Chocolate cupcakes with Salted Caramel Chocolate Ganache

“Johnny, Johnny
Yes, papa,
Eating sugar?
No, papa
Telling lies?
No, papa
Open your mouth
Ha! ha! Ha!”

It’s my dad’s birthday today!

Yup, while the whole of America celebrates their Independence Day, we, the Chauhan family, celebrate my dad’s birthday.

My dad’s name is Johnny. It’s actually Jasvinder. Johnny’s the name that his course mates gave him. I can totally imagine my dad as the boy in the rhyme. He was a chubby kid, lost weight during his NDA days, but then put it back on, later in his life and weighs quite a lot these days. (Don’t worry Papa, I am not telling anyone how much you weigh)

Its not that he doesn’t exercise. Oh! Poor thing! he exercises and tries so hard, but like me, he has this love affair with food that he just can’t break. Unlike me, though, he doesn’t snack, but, when he eats his meals, the portions are pretty big. The main damage though, happens when he is invited to someone’s house for dinner. He is every hostess’ dream- he will for sure be going for seconds and as a result ends up putting on weight!

He loves food. Loves trying out new stuff. If its raining outside, he will always tell my Mom, wishfully, to make pakodas (fried Indian goodness and of course,fattening!)

He also needs something sweet after every meal. Its his way to know that the meal is over.

This time when I was in India, I taught him how to use the bread machine. So, these days he loves making his own bread, and then eating it too!

I have never seen my dad sick (touch wood!)- barring this one time when he had a slight fever and cold (and of course when he had his ejection). Seeing him unwell I had tears- I guess one always thinks of their dad’s as invincible and don’t realize they too are normal human beings.

And of course, like any daughter, I think my dad is the best (no offense to everyone else’s dad). I’m of course, biased but had I been an outside spectator and a judge of my dad as a dad he would have got top marks for the job he does!

You tell my dad that something is to be done, even if you just mention it casually to him, and though you might forget, he for sure would remember and do it for you. Something he gets from his father. My grandfather is a really efficient man and so is my Dad. Every wish of ours has always been their command.

He has always given me whatever I have asked for, and remarkably, not making me a spoilt kid in the process. He, along with my mother, has kept both my brother and me grounded and I will always be thankful to them for that!

I am really proud of him. Hope one day I can give him the same feeling too- of being proud of me!

He is my guide, my mentor, and my hero.

Happy birthday, papa.

Wish you many many more healthy ones!

This one’s for you!

Celebrating 100 posts with Avocado & Lemon cupcakes!

Hurrah!

Why, you ask?

Well, just because!

I haven’t used this word in ages and felt like using it today. I feel that “Hurrah” has been replaced by the shorter “Yay” or “hooray” (at least in my dictionary) and I hardly hear people saying “Hurrah!” like how Hurrah should be said! I feel bad for the word! So, I thought I would use it today.

Hmmm..

Ok, I am not that random!

Really! I am not.

Well, ok, sometimes I am. But not this time.

This time I actually have a reason to shout out Hurrah- because I am celebrating!

Celebrating what, you ask?

Well, I’m glad you asked!

(If you didn’t, I’ll just continue talking to myself and assume you are listening.)

I am celebrating three things!

June Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Baklava!

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge.  Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Like always, I completed this challenge last minute. And since it was last minute, it was hurried, done with zero patience- thanks to the heat, and sans key ingredients that would have made a whole lot of difference to the end result.

By now, I am pretty sure you would have guessed that my challenge outcome wasn’t too great! I goofed up with the syrup as I was too lazy to measure anything for it and just made it with approximations resulting in less syrup to soak all the baklava. Also, I skimped on the butter – which I think resulted in slightly harder and drier sheet layers. The filling did not have pistachios (because I did not have any and forgot to pick them up on my last trip to the store), which I feel, would have definitely added to the flavors in the filling. The phyllo dough though was pretty easy to roll out thin, barring a few sheets that did get tears- but Erica said that’s ok as long as the top layer doesn’t have any holes.

It wasn’t too bad either. But, I don’t think I’ll be trying my hand at Baklava in the near future. This is my second not-so-great attempt at Baklava. The first one was almost a year back but that time I had used store bought phyllo. The Baklava then didn’t turn out too great. This time too the results were just average. Oh! How I crave for the baklavas I had during my Dubai trip!

Yellowstone and my Superpower(s)

I have a superpower!

Or is it supposed to be superpowers and the term “superpower” is used only for a country?

But what if I have a single superpowers/superpower (?!), then also would it be called superpowers?

Well, for now, lets say I have a superpowers-nope doesn’t sound right, then let’s say I have a superpower- nope doesn’t sound right either, what if I just use extraordinary ability-yeah I guess that will sound better,so  lets just say I have an extraordinary power. And with great power comes great responsibilities (Ok! I couldn’t help using this line- it just flows when one talks about superpowers!)

So, I think I might be exhibiting a mild form of precognition.

Ok! I might be jumping the gun here but what if I have- won’t it be so cool! Oh the possibilities! (For the uninitiated who do not know what precognition is do check this out to know how cool having such a superpower(s) is!)

Anywho, the reason why I “believe” that I have a mild form of precognition is as such:

Recently we went for a vacation to Yellowstone (and that is why I have been MIA from the blogging scene). On our flight back from Bozeman, Montana to Salt Lake City, Utah I asked V what happens if lightning strikes a plane. And, V was like it shouldn’t affect the plane too much and then the discussion went to me trying to show off my vast knowledge on lightning, talking about ground to cloud lightning and blah blah blah..snore. Anyway, this discussion would have been irrelevant had it not been for the spooky turn of events that happened once we reached Salt Lake City, our layover destination.

We were supposed to catch our connecting flight to Phoenix from Salt Lake City. But once we reached SLC, we found our flight to Phx was cancelled because, and here is the spooky part- it was struck by lightning. Yeah I know spooky, right?

Nope? Well, the only reason you did not find it spooky is because I did not tell it right- if I had the story telling power of Steven Speilberg this incident had all the making of a Sci-fi movie- yup, I do live in my own dream world- don’t we all?

Apart from the excitement of the revelation of my superpower(s) (!), the overall trip to Yellowstone was great. I would definitely recommend a visit there if you live in US or even if you don’t, try visit the place- its breathtakingly beautiful! (And if you do, take me along- now that I have precognition powers I’ll prove real handy!:))

For now I leave you with pictures of our trip.

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

It’s that time of the month again- the Secret recipe Club time. Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’ started this fun club as a way to try other recipes and help introduce bloggers to each others’ blogs. Every month, each member is assigned another member’s blog and he/she has to try and post about a recipe from that person’s blog. My assigned blog for this month was Heather’s Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks.

Heather has a great blog with a lovely collection of recipes. She is a special education teacher and loves reading and of course, cooking. Occasionally she also posts reviews of the books she reads as part of her book club. Though she likes cooking, but baking is where her heart lies, much like me. So it had to be a baking recipe of hers that I decided to give a try.

I haven’t made bread for the longest time ever- been too lazy- not too lazy to make bread but extremely lazy to clean up after the baking is done. I hate that part of doing anything in the kitchen. I do not mind the cooking or baking but hate the utensils that pile up after I cook or bake, and that makes me lazy to make anything. And, being careless as I am, I make a whole lot of mess in the kitchen while I am at it, so the clean up just puts me off before even starting. But Heather’s Jalapeno Cheddar bread caught my eye and I knew this was what I wanted to make. So out with the lazy bones.

The only change I made to Heather’s recipe is that I substituted a part of the bread flour with whole wheat and reduced the cheese used to 1 cup instead of 1 1/2 cups (I love cheese but sadly, my waist and hips don’t)

Cherry Clafoutis

So today V and I got locked out of our house. I hate these automatic locks. You have to be so careful when you step out of the house for even a second. And, when you are not careful, then you are stuck outside, hoping and praying that accidentally some window has been left open. Now our bathroom window was open- yay! or wait no yay!. The window was way up and we tried getting in through that, but couldn’t. We checked for any other window that was unlocked and luckily our bedroom window was open (now yay!). V was able to get in through that and once he was in, he let me in. Never thought I would be breaking in my own house. Like I said, I hate these automatic locks.

Now, for the last two weeks Foodgawker and TasteSpotting have been full of people posting about cherry clafoutis: a classic french country dessert. I have never eaten clafoutis before, but after seeing so many pictures and people raving about it, I wanted to give it a try. I also wanted to get rid off the cherries in the fridge. So for Office Thursdays I decided to make it.

The verdict: Its quite an easy dessert to make, if you already have pitted cherries. I did not, so the pitting took a little effort, though traditionally, the french leave the pits in, saying that they impart an almond flavor when baked within the custard, something no authentic clafoutis should be deprived of. But, I did not want people at V’s office accidentally breaking a tooth biting into the pits, so I pitted the cherries. As for the baked dessert- I did not care too much for it. I should have known that I would not like it even before making it because everyone said it tastes like custard and well, I am not a big fan of custard- in fact I do not like custard at all.

For an unbiased opinion I turned to V and asked what he thought of it and he liked it since he likes custard as well. But then his opinion isn’t completely unbiased. He never says he doesn’t like anything I make, which makes it really difficult to know what tastes good and what doesn’t. Anyway, it was polished off by his colleagues in office, so I am assuming it wasn’t that bad after all. But, as for making it again- I do not think I will be baking this until I try the real thing to know how it actually tastes and how close I was to the original thing.

Garam Masala Tuesdays: Missi Roti

Last week I did not post on GMT. Not that I had no recipe. In fact I had cooked three different Indian dishes that could have potentially been blogged about. But, I was not able to take any pictures. And, then I sprained my ankle and could not cook for a while, thus, taking a break from cooking and blogging. But, I am back this week with Garam Masala Tuesdays (I know I am posting this a day late on a Wednesday but I could not post yesterday as I do not practice BUI- Blogging Under Influence- yes! it’s a term..well, actually I just made that up but I do think there should be such a term and I do think it is not safe to BUI- you never know what secrets come out!)

Anyway, yesterday, we installed Indian channels. Its been a year we have been here and we hadn’t subscribed to them earlier because I was never a fan of Hindi serials- they all start off well and then drag on, and I could never follow or understand them. So, we thought it might be pointless paying so much for these channels. But, for the last one month we had been contemplating giving these channels a chance. So yesterday when the guy installed the dish and I switched on the TV to a bollywood number on our TV, I was nostalgic like crazy. And there I was. On my sofa. A tear in my eye. Nope these weren’t tears of happiness. But me, missing my home, my country, my people, missing the senseless lyrics of Bollywood songs, the colorful dresses, the bargaining for a Rs.10 (20 ¢) hairband, the food, the crowded streets, the blaring music, the non stop horns for no reason- I started missing it all.

There are  a lot of things wrong with my country. I am aware. But, like every mother who knows his kid isn’t the perfect one and still loves him/her nonetheless, I love India. The country is imperfectly perfect for me. And like every mother who is away from her child, I too ache to be back in my own country. No matter how comfortable life is here in the US and the independence I have in running my house the way I like, I miss the crazy life of India. I really do. I have never been a person happy away from India. I experienced the same feeling when I stayed in Moscow for two years. I did enjoy myself there too but there was a part of me that craved India, and that craving in me is alive, now and always.

Another thing I miss about India, a feeling that I have bandied about on the blog before, is the food. And thanks to the small town we stay in I miss eating Indian food in restaurants or from roadside vendors even more! So, recently, when our friends from phoenix were over, we went to Tucson and had dinner at this Indian restaurant- Sher-e-Punjab and it was pretty good. Some of the dishes had seasoning issues but the flavors were bang on target for most dishes. (All ten of us, though, are pretty convinced that there was some mistake with our bill because we ordered a ton of things and the total came to be very affordable, bordering around the lines of really cheap food, especially since its Indian)

The one thing that all of us loved at Sher-e-Punjab were the missi rotis (an indian flatbread), served with butter. Even though some people had stuck to their usual order of rotis and naans, the 2-3 of us (like me) who did order missi roti, convinced the others to try them. And, they were glad that they did!

Missi roti, pronounced “Miss-ee Row-tee” is a staple in Punjabi homes and is basically roti prepared from besan or gram flour/chickpea flour. Served with a dollop of butter and accompanied with any Indian vegetable or lentil dish, missi rotis are an excellent way of sprucing up the proteins in your diet. Missi Roti can be served for breakfast with curd or pickle. Missi Roti is good for diabetics too because of gram flour added to it as an ingredient. Gram flour is said to keep insulin levels in check!  Missi roti makes you very thirsty, so be prepared to drink a lot of water after eating it!

Traditionally Missi Roti made in the tandoor but at home I make it on the tawa (cast iron skillet). My mom adds pomegranatae seeds and is supposed to be key to the missi roti flavor. I did not have it, but if you do, for sure add pomegranate seeds (anar dana). You can also change the ratio of besan (gram flour) to whole wheat flour but accordingly change the amount of water you will require for kneading.

Five and Spice’s Mushlafel

Baby, do you miss me
Now that I’m gone, yeah

No, no I am not gone. I am still here just took a one week break from blogging & cooking. What’s with the song then, you ask (well, even if you didn’t I will still continue to explain. You have no choice but to listen or actually you do- you could leave this page. But, don’t! please!)

This was the song I used to listen to when the first guy I was seeing broke up with me (It was a short lived relationship- you know, the celebrity love kinds- lasted a week in actuality- but at that time it meant the world to me!).

I am sure you have never heard of the song, nor would have I, had I not been in the phase where every love song sounded like it was just made for me- every single word resounding of my story, my pain, my love, my heart break and well you get the drift.

Get the DJ to play our favorite song
‘Cause it’s what keeps me holding on
Baby, do you miss me
Now that I’m gone

Ok, it’s cheesy, but to a girl with a broken heart it was music! (FYI my taste in music is not that bad, it was just a phase!)

Now that I look back on those days, and knowing how things turned out thereafter, I laugh at the things I did after the break up. I used to listen to this song hoping that the guy misses me (yes, I was a love struck newbie and a break up was something entirely new to me) Of course he never thought of me, his updates on hi5, (that was the time hi5 was the thing like how today’s Facebook is) and gtalk/yahoo/msn status proved otherwise.

I do think people had it better before the digital age arrived, especially when it came to break ups. If the person of your interest moved on there was no way to know. You could live in the imaginary world and think that you are the only person he is thinking of, dying to talk u but embarrassed to come up and say he made a mistake, that he was sorry. But, alas, this is the digital age. In today’s world, you are bombarded with pictures of the person in question with a new love in his/her arms. There goes your delusional world where you were the only girl he ever loved.

Thank god, though, that those days of heartbreak are gone. They were torture! I am sure you know the feeling, don’t you?

C’mon you went through it too, right? Crying and listening to mushy songs hoping that would ease the pain. Dreaming of the phone ringing and your ex telling you how being apart from you has made him realize how good he had it with you and how you were the only person who ever understood him. You went through all that too, right. Right? Don’t tell me I was the only loser??

You did nothing of that sorts? When it was over, it was over for you- you moved on graciously?

 Really?

 Umm…

So did I!

Ha! Got u! I just made all that up. Nope I did not listen to songs while getting over crushes. Or check out my exes photos as if I was a stalker. Nah! not me! In fact, I was the one who broke up with the guy! Really.

(shifting uncomfortably)

Um…

(embarrassed smile)

Really I was messing with you. Honest.

Anywho.

So, yes, I have been absent for the longest time ever. Well, I don’t know if you guys missed me but I missed blogging. I finally went to the doctor who told me that I had a sprain and it would take about 4-6 weeks to heal. It sucks because I just got my exercise thing set and was enjoying it and pretty soon would have seen results, but now have to take it slow. That’s one reason I couldn’t blog. I was resting my ankle. Trying not to do much work. I also got a slight stomach upset in between, and that too on the day we got a new toilet seat installed in our bathroom. (See, this is why I started the blog- to document my life in snippets so that some day I look back and read and I will come across this particular blog post and know- yes! this was the time I hurled! So bear with me because these details are important..these are the things that make my life interesting.)

So while others remember so and so day as the day they did such and such fun activity I’ll remember the past week as the time I inaugurated our newly installed toilet seat by hurling into it!

Yes I am aware that by talking about toilet seats and stalking exes on orkut/hi5/FB I don’t put on a good case for me and sound like a loser.

I still do maintain that I was joking about the snooping around hi5/FB thingy.

Seriously you don’t do it?

.

Me neither!

.

Was just messing with you again!

Daring Bakers’ May 2011 Challenge: Marquise on Meringue

Anything that can possibly go wrong, does!

-Murphy’s Law

Well, earlier it was just a feeling but after today, I am positive that I am jinxed.  Seriously, there’s no other explanation for what happened today or actually what happens every time there is something important.

I have been using my kitchen for the past one year without ever encountering any problem. Everything has always worked out smoothly. Everything was working smoothly even yesterday.But the day before I am going to have 9 people (make that 11 including me and Vikram), not only do I have a sprained ankle to deal with (which makes it difficult for me to stand for more then 10 minutes at stretch), a dog to sit for, lunch and dinner to cook for 11 people, besides cleaning and getting the house ready for them, but amidst all this I also land myself a broken stove.

Well actually it did not break, but at the time it sure seemed to me that it did. Our kitchen’s power got cut off and that’s why none of the appliances in the kitchen were working- including the refrigerator- which shutting off in this heat is a disaster in making. To top it all, our housing people could not do anything as it was a problem with the city’s lines- some problem with their transformer. And just when I thought things could get no worse, the whole house’s power decides to go. Now this kind of stuff happens in India and had I been there I wouldn’t be like Why me!Why me! But….

…But this is America and the power never goes off here! So yes, you can’t blame me to think that I am jinxed. Seriously there is no other explanation. And trouble doesn’t happen to me in single folds- I was ok with the dog sitting- I love dogs, so it wasn’t any trouble for me. I was also ok with the sprained ankle- it hurts but its manageable- I would probably get it checked if it doesn’t improve. But, no way am I ok with no power in the kitchen. That’s too much for me deal with when I have so many people coming to my house. Two days before the least of my worries was how are we going to manage with one bathroom for 11 people and today I just couldn’t stop counting my problems.

Anyway, such is my life! Things got on track after a few hours of turmoil. I am late again for posting this month’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge (though I had almost finished writing about the challenge yesterday and would have posted it had things gone more smoothly). Out of three challenges that I have completed, two have been posted late! I am one of the worst members ever! But each time I had valid reasons. Once I was traveling and this time, well you all know the story! The fact that I was able to complete this month’s Daring Baker’s challenge is good enough for me. And am so glad I did. V loved it. In his exact words: “I like this DB thing you have got going. I get to eat such wonderful things – names of which I have never even heard before!”

 The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

The compulsory components for this challenge were the Marquise and the meringue. The tequila caramel and spiced nuts were optional. While I could do the caramel (thank god I did because it tastes great!), I did not have time nor the energy to make the spiced almonds as well. I left the challenge for the last minute as I could not find dutch-processed cocoa any where, and finally used normal cocoa- which according to me worked out fine, though I have nothing to compare it to. Plus, I had too much on my cards to complete each optional component. But I will be trying this dessert again and will be trying all the components to make it the outrageously decadent dessert its supposed to be.

Note: I have given the ingredients for half and quarter recipe as well which were given to us by by Audax Artifex. I made only a quarter of the recipe.

Garam Masala Tuesdays: Samosas Revisited

I know! I know! I have posted about Samosas before. So why again today? Well, there are quite a few reasons why I return to these delectable fried babies.

For one, a lot of you weren’t following my blog when I first blogged about Samosas. Yes, I am aware a lot of you out there still don’t follow my blog, but I have to admit, without compromising on my modesty, my blog following has increased a bit from when I last posted about samosas. So, its only right to post it again as many of you missed out on it the first time!

Another reason why I post again today, which is probably the main reason- I think this recipe needs to be a part of Garam Masala Tuesdays. Samosas are the most popular tea time snack in India and a favorite when you have guests over and thus deserved to be here at GMT. It would be a crime if I don’t talk about them in my weekly Tuesday posts dedicated solely to Indian food.

Plus, I wanted to see if I could improve on the recipe and even though the previous one was great, these are a notch better- well, the crust has been improved-  no more bubbles on the samosa (well, significantly less) and perfectly crispy! (Note: you will see a lot of difference in the quality of pictures taken then and now. Please don’t be too harsh- I was just learning then and continue to do so even now. We have to start somewhere, don’t we!)