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Mushroom Paprikash

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Mushroom Paprikash Recipe

Mushroom Paprikash inspired by the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoke.

The Inspiration Behind Mushroom Paprikash

“We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem., get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.”

Amongst the several food and drink references in Bram Stoker’s horror masterpiece, I have been particularly fascinated with the idea of Paprika Hendl ever since coming across it while reading “Dracula” over a decade or so ago.

Believed to be what is known as Chicken Paprikash in current times, the vegetarian take on this Hungarian classic, Mushroom Paprikash, has been one of the 768 or so recipes that I keep telling myself I need to try but never get around to making.

With the Lahori weather turning cool, gray and decidedly Transylvanian, and today being a special day for the massive horror fan that I am, it was finally time to make this comforting classic.

What Is Mushroom Paprikash And How Exactly Is It Made

Simple yet rich, this creamy stew gets its velvety texture from heavy cream (easy hack to make sour cream in the instructions/method: no premixing required!) and packs a punch with heady smoked paprika and hot red chilli powder.

This may not seem like a lot of crisp fried button mushrooms but they are sitting atop a bed of shredded & equally crisp fried chanterelles and oyster mushrooms, all of which together, are a textural and flavour umami bomb.

Please read the note at the end of the recipe for details on the fresh mushrooms I used in this recipe and what you can substitute them with.

Mushroom Paprikash Recipe

Traditionally eaten with homemade egg noodle dumplings (galuska/nokedli/spätzle), I enjoyed this with a side of gnocchi-shaped pasta and a simple side of steamed broccoli and fresh baby spinach spiked with a fresh red chilli to balance the richness of this hearty dish.

For a cult-classic horror novel, there are plenty of food and drink mentions (magmila, impletata and slivovitz to name a few); rather strangely chilling if you think about it, since a vampire’s sole diet consists purely of blood and nothing else.

Perhaps I will create my versions of all of the food in the book together one day, as a feast in the infamous Count’s honour 😈.

On that note, here’s wishing a Spooky Halloween 🎃 to fans of the celebration!

 

Mushroom Paprikash

 

Simple yet rich, this creamy Mushroom Paprikash packs a punch with heady smoked paprika and hot red chilli powder. Topped with a selection of umami-rich crisp fried mushrooms for a deeply satisfying flavour.

 

Recipe Type: Main

Author: Alice In Eatland

Cook Time: 15-20 Minutes

Total Time: 30 Minutes

Serves: 2

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 tablespoons oil
  • 2 cups mixed fresh mushrooms*
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • Salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder or paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika (if available)
  • 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1-2 tablespoons cream/sour cream, to drizzle
  • Chopped fresh parsley
  • Boiled and buttered pasta, to serve
  • Steamed broccoli, to serve
  • Fresh baby spinach, to serve
  • Fresh red chilli, deseeded, to serve

 

METHOD

  1. Sauté whole or sliced mushrooms in a flat-based pan over high heat in batches, until crisp and browned. Cool completely in a metal sieve.
  2. Heat the remaining oil in the same pan and sauté onions and garlic until soft and fragrant.
  3. Add the tomato paste and cook till it darkens slightly.
  4. Sprinkle flour and cook the mixture 2-4 minutes or until the flour no longer smells raw.
  5. Remove pan from heat and whisk in the vegetable stock till the mixture is lump-free.
  6. Place pan back on the heat, season with salt, red chilli powder or paprika, smoked paprika (if using), garlic powder, onion powder and bring to the boil, whisking constantly.
  7. Cook 5 minutes until bubbly, keep whisking frequently.
  8. Turn the heat off and quickly whisk in 2-4 tablespoons heavy cream and lemon juice.
  9. Check seasoning, add more salt or lemon juice if needed and grind in fresh black pepper.
  10. Pour into serving dish/bowl/plate.
  11. Drizzle with heavy cream or sour cream, if wished.
  12. Top with fried mushroom mix and sprinkle chopped fresh parsley.
  13. Serve with boiled and buttered pasta of your choice and a side of steamed broccoli, fresh baby spinach and deseeded red chilli.

 

NOTE:

*I used a combination of sliced button mushrooms and shredded chanterelles and oyster mushrooms in this recipe.
Though fresh mushrooms taste best in this particular dish, you can absolutely use canned mushrooms instead.

This recipe, like most of my other recipes, is more of a guide rather than a strict set of rules to be fanatically adhered to, so please feel free to make substitutions and alterations to suit your preferences and budget.

White Blueberry Cake With Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

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White Blueberry Cake with Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

White Blueberry Cake with Stable Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting is the cake of the year for me. It was also my birthday cake this year.

My obsession with white cake means that I’ve pinned almost every white cake recipe on Pinterest onto my White Cake Board and tried and tested more than several white cake recipes over the years.

I adore the white cake recipe by Goodie Godmother and that is the one I’ve used here with a few alterations. You can find the original recipe and photos of her very pretty perfect white cake here.

Fresh blueberries are a fabulous addition, providing a bright, tart flavour and contrasting texture to this tender-crumbed milky vanilla cake.

White Blueberry Cake with Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Additionally, the deep purple of the blueberries dotting the pale white serenity of the cake in places is quite the visual treat.

I feel baking emulsion works really well for non-cocoa cakes (especially white cakes) and I have used LorAnn’s utterly gorgeous Butter Vanilla Emulsion in this recipe. Obviously any vanilla extract or your go-to vanilla essence is equally good too.

I use the reverse creaming method here created by ultimate cake authority and baking guru Rose Levy Beranbaum whom I hold in divine culinary reverence. Her “The Cake Bible” which my mother has owned since 1989, is one of my most loved and trusted books ever when it comes to baking and cake making.

Good fluffy cream cheese frosting is a thing of joy but can also be a nightmare when it comes to stability.

Add to that the challenge and despair of not being able to find brick-style cream cheese in Lahore and that equals grounds for a possible unstable cream cheese frosting situation.

White Blueberry Cake with Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I had the very rare good fortune of stumbling upon a couple of Philadelphia Cream Cheese bricks just once at Essajee’s (February 2015 to be precise). I joyously bought them to make the most stable cream cheese frosting ever for the Rainbow Cake at my birthday that year. Sadly I have never come across that product again in Lahore.

Luckily, I found a recipe by the baking perfectionist Cleobuttera, calling for cream cheese squares, easily found at many grocery stores here. The result is a super stable, slightly tangy and ultra creamy frosting. Her original recipe and close ups of her beautiful cream cheese frosting swirls on a delicious carrot cake can be viewed here.

Since special frostings call for special extracts, I have added Nielsen-Massey’s dazzlingly heady Mexican Pure Vanilla Extract to the frosting. I am equally happy adding any other vanilla extract or a beloved vanilla essence to the frosting.

The edible pansies I have decorated the cake with are from Macroorganics, who grow a frankly staggering selection of edible flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs, both the local and the exotic varieties. The variety of their produce grown in Okara and shipped as fresh as can be to other parts of the country is unmatched.

Thank you if you’ve read the post so far. For those wanting to skip directly to the recipe, I am quite obviously behind times and will upload the “Jump To Recipe” button as soon as I can figure out how to add it.

On to the recipe.

White Blueberry Cake with Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

 

White Blueberry Cake With Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting 

 

Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Alice In Eatland
Serves: 8 -10

 

Milky tender white vanilla cake dotted with fresh blueberries & filled and topped with a stable fluffy lemony cream cheese frosting + edible pansies

 

WHITE BLUEBERRY CAKE 


INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar or fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 2 teaspoons LorAnn’s Butter Vanilla Emulsion OR vanilla extract OR vanilla essence
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract (optional)
  • 2-4 cups fresh blueberries
  • 3 cups flour
  • 6 tablespoons cornflour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1.5 teaspoons salt
  • 2/3 cup oil

 

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F.
  2. Line (either with grease proof paper or foil), oil and flour two 8 inch round cake pans (the heavy and deep kind will give the best results).
  3. To make the sour cream, stir vinegar or lemon juice into the milk and then stir this buttermilk into the cream.
  4. Lightly combine the sour cream, 1/4 cup milk, vanilla extract, almond extract (if using) and egg whites.
  5. Toss the blueberries in a couple of tablespoons of the flour until evenly coated. Set aside.
  6. Combine the remaining flour, cornflour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
  7. Beat in the oil and the remaining 3/4 cup milk till combined followed by the egg white mixture in 3 batches.
  8. Finally fold in the flour-dusted blueberries.
  9. Divide the cake batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans.
  10. Bake 30 – 60 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near centre of the cakes comes out clean.
  11. Remove cakes from oven, let cool 10 minutes then remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.
  12. To frost, thinly trim away any crusty tops and brown bottoms of the cold cakes if you wish.
  13. Slice each cake into 2 horizontally.
  14. Sandwich the layers with Stable Fluffy Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below).
  15. Trim sides with a serrated knife (optional).
  16. If you choose to leave the sides of the cakes unfrosted like I did, you may have leftover frosting which can be frozen in an airtight container for another use.
  17. Decorate the cake with washed and dried edible pansies or any other edible flowers.
  18. Keep refrigerated but serve at room temperature.

 

STABLE FLUFFY LEMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 – 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 150 grams Lurpak Slightly Salted Butter
  • 3 cups icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar, well sifted
  • 2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey Mexican Pure Vanilla Extract OR any vanilla extract OR vanilla essence
  • 400 grams cream cheese squares such as Kiri or Almarai, cool & not at warm room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon rind, very finely grated (optional)

 

METHOD

  1. Combine the lemon juice and milk and stir into the cream to make sour cream.
  2. Beat butter until pale in colour and fluffy.
  3. Add the sifted icing sugar/confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy.
  4. Beat in the sour cream.
  5. Add the cream cheese squares, one at a time, beating very well after each addition and scraping the bowl from time to time.
  6. Whip the frosting until smooth, lump free and fluffy.
  7. Add the very finely grated fresh lemon rind, if wished.
  8. Use.

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

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These are Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes, for a day, evening or night to remember.

 

ANDAAZ

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

The Ambiance

A meal at Andaaz is an experience in itself and starts from the moment you set foot inside its rustic door.

From mystic sitar music coupled with the sound of water from an antique fountain, to the tree inside lit with multi coloured fairy lights, and the retro cage lift, Andaaz is a place like no other.

The building this eatery is housed in is like a mini museum with vintage artwork and things from a bygone era such as sewing machines and a gramophone.

The narrow winding (and seemingly unending) staircase leads you upstairs to the rooftop to lamp lit tables and views that can literally take your breath away as you dine next to the domes of the magnificent Badshahi Mosque with the grand Lahore Fort and the beautiful Samadhi of Ranjit Singh visible in the distance.

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

The Food

Elegantly prepared desi food with some interesting culinary influences from different regions of South Asia that make it taste familiar yet faintly exotic.

Nibble on crisp mini paappar with 4 different desi dips in the form of chutneys and kachumer salad as you peruse the menu. Expect things like Tandoori Jheenga, Masala Chaamp, Murgh Vindaloo, Paneer Tikka, Tamater Ka Cut and Kaju Pulao.

Hot Jalebiyan and warm Gulab Jaman provide a fitting end to the royal-ish meals here or if you’re feeling more adventurous, try the heavenly Chai Cheesecake.

It must be noted that some of the dishes here may not be for hardcore desi food purists who like their food done the traditional Pakistani way only without any experimental takes on it.

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

The Prices

All the romantic finery at this stunner comes with a price tag and a hefty one into the bargain.

A meal at Andaaz can admittedly cost an arm and a leg so if you don’t mind splurging once in a while or on a special occasion, this is the place to do it at.

Sunday Brunch at Andaaz is a more affordable (though still pricey) option compared to dinner here.

Sunday Brunch started out as a buffet in 2018 but this year it is being offered a la carte.

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

Timings

Andaaz opens at 6:30 pm all days of the week except Mondays, when the restaurant is closed.

Sunday Brunch (by reservation only):

11:00 am – 2:30 pm

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

Reservations

It is quite possible to just walk-in for a meal at Andaaz but obviously book in advance to avoid any prolonged waiting or worse, disappointment in case it’s a very busy evening.

Needless to say, reservations are highly recommended.

Sunday Brunch is by reservation only.

Lahore’s Top 5 Romantic Rooftop Restaurants & Cafes

Location 

2189-A

Fort Road

Lahore

Pakistan.

 

Contact 

AndaazRestaurant.com 

+92 322 4346666

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

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Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes, small rustic looking discs of pure indulgence – quick to make and usually gone in a flash.

So this is the second Sophie Dahl recipe adaptation in a row on the blog. I know I should’ve posted it at least a few days earlier for folks who might want to make it for Valentine’s Day.

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes are fairly easy to put together and don’t require a lot of time to make. However,  these cakes are not picture perfect pretty little rounds – they are very rustic looking, cracked and even broken in places. Their beauty lies in imperfection.

And obviously, no one has to wait for Valentine’s Day to make these Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes. I make these at times just to brighten up an otherwise regular meal. It’s a lovely dessert to make for gluten intolerant family or friends.

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

I would describe the texture of these cakes somewhere between a fudgy brownie and a softened bar of chocolate. I might try making these with white chocolate one day, which is my favourite type of chocolate.

Good dark chocolate works best here but if you’re not a fan then semisweet is fine. If you must use milk chocolate, do a 50/50 with dark chocolate otherwise your Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes may become overly sweet and lack the depth that dark chocolate imparts.

Sour cream or crème fraîche provides a slightly tart and refreshing contrast. You can use plain whipped cream to top these as well if you wish plus a bit of fresh fruit or edible flowers to garnish. I used rose petals and leaves from a home grown rose plant to crown my Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes.

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

 

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes

 

Recipe Type: Dessert    Author: Alice In Eatland
Prep Time: 10 Minutes    Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Resting Time: 2 – 4 Hours   Total Time: 2 – 4 Hours
Serves: 2

 

Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes – discs of deep dark chocolate goodness topped with contrasting tart crème fraîche. A rich & decadent dessert. Gluten free.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • Butter to grease ramekins
  • Cocoa powder to dust ramekins
  • 75 grams chocolate (dark, semisweet or half dark chocolate + half milk chocolate), broken into pieces
  • 60 grams salted butter
  • 60 grams caster / superfine sugar
  • 1 medium egg
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant coffee powder dissolved in 1/4 teaspoon boiling water
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract or essence
  • Sour cream, crème fraîche or whipped cream to serve
  • Fresh fruit (strawberries, cherries, blueberries, kiwi etc) or fresh edible unsprayed flowers to decorate

 

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / 350 degrees F.
  2. Line 2 ramekins (each 4″ in diameter) with foil. Each piece of foil should be big enough to be easily pressed onto the bottom and all the way up the sides of each ramekin.
  3. Butter the foil and sprinkle with cocoa powder, shaking and turning the ramekins round until the bottoms and sides are coated with cocoa. Shake off any excess cocoa.
  4. Place the broken chocolate pieces and butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave uncovered, stopping and stirring every 10 seconds until both are almost melted. Stir thoroughly for the final melting of the chocolate. The mixture should be uniform and smooth.
  5. Put the sugar, the egg, the cooled coffee that had been dissolved in the boiling water and the vanilla in a bowl and beat until thick and pale.
  6. Fold in the melted chocolate and butter mixture with a spatula or spoon.
  7. Pour the mixture equally into the prepared ramekins and bake 20-30 minutes.
  8. The tops of the cakes will rise flat and look crusty. Keep an eye on them and the cakes are done as soon as you see the risen tops deflate slightly.
  9. You should also be able to smell a very chocolatey aroma in your kitchen – that’s your Mini Flourless Chocolate Cakes telling you they are ready.
  10. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. The centres of the cakes will begin to collapse right after removal from the oven, with a crater forming in the cracked centre. The sides will also cool imperfect. That is the beauty of these.
  11. Let cool to room temperature and then place ramekins in the fridge for 2 – 4 hours or even overnight. You want them to be thoroughly cool.
  12. When ready to serve, carefully lift out the cakes using the foil lining. Gently peel away the foil and place cakes on serving plates. Don’t worry if the sides are cracked or even a bit broken in places.
  13. Top with a few dollops of whipped cream, sour cream or crème fraîche in the craters in the centre.
  14. Decorate with your choice of fresh fruit or edible flowers. Or both.

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

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Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

Post Updated: 07.12.23

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: come fall in love with the dreamiest doughnuts ever!

These romantically named little beauties really do live up to their name: stunning in appearance and a sheer delight taste wise.

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: The Discovery

I first came across Persian Love Doughnuts in the dreamy party and entertaining book “Celebrate” by the lovely Lauren Conrad and they had me intrigued so much that I decided there and then that these would be my next Valentine’s Day dessert.

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: The Inspiration

Turns out that these little doughnuts are derived from classic Persian Love Cake, a delicious pistachio and rose water flavored cake.

Add other additional variations to the mix such as cardamoms, saffron etc. and you have what I like to call “Eastern Exoticism” in dessert form. Bliss.

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: The Recipe

The base recipe for these is by Aimee Twigger of Twigg Studios in which she makes a Persian Love Cake recipe and instead of baking it in a cake pan, pipes it into doughnut molds – genius!

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

So I adapted the recipe for her Persian Love Cake Doughnuts (which you can find here) very slightly and I am very happy with the results.

The cake part has classic pound cake proportions of equal amounts of butter, sugar and flour that make for a universally pleasing cake.

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: The Flavours

The combination of pistachios, rose, cardamom and saffron take this simple cake to an entirely different level.

It may sound fanciful but honestly, these ingredients gives these little Persian Love Cake Doughnuts incredible depth and a pleasingly heady scent, both of which, conjure up images of what in my mind, were exotic, far flung places such as Isfahan and Samarkand that I would read about in books as a child.

 

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: The Adornment

The Lemon Glacé Icing provides a wonderfully tart contrast and helps the toppings stay in place.

The fresh rose petals on top obviously make things more aromatic and I’ve used homegrown roses from my garden to decorate the doughnuts and as “props” for the photos.

The chopped pistachios that these beauties are topped with give a nice extra nuttiness while providing vivid green adornment.

Savour these Persian Love Cake Doughnuts on Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion.

Make them with love and eat them with joy!

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

‏

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts

Recipe Type: Dessert    Author: Alice In Eatland
Prep Time: 30 Minutes    Cook Time: 20 Minutes    Total Time: 50 Minutes
Serves: 10 – 12

 

Persian Love Cake Doughnuts: easy recipe for these incredibly delicious, gloriously fragrant and absolutely stunning beauties.

 

INGREDIENTS

 

  • 50 grams pistachios
  • 1 tbsp warm milk
  • A big pinch of saffron strands
  • 100 grams flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 6-8 pods green cardamom
  • 100 grams salted butter, soft
  • 100 grams caster sugar or superfine sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp rose water OR 1/4 tsp rose essence

 

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C.
  2. Butter and flour a 12 hole mini doughnut pan.
  3. Grind the pistachios in a coffee grinder or food processor until finely powdered. Set aside.
  4. Add the saffron to the warm milk in a small cup and set aside.
  5. Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl.
  6. Grind the cardamom pods in a coffee grinder. Sieve.
  7. Cream the butter and sugar a few minutes until creamy. Add rose water or rose essence and eggs one at a time alternately with flour mixture.
  8. Add remaining flour, powdered pistachios, ground (and sieved) cardamoms and the saffron milk mixture.
  9. Put this mixture into a piping bag snipped at the tip or fitted with a plain round nozzle (I used a large Ateco 809 tip) and pipe the batter into the doughnut molds.
  10. You may have some leftover batter after filling all the mini doughnut molds. I used mine to bake a few Persian Love Cake Cupcakes!
  11. Bake 15 – 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the doughnuts comes out clean.
  12. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes.
  13. Loosen the edges with a small knife and invert doughnuts onto a wire rack.
  14. Re-invert and cool completely.
  15. Trim any edges if necessary to get a neat round shape.

 

To decorate with Lemon Glacé Icing:

  1. Stir 100 grams of icing sugar with 1 – 2 tablespoons or more of fresh lemon juice until of pouring consistency.
  2. Place a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper on a cookie sheet, tray or flat work surface.
  3. Place the cooled doughnuts onto the sheet.
  4. Drizzle the Lemon Glacé Icing with a spoon over the doughnuts.
  5. Decorate with fresh snipped or chopped rose petals (thoroughly washed and dried) and finely chopped pistachios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose Crème Brûlée

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Rose Crème Brûlée

Rose Crème Brûlée: what better way to start things than with this deliciously elegant rose flavoured take on this timeless dessert!

(Post Updated: 25th March ‘23)

The idea for making a rose crème brûlée came while I was living in London a few years ago. I adore watching food channels and that mania started way back in the 90s (the beginning of the ‘dish antenna’ phenomenon in Pakistan) when I was exposed to the utterly delicious channel BBC Food on ‘the dish’.

Sadly BBC Food stopped airing in Pakistan fairly soon, but I was delighted to find it again on tv, years and years later, in London. I was hooked on BBC Good Food and Food Network and one of the shows I’d watch regularly was “Giada at Home” featuring the lovely Giada De Laurentiis.

On an episode of the show, very romantically titled “We’ll Always Have Paris”, Miss De Laurentiis made gorgeous Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme and I knew right away that I would make a similar raspberry rose-ish dessert one day.

Though I still haven’t tried my hand at Giada’s Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme, the recipe on the show in London inspired me to make rose flavoured crème brûlée years later, back in Lahore, Pakistan.

Summer can be brutal in most parts of Pakistan. With temperatures high enough to test the patience of a saint, food that calls for minimum effort and as little time in the kitchen as possible is obviously called for though this dragon fire summer heat usually does little to deter most of us Pakistanis from slaving over elaborate meals in hellishly hot kitchens because we are slaves to our tastebuds.

Rose crème brûlée is a pretty fuss-free dessert. It takes mere minutes to combine the few ingredients called for in the recipe, bake them and then let the fridge do the chilling and final setting. It is the perfect summer dessert. I make it year round.

The Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme recipe uses rose water for flavour; I still haven’t found the kind of rose water that I’d like to put in a dessert. The search continues.

4 Tips For Making A Beautiful Rose Crème Brûlée

  • Red rose syrup, very popular in Pakistan for making cooling summer drinks was a revelation when I added it to the crème brûlée mixture.
    The amount I use in the recipe adds a lovely but subtle rose flavour and pretty pink color.
    It is a very heady syrup and too much of it can be quite overpowering so you have been warned.
  • I’ve used raspberries to garnish the rose crème brûlée because of the Raspberry Rose Pots de Creme inspiration but strawberries look pretty and go well with it too.
    The two-toned rose petals are from a rose bush planted by my Dad in my home garden.
  • You can caramelize the sugar under a hot grill in the oven for a few minutes but I highly recommend getting a kitchen torch for this, which is quite inexpensive and fairly easily available.
  • And in order to get the kind of picture perfect, evenly blistered crème brûlée top that one sees on Pinterest and blogs and in cookbooks and food magazines, use granulated brown sugar or demerara sugar and a kitchen torch.
    I will forever be grateful to Nigella Lawson, the ultimate domestic goddess, for this priceless tip.

This recipe was featured in the first issue of “My Kisan Kitchen” a Pakistani food and lifestyle magazine.

 

Rose Crème Brûlée

Recipe Type: Dessert    Author: Alice In Eatland
Prep Time: 10 Minutes    Cook Time: 20 Minutes    Total Time: 30 Minutes    Serves: 2

 

Creamy pink rose flavoured crème brûlée. If you like traditional crème brûlée, you will love this lusciously exotic take on the classic dream dessert.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp red rose syrup (the kind used to make red summer drinks – I like Rooh Afza)
  • 1 pack (around 200 ml) cream
  • 1/2 a vanilla bean or 1 tsp good vanilla essence or extract
  • A few tablespoons granulated brown sugar or demerara sugar
  • Fresh raspberries, strawberries or any other fruit
  • Fresh rose petals and leaves, thoroughly washed and dried

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
  2. Stir yolks and red rose syrup together until combined.
  3. Put the cream in a pan, scrape in the vanilla seeds from the pod or add the vanilla essence or extract, stir and bring to the boil while stirring.
  4. Remove from heat and whisk into the yolk and red rose syrup mixture until well mixed.
  5. Strain this mixture into 2 ramekins or a single ovenproof dish.
  6. Put these in a larger ovenproof pan and carefully pour boiling water inside the larger pan until it comes nearly halfway up the sides of the ramekins/dish.
  7. Place pan in preheated oven.
    Check after 15-20 minutes; shake the ramekins/dish gently – if the sides look set and the centre still wobbles, the custard is ready. If it needs more time, check after 2-5 minute intervals. Do not over-bake.
  8. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours.
  9. When ready to serve, take out ramekins from fridge, sprinkle enough granulated brown sugar or demerara sugar to form an even layer all over. Tilt and gently shake the ramekins to help the sugar spread evenly. Make sure the entire surface of the custard is covered with sugar.
  10. Caramelize the sugar with a kitchen torch until burnished and dark.
  11. Put back in the fridge for at least 5 minutes to let the custard cool down from the heat.
  12. Garnish with fresh fruit and decorate with fresh rose petals and leaves just before serving.