Zen and the art of mixing tea with biscotti

Twice each day, as I take my first sip of tea, a low roar fills my ears. It’s like there was a conch placed close to the side of my face and I could hear the sound of the sea through it. That is indeed unusual. As I got thinking about it, I felt what I was experiencing perhaps was this - this cup of tea is meditation, a clarifying potion, a sort of prayer. So then, George Orwell was probably right when he said that a good cup of tea can make you feel wiser, braver and more optimistic. As I gave it more thought, I wondered what would complement an experience as revitalizing as drinking tea. Surely, a biscuit. But not any biscuit. It’d have to be special.  And so I rummaged through recipes and discovered Biscotti.

Now, you don’t need biscotti, scones or cake with your tea. But it helps. I had never tried making biscotti before but last week I had this urge to have something with my tea and so I thought I would give biscotti a try. Now what are biscotti, really?

Biscotti are oblong-shaped biscuits that originated in Italy. They are twice baked, dry, crunchy and can be stored for a long time. The word biscotti means ‘twice baked or cooked’.  Traditional biscotti dough is exclusively composed of flour, sugar, eggs and nuts. There is no butter or fat. I followed a great recipe from Joy of Baking and made mine with chocolate and hazelnuts.

But what inspires me most about Biscotti is that they are a labor of love, like art. They are not your average cookies. Biscotti requires craft, deftness and precision. To begin with, the dough is extremely sticky. Then it needs to be shaped into a log and baked until firm. After a short cooling period, the log is sliced into diagonal slices and baked again to draw out the moisture, thus producing a crisp, dry textured cookie that has a long shelf life. Now you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to what you want to add to these: dried fruits, different varieties of nuts, seeds, spices, etc. Biscotti are also frequently found iced with melted chocolate or other frostings, and topped with nuts and even coloured sprinkles.

And so I made my biscotti and it greatly complemented my cup of tea. Which brings me to what this post is probably really about, the unqualified joys of a really good cup of tea. Tea with biscotti anyone?

Say Hello to the Queen

Last week, I savoured a generous and mysterious dessert called ‘Hello to The Queen’ in a charming little café called ‘Fat Martin’ on the isolated Havelock Island of the Andaman group of Islands in India. It was generous because it was just everything ridiculously delicious lavishly piled on a bowl. And mysterious because it was oddly named, seemingly carelessly brought together and the recipe is elusive.

Known as the backpacker’s dessert, Fat Martin’s version of ‘Hello to the Queen’ featured (I think) a layer of crumbled digestive biscuits at the bottom, a warm topping of chocolate sauce, some mushy nuts , and a fresh cover of caramelized sliced bananas , all under a big cloud of vanilla ice cream. I know it sounds very indulgent and it is, but before you start wincing, let me quote from Hamlet - “Though this be madness, yet there is method in it”.

The perfect execution of this dish is only possible with an understanding of all the ingredients and a little imagination. If you think about it, orchestrating a single piece like this which is drawn from different symphonies, each intensely powerful is not so easy. The impeccable combination of these exuberant characters results in the creation of a dish that will make you feel - Everything is going to be all right. It seems over saturated but it has found a unique way of standing out.

Fat Martin Cafe, Havelock Island

I tried my hand at it at home. It wasn’t too bad and we did polish it off pretty quickly. I followed the same order that I mentioned above with a tiny addition of some wonderful leftover cake and some chocolate chips. It wasn’t elegant, gourmet, light or hauntingly beautiful. But it was just straight up fun, raucous and unapologetically light-hearted. 

Baker's Yeast

Slowly, the yeast starts budding

The Egyptian smiles in her baking chamber

On this warm day, she has lifted the souls

Of the evocative fungi and an eager bread

Four thousand years ago, she left its traces

On her grinding stone for man to discover

His first domesticated being and a series of experiments

To brew his beer and leaven his bread

Sweet fermented bread

Golden crusts and ubiquitous pockets

Like secret caves or a string of swallows’ nests

Soft and tender crumbs

In the supermarket, I buy a packet of these

Live cells packed in thick inert jackets, and

I think as I dissolve the oblong beige granules

When the dough is baked, the yeast will die

Pumpkin Patch

I hated pumpkin as a child. In fact, I completely disliked food and mealtimes. There was wholesale rejection of vegetables, and even cubes of fried chicken could make me scorn. My parents, of course, had strict eating rules at home. No nagging. No snacking. And no leftovers in plate.

All that changed once I started cooking my own food. Suddenly, I was in control. There was a great sense of pride, even with disasters. I knew exactly what I was putting in, and where it came from. And my appreciation for different ingredients, vegetables and protein has only grown since then. Today, I am always looking to try something different with what’s in my fridge. Somehow, things did not get curiously different just in the kitchen but elsewhere in life too.

Back in the kitchen, few things have lent themselves so easily to everything from Pies and Cookies to Soups and Mains like the humble Pumpkin. Pumpkin is so versatile and delicious, and also very good for you. It is a great source of fibre, potassium and Vitamin C. And pumpkin seeds are not just spectacular, crunchy additions to a dish but fantastic for health. It is a nutritional powerhouse wrapped up in a very small package. And I always thought my mother was just being her utilitarian self when she served roasted pumpkin seeds with Dal and Rice at lunch. With such impressive nutritional value and equally great taste, how could you not want to try to incorporate it in different ways in your culinary creations?

Last weekend, I wanted to attempt a Stromboli. The recipe I was following called for Salami, Cheese and Basil. I decided to go with a vegetarian version and use Roasted Pumpkin, Cheese and Sage instead. I am sharing the recipe below. Next year maybe, I’ll try to carve a grinning jack O'lantern.

Ingredients:

1. 500 gms all purpose flour
2. 2 teaspoons active dried yeast
3. 1 teaspoon sugar
4. 2 teaspoon sea salt
5. 3 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra for brushing
6. 350 ml lukewarm water
7. 100 gms thinly sliced pumpkin (long strips, preferably)
8. 175 gms mozzarella cheese chopped
9. A few Sage leaves
10. Freshly ground black pepper
11. A few pumpkin seeds

Method:

1. Mix the flour and the salt. Slowly combine the active yeast and water to the flour mixture until the dough is soft. Rest it for an hour, or until doubled in volume.
2. Knead lightly for 2-3 minutes until smooth. Cover and leave for 10 mins more
3. Roast the pumpkin slices in a tbsp. of olive oil and a pinch of salt
4. Roll out the dough to a rectangle about 1 inch thick
5. Spread the roasted pumpkin slices, mozzarella and sage over the dough. Season with black pepper and drizzle some olive oil on top
6. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Grease a baking tray.
7. Roll the dough up firmly from the long side, pinch the ends and place on the baking sheet. Join underneath. Cover and leave for 10 minutes
8. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top and pierce the roll deeply several times with a skewer. Brush with oil and sprinkle some salt. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until firm to touch. Cool on a wire rack
9. Cut into thick slices and enjoy!

Does Parsley save Rosemary in Time?

Recently, I started growing my own herbs and it’s been a wonderful experience. Firstly, you can’t grow herbs without invoking the secret world of myths that surround them. Secondly, this is the closest I’ll get in the city to recreating the charming self sufficiency of a country home where herb gardens are a typical feature. It’s a delicious feeling to be able to pause in the middle of my cooking and saunter to the balcony where I may choose from a selection of herbs to season my dish.

So I started with two small Basil plants – one Genovese and the other Thai. I bought saplings from a local store and planted them in 10-inch clay pots.  Basil is the most popular of all herbs used in cooking. I use it sparingly in soups, sauces, salads, pesto, and omelettes. I also use it with meat, poultry and fish.

Next I found Chives at UAS (University of Agricultural Sciences) and brought home a sapling. Chives are spring onion-like leaves with a mild onion flavor. Chop them and add them to salads, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, sandwich spreads and sauces.

Sage

I grew Dill, Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram and Sage by sowing seeds. Dill has slender bluish-green stems with a sharp, slightly bitter taste. While Thyme is excellent in roast meat, I also love to brew it into tea with a little mint. Marjoram has small, oval, gray-green leaves that are velvety to the touch and can be used to flavor cooking. Oregano, also called "wild marjoram" is a hardy perennial with sprawling stems and is used extensively to flavor pizza besides being added to other Italian-type sauces. Sage has oblong, wooly leaves and is beautifully aromatic.

Rosemary

I will admit that growing Rosemary hasn’t been very easy. I have tried propagating it by cuttings and growing from seed and I have been unsuccessful. Recently, I found a sapling and brought it home. It’s now kept well-drained in a sunny location. I can’t wait to use it in my sauces and breads.

I have grown Mint earlier too and it has a tendency to overtake nearby plant roots. This time, it is in its own little container and I use it in chutneys, rice, tea and cold drinks. Lemongrass, a tropical perennial herb, grows easily in a sunny herb garden. With basic care, this essential Thai ingredient will thrive. It has a beautiful aroma, a citrus-ginger taste and is good for health.

Lemongrass

Herbs are fun to grow and they make a lovely addition to almost any meal. With our tropical environment, you don’t really need a green thumb to grow your own supply of fresh herbs. What’s more, there are endless ways to use herbs in the kitchen. All you need is a little imagination. Like the five-year old girl who patiently sat through the Simon and Garfunkel song, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme before asking her father, ‘So does he?’ Her father looked at her puzzlingly.  “Who’s he?” he asked. “Does Parsley save Rosemary in time?” the girl asked.

Below is a recipe for herbed bread that I tried recently and want to share with you.

Spiral Garlic and Herb Bread

Ingredients:

1. 500 gm all purpose flour
2. 100 ml warm water
3. 150 ml water
4. 1 egg
5. 1 tbsp salt
6. 25 ml oil
7. 1 tbsp sugar
8. 10 gm dry yeast
9. 100 gms assorted herbs – th
   yme, sage, basil, curry leaves, mint
10. 1 tbsp chopped garlic
11. 2 tbsp chopped cashewnuts

Method:

1. Pour warm water into a small bowl and stir in the sugar. Pour the yeast into the warm-water-and-sugar mixture. The sugar will act as food for the dormant yeast as it awakens in the warm water. Cover and keep aside for 10 minutes
2. Make a paste of the herbs, garlic and cashewnuts and keep aside
3. Mix flour, salt, egg and oil
4. Remove the cover from the top of the yeast bowl and look for foam or bubbles atop the water. The foam and bubbles show that the yeast is in fact still alive and is ready to be used for baking
5. Slowly combine the active yeast and water to the flour mixture until the dough is soft. Rest it for an hour
6. Turn the dough into a floured surface and knead some more
7. Then roll the dough and apply the herb paste
8. Roll it into a cylinder shape and slice at thickness of 3 cm
9. Lay the slices on a baking tray and cover with a tea towel. Let it prove for another hour
10. Bake in a preheated oven at 230 degrees C for 15 mins

The unlikely but eventually harmonious marriage of Orange and Garlic

Like the priest who keeps a straight face despite the nagging premonition that the couple standing before him will not last, I managed to marry orange and garlic in a bold, new dish. Yes, I ran through the motions with complete seriousness and finally pronounced them co-ingredients. What can I say? It paid off. They’re still together.

I have an online food challenge to thank for this strangely experimental dish. Every week, the challenge urged you to throw completely disparate ingredients together while cooking. Spicy with sweet. Crunchy with soft. Tea with mushrooms. It called for wracking your head and pushing boundaries. It made cooking bold and unusual. Most of all, it was education by discovery. As for the end results, sometimes the fusion yielded an instant classic and sometimes it threw up a cropper. But, like me, if all you need is an excuse to cook, you’ll understand that the joy is as much in the jamming as it is in how it ultimately turns out.   

Before I reveal the recipe, a little about this dish. A tajine or tagine is a dish from North Africa. It is named after the special earthenware pot in which it is best cooked. Now I don’t own an authentic Moroccan tagine and chances are neither do you, unless you’re the erstwhile wife of a Moroccan prince. So be pleased to know that a saucepan gives results that are just as good. Now what I’ve done is combined a couple original recipes and made some tweaks. While I’ve chosen lamb, I reckon this should work very well with pork or beef too.

So happy experimenting. And should the garlic and the orange start to bicker on your palate, remember that thing your mother said about having to kiss a dozen frogs before you meet your knight.

Ingredients

• 1 kg boneless leg of lamb, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups sliced onion
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 10 garlic cloves, minced
• spice mix (you can roast a little and pound some of the below spices together to get the mixture. I find that very convenient)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon crushed red chillies
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick, ground
• 2 cups water or chicken stock
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 cups orange sections (about 3 oranges)
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted dates or raisins or prunes
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander

Preparation

• Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add half the lamb; cook for 5 minutes or until lamb is browned. Remove from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining lamb
• In the same pan and in the remaining oil, add onion and sauté for 7 minutes or until tender. Add ginger, garlic and spice mix, stirring to combine. Sauté for 2 minutes
• Return lamb to pan; stir in water/stock and salt. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 90 mins or so, or until tender, stirring occasionally
• Uncover and simmer for a few minutes, stirring frequently. Add orange sections and dates/raisins/prunes, stirring gently to combine, and cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle fresh coriander and serve with some couscous.  

A shadow valley and some fresh, beautiful cheese

Vallombrosa, T C Palya, Bangalore

The last place where you’d expect to indulge in fine cheese is within the austere environs of a monastery. But hold that thought. Nestled in a quiet bylane in T C Palya is a charming monastery where Benedictine monks indeed churn out world-class cheese in their cheese-making unit called Vallombrosa. Begun as an attempt to sustain the monastery in 2005, it's one of Bangalore’s best kept secrets. And if you’re a cheese lover, its heaven on earth.

My first visit to Vallombrosa was not without struggle. After negotiating several turns, I finally spotted the board. As soon as I entered the gate, the place struck me as wonderfully tranquil. There is a small mission church on the right. Alongside it stands a monastery constructed in brick and stone and with white-washed interior walls. Once you have placed your order with Father Michael or Father Jinse, you can sit down and wait on stone benches out in the open from where you can view the cheese making unit. As you wait for your requirements to get packed, you naturally start hunting out the big bovines, probably ones with massive curling horns. But you won’t find any. That’s because the milk is sourced from places like Hosur and Hoskote every day to make about 50 kgs of cheese.

Vallombrosa produces fresh buffalo mozzarella, bocconcini (Italian cheese balls), ricotta (whey cheese), mascarpone, goat’s cheese and parmesan. Best eaten a few hours after it’s made, Mozzarella is soft, milky and light. Ricotta is a byproduct of Mozzarella. Bocconcini are small mozzarella cheeses the size of an egg. Mascarpone is made from cream, coagulated with citric acid, acetic acid or even lemon juice. Goat’s cheese or chèvre (French for goat) has a mildly pungent flavor and is a delightfully versatile ingredient in the kitchen. Parmigiano-Reggiano, also known in English as Parmesan, is a hard, granular cheese commonly grated over pasta dishes, stirred into soups and risottos or even eaten on its own.

Inspired by Vallombrosa, I’ve been rediscovering cheese and a dozen cheese recipes. Below is a very simple Ricotta recipe for you to try out.

And if you’re curious about the name, Vallombrosa means ‘Shadow Valley’ and is a place in Italy that houses the Benedictine sect. But there are no dark shadows at Vallombrosa. There is just the pleasant color and heartwarming flavor of fine cheese. 

Where: TC Palya, KR Puram

Ph: 98454 49064

Stuffed Zucchini Rolls – a Gordon Ramsay recipe, slightly adapted

Ingredients

• 2 zucchinis, ends trimmed
• 3-4 tbsp olive oil , plus extra to drizzle
• 3-4 tbsp balsamic vinegar , to drizzle
• 125 gms ricotta
• juice of one lemon
• handful of fresh basil leaves , chopped
• walnuts , toasted
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

• Slice the zucchinis lengthways, using a swivel vegetable peeler so that you get long, thin, wide strips, about 15 strips. Drizzle some of the olive oil and balsamic over two large plates and lay the strips flat, trying not to overlap

• Sprinkle with more oil and balsamic, cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 20 mins. Can be prepared up to 6 hrs ahead

• Mix the ricotta with lemon juice and seasoning to taste, then mix in the basil and walnuts. Place 1 tsp of the ricotta mixture onto one end of a zucchini strip and roll up. Repeat until you have used up all the filling. Arrange rolls upright on a plate and grind over some black pepper. Drizzle with a little more oil and balsamic vinegar to serve

Makes for a fantastic fresh and light snack!