AFLATOON – A Nourishing Winter Dessert

A Rare Baked Delight

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Here is a recipe for Aflatoon – a rich fortified sweet ideal for winter. Aflatoon is a rare baked delight.

Cooking is more a qualitative art, rather than a quantitative science.

The other day, a friend of ours dropped home a packet of scrumptious Dharwadi Pedhas.

My dear wife [who does not believe in the dictum: “There is no greater love than the love of eating”] promptly put them in the fridge and forgot about it.

Now what greater inanity can be there than consigning fresh soft flavorsome mellifluous Pedhas to harden up in some remote cold corner of the fridge?

So when I first discovered the packet of cold hard Pedhas lying hidden deep inside my fridge during one of my surreptitious midnight raids, when my better half was fast asleep, I was first miffed, then improvising, decided to soften them up in my microwave oven.

I put a piece of warm softened-up Pedha in my mouth – Lo and Behold! – The Dharwadi Pedha had metamorphosed into a Lal Peda.

Yes, it tasted like genuine Banarasi Lal Peda with its unique wholesome “crispy roasted milky taste”. Now that’s serendipity. I’ve searched for Lal Peda all over but nothing could match the authentic Lal Peda I used to enjoy near Sankat Mochan in Varanasi.

I love sweets – especially Indian Sweets – Pedhas, Barfis, Rosogulla, Gulab Jamun, Kala Jamun, Cham Cham, Sandesh, Jilebi, Imrati, Son Papdi, Mysore Pak, Petha, Mahim Halwa, Malpua, Karanji, Anarse, Chirote, Lavang Lata, Ladoos – you name it, I love it – and one of favorites is a superb wholesome treat called “Aflatoon”.

Now the only place I’ve had Aflatoon is on Mohammed Ali Road in Mumbai, at Suleman Mithaiwala near Minara Masjid, and I think also at Zam Zam a little distance down the road.

Aflatoon not only satisfies your sweet-tooth; it provides rich nourishment and is blissfully satiating too.

I’m in Pune now.

Like my search for Lal Peda, my search for Aflatoon also remained elusive, so I decided to improvise and hope for the best.

Now remember, My Dear Reader, I’m no great cook, nor am I a high-falutin connoisseur, nor a culinary expert; I’m just a simple down-to-earth trencherman, an avid foodie, so I asked around, searched around, explored, extrapolated, reverse-engineered, and here is what I improvised, a purely ingenious adventurous concocted experimental recipe.

[Try it at your own risk!].

First, with a fork, I thoroughly beat three fresh eggs till fluffy, added one cup [vati or katori] of sugar (add more if you like it sweeter) and then vigorously whisked away till all the sugar dissolved and the mixture was nice and fluffy.

I had already switched on my oven – yes, Aflatoon is a baked delight – one of the rare Indian sweets which are baked in an oven.

I rubbed pure ghee on the palms of my hands and kneaded half a kilo of fresh Khoya [khava, mawa made from buffalo milk] till it was slippery smooth.

Then I blended in and coalesced the Khoya into the feathery egg-sugar emulsion and whipped strongly with my hands till my wrists pained, and my biceps and triceps strained, and the khoya had fully dissolved and merged into the mélange and the fusion was complete, the rich blend velvety smooth.

Now in a plate, I mixed together one cup of rawa, half cup of maida, and a pinch of baking powder, and gently folded this mixture, spoon by spoon, into the egg-sugar-khoya amalgamation and robustly swirled and pasted the batter with my hands, till my hands got tired again and my muscles ached.

Here, there is no exact proportion of how much rawa- maida mixture is to be added to the batter; my hands tell me when to stop – later I can always add a bit as and when required to get the right baking consistency.

Now the interesting part – I lovingly blended in three katories or vaties [yes, three full cups – one cup per egg] of pure ghee and churned with my hands for a long time till the ghee fully dissolved into the delectable mixture, indiscernible.

Now here is the difference in sequence of ingredients – while baking a cake you start of with creaming the butter, than blend in the sugar, then eggs, then maida; here you start off with beating the eggs, then the sugar, the khoya, the rawa-maida flour, and now comes the pure ghee (clarified butter).

Hey, remember to lick your fingers from time to time and taste the delightful mélange at each stage and plus-minus the proportions accordingly.

Also, your fingers will tell you when the consistency is perfect.

That is why I never use mixers, blenders, juicers, measuring cups and all those hi-fi gadgets when preparing dough and batter for baked delights, or cooking dishes – I always rely on my own tongue to tell me the precise taste, use my hands to cream, blend, the concoction to the right consistency, improvise the ingredients and proportions accordingly – if you want to cook creatively, there is nothing to beat your own sensory perception, isn’t it?

And yes, don’t forget to use your nose too – food must be fragrant, appetizingly aromatic, besides looking deliciously mouthwatering and tempting to feel and touch!

Now I mixed in the spices – powdered jaiphal, dalchini, elaichi, lavang – and, while gently stirring with my hand, slowly poured in yummy thick creamy buffalo milk, about half a cup, till the consistency of the smooth paste becomes soft and silky, and ready for baking.

Remember to always have the rawa-maida flour ready in stand-by mode to even up the batter, if required.

Then I mix in kismis, manuka, crushed pasted khajur, squeezing my fingers.

Oh, just a minute, I thoroughly mix in a few drops of vanilla essence to make even the slightest trace of the smell of eggs go away.

Finally I embellish with crushed dry fruit like badam, pista, kaju etc.

I now pour in the rich creamy dough into pure-ghee greased baking trays and bake it in my conventional pre-heated oven at medium heat till the characteristic mouthwatering aroma wafts through the kitchen and the Aflatoons looked appetizingly brown.

With all the khoya, creamy milk and rich ingredients it sometimes takes almost an hour or so to be done. Time doesn’t matter, when cooking, as in eating, I like to be unhurried – the slower the cooking the tastier the food. I always like to keep the heat moderate and my senses, especially olfactory, alert.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I was dying to sample the result of my culinary experiment, so I didn’t even wait till it cooled – Oh yes, it tasted wholesome, sumptuous, appetizing, good.

Just imagine if you fortify milk-cake with eggs, enrich it, spice it up, and roast it well – that’s the nearest I can describe how aflatoon tastes.

I wonder if aflatoon can be made by roasting it on a tawa instead of baking it!

I relished my homemade “aflatoon” – but then nothing can beat the original aflatoon for which I’ll have to head to Mumbai.

Till then, I’ll keep savoring these – I’m sure with all the pure ghee imbibed in them these aflatoons will last for days – provided I keep them hidden away from craving children and other insatiable trenchermen like me!

Dear Reader, and fellow Foodie – why don’t you too improvise, be creative, experiment, use your own ingredients and proportions, conjure up your very own aflatoon, savor it, try it out on your family and friends, and tell us all about it.

And if you happen to live in Mumbai, why take all this trouble – just go ahead and relish the original.

Happy Baking!

Dear Reader and Fellow Foodie: For more such appetizing dishes do read APPETITE FOR A STROLL, a treatise on The Art of Eating, Easy to Cook Recipes and Foodie Adventures in Pune and Mumbai.

Click the links below to know more about this delicious book:
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Food-for-soul/358363/#

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

http://www.indiaplaza.in/finalpage.aspx?storename=books&sku=9788190690096&ct=2

http://www.flipkart.com/appetite-stroll-vikram-karve/8190690094-gw23f9mr2o

Happy Eating

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

vikramkarve@sify.com

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

I reminisced the other day as I watched two of my middle school wrestlers kicking the crap out of out another.  They were head-butting, clubbing, pushing, pulling, you name it.  Both were about in tears, both wanted to punch the other in the face, and neither one of them backed down.  Now for the best part…they are friends and will continue to be after that day was done.  I thought to myself…that…was…AWESOME!

Ahhhhh…it’s a great sport.  Where else can you get so frustrated with your best friend, kick the crap out of them (or vice versa), and at the end of the day, there are no hard feelings?

I had many days just like this one throughout my high school and college days, and every single time it made me better.  It made me stronger physically, it made me stronger mentally, it taught me a lot about myself, and most importantly it taught me to find a way to win no matter what because I didn’t like the days in which my partner got the better of me.  In fact, my friend and I were just talking about a similar run in we had during college our freshman year in the wrestling room.  We literally stood toe to toe and just swung clubs to the back of one another’s heads.  To hear us talk about it now, you’d think we were talking about some party we went to and it was the greatest moment of our lives, but in all honesty, that type of no-backing down attitude builds respect and character. 

If you really want to be a good wrestler, don’t be afraid to mix it up in the practice room, and certainly don’t let someone else give in, in that situation.  If you find a partner willing to push himself and you like this…embrace them; push one another to the very breaking point…it will only make the two of you better in the long run, and it will probably make you closer friends because of it.

The one take away from this, and something I never was able to master in high school or college, is that if you are able to keep your cool in these situations and stay focused, you will be the one to win more times than not.  These situations can also provide practice for when something like this occurs in a match.

Day 8 – Old Man in Training

One week down…my training hasn’t been nearly as intense as I would have hoped to this point.  I guess I’m just getting in a grove. 

Good news!!!…my back no longer hurts while staying in my stance, and my neck is getting stronger, so I must be doing something right to this point.

My workout for the day…well, eh it is almost embarrassing to report, but I’ll be honest.

• 3 sprints at the end of practice

That’s it…and a little drilling with some of the kids.  I still need to get a partner my size and ability level and work on lining up some tournaments to get me ready for the MAWAs.  If anyone knows of any, let me know…if anyone actually reads this.

8 days down, 82 to go!!!

I recently received a request for action photos and videos.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any content of myself since high school, and only in stills.  I’ll probably scan a few and attach them to my posts randomly, but I find that pretty cheesy.  I guess it’s better than nothing though. 

The only other options are to post pics/video of the kids I coach…I’m not comfortable with that, or just find stuff already on the web and re-post…anyone can do that.  I’ll keep working on it, and actually have some pretty neat ideas for media content…stay posted.

Now on to my workouts.

Day 6 – Saturday 12/19/2009

I did nothing…

Day 7 – Sunday 12/20/2009

Feeling the guilt from yesterday.  The competition is still a long ways off, but if I don’t get started now, I won’t be ready.  One of the main obstacles anyone has to overcome in training is this illusion that they are too busy and you’ll get started tomorrow!  Everyone is “too busy” but you will get done whatever you place as a high priority.  Get started TODAY!  Needless to say, I worked out and here it is…

• 5 Minute Warmup – Elliptical
• 30 Alternating push-ups with on hand on a step
• 20 Wobble board squats
• 20 DB curls – single leg (1/2 reps on each leg)
• 20 Shoulder rotators – back flat against a wall
• 20 Band Low rows
• 20 Dips
• 20 Incline pulls ups – with a towel
• 20 Neck -back bridges
• Core
  • 20 Full pikes
  • 20 Raise ups
• 5 minutes of stretching
• Weight: 152.8
• Body Fat %: 9.9

It appears I gained 1.3 lbs and lost 1.5% body fat…This is not correct, just due to the usual ebbs and flows of hydration levels.  I’ll track at each workout and look for trends.

7 days down, 83 to go

Tomorrow marks the official beginning of my “Old Man in Training” series, as I document my training from start to finish for the MAWA (Middle Atlantic Wrestling Association) wrestling tournament series, and my quest for the Eastern National Championship.   Ever since I began coaching wrestling, a group of high school wrestlers has been participating in the series that usually begins each year in March and goes through the beginning of April, and each year I tell them that I will partake in the series with them after they prod me to come along. 

Last year was the first time that I actually competed and trained for about a month.  My training consisted of some cross-fit style weight training, and drill sessions with some of the high school wrestlers.  My training ended when I participated in the 150 lbs. weight class at the Washington qualifier.  To my disappointment, I went 1-1 on the day, and was knocked out of the single elimination tournament in the quarterfinals when I lost 6-3 to the eventual national champion.  I guess you could say I got a bad draw, but if my goal is to win the nationals, then I would have to beat someone of that caliber sometime throughout the tournament series. 

So I begin this new year on a mission – to WIN the national championship.  I will put more effort into my training and chronicle each step along the way on my blog.  Each post will have a section at the bottom that will detail my training since the last post…what I’ve done, how I’ve felt, any obstacles I confront, and what I am doing to overcome them.

The qualifier I have marked on the calendar is again at the Washington Qualifier on 3/14/2010, and I will once again attempt to participate in the 150 lbs. weight class (if my weight cooperates).  This will mark the LAST time I try this as I will be 29 years of age and will not push my body after the age of 30.  In all honesty, I was in pretty decent shape last year, but found myself very banged up after the tournament.  Although I was knocked out of the tournament early, I had some serious doubt whether or not I was in good enough shape to continue that day.  I will train harder this year to be better prepared for the day of the tournament.  My plan is to weight train for the next 3 months and drill/live wrestler during that time.  I will need to find a drill partner that will push me and someone I can wrestle live with that is better than me on my feet (this is where I lost last year).  I also need to find some OPEN division wrestling tournaments in the area I can compete in as a warm-up to the championship.  Not experiencing any real competition before competing last year was a HUGE mistake I made because once I got into a close match, my inexperience probably came through in my loss.  I am starting in pretty good shape as I have trained for and participated in multiple runs in the past year including a half marathon in Virginia beach with my running club, Pro-Activity’s PACER team, so it’s not like I am starting from scratch, but everyone knows that running shape is WAY different from wrestling shape.

If all goes well, I will stand victorious at the end of the next 3-4 months as the Eastern National Champion of the OPEN division 150 lbs. weight class.  If all does not go well, hopefully it will make in interesting and compelling story and help to motivate others that are training for the sport.  By no means do I expect this to be easy, and I will try to be honest about the pains and doubts that will inevitably come along with the training. 

Please feel free to comment on the posts or email me directly with any questions/info, etc.  I hope something interested comes out of this whole process.

Email: CoreWrestling1@gmail.com

Currently, the Fifth Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (BICCL) is taking place in Leipzig. Yesterday, Rüdiger Köppe (left) arrived and brought a box containing the conference volume of BICCL 4, which has just appeared. Eva Rothmaler (right) has edited this publication. Here is more information about the book:

Eva Rothmaler (ed): Topics in Chadic Linguistics V (Chadic Languages Volume 6) 2009, 185 pages, 1 map, 7 screenshots, numerous tables and charts.  ISBN 978-3-89645-525-3.

Content:

Preface

S. Allison
Derivation of the PAM System of Makary Kotoko

H. Andreas, R. Leger & U. Zoch
The Nyam Language – First Steps toward a Grammatical Description

A. Awagana & D. Löhr
Loanwords in Hausa: Results from the Loanword Typology Project

G.C. Batic
Imaginative Dimension and Experiential Constructions in Hausa and Bole

V. Blažek
All Chadic Lakes

R. Blench & A. Ndamsai
An Introduction to Kirya-Konzəl, a Central Chadic Language of Eastern Nigeria

D. Ibriszimow, V. Porkhomovsky & V. Sheshin
AAKTS Database and KinShIP Computer Programme for Processing Afroasiatic Kinship Terms and Systems

D. Ibriszimow & B. Zulyadaini
I Think what You Think. An Evaluation of L1 and L2 Hausa Cognitive Structures

B. Mai Bello
Hausa Language and the Perception of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

J.N. Philip
Tone on Lagwan Verbs: The Conflict between Perceptual Prominence and Lexical Contrast

J.S. Roberts
Palatalization and Labialization in Mawa (Eastern Chadic)

O. Stolbova
Plurality in Chadic: Some Active and Frozen Models.

H. Tourneux & A. Mahamat
Les marqueurs relatifs dans les langues dites « kotoko »

H.E. Wolff
Another Look at “Internal a” in Chadic

G. Ziegelmeyer
Between Hausa and Kanuri: On the Linguistic Influence of Hausa and Kanuri on Bade and Ngizim

Ordering the book from Koeppe

A querida Marina Wajnsztejn, aka MaWa, trabalhou nos últimos dias em um stopmotion com o qual muitos irão se identificar. Do momento dos cliques e upload, passando pela interação com a comunidade e terminando em uma festa anunciada neste blog, o vídeo faz um bom resumo do exercício flickerista. Até eu entrei no roteiro, com direito a dancinha no final.

Vídeo de MaWa.

A gente adora se perder na imensidão da Flickresfera, mas nem por isso recusamos sugestões de flickeristas apaixonados, os melhores em descobrir atalhos para conteúdos dos quais às vezes passaríamos longe. Por isso resolvemos começar um novo modelo de post. É o sofá do Flickr, que receberá ilustres membros da comunidade para uma conversa rápida, sempre com 5 perguntas, com a última delas apontando o próximo entrevistado. MaWá (aka Marina Wajnsztejn) dá o start na corrente.

De raízes polacas e sangue brasileiro, MaWá sempre gostou de fotografar, mas começou a levar a coisa mais a sério nas aulas de fotografia da faculdade de Propaganda e Marketing, em 2002.

Passados alguns anos, cursos, viagens e experiências, ela agora divide seu tempo entre o projeto Doutores da Alegria e um mestrado em semiótica pela PUC-SP com o tema ‘Transposição da comunidade online para offline’, que usa o Flickr como plataforma de análise. Tá?!!

Então, senta que lá vem, história!

1) Se você tivesse que escolher um único modelo de câmera para fotografar durante toda a vida, qual modelo seria?

MaWá: Eu ficaria com a minha Asahi Pentax Spotmatic de lente fixa 50mm. Hoje em dia eu faço filme e digital, mas, romantismos a parte, filme é bem mais bacana. Com essa máquina, posso brincar com cores, processos cruzados e granulações – sempre com direito a muita luz, garantida pela abertura 1.4 da lente. A única coisa chatinha? Escanear tudo depois.

2) Quais são suas fotos favoritas no Flickr? Primeiro uma favorita de sua autoria:

MaWá: Uia, perguntinha bem difícil. Gosto muito de uma foto que chamei de “Pétalas”. Pela leveza que ela tem. Tirei de dentro do carro, no portão de uma casinha na Cardeal Arcoverde. É uma imagem que me toca. Um misto de feminino com um toque de solidão e brisa fresca.

Agora a favorita de toda flickresfera:

MaWá: Gosto muito da foto “breathless”, do Farl. Gosto da composição, das cores e da tradução do momento.

3) O quê diria para alguém que acabou de ganhar sua primeira câmera fotográfica?

MaWá: Sempre digo para as pessoas que, ao chegar num lugar, elas devem olhar para todos os lados. Perceber o que tem em tudo que é canto para pensar em ‘como usar aquelas coisas na composição’. Depois disso, mudar o plano do olhar. Como um cachorro veria aquela cena? Como uma girafa veria aquela cena? Percebendo os diferentes planos, a pessoa sai do lugar comum de apenas “levantar a máquina na altura dos olhos e clicar.”

4) Nas entrevistas de emprego do Flickr sempre perguntamos “Gatos, nenês, pôr-do-sol ou flores?”. O quê reponderia?

MaWá: Responderia ‘Ai!’. Nenhum desses. Mas, se tivesse que escolher um, ficaria com os nenês. Porque acho que fotografar é conhecer pessoas e, bom, nenês também são pessoas. Acredito que pôr-do-sol e flores são relativamente fáceis pois são coloridos e não se mexem. Gatos? Sou alérgica a eles.

5) Quem você indica para a próxima entrevista?

MaWá: Gosto muito do flickr do Nonstop Place (aka Rodolfo Barreto). Ele não termina a composição somente na foto. Sempre agrega uma informação no título. E eu adoro esse jeito de contar histórias.

Edson: Obrigado MaWá por estrear nosso sofá virtual. Agora vou correr atrás do Rodolfo, nossa próxima vítima. Valeu!

[abaixam-se as luzes, entra música de encerramento e sobem os créditos.]

Fotos de MaWá, Farl e Nonstop Place.