.....From My Palate

Halloween

Kataifi – An Exotic Greek Dessert

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Happy Valentines Day!
When I was thinking of dedicating this recipe to valentine’s day, a thought flashed across my mind. Who wants to cook and serve on valentine’s day?
After lot of thinking I was really intrigued by this thought. Why Ma ke Haath Ka Khana is still special and delicious for us? With all the healthy food chains, good availability of all kinds of foods possible, restaurants doing good businesses, still home cooked food is in demand. Yes! I realized, its not food. Its the love, time, concern and feeling with the food that makes it more delicious and easy on your stomach.
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Eating out is a weekly thing now (may be twice in a week for some..) like buying grocery or doing any other chores on weekend, still on any good occasion we prefer to go out and eat. So, what’s so special about eating out now? Gosh! Am I sounding old fashioned? Believe me, I love latest fashion and I am Fashionable!. But in this case just fanthoming a thought! For once I think I belong to an old school, where anything with love, time, concern and feeling is more precious than any materialistic gift. To be true, not to everybody and definitely not all the time but for that special one, you wanted to dedicate this day and sharing your feelings with out saying a word.
(Wow, so proud of myself for delivering a dialogue from Yash Chopra’s romantic film.)
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Now coming to the recipe of the day, this is called Kataifi. Kataifi is a greek dessert made of special shredded pastry dough called Kataifi. To me its an exotic sweet related to very popular baklava in taste. This sweet is also popular in Turkey and other middle eastern countries. You can buy Kataifi from any middle eastern food specialty shops or some supermarkets with a name Kataifi Pastry. This dessert has exotic golden color, very crispy with a moist pistachios filling in the middle. Yum! delicious! are another suitable name for it.
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Kataifi
Author: Bhawana
An Exotic Greek Dessert
Ingredients
  • 1 Box Kataifi, Shredded Fillo Dough
  • 2 Stick Butter, melted
  • For Filling
  • 1 cup Pistachios, coarsely ground
  • 3/4 cup Almond, coarsely ground
  • For Sugar Syrup
  • 1 1/2 cups Sugar
  • 1 cup Water
  • 1 tbsp. Lemon Juice
  • 1 tsp. Orange Blossom water
  • 1/4 tsp. Rose Water
Instructions
  1. Boil sugar and water in a pan.
  2. Add lemon juice and continue boiling syrup for more 10 mins on low flame.
  3. Add rose water and orange blossom water and keep it aside to cool down.
  4. Mix pistachios and almond together for the filling.
  5. Tease out the Kataifi dough gently by hands.
  6. Add butter and pull apart the dough gently if there are any clumps.
  7. When the dough becomes fluffy, cover with damp cloth.
  8. Grease a ovenproof dish and preheat oven to 350 degree F.
  9. Take a section of dough, spread it in a shape of rectangle, drizzle butter all around.
  10. Place tsp of filling towards one end and fold it over into a cylindrical shape.
  11. Place them in a prepared dish, close together leaving no gaps in between.
  12. Drizzle the left over butter equally on each rolls.
  13. Bake it for 45 mins to 1 hour until golden brown in color.
  14. Pour sugar syrup all over the rolls and keep it aside until it absorbed.
  15. Garnish with pistachios and serve!

Pumpkin Halwa- Celebrating Fall with Indian Twist

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October month is all dedicated to fall produce and Pumpkin is the star of the month. It is a versatile hero of the season used in decorations, cooking and the pumpkin patches are the fun and a must place to visit for the kids. The blog-sphere  are loaded with  pumpkin recipes even i have few in my mind and draft. Navratris festival or nine days to celebrate and worship Goddess Durga  was on this month of October.  In the spirit of the season,  I decided to make sweet that goes well with Indian ethnicity and blend well with the fall season. Pumpkin Halwa  is the recipe I chose to kick start our festive season . For all health-freaks its a great recipe for toning the arms,  believe me it is….!!

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Pumpkin Halwa
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 4 cups Pumpkin, grated
  • 1 cup Sugar, adjust according to taste
  • 2 cups Milk
  • 1-2 tbsp. Ghee
  • 1/2 tsp. Cardamom Powder
  • few threads of Saffron
  • 1 cup grated Khoya
  • 2 tbsp. Raisins
  • Almond Cashews or Pistachios, chopped
Instructions
  1. Soak saffron in a tbsp of warm milk. stir and crushed it with the back of spoon for color.
  2. Heat ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan or Kadai, add the pumpkin and sauté on a medium flame for few minutes while stirring continuously until the pumpkin is slightly cooked.
  3. Add the milk, mix it well and give it a boil while stirring in between.
  4. Now turn down the heat on low and simmer the halwa until the milk evaporates and the pumpkin is all mushy and cooked.
  5. At this point add sugar, saffron milk, cardamom powder and raisins.
  6. Mix well and cook on a medium flame for 2 to 3 minutes, while stirring continuously.
  7. Add the khoya, mix well and cook another 1 to 2 minutes stirring continuously until the halwa starts to leave the sides of the pan.
  8. Garnish with almonds cashews or pistachios.

Roasted Acorn Squash Soup – Celebrating Fall

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Summer said goodbye and officially it’s fall. Cool misty mornings, little less sunlight and small days are really depressing. But thank God Halloween is almost there, it’s time to take out decorations from the basement and get busy in welcoming festivities that brings happiness. Last week I went out with a friend for a quick visit to a small cute farmer’s market in the downtown. From stalls of seasonal flowers, baked goods, vegetables and fruits, a cute round green and orange acorn squash caught my eye and instantly warm creamy soup was in my mind.

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Next day seasonal flu puts me down and this cute small thing keeps on waiting for me in the refrigerator. I am still fighting with the cold and bad throat but cannot fight with the craving for warm bowl of creamy soup.

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Roasted Acorn Squash Soup
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 2 Acorn Squash, halved and seeded
  • I Shallot, diced
  • 1 carrot, cubed
  • I green Apple, cubed
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • Few fresh Sage
  • 1/2 tsp. Cumin Powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
  • 2 pinch of Cinnamon Powder
  • Pinch of Nutmeg Powder
  • 2 cups Vegetable Stock
  • 2 tbsp. Olive Oil
  • 2 tbsp Coconut Milk
  • Salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.
  2. Season squash with salt and peeper.
  3. Put garlic (in a foil pouch) and squash into a baking dish with the cut side down.
  4. Bake until the flesh of the squash is soft, about 30-40 minutes.
  5. Let it cool until squash can be handled. Scoop flesh into a bowl and set aside.
  6. Heat oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Cook garlic, shallot, carrot, and apple until soft, 5 to 7 minutes.
  7. Add squash, cumin powder, cayenne powder, cinnamon and nutmeg powder. Mix it well.
  8. Now pour vegetable stock into the pot.
  9. Add fresh sage leaves and simmer it for 20 minutes.
  10. Puree the mixture with a stick blender.
  11. Stir coconut milk and season with salt and pepper.
  12. Cook more for 2 minutes. Serve with garnish of your choice.

Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes

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I love my son but I don’t know if I feel the same for summer vacations. These days no early mornings, no rushing, no running for the school bus instead calm, quite morning time with my first cup of tea but still a question in my mind do I really like summer vacations? Though I must admit summer vacations gives lot of quality time to spend with your kids but we have 24 hours in a day and lots of other chores to finish. I can handle “I’m bored!”, “I played with all my toys!”, “Now what will I do?” kind of questions but what really bugs me “I’m Hungry, Can I eat something good?”

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This is not the ending, when you are in the kitchen there is always a volunteer for the help. “Can I help in something?” If you say no of course! you are a bad mom but your yes! may not be any help for you. (you know what I mean…) No matter how much you wanted to say no but there are times when yes! is the only option.

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I like doing different activities with my son. In school days he is so busy with his regular routine and after school activities there is hardly any time to connect or spend with each other. Time is already flying, in few years all these activities will be beautifully wrapped in a scrapbook. And our present time will become memories of the past….So I decided lets make some beautiful memories!!

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Besides drawing, painting, unloading dishwasher, reading, playing board and card games and other activities, baking is the thing that we both enjoy. Our today’s recipe is fun and very interesting. Its yummy… delicious and an eye catcher.

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Ice cream cone cupcakes are fun, quick and easy recipe. It looks like a ice-cream but actually its a cupcake baked in an oven and frosted like a ice cream.

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Ice-Cream Cone Cupcakes
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • Cake Batter of choice
  • 1 pack flat-bottomed Ice Cream Cones
  • 1 jar frosting of choice
  • Cherries and sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Take a muffin pan, and wrap foil tightly over the top.
  3. Use a sharp knife to cut a small X into the foil.
  4. Gently push the ice cream cone into the X.
  5. This will allow the cones to stand up nicely and not fall over.
  6. Transfer batter into a container with a pour spout.
  7. Pour batter into ice cream cones, filling each 2/3 of the way full.
  8. Bake the cupcakes cone for 18-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
  9. Frost and decorate with your choice of toppings.

Halloween 2009

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Now that our festival season is over but the festivity is still all around. That’s one big advantage of living in US. As we say, goodbye see u next year .. to Diwali, same time look forward excitedly for Halloween night trick or treat, planning for Thanksgiving dinner and shopping, shopping, shopping on black Friday, Christmas eve party and lastly New year eve.

Wow…But today lets talk about Halloween.
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31 every year in US. Its a spooky, funky, sweet holiday because of all the candies and chocolates and cupcakes and cookies baked for the day.
I made these Cupcakes on Halloween for Maanav and his friends in our block.

These are Carrot cupcakes with whipped cream frosting.

I even tried my hands in Thumbprint Cookies. Thanks to this blog world for sharing wonderful recipes. These are Chocolate thumbprint cookies and Lemon curd thumbprint cookies.
We preferred Lemon curd, they comes out really good.



These cookies are really fun to bake. I’m not sharing the recipe coz this place is full of beautiful recipes if you still need, let me know I’ll be happy to do it.

These cookies are Coconut Macadamias cookies and reallllly delicious. Anyways anything with coconut is really delicious for me. But it tastes like our Indian coconut cookies.

Saving for last, this is my first log cake I baked and decorated. The filling I used was vanilla whipped cream with strawberry and walnut.

Decorating any cakes is always a nice experience, its fun to explore, try new techniques and at last feeling of contentment when your family and friends enjoy eating it.
So this is the story of my Halloween waiting to hear from you guys!!…