Garden Of Eden :)

I loved this name as soon as I read my lovely sisters comment on these pictures.

So very true, Nature has blessed us with such delicious, colorful, healthy and heartwarming fruits and vegetables that indeed we have a Garden of Eden to enjoy and feed on it.

(Click on pic for a larger Image)

We had arranged a competition here to encourage the skills of young ladies, and girls. We had 3 choices to make and our group accepted all three :)

 

The cake you see is a wonder wonderful Raffaello Cake divine and really heavenly divine!

 

 

The Chicken sandwiches, smooth and spicy, petit and juicy

 

 

The variety of Salad with whatever we wanted. So I decided the Rice Salad with an extravagant touch!

 

Salads used in this decoration are:

Lollo Rosso-Violet Chicoree-Iceberg-Rucola

 

 

Vegetables:

Carrots-baby paprika-turnip-baby tomatoes- red reddish-cucumber-zuchinni-baby corn-large paprika

 

Herbs:

Rosemary-Basil-blend of dry herbs-dry paprika-salt-black pepper

 

Stuffed Eggs:

Yolks of boiled eggs-yoghurt-mayo-butter-mustard paste, seasoning

 

The turnip flowers are pressed through the form, rest is all handwork :)

For the Salad please check my Rice Salad Recipe  : )

 

 

 

 

**Goodies from the Banquet Table**

The Month of Ramadan has passed by leaving its Blessing on all of us. How time flies away... The festivity of Eid is still going on and we have been celebrating Eid get-to-gathers off and on.

 

Here I’m sharing my contribution with all of you, i made for the Banquet Table:)

 

The Date Rings are a speciality of Ramadan and enjoyed even after that, I make it very often as we all love it as a sweet Snack after our meals :) I never got the chance to show it how is seems when cut, so here it is now :)

The Zarda, known as the Sweet Yellow Rice is always a hit along with the Polau.

A very unique dish,made with all nuts and candy sugared fruits.

 

This time I also added Khoya to the dish which gave it such a rich taste and i got a very good Feedback on it Alhamdolillah :)

 

The original Silver paper gives it THAT look which this dish deserves!

 

You can find the recipe under this link in the archives on this site.

http://www.raniazohaib.com/2012/02/yummmz-date-rings.html#uds-search-results

**EID MUABARAK**

 

My heartiest wishes and prayers for all my friends and members who are celebrating Eid-ul-Fitar tomorrow. Hope it brings Allah’s Blessings, joy and happiness in your homes with your families.
Please remember all the fellow human beings in your Eid Prayers
May it bring peace and unity among all mankind. Ameen

*EID MUBARAK* and may you all be blessed with love and prosperity Ameen

 

 

 **KEEP SMILING**

 

Namkeen Laddu (Savory Lentil Balls)

(click to enlarge)

 

Yes, exactly I was also very surprised  like you as i heard this name when I ate them years years back for the first time. I never knew what it was but it was extreme tasty. This was the love of my youth. We college girls used to go to Anar Kali and always eat them there.

 

Then whenever I used to visit Lahore and go shopping with my Sis, we used to stop at the corner shop of the Moon Market, drink mango juice and order these namkeen laddus.

 

I liked the way they worked, with such a fast mode,fantastic! The plates were full till the top with chutney with some yoghurt drizzling down at the corner, and the boy running around like a world master and distributing plates to all ladies sitting in the room :)

Anyway, long story, I wed, came here, and never ate them since then :I

 

Since the last few days I was carving to have that taste, that chutney that flair, so I sat asking my good old friend Google :) I searched as salty laddu, savory laddu, namkeen laddu… no luck… each time it showed me laddu Pethi…. I had never heard this term :(

So then I surfed many sites and it came out in the end that these were called Laddu Pethi lol

I remember the ingredients when asked, the man told me, they were made of “daal channa”

(Gram Bengal) but all the recipes I read had 3 different lentils.. No..no…no no…. this is not the right one was my feeling..

 

So well, I started with Bismillah and soaked my Bengal Gram in the night

I remember the chutney was yellowish and the man used to pour 3 different things on the plate

Chutney, sour water (Katha Pani) and yoghurt and top with this sizzling grated reddish..Mmmmm aahhhh :)

So my new venture was to make the Namkeen laddu!

 

 

I saw a small film in you tube, where a man was selling them on his cart on the road side, he also said, he makes it with channa daal and only apricot chutney with some tamarind in it, then  I read 5-10 different sites and somehow all were different from each other lol

 

So here I have trusted my memories and used only channa daal. Used very less spices not as recommended in many recipes.(caraway seeds-cumin powder)

I Used baking powder,as baking soda would have expanded them like Dahi Barrhay and I wanted the Laddu form round and smooth.

 

 

The outcome…. I cannot describe it… I wish I could.. The laddu are so so so crispy, and so perfect!

The chutney I made like I make my plum chutney just added a hand full of tamarind in it and didn’t find it too sour so I sprinkled in some strawberry vinegar which  my dear bhabi gifted me lately and that brought out some sweet ‘n sour taste, simply WOW!

 

 

It demands time if you are alone to make it, like me, so I prepared all before hand and started.

The ingredients we need are very less and we usually have all at home

So I think now i better tell you how I made them before you stop reading, but what to do I enjoy writing the whole process, before and after, I write  the way I talk, so in a way we are actually talking to each other :)

 

Okay here we go, make it tomorrow, taste and test it, and send me your feedbacks and your delicious pictures :D

 

 

For the Laddus:

300 gram Bengal lentil (Daal Channa)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp white cumin seeds

¼ tsp black pepper from the mill

½ glass water

½ glass milk

 For the Chutney:

100 gram dry apricots

1 tbs dry tamarind (imli)

¼ tsp salt or to taste more

¼ tsp red chili flakes

¼ tsp cumin powder (roasted)

2 ½ tbs sugar

2 tsp strawberry vinegar (you can take any at hand or increase the tamarind)

 For the yoghurt:

150 gram plain yoghurt

Salt to taste

Red chili to taste

Black pepper from the mill

Some milk to make it runny

 

I have taken pictures of some steps so you get a slight idea how and what.

-soak the lentil over night, this is important!

-next day, drain, wash 2-3 so all the additional flour is washed away (the white powder which drains with the water, which makes the lentil sticky)

-pour  ½ glass water  in the blender, then add the lentil and blend in stop and go phase, as the lentil will get thicker and your blender will need a horse powder to grind it :)

-the structure should be very fine, no grains to be seen.

-when half is done, pour the milk in stages and keep blending

-you can also take half of the lentil first, grind, pour out, then grind the second half

 

 

-pour this mixture in a broad bowl

-add the salt, cumin seeds, black pepper and the baking powder

-beat well will all is mixed in the batter smoothly

-heat oil in a wok or a broad pan and fry them

 

-to get a nice round form, you can either drop in the batter with your finger, or use a round fruit scooper spoon, and as you see they really formed very well.

-while frying, do not turn them over till one side is golden brown, as you can see the difference of color in the picture.

 

-we do not soak them in water like other barrhays and phulkiyaan, just take them out in a strainer

 So we are done with the laddus

 

Now to the Chutney, I made it before I started making the Laddus, you can also do that.

Follow the steps in the given pics:

Pour 1 glass water in a sauce-pan

Add the tamarind and let it cook on a low flame

The apricot will get softer, press it with a fork off and on

As they seems mushy, add the sugar and the spices in it, let it cook

Now use a hand mixer and make a think purée of it

the consistency should be as shown in the picture

 

We serve them fresh and never dip them or pour yoghurt all over as they have to be crunchy with each bite.

Here’s how you serve it:

 

Take a flat plate, place the Laddus opening them in the middle, pour the light spicy yoghurt first, then the Apricot chutney, then the grated reddish.

 

Look at them, they are very soft and fluffy from inside yet very crsipy from outside

 

 

I made no sour water as my family is not so fond of it, but it was super duper the way it was :)

 I have a bowl full of rest laddus which were still crunchy till an hour, just cover with a piece of Alum Foil, NO cling as that will make then too soft. They will get softer either way like any other fired item :)

 

 

 

I am so very happy that I made them and my husband loved eating them and with a very positive expression, as I watch his face while eating lol

 

So now I can always make them when I crave for them, it’s a best ever recipe and you can try it without any fears, Insha’Allah you will have best results as you can see here :)

 

Savory Cupcakes

Nothing new what I am presenting here, but because it was my Iftaar item today so how could I not share it :)

Actually the fastest way to make these is:

Roll out-Fill in-Bake-Ready J

Today I used the cheat dough, I thought why should I give myself and my eyes a bad conscious adding those blocks of butter in the dough  :) Sometimes it’s better to keep things hidden lol

 

 

What I did was, took one sheet of the Puff Pastry and after dusting with flour I rolled it out quite thin.

I wanted to take away its extreme flaky high volume structure. It really works.

A good time saving solution for a quick savory snack,in this case a full meal,as I filled it with mincemeat and potato and sprinkled cheese on the top.

For this we don’t make a curry out of the mince, we just boil it with spices we like and dry it up to the last drop of water so that it does not make the pastry soggy.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s up to your choice, you can do any filling, I make it with onion and mushrooms, with spinach and cheese and with mix vegetable beaten in an egg.

The picture seems a bit yellowish, it is actually very nice light cream but I think my camera acted  a bit too yellowish in the dark today :)

All you need to do is as follows, easy peasy and a quicky :

 

 

 

200 gram mince meat

1 large onion (in fine slices)

2 pods of garlic (chopped)

 

The following spices accordingly:

Salt to taste

Red chili flakes to taste

¼ tsp cumin powder

¼ all spices (garam masala)

2-3 green chili

3-4 medium potatoes (in cubes)

 -just mix all the above ingredients in a pot, add ½ glass of water and let it cook

-takes around 15 minutes, there will still be water so add the cubes of potatoes and let it cook

-the cubes will cook fast, so then just dry the water till the last drop

-let it cool down completely´

 

 

 

1 Pack of flaky pastry/Puff pastry

Roll is out really thin, it fluffs up either way :)

Cut out around 10 cm circles to fit in the muffin tray

You need no special cutter, if you have one wonderful, if not, no problems use any glass, or cup or as I did, I took a lid of my air tight box :)

See all works, we don’t need to be worried not having all the tools at home.

DON’T grease the muffin tray as the dough is already made with a generous amount of butter :D

Fill in each cup around 2 tbs each, sprinkle some cheese on the top and  bake in a preheated oven on 200°C for around 20 minutes.

 

 

 

You will see as the edges get a golden color, they don’t take long to cook if you roll them out really thin.

You see the thick edges which fluff up but the rest was really very fine thin and not at all heavy.

We had it with the tasty Plum Chutney. Need no dinner after that.

Try it out make your life easy, I surely prefer making all sort of dough’s at home but sometimes we need to relax and benefit from the readymade things and let the companies’ boom with high profits lol

Enjoy these quickies!