Hasselback Potatoes

I was amazed by the Hasselback potatoes every since I first saw it. Initially I though it would take some fancy knifework or some exotic equipment to get a potato to look this pretty. After a little reading up, I realized how wrong I was. Once, I figured out how easy it was, I decided to try it out. I think I can eat potatoes in almost any form – baked, roasted, boiled or fried. I have yet to meet a potato I didn’t love. What made this different was the slices of garlic between the slices of potato. Everything about this was just right. I am quite eager to make these for the next dinner party I throw. I know it will look stunning on the table.

Hasselback Potatoes

1 potato per person being served
A few cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
Salt, to taste
Crushed black pepper, to taste
Some butter, a small knob for each potato
Olive oil, to drizzle over the potatoes
Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
Wash the potatoes well and scrub them.
With the skin on, place the potato on a cutting board, with the flat side down and cut into slices almost all the way, but not seperating the slices from the base of the potato. You are basically making slits without cutting the slices through.
Place a slice of garlic in each gap between the slits of the potato. 
Arrange the potatoes in a baking dish. Place a small knob of butter on each potato and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes are crisp on the outside and the flesh is soft and fluffy on the inside. 
If you want, you can place a small knob of butter when you get it out of the oven. Serve immediately.
The next time, I’m going to sprinkle some chives over the potatoes midway through baking.
This recipe is linked to –
Savory Sunday
Mouthwatering Mondays
My Meatless Mondays
Mangia Mondays

Bananas Foster with a twist

Ever since I was a little girl, bananas have been my favorite fruit. I absolutely love them. As a kid, my mum would sometimes make stewed bananas or banana fritters for us once in a while, which I absolutely loved. Besides that, we only ate it straight or in a fruit salad or with jelly. When I took up my first job at Standard Chartered Bank, I used to work with this girl Deepti; I wonder what shes upto these days? but she had once brought a bar of banana cake to work. With the first delicious bite, I was smitten. I used to search high and low in every cake shop for this cake, but never found it. Later in life, when I started baking, with a little research I started making my own and was very pleased with myself. A few months ago, I made some banana bread, a slightly healthier version than regular cake, and had great results with it. Pleased with what I had made in the past, I had no idea about what I was missing out on till yesterday. What happened yesterday? I decided to try making some Bananas Foster and, I was thrilled to pieces with this treat.

I know a lot of you are thinking, this is such a simple thing to put together, no biggie, whats she raving about? I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes, the simplest things are the tastiest, and I never miss a chance to appreciate these simple wonders. Bananas Foster has got to be one of the simplest desserts I’ve come across. I don’t know why I’ve never tried it before, but I sure am glad to have this in my arsenal. I did a little searching on the web, and ultimately I had a rough idea what this dish was about. I just winged the rest of it and it worked out fine. I had a couple of plantains (I love plantains, probably a little more than the regular bananas) that were a little past their prime. This was what got me searching for ways to use them up. I cut them in half lenghtwise, and across, which got me 4 pieces per plantain. It took me about 5 minutes to stew them up and I served these up with some chocolate ice cream. That’s it; easy peasy! 
I know most folks serve it up with vanilla ice cream, but chocolate is all I had and it went really well the stewed plantains. I love the play of warm plaintains and the cold ice cream, with just a hint of rum and cinnamon from the sauce coming through. There is such an explosion of flavor in every single bite. I know for a fact I’m going to make this more than once in a while. I hope you try this out, if you haven’t already. You’ll be glad you did. 
Bananas Foster

2 plantains/ bananas, peeled and cut in half lengthwise and across (4 pieces per plantain)
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup dark rum
Chocolate ice cream 
Gently warm the butter in a frying pan to melt it. As it melts, add the brown sugar and still to dissolve thoroughly.
Place the cut plantains / bananas in the sauce and let it stew for a couple of minutes on each side, till is gets a nice caramelized look. Sprinkle some cinnamon powder over it and gently flip them over. 
Carefully pour in the rum and stir it in a bit. Very carefully slightly tilt the pan so that the sauce reaches the edge of the pan and makes contact with the flame to ignite. Again, please be very careful with this step. 
Let the flame do its thing as the alcohol burns up leaving behind the most amazing flavor. The flame will go off on its own. Once that happens, if your sauce is still very fluid, let it cook off for a few minutes till it thickens to the desired consistency.
Place ice cream in bowls to serve and place the hot plantains on the ice cream. Drizzle some of the sauce from the pan over it. Serve quickly. 
Make sure you plate and serve while the plantains / bananas are still hot.
Enjoy!
This recipe is linked to – 

Sweet N Salty Cumin Cookies

There other day when I was browsing the web for some inspiration, I came across a recipe for cookies that were savory and sweet all at the same time. I remember these cookies from when I was much younger, I don’t know why these aren’t available any more. I used to love these, but somehow, strangely, even back in the day when they were available, it wasn’t easy to find them. So imagine my joy when I found a recipe for these cookies. It had my name written all over it. I made these cookies that very day and was really happy with the way they turned out. Now I have access to these cookies any time I’d like. I’m so excited with this find. The salty and sweet combination is fantastic, it’s not overpowering in any way. In the end, it still is a delicate cookie. I hope you try this. Its different compared to all the other stuff out there. If you do, let me know if you like them or not, I’d love to hear from you.

Sweet N Salty Cumin Cookies
Adapted from: Group Recipes
Yields about 36 cookies
120g butter (salted)
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp. table salt
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 egg, beaten
200g all purpose flower
1/2 tsp baking powder
Sieve the flour and baking powder and keep aside.
Cream the butter, salt and sugar till fluffy.
Add the cumin seeds and half the beaten egg and beat well. 
Add the flour and baking powder and gently mix everything together to get a smooth dough.
Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line a baking tray with some baking / parchment paper.
The original recipes suggests that you roll out the dough out till its 1/4″ thick, prick it randomly with a fork and cut into desired shapes. I simply rolled the dough into a log and cut slices and then pricked it a couple of times with a fork.
Place on the parchment lined baking tray. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. 
I noticed that if you take the cookies out of the oven too early they are less crunchy but if they are lightly browned, the crunch is so much better.
Cool completely and store in an airtight container. 
(Something I forgot to do was to use the remaining beaten egg to brush the tops of the cookies with and sprinkle a few cumin seeds over, just before baking. The cookies still turned out great.)
This recipe is linked to –
Savory Sunday