Winter Food.

It's that time of the year again- beautiful weather, friends are back, winter fashion and most importantly, winter food. What's your winter staple? The cliched hot cocoa with marshmallows or a really lovely chicken consomme with some delicious tortellini? Everything seems so much more delicious in the winter doesn't it? Making fresh pasta is one of my favourite things to do in the winter. Speaking of, I'm going to have a really exciting Italian post coming up soon. By the way, how's the Masterchef Australia withdrawal treating you guys? I'm having it the worst I presume. Strike 9 and I don't know what I did before Masterchef started. So I do the closest thing to it, cook.

What I've done for you in this post is scouted out some of Jamie Oliver's (except the first one) best winter recipes so that you don't have to go crazy hunting for perfect ones. Sweet, savoury and comforting, these recipes are just great. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

* Rich and Buttery Caramels:   

http://jamiecooksitup.net/2010/12/caramels-rich-and-buttery/

SO unbelievably indulgent. Perfect for the holidays!

* Feel Good Chicken Broth:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/feel-good-chicken-broth 

Nothing screams winter more than this dish.

* Garlic, Thyme and Anchovy Baked Potato: 

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/garlic-thyme-and-anchovy-baked-potatoes

How lovely and comforting is this?

* The Best Hot Chocolate:

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/the-best-hot-chocolate

You're welcome.

These are some of my favourite Jamie Oliver winter recipes and hence I've totally nerded out and given you the result of my research. They're just great. Apart from studying Jamie Oliver's books I'm trying some recipes of my own as well. To know what I'm cooking, follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I promise a few more delicious winter posts. Hope this weather's treating you well!

xoxo

D

Best. Sale. Ever.

Hey!

Hi guys! I've missed you. I'm a little embarrassed to apologize cause evidently that's all I do so for a change, I won't (although I should). So did you guys hear about the sale I had over at The Bakers Dozen last month? It went so well and I was so so glad and humbled by the response. For those of you who didn't hear, let me tell you-

How?

My friends over at The Bakers Dozen; let's call them Sneh and Aditi :) have this cute little thing called Your Store At The Bakers Dozen where they encourage fellow bakers to showcase their stuff at their store. I know right? It's great. So when they told me that they wanted me to be a part of their second edition of Your Store @ TBD, I was, let me be honest, insanely nervous. I'd never undertaken a project of that magnitude on my own before. I had done a restaurant service back in Dublin but this was different, this was all me. But it was an amazing opportunity and I'd be a fool to let it go. After that, it was a whirlwind.

What?

I had to decide my menu, buy the ingredients, make sure it tasted good and decide on the quantity ALL BY MYSELF. It was quite a paramount task. Finally I settled on four different things and sent my menu over. The theme was British cause that's my favorite kind of food and I wanted to introduce it's authenticity to Mumbai. On the menu were four, very British, sweet things:

• Banana Walnut Muffins
• Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Classic Victoria Sponge
• Treacle Tarts

 I've had many muffins in Bombay but I've never found one that was moist enough for me to want to finish it. Also, artificial flavouring can really ruin a muffin. Keeping this in mind, I made my Banana Walnut Muffins. Crisp and toasted on the top with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar and moist inside with bits of banana. I was very happy with the finished product.



My Double Chocolate Chip Muffins had real, dark Belgian chocolate in the batter as well as chocolate chips. The idea was to make them rich and dark but still muffins and not brownies. I struggled a little with these but with the help of my college samplers, my second batch was perfect.

Banana Walnut Muffins

Double Chocolate Chip Muffins

A Victoria Sponge is really simple to make, not too much technique but great ingredients put together with a lot of care. If you have a dense sponge as opposed to a light, airy one, you've already lost half the battle. If you sandwich that with substandard jam as opposed to the mixed berry preserve I used, and a really sweet whipped cream as opposed to the light Chantilly cream that I used, you aren't going to have anyone eating it.

Victoria Sponge

The Treacle Tart was kind of my star item as no one had really heard much about it and I was really glad to introduce people to this really new flavour. It takes a lot of work, as do most tarts, but making them along with all the other things was really, really exhausting. I don't think I'd ever been that tired but then again, I'd never felt that content either.

Treacle Tart

Result.

Mumbai responded SO well I was overwhelmed. Everything was sold out on both the days but the second day is what really took me by surprise. I dropped my fare off at the Kemps Corner store at 8 am on my way to college and everything was sold out by half past 11. I couldn't be more excited. Twitter peeps were my favourite customers and they gave me their feedback after having tried my stuff. Oh god, it was just so amazing. My first, professional sale was a success and I was ecstatic.

Bing's Traditional British Fare for sale :)

Feelings.

For all those who came out to buy my stuff, I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you for reading, sharing and supporting me and my food. My chef journey has definitely seen an upward climb thanks to you guys and for that, I've got loads of really exciting things coming up on the blog this month. It's going to be filled with recipes from some really great people. You're really going to not want to miss this.

As always, let me know your thoughts, comments and suggestions below or follow me on Twitter to stay tuned to my wannabe chef life!

xoxo
D