31.7.13

choke of the artichokes # colour me photography challenge & BWW


I had red onions in mind for Priya's Colour Me Purple Challenge but then the choke looked so pretty that I decided on them instead. 


sending the first photograph to "The Colour Me Photography Challenge Series"  ~ Colour Me Purple , a photography event  at Priya's  place The Humpty Dumpty Kitchen. 


and sending the second photograph to the Black and White Wednesday #94. Black and White Wednesday is a Culinary Photography Event created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook, now organized by Cinzia of Cindystar and this week Lynne of Cafe Lynnylu is hosting it.

27.7.13

Midnight-Weekend Project : Bleached Tees for the family...

Midnight-Weekend Project is a new series i am starting on Ma Niche. I'll be sharing here with you some easy and fun projects that you can work on as a family... I call it Midnight-Weekend Projects because that is when husband and I feel enthusiastic enough to work on such projects. if you have a toddler in the house you probably know why weekend midnights are best suited for such projects :-)

the first one up in the series is the bleached tees that we made for us for the 4th of July ! I know we celebrated 4th of July a few weeks back but I figured that I'll probably never get around sharing our bleached tees with you unless i do it today... so here it is for you... the bleached "star" tees that we made for the 4th of July.

i spotted the  bleached-tee-tutorial at Naptime-Creations a while ago. and immediately afterwards tried to make a batman t-shirt for my superhero crazy husband. my first attempt did not work.

and only now i realized that I had not followed the instructions properly. I had used a plastic board instead of a wooden one and that might have been the real problem. anyway in our  second attempt we got around our problem by using paper towel between the t-shirt and the board and finally managed to bleach our 4th of July tees just in time !!

DIY : Bleached Tees !
 materials needed 
 t-shirt
 felt cloth
Clorox bleach
spraying bottle
paper towel
board for supporting the t-shirt

-
  how to bleach tees

fill the spray bottle with 70 % bleach and 30 % water.

cut out the design that you want on the felt cloth...

 make the board wear the t-shirt ( this is to make sure that the bleach does not seep into the other side) ;  put the felt cut out on top and sandwich the paper towels between the t-shirt and the board just underneath the area that you wish to bleach. the paper towels absorb the extra bleach thereby making sure that it does not leak and spread beyond the design/pattern.

now spray away.


when the bleaching looks done that is the uncovered portions look bleached enough remove the t-shirt from the board. holding it under a running tap wash the bleach thoroughly. then hang it and let it dry. the more meticulous ones might want to machine wash the t-shirts but we did not do that. as a consequence the colors looked a little more faded after the t-shirts dried.




    this is how we made our tees... note that same colored t-shirts might bleach differently. as you can see our son's Navy blue t-shirt bleached to reveal pinkish stars while ours (as you can see above) bleached to reveal orange-ish ones. 



    we got his t-shirt from Old navy and ours from Michaels and as you can clearly see there is a distinct difference in the dyes used. so bleach and wait to be surprised !

    This is one of the easy and fun projects that husband and I did after our little one packed off for the night. I apologize for the poor picture quality. but that is the best I could capture under the challenging light conditions. hope you understand.

    Good Night ! have a fun weekend !

    p.s : more pictures of us in our tees here.

    26.7.13

    Dieter's Tartine # French Fridays with Dorie

    This week we assembled Dieter's Tartine for French Friday's with Dorie.

    I say assembled, because that is exactly what we had to do. Just toast a slice of bread. Mix sour cream and cottage cheese . spread it on the toast. Spoon diced tomatoes and cucumbers on top. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle some chives and herbs if you please and your tartine is ready to eat. It was as easy as that. But really tasty and satisfying.


    Apparently this pretty tartine is extremely popular with "ladies-who-lunch in Paris" since it is filling but not fattening. There they make is with non-fat fromage blanc. However Dorie said that a substitution of non-fat cottage cheese thinned with non-fat sour cream works just as well.  

    Prior to this we did not have much regard for cottage cheese. But the combination works and really makes for a great lunch recipe. I feel that served on slices of cocktail bread(like this one here) a tartine will be great to nibble along with a shot of tomato juice or tomato soup depending on the season. Try it which ever way you please its a great combo and I highly recommend it to you !

    update: 7/29/2013. Over the weekend we tried the tartine with a sprinkle of Herbs de Provence. It definitely makes a difference. The bottle of herbs was a bit expensive but it was so worth it..

    Being a member of french fridays with Dorie, i cannot publish the original recipe in the blog. You can however this recipe here. For many more delicious recipes such as this one order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.

    25.7.13

    Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle

    Last night while hopping around the blogs, I landed on Bake for Happy Kids. In the sidebar I spotted that today was the in "Bake Along" they were baking Fruit Buckle. I was a little curious about what buckles were, so i googled and decided to bake along with them... and today i baked a Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle....


    well, Rum & Raisin is my latest craze. I had planned a rum & raisin ice-cream today. since the ice-cream plan had to be delayed, i sneaked in some of that combination in the buckle. it worked really well. I used Angostura Trinida & Tobago Caribbean rum (aged 7 years) in the recipe. but i guess any dark rum will work. the pears poached in rum taste great by itself. in case you haven't tried the combination you should cook up some right away. you'll thank me for the recommendation !


    In case fruit buckles are new to you too... here is what they are. They are a type of cake in which fruits are added to the batter and are topped with a struesel. now why are they called buckles ? well because, as the cake bakes, it tends to "buckle" around the fruits. i also gathered that originally blueberries were the star-fruits used to bake buckles... but as it turned out, rum-poached pears also taste wonderful nestled in the cake ! 

    Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle 


      ingredients
    • for the fruit
      • 1 1/2 green D'Anjou Pears, sliced lengthwise
      • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
      • 2 tbsps sugar
      • 4 tbsps rum 
      • 2-3 tbsps water
      • zest of 1/2 lemon
      • pinch of salt
      • 3 tbsps golden raisins
    • for the streusel 
      • 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
      • 2 tbsp oats
      • 2 tbsp brown sugar (plus more if you like)
      • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces
      • 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
      • 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
      • for the cake batter
        • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
        • 2/3 tsp baking soda
        • 1/4 tsp salt
        • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
        • 3 1/2 oz evaporated milk
        • 1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
        • 1/3 cup sugar
        -
          what i did
        • treating the fruit
          • first i melted the butter in a saucepan, stirred in the sugar and added the pears.
          • immediately afterwards i added the remaining ingredients to the saucepan and let the sliced pears poach in the liquid for 5 minutes.
          • then switching off the heat i left the raisins in the liquid until they had plumped up a bit, about 30-45 minutes.
        • for the struesel, i simply hand-mixed all the ingredients together and kept it aside.
        • for the cake
          • first i preheated the oven to 375 degrees F, lined a 6 inch springfoam pan with a parchment paper, then sifted the flour, salt and baking soda together and set it aside.
          • next using the hand mixer i whipped the sugar with the butter until the mixture looked creamy. then added the evaporated milk and sour cream to the butter-sugar mixture and whisked till the mixture was well-combined. 
          • i then stirred the sifted flour-mixture to the butter mixture with a light hand until the flour got incorporated into the batter. 
          • then adding the soaked raisins in the batter, i poured it into the prepared springform pan, arranged the rum-poached pears on top of the batter in a circular pattern, spread the struesel  on top of the pear and transferred the pan into the preheated oven and baked for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted came out clean.
        -
          references
        all that said, I have a few concerns about the buckle. i think in trying to make the recipe eggless I might have overdone the oil in the cake. it oozed oil after being taken out off the oven. keeping that in mind, i think, replacing the sour cream with Greek yogurt might be a good idea. also the crumb could use a little less butter, perhaps two tablespoons instead of three...

        so much for today. Baking this along with Joe of  Bake for Happy KidsJoyce of  Kitchen Flavours, and Lena of Frozen wings, the three three baker-teers behind Bake Along....

        Photobucket

        also check out what the others have baked....






        Also sharing this at the following weekly parties....
        Monday Food : Made with Love Mondays, Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal CooksMeatless Monday @Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday My Sweet and SavoryJust Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party

        19.7.13

        Mediterranean Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad # French Fridays with Dorie

        This week we were scheduled to cook Mediterranean Sworfisd with Frilly Herb Salad for French Fridays with Dorie. but since my husband does not eat fish i cooked Mediterranean Chicken instead....


        which wasn't a great idea. though i had rationed out the quantity of lemon juice, we both felt that the lemony taste was overpowering. I skipped the frilly salad too. just plated the chicken over Lemon Pesto Pilaf, spooned  a side of Provençal tomatoes and finished with a garnish of coriander... frankly speaking had it not been for the pilaf we would have ended up feeling rather hungry that day.  

        I have never tasted swordfish so i have no clue if i will enjoy the original recipe... but gaging  from the reviews of the other Doristas, I feel i must have missed out on something good. perhaps i'll try the original recipe when my parents or in-laws are here (they are big fish-eaters !) and update the review then. 

        as for the Provençal tomatoes, i quite liked it. i think it will make a great side with any fish recipe. but true to my Bengali genes, i'll probably fry the roasted tomatoes with some coriander next time and turn the dish into a rather Bengali one.


        now the pilaf which saved the day was a spur-of-the-moment-creation. Dorie had suggested Lemon-Barley Pilaf. I had planned to make a simple Lemon Rice instead and then decided to add some homemade basil pesto and a squeeze of lemon to the rice. the result was really nice. though i do not have a "measured" recipe for the pilaf, the following will give you a rough outline of what i did...

        Lemon Pesto Pilaf
              ingredients
        • oil for frying
        • 1 small onion, chopped
        • 1/4 cup peas (i used frozen)
        • 1/2 cup long grained rice (washed and soaked for 30 minutes)
        • 1 bay leaf
        • homemade basil pesto *
        • lemon juice
        • salt and pepper to taste
         i use this recipe with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese instead of the measures given
        -
          what i did
        • i heated the oil in a medium sized saucepan, sauteed the onion in it for about 3-4 minutes then added the peas to it and cooked for another 7-8 minutes, till the peas looked partially cooked.
        • next i added the bay leaf and rice to the saucepan, tossed them in the oil with the veggies for a couple of minutes and then added enough water so that the liquid element comes just above the surface of the rice. 
        • to the water i added the pesto until it looked greenish. then seasoned the water with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice, covered the saucepan with the lid and the cooked the rice until it looked done, about 20-25 minutes.


        though i did not mind the rice at room temperature, husband preferred it slightly warm. also i felt the pilaf would go very well with Chicken Piccatta

        Being a member of french fridays with Dorie, i cannot publish the original recipe in the blog. You can however find the Swordfish recipe in the Orange County Register and a version of the Provençal tomatoes in post-gazette.com. For many more delicious recipes such as this one order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon or from The Book Depository and join us as we cook our way through the book.

        I'll be sharing the pilaf recipe at the following weekly parties....
        Monday FoodMarvelous Mondays @ This Gal CooksMeatless Monday @Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday My Sweet and SavoryJust Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party

        17.7.13

        French Crullers with Blackberry Glaze # GYCO Blackberry Challenge

        Well it is that time of the year when fruits are available in abundance and you feel like trying out all the recipes that you've pinned over the year. so here is another fruity dessert that i whipped up today for the 
        GYCO Blackberry Challenge organized by 

         French Crullers with Blackberry Glaze... 

        and i am pretty happy with the way it turned out...


        The thing is, every once in a while we enjoy snacking on a doughnut or two. but then making a big batch or even frying donuts isn't my thing. i prefer baking. and it so happened that the other day a spotted a recipe for baked Crullers in use real butter. i wanted to try it sooner but then all the challenges came in the way and it wasn't until today that i finally baked my first batch.

        As opposed to the popular doughnuts, crullers aren't yeasted.  one shapes them out of Pâte à choux, a light pastry dough very similar to the dough for gougères and eclairs,  then bakes or fries them and glazes them as i have done. 

        the idea of  using blackberry glaze was from  The Café Sucré Farine. I thought her doughnuts looked rad in purple. but since my concoction was slightly different, i ended up with a reddish tinge. not that i mind it... but purple would have been pretty too..
        now the recipe....
        French Crullers with Blackberry Glaze
        Adapted from use real butter
            ingredients
        • for the cruller dough
          • 1 cup water
          • 6 tbsps butter, cut into pieces
          • 1/4 tsp salt
          • 2 tsps superfine sugar (i used ground sugar)
          • 1 cup all purpose flour
          • 3 large eggs
          • 1 egg white
          • 1 tsp lemon zest
        • for the blackberry glaze (enough to glaze crullers with  2 1/2 inch diameter)
          • a handful of black berries
          • 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
          • 1/2 tsp lemon juice
          • 1/2 tbsp honey
          • pinch of salt
          • pinch of ginger powder
        -
          what i did
        • to begin with, i added the water, butter, sugar and salt to a heavy bottomed saucepan and holding over medium-high heat brought the ingredients to a brisk boil. 
        • i then added the flour to the boiling solution and still holding the saucepan over medium heat, stirred the ingredients in the pan constantly till a thin film of the dough began to coat the bottom of the saucepan.
        • switching off the heat i then transferred the readied dough into the bowl on the standing mixer and using the paddle attachment stirred the dough for a minute or so in order to cool it down.
        • still stirring with the mixer attachment, i then added the 3 eggs and the egg white to the dough, one at a time, taking care so that each addition is completely incorporated into the dough before the next one is added. 
        • after all the eggs and egg whites had been added to the dough, i beat it at medium-high speed for a couple of minutes, to make sure that the eggs were well incorporated.
        • i then preheated the oven to 450 degrees F, lined two baking sheets with parchment paper and using a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle, piped out circles of the prepared dough into the prepared baking tray. since my piping skills aren't excellent, i ended up piping 25 mini crullers. 
        • while i refrigerated most of the piped dough for later, i transferred a tray of 6 crullers to the preheated oven. 5 minutes down the line, i reduced the oven temperature to 350 degrees F and baked for another 15 minutes. at the end of 15 minutes, when the timer beeped, i switched off the heat, opened the oven door a little and let the crullers stay in the oven for another 5 minutes.
        • after that i removed the crullers from the oven and set them aside for a while till they cooled down. 
        • in the meantime i prepared the blackberry glaze by mixing all the ingredients in a saucepan and holing it over medium-low heat for a minute or so until the glaze changed color and somewhat thickened.
        • i then dipped the crullers into the prepared glaze, waited for 5 minutes and then dipped them again just to make sure that each cruller is generously coated with the glaze.

        and thats it... the crullers were ready to be served ! husband liked them and so did baby boy. but he wasn't overly excited about them. he had one and then wanted just the berries dipped in the glaze...

        Sharing these with Made with love Mondays, Full Plate Thurdays, Foodie Friday and a few other Weekly parties.

        16.7.13

        Medovik aka Russian Honey Cake # Baking Partners 1st Anniversary

        This month the Baking Partners Group is celebrating their first anniversary and aptly enough we were challenged to bake a cake to mark the occasion. The recipes to choose from were
        Both the cakes looked gorgeous and had it not been for my broadening waistline I probably would have baked both. anyway saving the Chiffon Cake recipe for later, i tried the Medovik this month and was delighted with the play of flavors in it !


        The Medovik or Medovnik is a Slovakian honey-cookie-cake in which sour-cream or dulce de leche cream is sandwiched between layers of cookie-like cake sheets and stacked one on top of the other to resemble a layered cake. Apparently it is one of the oldest and most popular cakes in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. While most of the nations minimally decorate the cake with seeds, nuts and simple icing decorations, Slovakians and Czechs are known for their elaborate and tasteful decoration of the layered-honey-cake decoration. true to myself, i stuck to minimal decorations and was quite pleased with my rustic layered honey cake.

        I followed the recipe from AZ Cookbook. Just cut the measure of the ingredients to two-thirds. Since I wanted to make a tall cake, i kept the cookie-discs small. they were 6 inches in diameter. and the final cake had 9 cookie sheet layers. i had two more cookie sheets in hand but after a point the cream in between made it difficult to stack anymore layers. so i served the unused cookie sheets to the boys and they thought they tasted good even without the cream..

        Medovik with Dulce de Leche  
        Recipe Source : AZ Cookbook
           ingredients 
        • for the filling 
          • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
          • 3/4 cups, unsalted butter
        • for the cookie-cake dough
          • 2 eggs
          • 2/3 cups sugar
          • 2 tbsps honey
          • 4.75 tbsps unsalted butter
          • 2/3 baking soda
          • 2-2.5 cups all-purpose flour (keep the 1/2 cup in reserve)
        • sliced almonds, for garnish
        • special utensils required
          • double broiler or 2 regular/medium sized saucepan such that one can be fitted on top of the other. (i used the second arrangement) 
        -
          what i did
        • for the dulce de leche filling,
          • i put the can of condensed milk in a medium saucepan, added enough water to cover the can completely,brought the water to boil and then let it simmer for the next two hours.
          • i then removed the can from the water, left it on the counter for the next hour and let it cool down completely before opening the can and proceeding towards the next step.
          • once the can had completely cooled down, i put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat it for about 2-3 minutes until it became fluffy. still beating, i added the condensed milk into the bowl and beat the two together till a smooth creamy mixture was obtained. then spooning the cream into a jar and refrigerated it until the next day, i.e., till my cookie-cake sheets were baked.
        • for the cookie-cake dough,
          • i filled up half of a medium sized saucepan with water, brought the water to a boil.
          • in a separate saucepan i put the eggs and sugar, stirred to mix them well, then added the honey and butter to the egg-sugar mixture.
          • i then placed the mixing bowl/saucepan on top of the saucepan with boiling water. at this point i adjusted the level of water in the saucepan so that it would not touch the base of the mixing saucepan. maintaining a gentle boil and stirring the mixture constantly with a balloon whisk i cooked the mixture until the ingredients were well blended and the batter in the saucepan looked smooth, about 4-5 minutes.
          • i then added the baking soda to the mixture and stirring constantly cooked for another minute or so. with the addition of the soda the mixture became a little white-ish in colour and increased in volume. 
          • then removing the mixture saucepan from the heat, i gradually added 2 cups of flour to the mixture. at this point the dough felt extremely sticky and was impossible to work with. i was tempted to add more flour to the mixture but the recipe had warned us against it. so i left the sticky dough untouched for the next one hour. 
          • after an hour i preheated the oven to 375 degrees F, lined two baking trays with parchment paper and then started working on the cookie-dough.
          • by then the dough had cooled down and had acquired some character, i.e., had become somewhat workable, i divided it into lime sized balls. of course to do so i had to flour my hands heavily and this is where i used some of  the reserved flour.
          • the dough in hand yielded 11 lime-sized balls. placing the balls on a heavily floured surface, i rolled them into thin sheets. then using an inverted quarter plate, i cut out 6 inch diameter circles off the dough and transferred the rolled out circles into the prepared baking tray with the help of the rolling pin. i thought this was the most difficult part of the recipe, since the dough was sticky and the surface needed to be constantly floured. 
          • next placing two dough circles on a single tray i baked them for 5 minutes until they looked golden on top.
          • i repeated the process 5 more times until all the dough had been baked. 
          • while still waiting for the remaining cookies to bake, i stacked the baked ones one on top of the other, separating them by 4-5 inch squares of parchment paper.
          • once all the 11 cookies had been baked i began to assemble the cake.
        • for assembling the cake, 
          • i spread the dulce de leche cream generously on a cookie-sheet, then put a second one on top and spread the cream on that and repeated the process with another 7 baked cookies. 
          • since stacking any more layers became difficult after that, i crushed one of the remaining cookies and spreading a thin layer of the cream on all side of the cake, dabbed the cookie crumbs all over the cream.
          • though the recipe called for resting the assembled cake in room temperature, i  could not trust the heat and so i transferred the assembled cake into a tall box and refrigerated it until the next day. 
          • and just before serving(taking the photographs), i garnished the cake with sliced almonds and voila ! a beautiful traditional cake was made !!  



        though i had been grumbling a lot while making the cake, at the end i was really glad that i tried it. we both thought the cake looked gorgeous even in its rustic form and it of course tasted G-R-E-A-T !  all along as we relished the cake, i kept on planning when to cook/bake it next. it is certainly a cake to impress and i can't wait to bake it for parents and my in-laws ;-) 

        Thank you Humi for the suggestion. This recipe is a real find !

        So that was the anniversary challenge for the Baking Partners. Happy 1st anniversary !! though I am only four challenges old in this group, i feel wonderful being a part of this group .  Hope we continue to learn and bake such wonderful goodies in the years to come and celebrate many such anniversaries together !
        BakingPartners


        This cake was featured at the following parties !! Thank you so much for the feature !


                     

                    Hearth and Soul Blog Hop 160: 7/15/2013     


                              Wednesday Whatsits (69)     








        Sharing this with Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal CooksMeatless Monday @Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday My Sweet and SavoryJust Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party
        Tuesday Food:  Tempt my Tummy @Blessed with GraceTotally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe BoxTasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug BlessingsShare it Link Party @ Winthrop ChroniclesHearth and Soul Blog Hop , tasty Tuesday
        Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked MomCast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain  Wednesday Whatsit @White Lights on Show and Share @ Semi Homemade MomWonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2Seasonal Celebration @ Natural Mother's Network
        Thursday Food:Link it Up Thursday @ Seven AliveCreative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty CreationsFantastic Thursday @ Three Little ChiefsThriving on Thursdays @ DomesblissityFreedom Friday @ My TurnFull Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  
        Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid SimpleFriday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet HomeFoodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness MissFriday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes

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