“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first September was crisp and golden as an apple…”
J.K. Rowling
GF Apple Pistachio Craisin Crumble … you might have noticed a shift towards whole grains here on PAB. We all learn over time, and we all notice health trends. It’s been a while since I’ve used all purpose flour in my food. That was of course until I succumbed to two things … the Daring Bakers savoury pot pies challenge above {the post yet to see light of day}, followed by baklava {below} since I made double the amount of phyllo pastry! With autumn finally setting in, our days of apple crumbles, pumpkin pies, soups and the like have set in too. There’s a definite nip in the air and the wind is becoming colder by the day! Winter already seems just a heartbeat away!
I gave up wheat almost 7 months ago as I thought I was allergic to it. 6 months later, even though the pounds haven’t fallen off as many peeps claim, I am feeling better. Yet, me giving up wheat was different. You see, I don’t have a sweet tooth, so desserts, or the lack of them, don’t bother me.
Inspired by me and troubled by a few minimal health issues, Mr PAB decided to follow suit. That spelt trouble for me. Me I can take care of.He is another ball game altogether. The mains I can handle. It’s the desserts that bother me at times. This was a crumble I made for him, having scouted the local shops for finger millet flour.
Interestingly it came out quite delicious and went down rather well with the rest of the sweet-toothed bunch too. They love everything apple in dessert, and this got a thumbs up. I did throw in some pistachios and cranberries for colour as otherwise finger millet {ragi} lends a rather dull tone to the crumble.
I did Dark Chocolate Buckwheat Almond Brownies and an Amaranth Chocolate Cake recently, the latter not my own recipe though. Both wonderful. I am clearly enjoying the challenge! Suddenly everything seems gluten free! {You can find more gluten free recipes here}. Any GF dessert {and breakfast of course} suggestions are welcome with open arms.
Next on my list is was amaranth brownies since I recently bought some amaranth flour. My previous experiment with amaranth brownies with amaranth that I tried to grind at home resulted in a slightly granular texture. This time around they came out great!
This post has been sitting for quite a while in drafts. I made the crumble after a recent trip to Khari Baoli in Old Delhi. Khari Baoli, Asia’s biggest spice market is fascinating, chaotic, colourful, loud, noisy and a shoppers paradise for folk like me. I stocked up on my supply of dry fruits and garam masalas.
[print_this]Recipe: GF Apple Pistachio Craisin Crumble
Summary: A comforting fall/winter dessert with the goodness of fruit. This GF Apple Pistachio Craisin Crumble is a good make ahead dessert option. Rewarm it in the oven for about 5-10 minutes before serving.
Serves 6-8
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
Apple mix
300g green apples, cored, peeled, chopped
juice of 1 lime
25g brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
25g finger millet flour
50g chopped pistachio and craisins {or raisins}, mixed
Crumble Topping
50g finger millet flour
50 g oats
50g brown sugar
50g granulated sugar
100g unsalted butter
25g chopped pistachio and craisin mix
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Toss all the ingredients in the apple mix together well. Place in pie plate or baking tin.
Topping
Run the finger millet, oats and sugar in the processor briefly to mix. Cut in the butter {or pulse briefly} to distribute evenly through topping.
Sprinkle over the apple mix, pressing firmly into place. Sprinkle over the reserved pistachio craisin mix.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes until the top is lightly coloured. Tent with foil if the top looks like it’s colouring too quick.
Serve warm or at room temperature with a drizzle of chilled unsweetened low fat cream. {The kids love it cold too}
“One whiff of a savory aromatic soup and appetites come to attention. The steaming fragrance of a tempting soup is a prelude to the goodness to come. An inspired soup puts family and guests in a receptive mood for enjoying the rest of the menu.”
Louis P. De Gouy
Roasted Pumpkin Soup … comforting, smooth, silky and delicious. I’ve been on a pumpkin high of late. Must be the season. I get drawn to vibrant orange pumpkins each time I visit the local market! The bright orange ones are HUGE, and then there are these little ‘green from the outside and yellow inside‘ ones. Pretty! This humble veggie holds a lot of promise, more promise than I have ever realised.
Pumpkin Pie is a said thing in our home, but now I am eagerly stepping out to explore and experiment further. Roasted Pumpkin Soup has been on my bucket list for a few years! Why? Because I enjoyed my first ever pumpkin soup with immensely talented and large hearted Jamie in London many years ago. We excitedly met for the Food Blogger Connect, one of the best get togethers of our blogging life. Nascent bloggers, a food centric conference, a relatively low key {as compared to today} meetup … the memories still alive in the head!
’twas a dream come true – Jamie, Meeta, Mowie, Jeanne, Hilda, Beth, Allesio, Pamela, Nic, Sunita. We met up day after day, night after night, eating like there was no tomorrow, splitting our sides like mad folk, painting downtown London red, getting lost incessantly, finding our way again, tripping along in the biting cold. Those were happy November days!
There have been many food blogger conferences thereafter, loads I have read about, but this one was special! I still remember sharing a Pumpkin Soup with Jamie after a visit to the Marylebone Farmers’ Market; a soup I never forgot. There was a fantastic whole grain bread on the side too. While I still have to make the bread some day, the soup is what I have tried to recreate.
It isn’t like the one we had that cold winter afternoon, yet the sentiments suddenly came alive. Oh the nostalgia! This is my style of roasted pumpkin soup … roasted pumpkin, a bone stock with gentle fennel and coriander {left over from stock from biryani}, a dash of cream and hints of green chilies! You can make a vegetarian version with vegetable stock if you like.
Got huge thumbs up from the men at home. They had 2 huge bowls each, slurping through happily. The daughter isn’t a ‘soup person‘ so was excused! Strangely enough, I loved it cold! Must be the weather which has been quite warm of late.
[print_this]Recipe: Roasted pumpkin soup
Summary: Comforting bowlfuls of roasted pumpkin soup with delicate flavours of fennel and coriander, and hints of green chili.
Prep Time: 10minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
50g onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
750g cooked fresh pumpkin puree
1-2 green chilies, roughly chopped
1ltr bone stock {or vegetable stock}
75g low fat cream
Salt to taste
Olive oil {or butter}
Method:
Heat the olive oil or butter in a large heavy bottom pan. Saute the chopped onions and garlic for a few minutes until fragrant.
Add the pumpkin puree, green chilies and stock, and simmer for about 30 minutes.
Season with salt, add the low fat cream. Blend once cool enough. Adjust seasoning if required.
Season with freshly ground black pepper and fresh coriander leaves, sunflower or pumpkin seeds maybe a drizzle of cream.
“Ingredients are not sacred. The art of cuisine is sacred.”
Tanith Tyrr
It was a savoury chicken galette waiting to happen, or maybe wanting to be baked. It’s a result of blogger interactions, loads of food talk, some food cravings, events missed and repented, flavours virtually thrown into the air and talked about….I missed a picnic a few weeks ago with the Delhi food bloggers bunch. There was so much talk about food, what who was making, baking, getting, that I had pangs …not hunger pangs but pangs of missing out on something good!The Great Cookaroo threw in yolks after yolks to make her to go pastry cream from Dorie Greenspans Baking with Julia. I had the book on the shelf. A favourite from a favourite food blogger who gifted it to me from Bangalore. {Thank you again Suma!}
Then there was talk of pickled green garlic pesto which immediately threw my tastebuds in overdrive … that sounded drop dead delicious. I wanted some! My chance soon came as a bunch of us met again at the Ty.phoo Tea & Food pairing event. Sangeeta carried a bottle of pickled green garlic pesto for me.
Smothered on a toast the next morning, it had a comforting homey feel! It had all the hints of the green chutney sandwiches my dad often made … beautiful flavours that teased the palette. As I sat in the kitchen, the laundry machine whirring punishingly in the background, I reached out for Baking with Julia! The book is a winner. Read it, bake from it, drool over it, learn from it. I wanted to bake something savoury that morning, and settled for Cheese & Tomato Galette!
The galette dough was done in seconds, a Flo Baker recipe from the book. Don’t you love a dough that comes together in a heartbeat, is fuss free, smooth, pliable and uses pantry staples? I didn’t even need to rest it since it held beautifully, winter ensuring a fridge like cold kitchen. {Feedback from batch #2: An overnight rest in the fridge yields a pliable nice dough too.}
I used everything I had on hand! Pickled green garlic pesto, mozzarella, chicken salami, then some roasted onion balsamic jam, cherry tomatoes, smoked sea salt, pepper. Finished it off with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic greens.
The green garlic pesto was a bit spicy / chili for the younger fellow, but hit all the right spots with the daughter and husband who love everything chili! You can find the recipe for the Pickled Green Garlic Pesto{or lehsun ka achaar} on Sangeeta’s blog. Use extra virgin olive oil to get a more pesto like feel to it {as she did for my batch}, and reduce the chilies if you don’t like it too hot! BTW, Sangeeta does great personalised diet plans too, so do stop by if you need one!
You can do pretty much anything with a ‘pastry canvas’ like this. To keep the younger one happy, I made a second lot with roasted bell peppers and onions {roasting donein the Philips AirFryer, 10 minutes was all it took}, topped with sliced chicken sausages marinated briefly in a honey-mustard-garlic mix. Keep it vegetarian with roasted veggies, caramelised onion & garlic jam and feta, maybe tomatoes. It’s smooth, fun to roll out, and even more fun to ruffle over the filling to give it the characteristic galette feel.
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Recipe: Savoury Chicken Galette
Summary: A simple, crisp and delicious pastry base which can go sweet or savoury. This savoury rustic pie can hold varied combinations of toppings, vegetarian or non vegetarian, and is great for picnics, snack boxes. The savoury chicken galette can be assembled ahead of time, or even baked ahead and rewarmed in the oven briefly. Recipe adapted minimally from Baking with Julia. Makes 4 6″ galettes.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hour Ingredients:
Galette dough
80ml ice cold water
45ml buttermilk
120g plain flour
25g cornmeal [makki ka aata]
1/2 tsp salt
90g butter, chilled cubed
Suggested toppings {a combination of any of the following}
Place the flour, cornmeal and salt in bowl of food processor. Pulse briefly to mix, then add chilled butter and pulse briefly until you get an uneven mix from peas to breadcrumb size bits.
With the mchine running, pour in the buttermilk, followed by most of the chilled water and process until a soft, moist dough forms.
Remove, divide into 2, press into flat disks and chill for at least 2 hours.
Assembling
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Divide each disk into two and roll out to about 8″ circles. I cut the edges round with a pastry cutter, though you could just leave it uneven.
Line a shallow platter with the rolled out pastry hanging over the edges, fill it up as you like, beginning with mozzarella, then gently fold the edges over the filling around the sides.
Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, garlic greens etc over the filling and bake for about 30-35 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden.
Transfer to a cooling rack, leave for at least 10 minutes, then slide off with a wide spatula. Serve warm or at room temperature with a scattering of garlic greens, fresh herbs etc.
“From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting. On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain.”
E.B.White
Creamy Chicken Pasta Bake … this was one of those meals made on the trot, rummaging through the fridge, cleaning out whatever I could use. Then came the daughters’ call to her brother, “Whatever she is making smells REALLY good“. One fork dug deep in later, “Man, this is GOOD! Wow!”
It turned out to be an indulgent, comforting meal in a bowl for days like we are experiencing. Cold Cold Cold. Temperatures nearly dipping into the freezer, 1-2° C range, no central heating, hands as cold as ice. Cooking feels good, stirring a pot over a warm fire quite comforting. Chopping is ugh; then again, there needs to be a means to the end I guess. The upside? Loads of fresh winter vegetables. L O A D S!
I’ve made the most of mushrooms, bell peppers and broccoli this season. Mushrooms are dicey though as the older teen cannot stand them, so I need to sneak them in. This time they hid under some lovely garlic butter and olive oil, then disappeared deep into Worcestershire sauce! Life does get so delicious sometimes….
This was one of those times in the kitchen when I felt like The Pioneer Woman or then the Domestic Goddess. Every pat of butter, every dribble of cream seemed justified in this incessantly cold weather. I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderful the kitchen smelt … warm, garlicky, buttery and oh-so-comforting! Sometimes that little bit of extra fat makes life so much more worthwhile.
The mushrooms were kept veggie company with bell peppers and garlic greens. I love the added flavour garlic greens lend to a dish. Mushrooms and Worcestershire sauce also make for great pairing. I didn’t know that but tasting en-route endorsed it. For that matter rosemary, buttah and chicken make for great bedfellows too.
The creamy chicken was meant to be served over pasta, but the kids woke up really late. That meant a late lunch so I figured I could bake it altogether briefly. It’s wonderful how the creamy sauce got into every little crevice of the pasta. A quick grating of mozzarella and a handsome dash of smoked paprika {from Juberfam & Mittal; excellent stuff} made us all sing out loud.
This is a good one bowl meal, warming, filling, indulgent with some oven roasted potato wedges on the side. Oh, and a warm broccoli salad too. Crisp, full of flavour and really nice. Thankfully, broccoli has ended the battle of the greens with the kids! They know 6-7 florets are ‘mandatory‘; now quite enjoy it. I am yet to win the battle of the cauliflower!
The salad plate is a classic white one from Urban Dazzle. It’s reasonably priced and one that I really really like. Aesthetically designed, slightly tilted and handy to have on hand, it beautifully doubled up as a cake platter on my recent Tea Rose Fondant Cake.
It’s got a nice rounded base which tends to hold any extra dressing juices. Keeps the salad from getting soggy.
The tilt towards the front gives it a good feel. I served a cold potato buttermilk salad in it a few days ago. That is one of our favourites and a great way to enjoy spuds! YUM!
Summary: Creamy, cheesy, indulgent and comforting, this is a great one bowl meal for cold winter days. Make ahead and bake just before serving. Maybe you can do a broccoli salad and oven baked wedges alongside. Serves 6-8
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 1 hourIngredients:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp extra vigin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp chili flakes
200g button mushrooms, sliced fine
750g chicken thigh tenders, cut into bite sized pieces
Heat butter and olive oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the chili flakes, dried rosemary and garlic. Saute until garlic turns light golden and fragrant.
Add the mushrooms, sprinkle a little salt and saute over high heat until mushrooms turn golden brown and give up all their moisture. Add the Worcestershire sauce and mix well; then add the chicken tenders. Season with salt and pepper and saute over high heat until lightly browned.
Sprinkle over the flour, mix to coat chicken pieces, and then pour in the milk. Stir continuously until the sauce thickens.
Reduce heat to simmer, add the cream and grated cheddar and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the chopped bell peppers and garlic greens, taste and adjust seasoning, then stir in the cooked pasta.
Divide the pasta and chicken mixture into serving dishes, casseroles etc, top with grated mozzarella, sprinkle over smoked paprika and some more garlic greens if you like.
Bake at 180C for 15 minutes, allow to stand for 10 minutes and serve.
Recipe: Simple Broccoli Salad
Summary: Crisp, flavourful brocolli salad.
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes Ingredients:
2-3 heads of broccoli, broken into florets
1-2 tsp salt and 4-5 cups water
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Dressing
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, sliced fine
1-2 tbsp pickled red & green peppers {or jalapenos}, sliced
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
Sea salt & pepper
Method:
Blanch the florets in boiling salted water for 2 minutes, drain well and toss in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Reserve.
Dressing
Heat remaining olive oil in small saucepan, add the garlic and sliced pickled peppers. Simmer until the garlic is fragrant and light golden.
Add the sesame seeds and simmer until they turn light brown and begin popping.
Pour over broccoli, toss, grind pepper over it, throw in some sea salt and serve warm or at room temperature.
“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
German Proverb
Nom Nom Nom … these Anzac Biscuits have to be the best cookies I’ve made in a while, a hurried first nibble when they were yet warm, and it was love at first bite. I didn’t care if the kids rejected them; I knew I could devour the whole jar full! They were SO GOOD!He woke up with a smile, trying to charm my angry face. It was past 10am and I wasn’t a happy mother. “Cookieeeeeeee …. Yum! Nice. Can I have another?” She came home early after her exam. ‘Mother, I’m hungers’ she screamed in teen talk. “Me want cookie! Oooooh nice. More? Are these fatty? Another please? Just one more?” That’s the way this cookie crumbled! Day one and the jar half full {or half empty as I saw it!}. I did bake another batch the next day!It was back to the basics for me, baking from memory {the eggless chocolate orange tart above} and turning pages of cookbooks on the shelf. I suddenly wanted to make ‘ciabatta’ on priority since the net was down {cables been cut in error they say} only to frustratingly remember that the recipe was online; only an offline link remained on my silly desktop!It’s a bit unnerving to see how much one gets attached to the net! I worked in frustration that morning – did laundry, cleaned the kitchen chimney, brushed the pooch, made rough puff pastry {froze it}, made mushroom potato soup, made sweet butter, a base for a tart, then filled it with delicious chocolate filling. … and then these Anzac Biscuits!
An Anzac biscuit is a sweet biscuit popular in Australia and New Zealand, made using rolled oats, flour, desiccated coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, baking soda and boiling water. Anzac biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) established in World War I. It has been claimed the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation.
You can read more about their origin and history here. A point of interest is the lack of eggs to bind the ANZAC biscuit mixture together. Because of the war, many of the poultry farmers had joined the services, thus, eggs were scarce. The binding agent for the biscuits was golden syrup or treacle.
Its been an exasperating beginning to the year to say the least. While power cuts were something we’ve learnt to live with for long, internet connectivity was taken for granted, a right for a privatized service. No such luck however! Shoddy ISP with rotten customer service makes my blood boil, the past few days on simmer!These bites made me feel better instantly; the cookies are the best I’d tasted in a while. I remember biting into crisp, thin, delicious honey oat cookies at the coffee workshop a few months ago, mesmerised by the taste. Came home and googled forever but never found a recipe that promised to please. Then that morning, no net, no links and I made a rough puff pastry & mushroom potato soup in the Thermomix. Leafing through the pages of the TM cookbook I found Anzac Biscuits. Now I’ve been meaning to make Anzacs for ages, and the minute I saw golden syrup I decided to give the recipe a go. I’ve had a bottle of syrup in my larder for over a year. Yes, looked like a cookie I would enjoy; was happy to note ‘no eggs’ . Minor changes … knocked off the coconut as the teen can’t stand coconut it and substituted it for chopped walnuts to make the cookie a little more wholesome.
There’s something so charming about the taste, something quite addictive. The cookies are crisp on the outside yet offer this slightly chewy comforting centre within. Also, they have a butterscotchy flavor that I really like, a honeyish hue possibly due to the syrup and butter being melted together. I love the depth the walnuts add to them, though I think coconut would be wonderful too.I reduced the sugar slightly from the original recipe, and baked them slightly thicker and thus longer. Maybe next time a little whole wheat flour substitution might happen, but all in all these were the perfect bite. Made me forget that silly internet, the lack of connectivity. Just proves that food comforts … and how!
[print_this]
Recipe: Anzac Biscuits
Summary: Sweet, chewy inside, crisp on the outside, delicious and wholesome bisuits. Cookies that are simple to make and very addictive. They have a long shelf life but disappear too fast to prove it!
Prep Time: 7-10 minutes Total Time: 40 minutes Ingredients:
120gm unsalted butter
100ml golden syrup {I used Solar}
1tsp baking soda
65gm sugar
65gm brown sugar
½ tsp salt
150gm plain flour, sifted
100gm rolled oats
50gm walnuts, chopped fine
Method:
Preheat oven to 170C
Heat butter and golden syrup in a pan over low heat till the butter melts and the two mix together. {Can do it in the microwave too}
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. The dough will be a little stiff.
Drop tbsp of dough on parchment lined cookie sheets, flatten with the tines of a fork. {I rolled the dough into balls, flattened them slightly with the palm of my hand, and then further flattened them by pressing down with a fork.}.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
Leave to cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes {they are quite tender when they come out of the oven} , and then transfer on racks to cool completely.
Thermomix Recipe:
Place butter & golden syrup into TM bowl. Heat for 2 minutes at 60C on speed 2 until fully dissolved. Place bicarb into bowl and mix for 5 seconds on speed 3.
Add remaining ingredients and set dial to closed position and mix for 30-35 seconds on interval speed…. then continue as above from step 4.
“When the night has come, And the land is dark And the moon is the only light we see No I won’t be afraid, No I won’t be afraid Just as long as you stand, stand by me.”
Ben E. King
These are lyrics of one of my favourite songs, the words, the tone, the tenor … all pure comfort! I’m sorry it’s been a while and I have to admit life seems to have got the better of me. Summer has hit us splat on, the kids now on summer vacation and the headless chicken dance doesn’t seem to end. Is it something with me being disorganised, or is it just a sign of the times … so much to do and so little time!The last 2 weeks whizzed by getting visas organised etc {we need visas on our passports to go practically anywhere, except HKG maybe!!} Heat and dust, electricity power cuts, teens at their trying best, parents at their coping best or worst {still trying to figure that last one out} … and then the desire to blog!Nothing adds up to a balanced equation…
We put the kids on a flight to Dubai for 5 days where they are being spoilt silly by their sweet cousin. I figured I had 5 ‘whole‘ days to catch up, and had grand plans. 2 days are gone and I’ve hit panic mode. Nothing done as I am still trying to get back my lost energy … the heat saps you of most, and bringing up kids drains the rest.Getting to the foodie bit now. I haven’t baked for a few days with all this running around, so I’ve dug into my archives for an apple cake that I made last month, one I meant to post, but didn’t quite get there. It’s a minimally adapted recipe from Tartlette, one that spells COMFORT! It’s like an old fashioned cake, almost crossing into a steamed pudding, and holds wonderful old world charm.
Of the cake Helene says, “I am pretty sure that most French people reading are familiar with the “Gateau aux Pommes 5-4-3-2-1” that the brand Tupperware® introduced during home demonstrations of their products. A very simple, very unassuming and particularly delicious apple cake, soft and moist all the way through. It was especially known for its creamy butter and sugar topping forming a tempting thin crust while baking.“
I made it with apples. Possibly it should work well with peaches, maybe apricots too. I skipped the cardamom in it as I’m not a huge fan of cardamom in bakes, but you can add a tsp in with the flour. You could sprinkle the top with slivered almonds like I did here, and also for Marie Helen’s Apple Cake from Dorie Greenspan ‘Around My French Table’. That and a dusting of sugar prettied it up!!I made several small cakes in ramekins lined with cupcake liners {to aid easy removal} and a 4″ cake in a spring-form tin. This was indeed a simple, comforting, unassuming apple cake, delicious and moist, with the promise of old world charm. A couple of tablespoons of unsweetened low fat cream make it even more addictive!
[print_this]Recipe: Gateau Aux Pommes {Apple Cake}
Summary: A simple, comforting, unassuming apple cake, delicious and moist. A couple of tablespoons of unsweetened low fat cream make it even more addictive! Recipe adapted minimally from Tartlette.
Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 45 minutes Ingredients for the cake:
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup vanilla sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/4 cup low fat cream
1/3 cup oil
1 egg
1/2 vanilla bean scraped
2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
Ingredients for the topping:
5 1/2 tbsp {80g} unsalted butter, at room temperature
