Most of them are because of my passion for new food and hence experimenting with them, and some just did not turn out right.
I am still going to be cooking and having failures every now and then, so I called this Series 1. More to come, er.. hopefully not!
So ready for my line up of not-so-good food? If you can't resist any of them and if any of you want the recipe right this moment... do let me know! LOL. I will be glad to give them to you! ;) I would totally understand your enthusiasm.
This is one post where I really would be disappointed if I get the "Yummy / Looks good / Nice recipe / Wow" comment! Please spare me my sorrow... Or I am coming after you!
Recipes for Disaster Series 1
Oats bun
Who on earth would such a thing as buns made entirely with oat flour! Me!
In my defense though, I was just starting out on my love affair with bread making and decided to make it super healthy by just using Oats flour. And what a bad idea that was! Oats flour by nature is a weak flour, and can only be used in combination with other protein rich flour to make bread.
They turned out like this...
But! Hang on there a minute... we did manage to eat them. I personally do not like wasting food and decided to have them this way... Not bad.
The next day it turned even tougher, so I had to cut them up and make upma with it, like this...
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Rock Baguette
Second on our disaster list is a baguette, made a long time back. I can make decent bread now. I kinda know what works and what doesn't at this point. I again experimented with some weak flours, barley, buckwheat and a whole lot of combination and it ended up like rocks. They were so hard, that I really could not make it edible. So we ended up playing bat and ball with it, er, the bat being the baguette. Not difficult to imagine, is it? It looked like this...
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Chocolate chip zucchini cookie
Third on my list... It was not entirely my original recipe, but I did make some changes and it ended up okay. It was edible the first day, and turned so so bitter the next day. So that lands up on this list as well. It looks okay though, right?...
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Stove-top dough for a Cookie
Oh, we have another cookie lined up for this list. Oh well! It did not turn out to be a cookie exactly. I tried to make the dough on the stove top by heating demerara sugar, oats, flax, whole wheat and whole lot of other good stuff. But I got a gooey mass the first time...
How could I give up so easily!
Then I decided to try it again immediately and got this...
I am still wondering what happened, it was bitter and I really couldn't do anything with it. So it remained in the dough form forever!
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Beetroot and Chocolate kheer/pudding
Next is my Beetroot and Chocolate kheer/pudding. What a waste of perfectly red fresh beets! I am still beating myself over this one.
I normally do not think of the recipe ahead. I just go with the flow and keep adding and zeroing on the recipe and ingredients. So, this started out as a beetroot payasam, and then I just could not leave it alone, so kept adding one thing after another including my lovely dark slabs of chocolate. I should have stopped then and there since it did not taste great. But would I? No!
I added perfectly roasted cashewnuts and raisins in hopes of making them better.
Verdict: Ruined! Just did not taste anywhere close to normal food!
Then I see this "Beet and chocolate cake" from Bee @ Jugalbandi. I am so envious!Those look so good! I hope I can get there one day.
I am still wondering where I went wrong. And this is what mine looked like...
Pretty isn't it? That is where it stops!
While you are at it... Please check out two of my perfectly good recipes (Spinach Potato Naan/Flatbread and Lowfat Eggless Almond & Oats Cookies) that are up for voting. Details on the top right corner of my blog. Thanks!
Thanks for this post,I was thinking of making zucchini -choco cake,I am saved.The oats bun will work when you add wheatflour as well,or even pastry flour,since you look for low fat recipes.But I am not certain.Do use wholegrain flour available in shops.There are even gluten free flour available in Wholefoodmarket I think.Do check out these flours.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Well.. I "fried" Icecream once to make a Mexican fried Icecream, I have posted that story at Aroma somewhere too.
ReplyDeleteOat buns, probably hard, atleast you used it for burgers. Baguette, you can spray glossy neutral paint and display on the mantle and your cookie crumbled!! Hmmm...!!!
Beet, carrot and chocolate pudding."WOW"!! ;D
You can get here sooner!!:D
http://foodieshope.blogspot.com/2006/12/beet-coconut-chocolate-cake-and-meme.html
hehe..what a refreshing change. Some times I feel that if I have to say "that looks good', I'm going to simply give up visiting people's blogs! Its not that I don't think the food looks awesome, its just the number of times you say the same thing!
ReplyDeleteBut yeah....LURVE the disasters! Thanks for sharing.
ha ha..for your sake of peace..everything looks disastrous..:D..kidding..the bun looks gud enuf for me..n I want a grapical top view of that beet-choc kheer..luks good though..:P.Gal..u r with all life after healthy food..:D
ReplyDeletenice post :)
ReplyDeleteI really like the look of the chocolate zucchini cookies... nice picture :)
and I tried making poli a week back... enna sollradhunae theriyala... spectacular disaster!! I still have not thrown the jaggery thinking I will make something with that... have no idea what to do :)
We've all had our share of cooking/baking disasters, Divya, and it's quite brave of you to post yours. The beetroot-chocolate kheer does sound very adventurous, but then again, maybe you will come up with a good one some day. :)
ReplyDeleteenjoyed reading this post.. pics look misleading though :)
ReplyDeletehahaha, anu that's hilarious. At first, i wasn't sure if I was reading correctly.lol.
ReplyDeleteanyways, ur enthusiasm in trying new things is appreciable:)
good post girl!i too have many such disasters:)
Some of the pics are so good that it's hard to believe they didn't taste good.... How can we get better w/o these disasters ? these are just the stepping stones...
ReplyDeleteHe he can i say this time yuck :( Proof of Don't believe ur eyes ! One thing whenever we try to incorporate or even subst healthy ingredients, we land to such hard product! Love ur baguette could be an edible self defensive tool!
ReplyDeleteI remember and always fail the Badusha (3 times in row it came out perfect but tasted like rock , never captures through my lenses... Well done different post babe!
agree with lavanya...pic looks really tempting and thanks divya for letting us know wht was the final results..:)
ReplyDeletethe buns look soo cute though, Divya you have done quite a bit of experimenting.I have had some disasters too but I really never thought of blogging about them. This is quite a cool post, I had fun reading it. I guess everyone has disasters.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures look good enough to eat! Who would think that they are kitchen disasters? Maybe you should post the recipes so we would know what NOT to do! ha ha ha!
ReplyDeleteROFL Anu. I wish i had taken pictures of my baking disasters. You would've felt much much better about your disaster :D
ReplyDeleteLol! I appreciate your perseverance and patience in cooking.ipo thaan ellam supera panriye! We all learn from mistakes.
ReplyDeleteA great post anu...it is true that we are not perfect all the time and I luv that u have shared it with us :)I liked it ...
ReplyDeleteWell, you've inspired me to blog my cooking disasters too! :)
ReplyDeleteWhen a recipe goes bad for me, I feel too low to photograph it. Good job with the pics, really!
ReplyDeleteI love it! I mess up recipes a lot, I just never have the guts to blog about it. I love the fact that other people mess up once in a while too. It's encouraging. This was a great post.
ReplyDeletemistakes are acutally successes if we learn from them :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post. We all have a list of recipes that just weren't up to par.
ReplyDeleteEven if they were disasters, they still look delish. I have not had enough oomph to post my disasters yet.. but you have inspired me!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, you still used the recipes and I bet they were still tasty even though..
I am second nags,i would have thrown it in bin if it happend to me and will not enter kitchen for sometime...
ReplyDeleteGood thing you dont waste it and manageD to eat!
I will vote definetly!
LOL... I remember when I used to develop recipes how I'd decided to make baby red potato appetizers in which I'd hollow them out and add a vodka-sour cream filling. OMG I spit out the first bite. At least I could salvage the potatoes, but the filling was horrible and no amount of seasoning helped.
ReplyDeleteYou are truly brave to 'fess up to your failures in living color here at the blog. I really enjoyed the read.
I love the rock baguette! :P
ReplyDeleteWhenever I make/buy terribly dense or hard breads, I soak it overnight in milk, eggs, sugar, and a dash of vanilla. In the morning, throw it in the oven for quick and delicious baked french toast!
I think I loved the color of beet and choclate kheer, usage of bread as bat! My son would have loved to bat with it :D Nevertheless I appreciate this post for pics and sharing with us your disaster stories.
ReplyDeleteLol !! Lol Anu..I couldnt stop laughing..first i thought reading'disaster series',this is an event connected with helping disaster struck people...what a wild guess..and seeing the pictures again had several wild guesses..oops,then,you can imagine..
ReplyDeletethe buns are great to see,pleasing look,but can imagine how you managed..of course you can come with a perfect one adding some strong flour..
and seeing the beet made me sad too..thats a perfect disaster..
But,if i make a post like this,for sure i can compete with you easily...it happens da and thats the fun part of it...so lovely of you.
Lolz. I enjoyed reading your post divs! well each one of us have tons of cooking disasters to share!
ReplyDeletenice post.....ur trial and error recipes are innovative ones.....cooking without disasters will not be adventurous......ur pics are amazing......keep rocking with ur creative ones
ReplyDeleteIf you had not mentioned that these were disasters we would have not known.. Well now I did not say wow! so please don't come behind me!
ReplyDeleteI too have had my list of failures like sheera which I can never make a decent one! Baking etc etc.. I have mentioned when I made better one's next time! LOL!
When I tell my hubby that I have made a disaster he tells me to wait before it sees the face of dustbin and until then I try to keep adding to improve it. sometimes works else after the confirmation form hubby we bid farewell to it!!
What is it to learn without falling! Right.. ??
Love your blog :)
he he he...don't worry sweets..u are not the only one who made rock hard bread..lol..
ReplyDeletei made my first rolls in the MW and it was hard...I made bread pulao like you did upma.. and the rest I made into breadcrumbs in my heavy duty food processor..lol..
don't like throwing away food...i throw NOTHING.. ;p
Lol,interesting.All of us have surely experienced such disasters in cooking,thats really ncie of u to write it down.The pictures are totally misleading to what u've mentioned:-P.U've inspired me to gather my horrible recipes too.The best thing is you try to make again...i give up easily.I was reading Priti's lovely blog on Chocolate Zuchini bread and remembered ur cookie...here it is if u r interested....http://preetyskitchen.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-zucchini-bread.html#comment-form
ReplyDeleteImagine if everything were to be perfect all the time :-) How boring :-)
ReplyDeleteLoL! I too had many such disasters, sometimes the pics won't turn out good! I really appreciate that you are brave enough to post those! Great pictures though!
ReplyDeleteLoL! I too had many such disasters, sometimes the pics won't turn out good! I really appreciate that you are brave enough to post those! Great pictures though!
ReplyDeleteOh my!Anudivya, what a refreshing change from the routine good and yummy recipes found everywhere!Don't you think it'd make a cool theme for an interesting event?
ReplyDeletewhat a relief to know that such a fantabulous baker like you has had her series of disasters ;-)my attempts at low fat baking are more often than not still 'borderline' disasters that i don't dare post on my blog.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteYour oat buns do look nice [honest, :)], but they look more like cookies!
As for the baguette, I had a similar experience. I was so discouraged I haven't visited that one since!!
My husband had suggested I do a "failures" post, but I really didn't have the courage to do so and I also have the perfect excuse. No pictures. :D
Wow thats really very interesting post..we cant continue anything for a long if everything turns always good n prefect...ur beet n chocolate pudding tempts me a lot...oats buns seems very prefect too..
ReplyDeleteHaha, I love this post! I have disasters ALL the time (and post about most of them, I'll never forget the gluten free oat bread that was something like....chunky warm liquid glue!). Your disasters at least look good! Mine have a tendency to look like mess on a plate :P
ReplyDeleteI too have posted some of my disasters. If not anything they do serve as a cue for the second attempt! My oats bread came out very well - in fact they were soft. I hope you try them again!
ReplyDeleteBut then they do look so good Anudivya ... like the first two snaps and the last snap. Even the baguette snap looks great. We get to see the beauty ... you get to deal with the tough stuff. :-)
ReplyDeleteHey Cooking is all about Experimenting and Experiencing.... If you had not told about them, they look yummy in pics...
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this lovely post!!! Yeah, I know it sounds terribly sadistic...but I just have so many failures in the kitchen that it's kind of reassuring to read about yours and know that I'm not the only unlucky soul around. Happy New Year and hope you have a great year of blogging and creating super dishes :)
we all have them disasters, don't we?! Though yours look nowhere like disasters...I should have photographed my baking disasters, they were quite something :)You have a lovely lovely blog
ReplyDeleteLOL Divya, Nice post.. the pictures of your disasters are pretty deceptive :-)
ReplyDeleteYou must be bold to blog this..Makes me remind of my disasters..However, Bun looks perfect..
ReplyDeleteI think it's important for us foodbloggers to share our disasters... after all, we're human, and we all have our kitchen flops! Sometimes a recipe just doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have that oat flour bun recipe. It would be good to have a hamburger bun without actually cheating, even if it isn't perfect.
divya, all of them looks so perfect you know...heheh..had you not told, i won't have known they tasted bad...yaar you take good pictures..LOL!
ReplyDeleteI too had many such disasters, in cooking.. All of us have surely experienced such disasters That's really nice of u to write it down. The pictures look good enough to eat Divya! Bun looks perfect..asusual I love your Post &recepies!
ReplyDeleteI loved reading all the mishaps.
ReplyDeleteYeah we all have them don't we.
I made parota once, i mixed everything and then after 2 hours i realized i used the wrong flour, i used the flour to make sauce without lumps instead maida. So there was no more parota.
I add once 4 absp of faram masals by mistake, it should have been corriander powder :-)
Nice post.. loved reading through it.. reminded me of my own recipe disasters.. stuff that never saw the light of camera though. I would be sold if you said these recipes taste awesome cos the pics are really awesome. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteAnu, like Ann..I first thought 'disaster series',is an event connected with helping disaster struck people. Any way couldnt stop laughing reading them...it happens to all of us.
ReplyDeleteI should thank you for giving all us a change by not saying the same words again and again~ like "Yummy, Nice recipe, Wow etc".It is not that I do not like the amazing food but I would personally like to put up constructive comments or questions that I would like to be addressed.
If you want to get after me then I`d say WOW ! Divya. Nice Post.
Looks delicious! Kidding...but not all of them look bad. The baguettes could pass visually and I rather like the design of the oat buns, but they do look a little hard and heavy.
ReplyDeleteNever fear, happens to the best of us. I've burned about 5 pots of beans while trying to boil them. I don't have the patience to wait for it to boil and turn down the heat, so I usually go in the next room but often forget about them.
Disasters are frequent in my kitchen.. Your's are much better as all the pic are so nice an perfect Anu :) !!
ReplyDelete2day morg i had a disaster, instead of adding rice flour to roti mixture i added Urad flour, Biggest disaster ever Because of the same colour an texture. I was in a hurry an i had to make dosa instead of Rice roti !!
Ha you really made me laugh with your comments on these disaster recipes. Nice idea of adding a disaster post. Maybe I should too. I ve got a baguette, cookie, cake disaster :( Btw I tried your low fat oat cookies but my dough was still crumbly I couldn t roll them I ended up adding some egg to eat. Maybe I should try them again.
ReplyDeletethe oat buns look very pretty, though. you could've used them for a rock garden. :D
ReplyDeletehehhee :)sirichutu iruken still :)atleast u have the pictures of these great attempts :)v.good post...
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe that these recipes came out bad for you as most of the pics looks lovely!
ReplyDeleteIt happens! Even the dishes we make regularly might fail us sometime.
I never took a photo of the dish that i made bad :)
ha ha! The 'upma' was really funny! And the cookies looked just fine btw.Rather tempting! :)
ReplyDeleteshall go through your archives for some interesting recipes. You have a great thing going! :)
Oh all that stuff still LOOKS Yummy.he he he .......
ReplyDeleteU know what i thought of announcing an event where ppl should send in entries where this sort of unfortunate things had happened in their kitchens.But then i was not sure how many will be actually bold and courageous to come out in open with failed attempts(though everyone know that every one face this situation in kitchens)
and since i didnt wanted my first ever event to go damp squib ,i dropped the idea and came with sumthng else
Now when i am seeing ppl admitting their failures openly i feel like kicking myself for erasing my thoughts...ahh it wud had turned into such a novel event....wht say huh?
ha ha ha thats so funny anu... everyone sailing on the same boat... though they sounds disaster pic looks gr8.. let me say gr8 and beautiful disaster right?!....
ReplyDeletei guess every one goes through some disaster while cookin happened wid me mnytime,..;-)specially while experimentin,..;-)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting to read Anu. Yes, my experiments also has changed disaster. But you have changed the dish in a innovative way.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant and very funny! I thought I was the only loser who blogged about my kitchen disasters... am about to write about nightmare uttappam making attempt this morning.
ReplyDeletethe pictures look so nice...had u not told us about the outcome...i would have surely given comments like 'yummy, wow, looks good' etc...lolzz...its good to have such disasters...after all we learn from them...
ReplyDeletei have something for you in my blog....click here.
This is really funny, I love it! I don't often blog about bad recipes, but I should more often.
ReplyDeleteLol, I've had very many disasters and still keep having, but never do photograph them. You have photographed even the disasters so well..I actually like the oats bun pic a lot, its got a nice uniform design as though drawn on it.
ReplyDeleteAnu I am really laughing here.. no not at your disasters, most them actually look good, don't know how they tasted. I am thinking about mine.. mostly since I started baking & I follow every measurement in baking to the T with the changes which would not affect it. But this one time even after doing everything right i got these nut bars with dates & flour base so badly screwed up I did not even think of taking a picture. it came out from the oven & went to trash straigt. Till date I did not know what went wrong for I changed nothing:-) I am scared to even open that so good looking bake book now.
ReplyDeleteI'll remember to take pictures now. maybe we should have a disaster event.
This was fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing with us!! The pictures do make them look so good though - even if they did turn out as an opps!!
ReplyDeleteLol! Thanks for being so honest and sharing this! Its nice to know im not the only one that has disasters in the kitchen :)
ReplyDeletenow that's a refreshing post..infact i had decided long back if I ever host an event, it will be about cooking failures :D
ReplyDeleteiam not able to say these are disastered recipes.really..the pics look gorgeous!!as iam still an apprentice in cooking,i have made so many like this.but thrown out in bin!!i appreciate on guts:)
ReplyDeletedo chec out my 15 days old blog:will be very happy if u leave ur comments for improvments:)
Did u get my e-mail?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I applaud your not wanting to waste food. Baking is so tough for me, I never get it right. I love Indian food and really enjoy your recipes.
ReplyDelete--Marc
Ahem ahem..it makes me a bit relieved to know that you have such experiences to share too!!*wicked grin*..to be frank,lookswise,every dish looks perfect,except,of course the cookie..er the cookie dough.Oat buns look good enough and since you made use of it by using it in burgers and upma,makes it less disastrous.I had a similar experience today-made a choco chip muffin following Nigella lawson's recipe blindly and I dread to say that it was a total total flop.I'm still wondering what/where I went wrong!!
ReplyDeleteThey all actually look great! :) Loved your oats bun story and your perseverance & creativity to use them :)
ReplyDeleteA great post! I think all the pictures still look so good :D I think all cooks, good or bad, have had their share of disasters or how would they come up with something new. Now, I know why you are such a good cook and baker. You experiment quite a lot! :)
ReplyDeletewhatever the disaster!!!the pictures are really good..
ReplyDeleteGo girl! I love your never say die spirit. One rock bread scared me off baking forever, until I tried my hand at Pav. It turned out well...but still haven't dared venture into mega bread making yet!
ReplyDeleteFun post! I'm sure we've all had our share of kitchen disasters. It really takes courage to post them , though.
ReplyDeletewow! I love this post!!
ReplyDeleteLol! We've all been there and the distaster is always part of a future success because we learn new stuff from it.
ReplyDeleteOh god so you are human too?!! I thought you were not from this world, what with such perfect recipes, pictures and all :P
ReplyDeleteJokes apart, this was a very nice different post, had fun reading it. But you definitely have a finite list of misses, unlike me :P
Keep posting!!
Dearie,its award rush right now ? there is one more for you in my blog;
ReplyDeletehttp://thepassionatecookinme.blogspot.com/
Hi first time here..You have a nice blog.. You have the daringness to try those stuff. I would have thrown it long back..
ReplyDeleteDid you check the comments you got...well that explains tht we all are in the same boat dear ;)...to start with the bun really does look lovely..aren't they..comeon from the look of it...do you think any one of can say Oh no...they are so bad? Only you can say that dear ofcoz;)
ReplyDeleteI did understand the bat...don't tell me you use the buns as ball :p
Thanks for the Zucchini though...I have this bunch of fresh zucchini and I was thinking of trying something diff...now I rather use it just like tht ...
The kheer pic is beautiful...
Good one anu.I didn't go beyond sorghum flour in experimenting with weak flours,its always a disappointing result especially when one is used to cooking with gluten rich wheat flour.
ReplyDeleteWonder why the zucchini turned bitter,I often use it in baking quick breads.
the beet chocolate pudding reminded me of how I tried to create an exotic chocolate pudding with avocados,which tasted pathetic.
hahaha funny post I was actually laughing out loud at the stories especially imagining the rock baguette and oh yes i know what you mean by obsessing over the chocolate beet pudding - i was trying to make khandvi with rice flour imagine that! oooo i like your honesty!
ReplyDeleteYou could make panzanella salad with stale hard bread.
ReplyDeleteHey dear.. Wat a fun seeing these.. It happens to me too..!
ReplyDeletecome right behind me, pretty lady...coz, the luks just great..i loved the way u have fotographed the baguettes....
ReplyDelete