Clafoutis

I got some plums from the fruit shop just like that. Actually I thought Aniket my son would love them. But they turned out to be slightly sour, maybe not ripe as yet. He actually loved the big juicy plums we used to get him when we visited London last year. So I waited with patience …till they ripened. When they finally did my son Aniket dint like them all that much. I would carefully remove the seed and give him a plateful of plums…..he would eat one  then squish the rest of them into a pulpy mass of fruit sauce…..A two year old toddlers easy  messy tip  to make plum sauce ?Hump….I would go crazy….not to mention about the cleaning up……

So I decided to put my plums to good use….I had seen the recipe for Gary Rhodes Cherry Clafoutis…

Why not substitute the cherry for plums? A few minutes on the net revealed there were innumerable recipes for plum clafoutis too….So my plums went into the baking dish and the batter was ready in minutes .I then spread the batter over my sugar coated plums and send them to bake in my oven and soon I was ready with a batch of warm plum scented clafoutis…

This time Aniket changed his stance. I had put him to sleep just before I started making the clafoutis and he got up just in time to see The bowl of yummy dessert I had baked for him in such a short time….I topped up the bowl with a generous scoop of vanilla whipped cream…. he was quite pleased with the dessert….he asked for more…. I took a large spoonful of the lovely dessert loaded with the sweetness  of plums and the  richness of cream for him once again… this time un accompanied by his usual squish squash session.

So what is a clafouti?  It is a baked French dessert of black cherries arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter… quotes the Wikipedia …Well something in between a cake and custard as I would put it.  

          

      When other kinds of fruit are used instead of cherries, the dish is properly called    a flaugnarde.                                                                                                                              Variations  are red cherries, plums,prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries.  The clafoutis is dusted with powdered sugar and served lukewarm …………You can serve it with crème fraiche or even vanilla ice-cream. I served my clafouti with a big dollop of vanilla whipped cream… and I must say it was bowl full of absolute delight.

 Ingredients

 For the Clafoutis

Eggs- 2

Caster  sugar-75 gms plus extra for dusting and coating plums

Double cream or crème fraiche-100 ml

Milk-100 ml

Butter -1 tbsp plus extra for greasing

Granulated sugar-1 tbsp

Plums deseeded-15 nos

For Vanilla whipped cream

Double cream-150 ml

Castor sugar-25 gm

Vanilla essence- A little

Method

For  Clafoutis

Deseed the plums.In a non-stick pan take 1 tbsp of butter and let it melt.

When the butter bubbles add the plums and cook until the plums are softened and coated with butter for about 2 minutes.

Spread one tablespoon of granulated sugar (or more) over the plums and cook until sugar turns into a syrup and coats the plums.

Whisk the eggs and sugar. Sift in the flour and whisk well.

Stir in the milk and cream and leave to rest for 10 minutes

Butter a baking dish and sprinkle with sugar to coat. Scatter the cherries in the dish and pour the batter over it.

Preheat oven to 180C/350 F/Gas 4.Bake for 20-25 minutes till batter is firm to touch and knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. If the centre is soft bake for 5 minutes more

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

For Vanilla whipped cream

Whisk together the cream, sugar and vanilla essence to soft peaks for the vanilla whipped cream

Serve the clafoutis warm with a large dollop of vanilla whipped cream.

Corn and Capsicum Kebabs

I love anything fried…I indulge myself in tikkis and kebabs and eat 3-4 in one go….recklessly…

I am always in search of new recipes for kebabs/tikkis and make sure I make them if I find one….The corn and capsicum tikkis was one experiment among many……

So one more starter to the list…..well a nice one too….capsicum and corn go well together by colour and by taste…the sweetness of corn kernels supplemented by spice of green chillies make the dish a good appetizer.

Well I shallow  fried the kebabs but you can fry them too….which can be kind of risky as the kebabs may break away while frying….here is the recipe for those lovely looking kebabs…

Ingredients

Corn kernels-2 cups

Salt to taste(2 tsp)

Capsicum-4 tbsp chopped into small pieces

Green chilli-3 chopped

Rice flour/corn flour-2 tbsp. or more

Method

Coarsely grind corn kernels

Add salt, capsicum, green chilli, flour and mix.

Make into balls and fry or shallow fry.

Note

You may add red chilli powder and coriander leaves to above

Lemon and Honey Cauliflower

I liked the taste of honey chilli cauliflower I ate last time. We had visited a neabry mall and bought some takeaway dinner which consisted of crunchy ,sweet and  slightly spicy honey chilli cauliflower fritters….and of course...my usual paneer butter masala with chapathis.

 I had about half of a big cauliflower I had bought when I made biriyani the other day. I was eager to recreate the taste of the honey chilli Gobi fritters I had bought.

My travel through the net landed me in a recipe that seemed to be somewhere close to the fritters I mentioned above. Something called lemony, chilli, honey cauliflower. A pretty long name….Well what turned out of the recipe dint taste like the cauliflower I bought from outside but it produced a totally different type of cauliflower dish. And I loved that too.

Sprinkled with sesame seeds and both spicy and sweet at the same time this cauliflower preparation goes well with chapathis,noodles or fried rice…..want to try it out?

Ingredients

For the batter

Cauliflower-1 small cut into florets

All purpose flour-3 tbsp

Cornflour-1 tbsp

Salt to taste

For the sauce

Garlic-1 tbsp

Red chilli sauce/red chilli paste-1 tbsp

Green chilli sauce-1 tbsp

Oil-2 tbsp

Soya sauce-1 tbsp

Honey-3 tbsp

Lemon juice-2 tbsp

Vinegar-1/4 tsp

Roasted sesame seeds-1 tbsp

Spring onion greens-2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method

For the fritters

Mix the ingredients all- purpose flour, cornflour, salt. Add water and mix. Marinate the cauliflower after par boiling it.

Take oil in a thick bottomed pan and fry the cauliflower at medium flame .

For the sauce

Take oil and fry the garlic .

Add red chilli sauce, green chilli sauce

Reduce flame add lime juice, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and honey

Mix in the cauliflower fritters and stir fry.

Garnish with roasted sesame and spring onion greens and serve hot.