SAVORY CHEESY HERBY BREAD @ FFwD

Savory and herby.

Not jus herby , but filled with herbs , to the brim ,which is a good thing here.

There are poppy seeds to make it prettier (ok fine i wasn't adventurous enough to add vanilla and i cant do without my tiny black seeds fixation , not to forget i have a rather large jar of poppy seeds)

And there's some slight garlicky goodness too , jus so , to add some garlicky to the home garden garlic chives.

If that aint enough, its cheesy , very cheesy , really , there is all kinds of cheese happening here , and it was the perfect bake to add in all sorts of cheese's that seem to be collecting in my refrigerator.

 Its nice to have cheesy and pockets said in the same sentence about this bread.

U can have it warm ,right out of the oven or 2 days later , if it lasts that long, lightly toasted , with butter.

Good with lunch as muc as with brunch as muc as that food basket u seem to carry everywhere u go,specially if u drive around with ur mom or sibling while they are at work.

 Really , its the bessst savory loaf i ever had , moist and flavorful, full of cheesy and herby goodness.

SWeeT TaRT DoUGH in LITTLE BLUEBERRY ALMOND TARTS @FFwD

Tart dough is one of the most important {ok quite important} doughs to have stashed in the freezer and though i do loveee to bring it all together fresh every time , i wouldn mind at all to have some tart dough stashed away.

And since this week with FFwD , has the orange almond tart , actually one of the first 2 tarts i baked from AMFT , or for that matter , my v first recipes , and have been looking forward to post this.
Yeah , its been awhile since i baked this , but it feels like yesterday , oh i must bake this soon again.
I went the blueberry way , and i think lods of red and peachy fruits would make this pretty, as would hearty shapes.
Sure u can bake this without the crust too.....

I love the making of a tender ,very buttery dough which can be jus pressed into the pan.

The best parts if u freeze it ,pressed in the pan , u can directly bake it partially ,without any weights whatsoever.

BASQUE POTATO TORTILLA

 I loveee Sundays , something special about Sundays brings on more sunshine n sparkle into my day, and here i was last sunday , whisking up a tortilla , a spanish name to a popular omelet served with salad , and on toothpicks ,for lunch or otherwise.

So this week with FFwD, i travelled to Basque, to relish this , the next time round ,im going to cut out different shapes as also have some fancy toothpicks for it.

The best parts , it came together beautifully , though i weighed and measured nothing but went along with what was available in the pantry , trying my best to stick to the original recipe:-)

This is my first time with tortilla and i loveeed it , we all did and infact i had to make 2 batches of these.
I so wanted to try this so instead of waiting to pick the stuff , i went right ahead with the greens and stuff in the pantry.

CHICKEN B'STILLA -PASTELAO D FRENCH WAY

Memories created around food are immensely special if they involve ur parents , even if u werent involved in the eating and this is another one that accompanies mommies stories and memories.

 

 And when FFwD had B'stilla lined this week , i knew i simply could not afford to give this one a miss and actually i dont fancy missing any , its a wonderful feel cooking and baking the same recipes every week together.

I always make it a point to return the visit of every one who visits here , but more so when my fellow gang at FFwd does , i hop by straight away to see their goodies and say hullo too.

Now if u havent joined FFwD , do so now , u'll love to cook/bake along +no rules and which ever way ie , please leave ur blogs links below.

As a growing kid ,teenageer and young adult , almost every Goan portuguese or Portuguese wedding my mom went to, had Pastelao , which was met with excitement and an eagerness galore from all going to partake the buffet.

MICHEL ROSTANGS WHITE AND DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE,sealed with a strawberry nutella kiss

 As some of already know my blog has been nominated , for the Best of Indian Food BLogs awards:-)

And i could make it to the finals only with ur help , so please vote for me to the right , the widget is there right on top , and im no.14 or 4th from below, 

Also please vote for me on FB here ...http://poll.fm/f/2mwyb

Thannxx a ton to all my buddies! 

 
I was intrigued , as much as spontaneously , i fell in love with this recipe...How could i not...
U bake a base , cool it , so it forms a little dip in the centre , and then fill some more with the same moussey batter and bake again:-)
Sure u can choose not to bake again and refrigerate it too:-)

Mine are more like Dark chocolate layer with Orange Zest and All spice and Creamy white chocolate layer , with vanilla and Poppy seeds , and with a hint of Hazelnut.

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL POST AND RECIPE

~~FRENCH LEEK & POTATO SOUP,2ways with GLAZED CARROTs~~with DORIE & FFwD~~

 GIVEAWAY UPDATE~~CLICK HERE TO ENTER 100$ GIVEAWAY, u'll love it i know:-)

Oh there's a nip in the air , more than ever, and as i love the weather , i think i should simmer some soup, oh im so clever....

Ok ,ok , i tend to get lyrical at Christmas  time to the point of being silly and hope u'll put up with me , for all the love u and me share.
And i know u want to get that pot of soup simmering ,as muc i do, so lemme get going!
Ahh and one important thing before i go ahead, do have some crusty bread rolls at hand , to warm and with a spread of soft salted butter , this soup makes a complete meal!
Oh yeah ,the carrots are fantastic too !

 French Fridays with Dorie, is exciting , and more so , as we are cooking our way thru, our taste buds and the gorgeous book!
U have to hop by there and catch all the deliciousness and if u wanna add a french factor these hols , buy the book and join in too.

Lets begin quickly, to a soup , 2 ways and glazed carrot with shrimps , 2 ways too!

.♥♥♥SPECULOOS~~~a buttery spiced cookie~~~ & 2 HOLIDAY DRINKS @FFw DORIE.♥♥♥

I was more than excited the Speculoos made it to the december poll , coz i wanted to bake them for the holidays and i was sure going to bake them for hols.
And head on to FFwD to check all the goodies this week , if u already arent with FFwd, nows the time to join in.....

 I loved reading all about these well spiced Speculoos here ,Catalina sure has a wondeful write up about their story and history and i so wish i had baked these on 5th too!

Santa, im so late ,but will u please take my cookies too , or even better , have them along with me , will have some more for u along the way too:-)

These amazing buttery ,well spiced cookie originated somewhere in Belgium , and love that Dorie suggests all the spices , i added even more.
+cinnamon always rocks ...

CARAMEL TOPPED SEMOLINA CAKE@THANKSGIVING@DORIE@AMFT

 I love stories, specially real stories, stories that bring a smile to ur face and glee to ur heart !

And if the story , is woven around food , its all the better!!

And around dessert, well i am all hugs and u'll have me donuts!

 I love love love the story behind recipes @ Around My French Table, DOrie rocks yeah ,in every way!!

And this delicious story goes to French Fridays with Dorie ,started by Laurie here ! 

Hop by not only to catch all the deliciousness but join in too!

 I love how her better half ,Michael and Dorie discovered this one!!

Her narration takes me to the Picturesque,often pictured {ofcourse}, Place Dauphine, in Paris ,at the tiny bistro, where they first had this and how she went on to master this one!!

 I say master coz its absolutely fool proof, we find no cream of wheat nor farina here ,so i baked it with semolina and it was perfect!!

 So i actually lived up to the name of this recipe!

Absolutely delicious and didn last even a day @ our non dessert eatin family , me being the lone dessert eater at most times!!

 It reminds of goan sweets , lods of goodies with the portuguese influence, have semolina in them and i totally love them!

And this Cake reminds me of all those goodies + Pudim De Caramel, i ahve seen and helped mommy making caramel many a times !

 The caramel was awesome and had a delicious lemony tang to it!

 Even better , was when the next morning, my sweetest bro, who doesnt fancy desserts too muc, was looking for the lone star that was left, was so sorry that i had polished it off and he was actually eyeing it after breakfast and didn wanna over stuff himself!

Well lets begin this absolutely delicious dessert,shall we, its absolutely easy to put together!

 To begin with ,u need to center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degress, do this , u have to, and keep a 8inch tin at hand or mini little ones and more as i did!!

Ok ,now lets begin with the milk, u need to bring 2Cups Milk to a boil with 1/4tsp salt .

And coz its around thanksgiving and coz spice and all things nice are so in now ,i love them in my kitchen , i added cloves , cinnamon and cardomon to the milk ,while warming!

The aroma ,fantastic!

 And to make all things better , i added a whole vanilla bean too, hah look at those pretty tiny black babies!So good!

 And a Dash of something else too, yeah a Dash of something from Provence....u have to guesss....

 Yeah ur rite,lavendor, gorgeous lavendor buds , coz they are sooo goood!

 Now ,forgive me my tendency to think that Lavender is so French , these buds come from Provence too!

Now this is the semolina i used ,u get a finer one too but i picked it from a grocery store and didn realize to ask for that too,but this one worked super fine,13rd cup of it, i dry roasted it a bit , till the raw flavor disappeared and then have to add it to the milk , thats brought to a boil , and the semolina added at the sign of the first bubble!!

Cooked it on low heat, stirring constantly so that it doesnt scorch!

Now if ur using cream of wheat/farina, u'll have to check the cereal box of details!

When its well cooked and nice take off the flame to cool , remember it thickens a bit later.

 By the way i added lite cream and dry milk to the milk i used coz the recipe calls for whole milk and all i had was skimmed/toned milk!Worked pretty well!

 And while the Farina/semolina cooled ,i simply couldn resist zesting in some lime there!

 And now to begin making the caramel, in a saucepan ,u need 1/3rd cup sugar, 3 tbh water and fresh lemon juice!! I added some lemon zest too!

 Use the zested limes/lemons to squeeze the juice , this ,makes for some absolutely ,lovely lemony caramel that jus has that zing!

Now before u begin making the caramel , do slide the pan/molds placed on a lined tray, into the oven!

This is a terrific tip , the warm pans ,make it so muc easier to spread the caramel ,specially since i was using many small molds and the caramel sets pretty fast!

I tried gettn pics of the caramel making but they are so good, u'll find better pics here!Actually these are the time ,i made this for Pudim de caramelo and they are shot with a cell phone:-)

Now u need to bring the sugar ,water lemon to a boil over high heat , after giving the saucepan a few nice swirls to moisten the sugar!

As the sugar begins to take a caramello color ,swirl a few times for even browning and heating!

 And when its nice and a deep amber, pour into prepared molds/mold!

The now warm molds ,make ur moments here smooth and lets u gaze at the pretty caramel that has all those bits of zest in there!

 Now though i did halve the basic recipe, i didn halve the caramel and still needed more , that means i f i make the full recipe as above , i will need to double the 1/3 rd cup sugar and water , and i  love lods of caramel~Specially if its pretty~

Now after the caramel pans are ready, u need to beat in 2 eggs into the cooled Farina/semolina and add some chopped dry fruit!

Raisins are a first choice but i added Apricots , 2types , chopped!

 One tangy and one sweet!

Ok known my love for playing around i couldn help adding a few chips ,chocolate {milk} and butterscotch to 2 of the molds!

 Bake till everything puffs around and u have some mini caramel spurts around!Unmold while warm so u get all the caramel around!

Oh ,so lovely, the flavors hit the rite spot, in every bite{or gobble}

Bro, i sure wanna bake u lods of these stars soooonn..

Pretty ,pretty caramel, yeah thats what i got at the base of the flower mold, and it got curled ,around my fingers into a pretty pattern!

Am sending this Caramel topped cake with Apricots {apricot is a fruit aint it:-) } to the lovely host of this months Monthly Mingle, Deeba of Passionate about Baking , a truly delightfull blog filled with gorgeous bakes, and am delighted that this months theme is fruits, and fruity delights! Monthly Mingle was started by Meeta ,of another fantastic blog, What for Lunch Honey