Dinner Party

I think this week has made me realise something; I think my daily happiness depends a lot on how much I read about food or cook. I visited my friend Simone on Saturday and while I was there I couldn't not think about baking cake! When we finally started baking the cake, I had the urge to bake two. So a disappointing brown velvet cake brown velvet because the red food colouring we bought produced a disgusting orange dye that became brown after baking and a carrot cake after I think I was pretty satisfied. I mentioned to my dad that I might be getting a bit obsessed with cooking and he said I should stop and work on my portfolio... :( Its probably the last thing I want to be doing right now. Why architecture.. whyyyyy

It's been a while since I've wanted to have a fully fledged dinner party going all out with the ambience, table settings, cutlery and most of all the food. However with my lack of friends it has been a bit difficult to do so. We had Kevin's and Davyn's family over last night for dinner. I had been planning for this dinner for almost a week. I like planning, that way I have time to get things in order and also be less stressed out. This time however I might have taken on more than I could handle. To be honest I woke up at 8 30 am and started preparing. You'd think that that would be more than enough time but there was so much to do and before long I was exhausted.

The gravadlax was done and in the refrigerator but the thing that took the most amount of time was the m'hanncha that I wanted to make, wrap in foil and paper and put into small silver board boxes for the guests to take home. After that was done I had to make the labels for the m'hanncha and the drinks. Seriously wayyyy too many things to do!

Generally I do not pay attention to the table settings but I thought I should do it this time. There aren't any more roses in the garden so Khayali brought the flowers and I cut a few branches off a a thorny green bush in the garden for the centre and lit two candles. I suppose that was enough.

The Menu

Spinach Salad with Fig and Goat's Cheese

Beetroot Gravadlax

Lamb Shank with steamed veggies

Lemon Mousse

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

Everyone in Sri Lanka makes Bread Pudding. I know its different to a bread and butter pudding but I don't really know the difference. Do tell me if you know! For years I've been making a simple strawberry bread and butter pudding. It has always been the usual at home just before the bread goes stale.

I thought I'll change things up a bit this time and make a Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding. I've always loved marmalade especially with crepes but that is a different story ....... and bread well... it should say something that I have bread everyday for lunch.

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding with Red Berries (as usual I had a bag of them in the freezer)... yummers

Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding

• 10 slices of bread (Keep the crusts on. The crusty and soft bits together taste better)
• Butter for spreading
• Marmalade for spreading
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup single cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cups red berries; currants, raspberries, strawberries etc

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Butter the bread slices with butter. Spread marmalade on 5 of the slides and make sandwiches with remaining slices.

Arrange in an oven-proof dish.

In a large bowl whisk together milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla. Slowly stir in the berries.

Pour over the bread and let it soak for a few minutes.

Place oven-proof dish in a deep baking dish.

Add boiling water to the baking dish, enough to come up to half way of the sides of the oven-proof dish. I used a large roasting tray for this

Bake for one hour and serve when warm with runny custard.

Black Forest Cake

I feel very dishearten when I plan to make something and am unable to find exactly what I want at the supermarket. Unfortunately it has been happening a lot more often lately. For this reason I've decided to buy things when I see them and just stock up the pantry :) Problem is that I sometimes buy things that I don't really use. Last week I bought a box of cherries and a packet of dried cherries. (I HAVE to buy berries and cherries when I see them. Its become a problem) I tried to find recipes that I could make to use them but I kept on ending up at black forest cake recipes.

I don’t suppose I have ever eaten a really good black forest cake. The ones I’ve eaten have always been almost ‘soaking wet’ with layers and layers of super sweet whipped cream. Overall it has given me a very bad impression of black forest cake. I don't know why I decided to do it maybe I was afraid of the cherries going bad but I ended up giving it a go.

I didn't use the alcohol, but I did make a soaking liquid out of cherry juice and sugar and probably didn't use as much of the whipped cream as the recipe called for. I really loved making this cake. I suppose it was because I was playing around and having a bit of fun with it; less stress. I made the cake layers the night before and took my time with everything the nest morning.

I was so happy with the success of the cake that we ended up inviting friends over. Keeping with the German theme I made Beef Goulash for dinner. Check out the recipe I used at Diana's Dessert here

Carrot Cake

My dads finally agreed to us adopting a cat. We finally went in to the veterinary clinic to take a look at the cats and kittens. No more Persians just Omani bin cats, a lot cuter and a lot more fun. Hopefully I shall have new cat by the end of the week :D

In other news my friend Nuzha was in town. We used to bake and cook together a lot when we were younger, so it was nice having her back here. She used to make a mean cookie cake that she seems to have conveniently lost the recipe for :P Stop hiding it from me Nuzha!!

Unfortunately she was not in here for long and we couldn’t really cook together. I did however make her some carrot cake muffins; she always has been the green tea drinking, calorie counting healthy one, so it was appropriate.

Carrot Cake

• 1 cups sugar
• 1/2 cups vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups grated carrots
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup dried and chopped prunes
• 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

Beat together the sugar, oil and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time.

Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt and slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Add the carrots, prunes and hazelnuts to the remaining flour and mix well. Add to the batter and beat slowly till combined.

Scoop the batter into 9 large muffin cups until 3/4 full and bake for 20 mins or until a cake tester comes our clean. Cool on rack before frosting.

Now I know carrot cake is generally frosted with a cream cheese icing but I have been eating A LOT of cream cheese frosting lately. I wanted something lighter. So I decided to make an orange buttermilk frosting.

Orange buttermilk frosting

• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 8 oz. powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 Tbsp buttermilk
• 1 Tbsp grated orange zest

Beat butter at medium speed until creamy.

Gradually add add the sugar until blended, followed by vanilla, buttermilk and orange zest.

Increase speed and beat until smooth.

Panna Cotta

It was one of those extremely lazy days; a lot to do but absolutely no mood to do anything. The sister-in-law has been around so we’ve been spending our morning talking and watching TV. The plan is that we cook together from now on. Also since she is around, my brother just might take the initiative to use his hands in the kitchen.

I wanted so desperately to stop idling and make something so I thought Panna Cotta;

Sometimes when I watch cooking shows on TV and I hear of food that I have never made or eaten before, I immediately seem to assume that’s its too exotic or complex for me to create. I think the problem is that I generally over complicate things in my life.

To be honest I thought it would be extremely difficult because it looked so beautiful. Fortunately it was not. Very simple, very tasty. The first day I tried it out I made lavender infused Panna cotta topped with stewed rhubarb.

Lavender Panna Cotta (serves 4)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp lavender buds
• 1 tsp gelatine bloomed in 1 tbsp water

Bring to boil in a saucepan all the ingredients except the gelatine

Remove from heat and let the lavender infuse the mixture

Strain the mixture and add the gelatine to it, stirring quickly

Let the mixture cool for about half an hour (or till lukewarm)

Pour the mixture into ramekins and refrigerate for at least 3 hours

*Make sure you do not pour the hot cream mixture into the ramekins as the gelatine will separate

The first trial run being a success I later made a Coconut Panna Cotta with a strawberry purée. This time I used coconut milk instead of the normal milk and added 1/4 cup of dedicated coconut. Also as an alternative to putting the fruit on top I chilled the strawberry purée at the bottom of the ramekins before pouring the cream mixture on top. The possibilities are endless...

Veggies in a cake

I need to make some good vanilla sauce. That’s what I’ve been telling myself for the last few years. I think it’s safe to say that it is impossible to find proper vanilla extract in Oman. All you can find is the not so great vanilla essence. Vanilla pods.. well you can forget about it.

Good news is that I was able to find vanilla in Sri Lanka.. Who knew? That too at a spice garden somewhere along the way to Sigiriya… perfect for this recipe.

Recently I saw a really delicious looking Rhubarb cake on Man Vs Food. It was an upside down Rhubarb cake with this brilliant bright pink caramelized mushiness. I highly doubted Rhubarb would fly well with the family but I had bought a packet of frozen Rhubarb and had to give it a shot.

When it comes to cakes and desserts, I try my best to stick to recipes. My experience with making something up is almost non existent. For this reason I obtained a recipe online…

Rhubarb cake with rich vanilla sauce…mmmmmmm

Firstly the cake … SUCCESS (Note to self definitely make again)

The cake was very light and fluffy, sweet but sour at the same time. My brother (who thought rhubarbs SHOULD NOT be allowed in cakes) seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. In fact he almost sounded upset when it was over. The cake is made of a soft bottom layer and a sugary crumbly top. The sauce hmmm… wasn't really blown away by it, mostly because I found it very sweet. If you are going to give it a try you might want to reduce the amount of sugar you put in.

Have a go ; http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Special-Rhubarb-Cake

Velvety reds

Im back in Oman and this time for good (till the next leg of life) ! Im done with the first part of architecture and I'm back home hoping to do everything I ever wanted to and had to put off because of Architecture.

What I didn't mention in my earlier post is that Lakeland has opened in Oman. Lakeland is a UK based store that sells kitchenware. It opening in Oman is good news to ALOT of people and I am hoping it wont close any time soon. Shops have the bad luck of having to shut down quite often in Oman. Hopefully that shall not be the case this time.

Thanks to Lakeland I was able to buy a whole bunch of things the last time I was here ; pretty cupcake holders, disposable piping bags, nozzles, parchment paper and a cook's torch. I used the cook's torch to make a not so successful creme brule and the pipping bags to make gnocchi. However I shall not talk about what I did or what was. I aim to be much more productive that I generally am so here goes.

My cousin Shameema is in town and she has been baking a lot. I don't usually make cakes and most things pretty but since this is a new year and a new leg of life :P I decided I should try and do things I don't generally do.. (lets see how long this goes).

Red Velvet it was!

Red Velvet is my favourite cake so far and so using bakerella' s recipe we decided to give it a shot.

http://www.bakerella.com/cupids-arrow-cupcakes/

Bakerella's red velvets obviously look a lot cute-r but I thought at the end of the day we did pretty well. My hand held beater decided to give out half way through beating the cream cheese frosting so we ended up with bits of sugar granules in the frosting. Other than that there were no other glitches.

We reduced the about of sugar in the recipe from 6 cups to 4 cups and we still found it insanely sweet and would have preferred a cheesier taste, so next time I'd definitely change some quantities.

Shameema and I plan on tackling this insane looking Raspberry Rose Vanilla Cream Cake day after which should be 'interesting'. The look of the cake on Tartelette's website intimidates me! I foresee bad things happening.

I have a rhubarb cake in the oven.... happy times :D