A Delicious Paris Trip with friends and Canelé

 

I always wanted to go to Paris, and I am surprise after living here in Belgium for soooo long I have not been there.
Ok one of the reason I have not been there, Hans has been a lot of time to paris for playing music ( can you believe I didn't even know he played in Notre Dame with the orchestra and choir) only when I cam back here and I was talking about the place he said he had played there.

So I guess I was left out but then one morning Ananda phoned me up talking about this trip Nisha was planning to do and why not I also join them .
Ofcourse I was exccited, I said oh yes I am in.
So we booked our tickets, and mails were flying from one to the other with the plans, booking hotel, what to see , were to eat oh they were exciting days :-)

 

Hôtel de Ville in Paris

 

So some 10 days ago we three foodies were in paris, all excited, in a way it was not a sight seeing trip even though we did some touristical places but mainly we went to EAT :-)

I think the three days just flew, what would you expect 3 ladies in paris we all going gaga for the french Men, Nisha wanting to Kiss a french fellow under the Eiffel tower, Ananda it didn't matter who she kissed as long as he had blue eyes :-)

The first day we were there we just ate and ate, we went to Laudree to  eat the Macarons and then while walking with the bags in the same street we found Pierre Herme so ofcourse we wanted to eat macarons from there too .

Then the evening we went to have dinner in one of these cosy places and the food was just so good that I have decided if I am going back to paris I will go back there to eat again.
And way if I write what all we did in this trip it will be a long post .
So in short we just had a fabulous time, eating, drinking, shopping.......
I would really say a trip with  friends who are foodies and have the same passion for food is just FABULOUS, you will have so much fun.
We hava made plans while we were there that we should do once a year a trip like this .

 

Lamps in the Palace of Versailles

Oh and while we were planning the trip I told the girls the one thing I want to buy is Canelé Moulds but then when I saw the price of the copper ones I was like Noooooooooo I am not buying, but then Nisha convinced me saying you have been wanting it so much so just get them and you can pass it to Shyama , I am so glad she convinced me to buy them as the copper moulds are so good and the canelés i made are so Delicious.

Now you all must be thinking what canelé is it is A canelé is a small French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, thick caramelized crust.

The dessert, which is in the shape of small, striated cylinder approximately two inches in height, is a specialty of the Bordeaux region of France but can often be found in Parisian pâtisseries as well. Made from egg, sugar, milk and flour flavored with rum and vanilla, the custard batter is baked in a mold, giving the canelé a caramelized crust and custard-like inside.

When I was making the batter as the batter must rest in the fridge for 24 hours, I was like it is so liquid batter but then I told myself don't panic if the recipe says it is like that then it is.
So when you make them dodn't panic the batter is really thin.

500 ml of whole milk
250 gm powder sugar
125 gm flour
15  gm butter
2 whole eggs ( I used large)
4 tbsp of rum ( the recipe said a special local rum, but I didn't have so I used the rum i had)
1 egg yolks
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method :
Boil the milk with the butter and vanilla extract.

In a large bowl sieve the sugar and the flour.
Then make a hole in the middle of the  flour and sugar mixture , add the eggs one by one and then the egg yolk.
Mix well with a whisk .
Add gradually to the hot milk mixture , mixing well .

At the end , add the rum
Cover the batter and keep this in the fridge for 24 hours.
Next day take the batter out from the fridge half hour before you start making them.
You must butter the mould very well and the flour them too.

Preheat oven  to 250 ° C for 15 minutes , then lower to the temperature to 230 ° C.


Pour the batter to the fluted moulds don't over fill them. Just fill them till 3/4 of the mould.
Bake them in the oven 230°c for 7 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 210 °c and bake for futher 22 minutes. Ofcourse the time of baking depends on the size of you tin.
When they are finished baking unmold them immediately and let them cool on a wire rack to cool so that  they do not soften with condensation.

Ginger Jazzed Brownies

I had a wonderful one month holiday with my sister and her family in Houston- Texas.

It was just nice just to hang around without no responisibilties, just enjoy the delicious food she made for me and also sightseeing and shopping etc......

The days and weeks seems to fly but as you all know no holiday's has to come to a end, so here I am back home.

I do have lots of pending posts but I wanted to make something in my Kitchen after a month and I thought why not indulge with chocolate and as you see that is exactly what I did, make this gooey super delicious ginger Brownies.

The Brownie, one of America’s favorite baked treats, was born in the U.S.A.— just aren’t quite sure where—although evidence points to New England in the first few years of the 20th century.

A chocolate brownie is a flat, baked square or bar introduced in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century and popularized in both the U.S. and Canada during the first half of the twentieth century.

The brownie is like a cross between a cake and a cookie in texture. Brownies come in a variety of forms.

They are either fudgy or cakey, depending on their density, and they may include nuts, frosting, whipped cream, chocolate chips, or other ingredients. A variation that is made with brown sugar and no chocolate is called a blondie.

Brownies are common lunchbox fare, typically eaten by hand, and often accompanied by milk or coffee. They are sometimes served warm with ice cream (à la mode), topped with whipped cream, or topped with marzipan, or sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are especially popular in restaurants, where they can be found in variation on many dessert menus.

Although cake-like and baked in a cake pan, the brownie is classified as a bar cookie rather than a cake. There are thousands of recipes, both “cake” types and “fudge” types. Either is perfectly correct—and delicious

iT easy to see that the brownie got its name from its dark brown color. But as with most foods, the origin of the brownie is shrouded in myth, even though it is a relatively recent entry to the food pantheon, first appearing in print in the early 20th century.

The legend is told variously: a chef mistakenly added melted chocolate to a batch of biscuits...a cook was making a cake but didn’t have enough flour. The favorite, cited in Betty Crocker's Baking Classics and John Mariani’s The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, tells of a housewife in Bangor, Maine, who was making a chocolate cake but forgot to add baking powder. When her cake didn’t rise properly, instead of tossing it out, she cut and served the flat pieces. Alas, that theory relies on a cookbook published in Bangor in 1912, six years after the first chocolate brownie recipe was published by one of America’s most famous cookbook authors, Fannie Merritt Farmer, in 1906 (and the Bangor version was almost identical to the 1906 recipe).

Now I must have had my first brownie some 12 years ago.

When i was growing up in India unlike now they didn't sell anywhere Brownies and here in Belgium they only started comming up a decade ago.

I fell in love with it when I took the first bite and I have made them before . Which was super super delicious too.

The recipe is from Dorie Greenspan book Baking from my home to yours which I love.

According to her it's Ginger, both fresh and dried , that makes these brownies slightly hot.It you want to jazz then up a bit more, glaze the top with a shiny ganache, top each portion with a spoon full of lightly sweetend giner whipped cream.

Tips she has given in the book is, In order to soften the fresh ginger before mixing it into the batter, she stir in a little sugar into the minced ginger and let it sit a while, while she work on the rest of the recipe, that is exactly what I did too.

I have given bleow the original recipe from her book, but I have written in another color how much sugar I have added, as I think every time I make a recipe from a book it is too sweet so I always less the amount of sugar and that is what I did with this recipe too.

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground giner

2 tbsp finley minced peeled fresh ginger

1 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar ( I only add less than half cup of sugar)

4 ounces unsweetend chocolate, coarsley chopped

2 ounces buttersweet chocolate coarsley chopped

1 stick unsalted butter at room tempertature

1/3 cup light corn syrup ( I only added half)

1/2tsp pure vanilla extract

3large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F.

Line 9 inch squate baking pan with foil, butter the foil and place the pan on a baking sheet;

Whisk the flour, salt and ground ginger together.

Put the mince fresh ginger and 11/2 tbsp if sugar , stir and set aside.

Melt the chocolates ( I did in a MW) and let it cool.

Working the a stand mixer or hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter untill it is creamy and smooth.

Beat in the corn syrup, then the remaining sugar and continue to beat for 2minutes or so untill the butter is smooth agai and the sugar is incorporated.

Add the vanilla.On a medium speed add the aggs one by one, beating for 1minutes after each one goes in and scraping down the bowl as needed.

Beat for 1more minute then lower the speed and add the macerated ginger ( and any liquid) then the dry ingridients, mixing only untill the flour disapears.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, gentley and throughly stir in the melted chocolate.

Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or untill an even sugar crust forms. A think knife inserted into the center of the brownies should have a streaks of moist, fudgy chocolate on it. ( I only had to bake for 18 minutes)

Transfer the pan to a rack and cool to room temperature.

When the brownies are completley cool, turn out onto a rack, peel away the foil and invert into a chopping board.Cut into 16 sguares, each roughly 21/4inches on a side.

A soup, Rome holiday and the baking loot from Sis

Thankyou for all the Birthday wishes you send to my daughter's 18th b'day in my earlier post.
We had a wonderful time in Rome Celebrating her b'day.
For the week we were there, we have been fully busy, we left our hotel after breakfast and was only back by midnight as we wanted to see as much as possible in these days.
And every evening we three had a relaxing dinner in one of the pleanty cozy places they have there with good food and wine.


Just sharing couple of pictures with you all.

Remember me telling you all hubby is gone to US last month for 10 days. He went to my sister's place and this I really have to share with you all, especially my baking friends, the goddies I got from my sis. Hubby went with one suitcase and he came back with 2 suitcase.
Sis had send me so much things from there :-)


I think I have muffin cups for atleast 5 years :-)

One of the sweetest presenthubby have ever give me :-)

Now to the soup. I have posted this soup earlier, but as I have not been cooking or baking anything special I thought I will post thie Asperagus soup again as it was the season here and I made them again.
If you ant to check out the recipe hopp over to this post.

Baking goodies etc.... which I got from Sis.

Back from break and a holiday to remember

I think two months just flew. And I really mean when I say it just flew past.
Which also says that had a wonderful time.

My daughter was having her 2 months of summer holiday. And we all as a family had wonderful time. Went for cycling, walking, went to the beach etc..........but the best we loved doing was cycling. Sometimes when we went for cycling, we went to the cherry farm, bought a kilo of cherries and just sat on the fields and enjoyed the cherries ..........now just the thought makes me drool.

Then we went to Italy for 15 days. The choice to go to Italy was made by my daughter as she hads been doing latin in shcool for the last 5 years ans she wanted to visit the places she has been learning aobut ancient Rome.

Must say we had a fabulous time.
First we went to Rome, stayed there for a week as there was so much Shyama wanted to see. Then from there we went to Naples, then to Pompei, climbed Vesuvius, Sorrento , Paestum and back to Rome and the back home.

I think this is one of the best holidays we had, ( but then i say that after every holiday) especially if i think about the food we had.
I had best tasting pastas, pizzas, buffallo mozeralla cheese, oh and then the gelati. That just was so so so good. I make at home, but i think you can't beat the real ones in Italy and the variety of taste........ wine, the white wine we had every evening was just so so good.
If i talk aobut the food I might sit here for too long , so i will just say each meal was pure pleasure :-) Oh did i say had the best limoncello in sorrento.
I think I have tried lots od new dishes which I will sure try to make them at home, just have to look for the recipes on the net.

Ofcourse I did have half a day of shopping, so did some shopping for baking goodies and then bought some sundried tomatoes etc..........

You ladies light be saying you didn't do shoe, cloth and bag shopping in italy.
I didn't , my daughter did. She went crazy for shoes there and as she is a teenager mom took a back step in buying all that and gave daughter the pleasure.
Well i should say i hope I go back to Italy as hubby is going next month.

So here are some pictures from our trip.

Goodies i bought from there.

Time just flew

First let me Wish all my Readers A very Happy Onam.

It is true when they say, time just go fast when one os have a wonderful time. We all had such a lovely time in India..

Days and weeks just flew.........As i promised I did eat lots of different snacks and food, which I had not had for a while, didn't take that much picture as when one is going out for eating ; the camera is never with us.

Vegetarian Thali in Sarvana Chennai

Flower Market in Mysore

Yumm Spicy chillies

In Mumbai I ate the vada pav which was so delicious......now when i think about it, I am ddrooling.In Bangalore I ate for first time papadi chat...........in mysore ate the mulagu bhaji from the street vendour, which was yumm....... should I continue :-) not to mention the thalis in Sarvana in Chennai.

Ofcourse nothing could beat the delicious food we had in Srivaliis home.

She was so kind to invite us for dinner even in her hectic life. And the variety of food she had prepared for us was so DELICIOUS.

We enjoyed every mouthfull of it. I cannot say which was the best dish in her place as all of them we so good. When i tried her paneer butter masala we were like wow and then i tried her chicken dish ( ladies she is unbelievably fast in cooking) she made this chicken dish while i was there and it was done in a flash and I was like my god if i have to make this dish at home i will be slaving half the day to make it.

There was this andhra vada which was aslos superb.......

Her twins are so adorable. You know when you see small kids u just want to grab them and squeeze them ( at least i do) I wanted to do that to both of them.
Her daughter Anjana is so sweet. Not to mention smart and witty.
My hubby and daughter wanted to take her with them as both of them thouht she is the most smartest girl they have met.

Not to mention she has a wonderful smile.And Srivalli she is really wonderfull. I am sure if I was living in chennai I would go to her home every week.
Their home is just wonderful I am sure she has no dull moment with such a wonderfull family

Fresh ginger in the market

Oh yeah and then we went to Munnar.

Salted Nellika in the road side shops. On the way to Munnar

I am sure if you have gone there you will agree with me when i say the place is just breathetaking, with all the tea plantations.

Tea Plants in Munnar

Of coures what did I buy from there, tea and spices. I tasted there the best Cinamon . So you can imagine i was like a child in a toy shop seeing all the different type of spicces.

Bought cardamom, cinamon, cloves ........ but one of the best find and buy I did was Vanilla sticks. They were so cheap that i bought 75 sticks. I will tell about the quality when I use them. But they look and smell really good.

My daughter and I wend to India 2 weeks earlier than my husband as he had to go to US. So as he was there he went and stayed with my sister for a week.
So what does elder sis send for her blogging sis, you all can imagine ,

Few of the things she send me
Thankyou sis. Isn't it great to have elder sisters :-))))