Posts Tagged ‘ Pistachio ’

Mhlabia

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long recipe behind me, now I’m just in the mood for something easy to make. Mhlabia (muhlabia/mahalabia) is a traditional mid-eastern dessert, a milk base  pudding  flavored with rose or orange blossom water. As for the topping, you might find different kinds of them but my favorite is just the classic pistachios and shredded coconut.  This pudding is  so soft and light, the texture is between jelly and custard, a perfect dessert to serve after a spicy meal 😉 .

 

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Ingredients:

  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 2 tbsp corn flour
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon rose water/orange blossom water
  • pistachio and shredded coconut for garnish

Directions:

  1. Mix corn flower with water and add to milk which has been brought to a boil.
  2. Stir and cook until thickened and then add sugar.  
  3. Add rose/orange blossom water and salt, boil another few minutes.
  4. Pour into individual serving dishes and chilled for 2-4 hours.
  5. Garnish with pistachios and shredded coconut before serving.

Jasmine Pistachio Cheesecake for Rosa

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This time is Rosa from Rosas-yummy-yums turn, She’s a cat lover, who’s also still in love with her mountain bike (I guess living in Switzerland has something to do with it 😉 ) and on her darker side she’s her PC abuser 🙂

For her, I made a mid-east inspired cheesecake, with a good dose of pistachios and exotic floral aroma.  If you want a cheesecake recipe, you can find Rosa’s Strawberry cheesecake recipe here.

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What are your favorite kitchen gadget?

My measuring cups (it would be a KitchenAid if I had one)…

What are your favorite drinks?
Coffee, tea, water, cold milk with Ovomaltine, almond-flavored rice milk…

* I adore sweet cold almond-flavored rice milk

What are your favorite dessert?
 Cheesecake, chocolate mousse, lemon meringue pie, fruit tarts/pies, pecan pie, lemon mousse, konafe, baklava…

What are your favorite  herb/spices?
Curry, paprika, tonka, chili, ras-el-hanout, cumin, basil (all varieties), coriander, dill, tarragon, rosemary, garlic, oregano, cinnamon, allspice, 5 spice powder …

What are your favorite fruits?

Berries, mangoes, passion fruits, star fruits, grapefruits, limes, lemons, cherimoya…

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Fudgy-Wudgy Chocolate Cookies

 

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My children are my biggest baking supporters,and the best part is that I don’t always have to bake with complicated  methode or make sophisticated  looking baking product, but even the little simple thing  will do for them.  What kind of simple little things?  Mmmm…. cookies 😛

Their  (mine as well) favorite cookies are the fudgy wudgy chocolate cookies.

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Fudgy-Wudgy Chocolate Cookies

Recipe Adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly Everyday Cakes & Cookies

Ingredients

  • 125g butter, chopped
  • 1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/4 cup self raising flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup raisin
  • 1/2 cup pistachio
  • 1/2 cup dark choc chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 180′ C. Line 3 oven trays with baking paper
  2. Beat butter, sugar, egg and extract in medium bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Stir in combined sifted flours, soda and cocoa., stir in raisins, nuts and choc chips
  3. Drop rounded tablespoons of mixture onto prepares trays about 4 cm apart, press each with a fork to flatten slightly
  4. Bake cookies for 10 mins.  Stand cookies on trays for 5 mins, before transferring to wire rack to cool.

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Banana Knaafe

Knaafe is another traditional mid-eastern sweet, which is widely sold here, where ever you look. When Scott informed me with this event, making knaafe comes to my mind, the only thing challenging is that I have to add fruit, so to make the little twist on the original recipe, I used banana. Baked banana, pistachio, melted cheese and heavy syrup…. mmm… heavenly isn’t it?

Ingredients

  • Glucose syrup
  • 150 gr of shredded Fillo dough
  • 3 medium bananas
  • 1 stick of butter 
  • 250 gr Haloumi/ Ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 cup pistachios 
  • 1/2 cup powder sugar
  • 1 tsp orange  food colouring
  • 1 tsp  orange blossom water

Directions

  1. Melt butter in sauce pan in a low heat,  while melting add the shredded fillo dough gradually, when the dough absorb all the butter, remove from the heat and  divide the dough into two equal portions.
  2. Heat the oven, 200′ C
  3. Mix cheese , powder sugar, and orange blossom water in a blender.
  4. Arrange the banana on the pan, cover with the  1/2 prepared dough, lay the cheese patties on top of it.
  5. Mix the orange food colouring with the rest of the dough, and cover the cheese patties layer.
  6. Baked for 20 mins with bottom fire and another 20 mins with upper fire.
  7. Garnish with pistachio and pour the heavy syrup just before serving, best eaten while still warm.

Um Ali

Um Ali actually means the mother of Ali, which Ali… we don’t know, there are millions of them, but just the thought of this woman is being so famous because of her dish, makes me dream the one day there will be a dish named after ME… LOL… enough dreaming, back to the dish!

It’s again one of my favorites (of so many favorites I’ve got 😉 ) of quick desert recipe, it’s easy but rich in flavors, in the summer you ca eat it with ice cream, in the winter just eat it eat while it’s hot.

 

Ingredients

  • 5 pcs croissants
  • 2  1/2 cups fresh milk
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp golden raisin
  • 1 tbsp  sliced pistachio
  • 1 tbsp sliced almond
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1 tbsp rose water
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar

Directions

  1. Heat  the oven 180′ C
  2. Arrange the croissants in an oven dish
  3. Pour the milk over
  4. Sprinkle raisin, pistachio, almond, cardamom, cinnamon and sugar.
  5. Baked for 8 mins or until top of the dish slightly browned
  6. Take it out of the oven, while hot pour in the rose water.