The Battenberg Case

The truth, the myths and the marzipan in between ;)

Year 1884 April 30^th and a cake is born-the Battenberg cake to celebrate the marriage between the Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg and Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine on that very day.

No this is not true!, in fact this is the myth, no historical written record or proof has been found which depicts that the co called Battenberg cake was created on the occasion of this marriage. The modern version of this cake has 4 panels in colors of pink n yellow arranged in check pattern, however the cake at that time used to have 9 such sections. Now because the 4 sections since it looks like a child’s drawing of a window panel it is often known as window chapel cake in northern England. Now as with everything changes occur naturally with time, so did happen with this Battenberg cake, perhaps the cake started getting 4 panels when the mass industry production started taking place before the world war 2, we need a minimum of 4 panels to create a cross check pattern, so it makes sense to simplify things for the sake of mass production.

                                            The creator of this Battenberg cake was Frederick Vine, a talented British food writer around that time. In fact he used to write Battenberg as “Battenburg”; after all it is his creation. His original earliest cake however did not have any check pattern; it was simple fruit loaf with lots of sultanas and candied peel. Some years after the marriage mentioned above, there was perhaps gradual appearance of this check pattern cakes, in fact in 1898 appeared Mrs. Marshall’s domino cake which looked just the same as Frederick Vine’s Battenberg cake with 9 sections and Robert Well’s Neapolitan roll which had 4 sections like the ones we see today. The distinctive thing about this cake was it was covered in almond paste which we know as marzipan in the era. If you want to read more about it and see some real pictures from that time click here http://foodhistorjottings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/battenburg-cake-history-again.html

This is great history food blog by the talented Ivan Day.

                                       Now let me tell you about the cake itself, it’s a light sponge cake, the panels assembled together with apricot jam and then coated in a layer of marzipan. Now I find this cake to be a little over-sweet and you can imagine why! I mean the sponge cake is sweet, the marzipan is sweet and the apricot jam is sweet, sweet on sweet on sweet…all right. When I baked the cake I reduced the sugar in the sponge itself and I also rolled the marzipan as thin as I could. The cake looks lovely, in this bright pink n yellow squares, it can make you smile.

                                   Hey I made my own marzipan, for the first time, that too with some changes and it worked. Well what I did was I took equal parts of almond and peanuts, took off their skin by soaking them in hot water, not boiling water, for about 5 minutes when the skin comes off easily, then I pat them dry with a towel and then in a strong blender I made almost a smooth powder out of them, it doesn't have to be very smooth, and then I take equal amount of castor sugar and I combine them with this castor sugar with a bit of red rum. I used red rum because I love the flavor and I think red rum gives it a longer shelf life. And I did have a bit of fun with the marzipan, now I will call it “MARZIFUN” and you can have a look at them… child’s play right! Imagine you give this to a group of children and what amazing things they will come up with! You can even eat all that fun literally.

Now one interesting thing about the prince Louis of Battenberg though it is not related to the cake, is he was of German origin and later on he was a member of the British Royal family, he was appointed the captain, the admiral, the first sea-lord by the royal family. So he modified his family name from Battenberg to Mountbatten since there were rumors that the British royal family must be pro-German. I am sure he has eaten this cake many times. Well for you, readers I have this cartoon from “punch” depicting this modification of his family name.

                                                                                

                                                                                                                      Oh! I did have a bit of fun with the marzipan, my hands made some caterpillar and some weird animals and I don’t even know what to call them!

                                                     I thought I will tell you about the Battenberg markings which are high-visibility markings on the sides of the emergency vehicles used in some European countries and some more. Mostly they are in green and blue or yellow squares in a check pattern just like the cake! The name for the markings most probably comes from the similarity in appearance of the cross section of the cake.

                                                                                                So when I will be carrying the cake walking in the street, tell me will you be able to see it from far! And then you will go home and make it. Ha-hah. Now I will tell you the recipe. Bon appétit.

The Recipe: you will need

For the sponge     

175g/6oz very soft butter, plus extra for greasing

175g castor sugar (I put the sugar a bit less like 155g)

175g self-raising flour or all purpose flour

3 medium eggs

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Zest of 1 orange, zest of 1 or 2 limes

1 tbsp of fresh orange juice

1 tbsp of baking powder if using all purpose flour/1 tsp baking powder if using self-raising flour

A pinch of salt

Some drops of pink food color.

For the covering

200g of marzipan

About 6 tbsp of apricot jam

3 tbsp of icing sugar for rolling the marzipan

You need a brush to coat the cake with warm apricot jam.

For the marzipan

50g almonds

50g peanuts

2 tsp of red rum

1.       Let’s begin with making the marzipan. Measure 50 g of almonds and peanuts each, if you like almonds more measure 100g of almond. Heat some water in pan to almost boiling, then take it off the heat and when the temp, reduces slightly pour the almonds and the peanuts in separate pans by dividing the water in 2 pans. Now give them about 5 minutes, then start with the almonds, with your fingers if you press the almonds you will see the skin has come loose, you may have to scratch them a bit, so de-skin all of them. It will take a bit of time to de-skin both the almonds and the peanuts, when done pat them dry with a towel, then in a grinder place the almonds, grind to almost the smooth powder, same with the peanuts, in case of peanuts you will find that the powder of them looks more like a smooth dough. Now measure 100 g of icing sugar. In a big bowl mix the powder of both almonds n peanuts with the icing sugar with a wooden spatula, when well combined add 1 tsp of rum and mix well, you will see that the mixture has begin to come together like a dough now add 1 more tsp if you think it needs, then mix well with your hands until the whole mixture comes together like a smooth dough. Here you have just made fresh marzipan! Now wrap it in cling film and freeze it.

2.       Pre-heat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm/8in square tin with butter, as for me I buttered a 1 lb loaf tin very lightly and I lined the loaf tin with baking parchment paper and buttered it. With an aluminum foil I made a pleat and place it in the center along the length of the tin so that I can bake the 2 colored cakes in the same tin.

3.       Start creaming the butter with a whisk; when the butter attains a light color add the castor sugar and cream it until it becomes lighter in color for about 5 minutes. Then add 1 egg and whisk until it is fully incorporated, then add the 2^nd egg and do the same, then with the 3^rd egg shift a little flour on top of the egg in the cake mixture and beat it in. we are doing this so that the mixture wont curdle, even if it curdles it will be fine. So when the eggs are all in add the lime and orange zest and vanilla essence to the mixture and whisk it in. Then pour the baking powder, a pinch of salt into the flour and shift the flour in 2 batches into the wet mixture and mix well. Now divide the mixture in 2 equal parts and to one part add 1-2 drops of pink food color just to attain the pink shade. Now to the other part add the orange juice and mix well. Now pour the pink and the yellow mixture in the tin and place them in the middle of the oven for about 30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean and the cake springs back when touched.

4.       Take the cakes out of the tin after 10 minutes and when they have cooled off, take a sharp knife and cut both of them along the length into rectangular stripes which has around 1 inch/2.5 cm square sides. Do them with both the yellow and the pink sponge. Then warm the apricot jam in a pan, with a brush apply the sides of the first 3 strips of cake to stick them together, now brush on the top side of them and take one opposite colored strip and brush its downside and put it on the first base strip of the cake, brush its side and place another strip of cake beside it and the same for the last strip. Now brush the jam all over the cake lightly with the jam.

5.       Roll the marzipan on a flat surface dusted with icing sugar to a thickness you want. I rolled it to the minimum thickness I could, and make sure the rolled surface is big enough to wrap the cake all around. Then brush the inside of the rolled marzipan with apricot jam, then place the cake in the middle and warp it. Pinch the meeting sides together with your fingers. And now with sharp knife slowly cut across the length t reveal the checkered pattern. You are done!

                             

                         

It is a bit of work and after all the hard work it does look lovely. Since it’s a tea cake get some tea!

A childhood full of tomato chutney...

Hey my dear reader! How are you doing? You know what I think…I think tomatoes are made in heaven! I mean I know it is a fancy thing to say, and tomatoes grow in their trees, so heaven must be in the air…but once in awhile when I start to love something or someone dearly,  my mind fills up with beautiful imagination – a different world is created where the boundaries of reality and imagination exchange each other’s caps. Now the thing is I really like tomatoes…some of my favorite food items contains them in abundance, imagine a pizza without tomato sauce! Or a Chana Masala without them! Or Ghughni without the red ripe tomatoes in them? Or Bruschetta without tomatoes! Spaghetti without tomato sauce! Even Bloody Mary will be incomplete without them! Sounds dull right? Yes the world will be dull without tomatoes. As a kid I was a huge fan of tomato ketchup, I grew up licking it, pouring them on noodles until it was  a bit too much, pouring them on puffed rice, samosas, puff pastry and what not! I remember as  a little boy I used to have tomato ketchup just like that anytime  really and when the big bottle was about to finish, no more drops will fall off, I used to pour a little water inside the bottle followed by some shakes so the water will turn into a lighter tomato ketchup and have it! Imagine this! Oh and where I will be without my glorious tomato chutney! Without the chutneys a big part of my childhood will lose its flavor, as if the sweet chutneys added their sweetness and flavor into my childhood and made it a sweet comfortable place.

                                                                      So how can I not tell you about chutneys? Especially the ones I adore. Chutney is Indian in origin and as time passed by it spread its flavor across the seas, so much so that chutneys are now established part of British cuisine. However the chutneys in India are quite different than the ones you may find in Britain, especially in the use of malt vinegar used in British chutneys for long keeping, so it becomes more close to the idea of pickles. In India vinegar is not used in any chutney, also the fact that there are almost 2 categories of chutney-the sweet ones and the savory ones. Basically chutney is a relish made from fresh fruits or tomatoes or dried fruits like dates, raisins, kismis and figs, from sun-dried mango pulp cakes/aam-papd/aamsatto plus the spices used in them which vary along with the ingredients. Chutney is real comfort food; you can have it at the end of a meal which will only make the ending sweeter, isn't that nice! You can have it mixed with a little rice, with crisp fried papadums, with a crisp thin toast, even spread on a thin crust pizza base…and we have in hand a very delicious sweet pizza... yummy. You can even use it as the main ingredient of a dressing for a salad...Like I do when I make green mango chutney which I later use as a dressing on a simple salad and the salad bursts into a song as the chutney comes into play! Oh I think I am getting carried away. By getting carried away has its own rewards…we reach new shores where we have not been before.

                            I simply love sweet chutneys, they are my comfort deserts, bursting with flavors and they pamper me so much. I enjoy them on a wet monsoon day when everything around me is wet and I dig into the chutney with my boat of crisp fried papadums which is super yummy, or a summer evening with green mango chutney, some tamarind chutney, on winter days like this I am with date-aam-papad chutney, mix fruit chutney, some days I’m busy with deep red cherry chutneys… I am seducing my soul writing about chutneys so much...because I have such memories it is very easy for me to get myself there mentally as I write it. What I really hope that you, dear reader, if you have never tasted chutney before, now the time has come that you must and after that experience you will be a very happy person.

The fun part was in the elaborate way of eating chutney with my hands, more hands- very less spoon experience. I used to sit with a big bowl of tomato and green mango chutney with tiny spoon, I only used the spoon to lift a little amount of chutney into my palm , then lick it, dip my fingers into the chutney, lifting up chunks of tomato n mango out of the bowl, balancing them on my fingers tips on the way to my lips while some drops of the syrup of the chutney will fall all over me, and then next moment is chutney mediation moment, eyes closed, lips sealed with chutney…ummmm. It was such a fun where the experience of enjoying it became as fun as eating it. I used to eat it at times with my sister and my friend. Now it is still fun for chutneys stay chutneys all along the time and they make us happy just like yesterday.

I think chutneys are quiet romantic food, if someone has to make a sweet impression on someone or just to make someone happy, prepare a delicious chutney and you will see how far it goes. I hope it goes very far. Now there is a saying “ all is well that ends well”, now this I find to be true, wherever I go out to eat at a traditional place  or I cook up a whole traditional meal ending with chutney, it becomes the most satisfying moment to end with a good chutney. There can be blunders in the course of the meal where some items didn't make you happy, while some blew my mind away with their flavors, but as the sweet chutney makes it entry…u la la…i forget about all the blunders, superb dishes are forgotten, all I remember is the chutney.

Aright so now straightaway I will give you the recipe for the sweet tomato chutney. Oh! By the way did I tell you that the word chutney has its source from the word “chaat” which is a verb and which means to lick, so you must lick.

The recipe: You will need

4-5 medium red ripe tomatoes

1 tsp of five spice (cumin, fennel, nigella seeds, black mustard, fenugreek seeds-use half the amount of fenugreek compared to amount of each individual other spice, like 1 unit each of cumin, fennel, nigella, black mustard n ½ unit of fenugreek seed.)

¼ the block of aam-papd/aamsatto block cut into ½ inch cubes.

A handful of dates halved or quartered.

½ cup of sugar (you may need more or less depending on the tartness of the tomatoes or how sweet you want your chutney to be)

1 ½ cup of water

 Pinch of salt.

½ tsp of vegetable oil.

Around ½ tsp of tamarind paste or store brought tamarind chutney for a touch of sourness.

 Begin by removing the eye of the tomatoes from their top part , then  cut them into medium chunk along their length, say making 4-5 chunks out of one half of the tomatoes. Having done that place the sugar and the water together in a pan, then put the pan on low flame, stir in between until the sugar has completely dissolved , then increase the flame to medium and let it come to a simmer. While it comes to a simmer take another pan, on medium flame, heat the oil in the pan, then add the five spice in the pan, on low flame give it 30 seconds until the mustard seeds start to sputter, then add the tomatoes, toss them with the spices for a 2-3 minutes. Now transfer the whole batch of tomatoes along with the spices in the sugar syrup. Add the dates and half of the aam-papad cubes and then cover the pan and let it only simmer like that for about 15 minutes. Add a pinch of salt in between, check the sweetness, if you think it need more sugar according to your taste go for it. after about 15 /20 minutes it has reached the stage of being called a chutney, most of the water by now has reduced now, it is much more thicker now, the tomatoes are softer, part of the tomatoes has melted into the syrup. If you would want the chutney to be little thin stop at this part, if you want otherwise give it couple of minutes. Now add the tamarind pulp/chutney, mix well, and put the flame off. Add the rest half of the aam-papad, cover the pan and leave it for 5 minutes. Super simple isn't it! Now you can start licking. :) enjoy it with crisp friend papadums, crisp chips, crisp tortilla, crisp roti, on toasts, on graham crackers or just on their own. Bon appétitJ

My Green Pea stuffed fried flat bread or should I say Karaisutir kachuri!

  Just 2 evenings ago coming back home I realized it was quiet late, there was hardly anyone in the street, it was chilled night, that’s the thing about winter nights, it wasn't even that late, 10.45! I was all alone, walking as fast as I thought I should, and then something happened! I reached home and I had company with me…

A kilo of fresh green peas! 

Yeah, sorry for shattering your ongoing imagination dear reader, but that’s the truth, well as it turns out there was this man near the train station, selling his last heap of green peas and  because it was so late in the night n he has to run back home also, he gave it to me as fast as he could. So there I was with a heap of fresh green peas looking at me and I just knew what to do with them. Fried flat bread stuffed with a paste of flavored green peas…yum-mm….

Next day when I got myself ready to cook again, I started to get the pods out of their green shells, as I kept doing that I could smell the slight sweetness they have. If you just eat them raw, which many people do, you will find them softly sweet, the fresh crunch and the flavor of the green peas. And this flat bread thing that I was gonna do I have eaten this before many times, it is a favorite in this time of the year; people usually have it as a snacks in the evenings and mornings with potatoes in light gravy. It is a traditional Bengali/Indian dish, perhaps eaten for many hundreds of years. In the region of Bengal they are known as “Karaisutir Kachuri” and in the Hindi speaking regions it will be “Hare Matar ki Kachori”-which is flat bread made from all purpose flour, stuffed with a paste of the peas, then rolled flat with a rolling pin and deep fried. It tastes delicious and it reflects the season so much. Green peas comes fresh in the months of the winter in India, so out of the many ways the peas makes its way into our palate, these kachuris  are one of the celebrated ways. Often they are eaten in get-together, in small and big celebrations like birthday parties, marriages.

I will tell you how it really feels special when you eat it, there is this slightly crunchy outside of the flat bread because it has been deep-fried and then as you bite you get to the green core of the bread, as it spreads in your mouth, you begin to taste the subtle sweetness of the peas, the flavor of the masalas (spices) and the peas still mingling in your mouth. Now does that not make you hungry! I am already! Writing in detail has its own effect on me.

These kachuris are best eaten with something light, perhaps lightly flavored potatoes in gravy. If you eat it with something intense, which you can, the flavor of the kachuri gets overpowered by that. So if you really want to enjoy it, choose something light, even beaten creamy yogurt seasoned with salt n sugar will be just fine.

I should tell you this sweet reader that “Kachori/Kachuri” are flat breads stuffed with something and then deep-fried, in this case stuffed with a paste of green peas.

A flat-bread without a stuffing and deep-fried will be called a “Puri/Luchi”

I do have childhood memories of eating this, I can still run those scenes and the whole experience runs in my head. It was my elder sister who is fond of cooking started cooking this in frequent winter evenings; I remember how the evening air in our home used to be heavy with the aroma. Every day after coming from college she would start cooking something special and delicious for the evening. Most of the evenings I spent were in the green fields with my friends playing cricket and football, and coming back home it was my time to smell the air and find out what is cooking in the kitchen and then dig in like a hungry panda. Some evenings I watched her cook, she used to knead the dough, cut the potatoes…it was those evenings that has memories of this kachuri stored in them and I can only access them when I remember it deeply or when I make the kachuris myself. It is yesterday once more. This is my own version.

The recipe: you will need

For the paste of peas                                                                

300 gms of green peas in their shell, then separated

1 tbsp of butter

1tsp of shahi jeera (long cumin) or cumin seeds

5 Methi ( fenugreek) seeds

1 clove

½  broken dry red chili

1 pinch of red chili powder

1/1 ½ tsp of Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp of sugar

2 pinches / ¼ tsp of Hing ( Asafoetida)

3 tbsp of water

1 tsp of soy bean oil/olive oil/sunflower oil.

For the dough

200 gms all purpose flour

1 tsp of flavorless vegetable oil

½ tsp salt

½ tsp powdered sugar

½  tsp baking powder

About ½ cup water (lukewarm, though not necessary)

                               Let’s begin with the dough, sprinkle the salt, sugar , baking powder and oil in the flour and mix well, then make a well in the center, add some water and mix the flour from around the well, keep adding water a little part and mix well until all the dough comes together. Don’t add a lot of water in the beginning or at one time, add a little water and let the flour absorb it all, then if you think it needs more water, add a little more. A time will come when the dough will just come in one rough lump; at that point there is no need to add more water. Knead the dough for 4 mins, sprinkle some water with your fingers in between if you think it needs, after 4mins the dough will become smooth. Pour 1 tsp of oil on top the dough, spread it with your hands, cover the dough and leave it for half an hour.

While the dough rests we will prepare the peas. In a shallow frying pan place the butter and 3 tbsp of water, the pea pods together, place the pan on medium flame, cover it. After 2 mins you will see steam is coming out of the pan, reduce the flame to low and give it about 4/5 minutes.  After that take those off the pan and in the same pan add 1 tsp of oil, as the oil gets hot add 1 clove, shahi jeera/long cumin/cumin, methi seeds, and dry red chili. Give those 30 seconds in low flame and then add 2 pinches of hing powder, add the peas, mix well. Give them 1 minute, then add sugar, then salt to taste and a pinch red chili powder, lastly add the Worcestershire sauce in the pan, mix well. Take it off the pan and take out the broken dry red chili, then put into a small blender and make a paste of them while they are still hot. For the paste we need almost smooth texture, let the paste cool off.       

                                                          Now we have to put both of them together. Take the dough and roll it on a wooden board with your hands until it becomes elongated in long cylindrical shape. Now tear out small balls of dough from that which are around 1 ½ inch in diameter, flatten each ball lightly with your palm. Now when we are done using the whole dough making the balls, take out your rolling pin and start with one ball. On a wooden or smooth surface, rub the working surface lightly with oil, place one ball and with the 3 longest fingers in your palm together, press the ball lightly, and spread it lightly. Now with the rolling pin just roll the ball only slightly so that it just spreads just a bit, take it up in your hand, now take 1 tsp of the pea paste and spread it almost in the shape of a flat disc with your thumb in your other hand and place it in the middle of the flat ball dough. You will see the corners of the dough are clean while the pea paste sits in the middle, imagine a small circle of pea paste inside the big circle of the dough, now start pulling up n pinching the dough around the disc together while pressing down the pea paste as you do so, it will become natural as you start to do so. When you have pinched and collected all the dough around the pea paste together, hold that dough, pull it slightly and twist it a bit. Remember how they make the Chinese dumplings! Then place it on the wooden surface again, press it lightly with your fingers until it looks like a rough circle, keep pressing with your fingers lightly as u spread it a bit, work lightly always, the action of your hands is as important as the action of the rolling pin. Now with the rolling pin roll it lightly into a rough circle until it is about 4 inches in diameter. Prepare all the balls like this into flatten breads.

 

So now it is time to heat the oil for deep frying, so in a deep wok or in your deep fryer  heat any flavorless vegetable oil, I used soy bean oil around 4 cups. Heat the oil until it is quite hot, then reduce the flame to mid low, before you put the whole flatten bread into the oil, test it by dipping only a little part of the bread into the hot oil, it should begin to give off little bubbles and you will hear the sound of slight sizzle after 2/4 seconds. Now place 1 flat bread at a time carefully, give about 1 minute on both sides, as you place the flat bread in hot oil you will see it will drown first and the sides of the flat bread will start to bubble first, after about 10 seconds it will start to float up, that time lightly press with a slotted spoon in the middle of the flat bread and keep pressing lightly, you will see it will begin to puff up, after 1min, turn it over and again lightly press in the middle, give it 1minute,  what we need the flat bread gets light brown all over.  When it has got nicely light brown all over take it off carefully and then put a new one in the oil. Finish all the flat breads like this. We are doneJ

                                          So now just dig in, it is best eaten warm, enjoy it with a cooked potatoes in light gravy or with yogurt or just on their own when you can truly appreciate their flavor. Enjoy eating dear reader…Let me wish u Bon Appétit.