Soulful Creations

Well, I seem to the last one to post yet again! This time we were challenged with Stollen, a cake like yeast bread with history as rich as its flavors. While it is thought to have originated sometime around 1330s, it is first mentioned in the accounts of the Christian Hospital of St. Bartholomew in Dresde, Germany.  Want to read more about it- check these pages here or here . The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking . She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen . She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration. Stollen Wreath Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people (I made one medium-sized and two small loaves) ¼ cup lukewarm water 28gms fresh yeast {or 14 grams active dry yeast} 1 cup milk 140gm unsalted butter 5½ cups {770 grams} all-purpose flour ,...

So here I am about 10 days late with my DB posting- I had almost everything ready to go for the Thanksgiving dinner but then Mr. Potter happened. I had seen it once before already but our friends who are both fairly new parents (a 7 mo old and a 15-month old) wanted to desperately see the movie on Thanksgiving day. And since they brought with them a beautiful mango tart- my dessert plan went out the window. The menu included- a chickpea-butternut squash pot pie, carrot-parsnip soup and beet-apple salad. Finally I got a chance to use the pasta frolla dough that has been sitting in my refrigerator for almost 2 weeks now! Yippeee.... The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole . She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. Ingredients I used the version2 of the pasta froll...

If I had a go-to recipe, a sort of comfort dessert, this would be it, I think. Since I discovered it a few years ago, I have lost count of how many times I actually made it. In fact, my roommate was so enamored by it that he learned to make it too! Easy-peasy date and walnut cake, source here Ingredients 12 dates, pitted and chopped 1 1/4 cup milk 3/4 cup oil 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1/4 cup ground flax seeds 1 tsp. baking soda  1/4 cup walnuts, chopped  Method (followed it to the "T") Boil the milk in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Add the dates and let it stand until cool. When cool put into a blender or food processor and process or blend until the dates are ground.  Add the oil into blender/food processor and blend/process again until incorporated and mixture becomes thick. Add sugar to the mixture in the blender/food processor and blend until incorporated. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl. S...

I have become a daring cook and baker ever since I started blogging- I try and incorporate different vegetables that are especially. The hardest for me was using the fall bounty-I hardly knew some of their names. But hey I am still the learner! Our last trip to the grocery store, we bought exactly one of these pretty looking fruits (this I knew the name of)- persimmon (the wise guy did not even know what it was when he picked it up!). I had it in the refrigerator for a week or so, manically googling recipes using persimmon when I hit upon this beautiful cupcake recipe from one of my favorite blogs- Cupcake Project .  The search stopped there! Recipe source here , minimally adapted Ingredients 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp baking soda ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 cups sugar 2 large eggs ¾ cup persimmon pulp (the insides of 1 over-ripe persimmon) ½ cup orange juice, freshly squeezed orange zest (from a...

and I must say I have fallen in love with them... This was a lovely eggless mousse recipe that I adapted from here . Ingredients about 100gms Chestnuts (had about 20 of them) sugar to taste 1 tbs cocoa 1 tsp almond extract (this was way too much) 16 ounces heavy whipping cream   Method Peel the outer leathery layer on the chestnuts. Place them in water to cover, simmer until tender. Remove the chestnuts, let it cool and then peel the inner skin. Add sugar, cocoa and almond extract. Process in a food processor until smooth and well combined. Beat heavy cream until stiff. Fold required amount (I just eyeballed the amount) into chestnut puree. Divide among desert glasses. Chill until set-up. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Judgement Except for the fact that we did not like the overpowering flavor of almond extract, it was a perfect decadent dessert. Next time I will surely try some variations, in fact I am looking forward to u...

Yet another simple dal with snake gourd and okra curry, on a cold night one can never get enough of just rightly spiced, warm dal!

The Scottish variant of " All-Hallows-Even ", better known as Halloween is celebrated in Ireland, Scotland, Canada and the United States. It is linked to the Celtic festival of Samuin (pronounced as Sow-an) which roughly eludes to "summer's end". It was believed that during Samuin, the border between this world and the other world becomes thin and hence dressing up in costumes and masks, basically disguising, helped ward off the harmful spirits. To me, the resemblance of Trick-or-treating to something called "souling" is even more interesting. Apparently poor people used to dress up on Hallowmas, celebrated on Nov 1st, and go door to door getting food in return for the prayers for the dead.  Source: here at wiki, here and for some really fun Hallow-trivia check here It definitely is much more fun now- don't you think- American capitalism at its best (well one of its very best), you can dress up as anything you want- you name it, they sell it. ...

  This month on the Tried and Tasted series hosted by Priya , the blog being featured is "Chef in You". It features as one of my daily haunts. Now I am not too fond of mushrooms but this time I let the wise guy pick up some, thought would use it in an omlette or may be even some good fried rice. But a quick search on Chef in you and this recipe was an instant click. So I ordered the wise guy to go for it and he actually made this recipe with minimal help from me. We did not have a few ingredients on hand, so like any good cook I went with my own substitutions which are marked in red. Ingredients , original recipe can be found here 1 1/2 cups chopped button mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts 1/2 cup cheddar, grated 2 tbsp grated parmesan 1/4 cup milk ( or replace it with egg) 2-3 tbsp chopped parsley 1 cup panko bread crumbs ( Italina style crumbs with herbs and spices adds more taste) Method In a non stick pan, add little olive oil and saute onions an...

I am back at DB after a while now- this month while I could not eat what I made, I sure did have fun especially because I could finally Susan's lovely recipe to test. The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious. Here is my take on Susan's fat-free vegan donut recipe Dry ingredients 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1/4 cup unbleached flour 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp freshly ground cardamom Wet ingredients 1/2 cup low-fat soymilk 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 3 tbsp soy yogurt (plain or flavor of your choice) 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp water For the glaze: 1/2 cup ...

A Botswanan cabbage curry with mint rice Botswanan cabbage curry , a very simple mildly spiced dish- recipe source Ingredients 1 tomato, chopped 1/2 onion, sliced 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tbsp dried oregano, crumbled 1 tsp thyme 1 tsp dried Kashmiri chillie, crumbled 1 small white cabbage, shredded (this I would say about 2- 21/2 cups of shredded cabbage) Olive oil salt and pepper to taste Method Add the oil to a pan and when hot use to fry the tomato and onion for about 5 minutes. Add the herbs  and stir to combine then add the cabbage. Stir to mix then reduce the heat and cook, partially covered, until the cabbage is soft (stir occasionally). The cabbage should be completely soft when done but will not have colored at all. Mint rice , source here Ingredients 1 large onion, finely sliced 1 tbsp oil 1/2 tsp shahjeera 1 tsp ginger garlic paste whole garam masala (4 cloves, 1″ cinnamom, 1 elachi, 1 star anise)- I ground these coarsely after roasting them for a few ...

Now how long has it been- a month since my last post! Time really flies- after a whirlwind of September and what looked like a torrential start to October, I was hoping to get back to regular blogging but of course " man proposes...". So here I am partially back and unable to eat much due to the removal of not much, just 5 of my teeth. Did I ever mention- I hate dentists! I wanted to start this series this past week - "On my plate" to give y'all a glimpse of what cooks at chez moi everyday. But right now have encountered a bit of a setback with my dental surgery.   On my plate tonight- a salad with red leaf lettuce and pears, an omlette and simple dal chaval.  Rachel Ray's 4 star salad, source here   Ingredients 1 lemon, juiced   3 tablespoons olive oil  2 hearts of romaine lettuce, chopped   1/2 red onion, thinly sliced   3 small pears (the smaller variety, I forget their name) 1 tablespoons dried thyme 1/4 cup finely chopped mint leaves   ...

Hi guys This post has nothing do with food, so if you are here to get a dose of food fix- sorry not today. I am writing today to raise awareness and potentially some money for the organization I volunteer with "Stop Child Trafficking Now" and an issue that is close to my heart. My teenage years in India involved feeling helpless and angry at households that employed children as domestic help. Many such scenes have left a deep impression on me early on in my life (they still do) and I remember making my mom promise me that she would never ever hire a child (thankfully my mom never did hire help for a long time). I could not bear the thought of someone my age doing all the household chores while I bask in their labor and get all the education I need to move me forward in life. Only a handful of us think twice before we hire children to perform duties that we are fully capable of handling. I must clarify here that even though I talk of child domestic labor, in many coun...

"Leftovers make you feel good twice. First, when you put it away, you feel thrifty and intelligent: ‘I’m saving food!’ Then a month later when blue hair is growing out of the ham, and you throw it away, you feel really intelligent: ‘I’m saving my life!’"- George Carlin     When life gives you leftovers...make a crumb pie! This crumbs for this pie come from my previous DB challenge, as usual, the first attempt at the challenge was a failure. The failure was the sponge sheet cake which I tried to do vegan (the recipe for that vegan cake was adapted from a vegan cupcake recipe found in this book, a tiny book packed with tongue tickling, mouth watering vegan cupcake recipes!). Anyway the crumbs were divided- one went into the refrigerator and the other is (still) lying in my freezer. The inspiration for this recipe comes from here . Ingredients 2 cups cake crumbs (mine were chocolate) 5-6 tbsp vanilla custard powder (I buy this from Indian grocery store, you could also buy...

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”. This month we were allowed quite a bit of variations- to begin with we could either do a Baked Alaska or Petit Fours. I do not really care much for meringues and so I chose petit fours. I also chose to half the recipe for the pound cake since it is just the two of us. For the ice cream I made Apricot-fig custard ice cream, adapted from Tarla Dalal's recipe here . Brown Butter Pound Cake 19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter 2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-...

I love Mark Bittman, you know the minimalist and his simplistic attitude towards cooking- I mean even his monstrosity of "How to" series lack the usual colorful photographs that make their way through most cook books (I love his books). I do not know about you but as much as I love thumbing through the pages of such books, I rarely have tried anything from me- may be partly because I feel like my dishes would never look as radiant as the ones in the book. I recently borrowed Bittman's " How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food " from the library and going it through it like it was my way to salvation!  Here is my version of the two recipes from this book- Rice Cakes with cheese I ngredients (My changes in red ) 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 1 1/2 cups cooked rice 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup grated aged sharp white cheddar 2 tsp cumin powder 2 tsp red chilli powder 1 tbsp dried oregano salt and pepper to tast...

  This past week, we had friends over- friends of ours who had moved recently- yeah and they are quite close to us now! The sambar sadam- thayir (yogurt) sadam (rice) combo sounded perfect for a houseful of 7 hungry people. This was the perfect opportunity to try my hand at bisibele bhath. As usual I turned to the trusted world of food blogs and there was I staring at this really simple recipe from Mysoorean .  Ingredients 2 cups rice (uncooked) 1.5 cups toor dal (uncooked) 4 cups vegetables (potatoes, peas, beans and carrots) lemon-sized tamarind, pulp squeezed 11 cups Water Masala 1 cup grated dried coconut 4 tsp Sambar Powder 4 Tbsp Coriander Seeds 1" Cinnamon 3 Cloves 2 Cardamom 2 tsp Khus Khus Asafoetida 1 sprig Curry leaves Tadka 3 Tbsp Oil 6 Red Chillies 3 tsp Mustard Seeds Turmeric Method Fry the masala ingredients in about a tbsp of hot oil, I added the coconut and the sambar powder after I turned the heat off. Grind to a paste with a little water...

No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention- Christopher Morley     This month's Vegetarian Times had some truly interesting and simple pasta recipes and this, is the adapted version of one such recipe.No stories, just a simple recipe with VT version in red Ingredients 8oz spaghetti (I used whole wheat, fettucine ) 3/4 cup whipped cream cheese ( 1/2 cup ) 2 tbsp olive oil plus extra for the pasta juice and zest from one lemon chopped parsley 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar ( omitted ) salt for the sauce pepper to taste (I added quite a bit) Method Cook the spaghetti according to instructions with olive oil and salt In a pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil, cream cheese and about one tbsp of lemon juice- once the cheese is in a saucy consistency, switch the heat off. Add the pasta (I did add a bit of pasta water), rest of the lemon juice, lemon zest, parsley and cheddar. Serve hot Judgement A beautiful light pasta meal you will enjoy all through the year. Now...

idlis, a "Lunch Box" special. Idlis have a special place in our culture. Be it Ramisseri (yeah they have a special secret idli recipe!), Kanchipuram (the big flat ones) or my mom's mallipoo idlis- a family is never complete with idlis at least once a week. The name seems to have come from Tamil- ittu avi- literally pour and steam. Since it is a combination of rice and lentils,  there is a lot of ground to play in. Some interesting links here and here that describe the little history that we know of, for idlis. Ingredients 3 cups rice 1/2 cup whole urad dal 1/2 cup skinned whole urad dal 1/2 cup sprouts 2 tbsp ground flax seed 1 tbsp methi, soaked separately Method Soak the rice and the lentils separately (you do not have to soak the sprouts) for a few hours; 4 to 6 hrs is plenty of time. Grind them separately adding as little water as possible, add the sprouts and methi seeds to rest of the dal mixture and grind until they become a fine paste -the key to good ild...

it is time once again for a daring baker's post- and for me I think I have not participated in almost two months, well shame on me. The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home. For this challenge we had to make the swiss rolls with a filling of our choice, fudge sauce or a variation and two ice creams of our choice. Now that means, you know what, letting your creativity flow in full swing! Well after coming up with many variations, theoretically speaking of course, I stuck with chocolate-coffee-vanilla combination. I followed Sunita's recipe for the swiss rolls and the filling. Instead of the fudge sauce, I made a vegan mocha-espresso mousse. For the ice creams, I made a partly vegan vanilla ice cream with hazelnuts (well sorry not entirely...