Panfusine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KaE3q3FYZI%EF%BB%BF Don't you just HATE it when you wake up in the morning & have a tune singing, Nay, NAGGING inside your head? Its been a mixed week in terms of kitchen capers, An extended lethargy, thanks to a wonderful week off with family, combined by a jumble of ideas that I needed to untangle inside my head before making anything, leave alone posting!. During a never ending session of 'clearing out my cupboards', I came across an sealed, unopened box of Quinoa  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa ) prescribed  as a rice substitute when I had Gestational Diabetes... (a clue to how long this had been sitting ... My kid is WAAY over a year old!).  Since Quinoa was touted as a cereal with the highest proportion of protein, I decided to add it to Dosa batter: Result: Delicious with a slight floral note that I couldnt quite place... Step 2, got a bit bolder, decided to make a pesarattu batter using equ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aElSfkaXtwU&feature=related This scene from one of my all time favorite movies 'My cousin Vinny' never fails to elicit a hearty chuckle, not matter how many times i watch the movie. The take home message ( if there is such a thing to be had from a complete 'masala' flick) is, the time taken to create any food from scratch is well worth it! We seem to be ploughing through a lot of South Indian Breakfast dishes on this page and 'More Kali' (or buttermilk gruel) happens to be a total comfort for for many a southerner from the Indian subcontinent just as Grits are for southerners from the good ol' US of A. The basic principle is the same, soak the starch in boiling liquid, add salt & cook till soft & gooey, top with a dollop of butter & chow down! The intrinsic Carb addiction in most of us ensures that it tastes delicious! The flip side, over indulgence! My take on More Kali combines ingre...

For anyone who needs a tutorial on Mille-feuille, references are a plenty. (Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wi ki/Mille-feuille for starters!) Among dessert offerings from South India, Paal Poli is probably not as well known as say, payasam, & my personal opinion about it when I eventually tasted it 20 yrs into my life here on earth was , 'It looks eew!!' (Turns out, the reason why my mother never made this at home was because, my dad found it visually unappealing as well). But there is no denying the fact that it is a textural treat with the creamy milk & the chewy bites of the poori/poli morsels. The best thing about this dessert is the ease of making it. Fry up a couple of pooris made from all purpose flour, drop them into warm sweetened milk with a pinch of crushed cardamom, saffron & garnish with nuts & raisins. My version is Pooris soaked in sweetened milk and stacked with layers of saffron & cardamom flavored whipped cream in be...