Recipes

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

A Vegetarian's Food Trail in Uzbekistan - A Carnivore's Paradise

I had a lovely vacation in Uzbekistan last month. I wondered how I would survive for 8 days in a carnivore's paradise. Well, it was not as bad as I had imagined as folks there eat lots of vegetables and fresh fruit, and nuts are found in abundance all year round.

Of course, it was a bit of a problem in restaurants as almost every dish has meat. So the next bet was salads. Mixed veggies with tangy sauces, grilled aubergines, sweet radish and cucumber in yogurt (almost like our raitha) called "turf chakka" were some of the vegetarian options.



The fruits in Uzbekistan are to die for, literally! Juicy, sweet and fleshy. I drooled over juicy watermelon slices. Rich in colour although grown naturally, melons are found in abundance. Story goes that watermelons came to India when Emperor Babur came here with the seeds from the Uzbek region. Another very delicious melon I lived on mostly is the musk melon. Saccharin white slices with firm fruit body - never had melons like this before. And their peaches, big velvety and fleshy ones with a distinct taste that I cannot describe. 



A visit to the market got me loads of nuts. Almonds with shells intact, roasted pista,  hazelnuts and walnuts. Apart from nuts, the dry fruits vendors also stock dried apricots, figs, dates and barfis made of these dry fruit.






Dairy products are in abundance. The Uzbekis make different types of cheeses from camel and horse milk. Horse milk products are a delicacy; however, I could not bring myself to taste them.


An Uzbek staple at all meals is bread which they call 'naan', pronounced as 'non'. Their bread is slightly hard, sour and chewy. I did not relish the breads much but they sure look pretty with a good colouring and some had designs on them too!



The end result of surviving on salads, fruit and nuts is weight loss in  few kilos (yippee!!!). However, I am more than making up for loss of solid food with binging back home.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Upside Down Mango Cake

We are a mango loving crazy family, and that includes my mango eating dog who loves to chew on the seed!  End of the mango season coincides with my husband's birthday. So what better way to end the season than make a mango cake? However, mango is one fruit that I normally do not tamper with. That is cook/bake the fruit. At best, I use cubed pieces in trifles or with ice-cream. But this time, I decided to give it a shot and bake a mango dessert!

This is a simple and easy to bake cake. As you can see from the pictures, the result was a moist, super soft and gooey cake with caramel dripping off the top, and off course the heavenly mango pieces baked and soaked in caramel. Husband, family, friends and my dog loved it. Proof of the pudding! :D




You will need:

250 gms flour
200 gms brown sugar
250 gms cooking butter
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
2 cups firm cubed mangos (I used Alphonso mangos)
1/2 cup caramel



For the cake : Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs separately and add in one at a time, continuously beating along with the vanilla. Fold in the flour little at a time till a smooth consistency is formed.

For the caramel : In a heavy bottom pan, place 3/4 cup of white (refined) sugar with 4 tbs of water. Cook on low flame without stirring till the sugar and water are well incorporated. Heat the mixture further till the colour changes to brown. Turn off the gas and let it cool.

Pre heat the oven at 180 degrees centigrade. Grease and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Evenly distribute/arrange the mango cubes on the tray. Pour the caramel over the mango ensuring that every bit of the tray base is covered with mango and caramel. On top of this, pour the cake batter and bake at 200 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes or till a knife inserted comes out clean without gooey batter sticking to it. Allow to cool completely before flipping the cake on a flat surface.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Dulce de leche pudding

Dulce de leche, pronounced dool-seh-deh-LEH-cheh is Spanish for a confection made from slowly heating sweetened condensed milk. The condensed milk changes colour due to caramelization of sugar in the condensed milk.

The flavour becomes sweeter and more rich, while the texture becomes sticky almost like toffee. This confection can be used in plenty of desserts such as cakes and trifles.


On a lazy day, I made a quick fix pudding with whatever I had handy at home. So a thick layer of Marie biscuits became the base, which I topped with delicious & gooey Dulce de leche.

What you need:

For the base:
2 packets Marie biscuits
1 tbs instant coffee powder
1cup warm water
1tsp sugar

For Dulce de leche:
1 can condensed milk
1 cup fresh cream
2 cups milk (an additional half cup for corn flour mixture)
2 tbs cup corn flour



Method:

Dissolve sugar and coffee powder in  warm water. Dip each. Marie biscuit in the prepared decoction and arrange about 3 layers in a wide pudding dish.  Refrigerate as you prepare the topping.

Without opening the condensed milk can, place it in a pressure cooker filled with water. Ensure that the can is completely immersed is water. Cook with the weight on on high flame till the first whistle, cook on low flame for 20 minutes thereafter. Remove the can from the cooker only after the cooker has completely cooled down.

Open the condensed milk can after cooling. You will notice that the colour of the milk has changed to brown. In a heavy bottom pan, pour this mixture, cream and milk cook until well combined and there are bubbles.

In a separate cup, dissolve 3tbs of corn flour in milk to make a smooth paste. Pour this mixture into the milk and cream concoction and stir briskly. Add sugar if needed. Keep stirring until the mixture reaches a thick consistency.

Remove the biscuit base from the fridge. Pour the dulce de leche mixture over the biscuit layer evenly. Refrigerate again for about 2 hours. Decorate and top with chocolate shavings, nuts or chocolate sauce.