First shot at being a Daring Baker with Caramel Cake

My maiden venture as a Daring Baker!! A group that I always was in awe of… I looked forward to their creations with excitement….and the awe was always reinforced…. Many months ago, while chatting with one such wonderful baker, she asked me to take a shot at it….in an insane moment, I wrote in and asked to be added onto the list of ever growing bakers …. Last month, with diwali and the insanity surrounding chocolate orders, I didn’t do the challenge…. What a bummer, to get added on and then chicken out at the first instance!! So this month, when they announced the challenge, I was sure I wanted to give it a shot at least…better to have tried and failed than not tried at all being the mantra!!

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting that was the challenge thrown to us this month. The caramel cake is the signature cake by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. The gracious hosts this month are Dolores, Alex, Jenny, and Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go to assist for the gluten free baking advice.

 

The additional “optional” challenge was Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels, with LOTS of variation. Which I didn’t do for many obvious reasons…… I am back at work, in my earlier life of working from home, there were times when I would try and “find something to do” in the afternoons. They now, do not exist. 

I funnily lost track of time and date and kept putting off trying the challenge for every other weekend….yesterday while I chatted with Aparna, I told her I was going to do the challenge on the weekend, she said “tomorrow is posting date” imagine what a kick up my pants that was!! I frantically read through the posts at the forum and realized that I might have to make the caramel syrup a day earlier to make it easier on myself…. With what is happening in Mumbai, we were pretty much glued to the TV and that plan went down the drain……

This morning, I decided to get my act together and began my first challenge as a Daring Baker….. First ahead, was the Caramel Syrup….. with amma (as keyed up as I was) deciding just then to help me….. I mentioned that the other DB I spoke with had said the syrup was too much and had halved it, so I would too…. I stepped out to buy some eggs, and by the time I got back, she had mixed 1 c sugar with ½ c water…halving the amount of sugar, but not reducing the amount of water!! I decided not to add any more sugar and try and use the same….so I cooked and stirred and stirred and it bubbled and boiled and with a cup of water close by, I had all these visions of the molten sugar syrup landing on my hands and scalding me (yeah I am the queen of drama!!) instead, it just became one hard mass of white cement like stuff…. So I added 2 T of water and cooked some more, by this time the syrup had become damn lumpy but was beginning to get nice and golden. I took it off the heat and strained it with a metal strainer…. Then as an afterthought, put back the lumps of sugar onto the fire and watched it caramelize a lovely dark amber…. I read about some DB who ended up with hard rocks of caramel, so I strained this back into the earlier caramel syrup, mixed it a bit, and voila!! I had the most beautiful caramel syrup ready…..

Note to self: don’t sit around till the last minute to do the challenge!!

Then I waited 2 hours for the damn thing to cool till I could make the cake…. made an SOS to another fab baker to clear a few doubts i had…..I followed the cake recipe to the T, and was quite happy with the lovely buttery yellow colour of the batter. I baked one 8×6 rectangular cake, and one small 3inch round one. Since we aren’t too hot on sugary stuff, not that I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I feel rather guilty to indulge in it since amma is a diabetic. I made the smaller one to give my neighbor, and half of the rectangular one will be shared at work with colleagues.

So there it is then, my first challenge as a Daring Baker….. I was more anxious than excited…. But it was a lovely beginning…. I enjoyed this challenge…. I will be making the cake again, minus the frosting!!

Do stop by to see what all the other Daring Bakers have come up with. Dolores, Alex & Jenny thanks for hosting this challenge. Cant wait for the next challenge!!

My take on this Caramel cake:

The cake was lovely…. Buttery, moist and sweet. Will be perfect on its own minus the frosting.

read more for the recipes…………….

Mutli Grain Oothapam

Edited to add: This is a post i wrote over the last weekend, and put on auto publish. When this comes up, Bombay is still fighting its battle against terror even after 40 hours…..it is mind numbing….yesterday we heard that a genteel chef who shared our church bench for 4 yrs and then moved to bombay was killed at the shootout at the Taj…. it has brought this so much closer. All we can do, is pray and hope. 

With me back into the workforce, there are still some changes to incorporate into my routine that will keep the home stead well oiled….its taking a while to get used to… after all, I did have a different lifestyle for 2 years….with some largescale compulsory attendance at social functions that ate into my precious weekend, Monday morning was wrought with “what’s for breakfast?” near panic……a little bit of dosa batter that was hived away for a quick snack was the centre around which breakfast was built…. I make dosa with wheat flour as the base, adding some other flours/ semolina etc…never following the same recipe….but haven’t had the courage to make it with ragi (millet) flour till now…. The sight of the food is as important as the taste at my house…. I have K to consider, and didn’t think he would be too happy about blushing pink anything on this plate!! I have to thank the fact that he was sleepy enough not to notice the colour when he took the first bite, and then it was love after that …

I used leftover and thus fermented dosa batter, a fresh mixing of flours and standing it for a bit too will do the trick with a pinch of soda bicarb to hurry things along is what I think….

Muttai Kotthu Parota (Eggs with Minced Paratha)

 

I’d never heard of this dish till before I lived in Coimbatore. A friend of mine took me out and this was what was ordered. The usual way is to use fresh rotis or Malabar parotas which are full of flakes and make this…. Kotthu parota literally translated means “minced parota”…. It is a fast food innovation in tamil nadu and some parts of Kerala. The ingredients are all cooked on this gigantic hot plate at roadside eateries and the sound of the metal flat spoon cutting the bits that go into the dish, clanging away can be heard from a long way off. As is with most street fast food, it is hot, delicious, with crispy bits of roti and easy on the pocket…. I soon saw kotthu parota being offered on the menus of all other kinds of restaurants. Made with egg, beef, chicken or minced meat, this is a versatile dish and can be custom made to please anyone. Needless to say I stuck to the version with egg that’s called Muttai Kotthu Parota (Egg minced parota)

 If this dish is judged purely on taste, it will pass with flying colours…. But if you were to judge by the fact that it is made up solely out of torn up rotis (in this case leftover)…. It can send mixed signals… but hey, if you love bread upma and idli upma, kotthu parota will tickle your tastebuds allright!! Its a great way to make use of any leftover rotis you may have collected…. The sheer effort of making them, makes me cry when I have to throw away rotis. God knows everyone loves piping hot rotis…and leftovers aren’t really sought after at our table…. Besan roti is one way of refreshing them….also check out Aamelet roti….

Vegetables in a Spicy Garlic Sauce on a Bed of Noodles

 

Some days I just have to eat noodles….and I can’t believe that I haven’t made/ eaten or posted more Chinese recipes here….possibly because it almost never even survives being photographed!! A few days ago, I came back home craving for the comfort that only noodles, or a hug from George Clooney can give me…..

I didn’t have beans or carrots, but whatever I had would do quite nicely for what I had in mind….. Vegetables in a spicy garlic sauce on a bed of boiled noodles…….

Don’t let the bad picture deter you. Its hunger married with night time picture taking…..This is comfort food… for the good times and the bad, for the rains and the shine, for sitting on the couch and vegetating or for when you really want to “eat something nice”.

Half a Decade …. and Counting

A white train, veil and an entourage….. a dapper groom, awaiting his bride at the altar, a church full of people, singing …..and a priest waiting to say “I now pronounce you Man and Wife” ………..

Whatever else I dreamt of, this montage was never to be…… in its place instead, was a terrible excitement that we would finally spend the rest of our lives together…….hoping that the frayed nerves would hold up till everything was over….making all of the arrangements……staying at the venue till a few hours before the reception to get everything done…..i telling you my feet were paining in those ridiculously high heels (because k is a foot taller) and you asking me why I wore them in the first place…. You grumbling over how many more hours of handshaking was in store and me asking you to shut up and smile since pictures were being clicked…..

five years then seemed like such a long time…..now I can’t remember when it flew past…..knowing each other as long as we have, it seems like forever….. in a nice way!! In the end it isn’t about what we did, or how we spent time, or where we’ve been and what we’ve achieved…..

To know that I will always come home to you…..that I share my life with you…that marriage wasn’t the end of all that we wanted…it was just the beginning of what we have together….to know that we don’t have to be Siamese twins…..that we can be our own people…..with opinions and ideas fiercely our own…. That it’s ok to not agree on anything and yet know that that’s the way it is going to be…..that we are chalk and cheese….that we don’t have to share anything…..religion, language, culture, interests or even food….and yet, we share the life we have together…..to take a line out of Jerry Maguire, “you complete me”….

I am so glad I found you K…..if I had to do it all over again, I would……and not change a thing….Happy Anniversary!!

Mixed Love

 

It isn’t uncommon to have me stare at a few vegetable odds and ends and wonder how the hell I am going to make a meal out of what I see…..it used to throw me off gear and the head of the serpent that hissed I was pathetic at running my house raised itself…..then I realized, I need’nt waste time judging myself by the contents of my vegetable crisper….( Yeah I am strange)…. On their own, they may be meager….but thrown into a hotpot together, they do a merry dance….afterall no one need know that the mixed vegetables weren’t together by chance……so they lent themselves to a stew or pulav or a side dish …. With the addition of some fuss free masala, they’d be as good as a nicely planned item on the men…. and no one was the wiser!! this is a winner and for a while was my signature dish….it was in no way indicative of my home management skills!!

Fiery Tomato Chutney

Friends….. I make them quite easily…. And mostly… they stay for life…. Collected and cherished like life’s most precious experiences…..some of my closest friends are the ones I made in school….. later, in college, in the hostel and each of the firms I worked for I met some of the most wonderful people I know….. sometimes I don’t talk to them for years and months, yet they remain closest to your heart….counted as those I can call upon in my hour of need…..sometimes I talk to them and spend so much time together, that I cant make out if I picked up their habits and mannerisms or vice versa……some I love working with because they are just so damn good at their work…and there’s so much to learn…. Some I share common interests with… with some I just cant explain how or why the relationship sticks…..some with whom I shared good times and moved on…. Some I rediscover after a period of time…. Short or long…. Some I cant relate to anymore….. some I wish I still had in my life….. Sometimes friendships humble you…..Each one has taught me something…. Knowingly or otherwise….. I know I will always be grateful for this…. For what they add to my life….

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine, who shall be called B, spent the weekend with me….Someone who’s trying to find her spot under the Sun…. To be the best she can…. To better herself and all that she aspires for each day….I’ve seen her change…. Over the 6 yrs now that we’ve known each other…. Sometimes I didn’t quite understand what she was trying to do, and where she was trying to go….because in her pursuit of whatever it is she is chasing, she needed time to tame her own demons….

It’s a difficult thing to know that you may be a casualty along the way….we take ourselves far too seriously to recognize this….and sometimes in anger and sometimes to poke at her I would shoot barbs…. I came to realize, that if I put a premium on myself, I would lose her friendship…..that i should recognise what was on offer, and take it or leave it….. that not all relationships can be the same…. that not all people are the same…. and this is why we pursue them the way we do…atleast for me…. She’s one of the most giving people I have seen….. she gives of herself freely that sometimes you wonder what’s left for her…. One moment this hardnosed woman of the world, and all at once a child….if I have to put it down to one word, ENDEARING it will have to be ….

Why am I writing all this?? Because I have a story to tell…. This blog isnt all about food….if you know me, you know everything comes with a story…. Some more elaborate than the other…. A couple of years earlier, at B’s home, we had this amazing tomato chutney her mother made…. hot as hell, we lapped it up as much as we reached out for the tissues to blow our noses…. It was pretty awesome…. The heat in the chutney is as much a part of it as its awesome flavour…..having tasted it once, B didn’t hear the end of it…. I hounded her for the recipe…. Two years later, her hubby landed up bearing a box full of it…. her mom was in town, and after all this time, she remembered and got her to make some for us…. It was 5 days of bliss….. idlies, dosais, rice, roti and sandwiches…. All were slathered by this drool inducing chutney….

The weekend she spent with us, she made it for me …. Surviving all the questions I threw at her…. The end product was as before…. Again it didn’t survive a photosession….. I tried my hand at it this weekend….its never easy trying to remake something that’s near perfect…. Again I was blown away with the results….

How do you explain tangy fiery marriage? A flavour so unique, that you keep dipping your finger into it and licking at it while transferring it to a storage box? That even though it spits fire on your tongue, you cant have enough of it?? I realized, this was so much like B….. No matter that you weren’t able to compartmentalize it correctly, you loved it anyway!! Thanks sweety!! I know for sure, that no matter where life takes us, there will always be things that remind me of you.

this is my entry to Suganya’s Vegan Ventures

Hyderabad Chocolate Workshop – 8th Nov

Dear Chocolate Enthusiasts, 

For all those who called and emailed regarding the next workshop, it will be on 8th Nov 2008 at hyderabad. please email me for registrations, details regarding the fees etc. Limited seats still available. The details are as follows:

Class duration: 3 hrs starting at 10.30 a.m till 1.30 p.m

Date: 8th Nov 2008

Venue: Kondapur, Opp Botanical Gardens

Contact: email at arundati.rao@gmail.com