Apple Fritters

This serving will usually serve 2 people, but then it depends on how hungry you are!! :)

Prep Time : 30 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Sunflower Oil ( or any other oil of your choice that is fir for deep frying) : Quantity should be such that the pan that you use for frying is full enough so the fritters can move about.

Apples : 4

All purpose Flour : 2 cups

Eggs : 2

Sugar : 1 tbs

Salt : 1/2 ts

Baking powder : 2 ts

Milk ( semi-skimmed) : 1 cup

Cinnamon sugar : 1 cup

Oil (of your choice) : 1 tbs

Method:

1. Peel and chop the apple into small pieces.
2. Beat the eggs to a smooth consistency.
3. Take a large bowl and mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Add the beaten eggs, milk and the 1 tbs of oil in the bowl.
4. Mix the contents to make a consistent mixture.
5. Add the chopped apples and evenly distribute.
6. Heat the oil in the pan (initially keep the heat high, you can notice smoke above the oil and movement of the oil in the pan).
7. Turn down the heat a bit and then using  a spoon put the mixture into the oil in small pieces.
8. Turn the fritters over in the oil so they are cooked evenly until golden brown.

Take care : do not put the mixture into very hot oil else the fritter will turn black on the outside while these are still not cooked on the inside.

9. Once the fritters are cooked, drizzle the cinnamon sugar and serve.

Fusion Food : Recipe for Apple Halwa

Apple Halwa

Prep Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 30  minutes

Prepares 2 Serving

Ingredients:

• Apples grated finely - 2 cups  ( Read method before grating)
• Milk - 2 cups
• Milk Powder - 4 Teaspoons
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Ghee ( Clarified Butter )* - 2 Teaspoon
• Saffron* - 4-6 strands
• Cardamom Powder*
• Dry fruits - raisins, finely chopped almonds

* For UK reader, Clarified Butter is available in World Food section of Sainsburys, Waitrose and Tesco. 

Saffron is available in the Spice section of Sainsburys, Waitrose and Tesco.

Cardamom Powder is available in the Spice section ..though might be a bit of a challenge spotting it.

Method:

1. Wash and grate the apples.
2. Take the milk in a bowl and keep adding the grated apples to the milk. This will avoid discoloration of the apples.
3. In a saucepan, add the Ghee.
4. Once the Ghee is hot, add the mixture of the milk and the grated apples, and the saffron.
5. Keep stirring. You will see that the milk starts to curdle due to the apples. Keep stirring.
6. Once the milk has dried, add the sugar.
7. Continue stirring.
8. After cooking for about 5 minutes, once the sugar had completely mixed, add the milk powder, cardamom powder and stir.
9. Once mixed, transfer the mixture in a bowl.
10. Garnish with the chopped dry fruits of your choice.

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Apple Jam Recipe

Apple Jam

Your jam would be ready in 1 hour following this recipe.

Prep Time : 45 min
Cooking Time : 15 min

Ingredients:

(To make 6 jars of 225gm)

• Chopped apples ( peeled) - 1Kg
• Water - 250 ml
• Lemon Juice - 1 Tablespoon
• Pectin - 26 gm
• Caster Sugar - 1 3/4 kg
• Ground Allspice - 2 Teaspoon
• Ground nutmeg - 2 Teaspoon
• Dark Brown Sugar - 100 gm

Method:

1. In a saucepan, mix the apples, water and the lemon juice.
2. Cook the mixture on low heat for about 20 minutes, until the apples are soft.
3. Add the pectic, stir and boil.
4. Now add the Caster sugar.
5. Continue stirring and boiling until the sugar is completely dissolved.
6. Remove saucepan from heat.
7. Now add the Allspice, nutmeg and the brown sugar. Stir to make a mixture.

Add the mixture to the sterilized jars ( leaving about 1- 1.5cm space on the top).  Be careful to remove any clingy bits from the jar top or the jar rims.

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Find Your Hunger @CityPlatter

Fusion Desserts are a Reality!! Awesome

Have you thought if you could have a dessert that had.....hang on...

The base layer as a chocolate cake.....topped with
mousee with exquisite flavours......
Indian sweets crumbs in between the layers that increases the richness of taste.....

another layer of cream.....and

toppings of the Indian sweets.










Absolute treat for the ones with the sweet tooth!! Awesome!!

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Did you know you could even visit Sandwich!! Read on

Sandwich

Did You Know?

Sandwich is a town in East Kent in South East England. The popular snack got its name due to the John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich.

John Montagu was a notoriously avid gambler. In 1972, he realized that he needed a snack that could satisfy his appetite and still allow him to stay at the cards table. He then trialed a snack of two pieces of bread holding a filling, which was inspired from his visits to the Middle East.

He cannot however be credited with the invention of the sandwich itself, just the name in the West which eventually caught on with the rest of the world.

The first sandwiches were prepared in the 1^st century B.C. by the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder during Passover, with lamb and bitter herbs in pieces of matzo bread. These snacks were called Hillel’s snack by the Romans. There is also evidence that the Middle Eastern countries prepared “sandwiches” long before the West. In Europe though the Dutch prepared something similar called the “filled roll” about a century before John Montagu.

At some point of time, sandwiches transitioned from a late-night men’s snack to a any-time-of-the-day snack. The possibilities of exploring the filling between the bread and the variety of bread choices further increased its popularity. The choices were endless.

It is now the most popular meal in the UK.

In fact, each year, the British population manages to munch their way through a staggering 11.5 billion sandwiches.

References : http://www.britishsandwichweek.com/index.php/facts-figures/3-how-many-sandwiches-do-we-eat

Jalebi - All that you need to know!!

Jalebi  (                 Crispy orange coloured sweet circles usually spotted in an Indian sweet shop)

History : Contrary to popular belief, Jalebi, which is a very popular Indian sweet did not originate in India. Jalebi was introduced to India by Persian-speaking invaders in the 15^th century. In the initial days the dish was known as Kundalika or Jalavallika and was associated with the dinner of the rich!!

Also, known as Zulbia, this dish is extremely popular in South Asia, West Asia, North Africa and East Africa. The word itself originated from the Arabic zulabiya or the Persian zolbiya, names of a similar dish. In some Christian communities in West Asia, it is served on the Feast of the Theophany (Epiphany), often with dry sugar and cinnamon. In Iran, the dish is served to the poor in the month of Ramadan.

Recipe:

Ingredients and where to find in the UK:

Jalebi Mixture:

a.)    125 gm of all purpose flour ( maida )        - You can use self-raising flour from any Supermarket

b.)    2 tablespoons Gram Flour ( Besan)           - Asian store or World Food section of Supermarkets

c.)     ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder (Haldi)       - Asian store or World Food section of Supermarkets

d.)    ¼ Baking Powder

e.)    Water

f.)     Oil

Sugar Syrup:

a.)    150 gm Sugar

b.)    Water

c.)     Saffron - 10-12 strands                                  - Asian Store or Spice section of any Supermarket

Method:

1.       Mix the Ingredients for the Jalebi Mixture ( a – e) in a bowl.

2.       The quantity of water should be such that the Jalebi mixture is neither too thick in consistency nor very thin.

3.       Make the mixture consistent without any lumps of the flour or the gram flour.

4.       Leave the mixture for 10-12 hours ( during winters or cold climate 20-24 hours may be needed) to ferment.

5.       After the required time, the mixture would have raised and would have bubbles on the top indicating fermentation.

6.       Take oil in a pan and heat it to high temperature.

7.       Take the mixture in a squeezy bottle like a Pancake making bottle and make concentric circles in the oil.

8.       Deep fry the jalebis until crisp.

9.       Meanwhile prepare he Sugar syrup by boiling water and adding the sugar and saffron.

10.   Add the Jalebis in the sugar syrup for 2-3 minutes.

11.   Serve hot with complimentary sides as per liking.

How to Eat : Can be served warm or cold. Goes best with rabri ( condensed milk). In some parts of the world , it is also eaten with curd. In the United States, the first Jalebis were used as ice-cream cones.

The Very First Blog!! Welcome :)

Hi There,

This is my first ever blog on CityPlatter. Before I started writing this, I could not understand what I should write!! I was blank! Should it be food recipes, health tips? What is it that could be interesting, engaging , relevant and I guess, most important, motivating enough for you me to keep going every day.

I don’t know from where but it dawned on me how little I know about food from any other culture or cuisine other than Indian. And how little my British friends at work knew about Indian food. They believed it’s all about curries, its “hot” (as in spicy), it’s “calorie-rich”, it’s not just Chicken Tikka Masala.

So, I thought perhaps, what will be very interesting for me is to write about all Indian dishes so they can benefit, people with less exposure to the Indian food. At the same time, I hope to research and get insights into the other cuisines for the benefit of the Indians on our platform.

To start with I think I will just take up each dish on our menu currently and go about with writing more details of it…where it comes from, how it is cooked, where you can get the ingredients in UK and so on.

I hope you find it interesting. Any suggestions are most welcome via email to info@cityplatter.com or you could use the feedback form on the website https://www.cityplatter.com/feedback .

Have fun!!

Priyanka Anand

#FindYourHunger #IndianFood #GoodFoodUK #InterestingFactsOfFood #FoodOrigin #HistoryOfFood #CrossCulturalFoodInfluence