Myriad Musings

My mil gave me some old fashioned butter - actually churned from non-pasteurised milk.  I promptly made it into a pot of ghee when I got home to Chennai.  DH wanted Gulab Jamun made with this Ghee and I graciously obliged.  The Jamuns were gone in a blink, but I was left with a good litre of cardamom flavoured sugar syrup.  And a smaller quantity of heated ghee.  This was the starting point for this months eggless non-baking challenge suggested by Jayanthi of Sizzling Veggies . I had surrendered my cookie cutters to my son's play dough endeavours.  This would have to be donut holes rather than donuts. I had already made pseudo donuts with the olive oil dough, I wanted to try something totally different for the challenge.  Instead of maida, I decided to go with Urad flour for making the Donut Dough   (say that 10 times, fast! ;)  I was hoping for a Jangiri like feel actually, sadly I fell short.  Next time I will add 1/3 cup sugar to ...

Summer is HERE with its hellish heat, kids off school lazing around all day, envious me off to the lab where the ancient window Air Conditioners takes off every third day.  The kids would love interesting meals and I am loath to spend more than an hour in the kitchen.  Hubby has wisely chosen to eat at work this month. Meanwhile, I scrounge around for interesting recipes requiring minimal effort - the Perpetual Motion Machine of the cooking world.   This is my weekly schedule this summer - Cereal and Muffins/Quick breads or Cereal and Idlis for breakfast, rice + variety of lentils/beans/chickpeas+ vegetables+curds for lunch, One of my staples is the Olive Oil dough from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.  Nilgiris has stopped carrying Fresh Yeast in reasonable sized packages a.k.a. 100g.  I found Active Dry Yeast worked just as well!  Not just that, my Organic Atta produced no discernible change in flavour or texture, No More Maida in pizza! Yay! I did ...