Recently I was invited by Braun to try out one of their new products, called the Braun Multiquick Cordless. Here’s a quick review:
1. Its pretty light weight, and ya very suitable to handheld ergonomics.
2. I hate plugging things in, and while I have to use a blender for grinding it is one of the most hated activities for me, Braun’s multiquick is cordless and I found that it needs very little charging time and its readily available for the two most common kitchen chores – chopping finely and pureeing.
3. I have been using this everyday, as it definitely chops onions way more finely than I can ever hope to! and less messy. I have ground nuts, pureed tomato, chopped vegetables, like carrots and beans, and herbs, for dishes that require a fine chop – it really works. Plus the mess is greatly reduced and the stuff gets done in minutes.
4. I also really like the buzzer and lock attachment, so you can pulse only when the lock is pressed, it has really sharp blades so this is a good feature.

This product is available in Carrefour, in UAE, and is priced at 650 AED, would you like to own one? well… now you can WIN it!

The rules: You don’t have to be a blogger to enter this giveaway, anyone who is a reader can enter this giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment with your e-mail address, and location. That’s 1 point for you. Leaving a comment is mandatory to enter this giveaway.

Extra points: If you like EatWriteThink on Facebook (click on my FB page which should appear on the right side of the page), I will count this as an extra point for you, + 1. If you promote this giveaway on your blog, or Tweet about it, you get + 2. But don’t forget to let me know that you did, just add the details/link in the comment you leave behind.

The fine print: This giveaway is open to anyone living in one of the GCC Countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), and in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or if you have an address in one of these countries.

Final word: when you leave a comment for the giveaway, you must include your full name, e-mail address, and location. Only these will be considered as entries to win the Braun Multiquick Cordless.

Giveaway ends on Thursday, 14 April 2011, 23:59:00 GST. I will select a winner through random selection, and announce on Monday, 18 April 2011.

Recipe for Pear & Almond Cake

This makes a delicious, soft cake, using an adapted and modified recipe from Women’s Weekly book on Cakes. I have used Coscia pears for this recipe. Coscia is a tiny pear from Italy, lovely green, full of flavour and crisp. And these had such a perfect shape that I wanted to bake the cake with these in it.

Ingredients

5 Coscia pears/or any crisp, blushing variety, small to medium size
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon lemon rind
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup yoghurt (I used homemade yoghurt, which is active and lightly sour)
1/2 cup milk
2 cups AP flour/maida
4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
10 Hershey’s kisses chopped, or any eating chocolate chopped coarsely
1 cup ground almond (I store almonds in the freezer, so its easy to grind to a powder)

Method

1. Peel the pears, leave the stems on.
2. Using a saucepan big enough to fit all the pears in, combine the water, rind and 1 cup of sugar. Stir over heat, without boiling, until all the sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla extract, and the pears. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, simmer covered, until the pears are just tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pears to another bowl, bring the syrup to a boil, uncovered, until syrup reduces by half, leave to cool completely.
3. Preheat oven to 170 degree C, and grease the cake tin.
4. Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder.
6. Beat oil, and remaining sugar, until sugar is dissolved, beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the yoghurt, and half the milk. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the cooled syrup.
7. Add in the sifted flour, powdered almond, and the chocolate, and mix until combined. If the batter is too thick add the rest of the milk and mix again.
8. Spread mixture into greased tin, place the pears, upright, around the edges, gently pushing to the bottom.
9. Bake cake for about 50 minutes, to 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
10. Let the cake stand in pan for 10 minutes, remove from tin. Generously brush the syrup all over the cake. Serve warm, brushed with more syrup if you like.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THE RESULTS WILL BE UP ON THE 18TH OF APRIL.

Its no secret that Indians love tongue tickling food, we love lashings of sharp, tart and pungent tastes to accompany our curries, dhals, and even desserts. My mum loves lime pickle with her payasam (kheer/dessert), she loves it so much that she has always strived hard for me to enjoy the same, its another matter that I prefer mango pickle over lime with my payasam. My mother finds a will and way to make every conceivable kind of pickle during any season, and so at my place, every season becomes pickling season for something or another. Right at the onset of warm weather small mangoes sprout from the tantalizingly fragrant mango blossoms that earlier drove the bees and wasps into passionate frenzy. When some delicate, and as yet tender mangoes fall on the earth, they are picked up in great hurry, cleared of grime and steeped in brine. Mango season gives way to hog plums (ambazhanga) followed by lime and lemons, gooseberries, ginger, chillies, orange peel, and then the winter vegetables.

In the west and even here in the middle east I find that pickles are usually vegetables stored in brine, but in India pickles are a whole different industry. We have everything right from simple fruits and vegetables in brine to the more complex versions with loads of red chilly, ginger, garlic, and several other condiments. Each region of India has a different method of pickling, and even preferences over the condiments and oil used for pickling. Pickles in northern parts of India are usually made with mustard oil, while down south the preferred oil is sesame oil (gingelly). In this respect traditional Kerala pickles are different in the sense that they use no oil and are preserved in brine, though now times have changed and oil is used for seasoning some pickles.

This chilly pickle is one of our family favourites and when we lived in the north, mum used to make kilos of it using large red chilly peppers that would appear in the markets during winters. I didn’t find any of those in the supermarket here and so made do with the mild tasting local green chillies. These are significantly larger than birds eye chillies and can be found in any supermarket that stocks Indian stuff.

To start with scrub these chillies in water, drain and wipe dry with a kitchen cloth. Once you’ve made sure that there’s no dampness on these chillies, de-stalk them, slit them right through the middle with the joints intact and de-seed them as well. Leave the seeds in only if you have a sadomasochistic streak.

Ingredients for the stuffed chilly pickle

750 gms (about 20 to 25) large green/red chilly pepper, slit and deseeded
3 tablespoons coarsely ground fennel seeds
2 tablespoons coarsely ground mustard
1 tablespoon coarsely ground cumin
2 teaspoon coarsely ground fenugreek/methi
1 teaspoon coarsely ground nigella/kalonji
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder/hing
about 1 cup + 2 tablespoon Mustard oil
4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi
1 tablespoon white vinegar/sirka

Method

1. Do not be put off by the word ‘coarsely ground’, you can take all the seeds whole, lightly dry roast them in a pan and mill them together in the mixie. Just a couple of buzzes should do, because we are not trying to make a powder here, just a coarse blend of spices. Add salt, turmeric, asafoetida, combine once and plate the spice mix.
2. Double check that the chillies are thoroughly dry.
3. Add two tablespoon mustard oil and the vinegar into the spice mix and mix well, using your hands. Stuff a little of the mix into each chili until you use up all the chillies and stuffing.
4. Place the chillies vertically in a sufficiently roomy pickle jar, pour a cupful of mustard oil on top and show the jar some direct sunlight for 3 to 5 days. And if you’re living in a cold place make it 10 days in the sun.

The pickle does well for upto 6 months, if you make a larger batch you can refrigerate one. I just made one bottle of this, its perfect with Aloo Parathas and just plain ol’ dhal chawal.

For me amla (Indian Gooseberries) has always been like the wise old owl of the plant kingdom. Everything that a good advice is all about. There’s a multiplicity of emotions I feel for this fruit – fear, loathe, awe, and a new one for me has been a sense of tenderness and love. Amla reminds me of childhood, of excruciating mornings where my brother and me would be literally dragged out of our beds and force fed a bilious concoction of dried amla ground in soured buttermilk - apparently an effective deterrent to tummy vermins.

Then just as the sun changed its direction and cool winds blew across the northern Indian plains amla would be bought in by the kilo and preserved in honey in large bharanis (ceramic jars). It was practically family tradition that winter weekends be kept aside for pickling or preserving all the delicious winter fruits and vegetables that flooded the mandi (market). These were not the days of cold storage and we would be eagerly waiting for fresh cauliflower, ruby red carrots, white radishes, greener than green peas, and the winter greens, to grace our table. Mum would make her famous winter pickle, a crispy medley of carrots, radish, turnips, and cauliflower; red chilly pickle, stuffed with fennel and cumin and drowned in mustard oil, pungent and sweet and spicy, all at once.

At any given day, a sunny spot in our garden or veranda would be lined with bharanis filled with the fruits of mum’s labour. And invariably one of these would be a jar full of Amla Murrabba (amla and honey preserve) flavoured with a trace of fennel.  Every evening we would be given a spoonful of this, to increase our immunity. I thought it was vile! But over two decades later I find myself enjoying the taste, and aftertaste of amla. Sour almost bordering bitter at the first bite, and then later an indescribable sweetness. There’s a proverb in malayalam that describes it beautifully “moothavar chollum muthu nellikeyum – athyam kayikyum pinne madhurikyum” – like the words of the wise elders, the Amla at first tastes bitter, then sweet.

The fruit itself has an ineffable beauty about it. Its small, yet powerful in the goodness it contains. And while I was quite late in enjoying the complexities of its taste, shockingly my daughter loves amla, particularly candied amla. Earlier I was buying packets of candied amla from the Fabindia shop, but recently tried my hand at making some, my daughter’s thrilled and eats a few bits every day.

Ingredients
2 cups amla (Indian Gooseberries)
about a cupful of sugar + extra
water

Method
1. Wash the amla and set aside.
2. Heat water in a large steel pot and once the water reaches boiling point, turn off heat, put all the amlas in the pot, cover and let it sit for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes, drain all of the water from the amla and let it cool partially. Once cool enough to handle, using a sharp knife slice the amla into wedges, the wedges will come off very smoothly. Discard the kernel.
4. Collect the sliced Amla in another pot (stainless steel), and cover with sugar. Place a lid and set aside for a day.
5. Next day you’d find that the sugar has turned into syrup, give the amla slices and sugar syrup a good stir, again cover and keep aside for 2 to 3 days.
6. After day 3 drain the sugar syrup, and spread the sugar soaked amla on a plate, and let dry in the sun, or in an airy room.
7. Once dry roll them in the extra sugar, and store in an air-tight container.

Been meaning to this post earlier, but been busy with one thing or the other. The climate’s changing in Dubai and the seasonal flu has been visiting us as well, it was the lil one last week now its the husband. Just hoping I’ll be spared its merciless whip! Next week on 2nd Dec. its not only UAE National Day but also lil one’s 4th birthday – and ofcourse now that she knows what a birthday party is, we’re sure having one! Will be posting about that soon! For now enjoy this Orange Marmalade Cake – simple to put together, only mildly sweet, it tastes great with tea. It has been modified from a Women’s Weekly book on Cakes.

Ingredients
125 gm Butter
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1/3 cup mixed peel
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 orange peeled and sliced thinly

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Grease and line a loaf pan.
3. In a small bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and rind, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, and transfer the contents to a larger bowl, and stir in the rest of the ingredients – marmalade, and mixed peel, and then, coconut, flour, and milk.
4. Line the base of the tin with thin slices of orange. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, and bake for an hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Let it stand for about 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. Invert back so that the orange side faces up.

Last week saw a belated Mother’s Day celebration at my daughter’s school. To spread the word on healthy eating the school had set up a Cookery Competition for Kindergarten 1 mums, the theme was ‘cooking without fire’. I thought the idea was terrific and wanted to do something more than a salad or sandwich kind of thing. We’ ve all been reading about the raw food movement and how rawtarians are recommending that to get maximum benefits out of food we must not cook it. Cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and life force of food. Ofcourse I like to think that everything in moderation is a good idea, so generally strive to include raw foods along with cooked foods into our family diet.

But this was a good time for me to experiment with something that I have been dying to take a shot at for some time now – Raw Carrot Cake. I found a good source at The Raw Chef: Carrot Orange Cake. I adapted the recipe with what ingredients I had on hand, I also used fresh whipped cream to ice the cake. Very very nice cake, its the kind I would like to take a bite into once in a while.

The cake won the 1st prize at the competition. Look at the table for the winning recipes, there’s nothing left of my cake, it had been demolished! sans a cupcake wrapper someone was too polite to remove

Ingredients
4 Carrots, finely grated
1 c Raisins, soaked
¼ c Dried apricots, chopped
½ c Mixed peel
½ c Date purée *
2 c Almond flour
1½ c Desiccated coconut
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
5 cloves

Method
1. Pulse carrots, raisins, date paste & spices in a blender.
2. Drop in the chopped apricots, and mixed peel and pulse a couple of times.
3. Remove the mixture into a large bowl, along with the almond flour and desiccated coconut.
4. Mix well, press into place in a large cake pan, and refrigerate uncovered till it sets.
5. Cut into bite sized squares, frost it with whipped cream or roll them into balls and dust with desiccated coconut.

* Make the date purée by grinding 1c soft dates and 1/2c orange juice in a food processor until smooth.

GHOSTS OF SUMMERS PAST

Summer afternoons in Dehradun were filled with mysterious boredom. Ghosts of colonial folks moved imperceptibly around the old bungalow and its surrounding garden making the air thick, impenetrable, and inscrutable. Sometimes you could hear the ghosts whispering through the silver oaks, sometimes when they were playful, they would startle the parrots greedily engrossed in devouring sun ripened mangoes. These mango trees belonged to these ghosts, they lived there, they had been for centuries now. Sometimes my brother and I saw our swing, hung high on a strong branch, swinging merrily by itself. We didn’t mind it, after all the garden was as much theirs as it was ours.

In the afternoons there wasn’t much to do, we were banned from entering the house, our mum was on night duty so she would be sleeping inside and we were too noisy. So the garden, the mangoes, the ghosts and us, we were banished until evening. Right outside our house, on one side there was a Gharwal Higher Secondary School or maybe it was a college, I don’t remember it now, we were at that age when everything was atleast four times larger in size and comprehension. The college was still in session and the local ice cream vendor had taken his position outside our second gate.  The second gate was never used and it had a huge, rusted lock and chain around it. Decomposed leaves and dirt had already embedded the gate into the earth, so there was very little likelihood that the gate would ever be opened. The college kids liked to hang outside our second gate, maybe because it was the ice cream vendors favored location. We were always shy of the college kids and would play far into the garden hidden out of sight, but watching them from the corner of our eyes. They looked so big and fashionable. But more than that our eyes were always on the ice cream vendor who held the keys to a forbidden land. The land of cold ice creams, crunchy cones and juicy popsicles. We would greedily swallow dribble just thinking about the ice cream man’s house. But due to strict instructions regarding the perils of eating unhygienic roadside food we were practically banned from even thinking of the word I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. But the real reason for our deprivation was that we had no money, all we needed was 2 Rupees and all we had was a big fat zero.

That’s when the mango ghosts put the idea into Raghu’s head, “Raji lets make a deal, I have a great idea!” he said to me. His ideas always put me into trouble because I could never lie. Raghu knew my weakness so he told me all I had to do was keep my trap shut, he would do everything there was to do, I just have to be an accomplice and I would get a nice milky vanilla bar for my work. The words ‘milky vanilla bar’ is all that I heard and I followed him like a lamb. Raghu stretched himself up to his full height, took a full breath, and without a single stammer made an offer to the ice cream man “you give us two ice creams and we will give you two bigggg mangoes, what do you think?” The ice cream man thought hard, and drove a hard bargain “I’ll give you two ice creams for 4 mangoes, deal or no deal?” Everything sounded fair for ice creams, Raghu ambled up the nearest tree and brought down 4 huge mangoes, they barely fitted into our tiny hands, still we managed to get it over to the gate. The ice cream man kept his word and pulled out two big vanilla pops and handed over to us.

Raghu and I settled under our favourite mango tree, the farthest from the house, from where no one could spot us, peeled away the paper from the pop and licked.

Aam Panna also called Kairi Panha (Kairi meaning raw mango) is a summer tradition at my home. Summer is incomplete without cool sips of iced mango panha. Deliciously cardamomy, sweet and tart panha usually looks pale green because of the raw mangoes in it, mine turned a little orange because the mangoes were almost ripening. Further, in addition to cardamom I also added saffron and jaggery, so orange mango panha it is – but tastes just like home!

I have to add here that my mum always peels and chops up the raw mango and its really a load of work, and that is one of the main reasons that deterred me from making panha at home. But I was recently going through a cookbook that talked about pressure cooking raw mangoes, and bingo!  So truly its really easy to try this at home and do give this traditional drink a shot – I am planning to spike some panha with vodka one evening, endless possibilities, I feel giddy thinking about it

Ingredients
1 kilogram raw mango
1 1/2 cup jaggery, shavings
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon saffron, soaked in a spoonful of warm water
1 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method
1. Wash the raw mangoes well, and pressure cook to one whistle. Remove and let cool.
2. The cooked mangoes would have slit open, remove the peel and scrape off any pulp on the peel using a teaspoon. Using your hands squeeze out the rest of the pulp from the seed. Discard the seed.
3. Pour the extracted mango pulp into a blender along with the jaggery, sugar (if using), saffron and cardamom and whisk until combined.
4. Pour into clean glass jars and refrigerate. I got about 750 gms of panha, filling 1 + 1/2 empty Horlicks bottles. I put one bottle into the freezer, will take out when the other’s used up.
5. To prepare kairi panha or aam panna pour a couple of tablespoons of the panna into a glass top with water and ice cubes, garnish with mint leaves, give it a stir and enjoy!

You can also make instant mango lassi with the panna sauce. Just pour a bit into a glass, and top with chilled milk and stir. The citric acid in the mango turns the combination into a thick mango lassi! double yum!

Srivalli from Cooking 4 all Seasons is celebrating 3 years of blogging with her Thanda Mela event. Here’s a glass of chilled Aam Panna for her!

Well if the story is the whole truth or farthest from the truth is something you’ll have to keep guessing, for now this post is also my entry to Aqua’s Of Chalks and Chopsticks, now being hosted by Bong Mom.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Puli Inji or Injipuli is a special relish or chutney that is traditionally prepared during sadyas (feasts). Previously when large family units lived together, preparations for the next days feast would begin the previous night itself. The feast itself would be prepared by the men folk, while women and children helped with the chopping, cleaning and so on.

Even now, particularly in rural Kerala, when families gather together during weddings one can enjoy this togetherness and anticipation of the celebratory feast yet to come. Sadya vibhavangal (dishes) never (and shouldn’t) vary in taste or sequence of servings. The sadya is always served on a plaintain leaf. Every dish has its own place when served, with rice holding the place of pride; portions of boiled morsels squashed with steaming stews and curries, consumed with an alacrity that can put city dwellers, with their spoilt eating habits, to shame. Along with the main dishes, like kaalan, olan, avial, sambhar, thoran, pachadi, kichadi, a portion of the leaf is reserved for the crispys – plantain chips, sharkara veratti (jaggery coated plaintain chips) and a variety of relishes and pickles – puli inji, ayiram curry, manga curry, or naranga curry – all finger licking good!

Puli Inji itself is an interesting amalgamation of tastes and textures, it gets its heat from the chillies, spiciness and flavour from the ginger, sweetness from jaggery, and tartness from tamarind. My grandmother was particularly partial to the puli inji and therefore during sadya cooking always a little extra would be prepared and bottled separately for everyday consumption, and muthy (as I affectionately call my grandma) would take exactly one teaspoonful everyday along with her lunch – “onnu thottu nakkan” (for a lick, she would say).

There are a few posts on various blogs about puli inji preparation, there’s one at Kitchen Mishmash which is different in its usage of fenugreek and urad dal, my recipe comes from my mother, so its the way my family has always made it, because the taste has never varied.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

fills a 500 ml bottle

Ingredient
1/2 cup ginger, finely chopped
1/2 cup green chilly, finely chopped
2 cups tamarind extract (soak half cup tamarind in hot water, strain)
4 tablepsoons jaggery, grated
2, 3 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teasoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 sprigs curry leaves
2 dried red chillies, broken
1/4 cup gingelly oil

Method
1. Boil the tamarind water along with salt, turmeric and the chilly powder, in a stainless steel stockpot. Once the water reaches boiling point, reduce to simmer.
2. Meanwhile heat gingelly oil in a saucepan – splutter the mustard and the red chillies, followed by the chopped ginger, green chillies and curry leaves. Mix well and fry till the ginger starts browning. Turn off the flame.
3. Pour the ginger mixture, the oil and all, into the stockpot and continue simmering till a thick consistency is reached.
4. Add the grated jaggery, taste, and adjust the salt or the sweetness accordingly.

Puli Inji can be enjoyed everyday, as a tangy accompaniment to simple meals. Hope the recipe made sense! The puli inji keeps well for a long time, but if you stay in the tropics refrigerating the bottle will help.

Rice Porridge & Jackfruit Curry copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Happy Vishu to all my readers! Vishu this year was a complete success for me, everything went right! My daughter, who’s growing up so fast, not only comprehended what the early morning fuss was about but also appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. The previous evening we made the mandatory trip to the local supermarket and picked up most of the stuff that’s needed to celebrate Vishu in the most authentic way possible. We got Konna Poo, neat bunches, packaged in clear pastic bags with the price tag in place, we got a packet of pre cut sambhar vegetables, also a neat roll of banana leaves, to eat on – that was really our best buy. Perfect leaves, not a tear, no black spots, I have quite a few left over – so tommorow morning I am looking forward to making Elai Ada! Yum!

For any of my readers who are familiar with malayalam do drop by this post Vishu Ashamsagal, very nice write up on vishu celebration 50 years back in a hamlet in Kerala. My own celebration couldn’t be farther from that, no large family, no essentials like nellu, unnakkalari, uruli and so on, no river to run to and take a dip or enjoy the early morning fireworks which are much enjoyed part of vishu day celebrations.

We woke up at 4 am saw a beautiful Kani that I had set up the previous night, did the traditional game of checking the year’s fortunes, some roll a coconut – we tossed a shiny new rupee coin – heads means a great year; tails means the year has its lows, but you get two more chances – its the best of three! My daughter loved this the best

Vishu Kani copyright 2010 eat.write.think

To carry the traditional mood forward, I made Vishu Kanji and Chakka puzhukku for breakfast. I believe ordinary boiled rice is used to make this thick porridge, I didn’t have any so I made some with basmati rice. We had earlier picked up a quarter of a mature (but not ripe) jackfruit. And I spent 40 minutes just to cut, clean and chop it! The women in my family will be horrified, but the time it takes to clean it up is precisely the reason I pass up opportunities to cook with this fruit. All it takes is a practiced hand. If you feel inspired to try this yourself, remember to liberally rub your hands and the knife with some coconut oil (or any oil), unripe jacks release a very sticky gum, as you can see in the pic. below. Now for the recipe,

Right before the kill! copyright 2010 eat.write.think

For the Vishu Kanji (serves 3)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup basmati rice, washed
4 1/2 cups water
1 cup coconut, grated
2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1 tablespoon ghee/clarified butter

Method
1. Cook the basmati, with the water and coconut in the pressure cooker for 1 whistle.
2. Remove from fire, add salt and ghee, mix and serve.

For the Chakka Puzhukku (serves 3 – 4)
Ingredients
1/4 piece of a large mature, unripe jackfruit, pitted & chopped
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup coconut, grated
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 sprigs curry leaf
1 tablespoon coconut oil
salt to taste

Method
1. Boil the chopped jackfruit, with 1/2 cup water, salt, & turmeric. After the first boil, reduce to sim, cover and cook. This should be done in 8 to 10 minutes.
2. Grind the coconut and cumin to a paste using a little water.
3. When the jackfruit appears cooked, add the coconut cumin paste and let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Turn off the flame, garnish with curry leaves and a generous spoonful of coconut oil.

The lunch was also traditional, I couldn’t manage to make all the sadya dishes, but there was sambhar, avial, manga kaalan, thoran & puli inji (a traditional ginger tamarind sweet & sour chutney). I will be posting the puli inji recipe next.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

I recently had no bake cookies at a cousin’s place, crumbled over ice cream these cookies filled with dates tasted rich and deliciously decadent, and ofcourse I loved the fact that it needed no baking and took just minutes to put together. The original recipe had an egg and butter in it – I was a little off putted by the thought of a raw egg, and I don’t care too much for butter. So I adapted the recipe to include peanut butter, but any nut butter could work as an decent substitute.

makes 15

Ingredients

175 gm or 3/4 packet Marie biscuit, crushed

1 cup dates, pitted & chopped

1 + 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together into a tight dough. If the dough doesn’t come together well, gradually add a little more chopped dates, or puree and/or peanut butter .

2. Break off equal amounts, roll into balls, and finally press firmly to form cookies.

3. Refrigerate to set.

These cookies should stay well outside, but keeping them refrigerated will do no harm. I loved the texture and taste, can be used as a base for cheesecakes, or crumbled over scoops of soft ice cream!

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

This recipe was a result of a case of sour grapes, that happened recently. Quite simply I picked up a bunch of green grapes that were a little too tart, so it sat languishing in the fridge where the cold temps was doing nothing to slow down the ageing process. I googled frantically, I knew what I didn’t want:

1. I didn’t want to make a jam or jelly, I’d have to add sugar and I don’t think in the long run it’ll be consumed by anyone other than me. My daughter is not a sandwich eater and neither is B, my husband. And I am, I am!

2. I didn’t want to bake, its too much when you have to cook, clean, do dishes, do laundry and be the primary caregiver of a precocious 3 year old! Welcome to my ‘servantless’ home!

3. I didn’t want to freeze, no ice creams or sorbets, the weather’s just not right and I have been recovering from a nasty cold.

4. I didn’t want anything that took me more than 30 minutes to put together!

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

And so I came upon this interesting Italian dish from a site called italian-food-lovers.com (this link doesn’t work any more, maybe they changed their mind?!), this recipe for Italian grape jelly, is supposed to be a local Italian favorite, if any Italians are reading this do correct me I am just going by what I remember reading at the site which doesn’t open any more. Let me tell you this is a beautiful recipe, you can put it together really fast and Mr. B loved it and found it very ‘soothing to the tummy‘!! I’ve tweaked the original recipe ever so lightly, and added vanilla extract and orange rind, of course we are allowed to improvise. Like they say, “the idea belongs to everybody, but the dish belongs to you”.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups green grapes

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2  1/2 tablespoons all purpose flour

Method

1. Wash and de-stem the grapes, and put into a large bowl.

2. Mash the grapes with your bare hands or with a potato masher, mash away till the juices begin to flow. I was surprised when I saw the amount of juice I got from just one bunch.

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3. Get another large bowl, place a large fine mesh sieve over it, and strain the juice. Discard the skin.

4. Now add the sugar and vanilla essence and whisk the juice, followed by the flour. Add a little flour at a time.

5. Pour the mixture into a medium size stockpot and cook on medium heat, whisking all the while. When the mixture starts bubbling reduce heat to low and continue whisking till the juice becomes thick and custardy. Remember it should be thick but not clumpy, mine could have been thicker by one more degree.

6. While still warm pour into ramekins, or silicone muffin tray (like I have), or small bowls which have been lined with cling wrap. Add some orange rind into each bowl and refrigerate for 4, 5 hours. This will set the jelly.

7. To serve, turn into dessert plates, garnish with fresh cream, mint, and orange rind or fruits of your choice. I really liked the citrus combination. Definitely going to make this again, and I worked at break neck speed, it really took me around 30 minutes to put this together, then shoved it into the fridge.

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This is our entry for Sugar High Friday: Sweet Comfort being hosted by Kate from A Merrier World.