Indian Fabric Series - Bandhani

I generally blog about things I make. With this post I am starting a series on unique indigenous fabrics. India is a fabric gold mine!
We don't easily get cute designer prints(which I covet so much).  I am always on the look out for people travelling from USA to bring some for me. Also we don't have any fabric stores online in India yet. I struggle to find new modern printed fabric in India. Isn't it strange because a lot of things sold abroad are made in India! Those designs look so chic and trendy! Well the grass always greener on the other side of the fence!

In my search for getting the right fabric for things I want to sew, I realised that "my own" fabric is pretty darn good too! There is so much variety. Sure a lot of prints are very ethnic, but that's what makes it so one of a kind. This is my journey on an exploration of things around me.

Lately I have been seeing SOoooooo many posts on Japanese Shibori tie-dye techniques. These are signature indigo and white fabrics. Very beautiful and elegant. Everytime I see a new post on Shibori I can't help thinking that we have such a rich tradition of tie-dye in India itself! I am partly Rajasthani, so it is only befitting that I start off the series with bandhani fabrics. This is the original tie-dye from the states of Rajasthan and Gujrat.

I didn’t have to go far, I had a closet full of them!

India is the land of colour riot! Everything is vibrant and alive.
The fabrics here are mostly chiffon, cotton and silks.

A lot of the tie-dye fabric come with an exquisite embroidery of sequins and golden/silver ribbon called gota. This work is called "Gota Patti".

I will try my best to incorporate this pretty fabric in my sewing this year.

Going Yachting Quilt

I fell in love with this print!  The moment I saw it, I had to have it. My first reaction was this would make a nice quilt for bu-bu.
Actually I was shopping to make a baby quilt for a friend's yet to be born baby. Evolet has her yachting blanket already, hopefully she's snuggling up with her's!
I have made a few baby blankets before and those go by easy now.

For Adrika's quilt I wanted to go big. This one is 58 inches by 62 inches. Hopefully it would last a good amount of time!

The top layer is flannel. I have used a polyester batting which was quite a high loft. It gives this quilt a big puffy feeling and also lends warmth. The backing of the quilt is plain old baby friendly - muslin.

This one is not perfect. The quilting lines don’t go all parallel, the binding was not all even throughout. In fact I had to rip apart so many seams that its not even funny! Whatever the case maybe, I am still proud of this one. I have sewn a full quilt! I have learnt a few lessons and hopefully things would turn out better the next time I try it.

Hopefully next time I would have the fortitude to piece together a more fancy quilt top. Would love to try some beautiful triangles or hexagons.

Enjoy!

Thai Red Curry

A trip to a friend's farm yielded in a lot of fresh bounty! The inspiration for this curry came from the bunch of lemon grass in the goodies basket. This curry is made from scratch.

Red Curry Paste

Ingredients -

15 odd dry red chillies
10 peppercorns
1 tbspn dry roasted coriander seeds
1 tspn dry roasted cumin seeds
3 stalks of lemon grass(6 inches long)
1/4 cup coriander stems and leaves
1/4 cup onion or shallot
2 tbspn garlic
1 tbspn ginger or galangal
1 tspn minced lemon peel
3 kafir lime leaves or normal lime leaves

Procedure -

Soak the red chillies in warm water for 20 mins. Grind to a spice powder - peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds. Chop lemongrass finely and add to a blender. Add the red chillies and spice powder. Add coriander leaves and stems, onion, garlic, ginger, lemon peel, lime leaves, salt to taste. Grind to a fine paste with very little water.
This curry paste can be stored in a jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Thai Red Curry

Ingredients -

3 tbspn red curry paste
1 tbspn oil
Vegetables of choice - carrots, bell peppers, babycorn, broccoli
1 cup thick coconut milk
2 cups thin coconut milk
salt to taste
jaggery
juice of lemon

Procedure -

Heat oil in a wok, add the curry paste and fry well. Add the vegetables of choice and cook till done. Vegetables should still retain some crunch. Add salt and a small piece of jaggery. Add the thick and thin coconut milk and bring to a boil. Take it off the heat. Add the juice of a lemon. Serve with steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Candied Ginger Cookies

My vegetable lady brought this beautiful young ginger that had our name written all over it. Originally we set out to make ginger syrup for making ginger ale, however I left them to cook a wee bit longer and it turned into candied ginger. No problem, it can be put to good use. If you want a good recipe for candied ginger then try this one by David Lebovitz.
This recipe yields 4 dozen cookies. 

Ingredients -

1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup chopped candied ginger
1/2 tspn dry ginger powder
1/4 tspn salt
2 cups flour

Procedure -

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and creamy. Add candied ginger, ginger powder, salt. Mix well. Add the flour gradually incorporating it completely. This will form a soft cookie dough. Put this dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 170 C and prepare cookie sheets. Cut out the cookies and bake for 18 mins or till edges are golden. If dough is remaining then roll it out again and refrigerate for next batch. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack. 
Decorate with melted chocolate and let it cool to harden.

Enjoy!

Onstage Tutu Skirt

Did I tell you I love Oliver+S !? It's my favourite sewing pattern website. Now you know where to get me gift cards from (wink wink!).
This skirt pattern came out for this holiday season. It's adorable and even for a beginner like me, this was really really quick and easy. They even have a sew along blog - day1 and day2. The instructions are super easy and so neat. The finish is awesomely professional. Did I mention I love them! :)

I decided to make one for my toddler in black. Well, I am not really sure we get tulle in India, so I actually used a net fabric. I am going to try another one of these skirts using organza in a very Indian print.

Also I have intentionally made this a little longer so that it fits my doll for at least a year more.

     

I faced real difficulty to get her to pose this time around! I hope with the next skirt she is more cooperative!

Enjoy!

Dark Chocolate Orange Cookies

I wish you could taste these! I wish you could smell these! I wish you could smell my house when these were baking! Little drops of heaven!
These are by far the best flavour of cookies I have tried baking yet.

The recipe is from this blog. Turned out to be beautiful crisp biscuits with oodles of orange flavour. Last time around I had made 2 dozens and fell short ;) so this time I made 6 dozens! Yes, you read that right - 72 cookies!

Ingredients -

2 cups whole wheat flour
2/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 tspn salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbspn sugar
zest of 2 small oranges
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tspn vanilla extract
juice of 1/2 small orange

Procedure -

Mix flour, cocoa powder and salt and keep these dry ingredients aside.
Zest the oranges and mix well with sugar. Incorporate the zest well, this would release the orange essential oil into the sugar and results in a beautiful orange sugar (by itself this can be used on top of desserts and other goodies).
Add butter and whisk well till pale and fluffy. Work hard here! Ensure the mix is really smooth. Add vanilla extract and mix the orange juice.
Add the dry ingredients in two batches, each time slowly incorporating it thoroughly. This mixture would now form a soft cookie dough.
Shape the dough into a rectangle between two parchment sheets or wax paper. Flatten with a rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness.
Place the dough in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 170C. Line the baking trays. Cut the rolled out dough into cookies using cutters and bake for 18 to 20 mins or till edges are crisp. Remove from the oven and let it cool on the baking tray for 5 mins. Move to a wire rack to cool completely.

Adrika pondering on deep questions whilst devouring cookies. My dainty princess(read - really fussy eater) immediately ate 5 of these out of the oven!

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Cookies

After making the cranberry lemon muffins, I really wanted to try the combination with oranges. Here is an attempt at cranberry orange cookies based on the same recipe as described in http://tworedbowls.com/2013/12/15/cranberry-orange-shortbread-cookies/.

These turned out so darn scrumptious that we managed to finish the full batch of two dozen cookies in one night! Yes, we ate all the 24 cookies in one go! I have been asked to lay off baking for a while, else our weights are heading north steadily!

Ingredients -
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1/4 cup + 2 tbspn sugar
1 tspn vanilla extract
1/4 tspn almond extract
1/2 tbspn freshly zested orange
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1 cup flour
1/8 tspn baking powder
pinch of salt

Procedure -

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and smooth. Add the vanilla extract, almond extract and orange zest. Beat well. Add the cranberries and incorporate. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix till a dough starts to form.
Shape this dough into a long log of about 1.5 inches diameter, wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Cut the cookie dough log into discs of 1/4 inch thickness. Space these biscuits on the cookie sheet about 1 inches apart. These will not spread much. Bake till pale golden for 12 mins. Cool on the baking tray for 5 mins and remove to wire rack for further cooling.

Enjoy!