Taro Fritters (Gâteau Arouille)

Ingredients: 400g of taro, 1 ½ tablespoon of ginger paste, 1 ½ tablespoon of cornflour, ½ teaspoon of salt, 1 ¼ tablespoon of sugar.

Method: Peel the taro roots and grate them. Add the grated taro in a large mixing bowl. Add the ginger paste, salt, sugar and corn flour. Mix everything well.  Shape the mixture into small round shape. Heat oil in a deep frying pan and deep fry the taro balls until golden brown in colour. When done, drain well on absorbent paper.You can have them with spicy chutney or chili sauce. They taste amazing.

Mauritian Banana Fritters

Ingredients: 6 ripe bananas, 1 cup of flour (you can add more depending on the consistency of your batter), ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract, ¼ cup of sugar, 3 tablespoons of water, ½ teaspoon of baking powder, Oil for frying

Method:Firstly in a large bowl, peel the bananas and mash them well.Sift the flour and the baking powder. Add the flour and baking powder in the bowl of mashed bananas. Add the sugar.Mix well. Moreover, add the water and the vanilla extract to the mixture.Mix everything. The batter should be smooth. In a pan, heat oil over medium heat and scoop the batter with a large tablespoon and fry until they turn out golden brown in colour.

Voilà! Yummy banana fritters are ready.

Sweet Vermicelli Cake

Ingredients: 275 g vermicelli, 60 g of ghee, 1 ¼  cup  of sugar, 1 small cinnamon stick, 6 cardamom pods,1 ¾ cups of liquid milk, raisins, ¼ cup of sliced almonds, 5 tablespoons of  dessicated coconut.

Method: Grease a tray and place aside. Meanwhile, in a pan, roast the vermicelli over low heat until it turns slightly darker. After few minutes, remove from heat and set aside to cool. In another pan, add the ghee, almonds, raisins, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and stir all for 1 minute. Add the liquid milk, let it boil. Add sugar, mix well and add the vermicelli. Cook well, until the vermicelli absorbs all the liquid. If required, you can add some more liquid milk.  When cooking is done, pour the mixture in the greased tray, leave to set for 2 hours. Garnish with grated coconut and sliced almonds. After few hours you can cut them in square shape. I apply some ghee in the knife edge so that cutting can be easily done.

Voilà the sweet vermicelli cake is ready!

Milk Peda

Ingredients:  Sweetened condensed Milk (approximately 200g) 1 ½ cup of milk powder, 3 teaspoon of ghee (if you don’t have ghee, you can use unsalted butter, but it tastes best with ghee though), a pinch of saffron  thread dissolved in 1 ¼ tablespoon of warm milk, 1 ¼ teaspoon of cardamom powder, you can use almonds, grated coconut, raisins or pistachios for decoration. I had used grated coconut and raisins.

Method:  In a microwave dish, mix together the condensed milk, milk powder, and ghee (clarified butter). Cook in the Microwave for 2 minutes. Take it out (use a kitchen towel to hold the microwave dish), Stir the mixture well, and Cook for another 2 minutes. Take it out, again be careful. Next, you shall add the saffron and the cardamom powder, mix well.  Cook for 3 minutes in the microwave. When done, place aside, let it cool down a bit. After 15 minutes, knead the mixture well with your hands, rub some ghee in the palm of your hand, and roll into round shape.  Make a small dent at the centre of each peda, you can add raisins/pistachio, or almonds on top of the pedas. Then spread some grated coconut on top. Delicious, milkylicious Pedas are ready. They taste amazing.

If you have any questions, write them in the comment section. I shall reply to you soon.

Sesame Seeds Balls (Mauritian Gâteaux Zinzli)

Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups of flour (I use all-purpose), 6 tablespoons of milk powder, 1 ¼ teaspoon of baking powder, 1teaspoon of cardamom (elaiti) powder, 1 cup sugar, 3 tablespoon of melted butter, you will also need liquid milk to make the dough (I don’t have any exact measurement, as you need to add the milk gradually until you get a smooth dough), 3 tablespoon of sesame seeds.

Method: Put the 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds in a little bowl of water. Leave for few minutes, then remove the water and place the sesame seeds on a plate. Next in a large bowl mix the flour, milk powder, baking powder, cardamom powder, sugar and butter in a bowl. Add liquid milk gradually until you get a smooth dough. When done, make small balls with the dough, roll each small ball on the plate of sesame seeds. Heat oil in a pan; fry the balls over medium heat. Once they turn into a brownish colour, they are ready.  

You can have them with a cup of hot tea, coffee, or any other drink of your choice. Nevertheless, they taste great with a cup of tea.

 

Mauritian Napolitaines (biscuits with jam filling and coated with icing )

Ingredients for the biscuits: 400g of flour (all-purpose), 250g softened butter (cut into small square pieces), ½ teaspoon icing sugar, ½teaspoon salt.  You will also need jam for the filling.

Method: Sieve the flour with the icing sugar and salt. Then, add the cubes of softened butter gradually, do the rubbing-in method with all the mixture. (Meaning you work out the dough ONLY with your fingertips and thumbs take small amounts of the mixture and rub them together. (If you don’t know about rubbing-in method, google it so that you can do it properly and your dough will be a nice one). Moreover, keep rubbing in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. When the mixture is well incorporated, bring everything together to form a dough. Then roll the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm (not to thick, not too thin). Then use a cookie cutter or anything to make any shape u want. Place a greaseproof paper on a baking tray. Place each biscuits on the tray. Bake at 170°c for 10 minutes. Don't let it become Brown; it should be '' beige'' in colour. 
You should do even number of biscuits, as you will need to pair them later on after you add the jam filling.
Once baking is done, place the tray aside. Leave to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the icing for the biscuits topping. 

For the icing (glaçage): you will need 300g of icing sugar, a little bit of water, and red food colouring. (Or you can use any colour you want for the food colouring).

Method for the icing: Mix well; it should have a cream-like texture. It should not be too liquid, not too thick. Hence, i add very little amount of water. I add more icing sugar, so that the icing when mixed with little amount of water can be of an appropriate texture in covering the biscuit.When done with the icing, take one biscuit, add a teaspoon of jam (whichever fruit jam you like) and take another biscuit, stick both together with the jam.  Take a rack, place the biscuit on top, and pour over your icing, or you can simply take your biscuit and dip it in the icing mixture.  Leave them on a rack to cool.

You are done! You can make these on any occasions. They taste divine.