Going Nuts !

This has been one hell of a week. First the Sunday Fiasco ... ( i must take take this chance to thank you all once again for your comforting and kind words ... u cant imagine how nice it made me feel ), then continued by Cops all over the house, through out the week. I caught my house maid stealing, a 18 yr old girl who joined me only 2 months back, stole from me over that time 2 mobile phones, about 700 US$ , my exp undergarments ( can u imagine !!!!), my hubbys T-shirts, my Jewelery ... and i don't even started on the regular pinching of things from my kitchen. I had noticed things going missing earlier and had warned both my house girls. Hoping they would not repeat it i did not call the cops. And in spite of that the little one stole again. This time she took 100 $ , but i knew right away as things in my wallet were re arranged and that to badly. Definitely cant be me , so right away i called her n asked her if it was her . She denied it. So we had to call the cops. I'm going to spare your all the details but i had cops in and out of my house for the rest of the week. They did recover a few of the things but the money was all spent. My jewellery was broken down to pieces and destroyed so she could sell it , the mobile phones were kept by the cops for their services to us and my clothes ... don't even want to know anything about them. So basically i lost everything. But since she was a young girl we dropped all charges against her as i did not want her to go to jail. Just warned her and hope that she learnt a lesson from it and will not do it again. Such is life !!!
However there was one great piece of news that more than made up for everything. Yesterday my hubby finally said the magic works I've been waiting to hear for so long ... "honey we're going back home - confirm our tickets" !!! YaY !!! Finally after 5 months of Africa i get back to my beloved Hong Kong. Instantly my mind was running in a million different directions. Have to do so many things before we leave. My store room and freezer are loaded with food stuff and I will have to with immediate effect stop buying anything more and start using up all my stocks. Hehe so i think over the next couple of posts i'll just be sharing recipes that use up ingredients lying around. In a way thats a good thing ... challenges you to make the best of what you have. And trust me i do have a lot of stuff. My friends and neighbours are going to like this as i'll be sending everyone a lot of things to eat now :)

To start with i made flapjacks as i had all the things needed. I got a little fancy and used some dried apricots and toasted dessicated coconut. Never used them before in these, but i must tell u they taste fantastic. I made one batch chewy and the other crispy. Perfect for your tea n coffee breaks. They turned out so good that I'm gonna have to pass this recipe on to my grandchildren :D

Ingredients

• 500 gms box of Quaker instant oats
• 260 gms unsalted butter
• 175 gms organic honey
  
• 200 gms golden superfine sugar
• 150 gms toasted dessicated coconut
  
• 75 gms walnuts - chopped
  
• 20 dried apricots - cubed
  
• handful seasme seeds
• 3 tbsp apricot honey + 1 tbsp water

Preheat your oven to 180 C . Grease 2 shallow baking trays and keep ready. Mix all the dry ingredients together - oats + coconut + walnuts + apricots . In a bowl mix together the sugar, honey and butter and microwave it 30 seconds at a time & stirring it, for 2 mins or till everything has melted and combined. Now pour this over the dry mixture and mix it really well. Use your hands, i love using my hands - connects you to your food, and go on and taste it. At this point if u need more honey or anything else you can add it , as if you don't like it now, chances are you wont like it later. But I'm sure u will love it. The mixture is sticky and moist - thats how u want it to be. Equally share them between both the trays and pat them down with the back of a metal serving spoon. Now on one tray sprinkle the seasme seeds and pat it again to make sure they stick in there and don't fall off later. U are ready to bake them. Allow it to bake for 30 mins till the side are golden and a little soft in the center. Remove the plain flapjacks if you want them to be a bit chewy. Keep the seasme ones for a bit longer as those taste better crisp. They will harden as they cool down so don't over bake them. Now melt the jam and water together and brush it on the flapjacks and with a pointed serrated knife lightly cut the squares and fingers. This will make it easier to remove them later. Once cooled down transfer to a air tight container.

Sunday Fiasco and Cheesecake

Imagine .... you have friends coming over for Sunday lunch, which was planned over a week in advance, and they've requested Chinese. U are excited and want to impress, so you go all out and plan a really fancy menu... duck, grouper, crabs , prawns , beef , man tau , dumplings , udon noodles, tofu ... , .... 3 desserts ... the works ! Start a day ahead and go to the other side of town on a blazing hot day to get the ingredients while u are sick and your head is spinning and u even have diarrhea ( gross i know ... sorry ). Not to mention the aching wisdom tooth which is digging into your cheek and making your whole left side sore. And you have to run frm one place to gather all the things, which are available in all different directions n specially to find a special ingredient - Mascarpone cheese which apparently is not available anywhere. Finally get back home in the evening and start off immediately, cutting, marinating n preparing getting everything ready for the next day. By the time you are finished its almost 11 and the last thing you do is whack a cheesecake in the oven which requires 1 hr 20 mins to bake. With an oven like mine which takes 45 mins to bake a 25 min recipe its definately going to take longer. So u are up till 2:30 a.m watching n waiting till the damn thing is done( which is another story altogether ). Finally u hit the bed with an alarm set for 7:30 as you have to go to the fish market at the port to buy some fresh seafood. U do wake up on time, brush and run. Manage to get some fresh crabs, prawns, and a beautiful Grouper. Back home, making the dough for Man Tau ... steamed bread as it needs 2 hrs 20 mins to rise .... n still running around trying to organize which plates to serve what in, getting the place tidied up as you are expecting them at around 1 p.m .... and back to the kitchen , preparing the cold starters and dipping sauces. And then your mobile gets a "TEXT MESSAGE" saying sorry cant make it ..bla bla bla .... and you go like hmmm why couldn't they have called instead ... or more over why didn't they inform a day ahead ... but never mind u say alrite at least the others are comming ... still gotta finish a few things. At around 12 u call the others as u want to make sure they have the directions to your house ( we moved recently ) and they go like ... oh but didn't u know we're not comming, didn't someone call u yesterday ( no ! no one did !!!) !!! At that point what do you do ???? What would your reaction be ??? Obviously try n coax them to come ... after all you've slogged your sick butt out for them. But nothing ... all you end up with is 2 fridges full of food and a very very very foul mood !

Can you believe that ... your own friends ... ! I think i'm just being too touchy about the whole issue and over reacting, anyone else and i wouldn't have minded ... would've just invited someone else over the next day and recycled the food, but this time i was just too pissed off. But now that i've shared it i feel better. Phew. So now that thats done ... let me tell you about my cheesecake.

Amarula Chocolate and Mascarpone cheesecake with a Hazelnut and flapjack crust.

You may want to know what Amarula is. It is a South African cream liqueur made with the fruit of the African Marula tree. To me its Africa's version of Irish Cream. Its a little sweeter and less alcoholic compared to Baileys Irish cream , and its obviously the preferred drink here. I thought it would be perfect for my cheesecake, which was a Delia Smith recipe but i had to change it drastically as i believe they never give the perfect recipe and u never get the results they claim to get. Also i did make a BIG mistake of using Creme Fraiche instead of the Fromage frais ( cuz thats what i found... not easy getting European products in Ghana). So well i had to re do it. Imagine my disappointment, when after baking it for almost 2 hrs i touch the cake and it still wobbles like a water bed. Eek ! i poured out the whole thing again and added some eggs and some more mascarpone whisked it all together and re baked it. And voila - it worked ! So here's the full proof recipe ...


Ingredients

• 200gms dark chocolate
• 2 x tub mascarpone
• 2 x 200g fromage frais 8% fat
  
• 2-3 shots of Amarula
  
• 6 large eggs
• 80 gms caster sugar
• 100 gms chopped hazelnuts
• 270 gms Lyons country snapjacks - crushed by hand
  
• 50 gms melted butter
• chocolate curls to decorate

Start with the base of the cheesecake. I used a 26 cm loose bottom tin. Mix the butter, hazelnuts and biscuits and press it in the tin all over the bottom and raise it a little on the sides. Bake it for 20mins at 150 degrees C , and let it cool.
For the cheesecake, start with melting the chocolate in a double boiler and melt till smooth. In another big bowl mix the mascarpone and fromage frais with an electric hand whisk and when blended to a smooth consistency add the eggs and sugar. Mix it well again and fold in the melted chocolate and Amarula. U can use Irish cream instead . Pour it into the tin and bake for 1 hr 20 mins or till u think the cheesecake is set and very slightly wobbly at the center.May take longer depending on your oven. Then remove it gently and leave it on the counter and let it cool and then chill it overnight. To serve decorate with chocolate curls.

Chocolate Almond n Toffee Squares

I've been wanting to make these for a long time and share them with you. And at what better time did i end up getting them ready than today - 12th Oct - Eid ... Just checked i am in time to wish my viewers Eid Mubarak ! Being the last day of Ramadan and an ending to a month of fasting must be quite joyous. With the festive seasons comming in, the end of the year is something i always look forward to. Soon we'll be having Diwali ( Indian New Year ) and following that Christmas !! And these Chocolate Almond n Toffee squares fit every occasion. These beautiful squares taste heavenly and are a bit on the sweeter side .... almost like Almond Rocca.

I must tell u that u need to be very patient with these, as when i was making them, i kind of ran out of patience and then had a panic attack when they didn't look the way i wanted them to .... but later they looked just fine .... phew thank God. Also if you are living in a country as hot as mine i wouldn't recommend u trying it unless u are using an air conditioned room. Handling chocolate can be quite tricky and a pain in the ass. Obviously i have learnt the hard way and at the cost of a lot of time and ingredients and disasters in the kitchen ... and I'm still learning. The recipe below is just from my measurements but u can always change them to suite your requirements.

Ingredients

• 150 gms good quality dark choc 70% - 80% the darker the better
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped almonds
• 200 gms light brown sugar
• 225 gms butter
• a pinch of salt
• 2-3 tbsps of water
  
• grease proof paper

Start with lining a tray or a absolutely flat surface like a wooden chopping board with greaseproof paper and set aside. Also make sure you have that much space in the freezer to keep it in later. Having done that, in a double boiler melt the chocolate till smooth. Spread this on the paper with a broad metal scrapper, evenly at about 2mm thickness. And sprinkle the almonds all over the chocolate. Now transfer the board in the freezer to chill n set.
For the toffee u'll need a sauce pan. Make sure the sides are high and don't make the mistake like me of taking a shallow frying fan or you'll have a over flow of melted sugar. Mix the sugar, water, butter and salt all together, and heat it gently. The water will ensure even melting of the sugar. Technically you would require a candy thermometer to ensure perfect results, but i don't have one and was just crossing my fingers all the way :p . It will take a few minutes till the sugar bubbles and the water evaporates. It will start changing colour to a lovely brown, thats when u need to turn off the heat and set it aside. Now get the chocolate out of the freezer and cut it exactly in half and peel off the paper. Place one half of the chocolate on another clean piece of greaseproof paper the almond side down and quickly pour the toffee over it evenly. The chocolate will melt a bit as the toffee will be warm thats why u need to be quick. Place the other half of the chocolate on top sandwiching the toffee between the chocolate layers and quickly transfer it to the freezer again. Thats 90% of the job done. For the cutting bit i tried using a cookie cutter but was not very successful so i just cut them in squares and wrapped them up. I hope you do try this recipe and if u do u have to pls let me know how it turned out. The taste is absolutely fantastic and makes gr8 presents to give out.

Also i'd like to take a minute and remind you all that the voting for The Best Food Blog 2007 ... bloggers choice awards is nearing its end. Remaining with just 7 days left for voting. After which it will stop and the results will be put up on 10th nov.I know i was nominated only a month back which didn't give me much time to collect all your votes ... but still i think i did well. Can't thank you enough for all your love and support. If any of you have missed voting and do still love my blog pls do go to this link and vote for me. Remember the vote is casted only when the no. of the vote changes from (for eg.) 150 to 151 and it says voted below. I tell you this as I've had many friends who have tried to vote and said that they have but couldn't successfully caste it , which ended up being my loss ... :(. I 'm trying my best but with other bloggers who are far better than me and in the competition way before me are on the top. If not this year then hopefully next year. Thanks all of you once again :D

Ha Ha Halloumi !

So this started when i was chatting with a blogger friend M from Mango Power Girl - Seattle , she tellin me how cold it has become there already with temperatures just about touching 40 F and how due to global warming somehow they've totally skipped fall. But that now Seattle has become very environmentally friendly and that they re-cycling everything. She was at work and it was a freakin cold day and was already out with all her winter clothes. Meanwhile i was sitting here in Ghana ... and today was a really hot day. I had both my A/C and fan turned on, on full blast but was still feelin hot. And then lunch time crept on and was getting hungry. Saw everything that was lying around in my fridge, but wasn't in the mood for anything saucy, meaty, soupy ! Besides i was eating alone so didn't want to take too much trouble either. After standing in front of the fridge for almost 10 mins ( which i do so often...dunno why ) i saw it ! I had bought some halloumi cheese last week hoping to use it in salad and hadn't used it. Was out of salad leaves today so had to think of something else. I then remembered something i had seen in a BBC mag really long ago, with peppers. And then it came to me. Halloumi wrapped in peppers. So without wasting a moment i got to it.

Ingredients

• 2 coloured peppers
  
• 200g block halloumi cheese, sliced into 4 - i used only 2 slices
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• fresh thyme leaves
• freshly crushed black pepper
• salt to season
  
• 1 lemon , zest and juice
• 1 tsp olive oil to grease the peppers
• some extra to drizzle over the top

Wash and dry the peppers and rub with some olive oil. Roast on the fire ( the gas burner ) the peppers whole until they begin to char and soften. Need them soft enough to wrap the cheese but not too soft so as u won't be able to cook them again. Put them in plastic bag and set aside for 10 mins. By now the skin would've softened and easy to remove + easier to handle.
Open out each pepper by making a cut down one side, Scoop out the seeds and trim the tops and bottoms off, and trim the white membranes so you end up with a clean strip. Put a slice of halloumi in the center of each strip. You can make thicker slices of the halloumi. I used thinner slices as i wanted to be light. Lay out the peppers and sprinkle some salt and pepper on it. Place a slice of cheese in the center and sprinkle over some lemon zest and juice, divide the chilli and thyme and between them, then roll the red pepper around the halloumi. It doesn't matter if the cheese sticks out at each end. It'll look pretty when serving up .Tie the rolls with some kitchen string or raffia and press down with the palm of your hand so they flatten slightly . Heat up the griddle pan and when its really hot place the peppers in. At this time too, u will have to put some gentle force to ensure even grill marks on the peppers. Cook for about 5 mins on each side, or this the cheese softens and u get good char grill lines on top. Alternately just pop it under a hot grill till it browns a bit. When serving just drizzle some garlic olive or just some good extra virgin olive oil .

I made two ... but grilled just one for now ... kinda hungry:) Kept the other one for hubby so he can have it when he gets back home later . Thats why a picture of only the yellow one grilled.

Dry Fruit Roll

With the Ramadan going on there is abundance of beautiful dry fruits available around here these days. I think I've mentioned earlier that in Ghana we have a good population of the Lebanese community, and thankfully they have 2 supermarkets here in Accra/Tema without which i don't think i would've survived this country. So being the holy month of Ramadan, they have filled up the supermarkets with exotic Lebanese sweets, tasty traditional treats and wonderful imports of dried figs and dates. When i saw these of course like any food junkie had to buy some right away. And after eating more than half of them just the way they came, and bursting into a face full of zits (oh yes...this stuff is pretty heaty !) i thought now what else can i do with these ? Before i could give it 2 mins of thought, once again it was my hubby to come up with something. He said i used to make these date " mithai " (sweet) with all the dry fruits in it ... why dont we make that. Its pretty easy, requires nuthing really ... just a little bit of effort. I was game, so on a Sunday afternoon with nothing better to do we started making these beautiful discs of goodness. Of course with both of us tucking our hands into the jars and mixing everything up , the measurements flew out of the window. So I'm really sorry i wouldn't be able to give u some. But then again in u don't really need them anyways. Just follow your heart.
water to prevent your hands from getting sticky.Ok now i think i covered everything :p . Take the wooden board and place a big piece of cling film on it. Start by spreading out the date paste onto it in a rectangular shape. Make sure its even and we're going to have to roll it up later. If your hands get sticky dip them in water , and continue. Once we've achieved that place the mixed almonds, walnuts, pinenuts in the center and sprinkle the saffron over it. Carefully bring up the sides of the cling film and form a roll/log, enclosing all the nuts in the center. Smooth out the surface and put it in the fridge for about 1/2 an hour just to firm it up a bit. Then get it out of the cling film , sprinkle all the pistachios on a wooden board surface and roll the log in it , covering every bit of it in the beautiful green pistachios. Put in back into the cling film and into the fridge for another 1/2 hr , so that it is firm again. When youStart with a few dried dates- remove the seed and a few dried figs. Roll up your sleeves and on a wooden chopping board start squishing them with your fingers. Yes its a messy affair but its absolutely worth it. Keep going on and on till they have both amalgamated into one fine paste. Keep aside . Now comes the chopping bit. Take 2 handfuls of pistachios and chop them finely as we need these for the finishing touch. Set aside. And now take some almonds, walnuts, and pinenuts, roughly chop them up , this we will use as the center filling. So now with everything ready ... oops i forgot, we need some Saffron strands as well , some cling film and also a bowl of are ready bring it out and cut them into even slices. Thats it ! All natural, all healthy and stays in the fridge almost forever , thats if you've devoured them by night fall :p .

Spoonfull of Chocolate

CHOCOLATE AND ALMOND MADELEINES

This is probably the fastest way to consume chocolate ... just put it in your mouth, chew a bit and swallow ! For all those who are chocolate addicts like me and need a fix almost everyday day this recipe is just perfect and also real fun to make. Even the kids wouldn't mind lending a helping hand with this one. It all started out when i wanted to make Madeleines . I've always heard people going oh i love madeleines n this and that and i had never tried one. I even bought myself a madeleine tin after looking for it for almost 6 months, and now which of course has been lying as it is in my ever increasing cake tin cupboard. Madeleines are very small cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Their flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than pound cake, with a pronounced butter-and-lemon taste. I've come across recipes which even use orange zest, nuts and my fav chocolate. So i surfed the net looked around to find the " perfect " recipe for what i thought was a very fancy and special treat .What i made of it was that basically they are just exaggerated little French cakes. As like with everything, the French just have a way with their words and making even the simplest of things sound very fancy and grand. I'm not saying that its a bad thing but yes it sure is deceptive ... this is also comming from a person who cant speak a work of French to save her life, so cant really be judgmental. Alrite so back to the Madeleines ! These are a chocolate and almond version. Great on presentation and flavours. Prefect to serve when entertaining guests, just make sure u have a lot of extra spoons to go around.

Ingredients

• 30 gms unsalted butter
• 2 tbsps all purpose flour sifted
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder sifted
• 2 tbsp caster sugar 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
  
• a few almond slivers for decorating
  
• icing sugar for dusting
  

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the egg, sugar and almond extract in a bowl and whisk to combine. Fold through the dry ingredients - flour, cocoa pd, baking pd. Melt the butter and add it to this mixture and whisk well to combine all the ingredients together. Dont be alarmed by the quantity, these will make about 30 tsps or 15 tbsps. So grease whatever u are using and place them around th edges of a baking tray .This way the cake mix will not fall out. Fill the spoons till about 2/3 rd full and sprinkle a few slivers of almonds. Bake the tsps for about 5 mins and tbsps for about 8 or u think they are done. Be careful when u are getting them out as the spoons will be hot. Let them cool, run a sharp knife around the edge to loosen them out and the then just place them back on and dust with icing sugar.