Eid special - Sewaiyan

The Holy month of Ramadan has ended for our muslim friends.They are religiously celebrating Eid al Fitr. During school days, Eid used to be the most looked forward festival being in the gulf.I had many really nice neighbours who used to share their delicious food over the festive season.Muslims friends would share delicious iftar goodies and eid biryanis, hindu friends share their onam and vishu goodies and we used to in turn share our christmas goodies.

I take this opportunity to wish all my friends celebrating this Holy Festival a blessed Eid!

Dates Almond Kulfi

The summer is here in full swing(yes already) wonder how the next few months are going to be here!My LM had two weeks of holidays and she kept pestering us for ice cream.Here in our house whenever we buy a pack of readymade icecream we all have sore throats even before we eat the ice cream!I don't know if its a matter of chance or coincidence, so this time I told her I'll make kulfis for her.

Banana and Dates Healthy Pancakes

I feel like munching at 4 before my tea!Since everyone's on the "healthy eating habit" , I'm trying not to have junk food(too!).Not that I can succeed too many times(but I'm trying), and an idea (*ting*) "make healthy pancakes" :) I thought why not!

So I went ahead and made these pancakes, mixing and all in about 20 minutes!

Preparation Time : 20 mins
Makes 4 pancakes

To make these pancakes, you need

Wheat flour/chapati atta 3 tablespoons heaped
Baking powder 1/2 tsp
Honey 1 tablespoon (or sugar if you like)
Banana 1 (used the small yellow one) mashed
Dates 4 (I had dates paste i used 1 tsp)
Milk about a cup
Warm water if needed
Oil 1 tsp (add butter if you like :) since i said "healthy pancakes" i added oil)

• Mash the banana and dates into a smooth lumpy mix, now add the flour, baking powder and honey in a bowl.
• Add enough milk to make the pancake mixture (shouldn't be too runny) and the oil (and a little luke warm water if needed to make the mix runny)
• Check the sweetness and add enough honey/sugar as you like.
• Grease a pan, pour a ladle-full of pancake mix on the pan, when you see bubbles form and pop on the pancake, you can flip it over and cook on a low or medium flame( since its wheat flour it darkens soon so i suggest cooking them on a low flame).

• Serve hot with honey!

Sending this recipe to Ramya's ABC event : Banana

and Taste of pearl city's event 

Reposting/sending this to Banana recipes@My culinary creations

Banana and Dates Healthy Pancakes

I feel like munching at 4 before my tea!Since everyone's on the "healthy eating habit" , I'm trying not to have junk food(too!).Not that I can succeed too many times(but I'm trying), and an idea (*ting*) "make healthy pancakes" :) I thought why not!

Spiced Almond milk-Magic Mingle

Magic mingle time again!I was waiting for 3 weeks to hear what the next set of magic ingredients would be, and I must congratulate Kalyani for coming up with such a magical event each month, which has definitely got some of us to don our thinking caps!

When i read this month's ingredients-almonds and ginger, first thought,yes cookies but then I don't know why I don't feel like making anything sweet lately.So I had a vague idea and looked up a few places and decided on this easy drink.

Almond milk is a rich and nutritious drink for the kids and adults alike.I have spiced it with ginger candy and dates.If you are thinking how that would taste, it was sweet and the taste of almonds lingered in my mouth for a long time.I made just one mistake of having a nice glassful which left me full for a long time.Like i said its a wonderful drink for the kiddies!

To make this..
Preparation time: 10 minutes.
Makes 2 large cups of almond milk.

You need

Almonds 10
Ginger candy 2 pieces
Dates de-seeded 2
Water 3 cups

- Boil the almonds in some water for 2 minutes and cool it.This is to help peel off the almonds.
- In a blender add the almonds,dates and ginger candy with the 3 cups of water and blend until all is mixed well.
- Filter the contents using a fine sieve or muslin cloth.
- The clear liquid is ready to be served as it is or stored in the refrigerator.

- Serve chilled.

Tips:
- i have used ginger candy,you can use fresh ginger an inch sized piece with honey or sugar for sweetness.
- i didn;t need to add anything for sweetness as the ginger candy did this for me.
- you will get some good amount of almond pulp which can be used for cookies.i'm still trying to use my pulp which i have frozen(since i didn't want to throw it away)

Sending this to Magic Mingle #2@ Sizzling Tastebuds



and to Just 4 fun @ Good food

Spiced Almond milk-Magic Mingle

Magic mingle time again!I was waiting for 3 weeks to hear what the next set of magic ingredients would be, and I must congratulate Kalyani for coming up with such a magical event each month, which has definitely got some of us to don our thinking caps!

Ma'amoul - Stuffed date cookies

I've been eating these stuffed beauties for a long time now, not home made ones though.Recently I got anxious to make it at home.When i started searching the internet, i found innumerable recipes and with an array of interesting fillings.These are pretty popular in the Gulf.

Ma'amoul are small shortbread pastries filled with dates, pistachios, or other dried fruits.Read more about them here.

My DH acclaimed they were as good as the shop ones.I have generously followed the recipe from here

Here's how i made it.

For the Filling:

• Dates paste 2 tablespoons (pitted dates about 15 to 20)
• Sugar coated ginger candy 5 6 pieces ( or dry ginger powder 1/4 tsp) (optional) 
• Water 2 tablespoons
• Salt a pinch
• 
  
• For the Cookie Dough:

Flour  2 cups (= 1 cup wheat flour + 1 cup All purpose flour)

• Baking powder 1 tsp
• Confectioner's sugar 1 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons for dusting (powdered sugar)
• Salt a pinch 
• Butter 1/2 cup
• Vegetable oil 2 tablespoons
• Milk (boiled and cooled) 1/4 cup

To make the filling:

• Puree the dates and ginger candy with 2 tablespoons of water.Add a pinch of salt and blitz to a smooth paste.Leave it aside.

the beautiful filling...

To make the cookie dough:

• In a bowl, sift both the flours and add the salt,baking powder, butter and oil and mix well to a crumbly mix.Add the oil and bring knead well to bring into a nice smooth dough.
• Add the milk and make a smooth dough.
• Cover with cling film and refrigerate for an hour.
• Now divide into small lemon sized balls (makes about 20 cookies)

 To make the cookies :

• Preheat the oven at 250C.
• Take a ball of dough and roll into a circle the size of your palm(almost). Place about a teaspoon of the filling.
• Repeat above step for the rest of the dough.OR if like me make some plain short bread cookies in any shapes you like of the plain cookie dough too.And sprinkle with powdered sugar.

make them in any shape you want

• Place the cookies about a few cms apart from each other (they do expand a bit).
• Bake these cookies at 220C until the tops are whitish and the bottoms are lightly brown for about 22-25 minutes.

• Cool for 10 minutes and they are ready to go...beautiful Ma'amoul cookies!!

Tips:

• The original recipe doesn't call to refrigerate the cookie dough, but i refrigerated it for an hour because of some work i couldn't avoid, and realised it was much easier to handle the dough once cool.
• Don't get worked up(like me) on stuffing a huge lot into each cookie, the maximum you can place would be much less than a teaspoon.

Linking this to 


Bake fest @ Zesty Palette

Christmas Delicacy @ Erivum Puliyum

Winter carnival @ Tickling tastebuds

Global Food fest @ Sizzling tastebuds

Bake with your heart @ A girl's Diary


Thursday Potluck @Show and tell