Jammy Peanut Butter Scones

Hi Readers !!

Sorry I've been away for so long. A lot of things kept me from writing here. Yoga, Travel and Baking to name a few.. Also I have been planning to move this blog to WordPress, work for which is under progress ! :) This post will probably be my last on the Blogger platform. All the old recipe posts will be present on the new blog. Will keep you updated on the same ! :)

I have started a Vegan Home Bakery venture "HomeMade Beku" which kept me baking and trying new recipes for the last few weeks. We also did two bake sales in community near my apartment which went pretty well for a start :). Please go and check out my facebook page - HomeMade Beku.

Today's recipe is Peanut Butter Scones with a Jammy filling. I was trying various recipes with Peanut butter cupcakes but as a result landed with this one which actually worked well and tasted better than cupcake version.

If the peanut butter is sweet this recipe doesn't call for much sugar. Its best to check the sweetness of the batter to be sure. I used Sundrop Crunchy peanut butter which was not too sweet. You can also play around with the ratio of peanut batter and Jam filling to get the result you desire. Oats give a nice crunch to the scones but can be skipped as per taste.

Result is a crumbly peanut butter scone :). If you love peanut butter you will love this !

Makes 9-10 Scones

Ingredients

1 Flax Egg (1 Tbsp Flax Powder + 2.5 tbsp water)
1/4 cup Sugar (adjust depending on sweetness of peanut butter)
1/4 cup Oil
1/4 cup Peanut Butter
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/3 cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup Maida
1/4 cup water
Pinch Salt (skip if using salted Peanut butter)
10 tsp Fruity Jam (any flavor you like)

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 200 C and grease the cupcake moulds.
2. To make Flax Egg, add 2.5 tablespoon water in 1 tablespoon Flax powder and set aside.
3. Whisk the oil and Sugar together till sugar almost combines. To this add Peanut Butter and combine well. Mix in the Flax egg.
4. Sieve together dry ingredients Maida, Baking Soda and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients and water to the peanut butter mixture part by part and combine to make a sticky batter.
6. To the above mixture add the oats and combine.
7. Fill Cupcake molds to half with this batter. Drop a tsp or more of jam in the center.
8. Bake at 180 C for 25 minutes. (**Read Note)
9. Completely Cool and run down a knife on the sides before removing from the mould.

Notes :-
If your oven has a top and bottom heating element, turn on both the heating elements for the last ten minutes of bake. Alternatively you can crank the oven to 200 C for last 5 minutes.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Attractive colorful vegetables always catch my eye :). Was flipping through a very old recipe book when I came across this lovely dish called Dolmeh Kalam. It is a Persian dish which is usually a non vegetarian dish. I was so inspired by the idea of stuffing something inside cabbage leaves which led me to create this recipe. Grains, lentils and Veges is a wholesome combination we consume daily in our Indian cooking. This is a completely different twist to the same concept. So many fun ways to get your nutrition, why stick to the same old ways of cooking ;). Pro this recipe and you can impress yourself, your family and friends with a creative way of cooking.

This is probably just one of the many possible ways to make a Vegan Dolmeh kalam (should it be called that? :P). And this was the first time I made food stuffed in cabbage leaves. Its going to happen again and again :). I can only imagine so many wonderful ways you can use this concept to create creative fillings in this recipe. The various combinations you can try.. So the kitchen experiments in this case will continue :). I can keep going on and on.. Let me shut up here and you can follow the recipe below :). Hope you try the recipe and enjoy it as much as I do. Although it did make me sweat a bit in the kitchen, while eating it I felt like I have been served something royal :).

Ingredients

1 Cup Cooked Rajma (Red kidney beans)
1/2 cup Nutrela Soya Granules
2 thinly Chopped Onions
1 cup cooked Rice
10-12 Cabbage Leaves
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1/2 tsp Haldi powder
1/2 tsp Chilli powder
2 tablespoon Tomato Puree
4 Tablespoon Vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 teaspoon minced garlic
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 cup freshly chopped Herbs (cilantro / basil / parsley / coriander)
Salt and Pepper to taste


Steps

1. Pressure cook Rajma or kidney beans which have been soaking in water overnight. Pressure cook in salted water till the rajma is well cooked and is mash-able easily. Use one cup of cooked kidney beans for this recipe. Mash it into a paste.

2. Gently separate Leaves from a cabbage without tearing them apart. Go for the smaller and tender leaves found in middle of the bulb. Wash the leaves. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add a tablespoon of salt.

3. Blanch cabbage leaves in boiling water for 10 minutes till they are limp. Don't overcook. Drain and allow to cool. With a knife peel out the hard portion of the rib/stem of the cabbage at its back. This is to make the back of the leaves flatter and fold-able.

4. Cook soy granules in mildly salted boiling water. Drain and squeeze out the water.

5. Saute 1 chopped onion in 2 tsp oil till transparent. To this add the mashed Rajma and cooked soy granules and mix well. Add the dry spices and cook till the raw smell of spices goes away.

6. Combine the above mixture with cooked rice and chopped herbs in a bowl. Use hands to mix well. Check salt and add more if needed.

7. In a flat pan saute 1 sliced onion in 2 tbs oil till transparent. Add tomato puree and cook till the raw smell goes. Season this sauce with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup water and bring to a simmer.

8. Meanwhile place a scoop of the kidney bean mixture in the center of each cabbage leaf (the inside of the leaf facing up). Fold the sides of the leaf and make a tight wrap.

9. Arrange closely the stuffed cabbage leaves with the fold down, next to one another in the pan. Cover and cook on medium low for 5 to ten minutes till most of the liquid has dried.

10. Dress with lemon juice and fresh herbs before serving. :)



 

Busbousa - Middle Eastern Semolina Cake

Hello Readers!

I had been wanting to bake with semolina since a long time when I came across this dessert on a TV show and I knew I wanted to delay no further. :) Hope this leads to a lot more baking with Semolina, more often called Suji or Rava in India. Its a pretty simple and easy dessert flavored mildly with rose water. :) Yes that's what excited me in the first place. Its amazing how different cultures across the world use everyday simple things in different ways to come up with beautiful dishes. When I sit here and eat this dish I quietly close my eyes and feel I am probably in Egypt or turkey :D. But nothing beats the homeliness of a dish when it comes out of an oven at your house.

This is a middle eastern dessert which is easily veganized. I have used soy curd, other than that coconut cream will also do great in this dish. How to make soy curd ? I am planning to write blog posts on vegan essentials like non dairy milk and curds.. will keep you posted and link them into this blog. Self raising flour is pretty easily available but in case you cant find it you can replace it with 1/2 cup Maida plus 1/4 tsp baking powder. I dint have any rose water so I used gulkand (Rose and sugar
paste) which is easily available. Dilute a tsp of gulkand in 2 tsp of water and you are good to go. This cake doesn't really rise like normal cakes. It rises just a bit and stays dense. The texture remains much like the milk cake Indian sweet. Its a lovely sweet dish. Hope you too try it and love it :)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup Coarse Semolina (suji)
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Self Raising flour (or 1/2 cup Maida + 1/4 tsp baking pwd)
1/2 cup Soy Curd / coconut cream (or any other non diary curd)
1/3 cup Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Vanilla extract
10-15 Blanched Almonds
Rose Syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbs rose water

Steps

1. In a large bowl mix together semolina, desiccated coconut, sugar, flour, curd, vanilla extract and vegetable oil with a spoon.
2. Once the solids and liquids have combined well get your hands dirty and mix well into a pasty course mixture.
3. In a mildly greased baking vessel put this mixture and press down into an even layer. Let it sit for around 30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile preheat your Oven to 180 C.
5. Prepare the rose sugar syrup. Place the sugar and water in a bowl and bring it to a boil, stirring only till sugar dissolves. Simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Add lemon juice and rose water into the syrup and remove from heat. Allow to cool completely.
7. Cut the set Busbousa mixture into squares or diamonds with a knife. Decorate with almonds.

8. Bake this mixture for 25-30 minutes at 180 or until the top is slightly golden.
9. Pour cool syrup on top of hot Busbousa. Let it seep in.. :)
10. Enjoy this fragrant dessert hot or cold :).

Broccoli Sweet Corn in Sunflower seed sauce

Hi Readers!

April has been a very busy month with travelling, shooting and family celebrations. There has been a lot of cooking going on but somehow I was not fully content with the things I made :(. I realized that whenever I plan my cook it doesn't go as well as my impromptu cooking :).. And this is how I landed with this yummy dish with absolutely no planning !  (very unlike me :P)

Broccoli and sweet corn, both yummy vegetables. Broccoli brings a lovely flavor and aroma to your food AND gives you a good dose of protein as well. I love the natural sweetness corn brings about. This is the first time I used sunflower seeds in this manner and the result was yummy creaminess. This gravy pairs well with rice or chapatis/breads. We devoured it with brown rice and not a grain was left.

Ingredients

2 cups Broccoli florets

3/4 cup frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I used roasted ones)

1 medium Onion - sliced thin

1 Tomato - Boiled and pureed

1 Green chilli

1/2 tsp Ginger Garlic paste

1 clove, 1/2 inch cinnamon

1/2 tsp Turmeric pwd

1/4 tsp Cumin pwd

1/4 tsp Coriander pwd

pinch of nutmeg

2 tbs Sunflower Oil

1 tbs chopped fresh coriander

Salt to taste

Cooking steps

1. Boil the sunflower seeds in half cup water for 10-15 minutes to soften them.

2. Soak broccoli florets in boiled salted water to get rid of any dirt.

3. Puree the boiled tomato with green chilli and keep aside. Grind the sunflower seeds after step 1 into a paste.

4. Steam / boil broccoli and corn (Optional). Helps to reduce the cooking time.

5. Take a pan and saute onions in 2 tablespoon oil until they turn transparent. Add clove and cinnamon along with the onion.

6. Add tomato chilli puree and ginger garlic paste. Saute till the raw smell goes. 

7. Now mix in the powdered spices turmeric, cumin and coriander and cook for a minute or two.

8. Add the broccoli, corn and 1/2 cup water and bring to a simmer. 

9. Add salt to taste.

10. Add sunflower seed paste and mix to coat the veges. Add 1/2-1 cup more water to get the desired consistency. Bring to a simmer before switching off the heat.

11. Sprinkle fresh coriander and a pinch of nutmeg for aroma.

12. Enjoy this flavorsome curry with rice/roti :).

Cheesie Macaroni Pasta in White Sauce

Hello All ! :) Its been a while I posted a savory dish here. This recipe was requested by a friend on Facebook. Here is a Cheesie Macaroni Pasta made in vegan white sauce made from Cauliflower.

Dumping dairy has opened my eyes to how many vegetables can be used to replicate flavor and consistency of dairy products. This was one of my very first Vegan Pastas! :) Super light on your tummy, delicate and creamy as hell, this pasta is a great vegan alternative. The cauliflower sauce has a very mild flavor and all vegetables and herbs complement it well. I like to keep it simple and pair it with one or two veges.

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients
2-3 cups cauliflower florets
1 cup macaroni pasta
1 Tbs Cashew nuts
salt
pepper
8 garlic cloves
Red bell peppers
handful Basil leaves

Steps
1. Cook the Cauliflower Florets in sufficient boiling water with a teaspoon of salt. Remove off heat once florets are cooked through. Drain and keep aside to cool.
2. Soak cashew nuts in hot water.
3. Following instruction on pack cook macaroni in hot water with salt and a tablespoon of oil. Once cooked drain away the water into another bowl and wash pasta with cold water. (drained water can be used in preparing white sauce of pasta)
4. Grind the cooled cauliflower florets in a blender with some water into a smooth paste. Add little water to thin down the cream as needed. Season with salt and pepper as per taste.
5. In a saucepan take a tablespoon of oil and saute minced/thinly sliced garlic cloves.
6. Chop red peppers into thin slices and optionally steam them. Add these to the saucepan and slightly saute them.
7. Add the cauliflower sauce to the saucepan. Thin down the cream if needed by adding water and bring it to heat.
8. Add cooked macaroni and mix to coat evenly with the sauce. Add basil leaves.
9. Enjoy a flavorful , super light Macaroni in white sauce :).