Oatmeal Raisin Cookies -- thick chewy cookie byte

This holiday season I have decided to take a resolution. Yes, it is better to have a resolution for just one month than the dreaded life long one in January. This way I can always concentrate on better stuff in January, like the chocolate covered cupcakes.

So I have resolved to cook more inglish kind of dishes this month. Now inglish does not necessarily mean English; it can be Italian or Moroccan or anything but Bengali. Inglish as in stuff my Grandmother had never heard of and would probably refuse to eat otherwise, stuff my Mother might have heard but never been interested to try them at home, stuff I have heard, probably tasted, some not tasted but never been too enthu to try them out at home.

But all that is going to change for I have had enough of being the "Bong Mom" and cooking or at least blogging about more or less "Bong Food". Six or some uncountable years ago when I started this blog I couldn't cook a charchari from a labra. I couldn't make an ossobuco or pasta carbonara either. But true to my family roots and some crap about passing on my Bengali legacy to my daughters, I went the charchari route. And now see what has happened ? Every person from Madhyamgram to Mangalore and Patuli to Patna is cooking Beef Burgenoff (or maybe stroganoff) and Mushroom Risotto with a flourish and baking perfect pots of de la creme or something. And what am I doing ? Cooking bandhakopir ghonto and still trying to figure out how or why a dessert spoon is different from regular spoon. See what a disgrace I am to my Mother, the poor thing who not only sent me to a inglish school but spent a good part of her life to get me the perfect bloomers for phys ed ? Instead of apple crumble I write posts on kopir datar charchari. And it is not that my finesse in those stuff is exemplary or something and can be compared to anyone's grandmother.

Just plain ordinary, everyday.

But let me also tell you. The entire thing is not my fault alone. Now that I look around, I see grandmothers in Malda were apparently making tarts and vanilla bean cookies at the time mine was merely stirring a Paayesh. No wonder I have no heirloom recipe for such delicacies and am forced to write sentimental posts about Ilish Maacher Tauk. Chhayh !!!

So enough of all that ghyyant-charchari-jhaal-jhol-ombol for December. Ossobuco here I come. Wait, that is too much of a leap for me. For now we will take baby steps with cookies. So oatmeal raisin cookies here I come. And since I have no hand-me-down recipe for such I am following exactly what Smitten Kitchen has.

The larger part of Saturday, I spent making cookies which failed miserably batch after batch. That story I will tell you in the next post. It was this batch of oatmeal raisin cookies which saved us and led to the source of the problem. The wrong oven. As in our new toaster oven which due to its newness or something was blaring off heat at 400F when we set the temp at 350F. No doubt the cookies crumbled or rather burned. The oatmeal raisin cookies being larger in number were baked in the larger, regular oven and that seemed to solve all our troubles.

Though I must say here that we had many self-doubts while beating the butter and sugar, while mixing the flour with the butter and sugar, while adding the oats at which point I asked the husband-man to come and lend his expert hand and also Alton Brown-esque knowledge. He said something about the dough not having enough elasticity.

Loads of crap.

They made pretty good, golden colored oatmeal cookies. They were thick and chewy. They did not taste as good as a Pepperidge Farm Soft-baked oatmeal raisin cookies but then I am partial to soft-baked cookies and I have not grown up with oatmeal cookies to compare against. Given that this recipe was from Smitten Kitchen and looked like hers , I am sure this is how oatmeal cookies should be. BigSis loved and ate many. LS merely liked and used them to draw imperfect circles.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Original Recipe

AP Flour -- 3/4th Cup
Baking Soda -- 1/2 tsp
Salt -- 1/4th tsp

Quaker Oats -- 1&1/2 cup

Butter -- 1 stick (at room temperature. This is important)
Egg -- 1 large (at room temp)
Brown Sugar -- 1/3 Cup
Regular White Sugar -- 1/3 Cup
Vanilla Extract -- 1 tsp

Raisins -- 1/2 cup
* I added about 1/4th cup of chocolate chips though the recipe did not ask for it


1. In a bowl whisk together the AP Flour, baking soda and salt.

2. In a wide mouthed bowl cream together the butter and sugar. I used my hand mixer for this which I am not very prone to use. Once the butter and sugar have come together to a creamy consistency and tastes smooth and sweet add the egg. Now beat again until you get a smooth end result.

3. To the wet ingredients aka butter+sugar+egg, add the flour mix gradually. I mixed with a rubber spatula until the flour blended into the buttery goodness

4. By this time the dough was pretty tight and it seemed impossible for 1& 1/2 cup of oat to mix into it. But voila !!! As you mix the oat in with the spatula it does all go in. Be patient. Stir in the raisins next. And the chocolate chips if using.

5.Chill the dough for half hour.

6. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Meanwhile scoop out portions of dough on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Don't crowd them and give them enough space, for those blobs will expand.

7. Bake them for 10-12 minutes. Now this time will totally depend on your oven. In my larger regular oven by 12 minutes the cookies started having a golden edge. However in my new toaster oven, by 8-9 minutes the edges were getting burned.

8. Take out the cookies when the edges are golden but the center is still a tad soft. As Smitten Kitchen's Deb says, let them remain on the hot cookie sheet for 5 mins. Only after that cool them in a rack.

These oatmeal raisin cookies were thick, chewy, very oatmeal-y. The two adults and the almost 9 year old loved it. The four year old was more in love with the baking process than the cookie itself.

Piya's Orange Chocolate Cupcakes on Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I am sure you had a nice one if you are one or made it nice for some Mother if you are not one.

Mine started on Friday itself with a Mother's Day Tea at Little Sis's school. I am very excited about these pre-school activities as I get to see the child in a different scenario than I am used to and this time I was going back to the same school where I had attended many such teas for Big Sis.

I took along Big Sis and we had a nice half hour in the school. The teacher had helped make the kids pretty flower cards with their picture and then she took our hand prints to make a laminated card later. It is a relief to see Li'l Sis finally settled in her school and besotted with her teachers. The little mite even has the gals to tell me "Today I don't love you. I love Miss K and Miss L.Tomorrow I will love you." Never knew such a statement could make me so happy.

Speaking of happy, Mothers and Mother's Day have any of you watched this new TV show called Satyamev Jayate ? I do not get the channel but discussions about the first episode regarding female foeticide  made me go to their website and watch a part of the episode in which Aamir Khan talks to two mothers. As much as we know that such things happen, since I have personally not known anyone pressured to abort a girl child, it was a thing which I complacently believed happened only in few remote corners of India. As a result it was very hard to watch these women speak and I was amazed at their courage and spunk as much as I was disgusted by the act of the Fathers. The show claimed that according to 2011 Census, the rate at which the unborn female child is killed amounts to killing off 10,00,000 girls a year. In a modern India shining with multiplexes, snazzy malls and booming economy it is a shame to know that there are multitude of families both educated and not who think killing of a girl is road to good karma.

After watching that episode any Mother's Day celebration seemed kind of frivolous and shallow but then again I decided it is an occasion to celebrate Motherhood and life and applaud Mothers, more those who have fought an adverse society to raise and protect daughters.

Yesterday after the usual morning routine of breakfast which I made sure the Dad made and loads of hand made cards gifted by the girls, Big Sis wanted to make cup cakes for Mother's Day. They also wanted to decorate it courtesy a "Cookbook", R Mashi had given to Big Sis. After having promised them frosting and sprinkles and having watched videos of "how to frost a cup cake" for the whole of last week I had no energy to get into such hard task. Big Sis wanted to make pretty cup cakes like Sunita's. "Tough luck kiddo", I said.

After much negotiations we zeroed in on orange flavored cup cakes with chocolate chips, colored with food colors and then slathered with Nutella. What is not to love here, tell me.

Now to the cake recipe which some months back Shreya's Mom, Piya, had sent me. In her exact own words.

"All purpose flour – 2 Cups
Baking Powder – 2 ½ Tsp(Tea spoon)
Eggs – 4
Sugar – 2 Cups
Vanilla Essence – Few Drops
Vegetable Oil – 2 Cups
1/2 Tsp salt.
In a mixing bowl, mix the sugar and the vegetable oil. I use a spatula first to get it all together and then I use the hand beater. It will not rise as much as it does with butter.

When mixed well, add the egg one at a time. Add Vanilla drops.Beat this mix for long to get a nice consistency.
In a separate bowl, mix the all purpose flour, a pinch of salt and the baking powder together. Mix it well.
Now add the flour slowly into the egg-sugar-oil mixture. I alternate between my spatula and hand beater. You can do it all in the food processor if you are using one. You will know when the batter is all ready and done. If it is too thick, I sometimes add a splash of milk(sorry this is the "aandaj" part)
Bake it at 350F for 35 mins or so, varies by oven. Bake it till the knife comes out clean from the center of the cake.
I usually like to add on flavors to the cake – Like a layer of chocolate for the marble cake, orange rind and cinnamon gives a nice flavor too or simple add whatever nuts/raisins the kids are fond of.
Try it and let me know if it comes out well for you. I do not use Baking soda, some folks do. I personally think it makes the cake a bit crumbly. Also, you can do half butter and half oil if you do not want to do it with just oil. Half butter and half oil makes the cake more moist. "

It is a simple recipe, no frills, no stand mixer and not even butter. That suits me. The whole "beating the butter" thing bothers me terribly.

In the course of the last few months her cake recipe has become my "go-to-cake-recipe". We add something or the other to her base recipe and always make cup cakes. They turn out to be soft, fluffy, moist and everything a cup cake should. 

This time it was fresh orange juice, orange zest and chocolate chips.

Then the kids went wild and there was color.

After which there was gooey Nutella. Those cake could not help but be good. could they ?

Orange Chocolate Cup Cakes

I reduced the recipe to make only 6 cup cakes. 

All purpose flour – 1/2 Cups 
Baking Powder – 1/2 + 1/8Tsp(Tea spoon) 
Eggs – 1 
Sugar – 1/2 Cups 
Vanilla Essence – Few Drops
Vegetable Oil – 1/2 Cups 
1/8 Tsp salt 
Orange Juice -- Juice of half an orange 
Orange Zest -- 1/2 tbsp 
Whole Milk -- 2 tbsp (if needed) 

 How I Did It 

In a bowl mix the dry ingredients -- flour, baking powder and salt. 

Blend the sugar + oil. You can use the hand mixer. I simply use my blender. 

In a mixing bowl put the wet ingredients -- oil + sugar, egg, orange juice. Beat the eggs into the mix and with  a whisk beat for about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla essence and orange zest. Mix. 

Next add the dry ingredients to the wet. Do it in steps mixing with a spatula. After you have mixed all the dry into the wet, add milk if you think the batter is too thick. I added about 2 tbsp 

Mix in the chocolate chips. Pour in greased cup cake liners. Bake for 30-35 mins at 350F.
Cool and then decorate.

No crust Quiche or Baked Frittata ?

Now that the writing for my book is towards the end and is at a point-- where I am having the I-want-to-scratch-the-whole-thing-and-start-all-over-again-but-even-then-I-am-going-to-write-the-same-thing-so-we-will-wait-for-the-editor syndrome -- I find myself with some time after 9:30 at night .

Since I keep referring to the book as my third child I must tell you this was kind of similar to the sentiments that swept over me when I was second time pregnant. My first pregnancy was a difficult one and most people in their sane minds who knew me did not think that I would go in for a second haul."Are you crazy?" they suggested in unsaid words. But I dearly, dearly wanted another child. And then the moment I knew it was going to happen--I was dead scared. But eventually everything fell into place and I am very very grateful for my daughters. If I had to do it again I would do it the exact same.

So anyway instead of doing anything worthwhile after 9:30 at night like cooking,tidying up the kids' clothes dresser, making healthy lunches etc. etc. I watch television.I watched reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond and then I watched The Big Bang Theory every day last week and in the process I also managed to watch two Bangla movies back to back.

The movies were courtesy a friend and probably we would have never watched if she hadn't insisted, logged into her movie account and started us off on the whole thing. The movies were brilliant. There was a time when Bangla movies were gorgeous in Black&White, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra, Bhanu Bandopadhyay, Madhabi Mukherjee and the works.Then came a brief period where the general situation was pretty bad and it was sheer blasphemy if you watched anything other than Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen or Ritwik Ghatak. Then for the last decade or so I watched only movies made by Rituparno Ghose or Aparna Sen.

In the last two years however things seemed to have improved immensely in the Tollygunje studios or wherever they shoot Bangla movies. I have watched a number of pretty decent movies lately and "Bhooter Bhobishyot" that I watched recently took the cake. Thanks R for finally making us watch it. The dialogues were hilarious, the acting impeccable and the movie was really perfectly funny. The movie comes with subtitles and though the essence of the dialogs may be lost in that try to see if you like it.

The other movie that I watched was Royal Bengal Rahoshyo based on Ray's very popular Feluda series and directed by his son. I had not watched a Feluda movie since the originals(Joi Baba Felunath and Shonar Kella) and was a bit apprehensive but the movie at times reminded me of the master with similar music scores and certain touches. Of course no one can replace the original Lalmohan Ganguly but we make do.

And now to the food which this blog is apparently about. If you have been reading me for a while you know how much I love the egg muffins that I learned from Kalyn's blog. I also love a frittata and many days it makes a nice dinner for us. Now combining the two I have started making a baked Frittata kind of thing or say a crustless quiche kinda dish. Since it is super easy and cooks itself in the oven, leaving me time to do what I please I am hooked onto it and try to make it at least once a week. It is really one of those wholesome, healthy and easy dish which you desperately need to bail you out mid-week. The dish is also very flexible and you can add/subtract your own spices/vegetables/what-have-you to make it your own special dish.

Here is how I do it.

Read more...

Baked Frittata or Crustless Quiche ?

Grease a oven proof baking dish with olive oil. Add some sliced onions and halved grape tomatoes. Sprinkle some salt. Toss the onion-tomatoes around so the they have a fine sheen of olive oil.

Put this dish in the oven turned on to 400F. This is my toaster oven setting and will vary for your larger oven. In 10 mins or so the onions will start softening and browning a little as will the tomatoes.

At this point add the vegetables. Here I have added some baby spinach. At other times I have added finely chopped bell peppers or steamed broccoli florets. For the pepper and broccoli you can saute them in a fry pan and then add them to the dish too. Oh, and if you get the bag of onion-peppers from the frozen veggies section it works very well in this dish.

Next tear up a single slice of bread and add it randomly. You can totally skip this step though.

Add some grated Parmesan. And then pour in the eggs. I used a 16oz carton of egg white and it made a thick frittata. You can use whole eggs beaten too.

To spice it up I added garlic powder, red pepper flakes and salt. You use your imagination.

Bake at 400F for 25-30 mins. Again this is my toaster oven setting and will vary for your larger oven. Once done check with a toothpick to see that it is cooked through. Now put your oven on broil and broil for about 10 mins to get a crisp surface,

Baked Caramel Pudding -- or a Flan

I had no Plan

To make a Flan

Okay, bad joke. Granted.

Without wasting any more time, let me go onto the recipe. But let me tell you I actually wanted to make a steamed Caramel Pudding the kind my/your/neighbor's Mom used to do in India, right in the Pressure Cooker. I did not know about Flan but again I DID NOT want to use the pressure cooker. I am not too sure with the cooker when it comes to these sort of things. But I found this . So it all worked out for the good.

I have used the oven and a water bath which is very different from the bird bath. The water bath creates a steaming sauna like effect in the oven and provides a steady uniform heat source which lets stuff like puddings and custards slowly cook. The moisture prevents them from getting dry and rubbery. So, there.

The Caramel Pudding or Flan, as you like it, was really delicious.The orange zest gave a lovely flavor to the pudding. It was silky, smooth and oh so perfect sliding down my mouth. I made some changes to the recipes I followed and I am totally happy with what I got.

You can use ramekins to make individual servings. I needed a serving of at least 10 and so decided to make one whole pudding which I then cut and served.

Make it for the Holidays. Your guests are going to love it. Have a great Thanksgiving

Baked Caramel Pudding or Flan

Recipe adapted from here and here. Serves 10.

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water in a heavy flat skillet, swishing constantly until it melts and turns a dark golden color. The color as I learned depends on how you want your caramel to taste. A dark brown will have a little bitter taste which in my case perfectly complemented the sweet pudding. If you want a milder taste, go with golden brown color. Also it is best to use a shallow pan than a sauce pan for making the caramel sauce. The D-man did this part and he was really good at it.

Remove from heat and immediately pour into a round baking dish(I used a 6" Corning French white). Swish the liquid around so it evenly coats the bottom. You can also use oven proof ramekins(about 8 should be good for this measure)

In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat 4 eggs.

Stir in
2 cups Whole milk(Better if you use Evaporated Milk),
1 Cup Condensed Milk,
1 tsp vanilla
Beat lightly with a whisk to get a smooth mix. You can taste and check the sweetness at this point.
Note: Original recipe called for 3 cups whole milk, 1/2 cup sugar and 6 eggs.I did my changes as noted here.

Add
1 tbsp orange zest and mix it in. This does lend a beautiful citrus flavor.

By now the caramel would have set in the baking dish. Pour the egg mix in it.

Put the baking dish(or ramekins) in an oven safe tray(this will serve as the water bath). Pour hot water in the oven safe tray(around the baking dish) so that it comes almost half way up of the baking dish.

Put in the oven. It is now pre-heated.

Bake at 325F for 65-80minutes or until a knife comes out clean. The pudding will look a little jiggly but that is fine. Carefully take it out from the oven. Be careful with the water bath, the water will be hot !!! Take the baking dish out of the water bath and let it cool on the counter top.Once completely cool put in the refrigerator and chill for 6-8 hours (I did overnight)

While serving you have to un-mold. Run a knife around the edge of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a flat serving plate. Holding the plate, flip the whole thing. Tap the baking dish to loosen the pudding. It will slip onto the plate and the delicious caramel sauce will be all around. Spoon some of that sauce onto the pudding and chill further till serving or serve immediately.

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If you also want to create yummy desserts like this flan, some online colleges offer culinary classes .

Toddler Menu -- a la Frittata

My Dad who is really bad at story telling is coerced into telling LittleSis a story.

He goes, " There was a cow who gave us milk...".

Okay I really don't know how this exciting story would have turned out but LS intervened " Cow gives you milk ? Naaaah. We get Milk from the fridge and Baba puts it there. He gets it from the grocery stores".

Does this prove "Baba is cow" ? Kind of.

The BigSis enters the picture and is apalled at her sister's lack of knowledge.

She goes, "No LS listen. The cow who lives far off gives milk. Then they put that milk in big trucks. The truck transports milk to the grocery store, blah, blah...."

LS gives her older sis an incredulous look and walks off saying "Naaaah".

LS's Dad is telling her a bedtime story. He starts off with Ramayana. The poor guy has been trying to tell the same story for years and has never gone far. It truly is an epic when told in our house.

This time however amidst all interruptions and questions he proceeded to the part where Bharat returns to Ayodhya with Rama's sandals on his head.

LS goes "He carried sandals on his head.Ewwww, that is disgusting"

LS went to school for all of 4 days, 3 of which she cried buckets. All 4 days we got her back in 2 hours. And then she proceeds to tell everyone who cares to listen "I went to school. I did not cry even a little bit"

Beginning of this month we went to visit the D's sister. LS ganged up with her same age cousin and they both played together very well. They would set up their play things in corners or in closets and shoo away the older sis. It was a huge change from last year when they met for the first time in India and fought like cats & dogs.This time it was the BigSis who would come and tell us, " They are not letting me play, what do I do ?"

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Tomorrow is Mahalaya and the count down to Durga Pujo begins. We will be celebrating it far from Bong land like Sudeshna says. Also there is something coming up for you all also in a couple of days, so stay tuned and be back.

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Now to the Frittata, which is an easy breakfast for weekend or even weekday Mornings. It is both easy to make and to shove down a reluctant child's throat, upto a point that is. I do it totally on the stove top, no oven is involved. You may say that makes it an omlette, but I will stick to Frittata because that makes it a la-di-da dish to gobble up quick. And that is how the girls like it.

Cook few pieces of Broccoli florets(cut small) in the microwave.

Heat 1 tsp of Olive Oil or Butter in a small fry pan. Saute some chopped onion, cooked broccoli or what-have-you vegetables. I usually add some chopped spinach and tomatoes. Thinly chopped Bell peppers are another attractive option.

Once the vegetables are cooked I also add some pieces of bread, hand torn. Note:Bread is optional.

Meanwhile beat 2 eggs + 1/4 cup of milk in a bowl. Spike it with a salt, little Garam Masala powder and what-have-you herbs.

Once you are done sauteing the veggies and the bread pieces are just browned, spread them out and pour the beaten eggs uniformly covering the veggies. Tilt the pan around to ensure that the liquid has reached all edges. If necessary , add about 1/2 tsp of Olive Oil around the edges.
Cover the fry pan, reduce heat to low medium and let it cook. Check in between to see if the top has set, lifting the edges a little with your spatula. Sprinkle some grated cheese on top and let it melt. Serve warm.

Note: Ideally after the bottom is cooked you are supposed to transfer the pan to the oven and broil for couple of minutes. I don't do that, because  the Frittata I make for the kids is not very thick and it gets cooked pretty well on the stove top without firing up the oven. The only thing you need to be careful is not to burn the bottom of the frittata and you are all set to serving up a happy meal to the kids.

Dal, Bhaat and Omelette or Strawberry

No, no, not me.

My wife.

Yes, the one on the far right, with the expensive camera around her shoulder. She is the Food Blogger. At least when our nosy neighbor asks her "What do you do?", that is what she says with a toss of her head. Our neighbor is stumped, I tell you. These people, our neighbors, they do not have a modern outlook. All they know is to eat dal, bhaat, maacher jhol. And they also speak Bengali at home. What is this ? How can you advance if you don't speak English all the time ? This is modern world, no. But who will tell them ?

They ask me, "If your wife is a food blogger, why do you do all the cooking in the house ?". "Arre Baba, I only cook dal, rice and chicken curry, my wife she makes rhubarb clafoutis", I tell them. Those moron neighbors look at me like they have never heard of rhubarb. People can be so closed and backward in this part of India, it is like you are in the forests of Congo or something.

But to tell you the truth if I don't cook, what will the kids eat, what will I eat ? I cannot live on Hollaindaise sauce all my life can I ? Or a Blueberry Flan or even a Rhubarb Clafoutis ? My wife, she cooks only that from expensive books with glossy pages and bright pictures. Shiny kids with golden hair and a fairness that hurts, smile out of them. In the book they smile at the strawberry muffins set out on plates in a green meadow.


Now my kids are not like that. They have black hair that catches the warm sun and they eat mangoes with juice straining down their brown elbows.I tell them to lick it up, like I did sitting on the branches of the mango orchard in my Grandma's village.

My wife does not like mangoes.She makes strawberry creme fraiche for them.She is very very talented.She also knows all the right places to get out of season imported fruits. In the heat of Indian summer she manages to get strawberries. Yes, they don't look plump and juicy and don't taste that good but so what ? Also I have to agree that it is very expensive and it is hard for me to pay every month for all this, but what can I say ? She is so creative, I need to support her Food Blogging, no.

The neighbors, the ones who do not know a rhubarb from a rabbi, tell me "Oh your wife must be making good money in blogging. Always she is buying celery sticks from Reliance Fresh , never kundru from the our local vegetable seller".Arre what money, who will click on those Google ads to give money ? Money minded they are as if everyone does things for money only. Did Van Gogh paint for money ? Did Steinbeck make rich in his life ? No, na. So ?

Now what can I expect from such morons whose only aim to cook, is to eat that food. They don't even know what "plating" is.

See, after my wife makes the creme fraiche or whatever it is, she does something called "plating". She puts the food in very beautiful plates, the ones we are never allowed to use for dinner and then arranges them with pretty flowers and napkins and silver candlesticks. Now I don't know why candlestick is necessary for food but it all looks very pretty. We watch from afar. The baby, the 3 year old wants to lick the creme fraiche but I hold her tight. My older child says he is hungry. I tell him to go do his Math homework till Mommy finishes work.

My wife then starts taking pictures. Sometimes she gets on a step ladder and click pictures from top, at other times she sets up the camera on a tripod. She changes the camera lenses, places the plate on the ledge our balcony, lets it hang precariously and balances herself to take a closer shot.I stand there, my heart going "thud-thud", fearing that those expensive plates can fall 5 floors down. If my wife was born a few decades back, Satyajit Ray would have been very proud of her.I look at her with admiration.

My wife takes like thousand pictures. In between she downloads them on her laptop and edits them.Too much work she does.

I know the kids will soon ask for dinner. So, I start getting dinner ready, I wash the rice and the lentils and then put them in the pressure cooker. I chop onions, peeling their magenta skin carefully and then slicing my knife through them. I like cooking our meals, it gives me a lot of satisfaction to see the kid's happy faces as they enjoy my chicken curry.

My wife used to cook before, 'before" as in before she became a Food Blogger. She would make charchari, jhinge posto, tyangra maacher jhaal. But now she only makes things we cannot even pronounce well. She says they picture better.Also everyone makes dal, shukto and chicken curry. What is so great about that ? It is all your middle class Bengali upbringing, she scorns.

All is well, I think. If she started taking pictures of our everyday food, we would never get to eat anyway. And anyway everyday she is so busy, where is time to cook ? In between Twitter, Facebook and her blog she can only make those things that she can blog about no ? Let her make creme fraiche and pour billows of shaving foam on it to make it look better. Who cares ? I am feeding the family, no. I am liking it also, so what is your problem ? Everyone cannot be a Food Blogger, can they ?

Only today I am late and don't have much time so I will make dal, rice and omelette. My wife likes omelettes with onion, green chili and tomatoes.I don't think she will eat the strawberry creme fraiche, what with the foam and the shriveled berries it might be actually poisonous. Tomorrow she can write how decadent and delicious it was, how her family enjoyed it and post pretty pictures of them with candlesticks around.


This is my entry for Of Chalks and ChopSticks, a food Fiction event started by Aqua last year. After a period of dormancy it is hosted this time by Sra. This time Desi Soccer Mom suggested there should be a photo cue and the picture Sra had showed a camera, some strawberries and a man's hand holding the camera.


Since I generally like to do timepass, I enjoyed writing a food fiction after a long time.Any resemblance to people in real life is totally unintentional.

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Omelettes are my all time favorite food. I can write lengthy paeans on it. If I did not have kids and did not have to blog, I could survive on Omelette alone. Toast & Omelette for breakfast, rice-butter and omelette for lunch, Roti rwapped around an omelette for dinner. Perfect, happy life and then came the vegetables and spoiled it all. Arrrrrrrgh.

To make an omelette like ours, crack an egg into a bowl. Add 1 tbsp of Milk. Beat with a fork till frothy. Add chopped onions, chopped green chili and chopped tomatoes. Add salt to taste. Mix. Heat Oil on a fry pan. Pour the pale yellow egg mixture and swirl the pan around a little, so the egg mixture makes a circle. At low heat cook till the omelette looks flippable(check the edges, should look done). Slide a spatula gently under the cooked side and flip. Cook the omelette on the other side.

Toddler Menu -- Egg Curry with Veggies

As much as I love traditions and festivals, I abhor rituals that most times comes with it. You might say that it is the rituals which make actually make up a tradition and there is no point celebrating Diwali with unlit candles. But I like to adjust the rituals to my convenience, to bend them around to suit me instead of bending backwards to comply. A lot of it comes from sheer laziness and finding joy in lighting up tea-light candles for Diwali instead of spending hours rolling cotton wicks between your palms.

I liked rolling the cotton wicks and maybe I will do it again some day when I have nothing else to do.But what I am saying is the fact that I have the liberty of not doing it and lighting up the tea-lights instead, liberates me.

Ditto with Saraswati Pujo. I am not a morning person and as a kid I loved my morning sleep on holidays. On foggy mornings of Saraswati Pujo, this was not to be. We had to wake up early, really really early and take shower in the water from the overhead tank, which was still cool to touch. With remains of sleep in my eyes I would then help Ma set up the Pujo. Pujo at home was usually done by my Dada(paternal grandfather) or Baba. Both were stickler to rituals and wanted to start the Pujo at the exact time written in the crumbling pages of the jacaranda colored Panjika. Somehow when I think of Saraswati Pujo along with the nicer parts, I also remember the early morning part and my reluctance in getting up.

So now that the baton has been handed over and I am the Master of Ceremonies I have shifted the Puja time very conveniently from early morning to late evening. That is how we had it last Tuesday, after work, after school, in the confines of the home, we prayed for Knowledge and enlightenment.

Little S also had her "haathe khori", literally translated as "chalk in hand" on the same day. This again is a tradition to make a child write her first letter, thus initiating her into the world of knowledge. But instead of taking her to the temple or any such place, we did the honors ourselves. While I guided her hand to trace out the curves of the first Bangla letter, Big Sis helped her trace the straight lines of the English alphabet.Then Little S went totally berserk and scribbled structures which she declared as lowercase t and p. She, who has to always share Big Sis's markers and easel and such, loved all the attention and the chalkboard and refused to budge from the scene.

Talking of Little S and food, as I have said before she is not really into food. She is also not exactly crazy about veggies. So like all sane Moms who hyperventilate about five serving of vegetables and their kid, I have to find ways to sneak it in. It was easier when she was smaller and did not know much. A Khichuri with plenty of vegetables could be shoved down her throat. But she is 2 and has a mind of her own. Thanks to Didi being around she has tasted lollipos and cheetos. Khichuri is not exciting any more and she loves Chicken Biryani.

So I try to put in a good amount of vegetables in the gravy dish that I make for her. It is usually a chicken curry or an egg curry. Vegetables like beet, carrots, butternut squash, sweet potato, sometimes spinach makes its way there and gets blended to remove any trace of its original appearance. I tweak the recipe around every other day to give a new flavor. I would not go so far as saying she loves them but at least she gets her quota of veggies that way.

This is an egg curry with butternut squash and sweet potatoes. It can be other veggies. It can be anything other than egg. This is just a base recipe. You can alter and make your own changes around it.


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Egg Curry with Butternut Squash & Sweet Potatoes for the Kiddo

Boil and peel 2 organic eggs. keep aside.

Heat 2-3 tsp of ghee in a deep saucier or kadhai.(Making your own ghee is easy)

Temper with 1/4 tsp of whole Cumin Seeds. Let the cumin sizzle to flavor the Ghee.

Add quarter of an onion finely chopped. Saute till onion is soft and pink.

Add about 1/4 tsp of fresh Ginger-Garlic paste(I make it over the weekend and store for a week)

Fry for a few seconds. Add half of a nice juicy tomato finely chopped. Saute till it is mush and there is no raw smell.

Add about 1/2 cup of peeled and chopped sweet potato. Add about 1/2 cup of peeled roasted butternut squash(I always roast and then peel butternut squash, you can add them raw too).

Add about 1/4 tsp of fresh roasted Cumin powder + a little Turmeric Powder. Saute the vegetables so that they are nicely coated with the masala. When the veggies start browning a little, add about half cup of water. Add salt and let the veggies cook.Add more water if necessary.

Once the veggies are cooked, puree them, either with an immersion blender or by putting them in a regular blender jar.

Add a little more water to the puree and bring it back to a boil. Add a pinch of Garam Masala.

Now add the boiled eggs. Since LS does not like the texture of cooked egg yolk, I halve the boiled eggs and mix the egg yolk into the gravy.

Make the gravy as thick or thin you desire. Adjust for seasonings and garnish with some corriander leaves.

I usually serve this with rice. You can feed it by itself too along with a bread toast or chapati.

Eggless Date Cake -- goodness does not spell butter

I had resolved to be un-floured and unen-doughed for the first few days of my New year. But that did not happen. So I decided to push my New year to next week, Jan 9th to be precise. Till then I am living in the old decade.

This Date Cake is my friend's recipe. She is a very good cook and has been making this cake for a while now. I myself have had it several times baked by her and each time have been floored by it's taste. However, I never asked for the recipe.

You would think a foodie will instantly ask for a recipe when she eyes one. Not me.

I thought Date + Cake ? Too difficult. Plus she has those shiny Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers. Anything can be done with those. I don't have a shiny Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer. Don't even plan to buy one. So I cannot bake Date Cake.
QED.

Then she baked it for one of our parties during the holidays. Everyone "oohed" and "aahed" and then asked for the recipe. Not me, mind you.

But then it was a small place, not a haveli(huge palace) or something and you could clearly overhear even if you did not wish to.Of course I could have excused myself and gone to the loo but that would be too much. So I overheard and it was so simple that I could not believe it. I thought she might have skipped one whole chapter what with the wine and all that noise. Just to be sure, I asked her the recipe again, over the phone on the evening of 1st Jan.

And guess what ? It was really T..H..A..T simple. Hallelujah, one more reason not to buy a shiny red Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

The cake called for no eggs, no butter and I did not have to even take out my hand mixer. What relief !
And it tasted best of all the eggless versions I have tried so far. In fact it tasted much better than my pound cake did.Moist, fluffy, studded with nuts, just right sweet, what more could you ask for in a cake ?

But then what makes it rise and become so soft and fluffy ? There has to be science and this did not fit the bill of my earlier explanations. Except for the baking soda, there was nothing to make air, air and more air.

It seems the baking soda does the trick. Baking soda is a “base.” It needs an “acid” ingredient in order to start the chemical reaction that makes it work, such as buttermilk, cocoa powder, chocolate, honey, lemon or orange juice, etc. I guess the dates have some acidic ingredient which reacts with the baking soda to create carbon dioxide and thus bubbles in the batter. With this theory I am thinking you could substitute dates with some other dried fruits and make an yummy cake too. If you notice this is the reason the raspberry cup cakes turned out very well too. Vinegar worked with baking soda in that recipe.Do not try to replace baking soda with baking powder as baking powder already has the acidic ingredient, so further reaction with an acid in the batter might ruin the cake like this.

So go and bake this eggless butterless date cake. It really is the best and I usually do not impose on unless it is the family or it is something that will change your life...

If you have started your newest year have a good one.

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Eggless Date Cake

Pitted Dates ~ 18. She said I could use more, so I used 25.
Milk ~ 1 Cup

Soak dates in milk overnight. I did not have so much time so I soaked the dates in warm milk for 3 hours and then nuked it for a minute.

Preheat oven to 350F

In a blender add
dates + milk
3/4 cup Sugar
Since I had more dates, I reduced the sugar a wee bit.
Make a smooth mix.

Sift
1 Cup of AP Flour
1 tsp of baking Soda
*AP = All Purpose. Can be substituted with Maida

Measure out
1/2 cup of Oil

In a wide mouthed bowl add the
date+milk+sugar mix from the blender
Add
1/2 Cup of oil
Add the flour mix gradually, mixing as you go.
Add 1 tbsp of chopped cashews or walnuts.

Mix gently to make a smooth batter. My friend suggested the hand mixer but I just mixed with a spatula.

Now grease a bundt pan. Pour the batter in this pan and bake till a toothpick comes out clean. Mine was done in 32-35 minutes, but I had a silicone pan. You can also use a regular 8" cake pan instead of a bundt pan. Baking time may vary.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream as my friend does.

Similar Recipes:

Eggless Date Cake from Aayis Recipes

Vegan Date Cake from Madhuram

Better Than Anything Chocolate Cup Cakes

We have too many parties during the holidays. By too many, I mean "two", but that is many by my standards. And by parties I do not mean the sequined slips, pointed stilettos,dancing in smoky room kind of parties. That would be cool and I could have then put up pics of such dos on FB but I am never invited to such parties and I don't even have a personal account on FB or a sequined slip for that matter.

No, ours is very un-snazzy Jhumpa Lahiri-ish Bong party. The kind where the kids play in the basement, the female folks gravitate around the kitchen and family room, the men folk drink wine and discuss Sodepur vs Obama and umpteen trays of food warm in the oven. I would say "desi" but there is a difference.

"Desi" parties have games, lots of them. Till date, I have been forced to identify 20 pictures of unknown buildings and memorize 10 random objects on a tray, two of which were safety pins, all while I waited for the hostess to serve Dahi Vada. The husband was once asked to put a bindi on my forehead, blindfolded. He fled.We are yet to return the hostess's dupatta, the one used as blindfold.

Bong parties have no such pressure.No showcasing of talent is necessary.No one is expected to do anything except eat, lots of it. You can get by without saying a single word other than, "Chop ta darun hoyeche(The chop is delicious)" or "Doi ta byapok(Yogurt is great)" and still be re-invited. Ask the Husband.He is the king of no liners.

I love games though, especially dumb charade. Maybe I will return the dupatta next week and see if I can get back in.

Yesterday night BS & I baked some Chocolate cup cakes for our Christmas Party.Our very own.

It is what some of us close friends throw together to provide the kids some entertainment and a Santa. Gifts bought by parents are distributed, kids play games, sing songs, play the piano and then everyone eats food.An immature attempt to warm up an otherwise cold Christmas Night. The kids might actually cringe at the thought of such parties in their adolescence but we like to think otherwise.

Now to these chocolate cup cakes which are hands down better than anything ever. Every chocolate cake is but these are rich, moist, chocolate-y and perfect. BS has loved them earlier and of all the things I have baked so far this and the Chocolate brownies are her only favorites. My search for the perfect chocolate cup cake recipe came to a stop once I found these and I have already baked them a couple of times.

I love chocolate cakes with a gooey center but wasn't brave enough to do the mousse filling. So I put a single Hershey Kiss at the center of each of the cup cakes and baked them. The result was not exactly a gooey center but a slightly soft, more chocolate center. The next time I will put in half of a Lindt truffle and see how that works.

These cakes are pretty rich and perfect sweet by themselves but for some I did a nutellaa frosting just because I had a Nutella jar itching to be opened.and for some BS did a icing just because she loves doing those. Also since these are pretty rich, I think it is better to do mini cupcakes instead of 16 regular ones. That way you can indulge without guilt. These go to Nupur's Holiday Buffet and thanks Stef of Cupcake Project for the awesome original recipe.



And we have already demolished 4 of the 16 cupcakes.If at least 12 survive for the 14 kids coming tomorrow, hail Santa. BS also plans to play " I want a Hippopotamus..." tomorrow. If we survive the hardly rehearsed rendition, we will have a Happy Holiday. You have one too.


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Chocolate Cup Cake

What You Need

Butter ~ 1/2 cup (1 stick) at room temperature
Sugar ~ 1-1/4 cups
Eggs ~ 2 large at room temperature

AP Flour ~ 3/4 cup
Baking powder ~ 1/2 tsp
Baking soda ~ 1/4 tsp
Salt ~ 1/4 tsp
Unsweetened cocoa powder ~ 1/2 cup

Milk ~ 1/2 cup
Vanilla ~ 1 tsp

Mini semi-sweet chocolate chips ~ 2/3 cup. Instead I used a regular Hershey
Kiss for each cup cake, 16 sweet kisses.

How I Did It

Beat butter until softened.

Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Check my post to understand how much to beat.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined.

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Measure
the flour,
baking powder,
baking soda,
salt, and
cocoa powder into a small sized bowl and whisk to combine.

In a cup add the milk and vanilla and stir to combine.

Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk/vanilla and beat to combine. Beat gently, I mostly do this with my rubber spatula.

Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

Stir in chocolate chips. I did not do this, instead I added a Hershey kiss to each of the cups.

Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 1/2 full.

Bake at 350F for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Mine were done at 18 mins.

Frost or ice or decorate according to your wish.

******************

If you want to create yummy chocolate cupcakes like this one, pastry schools offer classes on baking and pastry arts.

Chocolate Marble Pound Cake -- science of baking

Because it is December and we are in the Northern Hemisphere where December == Cold Winter, I have decided to crank up the oven on Friday nights to give us the much needed warmth.

This will also help me work on my non-existent baking skills. My goals aren't lofty. I just want to bake something decent that BS and LS might love and their children might enjoy and 200 years later the family fondly remember Great Grandma Bong Mom's Pound Cake while beating eggs 300 strokes by hand. Ahem.

So far, BS loves the Chocolate Brownies and the Better Than ... Chocolate Cup Cakes. I haven't told her the name and yet she loves them. They are really rich and chocolate-y.

Before Thanksgiving I made the Zebra Cake which looked really nice with the zebra patterns. But it was a little less sweet and not very rich in texture. Me & D liked it because it was less sweet and more bread than cake like.

BS didn't really show much enthusiasm.

Now honestly BS's showing or not showing enthusiasm does not mean much except a snub on my "I am the best" feeling. She could have ga-ga'ed over the same cake if it was at her best friend's house and might even come back and eat this two months later. You never know.

Last Friday, my project was Chocolate Marble Pound Cake from Sailaja's Kitchen. Pound Cakes have loads of butter but since it is December, I said ok and went ahead. While baking I am trying to understand the science that goes behind all that creaming and beating and it would be really nice if I could experiment more and flush the product down anywhere but my throat till I get the perfect cake.

This particular cake was rich and dense. When had the next day it needed to be nuked for 10 secs to get the moist taste.Also the batter was thicker and more spreadable than pourable. That I learned was not a source of panic but the norm for pound cakes. Really ? Is that true ?
I also needed 1/4 cup more milk than the recipe asked for to make the batter moist. The cake again was a little less sweet for the kid's liking but they enjoyed it with some preserves.

Since I am trying to find meaning in this madness of baking, I will have my two cents on baking science right here. None of them are my theories, they have been sourced from here, here and here.

Let me put some jam on this

Most buttery Pound Cakes start with a step called creaming. What happens when you cream butter and sugar ?

The first step in making a pound cake is to take lots of butter at room temperature and beat it with an electric mixer. This incorporates air bubbles. Sugar is gradually added to the butter. As the sharp sugar crystals cut into the butter, tiny pockets are formed and fill with air as the mixer blades pull more butter over the top of the hole to close it. This makes the butter double in volume and become creamy in texture, which is why this procedure is called “creaming.”

While creaming you know you have reached there: when you're no longer able to see sugar granules, but you can still feel them if you rub a bit of the creamed fat between your fingers.(from the God of Such Things Alton Brown)
Here is a "one bowl" or "quick method" pound cake that skips this step

What's the fuss all about ?

How to add eggs ?

Eggs should be at room temperature before they are added to the butter-sugar. Never happens with me, I will put them in luke warm water for 5 mins and proceed. Ok, maybe I SHOULD bring them to room temp.
Add eggs one at a time to the creamed butter and sugar and beat. Now Alton Brown says, adding eggs one at a time is silly. It must be. Anything one at a time sounds silly to me. Just dump all together and get it over with, I say.
It is better to mix the eggs together first so that the water in the egg whites can hook up with the emulsifiers in the yolks. Did that even make sense ? Whatever.

Now this is easy to understand.The eggs adds more volume and allows the mixture to hold even more air. Beat until the mix is smooth, light in color and the volume has increased to look fluffy.
The texture of the cake is dense if the eggs are added whole and much lighter if the egg whites are beaten separately and then folded into the rest of the batter.

I want lots of that gooey purple stuff. Much more than Didi has.

How to add the dry ingredients ?

First sift all the dry ingredients, i.e. the flour, the baking soda or powder. Then add the dry ingreds first, usually alternating with liquid(which in this case was milk) till it is well blended. The protein in flour, the gluten is what makes the cake hold its shape but too much of it will make the cake tough.So do not overbeat as that will produce more gluten.When you start with the dry you cover the flour particles with fat and so water can't get to the flour and there won't be any gluten. This ensures a tender cake. Whoa !!!

The baking soda or powder when comes in contact with liquid or when heated, releases carbon dioxide that forms bubble in the batter. So you get more air pockets or holes in the batter. This one thing is elementary science at least.

Ooopsie Daizy !!

What happens in the oven ?

As the batter heats up in the oven, bubbles(remember air pockets formed during creaming) expand and the batter rises. As the carbon dioxide breaks down, the moisture in the cake forms steam, which fills the air pockets our sugar made. Eventually, the steam evaporates, but by this time the protein in the flour has had enough time to set, thus making the cake hold its shape.

Just as heat makes steam and carbon dioxide expand, coolness causes contraction. So if you open the oven door before the cake is set, a draft will burst the tiny bubbles and the cake will fall.

This is Messy

What is it about cake pans ?

The size and shape of the cake pan plays an important role in baking. Apparently all cakes cannot be baked in all kinds of pans. Size and material does matter. Most cake recipes work well for cup cakes too. To make pound cake cup cakes try this.

I am not eating any more of this stuff. I am done.

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Chocolate Marble Pound Cake

What You Need

AP Flour -- 2 cups
Baking powder - 1&1/2 tsp
Salt -- a pinch

Butter ~ 1 cup
Sugar ~ 1 cup

Egg ~ 3
Vanilla extract ~ 1 tsp

Milk ~ 1/2 cup(Original recipe said 1/4 cup)
Cocoa powder ~ 2 tbsp

How I Did It

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and dust a 9" round pan with flour.

Sift together the Dry ingredients

2 cups of AP Flour
1&1/2 tsp of Baking Powder
Pinch of salt

In a mixing bowl add
1 cup = 2 sticks of unsalted butter
With the aid of your mixer beat the butter.
Add 1 cup of sugar gradually.
Beat till sugar and butter mix is light in color and fluffy.

In a small separate bowl add
3 eggs
and beat lightly with a fork

Add the egg mix and 1 tsp Vanilla extract to the creamed butter and sugar and beat with your mixer(for 2-3 mins) till you get a smooth mix.You could also add eggs one at a time to the sugar-butter mix, beating for 30s -- 1 min each time.

Now add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to above, gently mixing. Follow with a little of the milk. Continue this ending with the dry.

Remove a cup of this batter in a bowl and combine with 2 tbsp cocoa pwd. Mix it gently. My batter was thick and not easily pourable.
Pour a tbsp of white colored batter into the greased and floured pan. Alternate with a tbsp of cocoa batter. Continue through out till both the batters are finished.
Smooth out the top with a spatula.
Take a knife and swirl it around the batter in a zig zag fashion, 3-4 times.

Put in the oven and bake for 40-45 mins. Check with a toothpick to see if it is done. Take out of the oven and cool for 10 mins. 

Egg Muffins with Onion & Mushroom -- super quick

It is still summer vacation time around here. 2 and half weeks more to go, almost 3 for many. The first half of the vacation BS spent in idyllic bliss with the grandparents being here. The second half Mommy is in charge and things are not so idyllic any more.

For one Mommy is hyper and lazy at the same time. Instead of judiciously spending her time making alu parathas for the kids or giving them a much needed oil massage, all she wants to do is projects. Mommy's modern parenting bible says "doing projects with kids" ranks high up right after "say good job to your kids every 5 minutes" . Mommy sure hated supervised projects in her own childhood but now wants BS to give up the idyllic nothingness for such ruthless acts. Thankfully for BS, her little Sis ensures that no project that involves gluing, cutting or even detailed coloring gets done while she is around. The remaining short ones that gets done BS loves them.

One of the things we have been doing recently is inspired by Jaya and her little girl. From her post I got the Origami link and it is the perfect thing to do even when LS is around. We have done a Tulip with stems, a fortune teller(remember "Color, Color, what color") and a Pelican so far, It is easy, fast and fun. We use paper around the house, BS colors them and voila there is some new thing after all the folding.

Next is something we started for my pure own selfish desire. I wanted some Ganesha motifs on my walls and I thought why not make BS do them. So I got these 8x10 canvas, some acrylic paint and self-stick rhinestones. I sketched geometric Ganesha pattern on the canvas and BS colored them in and stuck rhinestones. We have done only one so far. But we plan to do two more in diff colors. I will show you all three if and when they get done, keep your fingers crossed.

Note to new Moms: Doing projects and saying Good Job in moderation is ok. Don't go overboard with them.

Now to the food which keeping in tune with my status this month is quick, easy and simple needing no more than 30 minutes of human involvement.

Since the day I started making Kalyn's Egg Muffins they have jostled everyone out to be my first love on "no-time-what-do-we-have-for-dinner" days. Practically that would mean every day but if you have something every day they lose their charm and do not deserve the attention of a first love so I save them up for "really-really-no-time" days.

This time out of a sudden whim I fried onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, green chilis and made them the base for these muffins. They tasted so good that I thought to have them here lest I forget and never ever do the same again.

Note to myself: "Please, please make them again this week. They were delicious".


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Kalyn's Original recipe with Eggs
My previous recipe with egg whites

Egg Muffins with Onion and Mushroom

Heat Olive Oil and saute onions till soft

Add chopped tomatoes(cherry tomatoes in my case) and green chilli

Add chopped mushroom(baby portabella in my case) and saute. Season with salt etc.

Scoop out the onion-mushroom mix and put it in each of your muffin pan. You can top with grated cheese if you wish.

Beat eggs (egg whites only in my case). Season with salt, pepper, a tiny pinch of garam masala. Add it to each muffin pan

Bake till they rise. Eat them up quick.