Month: July 2020

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The Smell of Melting Butter

The smell of melting butter is just fantastic. And if you’ve been running a little harried, being forced to just stand still and watch the butter melting for a few minutes is rather lovely. (Somehow, the last few days have been particularly hectic, working often for 12-14 hours straight, with most of it requiring my brain, which is tiring.)

Made a jaggery brown butter glaze for the banana bread scones, glazed them, then froze them for the September Patreon treat boxes. They’re so tasty — I really love these; hope the recipients do too.

I realized this morning that I kind of want feedback on those treat boxes — if you got one and feel like sharing, would love to hear what you liked, what didn’t work, etc. Constructive criticism is good! I want recipients to be utterly delighted with their boxes, and I’m still new enough at this that it’s definitely a learning experience for me.

And the June box was definitely a challenge, since I was so fretful about things melting — it meant I didn’t feel like I could rely on marshmallows and chocolates the way I could in March.

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Y’know, Delicious

Heh. Couldn’t find my mini scone pan, and with close to a quadruple batch, would’ve spent forever baking if I’d used it anyway, so I just went for tray bakes. I’ve seen triangular scones and round scones — not sure I’ve ever seen rectangular scones? And I think I overworked it slightly (or Kevin did), as the consistency is kind of halfway between scone and cake. But, y’know, delicious. 

Will let these cool, then make a jaggery & brown butter glaze. Some of them are going out in a birthday present treat box tomorrow; the rest will be frozen and set aside for the September Patreon treat boxes. If I don’t want to be frenzied when it’s time to send those out, it seems like it makes sense to make and freeze as much as I can in advance.

I think I want to make some kind of lime & coconut bar next, probably drizzled with white chocolate. Coconut in the crust sounds tasty.

Recipe for the scones here: http://serendibkitchen.com/…/banana-scones-with-cranberry-…/

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Eat the Darn Bananas

That feeling when your arm gets too tired stirring a triple batch of banana scones (with cranberry and ginger), and you have to call your husband to finish stirring them, and you realize that no, you would never survive the Great British Bake-Off. 

I am going to try to remember not to attempt this again. We just had SO MANY black bananas in the freezer.

Children, eat the darn bananas before they get overripe. Okay? Okay.

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How to Make Coconut Sambol

This week’s cooking video — coconut sambol, which is just a great accompaniment. Sharp and tangy and spicy, yum. I think I’m going to have some on a grilled chicken sandwich later today.

I forgot to mention in the video, it freezes well too, so if you make more than you’ll eat in a week, I’d freeze half. That’s what I did! Then it’s easy to pull out when you’re in the cooking doldrums, to add some zest to your meals.

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Friday’s Cookie-Baking

The Totoro roller is delightful, although I admit, I sort of feel a little goofy now, as I’m not sure how much I’m going to use it. I think I threw it in because the store was having a buy 3 get 1 free sale. I kind of want to send it walking around the neighborhood — anyone local want a Totoro rolling pin that they’ll pass on eventually?

My embossed spiced cookie recipe is here; I skipped the cayenne for this batch, since Anand doesn’t like heat in his cookies:

http://serendibkitchen.com/…/embossed-spiced-chocolate…/

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I Could Do This All Day

Taught Kavi how to make marshmallows today. (Video in a week or two.) She said she really likes cutting marshmallows and finds it very peaceful — “I could have a shop where I did this all the time!”

Of course, cutting one tray of marshmallows isn’t exactly the same as spending all day doing it every day. 🙂

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Feels Indulgent

Beef curry really is one of my staples; when I was learning to cook, I probably cooked it once every two weeks, and ate it for 3-4 days straight. These days, it’s very lovely to have with an egg hopper and some tempered potatoes. Feels indulgent. 

(Also was so much food that I ended up saving half of my breakfast for lunch…)

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How to Make Chicken Liver Curry

Okay, I admit, no one came clamoring to me and demanded that I make a video on how to cook chicken liver curry. My daughter refused to even taste it. But I love it so, so much, I actually crave it sometimes, esp. when I’m feeling depleted. Chicken liver curry is a) cheap, b) nutritious, and c) delicious. So here you go!