Paris I

London I

Currently Loving…

I’ve stopped hating Mondays. They are no more the I-don’t-want-to-wake-up, tedious mornings of trying to drag yourself into decent clothes and running to the bus-stop. No more dreading Monday-morning chores or work updates.

We, this semester, have only one hour of lecture on Monday…and that too late afternoon. Oh happy day!

Meanwhile, work is on full-throttle….have cooked a bit over the weekend, but today I’m putting up 5 things that I’m loving currently.

1 – The SRB sem room at the school.

2 – This car that I find parked everyday near the Lenton Drive.

3 – Sherry….rich and sweet.

4 – These wedges from Acne (I’m trying to get my hands on a pair of medium-heeld wedges before Easter Break starts)

5 – Spring by Ben*Jammin. I have no clue what the lyrics mean though…

Have a happy week!

Lemon Cake

We have quite a baker at the 189.

Hana. Vietnamese. Management post-grad. The cutest thing. And excellent with flour, eggs and sugar.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve trudged home after a long day at the University, only to find a chocolate cake waiting on the kitchen counter. Or a plate of blueberry muffins on the top shelf of the refrigerator. And I’ve shamelessly gobbled up most of them. They’re always delicious and somehow the perfect fix for my bouts of ‘munchies’. And it doesn’t end there. She brings on Pho just when you need it, sushi just when you’re craving it and of course, she just happens to be my Salmon Queen.

Another reason I love her so much….she gushes about my cooking and photography enough to put me on the ninth heaven.

The weekend slipping by right now has been an extremely sweet one. One birthday including a wholesome cheesecake and Hana’s spoon-licking lemon cake. Not to mention store-bought tiramisu (yes, store-bought). And now, I’ll be starving myself for the next week.

Lemon cake with Blueberry spread

Inspired by the Paris Pastry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup of milk
• Zest of 2 lemons
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1½ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs

How-To:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two 9-inch cake pans.
• Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt.
• Combine sour cream with lemon zest and juice.
• Beat the butter on medium-high speed until fluffy (about a minute) with an electric-whisk. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
• Add the flour mixture and sour cream and beat on low-speed until just combined. Do not overmix.
• Divide batter between prepared pans until the top are golden and a fork run through the center, comes out clean. This takes about 30-40 minutes.
• Cool pans completely.
• Level the top of one cake and spread blueberry jam evenly all over. Place the other cake on top of it. And enjoy with tea or coffee!

I ♥ Lazy Weekends

Thank goodness for lazy weekends. I had one after a long time.

I re-stashed dark chocolate bars throughout my room.

I had a long lunch at Pranjal & Ashwin’s. We booked tickets for Europe and I made a drink out of Mango-orange pulp and soda. It tasted good. No joke.

I brought out my trolley-bag…even though its way too early to start packing.

On Sunday, I snoozed on happily till noon when I was woken up by a couple of girlfriends who barged in to announce how my favourite IPL team had won their last match.

I treated myself to a couple of bowlfuls of mint-chocolate chip ice-cream from Waitrose.

A sun-beam sneaked into my room late afternoon. Its March in England and the Sun is starting to show.

I found two pairs of shoes the workmen left behind in a house under construction.

I also made chicken and caramelized onions in soy sauce.

Ingredients:

• 250 gms of boneless chicken pieces
• 2 Spanish onions, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar
• 5 big cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 inch block of ginger, sliced into fine strips
• 3 cloves
• 1 tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 table spoon of honey
• 2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 500ml of chicken stock (plain water will also do)
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• Chopped coriander or red chillies, to garnish (optional)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

How-To:

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onions till they start to turn brown. Add the garlic, ginger and sugar and cook on low heat till the onions caramelize.

Add the chicken pieces, cloves, fish sauce, soy sauce, honey and chicken stock (or water). Stir well. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes. Check to see if more stock or water needs to be added (you don’t want burnt-bottom pans!) and cook for a further 15 minutes or till the chicken has cooked through.

Season with salt and black pepper. Keep in mind that the soy sauce and fish sauce has already made the dish salty.

Boil off most of the liquid on high heat, if you want a thicker gravy. Or leave it be if you want it to be more brothy.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves or red chillies and serve over steamed rice.

I ♥ lazy weekends.