Rasmalai

Simple recipe

MMMMMmmmmm Tastes as good as it looks.

I found this recipe on the www first but something about it was not working for me. I called my aunt for her recipe which I heard also uses ricotta cheese. It sounded the same but I asked her to send me the recipe. One simple stage made all the difference-Mix together by hand! Previously I had unwittingly used a whisk and the results were a close texture rather than a more crumbly open texture achieved by hand mixing. My addition to the recipe is the vanilla flavoured milk syrup and the ground cardamon.

You need:

• ricotta cheese 2 cartons
• sugar 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on how sweet toothed you are!
• ground cardamon 1 t
• 1 pint whole milk
• 1/2-1 large can evaporated milk (or use 2 pints of milk instead)
• vanilla dusting sugar
• flaked almonds or pistachios and rose petals to decorate

1. Mix the first 3 ingredients together by hand
2. Divide the mixture into a lined 12 cup muffin pan
3. Cook in oven for 40 mins fan oven 160 degrees C (lower if using more sugar)
4. Reduce the pint of milk to half by bringing to the boil and then simmering on a low heat.
5. Add the evaporated milk and a good dusting of the vanilla icing sugar(1t)
6. Place the cooked patties into the prepared milk syrup and chill.
7. Decorate-especially good with crushed pistachios!

Chicken Noodle Soup

1. The Little Miss decided to help herself to an ice-cream from the freezer!!!
2. The freezer was left open!!!
3. The Frozen chicken legs started thawing!!!
4. I did not want to start any heavy cooking having just cleared away lunch!!!
5. Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner!!!

The Simple Base:
celery,onion, carrot, sweetcorn and a big fat juicy bay leaf from the garden:)

• Saute for 6-8 minutes
• Season with Salt n Peppa
  
• Fill pan with water
• Throw in the frozen chicken
• Bring to the boil and forget about it...
• ...until the chicken is cooked
• Remove chicken and shred
  
• Throw back into stock base with addition of dried noodles
• I use my store cupboard iron fortified ones:

Vegetable Stir-fry Steps

The Veg:


The Sauces:

The Base:

Noodles and Spring Onion garnish:

The Egg:

Crushed Peanuts:

Mix it up and EAT!!!

Washing Leeks

Leeks! Delicious but always tricky to wash out the muddy grit trapped between layers. Simply cut a criss-cross into the top layers and place under running water and with your hands wipe away the grit. It works!

Almond Cookie, Cherry Cookie, Pecan Nut Cookie, Macadamia Cookie

Almond Cookies Masquerade:

It is an almond cookie:

Is it a pecan cookie?

Is it a cherry cookie?

Is it a macadamia cookie?

No. It is all an Almond Cookie Masquerade.

Holiday Painting Impressions

His sea-side:


Her sea-side:

Geomag ballet

My 2yr old loves making ballerinas with Geomag. On this occasion my 6yr old obliged by making a dancing partner. It's great when they play together harmoniously:)

Fish and chips

My sons special request: Mummy's home-made fish and chips.

Once this bit is done, the rest is easy!

Recipe improver tips:

1. Use freeze-dried chives in the breadcrumb mix.
2. Season flour with salt, pepper, smokey paprika and mustard powder.
   

Rocket Cake

This chocolate brownie cake tastes a lot better than its gaudy looks.

The mix for it was rather colourful too!

Mukka Express

I miss my Mukka!! Good looking, sometimes high maintenance but worth it....I had a short love affair with my mukka but it was turning me into too much of a coffee junkie. So I made someones day on e-bay:).

I used to sprinkle the top with drinking choc and vanilla sugar. What a treat!

Love it and set it free. If it was true love, one day it will be back. That day is beckoning.