Recipe Collector!

Some of you may remember, there was this period last year when I discovered the joys of cooking. I was cooking for the first time and I had ample time plus an appreciative hubby at hand. It was a nice experience and I realized that although I’d started late in life, I could rustle up a decent meal with the help of a pressure cooker and other modern appliances.

But then soon after, work happened and then the joys of cooking were lost on me. I had to cook lunch in the morning and dinner in the night and even with Pinch helping, it used to be a fight to the last minute. On weekends, I didn’t even feel like cooking anything and in any case, we were so busy that we’d be out nearly all day long both Saturday and Sunday. Eating out in Atlanta is an option we thought we’d explored well enough. Probably not. As far as Indian restaurants are concerned, Vatica is the only nice place around. Doc Cheys is a great noodle house. Mama Fu’s comes a close second. Two days back, we went to Cafe Sunflower which serves vegetarian food only. What food! Well-flavoured, subtly spiced and excellently cooked. This is what we had: Hummus, Tri-color Stuffed Ravioli with pesto sauce, Banana Creme Pie. Can’t stop raving about how good the food is…:-)

Anyways, now I have turned into somewhat of a recipe collector. In my list of Favourite sites is Tarla Dalal’s own website, Clotilde’s Chocolate and Zucchini, Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks and of course, the Madman’s own chef website. I love reading about food finds, smart recipes, innovative meal-in-a-minute fundas and such stuff. I take printouts of recipes that I find interesting and file them in an orange-coloured folder at home. Pinch has one grouse though: the interest ends there. Ultimately, he is the one who decides, ‘Chal, lets’ cook dudhi muthias tonight’. I have all the printouts ready but my hubby does not refer to any of them. He is a marvellous cook and a thorough natural. No recipes or measurements for Pinch; he is purely instinctive when it comes to cooking (and many other things as well!). Anyways, we have a few recipes lined up and hopefully, we should be making them soon.

Here’s one simple baking recipe. I got it from Chocolate and Zucchini.

5 apples
2 mangoes
60g (1/4 cup) salted butter, diced
80g (1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) granulated sugar
80g (3/4 cup) oatmeal (instant or old-fashioned)
80g (2/3 cup) ground almonds (a.k.a. almond powder or almond meal)

In a food processor cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the oatmeal and ground almonds, and mix again until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. You can also rub it all in a mixing-bowl with your clean little fingers. (This will keep for a few days, tightly covered and refrigerated.)

Preheat the oven to 180° C (360° F) and grease a large baking dish.

Peel, core and dice the apples and mangoes. Arrange the fruit in the baking dish, sprinkle with the crumble mixture, and put into the oven to bake for 40 minutes, until the fruit is soft and the topping is crusty and golden. Let cool on a wire rack for a few minutes and serve warm, on its own or with the proverbial dollop of crème fraîche.