Since her
return to India, Ammu has stayed in touch
with some of the students from around the world who were in the hostel
with her at the University of Osaka. One of her friends is from Québec,
in Canada, and has an elder sister who is a talented cook and baker.
The two hostel-mates have now hatched an intercontinental plot driven by
their shared love of eating nice things that they didn't have to make
themselves. News of what elder sister last made in her kitchen is
relayed to me, all casual like, with wistful hints about how delicious
it must have been. Likewise, elder sister is kept informed about our
efforts here.
This being pumpkin season (everywhere?), the most recent cycles of this
conspiracy involved pumpkin-flavoured delicacies — the
classic pumpkin pie, an Assamese/Bengali curry with potatoes, and
pumpkin ravioli. Last weekend, Ammu mentioned pumpkin snickerdoodles.
Et voilà!
Snickerdoodles,
along with pop tarts and other North American exotica, were something I
had only heard about. I followed this simple
recipe by Martha Stewart
with promising results. Next time, I'll try to squeeze more liquid out
of the freshly-roasted pumpkin purée, because this batter was too wet,
and I had to add flour to be able to roll it in the dusting mixture of
cinnamon powder and sugar. (I've never used canned pumpkin, which is
what the recipe calls for.)
The first pumpkin we harvested was large enough to make soup, ravioli,
two pies, a curry, and these cookies, with a little left over. And we
still have three more pumpkins left.