Tourchi Batata ~Tunisian Spicy potato salad

A delicious and spicy potato salad with a hint of cumin and lemon.

Ingredients:

4 medium sized potatoes
1 tablespoon Harissa paste
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the potatoes and when they have cooled  slightly peel them.
2. Dice the potatoes into 1 inch pieces and keep aside.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan , when it warms up add the harissa, cumin and salt. Sauté for a minute or two for the spices to release flavour.Add the lemon juice and stir it in.
4. Add the diced potatoes and toss to coat the potatoes with the spice mixture.
5. Transfer to a serving dish.
Serve warm or cold.

You may like :
Tunisian Chickpea salad

Submitting  to:
 Flavours of Tunisia event by simply.food

or the

Touarits ~Spicy stuffed Tunisian bread

Crispy Tunisian style stuffed semolina bread with a spicy vegetarian harissa filling.

Ingredients:

240 g / 8 oz fine semolina
1 teaspoon fast acting yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 -1 cup warm water( use as much as required)
1 tablespoon plain flour for kneading and dusting.

Filling:

1 medium carrot finely shredded
1 red onion finely chopped
1/4 red capsicum finely diced
1/4 yellow capsicum finely diced
2 medium tomatoes de seeded and finely diced
1 tablespoon harissa paste - Tunisian chilli paste( add more or less to taste)
1/4 teaspoon  cayenne pepper
1/3 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Method:

1. In a large bowl add the semolina, salt, sugar and yeast and stir together.
2. Add the oil and add a little water at a time until you have a soft pliable dough.
3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, cover and place inside the bowl.Cover and leave in a warm place to prove for 1 hour.
4.To make the filling , heat oil in  pan and sauté the onions in it, once the onions soften slightly add the capsicums and grated carrot and sauté for about 5 minutes until both carrots and capsicums are cooked.
5. Add the diced tomatoes, salt, cayenne pepper and the harissa paste and sauté for 3-4 minutes until the filling is thick and almost dry.
6. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.

7.On a floured surface knock the air out of the dough and knead for 3-4 minutes , divide the dough into 10 parts and keep aside.
8. On a floured surface pat out two of the dough balls to form 3 inch circles.
9. Take a generous spoonful of the filling and place it in the centre of one of the dough discs.
10. Cover this with the second dough disc and using your thumb press the edges down to seal them
11. Take a fork and make indentations around the edge to further seal the edges and make a pattern.Repeat for remaining parts of dough.
12. Place the bread rolls onto an oiled baking tray and cover with a cloth. Leave aside for 20 minutes.
13. Preheat an oven to 180 degrees C/ 375  degrees F.Bake the Touarits for about 25-30 minutes until crisp and golden brown.
14. Remove from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
Serve with soup

You may like :
Tunisian Chickpea salad

Submitting  to:
 Flavours of Tunisia event by simply.food

Free Giveaway~ Baker Days Letterbox cake.

I recently received a personalised cake from Baker Days to sample. Baker Days is an online cake company  that make personalised  full sized cakes, cupcakes  and letterbox sized cakes that are delivered to your door complete with a card, candles, party horn and balloon  The cakes come in various flavours, over 300 designs to choose from and they can be personalised to suit any occasion with your own design and message.The starting prize is £14.99 and all cakes come with free delivery.

I received a chocolate flavour letterbox sized cake that was personalised with the simply.food header, all I had to do was send a photo of the design and a replica was transferred in edible colours onto the cake. It was beautifully packed in a small tin and arrived fully intact with not a single crumb out of place.I was most impressed with this as I was sceptical as to how a cake would with stand a postal journey, take a plunge through the letterbox and survive a free fall drop through the letterbox onto the carpet and still be in one piece!! On opening the package the  cake was moist and totally covered with fondant icing.The cake itself was really delicious,but the fondant was a little too sweet for my taste as I prefer plain cakes .The cake, designed to be small enough to pop through the letter box was indeed small but I would say it was adequate enough to cut into 4 small slices or 3 generous sized slices.In all it was a delectable surprise and a perfect edible gift.

The site is simple to navigate and the ordering of the cakes on the website is straight forward with  easy to follow with step by step instructions . I am most impressed with the awesome idea of sending a cake by post and will definitely use this service again.Thank you to Baker days for sending me this cake to try.

All the views and opinions stated in this post are my own.

Since I found the cake so enjoyable and a pleasure to receive ,I wanted my readers to sample it too so, simply.food  has teamed up with Bakers days and they have agreed to give away two personalised madeira letterbox cakes to two simply.food visitors.This giveaway is open to all UK residents over 18 years of age.


How To Enter
·         Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
·         Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
·         Please read the rules they form the terms and conditions of this Giveaway
·         Closing date - 30th November  2012 6.00pm .

a Rafflecopter giveaway

White chocolate frozen banana pops secret recipe club challenge Oct 22nd 2012

This is my assignment with the Secret Recipe Club.The aim of the club is that you are allocated a blog from which you have to select a recipe and try  it and blog about it.
My assigned blog was  Hugs and CookiesXOX which is written by Danielle. The site has many varied and interesting recipes and mostly are sweet. I selected the white chocolate  frozen banana pops recipe which was simple to make and delicious.

Healthy and delicious frozen bananas covered in  delectable creamy white chocolate and sprinkles.

Ingredients:

1 banana
120 g / 4 oz white chocolate
chocolate sprinkles.

Method:

1. Peel the banana and cut in half.
2. Push a lolly pop stick into the cut end and freeze the bananas for 30 minutes.
3. Melt the chocolate and when it has melted dip the frozen bananas into the chocolate.
4. Shake the extra chocolate off  and sprinkle chocolate sprinkles all over the white chocolate.
5. Leave to set for 5 minutes before eating.

You may like:
Banana Icecream

Tunisian Chickpea Salad

Spicy flavoursome protein packed chick pea salad dressed with olive oil, mint and aromatic spices.

Ingredients:

1 can of precooked white chickpeas drained
1 tablespoon sun dried tomatoes(in oil) finely diced
1 tablespoon finely diced red and green peppers
1 tablespoon fresh finely chopped coriander
1 shallot finely chopped

Dressing:

1 tablespoon white vine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried mint
1/ 2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:

1. In a large bowl add the cooked chickpeas, shallot, peppers, half the coriander and sun dried tomatoes and mix together.
2. In a jar with a lid add the vinegar, olive oil, salt, mint, garlic powder, chilli flakes and lemon juice . Close the lid and shake the jar to combine the dressing.
3. Pour the dressing over the chickpea salad and toss to coat everything with the dressing.
4. Cover the salad and chill for 30 minutes to let the flavours infuse into the salad.
5. After 30 minutes transfer to a serving dish and garnish with remaining coriander.
Serve with toasted pitta bread.

Submitting  to:
 Flavours of Tunisia event by simply.food

Mesfouf ~ Sweet Tunisian style couscous with Dates and Apricots

Delicious Tunisian  breakfast couscous dish enriched with apricots, dates , pistachio and almonds and delicately flavoured with rose water.

Ingredients:

60 g / 2 oz couscous
140 ml water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon rose water
1 tablespoon flaked almonds
6 pitted dates
6 dried apricots
1/2 tablespoon  chopped pistachio nuts
rose petals for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. In a saucepan boil the water and add the sugar to it. Boil the syrup for 2-3 minutes until sugar is totally dissolved.
2. In a heatproof bowl add the couscous and pour over the sweet water.
3. Cover and leave aside for 60 minutes until couscous has absorbed all the water.
4. After 1 hour, fluff up the couscous with a fork and transfer to a bowl.
5. Chop up the dates and apricots into small pieces and add to the couscous.
6. Add the flaked almonds and pistachio nuts and the rose water and toss the couscous lightly to mix all the ingredients.
7. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with pistachio nuts and rose petals.

Submitting  to:
 Flavours of Tunisia event by simply.food

Flavours of Kenya ~RoundUp

Flavours of Kenya was guest hosted by Jagruti of Jagrutis cooking Odyssey.
Thankyou to every one who took to time to cook for this event.Here is the round up.

Hara Bhara Balls(Spicy spinach balls)~Blog hop Wed 10th October 2012

This is my entry for Blog Hop Wednesday started by Radhika of Tickling Palates. Its a beautiful concept where not only do you get to make new  blogger friends, cook from their blogs but in return they visit your blog and try out your recipes too.

If you are interested in  joining Blog Hop Wednesday here is how it works:

"The plot behind this attempt is to form 2 groups and make pairs with a blogger who will be your partner for that particular month. This happens every 2nd wednesday of the month. You will then go through your partner’s blog, select, choose, cook, click and post the recipe in your blog on Wednesday and vice versa. The following month you will have a new partner. This way not only you tend to your blog at intervals but also learn some new recipes along the way and get to know a lot of bloggers and make friends."

This month my blog hop partner is Priya Srinivasan of enveetukitchen .She has a nice variety of recipes and looking through them it was hard to decide which to make. I finally chose the Hara Bhara Balls (Spinach vegetable balls)

Crispy ,crunchy spinach balls with a spicy delectable taste.

Ingredients:


240 grams boiled potato
2 oz boiled peas coarsely ground.
120 grams baby spinach 
1/4 teaspoon Cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon Coriander Powder
2 slices bread made into bread crumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
1/2 teaspoon chilli paste
Oil for frying

Method:

1. Blanch the spinach in boiling water for three minutes, remove from the water and drain.Squeeze all the extra water out.Place the spinach into a blender jug and chop finely and transfer it  to a large bowl.
2. Mash the boiled potato and add it to the spinach. 
3. Add the coarsely ground peas, salt , chilli, garlic, ginger, cumin , coriander and lemon juice and bread crumbs. 
4. Mix the ingredients together to combine all the ingredients.
5. Pinch walnut sized balls of the mixture and roll them into round balls. 
6. Chill the prepared balls in the fridge for 30 minutes.
7. Heat oil in a pan when it is hot reduce heat to medium and deep fry the balls in small batches until golden brown.
8. Drain on kitchen paper . 
Serve with chutney. 

You may like:
Sweet corn bhajiya

Free Giveaway Tickets to BBC Good Food Show NEC Birmingham

28th November 2012 - 2nd December 2012

BBC Good Food show Winter is opening its doors on Wednesday 28th Nov 2012  to Sunday  2nd December at the NEC Birmingham.As usual it will be packed with lots of exciting things to do, visit and shop.Some of the highlights of the show are:

Celebrity Chefs
See top celebrity chefs  James Martin, Gino D'Acampo and the Hairy Bikers cooking live on stage in the Super theatre   Plus the favourite hit TV programmes will be returning to the Show with Saturday Kitchen hosted by James Martin with celebrity guests and the Great British Bake Off with Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry.

Shopping
With over 400 exhibitors to choose from it is the perfect opportunity for Christmas shopping!

Master chef experience
The UK's favourite TV cookery programme will be brought to life at the Show.Emma Kennedy, the champion of Celebrity Master Chef 2012, to the BBC Good Food Show Winter will battle it out live on stage in our Master Chef Cook Off sessions.

Producers Village
The Producers’ Village will be packed with small speciality producers who specialise in local and seasonal produce.The Producers' Village, is a huge speciality food market at the heart of the show, packed with small artisan producers who pride themselves in the quality and provenance of their produce. It is the perfect place for picking up great festive produce ideal for Christmas gifts and recipes.

Again this year BBC Good Food Show have teamed up with simply.food and  they are offering three pairs of tickets to 3 lucky winners.The Giveaway is open to all UK residents and must be over 18 years of age.

How To Enter
·         Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
·         Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc
·         Please read the rules they form the terms and conditions of this Giveaway
·         Closing date - 15th November 2012 6.00pm

Pictures and text courtesy of BBC Good food show

For those of you who would prefer to visit the show in London , you can enter the competition here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Announcing Event~Celebrate Navratri Diwali

The event  series "Celebrate" is the brain child of Jagruti of JCO and from the 1st October to 15th November simply.food is guest hosting  Celebrate Navratri /Diwali event

Before we start cooking I am sharing some basic factual information about Navratri and Diwali. The events start of with Navratri followed by Diwali celebrations.
"Nava-ratri" literally means "nine nights." This festival is observed twice a year, once in the beginning of summer and again at the onset of winter .Sharad Navratri is observed for nine days and nine nights, with three days each for the worship of three different aspects of Mother Shakti - as Goddess Durga for the first three days, as Goddess Lakshmi for the next three days and as Goddess Saraswati for the final three days.
During Navaratri, we invoke the energy aspect of God in the form of the universal mother, commonly referred to as "Durga," which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as "Devi" (goddess) or "Shakti" (energy or power).During these days Hindus observe fasting and a variety of  sweet and savoury fasting foods are prepared.

Diwali the festival of lights follows Navratri, it is the celebration of the return of lord Rama from his 14 years in Exile and signifying the victory of good over the evil. The festival is celebrated by all Hindus all over the world, the festivities are spread over 5 days ,which are Dhanteras, Narak Chaturdashi, Deepawali, Govardhan and Bhaidooj.
One of the most important part of Diwali is the celebrations within families, the get togethers,  the prayers, the festivities and fireworks and above all the feasting of delicious sweets and delicacies that are prepared and shared amongst family and friends and offered to the deities.

Facts from :http://www.theholidayspot.com/navratri/facts.htm

For this event cook any festive foods for Navrati and Diwali and link it using the linky below

To Participate:

1.Prepare any festive dish for Diwali  (vegetarian only - eggs allowed) .
2.Please link this event announcement  and Jagrutis events announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is not mandatory but usage is appreciated as it helps to spread the word visually.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
4.Link the entry using the linky below with Post Name and URL(Only  in case linky does not work please  email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please put in subject box : Celebrate Navratri /Diwali
Please use this format
Your Name:
Recipe Name:
Recipe URL:
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

Please make sure you have linked this event announcement and Jagrutis event announcement to your post, this is mandatory before you link it up here:
Link with your Post name and Post URL

Announcing Event ~Flavours Of Tunisia

Flavours of series three around Africa has just completed its stay in Kenya  at Jagurits blog JCO and we have now reached Tunisia where our next culinary journey begins.

Tunisian cuisine is a blend of Mediterranean and desert dwellers' culinary traditions. Tunisia offers a "sun cuisine," based mainly on olive oil, spices, tomatoes, seafood and meat (primarily lamb).Tunisian food is quite spicy. A popular condiment and ingredient which is used extensively in Tunisian cooking, harissa, is a hot red pepper sauce made of red chilli peppers and garlic, flavoured with coriander, cumin, olive oil and often tomatoes.Like harissa or chilli peppers, the tomato is also an ingredient integral to the cuisine of Tunisia. Tuna, eggs, olives and various varieties of pasta, cereals, herbs and spices are also ingredients which feature prominently in Tunisian cooking.

Tunisian dishes are prepared with many spices such as garlic, anise, saffron, cinnamon, caraway, coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, ginger, white pepper, black pepper, red pepper and cloves.
The commonly used vegetables in the dishes are onions, bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, capers, celery, turnips, potatoes, chilli peppers, cucumbers and eggplants.The herbs such as parsley, cilantro, mint, basil, rosemary, bay leaves and thyme are plentiful and used to flavour the dishes.Although meat is commonly cooked in most households, many vegetarian dishes are made as accompaniments to the mail meal.Some popular Tunisian vegetarian dishes are vegetarian tagine, chickpea stew and couscous.

Information Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_cuisine

In this event I am asking all foodies to prepare Tunisian cuisine and link it up with this event.I have collated a few sites with some Tunisian recipes to help you select a recipe to prepare.
They are:
http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Tunisian_Vegetarian

http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Tunisian%20Recipes.htm

http://www.gourmed.com/cousines/Tunisia-36.htm

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/tunisia.php

To Participate:

1.Prepare a Tunisian dish  (vegetarian only - eggs allowed) .
2.Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3.Use of logo is not mandatory but usage is appreciated as it helps to spread the word visually.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
4.Link the entry using the linky below with Post Name and URL(Only  in case linky does not work please  email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please put in subject box : Flavours of Tunisia.
Please use this format
Your Name:
Recipe Name:
Recipe URL:
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

Please make sure you have linked this event announcement to your post, this is mandatory before you link it up here
Link with your Post name and Post URL

Announcing event ~Lets Cook for Halloween

Autumn brings beautiful golden colours, crisp, crackly leaves,darker evenings, chilly nights and of course Harvest Festival, Halloween and Bonfire night.This event is cooking for Halloween. Make any dish that is made from pumpkin or orange in colour or has been garnished, decorated  or presented in the theme of Halloween.You can cook up in fact anything that will be fit for a Halloween celebration and link it up here.

To Participate:

1.Prepare any vegetarian dish  (eggs allowed) please link your post using the linky below by entering your Post Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3. Use of logo is not mandatory but usage is encouraged as it helps to spread the word visually if you can use it.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
5. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format

Your Name:
Recipe Name
Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

Lets Cook Soup RoundUp

Thankyou for all the wonderful entries, we now have a hearty selection of delicious soups to cook throughout the winter.
Here is the roundup.

Moroccan Carrot Salad - A tribute to Danial Saraga of Haggis and Herring

I have been part of the Secret recipe club for a few months, and I have had the opportunity to visit many blogs through the monthly challenges. Haggis and Herring a lovely blog written by Daniel Saraga and his wife is one such blog that I have visited, so its with great sadness I am writing this post as a tribute to Daniel who passed away suddenly on Friday. The secret recipe club has organised this special edition of SRC where members are cooking from Daniels blog as a tribute to him and his passion for food. Our thoughts and prayers are with Daniels family and pray that god gives them strength to deal with the grief in the coming months.

I have chosen this Moroccan style carrot and coriander salad recipe from Daniels blog. It  is a simple yet delicious salad and thanks to Daniel it will be one that I am going to add to my collection and prepare it time and time again.

 Tangy spicy Carrot and coriander salad with aromatic spices.

Ingredients:

2 large carrots
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoons fresh chopped coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste ( optional)

Method:

1. Peel the carrots and slice them decoratively in to thin slices.
2.Place the carrots in a microwaveable bowl with a little water and cover and cook on high for three minutes.
3. Drain the carrots and immediately drop them into cold water to stop the cooking process.
4. Drain the carrots and keep aside.
5. Heat oil in a pan , when it is hot add the garlic and sauté for a minute, add the drained carrots  followed by the salt, chilli powder, chilli flakes, cumin powder and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the chopped coriander and the lemon juice and toss together.
7. Transfer to a serving dish  and garnish with a pinch of chilli flakes.
Can be served warm or cold.

You may like;
 Morrocan tomato rice