FOOD IS NOT ONLY ABOUT THE TONGUE & TUMMY; IT ASSOCIATES US TO MEMORIES, TAKES US TO A PERIOD!
I never did like puffed rice, not even post marriage. When other Bengalis praised about and finished bowls after bowls of muri with chanachur & chop; I would have the chop or shingara alone. In the present day too, I am not fond of the favourite Bengali pairs like "muri o chanachur; muri o chop". I developed love for the "muri-chirey-khoi-aam, muri-chirey-khoi-kathal, muri-chirey-khoi-kola, muri-narkol-gur, muri-khoi-chirer moya". These were the snacks our grandmother & mother prepared and stocked at home.
Weight watchers would not eat these, but I cannot ever stop having these. My hanging belly stagnate at one place. I am not taking pride in it, I am just unable to quit my favourite fruits, snacks. The little I could do is that I am using less amount of oil, lessened a bit the amount of carb intake. I tend to eat a plateful of rice if I get a choice of fish, mutton, vegetarian dish on the side.
Last night, I got disappointed, my yeast bread did not get fluffy, there formed no pockets and I would not call them pita. The man enjoyed, asked for more. I do not know if the son sources handmade breads from outside once in a while.
Last evening, I was watching "Dristikone", my mind was not into making some decent roti. I wasn't getting to watch it anywhere, all of a sudden I found the links for the movie in three parts. Recently, I enjoyed watching Lapata Ladies too. Heeramandi is a periodic substance, I do not have the energy to sit through.
YESTERDAY, MY BROTHER DID SEND THIS.
Bhai was excited about that watch style Punjabi button his company Nippon gifted on the Father's Day. How happy the father would have been if he got to see this, both the parents love / loved watches. Neither I, nor the man or the son wear a watch.
His photo takes me back in time, so does certain food bowls. He had extremely sharp features, his face resembles a woman younger to me. Not in my circle; she is beautiful, I am not. Yet, I do not feel jealous of her, my man says she has both spine and personality, no one can deny her physical beauty. She might not be soft spoken but she does not seem to me a tricky self. I do not like tricks played with my stupid self, the reason I mingle less, I do not even with my long time friends. What they say, what they do; why they do like that I do not get. I am only interested in my son's academic & career path, of that of the other kids around. Food remains important in my life. This entire morning I was updating few earlier blogposts, did not like one; recooked that platter quickly, luckily everything was there in my kitchen. I am truly a passionate food blogger, if only I had the technical knowledge required to make it a famous one, to take it to more of people. Last April, we travelled to the son, just three days before that I payed this tribute to the father.
Cristine takes care of him and our home when we travel. Your parents would always remain a part of your journey. I ask the son to pick up certain qualities of both his maternal & paternal grandfathers. Both the grandmothers did a lot for him too. I got my family's support bringing him up, life got mundane for us after he left home. Parties and crowd regular is not my thing, homely get-togethers I do like.
WHAT IS PINEAPPLE SEMOLINA CAKE?
Oh! I find semolina cakes incredibly tasty and easy to make. In fact, semolina is a choice ingredient to me, I make idli, cake, salty snacks with it. We like the halwa made with it, not the other gooey stuffs. The son had so much of "sujir payesh" as a toddler that he doesn't touch anymore upma or halwa made of it. He does not enjoy chirer polao, nonta suji kind of tiffins, sandwiches took them over. But the son loves paratha varieties, pulao way too much. Why am I delaying to get my version of "nonta suji" to the blog? I have to soon. Today, there is a birthday in the family, among the friend circle and then there is the Eid Celebrations. This vegan PINEAPPLE SEMOLINA CAKE suits all the celebrations. I would not buy ingredients worth 50$ to cook a dish, not for a cake at all. Also, I am repulsive towards dairy products. I had a bowl of pineapple in the refrigerator, it's paste alone was good enough as the wet ingredient. I had no compulsion to get a vegan cake, it just happened. Unfortunately, it isn't gluten-free, I wasn't willing to work too much on a Sunday morning for a gluten-free version. A cake using fruit salt suits me.
SEMOLINA : 1 COFFEE MUG
SWEET PINEAPPLE CUBE : 2 COFFEE MUG
SUGAR : 1/2 COFFEE MUG [I USED BLACK SUGAR]
OIL : 2-3 TBSP
ENO FRUIT SALT : 2 TSP
VANILLA ESSENCE : 1 TSP
PROCEDURE :
You can see this is a few ingredients cake, I enjoy doing frill free stuffs. At first I thought of baking an oil-free cake, later used a little of it.
We would take the semolina in a bowl. We would blend the pineapple to a paste. I did not use a strainer to get the extract.
We would add the pineapple paste, sugar, oil to the semolina and beat well.
We will add the vanilla essence and beat again for 2-3 minutes. We would keep it covered for half an hour.
Thereafter, we would add the Eno fruit salt and immediately stir and mix for a minute. We are to transfer the batter to a greased & flour dusted cake tin.
In my convection mode microwave oven, I inserted the low height wired stool and preheated the oven at 160*C, it is the set temperature in mine.
Thereafter, I placed the cake tin with batter atop the wired stool and baked it for 25 minutes at 160*C.
The cake is supremely moist and fluffy.
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