Oreo Milkshake

Who doesn't love milkshake or shall i ask who doesn't love oreo cookies. The cream sandwich cookies are everyone's favourite especially among kids. The dark beauty cookies comes in strawberry,chocolate and vanilla flavour and i used vanilla and chocolate oreo in my oreo milkshake.This oreo milkshake is great for summertime treat. Such an easy recipe even kids can make their delicious oreo milkshake. Rich,creamy, and refreshing summertime beverage are ready to be served in a jiffy.

Ingredients

1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 cups full cream milk
4-5 oreo cookies
1 tbsp chocolate sauce

For Garnishing

2-3 pieces oreo cookies,broken into pieces

Methods

In a blender, add vanilla ice cream,milk, chocolate sauce and oreo cookies and pulse until smooth.

Pour into serving glass and top with broken oreo pieces

Serve immediately.

Raagi Puttu

Raagi puttu or finger millet puttu is a healthy dish to prepare for breakfast or dinner. Raagi are rich with fiber and with the steaming process involved in the preparation, this dish is a wonderful dish for weight watcher. This is a regular breakfast dish at my home as it is very easy to prepare and quite a filling meal to go thru the day. There are sweet and savoury version of raagi puttu and today i'm sharing the sweet version.

This sweet version has powdered jaggery added into them. You can use white sugar but i prefer them with jaggery as it gives a wonderful flavour. The sweet aroma of cardamom powder and freshly grated coconut add a beautiful texture to the super nutritious raagi puttu. I love to have my puttu hot mix with sliced ripen banana along side with a piping hot cup of coffee.

Ingredients

3/4 cup raagi flour
1/4 cup freshly grated coconut
1/2 cup jaggery powder
1/4 cup water
1 tsp ghee/clarified butter,melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cardamom powder


Methods

Boil the 1/2 cup water and add the salt. Stir well and keep aside

Over a medium-low heat, dry roast the raagi flour for 4-5 minutes

Transfer to a bowl and add cardamom powder.

Gradually, add the boiled salted water and mix well. To get the right consistency, take some of the wet flour and press with your palm. It should be like a ball and when put it back into the bowl, it shall fall loosely.

Heat water in a idli pan or steamer. Grease the idli pan with little oil and spread the wet puttu flour and steam for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the melted ghee grated coconut  and jaggery powder while it still hot.

Serve hot or warm.

Coconut Ladoo

These are the melt in  mouth coconut ladoo recipe that no one can say no to.  There are 2 methods in preparing coconut ladoo the classic way of using milk and the one i'm sharing today with condensed milk. The condensed milk method is sort of short form method of preparing this popular Indian delight. In just few minutes and with very limited ingredients one can prepare this mouth watering ladoo in no time.

Coconut ladoo are usually, serve during special occasion or festive seasons. Do not compromise with fresh grated coconut in making this sweet and rich ladoo. I added cardamom powder to the mixture as it enhance the taste and flavor of this beautiful dessert. Some recipe did not call for cardamom powder but trust me the little of it goes a long way. Give a try with the recipe and i'm sure your kids gonna love this decadent coconut ladoo.

Ingredients

1 tin/400 g sweetened condensed milk
4 cups + 1 cup fresh grated coconut
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
2 tbsp golden raisins
1 tsp ghee


Methods

Heat a thick bottomed pan over a medium-low heat and add sweetened condensed milk.

Add the 4 cups grated coconut and stir well.

Keep stirring until the mixture starts to leave the sides of the pan.

Remove from flame and let it cool.

Lightly greased your hand with ghee and roll the mixture into ladoos or balls

Roll the ladoos in the remaining 1 cup of grated coconut

Garnish with golden raisins on the top

Pao De Queijo aka Brazillian Cheese Puffs

Pao De Quijo aka Brazillian cheese puffs are made of tapioca flour as a main ingredient. This babies are chewy in the inside and soft on the outside. Chewy and cheesy Brazilian puffs are simple and easy to make with our day to day ingredients that are easily available at home. Another good news is tapioca flour are absolutely gluten free. The puffs tend to fall a bit in the middle but no worries since this puffs requires thin batter, that's absolutely normal.

I made this delicious puffs with mild cheddar cheese. You can use cheddar or parmesan for this recipe and the outcome is unbelievably fantastic. Serve Pao De Queijo hot or warm to enjoy the chewiness. The chewiness created by the usage of tapioca flour is something special in this cute puffs.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups tapioca flour
1/4 cup vegetable/canola oil
2/3 cup full cream milk
1 large egg
1/2 cup shredded parmesan or cheddar
1/3 tsp salt


Methods

Preheat oven at 400'F or 204.44 C . Grease a 12 hole muffin tin and keep aside.

In a blender, combine flour,egg,milk,oil and salt. Process until well combined.

Add the shredded cheese and process for about 5-8 seconds.

Fill the prepared muffin tin almost to the top

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on the muffin tin for 2-3 minutes.

Transfer to a serving plate

Eat while still hot or warm.

Sage Herbal Tea

I'm a fan of herbal tea...be it fresh or dried herbs i'm in for both. I bought a packet of fresh sage to use for cooking and i made sage herbal tea with the leftover leaves. There are innumerable medicinal values in a cup of sage tea. Serve a cup of sage tea to relieve headache,cold or fever. Along as a refreshing beverage, sage tea are known for its antiseptic properties aiding in reducing pain and bruises both internally and externally. A cup of sage tea after a heavy meal are recommended for a good digestion. This are few reasons out of many for you and me to enjoy a cuppa.

Ingredients

8-10 sage leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp honey
1 cup water


Methods

Boil water in a pot and add sage leaves. Boil for 1 minute and switch off the flame.

Cover the pot with lid and let the sage leaves steeps for about 3-5 minutes.

Transfer into a serving cup, add lemon juice and honey. Stir well.

Serve hot or warm

Badusha

I have seen badusha almost in all the sweet shops all over Kuala Lumpur. Just recently i tasted Badusha in one of the famous Punjabi sweet shop in KL. Instantly i fell in love with this deep fried sugar syrup coated sweets. Most of all i love the carefully handmade patterns that the sweet master took time to design them. Back home, i tried the patterns at home and wallah it turns out almost the same like the one crafted by sweet master in the Punjabi sweet shop.

Badusha or Balushahi is a North Indian sweets which is mildly sweet and made from all purpose flour. Its a soft and flaky sweets, deep fried and dunked in sugar syrup. Now you and me can make badusha at anytime at home without visiting sweet shops. Badusha stays good up to 4-5 days.

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup melted ghee + oil
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp plain yogurt
Water to knead a soft dough
Oil for deep frying

For Sugar Syrup

1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 cup water
4-5 strands saffron


Methods

In a large bowl, add yogurt,baking soda and melted ghee + oil. Whisk for 10 minutes until well combined.

Add all purpose flour to the yogurt mixture. Mix with your fingers until the mixture resemble coarse grain or bread crumbs in texture.

Add water little by little and knead the flour mixture to a non sticky soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 8-10 minutes.

Take equal lemon sized dough and bake it into balls. Slightly pat the dough and using your fingers decorate the rims with swirls by gently trim the edges by folding the dough with your thumb and forefinger.

Heat oil in a frying pan, once the oil is hot switch off the flame. Gently drop the badusha into the oil and once the badusha floats on the top, turn on the heat. Drop 3-4 badusha into the oil at one time do not over crowd.

Fry in medium flame until golden brown.

Drain the excess oil on a paper towel and drop the fried badusha into a warm sugar syrup

For Sugar Syrup

In a wide bottomed pan, add sugar and water. Boil the mixture until the sugar syrup form one string consistency.

Add lemon juice and saffron. Immediately switch of flame.


Notes

• Its important to knead the dough into a soft dough without any cracks. Do knot over knead the dough as it will give you hard badusha with many cracks.

• The purpose of adding lemon juice to the sugar syrup is to prevent crystallisation. Do not skip the step

• To check 1 string consistency in sugar syrup, boil sugar and water for approximately 8-10 minutes. Keep a bowl of water nearby, once the sugar mixture slightly thickens, dipped your fingers in the water and using your ladle take the sugar syrup. Carefully, touch the syrup with your forefinger and thumb. Gently pull apart your forefinger and thumb. If you can see 1 string of sugar syrup that is what exactly 1 string sugar syrup we are looking for.

Deep Fried Mozarella Cheese Sticks

Battered and deep fried creamy mozzarella sticks are my girls favourite snack. I often make them for breakfast or brunch and its too good to resist. In most restaurants they serve deep fried mozzarella sticks as appetiser which sometimes lack of freshness. For an amazing deep fried mozzarella sticks always choose a fresh mozzarella which gives a great impact on the texture when deep frying and the freshness in taste.

I dipped the mozzarella sticks in beaten egg and Panko bread crumbs before deep frying them and the Panko bread crumbs gives a beautiful crunch to the rich mozzarella. Panko are Japanese bread crumbs and i love them for their way of absorbing less oil than the regular bread crumbs. The end result are flakier,crunchy,rich and gooey goey mozzarella sticks are ready for you to indulge.

Ingredients

14 fresh mozzarella sticks
2 large eggs
2 cups Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp chopped parsley
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Methods


In a bowl whisk eggs and milk. Keep aside

In another bowl, add the all purpose flour

In separate bowl, add Panko bread crumbs

Dunk a piece of mozzarella sticks in flour then dip them in the egg mixture and roll them in bread crumbs until well coated.

Place in a baking dish .

Repeat with the remaining mozzarella slices.

Over a medium flame, heat oil in a frying pan.

Gently drop the mozzarella sticks about 4-5 slices at a time. Fry 1 minutes at each sides or until evenly brown and transfer to a serving plate.

Continue with the remaining mozzarella sticks.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley while they are still hot

Serve with marina sauce or as it own

Bread Halwa

Diwali are over and here i am blogging the very next day of Diwali. Cleaning,shopping baking and cooking Diwali sweets take up my time and i have become super busy working mom for the past few weeks. Since Diwali is over now i hope i can get some rest to restore my energy.

Coming back to my post of the day, i'm sharing a sweet dish in conjunction of Diwali. Bread halwa are made with generous amount of ghee or clarified butter,sugar,milk and nuts. Rich and addictive dessert that can be prepared in a jiffy. With this sinful dessert, calories doesn't count after all, this is once in a blue moon dessert for me to indulge.

Ingredients

1 loaf of white bread
1 liter full cream milk
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1 cup granulated white sugar


Methods

Cut the bread into bite sized pieces and keep aside

In a pan over a medium-low heat, fry the chopped almond until golden. Remove from heat and keep aside.

In the same pan, add the 1/2 cup of ghee and fry the bread pieces until golden.

Add the milk and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves completely.

Add the cardamom powder and stir well.

Simmer until the bread pieces soften and absorp most of the milk.

Remove from heat and transfer into a serving plate

Garnish with almond slivers

Serve hot or warm

Black Treacle Pecan Tart

Sounds like a pecan pie to me but this black treacle tart is a sticky,gooey and nutty tart is a distance cousin of the famous pecan pie. Instead of baking them in a large pie dish, I opted for an individual mini tart shells. Mini sized desserts are always a better option to serve for a tea party as each person can have their own bite sized tarts for them.

Love the not so sweet crunchy and sticky filling in the case of buttery and flaky pie crust. One is definitely not enough with this delicious black treacle tart. The black treacle filling are rich and creamy on every bite. Serve with a dollop of cream on the top or as it own.

Ingredients

For The Pastry

2 cups all purpose flour
7/8 cup unsalted butter,chilled and cubed
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

For The Filling

1/3 cup whole pecan nuts,roughly chopped
1 cup black treacles
1 large egg yolk, beaten
1/3 cup double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Methods

For The Pastry

In a food processor,pulse sugar and flour.

Add the cubed cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and pulse to combined.

Dust a clean working surface with flour and knead the dough for 10 seconds. Form the dough into disk, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Cut the dough into 8-10 equal sized pieces. Place a piece of the pastry in a tart shell and using your fingers, work the dough from bottom of the tart shell making sure all the sides are well covered. Trim excess pastry on the edges. Repeat with the remaining pastry.

Cover the pastry shells with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven at 220' C. Remove the plastic wrap and place the tart shells on baking tray. Poke the bottom of the pastry with fork evenly to release air bubbles.Bake for 10 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool completely on a cooling rack

For The Filling

In a bowl, combine black treacle,chopped pecan,cream and vanilla extract. Add egg yolk and stir.

Pour the filling into the cooled pastry shell and bake in a 150' C oven for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack