Honey Cornflakes Cookies

Tags

asian, eid, food, simple, singapore, tradition

As you might all know, it was Eid yesterday and it’s a celebration marking the end of a month of fasting. My husband and I had a very quiet day enjoying a few traditional Malay delights that I prepared the day before that.

One of the sweet delights I prepared were these litte cups of sweetness. They are called Cornflakes Madu, basically Honey Cornflakes and one of many popular sweets that is served in every Malay home during Eid…

Ingredients
• 5 cups Cornflakes
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 tbsp sugar (adjust according to taste)

Method
1. Place the cornflakes in a big bowl and crush them with your hands a little so it’s easier to spoon them in the mini paper casing.
2. Melt the butter, sugar & honey in a saucepan for 3 mins and pour the mixture into the cornflakes.
3. Combine well and make sure the cornflakes are coated thoroughly with the sweet mixture.
4. Heat oven to 150 degrees C.
5. Arrange mini paper casings on a baking sheet and spoon in the cornflakes into each one making sure you gently press them down a little so they stick well together once baked.

6. Bake for 20 to 25 mins and cool on a wire rack.

Store in an air tight container and you can just devour them anytime you want!

As you can see, they are dangerously easy to make!😉

Happy baking!💞

Posh Bread Pudding

Tags

bread, croissants, dessert, food, pudding, simple, sultanas

I thought it was time I got back into posting something seeing as I’ve been missing in action for a couple of weeks. To be honest, I have not been cooking anything worth posting and what with all the sad news around the world, I have not been very motivated to blog.

Also with Eid coming up soon and seeing as this year it will just be my husband and I celebrating, it has made me just a little sad that we are not with our families in Singapore and Malaysia or our close friends in Manchester. But like most things, there is always a silver lining….one of my good friends from Edinburgh has decided to come visit us a couple of days after Eid! So we’ll have a mini celebration then! Also, this will be my 100th post!! Yaay! 😊

Anyway, lets get to the recipe of this Posh Bread Pudding I made a couple of weeks ago. I say it’s posh because I used mini croissants instead of normal bread and I used evaporated milk to make it that extra rich and creamy!

Ingredients
• 5 to 6 mini croissants (roughly cut)
• 2 eggs
• 100ml evaporated milk
• 100ml milk
• 50gms caster sugar (or according to taste)
• a handful of sultanas
• 1tsp vanilla essence

Method
1. Pre heat oven to 150 degrees C.
2. Place the mini croissants in an ovenproof dish and set aside.
3. In a bowl, beat the milk, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence before pouring over the mini croissants. Make sure the croissants are completely submerged in the mixture by gently pressing them down.
4. Add the sultanas and bake for 20 to 25 mins or until risen. It will drop once you remove it from the oven.

Serve warm with a scoop…or two..or three of vanilla ice cream…

This is one of the easiest sweets to make and you can create it any way you want!

What’s your favourite easy sweet dish?💞

Veggie & Tofu Spring Rolls

Tags

asian, chinese, food, spring rolls, vegetarian

It’s difficult to find a good Chinese restaurant in Spain, and we’ve had a few disappointing meals where the flavours were bland, lacked seasoning and some did not taste very Asian at all.

So last night, I decided to re-create a Chinese Takeaway for our dinner and made some simple vegetable & tofu spring rolls as a starter.

Ingredients
• 2 Carrots (sliced thin lengthwise)
• 2 handfuls of Bean sprouts
• Ready fried tofu (roughly chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced with cracked black pepper)
• 8 sheets of Spring Roll pastry
• Fish sauce (or use salt)
• Sesame oil
• Sunflower oil

Method
1. In a hot skillet, sauté the garlic, carrots, tofu and bean sprouts for 3 mins in a little sesame oil & sunflower oil. Add a few dashes of fish sauce. (sauté for a bit longer if you don’t want the veg to be crunchy). Transfer onto a plate and leave to cool completely.

2. On a clean surface, start filling the pastry and roll, using warm water to act as glue to seal the rolls.

3. In a saucepan or skillet, deep fry the spring rolls till they are golden.

Serve warm with a sweet chilli sauce dip…

Seeing as it was a starter, I served it along with my Sticky Chicken and a simple Egg & Veg Fried Rice.

A homemade Chinese takeaway and it was thoroughly enjoyed by my husband!😊

Hope you’ve had a fabulous weekend!💞

Somali Doughnuts (Kac Kac)

Tags

bread, dessert, food, snack, sweet

I was on Skype with my mum just the other day and she mentioned that her good friend from East Africa had made her these yummy sweet fried bread. My mum said “You HAVE to try making them Tan, I can’t stop eating them!” (Tan = Tanty, my nickname ever since I was a kid)☺️

So anyway, I gave them a go and my mum was right…they were so addictive!

Ingredients
• 3 cups self raising flour
• 1/4 cup sugar (although I reduced this to less than that)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup luke warm coconut milk (you can also use normal milk)
• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• Oil for frying
• Dusting/Icing sugar

Method
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and knead lightly. If you feel it needs more flour, add more until the dough is not sticky and leave to rest for 30 mins.
2. Roll on a lightly floured surface.

3. With a knive or a cutter, cut into any shape you desire.

4. Deep fry on a medium high heat till they puff up and turn golden before draining on kitchen towel.

Dust with a little icing sugar and serve hot!

They were crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside with just that hint of cinnamon!😋

It was so good that we even had them with vanilla ice cream! They are very similar to Beignets.

I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I did!💞

I Think I’ll Call It A Biryani

Tags

biryani, Chicken, food, rice, spices

I definitely cooked with great abandon last night as the menu kept changing in my head! I had said to my husband that I was going to make a Chicken Tagine but quarter of the way through cooking, I changed my mind and it sort of became something COMPLETELY different…so yes, I think I’ll call it a Biryani!

Ingredients
• Chicken breast pieces
• Basmati rice or long grain rice
• Red onion (diced)
• Garlic (diced)
• Carrot (grated)
• Chickpeas
• Raisins
• Cashew nuts
• Chickpeas
• Cumin
• Dried parsley
• Paprika
• Za’atar spice
• Fresh cilantro
• Olive oil & butter

Method
1. Boil the rice and once cooked, leave to cool completely.
2. Marinade the chicken breast pieces in dried parsley, cumin, paprika, za’atar spice, salt & cracked black pepper in a little olive oil for 30 mins or 1 hour.
3. On a medium high heat, heat up a big saucepan and add olive oil & some butter. Place the chicken breast pieces and brown them till thoroughly cooked.
4. Throw in the onions & garlic, dried parsley, za’atar spice, salt & pepper and sauté together with the chicken. Once the onions are soft, add the raisins, cashew nuts, chickpeas and grated carrots.

5. Add the fresh chopped cilantro, sauté for 2 minutes, then add the cooled rice into the pot, making sure the rice is coated with all the spices.

Garnish with cilantro and more cashew nuts if you wish and serve…

I made a simple side salad of chopped green apples, baby plum tomatoes, diced red onion, chopped cilantro and drizzled it with a little honey, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & cracked black pepper…

It was a lovely burst of flavours and went fantastically with the dish!

Despite how many times I changed my mind, the “I think I’ll call it a Biryani” was a success and was really enjoyed by us both at iftar!😊

Have a fabulous Monday!💞

Sweet Potato Doughnuts

Tags

asian, dessert, donuts, doughnuts, food, sweet, tea time

Yes…you heard me correctly, Sweet Potato Doughnuts! This is a traditional Malay dessert/tea time snack from Singapore and Malaysia…we call it Kuih Keria. I remember as a child my aunt would make these and we would have them for our afternoon tea.

I had 1 lovely sweet potato left from before so I decided to try out for the first time to make these sweet golden rings of sweetness using only the natural flavours of the sweet potato. No added sugar except a little for dusting.😊

Ingredients
• 1 Sweet potato (mine was 400gms)
• Self raising flour
• Sunflower oil for frying

Method
1. The potatoes are usually steamed but it could make it very watery so I just roughly chopped them and placed them in the microwave for 9 mins on high before mashing them. Add a few drops water if you find it’s too dry.
2. In a bowl, combine the mashed potato with the self raising flour. Not too much or it will make the doughnuts quite hard. I used approx. 90gms, just to be able to bind the mixture together.
3. Roll into balls, flatten slightly and with your pinky, pierce a hole in the centre of the dough to shape like a doughnut. Place on a floured surface.

4. Heat oil in a skillet and slow fry them on a medium high heat. Flip over once golden brown.

5. Set aside to cool slightly.

Dust with icing/dusting sugar and serve warm-ish…

Just like a normal doughnut but healthier…apart from the frying of course…

It’s usually drenched in a thick sugar water before serving but I am not a fan of super sweet sweets and in this case, I wanted to keep the natural flavours of the sweet potato.

My measurement made 6 small-ish doughnuts and that was sufficient for us as a treat!

What was your favourite childhood tea time sweet?

Happy cooking!💞

Eggplant Dip

Tags

dips, eggplant, fast food, food, healthy, vegetarian

I don’t know about you but I just love eggplants! I always try to have them available in my kitchen. I usually tend to just roast them but yesterday I bought a lovely warm Moroccan bread and wanted a dip to have with it.

So off I went online looking for inspiration. Most of the recipes called for roasting the eggplant and removing the skin but I love the skin of an eggplant so I decided to pan fry them, skin on, with a little olive oil. So here’s my take on Baba Ganoush…

Ingredients
• 1 large eggplant (sliced)
• 1 tomato (quartered)
• 2 cloves of garlic (whole)
• 125gms Greek yoghurt
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp fresh mint leaves
• 1 tbsp fresh cilantro
• half tsp cumin
• sea salt & cracked black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. In a skillet, heat a little olive oil and fry the sliced eggplant until golden brown and set aside.
2. In the same skillet, throw in the garlic & tomatoes and sauté till the garlic is slightly brown and tomatoes are soft.
3. Place the Greek yoghurt, cumin, lemon juice, mint, cilantro, the tomatoes & garlic in a food processor and blitz.
4. Now add the cooked eggplant, salt & pepper into the food processor and pulse it. Have a taste to make sure it has a nice balance of flavour.

Garnish with cilantro and serve with crusty warm bread…

Add a drizzle of olive oil before serving if you wish…

It was tasty, tangy and very filling!

What’s your favourite dip?

To end off, just thought I’d share this gorgeous photo my sister in Singapore sent me this morning…

Do you love eggplants as much as I do?💞