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I don't make sweets often, but once in a while something like Cilantro's fruit kesari catches my fancy, and then it's like a craving - so here's my craving, which I made yesterday. It's just a coincidence that it's Deepavali and the kesari is appropriate as an offering. It's even more convenient that I could use up some over-soft soft fruit that I might have thrown away if not for the craving.
Now if only someone would make me thenkuzhal and thattai...
Ah well. Happy Deepavali to everybody, and may light and happiness be ever in your lives.
Recipe for: Fresh fruit rava kesari
Ingredients:
1/2 cup rava/sooji/semolina
1-1/2 cups water
1/8 tsp saffron threads (a pinch) left to soak in 1/4 cup warm milk for 15 minutes
10-12 seedless red grapes, halved or quartered
1 small orange, peeled and segments chopped
1 small ripe banana, chopped
1 small ripe plum, stoned and chopped
1 tbsp raisins or sultanas (optional)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
5 tsp ghee
2 tbsp nuts (I used walnuts and pecans)
Method:
1. Heat 2 tsp ghee in a heavy-based medium size pan and fry the rava/sooji/semolina on medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes till the rava turns a slightly darker shade and smells roasted. Be careful that it doesn't burn. Remove to a bowl till required.
2. In the same pan, heat another tsp ghee and fry the nuts on medium heat, stirring till they are fragrant and turn a darker shade. Remove the nuts from the pan and reserve.
3. Heat the fourth tsp of ghee in the same pan, and add all the fruits, letting them cook on medium-low heat till they are soft and squishy, about 5 minutes.
4. Now add the water and sugar. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat a little and let it simmer for 5 minutes, stirring until the sugar dissolves completely.
5. Add the roasted rava/sooji/semolina now, stirring all the while to mix evenly. Let this cook until the kesari begins to thicken, then add the saffron milk and stir it in. Keep stirring frequently to ensure that it does not burn or become lumpy.
6. When the kesari is no longer watery and has "come together" in a soft mass, stir in the fried nuts along with the remaining tsp ghee. Serve the kesari warm in small bowls.
Tip: You can also spread the kesari on a greased plate and let it cool, then cut it into squares or diamonds for a more elegant (and convenient) presentation.
Wow, it’s been so long since my previous post that I feel like I’m starting a new blog and certainly the chances that I’ll need to accumulate a new fan base are pretty good, too. Not that I’m accusing anybody of neglect. I mean, I know better than anyone else how I keep pruning my link list according to how long the linked blog has been inactive. It wouldn’t be fair or sensible to expect people to continue to visit my blog over an indefinite period with nothing new to look at or read. Anyway, it’s been a combination of family emergency (all of July) and general sloth (all of August).
I did have a few folders with photographs of recipes I’d made prior to July, but the long gap undid my memory. In other words, I couldn’t remember the ingredient list/substitutions, or the steps involved. That’s the problem with winging it with recipes, exacerbated by a bad memory.
Anyway, to mark my return to the food blogging world, from this recipe on, I’ll be incorporating a small change to the sequence of steps involved in the recipe. This is something that I’ve seen on a blog that I (and a zillion others) enjoy reading – me mainly for the droll humour of Ree Drummond, but also because I’m fascinated by her cheerful use of vast quantities of butter and cream in practically every recipe. (I haven't yet tried any of her recipes, but chances are very good that when I do, it will be a baking recipe.)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a fanatic about cooking healthy all the time, but she’s something else again. I love her bindaas attitude in the kitchen, but I have to assume that she does not indulge much in her own cooking, otherwise she would be top contender for “fattest woman in the USA”.
Looks like my train of thought has wandered off-track again. So, as I was saying, I’m – finally – going to incorporate something that the Pioneer Woman uses on her blog. No, not her sense of humour. I doubt I could do that. No, it’s the composite recipe that she gives at the end of each post, to make it easy for anyone who’s copy-pasting the recipe into a Word document to save on their computer. Right now, anybody who does that with recipes off my blog would find all the photos used in the recipe also being copied, forcing them to delete each photo from the Word document and all the extra space that the photos occupied for each step. It can be a pain if you want just the recipe and method without the photos (again, I’ve experienced it on other blogs), so I’m going to do as the Pioneer Woman does. Monkey see, monkey do.
I don’t think this is copyright infringement, as it’s not the contents of her blog or blogposts that I’m copying but just one stylistic element. At least, I hope I’m right. If anybody is more informed about this, please let me know.
So, finally, the recipe.
I wanted to make a chocolate-orange cake for my cousin and her husband who were visiting me last weekend, but I didn’t want it to be any recipe that I’d tried. It is always a risky affair to try a new recipe for guests without first doing a trial-run... but then I like to live life dangerously, sometimes (haha). I’d never used a whole cooked orange – peel, pith and all - in any cake, so I decided this would be the perfect occasion to try out the recipe. I didn’t know what a cooked, pureed orange would bring to the cake, but I kinda hoped that it would be a good, strong orange flavour – something I love. As it happened, the cake was nice and moist, but I have to say the orange flavour was not as pronounced as I’d hoped for. And this after I’d used orange oil extract as well! But it was a lovely cake, all the same.
For those who don’t like the taste of 85% cacao content dark chocolate, I suggest you use milk chocolate, or perhaps a lighter dark chocolate (as contradictory as that sounds). The cake as I made it is also on the less sweet side, because I used 90% dark chocolate to flavour the cake as well as for the frosting. If you stick with really dark chocolate, serve the cake with Chantilly cream or vanilla icecream to mellow the darkness a bit.
Recipe for: Dark chocolate orange cake
Ingredients:
1 large Minneolas or Seville orange
125g 85% dark chocolate , broken into pieces
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup sunflower oil 2 tsp orange oil extract
1-1/4 cup plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
For the chocolate ganache
200g 85% dark chocolate, broken into pieces 1 tsp orange oil extract
225ml double cream
Method:
Ganache
Make the chocolate ganache first, as it will take time for it to cool to spreading consistency. To make the ganache, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream to boiling, then pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 3 minutes, then stir till the mixture is glossy and smooth. Set aside until firm enough to spread.
Cake
1. Pierce the orange with a skewer (right through).
Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes until soft,
then puree it.
2. Preheat the oven to 180/375F. Spray a round 9" cake tin (or a bundt tin) with Pam.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave - 2 minutes on high, stir, then heat for 45 seconds at a time till melted. Let cool.
4. Place the sugar and oil in a large bowl, then add the eggs.
Beat them lightly till amalgamated, but dont whip it all to a froth.
5. Gradually beat in the puréed orange.
6. Sift the flour and baking powder, then add it to the batter.
7. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate
and mix well.
8. Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven until the cake tests done - in my oven it took about 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Place the cake on a serving plate, then swirl the prepared ganache over the top (and sides if you like).
Serve at room temperature with vanilla icecream or Chantilly cream.
RECIPE: DARK CHOCOLATE ORANGE CAKEIngredients:
1 large Minneolas or Seville orange
125g 85% dark chocolate , broken into pieces
3 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup sunflower oil
1-1/4 cup plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
For the chocolate ganache
200g 85% dark chocolate , broken into pieces
225ml double cream
Method:
Ganache
Make the chocolate ganache first, as it will take time for it to cool to spreading consistency. To make the ganache, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream to boiling, then pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 3 minutes, then stir till the mixture is glossy and smooth. Set aside until firm enough to spread.
Cake
1. Pierce the orange with a skewer (right through). Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes until soft, then puree it.
2. Preheat the oven to 180/375F. Spray a round 9" cake tin (or a bundt tin) with Pam.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave - 2 minutes on high, stir, then heat for 45 seconds at a time till melted. Let cool.
4. Place the sugar and oil in a large bowl, then add the eggs. Beat lightly till amalgamated, but dont whip the eggs to a froth.
5. Gradually beat in the puréed orange.
6. Sift the flour and baking powder, then stir it into the batter.
7. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate and mix well.
8. Pour into the prepared tin and bake in the centre of the oven until the cake tests done - in my oven it took about 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Place the cake on a serving plate, then swirl the prepared ganache over the top (and sides if you like).
Serve at room temperature with vanilla icecream or Chantilly cream.
If someone gave you an orange, an apple, some brewed coffee, cloves and some honey, would your first thought be: “Oooh, now I can bake a cake!”? No? Thought not.
No surprise, it would certainly never have crossed my mind that these were actually ingredients for a very special cake, had I not come across these items in a recipe on the Net, led there by a series of blog hops (starting with Shankari & Rajesh’s blog, Sacramento Spice, where she has a regular feature called “Sundays with Marlena Spieler”, showcasing Jewish recipes).
Eventually I moved on to google for general information on Jewish culture and Jewish food traditions, and pretty soon I was goggling at a cake recipe that called for the apparently random selection of ingredients I'd mentioned earlier. This cake is traditionally baked on the Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, and symbolises a sweet start to the year.
When I made the cake, even knowing that it was from a tried and tested traditional recipe didnt stop me wondering how it would turn out. I had to use a small can of mandarin orange rather than the whole fresh orange (peel pith and all) the recipe called for (because I didnt have it), and I substituted strong instant coffee for the brewed stuff (because ditto)... and decorated the top of the cake with whole pecans, but those were the ONLY changes from the original.
The cake was surprisingly good - surprising to me, because I couldn't help considering the combination of ingredients somewhat outlandish - very moist and with deep flavours, and it stayed that way for the couple of days that it survived before being demolished.
It's too late - or maybe too early? - to offer good wishes for a happy Jewish New Year (because it occurs around September)... and it's wee bit too far into this new year 2010 as well for new year wishes, but I'll take the opportunity to wish everybody many happy cake experiences, both baking and eating, for the year and the decade to come. I can do that, can't I?
Recipe for: Honey cake
Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup dark honey
1 egg
1 small orange, left unpeeled and cut up small (I used a small tin of chopped mandarins without peel)
1 small apple, cored and chopped (no need to peel)
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee (I used instant)
1-1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup raisins
15-20 whole pecan nuts (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Spray a nonstick 1.5 pound loaf pan with Pam.
2. In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugar, honey and egg.
Beat till mixed. (I used a manual beater).
3. In a blender, combine the orange and apple, add the coffee
and puree the mixture. It doesn't have to be very smooth.
4. In another bowl, place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.
5. Add a third of the fruit and coffee mix to the oil-honey-egg mixture, stirring well.
6. Add a third of the flour mixture, stirring again.
Continue adding in this manner till all the ingredients are combined.
7. Add the raisins and stir them in.
8. Pour the batter in a loaf pan. Arrange the pecan nuts on top, pressing them very gently into the batter.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or till a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
10. Let the cake stay in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
Serve at room temperature.
Oranges are my favourite fruit and orange my favourite colour, which makes it a happy coincidence that my favourite fruit and favourite colour come together in one juicy little package. However, not all oranges are equal in my eyes – the perfect oranges are those which are a tart-sweet explosion in the mouth when you bite into a segment, seedless, soft and loose in their skin (but not TOO loose and soft, because that means they’re past their best) and easy to peel. Oranges that are hard to peel, or just hard from old age, those that are blah in taste (neither sweet nor sour), those that are too squashy – they can totally mar what should be a blissful experience.
You’d have heard of the aphorism: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. I have another - When life gives you less than perfect oranges… why, make orange cake!
So, following my own advice, I did.
And it was good (both the advice and the cake).
(By rights, I should have ended this post at the previous sentence, which would have been the perfect exit line… unfortunately, the sentence arrived unexpectedly soon, leaving me with no choice but to continue despite the apt ending. All I really wanted to add was that the original recipe from About.com: Southernfood was for a sour cream orange cake with walnuts, but I substituted low-fat Greek yogurt for the sour cream and almonds for the walnuts (because a certain walnut-loving amma, who is back in India now, seems to have finished my stock off) – oh, and I added sultanas because I think oranges and sultanas are a star combination. Also, I halved the original recipe, as I didn't want to make a massive cake.)
Recipe for: Orange-almond cake
Ingredients:
1/4 cup salted butter, softened
1 tablespoon orange rind, grated
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup greek yogurt
6 tbsp fresh orange juice (I used 4 tbsp juice + 2 tbsp Cointreau
1/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
¼ cup sultanas or raisins
Topping:
1 tbsp orange blossom honey (or use any honey)
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind
1 tbsp lemon juice
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
2. Mix butter and 1 tablespoon orange rind together in a bowl.
3. Add sugar and cream the mixture till light and fluffy.
4. Then add the egg and beat well.
5. Mix flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture,
6. alternating with orange juice/Cointreau
7. and yogurt, beating until smooth after each addition.
8. Add chopped toasted almonds
9. and sultanas,
then pour into a greased cake pan (6” round pan) - I used a savarin pan.
10. Bake 40 minutes or till done
(check with cake tester – if it comes out dry, the cake is done).
11. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Make evenly spaced holes in the cake with a skewer.
12. Heat topping mixture,
then use pastry brush to spread the warm honey mixture on top of the warm cake.
This intensely orange cake is the first recipe that I tried from the eggless baking book by Cintia Stammers, published by the Bhaktivedanta Trust. The cake served two purposes - one, it was Pete's birthday cake, and two, it was a cake that my mother could eat, as she's a very strict vegetarian (unlike me - not so strict in that I'm happy to eat eggs and, much more rarely, the odd KFC takeout).
The recipe was simple and easy - TOO simple, I thought, so I tweaked a bit here and added a bit there to adapt it to something I felt was a little more festive. Mind you, I probably violated a couple of the Hare Krsna precepts with a addition of a little alcohol to the orange-sultana filling... but as long as nobody tells on me to Cintia Stammers, I should be safe enough. Perhaps, though, I should make it very clear that the Bhaktivedanta Trust did NOT recommend the addition of any alcohol whatsoever. It was entirely and only my doing.
Actually, if I'm to be honest, it was Pete's doing. (He did it, he did it! It was HIS fault! I'm innocent. Innocent, I tell you!)
The verdict on the cake was unanimous - Pete loved it, although he felt it was more a dessert cake than a snacky one because the filling tasted so rich and was so moist. He said it was spectacular with a cup of coffee - especially as he drinks his coffee without sugar.
My mother was happy with the cake, and so was I. Although I could manage only a small piece, every bite was loaded with deep flavours. A very auspicious start to my eggless baking attempts!
Recipe for: Orange cake
Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp soda bicarb
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sunflower oil
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup yogurt
3/4 cup orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
1 tsp orange zest
Orange-sultana filling:
1-1/4 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
1/2 cup golden sultanas
2 tbsp orange juice (I used fresh squeezed)
2 tbsp apricot brandy
1 tsp vanilla extract
two pinches orange food colouring (optional)
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Lightly grease an 8" round baking pan.
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, soda bicarb and baking powder.
3. In another bowl, cream together the oil, sugar and yogurt.
4. Add the juice, orange zest and flour; mix well and pour into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for about 35 minutes or till the cake tests done.
Let it remain in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire cooling rack.
6. When the cake is completely cool, split it in half horizontally (cant imagine why I had to specify that, but I have for some reason!)
7. To make the filling, put the sultanas, orange juice and apricot brandy in a small microwaveable bowl.
Cover with clingfilm, poke a hole in the top and microwave it for 2-1/2 minutes. Let cool, then puree the sultanas - whether smooth or coarsely(like I did) is entirely up to you.
8. Pour the pureed sultanas into a mixing bowl.
Add the orange food colouring (if using), the vanilla extract and orange zest and mix well.
9. Add the sifted icing sugar carefully and beat till the mixture is fairly thick. Add more icing sugar if required, to make it spreadable.
10. Spread the filling on one half of the cooled split cake
and top with the other half. Sift icing sugar thickly over the top. (I used vanila sugar that I blitzed in the grinder to make vanilla icing sugar).
Serve with a cup of strong coffee.
http://sweetnicks.blogspot.com/2006/03/arf5-day-11.html
This is my early entry for this week's ARF/5-a-day Tuesday #11 because I'm going to be in London and didnt want to miss out!
Anyway, I think I've found THE best banana bread recipe. Okay, the "best ever" tag is attached indiscriminately to things in this world, recipes included. But honestly, this bread is gorgeous! I think the original recipe is from Epicurious (maybe) although I'm not sure any more... but it's been slightly tweaked by yours truly.
This bread is super moist - it doesnt dry out easily, not even after two days. And the robust banana flavour is delicately overlaid with orange, with the occasional crunch of pecan nuts - mmm, definitely on the side of delicious! I even toasted slices of this bread - and BOY it's difficult to get it to toast, it's so heavy and moist. But the extra time in the toaster is worth it. Cover the toasted slice with thinly sliced strawberries, kiwi, peaches or even plums for a nice extra-fruity treat.
What I did, though, was butter mine lightly. And because I had citrus fruit marmalade with extra thick-cut peel, I spread that on as well. I kid you not, that was delicious to the last bite! This banana bread is definitely worth making again and again.
Recipe for: Banana-orange bread with nuts
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 cup brown and 1/2 Splenda)
1/4 cup soft butter
2 large eggs
4 very ripe medium bananas, mashed
2 tbsp grated orange rind
3 tbsp fresh orange juice
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecan nuts
Method:
1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt and whisk well.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until blended, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add the mashed bananas, orange juice and orange rind. Beat in well.
4. Next, add the flour mixture and combine until the flour is moist. Do not over-beat. Stir in the nuts.
5. Grease an 8-1/2 inch by 4-1/2 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour in the batter. Bake the loaf at 180C for 45 minutes or so, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
6. Cool 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out the loaf onto a wire rack and let cool completely before slicing.
Note: I decorated the top of the batter with brazil nuts, but in hindsight this wasnt the best idea. I only used them because I'd run out of pecans!
