Desserts and Sweets

Cherry-Plum Cobbler

4:03 AM

Baking with fruits is a new phenomenon in my kitchen, which started last year. Thanks to the blog world and those luscious summer bakes that you clicked and presented and which made me droooool in all its true senses. Before that the frugal me never thought of buying those packs of overtly priced strawberries or cherries.  They looked oh so luscious from a distant with a divine aroma but when bitten makes you throw it as soon as possible for its more sour than lemon taste.  But anyways Hubby wanted to try them and brought a packet when they were offered at half their original price.  After looking for a good recipe to fit our circumstances I got one based on David Lebovitz’s. it was easy to assemble and called for very few things. So on one weekend night when the hubby was busy putting the baby to bed I made this to jazz up our healthy meal of Moroccan Harira. And boy did we like it??? We were totally floored with the union of this just out of the oven hot cherry-berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream...a match made in heaven.

Since then I have made it several times and every time I wanted to post the recipe. But just the thought of the cobblers cooling down made me sick. I wanted to enjoy the whole experience of scooping out a small spoonful of the bubbling fruit sauce with the soft buttery biscuit and then seize a tiny bit of melting vanilla ice cream and putting the dripping spoon in my mouth. Trust me its heavenly and by no means I could ever let it go, NO, not even for my blog. But this time when Hubby got a big packet of cherries from New market and we enjoyed the cherry cobbler for dinner for back to back two consecutive days….I finally was ready to click this blissful dessert for my blog.

So I took out the linen I planned for the shoot, wiped the spoon and charged my camera battery.  However, once the cobbler was ready the scene was different. Hubby quickly grabbed one ramekin and asked me to manage with the other three. It’s always difficult to shoot a great dessert which is supposed to be enjoyed hot what aggravated the situation of the greedy hubby licking his spoons clean in front of me. After blaming him that he doesn’t show any support to my blog finally the foodie in me could not resist. I finished the shoot in hurry with whatever was in front of me.  So now, you know whom to blame for these lousy pictures. Right!!! But take my words on the recipe. Do yourself a favor a make a batch of this wonderful summer fruit dessert, and no matter what enjoy them hot.
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Baking Supplies n Kolkata

Baking Ingredients/Baking Supplies in Kolkata

10:38 AM

source: recipegarden.com


Finding good quality ingredients for baking in India has always been a difficult task. All our desire to bake that gorgeous fancy cake that we drooled on and on at someone's blog residing in USA or UK, has to die an early death because of this dearth of most baking ingredients. Forget about the fancy gumpaste or gluten free flours, even good  food colours or a simple block of good cooking chocolate is not locally or easily available. Also you need to know and look for them at the right place.  It took me a long time before I could lay my hands on simple white cupcake liners.They who have relatives abroad could be lucky but not all relatives are generous enough to give you a share of their precious luggage space to carry your prepaid tiny box of  paper liners or gumpaste cutters. 

In my 5 years stay in Bangalore (also the time when I started baking seriously) I discovered many places to get my baking goodies but this recent shift to Kolkata made me look for them from scratch.  So here is my little attempt to jot down all the places that stock up some of the basic and not so basic baking supplies in Kolkata. 

Before I start let me make an disclaimer that if you find this post similar to someone else's yes am totally inspired by Suma's post that helped a lot of people to look for preciosu baking items in right places. With a big thanks to her Am shamelessly following her here.
Apna Dukan
Near Babarali's back entrance.

  • Cake tins, moulds, baking equipments
  • They have good quality chocolate blocks including real chocolates, 
  • almost all sweet and savoury baking ingredients
  • Creams from various brands
  • Jams, jellies stuffings etc
  1. The staffs here are very helpful.  
  2. The prices are very reasonable.

Baborally Sirdar
Please check the prices, expiry date and quality if you plan to buy something from here. Recently there have been many incidents of customer complaining regarding prices and quality in this shop.
NB 45,47,48. New Market. Kolkata 87. (Opp.Kalakunj)
Ph: 9831111793
Mon.-Sat.: 11a.M. to 7 P.M.
Sunday closed
This is kind of an one stop destination for all your baking needs
  • All types of cake tins: mostly those aluminium and non stick cake tins of all shapes and sizes. They even have muffin pans, cookie trays, swiss roll tins, bread pans etc. The quality of baking tins are really good with high sides.
  • Pie tin and tart moulds: aluminium pie cases in different sizes, also very small single tart moulds are available.
  • Bundt pans: 2/3 sizes are available in both aluminium and non-stick materials.
  • Cookie cutters: apart from the regular shapes, animal shaped cookie cutters are also available in 2 sizes.
  • Spring form Tin: saw 2 sizes. I bought one 9” size and its very good.
  • Silicon Moulds: only cup cake moulds are available.
  • Plastic chocolate moulds: in various designs.
  • Butter scotch bits.
  • Chocolate chips: various types of chocolate chips and virmicellis are available.
  • Sprinklers: 5-6 varieties of chocolate and sugar coated sprinklers are available. Like virmicellies and hundreds and thousands.
  • Cooking chocolates: Indian and imported dark and milk chocolate bars are available in 500 gms and 1 kg size.
  • Baking powder and baking soda of 2-3 brands are available.
  • Whipping cream: both dairy and non dairy creams are available. I bought the tropolite and Value star brands in 1 kg size. Rich’s is also available in 2 kg size. These are a;; non dairy variety and is really really good.
  • Piping bags: separate bags with different nozzles are available here.
  • Baking tools: like spatulas, serrated knife, icing knife, cake comb etc are also available.
  • Muffin or cupcake liners: only white butter paper liners are available in the regular and small sizes.
  • Butter paper: available here and I saw them for the first time. Correct me if am wrong that they are not different from normal tracing papers.
  • Tutti frutti: available in red, green and yellow colour.
  • Food colour and essence are available
  • Tinned fruits: like cherry, pineapple and mixed fruits are there in big tins. Also pie filling of various types are available.
  • Cheese: all types of cream cheese, mozzarella and feta cheeses are available.
  • Wheat gluten: loose gluten is sold in min 1 kg qty.
  • Spring roll wraps: sold in min ½ kg qty.
  • Liquid glucose: carry your own container for this.
  • Fresh and dry yeasts.
  • White butter: in 100 gms size
Edited in 2014
They now are stocking 
  • readymade Fondant (Satin ice and Tropolite), 
  • Gel colours, 
  • Fondant tools, 
  • Imported confettis and 
  • flavours etc. 
New market other shops:
If you enter new market through the adjacent road to Metro cinema there are numerous shops selling fresh whipping cream (dairy).

 Jhonson’s; Hog market
This is situated on the road mentioned above. They stock on perishable baking items. But you need to buy these in bulk.
  • Tutti frutti
  • Dry fruits
  • Preserves
  • Pie fillings
  • Cake toppings
  • Muffin liners
  • Cake sprinklers
  • Colours etc
Spencers, South city mall
Lower basement
(check the gourmet food section near the payment isle)
  • Cream cheese: philadelphia brand
  • Mascarpone cheese
  • Amul cream (low fat; 25% )
  • Spatulas and palette knife
  • Ener-G egg replacer
  • Gluten free self raising and other flours
  • Vanilla and other essence
  • Cocoa powder
  • Dry fruits like almonds. Pistachio, prunes, raisins, pears etc
  • Tinned fruits
  • Imported preserves
  • Pie filling, mango puree etc.
  • Fresh cherries and strawberries: available during season
Edited in 2014
you will also get 
  • Hazelnuts, 
  • dried cranberries, 
  • dried blueberries, 
  • readymade bread and cake mixes.
Spencer’s; Prince Anwar Shah connector
  • Cocoa powder
  • Self raising flours
  • Ener-g egg replacer
  • Baking powder
  • Cheese
  • Corn meal
Hiramoti:
Lower basement; South city mall
(Adjacent to spencer's)
They stock on baking tools
  • Spatulas
  • Cake moulds, pie tins, cookie cutters
  • Borosil and Domit baking pans
  • Various knives, piping bags etc
Shops in Gariahat market:
There are various shops in ground and first floors. They sell almost all sizes and shapes of cake tins.
The shops selling dry fruits also store muffin liners in small and medium size. They also have silver cupcake liners.

Metro Cash and Carry; E.M.Bypass

This store is mainly for whole sellers but retailers can also buy if they have Business owner cards (you need to have a business, seeing which the authority there will issue your entry pass). This store has many items that are not available outside. But you need to buy things in bulk.

  • A Reader pointed out a store in New market who supplies Philly cream cheese at a very reasonable rate : contact no.  09910759868. 

DIVYA'S23, canal street 
Pratibha enclave
Block B kolkata 48
Near dafodil hospital, laketown - vip crossing
Contact - 9874470002 / 9330201212


Online stores are supplying almost everything under the sun these days. Try ordering from them if you dont get the required item locally but check the courier price and the courier company they use. Most of the time the shipping charges are on a very higher side and in Kolkata if the courier service is not one of those top strata you get very bad service. Trust be I had very bad experience so be sure to check this before you place your order.
  1. Gourmetco.in 
  2. ccdshop.com you get almost everything
  3. Bakersmart.co.in again for everything and the prices are very competitive
  4. Also there is Passionatebaking. am not sure if they have a website. Try facebook to place order to them.

I have listed only the shops in southern Kolkata, which I am familiar with. If anyone knows of any shops apart from the ones listed above please drop me a line in the comments section. I will update this post at the earliest.

 For Baking Supplies in Bangalore please refer to this post of Suma. she has done one tremendous job of listing everything under one post with Google maps.
http://sumarowjee.blogspot.com/2010/01/whipping-cream.html





Tags:
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Bengali

Kathal bij-er Chop (Jackfruit seed's chop)

1:43 PM


There are two types of dishes. One that you grow up eating and two that you know exists but never get a chance to taste. This Kathal bij-er bora is one such dish that I have heard from everyone and almost at every occasion. Come summer, every time you mention jack fruit, people will inevitably ask you whether you have made chops with jackfruit seeds or how delicious it tastes.. Though this was one of my dida’s famous recipes but for some unknown reason I never got a chance to taste it when she was with us. And even more unusually Maa never made this at home. So this summer when I saw the seeds being sold in the market I decided to try this. In my family I am known as a jackfruit lover. I love this fruit in each and every form. Raw jackfruit curry is one of my favourite and simply love to relish on the sweet nutty taste of jackfruit seeds too.

In Bangalore we never got to see the seeds in the market. The fewer seeds that I got from the ripe fruits eating all by myself were not enough to make anything other than adding them to charchari.  So this time I was quite ecstatic to see the huge quantity I brought home. I wanted to make many a things with this, the beautifuuly nutty smoky seeds that dida used to roast on the slow embers of wood fire.  Or the pra0wn and jackfruit seeds curry I just watched on the Television…But this chop topped my to do list. Then again I don’t have the recipe. So a quick call was made to my Masimoni (maternal aunt). She is a great cook and has learnt a lot of dishes from Dida, and surprise surprise she was making that same dish when I called her. Summer is the time to savor.

I was quite excited to have finally got the chance to cook this myself so another quick call later Baba was invited for tea too. It was a little tricky but quite easy to cook if you have a good non-stick pan. Baba and hubby liked it thoroughly and the deep fry lover lil monster of mine loved it (no wonder!!!) too. but I wasn’t pleased as I was unsure how it fared on the authenticity scale. Its really difficult to grade a recipe unless you know how the real taste should be. So this weekend when Masimoni was here I made it again, and I got the best compliment ever when she said’ you made it better than me’.

If you ask me,  Yes I will again make this next summer coz  it tastes real real good. What floored me was the wonderful aroma of the boiled jackfruit seeds mingled with all the pounded spices.  And the fact that it is made with something that we generally throw away makes it extra special. If you want just give it a try and I can promise you wont be disappointed. This goes perfectly well with evening tea.

Before I get into the recipe let me tell you that this could be baked as well. For all you calorie counters that’s an easy yet yummy treat. and this treat is healthy too. this is what I just found
"The seeds would give you around 135 kcal/ 100 gms. It is a rich source of complex carbohydrate, dietary fiber, vitamins like vitamin A, C and certain B vitamins, and minerals like calcium, zinc, and phosphorous. They contain lignans, isoflavones, saponins, that are called phytonutrients and their health benefits are wide-ranging from anti-cancer to antihypertensive, anti-ageing, antioxidant, anti-ulcer, etc. Jackfruit seed powder has the ability to relieve discomfort due to indigestion." Source
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Cakes cookies n savory goodies

Eggless Stone fruit Tea Cake

1:02 PM


This post is for all those friends of mine who liked to read about my sonny boy and commented that he is soo sweet. Yeah!  I know he is a crowd puller in every true sense and I realised  it the time he was born.  That bald little bundle dint cry  for a second, rather looked amusedly at the doctors. Trust me am not making a single word when I say he actually winked at me the time he was brought to me for the first time.  He always has been a very quite boy but knows how to grab attention when he wants to.  Just like any other kid of his age he He loves to watch nursery rhymes on TV, listening to Rabindra sangeet and talking to his soft toys and between doing all these he does his things in silence. When you happily fold clothes thinking that the baby is watching cartoon network  he actually would be found in the bathroom, standing on a stool playing with the water.  He also has this peculiar habit of doing just the opposite what he is asked for. If we want him to sit with his books we actually have to tell him ' No no you dont have to study now, please put your books on the shelf’.  And there he is with his bookd, talking to himself, pointing to the pictures ‘this is a bus, that is a taxi…’

 Like any other kid of his age he does his share of mischief. The biggest problem with him is his inquisitiveness. I know that’s good but what if someone needs to know how it feels to lock Mummy in the bathroom. Yes that nightmarish thing happened to me during the time when we just shifted base and was staying with my parents. I am very scared of such mishaps around children and always prefer to make the house child safe. But that was only for a very small period of time and we always have full time house help. Still such a bad incident took place on a lonely afternoon when the househelp took a half day break and parents were on work. the brat suddenly woke up from his afternoon nap and decided to excite himself by just locking the bathroom door from outside. That was the most scariest one hour of my life when I pleaded the little one to try and open the door just the way he locked it and he kept on trying and saying ‘Hochhe na, hochhe na (Its not working)’. Finally the watchman had to break a lock and a door to save us.

Anyways let me get back to today’s recipe for now.  I got this idea of stonefruit cake from the blogosphere. When I saw this light and pretty  tea time cake with all those fruits peeking from it,  I knew I have to make it. Stonefruits are not very easily available here and this is the first time I tasted plum. Somehow this fruit never appealed to me when I was in Bangalore and I hardly thought about putting them in my weekly grocery bag. This time too I only bought one piece to bake with but that was so juicy and sweet, next day I went back to the shop and bought a huge batch. Also this is the first time I have baked a cake with flaxseeds.  Every other day you see articles about the goodness of these seeds and trust me it truly stands to its name of vegan egg.  You just have to soak some flaxseed powder in water for half an hour and at the end of this time you have sticky vegan egg ready for your baking spree. If you have been reading my blog you must have noticed that am not much eggless bake person but now am a believer and I really dint miss the egg in this cake. The only thing am skeptical about is the little soggy bits around the fruits. As I already said I made it for the first time and have never ate it elsewhere so am not sure if that’s normal with fresh fruit cakes. I would definitely appreciate your comments on this. If it’s a fiasco please tell me how to overcome this as I want to bake this again and again.
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Bengali

Aam-er Morobba (Raw Mango Preserve)

11:55 AM

It’s a great joy to see my little one growing each day. His father says he sees something new in him when he comes back from office. Some days he says some new words and some days shows new feelings. Though it’s too early to say, but till now he has grown to be a good hearted person. He is kind to everyone. Even on the road if someone coughs he would put out his water bottle for him drink. If anyone in the house ever falls sick he would be there at his bedside asking whether he needs water or medicines or anything else. And after providing that, he would ask ‘akhon thik lagche?’ are you feeling better.  He would even offer to massage your forehead if you retire to bed early. Will bring cream and apply to your  leg  you complain about muscle pain or if he thinks your legs are paining. Its another matter that he would even offer to press your neck if you complain about neck or throat pain.


right now am down with viral fever and  pharyngitis. My domestic help 'B' just made a cup of hot tea but am so lost in my blog world that the tea went cold. And you wont trust but my lil one just lifted the cup and with utmost care took the cup to the kitchen for 'B' to reheat it for his mumum. It was a sight to watch him walk in such small steps with a very serious face not to splash a single drop....which brought tears to my eyes.

He is very helpful in the kitchen too. When I cook he would always be there at my side. Offering to tip in the potatoes or sprinkle little more salt. Once am done he needs to taste the dish to check if the seasoning is right. After I give him a spoonful of the curry, with a serious face he would declare 'Nun thik ache/(rightly seasoned)'.

He loves animals and almost everyday pleads to us to get him one doggy. Remember this post where he was excited with the fishes Hubby caught from the road? now my younger brother has got him one. They together have named him 'Nemo'. Now with Nemo and a little piece of this murabba on his plate makes it easy for me to feed him. Maa made this for her grand children and they instantly loved it. Niece calls this Churabba for some unknown reason and my little brat is too philosophical to think about the name. As long as he gets his share of that sweet little piece, he is satisfied.

Murabba or morobba (in Bengali), or preserved fruits in thick sugar syrup,  is  an Arabic word that refers to savory or sweet jam or pickle in many regions of Pakistan and also Gujarat region of India. Traditionally it is sweet, prepared with raw mangoes, sugar, and spices.  This fruit pickle originated in Gurjistan, Republic of Georgia, where they used to make it with cherries and  strawberries. But when 'The Gurjars travelled to India to escape invaders, migrating to three regions of modern day India, (Rajasthan, Gujarat and North Jammu, and the Northern Pakistan area of Gujarat. the Gurjs or Gurjars initially settled in Gujarat and hence Gujarat got its name.' ) they used the same process to preserve local mangoes. This also is a tea time favourite in azerbizan which is known as Murebbesi. Check out Farida's space for more murabba recipe made with quince and watermelon rind.

The recipe am sharing here is our family recipe or more or less the recipe in which morobba is made in Bengal. Still I have not tried my hands in this and am just typing down the recipe as told by my Maa. Now, You know how it is with mothers, they never take the actual measurement and will expect you to figure that out on your own. I tried to be as specific as I can and I think you would be fine if you just follow this and apply little bit of your cooking skills. Recipe is easy but takes little bit of time. But if you have a sweet tooth you would not be disappointed at the end. You would be rewarded with an awesome delicacy of sweet, succulent and juicy pieces of raw mangoes in honey smooth golden syrup.
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