Vegan Black Bean & Potato Empanadas

Here comes an another week of blogging marathon, am running this mega marathon with 5 ingredients for 5 weeks. And i picked a dry bean for a week, after dry green peas and dry black-eyed peas, am gonna show case Dry black beans for a week. Black beans are really healthy for both vegetarian and non vegetarian.These tasty and nutritious beans are easily available either as dried ones or in can. However the health benefits of this beans includes protein, fibre, antioxidants and many more micronutrients. Since these beans are high in protein, its definitely a good choice to vegetarian or for dieting people. Taking black beans often in your menu can boost your iron intake. Rich in calcium as much as like other beans, black beans are in high in fiber as well. If you dont know how to add this healthy beans in your diet, dont forget to check my upcoming posts with this incredible beans.

Bolo De Cenoura - Brazilian Carrot Cake

Brazilian carrot cake aka Bolo de Cenoura, calls for easy breezy preparation. This cake is one of the most popular and traditional Brazilian dessert. You might have already tried varieties of carrot cake but trust me this Brazilian carrot cake is completely different from those usual carrot cakes. Its quite a unique dessert with an incredible topping and looks almost like cornbread. The addition of chocolate sauce gives a fabulous touch to this flavourful carrot cake. You may wonder why am talking about this beautiful cake. Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds gave me carrots and cheese as my two secret ingredients for this month's Shhh Cooking Secretly, started by myself and now the event is taken by Mayuri Patel.

Feijoada - Brazilian Black Bean Stew

Feijoada is a well known and a popular Brazilian stew which is prepared with black beans along with meats, but i tried making them as a vegetarian stew using veggies and black beans..This stew is originally developed by the slaves to get use of less meat, but here am gonna make this black bean stew with vegetables spiced with garlic cloves, cumin powder, pepper powder etc..This goes for bit of work eventhough this stew is truly worth to try out...Serve this delicious and nutritious stew with steamed rice and greens, its a complete,filling and wholesome food..



2cups Black beans (soaked overnight)
2nos Bayleaves
2nos Garlic (chopped finely)
1no Tomato (chopped)

For Stew:
1no Onion(big & chopped)
2nos Carrots (chopped)
1no Celery rib (chopped)
2nos Garlic cloves (chopped)
1no Small dry chilli
1tsp Cumin powder
1tbsp Dry oregano
Pepper powder
Salt
Parsley leaves (chopped)

Pressure cook the soaked beans with bay leaves, garlic and tomatoes for 3whistles...Meanwhile heat a enough olive oil and saute the onions,carrots, garlic and celery until the onions turns transculent, now add the cumin powder, pepper powder, dry chilli and oregano, cook for few minutes...add the veggies to the cooked beans and enough water to the beans and veggies, the mixture should be soup not dry..

Cook this mixture in simmer, adjust the seasoning and cook until the beans turns tender, finally add the parsley leaves and serve along with hot steaming rice or simply enjoy with breads..

Curau De Milho - Brazilian Corn Pudding

Curau de Milho, a simple dessert quite served in Brazil during the month of june in parties called Festa Juninas, which celebrates popular saints like St John,Peter and so on..These celebrations are also important in North Europe country..This sweet custard like pudding is made from the juice of unripen corn kernels,cooked with milk, sugar and butter..To prepare the curau, the corn kernels are grated off the ears and put into a cloth bag. The bag is then squeezed while adding the milk little by little, so as to extract as much juice as possible from the ground corn mass.The extracted liquid is combined with the sugar and any other ingredients, and thickened to a creamy consistency by cooking on the stove for about 45 minutes stirring frequently. The cream is then poured into appropriate dessert cups, muffin molds, shallow baking pans..The curau may be served warm or cool. It is typically dusted with powdered cinnamon..But i went for sweet corn kernels and grounded them along with milk which was quite easier than the traditional way of making this curau..



3cups Sweet corn kernels (fresh or tinned)
2cups Milk
3tbsps Sugar or as per need
1tbsp Butter
Few cinnamon powder

Grind the half of the corn kernels with half of the milk, blend for bit coarse paste, strain this grounded corn in a pan, do the same process with the remaining corn kernels..Bring boil to the corn milk in medium heat, add the sugar and butter, stir continously until the corn milk will be creamy consistency..

Pour it in small ramekins or dessert cups and sprinkle the cinnamon powder over the pudding..Serve warm or cold..

Beijinhos De Coco - Brazilian Coconut Kiss

Beijinho de Coco is a Brazilian sweet which is actually prepared for children birthdays. But it's not only delicious for the little ones also for everyone and its quite a traditional candy in Brazilian's birthday parties, this coconut kiss is prepared simply with sweetened condensed milk, dessicated coconut, butter..Quite an easy candy na, yep this candy gets ready within 10minutes and i never prepared a candy in such a less time.. There are various way of making this candies, some may go for coconut milk, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, eventhough i went for simple and quick version..I enjoyed preparing and having this cute looking candies, traditionally this candies are served along with a clove inserted in their top, which turned this candies more cute..



1cup Sweetened condensed milk
1tbsp Butter
1/4cup Dessicated coconut
Cloves per need

Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a heavy bottomed pan and cook in simmer along with butter, dont forget to stir continously until the milk gets thickens, after 10minutes once it gets thickens pour the thickened milk over a plate and let them got slightly cool...Make small balls from this thickened milk and roll them over the dessicated coconut, insert a clove over the top of this candy..Store in fridge overnight before serving..