Strawberry Cream Cheese Tarts

The New Year has begun with a lot of cooking. The posts have been coming in often and my blog is going to have almost 2000 hits- and I have finally embarked on the photography, learning nuances along the way. Food has been crucial to the beginning of the year, and that too, far beyond the blog.

               To cut a long story short, along with faraway tips, I decided to make dessert for the BIL who was travelling to India. The icing on the cake was that he was not familiar with my cooking- and even this blog. And I just need an excuse to spend half a day, puttering about in the kitchen, thoroughly enjoying the experience. The start point was that he would like something with fruits, and Ak came to the rescue by suggesting mini-tartlets. Tarts are perfect for dessert, as everyone can pick up their own mini-helping and they look pretty and delightful. Also, i personally feel- as someone baking tarts, I would love to serve an assortment with varied fillings. For some reason- they seem healthier too, maybe because of their fruity nature. My quest for the right tart began as I hunted for a sure-shot recipe that would work. I looked at 2 of my favorite Bloggers-Tartelette...on the sweet side of life (I love Helen’s styling and Photography-and am usually oohing- and aahing, when I read her posts) and Passionate about Baking (My daily ritual- or at least as often as she posts- Deeba is one of the most inspiring women…I haven’t met her and have only written to her once- but I love what she has done with Food Blogging here in India and the idea of making everything as pure as possible. She is very inspiring and I really hope that someday I can, be half as good as her.) 

             The dish was decided, I was going to make tartlets with strawberries and cream. I decided to go back to the Ipad Baking App, which I totally swear by. I used the tart recipe here, removed the almonds from it, and added some cinnamon instead. Most often, tarts are made with fresh fruits, and the mixed berry tarts seen so often are almost impossible to make here- no wild berries or blackberries available easily and I didn’t want to go down the tinned variety route. For the filling, I experimented a bit and decided to use a combination of cream and cheese- next time I may just use cream cheese instead! I had the wonderful goat’s cheese with cinnamon and berries still lying in the fridge, and so I decided to use a bit of it and hence, added the cinnamon in the tart base to compliment the cheese. The results were astonishing. The goat’s cheese added a wonderful consistency and flavor to the filling, a glimpse of cranberries and the slightly cheesy sweetness with a hint of cinnamon was quite wintery. I always thought strawberries and cream was a winner; the discovery of the addition of cinnamon has been interesting. The audience thought it was quite professional, and during the delay in actually putting up the post, I have already made the tarts twice over. That I assume, would be success enough J

              Disclaimer; this is the first post- where the photography is entirely by yours truly, except for the one grand finale, which Ak shot to wrap it up. I am quite pleased with the results- for which I give credit to the wonderful new lens.

Puff Pastry Wraps- Celebrating Milestones

Communicooking has achieved a milestone. I got featured on Foodista.com as their Featured Blog of the Day on 20^th December. To be honest, I was quite elated! The Yaaaaaay was silent in my heart, because I really could not believe it! For many in the blogging world, this may not be such a big deal, but I am sure, a lot of the bloggers would identify with this moment that they too would have experienced at some point of time! Nevertheless, I was extremely excited, inspired and motivated, Thanks to Foodista!

And there was no better way to celebrate, except to do another post. In the current situation, where there are only 2 people eating, I am constantly worried with regards to excess food around the house- especially perishables like vegetables. In my weekend visits to my wonderland as Ak calls it (well, it’s the local grocery store- and I am like a little child, in a toy shop), Ak had suggested we pick Puff Pastry. I assume he was hoping for the Chocolat Twisties, but this week, being super chaotic at work- had not led to much of anything new worth writing about. I walked into my kitchen, and opened the fridge, and I could see so much stuff- and the puff pastry was going to expire soon! Usually, the basic fresh puff pastry pack is used in 2 batches, but since it was almost close to expiry date- I decided to have a puff pastry day!

The Deceptive Tart

I feel like I have been out of action for a while. It hasn’t been long since my last post and it’s not like I haven’t cooked anything in the last few days. But, the rut of daily routine, a lot of work and other mental preoccupations have slowly set in this inertia, which has prevented me from blogging. This was one of those days- crammed with dilemma, which of course reflected in my cooking. But then again, after a day like this, what I really needed is to switch off momentarily and treat myself to a stint in the kitchen. In fact I think the dish is representative of my psychological state of affairs.

Since dinner was prepared already, I decided to strike the sweet tooth. On the day preceding the navratras (life and the kitchen being devoid of any ills- alcohol, eggs and all forms of meat for 7 complete days), clearly, I wasn’t going to bake anything with eggs. Simultaneously, the recurring telecast of Nigella’s grasshopper’s pie was still playing in my mind. My indecisiveness soon disappeared. Ak said, that this was the day of taking a crack at something new, so why not this too! And voila’, did I need any more inspiration? I didn’t think so.