arabic desserts: June 2010

Cherry MilkShake

There is abundance of cherries in market and i have a lot in my kitchen too, so everything goes cherry. The addition of cherries is not just healthy and sweet, it also gives a lovely pink colour,which my girlie girls love to have. This is yet again a simple milkshake with cherries and banana, you can also replace cherries with berries, mango, peach, pineapple or even papaya.
Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients:
Cherries fresh or frozen- 1 cup( If using fresh remove the seeds inside)
Banana-1
Milk- 700 ml
Vanilla Ice cream- 1 scoop
Few crushed Ice cubes
Method:
Peel and chop the banana, add all the ingredients in a blender, blend it to smooth. Serve immediately in a tall glass with few more crushed ice cubes on top.

This recipe goes to Sizzling Summer Contest.

Cream Cheese Pastry

I had this mini pastry rolls in one of my friend's house, it was so buttery and soft with the addition of cream cheese and butter. Cream cheese gives a lovely texture to this pastry.

When i was making this pastry, i remembered my dad when he last visited us in UK. I made some pastry with spicy vegetable filling, he really enjoyed that, this was even better than that. Although i couldn't make it for him,
i'm sending this to I Love My Dad Event by Jay's Tasty Appetite.

Ingredients:
Plain flour-150 g
Butter- 50 g
Cream Cheese- 50 g
Icing Sugar-25 g
For the filling:
Carrot-1 medium sized finely grated
Dessicated coconut or freshly grated coconut-1/2 tbsp
Sugar-1 tbsp
Butter-2 tsp
Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
Method:
Sift the flour and icing sugar in a bowl, add the butter and cream cheese, knead together to make a soft dough. Cover with a cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Meanwhile prepare the filling by heating the butter in a non stick pan, add the finely grated carrot, coconut, sugar and cardamom powder. Keep stirring in medium to low heat until all the water is absorbed and carrot looks dry, switch off the flame. Let it cool down.

Take out the pastry, roll it out into circle of 15 cm diameter. Spread the filling on top of the circle, cut it into 12 equal triangles. Start rolling from the wider end and make it like a croissant shape. Sprinkle some sugar on top.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius. Bake it in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or lightly brown on top. Remove from the oven and transfer it to a cooling rack.
Variation:
The filling which i have used here is just for and example, you can make it very simple by just sprinkling some poppy seeds and sugar or you can spread some chocolate hazelnut spread or even jam.
To make it as savoury, cut down the sugar for pastry and for the filling use some herbs and cheese.
This recipe also goes to Versatile Kitchen Bake-Off event.
This recipe also goes to the event Vegetable marathon-Carrot hosted by PJ originally started by Silpa.

Feel Good Biscuits

High sugar and high salt are the cause of various diseases, although we can't completely cut down these two from our daily diet; trying to find out alternative is good.
In this recipe i have used a sugar syrup instead of sugar. One of my friend here in Germany suggested me this, thanks a lot to her. This sugar syrup is a concentrated juice of freshly harvested sugar, without the addition of any chemicals.This syrup has a flavour similar to that of date molasses or even black jaggery. To check about this product details please click here. The website is in German, so please translate to read more about this product.

With the addition of peanut butter, ragi and sugar syrup makes this as a feel good biscuit to make you feel having it any time of the day.
If you don't get this syrup you can also use date molasses, agave syrup, final option may be sugar.
This recipe goes to Versatile kitchen Bake-Off Event.
Makes about 20 biscuits
Ingredients:
Plain flour-100g
Ragi flour- 80 g
Egg yolk-1
Butter- 50 g
Smooth peanut butter- 50 g
Gold Saft Sugar Syrup-3 tbsp or Brown Sugar- 100 g
Bicarbonate of soda- 1/4 tsp
A splash of milk if required
Few blanched peanuts to decorate( optional)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius.
Sift the flour and soda in a bowl, add both the butter, mix well until it resembles like breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and sugar syrup, mix well to bring the dough together. If the dough looks still crumbly add 1 or 2 tbsp of milk and knead together to make it into a dough.
Roll the dough into a log shape, flatten it lightly at the top. Cut into 1 cm slices, place it in a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place a peanut on top of each biscuit, bake it in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly brown on sides. Leave it to cool in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Avocado Kulipaniyaram

Kulipaniyaram is a special and popular snack in Tamilnadu which is prepared in a special pan. There are various flavours in kulipaniyaram, it can be made sweet or savoury. In this recipe i have added the creamy avocado flavour to the kulipaniyaram which is accompanied with a spicy sun dried tomato chutney. Soft and crispy paniyaram with the mild avocado flavour along with a spicy chutney will make you a ideal tea time snack.
Serves 3 to 4
Makes about 20 paniyaram
Paniyaram:
Ingredients:
Avocado-1
Urad dhal- 1 cup
Raw rice - 1 tbsp
Onion- 1/2 chopped finely
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Salt- as required
Oil- for frying
Method:

Soak the urad dhal and rice for 2 hours, grind it into a smooth paste adding a little bit of water. Just before frying add the mashed avocado and mix well. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, when they start to splutter, add it to the batter and finely chopped, salt and mix well.

Heat a kulipaniyaram pan, add about a teaspoon of oil in each round, pour spoonfull of batter in the round. Keep the flame in medium to low, after 2 or 3 minutes, turn them around. To check if it's cooked, insert a skewer and check if it comes out clean. Take them out and repeat it with remaining batter.
If you don't have a kulipaniyaram pan don't worry, heat oil in a kadai and deep fry them like normal bhaji's or pakoras.
Serve warm with chutney.

Sundried Tomato Chutney
Ingredients:
Sundried Tomato-5 pieces
Grated fresh coconut- 1 tbsp
Walnuts-5 nuts
Garlic-2 cloves
Dried red chilli- 2
Curry leaves-5 leaves
Salt as required
Method:
Grind all the ingredients together in a blender with little water to a smooth paste, serve with paniyaram, dosa or idli's.
This recipe goes to Priya's Veggie/ Fruit A Month Event.

Savoury Carrot Cobbler

This cobbler is a recipe from one of my recipe book, it was actually a sweet cobbler, i just want to try it in savoury form with a touch of Indian spices. The addition of pulses with vegetables and a pie topping makes it healthy and filling.

Ingredients:
Red kidney beans- 1 can
Onion- 1/2 medium sized chopped finely
Capsicum- 1/2 chopped finely
Spring onion- 2 chopped finely
Carrots-2 medium sized chopped finely
Peas-1/2 cup
Potato-1 big sized chopped
Ginger garlic paste-1 tsp
Tomato paste-1 tbsp
Chilli powder-1 tsp
Coriander powder-1 tsp
Pav Bhaji masala-2 tsp( you can find it in asian grocery stores)
Oil- 1 tbsp
Salt as required
For the pie topping:
Plain flour- 180 g
Butter- 80 g
Egg-1
Carrot-1 medium sized grated finely
Milk-6 tbsp
Salt-1/4 tsp
Method:
Put the vegetables and kidney beans in a pressure cooker, add water just enough to cover it, pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistles. Let it cool down for a while, mash all the vegetables completely. Heat oil in a pan, add onions, ginger garlic paste and saute till onion becomes translucent. Add the capsicum and spring onion, tomato paste and finally the mashed vegetables.
Now add the spice powder and salt, leave it in simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Switch off the flame.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree celsius. To make the pie topping, mix together flour and butter until it looks like bread crumbs, add salt, finely grated carrot, lightly beaten egg, milk together to make a sticky dough, if it's not sticky add some more milk.
Take four ramekins or medium sized pie dish. Pour the gravy inside the ramekins, place dollops of the pie topping on top of the gravy, bake itin the preheated oven for 15 minutes or lightly brown on top.
Serve warm with fresh salad.
When you don't have pav buns these are great alternative with the easy to make and soft pie topping.
Note:
The gravy should not be too watery, it might make your pastry soggy.
This recipe goes to the event Vegetable Marathon hosted by PJ of Seduce your Taste Buds started by Anita's kitchen.

This recipe goes to the event My Legume Love Affair 24 hosted by Diana of A little Bit Of Spain originally started by Susan from Well seasoned cook.

Carrot and Banana Cake

After saying for a long time there is no sunshine, i think the days are getting warmer, bananas in my kitchen got overripe within 2 days, i have to quickly rescue them, so i freezed some of them for smoothies and the remaining overripe bananas i thought will be best for cakes or muffins. The idea was to make a simple cake, but i ended up in making icing with some scribblings on top like carrots, although it doesn't look like carrots:)

Ingredients:
Plain flour-250 g
Baking powder- 3/4 tsp
Bicarbonate of soda- 1 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon- 1/2 tsp
Grated nutmeg-1/2 tsp
Grated orange zest- 3/4 tsp
Brown Sugar- 220 g
Eggs-3 beaten lightly
Carrots- 3 medium sized( about 2 cups) coarsely grated
Bananas-2 mashed
Sunflower Oil-250 ml
Icing:
Cream cheese-90 g
Butter-90 g
Icing sugar- 150 g
Silvered almonds- to sprinkle on top(optional)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degree celsius. Grease and line a 23 cm loose bottom cake tin. Sift flour,soda, spices and sugar into a large bowl. Stir in the egg, carrot, banana and oil. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake it in the preheated oven for 11/4 hours, insert a skewer inside the cake and if comes out clean, the cake is cooked.
Take it out from the oven, cool the cake in the tin. Meanwhile make the icing, beat the cream cheese and butter with a electric beater as white as possible, gradually add the icing sugar and mix it until smooth.
Spread the icing on top of the cake, sprinkle with some silvered almonds.
This recipe goes to the event Vegetable Marathon hosted by PJ originally started by Silpa of Anita's Kitchen.

Summer Fruit Drink

With the addition of all healthy summer fruits with freshly squeezed orange juice , makes it very light and keep you satisfied. One 250 ml glass of juice contains 2 of your 5 a day.

Serves 3 to 4
Ingredients:
Freshly squeezed orange juice- 1 litre
Mixed frozen summer fruits( berries, peach, pineapple, kiwi, mango etc)-1 cup
Method:
Blend together all the ingredients in a blender. Pour it in a tall serving glass and serve with some crushed ice cubes.

Cherry Porridge Ice cream

Recently i have started replacing honey for sugar, which i find it very good and i don't have the guilt feeling (of using excess sugar) at the back of my mind. This is yet again another recipe which i tried without no sugar and hundred percent honey.
The creaminess of porridge marries well with the sour cherry and sweet honey. Honey is specifically referred as a key source of treatment in the Islamic Holy text - The Quran, and also in the narrations of The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Honey is known to contain the therapeutic contents sugars, vitamins, anti-microbials, among other things.

Ingredients:
Coconut milk-800 ml
Rolled oats-3 tbsp
Honey- 150 ml
Egg yolks-3
Stonned fresh cherries- 1 cup
Vanilla extract- 2 tsp
Fresh Strawberries- 5 to 6
Extra fresh cherries- about half cup
Cornflour-1 tsp
Method:
Beat the egg yolks and cornflour together until pale and creamy. Heat the coconut milk along with oats until gets soft, add the honey and extract stir well, slowly pour the milk mixture into the egg mixture whisking continously. Return the mixture to the pan again, keep stirring in medium to low heat until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Switch off the flame, let it cool down completely.
Puree the 1 cup of fresh cherries, mix it with half off the milk mixture. Churn the cherry mixture and milk mixture separately in a ice cream machine according to your machine instructions. Put them in two separate container and freeze them for about 1 to 2 hours.
Freeze a deep bottomed glass bowl 5 to 6 hours before making the ice cream, this step is very important or icecream will start to melt when you are layering.

Take out both the mixtures from the freezer and start layering. Line the inner side of the bowl with a cling film. Carefully spoon the cherry mixture around the sides and bottom of the bowl as shown in the picture, leaving the middle part hollow( save a small amount of cherry mixture for the topping), cover with a cling film and freeze again for 1/2 an hour.
Fold in the fresh cherries and strawberries into the milk mixture. Remove the bowl from the freezer, spoon the mixture till the rim. Now carefully spoon the remaining cherry mixture on top of it and cover it completely with the cherry mixture. Cover the bowl tightly with cling film and freeze for another 2 to 3 hours.
Before serving remove the bowl from the freezer, pull the cling film on the sides, invert it in a serving plate, top it with more pureed cherries and fresh fruits( optional). Run a knife in warm water, carefully slice the ice cream like wedges serve with more fresh fruits.
Note:
I have used here honey, if you are not comfortable with the flavour of honey, replace it with 200 g of sugar.

This recipe goes to the event Yasmeen Health Nut Challenge ' I Scream For Ice cream'.

This recipe also goes to the event Colouring your Kids Delight by Spice your Life.

Chilli Chicken

This chicken recipe is one of my favourite which my mom used to prepare. It's also my dad's favourite. My mom used to make these for weekends, it's just a simple indochinese style recipe.
My dad used to like these type of recipes with green pepper, mushroom or paneer. Although he is thousands of miles away from me, i'm sure he'll feel happy by seeing this post .
This recipe goes to the event I Love My Dad Event by Tasty Appetite.

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken- 1/2 kg
Ginger Garlic Paste- 2 tsp
Chilli powder-1/2 tsp
Black pepper powder- 1 tsp
White pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
Garam masala-1/4 tsp
Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp
Soy sauce- 2 tsp
Tomato ketchup- 2 tsp
Onion-1 finely sliced
Green pepper- 1/2 chopped
Red pepper- 1/2 chopped
Yellow pepper- 1/2 chopped
Spring onion-3 chopped
Cornstarch-1 tbsp
Salt as required
Oil-2 tbsp
Method:
Wash and cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Marinate the chicken in lemon juice, ginger garlic paste, chilli powder, salt and garam masala half an hour before making. Heat the 1 tbsp of oil in a kadai or nonstick pan, add all the chicken pieces, keep the flame in medium to low. Keep stirring the chicken without sticking to the bottom, cook the chicken without covering the pan, once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan, to the same pan add the remaining oil, sliced onion and fry it till it turns lightly brown. add all the pepper and stir fry it for 2 minutes, then add all the chicken pieces, white and blackpepper powder, soy sauce and ketchup, stir well so that the chicken gets coated in the masala completely.
Finally add 1 tbsp of cornstarch and simmer till it becomes saucy, switch off the flame.
Serve the chicken warm with chappathi's or parathas. It also goes well with rice flour roti's.

Rind Fussball Bread

Oooh! What an unusual football in the ground, nooooo ...... that's our bread last night.( the picture is just for fun), Football is referred to as fussball in German. I have used here watermelon rind, so that's where the name comes from Rind Fussball Bread.
Watermelon contains lots of vitaminC , 92 percent of watermelon contains water by weight. Mostly we used to have only the red part of watermelon, but the inner white part and the rind contains lots of hidden nutrients, to read more about watermelon click here.
The pattern of football is just for fun, since the world cup is going on, you can also just bake the bread without these patterns.

Ingredients:
White bread flour-300 g
Dried yeast- 11/2 tsp
Salt-1/2 tsp
Sugar-1 tsp
Watermelon rind- 1 cup chopped
Water- about 120 ml
Olive oil-1 tsp
For the topping( optional):
.Sesame seeds- 1 tbsp
Nigella seeds-1/2 tbsp
Plain flour- 50 g
Butter- 25 g
Method:
Take the inner part of water melon along with the skin, wash well, puree it with the amount of water suggested in the ingredients. Boil the puree in a pan, until it's just hot. Combine all the dough ingredients in a large bowl, pour the warm puree and knead together to make a soft dough, cover with a cling film and leave it in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
When the dough has risen punch the air back, roll it out into a circle, cover it and leave it in a warm place for another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Take the rolled out dough, to make a football pattern, draw a pentagon in the middle and around the pentagon, draw hexagon, repeat this, sprinkle the pentagon with nigella seeds and hexagon with sesame seeds.
To make the layers more visible, mix the butter and flour together until it resembles like bread crumbs, then add just enough water to make it like a paste, fill the paste in a piping bag and pipe it in the layers.
Bake the bread in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Serving Suggestion:
Serve the bread while it is still warm with salad and curries or serve slices of bread with salad, meat and cheese like a burger or sandwich.

This recipe goes to the event Soccer Mania by Niloufer of Kitchen Samraj, it also goes to the event Nithu Bala's Best Out Of Waste

This recipe also goes to the event Bread Mania by Chaitra.
Note:.
Please note that the first picture in this post is no way to offend foods.

Fruit and Nut Tea Ring

These fruit and nut tea ring are perfect with tea, better than cakes. This sweet ring bread filled with fruit and nut keeps you satisfied for a longer time.

Ingredients:
Dough:
White bread flour-225 g
Brown sugar-25 g
Creamy Peanut Butter-25 g
Dried Yeast-1 tsp
Salt-1/2 tsp
Egg-1
Luke warm milk-90 ml
For the filling:
Creamy Peanut Butter- 1 tbsp
Brown Sugar- 1 tbsp
Ground cinnamon-1/2 tsp
Dried cranberries-1 tbsp
Flaked almonds- 1 tbsp
Milk for brushing
For the decoration:
Icing Sugar- 3 tbsp
Orange juice-1 tbsp
Dried cranberries, walnuts, flaked almonds to sprinkle on top
Method:
Combine all the dough ingredients together to make a smooth dough. Place it in a clean bowl, cover it with a cling film and leave it in a warm place to rise double in size for about 1 to 2 hours.

When the dough has risen, take the dough, punch the air back, roll it out into rectangle of 30/ 45 cm. Spread the peanut butter over the dough, sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon, on top of it sprinkle with dried fruits and nut, roll it like a swiss roll. Join the two edges together to make it like a ring, brush the ends with milk.
Using a scissors , snip through the circle leaving 1/2 inch interval, each time cutting two third of the way through the dough. Twist the section so they start to fall sideways.
Cover the ring with lightly oiled cling film and leave it in a warm place for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius and bake the ring for 20 to 25 minutes or brown on top. Turn it out to a wire rack to cool.
Mix the icing sugar with orange juice and drizzle over the bread while it's still warm. Sprinkle with dried cranberries and nuts on top.
Note:
I have used here peanut butter for fat, you can replace it with normal butter or olive oil.

This recipe goes to the event Bread Baking Day 31, it's the third anniversary for the bread baking day , there is also some give away going on , to check out the details click here.

Melberry Cooler

Melberry is not a new fruit, i just made it short for watermelon and strawberry. Here we have to say it's summer, summer so that feel like summer but sunshine very rarely , yet we started getting all summer fruits in markets. Watermelon is the best summer cooler than any other fruits, it's full of water packed with nutrients.
Coming to the recipe.

Serves 2 large glasses
Ingredients:
Watermelon- 2 cups chopped without skin and seeds
Strawberry- about 8, stalks removed, washed and chopped
Few crushed ice cubes
Method:
Combine all the ingredients together in a blender and whizz it up, pour it in tall glasses and serve with extra ice cubes if required.

Honey Chocolate Fudge

This is my little treasure box filled with much healthier version of fudge to satisfy the cravings of my chocoholic daughter.
Cocoa by itself without any sugar is rich in iron, protein and dietery fibre, which cannot be found in sugar high chocolates. Who would say no to the chocolate fudge which is been flavoured with cocoa, peanut butter and sweetened with honey without any compromise to the taste, definitely not me. Although the supermarket honey may not be 100 percent pure, it is definitely much better than the refined sugar.

I'm so much releived that i can give a piece of this fudge to my daughter without any guilt.
Ingredients:
Honey-3/4 cup
Peanut butter-1/4 cup
Milk powder-1 cup
Cocoa powder- 2 tbsp
Vanilla extract- a few drops
Water-3 tbsp
Method:
Combine the water and honey in a non stick deep pan and bring to boil in medium to low heat. Keep stirring so that the honey doesn't gets burned at the bottom, boil it for about 5 minutes until syrupy. Dip your hands in cold water and touch the honey between your two fingers, it should stick and form like a thread, at this immediately remove from the flame, beat in the butter until it's melted, add the extract, sift the milk powder and cocoa and beat siftly without any lumps. It should come together like a very thick batter. At this pour it in a greased and lined tray, or pour it in a silicon mould. You can also roll between your palms like truffles and roll it in dessicated coconut or nuts.
Leave it cool for 1 to 2 hours and cut into squares from the tray or remove from the silicon mould.
Note:
Correct measurement and the right consistency of the syrup is very important for this fudge.

Springonion and Chicken Tray bread

This is almost like a pizza without any tomato sauce at the bottom. This simple bread can be served with just a simple salad. I have made here with chicken, for vegetarian version you can skip the chicken but for the sauce on top, you have to use eggs.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
White bread flour-225 g
Olive oil-1/2 tbsp
Warm water-90 ml
Egg-1
Salt-1 tsp
Dried yeast-1 tsp
For the filling:
Spring onion-3 chopped
Onion-1/2 medium sized chopped
Chicken- 1 tbsp( cooked and shredded into pieces)
Sunflower oil-1/2 tbsp
Sour cream-140 ml
Milk- 70 ml
Eggs- 2 lightly beaten
Fresh basil leaves- 1 tbsp chopped
Mixed pepper- 2 tbsp chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
First prepare the dough, by mixing the dough ingredients together in a large bowl, making it into a smooth dough. Place the dough in a clean, oiled bowl and cover it with a cling film, leave it in a warm place to double in size.
Once the dough has risen, knock the air back and roll it out into a rectangle to fit a square tin of 23 cm.

Prepare the filling by beating the sour cream , milk, eggs, basil leaves, salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a pan, add spring onion and onion, saute for to 3 minutes in medium heat until the onion becomes translucent.
Preheat the oven to 190 degree celsius. Spread the onion mixture on top the rolled out dough, sprinkle with chicken and mixed pepper, finally pour the sour cream and egg mixture on top of it. Bake it in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the filling is set and browned around the corners of the bread.
Serve the bread hot or warm with salad.

This recipe goes to the event Healing Food- Onions hosted by Priya's Easy and Tasty recipes originally started by Siri of Siri's corner.

Simple side salad

This is a very simple, easy to make and normal salad which almost everybody will make, we use to have this everyday with roti's and curries.

Ingredients:
Lettuce-1 cup chopped
Carrot-1 medium sized grated
Tomato-1 chopped
Cucumber-1/2 a medium sized cucumber sliced
You can also add other vegetables like canned sweet corn, raddish, bean sprouts, canned chickpeas or even feta cheese
For the dressing:
Olive oil-2 tsp
Dried mint-1/2 tsp
Garlic-1 clove grated
Honey-1 tsp
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method:
Mix all the dressing ingredients together, beat well with a fork. Mix all the vegetables in a large bowl, just before serving, add the dressing and toss it up well. Goes well with bread and curries.

Neapolitan

The mixed flavours starting from vanilla, passing through the chocolate banana mixed with berries is a real treat.

Makes 300 ml

Ingredients:
Strawberries or mixed berries-75 g
Banana-1/2 small
Chocolate ice cream-2 scoops
Vanilla ice cream-2 scoops
Vanilla extract- a few drops
Semi skimmed milk-125 ml
Milk powder-1 tbsp
Fresh cherries to decorate on top
Method:
Wash the strawberries, chop into small pieces. Put in a blender and whizz until smooth and thick, pour it in a glass and set aside. Peel and roughly chop the banana and put it in a clean blender, add the chocolate ice cream and blend until smooth and thick. Carefully spoon over the strawberry puree.
In a clean blender, blend the vanilla ice cream with the vanilla extract, the milk and milk powder and then carefully spoon over the chocolate layer. Keep some fresh cherries on top, serve immediately.

Vanilla Kisses

These little melt in the mouth delights were made for our special guests but unfortunately we couldn't serve them so we enjoyed by ourselves.
Recipe adapted from the book The Australian Women's Weekly.

Ingredients:
Plain flour-85 g
Butter-125 g
Cornflour-100 g
Custard powder-30 g
Caster sugar-110 g
Baking powder-1/4 tsp
Egg-1
Cream
Butter-60 g softened
Icing sugar-120 g
Vanilla extract-1/2 tsp
Milk-2 tsp
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 degree celsius. Grease two oven trays and line with baking paper.
Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted dry ingredients in two batches. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with 1 cm flutted tube. Pipe 3cm rosettes about 3cm apart on trays. Make sure you leave enough space as the cookies spread when they are cooking. Bake biscuits for about 10 minutes. Cool on tray.
Meanwhile make the cream beat butter and extract in a small electric bowl with electric mixer until as white as possible; gradually beat in the sifted icing sugar and milk in two batches.
Sandwich the biscuits with the cream in the middle.
This recipe goes to the event Baking from the book. hosted by Veggie Platter started by Champa.

Happy moments with some awards

Whenever i see some comments it makes me feel so happy, i love reading each single comment. I have to thank my blogger friends for constantly encouraging me and making me feel good by their kind words.

This is one of the happy moments which makes me jump up to the sky. Suja of Kitchen Corner has passed me these two awards

Thank you so much Suja for remembering me and kindly passing me these awards, that's so sweet of you. To check out all her mouthwatering recipes click here.

Deepa of Hamaree Rasoi has also passed me two awards. That's so sweet of you Deepa for remembering me and passing these awards, thank you so much , it means a lot to me. To check out all her creative, mouthwatering recipes click here.

Ridge Gourd Peel Dosai

After marriage i went to a grocery shop with my husband, he picked up ridge gourd and said we'll buy this one, i asked him what vegetable is this, how should we cook it, funny isn't it :-)
Before getting married i know only how to eat, not how to cook. Now somehow i manage to make something with ridge gourd, offcourse without his help.
In those days women never waste any edible part of fruit or vegetable, either they use it along with the curry or save it for later use. Ridge gourd is one of the vegetable which peels are used to make chutneys, in this recipe i used this peel for my dosai along with mung beans.
Ingredients:
Green Mung beans-11/2 cups.
Raw rice- 1 tbsp
Urad dhal-1 tbsp
Onion- 1 small sized( chopped)
Ginger-1/4 inch piece(grated)
Green chilli- 2( chopped)
Ridge gourd peels- 2 medium sized
Oil- to grease the pan
Method:
Soak the green mung beans in water for more than 12 hours. Soak the urad dhal and rice for 2 to 3 hours. Peel the ridge gourd, wash well and chop them into small pieces.
Grind the mung beans alone in a blender until it's a bit coarse paste , then add urad dhal and rice with little water and grind it again. Finally add the peels, onions, ginger and green chilli grind it once again until the peel is ground completely. Pour it in a large bowl, add salt and stir well.
This batter doesn't need to ferment so you can use it immediately. Heat a non stick pan, grease it lightly with oil, pour a laddle full of batter, swirl it with round tabelspoon in circular form, like how you make normal dosai, pour a little bit of oil along the edges of the dosai. When it is lightly brown on bottom, turn the other way round and cook for further 2 minutes.
Serve the dosai along with sambar, tomato chutney, coconut chutney or with my mixed nut chutney and podi.
Note:
This batter can also be used for kulipaniyaram.

This recipe goes to the event Nithu Bala's Best Out Of Waste.