HAVE-SUM-MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

HAVE-SUM-MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Edited: - This recipe was published in the local Newspaper of Airdrie  "Here's the Scoop" on 18th December 2015.
Edited- This recipe was featured on Friday free for all blog hop on 18th December 2015. Here is the link. 

Christmas time is a festive time, and the whole month of December I can feel the festivities when everybody is in a mood of celebration. In this festive season, shops, malls, and houses are all illuminated with lights and other decorations. Even though this festival does not bear any religious significance to me, I can still feel the festive season and mood in my house as my grandchildren love to celebrate Christmas. As November rolls around, they start asking, “when are we going to put up our Christmas tree?”.

A big Christmas tree sits in my living room, from the last 20 days, and my grandchildren are having fun decorating it every day with their new ideas. They know the person to go to and demand for new tree ornaments that is me, they know that I cannot refuse their demands, I am the grandma after all! Whenever I go shopping I get their list ready with the instructions from the young one (who is only four years old), “Naani (grandma), you must buy these items.”

During the weekend, when the whole family was going out for dinner at a friend's place, my grandchildren were counting the lit houses, screaming and really enjoying looking out for all the lit up decorations on our drive. Later I heard them demanding their dad to put up more lights and decorations outside our house too, the lit up the rim on the eaves-trough was not enough, we needed some more lit up trees and reindeer in our yard.

These shortbread cookies are inspired by the famous Bakers Eat-SUM-MORE, which we all loved to eat when we lived in Botswana. The cookies are buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Traditional shortbread does not have cream cheese like in this recipe, I feel cream cheese adds more texture and make the cookies more manageable when shaping them.


 RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

FOR COOKIES

• 100 gm cream cheese
• 225 gm butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cups brown sugar (or regular sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup vegetable oil

FOR FROSTING

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbs milk

METHOD

• Preheat oven 320 F.
• Beat the cream cheese and sugar well.
• Add butter and beat until light in colour.
• Add vanilla essence and corn starch and combine.
• Add flour and combine all the flour into this buttery mixture and try to bring it together.
• Add ½ cup oil into the mixture and try to bring together, keep adding a ½ cup and combine into a dough.
• Divide into portions (preferably 4) that you can roll out, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 mins.
• After 30 mins, take one portion out, roll out to 1/2 cm thickness, you can roll it out 1/4 cm for thinner cookies, cut out using your favourite cookie cutter shapes, and place on a tray lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 15 mins (for thinner cookies), 20 mins for thicker cookies, or until just before golden. Don’t overcook these cookies, cool them on a rack.
• For the frosting- add the milk to the icing sugar and beat, drizzle on the cookies or pipe them on and let it dry for a couple of hours.

Bakes 70 thick cookies/ 90 thin cookies.

I am sending this recipe as my blog entry for the treat-petite event.
And another Christmas-Recipe-round-foodie Friday event., and with Festive Food Friday, and also sharing with Meatless Monday, with What'd you do this weekend and with Food year linkup, and with Friday free for all, with Hearth and soul blog hop, and Tasty Tuesday Creative Kids, and with Funtastic Friday, and with Fiesta Friday 100th edition, and with Cook once and eat Twice link party.

Also sending this post as my blog entry to Cook and Celebrate event, and Bake Fest event.

               







I am also sending my post to " My Treasured Recipe # 4-Ho Ho Ho its Christmas (Dec 2014)" hosted by Miss B of Everybody eats well in Flanders and co hosted by Charmaine of Mimi Bakery House.
And also for Bake-a-thon event at eastwestrealm, and for Bake of the Week. and for March Family Foodie Baking., and with Two favorite things on Thursday.

KALE AND TOFU SIDE DISH

KALE AND TOFU SUBJI

(suitable for vegans)

Two weeks ago, I set out to make stir-fry noodles with tofu. Having no tofu in the fridge, I asked my son to bring tofu while coming back from the office. In a hurry, he got two packets of soft (silken) tofu instead. Now I had to use this soft tofu somehow in another recipe as it would have been too soft to use in noodles. I checked the fridge and found one bunch of fresh kale, and thought that kale would go very well with soft tofu.

As I was chopping the kale, my mind was just thinking of what else can be added to this dish- maybe some onions. That is how this new dish was invented in my kitchen. I fried some onions and made this new dish of kale and tofu, which came out very nice. I and my husband enjoyed it with rumali roti (soft thin Indian flat bread) with plain yoghurt and the green salad. Because I really enjoyed it, I thought of cooking it again and writing a post about it.

                                                                                      

As I have mentioned in another post that I started using a lot of kale in Canada only because it is easy and always available throughout the year here. In addition to that, I have read a lot about its health benefits so I am trying some new dishes with it too. I feel the combination of this dark green vegetable and a lean protein is really beneficial. I have tried mixing kale with lentil also, that recipe I will share in another post.

For this recipe, I have used red kale, which I have never seen before.While shopping for kale at my organic grocery shop, I didn’t get the green variety, only got the red variety. Next day I checked the images of red kale on Google and was satisfied to know that there are other varieties available other than green too.

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• One bunch of kale
• One small pack of soft tofu (300 grams)
• One large chopped onion
• One tsp cumin seeds or mustard seeds(I used mustard seeds)
• One tsp coriander powder (optional)
• Salt and black pepper powder to taste
• Two tbs olive/coconut oil (any oil of your choice)

METHOD

• Chop finely and rinse kale leaves two-three times in clean water.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan, add cumin seeds and wait till it changes the colour.
• Now saute the chopped onion till translucent.
• Add kale leaves with salt and coriander powder, turn after every few minutes, do not cover the lid because kale will leave some water which will soon evaporate.
• Crumble the tofu and mix well in kale. Cook till all the water evaporates from kale, sprinkle black pepper powder and turn off the gas.

This can be served with naan/roti or dinner bun. This dish can be served to 4-5 people.

This recipe I am sending as my blog entry for The Hearth and Soul Hop event.
And also for Cook Blog Share event, and with Vegetable palatte March, and with saturday spark link party, and with From the Archives Friday,

And for another at Lisa's Kitchen, and for best recipe of 2014 event, and for meatless monday event, and with Virtual Vegan Party, and with creative Monday blog., and with Weekend recipe link party, and with Extra Veg March 2015, and with Happy healthy and green blog hop, and with Real food Friday,

     

PALAK PARATHA (INDIAN FLAT BREAD WITH SPINACH)

INDIAN FLAT BREAD WITH SPINACH

Spinach has many varieties, my favorite is the small tender one which is baby spinach and English Spinach, which we easily get in Calgary. Getting these types of spinach was a big problem when I was in Botswana, where I lived for a long time. The only spinach we used to get was white silver beet spinach because this was locally grown there.

Spinach is a type of vegetable which can be used in many ways and many varieties of dishes can be made in my kitchen. In Indian cuisine, spinach is mostly made in combination with other vegetables and lentils. One very famous snack is spinach pakoda (fritter), and a very famous restaurant dish is palak paneer, when spinach is made with Indian cheese as a side dish.

These parathans are my grand children's favourite dish. Feeding vegetables to children is always a challenge. They themselves are not interested in eating any vegetable, this recipe will hide the green leaves. Kids will only see the colour and they like colourful food items. This recipe is also good for their lunch box, provided we keep in a lunch box which can keep the parathas warm.

I had the pleasure of cooking fresh spinach straight from my kitchen garden for many years in Africa. But the type of spinach we grew there was the long white silver beet spinach. My husband was growing many vegetables in our kitchen garden there, the problem with spinach was that we had to water it every single evening without fail. The heat and the direct sunlight during the day was making the leaves of the spinach wilt and lie flat on the ground in the evening. I remember, my children would remind me every evening to water the plants, saying that, “Mumma, your spinach is already dead lying on the ground, water it quickly.”

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• 500 grams brown bread flour/ whole wheat flour
• 500 grams baby spinach leaves ( One bunch)
• salt to taste
• chilli powder to taste
• One teaspoon cumin seeds
• Two tbs oil
• Oil for roasting.

METHOD

1. Wash and rinse the spinach leaves 2-3 times in water.
2. Put the leaves in a pot for boiling on a low heat, it will take 10-15 minutes, till the leaves are tender. Leave it to cool.
3. When cold, blend the spinach in a food processor.
4. Now prepare the dough, take brown bread flour in a bowl, mix all dry spices and 2 tablespoon oil. Make the dough with spinach, no additional water is needed. Spinach should be added slowly to make a hard dough.
5. Pinch small pieces of dough and make small balls then flatten them so that it is easy to roll.
6. Roll them in a small size of roti.
7. Heat the cast iron tava or fry pan and roast them on both sides, applying little oil and roast till they are brown on both sides.

Theses parathas can be served hot or warm. Hot will taste better with yoghurt or any pickle. They can also be served with juice or any other drink of the choice. You can make around 20 or more depending on the size, can be served to 5-6.

This recipe i am sending as my blog entry for the Breakfast event.
And also for Hearth and Soul Hop event, and with Cook blog share, and with Way wow link party,

I am also sending this recipe for Showcase your talent event, and for Meatless monday event, and Weekend-recipe-party, and for Tasty Tuesday event, and with full plate thursday, and with Lunch box recipe for back to School, and with Extra Veg.