Lasagna Pictures by Very Merry Veggies

The group went a little Lasagna/Baked Pasta crazy the last few weeks.  Here are pictures of some of the lasagnas and bakes pastas that were shared:

Baked Ziti by Michele

 

Lasagna by Purusottama

Lasagna with Fried Eggplant and Sweet Peppers by Gaurangi

Spinach Lasagna by Rasa Rasini

Three Cheese, Spinach, Corn, 'Mince', Spicy Italian 'Sausage', Whole Wheat Lasagna
by Michael

Lasagna by Alaksya

""Lasagna" made with shells instead. With spinach, peppers, eggplant, fried tofu, tomato sauce and ricotta cheese, mozz on top, and lots of oregano by Gaurangi

Flaky Layered Biscuits by Alaksya

I made flaky layered biscuits tonight. They tasted very good and were fun to pull apart.

Flaky Layered Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold butter
2/3 cup cold milk
extra flour for dusting

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
In a bowl mix together the dry ingredients.
Using a pastry blender cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Pour in the milk and stir just until the dough holds together. The less mixing the better.
On a floured surface roll the dough out until it is about 1/4” thick. 
Lightly flour the dough as needed while you are rolling and folding the layers.
Here's the trick for the layers, fold the dough as if you were folding a letter: fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough up and the top 1/3 down over the part you just folded. 
Roll the dough out until it is 1/4” thick again and then fold the dough in the same way but perpendicular to the last folds.
Roll the dough out until it is 1/2” thick and cut biscuits with a sharp biscuit cutter. Make sure that you do not twist while cutting as it will make the layers stick together and you won't get nice fluffy biscuits.
Bake on an un-greased baking sheet at 450 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.

Buckwheat Fritters by Cori

In anticipation for my hubby's lunch tomorrow on Ekadasi: Buckwheat fritters, yogurt, peanuts and freeze-dried Jackfruit chips.


These were pretty spontaneous but....half a mashed banana (because you need something to hold buckwheat together as it's not gluey...) 2 T of yogurt, about a 1 1/2-2 cups buckwheat flour, salt, powdered coriander, powdered chili, and powdered ginger, a heaping teaspoon of soda bicarb., chopped fresh coriander, chopped tomato, and threw in some roasted peanuts. Then I added a little water to make a thick sticky batter. I shallow fried them making sure to push them down and spread them out a little when I flipped them over so they were not too thick and would be cooked in the center.

Ekadasi Cheese Puffs by Radha

Ekadasi cheese puffs for tomorrow. So easy to make. 

1/3 cup olive oil

2/3 c milk

1 tsp salt

1 1/2c tapioca flour

1/2 c cheese

Put all ingredients into blender. Pour into mini muffin tins and bake at 400* for 15-20 min.

Fluffy White Cupcakes by Neela

Very, very simple and quick! Yet very delish! Fluffy white cupcakes! :)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup buttermilk (ie. juice one lemon and mix with milk, set for 10 min)
2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Butter the sugar, then mix in rest of wet ingredients, separately mix dry ingredients. Then mix the dry into the wet. Bake at 350 degree F for about 15 min or whenever your fork/toothpick comes out "clean".

And you're good to go, they surprisingly have a lot of moisture! :) Enjoy

Barley Soup by Cintamani

 Barley Soup- today's lunch and dinner.

Ok- kochana- you take handful of barley put into the 3 l. of water with few bay lives and allspice and spoon of butter and let it cook for 15-20 minuts. Peal 2 carrots and 2 parsley roots, grate it and fry on 1 spoon of butter on your frying pan for 5-10minut. Add to the boiling barley with 4 potatos (cat them in cubes) cook till potatos and barley are soft. add tons of chopped parsley and galons of cream. Do not forget about salt. Smacznego!

Biscuits by Ashley

Biscuits for breakfast. Biscuits are a big deal in my family, it's been going on for generations. One of my mother's most prized possessions is the bowl that her Grandmother made biscuits in. This is a vegan version that tastes just as good IMO. Flaky and yummy!

2 cups all purpose flour

1-2 TBS baking powder (I don't really measure this, I don't think it matters much if you are very exact or not)

salt (don't measure this either), 

approx. a 1/4 cup (or just a really big scoop) of vegetable shortening, which is vegan, or unsalted butter and 3/4 1 cup of liquid (You can use buttermilk as is or milk, soymilk or water mixed with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar or even plain yogurt mixed with water)

Cocada by Chandra

This is a Brazilian desert called Cocada, it's made from condensed milk, coconut flakes, granulated sugar, and lemon. Warning: this is extremely delicious and unhealthy! Try at your own risk!

‎1 can condensed milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup coconut flakes, 2tsp lemon, has to be soaked at low heat and mixed the whole time, like polenta.

Gerbaud Cake by Rohini

Gerbaud cake for Easter.

500 g flour
200 g butter
2 T sour cream
100 g sugar
1 T baking powder

Enough milk to make a medium dough. Make three balls of the dough and roll them thin.

The pastry is a little bit like a sweet biscuit, you roll it very thin, and smear it with apricot jam (homemade is best, or else add a little water to store bought and boil it once), sprinkle a walnut filling (ground walnuts, sugar, lemon rind, hot milk), next pastry, jam, walnut filling, pastry. Poke it all over with a fork, bake at 350 till done, cover with cocolate. Slice, offer, eat and bless heavens.

As I am very much against wasting even a drop of chocolate, I just pop it (!) on top of cakes, cookies, whatever I want to cover while they are still hot, and smear it around once it is melted. It is a very good trick. 

Split Pea Vadas by Rohini

These are so easy and yummy!

Soak 2 c of split peas for 8 hours or more

Strain them in a strainer, make sure they are very dry. Grind them very very fine in a food processor. You will have to stop periodically and scrape the sides off, but when you are done, you should be able to make a ball out of it.

Make two batches, because mixing it with the salt etc will make it too soggy. So for one cup (before grinding, ie. half quantity) of the split peas you add 1 t baking powder, 1/4 t soda, 3/4 t cumin seeds, red and green pepper to taste (you can add quite a bit without making it too hot), grated ginger, and lastly salt. Make ping pong ball sized balls, flatten them and poke a hole in the middle. Carefully lower them into the ghee. Fry them monitoring that they cook neither too fast or too slow (not hard, you know what I mean, like pakoras, make sure they cook through before the outside is burned). I noticed that they should be turned over as soon as you can, as soon as they are firm enough to turn, if you want them to be the prettiest.

Anzac Biscuits by Emma

We just made Anzac cookies because it is ANZAC Day here...Anzac Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats (1/2 reg & 1/2 wholegrain is nice)
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar (I reduce this to 3/4C)
1 cup coconut (sometimes I use coconut thread)
125g butter
2 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix dry ingredients, melt butter & syrup together, dissolve soda in boiling water, then mix altogether.
Place balls of mixture onto a lined tray, flatten slightly and bake at 160C for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

Lest we forget...

Seven Grain Bread by Tracey

Here's the recipe, it's for a bread machine. Ingredients are added to bread pan in order:

1 2/3 cup water; 3 tbs powdered milk; 2 tbs honey; 2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour; 2 1/2 cup white flour; 3/4 cup 7 grain cereal

1 1/4 tsp yeast

I used the 'dough' setting, greased a bread pan and baked it in the oven @ 350 degrees, for approximately 25 minutes, but I watched it to see how brown it got. It was so big I think I would make two smaller loaves next time.

Whole Wheat Bread with Sun-Dried Tomato Swirl by Nitai Sundara

Whole wheat bread with home-grown sun-dried tomato swirl. Spread with homemade raw fromage blanc with herbs. Other than the wheat berries, honey, salt, and hing, everything here came from our land :)

3.5-4c flour
1 packet (2 1/4t) instant yeast
2t salt
1c milk (I usually use buttermilk or yogurt)
1/3c water
3T butter (I used ghee) plus extra for brushing
3T honey

Heat liquids to 110F or below, mix up a nice dough. Start with 3.5c flour and add the half as needed during kneading. If kneading by hand, like I was, you really want to do it for 15minutes minimum. 20-25 is even better.

Rub with oil, cover in a bowl and let rise 1-2 hours depending on temp. Punch down and rise again or shape into loaf.

To shape loaf: Roll out a long rectangle with the shorter side a little shorter than the width of the pan. Spray with water. If doing a swirl, spread filling evenly with 1inch border on all sides. If it is a dry swirl like cinnamon sugar, spray again with water on top. Starting at the short end, roll tightly. Pinch seems and tuck the side seems underneath. Place in oiled pan, brush dough with oil. Rise in a warm place 45-75 min or until a light knuckle poke springs back.

Brush with butter, spray with water, and bake at 350 for 45-60 mins. I do two 10"x5" loaves for 60 mins or a little more. Normally they would have risen noticably more.