Tabouli is one of the dishes that is a definite hit or miss with me. (Is that statement an oxymoron?) I know that tabouli is a parsley-intense dish.
Though not a major fan of parsley, I am okay with it… up to a limit.
Sometimes the parsley in the tabouli sooo overwhelms everything else that it tastes of nothing else. In such cases, yeah, that polite one spoon is all that I can deal with.
But then, this friend of mine – she is from Turkey, where tabouli is a staple – made this amazing version, with cilantro instead of parsley. And boy, did it change everything! Never have I made a tabouli again with parsley.
The main difference I feel, is in the texture. Cilantro has this delicate texture whereas parsley tends to be a bit coarse. Even when you manage to avoid even the tiniest stems and use only the leaves.
Sticky Toffee pudding is an indulgent and comforting pudding on a cold winter day The warm, sweet decadent crumbs drenched in toffee sauce, topped with some cold ice cream, is a treat indeed.
The excitement turning into disappointment on Natacha’s face is the regular visual I get whenever I plan to make sticky toffee pudding. Natasha, a good friend of us, is a wonderful person who appreciates good food, especially the latter part of the meal viz. desserts, with oohs and aahs. A few years back some of us got together for dinner at a restaurant called “Blue Mango”.
It was Natasha’s birthday. As usual she scanned the dessert section as soon as she got hold of the menu and her face lit up the moment she spotted sticky toffee pudding. Many laughs were shared over the meal and soon it was time to place the order for desserts.Orders were promptly placed and were executed in a random manner. Most of us digged in as soon as we got our desserts only to realise moments later that Natasha is yet to get hers. The guy,waiting on us, realised that he forgot to mention that they ran out of sticky toffee pudding and she has to choose something else.The disappointment on her face was so intense that I had ask her over the next weekend and I made sticky toffee pudding for her,despite my busy schedule.
This time the plan to make this pudding somehow got postponed a few times.And finally when I started putting the ingredients together I realised that store people forgot to pack the Oman dates I bought. Hence one more trip to the store and on my way back home a guy on a motorbike grazed the right side my car. He was trying to squeeze through the tiny space available on the right as there was a huge bus on the left. I was in no mood to go ahead with the pudding that day. To cut the story short, I finally managed to make the pudding yesterday. Yippee.
Sticky toffee pudding is an English steamed dessert consisting of a very moist cake with lots of dates drenched in toffee sauce. This is actually a cross between a cake and a pudding and is normally served warm with custard, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, besides the toffee sauce.
According to Wikipedia it’s Francis Coulson, who with his partner set up the first country house hotel, created and served this pudding at his Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel. It looks like he got the recipe from Patricia Martin who published the recipe and served it at her hotel. Her son later told Simon Hopkinson, the food critic thst she got it from two canadian soldiers who stayed at her hotel during second world war. The canadian origin makes sense as the batter for the pudding is more similar to the American muffin rather than to an English sponge. Anyway it’s considered a modern British classic alongside the bread and butter pudding and Jam RolyPoly.
I used dates from Oman, which is one of the world’s top producers of dates. As an age old tradition Omanis plant a shoot of the date palm to celebrate the birth of a son.
I used 2 tablespoon of blackstrap molasses. Regular molasses or treacle can be used.as well. If you find the flavour of molasses too strong replace it with honey or golden syrup. I used demerara sugar for the pudding and light brown sugar for the toffee sauce. If you prefer lighter coloured sauce use white refined sugar instead of brown sugar. Calorie conscious people can sustitute double cream with single cream.
To make the pudding lighter eggs can be separated and only beat the yolks in at the beginning. The egg whites can be whipped stiff separately and fold in as the last step.
Ramekins can be used to make individual puddings. I used a 8 inch square pan as soaking of the pudding with toffee will be easier.This pudding can be made in advance, leave it at room temperatutre. Rewarm before serving.Can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks and warm again just before serving.
My personal preference is the humble vanilla ice cream 🙂
~Min
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Recipe Type: Dessert
Ingredients
For the pudding
225 gms Dates with stone
175 ml water
1 teaspoon Baking soda
175 gms All purppose flour
11/2 teaspoon Baking powder
¼ teaspoon Salt
85 gms Butter
140 gms Demerara sugar
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
2 tablespoon Molasses
For the Toffee Sauce
175 gms Light brown sugar
50 gms Butter
1 tablespoon Molasses
225 ml Double Cream
Instructions
Stone the dates and chop them into tiny pieces.
Boil the water and add the chopped dates into the boiling water along with the baking soda and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Leave it aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius. Butter and flour an eight inch square baking pan.
Sieve all purpose flour with baking powder and salt.
Beat the butter in a medium sized bowl till creamy.
Add the demarara sugar and beat well till the mixture is smooth and creamy. Scrape the sides if needed.
Now add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Vanilla extract can be added now.
Once the mixture is beaten well, add the sieved flour in small quantities and beat mixture till well blended.
Mix the cooked dates pulp and the molasses and beat well till itis uniformly distributed in the batter.
Transfer the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, checking after 20 minutes. Keep a close watch after that and remove the pudding from the oven as soon as a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.
While the pudding is in the oven,make the toffee sauce.
When done, cool the pudding on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes poke the pudding with a skewer and pour half of the warm toffee sauce all over the pudding.
Keep it aside for about 20 minutes.
Cut it into pieces and serve with some more toffee sauce and custard, whipped cream or ice cream as you wish.
To make the toffee sauce
Heat the butter and sugar till the sugar melts. Add molassess and simmer for a minute.
Add cream and simmer till it reaches the right consistency (similar to warm honey).
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Brown Rice, Sesame, Spinach and Scallion Pancakes
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
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2 tablespoons (30 grams) toasted sesame seeds or black sesame seeds
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) cooked brown rice
1 bunch scallions, sliced
6 ounces spinach leaves (baby spinach or stemmed bunch spinach)
2 ounces (1/2 cup) crumbled feta
Instructions
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and turmeric. Stir in the sesame seeds.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and whisk in the buttermilk, milk and canola oil. Quickly whisk in the flour mixture and fold in the brown rice and scallions.
Steam the spinach over 1 inch of boiling water for 2 minutes, or just until wilted. Rinse with cold water, squeeze out excess water and chop. Stir into the pancake batter, along with the feta.
Heat a griddle or a large skillet, either nonstick or seasoned cast iron, over medium-high heat. Brush with butter or oil. Use a 1/4-cup ladle or cup measure to drop 3 to 4 tablespoons of batter per pancake onto your heated pan or griddle. Cook until they are brown on the edges and bubbles break through, 3 to 4 minutes, then carefully slide a spatula underneath and flip them over. Cook on the other side until pancakes are nicely browned. Serve hot.
Yield: 16 pancakes
Advance preparation: The pancakes can be frozen for a few months and keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. Reheat in a low oven or in a microwave.
