Calzone and Home made Marinara sauce (Italian)

I keep going to her blog to see those goodies she is been creating from a long time.., Its's her patience in searching and trying to make, change and create her own signature of dishes she recreates in world of her own kitchen, and also tells about the persons, things, places, books, etc., about those dishes she tries out.

I had this recipe book marked from her blog quite some time back, but I kept postponing as this was more like our Potato buns, but I just coudn't resist to give my kids a treat!!, Oh! yes my kids love all these kind of things they love to eat than my authentic cooking most of the time. coming back to the recipe I have come to know that this is from Italy, as she tells us  it is a sort of folded pizza like dough with a filling, when the dough is baked it swells up with a stuffing, this is what is called ''calzone''. I read about this in a book wich says it is a speciality of the resourceful bakers of Naples whose hungry customers were often had not much money to spare, this was basically a fast food.

I just altered this recipe in regarding the flour as I did not want to use All purpose flour so I tweaked this recipe a little bit.

CALZONE WITH MARINARA SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Quinoa flour

1 cup All purpose flour

1/2 cup soya flour

4 tbsp of olive oil

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning

FOR THE FILLING

INGREDIENTS:

1 Block of Tofu frozen

1/4 cup of peas

3/4 cup chopped onions

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup red peppers chopped

1/4tsp of turmeric powder (optional)

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

salt and pepper as per taste

2 sprigs of parsley and thyme

METHOD:

FOR THE DOUGH:

Take yeast add salt and sugar with 4 to 5 tbsp of warm water and leave it in a warm place, when you see the yeast bubbling up that shows the yeast is still active add olive oil , flour, and seasonings mix well and by using water make it into a soft dough, knead well for 5 to 10 minutes then oil the bowl and the dough and leave it in a warm place until it doubles in size. meanwhile

FOR THE FILLING:

Allow the tofu to come out from its frozen state and squeeze out the water content and crumble it. Take a wok heat a tbsp oil and saute onions and garlic once they are transparent and soft, turmeric then add the peas, chopped peppers until they are roasted then add the crumbled tofu, and leave for few minutes until they are kind of cooked then add the fresh herbs, salt and pepper mix well and keep aside.

THE DOUGH AGAIN:

Once the dough has risen, give it a little punch, then knead a little bit and make it into 8 to 10 balls as you require it to be big or small or to how many people you are going to serve!!.

Roll each dough into a circle of palm size or 6'' in diameter (I did not measure), place the filling and top it with grated cheese in each one of the flattened dough at one side leaving the sides, then fold it from the other side and seal the semi circle properly so that they wouldn't open up, I twisted the ends like those pasties, Once all of them are filled and sealed [place them on a greased tray and leave them for a second rising for few minutes by allowing it to puff up, it actually puffed up so I could see the traces of my twists.

Place this in a oven and bake these calzones in 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4 for 20 to 25 minutes are until it becomes golden brown in colour.

HOME MADE MARINARA SAUCE

I do make tomato based sauce as this for pizza's, pasta's, Lasagne etc., but I make them fresh when ever I plan to dish out a recipe which needs sauces.., This is the first time I made so much sauce for one go and now it is stored in the fridge!!, Again this recipe is from her...., I just a tweaked it a little bit...



















INGREDIENTS:

650 gms of Tomatoes
200 gms Tomato puree
1/4 cup passata
2-3 Onions
1 1/2tsp of Ginger-Garlic paste
1 Green pepper (Capsicum)
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp pepper powder
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
2-3 tbsp of oil
salt as required

METHOD:

On a stove top I burnt the capsicum/pepper and charred it and removed its skin and its pith, chopped the onions and with GG paste grinded them into a fine paste, In a wok heat oil add this ground fine paste and saute for few minutes until the raw smell of onions disappear, then add the puree, passata, sugar, chilli powder, pepper powder and allow it to boil for few minutes until it starts thickening.
Then in the end add the seasonings  and boil for 2 more minutes and put of the stove.
Once it is cool store it in a air tight bottle or container and refrigerate it and use it as required.

I like to send this to Nupur's copy cat Adaptation, blog bite #3 , ends on may 25th check out her blog for details and have a go at it...

Hope you all enjoyed just like my kids, take care c u soon...............

Coming back again to tell you
I am linking this to Tried and tested event started by zlamushka and now being taken care with lots of love by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles and is being now hosted by our Queen of MW that's what I call her Srivalli of Cooking4allseasons.

Home made Lime Pickle

 A few weeks back I made these pickles, It's been in my draft for a long time now!!,  I have mentioned in my old  posts that I make my own pickle, but never thought of posting it.., A few of my friends have tasted my pickle too!!, and as I make it often I usually do not go with measurments and very confident in making it. I make these pickles especially for my son, he loves Lime pickles as much as I do, this is my favourite.  It takes a little time but worth the effort in the end, I tried taking some clicks to show you how I do it, actually I took all the process but my powder picture was a disaster so I didn't post it here.., Hope you all like it.., I might not be precise about some quantities but trying out in small quantities really helps :), Just because I didn't exactly measure as I completely forgot that I am going to post this !! I am giving you some excuses, may be next time I will remember and do it properly, The next time will take a longer time as I have made two bottles like that!!.

I have made these pickles with both Lime and Lemon, this is with the Lime as you can see, but they are not like those yellow Lemons/limes we get in India, the Indian lemons have soft skin and they marinate by around a week But, both Lime and Lemon are quite thick skinned here in UK and takes around 10 to 12 days to marinate. coming back to the recipe here is how it goes........

HOME MADE LIME PICKLES

INGREDIENTS:

25 Limes (Extra 4 to 5 Limes)

3/4 th cup Salt (I might have used around 200 to 225 gms)

1 tsp Fenugreek seeds

1 tsp Mustard seeds

4 to 5 tbsp of Chilli powder (I used 10 Badgi and 10 Guntur chillies)

1/2 cup oil (I use sunflower oil or Gingely oil)

SEASONING:

1/2 cup oil ( I use sunflower oil / Gingely oil )

1 tbsp of Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

METHOD

First of all wash the Limes and wipe them clean, Keep a clean and dry container and salt ready.

Next chop the Limes into half and again into another half and again that into another half , what I am trying to say is cut each lime into 8 to 10 pieces, cutting them into smaller bits is what I recommend.

cut to 2 to 3 of limes spread it in the container and on top of that spread 2 to 3 tbsp of salt on it like this keep on building layer by layer, Take another 4 to 5 Limes squeeze juice out of them and add it to this layered Limes. Close the container air tight and leave it to marinate. Mix this Lime once in two days with a clean ladle for about a week or 10 days that is until you notice that the skin is becoming soft.

I have shown here how I have layered salt and lime to marinate....

After it gets Marinated, That day you prepare the Pickle spicy powder. To Prepare the spicy powder, Take a clean wok roast the fenugreek seeds without oil and keep aside, Then roast Mustard seeds and keep aside, then roast Red chillies broken with just a 1/4 tsp of oil in a very low flame (But, if you are using ground chilli powder dry roast them in a wok for a few minutes), Once all the ingredients are finely roasted and cooled put it in a dry grinder (mixie) to make a fine powder with 1/4 tsp of Asafoetida, Take a wide mouthed big bowl and pour all the marinated lime into it then Add this powder to the marinated limes and mix well,
Now take 1/2 cup of oil heat it up and 1 tbsp of Mustard seeds, keep the oil in a low flame once they splutter put of the stove and keep it aside until it is cool, Once the oil is cool pour it into the Marinated lime spicy mixture, mix thoroughly and let it rest for few minutes
Now your Lime pickle is ready......

Now the pickle is ready. You can put this back into the same container and this kind of pickle stays for a long duration of time...they can be stored up to 7 to 8 months if it is still left over!!
Take an other look at my lovely mouthwatering pickle.



SOME TIPS:
I squeeze 4 to 5 Lime juices into it than avoiding adding water which ensures more shelf life.
Do not store pickles in steel containers as acid in the pickle and salt will cut the steel and you will have a hole!!.
If you want to use water boil the water thoroughly so the impurities are destroyed and allow it to cool down and then add.
Adding more oil keeps the pickle in good condition for a long time, I do not use too much or too little oil. Keeping this in the sun will give the process a boost in marinating and also shelf life, (But, I have never kept my pickles in sun, I just leave them on the counter top here as sunshine is something I get only in summer).

VARIATIONS:
When I was in India I used to add Maakali beru, Manga Ingi (kind of ginger),  to these pickles which gives a great smell and taste to the pickle, Maakali and Manga Ingi does not need any marinating and can be added at the end of the process too.. I also use few green chillies which I marinate with the limes cut them into small pieces and add them to the lime. This time I didn't  use anything with it.
You can also add Fresh turmeric and fresh Green peppers too.., If you are using peppers reduce the quantity of chilies in it.

Health tips: Not a very healthy option, that is why use a little  at a time!, as pickles have lot of oil and salt (that too shop bought ones) it is not good for people with high Blood pressure.

Hope you enjoy my pickles.. sorry only viewing... and please try it out and tell me how it turned out....do please remember chillies may be different so it is better know your chillies and chilli powder, so you can increase or decrease to your liking.... c u soon...

Rasmalaai and Rasgulla for the Indian cooking challenge

Hi, everybody as again I am late posting my recipe, not that I made today or yesterday, will you believe that I made this thrice past 2 weeks, I love Bengali sweets too much as they are not as sweet as the south Indian sweets and is made of milk!!, I basically love all milk based sweets...
This month when srivalli of spicing your life asked us to make Rasmalaai for the Indian Cooking challenge, I was way too thrilled it's been a long time I made this, I first learnt this sweet from my Padma manni, she is an expert on this, but I never made them, as I always ended up making authentic south Indian sweets more often.
Thanks valli, I had such a gala time eating them....
My twins had their birthday on the 15th and one wanted Rasmalai and the other Rasgulla so I made it half and half !! pleased them both  and my eldest forgot to download the photos from her mobile and I was very busy....
First time when I made I forgot to take the photos, I was planning to take them next day, but when my sister called up and said she would be visiting me.., It has been such a long time I saw her and my niece so I completely forgot everything... Ok, let me stop back to the recipe
Rasmalaai is as the name itself tells you is made of maalai, that is milk being condensed, where in the cream is quite thick and is gogeously flavoured..,
It is basically a very easy sweet to make and you can even make it the day before if you have a party or friends visiting you and serve them chilled., for the hot summer it is such a slurpy sweet.

RASMALAAI

INGREDIENTS:
Milk 3 litres (2 litres for making for the Paneer (Ras) and 1 litre for making the Malaai/condensed milk)
3 tbsp of vinegar
5 cup Water
16 tbsp of Sugar (8 for the sugar syrup and 8 for Rasa/milk syrup)
saffron to garnish
1/4 cup Pista and Badam finely chopped
1 tsp Maida flour
1/4 tsp of cardamom powder

METHOD
In a bowl start heating milk, and once it starts to boil put a ladle in it so that it doesn't ooze out!!, keep an eye on it and watch out, so its better to have it in a very medium flame, Once the milk starts boils add the vinegar and stir through, while you are stirring you will see the milk getting curdled that is the milk gets separated from the water and this water is called the whey water. The paneer starts floating at the top and the water is below it.
Now take a fine cotton cloth or a cheese cloth and drain this paneer to separate water, do not throw away the water as it can be used in many ways!!
Once the paneer is drained pour some cold water on it so the smell of vinegar is gone!!
Now tie and hang it for an hour so the water is completely drained out nicely squeeze out the water, Now it forms a mass of paneer.
Take this on to the table top and knead it into a nicely pliable dough, so that there is no water content in it and should not stick to the hand, Now add maida and make it into small balls. do not make big balls as they enlarge in size by the end of procedure!!
Now to make the sugar syrup:
In a pressure cooker add water and sugar as indicated (8tbsp) and allow it to boil, drop these balls into it and allow it boil then close the lid of the pressure cooker and let it cook for 7 minutes (2 whistles) then once the pressure is released open the lid, you can now see that they are double in size.
Take them out into a sugar syrup as you can see in the picture below which is also called as Rasgullas!!

RASGULLAS

As you can see them in the sugar syrup they become double in size, press each ball slightly to remove excess sugar syrup and keep aside.

Preparation of the Malaai or condensed milk
When you are starting the procedure for the paneer you can start boiling milk in another stove as it takes some time !!, The milk should start boiling and reduce to half of its quantity that is most of the watery portion in the milk will evaporate and the milk becomes more thicker, to this add the remaining quantiy of sugar, chopped nuts and cardamom powder and also the saffor threads, to this add the pressed out paneer balls and leave it absorb the malai and refrigerate it and serve it chilled... and ENJOY.....
You might find the procedure too long but it is a very easy process, you don't even have to measure, you can just take milk and start with the process..
My verdict: Absolutely gorgeous to devour, very easy, no need to measure anything just add to sugar to your taste, like me My Ras malaai was far too sweet for the sweet tooths in my zoo.., I even used condensed milk with my own condensed milk and made it more thicker!!, I added MTR Badam powder, which is gorgeous and smells wonderfully.., totally it was great..
Thanks valli for the lovely challenge....
Some tips: Do not use Long life milk, they take a longer time to curdle and they are quite sticy too, that is my experience use full fat milk for the lovely consistency, I did not use maida at all but then also it turned out well, I just did not like the idea of using maida to hold the balls, knead them well they will be fine., If you are worried just make it with only 1/2 litre of milk! use less quatity of vinegar/Lemon juice.

Reine De Saba by Julia Child

This Book makes me cook, is a book club by few bloggers, with whom I joined with, just to read some books at least once a month!!, these days I have never been able to read any serious books at all, when I found this club, I was truly happy and they also welcomed me into their club. This is my second book, This time again I got hold of this book only after the 15th of last month, I was a bit confused with the posting dates, which I came to know a little late, Now I know exactly when to post the next one!!, Anyways as usual I think I am the last one to post!!.
This month (april) book choosen by the book club was ''Julie and Julia'', 524 recipes, 365 days, 1 tiny apartment by Julie Powell.
As many of you who might have read the book or seen the movie know that Julie powell is a secretary who lives in a tiny apartment with her husband and how she found this book in her mom's collection and her saga or journey through this book of Julia Child's Art of French CoMastering the oking, and this is how the project was born!!
Julie begins to cook everyone of the 524 recipes in the book, within the span of just one year- 365 days!!, Once she plunges herself into this project, she just thinks only about this, it just becomes a breath to her life, The life with her family, friends and work all becomes secondary in her life when she starts the project.
The book particularly I liked in it was her hard labour in trying out all the recipes to the perfection of Julia child, was quite a tedious task for somebody who knew very minimal things about cooking!!, her journey was really a tough one, as she had issues mentally with some of the things which wouldn't eat!!.
The other thing was her husband's involvement in her project was what I most appreciated, juggling between everyday work, his sickness and his wife's project, hats off to him, caring and encouraging her in every step of her project, sometimes his defensive tactic of selective hearing as julie says, made him survive with his wife's venture!!.
what I didn't like in the book was too much of the 'F' word, and talking too much about sex was what I did not like, there was not much of anything about the cooking or baking, as what I had expected!!, Nothing much about Julia child at all, The book is all about her struggling with her life and her living with her family and friends, I could see some of the names of some dishes and reading it I came to know that it is more about cooking meat and not much vegetarian cooking in it.
In the end I felt really sorry for Julie as she felt that she was not at least recognised by Julia child, but as she herself says - what it takes to find your way in the world, It's not what I thought it was, - I don't know confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have no question , But, there's something else something that these things grow out of  - It's Joy!!.
I do not blame Julie, being a blogger myself, I know how each one of the bloggers out there dedicate their life into blogging and how much it involves and revolves around their life, through this book I take this opportunity to give a big bow to all the food bloggers who love their bleeders and think them as part of their life.
Meryl streep as Julia child has taken the movie into an excellent setting, she just blends in with Julia child's character and feel us more rapport with that lady in name and fame. After seeing the movie 'Devil wears Prada' I am a big fan of Meryl streep and just loved her in ''Julie and Julia'' too!!.
I should say that I loved the movie than the book, Reading a lot of MAofFc in googling I came to know that this Recipe was the last in her book, as I think I am the last one to write about this book, this would be quite an appropriate choice, I really do not know if Julie or Julia would approve my cake..., but as Julie says I tried my best to bake this cake!!

REINE DE SABA (QUEEN OF SHEEBA CAKE)

INGREDIENTS:
3 Oz Semi sweet Baking Chocolate
1 oz Unsweetned chocolate
2 tbsp Strong coffee (dark rum)
1/2 cup Unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Granulated sugar
1/3 cup blanched Almonds (Pulverised in blender with 2tbsp of Granulated sugar)
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1/2 cup Plain bleached Cake flour (I used Self-raising flour)

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (Gas Mark 4)
In a sauce pan melt both the chocolates and strong coffee (/dark rum) by using a double boiler set over a pan of 2 or 3'' of water, combine and let chocolate melt stirring smooth and turn of heat
In an another bowl take softened butter, beat it add sugar and yolks and beat until soft and fluffy
In an another bowl beat the egg whites add cram of tartar and salt and beat until soft peaks are formed add 2 tbsp of sugar and beat until shining peaks form leaving a trial behind.
Now Blend the warm melted chocolate into the yolk mixture, then blend in the ground almonds and almond extarcts.
Immediately stir in 1/4th of egg whites, delicately and rapidly fold in the quarter of the flour, this way alternatively keep on adding the egg whites and fold in the flour until completely both of them are used up.
Then fold this mixture into the cake tin immediately and press in well with the help of spatula and bake this in the lower middle rack of a preheated oven
Bake the cake for around 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes clean when inserted in the cake, But, You need to keep in mind the cake in the middle should be still soft or glooey, and should move when shaken.
Remove it from the tin once it is cooled and then do the Icing.

I did a chocolate Icing with :
4 oz of chocolate
A knob of butter
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of milk
I melted the chocolate, with knob of butter, sugar and tbsp of milk and made an Icing on to top it.
I had a real problem my cake tin which locks is loose came of when I lifted it to put it in the oven, came off and I felt like crying, and i tried my best to push the mixture into the tin and I had no hope that it would really bake or not !!, thank God!! it did bake and came out really well, I really wanted to show a piece of how it looked but my kids were more interested in eating it than taking photos!!, when I came back I saw that they had just left me a piece of it and as it was late in the night I dare not take any photos, As most of photos are crap !!
I used some flaked almonds to top it which I saw in one of the blogs, when I googled for this recipe, I had 3 to 4 blogs to go through for this recipe, then I decided to take the recipe from this blog and Nigella's blog which were almost similar.

I was not really very precise with the measurments as oz/gms/cups differ a little bit which is very difficult to measure so I have just rounded of and I used a little bit of more sugar, the best was the Icing I made it was really stupid of me when I melted butter and chocolate they were perfect, as my family has a sweet tooth I thought I will add a tbsp of sugar and when I added it started to become hard and then I added milk and made it little liquidy but it was curdled up so then again I added 2 more pieces of chocolate and then it gained back its shining consistency!!.
Hope you all enjoyed my post as I enjoyed this cake!! c u soon..., I think I will be on time for the next time.
will be off to see what my friends have cooked from the book... and you also my friends do check out their blogs.

Khus-khus Kheer, Ghasa-ghasa Payasam/ white poppy seeds sweet Drink

Of course, who doesn't know Ghasa-ghasa paayasam, and why am I posting this recipe now!!, I do make this a lot and I have never been able to take photos of them anytime, Like my Bisibele Bath!!, I keep forgetting almost all the time, Today my kids were back with their dad from their Bank Holiday Monday Vacation, and I was stuck with my daughter at home, thinking I will make her sit and study as her exams start from coming tuesday and is upto June end!!, I am completely gone bonkers , and keep screaming and shouting at her most of the time, she has started to hate me I think.
She is a kind of person who takes everything very calmly, sometimes which makes me wonder why is she like this, I remember my Dad used to say when she was a little baby around 2-3 months old , she used to just stare at the ceiling or somewhere God knows where and was  very quite, smiling and  very sweet baby, He always used to tell me when Ramakrishna Paramahamsa went  he must have left her and gone !!, I used to laugh and he used to tell me I am really serious, why does she stare like that completely blank she sees through you, I wonder and want to know what she might be thinking!!, well, we never knew what she was thinking and still I do wonder what goes on in her mind.
I never remember her throwing tantrums or talking with a childish or should I say baby talk with some letters being disappearing or give a stress or streched or sing along way when they talk which Aishu never did !!, when she started speaking at the age of 10-11 months she used to speak very fluently and we were quite surprised, she always used to be a very quite child, always loved to read books which she still does. Yesterday when we went to the centre she said I have got a wishlist of books and want to buy them I said let's see if we can get some here in the mall, we could buy only one book ''20 thousand leagues under the sea'', the other books she couldn't find, ''Catcher in the rye'' was another one, which she told me that they wouldn't sell in the shops as it is banned. she wants me to read that book, I still haven't had the chance, another book I have been suggested by her is ''To kill a Mocking bird'', I have to soon read these books for her!!!. she has asked me this time when she goes to India she wants to buy Mahabharata and Ramayana, she is now reading War and peace. God!!, she is a serious reader.
She has never been a trouble to me in any ways, she doesn't gets tensed up for her exams and tells me be cool ma, don't worry I will do alright, and takes everything very calmly, I get scared and she tells me to take a breath of fresh air, and  second  girl says breath in breath out, mom and don't worry everything will go well, but, that one is not at all like my eldest, she gets tensed up but she is like a girl with time management skills, she keeps alarm with anything and everything that she has to finish !!.
Oh! now I have left everything in HIS hands and pray she does well in her exams and her ambitions gets fulfilled. Best of luck to her future and God bless her always....
Coming back to the recipe, I saw this event hosted by Priya of easy n tasty recipes who started the CWS event and this is her month of seeds and it was Cardamom, I thought two in one, kids would enjoy and kheer delight and I could as well participate in the event. so....here is my recipe, this is H's favourite sweet and I keep making it often.

KHUS-KHUS KHEER/ GHASA-GHASA PAAYASAM/ WHITE POPPY SEEDS SWEET DRINK

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup of Poppy seeds/ Ghasa-ghasa/ Khus-khus

10 Almonds

10 Pistachios

10 Cahew nuts

1 Cup Coconut milk/ 3/4th cup freshly grated coconut

A pinch of edible camphor/ paccha karpooram

4 pods of Cardamom

A fist full of Rice / 1/4 cup of Raw rice

150-200 gms of Jaggery (use jaggery according to your sweet tooth!!)

METHOD

You can use coconut milk by extracting it from the fresh coconut or as sometimes I just grind freshly grated coconut with the other ingredients and make the kheer

First of all soak in hot water poppy seeds, all the nuts and rice, leave it an hour or so until they are well soaked.

Next Grind all the above said ingredients into a smooth paste and set aside

Meanwhile In a 1/4 cup of water boil the grated jaggery until it dissolves then filter and keep it aside

At the same time Boil 1 and 1/2 litres of milk and set aside.

In a large container boil the filtered Jaggery syrup when it starts boiling add this ground paste and keep on stirring and starts forthing up, do not stop as the kheer starts to thicken and if not careful it might start sticking to the bottom.

Then add well powdered cardamom seeds and paccha karpooram/ edible camphor

Then add the boiled milk and stir continously for just few minutes, you can see bubbles forming at the edge of the container, then put off the stove other wise it starts curdling and your kheer will spoiled.

Serve hot or cold

Mum always said Drink Ghasa- Ghasa paayasam and sleep well!!

I also like to send this valli's Thanda Mela.

Strawberries with Almond Sauce

We both did a window shopping around the city centre and came back home quite tired, we had a subway sandwich then had a pack of crisps and went around the shops thought we will go to the station and we would be home soon, she had and kept telling what I need to cook today, but when we came to station we came to know that we need to wait almost an hour and half  in te cold weather !!, so by the time we were back home it was nearly half seven, so we sorted somethings out in the house and thought of cooking something up soon, I then remembered this recipe which I wanted to try out from this blog, PJ of Ginger and Garlic has lovely recipes which would be very interesting to my kids, so I was showing my daughter if she would like this than what she had already asked for, so we sat down to check out the recipe, she was really not very interested with eating Tofu today, so we were checking out more recipes from this chef Mr. Mark Bittman, well I really didn't know who it was and I came to know about him through PJ, so I started googling and I stumbled on this blog called I Heart cooking club, I really was so interested to participate in the event, so I had think fast what I could muster up, this was all daughter's idea and she was with me and helped in doing this too..., It was really tasty, but I did tweak them a little, I should say Mark Bittman talks very well, and as he says you can do it your way, if you know the ingredients, lick and see if that is how you want!!, then that's just fine so here is my recipe and of course I did a back up check with the procedures with Joy of cooking.., just to make sure I wouldn' t make anything wrong, like cross checking.. as in the video of Mark Bittman doesn't give you exact measurments.

STRAWBERRY WITH ALMOND CREME ANGLAISE

INGREDIENTS :
Strawberries as you wish
1/2 cup Cream ( I used full creme)
1/2 cup milk
1 and 1/2 tsp Custard Powder
2 Egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
10 Almonds
1/2 tsp Almond essence

METHOD
Take a pan and toast almonds slightly and keep aside.
Take a bowl put the toasted almonds and pour in the cream, milk and sugar and keep stirring and when it starts heating up add custard powder and the yolks and keep on stirring until it thickens, do not boil and if you allow it boil as the yolks are in their they might get curdled up, as both Mark and Joy of cooking say it might curdle up and if it does Joy of cooking says put it in the processor and it would become alright.
But I was, should I say both us worked together and it didn't curdle up and my daughter reminded me as Mark says turn your spoon around and pull a straight line on it, to check the right consistency of the Almond sauce it will not waver!! ahem!!, mum it is perfect said my little sweet heart and here my Almond sauce was ready.
Take a bowl and strainer and strain the sauce and take the Crushed almonds out and set aside, put this Cre'me anglaise into the refrigerator for the sauce to cool
Cut the strawberry and then pour the Almond Sauce over it and sprinkle crushed almonds to decorate and serve it chilled.
Hope you enjoyed as we did, check out a precise recipe for the above sauce in Mark's/Joy of cooking or by Googling with some of wonderful bloggers who would have tried it out !!.
I would also send this to Thanda Mela event and cooking with kids both hosted by Srivalli.

Here are some more pics of my strawberry almond sauce.

how do you like it ?? .............

Thank you and c u soon......

Broi'che with vanilla Cre'me patisserie BBD #29

Hi everybody, I know I am really crazy and obssessed with baking, I would like to write too much as I am very short of time and want to post is as soon as possible as it is 11:32!!, and my computer has become very slow and keeps stucking now and then!!
This month's Bread Baking Day was hosted by Cathy of Bread Baking Experience..., which was started by Zorra of Kochpotf I  wanted to make this after I had a taste of this combination, where in I couldn't stop eating.., it was so awesome...

BROI'CHE WITH VANILLA CRE'ME PATISSERIE

INGREDIENTS:
600 gms flour
10 oz / 250 gms butter
4 eggs
1 tbsp Yeast
3 oz/100ml milk
1/2 tsp salt
30 oz/ 80 gms sugar

METHOD
Dilute yeast in the warm milk and leave it for some time so that it starts to raise, then Take flour, salt, sugar and mix well then add yeast and add eggs one by one in a bowl and beat it then  mix well with the flour and then add butter softened little by little and this dough would be very soft and very difficult to handle, allow it to raise.
Once raised put them in pots and allow it to raise again second time then Bake them in a preheated oven at 160 degrees/Gas Mark 3 until well done, that is the skewer comes out clean.

The Best thing was my broiche couldn't go up very well and burnt slightly as you can see because it hit the top of the oven which I later noticed and had to change the stacks!!, what did I learn from this, that I should check out the raise of the dough when it is baking!!

I have shown some of my fillings here in each pot
Green pot has a chocolate filling

Pink has just the patisserie filling

Yellow pot has Nut filling

All my fillings are getting ready to go into the pots for a raise....

TO MAKE VANILLA CRE'ME PATISSERIE

INGREDIENTS:
1 Pint Milk
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tbsp of pure vanilla extract

METHOD:
Boil Milk in a medium heat with vanilla extract, Break eggs beat it with sugar, whisk well and then add flour and whisk again, Pour boiled milk little by little then put it back on heat, stir continuously until it thickenes use it immediately or cover it with wrap and store in the refrigerator.

Ref: Joy of baking and videos in Google!! check out, you have many videos out there..., I did a little bit alteration like adding little less butter, and used flour to manage the dough as it was too difficult to handle!!

One more click of the Gorgeous bread...

I have lost Vanilla cre'me patisserie photos, My card reader is not reading!!, once I get it sorted out may be I would able to post it :(
Anyway I don't think cathy is going to accept my post as it is past midnight, My comp got stuck again, and I couldn't post it on time...,
Now, I will be able to write leisurely about my saga of this recipe, I had no pots today morning I bought these pots!!!, I had thought of getting dough ready and then I will go and buy some pot today, and then I noticed I had no plain flour at all, So, I did all my shopping in the afternoon came home by half three and started of with everything, having diffculty in raising the dough everything went well, and I baked them by around 10:45 in the night and I was ready with the post, I must thank my daughter who helped me in taking photos and got everything ready for me to post but with computer getting stuck I got into all sorts of problems and she helped with that too.., I owe this recipe to her!!, sorry cathy I tried my best and I was not able to do it on time!!, may be next time..
I would also like to send this to Yeast spotting and champa's Baking event.