Recipe: Fruit Tartlets Fruit tartlets are finger food pastries as the baked tarts are small. They are filled with cream cheese, fresh cream, lemon curd or custard and lots of fresh fruit. These tartlets are ideal as dessert for parties or even as a tea time treat. Fruit tartlets never fail to wow my guests. And what I love about them is that you can fill them with any seasonal fruit. For kids I’ve filled them with jelly and fruits. If you are a bit apprehensive about making the sweet shortcrust pastry at home, by all means use ready made one. I try and avoid using ready made ones as I am not sure what kind of fat might be used to make the dough.…
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Continue ReadingRecipe: Breakfast Tarts These Breakfast Tarts are prepared from puff pastry with a bit of vegetables and egg. A delicious savoury breakfast idea, you can add vegetables of your choice. Can also add bacon, sliced sausages, your choice of cheese, etc. I have chosen to use spring vegetables, fruit and herbs – baby spinach, fresh basil, mushrooms, bell pepper and baby tomatoes. An Arty City – Montreal Street Art, Murals and Graffiti are very much popular in most parts of the world. When you walk around Montreal City you will notice some sort of creativity be it paintings on building walls, meaningful graffiti, different shaped benches, small gardens with blooming flowers, shop windows dressed to attract anyone, or even small balconies of apartments. People in…
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Continue ReadingEvent: Blogging Marathon#88 Theme: Regional Cuisine- Week 2 Day 2 Today we’re going to the heel of Italy, to the region called Apulia or Puglia. This region has the Adriatic Sea to the east, Ionian Sea to the south-east and the Strait of Otranto and Gulf Taranto to the south. This region produces olives, tomatoes, aubergine, asparagus, artichokes and mushrooms. Salento a region of Apulia is right at the tip or the heel of the boot. Today’s recipe is from Salento area. Rustico (plural is rustici) is a puff pastry filled with sauces and cheese. Its baked and usually enjoyed as a mid morning snack or as an evening appetizer. Two discs of pastry are used to sandwich the sauces and mozzarella cheese. This pastry…
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Continue ReadingMEGA BLOGGING MARATHON -SEPT 2017 #80TH BLOGGING MARATHON THEME: PROTEIN RICH DISHES/LENTILS DAY:16 Last Sunday I met up with my best friend to catch up on events, thoughts, basically everything. She had gone on a cruise to Norway and I had loads to tell her about my dad’s stay in Montreal and our visit to Niagara Falls. She runs a kindergarten and though I retired from teaching nearly 10 years ago, we still have a passionate common topic and that it young kids. New academic year so there are bound to be kids who will cry their lungs out before they settle in. Usually every new term with new kids and she says that it doesn’t take a toll on her when kids cry…
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Continue ReadingVeggie Shepherd’s Pie Veggie Shepherd Pie is a vegetarian version of the famous Shepherd’s Pie. Traditional Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie as it is known as, has a filling of minced meat topped with mashed potatoes. I have replaced the minced meat with lentils (puy lentils) to make it vegetarian friendly. It also is a good plant protein rich dish as I have used mushrooms, milk and beans. What Is Shepherd’s Pie? A Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage pie is usually a meat pie with a topping of mashed potatoes. It is not made with any kind of pastry shell. Minced meat is prepared with some vegetables. The minced meat is spooned into a baking dish, topped with mashed potato and baked or grilled (broiled) for…
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Continue ReadingRed Theme/ Valentine’s Day preparation For the month of January The ‘Shhh cooking secretly ‘ group decided to make something using red coloured food so as to give an idea to our followers what they can prepare for Valentine’s Day.My partner for this month was Amrita Iyer a food blogger whose blog is full of colour and mouth watering recipes. Check out The Food Samaritan to find out exactly what I mean. The colour red signifies many things. Love, warmth, danger, power,passion, determination, anger and desire.Red also draws our attention to danger. So as you can see its got its positive side and the negative too. Today we’re going to think of the positive things, it means life, love and passion. As I always say…
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Continue ReadingBaked Veggie Empanadas Baked Veggie Empanadas, made using a wholewheat pastry with a filling of fresh red beans, potato and corn. Serve as a snack or as a meal with a salad and homemade Tomato Salsa. What are Empanadas? Empanada is one and several are empanadas. They are stuffed pastry or bread which are either fried or baked. Originally from Portugal, empanadas are made in several South American countries. The filling varies from region to region. Generally beef is the choice, but these days its easy to find chicken, fish, other meat, vegetables filled empanadas. Also sometimes a sweet filling is used like apples, cream cheese, jam, pumpkin, etc. Interestingly, they are similar to the Italian Calzone, but are smaller in size. Also yeast is…
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Continue ReadingA quick dinner idea I just love mushrooms and whenever I see a punnet at the market or the vegetable shop, I have to pick it up. What to do with them, the idea comes later but buying mushrooms is a must! So this time its an open pie, very fast and a very satisfying meal.Serve it as a snack,or for dinner or lunch with some salad. Did you know that mushrooms are rich in Vitamin D? Well, yes they are.Like humans when exposed to the sun they produce Vitamin D.They are also a good source of the B Vitamins. Mushrooms are rich in selenium which helps to boost the immune system.Mushrooms can be eaten raw or cooked. PESTO MUSHROOM PIE Makes…
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Continue ReadingAjay’s favourite Its almost the end of April and I have only blogged 28 recipes.Will my mission of 366 recipes by the end of the year be fulfilled? So many upheavals and events have prevented me from blogging on a regular basis. Two days ago I spent nearly 40 minutes composing, editing, etc a recipe and just as I was about to insert the picture, the computer just freezes. So I lost my work. It was really frustrating but today is a new day, so a fresh start, hoping that there will be no technical gliches today. Hot flaky pies, be it cheese, chicken or vegetable are everyone’s favourite. Most normal coffee or snack places in Kenya serve…
