Showing posts with label SWEETS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SWEETS. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 6, 2024
Armenia's Christianity Influenced Sweets
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Marzipan and India
(This article first appeared in the 25th December 2022 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/which-came-first-marzipan-or-kaju-katli-ponder-this-as-you-savour-some-desi-flavours-of-the-popular-christmas-sweet-this-festive-season/article66281369.ece/amp/)
Wednesday, November 24, 2021
Baklava Battle: Mezaya Vs Yemmek
Monday, April 5, 2021
Barfi Recipe: This Orange Barfi Comes With A Rich, Nutty Surprise
Thursday, November 26, 2020
High on Pie
A symbol of today’s American holiday of Thanksgiving, the sweet Thanksgiving pie is a must have. We crash the party with a selection of the best iterations available in the city.
By Raul Dias
Pumpkin Pie from Milanda Jagtiani
This super-traditional seven inch Thanksgiving special pumpkin pie is as all American as it can get! Even the pumpkin puree and spice blend that goes into an all-butter shortcrust pie base is imported in from the US by its creator Milanda Jagtiani, who is famous as one of Bollywood's top go-to patissiers and party caterers. What we liked most about this not-too-sweet pie is that unmistakable pumpkin and nutmeg flavour and the luscious French whipped cream that’s piped on top of it.
Price: Rs.2,700
Contact: 9821045881
Thanksgiving Trio from Pies from Pie & co.
"Why settle for one Thanksgiving pie when you can have three?" We asked ourselves, as we called for the mini, four inch sized (left to right in pic) pecan-caramel, hazelnut-chocolate and custard-toffee trio of special Thanksgiving pies from Chef Aditi Goel of the recently launched Pie & co. Ensconced in an extra-buttery shortcrust pastry shell, each of the three try to outdo the others, with the custard-toffee one stealing the show with its creamy taste and beautiful lattice top decoration.
Price: Rs.1,000 (hamper of three)
Contact: 7208755043
Coffee and Chocolate Pie from Sofitel Mumbai BKC
Rich and dark, with the heady aroma of freshly ground coffee beans melding with that of Belgian chocolate ganache, this 1kg Thanksgiving pie is all things decadent. Even the shortcrust pastry base is imbued with cocoa powder. While even more chocolate in the form of couverture spheres top the pie off, along with edible nasturtium flowers. Sofitel Mumbai BKC also has two more Thanksgiving pies on offer: honey pecan (see recipe) and a classic apple and cherry pie.
Price: Rs.1,500 ++
Contact: 9167391130
Pistachio, Cranberry and White Chocolate Pie from Kookie Cake Crumble
A modern riff on a Thanksgiving pie, still retaining the autumnal flavours of cranberry, this eight inch white chocolate pie by Swheta Mutreja Aggarwal of Kookie Cake Crumble is a treat to behold. Smooth and creamy Sicilian pistachio paste meets chewy cranberry bits and white chocolate ganache in a crispy and crumbly shortcrust pastry base to create edible magic. We also have our eye on their pumpkin and Lotus Biscoff pie for next time!
Price: Rs. 1,800
Contact: 9819844013
Recipe
Honey Pecan Pie
Recipe by Chef Rajat Sachdev, Sofitel Mumbai BKC
A. For sweet shortcrust pastry
Ingredients:
1,500 gms flour
500 gms icing sugar
1,000 gms butter
4 eggs
Method:
Mix the butter, sugar and eggs well by hand.
Fold the flour in and mix to make a dough.
Set aside and keep in the refrigerator to cool for approximately 4 to 6 hours.
Once chilled, roll out the dough while keep the thickness at about 4mm.
Align the dough into a desired pie tin and put in the oven to bake for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius.
Now your pre-baked pie is ready.
B. For honey-pecan filling
Ingredients:
1,000 gms sugar
625 ml cream
652 ml honey
825 gms unsalted butter
500 gms crushed pecan nuts (and a few left whole for decorating)
500 gms powdered almonds
12 eggs
5 ml vanilla essence
Method:
Heat the sugar, cream and honey together at 114 degrees Celsius. Once combined, set aside to cool.
Mix the powdered almonds with crushed pecan nuts and add this to the earlier mixture.
Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, pour in the vanilla essence and add this to the above mixture.
Take this mixture and pour it into the pre-baked pie mould and bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes.
Once done, arrange a few pecan nuts over the pie and bake for another 5 minutes.
After removing it from the oven, let the pie cool at room temperature for at least an hour or two before de-moulding and serving.
(An edited version of this review appeared in the 26th November 2020 issue of the Mid-Day newspaper, India on page 14 https://m.mid-day.com/articles/high-on-pie/23109240)
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Goan ‘tar’ for Easter’s kuswar!
Edging
out cutesy chocolate bunnies and marzipan eggs from our Goan Easter table is
always dodol—the true kuswar star
By Raul Dias
Growing up in a bi-cultural Goan-Anglo Indian home in
the early 90s, almost everything, culturally speaking, was neatly divvied up
between the two vastly different Christian communities. While Christmas was
always spent in frosty Jaipur with my mum’s family, tucking into Nan’s
brandy-spiked plum pudding and gossamer-light, deep-fried rose cookies, Easter in
Goa was a whole other affair.
The night before Maundy Thursday, my father would pile us all into his trusted old Amby, as mum would neatly pack chicken sandwiches, a mighty quiche Lorraine and a giant thermos flask of iced nimbu paani in the picnic hamper. All this as sustenance for the then 14-hour-long, overnight tryst with the Western Ghats, en route to four days of Easter feasting in our tiny village of Cavelossim that hugs the River Sal in South Goa’s Salcette region.
The night before Maundy Thursday, my father would pile us all into his trusted old Amby, as mum would neatly pack chicken sandwiches, a mighty quiche Lorraine and a giant thermos flask of iced nimbu paani in the picnic hamper. All this as sustenance for the then 14-hour-long, overnight tryst with the Western Ghats, en route to four days of Easter feasting in our tiny village of Cavelossim that hugs the River Sal in South Goa’s Salcette region.
Loving
Indulgence
While our large family home did have a fully functioning ‘western-style’ kitchen, it was the coconut husk-fired outdoor stove that my late grand aunt Flory and matriarch of the house, preferred cooking over. Here, she would toil for hours on end over the cinder-spewing flame, churning out one edible masterpiece after the other. Never once complaining about the soot as it coated her spectacle’s bifocal lenses with a thin layer of grey soot. Nor did she mind my grubby little hands reaching into a thali of cooling ‘tar’ for a cheeky taste test.
Now, among the vast pantheon of Goa’s hallowed Easter kuswar (sweets) platter, ‘tar’ was always my favourite, thanks to its gooey, messy texture and earthy taste. Not to mention its oil-slick, jet black hue. It was also Tia Flory’s most demanded treat to us all. Never a fan of those luridly coloured marzipan Easter eggs with thick splodges of royal icing covering them or those waxy-tasting chocolate renditions of bunnies, my preferences were more local Goan sweets. Much to Tia Flory’s delight. And so indulge me, she did!
While our large family home did have a fully functioning ‘western-style’ kitchen, it was the coconut husk-fired outdoor stove that my late grand aunt Flory and matriarch of the house, preferred cooking over. Here, she would toil for hours on end over the cinder-spewing flame, churning out one edible masterpiece after the other. Never once complaining about the soot as it coated her spectacle’s bifocal lenses with a thin layer of grey soot. Nor did she mind my grubby little hands reaching into a thali of cooling ‘tar’ for a cheeky taste test.
Now, among the vast pantheon of Goa’s hallowed Easter kuswar (sweets) platter, ‘tar’ was always my favourite, thanks to its gooey, messy texture and earthy taste. Not to mention its oil-slick, jet black hue. It was also Tia Flory’s most demanded treat to us all. Never a fan of those luridly coloured marzipan Easter eggs with thick splodges of royal icing covering them or those waxy-tasting chocolate renditions of bunnies, my preferences were more local Goan sweets. Much to Tia Flory’s delight. And so indulge me, she did!
Onomatopoeia
on a Thali
Even though it has a perfectly onomatopoeic name, the kind that rolls off one’s tongue just as smoothly as its silken texture does, dodol has always been ‘tar’ for me. It is also known to be referred to as black halwa by my posse of pals who seem to magically apparate into my dining room whenever mum sends over a thali of dodol, after carefully replicating Tia Flory’s original (and much guarded!) recipe.
Brought over to Goa from West Java by the Portuguese, it’s not surprising that I’ve encountered several iterations of dodol on my travels around South East Asia. But particularly in Indonesia. Commonly served during Eid, it is called jenang in the Javanese language, with even a local durian dodol available that is popular in the city of Medan. Closer home in Sri Lanka, it can be found in two versions: kalu dodol that’s made with kithul palm (caryota urens) jaggery and kiri dodol made with milk and cinnamon.
Even though it has a perfectly onomatopoeic name, the kind that rolls off one’s tongue just as smoothly as its silken texture does, dodol has always been ‘tar’ for me. It is also known to be referred to as black halwa by my posse of pals who seem to magically apparate into my dining room whenever mum sends over a thali of dodol, after carefully replicating Tia Flory’s original (and much guarded!) recipe.
Brought over to Goa from West Java by the Portuguese, it’s not surprising that I’ve encountered several iterations of dodol on my travels around South East Asia. But particularly in Indonesia. Commonly served during Eid, it is called jenang in the Javanese language, with even a local durian dodol available that is popular in the city of Medan. Closer home in Sri Lanka, it can be found in two versions: kalu dodol that’s made with kithul palm (caryota urens) jaggery and kiri dodol made with milk and cinnamon.
Bubble,
Bubble Toil and Trouble!
But my earliest memories of dodol will always lie in those humid pre-Easter, March-April days in the Goa of my childhood. Carefully scraping a coconut on the kantonem to ensure that its milky white flesh bore no flecks of brown, Tia Flory would then introduce the scrapings to a fistful of soaked rice. Both soon to be ground to a thick pulp on the typically Goan rough granite mortar and pestle called a fator, which literally means stone.
The secret to its inky black colour, I’d soon learn, was thanks to the black jaggery. The kind that’s sold in the shape of tiny pyramids in Goa’s food markets. Made from the sap of the coconut palm, this madachem god jaggery was the de facto sweetener-cum-colourant of dodol, though Tia Flory did throw in a wad of the regular yellow jaggery for a bit of additional heft.
But the real action always began with the onset of the laborious hour-long stirring process. It was only when the lubricating ghee was added to the mixture that the real alchemy unfolded. Akin to a smouldering volcano, the by-now deep brown viscous liquid would bubble up. Every now and then its surface erupting with blisters of molten yumminess.
However, only when it had cooled down hours later, did it take on a shiny black colouring. Loathe to ruin its appearance with a garnish of any kind—despite protestations from other aunts who demanded cashew nut garnishes and other frivolities—Tia Flory would leave it as it was. Letting it revel in its firm, yet jellified countenance and sensual taste that bore hints of a molasse-y depth, coupled with top notes of toffee-like sweetness and that all-important additive—love!
But my earliest memories of dodol will always lie in those humid pre-Easter, March-April days in the Goa of my childhood. Carefully scraping a coconut on the kantonem to ensure that its milky white flesh bore no flecks of brown, Tia Flory would then introduce the scrapings to a fistful of soaked rice. Both soon to be ground to a thick pulp on the typically Goan rough granite mortar and pestle called a fator, which literally means stone.
The secret to its inky black colour, I’d soon learn, was thanks to the black jaggery. The kind that’s sold in the shape of tiny pyramids in Goa’s food markets. Made from the sap of the coconut palm, this madachem god jaggery was the de facto sweetener-cum-colourant of dodol, though Tia Flory did throw in a wad of the regular yellow jaggery for a bit of additional heft.
But the real action always began with the onset of the laborious hour-long stirring process. It was only when the lubricating ghee was added to the mixture that the real alchemy unfolded. Akin to a smouldering volcano, the by-now deep brown viscous liquid would bubble up. Every now and then its surface erupting with blisters of molten yumminess.
However, only when it had cooled down hours later, did it take on a shiny black colouring. Loathe to ruin its appearance with a garnish of any kind—despite protestations from other aunts who demanded cashew nut garnishes and other frivolities—Tia Flory would leave it as it was. Letting it revel in its firm, yet jellified countenance and sensual taste that bore hints of a molasse-y depth, coupled with top notes of toffee-like sweetness and that all-important additive—love!
SUNDAY RECIPE
Goa Dodol
(Recipe courtesy, Ann Dias)
Goa Dodol
(Recipe courtesy, Ann Dias)
INGREDIENTS:
Coconut (scraped)1
Black Goa jaggery 250 gms
Regular yellow jaggery 50 gms
Ghee 2 tbsp
Rice (soaked) 4 tbsp
Chopped cashew nuts 10 gms (optional)
Coconut (scraped)1
Black Goa jaggery 250 gms
Regular yellow jaggery 50 gms
Ghee 2 tbsp
Rice (soaked) 4 tbsp
Chopped cashew nuts 10 gms (optional)
METHOD:
1. In a mixer, grind the scraped coconut and soaked rice together with a splash of water.
2. Reserve both the thick and thin extracts of the coconut-rice mixture and set aside separately.
3. In a heavy bottom kadhai, combine the thin extract and the two kinds of jaggery and cook on a medium to high flame, stirring continuously.
4. Once the mixture solidifies a bit, add the thick extract and the ghee. Keep stirring till the mixture turns a dark brown, almost black shade and till it leaves the sides of the kadhai.
5. Pour the mixture onto a greased thali and top with chopped cashew nuts, if desired.
6. Once cooled to room temperature, cut into squares or diamond shapes with a greased knife.
1. In a mixer, grind the scraped coconut and soaked rice together with a splash of water.
2. Reserve both the thick and thin extracts of the coconut-rice mixture and set aside separately.
3. In a heavy bottom kadhai, combine the thin extract and the two kinds of jaggery and cook on a medium to high flame, stirring continuously.
4. Once the mixture solidifies a bit, add the thick extract and the ghee. Keep stirring till the mixture turns a dark brown, almost black shade and till it leaves the sides of the kadhai.
5. Pour the mixture onto a greased thali and top with chopped cashew nuts, if desired.
6. Once cooled to room temperature, cut into squares or diamond shapes with a greased knife.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)