Marmalade Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is a comforting childhood dessert for most of us, no matter which part of the world you may be from...Very easy to put together, with minimal ingredients that are there in any home. More often than not, I find myself putting together a bread pudding when there are loads of leftover bread in the fridge. This recipe, however, has a nice twist to the traditional one, with the marmalade used as a topping for the bread. Try it out and you won't be disappointed! Having tried this, a little voice in my head was whispering about getting more creative next time and using even Nutella or other types of jams...do try it and let me know! Please note that after making this a couple of times, now I just eyeball the measurements but whatever I threw into the mix, the end result was always delectable!

Adapted from the Delia Smith website

    The What

1. 4 tablespoons orange marmalade
2. 6 to 8 slices white bread, with crusts left on (number of slices will depend on your baking pan)
3. 1 cup (or more) milk
4. Half cup (more or less) fresh cream (I used Amul fresh cream)
5. 50 g softened butter
6. 2 to 3 eggs
7. 5 tablespoons sugar (but adjust to taste)
8. 1 to 2 tablespoons demerara sugar

     The How

• Preheat the oven to 180 C.
• Butter the base of your pan.
• Make a bread and butter sandwich first:
• Spread the butter on all the bread slices.
• Spread the marmalade on top of the buttered side of half the slices (if you have 6, then spread marmalade on 3 of them).
• Place the marmalade-sided slices on top of the buttered-sided slices.
• Spread butter on the top side of the sandwich.
• Cut each into a triangle shape (or square).
• Arrange these slices, butter side up, overlapping each other and slightly erect.
• Combine the milk, cream, sugar, eggs, in a bowl and pour this all over the slices.
• Let it rest for about 10 minutes.
• Sprinkle the demarara sugar on top.
• Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes (it will puff up really golden and crisp).
• Serve warm with fresh cream or just as it is.

TIPS
Adding some vanilla extract to the milk mixture is an option.
Also adding some orange zest or candied peel is mentioned in the recipe, but I didn't.

Linking this to the event Kid's Delight, hosted this month by Pradnya at her blog The Pumpkin Farm, originally hosted by Srivalli at Spice Your Life.

Until next time, ciao!

Book Review-Southern Flavours by Chandra Padmanabhan

I’m excited to be writing my very first book review on this blog. Blog Adda sent me this book last week and I’m proud to be one of the 20 bloggers that have been selected in India to review this book, Southern Flavours, by the award winning Chandra Padmanabhan. I love this initiative of Blog Adda. Along with the book, there was also a note from the founder, Nirav Sanghavi, as well as a bookmark, which I thought was a nice personal touch. I love reading and collecting cookbooks-almost 98% of them being gifts from my dad and the one book which is my touchstone being the one handwritten by my mom. Still, I’m sure this will be a book I refer to quite often in the years to come!

Before you go into the review, let me first answer the most basic question that should be answered in any book review-Should you buy the book? Well, I would wholeheartedly recommend this to all of you, vegetarian foodies as well as nonvegetarians (because as we nonvegetarians know only too well, “you gotta eat your veggies!!!!)”. Anyone from any part of India, not just South India, but anyone with a curiosity and love for good food would love this book. It is reasonably priced at Rs. 599 and comes in a sturdy hardbound edition from Westland Publishers.

Christmas Jam Drops and Stars

Wishing all my dear friends and readers and bloggers a merry Christmas! May the joy and warmth of the season fill your hearts and homes!

During this time of the year, the blogosphere abounds with recipes for rich plum cakes and wines and other home-made delicacies, with bloggers generously sharing family recipes and secrets that have brought much joy to them over the years. My family always believed in celebrating festivals irrespective of religion. I received a beautiful Hamlyn illustrated children's bible from my parents for my 6th birthday, so I grew up knowing and loving Christmas for everything it stood for.My childhood Christmas memories involved decorating the manger, the Christmas tree, and my mom roasting a turkey or chicken and of course, the mandatory wine and cake!  There's this lovely rice wine that my mom makes, which I have personally never made, but hopefully will feature on this blog some day...I decided to feature for Christmas these simple and easy-to-make jam drops, which children absolutely love. I baked these for the Christmas potluck party at the school I work at and it was a hit not just with the kids, but my colleagues too! This recipe is from a book called "Grandmas's Quick and Thrifty Cookbook" published by Reader's Digest, gifted to me by my dad and mom. My dad has this lovely habit of  buying books, cookbooks as well as general knowledge and novels "abridged-version" books, from the Reader's Digest catalogues, from as long as I can remember! As a result of this, I have an enviable collection of recipe books, all of which are real treasuretroves. I will be sharing more of these recipes as and when I cook/bake from them...

Baked Falafel (Chickpea Cutlets)

This recipe hits a double jackpot-one, its baked rather than fried and two, chickpeas kick up the protein quotient, especially if you're a vegetarian or have kids who you want to get some protein into, the tasty way!


Falafel is a very popular Mediterranean snack, usually deep fried. It is so popular that in Egypt, McDonalds has even introduced a McFalafel! I got this recipe from Prabha aunty, who is a gifted homemaker, having a warm, lovely house with a very inviting ambience to it. She obviously has a green thumb as there is a beautiful garden full of non-flowering plants (cacti, mostly). She is also a culinary expert, going by the taste of these cutlets that she made (and also the pineapple cookies that she had baked the morning that we visited her). I immediately mentally filed this away as the perfect savory snack for my son to take to school. I may have made some modifications in it from what she said. So far, I've made it twice or thrice already, freezing it in batches. I just happened to bake it one day and it came out perfectly browned and crisp, with just a drop of oil on both sides! Here's the recipe now-

Banana Nutella Mini Muffins

Anyone who has been reading my blog over the last few posts must be now nodding their heads and thinking, "this lady really has gone bonkers over Nutella". Oh well, not that I can defend myself against that! I've been reading so many recipes for Nutella cupcakes, most involving only 3 ingredients-Nutella, flour, and an egg. I was wondering how they will rise up without the mandatory baking powder or baking soda and while I do admit that it is a problem with these recipes (at least for me), it does not in any way detract from the taste of these mini-beauties. I have adapted this from here. 

For this, I just whipped up all the ingredients in the Nutella jar itself! Of course, it had just the right amount of Nutella remaining-so I thought why mix it up in another bowl when I can make sure every drop of Nutella is utilized this way-scraping it off would have left some precious chocolate back in the jar anyway. These were baked for my son to take to school this week-as I mentioned before, I usually bake a batch of cookies, cupcakes or freeze a dozen cutlets/nuggets on Sundays, to be used during the following week. So I am filing this away in my Toddler Treats Section, although now I know it byheart as I've baked these twice already :-).

Before I go into the recipe, I'm happy to say I've been presented with the Leibster Blog Award-that too by the only novelist in my family-Dan Smith. In German, "Leibster" means "sweet, kind, nice, beloved, endearing"...you get the drift! And the award is given to encourage new and upcoming blogs that have a following of less than 200. Thanks, Dan!

A word about Dan- he has already written many books, of which Dry Season, was shortlisted for the Author's Club Best First Novel and the Brit Writers Award. Here's to more books from him-you can read his blog here. I'm passing on this award to one of my best friends Emreen who blogs at Liven Things Up and also to the very talented Panjami Anand who writes the most thoughtful and lovely poetry over at Rumination Amidst Solitude. She has recently brought out an ebook of her poetry (which you can buy at her site).


These are the rules of the award:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you. 

2. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

3. Award it to your five favorite bloggers and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Doesn't this call for a celebration with a sweet treat? Here's the recipe now!

Nutella Butter Cookies-Pinwheel and Stuffed Paradise!

This is one of the few times when I really really wish a photograph could bring you the real taste, aroma, and texture of the food I blog about. These cookies are the absolute best of any cookie I've baked so far, and I've tried quite a few recipes over the years-everything from magazines, blogs, to the cookie recipe on the back of the Wilton cookie cutter set-but this one beats them all hands down! Its from one of my favorite bloggers, Shaheen of The Purple Foodie (see original recipe here). I also used some tips from another blogger I like, Magpie, who had baked these and blogged about it here. After a long weekend break, getting back to work also required making a fresh batch of sweet and savory snacks for my son to take to school and this was something I knew would be just right for him. But don't fool yourself into thinking this is just for kids (even though I'm adding it to my Toddler Treats section). Everybody who loves butter and Nutella will find this irresistible! You'll find the original recipe below, with my modifications in brackets, and further tips below that.

Citrusy Fresh Orange Cake

Update: This recipe was chosen on Haley's popular blog as the "Sweet Recipe I Can't Wait To Try" for the event #53, first week of November 2011. Thanks Haley for the sweet thumbsup!

This is a cake that I had first baked for my husband's birthday a few years ago (since he's not a fan of chocolate, I obviously couldn't bake any of my favorite chocolate cakes!). This recipe has been a keeper ever since! I baked it again a few days ago, this time adding some Nutella as an extra topping. Whether you choose to have this cake on its own (without any topping or glaze) or use the orange glaze or add an extra topping like chocolate syrup, Nutella, vanilla icecream, whipped cream, etc., you can be sure you'll get a perfect blend of flavors with the soft and moist citrusy orange cake. Its perfect for any occasion or just as a treat to make your everyday teatime special. Sadly, I have not noted down the original source of the recipe, so can't attribute any here, but if any of you know, please let me know and I'll be happy to update with it!

Caramel Cake with Butterscotch Icing

This is the cake I baked for my dad's birthday a few days ago. We had an amazing time at home with my aunts and uncles and cousins, having a blast! Everyone loved this cake, especially my mom's sister, Geetha aunty, a culinary expert herself who still whips up mouthwatering dishes that are part of my fond childhood memories. Nowadays, when anyone asks me for recipes, I always refer them to this blog and airily say "check my blog/I'll post it on my blog"! So when she asked for this recipe, I promised to put it up here in no time-and so here it is-a surefire way to bake a decadently delicious, rich and moist buttery caramelly cake that will take your heart away!

Happy Diwali-with a deliciously rich Carrot-Dates-Cashew Kheer!

Wishing all my readers a very happy Diwali-May "the festival of lights" light up your life and bring much needed joy and positive energy to the whole world!

There are so many different sweets that are traditionally made for Diwali. One of the more commonplace ingredients is carrots-this is made into halwa and and burfi and kheer and whatnot....My recipe here is one my mom gave me a few years ago and which is always slurped up and finished in no time whenever I make it...Here's the recipe, which can be made in no time!

Snow Pea (Avara) Stir-fry Kerala Style

This is one vegetable that has so many different names! In Kerala, it is commonly called "avara", in Tamil Nadu its called "amarakkai", in English it is known as snow pea/mangetout/broad beans. I'm not even sure if this is 100% accurate, but based on my superficial Internet research, I have to leave it at that. It is one of my favorite vegetables, while also having the dubious honor of being the one I very rarely get right! You know there are some dishes that only your mom can get right and no matter how hard you try, you can never match up to how she makes it? Know what I'm talking about, right? For this, I find it  quite tricky knowing just when to take it off the flame, since it cooks quickly, but it's also very delicious, healthy and elegant in its simplicity. Just a few basic ingredients thrown together give this simple vegetable a lovely flavor...So here's how my mom makes it!

Free Download-100 Yummy Diwali Sweet Recipes E-book from Indus Ladies!

I'm so thrilled to announce that one of my recipes has been selected to be included in the Indus Ladies Diwali sweets ebook. If you read my previous post, you'll know that I had submitted 6 recipes to the contest. Now I'm even more happy to say that the ebook is now available for free download on Indus Ladies website, so now all of you have a ready reckoner for all your Diwali sweets. Just refer this one book which are tried and tested and trusted recipes from food bloggers around the world! I'm so proud to have my name and my blog included along with the best. This is surely a milestone in my blogging journey that I will remember fondly in the years to come...

Psst...the recipe from my blog that got selected is on page 187...Choconut Swirls-my son's favorite!

Just click here for the free download, which will take you the Indus Ladies forum page. Scroll down a little and you will find the link for the ebook. Just in case, here's the link again:

                                                             

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/announcements/148569-free-download-100-yummy-diwali.html

Super-delicious entries to the "100 Yummy Diwali Sweet Recipes E-book"-Free from Indus Ladies!

Indus Ladies is one of the most popular forums for Indian women across the globe. This Diwali, stay tuned to this space for an announcement to download an e-book that they are compiling of 100 delicious recipes for Diwali treats, all from bloggers around the world! If you are a blogger, you can submit your entries to partners@indusladies.com (today is the last date, by the way! Trust me to do everything at the last minute!!). For more details, check out the announcement here at the Indus Ladies forum. But here are the details anyway:

"For the upcoming Diwali on October 26th, 2011, we at Indusladies are compiling an E-Book called “100 Yummy Diwali SweetRecipes”. We are collecting sweet/dessert recipes from various bloggers to be featured in this E-Book.


This E-book will be made available as a free download to our community’s 1.3 Lakh+ members. In addition, we will also be making this E-Book available to our 9000+ Facebook fans and Twitter followers. It’s LOTS and LOTS of exposure to those food blogs entering the E-Book!! We believe this would be a nice way to get the word out about a wonderful blog to the entire membership of IndusLadies!!


Those bloggers interested in submitting a recipe for this E-Book…all you need to do is as follows:
1. Send a link from your blog for a sweet /dessert recipe. It should also include the picture of the sweet/dessert. Your recipe, food picture, recipe URL as well as the entire blog URL will get featured in the E-Book.
2. In return, we need you to do two things: -
- Now make a blog post in your blog announcing the E-Book compilation by IndusLadies and the recipe you are sending for this E-Book. That way inviting your co-bloggers interested to send in their contribution by Oct 10th,2011.
- Between Oct 11 and Oct 26, make a blog post featuring the E-Book and announcing it is available for FREE download in IndusLadies. We will be providing you sooner with the picture of the E-Book’s cover page that you will use to include in this blog post.
Any blogger interested can send their entry to partners@indusladies.com by October 8th."

These are my entries to the event. I am sure these will be loved by both kids and grownups alike!
Khubani-Ka-Meetha (Stewed Apricots)

Shahi Tukra-The Royal Indian Bread Pudding

Peanut Ladoo

Choco-Nut Swirls

Chocolate Fudge

Biscuit Brownies

Pan-Fried Fish Surprise!

I was thinking of recipes to submit to this month's The Kerala Kitchen event, which is one of the most popular events of the blogosphere, with recipes collected and showcased every month from different bloggers at The Kerala Kitchen blog. A few months ago, I had won the  "Best Dish" award for my Pressure Cooker Fish Preserve.  Going through the Kerala Kitchen blog now, I was pleased as punch to see that I had been included in the hallowed list of members of the blog! So I get to flaunt a special badge showing off my membership (see right side panel here). Of course, I had to celebrate and participate this month for sure! Browsing through my folder of photographs of dishes yet to be blogged, I came across this fish fry recipe which is a family favorite. This is something my mom makes frequently for dinner and goes perfectly with rice, bread, or chapathi. Why is it a "surprise", you might ask? Because it is remarkably simple to make and is perfect for those nights when you want to rustle up something tasty and healthy and satisfying really quickly (in about 30 minutes). Here's how to do it!

Choco-Nut Swirls (and diamonds and hearts and stars!)

One of the advantages of having a one-hour commute from home to my place of work (looking at the brighter side of things) is that I get time to either read my backlog of books or browse a whole lot of blogs and sites...In this, a book, my phone, and Google Reader are my best friends! Towards the end of the week, I'm usually trawling the net for recipes to make for my son to take to school the following week, for his evening snack time. I bookmark them on the spot and then make them during the weekend, my trusted phone by my side...Those that my son loves, I blog about and those that he doesn't, get deleted :-)...Obviously, he enjoyed these and even my parents and friends found it delicious.

I was looking for ways to include more nuts into his diet as he doesn't like them raw (normally I sneak almond powder into his dosa batter or make sweet dishes incorporating nuts). This recipe is wonderful for including them in your toddler's diet. Of course, I'm filing it under my Toddler Treats collection and I have Archana Vivek to thank for this, from whose blog I found it. Check out the recipe at My Culinary Endeavours. I have modified it a little by:


1. Using a mixture of cashew nuts and almonds, while Archana used cashew nuts (she, in turn, had modified it from the original by using cashew nuts instead of coconut powder!).
2. I also made it into different shapes using cookie cutters, just to make it more attractive for my son (while the original is shaped like a roll, which I also tried).


So this recipe seems to be evolving and now its your turn to work your magic and make it your own! On to the recipe now!

A Marvelous Mother's Recipe Marble Cake!

Before I divulge the recipe, a bit of a background to this post-a couple of months ago, I was selected as the "Notable Newbie" of the week by BlogAdda, India's largest directory of blogs (across all genres). Today, I was on cloud nine when I was informed that this blog has made it to the list of "100 Notable Newbies Wall of Fame", which was a list of the best 100 blogs which were just over a year old, chosen from thousands over the past one year! You can read about it here and here. I have taken some screenshots which you can see at the end of this (just to be recorded for posterity!!).


Now, I just had to celebrate with a post featuring something sweet, so here's a recipe for a delicious cake that keeps the promise made on this blog-to give you recipes that are healthy, easy, and tasty! There are a gazillion recipes for marble cake, but this one was given to me by my mother, so it is even more special to me and a keeper for sure. She used to bake this often for us when we were kids and recently, I made it myself for the very first time. The occasion was when we went on a leisure trip to the beach from the school where I work. My colleagues gobbled this down in no time! There were a bunch of kids too along with us (my own as well as my friends') and it was a hit with them too. I believe a major reason this cake turned out even more yummy was because my son played a major role in making it! Yes, he's all of 2 years and 4 months, but already shows a passion for cooking and baking (I kid you not!). He can spend any amount of time with me in the kitchen, seated on the countertop (a habit since he was 9 months old). Of course, he has demands which he is very vocal about. He wants to mix and knead and pour and peel and wipe and clean (and lately, cut also) and I let him do whatever I feel is safe because I'm raising a 'New Age Man', you see...one day, his wife is going to thank me....ha ha! For this cake, he mixed the batter himself (see pic below) and I'm sure he has magic in his hands too :-D