Fried Honey Orange Puff in Sesame, a Moroccan Dessert

Halwa Chabakiah, anyone...?

Receiving a big envelope addressed to me from my sister few days ago made me jump in the four corners of the house. For I knew exactly what was inside. It doesn’t enclose letters nor do photos from my family, for we constantly communicate through email. It was something else that I have been waiting for a long time.

Before I left Philippines long time ago I was enrolled in a Masteral degree program in my university but my several stints abroad and eventual circumstance to settle in France have hampered me in finishing that. Several deans come and go and my thesis remained the way I left it. When I received the news that all my classmates have all graduated even the one we least expected it was like a knife that hit me hurting me so badly. I knew I couldn’t just leave it like that. So three years ago I decided that no distance could stop me from finishing what I started. And I made it. Last year was my graduation day but I begged off to travel to Philippines due to my pregnancy. And early this year when I was there we have completely forgotten to talked about it for we were too occupied about my dad’s deteriorating health condition.

So, when I opened the envelope, I saw : there was my Masteral degree diploma. I felt like a heroine in any soap opera feeling triumphant after kicking the ass of all the villains. And the bonus part; I even graduated with distinction, Yay! Well how shall I describe it? I am just simply happy :-)

I know I merit a big chocolate cake for that but this simple and easy Moroccan dessert is a delicious replacement!

I am sending this to lovely Ruth of Ruth's Kitchen Experiments the creator of Bookmarked Recipes. Round-up is every Monday!

Angel's Finger(D'oigt d'Ange) Halwa Chabakia

This recipe is taken from the Oriental Patisserie cookbook from Librio. Halwa Chabakia are pastry dough like soft pretzels deep fried in oil. Best eaten with mint teas.

for about 20-25 pieces

125 g of butter (about 1 1/2 stick of butter)
50 g of flour
1 tablespoon of sugar
A pinch of salt
1 sachet of dry yeast (about one teaspoon)
15 cl of orange blossom water (about half a glass)
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
1 egg
1 glass of warm water
A pinch of saffron
Oil for frying
100 g of honey
20 cl of orange blossom water (about a glass)
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt and dry yeast. Make a small well in the middle and pour your melted butter, orange 15 cl of blossom water, lemon juice, orange zest and your egg. Let your saffron infuse in your warm water. Add this water little by little to your dough as you work on it. You need not to add all the water, you will stop until you reach a smooth homogenous texture. Put a flour on your working table and flatten your dough. Make small rectangular shapes of 10x6 cm of about 1mm of thickness.

how to fold them: Fold inwards the longest sides. Then turn it over fold again inwards the two sides to form this finger like shape. Put them one by one in your boiling oil and fry them for about 5-6 minutes until they are golden brown. Combine your honey with your orange blossom water and mix them well. You will dip your fried pastry on this syrup once cooked. And sprinkle them with sesame seeds before serving.

I am warning you this is extremy delicious!

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I am not sure that Halwa Chabakiah is the real name of this dessert, for that's the closest one I googled up.

You can also try:

Beignets, French Donuts

Chorizo, Cumin & Curry Bread

Chorizo, Cumin & Curry Bread

What's BUGging your mind lately?

The past few days there's something bogging my head and probably you can help me out. Well let me tell you from the start. When I went to the kitchen the other day and opened the cupboard I was literally received by a dozen squirming food bugs. Startled and disturbed by my presence, they flew in all direction giving a small spectacle on the curious eyes of my daughter and a horrified me. Naturally my daughter was so happy even shouting and clapping her hands. While I was desperately shooing them away towards the window and shouting "Cassez vous" (eng. translation: get the hell out of here!!). After that incident I cleaned the cupboard and dump every possible nesting place they could be hiding. My hubby advised me to put some fresh branch of bay leaves to drive them away.

With this agenda in my mind, I went immediately to my in-laws' garden to gather some branches. In the garden however, my attention was caught by the beautiful yellow blossoms of a mysterious plant. My mom in law told me that they are curry plant. I gathered some and went back home to bake this chorizo bread in the following hours. The bread was really delicious and the curry flavor perfumed my food bug infested kitchen.

The bread was delicious but the food bugs were still there. Any suggestions? :-)

I'll be sending this bread to Ruth for her weekly round-ups of Bookmarked Recipes.

Pretty aren't they?

Chorizo Cumin & Curry Bread
taken from 30 Bread Recipes by Lisa Mazieres

1 tsp of cumin seeds 1 tsp of fresh curry leaves 150 g of sliced chorizo 3 tablespoons of olive oil 350 g of flour 1 tablespoon of instant dry yeast 1 glass of milk 5 g of salt

On your working table, put the flour and make a small well in the middle. Add little by little the milk and the yeast. Mix them gently with your hand until it becomes homogenous. Add the salt and olive oil. Knead the dough for about ten minutes or until it becomes smooth and elastic. Continue kneading but this time try to add little by little your chorizo, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Make a small ball and let it rise on a bowl covered for an hour. After an hour dust your table with flour and work on the dough and shape the bread of your desired shape and size. Let it rise again for about two hours. Spray the surface with water. You can add some cumin seeds and curry leaves on the top. Preheat the oven for fifteen minutes at 210° celsius. Bake the bread for ten minutes at 210° celsius then another 20 minutes at 180° celsius. Bake the bread with a ramekin filled with water inside.


Here are my other bread recipes:

French bread (Baguette)
Caramelized onion and roasted tomato Foccacia
Mini Flute Bread with Cumin, Sesame and Poppy seeds

Lemon, Rosemary & Thyme Fried Salmon

Lemon Rosemary & Thyme Fried Salmon with Lotus Root

Shirley!
Shirley, Shirley Bo, Birley
Banana, Fanna, Foe, Firley
Fee, Fie, Moe, Mirley
Shirley

I am sure you all remember this Name game song of Laura Branigan back in the 80's. Those happy days that we're still pommading layers of gell or emptying cans of spraynet on our hair :-). Those days that the world seemed to be a lot peaceful than what it is now for the only thing that preoccupies our innocent minds are the pimple popping out on our skin and our cotton candy like hair.

I have thought about this song lately when I came across Jumbo Empanada's post on blog name story. I am pretty sure we all have our own pieces of story to tell behind the choice of our blog's name. A story worth hearing for, for curiosity always strikes us back. So, what's in a name?

Danggit are dried salted rabbitfish popularly eaten for breakfast in the island of Cebu in Philippines.

Explanation: {My friends knew that I can eat all kinds of meat and vegetables but not a fish. So to pull a prank on me, they started calling me "Dhanggit", thought it would be funny. But eventually everybody else is calling me dhanggit and Dhanggit becomes me.}

The paradox of all this, is that during my pregnancy I hated being in the kitchen. I hated the smell of it. I even hated the chocolates. And there was only one thing that would give me pleasure and that was eating fish. Weird isn't it? After I gave birth everything went back to normal, except for one thing I can eat fish now.

I'll be sending over this Salmon dish to Ruth for her Bookmarked Recipes, a food blogging event about recipes that we have bookmarked from a cookbook, magazine and others. It's been month I have drooling over to make this recipe from Maxi Cuisine, a french gourmet magazine.



Lemon Rosemary & Thyme Fried Salmon with Lotus Root

4 Salmon slices (you can also use Salmon steak)
2 tbsp of olive oil
10 g of butter
salt & pepper
1 cup of sliced mushroom (you can use any type as long as its fresh)
half a cup of sliced pre-cooked Lotus root (you can buy them frozen on Asian specialty groceries) 20 cl of fresh cream
1 cube of fish bouillon (dissolve in half a glass of water)

Lemon Marinade:
Juice & zest of one lemon
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (pounded)
herbes de provence: thymes & rosemary

Start by preparing the marinate. In a salad bowl mix the ingredients for the lemon marinade, mix well. Pour this over the salmon and let it marinate for about 20 to 30 minutes until the sauce have penetrated on the salmon. Heat olive oil and butter in a frying pan or on a barbeque grill over medium heat. Cook each side or until they are golden brown but do not overcook. Take off the salmon from the pan and on the same pan fry the mushrooms and lotus root. Cook them for about 4 to 5 minutes, you can add more olive oil if it becomes too dry. Then deglace the pan using the fish broth. Let it boil but leave it uncover to help the juice evaporate. Then lastly add the fresh cream, salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil for few minutes. You can toss a pasta on this creamy sauce and serve the fried salmon on the top. Or serve the fried salmon with a pilaf rice and this creamy sauce on the side.