{Baking} CHOCOLATE PLUM CLAFOUTIS ... inspired yet again!

"Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture."

Mark Kurlansky

I am fascinated by what Katie ate ... what she ate all winter, summer and in the seasons in between! Do I sound obsessed? Well maybe I am, but since the word sounds rather harsh, I shall stick with 'fascinated'. You might have guessed. Yes indeed, I have a new favourite blog on the block, and this one is an utterly charming one - What Katie Ate, 'all the way from Sydney'; a 'foodie photography blog'.

I discovered her photography quite a while ago googling for pictures for the Daring Bakers Pavlova Challenge, and I was completely smitten. I love the old world rustic charm her pictures offer, very retro and very classic. They instantly struck a chord with me, and dragged me into their realm. I was lost amidst her foodie pictures for a long time, with recipes that seemed to take a new meaning. Food here meant so much more...

A bookmarking frenzy followed, but I soon got involved with work at home and completely forgot about the recipes until I luckily found the very last batch of plums in the market a week ago. Yes, the very last as now they are truly gone. A cherry chocolate clafoutis from What Katie Ate was high on my list, the recipe easy as could be  from Julia Childs Mastering The Art of French Cooking. At the very bottom of the  post, I read that any stone fruit would work; you could see me SMILE!

I made Olive Oil Schiacciata from her blog last week, and some Triple Chocolate Toblerone Muffins day before yesterday. I wanted to make the clafoutis as well, but was dog tired that day. A quick check of the ingredients late at night had the men in the house peering over my shoulder telling me how hungry they still were, and that the dessert looked so good. There was no escape, and as promised, I had the clafoutis going yesterday morning.

A dessert as simple as this is not to be given the pass. It takes all of ten minutes to put together, about 30 minutes of baking, and 10 minutes of cleaning up. What luxury! Oh and of course, about an hour extra to take pictures, but then, that's the joy of food blogging! What is food without pictures???

I made individual servings in ramekins I had picked up from Sydney a couple of years ago. Maybe they were a little smaller than regular ramekins, and I had some batter remaining so I filled up a few mini molds too, adding my last few frozen cherries to the plums. Luckily Katie mentioned that the clafoutis deflates pretty soon, so it was a race to get the pictures, but the puffiness was gone within 5 minutes of the blighters being out of the oven. The little rum baba molds really puffed up beautifully, and I am bummed I couldn't get a decent pic of those... Well, whatevah!!

 So here we are, with a final au revoir to my favourite fruity season. Come back soon please!

Notes to self: Don't forget to add some sugar on top next time. That vanilla sugar would have done these some good. Also, if the plums are tart, like mine were, remember to add 2-3 extra tbsp of sugar. Another thing, don't over-bake the custards. I should have really taken the rum baba molds out 5-7 minutes before the rest, as they got ever so slightly rubbery. A smattering of chocolate chips would have added to the indulgence, and next year I might substitute 1/2 a cup of milk with low fat cream.

Chocolate Plum Clafoutis

Minimally adapted from What Katie Ate

500gms plums, pitted and chopped
1/2 cup of plain flour

1/4 cup of good cocoa powder {I used Valrhona}

A pinch of salt

2/3 cup of vanilla sugar

1 1/4 cups of milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 eggs, room temperature

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease either one single 10-inch flan/pie dish, heavy cast iron skillet/frying pan, or 6-8 individual flan dishes.
Pit and chop the plums. Arrange in the dish cut-side facing upwards. At this stage, an optional extra is to include a handful of chocolate chips in with the cherries.
Put the flour, vanilla sugar, cocoa and salt into the processor and whiz for 10-15 seconds to mix. Then add the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and process again till well mixed into a batter, about 30 seconds.
Pour the batter carefully over the fruit. Sprinkle a tbsp of castor sugar {a handful for a single large dish} on top and bake in the oven for approx. 20-25 minutes for small ramekins, or an hour for 1 single large dish.

Note: This can also be made with plums, pears, peaches or any stone fruit you like. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you like.

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WHOLEWHEAT CHICKEN BASIL WRAPS with BELL PEPPERS ... & winners for the Mainland China Book Giveaway

"When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It's also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be."

Molly Wizenberg, A Homemade Life

And life goes on, whether we have a kitchen or not, we still have mouths to feed. I am the queen of the makeshift kitchen in the morning before the workers plod in, and still attempt to whip up a decent balanced meal as often as I can. I know the kids, especially the younger one, gets disturbed with the ongoing work, which by the way, is stretching beyond our control. The way to little juniors heart is through his stomach, and I knew that these wraps would please him!

Of course mothers are never far off the mark. You should have seen to 100 watt smile I got for these..."NICE Mama, NICE!' He's a little foodie, often watches Master Chef Australia, dragging me to the telly in hungry fascination. Hear him discussing ingredients, contestants face expressions, asking if maybe I can make that yummy {calorie ridden in my eyes} lasagna. He notices the Kitchen Aid {the machine I dream of}, the ovens, the knives and can almost sniff ingredients out!

I mentioned 'inspiration of the kebab type' from my search results mentioned in my previous post, and here I am. When I thought of making these kebabs, I had junior PAB in mind. We share the love of subtle taste, colour and presentation in cuisine, as does Mr PAB. Give them both a well laid out, 'good' looking platter and you can see the sun shine in the middle of the night! They are not demanding men in any way, but are most charming and appreciative ... and life seems worthwhile once again!

The bazaars are exploding with juicy, fresh bell peppers. On days that I get a well priced stash, I roast a few to make them last longer, and keep some for salad. I used a combination of roasted and fresh ones here in the wraps. The roasted ones, with their beautiful smokey flavour, were added to the mince while grinding, and the crisp fresh julienned ones tossed into a salad. Satisfied that nutrition and yumminess were both in there, the wraps were wonderful. {If you are unsure of the spices and salt in the kebab, fry a small bit of prepared mince to taste the flavours, and adjust ingredients if required}. And if you have pickled peppers on hand, do consider adding them to the mince while processing  it, as they add delightful tanginess to the kebabs.

While the hub and me chomped on ours wraps, all bundled up in white parchment for pictures to be taken first, we were transported back to the days when we used to visit London in the late '80's and early 90's, digging into the most delicious doner kebab rolls, stuffed with salad, served with lashings of sauce. It was often bone-chilling cold there, but the enthusiasm of the lads serving the wraps coupled with the first bite always warmed us up. Those were the days, and these wraps brought back the nostalgia!

Before I get to the recipe, time to announce the winners for the Mainland China Book Giveaway, picked via Random.Org - Nalini Hebbar and Avanika. Congratulations to the two of you; I hope you enjoy the book as much as I do. Could you please e-mail me your full postal address so Random House can mail the books to you. Thank you for having me host this Sohini!

Chicken, Basil & Roasted Bell Pepper Kebabs
Makes approx 10-12 rolls
Ingredients:
500gms chicken mince {I use thigh tenders}
1 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1-2 tbsp pickled peppers/jalapeños {home-made recipe here}
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 roasted red bell peppers
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil {I used Borges from here}
Salt to taste

Method:
Pulse the onion, basil and jalapeños in the processor for about a minute till finely chopped.
Add the rest of the ingredients and process on medium low speed till it all gets well mixed and comes together.Transfer to a glass or steel bowl and chill for at least 1 hour.
Heat about 2-3 tbsps of oil in a heavy bottom frying pan. Lightly oil your palms. Take a small portion of mince & roll it into a sausage like roll, back and forth to form a kebab. Gently slide into the pan & shallow fry till brown on all sides, about 8-10minutes.
Note: The kebabs should be fried just before serving as they taste best fresh,  thought the kids love taking them to school for lunch too!

Bell Pepper Salad
2-3 bell peppers in different colours, finely sliced
1 large onion, finely sliced
8-10 fresh basil leaves, chiffonaded
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil {I used Borges from here}
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste
Method:
Whisk the olive oil, lime juice and salt. Reserve in a bowl.
Toss the other ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Add the dressing just before serving, and toss well.

Assembling:
Fry the wholewheat chapati or tortilla on a hot griddle/tava with a few drops of oil on both sides.
Place a kebab, followed by freshly tossed salad, roll and serve!

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{Baking / Eggless Cake} VANILLA & CHOCOLATE and CHOCOLATE & WALNUT EGGLESS CAKE

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

John Wooden

It's time for the Daring Bakers and this time I have to say I'm sorry I couldn't keep a date with the challenge. My kitchen is 'under attack' {read renovation}, and things are still in disarray. What should have been completed last week is yet to be done, dragging on frustratingly. That's not to say I haven't managed to sneak in a bake now and then, but I couldn't manage the chocolate dipping stage etc of the challenge. I did have a LMP {last minute plan} with some clarified butter on hand. Thought I could manage the brown butter pound cake, but bad store-keeping meant that the jar was empty, and my plans fell through. Fate maybe?

I did however set up a personal challenge for myself, something I have always vehemently denied as possible, an EGGLESS CAKE! No es posible has been my standard response to the many mails I have received in the past. A cake sans eggs? You kidding me? How in the world would it get a crumb, find rise, be good to eat etc! Eventually ate my words with this beautiful cake from Sailu's Kitchen. {Gear up dear readers for a longish post because I tried 2 versions, with butter and with olive oil, and both were wonderful!}

I tread the kitchen floor mildly, in mortal fear that the cake would not be a cake. Never baked one without eggs. The other surprise ingredient was home made yogurt. I set yogurt at home every other day, and bake with it often, but eggs always keep the yogurt company. I watched in childlike fascination when the cake began to rise, rejoicing wildly, thankfully in solitude! Who would be able to understand the sheer joy of an eggless cake rising? I {almost} followed each step religiously, something I don't often do, but...

... expectedly had a last minute 'moment of panic', and added butter instead of oil to make sure the guinea pigs wouldn't reject it outright! Oil sans eggs was just not convincing at the time, and I thought the luxury of butter might rescue my cake from rejection. I needn't have been so skeptical, and the next time I used my stash of Borges olive oil from here. The cake exceeded all expectations! It was moist, it was flavourful, and above all, it was an eggless cake with a beautiful crumb! Beautiful enough to disappear very fast, some stashed away by the daughter for friends who don't eat eggs, the rest enjoyed on a rainy day!

Eggless Chocolate and Vanilla Cake with Cherries
Adapted minimally from Sailu's Kitchen
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sieved
1 cup yogurt {home made}
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted {or oil}
1/2 vanilla bean {optional}
1/2 cup frozen cherries {optional}
1 heaped tbsp cocoa {I used Valrhona}
1 sachet vanilla sugar 

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 C for 10 minutes. Grease a 6" round tin, and line the bottom.
Beat the vanilla sugar, scraped vanilla bean and yogurt for 5 minutes on high speed. Add baking powder and baking soda, beat in on low, and allow to stand for 3 minutes. You will find that bubbles appear.
Beat in the melted butter and vanilla essence. Next, slowly add the flour in 4 lots, blending in well after each addition.
Take 1/3 of the dough in a separate bowl and stir in the cocoa. {You can make just vanilla as well, in which case, omit this step}
Add 1/2 the vanilla batter to the bottom of the tin, smooth it out to spread across the whole surface. Add all the chocolate batter, and smoothen it out too. It might be pretty thick, as mine was. Top with the remaining vanilla batter to make a third layer. Top with frozen cherries if using, and sprinkle over the sachet of vanilla sugar.
Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, reduce temperature to 175C and bake for 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. {Original recipe uses a ring mold I think, and the baking time at 175C was 20-25 minutes. Mine took a lot longer, so test before taking it out of the o}.
Cool the cake for 20-30 minutes and then overturn onto a plate.
Wait for an hour or two before slicing it else it doesn't slice neatly. {My kids couldn't wait}. The cake was very good the next day too, and sliced beautifully!

I would suggest the use of a good quality dark cocoa, having recently discovered that it can make a huge difference. I used Valrhona that Shayma from The Spice Spoon sent for me, and after experiencing it's virtues first hand in this Chocolate Almond Biscotti, I am totally sold on it! I added a scraped vanilla bean to the batter as I love the depth of flavour vanilla offers to baked goods, and some frozen cherries to give the cake a cheerful face-lift. Also a smattering of vanilla sugar on top, just because ...

Small piece of advice ... make sure you let the cake sit in the tin to cool for 30 minutes before turning it out. Also try and resist the temptation to slice it when warm. We couldn't of course, but I found later that it sliced beautifully after 3-4 hours, or even the next day as it firmed up. This is a nice basic recipe to have on hand for folk who need an eggless cake for various reasons whether health, allergic, religious etc.

I had to get back to try the oil version soon enough as the Borges bottles on my shelf tempted me yet again. Time for eggless cake version 2, and this time around I enjoyed myself thoroughly, baking in careless abandon, knowing that things would work out well. I made the cake early in the morning, the minute the kids left for school, and then chilled it for a couple of hours after it had cooled down. Moist, deep, chocolaty and to die for! The walnuts scattered on top got nicely toasted, and added to the flavours.

The idea of making an eggless cake, without any compulsions, came to me whenever I looked at PAB's search results on Lijit. Do you give your stats a second look? I've recently started looking at them for direction, inspiration, ideas etc and found several searches for an eggless cake. I was recently inspired from there to make a Mango Vanilla Bavarian Cream Cake. Todays view looks something like this -

Passionate About Baking

You have been searched 1498 times about chocolate sauce pudding, kebabs, strawberry bread, pie, tandoori roti
View your search stats.

... and I can already feel a 'kebab inspiration' coming in!!

The thought of an eggless cake crossed my mind often, but I never did come across a recipe that tempted me out of my ignorance. Until I saw this post. It intrigued me and I looked at it in disbelief ... Was it possible that an eggless cake could look so good and picture perfect? I had to give it a go, and am darned glad I did! You will be too if you are looking for a good eggless cake recipe. This was fabulous, and gone in a day between the kids and their friends! Without further ado, here is the 2nd version, using olive oil!

Lesson learnt ... 'Anything is possible, and fear needs to be conquered!'

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake
Adapted minimally from Sailu's Kitchen
1 cup all-purpose flour,
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder {I used Valrhona}
1 cup yogurt {home made}
3/4 cup vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup olive oil {I used Borges from here}
1/2 vanilla bean {optional}
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 sachet vanilla sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a 6" round tin, and line the bottom.
Beat the vanilla sugar, scraped vanilla bean and yogurt for 5 minutes on high speed. Add baking powder and baking soda, beat in on low, and allow to stand for 3 minutes. You will find that bubbles appear.
Sift the flour and cocoa 2-3 times. Reserve in bowl.
Beat in the olive oil. Slowly add the flour mix in 3-4 lots, blending in well after each addition.
Sprinkle the top with chopped walnuts, followed by a sprinkling of vanilla sugar from the sachet.
Bake at 200C for 10 minutes, reduce temperature to 175C and bake for 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. {The original recipe used a ring mold I think, and the baking time at 175C was 20-25 minutes. Mine took a lot longer}.
Cool the cake for 20-30 minutes and then overturn onto a plate.

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{No bake / Frozen} PLUM FRO YO POPSICLES ... chilling adieu to stone fruit!

“What is more mortifying than to feel that you have missed the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?” 

Logan Pearsall Smith

There's nothing to this. Just some guilt pangs for getting a last tempting batch of plums, and then ignoring them completely because of the lack of time and energy. When they began to prick my conscience, and I gathered there was to be no time to make a plum frangipane tart, I chopped them up, whizzed them in the blender, added vanilla sugar to them, and bought an extra day of time. 'Tomorrow is another day!' ... what an absolutely comforting thought!

Tasting it as I went, which sometimes is the best way to do it, I loved the way it tasted. Thought of adding some low fat cream to it, but on the spur of the moment added some olive oil as the bottle stared at me. If you have products to review, flaunt use them! My bottles of Borges olive oil are getting used up in a fun way, and I love the experimenting bit. I had no clue how this would turn out, but the 'en route to setting' tasting was finger licking good, so I knew the end product was going to be definitely good!!

There has to be something entirely whimsical about frozen yogurt ... something about indulging in luxury the guilt free way. I love the way it offers a low calorie treat. Here, the sweetness of the vanilla married the tanginess of the sour plums beautifully. I kept the skin of the plums on, as I had no time, and that added beautiful specks to the frozen yogurt.

I set some in 4 fluted molds which I bought from my little shop in Old Delhi. They aren't ice cream / popsicle molds, more like molds where rum babas meet mini brioches. Of course I wasn't too sure the pops would pop out, but as you can see, they did so beautifully. I set the rest in a freezer safe container, which I whisked every half an hour, 5-6 times as I don't own an ice cream maker! Already looking forward to next year to experiment with cherries and maybe peaches. Mango seems like  good idea too. Oooh, I can see immense possibilities ... mmmm!!

Have to add that the olive oil didn't add any discerning taste to the fro yo, but did add to the texture, I believe. I think it worked the vodka way, where the fro yo didn't freeze hard like rock. NICE!! I think it contributed to the silkiness too by adding healthy fat to the mix without the guilty calories.

My experiments will continue next year as fall now approaches and with it  pip fruits like pears and apples. Am already looking forward to the idea of tarte tatin, pies and apple crumbles. The son is waiting impatiently for an apple tarte tatin which he saw Meryl Streep make in Julie & Julia. Yes, the season of cinnamon and brown sugar beckons; the winds of change are here again!

Plum Frozen Yogurt Popsicles

500gms plums, stoned and roughly chopped {skin on}

3/4 cup vanilla sugar

1/2 cup hung yogurt {very thick, hung for 2 days in the fridge}

2 tbsp olive oil {I used Borges from here}

Method:

Run the plums in the blender / liquidizer till completely pureed. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again till well mixed.

Turn into popsicle molds or a freezer container. Freeze for 6-8 hours, preferably overnight according to instructions on your ice cream maker. Else, if you don't have an ice cream maker like me, and are setting it in a freezer container, give it a good stir with the balloon whisk {or an electric hand blender} every hour to distribute the crystals, 5-6 times. Then leave to set for 4-6 hours.

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