Fig Rolls

I wonder at what auspicious time I wrote my last post. Since the very next day, the winter in Frankfurt is being severe. It snows and it is unbelievably and unbearably cold. Sometimes there is no snowfall, the sun shines, yet it is unbelievably and unbearably cold. I wear several layers of clothing, the heating is on the upper high, yet it is unbelievably and unbearably cold.

Tja, with such low temperatures ranging around -6 C to -14 C even during the days, what can one expect? I have heard, the lakes in Frankfurt parks have frozen and people are playing, skating, etc on the frozen lake. I'm yet to see that during the weekend. I hope the river (River Main, a tributary of Rhine flows through Frankfurt) doesn't freeze. My colleagues optimistically add, "It is not that bad yet, you know!!". However, I see huge ice blocks floating on the river and I'm just scared. :(

These are the times, I hate going out or doing anything at all. I just want to cuddle up in the bed and sleep all the time. It takes me extra will power to get out of the bed, get ready and go to work. The thing I hate the most is the 5 minutes I wait for the bus, shivering in the cold, wiping my nose every now and then. Whatever it is, once I get to office, sitting at my place with a cup of warm tea and enjoying the snow fall outside the window does not fail to amuse me. :)

Fine, enough of my blabbering and over to the post. This is another entry to the most awaited Blog Hop Wednesdays. This time, I got to visit Vaishali's Ribbons to Pastas, an excellent blog with a variety of finger licking goodies to try out. I very much wanted to try a dish from her Sindhi cuisine, which is something very new to me. But, due to time constraints, I rather picked up a simple dish. This is an easy to prepare sweet/snack, yet very very nutritious. I hope you would remember my Dry Fruits Burfi, that I prepared a few days back. There were some dried figs left over and with these Fig Rolls, I found the perfect use for them.

I followed the original recipe almost exactly, however I would provide it here. For step by step instructions, please refer the original recipe.

Preparation Time: 15 mins
Makes: around 15 pieces

Ingredients:
Dried Figs: 200g
Dates: 5, chopped
Mixed nuts: 1 cup (pistachios, chopped almonds, hazelnuts, cashews, etc)
Ghee or Butter: 1 Tbsp

Method:
Cook the figs with very little water in a microwave for about 4 minutes. Blend the figs in a blender. Heat ghee in a heavy bottom pan. Add the blended figs to the pan and roast for a few minutes. Take off the flame and let it cool. Now add the chopped nuts and dates to the fig and mix well.

Roll the mixture into logs and cover it with a fresh foil. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Just before serving, take the logs out. Cut them into pieces and serve as a snack.

Verdict:
The fig rolls were very tasty and packed with nutrients. We both really loved them and I would be making them again when I buy figs next time. The choice of nuts is entirely yours and you can make them with those available at hand. I have garnished them with powdered hazel nuts. Another variation would be to roll them as small balls instead of logs. And then again, roll them over coconut rasps. Oh! I just love this idea!! Thanks to Vaishali for the lovely recipe.

Sending this to Blog Hop Wednesdays - Week 14, hosted by Radhika of Tickling Palates and to Anyone Can Cook Series 41 of Taste of Pearl City.

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Dry Fruits Burfi

It is almost a month since my last post. A big sorry to all my dear readers!! I was so caught up with my work. I wonder how critical situations come up exclusively at the year end. However, I'm happy that I could fix them all to the satisfaction of the customers and I'm eagerly waiting for the new year now. This kept me completely away from the Blogosphere. I neither looked up my own space nor visited other blogs too. Hopefully, the new year permits me more time for my hobby :)

Another Blog Hop series today, an exciting event hosted by Radhika of Tickling Palates. This time I got the opportunity to visit Nirmala's Kitchen. She hosts a variety of authentic Indian recipes in her blog and as usual, had a little confusion what to try. Recently, during one of my conversations with my German colleague, I was telling him that sweets make an integral part of any festival or special occasion in India. He said, "Oh! Do you make sweets too? I thought, Indian cuisine is mostly with spices and curries". Then, I explained him the importance of sweets in India and also gave him a brief intro to some renowned sweets like Gulab Jamun, Rabri, Jilebi, etc.

After all these, I got a craving for our Indian sweets. If I say, I have a sweet tooth, it would be an understatement. I think, all I have are sweet teeth :) And, look at this, Nirmala has a variety of sweet dishes to offer. And I selected this Dry Fruits Burfi. It was a little different and packed with healthy dry fruits and hence gave a try. The original recipe can be found here. I made some small changes and hence giving you my version too.

Preparation Time: 40 mins
Makes: 20 - 24 squares

Ingredients:
Mawa - 1 cup
Powdered Almond - 1/2 cup
Powdered Cashews - 1/2 cup
Dried figs - 1/4 cup, finely chopped
Dates - 1/4 cup, finely chopped
Pistachios - 1 Tbsp, finely chopped
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups (or less)
Water -1cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Ghee - 2 tsps

Method:
In a heavy bottomed large pan, heat a teaspoon of ghee. Roast the chopped figs, dates and pistachios lightly. Then, add the powdered almond, cashews and mawa. Mix well and roast gently. When it gets a little brown and emanates fine aroma, remove from heat and save aside.

In the same pan, heat water and sugar to prepare the sugar syrup. When the syrup attains one string consistency, add the cardamom and the mawa mixture. Mix well and cook in medium heat till it leaves the sides of the pan and gets into one big ball.

Grease a square tin with the rest of the ghee and pour the hot mass into it. Spread and let it cool for some time. Cut into squares and serve.

Verdict:
We found the Burfi extraordinarily tasty and different from the usual Besan ones. It is packed with healthy ingredients and rich with dried fruits. I'm sure, they would definitely delight kids and adults alike. However,  I used less sugar than mentioned in the original recipe and yet it was a little too sweet. May be the added dates brought in those extra sweetness. So, if you want it just delectable, it is advisable to reduce the amount of sugar to be used.

I would definitely be making these Burfis again. May be try it with jaggery too. Thanks Nirmala for this sweet power packed snacks. Sending this as an entry to Blog Hop Week 12.

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Dulce de Leche Brownies

I can't believe it is time again for the next Blog Hop round. Time - it flies by incredibly fast. Not just initiating the event, Radhika of Tickling Palates does a remarkable job by sending remainder mails to all the participants just in time. This is of immense help to someone like me, who always run after things at the last minute. There by, here is my update for today's Blog Hop Wednesday.

This time, I got to follow Divya's EasyCooking. She is a very established blogger and an experienced cook, blogging since 2008. That is, more than three and a half years!! It is really inspirational to see such bloggers. I suppose her passion towards cooking is what drives her. Keep going Diyva!

Initially, it was a little confusing what to try from the mighty number of more than 480 posts. But then, the situation was so, that I could easily pick out one. We were invited to a friends' house on Saturday, as their parents have come over to visit them here in Germany. So, I wanted to bake something for them and take along. Thus, I confined my search to baking. Thanks to her excellent recipe index, I got what I was looking for.

I selected this absolutely yummy-licious brownies. I had some Argentinean Dulce de Leche, sitting in my fridge and this looked like an excellent opportunity to put it into good use. Ever since I got to know about Dulce de Leche, I'm in love for that. In Frankfurt, it was not a problem to find an Argentinean shop where you get ready made yet authentic Dulce de Leche and you don't have to make the boiling condensed milk experiments and all. I've already baked some muffins with them which were gorgeous. This time, these pretty Dulce de Leche Brownies caught my attention and I gave a try.

I was contemplating for quite some time what to substitute for the eggs in this recipe. Silken Tofu had been a good substitute many a times. Unfortunately, I didn't have it at hand. I was not sure what else would work best without compromising the taste and texture. Time was running and I had to get them ready before evening. After much thought, I gave up and just used eggs. In fact, I was baking for friends and I'm more than happy if they like it [though I can't taste it :( ].

The original recipe can be found here. I followed all the measurements exactly as mentioned, except adding Dulce de Leche a bit more generously. The spreading of DDL on the brownie batter was real fun. I waited an anxious 30 minutes. The result was visibly wonderful. I just let it cool completely, took few snaps quickly and off to the party.

The verdict from the friends was that it tasted absolutely wonderful. My husband was glad to describe more precisely. He found that the brownies tasted a little bit on the bitter side, yet very very tasty to his palates. He found little islands of soft DDL in the brownies which added more to the taste, along with the crunchy nuts in between. The texture was soft and just like he would expect a brownie to be. What more to say?!

I just can't wait for the day when I would try an eggless version of these beauties. Waiting to secure the next pack of DDL again. Ya ya, it makes me get indulged!! But, who wouldn't want to? As a small note, I would like to add that as Divya suggests, if you have the time I mean, refrigerate them overnight and warm a little before serving. You would definitely love them!! Sending this to Blog Hop Wednesday IV.

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Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

It is again a long time I have been away from blogging world. Reasons are many. As usual, busy work schedule was one among them. My system was infected with a Trojan for some days. Then again, other things kept me busy even during the long weekends. Little time was left to cooking and blogging :-( Anyways, I have this post sitting in my draft for sometime. So, I thought I must push it a little to get it posted somehow today.

During one of the long weekends we were blessed with in June, we went to visit one of our friends in a nearby town. It had been quite a long time we saw each other and hence had a lot to catch up with.

After a sumptuous meal and a hearty chit chat at her home, we all set out for Strawberry picking in the afternoon. It was a different experience altogether. For those who don't know what this means, let me explain. This is the season for Strawberries here. Farmers who cultivate strawberries open their farms for the public. We can go into the farm, pluck strawberries ourselves and at the end, weigh them and pay. It was my first time on such an expedition and it was totally fun. Taking a basket, walking through the field, searching for the ripe ones, tasting one or two in the meantime and filling our baskets. It was also fun to watch little kids there with their own cute little buckets. Atlast, I was amazed by the cheaper prices for those fresh ones, compared to buying from supermarkets.

Ok now, a load full of Strawberries. What do I do with them? I hate wasting food in any form. But, being poorly organized I am, it sometimes happens that I leave things unattended to in my fridge and end up wasting them. My husband is very strict about this and gets upset with me whenever I waste food. This time, I took a resolution to completely use them. And I am glad it so happened :-)

I prepared the following more than once and we both enjoyed them in full - Strawberry milk shake, Strawberry Breakfast Smoothie from Priya's Easy and Tasty Recipes and Strawberry Shrikhand from Jabeen's Corner.

Still, I wanted to bake something with the rest of them. My intention first was to make a good cake. But, rather settled for cookies, since the flour I bought last time is well suited for cookies. After some intensive search, I landed upon this post - Strawberry Shortcake Cookies. It attracted me at the very first sight and had a beautiful name too. Cookies with fresh fruit pieces to bite upon - sounded exciting!! This is my first experience with a short cake and I was quite anxious too.

The result was absolutely fabulous. Is it the butter? Or the sugar or the cream which gave them such a taste? No no!! It is definitely those wonderful little red ones that made these cookies so lovely and yummy. They just melted in our mouths. I and my husband lost count of how many went in at one shot.

I followed the original recipe as it is. It yielded me nearly 50 cookies like the ones you see in the picture. I prepared them in batches. I left the last batch to bake for a little more time. The result was even more crunchier. I was not sure how long these cookies would hold with fresh fruits in it as it is almost like summer here. So, we finished them all up in 2-3 days. I would definitely bake these again, the next time I get such fresh berries and may be, take them to my office. Dear readers, do give a try!! You would just love it!!

I'm sending this post as an entry to aipi's US Masala - Bookmarked Recipes. See you all next time soon with a Travel post :-)

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Coconut-Blueberry Muffins

It is after coming to Germany, that I absolutely developed an interest towards baking. There are many reasons behind how and why I developed this interest. But, the main one is my own self-pity. Do you want to know why?? Here is my sad story. Those who do not want to read through, just skip the next two paragraphs.

Tortoise coil rolls!! Flashback.

When I was a child, I was fond of eggs. I used to enjoy this healthy food in every form - as omelette, boiled eggs, bull's eye, scrambled eggs, egg curry, cakes, macarons, etc, etc.... As I grew up, sometimes, after meals, I had a strange kind of stomach pain. After about one and half years of treatment for ulcers, etc. it didn't subside and I opted for my own judgement. Based on trial and error, I finally found out that I had developed an allergy to eggs!! It is still a mystery to me, how I got this allergy. But then, after all, I lived in India and I absolutely had no worries. I had a thousand options other than eggs and this allergy was never a pressing problem for me.

Tortoise coil rolls again!! Flashback ends.

It is me now, landed in Germany. I was safe for some days, as long as I remained at home. When I went out and had to eat in restaurants or in office canteen, only then, I realised - it is not just a problem, but a curse :-( When I eat out, mostly I opt for vegetarian food, and you know what? Every pasta has egg, Gnocchi has eggs, fried cheese(like cutlets) has eggs... Ooopss.. I was frustrated!! In office canteen, only salad!! Apart from that, as I go shopping, I see an array of cakes, sweets, struedel and lots of other inviting items, which I never saw in India. I could only drool on seeing them and taste them in my imagination. I realised, before I get into any kind of depression, I must take some initiative.

This is how I started searching in the internet for cakes, that could be made without eggs. I must admit, I was astonished to find a lot of good recipes. I had a good working oven, and thus started trying my hands. Of course, I get some bad results now and then, but they dont stop me from trying further. After all, my husband gladly agrees to be subjected to my experiments :-) I've made a few cakes from Madhuram's egglesscooking and there, she provides a lot of tips for suitable egg substitutes in cakes and muffins.

I'm going to present here, one muffin recipe, which I adapted from Women's Weekly - Cooking Class Cakes. It was quite simple and called for just one egg. So, I replaced the egg with Flax Seed powder. I had no raspberries, so used blueberries instead. The result was pretty good and we were satisfied. Here it goes...

Ingredients:
Self raising flour - 2 1/2 cups
Butter - 90 g
Sugar - 1 cup
Buttermilk - 1 1/4 cups
Dessicated coconut - 1/3 cup
Frozen blueberries - 150g
Flax seed powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Take the flour in a large bowl. Chop the butter and gently fold into the flour. Add sugar, buttermilk and dessicated coconut to the flour.

Whisk the flax seed with about 1/4 cup of water and add to the flour mix. Now, add the blueberries and gently fold until just combined.

Preheat the oven to about 180C. Grease a 12 hole muffin tray with butter and arrange the muffin cups on them. Divide the mixture into the cups. Bake for about 20 minutes. Check if it is done. Stand for a few minutes and turn on a wire rack to cool.

It makes about 12 muffins. For flax seed powder ratio, please refer EgglessCooking - Egg substitutes. I followed exactly how it was mentioned there.
I'm sending this post as an entry to Priya's Now Serving : BEST ‘WESTERN’ DESSERT EVENT and to US Masala's Bookmarked Recipes event

 

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Printen

It's quite some time since my last post. I've been a little tied up with my job. A few weeks back, we bought some things in a Bio (Organic Food) Shop and while shopping I found a tiny booklet with a few Christmas recipes and was excited. I have gained confidence with baking, ever since I tried my hands on it and almost 80% of my baking experiences were a success. With that confidence, this time I wanted to try a cookies recipe.

Printen - They are a kind of cookies, famously called the Aachener Printen. Those authentic ones hail from a place called Aachen. I've never tasted them and neither do I know how those are prepared. I just followed the recipe given in that booklet. It was very easy to make and tasted absolutely wonderful. Here, you go...

Preparation Time: 15 Min
Baking Time: 12 Min

You need:

Plain flour – 250g
Soft Butter – 100g
Sugar – 50g
Honey – 150g
Zest of orange – 1 tsp
Baking powder – 2 tsp
Salt – a pinch
Cardamom – ½ tsp
Almonds – 100g
Fruit spread from Apricot

Method:

Blend sugar, butter and honey well to a fluffy mixture. To this, add the flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt and knead to dough. Cover this dough with a thin fresh foil and refrigerate for about half an hour.

Take the dough out and roll to about 5mm thickness. Now, cut into rectangular pieces. Place a baking sheet on a slightly buttered baking tray. Arrange the pieces on the baking sheet, with some distance between each other.

Now, slightly paint the pieces with the fruit spread on the top, using a baking brush. Press an almond into the centre of each piece.

Preheat the oven to 175C and bake the pieces for about 12 mins.

Note:

• The actual recipe called for 75g sugar. We found it a bit too sweet for cookies. So, I have reduced the amount of sugar to 50g in the recipe above.
• The actual recipe called for gingerbread spice. I have replaced it with cardamom.
  

My Printen were done exactly on the 12th minute, when they were beautifully brown gold in colour. The fruit spread coating and the orange zest gave a fabulous taste to the cookies. I was overwhelmed with the success.

I stored them in an air-tight container and for the next few days, after coming home from office and before cooking, they helped me keep my hunger away for sometime :-)

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Paruppu Paayasam

It is a festive time in India. Diwali and Bakrid on their way… But, here in Germany, winter is on the start. It is mid-autumn here and the temperature drops everyday. The trees shed their leaves off rapidly and prepare to get themselves into their dormancy. The sky is gloomy and so is the mood too sometimes. This makes me miss my own country more. Nevertheless, just the thought of Diwali in India brings a little cheer and the best that could be done is to treat ourselves a sweet. So, here comes a simple South Indian yet delicious kheer.

I’m not a great cook.I’ve tried my hands at cooking mostly after my marriage. (Ya, it’s kinda disclaimer, he hee) So, here I’ve tried to follow my mom’s instructions and the result was amazing. Hope you enjoy too.

Preparation Time: 30 Min
Serves: 5 – 6

Things you would need:

Moong Dal – 1 ½ cup
Adai – 1 cup (a kind of rice noodles)
Water – 3 cups for daal
Jaggery – 200g
Water – just to immerse the jaggery
Cashews – 10
Raisins – 10
Coconut – a one inch piece, cut into very thin slices
Ghee – 2-3 Tbs
Salt – ½ tsp

Method:

Add water to jaggery in a vessel, heat it until jaggery gets dissolved. Filter it to remove any impurities and keep this dissolved jaggery(thin paagu) warm.
Cook the daal along with water and salt. When the daal is half-cooked, add the adai to it. Wait until the daal is completely cooked and the adai has got just soft. At this stage, add the dissolved jaggery to it and simmer for 2-3 mins.
Heat the ghee in a small kadai and roast the cashews, raisins and coconut until the coconut slices turn slightly brown. Now, add these to the paayasam. That’s it.

Note:

• Care should be taken not to let the adai over cooked. The adai must be edible, but still the adai flakes must be clearly visible. When it is overcooked, the paayasam becomes cloggy.
• When using roast cashews, they can be added directly to the paayasam.
• This paayasam tastes best, when served warm. Can be stored in the fridge for 3-4 days and it is enough to heat it up a little, before serving.

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