Spinach Smoothie

I've fallen in love with this recently. Though admittedly, I was quite disgusted when I first heard about it, spinach smoothie? Who would want to drink that?!

But after having read about how great it is for the body, and not to mention how packed spinach is with vitamins and minerals (Pop-eye was certainly on to something, guys!) I decided trying it can't hurt.

So I did, and I've been hooked ever since! Here's the recipe I use for my spinach smoothie, though sometimes I mix it up a bit (today I added pomegranate afterwards, just because I have half a pomegranate to use :p). Feel free to adapt this to suit you own taste.

Oh and for those wondering, this tastes completely of banana, yum yum!

Ingredients

2 cups of baby spinach leaves
1 cup of milk (any type you prefer, soya, almond, coconut, cows etc)
1 banana*
*it's optional to freeze your banana before making this if you want it all nice and icy cold. If you are going to do this, PEEL IT BEFORE YOU FREEZE IT. You have be warned :p

Throw all ingredients into you blender/smoothie maker.
I'm just using one of those hand blenders that come with a beaker thing.

Whizz whizz whizz until smooth. And serve. Enjoy :)

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Heart-centred Cupcakes.

I bought a cupcake from a store a few weeks ago. On biting into it I had the great surprise of finding a pink heart inside it! This is just my attempt the replicate it. Next time I think I need to either use a small heart cookie-cutter or more cake batter as I had difficulty covering the hearts. Nothing a heck load of piped icing couldn't solve, but I am kind of a perfectionist when it comes to food. :)

Ingredients.

3/4 cup of butter

1.5 cup of sugar

3 eggs

2.5 cups of self rising flour

1 and a third cup of milk

Red food colouring.

Mix butter and sugar together until combined

Add your eggs one at a time, whisking well between each addition

Once all three eggs are added you should be left with something like this

Add the milk and flour a little at a time, whisking between each addition until you have add them both.

Put about one third of the mixture into a smaller bowel. Cover the remaining mixture and put aside.

Add some red food colouring until you get your desired colour, I went for a bright pinkish shade,
Cook in the oven at 180C for about 20min until I starts to go brown.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely

Once cooled cup out some heart shapes with a heart shaped cookie cutter

This is the best way to get the most hearts out of you sponge!

Add a spoonful of white cake batter into you cake cases.
Ad a heart, point down, and cover with some more white batter.
NOTE: Make sure you hearts all face the same way, if the batter covers them completely you'll need to figure out what way the heart shape sits in order to see it when you cut or bit into them!!

Cook at 180C for about 20min until the are golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely
(As I mentioned before, I didn't have enough cake batter to cover them completely so I am still able to see which way the heart shape sits. However I am now going to need to ice them to hide that mess on top :p)

Serve or cover with icing which I will be doing later. Enjoy!

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Sahlab (سحلب) Recipe

Image from tasteofbeirut.com

Sahlab (سحلب) is a popular beverage found all over the Middle East.  It is believe to have originated in Turkey during the Ottoman Empire. Traditional sahlab flour is make by grinding the dried tubers of orchids into a fine power. It is then thickened with milk or water and sweetened with orange blossom or rose water.

Unfortunately the plants used to make traditional sahlab flour are endangered and hard to come by in markets. Instead we offer and alternative recipe using cornflour as the thickener, while still retaining a similar taste to that of traditional sahlab.

Servse: 2

Ingredients.

2  cups of milk (plus a small amount extra)
2 tbsp of cornflour
2 tbsp of sugar (or to taste)
1 tbsp of rose water

Crushed nuts and ground cinnamon (optional)

Measure out your 2 cups of milk and pour into a saucepan

Turn on the heat to medium-high. Bring milk to a light boil.

Add 2 tablespoons of corn flour into a small amount of milk and mix well ensuring there are no lumps.

Add your cornflour and milk mixture to the lightly boiling milk. Reduce heat to low and whisk regularly until thickened to avoid lumps.

Once thickened, add 2 tablespoon of sugar (or to preferred taste) and 1 tablespoon of rosewater.

Pour into desired cups or bowls and garnish with ground cinnamon, chopped nuts (optional) and enjoy!

Image from tasteofbeirut.com

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