Suvir Saran

And remember to share with Sunday what people thought. All the best with your cooking.

How could I forget Devagi. She is the "Queen of Spices" in Singapore. Or at least that is how she was introduced to me by the tourism people and the food PR people in Singapore. She was charming, articulate and wonderfully generous in her manner. I still have frozen bags of spice mixes she sent me back to NYC with. Her book, the one I have, and is boxed now, is nice. And if you can find yourself in Singapore, get her number, give her a call, I can easily imagine Devagi giving you a tour of the Tekka Market (Wet Market) and sharing with you the wonders of the many tropical herbs and spices. Thanks Trillium for mentioning Devagi. I shall check and see, once my cookbooks are in shelves again, and accessible, if my book has this rasam recipe. I will try it and think of you and this thread.

Thanks, Suvir. I searched & found that thread but I'd assumed that it was just about the commercial product. That thread covers the buttermilk method. And there's also Jim Dixon's yogurt method. So which method might be "best": Witty's, the "standard" buttermilk, or Dixon's yogurt? I made both and my guests preferred the buttermilk one. Keep us posted with your own findings about this.

Old thread on clotted cream has creme fraiche related posts towards the end.

A link from the past that may help you some Matthew.

Hello Arunaputri! I envy your environs and living setting. Most beautiful and wonderful and so very conducive to many delicious fruits and vegetables. You are indeed very lucky. Thanks for sharing the jackfruit story. I shall remember it. As for coconut, I am no big fan of it, and use yogurt happily instead. I too love the tang and lightness that comes with careful and clever use of yogurt. It also works wonders with Indian cooking and is such a great thing to add in ones diet. It is not easy, but one can find fresh Jackfruit in the US. I was in Florida a couple of years ago and found it fallen in the grounds of the Botanical Garden I was visiting in Miami. The curator was leading a tour (for myself and my ex), since no one else had shown up, he shared a story about how each year, people from the Indian Sub Continent break into the gardens at night and steal the jackfruits. I find them from time to time at the Jamaican/West Indian/Trinidad store right at the area where the F train makes its last stop in Queens, a borough of NYC. They are not as big in size, and certainly far from any level of amazing quality, but when you have no other options, this poor fruit, makes do, and with some effort, some clever wizardry, I make whatever I feel like making using this fruit. It certainly never tastes as wonderful and superb as even the worst preparations of it can taste in India. But it is not all that bad either. Welcome to eGullet! I look forward to reading more of your posts. If you find time, do stop by at the Indian forum as well. There are many members there who would enjoy your posts and also could entertain you with their knowledge of Indian foods and food trivia.

Are these the one's? They certainly look delicious, but there is no attribution so I can't tell if they are Nancy Silverton's. The recipe calls for 1 POUND of butter to make a dozen buns. I suspect this is the one you're referring to. Just looking at the picture put extra pounds on me! And many thanks for the link.

Lesley, I have found trusting your taste to be a fine and wonderful adventure. I will prepare this recipe and see if it is the one that will make me addicted for the next several weeks. My waist line could do without anymore sweet addictions, but my eyes, my taste buds and my mind sure could use an endless supply. I make those salty, sweet and tender crisp brownies you led me to all the time and to much acclaim. Thanks Lesley!

If you PM me your address, next time I am at Taylors, I can pick some up and mail them to you. There is a post office next to Taylors on Hudson Street in West Village. Makes it really easy.

Now that I have made far too many cobblers in just a few weeks, I feel I need to try something new. Is there a great recipe you all can share with me for Sticky Buns? I love them when they are great. At Taylors Bakery around the many stores they have in NYC, the sticky buns, when available are superb. Gooey and really sticky. Are they difficult to make? Do I need to have a starter dough? Can I make them easily in my home kitchen? What all stuff do I need? Thanks in advance for any and all help.

At Pondicherry I made a Kathal Kee Biryaani (rice layered with Jackfruit). A dish made for Diwali in our Delhi household. Jackfuit is coming to a restaurant in NYC very soon. Be on the lookout.

It is exactly that.... and soooo delicious.

Cannot agree more. It also makes the color so very rich. I do enjoy a peach cobbler by itself as well. If you have perfectly ripe peaches, nothing like a great peach cobbler. I leave the skin on the fruit, and it makes for a good textural element.

Richard, you and I made the very same modifications. I love the recipe Varmint was kind enough to share. And nutmeg is Superb. So much better for the palates I feed and inspire from my kitchen. I find cinnamon overused and so uninspired in most pastry. Unless of course it is th bastilla dessert in Morocco, which I would only have with cinnamon. Cooking the fruit longer did the trick for me as well. And extra cream in the pastry and no milk, worked wonders for the biscuit. Varmints recipe, with the above variations, similar to yours, has become a favorite of my guests and mine. Varmint is hugely popular and thanked plenty every week. But this week, I shall focus on canning some Apricot jam that is much requested by friends and family and the apricots I use, the very tiny ones, are in season and I have 5 pounds in my refrigerator, waiting for some care. More will be purchased this weekend and next. And then they dissapear, or perhaps another week and then over. But there will be more cobbler and not sure what kind.

After the power finally came back this weekend, I prepared two cobblers. Peach and Plum.

Richard, after you mentiond you had a couple of the 9 inch EH pie dishes, I checked my EH cabinet and realized I have one of the 9 inch fluted pie dish in provencal yellow. It is a bright lemon yellow. I have never used it before. What do you use it for? It is deeper than the other 9 inch pie dishes I have... and like most all EH items, is really beautiful. Now I must learn of some use for it.

What was the lemon like? Curd, slices, some other way?? It sounds wonderful. Richard, I just realized I have a red colored EH pie dish. It is the smaller one, the 9 inch maybe. Certainly that dish cannot take 8 plus cups of fruit. You are correct.

Looking forward to the pictures and details.

Would you define that for the larger eGullet membership? Please.

Howler, welcome to eGullet and its Indian forum.

Hello Howler! I was taking a backseat on this thread. I was by no ways a friend of Behrams. I met him socially with good friends of his. It was his widow that I have spent time chatting with (being interviewed by) and via phone and email conversations. In the limited time I spent chatting or in Behrams presence, he did leave me with a lasting impression. Many an evening in Bombay, I would take friends, visitors from overseas, and family members visiting from other parts of India to the Central/Muhammad Ali road area. And often rather late at night. It was one of my favorite things to do in Bombay. There was a wonderful earthy and yet spectacular aura about the area late into night. I am a huge fan of Jama Masjid in Delhi, but this area came close for the most part, and actually in some ways even left more of an impression.

I make stews, rice and bean casserole type stuff and add them into vegetable soup.

Richard, what is most special about the fulted EH dish is that if you have filled it generously with fruit, the fruit will come out of the oven dripping beautifully even as the biscuit topping covers the top fully. The dripping juices have a nice caramel color and a wonderful taste and make the cobbler look really that much more amazing.

Emile Henry Fluted Extra Large Pie Dish "Made from Burgundy clay at one of the few French factories that still produces authentic claywares to traditional high standards, this earthenware pie dish provides gentle, even heat distribution to help create perfect pies. This extra-large size is ideal for a crowd or for roasting meats and vegetables. The dish goes effortlessly from freezer to oven to table. 12-in diameter, 2.25-in. deep. Dishwasher safe. Made in France." Above quote is from the cooking.com website to which I have given link below. I own several of this pie dish. I like it in ivoire, but it comes in several amazing colors. I serve the cobbler in the individual clafouti dishes that are also fluted. I have those in ivoire and olive. Click Here to learn more about this dish or to order it. Not sure if this is the best price you can get for this dish. But it is what I found first. I am sure with some effort, anyone interested can easily find a deal out there on the net for this item. I have become quite a fan of Emile Henry products. They work beautifully with most interiors and lend a great statement in color to compliment Indian cooking. And this dish, works very well for a generous and decadent cobbler. The depth of the dish makes it easy to have more fruit and less biscuit. In fact, even though I fill the cobbler with soooo much fruit, some friends still want more fruit. We are all greedy for tasty summer fruit.

As is usual for me with fruit pies, I managed to get in over 8 cups really. The EH deep dish can take almost 9 plus cups. Close to 10, but not quite. It is a very generous sized pie dish. I have enjoyed the Varmint version and made it several times. Today, it will be made using several varieties of plums I found locally.