Something sweet, something savoury

It all started on a lazy Thursday afternoon, as I lay in a pool of sunlight, hungrily finishing up my book. The trouble with reading so much food literature is that it is impossible not to eat something while you’re reading. When you’re not giving into that temptation and stuffing your face with something, your mind is bursting with flavours and that immediately piques your taste buds. You dream up things you have to eat. And you want to eat them pronto.

First there was this superbly rich (but simple) coconut cake.

I could very well have just made a plain and simple cake. But I didn’t. I kind of went and OD’d on the coconut. Threw in some coconut milk, freshly grated coconut and coconut oil. Making this cake coconut-central. And then I raised it a notch with a wannabe-bountiness by chucking in some chocolate chips. If the sound of that excites you, wait till you hear what I did next. I drizzled it with a rum + honey glaze. And then I gawked at what I had created.

The wonders of coconut milk and coconut oil resulted in an incredibly moist and intensely coconutty pillowy cake. The nibs of melted chocolate interspersed with shredded coconut was like the perfect meeting of the South Indian favourite coconut barfi, but in cake form. And in case you’re missing that extra bit of sin, there’s the glaze. As if the cake wasn’t moist enough, I doused it in glaze, let it sit in a glossy plash of rummy goodness, till it could drink up no more.

And then I dug in. Heaven.
With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, Heaven ++.

Then there were these instant dosas and red chilli chutney.

What can I say? Maybe the South Indian in me is threatened. Maybe I just needed a touch of homely lovin’. Maybe I was just in the mood to experiment. Maybe I just needed it all instantly. But whatever it was, I’m just glad I listened and followed through, because these dosas are going to be the cure to my I-need-a-Dosa-NOW moments, and what’s better they go especially well with this not-so-regular chutney, I can make a meal of it.

There’s quite nothing like feeling experimental, confidently listening to your instinct, pairing unlikely things up and discovering something new. Something that works. Something that is tasty and something you know you can make again and enjoy over and over. The experimental side of me is on a bit of a roll. You’ll just have to bear with me, haan.

Tags: Food, Hits the spot, Hungry & Excited, Photography