Desserts and baking

The almond cake with cocoa nibs

Sticky

This is a cake I baked a few days back an hour before I had to fly out from Sydney to Singapore enroute to Mumbai. Was meant to be a surprise dessert to take to meet my friends from a long time back. They are christened as Gatarganga for the filthy language they use when talking to each other ..Ahh boys who still pretend that they and I are teenagers.

I was very pleased to see that it survived the journey in my backpack all the way to here so I thought to write down the recipe before I get senile or dementia or both.

  1. Butter softened -75 g
  2. Oil( vegetable )-50 g
  3. Sugar brown or white – 125 g
  4. Flour 95 g
  5. Almond powder- 50 g
  6. Baking powder-10 g
  7. eggs large-2
  8. Cream 50 g
  9. Cocoa nibs – 10 g/1 t( these are for the crunch and a hint of bitterness to contrast with the sweetness of the cake.
  10. Sliced almonds -20g/1 T

I made this like a modified version of a pound cake. First things to do is get your oven preheated before you start to175 C. Line one 8 inch cake tin with baking paper atleast at the base( or use a precut silicone cake base)

whisk the eggs with sugar and add a little vanilla extract. Melt the butter and oil and add to the whisked eggs mix. Add in the cream and mix lightly.

Mix together the almond flour and baking powder and fold it into the egg mix. Gently mix in the cocoa nibs.

Pour it into the cake tin and top with sliced/ flaked almonds. Bake for between 20-25 mins or a bit more till done .

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Warm Flourless Chocolate soufflé

Sticky

serves 6..

  • Egg yolks- 3 ea
  • Sugar- 30 gm
  • Cocoa powder- 30 gm
  • Cornflour -15 gm
  • Egg whites- 3 ea
  • Sugar -30 gm
  • Chocolate dark- 120 gm
  • Butter- 100 gm

Additional butter to grease ramekins

Additional sugar to dust ramekins with.

We used to make this dark chocolate souffle in my hotel in Dubai and serve it in our Latin American restaurant Pachanga, and 5 years and several menu changes later this was one item which had stood the test f time. Never fails to please or your money back!!

Method.

  1. Pre-heat oven to 200 C.
  2. Grease ramekins with some melted butter and line with sugar, just enough to coat the bottom and sides of the ramekins.
  3. Separate egg yolks and whites.
  4. Melt chocolate and butter over a double boiler
  5. Whisk egg yolks and sugar till well combined and fluffly.
  6. Sieve cornflour and cocoa powder together
  7. Add cornflour and cocoa mix to chocolate mix.
  8. Whisk egg whites with 30 gm sugar till stiff .
  9. Mix egg yolk mix and chocolate mix.
  10. Fold in egg whites, a little at a time, to ensure we do not lose too much volume.
  11. Fill into the ramekins approximately ¾ th full.
  12. Bake at 200 C for 8-10 minutes, for soufflé with a soft centre. For a fully cooked and drier product can be cooked for upto 12 minutes.
  13. Dust with icing sugar and serve with vanilla ice cream.

Note- these soufflés can be kept in the refrigerator and cooked to order and will stay without losing significant volume for upto 1 day.

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sour dough -oil poached bread fritters

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Actually we are cheating a bit by saying oil poached . I did that just to make it sound healthy. Well it’s great for your mental health when the little monsters you make it for say yummy can we have some more ….but it’s not really poached more like deep fried ..good bye right artery of the heart .

The dough does have oats inside so supposed to reduce your bad cholesterol.But if you truly want to be healthy then you will be and won’t be trolling the internet for ways for heart health.

The good bit is you can say no..Ahh who are you kidding , when u dip one of these puppies in the chipotle tamarind sauce all resolve melts away..

Without much ado..

  • Sourdough starter approximately 200 g
  • Water – 75 ml
  • Oats – 50 g
  • Flour to make into a soft dough- 300 g( can use a mix of wholewheat and white)
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar- 5 g/ 1 t
  • Basil and parsley to flavour or you can add your favorite herbs or even kimchi..
  • Olive oil- 20 ml
  • Oil to gently poach…😆😆😆

The method is to simply mix everything and keep it till it’s very bubbly , then shape into small balls and deep fry poach in oil 😛

Random bits and bobs ..

How we discovered not to go fishing-or how not to be a drownded rat!

Sticky

So this is a story not related much with food unless you say but theres fish on the heading. Well there is but these were not the kind that you ate unless your were Gollum/ Smeagol and ate fishies.

So imagine a city in Western India where you have a band of young peoples. Their names are Yash and Deep and they are typical boys who want to have a bit of an adventure as boys are prone to be. So these young scoundrels were interested in fish because they save fish in a tank at someones house. Now there are shops which sell fish and the paraphernalia to go with the fish but that costs mucho rupees,(2-3 Rs, which at the time in the 80’s was a fair bit ) which they are not likely to get ( or so they think), but they havent asked yet.

So in the are where they live lets call it the colony..indiranagar colony.

There they have other male children who have similar tastes. One male child says hey there are sugarcane fields next to the colony and ive seen a well in them. All the other kids are wide eyed/ OMG, he has been in the forbidden forest of sugarcane, where no living being should go.

So they set off on Sunday morning for this quest. The well is deep in the fields, and has a narrow set of stairs to go by the waters edge deep down. these steps were solid mud not brick or stone, so as the kids went up and down they would get wet , nay make that very wet and slippery.

When the kids went missing for such a long time, the father met up with another dad across the street and they took their black retriever “Bagheera” to track these rascals.

Back the well the kids were having a blast. Walk down slippery clay to the waters edge and crouch down on thee knees and with your palms try and catch slippery colourful fishies. they had collected a few in sort of container by noon. Suddenly they hear barking and a familiar voice calling out and lo and behold. Two dads and a barking Bagheera are by the wells edge .

40 years later i realise how stupid we were and so lucky not to have an accident or drown. None of use knew to swim and followng this we did get a fish tank with 2 and 3 rs fishes swimming inside till they all went belly up

Cooking Asian

The saus kacang / peanut sauce which makes you want to sing out loud

Sticky

There are peanut sauces/ satay sauces which you get in a bottle which make you cringe and squirm with all the citric acid in there..in a pinch you could use it as an abrasive cleaner for your pots or pans..

Not that the one I’m telling you about will actually make you want to sing in joy but I had to use a catchy title or you might go away and look at that recipe from the Net with brilliant photos .

You won’t get that here.. what you will is something which is tried and tested and tasted .. and something which is truly ” Enak Sakali”( tasty in Bahasa). I learnt how to make this from my Padawan Chef Harryson Tobing. Harryson now is culinary Jedi master in the usa.

I had seen a different version which was served in our Thai restaurant at The Oberoi which was good too but the Indo version with its Saus (not misspelt)ABC- kecap Manis .was something else.. a sweet molasses like sauce which makes it even more special.

I have deviated from the original I learnt only to simplify it because I like the Kiss( keep it simple,stupid) principle quite a lot.

  • Peanuts balanced and deep fried ..or make it simpler and use a very good quality crunchy peanut butter – how much ..let’s say about 250 g
  • Red chilli fresh preferred – 2-3 big ones not very hot
  • Garlic cloves- 2-3 large ones
  • Dessicated coconut- 10 g/ 1 T approx
  • ABC kecap Manis / sweet soy sauce- 1 T or a bit more it’s hard to say depends on how sweet you want the sauce to be and how dark.. don’t substitute unless you just can’t get it but I think this is the best..
  • Coconut cream- 400 ml
  • Brown sugar or Gula Melaka- again depends on how sweet you want it to be..I don’t like it too sweet.
  • Kaffir lime leaves/ Daun Limau/Bai makrut – 1-2 torn
  • Oil – quite a lot..nearly 50-60 ml.. I never said this sauce will make you slim, I said sing..

So you grind the garlic and the red chilli together .heat up the oil and add in the chilli garlic mix till gets a nice colour then add in the coconut and peanut and get ready to not leave the stove side because if you do it’s going to burn horribly and can’t get rescued..

Which is also one of the reasons to add in all of that oil..when you see the oil start to separate out from the mix then add the kecap Manis and coconut cream( when you buy this look for the one with maximum coco content ) or use the Maggi Coco milk powder .

also add in the Daun Limau / what is that…the lime leaves which smell like summer refreshed ..and can’t be substituted with anything else.

Some people also like to add some tamarind extract inside their peanut sauce..I’m not one of those people’s!! Having said that if that’s what floats your boat go for it..

Serve this pot of delicious NESS with satay or grilled fish or tofu or with crackers if you like.. you will thank me and throw away that yucky tacky stuff from the bottle in the closest bombing site where it will get obliterated never to bother decent hoomans again.

The photo above shows chilli grown in my garden and the ABC which didn’t ..don’t be tempted to save money and buy the 6 kg plastic tub..this is better..keeps better and can be recycled better.

Desserts and baking

The happyness muffin with blueberries

Sticky

These evolved from a class of students that Moi used to teach at Whitireia Poytechnic , in New Zealand /Aotearoa. Ive eaten muffins all over the world and truly these were so awesome moist, and chock full of berries or you could replace them with something else..

While we are on that topic, there was a muffin place called M#ff^in break( of all the things), which were some of the worst ive ever eaten. i counted 5 berries in one, like they kept one person on slave rates to count the nos of frozen berries to chuck into each little muffin cup.

So this recipe makes 12 medium sized ones or could make smaller mini sized ones about 30 odd..the cooking time for those is about 60% so about 12 -14 minutes, you have to check its not an exact science.

  • Flour sieved 200 g
  • Cornflour sieved with above -40 g
  • baking powder sieved with flour and cornflour together- 10 g

ok stop , before going any further, preheat your oven to 180 C on fan assisted mode and get your muffin tin and cups ready( muffin cups even the disposable ones need t be sprayed or brushed with some oil)

  • Butter 48 g
  • oil 48 g melt together
  • Eggs 2 large sized 6–65 g each
  • Sugar 180 g
  • vanilla essence – enough to take the egg smell off
  • milk -100 ml
  • Blueberries –120 g atleast, so you get a good mouthful in each bite

The way forward is quite easy…Whisk the eggs , sugar and essence together over a bowl of hot water till thick and foamy. you could do this the old fashioned way with a good whisk or use the electric hand blender, dont worry i wont judge you.

then slowwwwly add in the melted butter oil mix , and milk and dont whisk. Use a spatula or spoon ti mix gently so all the aeration isnt lost. Then pour in your flour/cornflour/baking powder blend, the one which had been all sieved togther.( to blend well , remove any bits of paper/ plastic or glass which could go in..and also make the mix lighter).Put on the greased cups/ yes even the disposable baking cups so the batter doesnt stick horribly. Bake at 180C fr 8-20 minutes turning midway once or twice.

Take these out and take a bow, your kids will love you forever( well atleast till the muffins last). I will make a batch with my happy kids tomorrow and post a pic..

Random bits and bobs ..

The care and maintenance of knives and other sharp cutting tools.

Sticky

If you have reached this stage , you must’ve realised by now that you want to be here and cooking good stuff .Now for that to happen you need good cutting implements like knives ,and these need to be sharpened.

Most folk don’t or go the expensive route of using a knife shop which could be ok if they are nice guys like Shannon at house of knives .

These guys have been around for many many years and ive only known Shannon since 2010, but hes a top guy and will give you good advise regarding knives and sharpening. For the high end sharpening i dont bother about it and just take them to his workshop, which sits behind and below their shop around the back.

They are located at 24, Mt Eden road, Auckland .New Zealand.

http://www.houseofknives.co.nz/…09-3022980, but then i know the number by heart.

The idea is to use a diamond or water stone and go in one direction at fixed angle. It sounds complicated so look at the helpful videos.

Also NEVER EVER dishwashing the knives..they will get ruined by the heat and the chemical in the machine .everytime you try to sharpen they have these micro fractures and they just don’t grind out ..

so if you see the video above, it gives you a pretty good idea about what needs to get done..

Cooking indian

Aloo tikki

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This is a popular street food from India but can be as refined or as rustic you want it to be. Typically paired with a chick peas curry or even a white lentil / peas curry . Word of warning though if the chickpeas are not cooked enough they cause gas.

 

A lot of it. So thats one reason to pressure cook the chickpeas and use spices like ajwain/carom ajowan.

Anyway moving on to the potato cakes which are the star of the show today.

  • Potatoes 1kg..cook whole with skin on the day before.
  • Turmeric 2g/.5t
  • Chilli powder 5g /1t
  • Cardamom powder-pinch
  • Nutmeg powder-pinch
  • Salt-15-20g
  • Ginger and garlic paste
  • Breadcrumbs -25g
  • Chickpeas flour-roasted in the microwave with clarified butter/ghee -50g equal qty of both 25+25.
  • Rice flour to coat so they dont break
  • Oil
  • Ghee to cook
  • Filling -i used chopped almonds and peeled and chopped broccoli stems. -1stem peeled and chopped with chopped almond and flavoured with some dry mint
  1. Cook the potatoes a day before and keep in the fridge. They are healthier that way. Peel and grate or mash . Add all other ingredients and form a mix.shape into approximately 10balls. Make a hole in the middle and fill .coat with rice flour and then shallow fry on a a heavy based griddle with a mix of oil and ghee( clarified butter).♣

 

Cooking indian

Chana Masala/ Pindi

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We are going to be cooking the great Indian gas producer(hehe). This is traditionally made in northern india and eaten with a fried bread called Bhatura- its even traveled overseas and is popular street food in Trinidad but called by another name and very moreish

  • Chickpeas/ Chana dry- 250 g
  • Baking soda/Sodium bicarbonate/bicarb – pinch- this softens the seed coat and makes it easier to cook.
  • Ajwain seeds/Carom ajowan- pinch- these tiny seeds pack a flavour punch and also are anti flatulent
  • Onions- 1 medium earlier and one later.
  • canned diced tomatoes-

Soak overnight with baking soda..next day wash and cook till soft with some onion and ajwain can also add some tea bag water for dark colour. Then heat oil with clove cinnamon black cardamom and jeera and saute some chopped onion till translucent.. add the canned diced tomatoes. Turmeric chilli powder and cooked chana and simmer on low heat for long time .

Add anardana powder or pomegranate molasses( dibs  in Arabic) and ginger julienne and coriander. 

Serve with the bhatura..there is a recipe knocking around on the blog 

Cooking indian

Potato vada

Potato Vadas or batatawada is my favoritest food ever and I have fond memories of my mum/ Aai making these for me as a child.

Its one of the most popular street food in our state Maharashtra and there are several origin stories, which is too much history when you are hungry. Its a great affordable carb laden food which serves as meal for hungry workers and people of all kinds  with deep or shallow pockets .

Its a deep fried potato patty spiced with chilli , curry leaves and coated with a chick pea flour batter  .

You need to cook potatoes , peel and crush them. Then make a spicy batter and fry them . Sandwich it in a bun and it becomes wada or vada and pav/which is a bun of sorts with a Portuguese influence. So the potato came from south America and the bread from portugal and apparently the idea came to a streey vendor in Bombay/now Mumbai who wanted to feed the masses with an affordable carb rich meal which is grab and go. Since the patty is in a bun doesn’t make your hands greasy and one hand stays free .

The ingredients.

Potato 1kg Boil or pressure cook with skin on . When cooked peel and crush.

Oil-2T/35ml  .

Black mustard seeds -1/2t about 2g

Cumin-1/2tabout 2g

Onion peeled and chopped -1/100g

Curry leaves-2sprigs better if you shred them fresh is best otherwise dried .

Ginger peeled and chopped-1small piece /10g

Garlic peeled and chopped -15g

Turmeric 1t /about 5g  these are not exact measurements mind you.

Asafoetida –very tiny pinch

Green chilli 3-4 about 10g

Lemon -1lemon or lime

Sugar1/2t

Green coriander -1sprig

Batter

Chickpeas flour /Besan-250g

Rice flour-30g

Ajwain-1/2t

Water to form batter approximately 150g

Oil to fry and clog those arteries

Salt to taste for potato and batter both.

  • Heat oil and crackle mustard seeds till they pop add onion curry leaves cumin and saute lightly. Add turmeric ginger garlic and chopped chilli . Turn off heat
  • Add crushed potatoes and salt, sugar, lemon ,and chopped coriander.
  • Cool down and shape into patties or round balls..your choice as long as the mix is tasty.
  • Make batter with besan , rice flour water. Lightly crush ajwain before adding it .if its too thick will not be very nice but stodgy, too thin and wont coat well. Practice makes perfect.
  • Heat oil and dip patties in batter and then fry till golden and crisp.
  • You can then pair this with a small bread bun and green chutney both recipes are on here. Or just gulp down as they are. Wait to cool down or your mouth is going to be burnt .
  • Everyone has their favorite street food vendor who sells this . Mine is in my home town of Pune just ahead of Aurangabad silk mills on Lakshmi road . Ive been going to the same spot since 1988. Prices have gone up X 10 times since but still tastes amazing.
  • Some folk also add a garlic chilli coconut chutney on the bun. I should at some stage write down how to make that too. Dont buy it folks it will usually be rancid.

 

Cooking indian

Gor Keri- like my grandma would make

I got this recipe from my father , who said that Mani-ba, my grandma , his mum used to make it this way. so the proportions might not be exact but the process is correct and all food is made by tweaking it to your taste.

  • Green mangoes , washed and cut into cubes-1kg ( yes its long drawn out process).
  • Salt- 25 g
  • Turmeric- 5 g/ 1 t

combine all the above and keep outside in the hot sun .( with some sort of a cover so the neighbours cat doesnt come in to do a wee wee on it)

  • Red chilli powder- 10g
  • Methi/ Fenugreek seeds- 1tsp/ 5 g
  • mustard seeds yellow- 2 T/10 g
  • Vinegar- 25 ml
  • Cumin powder- 5 g
  • Jaggery / soft brown sugar – if you cant get jaggery-
  • Mustard oil- 20 ml
  • Asafoetida- pinch

Grind or crush the fenugreek seeds. Heat the oil and crackle/ pop the mustard seeds . Add the remaining ingredients and combine with the mango.

Pack this in glass jar with a tight lid and leave it to mature for a weeks .

Resist temptation to put your grubby hands inside and taste it. Use a fork. When its ready to eat the mango is  soft but not mushy and the spice are mellowed down quite a bit.

Serve with some rice or dal . Ive even once chopped it up and added it to a prawn curry. Abs flavor bomb it was .

Desserts and baking

A new Anzac biscuit

  • Anzac biscuit

    Anzac biscuits are very popular in Australia and New Zealand and are typically made for morning or afternoon tea and on Anzac day 26 April.

Anzac day commemorates the sacrifice of Australian and new Zealand soldiers in WW I in Gallipoli. Read a bit about it very interesting history .

The biscuits themselves are made from Oats and butter and golden Syrup can be baked to be chewy or crisp depending on how you like them. I used to make them in hundreds when i worked for aged care in Sydney with a bomb proof recipe which worked very well. This recipe will make you about 40, but you can easily multiply by10/20 time to make it bulk qtys.

  • Flour 300 g
  • Oats120 g
  • Dessicated coconut 75 p
  • Sugar350 g
  • Golden syrup 100 g
  • Butter 250 g
  • Water 25 g
  • Baking soda/ Soda bicarb 10 g

The method is really simple.

  • Mix all the dry ingredients together.
  • Mix soda with water and dissolve it. Dont be tempted to add more otherwise will taste terrible and soapy.
  • Melt butter and golden syrup gently. You can replace half the golden syrup with some manuka honey for a twist on the flavor which is quite nice.
  • Make  small balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper
  • Bake in preheated oven for 8-9 mins and let them  cool down on the tray.
  • If you like your anzac biscuits a bit crisper then pop them back in the oven as its cooling in down for another 5 mins but not right away otherwise they will burn.

stories of foods from the world over, laced with a hint of sarcasm and some black humour, its not for everyone, but then never was meant to be..