LEFTOVER BREAD DUMP CAKE

 

I WAS OUT ALL DAY TODAY!

..... And it had been a fulfilling venture! Cristine & I went out for an urgent piece of work there to the East Coast! We took the yellow line to Paya Lebar MRT & from there to Bedok through the green line; the train would run overhead in this area! This way I did take to the son's school, it seems it was just yesterday! From the Bedok MRT we took bus number 196 & look where we reached! Who is the guy in red t-shirt? Joseph Schooling, the gold winning Olympian swimmer! The black car is his! Our friend was just taking me to him for a selfie but he hurried towards the lift! They told us he is too down to the earth & greets whenever they see him in the lift or elsewhere! These are the oldest condominium style with spacious flats & common portico here! A lot of chair holders at the ministry level stay there!

Cristine's ma'am does not really like taking close ups, her greying eyelashes & eyebrows get visible & also the aging skin! She feels a bit sad about the greying part, her hair she is dyeing for two decades now, ever since her prince was born! I had a brief chat with our friends sipping the tea, whilst Cristine was enjoying her coffee! We could go yesterday, us couple in a car ride but T wanted Cristine to locate their home! On our way back, we took a bus again to the Bedok MRT & I took another bus to the Hougang Central & Cristine took train back home! For me, it would mean two change overs & I wished to be done with the work there today, to visit Kushi's Parlour for my facial hair trimming & and hair trimming! Due to chemical treatment for perming & then straightening, regular colouring, my hairs got totally dry & spoilt! The friends' home seemed too quiet today, the kids were in school! I and T have less of romantic liaison but I simply love the weekend evening trips with him whether to any friend's place or for a dine out! I would always want to go for outing with the man & the son; until the son's partner expresses displeasure, we can, na? 

I RARELY TAKE BUS RIDES HERE!

.... It was fun but! Except for the busy hours, they remain empty almost! Once I reached the known area, got a glimpse of Vincent's chamber, I was at peace! The Hougang Bus Interchange was an everyday affair between 2012-2016! We left but I keep going there regular! I am soon to walk through the Punggol river side & sing along my favourite Bollywood numbers or listen to Beethoven, his Fur Elise; piano is such class! I felt hungry & had that almond flaky pastry at the Hougang Interchange! Thereafter, had the haircut at a salon, again run by two women I have had a cut from quite number of times! Then, I bought some fruits for the girls at Kushi's; had my eyebrows, upper lips & chin cleaned! Then I had that ghee paper masala dosa & teh-o-kosong at an Indian stall! This is a Malaysian-Indian stall, yet the dosa was really paper thin & tasty but the sambar & chutney were not praiseworthy! I had the best chutneys & sambar at the Arya Bhawan, an Andhra Pradesh themed AC eatery!

But dosa causes me acidity, though I liked it! When I wish to have something, I would not care about the calorie intake! Just outside our back gate, every afternoon these kids would play! I enjoy watching, even in India this is the scenario! But our son would not want to go ever! As a child he did for sometime, he was different & others would troll him; he would run back home crying! Perhaps he loved his mother's warm & over protective lap! I know, in those days, he felt secured in his mother's lap, I do not mind if I did wrong parenting; my child grew up loving home so much so that not a single day during the pandemic he complained of boredom; he just enjoyed ordering food from outside!

It is 8:20 pm now & I have just taken another round of shower! In our families, we must take a shower after a hair cut! I sat on the couch for an hour as I did an oil massage, that too we are not supposed to but head on to the toilet! I am feeling too fresh!

I have taught all these to the son, do not know if he follows or not! At night, we would have dinner with "pepe diye magur mach er jhol, tomato-dhonepata musher dal, aloo-bellpepper bhaji"! In the past few months, I was having a lot of carbs, my blood sugar level increased! I thought doing an 18 hours of intermittent fasting gets me that liberty, but no, it does not work that way! I have limited the rice & roti, sugar intake but cannot denounce them!

WHAT IS THIS LEFTOVER BREAD DUMP CAKE?

Although I would ask you to use leftover bread slices, I have used the soda bread I cooked few days back! I felt it was just not right! I would not throw it off either! In the process of experimentation, I ended up cooking this vegetarian baked dessert LEFTOVER BREAD DUMP CAKE! I did it in few easy steps, I am not a pro-baker! I have used my newly bought mini-toaster oven! I did one for us & another for a friends' family, for their kids actually! 

In the process, the entire Sunday morning was gone; I forgot to click our fish & rice lunch! I did not get outside food unwilling to change & go out! T has to agree to move this body from the couch over the weekend, that he hates! Our dinner yesterday was that! I prefer making such thin chapatis! About this easy cook dump cake, not exactly a dump cake either; except for the few ingredients, I used a sugar-free orange marmalade, that I felt multiplied the taste!

INGREDIENTS :

LEFTOVER BREAD SLICE : 10-12

EVAPORATED CREAMER : 250 ML

ORANGE MARMALADE : A FEW SCOOP

SUGAR : 1/4 SMALL TEA CUP [I USED BROWN SUGAR]

FRUIT SALT : 1 TBSP [I USED THE ORIGINAL ENO]

VANILLA ESSENCE : 1 TSP

OIL : 1/2 SMALL TEA CUP

I GARNISHED WITH TOASTED & GROUND PISTACHIO

PROCEDURE :

I prepared a batter with pieces of leftover bread, oil, sugar! I poured it in a bowl & added the fruit salt & vanilla essence! I folded in well! 

I like hassle free cooking, placed a brown paper bowl in the cake tin! Then, I poured half of the batter! Thereafter, I added few scoops of sugar-free orange marmalade on it! I then tapped the tin a bit on the kitchen counter!

Thereafter, I added the rest of the batter, added few more scoops of sugar-free orange marmalade & tapped on the counter again!

I preheated the mini toaster oven at 180*C for 10 minutes; placed the cake tin on the tray & baked at 180*C for 40 minutes or little more! Every machine differ, you have to set the time through test & trial!

We liked the supremely yum dessert, be it warm or chilled!

PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES

The entire island is in a holiday mood right from today till Monday! Post afternoon most of the shops will get closed, people will just go out in flocks and indulge in Merry making.... The environment is similar to a Durga Puja or Christmas or an Eid celebration. Though we are not in to the mainstream of the island, the merriment touches our hearts too! As I or my man always say, whichever place we live in, is our home. When I travel to Kolkata, I am definitely happy but after three weeks I long to be back here... not for the high speed internet or the other comforts it provides us but because it is my home now.  I indeed called my mom more frequently last December to get our Kolkata home cleaned since I could not go this time ..... The senior corrects me saying that this 1150 sq.ft., rented space is your home now. Our family members reading this post may get sad, but the truth is that we thoroughly enjoy our stay here.   One cannot stay at one place and go gaga about another place all the time. One must have a sense of belonging to the place he or she lives in. 

Let me give an example of how I adjust here.... It is been quite sometime I do not enjoy having chicken here except for some particular oriental preparations or some minced meat in tikka or kebab or say cutlet! While in India, I still can have one or two bony pieces from the curry! I did not lament over it and started trying and testing about what is going wrong. Finally realised..... it is the "Kampong" variety of chicken that matches my taste bud here.... though mutton remains a favourite. If we compare all the time we cannot feel that belongingness. To use a place just as a source of earning dollars is wrong.... I feel before going elsewhere or back, we must need to show some love to the place we are in . If it is a CNY celebration here, we will very much be a part of it and enjoy sharing a recipe of PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES with my readers. Any festival is enjoyed with a sweet something, thats what we believe.

My readers believe it or not, both of us siblings grew up on jams made at home. Our mother did not know how to bake cakes or pastries or pies.... her expertise revolves around Bengali cooking that she inherited from her mother. The only "foreign" thing she used to make was mango, pineapple and guava jam. She had / has a daughter with a giant sized stomach which once could digest anything and everything. In those days, such terms like "body shaming" and all were not much there.... not at all among friends. I cannot recall that my friends had ever called me a fatso.... hence I kept on eating! What does it say of my nature?.... that I prioritised food more than the attention of a boy or may be I put across a message.... accept me the way I am if you can or quit. What is wrong in the way I thought? Well, "body shaming" is wrong but there is no pride in being obese and invite all sorts of diseases at an early age. The garland of diseases I wear today is all because of the wrong food habits. Not that I turned into a wise person but I try to balance my diet a bit. 

This morning I packed the husband's lunch box with some leftover chicken kofta curry and paratha.... it cannot happen that I will not have one paratha with my morning tea. What will be my lunch like?... Some stir fry mushrooms & veggies with no rice at all.... some fruits to have too! Dinner may be 1/2 small cup of rice.... This is not an ideal diet plan... so I could manage to shed only 10-12 kilos in the past few years and look just like myself instead of a Shobha De .... I am just unable to go for clean eating and rigorous physical training. At times, the trainers at the gym knocks me asking are you ok S? I might have lost then somewhere else in between workout sessions.... It is my nature... may be early signs of dementia too... who knows? No I do not eat breads with this PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES often, neither did I follow our mother's recipe of it . She might have forgotten the recipes of jams altogether. She stopped cooking variety once I got married because the brother never fancied variety in his food. She cooks what he loves... biryani, pulao, meat.... after a lunch with these he can enter a KFC for a giant chicken leg, Pizza Hut for a pizza! 

The junior at this home indeed loves all the simple spreads and jams I prepare.... just like his mother used to some 30-40 years back on cream cracker and marie biscuits... 10-15 per day.... paying for it hard now. A diabetic foodie is the worst combination to happen in this world. I am still not clear about the difference between spread, jam and jelly..... I have to do some research! I just do a jam like something with fresh fruits and with few other ingredients readily available at home. I do not use any kind of artificial preservatives on jams given my shallow knowledge about food. So... if you call my PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES .... anarosher mishti achar... I do not mind.... it still tastes great! 

I stick to the idea of adding chilli flakes to jams deriving it from one of the jam recipe of scratchingcanvas.com ... it rocks! Those who are celebrating CNY can try it after the celebration, rest of you can try it tomorrow itself... what you need is a good quality, juicy... ripe pineapple.... with which I have a long association... the grandfather grew it... not that sweet as we get here. The mother spoilt her kids serving it cubed, tossed in black salt and pepper on weekends post lunch when the lazy daughter was engrossed in a story book and the naughty son was on an experimentation mode inserting a "kuler bichi" .... an Indian berry seed inside his nose! Enjoy this PINEAPPLE JAM WITH CHILLI FLAKES on biscuit, bread, poori, paratha / porota. The first item that went into the lunch box of the junior were two tiny luchi rolled with jam spread on it... it should work at your home too!

INGREDIENT :

Pineapple : 1standard size
Lemon Juice : 1/2small cup
Dry Red Chilli : 2-3
Sugar : 1/2 small tea cup [you can use more]
Water : 11/2coffee mug

METHOD :

Cut the two ends of the pineapple, peel the skin. Cut half and then further into 4 pieces. We will discard the hard pineapple core / woody centre too.

Now cut the remaining pineapple into cubes and grind to a coarse paste. Use a grinder and not a juicer. I added the sugar at this stage not wanting to crush the cubes, then changed my mind!

Take the pineapple paste on a heavy bottomed vessel and add 1/2 coffee mug of water to it.

Put on the gas stove and bring to boil. Let boil for about 10-12 minutes. You will add the sugar & stir at this stage actually!

When it has boiled for about 12-15 minutes, add the lemon juice & the dry red chilli flakes you have prepared earlier; stir.

Once you see the boiling mixture getting sticky, switch off the gas stove.

Once cool, transfer to a sterilised bottle. Refrigerate for it's longevity and enjoy atop bread, poori, paratha as and when required!

PEPPERY MANGO JAM

I was this little since when I had been watching the mother preparing jam and jelly at home ...... mainly of guava and mango. I remember my favourite pastime was to apply a thick layer of those homemade jam atop cream cracker biscuit .... sit with my favourite author and take small pleasure bites, bhai was not a foodie but had his jam & biscuit! Now when I ask the mother the recipe.... she says she forgot where she learnt from, how she made. Once I got married she stopped cooking variety because my brother never took interest in varied dishes .... he sticks to his love for biryani and meat curries with pulao and South Asian Breads and Hilsa off course. For the son, our mother learnt to prepare biryani at home with her secret spice mix, a plate of Biryani with a single piece of meat, potato and egg costs around two hundred rupees in Kolkata. I call it 'secret' spice because she never shares the actual recipe with the daughter or anyone.... hahaha .... this is her habit since ages. As long as my brother and son are happy with her recipe of biryani, I am at peace too. Ain't siblings special? They are, they are always ready to go that extra mile for you. It is nightmarish to think my son will be alone when we are not there in this world, what if our 'Olive Oyl' is not much of friendly with her 'him'? I do not know why my senior's sister and my brother are stuck with their decision of not having kids, multiplying my worries.

Did I say I love kids?..... Yes I mean it.... these angels on earth do not know how to pretend or to dramatise an event or situation. They just bring in fresh air wherever they go. How much I love kids... I perhaps do not have the patience of handling them.... these bunch of fresh flowers are more fond of my man. He says  we must treat the kids as another human being S and not as our play doll.... we should stop cuddling and kissing them every now and then.... it irritates them .... we need to give them our time, attention and be playful. He was this good at handling kids even when he was in his twenties. In the Indian or the Subcontinental context, we really do not think of the kids much ..... how many movies are done just for the kids or books written for them? Kids should not grow up reading Harry Potter alone. This old lady still gets goosebumps when she thinks of the Adventures of the Sailor Sindbad, Shamaresh Basu's 'Gogol' series or Sunil Gangopadhay's 'Kakababu O Shantu.' I am thankful to our father in many ways .... Did I wish to go for a kid friendly recipe today? Yes, I indeed felt that..... why I do not know. Do not try to find logic in my actions, mad people do not think logically, they are just instant with their actions .... good .... bad or whatever.

Since our mother forgot how she made her jams and jellies which she stopped making some 20 years back, I had to scrawl through Google for some ideas. I loved the spiced mango jam recipe from the blog Scratching Canvas and wished to go ahead with my own version of a mango jam with a dash of coarsely ground black pepper powder done fresh. It was done about two months back in bulk, our son  loves it with his bread, your kids will love it too. The recipe is really simple with few ingredients, homemade from scratch. Come let us do it together or you may engage your kids to do it.

Recipe Idea - Scratching Canvas Blog!

INGREDIENTS :

Ripe Mango - 4-6
Sugar : 1 small sized tea cup
Coarsely Ground Black Pepper : 1 & 1/2tsp
Lemon Juice : 1/2 small size tea cup
Water : 1/3 Coffee Mug

METHOD :

Wash and peel the mangoes. Chop the pulp roughly into smaller pieces and discard the seeds.

Take the mango pieces in a heavy bottomed vessel. Add the water and put on the gas stove.

Let it boil at medium to low heat for 5 minutes. Add the sugar and let simmer for 3-4 minutes. Stir every 1-2 minutes.

Add the lemon juice and simmer furthermore for few minutes until the jam gets little stickier.

Add the freshly ground coarse black pepper powder and give a quick stir. Switch off the gas stove.

Once cool, transfer to a clean, sterilised  glass container. It stays for months if refrigerated.