Books Bringing History to Life

Spring Break had me on a reading binge so while I haven't really cooked or baked anything special, I've spent many evenings curled up on the sofa with a stack of books.

History was my least favorite subject in school. Except maybe for PT (physical training) which was downright horrible, thanks to my inherent couch-potato-ness and the ill-tempered PT instructor Miss Ruby. But anyway, history class was tedious and I struggled to get it over with so I could get to the fun subjects like English and Biology. I wretchedly memorized seemingly random dates and wars and treaties without any context to what I was being made to learn.

It is only now, decades later, that I feel like I am re-learning history bit by bit, through books that are not history textbooks at all. Instead, they are novels set in particular historical periods, or mysteries set in foreign lands, or memoirs from a particular era. And thus, through the art of story-telling and the formation of an emotional connection, I am finally beginning to understand historical events and how they relate to politics and world events today. Here are three books I read last week, each of which provided a better history lesson than any textbook could.

Image: Goodreads

I have enjoyed all of Jhumpa Lahiri's books, especially her short stories, so I got into a months-long virtual queue at the library to get my hands on her latest novel, The Lowland. It has all the classic Jhumpa Lahiri features- roots in India, a move to the North-Eastern US, culture clash and a search for identity. All this is woven into a family saga spanning three generations.Two brothers grow up inseparable but their lives branch out as one gets entangled in the Bengali communist party and the dangerous and radical politics of the Naxalite movement while the other brother stays in the safety of academia and moves to the US. I've heard the word "Naxalite" hundreds of times without understanding at all what it was all about. This novel explained a great deal of the history and politics behind that movement. The story, however, was too heavy and sad. The characters too unwilling to change their situation. An emotional read, but I just wish the emotions were not all oppressively negative.

Image: Goodreads

Communism is also front and center in Anya Von Bremzen's Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing. The title is rich with irony, and the book is a highly personal, searing and funny romp through nearly a century of life in Soviet Russia- in Bremzen's words:  "All happy food memories are alike; all unhappy food memories are unhappy after their own fashion...Inevitably, a story about Soviet food is a chronicle of longing, of unrequited desire. So what happens when some of your most intense culinary memories involve foods you hadn't actually tasted? Memories of imaginings, of received histories; feverish collective yearning produced by seventy years of geopolitical isolation and scarcity..."

This book made me so nostalgic. You see, a few decades ago, India and Russia were socialist allies with a great deal of so-called cultural exchange: Russian book fairs in India and Hindi movie stars idolized in Russia, that sort of thing. The newspapers were full of mentions of Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika. I grew up with Russian children's literature and a subscription to a Russian magazine called Misha. And their books and illustrations were quite rich and fantastic and very un-Disney if you know what I mean. The Adventures of Dennis (there was no menace with this Dennis, mind you) was my favorite Russian-translated book- and look, I found it reviewed here. My parents who are not known for throwing away things probably still have it. I remember a story where young Dennis asks his friend, "What are your favorite things?" The friend answered with a long list of irresistible food items that goes on for two whole pages. After this breathless menu recitation, the friend asks the same question to Dennis who says, "I like kittens. And grandma". Such a funny-sweet-sad story of children who know quite a bit of hunger and scarcity. Bremzen's memoir explained exactly what the country was going through to produce a story like that.

Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking has a whole chapter on the favorite Soviet celebratory dish Salat Olivier or what I knew as my mother's Russian salad- cubes of boiled potato, carrot, peas and pineapple chunks suspended in a homemade mayo dressing. Bremzen's book will be one of my favorite reads of 2014.

Image: Goodreads

War and unrest through a child's eyes. This theme comes to life yet again in the graphic novel, A Game for Swallows: To Die, to Leave, to Return by Zeina Abirached. The bold and beautiful black-white illustrations are a contrast to grimy, war-torn Beirut described in the book, which talks about a single evening in the life of young Zeina and her family and their neighbors, huddled from the bombing in the foyer of their apartment. Behind the anecdote was a history lesson in the 15 year long civil war of Lebanon. And by the way, for you time-pressed folks, this is a short graphic novella that you can devour in an hour or two.

This beautiful and touching book reminded me strongly of a friend in graduate school (we've since lost touch) who was born and raised in Beirut during this 15 year period. War was a fact of life for him; after all, he knew nothing else until he was a teenager. He told me that night after night, his mother would serve dinner during the ceasefire. When he moved in his teens to a place where there was no war, he wondered, "If there's no ceasefire, how do people know when to eat dinner?" I remember when he told me this, I felt such a pang of pain in my heart. Please can we stop waging wars?

That's three memorable books and I have several more that I'm looking forward to. What are you reading these days?

The List: February 2014

February may be the shortest month but around here it was an action-packed one with snow days and guests providing the most memorable moments.

Eating winter fruit salad- apples, clementines and dried cranberries. Rinsing the apple cubes in some lemon (or vinegar) water helped the salad stay fresh-looking even when I made it hours ahead of time.

The best things I ate all month: potato bourekas (baked puff pastry turnovers) made by my Israeli friend's mother and potato pierogis (doughy dumplings) made by a co-worker's mother using their traditional Polish recipe. Yes, it was the season of potato pastries made using old recipes by moms!

The most successful experiment of the month was lemon curd- a tangy and smooth dessert sauce. And the amazing thing is that this lemon curd is made in the microwave. The original recipe made a rather large batch and I wondered if I could cut it to a third. Dessert sauces can be a bit fussy and there's guarantee that fractions of recipes will work. But you know how I am- always living on the edge- and this time it worked. I cut it to a third for a smaller batch and it still worked beautifully and took 5 minutes tops.

Baking a berry yogurt cake. I used frozen berries because, well, have you looked out of the window? This is an easy, beginner-friendly cake and quite flexible- for instance, I used ricotta and homemade yogurt instead of milk and Greek yogurt, and subbed almond flour for 1/4 cup of the AP flour.

The lemon curd was whisked with whipped cream as a topping for this cake, and honestly the tangy lemon curd with the tangy berry cake did not quite work for me- too much tang all around. Next time I'll use them separately.

Making itty bitty hearts: A February list cannot be complete without a liberal sprinkling of red and pink hearts, can it? I made these tiny, puffy felt heart-shaped pins for her to give to her classmates for the preschool valentine exchange. The pattern is here on Purl Bee, but I used blanket stitch for edging.

Feb 14 is also International Book Giving Day and all the kids in Lila's class were asked to bring a gently used book from home to exchange with each other. Between valentine exchanges and book exchanges, it was a fun and busy day at school.

Sewing for superheroes: Our local domestic violence shelter gives out superhero capes to kids who come through their program as a way of offering them support and strength (and a bit of fun) during this very difficult time in their lives. They were looking for volunteers to sew some of the capes for them. I used this pattern and made a few. They provided us with this shiny, slippery fabric to make into capes. The stuff was a total pain to sew (it is not well-behaved like cotton) but after some teeth-gnashing I did get them done.

When 2 inches of snow/ice (what? don't laugh) brought life to a standstill for 4 or 5 days, a friend and her family stayed with us- they had issues with the heat in their house. We had to work overtime to keep the kids from going stir-crazy. I taught my friend's 6 year old daughter to sew and we made a little bunting. This kid impressed me with her patience and perseverance- especially since she speaks no English yet (only Hebrew) and I was teaching her using a strange language of gestures and nods.

Knitting a scarf/cowl- a gift for a friend. It looks like a shawl when worn but slips over the head and stays on without a fuss. The pattern is called Zuzu's petals and it was a joy to knit. If you've seen the movie It's a Wonderful Life, you'll remember the reference for Zuzu's petals.

Image: Goodreads

Reading Stephen King's On Writing. The first half of the book is a memoir of King's writing life- his childhood, his early fascination with pulpy horror movies, his earliest writing, his battles with addiction. The second half is a writing seminar with advice for aspiring writers: "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut".
 I've read a couple of King's novels and I find them highly uneven- I love parts of them and the others drag on or seem outlandish (this is strange since millions of people clearly love his work.) But this book I did like from start to finish.



Enjoying the unique interaction between toddler and dog.

Lila's first chore- a daily task that she does almost every morning and evening since she turned ~2- is to feed Duncan. She picks up his bowl, walks to the closet where we store the food, V or I open the closet, then she scoops food into his bowl, asking "More?" after every scoop. We say "More please" and then "Bas" (hindi for enough). Then she closes the door, carefully walks back with the bowl and puts it in Dunkie's spot and tells him, "Enjoy your khaana, Dunkie" which is his cue to start scarfing down the food (khaana is Hindi for food.)

I am always amazed at how patiently Duncan will wait for as long as it takes Lila to do her thing- sometimes, spilling some kibbles, sometimes getting distracted for a minute with something else. But she does it- and takes pride in caring for and feeding a family member just as adults do for her.

Duncan finishes his meal in record time (seconds, literally), then comes back to find Lila. He does this unfailingly after every meal- walking to whoever fed him and sitting down next to them- it feels like a thank you gesture. And then he usually burps!

One Hot Stove will be on Spring Break next week and I'll see you in two weeks. Meanwhile, do share in the comments what you've been eating, cooking, baking, reading, watching, making and enjoying this February. 

Quilting 101

In my personal history, 2013 will go down as The Year of The Quilt.

Through quilting, I met many new people and started feeling right at home in this new town that we've moved to. Through quilting, I got over my fear of the sewing machine, learned a few new skills and got the chance to do a bit of volunteer work.

As a tribute to my new-found love for quilting, I put together this brief essay for anyone who is curious about this world of quilting. If you have wondered why so many people are fascinated with what are essentially blankets, read on.

What is a Quilt?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a quilt as "A bed coverlet of two layers of cloth filled with padding (as down or batting) held in place by ties or stitched designs".

True, true. In general, a quilt has three layers:

1. Quilt top: The fabric on top of the quilt, typically a woven fabric like cotton.

2. Batting: Middle layer. This is the fluffy filling in the quilt.

3. Backing: The fabric at the back of the quilt, and just like the front, it is typically a woven fabric like cotton.

These layers trap air and act as insulation, giving you that warm, snug-as-a-bug feeling when you wrap yourself in a quilt on a cold winter night.

The Pretty Face of  a Quilt

The quilt top is often decorative and colorful- what most people picture immediately when they think of a quilt. Two common techniques used to create a quilt top are piecing and applique.

Piecing: This is when pieces of fabric are sewn together into all kinds of interesting patterns like zig zag and jigsaw puzzle and simple stripes.

The first quilt I made was fabrics cut into large rectangles and pieced together in the simplest way in a brick pattern.

Pieced quilts are often based on traditional quilt blocks. These are geometric designs that look like rangoli; some examples of traditional quilt blocks are bear paw, maple leaf, school house, flower basket -and others have fanciful names, like a block with circular, swaying curves appropriately called drunkard's path.

My quilting teacher told me about a conversation she had with her husband. He asked, "So you buy all the fabric, then cut it into tiny-tiny pieces, and then spend months sewing the pieces back together?" Her response: "Yes".

Applique is another method for decorating the quilt top. Here, shapes of fabric are cut out and sewn on top of a larger fabric (similar to how one would do collage on paper). Some examples of applique: a colorful tree, US map and vegetable patch.

And then there is the combination of piecing and applique like this darling rainbow quilt where the colored strips are pieced and the clouds are appliqued on top. Or chubby chicks, a combination of pieced pinwheel blocks and appliqued chick blocks.

With panel quilts you start out with a printed panel, that is, the quilt top comes already decorated. The town quilt I made was a panel quilt where the town came pre-printed on the fabric.









The Quilt Comes Together

Once the quilt top is ready, you choose another fabric for the backing (something matching or complementary to the front) and then make a quilt sandwich with the top, batting and backing. Three different layers- how do you secure them together? 

The three layers are sewn together with needle and thread by hand or with a sewing machine- and this process is called quilting.

I used to think quilting was just a mundane but necessary step after the all-important work of making a pretty quilt top. Not so- quilting can be the star of the show. Take a look at this quilt. The front is just a plain brown fabric with a red heart appliqued on it. But the clever quilting makes it looks like initials carved on a tree trunk. And in this quilt, the quilting is done in swirls which give the look of curly wool on the sheep. Here's one where the quilting looks like rain.

One of my favorite forms of quilting is the kantha quilting of Eastern India and Bangladesh, where a simple hand-embroidered running stitch and a few old sarees are the basis of quilt making.

As an alternative to quilting, the three layers can also be tied together with bits of thread at regular intervals for a more informal quilt.

Binding is the final step, where you use strips of fabric to give the quilt a frame. The three layers are now together and you need to seal them in and give the quilt a finished look. Note to self: stripes and polka dots make very cute binding!

Fifty Shades of Quilts

Quilts are indeed works of art, often being one of a kind creations. Sometimes they are classified as traditional and modern. I don't know the exact definitions of these categories. It might be one of those "you know it when you see it" things.

Traditional quilts are often based on repeating patterns of traditional quilt blocks. Here are some examples of what I would call traditional, time-honored designs: Grandmother's flower garden, double wedding ring quilt, sampler quilt.

Modern quilts tend to be minimalist, abstract and improvised, fresh and simple. They often use color in incredible ways, like in this quilt. Here are some examples of what I could call modern quilts: tree quilt, landscape quilt, big love, wee animal quilt, modern sampler.

Quilts made for children are some of my favorite quilts for showcasing themes in imaginative ways. Just look at this solar system quilt and this batman quilt. The subject of quilts are diverse and whimsical and quilters pay homage to just about everything from flip-flops, baskets to books. Some people gather up their old T-shirts and convert them to a T shirt quilt- here's one that is a collection of souvenir T shirts from beach vacations.

Not everyone has to commit to making bed-sized quilts either. There are many ways to enjoy quilting on a smaller scale. One can make smaller quilts for babies and children, or to use as throws in the living room. Mug rugs are the tiniest and sweetest quilts- designed to hold a mug and a snack and to cheer up the dullest cubicle. Pillows are another way to use techniques of piecing and applique on a small scale. The principles of quilting can be used for cute little projects like ornaments and to make pretty and functional gifts, like e-reader covers and this fabric baskets.

Sometimes quilt blocks are not made in fabric at all- they are painted on the sides of barns and buildings and are called barn quilts.

As for me, I'm so in love with textile art that it is featured in almost every room in my home. Fabrics add color and texture to a home and are usually very affordable.

Ocean life quilt in Lila's playroom/ our family room,
made by my mother and sister

In our hallway is this panel of pipli work from Orissa,
an intricate hand-stitched piece of folk art

Quilts are functional art. There are many things I like to do- knitting, cooking/baking, reading, even sewing- but quilting is what forces me to think of composition and color and...arty stuff. I look at the world with more observant eyes, looking for beauty and inspiration for my next quilting project.

Too little time, too many quilts. There are far too many items on my quilting bucket list, but thinking of the immediate future- what's next on my quilting agenda? I want to make a quilted pet portrait of Duncan, and I'm participating in the Vice Versa block of the month club where we make 2 blocks every month and the goal is to have a finished quilt by the end of this year.

If you're eager for more quilty fun...

...browse some quilting eye candy online. There are dozens of beautiful quilt blogs out there, and if you have a couple of hundred hours to kill, you could search for "quilts" on Pinterest.

...read this book- America's glorious quilts by Dennis Duke. It has hundreds of gorgeous photographs illustrating the history of quilting in the United States.

...find a quilt show near you. Many areas in the US have quilt guilds- a guild is a group of artists who get together to promote the craft, host workshops and lectures etc. Most quilt guilds host a show for the public every year or two to showcase their best work. Do a web search for a show near you and mark your calendar. As lovely as it is to see pictures of quilts, seeing them in person will take your breath away.

Tried and Tested Dosas, With a New Onion Chutney

Dosas- those crisp and airy crepes of rice and lentils, a staple of Southern Indian breakfasts. I've often said that I could eat dosas at every meal, and yesterday this wish came true, with dosas for Sunday brunch and then again for dinner because I ran out of time to make something else and then again for breakfast this morning because, well, because I just love them that much.

We had friends yesterday for brunch, and we do this so often that I'm getting lots of practice with putting brunches together and anticipating what dishes will be well-received. Dosas, without a doubt, have been a hit every time I've served them. Sambar for some reason isn't as popular so I serve the dosas with potato masala and cilantro coconut chutney, both of which are always popular as well.And we always make ginger chai for our guests and amaze them with the fact that chai does not, indeed should not contain 15 different spices.

Dosa with cilantro coconut chutney and onion chutney

After making dosa batter week after week, I've landed on the formula that works for me. The two typical ingredients in a dosa batter are rice (which can be raw or parboiled) and urad dal. Different recipes call for different proportions of the rice and urad dal and add other ingredients for taste and texture- everything from chana dal to rava.

My current favorite way of making dosa is based on Vaishali's recipe. And here's my formula:

• 2 cups raw rice
• 2 cups parboiled rice
• 1 cup gota urad dal
• 1/4 cup chana dal
• 1 tsp. methi seeds
• 2 tbsp. poha

This formula is flexible. For the raw rice, I'll often use brown rice, or then a cup each of brown rice and sona masoori rice. I've also used a combination of brown rice and barley. And for the parboiled rice, I'll sometimes use rosematta rice which is pretty and pink, or then just the usual parboiled rice which is sold as idli/dosa rice.

After the soaking and grinding and fermenting, the batter is ready to use. Sometimes, I add some ragi flour before making dosas. Dosa batter freezes beautifully so it makes sense for me to make a large batch. But the formula can be easily halved for a smaller batch. What I love is that the dosa made with this batter is beautifully brown and crisp, but also has a toothsome, substantial texture- it is not too thin and papery.

And every good dosa deserves a tasty chutney to accompany it. Along with the regular coconut chutney, I tried a new recipe last night for onion chutney from Cooking at Home with Pedatha by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain. The authors call it a must-try recipe and it looked tempting enough so I did not need much convincing. It goes well with idli, dosa or steamed rice.

As I was writing this post, I realized that there are numerous onion chutneys already on this blog: I've posted a very similar onion chutney from another cookbook, and a very minimalist onion chutney made with just three ingredients, and I distinctly remember trying an onion peanut chutney from another blog but can't find where I've mentioned it! Well, here's one more...and it's worth making.

One More Onion Chutney

(Adapted from Cooking at Home with Pedatha by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain)

1. Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a pan.

2. Temper the hot oil with 1 tbsp. urad dal, 1 tsp. mustard seeds, 4-5 methi seeds, 1 sprig curry leaves, a pinch of asafetida, a handful of chopped cilantro leaves and 1 tsp. red chilli powder (or to taste).

3. Add 3 coarsely chopped onions and fry them for several minutes until soft and translucent.

4. Blend the mixture (don't add any water) with 2 tbsp. tamarind paste and salt to taste to a thick chutney.

I enjoyed leafing through and cooking from Cooking at Home with Pedatha. The cookbook is a collection of a lifetime of recipes from Subhadra Krishna Rau Parigi, fondly known as Pedatha. Imagine a traditional festive spread at an affluent home- dozens of dishes arrayed around a thali- and the cookbook will teach you how to make just that. Vegetable dishes, flavorful chutneys and pachadis, sweets, all at their home-style best with recipes from a lady who clearly loved to cook. The pictures are luscious and the design is elegant. Many of the recipes call for vegetables that are common in India but not in the US but there are notes indicating substitutes. This is helpful for someone like me who has little or no access to things like such as raw banana, melon cucumbers and drumsticks.

I wish the book had a recipe index, so I could quickly look up recipes that use a particular ingredient. And I wish the book did not refer to lentils by their English names- I still get confused with split red gram and green gram. Calling them toor dal and moong dal is easier for me. But there is a pictorial ingredient list in the back of the book where I can look up for the hundredth time what split black gram means.

Apart from the onion chutney, I tried two other recipes from the book. 

Cucumber sweet and sour chutney is made with cucumbers that I use in salads every other day but rarely use in cooking per se. The cucumbers are lightly sauteed in a sweet and sour sauce made with tamarind, jaggery and sesame seeds. We ate this cucumber chutney with some dal and rice and it transformed the humble meal. Pavani has posted the recipe for cucumber sweet and sour chutney if anyone wants to try it.

I also made majjiga pulusu (a gravy with yogurt)- a version of what I know as kadhi. Interestingly, instead of the besan (chickpea flour) that is added to yogurt to make kadhi- it adds thickness and also keeps the yogurt from curdling- this recipe uses a paste of soaked chana dal.

Several other recipes from Pedatha's book can be found in blog-land; here's a short list: sweet rasam, brinjal pasty vegetable, brinjal roast, raw banana with mustard and rava ladoo.

Everyone who enjoys simple home-style Indian cooking will find some recipe gems in this cookbook and I'm glad I finally got to cook from it.

What have you been cooking and eating this weekend? Any dosa binges you'd like to talk about? No, just me?

Snow Days, and a Couple of Updates

I want to thank everyone who stopped by with warm birthday wishes for One Hot Stove last week. I also appreciate all the suggestions for making this blog more useful. And I am serious about working on these suggestions as soon as possible; in fact, I've completed one of them this week. 1 down, ~17 to go!

Several people have been asking me to collect all my sewing projects in one place because they tend to get lost among the recipe posts. Well, last night I made this Fiber & Fabric page while watching figure skating in the Winter Olympics. You'll see all my sewing and quilting projects listed there for easy access.

Another good suggestion for blog improvement was to go back to the old posts and update some of them (some of the oldest recipes don't even have pictures any more)- and in fact, I had been thinking of doing just that. After all, apart from being a diary of sorts and a weekly writing exercise, this blog is my recipe book. So often, I'll start cooking/baking by first opening the laptop and looking up the recipe on my blog. And over time, recipes need to be updated and refreshed as I tweak them.

This whole past week, we had an Israeli friend staying with us, and I busted out all our favorite hearty dinner recipes- tortilla soup, spinach lasagna, matar paneer. He appreciated everything and ate with gusto. Last night, I made Sri Lankan egg curry and he stopped short after one spoonful and declared quite definitely that THIS was his favorite thing I've made.

Sri Lankan egg curry was one of the first recipes I posted back in March 2005 and now I've updated it a bit with fresh pictures. See the new and improved recipe here. 9 years later, it still tastes "like the beach" and that's a welcome feeling this week.

You see, I have to run and get ready for a winter storm that's headed our way, the second one in two weeks. North America is in the middle of one of the harshest winters in recent memory. So severe is this winter that we're feeling the effects even here in the deep South, where even an inch or two of snow is enough to bring life to a screeching halt.

Our Duncan was mesmerized when he saw snow for the first time. He was first puzzled by it, then ran around madly in it, then he tried to eat it.

After 10 minutes of this, he decided that it made more sense to go take a nap on the couch. Smart dog.

Have a great week, friends. What's today's weather like where you are?

Eclair Cake to Celebrate 9 Years of One Hot Stove

One Hot Stove turns 9 years old today. 9 as in one less than 10, as in almost a decade, so unbelievable. So much has changed over these nine years both in my life and in food blog land. The latter has exploded from a constellation of blogs whose writers all had at least a nodding acquaintance with each other to a glittering megacity where the bar for writing and photography is set ever higher and where new food trends are born and nurtured every day.

But you know what? Some things haven't changed at all. I still manage to take surprisingly crappy pictures with a perfectly good camera (scroll down for Exhibit A). I still don't have my own domain (Internet-speak for a posh address). My blog still lives in the sleepy outskirts of blog land. I still clumsily pour out my words straight from the heart. And I still marvel that some nice people show up and visit me regularly.

Once in a while, someone who doesn't read or care about food blogs will hear that I write a food blog and they're like, "You write about recipes? That's so...interesting" very incredulous that someone would waste time this way. And I'll babble something like, "It is more than recipes, food is about connection, blogs are virtual communities" and then I trail off and change the subject because this whole thing is so hard to describe. You see, every now and then I will get an e-mail from a reader telling me that my words touched them somehow, and I stop in my tracks and tear up. I am so amazed and grateful. This gig that pays me nothing at all may be the most positive thing I do with my life.

All of this is my rambling way of saying that even though the world clearly has thousands of blogs that are way more polished and professional, I still love this little blog as much as ever and will continue to write it as long as I can because you never know when it will connect with someone.

So, gentle reader, please join me for a big serving of blog birthday cake. This one isn't a traditional cake at all but a layered concoction of graham crackers and custard and whipped cream called eclair cake. I was looking for a dessert that would feed a crowd at a friend's party and both her family and mine are crazy about vanilla custard so a dessert involving custard seemed like a good bet. It was during the holidays when I was all baked-out and wanted something different. This is a good recipe to file away for the summer months when you don't want to turn on the oven because you don't bake this cake at all.

The "traditional" eclair cake recipe contains several supermarket marvels such as cool whip, instant pudding and canned frosting. This version has many more homemade components, but you'll still have to hit up the cookie aisle to buy a box of graham crackers. If you're feeling ambitious, you can make those yourself- there are recipes out there in (where else but) food blog land.

This is one of those desserts that is totally simple and comforting. There's nothing sophisticated or trendy about it and that's OK. A bit like me and my blog.

Eclair Cake

(Adapted from this recipe on Cajun Delights)

Part 1: The Base. Go to the supermarket and buy 1 box honey graham crackers.

Part 2: The Filling. It has two components, custard and cream.

1. Make 1 recipe vanilla custard. Let it cool.

2. Take 1 small container (half pint) whipping cream. Whip the cream and 1/3 cup sugar to soft peaks. Fold in 1 tsp. vanilla.

3. Fold the whipped cream gently into the cool custard. That's your filling. 

Part 3: The Frosting
 (I used this recipe on CDKitchen)

Heat together in a small saucepan and simmer for a minute:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Let the frosting cool for a few minutes.

Part 4: Assembly
In a 9 x 13 pan, put down a layer of graham crackers (you may have to break some to fit). Layer with 1/2 the filling. Repeat: graham crackers, remaining filling. Finally, a layer of graham crackers. Then pour the frosting over it. Chill for several hours. Serve it in shaggy, messy slices. Assure friends it tastes better than it looks. 

This eclair cake is a nice make-ahead dessert. You can make it a few hours ahead of time or even the night before. In fact, you have to make it a few hours ahead of time to have the graham crackers soften.

In year 10 of One Hot Stove, I promise to bring you slick editing and stunning photography. Just kidding! You will see nothing of the sort. There will be the usual home-style khichdi of recipes and books and crafts thrown in for good measure. But I do have modest plans of updating the recipe index and things of that sort to improve your blog experience a little bit. If you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see more of, I'm all ears. Thank you.

The List: January 2014

As 2014 was being rung in and new year wishes were zig-zagging across the globe, I got an e-mail from a very dear friend; she wished me a year "where not too many extraordinary things happen but the usual everyday things bring a lot of joy and comfort". Isn't that a lovely sentiment?

Gratifyingly, January was just that kind of month for me, where life chugged along pleasantly. After the busy social calendar of December, I found time to spend cozy evenings with a pile of books. 

Reading

I finally got my hands on a cookbook that I have wanted to read and cook from since it came out in 2006- Cooking with Pedatha by Jigyasa Giri and Pratibha Jain, traditional vegetarian Andhra cuisine. A few months ago when I finally got around to looking for this cookbook in our public library system, it was not in their collection. I was about to say "oh well" and click away when I realized that I could request for the book to be added to the library's collection. And sure enough, they had a form on their website where I could fill in some details and send in a request in a matter of minutes. And they bought a copy and reserved it for me! I've said it before and I will say it again: public libraries are awesome. From now on, I'll be happily requesting books that I don't find in the library catalog. 

January was a month of graphic memoirs. Like every other kid I knew, I grew up on a steady diet of comic books- Archie and his teen drama, Marvel comics with the superheroes, and homegrown ones with mythological stories like Amar Chitra Katha. But comics, poor things, were always rather looked down upon. You resorted to hiding comics inside textbooks while reading them to dodge the disapproving looks of grown-ups. They were the snack food of the reading world, quick and easy to consume; nothing but empty calories. So I put down comics in middle school and never picked one up again until last year. That's when a couple of brilliant graphic novels spurred my interest again and reminded me that there can be tremendous depth to stories told with line drawings and few words.

This month I read two incredible graphic memoirs.

Image: Goodreads

Relish by Lucy Knisley is a story of childhood and young adulthood told through memories of food, by someone who has been a "foodie" from her toddler years. A funny, warm and joyful memoir that will make you very hungry. I promise you won't regret reading this one.

Image: Goodreads

Calling Dr. Laura by Nicole J. Georges is also a graphic memoir but with the much more difficult subject matter of a dysfunctional family and unstable childhood, but written/drawn with a lot of heart. And I adored the multitude of dogs featured in nearly every panel.

The other rollicking good read this month was a work of non-fiction, Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer. The lives of parasites are facts stranger than fiction and this book nearly left me breathless.

Finally, I read another non-fiction work in the true crime genre that was a difficult but gripping and very thought-provoking read, People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry.

Making

Fabric covered computer mouse-pads using this tutorial from Gen X Quilters. You really can sew a sheet of cork- amazing.









Mittens for Lila. These are sturdy enough to survive being dragged through the playground.





Supporting a campaign to empower women in India by helping them take charge of their own safety. While I live my pleasant and uneventful life, I do know that there are millions of women who face violence and injustice as part of their everyday life. A reader named Gayatri reached out to me and told me about a campaign she's working with- to provide tools and self-defense classes to women in India. Gayatri describes the campaign on her blog and here is the link to the fundraiser. Please take a minute and read about this.

So what have you been eating, reading, making, watching this January? 

Indian Chinese Sweet Corn Soup

Last week brought us weather that was positively soupy- as wet and foggy as can be. The grocery store- a mere 2 miles away- seemed like such a trek; I stayed warm and dry indoors and rummaged through the pantry for something to make for dinner. And there they were- 2 cans of cream style sweet corn. I have no memory of buying these, but everyone knows that ingredients do tend to jump into one's grocery cart when you're not looking.

Holding the cans of cream style corn led to immediate memories of the many bowls of sweet corn soup I've eaten in Indian-Chinese restaurants in India. So I made some corn soup right that minute, with bits of veggies from the crisper and the freezer.

The flavor of homemade soups can be amped up by using stock or broth instead of water. Over the years, I've tried a few different kinds of stock and settled upon using a commercial stock concentrate. It worked nicely but was definitely too salty and pretty expensive. Recently, I've started using nutritional yeast instead of stock to add savory flavor to soups.

Nutritional yeast- dry, yellow, flaky- looks more like fish food than human food. Don't confuse it with baker's yeast that is used in bread-making. The two are not interchangeable in the least. Nutritional yeast is packed with micro-nutrients and has a rich, savory, umami taste from the amino acids in the yeast. It is an acquired taste but one that we've managed to acquire very quickly. I buy nutritional yeast from the bulk bins of the local health food store.

Here's the recipe in a few simple steps; it makes 4-6 good sized servings.

Indo-Chinese Sweet Corn Soup

1. Saute:
2 tsp. oil
1/2 onion, cut in small dice
When onion is translucent, add 1 tsp. ginger garlic paste.

2. Add veggies:
1 carrot, cut in small dice
2 cups thinly shredded cabbage
1 cup frozen corn kernels
Stir for a couple of minutes on medium-high heat.

3. Make broth:
1 tbsp. nutritional yeast, stir.
2 cans cream-style corn
2 cans water
Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

4. Season:
1 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. vegetarian mushroom "oyster" sauce
1/2 tsp. white pepper

5. [Optional step]
Into the simmering soup, stir in 1 or 2 beaten eggs.

5. Garnish:
Minced cilantro or green onions
Sriracha sauce or chili sauce (optional)

Serve hot!

* * *

I've been reading an inspiring book this past week: The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, an articulate and impassioned message to read aloud to children. I'm a lifelong book lover and V and I have been reading aloud to our child every day since she was 6 weeks old, so clearly I'm already sold on the concept. But this was still an eye-opening book for me.

Although I was told stories as a child, I was never read to (that I can remember). I just learned to read and then I read to myself. This book has wonderful, practical tips for reading aloud. Some of the things I learned:

• You don't stop reading to a child once a child learns to read.
• It is perfectly fine to "censor" or adapt the book to meet the needs of the child. Shorten long passages, skip boring ones, change swear words as you want to.
• Read a book ahead of time. Gauge the emotional level and the intellectual level and make sure it fits the child.
• Read slowly to allow the listener time to build mental pictures. I have to learn how to read aloud because my reading speed is faster than my talking speed. In general, I don't prefer to read aloud but I'm excited to do so with my little one.
• Read funny stories, sad stories, scary stories to explore the universe of human emotions. Just enjoy the story, there is no need to interpret it, quiz the child on it, or to discuss the morals.
• A good story is a good story. Stirring words and gorgeous pictures appeal at any age. I have to agree with it; I read and enjoy middle grade literature regularly.

I enjoyed the heart-warming stories of lives that were changed by the simple act of reading to a child, of teachers who start the day by reading aloud and find it a way to connect with the most difficult students.

The last portion is a list of books that are ideal for reading aloud. The edition I read is from 1985- quite out of date but there are many recent editions which would provide good lists as starting points. If you can get a hold of this book, please read it!

Were you read to as a child? If you have kids, do you read aloud to them? And are you enjoying any soup today? :)

Enchilada dip

The last post in Enchilada Week is a dip- all the flavors of an enchilada in the avatar of an appetizer. I made it over and over this holiday season- once 3 times in two days for various festive potlucks and it was very well-received so it is making an appearance here.

This recipe belongs in the genre of layered Tex-Mex dips- I think it is practically illegal to have a casual gathering here in the US without a 7 layer dip and a huge bag of tortilla chips. Most of the recipes are assembly-style, using prepared ingredients, for instance, they will call for layering canned refried beans, bagged shredded Mexican-blend cheese, sour cream, canned olives, jarred salsa, and so on. I think we can do better than that without too much more effort.

Enchilada Dip
Just take a serving dish and assemble as follows.

Layer 1 is 2 cups cooked pinto beans and 1 cup enchilada sauce stirred together. Your favorite salsa will work in place of the enchilada sauce.

Layer 2 is 1/2 cup plain yogurt + 1/2 cup sour cream stirred together.

Layer 3 is 1 cup shredded red/green cabbage + 1 red pepper cut into thin strips.

Layer 4 is 1 cup (loosely packed) shredded cheese: Pepper Jack or Cheddar would be my choice.

Layer 5 is a handful of minced cilantro and green onions.




Cover and chill. Serve with tortilla chips.

And that, my friends, concludes The Whole Enchilada. See you next Tuesday with a favorite soup recipe. Because it is soup weather out here!

Egg Enchiladas

My toddler is blessed with amazing teachers at daycare- they are liberal with their hugs and kind words, they keep the kids busy and happy with everything from finger-painting to music and playground games, and never resort to yelling- ahem. It truly takes a special person to be a good daycare teacher (or any kind of teacher at all). After a few hours of running around after one solitary child, I collapse on the couch, while the teachers wrangle a bunch of crying babies and willful toddlers all day long- do they have superpowers?

Anyway, as a small gesture of appreciation this holiday season, I thought of organizing a festive potluck breakfast for all the teachers in Lila's school. When I e-mailed the parents of Lila's classmates, several of them responded enthusiastically. We chose a Monday morning in early December. That would give the parents the weekend to shop/prep. Each family dropped off one dish that Monday morning when they brought in their child. Another mother and I did the set-up and clean up.

We ended up with an appetizing spread: One family brought in flaky biscuits, butter and preserves from a very popular local restaurant. Another came with homemade egg casseroles- one with ham and one with veggies. Others brought in fruit salad, yogurt parfaits, granola, bagels and scones. The table was loaded with food and the teachers seemed to enjoy this little treat.

My contribution to the potluck was breakfast enchiladas. (Yes, you've diagnosed it by now- I suffered a serious enchilada obsession this December.) There's nothing to stop me from eating regular enchiladas as early as 6 in the morning. But with eggs, these are a more conventional breakfast food.

I modified this recipe to make it meatless and to ramp up the amount of vegetables. Basically, you take tortillas and roll them up with your favorite enchilada or omelet fillings. I chose lots of vegetables, some beans and a little cheese. Then you cover the filled tortillas with an egg custard. The casserole can be baked right away or- get this- you can do all of it the night before and just leave it in the fridge overnight. Then you just top with a bit of cheese and bake it- the egg filling gets into the tortillas (magic!) and you essentially have tortilla-wrapped omelets all ready to serve to a crowd.

Egg Enchiladas

(Adapted from this recipe on Inspired Taste)

1. Make the enchilada filling: Saute vegetables- 1 onion, 1 pepper, 2 zucchini/summer squash. Other veggies like mushrooms, spinach or broccoli could also be added. Season with salt, cumin, oregano and garlic.

To the cooled veggies, add 1 can beans (or 1.5 cups cooked beans) and 1/2 cup shredded cheese (Monterey Jack or cheddar is what I usually use).

2. For egg custard, whisk together

• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup cream (half and half or whole milk will do as well)
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• Salt and pepper to taste

3. Assemble: Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish. Roll tortillas with the filling and place them seam side down in the baking dish. Pour the custard over the tortillas. At this point you can cover the dish with foil and refrigerate overnight, or bake right away.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. Scatter 1/2 cheese on the casserole. Bake covered at 350 F for 40 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more. 

5. Garnish with cilantro or green onions. I wanted to make the dish festive in red and green so I chose a garnish of green onions and halved cherry tomatoes.

6. Serve warm with salsa or enchilada sauce.

The last post in this series is an enchilada dip, coming up tomorrow.

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Red Sauce

With a batch of red enchilada sauce in hand, it is time to build an inviting enchilada platter and that involves lots of possibilities. For instance, you can stuff the enchiladas with veggies, serving beans and rice on the side. You can stuff 'em with beans and serve veggies, raw or cooked, on the side. You get to choose the format. Here's how I like making mine: I use a mixture of cheese and beans as the filling for the enchiladas and serve lots of vegetables (and sometimes rice) on the side.

For the tortillas, you can use either corn or wheat tortillas or any of the multigrain, gluten-free versions out there. Trader Joe's has corn-and-wheat tortillas (designed for indecisive cooks, perhaps?) and I love how they work in these enchiladas. They come 8 to a pack and all of them fit in neatly in a 9 x 13 baking dish.

The filling: There's no real recipe for the filling. Just cook pinto or black beans or used canned beans. Into the beans, stir in shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Cheddar cheese. The enchilada sauce has so much flavor that I don't bother adding too much seasoning to the filling. But you could certainly add some cumin, garlic, oregano here if desired.

Just to illustrate how I arrange
the tortillas-
8 of them fit snugly
into the baking dish

Assemble the enchiladas: In a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, ladle 1/2 cup enchilada sauce and spread it around.

Pour some enchilada sauce into a rimmed plate. Dip each tortilla into this sauce to coat it on both sides, then place 1/4 cup of filling in the middle of the tortilla and roll it. I don't bother tucking in the ends; just place the filled tortilla seam side down in the baking dish. If you have larger tortillas, you may need to tuck in the ends.

After all the tortillas are filled and arranged in the baking dish, ladle the rest of the sauce on them. Sprinkle with more shredded cheese. Cover the dish with foil.

Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes until the sauce is bubbling.

We love our enchiladas with these three sides:

1. A crisp raw salad: I'll often make shredded green or red cabbage (or a mix) with diced avocados, dressed only with a few drops of hot sauce. Another option: shredded cabbage and carrots with a dressing of mayo and hot sauce. Your favorite salad will do!

2. Roasted vegetables: A large tray of sweet potatoes, peppers, onions, zucchini and summer squash, green beans and whatever's in season (or on sale at the supermarket) works nicely. Sometimes I just make sweet potato fries.

3. Mexican rice. There are many ways to make this. Here's how I made quick tangy cilantro rice this weekend: Cook basmati rice with salt. Just when it is cooked, stir in a handful of minced cilantro, 1 tbsp. nutritional yeast (for flavor), 1 tbsp. olive oil and some lemon or lime juice.

Other than these, a dollop of sour cream or yogurt can be a nice touch and a cooling contrast to the enchiladas.

If I'm serving enchiladas to a crowd, I'll make all 3 sides. If it is for just the family or a smaller group, just 1 or 2 sides is enough.

Continuing with enchilada week here on One Hot Stove, I'll be back tomorrow with some breakfast enchiladas.

Red Enchilada Sauce from Scratch

I'm a lover of hearty and spicy food and therefore a frequent patron of local Mexican restaurants for casual dining out. I'll usually opt for the red enchilada platter- which arrives as two or three corn enchiladas stuffed with some cheese and smothered in a flavorful red sauce, and with lettuce, beans and rice on the side.

The sauce is fiery red yet it tastes nothing like tomato sauce. It always hits the spot and of course it was only a matter of time before I started looking up a recipe so I could replicate it at home. A bit of research revealed the secret to authentic red enchilada sauce- dried Mexican chili peppers. They give it that wonderful smoky flavor and also the beautiful brick red color. The recipes that I used as starting points are here, here and here. Some recipes include a bit of tomato, most don't. I chose to use a little bit because it adds a bit of tang and sweetness and rounds out the flavor. After several trials, here's my version of red enchilada sauce and it is truly the best thing I made in 2013.

Pictured with a quarter dollar to give
an idea of size

Let's talk about the dried peppers that feature most prominently in this recipe. The first is the guajillo chile (guajillo is approximately pronounced "gwa-hi-yo"). It is a large and flat pepper with a shiny, deep red smooth skin. The flavor is mild and fruity.

The second is the ancho chile. Have you ever seen or used the fresh green poblano peppers from the produce section? The ancho chili is simply the dried version of poblano peppers. They are large and have a deep red-black color and wrinkled skin. The heat level is mild to medium with a sweet-smoky taste.

If you live in the US, your best source for these dried peppers would be the local Hispanic grocery store (or a store that sells international foods). I went in search of one in our little town. Our local Hispanic grocery looked like a forbidding place from the outside, with barred windows. I hesitated at the door a little, but when I stepped inside, I was immediately delighted with aisles and aisles of Hispanic groceries and happily purchased large bags of guajillo and ancho peppers for around $5 each. The quality of the peppers was excellent- dried but still soft; not desiccated. And I also bought large bags of dried pinto and black beans, and fresh tomatillos and cilantro at very reasonable prices.

As an aside- "Ethnic" grocery stores are such wonderful places for the home cook. They are usually worth seeking out even if they tend to be cramped and located in not-so-posh neighborhoods. I'm always urging my non-Indian friends to go to the local Indian store to look for spices (and other ingredients like lentils, rice and flours) that are fresher and cost a fraction of what they do in the gourmet markets. Similarly, I've enjoyed exploring Mid-Eastern, Italian, Asian markets etc. for well-priced and authentic (and often mysterious when I can't read the labels) ingredients from those regions.

Before I get to the recipe, a quick reminder- When working with dried peppers, remember to wash pepper residue off your hands and avoid touching your face or eyes. Wear gloves if you like. Dried peppers can vary in their level of heat, and what's mild to me may be too spicy for you, so make and taste the sauce once and then vary the number of peppers as you wish.

Red Enchilada Sauce

A One Hot Stove creation; inspired by several recipes that I found online

(Makes 2-3 cups; enough for a 9 x 13 tray of enchiladas)

4 dried guajillo peppers
4 dried ancho peppers

2 tbsp. + 1 tsp. oil
1 heaped tbsp. all-purpose flour
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup tomato puree or diced fire-roasted tomatoes
Salt to taste
A pinch or two of sugar (optional)

1. Let's start with the dried peppers. Tear off the stem from all the dried peppers and shake out and discard most of the seeds. With a knife (or more easily with a pair of kitchen scissors), cut each pepper into 3 or 4 pieces.
2. In a small pan, heat 1 tsp. oil and toast the pepper pieces for a few seconds to toast them. Set them aside.

3. For the sauce, heat 2 tbsp. oil in a saucepan.
4. Whisk in the flour and saute until toasty.
5. Add the garlic and toasted peppers and saute for a few seconds.
6. Add the tomatoes, salt to taste and 2.5 cups water.
7. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Blend the mixture to a fine sauce using a regular or immersion blender. If the sauce feels too thick, adjust the consistency with water.
9. Taste the sauce and add a pinch of sugar if needed to round out the flavor.

I've bought canned enchilada sauce once or twice before, and this homemade version is thicker and more flavorful than any I've tried. The enchilada sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to three days. Other people report success with freezing it but I have not tried that for myself.

Developing this recipe led me to discover some new ingredients and a new store in my town and the enchilada sauce has led to many successful meals. Color me happy! Over the next few days, I'll post the different ways in which I use this sauce.

The only downside to all this is that next time I'm at a Mexican restaurant, I'll probably annoy my dining companions by saying, "Well, I could make a better version of this at home"!

Coming up tomorrow: Let's make enchiladas.