Tapenade

One person who encourage me to make new dishes ( except Sweets / Baking ) is hubby.
I should not say the above sentence as hubby will say see I inspre you to cook and give ideas and all the bla bla bla ;-)

But then I know he never read my blog so no worries , i can write what ever I want ............

He beeing a musician get chances to go to different countries and also enjoy the food there.

So i remember when he went to Rome for a concert, he came back home with lots of ideas for new italian pasta dishes etc..... he even took a picture with all their dishes from a restaraunt he went.

A week agoe he went to Marseille a city in South of France for a concert and when he came back he was full of praise for their food and how he had picnic there ( one would think he is going for work but looks like he is having more fun than work)
So he told me as there were near the sea side, they had a picnic and that he ate tapanade and that was so so delicious.
Ofcourse i have ate tapanade as it is easily available in the delli here.
But never made them at home, so I thought why not make then home and that is what I did for this weekend.
I made few kind of dipps and one of them was this.

These are so so delicious, that do make enought if you have guest as it will be finishe din a flash.

It was just hubby , daughter and I and it was finished in a flash ;-)

I sliced french bread in thin slices, grilled them for few minutes both side with a bit of olive oil brushed on top and served the tapanade with these bread slices.

Ingridients
200 gm black olives rinsed and  pitted, do buy the best olives you can as there ia no use in making this with less quality olives.
2 Anchovy fillets
1 to 2 tbsp lemon juice ( first add the 1 spoon and then taste before you add the rest)
2 tsp mustard paste
2 garlic cloves peeled
1/2 tbsp capers rinsed,drained and squeesed dry.
1 tsp finley chopped rosemary
couple of table spoon of olive oil, I didnt meaure how may spoon i just added like that.
Peper to taste
Put all the ingridients in a food processor and frind into a paste.
Do not add salt as most of the ingridients are having lot of salt.
It is much better to make tapenade day before you are using as the taste is better then.
You can also keep in the fridge for 2 weeks, but in a tightly closed jar.

Passion Fruit Pound Cake

Each time I write a new post, I can hear someone inside my head saying, I should post something savoury or a spicy dish. But the sweet lover in my always tend to post something sweet and I do have few spicy stuff to post even if they are made and the picture is taken some months ago.
Of course I am sure I will end up posting more sweet here as Shyama is comming home tonight from her college and she will be home for 2 weeks as they are having study holiday before the exams starts.
So my excuse of baking sweet would be she need fast energy which sugar as :-)

Now to the recipe, the moment I saw this in Swapna's place  I knew I was going to make them as I loved the flavours in them. She got the recipe from Deeba's place.We all loved it, really the cake was so good and the gace was just to die for it was so yumm.
And indeed the cake is much better the next day.
Divya as made with Manoes as it is season in India  and she too is going to post her mango version soon.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup vanilla or plain sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 tbsp passion fruit pulp without seeds
Zest of 1 orange ( I didn't had orange so I added zest of grape fruit)

To make buttermilk substitute at home:

Take 100ml milk at room temp; add 1 tsp white vinegar. Let it stand 5-10 minutes. When it curdles, it’s ready.
Method:

•Grease and flour the sides of a loaf pan or 8″ ring tin, or a 6″ round tin. Line the bottom.
•Preheat the oven to 170C.
•Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
•Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract, passion fruit pulp and grapfruit  zest.

•With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
•Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.
•Meanwhile, make the glaze…

Passion Fruit Glaze

5 - 6 tbsp passion fruit pulp without seeds or as required ( I used a bit of the seeds)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
I added 1 tbsp of Egg White powder , it is optional but the glace gets hard which we love it here.

Method:

•Make the glazing by mixing together passion fruit pulp into the powdered sugar, stir till all lumps have dissolved. Add some more powdered sugar / pulp, until you get the required consistency.

•Pour the glaze evenly over the cooled cake, letting some drip over the sides. Wait for some time till it sets.

Merlin



I am sure I have mentioned in my earlier post, that when I enjoy a glass of wine or a cocktail my hubby says , you are a bad Indian, you should better enjoy Nimbbo Paani than all these drinks :-)

This is a drink which Shyama and I made one weekend when it was just two of us.

I made the cocktail and she did the fruit.

This is one yummy cocktail that we have made it a lot of time. Who ever we have served this loved it.

So I al sure if you like to drink cocktails you will love it too.

40 ml white rum
20 ml peach liqueur
10 ml strawberry syrup ( I used monin and added a bit more that is why it is having the pink color, if you add just the exact you will have a another color, it is by mistake i added more)

10 ml fresh lime juice
100 ml  Pineapple juice.

Add the ingridients into a cocktail shaker together with 3 - 4 ice cubes. Shake them well and pour ( use a strainer ) into a longdrink glass with 3 ice cubes.
Garnish with fresh fruits and serve.

Salted Caramel Spread / Sauce



Actually I should have written this post  ages ago.
But then as they say it is better to late that never.

In the begning of March we ( hubby daughter and I ) went for a Chocolate Fair in Lille In France.
I got 2 tickets free from one of my dear friend Apolina who has the blog Bombay-Bruxelles and I had made sure that hubby didn't had anything to do on that saturday.

So when Shyama heard that we were going for a chocolate fair ofcourse she wanted to come also, I qutoe her I am not intrested in what they have , I am intrested in the free chocolate tasting.

And indeed that is what we did there. We tasted so much chocolate from the plently full stalls there and this if a first for me, That in the end when they offered chocolate I had to say please NO MORE CHOCOLATES!!!!!!!!

I must say we three had a fab time, we bought chocolate etc... from there I even bought some beautiful juicy looking Vanilla beans and some other few things for dessert which I still have to use.
There we met also Apolina and another friend and blogger Sylvian and we had some fun with them.
All to all it was a wonderful day for some one who loves chocolate.

And now to the recipe part, it is there I saw these creamy caramel spread/Sauce in one of the stores and I think Shyama and I went few time to that shop to taste it.

Shyama was delighted when I made this and we both think this is far more better ( personal taste) than Dulce de Leche. And it doesn't take 3 to 4 hours to make.
This sauce is so easy to make.

I took the picture when the sauce was not that cold, so after you keep them in the fridge it will get a little more thicker and then you can spread on your toast in the morning, or when ever you want you can heat up some in the MW and it will get thinner and pour over the Ice Cream. Or just eat spoon by spoon straight from the bottle, which I do.
If you want to make Salted Caramel Ice cream, my friend Magpipes have/will just post a delicious recipe in her place.
I had written in my FB status about this sauce and She had this idea of us posting together and I thought it was a wonderfull idea.
Below are few of the plenty of pictures I took there.

Fruit taste Chocolates

Sylvian,Apolina and Muself all 3 on a sugar high :-)

The italian behind offered Shyama a job, he told her if he goes to Mumbai she can come with her.

Dress made of chocolate.

Hans has to force himself to smile as I emptied his wallet by buying goodies :-)

Now you know why hubby came with me.

Chocolate covered Almonds, pure bliss

Variety of Caramel and Chocolate Spread.

I got teh recipe from Simply Recipes

Make sure when you make caramel to be really carfull as boiling sugar ans cream etc... can be very dangerous and also make sure you are using a big enough pan so nothing boil over which can be really dangerous.
1 cup of sugar

6 Tbsp satled butter ( I used extra two spoons) as i think the butter makes the sauce thicker when it cools down.
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
A pinch of Fleur de Sel ( optional)

Heat the sugar in a heavy bottomed pan.
As the sugar begins to melt, stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. As soon as the sugar comes to a boil, stop stirring.
You can swirl the pan a bit if you want, from this point on. Note that this recipe works best if you are using a thick-bottomed pan.
If you find that you end up burning some of the sugar before the rest of it is melted, the next time you attempt it, add a half cup of water to the sugar at the beginning of the process, this will help the sugar to cook more evenly, though it will take longer as the water will need to evaporate before the sugar will caramelize.

As soon as all of the sugar crystals have melted (the liquid sugar should be dark amber in color), immediately add the butter to the pan. Whisk until the butter has melted.

Once the butter has melted, take the pan off the heat. Count to three, then slowly add the cream to the pan and continue to whisk to incorporate. Note than when you add the butter and the cream, the mixture will foam up considerably. This is why you must use a pan which is big enough.

Whisk until caramel sauce is smooth. Let cool in the pan for a couple minutes,  add the salt then pour into a glass  jar and let sit to cool to room temperature. (Remember to use pot holders when handling the jar filled with hot caramel sauce.) Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Linguine con asparagi, pancetta e limone

Doesn't that title sounds so sexy :-) well actually it is just Asperagus,pancetta and lemon linguine :-)
For the last two weekends ( this weekend ) it has been just Shyama and I at home. As hubby was gone out of Belgium.

Ofcourse when he is not home I do miss him.
But it has been also very good just to spend time with Shyama alone.

Not that we have been going to the next city for spending a whole afternoon looking to the shops and going to a coffee shop etc... which we would have loved to, but she will be soon having exams next months and these days weekends are spend learning especially saturday.
The weekend when it was Mother's day we had a cosy dinner and then late evening we made a cocktail and enjoyed and watched a luvvy duvvy mocie which we usually won't watch when hubby is there as he thinks it is too musshy, well S also thinks when I choose to see a musshy movie but then as she do love a romantic movie even though she woudn't admit to that :-)
So now to the recipe.
Ok we love Asperagus, green and the white variety.
When I say we I mean hubby and me not S. She fished out all the asperagus and gave it to me.
So now that it isin full season I thought I will make something with them before I start moaning that the season is gone and that I didn't make anything with them when I had the chance.

This is a recipe from Taste Italia Magazine.
Sending this delcious pasta to Pasta presto Nights and the host is Cassie, of the Kitchen Alchemist.
Serves 4

250 gm Pancetta cubed. ( I bought from the delli in one fat piece and cubed them myself)
One onion finley chopped
1 garlic finley chopped
250 gm Green Aspergus, woody ends trimmed, spears cut into small pieces.
350 gm dried Linguine ( I didn't have them so used normal pasta)
200 ml double cream
200 ml Cream fraiche ( if you don't get them you can use sour cream)
2 large egg yolks
40 gm Parmesan grated plus extra to serve
Grated zest of one lemon
Salt and freshly ground peper.

1. Heat a frying pan. And add the pancetta.
You will not need any oil as there is a lot of fat in pancetta.
Fry the pancetta really crispy, remove them with a slotted spoon and keep in a plate.
Add the onions and garlic in the pan fry them for few minutes , add the asperagus and fry them for few minutes untill it has begun to soft. Add the fried pancetta back to the pan.
2. In the mean time bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil, add the pasta annd cook according to the packet instructions, but cook it for a minute or two less, so it is little under done.
3. Mean while mix together the double cream, cream fraiche,egg yolks, parmesan and lemon zest in a bowl,then season with salt and peper.
4. Drain the cooked pasta, make sure to keep a bit of the pasta water, so you can add to the dish if needed.
5. Add the pasta to the pan together with the sauce mis and give it a good mix untill it is evenly incorporated and all the ingridients are cooked. If you need add a bit of the pasta water which we kept aside.
Serve with a good grating of parmesan chees and black pepper.

.

Pear Tart with Chocolate Sauce



After almost 2 months I made a dessert.

And that too something from myown blog with a bit of change to the original recipe. There is also a step by step pictorial.

Not that I had to make any thing new for posting here as I have so many pending pictures and recipes for posting.
As you all must have noticed I am still not visitng the blogs I used to visit regularly before my life was turn upside down.
I once in a while and I mean once in while I go to a blog.
I think I must have gone just to few blogs in total, not that I don't want to visit , just that I don't have the patience  to  visit and write a comment, I am sure in time I will get back to my regular bloghopping.

Ingridients.
3 firm pears, peeled
400 ml water
Few ornage peels
1 vanilla stick split
1 bay leaf
50 gm sugar
Few table spoon of Poire William ( optional)
6 square sheets of puff pastry
25 gm soft butter
50 gm walnuts chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg lightly whisked
A bit of sugar to sprinkle

Half the pears and remove the middle and scopp a bit out from the middle.
Bring the water to boil in a pan abd add the orange peel, vanilla essence, sugar and bat leaf and poire williame.
Bring it to boil and add the pears.
Boil them for 10 minutes in slow fire with a cover

Now take the pears out and keep the sugar syrup aside ( remove the ornage peel and the bay leaf) Let the pear cool down.


Preheat the oven to 200°cNow take the pastrt sheets and cut them into pear shapes ( shown in the pic).

Apply egg wash over the whole pastry
Mix the butter ,sugar and the walnuts in a bowl.
Take a tsp of the filling and fill the holes of each pear.


Lay the pears the filled side down on the puff pastry.
Sprnikle with sugar.
Bake the tarts 15 to 20 minutes or untill it is golden brown

In the original recipe you make a chocolate sauce from the syup.

But this time I just MW 100 gm of chocolate with a bit of milk and poured over the tarts.
Enjoy.