Weave a Thousand Flavors

Valentine's Day ~ KARMEL SUTRA Tartlets

The first bite should give you hope,

the second lust &

by the third you're in love!

~

Luscious Chocolate Ganache & Caramel Mingle in a Graham Cracker - Almond Crust

Say it ain't so!

My whoop dee doo with leftovers ~ Candied Yam & Turkey Patties

After the rather large gluttonous feast of yesterday, I have no business eating for a week! 

So thank goodness, I have 3 ravenous boys (err, a man) to help polish off the leftovers. I'm like a vulture when it comes to leftovers - we're going to pick them bones clean down to the teeny tiniest morsel.

Fact remains that since Thanksgiving, I'm all turkey schmurkeyed out. I have probably eaten my weight in bird and am determined to stay away from turkey recipes for a while. But fact remains, I've still got the detritus of yesterday's meal to deal with.

But then providence has its own plans and send a dazzling smile my way - no I didn't win the lottery and you'd think among  the gargantuan crisis of world hunger, poverty and global warming, the Big Guy may be a wee bit too busy to keep an eye on my refrigerator and pantry supplies, eh?

But no sirree, I receive a link on face book by da man, culinary teacher extraordinaire Richard Grausman, pointing the way to Chef Cole Kraft's recipe from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts for his Yam and Turkey Croquettes.

You get it don't ya - the whole connectivity bit? I mean come on people, who do I have to dig up from his subterranean resting place, Carl Jung?

Anyway, providence need say no more. I donned my flowery apron and off I went slightly adapting Chef Kraft's original recipe taking artistic liberties and all. The end result, I must confess is as dazzling as a smile from sky above.

'Christollen' German Christmas Stollen ~ A Dry-Fruit Studded Bread Loaf with Marzipan Surprise

~ Christmas Wishes for You ~

~ And A Stollen Too ~
 
 

~ And for them too ~

 

~Dear Stollen Purists ~

No doubt you feel strongly about your Stollen so I do not claim that this is THE definative stollen recipe but I do vouch for the fact that it IS a dry fruit studded, mouth-wateringly delicious and incredible cake-like bread.

You will therefore forgive me if you like your stollen hard as Bratt Pitt's bottoms because mine is moist in it's texture. You will also find yourself disappointed if you like yours as a log because I have chosen to go with the much more rustic, fold-over version.

Quite honestly, I wouldn't dream to claim that this version has the artistry of the 150 Official Dresden bakers, who make their famous Dresden stollen sold at the local Christmas market Striezelmarkt, distinguished by a special seal depicting King Augustus II the Strong but as Stollens go, it's a star and sure to be polished off, toasted for breakfast (or not!) and slathered with buttah (oh yes!).

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Devaki 

Goofball Alert, Homemade Toffee {Dulce de Leche} & Banoffee Pie from England

Banoffee pie which as the name suggests is essentially a shortcrust pastry topped with homemade toffee filling i.e. dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream is an English classic.

It is also a recipe that shouldn't be made by goofballs!

By that I mean, people who cannot, will not or simply don't believe in following directions to save their lives, people who leave stuff on the stove and fall asleep or worse walk out the door for a shopping spree.

What's really getting my knickers in a twist is this bit - the homemade toffee, dulce de leche which is essential as the filling.

How to make home made dulce de leche a.k.a toffee filling?

It involves these steps to be followed meticulously - The evening before fixing the pie, roughly 3 hours before going to bed:

1) Use 2 unopened cans of sweetened condensed milk

2) Use a large stock pot and immerse the 2 unopened cans of condensed milk in water. Make sure there is 9 inches of water above the surface of the cans. Cover the stockpot with a tight fitting lid.

3) On medium high heat, simmer the cans for 3 hours. Use a timer to keep track.

4) On the hour, every hour, keep checking to ensure there is at least 6 inches of water above the top of the cans. Replace with hot water as needed.

Goofball alert!* 
It is absolutely vital to top up the pot of boiling water as needed during the cooking process. 3 hours is a long time and if allowed to boil dry, the cans will explode guaranteeing a trip to E.R. with risk to life, limbs and kitchen ceilings!

5) After 3 hours, turn the stove off, leave well alone and go to bed.

6) Remove the cans from the water the next morning, open and what you will end up with is this -

......absolutely perfect, delicious, creamy soft toffee, dulce de leche filling

And this dearies is step uno to this ~

 

Absolutely decadent & Utterly Delicious Banoffee Pie

Invented in East Sussex, England at the Hungry Monk in 1972, Banoffee Pie is even rumored to be Margaret Thatcher’s favourite pudding. The recipe followed in this post is based on the original recipe from the publication ‘The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk’ in 1974. 

There are cooks who advocate cooking the condensed milk in a pyrex dish for hours in the oven but in my experience it results in a tough and hard toffee filling that is impossible to cut through once the pie is chilled and at the risk of your teeth falling out of your head.

The 'cooked can' method used here to make the toffee is widely used all over the U.K and is original to the 'Hungry Monk' recipe.

Cook's Note - The toffee, dulce de leche can be made a week in advance and stored in a airtight plastic container in the refrigerator till ready to use. Unopened cans of toffee  (the cooked cans) can be stored in the pantry cabinet for upto 3 months and is a great way to always have the fixings of Banoffee pie at hand for that last minute craving or unannounced company.

Happy Thanksgiving & Dangerously Good Carnitas

National defrost day in the US was over the weekend. I refer to the turkeys that are defrosting in millions of refrigerators around the US in anticipation of being roasted on Thursday Thanksgiving Day. Now here's a celebration that is one of the biggest holiday's in the US larger somewhat than even Christmas!

Most of us are anticipating the arrival of family in friends and with most of the grocery shopping out of the way, it's time to clean house, fluff pillow, polish the silver and wash the crystal to sparkling clarity.

Needless to say I will be MIA this week! My kitchen however will be seeing more action than it's seen all year! With guests arriving before the D-day, it's great to have easy to put together, blow them away meals that will basically cook themselves while you're getting laundry done and running around with last minute errands.

So when Ananda at Pinch of Love asked me to do a guest post I was thrilled to prepare my Cantina Carnitas, Mexican pork with soft tacos and Pico de Gallo. A staple around here and my go-to, save-me dinner of choice, please head over to Ananda's corner and read the post, here.

Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'all!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's be the people who have a blast and make the most of the holidays with love & gratefulness in our hearts!

xoxo, Devaki

 

Wicked Delicious ~ Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Grapes & Thyme for your Holiday Table

 
It's hard to imagine that Thanksgiving is already upon us!

Most of us have already spit & polished our menus. And even though I am just on the verge of being happily inundated, some things in life are good enough to break into a song and dance about. The fact that it is over a vegetable and that too one that almost always cooks with a slightly bitter undertone, should have your attention.

I have had brussel sprouts all the usual ways - steamed, buttered, shredded and coated in maple syrup - just anything to take away that bitterness and have the kiddies eat it too.

And for most part, its been a compromise. Well those day are over...over. 

You know how in biology we learning about symbiosis where one organism or plant life depends upon the other for its survival.....does that also sound like marriage...hmm?

Well, brussel sprouts and grapes may not depend on each other for their survival biologically speaking but in the culinary world, they do or they ought to.

I never would have believed it until I tasted these for the first time - the brussel sprouts borrows the subtle sweetness from the grapes and changes itself -  for the better.  It's a win win!

I am so glad I came across this recipe flipping pages of  Real Simple at the grocery store, remembered the salient features of the mag enough to recreate it and now it's making an appearance for everything from  holiday dinners, boring wednesday dinners to 'Guess-who's-coming-to-dinner?' dinners.

Fix this and change your brussel sprout universe forever!

 

10 Tips to Pie Crust Nirvana & Good Ole' Buttery Sweet Potato Pie

At the risk of repeating myself, let me just say this yet again, "Pie crusts are like predators,  they smell fear".

I have come to a point and I say this with nothing but humility that I no longer fear the pie crust. For me having fixed it week after week, year after year has a lot to do with this. Yes we eat a lot of crust in its myriad uses. But this puffing of the chest business didn't come overnight. Nothing worse than the night before Thanksgiving being up till 1.30am trying to fix a pie crust recipe that is flawed, that came from a solid source and I say it again,  flawed.

I therefore no longer shop around for pie crust recipes but stick with this true blue, time tested recipe because I know that it will render the same result in all its  fabulous glory, day in and day out.

As I set out to write about sweet potato pie, I realised that even though none of us needs yet another pie recipe, I reckon we can all do with a really good one. This right here, right down to its naked crust is just that.

It's taken some thought churning to really pin down what leads to my personal pie nirvana and having penciled down the lot, I'm ready to share it with you.

~ 10 Tips to Pie Crust Nirvana ~ 

1. Invest in a really good quality pie dish. 

I love my Emile Henry because the burgundy clay used to make it and its thickness, ensures even baking throughout. I never realised what a difference a dish makes till I got rid of my cheapo one.

2. Use chilled butter

Using somewhat softened or sweaty butter softens the whole dough ball making it very tough to handle and making you sweat in the interim!

3. Have all your ingredients ready to go before you begin

Yes, a few minutes of advance preparation really pays off because once you get on the pie train, there's no getting off. 

4. Get rid of distractions & follow instructions meticulously

This is not the time to watch your fave soap or psycho-babble with a girlf friend. Plus you're going to be a lot more excited blowing your trumpet after you fix the pie.

Stop playing with the recipe - you ain't a cat and the pie crust ain't your ball of yarn. Stick to the recipe - it works!

5. Use a timer or a seconds watch for the dough

When the recipe says pulse for 25 seconds, it means 25 seconds - not 15 & not 30 so it's best to use technology.

6. Use your palms. And chill baby chill!

Divide the dough into little balls and flatten with the heel of your hand. This gives the crust the flaky layers we love. Also chill that dough for the allotted time because if you don't you'll be cussing the whole way through as the dough will be very hard to handle.

7. Work fast once the dough is out of the refrigerator

Don't turn it into a sweaty dough ball because you left it sitting out on the counter top.

8. flour, flour, flour

Liberally flour the work surface where you'll be rolling out the dough - use 1/4 cup flour. This means you can easily quarter-turn the crust as you roll.  

9. Roll evenly & 4" beyond the base of the pie dish

Nothing worse than not having enough crust to cover the dish. So I always roll out to 4" beyond the diameter of the base which covers the sides real well and gives me enough overhang to do the edges.

While you roll use a light hand and roll out the edges too. Its very common to end up with a thin center and a thick rim. Distribute the pressure as you roll.

10. Don't trim exactly to the edge of the pie dish

Trim 1/2" beyond the edge of the pie dish so you can pinch the edge to give you a nice scallop. Remember the crust will shrink once you bake and if you don't have enough of a overhang, you'll end up with a naked edge in spots much like a receding hairline.

So there you have it!

PLEASE share your pointers that work for you and I will be happy to add it to this list.

And now onwards to fixing some buttery sweet potato pie.

Brrr.....Roasted Butternut Squash Curried Soup

  

We've just had our first snowfall - in  the fall. If that isn't occasion enough for soup, I don't know what is!

There are few things in my humble opinion that comes close to the joy of this roasted vegetable nestled with herbs emerging from a hot oven. And my love for butternut squash exceeds all apprehensions.

And speaking of which I refer to the slight apprehension that overcomes me each and everytime I have a Chef's knife poised over the hard skull of a butternut squash. Murmuring a string of prayers, kids safely tucked away into their rooms, I intensely focus on two thoughts -

1) Under all circumstances emerge from this with all ten fingers intact.

2) Overcome fear of said task by thinking of the warm, toe curling soup that awaits at the end of this tunnel.

The roasted glistening skin now tender and soft to touch with the succulent flesh almost saccharin sweet as the squash has released all its natural sweetness,  is a wonderful thing  to behold. And all of this goodness is only outdone by the addition of  some  madras curry powder, naturally sweet coconut milk and a scattering of plump raisins.

Now here I believe is a soup fit for a weeknight treat or any holiday meal. Like the  good ones this recipe is inspired by the best of the season and nature's bounty.

'I Like Bugs' Spidery Cupcakes for Halloween

'I Like Bugs' by Margaret Wise Brown is my 5 year old's favorite book.

He loves sitting with it perched on the bed and speaking to his grand parents  on the telephone, reading it to them. They are kind enough to fill in the gaps with big words like 'shiny' and 'sidewalk'.

With Halloween around the corner, the blogosphere is crammed with fantastical and horrific culinary creations to make one cringe and howl in delight all at the same time. So when my son's teacher was looking for sweet treats for his Junior Kindergarten  class, I decided that oozing eyeballs and bleeding witchy fingers were not the way to go.

It's hard enough getting these little munchkins to eat on a regular day much less with a grossology rendition of the food. Instead I decided to use my son's favorite book as a source and inspiration and with the help of various culinary talents from the world over, I think we've managed to delight even the most fussy critter lovers.

I am using my true and trusted cake recipe for the cupcakes. If it ain't broke why fix it? But I must thank the Australian Womens Weekly for teaching me how to make critters out of Smarties (m&m's) and proving that even 'got no talent for craft' dummies can pull this off.

Also, I've chosen to fix a decadent lemony cream cheese frosting for these cupcakes and learning the color wheel in Architecture school finally paid off when it came to mixing that particular tint of lime green. Yea to 9 years Uni!

Autumnal Pumpkin & Cranberry Drop Scones with Pumpkin, Spice & Maple Butter

It's the weirdest thing. As soon as autumn falls on my lap and temperatures begin to drop, I find the pressure begin to mount to do something, anything with pumpkin. I think it's an almost unhealthy obsession and best dealt with and got out of the way -  promptly.

This feeling also coincides with the time thoughts of the Thanksgiving feast menu begin churning in my head. It's a cacophony in there, I promise and can't be helped. Happens every time. And yes, I know it's only October. Like I said, can't be helped.

But I have another motive for fixing these scones - I wanted to experiment  around with a topping for these that would be delicious on other desserts as well. And by jove, we've got it!

The Pumpkin, spice and maple butter on this thing is to die for. Not to mention the melt-in-the mouth scones do a darn good job holding their own.

Don't let my cooky motives and inspiration for these lovely seasonal scones stop you for feasting on these yourself.

Go on then!

An Easter Delight ~ Pull-Apart Hot Cross Buns with Apricot Glaze

 
Did you grow up on the Nursery Rhyme? I did!

Hot-cross Buns!

Hot-cross Buns!

One a penny, two a penny, 

Hot-cross Buns!

Hot-cross Buns!

If ye have no daughters,

Give them to your sons

I can't help it!

Every year that I bake these I have the words jingling in my head. And it's nice to associate warm and fuzzy memories with food especially when the memory come wrapped up in a nice frolicky tune.

This made all the more made special  when the food itself happens to be loaves of spiced bread crusted with delicious dry fruits such as dried cranberries and golden raisins all nestled in a hint of sweetness. These are traditionally eaten at Easter with the cross on top representing the crucification of Christ.

But did you also know that there are all kinds of superstitions surrounding hot cross buns?

According to English folklore, the buns baked and served on Good Friday will not spoil or become mouldy during the subsequent year. Another encourages keeping such a bun for medicinal purposes.

 Sharing a hot cross bun with another is supposed to ensure friendship throughout the coming year, particularly if "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be" is said at the time.

True or not, what a sweet thought! So make some this week and I hope you share it with your loved ones for a year of goodwill that will be! 

PS - I am submitting these to Sweet at Sugar Cookies for the Sweets for a Saturday, parade. How nice of Lisa to invite me! Thank You.

Valentine's Day ~ Sinful Orange Burst & Chocolate Ganache Cake

 

 
My older son always gets the coolest cakes on his birthday.

Since his birthday falls in the vicinity of Valentine's day, invariably, we roll the dessert into one. And yes, this poses it's own challenges - not only must the dessert be chocolate, it must have all the sophistication of a Valentine's treat and all of the yumminess to turn little boys giddy with excitement.

When it comes to turning grown men, women and little boys and girls giddy with excitement, few things hit the spot like the combination of orange and chocolate. For me this fascination began young - right about the time I learned to smack that orange globe hard on the ground so it falls apart to reveal chocolaty orange segments. Please tell me you know that of which I speak?

For those of you who claim indifference to the combination of orange and chocolate, I have only this to ask - are we speaking of the same thing? And are you sure you've actually tasted said combination?

No brain-er people, this right here is a gateway to all things sinfully delicious. (What else you do with ganache, is entirely up to you....)

And now that we've got food for the belly and senses out of the way, this Valentine's day let me leave you with Lord Byron, a famously romantic poet - 

'Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.'

And here's my two cents worth -

We are not here on Earth only to achieve things. Nor are we here to be solely efficient. We are here to experience, to share and to celebrate happiness. Let's remember that this week and then look at the people we are closest to.

Despite their (and our) faults or failings, aren't we lucky to know them?

 

~OH WAIT! JUST A MINUTE~

I’m THRILLED that thanks to Sommer at A Spicy Perspective, I will be a co-host on an online cooking class through themotherhood.com on Wednesday, February 16th at 1 pm EST.

Please mark your calendars and check out their website for more information!

 

A Christmas Tradition from Naples : My adventures with 'Struffoli' ~ Citrus and Honey Fritters

A story is a sum of its parts. And so it is that this story is a sum of three - and this story has an idyllic beginning, a rude awakening and thankfully, a happy ending. The idyllic beginning to this story sets forth in the wonderful city of Sydney, more than a decade ago. 

It was during one such winter break that I met Umberto, an acting student from Sicily who was attending the National Institute of Dramatic Art (yes, the very same school Mel Gibson attended) and was using our college as temporary housing. He had moved to the room across from mine for the holidays and introductions were made over foaming mouths as he borrowed my toothpaste one morning.

When Christmas day arrived, we awoke to a hot and sultry weather which is quite usual as it is summer, down under. Most of us were heading to the beach for  a barbie and a swim and Umberto looked at everyone with a puzzled expression. He said, "Barbie,  What about some Struffoli? In Naples I always knew that Christmas week had arrived, not by the date on the calendar but because in in the center of the table would be a plate full of Struffoli". Of course we had no idea what he was on about.

Next thing we know, he walks over to the kitchen, speaks to the head cook and asks us to go grocery shopping with him. We return huffing and puffing loaded with flour, sugar, honey, lemons and oranges. We followed him into the kitchen and went to work. He was head chef and I was one of his line cooks.

 And so it was, that much later on Christmas day looking over the azure waters at Coogee beach, a handful of Uni students from the world over, savored our first plateful of Struffoli. These little doughnut-like balls enveloped with honey and the scent of lemons and oranges are a wonderful reminder of simpler times and simple pleasures.

Now wouldn't this have been a wonderful ending to this story? Written on a piece of old yellow parchment in my recipe pit is Umberto family recipe of Struffoli? I wish!

I, in fact have only scribblings of Umberto's family recipe with no proportions  in writing and all of it put together looks like runaway feline scratchings. So I turned to the dear man in orange crocs, Mario Batali. After all, how can I go wrong with Mario?

 But Alas, not only did Mario but the culinary Gods as well desert me, because what arrived on the table was this -

 Mr. Hubby took one look at them and said,"They look like shrivelled 'nuts' in winter! Are they supposed to look like this?"!

The kids who were also looking at the plate with  some trepidation and thankfully missed the meaning of what was just said,   announced, "Daddy, they look like walnuts" Unfortunately, they were as hard as walnuts too. Sigh.

I was sad. I barely looked into Mr. Hubby's eyes and just hung from my shoulders. After moping around for about 2 hours, I decided there was no way I was going to rest my head on a pillow this night without conquering the art of Struffoli making.

I reviewed the recipe again, and squealed to Mr. Hubby who was now sitting at his computer with a pair of headphones (no doubt to block away my whimpering sounds), which I promptly yanked off his head and said, "Nani (my gran) would have smacked me on the head! There is no fat in this recipe! How can we have soft, fluffy airy dough balls with no fat? I'm fixing them again and you have to eat them!"

Mr. Hubby mumbles, "I do?"

 

So off I went and reworked the same recipe but with less eggs, a smidgen of baking powder and buttah...you hear me, buttah!

 

And what we have here are these - marvellous, airy, light and bearing no resemblance to 'nuts' whatsoever -Struffoli!

 
 

 ~The {happy} End~

 

An Ode to the Holidays ~ Cranberry, Apple & Spice Cake

 
As cooler weather has come calling, it is nice to wake up to mornings where but for the occasional pine trees, almost all the magnificent trees have surrendered their leaves to the earth below.

And through these trees, the misty air is a visual wall, like curdled buttermilk. It is on such mornings that I long for a splash of color and warm baked goods. Few things lift my spirits like cold weather baking.

So excited have I been about the magnificent results of the Raspberry and almond cake, that we made a few weeks back that I decided that another fresh fruit cake albeit not one with ground up almonds but rather a plethora of spiced up seasonal fruit was in order.

And what would be more seasonal at this moment than fresh cranberries with apples and warm spices?

This is one of those creations that to my mind is as much of a pie as it is a crumble as it is a cake. I suppose the fact that the fresh fruit is heaped in mounds at the base of the dish reminds me very much of a crumble but the batter is indeed that of a cake and yet  the fruit juices that bubble up to the surface of the cake is just so pie like.

Either way. call it what you will, it tastes just as sweet!

 

Warm Wishes & A Thanksgiving Treat : Autumnal Pumpkin, Cream Cheese & Spice Swiss Roll

 
Oh Alright, I give up, I give in!

I know you're all 'pumpkined-out' but I have fallen trap with those millions who cannot but help post a pumpkin recipe come Thanksgiving. I have tried to ignore these orange globes all season but Alas! It is not be be! I have been haunted  by the thought that as Thanksgiving approaches at neck breaking speed, I must follow suit after my fellow brethren in the blogosphere and magazine publishers and post one, just one pumpkin recipe.

For those of us who belong to the category of people who have eyed recipes containing the terms 'swiss rolls' and 'jelly roll pan' with some trepidation, I'll have you know that for all our sakes, I have had a breakthrough - swiss rolls are forgiving!

I never thought I'd hear me say these words - but there, I've said it and I mean it. I have never claimed to be an ace baker but mainly some who loves to cook and happens to bake because I love, absolutely love the sweet scent and taste of fresh baked oven goodies. That and the fact that my two little munchkins cannot be denied their weekly treat.

So when I decided that for these holidays I would bake something with pumkin, after tossing the swiss roll idea around face book and oscillating between that and pumkin muffins with cheesecake and streusel, the populace spoke and the swiss roll won hands down.

Here's a mantra that I would recite while I fix these "Even if it looks like I'm screwing up, I'm not - it's going to be fabulous!" And it will be. Take it from me because there were times throughout the process that I kept thinking - "no way it's supposed to look like this" or " how come mine doesn't look all smooth & flat? " but in the end, it matters not! All said and done, they look fab, they taste fab, you'll get rave reviews and honestly, what else is there?

Now before I bury myself in the general mayhem of grocery list making, menu planning and cooking that is going to take over everything this coming week, I leave you and yours with my warmest wishes ~

 Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 

Holiday Finger Foods : Filo Cups with Crab & Pineapple Guacamole

 
I don't care how organized we are, the Holidays are a time when most of us are running around like chickens with our heads cut off!

Now if you're anything like me, you'll take any help you can get to keep the troops loaded and complacent while waiting on the feast ahead. No matter how much wine and beer is guzzled down, eventually folks will always meander back to the table looking for small bites.

Have I got just the thing for you!

 

These little guacamole delights are absolutely wonderful and are just the thing as a go-between munchie so much so that even the young ones love em'.

Now there is no shame in admitting - I go right for those frozen filo cups sitting in the freezer section for this one. Hey, between all the other cooking we have to get done, I say let's take the help where it's offered!

 

Holiday Favorites : Decadent Sugar & Thyme Roasted Acorn Squash

 

Big beautiful mounds of squash are all over the market place. Sitting a few places from the potatoes, these delightful creatures don't always receive the attention they must covet and rightfully deserve.

After all, beneath their hard cold exteriors, hidden by a labyrinth of seeds & membranes is succulent  & sweet flesh. When cooked right it does an excellent job enhancing a slab of steak or perfectly cooked pork chop.

And like most root vegetables what better way to bring forth their inherent sweetness than roasting. And if we stopped right there it would be good enough but once applied with a generous smear of butter, brown sugar, thyme and spices, this beautiful mound of squash is no longer just a mound of squash but turns into an entirely different decadent offering.

 

Now of all the squash in all the world, Acorn here is my absolute favorite. For one, there is that aesthetic quality to its shape. The architect in me seeks that sort of thing and secondly, I find it more delicate in flavor than its bulbous cousin the butternut.

I also enjoy the fact that that it's a leave-me-alone sort  of vegetable which suits perfectly, since it likes nothing more than to do its thing on its own in a hot oven.

Spices & Garlic Crusted Pork Tenderloin with Parsnips, Carrots & Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce

I am on some kind of a roll with pork tenderloin - I can't seem to get enough of it!

It has been this way ever since I fixed the Brazilian style Pork tenderloin, Marinated in Feijoada Spices & Roasted with an Orange-Serrano Chile Glaze . It is as though I have just discovered something that was in front of me this whole time. How fun!

I guess I should have listened more closely to all those ads in Sydney that kept playing over and over again on the tele - Australian pork - the New White Meat! It's a bit scary that I can still remember the jingle after all this time. Half the time I can barely connect the name to a face but when it comes to a pork tune, stuck in there like glue! Wow!

Anyway, I have been dying to fix parsnips - Like with most root vegetables what better way to cook them than roasting? I also wanted to do a tenderloin recipe that did not require a lot of marinating - just a few hours and still have a wonderful infused flavor. Now, I've always been a dry rub kind of girl - OK I did not mean for that to come off as kinky so just to be straight, we're talking food ya'all!

I love dry roasting spices, dry grinding them, adding a little bit of olive oil & marinating the meat in it and I do this just about any kind of meat always with excellent results. However, this is the first time I'm going pork tenderloin this way and I don't really have a recipe in mind, just a rough sketch so I'm going to work this I go along.

I also have an idea to use the 'vaghaar' technique in Indian cooking i.e. temper or season the hot oil with spices and then toss the vegetables in it - with the vegetables. I think its going to be wonderful with it. I thought of using turnips and rutabagas with the parsnips and carrots but  I think their bulbs will not be aesthetic with the linear forms of the other two vegetables - what can I say, you can't teach an old dog new tricks - once a designer, always a designer!