The Novice Housewife

05May 2013

Roasted Strawberry Ice cream

I know I have mentioned this enough on the blog, but I’ll say it again for the ones who are here for the first time – V is not a sweet tooth kind of guy. I have managed to turn him a bit but still the dessert devotee in me doesn’t think it’s enough. He is quite the health freak and the kinds who doesn’t need dessert to conclude a meal. I, on the other hand, have been known to actually eat a meal so that I do not feel guilty for having just desserts on my plate. Probably that’s why I am constantly struggling with my weight, while V actually exercises to gain weight! Some guys do have all the luck!

But, V does have a weakness. Its strawberry ice cream. That he will buy even when I am not there. Something he will eat without me having to emotionally blackmail him to eat it so that I dont feel guilty of taking a bite myself.

So, it was only obvious that I had to learn how to make at home a dessert that he enjoys so much. It also gave me a chance to inaugurate the ice cream maker for this season.

20Mar 2013

Celebrating the Two Vikrams in my life with Cake!

Shumaila ⋅ 11 Comments

19th March was our anniversary. For my grandparents it falls on 20th. Confused? You can read more about that here.

20th March (today in the US) is my brother’s birthday.

The V in my blog posts stands for my husband’s name Vikram.

My brother’s name is also Vikram. (No, there isn’t a lack of names in India. It just happens to be that the two most important people in my life are named Vikram.)

The similarities don’t just stop in their names. Their heights are comparable. One is 6ft 3 (the husband), the other 6 ft 4. Personality wise they are alike as well. So are their looks. People have actually congratulated me and my brother for a happy married life during my wedding. Its not something every girl wants.

There is a difference though. While the Vikram I am married to will go for a spinach-celery-lettuce smoothie, the brother Vikram would go for a large oreo double chocolate shake with whipped cream on top and shaved chocolate added for good measure. Of course I go after my brother. After all he and I have the same genes- some call it the fat genes, I call it the only-way-to-live-life genes.

Since we are celebrating our anniversary and my brother’s birthday, I thought to write today’s post on the Vikrams in my life.

Actually, I have written before about the brother Vikram, you can check the post here if you want to know just how awesome he is. I might not talk about you today, but I know you know that I love you a lot.

Today, let’s just concentrate on the husband Vikram, or V as he is known on the blog, since I feel that V never gets too much of my attention.

27Feb 2013

Panna Cotta with Roasted Strawberries

Shumaila ⋅ 10 Comments

I sound like a broken record but really, I am sorry that I have not been updating this space regularly. Most of Jan and the better half of Feb, I had been busy traveling and then when I finally touched base at my parents place and thought I would get back to blogging, the flu bug bit me. The meds have left me physically and mentally drained out and thus the absence. While I am still recuperating, I had thought I would share details of my travels in my next post but this dessert just could not wait.

This is the easiest dessert one can make. I actually made it in my half dazed sick state. So be assured, when I say it comes together in a jiffy, I mean just that!

Only woes one might face is getting the gelatin setting part right. I have had my issues with gelatin but I think I am slowly getting over my fear of gelatin based desserts. Or maybe it worked so perfectly this time because David Lebovitz calls this a fail proof recipe? Either way, it worked. In case you too have fears of the collagen derived food substance, you should read David’s post on how to use gelatin.

If you are looking for a completely vegetarian version, since some vegetarian have issues with gelatin being made from animal by products, then one can use agar-agar. I haven’t personally tried it but I read people have tried agar-agar in this recipe and it has worked for them.

31Dec 2012

Boozy Tiramisu shots

Shumaila ⋅ 3 Comments

If you think I had forgotten you, you think wrong. Somehow life has been real busy and my laptop and hence the blog has not been able to get the time I usually have for it. But, I could not NOT post my last post for 2012.

2012 came with many firsts. I completed my first ever triathlon. The blog got its own domain name. I went gluten free for a month, raw for a week. Tried out several new recipes. Things changed for the better for two of my best friends. Travelled to New York, Allahabad, Taj Mahal and of course Delhi. Certain things became clearer, and I hope 2013 brings clarity in the other things that yet confuse me. 2012 was a year of ups and downs, but then that’s how life is and 2013 should also have its share- but here’s hoping the ups more than make up for the downs that come.

We had a gathering yesterday at my in-laws place for lunch. I had planned to make a warm apple cake and tiramisu for dessert, but since our train got delayed by 12 hours and I had managed to catch a cold during my trip, I dropped the original plan and adapted it to make tiramisu shots instead (recipe adapted from here).

05Nov 2012

November Recipe Swap

Shumaila ⋅ 14 Comments

When Christianna had taken me into the Recipe Swap group (read more about the group here), one of the things she said in our initial correspondence was that she was excited to get an Indian perspective for the swap recipes. While all my swaps have not been with an Indian twist, I thought with the Indian festival season here, I would give this time’s recipe swap an Indian twist.

When I saw the swap recipe (for a carrot pie), my initial plan was to make this carrot souffle I saw in a magazine I had just bought. But then I am not much of a fan of pureed carrots. It reminds me of baby food, and even though the recipe sounded interesting, I wasn’t sure I would truly enjoy it.

So I thought of making something Indian. Now, I am not a big fan of Indian sweets. I like them but most of them I find too sweet. If I want something sweet I generally prefer a baked good over the traditional sweets. Though I don’t mind a piece of gulab jamun, or hot atte ka halwa now and then. And sometimes gajar ka halwa too makes the privileged list.

Gajar ka halwa (or Indian carrot pudding) is a dessert of creamy, thickened milk with softened carrots contrasting with the added crunch of nuts. Milk and grated carrots are cooked until they become a dryish homogeneous mass, and then cooked with a little clarified butter (or ghee) and sugar and subtly flavored with cardamom powder and sometimes saffron strands to make absolute deliciousness.

28Oct 2012

October Daring Bakers: Mille Feuilles

Shumaila ⋅ 4 Comments

I am a day late posting this, but the important part is I am posting it.

This month, for the Daring Bakers’, Suz of Serenely Full challenged us to make mille feuilles.

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

‘Mille-feuille’ is French for ‘a thousand leaves’ (or ‘layers’), which is very apt, as it contains both layers of puff pastry (usually three) and layers within each pastry sheet. It can be filled with layers of jam; mainly raspberry, whipped cream or cheese, and usually topped with powdered sugar, or fondant. It is then usually decorated or garnished with a coat of fondant, with chocolate strings made into a design. It may even contain a filling of pastry cream, as per our challenge recipe.

The challenge required us to make puffy pastry from scratch. Now, I am not a novice to puff pastry- having made it before. Check out my Puff Pastry 101 post here. But I have never tried to make or eaten mille feuilles. So it was something new.

Making puff pastry (or pâte feuilletée) basically involves a simple pastry dough, which is folded around sheet of butter (the beurrage). You then roll out your butter pastry package, fold it, roll it out, fold it, etc. – creating seams of butter that will puff up into distinct crispy layers when baked.

13Oct 2012

Going Raw: 5th Day!

Shumaila ⋅ 6 Comments

I survived another coffee get together today. Every Friday, a group of us ladies meet at someone’s place for coffee and treats and general chit chat. Being raw or even gluten free/sugar free means that I can not have any of the goodies my friends make. Today the host had served an apple pie, a pumpkin pie, and a pumpkin bread. None of which I could taste, but from what I heard my friends saying, they were absolutely delicious. I just consoled myself by repeating 3 more days to go every now and then someone took a bite of pie from their plate. And continued chewing on my strawberries and apple. It did help when my friends noticed that going raw/gluten free was suiting me. I do have kind friends and that gave me the nudge I needed!

It’s not all that bad either. Not since I made these bars to treat myself.

These are raw, vegan, gluten free, sugar free, butter or oil free energy bars! And they are pretty good. Well at least the “raw me” who has been deprived of all things indulgent thinks they are pretty good! If you are into raw energy bars maybe you should try these.

They are super healthy too with chia seeds, sunflower seeds and dates instead of sugar for the sweetness.

14Aug 2012

Garam Masala Tuesdays: Celebrating India’s Independence Day with….

Shumaila ⋅ 18 Comments

For some time now, I have been craving Jalebis- a popular Indian sweet that is made by deep-frying a flour batter in kind of a pretzel or circular spiral shape, which is then soaked in sugar syrup.

Growing up there was this ad for cooking oil that used to come on Indian television. The ad starts with this little boy who decides to leave his house because everyone shouts at him all the time. Somebody known to the family finds the small boy sitting at the station and the boy tells him that he doesn’t plan to go back home. To get the boy back home, the old guy tells him that his mom has just made hot, out of the oil Jalebis.

You should hear the excitement and the greed in the boy’s voice when he says “Jalebi”. The boy then thinks its a better idea to just go back home and there to greet him are these warm, orange colored spiral shapes, more popularly known as Jalebis. Because of the really cute boy who was the real star of the advertisement, the ad was one of the most popular advertisements of that time. But the ad also told the love Indians have for the very popular sweet Jalebi.

25Jul 2012

Cooking with the books: KAF’s Savory Spinach Mushroom filled Whole Wheat Crepes

Shumaila ⋅ 6 Comments

(This is Post 3 in the series Cooking with the Books.)

I started the “Cooking with the books” series to reacquaint myself with the hoards of cookbooks I have on my bookshelf. And I am so happy that I did.

All the cookbooks that I have bought (new or second hand) have been bought after thoroughly going through their reviews on amazon or other sites. So I knew I have a good collection of cookbooks. But I never took too much advantage of it- always trying recipes on other people’s blogs ( I blame pinterest!) or recipes that I have come up with after eating something I like or one of my mom’s recipes. The cookbooks, as a result, always ended up eating dust.

27Jun 2012

June Daring Bakers’: Battenberg Cake

Shumaila ⋅ 4 Comments

Being Indian I hate wastage. Of any kind. One of the reasons why I gained weight when I came to US (besides, the cliched that I got married) was that I was so used to finish everything on my plate, whenever we went out to eat, I ended up finishing the ridiculously huge portions of food served in restaurants here. Since we stay 4 hours away from all restaurants, doggy pack or to-go was not an option, and since I had the habit of not wasting, I ate everything. That’s why this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenged proved to be double the challenge it was.

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

I have missed the last two challenges. Although I did a part of the April challenge, I could not get it posted because I was busy with my in-laws visit. Hopefully I should be able to post the recipe soon. ( I seriously have huge backlog!)

Now, I have been eyeing this cake- the Battenberg cake for a while now, ever since I was introduced to the Great British Bake Off cookbook. I don’t have it yet, but amazon’s site has a preview of the book and in that they show pictures of the cake. Since then it’s been on my mind. So when I saw this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, I knew come hay or sunshine, I would make it.

And make I did. Not one but two.

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Category Archives: Desserts