The New Year is always welcomed with wine and cake, but you also need something substantial in your stomach to remain steady on your feet 🙂 My Bacon Wrapped Meat Loaf will provide loads of protein and fat to prepare you for your next trip around the sun. I had seen bacon wrapped dishes and wanted to try one myself. I created this recipe from scratch and a clip from a TV show taught me how to wrap bacon; my daughter came to my aid and did it to perfection.
Everyone expects fruit cake at Christmas time but that takes a long time and a lot of effort to make. This Jam Studded Cake technically has fruit in it by way of the strawberry jam. This cake is unusual in using vegetable oil instead of butter and the large number of eggs used. It can be served without accompaniment as a snack, or with ice cream as an after-dinner dessert. You can use either pineapple jam or marmalade if you do not like strawberry jam, in which case you will need to use pineapple or orange essence instead of strawberry essence.
In Thirunelveli, a glutinous rice is powdered and used in the preparation of halwa. It is black in colour and when cooked in water it develops a gel-like consistency. My mother used to make this halwa, grumbling all the time that it took her forever. It was a thick black mass that could be spooned out onto a plate, but it had a delectable taste that strongly resembled the legendary Thirunelveli Halwa. When I wanted to make this halwa, I couldn’t buy the rice in the stores because no one in Chennai knew what puttarisi was. A Facebook friend mentioned that I should look for black Kavuni rice in Chennai. I was finally able to obtain this rice, ironically not in Chennai but from a seller from some small town in Tamil Nadu who had listed it on Amazon. This Puttarisi Halwa is also made by Sri Lankan Tamils and they call this Dhodhal. This recipe is my mother’s version, standardised by me. Unlike kavuni arisi dishes made by other Tamil folk, Thirunelveli people do not use any flavouring agent which retains the original flavour of the ingredients and use white sugar instead of jaggery.
It is customary to leave cookies for Santa on the night before Christmas. I came across this unusual recipe in a book called 1001 Best Baking Recipes of All Time. I was struck by the unusual list of ingredients like rice flour and cardamom with vanilla. I had never used this combination earlier in cookies. When I baked these, I fell in love with both the unique flavour and texture. So, I thought why not give this to Santa – and by Santa, I mean myself 😀
I bought a bottle of treacle and then wanted to make something that used treacle. I set about reading about treacle and the way it is used in recipes. I discovered this recipe in a book from my daughter’s cookbook collection that was given to her in 1988. I was delighted to find that the cake is easy to make and the finished product is very good. My daughter suggested that adding crushed cashew nuts or almonds would transform this cake from being just energy rich to also flavour rich.
Christmas is a time of heavy feasting, with dishes like Turkey Biriyani and Chicken Roast filling the stomach almost to capacity. There isn’t much room for dessert, which is why light desserts are required to add a final flourish to the festive meal. My cousin Ebenezer Edwin, who was the choirmaster and organist of Egmore Wesley Church, was very fond of chocolate bread pudding and his wife Helen used to make it very well. She gave me the recipe in just 4 sentences, and it was a big flop when I made it. As usual, I set about creating a recipe of my own which could be made easily in the Indian kitchen. I like to bake puddings but those who do not wish to do so can even steam it.
Christmas is the time when guests drop in casually, and you would like to be able to serve a hearty meal quickly. This Chicken and Potato Roast doesn’t take much time to cook, and you can continue with other preparations while it is marinating. Though it is a simple dish, it has a special something that can turn food into a feast. My daughter found this recipe on the net, and I modified it to suit the Indian kitchen and palate.
My husband gave me the Best of Baking recipe book (published by Hamlyn as a translation from a German book) for my birthday in 1980. I did not use any of the yeast recipes for 40 years because we couldn’t get proper working yeast in Chennai. Now that I have traced a source for instant yeast, I have become quite adventurous, and for this Christmas I baked Christmas Stollen. The book had 2 versions, with and without fruit. The recipe for the version with fruit can be found here.
This bread has both the characteristics that define the stollen: the curved shape that resembles an aircraft wing, and the lavish sprinkling of icing sugar on the bread.
Most stollen recipes recommend the use of almond flour along with maida. Almond flour is almost totally unheard of in Chennai, and, therefore, I have not included that in the recipe.
Continue readingMy husband gave me the Best of Baking recipe book (published by Hamlyn as a translation from a German book) for my birthday in 1980. I did not use any of the yeast recipes for 40 years because we couldn’t get proper working yeast in Chennai. Now that I have traced a source for instant yeast, I have become quite adventurous, and for this Christmas I baked Christmas Stollen. The book had 2 versions, with and without fruit. The recipe for the version without fruit can be found here. This bread is delicious, but the only drawback, if one could call it that, is that it isn’t sweet enough for the Indian palate even with the topping.
This bread has both the characteristics that define the stollen: the curved shape that resembles an aircraft wing, and the lavish sprinkling of icing sugar on the bread.
Most stollen recipes recommend the use of almond flour along with maida. Almond flour is almost totally unheard of in Chennai, and, therefore, I have not included that in the recipe.
Continue readingAdvent is when we make plans for Christmas, especially for Christmas Eve when Santa drops in. We usually leave cookies and milk for Santa, but I’m sure he’d like a bit of variety in his diet. I decided to make donuts and preferred to bake rather than fry them because I wouldn’t want Santa to get stuck in the chimney 🙂 I added spices used in fruit cakes to add variety, and the chocolate icing to add extra ‘Christmas’ to the donuts. Santa may get chocolate stains on his beard instead of cookie crumbs, so remember to leave a serviette for him.
Kala's Kalai 