Have you tried cooking with curry leaves before?

Cake is on the brain at the moment. All I want to do is make cakes, eat cakes and even play with cake. Luckily the new world of rss (… ok, I’m old school and like visiting sites via a “organic link”… shoot me) means playing with cake isn’t a messy affair. I give you cake sudoku! Fun huh?

I have also found the world of del.icio.us. My rock is nice and warm and I am a creature of habit which means I have involved bookmark folders. My humble account is slowly growing while I import years worth of bookmarks from two computers and one laptop. Do you have a del.icio.us account?

Meanwhile I have to tell you about my meal of chicken wrapped in prosciutto and a scrummy morello cherry cake I made earlier this week.

My dear cousin Sonali and I spent the weekend before last testing out some newly purchased silicone moulds. I enjoy making cupcakes for family events as I find them an easy way to serve cake to a large group without the fuss of cake plates and forks. They also allow me to dip into my child like tendencies for all things novel and fun!

These particular moulds come in groups of 12 and sweet pastel colours. They would be perfect for individual dessert moulds for a small group, mini tartlets and chocolate cases. And now that we have four sets between her kitchen and mine, taking the grand total of moulds to 48 I thought they would be perfect as mini cupcakes or baby cakes for the dessert course celebrating Sonali’s sweet daughter (and my god daughter) Devni’s christening where close to 70 people will be present. The size is perfect for a baby’s party, but also suitable when a dessert course features the official christening cake, rose petal and orange blossom marshmallows and other sweet delights.

We tested the moulds with a chocolate cake, and then later on made an indulgent frosting with chocolate and peanut butter resulting in a cake version, reminicent of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups The moulds came away from the cake easily, giving us medallions of cake which we oooh and aaahhed at the way one does for a new born.

For the christening I would prefer a vanilla cake, but am stumped as to the kind of frosting. My initial idea was a rose frosting, however I am also making the marshmallows which will have a rose flavour so it would be nice to try something different. Perhaps lemon?

It’s been a quiet few weeks on the cooking front at my house. First there was the reappearance of Mr Badback who took a while to pack up and leave even with regular yoga sessions and more recently I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of entertaining Ms Sorethroat and her brood of Jnr Cough and Fever. My tastebuds can’t stand the sight of the little brats so they packed up and left along with whatever energy levels had remained after limping about town with a sore back.

So it would be right to say that it hasn’t been fun. Especially after I took advantage of feeling a little better the other day and went a little fresh produce crazy at Paddy’s Market in the hope that I’d be able to get into some serious cooking over the weekend. Alas the mushrooms slowly shrivelled in their brown paper bag and the organic chicken livers I had planned for a little ‘Becks & Posh‘ treatment mutated into something unslightly. Thank goodness I had some sense to wrap the chorizo tightly and placed it in the corner of the fridge - I might be able to work with those tasty looking morsels when the time comes.

The only thing I could eat were some sweet tasting imperial manadarins and lavosh bread, when all I wanted was some chicken and corn soup. Alas no Cantonese grandmother in sight so we had to order in some pho which hit the spot. I didn’t know what was worse; a sore throat and a permanent headache or an appetite but no tastebuds. Pure agony I tell you.

To entertain myelf I’ve been reading through some cookbooks and also emails from a few travelling friends and family. One such email was from my dear friends Saada and Wayne who are spending a month in Italy. Her last email went something like this, after I requested a list of what they had sampled thus far;

so far we have sampled….

- whole deep fried artichoke in Rome
- best ever pizza in Rome sold by weight (fresh porcini mushroom & rocket, pomodore & basil pesto infused with enough garlic and proscuitto and buffalo mozzarella)
- Giant tortellini rabbit ragu sauce
- Florentine traditional steak
- gelati, gelati, gelati in every flavour including cinnamon!!

ill tell you more about it later and show you the food pics too

lots of love
XX
Saada

Nice no? What’s nicer (well if I wasn’t eating my way around Italy) is the weekend before my dear friends left we had dinner at our place (Beetroot gnocchi in a truffle & sage butter sauce, Chicken with Four types of mushrooms and Apple Pie - if you care to know) and Saada brought her copy of Tessa Kiros’ new cookbook Apples for Jam, which she so kindly left with me so that I could spend a little while drooling over the gorgeous picture of simple food, read the sweet anecdotes about food, family, children, memories and fall in love with each chapter - all of which are colour coded.

After a while of interchanging between sleep, knitting, honey-lemon tea and Apples for Jam I started to feel a lot better. It didn’t feel like agony that everything I ate tasted like cardboard because my other senses were enjoying themselves with the colourful bounty with each turn of the page.

This afternoon I made the Lentil rice (featured on page 297 in chapter Brown) because it seemed like the most appropriate thing after a few days on a liquid diet. I didn’t have any green lentils (nor am I lucky enough to be on holidays in Le Puy en Velay to procure a small package of puy lentils), so I used some green split peas which created a nuttier texture to the rice. My favourite part of this recipe was preparing the aromatics; red onion in four tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil cooked until “golden and sticky looking” and followed by two cloves of ground garlic, ground cinnamon, sweet paprika and ground corriander - sweet and and earthy. The parsley was replace with dill and I took on board the author’s suggestion of serving the rice in a bowl with a dollop of yoghurt and fresh lemon juice. It was a good choice because the flavours weren’t overly powerful, but subtle enough to entice the tastebuds back from their vacation and also hearty enough to de-plonk myself from the couch to go for a brisk walk under the grey clouds - sans backpain and sorethroat.

The other day when I left work the air was chilly and the sky dark and my mood was equally matched. Even though it was tempting to hop on the bus and head home where I’d unceremoniously ‘plonk’ on the couch and eat my way throug the left over stilton and crackers from the night before I decided that instead I’d take a walk through the park and buy a few things at Harris Farm Markets to fill the cupboard and placate my weary self.

This week has been a tumultuous week of frantic work days, late nights, back pain, lack lustre dinners and bills. One of the things which allowed a small smile appear was a jar of rose petal jelly I purchased last week. The good people at Beerenberg Farm in South Australia make some tasty conserves of which I have become a fan. I will forever be a girl of simple tastes and strawberry jam has always been one of my favourites, but this rose petal jelly is absolutly divine and I am so glad I decided to give it a try. It is especially nice paired with some creamy danish feta - perfect for those who enjoy the salty-sweet combination. It makes for a lovely second breakfast, as well as mood changer on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night.

This weekend I have plans for this simple and delicious looking cake by Nicky. Who needs a bed of rose petals when there are thoughts of a sponge roll of rose petals. Happy Friday!