Sweets

Orange, Almond and Pecan Cake (GF, V)

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Deepa

We were away this past long weekend. Not far, less than two hours drive north of where we live. Briefly, I wondered why we were going away when we already live near the beach and could do a stay-cation without spending a cent. But a few hours into the holiday I knew. It was the otherness of it all, that just demanded relaxation. The absence of the urge to clean the bathroom, do laundry or even to stick to any kind of routine. It brought with it permission to just read, to move if it felt good, to open a bottle of wine at 3pm or to eat cheese with crackers on the beach in lieu of lunch.

A walk on the beach saw us clambering over boulders, hopping over waves that momentarily filled the spaces between them. We examined deep, straight fissures in rocky plains on the shore, concluding that they were the result of some long-ago sudden impact which sent shockwaves through the otherwise impenetrable stone. Over time, the sharp edges were worn into softly rounded ones on which tiny sea life made their homes. Colonies of perfectly formed grey sea snails no bigger than peppercorns crunched beneath our feet despite our best efforts to avoid them. We returned to the sand and an hour went by with us leisurely stretched out on beach towels, reading books.

On another afternoon, we meandered around the countryside visiting wineries and distilleries, sighing with pleasure when we sampled a wine made of rose petals here, wrinkling our noses not-so-subtly at the first sip of a gin infused with camomile somewhere else. Apple strudel, its buttery pastry filled with perfectly diced stewed apples was bought and shared with sips of hot tea while we lazed in hammocks. A slice of this cake would have also done nicely.

This is not a fluffy cloud of a cake. It is dense, mealy and quite frankly rather hideous looking. Rustic, if you will. This is not a cake that bothers itself with holding together or providing a scaffolding for decoration. The upside though, is that it’s very forgiving. If you don’t manage to get the aquafaba into soft peaks, fear not. Beat it for at least 4 or 5 minutes until it is nice and frothy, and the cake will still work, although without the soft peaks the result may be denser. Forget to buy pecans? Nevermind, walnuts (or just pepitas) will work just as well. No cinnamon to be found? *Shrug* it’ll probably still be delicious. Try not to skip the cardamom though. It is vegan and gluten free. Most importantly, it is the crumbly, fall-aparty, syrup soaked nature of this cake that makes it utterly satisfying with a cup of tea.

Orange, cardamom and pecan cake (GF, Vegan)

Ingredients:

6 tbsp aquafaba*
1/3 cup coconut oil
Zest of 2 oranges, finely grated
Juice of 2 oranges- 2 tbsp in cake, rest in syrup
2 cups almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
2tbsp honey for cake + 4 tbsp for syrup
1/3 cup pecans roughly chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp Vanilla paste or powder
Pinch salt
4-6 cardamom pods- grind the seeds and reserve the skins
4 tbsp honey for syrup
Small handful pepitas or a few more pecans

Thick or whipped cream to serve

Method:

Grease a small loaf tin and line it with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (340 F).

Use an electric beater (handheld or stand) to beat the aquafaba until soft peaks start to form. Add coconut oil, 2 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp orange juice, orange zest and coconut oil. Whisk briefly to combine. In a separate mixing bowl, sieve the almond meal. Add baking powder, cinnamon, vanilla, salt and ground cardamom seeds. Stir to combine.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and stir gently to just combine. Add the chopped pecans and stir just a few times. The mixture will be quite a thick batter, but should still be pourable unlike a dough.

Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 25-30 min on the middle shelf. On another tray, place the pepitas or remaining pecans and toast in the oven for the last 7-10 minutes. Remove cake from oven when a skewer passed into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Press toasted whole pecans into top of cake or sprinkle with pepitas. Press the nuts or pepitas lightly into the top of the cake.

To make the syrup

While the cake is cooking, place the remaining orange juice, 4 tbsp honey and the cardamom skins in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30 min or until the syrup thickens. The syrup should be about half as thick as maple syrup.

When the cake is cooked, still in the tin, and still warm, use a fork to poke holes all over the top. Pour the syrup evenly over the cake. Remove and discard the cardamom skins. Gently move the tin around to spread the syrup evenly. Leave at room temperature for at least 20 minutes for the syrup to soak into the cake.

Serve with thick cream and a cup of tea.

Notes:

*Aquafaba is the liquid from a tin of chick peas or beans. You can also use the liquid that you would normally drain away after you cook chick peas or beans.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on August 12, 2018August 13, 2018 by Deepa

“They were the only chocolate chip cookies I had ever baked. That’s because they were, in my mind, a certain kind of best. Not “best” as in the best in the world, or even the best I’d ever eaten, but “best” in the sense that I’d choose them, at least some of the time, over ones that actually are.

They were the best because they meant something to me.”

– Jessica Fechtor, Stir.

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This post is part of Pinch Me, I’m Eating’s 2018 Novel Recipes series, a collaborative collection of posts from food bloggers highlighting recipes that are featured in fiction. Each post includes a book review and a recipe from the novel.

In her memoir Stir: My broken brain and the meals that brought me home, food blogger Jessica Fechtor tells of her life-threatening aneurysm that tore her life apart. More importantly, she tells of how she slowly but determinedly rebuilt her life and her health with the help of family, friends and food.

Having been a long-time reader of Fechtor’s blog, I knew and loved her gentle, eloquent and unpretentious writing style. The memoir is in some ways a very long blog post, but also gives the reader an honest insight into an unexpected, devastating illness and Fechtor’s refusal to let it overcome her. In Stir, Fechtor shares in her warm, engrossing way her experience with her illness intertwined with the history of how she met her husband, how the two of them fell in love and how they eventually got married. The flashbacks are helpful in understanding the incredible, resilient love between them, which sees them overcome this hurdle together.

Fechtor’s inability to study or work during her rehabilitation period drove her into the kitchen, creating meals to nourish her family and friends, and refocusing her attention while she healed. Her blog, Sweet Amandine, was born of this time in her life. And of course, there are descriptions of the food in Fechtor’s delightful style, the kind of style that is like a door opening into a cosy living room with a warm fire and a plate of freshly-baked cookies on the table. The kind of writing that makes one want to enter that living room, snuggle on the couch with the cat and be best friends with the writer.

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For me, Fechtor’s evolution into a food blogger struck a chord. I started One Small Pot five years ago at a time in my life when, while not comparable in magnitude to Fechtor’s experience, was devastating for me. With a rapidly failing marriage to which I was desperately holding on and a major career disappointment, I was grasping onto anything that made me feel in control and like I was making progress. This is when I discovered food blogging. Flicking through established blogs like Sweet Amandine, I was swept up in the words, the artful photographs, and the way food was linked with the human experience, and I wanted in. Without too much thought, I began my blog, and I held on to it like it was a life-raft, the one thing that wasn’t slipping from my grasp. To begin with, the photography was sub-optimal, the writing a little better but still somewhat pedestrian. I knew though, that I could do better and that by doing more of it, I would do better.

That marriage ended and, somewhat to my surprise, the world didn’t. The career path was reassessed and redirected, with the realisation that I could love doing more than just one thing. By then, my blog had blossomed into something I was starting to be proud of. A success after what felt like a series of fails. It was something on which I could refocus my attention and mould into whatever I wanted, after feeling I had so little control for so long.

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Fechtor is right. These cookies do not end my search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. But they are definitely worthy of being one of a few very good choc chip cookie recipes. They are robust, with a hefty crumb, the textural quality that only wholemeal flour can offer and enough salt to cut through the buttery sweetness. So while this is not the be all and end all of choc chip cookies, it’s definitely worth making, tasting and sharing – several times – on your choc chip cookie journey. And then a few more times, just to be sure.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Slightly modified from Stir: My broken brain and the meals that brought me home by Jessica Fechtor (a Kim Boyce recipe).

Get:

3 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt + extra sea salt
1 cup (225g) unsalted butter softened (but not melted)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste
220g good quality 70% dark chocolate, roughly chopped into ½ to 1 cm pieces

Make:

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1 tsp salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer or another separate bowl, place the butter and sugars. Mix on low speed using the paddle attachment or with a hand-held electric beater until starting to cream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition. Add the vanilla and mix.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low-speed until barely combined. Stir through the chocolate chips until fairly evenly distributed.

Scoop the dough into even sized balls using an ice-cream scoop. Sprinkle a little sea salt over the top of each ball of dough. Here, Fechtor recommends placing the balls on a tray, covering with plastic wrap and refrigerating for 24-48 hours before baking. I have tried this method, as well as baking after refrigerating for 30 minutes. I didn’t find a noticeable difference between the two, but suggest you try both methods (more cookies for all!!).

When it is time to bake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and lay them out on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Leave about 5-7 cm between the balls and each other, and the tray edge. Bake for 16-20 mins, until the cookies are beginning to brown. Remove from the oven when they are still soft, and allow to cool completely before sliding them off the tray and directly into your mouth.

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Balconies and Baked Yoghurts

Posted on November 7, 2016November 10, 2016 by Deepa

It’s the first night it’s been warm enough to sit out on the balcony. The city lights shimmer in the distance, a deceptively calm façade to the Friday night revelry within. To the right, the single red glow atop the harbour bridge winks in its rhythm, in conversation with its twin that adorns the tip of centre-point tower. To the left of the nightscape is the distinct neon green squiggle of the holiday inn, a fluorescent stairway to heaven that is another reference point. The lights merge into a softly shimmering veil on the water of the harbour, now still without even a moving boat to disturb its surface.

From across the road, a wall of jasmine sends tendrils of sweetness over the railing, a comforting reminder of spring. Below, a couple enjoy an evening stroll, elderly dog pottering on a lead before them. Diffuse puddles of light created by street lamps briefly illuminate the tops of their heads as they make their way down the street. Somewhere in the distance, base notes of dance music are scattered into the neighbourhood breeze from a house party. It’s loud enough to remind me that someone, somewhere is on a dance floor, but far enough away to leave me glad that it isn’t me.

There are worse ways to spend a Friday evening.

This dessert, if you get it right, is like scented silk. The recipe’s simplicity is almost deceptive, and it almost seems unfair that something so divine can be so easy. It is an Indian dessert, but one I didn’t grow up with so when it was first made for me, I was in awe. While it is simple to make, it does take a little planning due to the hanging of the curd, baking, and chilling before it is ready to serve. Its’ texture is not unlike pannacotta if you get the baking time right. If you over-bake it, it will be a little coarser and more reminiscent of a cheesecake, and still lovely.

Indian Sweet Baked Yoghurt with Cherry Vanilla Sauce

Makes 6

Get:
1 ½ cups full fat Greek yoghurt
1 tin sweetened condensed milk
¾ cup full-fat milk
Seeds of 6-8 cardamom pods, roughly powdered
Seeds of ½ a vanilla bean or ½ tsp vanilla paste
A few strands of saffron
Crushed nuts to serve

For the sauce:
200g pitted cherries, fresh or frozen
2 tbsp sugar
Squeeze of lemon juice
Seeds of ½ a vanilla bean or ½ tsp vanilla paste

Make:

Place the yoghurt in the centre of a piece of cheesecloth (for those in Australia, a clean Chux cloth works well). Tie the opposite corners together and suspend the curd from a low height where the whey can drip out. Try the faucet or a wooden spoon laid across the top of a bucket. Allow to hang for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

If using saffron, warm a couple of tablespoons of the milk and add the saffron. Set aside for a few minutes. Place the thickened yoghurt, condensed milk, vanilla and cardamom in a large mixing bowl. Whisk or beat with an electric beater on low speed until combined. Add the milk and saffron milk (if using) and beat again until combined.

Divide the mixture between 6 ramekins or glasses. Place these in a deep oven dish and pour water into the dish and around the glasses so that the water level is ½ to ¾ to the level of yoghurt mixture. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the yoghurts are set but still wobbly. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

To make the cherry sauce, place the sauce ingredients into a thick-bottomed saucepan with the vanilla bean husk if you used a bean. Add a splash of water (about ¼ cup). Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer on low heat for about half an hour, or until the cherries are easy to break down. Allow to cool, then discard the vanilla bean and blitz the mixture in a food processor until it is a rough puree. Spoon the mixture into the glasses on top of the chilled baked yoghurt. Top with crushed nuts just before serving.

A Giveaway! And Chocolate Cake for One (Vegan, Gluten-free).

Posted on July 2, 2016July 4, 2016 by Deepa

It’s been almost a decade since I last lived on my own, in a poky little flat above a veterinary clinic in North-West London. It was furnished with mismatched, tired looking pieces, and in the kitchen was a washing machine which I initially thought was cactus. One day, a couple of kicks and a few expletives later, it miraculously came back to life and worked surprisingly well from then onwards.

The flat shared an entry with the clinic’s waiting room, and so I would often find myself sidling past curious wet noses who would sniff eagerly at my bags of groceries on the way in or garbage on the way out. The bathroom was adorned in lustrous, cracked maroon tiles with gold accents that may have had its’ glory days in the 1970’s. Entertainment was provided intermittently by the patrons of the Irish pub next door and by another neighbour who would regularly and loudly assure the entire neighbourhood that ‘Jesus would save them!’ at convenient times such as four o’clock in the morning. The apartment was what the kinder of us would call ‘full of character’, an apt introduction to the colourful place that is London.

At the time, I bought myself a book called Live Alone and Like it by Marjorie Hillis, whose cover declared it to be ‘A 1935 Bestseller’. The quirk in me couldn’t resist as not only was it on the ‘3 for 2’ table at Borders, but it boasted chapters titled A Lady and Her Liquor, Pleasures of a Single Bed and the intriguing You’d Better Skip This One.

Ms Hillis’ advice, although many decades old, is strangely still relevant. She advises against self-pity at being alone, warning that “Not only will you soon actually be all alone; you will also be the outstanding example of the super-bore”. She doles out practical advice on the merits of saving money, for example, and cautions that “…..eventually, if no husband has turned up and no obliging relative has died, there comes a horrid conviction that putting aside a little something for a rainy day is not such a bad idea.” In a chapter delightfully headed When A Lady Needs a Friend, Marge gets straight to the point with “….the truth is that if you’re interesting, you’ll have plenty of friends and if you’re not, you won’t- unless you’re very, very rich”. Truest of all are her words on furnishing and decor, “This is your house, and it’s probably the only place in the world where you can have things exactly as you please.”

And the discovery that I could do just what I wanted in my space was a delightfully liberating one. Bake cookies at midnight! Paint the wall bright blue! Accumulate framed art that I never hang! Walk around without pants on! (Close the blinds first!!)

Oh…..and chocolate cake for dinner!

I want to equip you with this recipe, for those times when nothing but chocolate cake will do. This is a recipe for chocolate cake for one, made in the Tefal Cook4Me electric pressure cooker (which I have gushed about previously in my last post), so that it’s nice and moist. If you are interesting enough to have a friend or a chocolate-loving date over, then just double the recipe and divide it into two ramekins. It is gluten free, can be easily made vegan, and is (gasp!) even nourishing, with its healthy fats and proteins. Most importantly, it is quick to make and fuss free.

choc pud 2b

Oh! Oh! Oh!! I also have some gorgeous Tefal 17cm Santoku knives to give away to you, my dear readers! To enter, drop me a comment here. What I want to know is, what do you enjoy doing when you have the house to yourself? Please keep it clean, obviously! I will pick a couple of my favourite revelations to send these gorgeous, soft-handled knives to. I can only send to Australian addresses, and you can enter as many times as you want with separate comments.

So tell me, what is your favourite home-alone activity or indulgence?

*Cook4Me and Santoku knives were kindly provided by Tefal, however all opinions are my own.

choc pud 3

Pressure Cooker Chocolate Cake for One

Get:

1/3 cup almond meal
1 tbsp buckwheat flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp cocoa powder or raw cocoa
2-3 tsp brown sugar
¼ tsp vanilla paste or powder
Tiny pinch salt
2 tsp milk (use non-dairy milk for vegan option)
1 tsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp full-fat youghurt or aquafaba (for vegan option)

1 1/2 cups water

Make:

Place all the ingredients apart from the water in a small mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Place in a ramekin.

Remove the steamer basket from the Tefal Cook4Me. Pour 1 1/2 cups of water in the bottom of the main pot. Place the ramekin in the main pot. The water should come up to about halfway up the outside of the ramekin.

Close and lock the lid of the Tefal Cook4Me. Choose recipes, then choose the ‘Chocolate Sponge Pudding’ setting. Press enter through all the steps and then accept the cooking time.

When cooked, carefully remove the hot ramekin from the cooker and eat the cake straight out of the ramekin with a dollop of cream, ice-cream or Greek yoghurt. Feel free to enjoy for dinner without judgement or disapproving eyes.

Notes:
Aquafaba is the liquid from a can of chick peas or beans, or the cooking liquid from the same. It is full of protein and a great vegan egg replacer.

Dark Chocolate, Cardamom and Pistachio Brownies (Gluten Free)

Posted on October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by Deepa

I spend an unnatural amount of time thinking about things like how exactly chick-pea water works as an alternative to eggs (it couldn’t….could it…??). Or what the exact reaction is that happens when you whip butter and sugar together. Or why 180 degrees celsius in two different ovens is never the same. I guess it’s what comes with the territory when you are both a scientist and a food blogger. A double occupational hazard of sorts.

Lately my neurons have been firing about incorporating vegetables and legumes into sweet baked goods like cake and brownies. Throw stones at me if you will, but I have to say, I’m not convinced.

From the point of view of adding moisture without adding fat, I suppose I get it. Sort of. But for the purpose of ‘hiding’ veggies to boost one’s veggie intake? Unconvinced. I for one would rather beetroot roasted and tossed with chunks of salty fetta and baby spinach, the whole thing doused with a squeeze of lemon juice, than lurking sneakily in a cookie. If I soak a batch of white beans, it’ll be to toss them with parsley, chilly and olive oil, not conceal them cleverly in a mudcake.

So here are my brownies. Gluten free and moist with coconut oil which will make your skin shine. They sing with cardamom notes and are brought gently down to earth with the richness of dark chocolate and pistachios. Like most of the baked goods on this site, the sweetness is subdued so feel free to add a little more sugar if you like things a little sweeter. And not a vegetable or legume in (or out of) sight .

Dark Chocolate, Cardamom and Pistachio Brownies

Get:
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
Seeds scraped from 1/2 a large vanilla bean, or 2 tsp vanilla paste
Seeds from 6 cardamom pods, roughly powdered
1/2 tsp cinnamon
120g good quality 70% dark chocolate, melted
3/4 cup coconut oil
2/3 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup pistachios, roughly chopped

Make:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius. Grease and line a shallow oven tray with grease-proof paper

In a large mixing bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add sugar, vanilla, cardamom and cinnamon and beat with an electric mixer until a smooth mixture forms.

In a separate bowl, melt the chocolate either in a bain marie or in 20 to 30 second bursts in the microwave. Stir through coconut oil, also melted. Stir this mixture into the egg mixture until a smooth mixture forms.

Gently stir through the almond meal, salt and baking powder, followed by the pistachios.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake on the top shelf for 18-22 mins. Remove from the oven when the middle of the slab is still a bit undercooked, and leave in the tray to cool. Slice and serve!

Monsoon Mocha Ice-Cream Sandwiches for a Nespresso Challenge, and a Giveaway!

Posted on April 5, 2015April 26, 2015 by Deepa

Decoction (noun)

A concentrated liquor resulting from heating or boiling a substance, especially a medicinal preparation made from a plant.

– Oxford Dictionary

It’s a jarring sound, decoction. A sudden awakening from slumber by the cries of the vegetable seller from the street, and the racket of steel on steel as the maids wash the morning dishes. It is the clanging of the heavy temple bell as early worshippers wake the Gods, offerings of fruit and flowers balanced in the other hand. It is the impatient tooting of the horns of scooters ridden by morning commuters, some with saree clad wives perched sideways on the passenger seat.

Di-caack-shun when pronounced by a mami (aunty), is a little softer. It is what South Indians call their coffee, brewed strong and slow, through a filter. It’s rich aroma floats from the kitchen with that of freshly ground coconut flesh that is to be blended into chutney. It wafts across the courtyard of a traditional Tamilian home to mingle with the intoxicating scent of jasmine blossoms and delicate incense smoke. It is an unmistakeable morning scent, the promise of piping hot coffee in tiny steel cups alongside fluffy idlis (steamed rice cakes) and fragrant chutney. For many South Indians, it really is somewhat of a medicinal preparation, an essential start to the day. Until the first dose is taken, the morning cacophony can wait.

No European coffee, prepared by professionals using noisy steam-spurting machines comes close to South Indian philter kaapi, lovingly brewed by mami baristas. Rich and deep without bitterness and creamy with full-cream milk, sipping dose after dose from those stainless steel cups is an experience that cannot be mimicked by western coffee in paper cups. When Nespresso sent me their new, limited edition Monsoon Malabar Grand Cru capsules however, I was surprised at how much the aroma and taste reminded me of South Indian coffee. It’s deep, warm tones lend themselves perfectly to dessert and I couldn’t wait to create a sweet treat that incorporated this gorgeous blend. My Monsoon Mocha Ice-Cream Sandwich uses a modification of a spiced Indian biscuit, known as nankhatai, with rich and creamy no-churn mocha ice cream. Coffee is no stranger to spices, at least in the middle-east, and the sharpness of cardamom helps cut through the sweetness and warm coffee tones.

It takes a little planning, this one. The ice-cream should be given at least 12-24 hours to freeze, and the biscuit dough can be made and refrigerated at the same time. The next day, leave yourself a little time to roll out, cut and bake the biscuits, then allow them to cool before crumbly biscuit meets cold, luscious ice cream. The result will be a pleasantly surprising combination of flavours and textures, a dessert that does full justice to the lovely Monsoon Malabar Grand Cru.

Before we get too carried away with this intoxicating business of coffee, ice-cream and whatnot, I have a couple of important things to mention. Firstly, I would be super grateful if you would please head over to the Nespresso Facebook page at the end of this week, like the page and vote for my Monsoon Mocha Ice-cream Sandwich Recipe in the blogger challenge. Thank you in advance!

Secondly, and more excitingly, I have a giveaway! It is a stunning cookbook by Chef Kumar Mahadevan and his wife Suba Mahadevan, who own two of the best Indian restaurants in Sydney. Chef Kumar has also appeared on Masterchef Australia as an expert Indian chef. From a personal perspective, my family and I are frequent diners at both restaurants and long before this giveaway was even in the works, I placed both Abhi’s and Aki’s in the guide to my favourite Indian restaurants in Sydney on Stay.com. Having indulged in Chef Kumar’s dishes at the restaurants as well as at various events, I know that the recipes will not only work but will be delectable. What makes this book special in my opinion is it’s lean towards South Indian dishes, delicacies from my part of India, many of which are not available in the majority of Indian restaurants outside India.

I have a copy of Chef Kumar’s cookbook, ‘From India: Food, Family & Tradition’ to give away to a lucky reader, along with a sleeve of the limited edition Nespresso Monsoon Malabar Grand Cru. For a chance to win, tell me in the comments box at the end of this post, about your most memorable cup of coffee. What made it special? Was it the place? The person who was sitting across the table from you? Was it linked to an important event? Or was it just the taste of the coffee itself, good or bad?

The competition is open to those living in Australia only, and closes at midnight Sydney time on the 23rd of April. Please leave me some way of contacting you- either a link to your blog or check in here for a reply in case you win! If I don’t hear back from you within 3 days of me contacting you, I will have to pick another winner.

I look forward to your entries and your memories. Oh and I would be forever grateful for your votes (Click here, then vote for the recipe from One Small Pot)!

*This competition is based on skill and I will choose the answer based on my discretion. Prizes have been kindly provided by Nespresso and Chef Kumar. Monsoon Malabar Grand Cru capsules and a loan machine were also provided by Nespresso for creation of the recipe. Words and opinions are my own.

**Update : the winner of the giveaway was Ilana Mendels with her gorgeous words about the coffee she sipped during her first visit to her home country. Congratulations Ilana!

Monsoon Mocha Ice-Cream Sandwich

Makes 24-28

Ice-cream recipe modified from a Nigella Lawson recipe.

Get:

For the Mocha Ice-cream:

240g (just over 2/3 cup) sweetened condensed milk
320ml double cream
120g good quality 70% dark chocolate
2 freshly brewed espresso shots Nespresso Monsoon Malabar Coffee

For the Coffee Nankhatai Biscuits:

180g butter at room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
Seeds from of 8 cardamom pods. roughly ground
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 freshly brewed espresso shots of Nespresso Monsoon Malabar (about 3 tbsp brewed coffee)
1 1/4 cups besan (chickpea) flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/4 cup coarse semolina
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Special Equipment:

Nespresso Machine

Make:

To make the ice-cream:

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave in 20 to 30 second bursts.

Brew the coffee and place in the freezer to cool.

Once the coffee and chocolate are cool, lightly whisk together the condensed milk and cream in a bowl, then add the coffee and chocolate. Lightly whisk until combined.

Pour into a container and place in the freezer for 12-24 hours.

Be patient!!

To make the biscuits:

Brew the coffee and place in the freezer to cool.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar and the cardamom and cinnamon powders. Whisk through the cooled coffee until combined.

In a separate bowl, sift all the flours, baking powder and salt together.

Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture and combine with a spatula. You will then have to get your (clean) hands in there to form a dough. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes until it is smooth. If it is too sticky, put it in the fridge for about 10 mins. Knead again for a minute.

Wrap in cling wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.

Divide the dough into 3-4 parts. Flour the outside of the dough and place between 2 sheets of grease-proof paper. Roll out evenly into 5 mm thick sheets. using a round cookie cutter (about 7 cm diameter), cut the cookies out of the sheet. Leave the rest of the dough in the fridge and just take out sections as you are ready to roll them. Repeat until all the dough is finished.

Lay the cookies out on baking trays lined with baking paper. Leave 2-3 cm between cookies as they will spread a little. Place the trays in the fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 170 C.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 10-12 minutes mins. The cookies are done when they have spread a little and are slightly browned at the top and bottom. They will be soft initially but will firm up after they cool. Allow to cool completely before assembling.

To assemble, scoop the ice-cream into a rough ball using an ice-cream scoop and a dinner spoon. Place the ball of ice-cream in the centre of one biscuit and place another biscuit on top. Apply gentle, even pressure to the top biscuit with the flat palm of your hand until the ice-cream spreads a little between biscuits. The biscuits will break easily, so it is important to be gentle.

Serve immediately!

Making Progress

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Deepa

It took a tough lesson that drove home to me the importance of following recipes while baking. That looking squint eyed at a 1 kg bag of flour and dumping in approximately a third of it before dousing it in the wet ingredients does not necessarily produce a good, or even vaguely edible, cookie. That forgetting to sieve the flour, then quickly losing patience while working the lumps out of batter, is a sure fire way to incite the wrath of the cake gods.

My first cake was born of the oven in the small, rented apartment that my family lived in as new immigrants to Australia. Indian kitchens, traditionally, do not have ovens. The only home-made cake I had tasted was the one that my mum used to make in the jaffle maker, the one she had excitedly purchased after attending a demonstration at a neighbour’s place. She would follow the eggless recipe in the instruction manual that was also a cookbook, brand new to baking herself. That cake was soft, sweet, and in hindsight, almost pancakey. It’s surface was ribbed from the jaffle maker cake fitting and it’s crumb was loose and yielding. It was, from memory, a good cake.

My mum’s jaffle maker cake was what I envisioned when I and my childhood best friend, flour dusting our faces and every surface of the tiny kitchen, slid our dubious batter into the hastily preheated oven. What emerged some forty nail-biting minutes later was more weapon than cake. More desert than dessert.

The Rock Cake haunts me to this day. It’s harsh surface hiding a dry, uncompromising crumb. The raisins that studded it a humiliated version of themselves. It’s alarming power to strain any knife that dared to challenge it.

It was a tough lesson but an effective one.

Thankfully these days I (mostly) follow recipes when it comes to baking, and I choose my sources wisely. Deb Perelman’s blog Smitten Kitchen is one of my go to sources for fail-proof recipes, especially when it comes to baking. I came across this strawberry summer cake while browsing through her archives in search of a way to use the 2 half punnets of strawberries that had taken up residence in my fridge. What I pulled out of the oven was delectable, a far cry from my first cake as an eight year old. It was moist, dense and chewy with coconut (my only tweak), yet still somehow light and summery. The strawberries took on the jammy character that berries will in the oven, adding tartness to sweetness, red stains to fluffy pale yellow.

It’s a cake to celebrate the dregs of summer, and perhaps more importantly, my birthday.

Strawberry and Coconut Cake

Slightly modified from ‘Strawberry Summer Cake‘, Smitten Kitchen

Get:

85gm unsalted butter at room temperature, extra for greasing
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup plus extra granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup shredded coconut
6-8 strawberries, washed, hulled and halved

Make:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and flour a standard medium sized cake tin (I used a bundt tin).

Fold the dry ingredients together in a small bowl.

In another bowl, use electric beaters to beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. On low speed, mix in egg, milk and vanilla until just combined

Add dry ingredients gradually, using a spatula to fold in until just combined. Fold in the coconut gently.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and scatter the strawberry halves, cut end down, over the top. Sprinkle over with 1-2 tbsp sugar.

Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 10 mins, then reduce temperature to 170 degrees C and bake for 40-50 mins, or until a cake tester or knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.

On Popsicles and Pooches

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Deepa

Coffee Cardamon pops (1 of 3)

If you follow me on Instagram you would have seen that I’ve been so proud of my little boy this week. After tearing a ligament in his knee and hobbling around pathetically for a week, I finally took the leap and operated. We anaesthetised him, all 7.8 kg of cuteness. We stuck a needle into his little spine to deliver epidural pain relief. He had an entire team at his disposal. An anaesthetist, a surgeon, a vet student, two nurses and two trainee nurses. Many many two-leggeds for one tiny little nugget of a 4-legged. Then he was all draped up and for a little while I could forget that it was my precious little fur-child I was doing major surgery on. This helped as it had been all I could do not to curl up in a ball of nervousness leading up to the event.

Thankfully it all went according to plan and before I knew it I was packing a sleepy and sore bundle of fur into my car alongside his drip pump and medications. Two days on, he is vehemently disagreeing with the post-operative plan to keep him confined and is demanding in true small dog style to be given access to the rest of the house. He is using a well prepared arsenal of woeful looks, sad tail wags and softly incessant whimpers which even I as a veterinary professional am struggling to ignore.

But ignore we shall as the little body with the chubby little knee needs to heal. And if Cookie can withstand and recover from major surgery as an eleven year old pooch, I’d better do my part to ensure that his recovery is as smooth as possible.

All this has nothing to do with popsicles. However I am a firm believer that coffee and popsicles are enough reason to indulge in coffee and popsicles. These have a good caffeine buzz, with fragrant cardamom providing an extra jolt. Sweetened with rice syrup, they are almost toffee like, the warm flavours complementing the freeze. A grown-up popsicle, if you will.

Coffee, Cardamom & Yoghurt Popsicles

Makes 6

Get:

1/3 cup strongly brewed coffee
6 cardamom pods
1 cup full-fat Greek yoghurt
1/3 cup honey or rice syrup

Special Equipment:

Popsicle moulds
Freezer

Make:

Use a mortar and pestle to crush the whole cardamom pods until they break open and the seeds are roughly powdered. Place the seeds and pods in the coffee and set aside for 30 minutes to infuse. Once infused, pass the mixture through a strainer and discard the cardamom.

In a large bowl, whisk the yoghurt with the syrup or honey and cardamom infused coffee to form a smooth mixture. Fill the popsicle moulds, insert popsicle sticks and place in the freezer for at least 6 hours or overnight.

To serve, dip the popsicle moulds in hot water to make it easier to lift out the popsicles.

Cherry Ripe Truffles

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Deepa

You’re probably thinking it’s all a bit too little, too late. And in all honesty, I wouldn’t blame you. I mean, a decadent fruity truffle, perfect for holiday gifting, posted on Christmas Day?? When all the gifts are already wrapped and sitting snugly under the tree, and even those relatives who completely slipped your mind until the very last minute have been taken care of in a panicked flurry.

What was that? Yes yes, if I’d posted this earlier you could have at least whipped up a batch to serve with coffee after Christmas dinner. I could spout out the usual woes about being too busy, hanging on a thread of exhaustion, working fulltime and trying to meet writing deadlines in my spare time. I could sing the song about how every time I even thought about doing something with this little blog here, a thousand other more pressing thoughts would flood out the first. It would all be true, of course but of very little relevance to you, as even the self absorbed me is aware.

Would it have been wiser for me to wait? To realise the little wooden boat had sailed and to wait until Easter or even next Christmas? Yes, probably. But if I made decisions based on what is sensible over what I feel like doing, I would be a very rich woman by now (I’m not). I truly couldn’t have sat on these truly sexy spheres of bitter dark chocolate, their smoothness only interrupted by the cheeky bite of sour cherries and toothsome shredded coconut. I could have waited a month maybe, but four months?? A whole year??

You know me better than that 🙂

So here they are, awkward timing and all. I hope your holidays are as smooth, decadent and studded with pleasant surprises as these here truffles.

Cherry Ripe Truffles

Get:

100g good quality dark chocolate
1/3 cup nut butter (almond, cashew or macadamia works well)
3/4 cup frozen sour cherries
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Make:

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave in 20-30 second bursts. Stir through the nut butter and place the mixture in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Pulse the frozen cherries in the food processor briefly until they are very roughly chopped. Add these to the chocolate mixture with the coconut and stir to combine. Refrigerate for another hour or so. When the mixture is firm enough to roll, roll into truffles and refrigerate again.

Gift or gobble as appropriate!

Spiced Orange Chocolate Spoons

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Deepa

It is widely accepted in scientific circles that a little bit of chocolate every day does wonders for one’s general health, demeanor, muscular strength, bone density, complexion and sexual performance*. Researchers have found that the substance can be taken in either liquid or solid form, hot or cold, in secret or with others of the same inclination**. There is anecdotal evidence that sitting in one’s comfiest armchair and closing one’s eyes while taking this medication improves it’s efficacy, however further studies are required in this particular field***. One point on which all scientists are in agreement is that the darker the chocolate the better****.

Here at the Therapeutic Chocolate Society, we strive to improve ease of administration of this highly efficacious therapy. We strongly support consumption of chocolate in its solid form, pure and unmodified. However if a liquid form improves ease of administration, and if the slightest hint of fragrant orange and warming cinnamon, with the subtlest of bites of fiesty cardamom improves the appeal of the treatment, we may have just the thing for you.

Warm a cup of milk of your choice, hot enough to melt the chocolate but not so hot that it scalds your mouth. Stir gently with the chocolate spoon until all melted. Lick any residual chocolate off the spoon (it is important to consume the full dose). Add a little sugar or sweetener if desired and sip until all gone.

You may feel a rich, creamy sensation coating the inside of your mouth. You will experience a heat in your chest as the warm liquid trickles from your mouth to your stomach. Approximately 100% of patients report a heady cocoa aroma that overtakes the remaining senses, a sprinkling of orange and spices lacing it’s edges.

All of these are normal and frequently reported side effects of hot chocolate made with Spiced Orange Chocolate Spoons.

Like life itself, it is a bittersweet experience of depth, complexity and ultimately, sweetness.

*This is likely completely fabricated.
**Also unproven
***There are no such studies being conducted, nor are there ever likely to be.
****This part may actually hold some truth.

Spiced Orange Chocolate Spoons

Makes 12-14

Get:
150g good quality dark chocolate (I used 100g 70% + 50g unsweetened)
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
The insides of 4 cardamom pods, powdered

Make:

Lay out 12-14 teaspoons in a tray. Alternatively you can use an ice cube tray. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave in 20-30 second bursts. Add the other ingredients. Stir to mix well and place small amounts (about 1 1/2 tsp) of the mixture into the teaspoons or the sections of the ice cube tray. If using the ice cube tray, insert wooden popsicle sticks into the centre of each cube of chocolate. Place in the fridge to set or in the freezer if there is a medical emergency requiring immediate chocolate treatment.

Stir into a cup of hot milk, sweeten if needed find an armchair and enjoy.

Like things extra chocolatey? Use two!

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