Bosnian Almond Cake

This recipe was shared by a friend from Bosnia, who was studying in UH Manoa.

Ingredients
(makes one 8" cake)

some butter (just to coat the pan so the cake doesnt stick)
150g sugar (I cut down to 120g)
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
90g ground almonds (almond powder)
40g self-raising flour**
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon flaked almonds for sprinkling
** if you do not have self-raising flour, substitute with:
40g plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and a pinch of salt




Method
- Pre-heat oven at 180degC. Grease (with butter) and flour the sides of a 20cm pan, line the base with parchment paper, set aside.
- Place sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl, add crushed almonds, flour, milk,  then beat with an electric mixer or whisk. When quite light and fluffy, spoon into the prepared pan and spread the batter evenly. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top.
- Bake at 180degC for 30-35mins, or until the sponge just springs back when pressed (mine took 40mins), or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (Important Note: Cover the top with foil about 15-20mins into baking to prevent the top from over browning.)
- Run a thin bladed knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool.

YOU CAN DECORATE IT ANY WAY YOU WANT ON TOP, I DID A SIMPLE LEMON ICING (5 tablespoons of lemon juice and half cup of powdered sugar)

What is taal?

My childhood memories is fragrant with smells of taal, khejurer gur and grated fresh coconut made into various desserts and pithas. Taal is not available in Pakistan or other places I have lived. I difficulty is that I did not know the English name of this bitter-sweet strongly flavored molasses from a palm tree. But the other day, found out from facebook that it is called Toddy palm paste. 

Morog Musallam

Morog Musallam by Siddiqua Kabir

http://video.bgdportal.com/view.php?id=2693&page=&cat=8&subcat=3&subsubcat=0

Maqlooba-Palestenian national dish (copied from another blog)

For details see this site:
http://arabiczeal.com/maqluba-the-national-dish-of-palestine/

Serves 6-8
Ingredients
1 large head of cauliflower, cut in flowerets, washed and dried well
¼ cup + 2 T canola oil
1 large white onion, chopped
Chicken pieces, approx 15 legs & thighs, skin removed and cleaned
3 cups long-grain rice
Salt to taste
Parsley, finely chopped (optional garnish)
Almond slivers, toasted (optional garnish)
Yogurt, served on the side

Method

1. Begin by browning the cauliflower. Drizzle some of the ¼ cup oil onto a large baking sheet. Toss the cauliflower with the remaining oil to coat evenly. Spread cauliflower on the baking sheet in a single layer.
2. Bake cauliflower in a pre-heated hot oven, 400 F/200 C (gas mark 6) for 10 -12 minutes until golden brown on the bottom. Turn and bake for another 10-12 minutes. Drain on paper towel. Salt lightly.
3. In a large cooking pot, heat the 2 T oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 5 minutes until translucent. Add chicken pieces and cook over medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes, turning once or twice. The chicken pieces will be browned slightly and partially cooked.
4. Cover chicken with water, approximately 6 cups. Bring to boil. Lower heat and cover. Simmer for 12 minutes (longer if using larger pieces). Skim off any foam from the top.
5. Meanwhile, soak the rice: place rice in a bowl, cover with boiling water and stir. Let sit for 10 minutes, drain well and set aside.
6. When chicken is finished, remove pot from heat. With a slotted spoon, remove chicken pieces and set aside. Remove liquid from the pot and reserve 5 cups. (Discard any excess.) Season the liquid with 1½ teaspoons salt or to taste.
7. Assemble the dish. In the empty pot, layer the bottom with cooked chicken pieces. Next, add a layer of cauliflower. Top with the soaked rice. Smooth the top. Add the 5 cups of salted liquid. To avoid disturbing the layers, place a small saucer on the rice and pour over it. Remove saucer and smooth the top again.
8. Bring to a gentle boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes. Check for doneness with the end of a wooden spoon nudged to the  bottom of the pot. If any liquid remains, cook for another few minutes until all liquid is absorbed.
9. Remove pot from heat and let rest for 5 minutes. Invert pot onto a large platter, flipping upside down. Remove pot and scoop out any remaining food.
10. To serve: fluff the rice and arrange the chicken pieces on top. Garnish with chopped parsley and toasted almonds. Maqluba should be served with yogurt or a yogurt-based salad. It may also be served with a simple Arabic salad of cucumber, tomatoes, parsley, lemon juice and salt.

loitta sutki vorta (Bhorta with dry Bombay duck fish)

Ingredients: (all according to taste)

Shutki (Bombay duck dried)
Salt
Dry red chillies (whole)
Onion
Garlic
Mustard oil

Method:
Cut the dry fish into small pieces and wash in hot water very well. After that remove the water carefully and dry roast on a pan. Now grind it in a mortar and pestle. Now mix with dry roasted and crushed chillies, salt, finely chopped onion, fried garlic and a little mustard oil.

Serve with warm boiled rice.


Source:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/rannakori/

Spicy Shrimp Curry of Adly

Ingredients with method for the sauce:

Take half onion, one ripe tomato, crushed garlic about a spoon, hot garlic sauce ( it has a rooster pic) , Anchovies it comes in a sardine type small container. half tomato paste and tamarinds just a small piece, let it dissolve in water and use the sauce. saute onions, add garlic, then tomato, add hot red chillie paste and anchovies. Saute until anchovies breakdown. then add tomato paste and let it cook. Add water whenever its need to make the sauce. Make sure sauce is not too watery or too thick. then you add SHRIMP after you clean it. Put Dill either fresh or canned, cilantro. Cover pan and let shrimp cook slowly. Don't over cook shrimp.


After you finish make it send me a pic and I will grade you :) (Adly Mirza

Easy Mango Icecream

I haven't tested this yet but my friend has... Her Mom made it recently and it was a big hit...

take one can of mango pulp, add 4 ounces of whipped cream and about half a can of condensed milk. Mix well and freeze. Enjoy.

Want to make this

Cheese-Filled Risotto Croquettes with Tomato Sauce

Noah's pudding (Ausre)

Want to make this dish from Turkey. At the moment the recipe is copied from the following blog.

Binnur's Turkish Recipes

1 cup barley
1 cup white kidney beans (in a can), washed and drained
1 cup chickpeas (in a can), washed and drained
1 cup sugar
1 pkg vanilla or 1 tsp vanilla extract
10 cups water
10 dry apricots, soaked in water overnight, cut in pieces
10 dry figs, cut in pieces
1/2 cup raisins

Garnish:
1/4 cup walnuts, crumbled

Put 4 cups of water in a large pot along with the barley. Get it to boil on high heat. Then as soon as it boils, turn it down to medium-low heat and cook for about half an hour. Add the beans, chickpeas, vanilla, apricots, raisins, figs, sugar and 6 cups of hot water. Cook for about 45 minutes on medium-low heat. Stir occasionally. Pour into a large service bowl and let cool.

Keep Noah's Pudding refrigerated. When serving, garnish with crumbled walnuts.

This recipe is one of the oldest and best known desserts of Turkish Cuisine. It's original name is "Asure". When we cook Asure, it is traditional to give some away to friends and family.

5000 years ago in Mesopotamia, Noah was King of the city Shuruppak. His was a trade empire, and he built a large trading ship. At that time, there was a raging flood and rainstorm. He and his family loaded animals, grain, fruit and beer onboard. The rain continued for 40 days. Afterwards there was no land in sight for 7 days. They ran out of drinking water and since the sea was salty, they had to resort to drinking beer. They eventually landed on Mount Ararat.

The old saying goes that Noah's food was about to run out. He mixed and cooked all that he had left. The result became known as "Noah's Pudding". Turkish people love Asure and there is even an Asure Month.

Some recipes I would like to try

This seems like a good Middle Eastern recipe blog:
http://6abkhatummi.blogspot.com/

Banana Pancake (vegan but you won't notice)

I made the following banana pancakes for today, using half of the recipe for myself and my husband. I pretty much followed the recipe for the pancake but did not serve it with the cream cheese glaze!!! I also did not have soy milk and hence used 1% milk. They turned out very delicious.

Vegan Ginger Cream Cheese Glazed Banana Pancakes

makes about 12-15 pancake balls

*you can also use you own favorite pancake mix/recipe and add banana/walnuts to the batter.*

dry:
1 cup white flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg
wet:
1-2 mashed ripe bananas (about 1 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (fold in last)

for sauté: safflower oil (use as needed to coat bottom of pan)

Fold in:
1/3 cup crushed walnuts (optional)

Ginger Cream Cheese Glaze
1 cup tofu/vegan cream cheese (softened to room temp)
2 Tbsp vegan butter, softened
1 Tbsp vegan mayo (gives a tart accent similar to sour cream)
3 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp ground ginger powder
light grind of orange zest (or a few drops orange extract)
optional: 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of salt
soy creamer as needed – to thin out to desired consistency/
*remember that the glaze will firm up a bit in the fridge! Reheat or bring to room temp to soften back to pourable texture

To Make:

1. Combine all the dry ingredients.
2. Fold in the wet ingredients – use a light beater if you’d like. Mix until smooth. This batter will be thicker than a normal pancake batter.
3. Fold in the optional walnuts.
4. Mix up your cream cheese glaze by simmering in a sauce pot until all the ingredients soften together. Use a blender for ultra smooth glaze. Remove from heat, pour into serving dish and place in fridge to chill.
5. For the pancakes, heat a large nonstick skillet. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan completely. Wait until oil is hot. Drop spheres of batter into pan and cook about 2 minutes on each side. Reduce heat if oil is too hot – you do not want to burn, but only crisp the outside of the pancakes.
6. Cool on paper towel. Add chilled glaze over top pancakes to serve.

Bengali Cooking (some selections from here and there)

(these notes are lifted from a discussion group)

The Bengal Cookbook: Bangla Ranna, by Minakshie Das Gupta
The Calcutta Cookbook, by Jaya Chaliha, Bunny Gupta, Meenakshi Das Gupta
Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals by Chitrita Banerji, Deborah Madison

Supposedly the "Bengal Cookbook" is the best for newbies in Bengali cooking. Also provides social/religious/cultural background behind the recipes.

"Bhojon Shilpi Bangali" by Buddhadeva Bose--who himself never went into the kitchen. The cover and illustrations are by a well-known contemporary artist, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay. The book contains some "belles-letteres" (ramya-rachana); plus some excerpts dealing with food (and feasts) from BB's novels--and at the end, includes some family recipe put together by BB's daughter.

Another interesting books is "ThakurbaRir Ranna"-- (Cooking from the Tgaore Family) by Purnima Tagore. This has lots of recipe collected by Indira Devi Chaudhurani (Rabindranath's niece) who herself never cooked ("and doubtful if she ever stepped inside a kitchen"). But she collected recipes from all over India and abroad.

The Bengali Gourmet by Sutapa Ray seems like a good site.

Some new food blogs

I have exploring some new ideas in cooking and it seems that there are a multitude of personal food blogs which in some cases are better than cookbooks. Have been thinking about making some Turkish food, and some Indian snacks. Will write more about them when I actually get a chance to try these things.

Afghan food

Want to try making these Afghan dishes:

Osh Pyozee (Stuffed Onions), Bonjan Salat (Spicy Eggplant Salad), Chatni Gashneez (Coriander Chutney)

Haven't had nor cooked any nice Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/Central Asian style for a long time. Oh, I so wish to have the Kashgar style lamb pulau, Iranian kabobs, Iraqi stuffed vegetables and Afghan pulao with Kofta!!!

DAL MAHARANI - Recipes by Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor

DAL MAHARANI - Recipes by Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor

Awat's Kurdistani Rice

Fry small onion in olive oil (1-2 tbs) till brown. Add 1.25 cups water and let boil. Wash 1 cup rice (any white) with 2 tbs raisins and 2 tbs /Angel Hair or other thin spaghetti (broken into 4 inch pieces). Add to the onion water and cook till done.

Beryl's Indonesian-Chinese Dessert

Boil one cup of pre soaked akuki beans (with enough water) with a 2 inch piece of ginger (with criss cross marks on in) till almost tender. Add peeled and chopped Okinawan Sweet potatoes and cook for another 5-10 minutes (water should not try out). Now add 1 can of coconut milk and cook for a few minutes. Add a small packet of mochi balls. Cook for 7 minutes. Add a little bit of sugar and chopped jack fruit (1 can). Serve. I like it warm!!

James's Spreads

Sunflower seeds spread

Grind sunflower seeds in a food processor. Add finely chopped garlic and onion, lemon juice, honey and little bit of water and mix well. Taste and adjust the flavors.

Cashew spread

Grind cashews in a food processor. Add finely chopped garlic and onion, lemon juice, honey and little bit of water and mix well. Taste and adjust the flavors. Save in glass containers!!

Will keep in the fridge for 3 weeks or longer!!

Cirilʻs momʻs crepes

(Ciril is from Croatia)

Pour little less than 1 cup (200 ml) milk) in a bowl. Add 2 eggs. Then add 200 ml of lime soda and a pinch of salt. Add enough flour (unbleached white and whole wheat) to make a crepe like batter which is thick but a bit runny!! You need a blender or a hand beater and some muscles to make it little frothy and get rid of all the lumps!

Heat a pan till it is HOT but not smoky... Wipe it with a little canola oil. Make your crepes as thin as you can.

Serve with Nuttela.. That is how Ciril likes it.. How does not like any bananas or anything else like it....

Patishapta Pitha (Bengali crepes with coconut filling)

Crêpes with Sweet Coconut Cardamom Filling (Patishapta)

By Soma Rathore, ecurry.com

Makes 6-8 crepes

Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tablespoon semolina/sooji (cream of wheat)
5-6 tablespoon rice flour
1.5 tablespoon sugar
1.5 cup milk(+ more if the batter is too dense
ghee/melted butter – as much required to make the crepes

Note on rice flour: I usually soak rice for a few hours and grind it into a paste.

For Filling:
3 small green cardamom, the black seeds crushed
2.5 cups grated coconut (freshly grated or frozen)
2 tablespoons raisins or any dry fruits (optional)
1/2 cup milk or half and half
1/3 cup sugar / brown sugar (or to taste)
lightly toasted almonds, flakes or slivers, for garnish

Making the Filling:
Combine milk and sugar and simmer it for a few minutes till the sugar dissolves. Add the coconut, dry fruits (if you are using) and crushed cardamom seeds to the milk and cook at low to medium heat till the entire mix starts to thicken, almost like a lump. Do not over dry the filling. This should take no more than 8-10 minutes. It will further dry as it cools, so the consistency and the texture should be moist mass. Take care not to burn the coconut. Take it out of the pan immediately and let it cool.

If you are using a combination of coconut and khoya or thickened milk, follow the same procedure as above – add the coconut and the khoya together to the pan. Cook till it is a thick mass.

Or if you using only khoya(use the chikna khoya – the one which is soft and smooth with high moisture content), cook the khoya with sugar and cardamom and milk till it is a pasty mass.

Making the Crêpes
Combine and whisk together all ingredients for the crepes, other than the ghee.It should be lump free, smooth free flowing mix – the consistency should be like the crêpe batter: not too runny but thin enough to move around when swirled in the pan

Cover and let it rest for 20 minutes. Heat an 8-inch non-stick skillet and lightly coat/grease it with ghee. Add about 3-4 tablespoons of the crêpe batter, swirling the pan in a circular motion so that the batter spreads out in a circular shape. Cook the crêpe over low heat until the bottom is pale golden, and the sides are slightly crisp and start to curl, about a couple of minutes. Carefully slide a spatula under the crêpe and gently flip it over and cook for 1/2 a minute longer. Do not panic if the first couple do not look as good; as the pan heats and settles, the ones after are going to be alright.

Add about 1.5 tablespoon of filling on the middle of the crêpe and fold towards the middle from each side to cover the filling and so that one side overlaps the other. Set aside. Make rest of the crêpe with remaining batter and filling. Make sure to continue to grease the pan between crêpes. (I use paper towel greased with melted ghee and quickly “wipe” the pan with it).

Serve warm or cold. Sprinkle some nuts if you want or have it with a drizzle of cream or condensed milk. Enjoy them for breakfast/brunch, a sweet indulgent snack as its traditionally done or for dessert.