Paprika cracker cups

Recipe for 6 cups

 Ingredients:

·         150g plain flour

·         50g coarse corn (optional)

·         1 teaspoon oregano

·         1 teaspoon paprika

·         Salt

·         50ml corn oil

·         6 tablespoons water

 Preheat the over at 180C.

 Method:

Mix the oil and water together with the corn. Cover and leave aside for 10 minutes. The coarse corn is very hard and needs time to soften. Skip this step if not using coarse corn.

After 10 minutes, add the flour, salt, paprika, oregano and mix well by hand. The consistency we are looking for is a soft dough very near to being a crumble, but that can be shaped.

Once the dough is mixed. Cover with cling film and set aside for 10-20 minutes. 

To make the cups, use cupcakes moulds, spay the inside with oil and press in very tightly the dough. The thinner the sides, the better.

Once all the cups have been filled, place in the oven for 12-15 minutes at 180C.

Remove the tray from the oven and leave the cups aside to cool down. To remove the cups from the mould, gently tap the whole tray on a hard surface to easy them from the bottom of the tray, then gently remove.

If you do not have cupcakes moulds, just lay the dough on a sheet of baking foil, place another sheet on top of the dough and flatten with the rolling pin or wine bottle. Again, the thinner the better. Just remember how thin the shop bough cracker are and try to emulate.

Once the dough is flattened, remove the top baking foil and score the dough using cookie shapers or just the back of a knife.

Place in the oven to bake for 10 minutes at 180C, leave to cool and use as you wish. Mine were made for a salad. Why not make a sweet version for Ice cream?

I used these cups to serve a salsa salad. See next post.

Don’t forget to post a comment below!

See ya!

 

Slight obsessed lately with corn and corn flour (also known as maize). The nutritional value of this vegetable is just off the scale… read about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize

 

This recipe was originally created for www.MadeByHortense.com, my other blog.

 

Avocado in paprika cracker cup

 

Tamales - Steamed corn cakes

If you are looking for a great alternative to potatoes, tamales are really great. They are firm corn dough made from corn flour. They can be stuff with anything you chose. I stuffed mine with sundried tomatoes. Great side dish.

Ingredients for 10 tamales.

Ideally, allow 2 or 3 per person

·         250g coarse corn flour

·         10 sundried tomato pieces

·         12 fresh coriander leaves to decorate

·         Dry oregano

·         Salt

·         3 tablespoons Flavour oil (from sundried tomato jar)

·         250ml boiling water

·         2 table spoons self-rising flour

·         1 fresh corn (just for the leaves)

Method:

Start by rinsing the coriander leaves and set aside. Carefully remove one by one the outer leaves of corn cob. Remove any extra “corn hair” rinse the leaves and flick out the water. The number of leave on the corn cob can vary from 8-12…

Slice the pieces of sundried tomato in 2 - 3 to make the thinner. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, pour the corn flour, the self-rising flour, a pinch of salt and oregano. Mix all the dry elements together then, add the boiling water, flavoured oil and knead the dough using a spatula until you obtain the consistency of a cookie dough.

Now lay flat all the corn leaves on a flat surface. On each leave, place 1 coriander leave, then top with the equivalent of 2 tablespoons of corn dough. Flatten the dough on the corn leave and place on it 2-3 pieces of sundried tomato. Now bring together all the edges of the corn leave as if make a rolled cigarette. Fold the edge together and finish folding by over flapping both ends of the corn leaves.

You can either hold the parcels together with a tooth pick or simply put the parcel aside face down.

Repeat until all the parcel are done.

If you’ve got a steamer, use it to cook the tamales. If not, Place all the tamale parcel in an oven proof dish and place the dish in a big enough pan with a lid. Without a steamer, it is best to cook the tamales in a Bain Marie.

The idea here is that you will pour some water in the pan, making sure that none of it enters the heat proof dish. The water in the pan should be at about half the height of the dish within the pan. As water boils, it will produce enough heat to cook the tamales. For the size of the tamales made in the recipe, you should allow 20 minutes for them to be cooked through.

To check that the tamales are ready, they should be harder and if pricked with the tip of the knife, just like the test for a cake, the knife should come out dry. The secret is to keep the steam to the max in the pan. Make sure to top up the water as it dries out.

Tamales are great replacement for rice or potatoes. Feel free to dip fry the left overs to give them a crispier outer layer…

They are to be eaten without the corn leaves obviously.

Note: Using corn leaves add to the taste of the Tamales. In the absence of corn leaves, use banana leaves (found in the local ethnic or Chinese supermarkets) or simply kitchen foil.

Enjoy!

Beignets de maïs & bananes servi avec des haricots verts aux amandes

Beignets de maïs & bananes servi avec des haricots verts aux amandes mean

Corn & Banana dumplings served with Green beans cooked in almond milk

 Serves 5

 

Ingredients for the beans

Ingredients for the beans:

• 400g frozen green beans
• 100g raw almond flakes
• 1 onion
• 1 red scotch bonnet (optional)
• 5 garlic cloves
• 2 stock cubes
• Salt
• Sesame oil.

Read the whole recipe before starting.

the almond cream sticks to the sides

Prep: Cover the almonds with cold water and leave aside for 1 hour in order to rehydrate them. Once rehydrated, pass through the food processor to blend very finely with about 200 ml water. Set aside.

Take the sliced beans out of the freezer and leave them to unfreeze, then rinse and put on a colander to remove the extra water. Set aside.

Dice onion, Butternut scotch and garlic set aside.

Method: Pour in the liquidised almonds in a pan, add onion garlic and the stock cubes. Add 3 tablespoons of sesame oil (this will add more nutty-ness to the dish). Stir and leave to simmer for 5 minutes. We want some of the water to evaporate and leaving behind a creamy texture. The onion will have lost its crunch by then and the cream should stick to the sides of the pan.

Now add the green beans and chilli, mix well continuously for 3-5 minutes until the beans soften to your liking. It is done.

Note: if you intend to reheat, just switch the heat after adding the beans.

 

Now onto the dumplings

 

Ingredients for the dumplings:

• 2 over-ripped bananas (about 300g)
• 300g fine corn flour
• 200 self-rising flour
• 20g sugar (I don’t like sweet stuff much)
• A pinch of salt
• 200ml water

Banana & Corn batter

Method: In a bowl, crush the bananas with the corn flour… Because the corn flour is so grainy, it is ideal to use it to mash the bananas.

Once that is done, add water, salt and sugar. Mix well to melt the sugar especially, then add the flour. Mix until you obtain and homogenous wet batter. Leave to rest for about 30 minutes to allow the corn flour to soften.

Heat about 500ml of vegetable oil in a deep pan. The oil has to be really hot and to test it, drop a small amount of the batter in it. If the dough rises up to the surface immediately, your oil is ready.

Yum... Golden and well formed

Using a table spoon and a bowl with cold water. Scoop the batter and drop into the hot oil. In order for the batter not to stick to the spoon, deep the spoon quickly into the cold water and scoop again… so forth and so on.

Given how hot the oil is, it should take about 1 minute and half for the dough to cook through. Make sure to turn them so all sides will be golden.

Just like when frying chips, remove the dumplings from the oil and place on a tissue paper to remove the extra oil.

The dumplings cannot really be reheated unlike the beans above and they are best served hot if for dinner as served below. The left over can be used for breakfast too.

Tuck in! Serving suggestion

I love these dumplings and do them often. I forgot half way to take pictures, but you’ve got the idea.

Hope you like it.

Send me your comments. x

:-)

 

3 flours vegan pancakes

Eat my shorts Picasso!

Today is Shrove Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before lent start. In some part of the world, this day is also known as Mardi Gras or Crepes day… in most houses here in the UK, people will be making pancakes with all sorts of topping.

Unfortunately for me I am currently on sick leave and cannot go out to buy extras for my pancake.  I just had to make do with what I found in the house… and this is what I found.

The brownest on is the wheatbran

For the pancakes:

·         50g Natural wheat brand

·         50g Fine corn flour

·         50g self-rising flour

·         4 Apples (sugar replacement)

·         150ml Soya milk

·         150ml fizzy water (great for the bubbles)

·         Rice Bran oil

Fruit Salad:

·         1 Sharon fruit

·         1 Pear

·         5 Dates

·         1 Orange (for the juice)

·         1 Pomegranate

 

Directions:

Fruits salad

Start by preparing the fruits salad.

Peel and cut the Sharon fruit, pear, ½ orange, pomegranate and combine in a bowl.

Chop the date and set aside as the will be added just before serving (a wet date does not taste good).

The other half orange will be drizzled over the dish before serving as the juice will keep it all wet and moist.

Making the pancakes.

Batter

Peel, cut the apple and blend with the milk to obtain a smoothie-like mix.

In blender or food processor, combine the wheat bran, corn flour and the smoothie. Whizz to obtain a very smooth batter. I should mention here that wheat brand looks a bit like really tiny flakes that do not tend to break down on the contact of a liquid.  Putting all the flours through the food processor will help the flakes to become a bit more flour like and help perfectly combine it with the corn and self-rising flour.

Fresh pancakes

Once all that is done, pour the batter into a bowl and fold in the fizzy water with a small pinch of salt. The pancake mix is ready.

Note: this batter will not behave like a plain flour mix. It take a lot of oil and will take long and a gentler touch to manipulate. You won’t for example be able to flip it over. So take your time with it while frying.

Got this after my half marathon

So, in a hot pan 3 table spoons of Rice Bran oil and measure up about 2 table spoons worth of batter for each pancake. Don’t do too many at the time as you may lose track of time and burn the pancake.

Fry each side for 1 minute to 1.30 minutes on medium to low heat to allow the batter to cook through. Again, because it isn’t made of flour, it take slightly longer to cook. I had few mishaps while doing it and learning as I went.

With the measurements above, you should obtain 9 to 10 small pancakes.

Serve warm with the fruit salad washed with orange juice.

Serving suggestion

If you’ve got sugar, you could cook the fruits in caramelised sugar and serve with the juice from the cooked fruits!

This is just perfect for digestion with all that fibre!

Enjoy!

Savoury corn cookies with pineapple sage

The great thing about playing in the kitchen is that you get to discover stuff along the way. I tried to make my version of corn bread, but it turned to soft savoury corn cookies served with a ginger and garlic pulses mix.

So, to make the corn cookies the ingredient s are:

·         1 ½ coarse corn meal

·         1 cup of flour

·         1 cup of rice milk

·         1/3 cup of corn oil

·         1tea spoon of baking powder

·         1tea spoon of salt

·         1tea spoon of sugar

·         5 leaves of pineapple sage leaves

In a bowl, mix the milk, oil sugar and salt add the corn mix well, then add the flour. Work the paste into an homogenous ball and wrap it in cling film and leave in room temp for 30 minutes.

Then, unwrap and crush in the fried pineapple sage leave. Work the past once more to incorporate the sage. Then, divide the dough in smaller balls and flatten them ready for the oven.

Spray the oven tray or baking dish being used for the baking with corn oil and place the

Preheat the oven at 180c and place the cookies in to bake for 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the accompaniment and get it ready for serving the cookies warm.

My accompaniment is a moist pulses mix including butter beans, kidney beans, barlotti beans and chick peas cooked with soya meatballs in plenty of garlic, onion and ginger.

The cookies need improvement, but this tasted not bad at all… will do better next time…and intentionally.

 

See you later!