Tea-Tinged Truffles

I'm still in the midst of "eating down the pantry", as Lydia put it, although I did go shopping for some perishables like eggs and milk last night. Meanwhile, let me tell you about these chocolate truffles that I made as a contribution to the New Years Eve feast that our neighbor had invited us to.

Now that I have discovered how easy and fun it is to make confections at home, I can't seem to stop myself. But these truffles were a joy to put together, with a short ingredient list, and no fiddly techniques involved, but results that looked quite impressive. The only thing is to pay attention to the proportion of cream to chocolate: too much cream, and the truffles won't hold their shape; too little cream and the mixture will harden too much and be difficult to roll. A mixture of milk chocolate and bittersweet chocolate works well because it has a good balance of sweetness and pure chocolate taste. I buy chocolate in 3.5 oz bars, and it was convenient for me to use a bar of each type of chocolate to make these truffles.

The recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs- The Perfect Pantry. While Lydia flavored hers with coffee, I was loyal to my tea-loving self and flavored these truffles with tea and tea masala. I had half a mind to call them chai truffles or maybe even chai tea truffles but I wisely refrained! So here they are...

Tea-Tinged Truffles

(Adapted from Lydia's recipe; makes about 18 truffles)
Ingredients:
1 3.5 oz bar fair-trade bittersweet chocolate
1 3.5 oz bar fair-trade milk chocolate
1/2 C heavy cream
2 t extra-strong black tea decoction (I used orange pekoe)
3-4 drops tea masala extract
1/3 C chopped toasted pistachios
Method:
1. Finely chop the chocolate bars and place together in a bowl.
2. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until it is almost boiling.
3. Pour onto the chocolate and let it stand for a couple of minutes to allow the chocolate to melt. Whisk well to blend the chocolate and the cream into a smooth glistening mixture. Stir in the tea and the tea masala (I dissolved the masala in the tea first).
4. Cover and chill the mixture for 1.5-2 hours.
5. Wash hands well before shaping the truffles (or wear gloves). Scrape up a small portion of the chilled chocolate mixture with a teaspoon and roll it gently in your palms to form a truffle. Roll truffles in pistachio bits to coat them.

All done!


Chocolate truffles are a blank canvas that can be filled, coated and flavored with an assortment of goodies that is only limited by the imagination of the cook. Take a look at these truffles laced with cardamom, balsamic vinegar, orange zest , cayenne pepper and green tea. There was a whole Sugar High Friday devoted to truffles; here is the incredible round-up of that event.

I'm sending these tasty morsels to Mansi Desai for her Game Night Event that showcases simple and tasty party recipes. The term Game Night evokes very conflicting emotions within me :D On one hand, sporting events make me weep with boredom, and those infernal game nights where people gather around a big screen TV and lustily cheer on a bunch of people running after some ball...they make want to run screaming into the woods. But I do enjoy those Game Nights that involve sedate board games like Pictionary and Taboo. Well, these bite-size portion-controlled treats are the perfect dessert for *any* gathering. They would also make a magical gift when packed into a pretty box.

What are you planning to do this weekend? Have a wonderful, relaxing time!

Warming Garlic-Onion Soup

Blog-related cooking is a bit slow around here this week. This is because I am doing a little pantry clean-up cooking. Somehow, over the months, so much food has gathered in my refrigerator, freezer and pantry, and some more comes in every weekend as I go grocery shopping. For the last couple of weeks, I have been cooking entirely from the food I already have in the house. Just because dried goods like beans and pasta and flours last for a long time does not necessarily mean that I have to hang on to them for years. It is also a lot of fun trying to come up with things to make from existing supplies and it has become almost a game for me. An impulse purchase of some jarred eggplant spread got mixed with some kidney beans and converted into bean burritos. Sprouted pulses stored in the freezer are being turned into khichdi before they are forgotten. Root vegetables bought in bulk are being roasted to make warm hearty side-dishes. A bag of sun-dried tomatoes that was languishing for months was made into a quick spread for some incredible grilled cheese sandwiches. It is all part of my effort to think 5 times before I buy anything new, whether it is food or something else.

St. Louis is going through some bizarre weather fluctuations. Last week, it was like deathly cold, then the weekend brought some Springtime weather, and yesterday the monsoons struck! I made this soup a few days ago when it was very chilly outside. Luckily, onions and garlic are always on hand in the pantry and they are just perfect for making some soup. I found this incredibly easy recipe for roasted garlic and onion soup on Haalo's blog. It calls for the simplest ingredients, and a short list at that. It practically cooks itself. It is very low in calories, and yet bursting with flavors. It is 100% vegan. What a winner! See Haalo's post for the detailed recipe with beautiful pictures.

Roasted Allium Soup

(adapted from Haalo's post, originally from a Donna Hay recipe; makes about 4 servings)
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. On a baking sheet, spread 3 red onions (halved but not peeled) and a head of garlic (intact, only the outer dry skin removed and the root cut off). Toss with 1.5 T olive oil and roast for 1 hour or until vegetables are soft and browned.
3. Once the vegetables have cooled a little, peel and roughly chop the onions. Peel and mash the garlic cloves.
4. In a saucepan, combine 3 C vegetable stock, and the roasted onions and garlic. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
5. Blend to a coarse puree (leaving some chunky pieces). A stick blender is very convenient for doing this.
6. Season with freshly-ground pepper, salt only if strictly required (taste first) and the juice of 1/4 lemon. Serve hot!

What a flavorful soup this is! We enjoyed it with some bean burritos, but I can imagine this being a wonderful starter to a pulao or accompaniment to a toasted sandwich. With copious amounts of heart-healthy alliums, and sans cream and butter, this steaming bowl of soup finds its way to the Heart of the Matter event hosted by Joanna. The theme this month is Soup.

While we certainly enjoy a rich and cheesy soup every now and then, the soups I routinely make are very heart-healthy. For one thing, they contain copious amounts of vegetables and/or lentils or beans, both integral parts of a wholesome diet. When pureed, these add delicious thickness to the soup. Potato and rice can also be used to add thickness to a soup. I use vegetable stock for most soups, so I go very easy on the salt (usually not adding any at all). A splash of lemon juice or some fresh herbs and freshly ground pepper certainly add to the flavor of soups and make additional salt unnecessary. Instead of cream, low-fat milk is just fine for adding some richness to soups if at all necessary. Finally, to provide a finishing touch to the soup, one can use (a) a dollop of whipped yogurt instead of cream or sour cream, (b) a small amount of shredded cheese, instead of adding it to the whole soup, (c) toasted croutons instead of fried ones.

Some heart-healthy soups on One Hot Stove:
Ginger-Lemon Rasam
Mushroom-Miso Soup
Spicy Cauliflower Soup
Sweet Corn Soup
Tomato Lentil Soup
Tortilla Soup

Some incredible onion and garlic soups from other blogs:
44-clove garlic soup from Smitten Kitchen
Austrian garlic soup from Tea and Cookies
Garlic soup with poached eggs from The Wednesday Chef
Onion garlic soup from Recipe Junction
Vegan onion soup from Kaji's Mom
French onion soup from Coffee and Vanilla
English onion soup from Too Many Chefs
Belgian onion soup from Hot Knives

Bye for now! I'll be back with some...I don't know yet...let's see what else is hiding in my kitchen.

Melt-in-the-Mouth Morsels

*Thank you*, all you lovely people who humored my silliness and participated in the guessing game. I think people were expecting a vegetable hiding in there for sure, because so many of the guesses were sweet potato, potato, butternut squash, pumpkin, plantain, banana, eggplant, yam. Some of the more exotic guesses were tapioca, tofu, leek, peanut butter, tahini, coconut...and others thought it was a pantry staple like besan, bread, polenta, cooked rice. The yellow/orange hue probably led to suggestions of orange, papaya, carrot, saffron, toor dal, while the red flecks were thought of as tomato and red pepper (Rodosee, you are partially right). The sesame seeds led some to believe that this is a sesame cookie, while one person was quite sure that the sesame is for decoration only.

To tell you the truth, all of these sound like perfectly delicious ingredients for a cookie/fritter and something I would definitely love to make and eat. Well, I am so sorry to disappoint everybody who has vegetables on their mind, but the correct guess was one of the last comments: CHEESE! Congratulations, Zlamushka! Your logic is impeccable. You live too far away for me to send you a prize :( so please make do with a big hug for now :D Cheese was also the first of Linda's string of guesses (LOL)"Cheese. Peanut butter. Tahini. Tofu. Miso!??" so you get the second non-prize, Linda :D

This recipe comes from the cookbook Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies. I saw these delightful savory cheese cookies first on Cathy's blog as she wrapped up her huge project of baking and sharing every single cookie in this classic book. My copy of Maida's cookie book is extra-special to me because it was a gift from Cathy herself. For Hindi and Marathi speakers, the name of this author is a bit of a play on words because her first name is Maida, and maida or all-purpose flour is an ingredient (and usually the largest ingredient by proportion) in almost every cookie recipe (although I must clarify that the two are pronounced differently- her name is pronounced May-Da, and our Indian word maida is more like meh-da). This recipe is the only savory cookie in the book and I just had to try it as a special, decadent treat for New Year's eve.

Talk about a short ingredient list: these crackers call for just three ingredients. Cheese, Flour, Butter. Yes, in that order. In the proportion 4:2:1. So, Ramya, you rightly guessed that there is maida in there, but it is not the main ingredient! Well, you do add a little bit of red chilli powder for a delicious kick, and sprinkle the crackers with a few sesame seeds. Can you just imagine how rich they are? For those who have any notion whatsoever about sensible eating, these crackers should be strictly made for special social occasions where you will be forced to share these with many other people. They are very very delicious, and you will lose all self-control if you have a platter all to yourself. Been there, done that (hanging head in shame).

Any hard, melting cheese would work well in this recipe, although the original calls for sharp cheddar. I had bits and bobs of hard cheeses that I wanted to use up, so I made up the 2 cups with a combination 3 different cheeses- pepper jack, some English cheese that had sun-dried tomato in it, and sharp cheddar. The pepper and sun-dried tomato contributed those red flecks. I'm a cheese wimp and won't eat stinky strong cheeses out of hand, but you definitely need a sharp-tasting cheese here to get flavorful results. Even I will concede that. The sesame seeds are more than mere decoration here- they complement the taste of the cheese in a very pleasing way.

Apart from the taste of these crackers, they were just a lot of fun to make. And real easy-breezy. Mixing in the dough takes mere minutes, then the dough is rolled into logs and wrapped up and tucked into the fridge. When you want fresh-baked crispy pennies, simply fire up the oven, slice the log and bake within minutes. The results are sure to impress company. The tangy, salty crackers pair deliciously with any drink; we enjoyed these with mulled cider, and another time with wine. The log slices beautifully; the knife goes through it as if it were butter. Wait, it *is* mostly butter!

Maida Heatter's Cheese Pennies

(Adapted from Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies, makes about 40-50 two-bite crackers)
Ingredients:
2 C finely shredded sharp cheddar (or similar cheese)
1 C sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 C butter (1 stick), softened
1/2 t red chilli powder or cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)
1/2 t salt
toasted sesame seeds
Method:
1. Sift together the flour, salt and red chilli powder.
2. In a bowl, beat the softened butter until creamy.
3. Stir the cheese into the butter and beat together until completely blended.
4. Stir in the flour mixture bit by bit until it gets fully incorporated.
5. Gather up the dough and shape into 2 circular or rectangular logs. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate anywhere from 5-6 hours to 2-3 days.
6. At the time of baking, pre-heat oven to 350F. Slice the log into quarter-inch thick slices. Place them on an ungreased baking sheet (trust me, these are self-greasing cookies). Sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake for 12-15 minutes or until just golden (any more and the cheese will burn). Once out of the oven, transfer them right away to racks where they will cool and become nice and crisp.

Here are the cheese pennies, all ready to get the party started...

(Thanks for the beautiful serving dish, Madhu!)

Have a wonderful week, and I will see you in a few.

Guess?

Care to guess what the main ingredient is?


Jan 6th: The guessing game is over! See answer and recipe here.

I'll leave you with some gratuitous pictures of Dale Doggy Dogg.




Have a great weekend!

Recipe Writing: Part 2

This article was previously posted on the Dining Hall forum.

Welcome to the second half of the Recipe-Writing column. In the first half of this article, we looked at (a) why recipe writing is worth thinking about in the first place, (b) crediting the source of the recipe, (c) the ingredient list, and (d) accessorizing a recipe.

In this article, let's talk a little bit about (a) the method section of the recipe, (b) the recipe introduction and (c) testing of recipes. To reiterate what I said in the first article, there is no "correct" or "perfect" way to blog or write a recipe, and these are just some aspects to consider.

Method Section of a Recipe
The method section contains the steps involved in making the dish and usually follows the ingredient list.
1. Striking a balance between being too verbose and being too brief: There are two main situations in which someone will read the method section of a recipe- one is when they encounter a recipe for the first time and are reading it to get a general idea of how the dish is made, and the second is when they are actually making the dish and using the recipe as a protocol for doing so. In the first case, a conversational, detailed method might be useful and enjoyable; in the second case, a brief and to-the-point instruction list might be more desirable. The best way out is a careful balance of both.
2. Arrangement of steps: The recipe writer has to decide whether to use numbered preparation steps or write it in continuous sentences, paragraph style. This depends on personal style but in general, numbered steps make it easy to find one's "place" while in the middle of cooking the dish. If the paragraph style is preferred, each major portion of the recipe (eg. procedure for making the dough, making the stuffing, assembling the samosas) could be written in separate paragraphs. Shorter sentences are easier to read and understand.
3. Chronological listing of steps: It is good to write the steps such that someone who is making the dish is able to do so in a way that is efficient and time-saving. For instance, place the "pre-heat the oven" or "start boiling water for pasta" step in the beginning so that time can be saved later in the recipe.
4. Ease of understanding: (a) Keeping it simple: Cookbooks are often written with a particular audience in mind; some cookbooks are intended for beginners while others are written for cooks with more advanced skills. In the case of food blogs, our recipes might be used by people whose culinary skills vary widely, so it is best to keep things simple. Culinary terms like "braise" and "blanch" are useful to convey a specific method in one single word, but only if the reader knows what these terms are! (b) Keeping it logical: Explain the reason for doing something. For instance, in an okra stir-fry recipe, one might say, "Do not add water to the stir-fry at any stage, otherwise the okra will become too sticky". This helps the reader understand why something is done in a particular way.
5. Providing visual descriptions: Find ways to describe difficult-to-measure steps such as consistency of a batter or the stiffness of a dough. "Fry the onions" is too skimpy on information. A note about how long the onions should be fried- "until brown at the edges/ until completely browned/ until translucent" would make the instructions much more unambiguous and useful.
6. Accuracy: Make sure all ingredients are accounted for, and that the ingedient has the same name as in the list. Since the average blogger does not have an editorial staff at her/his disposal, it might be a wise idea to spend a few minutes carefully re-reading the recipe to ensure its accuracy. Include common pitfalls ("The spices burn easily while toasting, so keep an eye on them") and ways to rectify a mistake ("Add more chickpea flour if the batter looks too thin").

The Recipe Introduction
Take any popular well-loved dish. Whether it is chocolate cake, samosa or fried rice, there are hundreds of recipes for these treats on websites, and dozens more on food blogs. Yet, when we find a popular and common recipe on any of our favorite food blogs, we are eager to read about it. One feature that can make the difference between just-one-more-recipe-for-XYZ and this-one-I-have-to-try is the recipe introduction, or what is technically called the recipe headnote, which precedes the actual recipe. This is really a feature where a blogger can make a recipe his/her own and allow one's personality to shine through. You can display your writing flair via many features in the headnote, which can be a little paragraph or a whole essay. A personal touch in the recipe introduction can create drama and interest, and give readers a sense of eager anticipation. It is the reason that makes cookbooks as enjoyable to read as the most dramatic novels. Some features of the recipe introduction are all about the personal touch:
1. The origin of the recipe: Maybe the recipe is a family favorite from a century ago and has been passed down from your grandmother, who told you about the time she learnt it at her mother's knee. Maybe this dish was born only last night, when you got home from work at an insane hour and found 4 lonely ingredients in your fridge and put them to work imaginatively. The origin of the recipe can put it into perspective and bring it to life.
2. Memories: They can tug at the heartstrings like nothing else. Memories of a childhood spent in mango orchards, the first dessert that you and your sweetheart ate from the same dish, the festive lunch made by a favorite aunt five years ago that you can still taste in your mind, the first time you encountered some exotic cuisine…all these are human interest stories that make a recipe very special.
3. Travel/ Geography: It is wonderful to celebrate the terroir , or the "sense of place" of an ingredient or a dish. Maybe you ate this salad on a much-awaited trip to Europe, or maybe you made this recipe up when you were on a hike. Maybe the dish comes from the land where you spent your whole childhood and that you know like the back of your hand. Discussing these aspects can make the post informative and absorbing.
4. Humor: Maybe the making of the dish was an interesting (mis)adventure worthy of being chronicled...humor is an intangible thing, but we all know that hilarious posts are memorable ones! Not everyone has a knack for humorous writing but for those who can carry it off, it makes their blogs very popular and fun to read.
5. Finally, an event-specific note: If the post is an enty for a food blog event, one could add a few lines about why you chose that dish, or what the theme of the event means to you. That makes the entry much more interesting to read.

Apart from the creativity of the recipe introduction, it can be useful for other, more practical reasons:
1. A synopsis of a complicated recipe: The typical recipe for a biryani is a mile-long and quite intimidating, but if the recipe introduction says something like, "Saffron-flavored rice is layered with spicy vegetables and fried onions", it suddenly makes the recipe more approachable.
2. Mentioning peculiarities in the recipe, something that varies from the usual: For instance, "moong dal is usually cooked, but in this recipe, a small amount of moong dal is simply soaked and added to the salad to add taste and texture".
3. Mention special, out-of-the-ordinary equipment, techniques and ingredients, perhaps also giving useful links for their descriptions or places where they can be procured.
4. Other useful or interesting information includes notes on nutrition, unusual facts about the dish or trivia about the main ingredient.
5. Finally, a note about the success of the recipe is very useful in letting readers know whether they should try it. How did it taste? Did you like it or love it? Did you lick the bowl clean? Will you make it again? Would you change anything if you made it again?

Testing of Recipes
The recipes contained in cookbooks are supposed to be (and expected to be) rigorously tested. In that sense, blogs differ from cookbooks. We (in general) make no claims as far as the testing of recipes is concerned. Some blogged recipes are favorites that we have cooked a dozen times before. Others may only have been tried once or twice. Just like the children's game Telephone, as you make a recipe again and again, it can end up as something quite different from the original. Luckily, blogs do offer us an opportunity to keep updating recipes as we try them over and over again, simply by editing the post. As you play with a recipe, maybe using whole-wheat flour instead of AP flour in a bread recipe, or using beets instead of cabbage in a salad, you can record the variations, and their success (or lack thereof), with or without pictures, and update the original post. If you change something (like the proportion of rice flour to wheat flour, say) and find that it works better, that update would be useful the next time anyone wants to use the recipe. If your blog is your personal cookbook (as mine is for me), this can be especially useful for future reference.

I will close this article with a quote (that I found in this book) from the cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum: "A good recipe ultimately makes you feel as though its author is a friend, standing by your side, cheering you on and sharing in the joy of its creation".

References and future reading:
1. The Recipe Writer's Handbook by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker
2. History of Recipes
Note: A big thank you to Indira for encouraging me to write these articles in the first place- it was a great learning experience!

Recipe Writing: Part 1

This article was previously posted on the Dining Hall forum.

Recipe writing is an important component of food blogging. We invest a great deal of time in typing out recipes and posting them, for ourselves and for others. For many of us, our food blog becomes our own easy-to-access recipe notebook. Noting down traditional family and regional recipes and seeing them in black-and-white print reassures us that these precious aspects of our history do not fade. Recipes allow our readers to recreate favorite recipes and enhance our collective culinary knowledge. A well-written recipe that actually works is a valuable resource; it saves time, ingredients and frustration.

One of the most endearing aspects of blogging is that it is a creative process that gives us complete freedom. Unlike someone who is writing recipes for a book, magazine or newspaper, we have no editors to worry about and no consumers to please. We can write recipes just the way we want to and no one can object. However, as my parents have often said to me, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” So there is always room for a little improvement when it comes to recipe writing.

In this first article, let us look at three topics in the art of recipe-writing. There is no "correct" or "perfect" way to blog a recipe, but here are some aspects to consider.

1. The source of the recipe
We food bloggers know how awful it is to have our work plagiarized. Surely we don't want to be the plagiarizers, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Acknowledging recipe sources is in good taste and is the ethical thing to do. It takes nothing away from you. Failure to give credit seriously undermines one's credibility, is unethical (it can also be illegal) and should be avoided at all costs. Hence, any blogger who posts recipes on her/his blog needs to understand copyright as it applies to recipes. You can read about it here and here, and on plenty of other websites, but here is the bottom line as I understand it:
a) Ingredients lists cannot be copyrighted, but the procedure or method portion of a recipe can be considered a creative work and protected by copyright. Therefore, it is a good idea to write the method in your own words rather than copying it word for word from your source.
b) The source should be prominently displayed in the blogged recipe, either in the recipe introduction, under the title or at the end of the recipe. It is a good idea to get into the habit of writing the source of every single recipe. It could say "Source: Mom, my own creation, my friend XYZ, fellow blogger ABC or the book/ magazine/website" etc. that you got the recipe from. No matter what the source is, just place it in plain sight.
c) When the recipe is from a commercial source, I personally like to provide a link to where the book can be bought, or the website of the magazine, or a link to the blog if it is a fellow blogger's recipe. I feel that providing this small "ad" for my source is a way of saying thanks for letting me share the recipe.

2. The ingredients list.
Now for a look at a crucial part of the recipe, the ingredients list. Here are a few things to think about, and then decide on what style suits you best.

a. Should you use quantities that are exact or approximate? For instance, would you say, "a big pinch of asafetida" or "1/8 of a teaspoon of asafetida"? Some recipes need more precision than others: sometimes I feel like successful idlis require precise planetary alignments, while a sambar recipe is a lot easier to follow from written instructions! Broadly speaking, stove-top recipes tend to be a little more forgiving than baking recipes. There are some recipes that are strict protocols (meringues, for instance), while others are concepts and ideas that one can play with (like mango puree+ yogurt+ milk= mango lassi, and you can pretty much use your favorite proportions as desired).

b. In what order are the ingredients listed? Should you write the major ingredients first… does knowing the major ingredients makes shopping for the recipe easier? Or should you list the ingredients in the order that they are used in the recipe? Should the ingredient be listed first, followed by the quantity (Yogurt, 1 cup) or the quantity be listed first (1 cup yogurt)? The former may be a little easier as a pantry checklist, or in assembling ingredients before making the recipe. Subheads in the ingredient list make it much easier to understand the recipe, that is, collections of ingredients for sub-recipes (masala, tempering, dough, filling etc).

c. Weights and measures: Do you use metric measures (grams) or imperial measures (ounces)? Do you use weight (100 grams flour) or liquid measures (1 cup flour)? If possible, multiple measures can be helpful (1/4 stick of butter or 2 tablespoons butter).

d. Language of ingredients: If I am writing an Indian recipe, do I list "jeera" or "cumin seeds" in the ingredient list? Often, we use English words interspersed with words from our own language, depending on what term is most familiar to us. But I get the occasional feedback from readers saying both, "You say poppy seeds….what is that in Marathi?" and "You say ratala… what is that in English?" What is the solution to the language dilemma? Perhaps a link to a glossary? Creating a glossary page on our blogs? Or we can where possible put the name we are most familiar with and the English or other name in (brackets).

e. Ingredient shorthand: Ingredients can be written in short forms, and some of the common terms are S&P (salt and pepper), t = teaspoon and T = tablespoon, C = cup, and lately, thanks to a certain someone, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). But if one chooses to use short forms, the readers should know the meaning of the terms to avoid confusion. Perhaps a glossary or a key would be helpful?

f. Instructions with the ingredients: A recipe method can be simplified and shortened by writing some directions in the ingredients list itself. Simple instructions ("2 eggs, beaten" instead of just "2 eggs" and then "Beat the eggs" in the directions) are good to have in the ingredients list, but complex preparation steps belong in the method section.

g. Ingredient substitution: It can be useful to say what substitutions can be made right in the ingredient list, so that the reader can see at a glance whether they have the ingredients for trying out the recipe ("8 ounces macaroni, or other short pasta")

h. Way of presenting ingredients: It is a general consensus that a recipe looks neater and more user-friendly if each ingredient is listed on a separate line. Of course, in the case of just 3-4 ingredients, it does not matter. But a very long ingredient list in paragraph form is quite difficult to read.

i. Photographs of ingredients: Blogging gives us the advantage of laying out the ingredients beautifully and providing a pictorial depiction of the ingredient list, so readers can see at a glance what goes into a recipe.

j. Is an ingredient list necessary? Recently, I got rid of ingredients lists altogether and started highlighting ingredients in bold in the methods itself. I have no idea if this makes it very difficult to use, but it sure makes it less work to write the recipe! Any thoughts on this?

3. Accessorizing the recipe: Beyond the ingredients and the method, there are several features that we can use to enhance the usefulness of our recipes.
a. Yield of a recipe: This gives an approximate idea of how much food a recipe makes. The yield can be expressed as "4-6 servings", "makes 1 cup", "makes 6 medium patties" etc.
b. Equipment list: If a recipe calls for specialized equipment, (ice cream machine, bread machine, microwave), that fact can be written in a list following the ingredient list, for instance. This way the readers can see at a glance if they have the equipment necessary for trying the recipe.
b. Time of preparation (active cooking time, total time, marinating time, rising time): this gives an idea of time that one needs to invest to try the recipe.
c. Variations: E.g. variation of ingredients, "Use okra or radishes or eggplants to make variations of this sambar", of consistency, "for a smoother consistency, put the soup through a blender", or equipment alternatives, "To make a loaf instead of individual rolls, bake the dough in a loaf pan". Such tips are highly useful, especially for less experienced cooks.
d. Notes on how to serve: This can be in the form of serving ideas ("this chutney can be used as a dip or as a sandwich spread"), adaptations that can go in the lunch-box, or suggested accompaniments ("this rice goes well with a yogurt raita").
e. Nutrition facts: Just looking at a recipe, it can be quite challenging to figure out the nutrition and calorie content. So, precise nutrition facts can be a useful feature for anyone who is trying to eat healthier or anyone who has special nutritional needs or restrictions. There are many software packages out there to calculate nutrition facts for any recipe; here is one recommended by fellow blogger Alanna.
f. Links to other recipes: These could be links to other recipes on the internet (or even on your own blog) using the same main ingredient (Five more cauliflower curries), or to similar recipes with alternative ingredients (Other recipes from Sri Lanka). I personally find this very useful and convenient.

Research for this article:
1. The Recipe-Writer's Handbook: Barbara Gobbs Ostmann and Jane Baker
2. Rogov's Ramblings
3. Eggbeater Post
Many thanks to Cynthia for pre-reading this post and giving her valuable input!

A Leeky Pasta Bowl

The Allium Family- Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley, Wednesday, Uncle Fester and Lurch Onions, Garlic, Chives, Leeks, Shallots and Scallions. Each word evokes the promise of a savory and aromatic morsel. All this month, the alliums are going to be the "flavor of the month" on One Hot Stove. Three of the family members- onions, garlic and scallions- are near and dear to me; I have them stocked in my kitchen at all times. But sometimes I have a feeling that I take them for granted, and would like to occasionally use them in dishes where their presence is celebrated and not just working behind the scenes. The other three alliums- chives, leeks and shallots- are barely known to me, and this will be a good chance to find some recipes where they shine. Read more about the culinary profiles of the alliums in this Cooking Light article. Apart from the sheer delicious taste that compels me to play with this family of vegetables, they also happen to be superfoods with many health benefits to their name.

My first experiment is with leeks. Picture a scallion (spring onion/ green onion) that has been pumping up its muscles with illegal pharmaceuticals- that is exactly what a leek looks like, robust and hearty. They are beautiful vegetables, with a snow white root end slowly changing color to dark green at the tips. This SFGate article has great advice on growing and preparing leeks.

I googled around for a leek recipe and decided on this simple one from Marcella Hazan, shared in the Chowhound forum. This recipe belongs to a family of pasta dishes that I invariably enjoy- vegetables and garlic gently sauteed in olive oil and butter, then splashed with some cream, cheese and pasta water to make a sauce for pasta. We have discovered a particular brand of whole-grain pasta from Trader Joe's that we simply love, and I cook it quite often knowing that a simple pasta supper is giving us a good supply of protein and fiber. The recipe does call for butter, cream and cheese, but I used all these in moderate quantities where a little goes a long way.

Spaghetti in a Creamy Leek Sauce

(adapted from this recipe, originally from Marcella Hazan; serves 3-4)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb whole-wheat spaghetti
4 medium leeks
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 T extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 T butter
3 T cream
3 T parmesan (or similar) cheese
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes
Method:
1. Start boiling a large pot of salted water for pasta.
2. Prepare the leeks: Cut off and dicard dark green portions of the leeks (can save these portions for stock). Cut the white and light green parts into 1/4 inch rounds.Place the sliced leeks in a bowl and rinse well with cold water.
2. Heat oil and butter together in a heavy-bottomed skillet. Saute the garlic until fragrant.
3. Add the leeks and some salt to taste. Saute the leeks on medium heat for 25-30 minutes, or until cooked down to a creamy consistency, stirring once in a while. Add a little water if the leeks start to dry out. At the end of cooking time, let the leeks cook to almost a golden color.
4. Stir in the cream, pepper and red pepper flakes (to taste) and set the sauce aside.
5. Cook pasta in the boiling water. Save 1 cup of the pasta water.
6. Stir cooked spaghetti into the sauce. Add enough pasta water to bring the sauce to the desired consistency. Stir in the parmesan and serve.

What started off as a simple supper turned out to be quite special- this pasta is outstanding! The leeks have a wonderful flavor that is mild and pleasing, and the sauce showcases it beautifully. This is the perfect pasta for a winter night, and definitely goes straight on to "keeper" list.

I served the pasta with some simple roasted beets.


More leek dishes:
Leek and Potato Soup
Leek Souffle
Savory Leek Quiche
Leek and Potato Galette
Leeky Lemon Risotto
Leek-Stuffed Kulcha


I'm thrilled to have discovered leeks and in celebration, I am sending this post over to Kalyn for Weekend Herb Blogging. WHB is in its third year of celebrating the beauty of herbs and vegetables!

Which of the alliums is your personal favorite? Do you have any much-loved recipes using alliums?

*** *** *** *** ***
My birthday gift to V was an "experience" gift: a skydive. On the last day of 2007, V jumped from a plane! That's him in the picture, free-falling in the skies above Missouri. He landed safely on terra firma a few minutes later with the words, "Man, that was peaceful" and a huge grin on his face. Who knew falling from the sky could be so much fun?

The Best of 2007

Food bloggers from around the world are sharing their best moments of the year 2007, and you are invited to take a look!


28 Cooks: Fiber rounds up the best snacks, bites and nibbles of each month in two awesome posts- a snack addict's idea of heaven, for sure! Read her post to get some great ideas for your own parties this year.

Ahaar: Mandira ponders over the big changes in her life over the year and highlights some favorite dishes that gave her "something new - a new taste, a new recipe, a new grain, a new flavor..." and were delicious as well.

A Mad Tea Party: Anita round up her favorite posts of the year, starting with the post that led to a poori-frying frenzy in the Indian food blog world with its timely reminder of moderation and common sense.

Anali's First Amendment: Anali writes a recap of the renovations on her blog/cooking life during 2007, including well-organized recipe binders. Her Homemade Bread Pledge is something I'm definitely excited about.

An Italian in the US: Marta chronicles the best culinary moments of the year, including learning to bake bread and make home-made pasta, participating in food blog events and hosting her own, and making her first liqueurs and jams. Now that counts as a very productive year indeed.

A Suitable Spice: Minti, in only the second (!) post on her blog, tells us all about the culinary highlights of her year, and her cooking aspirations for the year to come.

Canela & Comino: Gretchen points out some delicious favorites from the months since she started blogging (including some tasty Peruvian stews) and shares her list of things to make in 2008. My favorite bit- she found recipes to use up 125 lbs of plantains that were gifted to her this year!

Champaign Taste: Lisa has a tough time choosing just 10 dishes of the ones she made this year, but does end up with a fantastic list of "keeper" recipes, including one of my own favorites: Gobhi Aloo Sabji.

Coconut and Lime: Rachel chooses one favorite original recipe for each month of the year, including one with the very intriguing name "smearcase".

Cook (almost) Anything: Haalo selects a baker's dozen of gorgeous recipes for 2007. Be prepared to be dazzled by everything from purple gnocchi to basil ice cream.

Cooking 4 All Seasons: Srivalli gives us the story of how her blog took shape, along with her favorite dishes, meals and posts of the year. Her cooking resolution for 2008 is one of my resolutions too.

Cooking from A to Z: Kaykat writes a thoughtful account about how cooking and blogging has led her to think more "about the "right" things", something that many of us can identify with. She shares a list of 10 favorite dishes, plus her favorite pooch treats of the year. Dale thanks you, Kaykat!

Culinary Bazaar: Dhivya gets nostalgic, and captures 2007 in three desserts and their associated sweet memories, all in one heartfelt post.

Culinary Types: T.W. Barritt reminisces about encounters with all kinds of culinary types- including chefs, home cooks, trend-makers and food bloggers! Click through to get to know them more.

Escapades: Arundati shares ten favorite dishes that have graced her blog, table and parties, including homemade truffles and chocolates, and a gorgeous date and fig ravioli.

Finger Licking Food: Namratha reveals that her passion for food is a new found one, and that is hard to believe once you look at her delicious list of 10 favorite recipes, including the all-time favorite, black forest cake.

Food Hunter's Guide to Cuisine: The Food Hunter chose to recap the top 5 new foods of 2007. Click through to read this interesting list and see if you have tasted any of these foods.

Food, In The Main...: Shyam shares her five favorites of the year. I especially love the vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, which "sacrifices nothing - in taste or farmyard animals" :D

For The Cook In Me: Nags takes an interesting and introspective look at the highlights of the blogging year, including her most popular post, her most fun post, and the one that surprised her the most. Go see for yourself what they are!

Fun and Food: Mansi muses over everything that went into the making of her blog, then shares her favorite recipes from several different categories, including one that is perfect for the season: a Hot and Spiced Vanilla Rum Drink.

Green Gourmet Giraffe: Johanna writes about the most memorable food moments of the year, including the creation of an adorable (and vegetarian!) hog's head.

Habeas Brulee: Danielle thinks back to every month of 2007 and relives some of the best moments- culinary ones, as well as big happenings in her personal and professional life.

Hunger Pangs: Rajitha pens (types?) down her thoughts on why she enjoys food blogging, and gives her top 5 recipes based on a unique criterion- "coz i thought photos looked good with minimal effort" :D Click through to see for yourself that these photos and recipes do look completely delicious!

Indian Cooking: Sagari is a new blogger who looks back on the start of her blog and picks out five delicious favorites. We wish you good luck for a whole new year of cooking and blogging.

Indian Food Rocks: Manisha looks over the year one month at a time and shares the highlights- be they food, family or life in general. Click through to take a look at a memorable year of incredible posts.

In Love With Food: Bindiya proclaims "BLOGGING SIMPLY ROCKS" (we agree!) and shares 7 of her favorite dishes this year- 2 rich curries and a whole array of tempting desserts.

Iron Stef: Stef recollects the most memorable posts of the year all in once place to make one quirky, wonderful post containing everything from bright pink gnocchi, adorable-looking savory meatloaf cupcakes and a zucchini the size of a toddler, among other delights.

Jugalbandi: Bee and Jai write about their favorite posts from the diverse series on their blog, and each pick five of their favorite recipes from this year. Click through to get a bird's eye view of this incredibly wide-ranging blog.

Kalyn's Kitchen: Kalyn chooses a favorite recipe from each month, like roasted asparagus in February and spiced butternut squash in November. Each of these dishes is healthful, flavorful, seasonal and oh-so-colorful: a winning combination.

Kitchen Art: Shella writes a heartfelt tribute to each of her family members and friends for being avid supporters of her blog. Click through to read about her prize-winning chocolate recipe.

Live To Eat: Sig looks back at the best posts from all the myriad categories of her blog- including desserts, cocktails and restaurant reviews. That Kumquat and Mango Mojito is calling out to me, but wait, it is only 7 in the morning :D

Mane Adige: Ramya's flashback is a short and sweet list of the 5 best pictures on her blog and the 5 recipes that her readers have appreciated the most.

Maninas: Food Matters: Maninas summarizes the best recipe of the year in 4 words- "INSPIRATION, BOLD FLAVOURS, DISCOVERIES, EXPERIMENTATION" what more can one ask for?

My Randap: Seema takes a fond look at her blog and chooses the favorite recipes that run the gamut from the very traditional (sanna polo) to the very modern (fruit pizza). Click through to see the whole list.

Nalapaka: Vanamala reminisces about the happy family moments of the year gone by and lists her favorite dishes of the year and of each month, all wrapped into an appetizing feast.

Out Of The Garden: Linda bids a fond farewell to 2007 and finds that the year has been more than a foodie-journey for her. Click through to see her highlights of the year and gorgeous pictures of good times on her blog.

Passionate About Baking: The Passionate Baker treats us to a eye-popping collage of her year's creations, then shares many of the favorites of 2007- including her favorite discoveries this year ("BLOGGING & new friends" is at the top of the list!)

Ra Cha Chow: Tracy's post reveals a lot of her year's favorites- recipe, TV show, product and website, plus a sneak peek into exciting things to come in 2008. Her favorite product is one of my favorite new discoveries of the year too.

Saffron Trail: Nandita rounds up all the recipes blogged in 2007, and shares her personal favorites- from a zero-oil vegetable dish to a strawberry cheesecake that resulted in "an extra inch on our waist" :D

Simple Indian Food: EC shares the ten recipes of the year that were super-hits, as well as some great resolutions for the coming year. Click through to see if any of your own favorites made it to the list.

Siri's Corner: Siri fondly remembers the favorite moments of 2007, including 15 days of NaBloPoMo and participation in the FAHC campaign.

Spicy Chilly: Bharathy presents her top ten recipes, including one of my all-time favorite snacks- raw banana chips.

Sunita's World: Sunita speaks fondly of the blog as her "third baby" and highlights some of her delicious creations of the year, as well as her wonderful monthly event Think Spice.

Swad: As she bids farewell to 2007, Swapna also says good-bye to her kitchen as she prepares to a brand new home in India. Go read her fond memories of setting up home and hearth and the memorable recipes that were lovingly prepared there.

Tastes Like Home: Cynthia recollects “A year in the kitchen”, full of activity and yielding incredible results. Click through to her column to read a concise account of her numerous and diverse culinary adventures in 2007.

Teczcape: Tigerfish sews together a collage of time-saving dishes for busy cooks everywhere- 10 one-dish favorites that definitely meet the stated goal of "Quick. Easy. Healthy. Nutritious." Now is the time to get some fresh dinner ideas for the new year.

Tham Jiak: Rokh looks back at a year of delicious eats and highlights "best idea thought of in 2007" and "best celebration" along with favorite recipe and restaurant, all packed into one engaging post.

The Bubbling Cauldron: Kamini polls her family to find the best dish of 2007, then reveals a few more dishes that are her own favorites. Take a guess- what could the family favorite be; then check if you are right!

The Perfect Pantry: Lydia divulges some pantry ingredients that stood out during this year, then gives us a sneak peek into 10 exciting new ingredients that just might make their way into the perfect pantry in 2008. Click through to look at the list, then suggest some of your own favorite ingredients to Lydia.

The Singing Chef: Raaga writes an interesting account of her culinary journey and reveals a lot of the year's favorites, including the ingredient of the year and the discovery of the year. Curious about what they are? Go see for yourself.

What Smells So Good: Sarah's list includes her own favorite posts, favorite posts from other blogs, as well as a delicious list of recipes that she plans to make in the coming year. Click through to get some more to-do dishes for your own list, because everything on Sarah's list sounds really good.

What's For Lunch, Honey?: Meeta's retrospective includes her favorite moments from each aspect of her blog, including Bollywood Cooking, Foodography and Daring Bakers, all depicted with her signature spectacular photographs.

When My Soup Came Alive: Sra writes a contemplative post about her year of blogging, letting us into what she wants her blog to do next year, then setting out her favorite posts...everything from recipes to commentaries to trips down memory lane, all bundled up in this candid and humorous post.

And finally,
One Hot Stove: My ten favorite recipes of 2007.

Last but not least, here is a Blog Reader Challenge: Go visit the food blogs that you read and love, and tell them what *your favorite post* of the year was, on that particular blog. Perhaps there was the one write-up that really struck a chord, a post that was useful or informative, or a recipe that you tried and loved. Half the joy of blogging comes from the conversation between bloggers and readers, so tell us what your own favorite posts were.

There is always a possibility that some entries are lost in cyberspace, so if you don't see your entry here, please e-mail me and I will include it right away.

Many thanks to all the participants and all the readers. Here's wishing you a beautiful dawn tomorrow as a new year begins in our lives.

And Time Goes By...

You've been a good year, 2007. A new city and a new kitchen yielded 120 posts on One Hot Stove during this year. It was *really* hard to choose my favorite 10 recipes of 2007. I rarely post a recipe here unless I've enjoyed it very much- so the "deliciousness" criterion really is of no use here. In the end, I have featured the recipes that have the highest "keeper recipe" score. After all, the life of a food blogger is a constant quest for the next recipe to cook and eat and blog about. The keeper recipes are the ones I keep coming back to, ignoring the urge to look for something new and different.

So here they are: My Top 10 Recipes of 2007, in no particular order, with notes about the highly subjective reasons I chose to include them.

1. Microwave Sabudana Khichdi
This is our breakfast when I am feeling indulgent. I left the old skool stove top method behind this year and switched to the microwave. As several comments on that post will tell you, it just works really well! I took the advice of some readers and started soaking the sabudana for only 15-20 minutes, then draining and laying it out for 1-2 hours. The resulting khichdi is simply perfect (which can be a miracle when it comes to sago khichdi). For being able to standardize and simplify a favorite dish, this post makes it to the list.

2. Granola
This is a great example of how a blog event will push me to try something that has been idling on the to-do list for a while. Madhuli's "Oats" theme got me to start making granola at home on a regular basis. Within a few months, I had abandoned the usual recipe and switched to a new favorite no-oil granola recipe. I now make it every couple of weeks with a different combination of nuts and sugars and dried fruits and store in the jar for the easiest breakfast ever. For saving me calories, time and $$, this post makes it to the list.

3. Summer Rolls
Lots of salad vegetables, herbs and grilled tofu all wrapped up in a neat bundle and dipped into a mouth-watering sauce. What else can I say? These summer rolls are bursting with health and are perfect for lunch-boxes, taking on trips and picnics, as crowd-pleasing appetizers. For being incredibly versatile, these rolls make it to the list.

4. Kati roll
My love for street food is no secret. I won't say that I buy/make paneer often, but when I do, this kati roll is what we crave. After some experimentation, I hit upon this recipe that hits the spot. For satisfying my street food cravings, this post makes it to the list.

5. Pizza
My idea of the perfect Friday night, when we are quite tired from a hectic week and ready for the weekend: pizza and a glass of wine. Up until last December, we picked up the phone and ordered one from the neighborhood pizzeria in NYC. Something tells me that it is going to be difficult to find decent pizza in St. Louis. Now I make my own and feel a lot more empowered :D For reducing my NYC homesickness, home-made pizza makes it to the list.

6. Falafel
To be fair, this is a combination of the two above foods: a street food and a NYC staple. This recipe for falafel is always a big hit whever I make it, and it led me to explore other delicious recipes based in Middle Eastern cuisine, such as lubia polo, hummus and kibbeh. For inspiring me to explore new cuisines, this post makes it to the list.

7. Mustard greens
This recipe, along with this one, was significant to me for one reason: it taught me that a few select flavorings are the best way to make the main ingredient shine. I think this is going to be my next endeavor to improve my cooking skills: to think carefully about the ingredients in a dish and ask if each one of them really has to be there. What does each ingredient contribute to the dish? For provoking me to think about the "less is more" principle of cooking, this recipe makes it to the list. And also because I have used it to make countless bowls of delicious greens to nourish us with.

8. Vegetable Biryani
This is just a standardized way of making vegetable biryani in a way that makes way more servings than I am normally accustomed to making. I grew up eating this biryani for Sunday lunch and it is just really special to me. For being a sure-fire way of feeding a crowd, this post makes it to the list.

9. Chocolate Cake
Three days after I made this cake, some of the trimmings (from making the layers) were still in my fridge. When friends stopped by with chocolate cupcakes from a trendy local bakery, V and I did a quick taste test- this stale cake versus the fresh cupcake. No contest; this cake was far tastier even when it was three days old. For giving me a classic reliable chocolate cake recipe, this post makes it to the top ten. I can't wait to use it to make a Black Forest Cake, with home-made cherry filling.

10. Buttercrunch Candy
This year gave me a bounty of gifts from the kitchens of family and friends- fruitcake and cookies (thanks, Madhu), biscotti (thanks, Rebecca), plum chutney (thanks, Mark), peach jam (thanks, Terry kaku)...to name a few. With this candy recipe, I now have a go-to recipe for making my own favorite treat to give as a gift. For being a wonderful gift from the kitchen, this post makes it to the list. And also because it was quite a big deal for me to get over some hesitation and learn to make candy at home.

Other highlights of this year for me were: the A to Z of Indian Vegetables series/event that just kept me on my toes for a few months. This year, I am going to go back and try cooking some of those delicious vegetable dishes that were sent in for that event. It was incredibly enjoyable writing those posts. I also thoroughly enjoyed hosting RCI: Maharashtra and writing that massive round-up. Hosting events, and participating in events remains one of my favorite blogging activities :D This year, I also started writing a monthly post for the Daily Tiffin (Thank you for the opportunity, Meeta). It has been fun to write about topics that are not as food-centric as the ones on this blog.

Every home cook has different aspirations- one might want to learn to make spectacular dishes for entertaining, and another might want to focus on lower-calorie cooking. I have realized this year that my goal is to put a tasty and nutritious dinner on the table day after day after day. To a large extent, I feel good about what I have managed to go this year: make vegetable-centric dinners, to rely on pantry staples, minimize waste and to keep a wide repertoire of simple, one-dish meal ideas on hand. Next year I want to do more of the same. I want to increase the presence of vegetables, beans and whole grains in our everyday meals, and still devote some time to making foods such as desserts and deep-fried foods that may not necessarily be the pinnacle of healthfulness but are meant to be enjoyed once in a while to mark special times. I enjoyed the pilot run of "project of the month" and the "flavor of the month" in December (hope you did too) and plan to continue those on a monthly basis.

I can't thank *you*- the readers of this blog- enough. Your feedback, and suggestions and encouraging comments, help me grow and strive to do better. If there is anything specific you would like to see on One Hot Stove, I am all ears. When someone leaves feedback about a recipe- whether it worked or not, what variations they tried- it helps everyone who wants to try that recipe in the future. To all those who take the time to share their thoughts, please know that you are appreciated.

Any food bloggers who would like to write their own Best of 2007 are invited to send me the permalink of their post by December 30th for inclusion in the round-up.

To all my dear fellow bloggers, readers, friends, family and well-wishers- I wish you every joy and success in the year 2008. And for all of us, I wish for a world that is peaceful and just, with nutritious food to fill every tummy.

Happy New Year!

Two Tangy Milky Desserts

...one Maharashtrian favorite, and the other, an American favorite.

The first is Shrikhand, a simple dessert of strained thick yogurt mixed with sugar and flavorings like saffron and cardamom. I must confess that of all the profusion of Indian desserts that I know and love, shrikhand would never make it to even the top 20. I usually find it too thick and rich and cloying after a few bites. But I was making a typical Maharashtrian meal for some friends last night and decided to give it a try. After all is said and done, it *is* a low-maintenance no-cook dessert and when you make it at home, you have full control over how much sugar you add to it.

I got this recipe from an aunt (actually one of my parents' closest friends). She belongs to that band of Indians who settled in the US in the 70s, in the days when Indian ingredients and stores were few and far between in this country. Over the decades, she has tried and tested and perfected (and how!) ways of making Indian favorites using ingredients commonly found in American supermarkets. When she informally told me how she makes shrikhand, I tuned out everything else and filed away the instructions carefully in the voice recorder of my brain. When you collect recipes as I do, you quickly learn to memorize every detail when an accomplished cook is talking. Virtually every shrikhand recipe that I come across mentions that it is essential to use full-fat yogurt. According to my aunt, *low-fat* yogurt yields the best shrikhand (full fat is too buttery and non-fat is too chalky, as per her trials). Now, this is not someone who would ever compromise taste for the sake of low-fat anything, so when she says that low-fat tastes the best, I am convinced. She also mentioned that she prefers Dannon brand yogurt. I used Trader Joe's and it worked just fine. The taste of this shrikhand was so irresistible that I felt absolutely no need to add sour cream or anything else to it, as some recipes do. Thank you, Anju maushi, for sharing your recipe!

Shrikhand

(serves 4-6)
Ingredients
1 tub (32 oz/ 4 C) low-fat plain yogurt
3/4 C granulated sugar (anywhere from half to one cup, according to taste)
pinch of salt
1/2 t powdered cardamom
1 t warm milk
1 hefty pinch saffron threads
2-3 T chopped almonds or pistachios
Method
1. Set a large strainer on a bowl. Line the strainer with clean porous fabric (eg. cheesecloth) or clean coffee filters. Pour the yogurt into the strainer. Cover the strainer/bowl and place in refrigerator overnight (8-12 hours).
2. Place the thick, strained yogurt into a fresh bowl. The nutritious whey that has dripped away can be used to knead paratha/roti dough, in dals or soups.
3. Add the sugar 2-3 T at a time, stirring every time you add some, at 3-5 minute intervals. This way the sugar dissolves evenly into the yogurt.
4. Meanwhile, stir the saffron into the warm milk and let it soak for 5-10 minutes.
5. Finally, after all the sugar has been mixed in, add a pinch of salt, saffron, cardamom and nuts. Stir and refrigerate until you serve it.

This shrikhand was delicious, and might be worth a try for those who think they don't like shrikhand much. Low-fat, schmo-fat...it was utterly creamy with just the right consistency, to my palate. And far less indulgent than most other desserts I can think of. Other delicious additions to shrikhand are nutmeg powder and charoli. At feasts in Maharashtra, shrikhand is often the accompaniment to puri-bhaji.

Fruity takes on shrikhand:
Strawberry Shrikhand from Ashwini
Blackberry Shrikhand from Manisha
Peach-Saffron Shrikhand from Suma
Amrakhand from Aarti
There is such a thing as "chocokhand" (chocolate shrikhand) sold as a novelty by some Indian dairies, but it looks like no blogger has tried making that yet :D

Strained yogurt is such a versatile ingredient. Among other things, it can be used to make sandwiches, frozen yogurt, tzatziki, and delicious dips.

*** *** ***
There are so many parties and get-togethers this month that an over-abundance of desserts is almost inevitable. I swear I am making these sweets to take to holiday festivities and to share with lots of people and restricting myself to itty-bitty servings (that's not what her hips are saying). To continue with the sugar high, here is the other dessert I made this week: Lemon Squares.

I saw Key Lime bars being made on an episode of America's Test Kitchen on PBS and they looked irresistible- a sweet cookie crust baked with a sweet and tangy custard filling made quite simply with citrus juice and sweetened condensed milk. I used lemon instead of lime because it is what I had on hand. I also could not find animal crackers in the store so I subbed something called Teddy Graham Honey crackers. Sorry, cute little teddies who got blitzed to crumbs in the food processor :( I loved the graham cracker crust here, so I will continue to use it instead of the animal crackers.

Lemon Squares

(adapted from this Cook's Illustrated recipe)
1. Prepare a 8X8 inch square baking pan by lining it with foil (with some overhang) and lightly oiling the pan.
2. Preheat the oven to 325F
3. Crust: In a food processor bowl, add 5 oz. honey graham crackers, pinch of salt, 3 T melted butter, 3 T sugar and a dollop of molasses. Pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Pour it into the prepared pan and pat it down evenly (I used the bottom of a glass).
4. Bake the crust for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, make the filling: In a bowl, mix 1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk, 2 oz. cream cheese (1/4 of the standard pack), 1 egg yolk, pinch of salt, 1/2 C fresh lemon juice and 1 T lemon zest.
6. Pour the filling into the bakes crust and bake for 20 minutes. Cool for an hour, then chill thoroughly before slicing into 16 squares.

This dessert is really fun to make, for some reason. And tastes divine. These people agree.

To all my friends who celebrate it, here's wishing you a Merry Christmas!

A first attempt at Peanut Chikki

Rich roasted peanuts trapped in a shell of complex (salty-sweet, caramel, smoky) notes- peanut brittle or peanut chikki is my all-time favorite candy. I first tried making chikki when I was still in middle school. I only remember that the episode was a messy one, and now, many many years later, it is time to give it another shot.

Although chikki can be made with refined white sugar, it is more commonly made with that flavorful brown sugar that Indians know as jaggery or gud or gool. Jyotsna's essay All About Gur Things is a beautiful look at the art of making jaggery- my favorite sugar in the whole wide world. In his book On Food And Cooking, Harold McGee explains that brown sugars are sucrose crystals that are coated with a layer of dark syrup from one of the stages of sugar refining. It is the syrup that gives brown sugar a more complex taste than the one-dimensional sweetness of sugar. The supermarket variety of brown sugar is simply ordinary refined sugar coated with a thin film of syrup. Once I knew this, I stopped stocking my pantry with brown sugar altogether. Now I simply mix regular sugar with molasses to make up brown sugar whenever it is called for in recipes. Unlike the fake supermarket brown sugar, jaggery is described by McGee as a whole sugar, crystalline sugar still enveloped in the cooked cane syrup that it emerged from.

Many of us from Western India probably associate chikki with a popular vacation destination called Lonavla. This hill-station is a cool refuge from the blistering heat of the plains and I remember taking many trips there with my family. I think it is almost illegal to visit Lonavla without trying one of the dozens of different kinds of chikki sold there; and if you want to maintain your social life, it is necessary to buy several little string-wrapped boxes for friends and neighbors and co-workers as well. Abodh's essay on Chikki at Lonavla tells you "everything you wanted to know about the Lonavala chikki and didn't know whom to ask"! (This blog has some great little essays and pictures about life in Bombay, like this one about Bhaji Galli or vegetable lane, plus Abodh rescues stray dogs from the streets of Bombay. What a great cause).

Looking through various recipes, I could see that chikki is a pretty minimalist food that calls for, basically, sugar and peanuts. The sugar can be white sugar or jaggery or a combination of the two. I chose all-jaggery. The peanuts can be roasted or not. They can be crushed or not. I chose to roast and skin the peanuts, and chopped half of them and left the others whole (or in halves, actually). Some recipes add some ghee, others don't. I did add some. Some recipes add cardamom and some don't. Again, I chose to add a little bit. The final variable is the ratio of peanuts to jaggery. For the first pass, I decided to go with a 1:1 ratio. The ratio would really depend on individual preference. For breaking up large lumps/slabs/mounds/dheps of jaggery, Anupama's tip is an excellent one. The recipe describes how I made chikki this time, followed by notes on what I would change the next time I make it.

Peanut Chikki

1. Roast 1.5 C peanuts in either a skillet or microwave. Skin the peanuts and coarsely chop half of them. Set the peanuts aside.
2. Lightly grease a baking sheet (or some other flat surface) and keep it ready.
3. In a medium-sized heavy saucepan, add 1.5 C chopped jaggery and 1 T ghee. Heat on medium-low heat until the jaggery starts to melt.
4. When the jaggery melts and the syrup starts to form threads that snap when cooled, take it off the heat. My idea was to heat the jaggery syrup to 300F (hard crack stage that is best for brittle). But around 250-260F, the syrup was getting too dark, clearly forming threads and had to be taken off the heat before it scorched. This is most likely due to the fact that jaggery has different caramelization properties as compared to pure sugar. I think.
5. Off the heat, add peanuts, a pinch of cardamom, mix well and pour onto the greased surface. Spread into a sheet using a spatula.
6. Break into pieces once it is cooled. Store in an air-tight container.

Lessons learnt:
1. I will coarsely chop all of the peanuts to meld the taste of nut and jaggery in every bite.
2. I will use more jaggery than peanut- about 2 C jaggery for every 1.5 C peanuts.
3. I have to standardize the temperature at which jaggery forms a brittle.
Perfect or not, this chikki was crunchy and thoroughly enjoyable!

Love your chikki? Adore that brittle? Here's more:
Peanut Chikki from Chachi's Kitchen
Peanut Chikki from Vindu
Coconut Chikki from A Whirl of Aromas
Dry-fruits Sesame Chikki from Cooking Pleasures
Til Wadi from A Cook @ Heart
Video: Peanut Brittle from Mark Bittman
Cashew Brittle from The Wednesday Chef
Popcorn Brittle from Culinary in the Country

I'm going to make another dessert tonight, and if it works out, I'll post about it. The two main ingredients are lemon juice and condensed milk. Care to guess what it is?

Miso as Marinade

After enjoying miso in a steaming cup of soup, here is another great cold-weather way of enjoying it: as a phenomenally flavorful marinade for tofu and grilled vegetables.

Anh's recipe caught my eye a few months ago. Two flavor powerhouses- tahini (sesame seed paste) and miso come together to make a rich marinade that is slathered on thick cuts of eggplant and tofu. Under the broiler, the tofu and vegetables are grilled to perfection.

I feel very sheepish admitting it here, but I only "discovered" the broiler a couple of months ago. Standard oven ranges that are found in the majority of US kitchens come with an oven. Although I will probably always be much more comfortable with stove-top cooking, it did not take me very long to start using the oven frequently. In all homes that I have lived in up to this point, the oven also has a mysterious little door at the very bottom- the broiler. Turning the oven to its "broil" function starts up a roaring fire close to the broiler. Any food that is placed in the broiler gets quickly cooked by infrared radiation and gets nicely browned to a crisp finish (and nicely charred to a lump of carbon if you turn your attention away for a few minutes).

Anyway, it has taken me years to "discover" the broiler and to start using it and enjoying it. It all sounds so silly, and I felt downright foolish until I found that she also discovered the broiler only recently. Now I feel a little better :) Anyway, knowing how to broil opens up lots of possibilities for turning out perfectly browned vegetables, melting crusty cheese, creme brulee with the crackly crust and all the rest of that.

Back to the recipe at hand. I mixed together the marinade without actually measuring out any of the ingredients; just eyeballing them. I also did not use skewers but will do so next time I make this- they do make for such a pretty presentation. Thicker slices of eggplant taste very juicy and delicious.

Miso-Slathered Tofu and Eggplant

(Adapted from Anh's recipe )
1. Take one medium eggplant and slice it into thick slices. Drain 1 box of extra-firm tofu and cut it into thick slabs. Pat the slabs to wick off as much liquid as possible.
2. In a small saucepan, combine tahini, white miso, sugar, rice wine vinegar, red pepper flakes and vegetable stock (all to taste) to make a thick paste. Warm the sauce until the ingredients blend together well. Set aside.
3. Lightly grease a broiler-safe pan and turn on the broiler. Lay the slices of eggplant in a single layer. Smear each slice with the marinade and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Broil for 5 minutes or so, until the top is starting to brown. Turn over, smear again with marinade and broil until tender.
4. Broil the tofu the same way, although tofu takes slightly less time.
5. Serve right away!

I served the broiled tofu and eggplant with some fried rice made with brown rice, for a delicious and wholesome meal. Each bite of the luscious tofu and eggplant brings home the meaning of the word "umami".

Other ideas for cooking tofu with miso:

My friend Kamini recommends this Miso Baked Tofu recipe.

Skillet Seared Tofu with Miso Sauce- Deborah Madison's recipe shared on "Albion Cooks".

This Nobu style Tofu with Miso Sauce sounds delicious too.

***Two Quick Reminders***
Last call for the Menu for Hope 4- Go grab those awesome prizes by buying raffle tickets here (and share a nutritious meal with a little schoolchild in the bargain).

Best of 2007: All food bloggers are invited to showcase the year of food on their blog. The deadline for the event is December 30th.

(My attempt at) A sweet and crunchy treat will be coming up in a couple of days. See you then!