Candied ginger

Valentine’s Day 2019

This Valentine's, I used my homemade ice creams to make a Baked Alaska. Always wanted to make one, but never did, till now.. At first, I thought of buying the chocolate cake, then decided to make my own. But since we only need a part of that cake for this, I did some chocolate-buttercream frosting on the rest of it, and got a nice, three-layer chocolate cake too.

Baked Alaska

Roti, layered chapathi, Indian bread

Basic and the best. 

zeppole

another Italian staple, these are made during feast days, I hear. Basic dough with yeast, deep fried and sprinkled with sugar. It has raisins too. What strikes me again and again -- the parallels between various cuisines. The same basic formula in different forms and versions. We have this same variations with our basic dough based on rice flour. Sometimes with yeast or toddy , with or without coconut, coconut milk in their various forms. Steamed, boiled, pan-seared, deep fried, sauteed, stuffed, filled, etc. etc.

Focaccia de reco

got this recipe from Chef John's foodwishes. didn't have the stracchino/ crescenza cheese. used mozzarella and gruyere. no yeast.  and like our stuffed rotis. try this, won't stop eating.

Rice cooker

Never thought a rice cooker will make my life easy! The Aroma rice cooker, available on amazon.com, with its saute and simmer function lets you do so much more. A delightful surprise. Soups, stews, stirfries, and of course, our parboiled rice. Which by the way is not pre-cooked rice.

a lentil-based beef stew with vegetables that I made in this cooker. A so-called curry from our parts.

French toast

Basic and the best! and with a little custard sauce! Decadent. And this custard sauce was an accident. Tried one ice cream recipe, one for the custard-style ice cream which used a lot of half and half and no milk. The ice cream was kind of dense and too overpowering to my taste, will add milk next time.

But I put it in the fridge and and it turned out to be this out of this world custard sauce.(obviously!)