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This week was filled with a lot of cooking and some great photos, if I may fluff my feathers a bit 😇
Winter Produce & Some Inspiration ✨
Winter is my favourite time of the year for many reasons, the obvious ones being the pleasant weather, the warming sunshine, the crisp blue skies, the soothing breeze and the year-end/new year festive cheer.
As a person who loves to cook, it is my utmost favourite for the bountiful produce it brings along - the sweetest vegetables and the most vibrant fruits. Every grocery run is filled with inspiration for what to cook next.
It is also the season of strawberries - probably my most favourite fruit if I had to choose. The rouge bomb of sweetness and tang is a visual and edible delight. ❤️🍓
Throughout the week, I had the box of strawberries sitting in the refrigerator at the back of my mind. Thinking—
Oooh I'll bake that strawberry snack cake from the Food52 book!
Ooh I should eat them with some chocolate yogurt in the morning!
Why not just have them as is? (I did.)
The idea struck on Thursday night when my mother was going through her monthly ritual of making ghee from all the cream collected from our daily milk consumption. (This ritual will definitely be a whole piece of its own in the near future. The history behind it priceless.)
The process of making ghee is very much similar to that of making butter, but just a step further where the butter (or loni) is clarified by cooking. Another similarity is the by-product of the process - buttermilk.
As I was whisking the cream to separate the butter and buttermilk - my mind chimed 'Buttermilk Pancakes - that's what those strawberries need!'. Excitedly I grabbed a jar (guess which one) and extracted the precious buttermilk from the mixture.
Fast forward to Saturday morning and a quick online search later I decided on using Stella Parks' Thick & Fluffy Pancakes recipe and took a step towards building the most delicious throne for those strawberries.
The strawberries, too, got some special treatment in the form of sugar & lemon juice maceration to leave them extra flavourful and give the pancakes some oomph with that strawberry syrup.
Pancakes stacked & buttered, I carried them to my bedroom window that is showered with the most wonderful sunshine every morning and set up the stage to capture the strawberries in all their ruby glory. Lo and behold—
This has to be one of my favourite food photographs clicked by me in recent times. The light & shadow play, the colours and the food itself leave just one word in my mind to describe this shot - buttery.
Vanity aside, the pancakes themselves were delicious with the most yellow cake-like texture I've ever witnessed in pancakes. It likely has to do with all the butter involved. Certainly a worthy occasion for indulgence. 😋
Cravings Satisfied ✅
Every once in a while, I get this craving for a very particular dish. This weekend it was a burrito bowl. 🌯 That seemingly healthy-looking yet not-so-healthy bowl of rice and beans and vegetables and sauces and crunchy tortilla chips and oh my god I need it!
I opened up Zomato to look for a place nearby that delivered and was quickly put off by the bad reviews. Ab kya karein? Dil hai ki maanta nahi.
Long story short, I took it up as my second cooking project of the weekend. (Wow Afshan, two cooks in a weekend?! Wow)
I began with a plan in mind - get the beans (rajma) cooked first because they'd take the longest. So I let them soak all through Saturday afternoon and began cooking in the evening.
I decided to cook them entirely in a pot over low flame. Low and slow baby. The low and slow lowed and slowed for two hours - still not cooked, I let them go longer. Another 2 hours later it was midnight and the beans still had a bite to them - I gave them another hour.
Still. Not. Done. I gave up for the night and called it quits just before 1 am. I realised the pressure cooker was my only saviour the next day. And indeed it was. With a half-hour of pressure-cooking, the beans finally reached their optimal buttery texture and I praised the bean Gods (and also the pressure cooker Gods) for having my back.
Lesson: Trust the Indian aunties' wisdom and pressure cook stuff that needs to be pressure cooked.
Step 1 through and it took only 6 hours of cooking? Lol. Allow me to list out the next steps I needed to complete for the final product:
Make rice
Make salsa verde (green salsa)
Make tomato salsa (red salsa)
Make yogurt sauce (stepping in for sour cream)
Some sort of chilli mayo (went with Schezwan mayo)
Prepping all the veggies
The final assembly
Next steps began by first setting the rinsed rice aside to soak, followed by charring the green tomatoes and chillies for some salsa verde.
Curveball alert: Those things I assumed to be green tomatoes were actually Ber (the fruit also known as Indian Jujubes apparently?) and I realised this after cutting into the charred fruits to find a stone. A big facepalm moment. 😭
Lesson: Communicate with your vegetable vendor while buying stuff and don't just keep singing songs in your head.
Any whooo, that blip aside I decided to make a simple salsa verde with the charred chillies, fresh coriander, garlic, and lemon juice. So so good!
The next steps were ticked off pretty smoothly - tomato salsa done, rice put on to cook, yogurt seasoned and chilled, veggies prepped and finish liiine!
Not so quick!
These gorgeous photos you're seeing took some effort of course. Setting up, trying to make things look pretty while still effortless (lol), taking pictures after each step (ouch) and finally admiring my handiwork (sigh) and saying 'Take that New York Burrito Company 😎'.
The final verdict - was it worth all the effort? Abso-freaking-lutely Y E S.
Nothing beats homemade food and the testament still holds true.
I quickly devoured the bowl and made myself another helping shamelessly and proudly. Burrito bowl cravings have officially been satiated. Bless. ☺️
Other Cooking Scenes This Week 👀
Made this *epic* sandwich on Tuesday night 🥪
Made this loaded schezwan cheese masala dosa Thursday night 🔥
It has indeed been a good cooking week. 🦋
The Queen of Baking 🍰
I spent most of me-time reading this week, but I did tune in to YouTube to catch Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person. Another BA queen who has gone her own way to shine wide and bright.
Claire is bringing to the 'Tube recipes from her new cookbook Dessert Person. I will admit the recipes aren't the most beginner-friendly, but if you loved watching Claire in Gourmet Makes (which if you haven't watched - YOU HAVE TO - but also don't support BA) and loved all her geekiness, you will love this more laid back version.
I personally don't make 90% of the things I watch, but food/cooking/baking is something I can't ever not be fascinated by so I watch and I watch.
Claire is a cutie you will fall in love with the moment you start watching and I absolutely admire her approach to baking which is full of precision and organisation. An added bonus to her at-home series is her cats which keep making appearances throughout the videos, hopping from floors to countertops. 🥰
Cute Instagram Things 🌼
If you're reading this, a big thank you for do taking the time to read all my food blabbering. I hope you find a little piece of joy in it as much as I do. 💛
See you soon with more food stories. Pasta la vista!