Back to baking....

It's been a difficult few months, to put it mildly...I am struggling with a lot of things, and at this point of time, I cant say if the stress is going to get better, or if the struggle is going to cease any time soon...

But with every such phase in life, I become stronger, and understand myself better, and I believe thats a good life's lesson learnt :)

But let's not get all deep and serious, not when there's a weekend where I finally decide to reward myself with a happy break, and indulge in my favorite activity...baking.

I made Baklawa this weekend, which was to my surprise, quite a simple thing to do! The only part I didn't really care for was the cleaning up afterwards!!

Steps for making Baklawa:

Modaks...

Every year on Ganesha Chaturthi, I hover around my mom, like a little kid, trying to sneak spoonfuls of sweetened coconut filling, while she efficiently makes the most artisitic modaks that I have ever tasted in my life. For the uninitiated, modak is a sweet that the lord Ganesha loves, and is made of steamed rice flour with a sweet coconut filling.

It's tricky to make, needs nimble fingers and years of practice. My mom has been making these since she was maybe just 10 years old, and reminisces a bit painfully of a time when people used to be hearty eaters, and would easily eat them in dozens at the least. 

With all that experience, she makes a mean modak. What do I do? I meddle and take pictures with sticky hands and steam and sugar covered cellphones.

So here's how it went down....in pictures....

A plateful of modaks, waiting to be steamed :)

There you go...steamed, pretty and oh so yummy, all for you....!! (Sorry for the fuzzy quality, there was steam on my lens after a totally useless attempt to catch the steam on camera)

Maharashtrian Food: Most people do not know about Maharashtrian food, and those who do, think that our food is made up of Zunka Bhakar and Wadapav, and coconut fish curry. However after years of seeing my mom make the most varied variety of complicated and delectable dishes, I strongly feel that I need to do my bit, however small, of getting a few of the dishes across to my readers. In this endeavor, I promise to introduce you to all the typical fare that requires more than just curry masala and coconut milk. 

Sweet Imitations...

Its' Sunday. Sin day. When Im at my laziest best.

Also when I get incoherent random urges, to eat Italian food.

So I made pasta...a very healthy wheat pasta with veggies and grilled aubergines.

I then went ahead and dealt a knockout punch to all the nutrition, with a stupendously calorific tiramisu imitation.

I used rum instead of marsala wine, sponge cake instead of ladyfinger cookies, didnt bother to brew espresso, but just swilled coffee granules with rum and cold water and dipped the cut up cake in it.

Also since I try to avoid eggs in recipes where I can, no raw egg white.

Yeah, I can be pretttty lazy and Im sure the Italians out there are not going to be pleased....but I put that thing together in 15 minutes, so time saved is a Sunday enjoyed.

Please pretend you didn't see the cocoa all over the rim...