Sweet Vermicelli with Almonds & Pistachios

Ingredients:
1 ltr milk
¾ cup vermicelli
1 Tbsp ghee
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp elachi
3 Tbsp Sliced cashew nuts
1 Tbsp raisins

Method:
Heat ghee in a Frying pan.
Fry vermicelli over medium heat until golden brown in colour.
Add milk, elachi, sliced cashew nuts, raisins and bring to boil.
Reduce the heat and cook until the mixture becomes thick and cream.
Add sugar and stir well.
Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Kitcheree (Yellow rice with Lentils)

Ingredients:
1 – 1 ½ ltr water
1 cup oil dholl
2 cups rice
2 Tbsp coarse salt
2 cardamoms sticks
¼ tsp tumeric powder
Few slices of onions
3 Tbsp ghee

Method:
Allow dholl to soak for an hour
Wash throwing off loose skins
Bring water to boil
Add salt and spices then add the dholl and washed rice and bring to boil 15/ 20 min it must not be mushy. Drain and steam for 15 min in moderate oven. Before serving, brown onion slices in ghee and pour over kitchree, tossing rice lightly.

Battenberg Cake

Ingredients
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk
1 drop red food colouring
4 tbsp apricot jam
150g unsalted butter, softened
Marzipan
75g icing sugar, plus extra for rolling out
1 medium egg
1 tbsp lemon juice
175g ground almonds
1 medium egg yolk

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Butter a 20cm square cake tin and line the base with greased baking parchment. Divide the tin in half with a 30cm strip of foil folded into a double thickness

For the cake, beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and milk until smooth. Divide into 2. Use the tiniest dab of red food colouring to tint half the mixture pink. Spoon this into one side of the tin and spread level; fill the other side with the rest. Bake for 25–30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Meanwhile make the marzipan. In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, whisk the sugars, egg and yolk for about 10 minutes until pale and thick. Take off the heat; mix in the lemon juice and ground almonds until smooth. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes

To assemble, lay one piece of cake on top of the other and trim to the same size. Cut in half lengthways to give 2 long strips of each colour. Warm the apricot jam and sieve. Lay a strip of pink cake on a board and brush the top and sides with jam; lay a plain strip next to it and do the same. Arrange the other 2 strips on top, colours reversed, and brush the jam all over. Roll the marzipan into a 20cm x 30 cm rectangle. Place the cake at one end of the rectangle and tightly wrap in the marzipan, patching any holes. Sit on the seam, slice and serve.

Beef Tikka

Ingredients:
1 kg. cubes of beef
2 tbs. unripe papaya(ground)
½ tsp. ginger (Adrak) paste
½ tsp. garlic (Lehsan) paste
2 tbs. yogurt
1 tsp. chili (Lal Mirch) powder OR 1 tbs. chopped green chilies.

Instructions:
Mix together all the spices, yogurt and papaya and coat the beef cubes with it.
Leave to marinate for 5-6 hours, preferably overnight.
Barbeque over charcoal.
Serve with mint chutney, yogurt and onion rings and naan

Serving: 2 to 3 persons

Cheesy Jalapeno Bites

Ingredients:
300g pack corn tortillas
200ml pot reduced-fat crème fraîche
85g strong cheddar , grated
small handful jalapeño peppers , drained and finely chopped
20g pack chives , finely chopped
classic tomato salsa, to serve

Method:
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
Cut the tortillas into thirds, like a pie chart, then microwave for 1 min until hot. Roll each piece into a cone shape, then put loose-end down onto a baking sheet so they can't spring open.
Bake for 20-25 mins until crisp and golden. Cool.
Will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.

For the filling, mix the crème fraîche, cheese, jalapeños and most of the chives together. Up to 10 mins before serving, spoon the filling into the cones and scatter with the rest of the chives.

Serve with tomato salsa for dipping.

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:
- 8oz digestive biscuits, crushed
- 4oz marg/butter
- 200g philidelphia cream cheese
- 250ml carton of double cream
- 4oz of icing sugar
- 2 large bars of mint chocolate (aero)
- Biscuit Base

Method:
1 melt the margarine in the microwave
2 add the biscuits into the margarine and make sure that its well mixed together.
3 Press into a 8-10” (depends on what size you have, how thick you like your cheesecake) Loose bottom tin

4 Mix the philidephia cheese and icing sugar together
5 Whip up the double cream using an electric whisk untill fluffy
6 Add the whipped cream to the philidelphia and mix together
7 Chop up the Chocolate you can have them as small as pieces as you want but make sure they are small enough to mix through the mixture and keep some to decorate the top
8 Add the Chocolate to the mixture and pour it over the biscuit base and smooth it, add the remaining chocolate pieces to the top
9 Chill in the fridge for at least an hour

Serve, optionally with a scoop of ice cream or a helping of whipped cream.