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This pumpkin season, we decided to try out a cool new pumpkin pie recipe that I was waiting to try out for a long time. Usually pumpkin pie is served with whipped cream, but this recipe includes a nice crunchy and tart topping that goes well with the pie. So here are the ingredients:

For the pie crust

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• One egg yolk
• 3 tbsp iced water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp butter (half a stick, cold and cut into pieces)

This pie requires only a bottom crust. First knead the dough as described in the apple pie recipe. Wrap the ball of dough in a plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at-least 30 minutes. While you make the pie filling. Pre-heat your oven for 325 degrees F. Ingredients for the filling are:

• 15 ounces pumpkin puree (you can find this at any grocery store)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk (or condensed milk)

Add the pumpkin puree to a large bowl. Mix together the two eggs and the sugar in a bowl and whisk them well. Add this to the pumpkin.

Add the cinnamon powder and the nutmeg powder to the mixture. Add the milk and whisk well to a homogeneous mixture. If you have tiny pieces of butter in your mixture, don’t worry. These will melt while baking.

Meanwhile take the dough out of the fridge, and set it aside for 15 minutes so that it becomes pliable enough to roll. Roll out the pie crust, and set it nicely into the pie pan as described here.

Although not strictly necessary, it is a good idea to pre-bake the crust for about 20 minutes before you pour the filling into it. This ensures that your crust is cooked well.

Now pour the pumpkin filling onto the pie-crust.

Remember that we need this pie filling to set like the consistency of a custard. Bake it at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes. You might check on the pie once in a while and see if there are any cracks forming on the top (this normally indicates that your pie is about done).

You might also like to try the old toothpick test: if you poke the pie filling with a toothpick, and it comes out clean, then the pie is done (remember to poke it vertically and once the pie is out of the oven).

When the pie is ready, set it aside while you prepare the topping. Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup pecans
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 2 nos biscotti

Toast the pecans on a baking tray and set them aside so that they are nice and crunchy.

Now, in a food processor, add the pecans, cranberries and broken pieces of biscotti, and pulse it till it forms a coarse grainy consistency.

Top the pie uniformly with the crunchy cranberry topping.

I love making my own pie crusts. They are a lot of fun to make, and taste a lot better than the store bought ones. Making a lattice top for a pie crust adds a little extra to your pie, and makes your homemade pie look a lot more fancy.

For the pie crusts you need:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 egg yolks
• one and a half sticks of butter (cold and cut into pieces)
• 1 tsp salt
• half a cup of ice-cold water

The initial part is the same as in the regular apple pie recipe. Knead the dough as instructed. Divide it into two equal sized pieces and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 30-45 minutes for the dough to come together.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit for 10-15 minutes so that it is pliable enough to be rolled. Now take one of the pieces and start to roll it into a flat circle on a well floured surface.

Use the rolling pin to transfer the rolled out bottom crust into your pie pan as shown in the pictures below.

Now roll out the other piece of dough similarly. Use a pizza cutter to cut 3/4 inch wide strips as shown.

Lay the strips out on top of the filling, and fold back the even numbered strips.

Now lay a strip perpendicularly on top of these strips. Unfold the even numbered strips on top of the perpendicular strip, and then fold back the odd numbered strips to create a weave like scheme as shown.

Continue the same process by adding another perpendicular strip, and then unfolding the odd numbered strips.

Complete the pattern to form the lattice top.

Bake in a pre-heated oven as directed in the apple pie recipe. Dust with some confectioner’s sugar and cinnamon powder halfway into the baking process.

Sangria is a great fruit-based wine “punch” which is said to have originated in Spain. A typical tapas place would charge you around $10 for a glass or $40 for a pitcher. So I thought, why not try to make it at home? The following recipe worked really well for us and we make it whenever we have people over for dinner. The best thing is that you can make an entire pitcher for the cost of a single glass!

Ingredients

• 1 bottle red wine (I prefer a decent Merlot, but you can use a Zinfandel, Shiraz or any other red wine you like)

• 100 grams sugar (the picture shows brown sugar, but white refined sugars are perfectly fine)

• Juice of 3 medium sized lemons

• 1 stick of cinnamon

• 1 large peach, peeled and diced (originally I never bothered peeling the peaches, but I have a feeling that the peels might make the sangria slightly bitter if you leave it overnight)

• 1 bottle tonic water

Place the sugar, and cinnamon stick in a pitcher. Add the diced peaches and squeeze the three lemons. Pour the wine into the pitcher carefully and mix well till the sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate for at-least 8 hours.

This is a great dessert recipe, and it is extremely easy to make. I attribute the recipe to Paula Deen, and so I ask that you use your own discretion about how much butter you want to use

सामग्री (serves 8-10)
4 cups peeled and sliced peaches
2 cups sugar
1 stick of butter (or 4 tbsp butter and 4 tbsp applesauce if you want to go easy on the butter)
1.5 cups self rising flour
1.5 cups milk
1/2 cup water

Notes: The suggestion here is to replace half the butter with applesauce if you are health conscious. Remember that it is okay to replace butter by applesauce only if you are not cooking something with a crispy snap or a flaky crust (e.g. cookies, or apple pie crust). Since this dessert falls in none of those categories, this is okay for us.

Self rising flour is available in most grocery stores. If you wish to make your own, then for each cup of all purpose flour, add 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt, and mix well.

विधि
In a large saucepan, mix 1 cup sugar, all the water and peaches. Bring to a boil, and simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Keep aside.

Melt butter in a baking dish and mix it with the applesauce. Let this lie at the bottom of the baking dish. Now in a separate dish, mix the remaining sugar, the self rising flour and milk slowly so that there are no clumps. Pour this mixture on top of the butter and applesauce mixture in the baking dish. This will form a fluid mixture. DO NOT STIR!

Now slowly spoon the peach mixture on top and gently pour all the syrup in.

Now bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 30-45 minutes. The self rising flour batter will rise to the top while baking.

To serve, cut out a piece like a pie and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream.

We picked our own apples and peaches last weekend from Larriland Farms (which you should totally visit) if you live near Baltimore. Since we got a lot of apples, we decided to bake an apple pie. Curiously, even though apple pie is an American cultural symbol, it did not originate in the US, and was consumed long before the European colonization of the US (ref). Let us now move on to the recipe:

Ingredients (serves 6)
For pie crust: (you can completely skip this part if you use store bought pie crusts)
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces (about 1.5 sticks)
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp ice cold water
pinch of salt

For caramel:
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp water
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup heavy cream (we actually used milk since we did not have heavy cream)
a few drops vanilla essence

For filling:
5 medium sized apples (we used Gala Apples)
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Procedure:

We first make the pastry crust. In a large bowl, combine, the flour, salt and the pieces of butter slowly. It is recommended that you use a pastry blender, but since we don’t have one, I simply used my hands. Crush any pieces of butter into the flour till they are mixed in fairly well. There will be a lot of clumps at this point. Add the egg yolks and continue to mix. At this point, the dough will start coming together. Add the ice-cold water slowly, taking care not to make the dough too wet. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for an hour.
Meanwhile, peel and slice the apples thin and store them in a bowl full of water and the juice of one lemon to prevent them from browning.

Next, we make the caramel sauce. In a pot, add the sugar and water, and keep stirring on medium heat till all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from flame, and add the cream and wine slowly. Return to heat and add the vanilla essence. Continue to cook till the quantity is halved. Keep aside.

Now we make the pie crust. Remove the dough from the fridge and allow to cool for about 15 minutes till the dough is pliable enough to be rolled. Cut the dough into two separate balls. On a wooden board, roll out the dough balls on a floured wooden board into flat circles large enough to cover your pie pan. Lay one of them flat inside the pie pie pan and press it tight.

Strain the apples from the lemon-water and keep aside. In a large bowl, add the flour and cinnamon powder. Add the apples and toss them well till they are coated with the flour-cinnamon mixture. Now place a layer of apple slices on the bottom of the pastry. Shingle the slices so as to reduce any gaps. Pour some of the caramel sauce evenly on the apples. Now place more apples and repeat the process.

Place the second pastry circle on top of the pie to make the top layer of the pie crust. Cut slits on top of the pie so that steam can escape. Now, ideally you should cover the pie with the pastry layers and pinch the sides so that they are sealed. Unfortunately in my case, I had one store bought crust, and I made the other one myself. So the two of them were not the same size. I realized that this is not a very bad thing as my pie still turned out great.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the pie pan into the oven. Cover it lightly with a piece of folded aluminum foil. This is called foil tenting, and is done so that the crust does not cook faster than the apples. Bake on middle rack for 25 minutes. Remove the foil tent and cook for about 30 more minutes till the top crust is cooked and the pie is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at-least 1 hour, else the pie will break apart.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream.

Few snacks are as wholly satisfying as guac and tortilla chips.

For tortillas:
4 tortillas (pick your favourite)
2-3 tsp cooking oil (your favourite)

Procedure:
Stack the tortillas and coat one side of each with a little oil. Cut them into sections using a pizza cutter. Lay the pieces on a baking tray and bake them in an oven at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Flip them over halfway through and check that they are not getting burnt. Repeat if necessary. Healthy tortilla chips.

For guacamole:
4 avocados, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1 tomato diced
1 onion finely chopped
juice of one lemon (optional)
1 tsp mexican hot sauce
salt to taste

Method:
Add all ingredients in a mixing bowl….squoosh to the desired consistency. There you go!

I don’t even remember the time when I started dreaming about a good kitchen knife. I recently bought a set of four knives with a knife block, but the past several days, I have been drooling over the idea of owning a santoku knife. I checked out a couple of them in the stores and the price range was very broad. I have never used one before, so I wanted to try out a moderately priced one to see if I really like it, before investing in a more expensive one.



I bought one this evening, and loved using it for the first time. I think one of my favourite parts is how you can scoop up cut veggies into your hand using the knife.

This is a real comfort food recipe and a very easy one to make. I tried looking for the provenance of the recipe, but was not really able to find anything concrete. Drop me a line if you know about its origins. This dish is usually cooked with ground beef, but we decided to use ground chicken instead.

Ingredients:
1 store bought pack of ground chicken
1 store bought pie crust
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 large onion
2 tsp freshly ground cumin powder
3/4 cup fresh corn
1 red bell pepper diced
1 cup tomato sauce (puree)
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp hot sauce
salt to taste

Procedure:
Heat oil in a pan, and add the chopped onions and garlic. Saute till the onions are translucent. Add the cumin powder and sauté for a minute. Add the ground chicken and keep stirring till the minced chicken is white. Continue to stir making sure there are no lumps. Add the diced bell pepper, corn and tomato sauce and stir well till the tomato sauce is well soaked into the mixture. Add the hot sauce and cook for a minute.

Carefully arrange the pie crust in a baking tray/vessel. Pour the mixture on to the crust. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Top with the shredded sharp cheddar and bake for 10 more minutes.

This is an improvisation on a brilliant mango ice-cream recipe that we have tried and loved. With a cool improvisation, it turns into an awesome kulfi recipe.

Ingredients:

1 can condensed milk
1 and a half cans evaporated milk
1 box cool whip
half cup almonds, pistachios and cashews
1 tsp ground cardamoms

Grind the dry-fruits in a food processor into a fine consistency. Mix all ingredients together along with the ground dryfruits in a large vessel till they form a thick smooth paste. Make sure there are no lumps. Freeze for at least 8 hours. Garnish with raisins.

PS: For the original mango ice-cream recipe, replace the evaporated milk with a tin of mango pulp (aamras), and avoid the dryfruits. I promise, it is the best mango ice-cream I have ever eaten.

I decided to make the vegetable biryani because I was catering to at-least one vegetarian. So here goes…

सामग्री (serves 8 )

3 cups basmati rice
3 medium sized potatoes
3 large carrots
half a cauliflower
2 large onions
1.5 cups yoghurt (dahi)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp whole garam masala (corriander seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon, black cardamom, cloves…you know, the whole shebang)
1 tsp haldi powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsp pulav/biryani masala (store bought…or if you are adventurous, you can make your own)
half cup finely chopped cilantro (hara dhania)
half cup finely chopped mint leaves (hara pudina)
salt to taste

विधि

• First of all, soak the basmati rice in warm water for at-least one hour in advance. Finely slice the onions and fry them in adequate quantity of oil till they acquire a dark brown color. Keep it aside. In the meantime, chop all the vegetables into bite size pieces. (make them larger than usual i.e. if you are cooking a sabzi)

• In a large pan or kadhai, add some oil. When the oil gets hot, add the whole garam masala and saute for a couple of seconds. Add some jeera, and ginger garlic paste. Now add the chopped vegetables.  Add the red chilli powder, haldi powder, biryani masala and salt to taste. Saute for 5 minutes. Keep stirring occasionally. Add half the quantity of yoghurt, and half the quantity of the chopped mint and cilantro. Make sure that all the pieces of vegetables are coated nicely. We need to cook these vegetables to about 70-80%. Try to cut into a piece of potato. It should not be too hard, and at the same time, don’t allow them to cook all the way.

• In another pan, bring a quart of water to a rolling boil. Add some oil, and some whole garam masala to the water. Add the pre-soaked rice to the water. We need to cook this rice to about 70-80%. This will take only about 3-4 minutes in the boiling water since the rice has been soaked for an hour (keep checking the rice). Drain the excess water and keep the rice aside.
• Now comes the part where we layer the vegetables and the rice in a medium sized container (I found the pressure cooker container to be ideal size for this). Add half the rice to the cooker. Add a little more than half of the cooked vegetables on top of the rice. Add the rest of the yoghurt on top. Heat this up a little on low flame while mixing it up nicely. Check for seasoning and add more salt if needed. Add a layer of the fried onions.

• Now add all but a little of the remaining rice on top of the onions. Stack the remaining cooked vegetables on top of the rice, and add the rest of the chopped onions.  Finally top with the last bit of the rice. Garnish with the remaining chopped mint and cilantro

• Cover the cooker with a flat plate, and seal the edges with a bit of dough. Place this vessel into a double boiler as shown in the image below. Cook on medium flame for 30 minutes.

• Open the cooker after 30 minutes to a beautiful aroma.

• Serve with boondi raita (recipe for that in another post).