Tag Archives: blog

The 65610 shades of green Sinhala – Sri Lanka part 2

Posted on October 28, 2014 | 2 comments

After Kandy we proceeded to the ‘Little England’ of Sri Lanka. Nuwara Eliya is set against beautiful backdrops of mountains, valleys, waterfalls and tea plantations with picturesque landscape. Hardly you can blink to not miss a single scene. Nuwara Eliya is located at an altitude of 1,868 m (6,128 ft). So can you imagine how fresh the weather was?!

Moving from one place to the other is at least 3 hours drive, if you are traveling with you kids, you should keep them entertained. It’s not that hard actually, along the way there are things to talk about, one monkey jumps from here or a huge cow makes an appearance… The nature itself is entertaining. But you will reach a point when they are tired, nothing outside pleases them anymore, i advise you to take with you their favorite toy, music, movie, series, or book. It’s not easy to be with young adventurers (less than 2 years) but trust me it’s an enjoyment like no other, you wish you can register every moment, every word and every reaction. Just priceless!

As known Sri Lanka earned the reputation for its tea, the best Ceylon tea all over the world. Having the most favorable factor of the climate and the best soil conditions required for the health grow of the Tea Plant. Glenloch tea factory, is one of the giant partners of its significant endeavor of Sri Lanka, the world number one and the biggest producer of quality tea.

Glen tea plantation:

If you are willing to go to Sri Lanka, keep in mind tipping is very essential, to the point of tipping sometimes left and right even if you already paid for the tour or entrance fees! People have small income and count on tourists generosity! You feel you don’t have the choice because they are expecting you to give them extra money.

The visit to the factory was really fruitful, it gets you to know lots of info am sure you didn’t know before, or at least it makes you able to differentiate good from bad teas and know the difference between the types. The tour ended with a nice cup of tea, we were lucky we tried all types and bought souvenirs for the family and friends!

Ramboda waterfalls:

After the tea factory, we headed to Ramboda waterfalls. It’s 109m high and 11th highest waterfall in Sri Lanka and 729th highest waterfall in the world. You access Ramboda falls via a hotel where you can enjoy a meal on their terrasse watching this piece of art.

For easy transportation, i advise you to hire a driver from the minute you arrive to the airport to the last minute of your trip. We should admit our driver did a really good job to keep us relaxed and entertained through all this journey. I recommend Mr. Lakmal Suranga, he was really good, he works on his own. If you are willing to go to Sri Lanka and you need his contacts please email me. He can also help in hotel bookings and suggests nice places to go to.

We spent the night in Nuwara eliya. The next day, we prepared ourselves for a long ride (about 7 hours drive!) to the beautiful beach of Bentota our last stop in the journey.

Stay tuned to Sri Lanka part 3….

2 Comments

Posted in travel

Tagged bentota, black tea, blog, driver, family, glenloch, green tea, jaymmy, journey, kandy, marmite et ponpon, Nuwara eliya, plantation, ramboda, sri lanka, tea, tea factory, tea plantation, tips, trip, waterfalls, white tea

Handy conversions and equivalents for easier cooking

Posted on October 16, 2014 | 2 comments

We have all been there, amazing recipes that needs to be converted with no doubts. Finally i got time to creates these super handy charts. I am sure many of you (like i did after writing them) will print this. This way you can keep it in the kitchen at your fingertips.

No more confusions and with the oven temperature chart, no more reason for burning stuff 😛

Volume for dry ingredients:

Volume for liquids:

Weights:

Equivalents:

Oven temperature:

Abbreviations:

Teaspoon: tsp
Tablespoon: tbsp
Cup: c
Pint: pt
Quart: qt
Gallon: gal
Milliliter: ml
Liter: l
Ounce: fl. oz.
Pound: lb
Fahrenheit: F
Celsius: C

If you liked this post and found it interesting, follow this blog to stay tuned and like marmite et ponpon facebook page. Spread the love. Happy reading!

2 Comments

Posted in astuces

Tagged american standard, blog, chart, conversions, converter, cup, equivalents, gallon, gram, handy charts, jaymmy, liter, marmite et ponpon, metric, milliliter, ounce, oven temperature, pint, pound, quart, table, tablespoon, teaspoon, weights

Savoury chicken crêpes with creamy mushroom sauce

Posted on October 15, 2014 | 2 comments

These elegant crêpes stuffed with grilled chicken are all you need to indulge in a tender creamy dream. You can make the basic crêpes ahead of time to make this dish served in less than 30 minutes.

To make the batter for these blondies you need: (Nigella lawson recipe)

1 cup flour
1 1/3 cup milk
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter

Place the batter in the refrigerator for half an hour before using. This allows the bubbles to subside so they will be less likely to tear during cooking. This batter can stay up to 48h in the fridge. Recipe yields 6x (20cm) crêpes.

For the stuffing and sauce you need:

500g chicken breasts cut in medium stripes
150g mushroom sliced
1 medium onion chopped finely
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
500ml heavy cream
salt to taste
emmental cheese for garnish

In a sauce pan, on a medium heat cook the onion and mushroom with the butter until tender and fragrant. Add the chicken and cook until well done for about 7 minutes then add the cream and wine (optional). When the first bubble starts to form, put heat to low and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes or until the sauce starts to thicken.

Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature before stuffing the crêpes to prevent from tearing. Don’t put too much of the sauce inside the crêpes, they won’t stay as firm.

This quantity is enough for the 6 crêpes. Lay them in the baking dish, drizzle the remaining sauce on top and sprinkle over the cheese to bake in the oven (180°C) for 10-12 minutes.

Savour these golden elegant crêpes and feel love with every bite! Am sure it’s so irresistible that many of you is going to try it!

If you liked this post and you want to see more, don’t think twice to follow this blog and like marmite et ponpon facebook page. Happy reading!

2 Comments

Posted in main dish

Tagged blog, bretonnes, chicken, chicken breasts, cream, crepes, ess than 30 minutes, grilled chicken, how to make, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, mushroom, recipe

no bake lazy cake: 4 ingredients in 4 minutes

Posted on October 13, 2014 | 1 comment

Lazy cake, gateau froid or biscuits au chocolat… Opt for a name, meanwhile i will be done preparing it! Seriously 4 minutes!

200g dark chocolate
200g nutella
50g butter
40 pieces Marie biscuit

In a heatproof bowl place the dark chocolate (cut in small pieces) with nutella and butter and heat it for 1.5 minute in the microwave. Take it out and mix it well until all ingredients melt and incorporate.

Crush each biscuit in 4 and toss in the chocolate sauce. Marie biscuit is similar to tea biscuits, you find it in many brands like Mcvitie’s, Tiffany, Britannia… and for Lebanese you know our famous ghandour 555!! it reminds me of my childhood and the famous “biscuit w raha”.

Fold gently so you don’t crush the biscuits in tiny pieces until all of them are well coated. Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap to put the biscuits and chocolate, this way it will have a rectangular shape, easy to cut. Depending on how thick you want your cake to be, use the convenient mold size, mine is 11¨. With the back of a spoon (or your hand) shape the mixture in the loaf pan.

Refrigerate at least for 3 hours, take it out, unwrap, cut in slices using a sharp knife and enjoy!

Some people like to sprinkle over icing sugar before serving and others coconut powder… You can try if you are one of those lovers.

This cake stays well up to one week in the freezer, ours didn’t survive the time i wrote the post 🙂

If you like this post give it many likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

1 Comment

Posted in dessert

Tagged 4 ingredients, 4 minutes, biscuits, biscuits au chocolat, blog, chocolate, dessert, gateau froid, how to do, jaymmy, lazy cake, marmite et ponpon, quick recipe, recipe

Useful pasta guide: how to know which pasta to pair with the right sauce

Posted on October 9, 2014 | 3 comments

The perfect match between pasta and sauce creates the hit. Sometimes the wrong choice of pasta can turn an excellent sauce to failure. It’s all about the marriage of the right shape of the pasta with the right sauce texture (depending on the components), and your dish is made in heaven!

The possible combinations of pasta and sauce are limitless. There are hundreds of shapes of dried pasta alone. I will go through the most commonly used.

Long thin pasta:

These long pasta needs lots of lubrication, they best go with olive oil based sauce and tomato sauce. Use capellini for the lightest sauces, this delicate noodles can’t support the meat sauce, which gets left behind in the bowl as the pasta gets eaten. Use linguine for seafood dishes and spaghetti for meat or vegetable sauces.

Astuce: When cutting vegetables or herbs for long pasta, cut them string-like rather than in cubes to help them blend better.

Thicker ribbons:

Thicker strands, like fettuccine and tagliatelle, can stand up to cream sauces and ragus. Ideally the wider the noodle, the thicker the sauce. Fettuccine and tagliatelle pair perfectly with butter and parmesan (alfredo sauce).

To differentiate: Tagliatelle is a little more fat than fettuccine.

Shaped pasta:

They pair well with all kind of sauces, especially they capture thick, textured sauces. Pieces of meat or vegetables nestle in the twists, dimples or folds…

Info: conchiglie means seashell, farfalle means butterfly and fusilli means spun.

Tubular pasta:

Goes well with sauces that are thick and chunky. Keep in mind to match chunks of meat or vegetables in a sauce to the diameter of the holes in the pasta. For example the tiny elbow won’t hold inside a chick pea and a rigatoni is too big for a simple tomato sauce!

Astuce: The tubular shape makes them ideal to retain sauces on the entire surface, inside and out, use elbow macaroni for mac & cheese and indulge in the creamy cheese taste with every bite!

Orzo pasta are meant for salads and soups.

And lasagne for baking in layers.

Tips to know:

Use plenty of water to ensure pasta cooks evenly and has room to move. Always keep stirring while cooking.
Bring the water to boil before adding the pasta.
Never add oil to the water while cooking pasta, it will prevent from absorbing the sauce, you should add plenty of salt (2 tablespoons per 4 liters of water). Don’t skip the salt: It’s the only opportunity to season the pasta itself.
Drain pasta when it is al dente (firm). It will keep cooking after it’s mixed with sauce.
Shake the colander to remove excess cooking water. Avoid rinsing pasta, which removes the starchy coating that helps the sauce adhere.

Recipes recommended from marmite et ponpon: