The Big Jackfruit Tree | Random thoughts under the tree…

A brownie in any shape…

Author: Ria | Category: General | Tags: Baking, Brownies, Cupcakes, Food

For the most part of December, I was in Toronto. And for the most part of December, it was snowing in Toronto. And as long as one looked at it from within the warm interior of the home, the snowscape was so beautiful!
Being housebound has its plus points too… one can take up any of those projects filed away for ‘one of these days’… or one could bake! On a cold day what could be better than the fragrance of sugar and chocolate and warm caramel wafting through the house? So that is what I did… baked brownies!
And brownie goodness is something that one needs to spread around. Distributing brownies to friends is not only good karma, but good calorie control strategy too! 🙂 And one of the friends who tasted the brownies wanted the recipe. No recipe can be complete without some pictures. So just to get some pictures, I decided to bake some today. Beginning of a long relaxed weekend, what better time to mess around in the kitchen!
So I’m melting the butter with the chocolate, stirring it round and round… when the idea hit me. Why do brownies always have to be made in a square or rectangle pan? Why not try something different? After all, I claim ‘continuous improvement’ as my middle name. (Some of my people call that ‘won’t leave well enough alone’ too, but what do they know!)
In a jiffy, thought turned into action and the brownies were reborn as brownies cup cakes! But even though I say so myself, they were pretty good… pretty darn good indeed. 🙂

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter, plus more for pan

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch salt

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons instant coffee

2 tablespoons dark rum (optional)

1 1/2 cups walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix butter and chocolate in a double boiler or in a pan over simmering water. When fully dissolved and smooth and shiny, remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Dissolve the coffee in two tablespoons of warm water. Beat the eggs with sugar, dissolved coffee ,and rum, if using.

Add the cooled chocolate mixture and mix well. Add the flour in batches and incorporate into the mix. Add the walnuts.

Spoon into the cupcake pan and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. The brownie cakes are done when a skewer inserted into the center of it comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for five minutes before grabbing the brownie cakes.

~Ria

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17 Jan 2014

NYBG Train Show

Author: Ria | Category: New York, Trains | Tags: Garden, New York, NYBG, Trains

I was so afraid I was going to miss the NYBG holiday train show this year. For starters, I was travelling for almost the whole of December. And, once I got back, the polar vortex also arrived, bringing ice and snow and sleet with it… Still, despite all odds, I made it in the nick of time… went and saw it on the last day of the show! 🙂

As my people already know, I am a great fan of trains. Small trains, big trains, unusual trains… all of them. Even the PATH trains. But at the NYBG show, I found the trains sort of meh… What really got me was the landscaping.

Combining historical and geographical interest, the show features 140 iconic New York buildings, many of them from dates past. The models are made to scale using all natural plant parts. It is almost like a miniature tour of the city!

This year’s show features 21 model trains and covers 6,000 square feet of area with 1,200 feet of track laid out. The trains in the show are G-gauge and represent American trains from the late 1800 steam engines to today’s high speed passenger trains.

A new introduction this year are trains made of plant parts, looking like they are straight out of some fairy tale. Hoping there will be many more of them next year!

Among the buildings recreated are the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Public Library, the Guggenheim, City Hall, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center, the original Pennsylvania Station, Met Museum and many many more.

The train show debuted at the NYBG in 1992. The designer behind the wonderful miniature landscapes is Paul Busse, assisted by a team of 20+ artists and engineers of the Applied Imagination team. More examples of their fascinating work can be seen at www.appliedimagination.biz.

Plans for the buildings are made with the help of photographs and architectural drawings. Then a shell is made with foam board. Twigs, bark, moss, leaves, flowers, acorns, pine cones, seed pods… anything that comes from nature is used to mimic the architecture. The finished product is coated with a thin layer of resin to protect it from dust and moisture.

Each structure involves hundreds of hours of painstaking work, with every intricate detail recreated through the imaginative use of materials. The minute details, executed so meticulously, truly gives meaning to that oft repeated word ‘awesome’!

I was left with the definite impression that the original structure would have been way better if it was constructed with natural plant parts! 🙂

Notice the pistachio shells and corn husk?

The holiday train show is held at the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory of the New York Botanical Garden.

~Ria

From the ‘Am I seeing things?’ department

Was Sunnyside, Washington Irving’s home in Tarrytown, featured twice in the show? I believe so (in fact, I have documentary evidence!) but realised that only when I was looking through the pictures taken! 🙂

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15 Jan 2014

My Pawpaw Man

Author: Min | Category: Uganda | Tags: Africa, Kampala, Pawpaw, Uganda

Fruits and Vegetables here in Kampala, Uganda, really excite me. They are so fresh and good and come straight from the farms. I do prefer to shop at the vegetable market in Nakassero mainly frequented by expats. However, it is a bit of a pain going to Nakassero market unless one is chauffeured around as getting hold of a parking space in that area is as difficult as getting hold of an ostrich egg.

On my visits to Nakassero market I always came across a man who sits on the floor by the corner of a shop with a small heap of pawpaws/ papayas in front of him, calling out to customers. To his disappointment my response was always negative as the smell of papaya was one of the few things I couldn’t stand. Every time I go to the market he’ll be there trying to sell pawpaws to me. Then finally one day I was so amazed to see how determined and good he was in his marketing skills, I budged. Marketing managers take note, there are a few lessons you can learn from him.

He was so happy to sell a huge pawpaw to me that he gave me another one as a ‘bonus’. 🙂 (Bonus in Ugandan parlance is a giveaway, a free gift!)

Once I got home I tried a few pieces of the pawpaw on the insistence of my house help, Rose. Though I can’t say I became an ardent fan of the pawpaw, I don’t mind some but not to the extent of using a papaya face pack. I’m happy that I’m a convert when you consider the health benefits of Papaya. Thank you, my Pawpaw Man… “Weebale Ssebo!”

~Min

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13 Jan 2014

It’s cold out there…

Author: Ria | Category: Arts & Crafts | Tags: Cold, Crafts, New York, Travel

It is cold… believe me, it is really really cold… Brrrr… it is brrrrold. No, that is not true. Brrrrold is bracing cold. When you want to go for long walks with a sweater thrown over the shoulders and something from Starbucks in your hand. Cold that makes you think of good things like fireplaces and warm red wines and chocolate brownies.

What we just went through is nothing like that. This was frrrold… freezing cold, bone chilling cold, mind killing cold. Cold that breeds inertia, cold that makes you think of the equator and escape.

The polar vortex, as the cold snap was called by the meteorologists, has set many records, including the coldest Jan 7^th since 1896!

Apparently, it has also inspired many to conduct interesting experiments. We all know about the ‘lick the lamppost’ experiment… who doesn’t love A Christmas Story? Happens, a girl in New Hampshire really did that and was stuck to the pole for 15 minutes before she could be freed. She apparently hasn’t seen the movie, or couldn’t resist the ‘triple dog dare’!

Some other interesting experiments include throwing boiling water up into -17 degree F air, blowing bubbles that freeze in mid-air, and making slurpees by super cooling soda. If you would like to see these in action, take a look here.

Anyhow, when weather gets this cold, I know it is time to pack my bags and bid adieu to New York for a few weeks. Fortunately, the salt mines where I work has offices all over the world – literally. So by the end of the month, I’ll be happily headed to Bangalore, part work and part vacation. And won’t be back till the buds start waking up and daylight savings time is on again. 🙂

Thinking of travel, I knew I needed a new toiletries bag. And I had to make it before my trip. So finally got around to it this week. Yep, being house bound has its advantages too; things get done!

Actually, there is not much to it. Take a rectangle and circle of fabric, make partitions in the rectangular piece, attach it to the circular piece, and you are done! 🙂

Any kind of sturdy strong material will work for this. The measurements will depend upon how big you want it. Mine is nine inches tall with a six inch diameter. For that the measurements were 23×17 inches for the rectangle and 7 inch diameter for the circle.

Make a narrow fold and stitch 4 inches on two of the short sides of the rectangular piece.

Fold and stitch both the long sides of the rectangular piece, one inch on one side (the side where the side stitches are already made) and half an inch on the other.

Fold and pin four inches along the long side where the half inch stitch was made. And mark sections as you see need.

These are to hold the brushes, perfumes, lotions, etc. Stitch along the marked lines.

Now, attach the rectangular piece (folded edge) to the edge of the circle. Turn inside out and thread a ribbon through the top fold.

Tada… all done!

If you would like more detailed instructions, feel free to email me: ria at thebigjackfruittree dot com.

~Ria

Randomly…
I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change (what else is beer for), the power to change the things I can (coffee to the rescue) and the wisdom to know the difference (workin’ on that one).

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10 Jan 2014

Boneless Chinese Chilli Chicken

Author: Min | Category: General | Tags: Chicken, Chinese

Oh, I just noticed that the name of the dish has a very good alliteration. Though it’s named Chinese Chilli Chicken aka CCC, I’m not very sure how ‘’chinesey”it is. I can assure you that soya sauce and rice wine vinegar are used in my recipe which is an integral part of Chinese cuisine. Since Chinese food is a family favourite, anything on those lines will always be appreciated.

I can’t pinpoint where I got this recipe from, but I can assure that this is evolved from eating Chilli Chicken of varied colour and taste from different quarters. I remember a dish named Chicken/Fish with vegetables which I’ve had from Taj Residency many years back. Any resemblance to that is pure coincidence. 🙂

This CCC has no heavy sauces, colour or red chilli. Nor does it have any aji-no-moto.

The subtle flavour of this dish makes it a very good accompaniment to vegetable fried rice or noodles.

Enjoy, or as they say in Chinese, Xiǎngshòu!

~Min

Ingredients

Boneless chicken pieces, cut into 1 ½ cm cubes	250 grams
Onions, cut into 1 cm cubes	1 cup
Green peppers, cut into 1 cm cubes	1 cup
Garlic, sliced lengthwise	3 cloves
Ginger, cut into juliennes	2 cm long piece
Green chillies, slit lengthwise	4
Green/ spring onions, chopped	2 tablespoons
Black pepper powder	1-2 tablespoon or according to taste
Light soya sauce	2 tablespoon
Dark soya sauce	1 tablespoon
Rice wine vinegar	1 teaspoon
Chicken stock (stock cube can be used)	1 cup
Corn flour	2 tablespoon
Water	¼ cup
Salt	to taste
Vegetable oil	as required

To marinate the chicken pieces

Garlic paste	1 tablespoon
Ginger paste	1 tablespoon
Light soya sauce	2 tablespoon
Corn flour	1 tablespoon
Black pepper powder	1 teaspoon

Directions

Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients mentioned above for a minimum of half an hour.
Heat a thick bottomed wok or a frying pan.
Once the pan is hot, shallow fry the marinated chicken pieces till tender in some oil and remove from the pan. If breast pieces are used this will take 4-5 minutes, thigh pieces will take 8-9 minutes.
Add another table spoon of oil to the same pan and sauté the sliced ginger, garlic and green chillies till garlic becomes light brown. This frying should be done under low heat as the garlic slices get burnt very quickly.
Add the sliced onions and sauté. When it becomes transluscent add green peppers followed by the fried chicken pieces. Fry for a couple of minutes under high heat.
Now add the two sauces, rice wine vinegar, salt and pepper powder. Care should be taken when salt is added as the soya sauces used already have salt in them. Stir fry for a minute or so.
Add the stock, stir and let it simmer for 5 minutes with a lid on.
Mix the corn flour with water and add that mixture to the simmering stock in the pan and stir in quickly.
Remove the pan from fire and add chopped green/ spring onions.

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08 Jan 2014