Puffed Rice With Boiled Peanuts

          Anybody who has been to Indian beaches would be familiar with some kind of snack with Puffed rice.  I came across this one in Chennai, my daughter and niece, both wanted to have it, I was very reluctant to buy it for the fear of falling sick after having it. But finally got a single packet and shared among ourselves ( thinking, that the less we have, the lesser chance of food poisoning, well, nothing happened, we are all fine). I took a mental note of the ingredients and made it at home whenever we felt like having it. The snack itself is a very healthy one, no deep frying and a nice way of making kids have their veggies. Yeah, we add shredded cabbage in this, try it, I am sure you'll love it..

Need To Have

• Puffed Rice - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Boiled Peanuts - 1 cup
• Finely Shredded Cabbage - 1/2 cup
• Tomato - 1 small chopped
• Red Onion - 1 small chopped
• Chopped Coriander - 2 tablespoons
• Red Chilly Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Lemon Juice - 2 teaspoons
• Salt - to taste

Method

       
          Mix in the peanuts, cabbage, onion, tomato and chopped coriander.

          Lastly add the salt, chilly powder, lemon juice and the puffed rice, give one final mix and serve immediately.

Note
You get dried peanuts throughout the year, pressure cook them with salt and little water (time needed to cook is 3/4 the time needed to cook rice), drain excess water and use, peanuts should have a slight crunch, not soft and mushy.
Feel free to play with the ingredients, add more or less as per your taste.
Some variations, can add chopped raw mangoes, grated carrot, coconut and some roasted cashews.
Make small batches and serve immediately, otherwise it'll turn soggy.

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Cranberry Royale Sorbet

Last week I got to go on a Cranberry Farm Picking Experience with Colonial Lantern Tours.  I've gone apple picking and strawberry picking before, but this was the first time I've ever gone cranberry picking.  No, we didn't get to put on those rubber overalls and wade in a cranberry bog, but we did get to see how a flooded cranberry bog is harvested and also how cranberries are dry harvested.  Lastly, we got to hand pick our own cranberries!  Fun fact:  only 10% of cranberries are dry harvested, and only the dry harvested cranberries will be sold fresh in stores.  The other 90% are wet harvested and will go into cranberry products like cranberry sauce and cranberry juice.

 
Even before I went on the tour, I started looking up cranberry recipes to try.  The ones that caught my eye were a bittersweet cranberry brownie and a pecan topped cranberry cake.  Then my friend Ellen suggested that I make Jeni's Cranberry Royale Sorbet.  And boy, am I glad she did. 

Cranberry Royale Sorbet from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home
makes about 1 quart

2 grapefruits (you need enough to get 3/4 cup of juice; I needed 1 1/2 large grapefruits)
One 12-ounce bag cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar

 
Using a vegetable peeler, remove 3 large strips of zest from 1 of the grapefruits. Halve the grapefruits and squeeze 3/4 cup juice.

 

Combine the grapefruit juice, zest, cranberries, water, corn syrup, and sugar in a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil just until the cranberries begin to pop open, about 5 minutes. (My cranberries started to pop before it was anywhere close to boiling, so I just put a splatter screen on top of the saucepan and continued to heat the pan.) Remove from the heat and let cool.

 

Remove the grapefruit zest. If desired, puree the cranberry mixtures in batches, or leave unpureed for a chunkier sorbet.

 

Chill the mixtue and then freeze in an ice cream maker. Spin just until the consistency of very softly whipped cream.

 

Pack the sorbet into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

  

On the following page in her book, there's a gorgeous picture of an Oslo Ambrosia sundae, which consists of a meringue topped with raspberry lingonberry sauce, a scoop of the Cranberry Royale, and topped with cardamon scented whipped cream.  I just knew I had to try to make this sundae, if only because it looked so pretty.  Instead of making a raspberry lingonberry sauce, though, I just saved a few tablespoons of the sorbet base before it was frozen and added a spoonful of raspberry preserves.

 

I also used coconut whipped cream instead of dairy whipped cream and should be posting that recipe soon.  (Edited to add:  here's the post!)

 

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Kockice od oraha

Meni moja 3 slobodna dana prolako prilaze kraju,ja sutra u nove radne pobjede uz cjelotjednu poslasticu od oraha i prhkog tijesta.....recept gotovo identican prhkoj orahnjaci,samo drugi oblik,no i to se treba sjetiti zar ne :) !!

Kockice od oraha i prhkog tijesta

600gr brasna

100gr secera u prahu

350gr maslaca

4 zlice vrhnja

malo soli

narendana limunova korica

Nadjev

500gr mljevenih oraha

400gr secera

2 zlice ruma(extrakt iz male flasice)

oko 3 dl vrelog mlijeka-sipati pola,pa polako dodati ostalo ako treba

narendana korica limuna

malo cimeta

marmelada od marelice

  Tijesto napraviti na uobicajen nacin,rucno ili pomocu kuhinjskog pomagala..pocevsi sa brasnom i maslacem i uz dodavanje ostalih namirnica  napraviti glatko tijesto...dobiveno ostaviti u frizider da odmara oko 30 minuta.

Podijeliti ga na 2 dijela

Prvi razviti i staviti u pripremljenu tepsiju(35x25cm),premazati tijesto marmeladom od marelice,zatim nadjevom od oraha,poklopiti drugim dijelom tijesta koje takoder razvijete na velicinu tepsije u kojoj ce se peci.

Kolac nabockati vilicom i peci na 200C oko 45 minuta.

Gotov kolac isjeci u kockice i uvaljati u secer u prahu.

Original recept

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Keerai Masial (Mashed Spinach)

          Keerai Masial or Mashed Spinach, this is a very easy and healthy dish, and a favorite in my home. It's literally fat free, not even a drop of oil is used but still tastes really good. I have used sirukeerai ( a type of greens) available in India but you can do this with regular spinach too. Everybody has their own way of doing this masial, even I do it a couple of different ways, give this a try if you like the flavors of pepper and garlic..

Need To Have

• Keerai Or Spinach - 1 big bunch
• Garlic - 5 cloves, chopped
• Tuvar dal - 2 tablespoons
• Black Pepper - coarsely ground, 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - to taste

Method
          Clean the keerai and wash it well, no need to chop them. Pressure cook the tuvar dal.

          Cook the keerai ( spinach) with the garlic, salt and a little water ( about 1/4 cup). Once the spinach is cooked, add the tuvar dal and the pepper powder, mix and switch off the stove. Cool and take it in a blender, pulse it a couple of times, do not grind it into a paste, there should be some texture. Remove and serve it with rice.

Note
I have chopped the garlic and coarsely ground the pepper before adding it to the spinach, so that I need not grind it longer later and end up with a spinach paste.
Do not overcook the spinach, it'll loose it's nice green color, you can cook it without covering it with a lid.
Traditionally we use a clay pot and a wooden masher to do this instead of the electric blender, and it tastes definitely even better that way.
If there is a lot of water after the spinach is cooked, let it evaporate a little before adding the dal, the final dish should have a spooning consistency. If you want to have this as a soup, then you can have it watery, adjust  the salt and pepper.
Tuvar dal is split pigeon peas.

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Quiche

Tzv.Quiche lorraine ali na moj nacin :)

Kis od poriluka i sunke

Tijesto

185 gr brasna
90gr maslaca
1 jaje
2-3 zlice kiselog vrhnja

Nadjev

20gr maslaca
1 poriluk
4 komada sunke ili mesnate slanine
(oko 100gr)
2 zlice vlasca
+preljev
2 jaja
200ml vrhnja za kuhanje
50ml jogurta
100gr svicarskog sira
(tvrdi topivi sir,koji imate)

   Tijesto napraviti na uobicajen nacin...rukama izmrviti maslac u brasnu,dodati ostale sastojke i napraviti tijesto ili jos brze ako imate procesor hrane.
U njega stavite sve namirnice,pulsirate par puta da se stvore mrvice,dalje rucno obradite tijesto.

Dobiveno tijesto staviti u frizider da odmori 30-ak minuta

U meduvremenu napraviti nadjev.

Na maslacu izdinstati poriluk i sunku...ja sam stavila sve skupa  u tavu i tako dinstala,dok nije sva tekucina isparila,tada vec pocinje faza przenja,tada sam uklonila sa sporeta i ohladila.

Tijesto razviti na sirinu  okrugle posude u kojoj cete peci,moja zdjela za kis je 26cm.

Nisam posebno pekla tijesto,nego sve skupa,mozda sam zato dobila izgled ne pecenog tijesta,no tijesto jeste peceno,samo je pokupilo svu masnocu koja je bila u nadjevu :)

Zato je najbolje tijesto pokriti  pairom za pecenje i napuniti perlicama  ili suhim grahom i peci 15minuta u predhodno zagrijanoj rerni na 200C.
smanjiti temperaturu na 180
C ,sklonititi papir i perlice/grah,vratiti ponovo u rernu i peci dodatnih 10 minuta,zatim staviti nadjev i preljev ...peci  sada na 180C 30-ak minuta.

Znaci ,na tijesto koje smo stavili u okruglu zdjelu za kis,slaoziti malo sira,pa sunku i poriluk,ostatak sira,dodati zacine po ukusu i zaliti sa mjesavinom jaja,vrhnja i jogurta.

Peci na 180C oko 45 minuta.

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Keksici

Ne bitno koliko vrsta kremastih kolaca imate u frizideru,jutarnja kavica/caj su  najsladi uz tvrde keksice,a recepata za njih ima jako puno...evo jedan iskombiniran i za moje najmilije.

Keksici od orasastih plodova

60gr zobenih pahuljica

100gr oraha

50gr lanenih sjemenki-samljeti

125gr maslaca

1 vanilin seer

200gr smedeg secera

1 jaje

1-2 zlice mlijeka

1/2 vrecice praska za pecivo

(1.1/2 zlicica )

250gr cokoladnih kapljica,najtamnijih sto nadete

       Na pleh za pecenje staviti orahe i zobene pahuljice,5 minuta da se peku na 180C.

Ohladene,uz dodatak lanenih sjemenki, samljeti

Maslac dobro izmutitit sa secero,dodati sve ostale sastojke i ostaviti u frizider da se tijesto malo stisne...meni je bilo jako mekano tijesto jer su vanjske temperature jako visoke,zato sam morala staviti u frizider.

Ohladeno tijesto rezati na komadice,po vasoj zelji..ako su komadici /fete manje,bice vise keksica,ako su vece,bice manje keksica !!
slagati na papirom za pecenje postavljen lim za pecenje i peci dok porumene ,na 180c

Ja sam pekla 20 minuta,bili su mekani kada sam izvadila iz rerne ali su se kasnije hladenjem stvrdnuli.


ako zelite mozete otopiti jos dodatnih 100hr cokolade pa svaki keksic umakati do pola u cokoladu...ja to nisam uradila jer ,kao sto znate kod mene nastupaju paklene vrucine,cokolada se topi,cak imam problem sa cokoladnim glazurama jer ih moram staviti u frizider da se stegnu ,pa onda im se izgled totalno promijeni,ali...

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Apple Cake Win

When I found myself in possession of 6 apples (from a combination of apple picking and Boston Organics), I knew it was time for me to redeem myself after this fail a couple of years ago.  But first I had to find a tube pan.  Luckily, I found one at TJ Maxx that not only was a springform and had a non-stick coating, it also had a second, flat bottom so I could use it was a regular cake pan!  And it was only $10!  Score!

I remembered my mistakes from before so I tried to follow the recipe more faithfully this time.  But I still couldn't resist trying to sneak in some white whole wheat flour and evaporated cane juice in an attempt to make it slightly healthier.  Thankfully, it worked out this time.  =)

 
Smitten Kitchen's Mom's Apple Cake

6 apples (I used half McIntosh and half Granny Smith apples)
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour (I substituted 3/4 cup of white whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar (I substituted a cup of Sucanat)
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a tube pan.

 
Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

 
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl.

 
In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time.  (I had to do this in my stand mixer because the batter was so thick.)  Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

 
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it.

 
Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top.

 
Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.

Like Deb said, this cake definitely gets better one the second day, "when the apples juices seep further into the cake."  I chose not to top mine with powdered sugar because I always end up either inhaling the powdered sugar or getting it all over my clothes, or both. =)

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