Happy Birthday Emma

Todays post is a blog down memory lane and it's dedicated to my High School friend Emma Stewart Pearce as it's her birthday.You're probably thinking whats a friends birthday got to do with a food blog?

Well one of the things I will be doing with this blog is sharing memories of foods I loved cooking/eating when I was younger. 

Today I'm sharing a childhood tea time recipe that turned into a snack that I loved during my High School days and Emma came to like it so much I'd end up bringing some into school just for her.The timing of this post ties in rather nicely with her birthday so it just had to be dedicated to her .

Being a mum of 5 kids meant my mum was constantly on her feet so when it came to tea time, some days she would want to whip up something quick and easy, but also healthy and tasty. My Brother would happily settle for fried egg with a chappati, but I would struggle with eating any type of egg (and still do) 

so mum being mum added a twist of curry powder to give the good old scrambled egg a bit of a kick. I loved it so much I would take to school sandwiched in bread and so the spicy egg sandwich was born !

so for anyone that's a fan of eggs .. and of course just for you Emma .. Heres how to make your very own :

• In a bowl crack 3 medium eggs, add 2-3 good pinches of salt, a level teaspoon of curry pwder and a little fresh chopped coriander. Give it a good whisk
• In a frying pan melt a little butter on a medium heat, pour in the egg mixture and cook just as you would for scrambled eggs

• Lightly butter 2 slices of bread, and sanwich the egg between the slices and tuck in !

That really is all it takes. It's also a great base for an omlette .. just add in whatver you fancy , my kids will favour it over any any other type of egg for breakfast, they love it on weekends with toast and beans. My personal fave is to add Hp or Worcester sauce in the sandwich for an extra kick.... So how do you like your eggs in the morning ?!

Starbucks .. Eat ya heart out

It's 7:30 am, it's dark and its unbelievably cold. I don't do mornings or this arctic weather. What does help though on mornings like this is a well made cup of chai - a milky tea infused with mild spices

In an Asian household there is always that one person that won't settle for your boiled water based cuppa, in my house
it's my dear sister in law ( don't tell her I told you !)

As if I didn't love Starbucks enough (sorry Costa but you just don't do it for me) I'm loving that they have their take on our Chai, fortunately for my pocket but not for me * insert sad face here* the nearest Starbucks is Meadowhall and I can't bear to step out my front door and risk getting frostbite in this cold - so my own mug has to be made up.

So to warm yourselves up and save yourselves a few pennies, here's my concoction for chai per person:

• quarter fill your favourite cup or mug with water, place the water in a saucepan with a tea bag and bring to simmering point

•using the same cup pour a cup full of milk  ( full fat ) in the saucepan and keep simmering for about 10 minutes on a low heat

• next add 1 clove, 2 green cardamom pods, (give the pods a slight squeeze with your fingers so they open up a bit) a piece of cinnamon, (about 2cm) or if you've got ground cinnamon lying around a quarter of a tsp will do

• leave to simmer on a low heat till its darkened slightly in colour and its reduced by about half

• use a tea strainer to pour into your cup, that way you won't be having a fight picking the spices out ! So there you have it "one chai latte to go" (said in best barista voice possible)

you can experiment and adjust the spices to your liking.. I love cinnamon so I always add a bit extra. 

You can also use all milk for a full on latte flavour rather than half milk & half water.

For a cheeky treat i love to top it up with squirty cream & dust it with ground cinnamon 

Step by Step Gulab Jamun pictures

As promised below are pictures of how to make your Jamuns :

From the bottom frame working upwards:


• in a bowl I've put the semolina, milk powder and melted butter
• I've then added the milk and the dough has started to come together, the final picture in the first frame is the dough all combined. A good tip at this point is to leave it for about 10 minutes to firm up

•the first picture in the second frame is of the dough shaped into Jamuns .. Told you they look like baby new potatoes !
•next is them in the oil getting slightly golden
• the final picture is of them fried and ready to be soaked in the sugar syrup

• the final frame has the sugar syrup bubbling away first.. For about 10 minutes
• next it's the Jamuns added to the syrup and left to simmer for about 10 minutes
• and the final image is them in the syrup in a dish ready to be served hot or to cool and pop in the fridge to go cold

**From the last picture I hope you can see the syrup is golden in Colour and not clear ..this colour change means that the syrup is at the perfect consistency though you can boil for longer for a thicker syrup**

Twittering away about those Gulab Jamuns

THAT conversation with the rather lovely Parminder Nagra which caused my time line to go kinda crazy ☺

I can't bend it like Beckham

So there I was on Twitter a couple of nights ago,  and actress Parminder Nagra tweets about craving Gulab Jamuns, being a fan of hers since Bend it like Beckham ,rather casually I replied that I love making them from scratch ... and she replies by asking for the recipe !!

The reply resulted in retweeting hysteria and it being passed from one tweeter to another , it's just been retweeted as I'm typing ! So what better way to start my food blog than with the recipe that caused my time line to go crazy ?!

 

Gulab Jamuns are a dessert, served in a sugar syrup and can be eaten hot or cold . Served hot they are delicious with a good scoop of vanilla ice cream or if serving them cold you cant beat a bit of clotted cream with them

Ingredients

Sugar syrup :

2 Cups of  Sugar

3 Cups of  Cold Water

a few drops of rose water

Jamuns:

550g  Milk Powder

140g Plain Flour

1 tbsp Semolina 

1 tbsp Sugar

½ Ground Cardamoms

¾ pint of slightly warm Milk

1/2 tsp baking powder 

Method

• Start by sieving  the dry ingredients, and slowly add the milk, kneading together until you have a soft dough
•  Take small amounts of a bit of dough and make into small round balls - i make mine just a little bigger than baby new potatoes 
• In a fryer or in a deep heavy based pan, deep fry the small round balls on a very low heat, until they are golden brown in colour and drain on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil
• Leave the Jamuns to cool while you make the syrup.
• For the syrup- place the ingredients into a saucepan, (except the rose water) and bring to boil on a high heat and leave to simmer continuously for 15mins.
• Finally add the cooled Gulab Jamun. Simmer on a medium heat for about 5 mins, then remove from the heat. Once cooled add in the rose water.

Jamuns can be served hot or cold. They are delicious hot with Vanilla ice cream, to re heat the Jamuns, leave them in the pan in their syrup and simmer on a low heat till the syrup comes to boiling point and they should be hot and ready to serve

 " What family will want a daughter in law that can run around kicking a football all day but can't make round chappati's ''