Recently I was invited by Braun to try out one of their new products, called the Braun Multiquick Cordless. Here’s a quick review:
1. Its pretty light weight, and ya very suitable to handheld ergonomics.
2. I hate plugging things in, and while I have to use a blender for grinding it is one of the most hated activities for me, Braun’s multiquick is cordless and I found that it needs very little charging time and its readily available for the two most common kitchen chores – chopping finely and pureeing.
3. I have been using this everyday, as it definitely chops onions way more finely than I can ever hope to! and less messy. I have ground nuts, pureed tomato, chopped vegetables, like carrots and beans, and herbs, for dishes that require a fine chop – it really works. Plus the mess is greatly reduced and the stuff gets done in minutes.
4. I also really like the buzzer and lock attachment, so you can pulse only when the lock is pressed, it has really sharp blades so this is a good feature.

This product is available in Carrefour, in UAE, and is priced at 650 AED, would you like to own one? well… now you can WIN it!

The rules: You don’t have to be a blogger to enter this giveaway, anyone who is a reader can enter this giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment with your e-mail address, and location. That’s 1 point for you. Leaving a comment is mandatory to enter this giveaway.

Extra points: If you like EatWriteThink on Facebook (click on my FB page which should appear on the right side of the page), I will count this as an extra point for you, + 1. If you promote this giveaway on your blog, or Tweet about it, you get + 2. But don’t forget to let me know that you did, just add the details/link in the comment you leave behind.

The fine print: This giveaway is open to anyone living in one of the GCC Countries (United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait), and in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, or if you have an address in one of these countries.

Final word: when you leave a comment for the giveaway, you must include your full name, e-mail address, and location. Only these will be considered as entries to win the Braun Multiquick Cordless.

Giveaway ends on Thursday, 14 April 2011, 23:59:00 GST. I will select a winner through random selection, and announce on Monday, 18 April 2011.

Recipe for Pear & Almond Cake

This makes a delicious, soft cake, using an adapted and modified recipe from Women’s Weekly book on Cakes. I have used Coscia pears for this recipe. Coscia is a tiny pear from Italy, lovely green, full of flavour and crisp. And these had such a perfect shape that I wanted to bake the cake with these in it.

Ingredients

5 Coscia pears/or any crisp, blushing variety, small to medium size
2 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon lemon rind
1 3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup yoghurt (I used homemade yoghurt, which is active and lightly sour)
1/2 cup milk
2 cups AP flour/maida
4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
10 Hershey’s kisses chopped, or any eating chocolate chopped coarsely
1 cup ground almond (I store almonds in the freezer, so its easy to grind to a powder)

Method

1. Peel the pears, leave the stems on.
2. Using a saucepan big enough to fit all the pears in, combine the water, rind and 1 cup of sugar. Stir over heat, without boiling, until all the sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla extract, and the pears. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, simmer covered, until the pears are just tender, about 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer the pears to another bowl, bring the syrup to a boil, uncovered, until syrup reduces by half, leave to cool completely.
3. Preheat oven to 170 degree C, and grease the cake tin.
4. Sift the flour with the salt and baking powder.
6. Beat oil, and remaining sugar, until sugar is dissolved, beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the yoghurt, and half the milk. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the cooled syrup.
7. Add in the sifted flour, powdered almond, and the chocolate, and mix until combined. If the batter is too thick add the rest of the milk and mix again.
8. Spread mixture into greased tin, place the pears, upright, around the edges, gently pushing to the bottom.
9. Bake cake for about 50 minutes, to 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
10. Let the cake stand in pan for 10 minutes, remove from tin. Generously brush the syrup all over the cake. Serve warm, brushed with more syrup if you like.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THE RESULTS WILL BE UP ON THE 18TH OF APRIL.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. They challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake from a recipe found by Jamie from her dad’s collection of hand-written recipes from the 1970’s.

Around the last week of every month, ovens around the world dole out delectable victuals to feed their blogs. I have often salivated lustfully at luscious creations from these magical kitchens… and have been apprehensive if I could ever rise to such exacting standards considering that baking isn’t exactly one of my fortes. I only just get by – but ofcourse I dream big – and so I joined the ranks of the Daring Bakers and this Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake is my first challenge.

I didn’t fool around with the proportions as I was unsure of the results, but couldn’t help playing around with the fillings. So in the end I made two of these cakes, one with a filling of chocolate and coconut, and the other, inspired by middle eastern breakfast called Knefe bel-Jeben, I filled with rose scented middle eastern semolina cake called Basbousa. The results were lovely, delicious fresh out of the oven and even better the next day. The version with Basbousa was a bit dry but I poured some extra syrup right before eating and it was fine.

Recently I have been very busy, shifted into a new home and all that goes with it. At the time of the challenge there was a lot of packing and reorganizing going around and I was hard pressed for time, so I prepared the dough the previous day and refrigerated it, next day as I put it out on the counter to come back to room temperature while I went about preparing the basbousa, and meringue. The rest is all about assembling.

Ingredients for Meringue Coffee Cake

(Makes 2 coffee cakes, if you want just one cake, halve the amounts)
4 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
7 g active dried yeast
¾ cup whole milk
¼ cup water (doesn’t matter what temperature)
¼ cup ghee/clarified butter
2 large eggs at room temperature

For the meringue

3 large egg whites at room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sugar

For the chocolate coconut filling

1 cup coarsely chopped chocolate
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Icing sugar for dusting cakes

For the basbousa filling

1 Basbousa cake
Rose water syrup

Method

1. For the dough: In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 ½ cups of the flour, the sugar, salt and yeast.
2. In a saucepan, combine the milk, water and ghee and heat over medium heat until warm.
3. Gradually add the warm liquid to the flour/yeast mixture, using a wooden spoon, beat until well blended. Add the eggs and 1 cup flour and beat to blend for about 2 minutes.
4. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a dough that holds together. Turn out onto a floured surface (use any of the 1 ½ cups of flour remaining) and knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until the dough is soft, smooth, sexy and elastic, keeping the work surface floured and adding extra flour as needed.
5. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to coat all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, 45 – 60 minutes.
6. Prepare your filling: get together chopped chocolate, dessicated coconut, and cinnamon powder for Coffee cake with chocolate meringue filling.
7. Prepare the Basbousa cake, once cool crumble and keep aside.
8. Once the dough has doubled, make the meringue: In a clean mixing bowl – ideally a plastic or metal bowl so the egg whites adhere to the side (they slip on glass) and you don’t end up with liquid remaining in the bottom – beat the egg whites with the salt, first on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to high and continue beating until foamy and opaque. Add the vanilla then start adding the ½ cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time as you beat, until very stiff, glossy peaks form.

Recipe for Basbousa

This is so incredibly simple to put together, I was very happy to have got around to making this semolina cake, next time I plan to bake this as is and not stuffed into anything – it does deserve a special place on the table.

Ingredients

1 cup semolina flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tablespoons dessicated coconut
1/2 tablespoon baking powder

for the syrup

1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon rose water

Method

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the semolina flour, sugar, yogurt, oil, coconut, and baking powder. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Prepare the syrup: in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stir together the water, sugar, and rosewater. Bring to a boil, and boil for 3 or 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Spread the semolina batter into the bottom of a 9×13 inch baking pan, lined with baking paper.
4. Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Cut into squares, and pour syrup all over the cake. Let the cake absorb the syrup and cool down before crumbling it for the filling.

Assembling the Coffee Cakes

1. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Punch down the dough and divide in half. On a lightly floured surface, working one piece of the dough at a time (keep the other half of the dough wrapped in plastic), roll out the dough into a 20 x 10-inch (about 51 x 25 ½ cm) rectangle. Spread half of the meringue evenly over the rectangle up to about 1/2-inch (3/4 cm) from the edges. Sprinkle dessicated coconut, chopped chocoloate, and powdered cinnamon over the first rolled out dough. (I added some instant coffee into the remaining meringue batter and baked coffee flavoured meringue drops)
3. Roll out the remaining dough in a similar fashion, spread rose flavoured syrup over it, and top with crumbled basbousa.

4. Now, roll up the dough jellyroll style, from the long side. Pinch the seam closed to seal. Very carefully transfer the filled log to one of the lined cookie sheets, seam side down. Bring the ends of the log around and seal the ends together, forming a ring, tucking one end into the other and pinching to seal.

5. Using kitchen scissors or a sharp knife (although scissors are easier), make cuts along the outside edge at 1-inch (2 ½ cm) intervals. Make them as shallow or as deep as desired but don’t be afraid to cut deep into the ring.

6. Cover the 2 coffee cakes with plastic wrap and allow them to rise again for 45 to 60 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until risen and golden brown. The dough should sound hollow when tapped.
9. Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper off the cookie sheets onto the table. Very gently loosen the coffee cakes from the paper with a large spatula and carefully slide the cakes off onto cooling racks. Allow to cool.
10. Just before serving, dust the tops of the coffee cakes with confectioner’s sugar as well as cocoa powder if using chocolate in the filling. These are best eaten fresh, the same day or the next day.

Picked up a packet of tender, green Asparagus, from the supermarket… and had been thinking of baking flan. But in the end with the crazy weather outside, I thought rather than pamper my own desire to bake flan, which might have only limited takers, might be a better idea to make something the whole family can enjoy. So I made soup with the Asparagus, and for something crispy to go with it – I baked – Mathri. Mathris are Indian-style savoury biscuits which are traditionally deep-fried. Its often had as a tea time snack, and during winters in northern India mathri is a family favourite. Another popular way of eating Mathri is to dunk it in mango pickle, some of the best Mathri I have ever eaten in my life was in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), made by Rani Amma. Rani Amma was our Dhoban – washer-woman – an extraordinarily beautiful grandmother. Its hard to say how old she was, but she was a study in contrast, her beautiful unlined face with a permanent yet toothless smile. Her sari, softly covering her frame and head, pale floral cotton, the permitted colours of widowhood. Her boys lived with her, and despite her soft visage she lorded over her daughters-in-law with an iron fist. For most of our time in Meerut, it was Rani Amma who bought in our freshly ironed laundry delicately balanced over her head. On request she would prepare her famous mathris, and one huge batch was reserved solely for me to eat when I came home on off days from my college in Delhi.

There are several kinds of mathris, salted plain, to peppery, spicy ones, mathri with fenugreek (methi mathri), but with one thing in common – its texture – uniformly crisp, yet melt in the mouth. Perfect to offset a mild soup.

Ingredients for Asparagus Soup

450 gms tender asparagus
2 cups water
1 cup milk
1 medium sized red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon Flour
1 vegetable bouillon cube
salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons butter/oil

Method for the Soup

1. Cut an inch and a half off the top of half the asparagus and set aside for garnish. Chop the remaining asparagus into slices.
2. Melt one teaspoon of butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the chopped onions until pink. There’s no need to brown the onions.
3. Add the asparagus and saute over low heat for about a minute.
4. Stir in the flour, and cook for a minute, and add the water and bouillon, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes, until the asparagus is very tender.
5. Cool lightly and puree in a food processor or blender, until really smooth.
6. Pour back into the saucepan, and add the milk, stir and heat the soup for a couple of minutes.
7. Melt the remaining butter in a pan and saute the asparagus heads set aside earlier, these will soften in 3 to 4 minutes.
8. To serve pour into soup bowls and garnish with sauteed asparagus heads.

These baked mathris are tender and biscuit like in texture, and seriously so easy to make, I think I got this into the oven in 15-minutes, and minus all the fuss of frying. Its my own recipe, based on my CQ (cooking quotient) so if you wish to get the same result use the same instructions as below. Ofcourse you can play around with the flavour ingredients.

Ingredients for Baked Mathri – Indian-style savoury biscuits

1 1/2 cups self rising AP Flour
1 heaped tablespoon grated ginger
1-2 pods of garlic, grated
1 tablespoon peppercorns, crushed lightly
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon carom/ajwain/bishop’s weed
1/2 cup cooking oil (I used sunflower)
1 scant teaspoon salt (or to taste, but first check if your flour already contains salt)
3 tablespoon cold full fat milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C and line a cookie sheet with baking paper.
2. Sieve the flour along with the salt, and place in a large enough sturdy bowl which you can use for kneading the dough. Add the ginger & garlic, pepper, cumin and carom, and mix, using your fingers.
3. Make a well in the center and gradually pour in the oil, in quarters, mixing the flour into the oil. The dough will start with being rough breadcrumbs in texture, to being like moist breadcrumbs – so if you squeeze some dough in your fist, it will hold shape.
4. Sprinkle milk one tablespoon at a time, lightly kneading the dough, the dough should just come together, in a flaky sort of way. Do not be tempted to over-knead.
5. Make egg yolk sized balls, and lay on the cookie sheet. Using a dessert spoon flatten the dough balls lightly. Mathris can be made smaller and flatter also, all depends on your mood that day.
6. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, when lightly brown at the edges and top, keeping an eye on them after the first 15 minutes or so.
7. Once done, remove and cool on a wire rack – the most amazing crisp and flakey mathris await. Store in an airtight container, should last a week, if they do.

Sending the baked Mathri off to this week’s Bake-Off.

Last Friday, not too early in the morning this time, those of us Famished in Arabia wandered into a Baklava factory. Baklava not to be mistaken for Balaclava, which is a monkey cap, is a middle eastern pastry stuffed with nuts and dunked in syrup. Ofcourse there was something quite Charliesque about the whole thing, or why else would all the girls be wearing eager eyes and silly smiles?! While I tried my best to be an in-control-of-my-saliva-that’s-showing-serious-intent-of-flooding-the-house-down type of food blogger and not get carried away by the seriously divine smells that were overpowering my sanity and self control, the beast at the back of my head was whispering furiously, “hope they give goodie bags”.

Al Samadi’s Cigar-shaped Baklava

The place: Al Samadi Baklava factory, located right next to the Galadhari Driving School in Qusais. But for some reason the board outside the factory says Cello, didn’t get that. The staff comprised of happy looking people, Indians and Lebanese, who took great pains to explain to us about how Baklava is made commercially. It was really fascinating to see what large machines, cold storage, gigantic ovens, and happy faces could do to four basic ingredients:

Hmm… if I were surrounded by such yummy smells and rich goodness I’d be a happy cook too n’est-ce pas? Here at this Baklava factory they make other middle eastern favorites as well, like maamoul, which is a cookie filled with dates or nuts crumble. To make maamoul one needs a mold, balls of dough are packed into this mold and nimble fingered gents tap it on the work surface effortlessly to unveil beautifully patterned shapes. These would then be baked to goldenness before being presented to the world, although for me, I could swallow half a dozen of them right there.

Working from dawn to about late noon, the chefs and bakers produce plate after plate of Arabic pastry, each one unique in taste and texture, suffused with earthy essence of orange flower and rose.

By mid morning all the goodies get packed and ready to be transported at Al Samadi’s outlets located around Dubai.

Now that I had seen it all, it was time to replicate it in my artisanal kitchen. So armed with my favourite blogger Joumana’s post on the 10-minute baklava that I had bookmarked way back, I set out to put to good use the phyllo/filo lounging comfortably somewhere in my freezer. I didn’t stray from Joumana’s recipe, except that I am way too lazy to skin and manually chop the pistachio, I just gave the whole thing a pulse in my blender. Aside from that I was a good follower, I will encourage you to visit Joumana @ Taste of Beirut for mind blowing Lebanese food and recipes. Leaving you with a piece of my Baklava.

Been meaning to this post earlier, but been busy with one thing or the other. The climate’s changing in Dubai and the seasonal flu has been visiting us as well, it was the lil one last week now its the husband. Just hoping I’ll be spared its merciless whip! Next week on 2nd Dec. its not only UAE National Day but also lil one’s 4th birthday – and ofcourse now that she knows what a birthday party is, we’re sure having one! Will be posting about that soon! For now enjoy this Orange Marmalade Cake – simple to put together, only mildly sweet, it tastes great with tea. It has been modified from a Women’s Weekly book on Cakes.

Ingredients
125 gm Butter
2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons orange marmalade
1/3 cup mixed peel
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1 1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 orange peeled and sliced thinly

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
2. Grease and line a loaf pan.
3. In a small bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and rind, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, and transfer the contents to a larger bowl, and stir in the rest of the ingredients – marmalade, and mixed peel, and then, coconut, flour, and milk.
4. Line the base of the tin with thin slices of orange. Pour the mixture into the loaf pan, and bake for an hour, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Let it stand for about 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. Invert back so that the orange side faces up.

Returning after a long summer break makes me feel like a stranger in my own home. Even the pots and pans in the kitchen don’t look particularly friendly… and it usually takes me a full week to fall into a familiar monotony. I was craving for some fries, perfectly feel good food as far as I am concerned, so made this version of potato wedges and a delicious tomato dip to go with it. Purrrfect…

for the wedges:
4 medium sized potatoes, washed & scrubbed
a large pot of water
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon chilly powder/paprika
1 teaspoon garlic paste
salt to taste

for the dip:
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
salt to taste

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C.
2. Cut the potatoes into 6 wedges.
3. Place the potatoes in the pot of water, bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes look just cooked. Drain well, and pat dry.
4. Mix the oil, garlic, salt, garam masala, coriander powder and paprika in a roasting tray. Add the potatoes and coat thoroughly.
5. Pop it into the oven and roast for 20 minutes, turning sides after the first 10 minutes.
6. For the dip, heat oil in a saucepan, saute the onion and garlic, add the tomatoes and cook until soft.
7. Stir in the chilly, vinegar, salt and sugar. Cook for another 5 minutes on low flame until the mixture looks reduced. Serve warm with the potato wedges.

]]> http://www.eatwritethink.com/2010/09/spicy-potato-wedges-with-tangy-tomato-dip/feed/ 5 http://www.eatwritethink.com/2010/06/raw-carrot-cake/ http://www.eatwritethink.com/2010/06/raw-carrot-cake/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 06:18:11 +0000 Rajani http://www.eatwritethink.com/?p=1076 [continue reading → ]]]>

Last week saw a belated Mother’s Day celebration at my daughter’s school. To spread the word on healthy eating the school had set up a Cookery Competition for Kindergarten 1 mums, the theme was ‘cooking without fire’. I thought the idea was terrific and wanted to do something more than a salad or sandwich kind of thing. We’ ve all been reading about the raw food movement and how rawtarians are recommending that to get maximum benefits out of food we must not cook it. Cooking is believed to diminish the nutritional value and life force of food. Ofcourse I like to think that everything in moderation is a good idea, so generally strive to include raw foods along with cooked foods into our family diet.

But this was a good time for me to experiment with something that I have been dying to take a shot at for some time now – Raw Carrot Cake. I found a good source at The Raw Chef: Carrot Orange Cake. I adapted the recipe with what ingredients I had on hand, I also used fresh whipped cream to ice the cake. Very very nice cake, its the kind I would like to take a bite into once in a while.

The cake won the 1st prize at the competition. Look at the table for the winning recipes, there’s nothing left of my cake, it had been demolished! sans a cupcake wrapper someone was too polite to remove

Ingredients
4 Carrots, finely grated
1 c Raisins, soaked
¼ c Dried apricots, chopped
½ c Mixed peel
½ c Date purée *
2 c Almond flour
1½ c Desiccated coconut
1 tsp Ginger powder
1 tsp Cinnamon powder
5 cloves

Method
1. Pulse carrots, raisins, date paste & spices in a blender.
2. Drop in the chopped apricots, and mixed peel and pulse a couple of times.
3. Remove the mixture into a large bowl, along with the almond flour and desiccated coconut.
4. Mix well, press into place in a large cake pan, and refrigerate uncovered till it sets.
5. Cut into bite sized squares, frost it with whipped cream or roll them into balls and dust with desiccated coconut.

* Make the date purée by grinding 1c soft dates and 1/2c orange juice in a food processor until smooth.

This is a simple and delicious recipe for chocolate chip cookies. My daughter loves to have one cookie along with strawberry milk for her second break at school. My previous attempts at chocolate chip cookies have been more or less disastrous, simply because I always experiment to make them eggless or the amounts are too much, or something always goes wrong. And then I am left with huge amounts of cookies with no takers. So I was looking for a recipe that made just a few cookies, so I could always bake fresh batch every week, also which resulted in cookies that tasted like they were supposed to.

This one makes about 10 cookies, and is adapted from a Kids recipe book, the original asks for more sugar, the sugar in my version tasted absolutely alright, not too sweet. Just right, and nice and chewy cookies!

Ingredients
2/3 cup + 1 tablespoon A.P. flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 tablespoon granulated sugar
4 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
5 tablespoon chocolate chips

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree and line a baking sheet with butter/parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, soda bi carb and salt into a bowl.
3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolk, vanilla and water, mix well.
4. Gradually stir in the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add the chocolate chips and combine.
6. Scoop out spoonfuls of the dough onto the lined baking sheet, I used my hand to roll them into lime sized balls. Do not flatten.
7. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies begin to brown.
8. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet until they are firm, but still warm.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

I recently had no bake cookies at a cousin’s place, crumbled over ice cream these cookies filled with dates tasted rich and deliciously decadent, and ofcourse I loved the fact that it needed no baking and took just minutes to put together. The original recipe had an egg and butter in it – I was a little off putted by the thought of a raw egg, and I don’t care too much for butter. So I adapted the recipe to include peanut butter, but any nut butter could work as an decent substitute.

makes 15

Ingredients

175 gm or 3/4 packet Marie biscuit, crushed

1 cup dates, pitted & chopped

1 + 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together into a tight dough. If the dough doesn’t come together well, gradually add a little more chopped dates, or puree and/or peanut butter .

2. Break off equal amounts, roll into balls, and finally press firmly to form cookies.

3. Refrigerate to set.

These cookies should stay well outside, but keeping them refrigerated will do no harm. I loved the texture and taste, can be used as a base for cheesecakes, or crumbled over scoops of soft ice cream!

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

copyright 2010 eat.write.think

These days I am living the wonderful life, each day I wake up to delicious mornings, infused with the rich smells and sounds of my homeland. I am in India, and boy! am I happy!! I have just been busy unwinding and also taking care of home – my mum hasn’t been too well – so I am not blogging about any authentic Kerala dishes, but something from my drafts folder. I baked these cashew tarts with zucchini and eggplant filling a few days prior to my trip, very nice and easy to put together as well.

makes 4

Ingredients
for the crust:
1 1/2 cup AP flour/maida
3/4 cup cashew, roasted and crushed coarsely
1/4 cup oil/butter/ghee
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup icy water for making the dough

for the filling:
2 cups zucchini & eggplant, cubed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chilly powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup tomato puree
salt to taste

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients for the filling and roast in a preheated oven at 200 degree C for 20 to 25 minutes, keep checking and at some point in the middle make sure to mix all the veggies up to ensure even roasting.

2. In a large bowl rub the flour with the salt and oil/ghee/butter till it looks like breadcrumbs. Then drop in the cumin and crushed cashew. Lightly mix and then sprinkle the water and knead into a tight dough. Don’t put all the water at one go, remember to sprinkle and knead.  Keep aside for 15 minutes.

3. Divide the dough into four sections, roll into balls, sprinkle the work surface lightly with flour and using a rolling pin flatten the balls into thick disks.

4. Grease a muffin tray lightly and place each of the 4 disks in the cases, you can fill the empty muffin cases with a little water. Put a spoonful of filling in each tart and lightly pinch the sides.

5. Bake in the center of the oven for about 40 minutes at 200 degree C, or until the crust is browned.

6. Enjoy it warm or cold, just as is, or with hot sauce.

I used olive oil for the dough and found the crust so wonderful, crispy and moderately flakey because of the cashew, I am sure if you use butter or shortening it will yield an even flakier shell. But I guess that’s an individual choice. I am already thinking of other fillings like potatoes and peas; spicey pumpkin, even paneer.

copyright 2010 eat.write.think