From my kitchen to yours

From my kitchen to yours

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

DAY 44 : LITTLE DEVIL- BOTTOM MACAROONS..YEAH ..YEAH...



I have loved macaroons ever since i can remember, have finished heaps of coconut macaroons as a kid during Christmas and only stopped once my mouth started feeling weird and coarse, last month at Sophias, Shashi mam taught us coconut macaroons, so yup i now bake them whenever i feel like and eat to my hearts desire, which is another reason why i have started running and working out, today my day started early in the morning because according to me , the school fair was on Friday and i had to get stuff done , so i did trial batches of the red velvet muffins , made 4 diff batches and thankfully , have got my zing back, the lovely and talented Pooja Dhingra of Le15 gave me a recipe and broke my jinx, so i have been at it and later when i got to school to pick up the kids i realised that I'm cooking 2 weeks ahead of time, but the thing is i was so excited about making the macaroons that i just went ahead, before starting them i felt that "wish i had gone to a baking school somewhere fancy so that i could understand the nuances and the finer points, but i have not , so i "pulled up my BIG GIRL panties " and got at it, of course i have been reading about these sweet little devils for some time now and decided , how bad can it get, it will just not happen and frankly , i will learn from the "experience" and so far that's who my PROFESSOR is at my "college of cooking and baking " ha ha ha

I found a whole lot of recipes on the net after after a tic-tac-toe i choose this one , its by Lizzie Karmenetzky....i love her name..so that's a positive thing...

Ingredients
175 gm icing sugar
125 g ground almonds
3 large egg whites
75 g caster sugar

Pre heat the oven to 150 degrees c..
Whizz the icing sugar and the almonds in a food processor to a very fine mix and then sieve it , i sieved it twice...just in case
In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to nice soft peaks.
Add the caster sugar bit by bit , until thick and glossy.
At this point add your colour or flavouring, i did not do any flavour, because i just 1st wanted to get the basic right, i did add very little blue in it..
To this mix fold in half the almond and icing sugar with a spatula, fold and cut , do not handle this batter roughly or it may sink, when the 1st half is done add the second half, and fold the mix till its shiny and ribbony....

WHEW !!!!!!!! its actually done

Line 2 trays with parchment paper and then fill the mix into a piping bag and with a 1 cm nozzle, pipe out small rounds of the macaroon mix and leave it for about 20 minutes at room temperature to form a slight skin, so that if you lightly touch the batter , nothing will stick on to your finger....

Put it in the oven and frankly ....just said a little prayer.....

I'm grinning from ear to ear because 22minutes later i had these lovely pale blue babies looking back at me and they also had the crusty part around the bottom which is called the foot, and that i believe is 1 of the signs of a well made macaroon, they look so cute that i felt bad that was going to be biting into them soon, "cute little chubby protected species" that's what they look like and as tempting as "string bikini bottom "ha ha ha ...
Let them cool and then very gently lifted them off the parchment paper..tricky busines...

So now its time for the filling and ya its got to be chocolate so nutella was at hand and it went right into these babies, both the ZZ.s , my man friday Vijay and me bit into our home-made heaven and broke out into peals of laughter and happiness , and yummy wow and further , frankly i heaved a sigh of relief , i did it , wow, im happy i may include this in the school stall, but not yet decided, in the meanwhile think i should go for a run...because this much of sugar and fat intake is not fun for your .... ha ha ha
So here they are
"Little devil-bottom macaroons" happy and really heavenly only from "Maria's Kitchen".

P.S. Think im having a sugar high.....have too many sweet things today...going mad..

Monday, November 15, 2010

DAY 43: HMMMMMMMMM BREAD


There is nothing more satisfying to me than baking bread, i love the whole process of the flour , mixing with the yeast and sugar and water and just like that ,like magic , it all emulsifies together and grows into this wonderful wholesome and fresh mound of loveliness...

I make a lot of bread at home in fact i find it very therapeutic, a few days ago Zeke my little 6 yr old made lovely bread following all the instructions i gave him, i couldn't believe that little boy of mine...felt so proud of him....the way he mixed it all together and pounded it , he had a blast and we all looked at him like he is "wonder boy"...
We'll i don't know about anyone else but to me, he is my wonder boy... we'll after he kneaded it all together and even added the olive oil and salt,he had finished his bit , he was also tired with the kneading and so he looked at me and said, "mama , it's ready now...." my little Zeke with his little apron and flour on his hands , gosh he looked pleased as the cat who got the cream, gave him a smashing hug and a tight kiss, and he in true boy style rubbed the kiss off with his floury hands....
we'll the dough was ready to prove...

I then sauteed some garlic, onion kept it aside to completely cool , i then pulled out some fresh basil from my little terrace garden , washed it and tore it into bits, hmmmmmm i love fresh basil and mostly try and use it as much as i can...

250 gm flour
15 gm fresh yeast
125-150 ml water (but i mostly use an approximate amount, depending on how its going)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
2 small onions sauteed
15 garlic cloves also sauteed
red chili flakes

Like i said , frankly you can go to town with bread and add what you like in it and own that little wholesome wonderness...
So after the dough proved or after it doubled in size , i slowly added all the garlic, onions , chili flakes and basil very very gently , you may also have to keep adding a little flour into the dough as it does tend to get a bit sticky, and then shape it into a loaf tin and leave it to prove again, it takes approximately 40 minutes or slightly more , depending on the weather ...
I then baked it for 40-45 minutes at 220 degrees...
Oh before you put the dough into the oven , give it a milk wash and sprinkle it with water , i keep forgetting this part and most of the time I put it in and then remember as I'm shutting the oven , and then go for it like "speed Gonzalez" ha ha ha ...
I also sprinkle a little dried rosemary on it, because i love the crunch once it is baked...
Post 40 minutes ,there is that beautiful fresh bread aroma wafting in your kitchen, pull it out, slather the crust with butter if you do not like a hard crust, leave it to cool for a bit , taking it out of the loaf tin , or it will sweat in it and ....
We'll i love to bite into fresh hot scrumptious bread with a little dollop of butter....that's me...
Fresh hot "hmmmmm bread" only from "Maria's Kitchen".....made for the very 1st time by my little Zeke Zidaan Warsi"

Thursday, November 4, 2010

DAY 42 : TOOMUCKINGFUCH CAKE




This is just a preview of what I'm making, the kids are out playing so I'm going for it with cointreau, oranges, dolche de leche, chocolate and fresh cream...
Oh my god i hope i don't eat it up , making it for Mini place for our friends for Diwali...
HAPPINESS LOVE AND PEACE TO ALL , HAPPY DIWALI GUYS....
lotsa love only from "Maria Kitchen"