My Groundhog Day Chocolate Cake

                                     
Its become the “little black cocktail dress” of my baking repertoire!  (If you’ll excuse the momentary gender crossover.)   Everytime my family plans a celebration – a birthday, a farewell party, Christmas, or any of the other multitude of festivals that we celebrate here in India with a party – they always want me to make THE CHOCOLATE CAKE.

The kids ate most of the cake before I could take a picture!

                                   
And its not like I haven’t had any practice at the recipe; I have been making this flourless chocolate cake for the past 10 to 15 years.   In fact I seem to remember it was one of the first recipes I tried after I had bought famed food historian and cookery writer Claudia Roden’s magnum opus “The Book of Jewish Food” in the mid 1990s.



My faded copy of one of the world's classic cookbooks

Ms Roden comments in the book that this is itself a much copied recipe which she originally published some 25 years earlier in “A Book of Middle Eastern Food”, another of her highly praised and awarded recipe collections.   And I seem to recall this cake being around many a cafe in inner city Melbourne, Australia in the 1980s when I was living there; the trouble is my kids weren’t even born then so the novelty of it certainly hasn’t worn off on them!



Claudia Roden

The recipe is straightforward enough: a mix of dark chocolate, butter, eggs, sugar and ground almonds.    But somehow the chemistry of baking transforms these ingredients into an unctuous, heavily chocolate tasting cake that is usually served only a sliver at a time with fresh thick double cream as the ideal accompaniment.   (Oh, how we miss the King Island Dairy and it’s cream here in Hyderabad!)

The chocolate cake with custard apple icecream

                                  
Here in India we serve it with the best ice cream we can find ... which for us comes from Bombay’s “Natural Icecream Company”  (there’s an outlet here in Banjara Hills).   They have a range of natural fruit ice creams, made with no added preservatives or stabilisers, and one of the best is made with custard apples – also called sitaphal.

So, no matter that everytime I make this cake I feel like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day”, where his character is trapped in a snowbound country town and due to a timewarp is forced to repeat the same actions every single day of his life!   No matter that I have baked cakes from the canons of other well known baking experts like David Lebovitz, Dorothy Greenspan and Dan Lepard.
   
They still always want the chocolate cake!    And despite the fact that you can add to this recipe various enhancers like grated peel, dried fruit or a sympathetic alcohol, as my daughter said just before her birthday earlier this year: ”No nuts, no peels, no oranges, no rum .... just the chocolate!
So here it is .... my Groundhog Day Chocolate Cake recipe ... with thanks to Ms Roden, of course.

The cake has a dense outside crust and soft inner crumb

                            
The Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:   250 gms dark cooking chocolate   100gms butter   6 eggs, separated   75gms caster sugar   100gms ground blanched almonds

Method:   Crush chocolate and then melt with butter in a bowl  (I zap it in the microwave at 30 sec intervals, stirring in between).   Beat egg yolks with the sugar until pale.   Add the ground almonds and the melted chocolate and butter mixture and stir to incorporate.  

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff (make sure the bowl is perfectly dry and clean and that there are no remnants of the yolks in the whites ... otherwise you won’t get body to the beaten whites).   Fold into chocolate/almond mixture.    Butter a 23cm/9“ cake tin and dust with flour.   (I use cocoa powder so you don’t get a white lining on your finished cake.)
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for approximately 45 minutes.   Leave to cool.   To serve - dust with powdered icing sugar though a sieve or slaver on a chocolate ganache made separately.

Warning:   don’t blame me if everyone wants  you to make it again and again!

Tony saab/Hyderabad July 2012

 

Harira - a Ramzan recipe for dawn

The Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad - one of the largest in India

It's the holy month of Ramzan (also known as Ramadan) here in India - as it is for the rest of the Muslim world; Ramzan marks the ninth month of the Muslim calender and is a time when every devout follower is expected to fast from sunrise to sunset - with no food, drinks or "other distractions" from a celibate life.

Perhaps to compensate for this daily act of self discipline and soul purification the food served at the end of the day's fast (iftar)  is usually extraordinarily tasty!   The most famous dish here in Hyderabad - which has a higher number of Muslims than the rest of the country at some 40% of the population - is haleem.   Every evening hordes of locals flock to outdoor kitchens, restaurants and hotels to buy plates or containers of haleem, which is often eaten on the spot!

Haleem packets ready to go!

Haleem is a slow-cooked mixture of mutton or goat's meat and cracked wheat - known in India as dalia. There are also variations using beef and chicken but mutton is the most popular version in Hyderabad.  We often make haleem at our home during this time though Yadama, the lady that shares the cooking in our house, is a Hindu so I call her dish "Hindu Haleem"!   But thats not to take away from the quality of her cooking because the dish is absolutely delicious and is served with condiments such as fried garlic, sliced red onions, chopped green chillies, lemon wedges and finely minced herbs such as coriander and parsely.













Otherwise we buy haleem from one of our favourite food outlets in the nearby Muslim enclave of Tolichowki; either at the Shah Ghouse restaurant or the Hotel Arbaab which both sell haleem throughout the month of Ramzan and, as you can see from these pictures, its a busy time indeed!
                                                                                   




































However, this week to celebrate Ramzan in our house I cooked another famous dish served throughout the Muslim world at this time.   Harira is a thick hearty soup of boneless lamb, chickpeas, dal and vegetables usually served early in the morning before the fast begins
Here is a recipe for harira ... our kids loved it!

A hearty breakfast soup for Ramadam

Harira - a soup of lamb with pulses

Ingredients:   100gm chickpeas, soaked overnight and then cooked in pressure cooker for one whistle
100gm green lentils (moong dal)    1T butter   250gm lamb, finely diced   1 red onion, minced   500gm tomatoes, peeled and chopped   2 T parsley, finely chopped   2 T coriander, finely chopped    1 t ground ginger   1 t tumeric   1 t ground cinnamon    2 egg yolks   3 T lemon juice    salt & pepper        Plus chopped walnuts, lemon slices and corainder for garnish.

Harira is cooked in one large pot

Method:    Melt butter in a stock pot and cook lamb and onions for 5 mins until browned.   Add chopped tomatoes plus herbs and spices and cook a further 5 mins stirring frequently.   Then add chickpeas and lentils and 2 litres of water.

Bring to rapid boil, skim any froth off the top, and cook for 10 minutes at this temperature.   Then reduce heat to a simmer and cook until pulses are tender - 30 to 45 minutes.

Meanwhile beat egg yolks and lemon juice together and stir into the soup.   Remove pot from heat and add garnishes - walnuts, coriander and lemon slices.   Serve with crusty bread if desired.

Note:   First time I cooked this I did not cook the chickpeas in advance ... and as a result they took much longer to cook and were still quite crunchy when served.   I suggest partially pre-cooking them in a pressure cooker.
Note 2:   This recipe was adapted from a beautiful cookbook called “ Islamic food with a Healing Touch”, written by a renowned food historian  and Persian scholar, Salma Husain.   More on this book in  a later blog.

Tony saab, Hyderabad July 2012

Fermentation & Ginger Beer

Fermenting fresh ginger can make a refreshing drink

                                       
Fermentation – the art of preserving foodstuffs and making them more digestible and nutritious – has been making a comeback in recent years.    Whilst the art of fermentation can be traced back to the beginning of mankind, the past 100 years has seen the industrialisation and centralisation of the world’s food supplies and a resultant dropping off in consumption of fermented foods around the world.    But now with the renewed interest in artisanal and localised food production, epitomised by the Slow Food movement - which now has Chapters in India -  fermentation is again on the rise – pun intended.

People are again making hand-made fermented foodstuffs like sauerkraut, sourdough breads, home brewed wines and beers and yogurt.  (Although interestingly home-made yogurt has never really gone out of vogue  here in the Indian household.)

Momofuku's David Chang

The wunderkid chef/restaurateur of the New York food scene Momofuku’s David Chang is currently experimenting with fermentation processes – and giving lectures around the world about his ‘discoveries’. " Lactic-acid fermentation, pickling and age-drying beef are things that we’ve been doing for centuries, but we don’t really know much about what’s going on behind the scenes,” Chang said in a recent lecture.   Perhaps his interest in fermentation is no coincidence given his Korean/Japanese background where kimchi and miso are two of the world’s last remaining recognisable examples of fermentation products.


And there are a number of recent publications dealing with aspects of fermentation including Sally Fallon’s “Nourishing Traditions” – an impressive collection of natural food recipes which also includes fermentation techniques and a book I have been using recently entitled “Wild Fermentation”, by a New Yorker with the unusual name of Sandor Ellix Katz!

Mr Katz’s book looks at fermentation techniques and recipes for cheese, miso, sauerkraut, soy products, sourdoughs and various types of beers, meads and wines.   They are easy to follow recipes which usually don’t require much in the way of special equipment or ingredients.

Preparing the 'ginger bug'

One recipe that I have used several times is for fermenting ginger beer.   It’s basically just fresh ginger, sugar, water and lemon juice but the fermentation part of the recipe requires nurturing a “ginger bug” and feeding it for a week or so to kick start the process.    The bug is basically grated fresh ginger – including the skin – mixed with sugar and water which is and topped up every 2 days in order to activate the fermentation process.  

 

Close up shot of the fermentation after 7 days

                                        
Once the bug is ready you mix it with a larger quantity of water, sugar and some lemon juice – boil it through for about half an hour – and then bottle it in recycled bottles – I use mid-sized soda bottles.

Washed & sterilised re-cycled soda bottles

You can vary the ‘strength’ of the ginger beer by simply adding more grated ginger and the end product – which is ready after about two weeks – is a feisty, intensely ginger-flavoured drink which is fermented enough to produce carbonation but not enough to produce significant levels of alcohol.
So it can be a great drink for everyone in the hot summer months – either served straight on ice or mixed with soda or made into a ‘ginger spider’ with icecream added.

The ginger beer is bottled and left to ferment for 2 weeks

For a more ‘adult’ taste I mix the ginger beer with dark rum and ice.  This mix is known in the U.S. as a “Dark and Stormy” and I think it’s the perfect alternative to a gin and tonic in India ... especially in the summer heat we've just been having where the temperature has been hitting 43 degrees here in Hyderabad for days at a time!

Bring on the 'Dark & Stormys'!

Tony saab/Hyderabad   June 2012

My love affair with Japanese food ...

Tokyo skyline at night

I have had an interest in Japanese culture - and especially it’s food – ever since I can remember.   Growing up, my father – who had fought against the Japanese during the Second World War – kept a number of mementos from that time hidden in various parts of our house. In a wardrobe I stumbled upon a silk Japanese flag which he had taken from a POW and, of even greater significance, was a ‘Samurai’ sword that I later discovered hidden under the house.   As a 10 year-old these things had a magical fascination for me.

The Imperial Palace in the heart of Tokyo

At university we studied Japanese cinema and, as my interest in Asian food and cooking broadened, with backpacking trips to Asia in the 1970s, I began to more seriously investigate the cuisine of the Rising Sun!   This was also a time when Japanese food ingredients were becoming available in Australia ... initially driven I remember by the 1970’s interest in ‘health foods’ and macrobiotics.

Then in the 1990’s I was fortunate to go on two work-related trips to Japan – sponsored by the Japanese Foreign Ministry – and here my interest in Japanese cuisine really blossomed.   Whilst I was filming for an Australian television network during the day, we spent the evenings exploring the bars and small outside food carts of Tokyo. 

A typical Japanese bar ... lots of atmosphere!

Most of these bars were tiny establishments by Western standards – often one or two floors underground in the basements of commercial buildings.   Smoke filled rooms, with dark lighting and Miles Davis on the sound system! But they all served an amazing array of tapas-like snacks – dumplings, sushi, sashimi, and a wild array of grilled seafood, meat and offal.

My faded menu from the 400 year-old Junsei Restaurant
in Kyoto

In Kyoto, the country's ancient capital, we ate at Junsei - a 400 year-old restaurant that only specialised in soy beancurd - or tofu.   It was served in beautiful ceramic pots floating in an intensely flavoured fish stock; the tofu just melted in your mouth and the meal was one of the most memorable I have had so far!

 Another of the meals we ate on one of those trips was at a country inn in the mountains outside of Tokyo.   This wooden hotel was so old that the ceilings were only about five feet high - with the beams covered in rubber foam to protect your head! - because 400 hundred years ago the Japanese were much shorter than they are today mainly due to their diet at the time!

One of the attractions of Japanese cuisine for me is the often utter simplicity of the recipes – using basic ingredients usually of high quality and cooked in very precise and delicate ways. The dinner we were served in this little hotel - surrounded by giant pine trees, mossy covered rocks and a stream that ran right past the windows - was Zen-like in its simplicity.   Grilled fish - caught from the stream outside - lightly garnished with rock salt and soy/shoyu sauce, steamed green vegetables with pickled ginger, miso soup with slivers of wild mushrooms and tiny blocks of tofu, and chicken yakitori - tiny satay- size sticks of smoked chicken grilled over hot coals.   Again this was one of the most memorable meals of my life.

I have tried since then to recreate some of these dishes and, more importantly perhaps, some of the atmosphere of those meals in my own cooking.   One of the lessons I learned from Japan was the concept of 'less is more'!   You don't need mounds of food and rich sauces to make an interesting and satisfying meal.   

One of my all time favourite cookbooks!

During my Japanese culinary journey I discovered a wonderful little book that replicated many of the dishes I had eaten in Tokyo and Kyoto: The Japanese Country Cookbook by Russ Rudzinski & Ryoichi  Kokku (Nitty Gritty Books, 1969).  My first copy of this book fell apart from overuse and I had it rebound in Melbourne; however, the printer stiched it back together 'back to front' so you had to open it from the back cover.   (Strangely, this is the way Japanese books written in Kanji are also printed!)     So I finally tracked down another copy in an on-line second hand bookshop and this is the copy I have with me in India

Here are a few of these country-style Japanese recipes that I have been cooking time and again over the past 15 odd years ... each an exercise in elegant simplicity!

Brussel Sprouts Hot or Cold

Ingredients:
½ kg brussel sprouts   2T shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)   2T dry mustard powder   2T water   2T sugar    1 T sake or white wine ... or vodka in India!?

Method:
Cut sprouts in half – leaving on part of the root/base to keep them together –and steam or boil 3 to 4 minutes.   Mix all other ingredients together and pour over drained sprouts – let marinate for at east 1 hour at room temperature.   Can be served cold or reheated.


Kara Pima  (Hot bell peppers or capsicum)

Ingredients:
4 capsicum – preferably red or yellow  2 fresh chillies   2T veg oil    1t shoyu    1t rice vinegar

Method:
Cut capsicums into bite size pieces, removing stems, seeds and white pith.   Mince chilli.   Heat oil till hot and add capsicum, toss for 2 minutes then add chilli & toss for 2 minutes then add shoyu & vinegar, cover the pan and cook a further 2 to 5 minutes.   Serve hot or cold.

Both these dishes can be served as part of a meal from many different cultures ... not just Japanese.

Tony saab/Hyderabad   July 2012