Hope for Haiti and a comfort food of mine.....

All of us know that Haiti was affected by huge earthquake and the enormity of the disaster is huge. I have felt small earthquakes too and that freaked me out. So I can imagine how much the people out there are affected.

H2Ope for Haiti is an online raffle  launched by BloggerAid - Changing the Face of Famine (BA-CFF) to raise funds for Concern Worldwide's relief effort in Haiti.    Concern Worldwide was selected because of its long track record and quick response after the quake to provide clean drinking water and water purification tablets.  This non-governmental international humanitarian organisationfounded in 1968 works around the world to reduce suffering and work towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries.  Concern International has been working in Haiti since 1994 and had over 100 staff members on the ground when the earthquake struck.  Despite losing several team members in the tragedy, they have been quick to act with distribution of supplies. Concern Worldwide estimates that its initial response to the emergency will last at least six months.  The money raised by this raffle will be paid directly into Concern Worldwide's account by Justgiving and will be used exclusively for the Haiti relief effort.

So just head over to Cook Sister  for the list of prizes and a guide to follow and do a small deed because every small drop counts here. You can bid on a lot of wonderful prizes   from personally autographed cookbooks to parcels of French baking goodies to original art.

I am offering a prize in the raffle as well.

It is a cotton stole with traditional Indian motifs handpainted by me. Shipping is worldwide and the advantage is you get to choose the colour of the painted design. The prize code for this is HFH14.

So you could either enter the raffle or pass on the message on twitter, facebook, family et al like it is rightly said : It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can.

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Sometimes the simple things can have the greatest impact. And the simple here being potatoes and the impact being the comfort feeling it showers on me. A plate of hot steaming rice, firm curd and a bowl of sauteed potatoes you see in the picture is my most comforting meal. It is a simple dish that takes hardly any time. What you need is to peel and chop 3 medium-sized potatoes and boil only until is cooked and not too soft. It has to retain its firmness. While it is boiling, heat 2T of coconut oil preferably and splutter 1t  of mustard seed. Add in 1 sliced onion. Meanwhile make a paste of 1T each of ginger and garlic, 1T chilli powder, 1/2 T turmeric powder, 1/2 T pepper powder and salt. . Add this paste to the onions. Sautee until the oil leaves the paste . Add in the boiled potatoes and stir to coat them well with the past. Cover and let it cook for about 5 minutes. I would suggest you roast the potatoes until it has a crisp outside. It also results in the caramelization of the onions which enhances the flavour further. Roasted to perfection, I had a hearty meal!!!

Mississippi Mud Cake

I love the name (Mississippi Mud Cake) for the most part. Never had, heard or seen  one. So I read on it when I read the choice of this cake for this month on the Cake Slice Bakes. According to what I have been reading on the internet, the mud cake was derived from the ever popular dessert, the mud pie. This messy pie is nothing but a chocolate pie with a crusty top that resembles mud of the Mississippi river! The mud cake is said to be a more delicious form of the pie. The crust in the pie is replaced in the cake with a fudgy brownie of pecans or walnuts.It is topped with icecream and frozen. This is again topped with cream and chocolate sauce. Now who could resist that whether they resemble mud or not. I could never. The cake slice version of the mud cake is where the brownie is topped with marshmallows followed by a rich sweet chocolate sauce.

What you need for this are:

 Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

Makes one 13 x 9 inch sheet cake

For the Cake:

226g unsalted butter, cut into biug chunks

½ cup cocoa powder

4 eggs, beaten well

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups sugar 

1½ cups all purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (I used roasted walnuts )

For the Mississippi Mud Frosting:

3¼ cups confectioners sugar

½ cup cocoa powder

113g unsalted butter, melted

½ cup milk or evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 cups mini marshmallows or 3 cups large marshmallows quartered

Method for the Cake:

1) Heat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 13x9 inch pan. In a medium saucepan combine the butter and cocoa powder and cook over medium heat, stirring now and then, until the butter is melted and the mixture is well blended, about 3 – 4 minutes. Stir in the beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, flour, salt and pecans and beat until the batter is well combined and the flour has disappeared.

2) Quickly pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the cake springs back when touched gently in the centre and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan.

3) While the cake bakes, prepare the frosting so it is ready to pour over the hot cake.

Method for the Mud Frosting:

1) In a medium bowl combine the confectioners sugar and the cocoa powder and stir to mix well. Add the melted butter, milk and vanilla and beat everything together well. Set aside until the cake is done.

To Serve:

1) Remove the cake from the oven, scatter the marshmallows over the top and then return the cake to the hot oven for about 3 minutes to soften the marshmallows.

2) Place the cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack. Pour the frosting all over the marshmallow dotted cake and eat straight away or allow to cool to room temperature. Cut the cake into squares and serve.

 I halved the recipe and cut down on the amount of sugar in both the cake and the frosting after having read about it being sweet in the reviews. A fudgy delight is what I would term this. The topping of marshmallow chocolatey goodness is amazingly good. And yes, if  you want to indulge yourself in ooey-gooey chocolate bountiness, this is the recipe for you!

Orange/Choco-chip Loaf

2

Yesterday very early in the morning as soon as I was out of bed, there were three oranges begging to be used because they were bored of just being there with no one wanting to look at them, forget even peeling and eating them all for the reason that their batchmates turned out to be very sour.  I have been wanting to bake a bread which somehow never seemed to work out. I had a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips, which I have been hesitant to open for it getting over. The chocolate chips that you get in India aren't so huge. You could actually call the ones you get in India, mini chocolate chips. I Adapted the recipe from here .

What you need are:

3 medium sized oranges (grate the rind and save the juice)

2 C AP Flour

1 and  1/2 C Sugar

1 t Baking Powder

1/2 t Baking Soda

1t Salt

1 egg

2 T Butter (melted)

1 Vanilla bean

1 C Chocolate Chips

Juice 3 oranges. Boil enough water to make 1 cup when added with the orange juice. I  added the vanilla bean and the grated rind to the boiling water before adding it to the juice. The flavours seeped in real well. Set this aside to cool.

Combine the dry and the wet ingredients separately except for the chocolate chips. Fold in the dry ingredients to the wet. Stir in the chocolate chips and sprinkle some on top as well. Transfer to a well greased loaf tin and bake in a preheated oven at 175 degree C until done. Mine was done in 30 minutes.

Resist the temptation to slice it while it is still hot. We couldn't and the daughter couldn't refuse picking out the chocolate chips.
The original recipe says to use 1 orange. The reviews say the citrus taste was very subtle. This was why I juiced 3 oranges. The bread was not overtly sweet. With the amount of butter being very less, this is a quick and a very easy loaf to make. The waft of the citrusy aroma is very enchanting here and it is a hard-to-resist slice every time you lay your eye on it.

This loaf is off to Monthly Mingle: Bread & Chocolate.

Glazed Citrus Cake---Sticky and Moist

When I see plump lemons in the market, I buy them for sure because such chances of finding them are quite rare. And when I buy such lovely looking lemons they definitely have to be either made into a ginger lemon punch, bars or definitely a cake.  And I opted for te latter because I bake a cake for every week for that special craving. I expected this cake to last a week but it was gone in a couple of days. 

What you need for the cake are (From the book, The good cook: Cakes and Pastries (1983)):

 Butter-175g

Sugar-200g

Eggs-3

 Flour-200g

Baking Powder-2t

Cornflour-100g

Milk-125ml

Lemons-2 (rind grated and juice strained) (Note: This will vary depending on the size and tartness of the lemon. So adjust accordingly)

Cream the butter. Add in the sugar gradually. Add the egg and the lemon juice to the creamed butter and beat until you get a very foamy batter. Fold in the flour and the cornflour by the tablespoon. Add the lemon rind and milk, a little at a time. Pour into a prepared tin and bake at 180 degree C for 45 mins. Once baked, transfer to cool. While it is cooling, resist the temptation to eat it and instead pierce the cake in several areas and rip a little lemon juice mixed with sugar for that extra tanginess. I poured the remaining over the cake to glaze it. I sprinkled powdered sugar for just the appeal and does not hamper the flavor in any way. It only adds to it.

For people who love all things lemony, this is ideal. Tart and sweet at the same time, it hits you at the right spot!!!

Black Pepper-Strawberry Sorbet

When from a supermarket, I bought pretty, juicy strawberries, all I wanted to do was preseve them because I would be away for a couple of days and there was no way I wanted them to ripen and be of no use when I got back. So the smart (is what I think) me freezed the batch for later use. I freezed it in the box it came in.


I got back and promptly left the box on my counter to defreeze. But an hour later they were all soft and very tender and had lost their shape. What I did was to use them in a sorbet. a plain strawberry one was too boring. So this recipe is what I followed.

What you need are (Adapted from My recipes.com)

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C water

1 T coarsely crushed black peppercorns

3 C sliced strawberries ( about 12 medium sized strawberries gave me this)

1 T fresh lemon juice

Bring sugar and water to boil in a pan until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the peppercorns and set aside.Sieve this syrup.

Puree the strawberries and the lemon juice adding the sugar syrup in it in batches.

Pour this in a freezer-safe dish and freeze until firm. Serve and enjoy.

Light and very refreshing dessert. And the colour is very delightful. The best part is that is neither too heavy nor too sweet owing to the lime juice and the sugar which is in perfect balance.