Prologue

One day when I get famous and need fillers for my book, I might give this more thought ..... for now this will do. I claim to be no expert at either travelling or cooking or the random things I write about... But I would like to collate all my good memories (and efforts) into this space for reminiscing on those grey rainy days... What Blog its more of a 'Brag'!!

My Thank You Speech..........

I was introduced to cooking in the early years of my life by my Aayi while I sat at the kitchen dining table while she mixed spices and vegetables to create those sumptuous dishes. My brain took in what I did not intend to learn. My Aayi is a fantastic cook. Each day I woke up to a sit down breakfast of Idlis, Dosas, Upma, Dodak, Usli and the likes. A far cry compared to the ‘eat while you dress’ cereal we make do with these days. Any efforts Aayi made of training me in the kitchen went futile. It is hence ironic that Aayi, ‘my first teacher’ is still to taste anything cooked by my hand. My hard core cooking days started only when I moved to UK with my husband a few years ago. My husband, like a true martyr, suffered through my numerous cooking expeditions. His encouragement, fulsome praise where due and frank critical review drives me to try something new each week. It is to these two people that I owe whatever little cooking I know or strive to know today.

Orange Breakfast Muffins


I bought myself a muffin pan for Diwali and immediately made strawberry muffins as per a recipe I found on the internet. I chose strawberry only because I found them really cheap at the local supermarket. They turned out well except I truly believe strawberries aren’t legally ‘muffin ingredient’. My next attempt was from oranges (bought in a buy one get one free deal).

My boss Sam is a super cook, super mother, super home maker all rolled into one. No she doesn’t fly in her Super woman outfit to office!!!! She contributes at least one home made cake per month on our department table. Here is a recipe she shared with me for early morning breakfast muffins. They turned out well with a lovely fresh flavour. They are not too sweet and are best eaten with jam/maple syrup.

Dry Ingredients
Rind of 2 Oranges
250 gm Self Raising flour
25 gms Ground Almond
75 gm sugar
½ tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
chopped nuts (optional)

Wet Ingredients
100 ml fresh orange juice (I used minutemaid orange juice)
100 ml whole milk ( I used semi skimmed)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
75 gm melted butter

Method
Preheat the oven. Grease the muffin pan.
Combine all the dry ingredients well in a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients.
Combine and mix with a spoon till a smooth batter is formed. Do not beat.
Spoon out into the muffin pan. Place the pan in the oven and heat at 180 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes or till done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...
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23 December 2006 at 13:06

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