Hot Jalebi for the festival of colours!

Happy Holi everyone !

Any festival is incomplete if you are not served with a sweet. On Holi, everyone looks forward to playing with colours. But at the same time, having sweets is yet another activity that has its own priority and can't be replaced. So how about having some Hot Jalebi's this year to make Holi special.

Hot Jalebi had been an obsession for myself and my brother since we were kids. I guess all kids like it- remember the Dhara ad, where the kid gave up the idea of leaving home just to have jalebi :). We looked forward for a holiday to enjoy having it. We would get it from a Halwai's shop on Sundays, the only day we didn't have to go to school. How much ever we got it, it wouldn't stay long.

Nostalgic!

You never realize what you've got until you have to part with it. Salt Lake City - I miss you already :( .

Namkeen

What do you like more - sweet or salty ? Well for me, I don't really have a sweet tooth and would prefer salty. On a lazy day, I was just looking in for some snack that I could make quickly. I had this namkeen in mind but was not sure if its called the same everywhere. I would definitely update the name, if I ever come across it, in the future. Having failed to figure out the recipe from the internet, I called up my mom to double check if the recipe that I had in mind was okay to continue with.



These namkeens are quick and easy to make. Well, I say that quite often about most of my recipes, don't I ? :). But trust me, with very few ingredients and minimal effort I could make a heap of namkeens :). So I love making these.

Spring is here !

Trick to get perfect Chocolate garnishing !

Chocolate garnishing isn't just about melting chocolate and piping it out in desired shapes. I learnt it the hard way, when the chocolate garnishing on a birthday cake just bent down in few minutes.

What is the secret behind doing it right and how to do it? Tempering is what needs to be done here. Tempering is a way of melting chocolate in a way that its molecules do not break up completely. So, when they are chilled, they get back together to give it a firm shape.

1. First, grate the chocolate. Do not touch the chocolate with your hand, else it would melt. Shave it with a sharp knife having held it with a kitchen towel. 
2. Place 2/3rd of shaved chocolate in the microwave for not more than 8 sec. Take it out and give it a mix with a spoon. If its not melted completely, place it again in the microwave for few seconds, just enough to melt it. 
3. Once done, add the rest of the chocolate shaving and mix it with a spoon. It would melt in it and leave a thick and sticky texture.
4. Pipe it out of a piping bag or ziploc bag into desired shapes to decorate cakes, desserts etc. 

Watch this video, where I learnt it from.

Verrine ~ A Blend of Cream and Chocolate

As a kid, I had a bad habit of wasting food. My mother would scare me saying if I waste food, satan is gonna come and grab my leg and take me off. The days I would waste food, I happen to meet satan (the one in Onida ad) in my dreams, who would drag me off, mercilessly.

But now, I do make a conscious effort to not waste food and to cook/eat that is enough for us. I had some mascarpone cheese and whipping cream left over after I made the Tiramisu and Black Forest Cake. While in a hunt to figure out how I could use them to make another variety dessert, before it hits the expiry date, I came across the French Dessert called Verrine. Verrines translate to glasses in french. Originally from France, these are made by forming layers of ingredients in a glass. Since these are made in transparent glass, the highlighted colors of the ingredients gives a tempting look. Moreover, we can customize a verrine with ones own recipe.