Polenta Tart/Pizza

I am excited about this post for two reasons.  First, this is the last post for the year and also 52nd post on this blog which started in 2010. I am happy that I could post one recipe on an average per week.  At times I got lazy, others overexcited but overall I really enjoyed this hobby:)

Whole tomato bruschetta

We went to Hawaii earlier this month.  I was wondering how different would it be considering we live in Santa Barbara which is on the coast.  It is so beautiful!  For me the temperature of water and snorkeling almost everyday were enough reasons to go to Hawaii. I have never spent so much time splashing in ocean water; it was a great feeling.

Red and geen salad - Christmas special from Sid

This winter salad is about bold tastes and vibrant colors. Roasted beets and pomegranate seeds are red and make the bulk of the salad. The green comes from the strong herbs: lime basil, mint, cilantro, arugula and green onions. Soft mild crumbled feta provides texture, contrast and balances sweetness of pomegranate; could be replaced with goat cheese. Roasted pecan and walnuts provide the crunch. Anjana suggested a sour lime and orange dressing, which was almost perfect.

Sooji Dhokla (Semolina /Yogurt Steamed Cake)

If I have to pick one "goto" dish which is tasty, repeatable and presentable, it would be the Sooji dhokla by Isha of Intrepidcook. It is easy to make "hard" dhokla - believe me I have done that so many times until this superb recipe came along to make the softest dhokla ever.

Babagnoush (Eggplant Dip)

Babagnoush is cousin brother of Hummus that uses chicpeas instead of Eggplant (baigan). Interestingly, there is a third cousin called mamagnoush which uses Zucchini instead of eggplant.

Pita Bread

One of my favorite cuisine is Mediterranean. The central item on table in this cusine is pita bread which is easily available in grocery stores. I appreciate home made Indian roti(bread) so much over the store bought roti that I have been thinking of making pita bread at home for a while now. In a way they are quite similar to Indian bread.

Khandvi - Chickpea flour cigar's

Khandvi (Chickpea flour cigar's  - as referred by Raghavan Iyer) - is a very popular Gujarati dish which is quite easy to make (well ..almost other than spreading the batter). These delicious cigar's can be  a show stopper for your finger food  party.   Like all the other dishes,  there are slight variations in the quantities and the sequence in which ingredients are added for Khandvi recipe.   Here is my take on the recipe :)

Handvo/Handwa - Gujarati Appetizer

Gujarati food, in particular the appetizers Khaman, Dhokla, Khandvi and Handvo are quite unique both in terms of cooking method as well as taste. After getting a really good recipe for Sooji Dhokla from my friend-Isha (which I have made zillion times with exceptional results each time), I was eager to try Khandvi and Handvo. Khandvi is perhaps the quickest (Stay tuned for a post on Khandvi!) while Handvo is the most time consuming.

Pecan Tart

Tarts are wonderful desserts and almost always I would pick a tart over a cake for dessert:) Joy of tart making is both in the pastry and the filling. Once you have your numbers right for the pastry, the whole new world of fillings open up to make fruit tart, chocolate tart, pecan tarts, cheese tart... the list is endless.

The flexible "Signature" Sandwich

This post is a research proposal for the most flexible "signature" sandwich highlighting its flexibility with respect to the ingredients and amazing taste :)

Daring Baker's August Challenge - Petit Fours with Brown Butter Pound Cake

The Daring Baker's Challenge for the month of August was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. We were required to make a brown butter pound cake, an icecream and then use them to make either Ice Cream Petit Fours or Baked Alaska. Due to shortage of time, I decided to make brown butter pound cake and then Petit fours from only the cake while having store bought icecreams on the side:)

Walnut Ladoo

Tired of eating Aata Ladoo or Besan Ladoo [Most of you are thinking (including myself) - not possible !!), try these delicious and healthy walnut ladoo for a change!

Basil Pesto

Basil pesto is super easy to make and once you make it at home, you would think twice before buying it from store :) The classic use of pesto is for pasta, sandwiches, and bruschetta.

Swiss swirl ice cream cake - July Daring Baker's Challenge

The daring Baker's Challenge "Swiss swirl ice cream cake" for July 2010 was rolled out by Sunita of Sunita's world life and food. Not only did we have to make swiss roll, two different flavors of ice creams and a chocolate fudge sauce were experimented in my little kitchen for the first time. Without doubt, this was the most time consuming challenge that I have done so far. Perhaps as I didn't have an ice cream maker but it was well worth the effort.

Italian Love Cake

This was my first baking exploration and I always associate this with hunting the grocery store for cool whip cream, instant pudding mix, ricotta cheese and measuring cups. The path was quite irresistible especially after tasting a piece of it at an annual senior graduation party and an interesting name!

Mexican Wedding Cookies

About a month ago, I made the mexican wedding cookies for the first time with some changes to this recipe. Since then I have made them thrice:) DO NOT eat more than a cookie at a time - these are calorie devils!

Thumbprint Cookies

My all time favorite cookies/biscuits are from Venus bakery in Jaipur. Along with mom's hand made ladoo and mathri, Rawat misthan's pyaz kachori, I would always have them in my suitcase when I went back to the hostel in middle school after holidays and to all the other subsequent hostels thereafter:) I was introduced to these cookies by my sister like the other zillion things in my life :) Since both my sister and brother were also at hostel's at that time, all the goodies would get divided in to three parts. Even now, mummy makes three packets of anything that even one of us asks her to bring and obviously has hard time packing them in suitcases!

Goat cheese ravioli - Sid's entry

It is clear to some of you how spoiled I am getting. Also, since "the chef" has been training for half-marathon, I decided to cook something nice to cheer her up on her long-run days!

Vols-au-Vent

When I am looking for something new to bake, I enthusiastically search on the Daring baker's site for the challenges that were rolled out before I joined this group. Usually these recipes are very reliable and most of the times fun to work on. The Vols-au-Vent challenge was rolled by Steph of a wish and a spoon in September 2009 which looked particularly interesting as they can be twisted towards savory or sweet mood/need.

Traditional English Pudding (Steamed Resin) - Daring Baker's April Challenge

The Daring Baker's Challenge for April was hosted by Esther from The Lilac Kitchen. The idea was to make a British pudding using suet. Before this challenge, I used to think that puddings are like custards but England seem to own a world of puddings which are very different from custards and are more in-line with cakes.

Naan

I often wondered about differences in the dough for pizza base, pita bread, naan, flat bread, bhature, bread loaf and thought that there should be a single recipe which can turn into any one of them based on the shape, thickness and mode of cooking. Recently, I found a recipe by Marion Cunnigham for pizza dough which I have used to make bhature and naan with great satisfaction by using some tips for baking naan in oven from the recipe here.

Stuffed French Toast

Quiz: What happens when a wife goes out of town to attend a conference and the husband wants to have a quick homemade bite using only the ingredients inside the fridge?

Chocolate Avocado Truffle

Chocolates/truffles are a girl's best friend - Aren't they ? Despite loving them and enjoying my monthly FREE truffles from the King of Chocolate 'Godiva', I never ever dreamt of making them.

Frozen banana

Summer is almost here and so are light colors and frozen desserts! How about a frozen Hawaiian banana adapted from a recipe by Clementine Paddleford (1898-1967) - the first journalist in American history who truly defined the American food. A jewel who brought freshness of food to the newspapers which were primarily sources of politics at that time.

Apple Cake

I own a dozen or so books on cooking/baking. Some are gifted, some I bought, and others have interesting stories behind them. One such book in the later category is Walter C. Black School cookbook. People used to donate books at our Princeton apartment common room to share with other people for various reasons. Once I found this cooking/baking (spiral binding form) book which had a collection of very simple recipes by a community. I just loved the simplicity of recipes in this book which has about three recipes on a A8 (1/2 of A4) size page with 12pt font. Isn't it amazing ?

Orange Tian-Daring Baker's March Challenge

Orange tian (March 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge) was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate savings. At first glance, this orange tian felt within my comfort zone because of its similarity with tarts but I knew that this feeling will certainly change soon:) I was particularly excited for this contest because we had an orange tree in our apartment complex and picking up oranges was a lot of fun!

Banana Walnut Loaf - Cake or Bread ?

One can find banana-walnut loaf at almost every cafe. This along with marble loaf cake are my favorite. Usually, I don't miss a chance to eat these calorie-devil's while pondering- Is this a cake or a bread? Regardless, a slice is perfect for breakfast with a fresh cup of coffee!

Eggless Prune Cake

To diversify my baking portfolio, I wanted to learn how to bake an eggless cake :) I read about the "cake fever" which was spread by the eggless date cake in aayi's recipe. I looked into my refrigerator and found prunes instead of dates, so decided to try eggless prune cake with little modifications. Overall, it is an easy, tasty, and refreshing cake which I make quite frequently especially because of the 15 min preparation time.

Mango or Strawberry Sandesh

When I am hosting a party, I am most excited about the dessert. However, I can't really ignore the main food and at the same time don't really want to serve store bought desserts either. As a result, I always find myself looking for dessert options which are easy to make.

Muhammara - Remembering Turkey

Like Guacamole for Mexicans, Chimichurri for Argentinians, Hummus for Middle Easterns, Muhammara (a walnut and red bell pepper dip) is for Turks. Now, I don't remember why we zeroed down for a vacation in Turkey (couple of years back) but it was an excellent idea! Baklava, Turkish apple tea, historical monuments, Turkish delights, Turkish carpets, Turkish Haman's and the people ---oh I want to go again......

Almond Butter and the Extensions!

Almond is one of the most versatile nut in the families of nuts. Many Indian kids eat almonds (soaked overnite) every morning to increase their brain power (however I am yet to find any scientific study behind that until then I would assume that its a strategy used by parents to make the kids eat almonds). Anyways, other than their brain enhancing powers, I like almond (Badam) Burfi and badam halwa which are common desserts in India. Marzipan is probably the counterpart of badam halwa in Europe and US wherein its used in chocolates, tarts, cake decorations and what not!

Blood Orange Salad

Well, the farmers started having blood oranges in the farmer's market recently. This week's recipe by Allegra McEvedy in Guardian about blood orange salad caught my attention. I had tried the vegetarian Moroccan pie by Allegra from her clickalong recipe series which I totally loved.

Scones

Many would agree that most of the food that is just taken out of the oven tastes thousand times better than when it sits on the counter for two hours or more but scones taste billion times better when they are just taken out of the oven.

Tiramisu -Daring Baker's Challenge

When I had first made Tiramisu couple of years back, it wasn't remotely close to Tiramisu in looks however it tasted okay. I decided to give it another try when the Daring's Bakers Challenge for Feb was rolled out wherein the challenge was to make Tiramisu including ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese.

Rajasthani Churma

While growing up, I ate this delicious churma made by my mom quite frequently. I have heard stories about how churma's were made either by hand or by huge wooden mortar and pestle when grinder's were not available easily and of course they used to taste so much better.

Nani ki Mathri

My all time favorite snack in Indian cuisine is Mathri and as you can imagine, I have tried to sample them in every possible chance. One can make different variation's of mathri with varying proportion's of all purpose flour(Maida)/oil/water. However, it is indeed quite difficult to make the "soft" mathri's which melt in your mouth. Mathri's made by my naniji-in-law fall in the category of "melt-in-mouth" and are undoubtedly the best I have tried so far. Enjoy this recipe from Naniji:

Chocolate-coated Strawberries

Chocolate coated strawberries are perfect example of "practice makes a man perfect". I first ate Chocolate Coated Strawberries at my PhD Advisor's place and they certainly looked exotic. I was told that they are easy to make. After several attempts, I finally feel that they are easy to make:)

Postdoc Salad

In princeton U. cafeteria, salad bar use to sell salad with title: Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD salad where one could choose 2, 3, 5 ingredients, respectively. The postdoc salad is our own extension of the series with 7 or more ingredients and its eaten quite frequently for lunch during weekdays. Make sure that individual ingredients taste good for a superb salad!

Mexican Tapas: La Super-Rica

La Super-Rica Taqueria is a Mexican shack and probably the most famous restaurant in SB. Several times, I have been to this place two nights in a row. The highlights are the hand made mini tortilla's which form the base for most of the dishes and are made in front of the customers using the poori maker:)

Lemon Squares

If you have a "lemony tooth" and have less than twenty minutes for preparation, you got to try these lemon squares. I usually add a drop of vanilla extract in eggs to dilute their aroma and also reduce sugar by 1/2 cup in the filling. Once you get a hang of the base, you can replace lemon filling with caramelized almonds, pecan meal and many more.

Beetroot and bramley soup

I must admit that I am not a big fan of beetroot. However, this time of the year its hard to avoid beetroot at the Santa Barbara Farmer's market. Soups don't remind you of their ingredients, at least visually. Therefore, I proudly admit that my only contribution to this post is to search for a recipe and rest goes to my collaborator "Sid", who insisted on buying beets!

Pizza

In memories of uncountable pizzas from Conte's (Princeton) and Giafranco (Philly)!

Moroccan filo pie

Simple and amazing recipe with full of middle eastern flavors which can be made in an hour! Make sure that you get your units right:) Perfect way to use the six sheets of left over phyllo dough after making baklava.

Popovers

I ate popovers for the first time at the Popover cafe in NYC with some berry butter. Its interesting that popovers are really puffed up when you are about to take them out of the oven but its kind of difficult to maintain that status even for a minute. Need to figure that out!!! Perhaps popover pan can solve the problem.

Falafel from scratch

Maoz falafel were haunting me since we moved from Philly. Dede's recipe for hummus was amazing and her falafel recipe was on the "try out" list for a long time. Ankita and Neha were visiting us for the long weekend and it seemed perfect to try out Falafel from scratch while remembering Philly:)

Falafel adventure led to many more where Sid, Ankita, Neha and I ended up spending a lot of time in Kitchen & watching classic movies in breaks (or vice versa) with numerous thanks to stormy SB weather! The other adventures were Crossiant, Mapo Tofu and Shushi and will be posting them soon.

Croissant - The little Chef

Princeton has a small pastry shop called "The Little Chef". Many would agree that this is probably one of the best pastry shop for croissant, scones and many other delicacies which I don't even know names of.

Cherry Tart

Cherry Tart with pecan base and fresh cherry's. A small twist to pecan tart - replacing pecans with cherries on the top - filling is still pecan based. Will upload the recipe soon. Miam-miam !!

Fruit Cake -Spicy Loaf

Spicy loaf cake! Can't believe that coriander is among ingredients. Enjoy this recipe by a 4th generation French Pastry Chef.