Vindu

We are buried under (almost) 1/2 foot snow here in the PNW. Work’s crazy I know, you must be thinking who the hell is working during the holidays!?! Oh, well. All good fun.

Some bullet points:

• We spent this Thanksgiving in NY. Well, that story is for some other day. 
• It feels great to blog and that too about food! 
• 80% of our gift picking and packing is done.
• Xmas tree is up in all its glory.
• Family will be coming to spend xmas with us … so looking forward.

Well, ’tis the season of baking. And this orange overdrive cake is just too awesome to pass up.  This is so good with that neat orange kick, its unbelievable. I know, you must be thinking I should not be judging my creation so I brought in a neutral observer – N. And guess what? My cake rocks! Ee haww!

Serves – 1  (If you are me… it wouldn’t even serve 1. It yields about 10 4×4 inch pieces)

–ingredients————————————

• Dates, chopped – 1 cup
• Orange juice, OJ  (I used Odwalla) – 1 cup
• Orange marmalade (I used smucker’s) – 4 tbsp (you can be very generous here)
• Salt- 1 tsp
• Eggs, whole – 2
• Brown sugar – 1 cup (you can add more to suit your taste)
• Whole wheat pastry flour – 1 cup
• All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
• Oil  – 1 tbsp
• 5 cloves – powdered
• Chopped nuts – 1/2 cup (I used pecans and walnuts)
• Spiced Rum – 2 tbsp
• Baking soda – 1 tsp

–procedure————————————–

1. Prepare dates:
1. Soak chopped dates in OJ. Keep aside (at least 30 mins)
2. Prepare nuts:
1. Soak nuts in the spiced rum. Keep aside (at least 30 mins)
3. Preheat the oven to 350F. 
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs until frothy, add oil and sugar and mix well.
5. Now add the flours, salt, baking soda.
6. Add the marmalade now.
7. Finally add the powdered cloves, soaked nuts and dates.
8. Bake until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

note: if you don’t want to use rum, use oj instead.

The cake had so much going on – the rind from the marmalade, the dates and the nuts and an overall orangy taste. Super!

Here is a nice, relaxing, cool drink for summer time.  I was researching about antioxidants the past few days and here is the net net: Tea is your best bet.  Green tea/white tea even better.  Berries are rich sources too but they are seasonal. Cocoa is good too(they say its the best).. but only if consumed dark to benefit from the antioxidants.  So going with the calorie vs. antioxidants ratio, tea is your best bet.

source: thenibble.com

–ingredients—————————————

• Orange Pekoe tea powder – 1 tsp
• Ginger – 1/2 tsp
• Cloves – 6 (adjust according to your palate)
• Honey – 1 tsp

–procedure—————————————-

1. Boil 1.5 cups of water in a kettle with the tea powder.
2. Place the cloves and ginger in a cup, pour the boiling water and cover the cup.
3. Let it steep for 3 mins and filter into a cup.
4. Mix in the honey and serve cold.

Tah Dah!

-Mythili

N had a little headache today.  He made himself a cup of tea – instant relief to headaches. This was his first time(making his own tea that is) and I had to “click” it.

Chaya, Chai, Tea.

Cardamom + ginger + Tea leaves + milk = A taste of heaven (It seems. I never had milk tea .. err I kinda get nauseous. Go figure! I love my tea without milk.)

Betel leaf needs no introduction. It has immense traditional significance in the Hindu household. Tambulam, an accompaniment of a piece of new cloth, fruits and betel leaves, is distributed to married women and young girls on all auspicious days. It possesses medicinal properties and is widely used in Ayurvedam. Because of these medicinal properties it is used as a natural mouth freshner. It also aids digestion and which is why we will also talk about chewing “paan”.

Chewing betel leaf Aka “Paan”

“Paan” is a celebrity. Betel leaf is “the” main ingredient of “Paan”. Along with betel leaf, “paan” has a wide variety of ingredients some of which are slaked lime, kattha powder (extract of the Catechu tree; sometimes this kattha is in liquid form), saunf, chopped betel/areca nuts, cardamom, certain type of “paan” spices for that extra kick, coconut (for meeta pan = sweet pan) and tobacco(hazardous to health of course).  GM2 (father’s mom) used to chew “paan” until recently. During those days we used all gather around after every meal so we could get one too. The crimson tinge caused by the slaked lime was by far the most exciting part of chewing “paan”. Sometimes my father used to get the professional meeta paan(sweet paan) from the “paan vendor”. Ah ! those days. And .. and how can one forget my Mr. Amitabh in the song “Khaike Paan Banaraswaala” from the movie Don? Yes, songs have been written, movies have been made and you’d get the feeling that “paan” is actually a celebrity in the Indian household and oh yes, it is . “Paan vending” is a serious industry back in India and supports many a household. An average “paan” is priced anywhere between 3 INR – 10 INR. Then there are celebrity “paans” that are over 100 INR.

My mom’s grandmom (mom’s father’s mom) used to chew “paan” and I heard that my ammamma (mom’s mom/GM1) also used to chew betel leaves.  She used to have something called a “paan daan”. Meaning a box to store all the ingredients for “paan”.  This “paan daan” is at least 100 years old and I will get some photos the next time I visit India. There is, however, a portable version of this “paan daan”. My GM1 gave it to me when I was in 6th grade and I have been guarding it ever since. Family heirlooms such as this are precious treasures.  I got it with me this time(see below). I made a “paan” for N with some of the ingredients that I have as shown below.

Let me explain the compartments: The bottom one (in the photo) is the middle compartment, and it holds either tobacco or areca nuts. The middle one is the top compartment which also has the lid with some holes. This compartment is used to hold kattha powder and the holes ease sprinkling. The top one (closer to the leaf) is the bottom compartment and it holds slaked lime.  So there is your compact “paan daan” (see below).

How I made “Paan” : Take one betel leaf. Spread about a pinch of slaked lime and kattha powder. Add some betel nuts, saunf (not shown in the picture) and cardamom seeds and its ready for prime time.

Enjoy!

Dear Readers,

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !!! Hope you had loads of fun.  We are settled in the new apartment and hopefully I will be more regular with my posts. This year we got a Christmas tree – an artificial one to start with.  It was great waking up to open all those presents under the tree the morn of Christmas.

Decked Up !!!

My First Christmas Tree

 And ’tis also the season of baking, I baked Archana’s fruitcake, Vaishali’s nankatai and also these cookies.  After baking the fruitcake, I wanted to do something with the left over orange zest – like 2 tsp .  And my fingers were itching to bake something else

Cinnamon-Hershey Cookies

Makes around 35 cookies

–ingredients——————————-

• All purpose flour – 1.75 cups
• Hershey Milk Chocolate bar with almonds – 1 (41 grams)
• Cinnamon – 1.5 tsp
• Butter - 3 quarters of a cup
• Orange zest – 2 tsp
• Sugar - 3 quarters of a cup
• Egg yolks – 2
• Salt – 1/4 tsp

 –procedure——————————–

• Break the Hershey bar into tiny pieces and keep them aside.
• In a bowl, mix butter, sugar, orange zest, salt and cinnamon. With an electric mixer beat for 5 mins until it becomes frothy.
• Add the egg yolks to the above and beat for 2 more mins.
• Then add the flour and the beaten hershey pieces until well incorporated.
• The warmth will melt the chocolate chips and it will result in a brown colored mass.
• Take small balls of the dough and press to a cookie with your hands.

Cookies ready to go in to the oven

• Line a baking tree with parchment paper and arrange the cookies with sufficient gap in between.
• Preheat oven to 350 F.
• Bake the cookies until the edges become dark brown.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Yummy !!

Notes:

@  If you don’t have Hershey’s available, use 30 gms of molten chocolate (milk or dark according to your taste) and add crushed roasted almonds.

@ You can also roll the dough out and use cookie cutters of your desired shape.

@ Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

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We decided to vist the nearby waterfalls yesterday afternoon. After opening the presents, we were pretty much bored to sit at home. 

Snoqualmie Falls – Snoqualmie, WA