Tea-poetry

Ever wondered where those tooth fairies and little elves have tea? Ever dreamed endlessly watching the rain pour down heavily holding a hot cup of tea? Ever longed for a place where you could get drunk in TEA? Then, come with me to Peter Celia Street at Fort Cochin, Kerala to a dreamy tea spot called, ah surprise "Teapot".

The ambiance of this little tea-poetry is to die for. Wooden cartons which were used to transport Tea are refurbished as tiny little tables.

Old tea cups reborn as wind chimes decorating the entrance doors. A large wide tea bush with a glass top serves as a table for five. Teapots of various sizes and shades and materials, some hung from the ceiling, some arranged on the sills. A clock that strikes T's.


Large hats used by workers at the tea plantations to protect themselves from the sun decorate the walls. Tea paintings, Tea stories, Tea sale prints on jute bags -- you dream it, they have them all. They have painstakingly made a wide range of collection of all kinds of tea paraphernalia which would take you hours to finish swooning over, of course over a cup of tea, a fifteen different varieties. The walls are painted in mustard, or you could say, could be a tea stain. :)

There are not many tea spots, thumping their chests proudly displaying the true tea spirit in Kerala, though tea is available easily than water at small shacks to big hotels. Teapot tries to fill that void and does it with élan. Quizzed the owner, Sanjay Damodaran, of the brainwave behind the tiny tables and that simple man said, "You know I wanted something easy to lift and move".

Many people have fallen in love with the place. There is a guy who donated his tea pot collections, a poet from New york who churned a poem for this place, people from all over the World disguised as tourists waiting to have that perfect cup of tea at this dreamy hang-out.

I ordered for a samosa which tasted too North Indian for me(pardon me for being divisive, but about food my friends I don't lie) and a Teapot Special tea, that cost me 30 and 40 India rupees respectively.

(Many thanks to the ace photographer Thulasi Kakkat for the photographs while I was enjoying my tea)

Let them eat Bt Brinjal?

The infamous 'Let them eat cake' was never uttered, says historians, rather that was the impression given to the peasants by the French royal family and the extravagant imprudent queen Marie Antoinette.

But India's Environmental Minister, Jairam Ramesh and his team is conspicuously trying hard to push Bt Brinjal into the Indian agricultural community even with many Indian states rejecting the GEAC approval for the same. Brinjal originated in India and we might soon lose the natural seeds to the genetically modified seeds, if Bt Brinjal is slated to cultivate commercially.

I am no tree hugging environmentalist though I grow most of my vegetables without any pesticides and chemicals at home and plant trees at every inch on the fallen sky. I prefer organic any day, not for the fad but for health reasons and simply because I can afford to. India needed a Green Revolution for self sufficiency of food. In due course, we destroyed our soil with the rampant reckless usage of pesticides and eating meat is much safer in India than a vegetable these days. Now we are again trying the same with the genetically modified crops. We are still suffering from the environmental impacts of the Green Revolution, but surely environment takes a back seat compared to eradicating hunger. But now that we are self sufficient in food cultivation and can afford to have a system of safe and organic foods, why is the current Indian Government adamant on introducing the GM crops?

Genetically modified crops in simple terms is introducing certain gene to the seeds, so that the crop become resistant to certain diseases and farmers can eventually cut down the use of pesticides. These are different from hybrids where two naturally occurring seeds or plants are mixed to create a new one. Here, it is altering the DNA of the seed and a new gene is introduced. Sounds scary right? Wait until you hear about the Pusztai affair.

Árpád Pusztai, considered by many to be the leading expert on GM foods, was silenced with threats of a lawsuit after he unexpectedly discovered that rats fed an experimental GM food developed immune system damage and other serious health problems in just ten days. Pusztai later reviewed an industry-sponsored study and found that seven of forty rats fed a GM crop died within two weeks; others developed stomach lesions. The crop was approved without further tests. Smith, Jeffrey M. 2003. Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating.

European Union, Australia, Japan, some African countries have already rejected the GM crops for lack of clear evidence of food safety. So, we Indians should be the guinea pigs of this new food revolution? There are already strange health complaints by farmers who cultivated Bt Cotton, another GM crop and even people who stay near such farms are complaining of strange symptoms. Why is that these data is not looked into? What did we do to rectify these health complaints? Bt Brinjal is promoted by Mahyco Monsanto biotech, a joint venture between Hyderabad-based Mahyco and US-based Monsanto, along with University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharawad, and Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore.

The strange part of all this is why cant we get the labels on GM crops? US is adamant it wont label it's crop and says European Union should not too, since it violates the trade agreement? Why should we not let the consumer know how and where this crop was cultivated? What is harm in that and why not let us choose? We all know when multinational corporations have their say and when studies are sponsored by them, a lot of data gets hidden and what they want in business is what their scientists come up with.

There are two sides to any story and there are a lot of scientists on the other camp claiming genetically modified crops is perfectly safe for human consumption. Whom do we believe? Which study do we take in? and why Brinjal when we don't even have a Brinjal scarcity in India? Are we just apprehensive of a new technology?

Art in a Café

Imagine my surprise, walking into a cafe and greeted by none, no servers, no clutter of tables, no clink-clank of cutlery, just a vast space with an array of staring fiberglass dolls of varying colors, and paintings on the wall.

If you are like me, who can stare at a painting or an installation for hours, drink some black coffee and gobble up some rich and delicious cakes, Kashi Art Café is the place for you.

An old Dutch house converted without disturbing any elements of the house, which is so important for me when I visit converted old buildings. Each house each building I believe has a soul and any renovation should not disturb these basic elements.

After you finish staring at the art, you can enter other rooms, where you are welcomed by chairs and tables scattered filling up discreet corners giving the feeling of an art gallery, never a cafe.

Then you see a small kitchen, sitting areas, a coffee corner with Italian Espresso mocha pots, a cake display stand, tables that look like chocolate fondue, open space into the sky, some plants hanging out, an old wall with moisture paint, and people lazing around. Reminded me of old European town squares tucked into a building at Burger Street, Fort Kochi.

For a moment, if you think they are craftily diluting their menu for art, you are wrong. The menu would seem unassuming and light with items like sprout salad and potato soup.

So you think until you order one of those devilish home made cakes. Oo Ma! The best chocolate cake I ever tasted in Kerala. The moment it tickles your taste buds, you are sure they have used the freshest ingredients without cutting any corners. While waiting for my espresso order, I chatted up with Anoop Skaria, the co-owner who must be loving his job tremendously.

He and his wife Dorrie Younger set up this cafe twelve years back in 1997 for their love of promoting art, and also because nothing like that existed in Cochin before. They are both art lovers and collectors and came up with this idea, Anoop says to remind him of Vienna(Austria) which seems to be his favorite place. It would have been really risky to start something like this in Cochin but to everybody's delight they were proved right. They now boast two Art galleries and Kashi Art Café is the most happening place in Fort Kochi.

Kashi Art Café welcomes budding artists and even run resident programs with a stipend for the artists. Skaria tells me with pride, many now famous artists like Upendranath and GopiKrishna started out small from their little cafe.

I ordered a chocolate cake (Rupees 55) and espresso (Rupees 45). They were perfect to the beans. All this along with Barbara Ash's 'Sugar and Spice'.

No wonder you feel connected to this place even at your first visit, with food and art, how could anything go wrong?

(I cannot express enough my gratitude to Thulasi Kakkat, for the extravagant beautiful pictures that accompany this post and for introducing me to Fort Kochi)

Series Reading.
1. A Princess Story
2. Upstairs Italian Cuisine

Idiyappam

Try telling the people in Tamil Nadu, that their staple food iddlis are not theirs but imported from Indonesia. Kakka Kakka, a Tamil film, which I loved, for the major part because of Surya ;) has an amusing scene. In that while the villain is questioning the lady, the co-villain interrupts the main one and asks, "anne pasikkathu, iddli saappittu varenne?" (Brother, I am hungry, can I go and eat some iddlis).

At such a tense moment, I burst out laughing. The dialog was so natural, accurately tamilian, cleverly put into the whole scene, it was amusingly ticklish. Iddlis are taken for granted in Tamil culture.

This post is not about iddlis, but about the stringy idiyappoms. Though as usual like we are proud of everything Malayalee, we are proud of Kerala's 'own' idiyappom too. Now tell that to the Konkanis, the Srilankans (it is called Indiappa....hmm...), the Malaysians etc. These food delicacies have legs, I say. They travel, roam the World, get stuck in various forms and shapes, in various cuisines and in hearts, we defend it as our own.

Idiyappam or String hoppers is a plain rice noodle made fresh. You can use double boiled rice or parboiled or raw.

Roast any rice flour in low flame, stirring constantly until it is just warm to touch. Boil water , add salt and add slowly to this rice in very low heat until it takes on the texture of wet clay. You are going to play with these.

Idiyappam press is similar to a cookie press, but it has an additional filter that will have very tiny holes. Make small balls and press the flour out to a steamer or your idli steamer.
At our home, we add fresh grated coconut between the layers of an idiyappam. First layer of strings, a little bit of coconut, second layer of strings, then a little bit of coconut.

Steam for around 10 minutes like idlis. You dont separate the strings as in a noodle, it is like rice steamed cake, with the texture of strings. Egg curry is a complimentary accompaniment with this breakfast dish.

Streetfull Stressfree Onam!

Have had many Onams and have prepared elaborate dishes sweating it out the previous nights and in wee hours. After preparing elaborate Onam Sadya, after the backbreaking and the payasam sweetness, I would just want to put up my feet and snore to glory and have happy dreams that another Onam is another year long.

This fresh flower carpet is made on top of an old tyre that caught my attention. This is an auto rickshaw stand and the drivers had decorated their little place with flowers.

Bee dear once proclaimed, Festivals are a burden for the women folks sweltering in kitchens. Very true. But I am addicted to festivals, the traditions, and all the hoopla around it.

This time my Onam is on the streets. Kerala definitely is a must visit on Onam days if you like crowds, food and colors. It is swarming with crowds everywhere from smallest tiny shops to the air conditioned malls. Every street has some kind of Onam mela (which means festivities), all shops lit like Christmas trees, and every tiny bit of waterbody having a boat race.

Onam is not about worrying whether the 14th dish that you are preparing which will be served at the right end of the feast leaf is going to come out alright. So next Onam, visit Kerala and order that Special Sadya meals and have fun on the streets. Every festival is about togetherness and yes, close thy kitchens for once and be together.

The old man at the payasam counter, he wants liters of payasam to take home. There are payasam counters at every nook and fresh flower carpets at every corner. Young and old alike, people are getting out to the streets, buying payasams by the ton, booking Sadyas that will be delivered to your homes on Thiruvonam day, and setting women free for shopping. Breaking the traditions is a must, breaking it like this is bliss!

Brisk business at all the counters selling Onam snacks and dishes.The big vessel is aravana payasam (a special food prepared at Ayyappan Temples)

There is nothing that is not available to buy these days, there is kaalan prepared in bottles. There are various pickles, snacks, injipuli all sold in bottles, you can easily prepare the feast without much work.

Snack items, for the street-tired and the shop-tired.

Onam is a harvest festival dotted with myths and legends and this is just a tiny piece of the harvest waiting to be sold to be made to Onam dishes at homes. This is the season when Govt sponsored farmers market springs up, have agriculture festivals and Kerala would smell like a giant vegetable.

Happy Onam!

Upstairs - Italian Cuisine

Strolling through the street of Santa Cruz Basilica at Ft Kochi, at the turn of the street corner, one could get a whiff of olive oil and mozzarella, the evening breeze carrying it down through a narrow stairway, part of an old house, painted in simple blue and white, the windows decorated in devil's ivy, in old earthen pots.


You climb upstairs to reach Upstairs, a homely Italian twist to Fort Kochi, run by Fabio Batistatti, who was already a cook in Italy but wanted to bring some Italian flavor to the historic town. From the windows of the one room diner, you could clearly get a good view of the old Basilica just across the road, rosaries and hymns reaching you as a backdrop to the simple decor, reminding you of Italy, her alleys of hymns and old churches. The place Fabio chose to run his restaurant couldn't get more authentic than that.

It has a wide varying menu of original Italian food, from the Antipasto to the original yummy Affogato. They have various pastas and the lasagnas, and fresh thin crust Pizzas and breads baked daily. It must be really hard to run an Italian restaurant with the minimal availability of original Italian ingredients in Cochin. They import their Salamis and Mozzarella of course and Fabio visits Italy every year for couple of months.

(Those are just the specials for the day from their wide ranging menu)

I had ordered a simple Bruschetta with Salami and Mozzarella and a cup of cappuccino to wash it down. After Indian cuisines, I love Italian cuisine as obvious from my trip to Italy for a Pizza :), I would want more olive oil dripped into my bread, the Bruschetta grilled a tad harder. Other than that, it was Italy all over again! My cappuccino was perfect. It is a simple unpretentious place and they do mean food!

It cost me 180 Indian rupees for the Bruschetta and 50 rupees for the cappuccino. I inquired for the famous Italian gelatos and they didn't have that! (ah!)

This restaurant is in its fourth season, closed on the months of May and June.

Open for dinner from 6 to 10, 8-11 for breakfast and noon to 3 for lunch.

Buon appetito!

(Series Reading.
1. A Princess Story )

A Princess Story

Cochin is considered to be the Queen of Arabian Sea, then Ft. Kochi must be her darling little princess. (It has a Princess Street too).

If one more time I see a Kerala picture with green, with Chinese fishing nets, I would hit my head somewhere. I am exhausted telling people, Kerala is not all about greenery to die for, and coconuts to eat for, that we have much much more. The best place to really get the message across is of course my blog and there it is, me writing about Kerala -- the nongreen version, of course from a foodie stand point. And where else to start, other than about Cochin, and her little princess.


As you stroll down the quiet streets of Ft Kochi, you are amazed by the non hustle, the non bustle, which is so much Cochin. Keeping in mind of Kerala's infamous harthals, you would be wondering whether, it is another harthal day, for you see only very few people, most of them tourists, some from North India and most from Europe. You hear a lot of languages from Kashmiri to Swedish, people idling round like this is their last home, like they have reached the end of the World and have no plans to move out. Tourists with books lazing around on window sills are a constant sight you have to grow comfortable with. I mean don't they have to plane to catch?

Ft. Kochi is not for the tourists, but for the traveler. You don't click pictures, you just breathe in the culture. There are small strange alleys, green moss on old windows, peeled walls, and food!

Before I write about three cute restaurants I visited, Teapot, Kashi Art Cafe and Upstairs, as an introductory post, wanted to showcase a decent restaurant which kind of sits on the edge of Fort Cochin boundary.

Fort Queen is yet another touristy restaurant, all the bells and whistles intact, with the ever present traditional Kerala Menu and the continental breakfasts eying the European traveler, but what caught my eye was the price tag. Food was fresh, delicious and considering other restaurants in and around Cochin, the price was on the lower side.

Ah? Why? and the manager kinda said, We are new, trying to catch up on the market and then we would hike up the prices (Okez, I spiced it up on what he actually said, but that is what he meant) ;)

The food was a lunch buffet, with items like a delicious Travancore Fish Curry, Jodhpuri Okra and freshly made Appams/Naan/Roti. All for a low range price tag of 150 Indian Rupees.


The guy was so shy while I clicked a pic :). He was making delicious appams for us.

Palm Sunday Kozhukkatta

There was this Sunday at church where we kids could play, play with smooth cream and green leaves, curl it up into shapes, making crosses, or just folding it until the brown creases show through and pretend they were work of art – all the while parents wouldn’t mind as long as we didn’t destroy the leaves or start a sword fight or trying to hold the thinner ends and try to fish or make them unholy by making them touch ground. It was this special day when you make kozhukkattas the previous night, it was not for the kozhukkattas but for the making and rolling and the filling and the smacking by our moms for dropping them on the ground that we waited for this special day. It is called Palm Sunday where Catholics celebrate the remembrance of arrival of Christ on a donkey into Jerusalem where the people waved and welcomed him with palm leaves singing Hosana (hence the name Hosana Sunday in Malayalam).

Certain areas in Kerala like Trichur make kozhukkata, others make pachoru (sweetened rice), and some others make avalnurukku, -- basically something sweet for this special day.

Today, Palm Sunday is the start of the Holy Week, a week full of ceremonies before Easter. It was surprising to me that Good Friday was not a Holiday in U.S, probably because you couldn’t wish Happy Good Friday and sell some stuff, like a Good Friday Fairy or something at McDonalds like a Good Friday Burger. Good Friday, though the name is suggestive of something good happening is not ‘good’ but a sad Friday since that’s the day Christ was crucified, and please don’t wish anyone Happy Good Friday since my friends have done that to me.

This recipe is for kozhukkatta. It is steamed rice dumplings filled with sweet coconut

Rice Flour used for making Appams – 1 cup (i.e. roasted and powdered rice flour)
Water – 2 cups
Ghee – 1 tsp
Salt

Mix the below list of ingredients with hand thoroughly and keep aside.
Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Freshly grated coconut – 1 cup
1/2 cup jaggery

Bring water to a boil and take off from heat, add salt and ghee. Now slowly add rice flour ¼ cup at a time and make it to a smooth ball. Knead it well. You should be able to make small balls and it should stick. Divide dough to equal portions and make small balls. The important thing is to have a medium sized ball, since the filling will make it bigger and when you steam them, it won’t cook well.

Keep aside ½ cup of freshly squeezed coconut milk to stick the ends of the dough balls and to fill any holes that form. You can either make small balls and flatten them out and fill them with the coconut mixture or you can make a big depression inside the ball and fill it up. Dip your fingers in the coconut milk occasionally so that it is easier to handle the dough. Make sure the dough is lighter when you fill them with coconut mixture.

Steam them in idli cookers for 10 or 15 minutes. Serve with coconut milk as a dipping sauce. Refrigerate the leftovers for no more than one day.

Please dont wish me Happy Palm Sunday too, for there are some ceremonies and traditions where you just dont have to wish :-)

A brave woman’s journey

This is the first time I am making crabs in my life. I was (still a little) dead scared of these creatures. First of all, they look so scary and second you need to buy them fresh, oh my god! But I have eaten them so many times, once I ate so much, chewing even on the shells, I got a stomach ache. I just love to eat them.

But then to prepare, eeeewwwww! I don’t like the feeling of being scared. So, I put on my Brave Woman cap and decided to go and buy them. First I thought, I would go alone, I could get someone at the store to help me in getting those live ones into a bag, but then the thought of driving back with the creatures still alive in my car didn’t seem a good idea.

So, I got the help of my dear husband, who was teasing me all the way and even after eating. Grrrrrr! Now that will go down as a story in our family get together. He hasn’t finished teasing me on how I run when I see live fishes on the hook when he goes fishing. Hmph!!!

So what?? Big deal!! At least I prepared it. *sticking out my tongue*

Crab season typically starts when the weather turns colder. I bought blue crabs. I have no idea how to select a good one, but I think the best way is to choose a one that has all the legs and is huge and is alive and kicking. The live ones crawl to the bottom, so it is good to place the bucket in a slanting position to get the ones at the bottom. (Psst, all these I was watching other smarties do at the store :P)

Now pick them up, inspect and drop into your bag. And if you are like me, occasionally scream and jump when someone is doing that for you and get the entire store laughing at you. Very Funny! It is said, the crabs like these voice massages!

Bring them home, get the largest pot that would fit them all and keep water for boiling and add ½ tsp of turmeric powder and one whole lime squeezed. When the water is boiling, drop them all one by one holding each with a lengthyyy tongs. The blue crabs will turn orange and immediately immerse them in cold water. This will make the crab meat firmer for our curry.

Now is the cleaning process, you would really need to watch this live. If I can, next time I will put up a video of someone else cleaning! hehehe.

First break off all the legs, discard the tiniest legs at the end that has no flesh. Then with a knife, take off the orange outer shell by just poking at the bottom and pulling it apart. Clean out everything that doesn’t look right. I think some of it is good, but if you are not sure, except for the large chunks of meat, clean it out thoroughly. Below is the picture of the cleaned crab. If you want, you can cut through the middle and make these into two.

Below is a wonderful recipe for Crab in spiced and fried coconut paste.

This is for 8 blue crabs.
Grated Coconut – 2 cups.
Shallots – ½ cup

Heat 2 tsp of oil, Saute grated coconut until it turns brown in very low heat. Add shallots, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 7 crushed garlic pods with the skin, 4 tsp of freshly grounded meat masala powder, 1 tsp of chili powder, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder.

Grind to a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a flat open pan, splutter mustard seeds, and add 2 fresh sprigs of curry leaves. Sauté 1 diced onion until brown, add 1 tablespoon diced ginger, 2 tomatoes chopped and add enough salt. Add some hot water to this paste and cook for 5 minutes until it comes to a boil. Add the crabs and the legs. Mix them thoroughly so that the paste covers the crabs, close and cook for some 10 minutes in medium heat.

Serve with rice or bread. You would really need to know the art of eating to eat a crab.

Kuzhalappam

Hey, wont it be great to have an event for Snacks with holes!

Kuzhalappam or Kozhalappam might be a distant cousin of those donuts and those uzhunnu vadas, if the hole is vital part of the dna of snacks. I am sure they come up with these holes just to fancy the kids, for the kids to get excited, wear it round their fingers like a giant diamond ring, and then munch on them. Oh what a wonderful life it would be if we could be kids again.

It is easier to make and stays longer makes it a Christmas time favorite of mine, since I can prepare it well ahead. The crunchy crunchiness and all those crumbs on the floor and around your mouth, oh what a way to welcome wintry Christmas.

Take 2 cups of white rice flour, mix ¼ cup of fresh shredded coconut. This will make the rice flour get some of the wetness of the shredded coconut. Now grind together 2 shallots, a pinch of cumin seeds, 2 pods of garlic, a single whole pepper. I had all the tendency to add a curry leaf, but I resisted it. Try it if you want.

Heat a flat saucepan or a uruli, heat the rice mixture in very low heat to dry the powder slightly, Add salt and the ground mixture and slowly add thick coconut milk in teaspoons so that it get wet slowly. When you feel the consistency is good enough to make soft balls, take from heat.

Now knead the dough thoroughly for some 20 minutes. If you have a Kitchen Aid (HAHA! SHOW OFF) use it now in low speed for some 8 minutes! :)

When the dough is almost ready, add 1 tsp of sesame seeds to this mix. I added white, but black sesame is preferred.

Make small balls, flatten them out in your hand to very thin, but manageable.

You can either roll some wax paper on a stick or can use the stem of a banana leaf to roll them out as shown in the pictures.

The thing you have to make sure is the rolls are very thin, so that the insides also gets fried properly.

Heat coconut oil and add them. Fry them till golden brown.

I was trying different levels of crispiness while frying, that’s why you see two different colors. I liked the lighter one better.

You can store them airtight for two or three weeks. Those little binoculars you can eat. Yummy!

Sausage Stuffed Egg Rolls

Christmas and New Year Party Time! Easy appetizers!

Buy some sausages, dice them up, sauté them in oil, add some pepper, add some shredded vegetables. Wrap them in pre-made egg roll sheets. I tried to bake some of them, it didn’t come out good, so switched to deep frying them.

Let them pictures speak.

Brinjal Mezhukkupuratti

Many don’t like Brinjal due to its gooey texture after cooking. But at home, since my mom was very strict on us eating all kind of vegetables she could lay her hands on, we never got time to complain about texture. I was told by someone Brinjal didn’t have any nutrients and even plucked out some Brinjal plants. I was wrong. It has a stash of nutrients and those violet colors are good for you.

Mezhukkupuratti is malayalam for stir fry.

I cut brinjal in small rounds one inch thick. Dont cut them too thin, for they will squish too soon. You can cut them in one inch thick elongated pieces too.

For 3 cups of brinjal, dice ½ cup shallots, 1 pod of garlic, 4 green chilies.

Heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil in a skillet, splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, add two split red chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves. Then add the garlic, green chilies and onion in that order.

Now add the cut brinjal and some salt and sauté them well in the oil and lower the heat to a minimum. Sweat the vegetables by covering it and then stir them occasionally.

When they are soft, take them off from heat.

Serve as an accompaniment to rice.

Melting Moments

I am a big fan of spicyana and her fairy like creations. It is not only that she creates beautiful artifacts; she handles the camera at amazing angles and will make you drool over the fantastic pictures. Her aesthetic sense is amazing.

So when she made ‘melting moments’ last Christmas and packed goodie bags, I so so wanted one of that.

I don’t have Archana near by me so I had to make them myself and lo the right time for these ‘melting moments’ is indeed Christmas.


I liked the part in the recipe where it said, it will keep good for storage and so I could make them ahead.

Recipe Courtesy: Joy of Baking.

Sift one and half cups all purpose flour and 1/2 cup cornstarch and 1/4 teaspoon salt and whisk them together.

Using a beater beat 1 cup of butter and add ¼ cup of powdered sugar and beat them together to a smooth consistency. Add 1 tsp of vanilla for flavor and add the flour to this and mix thoroughly.

If the dough is firm, you can right away make the balls. Or refrigerate to make it firm for one hour or so and then make small balls (one inch) and keep them on a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Keep the balls one inch apart as they will expand while cooking.

Preheat oven to 350 and bake them for 10 minutes. Now cool them and then transfer to a surface coated with powdered sugar. Arrange them in a single layer and sprinkle powdered sugar

This is my first batch and I used vanilla flavor. These are so easy to make I am going to try these with different flavors.

Melt them in your mouth moments!

Kerala Rich Fruit Cake

This time I made a lot of cakes all at once, Usually I make them batch by batch so that I could correct in the later batches. I tried my luck this time and took one whole day for baking… it was smelling Christmas all last Sunday and as the cakes sit there waiting to be eaten it sure smells like a Bakery. So Welcome to Ginger and Mango Bakeries.

I am not a good baker and I follow K.M Mathews cake recipes to the dot. I am very reluctant to make any changes to it, since I don’t know the complicated science of baking.

This recipe is from her book, Naadan Pachakarama.

I don’t know whether any part of India other than Kerala has this tradition. Maybe Goa? This is a big tradition of cake baking, rich fruit cake. But let me tell you, I had fruit cake in Italy and I didn’t like it a bit. It was soo hard and chewy. This Kerala fruit cake is a mix between fruit cake and plum cake. It is very soft, has lots of fruit and nuts and will keep well for days.

I multiply the quantities and this time I multiplied them by 8 times. If you want to make just one cake for a smaller family I would say to divide these quantities by 4.

One thing about baking is measurement. Do not guess the measurement like you would do for a curry. You have to buy that measuring spoons, measuring cups and the kitchen weighing machine if you ever think of baking. If the recipe calls for room temperature, yes it definitely means room temperature and you cannot directly mix the ingredients from the refrigerator.

Another thing is the freshest ingredients and these do make a big difference in the quality and the storage of the cakes. I usually buy them only the previous day.

The easiest part of this cake is the soaking.

Black raisins – 150 gm
I buy fruit cake mix dried fruits which come in a single packet – 200gm.
(You can buy different dried fruits and mix them together in proportion.)
Now buy some cheap brandy and soak them. For this quantity of fruits you would require ½ cup of brandy.

See the last post for soaking.

Soak the fruits I would say one week ahead. You can also soak them two or 1 days ahead. Soak them for one week in a non-metallic jar and stir them every day to get them mixed nicely in brandy. Keep them airtight and also in a large jar since the fruits plump up when soaked.

The recipe calls for dicing the fruits before soaking. I have tried that and God it is so much work. So these days I don’t do it since I make this in large quantities. You have to dice a raisin into two if you want to follow the recipe. This is to make sure the cake while slicing won’t have crumbs. Ah! I don’t care, let it crumb, let it crumb, let it crumb! :)

Dice a cashew into four. Like that keep ¼ cup raw cashew nuts ready and soak them in Almond essence and keep aside.

Okay, so soaked them? Now onto the next step, caramalization.

Boil ¼ cup of water. Now take a pan and in low heat, add ¼ cup sugar and keep on stirring, You will see the sugar getting dissolved and changing color. When the sugar is browning and not burning, it produces an instant coffee color. Take from heat and slowly add the hot water and keep it again in the flame. While adding water be extra careful, since it will splash and burn your fingers. Now keep stirring continuously until it forms caramel color syrup. Take from heat and let it cool.
(This time I didn’t brown the caramel as I should have to a deep dark brown, fearing if a small mistake would destroy my entire batter. A little more of browning is good)

Now on to Butter. Please do not use substitutes, you are eating a cake. Unsalted Butter. Make sure it is not salted and yes, do not let your hubby dears do the shopping for this.

So, Butter at room temperature. That means it should not be a stick and rather it should be soft and gooey to touch.

Butter 250 gm. With a hand mixer or in a stand mixer, lightly beat the butter until fluffy.

Now add 300gm powdered sugar to this and beat it thorough until you don’t see any lumps.

Separate 5 eggs at room temperature as whites and yellows. To do this, make a small hole on the top of the egg and pour out all the white and the yellow will stay inside the egg shell.

Add the yellow to the butter sugar mix and beat it slightly until they mix good.

Sift 250gm of unbleached All purpose flour. Yes sifting is important. Make sure you are not buying flour premixed with rising agents etc. This is the plain All purpose flour and unbleached. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to this flour and sift.

Now add this sifted flour in small quantities to the egg butter mix and beat it slow. You cannot use a hand mixer now, since the mix is going to be hard. So either use a stand mixer or use your hand. Incorporate the flour into the mix. After this add ¼ cup of fine sooji into this.

Now you can add the cold caramel. Beat the egg whites separate and add to the mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to the batter. Add one teaspoon of lemon essence and mix.

You are now ready to add the nuts and the fruits. Mix a little flour to the cashew nuts so that they dont sink to the bottom of the cake batter.

Fold the fruits and the nuts into the cake batter and mix with hand slowly.

Now keep aside this batter with a closed lid for 6 hours.

After that you can start baking. Either butter the cake pan or cut wax paper or parchment paper and use it inside the cake pan so the cake wont stick to the pan. What I do is, use butter or margarine and make spots inside the cake pan and then add the wax paper so it will stick to the pan and then pour in the batter

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and when ready, bake the cake. Make sure when you pour the batter, pour only half of the cake pan. Since the batter would rise while baking.

Bake it for on hour or so. Keep checking after 50 minutes by inserting a toothpick into the cake and if it comes clean with no batter, your cake is ready.

This cake needs to age. Yes, at least it would need to age for 2-3 days before you get the real taste. The process of aging is a must for these kind of cakes. So when the cake is real cold after baking, cover it in wax paper and aluminum foil and keep aside in an airtight container.

After 24 days of advent and midnight mass, we would reach home from the church and we all gather around the table for my mother to serve the cake. The cake keeps us kids busy while she heats the curries to break the fasting of 24 days. My mother bakes beautiful cakes in her small electric oven. It was round in shape and would look like a flying saucer especially when it is baking with small red lights. Anyone remembers that small electric oven?