Easy Strawberry dessert

The holidays have come to an end and life has started on normal mode once again. An entire month of gorging on yummy goodies can disturb a lot of your body equilibrium but then life is all about enjoying what you like, within limits though. I have been procrastinating the idea of getting back to my exercise schedule which I followed very religiously till my daughter Vaanya was born. Being a Phyical therapist, I very well know how the human mind keeps the idea of exercising at bay. I have had hard days convincing my patients the benefits and joy of exercising. I guess its time to repeat those lines of advice to myself. 

Coming back to the recipe that I am sharing today, it was basically done with left over strawberries and some cream that I had from my Chocolate cloud roll. I crushed some oreos and layered the dessert in no time. Some fancy decorations and you have a yummy and impressive dessert. 

Ingredients : I am not sharing any measurements because frankly speaking I just went with whatever I had

• 3-4 oreos, crushed
• 3-4 strawberries, chopped
• Whipped cream, about 1/2 a cup
• Strawberry crush, 2-3 spoonful (I used a brand called Mala)

Procedure : 

Take plastic serving cups like the ones I have used or any other serving glass and press some crushed oreos at the bottom.

Mix the strawberry crush with the whipped cream with gentle hands and spoon some on the crushed oreos.

Sprinkle some chopped strawberries and make another layer of oreo, whipped cream and strawberries. 

Dress it up with a dollop of piped whipped cream and a wafer chocolate stick. 

My daughter, Vaanya, enjoyed her favourite flavours, strawberry and chocolate, in the dessert and finished it in no time.

Happy quick dessert relishing

Amrita

Swiss Apple Roesti

Knowledge about food and food habits of specific regions intrigue me in a special way. My interest invariably lies in the understanding of the dessert of a particular region. The more I dig into it the more I realize that it such a vast area of interest, one which personally I am a big fan of. I keep hunting for dessert ideas from different countries and love to try them out in my humble kitchen. 
Swissotel, Kolkata had invited KFB for their Swiss National Day celebrations some time back. Celebration of such sorts are a great learning experience for us where we are exposed to authentic taste of the dishes and are educated about some traditional dishes from the region. We had the grand opportunity to have GM Mr Marco Saxer and Executive chef Mr Pranay Singh sit with us and talk about Swiss Food. Along with some other dishes discussed what enthralled me was the description of this dish called Swiss Apple Roesti. Mr Saxer was very particular about having this dessert on the menu and found a video on Youtube to help the chef make it. 
All of us were stunned by the simplicity and the flavours of this dessert. Crispy chunks of bread with apple pieces sauteed in French butter with a beautiful hint of cinnamon was truly a winner dessert for all of us. We were told that the French butter was specially imported for this dessert. It was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the dessert was drizzled with some vanilla sauce. 
I instantly knew that I just had to try this dessert at home. The high end French butter was replaced with the dairy white butter which is unsalted. Good quality red apples were bought for it especially and a loaf of brown bread was kept for 2 days to make it stale. The entire process takes hardly 5 minutes because all you need to do is throw in a large chunk of butter in the pan and get your bread crisped in it. Add in the chopped apples, sugar and cinnamon and you are done. 
The video is a must watch for the detailed and hilarious take on the traditional Swiss dessert. 
  

Recipe adapted from here : FX cuisine on Youtube

Ingredients : For 2 servings

• 1 apple
• 2 slices bread (stale) (I used brown bread)
• 50 gms white butter
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar(or more)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder(or less)
• handful of pomegranate kernels 

Procedure : 

Cut bread into bite sized squares.

Chop apples in bite size too after removing the seed and with the skin on.

Take butter in a pan and as it melts add the bread. Let it get crisp from both sides which can take 4-5 minutes.

Remove from heat and add the chopped apples and the powdered sugar. 

Mix in the cinnamon powder.

Sprinkle the pomegranate kernels on top and serve with vanilla ice cream. 

Happy Roesti Relishing

Amrita

Chocolate Salami

Raksha Bandhan or Rakhi has been a fairly simple festival in my house while I was growing. Being Sikhs, we have adapted a lot of our customs from Hinduism and therefore we celebrate a simplified version of it which means no tilak and Pooja. I remember seeing my Aunt perform the morning fast before tying the sacred thread on my Father and Uncle's wrist but as children we never had to do that. As children, I would tease my younger brother that being a girl is so lucky as you get 2 gifts in a year, one on birthday and another on Rakhi. At home, Mom would make some bread rolls for breakfast and thus our Rakhi would be over with some sweets. 

This year, Vaanya, my daughter will get to tie a Rakhi on my nephew. I see a part of my childhood in her and am looking forward to see her enjoy the day with her little brother. She is naturally too small to understand the importance of Rakhi but I am sure with time she will cherish these moments just like me. 

This year I wanted to try a rather very simple sweet. Something which does not require much work and is done in a jiffy. Therefore I decided to play with these Chocolate Salami where there is no definite recipe and you can add just about anything that you want. 

Chocolate Salami or Salame di cioccolata or Salame de chocolate is a traditional Italian and Portuguese dessert which is made from dark chocolate, broken bits of biscuits or cookies, butter, eggs and alcohol like rum or port wine.

A misleading name, Chocolate Salami is named because of its appearance where the dessert is shaped like a log and is cut in roundels while serving.

I skipped the eggs and got an intensely rich, rum laden chocolatey goodness in this dessert. For a children's version I used milk chocolate and skipped the nuts and fruits. Instead I added some cake pieces, biscuits of my daughter's choice and some almond powder. 

This dessert has endless variations. Go ahead and enjoy making and relishing it this festive season.

Ingredients : Makes around 7-8 slices of the chocolate salami

• 200 gms dark chocolate, chopped
• 1/4 cup cream(I used Amul)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3-4 pieces of Marie biscuits or any digestive biscuits
• 1/2 cup of assorted nuts and dried fruits(I used almonds, walnuts, cashews, pista and cranberries)
• 2-3 tbsp rum (optional, may be substituted with orange juice)

Procedure : 

Dry roast the nuts and chop them fine. Mix with the chopped cranberries and keep aside.

Roughly break the biscuits in medium sized chunks and keep aside.

Heat cream in a pan. Be careful not to burn it.

Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate to it. Mix it well so that the chocolate melts.

Now add the butter and mix. 

Throw in the nuts and biscuits and give it a stir. 

Allow this mixture to cool and thicken for around 4-5 minutes, or more if required.

Put this, now thickened mixture, onto a cling wrap and give it a log shape. Twist both the ends to secure it.

Pop it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hrs. 

In between take it out and roll it to maintain the shape.

Slice it and serve.

Note : For a children's version I used milk chocolate instead of dark one and added digestive biscuits, chocolate biscuits, cake pieces. I also added 1 tbsp of almond powder instead of the chopped nuts. And yes, the rum has been omitted there. 

Happy Raksha Bandhan

Amrita