Myriad Musings

My PhD research, my cooking all seem to follow a similar pattern these days; I read something or come up with a solution for 1 problem then I realise this must be tried in another, existing problem and it would fix it beautifully. I spend hours trying to adapt the new idea or technique to the pre-existing problem and sometimes miss the obvious reasons why the solution was never tried in the first place;  But, I always learn something new in the process, whether it is in research or it is in cooking. I have fallen in love with the artisan bread in 5 minutes a day idea of late, baking breads everyday for the past week. This monday when I went over the generally cracked results of the eggless biscotti baking roundup, I realised I had never thought of making a yeasted version of biscotti.  All I had to do is make it thinner and bake it longer. except. Letting the sponge/yeast develop overnight would develop the gluten to an extent where it would be impossible to have a hard ...

I take part in Cooking Challenges more to feel part of the bigger blogging community than because I actually like the challenge of cooking to a specific theme.  Or within a specific time frame.  In fact, asking me to cook something within a deadline is usually a guaranteed way of stopping me from cooking it.  At least until past the deadline. But this month's eggless baking challenge has me hyper-excited!  Gayathri says Orange Blossom - Pistachio - Apricot biscotti, but I am favouring different flowers, something local: lemon, rose, hibiscus or jasmine even. Unfortunately the lemon tree in my balconey is a baby, not flowering yet. My hibiscus is miserly, giving me one beautiful blossom at a time. My jasmine is hibernating, it feels the reasonably cool weather (31 deg C) is fit for sleeping only. I don't grow roses on principle.  They demand a lot of pampering, I have 2 kids a father and a husband for that already. There are quite a few hibiscus plants i...