie weights ( I used beans) & bake blind for 15 minutes approximately till light brown. Remove immediately from trays.
Cool completely on racks & store in an airtight tin until use. I made mine 3 days in advance.
I made 24 mini tart shells, & rolled out the rest of the dough out for jam tartlets. Got about 12-15 small shells.
Make a ganache. When I made a ganache to frost the cake with, I made some extra to cut down on work. Ganache keeps in the fridge for 4-5 days. You can microwave it for 30 seconds to get the required consistency as it sets/hardens when chilled.
Pipe or spoon into the shells.
Top with marzipanembellishments. I made mine from scratch. You can find the recipe here. Alternatively, top with chocolate scrolls, leaves, sprinkles etc.
Keep under refridgeration until use. These can be prepared 2-3 days in advance.
These little tarts were a big hit with the kids…the son had ‘reserved’ the lady-bug one in advance, & went on to take another one for good measure!!
“The rule is jam tomorrow and jam yesterday, but never jam today.” Lewis Carroll
JAM TARTLETS…Petits Fours
A Tart is defined as a single-layered base of pastry (plain or puff) with a sweet or savory filling baked in either a shallow tart pan that has straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom or a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet. The tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Broadly, the term ‘tart’ encompasses flans, quiches, and pies. Depending on the type of tart made they can be served as appetizers, entrees or desserts. Their size ranges from bite-size (horsd’oeuvre), individual-size (tartlet) to full-size (tart).’…quoted from ‘Joy of Baking‘…one of my favourite net-stops!
Sweet tarts have fillings of fruit, jams, custards, flavored creams, or nuts.
What do miniature tuiles, eclairs, fancy cakes, macaroons, glazed or candied fruits, tartlets, ladyfingers, cigarettes, etc. have in common? They all belong to a category of small fancy cookies, pastries, or confections called “petits fours”. The name petit four seems to have originated from the name of the ovens (petit four meaning ‘small oven’) they were baked in. In the 18th century the ovens were made of brick and once the large cakes were baked, small cakes were placed in the ovens as they were cooling down. Petits fours can be eaten in one or two bites and these fancy pastries are further divided into “sec” or “glacé”. “Sec” meaning “dry” and “glacé” meaning “iced or frosted”. …Joy of Bakingagain!
‘LIQUID RUBY PETITS FOURS’…
I made these sweet little ‘Liquid Ruby Petits Fours’, with a jam filling, for my daughter’s birthday…& in all the confusion & excitement, forgot to put them out! What a feast my kids had over the next few days; it was tartlets all the way!! Since this monthsCLICK event has a liquid theme – ‘LIQUID COMFORT’, I’ve thought of sending in this one above as an entry…its atoms move freely & it took the shape of the pastry!
Moving on from there, the recipe for the pastry cases / pie shells are from a sweet little book of contemporary recipes called ‘What’s Cooking Chocolate’ by Jacqueline Bellefontaine, which she uses to make mini chocolate tartlets. I made those & some of these as well, variety being the spice of my life!!
Here’s the recipe as adapted from her book…
Ingredients:
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Butter – 1/3 cup ; chilled & cut into pieces Castor Sugar – 1 tbsp Chilled water – 3-4 tbsp
Method:
Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.
Rub in the chilled butter with your fingertips to get a breadcrumb like mix.
Stir in the sugar.
Add enough water to make a soft dough.
Cover & chill for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C.
Roll out to 1/4-1/8″ thickness & line the pastry/tart shells or mini muffin trays with them.
Cover the pastry with foil, put in pie weights ( I used beans) & bake blind for 15 minutes approximately till light brown.
Cool completely on racks & store in an airtight tin until use. I made mine 3 days in advance.
Heat about 1/2 cup of jam with 1 tbsp water in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, until jam is runny.
Pour carefully into prepared tart shells, use sprinkles if you like, and leave to set.
‘Ruby don’t take your love to town’…this song has been playing in my head all the while I have been putting this post together. Kenny Rogers at his very best!! Used to be one of my favourite numbers & am glad to renew the link!!
This time the THINK SPICE spice is GARLIC! One of my absolute favourites in savoury flavours. A friend once gave me a Thai basil chicken recipe & said put as much garlic as you think is enough…& then just double the amount! How right that was…in the end, the garlic was perfect & the flavours out of this world. That’s the power of garlic!
Steamed Brocolli tossed in a zesty garlic dressing…
For Sunita’s World’s monthly spice event, I’ve decided to post another great easy recipe that works well as a cold salad or side dish, & can be put together in next to no time. Steamed brocolli tossed in a garlic dressing…its full of flavour (primarily garlic), very healthy, crisp, tender & fresh with the zing of lime. All ingredients can be adjusted to personal tastes. I make this quite often these days as brocolli , or hari gobhi (green cawliflower) as the local vegetable sellers call it here, is available in abundance the whole winter through. The kids like it too – the daughter loves it; the son will have 5-7 pieces because he says he is waiting for the taste to grow on him! They’re having it for dinner tonight, on the side, with a penne in mushroom cream sauce.
Ingredients :
Brocolli – 2 small heads broken into florets Olive oil – 1/4 cup Garlic – 2-3 cloves / crushed Juice of 1 lime Red chilli flakes to taste Salt to taste
Method:
Steam brocolli in a double boiler till crisp tender.
Drain & cool in a colander.
Take the olive oil in a small bowl. Add the crushed garlic + lime juice + red chili flakes + salt & mix into a dressing with a fork.
Pour it over the steamed brocolli, toss well & chill.
Toss again before serving.
“Three nickels will get you on the subway – but garlic will get you a seat”
I felt a bit like Martha Stewart…though I didn’t get time enough to make 7 cookies out of the same dough! Anyway, barely had time to make 1 portion of sugar cookie dough, my adapted recipe that I trust blindly! This time I made 4 different sorts outta the one dough…hence, decided to call ’em ‘FOUR-IN-ONE COOKIES’…
Its great fun making these, & this is the first time I’ve made a variety out of the same dough. I made between 2-3 dozen of each type, & the son has literally begged me for ‘any broken or burnt ones that you don’t need’ cookies! I’ve posted the first 3 before…links included. The 4th type were dipped into melted dark chocolate, then dipped into sprinkles, & once set, were drizzled over with white chocolate. Simple, yet effective!
Drizzled Chocolate Cookies : Made regular cut-out cookies, randomly dipped the edge of some first into melted dark chocolate & then sprinkles; others I drizzled with melted dark chocolate & sprinkled coloured strands over. Finished all off with a drizzle of melted white chocolate!
I thought this was a good idea as it added a lot of variety to my normal platter of Iced Party Cookies. Additionally it gave me a canvas to work on, & made me wish I had time to try some other sorts too. Had plenty of ideas in mind – like Sandwiched Buttercream Cookies, Cut-out Jam Cookies…then again, ‘If wishes were horses…’
“Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.” Unknown
So here’s what found its way on the menu for the daughter’s birthday. Some I have posted before & the rest I shall put into words by & by.
I made the stuff over a period of 3-4 days. The fact that its winter here & freezing cold helped ‘coz its so much easier make stuff in advance. There were Sugar cookies made in four different avatars out of the same dough; Mini Vanilla Cupcakes topped with a buttercream icing & chocolate embellishments; Tartlets with either chocolate ganache & marzipan decorations, or buttercream & chocolate embellishments; Mushroom canapes; Corn canapes, Dip with chips & veggies ; Cheese cookies; Jam tarts…& of course our ‘Yin Yang Chocolate Cake’!
All in all, quite a mad tea party with boisterous 12teens & 2 naughty lads!!
