Davia is conducting two basic recording and interviewing workshops in San Francisco. Thursday, October 29 and Thursday, November 5 from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The three hour workshop is for people who want to acquire and hone their skills for an array of projects--radio, online storytelling, oral histories, audio slide shows, family histories, and other multimedia endeavors.
We will cover miking techniques, sound gathering, use of archival audio, how to make interviewees comfortable, how to frame evocative questions that make for compelling storytelling, how to listen (which is harder than it looks), how to use interviews in conjunction with images, field recording techniques, recording equipment and more. The workshops are customized to fit the projects you are working on.
People who attend come from radio, newspapers, photography, oral history, historical societies, farms, music, writing, libraries, web design and beyond. The groups are always lively and good contacts are made.
The fee is $115. Of course, there will be a snack. The workshops are held in Francis Coppola's historic Zoetrope building in North Beach.
If you, or someone you know is interested, email kitchen@kitchensisters.org and let us know which of the two workshops you would like to attend.
See you there.
Monday, October 12, 2009
DEEPAWALI SWEETS - BADUSHAH & CHOCOLATE BADUSHAH
DEEPAWALI SWEETS
BADUSHAH & CHOCOLATE BADUSHAH
Badusha with its strange name has become a traditional sweet, and is one of the much sought after sweets during festive occasions such as weddings and Deepavali.
The ingredients and the method of preparation has many similarities with the preparation of doughnuts which we witnessed at a shop in Portland called Krispy Kreme! In the Krispy Kreme factory, measured amounts of batter were poured on conveyer belts which ran through warmed up chambers, where the batter puffed up because of the yeast. Then they were automatically flipped into a trough of warm oil. The conveyer belt flipped them into another trough of warmer oil for even frying. The fried dough nuts were drained on the perforated belts while moving .The conveyer belt carried the golden coloured doughnuts through a snow white water fall of hot sugar syrup. Finally the warm, sweet and fluffy snow white doughnuts came out in dozens from the see through assembly just to disappear into the eager mouths of the connoisseurs in no time!
The chocolate coated doughnuts inspired me to prepare these Chocolate Badusha. Below is how we prepared Badushah at home.
INGREDIENTS:
Maida (plain white flour)– 250 gms ( 1 glass)
Salt – 1 pinch
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Ghee or Oil – 1 tbsp
Curds – 1 cup
Sugar – the same volume as maida (1 glass)
Chopped cashew nuts – 1 tbsp
Cocoa powder – 1 tbsp OR Chocolate slab – 1 piece.
Oil – for frying badushahs
METHOD:
1. Sieve the maida, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour, and add the oil. Mix the oil and flour gently with your finger tips, to get a texture like bread crumbs. Now add in the required amount of curd to bind the crumbs together into a stiff dough. Be careful not to over knead the dough. The dough should be porous so that it can later absorb syrup. A very well kneaded smooth dough on the other hand, will not absorb any syrup!
2. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for an hour.
3. Next we need to make the sugar syrup. Dissolve sugar in one glass of water and a spoon of milk, and set it on a medium flame.
4. The milks will help in separating the scum to a layer on top. Remove this scum, and continue boiling until a one thread consistency (also called soft ball stage. Check this link for useful info on sugar syrup consistency) is reached.
5. Keep the sugar syrup on a very low fire, and heat oil in a pan on the second burner. If the sugar syrup starts crystallizing on the sides of the pan – make sure to switch off the flame.
6. Pinch a ball of dough the size of a ping pong ball, and flatten it on your palm. Remember that the fried badushah will increase a bit in size. It is fine if the surface is not smooth, and seems uneven. Don’t be tempted to knead it!
7. Make a depression in the center and keep it on a plate. You will get 12 flattened balls of dough with the above mentioned quantity of maida.
8. When the oil is medium hot, and ready for frying drop the flattened dough into the oil and fry them to a golden yellow colour and drain. If the oil is too hot, the badushah will not cook inside..
9. Drop the drained Badushas into the hot sugar syrup and soak for three minutes.
Badushah should be of a light texture, crispy on the outside, and syrup soaked on the inside.
BADUSHAH & CHOCOLATE BADUSHAH
Badusha with its strange name has become a traditional sweet, and is one of the much sought after sweets during festive occasions such as weddings and Deepavali.
The ingredients and the method of preparation has many similarities with the preparation of doughnuts which we witnessed at a shop in Portland called Krispy Kreme! In the Krispy Kreme factory, measured amounts of batter were poured on conveyer belts which ran through warmed up chambers, where the batter puffed up because of the yeast. Then they were automatically flipped into a trough of warm oil. The conveyer belt flipped them into another trough of warmer oil for even frying. The fried dough nuts were drained on the perforated belts while moving .The conveyer belt carried the golden coloured doughnuts through a snow white water fall of hot sugar syrup. Finally the warm, sweet and fluffy snow white doughnuts came out in dozens from the see through assembly just to disappear into the eager mouths of the connoisseurs in no time!
The chocolate coated doughnuts inspired me to prepare these Chocolate Badusha. Below is how we prepared Badushah at home.
INGREDIENTS:
Maida (plain white flour)– 250 gms ( 1 glass)
Salt – 1 pinch
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Ghee or Oil – 1 tbsp
Curds – 1 cup
Sugar – the same volume as maida (1 glass)
Chopped cashew nuts – 1 tbsp
Cocoa powder – 1 tbsp OR Chocolate slab – 1 piece.
Oil – for frying badushahs
METHOD:
1. Sieve the maida, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour, and add the oil. Mix the oil and flour gently with your finger tips, to get a texture like bread crumbs. Now add in the required amount of curd to bind the crumbs together into a stiff dough. Be careful not to over knead the dough. The dough should be porous so that it can later absorb syrup. A very well kneaded smooth dough on the other hand, will not absorb any syrup!2. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for an hour.
3. Next we need to make the sugar syrup. Dissolve sugar in one glass of water and a spoon of milk, and set it on a medium flame.
4. The milks will help in separating the scum to a layer on top. Remove this scum, and continue boiling until a one thread consistency (also called soft ball stage. Check this link for useful info on sugar syrup consistency) is reached.
5. Keep the sugar syrup on a very low fire, and heat oil in a pan on the second burner. If the sugar syrup starts crystallizing on the sides of the pan – make sure to switch off the flame.6. Pinch a ball of dough the size of a ping pong ball, and flatten it on your palm. Remember that the fried badushah will increase a bit in size. It is fine if the surface is not smooth, and seems uneven. Don’t be tempted to knead it!
7. Make a depression in the center and keep it on a plate. You will get 12 flattened balls of dough with the above mentioned quantity of maida.
8. When the oil is medium hot, and ready for frying drop the flattened dough into the oil and fry them to a golden yellow colour and drain. If the oil is too hot, the badushah will not cook inside..
9. Drop the drained Badushas into the hot sugar syrup and soak for three minutes. 10. Remove from syrup and place them on a dry plate and stick on the chopped nuts immediately.
Badushah should be of a light texture, crispy on the outside, and syrup soaked on the inside.CHOCOLATE BADUSHA
If you add chocolate to the sugar syrup, in the above process, you get a very interesting variation of badushah!
Dissolve cocoa in little water and add it to the sugar syrup when it reaches the one thread consistency. If you are using cooking chocolate dissolve it in the sugar syrup a little before one thread consistency.
Enjoy the fluffy warm Badushas or store them in a dry container with a tight lid when cold.
If you add chocolate to the sugar syrup, in the above process, you get a very interesting variation of badushah!
Dissolve cocoa in little water and add it to the sugar syrup when it reaches the one thread consistency. If you are using cooking chocolate dissolve it in the sugar syrup a little before one thread consistency.
Enjoy the fluffy warm Badushas or store them in a dry container with a tight lid when cold. Q & A On Installing Used Cabinets
Q.
Hi Peggy,
What you are doing with this blog is WONDERFUL !!! Thanks.
My wife and I are remodeling our kitchen (with small eating area attached). We have just bought a complete (16 piece) used kitchen with Cherry cabinets made by Wood Mode. These are not very old as one of the pieces is the tilt out mixer cabinet. We have an electrician ready to rewire and the gutting of the kitchen will be within the next couple days, (cleared wall to wall area around 13x14). My question is: how do I go about installing the cabinets (with a good installer/minor cabinet maker)? Should I contact the dealer in the area (My Dream Kitchen) in Greensboro, NC and tell them what I have and my kitchen plan or should I simply rely on the installer to make decisions on "what else" is necessary to finish out the space?
I'm leaning toward the dealer IF they would work with and accept the used cabinets (and, of course, accept our $$$ for additional Wood Mode cabinet and accessories that we may need to finish the job.
Your thoughts???
Thanks for your help,
Wayne
A.
Thanks for your kind words Wayne.
Congratulations on your purchase of used Wood-Mode cherry cabinets for your kitchen. Hopefully you will be able to use most of them in your new design.
You are wrong in thinking the pop-up mixer shelf denotes that the cabinets are fairly new. Wood-Mode has been making that cabinet accessory since at least 1983, when I became a kitchen designer. I went to the Wood-Mode school, at their factory in Kreamer, PA., that year and they displayed it in their factory showroom. At the time I thought "What a wonderful idea!". Since then I have learned that using the mixer shelf is a real pain because you and your mixer are out in front of the counter (where all your ingredients are). Also any spills or spatters usually end up on the floor. It is one of those cabinet accessories that I always talk my clients out of buying.
Back to your questions:
The only way to find out if your local Wood-Mode dealer is willing to work with you on creating a layout that works with the cabinets you have purchased and supply a few new ones to match, and then install everything; is to ask them. In better times my bet would be that the answer would be "no". These are not better times.
Be prepared to pay them an hourly rate for the planning, since selling a few additional cabinets does not cover their cost in planning and design hours.
I have helped clients work with used cabinets many times over the years. Usually because I have sold them a display from my showroom (back when I had a showroom). It's always a difficult design exercise; since we designers are trained to design for efficient use of new cabinetry, rather than fitting in as many components as possible of a used kitchen. The more attention you pay to what you already have, the less efficient the kitchen becomes. The more you try to design for efficiency, the fewer cabinets you have that can be used.
There is another issue that will impact your new kitchen...Maybe to a great extent:
Those beautiful Wood-Mode cherry cabinets you have purchased have been mellowing since they were installed. Mellowing is the color change that cherry undergoes as it is exposed to light. The wood gets redder and darker in the process. Additionally, the finish has yellowed a bit over time, with cooking fumes, possibly cigarette smoke, and light exposure. These issues mean it is impossible for you to walk into a Wood-Mode dealer and look at samples and match the wood color and finish on your used cabinets.
If you are lucky, whoever staffs My Dream Kitchen will be somebody who has been working with Wood-Mode cabinetry long enough, and the stain color will be distinctive enough, that they recognize it. If not, it's a shot in the dark that any current stain color you choose will match your cabinets once the new cabinets mellow and yellow to the point that the old cabinets are.
If your used cabinets were some other manufacturer, the chances of matching the stain (eventually) would be even less. At least Wood-Mode has kept most of the stain colors they have had. Many other manufacturers are more "fashion oriented" and change constantly.
Be sure to cover any areas of the cabinets that may have been covered in the previous installation (under mouldings, or switch plates for example). Then you will have a much closer match to what the cabinets looked like to begin with. Also, if any original labels remain on unfinished cabinet sides or backs, you are in luck. Because the labels indicate door style and stain color.
Another issue is door style: Many cabinet manufacturers change door styles often. Wood-Mode still makes many styles that they made many years ago, so you are more likely to be able to match the door style because the cabinets are Wood-Mode.
It is also possible that the previous owners were the people who actually bought the cabinets new. If so they may have retained their original cabinet order from their dealer for their tax records. That makes life easy for you as well, since the door style and stain would be right on the order, and you would also have a complete list of the cabinets you have purchased to help the dealer design your new kitchen.
Then there is the issue of the wood itself: Ten or twenty years ago there was a lot more old growth hardwood around than there is today. My kitchen is twenty years old this year. The raised panels in an 18" wide door in my kitchen are made of three pieces of wood glued together side by side. Similar cabinets made today might have seven pieces of wood to make up that same panel. This makes for a lot more variation in each door, since every piece of wood looks a little bit different. That's why kitchens look a lot "stripey-er" these days.
As you can see Wayne, buying used cabinetry and matching it is a lot more complicated than you may have known until now (In fact I have probably told you WAY more than you want to know).
So, give My Dream Kitchen a call and explain your situation. Ask for their help in designing your kitchen, supplying the additional cabinets you need and installing for you. If they do agree to help you, you will be well ahead of the game since all the headaches will be theirs (for a cost). If they don't agree you will still need to work with them to order the additional cabinets, so don't burn any bridges.
Good luck,
Peggy
Hi Peggy,
What you are doing with this blog is WONDERFUL !!! Thanks.
My wife and I are remodeling our kitchen (with small eating area attached). We have just bought a complete (16 piece) used kitchen with Cherry cabinets made by Wood Mode. These are not very old as one of the pieces is the tilt out mixer cabinet. We have an electrician ready to rewire and the gutting of the kitchen will be within the next couple days, (cleared wall to wall area around 13x14). My question is: how do I go about installing the cabinets (with a good installer/minor cabinet maker)? Should I contact the dealer in the area (My Dream Kitchen) in Greensboro, NC and tell them what I have and my kitchen plan or should I simply rely on the installer to make decisions on "what else" is necessary to finish out the space?
I'm leaning toward the dealer IF they would work with and accept the used cabinets (and, of course, accept our $$$ for additional Wood Mode cabinet and accessories that we may need to finish the job.
Your thoughts???
Thanks for your help,
Wayne
A.
Thanks for your kind words Wayne.
Congratulations on your purchase of used Wood-Mode cherry cabinets for your kitchen. Hopefully you will be able to use most of them in your new design.
You are wrong in thinking the pop-up mixer shelf denotes that the cabinets are fairly new. Wood-Mode has been making that cabinet accessory since at least 1983, when I became a kitchen designer. I went to the Wood-Mode school, at their factory in Kreamer, PA., that year and they displayed it in their factory showroom. At the time I thought "What a wonderful idea!". Since then I have learned that using the mixer shelf is a real pain because you and your mixer are out in front of the counter (where all your ingredients are). Also any spills or spatters usually end up on the floor. It is one of those cabinet accessories that I always talk my clients out of buying.
Back to your questions:
The only way to find out if your local Wood-Mode dealer is willing to work with you on creating a layout that works with the cabinets you have purchased and supply a few new ones to match, and then install everything; is to ask them. In better times my bet would be that the answer would be "no". These are not better times.
Be prepared to pay them an hourly rate for the planning, since selling a few additional cabinets does not cover their cost in planning and design hours.
I have helped clients work with used cabinets many times over the years. Usually because I have sold them a display from my showroom (back when I had a showroom). It's always a difficult design exercise; since we designers are trained to design for efficient use of new cabinetry, rather than fitting in as many components as possible of a used kitchen. The more attention you pay to what you already have, the less efficient the kitchen becomes. The more you try to design for efficiency, the fewer cabinets you have that can be used.
There is another issue that will impact your new kitchen...Maybe to a great extent:
Those beautiful Wood-Mode cherry cabinets you have purchased have been mellowing since they were installed. Mellowing is the color change that cherry undergoes as it is exposed to light. The wood gets redder and darker in the process. Additionally, the finish has yellowed a bit over time, with cooking fumes, possibly cigarette smoke, and light exposure. These issues mean it is impossible for you to walk into a Wood-Mode dealer and look at samples and match the wood color and finish on your used cabinets.
If you are lucky, whoever staffs My Dream Kitchen will be somebody who has been working with Wood-Mode cabinetry long enough, and the stain color will be distinctive enough, that they recognize it. If not, it's a shot in the dark that any current stain color you choose will match your cabinets once the new cabinets mellow and yellow to the point that the old cabinets are.
If your used cabinets were some other manufacturer, the chances of matching the stain (eventually) would be even less. At least Wood-Mode has kept most of the stain colors they have had. Many other manufacturers are more "fashion oriented" and change constantly.
Be sure to cover any areas of the cabinets that may have been covered in the previous installation (under mouldings, or switch plates for example). Then you will have a much closer match to what the cabinets looked like to begin with. Also, if any original labels remain on unfinished cabinet sides or backs, you are in luck. Because the labels indicate door style and stain color.
Another issue is door style: Many cabinet manufacturers change door styles often. Wood-Mode still makes many styles that they made many years ago, so you are more likely to be able to match the door style because the cabinets are Wood-Mode.
It is also possible that the previous owners were the people who actually bought the cabinets new. If so they may have retained their original cabinet order from their dealer for their tax records. That makes life easy for you as well, since the door style and stain would be right on the order, and you would also have a complete list of the cabinets you have purchased to help the dealer design your new kitchen.
Then there is the issue of the wood itself: Ten or twenty years ago there was a lot more old growth hardwood around than there is today. My kitchen is twenty years old this year. The raised panels in an 18" wide door in my kitchen are made of three pieces of wood glued together side by side. Similar cabinets made today might have seven pieces of wood to make up that same panel. This makes for a lot more variation in each door, since every piece of wood looks a little bit different. That's why kitchens look a lot "stripey-er" these days.
As you can see Wayne, buying used cabinetry and matching it is a lot more complicated than you may have known until now (In fact I have probably told you WAY more than you want to know).
So, give My Dream Kitchen a call and explain your situation. Ask for their help in designing your kitchen, supplying the additional cabinets you need and installing for you. If they do agree to help you, you will be well ahead of the game since all the headaches will be theirs (for a cost). If they don't agree you will still need to work with them to order the additional cabinets, so don't burn any bridges.
Good luck,
Peggy
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