Tag Archives: homemade

Basil, shrimp, avocado and mango fresh rolls

Posted on November 1, 2017 | Leave a comment

These colorful rolls bring sweet memories for me, they remind me of my favorite asian restaurant when i used to live in Bahrain, These rolls were on my to cook list for so long. Usually they are called Vietnamese fresh rolls, but since it’s not the classic recipe, i didn’t dare call them so! This is my own version of fresh rolls using a symphony of ingredients that i found going heavenly together.

These effortless rolls are the freshest, nutrient packed, crunchy and sweet while looking fabulously colorful! Finally, having them ready on my plate, these happy rolls added some brightness to my day!

Usually they are served with a Vietnamese peanut sauce made of peanut butter and hoisin sauce which is thinned out with either milk or water, vinegar for a bit of tang, garlic and a touch of chilli. Personally, i prefer the Thai sweet sauce! It’s all up to your taste at the end.

To prepare 15 rolls (one pack) you will need:

1 pack of rice paper (about 15 papers)
500g shrimps cooked and deveined (you can also broil in the oven)
1 medium mango cut a la julienne
1 avocado sliced
4-5 iceberg leaves
a bunch of fresh mint leaves
a bunch of fresh basil leaves
2 medium carrots finely julienned

Take 1 rice paper and place in a shallow plate filled with warm water. Allow rice paper to soften for about 10 seconds. Remove and lay flat on working table – be gentle so you don’t rip the delicate paper. If this is your first time to use this type of paper, you will rip some in the beginning until u get used to 🙂

Start layering all veggies and fruits in the center of rice paper, Start with the lettuce so it holds the other ingredients. On the top part of the rice paper, place 3 shrimps with a mint leaf in between, or avocado to have the final look as per the photo below. Your rice paper rolls should look pretty with the shrimps and mint leaves or avocado on the smooth side of the roll and the seam on the underside of the roll.

Fold the left and right edges of the rice paper in, then starting from the bottom, roll up to cover the lettuce bundle, keep rolling firmly to reach the shrimps. The rice paper is sticky, it will seal itself.

Serve immediately with the dipping sauce. These rolls are to be eaten fresh and on the spot, with time the rice paper gets dry and chewy.

If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog please let me know the result, I love hearing from you!

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Posted in appetizers & salads

Tagged avocado, basil, carrots, easy, food blog, food blogger, food photography, fresh rolls, hoisin sauce, homemade, iceberg lettuce, jaymmy, lebanon, mango, marmite et ponpon, mint leaves, peanut sauce, qatar, quick, recipe, rice paper, shrimp, spring rolls, step by step, thai spring rolls sauce, vietnamese rolls

Easter tree decoration – homemade clay recipe for kids

Posted on March 28, 2017 | Leave a comment

Hop in Easter mood with us and let’s start the decoration with this beautiful tree. Let your kids DIY the ornaments with a homemade clay recipe, ready in less than 10 minutes and with only 3 ingredients:

1 cup cornstarch (cornflour)
2 cups baking soda
1 1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to medium heat. Whisk continually until it starts to thicken. It will take couple of minutes to look like mashed potato in consistency, remove it immediately from the heat. Place it in a bowl and cover it with damp cloth until it’s cool.

Knead it on a smooth surface, adding cornstarch if it feels a bit sticky, hand it to your kids and let the fun begin!

Cut out eggs and bunnies, using the cookie cutters and let them dry overnight. I am sure not all kids will have this patience, you can dry it in the oven for couple of hours on very low, so your kids can color them in the same day.

Don’t forget to make small holes (with a straw) before they dry, to be able later to insert a thread and hang it on the tree.

This year the fun is double, i am crafting with my two boys! Let me be honest and say it’s beautifully insane 🙂 i need to tame my 19 months old boy excitement who is still discovering, exploring and creating that artistic mess, so overwhelmed with colors and beauty, he doesn’t believe rules exist and everything for him is edible! While my 4 years old boy, my charming little artist, who’s been doing this for a quite time, doesn’t fail to show me his passion and innate artistic skills. They both have it actually and i am so happy about it!

Back to our decoration, and while the paint is drying, get some dry branches and fix them in a pot (fill it with sand or pebbles not to fall) to have a tree like shape. And let the kid enjoy hanging up their handmade deco when they are completely dry.

By the way, we prepared a lot more ornaments, but before having our final tree up, my little monkey dropped it 3 times and broke some! Well let me tell you this is part of the game, part of the fun and part of the learning. The most important is to be patient, and try to enjoy with them!

easter tree decoration | marmite et ponpon

Those cracks make it more beautiful and real, and they will tell you later million story and laugh. Crafting with kids is not about the final outcome, the least you care about is working for the end result, let them enjoy the creative process, be patient again and enjoy as much as you can those priceless moments.

If those bunnies and chick are striking your attention, they were made last year by my eldest son. You can check the link to that post.

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Posted in design, DIY, way to play

Tagged clay recipe, colors, create and play, decoration, design, DIY, doha, easter, handmade, homemade, jaymmy, kids activity, kids blog, kids blogger, lebanon, little artists, marmite et ponpon, paitning, photography, qatar, spring, tree, way to play

Galette des rois a la frangipane et chocolat

Posted on January 6, 2017 | Leave a comment

Today we are celebrating the Epiphany, Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist (Eastern churches) and the day on which Les Rois Mages (the Magi), the three kings Gaspard, Balthazar and Melchior came to pay their tribute to the world famous baby born Jesus (Western churches).

La Galette des rois is a typical french tradition celebrated on the Epiphany, the tradition is to discover who will be the king or the queen for a day by having “la fève” hidden in the galette, historically a dry fava bean (hence the name) but now it became a little porcelain figure. The ritual says; the youngest child of the family hides under the table, an adult divides the galette in even slices, and the child decides which slice goes to whom. Whoever gets the fève in his serving is named King (or Queen) for the day, gets to wear the paper crown and picks who the Queen (or King) will be.

La Galette des rois is a traditional confection consisted of puff pastry pie garnished with butter with infinite options of stuffing. Today’s recipe is the galette à la frangipane et chocolat which is a blend of crème d’amande and crème pâtissière (pastry cream) and chocolate. With kids, chocolate is always a winning option!

You will need:

500g puff pastry (thawed if frozen), divided and rolled out to 2 circles, one is slightly bigger than the other (30cm diameter).

Filling:

1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup almond flour
1 tbsp liquor of your choice (rum, grand marnier, bourbon….)
1/2 cup crème pâtissière
1/3 cup chocolate grated or cocoa powder
1 egg + 1 tbsp water room temperature for eggwash

Accessories:

la fève or porcelain trinket
2 crowns

galette-des-rois-frangipane-au-chocolat-marmite-et-ponpon

Beat the butter until creamy. In a bowl combine sugar and almond flour. Add the butter to it and mix until smooth. Stir in the liquor and eggs one at a time and mix well at each addition. Add the crème pâtissière and finally the chocolate.
Place the smaller of the 2 circles on a piece of parchment paper. Pour the prepared filling in the center and spread it inside the circle leaving a ring by a width of 2.5cm (about 1 inch) around. Using a pastry brush, brush the outer rim with water to serve as glue when you place the second puff pastry circle on top. Place a porcelain trinket of your choice in the crème, not in the center but closer to an edge, or your knife will keep running into it when you divide the galette. Press it down gently to bury it. You can put 2 trinkets to increase the chances if you have more than one kid, ditch the rules and let’s have some fun;)
Lay the second round of dough precisely on top of the first, smooth it out gently over the crème to remove any air pocket, and press it down all around the sides to seal. Using the back of the tip of your knife, draw a decorative pattern on top of the galette. Holding your knife upright, blade down, and using the dull side of the blade, push the dough inward to create a festooned pattern.
Brush the top of the galette lightly with egg wash: Make sure it doesn’t drip over the edges, or the eggwash will seal the layers of the puff pastry and it won’t rise. Let it rest a minute then brush it lightly again with the eggwash. Using the tip of your knife, pierce the top dough through the pattern you’ve drawn to ensure an even rise. Transfer to a baking pan and bake for 30 minutes on 180°C and until puffy and golden brown.
Let it cool to room temperature before serving.

galette-des-rois-frangipane-au-chocolatmarmite-et-ponpon

galette-des-rois-frangipane-au-chocolat-marmite-et-ponpon

Happy Epiphany everyone! دايم دايم

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Posted in j delights

Tagged baptism, blog, blogger, chocolate, crème pâtissière, creme d'amande, dessert, deyim deyim, epiphany, food blog, food blogger, food photography, frangipane, galette des rois, homemade, how to do, king, lebanon, magi, puff pastry, qatar, recipe, traditions

“Funfetti cake” Happy 1st birthday my Joud

Posted on August 1, 2016 | Leave a comment

The perfect cake that screams celebration inside out! It’s my Joud’s first birthday, i wanted to make a fun cake that serves also as a smash “one piece of the”cake for him. Yes i am saying one piece of it because it’s so delicious that you can’t sacrifice it all to play with 🙂

As the name suggests, funfetti cake, it’s a really fun cake full of colors and flavors. Orange layer cake with rum buttercream.

I believe it’s the only time you can decide on the cake design, later on your kids will do according to their favorite color or character! Funfetti cake resembles so much my son’s first year, colorful and full of happiness and life.

To prepare this orange cake you will need:

1cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (227g about 2 sticks)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup grated orange zest
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tbsp rum
1 cup colored chocolate vermicelli
1/2 cup colored pearls for decoration

Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour two 8″ pans

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, and the orange zest.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, the buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour.

the last step is to fold in the chocolate colored vermicelli delicately before dividing the batter in the pans and smooth the tops.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Meantime prepare the rum buttercream for frosting

200g butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 tsp rum
food color (you choose your favorite)

Mix the butter with an electrical mixer until fluffy. Add milk and rum than sugar 1 cup at a time and beat until you get the consistency you want. Keep it in the fridge while your cake is cooling for easier use later.

After frosting the cake, sprinkle the half cup of colored pearls to give the final fun look.

You can choose the color combination you favor. I wanted green and blue, very summerish and happy together! You can keep it white also, while the colored pearls do the effect. As i said it’s a very appealing cake, you will feel the celebration with every piece you cut. A pleasure to the eye and palate.

Happy Birthday my love Joud, may all your life be full of colors, happiness and health, together with your brother Nady . Love you both to bits ❤

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Posted in dessert, special occasions

Tagged birthday, blog, cake, colored pearls, colored vermicelli, dessert, food blogger, food photography, foodporn, fun cake, funfetti cake, homemade, jaymmy, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, orange cake, qatar, recipe, rum buttercream frosting

A recipe to note down: pancakes

Posted on July 22, 2016 | 2 comments

Being Lebanese, we cherish every meal of the day. We love food and we enjoy it! I know nothing can beat our Lebanese breakfast, it’s wholesome, varied and irresistible, but when you try this amazing recipe, you will add it on your favorite breakfast list; the best basic recipe!

For that you will need (yields 9-10):

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup milk
1 free range egg
15 g butter melted
more butter to grease the pan

Mix together dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Mix egg and milk until combined, pour it in the well along with melted butter. Whisk until all ingredients are incorporated.

Heat a pan greased with butter. Poor the same amount of batter each time to get homogeneous pancakes (i used a quarter cup to control the size). Cook each side for 2-4 minutes until nicely browned.

Drizzle some maple syrup or even chocolate syrup depending on your taste. Enjoy!

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