Nani’s Biscuits

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These biscuits are actually called Melting Moments but they are affectively known as Nani’s Bisuits in our family. My mum used to make these all the time when we used to get together, they were the kid’s (and our) favourite. So buttery and moreish, perfect with a cup of chai. They are super easy to make, even Mufti Menk made them the other day! The recipe I used is not the same as his though. The one I used is one that has been passed down to me from family.
Nani's Biscuits

Nani’s Biscuits

Ingredients

  • 250g butter, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cornflour
  • 1 cup plain flour

Method

Pre heat the oven to 160c. Cream the butter and icing sugar together. Add the vanilla extract. Add the cornflour and plain flour and mix it by hand until you have a dough. Place the dough mixture in a piping bag with a large nozzle attached. Pipe each biscuit onto a baking tray (make them as long or as short as you want). Make sure there is some space in between the biscuits. Bake them in the oven for around 10-12 minutes till they’re lightly golden. Once you remove the biscuits from the oven, let them cool down on the tray for another 10 minutes. Once the biscuits are cooled, you can dip them in some melted chocolate to make them even more indulging or leave them as they are as they’re equally tasty.

Karak Chai

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The recipe below makes 2 cups of karak chai using evaporated milk, but any milk will do. I don’t use evaporated milk all the time, but sometimes I like to treat myself. Normally I just use semi skimmed milk. This recipe can be made SW friendly, make sure you measure the amount of milk used as part of your healthy extra A choice and use sweetener instead of sugar (or syn the sugar used accordingly).

My top tips to a good cup of karak chai is to always use good quality loose black tea (I am lucky my sister always supplies me with a huge batch from India, so I haven’t ever had to buy the tea myself, yet!); and secondly, make sure you keep stirring the tea whilst cooking. I know lots of people don’t, but I always stir.

If you don’t have loose tea, use a couple of tea bags instead. We like to have Yorkshire Gold tea bags.

Adjust the amount of loose tea depending on how strong you want your chai. Do note that as the tea is brewing the colour will get darker so take that into account when adding your loose tea. Add less to begin with and if you think that once it has boiled a few times it is still not strong, then add more tea.

You could also make karak coffee this way with evaporated milk, replacing the tea with coffee granules obviously!

Karak Chai Ingredients

Karak Chai Ingredients

 

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cup of water
  • 2 tbsp black loose tea
  • 1 small cinnamon stick
  • 2 cloves
  • 5 green cardamoms, lightly crushed
  • 1 tin of evaporated milk
  • sugar to taste

Method

Bring the water to boil. Add the loose tea, spices and sugar. Let it boil a couple of times before adding the milk.

Once you’ve added the milk, keep stirring the tea on a medium heat, taking care it doesn’t boil over. Make sure you keep a close eye on the tea and lower the tea (or remove the pan from the heat) once it start to boil to the top of the pan.

Do that a few times (around 5 times is enough) and strain the tea into cups.

Karak Chai

Karak Chai

 

Date & Banana Loaf

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I absolutely love bananas, they’re one of my favourite fruit. I am pretty sure I eat them once a day! But once they start going a bit brown, they are no longer edible for me personally but they are perfect for baking. For best results in any banana cake/loaf recipe, make sure your bananas are as ripe as possible for a sweeter, richer cake. The darker they are the better your cake will taste.

With Ramadan just around the corner, most muslim homes will have plenty of dates around so this is a great way of using them up differently. If you can, use Medjool dates. They’re so good for baking (as well as eating them on its own!). And bananas and dates go perfectly well together, making this a great recipe for a lovely Suhoor treat. I love toasting a slice of the loaf when it is a day or two old and add butter to it before eating. It is soooo good! Give it a try! I am the only one that eats bananas in my household so this always lasts a good few days stored in the fridge once cooled.

I like using dark muscovado sugar for a richer bake, but light brown soft sugar will work just as good. Try not to use granulated sugar or even caster sugar for this. You need to get soft brown sugar for better results. Hope you enjoy this recipe, this is a good accompaniment to a whipped coffee.

If you don’t like dates, you can replace them with chopped walnuts or try this recipe here instead.

I used a small loaf tin and it makes around 10 good slices.

Ingredients

  • 250g dark muscovado sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 250g plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ginger powder
  • 140g unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 bananas, mashed
  • 100g chopped dates

 

Date & Banana Loaf, ready for oven

Date & Banana Loaf, ready for oven

Method

Pre heat the oven to 170c. Grease and line a loaf tin and set aside.

Beat the sugar and eggs together till light in colour.

In a separate bowl, sieve together all the dry ingredients and set aside till needed.

Add the mashed bananas and chopped dates to the egg mix, mixing it all well together. Slowly add the dry ingredients, followed by the melted butter and ensure all the ingredients are well incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour, or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Leave the loaf to cool slightly in the tin before removing it from the tin.

Date & Banana Loaf

Date & Banana Loaf

 

Whipped Coffee

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After seeing all the craze about whipped coffee (also known as Dalgona coffee), I had to make it! With all the coffee shops closed right now, this is a good alternative to have if you’re missing your caffeine fix or don’t own a coffee machine.

You can enjoy this hot or cold and add any flavourings of your choice such as salted caramel or chocolate to make it even more indulging.

Do use an electric whisk if you own one as this will be much quicker than whisking by hand. If you are whisking by hand, expect to do it for around 20 minutes or more to get the coffee whipped properly.

Have you made this yet? What did you think of it?

Whipped Coffee

Whipped Coffee

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp coffee granules
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp boiling water
  • Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Method

Put all ingredients together and whisk until pale and thick.

If having it hot – add some of the whipped coffee into a mug and top with boiling water or milk of your choice.

If having it cold – fill a glass with ice cubes, pour cold milk of your choice and top it with the whipped coffee. Stir with a straw or spoon.

Iced Whipped Coffee

Iced Whipped Coffee

 

 

Homemade Pizza

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It has been such a long time since I’ve shared any recipes to my blog. I have been neglecting it for too long. Now is a good time to put more effort into putting more content on here since we are all indoors for the foreseeable future! How is everyone coping? Hope you are all keeping safe.

I do post regular on my Instagram (mostly on my stories), do give me a follow on there please if you’re on it (@Rahema_m), or my public Facebook page (Rahema).

For now, I am going to leave you guys with this super easy pizza recipe the girls and I made yesterday. Do let me know if you make this or any of the other recipes on my blog, feel free to tag me in your creations so I can share on my social media.

If you have any ideas on recipes I should share, please get in touch. I need both SW friendly and non SW friendly ideas!

Ingredients

Dough
  • 650g strong bread flour
  • 7g sachet yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 50ml warm milk
  • 350ml warm water

Dough Ingredients

Dough Ingredients

Sauce
  • Spray oil
  • 1 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 500g tub passata
  • 2 tbsp ketchup (or BBQ sauce)
  • Salt (to taste)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tbsp pizza seasoning or dried Italian seasoning
  • Sprinkle of chilli flakes (optional)

Method

Dough

Sift the flour and salt together and set it aside.

Mix the warm milk with the warm water and dissolve the yeast sachet. Mix it well till there are no lumps.

Slowly add the water mix into the flour and knead. Lastly add the olive oil and knead for around 5 minutes if you’re using a KitchenAid, or if you are kneading by hand, knead until the dough comes together.

Spread a little olive oil all over a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover it in cling film and let it prove in a proving drawer or somewhere warm for at least a couple of hours (the dough should double in size, make sure your bowl is large enough).

Dough

Dough

Sauce

Spray a pan with plenty of spray oil and fry the onion with the garlic. Add the passata, ketchup, salt, bay leaf, herbs and chilli (if using). Cook the sauce on a low heat for around 15 minutes. Once cooked, remove the bay leaf and blend the sauce if you like a smoother sauce. Set it aside to cool down till needed.

Assembling pizza

Divide the dough into two. Stretch out one of the halves onto a pizza tray (I use two 12.5′ pizza trays). Add the sauce and any toppings of your choice,

Bake the pizza for around 15 minutes.

Pizza

Pizza

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tip: If you have any leftover sauce, you can freeze it for a month or use it up in a pasta dish.

 

 

 

Pirlo’s Afternoon Tea

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Pirlo's Afternoon Tea

Pirlo’s Afternoon Tea

One of my sisters turned 40 today and to celebrate we went to an afternoon tea at Pirlo’s Dessert Lounge. I’ve been there before quite a few times and I’ve had the afternoon tea there once and really enjoyed it so thought it would be perfect for my sisters and niece’s first experience to be there and it did not disappoint.

Pirlo’s dessert lounge is situated in Coventry Street, B5 5NY. There is a pay & display car park nearby as well as Moor Street car park.

As this was a special occasion, we booked the Luxury Afternoon Tea. This comprised of a selection of 5 finger sandwiches each, scones with clotted cream and jam, macaroons, mini Victoria sponge, carrot cake, chocolate brownie, Ferrero Rocher and strawberries dipped in chocolate as well as a choice of 2 hot drinks and a bottle of non alcoholic fizz.

Luxury Afternoon Tea

Luxury Afternoon Tea

It all came beautifully presented and everything was delicious. The service was great too.

I booked our afternoon tea online the day before as they needed at least 12 hours notice before booking. The Luxury Afternoon Tea is £32 for two people, and the regular afternoon tea is £24 for two.

All the food served here is halal. I’ve recently found out that they have started serving hot food every day from 6pm-1am. I am yet to try from their hot food menu. The black burger bun looks interesting! If you’ve had the hot food from there, what did you think?

Now help me settle a debate with my sisters and niece – when it comes to scones, what should go on first? Clotted cream or jam? I prefer to put the clotted cream first followed by the jam. Does it make a difference to you which way you put them in? Let me know your thoughts!

Scones

Scones

Cardamom Loaf

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A simple, tasty treat that will go perfectly with a cup of chai. This is a very easy to make bake, my 11 year old daughter made the one pictured!

Ingredients

  • 200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 200 granulated sugar
  • 10 cardamom seeds, peeled and crushed
  • 3 eggs
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1tsp vanilla extract

Cardamom Loaf

Cardamom Loaf

Method

Pre heat oven to 170C.

Grease and flour a loaf tin and set aside till needed.

Mix the butter, sugar and cardamom well until it is light and creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda and salt together and add it to the batter carefully and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Lastly add the vanilla extract and mix it in.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for around 55 minutes or longer if needed.

Afrikana (Birmingham) Review

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My Rating: 4.2/5

Family Friendly: Yes (but tight for pushchairs/wheelchairs)

Address: 355 Ladypool Road, Sparkbrook, Birmingham. B12 8LA (Next door to Sweet, opposite Chaiwalla)

Parking: None- limited on street parking. Ladypool road is busy, plan to park and walk.

Payment: Cash and Cards accepted

I went to Afrikana’s opening night having won their Instagram competition to win a complimentary meal for two. I must stress although I didn’t pay for the meal this is an unbiased review and in no way influenced by Afrikana or anyone who works there.

Afrikana is a restaurant offering a Afro-Caribbean cuisine with an emphasis on chicken, peri peri chicken to be exact. Already established franchises can be found in Walsall and Shrewsbury. It’s located on what is now (finally!) the one way section of Ladypool Road, for many of you familiar with the area it’s near Truburger, Toros and Fargos. Head that way, park considerately on a side street and enjoy the stroll to the restaurant.

interior

Interior

As we approached on the restaurant we could hear the live band playing outside the restaurant, a nice touch for opening night. We were greeted by a couple of members of staff and we were taken to a table for 2 deep inside the restaurant. Our seating was cramped and for me it was way too close to the couple to my left, my husband’s seat was squashed in as there was someone right behind him. The worst was the table, what is worse in a newly opened restaurant than a wobbly table?

I mentioned this to Muhammad, our waiter who had introduced himself, and he spoke to a manager and we were grateful to be moved straight to a booth. Much more comfortable, much more spacious. Fantastic.

Menus in hand we started to make our choices from the provided selection, settling on the lamb chops and tiger prawns to start with. To me the starter section seemed fairly generic, although they had an Afrikana twist in terms of sauces and flavours, but I was expecting more specific unique starters than those presented. In fact I was surprised not to find Mogo chips on the extras menu, you’ve got multiple types of fries but no Mogo chips! Yikes.

Starters

The tiger prawns were served with salad and a mayonnaise based sauce, they were really succulently juicy and smothered in a sauce containing sliced peppers. I was happy the prawns weren’t dried out as they often are, these were fantastic.

Tiger Prawn starter

The lamb chops were great and cooked as medium, a single starter consisted of 4 chops served on a (rather large) bed of salad leaves. Combined with the provided Afrikana sauce this was a good starter.

Lamb Chops starter

Mains

There was quite a selection to choose from for mains – from chicken, burgers & wraps, speciality range, sharing meals and even a good variety of vegetarian meals to choose from. We couldn’t decide what to chose and eventually ended choosing what we normally wouldn’t have. Although we loved what we had chosen, I wish I had chosen chicken instead! I could see into the kitchen as all meals were coming out to be served and the chicken platters looked absolutely amazing! I’ll have to visit again soon to try one.

I had the chilli with rice as my main – as you can see in the picture it was served in a rounded pot on a large plate together with some yoghurt and some flat bread. I did ask if you should eat from the pot or empty it out onto your plate and I was told either way is perfectly fine. If you do keep it in the pot it will definitely stay warmer for longer.

I liked the chilli a lot as it’s not something I find on menus very often and it was a joy to eat, the taste was consistent and the spices were balanced very well.

chillichilli

We Goat your back

A deliciously slow cooked, fall off the bone goat curry with Afrikana rice served with a side salad, olives and flat bread. Although it doesn’t seem like a lot of rice and meat is provided it works like a black hole, the deeper you go the more there seems to be. The meat was flavoured with Afrikana sauce and it was in chunky pieces, piping hot below the surface and was easy to bite into without much effort. The rice was again Afrikana style and was quite peppery in taste but went well with the meat.

We goat your back

Desserts

None on offer. Plenty of dessert options at Sweet next door, you’ve also got Icestone Gelato and Heavenly Desserts literally 1 minute away.

Drinks

Surprisingly just bottomless soft drinks available, nothing else on offer. This might be because we were there at opening night so the drinks situation may change over time. Tap water served.

Other

There is disabled access from the street but seemingly no separate disabled toilet. It is cramped inside with booths and tables/chairs in close proximity so a wheelchair user may have issues manoeuvring in.

There are a large number of booths which can probably sit a maximum of 5 comfortably and an area towards the back right side with tables and chairs. The chairs are very comfortable, the kind you can sit in for many hours.

There’s a single toilet for males and a single one for females. That’s it. No other facilities.

The venue plays themed music over a sound system and it is quite loud, it was sometimes difficult to heat each other.

My Rating

My 4.2 rating for Afriakana is based mainly on 3 criteria, but I factor in additional observances such as cleanliness, location etc.

Food: 4.3/5

Service: 4.4/5

Atmosphere: 4.0/5

 

Vegan Cupcakes

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Thought I’d share this adapted recipe for vegan cupcakes that will satisfy any sweet cravings for vegans and non vegans alike! If you follow me on Instagram (@Rahema_m) you may have seen in my insta stories that we went a whole day eating just vegan foods yesterday! It was such an eye opener for us. I found it a challenge but it was enjoyable. I don’t think we will be going vegan full time any time soon but we would love to incorporate more vegan days in our diets.

Ingredients

  • 275g self raising flour
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • 1tbsp cocoa powder
  • 200ml Alpro chocolate soya milk
  • 200ml sunflower oil
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 50g dark chocolate chips (optional)

 

Vegan Cupcakes Ingredients

Vegan Cupcakes Ingredients

Method

Pre heat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.

Mix the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar together.

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add in the oil, milk and vanilla and whisk until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Spoon each muffin case with the batter 3/4 of the way up and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen and cooked all the way.

Vegan Cupcakes

Vegan Cupcakes

Banana Loaf

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This recipe works best when made using really ripe bananas, the browner the better! It tastes delicious straight out of the oven. I didn’t even get a chance to take a better picture once it was cooked! Please note this is not a SW friendly recipe, I like to bake from time to time and will share baking recipes for friends who are not following a diet. Hope you enjoy this recipe, feel free to tag me in your pictures if you make this or any other recipe from my blog.

Banana Loaf

Banana Loaf

 

Ingredients

  • 140g butter, melted
  • 140g light brown sugar
  • 140g self raising flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 very ripe bananas
  • 1/2 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 50g chocolate chips (optional)

Method

Pre heat oven to 160C. Grease and dust with flour a loaf tin and keep it aside till needed.

Mix the melted butter with the sugar using an electrical whisk. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Slowly add the flour making sure it is well incorporated with the ginger and cinnamon.

Add the mashed bananas and chocolate chips (if using) and mix well by hand.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes or more if needed.