Secretly Vegan Carrot and Plum Cake- Eggless and Dairy free

 

All is quiet, the little one is fast asleep, snug between his two cousins, and dreaming of Santa. I am writing this post quickly just to share with you a quick and super easy recipe for a plum cake that happens to be vegan. But you really shouldn't label it a vegan cake and it's not really a traditional Christmas cake. It's just a really good moist cake that happens to be vegan- mahed bananas replace the eggs and most of the fat, with grated carrots and enough chopped dried plums to make it Christmassy

After complaining about my dislike for fruitcake in my guest post for Shulie, you must be wondering why I am here with a fruit cake recipe right? Well I do want to give fruit cake one more try, and also wanted my little one to get a taste of some Christmas-time traditions that his mom grew up with! Since he is allergice to dairy and eggs, I just adapted his favourite banana cake into something more Christmassy and quite healthy yet delicious too!
You can soak the fruits in brandy or rum and spices as in traditional fruitcake if you like, but as I have mentioned (repeatedly here ), I am not a fan, so I just soaked the plums in warm water to soften it and it really did the trick, making them plump and moist.

Merry Christmas!

Carrot Banana Plum Cake

Ingredients ( The order in which these ingredients are added is important):

• 4 medium very ripe bananas peeled and mashed well till no lumps remain ( the riper the bananas the stronger the banana flavour.) 
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 cup sugar ( I have  halved this amount too and it works- just made the cake a little drier)
• 2 cups flour
• 3 TBSP water, 3 TBSP oil, 2 tsp baking powder (all mixed together in that order and kept aside for about 5 minutes prior, not much more ahead else it may lose some of the fizz require to make the cake rise)
• 1/4 tsp, baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence ( optional) 
• 1 cup chopped dried plums or prunes ( soak the fruits in warm water or just put them in a bowl of water and heat in the microwave for 15 secons to make them moist) 
• 1 cup grated carrots 

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 F degrees or 325 F if using a glass pyrex dish 

Grease and flour a 9X5 inch loaf pan, or a pyrex bowl as I used in the photos above, to give it a traditional Christmas pudding look ( I used vegetable oil to grease the pan and didn't flour it, but lined the bottom with parchment paper, cutting the paper where it bent and creased and overlapping it to make it as smooth as possible to fit the curved shape of the bowl)

In large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients in order given ( if you don't follow the order, things may not work so its VERY IMPORTANT!). Pour into pan and bake 40 to 50 minutes. 

Let it cool in the pan for about 10-15 mins. Then run a knife around the sides of the pan.
Invert it onto a plate or cooling rack and let cool completely

You can also bake this in muffin or cup cake tins and it would be perfect for breakfast

Am sending this cake over to Simone of Junglefrog Cooking who is hosting the Monthly Mingle as well as a sparkling photo challenge

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Nankhatais Indian Cardamom and Whole Wheat Cookies -Guest Post for Food Wanderings

I love Shulie's blog Food Wanderings ( such an apt blog name right?) and enjoy discovering many new things to try from her Jewish heritage. Several times I have been happily surprised to learn about Jewish dishes that may have influenced those that I grew up eating all the way in Kerala in the south of India, among my Syrian Christian community there. I am very excited that I am getting to do a guest post for her inspirational blog as part of her Indian Food Series, which has featured some of my most favorite Indian food bloggers. 

When we were brainstorming about what the post should be about, I mentioned Nankhatais since I had just taken a batch along with some macarons to a cookie swap and I was so happy to learn that Shulie loved them and that her mom used to make them for her too, after taking grains to a store in their community where it was ground for her.

 I am glad these cookies brought back childhood memories for Shulie and hope you all enjoy them too! 

Do go over to Shulie's blog, fall in love with her writing and breath taking photographs if you haven't already and also read my post on these buttery, cardamom infused snappy cookies from India (which are also a snap to make), and read about one particular Christmas time tradition in Kerala I am more than happy to escape! 

I hope these cookies held their own among the other deliciousness like Chocolate drizzle caramel bars from Patty, these Salted caramel and coconut thumbprints that just have no mercy from Lisa, Chocolate Caramel Filled Cherry Thumbprints from the Cookie Queen herself :) -the lovely Gina, melt in the mouth Mexican wedding cookies from Jean and tender Coconutty cookies (with cute cookie swap printables) from Liren and pretty, swirly Cinnamon bun biscotti from Azmina

They really go well with tea or coffee and would even be great nibbles to serve alongside some red wine. Make them, gift them, but most importantly enjoy them, and have a wonderful holiday, and a very Blessed, Merry Christmas! 

Recipe is over at Shulies blog Food Wanderings here

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Garam Masala Pulled Pork with Polenta and Roasted Brussels Sprouts

As I mentioned in my last post, I came to the US, just four Decembers ago. I immediately fell in love with the breathtaking beauty that surrounds us here in California,the warm, welcoming people and in these short years that I have been here, I have felt at home.

Today, I too mourn with the rest of the country for the many young lives lost to senseless violence. This festive season, we are all robbed of good cheer, replaced by feelings of sadness, anger and fear. Happy carols sometimes grate on my nerves, and I feel a pang of guilt when I decorate the house or bake cookies while so many other mothers are mourning. But I am trying to focus on keeping this season of Christmas special and magical for my little monkey, as it should be. I join thousands of others in signing petitions to prohibit assault weapons.  Whenever the uneasiness wraps itself around me, I whisper a prayer for the grieving families and for the protection of my own.
That's all I know to do, and to bake cookies and cook a warm and comforting meal for my loved ones, and that is what I am going to stick to doing.

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Eppa Sangria Cranberry Preserve with Easy Yogurt Pannacotta

There is a tangible sense of excitement and expectation in December. I always feel like something amazing is going to happen, a feeling echoed perhaps from thousands of years ago at that very first Christmas... December has since always been a month of hope, and is definitely the happiest month of the year. In my life December has always been the month of new beginnings-T and I were married in December four fleeting years ago, we came to this country on the last day of the month to bein our new life together here, and it is also the month that I began another beautiful new journey as a mom to my little monkey. I am always excited to see what December brings! 

One of the things I enjoy the most about this time of the year is getting together with friends and family. Everyone takes the time out and makes the extra effort to get together, sit at one table, share stories, laughter and create memories. Food is festive, rich and plentiful and wine always seems to flow more freely.
Living close to Napa Valley I always like discovering new wines to try and I was only happy to accept when the people of Eppa Sangria asked me if I would like to review their wine.

On a whim I also used it to make a cranberry preserve or dessert topping for a creamy panna cotta that I made lighter replacing half greek yogurt in place of cream. I think I came up with the perfect Christmas time dessert- it is a light refreshing end to a heavy meal, is super easy and takes only a few minutes, a saucepan and a spoon to put together, you can make it ahead to set and chill in your fridge and it doesn't take up oven space. With a seasonally apt red cranberry topping infused with spices and wine how much more perfect can it get?

I made the dessert for some friends who came home for dinner and I also served them the wine which I was not so surprised to note was preferred more by us women because of its sweet taste and fruitiness. I think Sangria just looks so pretty too, with the bobbing bits of fruit that infuse the wine with their bright fresh flavors.

Eppa Sangria is a combination of Cabernet and Syrah from beautiful Mendocino County, blended with fruit juces from antioxidant-rich fruits, including pomegranate, blueberry, Mediterranean blood orange and acai. I was pleased to learn that this makes it nearly twice as antioxidant rich as a glass of red wine and it is also certified organic- something that is not very easy to find. You can buy it in Whole Foods or other stores mentioned on their website and you can also have it shipped to most states. It came to me well packed in thermocole bottle savers and could be a good gift idea to send friends and family who don't live close by.

I made the cranberry preserve by simmering the red berries until they burst with spices and citrus zest and it is even more delicious than it looks, especially when paired with the refreshingly light and so easy to make pannacotta. I'm sure it would taste great with crackers or cookies, plain yogurt, or even with cheese. I would probably spoon it over ice cream especially this one.

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cumin roasted cauliflower soup- hearty & healthy

“Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works” (Heb 10:24) BXVI: The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity #Lent #Pope2You  - From the Pope's daily twitter updates during Lent

Sometimes an idea will come and settle in my head. Then it's like everything around me conspires to make me put that idea into action. That idea for some time now was earth shattering. Life changing. Actually it was just...cumin roasted cauliflower soup.

See, I discovered the joy of roasted veggies only after moving here with a large, lovely oven at my disposal. As a kid I wouldn't eat cauliflower unless it was crispy fried like in Gobi Manchurian a delectable but greasy Indo- Chinese dish. Since then I have grown to appreciate my veggies, but even more so after I discovered roasting them. Baked sweet potato "fries", broiled sweet bell peppers, smoky roasted eggplant and best of all, cumin roasted cauliflower bliss.
So while I have been routinely roasting my cauliflower sprinkled with a little cumin, pepper and salt and enjoying delicious cauliflower chips for some time now, one day I just had the idea to make them into soup.

Since that day I kept hearing cauliflower everywhere- the women at the table next to ours at a restaurant kept raving about the cauliflower soup they were having and which I then wished I had ordered. Then some good friends blogged about it or mentioned making it and by then I was longing/craving cauliflower soup and just had to make it!

There are lots of cauliflower soups out there. A friend recently made one that was light, refreshing and delicious and I'm looking forward to her recipe and hope to try it soon too.
This one is hearty, thick and robustly flavorful and very filling. Soup never makes me feel full. But this one does. And its healthy and yummy to boot.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent for us Christians. It is a period of penance, abstinence and sacrifice, remembering the pain and suffering of Jesus Christ, Who we believe died painfully on the Cross to atone for all our sins. This period of around 40 days leads up to Easter which celebrates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and reminds us that we too must strive not for the fleeting pleasures of this life but of eternal life in Heaven.

During Lent we are called to pause and reflect on our own lives and turn away from sin. We are to do charitable acts and to observe fasts as a simple exercise of "showing our passions who is boss" and knowing that we can control our desires if we want. Even if our desires in themselves may not be sinful, indulging every one of them could be dangerous, making us more likely to give in to sin so we practice a little self restraint during this time.

Some people give up meat and alcohol or something else they really like during this time. There was a little girl who gave up the colour pink, her absolute favorite :) People find really creative ways to make their Lenten sacrifices like this girl I read about who is giving up fashion for a cause. In support of those giving up meat for Lent I plan to post several more healthy vegetarian dinner ideas in the coming month like this soup.

For me eating only veggies is quite a treat and not really a sacrifice so I will have to find something unpleasant but good for me to do. Any ideas? maybe giving up sweets or undertaking a major kitchen and paperwork re-organisation effort. Or I might have to take up some form of exercise especially after the two year old  bumped his head against my tummy today and then kept saying "bouncy-bouncy!"

You don't have to be Christian to participate in Lent. A little self restraint once in a while is good for everyone. But I must admit -this soup with some flaky onion biscuits for dinner? Not very sacrificial at all!

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Cinnamon Caramel Bubble Bread Christmas Breakfast worthy

"When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness." ~ Bob Hope

Hey! I just got back here to the US after the really long flight with the little monkey who was thankfully a very good not-so-squirmy boy. He only complained (complaining to his Ammamma halfway around the world away) when I curtailed his socializing with the other  babies so that we could get back to our seats. Finally we landed and after a mix up with the suitcases (guess red is a really popular colour after all) we got home to T after 24 long hours, just in time to spend Christmas week with him.


We are quickly adjusting back to the routines after my holiday to visit our family  in India. The little monkey has rediscovered all his favorite toys and hiding places and I am back amongst the clatter of pots and pans in my own kitchen where I know where everything is ( mostly). The morning sounds and smells of whole wheat toast popping in the toaster and just brewed  tea is actually quite comforting after elaborate breakfasts of dosas and appams which I will miss in a few days but today, warm butter spread-y toast with a sprinkling of sugar on top, is good enough for me!
(Is anyone else in love with the movie Toast based on Nigel Slater's memoirs btw? Caught it on the flight and had SUCH a bread craving! )


Christmas morning, however is not like any morning is it? It's truly the most magical part of the day I think, when the kids ( and some adults ahem ) are all excited about what Santa left them and soon the living room turns into a scene of wrapping paper and ribbon strewn carnage!  Christmas morning deserves somethign special, like CINNAMON and CARAMEL smothered, warm freshly baked bubble bread! 

 I am sure that everyone is counting down to Christmas too! Can't help being excited about Christmas where ever you are right?  I'm still wondering what to cook for just the two of us so we wont miss too much the feast the rest of our large extended families will be enjoying back in India when they all get together. But there is one thing I'm all set on and that's this cinnamon caramel bubble bread  bread for breakfast. I will be whipping up a batch of the easy, versatile dough and putting it in the fridge until the 25th. I strongly suggest that you do this too. 

This is so the month for cinnamon. I had made a loaf of this gorgeous bubble topped bread the day I saw this on Zoe's blog. Although this type of bread is called monkey bread (No idea why- maybe because you pull it apart with your fingers like monkeys, instead of cutting neat slices like I attempted in the pictures above. Tho that was after we had already devoured most of the loaf ) I prefer the name bubble bread and I'm sticking to it. Why did I wait this long to post it? Because I was waiting for it to seem like the right time for cinnamon. And it finally is.


While Zoe used the more rich Brioche dough seen in this apple brownsugar braided bread, I used and loved her Challah dough recipe which has less eggs and so is less rich though it tastes amazing. It is absurdly easy to make and it has been the recipe that I used the most this year. I have lost track of the number of times I made it during my visit to India, with savoury, fruit and even jam fillings. If you have never made bread before, let Zoe and Jeff convert you with their super easy technique.

 Wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and an extra special Christmas Morning!



Recipe for the Challah Dough
Recipe source: Zoe and Jeff from their book Artisan Bread in 5. This recipe was also featured on the kitchn and Zoe and Jeff share many recipes and instructions on their site Artisanbreadin5


( Makes enough for 4 loaves so you can halve this quantity) 


Ingredients

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets -any kind of yeast is ok)
1 tablespoon salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup honey ( I used 1/2 cup sugar instead)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (or neutral-tasting vegetable oil such as canola- I used oil), plus more for greasing the cookie sheet
7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water- I omitted this and just brushed the tops with butter)

Method

1.Mix the yeast, salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter (or oil) with the water in a 5-quart bowl, or a lidded (not airtight) food container. I used my extra large pyrex bowl. 

2. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a spoon.You may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.

3. Cover loosely with a lid or a large plate (not airtight), and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 5 days. Beyond 5 days, freeze in 1-pound portions in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. Defrost frozen dough overnight in the refrigerator before using. Then allow the usual rest and rise time as specified in the recipe below.

5. What ever shape you roll it to before baking, allow it to rise for another 1 hour. Then apply an eggwash or spread some butter on the top and bake at 350 F or 180 C for 30 mins for loaves and 15 mins for buns. See step below how to make the bubble bread

How to make the bubble bread, see step by step instructions here  

( Note: Zoe used brioche bread dough instead of the Challah dough which I used) 

My Notes:
I used sugar in place of the honey since the taste of honey doesn't really come through that much, you can use either. Feel free to increase or decrease the amount of sugar. This is a very forgiving recipe

While making the bubble bread, in the instructions it is mentioned to pour the caramel sauce over the bread only once. I think that it deserves some caramel in the middle too, so next time will be pouring more caramel over the first layer of bread bubbles too.
The caramel sauce hardens as it cools. But just microwave or heat it for a little while and it will soften more.
You can also add a tbsp of butter and 1/4 cup of cream to make it more like a pour-able sauce. And hey why not add a dash of rum in it when no one is looking :)

How do they taste? the dough is yeasty, sweet and soft. So its almost like a bunch of dough nut holes bunched together and smothered in warm caramel and cinnamon. Yes, that means this is VERY dangerous stuff. You have been warned.

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