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March 31, 2006
One Cookbook At A Time
I have been spring cleaning and de-cluttering around the house and in the process, I am organising the massive Cookbook and Food Magazine collection I have. I started counting and then lost count somewhere between 100 and 200. But that is just a fraction of what I have managed to amass over the years. I have now vowed to adopt 101 Cookbooks's [a beautiful and extremely interesting blog I came across recently and have become a fan] policy of exploring all the literature I have, one cookbook at a time. It is an extremely viable and fulfilling premise if one is disciplined enough to go through with it.
So, now that everything is organised, I am looking forward to plucking a random cookbook off my shelf and actually reading and reviewing it. I will start off with The Pooh Cookbook by Virginia H. Ellison. I recently bought it over ebay and can't wait to read it. Although my son is still too young to spend some time in the kitchen with, I fully intend to try to entice him with some funny Pooh terminology and rhymes while I whip up something special from the book.
Posted by Gel at 6:35 PM | | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
How important is a Cookbook's Cover?
I am crazy about Cookbooks, but a beautifully designed and aesthetically presented cover goes a long way in spiking my interest in the contents of the book. I know it is a bit shallow, because an uninteresting cover doesn't mean that the book doesn't have fabulous recipes ... but that's just how it is with me. On the upside, 99% of the cookbooks out there nowadays have gorgeous covers, so invariably I get interested in almost all of them. I believe that presentation is a very vital part of cooking and serving food. A chef or food writer who believes the same thing will be very particular about how he presents his recipes to the world in print as well.
Photos in a cookbook are like stars in the sky. The sky looks majestic even when it is clear, but if there are a few stars twinkling in it, it looks absolutely stunning. The same goes for a cookbook. Although I am partial to cookbooks that have delicious pictures of recipes [The photos are visual treats that help me decide whether I can try to attempt making the recipe or just wistfully admire it from the pages of the book, while my mouth waters.], I have come across some great books which are devoid of pictures; yet a treasure trove of beautiful recipes and helpful hints.
My new motto now is 'Don't judge a book by it's cover'!! And I intend to abide by it.
Posted by Gel at 5:25 PM | | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
Casa Domani Baya Range is art for your table.
I was lucky enough to pick up one big and I mean HUGE serving platter in ivory and gold rimmed edge from the beautiful Casa Domani Baya Range over the weekend. The range is a gorgeous combination of pastels with a rich gold trimmed edge in asymmetrical shapes, kind of like art for your table. It is very unconventional and I loved it at the discounted price of $5.00 per piece. My serving platter turned out to be a perfect cake dish for the flower-pot cake I mentioned earlier.
Speaking of unusual crockery, I recently bought 4 lime coloured authentic, retro-styled ice-cream cups. They are remniscent of the ice-cream parlours back in the 70s that people of my generation are so used to seeing in the movies. Some things are just more fun the old-fashioned way.
Posted by Gel at 6:19 PM | | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Fete Food is always exciting.
We had been to the local country fair on Sunday. It was an event to be remembered as it was commemorating 100 years of the existence of our suburb after it was formed as a result of a land grant given to the local ranger for capturing a rogue who terrorised it. Now that the educational part is over let me get to the fun part of the fete, the food! There were quite a few goodie stalls as is a trademark of these country fairs. 'The Chilli Factory' was our first stop as we have tried the 'chilli' they offer and have become addicted. There are rows of sauce and jam jars which are rated on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the hottest. This time around we saw a 10+ too. We dare not try that one yet, but we managed to advance to the 7/10 'Apple & Chilli Chutney'. [I stir-fried some chicken fillets in that yesterday and they turned out to be sensational]. The last time we had been to one of these fairs, we had hesitantly sampled the 4/10 'Mango Chilli Relish' which is now one of our favourites. We stopped at a Nougat stall and after sampling a few different types, bought the 'Berry & Macadamia Nougat'. It has a lovely chewy texture and the aftertaste was really nice with a hint of sourness from the berries and some sweetness from the macadamias.
After a few more stops at the lolly and lemonade stands, we proceeded to have lunch. The'Himalayan' food was disappointing. There was nothing 'Himalayan' about it. There was the same old butter chicken and the same old savoury potatoes. The fried rice tasted neither Indian nor Chinese and was very bland too. The Dutch Pancake or 'Pannekoeken' as the stall read out in bright red more than redeemed itself. It was a truly brilliant concoction of these darling little round pancakes which were crisp on the outside and soft on the inside arranged neatly on a plate and topped with butterscotch sauce, strawberries and cream. Just too delicious for words. The Mango and Berry Sorbets we had later on not only beat the sweltering heat but left a cool, lingering taste in our mouth as we headed home with full bellies.
Posted by Gel at 6:57 PM | | Comments (1)
March 13, 2006
Novelty Cake No 1 : A Pot Of Mud
In the past 2 weeks my whims and fancies have shifted to the wonderful world of cake decorating. As I have mentioned before, I have been dawdling over the idea of baking a 'fun' cake for my son's 2nd birthday which happens to be next month. To achieve that with a certain flair, I need to practice and perfect my methods. As luck would have it, it was our 5th Wedding Anniversary yesterday and the ocassion called for a special cake. So a week ago I started scouring hundreds of Novelty Cake recipes and design ideas. The idea of the 'Dirt Cake' in a plastic flower pot intrigued me. But I wanted a proper cake, not a dessert ladled into a store-bought pot, which is what the 'Dirt Cake' really is.
After a bit of thought I braved the 'Pot Of Mud' Cake and it turned out quite nice. The idea was pretty straightforward and required minimum fuss on my part. I baked a Chocolate Mudcake in a deep souffle pan, to achieve the 'flower pot' shape. Next, I dug up the top to resemble loose, wet soil. The cake crumbs which I dug up were scattered at the base of the cake and decorated with raspberries and green marzipan leaves to get a garden 'look and feel'. I decorated the upper rim of the 'flower pot' with white marzipan trim and handmade blue marzipan flowers. I stuck an actual steel and wood mini spade in the mud to complete the cake.
Posted by Gel at 9:05 AM | | Comments (3)
March 3, 2006
100 recipes : First Milestone
We officially have 100 recipes on the website. The first of many more milestones I hope. It seemed like it took me forever to get 100 recipes up and running, maybe now the pace will pick up. "Cherry Compote" had the honour of being Recipe No. 100.
I love hunting for unusual and interesting crockery and kitchen utensils. I love colours. Plain old steel or drab white crockery doesn't stir up my creative juices. Unless of course, if they are mixed and teamed up with whimsical and colourful utensils. This weekend I picked up a beautiful olive coloured, enamel colander from the Homewares store. It is bright and quite retro looking. I might start out with some grape photography using the colander.
We recently started a recipe request list at home. My hubby writes down his requests for me to conjure and I write down the names of the dishes I want him to make. I finally got around to making the first request yesterday - "Pan-Fried Momos with Sweet & Spicy Sauce". Originally a Tibetan delicacy, I first tried this version in a small restaurant in Calcutta, India. They pan fried the steamed momos and served it up with a delicious Chinese-style sauce. Although I don't remember the name of the restaurant, the recipe stuck with me. I made it 2-3 times before I was fully satisfied with the result. Now, it is one of my husband's favourites.
Posted by Gel at 11:02 AM | | Comments (1)
March 1, 2006
Pancake Tuesday.
So yesterday was Pancake Tuesday, 28th February 2006. We were supposed to have Pancakes for breakfast, but breakfast got delayed and I had to rush my first-born to playschool. When we got back, we thought to ourselves "Why not have a Pancake Lunch?". The idea was too tempting to dismiss, so we went all out and made a feast out of pancakes, fruits and toppings. We made a lovely stack of lemon pancakes, cut some apples, bananas and lemons, arranged sugar and butter on a platter and opened up bottles of home-made peach jam and maple syrup. Yum!!
There was a certain amount of child-like delight in a sugary, gooey, buttery lunch and we couldn't remember the last time we had so much fun at the table. I can't wait soon enough to try it again. Maybe this time we'll have different types of pancakes instead of different toppings and experiment with the shapes. Blueberries, Strawberries, Chocolate are some of the pancakes variations at the top of my head. Thats should be fun!!
Posted by Gel at 6:08 PM | | Comments (0)
