eCurry - The Recipe Blog

I had been in search of a perfect Rich Fruit cake for many months now. Just the way we used to have back home, during Christmas time - rich, moist, a zillions pieces of fruit at each bite, bursting with different taste & flavor. And every day the taste got better.

It was only during this time of the year that those enormous bowls would come out, to make the cake batter. For lots of cakes had to be baked for sharing. The whole family got involved in preparation & each had their own role to play - Chopping, measuring, and taking turns beating up the batter. Then the batter all ready would be transferred to even bigger containers to be taken to the local bakery to have them baked. The tiny oven at home was not enough to bake so many loaves at the same time. The bakery, I remember would be kept open all night, on the 23rd of December, for many would take their cake batter there.

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Lights, Snow, & Christmas trees
Santa Claus & Shopping Sprees -
Write the cards, share some hugs
Put up the stockings and dust the rugs!
Preparing treats, Wrapping gifts, & busy feet,
Winter parties, trends to keep, friends to meet.
Cakes, Cookies & sugared Cream
Hush ! Listen to the reindeer & sleigh bells
In an exciting dream!
(How I wish I still believed in fantasy tales….),
Starry eyed children licking fingers -
Doorbells, Smiles and (nonstop) telephone ringers
Red, Green, Snowflakes, Glitters…
Too much to do, Help I am in jitters!
Christmas Carols, another New Year,
Its only fair, I join in (& invite you too) -
to all the Festivities twirling in the Air!! 

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I just finished putting up my Christmas Tree & the lights. This time the kids are big enough to help me with decorating the tree. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work, but we are finally done. The only thing we need to do is wait for Santa. On that note, my little one, pulled out a red stocking from the box and came and told me that “Santa Claus lost a sock” & she found it! She has a funny bone.

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My hubby celebrated his birthday a couple of days back. Our 3 year old woke up in the morning -hugged, kissed & wished him. She also reminded him “Don’t forget to wear your crown”, just as he was walking out of the door for work, with no doubt in her mind that he is going through deal of crown, birthday song, cupcakes and cheers…. (more…)

Back to Pre School basics - Red & Blue makes Purple. For almost a month I had been brainstorming to cook something purple or black. Harini’s (sunshinemom) FIC event of this month almost made me loose my sleep. Whenever there is a challenge, I do not feel like cooking something which I have done before. It is always more fun to experiment & come up with something new. Thats the whole purpose, isn’t it?

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With the holidays around the corner, every one is in preparation mood I bet. I am seeing neighbors have started putting up the lights & christmas decorations (which is a constant reminder to me that i should start ours soon). The shopping malls are already decked up and sparkling… red contrasting with fluffy and shimmering white of the snowflakes, & Santa Claus doing his magic with the kids. Here in Dallas, one of the malls even has a machine which is churning up snow every few minutes, all over Santa’s North Pole and the children are running around so excited to get some flakes on them.  Everyone is enjoying…. It indeed turns magical at during this time of the year.

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Kulfi, or unchurned Indian ice cream (without eggs), is a summer must have that you can whip up at home without an ice cream maker. It’s rich and creamy made with pure milk (traditionally & the milk is boiled down to reduce to half its amount), and it’s usually full of nuts in some form. The most common flavors are malai (plain), badam (almond), Elaichi(cardamom), jafrani(saffron) and pistachio. The nuts and the flavors are added to the reduced milk, boiled for some more time, cooled and put in moulds & frozen. Kulfi is traditionally sold on the street in India, in  terracotta molds (matkas) that impart their own beautiful flavor. The dish is of Pakistani or may be even Iranian origin brought to India during the Mughal rule.

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Every evening as I make my cup of coffee, I have this craving for something sweet with it. A biscotti, a slice of cake… & often times I think of the white fruit cake with the colorful candied fruits in it that we would get from the local bakeries back at home. That was long long time back. But certain tastes & aroma stay with you irrespective of the years in between. When I read this recipe, I almost visualised the cake we would have, for the picture given for this was white and the recipe asked for red cherries.

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And a Sweet Little Incident… Here it goes:

The other day we were going out for dinner. For once there was some peace in the car. The 2 kids were not fighting, each of them busy doing thier own things. I noticed that my 2 year old had been looking out of the window for quite sometime, when she cried out ”the moon, the moon! mama the moon is broken. Someone broke the moon…” She was definitely very upset about it. A few days back she had seen an enormous orange full moon, and now all of a sudden it was just a  slice. I wish I had an as imaginative an explaination as her beautiful mind. Later on she herself figured that the cloud must have bitten a piece out of it, since the cloud is the only thing that can reach it!!

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Layered Coffee Gateau

Coffee Gateau is one of the easiest & delicatley delicious desserts I have ever come across. The best part about it is that it does not involve the time consuming labor & stages to create a sophisticated dessert. This is something my hubby & his brother would make together when they were younger, and now my daughter takes the initiative to make this with my hubby. But do not get turned off by the uncomplicated ingredients and the simplicty of the process, for this is indeed a crowd pleasing dessert !!

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