Stovetop Dancing

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Pine Nuts

2012-01-31T21:23:00.000+04:00

It's been so good to have actual winters here in Dubai. Much more than just a nip in the air, this January has pleasantly surprised us with rather low temperatures. The sun is still very much there, warming my face when the chilly breeze is blowing away my hair. Not that I mind by the way, about the wind; if you knew me, you'd understand how the wind can mess very little with my already too messed up hair.

So how do you really enjoy the winters. Coffee, hot chocolate, toasted marshmallows on a BBQ... or like me, all of the above? But before you dismiss me off as a calorie-junkie, let me quickly complete the list with my favorite winter food - soup.

I love this pumpkin soup mainly because the toasted pine nuts go so well with it. I love the way my kitchen smells when I toast pine nut - something so rustic about their fragrance, don't you think?

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Pine Nuts

2 cups cooked and mashed pumpkin
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, sliced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and quatered
1 teaspoon salt (or more, as per taste)
1/2 teaspoon curry/garam masala powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons fresh cream (optional)
1/2 cup pine nuts

1. In a wok, heat the oil.
2. Add the onions and saute till translucent.
3. Add the pumpkin, salt and spices and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the milk and sugar to combine. Remove from heat.
5. Once slightly cooled, using a hand blender, puree the soup.
6. Put the soup back on heat and stir in the cream, if using.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-10T12:05:00.001+04:00

Hello Peeps! How did you bring in the New Year? This was our first with Anya was very special. We drove to Muscat (where my parents live) from Dubai and spent it with my sister and her family who were also visiting. Anya loves spending time with her cousins. She loves being around younger kids and toddlers, so I was a little skeptical about how she'd take to her slightly older cousins (10 and 8). But she just jumped on to them and started shrieking with joy. Ha ha, almost like babies know that kids are more fun than boring adults :)

Any resolutions for 2012? My top resolution is to blog more often. And then to start biking and running more often too. I bought a bicycle two months back just in time to enjoy riding in the Dubai winters. And I'm such a shabby runner that I really should work at getting better. Also, I should get better at dating Hubster more often :)

What are your top resolutions? I'd love to know.

The Perfect Brownie

2011-12-22T00:27:00.000+04:00

Lately, I have been craving brownies. No I'm not pregnant again (though I'd love to be, only to be able to see rare acts of chivalry aboard public transport). But I've baked six batches of brownies over the last fortnight. I don't know why, but I've never felt completely happy with a batch. Until the last one.

A thin crust on the top and a dense chocolate-y, cake-y, fudge-y mass to sink your teeth into, that's what a brownie should be to me. Otherwise, how is it any different from a cake? And that's exactly what this 6th batch was.

In each of the versions, I tried many different things. One thing that I can swear worked was to bake the brownies in the middle rack but keeping the top rack covered with a cookie sheet. I have no explanation figured out for this. But if anyone else does, please do leave me a comment, because I'd love to know. I have a gas oven ()which by the way, I have finally figured out after this epic baking experiment), so the source of heat is at the bottom. I have no idea what told the top has to play in it, but it did deliver a uniformly thin crust to the brownie. Something that the other batches did not have.

My second observation, it's okay and quite necessary to taste your batter. If you want it sweeter, add another tablespoon of sugar. Brownies are more forgiving that cakes, so don't worry that much about your leavening agents. If you like the gooey mess you're going to throw into the oven, chances are you'll love the tidy square that comes out of it.

My final and most important learning. Brownies ALWAYS taste better the next day. So shut your face, hold your tongue and fight that temptation till tomorrow.

Miss Stovetop's Perfect Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, cut in cubes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
100 grams bitter chocolate, chopped (I used 70%)
1/3 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8x8" brownie with parchment and grease lightly.

2. Melt the butter, oil and chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring with a rubber spatula till completely melted.

3. Stir in the sugars and vanilla.

4. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, ensuring you do not mix in too much air into the batter.

5. Fold in the cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder.

6. Bake for 30 minutes. Check at 25 minutes or so for a tester to come out with crumbs.

7. Allow it to cool on the counter for 30 minutes. Cut in squares and store in an airtight container to serve next day.

Lemon Curd and White Chocolate Pot de Crème

2011-11-27T15:23:00.001+04:00

OMG, November's almost gone. Does this stump anyone else? I can never get over how quickly time flies.

Feels like just yesterday when I was prepping up for my first Bakefest. And yesterday, I hopped over to the next one at Wild Peeta. I wasn't selling this time, but just went to ~~add to my expanding waistline~~ cheer for the local baking community, many of who are my friends. Much cake was devoured, and Baby A had a few licks too.

Meanwhile, I'm having trouble figuring out my new Indesit gas oven. It takes forever to preheat. I should have never moved from electric. Sigh. But I'm also planning to get a convection-friendly microwave. Any suggestions?

Anyway, I have been up to something in the kitchen. I'm loving the new trend of serving non-jarry foods in jars. So tiny, so cute, so surprising and completely supporting my facade of "portion control"(wink, wink; nudge, nudge). And of course, to go with my spirit of experimentation; there's the advantage of having lots of small jars thanks to Baby A's love for Hero fruit purees. I recently made these Lemon Curd and White Chocolate Pots de Crème as Diwali gifts, and everyone loved how the sweet white chocolate cream complemented the tart lemon curd. And as an extra plus, these were so easy to make! I used some wafer daisies to sit at the top, and it really went with the usual whole flowers and candles Diwali decor.

Lemon Curd and White Chocolate Pot de Crème

For the Lemon Curd
(Adapted slightly from David Lebovitz)

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice

2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

1/2 cup slightly salted butter

For the White Chocolate Ganache

100 gms white chocolate

1/2 cup low fat cream

1. To make the lemon curd, whisk the first four ingredients together in a saucepan.

2. Whisking continuously, slowly add the butter and set the pan over very low heat.

3. Whisk till you have a custard like consistency and the curd forms a ribbon when dropped from whisk.

4. Press the curd through the strainer. Divide into 4 small jars and let cool.

5. To make the white chocolate ganache, place the chopped chocolate in a bowl.

6. Heat the cream in a separate saucepan and when it starts bubbling around the sides, pour the cream over the chocolate. Let it rest for a minute and whisk to melt the chocolate completely.

7. Once the ganache is slightly cooled, pour into the lemon curd layered pots and refrigerate.

8. Decorate the top with wafer flowers, silver dragees or anything you please.

This should keep for about a week in the fridge.

Ashiana - A complete experience

2011-11-13T00:25:00.001+04:00

Here's a confession. I have been disappointed with the few fine-dining experiences I've had at Indian restaurants here in Dubai. Mainly, the ones that dish out North Indian cuisine. I mean, seriously, if your idea to enrich a desi curry is to ladle a pound of cream into it and flavour it with every spice that leaves the shores of India; then I'd rather enjoy my meal at a highway dhaba back home, where at least the awesome cooks don't forget to include the taste.

So when I was invited by Ashiana at the Sheraton for a tasting session, it actually took me a while to say yes. And a couple of weeks after doing so, I can tell you I'm glad I did. Because unlike my former experiences with Indian food here, Ashiana proved to be a spectacular combination of great food, a pleasant ambience and what I loved the most - lovely, lovely live music.

The dimly lit restaurant brings an array of flavours primarily from the North and West frontiers of India. From Rajasthani lentils to Punjabi tikkas, the menu also hosts a few dishes from other corners of the country. Recently appointed Executive Chef Manish Law says he wishes to serve India on a palette and wants to replace traditional aloo and ghobi with vegetables that are seldom used in traditional Indian cuisine, like asparagus and artichokes. Ask him if they'll go well with Indian spices and he smiles, assuring you that he'll make a marriage between the two that will last.

There is much to applaud about the food at Ashiana. The true richness of the food at Ashiana comes with it's minimal ingredients and subtle flavours. A tikka platter (of which sadly, I could not get a good picture of) included a melt-in-your-mouth, cumin-scented fish marinated in fresh fenugreek leaves and yogurt; a makai shammi kebab where cottage cheese and corn were pan-fried perfectly to be crisp on the outside and buttery on the inside; a six-hour marinated tandoori lamb chop where the meat fell off the bone without much effort and a murg tikka, which was the only one that I wasn't completely awestruck with. Though the meat was tender, the sides were a tad too charred.

For the vegetarian main course, I chose a dish that sounded the most unique - soonth ka saag. If someone had told me about the ingredients of this dish before I'd tasted it, I'd probably have never ordered it. But this was the one that really bowled me over. In this creation that draws inspiration from the kitchens of Lukhnow, steamed asparagus meets blanched spinach with just a hint of chilli, garlic and cumin. For the non-vegetarian main course, which I asked my server to recommend, I had the Murg Ashiana, predictably the house special. Again, it did not fail to impress. A finely chopped rainbow of bell peppers, spring onions, coriander leaves and chunks of tender chicken with the aroma of garam masala - what's not to love? Though if I were to choose between the two, I would have to say the soonth ka saag completely besotted me. And for me to choose a vegetarian meal over it's meaty counterpart is a rare, rare occasion.

By the time the desserts arrived, I was quite full. Next time, I will have more than a spoonful of the warm cardamon-scented gajar halwa.

But let me tell you the real reason I'll always go back to Ashiana. The music. The LIVE music, which is splendid to say the least. Being a vocalist trained in Hindustani classical, the sounds of the tabla and the harmonium are not just familiar to me, they are welcome. So it is no surprise that this is where Ashiana completely mesmerized me. A couple with soul-stirring voices rendering one classic after the another. Songs of Manna Dey and Mohammed Rafi, Hemant Kumar and Kishore Kumar; I was pleasantly surprised by their depth of knowledge. Since I was there relatively early, I requested three golden oldies that they sang without even looking into their diaries for lyrics. I was an instant fan. I have never been to an Indian restaurant here that plays a good collection of old classics, let alone having seasoned singers perform them for you.

Did I mention that Ashiana in Hindi means a nest, a safe haven? From classy decor to delectable food and splendid music to attentive service, Sheraton's Ashiana has everything that makes it a cozy place to come back to.

Ashiana
Sheraton Dubai Creek Hotel and Towers
Reservations at 04 207 1733

Deceptively Simple Mishti Doi

2011-09-26T14:03:00.001+04:00

Have you ever been to Calcutta, the erstwhile capital of colonial India when she was still under the British rule? If you have, you'll probably have a few things to say about it. Things you love and things you hate. And if you're not Bengali or from the city, it would mostly be the latter.

As a child, I used to hate Calcutta. Like pretty much everything about it, but primarily because the water tastes different there. And we always went in the sweltering summer, which by no means made the stay any pleasant. I used to hate the humidity, the unclean roads, the slower-than-a-snail tram system (yes, it IS faster to walk than take one of those), the overcrowded double-decker buses, the traffic jams that don't move for HOURS...everything!

I don't know when exactly my perception about the city changed, but I do remember it was because of a day out with my mum. My mum took me out to eat Mughlai food and then to see the Victoria Memorial, and then for a walk around the heart of the city - Park Street, Esplanade, Maidan. We then went to College Street and saw the lovely Presidency College and the Coffee House where Satyajit Ray once sat and revised his scripts. That day I saw a part of Calcutta I never knew existed. Victorian buildings and ample history aside, one thing to knock your socks off in this city is the street food. Vendors churning out crisp puchkas in bowls made from swiftly rolling a leaf, egg and chicken rolls on giant tawas, cutlets being fried in huge kadhais, jhal muri stuffed into recycled newpaper thongas ... oh my, that city does have it's street food culture in place.

And of course, the one thing synonymous with Bengal - the Mishti. No, not me :D Meeesh-tee, as in desserts. Even the tiniest by-lane of a small street between two will have a sweet shop selling traditional Bengali sweets. Some dry like Sandesh (pronounced Shon-desh), some soaked in sugar syrup. Some made from cottage cheese and some with freshly grated coconut. Many sweetened with sugar, but some sweetened with the seasonal jaggery (yes, Bengalis use two different kinds of jaggery depending on the seasons). You will not find every single type of Bengali mishti in every Bengali mishti shop, but all of them will have one dessert in common - Mishti Doi. Quite simply, it's just sweetened yogurt served in earthen cups. But there is something distinctly Bengali about it that you won't find anywhere else.

Traditionally, Mishti Doi is made by boiling milk until thickened, sweetened with jaggery or date molasses and left in an earthen pot to ferment overnight. The long procedure and earthenware involved in making Mishti Doi are the reasons why it is not commonly made at home. Though that's not the case in my home. My mother invented this recipe once, and ever since has had to make it at almost every dinner where she's had our Bengali friends over. And it's an easy-peasy 2-ingredient, 3 minute wonder. Like so easy, that you'd want to make it every day.

Mommy Stovetop's Deceptively Simple Mishti Doi

400-500 gms yogurt
1 can (395 gm) sweetened condensed milk

1. Beat the yogurt in a microwave-safe bowl. Like, beat the crap out of it.
2. Whisk in the condensed milk till there are no lumps.
3. Heat for 3 minutes in the microwave, on medium-high power. Check to see if the centre is set, your fingers should come clean when you touch it. If the yogurt sticks to your fingers, heat for another minute.
4. Let the Mishti Doi cool at room temperature. And thenc hill till it's ready to be served. Mishti Doi is always served cold.

I made this at home for a few of my lovely blogger friends once. The photograph of the Doi was taken by the very-talented and super-cute Devina, a.k.a FooDee. Check out her photography blog here. And all about the inspiring way she and her mom deal with her little brother's Autism, here.

What I'm loving today

2011-09-15T13:00:00.000+04:00

I saw this on Handmade Charlotte a while back, and can just not help going back and having a laugh at it. I can totally understand this little boy's agony at finding out that his favourite planet was no longer a planet. I had a 26 year old friend who was mighty upset because the smallest planet was associated with her zodiac sign, Scorpio (yes, my friends are as weird as me). Do not miss sobbing Saturn.

Other things that have been swelling my heart lately.

Do you know Cora's story? I've been following it, praying for and grieving with the McClenahans for long. Ohdeedoh recently featured Levi's room, which used to be his sisters.

We should be telling our kids this. Especially the teens.

Lightbulb vases look whimsical. Here's a DIY.

9/11 Coverage. Chilling, heartwarming, stirring, nostalgic.

Fish Tikka

2011-09-14T12:35:00.001+04:00

I love 5-ingredient recipes. I mean, who doesn't? A small list of ingredients heightens your chances of finding them in the pantry, cuts out your shopping list and as I have recently realised, packs in much more flavour.

This is a recipe that I've tried to replicate from one of my regular dinner joints in Pune. The only flavour that was really strong in this tikka, is that of the pungent ajwain. Also known as Bishop's Weed, it is a staple in most Indian kitchens. It's known to have many healing properties and can cure almost everything from a migraine to bronchitis and toothache to nasal congestion. Also, it aids digestion really well. (And erm, we all know that Indian food can use a bit of that).

We get a lovely fish called Cream Dory here. Soft, white and melts in your mouth. You can use any soft fillet, though I tried with salmon once and didn't quite like it.

Sorry I don't have a better picture, but it was lapped up before I could get my hands on my DSLR. So a phone(ey) picture it is!

Ingredients:

500 grams fish fillet (cut into rectangles or cubes)
1 teaspoon ajwain seeds, dry roasted
2 tablespoons red tandoori or tikka masala (if yours doesn't contain salt, add it as per taste)
2 tablespoons low fat fresh cream/yogurt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except fish in a bowl.
2. Smear over the fish and leave to marinate for 4-5 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a roasting pan/baking dish with aluminum foil and grease the bottom with a spritz of oil spray.
4. Bake the fish for 12-15 minutes, till it starts flaking when pricked by a fork.

Delighting the taste buds at Atlantis

2011-08-21T14:45:00.001+04:00

If you ask someone why they'd go back to a hotel, I bet you'd get answers that vary from "I love ~~stealing~~ their soft bath towels" to "I always bump into someone important there" and "Oh, the view is gorgeous" to "Because I can afford it".

While the reasons to go back to Atlantis, Dubai's famed hotel, may include all of these and more; I'll give you another one - they're so nice.

Nice. It's word we use far too often, but value very rarely. The people we met at Atlantis in this incredible food trip that we'll soon get to the details of, were SO nice. Like nice enough to have sixteen bloggers come around sampling the choicest fare from their best restaurants. Nice enough to all our questions (and let me tell you, there were many). Nice enough to quickly dish out a platter of seafood appetizers in their steakhouse when they were told one of us (erm... me) didn't eat beef. That is the kind of stuff I miss here. Especially in Dubai where customer service often hits an epic all-time low. Like the time I had to wait 15 minutes for a bottle of ketchup in a popular burger joint. Or sometimes, plain daft. Sorry, but there's no other way to describe the time I told a waitress at another popular joint that I wanted just the burger, not the meal and she got me JUST the chicken patty - sandwiched between NOTHING. No bread, no lettuce, no tomato, basically no burger! And then of course she acted like it's my fault. Anyway, sorry for the rant. That deserves a post on it's own.

Coming back to Atlantis, it all started when Sally of My Custard Pie asked us if we want to go on a food safari at four of the hotel's restaurants. Epicurean mayhem followed, with many of us clambering for Sally's attention, saying "Me! Me! Me!" Thankfully, the welcoming guys at Atlantis said Sally could bring as many bloggers as she wished. And so, one fine summery day, sixteen of us made our way to taste the food from the kitchens of one of Dubai's most lavish hotels.

First up was Seafire, a steakhouse that serves succulent cuts of beef in a crazy, good looking variety. Beef that comes from Australian cows fed and fostered only for Atlantis. Now, my knowledge about beef amounts to just as much as those cows know of Atlantis, but I did try and understand a bit about the stuff they do at the hotel to ensure that the beef they serve is very high on taste. They feed their cows more grain, plumping them up with fat tissue. Now these fat tissues dissolve when they are heated, thus yielding a tender steak. But like I said, I'm no expert on beef and I didn't try any; so take a look at what The Hedonista and Foodee have to say about it.

Beef tartare with poached quail eggs. Quail eggs that are cooked for exactly 12 minutes.

Jack Daniel BBQ'ed ribs

Beef Carpaccio with mushroom, croutons and horseradish.

But what I did get a taste of, was this platter that they whipped up very considerately after being told about me not eating beef. Salmon, smoked very mildly with a juicy wedge of orange. Seared tuna with tomato salsa. A lovely tomato and onion salad using four different types of tomato. What's not to love?

And then off we went to The Burger Joint.

Which really, they should call The Fries Joint. Because those fries were something else. Soooo good. You know why? Because they're homemade to perfection. Cut, parboiled, left for the starch to drain out, dried completely and then fried. The right amount of munch and mush. Crazy good.

The burgers were great too. I tried the chicken and the veggie (chickpea+bean) and they were very crispy.

You know what else I loved about them?

This thick, thick milkshake that you need a jumbo straw for.

The wall art.

The NYC posters.

And their brown paper bags!!! Did I tell you I have a paper bag obsession? If you don't like paper bags, we might never be able to become friends. Also, may I add, TBJ was very affordable. So if you think going to eat at a fancy hotel is a pricey affair, TBJ will wipe out those qualms.

And then we headed out to the land of wine, cheese and oysters. Rostang. French chef Michel Rostang's culinary haven in Dubai.

Rostang aims to be traditional, not fancy. But then when they serve things like Tête de Moine cheese and Gillardeau oysters, you could be forgiven to think they're fancy.

But where Rostang nailed us was a dessert spread (and I mean one fit for the French kings of the past).

Some traditional and others unique.

No one makes a better mousse than the French.

After the French, it was time to get to know the Italian palate at Ronda Locatelli.

This is the first time I saw someone making a pizza.

Like, from scratch.

You know I always have some tomato basil sauce in the fridge (It's the closest I get to the feeling of riding a Vespa in the Italian countryside).

And here's a reason to always keep some fresh Mozarella too.

Shovin' it in the big oven. With macho love, of course.

Italian men are charming even when they're sweaty.

And, it's done.

Never underestimate the flavours that simple ingredients pack. This Mozarella and Basil pizza was refreshing. And inspirational enough for me to start making pizzas at home, so there must be something crazy good in them, right?

We finished off with some mini-desserts, which were perfect after the dessertathon at Rostang. My favourite? The tiny tiramisu cups.

Surely, you must know by now that the people at Atlantis were too nice to not win over our hearts and stomachs. But they sent us off with even more food (macarons, macarons!) and sealed the deal.

For reservations at any of these restaurants, call +971 4 426 2626.

What I'm loving today

2011-07-14T15:43:00.002+04:00

Image from The Cool Hunter

Meredith's letter to God, for her dog. Get the tissues out.

Now that I've got you crying, let me get you in splits. (Via Handmade Charlotte)

Twins understand each other, even when no one else does.

Have you seen this gorgeous fabric doily tutorial?

Marshmallow teddy pops? She makes cows too!

Only one of this is available on Etsy.

Love letters of a new mom - Car Seat

2011-07-03T08:20:00.002+04:00

Dear Infant Car Seat

You're so pretty and pink. And you look so cozy. Now, if only you could make my squirmy four month old fall in love with you, you'd be even more perfect. I know it isn't exactly "love at first sight" for babies and you, but I'd rather it not be "love at first fright" either.

Maybe you know the secret language that babies speak and can get her to understand that she may bawl all she likes, but I'm not going to take her out of it. She thinks I'm mean, but I bet when she grows up she'll know better.

And besides, you're such a cute looking thing; how can someone not fall in love with you? I'm sure you'll start working your charm anytime now.

xx
A new mom
PS: I do NOT have two kids, but this darling illustration from the very talented Kevin Spear was too cute to not share. Check out his blog here.

Angry Birds for Father's Day

2011-06-20T12:18:00.002+04:00

Have I ever mentioned that Hubster works in the most boring industry ever? Banking. (And that's why the nerdy blog.) The last few months at work have been particularly bad since some of his friends have quit and well... you know, how great can banking be? So to get his mood on steroids for a bit, and because he does make a great Dadda; I decided we'll give him a surprise on Father's Day. (BTW, here in the Middle East, Sundays are the first working day of the week. And therefore, extra depressing.)

I have to admit that we hardly do anything special for these "days", Hubster and me. Because yes, we know that everyday is Mother's, Father's, Sister's, Valentine's and we should be thankful for their presence in our lives each day and all that. But fast forward to three years and I can see a little person asking me what she did for her Dadda on the previous Father's Days. And to be honest, I want to gloat to no end while I show her the pictures on this blog and be her "cool Mommy" forever :D

Completely opposite to me, Hubster is extremely organized. And tidy. And I'm talking about a degree that would give Monica Geller a scare. When we travel, all our documents are placed neatly in a travel docket in the order that they will be required. Very often, he does the dishes, the laundry, cleans up the mess after me and puts the little squeaky toys that are strewn all over the place away. And in the words of Chandler Bing, I do not love him because of this, I love him despite this. And despite the fact that sometimes, I find love notes from him in the kitchen like this one.

His love for organization is probably why he's good at the game. He knows exactly which bar to hit so that the rest collapse and bring as many pigs down as possible. Every move is first calculated, and then made. Like its not a game anymore, it's a mission. Also, I understand that I am one of the few people on the planet who are not addicted to Angry Birds. So I had to fake being superinterested in them over the last two weeks. Thank God they now have a Google Chrome version so my stubby fingers don't go aiming at the eggs instead of the pigs. While playing the game, I asked Hubster which was his favourite bird. "The black one, it's the coolest. It's actually a bomb. It explodes." Oooops. Black frosting. Would anyone eat that? Hmn, maybe I could make just one for him to eat. And anyway, why would anyone make a game where a bird EXPLODES. That's just gross. And so NOT cool, in my ~~unwanted, amateur~~ humble opinion. Anyway, in the end the black bird did not happen for various reasons... and my excuse was why would someone want to eat their favorite bird anyway?

I found a great step-by-step how-to at The Crafting Chicks. Only, they used these lovely sprinkles and sugars that you cannot find in Dubai. (And a rant about that must be a separate post.) The lovely Lydia from Caketastic parted with a box that had green sugar that I could use. (Have you tried her cupcakes? I hear they are some of the best in Dubai.)

The supplies for this project are the stuff little kids dream of all day - candies, marshmallows, M n M's, colored frosting... oops, drool on the keyboard! At around 1 PM, the chocolate cupcakes are out of the oven. The vanilla buttercream is whipped up, the sugars are colored, a ~~lot~~ bit of the candy is eaten and the mess begins. I wrote out "Happy Father's Day" and "We love Dadda" on little doilies and put them on some cute cat photo holders. I love using cake doilies for decoration... something so classic and vintage-ish about them, don't you think?

It would be much easier to do this for a party, since you can make large amounts of frosting together. I had to spoon out some for each color and color them bit by bit. I used Americolor Gel Paste for the buttercream and the sugars. Though I did leave the sugar out to dry, it was a little lumpy in bits. Like tiny lumps that can be forgiven. But if you have time, you can leave them to dry out overnight and run them in the food processor to get them nice and dry.An important lesson learnt was that a project that involves lots of different colored frosting will give you more bowls to lick.

Sugar on top of buttercream. Licorice strands as eyebrows and mini-marshmallows flattened out as eyes. I used the Wilton edible marker to make the eyeballs. Orange jelly candies as the beak. And a slice of large marshmallows for the bellies. For the white one, I use a red jelly candy as the belly. The "feathers" on the bird's heads are these worm like candies that I got at the candy bar at Carrefour. The eggs were the white jelly beans hidden by logs of mini Flakes.

I completely forgot that the pig snouts (again, sliced marshmallows) need to be smeared in frosting and the green frosting was all used and licked up. This was at 4:45 and hubster gets home at 5:30 pm. To buy me more time, a quick call was made to ask him to get some stuff for the house on his way home. There was no more frosting left to color, so I added some icing sugar and color to a bit of whipping cream for the snouts. The hunt for brown mini M n Ms as nostrils began. 5:10 pm.

Almost ready and just as Hubster calls from Carrefour in the next building, the damn white bird loses an eye. 5:35 pm.

Three minutes before Hubster walks in, everything is finally placed in queue. The birds, the pigs, present, the card. See the cups the pigs are stacked upon? I chanced upon them in Lakeland MOE where they're currently on a clearance sale. Though they aren't really great, they were perfect for this project :)

5: 45 pm... and here he comes! And hmm, goes straight for the gift :o

Did you know the Virgin store at MOE sells Angry Bird t-shirts? I was picking up a gift from their Red Box kiosk and happened to see these. It's like God wanted me to go the whole way!

And of course, here's the little star who made him a father. :)

What I'm loving today

2011-06-14T11:22:00.001+04:00

Blanca Gomez is one of my favourite illustrators ever. (The above being one of his most popular works)

I want to be a kid living in one of these.

Have you heard of the book Pinkalicious? I was so glad to see it at Pottery Barn Kids in Dubai Mall!

Dress up your KitchenAid!

These shower curtains from Anthropologie.

Chocolate Chip Bottomed Loaf Cake

2011-06-09T08:07:00.001+04:00

When it's about cooking, I love inventing. I love blending spices from my mum's Bengali kitchen with North Indian flavours to suit the ~~stubborn and twisted~~ unique palette of The Hubster. But with baking, I'm never that adventurous. Because I believe that while cooking is an art, baking is a science. A well-measured, super-calculated, intuitive, delicious science. I might try substituting candied nuts instead of just toasted ones in a brownie, but I will never be adventurous enough to substitute a long list of ingredients and doing the math of dry versus wet ingredients.

But some time ago, my heavily pregnant hormones made me want to try out something. I was wondering if I could take a simple vanilla cake recipe and add some (okay, lots) of chocolate chips. Like enough for them to drown into the light, fluffy batter and form a chocolate chip base. Or would they just melt, in which case I was sure I could just turn the cake over and pretend there was a dense frosting of chocolate on it. Or worse comes to worst, it would just be a chocolate chip loaf cake. In all scenarios, the result was a promising Yummy on the report card. An invention that will not fail. And therefore, completely worthy of a trial.

So the result was this chocolate chip bottomed cake, but if you ask me the logic behind it, or the science behind the erm...science... then I have no clue. And when it tastes so good, who cares? I certainly didn't as I polished it off with some whipped cream and toffee sauce. (Hey, I did say I was pregnant!)

Chocolate Chip Bottomed Buttermilk Loaf

(Base loaf recipe from the awesome Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

300 grams caster sugar
3 eggs

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

100 ml buttermilk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180 C. Spray a loaf tin with non-stick baking spray.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and keep aside.

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing and scraping the sides after each addition. Add the dry mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk (Start and end with the dry ingredients). Stir in the vanilla and the chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes or until the cake springs back when touched. Allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out on a cooling rack.

Love letters of a new mom - 2

2011-06-06T18:27:00.001+04:00

Dear Patience,

Why did it take me so long to find you? Did you know we could get along so well? Why didn't I take you home to my parents as a teenager? They'd have been pleased.

Now that I've found you, please don't leave me. Ever. Because I have a feeling we have a long way to go.

Oh, and could you introduce me to your dashing friend Restraint? I've been eying him for a while now.

xx
A new mom

Sleeping Beauty

2011-06-06T09:16:00.002+04:00

OMG people, I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am about this post. How cute is this?

And this?

Never mind, you don't need to answer that, because I know exactly how cute! While Mila sleeps, her mommy tries to imagine her dreams and recapture them. Such darling memories!

I was waiting to post about this soon after I saw it on Design Mom (thanks Gabrielle, you're the best!), but was waiting for permission from Mila's superdupercreative mommy to use the pictures. Thanks Adele! Apparently a bunch of clowns have used Mila photos for monetary interests without the knowledge of her mom, so obviously she's not happy. A lot of her creations have been taken away from the blog, but the good news is that there's going to be a book soon! How cool is that? And you can also see all the photos on her FB page.

All images courtesy Adele Enersen

Love letters of a new mom

2011-06-05T12:55:00.000+04:00

Dear Sleep,

We were together for so many years. So sad that we have had to part ways. Trust me, I never wanted to break up like this. And please never think that I left you for your best friend Nap.

It would mean so much to me if we can still be friends. I will miss you.

xx
Zombie

What I'm loving today

2011-05-31T18:45:00.000+04:00

This gorgeous handcrafted necklace.

Image courtesy Etsy

This "You know you're Indian" tin from Chumbak.

Image courtesy Chumbak

And other stuff like,

I never thought this Ikea pendant could get more gorgeous. Till Jenny transformed it into this gorgeous chandelier! (Found this through the lovely Joanna)

These visual statements from The Cool Hunter

This awesome balloon banner that the Blair family made for precious Baby June. And there's a DIY tutorial too!

AITH - Ameya

2011-05-31T11:14:00.002+04:00

Would you be able to tell what this is? Besides, of course the fact that it is Buddha.

It is a candle, handcrafted by artisans in India, and sold here in Dubai by Ameya Candles. Candles? More like a work of art, I say! Their baby shower collection is supercute too.

And a local flavour, the evil eye candle. This had me grinning :)

Have a look at their entire collection here.

I love decorating with candles. I have the Ikea jar candles in our bathrooms along with some potpourri. I remember when I first saw "floating candles", it was love at first sight. They are still my favourite when we light up the house for Diwali. Fire and water, aren't they just a combination meant to be? Do you use candles to decorate?

All images courtesy Ameya

Bakefest Dubai 2011

2011-05-28T18:50:00.002+04:00

Have you heard of Wild Peeta? Besides, having crazily good gourmet shawarmas, these guys have an awesome thing for community bakers - an annual Bakefest! The first, and till now the only one that I've heard of in Dubai.

I thought participating would be a good way to spring back into baking after my long postpartum break and I'm so glad I did. Met some lovely people, and some awesome bloggers. Like AWWWHHHSOME. Like people who totally, completely, radically rock.

Like Abigail and Rajani. Oh, and Sidiqa and Yasmin. Oh, oh and Arva, Anja, Nick, Sally and Devina. So many people for Little Stovetop to look up to and say "I wanna be you when I grow up."

Oh well, right now she looks up to (and at) everything, the ceiling being her favourite. But I live in hope.

That's all of us wondering when people will actually start buying out stuff. By the way, don't you just love the art on the wall?

Toffee Princess was there too! Though she was away when this picture was taken, so I got the ladies next to her. They had some stunning packaging for their cookies.

And these were Abigail's cupcakes, right next to Rajani's spread.

What did I make? Mascarpone brownies baked in mini cupcake tins and a chocolate chip marble cake from one of my favourite bloggers, Shauna. And by the way, she's on her way from being the fab blogger to a fab author of a fab, fab book!

What a lovely day it was. Wish I had more pictures to share, but sadly before we knew it, the day was over and all the deliciousness was devoured. The bloggers mentioned above will soon have rad pictures to share, so keep track of those!

Anya's Birth Announcement

2011-04-11T07:24:00.000+04:00

It's been a month since Anya was born. And finally, the announcements are all posted and sent off.

Though I really would have loved to have her announcements done in letterpress printing, I couldn't locate a printer who does letterpress in Dubai. In fact, fifteen of the seventeen guys I called said "Letterpress? That's almost extinct." Hmn, blissfully ignorant.

So I finally ended having them done by some digital printers on a paper that has just a hint of shimmer in it (I believe it's called Icy Cool) and it turned out lovely. We printed a few of her photos at the back, while the front just had typography announcing her arrival and details.

A bunch of envelopes from Magrudy's, and the announcements were ready.

When we called friends for postal addresses, a few of them said "Announce it on BBM", or "Oh, but we know already". A large part of that may have something to do with the fact that announcements are not very common in the Indian culture. Of course, that coupled with our jet-age lives and our deteriorating need to put pen to paper. So who does announcements anyway? Old schoolers like me, who love having important occasions on paper.

Did you do announcements for your baby, specially in Dubai? I would love to hear about it!

Baby Stovetop is here

2011-04-01T19:35:00.000+04:00

Too late, but just wanted to write a quick post announcing the arrival of Anya, who arrived on the 12th of March at precisely 12:12 pm. Hopefully, what looks like her love for numbers will mean that she will be much better at Math than her mom was. Everyone at the Welcare hospital here in Dubai was lovely, I cried uncontrollably when I was leaving to come back home. They are really that nice, and I feel lucky to have been looked after by them.

Birth story will follow soon, just as I get some early breastfeeding issues under control. Till then, hopefully I will post about some wonderful crafters who have written to me. If you are one of them reading this, send me your photographs and samples soon!

Miss Stovetop's Chocolate Tea

2011-03-11T18:15:00.001+04:00

Note: This is my last post before I go into labor (getting induced tonight and really, really scared). First-time mommyness will probably keep me busy for a few days after, so don't know when there will be a decor find or a recipe next; but see you guys soon with the exciting news of Baby Stovetop!

Very frequently, when I'm just about to serve dessert, I get those "Oh no, I'm on a diet" looks from the guests. Or the infamous "Cut me a really small sliver". Even if everyone took extra servings of a cheese loaded Eggplant Parmesan or a rich, creamy Butter Chicken, somehow, they start counting calories only when they hear the word 'dessert' and end up skimping on what is really the most delightful part of the meal.

Now, slivers that tiny need the knife skills of a Masterchef, which I am not. So for a particularly dessertphobic crowd last week, I decided to make a drink for a dessert. Served in slender champagne flutes, this chocolate tea has all the ingredients that qualify it to become a perfect ending to a meal.

It was purely by coincidence that I discovered chocolate pairs nicely with tea. A couple of years back, a friend had got us some Earl Grey truffles from Singapore. Now, the flavour of tea in chocolate is not quite as intense as that of coffee, which is what makes it so unique. This is a subtle indulgence for tea lovers, where it is actually the fragrance of the tea that delights the senses and overpowers the mild taste of tea easily.

As with all new flavours, this might not for everyone. Which is why I don't infuse the Earl Grey into the ganache itself. Make yourself a small serving, and if you don't seem to like it, you can always use the ganache for a million other things. In fact, before my pregnancy (and hopefully after it too) I always keep some ganache in the fridge for hot chocolate cravings, to put on top of ice cream or to just eat from a spoon when you need that extra chocolate kick.

Miss Stovetop's Chocolate Tea

For the Ganache:
1 cup cream
100 gms dark chocolate, chopped
100 gms milk chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa (optional)

For the Tea (two servings):
1/2 cup milk
4 Earl Grey teabags

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over chopped chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes and whisk till smooth. Add the cocoa and whisk again.

To make the tea, boil the milk on very low heat and add the teabags. Allow it to infuse, while still on heat for 10 minutes.

Whisk together 2 tablespoons of ganache and 4 tablespoons of the milk for one serving of the chocolate tea. Serve in champagne flutes with a stick of white chocolate, or Galaxy flutes.

A tale of two sisters

2011-03-04T20:07:00.001+04:00

Isn't it fun growing up with a sibling? I have a sister, and though she's a decade older than me, it's fun having her around. Yes, we do get on each other's nerves, but I'd rather have someone to gossip with when other people (including members of family) collectively get on ours.

Talking about sister love, have you heard of Jason Lee? He takes gorgeous photos and adds an element of fun into them. But what makes him superdupercool is his picture library of Kayla and Kristin, his two adorable daughters. He's been taking pictures of them for the past few years, ever since the younger one was a baby. And you cannot help but smile when you see the two having fun in the sun..

...messing around with their toys....

...sharing a meal...

...or a drink...

...or two...

or just sharing the love :) I *heart* this one.

Jason does pictures that tell a hilarious story sometimes, like these.

If for some reason you can't read this, the older one is reading "How to make a mess and blame it on your sister FOR DUMMIES", while the younger one is reading "How to avoid blame FOR DUMMIES"

Ha! Or the ones on their birthdays.

Or their Angry Birds obsession...

And Bieber Fever!

All photos courtesy Jason Lee

Aren't you wishing you had a Jason for a Dad? Check out more of Kayla and Kristin's growing up years at Jason's personal blog.

Do you document your kid's lives in photos? Have you ever done a fun photo session? Do tell us about it :)

Going away and calling on the Creative Crew

2011-02-27T13:20:00.002+04:00

Image of Birds on a Wire Photo Clips from Urban Outfitters via Polli.

As everyone and their Moms know by now, Baby Stovetop will be here soon. Since the first initial days (read: weeks, months) will see me go without stepping foot into the kitchen and there might not be much time to hunt down design and décor blogs either, I thought of taking this time to do something unique- showcasing crafters here and around Dubai.

Do you crochet, quilt, sew, knit, draw, paint, upcycle junk and make stuff out of paper, hair pins, egg cartons or just about anything else? Do you want to start displaying your stuff out here as the first baby step to having your own business, starting your own store or just to show off your crafty side? Or do you know anyone else who does? If yes, write to me at stovetopdancing@gmail.com and we can work out something (that doesn't mean I'll charge you; this is just to work out how to get good looking photos and other details). In the months following my delivery, I will be featuring local creative folks who have a passion for the stuff they make.

With just about a hundred hits a day at this stage, I know that this blog may not be your “big ticket” to anywhere. But my belief is that every little counts, and that you never know when an opportunity may rise out of nowhere. So spread the word and encourage people to show off their talent.

For any queries or questions that you may have, leave a comment on here or drop me an email.

Chocolate Banana Bread

2011-02-16T16:32:00.001+04:00

Do all Alices have a wonderland of their own? I think so. Like Alice of Savoury Sweet Life, and her lovely household complete with a doting husband, three perfect kids and bountiful stories. Alice writes beautifully, straight from her heart to pull the strings of yours. When she recently lost her Dad to a car accident, I cried with her for him. For her mum, her siblings and the thirteen grandkids who will always miss their Grandad. That is the simplicity with which Alice shares stories from her life in Everyday Alice and stories from her kitchen at Sweet Savory Life. She is a guest blogger at Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen and Forbes listed her one of the 8 very best food bloggers in 2010.

Obviously with those credentials, and a Facebook fan base of more than two and half thousand people, a recipe from Alice's kitchen will not disappoint. I tried her rich, moist chocolate chip banana bread for Hubster, his sister and her husband, and it was given full marks. Fortunately, I hate anything to do with bananas (just the fruit, nothing to do with GOING bananas over many things and people) so resisting this was not a big problem and I can see my doctor (and my unborn child) will be thanking me for keeping my gestational sugars in control (well, sort of).

I have adapted the recipe as per the supplies in my pantry, and to suit my preference for brown sugar and dutch processed cocoa.

Chocolate Banana Bread
(Adapted from Alice's Sour Cream Chocolate Chocolate Chip Banana Bread)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
1 egg
2 overipe Chiquita bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon regular cocoa powder + 1 tablespoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup Hershey's chocolate chips (Please don't ask me why, but I used an entire 200 gm bag and no one complained)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C degrees. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan with non-stick spray. Sift the baking soda, cocoa, and flour together.

2. Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar.

3. Add the egg, mashed bananas, yogurt, and vanilla until well blended, stopping mid way to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula.

4.Fold in the rest of the dry ingredients sieved earlier.

5. Return to stand mixer and mix everything until well incorporated.

6. Add chocolate chips.

7. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes – 1 hr.

Once done, a toothpick inserted into the centre of the loaf will come out clean. Remove from heat and allow bread to rest in the loaf pan for 10 minutes. Invert the loaf pan onto a cooling rack. I noticed mine had a few cracks, but the bread still held up nicely.

Once cooled, cut into slices, slather on some more butter (we have to justify it being called “bread” after all) and serve.

AITH - Esther Horchner's hillarious tea cups

2011-02-14T15:20:00.000+04:00

Heard of illustrator Esther Horcher? Saw this awesome Naked Girl Tea Set series on her website, and can't stop grinning.

How fun!

She has a load of other cool stuff too. Like this ubercute brooch.

A D O R A B L E

And these Matryoshka dolls, with a twist.

Oh and this cushion that I.Want.Now.

All photos from Esther Horchner.

Check out Esther's Flickr stream and website.

Nutella Strawberry Swiss Roll

2011-02-12T00:35:00.004+04:00

Absentmindedness is one of the symptoms of pregnancy. Or else, my heavily post-it flagged copy of What to Expect is lying to me. I first noticed this when once I had just finished my shower, was drying myself and had to smell my wet hair to check if I'd shampooed it. Of course there have been countless stories after that, with Hubster just thanking his stars that I still remember who he is when I walk in home and don't charge him rent.

Long story cut short, I'm celebrating World Nutella Day a week later.

But really, why have a World Nutella Day? Every day should be Nutella Day. It's comfort food, its that little treat our mums used to sneak into our lunchboxes (with the mini spatula-like plastic spoon), it's the only thing that makes you feel better after breaking up on email, its feel good nutrition spread on bread when you are served cardboard at the college canteen.

Anyway, with all the Nutellalove reigning supreme in the blogosphere over the last few days, I just had to do this. Besides, I'd never made a Swiss Roll before and have been wanting to try it for the longest time. Turns out, it's really not that hard to roll! Of course, to get perfect rolls will take a few attempts, but I was happy with my first too.

Swiss rolls are essentially just sugar, eggs and flour. The absence of fat makes them a little dry and that's where the trick to roll it is - be careful not to overbake it, and don't tell it cool too much before rolling.

For the Swiss Roll
3 large eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons vanilla essence

For the filling
1 cup Nutella
2 tablespoons fresh cream
Handful of fresh strawberries, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F. Line a Swiss Roll pan with parchment, grease and dust with icing sugar.
2. With the paddle attachment of the stand mixer, beat the eggs until pale.
3. Add the sugar and beat at high speed for about 7 minutes, till the mixture is fluffy and holds shape.
4. Gently fold in the flour till no streaks remain.
5. After you pour the batter in the pan, level it as much as you can with an offset spatula.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Watch like a hawk so that the edges don't brown. The edges should just separate from the pan. The cake must spring back when touched.
7. Take the cake out and leave it on the counter for 5 minutes.
8. Lay a piece of parchment on the counter and dust with icing sugar.
9. Once the pan is easy enough to handle, gently turn it over on to the parchment on the counter. Tap the pan to let the cake drop gently. Peel away the parchment.
10. Score a line an inch away from your end of the cake. Make sure you don't cut all the way to the bottom.
11. Begin to roll gently, together with the parchment.
12. Once rolled, let the cake stand for about half an hour.
13. For the filling, heat the cream for 30 seconds on medium high in the microwave. Whisk together with the Nutella for a creamy consistency.
14. Unroll the cake, fill with the Nutella cream, scatter the strawberries and roll again - this time without the parchment. Allow it to cool in the fridge for an hour.
15. Cut gently, taking care not to crack the cake. Wipe the knife after cutting each slice.

AITH - Globe Art

2011-02-10T13:20:00.001+04:00

Globes seem to the new medium of art. I think every kid should have a globe in their room. Not just for expanding knowledge horizons, but also to keep them imagining and dreaming. As a kid, I loved skimming through my (pathetic, inflatable) globe and imagining stories about the lives of people from Croatia, pen-pals (anyone remember that concept?) from Australia, how coffee plantations in Brazil look and so much more.

Now, with a whole new world in globe art; having one at home is even more necessary. Like these from ImagineNations. Designer Wendy Gold decoupages each of these by hand using recycled materials on vintage globes. How awesome!

Image from ImagineNations.

This one has to be my favourite. How dainty and feminine!

Image from ImagineNations.

Adventure awaits. Indeed it does!

Image from ImagineNations.

I thought this one was hilarious! And supercute :)

And the fascination of art with globes doesn't just doesn't stop there for people. Check out this absolutely breathtaking chandelier designed by Benoit Vieubled.

Image from Benoit Vieubled.

An Etsy seller came up with this nice lamp after a student broke his globe. Neat idea, though I'd like it without the keys.

Image from The Old Shop Teacher's Etsy store.

Have you come across any globe turned art ideas lately that have completely delighted you? I'd love to hear about them!

Baileys Mascarpone Truffles

2011-02-08T11:30:00.002+04:00

With Valentine's Day around the corner, this time I thought of sharing the love at work. And with my sister in law who loves the combination of Baileys Irish Cream with chocolate. Her love affair with it started when I once made and shared a batch of chocolate cupcakes with baileys frosting. And since I was toying with the idea of making some truffles with mascarpone instead of the regular cream, I thought the two tasks can be combined.

Have you ever tried substituting mascarpone for cream in truffles? I think it delivers a much smoother, velvety truffle. Though I have given an approximate measure, I must admit I don't weigh it. I just used half of a 250 gm box of mascarpone. A good measure to work with for truffles is that the mascarpone be roughly 1/3 of the amount of chocolate. A few grams here and there will not affect these delights.

I've been tested for gestational sugars the last month, and turns out that they are at the higher side of normal. And with Hubster adopting a very modest approach to all things sweet, these just had to be shared.

Miss Stovetop's Baileys Mascarpone Truffles

(Makes about 30 truffles)

400 grams of good quality dark chocolate (70% or more,I used Alprose 74%)

125 grams of mascarpone cheese, softened

1 tablespoon Cadbury drinking chocolate powder

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

2-4 tablespoons of Bailey's Irish Cream (Depending on how strong a flavour you like. Also, allow it to stand on the counter for a couple of hours so that it isn't very cold)

30 mini-cupcake liners

1. Chop the chocolate as evenly as your knife skills allow you to.

2. Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for 2 minutes on medium power. Give the chocolate a good stir and put it back on high heat for another minute, stirring halfway through the process again.

3. Whisk the chocolate so that it melts evenly. It should retain its gloss.

4. Add the mascarpone and whisk again, till you can no longer see streaks of white. Add the Bailey's while you continue whisking.

5. Allow to stand at room temperature for about 15-20 minutes, cover the bowl with clingwrap and put it in the fridge till the ganache can be formed into balls. A goodway to test this is to touch the ganache with your finger, and it shouldn't stick to it.

6. Sift the drinking chocolate powder and instant coffee together into a small bowl. I find bowls easier to coat truffles, but choose a plate if you like it better.

7. Working quickly, roll ganache into balls and roll in the powder mixture.

8. Put a truffle in each of the flutted liners and store back in the fridge.

9. Bring to room temperature before serving.

If you look closer, you will see how ill-shaped my truffles are, but when they taste so good; trust me, no one cares.

For more mascarpone induced craziness, I strongly recommend these Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies.

Ratatouille Sandwich

2011-02-06T12:07:00.001+04:00

What is it about a sandwich that is so comforting? But when my teeth sink into soft or crispy bread and there's an explosion of different flavours as a filling, there's a part of me that thanks the guy who came up with the idea of sandwiches in the first place.

The first sandwich that I truly remember loving was a honey sandwich. Too much of Winnie the Pooh, I think. Then came a love affair with Nutella sandwiches, a regular in the lunchbox of my 6th grade benchpartner. Once I went to India for higher studies, I discovered A1 sandwiches served from a cart right outside the gates of our college. Simply slices of white bread slathered with butter, ketchup and coriander chutney; stuffed with boiled potato, cucumber and tomato in each layer...and then, topped of with too generous a serving of shredded cheddar. Then came university at Leeds, where I met the Marks and Spencers range of cold sandwiches...and especially the Prawn Marie Rose sandwich. Back to India then, Jay sandwiches in Bandra with absolutely the best grilled sandwiches ever.

In this frenzy of sandwich discoveries, there's one I discovered in a restaurant called Theobroma in Bombay. This one, called the Ratatouille sandwich, has ever since made its way into my kitchen, as a recipe that I have tweaked and played with enough to call my own. And mind you, the filling works just as fine as a side dish for pasta too. You can play around with the veggies and substitute them with the ones you like, or want your kids to eat. You can leave out the cream for a lighter product, but atleast the first time you make this, try it in its full grandeur. Calorie-cutting like always, can wait.

Please note that Rataouille originated as a traditional Provencal stewed vegetable dish, and this recipe has none of that French-ness. This a heavily modified version, made to taste insanely good.

Miss Stovetop's Ratatouille Sandwich

3 tablespoons olive oil (If you want to go all out, use butter instead)

4 cloves of garlic

1 large white onion, chopped

3-4 bell peppers, chopped (I use one of each colour for a nicer look)

1 medium eggplant, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

a good dash of dried oregano or a handful of fresh

a handful of fresh basil, torn

2 slices of low-fat cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons of low fat fresh cream (optional)

Salt, to taste

1/2 teaspoon of peri-peri, or any other chilli powder you like (optional)

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

Your choice of bread or baguette to serve with

1. In a large wok, heat the oil. Bring the heat to medium-low, press the garlic and saute for a minute.

2. In go the onions. Saute for a few minutes and throw in the peppers.

3. Cover the wok and let the peppers go slightly limp.

4. Give it a good toss and put in the eggplant.

5. Cover the wok and keep stirring at regular intervals to keep the veggies from sticking at the bottom.

6. By now your kitchen should be smelling like a glorious nature garden. Once the veggies look mushy enough, put in the tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and peri-peri. Stir for all the flavours to infuse.

7. Add the cheese slices and help it melt evenly by stirring like a maniac in circles.

8. Add the cream, give it quick stir and remove from heat.

Served it on wholegrain toast, or on slices of a herbed butter smeared baguette for a bruschetta like side dish.

AITH - Garland Light

2011-01-18T17:15:00.000+04:00

My newest obsession is chandeliers. It's amazing to see how they range from vintage to contemporary, and how they can transform a space into something magical. While the grand, larger-than-life ones may not quite be my thing, but this one from Artecnica that you can twist around a light bulb and shape as you wish looks quite interesting.

Seriously, not your traditional chandelier, but so pretty nonetheless!

In an array of finishes and colours.

Like in most other things, the white here is my favourite.

Would you fancy one of these in your home? Which one would it be?

All images from Artecnica

AITH - Alphabet Bookshelves

2010-12-30T11:58:00.002+04:00

I'm bookmarking this for Baby Stovetop's future nursery.
(Secretly though, I really want it for myself.)

Came across this lovely Aakkoset bookshelf on Skimbaco. Designed by Lincoln Kayiwa, it stands at six foot tall.

Perfect for a play room, nursery or even a home studio. Maybe it's not the best space saver, but when it looks this cute, functionality can go take a walk for a while. What do you guys think?

Baked? Yes. Fries? Yes!

2010-12-23T17:13:00.002+04:00

I love seeing food blogs from India. Though most food bloggers are from the other side of the world, some Indian bloggers are seeing credit in good food blogs with awesome photographs. And one such blog is The Purple Foodie. Easy recipes, well written stories and great tips - little wonder then that the success of her blog in a mere three years has led the author Shaheen to quit her job and start her own catering business.
These "fries" make a great snack or a side dish with a main course like herbed fish. The fact that they are parboiled and baked with a fraction of the oil that you'd use in frying make them healthy too!

Baked Garlic Fries
Adapted from The Purple Foodie

Ingredients:
3 large potatoes, cut into wedges
6 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon peri-peri
2-3 teaspoons salt, as per taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons cornflour

Press the garlic into the oil in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2 minutes. Cover and let the flavour infuse.
Parboil the potatoes with a teaspoon of salt. Use your judgement to test when they are soft but not mushy, strain and leave on paper towels to dry.

Preheat the oven to 400° F. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminium foil.
Combine salt, pepper, peri-peri and cornflour in a bowl and mix with a whisk. Toss the potatoes in, combining it to coat the potatoes well. Mix in the oil and toss again.

Arrange the wedges on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake till golden brown, approximately 30-40 minutes, turning once in between.

Serve with chilli-mayonnaise or plain old ketchup.

Superduperloaded Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-21T12:59:00.008+04:00

When life throws you situations right around the holiday season where you are left with huge bags of chocolate chip cookies that will expire in a month, what can you do besides panic? Of course Ruth Wakefield didn't invent these beauties for us to forget about no matter how pregnant we are and eventually have to throw away?

So, instead of eating them straight out of the bag like every pregnant woman can and probably does, why not mix it with some lethal companions like brown sugar, butter and eggs and make them even more divine? The most basic and yet the most comforting - chocolate chip cookie!

This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I saw it on Bakerella first, and then over the years have seen it reappearing at many places... even David Lebovitz has a pretty similar one. Of course when you try these, you will realise why they're such a favourite with everyone.

A small hitch. This recipe requires baking soda, which of course my pantry was short of. The last can was paired with vinegar and used in a massive drain declogging experiment. Yeah, go figure. Anyway, since chocolate chip cookies are pretty forgiving to experimentation, I decided to go with the powder. The result? Puffier cookies! Now, who minds those? :)

Also, if you are the rare types who wants just a few bites of chocolate chips in cookies, I suggest bringing down the count of chips from 2 cups to a pitiful and humble one.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yields around 50-60 cookies
Adapted slightly from Bakerella

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups milk/dark/semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt with a wire whisk and set aside.
With a mixer, beat butter and both sugars until well blended.
Beat in eggs and vanilla.
Add flour mixture in two additions until it disappears into the batter.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Fill the batter in a zip lock, snip off the end and drop uniform chunks of dough. If you like thinner, bigger, crispier cookies, pat the dough with cold fingers, flattening it slightly to help it spread more than rise.
Bake for 12-14 minutes.

Clearly, Santa knows which type of cookie he wants served with milk.

Since these cookies are pretty soft, they might break when you try and lift them off the silpat or parchment and shift them to the cooling rack. Not every cookie needs to make it to the jar... some love going straight from the tray to the tummy!

AITH - Calendars as works of art.

2010-12-15T15:48:00.000+04:00

Back when I was a kid, one of the first indications that a new year is about to begin was a pile of calendars from any business that could afford printing on paper. Mostly depicting seasons, mythology or animals, a calendar then was nothing to be looked at and appreciated. In the pre-digital diary/smart phone era, it was just a utility tool to mark dates ranging from a neighbour's wedding to your kid's next vaccination.

And boy, has that changed.

If I had a kitchen that was any bigger, I would have found a place for at least one of these lovely calendars on Etsy. But after the baby's here and we move to a bigger apartment this fall, one of these is certainly going to find itself in the nursery cum studio that I'm planning to have.

This tea towel calendar is perfect for the kitchen. P E R F E C T.

And I would love, love, love something like this bunch of owls for the nursery.

Or a few subtle, serene options for a designer's studio maybe? Like this organic wreath. The fact that it is in my beloved, favourite letterpress style only makes it more easy to want.

And then there's this Poseidon one that had so many design awards that it was requested to be reprinted by people around the world. And you can easily see why.

All images from their respective Etsy shops.

Tiny Gingerbread Houses

2010-12-14T18:38:00.000+04:00

Every once in a while, in this wonderful blogosphere, I see something that melts my heart. Like these absolutely A D O R A B L E tiny gingerbread houses I found on Megan's wonderful blog through Design Mom!

Aren't they just wanting you to run into the pantry and start making them? What a smart idea! Megan posted about these last year, and has been kind enough to provide a detailed tutorial. Check the original post here.

All images are from Megan's blog, Not Martha.

AITH - Bookshelf Love

2010-10-17T15:13:00.000+04:00

For someone who loves to read, having a library at home is a dream. A dream that might be achievable in hmnn...lets say, our ancestral massive home in Shillong, or when I unearth a pot of gold from a hypothetical park, or hey.. my favourite... an uncle who I didn't ever know of leaving me a will with enough money to buy a 7-bedroom penthouse!

But till then, in our tiny one and two bedroom homes, we shall have to survive with bookshelves instead of libraries. And frankly, if any of them look like these, I don't see any reason to lust after an entire library. Like this one.

Or this. Shouldn't every kid (and adult) have this?

I recently discovered BookshelfPorn, a photoessay of book cases, shelves and arrangements from all around the world. Check their site for more bookshelf eye candy.

Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

2010-10-14T11:38:00.004+04:00

It's much too tough to write something after stuffing your face with the silkiest brownies ever, isn't it? You must really try it sometime.

Getting to these brownies. Using a whole cup of butter, three eggs and a scant half cup flour, I knew they're going to be gooey and fudgy; I just didn't think they're going to be this amazing. I was almost sure I had underbaked them, but since they tasted so darn good, I didn't bother fretting about it for too long. Since Baby Stovetop doesn't seem to be too excited for over-the-top chocolateyness, and I'd put in an extra shot of cocoa powder; I decided to give it a white chocolate vanilla glaze. And trust me, you do not want to taste them before you give it a glaze, since you might not get around to making the glaze at all then.

Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies
adapted from recipezaar.com and NSHP

1 cup unsalted butter
3.5 ounces/100 grams dark chocolate, chopped (I used 72%)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp dutch processed cocoa powder (Try Valrhona for a lifelong addiction)
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, softened
3 large eggs, at room-temperature
3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt

Butter or spray an 8" square pan.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium low heat. Once melted add the chocolate to the sauce pan and take the pan off the heat. Let it stand for a minute then whisk until smooth. While you let it stand, preheat oven to 350°F.

Carefully, sift the cocoa powder into the chocolate mixture. Add the sugar and salt, mix well and set aside.

In your stand mixer, beat the mascarpone cheese, stopping once to scrape from the bottom using a rubber spatula. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and vanilla on medium speed until smooth. Pour the butter and chocolate mixture into the mixing bowl and mix well.

Remove the bowl from your mixer and gently fold the flour into the batter. Pour the batter into your prepared pan and spread evenly, so that the brownies bake uniformly.

Bake for 45-50 minutes at 325°F, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (The reason I preheat the oven at a higher temperature is because when we open the oven door, the temperature falls considerably; more so in our centrally air-conditioned Dubai homes).

Place the pan on a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Once cool you can top with the glaze.

White chocolate vanilla glaze

3.5 ounces/100 grams white chocolate, chopped

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

1/2 cup cream

Boil the cream over low heat. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the cream before tossing the bean into it as well. Once the cream comes to a boil, turn off the heat and leave the pot on the stove. Add the chocolate and allow the mixture to infuse for 3-5 minutes. Take the mixture off the stove, fish out the beans and whisk the mix to help the chocolate melt into the cream.

Once the brownies have cooled, pour the glaze on top. Slide the pan to allow the glaze to spread, going over the corners with a knife. Allow the glaze to set (I left it out overnight, but a couple of hours should be good) and cut the brownies into 16 serving sizes. If you're pregnant, 4 is good too.

Show and Tell: Raspberry Meringue Roulade

2010-10-12T13:05:00.002+04:00

I had this amazing raspberry meringue roulade at Blackwell House of Art and Craft in Windermere. A light crispy meringue on the outside, and then cake and creamed rolled up with berries that have just the right amount of tartness. Have been looking for a recipe and have found only one from Waitrose. Just wondering if anyone else has something to offer?

Kitchen Basics - Tomato Basil Sauce

2010-09-28T14:28:00.000+04:00

What comes to your mind when you think of Italy? For me, it's good looking men, Vespa scooters in bright colours, high and low roads (Rome was built on seven hills, after all), the best food and even better gelato.

Someone once told me that the key to good Italian food is fresh ingredients. Back them I was just a teenager visiting Europe with my parents, and considerably naive, so I thought to myself "Isn't that the case with all food?". Anyway, now that I understand cooking slightly better, I realise why this is true. As opposed to Indian food, where we have a battery of spices to pep up a dish, the Italians use very little of them. In fact, they mostly use herbs. Which is why the fresher your ingredients, the more flavourful is the food.

So when my neighbour gave me a sack full of tomatoes before she went on vacation, I didn't know what else to do with it except make my quick, easy-peasy tomato basil sauce that I use in many Italian dishes. Mind you, my recipe is very short cut and might not suit The Detailed Cook, but it works for me in most dishes, especially like Eggplant Parmesan and Ratatouille. Having a jar of this sauce in the fridge is also very handy, incase you want to toss in some pasta and veggies for a quick dinner.

Miss Stovetop's Tomato Basil Sauce

6 cloves of garlic

1 kilo tomatoes, blanched and skins removed

3 tablespoons olive oil

bunch of basil

salt, to taste

1. Heat the oil in a pan on medium heat. While the oil is heating, blend the tomatoes and basil. If you like chunky bits in your sauce, keep a couple of tomatoes aside, do not blend them and see point 3.

2. When the oil is hot, use a garlic press to chop the garlic finely and saute it in the oil.

3. Once you can smell the garlic, and if you want the chunky sauce, chop the reserved tomatoes and put them in. Leave the pan shut with a lid till the tomatoes mush up, approximately 5 minutes. Pour in the blended tomatoes and basil.

4. If you're okay with a smoother sauce, ignore step 3 and pour in the blended tomatoes and basil when you can smell the garlic. Sprinkle the salt.

5. Cook for the sauce for 10 minutes, stirring in intervals.

6. Allow to cool, pour in a jar and to preserve sprinkle a few drops of a freshly squeezed lemon.

AITH: Getting Mommy-ish with crayons

2010-09-27T14:30:00.001+04:00

Not that I'm expecting Baby Stovetop to jump straight out of my womb, grab a crayon and start drawing, but I saw this at Not Without Salt and couldn't wait to make these. Funnily, though making crayons out of old, broken, used-up, chewed crayons, is a common practice, I had absolutely no idea! But now that I do, thought I'll practice a bit of this mommystuff and give these shiny new crayons away to my colleague's kids.

Because of their size and shape, these crayons are perfect for younger kids, toddlers even, who don't quite have a grip on the thinner crayons yet. My colleague's 2 and half year old son was elated when he got these!

First I thought I'll be the green mommy and ask colleagues for any crayons bits from their kids, but unfortunately, that plan didn't work. So I bought a box of these really cheap crayons from Carrefour and set to work.

So you first peel off the paper from them. This is probably the most non-fun bit, unless of course you have a destructive toddler by your side doing it with you. Check to see if you have all the paper off the crayons to avoid any burns.

Chop them up. Since we can combine colours, let your kids choose their favourite combinations.

Put them in a cupcake pan and pop them into the oven for half an hour at 150 C. Keep a check on them, if you use mini trays then they should be done much quicker. I sprayed the tin ever so lightly because I'm paranoid about stuff getting stuck, but it isn't necessary.

Once done, wait for the tin to cool. If you're impatient, put them in the freezer after a while to make them pop out quicker. Say hello to new multicolor crayons!!!

Mint Sherbet

2010-09-27T13:30:00.001+04:00

The first trimester of my pregnancy, which is thankfully over, came in with bountiful sickness. And why do people insist on calling it morning sickness when it lasts for the whole day? Hrmph.

Anyway, when I felt drained after throwing up five times a day, there is one thing that really soothed me. Pudina sherbet, or a sherbet made from infusing mint leaves in boiling water, sweetened with sugar and given a mild tang with the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon. Simple and so refreshing.

Ingredients:

A bunch of mint leaves

2 litres of water

1 cup sugar (This depends on your preference of course, its best to do this as per your taste)

Juice of a lemon

Bring the water to a boil. Meanwhile, wash the mint leaves thoroughly and give it a rough chop. The chopping isn’t necessary, but chopped stalks allow for more flavor infusion. Once the water has boiled, put in the mint leaves, cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

Strain the water and mix in the sugar. Since the water is hot, the sugar will dissolve quickly, allowing you to test for the sweetness. Once you’ve arrived at the sweetness you want, let the sherbet cool. Once cooled, add a few drops of lemon and chill before serving.

Bombay City Guide for Design*Sponge

2010-09-15T12:41:00.001+04:00

Recently, I penned down a guide for the lovely guys at Design*Sponge, which they paired with this darling illustration by Julia Rothman (thanks, Grace, Steph and Julia!). It's a short guide of favorites for people traveling to the city, mainly design lovers. Check out the post here.

AITH: Uh....huh?

2010-08-31T11:04:00.000+04:00

Remember our Art In The House Series that kicked off with the stunning Beehive Kitchenware?

I just came across this oh-so-stunning piece of art from Omiyage. Trust this creative duo to think of making something so crafty from scraps leftover from an apron project. WOW.

Can you guess what it might be?

A little bag to carry around your chopsticks! (To a picnic, maybe or just a meal at the park?)

Or even your cutlery :)

Check out the complete post here.

Cheesy Encounters

2010-08-30T11:45:00.002+04:00

Yes, there is absolutely no excuse, cheesy or otherwise to have a blog up and running and not contributing to it regularly. I hate it when people who's blogs I read do that, so there's absolutely no reason for me to do it. But hey, oh wait... I'm not that famous (yet) and I'm pregnant.

Phew, with Little Stovetop on the way I'm just getting acquainted with endless morning-noon-night sickness, killing body pain and fatigue that makes me stay in bed forever. Doesn't that count as at least half an excuse for being mysteriously absent? *Angelic smile* Anyway, today that I feel slightly better, let me blog about something that I have only recently discovered and am also currently not allowed to have - Brie cheese.

I am no cheese connoisseur. In India, the most common form of cheese is cottage cheese or paneer in Hindi. And something I wouldn’t go near unless it’s in the form of a dessert or stuffed into mushrooms. But typically like it’s served in Indian cuisine, chopped into little Lego-sized blocks and simmered in rich and fragrant gravies… err.. nope, I’ll pass thanks. And that’s an entirely personal choice, I assure you. Most Indian food lovers, more so vegetarians, will list gravies that include cottage cheese as the primary ingredient as one of their favourites.

However, that’s not to say that cottage cheese put me off all cheeses. I just never liked it as a kid. (Sigh, I was a thin kid.) I remember the first time I smelt pizza was while watching the Oman National Day fireworks at a family friend’s terrace in Muscat and I almost threw up just because someone said “cheese pizza”. Globalisation hadn’t come to India when we had left it in 1990, and I had no clue about Italian food, cheese triangles or strings. The first time I saw a kid in school bring a cheese cube in his lunch, I almost thought he was an alien. Even today, I prefer cheese mostly when it’s melted, like in pizza or fondue (yes, in its most lethal form) or grated, like served on the streets of Bombay in sandwiches.

Living in the Middle East taught me to sample and like Halloumi, a cheese made from goat and sheep’s milk. Surprisingly so, because it melts at such a high temperature that it is seldom melted and almost never have any found it grated anywhere. Here, often it is the sole vegetarian option should you not feel like chewing on dead meat on any given day. (Like the day I watched Food Inc., OMG) When cooking Italian, I use Parmesan and Mozarella generously, and cream cheese for that rare cheesecake. Of course, Hubster stocks some cheddar slices for the sandwiches he never gets around to make or eat, and eventually go into a white sauce just a month before they are to expire. Feta cheese is something I dish out of salad before devouring it.

Apart from these mostly common types of cheese, I hardly try out any others even now. Gouda, Bokmakiri, Anari, Oltermanni, Blue Cheese, Romadur… Oh my God, how many ways can you curdle milk in???? This summer on holiday in Scotland, we found a tiny café on the Royal Mile to give our aching legs a rest. Since I didn’t particularly feel like meat, I chose a sandwich made with Brie and peppers. And boy, was it good! After having ordered it, I remembered reading about the “ammonia taste” that a lot of people associated Brie with and was slightly wary. However, when melted with succulent peppers and seasoned with fresh herbs, the cheese clung to my slice of bread fondly and the flavours seemed to merge beautifully. And no, nothing that was reminiscent of ammonia. Maybe the key here is to choose the portion size of the cheese carefully and infuse it with other flavours? Of course, that only comes after you haven’t chosen over-ripe Brie that is full of ammonia produced by microorganisms working overtime.

All said and done, this was my first “instantly pleasant and welcome” taste of a new cheese. Maybe its time for some more encounters? Not for another seven months, but who knows, maybe soon after. Amen..

They Draw and Cook

2010-06-29T12:33:00.002+04:00

Stumbled upon this beauty of a blog. Imagine having these fun recipe cards on your fridge when you're cooking from them. Just what makes my heart jump and say "Wheeeeee!!" :)

We all know how tough it is to cook lobsters. But this recipe card makes me want to do it right away!

A little something for the vegans too.

Not just food, the blog also hosts recipes of other fun stuff, like this one for Play Dough.

Check out many more funky illustrations on They Draw and Cook.

Learning from the nice guys

2010-06-20T15:03:00.001+04:00

Hello Peeps

Since it’s been a month after my last post, I had to come back with something stunningly beautiful and mouth-wateringly delectable. So, how about a visual treat of some Provencal food? Made by a bunch of enthusiasts, guided by two really, really nice people - one cook and one chef. Hell, they even had a nice person to clean up after the mess we made.

This summer, Hubster and I took a short trip to the UK. Being Hubster’s first time, we did everything he wanted to – sitting at Trafalgar Square, change of guards at the Buckingham Palace, the museums, a musical and the cathedrals. He didn’t want to Madame Tussauds because he doesn’t think much of wax figurines and I couldn’t be happier, since I was made to do tour it on my first visit to London. I still have pictures of me with a particularly excited David Copperfield seemingly flying over my head. And there's a reason I don’t have that album with me in my current house.

However, I did the one thing that I desperately wanted to – a cooking class in London. Something that I’d wanted to do when I was a student in UK, but alas, postgraduate life and a weekend job seldom allowed a trip from Yorkshire to the capital.

While researching some of the classes, I found The Cookery School at Little Portland Street. Simple website and very nicely composed classes, or hey, maybe I mean classes composed with very nice food. Whatever, you get the picture, don’t you?

Run by Rosalyn, a charming lady who by the end makes you feel like you’ve known her longer than a 3 hour class, the Cookery School is delightfully unpretentious. Tucked in Little Portland Street, just off Regent Street at Mayfair, the school has two blue doors, one of which leads to the office and admin areas while the other is where the class is held. A large well-lit room with a range of kitchen equipment neatly lined up at the back. Not intimidating at all, in fact just enough to excite like a display of KitchenAid should. Very nice instructors, for this class it was Rosalyn herself and a very nice young man called John.

Anyway, back to the class. The class was to learn a bit of Provencal food that is found this time of the year in summer – tomato tarts, herb roasted chicken, garlic potatoes and praline ice cream served with macaroons. The last of which was what hooked me on to the class. You know what a temperamental little cookie the macaroon is. So even after geeking out Tartlette’s tutorial and Miss Humble’s many successful attempts, I just had to watch And ask my zillion questions about beating, measurements and the other fun stuff. Hey, it’s a class after all.

Before we started, and while we were waiting for the last student to turn up, we were served a delicious round of Hors d'œuvre. A chicken spread on home-style bread. Loved it. And not just the eating bit. Just the fact that they thought of it, you know, to have something ready for people who were probably turning up straight from work at the end of a weekday, hungry and all that.

In a class of six, we were divided into groups of three, given shiny new aprons with our names stuck on it and the dishes were split. Because we’re learning so much in a relatively shorter span, the instructors do this to hasten the process and both groups interact at regular intervals, with everyone watching when a special procedure was involved. Unbelievably, I never knew you could use your hand to separate the white of an egg from the yolk! And that cutting out an oil gland from the chicken’s butt (politely called Parson’s Nose, poor Parson whoever he is) lets you omit out the oily flavour. I used this as my prime defense when I came back and Hubster said “But you make tarts and mashed potatoes all the time. And what’s so tough about roasted chicken? And I don’t even like praline.” Hmn.

Sure, I’ll be doing all the recipes over the next few weeks and talk in details about each of them, but here I want to talk about how much I liked this place. I arrived only three hours early for my class since I’m generally absent-minded, but was politely told it was starting at 7 and not finishing then as I had thought. The school uses only organic ingredients, as Rosalyn believes that their intense flavour and impact on the environment is second to none. In jest, there were also some one-bowl tips that distinguished the working of chefs (who have an army to clean up after them) and cooks, who at best have only a very supportive, Monica-Geller personified husband. Besides the techniques that I mentioned earlier, there were lots of little tips given as we progressed through the class – crunching herbs to be able to chop them finer, boiling the pan in which sugar is caramelized for easier cleaning and other wisdom that comes from seasoned cooks. Sure, we learn most of all this in time and with practice, but for the likes of this one guy who hadn’t held a knife before, all this information was priceless. The best, best thing that I liked amidst all the food we made was the praline ice cream, much to my surprise since I’m not that big on ice cream. But boy, that was some seriously good ice cream.

So if you live in London, or are planning to visit, I strongly recommend taking a class or course here. They have a wide range; from break making to knife skills and cuisines from Italian to Thai. So you're more than likely to find something that you want to play around with.

Art in the House - Beehive Kitchenware

2010-05-18T13:50:00.005+04:00

This is the first post in my new new section about art in the house. If you have something to share too, like a unique piece that you own and would like to talk about, please write in to stovetopdancing@gmail.com.

How often do you see beautifully crafted, arty stuff for the kitchen that's useful too? Stuff that you'd use everyday - measuring spoons, cups, hooks and more.

I just came across Beehive Kitchenware, started a decade ago by Sandra and Jim. Being a sucker for beautiful stuff in the kitchen, I almost had to wipe my drool off the keyboard while surfing through their site. Little birdies are a significant part of their design theme, nestled atop measuring spoons and handcrafted on baby cups.

And on these hooks. Sigh.

And this extremely desirable coffee spoon. Yum.

These cheese markers just stole my heart. Even though I probably can't tell Cheddar from Gouda. But hey, on another note, that's why they're so perfect for me!

Who wouldn't want to flip their pancakes with this supercute spatula?

Slightly expensive (they are handcrafted, after all) these lovelies are mostly cast in lead free pewter and aluminum. Complete with mounting hardware, they also come in gift boxes, making them perfect as wedding and housewarming presents.

Images Courtesy: Beehive Kitchenware Co.

Leek and Potato Soup

2010-05-13T17:39:00.009+04:00

There's something about red skies that I love. Not the morning ones, when you're all groggy and hardly awake, but the evening ones, where you are not just awake to soak in the beautiful colours but also (hopefully) getting done with work. Dubai doesn't have many such evenings, especially in the month of May when the weather's just getting from warm to unbearably hot.

But this year around, we saw a couple of evenings of pure bliss. Evening crimson skies turning into blue, with little specks of red and orange still there. Bliss.

Perfect evening for this soup, that can be eaten hot or cold.

Leek and Potato Soup

2 leeks, chopped with some greens

1 onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves

1 potato, cubed

2 cups stock of your choice (I used vegetable)

2 cups milk

A generous dash of a seasoning of your choice (I normally use Garlic n Herb or Pesto n Parmesan)

Salt, to paste

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Freshly chopped chives, small bunch

Heat the oil in a pot. Saute fresh pressed garlic and onions.

Put in the leeks and saute till it's transluscent. Add potatoes, saute for a few minutes and add stock. Let simmer.

Once the potatoes are done, Run your hand blender through till soup is creamy. Leave a few lumps, always adds texture to the taste.

Put in the milk, salt, pepper, seasoning and chives. Let simmer on low heat till all the flavours infuse.

Since Hubster doesn't agree with the concept of 'cold' soups, I serve it warm for him, topped with a tiny blob of butter or grated Parmesan. But I think this tastes great the next day too, cold.

Shortbread, Longday, Bigmess

2010-05-12T13:39:00.002+04:00

So, after having sighted a million pictures of Millionaire Shortbread, I set out to make it. Having had pretty successful baking experiences in the past (yeah I know, modesty never hurt anyone, but why take a chance?), I didn’t really think if was going to be tough. I mean, just three delectable layers, out of which only one needs to be baked – how hard can it get?

Turns out, R E A L L Y, R E A L L Y H A R D .

Yup. The process made me huff, puff, pound, sweat, think and swear in languages I had no idea I knew the cuss words in. For starters, the dough just decided to be a sticky paste, refusing to be coaxed into a dough till I added much, much more flour than the recipe called for. Getting it to fit the pan was a nightmare, took me just little over an hour. The caramel cooled much before the shortbread did and became a lump (all though, owing to the fact that I rolled it into truffle balls and popped a few, that wasn’t such a bad thing). Reheating it didn’t make it pour-able, as the recipe indicated so I just had to press it into a layer on top of the shortbread. The chocolate, well, there wasn’t much that could go wrong with it since it was just melted chocolate, but yeah, it short of fell short in quantity.

But then, with these lovely ingredients, even if it has turned out to be a blob of messy batter, it would have tasted quite ok. The end product wasn’t all that bad (that just would have made me quit on everything Scottish). But the shortbread was way too crumbly. Uh, maybe that had something to do with all that caramel being stretched into by hand on the shortbread layer. Hmn.

Do you have a recipe for a shortbread base that’s just perfect? C’mon people, put my faith back in the Scots.

Mommy Stovetop's Potato Spinach Curry

2010-05-09T14:05:00.005+04:00

Sure, today being Mother's Day in several parts of the world, I had to do a post relating to it in some way.

Mommy Stovetop is not the perfect mother in anyway. She screams, has mood swings, irritates me on numerous occasions by asking way too many questions, gives unwanted advice and so on. But she is, after all that, my mother. The only mother I've got, the only mother I will choose to have every time I'm reborn (Yup, I totally believe in that stuff). For all the times she has lost her temper on me (for good reason of course), she has been my strength on occasions that will any day outnumber the former. She is funny, she is forgiving, she is beautiful and she's mine. Oh, and she's a great cook - that always helps!

So here's one of Mommy Stovetop's famous recipes - Aloo Palak (Spinach and Potato curry). I don't have an image to share yet, but when I make it next, I'll remember to take one and upload it on here.

Note: There is no ''regular" Garam Masala in MS's kitchen. She only uses the Bengali version, which is traditionally equal measures of cloves, cardamom and cinnamon ground to a fine powder. MS grinds her own, and leaves out the cloves because she doesn't like it (and Granma Stovetop didn't either). For this recipe, you can use a teaspoon each of cinnamon and cardamom powder for the Garam Masala.

Aloo Palak (Indian Potato Spinach Curry)

2 large bunches of fresh spinach leaves, removed from stems and washed
1 large red onion, sliced
2 large potatoes
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder (only because MS believes that no food should leave her kitchen without at least a speck of it)
1-3 green chillis (depending on how much you like, leave it out altogether if you so wish)
1 teaspoon cumin powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
2 teaspoons Bengali Garam Masala (see note)
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
salt, as per taste

1. Peel and chop the potatoes and keep them to boil in a pot of hot water. Take them out once they're done.
2. In the microwave, cook the spinach leaves until they are soft, about 7-8 minutes.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and saute the onions. Add the chillies. Once the onions are transluscent, transfer them to a grinder. Reserve the wok.
4. After the spinach is done, grind it with the onions to a fine paste.
5. In the same wok you used for the onions, add 1 tbsp of oil and heat till smoking. Add the cumin seeds and turmeric powder.
6. Once the seeds sizzle, lower the heat and add the grated ginger and then the onion, chilli and spinach paste. Add the salt, cumin and coriander powders and roast together. After 5 minutes, add the ketchup and mix.
7. Add the potatoes. Once the flavours seem to have mixed, sprinkle the garam masala powder and mix well. Cover, and after 2 minutes remove from heat.
8.Keep covered till ready to serve. Serve with roti, or any flat bread. SInce this is primarily dry, it goes well with rice only when accompanied with dal.

Good food, better decor and great knick-knacks

2010-04-26T18:31:00.003+04:00

How many categories of towels did Monica Geller have? Thirteen, if I remember correctly.

I have a similar (yeah, some might call it weird) categorization too. For restaurants. Nice decor-nice tasting ones, plain decor-nice tasting ones, horrible decor-lovely tasting ones, horrendous decor-likewise tasting ones and of course when you get in the variable for service, then there's a whole new series there. Ha.

In most Indian cities, you'll find a good mix of all these. In Bombay for instance, a ramshackle set up illegally on the road (probably right under a flyover) will serve you the most delicious pav-bhaji and a Jai Hind with just 4 basic tables will whip up an amazing prawn curry. The homely Bagel Cafe, with its charming old world aura and beautiful wooden and cane furniture will serve you a melt-in-the-mouth cream cheese bagel with fresh watermelon juice in a slender glass. The big guys, restaurants in the five star hotels, like India Jones at the Trident, complete with their breathtaking chandeliers will never fail you with their delightful dimsums. However, it is mostly these guys, the rich ones with the good decor who lose out to their poorer counterparts in the race. But hey, this post is not about Bombay.

This is a post about eating out in Mykonos. Just enough sun, a little extra breeze, unbelievably azure waters, uh... really, how much more do you need to be sold?

Not one, not a single one of the restaurants we ate in in this island looked anything short of spectacular. White furniture, bright cushions, friendly servers; just the stuff I love. Enough beer to keep Hubster happy and funky logos (like the one above from a cocktail bar) to keep me happier.

This one special restaurant, set discreetly behind Little Venice, had some amazing wine bottles and art on wood. A lovely kitchen clock, framed quotes, plenty of potted plants, simple checked napkins set against white tableware... oh so summery! And to top it all, having lunch right under a pomegranate tree. I've lived in deforested cities far too long to let go of a chance like this.

And check out this amazing gelato cafe. Cow printed milk bottles, a colourful cow from Austria and then one of them happily bathing in a mug full of cappucino. And dollops and dollops of creamy gelato.

So tell me, what makes you go back to a restaurant, besides the food? Decor, surroundings or just the booze?

Upma

2010-04-25T13:50:00.003+04:00

As a college student in Pune, one of our favorite haunts for breakfast was an Udipi restaurant called Madhuban. I can safely say that this is where my love for South Indian food was nurtured. While the steaming idlis (rice cakes) and crispy dosas (rice and lentil pancakes, often with a spiced potato filling) were available throughout the day, only the Upma was something that was available only till 10 am, and in some rare occasions (like term-end holidays when most of the student crowd was away) till 10: 20 am. It’s not like Upma is the most delicious thing on the planet, but I don’t know what it is that made it popular. Maybe just the fact that we grow up on it. In most Indian homes, it’s the go-to breakfast.

Though everyone calls it semolina, I found out from my good friend Wikipedia that sooji or rawa, the core ingredient of upma, is actually not really semolina. While semolina is made from durum wheat, sooji is made from soft wheat. Hmn, learning for the day. Anyway, if you pick up the pack that says semolina, you’re good to go for this quintessential South Indian breakfast.

Upma (Indian style semolina)

1 cup semolina

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon grated ginger

1 teaspoon black mustard seeds

¼ cup green peas

½ cup corn

1-2 green chillies, chopped

2 cups of water

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon urad dal (optional, I normally skip this)

5-6 curry leaves (optional, I skip this too because it’s not readily available at my neighbourhood grocer’s)

Roast the semolina on a hot griddle till it brown slightly and gives off a distinct aroma. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat the oil and splutter mustard seeds. If you’re adding urad dal and curry leaves, do it now. Add the onions, ginger, corn, peas and green chilli. Once the onions are translucent (about 3-4 minutes), add the semolina, salt and water. Give it a good stir and cover. The upma is done when the water is all absorbed. The semolina should be smooth and not hard and grainy to taste. If this is not the case, add more water and cook for slightly longer.

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