pear pie, farewell dinner

pear pie made with sudhir (cousin).
noodles my mom made for the farewell dinner

Filipino Brunch: Tortang Talong

Went to brunch this afternoon with Sekhar at Bistro Luneta, a Filipino place in downtown San Mateo. I ordered Tortang Talong, which is layered eggplant tempura with sauteed ground pork, scrambled eggs, banana (flavored) ketchup. It was delicious.

Chocolate Roll-Out Cookies and Nutty Wheat Bread

This post consists of two baked goods: one full of nuts and healthiness, the other full of cocoa and deliciousness.

1. "Brownie Roll-Out Cookies"

Borrowing this recipe from the great smitten kitchen blog, I embarked upon a dark chocolate journey. These cookies demand to be soaked. Milk is great, but ice cream (as in, ice cream sandwiches) are even better.

2. Whole-Wheat Bread with Sunflower & Flax Seed

This one came from a peer-rated recipes site that I like to visit. The recipe called for 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 bread flour. However, I wanted to make this whole wheat for my diabetic father.

I tried increasing the yeast to 2 teaspoons, and decreasing the overall amount of flour to 2 1/3 cups. Apparently this was not enough, since it was still rather dense and didn't taste as much of yeastiness. I'd try an entire yeast packet and 2 cups of wheat flour next time.

The too-dense batter. Looks like bread already!

Oh well. It was very nutty, as my parents like, so I'd consider this a step towards success. (Rather than a complete failure.) I would have tried to make it better, but I was packing and ready to leave for Swarthmore!

I want to try to make more bread! It's fun and rewarding. My little sister points out that it's not very cost-efficient (as it is for other baked goods), but what the hell. It's vastly more delicious than store-bought bread.

I Ain't No Challah-back Girl

Or maybe I am.

Pepper Bhajis

1. Slit the banana (or bell) peppers and soak in tamarind water to make them less spicy and give them a tamarind flavor.
2. Mix a wet dough using water and besan (chickpea) flour and dip pepper halves.
3. Then fry in oil till golden.
4. Top with onions, lemon juice, and salt. Spicy, salty, sour, deep-fried deliciousness!

Graham Crackers!

These are profoundly delicious, thanks to the molasses, cinnamon, shortening, and other goodies that go into them. It's also fun to poke holes in them with a fork before baking.

Let me know if any of you want the recipe! My recipe calls for the addition of rye flour, but I just used white & whole wheat and they turned out really well.

Bread

To distract myself from my disappointment, I made a loaf of bread! Isn't it beautiful? The photo is ostensibly for scale, but actually just gave me a chance to be really sketchy with a loaf of bread. :)

The ingredients are:

1 scant Tbsp yeast (mixed with warm water & a pinch of sugar and left to sit)
1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tsp salt (VERY important)
3/4 cup milk (or possibly water)
herbs! if you want

You have to knead it quite a bit, then let it rise and punch it down several times before baking it for 40-45 minutes at 350˚. I was also inspired to brush the top with a leeetle bit of egg white before baking, to give it that classy shine.