Out of this situation only good will come. I am Safe. One of my favorite affirmations.”
Louise Hay on twitter
I love reading about cookbooks people own, new ones they’ve added to their collections, and often find myself adding books to my wish list. Ottolenghi: The Cookbookwas one such wonderful book, and I was thrilled when Hilda presented it to me. The connect was special, and the book worth every printed word. Reading about Plenty many times in the past few months, and then again last night on Nordjusmade me update my virtual list! Yes, another one added to the ever growing list.
I couldn’t believe my good fortune recently, and felt extremely humbled when one of my blog readers from the Middle East decided to mail me another book that I had longed to own, The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Zareena who lives in the UAE got in touch with me ages ago looking for a cake to make for her brother’s birthday. Many mails later, she sent me beautiful pictures of the cake she made, spiral design and all, saying it was ‘the sponge was the bestest sponge she had ever had in my life’ . I was so touched and elated that it worked for her. She is a busy young mother of three little kids, and yet finds time to run her home, bake and mail me from time to time. Then one day she sent me a gift, this beautiful book; in her words ‘a small way to say thank you for inspiring me to bake‘.
It’s a BEAUTIFUL book, and one that all serious cake bakers should own. Carrying the enviable commendation of The Cookbook of the Year, it’s a book that covers possibly every cake under the sun, with variations galore, and exhaustive tips in every section. It is a cake encyclopedia that covers basic cakes, fillings, decorations, frostings, fruit preservation to some extent, and handy tips from novice to home to professional bakers. What was I waiting for? Spent hours every night reading the book, and the first thing I decided to do on priority was make fresh cherry topping from scratch.
It’s cherry season here, and the topping was calling my name. After reading for years about ‘a can of cherry pie filling’ in listed ingredients, here I was singing my way through making ‘my own’fresh cherry topping from scratch. Armed with a cherry pitter and a weighing scale, I had the fruit ready in next to no time, and the topping bubbling away very soon. I had a cherry pie or cheesecake in mind, and so made a batch of quark that day as well.
Amazingly I got a shout out from Mardi @ Eat Live Travel Write that very day telling me about Hay Hay it’s Donna Day, and that she was hosting the event. Mardi was smart and chose a fabulously simple, yet brilliant recipe from Donna Hay’s collection – Blackberry Cheesecake Pots. The idea of the event is that you bake either the same recipe, or a twist to it, inspired by the basic recipe. I was on the ball and rolling. The mind was racing after I read that the recipe was a non bake one, and took about 10-15 minutes to put together. A quick check of what I could use had me in rejoicing in my little corner – I would use fresh cherry topping and quark. YES!!
What I eventually made was possibly the best and most refreshing non-bake dessertthat I have ever baked. It’s all from scratch, and can be made in advance, the fresh cherry topping and the quark 2-3 days prior. Putting it together takes about 10 minutes, and then you just leave it to chill. I gave it about 5 hours in the fridge, but an hour should be fine too as there is no gelatin etc that needs to set. It’s light on calories, healthy, and vegetarian too! I don’t think it can get better than this in our home!!
Thank you Zareena for sending me this beautiful book, and thank you Mardi for inviting me to be part of the event. Fate brought this post together, and it was very satisfying. Quite a few readers of my blog often write to me asking how to whip up / stabilise low fat cream. Rose Beranbaum seems to have read our minds, and has presented a solution to stabilising low fat cream in The Cake Bible. Will try it out and share it with you soon.
Cherry and Matcha Cheesecake Pots Inspired by Donna Hay’s Blackberry Cheesecake Pots@ Eat Live Travel Write Ingredients 380gms quark/curd cheese {recipe for homemade quark here} 1/3 cup vanilla sugar 200ml single/ low fat cream 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 tsp almond extract 1/2 a vanilla bean, scraped 1/2 tsp matcha powder 1 portion fresh cherry topping {Recipe follows} Some fresh cherries to serve Method
Process the quark, vanilla sugar, cream, scraped vanilla beans and vanilla in a food processor until smooth. Reserve 1/2 cup in a bowl.
Add half the cherry pie filling to the processor, and process until just crushed. Spoon into 6 serving glasses, spoon the remaining cherry pie filling equally among the 6 glasses/ serving dishes.
Finish off each serving with a dollop of matcha quark cheese and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Serve with fresh cherries.
Serves 6.
Fresh Cherry Topping Recipe fromThe Cake Bible, Rose Beranbaum, pg 344 280gms pitted tart cherries {from approximately 380gms cherries} 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 tbsps cornflour {cornstarch} Pinch of salt 1/8 tsp almond extract Method:
In a large saucepan toss together the cherries, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Allow it to sit for about 30minutes to allow the sugar to draw out the juice.
Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and boiling. Simmer 1 minute. The mixture should just barely drop from a spoon. {I added 1/8 tsp of citric acid as the cherries were more sweet than tart. Juice of 1/2 a lime should work as well}.
Remove from heat and stir in almond essence. Cool and store in refrigerator, or spoon over cold cheesecake if desired.
“If you do your fair day’s work, you are certain to get your fair day’s wage – in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.”
Alexander Smith
It’s the happy time of the month again, yes indeed the 27th, and it’s the Daring Bakers at their best. One small difference this time thought, the Daring Bakers take on the English at their doorstep and become Daring Steamers! Well, the proof lies in the pudding, as they say, so a steaming we will go…
The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.
… Gosh, I thought I hadn’t read it right. Once, twice, thrice … where was the oven? Quick whisper with Meeta and Aparna on twitter, and there I had it. Was a technique laden challenge sans the oven, one that sounded mighty intriguing to me, and even better that it was an English pudding. Also seemed a bit daunting given that it’s peak summer here and I associate English puddings with dry-fruit rich and dense desserts served on cold wintry Christmas evenings. But daring we are, so the pud had to be made…
Esther, the hostess, was wonderful! She presented the challenge with the original English ingredient found in puddings suet, but was large hearted enough to let us try what we liked as far as the technique included a steamed pudding! I got in touch with Aparna because she had tweeted a day ago that she had had a go at the challenge. Thanks to her, I was up the next day and singing the DB anthem early in the morning. I loved the idea of a 2 hour steam. No sauna luxury for me, but at least the pudding was gonna get treated with TLC! Even better because summer is here in full steam (tee hee, maybe I could have made the pudding in the sun), and so begin our never ending sob stories of lengthy power cuts. A pudding in the cooker on the stove which runs on gas was the best thing given the circumstances!
I read the threads on the forum and leafed through all my dessert cookbooks , and finally narrowed down to Indulge by Claire Clark, an utterly delicious book that I received to review from Blogger Aid.It‘s the most special sweet one on my bookshelf. Indulge had a very simple steamed treacle pudding with many options, of which I chose the summer berry one and played around with it. I added some Orange & Dried Fig Compote that I found leftover from this Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta I made ages ago, and some strawberries too. Then Claire met Aparna because I couldn’t figure out how long to steam it for, whether to put the cap on the pressure cooker etc. Claire Clark said it should be airtight, and Aparna said no weight on cooker. CC said 2 1/2 hours and Aparna did her individual ones for 30 minutes. So I took a bit of both… steamed for an hour with weight, and 1 hour without.
Unlike the traditional way of serving a steamed pudding hot, I served it at room temperature as Aparna suggested, with a cream anglaise that was chilled. I loved the texture and crumb of the pudding, especially when it stepped out of the steam bath. Gorgeous flavours … I think it’s a great great dessert, and one that I would love to make again. (I did actually, but didn’t have time to get good pictures etc. In any case, I found it difficult to take any pudding pictures. The second time around, I used the same basic recipe with chocolate chips in the batter, made it in mini moulds, and served the pud with a chocolate creme anglaise, and fresh cherries)
Thank you Esther for the fabulously different challenge; just the reason why I love being a Daring Baker. It opens my world to new cultures, cuisines, techniques, ideas, and challenges the mind to think. As always, thank you Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!!
Steamed Summer Berry and Fig Sponge Pudding Adapted from Indulgeby Claire Clark, pg 176 100gms unsalted butter, room temperature, plus extra for greasing 100gms vanilla sugar 150gm flour 1 tsp baking powder a pinch of salt 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk (save the whites for macs!!) 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup of orange and dried fig conserve 12 small strawberries, whole, hulled 50gms dark chocolate, grated Method:
Grease a litre pudding basin well with softened butter.
In a large bowl, place the butter, sugar, flour, pinch salt, eggs and yolk and beat for 2-3 minutes till soft and creamy.
Turn the fig conserve in the centre of the pudding basin, line the circumference with whole strawberries facing down. Spoon the pudding batter evenly over this and level. Sprinkle over with grated chocolate.
Cover tightly with a piece of well greased aluminum foil, pleated in the middle, and tie securely around the rim with string.
Take a pressure cooker or large pan with a tight fitting lid (or steamer if you have one), fill it with 3 inches of water, place an old cloth at the bottom, topped with an old plate, and put the pudding basin on top of it.
Steam on simmer for 2 hours, and then takeoff heat. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes till easy enough to handle, and then remove from cooker.
Take off foil, place serving platter over it, and then, holding firmly with both hands, quickly turn it over to invert pudding on platter, and remove the basin.
Serve with Creme Anglaise or a large scoop of clotted cream!
Creme Anglaise fromIndulgebyClaire Clark 1 vanilla pod 125ml low fat cream 125ml milk 3 egg yolks 2 oz Castor sugar
Method:
Slit the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds.
Place cream and milk in a sauce pan, stir in the vanilla seeds and simmer till it comes to a boil.
Place the yolks in a bowl, add sugar and whisk immediately. Gradually pour the boiled milk over this, stirring constantly. Return to the pan and stir continuously over medium heat with a wooden spoon till it begins to thicken. It should get thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Run your finger down the custard n the back of the spoon. the path should remain separated. DO NOT let the sauce come to a boil or it will curdle.
As soon as the sauce thickens, pour it though a sieve into a bowl, and cool the bowl over an ice bath/crushed ice.
Serve hot or cold.
Note: Place the leftover vanilla bean in a jar of granulated sugar to make the most amazing vanilla sugar that you can use in your desserts. It will take approximately 4-5 days to make. Shake the jar once a day.
“This is a 230-calorie snack you know. See? I’ve worked hard.”
Fernando Vargas
How often do you rant because you decide to make something that takes up hours of work, leaves you in throws of misery, & yet plants a BIG smile on your face afterwards? After so much of a sugar high, a savoury platter does feel good. I wanted to try making savoury tuiles too for the Daring Bakers challengefor January ’09, but somehow, it never ‘happened‘. All I managed were the sweet version here. Happily though, these crisp, yummy pastry bites called SAMOSAS ‘happened’ a short while ago though. These are wonderful, crisp, deep-fried, YESdeep-fried, Chicken Mince Cocktail Samosas. Samosas are typically Indian street food, & you will find fresh samosas being fried at every corner you go around, or at a ‘Halwai’ –an Indian sweet-maker, baker & deep-fryer! LOL. Usually stuffed with a mixture of boiled potatoes, peas, raisins, cashew nuts & cottage-cheese, given a mighty kick with Indian masalas/spices & some green chilies thrown in, samosas are deep-fried Indian pastry. They are very enjoyable indeed on a cold winter day, even better on a rainy day. As most street food in India is usually vegetarian, it isn’t often that you will find non-vegetarian fare on the street. Yet, chicken mince is a popular & much loved filling in this Indian pastry, often served as cocktail snacks at parties, especially weddings. The normal accompaniment is a Green Chutney, or a Tamarind Chutney. My kids devour these absolutely delicious bites with a Yogurt-Coriander-Garlic Dip! Aaaaaah, the flavours of Asia! This recipe is a wonderful one, that comes from my dear friend who is knee deep in snow in Ukraine at the moment. We were chatting some time back, & she was groaning under the weight of having to make 40 samosas (regular big sized ones) for a school fund-raiser. She volunteered (stupidly) to make them, & then she saw herself rolling pastry till kingdom came. I told her she was a fool to get talked into doing all the dirty work… blah blah blah blah blah… Pretty soon, one fine day, madness struck me, & I decided to make them. Lunacy hit me in greater proportions though, because I talked myself into making small mini samosas, or ‘cocktail samosas’ as they are called. Mini samosas = Much morework!Roll, baby, roll…O woebegone me. I cursed myself, cursed her, cursed whichever poor soul crossed my path that day. It ain’t no easy task to roll so many small ones out, & then try & stuff the blighters…but HEY, I did it! What satisfaction once I was all done. Be forewarned that it is a load of hard-work, & you can use spring roll wrappers to make life easier for you. But once done, & a batch fried, it was well worth every bit of effort. Scrumptious treat in every bite. The mince was delicately flavoured; no spices/masalas; just right! These are best served hot, just like French fries…CHICKEN COCKTAIL SAMOSAS
You can even make these into bigger, regular sized ones if you like.
Ingredients:
Pastry (I eyeball the amounts, so what I’ve written below is an approximation)
Flour – 1 1/2 cups
Clarified butter – 1-2 tbsps
Water to knead this to a firm, smooth dough
Filling
Chicken mince – 250 gms
Garlic – 5-6 cloves; chopped fine
Onion – 1 small; chopped fine
Fresh coriander – 1 bunch; chopped fine
Green chili – 1-2; chopped fine
Salt to taste
Method:
Pastry
Rub the clarified butter into the plain flour with your fingertips to distribute it evenly. Gradually add water & bring the dough together. Knead it till its firm & smooth, & leave to rest for about 30 minutes.
A firm dough is important to get a crisp, thin, almost translucent pastry.
Filling
Heat 2-3 tbsps of oil in a pan. Sweat the onion & garlic for 2-3 minutes, till translucent.
Add the mince & saute on high heat till cooked through & dry.
Add the coriander + green chilies + salt to taste. Make sure the water is completely dry or the samosas will get soggy.
Once done, cool the filling completely. (The filling can be made a day in advance)
Making them…
Pinch a small piece of dough, make a ball & roll it out as thin as you can (dust with as little dry flour as possible).
Cut out circles with a 3″ cookie cutter. To make triangles, half the circles. To make semi-circles or small balls, leave them uncut.
Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre of each & fold as desired, sealing the edges firmly with a little water. Make sure you seal them well, or the filling will spill out while frying.
Heat the oil in a deep heavy bottom pan/wok/kadhai to almost smoking (justlike you do for doughnuts), & fry in small batches till light brown. At this stage you can remove from oil, cool & freeze for later use, or continue to fry till golden brown. Once golden brown, place on paper towels for 5-10 seconds for extra oil to be absorbed. Serve HOT with a chutney, green or tamarind, or with a Cilantro-yogurt dip.
