Panfusine

 Got your attention with that sacrilegious sounding title on this post, didn't I? Well, I'm as spiritual as the next person out there, and never in my life will I ever commit that variety of Blasphemy, so nothing to fret about. I still wonder why these curious looking citrus entities (other than the obvious visual reason) were called such. It turns out that these fruits are used as a religious offering to the Buddha. My neighboring Whole Foods Market (which is quite some distance away, in Princeton) had a stock of these weird looking citrus and I must have been the oddball customer who immediately went cuckoo on spotting them. Since I had never seen one before, I immediately went for the biggest fruit with the most tentacles (since they were sold as individual units rather than by weight) The first three 'tentacles' were peeled off for their zest, dried in the oven and went into making a citrus salt for my Food52 Secret Santa .     Making ...

Whats it about having a whale of a time with friends & Family?. It makes it so hard to get back to food.  While I wait for my local farm to open up their fresh vegetable stand (June 23rd), Its back to trying small dishes, amuse bouches as Le Francais call them.

Today was a wonderfully productive day in terms of recipes.. 2 new dishes with secret ingredient that hardly features in any Indian dish, North, South, East or West.  A. One of the first things that popped up on my facebook page was a YouTube video posted of a  song that has seen a resurgence thanks to the movie Mamma Mia. Yes. I'm referring to that ABBA Classic 'I have a dream' As with all of us who have grown up to Abba, this was that 'song of the day' that would keep humming inside my skull for the remaining part of the day, thanks in part, to an Ipod set on repeat! B. The person responsible for the ABBA posting was Karan Bali , an alumni of FTII and co-founder of http://www.upperstall.com/ . This is the site I go to by default whenever I need objective information & reviews on any Indian movie in any language, new or not. Its one of the most comprehensive databases for all kinds of films made in India. Do take a moment to check the site out, Its defin...

It may be late winter in the US but this time of year marks the beginning of the Mango season in India and the 'Alphonso' is the reigning king of the hundreds of varieties that sequentially make their appearance. http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/travel/10mumbailetter.html Although the canned variety is never as good as the real thing, the uniformity in sweetness & texture renders it useful for baking purposes. I tried to recreate the taste of a refreshing mango punch ( referred to as 'aam ka panna' in hindi) made with ginger, mango pulp & a hint of cardamom. The tart pastry recipe is from Carole Walter's book 'Great pies & tarts, p. 104, with minor substitutions (ghee instead of vegetable shortening and equal parts of All purpose flour & pastry flour) Makes 9-10 Tart Pastry: 3/4 cups All purpose flour 3/4 cups pastry flour 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/3 cup frozen butter diced 2 tablespoons Ghe...

Q. Where does a Pierogi figure in Traditional Indian cuisine?? A. Nowhere really..   My first taste of Pierogi (actually, make that the first time I'd heard the term) was from one of those freezer offerings. the prepackaged versions apparently were a staple for my husband while in grad school. Just remove from package, microwave in a bowl of water, drain liquid & scarf down...   Pierogi (the term is plural) are basically boiled dough pockets filled with potatoes, although there are variations to be found all over Poland, eastern Europe & Central Asia where they originate. Although not as common as the ubiquitous pizza, frozen pierogis are a staple in any megamart freezer section. and yes for the most part, ovovegetarian.   It wasn't straightforward coming up with an Indian version of this. It was on a completely unrelated recipe testing session that gave rise to this dish.    I was trying out a recipe from the latest book in my colle...

Whether its a football game or a bollywood masala flick, an essential part of the experience is having the right finger foods to go with it. My idea of relaxing on a friday night is whipping up something other than the traditional  Indian fare & the favorites are usually something Mediterranean or Mexican.. The bad thing about nacho's the difficulty in controlling portions.. the smallest baking tray accomodates 1/2 a huge bag of chip & with the toppings... forget it. When combined with a childhood habit of 'not wasting food' you're pretty much doomed as far as watching your caloric intake for the next week!  Baking individual portions in muffin pans makes for a visually pleasing hors  d'oeuvres, while retaining all the elements of the incomparable umami.& the interesting part... no deep fried chips!. For those of you in India where the listed ingredients may not be available in the standard form, I've provided substitutes that do not...