Double Chocolate Bark

The last day of the year brings forth a multitude of emotions. This year has taken us down a path less walked, an avenue of alternate lifestyles, a road of compromise, an expanse of jubilation. Travels to Paris, India and Vietnam filled the wanderlust in my blood. A daughter's wedding brought tears of joy. Losing friends to Covid saddened our souls. Living for months with the family has been a backhanded blessing. 

Most of my days have been filled with kitchen adventures, shared with the family, friends and my readers. For that I am immensely thankful. I have one more share to go...literally. The chocolate bark was gifted to my son's good friend. Cathia had been a presence in Rehan's life. I still remember her cookies that lifted our spirits as we travelled to India in sadder times.  So I end this tumultuous  year on a happy note. Share your wealth, be it food, joy or plain talk. Your gift will make someone's day brighter.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BARK

Serves 4

6 oz Dark Chocolate (Use chocolate bar or chips)

6 oz White Chocolate (Use chocolate bar or chips)

1/3 cup dried Cranberries

1/3 cup Raisins

1/3 cup Pistachios

Cut chocolate slab into small pieces.

Melt dark chocolate over a double boiler till smooth. Or place the chocolate in a saucepan over a pot of simmering water. Do not let the saucepan touch the water. Stir till smooth.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone liner.

Spread the melted dark chocolate in a thin layer over liner. Use an offset spatula to fashion an even layer. 

Place the baking sheet sheet in the fridge to cool and harden.

Wait till the chocolate is hard before pouring on the second chocolate layer.

Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler till smooth. Or place the chocolate in a saucepan over a pot of simmering water. Do not let the saucepan touch the water. Stir till smooth.

Keep the offset spatula  and dry fruit ready as you will have to work fast. 

Pour the white chocolate over the cooled chocolate. Working fast, spread the white chocolate in a thin layer going almost all the way to the edge of the dark chocolate. Allow the dark chocolate edge to show. Do this quickly or the bottom layer will start melting. 

Scatter cranberries, raisins and pistachios all over the chocolate. Use a broad spatula to gently push them into the chocolate. 

Cool the bark in the fridge for at least an hour. 

Use your hands to break the bark into shards.

Make yourself happy and eat some!

Here's wishing all of you a healthy, happy New Year.  Let's indulge our passions, assuage our sadness and live life to the fullest. 

Rib Roast

Christmas means so much to so many. Traditions endure with carols, tinsel laden fir trees surrounded by wrapped presents, mistletoe and a newer entrant, the family Zoom call. This year, the stakes are higher, the  holiday feeling is sacred, so we tread carefully and lovingly. The sentiments of the season echo in our love, our smiles and the Christmas table.

My parent's wedding gift, a seventy year old English bone china dinner set, gets its annual dusting. The festivities start with a cranberry-spiked Moscow mule. A substantial charcuterie platter keeps us well-fed while the roast cooks.

We start our meal with roasted marrow bones and homemade bread. A salad of roasted pears with Gorgonzola and cranberries over a green salad is next. The highlight of course is the rib roast, the chef's choice. Accompanied by potatoes roasted in duck fat, trumpet mushrooms roasted with garlic and thyme, balloon- like Yorkshire puddings, glistening sugar snap peas and a pungent horseradish sauce, the grand roast has star plating. 

My three-rib roast is liberally coated with salt, pepper, garlic and thyme, tightly wrapped and refrigerated for a day prior to roasting. I cook the roast for two hours at a high temperature as this gives the meat a crisp, crusty exterior, leaving the insides a rosy pink. Medium rare, just the way we like it. 

Wintery weather doesn't dampen spirits! The house is toasty. Laughter and smiles  abound. Christmas music fills the air. Blessings of the season to all!

RIB ROAST

Serves 5-6

1  6-7 pound Beef Rib Roast with 3/4 ribs

2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

2 teaspoons ground Black Pepper

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon dried Thyme 

Whisk salt, pepper, garlic and thyme in a bowl. 

Place the roast in a shallow pie plate. 

Apply the powders to all sides of the roast. Use your hands to pat the coating in place.

Cover with plastic wrap tightly and refrigerate overnight. 

It is best to marinate the beef overnight. The powders dry forming a nice crust. If not possible, then coat the roast with the powders the morning you cook.

Heat oven to 425F/ 220C. 

Place the roast rib side down in a baking dish. The ribs act as a natural  rack as the roast bakes.

Bake uncovered for 20 minutes per pound. My roast took 2 hours. 

Remove beef from the oven.  

Use a meat thermometer to check temperature. The thermometer needs to register 125-130F for medium rare meat. The meat will cook some more as it sits under a foil tent. 

Cover beef with foil and leave for 15 minutes. 

Use the fat in the pan to make Yorkshire pudding. Or save and use as a cooking medium. It is really flavorful.

The roast is traditionally served with roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and a tangy horseradish sauce. 

Carve and enjoy! 

Each Christmas is special. This one is even more precious as we celebrate together in tumultuous times.

Leek Broccolini Penne with Salsa Verde

When your daughter gets married and moves into her own house, your heart bleeds with sadness and also swells with joy. Several firsts ensue, especially the first time they come home for dinner. After seeing the parade of dishes I churn out, my husband claims he's had been left to starve ever since she moved out. Rot and nonsense I say. Though there is some truth to his ranting. I have gone a bit overboard for their dinner!

I make a Southwestern accented dinner. Meatballs with ancho chiles. Stuffed poblanos with Japanese sweet potato and corn. A simple pasta bake. The base begins with sauteed leeks and garlic. The sauce is thickened with flour and milk. Broccolini and penne are added. The whole mess is scraped into a baking dish. I make small indents in the bake. Salsa verde is spooned into those depressions. A smattering of Monterey Jack flecks the top, coating the surface as it bakes. Spoon some onto your plate. It is a simple but singular bake. 

LEEK BROCCOLINI PENNE WITH SALSA VERDE

Serves 6

1 large Leek

1 teaspoon Thyme leaves

1 bunch Broccolini

1 teaspoon Garlic Powder

2 tablespoons Butter

2 tablespoons AP Flour

2 cups 2% Milk

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

1/2 pound Penne

1/4 cup Salsa Verde (recipe below or store bought)

2 tablespoons grated Monterey Jack Cheese

SALSA VERDE

4 Tomatillos

2 Jalapenos

3 Garlic cloves 

1/2 Red Onion

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1/2 cup Cilantro leaves and stems

Cut the root end off the leek. Slice the leek in half vertically. Rinse the leeks under water to remove sand and dirt. 

Slice the leeks into half moons, 1/2 inch thick.

Trim broccolini, cutting the stems into small dice. 

Dunk the florets in salted boiling water for 1 minute. Rinse in cold water and keep aside. 

Heat butter in a large skillet.

Add leeks, broccolini stems and thyme leaves to skillet and saute till leeks are limp and light brown. 

Add garlic powder to leeks.

Scatter flour over leeks. Stir well so flour coats most of the leeks.

Then pour the milk into the skillet. Raise the heat to high and bring the milk to boil. It will thicken as it boils. 

Season with salt and pepper.

Cook the penne in salted boiling water. Drain well. 

Add florets and penne to the skillet. Stir well. 

Heat oven to 350F/180C.

Remove the husks of the tomatillos. 

Place tomatillos, peeled garlic cloves, jalapenos and red onion on  baking tray. Cover with olive oil. Place the baking tray in the oven as it heats. 

Bake tomatillos for 20 minutes till soft. 

Remove from oven and spoon tomatillos, garlic, jalapenos and red onion into a blender. 

Add cilantro and blend till pulpy. Season with a little salt. Pour salsa into bowl.

Scrape the pasta into a baking dish. 

Use a spoon to make small depressions in the pasta. 

Spoon salsa verde into the holes. 

Spread grated cheese over pasta. 

Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. 

Uncover and serve. 

 

We toast to the newly weds. We raise a glass to the couple now ensconced in their new home. We feast gleefully on chocolate cake smothered in ganache. We thank the Maker above for showering blessings on Shauna and Frank. 

Rangooni Vaal Subji

Pray, what is rangooni vaal you ask? Honestly, I can only hazard a guess. I love dried vaal beans, especially the bitter ones or kadve vaal. I bought the rangooni vaal thinking they would be similar to the Maharashtrian kind. The lettering on the package said raguni vaal. The name is probably a corruption of Rangooni, from the city Rangoon of Burma. One more inane detail to clutter my mind!  I quickly discovered they were neither bitter or the ones I have cooked before. One, they are larger. Two, not bitter at all. Three, they taste more like a lima bean. Fourth, they look like a lima bean.  Therefore they must be a lima bean. Like the ones they use to make ful medames in the Middle East. That is my interpretation! 

Well, the beans have been boiled. So I use them to make my favorite vaalachi bhaji...a spicy vaal subji. Sauteed onion, a hefty dose of spices, particularly a beloved Pathare Prabhu methkoot masala, gives the subji color and zest. Methkoot has a similar flavor of the powder used to make mango pickle. It is spicy, tart, redolent of bitter methi, fiery red chiles and other spices. We PP's use the masala with fish and veggies. I use mine sparingly as the masala comes from Bombay, not easy to procure right now. These usurpers take on inherent spicy qualities.  They might not be the vaal I love, but they certainly make a piquant addition to our dinner.

RANGOONI VAAL SUBJI

Serves 5-6

1 cup dried Raguni/Rangooni Vaal or dried Lima Beans

2 tablespoons Canola Oil

1 dried Red Chile

3-4 Curry Leaves

1 large Onion

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 teaspoon Chile Powder

1 teaspoon Methkoot or Mango Pickle Powder(any brand)

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

4 tablespoons chopped Cilantro

Place vaal in a deep saucepan. 

Pour 5-6 cups of water over vaal. 

Bring vaal to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes or till beans are soft. 

Drain and keep aside.

Peel and slice onion. 

Heat oil in a skillet.

Drop red chile and curry leaves into oil. Let the chile and leaves sizzle for 10 seconds.

Add onion and saute till translucent.

Scrape vaal into the onions. 

Sprinkle turmeric, chile powder, methkoot and salt. Stir well so spices coat the beans.

Add 3 tablespoons of the cilantro to beans.

Add 1/2 cup water, cover the skillet and simmer for 15 minutes.

Uncover skillet, garnish with remaining cilantro and serve with rice or chapatti.

The beans elicit oohs and aahs. We love the strong flavors. A miss turned into a hit!

Overnight Bread

It started with Jim Lahey's easy bread recipe. I was hooked. Hot baked loaves surfaced at breakfast with some effort. Then the inadvertent happened, an accident that changed the loaf and with it my bread repertoire. The accidental addition of a greater quantity of yeast, which at first disheartened me, but eventually  pleased me to no end. The resulting loaf was lighter, less crusty and airy! Pockets of air make this bread look artisan, that feeling reiterated by family. 

Note that I do not call this no-knead bread.  I diverge from the classic recipe in a few ways. I change it up a bit.  Especially the part that calls for  the Dutch oven to be covered as the bread bakes. I find the bread becomes too crusty baked in that manner.  Firstly, I use a shallow cast-iron saucepan to bake the loaf without the lid. The original recipe calls for the bread to be delicately transferred to a blazing hot receptacle. That is not the easiest way to get the bread into the pan, so a shallow saucepan makes short shrift of the job. Secondly I plop the risen dough onto a floured sheet of parchment.  No kneading is involved, but once the dough rises, it does need to be turned. You do that by using floured hands or a flexible bench scraper to lift the dough from the outer edges and fold it towards the center, going all the way around the dough.  Once the oven and saucepan is heated, lift and nestle the parchment into the pan. No mess, no fuss. In about half hour you should have a golden brown artisanal loaf. Wait a while before you cut into it. The bread needs to cool down or else you will have a mess on your board. A few changes result in a eye-pleasing, taste-satisfying loaf.

I make this bread once a week. This week I experiment by adding black pepper to the mix. I also make a small loaf of black olive and goat cheese bread. The additions are speculative....the latter needed more work, but the black pepper is a keeper.

OVERNIGHT BREAD

Makes 1 large round loaf  

3 1/2 cups Bread Flour or AP Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

fresh Ground Black Pepper (optional)

1 scant teaspoon active dry Yeast or instant-rise Yeast

1 3/4 cups Water

Place flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add black pepper at this point as well. 

Pour water into the bowl and mix till you have a shaggy dough. 

Cover bowl and let it sit overnight. Do not refrigerate. If you live in a warm place your dough will rise in 8-10 hours. In cooler climates it will take 12 hours or more, hence the overnight rest. I mix my dough after dinner. By 9am the next day, I am ready to start turning the dough.

The dough should have numerous bubbles and should have risen considerably.

Cut a 1' sheet of parchment paper. Ideally, the paper should fit the inside of the saucepan you plan to use. I find cast-iron works the best.  My saucepan is 12" wide. I haven't tried a glass or any other baking pan as yet. 

Dust the parchment liberally with flour. 

Use a bench scraper or large spatula to scrape the dough onto the parchment, taking care not to deflate the air bubbles.

Use the bench scraper or floured hands to lift and pull the dough the outer edges of the dough into the middle of the loaf. Go around the loaf 8-10 times. 

Then cover the dough and let it rest for 45 minutes.  I use the same large bowl to cover the dough. Do not let the cover touch the dough. The dough should be freestanding under the cover.

Heat your oven to 425F/220C.

Place the cast-iron saucepan in the oven at the same time so the pan heats up as the oven reaches the given temperature.

Once the oven is ready, take the saucepan out. Grasp the ends of the parchment paper, lift and place the dough into the saucepan. 

Return the pan to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. The top should be golden brown. 

Take the loaf out of the oven and cool on a wire rack . Peel the parchment off once the loaf is lukewarm.

Hold the cooled loaf vertically and cut slices with a serrated knife.  I find this way is the best.  S serrated knife works best as well.

Toast the slices. Or not.

Slather with real butter!  

Homemade bread is thing of joy. Baking an artisanal style loaf without all the bells and whistles, is reward enough.

Mussels Masala

I grab a bag of Prince Edward Island mussels at my fishmongers. PEI mussels are small, plump morsels lending themselves to any flavorful additions. We cook them swimming in beer, or white wine, sometimes Italian style with a tomato sauce and this spicy Indian saute. 

Scrubbed and debearded, mussels are steamed in a little water till they open up. Unopened ones are discarded. I keep the halves with the mussels attached and throw out the other shells. Onions are sauteed till translucent. In go the mussels along with a raft of spices, grated coconut, fresh cilantro and kokum or dried mangosteen. Try to source kokum on Amazon or at most Indian grocery stores.  It adds a wonderful sour tang to the mussels. A quick saute, the pan covered so mussels get to absorb masalas and they are ready to eat. Use your fingers, lick the masala off the shells...enjoy the hands-on experience.

MUSSELS MASALA

Serves 4

2 lb bag of Mussels

1 large Onion

3 tablespoons Canola Oil

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 teaspoon Chile Powder

1 teaspoon Pathare Prabhu Sambhar Powder Or Garam Masala

1/2 cup fresh grated Coconut

1/2 cup chopped Cilantro

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

5 Kokums or dried Mangosteen 

fresh Cilantro to garnish

Rinse mussels well under running water. Discard any open mussels.

Pull off any strings/beards on the mussels. 

Dump them into a large pot. Add 2 cups of water. 

Place the pot over high heat, cover and allow mussels to steam for 6-8 minutes. The shells will open. 

Pour out the water.

Twist off the shell without the mussel and discard.  Save the mussels in shell on a plate. Throw out any unopened ones.

Chop onion finely. 

Heat oil in a large saucepan.

Add onion and saute till translucent.

Tip the mussels into the onions.

Sprinkle turmeric, chile and sambhar powders over mussels. 

Scatter coconut, cilantro and salt over mussels.

If you are using kokum pods rinse them in water and add to mussels.

Stir the mussels gently to mix. 

Add a splash of water, cover and cook over a low flame for 10 minutes for masala to infuse. 

Uncover, garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

 Small, soft and utterly delectable....these mussels carry a lot of weight!

Green Tomato and Onion Subji

We pick the last of the cherry tomatoes from Shauna's garden. For some reason her plants have survived the onset of winter. Perplexing and confounding, as my tomato plants died many weeks ago. No matter. We have green tomatoes and a handful of jalapenos. What's important is that this will be my last stab at making this delightful subji I found on the web. 

I tweak my version a little but lovelaughmirch.com's recipe is a simple but tasty side. Onions hang out with crushed fennel seeds, kalonji or onion seeds, curry leaves, green chiles, spices and of course green tomatoes. It comes together fast. Sadly green tomatoes are long gone here and will surface again in the distant future, so do save this recipe... it really is a gem.

GREEN TOMATO AND ONION SUBJI

Adapted from LoveLaughMirch.com

2 cups Green Tomatoes (I used a mix of Cherry and Roma)

1 large Onion

2 teaspoons Canola Oil

1/4 teaspoon Hing or Asafetida

2-3 Curry leaves

2 Green Chiles

3/4 teaspoon Fennel Seeds

1/2  Kalonji or Onion Seeds

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 teaspoon Chile Powder

1 teaspoon Cumin Powder

1 teaspoon Coriander Powder

1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt

Leave cherry tomatoes whole. Chop the romas into chunks. Large tomatoes are cut into chunks.

Mince onion. 

Slice chiles lengthwise in half.

Lightly crush fennel seeds.

Heat oil in a nonstick saucepan.

Add hing, green chiles and curry leaves. 

Follow that by add the fennel seeds and kalonji. Let fennel color a little.

Then add the onions and saute till translucent.

Add chopped and whole tomatoes to onions.

Sprinkle all the spice powders and salt over tomatoes. Stir well. Cover and cook over a low flame for 10-15 minutes till soft. Stir the tomatoes often.

Uncover, inhale that heady aroma and eat the tomatoes as part of an Indian meal. Or piled on to a slice of bread.

Like I said, we simply love this simple subji. Unless I find green tomatoes in stores, this recipe is filed away till summer next year!