with Mary Anne Mohanraj
A nice decorating alternative to dipping in chocolate is painting with luster dust (keep a tiny brush dedicated for cooking) mixed with a bit of vodka. The vodka won’t add any flavor, but will help the dust adhere. This is quick and fun and festive!
This was a GREAT sandwich — if Roshani Anandappa and I ever open up that little Sri Lankan cafe, I’m going to argue for this being on the menu. Steak sandwich with brinjal moju (eggplant pickle). Yumyum. Maybe served with a little kale sambol on the side.
Hmm…maybe when we do the cookbook re-launch (planned for our book birthday month of March) and we can hopefully gather again, I can partner with Carnivore Oak Park to offer this as a special for a week.
And Amanda Daly, maybe we rent the Daly Bagel for a little pop-up event in the evening once spring rolls around…I had some brinjal moju yesterday on an everything bagel, and it was super-yum.
Can you tell I’m cleaning out my phone? 
An uppuma photo from last week that I forgot to post. Now I want uppuma again. It was pretty funny listening to the latest episode of Home Cooking, and hearing Samin Nosrat learn about uppuma. I think of her as such a professional, I figure she knows basically everything about food, but she’d never heard of uppuma, and I just felt so sad for her.
This is very very basic uppuma, the kind I make when I’m in a rush — five minutes from start to finish, and just water, cream o’ wheat (semolina), butter and salt for ingredients. I lived on this stuff in grad school, generally with mackerel and egg curry. Very cheap, incredibly delicious.
If you have a few extra minutes to make it more fancy / nutritious, you’d start with melting the butter (or ghee, or just using oil), sautéing some cashews and peas and mustard seeds in there, maybe some curry leaves and chopped green chili, etc. and so on — but honestly, I love it just like this.
When I’m in production baking mode, I often enlist Kevin to help out, but I have to be a little careful with instructions. He’s a great cook, but the last time I had him make cookie dough for me, he used vanilla extract instead of beans.
And quality vanilla extract is great, I use it a lot for baking, but there’s something about using the actual beans that just produces a better cookie, I think. I’m not enough of a food expert to tell you why, though!
I scolded him; he won’t do that again.
(I get both my extract and beans from Penzey’s. Pricey, but SO good.)
Dark chocolate-dipped cardamom, rose & vanilla shortbread (see previous post for recipe). I think I love the gold leaf + dried rose petal decorations the best; they feel very desi to me.
But the gold polka dots are also cute on a sweater, and the white hearts, and the tiny pink dots make me think of cute little kids, so okay, I like them all. Luckily, I don’t have to pick.
Dipping and decorating some of the cardamom, rose & vanilla shortbread from the weekend (for the Patreon treat boxes). Honestly, I think I like these cookies best plain myself, but it’s fun to play with decorating, and rarely does anyone complain about a little more chocolate.
Also, the embossing rollers are pretty hard to use completely evenly, so if there are some cookies that didn’t come out quite perfect, a little chocolate covers a multitude of sins.
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(45 minutes + optional 15 minutes chilling time)
Gorgeously aromatic, these warm flavors make for a perfect chai companion.
Ingredients:
dried rose petals and edible gold flakes for decorating, optional
1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar; add the vanilla, rose, salt, and cardamom. Then add flour and mix on low until dough forms.
3. Turn out dough onto floured board and shape into a firm ball. (If it’s not coming together into a dough, the heat of your hands will help.) NOTE: Can be kept chilled at this point for several days, covered in plastic wrap, and then rolled, cut, and baked fresh.
4. Firmly pat flat and roll smooth (to desired cookie height, usually about 1/2 inch). If using embossed pattern rollers, roll carefully now. If using cookie cutters, cut out shapes, place on parchment-covered baking sheet, and chill for 15 minutes (to help hold shape).
Alternately, press into baking pan or shortbread mold, prick with fork. You can also cut shapes out after baking — shortbread is very forgiving that way — but then the individual cookie edges won’t be browned.
5. Remove from fridge and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the edges begin to brown, then remove to wire rack to cool. Delicious with chai!
6. Optional: Melt chocolate chips in double boiler or glass bowl in microwave at half power. Dip cookies, place on parchment paper, decorate, let dry.
NOTE: Can be stored frozen for two months, or will keep fresh for a few weeks.
I might’ve had some melted dark high-end chocolate left over after dipping cookies, and I might’ve drizzled it over my waffle and bacon, and if this is wrong, I don’t want to be right. I don’t normally like sweet breakfasts, but for this, I’ll make an exception.
Quick Patreon note that I’ve added a few slots and some new treat box tiers (and renamed one of them), because we’d sold out (a nice problem to have).
For ease all around, note that if you add or upgrade a tier by November 30th, we’ll send you a December box. (This is a pretty darn good deal — consider it a major holiday sale).
The December treat box has a dragons knitting theme (I don’t know if we’ll always have themes, but this was fun), and I’m including below a tentative list of what I’m planning to include at each level.
Thanks again for all your support! The treat box sales help a lot with paying my part-time staff, which is what’s making it possible for me to put out Vegan Serendib (which is coming along nicely), along with everything else I’m writing.
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Earth ($10 / month (so $30 / quarterly box), fits in a small priority mail box)
(limited: 6 of 30 remaining)
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– handmade bookmark
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Milky Way ($20 / month (so $60 / quarterly box), fits in a medium priority mail box):
– a homemade tea towel (your choice of 5 options)
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– a soft jersey dragonlight infinity scarf
Sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/mohanraj
Kavi says these cookies are even yummier than the usual cookies, and I have to say, after pressing out the dough, my hands smell incredible. Cardamom, rose & vanilla shortbread. Recipe and more photos tomorrow.
