Introducing the Food Blog

(not really)

There are two kinds of cooks in the world. One that can serve any food with élan and the other kind who serve even gourmet food with an air of apology. Unfortunately, I belong in this second category.  You must have met people like me. Whenever they serve food, they mumble about how the dish is not really that good, they constantly point out deficiencies that the guest has probably never noticed (this would have tasted better if I used real coconut instead of frozen coconut, this dish should be a tad bit creamier than it is, the koftas should have been golden yellow rather than yellowish gold…).  The ability to confidently state “this dish is yum” is probably the biggest challenge that I face in writing a food blog. Well that and the fact that I am too lazy to cook up original recipes regularly. But I wanted to see how complicated this process is. How do people manage to assemble ingredients, cook, take photographs of the food and then write about the same —what is it that they do?  I resolved to write at least one recipe. That was about six months ago.

Then last week, a friend started a new food blog and I promised him a guest recipe. A day or so later, my sister sent me a copy of “The Naked Chef” cookbook with a sly suggestion that with my new job, I must now have plenty of free time. I glanced through the book and saw a recipe for Orange and Polenta biscuits. Then I remembered that I had a lot of corn-meal sitting at home (aftermath of sending Seejo to the grocery store asking him to get cornflour) and that polenta and cornmeal are easily exchangeable. All of this pointed to one thing— this was the recipe that I needed to try out a food blog style recipe. So without further ado—here is my recipe for Orange Polenta Biscuits (or Cookies)

Ingredients

4oz butter

6oz sugar

250gms white cornmeal (The Naked chef uses polenta)

100gms all purpose flour

Zest of 2 oranges

6 cardamoms (peeled and slightly crushed)

2 eggs ( I used egg-beaters, because that is what I had)

1 tsp nutmeg powder

Method

Zest the oranges, make sure you do not include the white part which is bitter.

Microwave the butter for about 30 seconds, till it has melted slightly. Mix the cornmeal and flour together. Add in the melted butter & eggs and mix well. Next add in the cardamom, nutmeg and orange zest. Mix it all together with your hand. Once it has all mixed well, cover it and place it in the refrigerator for about an hour or so.

Line a baking tray with wax-paper or silver foil. Make small balls with your hand and slightly flatten the mixture onto the foil making sure that there is at least 2.5 inches between each cookie.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (375F) for around 10 minutes. Times will vary depending on your oven. You know the cookies are done when the edges turn golden brown.

Cool for 15 minutes before you start eating.  You can  spread a bit of raspberry preserve on the cookie before eating it.

Verdict

Nice simple recipe. You could taste the orange right away, the cookie was crisp but not very crunchy. The next time I make this though I’ll try to cut down on the butter.