All posts of Shaheen

Pistachio, Apricot and Cardamom Kugelhopf

I’m hoping to start a new Christmas Day tradition with this year’s kugelhopf. A kugelhopf is a yeasted cake or a rich bread, whichever way you’d like to see it, that adorns pastry shop windows all over Alsace. It’s a traditional French Christmas bread, with a disputed history, made in earthen moulds. If you don’t have […]
10 years ago

Cranberry Sauce

We’re getting ready to take time off and visit our family for the holidays.  We’re going to have a traditional roast for Christmas lunch. I’ve packed my bags with cranberry sauce, kugelhopf dough, chocolate chip cookie dough, chestnuts, chocolate, Comté, and my knife kit. I made the cranberry sauce a day before and bottled it. […]
10 years ago

Kouign Amann

Kouign Amann is a rich, buttery viennoiserie made with an unthinkable amount of butter and a generous sprinkling of sugar for a little sweetness and caramelisation. It’s crisp, flaky and caramelised on the outside and soft and cakey inside. One bite and you’ll know what I mean. I’ve learnt two ways of making kouign amann. One, […]
10 years ago

Rye Sourdough

I made the most terrific rye sourdough I’ve made ever since I began making my own bread. Arjun and I made our first starter in Paris last year to be able to recreate the fantastic breads we’d become so used from the many boulangeries near where we lived. I’ve been feeding it since and even […]
10 years ago

Gianduja Soup

It’s taken me two years to share this recipe with you. I first had this cold soup on my birthday two Novembers ago at La Cantine du Troquet after a meal of steak frites. With every spoonful, my eyes lit up and I was so ecstatic about having my favourite flavours of chocolate and hazelnuts […]
10 years ago

Vanilla Brown Butter Madeleines

I think madeleines go down as my favourite little French cakes. They are pretty, they are small, and they can be eaten in two bites. That makes them just the right size for me and my reduced sugar cravings (strange how the more I work with sugar, the less I like consuming it.) And what’s […]
10 years ago

All You Need To Know About Culinary School – Le Cordon Bleu, Paris

In an earlier post, I had written about how to win a scholarship to study at Le Cordon Bleu, like I did (thrice). This left me inundated with lots of emails from culinary aspirants wanting to know more. In this post, I’m going to attempt to answer some questions that were unanswered. I’m going to […]
10 years ago

Purple Foodie Baking Classes – November 2014

All classes are sold out. 165 lovely attendees. Thank you everyone. To sign up for future classes, or if you have already signed up but wish to enter your phone number for SMS updates, enter your details in the form below. You will only get one email or SMS before each batch – and your […]
11 years ago

Le Chateaubriand, Paris

View Slideshow I am an Iñaki Aizpitarte fangirl. I love everything he does. He makes me want to be a better cook, to play with flavours, to be more creative, to think beyond geographic boundaries. Earlier this year Arjun took me to his much lauded restaurant, Le Chateaubriand in Paris and we were in for […]
11 years ago