My deli bread

Savoury bread and butter pudding with fig and chilli jam

I have a soft corner for day-old breads. Especially if they are organic and made with whole wheat flour. With time, day-old loaves develop a beautiful crustiness on the outside. These work perfectly when turned into puddings and that’s why I let my bread sit in the fridge for days when a  pudding is on my mind.

For me, bread pudding is comfort food. Be it rich with chocolate or plain pudding infused with Tahitian vanilla extract – if it is cooked well, it never fails to warm you up.

Though dessert puddings are my weakness, this time I gave the conventional  recipe a miss and went for something more daring. The result was a savoury bread pudding. Buttery, with a brown glow, filled with finely chopped veggies, topped with a spicy fresh fruit jam.

Tags: bake, bread, bread butter pudding, chilli, eggless, fig, jam, leftover, snack

Ice age

Lemon, mint and pepper sorbet

(Without icecream maker)                                                 

Summer has hit my city and I have to do something about it. While I am busy chasing  UV rays with heaps of sunscreen in another universe, on my blog I will do it with lots and lots of sorbet.

Sorbets remind me of a childhood treat known as ‘gola’. Sorbets charm me with their beautiful icy texture. Sorbets come in tangy flavours that make my lips pucker à la Jolie. And sorbets manage to rouse the most innocuous-seeming cavity. Lucky for my dentist.

Here is one for my afternoon hero.

Tags: ice, lemon, mint, palate cleanser, pepper, quick, sorbet, without machine

Cracker pot

Charcoal crackers topped with sumac spiced chickpeas and Turkish cacik

Gourmet food stores make my heart melt. The reaction at spotting one is similar to what shopaholics experience at the sight of the word ‘sale’. I rush inside and grab a whole lot of things I know nothing about.

At a recent trip, I bagged a box of charcoal crackers. The way dill crackers are laced with dill and chive with chives, these are flavoured with a small percentage of charcoal powder.

The salty, slim sheets are stark black in colour and have a carbony bite.  Their texture is similar to a pie shell – brittle and crumbly.

Though the crackers went miraculously well with blobs of brie, I couldn’t resist this little adventure.

Tags: appetizer, charcoal crackers, chickpeas, mixed herbs, quick, snack, sumac spice, thyme, Turkish cacik, yogurt

Yellow there

Yellow bell pepper mousse with smoke paprika sprinkled eggplant crispies

I’ve said it several times before and I’m saying it again, eggplants can taste beautiful. Especially when they are stuffed with goat cheese and baked until golden or when they are sliced and layered with creamy sauce and some sunflower nuts or when they are deep-fried and sparingly sprinkled with smoked paprika. Eggplants can taste beautiful.

As a child I was squeamish about eating them. Several people told me about several benefits, but I was stubborn. I didn’t like the way they were so squishy and full of seeds. Until one day a dish called Moussaka converted me for good.  But that is a story for another day.

Ever since I got hooked on to eggplants, I’ve been cooking them in different ways. Today, I fried and served the chips with a savoury mousse made out of yellow peppers.

On a sour note

Lemon and cream spaghetti with basil and chilli chutney

When I first heard about spaghetti al limone, I couldn’t bring the two flavours together in my head.  Since I usually like my pasta mild and easy, this combination got me cooking.

The role of bringing an edge to a pasta dish is mostly played by an herb or a sharp cheese, but using lemons provided a refreshing change.

To keep the dish from going hideously citrusy, I cut the flavours with a sweet and hot, basil-chilli chutney.

Lazy cooks, the sauce is almost no-cook, so it is perfect to stock in jars.

Tags: basil, chilli, chutney, cream, lemon, light, lunch, sauce, spaghetti, vegetarian

How sweet

Rose water and vanilla cupcake with chocolate and sea salt ganache

Chocolate blends with sea salt like Avril Lavigne and her high notes. Be it dark or sweet – salt cuts through the saccharinity in a way that it is hard to tell. The key is to use just a sprinkle, not going overboard and staying on the edge – for an edgy taste.

Today, I used a pinch of sea salt to spruce up my regular chocolate ganache. Unlike refined salt, sea salt leaves a  heavy, rustic taste when combined with chocolate.

The rest of the cupcake is infused with mild flavours such as vanilla and rose water.

Tags: chocolate, cupcake, dessert, eggless, ganache, rose water, sea salt, unique cupcake idea, vanilla

Crêpe of good hope

Whole wheat crêpes stuffed with thyme seasoned winter squash ragout

Paper thin sheet with a soft centre and crispy outside, is my idea of a perfect crêpe. Whether it is sweet or savoury, the above three criteria need to be met.

Since I am a vegetarian, the tough job was to find an eggless recipe that gave a flawless result. After months of working with several yolk alternatives (butter, whisked yogurt, cornflour and what not), I concocted something of my own. A simple, five-ingredient recipe that gives a result closest to my idea of an ideal crêpe.

The recipe is versatile, which means you can add sugar for sweet crepes and salt for savoury. The filling can range from creamy mushroom, spinach and ricotta to basil-strawberries and apple-cinnamon.  Once in a while, you can even spoil yourself by swapping whole wheat with all-purpose flour.