In Takkies and T's

Blissful Banana Tart  So you bought a dozen bananas and they are ripening too quickly, you could probably eat 2 a day … ever wondered what to do with them without having to discard them too soon? Yes, you could prepare banana smoothies or bake a banana cake or bake some banana muffins.     I have a fun, super easy and not to mention, a delicious recipe to share.   It can be prepared in a really short space of time, it’s my Blissful Banana Tart .   I refer to it as “blissful” because it gives me great joy to bake this tart and I feel happy doing so! Blissful Banana Tart Recipe  Preparation time: 10 minutes Baking time: 30 minutes Ingredients 400g puff pastry All-purpose flour for dusting 3 ripened bananas 20g dark chocolate 2 teaspoons smooth peanut butter Icing sugar for dusting Method 1. Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees Celsius. Line a baking tray with grease-proof paper and set it aside. 2. To p...

Hungarian Tart  Hungarian Tart Hungarian Tart is a good example of a golden oldie … its goes back generations and remains a favourite in households across diverse cultures internationally.  There are many names to this delicious tart, but it is more commonly known as “Jam Tart”. Many will agree that it is often one of the favourite tarts found amongst the sweetmeats and savouries set in colourful platters, which are exchanged by family and friends during Diwali, Eid and other festivals.    I would never forget Jam Tarts. I helped my mum bake Jam Tarts as a child and my job was to grate the dough over the jam before it went into the oven.  I was told by mum that it was a very important job, and so every time we baked Jam Tarts, I would wait anxiously to grate the dough with pride! Jam Tart is a really tasty, easy to bake tart, not to mention that it can be ready in just 45 minutes from the preparation t...

Queen Cardamom I love Cardamom. I love Cardamom so much so that I had to write about it.   Cardamom is known as the “ Queen of Spice ”. Queen Cardamom Let’s take a look at the description of a Queen A Queen is personified as a female and most powerful of her kind, superior and dominant. A Queen is the sovereign ruler and described as royal, grand, supreme and majestic. Even in a game of Chess the Queen is the most powerful piece.   Rightly so Cardamom dominates many emporiums of spice and the “ Queen of Spice ” is a fitting title. What exactly is Cardamom? It is an exotic spice which has a very distinctive fragrance and taste . Cardamom has been around forever it seems, however its origins are from the Western Coastal regions (Kerala) in the South of India and parts of Sri Lanka and Asia.   Cardamom is actually the tiny black grains with a burst of flavour embedded in little pods.   Cardamom pods are delicately hand harvested after appro...

Why we will visit Kerala again... Life is a picture, focus on the positive, develop from the negative, if things don't pan out the way you expected it, take another shot! Usually we manage our travel and hotel bookings as well as our itineraries quite well on our own, but when we decided to visit Kerala a few years ago, we decided to book a tour package including accommodation through a tour operator based in Kerala. Our decision to do this was based on the fact that a holiday to Kerala, especially during the festive season (which is peak season for tourism) was expected to be really busy with loads of travel and as tourists in a foreign country, safety should be an important consideration. Kerala is huge! Travelling within Kerala itself involves a number of site seeing tours across the various towns and the distance between some of the towns are between 3 to 4 hours of travel by car. The scenic views while driving from town to town is a part of the culture experience one sh...