Curry Sauce

• 1 large onion
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• 1 inch piece of ginger
  
• 2 green chilli, more or less depending on taste
  
• I large tomato. chopped
  
• I Tbsp garam masala/curry paste
  
• ½ cup yogurt
  

1. Mince onion, garlic, and chilies together.
   
2. Heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a saucepan and cook onion mixture till it is fragrant and slightly brown.
   
3. Add tomato and cook at medium heat for another 5 minutes till well mixed
   

1. Add garam masala and salt and cook for another couple of minutes. Add yogurt slowly with constant stirring to avoid yogurt from curdling.
   
2. Add 3 cups of water and bring to boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer till the sauce is reduced to 2 cups.
   

    

   
   

3. Add egg roll slices and turn off the heat. Sauce will soak through the egg roll slices.
   
4. I sometimes like to strain the sauce. In this case I strained the sauce in a bowl and added egg slices.
   
5. Serve hot.
   

First challenge was to boil eggs but not in the shell. Idea came while I was walking down the meat section of my grocery store. I saw salamis and thought if I can have boiled eggs like that so that I can slice, dice, spice the egg before making curry. Or better still use it in salad, gently fry it, make sandwiches-now I am getting carried away!

Idea is simple, take a plastic salami casing, tie one end, fill it with egg, tie the other end, throw it in boiling water, and egg should harden into tube shape. A quick search on web and I realized that getting casing may take some time and I am not the patient type. So, started rummaging around kitchen looking for anything that can be used in place of casing. Next day had a brainstorming session with a fellow scientist about this serious issue and then another flash! Couldn’t wait to come back home as soon as possible and to try out my idea. So here it is after three days of accidents and dozen eggs later.

Making of Casing

• Rolling Pin
• Wax paper
• Saran wrap

Take a rolling pin and wrap a piece of wax paper around it (A). Use a small piece of scotch tape to keep the wax paper in place.

Now wrap several layers of saran wrap around the rolling pin (B). Slide the wax paper + saran wrap from the rolling pin. Wax paper makes it easy to slide the saran wrap roll.

Pull out the wax paper and you should have a nice roll of saran wrap (C).

Use a kitchen twine to tie one end (D). I made two
saran wrap rolls

Filling the Casing and Boiling the Eggs

I tried two different styles. But before doing this step make sure you have a large pot with boiling water.

1. Break two eggs
2. Break two eggs; add salt, and any spices you like. Beat gently

Fill the saran wrap rolls with eggs as shown in picture and tie the other end.

Place both the saran rolls-now filled with eggs into the boiling water. Use a spatula to keep the rolls straight. Important! Once the eggs are partially set, use something sharp to make a small hole at the top of the roll. Without hole the thing may burst open.

It may take anywhere between 15-20minute for eggs to harden.

Take the roll out of boiling water and place it on a plate and use a knife to gently cut the saran wrap covering.

Nice rolls of boiled eggs-spicy and regular. My daughter wanted me to read her a story so covered the plate with saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator to make curry next day.

Will serve one or two depending on how hungry everyone is. Increase amount proportionally. Remember to have equal amount of cheese, yogurt and flour. Do not worry to follow every word-adding little bit more or less of ingredient will not spoil the pancake.

• 1/3^rd cup ricotta cheese
  
• 1/3^rd cup plain yogurt
  
• 1 whole egg and white of another
  
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda (small pinch will do)
  
• 1/3^rd cup all-purpose flour
  
• Dash salt and sugar
  
• Few drops of lemon juice (optional)
  
• Butter or vegetable oil. I use Ghee (clarified butter available in Indian Stores) for added flavor
  

   

1. Beat together the ricotta cheese, yogurt and eggs.
   
2. Combine baking soda, flour, salt and sugar and gently mix. Add lemon juice and mix
   
3. Heat a griddle or large skillet and add about 1 teaspoon butter or oil. Use a paper towel to coat the whole skillet. Usually your first pancake will stick to the pan,
   
4. Add around two tablespoon batter in the center of the skillet. Tilt skillet in a circular fashion to spread the batter.
   
5. Cook until lightly browned on bottom, you should see small bubbles at the top.
   
6. Use a flexible spatula to lift and turn the pancake. Cook second side.
   
7. Serve with honey/syrup along with hot cup of coffee.
   

Note: If you are not a regular cook, be prepared to be disappointed at first. Your first couple of pancakes may stick to skillet, may get burned, will fly off skillet or will fold into half while turning over. Once you get good at it is fun to have fresh pancakes on weekends-it takes me now less than 15minutes to have hot pancakes.

I took pictures of my pancakes using daylight streaming through my patio door. Here’s the setup. Replace apples with pancakes. Used my daylight fluorescent lamps for extra lighting.

My Pancakes

Decided to try my new light box by making two cakes. First one was Fruit Cake; the recipe came from a friend whose wife makes the best cake ever. The chocolate cake recipe was adapted from a NY Article.

Fruit Cake Recipe

• 5 large eggs,
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• ¾ cup of vegetable oil or shortening
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• Fruit cake mix: 8oz
  
• Fluted Cake Pan
  

   

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9.5 inch fluted cake pan and set aside.
   
2. In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar. Stir using an electric mixer till it is creamy. Add oil slowly and keep mixing for a minute more.
   
3. Stir in dry ingredient: Flour, salt and baking powder. Add fruit cake mix and gently mix everything.
   
4. Pour into cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes or bit more depending on the oven till a knife inserted into cake come out clean.
   
5. Remove cake from the cake pan and allow to cool for 1 hour.
   
6. Take Picture!-
   

Chocolate Cake Recipe

• 5 large eggs,
  
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 8 ounces of butter (2 sticks)
  
• 8 ounces of Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chocolate
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
  
• Fluted Cake Pan
  

   

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9.5 inch fluted cake pan and set aside.
   
2. In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate and stir to mix.
   
3. In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar. Stir using an electric mixer till it is creamy.
   
4. Add melted chocolate and butter and mix.
   
5. Stir in dry ingredient: Flour, salt and baking powder. Mix with a spatula
   
6. Pour into cake pan. Bake for 25 minutes or bit more depending on the oven till a knife inserted into cake come out clean.
   
7. Remove cake from the cake pan and allow to cool for 1 hour.
   
8. Refrigerate for another hour
   
9. Take Picture.
   

Pictures are not bad considering less than $100 light box. Most of the professional food photographers employ whole array of props and light stands, trained food stylists, high end camera and expensive post processing using Photoshop. My pictures were only slightly tweaked-brightness and contrast- using Photoshop. I may be biased but the cakes look appetizing to me.

Materials:

1. Five foam core board from Elmers (20x30x3/16 in): $ 18
2. Tacky Glue: $2
3. Masking tape (1.5-2.0 inch wide): $4
4. Leftover cardboard box
5. Two table lamps: ~$15 each
6. Two Daylight(5000-6000K) CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) of 100watt equivalent: $8 for three lamps

• Take a leftover cardboard box and cut out edges (~2inch wide; See picture above). I found some suitable packing material from a recent furniture purchase.
• Using masking tape attach two foam boards at 90 degree angle (see picture above). Put glue on one cardboard edge and place it over the masking tape and hold for 5min. When I only used masking tape the box was not strong enough. Cardboard edge gave the box additional reinforcement.
• Repeat the process till you have a box with one open side.

• Cut the long sides with a sharp edged blade to level all sides.

• Use the table lamps for lighting. RI used tit now I am using two table lamps but thinking of adding two more to get rid few shadows.
• For taking pictures, I used my Nikon D80 camera with on camera flash for additional lighting.
• For trial I took few pictures of an apple. Did simple tweaking-contrast and brightness-using Photoshop Element6

• Background is bluish instead of white and is probably coming from fluorescent light. Will do white balance adjustment in my camera.

Not bad for couple of hours of effort. Total expense around $70.

After whole lot of experimentation, finally gathered enough courage to make a final batch and invite bunch of friends for taste testing. Decided to make few changes along the way, first went out and bought several wide mouthed one liter glass jars with lids. I made sure that lids make good seal to prevent alcohol from evaporating while it is sitting on my countertop. Wide mouthed glass jars are better than my previous narrow mouthed bottle when it comes to adding chunks of my favorite fruit. Another decision was to have one recipe without any sweetner for folks with sugar issues. In the end, I added some honey while serving because unsweetened cocktail didn’t taste really good. Also, I slightly decreased the amount of honey since my previous cocktails were tad bit too sweet for my taste. Here’s the final recipe for four cordials.

Gin Cordial with Coriander, Peppercorn and Agave Honey

1. 250ml of fresh Clementine juice from 6-7 regular sized clementines
2. ¼ cup of agave honey
3. 6-8 coriander seeds
4. 10 Peppercorn
5. Clementine peel with only top zest layer. Make sure there is no or minimal pith (white part)
6. 500ml of Gin

    

• Mix Clementine juice and agave honey and add it to the bottle
• Add 500ml of gin to the bottle and mix well
• Add 6-8 coriander seeds and 5-6 peppercorn
• Shake everyday till ready to consume
• My previous test showed that 5-7 days is enough for a flavorful cordial
• Serve with a thin slice of orange or Clementine and couple of ice cubes

Gin Cordial with Star Anise, Allspice and Agave Honey

1. 250ml of fresh Clementine juice from 6-7 regular sized clementines
2. ¼ cup of agave honey
3. 2 Star Anise
4. 3 Allspice
5. 500ml of gin

    

• Mix Clementine juice and agave honey and add it to the bottle
• Add 500ml of gin to the bottle and mix well
• Add 2 star anise and 3 allspice
• Shake everyday for 5-7 days
• Serve with a thin slice of orange or Clementine and couple of ice cubes

Hot Ginger and Cucumber Cordial in Vodka

1. Seedless english cucumber
2. Ginger
3. Two dried red chilies
4. 500ml of Vodka

    

• Peel and thinly slice cucumber. Around 4 x 1 inches (10 pieces)
• Peel around 1 inch of ginger root and chop into small pieces and add to around quarter cup of water. Boil in a microwave oven for a minute and then let it cool.
• Peel another 1 inch of ginger and cut into small slices
• Add 500ml of vodka to the bottle then add ginger water, ginger and cucumber slices
• Break red chilies into halves and add to the bottle
• Shake everyday for 5-7 days
• This cordial didn’t taste so well first when served on ice cubes with thin slice of lemon
• Final modified serving:
  • 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of agave honey mixed well.
  • Add 60ml of cordial and a thin slice of lemon
  • Add couple of ice cubes
• Warn your guests before serving this drink. The drink stings at first but after 2 or 3 sips the sweet and hotness combined with strong vodka tingles all the senses. My friends loved this and another one I present below.

Hot Pineapple Cordial in Vodka

1. Pineapple: peeled and cubed
2. Two dried red chilies
3. ¼ cup of agave honey
4. 500ml of Vodka

    

• Add around 8-10 pieces of pineapple to the bottle
• Add agave honey
• Add 500ml of vodka to the bottle
• Break red chilies into halves and add to the bottle
• Shake everyday for 5-7 days
• Serve over ice cubes with a piece of pineapple from the bottle and if desired little pineapple juice
• Warn your guests before serving this drink. The drink stings at first but after 2 or 3 sips the sweet and hotness combined with strong vodka tingles all the senses.

Gathered friends and families and served drinks with hot and spicy pizza. Sheer delight in frigid cold Wisconsin winter!

Ginger and cucumber have been sitting in Gin and Agave Honey mix for 5 days so decided to have a taste test this past Sunday. Added few drops of lemon juice, a cube of ice and two ounces of my cordial and took a small sip. Flavor of cucumber is unmistakable but couldn’t really taste the ginger. In the original recipe from LA-Times (‘Gin’-ger basiltini) ginger was steeped into hot sugar and water syrup and may be that helped extract the ginger flavor. I decided to let the thing sit for few more days. Overall the flavors are subtle compared to my previous spiced cordial recipes.

I finished my first glass and was still craving for little more, so decided to try another concoction − replaced lemon juice with juice from a single Clementine. Hmmm! didn’t really like it. It was too sweet but more than that the mix of orange and cucumber flavors didn’t really sit well with me. This cucumber flavored spirit is looking for something spicy as in “Hot and Spicy”

Fast forward few days, and I come across another article in LA Times on Mezcal Cocktails with red chilies pepper as one of the ingredient. Voila! as if a light went on. That evening I made a another drink with juice from half lemon, few seeds of red dried chili and two ounces of my cucumber–ginger gin muddled, shaken together and strained over ice.

Wow, got my groove!

5

Into my third year of making Cordials, I decided to start my process in October. I want to try out new flavors this year – for me no rules, just play by your taste. I want to expand my spirit choice beyond Gin and Rum and want to include vodka and white tequila (may be!). No slices of Clementine-I however want to add some citrus peel (lemon, lime, Clementine, Kumquat!) may be a week before I am ready to consume the Cordial, slices can go while serving. I will probably use ginger, clove, may be cinnamon/vanilla and I do want to bring some mint flavor in at least one drink. Finally, I decided to try Agave Syrup/honey as sweetener. The light variety of Agave syrup is neutral in taste and is less viscous then regular honey hence easy to mix.

In past two years, I have learned that anything as spicy and intensely flavorful as cordial will throw somebody off-balance. Some folks have preference for one alcoholic beverage over another, some love strong flavors like star anise but others like more subtle flavors like coriander and peppercorn. And then there are some who just love drinking! So to accommodate everybody, I am thinking of making 5-6 different flavors of Cordials and then host a tasting party around Christmas/new year eve with bread, cheese, spicy tandoori chicken and curried vegetable to complement cordials.

So I got started last week and made my first batch of Gin Cordial

Gin Cordial with Coriander, Peppercorn and Agave Honey

1. 250ml of fresh Clementine juice from 6-7 regular sized clementines
2. ¼ cup of agave honey
3. 6-8 coriander seeds
4. 10 Peppercorn
5. 375ml of Gin
6. Glass bottle with stopper for storing drink

    

• Mix Clementine juice and agave honey and add it to the bottle
• Add 375ml of gin to the bottle and mix well
• Add 6-8 coriander seeds and 5-6 peppercorn. Better add 3 of each and taste after a week-add more to taste
• Shake everyday till ready to consume-anytime after a week or so.
• I just tasted the Gin cordial and the flavors of coriander and peppercorn are intense. I like it, but since this guy has to sit for another two months I am thinking of adding half of gin, cordial juice and agave honey to tone down the flavors of spices a notch

   

   

  The second bottle I canned two days back. Clementine was replaced by Minneola-Tangelo, a cross between grapefruit and tangerine with plentiful juice.

Rum Cordial with Star Anise, Allspice and Agave Honey

1. 375ml of fresh Minneola juice from 3 regular sized fruits
2. 1/3 cup of agave honey
3. 1.5 Star Anise
4. 3 Allspice
5. 600mlml of white rum
6. Glass bottle with stopper for storing drink

    

• Mix Minneola juice and agave honey and add it to the bottle
• Add white rum to the bottle and mix well
• Add star anise and all spice. I started low because in past some folks didn’t like Star Anise’s intense flavor. May add more if needed.
• Shake everyday till ready to consume-anytime after a week or so.
• Tasting right now and can taste the flavor of star anise. Will leave this as such.

Searching web for more ideas, send me your favorite mix and I may use it next week. Stay tuned

Year of Initiation

I got hooked to the Cordials three years back when I came across an article in NY Times by Melissa Clark. To me, a sweet and spicy liquor with orange flavor sounded like a perfect way to celebrate New Year in cold chilly Wisconsin. Article was published on 12^th Dec so I had just 19 days to get ready.

First stop, search for glass bottles for my cordials- I had two requirements (actually one was my wife’s)-one, it should be wide mouthed to squeeze in clementines and Kumquat pieces and two it should be nice enough (wife’s idea) to sit on kitchen counter top for three weeks. It took me a while but I found two that fit the profile but at around $20 a piece it raised some eyebrows at home and a veiled threat-”whatever you are making better be worth all the money spent”.

Second stop was grocery store to pick up a bottle each of Gin and White Rum. In hindsight, I should have bought a cheaper regular stuff, instead in my excitement to come up with a good Cordial I did end up spending some serious money on the liquor. As I learned that at the end of whole process that spices and citrus flavor overpowers everything and liquor is needed just for the kicks. Finding kumquats and Star Anise proved to be the biggest challenge- I remember driving, with my then 4 year old daughter in Wisconsin winter (2007-2008 winter had a record breaking snow fall of ~100 inches), from store to store asking for Kumquats and Star Anise. We finally found something in Whole Food Stores. Kumquats looked all dried and shriveled and they were expensive so decided to let go of Kumquat but we came back home victorious with small bags of allspice berries and star anise and a big bag of Clementines. My daughter loved our hunt for Kumquat so much that to this day she calls Whole Food Market as Kumquat Shop.

Got to work right away and ended up with two bottles of really nice looking liquor on my kitchen counter. Since I had bought 750ml of gin and rum and had big enough bottles so scaled-up the recipe for ~500ml of liquor. Over next two weeks I religiously gave each bottle a good shake to encourage maceration as suggested in the recipe. Though not part of the recipe, I ended up tasting my Crodials every other day to see how things were going. I could taste the spices right away-star anise in particular was too strong for me. But over next two weeks that flavor grew-up on me and I started liking it. Come new year and half of my cordial was already gone courtesy several tasting sessions.

Still shared my “artwork” with few friends and the way we polished-off the bottles I gathered my first trial with Cordials went well! One comment-the sweet and spicy flavors mask the liquor strength and people do get drunk pretty quickly. Luckily everybody had a designated driver for drive back home braving the frigid Wisconsin Winter.

Perfecting the Technique

Second year was more about recreating the magic and perfecting the method. I started the process in early December giving me enough time for maceration and decided to play safe by repeating the recipe. As before, I gave up on using Kumquats and instead of expensive Gin and Rum bought regular ones for less than $20 each. I added some lemon zest but the aroma got lost in the end-this gave me a hint that there may be some value in adding things at different stage of the whole process. I also decided to stain the drink before serving to remove the ‘stuff’ that settles down in the bottle and also to remove slices of Clementine (I used Clementine instead of Kumquat slices). I spilled some cordial and the strainer that I used was not fine enough to give clean looking drink I was striving for. Finally, sugar in the drink was damper for at least one friend. I served my cordials with fresh slices of lemon or Clementine. Overall good year.