Announcing event~Lets cook edible gifts for Christmas

Lets cook edible gifts for Christmas 

1st Dec - 31 st December 2012

It's the 1st of December and there are only 24 more days left  to Christmas.Christmas is a celebration  enjoyed worldwide, its a time for spending time with family and friends, for sharing  and giving  and for  spreading the love to our nearest and dearest and also to those less fortunate than us.
This event is all about cooking, baking and making edible gifts and edible decorations that we can give as presents.Be creative make a edible gift, package  it with cellophane, ribbons, bows and to give it to a loved one and see their reaction when they receive such a personalised gift.

To Participate:

1.Make any edible vegetarian gift  (eggs allowed) please link your post using the linky below by entering your Post Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3. Use of logo is not mandatory but usage is encouraged as it helps to spread the word visually if you can use it.
4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.
5. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format

Your Name:
Recipe Name
Recipe URL
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Fajita Kits by Discovery

Picture  courtesy of Discovery foods

I love Mexican food and find that it is fast and easy to prepare.When discovery sent me two Fajita kits to try I was more than pleased to put them to the test.Each Kit contains everything you need to make your family a tasty Mexican feast. All you have to add is the filling.

The Perfect Fajita Kits are available in three tantalising variants: Original (medium heat), Crispy Crumb (mild heat), and Mexican BBQ (mild heat).  

The kits contains:

• eight Soft Flour Tortillas, 
• a sachet of Discovery’s mouth-watering Salsa or Soured Cream
• a packet of Discovery’s sensational Seasoning Mix.  

The ingredients used are the highest quality; the kits are versatile and ideal for midweek meals or larger family get-together.All the kits come with simple to follow step-by-step recipe suggestion so that you can create your Mexican meal in minutes. These kits take up very little storage space and are perfect store cupboard ingredient to rustle up a fast and speedy nutritious meal after a hard day’s work.

With my kit I made veggie mixed bean Fajitas.I would like to thank Discovery food for sending me these kits to try.All the opinions in this post are my own.

Veggie mixed bean Fajitas

Cocktail / Mocktail workshop at Balans Stratford.

Megan our cocktail making host at Balans, equipment, shaker, muddler,shot measures, ingredients and my fellow blogger friends who attended the workshop with me.

I was really excited to  receive an email invitation to attend a Cocktail workshop at  Balans  which is  situated in West field Stratford City . It offers the perfect location to enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner. In addition to food Balans offer amazing cocktails in their bar. They also offer cocktail workshops which are catered to individual specification for small groups.The price is £39.95 per person and includes a welcome drink and 4 cocktails to make and litebites. The cocktail workshops would be perfect  for  a girls night out, hen parties or birthday celebrations.

I was excited to attend the workshop as it sounded like a fun evening, however being a teetotaller I was worried that Balans would not be able to cater for me.However much to my surprise despite being the only person refraining from alcohol in the party, I was made extremely welcome and  the 4 cocktails ; Berrylicious, Margarita, Red ribbon and Balans White Russian that the group members made, were all adapted for me as mocktails with no alcoholic.

Our party host Megan had everything organised beautifully, she had all our ingredients laid out for each cocktail and  gave  us easy to follow instructions.The evening ran as clockwork and where the time flew we did not realise. Megan also shared some really good tips about making sugar syrups, pouring different ingredients into a glass to create separation of colour and substitution of ingredients for teetotallers like my self. (If this proved to be a challenge she did not show it and she came up with answers immediately.)

Hands on deck shaking , pouring and sipping Mocktails.

In between the cocktail workshop we were spoilt with a selection of  litebites  followed by more cocktail making and finishing with mince pies to close the evening.

Litebites that we enjoyed.

I am sharing here  the 4 mocktails that I made.

Berrylicious

Ingredients:

3 raspberries

3 blackberries

45 ml of mixed berry puree

50 ml ginger beer

15ml fresh lemon juice

Ice

Method:

1. Add berries into a cocktail shaker. Muddle (mash) berries in the shaker. 

2. Add mixed berry puree and ice to the shaker.

3. Shake gently and Ghetto Dump into short glass. (This means transfer all the mashed up berries and juices into the glass)

4. Top up with ginger bear

5. Garnish with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries

Serve immediately.

Virgin Margarita (Can be served straight up, on the rocks or frozen)

Ingredients:

 50ml lime juice

 50 ml lemon juice

 50 ml orange juice

 50 ml sugar syrup

Salt and lemon wedge for garnish

Method:

1. Salt half the glass rim. (Rub lemon on half the rim and dip the glass in salt)

2. Pour all ingredients into shaker.

3. Shake really hard and strain into glass.

4. Garnish with lime wedge or wheel.

 My Creations.

 Red Ribbon -This cocktail at Balans is made in aid of Elton Johns Aid foundation and proceeds from it are donated to charity.

Ingredients:

25ml Pomegranate puree

25ml Vanilla sugar syrup

50ml Raspberry puree

50 ml lemonade

Ice

 Method:

1. Rim the glass with vanilla sugar. (Rub lemon on glass rim and dip the glass in vanilla sugar)

2. Add the Pomegranate puree, Vanilla sugar syrup, Raspberry puree and ice to a shaker

3. Shake all ingredients and strain into glass.

4. Top with lemonade

Serve immediately

 My creations.

 Balans Virgin White Russian

Ingredients

50 ml Espresso coffee

25ml Hazelnut syrup

50ml double cream

25ml milk

Ice

Dust with cocoa

 Method:

1. Pour the coffee and hazelnut syrup into a serving glass.

2. Put the cream and milk into shaker with ice. Shake gently so as not to whip the cream.

3. Gently pour the cream in a steady stream onto the coffee with the help of a spoon , If done correctly the cream will float on the coffee.

4. Serve with a dusting of cocoa powder.

I would like to thank Megan and Hannah from Propellernet  for inviting me  and of course Balans for hosting the  workshop.

Archards~ Mauritian vegetable Pickle

A tasty and delicious  vegetable pickle, the perfect accompaniment to Mauritian dishes.

Ingredients:

120 grams/ 4 oz white cabbage finely shredded
120 grams/ 4 oz carrot grated
120 grams/ 4 oz green beans finely sliced
3 green chillies cut into slits
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sunflower oil

Method:

1.Coarsely grind the mustard seeds and garlic keep aside.
2. Bring a pan of water to boil and blanch the vegetables (carrots, beans and cabbage) for three minutes.
3. Drain the vegetables  and pat dry .
4. Heat oil in pan when it is hot, add the mustard seed and garlic paste.Add the salt, chillies, turmeric powder and sauté the mixture for a minute. Turn off the heat  and add the vinegar followed by the vegetables and mix well.
5.Leave the pickle  to cool then transfer to a sterilised jar.
6. Store in the refrigerator.

Serve with Dholl Puri

You may like:
Mauritian Lima bean stew

Submitting to:

 Flavours of Mauritius , event by simply.food guest hosted by Napur of UK, Rasoi and me

Mauritian Lima bean stew

Hearty and delicious Mauritian spicy Lima bean stew.

Ingredients:

300 g precooked tinned broad beans/ Lima beans
2 medium potatoes peeled and  diced
1 small onion finely diced
1 carrot peeled and diced
1 clove garlic
2 large tomatoes diced and puréed
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
120 ml water
1 tablespoon fresh coriander finely chopped

Method:

1.Heat the oil in a pan, when it is hot sauté the garlic and onions until translucent.
2.Add the puréed tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. Add the salt, chilli powder, black pepper and the 100 ml water and bring the stew to a boil, once it comes to a boil reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes until potatoes and carrots are almost cooked.
3.Add the precooked Lima /broad beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.
4.Turn off heat and transfer the stew to a serving bowl.
5.Garnish with fresh coriander.

Serve with dholl puri.

You may like :
Masala corn on the cob with peanut gravy.

Submitting to:
Flavours of Mauritius , event by simply.food guest hosted by Napur of UK Rasoi.