31.1.13

Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.

okay.. so i am officially addicted to cooking with oats. and if you have been there.. you know exactly what i am talking about. it was past midnight yesterday when i took the first bite of my bake of the day.... Chocolate Avocado Coffee Cake.. mmm.... it tasted good... may be a little more sugar would be better.. but Nishi disagreed. he said it was perfect with his espresso..... that was that... so after two failures, there was a success. Yaay !!

for a while I have had chocolate avocado cake in my mind. i had pinned Joy the Baker's Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake ...  and because Nishi LOVES chocolate and i like avocados i had a good mind to try it out.... but.. somehow i never got around baking it until yesterday... it  thus happened that while baking the strawberry cobbler  the previous night it struck me that the same oats-flour-sugar mixture can be used for the crumb in a coffee cake... and that prompted me to bake this moist flavorful dense chocolaty coffee cake using the aforementioned recipe as a guideline. i must mention here that though i could smell the avocado in the first few minutes of baking... as Joy the Baker said... 'not a lick of it could be tasted' later. it merely substituted the fat required.. with the goodness of avocado. now isn't that lovely.

ingredients

for the cake

1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup  sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup soft avocado, well mashed
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the crumble

3/8 cup oats flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

what i did.

For the crumble, i combined the brown sugar oats, flour, cinnamon and  butter in a bowl till the mixture was coarse and then set it aside.


For the cake, I first preheated the oven to 350 degrees F, greased and floured a 9.25x5.25x2.75 inch  bread loaf pan and set it aside.

Next I combined all the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour to baking soda) except sugar in a bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and let them stand for a while till the mixture of wet ingredients  became turbid. I then added the sugars to wet mixture, stirred it for a while before beating in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture to form a smooth batter. To this I added the mashed avocado and whipped the batter some more before pouring into the prepared pan and putting it in the oven.

10 minutes later I pulled out the pan and topped the settling batter with the prepared sugar-oats-flour-cinnamon mixture and then put it back in the oven to bake for another 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted came out clean. i then let it cool for a while before digging right into that chocolaty crumbly loaf.

after thoughts. 


though Nishi felt otherwise... those with a sweet tooth like me will perhaps like a little more sugar in the cake. maybe 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of 1/4 cup or an extra helping of crumbs... but for others this might be the perfect bite with their tea or coffee... 

Sending this to Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays @ SS& GSCooking with seeds -  Priya versatile recipes  event hosted by Amruta Pore,


 the event New "U"- Cooks Joy hosted by Vardhini,

and the event  Bon Vivant #11 - Healthy Appetite  at Sumee's Culinary Bites.


29.1.13

Cooking With Oats

While eating healthy is our prerogative... cooking savory and healthy isn't always easy. specially if you want to cook a non-pre-tested recipe. but the adventurous ones try. Succeed sometimes. fail mostly. but they try... because they must. for the love of food and the love of their lives... 

So there I was. after my success with the cheesy oatmeal pinwheels I was enthused to bake some more using the oatmeal flour that remained. and that led me to a series of complete disasters and a world of knowledge... as it turns out... oatmeal flour though healthy isn't as easy to work with as all-purpose-flour. because oats have a high amount of phytic acid which blocks mineral absorption. and this interferes (as it did in my case) from making these healthy banana oat breakfast cookies using oatmeal flour instead of old-fashioned oats. so what my ignorance led me to... were these spongy lumps of health.. which were not savory at all.
armed with my newly gained knowledge about oats i then tried my hands at vegan dates-biscotti. now that i knew better.. i soaked the oats overnightoven dried them then ground them for my next venture.
but guess what ... there were other issues that this non-cook was still ignorant about. turns out that it isn't easy to roll a sugarless-butterless mixture of pureed dates, applesauce, flax seed, almonds and  a 4:1:1 ratio of oatmeal flour, whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour into a log for biscotti.  specially so.. if there is a spread of nutella on it... anyhow even if one manages to get past this step .. all the effort is not worth it. for though tasty, the final product that you get, after freezing the roll for 30 minutes and then baking it twice... can hardly qualify for a biscotti.  it just does not have the crunch....
though your son may approve of it...
this combination just doesn't work....

now after meeting with two failures in a row, tonight I decided to play it safe.  i tried paula deen's strawberry cobbler. following the exact instructions... only substituting quick oats with ground oats (because I had it already and read here that it will work).. I made 2 ramekins of the cobbler. and yes. it was AWESOME. not too sweet and yet sweet enough. Nishi and I loved it.. Also, i loved the simplicity of the recipe. just cut the strawberries.. add sugar and go about your business. return in 30 minutes to add the cornflour-batter.. add the oat flour-sugar-butter-cinnamon crumble on top and let the oven do the rest of the job.  and 30 minutes later... YUMMM... what a delicious dessert !!

so that was that. two failures and one success. Yay!! i can live with that. for now i am two-failures older at baking with oats.. and who knows i probably will get lucky the next time or the time after and bake something as delicious as the cobbler :)  so stick around and expect more oatmeal recipes here...

till next time...
take care.

27.1.13

Cheesy Pinwheel Puffs

Oh ! Its past midnight. I had a good mind to stop by before twelve and wish you all Happy 26th ! Hope your day was good. Mine was much better than yesterday. The  prescribed medicines and spoons full of honey did a good job and though it might take some time before Pradyot can be declared fit... he was much better today....  and since i was a little relaxed i decided to venture a bit into the kitchen..

Back in fall I had seen an episode of Giada at Home where the chef had baked these Cheesy Pastry Puffs. The recipe had seemed fairly simple. So I had pinned it for posterity,  till I recently chanced upon it again. This time driven by our love for everything Greek, I decided to try it out with a Mediterranean twist. And guess what.. with the richness of their colors and mix of the flavors these gorgeous Cheesy Pinwheel Puffs became an instant hit..  I must admit that though very flavorful, the copious amounts of cheese make them a little heavy and sinful.. However they are so tasty that no one stop at one :)

ingredients

for the puffs.


3/4 cups ground oat flour (I ground them in the coffee grinder), plus extra for dusting
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, chilled
1 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar
2 cloves of grated garlic
4 1/2 tablespoon pureed spinach, chilled (I microwaved some frozen spinach and pureed it)

for the filling. I tried few combinations.

store bought pizza sauce + mozzarella
feta cheese
feta cheese + homemade avocado hummus 
homemade avocado hummus sprinkled with copious amounts of dried coriander.

for the avocado hummus

2 cups of boiled chickpeas
2 avocados
8 green olives
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
2 tablespoon of dried coriander
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

what i did.

For the avocado hummus, I combined all the ingredients in the blender and pulsed at regular intervals till the mixture became smooth. (the mentioned quantities yield  around 26 oz of the hummus. once refrigerated, they can be used over a month.)

For the puffs.  I placed an oven rack in the center of the oven;  preheated the oven to 375 degrees F; lined two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Next combined the oat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and mixed them till the mixture formed a coarse meal. Then added the grated garlic, cheese and chilled spinach puree, one tablespoon at a time till the mixture formed a smooth pale greenish ball.

Then on a lightly floured plastic wrap,  rolled out the dough and divided it into 4 equal rectangles, each about 1/4-inch thick. Spread the store bought pizza sauce + mozzarella on one, feta cheese on the second, avocado hummus + feta on the third and avocado hummus and copious amounts of dried coriander on the fourth rectangle. Starting with the long side, I then rolled up the dough, jelly-roll fashion, wrapped them in plastic wraps and set them to freeze for 30 minutes.

Next unwrapped the dough one at a time, carefully cut out slices from each of them, about 1/4 inch thick and arranged them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.  Then baked them until they were puffed and light green in color, about 18-20 minutes. Finally I let them cool for about 10 minutes before taking the first bite.

Nishi and I both agreed that we liked the pinwheels with the avocado hummus  and feta cheese filling the most. but that might just be our love for feta, hummus and everything Greek.  the others were just as delicious. so do try them and let me know which one was your favorite... I'll love to hear.

26.1.13

Around here...

So this week was both long and short for us...  short. because it began with a holiday but then by Thursday Pradyot had to be called in sick. yes. he got the flu. and my baby has been suffering quite a bit. we've been trying all that we can to keep him warm and cozy.  giving him lots of liquids... soups, flavored yogurts , juices et al. but nothing seems good enough... it feels terrible to be stuck in a foreign land with an ailing baby in hand. in times like this I really miss home. specially my mom.

Well everybody said... being a mom is not easy. but what they did not say is that it is harder if you are trying to raise your baby in a country you did not grow up in. for then even your mom fails to council you through the little things. 

Hoping that the medicines will do their tricks and soon bounce our baby back to health... signing off till then. take care.

p.s: took the photograph above with Nishi's android in BNL on Wednesday. there are few more here.

23.1.13

Yesterday... after four thirty post meridiem

Yesterday... around 4 p.m we realized that we hadn't used the MLK weekend well... so at about four-thirty p.m, without paying too much attention to weather.com we headed towards...


^^ our favorite neighborhood destination... Le Bonne Boulangerie in the village of Port Jefferson...
^^ to feast our eyes and palate to sweet treats..
^^ But by 5:30 we had to leave.. for it had begun to snow... 
^^ and while we were still on our way... the snowflakes grew so much in size and strength .....  
^^  that when we reached home at 5:55pm...it felt as if our little village had been taken over by the White Witch of Narnia....

22.1.13

keep moving forward ...

                                   Happy MLK Day !!                                         

21.1.13

Lately....

Pradyot has started daycare... and after yielding to his motion sickness for almost a week, we have finally found a way to deal with it. sour apple lollipops or orange flavored ones. its his pick. but whichever it is... it keeps him engaged and keeps his breakfast down. so we are  good. 

Even I have started working... well working in the sense that everyday I spend few hours in the library reading and revising my books. the first few days were a little frustrating.. i somehow felt  lost in the known kingdom.. but things are getting better. and i am sure that within a few weeks i'll feel confident enough to meet and discuss math with my old friends.. and also apply for jobs.

I must confess that I haven't yet found a way to balance my baby, house and passion. but the good news is Nishi is helping a LOT more.... and together we are gradually shaping things out...

Hope you've been keeping well and doing great. Hope you have a wonderful week.
Stay safe, keep warm and eat healthy.
xoxxo....

12.1.13

REFLECTIONS 2012..

January.....   snow sneaked its way in and scared my parents off to India and left me to take care of little Pradyot all by myself.... 
By February... we had gotten used to being parents..
also Nishi received his appointment letter and we were excited about moving to NY soon..

March was the month of many firsts... Pradyot's first spring,
our first Holi as a family of three and our first air trip together...

 In April.... Pradyot met his first friend... Kabeera.. who was just a day younger to him..
and in the months that followed it was fun to see them bond as they grew along..
May... it was when Pradyot had his first grand feast,
 a delicious meal cooked by my sister-in-law for his  rice ceremony, 
Annaprashon as we call it......
In June we drove to the Capitol to meet our friend Anupam. 
it was also the month when watermelons became a hit with Pradyot and 
long walks Beechwood Boulevard the favorite parts of my day...
A lot happened in July... 
birthday-parties, farewell parties and lots of sight-seeing in and around Pittsburgh. 
but THE THING that registered the most was  Pradyot's excitement at seeing the 
4th of July gathering at Point State Park.... So Happy 4th it was for us !!
 After saying our good-byes to friends in Pittsburgh, 
we shifted base from Pitt to Brookhaven on 15th August
and spent the next one month hunting for a house... not too far from Nishi's work  place
.
September, we moved to our new place and spent the rest of the month catching up with a toddler's new antics...
for on 22nd Sep, his magnificent toddler years had begun.....
Of all the months October was certainly the most special one for us. 
On 16th we celebrated our boy's 1st birthday 
and soon after flew to India to celebrate his first Durga Puja with his grandparents in Kolkata...
his dear Mamma and Dada...
In November we traveled with Pradyot to Nishi's native house in Pattamundai to introduce our boy to his big family....
It was such a joy to see him mingle instantly with his  doting grandparents, aunt ...
and his adorable sister, Shruti-dei....
and in December we were back home to enjoy Christmas...
and New Year's break.... while missing our family and friends all the time.....
With a demanding toddler at hand..... it took me quite sometime to compile it all .... 
but it was fun looking back and reliving some of the best moments of 2012... 
I hope the past year was as good and kind to you and wish the very best for all of us in 2013....

3.1.13

Happy New Year !!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and joyous 2013. 
Love & best wishes,
Pradyot, Nishi & Me


Thanks to Aravind Natrajan for the lovely photograph taken on New Year's Eve at Montauk Point Lighthouse.

 Our greetings from 2012, 2011.

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