Valentine Cookies

Hello again, 

Its been a while since I posted a recipe. Since Christmas, I haven't done much baking. Brownie Points is taking a break for a while because I am in the process of finding a job. Yes, I have finally decided that I've had enough of a break. I've already overshot my initial time table to finishing my portfolio. Oh well. It will all get done soon.

I'm not much of a romantic. According to my profile picture on Facebook (courtesy; Alicia Souza), I would happily devour my valentine! But here I am baking heart shaped cookies on Valentines day. I surprise myself sometimes.

One of my friends has a charity sale at work today, so I helped her baked some cookies for her to sell. We baked chocolate and vanilla hearts (and a few stars as well). This is the easiest recipe ever. If you aren't a baker and want to start, this is the recipe to start with.

Chocolate and Vanilla Hearts

(or stars or whatever shape cookie cutters you have)

This recipe is an adaption of one found in 'Cookshelf Baking' by Emma Patmore.

Combine 300g of butter with 250g of sugar, 1 egg and 1 tbsp of vanilla. Beat well with a wooden spoon till nice and smooth. Sift together 450g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix with your hands to form a ball of cookie dough. Roll out to about 5mm thick. Dust flour on the surface, so that it doesn't stick. Cut out as many shapes as you can and then roll the extras out again and cut out more. I got about 40 from my batch. But that kind of depends on the size of your cookie cutters. Place onto a baking tray and bake in a preheated 170 degree oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies should be a little soft when you take them out. They will harden when you cool them.

For the chocolate batch. Put 300g of flour and 150g of cocoa powder. The rest of the measurements should be the same.

Once cooled, dust with icing sugar and eat them. If you're in a good mood, share with people.

Note:

1. If the dough is a bit sticky, add more flour. Even if it's a bit sticky, it's not going to roll easily.

2. Make sure you don't roll it out too thin. If the cookies are too thin, they stick to the baking tray and crack really easily. You will have lots of broken hearts. haha!

3. I powdered my own sugar, hence it's not that fine and doesn't melt fast (which usually happens with the humidity)

4. Store in an airtight container.

Sketch

One of my days galavanting around London, Joanna, Jason, Kim and I had lunch at Sketch. 

Located on Conduit Street just off Reagent Street in London's posh uptown, Mayfair (the most-wanted Monopoly property!), it is an 18th century neoclassical townhouse, which later housed the RIBA headquarters. 

Sketch includes two restaurants; The Gallery and the Lecture Room, two bars; The Glade and The East Bar, and an all-day cafe; The Parlour. French head chef Pierré Gagnaire, known for his three Michelin star restaurant in Paris has successfully earned Sketch two Michelin stars for his french nouvelle themed menu. The Lecture Room is a fine dining restaurant with a meal for two costing about 200 pounds! Crazy!

We ate at The Parlour Room- the little patisserie at the front end of the house. The decor was most unusual. An eclectic mix of 18th century antique with a 1970's twist. Mismatched banquet chairs and footstools, stag heads, metal sculptures, tasseled lamps, post modern art work and wallpaper that was different on every wall provided quite an bizarre, yet fascinating setting. I couldn't help but stare into every corner as my brain tried to assimilate this style. I felt a bit odd to take pictures of everything, so you'll have to rely on Google to get a full picture.

The design of the menu was equally interesting. I counted a total of 11 different fonts used. From 19th century calligraphy and it's contrasting sans-serifed type. It was illustrated with black and white sketches of classical household objects. 

The cuisine in The Parlour, although typically French and English cafe fare, is termed as comfort food. The prices weren't cheap. Thankfully we weren't too hungry and were satisfied with the gourmet portions too. Between us, we ordered a Leek Quiche, Macaroni gratinated with Emmenthal with a side of celeriac remoulade salad, warm pitta pocket with feta, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes, and Asparagus with Hervé This eggs, pecorino and rocket. It was a tasty array of food. The emmenthal flavour was delightful, but I wasn't as much a fan of the celeriac remoulade. The Pitta pocket was slightly ordinary, but still tasty. I always thought 'Herve This eggs' were just poached eggs. On further research, Hervé This is actually a food scientist who discovered that cooking eggs in 65 degrees produces the perfectly cooked egg with the whites coagulated but the yolk nice and runny. 

Dessert was the bigger hit. It was so hard to chose. I have this big phobia of menus. There are always too many options. The names of dishes and their accompanying description only makes the process harder. This was no different. I finally decided that I'd chose the most weird sounding dessert. I remember it having the most unappetising name out of the lot- 'Bob' but had an unusual combination of sweet and savoury flavours. Unfortunately it wasn't available.

This was our final order- Strawberry Hill: Sable biscuit, almond cream with kiwi compote, Greek yoghurt and lime mousse topped with strawberries and an edible yellow pansy. Chocolate Tartlet: Sweet pastry dough with Macae chocolate ganache and chocolate jelly, glazed with dark chocolate. 

Gateau Chocolat: Salted butter caramel, Manjari chocolate mousse, sacher sponge cake and hazelnut and an Exotic Pate a choux: Tangy pate a choux filled with vanilla mousse, caramel, passion fruit jelly and Tonka bean chantilly.

Flavours were quite grand. Many of the flavours were new. My conclusions:
1. Fancy types of chocolate do taste better. 
2. Tonka beans aren't much different to vanilla.
3. Edible flowers have no flavour. They are just pretty. 
4. Kiwi and Lime make an excellent combination!

Most Memorable Meals

This was a thread that started on Facebook a while ago and I've wanted to write a blog post about it since. Here goes. 

1. My birthday meal: The Sabbath before I was born, my Mum had made spaghetti and veggie meatballs and coleslaw. She went into labour that night and I was born early Sunday morning. That was my last meal through the umbilical chord. For as long as I can remember, we have this meal for my birthday, usually for Sabbath lunch the weekend before or after my birthday. It's one of my favourites. Garlic bread has since been added to the menu.

2. Unlimited Children's meal, Kodaikanal: When I was 7, we went on a family trip to Kodaikanal. The day we were heading back, we had lunch at a restaurant where I had the unlimited children's meal. I ate and ate and ate, cleared out every accompaniment. I remember asking for more ghee with the serving of rice. On the way down the curvy, winding roads, we had to stop many times as I emptied out my stomach in different installments. It was still worth it.

3. Haveli: On the way back to Delhi from Chandigarh during our college trip, we stopped at Haveli. This meal was absolutely grand. About 10 of us sat around this big table and we filled up on rotis, naans, paneer curry, pav bhaji, makki ki roti, sarson ka saag, lassi, jalebis and kulfi. Definitely one of the tastiest meals I've had.

4. Lazy Meals: When I was in 10th std, my parents often left my cousin and I alone at home for me to 'study'. We were usually too lazy to cook. I remember one night, we had a movie marathon and we ate chips and curd for dinner. It was grand.

5. Passage to India: I must have been about 10 when my Grandma took me out for lunch to one of the Indian restaurants in Ipswich. We ordered much more than was needed. I remember something like 4 curries between the 2 of us. I also remembered that we ate most of it. We left with full stomachs. So full, that I couldn't walk and had to sit on the side of the pavement and wait for the food to settle.

6. School and College lunches: This memory is quite clear in my head. 9th std classroom. During morning class, we'd open one of our lunches. Pass it under the desks, bend down and fill our mouths. During break, the second lunch would be eaten. During the second class, we'd finish one more. When actual lunch break came, we'd share in the potluck of other peoples lunches and finally, the  class after lunch was to finish the final one. My favourites were puliogere, idilis and onion chutney and chapattis and tomato and green chilis. This happened on most days. I remember only being caught twice for chewing in class.

Similar practices continued in College. Everyday was a different story. This was a general food memory than one specific meal. We covered so many restaurants, so many episodes of food fights. One that stands out was during a Building Construction exam, I brought pesto pasta for lunch. We passed it around and ended it up eating it with our fingers because I couldn't find the fork. I guess the green stains on the sheets were never questioned.

7. Caperberry: This is the best restaurant I've ever eaten in when it comes to gourmet food. It's been a truly brilliant gastronomical experience every time. Fancy spherification, dehydration and cryo frozen food all presented with such intricacy and beauty on the plate with perfect combination of flavours and textures.

8. Cook Outs: Having a gang of friends that enjoy both eating and cooking resulted in cook outs. We choose a cuisine, decide what each will be making, buy all necessary ingredients, spend a few hours in the kitchen cooking together, eat and then do the washing up together. Those have been some great evenings.

9. The No-Rule Day: My brother and I spent many summer holidays with my grandparents in Hosur. One of those times when I must have been about 6, my Papa decided that one day would be 'No-Rule' day. We could get up when we wanted, eat what ever we liked and do as we pleased. We made chocolate-chip cookies in the morning in our pyjamas and guess what we had for lunch?- Chocolate-chip cookies. I guess it was the thrill of getting to skip rice and dhal and make a meal out of cookies that was most exciting.

10. Picnics in the forest: When we lived in Ipswich, we lived close by to open fields and some wooded area. A few times, I remember having picnics in the forest. We'd pack the food and I can still picture the spot where we used log as our table and spread out the mat and ate. Don't remember what we ate, but it was the setting that was memorable.

11. Gatecrashed weddings: Twice we were starving on a Saturday night. We had empty pockets and felt like some adventure. One wedding we ate south indian food on banana leaves and the other we filled up on biriyani and brinjal curry. Even if the food was average, the excitement of celebrating some unknown wedding was more than just memorable.

12. Home food: How can I not end my list with home food. The kitchen is the centre of my house, and when it comes to family reunions, a big part of it is spent in cooking and eating. Whether it be my Mum's homemade pizzas, pies, aloo parathas or waffle dinners, my uncle Steven's famous spaghetti and tiramisu, my grandma's gluten 65, or huge potlucks with huge varieties of food and dessert, home food will always by my favourite!

I struggled to restrict this list to 12. I think I got the most important ones covered. :)

2012- The best so far.

2012

I've started writing this so many times, but it’s just not coming out right. So instead of my long detailed usual write up, I’ll try a list.

The Year:

1.   The nightmare start- Thesis submissions. The last of all Christmases and New Year’s spent alone at home in front my laptop. Craziest of all deadlines. The final one.

2.   The month of good sleep and celebrations- We went to watch MI4 the day of my viva. I slept the entire movie and was only woken up to see Tom Cruise jump out of the Burj.

3.   Slight anguish with the problems concerning my internship were quickly dispelled with the start of my internship with Cadence Architects. God always has the best plans for me. Just need to be patient.

4.   Four months of work. Probably learnt more there than I did at college. Long commutes, long hours, but got to work with great people on some great projects.

5.   Squeezed in so much into my schedule. It was all worth the lack of sleep. Everything from singing practices, swimming, string quartet practices, play practices with the kids, RATS play meetings and sets design and of course Brownie Points baking through the night.

6.   Hard work pays off well. The kids did a super job. The RATS play was brilliant too. Brownie Points got a front page feature in Time Out. A year and a half ago, when Time Out first featured us, I was browsing the internet and saw that Australia’s top pastry chef, Adriano Zumbo made it on the cover of the Sydney Time Out. I concluded that we were definitely not good enough to make the cover! We are in no place to start comparing with such a genius, but still, we are mighty proud of ourselves. :D

7.   And then the final of all final college jury’s. The internship months went by so fast and I was back in the line at college waiting for my turn to present my work to the jury. Such a different feeling to waiting in line before the thesis viva!

8.   I spent the next 2 weeks in bed. Probably the worst illness ever. Never felt so helpless, listless or so much in pain. Months later, my Mum told me that during that time, she prayed and told God that if I had to go, she was ready. I never realised that it was that bad. Thank God for the healing and my doctors aka parents who took care of me and of course the prayers and many messages.

9.   The BIG holiday was the highlight of the year. Just a few days after pulling out IV tubes from my hands and I’m on the plane off to London for 2 months. Ate so much good food with the intention of putting on all the weight I had lost. Definitely wasn’t a hard task. Apart from spending a super time with family, I got to do lots of ‘bucket list’ kind of things. Here are some of them:

·      Went to Wimbledon- Watched current women’s world no.1 Azerenka play and also former world no.1 Roddick play.

·      Saw Europe’s tallest building- The Shard.

·      Watched the Olympic Torch run one leg of its journey.

·      Saw the work of 5 Pritsker winners- Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Herzog and deMeuron, Zaha Hadid and Richard Rogers.

·      Watched the stage production of the ‘most successful piece of entertainment of all time’- The Phantom of the Opera.

·      Watched the stage production of Chicago in its final month of performance.

·      Ate in a Michelin-nominated restaurant, Vanilla Black and also in the café of the two Michelin star restaurant, Sketch (which also had the weirdest bathroom I’d ever been to)

·      Saw work by the best artists in the world including Monet, Michelangelo Rembrandt, da Vinci and Van Gogh at the National Gallery and work by Worhol at the Portrait Gallery.

·      Bought a chocolate-chip cookie at Europe’s biggest departmental store, Harrods.

·      Saw some of the most expensive cars in the world including a Bugatti Veyron, a Maybach, a Mclaren F1, some Lamborghinis and Ferraris and may be some others that I didn't recognise. Also went for a ride in a Porsche Carrera.

10. Spent 10 days in the beautiful country Sri Lanka with cousins and did many more awesome things. Will definitely go back.

11. Came back home to Bangalore and planned to spend the next months doing everything but work. Pushed my job hunting to Jan 2013.

12. Graduated with a degree in Architecture. Batch of 2007- you guys are awesome!

13. Got to be part of many church activities including the concert by the Praise and Worship team and also organised a complete programme by the children.

14. Had the busiest month ever with Brownie Points after the biggest Soul Sante sale we’ve ever done and a feature in Bangalore’s biggest newspaper, The Deccan Herald.

15. Went for a basic scuba class. If only I knew this could have been a career option 5 years ago. I also got my drivers licence, which has been on my 'to do' list for 4 years.

16. December will always be my favourite month of the year and this December was certainly the best. Apart from the crazy Brownie Points orders, I joined the carol singers every single night and sang till I had a sore throat. Was part of 4 Christmas parties to 2 orphanages, an old age home and the church for the blind. Went Christmas shopping after 6 years and got to spend a great time with family.

17. All in all, this year was definitely the best year I’ve had so far. The time at home has helped me plan what I want to do next. It’s given me time to figure out how I want to use my degree and now I think I’m quite clear with my priorities.

18. If the next year means moving out of home, I’m grateful for the time I got to spend at home with family and with friends in Bangalore.

Here’s to 2013. I have absolutely no clue what you have in store for me. Totally excited! :D

Truly Scrumptious

The name of the post is after one of the characters from 'Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang!' and also perfectly describes this dessert.

I have this problem whipping cream. I mean, I blame the cream I use, but I don't think many other people have the same problem. I've tried everything, but the Amul carton cream just does not whip. It took years for me to actually give up, but now I really have. I settled for non-dairy frozen cream as an alternative. Worked perfectly, but didn't taste as nice.

Then, one fine day tried out another company of fresh cream and it whipped! Unfortunately, the times I actually needed the cream, I could never find it. So now, whenever I do see, I just buy and then think of what to make with it later

Anyway, back to this truly scrumptious dessert. I was generally blog hopping and stumbled across this blog- The Pioneer Woman. Really wonderful site. She lives on a farm with 4 kids and a basset hound and cooks great food and writes well too. This recipe is just soooo easy. Didn't realise mousse could be this simple to make.

I adapted it a bit. This is my version. Click here for her version.

Take 1 & 1/2 C of dark chocolate chips and 1/2 C of caramel chocolate chips. Put in blender. Squeeze out one orange into the blender and whiz away. I don't want to sound like Nigella Lawson, but the sound of those crumbling chocolate chips along with the citrus was quite exciting.

Then add 3 large eggs, a tiny pinch of salt into the blender & whiz some more. Then add 1 cup of very very hot coffee (I used 2 Tbsp of decaf coffee and 1 tsp of sugar- add more sugar if you're one of those people who likes things sickeningly sweet) Slowly pour in with the rest of the mixture. The hot coffee will partially cook the eggs. Blend for another 30 seconds. This gets all the air into the mousse.

Then pour into cups/jars/glasses. The jars she uses are pretty cool. I only had these fluted glasses. I'm sure it would have tasted better in her jars. Oh well. Pour, so that there is enough space for whipped cream on the top. Refrigerate until set. It took about 2 hours. Whip up the cream with a bit of powdered sugar. I also added some orange essence in mine. Dollop into the glasses. Dust some cocoa powder and sprinkle with orange rind and now say 'Hello' to Truly Scrumptious.

Mmmm. 

I shall make this again at Christmas. Somehow the combination of orange, chocolate and coffee seem like a christmassy thing.

Asparagus Souffle

I've been spending a LOT of time in the kitchen. Brownie Points has had a very busy last few weeks with Soul Sante, a feature in the Deccan Herald- read here and plenty of Diwali orders. Apart from that, my parents were out of town for a few weeks, so I did plenty of cooking. But, it's not much fun when I have to cook as appose to when I just cook for fun.

Anyway, there was a bunch of asparagus in the fridge and felt like trying something different for dinner. 

This was the first recipe I found on the net when I searched for 'Asparagus Souffle' Brilliant pictures and pretty straightforward recipe.

Read HERE.

Few pointers:
1. Make sure the asparagus is nice and tender. Break off hard stems.
2. The becahmel sauce is supposed to be super thick. Looked liked mashed potatoes to me.
3. Carefully fold in the egg whites. If you over mix, it won't rise well in the oven.
4. If your oven is like mine, you'll need more than 20 minutes in the oven. I didn't even have to turn the heat down. But. don't leave it in there too long. It'll dry out.

Note: In the pictures, it's fallen a bit because I didn't take the pictures as soon as it was out of the oven. Once I started eating, I realised that I should blog about it beacuse it tasted SO yum!

A little bit of Zaha!

One of my classmates in college nicknamed me 'Zaha' from my fondness of angles and assymetry and oddities, synonymous with the famed architect, Zaha Hadid. My designs are quite far from her work, and thankfully that name never stuck!

No doubt, she's pretty awesome. The only female holder of the prestigious Pritsker award with projects dotted all over the world and has lectured in some of the biggest architectural institutions.

I was lucky enough to be in London during the two week London Festival of Architecture 2012. As part of the festival, was the opening of the Zaha Hadid Exhibition. It was definitely something I looked forward to, but unfortunately forgot to carry my camera and had to rely on my phone.

The exhibition was the basement and ground floor of a building with her studios on the floors above. If only she wasn't on one of her world travel, I could have met the woman herself. sigh. 

There were about 8 or 10 sculptures on display. Most of them were her furniture or landscape design. You can see them here. I particularly liked her Floating staircase design and the Aqua Table. Such smooth lines and seamless surfaces make up her wacky designs.

Dining at Mynt

Bangalore is host to many food events. One such one is the Citybank Restaurant week. 10+ different restaurants come up with a fixed menu at a great deal for Citybank users. 

Being a part of the 'Bangalore Foodies' group on Facebook, my Mum and I were able to go to one of these restaurants for an even better deal. The menus went up and the just as quickly, the best ones got booked. We were able to choose to dine at Mynt, at the Taj Westend while other foodies ate at the others on the same night.

We were seated at a lovely table on the porch. Even though the other foodies who also chose this restaurant decided to eat by themselves, we got to spend a lovely dinner together.

The chef, Bharat Kapoor took us through each course. The amuse bouche was a refreshing combination of feta, watermelon, tepenade and caramalised tomatoes. Just the right balance of sweet and salty.

Opera, Food Fairs and Chainsaw Jugglers

Of all the areas in London, Covent Garden has got to be my favourite. The life and culture cannot compare to any other part. If at all, I had nothing else to do, I'd spend the whole day in Covent Garden.

The piazza and French style housing was designed by Inigo Jones in the mid 17th century and the landmark neoclassical market building in the centre of the piazza by Charles Fowler 200 years later. The area speaks of centuries of history but has always been synonymous with entertainment. 

Cobblestone streets flanked with tiny boutiques and quaint cafes spilling out onto pavements leading up to the piazza bursting with activity- from street dancers, magicians, acrobats, opera singers, orchestras, and more. People crowding around, sitting on pavements and eating hot jacket potatoes, more little boutiques with tiny doorways and spiral staircases, many more cafe's with live cooking and tables with white umbrellas dotted around the plaza. Souvenir markets with London city, Queen's Jubilee and Olympic paraphernalia and tourists and locals trying to breathe in as much as possible.

Ode to Pillow fights

This is where I am now--- working at job applications and reminiscing about college days. Slightly depressing and slightly exciting to summarise the emotions. More on the depressing side, though. 

I'm also enjoying this state of unemployment. It means- more cooking, more writing, more wandering and more music.

Been listening to a lot of Indie Folk this week. Here's my new band discovery- Paper kites. 

Last Saturday night I was part of a pillow fight. Girls against boys- 4 kids below 12 and 3 adults. Crazy fun! Ah, the days of dressing up, walks in the woods and pillow fights!