Culinary Xpress: world Cuisine

Sfouf- Lebanese Tea Cake with Semolina &Turmeric

6:59 PM

Lebanese cuisine is very famous for it’s varieties of sweets. These sweets are heavily laded with sugar, cheese and lots and lots of butter. One dessert stands out for it’s sweet and melt in the mouth texture is the Sfouf . This is a famous Lebanese dessert which is characterized by it's intense yellow color due to the use of turmeric, superfood. It is one of the simplest form of cake where semolina, flour, oil, aniseed , turmeric and sugar are mixed and garnished with blanched pine nuts or almonds before baking in the oven.

This Tea Cake is called Sfouf which in Arabic mean rows. So this cake is traditionally cut into squares or diamonds shape. This Turmeric cake believe it or not, is one of the simplest, most delicious cakes I’ve ever had is a perfect tea-time cake with goodness of turmeric. Turmeric is the quintessential spice in everyone’s kitchen essential is actually a relative of ginger and is one of the healthiest food to add color to our home cooked food.

Cuisine: Lebanese

Recipe Source: Here

Preparation Time:20 minutes

Baking time: 40 minutes

Serves:12 pieces

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture

1 3/4 cup Fine Semolina
1 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
¾ cup Ghee / Oil
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Ground Anise Seed
1/4 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp ground green cardamom
12 nos of Blanched Almonds or pinenuts
1 tsp white sesame seeds

Wet Mixture

1 ½ cup Whole Milk
1 1/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp orange essence

Let's Learn How to prepare this Cake:

Pre Heat oven to 180 degree C.
Place the almonds in a bowl with warm water. After 10 minutes, peel the almonds and keep aside.
In a pan warm the milk and remove from heat and add the sugar and whisk together until the sugar dissolves. Add the orange essence to it and keep aside.
In a large bowl, combine the semolina, all-purpose flour, ground Aniseed, cardamom powder, salt, and turmeric powder well. Now add the ghee to it and mix properly, your mixture should resemble like fine crumbs. Set it aside.
Now pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well so that no lumps remain and little air is pumped into the mixture. Do not over mix.
Pour the mixture into a well-greased cake pan. Lightly mark the pan into rows so that you have 12 pieces of cake. Place one almond in the centre of each square and sprinkle the white sesame seeds on top.
Bake the cake at 180 degree for 35 to 40 minutes or till a fork comes out clean if inserted. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes . Cut into 12 pieces and serve warm with some Tea.
You can store this in an airtight container for about 1 week. Warm before serving as it tends to become dry when cools.

Thirst Quenchers

CREAMY WATERMELON GRANITA

4:52 PM

Granita is the perfect refreshment when you're looking for an excuse to stick your face in the freezer every 30 minutes. Granita is much simpler than churned ice creams and sorbets and can be prepared with no special equipment. All you need to do is keep a sweetened puree in a container in the freezer, and occasionally scrape it up with a fork to form its granular to flaky consistency. This is frozen dessert at its most primitive, so the process of making it is really simple.

Granita is an Italian frozen dessert very similar to sorbet, except that it's made by hand instead of in a machine. Because of this, the texture of granita is coarser and flakier - like eating snow! It's briefly crunchy at the first spoonful and then melts deliciously in your mouth.

With all the ripe summer fruit around flooding the market, there is no shortage of possibilities that one can try with Granitas. To make granita, you do nothing more than pour a fruity liquid into a pan, then place it in the freezer and use a spoon or fork to scrape the icy mixture as it freezes. It couldn’t be simpler, and there are so many different varieties: just make a liquid out of any fruit, pour it in a pan, and freeze it. Your Granita is ready.

I had shared a chilled melonballs salad with you the other day and I have the some leftover watermelon from that and see what I had been up to the whole week to beat the summer heat and keep myself cool. I will share the simple tricks of making this easy and quick coolers in other posts.

Coming back to Granita, I have tried the watermelon version. The gorgeous color of the watermelon shines through, and it reminds me of the summer outside. The great thing about granita is that the light, scraped ice on top stays perfectly frozen in the freezer and never crystallizes. It’s always light, cold, and perfect.

The exact recipe for the granita can vary depending on how ripe the fruit is, how sweet or sour it is, and how much liquid it holds. The ingredients for making granita is fruits, water and sugar. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the fruit has broken down into a pulp or alternatively, you churn the fruit in a food processor until it is pureed. Make a sugar syrup in advance and then stir it into the fruit puree.Either way, the end goal is a slightly thickened liquid with a consistency somewhere between orange juice and applesauce. To add more zing you can add in any extra flavorings. I like to squeeze a lemon, a pinch of black salt, crushed pepper, mint leaves. You can also add chocolate chips, dry fruits and the possibilities with granite is endless.

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 10 to 12

Prep time; 5 minutes

Setting time: 4 hours

Things you need to make this Granita:

4 cups watermelon cubes
1/4 cup lime juice
1/3 cup condensed milk
a pinch of black salt
a pinch of crushed pepper
1/2 cup raisins
lime wedges and mint leaves for garnishing

Let's learn how to make this Granita:

Place watermelon in container of food processor; pulse to puree watermelon.

Place the strainer over a bowl, pour pureed watermelon into it to strain out seeds, forcing watermelon through with back of spoon, if needed.

Stir lime juice and condensed milk into pureed watermelon.

Add salt and crushed pepper and pour into a freezer safe pan until firm.

After half an hour, take the pan out of the freezer and scrap the granita with a fork. Put it back in the freezer.

Continue doing this every half an hour or so until the granita is completely frozen and resembles fresh snow. Depending on how often and how vigorously you stir the granita, the texture can be flakier (less stirring) or finer (more stirring).

At this stage, you can either serve it up in individual bowls or lightly pack it into an air-tight container for later.

To serve, scrape frozen watermelon mixture with spoon to make granita. Stir in currants and serve with lime wedges and mint leaves immediately.

Enjoy Your Granita........ an easy frozen dessert that celebrates the fabulous fruit . That's really all there is to it. Watch out for this space for some amazing recipes.

Foodie Monday Blog hop

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

10:29 AM

With a creamy top and buttery biscuit base, who can resist this classic dessert ... No-bake Strawberry cheesecake. Cheesecake is a sweet dish consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest layer, consists of a mixture of soft, fresh cheese (typically cream cheese or ricotta), eggs, and sugar; the bottom layer often consists of a crust or base made from crushed cookies or digestive biscuits, graham crackers, pastry, or sponge cake. Cheesecake is usually topped with fruit, whipped cream, nuts, fruit sauce, or chocolate syrup.

Cheesecakes are made in different parts of the world using different ingredients such as, United States and Canada use cream cheese; in Italy, cheesecakes use ricotta; Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland use quark. Cheesecakes are most easily baked in a leak-proof spring form pan, often paired with a water bath to more evenly distribute the heat. Cheesecakes can be broadly categorized into two basic types: baked and unbaked.

Whether you make a bakes or no bake cheesecake, you will come across cream cheese — a very important ingredient in cheesecake. Many recipes recommend for Philadelphia Cheese, which makes the Cheesecake silky and shiny. But it is not a product that is easily available in many parts of the world, so making it at home is the only option you will have. Actually it’s pretty easy to make. You can learn how to make Cream Cheese at home Here.

Besides the cream cheese , you will be needing heavy cream or sour cream to help in softening the texture of the cheese and adding some moisture. Adding sour cream will give you the extra hit of sour tang to the cake but in this recipe I have added the fresh cream.Coming back to my recipe , Today I want to share an easy Cheesecake recipe which requires absolutely no baking and is delicious and refreshing. This Cheesecake I have made for our 26^th Foodie Monday Bloghop theme of “ Valentine’s Recipes”.

Cheesecake topped with bright, sweet strawberries is a flavor that never gets out of fashion! These two flavors work perfectly together, as the balance of creamy and rich plus juicy and sweet only work to enhance each other, especially when Valentine’s Day is around the corner. This cheesecake topped with a generous layer of strawberry preserves where each slice is packed with loads of creamy filling, graham crust and sweet strawberries for a taste of summer.

Is your mouth watering yet? Without further delay, let’s move on to the recipe:

Recipe Type: American

Course: Dessert

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time:40 minutes

Ingredients:

200gm digestive biscuits
100gm unsalted butter melted
75gm pistachios and walnuts
200ml fresh cream
200 ml cream cheese at room temperature
2 teaspoon Gelatin
100gm icing sugar
2 tablespoon strawberry coulis
1 teaspoon Rose water
250 gms strawberry
50gms granulated sugar
7 inch Loose Bottomed cake tin

Let's Learn how to make this No Bake Strawberry Cheese cake:

Melt the butter and keep aside.
Place the Digestive Biscuits on a ZIP bag and with the help of a rolling pin crush the biscuits into fine crumbs.
Now crush the Pistachios and walnut and add the same to biscuits . Now add the melted butter and mix everything until well combined.
Pack this mixture firmly into a loose-bottomed cake tin, spreading out with the back of a spoon so that it is evenly distributed and coming slightly up the sides of the tin. Chill until needed.
In the meantime cut the straw berries and grind in a blender.
Strain the juice into a saucepan. Add a few tbsp of icing sugar, to taste. Gently heat until you have a thick, but still drizzle-able coulis. Allow to cool completely.
Meanwhile, soak the gelatin in a small bowl of water for 5 min. Pour the cream into a pan and bring to a simmer then remove from the heat. Squeeze any excess water out of the gelatin and add to the warm cream, stirring until dissolved. Allow to cool slightly.
Beat 100g of icing sugar into the cream cheese along with the 2 tablespoon of Strawberry coulis and Rose water.
Add the gelatin cream along and beat until smooth.
Pour the cream cheese mixture into the biscuit base and refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight, until set.
Before serving Spread a generous layer of strawberry coulis on top and serve .

Rounding up my experience of making my first cheesecake is this beautiful surprise from my son which I could not resist but share with you. While I was Photographing this , I asked him to take a bite and share his comments on how it is being done and he came up with this beautiful message and an empty plate.....That says it all......

Happy Valentine's Day Readers......

Sweet Temptations

CARDAMOM PANACOTTA WITH POMEGRANATE REDUCTION

7:10 PM

Fruits & berries with their vibrancy, sweetness mixed with tartness are my favorites. I can never take my eyes off from their hues in the supermarket, so I never let any chance not to include them in my shopping list. Not only do they add a fresh flavor to desserts & salads, they are also packed with more nutrients than any diet plan you may be on! I experiment with fruits very often, and including these fruits in the recipe was not only easy, but also had the simplest flavors that were delicious and refreshing. You can check for these recipes like Pomegranate Ice Cream, Strawberry Pancakes, Cottage Cheese & Fruit salad, Tricolor PanaCotta etc.

Among all the fruits and berries , Pomegranates have always attracted me because its colour is so beautiful and vibrant and the seeds look just like little red jewels. Besides its look and taste ,this fruit gives great health benefits too – the juice keeps blood thin and helps prevent blood cells from clumping together, while the antioxidants keep cholesterol levels low.

Though I am not a person who believe in celebrating Valentine's day, but prefer to bask in it 365 days because the Feeling of Love is awesome.To celebrate the season of love, I have decided to make a series of recipes you can try at the comfort of your home on this coming Valentine's Day and the year ahead.And what better start than this No bake Italian dessert with cream and milk called Panna cotta which means “cooked cream” in Italian. its a softly set pudding which is creamy yet firm. Generally gelatin is used to set this pudding. Panna cotta can be wholly made with cream or with a combination of cream, milk and fruits.

So here is my take on this classic Panacotta recipe which I had made for my family who are close to my heart with Cardamom flavour and with Pomegranate reduction.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Setting Time: 4 hours

Serves-4

Ingredients

For The Cardamom Panna Cotta:

200 ml Amul Cream
200ml Full fat milk
½ cup Sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
2 teaspoon Gelatin
2 tablespoon Cold water

For The Pomegranate reduction:

Seeds of half a Pomegranate
2 teaspoon cornflour
¼ cup water
Sugar to taste

For Garnishing:

Few Pomegranate seeds
2 to 3 mint leaves

Let's Learn How to Make this Recipe:

In a small bowl, place the gelatin and pour the water over it. Let rest for about 20 mins. The gelatin will turn into jelly like mixture.
In a pan, combine cream, milk and sugar and bring to a rolling boil, stirring in between. Do this on a medium flame. Once it starts boiling over, add the cardamom powder and mix again.
Once done, take about 2 tbsp of this mixture and add to the gelatin and mix well.
Add this immediately to the hot milk mixture and combine well using a balloon whisk.
Let it cool down a bit. Pour into ramekins or any other glass bowl and let it set in the refrigerator for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.

To make the Pomegranate reduction:

Cut the pomegranates in half. Place a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl. Using your fingers, scrape the seeds into the sieve. With the back of a wooden spoon ,press on the seeds to extract the juice. Discard the seeds and set the juice aside.
In a medium saucepan, mix the cornstarch with the sugar. Slowly stir in the pomegranate juice and mix well. Cook this over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mix begins to thicken and darkens to a deep wine color, and the mix coats the back of the spoon. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Before serving the Panacotta, de mould it from the ramekin or glass bowl into the serving plate.
Pour the Pomegranate reduction on it, Place some pomegranate seeds and mint leaves on top and serve immediately.

Appetizers

TURKISH YOGURT SOUP WITH RICE, MINT AND PAPRIKA FLAKES

6:26 PM

Turkish cuisine is very rich in terms of variety of soups. Soups Known as “Corba” in Turkish forms a very important part of Turkish diet In rural Anatolia, it is very common for this yogurt soup be eaten as breakfast, for a substantial meal, throughout the year. Yayla Çorbası or "highland meadow" soup has drawn its name Yayla from the word "yaylalar" or high mountains meadows in northern of Turkey where grazing is at its best and high quality yogurt and dairy products are found in abundance. In Turkey, this soup is considered a good menu to fight cold because it has mild and minty flavor which easy and light for your stomach. this yogurt and mint soup is one of the most basic, tasty and filling soups I have and since then it has become an indispensable part of my comfort foods list.

Yogurt is an indispensable kitchen staple in Turkey. It is added to salads, made into sauces with garlic to scoop onto pasta dishes, used to moisten the layers of borek pies, to fix a refreshing yogurt drink, ayran, or turned into this wonderfully light but still a filling soup called yayla corbasi. Yayla chorbasi is somewhat similar to the Azerbaijani yogurt soup called dovgha , with the main difference being in the herbs used- the Azerbaijani soup features a variety of fresh herbs (cilantro, dill, spinach etc), while its Turkish counterpart is flavored with dried mint only.

Cuisine: Turkish

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

6 cups of water (you can also use vegetable stock)
1/2 cup basmati rice, rinsed and soaked for 30 minutes
2 tablespoon of olive oil
2 Cups plain, thick and creamy yogurt drained for 30 minutes
1 tablespoon All Purpose Flour.
1 tablespoon dried mint
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

For the dried mint & paprika flakes sauce:

2 tablespoon Olive Oil
½ tablespoon paprika flakes – you can use more for a spicier flavor
½ tablespoon dried mint

Let's Learn How to make Turkish Yogurt Soup:

Soak the basmati rice in water for 30 minutes and hang the plain yogurt in muslin cloth to remove the excess whey.
Bring the water to a boil in a heavy saucepan and add the rice. Stir well and simmer for about 20-25 minutes or until the rice is tender and has released its starch to thicken the soup. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile in a bowl, combine the yogurt and flour and beat until smooth (the flour stabilize the yogurt and keep it from curdling). From the pan, take a cupful of hot stock and whisk it into the mixture. Return the thickened mixture to the soup pan, stir in the dried mint and season with salt and ground black pepper. Stir well and simmer gently for another 10 minutes, or until the soup has a creamy consistency.

To make the dried mint and paprika flakes sauce, gently heat the olive oil in a separate pan on a low heat. Stir in the dried mint and paprika flakes, stir and cook on a very low heat so that the spices don’t burn for about 30 seconds, until the spices start to sizzle. Whisk this sauce into the soup.

Recipe adopted from http://ozlemsturkishtable.com/

Note: The Original recipe calls for adding egg yolk which I have not used .You can also presoak ¼ cup dried chickpeas in water for a few hours, then boil until tender. Drain the chickpeas and add them to the already cooked soup.

Sending this recipe to Foodie Monday Bloghop theme called "Soup"

Foodie Monday Blog hop

Muttabal - A Creamy Roasted Aubergine Dip

3:59 PM

Middle Eastern cuisine is known for its massive selection of appetizers, referred to as "Mazze". The different types of Mazze prepared by people from this region add to more than a hundred dishes. Some dishes are cold, others are hot, but all are a feast to the eye as they build up to form this colorful mosaic on the table. Mazze's are customarily eaten dipped with warm pita bread. Usually, the main dish is preceded by a table full of Mazzes that people enjoy as they are having a drink and chatting together. This setting of happy chattering and sipping of drinks while nibbling on the mazzes can go for an hour or so before the main dish is served.

Muttabal is an extremely delicious Middle Eastern recipe I’m sure you’ll love! It is very nutritious, with a creamy taste due to the sesame paste (tahina) and yoghurt. Muttabal is mainly made from eggplants or Aubergine . Eggplant helps in reducing the risk of cancer and is effective for healing mouth ulcer, gastritis, pneumonia and arthritis. Spicy, with rustic flavor of garlic, the dip is served as mezze on pieces of pita.

There’s a common misconception that is the same thing as Baba Ghanoush. In many restaurants, the two are used interchangeably on menus when in practice they are actually different dishes deriving from one main ingredient: roasted eggplant or Aubergine . As a result, both have a deep smoky taste that languishes on your tongue after each bite. While Muttabal and Baba Ghanoush are each found within the Levant region, their similarities end with the roasted eggplant and seasonings like lemon juice and garlic.

So after all of this what is the difference between the two? Both these dishes have the same main ingredient, smoky baked aubergine, but that where similarities end. Mutabal is the one with yogurt, Tahini and Garlic. Baba Ghanoush is the one with pomegranate molasses, tomatoes, parsley and walnuts. Aubergine for both dishes is traditionally cooked in an unorthodox way. You put the aubergine whole directly on open flame and you cook it till it is charred on the outside and soft on the inside. This gives the dish its characteristic smokiness.

Foodie Monday Blog Hop theme is getting as interesting as it's member Bloggers. This is an honest attempt on part of each and every Participating Blogger to cook as per the decided theme among the members each Week and share it on Monday. This week the Bloggers have decided to cook on the theme: Alphabetfood...doesnot it sounds interesting. Each and every Blogger has to choose an ingredient which correspondence to her name and cook a dish using the same ingredient. This weeks theme has been suggested by a talented Blogger Jolly Naidu, Food Blogger & SEO Professional who blogs at jollyhomemaderecipes.blogspot.in. Do check her website for some amazing collection of Cake recipes especially Whole Wheat Eggless Chocolate Cake, Rainbow Swirl cake, Orange Chiffon cake, Biscuit Cake to name a few.

As per this week's Foodie Monday Blog Hop theme #Alphabetfood. I have decided to take up Aubergine as my ingredient as per the initial of my name #A. Aubergine with its near-black shiny-skinned exterior, is probably the most familiar comes in a wide variety of shapes, colours and sizes. Italian cooks enjoy varieties with long fruit and striking lavender and cream streaks. Asian varieties vary widely: some, such as the bitter-flavoured pea aubergine, are the size of a grape; the seed-filled, rounded Thai aubergine has green stripes and is used in curries; the beautifully long and slender pale-purple Japanese and Chinese varieties are ideal for stir-frying. The aubergine can also be ivory-colored, which almost certainly led people in some countries to name it the ‘eggplant’. I have decided make Muttabal which is a Middle eastern dish using the ingredient Aubergine.

You need:

Large Eggplant - 2 no. (Roasted and peeled)

Lemon Juice – 1tbsp

Tahini Paste - 2 tbsp

Greek Yogurt - 2 Tbsp or thick plain yogurt

Medium Onion- finely chopped

Garlic – 6-8 cloves (reduce if you do not like the taste of garlic)

Salt – ½ tsp or as per taste

To garnish:

Coriander leaves
Olive oil
Chopped Green chillies

Rub a bit of olive oil on the skin of the eggplants. Pierce them in a few places. Build a hot fire on a charcoal grill or set a gas grill to high. Grill the eggplants, turning and shuffling periodically until each side is blackened, and the flesh starts to collapse. Once cooked, transfer the eggplant to a bowl.

When cool enough to handle, slit the skin of the eggplants skins with the tip of a knife (if not split already). Scrape the flesh into a fine mesh strainer, and season lightly with salt. Set aside over a bowl or sink while you get on with the onions.

With the back of a spoon, gently press any remaining moisture out of the eggplant. Scrape the flesh into the bowl of a food processor with the metal blade attached. Add the onions, yogurt and lemon juice, tahini paste, garlic and then purée until smooth. Check for seasoning, adding more yogurt, lemon or salt as needed. If you feel you want it a little creamier and eggplant-garlic taste is a bit too strong, add Greek yogurt, sour cream and blend well.

Spread nicely in a plate in such a way that you form a pit in the center that is not too deep. Garnish with coriander leaves and top with olive oil and sprinkle chopped green chillies. Serve with Cream cracker, grilled Naan or Pita Bread.

Note: The eggplant needs to be as dry as possible for a thicker spread. Add some cooked chickpeas to the processor until the desired consistency is reached. For a richer spread, replace the yogurt with the same amount of natural cashew butter.