Monthly Archives: August 2011

A Date… with the Date Cake!

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Ufff! I have been getting rather sluggish about updating my blog! I dont know but is this a phase that most bloggers go through? Oh well… worry not, I wont fail you :) not entirely at least…I will try to make sure to keep those sweet posts coming.

So… since I am in an Islamic country and since a lot of my colleagues and few of my friends are fasting, I thought it best to do something in the name of Ramadan.. and what better than to indulge myself in a Date… with a DATE CAKE!

If you don’t already know, baking and me are sworn enemies; I HATE following recipes, and I am forced to follow them when it comes to baking regardless… even if I do follow them to the bone, the gods of baking hate me so much that they will make sure to burn it if not anything else. If at all something does turn right… by the slightest chance; I would like to thank the moons, stars, Gods and what have you…  for blessing me with a rare miracle.

So what happened you ask.. about my date cake.. oh man!!!! It turned out so good.. it was lethal to hide in my house.. to hold those calories all to myself was absolutely criminal. I’d find myself sneaking into my own kitchen at night to smuggle a piece or two.. and I live by myself… I just didn’t want my conscious self to find out and then beat me.

So it was distribution time… I carried some over to my friend, Mat’s house and he scooped a few extra slices to package for work the next day… and when I took the rest of the yumminess to work, my colleague Celine loved it so much she decided to take some back to her husband. So here’s something you really should check out.

Walnut, Date and Honey Cake (By BBC’s GoodFood 101 cakes and bakes – modified to increase quantity)

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 340g or 12oz or 1½ cups of Self Raising Flour
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 265g or 9oz or 1 heaped cup of Softened Butter
  • 150g or 6 oz or ¾ cup muscovado sugar
  • 5 tbsp clear honey
  • 3 eggs beaten
  • 2 medium ripe bananas
  • 150g or 6 oz or ¾ cup stoned dates
  • 75g walnut pieces (i cheated… i ran out of walnuts and used some almonds instead :( )

Preheat the oven to 160º C or Gas 3 or a fan oven at 140º C. Line the base and long sides of a loaf tin with greaseproof paper; buttering both the tin and paper. With a food processor; blend the flour, cinnamon, butter, sugar, 2 tbsp honey and the eggs together.

Mash the bananas and chop the dates (kitchen scissors worked like a miracle) and add to the mix. Stir them in with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Scatter a few walnuts on the base of the prepared tin; spoon all of the mixture in on top of it. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Add the rest of the walnuts on top, making sure they are ever so slightly immersed and bake for 45-50 minutes. Do the toothpick test and if still moist let it bake for another 10 minutes.

drizzle away (do excuse the lighting; still working on food photography skills)

As soon as you pull it out, drizzle with the 3 tablespoons of honey and spread it coating the sides. The heat slightly hardens and caramelizes the honey giving it a delicious semi-hard crust. Cool for 15 minutes and serve it to your friends… since eating this all by yourself is sinful :)

Enjoy!

Eaternally Yours,

Drina C.

 

Coconut Tapioca with Spiced Fruit Salad

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So here’s the delightful recipe I simply had to try off of Mr. Bobby Flay’s book.

Coconut Tapioca with spiced fruits

Now the only hard part would be to find the tapioca.. it isn’t too common in the supermarkets, but fear not; it can easily be substituted with SAGO SEEDS!

yummmm

Nope they aren’t the same; although they may  look and taste alike. The differences between sago seeds and tapioca seeds are miniscule and you’ll have you have a look for yourselves, but often times its very common to substitute them.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • ½ cup tapioca/sago seeds
  • 2 cans (14 ounce) coconut cream (I used this since i couldnt find unsweetened coconut milk; the difference however is ever so faint, it just makes it a tad bit thicker)
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 (1-inch) fresh ginger, peeled and grated
  • ½ serrano chile (optional)
  • whole nutmeg crushed
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup simply syrup
  • ½ cup crème fraîche
Mango and Blackberry Salad
  • 1 ripe mango
  • 1 cup fresh blackberries
  • ½ cup cut up coconut pieces
  • ½ cup red currants
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ½ vanilla bean split lengthwise and seeds scraped
  • 1 tbsp finely grated fesh ginger
  • fresh mint for garnish
For the mango blackberry Salad:
This is relatively easy; just chop up the mango into medium sized cubes and toss it in with all the rest of the berries and sugar. Add the vanilla seeds in the mixture as well; but don’t throw away the pod just yet.
Fruit Salad

For the spicy coconut tapioca:

Let the tapioca soak in a bowl for about an hour in roughly 2 cups of water. Once that is done start up a saucepan combining the coconut milk, cinnamon, ginger, serrano, sugar and the vanilla pod that was scraped earlier. Keep stirring over medium heat for 25-30 minutes until it has reduced to about 3 cups.
Set a medium bowl in a large bowl of ice water.
Strain the coconut milk into another saucepan and place it back over medium heat adding the drained tapioca. Let it sit for about 2-4 minutes until the Sago/taipoca seeds are semi soft. Pour the contents into the cold water bath and stir until cool.
Add the simple syrup, crème fraîche,  into the mixture and serve with the mango blackberry salad :)
And there we go!
Tadaa

Enjoy!

Eaternally Yours,
Drina C.

 

Sweet Mash

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Mash Potatoes are a great side dish and really is so simple. You can basically create magic with a couple potatoes and fill a few tummies :)

This was a side I had prepped up for some yummy Lamb chops

sweet mash with lamb chops

What you’ll need:

  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 1 regular potato
  • ¼ cup water
  • ½ cup milk
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • bunch of parsley
  • leaves of 2-3 sprigs of mint
  • juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • salt
  • pepper
Sweet sweet potato

Sometime the sweet potatoes tend to be a little too sweet so I added a regular potato to even the flavors out. Boil all the potatoes till soft. Dice up the garlic, fry till brown with some olive oil and set aside. Add the water; mash the potatoes roughly leaving it semi chunky. Add the milk, butter, salt, pepper, lemon and zest. Finally add the browned garlic and serve with chopped up mint and parsley.

Sweet Potato Mash

Enjoy!

Yours Eaternally,
Drina C.

Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Dressing

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Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Dressing

It was another ladies “Saturday Get-together”, and unlike my usual self, I had been lazy and didn’t sort out the menu; absolutely no clue what I was going to dish out thanks to a busy weekend. I needed some last minute inspiration. While the maids were sorting my apartment, I jumped out of bed at 8:30am and went to oz; aka Spinneys! my wonderland, my creative corner :) I walked around the fruits and vegetables section; I was debating preparing a salad or a sweet mash… but the sweet potatoes started singing loudly to me and I had to reach for them. So, they ended up in my basket with some fresh asparagus and a few other juicy things. As i continued.. I spotted a nice pile of shiny deep red pomegranates and i couldn’t resist.

Pommmmmmegranate

I picked out a few and thought… hmm desert or.. dressing.. Well I was aiming for desert up until I passed the butcher as he was chopping up some fresh lamb chops and neatly lining them up on tiny trays. I quickly shouted “I’ll have 3 of those trays please” I finally had my main course sorted! It had to be grilled lamb chops with a pomegranate dressing :)

So here’s another enjoyable 30 minute recipe and here’s what you’ll need:

  • 8-9 Frenched lamb chops
  • 2 pomegranates
  • 3 cloves of Garlic
  • 1 cube vegetable stock
  • 3 tbsp tamarind paste
  • 2 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
  • 2 tbsp Red wine
  • 1 tsp Olive oil
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
Dice up the garlic

So, my suggestion is prepare the sauce first, cause you will want to have those delicious little things fresh off the grill. But prepare the chops and set them aside before you start. Dry the lamb chops out by dabbing it with a paper towel (this helps ini browning the meat) Mix the salt, pepper and cayenne pepper powder together. Rub these into the lamb chops massaging and spreading it evenly on both sides. Let it sit for 15 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

For the sauce; puree the seeds of 2 pomegranates using a blender. Start up a pan with the olive oil. Cut up the garlic finely and saute with the olive oil. Add the vegetable stock along with the worcestershire sauce and tamarind paste. Pour the pomegranate puree into the pan. Add in the wine and water. As soon as it starts to simmer, drop the heat down to low and let simmer for 15 minutes till the sauce has thickened.
4 little beauties grilling away

While letting it simmer, start up the grill and pop those beautiful chops. Cook till desired. (Well done/ medium/ rare)

Grill the lamb chops
Plate it, drizzling the Pomegranate sauce over it; serve with salad or whatever you fancy; I dished these out with a side of sweet mash and some asparagus.
Tadaa

Enjoy!

Yours Eaternally,
Drina C.

Recipe Book Review: Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook

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Bobby Flay’s Mesa grill cookbook.

Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill Cookbook

So the recipes in this big fella are as long and exaggerated as the title of the book. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing book; but for us middle-easterners, “Rare” ingredients becomes an issue. In fact half the ingredients in the book comes off as an exotic product *sigh!* saturated with: Poblano chiles, guajillo chiles, serrano chiles, chipotle chile puree, ancho chile powder, chile de árbol, cremini mushrooms, blue cornmeal, arborio rice, rabbit loins, to name a few. Yes you may find some of these items here in Dubai, but the prices on them are bound to give you a nose bleed.

Bobby Flay’s book is inspired from.. well as you may have guessed – the southwest, with the likes of at least 50-100 steak and grill recipes; and if you may have noticed from the list of chiles above, ooooh they are HOT HOT HOT. It also has an array of drink recipes, scrumptious salads and exciting deserts. This book is excellent and creative, containing some stunning combinations of flavors and textures that I may have only imagined in dreams. Some really interesting recipes that jumped right at me are:

  • Queso fundido with roasted Poblano Vinaigrette
  • Coffee-rubbed filets Mignons with Ancho-mushroom sauce
  • Seared Tuna with black bean-mango salsa (this i have to try!)
  • Grilled Shrimp brushed with smoked chile butter and tomatillo salsa
  • and Spicy coconut Tapioca with spiced fruit salad… and YES! I gave this little delight a go :)
For those Dubai-ians with a slightly bigger budget than mine, i would say great book to have; but your main task is finding those fancy ingredients. But, for those not residing in the middle east; bask in the glory of some exceptional creative cooking :)
Enjoy!
Eaternally Yours,
Drina C.

Mango-Avocado Salsa

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It was a ladies saturday lunch, where me and my girlfriends gather to do some bead work. The menu had already been decided a night before, and grilled fish was on it! Saturdays are great, its a day off but not really. Saturdays to me are Seafood-Saturdays and a warranted trip to the fish market. Fresh fish is absolutely amazing, thinking of my teeth sinking into that soft white fluffy flesh just makes me go mmmm and honestly as long as the fish is fresh it needs very little to go with it; maybe a drizzle of lemon or… a salsa. I decided that the best accompaniment was… *drum roll*.. Mango Avocado Salsa…Oh my goodness… ok this is absolutely yummy and super easy.

Salsa is so versatile, if you want you can use this as a dip or a topping for an Amuse-Bouche.. or.. grilled fish :)

Mango Avocado Salsa

Now set your timmer to 15 minutes cause that’s all you’ll need… and these ingredients:

  • 2 Soft tender Avocados
  • 1 Juicy sweet ripe Mango
  • 1 tomato
  • Juice and Zest of 1 lime
  • bunch of corriandrer
  • salt (to taste)
  • ½ tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
Scoop out the Avocados, and roughly mash them up leaving it a little chunky. Chop the Mango and Tomato into cubes and add to it. Chop up the coriander roughly and add with the rest of the ingredients. Nice stir.. and there it is :)
Enjoy!
Eaternally Yours,
Drina C.