CLICK: March Click Announcement, plus Judges Entry..

Think Metal, Think Spice -- My official "Judges" Entry for March Click Event

Shot taken with a Nikon D50 with 50mm Fixed Prime Lens in Macro Mode

Yes, folks, I am official. I am a judge!! Please don't ask me why Bee and Jai asked me to do this but I feel very privileged and honored to be part of their monthly CLICK event as one of the judges for the March Entries. I love food, fellow bloggers so send me those bribes and I am happy to taste them for you. All kidding aside, I am truly thrilled to be part of Click. I have submitted entries for almost all the previous click events and to be selected to judge is truly an honor.

You can always count on Bee and Jai to come up with innovative themes for the Click event. With March's theme of metal, I wanted to show case something metal, something personal, something related to food and something Indian. Well, that's when my handy sambara batalu (kannada word, its also known as the Traditional Indian Dabba) came to mind. My mother gave me my dabba years ago and traditionally its given in my family to the bride as she leaves home as part of her wedding kitchen set. The traditional box contains a lid, seven containers with matching spoons and an inner lid.

I have managed to misplace my inner lid and just use my dabba for daily cooking. My amma tells me that we usually put --Mustard Seeds, Urad Dhal, Cumin Seeds, Fenugreek Seeds, Coriander Seeds, Kadale Bele (Chana Dal or Bengal Gram Dhal) and Cardamom/Clove/Cinnamon Stick combo in the main seven cups and put a layer of dried red chillies in the inner lid cover. I am not a purist in most senses and have changed my box of ingredients to match my daily needs. So in my box I include Cumin Seeds, Cumin Powder, Red Chillies, Red Chilli Powder, Mustard Seeds, Urad Dhal and finally Turmeric Powder.

I am thinking of asking my mom to bring me a second dabba as I think I would like to separate the whole spices from my powders. Almost every kitchen India I have been to has one of these cute, convenient dabbas. Its great to have your most frequently used spices in one container and this way, if you are in the habit of grinding fresh spices you can only make enough to keep in your sabara batalu and redo when its over.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and CLICK for us! See you at the roundup! A special thank you to Bee and Jai, this was a lot of fun especially no pressure in being judged either!

Resources:

Learn how to organize your spices through this video.

A place to to buy a spice box/dabba.
Other Spice Dabba Narratives in the blogword:

• Saffron Trails
• Mahek's Kitchen
• What's for Lunch Honey?
• Mahanandi

Cakes: Spiced Pear-Banana Cake

I have a secret to share. The number of times I have baked this year has far exceeded the number of times I have baked my entire life. How could that happen you ask? Welcome to motherhood and trying to please two little toddlers with budding taste buds!

Today I decided to bake a Pear cake. A couple of weeks ago I tried a similar recipe without eggs and the consistency was disastrous. Gooey and sticky I couldn't stand sharing it with our weekend guests. They humored me and tried it anyway! Everyone concurred that the taste was good but pass on the texture. So today I baked the cake again with several differences. One key one was that I put egg yolks in, secondly I didn't mix the flax seed powder with the liquids but blended it with the dry ingredients and thirdly instead of the lite pear syrup and milk, I put condensed milk with a tinge of the pear concentrate. The results were far better than the last attempt and I am happy to share the recipe.

Recipe:
1 Cup Pears, chopped (I used Bartlett's from a can retained in pear juice, no sugary syrup)
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Sweetened and Condensed Whole milk
3 Egg Yolks
1/2 Banana, mashed
1/4 Cup Butter, room temperature
2 Heaping Teaspoons Flax Seed Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Powdered Cardamom
1/2 Teaspoon Ginger Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda and Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Pear concentrate from the canned pears

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 375 Degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a big bowl. Whip up butter, eggs, bananas together. Add condensed milk and the other wet ingredients into the dry one and combine well. If the batter is a little tight add the pear juice from the can to get a looser batter. My batter when poured into the greased cake pan moved slowly into it and i had to scrape the bowl to get all the batter into the cake pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes till the cake turns a golden brown color and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Here is the cake fresh from the oven:
Verdict:
The cake turned out moist and crumbly and was not too sweet as the only sugar I put was the condensed milk. If you prefer a more sugary cake, add about 1/4 cup Sugar. If not you can drizzle your cake with a little bit of condensed milk like I did and it will be fabulous.

Another idea is to pair up this Pear Cake with some fresh fruits alike Apricots or Berries and serve with some whipped cream for brunch!

The kids loved it and gobbled up lots of it as a morning snack at our weekly mom and kiddo group. I think they are starting to get used to all the spices I put in their foods and enjoyed the cardamom, ginger flavors soaking up the pear-banana cake. I am sending this one over to Trupti at The Spice Who Loved Me for the WBB #12 Spice It Up event. This food blogger event was started by Nandita over at Saffron Trail.

Enjoy!

Notes
- You can probably just use 2 eggs whole instead of 3 egg yolks but my daughter is allergic to egg whites so I avoid egg whites nowadays.
- I haven't tried using fresh pears in this recipe yet but it might work out just as good.
- Inspiration for this cake came from a muffin I tried from Essential Bakery in Seattle. It was a Pear Muffin with candied ginger slices. So yummy!!!