My next guest post is by another good blogger friend, Sumaira from The Muslimah Mommy. She writes about all things mummy and parenting related. If you aren’t already following her, you should be.
Sumaira decided to step a little outside of her normal blogging to bring us a recipe today. Before I continue I probably should clarify something for my Aussie readers, cilantro is coriander. You know that delicious herb that adds amazing flavour to anything you add it to. As a child I never liked coriander, I would ask my mum to keep it out of every dish she made, thankfully she never listened to my crazy talk. And if you enjoy it just as much as I do, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one. I’m going to have to give it a try when I’m back.
Rustic Cilantro Chutney
Chutney is a big hit at our house, even the kids enjoy it! There are so many variations of chutney, for instance there’s mint chutney, mango chutney, and etc. At our house, we try to keep things simple to suit our busy lifestyle, and that’s why I prefer to make cilantro chutney- because it only takes 3 minutes to make!
I call this chutney ‘rustic’ because instead of using an electrical kitchen device, I use a mortar and pestle to grind the cilantro leaves; thus bringing back the element of the Pakistani village that both of my parents grew up in. The chutney itself is not a smooth mixture- it’s chunky and well…rustic looking! In our household, we eat this chutney with chicken, fish, curried vegetables, and rice; in other words, pretty much with anything!
Ingredients:
A handful of cilantro (coriander)
1 green chilli pepper
1 ½ cups of plain yogurt
½ tsp of salt
1 tbsp of vinegar
Method:
In a mortar, crush the leaves of the cilantro with the the green chilli pepper.
Transfer the mixture into a bowl and add the yogurt, salt, and vinegar.
Mix well, and enjoy!
If you are serving this to children, you can always adjust the spiciness by adding more yogurt or putting in half of a green chilli pepper instead of a whole one.
My first guest post is by my blogger friend Henna of My Ninja Naan. Somehow, somewhere in this big blogosphere, our paths collided and we’ve been good friends ever since. While we’ve never met or have spoken face to face (type to type is how we roll, lol) we keep in touch often. Henna is a great friend, her recipes are even greater, if you haven’t already checked out her blog you are missing out. I could go for some of this chocolate ice cream right now.
Today Henna has made M&M Cookies to share. How good do they look? I wish she lived close by.
Salaam and Hello All!
My name is Henna and I blog about my love for all things culinary over at My Ninja Naan. I met Faaiza some time back, and since then we have gotten to know each other on a very personal level. Alhumdullilah, praise be to God, for the connections and relationships that we make with others in all corners of the world through blogging, something that many of us consider a hobby.
The recipe that I am sharing with you today is something that the little ones in your life would enjoy both creating and eating- m&m Cookies! My son, who is now 3 ½, loves to help out in the kitchen whenever possible. Although it can get messy, I love pulling up a stool to our counters and letting him get involved. The excitement that comes from creating, and then waiting for the end results, are so worth any amount of mess
Go ahead and give these a shot, I’m sure you and your children will not be disappointed
And lastly, thank you Faaiza for this opportunity! I pray that you and your family have a wonderful trip to India, and that you return safe and sound. Can’t wait to read all about your adventures!
M&M Cookies
Yield: 1 to 1 ½ Dozen Cookies
Ingredients:
· ½ cup unsalted butter
· ½ cup brown sugar
· ¼ cup sugar
· 1 egg
· ¾ teaspoon vanilla
· 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
· ½ teaspoon baking soda
· ½ teaspoon salt
· 1 cup + more for topping, candy-coated chocolate pieces
Directions:
In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt and mix on medium-low speed until thoroughly combined.
Fold in candies, and drop tablespoons of dough, spaced at least 3 inches apart, on an ungreased baking sheet. Gently push a few candies onto the tops of each ball of dough. Refrigerate baking sheets for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Bake cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Cool completely on trays.
Salaams. Tomorrow (actually, since it’s passed midnight, it’s today, eek) I board a plane and leave for India with 2 kids. Crazy, I know, my sister in law is getting married. I can’t believe the time has finally come. Whilst I’m I’m looking forward to the events that lay ahead, I am dreading the idea of travelling with the 2, will have to check for some ‘tips for travelling with kids’ from my good old friend, Google. I can safely say everything on my 10 Essentials for the Muslim Mum Traveller is checked except #1, which I’m about to go work on.
Before I go, I wanted to thank every single one of you for reading my blog. Thank you for making me love to do this little thing that I do. You have all motivated me to dream big and do more. I’m hoping 2015 will be a better, more productive year. Is there something you’d like to see here? Be sure to let me know, I want to make this blog better for all of you. I have big plans and In Sha Allah I can turn those into reality.
For now, have a look at the 5 most popular posts for 2014:
1. 29+ Ideas for Hajj at Home with Kids
This one broke the internet (just kidding), however it was a pretty big post for me with over 1000 shares on Facebook and over 600 pins on Pinterest, Alhumdulillah.
5. Rose Halwa
A dish I took to a virtual iftar, delicious and refreshing.
Although I’ll be away for a few weeks, with the help of some great blogger friends the blog will stay active with some fantastic guest posts. Be sure to look out for them, they’ll be hitting your inboxes every Wednesday (if you aren’t already subscribed, you can enter your details into the boxes below).
I’ll also still be active on social media. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, be sure to click #modestmunchiestravels , I’ll be using that # throughout my travels.
Eid-ul-Adha has come and gone, another year flies by. Our lives are so different since last year. Last year this time I was pregnant, finally over the morning sickness and totally back in my baking groove. For Eid last year I had made Red Velvet Cheesecake! Sounds amazing, I know, I’m still kicking myself for not getting enough pictures or writing down the exact recipe so I could share it with all of you. Plus I had gone with a Red Velvet Crust which didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I’ll have to make it again, so I can post that recipe.
This year however, I made a Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart. I wanted something simple yet delicious and this dessert definitely delivered. It’s been the year of the cheesecake for me it seems, I made this one and this one and a of course the red velvet one I haven’t blogged.
This Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart is so fresh and light. The strawberries compliment the tang of the cream cheese and the base adds some crunch. The base is a taste.com.au recipe, it was good but I’m still in search of that perfect tart base recipe, do you have one you love?
In a mixer combine your cream cheese and vanilla essence. Mix until it is smooth and without lumps. Add in your icing sugar, start off on a slow speed and increase as the icing sugar is incorporated. Mix until smooth and creamy. Gently fill the cream cheese mixture into the tart base and smooth out the top. Chop your strawberries into quarters and lay them on the cream cheese filling.
Eid was good as usual, busy and fun. You know it’s been a good day when you end up exhausted by the end of it, and we were definitely exhausted. It’s a bit late to ask, but what did you get up to this Eid-ul-Adha?
Today we made teddy bear Hujjaj. It was an activity on our Hajj /Eid table. Chocolate shortbread, white chocolate Ihram! Yum, yum, yum! And yes, there’s a recipe. It’s such a fun activity to do with kids.
Scroll down all the way to the end to see what our teddy bear Hujjaj got up to!
Pre heat oven to 170c. Line a cookie sheet with baking paper. In a bowl of a mixer, throw in all your ingredients except the white chocolate and mix on a medium speed until it forms a dough. Flip onto a floured surface and roll to about 7mm thick. Use a teddy bear (or gingerbread men) cutter to cut out your hujjaj. The dough will be quite soft, slide a flat knife or spatula under the cookie and carefully place onto your cookie sheet. When all your dough is finished and cookies cut, use a toothpick to mark the eyes and nose. Place the sheet in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until edges are crisp (the inside will firm up as it cools). Once cooled, melt white chocolate in the microwave. Fill into ziplock bags and decorate away.
We did the eyes and nose while the cookies were still hot from the oven, I had forgotten to do them prior to baking. Doing it before will give you a cleaner finish. Or you could use white chocolate dots to do the eyes and nose like we did for some instead.
I absolutely couldn’t resist so I made this video! Isn’t it the cutest teddy bear Hajj video you’ve ever seen? (It has to be, right? How many of those are even out there?)
I teased you with this Baklava Cheesecake in my last post. Well here it is. Let me start with a warning: This cheesecake involves a lot of steps. Let me say that again, A LOT OF STEPS. You might even get lost in this recipe. However, if you’re up for a challenge and want to go for it, I won’t be stopping you! Trust me, it’s worth it.
On a small side note, this version (pictured above) was great, but I modified it slightly to take that great to amazing. So yours might not look quite like this one, but it will taste even better. The recipe below will give you a slightly thinner base, a higher, fuller cheesecake filling and the topping and pastry will be sweeter and just as delicious looking. I used digestive biscuits, but a plain dry sweet biscuit would complement this cheesecake just as well.
The great thing about this recipe is that it has all the full flavour of baklava (plus cheesecake) but doesn’t feel as heavy. The cheesecake is deliciously creamy and the addition of yogurt really gives balance to the flavours.
I would give you a warning about calories, but I it does’t seem like an ideal thing to give 2 warnings in one post. So, how about I just tell you that these are special occasion calories. You know the kind, the calories we totally ignore when special occasions roll around. You could make this on a special occasion like Eid, a birthday or Monday, because Monday’s are special occasions, don’t you think?
This cheesecake was inspired by this picture on Instagram from Amnah (of Little Life of Mine). At the time of posting I had no idea she had a recipe too, If I had I probably would have just used that instead. Go over and check her recipe out, it looks amazingly delicious.
Preheat your oven to 170c and remove the filo pastry from the fridge so it will be defrosted and ready to use in time (you may have to take these out earlier). Crush nuts until fine. Reserve 1/2 a cup aside to be used with the base. Add castor sugar to the remaining nuts and mix. Prepare a 20cm springform pan by laying the bottom with baking paper and greasing. Crush the biscuits and melt the butter. Add biscuits and the reserved nuts to the melted butter. Mix well and press into the springform pan. Be sure to press into the base and up the sides. Refrigerate while preparing the filling.
Cheesecake Filling and Filo Top
Whip cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Add in eggs and vanilla and whip until combined. Add in yogurt and mix again. Pour onto base and place in the oven for 25 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the oven and gently top with the nut mixture. Fold your filo sheets in half and place on top of the nuts (you should have 4 layers of pastry). Trim off the edges so the filo fits into the pan. Melt butter and spoon onto each sheet of the filo. Place in the oven for a further 20-25 minutes or until the filo is lightly golden.
Sugar Syrup
While the cheesecake is in the oven get your sugar syrup ready. In a small saucepan on the stove, mix together the water, sugar and lemon juice. Cook on a medium heat until thick and syrupy. It will thicken more as it sits.
Remove the cheesecake from the oven and pour over your sugar syrup. Set aside to cool completely. Remove from pan and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. Remove from fridge 15 minutes before serving.
