Saturday 29 October 2011
Even the most hands on mum needs a break sometimes. And much as I love my li'l girl, I do need a break after spending practically most days (and some nights) with her. So when I got a chance to head to the Rocky Mountain Wine and Food Festival, wild horses couldn't stop me from making sure I attended.
My date for the evening was the polished and debonair Marlow Moo from Mr Moo's Adventures and his human sidekick. Armed with our super cool plates and our handbooks, we hustled our way into the Shaw Conference Centre where the event was being held. The Rocky Mountain Wine and Food festival is one of the premier food and drink festivals in Canada, and takes place in Banff, Edmonton and Calgary. Showcasing some of the best in food and drink, both local and international, it is truly a feast in every sense of the word.
Of course, a food event is no event if you don't bump into other Edmonton foodies. We waved hello to Marianne from Loosen Your Belt, Rita from Kerstin's Chocolates and Maki from In My Element. Maki has some gorgeous photos of the festival on her site, well worth a drool.
Monday 24 October 2011
This is a strictly for-adults-only dessert! Deliciously decadent orange infused dark chocolate combines with whipped egg yolks and whipped cream to make this beautiful mousse. It is so unbelievably moreish that it disappeared before it even had a chance to set.
I came about this divine concoction from Jacques Pépin's collection of recipes. To celebrate the launch of his new book 'Essential Pépin', some of us bloggers were contacted to see if we would be interested in trying out his recipes. Was I ever interested? My interest levels went sky high once I caught a glimpse of his stunning looking mousse. Jacques uses cognac and plain dark chocolate in his recipe, but I decided to play about with the flavours and replace the plain chocolate with this gorgeous orange infused one from Ten Thousand Villages. It's also fair trade, so soothes my conscience along with my tastebuds.
And after I made this mousse, well, all I can say is Raymond Blanc (my usual French chef crush) you have serious competition from Monsieur Pépin!
I came about this divine concoction from Jacques Pépin's collection of recipes. To celebrate the launch of his new book 'Essential Pépin', some of us bloggers were contacted to see if we would be interested in trying out his recipes. Was I ever interested? My interest levels went sky high once I caught a glimpse of his stunning looking mousse. Jacques uses cognac and plain dark chocolate in his recipe, but I decided to play about with the flavours and replace the plain chocolate with this gorgeous orange infused one from Ten Thousand Villages. It's also fair trade, so soothes my conscience along with my tastebuds.
And after I made this mousse, well, all I can say is Raymond Blanc (my usual French chef crush) you have serious competition from Monsieur Pépin!
Friday 21 October 2011
This one's going to be a quick post. You know how I've been harping on about how I will give you my not-so-secret recipe for garam masala some day? Well, here it is.
Garam masala is the first blend of spices any Indian home cook makes. It is a spice blend that is used in practically most Indian dishes. The actual spices used to make it vary from household to household, and no two are alike. And yes, this does make pinning down the quantities and spices notoriously difficult. I use my nose to make this dish. I smell as I toast, and I know how much more of one spice and what other spices to add. Then I smell again, and add different spices. It's not the most scientific of methods, but it works for me. My usual way of making this involves the very easy 'throw a bit of this and that in' but I was finally pinned down to a recipe because I was teaching my first class on Indian food, and I actually had to hand over a recipe. So one day, armed with my nose, a few teaspoon measures and a notebook, I started 'Operation Write-Down-Garam-Masala-Recipe' And the result is here for you to enjoy.
As you know, there is nothing like the fragrance of fresh ground spices to make your food really outstanding. And that store bought mixes, while good, are not quite good enough if you fancy making Indian food on a regular basis, and fairly authentically. I almost always grind my own spices and make my own spice blends (there are exceptions, chaat masala, for example) but the majority of the time, the spice grinder is working overtime.
I tested my homemade versus store bought spice mix on my first batch of Indian cooking students. I snipped open a bag of store bought garam masala, and popped it into a bowl. I then quickly toasted and ground up my recipe for garam masala, and popped it into a bowl too. Passed round the two bowls, and I am not kidding when I say that the students were really shocked at the difference in the fragrances from those two bowls. The homemade garam masala won pretty unanimously.
So, I would love it if you tried out this recipe and tell me if you noticed a difference too. I can guarantee that once you've made your own spice mix, you will never go back to store bought ever again. The recipe below makes roughly ¾ cup of garam masala, but do feel free to increase the quantities if you want to make a bigger batch. The garam masala keeps well in a dark place away from direct sunlight, but as with most fresh ground spices, I would urge you to use it up within a few months to get the maximum flavour out of it.
Now if only those boffins who make our internet knew how to add a way to share fragrances on my blog with you, I'd be happy forever...!
Recipe:
2 star anise
1 tablespoon cassia
bark
1 teaspoon green
cardamoms
½ tablespoon whole black
peppercorns
2 pods black cardamom,
seeds only
½ tablespoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon mace
1 ½ tablespoons whole
coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon freshly grated
nutmeg
3 - 4 dried bay leaves
Method:
Heat a heavy based pan
until it is very hot.
Dry roast the whole
spices (except for the nutmeg), in the order listed (essentially, the heavier
spices first, then moving on to the more delicate ones) and remove to a bowl.
Let the spices cool
completely, then blend to a fine powder in a spice grinder or an old coffee
grinder. If the spices don't blend down completely, sieve them, and then blend
the coarse leftovers again.
Store in an airtight tin,
away from direct sunlight.
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Autumn is slowly turning into winter, as I write this post. The coats are all out now, and the sweaters are on. There is frost in the evenings, and the plants are all indoors, being dug up by one very naughty cat! The leaves are all a beautiful yellow, and some trees are so red, they look like they're on fire. Yes, autumn is beautiful in the prairies... and there are days when I totally understand why the colours of the city are green and gold. We have also been quite lucky with the weather being so beautiful for the past month, its been beautifully sunny, even when its crisp and cold. I can smell winter in the air, the gentle hint of woodsmoke, the tickling of the cold breezes... and the incessant chattering of a little girl who, in her words, 'can't wait for the snow to come so I can make snow angels'. Sigh!! I am so going to remind her of this when she's complaining about being cold when there's four feet of snow on the ground.
Rosemary from my garden
But while the weather makes its change, its time to bring out the big pots for soups and stews. Lucky for me, that Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes, who is hosting No Croutons Required this month, chose squash as the ingredient of the month. If there is one vegetable that embodies autumn, its squash, with its beautiful golden colours, and delicate sweetness that's the perfect foil for a hint of homemade garam masala (the recipe is coming next week, I promise, I've written it out and it just needs pictures... UPDATE: Its here, finally! ), and the smoky-sweet taste of roasted garlic. The rosemary adds another layer of complexity to this essentially simple and easy soup.Saturday 15 October 2011
When Choclette announced that this month's special ingredient for We Should Cocoa is Chilli, I don't think she quite meant for me to take it so literally :-)
But what can I say? The Mexicans love chocolate in their chili and so do we. I know the combination of chocolate in the savoury chili can seem a bit unusual, but its utterly delicious, and actually fairly common too. I first saw the idea for a chunky chili with dark chocolate in an old issue of Delicious Magazine. It was a while ago though, and for the life of me, I cannot recall whose recipe it was. I made a vegetarian version of it a few times, and its always gone down really well, particularly with Aditi. Normally I just use dark chocolate for this recipe, but this time I decided to be a little different. I used this gorgeous Lindt dark chocolate with chilli, which is absolutely divine by itself, but adds a further layer of delicious darkness to this chili.
Wednesday 12 October 2011
This is the best chhole masala I've ever made and eaten :-) Yes, I know that's an extravagant claim to be making, but I can confidently say it because I've been making chhole or chickpeas for a very long time. One of the reasons I've never posted this classic recipe, is because I've never been satisfied with the taste of my usual chhole and despite trying very hard, something always seemed to be missing. And despite trying out every combination of spices, it just didn't taste right.
The best chhole masala I've eaten was made by this Punjabi lady who sells Indian food in the Terrace farmer's market. Yes, you read that right. This is Terrace, British Columbia, Canada we're talking about. I've eaten all sorts of chhole + bhature (a leavened and deep fried bread) everywhere in India, but the yummiest one was made by this lady. Isn't it funny, how sometimes the best Indian food can be made by expats? Maybe its because they truly want a taste of home, wherever they are. So every Saturday in summer she sells it at the market, and every time I am there I go to her stall, buy some and then mutter away because I never can understand why mine doesn't taste like that. Then I get grumpy, bah humbug, because I hate failing at anything. I will try out something ten times if I don't get it right the first. You can just take a look at my kiwi ice cream travails, if you don't believe me.
Friday 7 October 2011
OK, I am going to start off this post with a request for a favour from all of you. If you haven't voted, please could you vote for me in the Babble list of Top 100 Mom Food Bloggers? I would really appreciate it, as I am kind of getting used to my top 5 status, and I don't want to lose it :-) You don't need to register, just click on this link and click 'I like this' beside my name. I am currently at 4, 5 or 6 by popularity, depending on if anyone has passed me!
Its been a good few days for me in many ways. Last week this blog was listed in Channel 4 Food's Best Family Food Blogs. I don't have to tell you how delighted I am, and the grin hasn't slipped off my face yet. I also found out later in the week that my first ever cookery class with Kathryn Joel from Get Cooking sold out. Wow! Plus of course I spent a beautiful day out with my family on Friday. We went to a free concert, then for a special lunch. All in all, a really lovely week. And it only seemed perfect to end it with this delicious Indian dessert!
Now, I have never been a 'planner'. While, I am fairly organised, I don't necessarily have an idea of what I am going to cook or make, usually going with what I feel like having that particular day. We normally eat very simply in the house. Good, healthy and easy homecooked food, Indian or otherwise. We don't even have strict mealtimes (except when the in-laws visit, of course) but I make sure we all get a balanced meal, or sometimes even two, depending on how early I've woken up :-)
Sunday 2 October 2011
We've had a weird year. So we have record snowfall all through winter, and I was pretty sure that there was no way that all that snow was going to melt away. I had morbid visions of throwing snowballs in the summer! And then, almost like magic, all that heavy snow just melted away, leaving us with a peek at the first spring shoots arriving everywhere. At first it was a beautiful spring, hot and sunny, which of course led us all to believe that it was going to be a gorgeous summer. Well, nature is not that kind, and it was a mixed bag of a summer. At first I felt like I hadn't left England, it was cold and wet and miserable, and I was seriously considering upping stakes and migrating back to India.
And then... that glorious month that was September gave me the summer my mind and body had been craving. I loved the fact that I could go out without bothering to take a jacket, and in the middle of the month Aditi and I even went for a couple out outdoor swims in the newly built and absolutely gorgeous Queen Elizabeth Pool. Even if it did get a bit cooler for a few days, I was still happy that I got to see Mr Sun, and top up my naturally existing tan :-)
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