St Patrick's day

St Patrick is celebrated on the 17th of March and it is to commemorate St Patrick's courage in facing adversity and pursuing his mission, that of God. It is said that he used to teach Irish people the cross using a clover and this is where the tradition began. The green tradition stems from the latter.
Alright I don't really celebrate St Patrick's day, but for this year, I thought it would be nice to make some 'green' treats. So I made matcha bubble tea and pandan muffins. Both key ingredients are green and flavours that I absolutely adore.

 

Deep fried battered veggies

This is one of the dish my mum usually cooks. So credits to her here. It's quite the typical snack in Mauritius, that along with the 'gateau piment', which translates to chilli cake. Don't be misled with the name however. It in fact is a deep fried batter of split peas, and the chilli is only optional. Back to the fried veggies, it's simply a batter coating sliced potatoes, or egg plants. It's really tasty since it's deep fried and it's nicely crunchy. Yummy but to eat in moderation, that is ;)

 

 

 

'Gozleme' with beef & bean filling

This is my first time making a dough for flat breads. Notice my inverted commas in-between the gozleme. Well it's intentional. Since I was merely trying out, I simply cooked the flat bread and eat with the filling as in a soft taco, instead of sealing the beef fillings inside and cooked it. I think that either way, it would have worked. I was very pleased by how everything turned out. The beef  filling was delicious and the flat bread was good. I also top it with some avocados, becoming is a matchmaker made in heaven. To re do!

 

 

 

Sesame balls and fried taro balls

Sesame balls and fried taro balls. These are among the many Mauritian delicacies and are usually eaten during the Chinese new year. The sesame ball is made up of rice and glutinous flour, mixed with some sweet potato mash, and sugar. It is filled with red bean paste or lotus paste, rolled in sesame seeds and then deep fried.  As for the taro ball, it's a sweet mixture of grated taro, deep fried. Both taste really delicious. Honestly, I have never made them. Yes, I'm not a big deep fried cooking, and eating (since recently), but I would not say no to one or two of these, anytime. My mum cooked them and they are truly yummy. Both are crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

 

 

Matcha (green tea) cookies

My third time using matcha powder. I decided to make some cookies. These cookies consist of almond meal, white chocolate and chopped almonds. I think they make a great combination together with the green tea powder, and the cookies are real crunchy, not only from the chocolate and almonds, but the texture itself.