Ramadan from the Past: Puff Pastry Post

Salam (Peace)!

It is the second (or third) day of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting. Thankfully, I have been able to spend time reflecting, listening to Qur'an, lectures and attending Taraweeh, the special night prayers that take place during the month of Ramadan.  

I haven't had an opportunity to post the recipe on breakfast/sehri/suhoor muffins, so I'll take you back a year and have you visit my post on stuffed puff pastry.  I hope you enjoy making these for your family!

Ramadan Blessings to you and your family!

Ramadan 2012

It's hard to believe that Ramadan is starting this weekend, Insh'Allah!  This year I'm going to try and post a few recipes to help you with your Ramadan cooking. I promise they will be simple and will not take up too much of your time.

To help get you started in your spiritual preparation for Ramadan, let's go back into the past and visit a post on Ramadan and it's significance.

My Favourite Banana Bread

Lately I have been buying up bananas and eating one a day.  Sometimes I buy so many that I can't finish them before they get to that icky brown, over ripe stage. You know that stage- where they're too gross to eat on their own, but are perfect for a cake, muffin or bread recipe.

I have eaten my share of banana bread over the years, but have never come across one that I really enjoyed. Well that changed when I decided to try this recipe from allrecipes.com  It's a VERY easy recipe to follow and I'm pretty sure you already have most, if not all, the ingredients in your kitchen.

My Favourite Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten,

5 medium size bananas, overripe and mashed

6 Hershey kisses, cut in half (my addition)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a loaf pan and set aside.

In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  In another bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar.  Beat in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended, about 3-4 minutes.  Stir wet mixture into flour mixture until just combined.  Gently stir in Hershey kisses.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in oven for 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.  Remove pan from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Invert bread onto a cooling rack.

Ghirardelli Classic Brownies

I've been sitting on this recipe for a while, since December.  I finally have a moment today to post it.

Ghirardelli Classic Brownies

4oz Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Baking Bar (1 bar)

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 large eggs

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

3/4 cup and 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/3 cup Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chips

1/4 cup walnut pieces, plus more for sprinkling on top of brownies (my edition, so it's optional)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder (my edition, so it's optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter an 8"x8" pan (as you can see, I did not use an 8x8 pan. I listed the pan size written on the instructions for you guys!) and coat it with cocoa powder.  Set aside.

In a double boiler, melt chocolate bar and butter over low heat, stirring until smooth.  Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.  Stir in brown sugar and vanilla.  Add eggs, mix well.  In bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Slowly fold in flour mixture; mix well. Stir in chips and walnut pieces.

Pour batter into pan and sprinkle walnut pieces on top of batter.  Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Greek Yogurt Parfait

After a hard work out, I'm usually tired and hungry. If I'm being good that day, I'll grab some fruit, but sometimes I stray and have something that's a little sweet and not so healthy.

This morning I decided to opt for something healthy and came up with a Vanilla Greek Yogurt parfait with granola, organic blueberries and fresh mango. YUM!

Greek Yogurt Parfait

1 small container (single serving) low fat Vanilla Greek Yogurt

2 tbsp granola

20 organic blueberries, washed

1/2 Alphonso mango, peeled and diced

In a glass, fill the bottom with half of the yogurt. Put half of the blueberries and mango pieces on top of the yogurt. Do another layer of yogurt, berries and mango and end with the granola.

Totally unrelated to the kitchen

I'm back. From where you ask? No where. 

I've hit a slump in the cooking department. I haven't been creating anything new nor have I tried out any recipes.  I'm just cooking the same stuff and those recipes are already listed.  I do have a few drafts for some recipes, but I'm either been too lazy to blog or I've left the recipe in TO when I'm in LA and vice versa. 

So now that I'm uninspired with my cooking, I thought I would blog about something totally unrelated to my kitchen- a reading challenge!  I signed myself up for the Dystopian Challange 2012 and I'm aiming for the Contagion level. That means I have to read 15 Dystopian novels this year. I've already read one, Divergent by Veronica Roth...just 14 more to go. I know of two other books that I want to read with the same themes: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Insurgent by Veronica Roth. The rest of the books I will pick up as a I go along. If I'm stuck, there are plenty of Dystopian novel lists out there to guide me.

Rice

Rice. Such a simple and straightforward title, right? Well I really wanted to name this post "Browned Aged White Basmati Rice with Frozen Mixed Vegetables," but I'm sure you can see why I didn't. Too long and wayyyyy too confusing! So I stuck with Rice. Just Rice.

White rice (not the Uncle Ben's variety thank you very much!) is a staple in many Asian households.  Curries, pakoras, stews, and fish are usually accompanied with a heaping plate of steamy, fluffy Basmati rice. The rice can be plain white, or seasoned with spices; vegetables like potatoes, peas or beans like chick peas.

In my house, we don't measure out dry rice using a dry measuring cup. Rather, we use a small mug that is used for coffee or tea like this. One small mug full is equivalent to 1 cup. And when it comes to cooking the rice, the amount of water used is double the amount of dry rice measured out. For example, if you measured out 1 cup of rice using the small mug, you will use the same mug and fill it twice- 2 cups of water.  Kinda confusing at first, but very easy to implement.

Browned Aged White Basmati Rice with Frozen Mixed Vegetables

1.5 cups (using a small mug for measurement) dry white basmati rice
3 cups of water (using a small mug for measurement)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp oil (olive or canola)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 medium-sized cinnamon stick
10 whole black peppercorns
4 cloves
1/4-1/2 tsp black cumin seeds
1/4-1/2 cup (regular measure) frozen mixed vegetables or peas

Put rice into a large bowl and wash thoroughly until water runs clear.  Fill pot with water until rice is covered and set aside for 30 minutes.
Put the sliced onions  and olive oil in a large pot and brown onions until dark brown.  While browning onions, add in cinnamon stick, peppercorns, cloves and cumin seeds.
After onions are ready, add 3 cups of water and salt and bring to a boil.
Drain water from rice and add rice to boiling water. Lower heat to medium and cook rice (while stirring occasionally) until almost all of water has been absorbed.  Add the frozen vegetables, lower heat to lowest heat point and cover pot with its lid.  Let rice and vegetables steam until desired consistency has been reached.