GUAVA CHEESE


Guava Cheese is a typical Anglo-Indian Christmas Sweet dish. This chewy fudge-like sweet is a “Must Have” during the Christmas Season.
Guava Cheese should always be made with fresh guavas.

GUAVA CHEESE
Serves 6   Preparation time 1 hour

Ingredients
6 ripe guavas preferably the pink variety
¾ cup sugar
50 grams unsalted butter
 ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
A drop of cochineal colouring

Wash and cut the guavas into quarters and boil them well in a little water till nice and soft.  Mash well. Strain through a thin cloth and throw away the skin and seeds. Boil the strained thick juice with the sugar and keep on stirring till the mixture turns slightly thick. Add the butter, vanilla essence and cochineal. Simmer till nice and thick. Pour onto a buttered plate. Cut into squares when cold.

CHOCOLATE YULE LOG CAKE




CHOCOLATE YULE LOG CAKE
Serves 6  Preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients

200 grams flour / maida
200 grams butter
4 eggs beaten
250 grams sugar granules powdered
3 tablespoons Icing sugar
200 grams sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoon Nescafe
125 grams fresh cream
50 grams chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt.

Sift the cocoa powder, Nescafe, flour and baking powder together. Cream the butter and sugar together well. Add the eggs one by one and mix well. Add the vanilla essence. Now add the sifted flour with the other ingredients and fold in the mixture to form a smooth slightly thick consistency without lumps.
Pour into a greased and papered long cake tin and bake in a moderate oven (125 to 130 Degrees) for 40 to 45 minutes till the cake is done. (Insert a tooth pick or knitting needle in the cake and if it comes out clean then the cake is cooked inside)

Remove from the cake tin when cold and turn it out on a sheet of paper, which has been liberally sprinkled with icing sugar. Roll the cake tightly with this paper so as to form a log and keep aside.

Beat the fresh cream with 3 tablespoons of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder till peaks form. Unroll the log cake from the paper and place on a suitable plate. Using a spatula, cover the cake with the icing.  Then with a wet fork make long lines across the surface of the icing to create a bark effect on the log. Store in the refrigerator until required for serving. Before serving, dust with icing sugar and decorate with some fresh small leaves.

ROSE COOKIES / ROSA COOKIES / ROSETTE COOKIES

. ROSE COOKIES / ROSA COOKIES / ROSETTE COOKIES

Rose Cookies are delicious fried Anglo-Indian Christmas Treats. Though named as Cookies, they are not cookies in the strict sense as they not baked but deep fried in hot oil. Rose Cookies are also known as Rosette Cookies, Rosa Cookies, etc and are prepared with a sweetened batter consisting of Flour, Eggs, Vanilla Extract and Coconut milk. Believed to be another culinary legacy left by the Portuguese in India, they are known as Rose de Coque or Rose de Cookies in Portugual. (They are also known as Rosettes in Sweden and Norway). The crisp cookies are made by plunging a special hand-held ‘Rose Cookie Mould’ or ‘Rosette Iron’ lightly coated with a sweet batter into hot oil. The Rose Cookie Mould or Rosette Iron is a long handled gadget with intricately designed iron moulds of different flowers such as roses and daisies. The Mould or Iron is heated to a very high temperature in oil, dipped into the batter, then immediately re-immersed in the hot oil to create a crisp shell around the hot metal. The mould or iron is shaken slightly, till the Rose Cookie gets separated from it. The delicate golden brown, light and crispy cookie thus separated from the mould /iron floats to the top and is taken out from the hot oil with a flat porous spoon. Though a time consuming and laborious process, Rose Cookies are incredibly delicious.



RECIPE FOR ROSE COOKIES
Serves 6   Preparation time 1 hour
Ingredients

½ kg refined flour
250 grams rice flour (optional)                              
1 cup coconut milk
200 grams sugar                               
6 eggs beaten well
½ teaspoon salt                        
1 litre oil for frying
1 teaspoon vanilla essence      
1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth slightly thick batter.
Heat oil in a deep pan till it reaches boiling point. Now place the rose cookie mould into the oil to get hot. When the mould is hot enough dip it half way only into the batter and put it back immediately into the boiling oil. Shake the mould gently to separate the cookie from it. Heat the mould again and repeat the process. Fry rose cookies till brown. Continue in this way till the batter is finished.

Note: The batter will stick to the rose cookie mould with a hissing sound only if it is sufficiently hot otherwise it will just slide off the mould

ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE – A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS selected as Winner from India THE GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012

I sincerely thank everyone for your congratulatory messages and good wishes on my  Recipe Book ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE – A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST being selected as Winner from India under BEST CULINARY HISTORY BOOK Category for the BEST IN THE WORLD AWARD Finals at THE GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012 at Paris on 23rd Feb 2013.








My journey started in 2002 when I started redoing all the old recipes from my mum’s and grand mum’s handwritten recipe Books . Through trial and error and much experimentation, I revamped the recipes giving accurate measurements for easily available ingredients and simplifying the cooking techniques so that most of the dishes could be cooked in a short time unlike in the olden days when cooking took the whole day. I then took photographs of all the dishes and recorded all the recipes in a manuscript running to more than 500 pages.
I sent this manuscript of 500 pages to many Publishers in Delhi, the heart of India’s Publishing Hub. However, sad to say many of them didn’t know much about our Community and were not aware that we had our own special cuisine. I then decided to bring out the Books myself. My first book came out in 2004 under the banner SYD-DOR PUBLICATIONS, which is the first 3 lettes of my parents names SYDNEY AND DORIS. After that I regularly brought out 7 more books under different categories of Anglo-Indian Food which were all culled from the original manuscript.  
The journey was quite tough and arduous. I wasn’t certain whether I would even recover my investment in getting the books printed but by the Grace of God, my books were very well received all over the world. Of course there were both Bouquets and Brickbats along the way. I’m now recognized as an Author, Food Consultant and Culinary Historian in Anglo-Indian Cuisine, as my area of expertise is in Colonial Anglo-Indian Food and I have gone through a lot of effort in reviving the old forgotten dishes of the Colonial British Raj Era. My 7 Recipe books are a means of preserving for posterity, the very authentic tastes and flavours of Colonial Anglo India, besides recording for future generations, the unique heritage of the pioneers of Anglo-Indian Cuisine.
The culmination of all my efforts is this Award of being declared ‘Winner’ from India under the Category “BEST CULINARY HISTORY BOOK “  and thereby competing for the BEST IN THE WORLD AWARD Finals at THE GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012 at Paris on 23rd Feb 2013.
All this has been possible only because of the Love and encouragement that my family especially my late husband Ashok has given me. He gave me the freedom to pursue my passion and never stood in my way at any time. He was my official taster and critic and was very proud of my achievements. I dedicate this award to Ashok, Kusum, Jude and Lisa.
To know more about my work and to read about my 7 Anglo-Indian Recipe Books please visit my Blogs http://anglo-indianfood.blogspot.com
 

Anglo-Indian Cuisine - A legacy of Flavours from the Past - Gourmand World Cook books Awards 2012

ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST - GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012


Today I received an email from GOURMAND INTERNATIONAL informing me that I was selected as the ‘WINNER FROM INDIA’ at the GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012 . under the Category ‘BEST CULINARY HISTORY BOOK’ for my recipe book ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST and that I now qualify for the next GOURMAND BEST IN THE WORLD COMPETITION at the Awards Night to be held in Paris on 23rd Feb 2013. They have also  invited me to be a part of this Awards Night. 
This prestigious Award is ‘THE OSCARS’  for Cook book writers. Awards are given every year for various categories and genres ie for Cook Book Authors, Cook Books, Chefs, Wine makers, etc.
I submitted my recipe Book ANGLO-INDIAN CUISINE - A LEGACY OF FLAVOURS FROM THE PAST to the GOUMAND INTERNATIONAL based in Spain as an entry for the GOURMAND WORLD COOK BOOKS AWARDS 2012 about a month ago barely making it before the closing date.  In the preliminary round one must be selected from out of the entries submitted by each country. The winner will then qualify to compete for the World Award ‘FOR BEST IN THE WORLD’at the awards night to be held in Paris on 23rd Feb 2013.
I now qualify for the finals for the ‘FOR BEST IN THE WORLD’  AWARD  under the category BEST CULINARY HISTORY BOOK
Here is the email I received from them


They will be sending me my certificate shortly for having won ‘WINNER IN INDIA’
This is the link to the GOURMAND website www.cookbookfair.com