Two minute pudding - Chocolate chip & salted caramel mug cake

This is all Nigella's fault.

It was pouring outside that night. Just out of the shower, I was snugly curled up in front of the laptop, writing the night away as usual. And as is always the case, writing makes me hungry. And being hungry makes me distracted.

I was absentmindedly browsing through FB when I came across Nigella Lawson's update about some warm chocolate pear pudding. That had me craving chocolate.

I wanted something chocolaty and I wanted something warm. And I needed it now. This is what I came up with. 

Ingredients 

• Handful of chocolate chips (I simply chopped up some cooking chocolate)
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons of milk
• 6 tablespoons of sugar (I used brown. I always use brown)
• 10 tablespoons of flour
• 3 tablespoons of butter (or 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil)
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• Few drops of vanilla
• 1 tablespoon of salted caramel (Optional. I have jars of this prepared in the fridge and I thought might as well add this for some extra moistness. Will give the recipe for this later)

(Word of warning - Don't take the quantities seriously since I could not bother measuring anything at all. These are all rough measurements just so that you may have an idea)

Method

• Chuck it all in, give it a good stir, whack it in a mug and pop it in the microwave.
• Microwave till it's no longer liquidy. 

Yes, really.

The result - ooey, gooey chocolaty goodness that is so good that you look around ridden with guilt as you are eating it. The vanilla cakey layer remains intact while once you dig in, the chocolate chips have melted just about right to give an oozing gooeyness from within. The salted caramel will have melted at this point and besides serving as a natural sauce, it will add a salty kick to the otherwise sweet and mellow mixture. Although when adding this, you need to be careful with the amount of sugar you are adding since all the sweet elements come together can end up making this dessert too sweet.  

Of course you can make it without the salted caramel if you don't have any at hand. Just add a bit more of chocolate chips, a drop or two more vanilla and you will have a perfectly oozy chocolate chip vanilla pudding. 

You can be posh and put this in ramekins as well. I suppose it would serve as a formidable dessert at a dinner party even. I do not own ramekins and I wasn't feeling too posh in my cosy old pajamas. Besides, a late night writing session is hardly an occasion. Hence the use of the oversized mug.  

Enough has been heard about mug cakes but I never got the chance to try one out. This really is a breeze. Even a lazy bum like myself can whip this up in a jiffy without batting an eyelid. Although you will probably be bouncing off the walls with the sugar rush after polishing this off like I was that night. I killed off one character in my novel and revived her again later on in the night. It's all Nigella's fault. 

Imagine - Rain is pattering on outside. Inside is cool and cosy with the winds bellowing about, making the curtains dance on the windows. You are nicely snuggled in, both feet up while digging into this warm and oozing pudding, probably dribbling chocolate and salted caramel off your chin. You are trying to lick the chocolate off the spoon but smears chocolate on your nose instead. Warm and sticky. Rain creates music outside. You softly drift away and lose yourself in the sensations.   

Don't look at me. Nigella did this. 

  

Wood apple seaweed jelly - From scratch!

First, let me do the victory dance.

You have to understand, as a person who cannot and will not follow a recipe to save her life, getting this jelly to set, in the way that it has set is quite an achievement. Instructions and I have never really got on very well. Rules for me, wave invitations in my face to smash them unrecognizable, bloody and splintered. I go by touch and feel. I trust my senses. They've served me well over the years.

However, I have been more disciplined than usual in this. When working with an ingredient that I haven't worked with before, I tend to take the guidelines into consideration to a certain extent. This is the first time that I've worked with natural seaweed jelly. And I must say, quantities are important.

 Picture taken from - http://anic-lohas.blogspot.com/2010/07/nutritious-food-1-seaweed-jelly-sea.html

.
The packeted seaweed jelly looks something like this. Only a little drier and more stringy. Sorry I couldn't take a photo before I used it


Ingredients 

• 50g seaweed jelly 
• 400ml water 
• Half a lime
• 2 large wood apples 
• Sugar to taste
• Pinch of salt

Method

To extract the jelly

• Soak the dried seaweed in water for about 2 hours. At the end of the two hours, the amount of seaweed will have doubled in size. 
• Wash the seaweed thoroughly. Remove any sand, pieces of shell and debris that may have been caught in it.
• Put the seaweed in a large vessel and add 400 ml water over it. The water should essentially cover the mass of seaweed. Add to it the juice of half a lime.
• Boil until the seaweed has dissolved in the water. There may still be bits and pieces left. 
• Strain the water with a soft, thin cloth. 

To make the wood apple puree

• Scrape off the wood apple and blitz it well in a blender/food processor with a bit of water. Be careful with the amount of water you add since the end result should be about one cup of puree. 
• Pass the mixture through a strainer to remove the seeds. The mixture should be thick and pulpy.

Final step; Make the jelly!!

• Mix the wood apple puree with sugar and salt to taste. Simmer the mixture over a low fire constantly stirring it until it is well boiled and the sugar has dissolved. 
• Add to this the prepared seaweed liquid. Mix well over a low fire. 
• Pour into individual molds or a flat tray and refrigerate until set. 

Et voila! Your jelly is served!

It tastes amazing! (if I may say so myself). It literally melts in the mouth and is surprisingly creamy, perhaps due to the pulpiness of the wood apple puree. It is tangy, sweet and fresh with just a hint of that earthy seaweed jelly. The seaweed jelly does not smell or taste like you would imagine. Yes, the first thought of seaweed for me is that fishy, yucky sticky smell that I simply cannot stand. But you'd be surprised at what this seaweed smells and tastes like. Familiar with the smell of new clay pots or the water that you drink out of new clay water pitchers? The seaweed smells and tastes exactly like that. A fresh sort of earthiness would be the word I guess. 

What's more, it's 100% natural! No artificial colors, flavors or preservative and whats even more important, YOU know what YOU put in there so it's guilt-free all the way! Oh and it's vegan too. Not that I ever intended it to be, but it is. 

You can also substitute the wood apple puree with any other fruit that you like. Passion fruit would make a delightfully fresh jelly I suppose. I shall try that next time. Mother Dearest also says that it also tastes delicious with milk or with jaggery and a bit of plums and cashews. (And she says all this after she calmly watches me fumbling around with pots, pans and sieves in the kitchen, running around like woman deranged) 

I also did some research by myself (curiosity being my biggest vice) and found that this particular seaweed is considered as a superfood. Apparently it's beneficial in many ways including being a rich source of collagen, vitamins, minerals (said to contain all 56 of minerals actually) and is even known as a cancer fighter. Pretty neat eh?

As if all that is not enough, apparently this seaweed can also be used in salads, soups, stir-fries and etc of all sorts as well. The problem is finding it. Once in a blue moon you find this in the supermarkets and when it is not there often times nobody even knows that such a thing exists. You should simply keep your eyes peeled at every visit to the supermarket. (If anyone knows where I can get my hands on some of these, please let me know)    

Granted that this jelly does involve a lot of work. Let's just say that I now know why jelly packets exist. 

But is the effort worth it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Definitely.  

Sun is out once again after a while and am I glad to see it. And this wood apple seaweed jelly would be the perfect evening treat to have seated outdoors in the garden to freshen up a warm, sunny day like this. (and dare I say it feel Christmassy again?) 

Rainy morning indulgence - Seeni sambol & egg toasties

Rainy day. Egg & seeni sambol toasties for breakfast. Yum!

The thing with seeni sambol is that once prepared, you can keep it for days. The thing with me is, I don't eat kiribath unless there is seeni sambol or fish ambul thiyal. So Mother Dearest always makes sure that there is extra on the rare occassion that she does make seeni sambol.

Today just happened to be one such day when we had some seeni sambol left over! So the decision was made. It shall be seeni sambol & egg toasties for breakfast today!

A delicious, yet simple treat. Practically child's play. Here's what you need.

Ingredients 

• Bread 
• Seeni sambol (can alternate with pol sambol and is equally yummy, if not more)
• Two eggs - One for each sandwich 
• Cheddar cheese (optional) 

Method 

1. Fry the eggs sunny side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave the yolks runny.

2. Layer the sandwich. Egg goes first on top of the slice of bread. Then goes the seeni sambol on top of the egg. Then give it a generous sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese. Close the sandwich with another slice of bread.

3. Pop it in a panini grill. If you don't have a panini grill, you can always heat up a skillet and pop it in that. The aim is to get both sides of the sandwich appropriately browned and crunchy and get the cheese inside melted and gooey. Do NOT pop it in a regular sandwich toaster. It will press the sandwich too hard and cause the egg yolk and melted cheese to fall from the sides. 

This sandwich literally sings in your mouth. The freshly toasted bread will be crisp and crunchy while the ooey-gooey center of half-set egg yolk and melted cheese will give you mouthgasms. The flavorsome sting of the seeni sambol will be cushioned by the mellow, cloudy taste of the runny egg yolk while the cheese will give the sandwich a milky, salty kick. Heaven.   

Finagle has a multigrain bread that I am absolutely in love with. That is what I have used in this sandwich. Me being gastritis prone cannot stomach refined wheat products in the mornings. So this multigrain bread has been  my lifesaver so far. You of course can use any type of bread you like; white bread, roast paan, kade paan, wholemeal bread, home baked, etc.

I love cheese. I want cheese in everything. The cheddar in this can be substituted with a good mozzarella if you can find some. Of course for those who do not like cheese or cheese is not readily available in the refrigerator, you can omit it altogether and it will be good to go anyway. Although, the thought of a sandwich without cheese appalls me. It would deprive this otherworldly sandwich of its coveted richness. But for those who like things spicy, extra seeni sambol without the cheese would be ideal.   

Pol sambol is a great alternative too and I personally prefer pol sambol to seeni sambol. I did not have any pol sambol at hand today. Hence the use of seeni sambol. I've noticed that these classic combos are made available at Panino as well. Good on them.

The trick is getting the eggs done just right. They should be firm enough to hold their shape but mushy enough to squirt once you bite in. When cooking the eggs, you must also give them some cooking leverage for the time it spends in the panini grill/the frying pan. This is the point where I always mess up. There is a danger of overcooking and under cooking the eggs. This morning they came out just right. 

Couldn't resist taking a bite before photographing it. I see the bite has served its purpose as well. You can just about see the gooey goodness sandwiched between those two slices of crispy bread. It can be a bit messy to eat but what the hell, all good things in life are indeed, messy ;) 

Chicken Pomodori melt - Panino

Can I just say that I absolutely love Panino?

It started as a mild infatuation, while I was searching for a substantial lunch at the Good Market. I'm not a huge rice fan and hence sad to say, the options were scarce, expensive and hardly sufficient.

That's when I came across Panino. I had one of their roast paan panini first (I believe it was a chicken pomodori melt) and I was hooked.

I have tried so many of their creations so far, the BBQ pulled chicken, the mushroom & cheese, the chicken burritos and etc, all of which had a unique identity of their own. While I absolutely loved some, others I generally liked and some I did not like (for example, the burritos has a little too much of rice and too little chicken in it which was not to my liking. However, the flavours were good) But today I shall rant and rave about the Chicken Pomodori melt that, hands down, tops the list for me.

I love, love, LOVE the chicken! Very well seasoned and dare I say, melt in the mouth? I love what they have done with the spinach there and that spread! Oh dear god, that spread! Whatever that spread is, it gives all the flavour that the panini needs. It coats the chicken, the spinach and whatever else is in that filling and perfectly balances it out. Would I have it seven days a week for lunch? Hell yeah!

Oh btw, I like my Chicken Pomodori in a wrap. Sure it costs Rs 50/- more but it sure is worth it.

Best part is, it's healthy. I'm bit of a health conscious person and like to watch what I put in my body. Because of this, it is somewhat difficult to find "snacks" for myself. Another reason why Panino is just about perfect for me. And I know this will sound weird but it tastes healthy too (probably it's the spinach. Shrug)

Not a huge fan of their drinks though. Prices are outrageous. For a bottle of thambili, they charge Rs 150/-. For a bottle of narang or ginger beer, its 250! I mean sure, I understand that the eco friendly glass bottling and everything costs, but as an actual food item, its way too overpriced for me. I did try their homemade ginger beer once out of curiosity. It was good, but would I pay Rs 250/- for it? No.

All in all, I'm happy. I found my go-to place for those little cravings. Sad part is I have to go all the way to the Cotton Collection to get my fix. Oh well......

Pasta - Sri Lankan style

Pasta. Essentially Italian. Essentially European. But like all things in Sri Lanka, we Sri Lankans like to make it our own.

Accepted that there are many ways of preparing this dish. Be it with a traditional Bolognese sauce, carbonara, amatriciana or etc, nothing beats the ways in which us Sri Lankans choose to serve the dish. The last time I saw it, it was being served with dhal & chicken curry in a roadside kade. Not too bad I must say.

Pasta is also an alternative for rice in a typical fried rice kind of situation. Toss together some finely sliced carrots, leeks, cabbage, onion with some garlic and ginger in a fiercely spiced stir fry, toss in your prepared pasta and some Knorr or Maggi chicken cubes for good measure et voila! You got yourself fried pasta!

I must confess that the above is a lazy dish that I myself like to make sometimes. We enjoy the fried pasta quite frequently at our household.

But being a lover of all things creamy, I love the special occasion pasta my mother makes, well, on special occasions. It is a combination of fresh cream (the Kotmale kind), bacon (or chicken. But bacon for some reason suits the recipe well), some veggies (onions, carrots, leeks & chopped up tomatoes. No cabbage please) and salt and pepper to taste. Garlic, ginger and onions are sauteed in a pan until golden to which bacon is added and fried till crisp. To this mixture, carrots cut into small cubes & leeks are added. A quick toss and an adequate sprinkling of salt and pepper later, the fresh cream is added and simmered till the mixture is slightly thick. To this mixture the pasta must be added. mix thoroughly and simmer for about 5 minutes and take it off the heat lest that the sauce will dry off. If a slightly more spicier version is required or even for a bit of a kick, add a bit of dried chili flakes, bit of parsley and load up on the black pepper.

If you're feeling a bit fancy, you can serve this with some Parmesan cheese which will add more creaminess to the dish. The veggies must be left slightly crunchy and not cooked all the way through so as to provide texture to an otherwise easy-on-the-teeth dish. The bacon provides a smoky, meaty salty kick whenever bitten into which contrasts heavily with the mellow creaminess of the sauce and the gentle passive taste of the pasta. The best type of pasta to use for this dish is the tubular kind (Penne, Rigatoni or other hollow shapes) as it holds the sauce better while the thickness of the sauce will hold all the other ingredients together.

......or you can just pour some leftover dhal or chicken curry over the pasta and wash it down with a sweetened plain tea. Simple and easy.

And there you have it, Pasta a la Sri Lankan!      

And here is my mother's creamy bacon pasta!

Street food fix - Isso roti/wadei

I was feeling hungry the other day (shock, gasp, yelp!) as I was going home after work, and anybody knowing the area would agree that there is not a single pastry shop/cafe/petti kade, etc to be found around there, the area being the bathroom central that it is (this part of Nawala is bombarded with shops selling bathroom fittings, tiles and the like. Whose bright idea it is to flock all bathroom shops in this place I do not know). However, as I started crossing the road and wait for my trusty office transport I notice this duwanagiriya by the side of the road willed with roti-like disks and what to my delight looked like isso wadei! Determined to get myself an isso wadei, I hastened towards it. On closer inspection I noticed that what looked like isso wadei was not the isso wadei that we know. Oh well, it had isso on it and looked flat like a wadei so I bought three of it. And almost missed Gamage transport in doing so as well! 

The man had hastily taken the wadei-like disks out of the hot oil and packed it up for me so it was quite hot when I took them out. As I opened up the parcel, a delicious aroma filled the van and I noticed out of the corner of my eye a few nosy aunties peeking in as well. It looked quite spicy (my palate has low tolerance for chilli) so I gingerly took a bite. And then, I was hooked.

Although it looked like a wadei, it was a small round roti, a combination of what I suspected was a hint of ground dhal, plenty of coconut, flour and a dash of Maldives fish here and there. It was topped by three scrawny looking prawns and was deep fried in oil. The seasoning was just perfect. Not disappointingly bland like some street food out there with a hint of chilli and the perfect amount of salt, just enough to bring out the flavour of the dhal and the coconut and of course, the scrawny prawns. Not too overpowering either so my palate was happy. The man had topped each disk with a dollop of curry (a thick sort of gravy like what you get with koththu) and a generous sprinkling of finely diced fresh onions and green chilli. It was indeed, a textural extravaganza. As you bite into the wadei/roti, at first you get the yielding softness of the roti followed by the tad bit harder shell of the prawn. Once you start munching on the mouthful, you are treated to the fresh crunch of the onions and the slight sting of the green chilli all blending with the overall mellowness of the rotti and the flavourfulness of the prawn. Gravies usually gross me out but the gravy that was added to this actually adds character to the whole food spectacle. It gives the very necessary streety-ness, that tastes-so-good-that-it-must-be-bad-ness to the whole thing, rounding it up in that special way that makes you hide your saiwar kade cravings from your mom. 

Will I buy from here again? Absolutely. Although I’m bit of a health nut and this is anything but healthy, (oozing with oil, complimented with mysterious condiments god-knows-how-old and kept at a dusty old open cart) I am quite fond of my street food. Yes, I’d definitely go back for more for my weekly street food fix. Want to try the big white roti that looked like godamba roti next time. Wonder what obscure delights he would be offering with that one!  

True that the picture does not look too alluring, but that's the beauty of street food ; they overdeliver and amazes you when it comes to the taste! I should also maybe add that these wadeis were hastily gobbled down after the picture :)

        

Quest for the perfect Boondi

................and I found it. At a wayward Duwanagiriya (a tiny box type boutique on wheels) in front of a duplicate Devon Restaurant in the heart of Polonnaruwa.

I have wasted a multitude of Rs 10/20/30s upon this quest over the years, but to no avail. Years of tongue colouring with various shades of outrageous dyes, suffering with the lingering chemical-ish tastes upon the tongue for weeks afterwards, yakking at the pungent oily aftertaste of boondi left on the shelves for too long, coated upon the tongue, seems that it all paid off. I've finally found the perfect boondi.

While Boondi is originally an Indian sweetmeat, us Sri Lankans, true to our nature have made it our own. The result is a blood red coloured, somewhat chemical-tasting overly sweet batter oozing with oil. While the result is not always pleasing, it sure is a good mood fixer. Girls and boys, if you are going through that moping period right after a bad breakup and feel the need to stuff your faces under the guise of stuffing that gaping hole in your heart (exaggeration people, exaggeration), boondi is your perfect fix.

Anyhow, while the Indian boondi is made out of chickpea flour, ours is made out of good ol pan piti (wheat flour). One reason being pan piti is much cheaper than chickpea flour and therefore it being more popular (in a nation where bread has become a staple, this comes as no wonder). While the Indian boondi is fried in ghee or vegetable oil, ours is fried in good ol pol thel (coconut oil). Once again, ghee and vegetable oil are a bit on the expensive side whereas we have plenty of coconut trees growing about! So why not Lankanize the boondi with our very own pol thel? Another difference between the Indian boondi and our is that while the syrup in which the Indian boondi is dunked in after frying is fragranced with a myriad of spices, our buggers just don't bother. In a way its a good thing. Makes our boondi taste a tad bit more raw and realistic.

Also, Indian boondi is of more mellow colours. Ours, like the people within this island is an intense and fiery red, passionate as blood and vivid as life itself. Indian boondi is small, dainty and droplet-like whereas ours are big and bold, large chunks of uncivilized looking pieces. Which does make all the difference in the world, texturally. Theirs is smooth and dainty, ours, coarse and a quite a mouthful. Bold is the word, just like our people.

However, this boondi is a cross between the Indian and the Sri Lankan. It was still warm and you can see it was fresh. Instead of sugar crystals forming on the outside of the pieces, the syrup has been absorbed well into it. When bitten into, the sweet juice just squirts into the mouth while the dough itself just melts between the syrup and the tongue. It was a boondi nicely done.

It was with great self-control that the above photo was taken. It was all I could do to keep myself from reaching out and empting the plate into the bottomless pit that is my stomach. So appreciate the effort please.