My H loves peanuts a lot and have them as is So while searching for some peanut recipes i found this delicious recipe which is a classic street food in sierra leone and this recipe matched my letter K for Blogging marathon .So K for Kanyah/ kanya, I am so glad that i tried it as this a nutrients packed sweet snack and a tasty one. These are very popular street food in Africa and my adventurous journey of cooking is becoming more interesting by trying out some international recipes .
Kanya (or Kanyah), a sweet snack from Sierra Leone and nearby areas of Western Africa, is made from just three ingredients -rice, peanuts or groundnuts, and sugar. Kanya can be made with store-bought rice flour, or you can make your own by crushing parched rice. Traditionally kanyah are made in motor and pestle but i have used my faithful mixer because i don’t have a mortal and pestle .
Recipe source :Congo Cook book
Ingredients
1 cup peanuts, shells and skins removed, roasted
1 cup uncooked rice or rosted rice flour
1 cup Dark brown sugar (You can use any powder sugar)
Method
- Using a mixer grind the roasted peanuts into powder.
- I used uncooked rice so in a skillet I dry roasted them , stirring continuously, until it becomes slightly browned. Now grind the rice till they are ground in to powder If using rice flour parch the rice flour in a dry skillet, stirring continuously, until it becomes slightly browned.
- Combine the crushed peanuts and rice (or rice flour). Again grind them together with sugar until they form a powder.
- Using your hand press this mixture in round tall bowl or a plastic container in cylinder shape or just press the mixture in a pan and cut them in to square pieces.
- Serve them as snack.
- You can also shape them in Indian ladoo shape or any shape you like.
- If you have a mortel pestel do try making these in them i bet they will taste more yummier as that is the traditional way.
- May be served immediately, or stored in air-tight containers.
- To make it more healthy I used dark brown sugar but you can use any kind of sugar.
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
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Chinese Scallion Pancakes
Today’s recipe is an delicious pancake with scallions which is an delicious dish form Cantonese cuisine been challenged in IFC (International Food Challenge) an brain child of two lovely bloggers Saraswathi Tharagaram and Shobana Sekar . I loved this months challenge thoroughly. I made Spiral Moon cake from the list of Cantonese recipe made which i posted earlier and here is my second recipe from the challenge.
This flavorsome pancakes where super hit and my H just loved them.Thanks to shobana and saraswathi for challenging these delicious recipes.As i have already said Cantonese Cuisine is from southern part of china and these pancakes are one among the delicious recipe in this cuisine .Lets Move on to the recipe of making this pancakes and a dip which marries well with them ..
Recipe Source : Food Network
INGREDIENTS
Pancake dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour/ maida (plus more for dusting)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup boiling-hot water
3 to 4 tbsp oil
2 cups scallions or spring onions ( green parts only, thinly sliced)
Soy Dipping Sauce:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar /white vinegar
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp crumbled dried red chile
1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds
1 tsp sugar
METHOD
For Pancakes:
- Stir together flour, salt, hot water, and 1 tbsp oil. This can also be done in a food processor with a dough blade.
- Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until soft and smooth and forming a round ball, 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and a warm towel; let stand 20 minutes.
- Divide dough into 5 or 6 pieces of equal size. Roll the pieces into balls.
- Place a ball of dough on a well-floured work surface and roll out into a thin circle (about 1/16 th inch thickness).
- Spread a teaspoon of oil evenly over the pancake (use more if needed). Sprinkle salt evenly over the pancake.
- Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of scallions over the pancake.
- Roll the pancake up from one end, then curl the roll around in a spiral and pinch the end to the roll so it stays wrapped.
- With the palm of your hand, press the roll from the top to flatten it. Roll the pancake out to 1/8th inch thickness.
- Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until oil is shimmering. Cook pancakes, flipping once, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side (add oil as necessary). Drain on paper towels. Season with salt. Cut into wedges, and serve with dipping sauce.
For Dip
- Mix all the dipping ingredients and serve with the pancake.
Baked Jicama fries
Am so happy that we have already kick started our BM this month so many delicious recipes from my dear co blogger’s 🙂 and here i am with second Letter for this month Blogging Marathon . For B i have chosen an healthy and very very delicious fries – B for Baked Jicama Fries in International recipe as theme . I picked this delicious veggie from grocer after studying a lot of healthy stuffs about this Mexican veggie.
Jicama is a crispy, sweet, edible tuber that resembles a turnip in physical appearance, although the plants are not related. It has been cultivated in South America for centuries, and the vegetable is quite popular in Mexican cuisine. Jicama’s unique flavor lends itself well to salads, salsas, and vegetable platters.
Most jicama recipes involve shredding or dicing the vegetable and tossing it into some kind of salad. But if we make them in to fries they turn more yummier and flavorful. These spicy jicama fries are great healthy snacks with lots of crunch and flavor.
Ingredients
1 Medium Sized Jicama (at least 1 pound)
1/4 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
1/4 tsp Taco spice pd
1/4 tsp Paprika pd
1 tsp lemon juice (squeezed from a fresh lemon)
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Peel and slice jicama into ½” thick sticks (french fry style).
- Pour the oil, salt, onion powder and taco spice powder into a medium sized bowl and stir to combine.
- Add the jicama sticks to the bowl and toss to coat.
- Lay the jicama sticks on to a parchment paper/Silpat lined baking sheet (leave space between the pieces)
- Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, tossing half way through baking time.
- Remove from oven and squeeze lime over the fries.
- Serve hot.
Notes
- You could also use spray olive oil if you want to use less oil.
- You can also serve as a salad by mixing and ingredients and serving them raw.
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
Apricot and semolina pilaf (Turkish dessert )
2 tbsp Almonds slivers / Pistachios
Method
- In a small saucepan, bring the whole milk to a boil with the sugar. Simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
- In another large saucepan, melt the butter.
- Add the semolina and pistachio ( i used pistachio) and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until golden and fragrant, about 8 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the milk mixture, apricots, almond extract (optional) and salt.
- Cover and let stand until the liquid is completely absorbed, about 20 minutes.
- Fluff with a fork and serve with any sorbet
- You can use fine semolina but traditionally they are made with coarse one.
- They taste delicious when served with any flavored sorbet
Logo courtesy : Preeti
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 32
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Spiral Moon Cake
Am here with another interesting dessert from china . So happy to be apart of IFC ( International food challenge) an group evoled by +Saraswathi Tharagaram (author of saras yummy bites ) and +Shobana Sekar (author of Kitchen secrets and snippets ). I liked the thought of trying and tasting more international recipes and learning a lot about foods in other parts of the world .So here we are with our first challenge
This is our first challenge this month covering the chinese or Cantonese cuisine this month.
Cantonese Cuisine, also named Yue Cuisine or Guangdong cuisine, is one of the main cuisine styles in China. It comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and it is one of among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine.
The basic cooking techniques of Cantonese cuisine include roasting, stir-frying, sauteing deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming. Steaming and stir-frying are most commonly used to preserve the ingredients’ natural flavors. The most characteristic cooking methods of Cantonese Cuisine are cooking in salt, cooking in wine, baking in a pan, and soft ¨C frying.
Servings :To make 8 medium sized moon cake.
Yield: 10 moon cakes
(Adapated from House of annie )
Ingredients
300 g sweet potatoes (purple ones preferable)—start with about 400-500 g sweet potatoes unpeeled.
1/4 cup milk powder
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1/4-1/2 cup sugar (depending on how sweet your sweet potatoes are, just taste and add more sugar to taste)
1/2 tsp salt
Method
- Boil sweet potatoes then peel and mash the sweet potatoes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients to the mashed potatoes and mix till it forms a paste.
- Cook it on stove top till it thickens. ( or microwave for 10 minutes, Stir in between . I made it in microwave so its was really quick to make).
- Roll out into 8 balls. Put aside while making the pastry dough.
For the Moon Cake Dough:
Water Dough
3/4 cup of all purpose flour / maida (I used maida)
2 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp water (less than half of 1cup)
11/2 tbsp of Butter
A pinch of salt
Oil dough
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup oil
salt a pinch
1/2 tsp panada essence (i used Buco panda)
Method
For the water dough
- Sieve flour, sugar and salt.
- Then cut butter into flour mixture using fingertips or pastry blender until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add in water and mix to form a soft, non-sticky dough. If it is sticky, you will need to add a bit more flour to get it to be the right texture. You should be able to form a soft pliable ball that won’t stick to your hands. You don’t have to knead it. Cover and set aside to rest for 20 mins.
- For the oil dough, sift flour and salt.
- Then, make a well in the center of the flour and add in oil and pandan essence. ( I forgot to add color at this stage, So added later to the dough).
- Draw in the flour from the sides and mix to form a soft even colored dough, , if it’s too sticky, add more dough till you form a soft ball that doesn’t stick to your hands . Do not over-mix. Cover and set aside for 20 mins.
Rolling the cake Dough
- Preheat oven to 185 C or 350 F.
- Divide both the dough(Wet/ water dough as ‘A’ & Oil dough as ‘B’) into 10 equal balls.
- Taking one piece of (A), flatten and wrap (B) in it. Pinch to seal edges.
- With the sealed side facing up, roll into a rectangle.
- Roll up like a snail to form a ‘cylinder’, turn the cylinder 90 degrees, with the end facing up.
- Roll again into a long thin strip.
- Using a sharp knife or a pastry cutter, cut the cylinder in the middle into two pieces.
- With the cut side facing down, flatten the dough, making the edges slightly thinner than the center.
- Stuff the filling and pinch to seal with out pulling too hard, otherwise the layers will tear. And when you pinch, you will find that the bottom looks ugly—don’t worry about it.
- Place sealed side down on lined baking tray and bake for about 30 mins until the top and bottom are a light golden brown.
Tips:
- Make the Filling Sweeter Than You Might Think Because the outside is rather flaky and hardly sweet at all, it helps to make the filling quite sweet so that the overall pastry is balanced
- The dough will dry out over time and be less easy to work with. So work fast.
- If you feel the oil dough is becoming crumbly and and not forming a firm dough then you can sprinkle lil water and need them nicely .
