Cullinary creations

Adventures come in all sorts of forms, particularly if you are open to them.  I sometimes I have this epiphany or outer body experience where I can see my life as one gigantic adventure - maybe not the day to day things, but the whole picture.  I can really see it you know.  Then, I get exhausted and wonder when its gonna stop and Ill be normal.  Alas, thats just not possible for me and the feeling leaves quickly.  I believe that many parents can relate - particularly those with young children.  Mostly because the children bring chaos, excitement and most importantly an unexpected view of life.  They teach you new ways of looking at life and remind you of how you used to look at life.  This is how India feels to me.  Constantly reminding me I know nothing and keeping me on my toes...for even the simplest of things.

Karen's box o'love

Its been over 300 days and I am now honestly starting to miss familiar food.  Its slightly different than getting the extra loving and extremely appreciated care packages from you lovely people at home.  Those are filled with love and a different kind of food (mostly junk food :0).  I know Ive joked about it in the past - craving something like Taco's and well any sort of Mexican food - but never really had the motivation to do anything about it.  Till recently.  Had a bug up my butt and decided I was going to make something - but what?  - Something simple! Something quick! something that is more "organic" meaning I can make everything from scratch - no jar of or sachet of or box of something processed and filled with chemical names i can't remember.  OH YES - and it CAN NOT be baked!  No oven you see.  Not many people here in India have ovens - at least not those that Ive met.  I then remembered Byrons mother (Debbi) made these amazing cookies that are No Bake cookies.  all you need is milk, sugar (key ingrediance in chai so I can get that here no probs - right!), oat - again should be easy to get, vanilla, butter and coco powder - this might be the hardest part.  I was so caught up in the idea of making this that I thought - hey what else can I make?  Pancakes!!  Yeah! - but wait...how do you make them from scratch without Bisquick or Pancake mix!  I know Ill google it! - HA!  Try to google pancakes and you will find that 95% of the recipes say - eggs, milk, water and 2 cups of pancake mix. uhhh thanks??!?? Fine then! French Toast!! yeah - ooh yummy breakfast food of the gods.  Thats easy too, just cinnammamaon, nutmeg, vanilla, milk, egg, and bread....

Now remember from previous posts about how food that is supposed to be "Continental" or "Western" never really tastes the same?  Like they have American Sour Cream & Onion potato chips - they aren't quite the same.  Pringles - not quite the same...McDonalds McChicken is spicy and the Subway Melt comes with something that is called Bacon but is NOT bacon....and what the heck is chicken ham??  Anyway - keep this in mind.

So I went to the store with Divya to buy the supplies....
Milk - comes in a plastic bag or is boxed milk.  I didn't know that the bag milk only has a shelf life of 2 days.  I also didn't know that if you let it sit in a bowl over night (in my fridge) it will form a skin or separate the cream out of the milk - EUREKA!  Sour Cream!!  Oh I was so excited to discover this...knowledge to be put to use later...

Sour Cream

Sugar here is the larger crystal chunks.  Fine granular sugar like what we have (table sugar) is not the "standard" sugar.  To get that kind of sugar you have to ask for powdered sugar.  Powdered sugar - like what bakers use to sprinkle on top of french toast - can't find that anywhere here.  Im sure in Delhi you could find or maybe if I really really really looked.  But I don't have that kind of energy nor that kind of money because Im sure it would be expensive.  So, not knowing how much I would need - mmmm 1/2 kilo would do...
Vanilla - as long as you ask for vanilla essence you will do fine, people know what that is.
Coco powder surprisingly was also easily obtainable - though it was not Hershey nor did I know if it really was the kind you bake with.  Yet thinking about it remember, here - things are made from scratch, so any time I drink hot coco its this coco powder that has had sugar added to it.  Duh Kerry!  Not everything has to come pre-mixed like Swiss Miss...
Butter, eggs, bread check!  I almost had all the stuff!  woohoo...

Cinnamon bark

Nutmeg - asked for it and then had to ask for it in the Hindi - and yeah no problem.  Store clerk went to get some.  Surprise to me came back with a bag of nuts.  Whole nutmegs! Now, I had gotten some nutmeg in the British Virgin Islands and I brought them back for novelty I think, never really knew what to do with them...hmmm...OK I can deal...Ive got my leatherman I can crack them right?
Cinnamon - sure! no problem.  Now, cuz I saw the nuts and because we asked, they didn't have ground cinnamon, rather just the sticks.  OK fine!  I can work with that....Like the sticks they put into coffee, just grate it a little and poof you got powder!...uh...I got bark.  Cinnamon bark.  How the hell do you grind bark?...OK Ive got my leatherman, I can deal!
Remembering 1/2 way through my shopping experience that what goes ontop of french toast?? SYRUP.  yeaaaahhh...hmmmm...not so much.  No maple syrup.  Crap! No powdered sugar.  Crap.  Now what? Ill just have to make my own!

So...now Ive got all the stuff or close enough right?  I get back to my room and start to create!  oooh. crap. what does 1 cup equal in metric? or um....what in my room actually has a measurement on it that I can convert into a known quantity??? Dang it!  OH I know...I got 500g of sugar...so, about 1/2 of that would equal 200g and 200g equals 1 cup.  So...um...this bowl it takes ~ 4 bowls to measure out the 500g - so done!  I know this bowl is ~100g.  Yippie!  hmmmm....

French toast and a little bit of the 1st batch of mammaw cookies

Does crystal sugar equate to the same amount of granular sugar? Scraping the bark and using a knife to "chip" away at the bark isn't cutting it...its just making slivers of bark....my leatherman isn't opening the nuts.  NUTS!!! (Lightbulb clicks) It can't be that hard - Indians do it all the time....MORTER AND PESTLE!  Yeah thats it...shoot, where to get (sit n think like scratching my head)...The Kitchens!  Yeah the kitchen staff can help me out - geez!  Done - 2 hours later, get the bark and nut picked up in powdered form and I only spent 1 hour making cinnamon slivers...

Divya and Roshni help eat the 2nd batch

Making my own simple syrup was pretty simple (with the help of google and a suggestion made by Divya) and then I got experimental and decided to make in addition to regular syrup, strawberry syrup out of the strawberry jelly Ive got...
 So very pleased with myself, I invite Divya over for dinner - make her some french toast and then bring over the cookies to people in the old hostel.  They snarf them down to where Ive got nothin left in 5 minutes.  Woohoo Success!  A little taste of home and all is happy.
Being high on my success I decide to make another batch of cookies....alas, couldn't find butter.  Cookies don't set without butter.  Margarine doesn't do it.  So, now Ive basically got this gooey batter to eat with spoons cuz it isn't going to form any solid mass in this humidity.

Roshni - poster child

Divya Super Chief