Strawberry and Nut Galette

Strawberry and nut galette is crusty rounds of biscuit topped with layers of strawberry and whip cream. It is easy to make and an excellent recipe to impress your dinner guests. Galette is a French term meaning flat cakes which can be filled with sweets or savoury toppings.

Ingredients - Galette
6oz. (175gm) margarine or butter
6oz. (175gm) wheat flour
4oz. (100gm) sugar
4oz. (100gm) chopped nuts (you may use cashew, hazel or pistachio according to your preference)

Ingredients - Filling
11oz. (300gm) whip cream
2oz. (50gm) Icing sugar
11oz. (300gm) fresh strawberries

Recipe - Galette
Beat the margarine or butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Fold in the flour. Knead until smooth and chill for 30 minutes. Divide the dough into 3 equal size balls and roll out each into a 5 inch diameter circle. Transfer them to buttered baking trays and press the chopped nuts onto the dough slightly to prevent them falling. Bake in the oven at 180C for 20 minutes and let them cool.

Recipe – Filling
Pour the whip cream onto a metal bowl. Place the metal bowl on top of a bowl full of ice. Beat them up and add icing sugar gradually, until it thickens and stands in soft peaks.
Slice about 5-6 strawberries half wise and keep aside for the top decorations.
Slice the rest of the strawberries and place them on top of the 2 Galette. Pipe the whip cream on top of strawberries and sandwich together. Place the third galette on top and pipe the cream and decorate as shown.


Note: If you are not used to using piping bag you can pour the cream on top and decorate as shown.

Vegetable broth with beef bones and pasta

Easy to make vegetable broth flavoured with beef bones and pasta is filling enough for dinner. It only takes about an hour to cook and preparation takes about 20 minutes. You can boil the beef bones and add the vegetables one by one so that way it is much faster to cook.

Ingredients

1lb (450gm) beef bones
4oz. (100gm) potatoes peeled and cubed
4oz. (100gm) carrots peeled and cubed
4oz. (100gm) leeks chopped
4oz. (100gm) cabbage shredded
8oz. (200gm) pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon barley
4-5 cloves garlic
2 sprigs curry leaves
Coriander leaves chopped

Recipe

Place pot on stove with the beef bones. Fill with enough water and bring to boil. Add carrots, potatoes, garlic, barley and salt. After about 10 minutes add the leek, cabbage and curry leaves. Add pasta bring to boil. When the pasta is cooked add coriander leaves and pepper.
Garnish with a sprig of coriander leaves and serve.

Achcharu

Achcharu is one of my favourite snacks. When we were kids we did not crave for candy or chocolate bars. We loved eating spicy achcharu bought from the street vendor after school.As I have decided to name my blog on my favourite food, I thought of posting about Achcharu first.

Ingredients
2 unripe mangoes cut lengthwise
1/2 pineapple cut into cubes
10-15 boiled veralu (tropical olives)
10-15 lovi-lovi
10-15 nelli (amla)
2 unripe ambarella (June plum)
1 unripe woodapple scraped
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoon chillie powder
1 tablespoon pepper powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar

Recipe

Mix all ingredients together from a wooden spoon in a ceramic bowl. When storing avoid packing in metal containers as the vinegar and the acid will erode the metal. Use ceramic, wooden or plastic.