Sweet Papaya Preserve

Ingredients

Sweet papaya mashed - 3 cups
Jaggery - 1 ½ cup
Cardamom - ½ tsp

Preparation

Remove the skin and mash papaya.
Use very ripe papaya to make a preserve.
In heavy bottomed vessel combine
mashed papaya and jaggery.
Keep it on medium flame and
Sauté till the water from the papaya
is fully evaporated.
Now it starts to stick to the sides of the vessel.
Add cardamom powder and mix well.
Turn off the flame.
This radiant natural red colour preserve is
a healthy preparation.

Adding sugar instead of jaggery will
give a different deep orange colour.
Papaya preserve should be refrigerated
for a longer shelf life.

Fresh sweet papaya is very nutritious
as all fruits are. But it is not so popular
among children.
Habit of eating all types of fruits should
be developed among children.

Focaccia Bread

Focaccia is an Italian flat salted bread.
It can be made sweet also, stuffed
with fruits, nuts and sugar.
Fresh home made bread tastes better than
the ones you buy from market.
Variety makes it more exciting!!

Ingredients

Flour (maida) - 3 cups
Sea salt -1 tsp
Sugar - 1tsp
Dry yeast - 1 tsp
Warm water - ¾ cup
Grated garlic -1 tbsp
Rosemary - 2 tbsp
(dried or fresh)
crushed black pepper - 1tsp
grated parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp
olive oil - 2 tbsp

Egg wash

egg - 1
milk - 2 tbsp

Preparation

In a bowl mix yeast, sugar and warm water.
Keep in a warm place to rise.

Take a large bowl, mix flour, yeast, oil, salt,
pepper, rosemary and knead well.
Brush the dough with Olive oil,
cover the bowl and keep in a warm place to rise
for about six hours, till the dough doubles.

Punch the dough down and give a desired shape;
keep it the baking tray.
Traditionally focaccia is a
flat bread.
I made focaccia into a loaf and into a bowl shaped,
to stuff it.

Brush the focaccia with olive oil and again
keep aside to rise for about one hour.
Brush it with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sea salt,
crushed pepper, rosemary, grated garlic
and grated parmeesan cheese.

For stuffing – sauté cubed tomatoe ,onions,
minced meat and flavour with lots of olive oil ,
coarse salt, rosemary and pepper.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes according to the size of focaccia.

Focaccia is more like a flat crust pizza.
Coarse salt, rosemary and crushed pepper makes the difference!