First Recipe

 So, it is only apt to have this title after not blogging for an entire month.  Well, this was the draft for "I Will Be Back" about Main Wapas Aaonga movie. It just took another month before I got back and so the title changed as well.

24th August this year , Amma would have turned 70. Should would have been singing I am 60, going on 70! It has been 6 years now already. She remains 64 and in the best of her health and energy in my memories.

I had started this last week again and I still could not get myself to complete writing this. I think it has taken a really long time to move forward with this single post so I have now resolved to get this completed for sure. So here we go.

As a child, my mother would get me to help her with some cooking activities. It mostly involved baking cakes, cutting vegetables for Pav Bhaji or rolling and folding samosas. Very specific activities. While I stayed away from cooking as such, these were all activities that I enjoyed and also where she would enjoy the process of doing them with me. There was a stove top oven which had to be filled with sand and then the cake to be baked in that oven.  And then there was this dish. It did not have a name, maybe just a biscuit cake.  Those days we would make with Marie biscuits soaked in coffee decoction. Then staked as a tower and slathered in a mix of beaten vanaspathi/Dalda, cocoa powder and sugar powder. Now I use cream and dark chocolate to make it as a ganache. The best part of this process is slicing the biscuit tower diagonally to reveal the layers. Soaked in coffee and with the softened biscuits that almost taste like a thin layer of cake and covered with chocolate, it is the simplest of deserts to make. All it needs is a little bit of time to chill in the refrigerator before the cutting happens. 

So to mark her 70th birth anniversary wanted to bring some of my earliest memories, especially what she taught me and what reminds me of her even after all these years. The Biscuit cake is a hit at home. Is easy to make. Looks very impressive. Reminds me of her. This being just one among many other things that remind me of Amma. 

So until next time, Happy Baking and Happy Reading !