Baklava

Happy Birthday DH! May the new year be as rich and fulfilling!

Mighty pleased, for I battled sheets that tore on me and sheets that stuck on me, yes I'm referring to the much feared, phyllo dough and I prevailed. Behold, the delicious baklava!

Some things to note:

Thawing phyllo dough in the microwave for 60 seconds instead of in the refrigerator or the kitchen, is a great idea.

Go ahead and put that plastic wrapping over the waiting dough and cover it with a damp tea towel (a few drops of rose water in the water does not hurt).

I ran out of the 8 ounces of clarified butter towards the end and resorted to oil. Next time, will have more handy!

I cut the baklava before putting it in the oven (the thought of cutting through fragile, crisp sheets was unnerving).

I see a lot of syrup still waiting to be absorbed. Next time, will try pouring it as soon as the pastry comes out of the oven.

Other flavourings i have read include, cloves and cardamom. And lemon zest and juice for the syrup.

Dried Fruit and Nut Cookies with Masala Chai

Dried Fruit and Nut Cookies with Masala Chai (Spiced Tea)

Not a fan of the Plum Cake so made its cousin, Dried Fruit and Nut Cookies. Served with mulled tea, to warm up the insides on a cold Boxing Day afternoon (yes, this post is two days too late).

My take on Dried Fruit and Nut Cookies:

1. omitted the egg and they did just fine.

2. season appropriate substitutions: dried sweetened cranberries for candied cherries (i couldn't find them) and dark rum for dry sherry.

My take on Chai.

1. up the sugar to 3 tablespoons, that's when the tea is begining to be sweet.

Merry Christmas!

Palappam with Vegetable Stew and Kadala Curry: our breakfast on this wet, cold Christmas morning.

Melting Moments (Snowballs)

Melting Moments, another take on shortbread cookies.

To the trinity of flour, sugar and butter some corn starch is added and baked at 250 degrees F for 60 minutes. They were oh, so delicate! when out of the oven and needed to be handled gently. I let them rest overnight on the cooling rack and they firmed up just enough. A light dust of confectioner's sugar and they are snowballs (Mario Batali might say, first step, find the snow's legs).

Cookies for some friends who invited us for lunch!

Grhybe Gorayba Ghrybe Ghoraibi (Lebanese Butter Cookies)

Grhybe/Gorayba/Ghrybe/Ghoraibi...they are spelled in more ways so the search for these on the internet proved difficult. I had this shortbread cookie with the most tender crumb at Kan Zeman, in Palo Alto some weekends back. Shortbreads are my favourite cookies and there seem to versions of it around the world, nankhatai in India, shortbread from Scotland, grhybe from the Middle East...The three important ingredients are all-purpose flour, shortening and sugar. Variations include addition of powdered nuts, rice flour, corn flour, semolina...shortening of choice, butter, clarified butter, ghee and plain old vegetable oil. Some recipes also call for a leaving agent, baking powder and sometimes eggs (squirm) to both leaven and bind. Flavourings and dried nuts to embellish are also used. They do not agree on the temperature of the fat or the state it should be in or the temperature or length of time they should be baked, perhaps all this contributes to the variety but they all share something in common, a pale hue and a delicate texture.

I followed this recipe but baked it at 250 degrees F for 60 minutes as recommended here. They had the hue of the palest brown but, cough, were NOT short (sob) enough. Need to find another recipe...

Kadachakka Oolarthiathu (Sauteed Breadfruit)

Kadachakka Oolarthiathu (Sauteed Breadfruit) adapted from Mrs. K. M. Mathew's Kerala Cookery (May 1999; fifth edition)

made using frozen breadfruit

Kadachakka is malayalam for breadfruit

Oolarthiathu is a style of preparation and translates to sauteed or panfried. It differs from other panfried preparations from Kerala like mezhukkupurattiathu or thoren in that meat is the main ingredient and therefore heavily spiced (cinnamon, cloves, cardamom,...). Certain vegetables taste delicious with this treatment, kadachakka (breadfruit), koorka (chinese potato) and chena (elephant yam).

Rava Laddoo

I'm on a laddoo, ahem...cough, roll: Rava Laddoo

Yes, they are just rava, ghee, sugar and milk. Followed this recipe but omitted the nuts and raisins. Avoided burring sugar in the food processor and used this sugar. Surprised at my self-restraint, the laddoo are cooling and i have yet to dig my teeth into one.

Besan ke Laddoo

Besan ke Laddoo: Cure for a wet day in fall

I found this description of the making really helpful, though i ignored the flavourings. Just besan, ghee and sugar are perfect. I have to admit, the laddoos look like freshly laid eggs with soft shells :). Hopefully they'll get kadak real soon.

Semiya Upma

under incandescent lamp

under sunlight

Near perfect Semiya Upma, our lunch today. Followed this ingredient list but all cooking was done in a saute pan (unlike the five i might end up with according to the recipe) with two and half cups of water (again, unlike the advised seven!).

From Wikipedia:

about Upma

about Semiya

Peach Upside-Down Cake

Peach

Upside

Down

Cake

pass me some vanilla ice-cream please...

Peach Upside-Down Cake by Alton Brown

Florentines

Florentines by Giada De Laurentiis (Used a muffin top pan to get perfect rounds. Substituted vanilla extract for orange zest. Baked 3/4 tablespoon mounds at 325 degrees F for 7 minutes. Yield: 42, if i had not burnt two batches :-))

For my cousin's housewarming party!

Frozen Berries with Hot White Chocolate

Frozen Berries with Hot White Chocolate by Ina Garten (from her book, "Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again"; Clarkson Potter; October 2006)

I used blackberries from the local summer farmer's market.

Nankhatai

Nankhatai, growing up, were bought at the local, malayalee bakery. Another import to Goa from Kerala, apart from Math teachers.

My attempts at making nankhatai.

Try,

and try,

till you succeed!

For serious readers, some history, some geography and some musings.

Signing off, in ghee induced coma.

Semiya (Vermicelli) Payasam

Semiya (Vermicelli) Payasam by Sanjeev Kapoor

Sanjeev Kapoor also writes for MSN

Ussal with Black-eyed Peas and sprouted Bengal Gram

Ussal with Black-eyed Peas and sprouted Bengal Gram

(recipe: Sanjeev Kapoor's Kale Vatanyachi Ussal. I replaced kale vatane with black-eyed peas and sprouted bengal gram, and kokum with tamarind.)

Sanjeev Kapoor also writes for MSN.

Tour and tasting at Sterling Vineyards, Napa Valley with friends

Sterling Vineyards, Napa Valley

The cable car ride to the hilltop winery

Pinot Gris

Viognier

Pinot Noir

Beringer 2005 Founders' Estate Merlot, California

Beringer 2005 Founders' Estate Merlot, California
Beringer Vineyards
Merlot

Palmiers

Palmiers by Ina Garten
(from her book, "Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Make at Home"; Clarkson Potter; October 2004)