First of all, NO. This is not some sentimental write-up where I bid adieu to food blogging forever and blah-blah-blah. Though I haven’t been active for about three months now, which is a new record set by me (which hopefully won’t be broken), I have been using this time to think about Symphony of Food. Yes, I am preparing for new recipes but I am also moving over to my brand new website, drumroll, please…

symphonyoffood.com

Isn’t it absolutely crazy? Of all the people to have their very own website, one of them had to be me? Pinch me right now. If you told me two years ago that someday I’d have a website of my own, I’d feel it was too good to be true because I never thought it would grow into something so serious. When I first started food-blogging, I wasn’t sure how regular I would be at posting and creating content so I put getting my own website on a hold and used Blogger instead. But the time has come now where I feel have outgrown this platform. I want to be a little bit more professional and create a more refined version of this place. Not to say I don’t like it here; I absolutely enjoy it. If I look at my first few pictures to my latest ones, I can visually see how I have improved over time. I can confidently say I’m a self-taught food blogger and photographer.

I still have loads I can do better, but I’ve felt so much thrill in being able to curate my very own portion of the Internet. From having butterflies in my stomach every time I hit that “Publish” button to very, VERY rarely scheduling two recipes in advance, I’ve experienced it all. This blog is kind of like a chronological memory album. More than that, actually. Its a result of all those times I woke up early in the morning to separate eggs for macarons before school, the times I used my 10 minute lunch breaks from online school to proof simit bread dough, the hours I spent crouching (with my back aching) over a little wooden table trying to take the perfect shot, the late nights I looked up words to make my articles better, wing HTML codes for the “Spotlight” section of my website and so much more. I’m probably not a relevant Gen-Z, but its safe to say that I tried my best for this blog to work out, even when I was busy at school or missing Cordae’s latest album or the latest episode of name-whatever-trending-show-on-Netflix-that-I-haven’t-yet-heard-of.

I’m still keeping this website up as an archive and the recipes here won’t go anywhere (feel welcome to be the SECOND person EVER to try out my recipes) and neither will I be reposting the recipes here on my new website (this rule may or may not be broken). It would almost feel like an injustice to my past self who believed he could post new recipes once every week :). This website could never be replaced, not even by a new one bought by me xD.

Now the question is, what will I be doing different on my new website? Absolutely nothing! I’ll still be posting recipes, writing the most boring random-ass articles for every dish that no one would read (haha?), trying to take better pictures and most importantly, be more consistent. I would admit that I probably wouldn’t ever do plated dishes again for the sheer amount of time they take to plan, make and photograph, though. I’m only going to get more busy from now on, so having as much help to save time is really necessary, which is why I am making the decision of moving from Blogger to another platform. I’d be making more of one or two component dishes and desserts and probably make more everyday recipes rather than exotic dishes (which are what inspired me to blog in the first place, actually).

Sooo, I guess that’s all I wanted to say over here. I want to thank two of my friends (they know who they are) who are the only ones who’ve read some my posts without being asked to! A little reveal: I have over 2,000 views on this website in total and about 1,500 are probably my own, checking how well my blog is doing, or if my edits on the blog looked good or if I ever got a comment or a recipe request (Which I never did!). I have 61 posts (WOW) and about 50 recipes that I’ve never got to making and posting here. Well, I guess I’m not dry out of ideas for my new website! Does it discourage me that no one has ever read my blog posts or tried my recipes and that I’ve been making food and writing about it just for me to read when I’m bored? Kind of, but mostly no (Should I cry or should I laugh?).

Goodbye for now and hello soon!!

Now isn’t that the most delicious and beautiful stack of pancakes EVER? Since it’s currently strawberry season, I thought of using some in simple dishes. The truth is, eating pancakes is like a ritual for me. I don’t have pancakes all the time. But when I do, I like to take my time and make them on my own, build a huge stack and eat it all. I’m pretty selfish when it comes to pancakes, but don’t blame me, I’m sure this recipe will transform you too! I don’t like my pancakes to be perfectly circular either, because to me, pancakes aren’t a dainty little British afternoon tea kind of scenario. They’re meant to be devoured and you can’t exactly do that when you feel like you’re going to ruin an art piece on a plate or be embarrassed in front of the King.

Now when you’ll eat these (I’m so sure you will), you’ll notice that they are extremely moist, fluffy and light. That’s because of the buttermilk. It reacts with the baking soda to create voluminous pancakes with air bubbles, which perfectly goes with small chunks of sweet yet tart strawberry. However, you also need to preserve that while you are combining together the batter which you have to fold not mix. Combine the wet and dry ingredients only after you have completed all your mise en place. If you let the batter stand, the pancakes won’t rise in the pan!

So, how do they taste? Well, as I said, they’re extremely moist and fluffy and you get little creamy and tart surprises from those pieces of strawberry you folded into the batter. The syrup incites some child-like delight, but these taste delicious just on their own.

A tall stack

Makes 6 pancakes:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp. white vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 cup all purpose flour (can substitute with whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• A pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. neutral oil
• 1/2 cup chopped strawberries + more for garnish
• Butter

Mix the milk with the vinegar or lemon juice and let it stand for about 5 minutes until the milk slightly curdles. The buttermilk is now ready. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. To the buttermilk, add the egg and oil and mix with a fork, making sure the yolk is broken. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until there are just a few lumps of flour. Now add the strawberries and fold until everything just comes together. In a non-stick pan or large gridle, coat the surface with a little bit of butter. Use an ice-cream scoop (about 6 tbsp.) for each pancake. Once the top starts to bubble and the sides are slightly golden, quickly flip the pancake and cook till the other side is golden.

Garnish with some more strawberries and your favourite maple syrup or honey. Et voila!

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       Previous Post   Tamarind Fried Rice

I’ve already made it clear why I love fried rice so much before, so if you haven’t read that you can check it out here (and be marveled by my hilariously simple photography). But I want to add another point to that: it’s like a fridge mystery box challenge and you get to use whatever leftovers you have inn your fridge. As a part time food blogger, I get to make a variety of dishes and for that reason I never make anything in bulk. The advantage is that I can make many things at a time in smaller batches. But it also means that I haven’t fully used the ingredients/ produce I bought them for. That small piece of cabbage, that packet of basil that’ll go bad soon, some leftover eggs I bought for baking; what about all it? I have to use it up somewhere! I need to clear out my fridge for a new batch of leftovers!

Last night's rice is today's breakfast. Delicious!

That’s where the fried rice comes in. It’s a great backup because I know I’ll always find a way to adjust the leftover ingredients into it. So technically it’s a mystery box with a known outcome, which is not the point of the challenge, but anyways. When I made fried rice this time, I didn’t have any eggs but I did have some leftover cabbage and basil. However, to avoid making the same dish again with different vegetables, I decided to change the fried rice flavouring by using some tamarind instead of complete soy sauce, which did give it an interesting tanginess. I also made this version a bit more spicy by using some Tabasco sauce. So there: my new take on fried rice!

King (/ Queen) of Leftovers

Serves one:

• 1/2 cup rice (alternatively, I encourage you to use leftover rice, since it won’t have any moisture)
• 1 tbsp. ghee
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• Some grated ginger
• 1/2 cup shredded cabbage
• A little less than half cup each chopped carrots and red bell peppers
• 2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tbsp. tamarind paste
• Tabasco sauce
• Oil
• Salt
• Basil leaves, for garnish

In a pot with boiling water, add ghee and salt and boil the rice till its just cooked (or just used leftover cooked rice). In a separate pan, heat some oil. Add the chopped garlic and ginger and cook until the garlic starts to take on a little bit of colour. Add the carrots and cook, followed by the cabbage and red peppers after about two minutes. Season with salt, soy sauce and tamarind paste. Add some water if the sauce becomes too thick. Add in the cooked rice and fold in all the vegetables. Adjust any seasoning, if required. Add a little bit of Tabasco to your taste and mix. Finally, garnish with some chopped basil leaves. Cover with a lid and allow to steam for about 5 minutes before serving hot!

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       Previous Post   Panzanella Salad

The picture for this recipe is even more stale than the bread you’ll need to use for it (though we’ll get to the stale bread part in a second). I actually made this out of the crusty rolls I had remaining after I made curried tomatoes but I completely put off posting the actual recipe.

The good thing about bread is that you can always find a way to use its leftovers. Day old baguette? Make some bruschetta's! Not sure of what to do with the bread from the grocery store? Turn it into breadcrumbs for meatballs or make some bread pudding and the list goes on. Now Panzanella is an Italian salad that will be of some good use in situations like these! As the salad sits over time, the bread soaks up more and more of that delicious vinaigrette its dressed with and changes texture so you have crunchy onions, lettuce, tomatoes with crunchy bread which slowly morphs into crunchy and moist. Exactly the reason why Panzanella is one of those novelties that you eat when you have lots of time to spare, because you actually get to notice these changes.

Stale bread or just dried-out bread?

A lot of recipes will actually call for stale bread because its most likely you’re making this salad in the first place to get rid of leftover bread. In theory, the recipe requisite is stale bread so that its dryness can be used to soak up the dressing. But then would you actually need stale bread? Chances are that stale bread gets fungus really quickly depending on the humidity and temperature of where you live so there’s no guarantee that you’ll actually end up using all the bread.

So instead of “waiting” to have stale bread or risking it going bad, you can just broil some fresh bread in your oven or microwave. Ultimately, you just want bread that doesn’t have any moisture so broiling it does get the job done!

The veggies.

I don’t like to limit myself to the vegetables I’m going to put in here. You could honestly use anything that could be eaten raw: lettuce, red onions, cucumbers, olives, capers, tomatoes or literally anything else you’ll find in your fridge; the sky is the limit!

Classic Italian.

Bread:

Chop up whatever bread you’d like into bite sized cubes. Spread the cubes onto a sheet pan and broil in the oven at about 180C until toasted.

Vegetables (I used):

• Onions (thinly sliced)
• Tomatoes (diced into triangles and salted, to extract the moisture for even better taste)
• Cucumbers (peeled and diced)

Dressing:

• 5-6 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp. mustard
• Superfine sugar (if required)
• Salt
• Pepper

In a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper (and sugar, if required). Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking constantly. To ensure a smooth emulsion, make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Pour the dressing over the prepared vegetables. Add the broiled bread and mix.

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       Previous Post   Booze-free Sangria

So one of my main goals for 2023 was to delve deeper into the drinks side of cuisines. Of course, I’m not aiming to turn this blog into the Bible of baristas or something but I do want to put substantial amount of time exploring about drinks. I don’t want to use the word research here because that makes me sound like an alchemist trying to poison someone, not something I can casually do some afternoon.

A drink to enjoy cooking?

I recently saw Florence Pugh cook garlic crostini’s on YouTube and she actually made a dry martini just so that she could drink it while making the dish. While I found that really hilarious at first, I realised that it was more about enjoying the experience of making the simplest of foods, which in her case was drinking vodka. It did spark an idea for a new series on this blog, where, in addition to the planned dish, I also shared a recipe for an easy drink that you could make beforehand to drink while you were making the dish. Let me know what you think of that heehee. (2 year later spoiler: No one did)

Sangria.

Sangria! It’s actually a drink I came across on Instagram and it couldn’t have been more fun to make. Sangria, in simple terms is like a red wine slushie, where you freeze red wine with some fruit juice and orange liqueur overnight and blitz it in a blender the next day to get this thick, divine, boozy drink. Huh. Fancy way of naming an upgraded kids' delight. Now, you know me, all ‘bout making things so that they can be eaten/ drunk by everyone (and harder for myself), so I decided to make a booze-free version of sangria.

I know, and so did my friend point this out: it’s completely ridiculous. It wouldn’t be called sangria, if it didn’t have red wine in it! It’s like calling something a chicken-free chicken burger, which I totally understand. My answer to that though?

“Oh well. I’m going to do it anyways.”

Instead of using red wine, I’m going to be using some concentrated pomegranate juice with soda, along with some tart orange juice to mimic the flavors. And, just before blitzing it, I thought of adding some frozen strawberries and lemon zest for some more depth. The rest of the procedure remains unchanged!

Sangria, but no booze.

Makes about 3 servings:

• 1 1/4 cup pomegranate/grape juice
• 1 cup club soda
• 3 oranges
• 1 lemon
• 2-3 strawberries + more for garnish
• Basil

In a deep loaf pan (or deep-set tray) pour and mix the juice of you choice with soda and juice of 3 oranges. Cover with cling-film and freeze overnight.

Scrape the frozen mixture with a fork and transfer the shavings to a food processor. Add some finely chopped strawberries and zest and juice of a lemon. Blitz in short spurts to get the consistency of a smooth slushy.

Garnish with more strawberries and basil leaves (drink straight away).

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       Previous Post   Muhammara

For the Christmas holidays, I had a plethora of food ideas that I wanted to do back in my kitchen; Muhammara is one of those dishes that I have never tried before, but its simplicity and track record from where it came from made it to the top of my to-do list (which I seriously need to get going with). If you didn’t understand the whole track record reference, its because it comes from the Mediterranean and I have had great experiences with cooking Mediterranean food; we just naturally get along really well, just as much I fail at making French food so bad that it doesn’t make it to the website (oops!).

Whenever I picture Mediterranean food in my mind, I always imagine a zesty, summery scene with an outdoor table (loaded with food, obviously) outside an architectural masterpiece overlooking a royal blue sea. And of course there’ll be an olive vine and a citrus orchard just around the corner. I could go on and on. I’m basically trying to explain the vibe you’ll get after eating Muhammara!

So what is Muhammara?

Great question! It’s basically a spicy dip that’s made from red peppers, walnuts, bread crumbs, pomegranate, chili powder, roasted garlic, freshly squeezed lemon juice all blended into a smooth paste to befriend some chips, bread, lavash and more. I can already picture the Mediterranean folk gathered around that table, what about you?

You essentially roast the red peppers to impart that charred, smoky flavour and blend it with walnuts and breadcrumbs for some body, pomegranate molasses for sweetness, olive oil and roasted garlic (who doesn’t love that combination?) and chili powder and lemon juice for that extra pop in your mouth! It’ll always be a great party hit because even if you make it last-minute as an after thought, it won’t taste like it and such is the taste of Muhammara!

Muhammara:

• 2 red bell peppers
• 8-10 walnuts (or almonds)
• 1 slice of brown bread (blitz to make breadcrumbs)
• 3-4 large cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. pomegranate molasses
• 2 tsp. chili powder
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt

Roast the bell peppers on an open flame until charred all around. Remove the blackened skin with your fingers and roughly chop. Roughly chop the walnuts or almonds. Roast the garlic cloves in some of the measured olive oil in a pan and set aside (along with the garlicy oil). Blend all of the ingredients, except for the lemon juice and salt in a food processor until smooth. Season with salt and lemon juice to taste.

 This dish reminded me (once again) why I love to cook so much. It doesn’t have to be complicated with a million of ingredients whose names you can’t even pronounce and doesn’t have to be so time consuming that you agonize to see 3 hours of work vanish in 3 minutes. You can make a lot with minimal ingredients and still create an epicure-worthy dish. Burmese style spinach (suited to what was available in my pantry, of course) is a great side dish that you can have up your sleeve. It uses fundamental ingredients, and the best of all, it develops flavour like nobody else’s business in less than 15 minutes and I mean it.

If you read the recipe you may notice that this isn’t something novel, but rather a different way of preparing spinach. It is tender, yet ever so slightly crunchy, drenched with an umami sauce starring crispy ginger, garlic and fish sauce (which I substituted below), and with the addition of shrimp floss, you can turn this into an authentic experience from Burma.

Side dish spotlight

Serves one:

• 3-4 cups of rinsed spinach leaf (keep the tender stems, chop off the woody ones)
• 2-3 tbsp. sesame oil
• 6-7 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. chili flakes
• Water
• Salt
• Pepper

Blanch the spinach in boiling water for about 1 minute until the stems are just cooked. Shock with cold water and dry. Finely chop the ginger and garlic. Heat some sesame oil in a pan. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté on a low flame until golden brown. Add the soy sauce and brown sugar, thinning with water if needed. After about a minute, add the chili flakes and season with salt and pepper. Allow to reduce slightly on a low flame for about a minute before removing from the heat. Season the blanched spinach with salt and pepper. Spoon the sauce over the spinach.

I have well over 50 posts on my blog but this is probably the first time I have been challenged in quite a culinary way, by figuring out something entirely on my own. Flashback to a few weeks ago: my friend had this tangy tomato stew for lunch that I immediately liked on the first bite. The problem was that they didn’t know the recipe so I basically had to taste it again a week later to make out the probable ingredients that went into it. The most obvious ones along with tomatoes were onions and cilantro but apart from that it was basically a game of wordle with the coloured squares being the taste. Strangely enough, one of the main things that I could correctly guess (which is mainly why I liked the stew so much in the first place) was rajma (kidney bean) masala from Everest (a brand monopoly in India) because it’s the seasoning used whenever I make black bean tacos (do you want a recipe for that?).

One of the things curried tomatoes or tomato stews remind me of is Shakshuka because it is essentially tomato stew with wells that house soft cooked eggs with runny yolks. So I realized I could pair my guess game stew with crusty bread to mimic a Mediterranean breakfast experience, where you tear some bread to dip into the pan of stew! These crusty rolls are no work at all and you can rest the dough overnight so that it’ll be ready to burn your fingers out of the oven within an hour in the morning. This is a great life skills lesson if you’re an only child since you have to share the stew out of the same pan with others and a great way to make amends with your friends after a fight!

The Shakshuka experience, minus the egg

Curried tomato:

• 2 cups peeled and roughly chopped red tomatoes
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
• 1-2 tsp. sugar (if the tomatoes are too sour)
• Salt
• 2 tsp. Everest Rajma Masala
• 2 tsp. red chili powder
• Cilantro 

In a pan, heat the olive oil and fry the cumin seeds on a low heat until crispy. Add the onions before the cumin burns and cook until pink to translucent. Add the turmeric powder and mix, followed by the chopped tomatoes (including the tomato water left on the board!). Add salt to taste (and sugar, if needed) and cover with a lid for about 5-7 minutes. Add the rajma masala and chili powder and combine. If the tomato has not broken down, you may use a masher to break the large pieces and if the stew is too thick, add a few tablespoons of water. Garnish with some chopped cilantro and remove from heat.

Crusty rolls (makes 8):

• 2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 1 1/4 cups cool water

Combine the dry ingredients before adding the water. Stir until there are no lumps of flour. Cover the bowl with clingwrap and let it sit on the countertop for 8-10 hours or overnight. Once the dough has rested, place it on a floured board, sprinkle with flour and turn a few times with a bench scraper. Divide the dough into 8. Shape each part into a bun and place on a parchment lined sheet pan. Let the buns rest for about half an hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 232 degrees Celsius. Bake the buns for about 20 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool.

Fall’s peaking around the corner and so these are some of the last few weeks to savour on a few summer drinks. In terms of what this drink is, it is totally one fit for summer: something you’d want to chug on an afternoon after work. But it terms of flavour, its an intersection of summer and fall: it’s packed with pumpkin and spice with teasing hints of coffee, playing on the experience you’d want to expect from a pumpkin pie on a Thanksgiving supper table.

Ingredients to use, and not use.

Before I actually conclude this introduction, I do have a few preferences of what type of ingredients you should be using to get the closest results to the actual drink. I highly recommend using pumpkin puree from the can rather than steaming pumpkin at home. This drastically saves your time spent in chopping, steaming, cooling, blending and straining the pumpkin. Plus, it’ll also give you a more smoother result, combined with a stronger pumpkin taste as opposed to bland, unstrained fibers of pumpkin. And lastly, do not skip out on the spices! They are a pivotal part contributing to the taste of fall and bring out some festivity in the drink, kind of like a preparation for the days to come. In the mean time…here’s my recreation of the spiced pumpkin latte from Starbucks!

Fall's calling.

Spiced Pumpkin Latte:

• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• A pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg and dried ginger powder*
• 4 tbsp. cold brew of your choice
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tbsp. maple syrup

In a small pot, combine the pumpkin puree, brown sugar and spices and cook on a low flame until the sugar has dissolved. Once cool, add the pumpkin mixture along with all other ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. Top off with whipped cream and more spices or chug straight away! 

So I’m assuming you’re tired of doing the dishes or you haven’t found a good podcast yet to keep you entertained while doing them. Or you have some leftover chicken at hand and are figuring how to use it. Either case, you’re at the right place! To those of you who like doing dishes (huh!?) and are grabbing your keys to buy chicken to end up with a leftover breast, WAIT. You can prep each ingredient in a different bowl and you don’t need leftovers. But you can still go buy some chicken if you don’t have any, so I’m sorry to have stopped you. To the ones who’ve stayed, I hope you aren’t scared of using a pressure cooker because that’s what this recipe calls for (or that’s what I decided for the recipe to call for).

Coming to the point: this recipe totally qualifies for a “one pot wonder”. There’s minimal mise en place, it has ingredients you probably already have at home and the reduced time does not compensate for flavour. Now you can have more time to play cards or whatever you’d like to do on a relaxed evening!

Tired of doing the dishes?

Chicken rice:

• 150g chicken breast
• 150g basmati rice

• 1 small onion
• 1 small tomato
• A small bunch each of coriander and mint
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 3 green chilies
• 3-4 tbsp. thick curd
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. coriander powder
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• Salt, to taste
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tbsp. ghee

Thoroughly wash the rice and soak for about 30 minutes in cool water. Cut the chicken into 2 inch medallions. Thinly slice the onion and dice the tomato, half the chilies and chop the herbs. Add the garlic and ginger to a food processor and blitz to make a paste. Add the onions, tomato, chilies herbs, ginger-garlic paste, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt and lemon juice to the curd. Pour the marinade over the chicken and allow to rest for about half an hour. After 30 minutes heat some ghee in the pressure cooker and add the marinated chicken. Cook for about 5 minutes. Drain the rice and add it to the pressure cooker. Add about 1-2 cups of water and stir. Put the lid on the pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before opening the lid. Mix well before serving. 

When I am welcomed by uninvited cravings, it becomes hard to get rid of them. It’s like I desperately want to eat but I don’t want to spend time actually cooking or baking because that would then mean scrolling through tantalizing recipes. And I wouldn’t even want to buy it off a shelf because part of me does want to make it myself. So here I am, having found a solution to these problems for times when I’d like something sweet like peanut butter bars! I did not have to look through recipes and this was a no-bake, so I was able to treat myself in a jiffy. The base is just crushed graham crackers (which you are welcome to substitute with digestive biscuits) mixed with butter, sugar and peanut butter. The top is just some chocolate ganache swirled with more peanut butter. About an hour in the fridge later, welcome to an hour in the gym :)

For the uninvited cravings...

Makes 9 peanut butter bars:

• 1 1/4 cup crushed graham crackers (or digestive biscuits)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp. peanut butter
• 100g butter
• 70g dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup cream
• 3 tbsp. peanut butter

Line a 6 x 6 pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, melt the butter and whisk in 3 tablespoons of peanut butter. Add the sugar and crushed crackers and combine thoroughly. Evenly spread the mixture on the bottom of the prepared pan and press down to form an even layer. On a low heat, cook the cream to a simmer. Add the chopped chocolate and stir until all the chocolate is combined. Allow the ganache to cool slightly. Meanwhile melt some more peanut butter in the microwave for about 30-40 seconds. Pour the cooled ganache over the biscuit base and add dollops of melted peanut butter. Swirl with a toothpick and allow to set in the fridge for about an hour. Remove from the parchment and cut into 9 pieces.

I love making pasta. It comes in different shapes and sizes, you can make fresh pasta from scratch or used dried pasta, make varying types of sauces depending on what pasta shape you choose, make ravioli, serve it solo or as an accompaniment in chicken picatta or chicken parmesan and the tales of pasta go on. Today, I’m revisiting the classic pesto. Pesto is an herby sauce made of basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, salt, cheese and olive oil. This has been so extensively used as a pasta sauce that some people practically associate it with pasta or even assume it to be a type of pasta. But you can also use pesto is used in breads, buns, paninis and lots of other savoury applications (and hey, did you know that includes pasta!).

Typically, you would simply blend the aforementioned ingredients together, thin the sauce with pasta water and toss in some spaghetti. There are, however a few ways to bring the best out of pesto to create a more memorable meal experience. Firstly, you can start by blanching the basil leaves. This will help prevent oxidation and will keep your pesto bright green. Next, toast the nuts and garlic! I cannot emphasize on how much of a difference this makes! Not only will you get a warm nutty flavour but you are also able to transform the raw garlic taste into a sweet, roasted one. And lastly, manage your timing! This might sound risible but you do not want your pesto sitting for too long waiting for the pasta to cook. Nor do you want it the other way round till the pasta becomes overcooked and mushy. An exemplary situation would be: Making the pesto while the pasta cooks, adding some pesto to a pan, thining it out with pasta water and adding slightly undercooked spaghetti to get an al dente result. And of course, the extra cheese.

Under normal circumstances, I would have made basil pesto but Cook’s Country had a July cooks’ challenge asking bloggers to make their version of pesto di prezzemolo (parsley pesto). While their recipe (in the picture) calls for walnuts instead of pine nuts and anchovies for added flavour (which tastes divine!) I modified my recipe here to something I would have done with ingredients I usually have at home.

Parsley Pesto

Pesto (makes about half cup):

• 1 cup parsley
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup cashews
• 1/2 a lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Parmesan cheese

Blanch the parsley in boiling water for about 10 seconds and shock in an ice-bath. Pat dry. In a pan, toast the cashews until slightly golden. In the same pan, roast the garlic until golden brown in some olive oil. Add the dry parsley, cashews, garlic, lemon juice and some grated cheese to a food processor. Blitz until there are no bits of parsley leaves. Add the olive oil and blend.

To finish:

• Slightly under cooked spaghetti (or any other pasta)
• Reserved pasta water
• Parmesan cheese

Spoon some pesto into a pan on a medium flame. Add a little pasta water and cooked spaghetti. Cook until al dente. You may thin out the sauce by adding more pasta water. Finish with grated parmesan cheese.

Basbousa is a cake all the way from Egypt. It has a slightly granular mouthfeel as compared to normal cakes since it is made from fine semolina flour. Once cooled, a simple syrup is poured over it. The cake imbibes the simple syrup to become a moist, soft and spongy cake. So what gave me the opportunity to do this? Gulab jamun! I had a lot of the gulab jamun syrup lying around in the kitchen and I wanted to repurpose it in some way. If you're an Indian, you can probably relate. Initially this was going to be a solo cake but it ended up expanding to a plated dessert. To enunciate on the richness of the cake from the syrup, I went with dark chocolate ganache; specifically dark chocolate since its 70 percent or more cocoa prevents you from gagging from all the sweetness by lingering with some bitter back notes (and I’ll also take some of its heart benefits, please). For some relief to the palette, I decided to plate some sliced pineapple for some toned sweetness and acidity and garnished with some slivered almonds for some crunch.

Egyptian semolina cake

Basbousa cake:

• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 cup yoghurt, whisked
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg

Simple syrup:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• A few strands of saffron

Combine the sugar, water and saffron in a pot. Bring to a gentle boil for about 5 minutes. Allow to cook completely. Soak the syrup into the cooled cake using a pastry brush.

Chocolate ganache:

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 65g dark chocolate

In a saucepan, bring the cream to a slight simmer on a medium heat. Add and melt the chocolate, reducing the heat to a low. Remove from heat once combined.

Plating:

• Slivered almonds
• Pineapple slices

Place cubes of the basbousa cake on a plate. Pipe the chocolate ganache and garnish with pineapple slices and slivered almonds.

I have always thought of sago to be unfit for desserts, having eaten it only in savoury meals all my life. I always imagined sago-themed desserts would be a starchy mess with that “packaged” smell and taste. Here was a chance to prove me wrong, ready-made! I happened to have coconut milk and basil leaves, both of which happen to go extremely well with each other.

Once the sago was soaked, I cooked it in some coconut milk, flavoured with basil leaves and sugar. Unlike most puddings, this one does not need any corn flour, since the starch from the sago pearls is already enough to do so. The pudding needed to be cooled only for about 15 minutes, before being garnished with some mango cubes and mango jelly. The sago gives an extremely interesting mouthfeel while the basil and mango help to accentuate some natural sweetness.

Coconut, sago, mango.

Makes 4 servings:

• 1/2 cup sago
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Basil leaves
• Mango cubes
• Mango jelly

Soak the sago in cool water for about 30 minutes. Combine the coconut milk, whole milk and basil leaves and cook on a medium flame for about 5-7 minutes. Add the soaked sago and cook on a low flame until the sago is soft and completely cooked. Remove the basil leaves and divide the pudding into 4 ramekins. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes. Garnish with mango cubes and jelly.

In India, there is a concept of a liquid dessert made of whole milk, called kheer. It’s made by boiling milk with rice, tapioca, vermicelli or other grains, sweetening it with sugar and flavouring it with rose, cardamom, dry fruits and so on. When you travel to South India, the name morphs to “payasam” but the dish remains the same. Just as certain staples have different versions throughout their country, each with their own signature local ingredient, Elaneer (tender coconut) payasam is a delicacy from Tamil Nadu. There’s no better (and easier) way to use all parts of an already versatile and resourceful fruit as a coconut; you wouldn’t even need bowls for you can serve in half of one!

Tender coconut payasam

Elaneer payasam:

• 1/2 litre milk
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 cup + 1/4 cup tender coconut flesh
• 1 cup tender coconut water (make sure it's not sour)

Heat the milk on a medium flame till it reaches a boil. Add the cardamom and sugar and stir. Allow to completely cool. Puree 1 cup of coconut flesh with coconut water and finely chop the remaining coconut flesh. Add to the cooled milk. Serve cold.