Sugar cookies with royal icing

By definition, a sugar cookie consists of sugar, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, and, baking powder or baking soda. Sugar cookies may be formed by hand or rolled and cut into shapes. They are commonly decorated with frosting, sprinkles, or a combination of both. They can also be cut into decorative shapes and figures. In North America, sugar cookies are popular during the Christmas and Halloween time.

However, the modern incarnation of the authentic sugar cookie can be traced back to the mid 1700s in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. There, German Protestant settlers created the round, crumbly, buttery cookie that came to be known as the Nazareth Sugar Cookie. Sugar cookies probably derived from an earlier, unleavened cookie called a “jumble,” which is a biscuit that gained popularity in the 17th and 18th century in Europe mainly because as a non-leavened food, it could be dried and stored for many months.

The modern Nazareth-style sugar cookie has gained enormous popularity in America. Sometime in the 1930s it became a tradition for children to leave sugar cookies and milk out for Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Because of how easy it is to cut and shape the sugar cookie dough, custom cookies have become wildly popular.

My niece made these sugar cookies for her son's fifth birthday.   Her son wanted a birthday theme The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  She and her son worked hard to create butterfly and caterpillar cookies to perfection.  The end result made the kid a very happy boy.  Adults who looked at these cookies were impressed by her baking, icing and artistic skills.  I am very happy to share the recipe of sugar cookies and the royal icing here:

Ingredients (for cookies):

1 1/2 cups butter on room temperature, 2 cups white sugar, 4 eggs, 1tsp vanilla extract,  5 cups white flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt

Method (for cookies):

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Ingredients (for icing):

2 lbs confectioner’s sugar, 3/4 cup meringue powder(dry egg white powder), 1 1/2 cup warm water, 2 to 3 tbsp some extract or flavoring.

Method (for icing):

Add the dry ingredients first. Use your mixer’s whisk attachment to incorporate the sugar and meringue powder.  Add the extract to the water and slowly add it to the dry ingredients while mixing. At first the icing will be very liquid-like.

Continue to mix it at medium to high speed until it is fluffy and stiff peaks form.  It takes about 7-10 minutes.  Mixing times vary as per your mixer or food processor.  You can stop mixing as soon as it becomes stiff.  

You can mix color in this stiff icing.  Color choice and shape are purely individual decision.

Home made Strawberry Jam

The strawberry season generally starts in mid June in Illinois, USA and continues for three four weeks, depending on the weather and how many people come to pick strawberries.  Most of the strawberry farms were within an hour and a half drive from where we live.  Some farms have attractions for children while some others have miles of fields around them.  We went to strawberry farm at Marengo, Illinois.  We were seven adults and six children and were given baskets by the farm managers to pick strawberries.  The deal was we could eat strawberries for free but whatever we fill our baskets with, we were to pay only for that.  Picking strawberries was a wonderful experience with loads of fun.  These delectable red berries were very sweet and juicy.  Since we got so many strawberries, I decided to make jam out of these.

I did not know making strawberry jam was so easy.  Only tough part was to bottle the jam so that it can be preserved for sometime.  Most people put double sugar but I tried with less sugar as my strawberries were very sweet.

Ingredients:

5 cups crushed strawberries, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 6 tbsp pectin, 5 cups of sugar

Method:

Combine strawberries, lemon juice in a saucepan.  Gradually stir in pectin.  Bring mixture to a full boil, stirring constantly.  It is a good idea to wear kitchen mitts while stirring the hot mixture as it tends to splash.  Add sugar and stir so that sugar gets dissolved.  Bring it to a boil for another minute while stirring constantly.  Mixture will get to thicken a little. Turn off the flame.  Skim foam if necessary.  Transfer the hot jam to hot sterile bottles. Fill the bottles leaving a gap of 1 CM or 0.5" from the rim.

In the meanwhile, wash the jars and lids separately and put them in boiling water in order to sterilized.  Take them out on a  towel before filling them with hot prepared jam.  If your jars will be cold, they will crack when you fill them with hot jam.

Once jam is filled, mount the lid and twist to close with moderate strength. Take a big pot of lukewarm water.  Place the jam filled jars in the water.  Make sure that water level in the pot is above the top layer of the jars.  Boil this for ten minutes by covering the pot with the lid.  Turn off the flame and let jars stay in the pot till water cools off. Take them out on a towel.  Leave them out for 12 to 24 hours before putting them in the refrigerator.  If the middle of the jar lid is firm it means it is sealed properly but if it is not sealed properly, you may have to repeat the process of pasteurizing with different lid.

If you prefer to eat your jam within three weeks, you can omit pectin.

Enjoy your home made scrumptious strawberry jam.

Cherry Salsa

My brother's backyard has a cherry tree which is laden with beautiful looking red and crimson cherries. Last week my sister-in-law and I picked these cherries of a branch.

We decided to make cherry salsa with those. Result was so yummy that I could not stop myself from eating that. The best part is, it is way too simple and requires a very few ingredients.

Whether tart or sweet, cherries are a great pain reliever and help you against the pre mature aging. Cherries, along with many other berries, are a rich source of antioxidants. They help prevent or repair the damage that is done to the body’s cells by free radicals. This means that antioxidants replace free radicals in our body before they can cause any damage. Cherries help in relieving arthritis and gout. By helping reduce inflammation in the body, the anthocyanin and bioflavonoids in cherries also help eliminate migraine headaches. These compounds are known to have similar activity to aspirin and ibuprofen.

With such nutritious value, it was hard to throw away those tart cherries. So we made a salsa and ate with brown rice crackers. Here is the simple recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups tart cherries, 1 medium red onion chopped finely, 1 green chilly pepper, 1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves washed and chopped finely, salt to taste, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/4 tsp sugar

Method:

Wash and cut cherries into two halves. Take out the pits and put them in a big bowl.
Add onion, salt, sugar and cumin powder and mix it well. Take out the seeds of the green chilly pepper before chopping into small pieces. Add this to the mixture. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. No need for lemon juice as cherries are tart enough.
Have the salsa with corn chips or any kind of crackers. Bon appetit !

Gazpacho, the cold soup

Gazpacho is a soup made of raw vegetables and served cold. It originated in Southern Spain. Gazpacho is widely eaten in Spain and Portugal especially in the hot summer months as it is very refreshing.

Traditionally, gazpacho was made by pounding the vegetables in a mortar with a pestle. This laborious method is still used sometimes as it helps keep the gazpacho cool and does not give a completely smooth consistency created by blenders and food processors. A traditional way of preparation was to pound garlic cloves in a mortar, then a little soaked stale bread, olive oil and salt were added to make a paste. The very ripe tomatoes and vinegar were added to this mix.  In the days before refrigeration the gazpacho was left in an unglazed earthenware pot to cool by evaporation, and some water was added.

The basic Gazpacho gave rise to many variants. Gazpacho can be classified by color. Red, white and pale green are the colors of the different kinds of Gazpacho. The red or the basic one includes tomatoes, white one does not include tomatoes but it includes some dried fruits and the last variant the green one is made with certain spices and condiments.

Often Gazpacho is made with sour cream and then some vegetables are added for a flavor. I tried to make gazpacho a little bit more healthy so I completely omitted the sour cream. Instead I used butter milk and yogurt to give a smooth texture plus the cucumber, basil, mint and sprig onion were added to fit into the true definition of Gazpacho.

Ingredients:

2 cups butter milk, 4 tbsp of fresh yogurt, 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, 1 English cucumber peeled, seeds removed and chopped in to small pieces, 1/2 cup scallion chopped, salt to taste, 1 tbsp juice of fresh lemon, hot sauce or tabasco (optional)

Method:

Puree yogurt, butter milk, basil, mint, scallion in a blender. Add cucumber. Pulse until just combined but still slightly chunky.
Stir in lemon juice and hot sauce, and season with salt. Chill soup at least 2 hours before serving. This soup is best served the same day. You may top each serving with thin cucumber slices if desired.

Gourmet Upma

Other day I was meeting some old friends over brunch.  It was a pot luck so I decided to make Upma as my share of dishes to the bruch spread.  Upma is a common South Indian breakfast dish cooked as a thick porridge from dry roasted semolina.   There are many ways of preparing Upma.  In fact every cook usually incorporates variations to Upma flavor by adding certain spices and condiments.

Upma can be made in a very simple and basic way by not adding any condiments.  In fact the basic one would be just semolina, water, salt and mustard seeds.  I have added some other spices and condiments and turned the Upma into a gourmet one.  My friends liked it so much that they took second and third helpings.  Here is me recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup Semolina(sooji), 2 cups of boiling water, 1 medium onion chopped finely, 1/2 cup chopped red pepper(bell pepper),  1 medium potato boiled and cut into small cubes, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 12 - 15 curry leaves, 3 tsp cooking oil, 1 tsp ghee, 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, 1/4 cup cashews, 1/2 tsp coriander powder, salt to taste

Method:

Dry roast semolina.  You may roast semolina a day before and put in a airtight container.  

Heat the cooking oil, add cumin seeds and after 10 seconds add mustard seeds.  When they stop spluttering, add onion.  When onion turn light brown, add red pepper and potato cubes.  Sauté this mix for  two minutes.  Add curry leaves, peanuts, cashews and coriander powder.  Now add roasted semolina to this. 

Mix it well and add salt.  Add two cups of boiling water to this mix and stir continuously till the mixture thickens.

At the end, sprinkle melted ghee and stir it once.

Enjoy hot with pickle, chutney or just a cup of tea or coffee.

Rasgulla the King of Indian Sweets

Rasgulla is a syrupy sweet of Bengal and Orissa. It is mainly prepared by kneading chenna(the cottage cheese of India). These are rolled into small balls, and then boiled in light syrup made of sugar. This is done until the sugar enters the balls. Rasgulla or Rasagolla(as called in Bengal) has a very interesting history.

Rasgullas were invented in the holy city of Puri(Orissa)back in the 13th century. The Hindu female deity Lakshmi(Goddess of wealth) is served rasagollas on the last day of the annual Rath Yatra festival at Puri. Since this is almost 700 year old tradition the existence of this white spongy sweet is that old too.

The recipe or rasgulla then spread from Orissa to West Bengal. All this happened during the Renaissance when the Brahmin cooks from Orissa were employed by the Bengali families. It was from here that the various Orissa delicacies got incorporated into the Bengali kitchen.

Nobin Das, who was a confectioner in Kolkata is considered as the father of rasgulla. He is famously known as "Rasagolla's Columbus". He modified the original recipe of this sweet to give it longer shelf life. It was K.C. Das, son of Nobin Das who started the canned Rasgulla concept and that is how Rasgulla reached other parts of India. With the time, it gained popularity around the wold.

I consider Rasgulla as the king of all Indian sweets. If you eat one Rasgulla it is very hard to resist not to take second or third helping.

I decided to make the Rasgulla at home.  Here is my simple recipe:

Ingredients:

5 cups of milk, 3 tbsp of lemon juice, 1 cup of sugar, 4 cups of water, 1/2 tsp of rose or kewra essence

Method:

Take milk in a heavy pan and boil on the medium flame. When milk starts to boil, reduce the flame and add lemon juice gradually. Stir it gently till milk starts to curdle. Turn off the flame and let it cool off for a while. Take cheese cloth, place it on a colander and let curdled milk pass through the cheese cloth. Whey will drain away and thick creamy chenna will be left in the cheese cloth. Run this chenna or paneer under the cold water so that no residues of lemon are left in this. Now collect the opposite links of the cheese cloth tie then on the water tap of the kitchen sink.

Let all the water drain away. It takes almost an hour to two hours. After two hours or so, you may squeeze the chenna bundle gently between your palms so that no excess water is left. Transfer the chenna into a pan and knead it for 25 minutes. Put a drop of oil on your hands and make small round balls. When all the balls are made, place these on a plate.

In the meanwhile, make a sugar syrup by adding one cup of sugar to four cups of water in an uncovered pressure cooker. Give it a boil till all the sugar is dissolved. Now put six or seven of the white chenna balls in the pressure cooker(depends on the size of your cooker) and close the lid of the cooker. These chenna balls will expand in the sugar syrup. When steam starts to build, reduce the flame to low and put the timer for exact 7 minutes. Turn off the stove and immediately put the pressure cooker under the cold water tap in the kitchen sink. This will help opening the lid.

Take out the rasgullas in a big bowl with some syrup. Let them cool off.  Add rose or kewra essence to the bowl.  Then put this bowl in the refrigerator.

Your mouth watering Bengali rasgullas are ready. Enjoy with friends and family.

Note:

It will be a good idea to make chenna a night before so that by next morning all the whey will drain away.  If little water is left in the chenna, your rasgullas will turn flat or even break.

Pongal : the comfort food

One of those days when your stomach is acting out and you want to have some food which gives you that soothing feeling, it is Pongal. Pongal in South India and khichdi in North India are the comfort foods. They are pretty much made with same ingredients. Only difference is the way they are cooked.

We happen to go to Balaji temple of Greater Chicago in Aurora to attend a Annprashan(when a six month old kid eats solid food). This temple cafeteria has the best food. We ordered yogurt rice, tamarind rice,dosa, idli, vada and Pongal . Pongal was delicious beyond words. So much so, my niece even joked that she was thinking of coming to this cafeteria on a date with her husband just to enjoy freshly made Pongal.

I decided to make this comfort food. The end result was pretty good. So here is the recipe I am too glad to share with you all.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rice(washed twice), 1/4 cup mung dal(green gram yellow or split)washed, salt to taste, 5 or 6 cashews(split into halves and pan fried), 1/2 tsp of asafetida(hing powder), 1 tsp ginger grated, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp pepper corn, 1 tbsp cooking oil, 1 tsp ghee, 7 or 8 curry leaves

Method:

Heat oil in a deep pan.  Fry clean mung dal and rice for one minute. Add salt and 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds.  Add three cups of water.  Either pressure cook it for three or four whistles or cook in a pan till rice is mushy.

Heat ghee,  add hing powder, grated ginger, sauté for two seconds.  Add other half of cumin, mustard seeds, peppercorn and curry leaves. Add fried cashews and mix well. Decorate with a couple of cashews.

Enjoy with yogurt or pickle.