The winner!

For the contest sponsored by beso.com, a winner has been chosen.

Comment#7, Avery James Photography is the lucky winner of the $25 gift card.

Congratulations ! You'll be hearing from me soon. Ciao!

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Celebrate fall with a $1000 shopping spree!

Autumn is upon us! And I'm not complaining. I never complain about autumn. It is the winter that drives me crazy.

On the one hand the first few days of autumn feel nice - it reminds me that the holiday season is almost here, and soon there'll be loads of Christmas shopping to do! It reminds of the pumpkin pies and cakes and bakes for Christmas! But once the festive season is gone, the months of grey until we start getting the first signs of spring are the hardest. That is when I complain!

For now, I am just waiting for the first of the chestnut stands - heisse marroni to come up at my favourite spots! Then there is some shopping for the winter to be done - need to buy a new coat, and some boots as well. Of late, my mailbox has been flooding with "10% off fall clothes" or 25% off blah blah if you spend more than blah, and so on. All that talk of the latest trends etc isn't helping me to not hit the stores!

And then I got a mail from one of my favourite stores - beso.com. They have a lucky draw and one person can win a $1000 shopping spree!! Woohoo!

And don't worry, if you can't win that, one of you can always win a $25 gift card from yours truly. That wouldn't buy you much, but it does enter you for that $1000 contest.

Interested? Read on for the few simple steps to enter..

1. Go to beso.com, and enter the We Love Brands contest
2. Come back here and include a BESO link in the comments box for one of items you’d purchase if you were the $1,000 winner.
3. Follow Snacksgiving publicly. Just click on the "Follow" button on the right pane of this blog.

For an 1 extra entry:
• Post the Beso Shopping Widget on your blog found here: http://www.beso.com/blog/beso-shopping-widget/ and post a link of your blog here.

The We Love Brands ends on Oct 6. So you have time to enter until then. On Oct 8, Saturday, I'll pick out a winner of the $25 gift card.

Disclaimer:beso.com offered me a $25 gift card for my efforts in hosting this giveaway Share

The winner! ..finally!

Hello my lovely readers! Its so good to be back again and talking...umm..writing to you all! Its been more than a month since I last posted anything on this blog - well it was initially a bit of work pressure, and then a last minute, and soo well deserved vacation! We had a wonderful little break in Spain - Barcelona, where the sun was still shining. Yes, we went chasing summer for a few more days! It was amazing.

Where all did you go this year for your holiday? Let me know!

Anyways, so the long overdue winner of the CSN giveaway is now decided - thanks to random.org. I had initially opened the contest till 4-Sep, but since I couldn't pick the winner until then, I opened the contest for a bit longer, and all the comments posted have been considered. Somehow the response was a bit lukewarm this time around. Summer breaks maybe? Or back-to-school blues?

Ok, so here is the winner ..finally..(guilty, red faced)

**drumroll**

Congratulations Swapna - you'll be hearing from me soon.

So normal *blogging* service resumes now. Thank you all for participating and CSN stores for giving me this opportunity.

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Jalebi and a giveaway

For those who missed out on my last giveaway, here is a chance to win a gift voucher again. CSN stores have offered another chance to our readers to win a £60 gift voucher that can be used on one of their 6 UK websites. They have a huge collection of items on their stores ranging from cookware to lights to furniture. And they even have their summer sale going on, so you can grab a lot more for the money!

The giveaway ends 4-Sep, and the rules are the same as before

• Visit CSN stores, and comment here what would you like to win? You don't have to necessarily buy the item in case you are the winner..just ..you know ..no harm dreaming ..

• Follow Snacksgiving publicly - Just click on the "Follow" button on the right pane of this blog and leave a comment to this post

To have extra entries

• Tweet about this giveaway. Just copy and paste this on twitter.RT @Snacksgiving : Win a gift card from CSN stores http://bit.ly/a8oor2 #giveaway #contest

• "Like" Snacksgiving on Facebook. And then comment here again.

Now on to the recipe.

Question: What does a jalebi mean to you?

1. Heaven on a plate..I could eat a kilo without a blink!
2. meh..yet another syrupy sweet from India
3. never heard it, never tried it..

My vote would always go to "Heaven on a plate". And I did eat a kilo. Ok not exactly a kilo, but very close - about 25 pieces of jalebi :-) And I could have eaten more. But there weren't any left. They aren't healthy stuff, but when you have been craving for something for a few days, then healthy , nutritous and all their synonyms just go out-the window.

I had been wanting to eat these, but hadn't found the perfect jalebi in any of the restaurants I had eaten in here in Zurich. This is not something that I have made in the past, so had to search a bit for the perfect recipe. The traditional method involves fermentation for 24 hours (!), but I really didn't have the patience or a long weekend to wait that long. So what did I do? Hmm..I feel guilty saying this on a food blog - but I opened up a packet of "Jalebi mix" :-)

All I had to do then was to add water to make the batter, fry it, and dip it in sugar syrup. But you see, I can't just leave that as the recipe here :-)

So I'll write the recipe that I'll use the next time - I hope that isn't any time soon though. This is from the wonderful Manjula aunty from Manjula's kitchen. Umm..I want to eat them again right now!

INGREDIENTS:

Batter:

• 1/2 cup All Purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon besan (gram flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• About 1/3 cup of lukewarm water (as needed)

Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• Pinch of cardamom powder
• Few strands of saffron
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Also needed:

• Oil to fry

INSTRUCTIONS:

Batter:

1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water and let it sit for about five minutes.
2. Mix the flour, besan (gram flour), oil, and sugar together.
3. Add the yeast solution and mix well, making sure that there are no lumps and the batter is smooth.
4. Set the batter aside and let it sit in a warm place for one hour.
5. Make sure the batter is fermented, but do not over ferment. After fermenting batter will be little lacy.

Syrup:

1. Boil the sugar and water together. Add the lemon juice and saffron and close the heat.

Making Jalebis:

1. Heat the oil in a flat frying pan about 1 1/2″ deep. To check if the oil is ready, put ont drop of batter in the oil, the batter should sizzle and come up without changing in color right away.
2. Fill the Jalebi batter into a piping bag with a number 3 nozzle.
3. Squeeze the Jalebi batter out in the hot oil in a pretzel shape to about 2 inches in diameter.
4. Fry the Jalebis until golden-brown on both sides.
5. Transfer into the warm syrup.
6. Let jalebi soak in the hot syrup for a few seconds and take out.
7. Serve hot.

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Easy Chocolate Chip cookie, and a prelude to a giveaway!

A food blog can never really be complete without at least one recipe of the 'perfect' chocolate chip cookie, or at least the journey to finding one. I was myself a bit surprised that the one that I had made many moons ago, was not posted yet on the blog. Partly because it wasn't that perfect soft, chewy, decadent, satisfying recipe that I had been on the lookout for. But it was a very very easy recipe . A simple one pot cookie recipe. I picked up this one from 'Two Peas and their pod' , who in turn had adapted it from the book 'The Weekend Baker'

One Pot Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Abigail Johnson Dodge in The Weekend Baker

Makes 26 cookies

8 tablespoons (4 ounces/113 grams) unsalted butter, cut in 4 pieces
½ cup (4 ounces/113 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup (2 ½ ounces/71 grams) granulated sugar
1 ½ cups (6 ¾ ounces/191 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces/170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips or if you are in Switzerland aka 'the-land-where-you-cant-buy-chocolate-chips', then a bar of chocolate broken into small chunks would be fine.

1 – Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees (180 C). Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners( eg. Silpat)

2 – Put the butter in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Slide the pan from the heat and add the brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until no lumps remain. Set aside to let cool, about 5 minutes.

3 – In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk until well blended. Once the butter mixture has cooled, add the egg and vanilla and whisk until blended. Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts, if using.

4 – Using a small ice-cream scoop (about 1 2/3 inches/4.25 cm in diameter) or 2 tablespoons, drop scant 2-tablespoon mounds of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets, arranging them about 1 1/2 inches (4cm) apart. (At this point, the loaded cookie sheets can be slipped into the freezer until the cookies are frozen, about 1 hour. Then transfer the cookies to heavy-duty freezer bags and freeze for up to 3 months. To bake, remove from the freezer, arrange on lined cookie sheets, and leave on the counter to thaw slightly while the oven heats.)

5 – Bake 1 sheet at a time (make sure to use a cooled sheet for the second batch until the cookies are light golden around the edges and puffed, about 12 minutes. If these cookies are over baked, the won’t come out chewy. Transfer the cookie sheet to a rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the cookies from the sheet onto a rack and let cool completely.

Stay tuned for a giveaway in my next post!

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Cherry Crumble

Hope the summer is finding you happy, eating loads of ice-cream, and planning, or maybe enjoying a good summer break. Or returning from one, and planning for the next one?. Isn't planning for vacation as enjoyable as the vacation itself? I love dreaming about and looking forward to a nice break every few months - it's just what sometimes keeps me sane! Come back from one, and immediately look at the calender for the next available opportunity for another mini- break :-)

This past weekend we had planned for a weekend break to Colmar, but it didn't happen thanks to the rainy Saturday. Instead, we just headed for the very colourful farmer's market later in the day, and loaded up on cherries, blueberries, melons and honey mangoes and ...

I used up most of the cherries in a delicious crumble. Fruit crumble really is such an easy, quick to put together dessert, so versatile, and you can rarely go wrong with it. This cherry crumble is more about the fresh fruit rather than the butter and cream. Just the perfect dessert for a beautiful summer evening.

INGREDIENTS (per ramekin)

• 7-8 pitted cherries

For the streusel topping/crumble

• 2 tablespoons rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon of all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons slivered/chopped almonds
• 1 tablespoon demerara or turbinado sugar. Light brown sugar would also be fine.
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• a tablespoon of cold butter
• softened butter for greasing the cups

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Generously butter each ramekin
2. Preheat the oven to 400F
3. throw in the pitted cherries in the ramekin
4. In a bowl, add in all the ingredients for the crumble except butter. Mix them slightly with your hands
5. Now add in the cold butter and combine with the dry ingredients with your fingers. The crumble should look and feel like ..well..a crumble..or coarse bread crumbs.
6. Place this crumb mixture on top of the fruit in each ramekin
7. Bake for about 25 minutes

Some of the characteristics and serving suggestions

• I love desserts, but I don't like them to be too sweet. When it comes to a crumble, made with summer fruits, eaten on a hot day, I much prefer the dish to be light and fruity, slightly tart served with a good quality vanilla bean ice-cream, rather than a rich and heavy cobbler-esque dessert.
• If you are making this dish on a cold winter day, eating it warm straight out of the oven, with a dollop of whipped cream would be perfect.
• But on a hot and sunny beautiful summer's say - one of the few that we in Zurich are blessed with this season, I say reduce the sugar, chill the crumble and eat with a scoop of ice cream. Or better, have it for breakfast the next day - that's what we did, and loved it :)

The slight tartness and juiciness of the cherries, the crumbly texture of the streusel topping, and the smoothness and coolness of the ice-cream - now that is a beautiful and refreshing dish that is very satisfying as well!

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We have a winner!

We have a winner! The giveaway from CSN Stores goes to Comment#2 - Umm Mymoonah

She said "Hi, Checked out different products from CSN stores, particularly all bakeware, the one which attracted me is Nordicware Kugelhopf bundt pan, thinking of get this mould for a long time."

Congratulations! We'll be contacting you shortly for sending the gift card.

Thank you all for participating. And thanks to CSN stores for giving me the opportunity for hosting this giveaway.

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DMBLGIT June - The winners

Would you like to win a few dollars for a bit of a shopping spree? Head here for the giveaway currently running on this blog.

Just finished watching the marathon Spain-Netherlands World cup final match. It sure was "Waka Waka" all the way for Paul the Octopus! Wonder what he'll do next now that the amazing World Cup is over.

Anyways, today is also the day I finally upload the DMBLGIT June results. I've been missing in action for a few days now - had some health problems, and then was busy enjoying the sun.

Coming to the event of June, I want to thank all the participants and indeed the judges who helped spread the word about DMBLGIT. I was happy that by the end of it, there are a few more volunteers and that'll ensure it'll go on for another few months at least! We had an over-whelming response this time around - 95 entries in all, and a lot of them from our Italian neighbours. Thanks to them, by now I know that "Fragole" means "Strawberries" and "lamponi" means raspberries..lol

Alright, below are the winners

OVERALL WINNERS

First Place - Aficionado - Green tea macarons

Second place - Cooking Your Dream - Pistachio Ice Cream

Third place shared jointly by

Un déjeuner de soleil for Fraisier with rhubarb and mascarpone

and

My Life, My Child and My Foodfor Cherry buns

Below are the winners in each category

Aesthetics

Qualcosadirosso for Caprese di Fragole

Edibility

Zuccheroeviole for Alfajores

Originality

Lo spilucchino for Peas cocotte with camembert's heart

Thanks again for your participation. I had a lot of fun putting it together. This month's event is being held at Asha's@FSK blog - do visit her and send in your entries.

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Madeleines and a Giveaway!

Another wonderful giveaway! Yay!!

CSN stores would be giving away a gift card worth $60 USD (for a US/Canadian winner), €60 (for a German winner), or £60 for a UK winner! CSN has over 200 stores in their on-line network of stores and they offer a staggering array of products ...from lighting to cookware, counter stoolsto home decor, grills to swing sets, they have it all!

So how can you win the gift card?

• Visit CSN stores, and comment here what would you like to win? You don't have to necessarily buy the item in case you are the winner..just ..you know ..no harm dreaming ..

• Follow Snacksgiving publicly - Just click on the "Follow" button on the right pane of this blog and leave a comment to this post

To have extra entries

• Tweet about this giveaway. Just copy and paste this on twitter.RT @Snacksgiving : Win a gift card from CSN stores http://bit.ly/dqLWn8 #giveaway #contest

• "Like" Snacksgiving on Facebook. And then comment here again.

As you can see from the gift card amounts, this giveaway is open to our readers in US, Canada, Germany and UK. Although the number of stores available to the German and UK readers is slightly limited in numbers, but certainly not in choice.

Now to the recipe. Are you with me? :-)

So what are madeleines? Well, these are buttery, delicate and fluffy cakes with a characteristic fluted shell shape and a nice round belly. Did I say it is a cake? Well, make that cookie if you are in America, although the French prefer to refer to them as cakes.

There are loads of variations to the recipe - I have a very basic recipe today where I tried to go traditional with the the use of browned butter, the madeleine mould, no baking powder and refrigerating the batter in order to get that bump. I used my newly bought mini-madeleine silicone moulds, so they were so very tiny! They looked so cute, like a pretty and dainty little babies! These madeleines being very tiny, I guess the bump is not too visible here. I used the recipe from 101 cookbooks.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 sticks or 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 large eggs
• a pinch of salt
• 2/3 cups sugar
• zest of one large lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 F/177 C.
• Melt the butter in a small pot over medium heat until it's brown and gives off a deliciously nutty aroma, roughly 20 minutes. Strain (using a paper towel over a mesh strainer) - you want to leave the solids behind. Cool the butter to room temperature. By doing the butter first you can complete the rest of the steps while it is cooling.
• Put the eggs with the salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Whip on high speed until thick - you are looking for the eggs to roughly double or triple in volume - approximately 3 minutes. Continuing to mix on high speed, slowly add the sugar in a steady stream. Whip for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and ribbony. Now with a spatula fold in the lemon zest and vanilla (just until mixed).
• Sprinkle the flour on top of the egg batter, and gently fold in. Now fold in the butter mixture. Only stirring enough to bring everything together.
• Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each mold 2/3 -3/4 full. Place the mould/tray in the freezer for 15 minutes or in refrigerator for about an hour.
• Bake the madeleines for 7-10 minutes for the mini versions or 12 - 14 minutes for the regular sized madeleines, or until the edges of the madeleines are golden brown. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Cool on racks and dust with powdered sugar.

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This giveaway is open to addresses in US, Canada, Germany and UK. If your profile doesn't link to your contact info, be sure to leave your email address so we can get in touch with you if you're the winner.

The winner will be randomly selected on Saturday, July 17 at 10am c.e.t. to receive the gift card. The currency will depend on your location. This post is sponsored by CSN Stores. I was not compensated in any way.

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