Jab-we-met 2nd Anniversary

You are stuck in my heart..Like counting a million stars...For that many reasons you are..

It seems like it was just yesterday when we met...our eyes met and we smiled at each other.

"Do you work for HSBC?" ..who knew this question would alter the course of my life...our lives!

Across the seven seas, in a foreign land..two stangers joined by fate.

We chatted at length over a cup of hot milk and biscotti, late into the evening. It seemed as if we knew each other already; He has his amazing ways to entwine fates of two souls...and I will forever be indebted to Him for blessing me with You.

Acquaintance made way for fondness and it turned into friendship and God knows when it grew into LOVE. I knew you were special and that I longed to be with you...share your exclusive companionship. Yet, when you asked me to share with you my life...I was overwhelmed. I'm glad we met and things happened the way they did. I wouldn't want a thing to be changed, except ofcourse, the wish that I had met you even earlier ...to have been able to be with you longer...(just not satiable..lol).

That is the story of how my hubby and I met for the first time. 17th Nov. 2006 in Florida, U.S.

Its 2 years since then. I love him more than ever...! A truly amazing man...someone up above is really happy with me...I know I am blessed!

Time to celebrate this milestone in our lives. So I did what I had never done before...Baked a Black Forest (strawberry) Cake.

I love baking, but I am a little too scared to try anything other than muffins,loaves,whole sponge cakes. I don't really slice a cake or add the frosting or do any kind of frills on it...scared to spoil the cake. But this occassion called for something special and my husband's favourite cake/gateau. I had to overcome my fears.....So I did a lot of reasearch and finally made it.

Heres' my recipe-

Black Forest Cake/Gateau

Ingredients-

For the chocolate sponge cake--

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp corn starch

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp lemon juice

For the syrup--

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp water

1 tsp rum flavouring

For the strawberries--

(generally cherries are the norm...but hubby likes strawberries so the change!)

1 cup chopped strawberries

2 tbsp sugar (add more if strawberries are tart)

2 tbsp water

For the frosting--

whipped cream (for the inner layers of the gateau/cake)

chocolate ganache (for the outer coating)--1 cup bitter sweet chocolate chunks melted with half cup icing sugar and 1 tbsp butter

Method-

For sponge cake--
First seive the flour, salt, corn starch,cocoa three times.
In a bowl separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the yolks with the sugar ,butter and essence till soft and fluffy.
Whisk the egg whites with the lemon juice,till frothy (about 4 mins.).
Now to the yolks add slowly the beaten egg whites and mix slowly, so as no air escapes.
Finally add the dry ingredients to this mix. Fold in slowly,in movement of forming the digit 8, so that all the air remains trapped.
Bake in a microwave on high for 6 minutes.
(For a conventional oven, it should be around 15-16 mins at 375 degrees F.)

Once done (after the toothpick test). Cool and slice the sponge in 2-3 layers.


On medium flame, heat the water and sugar till dissolved. Remove from heat, add the rum flavoring.

On medium flame, in a different pan, cook the strawberries in sugar syrup. Cool.

For the assembling--

Place a slice of the sponge on serving plate. Pour out part syrup on the face-up side of the sponge cake. Now add the whipped cream. (I used store bought..Pillsbury.) Top it up with the strawberries.
Place another sponge slice on top of this. Repeat the process of layering with syrup, cream and strawberries.
Finally add the last sponge slice.

Now, coat the entire cake with the chocolate ganache with an offset spatula. Decorate as desired.
( I do not own an offset spatula, so I just used a butter knife, the result wasn't pro-shop like, but the taste was!)
Chill before serving.
The sponge was soft and fluffy soaked in the rum syrup and the whipped cream made it melt in the mouth. Strawberries were as usual ...yummmmm.

Hubby was pleasantly surprised to find this delight, when he opened the fridge for some juice.

In no time it was devoured and my hands kissed! (blush blush)

Hope I can inspire all those who are nervous to try out stuff they think they can't do.

Nostalgia...La Quinta Moments!

Today, after a l-o-n-g time, I found one dear colleague, on my orkut profile. (Thanks to Orkut/Google, I am able to keep in touch with my friends and colleagues.)

It was a pleasant surprise. Talking to him brought back memories of my two years with HSBC. I had a wonderful time...infact had it not been for marriage (read relocation) and my love I would not have quit.

Not that I am sad about it, just that I miss ( a teeny-weeny bit) working at times. All who know me, family and friends inclusive, are like...."Don't you get bored at home?"...."You are such an active person...how can you sit at home?"....."What do you do?"...."Don't you want to work?"...."Life must be so lonely when hubby leaves for work!"....etc etc.

NO, I do not feel lonely, or sad, or bored....I'm making good use of my time. Being at home doesn't mean idle (don't believe me..ask all home makers/home engineers) ! I am reading all that I wanted to but couldn't because of my work, painting, dancing, doing my bit for the society in the form of social service, catching up with old friends, spending time with my husband ( I just can't get enough of him...lol...you have to give it to me..its just been a little over a year of our marriage), giving myself an adrenalin rush with all the adventure sports like bungee jumping, sky diving etc (fyi-a couple of months back both of us did the world's highest bungee in Macau) , cooking (my passion) & photography and ofcourse blogging (my new found love) and my blogger friends across the globe. 24 hrs just aren't enough! ;-)

The 2006 thanksgiving and christmas I was in Florida. The place has fond memories, I met my love here, for the first time. (blush blush) ...lol

Anyways, I was staying at a hotel (La Quinta) with my group. There were five of us. Me being the youngest and the only girl in the group. It was fun. At times we wanted to have the yummy chaats etc. (you can't deny an Indian his/her chaat-pakodas)

It was one such evening, when we bought potatoes and sev to make papri chaat....and (ahem) champagne to innundate the spiciness and celebrate our efforts...lol.

I had microwaved the potatoes ( remember we were in a hotel...not much cooking appliances in the room) and used the papri mom had given me while leaving India. The chutney was brought by another colleague( Indians never leave home without food..lol). Onions by another...a pot-luck kinda thing.

The chaat was lip smackingly delicious. The result of all the effort was awesome, especially as we had little or no utensils/appliances.( I had used a swiss knife to chop the potatoes) :-)

Heres' the simple recipe-

PAAPRI-CHAAT

Ingredients-

2 medium sized boiled potatoes chopped in cubes, or ( cut the potatoes in half and microwave them in a bowl with some water for 3-4 mins)

1 medium red onion, chopped finely

1 medium sized tomato, diced

6-7 sprigs of coriander (half a bunch), finely chopped

salt to taste

3 tsp chaat masala

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp oil (I used mustard, any cooking oil would do)

a pinch of red chilli powder or 1 green chilli minced

1 cup puffed rice ( called as 'moori' in bengali, 'murmure' in marathi, 'laai' in northern india)

10-15 papris (flattened crisp disc shaped flour fritters, mildly salty)

3 tbsp beaten curd mixed with 1 tsp of sugar

3 tsp imli chutney (tamarind sauce/dip)

sev (bhujia) for garnish ( a common indian tea-time snack)

Method-
In a bowl, mix well the potatoes, tomato, onion, coriander, a little salt, lemon juice,oil,minced green chilli/red chilli powder and chaat masala. Now add the puffed rice and mix well again.
Tip: We add the puffed rice at the end or else it will become soggy.
In a serving plate, layer the papris.
Spread the mixture we just made with puffed rice, on top of the papris.
Then, the next layer will be of the beaten curd with sugar.
Top it all with the imli chutney.
Garnish with sev.
Serve....yum yum...(my mouths' watering again.)

N.B. The papris, sev and imli chutney can be bought at Indian grocery stores.

SHUBH DEEPAWALI

O Ram! The light of lights, the self-luminous inner light of the Self is ever shining steadily in the chamber of your heart. Sit quietly. Close your eyes. Withdraw the senses. Fix the mind on this supreme light and enjoy the real Deepavali, by attaining illumination of the soul.

Yes, Diwali the festival of lights...the homecoming of Lord Rama..and the beginning of the new year for the Hindus. So I was all busy,like many of my clan, in cleaning up the household.Every nook and corner cleaned and lit.Its a no-moon night, yet the lights of the world make this the brightest night of the year.

Here in Hong Kong, away from home and family (though they all call and send letters and cards which give a warm touch in this age of emails), it still does seem a little forlorn..no crackers( I was the daring one at home bursting the most dangerous looking 'bombs'...alas!) ,no diyas inside the house (fire alram !!)....however, alongwith the other Indians here, I shared the good cheer with my Chinese and Cantonese(HongKong Residents) friends too.

I gave them sweets that I especially made for the occassion. Jasmine Green tea and Coffee Marble cake and my favourite- Narkel Nadu. This is a humble benagli delicacy.Does not require too much of expensive ingredients.Its sweet coconut laddu with jaggery. The former dessert was an authentic and complete innovation...infact a tad bit of forced creativity...lol. Will talk about it at length in my next post. :-)

I love playing hostess and serving up delights to my friends and family. Quite a few times I have had bizarre requests of people who want to be my house guest/house arrest(whichever way as long as they are being fed) for atleast a month...lol.Infact when I was in Florida (USA), I was cooking for people at my place during Diwali and then again at their place when we went for Halloween and Thanksgiving...lol. It would be amusing if I mentioned that I had even offered food to my now husband, when I had first met him in the States! Thats another story though. '-)I attribute this from seeing my grandma (nani) and ma(mom) playing gracious hostessess, in my growing up years in Kolkata.

Both the sweets were so very well appreciated that I was overwhelmed. The Narkel Nadu was from my "place of birth" and the green tea and coffee delicacy was inspired from my "current place of stay". They looked so much in harmony, sitting on the plate, when I presented them to my guests, accompanied with some beguni and palak pakode.

Narkel Nadu

Ingredients-
1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
150 gms desiccated coconut (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups crushed jaggery
2 tbsp white (plain) sugar
1 tbsp coconut milk

Method-

In a deep pan(wok), heat the ghee. Now put the coconut and fry a little on low flame.

Tip:Be careful not to burn the coconut. Keep moving the coconut with a wooden spoon.

When the coconut leaves a little moisture and its nutty aroma(about after 30-40 seconds), add
the broken jaggery pieces and the sugar. Set the flame to medium.
The heat will melt the jaggery and the sugar. This is the labour intensive part. Quickly keep mixing the coconut and the jaggery together, till it becomes one sticky brown chocolate colour mixture.
(The mixing action can be tough as the mixture will be sticky.)
Now, add the coconut milk and mix further.
Remove from heat. Cool for about a minute. And start making ping pong sized balls with the mixture, while it is still a little warm. The mixture won't stick to your palms, but it will feel a little warm.

Store in a sealed jar. It has a long shelf life (as no water is involved in cooking it).

N.B. If you do not find jaggery, you can sunstitute it with brown sugar/palm sugar. It tastes
equally good. Almost toffee like. Enjoy!

P.S. This ones for you Sudeshna ("Here I Cook") ! For Event of the month on her blog-"Satisfy your Sweet Tooth". Trsut me I did...lol.

Also Sudeshna has been kind enough to encourage me with The Butterfly Award. Thanks Sudeshna! My very first award. :-)