BOMBAY PAV BHAJI

Pav bhaji is a famous street food of Indian, especially Mumbai and Pune. It consists of pav (bread) and the bhaji (gravy) made of potato, carrot, capsicum or other vegetable cooked with pav masala, onion, tomato and ginger garlic paste.

It is so convenient and also a complete meal for busy workers who are rushing for time. Now you can find this in many parts of the world including Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, UK and many more.

In my recipe, I have used whatever vegetables available in my kitchen and added chili powder since my family loves spicy food, green chili can be added instead of chili powder. It is entirely up to you to adjust the spice level according to your taste. I didn't mash the veggies but let them fully cooked and turns soft.

It is so delicious and will definitely cook this Bombay Pav Bhaji often. I halved the recipe, another alternative you could use this bhaji for stuffing your puff or bun. They become as great snack to be enjoyed by whole family during picnic or party.

CARROT CHAPATI

Chapati is unleavened flat bread mostly found in Indian homes. It is made of whole wheat flour, water and salt but sometimes oil or ghee is added in the dough to obtain softer roti. The pliable dough is then roll out into disc, fry without oil on preheated cast iron pan until bubble appears on both side.

Using the basic chapati recipe, various vegetable or lentil are added to the dough and now it is getting popular, great taste and a lot of variety to choose from. It is all depends on your creativity and imagination.

This time, I have chosen carrot to be added to the chapati dough. They turn out fantastic and my family loves them a lot. I have divided them into 6 but you could also shape them slightly larger that means you get only 4 pieces.

OATMEAL AND RAISIN COOKIES

If you are a fan of oat cookie, look no further. I discover this soft (even when cooled), buttery and not so sweet cookies using rolled oat, butter and raisin when trying to bake oatmeal cookies. I didn't turn out as expected, it became too soft like thick porridge and was thinking how to save the dough.

After adding more oatmeal, flour and a handful of raisin, it turns out great, easy to handle and now this is on top of my favorite cookies list. It's a real winner!

INGREDIENTS

3/4 C oatmeal ( blended rolled oat)
3/4 C all purpose flour
1/3 C icing powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
8 T raisin

METHOD

* Cream butter, sugar, salt and essence. Preheat oven @ 150 C.

* Gradually add flour and raisin to the butter mixture and forms into pliable dough.

* Shape into small ball and flatten slightly, place into baking pan.

* Bake for 10-15 minutes @ 150 C. Cool on rack.

* Store in an airtight container when completely cool.

Yield : 30 pieces

This goes to Vegetarian Foodie Friday #17 Event ,  Recipe Swap Thursday,  .Foodie Friday and Fabulous Friday

COCOA SHORTBREAD

After browsing the net for perfect cocoa cookies, I discovered this great recipe by Martha Stewart. These delectable cookies are so easy to make, simply soft, smooth chocolate flavor and not to sweet unlike other recipes which call for heavy dose of sugar.

I didn't follow her method but did it my own way and also without melted white chocolate drizzle on top since it was not in hand. This dough is quite sticky to handle but manage to shape into small ball and garnish with chopped almond. This is now becomes my new favorite cookies, will bake them often from now on, they hit the spot!

COCOA SHORTBREAD

Modified from Cocoa Shortbread Diamond recipe by Martha Stewart

INGREDIENTS

1 C all purpose flour
1/2 C icing powder
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C softened butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
chopped almond for garnish

METHOD

* Cream butter, sugar, salt and vanilla essence until creamy.

* Add flour and cocoa to the butter mixture and forms into pliable dough. Preheat oven @ 150 C.

* Shape into small ball then flatten slightly and place 1 inch apart, garnish with chopped almond.

* Bake @ 150 C for 20-25 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.

* Store in an airtight container.

Yield : 25 pieces

This is my entry for September Culinary Snackdown: Chocolate by  Anette,  Tasty Traditions by Nikki., Foodie Friday ,  Family Food Fridays, Motivate Me Monday 39, This Weeks Cravings: Chocolate , Easter Party , Sundae Scoop 
SNS 83 
Check Me Out Saturday 
Show And Tell Saturday 
Foodie Friday 

KEK KUKUS / STEAMED FRUIT CAKE

This is most sought after cake that is only available during Eid in most Malaysia/Singapore households. It is so moist, melts in the mouth, fruit filled and absolutely yummy.

Kek Kukus/Steamed Fruit Cake  is actually steamed for 4 hours. Due to the long process, excellent taste and high demand it has became very costly to buy this steamed cake. Despite this, making your own steamed cake is really challenging and rewarding, you can't stop eating them and get way more quantity produced compared to buying them.

The following tips are useful if you're making this for the first time:

Your need to prepare the caramel by heating the sugar until it melts and turns golden brown using slow heat otherwise it tastes bitter. Remove from heat and add the water, stir well. Quickly and carefully adding this to the batter.

Prior to steaming, the water in the steamer must be boiling and each addition of water on each hour must be also boiling point. It is advisable to boil a kettle of water for this purpose.

Some flour to be added to the mixed fruit to avoid them sinking at the bottom of the cake.

Place the batter half full into greased pan and properly closed and secured with masking tape or string to ensure the cake has room to rise and to avoid water dripping into the  Kek Kukus/Steamed Fruit Cake. 

Once the fruit mix is added, do not over mix.

It is advisable to replace 100 g of fruit mix with 50 g of green cherries and 50 g red cherries to make it more attractive and colourful. If you are cooking for small family, it is recommended you make only half of the following.