The year was 1954. A starry eyed teenager, Maria Marta Rocha, winner of the Miss Brazil contest, came to the US to take part in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe pageant had been started in 1952. But as airline tickets were expensive, the contestants were mainly from Europe and the Americas. 18 year …
What’s sunny and juicy and tangy? What brings a smile to everyone’s faces?What was created in the 1920s with ingenuity, drama and a novel ingredient? Yes! It is the PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE! ‘Upside down cakes’ weren’t a new concept in the 1920s. According to most historians, the late 1800s were when the term “upside …
Read more “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Pineapple upside-down cake!”
A cake as light as a feather……that’s delicate on the tongue. A cake topped with three kinds of milk….maybe even four! A cake whose origin is a convoluted mystery — was it Nicaragua, or Costa Rica? Mexico or Cuba? Spain perhaps? Or was it Nicaragua or Mexico’s answer to the Italian tiramisu? Like the mystery …
In this day and age of acute health awareness there are many Commandments for the health conscious. • Thou shalt not eat High Fructose Corn Syrup. • Thou shalt steer clear of Trans Fats. • Thou shalt pore over Food Labels and read the Fine Print. • Thou shalt avoid Partially Hydrogenated Oil. And so …
Sugee, rawa, semolina, suji….a staple ingredient, found in most kitchens. An ingredient I reach for when want to make quick comfort foods. A soothing porridge, a spicy upma, a heartwarming halwa. It was thus eye opening to realise that for centuries, semolina had been linked with the cuisines of Europe and the Middle East. Even …
The Peranaken community is unique to South East Asia and particularly the Malay archipelago. Chinese or Indian Traders who sailed to the Malacca straits and plied their wares, couldn’t return to their places of origin until the monsoon winds aligned with their destinations. So they would drop anchor literally and figuratively and spend 4 to …
The term “shortening” technically refers to any type of fat that is solid at room temperature. This includes butter, margarine and lard. But when such a fat is cut into the flour before baking, it coats the gluten strands, retarding the gluten from forming long strands. It “shortens” the gluten and creates a tender, crumbly …
A favourite tea cake of Queen Victoria.
Schwarzwäld Kirsch Kuchen. That’s quite a tongue twister, isn’t it? For those of you that don’t speak German, I’ll give you a clue. Chocolate, cherries and cream. What’s not to love? “A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet”, said the Bard. This “rose” is also called Black Forest cake and is found …
Read more “What’s Black, White and Red and loved by Indians?”
Did you know? Of the strange case of macaroons of Thoothukudi? All of us have eaten macaroons before. The shaggy, chewy, coconut filled cookies that seem to be the country bumpkin cousins of the lah-di-dah French Macarons. But have you ever eaten a Tuticorin macaroon? I tasted them for the first time when I joined …