EGGPLANT PARMESAN

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I am not fond of eggplants. Never have been. But, post marriage, since V likes them A LOT, I have been forced to change my preferences. (Yes! Marriage is all about the compromise). And now I have finally warmed up to this vegetable. So, the other day when we ordered Eggplant Parmesan at a restaurant, I did not mind trying it out. It was really good and that’s when I made a mental note to myself to try making it at home.

And thus, began the search for a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan. I googled and one of the first search results had Bobby Flay’s version of Eggplant Parmesan. I remember watching the throwdown episode which showcased this recipe. Don’t remember who won, though, but I do remember Bobby Flay’s version was liked by a lot of people.

The sauce for this recipe is amazing. Roasted red peppers give a beautiful flavor to the sauce. It is time consuming to make it though and I would suggest to make the sauce a day or two in advance. And even though the recipe calls for fresh herbs, since I did not have any, I used dried herbs, with pretty good results. But, not having fresh herbs on hand gave me a brilliant idea to start my own herb garden (woohoo!). That’s going on my ‘next project to tackle’ list.

The recipe also calls for different kinds of cheeses and I am aware that such cheeses are difficult to find in India. Actually, even in the US, where I stay, its difficult to find such cheeses. So I used only Parmesan and Mozzarella cheese. It worked out fine.

I served this dish at a get together we had at our place, and the ones who tried this dish, loved it- one called it ‘restaurant style‘ :). But, the fact that it was an eggplant dish did not sit too well with many others and they weren’t too adventurous to try it. (I know the pre-marriage me would have also not tried it.) Next time, I’m going to mask the inclusion of eggplant by calling the dish by its italian name melanzane alla parmigiana. That way, eggplant haters will get fooled into trying the dish and eventually end up liking it! (Gosh! I have such a brilliant mind- slightly evil but brilliant nonetheless :):)!)

The sauce can be made 2 or 3 days in advance. Although the dish is best when freshly made, it can be assembled and refrigerated the day before, and then baked before serving. Alternatively, bake the dish a day in advance, cover and refrigerate; the next day reheat in a preheated 400 degree F oven for about 20 minutes.

Don’t get scared by the long list of ingredients, the result is well worth it! And do make the sauce in advance so that the workload is less on the day you decide to eat it.

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Painting 2

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I am back after a really fun filled weekend- went to Phoenix to visit our friends after a whole three weeks- so there was a lot of shopping and catching up to do. This time we were really lucky and got a great deal for a one night stay at the Hilton resorts, although, unfortunately, we were able to enjoy only a good night sleep there as we were out most of the time (we checked in at 1 at night-so you can imagine!).

Besides fun, there was also a lot of eating involved during our Phoenix stay. One of V’s friends’ had his birthday this weekend, and on Sunday his wife had invited all of us for a birthday lunch at their place. The night before, we all went out for dinner to an Italian restaurant Maggiano. Loved the food especially the Pesto chicken and the zuccini fritters. Their eggplant Parmesan was also pretty good. These dishes are on my To-Do list now :).

So, overall, the weekend was spent eating- a lot and late nights! As a result, my stomach started paining, yet again Sunday night. But, nothing a glass of warm water and a good night sleep couldn’t cure.

I did some painting on Monday. I had collected some broken pieces of wood and wanted to paint something on it. Decided to paint a butterfly on one, but lack of ideas and sheer impatience to wait for something better to paint, I just painted the rest two golden! (Yikes!)

I also added another painting to my collection. (I think I’m not ready for portraits yet :(! )

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

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Flourless chocolate cake- a gluten free, rich dark chocolate cake. Chocolate lovers will swoon over this dessert.

Gluten free flourless chocolate cake- a rich dark chocolate cake recipe

POST UPDATED on January 16, 2018: A rich dark, chocolate cake recipe that will please all the chocolate lovers in your life. Feel free to omit instant coffee powder or the grand mariner, if you like. While the cake is absolutely decadent with the ganache, I have made it without the ganache and a simple dusting of powdered sugar and it still works out to taste great. The pictures have been updated, although I have kept the above picture from the original post as a reminder for when I started shooting food. 

ORIGINAL POST:

Yesterday, it was our 6 month anniversary! (Saying that aloud reminds me of the How I Met Your Mother episode where Robin dumps her boyfriend for celebrating their weekly anniversary- she finds it gay!ouch!). Anywho, and hopefully not sounding gay, yesterday V and I completed 6 months of being together as a married couple. And for us, it was a big deal! Since we had two weddings- 19th March we had our Hindu wedding and 20th March our Sikh one, we get two days to celebrate our anniversary (I’m sure in the future it will be a handy excuse for someone who forgets our anniversary-‘Oh! For me, it will always be on the 20th!’).

Though we wished each other on 19th, I wanted to surprise V with a cake. And since 19th was a Sunday, a day when V is in the house the whole day, I decided to surprise him on the 20th. Because we ate out on 19th, he thought we already celebrated our anniversary and was clueless of the surprise I was cooking up or more like baking up. I am a genius!

Gluten free flourless chocolate cake- a rich dark chocolate cake recipe

So yesterday, I baked the cake in the morning, hid it in the guest room when he came home for lunch. Assembled the cake as soon as he left. Since I had to go for Zumba in the evening, I hid the cake in the fridge, so that when V came back from work he accidentally wouldn’t see the cake. And, luckily, I can trust him to not look inside the fridge when I am not there! When I came back from Zumba, V decided to go to the gym- great!, giving me time to set up surprise- candles, cake and the works.

Now, the cake wasn’t as great as I would have liked it to be. I wanted to like this recipe, I really did want to- its Julia Child’s. But, something just did not sit right with me when it came to the taste. Even though I like my chocolate bitter- the cake was more bitter than I would have liked. Yes, there were some issues with the ingredients- I did not have the required amount of bittersweet chocolate, so substituted a part of it with unsweetened chocolate and upped the sugar amount- but the cake was still quite bitter.

So instead of posting the recipe of the cake I made for our 6 month anniversary, I am posting the recipe for my famous (yes, I count something liked in my family as famous) flourless chocolate cake recipe which has consistently given me great results (the picture at the beginning of this post is of that same famous chocolate cake). The cake has more of a mousse-like texture and is really, really rich. So keep the portions small! The recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit, September ’08 issue.

Gluten free flourless chocolate cake- a rich dark chocolate cake recipe

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
 
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Serves: 1 10 inch cake
Ingredients
  • 1 cup water
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 9 tbsp unsalted butter, diced
  • 18 ounces (500 gms) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 6 large eggs
  • ½ tsp instant coffee
  • 2 tbsp grand mariner (optional- instead add 1 tbsp vanilla essence)
  • pinch sea salt
Ganache
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 8 ounces (226gms) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F/ 180 C. Butter a 10" diam springform pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment rounds. Butter the parchment. Wrap 3 layers of heavy duty foil around outside of the pan, bringing the foil to the top of the rim. (Like how one does for a cheesecake.)
  2. Combine 1 cup water & sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the instant coffee powder and let simmer for 5 min. Remove from heat. Add the vanilla extract or grand mariner. Add the sea salt.
  3. Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the chocolate & whisk until smooth. Whisk sugar syrup into the chocolate, cool slightly.
  4. Add eggs to the chocolate mix, one by one making sure to scrape the edges after each addition. Whisk until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Place cake pan in a large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to the roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan.
  5. Bake until the center no longer moves when the pan is gently shaken, about 50 min. Remove from the water bath. Transfer to a rack. Cool completely in the pan.
For the ganache
  1. Bring whipping cream to simmer in small saucepan over med heat. Remove from heat. Add the chocolate & whisk until smooth. Pour over top of cake still in pan. Gently shake pan to distribute ganache evenly over top of cake. Refrigerate cake in pan until ganache is set, about 2 hrs.
  2. Run a knife around the pan to loosen the cake & release sides.
  3. Cover with chocolate shavings & cocoa dusting.
  4. You can make the cake 2 days ahead. Cover & keep in the fridge.
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