Trip to Sakaleshpur

Wow!! It's been so long since I blogged. I'd really wanted to post on how I spent my christmas holidays, but as soon as the holidays were over, I became busy with never-ending assignments, projects and so on.
Anyway, better late than never. I enjoyed myself these Christmas holidays. Nada came down for a week. Most of my days were spent travelling, cooking, swimming, hanging out with cousins and simply lolling around. After many years, I got a chance to visit our family estate in Sakaleshpur, which is about 4 hours drive from Mangalore, including 1 hour on the Western Ghats. The ghats is a must-have experience. It is a series of sharp curves and turns, and the government makes the ride seem even more like a roller coaster by not repairing the roads.

It was fun on the estate, exploring the area. It was a sunday, so they were no workers around. Dad went on his own excursion, finding out which crop is yielding how much and all those business matters, and I and Umma went walking, looking at the plants, clicking snaps and trying to guess which fruit they yield. It is mainly a coffee and pepper estate, so we got to see a lot of pepper vines(oh, did you know they are actually climbers and not trees?) and coffee plants, both the arabica and robusta variety.

It is easy to differentiate the two. Coffee arabica looks bare with just a few leaves while Coffee robusta looks pretty with a lot of leaves.

Umma told me how she and her sisters used to eat the skin of the ripe seed and throw away the seed when they were small.

The coffee seeds are hand plucked,....

and dried under the sun.....

The husk(dried skin) is then removed,....

and sent to the factory for curing, that is for removing a very thin layer of skin and then roasting and grinding it.

Pepper was also a very interesting plant. First when I saw it I thought they were growing on trees.

But on looking closer, I realized that the pepper vines had actually coiled around the tall trees.

Man, they are really tall...

Dried pepper looks very pretty.

Then there were bananas, though they were still unripe.

Coconut palms...

papayas...

jack fruits...

The pumpkins were still in its flowering stage..

Wanna take a look at the traditional water heaters? Wood is heated under the pot in this pit...

and the upper region of the pot can be seen in the bathroom:

Let the pictures do rest of the talking..

Huh...turned out to be a very tiring day. We brought a couple of pumpkins home. And just in case you are wondering what the last pic is about, it is a butterfly sitting on a dried leaf...well camoflagued..the works of God are always perfect...:)

Jammie Bodgers

Yesterday, as I was struggling to keep my eyes open in the 2 hour math class, it suddenly began to rain. I say suddenly, 'coz it was totally unexpected at this time of the year.The sound of the pouring rain, alongside the lecturer's lecture sounded like  a lullaby to our ears- as a matter of fact, our lecturer mentioned this too. I had read that in India, the first shower always leaves the smell of fresh sweet mud.Well, this was not the first shower, probably it was the last shower of the year, but the smell of mud was overpowering. So much so that, I found myself taking deep breaths, enjoying the smell of mud, pure mud. It was one of the few days, when I was glad to be in India.

Rain has this power to refresh our mind. The water clears our mind and we feel energized.At the same time, it makes us lazy, and I could already see myself enjoying my coffee on my sofa, reading a book and enjoying the sound of the rain. And then I began to wonder, what should I prepare to go with my coffee? First I thought of preparing some tea cake, something spicy and flavourful. But then, that would be too typical. Then I decided to prepare some sizzling brownies(brownie a la mode). I felt that would be the perfect combination for a dark rainy evening(did someone say my mind works in a strange manner?). So the sizzling brownie was settled and I went back to solving my math problems and occasionally glancing at my watch.
When I came home, I realized we didn't have any ice-cream in the freezer and there was no way I could buy one at that time. So the brownie was forgotten and I got myself occupied with some other work. But now when I look back, I think these Jammie Bodgers would have been a lovely treat. I had prepared these about a week back. They are super easy, really quick and taste better than the store brought ones.

Jammie Bodgers
Makes about 15 large cookies
Ingredients:
Refined flour (maida): 2 cups
Frozen butter, chopped: 125 grams(I used refrigerated ones)
Caster sugar: ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon
Egg, lightly beaten: 1
Vanilla essence: 1 teaspoon

Filling:
Strawberry jam: 4-5 tablespoons(I used Kissan mixed fruit jam)
Unsalted butter, softened: 50 grams
Icing sugar: ½ cup

Method :
Sift the flour into a bowl and rub the butter with your fingertips. Add the
sugar, egg and vanilla essence and mix into a soft dough. Knead the dough
gently on a lightly floured surface until smooth.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease two baking trays.
Roll out the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface and cut into rounds with a two-and-a-half inch cutter. Re-roll the trimmings and cut into more rounds. You should get around thirty rounds.
Place fifteen rounds on a baking tray. With a small three-fourth inch heart-shaped cookie cutter cut out the centres of the remaining rounds. Place the cut-out rounds on the second baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven for about twelve minutes or until pale golden. Remove from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
For the filling, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Spread the butter cream evenly on the whole cookies. Spoon a little jam over the butter cream, place the cut-out cookies on top, pressing gently so that the jam fills the heart-shaped space.

Note:
I used a doughnut cutter for fifteen rounds and a cookie cutter of the same diameter for the remaining fifteen rounds. Also, I found it difficult to roll out the whole dough, so I took lemon-sized balls of the dough and rolled them out.Buttercream is used as an adhesive, so don't omit it.

Simple Beef Bolognaise Cannelloni

Having a sister a year elder to you is the best thing that can happen to anyone. She is your best friend when you need someone beside you. She is your teacher when you need help in your studies. She is your partner when you wanna do something your mom would never approve of. She is your counsellor when you need one. And once in a while, she becomes the villain who has come to destroy your life and hinder your freedom ;). Nada, I dedicate this post to you.
Last week Grandpa had come India. Nada had called me up and asked what should she sent for me through him. I told her I don't need anything...ok, i did ask her for some things, but what she sent me really moved me. She had sent me cannelloni shells and lasagna sheets, both of which I had been missing after coming to India. She had also sent me a couple of tart pans and muffin cups. Though I really wanted them, I hadn't asked Nada to sent them, and yet she sent them. That was ssooooo sweet of her. Nada, I LOVE YOU!!
I used the cannelloni shells to prepare beef cannelloni. I didn't follow any recipe. I simply tried to recreate the taste of the cannelloni served at Ponderosa-without ricotta cheese coz i hate ricotta cheese in my cannelloni. And I should say, I did a good job, but I am sure I could have done better with a little more planning. I filled the shells with beef in bechamel sauce and poured bolognaise sauce over the shells. I had placed the shells in one small and one large Pyrex dish. But the sauce managed to cover only the larger dish. I was in no mood to prepare more bolognaise sauce, so I used some store bought tomato sauce for the second dish. It turned out to be extremely tangy. But the next day, Voila! it tasted just like Ponderosa's.
Recently a new reality show named "Masterchef India" started airing on star plus. A couple of weeks back, on children's day, some kids were made to judge the dishes prepared by the chefs. Inspired by this format, my sisters decided to judge my cannelloni. So, as soon as I removed my cannelloni from the oven, my 2 younger sisters, my bro and 3 of my cousins, all of them seated themselves on the dining table and began to shout for food. I got 8s and 9s for my cannelloni...not bad,huh.?
In the following recipe, I have doubled the amount of bolognaise sauce. Feel free to experiment...

Ingredients:

For the meat filling:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups minced beef
1 large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp Italian seasoning, or to taste
2 tsp chilly flakes, or to taste
salt, to taste

For the bechamel sauce:
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
a pinch of nutmeg

For the bolognaise sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp chilly flakes
3 cups water
5 tbsp tomato sauce(optional)
salt, to taste

20 ready-to-cook cannelloni shells
200g cheddar cheese, grated
50g mozzarella cheese, grated

Method:
For meat filling:
Heat oil in a saucepan. Saute onion and garlic till onions begin to lose its colour. Add beef. I used some green chillies too. Saute till the beef is cooked. This might take some time. Add about 1/3 cup of water if needed, but remember, we need the filling to be dry. Add the seasoning and switch off the flame.
For bechamel sauce:
Heat butter in a sauce pan. Add the flour and saute till they combine well. Add all other ingredients. Bring it to a boil. Let it simmer till it becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour it into the meat filling and mix well.
For bolognaise sauce:
Blend the tomatoes in a food processor. Heat oil in a deep saucepan. Saute onions till they become transparent. Add all the other ingredients. Bring it to a boil. Adjust the seasoning and remove from flame.
To assemble:
Smother 1/4 cup bolognaise sauce into the Pyrex dish. Fill the meat into the cannelloni shells. You can use a teaspoon to fill them and use the opposite end of the spoon to push it in. However, I was more comfortable using my hands. That way , I can control the amount of meat the goes into my cannelloni. Remember, overfilled cannelloni don't taste good.
Place the filled cannelloni in the Pyrex dish. You can use 2 dishes if the don't fit into one. Do not place the shells one upon the other. Pour the bolognaise onto the shell. Top with the cheeses and bake at 200C for 30 minutes or till cheese become golden brown.

Eggless chocolate mousse-A sweet punch

This month's sweet punch challenge was a little hatke(different) from the usual ones. This month, we were given 3 recipes: tomato souffle, eggless chocolate mousse and a cholate mousse and asked to prepare any one of them. I prepared the eggless chocolate mousse. Not that I have a problem with raw eggs in my mousse, I just went for the eggless version since the recipe was from Nigella Lawson, a famous celebrity chef whom I have been following lately.
It was super easy, just melting the ingredients, folding in cream and refrigerating it. But as I always say, I can ruin even the best of the world's recipes. And that is exactly what I did. For starters, I burnt my chocolate. And then my cream refused to become creamy and looked more like milk. At the end, I was left with a chocolate sauce that tasted scrumplicious, but was nowhere close to a mousse. Without any hope left, I poured the "sauce" into induvidual serving bowls and refrigerated them. What I had after one hour was a dense, rich chocolate pudding close enough to be called a mousse.The next day, it tasted even better.

These are the things I am going to remember the next time I prepare this:
When melting, see to it that the marshmallows are placed in the bottom of the saucepan and the chocolate is at the top since marshmallows take the longest time to melt and since chocolate is sensitive to heat. Keep an eye on the chocolate while it is melting and don't go off to wash the dishes like I did. Use good-quality cream and not any old tin of cream lying in the pantry. Watch Nigella's videohere for more details. Mohammed enjoyed his mousse with Parle- G biscuits

Eggless Instant Chocolate Mousse:

Recipe Souce :Nigella Lawson via Ria's Collection
Serves: 7

Ingredients:
Mini marshamallows - 150 g (you can use regular marshmallows too)
Butter-50 g, softened
Chocolate- 250 g (I used a mix semi-sweet ), chopped into small pieces
Hot water-60 ml
Cream-284 ml
Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
Method:
In a heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the marshmallows,butter,chocolate and water together, stirring every now and then.
Meanwhile, whip the cream with vanilla until thick.
Fold it into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth mixture. ( I let the chocolate cool very well for the fear that the cream might melt.)
Pour into individual ramekins and let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour.