Eggless butter biscuits!

This has been a long time coming.

I cannot bake without eggs. Let me rephrase that. I couldn't even IMAGINE baking without eggs. But I had to, a challenge that I reluctantly accepted because of a vegetarian friend (no, not one of those hipster vegans who are vegans cz it's cool to be vegan, a kind that I absolutely hate but a real, true vegetarian). It turned out great! The recipe *drumroll* unrolls.

Ingredients

• 250g butter
• 400g flour
• 100g (or as per taste) icing sugar
• 100g cornflour
• Few drops of vanilla essence 
• Mixed ground spices (optional) 

Method

- Sift together flour and cornflour.
- Beat together butter and icing sugar until well combined.
- Add the flour mix to the butter mixture. Add a few drops of vanilla and a few spoonfuls of spice. Mix well.
- Cover in clingfilm or plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
- Flatten with a rolling pin (about 1/2 cm thick) and cut into desired shapes.
- Bake till golden brown in colour.


The result is buttery, crunchy and deeply gratifying. The nose is immediately taken over by the sweet vanilla first, giving out that particular smell that spells of home, hearth and love. For me, this is the smell of beautiful afternoons of teatime goodies and simply, happiness. The first bite registers the butter and then the sweetness of sugar with a thin lacing of spice that is faint but is very much there. The warm notes of vanilla embraces the entirety of the mouthful leaving your senses enveloped in a beautiful vanilla cloud. Convaincu, one can only sigh in sheer pleasure while reaching for another and then, yet another.

I made it plain this time since I did not want to complicate the dish as I was already freaking out due to the absence of eggs (yeah, I'm not kidding). Well, what do you know, baking without eggs IS possible after all!

You can add peanuts, cashews and whatever additions you want to make the cookies yummier or you can just make it buttery and biscuity plain. I added a pinch of spice (I love spices and love spices in everything) so that you can just about sense a faint whiff of cinnamon as you munch on these. The perfect teatime treat!

I shall now make a confession. I make cookies so that I can eat the batter. There. You can now imagine where about half of the cookie batter went.

  

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. 

  

The Kade Fried-rice

Often spelt in baffling ways in numerous boards and wayward menus by the side of the road, I gotta admit, this brilliant mixture of rice, vegies, an alarming amount of MSG and other unnamed ingredients is something that I will never get tired of. Its fascinating how the taste of the dish differs from one restaurant/joint/wayside cafe to the other. From fine dining restaurants to the wayward duwanagiriya or a makeshift umbrella stall by the side of the road, almost every place serves this hybrid oddity that we refer to as the fried rice. However, my favourite fried rice of all time belongs to the one that is brought from a boutique a little more than a petti kade near my place. Its only second to the one that is made by Mother Dearest at home, the thought of which makes me go glazed-eyed with longing. Sigh...........

At home, its a pleasant a mixture of fried carrots, onions, cabbage, leeks, at times some spring onion and eggs mixed together with a rice of your choice. In these humble boutiques, its a whole different story. Whatever that is leftover from the lunch service is added into this mixture, along with a generous ladling of whatever leftover gravy and voila! Your fried rice is served! And the result I must say, is mindblowing. Most of the time anyway.

However, the taste is not consistent all the time. I suppose the flavour depends upon whatever is the curry that is leftover from lunch. Oh well........

The best fried rice is moist and flavoursome, the worst, dry and insipid. The well to do restaurants use basmati rice (which is a tad too dry for my taste) while at these charming boutiques, the rice used is the usual humble samba rice or the polished white rice. The said amazing fried rice that we get from the kade nearby is made with the humble samba rice and I often find onion peels, whole cloves of unpeeled garlic and other inedible knickknacks within the rice. But I suppose that too contributes to the taste.

A popular accompaniment to the fried rice is the chilli paste, usually loaded with MSG, chilli flakes and sometimes, even tomato ketchup. Tomato ketchup makes appearences in various forms on the fried rice. Sometimes whole dollops of it in the "chicken devil" (devilled chicken or the chicken stir-fry), in the chilli paste or on the rice, as it is.

Whatever the origins of the infamous fried rice maybe ( I suspect its of Chinese origin) it has made its way amongst the Sri Lankan fast food/street food staples. The very Sri Lankan way in which its spelt at various places, even the most remote nooks and corners of the country proves its point. I remember the times that "fried rice" was considered a treat in my household. A special occasion calls for a special fried rice as opposed to the everyday rice and curry. Now it has become a lazy rice that we whip up/purchase from the restaurants when time is a luxury in itself. How the times have changed!

Anyways, my recipe for the coveted fried rice is easy. Keep it easy, keep it simple. Sautee some minced garlic and ginger together in a oiled pan (as less oil as possible, preferably olive oil) add sliced onions and sautee it together until golden with the garlic and the ginger. Next, add to it the vegies, but if I'm adding mushrooms (a personal favourite that adds a certain earthiness to the dish!) add it in first and let sautee till the water evaporates. Next add to it the sliced leeks, cabbage, carrot & spring onion and mix together with salt and pepper to taste, along with whatever fried egg or chicken or both I've prepared as well as the pre-cooked rice and voila! Dinner is served!

Image credits - http://srilankanfoodrecipe.blogspot.com/2010/04/vegetarian-fried-rice.html

 





   

CHOGM baking

Since most Colombo roads are closed and there is no way of getting around Colombo without the risk of being CHOGMed from time to time, I stayed at home and baked! And made a point to photograph the outcomes :)

I have my own grandiose ideas about brownies. They need to be rich to the point of being sinful, thick to the point of being a mouthful and simply ooooooooozing with chocolate. Having tried almost all the brownies that are in the market these days, none of it actually come up to my expectations. What I find in the market are these sorry excuses of brownies that come in thin, anorexic slivers that have no richness or depth of flavour whatsoever, but the prices, phew! Exorbitant! So I bake my own :)

 

Chocolate chip cookies, a childhood delicasy that came in round tin boxes which were also a rarity. They always came around during Christmas and it only seemed right that I bake some when the December breeze was just starting to bring about that Christmassy warmth about our homesteads. My idea of chocolate chip cookies is a LARGE, rich, moist vanilla cookie that explodes in the mouth with loud bursts of chocolate that literary gives you goosebumps. I attempt to recreate the idea. And to some extent, I was succesful. Above is the proof.

Last but not the least, my father's personal favourite, the butter cookie. Beautifully caramelized on top (I make it a point to not let the sugar dissolve in the batter entirely), these buttery, milky delight has been a favourite of the household from time immemorial. Idea passed down from Mother Dearest to myself. Me being the rebel has made a few changes and out came these one Friday afternoon :)

Ah baking. It has always been a stress reliever. That feeling you get once some ridiculous idea that you've formulated inside your head comes out from the oven, that adrenaline rush you get when you turn a cake over or take the first scorching bite off a dish is just incomparable. I remember the time when in the heat of exams or assignment deadlines, I would put aside everything else and just bake, knead all my frustration, fury and disappointment, sometimes even the sadness away. The outcomes had always been so sunny and cheerful. Instant gratification, results guaranteed.

For the love of baking <3