Greek Salad With A Visit To An Organic Cheese Making Farmstay in Coonoor

Towards the end of May, my family and I managed to get away to the mountains down South, Coonoor and Ooty specifically, for a few days. Ma wanted to go back to her boarding school, fifty years after she passed out from there. The brother-in-law had to attend his 25th School Reunion and my sister, nephew and I were just glad  for an opportunity to escape from the heat. Now, if you've visited any of India's popular hill spots, you know that tourist season is never kind to them. The crowds, traffic, and chaos are enough to make you question the whole point of your trip. Or, you can be like us and choose a farmstay that lets you enjoy the charm of the mountains as it should be.

Across India, farms and homes are opening their doors to travellers who are looking beyond impersonal, standardised hotel accommodation for something a little more informal and with character. For our part, we zeroed in on an organic cheese making farmstay in Coonoor, Acres Wild.

I love the mountains, I really do! It all starts when you leave the heat and dust of the plains behind and drive up the long, winding mountain roads. As you go higher, the temperatures drop, roll down the windows, feel the breeze in your face  and breathe in the crisp, mountain air, barring the occasional blast of diesel fumes from the buses on the way. And in this case, as you approach your destination, the air gets infused with a faint whiff of eucalyptus.

A little travellers tip, do make a midway stop at Burliar and have your fill of exotic fruits, more likely to be seen in South-east Asia,  like mangosteen, rambutans, green peaches, passion fruits and plums that are grown locally in the forests around. Taste the fruits as nature intended them to be and not the insipid, exorbitant variants that you get in Khan Market!

Secluded, at the edge of the property, overlooking the valley and surrounded by the mountains, our cottage was all that we were looking for our stay. There is a steep climb to the dining hall that might find favour with you or not, but will ensure that post-holiday weight gain is not an issue. It is a place where you hear the birds in the morning and you can count the stars at night. Of course, the occasional bus horn and blaring loudspeaker from Coonoor town will remind you that civilisation is never too far away!

Focaccia : 'TWD : Baking with Julia'

Every once in a while, you embark on a recipe where the final result fails so spectacularly, that you have to blog about it. You follow the recipe to the last word, everything happens as the recipe says it should, you check the correct temperature  of the oven and then you pop it in, confident of the final product. And then.... you pull it out of the oven and your heart sinks, it looks nothing like it should .. it's a complete fail!!

That's what happened with me, when I had to make focaccia for this Tuesday's bake together for "TWD: Baking with Julia" group. I popped the dough into the oven expecting a soft, well risen and fluffy bread. Instead I got a hard, thin bread that had hardly risen in the oven.

 

And what I don't understand is, where did I go wrong?? Till I popped it into the oven, the dough behaved as it should. It was soft, elastic and full of bubbles. The dough even squeaked as the recipe said it would. I even rested it in the refrigerator for 36 hours as the recipe recommended. As for spraying the oven with water, I did that too!! And yet... it flopped!! Any suggestions on where I went wrong??

 

What is even weirder, is that even though the bread did not rise in the oven to turn out fluffy and soft, with its liberal topping of thyme and salt, it was still delicious!! My end result was a crispy exterior and a thin chewy interior. The verdict at home was that it would go well with soup, something like bread soup sticks. But, I still can't figure out where I went wrong!??!

Lime and Olive Oil Cake

While browsing through food blogs, I come across many interesting recipes that I bookmark for the future, only to promptly forget all about them the next day. And then I come across some recipes that once seen, keep themselves alive in my sub-conscious, imploring me from time to time to have a go at them!! Today's post is about one such recipe!

I first came across this cake on Peter's blog - one of the most popular travel and food blogs from Australia!! Incorporating all his favourite ingredients - lime, olive oil and Greek yoghurt, it struck a chord with his Greek roots and he called it his "happy cake". And that's how it got stuck in my head!!

So, when a lone lime appeared on the tree in my mother's garden, I thought of the "happy cake". When I saw Donna Hay make a lemon and yoghurt cake, I thought of the "happy cake". When Masterchef Aussie contestant, Debra, made lime and ricotta cakes, I thought of the "happy cake". And finally, when I spied a whole bunch of green limes at the vegetable stall, I knew the time had come to make the "happy cake"!!

Simplicity is elemental to this cake and it all starts with how easy it is to make it. It follows the quick and fuss-free technique of simply mixing the wet ingredients into the dry. To up the lime quotient, instead of the usual lime-sugar frosting, this recipe uses a sprinkling of sugared lime zest!! 

While making the cake, I did wonder on how the cake would deliver on two fronts. I wondered if the flavour of the limes would shine through or would it get lost like when I had made this lemon loaf cake. I was sceptical about the use of olive oil too. Having only worked with sunflower oil that doesn't have a discernible taste or smell, I wondered if the olive oil would come on too strong and dominate.

And this cake outperformed on all counts. It may sound cliched, but in this cake, the flavours just burst through from the first bite you take. The olive oil is distinctive, not dominant and compliments the lime. But, the flavour that dominates is the lime, unabashed and uninhibited!!

The sugared lime zest does its extra bit in terms of flavour, texture and colour. It is what makes this cake fresh and zesty and will make your taste buds dance!!

A slice of this cake will conjure up images of green grass and wild flowers, of picnic baskets and delightful company and most importantly, of easy-going conversation and exuberant shouts of laughter!! Yes, this is a happy cake!!