Last year’s apple picking day trip inspired me to make Apple Crisp at home for the first time which turned out to be delicious. Happy with my success and going by how easy the recipe is, I made it quite a few times last year along with applesauce. Continue reading
Spring is here and so are all the New Years that’s celebrated in all different regions of India. This recipe is the quick method to make these popular sweet fudgy cheese treats or ‘Shondesh’. ‘Sandesh’ or ‘Shondesh’ is a popular sweet treat from eastern India (Bengal) and comes in a variety of flavors. The main ingredient is milk. That’s made into fresh cheese which is then cooked with flavors to make different types of ‘shondesh’. My recipes for making these sweet treats is here:
Recipe for cheese for ‘shondesh’ is here.
Recipe for Rose Sandesh is here.
Apple Crisp is a classic American dish which blends in so perfectly with this Fall weather. Continue reading
This is freshly made paneer or ‘chhena’ ( a.k.a. ‘chhana’) or fresh Indian cheese. The texture of this cheese is slightly firmer than ricotta cheese, the latter being very creamy. However, if you knead it well, this ‘chhena’ becomes very smooth and creamy, too. Also, the process of making ricotta cheese and ‘chhena’ are the same. Even though an internet-search shows paneer is ‘cottage cheese’, the texture of the two are very different. Cottage cheese is loose with curds while paneer or ‘chhena’ is not loose.
‘Chhena’ can be easily made at home and stored in an airtight container, mixed with sugar and other flavors to prepare sweets or desserts during the Indian festive season! Continue reading
The festive season is here. I started off by celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi here in the Bay Area for the first time ever. Next comes the biggest festival for Bengalis, all over the world ~ Durga Puja. But one thing is common with all Indian festivals, that is indulging in sweets! Continue reading
Makes for a perfect dessert. Relish it with some whipped cream if you may 🙂
Fall is here now but till a few days back, at the tail end of summer, I could still spot some pineapples at my local grocery store. I got one home. Soon after that it so happened that we were to have dinner with some close friends and I decided to take dessert. I had my tropical fruit sitting right there so I thought, “How about baking the Pineapple Upside Down Cake for dessert?!’ A perfect dessert for Fall-Winter too, have it warm with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
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Chocolate-Island Vanilla Cake ~ a close cousin of the beloved Marble Cake
Simple baking is joyous. And when you bring chocolate and vanilla together in a no-frosting, soft, buttery cake, you can never go wrong.
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Summer months automatically mean mangoes. Mangoes flood the Indian grocery stores here. You would also find them at Trader Joe’s, Whole Food etc. AB and I try the varieties that you get here and this year we have been especially lucky to have found these excellent ones in one particular Indian store here. The taste of those mangoes takes me straight back to Kolkata when I would relish the ‘Langra’ variety while my entire family would go for ‘Himsagar’ without batting an eyelid.
I do not know what is it about freshly baked frosting-less cakes and breads that I love so much. Keeping that ‘love’ in mind and a craving for something that could accompany our evening tea, I baked this loaf cake. This is not a heavy cake. It is more like a hybrid between a cake and a bread. Continue reading
You must be wondering, “This is not a mini muffin! Why has she titled this ‘mini’ muffins when she made regular ones? Why would she do that?!” Think no further. Read on. You will know why.
An Artsy Appetite 