Panfusine

I KNEW there was a reason why I had a tinge of reluctance when I set out for my holiday to India. I was, after all going full steam ahead with my daily blog, I had a set of 6 -8 recipes that I had on hand as a spare and a whole hives worth of ideas buzzing in my head. But at the back of my head I knew that the holiday would set me into a state of extended lethargy that would be extremely difficult to shake off. When it came to writing up a blog post, or making dishes or even uploading my photographs from my camera to the computer, my system would go into a slow down / get distracted by other mundane stuff mode. Net result.. I've yet to publish my post on the amazing experience I had at the Indian Food Bloggers meet almost 2 months ago. Go figure! If I stuck to my initial decision of posting my recipes in the order that I've made them for the past month, I'd probably never get started, so here goes. I plan to start the blogging process and then get back to completin...

The second week of April generally marks the New Year in many Indian communities. Baisakhi (Punjab), Rongali Bihu (Assam ) , Ugadi (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka), Gudi Padwa (Maharashtra) , Varsha Pirappu & Vishu in Tamil Nadu and Kerala respectively. The week marks the passage of the Sun into the constellation Aries, and as with all other Indian festivals its marked by plenty of food as religious offerings. There is one particular tradition that makes Vishu an annual event to remember. Its referred to as the 'Vishu Kani' . The Lady of the house has a cornucopia of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and dals along with money and jewelry arrange in a beautiful 'Uruli' (An artisanal cooking pot made with a bell metal alloy).In the centre of the dish is a mirror and large Lamps are lit. Children are led to the prayer room where the Kani is arranged and are asked to open their eyes to view themselves in the mirror. The belief is that it is auspicious to open ones eyes to...

Ahh the lingering enduring pleasure of taste memory..Its been almost three weeks since I tucked happily into these buttery pastries and here I am already getting set to start making plans for an encore. I'm planning to experiment with a different filling but before I add that to my repertoire of croissant flavors, I just have to write this recipe up before the details gradually fade away, like the spice notes of cardamom & saffron  that completely had me under their spell.

Its that time of the month again... the 24th day of each month when a batch of us food bloggers from the world over have pledged to pay homage to Carb-Devi , the goddess of all things delicious of starchy origin. This month, Aparna threw what seemed to be a sly curve ball at the lot of us, by listing Croissants as the bread to bake, and sure enough that feeble voice squeaking out warnings about butter & more 'Buttah' was quickly suppressed, tied down with culinary twine and dispatched to the 25th of the month! As Scarlett would say, "Tomorrow is another day!" Yes, the prospect of making these is intimidating, it takes 3 days to prep the dough, roll out & bake, and then about 30 minutes to scarf them down. They are so wispy, light and flaky and if there is one thing I learnt from this experience, it has ruined me for store bought croissants. One batch make about 16 good sized pastries and given that the quality of the ingredients used is unde...