Fruit & Nut Rum Cake

For our birthdays, my in-laws celebrate by cooking Vada, kheer etc and visiting temples. I decided to celebrate my parents upcoming wedding anniversary by baking this Fruit and nut cake. Reminds of my first anniversary gift to them, during my 7th grade. It was a picnic set, a flask with some cups and plates. I had saved all my pocket money, walked to one of the “FANCY” stores near my school and bought it. Was so excited in keeping it hidden till the date. Needless to say its a flask preserved till this date, one which brings a proud smile to their faces.

I used Bee’s Fruit and Nut cake recipe, modified it slightly , making it vegetarian instead of vegan. I had my dry fruits( a mixture of currants,raisins,apricots,cranberries and dates) soaked in Dark Rum for a week.

Please visit Jugalbandi’s website for the original recipe. I will list down the recipe anyway.
Here is the recipe

Ingredients
1. Mix of Nuts ( I used walnuts,almonds and cashewnuts) & dry fruits.
2. 1 cup Rum.( for soaking the dry fruits).
3. 1 cup packed brown sugar
4. 1.5 cup water
5. 5 tablespoons Evaporated Fat Free Milk ( Can also use plain milk/condensed )
6. 1/2 teaspoon salt
7. 1/4 tsp each ground cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg
8. 3 cups unsifted wholewheat pastry flour or all-purpose flour.
( I used 1.5 Cups Wholewheat pastry flour,0.5 cup all-purpose flour,1 cup Oat flour)
9. 1 teaspoon baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preparation
1.Drain the dried fruits and reserve the rum. Put the dried fruits in a pan with water. If they are pre-soaked, use 1 and 1/3 cups water, if not, add 2 cups water. ( This is as Bee states it. I soaked them in rum and used 1.5 cups water)
2.Add sugar, spices and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes and turn off the heat.
3.Preheat the oven to 350 F with a rack in the middle. Grease a bundt pan.
4. Once the mixture is cooled,add the vanilla extract and evaporated milk.
5.Fold in flour, baking soda and nuts.
6.Spoon into greased bundt pan and bake until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. ( Around 35 minutes)
7.Cool for a few minutes and invert over a wire rack .Simmer the reserved rum for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol and drizzle over the cake.( I didn’t simmer the rum, rather drizzled it as it is since I wanted a true rum cake.

Had some cream at home which was getting outdated and used it to lather the cake.

Variations:
1. No need to soak the fruits in Rum. It can be plain Fruit & Nut cake.
2. The original recipe called for some lemon/orange zest, orange juice, which I skipped.
3. Instead of Milk, the original recipe had oil/applesauce.

Notes:
1. The cake came out perfect and very moist. It turned out to be a bit too sweet for me. The original recipe calls for 2 cups sugar.. Wonder how people would even taste anything other than sugar in that one..

Thanksgiving is the perfect occasion to convey my thanks to my parents.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM and DAD !!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING Everyone.

India-Pakistan Dream

My niece had written this poem couple of years back ,I think in her 11th grade and won some award. A guest post by Arthi.

India-Pakistan dream

We share the same sun, moon and stars,
Then why don’t we live like a family?
We all drink water and eat the
Same kind of food
Then why do we so often spoil
Each other’s mood?
Both of us have a strong cricket team
Then why do we have to be so mean

Same kind of birds and trees doeseth
Grow and live in both our lands
Then why do we wish to see
Each of our lands destroyed?
Why are we destroying our own friends?
Why aren’t we joining hands?

See how the birds migrate to each of
Our lands without a hesitation or a glance
See how the rivers flow in both our lands
Connecting us, leaving behind a bond
See how the trees live in peace
And offer anything we please

So, lets forget everything
And start afresh again
I’m ready now aren’t you Brother?

Please, don’t unfriend me

It’s facebook official.

This year’s New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year is ‘unfriend.’

The verb means to “remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.”

The definition has both “currency and potential longevity,” according to Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program

The same dictionary which defined Friend as “one attached to another by affection or esteem” decided to unfriend it.

Just when I had the satisfied look of someone who has enjoyed a full course meal ending with Thayir Sadham , on joining facebook last month, the word mongers come up with this insult. Seriously, is it not enough that all my friends see the tab ” Your friend Shoba does not seem to be well connected. Please suggest some friends” , which is soon to be followed by a tab saying ” Please don’t unfriend Shoba. She has so few friends as it is.” Damn !!

I unfriend Oxford American dictionary. There, my first unfriendliness..

Update:
This blogger has also written her perspective of the word.

Lost in Translation

Spreek je Engels? ( Do you speak English?)

We learnt this from the Dutch translation book before leaving for Switzerland 9 years ago. Funny, I remember it as “Sprek enje English”..at least that’s what I have been pronouncing it as, from day one. Did it help us more than the blank stares and our body language screaming “I am a tourist…Bachao..”, I am not sure.

Admiring the seats in a train while traveling in Interlaken, only to be told that we were illegally occupying the first class compartment – A cheeky smile

Getting confused with Italian, French and Dutch because of the different languages spoken in various regions and trying all the three with unsuspecting locals.. – Laugh riot

Suresh starting a conversion in the Italian zone with “Merci”. If you think you have heard it somewhere, yes it is indeed French. If you think it means “Excuse me”, no, it doesn’t. It means “Thank you”. Looking at the bewildered expression on the guy’s face listening to Suresh’s Merci, with my prompting in English, in a supposedly Italian accent – ROFL priceless.

Planning for our upcoming trip to Italy& Paris, my partner in crime is honing his Italian and French . How, you may ask? Call Rome as Roma and Italy as Eettaly (pronounced with widening your mouth a bit) which makes it Italian and the French is influenced a lot by Pink Panther’s Steve Martin. So, Italy becomes Itly( pronounced as Idly with your mouth in an almost ‘O’ shape) . Yes, we are all set. No, we don’t have to go through a translation book.

Or so we thought until Suresh filled the “Number of Passport” in the Visa application as “One”. Even the expiry date in the next column didn’t faze our man’s confidence. Blame it on the Italian for their literal translation. ( FYI.Just so we all get it clarified. “Number of Passport” actually meant “Passport Number” , not “Number of Passports”.)

If Italians speak Italian english and we speak English Italian with an Indian accent, wonder who will get confused, the italian locals or the ever confident duo.

OH! YES !!“Siam pronti alla”

Quinoa Paniyaram

Quinoa (pronounced /ˈkiːnoʊ.ə/ or /kwɨˈnoʊ.ə/, Spanish quinua, from Quechua kinwa), a species of goosefoot (Chenopodium), is a grain-like crop grown primarily for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal, or grain, as it is not a grass. As a chenopod, quinoa is closely related to species such as beets, spinach and tumbleweeds. Its leaves are also eaten as a leaf vegetable, much like amaranth, but the commercial availability of quinoa greens is currently limited.

I read about this grain some years ago and have been hooked on to it ever since as it is very nutritious and is a good substitute for rice, being quite bland with a very mild, nutty taste. Our friends M&M even make Quinoa Biryani. I usually stir fry some broccoli and mix it with cooked quinoa with little salt and curry powder. I also mix it with idlis, Parathas and Paniyarams.
For 1 cup of cooked Quinoa, here is the nutrition profile
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl

Paniyaram ( in Tamil) is made by steaming rice & urad dal batter with seasonings, onions added in moulds meant for this particular dish. I bought my mould in India , but you will get it in the US too, called the “Ebleskiver pan”, available in Iron and Non-stick. Making Paniyarams is very simple. Get the batter ready and pour it in the moulds. But, it takes time to cook due to which it is very rarely served in restaurants.Using this mould , one can even make low fat Vadas, pakodas instead of deep frying them.

I had some idli batter , to which added some onions , green chili and quinoa. Lo and Behold !! Quinoa paniyarams ready.

Ingredients

2 cups Idli batter/Paniyaram batter/ (0r)
1.5 cups rice flour and 1/2 cup Urad batter
( Different people have diff proportions for Idli batter/Paniyaram batter. If you don’t have any of those , just mix it with some rice flour & urad batter. I use Brown Rice flour. For Urad batter, soak Urad dal for 2 hrs and grind it.)
2 cups cooked Quinoa
3 Green Chilies
1 cup diced onion
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp jeera( cumin)
5 curry leaves
Oil as needed
Salt as per taste

Preparation
1. Mix the batter/flour, quinoa,onion and chilies.
2. Season the mustard, jeera and curry leaves in oil and add it to the batter.
3. Take the mould, pour 1 tsp oil in all the pockets and pour the batter in to those.
4. After 5 minutes, turn the paniyarams over to cook the other side, using the stick provided.
5. After 5 minutes or once the inserted stick shows the paniyarams to be cooked, just take them out using the stick.