Eggless Beet Cake / Eggless Red Velvet Cake

There are those times when you hanker for something baked and sweet despite your hardened resolution against baking. I am someone who happens to love the process of baking. I love baking for itself. Most times I bake just to create something divine and beautiful and flavorful. I am satiated just by the process, and have no need to eat the creation. I am happy seeing others eat. Others don't like this habit of mine.

Enough of the rambling. I am now a fan of "quick baking" that results in small quantities of desserts. It (sort of) indulges my craving to bake, and it creates a small portion of dessert, perfect for two. Mug cakes are my recent favorite. Along those lines, I came across a healthy, easy recipe for a red-velvet cake. It literally takes 15 minutes to make this little cutie. How could I resist?

Slightly modified and adapted from this recipe

Ingredients (4 servings):

1. 1 small beet, peeled and chopped
2. 1/3 cup + 1/4 cup low-fat milk 
3. 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
4. 6 teaspoons sugar
5. 1/8 teaspoon salt
6. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
7. 1 tablespoon butter - melted
8. 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
9. 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
10. 1 teaspoon baking powder
11. 1.5 teaspoons olive oil/vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Heat the olive oil/vegetable oil in a small pan. When hot, add the chopped beet and saute on low-medium heat until the beet is slightly tender. It takes about 7-10 minutes. When done, remove from heat and let it cool. When cool, grind the beet with a drizzle of milk (no more than 1/4 cup milk). Reserve the ground beet puree to be added to the batter. 
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the beet puree, milk, flaxseed, sugar and salt. Add in the melted butter and whisk it in. 
3. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
4. Add the cocoa powder and gently stir it in. 
5. Finally, add the baking powder and all-purpose flour and gently fold everything into the batter.
6. Grease a 4 inch microwavable bowl (glass works well) and transfer the batter into it. 
7. Microwave for 3 minutes (or a little longer) until a tester comes out almost clean with just a few crumbs attached.

Let the cake cool. When cool, loosen the edges of the bowl and invert the cake onto a plate. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or with fresh fruit.

A word of warning: This cake is not as sweet as the regular cakes. It is not super yummy either. What else can one expect from a "light" version? It is a compromise, okay? You get to eat cake that is almost as sweet and almost as good as the sinful ones. But you get to eat cake! And bake!

Chocolate Masala Chai

My husband and I were recently at Max Brenner in Vegas. Their tag line "Creating a New Chocolate Culture Worldwide" immensely appealed to my husband. He will readily support anyone with such a noble goal. Many of their dishes sneak in chocolate, and so they are understandably luscious and awesome. But even those dishes that are spared from a chocolate invasion are really really good. Highly recommended place to indulge.

My husband ordered their chocolate chai and enjoyed it to the last sip. I had to fight to taste 1 fluid ounce of it, and I was amazed at how mild yet flavorful it was. For one, I expected the chocolate to overpower the chai, but no, it was very delicate and mild. And there were so many spices in the tea decanter that even a spice-obsessed Indian like me found it incredulous that so many spices were used to brew a perfectly balanced cup of chocolate laced tea.

Max Brenner's Chocolate Chai with my husband closely guarding it from me

So, here is my humble recreation of their chocolate chai.

Ingredients (serves 2):

1. 3-4 teaspoons black tea (depending on how "strong" you want the tea)
2. 1 teaspoon grated ginger
3. 1 clove
4. 2 pods of cardamom
5. 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
6. a small piece of cinnamon (1/2 inch or so)
7. 1/3 cup white chocolate chips

Preparation:

1. Crush and combine together the ginger, clove, cardamom (with the husk), cinnamon and nutmeg. A mortar and pestle is very handy to do this.
2. Add the black tea and crushed spices to a medium sauce-pan. Pour in 1.5 cups of water and bring everything to a boil. Takes about 7-10 minutes on medium heat. 
3. While the tea is seeping/heating, melt the white chocolate chips. I melt them by microwaving in 20 second intervals and stirring until they are smooth. You could also directly add them to the hot chai and whisk. 
4. Strain the steeped/boiled chai. Add the melted chocolate (or the whole chocolate chips) and whisk vigorously until the chocolate is evenly mixed into the chai. 
5. Pour into glasses/mugs and serve!

The white chocolate flavor subtly wafts through the aromatic spices. Depending on how you like your tea, adjust the proportion of spices and chocolate.

Spicy Tomato Couscous

I'm always looking for one-pot dishes that combine flavor, spice and nutrition. I am never in the mood for laboring 3 separate dishes on weeknights when I would rather curl up under a stone. Soups are my favorites for this reason. You just wash and chop and throw in a bunch of vegetables and spices and let the whole thing simmer. They are also immensely comforting, plus fast enough to gulp down and rush to other things. 

This is a dish I put together to use up some of the couscous in my pantry. The original recipe is a couscous soup, but I adapted it to be something less soupy and more "mealy". This is sort of like couscous kichidi/upma.

Inspired and adapted from this recipe

Ingredients (serves 5-6):

1. 1 large onion, finely chopped
2. 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3. 3 sticks of celery, chopped
4. 4 cloves of garlic 
5. 1 teaspoon chilli powder
6. 1 teaspoon coriander powder
7. 1 teaspoon cumin powder
8. 1 - 1.5 teaspoons salt
9. 3 tablespoons tomato paste
10. 3 tomatoes, finely chopped
11. 4 cups (32 fl. oz) vegetable stock
12. 1 can chickpeas, rinsed (1.5 cups cooked chickpeas)
13. 1.5 cups uncooked couscous 
14. 3 scallions, finely chopped
15. 1 tablespoon olive oil 

 Preparation:

1. Crush/grind together 4 cloves of garlic, a teaspoon (or more) of chilli powder and coriander powder. Reserve the paste to be added later.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large sauce-pan/dutch oven. When the oil is warm, add the chopped onion and saute on medium heat until translucent. 
3. Then add the carrots and celery and saute. Close the pan and continue to cook for 5 minutes until the vegetables are slightly tender. 
4. Add the prepared spice paste and cumin powder and stir to combine everything. Then add the tomatoes and saute for 5 minutes. 
5. When tomatoes begin to soften, add the tomato paste and mix everything. Pour in the vegetable stock and chickpeas and give everything a stir. Reduce the heat to low, close the lid and let the whole thing simmer for 20-30 minutes until the vegetables are cooked. 
6. Finally add the couscous, stir everything and remove the pan from heat and keep it closed for 5 minutes until the couscous is completely cooked. 
7. After 5 minutes, check if the couscous is done (it should be done). Taste and adjust for seasonings. Garnish with chopped scallions and serve. 

 This is a hearty, spicy meal. Perfect for weeknights.

Savory Quinoa Pancakes / Quinoa Oothapam

One of my all-time favorite places to eat in the U.S is the Inn Season Cafe in the suburb of Royal Oak in Detroit. It is one of the very few restaurants I have been to that is completely vegetarian and vegan, and oh so gourmet! The dishes are inspired from several cuisines around the world, particularly Indian! How it warms my heart to see terms like "paneer" and "chutney" and "mini dosas" on the menu. All the dishes are inspired with their own unique touch, so every visit to the place is tremendously inspiring and satisfying. How they manage to whip up such fabulous vegan desserts is baffling!

One of the dishes that I love on the menu is - Quinoa Corn Cakes. It's not a regular on the menu, but on days that this dish features on the special menu, they are the first ones to sell out. I know firsthand. They are basically quinoa and corn oothappams with the most delish coriander chutney that tastes nothing like the Indian version of the chutney, but still incorporates some of the spices and ingredients.

Every time I eat at this place, my friend finds it hilarious that I chew on every morsel, intently trying to analyze what exact ingredients could have gone into the dish. I then make notes (how nerdy) and try to recreate it at home. So, this time, as I carefully chomped on the quinoa corn cakes, I caught a hint of wheat flour and some (what I suspect to be) quinoa flour. The cakes were delicately spiced with just salt, because it's a sin to overshadow their flavorful chutney. With such simple ingredients, you would wonder how these cakes are such best sellers. But, they are! Proof that simple, wholesome ingredients of good quality used in the right proportion can create a gourmet dish.

So this is my recreation and twist on the quinoa oothappams, without corn. The original version also has cooked quinoa in it, but I skipped adding cooked quinoa and instead went heavy with the quinoa flour.

Ingredients (12-13 small pancakes):

1. 1 cup quinoa flour (dry roast the quinoa until it turns aromatic and slightly brown. Cool and grind to a powder)
2. 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3. 2 cups buttermilk or diluted yogurt
4. 1 teaspoon baking powder
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 2 green chillies, finely chopped
7. 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
8. 1/2 a medium onion, chopped
9. some coriander leaves - about 1/4 cup
10. A few teaspoons of olive oil or vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients - quinoa flour, wheat flour, baking powder and salt. 
2. Whisk the dry ingredients with buttermilk/yogurt until the batter is smooth and of the consistency of pancakes/oothappam/dosa
3. Mix the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves to the batter. No need to rest the batter.
4. Heat a cast-iron skillet until hot. Pour a ladle of the batter and crisp the pancake with a few drops of oil around the edges of the pancake. Cook on the pancake on medium heat for 2-3 minutes until one side of the pancake is golden and cooked. 
5. Flip it over and gently press down the pancake to evenly cook the other side.When cooked, transfer to a plate and serve with a side-dish of savory chutney.

 
Let me tell you - these are yummy! Perhaps not as great as the original, because try as I might, I can't recreate their coriander chutney.

I was apprehensive that the pancakes would be tough and rubbery if they were stored for a while, but surprisingly, these pancakes remained soft and tasty even when stored overnight.

This is a wonderful, healthy oothappam that is so easy to prepare, especially on a weeknight.

Quinoa Fruit Salad

There are so many quinoa recipes these days that inspire me to try some of my own. This is one such a simple recipe that I put together as I went along.

Some people may not be a fan of the cumin powder in this recipe, so I suggest that you tone it down a little if you are not a fan of sweet and savory salads. Other than that, I loved the simple ginger-lemon-honey dressing. It complemented the fruits really well and made the quinoa delicious.

Easy to make, filling, and healthy.

Ingredients (serves 4):

1. 2 mangoes, de-seeded and diced
2. 1 cup sliced red grapes
3. 1 cup sliced strawberries
4. 1 green bell-pepper, diced
5. 1.5 cups uncooked quinoa (cook the quinoa with 1:2 ratio of quinoa:water)
6. 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the dressing:

1. 1 tablespoon cumin powder
2. 1/4 cup olive oil
3. juice from 1 lemon
4. 1 - 1.5 teaspoons salt, as needed
5. 1 teaspoon pepper
6. 2 - 3 tablespoons honey (adjust according to how sweet/tart the fruits are)
7. 3 teaspoons grated ginger

Preparation:

1. In a tablespoon of olive oil, stir fry the bell-pepper until they are slightly charred and tender. Add the cumin powder to the bell-pepper and mix everything well. When cool, add the bell-pepper to a large salad bowl.
2. Add all the sliced fruits (grapes, mangoes, and strawberries) to the bell-pepper and mix everything gently.
3. Cook the quinoa with 3 cups of water. 
4. Make the dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, honey, and ginger. 
5. Add the dressing to the warm, cooked quinoa and mix evenly. Let the quinoa cool. 
6. When the quinoa is cool, add it to the fruits in the salad bowl and give everything a stir. 

Let the salad rest for an hour and then serve at room temperature. The more the salad rests, the better the flavors will meld together. 

Quinoa Chili

A chili is a spicy and hearty dish made from different beans and tomatoes. This is a version of chili made with quinoa.

This is extremely filling and healthy, not to mention spicy with an Indian kick.

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

1. 2 tablespoons olive oil
2. 1 large onion, finely chopped
3. 4 cloves of garlic, minced
4. 1 can of tomato paste (8 ounces)
5. 2 tablespoons cumin powder
6. 1 teaspoon oregano / omam seeds / ajwain
7. 1 teaspoon chilli powder
8. 1 tablespoon curry powder
9. 2 cups cooked black beans
10. 2 cups cooked kidney beans / rajma beans
11. 4 cups vegetable broth
12. 1.5 cups water
13. 1 cup uncooked quinoa
14. 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
15. some coriander leaves / cilantro for garnish
16. 2 avocados, pitted and diced
17. 1.5 teaspoons salt
18. 1 teaspoon pepper
19. the juice of half a lemon

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a large stock pot. When hot, add the onion and saute on medium heat until translucent. 
2. Add the minced garlic and stir fry for a minute.
3. Add the cumin powder, oregano, chilli powder and curry powder and stir everything for a minute. 
4. Add the tomato paste and stir fry everything for about 5-7 minutes until the tomato paste begins to leave the sides of the pan.
5. Throw in the black beans and kidney beans and stir everything together. Add salt, pepper,sweet potatoes, the vegetable stock and water and stir everything together.
6. Close the lid and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. 
7. Add the quinoa and stir everything. Reduce the heat to low-medium, and cook everything for 30 minutes or so, stirring everything every now and then until the quinoa and potatoes are completely cooked.
8. If the chili is too thick, add a little water and dilute the chili. 
9. Remove from heat and garnish with coriander leaves, lemon juice and diced avocados. 

 This is an easy dish to resort to for a weeknight dinner. Plus, the left-overs are helpful for a few meals during the week! And the left-overs taste much better because the flavors get a chance to meld together when stored.

Thai Yellow Curry

Indians are usually fans of Thai food. And not surprisingly, because most of the ingredients and flavors are similar to our style of cuisine. 

This is my take on the mild and warm yellow curry sauce. For the longest time, I wasn't sure what gave the yellow curry its distinctive taste. I recently realized it was bell-pepper, a yellow, sweet pepper in this case. So, this is my take on Thai yellow curry. 

The flavors came quite close to the curry served in Thai restaurants, so I consider it decent enough to share in this space.

Ingredients: (serves 6)

For the yellow curry

1. 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2. 1 teaspoon peppercorns
3. 4 cloves of garlic
4. 1 inch piece of ginger
5. 1.5 medium sized onions, roughly chopped
6. 2-3 dry red chillies
7. 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
8. 1 yellow bell-pepper, roughly diced
9. 2 teaspoons lemongrass, chopped (or use lemongrass paste) (this is optional because the lemongrass is a little difficult to find sometimes)
10. 2 tablespoons shredded coconut
11. 1 tablespoon olive oil

For the stir fry

1. 1.5 cups diced extra firm tofu
2. 1 red bell-pepper, diced
3. 1 zucchini, sliced into half-moons
4. 2 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
5. 1.5 cans coconut milk (21 ounces)
6. 1-1.5 teaspoons of salt, as needed
7. 2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the coriander seeds, red chillies and peppercorns and saute on medium heat for a couple of minutes. 
2. Then add the garlic and ginger and saute for a minute. Next, add the onions and saute till they turn translucent. 
3. Add the turmeric powder and yellow bell-pepper and stir fry until the bell pepper softens. Finally, add the lemon grass and saute for a minute.
4. Remove the saucepan and let everything cool. When cool, grind everything with 1/4 cup of coconut milk and shredded coconut to make a smooth yellow curry paste.
5. In a separate pan, heat a little oil and stir fry the tofu cubes until they are gently browned. Drain the tofu on paper towels.
6. In the same sauce-pan in which the yellow curry spices were sauteed, add some more oil and heat it on medium heat. When the oil is warm, add the bell-pepper, zucchini and broccoli and stir fry on medium heat. Add salt, cover the pan and let the vegetables cook until tender. If you would like the vegetables to slightly char, stir fry on medium-high heat. Else, let the vegetables cook on low-medium heat until tender.
7. When the vegetables are done, add the prepared yellow curry sauce and mix everything together. Let everything simmer on low-medium heat for 5 minutes. 
8. Finally, add the remaining coconut milk and mix everything. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes on low heat and adjust for spices. 
9. Remove the yellow curry from heat and finally add the browned tofu cubes. Gently give everything a stir and serve with warm rice.

This is a warm and flavorful sauce that goes equally well with rotis as with rice.  Garnish the curry with some thai basil leaves (if you can find any).

Nuts & Fruits Porridge

My mother used to make this when I was 10. And I hated it. I would pull a long face and gag trying to force this down my throat. Now, I just don't understand that fussy 10 year long. These days, I wake up excited, because I can have this yummy porridge for breakfast! How much things change. 

My mother used to grind almonds, cashews, raisins, and dates with a little milk and store the ground "paste" in the fridge for up to a week. She would then mix the paste with a little more milk and hand it to me to gulp down. I would, complaining all the while. She would also make something similar with cooked carrots and beets. She would grind the carrots and beets with milk, add cardamom powder and hand it over. That, I loved. Anything with nuts though, I hated.

Now that I am grown up, I appreciate the recipe, the care, and my taste a little better. So, I came up with this version. 

Ingredients (serves 8):

1. 1/2 cup almonds (plain, un-roasted, unsalted)
2. 1/2 cup walnuts (plain, un-roasted, unsalted)
3. 1/2 cup pecans / 1/2 cup cashews (plain, un-roasted, unsalted)
4. 1/4 cup peanuts (plain, unroasted, unsalted)
5. 2 bananas, preferably ripe (chopped)
6. 4 strawberries, sliced
7. Milk, as needed (low fat, 2%)
8. 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
9. 1/2 teaspoon all-spice powder
10. some raisins
11. some blueberries

Preparation:

1. Soak the nuts - the almonds, walnuts, pecans/cashews, and peanuts in hot water for about 2 hours. Or soak the nuts in plain water overnight. 
2. Drain the nuts. No need to de-husk the almonds. Put the nuts in a food processor or blender and start grinding. Do not add any milk initially. Grind/ break down the nuts as much as possible. When they are broken down, start drizzling milk in small increments and grind the nuts. 
3. When the nuts are ground to a coarse paste, add the bananas (chopped), a drizzle of milk and blend again. 
4. Finally add the sliced strawberries, a little more milk and grind again until everything is incorporated. It's okay if there are some chunks left. The paste doesn't have to be baby smooth.
5. Transfer the paste to a box, add cinnamon powder and all spice. Mix well. Put on an air-tight lid and store in the fridge for up to one week.

Every morning, scoop out some of this prepared paste (no more than 1/3 cup), add some milk to dilute it to the consistency of porridge. Add raisins, some more fruits like blueberries on top and you have an excellent tasting porridge! And healthy. Be careful not to scoop out too much of it... this is rich and concentrated as it's made of nuts. I take no more than 1/3 cup, sometimes only 1/4 cup. It's quite filling and delicious.

You get your daily serving of nuts and some fruits. For two people, this lasts almost the entire week's share of breakfast.

Caprese Salad & Sandwich

Caprese is the quintessential summer salad. It has four simple ingredients - tomato, basil ("things that go together grow together"), mozzarella, and some balsamic vinegar. So simple, yet oh so delicious! And given how much we love this, it easily becomes dinner.

Ingredients (serves 2-4):

1. One large tomato, sliced into thick circles
2. a few wedges of round, thick mozzarella (depending on how many you are assembling)
3. a few fresh basil leaves
4. a drizzle of balsamic vinegar
5. a drizzle of olive oil
6. a sprinkle of salt and pepper

Assembly:

1. Layer the caprese by first placing a tomato. Top it with a thick wedge of mozzarella. Top that with a single basil leaf. 
2. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Or use any fruit infused balsamic vinegar. I used peach balsamic vinegar, thanks to my wonderful friends from California :)
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

That's it really. You wouldn't believe the burst of awesome flavors. Summer on a platter. 

 

You can easily convert this to sandwich form. Toast a couple slices of bread, moisten the sides with a little olive oil. Sandwich the caprese and enjoy!

Eggless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Whipped Cream Frosting

I baked two layers of eggless chocolate cake with raspberry whipped cream frosting for a special occasion recently. I decided not to cover the cake with a rich and heavy frosting or icing, because my family is not a fan of heavy frosting. So I chose to decorate the cake with some light, fluffy whipped cream flavored with raspberry jam. 

I baked two layers of 9" by 13" cakes, and sandwiched the two layers by smearing 1/2 cup of raspberry jam. Overall, the cake was not heavy or cloyingly sweet or buttery. It was also moist and tender inside, much to my relief. The only thing I wasn't satisfied with was the crust, but given that I didn't cover the entire cake with icing, and I had to tweak the recipe to keep it eggless, I guess it was inevitable. 

After all my research on eggless baking, this is what I found out:

• If you are baking without eggs, oil is a better substitute for fat than butter. It keeps the cake moist and fluffy for a long time. And it's true. We had left over cake for almost a week, and even the refrigerated cake was moist. The inside of the cake never dried out.
• If you are using oil instead of butter, the cake's crust will be slightly coarse and dry (especially the four edges). Butter helps to form a light, airy crust. Hence, the compromise if you choose oil. An easy solution is to slice off the crust and edges before decorating the cake.
• Butter constitutes 80% fat and 20% milk solids and water. So if you are not using butter to bake, then introduce some water and milk solids to make up for the lack of milk solids & liquid that butter brings to the cake

Therefore, I used oil to keep the cake moist. And the cake was moist (if you ignored the crusty edges)

Since I used oil, I introduced some milk and water to make up for the loss of milk solids and water due to not using butter.

Why use hot water and not just room temperature water? I don't know. Cake experts in cake forums recommend hot water, even boiling water. Even Hershey's recommends it.

Here's how I made it.

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients for one 9" by 13" cake:

1. 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
2. 3 cups sugar
3. 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4. 2 cups hot water
5. 1 cup milk (at room temperature)
6. 1 cup vegetable oil
7. 3 teaspoons baking soda
8. 1/2 teaspoon salt
9. 2.5 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
10. 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (intensifies the flavor of chocolate)
11. 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Preparation:

1. Butter and flour a 9 by 13 cake pan. Please use a metal pan if possible. I think the cake's crust gets drier when baked in a glass pan. Maybe I am imagining it, but one layer of cake baked in a glass pan turned out dry on the top, but was still moist inside. The other layer of cake baked in a metal pan had a much lighter crust and was moist inside too.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix well. Add sugar and mix.
3. Melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave until smooth and lump-free. Add the coffee granules to the melted chocolate and mix well. 
4. Prepare the wet ingredients: Whisk together the milk, melted chocolate & coffee, and vanilla extract. Finally add the oil and whisk well.
5. Now slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently fold until just combined
6. Finally add the hot water and give a final mix until everything is combined. Do not over mix or vigorously mix. It's okay if there are a few small lumps of flour. Over mixing will result in a tough, dense cake.
7. Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake for 55 minutes to 1 hour in a 350 F preheated oven until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Place the cake pan on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Then gently loosen the cake around the edges and carefully invert onto a plate.

Raspberry Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. 1 cup cold whipping cream
2. 1/2 cup raspberry jam or raspberry sauce 
3. 1 teaspoon raspberry extract

Whip the cream till it forms soft-peaks. Add the raspberry jam and raspberry extract, and continue to whip until the cream forms stiff peaks. That's it! Either transfer to a piping bag to pipe out the frosting, or  just slather it on the cake. 

A word of caution: Do not use this frosting if the weather is hot and you expect the cake to be out or at a warm room-temperature for a while. The frosting will melt. Like parts of mine did.

Enjoy!

Rhubarb & Strawberry Crisp

Crumbles and crisps are one of my favorite desserts. They involve healthy doses of bubbling fruits and a sweet crisp layer of topping that complements the saucy fruits. In my mind, I find these to be slightly healthier substitutes to the usual cakes and pastries, because of all the fruits in them! In addition, I cut down on the refined flour that the topping usually requires and substitute it with some almond meal - healthy, crunchy, and more flavorful. Of course, all these justifications are just in my mind - to appease myself.

I skimped on the sugar, and regretted it. The tart rhubarbs really need the sugar. So go ahead and add all the quantities I have listed below. In case your rhubarbs are unseasonably sweet, you can cut down on some of the sugar, but don't skip the honey!

The bubbly fruits have beautifully colored and bordered the crisp!

Ingredients (serves 6-8):

For the fruit filling:

1. 3 rhubarb stalks, peeled and diced
2. 2 cups sliced strawberries
3. 1/2 cup honey
4. 1/4 cup sugar (brown sugar, if possible)
5. 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom powder

For the crumble/crisp topping:

1. 1 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
2. 1/2 cup oats
3. 1/2 cup sugar (brown sugar, if possible)
4. 1 stick cold, unsalted butter, diced

Preparation:

1. Mix the rhubarbs, strawberries, honey, sugar, and cardamom powder in a mixing bowl. Let everything rest for 15-20 minutes. the strawberries release their juices and become soft. 
2. Prepare the topping in the meanwhile. Mix together the almond meal, oats and brown sugar. Then, add the butter and mix everything with a fork or your hand (hand works better) to incorporate the butter into the mix. Keep mixing until the butter is strewn around the mixture like small peas. Everything should look crumbly - hence it's called a crumble.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Spread the fruit filling onto a baking pan (7 by 11 pan works). And evenly pack the crumble topping on top. Do not sprinkle, pack the crumble down in chunks. This ensures a much more crispier top.
4. Bake for 30 minutes until the top is browned and crispy, and the fruit filling is bubbly.

Serve when warm, along with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. A plain serving is good too!

Strawberry Rhubarb & Apple Jam

When it's spring time, we get a generous gift of rhubarbs from a colleague at work. And I always go scrambling for new rhubarb recipes. I am not a fan of anything that's tart, so the only way I know of using the rhubarbs is in crisps, pies, and jams that take in sugar. This time, I tried a mixed fruit jam with some rhubarbs, lots of strawberries and an apple. 

I found the amount of sugar I originally added to be insufficient to cut down the tartness of the rhubarbs, so I have adjusted the sugar in the recipe below. Depending on how sweet or tart the fruits are, make your judgement call on the sugar.

Recipe was adapted from here

Ingredients (makes a little more than a pint of jam):

1. 3 cups ripe strawberries, sliced into pieces
2. 1 cup rhubarb, peeled, and diced into small pieces
3. 1 Gala apple, cored and sliced
4. 2 cups sugar
5. 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
6. 1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom powder

Preparation: 

1. Add sugar and lemon juice in a large sauce and heat on low heat until the sugar dissolves and simmers gently. About 10 minutes.
2. Add all the sliced fruits and heat over medium flame for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. The fruits will release their juice and begin to bubble gently.
3. At this point, attach a candy thermometer (a useful and inexpensive investment) and continue to stir and break down the fruits gently. Wait until the reading on the thermometer is 225 F. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get to this point. If you don't own a thermometer, wait for the mixture to thicken like syrup. Or after the 15 minute mark, take some of the jam and place it on a cold plate. Let the jam cool (about a minute) and feel the texture with your hand. If it feels like a spreadable jelly, then the jam is done. Otherwise let it cook for an additional 5 minutes and again check.
4. When the jam reaches 225 F, switch off the heat and immediately add the cardamom powder and mix well. 
5. Immediately transfer to sterilized, clean, jars and wait for the jam to completely cool before sealing and refrigerating.

This jam tastes different from most other jams because of the combination of these particular fruits and vegetable. And due to not blending the fruits/vegetable into pulp, you get little bites of the strawberries and apples. 

If you are a fan of tart and sweet jams, this one is for you!