Thoughts

Like because and Love despite

Mini Apple Tarts

Hey foodies this time I did a little experiment to entertain my new friends in Pune: Mini Apple tarts.

Ingredients

pastry:
50g salted butter
250g all purpose flour
11/2 cup Ice cold water

filling:
3 medium sized apples
200g sugar
1tbsp vegetable oil
2" cinnamon stick
1 lemon

First I needed to make a basic pastry crust. So in a bowl mixed the flour and cold butter and mixed it with hands till it had a crumbly texture. Now added ice cold water slowly and add till u can just mix the dough. Wrap with cling film and refrigerate for 10 mins.

Now take out n roll the dough 1/2 cm thick. Cut into rounds with a round steel cutter. Grease a muffin tin and press the dough in the mould firmly. Prick the base of the tart with a fork.

Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for 5 mins. Place butter paper within each tart and fill with uncooked kidney beans and blind bake in convection oven for 20 mins at 180 deg C. Remove the beans and butter paper and bake for further 20 mins so that the inner portion crisps and dries out.

Prepare the filling by removing the core and chopping up 3 medium sized apples. Heat a saucepan, add 1 tbsp oil. When the oil is hot add 2 inch cinnamon stick when it sputters a bit add the chopped apples. Saute for few minutes. Add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Now add the sugar and keep stirring till it becomes soft and reddish in colour. Now add juice of 1 large lemon and stir for some more time. When it starts to thicken remove from heat.

Pour the filling in the tart shells.

Take some more pastry dough and roll out thin. Cut into 1/2cm strips. Cover the filled tarts withe dough strips in criss cross pattern.

Brush with egg wash. Bake for another 20 mins. Remove from oven and keep on a wire rack to cool before serving.

Uncertain affections

Affection is a wierd word, it manifests itself in many forms.
Sometimes, understood but mostly misunderstood,
How something so complex remain so simple.
It's like water that takes shape of any vessel it fills,
fluid or placid it makes mundane things beautiful.
All the glory is taken by Love but what about affection!
is it any less important, or less evident.

Visit to Bridgewater Lane

During my studies in Leicester, I used to frequent my cousin in London a lot. During these visits only I happened to meet Kanchu (pseudonym). He was from Sri Lanka. Well a perfectly normal guy but had a fetish for cleaning. Not a bad thing at all but his was bordering on insanity!

The routine included cleaning of his room and toilet twice or thrice a week, and kitchen about once a week. But his passion lay in trimming the yard grass. Even the lawnmower bowed before his obsession and refused to work anymore one fine day with a bang and rising black smoke. Through innumerable kicks and howls it still refused to budge. Ultimately kanchu decided that he required help. Some suggested going in with the big carver's knife Rambo style. While another more scientific idea was suggested that he could attach the cutting wheel of the mower to the axel of a bicycle in place of the wheels, create a balance by attaching a pipe or something and make a manual mower. Dissatisfied with all the “cumbersome” inventions being suggested, he devised an ingenious plan. Yes a very clever plan indeed. He'd cut all the grass with SCISSORS. Not the big one used for cutting bushes but small Cartini scissors that Mom uses while stitching or Dad uses for trimming their hair. Yup! That very small tiny thingy. We bucked him up and waved him goodbye as that was the last day we ever saw him. It's been years and you can still find him in Bridgewater Lane, Wembley patiently cutting grass. His beard may have grown and clothes tattered but that won't deter him from the path of nirvana “A CLEAN BACKYARD”.

Coffee Choc Cake

Return of the FOODOHOLIC! It's been ages since my last adventure so here's to a new beginning " Coffee Chocolate Cake". Soaked with the goodness of Carte Noir and sprinkled with Bourneville, give into your dark desires quite literally.. I celebrate my 2 years as a teacher and to all my teachers who have made me the person am today, I reminisce all my student years through school, college and grad school and realise how difficult it is on the other side of the table. I dedicate this cake to all my teachers who are there and the ones who've left for a higher abode..

lost dream

You still made my heart skip a bit,
eyes moist again..
But I don’t love u anymore.
Neither do you,
But something still pulls us
A silken thread of memories,
Tangled in the thorns of life,
Singed with pain,
An addictive sweet pain…

Cuppy cake!

Another experiment from the FOODOHOLIC series is here! "cuppy cakes".
Made in earthenwares, deeply dark chocolate and date cupcakes with a secret ingredient "Glenfidditch 18 yrs aged in cherry oak casks". Quite a controversial ingredient that is why kept secret for Indian audiences ;).
P.S. don't use terra cotta if u want to remove the cakes from the mould.