I really enjoy the taste of fennel seeds (variali), it gives a wonderful fresh feel to the mouth, which is the reason why it is used as a after dinner mouth freshener in India. Also it retains its taste when mixed with other herbs and spices. When I was living in India for my placement year, I went on a little weekend break with my maternal uncle’s family and along the car journey we saw fields of variali and drying red chillies. When I asked my cousin what was growing in the fields he said variali, so we stopped the car and cheekily ran into the field and picked a bunch of variali, it is so refreshing and cool when eaten fresh and raw.

So when I saw the event of ‘Think Spice.. Think Twice‘ for this month which was for fennel, I thought I must take part and make these biscuits. This event is originally started off by Sunita of Sunita’s World, and I feel it is a wonderful event where we learn a lot about different spices, not to mention the vast array of recipes we get from it as everyone uses spices in different ways. This month the event is hosted by Ivy from Kopiaste, where she has given the option of two different spices, fennel and mastic gum.

I originally made these biscuits a couple of years back as one of my Diwali treats. I had them at one of my husband’s cousin sister’s place. She  makes lovely biscuits, so I asked her for the recipe and made them a year or so later. However the biscuits had spread while baking, as I had beaten the butter and sugar mixture too much. So when I saw this event I thought I would make these biscuits, remembering not to over beat the mixture. However this time I cannot explain why it happened but once I had added the milk, the butter, and sugar, the mixture curdled slightly. I still carried on and the biscuits turned out to be a success. They are quite refreshing and a good treat and go wonderfully well with afternoon tea.

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This is the perfect, healthy and wow biscuit, it only has a few ingredients and no sugar or butter.  I had learnt to make Arabian Flowers over the spring time when one of my husband’s cousins was getting married. Leading up to the wedding, a variety of food was made at their home for all the different events that took place. I was so glad and grateful for the opportunity when we were asked to help make these show stoppers!!  It is always good to learn and share new recipes. I was just so pleased that the humble puff pastry and dried dates can be made into such beautiful and pretty looking biscuits. The main ingredient is dried dates, and I don’t really enjoy dry dates very much, but love fresh dates, so for people like me and children it is a good way to get us to eat food that is good for us Dates are said to be rich in fibre, calcium, vitamins and minerals, and also said to have good medicinal properties.

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Since my son started going to his Montessori school, I have tried to make a routine of baking on Wednesday. Lately that has been a bit tricky but last week he told me he wanted to eat these. He had them originally over the summer and really enjoyed them so I decided to make some with him. My son enjoyed making them and felt they looked and tasted like Jammie dodgers.

I recently saw these cookies on this blog and this blog and it reminded me I had to try the recipe. I got the original recipe from a book published in Kenya for charity called, ‘The Ultimate Collection – A vegetarian cookbook’. I modified the recipe by adding the zest and juice of one lemon, and reducing the amount of sugar, this added flavour and changed the taste of the cookies and the combination of ingredients made them perfect.

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I saw this recipe in a recipe book given recently to me that was written by a group of women in Kenya for charity.  I decided to make the biscuits as they seemed very different and I would never have thought to mix the two main ingredients – passion fruit and ginger.  I modified the recipe by adding more of the passion fruit than the recipe had suggested and you can still add a little more to make the taste more distinct.  I am glad I made them as they are different to the normal basic biscuits that we can either make or buy.  Have a go and let your taste buds go on a journey…

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