Banoffee Pie

 We all love simplicity,good flavour and down right yummyness!! Well i know i do anyways!
So i saw this on a tin of carnation milk once! I always see things like,Banoffee pie and pumpkin pie  as being these American sweet things full of ingredients we dont get in the uk! But i am still going to try making pumpkin pie! So when i saw this i was way chuffed! my whole world lit up! (yes i know i am sad)


The Recipe

• 110 mins
• Serves 12

Ingredients

Base:

• 100g (3½oz) butter, melted
• 250g (9oz) digestive biscuits

Filling:

• 100g (3½oz) butter
• 100g (3½oz) dark brown soft sugar
• 397g can Carnation Condensed Milk

Topping:

• 4 small bananas
• 300ml carton double cream, lightly whipped
• grated chocolate

You will also need:

• 20cm (8”) loose-bottomed cake tin, greased

1. To make the base, process the biscuits until crushed. Stir in the melted butter. Press the mixture into the base and 4cm (1½") up the sides of the tin. Chill the base while you make the filling.
2. To make the filling: place the butter and sugar into a non-stick saucepan over a low heat, stirring until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Add the condensed milk and bring gently to the boil, stirring continuously. When the caramel has started to boil, remove from the heat and pour over the biscuit base. Cool, and then leave to chill for about 1 hour, until firm.
3. To serve, remove the pie from the tin and place on a serving plate. Slice the bananas, fold half of them into the softly whipped cream and spoon over the caramel base. Decorate with the remaining bananas and finish with the grated chocolate.

Just to add,I went one step lazier  *hides behind her cheffing certificates*
I used a tin of their caramel Instead of heating the condensed milk through with the brown sugar!
I also whacked some ginger nuts in with the Digestive biscuits.
For you Americans out there,digestives are like Graham crackers.

Oh i actually feel ashamed at my laziness,Okay im over it now.

Bwahaha!



Dont stop here! Read my older posts :D

Walnut & chicken stir fry

This is an amazing dish,one of my friends made it last year in one of our lessons.

The buttery nuttyness of the walnuts goes really well with the chicken and mmm it is delicious!

This recipe was from the internet (ive forgotten where!) but adapted because we had restricted ingredients.

You will need;

1lb chicken breast (or boneless thigh)
4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
4 cloves of freshly minced garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
pinch of salt and pepper
drizzle of veg. oil
6 tbsp walnuts pieces
4 spring onions
( White rice or Egg noodles to serve with)

How to go about it ;

• Cut the chicken into bite size cubes.
• Mix the garlic,ginger,soy sauce and chilli flakes in a bowl,add a pinch of salt and cracked black pepper.
• Add the chicken,mix and coat well and leave to marinate for about 10/15 minutes in the fridge.
• Heat a wok over high heat until hot.
• Drizzle oil into the wok and heat. 
• Add walnuts and fry until lightly golden. take out and put into a bowl.
• Add the chicken and all of the marinade to the wok fry  until chicken is cooked (break a peice in half it should be white and have no pink).
• Add The spring onions (scallions). You can serve this with either rice or egg noodles,personally i prefer egg noodles.
• Enjoy!

Dice your chicken!

Crush your garlic and ginger! & chop it into teeny tiny pieces

(i know i said mince it,but have you ever tried to pick out the garlic,from a garlic mincer?!)

In a bowl mix your scallions,pepper,salt,garlic & ginger.

Though i re-wrote that recipe & method,it still seems pretty long!

(i also whacked in my walnuts too! Nothing like saving time i say!)

Check out these beauties,i cracked them and picked

out the yummy bits :D

You can use the packet stuff,but i had time to kill

before my driving lesson,(ive heard killing

time is better than mowing down innocent pedestrians!)

Throw your marinaded meat into the oil,in the wok.

i haven't got a wok ( ok i lied we got given one for xmas!! it went rusty and died :| ) so i used my amazing trustworthy Indian karai.

Ive cooked Masala fish to tuna fish pasta in this Gorgeous little thing!

Make sure the oil is really hot and keep moving your chicken because you dont want to be stewing it!

Serve! And indulge,eat till you feel like your going to explode.

Then wash it down with some ice cold water,or maybe some blackcurrant squash.

Mmmmm.

I came back from my driving lesson,to find this.

i think my brother liked it too much!

The cheese that cant help but please!

Whether it be in your saag,your rasmalai! or floating around with some pea's,you have to love it.

PANEER!

The gorgeous cheese that is so versatile i could go on forever about it.

Ode to the paneer
so yummy and delicious
not only are you tasty your pretty damn nutritious! 
creamy and white a culinary delight
you keep me full up all through the night.

Cute huh! i wrote it my self :D *takes a bow*




Previously i made rasmalai! Using this wonderful dairy product,But before i made that,i also made some spinach and paneer spring rolls.

Okay italiano's! i did nick your spinach and ricotta flavour fiesta! it's amazing, what more can i say?
But these,oh these! were out of this world!

Recipe?

Ah,go on then :D

for these i used ready made Filo pastry sheets!

• 1 block of Paneer cubed small (available from most Indian food shops,i also posted a recipe for it)
• 1 medium onion,finely diced
• 1 green chilli chopped small (you may take out the seeds if you wish,Wimps!)
• 200g spinach
• A knob of butter
• salt to taste
• Cumin
• pinch of garam masala
  

In a pan fry the cumin,add the onions and cook without colour,for about 2/3 minutes.

Add the chilli and cook off for a minute or two more.

Add the spinach and wilt.Add the paneer and heat through,you can fry the paneer off before hand,until it is golden.(I usually do this but i was in a rush).

Et voile. One batch of spring roll stuffing.

I managed to get 15 out of this.

Cut your filo into a square.

Place on some of your delish filling

Fold over the top corner,make sure the filling is well enveloped behind the filo

Fold in the other two corners,make sure the filling is well covered

Roll over the covered filling,Then roll again

Use some water to seal the last edge

& deep fry,Enjoy!

I got too carried away and forgot to take a picture of the cooked product *doh!*

Punjabi samosa

I made mini samosa's,Well i say mini but they were half the size of an average one.
I served them with a red onion,tomato and baby gem lettuce garnish and a sweet imli (tamrind) sauce.

These are delicious pastries filled with your choice of filling.Traditionally the filling is potatoes and some other sort of vegetable,usually peas,or it is potato and keema (mince).

I made these a vegetarian dish..

For my filling i used peas,spinach and potatoes and a mix of spices.


This mix should be enough for twenty,a little extreme i know!


3lb Plain flour
1/2lb Butter  (room temp)
Pinch of salt
A pinch of loveage seed
Luke warm water to bind the dough


In a bowl add all of the dry ingredients. Then add the butter and rub into the flour until you have a sandy textured mix.Slowly add the luke warm water until a elasticy dough is formed.
cover with a wet tea toweland set aside int he fridge for 30 minutes.


Filling:

200g spinach
125g peas
400g potatoes (maris piper or another fluffy potato nothing to waxy)
50g root ginger
Large pinch of toasted cumin seeds
Large pinch of Brown mustard seeds
Large pinch of garam masala
Large pinch of chopped corriander
Large pinch of salt

• Peel and washt he potatoes. Cut into large chunks and boil until soft. 

• Drain and allow to cool.
  

• When cooled add mash with your hands making sure it is not to smooth

• Add the rest of the ingredients (you may want to wilt the spinach before hand)

• Make golf ball sized balls out of the dough.
• Roll out to about 6 inches
• cut in half
• make a cone out of these half moon shapes
• fill with your filling and seal with the last edge (Use a slurry of flour and water as a lue to keep theedges sealed.
• Deep fry until golden brown
• Enjoy!

I wish

I wish i was Ras malai,so i could sit and float in this rose,pistachio and cardamom milk. With no cares in the world,my sole aim to fill the stomach of some hungry person!

Ahh...If i had half as much brain as i was supposed to i would write a blog dedicated to my love of indian sweets!!
From the pistachio barfi to the besan ke ladoo! From jalebis in hot milk to gulab jamans with ice cream! Kulfi,gujrela,ras gulla,ras malai!

Sorry please excuse me whilst i drown in a pool of my own drool.

If you havent already clocked on,I have awful photography skills,my writing skills are probably worse so,you dont really get the true "umph" of these delicious foods i try to explain to you. I wouldmake video but my accent is awful and my videoing skills,Well lets just say my pictures seem professional next to them!

Anyway,enough of this self pity.

I present to you;
The one and only,
RASSSSSSSS MALAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI!!!!!

• Paneer
  
• 1 liter blue milk
• 8 table spoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon cardamom powder (or just use pods)
  
• thinly sliced almonds & pistachios
• A couple of dashes of rose water
• 
  

• pulse the Paneer in a blender till very smooth. Make into balls of your preffered size and then flatten slightly.
  
• When you have done this setthe balls aside.
• In a pan boil the milk with sugar, till thickened enough to loosley coat a spoon.Add the cardamom and rose water mix well.If using cardamom pods strain the milk. ( Dont stop stirring)
  
• Allow to cool,a little,add the paneer.
  
• garnish with the pistachios and almonds,Chill well and serve!

Here is the paneer recipe i used!


ENJOYYY!!



A realllll bad picture i know :(

Finger licking good

So here i go with the fusion again.I introduce to you,The tandoori spiced BBQ chicken! Mmm.
Tasted fab i assure you.This picture is a bit premature mind,i did cook it off a bit more to give it that charcoal Smokey crispness.

I marinated the chicken for about 4 hours,yes over night is always best.

i used yogurt in this mix,Just because my family always do.But i did watch this programme by Heston Blumenthal... ( HESTON <3)

1 pint of live natural yogurt

4 Tablespoon Cumin powder

2 Tablespoon Cumin seed

1 Tablespoon Brown mustard seed

2 Tablespoon garam masala

2 Teaspoon Coriander powder

2 Teaspoon sweet imli sauce

3 Teaspoon Chopped green chilli

Juice 1 lemon

8 cloves garlic - crushed

2 inch grated ginger (grate over a bowl because the juice is the best!)

Red, or no food colouring

Amchoor

pinch or two of salt

Chaat masala to finish or black salt

Chopped cilantro (corriander)

Ok so where should i start!

In a bowl,Mix the yogurt with all the ingredients excluding the cillantro and chaat powder, but including the juice from the ginger.

Give it all a good mix.
You should have something that doesnt look to great.

Then cut slits into your chicken,I always think it is best to use chicken on the bone,because it cooks better and holds better. Cut about 2/3 slits into your chicken legs but make sure you stay within the chicken if that makes sense,and make sue they are deep enough to reach the bone.Basically dont cut over the edge. Then wash the chicken and place into the marinade.cover it and allow it to sit for as long as you can.

When cooking you can either BBQ it or cook it in the oven,i have cooked it in the oven before tastes fine,i just finish it under the grill.

In the oven at 220 deg, put the chicken in on the top shelf for about 20-25 minutes until cooked,i usually foil it andput about a table spoon of water in the tray just helps keep it moist i then finish it under the grill.

On the BBQ i cook it for about 10 -15 minutes,well just till its cooked really.
then sprinkle with the chaat masala and squeeze over some lemon,sprinkle over the chopped cilantro.

You could also make a chicken tandoori masala dish if you wished
To makes things easier and to make the dish look neater,debone the thigh/legs or just use breast.
cook the meat as stated above,then mix through a masala sauce.