Collaboration with Rupee Rags

(post originally featured on http://rupeerags.com/blog/)

Sitting at my desk after having just finished up my end of semester exams, I breathed a sigh of relief and immediately started scrolling through my Pinterest for recipe inspirations. The  très chic duo behind Rupee Rags wanted me to come up with a baked good to be featured on their blog and I was mind numb. After a good few minutes of writers block due to the fact I wanted to bake something impressive and awe inspiring for others, it finally clicked. Baking isn't about what others want to eat, it's about what you feel most comfortable and at ease with. Simple, it had to be a combination of cocoa, white chocolate, a pinch of salt and spoonful of sugar and walnuts hence the name 'Brownies with a Crunch'. 

Notes

• Incorporating the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in batches helps the mixture to incorporate well.
• Feel free to experiment with the additional ingredients and replace walnuts and white choc-chips with your preferred choice of flavours.
• Test the brownies at the 50 minute mark to ensure that they haven't already cooked through. Baking is all about experimentation and getting a feel for what timing best suits your oven.
• You can choose to either make these brownies by hand or use a kitchen mixer, the choice is yours.
• To roast walnuts, you can either heat them on a pan or spread them out on a tray and allow them to cook in the oven for 5 minutes, ensuring that they do not burn. 

Yields: 12

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Preparation Time: 20 minutes



Ingredients

• 200g good-quality dark chocolate
• 120 g unsalted butter, chopped
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 150 g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100 g white chocolate chips 
• 100g roasted walnuts (see Notes)
• flake salt
• icing sugar (to dust)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC or 338 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Melt the chocolate with the butter and vanilla. Do this in the microwave, or in a metal bowl set over a smaller saucepan of boiling water, ensuring the base of the bowl does not touch the water.
3. Stir the mixture until smooth. (Use a glove if you choose to use the saucepan method.)
4. When smooth, remove from the heat. Stir in the sugar until it has dissolved into the chocolate.
5. Now whisk in first one egg and then the next. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt together. Sift a little of this mixture onto the chocolate mixture and fold it in. Keep going until all the flour is incorporated.
6. Add white choc-chips and roughly crushed roasted walnuts (see Notes) and fold through the mixture.
7. Butter/Oil a low-sided metal slice tray and line with a sheet of baking paper, extending it beyond the long sides of the tray to act as a sling to lift the brown out of the tin.
8. Spoon the mixture into the tin and sprinkle with a few grains of flake salt. 
9. Bake for 25–30 minutes, which means the brownie will have risen, the top will look shiny and cracked in places and if you jab it with a skewer in the middle it will still come out a bit sticky and fudgy. Cook longer if it’s still sludgy and wet.
10. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Cut into squares, dust with icing sugar and enjoy with a glass of milk! x

Book Review: Karachi You’re Killing Me

Genre:  Comedy & Drama

Publisher: Random House India

Pages: 272

Year: 2014

Do you recall those days when Bollywood heroes 

carried the mullet not so gracefully and romanced heroines upon hill tops of Switzerland, running towards each other in a dramatically filmed action sequence?  It was hard to resist the temptation of wondering what would happen next and would sit through the entirety of the 3 hour saga. Take a moment to process the culmination of emotions you felt back during that time and now transport yourself into a deeply intertwined story of Karachi’s high society for a drama filled tale of passion, liquor, extra marital affairs and establishing oneself with a illustrious career against the backdrop of a politically charged and violence ridden city.

The novel follows the daily trial and tribulations of the  twenty-something female journalist Ayesha.  The character quickly gains the readers support due to her constant lack of a romantic life, a slow paced job and the constant pressure to keep up appearances within the Karachi social scene. However the most pressing problem which evolves is the  sudden fascination with the foreign CNN journalist and her mission to write a stellar piece of journalism that could act as her one way ticket to the land of golden opportunity, the United States.

“Karachi You’re Killing Me”, is a tastefully written fictional novel recounting the upper crust socialite scene of the city forever immersed in target killings, bootleggers and second hand copies of Birkin bags.  This story is enjoyable, fast paced and a delightful read centred from the perspective of a female journalist based in Karachi which allows for a wide range of perspectives from the escapades of Karachi¹s upper crust socialites to the conservative middle class bourgeois city dwellers. For a reader, nothing is more satisfying than reading a novel which pleases and fulfills your inner most literary desires. Karachi, You¹re Killing Me just so happens to be one of those books.

(originally published here on Zardozi Magazine)

American Apple Pie (inspired by Donna Hay)

Rummaging through the recipe book drawer, one cold Winter's afternoon I had the urge to bake something that would instantly fill my body with warmth and liven up everybody's spirits. It just so happened to be that there were endless amounts of Granny Smith apples at home and having stumbled across Donna Hay's fruit based recipe cookbook, it was decided that American Apple Pie was the way to go. This apple pie is best enjoyed straight out of the oven served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream and a dollop of dulce de leche. 

            

  

American Apple Pie

Ingredients

1 quantity sweet shortcut pastry (see recipe below)
1 egg, lightly beaten
sugar for sprinkling (optional)
8 green apples (1.2kg/2lb 7oz), peeled and chopped
1 tbsp water
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp almond meal


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. 
2. To make the filling, place the apples and water in a deep frying pan over medium heat. 
3. Cover and simmer, shaking the pan occasionally, for 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain and cool completely. 
4. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon.
5. Divide the pastry into two-thirds and one-third. Roll out the two-thirds portion on a lightly floured surface until 3mm (1/8 in) thick and place in a shallow 24cm (9 1/2 in) pie tin. 
6. Sprinkle over the almond meal and pack the apples tightly into the pastry shell.
7. Roll out the remaining pastry to fit over the top of the pie. Brush the rim with water, press the edges together and trim. Cut several slits (or whatever design you may prefer using a knife) in the top of the pastry, brush with the egg and sprinkle with sugar.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients

2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
3 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
150g (5 oz) cold butter, chopped
2-3 tbsp iced water


Method

1. Process the flour, sugar and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. While the motor is running, add enough iced water to form a smooth dough and process until just combined.
2.  Knead the dough lightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

(recipe adapted from Donna Hay)

The Fine Line Between Social Media and the Australian Court Staff

If the Australian legal system were to adopt the use of social media than many benefits may be possibly reaped in the due process ranging from diminishing confidence of the public in the judicial system, the distorting of information by the media and journalists and an increased sense of communication between both parties, the courts and the community. The Supreme Court of Victoria has embraced the use of social media to ensure a fundamental tenet of Australian democracy is fulfilled — “that justice is not only done, but is also seen to be done”.

The Victorian Supreme Court, being one of the limited few in Australia to adopt social media, is engaging with Twitter and other social media tools actively, including by making trials and oral judgments available online through the Court’s website. Furthermore, Twitter has been used in the past to respond to criticism of the Court and publicity to present the Court’s perspective. As a result in due course the use of social media by the Victorian Supreme Court has the potential to significantly improve the accessibility of the Court and the transparency of its processes.

If other jurisdictions within Australia choose to use social media, they too can benefit in a myriad of ways. They may be able to conserve resources through the provision of immediate information through the means of mediums such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, place information into its proper context, communicate more so easily and promptly with the public and ensure the judicial system is portrayed as being transparent, efficient and timely. However an important to be brought forth to light is that more traditional forms of communication should still take precedence for connecting with the broader community, as the public at large is yet to discover that information is available through these mediums if the court staff do choose to initiate the use of social media.

Through adopting social mediums such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the Australian judicial system “provides an exhilarating opportunity for the Courts to tell the public...and why the rule of law matters”. States such as Victoria have embraced new media technology to ensure a fundamental tenet of Australian democracy is fulfilled and justice is rightly so served. The Supreme Court of Victoria has been internationally acknowledged for being among the first Australian Courts to proactively use social media.

As technology changes and social media sites grow in popularity, the Australian judicial system will continue to face the challenge of adopting new rules to address the problems that come hand in hand through the use of social media tools. The issue of digital injustice has the potential to derail the very basis upon which justice is administered, if not readily addressed in a timely manner to ensure the adoption of social media by the court staff doesn’t occur at the cost of the hindering of the administration of a fair trial. However, if the Australian court staff does not espouse the use of social media then the court staff may potentially find themselves out of touch and disconnected from society once more.

Marilyn Krawitz, “Summoned by social media: Why Australian courts should have social media accounts” (2014) 23 JJA 182.