Skimble-Skamble

Brown sugar

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:50:00 +0000

"If you find the bus, take it, whether you want to go or not", my parents would joke, especially when they would see a bus to Koramangala or something.

I seem to have inherited the same attitude, but for baking items - when I see the hard-to-find Trust brown sugar, I just buy it, irrespective of whether I need it or not.

A bit of a problem, yeah. But brown sugar is so useful, both in recipes calling for chocolate and fruit. I've made my favourite cookie recipe again and again only with granulated white sugar. It works fine, but the grains sometimes show up in the final cookie - not nice.

So right now there's a batch of dough, brown sugar version, resting, ready to be baked. Excited!

Something new

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 15:48:00 +0000

I've been confined, more or less, to one room over the last two days, and I suspect this will continue till about Tuesday. This is new, and interesting.

I've often wondered what it would be like to “do nothing” for a couple of days, and I'm getting a good idea of that. I have all my necessary gadgets – laptop, phone, hard drive, notebooks, books – which means I can keep myself intellectually occupied.

But I've still been – shame, shame – yawningly bored at times. It's doing strange things to me. In moments of laziness, I'll just zone out and play endless games of tetris or watch Modern Family. When I'm a bit more aware of the opportunities this thing presents to me, I'll focusedly read/write/think about something.

So the new thing is this sort of confinement. Which is, overwhelmingly, more positive than negative. But it's also allowing me to learn about myself, about how much I depend on things like ACJ and the Internet for stimulation, and how much I depend on that stimulation for my overall mood and so on.

Bhupen Hazarika

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:19:00 +0000

1926-2011.

Two of his most memorable songs are below.

**

A lecturer at college would probably criticise my selection and urge me to push beyond, and look for his more folksy tunes. And I will.

But for now, these two songs, because I have the strongest connections to these. I heard the Rudali song as a very young girl, of about 6 or 7 I think. It still makes me heart-clenching sadness, and simultaneously intoxicated.

Then there's Ganga. I remember watching the video with my mother (whose birth name was Ganga) and childishly trying to hide how moved I was by the song. I remember buying the cassette from a store in 9th cross, Malleswaram. We probably still have it, I should look for it.

**
The "Ganga behti ho kyon" version that became popular a few years ago:

Dil Hoom Hoom Kare

Something old

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:17:00 +0000

I can't believe I've gotten old enough that my keyboard is old. Of course, there are other old things I've been in touch with: my father's frayed copy of Of Human Bondage, which I consumed eagerly as a fourteen year-old; my mother's old saris; report cards from class 1.

But my keyboard is a bit more personal than that, especially because I begged for it. Uh, it's another matter that I've slipped in and out of playing it of late.

It's nearly ten years old now; my father gifted it to me one day in 2002, after the toy keyboard he had bought me from Netherlands became insufficient for my growing musical ambitions. There was the school prayer part to play and practice for, for one, and I had been sulking (in some grandiose terms like 'lack of support for talent' and all, I am certain).

The thing I like about it is that it's not fancy. It's a wonderful keyboard to learn to play: it's not for an accomplished keyboardist. It's for someone who's fascinated, a bit obsessed – enough to pick up a song from the bank by watching the visual keyboard guide built in to it.

The first thing I learned on it was Pachelbel's Canon in D. Today I'm sick of the tune and how overplayed it is, but as a girl of twelve or thirteen, it was quite the best thing in the world. Simple, easy to pick up, easy to impress people with (a couple of friends were so enamoured of the piece that they would say I should 'play it at their wedding').

I still sit at my CTK-481 once in a while and play a couple of chords. Over the years, my exposure to instruments has grown: I've heard real grand pianos, uprights, and very good electric pianos. So the sound of my keyboard does strike me as a bit harsh. But you know. That's the thing about old, unpretentious friends: you keep returning to them.

Speaking ill of the dead

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:42:00 +0000

Steve Jobs, in this case.

But cut through the initial irritation, and you'll get the strongest criticism of the man:

"Jobs has also been Darth Vader to the open-source movement by giving us hermetically sealed products. You can’t tweak ’em. You can’t fix ’em. You can only use software that Apple will profit from."

Full post here.

On the fare at the Shatabdi Express

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:42:00 +0000

"Just got those twigs of breadsticks and I refused them triumphantly. In some parts of the world people use this condiment as a choostick for strengthening teeth and gums. In other parts of the world, they lodge this stick vertically inside crocodiles' mouths to keep it open..."

[K]

"...anything he damn well pleases".

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:09:00 +0000

"...The government [is] extremely fond of amassing great quantities of statistics. These are raised to the nth degree, the cube roots are extracted, and the results are arranged into elaborate and impressive displays. What must be kept ever in mind, however, is that in every case, the figures are first put down by a village watchman, and he puts down anything he damn well pleases. "-- Sir Josiah Stamp

Heh-heh. Worth a chuckle, especially in this current atmosphere of data worship.

A comparison: India Inc's two open letters to "our leaders", January and October 2011

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:09:00 +0000

Jan 2011. Source: The Hindustan Times

Oct 2011. Source: CNN-IBN.

They seem to be much louder about some things this time around.

Links to original wordles.

Barack Obama's speech at the UNGA - Wordle

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 09:46:00 +0000

2010

2011

Typical frequencies of events on a day at ACJ

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 18:08:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:08:00 +0000

This whole business that somehow one kind of problem is less legitimate just because it doesn't address the needs of the most acutely affected.

Bugs me. Majorly.

It's not about hierarchy. I agree that there are issues faced by some combination of the urban-elite-middle class variety; these are, very likely, different from issues faced by the non-elite. I'm not denying that.

But that doesn't mean that talking about the urban/elite/whatever else problem is somehow less legitimate. It's a silencing tactic: "there are people much worse off than you". I'm sure no one's denying that.

I'm not taking on the rest of the movement's issues, but a lot of the criticism of Delhi's SlutWalk was on these lines. What right do you have to talk about street harassment and the right to wear clothes of your choosing! When there are far worse problems!

It's this old thing about 'quality', when it comes down to it; "I only want the highest quality" of x/y/z, applied incongruously to context. And I'm sick of hearing about it. When speaker A has spoken in depth about issue B, there will invariably be a concern: but what about C, which is far, far worse and far more important than B?

I'm allowing myself a rant, so I'm saying this: I wish people would stop shopping for problems, 'issues', making it a matter of superiority what cause you represent. Just bin it.

I've been busy,

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:32:00 +0000

...but I haven't been doing interesting things.

One thing I did do - and loved - is bake these peaches and cream cupcakes as a farewell of sorts to my oven. Photos are, sadly, not forthcoming (permanent camera arrangement still to be organised).

The little dolls were left with A, but an illness prevented their immediate consumption, and I recommended not eating stale whipped cream frosting, so. Er. I don't know what quite became of them.

Of course, event B happened. And that's what has taken my time. So I'm seriously considering unsubscribing to alllll my food blogs, eek...

Weekend baking

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:33:00 +0000

I'm considering the following options:

Maple Walnut Cake from Bakeaholic - because I still haven't used the maple syrup, shame on me!
Hazelnut thumbprints from Smitten Kitchen - with almonds, not hazelnuts.

I'll also probably make a batch of maple-glazed walnuts if I can, and the old standby: dark chocolate walnut cookies for a few of the favourite people in my life.

Speaking of favourite people: have I mentioned that I absolutely love David Lebovitz? His sly sense of humour, and his unpretentious but instructive voice is really nice. And now I love him more after making some of his whipped cream-lightened lemon curd. How. very. yummy. I must make it again...

Tippy

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:31:00 +0000

Soon, it will have been one year since Tippy found us. That night, when she recognised the car and ran to greet us, after a month of not seeing us, still feels somewhat fairytale to me, and is the irrevocable proof of the fact that there's something special about this girl.

It's been a thoroughly magical, interesting experience to have her around. She's currently limping a little after an extra-rough session of play with her doggie pal Brownie, and this breaks my heart; I hope she'll be better soon!

But there's nothing else like having her around the house and being around her, watching her sleep with her superpretty expressions, eating together, playing, watching her play.

The love of a good dog really does put things into perspective.

Recent baking

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:39:00 +0000

I wish I had photographs to put up, but not for a while.

Chocolate orange muffins

I tried these out after a lot of research. I was very specific about what I wanted - each muffin had to be a reasonable amount of calories, reasonably filling and delicious, not too heavy, and, preferably, with a few good things thrown in without doing me too much harm. I had made up my mind about using whole wheat flour. There was a beautiful little cluster of orange zest that I had grated up from an orange that I had eaten the day before, and I wanted to use it. And I definitely wanted it to have yogurt.

I considered these two recipes from smitten kitchen, and then settled on this one from Baking Bites. This blog seems to have a fair collection of not-too-unappealing low-fat baking recipes - I've made and enjoyed Nicole's low fat lemon curd in the past. (Though, as I have been saying lately, I have fallen into the camp of "if you want a healthy dessert, eat fruit").

So I tried it out, with just a change or two. I used a cup of whole wheat flour and half a cup of all-purpose, added the orange zest to the dry ingredients, and baked them in muffin pans, topped with a few sprinkles of flaxseed (just for fun). The recipe gave me about 15 muffins.

D's cupcakes
She had requested 4 lemon, 4 choc chip, 4 chocolate and 4 strawberry cupcakes. It was a nice challenge, making scaled-down recipes of frostings and cupcakes, and all...I wasn't nearly as prepared as I should have been, though! So that meant I spent 3PM-1230AM baking. On the job. Like not 100% of the time, but involved.

Anyway. They turned out really well. I had to do a bit of tweaking for the frostings, but it was all good. I used a strawberry whipped cream for the strawberry cupcakes, this chocolate fudge frosting for both choc chip and choc cupcakes, and a lemon whipped cream for the lemon cupcakes.

Chocolate walnut cookies

D's mother very kindly gave me a bagful of Goan cashews after I delivered the cupcakes for D, so I was determined to make some for BB, who had been complaining about the lack of suitable (to him) material emerging from my new oven (ie, no cookies, more muffins than he likes). So I set about making these cookies (finally) - had my eye on them for years! Okay, a little over a year (when it was published). I had a big block of Morde chocolate as well that I'd bought for D's cupcakes, so was able to chop it up for huge gooey chips in the cookies. And I used 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup cashews (on a request from BB himself)

While sifting the dry ingredients, I realised that I was out of cocoa. Argh. I had barely more than 1/3 cup, which is just about half the amount required! So I used some leftover fudge frosting and melted chocolate from D's cupcakes, which I incorporated into the butter-sugar mixture. It worked so well, but added an almost unbearable richness! I also subbed in 1 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar instead of all brown sugar (because I didn't have that much on me).

The first batch burnt a little on the bottom - but that may have been because of the black pan I used. Shifted to my trusty cookie sheet, and all was well again...baked half and gave them to BB, and froze the rest.

Lemon curd tarts

Something I'd been meaning to make for the longest time. I love the ones they serve at Cafe Pascucci, and have grabbed one more than once :) (paying their exorbitant price, yes!). But the idea is just so simple - buttery crust filled with tangy lemon curd. So I was dying to try it out.

I finally bought a good pack of lemons specifically for the curd, made the curd using quantities from here and directions from here - because I don't feel comfortable if I'm not cooking eggs directly on heat! I strained the curd nicely before letting it set. Then, two days later, I finally made the pastry shells with the same recipe from Joy of Baking.

Boy, do I ever suck at pastry stuff. I really do. And by pastry, I mean pie crust. I don't know how many times I've tried it, but I mess up each time. This time, too. I changed the procedure to fit my mini-muffin tin, of course (and they did turn out cute as a button). But it wasn't pleasant. Next time I'm just going to go a shortbread cookie dough route, like I've done before with success.

Anyway. Managed 9 mini tarts, with a bit of lemon curd left over (that goes on pancakes!).

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:52:00 +0000

Seven-year-old Boy 1: Aiyo go man, people will vomit in the new metro, so its no use.

Seven-year-old Boy 2: But what will people do if they want to vomit, man? Like that only you'll keep off the vomit in your stomach aa? Health is more important than development.

----------------------------------------

I was returning from work today via the beautiful, traffic-free road, and there were three boys, up to my knee at most in height, conducting the above discussion.

Health is more important than development. What happened to kalla-police, man?

Orange crepes with brown butter sauce

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:14:00 +0000

The other day, when I went shopping for this pasta recipe, I decided on a whim to buy myself a Valencia orange. I usually avoid these types because they scream IMPORTED as if it's a good thing (I'm no locavore fundamentalist, but still). So I avoid the 200-bucks-a-kg Granny Smiths that keep turning up (they're so yummy, though, that I occasionally spend 30 bucks and treat myself to one), the 150-bucks-a-kg Red Deliciouses, and so on.

But that day was my last with S's oven, so I felt like indulging myself. I've been trying to expand my repertoire of non-chocolate recipes; that, of course, means turning to fruit. So for the longest time my chief non-chocolate ingredient used to be lemon, particularly because my friends at college used to love it (hi, you guys!). Or apples. Baked into anything with cinnamon, the folks used to go crazy for it. I recently made Bakerella's easy apple cake (a day after it was posted!), and I really enjoyed it. Oh and yes, I made it sans the sinful sinful glaze! I was sold by the idea of adding dates.

Anyway. I digress. The orange. I bought it, and grated its zest. It was such a joy to grate an orange for its zest - it was so plentiful, and came off so easily! I got a good tablespoon or two out of it (I didn't measure). However, by the time I got around to actually using it, the oven had to be returned. So I had to do something no-bake with it. Anyway, I squeezed the juice as well, added some of the zest to a bowl of sugar to make orange scented sugar, and set about to make orange crepes. (Of course, I like my crepes the way I like my dosas - crisp edges, and well browned - so no fluffiness for me :P ).

I settled on a halved version of this recipe, made the batter and went about my business while it rested in the fridge. For a glaze, I chose to thicken the orange juice with some flour. This was a mistake. I considered just simmering it with some sugar, like I often do with lemons, but I felt that the orange juice was sweet enough on its own, and just needed a bit of thickness. It wasn't inedible, but definitely something to skip next time.

The recipe makes 4 crepes, so after making 2 yesterday I was left with enough batter for two more today. Today I decided to go a slightly different route - making the crepes the same way, but with another glaze.

So essentially I browned some butter in a pan, take it off the heat and threw in some brown sugar. Then I added a dash of vanilla, and to add some orange flavour to the glaze I added a pinch of the orange sugar I'd assembled earlier.

I spooned this lightly over the crepe while it was cooking, and also on top after I'd rolled it up. This is very rich, so a little goes a long way!

Keeper tomato-eggplant pasta-1

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 04:12:00 +0000

So after many versions, I've decided I'm going to file this one. I first heard it from an Italian who works in Bangalore; made it once a while ago and made it again today, with a few tweaks. Who says you have to have fancy (and expensive!) cheese for pasta? :p Sure, shaved parmesan would have been...divine over this. But it worked very well just the same.

Another (perhaps controversial) thing I did was to use only one pot throughout - for blanching tomatoes, boiling pasta and cooking the sauce.

I'd love suggestions on the tomato part. Am I wasting too much, by only using the pulp?

-------------------------
Cube one eggplant (the large kind), and place in colander. Salt liberally, making sure to evenly distribute the salt. Then place a plate or something on top (I am guessing a layer of plastic wrap would work also) and some weights (I used glass bottles).

Score the bottoms of eight medium tomatoes with a knife (to make the peeling easier).

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Plunge the tomatoes in for about 15 seconds, remove, and peel. (Also, salt the water, bring again to a boil, and throw in the pasta). Lop off the tops, and squeeze out the seeds and juices. Chop roughly.

Finely chop about 7 cloves of garlic. (I'm all about the garlic).

By now the pasta should have finished cooking. Drain and toss with some oil (and reserve the pasta water, for heaven's sake!).

Heat about 1T oil (I used olive oil, I admit...but anything else would work too!) in the same pot (after rinsing it a little, to remove any starchy remnants from the pasta). After the oil starts to sizzle, add the garlic and cook for a few seconds.

By now the eggplant should have released a significant amount of brown liquid. Pat dry with paper towel, and throw into the pot. Cook on medium heat for a good 10 minutes or so, stirring and coating with the oil.

Add the chopped-up tomato pulp, and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes more. Add a generous sprinkling of salt. If things start to dry out, add pasta water. To bring things together, add some tomato puree.

I like adding freshly ground (as in, pounded in a mortar and pestle!) black pepper to the whole affair, as well as a dab of butter. And that's it. I'm done!

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Start to finish, the whole thing is about 45 minutes. And these proportions make for a massive quantity of sauce, too! I have quite a bit of pasta leftover, because I went to Rajdhani today with the friends...so it's pasta for breakfast, pasta for lunch tomorrow. Yay.

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:59:00 +0000

Raag Kaushikdhwani has been stuck in my head since A sang it at her concert recently. I listened to it yesterday on my way to work, and god it is beautiful. I've been talking to anyone who'll listen about it. Just the simple omission of notes creates such depth, such expressive possibility. Boggles the mind.

This one's essentially an all-major version of Malkauns. sa ga ma dha ni. So beautiful. That most tragic note of, to put it in the most unsophisticated terms, the happyandthesad. Was talking to AK yesterday about other raags like this...Jog is one more, and Bhimpalas is another one, for me...and of course, Baageshri.

Of course, there's also Multani on the brain...the versatile, powerful, sensual fella. Been thinking about the harmonic parallels of the ni and the ma in the scale, that interval of a fifth...offers a lot of potential for pleasing riffs like dha ma pa - re ni sa and stuff like that. Must spend a little more time around this.

Chocolate-coffee marble cake

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:29:00 +0000

A friend was kind enough to lend me her father's oven. I didn't bake nearly as much as I should have, but it's better than nothing!
I'm returning it tomorrow, so I baked a cake today: roughly adapted from Joy The Baker's Mocha Coffee Coffee Cake (er. I don't get the bit with the repeated "coffee" either).
More for my records than anything else, I'll post the altered recipe here. My main changes were to use yogurt instead of sour cream, to up the proportions of both coffee and chocolate and to marble the whole thing (mainly because I didn't have a Bundt pan I could use). I also omitted the glaze, and because I halved the whole thing, baked for about 20 minutes.
The cake had a strong, pleasing coffee flavour - that's definitely the dominant element here, at least with my changed proportions. The chocolate flavour was somewhat dimmed, I'd say...but I'm not really complaining. Next time, I'd probably use a little lesser coffee powder, and add in a good-quality melted chocolate (which means, Bourneville, ugh) instead of the cocoa-water mixture.
In times when I haven't had immediate access to a printer, I've often copied out recipes into my notebook, and enjoyed the romance of the whole thing - maybe someday my grandchildren will find it and bake out of it? - stuff like that. While copying these several recipes out, I've often wondered why they're written the way they are - ingredients first, directions next. I often convert them into one set of integrated (with quantities, ie) directions, so I'll write this out in the same format, as well. I just think it makes for so much more easy baking.

I'm writing this out with the quantities I used this time: will vary in future editions. I'd also like to add something by way of texture - not sure about walnuts, they'll infuse the whole affair with their oils! - maybe almonds? Oh, and also: I know the proportion of leaveners may not work on the simple division I've done - all I can say is it worked for me!

---------------------------------

Generously butter a 9-inch aluminium pan. Measure out 1.5T instant coffee powder, and dissolve in 1T hot water. Do the same with 1.5T cocoa powder and 1T hot water. Set aside. Whisk together 1c flour, 1/2t baking powder, 1/4t baking soda and a generous pinch salt. Cream 6T butter with 1/2c sugar, till light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg, and 1t vanilla. Add half of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2c yogurt, followed by the rest of the flour mixture. Mix only gently, till just incorporated.

Divide the batter into three equal parts; add the cocoa mixture to one, the coffee mixture to the other. Spoon the three batters into the pan and swirl gently to marble. Bake for 20 minutes.
---------------------------------

Other stuff I've made lately includes an uber-simple tomato sauce, and blueberry-lemon crepes.

I know, blueberries! Pampered. The very kind K bought me a giant jar of blueberry preserves (from abroad, as my mother would say). So I just made the basic crepe recipe, made a syrup of sorts with the preserves by simmering with extra water, made another syrup with lemon juice and sugar, filled the crepes with the blueberry filling and topped with lemon syrup. It was wonderful, except that the lemon I used was a little raw, so it had a slightly bitter edge.

The sauce happened yesterday, when one more of those serious pasta cravings hit. All we had were four tomatoes (no garlic! imagine!). So I blanched and peeled the tomatoes while cooking a chopped onion in olive oil on low heat. Then I chopped up the tomato, discarding the seeds, and threw it into the pot, and added some salt (because that's supposed to help the tomato break down, I hear). After a bit, I added a dash of tomato puree. The sauce seemed to be cooking down at quite an alarming rate, so I did what I'd been curious to do for so long - threw in some pasta water from the almost-done pasta on the next burner. The whole thing was awesome!

I still want to try the famous Marcella Hazan version, with a whole stewed onion and butter. I also wanted to give homemade pasta another shot today, but that didn't happen...soon, I guess.

Carrot Cake

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:08:00 +0000

Oh my. This was unbelievable. I put in walnuts for the first time, and somehow that made all the difference.

Recipe . I halved it, and it still gave me 16 substantial slices.

Yumness.

Some practice photos, along the way...

Walnuts, pre-toasting.

Walnuts, post-toasting. Toast-posting. Yum does not begin to cover it.

Carrots.

A slice looked like this.

Stop staring at me.

Seriously. Ooops.

And then suddenly I had these many on my plate.

Go make this. Now.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and a Lemon Cake

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:06:00 +0000

Recipes from here and here. Too lazy to write now, so just photographs. As exercises.

Beautiful, no?

I snuck a crumb to test the lemoniness. It was nice and strong, but I decided to go ahead and make the syrup too.

A slice. Beautiful, crumby, and lemony. I ate 4.

Homemade generic cheese + mini cheesecakes

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:40:00 +0000

There was a time not so long ago when I was into facebook memes and stuff in a major way. So there was this one question on one of them (under the "faves" section) which asked me about my favourite food.

Naturally, my list ran something like this:

Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, all kinds of peppers, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, walnuts, cashewnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, apricots, almost all kinds of beans, whole wheat bread, daily bread's tomato-cheese focaccia, dark chocolate, some milk chocolate, cadbury's fruit and nut, cadbury's temptations (raisin and apricot), freska's vegetable burgers, freska's potato wedges, freska's vegetarian moussaka, cornerhouse's death by chocolate, cornerhouse's cake fudge, cornerhouse's fruit salad+jelly, cornerhouse's hot chocolate fudge, cornerhouse's coffee icecream, cornerhouses's chocolate icecream, nesara's rava onion masala dosa with mint chutney, nesara's cashew masala, nesara's butter naan, nesara's aloo palak, nesara's vegetable pulao, blue mount's mexican chaat, banana chips, salted potato chips, bingo mad angles (green), bingo tedhe medhe, college canteen's 1-plate-vada-soaked-in-awe

some-sambar, college canteen's veg rice (especially when it has those bits of fried bread cubes, oooooh), ching's noodles (all flavours), maggi cuppa mania, mug noodles, saumph.

This was about a year ago. If I examine it closer, I'll have more things to add.

I take food seriously. Yeah.

On that note, if you haven't already, check out Jamie Oliver's TED Talk. It's...really something.

So my oven died. I found out yesterday. I was grieving. And then I decided that I would not be deterred by the lack of an oven and I decided to make The Kitchn's one-ingredient icecream. It was good. Very banana-y. Today I added some peanut butter and honey to one scoop and cocoa to another, and Juhi seemed to have liked it. :)

I also made Pioneer Woman's caramel sauce. Yowza. Was that ever good. I gave that away to Juhi too...but not before scraping off the caramel-flavoured butter that rose to the top.

Anyway...I did something I'd been wanting to do for a while, and made cheese. Yes. Cheese. I'd bought a pack of citric acid crystals

I used this recipe from Tarla Dalal, with full-fat milk.

Some pictures of the process...

Crumble some biscuits.

Melt some butter.

Mix the two together, and press into a minimuffin tin. Chill. I added some caramel sauce to this. It made a nice addition!

Set some milk to boil, slowly.

Line a colander with cheesecloth.

Measure out 1 tsp citric acid crystals. (Yes, you can see "scathing critique of newspapers" written in my clear bag. It's for a presentation for one of my classes)

Dissolve it in 1/2 cup warmish water. (You can also see me in the spoon here).

Meanwhile, boil one liter of milk and set aside for a few minutes.

Then pour the citric acid solution into the milk. It should instantly, satisfyingly curdle and look like this:

Pour into the colander.

Then drain, etc, etc, or scrape off the cheese with a spoon. Reserve the whey for drinking/using in chapati or something (I'm feeling lazy, I know).

Whizz the stuff in a blender to thicken+smoothen it, then add some sugar+vanilla+whatever other flavouring you want and refrigerate. Just to make it easier to handle. Or you could skip that too.

Then we carefully spoon this onto the muffin tins layered with crust. Mmm, it's such an exciting process! After refrigerating for a while (this thing thickens nicely!), we have

I made twelve.

Between me and Anusha, there are 3 left.

They're...that good. And simple. And satisfying. And cute.

There was this point

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:04:00 +0000

in 1st year. When I had decided that I was going to study something like Culture Studies or Postcolonialism... or something related to critical theory.

And then I'm here, and I find that it is not an option anymore.

Why?

I think this is because the debate about "analysing" art reached a sort of resolution in my head at some point. My first experience with actual close reading of texts was in year 1 when we studied ads and tried to understand how they worked. I also spent a lot of time that year trying to work out my thoughts about literature and "how" to study literature.

So there's this whole school of people that say "by analysing a text so much, aren't we ruining it" and then there's the academics of literature/culture which wouldn't exist without the whole practise of analysis, close reading, etc.

I don't fall strictly on either end. I definitely don't mind analysis, in terms of the attention it forces you to pay to the text. A quote from a book called The Anatomy of Literary Studies has stuck with me: "greater intimacy with a text, as with people, can help us love it better". This quote kind of fuses the two opposite ends of the spectrum for me, the spectrum in which there's a binary between "loving" and "understanding" art.

It's possible to retain both aesthetics and analysis. I enjoy answering not just the question, "do I enjoy it? does it work for me?" but also "how/why does it manage to work for me?".

I've been forced to deal with this question because I study film and literature at college. But I've also become particularly conscious of this in two other spheres: music and media (ie news/advertising, mostly).

I have a friend who intuitively picks out what some might describe as very cerebral music, music that jars upon the typical ear. Music that sounds messy at first listen. But closer examination (and a sharp, often necessarily trained ear) will reveal all kinds of clevernesses and complexities built into the music, such as a particularly nuanced beat, or an unintuitive chord/progression, etc.

While I happen to share some of this friend's tastes, I intuitively don't look for complexity in music; I look for pleasure. Be it Hindustani music or rock/jazz/other genres, I look for pleasure - in particularly well-written verses, or in a funky beat (most often this, I admit), or a superb singer. If any of these criteria are met, I register that song as being enjoyable.

This is particularly true for Hindustani music. I bring a very Philistinic perspective to the table. If something doesn't sound nice to me I dislike it, despite whatever enormous skill and talent might lie behind that. And so, for example, I dislike much of Bhimsen Joshi's singing. He's a doyen, and all that - no doubt. But his voice is just so...unpleasant to my ears. I'd much rather listen to Kaushiki Chakrabarty or my teacher's other students, Rithisha or Anagha.

Brownie pops

noreply@blogger.com (tinuviel) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:06:00 +0000

They were awesome.

I love Bakerella.

She's so creative. Bubbling with all the coolest, coolest ideas!

Start with this. It's easy, and happy, and heavenly.

Then, when the stuff doesn't lend itself to neat cutting-into-squares, decide that you must make brownie pops.

Then roll them into balls and refrigerate overnight.

Then do this:

I've never seen a Cadbury's Almond Temptations so naked and whole like this. It was fun.

Then gently melt the stuff, and dip the brownie balls into it, spooning melted chocolate over the brownie. It's a fun experience, I tells ya. Everyone should do it. Especially the day before their viva for a research dissertation by two very sharp, funny, and in general make-fun-of-your-idiocy types :p

You then get this.

Life is good.

Unless you have cavities. They'll sting if you eat these.

Holiday to-do task #1: Visit dentist.

PS I also spent some fun time with my sister taking the much-desired pictures of sugar.

This kind

and

this kind.

Anyone have tips on how to take kind#1 with a digital camera?