A great appetizer: pin wheels

I'm still exploring the various ways I can use puff pastry.  I know it isn't exactly healthy (think of all of those buttery layers of pastry...yum!), but it is a pretty handy thing to have lying around in the freezer. If guests are coming around you can quickly whip up a few snacks with stuff in your fridge and a sheet of puff pastry. 

 I've always loved the way pin wheel sandwiches look because you can see all of the different layers of food. I've never tried making a pin wheel sandwich, but recently I made some pin wheel snacks using puff pastry.  The recipe was on the back of the box and the picture of this perfect pin wheel was too hard to resist.

Now before I actually show you the pictures of my finished product, I wanted to tell you about a couple of mistakes that I did while making these. If you keep these in mind, I promise you pin wheel perfection!

1. Make sure you finely dice your stuffing. If you are using big chunks of meat or fruit, they will ooze out while baking.
2. Put a small amount of stuffing half way up the puff pastry sheet.  If you fill it up too much and to the edge, leakage will occur.
3. Ensure that you have a sharp knife so that you can cut through the puff pastry log with ease.

Spinach and Chicken Pin Wheels

1 puff pastry sheet
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup of mozzarella and cheddar cheese mixture
1/2 cup of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained of excess liquid
1/4 cup of cooked chicken, shredded
2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp salt

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
Thaw pastry sheet at room temperature for 20-25 minutes or until easy to handle.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Stir egg and water in a small bowl.  Combine cheese, spinach, chicken, chili and salt in a bowl.
Unfold pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Top with cheese, chicken and spinach mixture. Starting at the short side closest to you, roll up pastry like a jelly roll.  Cut into small slices.  Place slices cut-side down on the baking sheet. Brush with egg mixture.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

The beginnings of a cookie extravaganza

As a kid, my mom and I would watch Sesame Street together while my sister and brother would be at school.  My favourite character was the big, blue, cookie-crazed Cookie Monster.  His inability to resist a plate of cookies is quite hilarious and reminds me a bit of myself.  If there are cookies near me- on a plate, or on the shelf, they call out to me. I'm not joking!  I can hear them call me over to take a bite into their sweet bodies and savour the feeling of having a mouth full of cookie goodness.  My brain tells me to resist the temptation and be strong, but my tummy takes over and that's when I believe it is my duty, as a fan of Cookie Monster, to enjoy the cookies that are around me.  It is only after the fact, that I start to feel guilty about my sweet consumption and think about how I'm going to burn off those extra calories.  As Ina Garten says, "You can be miserable before you have a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie but you can't be miserable while you are eating a cookie."

Hmm.   I know I can't give up cookies, or chocolate, or cookies that contain chocolate (yum!), so the next best thing that I can think of is to start making my own cookies. The good thing about this is that there won't be any preservatives or artificial ingredients in my cookies. They will only contain fresh, wholesome natural ingredients.  I think this another way achieving a healthier lifestyle...(yea...right...sure...who am I kidding?). 

This cookie recipe that I'm sharing with you today is a twist on my Cardamom Shorties recipe. A swap of ingredients and a change in measurements gave me these wonderful Cashew Cardamom Shorties.

Cashew Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

1 tsp cardamom powder, finely ground

1/4 cup cashew meal, freshly ground (to make cashew meal, take some raw or roasted cashews and grind them up in a food processor. Stop grinding when the cashews are finely ground- just before you make cashew butter)

1 2/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder
3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1/4 cup of brown cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Mix together the flour, cashew meal, espresso powder and cardamom powder.

In large bowl using rubber spatula, beat butter, sugar, vanilla and salt until well blended. Pour into flour mixture and stir until combined.  Using your hands, create small balls out of the cookie dough, about the size of a small meatball and then press down gently so a round cookie forms into a coin shape.

Bake until the edges of the cookie are lightly golden. Cool completely on the cookie sheets.

A way to handle leftovers

I always misjudge how much food will be consumed during Ramadan and Eid. It's never too little, but always too much.  I think it has to do with the fact that I was making food decisions while I was fasting.  You know, they always say never go grocery shopping on an empty stomach.  This rule also applies when you're fasting. Your tummy is telling you that it wants all of these rich goodies and savoury treats to eat after iftar. However, when that time does come, there is no space or desire to eat all of that stuff. Instead, you are left with an overflowing fridge. 

What to do?

 I can't whip up a casserole, because well people of South Asian heritage don't eat casseroles. In fact, many of us don't know what a casserole is. The only way I learned about it was from a friend of mine at work.  I still have a good laugh when I think back to that conversation.  We were talking about leftovers and she asked me what I did with them...my reply was that I ate them..as is.  As the discussion continued, some of my students and fellow teachers of South Asian heritage came into the conversation.  We concluded that people of South Asian heritage don't make casseroles (most of the people we talked to didn't know what they were!). We make curries, and stews that involve several steps, and most of the cooking does take place on the stove top.

So, to address my problem of the overflowing fridge, I took to the Food Network for inspiration and came up with some flaky, delectable treats that traveled with me on a 5 and a half hour flight down south. 

Stuffed Puff Pastry

1 package of puff pastry ( I like the ones that are already rolled into sheets), thawed according to package instructions
1 cup of shredded roasted chicken (I love this because you can roast up chicken with any blend of herbs and spices you desire and change the way these puff pastry treats taste),
2 or 3 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup of shredded vegetarian cheese
10-12 cherry tomatoes, washed and cut into slices

**Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

**On a cookie sheet lined with parchment, lay down a sheet of puff pastry.  Using a knife, cut the puff pastry sheet into squares or rectangles.

My puff pastries in different shapes before heading to the oven

For plain chicken puffs:
Take a tablespoon of the shredded chicken and place it in the centre of the puff pastry. Take another sheet and put it on top of it and press down the sides so the filling doesn't leak out.

For cheese, onion and tomato puffs
Combine the three ingredients and place a spoonful of it on one end of the puff pastry.  Start rolling the puff pastry into a roll by rolling the side with the stuffing away from you.

For a combined puff:  Mix all of the ingredients together and fill in puff pastry.

For this batch of puff pastries, I did not brush them with an egg wash (egg mixed with water), but you can choose to do so if you wish.  If you want to save these for another day, place the unbaked and unwashed puffs into a freezer Ziploc bag (don't forget to put a piece of wax paper between layers!) and put into the freezer.
If you want to enjoy them right away, bake until lightly golden brown.  Serve with chutney or chili sauce.

**I made these puff pastry treats in my toaster-oven, but they can also be made in a regular oven.
** You can create the puff pastries in any shape you desire. Be creative!

A rustic, yet delectible cookie

Eid is just around the corner and I know people are starting to think about what they are going to make. Eid is a day to celebrate with family, exchange gifts and eat lots of great treats.  Also, in between the house hopping, is the oh so important Eid nap where your tummy prepares itself for the next round of eating.
When I was growing up, my mom and grandmother would always make a traditional Sindhi sweet dish called keer karkoon. It comprises of full fat milk flavoured with cardamom pods and sugar, slowly cooked over the stove for a few hours. When the milk turns a pinky colour, the rehydrated dried dates are added to it and cooked together.  Unfortunately I have not had any experience of making this dish- mom, it's time for a cooking lesson!

Since there will be no keer karkoon cooking in my kitchen for Eid,  I have decided to bake some cookies instead. The cookie recipe is from Heidi Swanson's site 101 Cookbooks. Heidi's site is the first food blog I followed. It's full of mouth-watering recipes that use a variety of healthy ingredients to tantalize your taste buds. Do check it out when you have a moment.

Now let's get to this cookie recipe. It is rustic, hearty and oh so delicious! It's a combination of old fashioned rolled oats, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and bitter sweet chocolate. Just thinking about them is making my mouth water! Heidi's recipe calls for the use of 2 cups of sugar. I found that to be a bit much, so I cut it in half.  I also decided to add a bit of cocoa powder for more chocolaty goodness. The original recipe was to make these cookies over sized to make ice cream sandwiches, but I decided to make them a lot smaller and used a small ice cream scoop to shape them.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup coconut/palm sugar

2 tsps cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I baked these cookies on the top rack because my oven distributes the heat unevenly. Use your judgement when placing the oven racks.

In a bowl combine the oats, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well.

In another bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar for 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixture and combine until everything just comes together.

You do not want to over mix the batter.  Toss in the chocolate chips and mix well. 

Use a mini ice cream scoop to scoop out the batter in round balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Make sure to leave space in between the cookies. Once on the sheet, gently pat down the tops of each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a cookie sheet.

Blog photos

Slowly, but surely I find myself improving my photo-taking skills.  I'm figuring out the different settings on my point-and-shoot digital camera and am not relying on the user manual as much.  However, there are some days where I think I've gotten a great shot, and only learn later that it totally sucks. I have trouble with angles, and shadows. I'm also struggling with the use of flash.  Let me know if you have any tips on how I can improve on these areas.

 Here are some shots (unrelated to food) that have turned out to be pretty successful.Or at lease I think so!

At the Grand Canyon

Santa Monica Pier

Santa Monica Pier

The sky above my balcony in Mississauga

My Timmies and novel of the moment

A rose and spider at the Niagara Falls Rose Garden (Canadian side of course!)

A bite of sweetness to tide you over

As the days of fasting continue, I find myself having chocolate cravings- Snickers, Twix, Crunchie. Oh so yummy, but oh so bad for the waistline. I've been holding back, but last night was just too unbearable.  I had to have a chocolate fix right then and there.  I quickly scoured my kitchen cupboards to find something and I came across a bar of Lindt's 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate bar. Perfect!  I also came across a box of Baker's Secret Semi Sweet baking chocolate. Even better! I wanted to have some texture to my chocolate fix, so I threw together a dash of this, a handfull of that and came up with bite sized crunchy chocolately goodness.

Crunch Chocolatey Bites

1 Weetabix biscuit, crushed

2 Tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes

2 tsp almond slivers

4 squares of Lindt's 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate bar (should be about an ounce)

2 ounces of semi-sweet baking chocolate

Crush the Weetabix biscuit in a bowl and mix in the coconut flakes and almond slivers. Set aside.  On the stove, create a double boiler- put a small pot on the stove with some (don't fill it up all the way because you do not want the water to touch the chocolate) water and let it simmer. In a small steel bowl, break the chocolate into pieces and place on top of the small pot. Stir until the chocolate has melted.  Pour the melted chocolate into the Weetabix, coconut and almond mixture. Stir well.  Using a round 1/4 tsp measuring spoon, scoop out the mixture onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.  Set aside to firm up. Once firm to the touch, put the tray in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Sisters Who Blog Magazine

I forgot to mention in my two previous posts that I'm doing a Ramadan series for Sisterswhoblog Magazine.  It's a great site to check out. You can connect with sisters from around the world, do a little shopping and reading interesting stuff. Do stop by and check it out.