Happy Holidays To All

Peer pressure finally got me. Every Blog I was visiting for the last couple of days was filled with the rich aroma of baking and though I am a bekaar Baker I finally gave in.

We do not celebrate Christmas as per se. That means we do not put up a Christmas tree, do not frantically buy last moment Christmas presents or bake for Christmas. However I enjoy the Christmas season because of the joyful spirit that you feel in the air, the long long weekends, the heavy discounts at the stores, the Christmas carols on the radio.

When I was small I loved the “Enid Blyton” Christmas. What intrigued me most was the ritual of hanging up of stockings and the stockings being filled with toys by Santa. I could never fathom how so many toys could go into a measly stocking and I always felt maybe stockings those “English” kids had were way better than mine.

But I guess that was the real essence of Christmas, of giving and being happy with small gifts and not asking for an Xbox or a PlayStation which would really really need a XXL stocking.

My little daughter who is usually scared of Santa at the mall has only asked for a small YoYo which would easily fit into her stockings :).

Back to baking I wanted to try out the scores of the cake recipes at all your wonderful blogs but decided to stick with something simple. So went for a Christmas Cranberry Cake. I followed the recipe from here . I am not reiterating the entire recipe here but just jotting down the notes.

What I learnt

Melt the Butter and mix the butter and sugar first
Then add the eggs and mix
Next the sour cream
Now go for the flour
The recipe I followed said a small sour cream and I really got the smallest one. This resulted in the mix being pretty thick at this point. So I added 1 more egg and half quarter of melted butter (in all I used 3eggs and 1 and ½ quarter of butter) to the mix to make it the right consistency, maybe I should have added some more sour cream.
I used a can of cranberry sauce (whole berries)

What I shall not do next time

I added Almond Extract as the recipe said but the flavor was not liked by the family much so I am going to give that a miss next time
Make a topping

The result was pretty ok, considering this is the second time I baked a non-boxed cake :)
The cranberrys in the cake gave it a slight tartness not making the cake very sweet.

Why Cranberries are good for You
Cranberries exhibit a level of tannins, in addition to antioxidants. Tannins have anti-clotting properties, and may help reduce infections in the urinary tract and reduce the amount of plaque-causing bacteria in the mouth, thus being a prophylaxis for gingivitis.

Enjoy the cake and the joy this season brings. Happy Holidays to all of you.

Christmas Icons are from IconDrawer

Happy BirthDay...

We had just moved to the US. I was back to grad school D to work. Life was ok, different and very new. We had an everyday evening ritual which went like this :: he would pick me up on his way home (we had only one car then), coming home we would sit at the edge of the carpet with steaming mugs of tea & samosa or alu bonda whatever was picked up on the way, laughing our hearts out at "Friends" followed by "Everybody Loves Raymond" and chatting, then I would go on to finish my homework he to his work and the day was done. Weekends were for pouring over maps to find new places to drive to and new restaurants to eat out. Life wasn't hip and happening but it was fun.

I scorned at my Mom whenever she brought up "kids" in the telephone conversation, balked at elders who suggested "what are your plans ?"

Life was ok, kind of same and not that new. All that pressure was getting on me, I thought Calvin's Mom was naive & just joking, I thought "what the heck we should have a baby"

Life was getting difficult, kind of same and not that new. The doc said I should lose some weight before alighting on the journey. So the "alu bondas"&"samosas" stopped, the time free from homework & classes were spent in the gym

Life was difficult, very different. My daughter's life formed inside mine . Every day of the 8 months was fraught with anxiety & fear. Every day all that we hoped for was her. All else in our life took a blur, while each day we prayed frantically for her to safely reach the next day within me.

Life was happy, different and very new. And then she came into this world wide eyed and wailing. She claimed all our time and attention with her being. The tiny curled fists, the pink toes, the quivering smiling lips, and those wide curious eyes. We felt relief and joy.

Life was happy but difficult, different and very new. She was so important that I gave up the job I had studied hard for all these years. I did not want some stranger to take care of her. I was afraid of everything that happened or did not happen to her. I "Googled" every word that had to do with babies. I called up the ped in the middle of the night if she had those jitters (most babies do) or threw up or cried too much. I grew frustrated when all we did didn't ease her colic.

And she grew and I grew too as a mom. I learnt to stay calm if she threw up after her meals, to smile when she went for her shots, to ignore if she threw a tantrum, to be ok if she cried a little at school, to be brave and let her bruise a little while she attempted climbing the slide the wrong way, to let her grow.

Life is not that difficult, different and still new. Life as a mom is still new, lots of new things to learn and do. Life is also about less and less time for me and my husband. The little one does not let us talk and has to butt in every discussion that we have. We have to spell out words that too in Bengali for discretion. Everything that we do needs to be explained to her. The only thing we watch on TV is "Barney" or "Arthur". Even if I snatch a conversation with D it is about how much I like "Arthur's Christmas"

This too shall pass and soon the newness will go out of my life. In a couple of years she will not proclaim in a sing song voice "Mommy is my best friend" and will not seek the nook of my arm to curl up in sleep. Till then let me savor and learn from every bit of it...

To our little girl who turns all of three this month, what I wish for her..

The Mother's heart, the hero's will,
The softest flowers' sweetest feel;
The charm and force that ever sway
The altar-fire's flaming play;
The strength that leads, in love obeys;
Far-reaching dreams, and patient ways,
Eternal faith in Self, in all,
The light Divine in great, in small;
All these and more than I could see,
Today may "Mother" grant to thee!

--Swami Vivekananda

I also hope to fulfill her expectation as a mother as I hope she does mine

Baked Beet BreadRoll & Chai

Jump to Recipe

When I and many others at that time were growing up (as in the late 80's when I was in school) life in India was much simple, informal, relaxed and also slow. At least that is how it was in our sleepy little township. The IT outsourcing had not overtaken India and call centers were not heard of. Devoid of malls and multiplex theaters our weekends were spent watching "Mahabharat" on Sunday Mornings followed by "Spiderman" on the "Uptron", "EC" or some such TV. Even now I can still faintly hear the Rasna jingle before "Spiderman".
Those days wireless was unheard of and Telephones were rare. Though we did have a black phone with a rotary dial in our home but in our township all calls had to go through this archaic Exchange where the operators manually connected our calls to the requested so-and-so and also entertained themselves listening to us. So people hardly called and if neighbors wanted to drop in they simply knocked or rang the bell.
At least that is how it was in our sleepy little township...

Those impromptu visits by neighborhood aunties were much awaited as you got to hear the local gossip and also because my Ma maintaining the age old tradition of "Atithi Devo Bhava" (Visitors are God so they should be treated with respect) always entertained them with Hot Tea and some quick delicious snacks. She would make things of whatever she had as the visits were unplanned and bread being omnipresent Bread Roll was one of the things often made.

Lots of different stuffing was used for this roll but the stuffing with Beet also known as BeetRoot was a winter special. The sweetness and redness of the beet made the roll delicious as well as pretty. This beet stuffing was also used as a stuffing for a Bengali Specialty called “Chop” which is like a fritter made of mashed potatoes with stuffing.
Though the roll is ideally fried I baked it to add a healthy touch. Baking cooked the beet a little more and brought out the flavor pretty well.

Baked Beet BreadRoll

What you Need

Red Beet - 1 and 1/2 of the medium sized ones. Chopped into small pieces and put in the blender to chop finely
Green Coriander Leaves ~ a quarter of a bunch chopped
Green Chillies ~ 4/5 chopped fine (optional)
Raisins or Kishmis ~ a fistful (about 20) soaked in water
Cashew or Kaju ~ 20 crushed
Salt

Bhaja Masala or Dry Roasted Masala ~ 2 tsp heaped

My mother makes this masala and stores it. To make this Dry Roast 1tbsp each of Jeera (Cumin Seeds), Dhania (Corriander seeds), Saunf (Fennel Seeds), 6/7 Laung (cloves) , 6/7 Elaichi (Cardamom), 6/7 TejPata(Bay leaves), an inch & half of cinnamon stick and peppercorns according to desired hotness.Then just dry grind it to a powder.
You can also use your own Garam Masala Powder or any suitable spice mix instead

For the Roll
Bread ~ a slice for each roll. I made 12.
Butter ~ 1 tbsp melted
Egg ~ 1 beaten

How I Did It

Chop the beet into small pieces and put them in the blender. Process them till they are chopped real fine, beet being solid you will not get a fine paste (you don't want that) but it will be granular, something like the above pic.
Heat oil. Use Olive Oil if you want
Add the chopped green chillies, the chopped beet, and sauté.
Add the chopped coriander leaves, the raisins, the crushed cashew
Add salt & the Dry roasted Masala

Sauté and cook covered for about 10 minutes till the beet is cooked. It will be lightly crunchy but totally dry

For Roll
Take a slice of Bread. It is better to use Wheat Bread my Ma says, but I only had White Bread at home.
Remove the sides.
Now comes a slightly difficult part. To make the bread pliable you have to sprinkle water on it and then press it between your palms to drain the water out. If you have already done this before it is easy, else it will take one or two attempts to get this right

Make a round from the stuffing and put it at the centre of the bread. Now mould the bread around the stuffing to make a roll or a round as in the above pic.
Brush the rolls with little butter and the beaten egg. Use a brush lightly to do this
You can fry it at this point if you want. If you are frying no need to brush with butter.

To Bake
Refrigerate for about an hour

Take the roll out of the refrigerator and lightly brown them on both sides on a griddle or tawa as in the pic
Heat oven to 400F

Sprinkle corn meal (I used semolina/sooji) on the baking pan which has been lined with aluminum foil. Tip: I always line my baking pan with aluminum foil, as that makes cleaning the baking pan easy
Place the rolls on the baking pan and bake for approximately 45 minutes
The baking time might vary, so check and bake till the roll is evenly browned
Serve with hot Tea or Chai

This roll can be made and kept in the refrigerator prior to baking. You can Bake it next day

Todays post of Beet Bread Roll & Chai is for Cutting The Chai a delightful Blog by Soumyadip. Check it out for it’s delightful posts and wonderful archive of Indian Ads. If you loved Indian Ads as I still do, it's a ride down memory lane.

Why Beet is Good for You
The various table beets contain significant amounts of vitamin C in the roots, and the tops are an excellent source of vitamin A. They are also high in folate, as well as soluble and insoluble dietary fiber and several antioxidants. From Wiki

Trivia: The sugar beet song, sung nearly weekly on Sesame Street in the early 1980's had only two words: Sugar Beet. How did I miss this, I watch Elmo almost every day, not that I want but I have to