Pear Pudding

I love pear and any desserts with pear in them. Since I've bought a dozen of pears yesterday, I decided to bake Pear Pudding. Had it with vanilla ice-cream and it was a perfect combo! My family members love it. Alhamdulillah. It's quite easy to make & here's the recipe,

Ingredients :

- 120 grams of self-raising flour
- 120 grams caster sugar
- 120 grams butter
-  3 eggs
-  1 tspn vanilla essence
-  1 tspn nutmeg powder
-  3 ripe pears, remove skin and slice thinly
-  1 tbspn granulated sugar

Methods;

1) Pre-heat oven at 180 Degrees Celsius.

2) Beat butter and caster sugar till fluffy then add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time. Beat for 5 minutes.

3) Next, fold in the flour. Lastly, add in the apples and mix well. Pour in a baking container, sprinkle the granulated sugar over it and cover with aluminium foil.

4) Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick to see if pudding is cooked. If toothpick came out clean, the pudding is ready.  Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream. Delicious!

Chicken Tikka Masala

Chicken tikka masala is a dish of roasted chunks of chicken tikka in a spicy sauce. The sauce is usually creamy, spiced and orange-coloured. It has been claimed to have originated in Glasgow and is among the UK's most popular dishes, leading a government minister, Robin Cook, to claim in 2001 that it was a British national dish. - Wikipedia 


Ingredients

Chicken Tikka:

1 kg chicken breast ( cut into bite-sized cubes)
2 tbspn yogurt
1 tbspn red chilli powder
1 tspn cumin powder
1 tspn tumeric powder
1 tspn cinnamon powder
1 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn sea-salt
1 tbspn ginger & garlic paste ( an inch ginger and 2-3 garlic)
2 tbspn olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon


Masala sauce:

1 cinammon sticks
2 cardamon pods
a handful of chopped coriander leaves
2 large onion ( chop finely)
4 tomatoes ( 2 for blending and 2 chop into cubes)
4 green chillies ( remove seeds and slice thinly)
1 tbspn cumin powder
2 tbspn chilli powder
1 tbspn coriander powder
1 tbspn masala powder
a handful of cashew nuts
1 tbspn ginger & garlic paste
1/2 cup yogurt
1-2 cups of water
some olive oil
sea-salt

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves (optional)

Methods:

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients under "Chicken Tikka" for 1/2 hr to 1 hr then bake in the oven for 1/2 an hour or until the chicken is cooked.

2) To prepare the masala sauce, blend 2 tomatoes, ginger & garlic paste (an inch of ginger and 2-3 cloves of garlic) and cashew nuts and 1/2 cup of water in a food processor and set aside.

3) Heat the cooking pot with some olive oil then fry the cinnamon stick and cardamon pods and chopped onions and green chillies, some chopped coriander leaves (optional) for a few minutes. Next add all the dried spices and fry till fragrant. Next pour in  the blended ingredients and cook for 10-15 minutes followed by 1/2 cup of yogurt. Add water whenever the sauce becomes too thick.

4) Lastly, add in the chicken cubes into the masala sauce and mix well. Turn of the heat after 2-3 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander. Serve best with Basmati rice/ Naan. Enjoy!

                               Nadia's Kitchen : Chicken Tikka Masala

Baked Spicy Kale Chips

Kale is one of the most beneficial 'Superfood' as it contains lots of beneficial vitamins and minerals for a healthy body. You can read more about it's health benefits by clicking on the link below;

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4408/Top-10-Health-Benefits-of-Eating-Kale.html

I'm sharing with you the recipe for Baked Spicy Kale Chips. These chips taste kind like crispy seaweed except that they are more nutritious and do not contain any msg. They're super duper easy to make.

Ingredients;

A bunch of kale (remove from stalks into bite-sized, wash and rinse and leave aside till the leaves are dry)

A dash of paprika

A teaspoon of garlic salt ( I used McCormick's) 

Some olive oil

Methods:

1) Pre-heat the oven at 170 degrees celcius.

2) Arrange the leaves on a baking tray. Drizzle olive oil on the leaves and gently massage all over the leaves. 

3) Add paprika and garlic salt and mix evenly. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Cool them down before transferring to an airtight container. Happy trying! 

Kale Chips. 

                                If you're wondering how kale looks like. 

Almond Sujee Cookies

Eid Mubarak to all Muslims all over the world. I hope you're having a wonderful time celebrating this joyous occasion with your loved ones. May Allah accept all our good deeds and forgive our sins. InshaAllah.

I'm sharing with you our all time favorite festive cookies recipe which is super easy to prepare and oh soo good & addictive. Almond Sujee Cookies.

ALMOND SUJEE COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

- 800 grams plain flour
- 1 cup of icing sugar
- 400 grams clarified butter/ ghee
- 100 grams ground almond

METHODS:

1) Melt the butter under medium heat and leave to cool for about half an hour.

2) Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C. Next, add the icing sugar and ground almond to the flour and mix well. Pour the cooled melted butter into the flour mixture and using your hands, mix it well till it turn into a nice and smooth dough. Once the dough is done, shape the dough into small balls. Place it on a non-stick baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes till it turn lightly golden.

3) Cool the cookies completely before storing them into an airtight container.  Enjoy.

Bubur Lambuk (Savoury porridge in coconut milk)

This porridge is quite easy to make and very delicious. It's one of my family's favourite dish and a dish I love to cook during the holy month of Ramadan. I hope you and your loved ones will enjoy this dish as much as we do.

Ingredients;

3 cups of rice

some water to cook the rice

1/2 kg of sliced beef

1 packet of coconut milk

sea-salt to taste

a few cloves and star anise

some olive oil 

For paste;

3-4 large red onions

7-8 cloves of garlic

1-2 tablespoon of black pepper 

1 tablespoon of corriander seeds

a handful of raw anchovies (ikan bilis)

For garnishing:

Some chopped parsley and spring onions

Some fried shallots

fried anchovies (ikan bilis)

sliced omelette

Methods;

1) Rinse the rice, drain and set aside. Blend onions, garlic, black pepper and corriander seeds with some water till it turns into a smooth paste. 

2) In a boiling pot, heat up some olive oil, add the cloves and star anise and fry for a few seconds. Next, add the paste. Fry the paste for a few minutes till fragrant then add the meat. Continue to fry till the meat changes colour. Add water, about 2 litres and boil for half an hour.

3) Next add the rice and cook till the rice turn to porridge. Lastly, add the coconut milk and sea salt to taste. Keep adding water to the porridge until you get the right consistency.

4) Serve hot in a bowl and garnish as shown in the pix shown below.

Ayam Percik Perak

 Ayam Percik Perak

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken (cur into 12 parts, remove skin and wash thoroughly)
20 dried chillies ( cut and soak in warm water for a few minutes, wash and drain)
5-7 green birds' eye chillies
1 lemongrass
3 large onions
5 cloves garlic
an inch of galangal ( lengkuas)
1 1/2 inch garlic
few lime leaves (daun limau purut- 3-4 for blending, 3-4 slice thinly)
100 ml coconut milk ( I used 1/2 pkt Kara coconut milk)
some water
some sea salt to taste
some olive oil


Methods:

1) Blend dried chillies, green birds' eye chillies, onions, garlic, lime leaves, lemongrass, ginger and garlic with some water in a food processor till into a thick paste. Add coconut milk and mix well.

2) Marinate the chicken parts with the chilli paste for half an hour. Heat a non-stick pan with some olive oil and pour the marinated chicken into the pan and cook for about 15 minutes till the paste thickens. Add salt to taste and cook for about 5 more minutes.

3) Next, transfer into a baking tray, sprnkle the sliced lime leaves

and bake at a pre-heated oven at 180 Degrees Celcius for about 45 minutes. Spinkle, chopped spring onion, parsley and fried shallots (optional). Enjoy with hot piping rice. Happy trying!