Sharkarpara

This is a nice snack to  have and is usually served during Deepavali.  This is also my mum's favorite. I made some using the recipe below and gave some to her and she thought the paras were store-bought.

Ingredients:

500g all purpose flour
100g shortening (I used 50g unsalted butter and 50g vegetable shortenening)
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 - 3/4 cup water to make a firm dough.
vegetable oil for deep frying
For the syrup:

300g sugar
100g water

Method:

1.   Sift flour, baking powder and salt together.
2.   Rub shortening into the flour.
3.   Add in water a little at a time until you have a firm  and smooth dough.
4.   Wrap dough in cling wrap and let is rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
5.   Roll dough out to 1/2 inch thickness and cut  paras into 1 cm squares.
6.   Heat the vegetable oil in wok or pot on medium low flame.  When the oil is hot, carefully drop in the paras into        and fry until the paras are light brown.  Make sure that you fry the paras on medium low flame otherwise the 
      paras will brown too quickly but they will still be uncooked inside.
7.   Drain on paper towels and let it cool to room temperature.
8.   Once the paras are at room temperature, prepare the syrup for the sugar coating.
9.   Heat sugar and water in a wok and keep stirring the syrup until it it reaches soft ball stage.
      Syrup dropped into a bowl of cold water should be able to hold it shape and form a soft 
      ball.
10. At this stage, switch off the flame and drop the paras into the sugar syrup and stir quickly until all the paras      
       they are well coated with syrup.  After about 1 or 2 minutes of stirring, the sugar coating will become 
       frosted.  Transfer the shakarparas to a tray to cool.
11.  Store in an air tight container.

Note:
You can take a portion of the dough and add some food coloring to the dough. Knead the dough until you get an uniform color on the dough.  I added some red cochineal to about a handful of dough.

Homemade Roasted Salted Cashew Nuts

My husband loves roasted salted cashew nuts and I made this for Deepavali this year.  The preparation is quite easy but it does take like about an hour to bake and you need some time to air dry the cashew nuts after blanching it.  These roasted cashews are naturally sweet and just slightly salty even though the quantity of salt looks like a lot.  It is definitely batter than the store bought roasted cashews

Ingredients

2 lbs or 1 kg raw cashews
3 tablespoons sea salt
1 liter of water

Method

1.  Place the raw cashew nuts in a wide pot together with the salt
2.  Bring the water to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, carefully pout it all over the 
     cashew nuts. Stir to dissolve the salt and close the pot.
3.  Leave the pot closed for about 15 minutes so that the cashew nuts absorb the salt.
4.  After about 15 minutes, drain the water from the cashews and place them on a towel. 
     Leave the blanched cashews under a fan or near a window to air dry the cashews.  It took
     me about 30 minutes to air dry my cashews under a fast fan.
5.  Preheat the oven to 300°F or 150°C.
6.  Once the cashews are dry, place them in a baking sheet and level them evenly on the 
      baking sheet. 
7.  Bake the cashews for about 1 hour or so or until the cashews have turned golden brown.           Make sure to stir the cashews around in the baking sheet every 10 minutes to ensure that 
      the cashews are evenly baked. 
8.  Store in an air tight container.

Deepavali 2015 Treats - Sri Lankan Christmas Cake

I made my favorite Sri Lankan Fruit Cake for Deepavali.  I have posted this recipe before but I have made some slight changes to the recipe.

Roasted Semolina

 Caje Batter 

 After 3 hours of baking at 300 °F or 150 °C

Bisectional view of yummy semolina fruit cake

Ingredients

for the fruit marinade:
250g raisins
125g blackcurrants
125 candied orange & lemon peel
125g  red cherries
125g green cherries
1 cup chopped or halved cashew nuts
1 tbsp rose essence
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp almond essence
1/2 cup brandy or rum (I used rum)

Put all the ingredients above in a zip lock bag. Shake it well and leave it t marinate in the fridge for at least a day. I left mine in the fridge for a few days. 

for the Cake
2  1/2 + 1/2 sticks of salted butter (113g per stick)
240g  dark brown sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup (I omitted this)
220g of semolina, used coarse semolina
80g of all purpose flour + 1 tsp of mixed spice, sifted together
5 large eggs, at room temperature (50gms each with shell)

Directions
1.  Roast semolina under medium low heat with 1/2 a stick of butter until you get a 
     nice nutty smell. Refer to the picture above.  Leave it to cool.
2.  Preheat oven to 300 °or 150 °C.
3.  Beat butter and brown sugar syrup until light and fluffy.
4.  Add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5.  Beat in vanilla essence.
6.  Mix the cooled roasted semolina with the flour and spice and add it to the butter-
     egg mixture, alternating flour and the marinated fruits and nuts.
7.  Line a 9 x 9" or  cake tin with grease proof paper.
8.  Pour cake batter into a 9 x 9 " or a 7" x 12"cake tin and bake for about 2 1/2 to 3 
      hours or until a skewer inserted inside the cake 
     comes out clean.
9.  Once cake is done immediately remove cake from the oven and brush the cake 
      evenly  with 2 tablespoons of rum.
10. Cool well before refrigerating.  Cut the cake when it is at room temperature 
      otherwise cake will be crumbly.
11. Cake tastes better after a few days.

I Forgot AGAIN

The roses I got this morning for our wedding anniversary

This morning my husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of red roses.  I thought it was for my birthday but then my birthday is not until end of the month. Before he could say another word, I said "OMG I forgot AGAIN".  Every year without fail I would forget our wedding anniversary and every year without fail he would remember our wedding anniversary and will send me flowers or buy me flowers, get me a gift and even arrange a wonderful dinner for the both of us.  The first few years of our marriage, I  used to do similar things but when I had my babies, motherhood caught up with me I guess. But then it is no excuse to forget our wedding anniversary.  Last year I made a wow to remember our anniversary and to wish him before he did. So I put a reminder on my phone and first thing in the morning, I wished him "Happy Anniversary Darling. Ha ha I beat you to it this year." He just smiled and said "It's not today honey, our anniversary is tomorrow!"  

This year since our anniversary is one day before Deepavali and I was busy with the preparations, I completely forgot all about our anniversary.   It is so sweet of him to remember our anniversary year after year.  Love you Babe........Happy Anniversary to you too.

Deepavali 2015 Treats - Pandan Melon Seed Cookies

I have started baking cookies for this year's Deepavali festival.  I made my first batch of cookies today and this is my husband's favorite cookie.  My husband has his favorite cookie, each of kids have their favorite cookies and I try to make all their favorites each year.  I will be posting each cookie recipe as I bake them for this year's celebration.

Ingredients

250 gms salted butter, at room temperature
120 gms icing or confectioners sugar
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pandan* paste
450 gms all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup melon or kuaci seeds, roasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup red cherries (for baking), roughly chopped

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 °F 180 °C.
2.  Sift all purpose flour with baking powder and set it aside
3.  In a bowl, whisk butter and icing sugar until the butter is light and fluffy.
4.  Next add in the egg yolk and the pandan paste and beat well.
5.  Fold in the sifted flour into the butter mixture.
6.  Place the cookie dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
7.  Roll out the cookie dough to about 5mm thickness and cut out the cookie with your favorite
     cookie cutter.
8.  Place the cookies in a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in the middle rack for
    about 20 minutes.

Note:
* You can find pandan paste at any asian grocery store