Turkish Delight - Baklava

It was my nephew’s birthday and I wanted to make some sweet dish for him. His family like cakes and it is always bought from store. I decided to make Turkish delight- Baklava.

Now, I have never made Baklava, it would be first time for me too.  Back in those days, for a new dish, we had to join the cooking class to learn it from experts. But thank goodness, there is U-tube – our guru.

I saw more than 10 videos of different ways that people made this dish, around the world. It was so easy.

So what is Baklava?

Baklava is a rich, sweet pastry made of layers of filo/phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts and sweetened and held together with syrup or honey.

I decided to make from scratch.

Made the Phyllo dough by mixing flour with salt, lemon juice, olive oil and water. At first it will be sticky but working on it for about 10 minutes will give a smooth dough. Keep it in fridge for some time.

Make small balls, I made about twenty.

Roll them to 2-inch diameter and stack them

Take a stack of three layers, with enough flour between them and roll them to 6-inch diameter

Separate one end and roll it over

Roll out the one layer

Unroll the layer in the greased baking dish.

brush the pure ghee over the layer. You can also use olive oil or unsalted butter instead of pure ghee

Repeat this process for ten layers, separating each layer, and laying them in baking dish and brushing each layer with oil

Crush walnuts and pistachio and spread evenly over the layers.

Cover the dry fruit layer with ten more layers of rolled dough, separating each layer with a film of ghee

Cut through to make smaller slabs

Ready to go to oven after evenly spreading a film of ghee

Bake it for 20 minutes

Normally people make syrup but nowadays syrup bottles are readily available and come in different flavours. I used mint flavoured syrup.

Pour the syrup generously over the baked babes.

Sprinkle the rest of walnut and pistachio mixture and serve.

 It is perfect gift to give somebody and my nephew loved it.

Stuffed Bread at Potluck

During my visit to super market, I chanced upon this box of flatbread mix. I read the instructions on the box, it was easy to follow. It was just mixing and baking, as simple as that. I was naturally interested.

The packet had flour with herbs and a packet of yeast. I brought it home then waited for some occasion to try this out. Making only for my self is not my idea of fun. Sharing with friends and enjoying the meal has different kind of pleasures.

The opportunity finally arrived when my friends planned a potluck lunch. I told them I would make stuffed Pizza with spinach and mushrooms. But what I had planned did not happen. I had ordered Spinach but my vegetable fella ditched me the last minute, and also, one of my friends warned me not to use mushroom, (she hates it, she said) so I was to make changes and think of more friendly veggies.

I don’t normally follow the instruction on the box, I like to create my own recipes.  So although the box said plain flat bread, I had other plans. I decided to make stuffed bread instead.

I made the dough using yeast and milk

Left it in a warm cabinet for over two hours till it grew double its size.

In the meantime, I prepared other ingredients.

Grate the cheese and keep it aside

Chop onions, capsicum and green chilies, boil corn and green peas, and crush dry fruits like almonds and walnuts. Keep them aside

Prepare tomato pure,  fry in oil with garlic and black pepper, add little sugar and tomato sauce.

Back to the dough after two hours, I spread the dough on a plate

Spread the tomato puree

Spread all the vegetables and dried fruits

Cover it with grated cheese

Add spice powders such as Chili lime seasoning, cheese powder, cinnamon powder, paprika and garlic powder

Fold the dough over the veggies 

Cover the baking tray with aluminium foil. Asahi Kasei is the best brand that I have used so far, specially when I do not want to use oil, I just layer my tray with this foil and the food does not stick to trays.

Transfer the bread roll on to baking tray

Make cuts on the bread roll

Baked it for 15 minutes in pre-heated oven on high heat

Slice, top it with grated cheese and served it warm.

You had to be there to taste……everybody loved it…

Orange Is the Color in Summer

Its too hot nowadays and you can find juice stall almost in every street of Mumbai. The price of the juice may vary from lane to lane and from shop to shop. One street hawker sells it for Rs35 and twenty steps away, on linking road, it shoots up to Rs60. Have it in restaurant and pay Rs150 and if you are in five-star hotel, then it can spiral to their whims.

But, this is the perfect juice to heat summer.

In my photography challenge, I was asked to post pictures with three different stories.

I went specially for orange shopping. The oranges are not really fresh, but I have clicked in the afternoon, in natural light by the room window. The pictures then transported to photoshop for little editing.

so here it is:

Kill summer heat with orange juice

Oranges on the go

Fruit Basket