delicious kitchen therapy

Let us eat cake : Lauren Chattman's Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake

2011-03-28T22:27:00.004+02:00

Yes it is Cake and yes it is Cake with Nutella. Take a look, you can see the soft and moist cake and you know it's good. I don't have to tell you that it`s a delicious, satisfying naughty cake! I will not share you will have to make your own.

Nutella-Swirl Pound Cake by Lauren Chattman

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
One 13-ounce jar Nutella

Preheat the oven to 325°. Lightly grease and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan, tapping out any excess flour. In a glass measuring cup, lightly beat the eggs with the vanilla. In a medium bowl, whisk the 1 1/2 cups of flour with the baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer at medium-low speed, gradually beat in the egg mixture until fully incorporated. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, beating at low speed between additions until just incorporated. Continue to beat for 30 seconds longer.
Spread one-third of the batter in the prepared pan, then spread half of the Nutella on top. Repeat with another third of the batter and the remaining Nutella. Top with the remaining batter. Lightly swirl the Nutella into the batter with a butter knife. Do not overmix.
Bake the cake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, turn it right side up and let cool completely, about 2 hours. Cut the cake into slices and serve.

This recipe I found right here.

Healthy Deliciousness : Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles

2011-02-25T16:28:00.004+01:00

For a long time I was not able to think about food. I was not in the mood for food.

Things had happened in the Families that had to have priority but now that all is good again I want to have fun.

What better way to begin than with something delicious that is healthy enough that you can have a second helping without feeling bad.

Give it a try, maybe make it your own by adding nuts, fruits or oats.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Waffles

1/3 cup Butter

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

2 Tablespoons Powdered Sugar

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 whole Eggs

1 1/2 cup Buttermilk

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Melt butter in microwave and set aside to cool.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites and beat the egg whites to soft peaks.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl and preheat your waffle iron.
Whisk the egg yolks together with the buttermilk, vanilla and sugar.
Now add the dry into the wet, this way you will not have flour sticking to the bottom of the bowl.
As soon as the waffle iron is ready slowly fold in the egg whites.
Ladle into the waffle iron and cook until golden brown and delicious.

Makes 10 square waffles.

Wordless: 6 am

2010-07-28T08:22:00.000+02:00

Muffin Tin Monday : Sticky Chicken

2010-07-26T13:27:00.000+02:00

Finally I was able to get it together enough to have a Muffin Tin Monday.

If you don`t know what I am talking about take a little trip over to Muffin Tin Mom and learn all about it.

This week the Twins had a Tin for Two.

Sticky Chicken Drums ( Ingredients and How to at the end of this post), Red Bell Pepper, Cucumber, Carrot, 1 Minute older had Ketchup, 1 Minute Younger had Mayo, there was some fresh Pretzel/Brezel ( How I made them you can read Here!), Mini Smartis and Apple as Dessert.

Sticky Chicken

8 - 12 chicken legs and/or thighs
1 cup ketchup
1/4 honey
1 /3 cup brown sugar ( if you want it sweeter add more )
1/2 cup Worcestershire Sauce or Soy Sauce if you like it salty
Minced or crushed garlic

Put the chicken into a Ziplock Bag and add all the other Ingredients. close the bag and give it a good squish. ( this I let the kids do, I just love the giggles and think that this makes the chicken taste so much sweeter). Put the chicken and let it marinade for at least 2 hours.

Bake at 400 for 30-40 minutes now and then turning the pieces making sure they don`t burn.

Let us eat Cake: Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes

2010-07-22T07:57:00.000+02:00

I always wanted to know what made the cupcakes from Sprinkles so amazing that America loves them. And since I don`t have enough pocket money to fly around the world to taste some cupcakes I was happy to find this recipe on Martha Stewart.com.

I baked them and after tasting the dough, tasting the finished cupcake I can say that I really hope they have better cupcakes.

Did I like this cupcakes? No

Would I pay a crazy amount of money for them? No

I found them boring and tasteless. The Strawberry flavor is almost nonexistent.

Since we in Germany are obsessed with cake, really fancy cakes I think a piece of a nice Torte would be more rewarding.

Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcakes

Makes 1 dozen
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature

Frosting

1/2 cup whole frozen strawberries, thawed
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch of coarse salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy.

Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended.

Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes.

For the Frosting place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Strawberry Summer: Elderflower Strawberry Scones

2010-06-30T20:40:00.000+02:00

I love Strawberries and I adore the smell of Elderflower. So after having found the stunning Strawberry Scones on Confessions of Tart I just had to make them with my own little twist.

Even if you will do this Scones without the Flowers this is a stunning, fast and easy way to fill you tummy with something delicious.

Strawberry Scones
(makes 6 large scones or 12 minis)

1 cup strawberries
3 tablespoons sugar (granulated)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cream

1/2 cup Elderflowers that have been striped from the stems

Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a cookie sheet.

If using larger fruit, cut into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle fruit with 1/2 tablespoon sugar; set aside. Be sure to make the pieces small, or they tend to fall out of the dough. They'll still be plenty prominent in your finished scones. Sprinkle the flowers over the Strawberries letting them perfume them.

Combine remaining sugar with flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter, using a pastry cutter or 2 knives to cut in butter (you may want to use your fingers to be sure butter is evenly mixed into flour). Stir in fruit; then add cream all at once. Use spatula to gently stir dough until it holds together.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to incorporate dry ingredients. Be gentle so you don't break up the berries and don't overwork the dough. Sprinkle dough with flour if it gets sticky.

Press (pat) the dough into a circle 3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with sugar. If any berries peek out, push them into dough. Cut circle into 6-8 wedges, then transfer wedges to the cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between them. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Keep an eye on them dry scones are horrible.

Challenging myself: June Daring Cook`s Challenge Three Versions Liver Pâté and fresh Bread

2010-06-13T08:28:00.000+02:00

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

This months challenge was so much Fun that I can thank Evelyne and Valerie enough. I made 3 different Version and would have made some more if there had been time. But since this was so easy I already know what will be under the Christmas tree for the family. And I just love the idea to bring a Pate in a Jar as a small present to the next dinner we are invited to?

My first Version was a Turkey Liver Terrine using the Chicken Liver Terrine recipe but using Turkey instead of the Chicken.

It was amazing and even the hubby loved it, the kids not so much, but that was nothing new.

For my second Version I again used the Chicken Liver Recipe but made it a Chicken liver Terrine with Rosemary and Bacon. Oh this was so good, you will not believe me how good it was. This I will make again and again.

The Third Version was a Chicken Liver Terrine that was imbedded in a Cider Jelly together with small cubes of fresh Apples. The Picture is horrible, it was already dark and this was the only portion left so it was the smallest on and the ugliest. The Guest loved it and it was easy.

So this months Challenge was perfect, it was fun it was easy, it let us be creative and the best part is you can freeze the leftovers. Love it.

And since the Bread baking was Part of this Months Challenge I made a Baguette, a German Black Forrest Peasant Bread and a plain Milk Loaf.

Go now take a look at what the other Daring Cook`s did over at the Daring Kitchen Homepage and be a little daring and give it a try.

Chicken Liver Terrine Yields one 25 by 12,5 cm (10 by 5 inch) terrine or loaf pan

1 tbsp duck fat, or butter 2 onions, coarsely chopped 300g (11 oz) chicken livers, trimmed 3 tbsp brandy, or any other liqueur (optional) 100g (3 1/2 oz, 1/2 cup) smoked bacon, diced 300g (11 oz) boneless pork belly, coarsely ground

200g (7 oz) boneless pork blade (shoulder), coarsely ground (or ground pork see note below) 2 shallots, chopped 1 tsp quatre-épices (or ¼ tsp each of ground pepper, cloves, nutmeg and ginger is close enough) 2 eggs 200 ml (7 fl oz, 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) heavy cream 2 fresh thyme sprigs, chopped Salt and pepper

NOTE: If you cannot find ground pork belly or blade, buy it whole, cut it into chunks, and pulse in the food processor. You can also replace the pork blade with regular ground pork.

Preheat oven to 200ºC (400ºF, Gas Mark 6).

Melt the fat or butter in a heavy frying pan over low heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the chicken livers and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until browned but still slightly pink on the inside.

Remove the pan from heat. Pour in the brandy, light a match and carefully ignite the alcohol to flambé. Wait for the flames to go out on their own, carefully tilting the pan to ensure even flavoring. Set aside.

Put the minced pork belly and blade in a food processor, then add the onion-liver mixture and the

chopped shallots, and pulse until you obtain a homogenous mixture – make sure not to reduce it to a slurry.

Transfer to a bowl, and gradually stir in the chopped bacon, quatre-épices, cream, eggs, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper, and mix well. Spoon the mixture into a terrine or loaf pan, and cover with the terrine lid or with aluminum foil.

Prepare a water bath: place the loaf pan in a larger, deep ovenproof dish (such as a brownie pan or a baking dish). Bring some water to a simmer and carefully pour it in the larger dish. The water should reach approximately halfway up the loaf pan.

Put the water bath and the loaf pan in the oven, and bake for 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes. The terrine should be cooked through, and you should be able to slice into it with a knife and leave a mark, but it shouldn’t be too dry. Refrigerate, as this pâté needs to be served cold.

Unmold onto a serving platter, cut into slices, and serve with bread.

NOTE: This pâté freezes well. Divide it into manageable portions, wrap tightly in plastic film, put in a freezer Ziploc bag, and freeze. Defrost overnight in the fridge before eating.

Delicious Food from the Garden: Radish Soup

2010-06-08T10:33:00.000+02:00

The reason I have not posted anything new is my garden.

I love my garden. And now that finally the summer has started I am not willing to miss a thing.

This year I grow a lot of things and I just love to watch how it grows. We have not only vegetables and salads, we also have apples, plums, cherries, sour cherries and grapes.

And if I am not watching me vegetables and fruits grow I play in the sandbox with my boys.

Or we play with our tents ( wigwams made by the boys aunt). Or we are 50 meters away in the open-air pools. Or we eat fresh strawberries warm from the sun.

Yes life is good and delicious.

If only it would be near the house, or near a functioning Toilet.

Look at this little jewels. I love the colors and believe me they taste divine.

And since I hate to throw good food away I love to make a Radish Soup using the greens.

If you never had a Radish Soup you should really give it a try.

Radish Soup

2 bunches radishes, washed

1 small onion, minced

1 tbsp. butter

3/4 c. yogurt, plain

1 1/2 c. chicken stock

Separate the radishes from the greens, reserving both.

Cook the onion in the butter until translucent, then add the radish greens. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until wilted. Puree in a blender or food processor along with half the yogurt and half the chicken stock. Return to the heat and add the other half of the yogurt and half the chicken stock until heated through and through. Season with Salt and Pepper to taste.

Cut some of the reserved radishes into a julienne sprinkle over the top of the soup for decoration and crunch.

Challenging myself:Daring Baker's Challenge Piece Montée

2010-05-26T13:35:00.000+02:00

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

This months challenge I used to make my life a little easier. Last week the twins turned 4 and I needed something for preschool. Normally a tray of Muffins would have been good enough. But having to do this challenge, knowing that the kids would love to get some of this creamy sticky mess I just had to do it for them. I filled them with Banana flavored Cream ( this was the request of one minute younger).

So I baked the Puffs Sunday night and filled and decorated them with the boys right before we had to go. I had them cut out little Birds, using the Marshmallow Fondant while I was having a sugar crisis.

I have to confess I hate to make caramel. I always burn myself, I always burn the first batch, I always want to eat it.

But believe me it was worth it. The kids did go crazy loving the Birds ( the group my boys are in is called the Blackbirds). Only seconds after setting them down the plate was empty and I got adoring looks from 28 Kids.

My Boys called me supermom on the way home and yes in that moment I felt like one.

Go take a look at the delicious things the others did. And if you want to try it yourself get a printable version of the Recipe Here!

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Additional Information: Here are some videos you may want to take a look at before you get started on your piece montée.

1) Martha Stewart Assembles a Croquembouche here.
2) Assembling croquembouche using the interior of a cylinder here.
3) Asembling Free-standing Croquembouche with Chocolate Glaze here.
4) Assembling a Croquembouche with Toothpicks and Cone here.
Here’s a link to a dairy-free pate a choux and crème patisserie recipe here.

Muffin Tin Monday: Birds and Nests

2010-05-17T12:29:00.000+02:00

Finally I was able to take a picture of our Muffin Tin ( yes I know it is not a Tin) Snack.

So I just have to post about it and take Part in the Muffin Tin Monday.

I love to see what all the others do and maybe you would also have fun.

Just go to Muffin Tin Mom and be amazed.

For our first time we did something simple, we had whole grain toast Duck with cream cheese, Bird sausage in a nest made out of carrot salad and some peanuts as bird feed.

The twins loved it.

Let us eat Cake: Red Train and Farming Tractor Cakes made with Marshmallow Fondant

2010-05-16T20:43:00.000+02:00

First of all Happy Birthday to my little Boys.

Four Years ago I became a Mother and even if it took 3 more days for me to see them for the first time I loved them long before I had the pleasure to get to know them.

This two Gentlemen make my life Heaven and Hell and I would do anything for them.

Even baking 2 Cakes with 8 layers of Vanilla Cake, German Butter Cream and Homemade Raspberry Jam.

I covered them with Marshmallow Fondant, I found a wonderful Recipe at Bake at 350.

One minute older wanted a Train ( no surprise he is obsessed) one minute younger wanted a Tractor.

So having nothing better to do I made them, I made them big, I made them red.

How do you like them? I think the Train looks cute, but the Tractor looks more like a Racing Car.

Marshmallow Fondant

16 oz. bag mini marshmallows
3 TBSP water
2 lbs. powdered sugar
Crisco

I use a mix of cornstarch and powdered sugar for rolling

Grease a large glass bowl with Crisco.

Pour in the marshmallows and water in the bowl. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval, until melted.

Reserve about 1/4 c. powdered sugar. Place the rest of the powdered sugar in the large bowl of a standing mixer. Grease the paddle attachment with Crisco. Pour the melted marshmallows onto the powdered sugar.

Beat until a dough forms. There will be lots of loose bits and sugar in the bottom of the bowl.

Grease a clean work surface with Crisco and dump out the fondant and all loose bits. Grease hands liberally with Crisco and knead the mixture together, just like kneading bread, for about 5 minutes until smooth.

Grease hands again as needed. As the fondant becomes smoother, use the reserved powdered sugar to coat the surface to keep it from sticking.

Once smooth, you can divide and color the fondant. While working with one piece, cover the remaining fondant with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.

When you have your colors finished, or just keep it all white, coat the fondant in a light layer of Crisco. Wrap in plastic wrap and place in a large bag. Let rest overnight. Store at room temperature for several months.

To use it, dust the surface and rolling pin with cornstarch/powdered Sugar Mix and roll to 1/8th of an inch and decorate away.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks Mai Challenge Stacked Chicken Mole Enchilada

2010-05-14T15:31:00.000+02:00

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

I have not been able to cook the original challenge. It was impossible to get most of the Ingredients and the ones I would have been able to get would have cost a fortune.

So I made Flour Tortillias using a mix of plain flour and Amaranth Flour. The tasted pretty good and it was so easy that I will not buy the stale stuff from the store again.

As it came to the sauce I used the Quick Chicken Mole receipt that has been given to us.

It tasted good, not good enough for my 3 men but good enough for me.

I will make sure to give the original version a try if my Tomatillo plants do grow in our German weather.

Go and take a look at the lovely things the other Daring Cooks did and maybe you give it a try yourself.

Ingredients

1½ pounds Fresh Anaheim chiles (about eight 6 to 8 inch chiles) 24 ounces 678 grams - roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely. Other green chiles (NOT bell peppers) could probably be substituted but be conscious of heat and size!)

7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium)212 grams - peel, remove stems

4 cups Chicken broth (32 ounces/920 grams)

1 clove Garlic, minced

2 teaspoons yellow onion, minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)

¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)

2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)

Hot sauce, your favorite, optional

2 Boneless chicken breasts (you can also use bone-in chicken breasts or thighs)

3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)

Kosher salt and pepper

12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)

6 ounces grated Monterey Jack, 170 grams (other cheeses (cheddar, pepper jack, Mexican cheeses) can be used. Just be sure they melt well and complement the filling)

Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional

Directions:

Roasting Fresh Chiles

1. Coat each chile with a little vegetable oil. If you are doing only a couple chiles, using the gas stove works. For larger batches (as in this recipe), grilling or broiling is faster.

2. Lay the oiled chiles on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.

3. As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove them to a bowl and cover with plastic, or close up in a paper bag. Let them rest until they are cool.

4. Pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds. Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.

5. DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce

1. Put a medium saucepan of water on to boil and remove the papery outer skin from the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos until soft, 5 to 10 minutes. You can also grill the tomatillos until soft.

2. Drain and puree in a blender or food processor.

3. Return the tomatillos to the saucepan along with the chicken broth, chopped green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.

4. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.

6. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Chicken Enchiladas

1. Heat a gas grill to medium high or build a medium-hot charcoal Coat the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Grill the chicken until just cooked through, 4-5 minutes a side for boneless chicken breasts.

3. Cool and then slice into thin strips or shred.

4. In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.

5. Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).

6. Drain on paper towels.

7. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.

8. In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.

9. Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.

10. Divide half the chicken among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.

11. Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the chicken, more sauce and another third of the cheese.

12. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.

13. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.

14. To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Additional Information:

Roasting chiles: Whether you roast the chiles on a grill, under the broiler, or use the gas burner element on your stove will affect the time it takes. If you do all the chiles at once on a grill or using the broiler, it will take 15- 30 minutes, plus time to steam (10 minutes) and time to peel and remove seeds (20 minutes).

http://www.ehow.com/how_5106125_roast-anaheim-peppers.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4437304_roast-anaheim-green-chiles-grill.html

Cooking tomatillos: If you boil the tomatillos, it will take 5 -10 minutes. If you grill them, it will take 2-5 minutes. If you broil them, it will take 8-12 minutes. This can be done the same time the chiles are roasting. After they are cooked, they need to be pureed, which takes a few seconds in a blender.

http://culinarycory.com/2009/08/08/roasted-tomatillo-salsa/

http://jerseygirlcooks.blogspot.com/2009/02/roasted-tomatillo-salsa.html

Cooking chicken: If you grill your chicken, it takes about 5 or 6 minutes per side for boneless chicken breasts- depending on thickness of breasts. Other pieces (thighs, for example) or bone-in chicken will take longer. If you roast your chicken, a bone-in breast takes about 30 minutes (depending on size). Be sure chicken is done but not overcooked, since it will be in the oven in the last stage of the recipe. http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/05/how-to-make-juicy-grilled-chicken.html

Corn Tortillas (from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen)

Makes about 15

1 3/4 cups masa harina

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons hot water

Pour hot water over masa harina, cover and let sit 30 minutes. Add (additional) cool water 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough is soft but not sticky. Divide the dough into 15 balls and cover with plastic wrap.

Heat a large (two burner) ungreased griddle or two large skillets, one on medium-low and one on medium-high.

Put a ball of dough between two sheets of plastic. If you don’t have a tortilla press, press to a 5-6” circle using a heavy frying pan or bread board or other heavy, flat object. Put the tortilla into the cooler pan or cooler end of the griddle. The tortilla will probably stick, but within 15 seconds, if the temperature is correct, it will release. Flip it at that point onto the hotter skillet/griddle section. In 30-45 seconds, it should be dotted with brown underneath. Flip it over, still on the hot surface and brown another 30 seconds or so. A good tortilla will balloon up at this point. Remove from heat and let them rest while cooking the remaining tortillas.

Let us eat Cake: Rhabarber Kuchen – Rhubarb Cake

2010-05-13T09:46:00.001+02:00

Do you like Rhubarb?

I do.

But only in Cake form and only if the Rhubarb is so soft that its melting on you tongue.

There is nothing as horrible as undercooked Rhubarb that gives you the felling of fur on your tongue.

This is a German cake, economical and delicious. That`s the way I like it.

But the best Part about this cake is that you can make it a strawberry cake, gooseberry cake or a blackberry cake by just replacing the key ingredient.

Try it and love it.

Rhabarber Kuchen – Rhubarb Cake

3 Eggs

270g Flour

1t Backing powder

170g Butter

170g Sugar

700g Rhubarb

40g Cornstarch

fresh whipped cream for serving

After separate the eggs. Knead the Egg yolks, Flour, Backing Powder, Butter and half of the Sugar into a dough. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven 180°C.

Now clean and the Rhubarb, cutting it lengthways to then cut it into small dice.

Use parchment paper for the bottom of a spring form pan. Roll out the dough and put it into the pan. Make sure that you have a high rim. With a Fork prick the dough all over.

Beat the Egg whites until you have stiff peaks, add the left Sugar slowly. Mix the Rhubarb with the starch, add the Rhubarb into the Egg whites and finally spread it over the dough.

Bake for 1 hour. Carefully while the cake is still warm remove from the pan. Place on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Serve with fresh cream.

Playing with the dough: Brezeln or Prezel

2010-04-26T19:57:00.000+02:00

Growing up in Baden-Württemberg the first real schwabian food most kids have is a fresh Bretzel. Most of the children on the streets sitting in the strollers have one in the hand. Car seats all over are cleaned on Saturdays from the crumbs of this delicious treat.

Don`t think that a schwabian Brezel is like a Bavarian one. We have a part that is bigger and with a cut making it possible to have a soft roll like part and a crispy part on the same Brezel.

Our Brezels are eaten in the morning or as a treat with a cup of coffee in the evening.

It`s hard for me to talk about it but at this point in time its hard to get a good Brezel. Most of the Bakers have closed or use horrible frozen Brezeln.

They are tasteless, either bone-dry or rubbery.

So no wonder I started to bake my own.

I was inspired by this Recipe from Hefe und Mehr. But I made some changes, because that`s just what I do.

Make some yourself, or try some Rolls it`s delicious.

Brezeln

yield 20 Pretzels or Rolls

Sponge

100g water

100g bread flour

1g fresh yeast

Dough

500g bread flour

400g spelt flour

225g water

300g milk (I use Goat since my boys are allergic to cow)

18g fresh yeast

20g salt

25g butter

all Sponge

Lye

1 liter water

40g NaOH pellets

coarse Salt for sprinkling

Mix water, flour and yeast for the Sponge and ferment it overnight (12 to 16 hours).

The next day: Mix all ingredients for the dough and knead it for about 3 min at low speed, then 6 min on high speed.

Ferment the dough for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into pieces of 80g and form them into balls.

Rest them for 30 more minutes.

Now roll the dough to a strand of 65 cm. The strand should be thick in the middle and really thin at the ends. Form to a pretzel and place on a well floured tray. Proof one hour at room temperature, then place the tray for 5 minutes into the freezer ( or 30 min in the fridge). This makes the dough firmer, so it easier to place the pretzel in the lye.

In the meantime prepare the lye and heat the oven to 225°C.

Dip the pretzels for 10 seconds in the lye, then take them out with a slotted spoon.

Place on a tray lined with baking parchment. Slash the thick part of the pretzel, sprinkle with coarse salt and bake it at 225°C for 15-18 Minutes.

Place on a cooling rack and Enjoy.

Challenging myself : April 2010 Daring Bakers’ Challenge Marmalade Pudding and Jam Roly Poly

2010-04-26T19:47:00.000+02:00

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

I loved, loved, and loved this challenge. Since I used to make my own lard, making my own Suet was no big problem. I had a harder time getting it.

Still after having to wait 2 weeks for my Butcher to have what I so much needed it was super easy to have the first part of my suet puddings finished.

Knowing that it would hold better up to the transport I made a baked Jam Roly Poly. At first I wanted to make a steamed one but knowing my children and the love they have for crust I just knew that this was the way to go.

The Roly Poly was filled with the last strawberry jam from last year and sprinkled with brown sugar. Served with a little fresh whipped cream it was a nice dessert.

Next time I will steam the Roly Poly because I think that this will help the flavours, not the forget that the baked one was on the dry side.

Next I made the Marmalade Pudding, again using the homemade jam. This was so delicious I not even wanted to share. Using my Grandmothers pudding form and the potato steamer for this task made it so easy and uncomplicated that I from now on will do it a lot.

There is much to explore, to taste and try. Go over to the Daring Bakers and take a look.

Or just grab the recipes here.

Easy, Addictive and Healthy: Alton Browns Grapefruit Brûlée

2010-04-24T13:55:00.000+02:00

Since we are all still not feeling to well, I was just not in the mood to post. I did make great pictures of adorable and delicious food and will soon tell you about it.

But today I only have a small treat fro you.

I adore Alton and most of the time I am pretty happy with his food but this Grapefruit Brûlée with the sprinkling of Salt is so amazing I just want to eat it all the time.

It`s easy and it`s so delicious that I have had it 7 days in a row ( yes I know crazy).

Give it a try and if you want to watch how Alton does it watch Good Eats his delicious episode called The Ballad of Salty and Sweet.

Grapefruit Brûlée

Ingredients

2 red or pink grapefruits, chilled

2 tablespoons coarse sugar

3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

Special Equipment: Blowtorch

Halve each grapefruit crosswise, and cut a thin slice off the bottom of each half to stabilize the pieces. Remove all seeds from the grapefruit, and loosen the segments with a paring knife.

Sprinkle each half evenly with the sugar. Using a blowtorch, melt the sugar to form a golden brown and crispy surface. Sprinkle the hot sugar with the salt, and serve immediately.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' April Challenge Chicken and Rabbit Brunswick Stew

2010-04-14T13:46:00.000+02:00

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

At first I will have to confess that I worked a little around this months recipe. We are all sick, the kids have a sore throat and hubby is on the couch with lumbago.

I myself have huge problems with a liver inflammation what means fatty food is bad. I feel so horrible that even thinking about bacon is making me sick.

I used this month challenge to make a almost fat free version of Brunswick Stew. I used no Bacon, and only chicken breast and lean rabbit meat.

It was delicious. We will make it again, healthy and full of flavour this is a Winner.

I used vegetable stock as the Base, grilled the Chicken Breast and put it aside, thee rabbit I browned in a little rapeseed oil ( this is a beautiful oil for people with liver problems ).

As you will see if you take a look at the Original recipes you can see that the sky is the limit when it comes to the choice of meat and vegetables.

Please give it a try and maybe even go and take a look at the delicious versions of the amazing Daring Cooks.

Recipe One, the Long Way-
From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Serves about 12

1/4 lb / 113.88 grams / 4 oz slab bacon, rough diced
2 Serrano, Thai or other dried red chiles, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened
1lb / 455.52 grams / 16oz rabbit, quartered, skinned
1 4-5lb / 1822.08- 2277.6 grams / 64-80oz chicken, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / ½ oz sea salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste
2-3 quarts / 8-12 cups / 64.607-96.9oz Sunday Chicken Broth (recipe below)
2 Bay leaves
2 large celery stalks
2lbs / 911.04 grams / 32oz Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy type potatoes, peeled, rough diced
1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz carrots (about 5 small carrots), chopped
3 ½ / 804.72 grams / 28.266oz cups onion (about 4 medium onions) chopped
2 cups / 459.84 grams / 16.152oz fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (about 4 ears)
3 cups / 689.76 grams / 24.228oz butterbeans, preferably fresh (1 ¼ lbs) or defrosted frozen
1 35oz can / 996.45 grams / 4 cups whole, peeled tomatoes, drained
¼ cup / 57.48 grams / 2.019 oz red wine vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons
Tabasco sauce to taste

Recipe Two, The Short Way-
This version goes on the assumption that you already have cooked your meats and have broth on hand. This was also my first experience with eating Brunswick stew. It’s got more of a tomato base, has larger, chunkier vegetables, but is just as wonderful as recipe one. However, it is a lot quicker to make than the first recipe.

Brunswick Stew recipe from the Callaway, Va Ruritan Club, served yearly at the Blue Ridge Folklife Festival in Ferrum, Va.

Serves about 10

2 ½ lb TOTAL diced stewed chicken, turkey, and ham, with broth - yes, all three meats
3 medium diced potatoes
2 medium ripe crushed tomatoes
2 medium diced onions
3 cups/ 689.76 grams / 24.228oz frozen corn
1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz frozen lima beans
4-5 strips crumbled bacon
½ stick / 4 tablespoons / ¼ cup / 56.94 grams / 2oz of butter
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz sugar
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / .5 oz ‘Poultry Seasoning’
Dash of red pepper
2 diced carrots (optional)
Tomato juice

Directions-

Recipe 1-

1-In the largest stockpot you have, which is hopefully larger than the 5 qt ones I have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chiles. Toast the chiles until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.

2- Season liberally both sides of the rabbit and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chiles, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, chiles and rabbit. Set it aside.

3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock, if you prefer, to the pan and basically deglaze the4 pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit, bacon, chiles and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. Supposedly, the stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chiles. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.

4- With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf, celery, chiles, bacon and discard.5 After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.

5- Add in your onion, butterbeans, corn and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, crush them up, be careful not to pull a me, and squirt juice straight up into the air, requiring cleaning of the entire stove. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, corn and butterbeans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.

6 You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.

Recipe2-

In large stock pot or Dutch Oven, mix all ingredients, heat until bubbly and hot. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add tomato juice as desired. Cook until all vegetables are tender. Serve hot.

Optional- Not required for the Challenge-

Sunday Chicken Broth

From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee

Makes about 1 quart (4 cups or 919.68 grams or 32.303 oz)
Estimated Time- 1 ¼ hours

Bones and trimmings, but not giblets, of one 3 ½- 4 ½ lb (1594.32-2049.84 grams or 56-72 oz) chicken, or 12-14 oz / 341.64-398.58 grams / approx. 2 cups chicken bones and trimmings
1 large onion, trimmed, peeled, quartered
6 large stems fresh flat leaf parsley
1 stalk celery, cut into 2” lengths
2 large bay leaves
5 cups / 1149.6 grams / 40.379 oz cold water
1 cup / 229.92 grams / 8.076oz crisp dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

Place bones/trimmings in medium stockpot and add onion, parsley, celery and bay leaves. Add wine and water, liquid should cover all ingredients, if not, add more until it does. Bring to vigorous simmer over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer gently for roughly 45 minutes to an hour, skimming any scum or fat that comes to the surface.

Strain broth into bowl through fine mesh strainer. Discard the solids. Measure what you are left with, if not planning to further reduce, then salt and pepper to taste.

Store in tightly sealed container in refrigerator until the remaining fat congeals on the top. Remove the fat, and unless not using within 2 days, keep tightly sealed in the refrigerator. Otherwise, freeze, and it will keep for upwards of a month.

Playing with the dough : Sweet Bunny Rolls

2010-03-24T08:54:00.000+01:00

I love Yeast Dough and I love to Bake so it's no big surprise that I love to bake this little Bunny's for all the Kids in the Family.

They are delicious alone or cut open and spread with homemade strawberry jam.

As you can see on the Pictures its pretty easy and I promise you everybody will love them. I will even send them to YeastSpotting, they are just to cute that I just need to share.

You don't have to make them into Bunny's you can do what ever you want.

Even a little Owl is possible

Give it a try and tell me what you made.

Sweet Bunny Rolls

3 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup + 2 T lukewarm milk

1/2 cup yogurt cheese or quark

1 egg, separated

raisins and coarse sugar for decoration

Mix the flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast in a bowl.

If you use a mixer please use the dough hook if not a large spoon is fine.

Mix the milk, butter and Cheese/Quark into the flour.

Knead 1-2 minutes, form into a ball, cover and let rise for one hour.

The dough will not double and you should not panic. It’s very rich and so it will only rise a little.

You can even make the dough the night before you want to bake the bunny’s and stick it into the refrigerator until you are ready.

But don’t forget to let it come to room temperature before you start shaping.

You can shape your Bunny’s how ever you want. You can let your children do it or make them yourself.

I like to cut the dough into 6 pieces. Each piece now is divided into two parts 1/3 of the Ball for the Head and 2/3 of the dough for the body.

Roll the larger piece into a rope about a foot long coil it around your hand and lay it onto a baking sheet that has some non-stick foil on it. As you can see on my unbaked bunny the ends of the rope are sticking out. One end will be the feet and on the tail ( as you can see my tail became Easter egg big and I will tell you that this is the way I wanted it).

Now take the smaller Ball and form it into a egg shape. With shears snip into the pointy end and cut halfway down the middle to form ears.

Now lay the Head onto the body, make sure you like how it’s placed. Use the egg white as glue to make sure the head stays with the body.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make e egg wash out of the egg yolk and the 2 T Milk and brush the Bunnies add a raisin for the eye and decorate with the coarse sugar if desired.

Let rise in a warm place.

Bake at 350°F for 25 - 30 minutes, or until bunnies are golden brown and firm to the touch.

Let them cool on a rack and Enjoy.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' March Challenge Balsamic Roasted Beetroot Risotto

2010-03-14T09:23:00.000+01:00

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This was a hard Challenge. Not the cooking of the Risotto, not the time and the mood. The Children are sick again. I myself have a horrible case of bronchitis and since I have Lung problems and not a full functioning Lung this sucks.

All this I tell you because if I become this sick I usually are unable to taste anything. It`s like chocking down cardboard.

This means I had to wait until the last minutes in the hopes that I would feel better and make a good risotto.

We eat Risotto a lot. Especially in the Summer months my husband and I love to eat a hot Risotto with a sharp fresh Salad from the Garden.

I adore herbs and so it`s no wonder the Risotto we cook most is only favoured with Rosemary. Closely followed by Basil and Parsley.

If we want something different that looks amazing we love a Radicchio Risotto with a fresh Tomato salad.

You see why we usually cook Risotto in the Summer. We use what we find in our Garden.

It`s Winter and I wanted to do something different.

I still have Beetroot in the basement and I adore them Roasted with Balsamic vinegar so this is what I used.

But first I made a chicken stock. This too is nothing new in my kitchen. Since a lot of people in our families have allergies and some are lactose-intolerant I only use homemade stock.

As you can see on the picture I use a real boiling hen, this is the way to go if you want a real tasty stock.

For the Risotto I roasted peeled and cut beets sprinkled with Balsamic vinegar for a hour in the oven (200°C). Half of the Beets I cut into small cubes, the same size of the diced red onion. The rest of the Beets I pureed into the chicken stock.

This Risotto is on the sweet side so I used a dollop of Crème fraiche, a lot of Black Pepper and some fresh chives to cut through.

Give it a try and tell me what you think. Now go over to the Daring Bakers Side and look at the amazing thing they did and also get the lovely DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE RECIPES HERE!.

Challenging myself: Daring Bakers’ February Challenge Tiramisu with homemade Ladyfingers

2010-02-27T14:13:00.000+01:00

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

This was the first time in years I made Ladyfingers and it was not only easy, fast the result was delicious and my boys loved them so much we made a second batch only hours after the first one left the oven. You just have to look at the pictures of the baking to know we had fun.

The boys did the piping and we giggled like mad as we blew the sugar away.

Next time I will use granulated sugar like I used to. Less mess and way more texture.

Then there was the Mascarpone, easy, pretty fast and a lot cheaper.

Now it was time to make the star of this months challenge.

I adore Tiramisu, like everybody that had a Italian step dad should. I like the simplicity of this dessert. I dare say this simplicity is what makes this one of the most famous desserts I know of.

Clearly there are differences in the preparation. In Italy you can walk down a street and they will cook absolutely different.

Why to I even bother to talk about it?

I don`t like this recipe, I did not like the mess it made ( yes I know it was me) I did not care for the texture and especially the taste. Still it was a challenge and I will make the Ladyfingers

again.

For the children I made a plain Mascarpone version with a little cream and bananas. The Ladyfingers were sprinkled with cacao and each layer toped with thin slices of fresh bananas.

They loved it.

Go take a look at the recipe, try it, taste it, look at the amazing things the others made.

DARING BAKER BLOGROLL

Mascarpone Cheese – Vera’s Recipe (Baking Obsession) for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese.
Savoiardi/ Ladyfinger Biscuits – Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home
Tiramisu – Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007

THE CHALLENGE:

We have chosen Baltimore pastry chef Carminantonio Iannaccone’s version of tiramisu for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, his recipe is different from most other tiramisu recipes as he makes a zabaglione, an egg custard which is flavoured with Marsala wine (you may use coffee instead). Even more important is that his zabaglione is cooked so there is no risk from using raw eggs.
He also makes a vanilla flavoured pastry cream which we haven't seen in other tiramisu recipes.

While both of us do eat eggs, we do have a preference for desserts where the smell and taste do not come through. We found that the coffee in the recipe masked the eggs in adequately.

Just in case you would prefer to make an eggless tiramisu, we are including recipes in the Alternate Bakers section to make eggless ladyfinger biscuits and an eggless and alcohol-free tiramisu.

The recipes for this challenge are presented in the following order:

A. Tiramisu (includes zabaglione & vanilla pastry cream)
B. Mascarpone Cheese
C. Ladyfinger/ Savoiardi Biscuits

VARIATIONS:

Tiramisu is usually made in square dishes and cut into squares to serve. If you want to be different, please feel free to give full rein to your creativity as to how you want to present, decorate and serve your tiramisu. Make it square, round, as individual servings, or whatever! However, your version of Tiramisu must contain the mascarpone cheese and the savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits you made.

PREPARATION TIME:

Tiramisu is made up of several components which can be made separately and ahead of time and put together the day before serving.
Making tiramisu from scratch requires about 2 to 3 days (including refrigeration) from when you start making the mascarpone to the time the tiramisu is served. So this challenge requires some prior planning.

Please read the instructions as you need to begin making the mascarpone at least a day in advance.
The zabaglione & pastry cream also need 4 hours to an overnight for chilling, as does the main dessert. The flavours mature after an overnight rest, and the dessert can be kept refrigerated for 2-3 days.
Once assembled, the tiramisu can be frozen till you need to serve it, in case you are not serving it immediately.

EQUIPMENT REQUIRED:
A double boiler (a stainless steel bowl that fits inside a large saucepan/ pot without touching the bottom will do)
Two or three large mixing bowls
Whisk
A medium sized heavy bottomed pan
Fine meshed strainer (to remove lumps from pastry cream, if any)
Electric mixer, hand held
Serving dish (or dishes) of choice (8" by 8" should be fine)
Spatula for folding and spoons as required
Plastic wrap/ clingfilm
Baking sheets
Parchment paper or nonstick liners
Pastry bag (can be disposable)
Plain 3/4" pastry bag tip or cut the end of pastry bag to this size (If you don’t have a pastry bag and/or tips, you can use a Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off)
Oven
Cooling rack
Thin-bladed spatula for removing ladyfinger biscuits from the baking sheets
Instant-read thermometer (optional)
Strainer
Cheesecloth or cotton napkin for draining mascarpone
Fine-mesh strainer for shaking cocoa powder on tiramisu

TIRAMISU

(Recipe source: Carminantonio's Tiramisu from The Washington Post, July 11 2007 )
This recipe makes 6 servings

Ingredients:
For the zabaglione:
2 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar/50gms
1/4 cup/60ml Marsala wine (or port or coffee)
1/4 teaspoon/ 1.25ml vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

For the vanilla pastry cream:
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1 tablespoon/8gms all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup/175ml whole milk

For the whipped cream:
1 cup/235ml chilled heavy cream (we used 25%)
1/4 cup/55gms sugar
1/2 teaspoon/ 2.5ml vanilla extract

To assemble the tiramisu:
2 cups/470ml brewed espresso, warmed
1 teaspoon/5ml rum extract (optional)
1/2 cup/110gms sugar
1/3 cup/75gms mascarpone cheese
36 savoiardi/ ladyfinger biscuits (you may use less)
2 tablespoons/30gms unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:
For the zabaglione:
Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.
In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the Marsala (or espresso/ coffee), vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.
Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.
Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the pastry cream:
Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.
Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)
Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

For the whipped cream:
Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

To assemble the tiramisu:
Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8" by 8" should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.
Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.
Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.
To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

MASCARPONE CHEESE

(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese)
This recipe makes 12oz/ 340gm of mascarpone cheese

Ingredients:
474ml (approx. 500ml)/ 2 cups whipping (36 %) pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% cream will do)
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Method:

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.
It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.
Vera’s notes: The first time I made mascarpone I had all doubts if it’d been cooked enough, because of its custard-like texture. Have no fear, it will firm up beautifully in the fridge, and will yet remain lusciously creamy.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

LADYFINGERS/ SAVOIARDI BISCUITS
(Source: Recipe from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 24 big ladyfingers or 45 small (2 1/2" to 3" long) ladyfingers.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, separated
6 tablespoons /75gms granulated sugar
3/4 cup/95gms cake flour, sifted (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp corn starch)
6 tablespoons /50gms confectioner's sugar,

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C) degrees, then lightly brush 2 baking sheets with oil or softened butter and line with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites using a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gradually add granulate sugar and continue beating until the egg whites become stiff again, glossy and smooth.
In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly with a fork and fold them into the meringue, using a wooden spoon. Sift the flour over this mixture and fold gently until just mixed. It is important to fold very gently and not overdo the folding. Otherwise the batter would deflate and lose volume resulting in ladyfingers which are flat and not spongy.
Fit a pastry bag with a plain tip (or just snip the end off; you could also use a Ziploc bag) and fill with the batter. Pipe the batter into 5" long and 3/4" wide strips leaving about 1" space in between the strips.
Sprinkle half the confectioner's sugar over the ladyfingers and wait for 5 minutes. The sugar will pearl or look wet and glisten. Now sprinkle the remaining sugar. This helps to give the ladyfingers their characteristic crispness.
Hold the parchment paper in place with your thumb and lift one side of the baking sheet and gently tap it on the work surface to remove excess sprinkled sugar.
Bake the ladyfingers for 10 minutes, then rotate the sheets and bake for another 5 minutes or so until the puff up, turn lightly golden brown and are still soft.
Allow them to cool slightly on the sheets for about 5 minutes and then remove the ladyfingers from the baking sheet with a metal spatula while still hot, and cool on a rack.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Mediterranean Food: Loukanika - Greek sausage with yogurt sauce

2010-02-14T15:37:00.000+01:00

This I made for the Mezze Challenge of the Daring cooks.

I also made it because I like Greek food.

I like Greece I adore the people, some of them.

For 16 years my best friend was a Greek girl. We were inseparable. In school we sat next to each other. We walked to school together and back, each time I had to take the dogs for a walk we would meet and talk like only girls can talk about anything and nothing.

We dreamed together. About boys, about the life we wanted.

I don`t know were she is now. If she too is married and has children.

If she misses me like I do her.

If she sometimes dreams about sitting on the church steps singing together.

This is for you Marina. I hope you are happy. I hope we will find each other again.

Loukanika

350 g ground pork shoulder

100 g ground beef

1 minced clove garlic

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon oregano

zest of one small orange

salt and black pepper

100 ml dry red wine

yogurt sauce

½ cup fresh greek yogurt

¼ cup fresh shopped parsley

1 teaspoon fresh dill

½ cup grated and dried cucumber

salt and pepper to taste

Combine chilled ground pork and seasoning mixture in a large bowl, and blend using your hands, taking care that the seasoning is evenly distributed.

Take about a golf ball size in both hands and roll to form small sausage shaped links or if this is easier for you into patties.

You can either grill them outside or do them in the broiler. Use the grill pan or just plain and simple use a pan.

for the yogurt sauce mix all ingredients together and chill for at least 2 hours.

Serve with a nice Salad and enjoy.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' February Challenge Mezze with Pita Bread and Hummus

2010-02-14T15:13:00.001+01:00

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

I think this months challenge was amazing I loved it. Thank you Michele for this delicious and fun way to have a lovely valentine party without having to do to much dishes.

On the bottom you will find the recipes for this challenge but if you want to take a closer look and the get the recipe from the things I came up with click the links below the pictures.

Do it have your own Mezze, and use lots and lots of garlic.

baked Olives with Pesto

Greek Dolmades - Filled Grape Leaves

Chickpea Salad with Red and Yellow Peppers, Spring Onions, Cucumber and Parsley

Börek Style Casserole with Sheep Cheese and Spinach

Giant White Beans with Aubergine and Onions

Loukanika - Greek sausage with yogurt sauce

Apple Pie Baklava with Walnuts

Falafels - Recipe from Joan Nathan and Epicurious.com
Prep Time: Overnight for dry beans and 1 hour to make Falafels

1 cup dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight OR use well canned drained chickpeas (7 ounces/100 grams)
1/2 large onion (roughly chopped, about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried parsley (.2 ounces/5 grams)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped OR use a couple pinches of dried cilantro (.2 ounces/5 grams)
1 teaspoon table salt (.1 ounce/5 grams)
1 teaspoon dried hot red peppers (cayenne) (.1 ounce/2 grams)
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 teaspoon cumin (.1 ounce/2 grams)
1 teaspoon baking powder (.13 ounces/4 grams)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour (1 ounce/24 grams) (you may need a bit extra)
tasteless oil for frying (vegetable, canola, peanut, soybean, etc.), you will need enough so that the oil is three inches deep in whatever pan you are using for frying

Directions:
1. Put the chickpeas in a large bowl and add enough cold water to cover them by at least 2 inches. Let soak overnight, and then drain. Or use canned chickpeas, drained.
2. Place the drained, uncooked chickpeas and the onions in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the parsley, cilantro, salt, hot pepper, garlic, and cumin. Process until blended but not pureed. If you don’t have a food processor, then feel free to mash this up as smooth as possible by hand.
3. Sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of the flour, and pulse. You want to add enough bulgur or flour so that the dough forms a small ball and no longer sticks to your hands. Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.
4. Form the chickpea mixture into balls about the size of walnuts.
5. Heat 3 inches of oil to 375 degrees (190C) in a deep pot or wok and fry 1 ball to test. If it falls apart, add a little flour. Then fry about 6 balls at once for a few minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towels.

Hummus – Recipe adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
Prep Time: Hummus can be made in about 15 minutes once the beans are cooked. If you’re using dried beans you need to soak them overnight and then cook them the next day which takes about 90 minutes.

1.5 cups dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water overnight (or substitute well drained canned chickpeas and omit the cooking) (10 ounces/301 grams)
2-2.5 lemons, juiced (3 ounces/89ml)
2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
a big pinch of salt
4 tablespoons tahini (sesame paste) OR use peanut butter or any other nut butter—feel free to experiment) (1.5 ounces/45 grams)
additional flavorings (optional) I would use about 1/3 cup or a few ounces to start, and add more to taste

Directions:
1. Drain and boil the soaked chickpeas in fresh water for about 1 ½ hours, or until tender. Drain, but reserve the cooking liquid.
2. Puree the beans in a food processor (or you can use a potato masher) adding the cooking water as needed until you have a smooth paste.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Adjust the seasonings to taste.

Pita Bread – Recipe adapted from Flatbreads & Flavors by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Prep time: 20 minutes to make, 90 minutes to rise and about 45 minutes to cook

2 teaspoons regular dry yeast (.43 ounces/12.1 grams)
2.5 cups lukewarm water (21 ounces/591 grams)
5-6 cups all-purpose flour (may use a combination of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose, or a combination of alternative flours for gluten free pita) (17.5 -21 ounces/497-596 grams)
1 tablespoon table salt (.50 ounces/15 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil (.95 ounces/29 ml)

Directions:
1. In a large bread bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Stir to dissolve. Stir in 3 cups flour, a cup at a time, and then stir 100 times, about 1 minute, in the same direction to activate the gluten. Let this sponge rest for at least 10 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
2. Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and stir in the olive oil. Mix well. Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough is too stiff to stir. Turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Rinse out the bowl, dry, and lightly oil. Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until at least doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours.
3. Place a pizza stone, or two small baking sheets, on the bottom rack of your oven, leaving a 1-inch gap all around between the stone or sheets and the oven walls to allow heat to circulate. Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
4. Gently punch down the dough. Divide the dough in half, and then set half aside, covered, while you work with the rest. Divide the other half into 8 equal pieces and flatten each piece with lightly floured hands. Roll out each piece to a circle 8 to 9 inches in diameter and less than 1/4 inch thick. Keep the rolled-out breads covered until ready to bake, but do not stack.
5. Place 2 breads, or more if your oven is large enough, on the stone or baking sheets, and bake for 2 to 3 minutes, or until each bread has gone into a full balloon. If for some reason your bread doesn't puff up, don't worry it should still taste delicious. Wrap the baked breads together in a large kitchen towel to keep them warm and soft while you bake the remaining rolled-out breads. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.

Doing something different: Apple Pie Baklava with Walnuts

2010-02-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

I needed something sweet for the Mezze and to be hones the usuall Baklava is just to sweet.

So what to do. I think Walnuts and Apples are a killer combination and if you like I did use some really tart apples it will help cut the sweetness of the dish.

Try it and maybe you will fall in love.

I served this billions of calories with a tablespoon fresh cold yogurt.

Apple Pie Baklava with Walnuts

1 lb. chopped Walnuts

1 lb of phyllo dough

1 cup of butter, melted

1/3 cup of sugar

2 cups shredded tart apples

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

syrup:

1 cup of water

1 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of honey

1/4 cup lemon juice

Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and set the oven to 175°C.

If needed thaw the dough. Roll out the dough and cut it into half's.

Don`t forget to always cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap.

Process the walnuts until you have small even sized pieces. Combine with the sugar and apples.

Place a sheet of phyllo dough into the pan. Using a pastry brush, brush the phyllo sheet with melted butter. For the bottom you should have 5 layers of dough each buttered.

Spoon a layer of the nut mixture onto the buttered dough. Cover with more dough, always brushing with the butter.

Continue to repeat the nut mixture and two buttered sheets of phyllo until the nut mixture is all used up. The top layer should be 5 phyllo sheets thick, each sheet being individually buttered.

Bake at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden brown, and edges appear slightly crisp.

Make the syrup.

Combine the sugar, lemon juice, honey, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium low heat and let simmer until the sirup slightly thickens.

Allow to cool.

Spoon the cooled syrup over the hot baklava and let cool for at least 12 hours.

Cut into little squares.

Mediterranean Food: Greek Dolmades - Filled Grape Leaves

2010-02-14T13:51:00.000+01:00

This year for the first time I will be able to use my first fresh Grape Leaves and since I am a impatient person I just have to try as many different version I can get my hands on.

This recipe also was part of my Mezze. But I wanted to make a post out of it. so take a look and try them yourself.

Greek Dolmades - Filled Grape Leaves

1 can Grape leaves

2 lb Lean ground beef

1 cup Short-grain rice

1 large Onion, copped

1 tsp Dill weed

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

2 cup Chicken broth or water

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Place meat into large bowl and add copped onion, salt, pepper, dill weed, cumin and oil not to forget the rice.

Mix by hand until blended together.

Place about 1 tablespoon mixture in the center of washed leaf (ribs up)

roll into narrow roll.

Place rolls into pot in layers.

Cover each layer with some leafs.

Put a plate onto the rolls to make sure the don`t unravel.

Add chicken broth.

Cover and simmer about 45 minutes over low heat until rice is done.

Serve plain, with wedges of lemon or with egg lemon sauce.

Mediterranean Food: Giant White Beans with Aubergine and Onions

2010-02-14T13:37:00.000+01:00

A long time ago a good friend told me to eat more beans. She was convinced I would be a lot less pale if I would eat the right things.

Nowadays I eat a lot of them.

I am still pale. But I have a lot more freckles. Do you think it`s because of the beans?

Giant white beans with Aubergine and Onions

400g cooked white beans you can cook them fresh or use canned ones

400g aubergine cut into cubes

400g onion copped

2 tablespoon flour

2 cups water

salt and Pepper to taste

¼ teaspoon cayenne (pepper)

½ cup olive oil

preheat oven to 200 C.

Put the Onions, Aubergines and the olive oil into a pan and cook over medium heat.

Stirring frequently cook until the aubergine and onions are soft and start to get mushy.

Now add the flour stir and cook for one more minute. Add the water and cook the mixture 2 more minutes.

Season with the cayenne and salt and pepper. do not forget that you will add the unseasoned beans. Fold the into the mix and pour into a casserole dish.

Bake for 30 minutes

You can eat this warm and cold.

Waffles, Waffles: Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Waffles

2010-02-12T09:36:00.001+01:00

The boys are sick again, they have a virus infection. So we have to be strong and sit it out.
My problem is that they don`t want to eat and we all know that sick and hungry children are dangerous children.

At least mine are.

As it is my job to feed them and if possible do it in a healthy way ( without them knowing it) I came up with the idea to bake some healthy waffles.

I used apples with the peel. No it`s not just because I am a lazy mother, its healthy.

And Oatmeal made sure that even if they would only eat a little bit, it would go a long way.

So if you make a batter with apples and oatmeal you just have to have brown sugar and cinnamon.

This waffles are not light and fluffy cake like waffles, they are moist and taste divine like a pound cake.

The apple and the yogurt make sure of it.

Give it a try.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Waffles

2 c flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 c rolled oats

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoon brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 big apple grated

1 c yogurt

1 c milk

1/4 c melted butter

1 T vegetable oil (for waffle iron)

Preheat the waffle iron.

In a large bowl, mix together the first seven ingredients (flour to sugar). In a small bowl, combine the eggs, yogurt and milk and whisk to combine. Add in the melted butter.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix gently.

Don't overwork the batter.

Using a pastry brush, coat the griddle with oil.

Pour 3/4 c or so of the batter into the middle of the waffle iron.

Bake until golden brown and serve with maple syrup and thick yogurt. Or just with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.

Playing with dough: Nutella Cinnamon Bread

2010-02-05T13:40:00.000+01:00

Happy WorldNUTELLA Day.

Sara from Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle from Bleeding Espresso (and Shelley from At Home in Rome, in spirit) solemnly declare Friday, February 5th “World Nutella Day 2010″ – a day to celebrate, to get creative with, and most importantly, to EAT Nutella.

My family loves it, I love it.

Who doesn’t love Nutella.

You can eat it from the Jar, have it on freshly baked bread, or dip fruits into it pretending it’s a healthy snack.

I still think its amazing that so many people on this planet adore this delightfully chocolaty spread. There are millions of different recipes out there using it as a ingredient, I am sure you will find something that will please you.

And maybe you will like my versions of a Nutella Bread.

Please leave a Comment and share what you do with you Nutella.

Nutella Cinnamon Bread

7g dry yeast

1/2 tablespoon sugar

125ml warm water

450g flour

1 teaspoon salt

150ml warm milk

40g melted butter

80g Nutella

2 teaspoon cinnamon

combine yeast, sugar and water and put aside for 10 minutes.

Now mix the flour and the salt, add to the yeast mix and stir in the milk, butter.

Put out into the counter and knead for about 5 minutes. I like to use my kitchen aid because the dough is pretty sticky.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes.

Roll out to a rectangle (20x25cm). Spread with the Nutella, sprinkle with the cinnamon and Roll the rectangle into a tight roll, starting at the long edge.

Place into a lightly greased loaf pan.

Cover and let rive for about 40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Bake the bread for 40-50 minutes.

yes it does not look all to good but this is because the twins had fun squishing it.

Playing with dough: Sourdough English Muffins

2010-01-26T21:24:00.000+01:00

As a child the best part about Sunday mornings was breakfast with my Papa. He would cook eggs, open all kinds of different Marmalades made by my grandmother and he would toast English Muffins.

I loved them almost burned, lathered with fresh sweet butter and under a golden blanked of Honey.

I can still taste it, if I close my eyes. Feel the mix of melting butter and honey run down my chin.

So now that my boys finally are a little more open to the taste of sourdough I just had to give it a try.

I am still a little bit in shock about how easy it is and how delicious they taste.

From now on I will make them myself, they are easy, fast and freeze amazingly.

Give them a try and let me know how you like to eat them.

Sourdough English Muffins

½ cup sourdough starter

1 cup all purpose flour

2 cups bread flour

1 cup water

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

semolina

Combine starter with 2 cups of bread flour and 1 cup of water. Stir thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap and let sit out overnight.

Add the salt, sugar and the remaining cup of flour.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes.

Roll out to ½ inch and cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds.

Before you can reroll the scraps, you need to let the dough rest.

Place muffins on a piece of parchment dusted with semolina, sprinkle the tops of the muffins with semolina and let them rise, covered with a dishtowel,

for about 40-50 minutes.

Heat a lightly greased skillet or griddle on medium heat.

Cook the muffins for about 5 minutes on each side, turning only once. The muffins will reach a light or medium brown (turn town the temperature slightly if they cook too quickly) on both the top and the bottom when they are cooked through. Before the first flip, the sides of the muffin will start to look dry, like the edges of a pancake, when it it ready to be turned. You can peek at the underside, too.

Cool completely before storing.

Challenging myself : Daring Bakers January Challenge Nanaimo Bars

2010-01-26T21:01:00.000+01:00

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month.

The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

First of all they are delicious. I love them the kids love them, even my husband loves them.

Believe me this is a bad, really bad thing.

You don`t understand?

Look at this picture.

This is my son ( the 1 minute older one) and he is missing a tooth.

My little crazy boys had nothing better to do than to stuff themselves with the Nanaimo Bars and high on sugar run around the living room.

There was a bang, a scream and a missing tooth that I later found under the table.

Don`t you just love it when something like this happens ( to somebody else).

So we took him to the dentist, everything should be fine. And in the car on the way home he already asked if he could get some more Namo.

I will make them again and you should too.

Recipe Source: Graham Wafers — 101 Cookbooks Lauren adapted it to be gluten-free. The adapted recipe is below.
Nanaimo Bars — City of Nanaimo

Notes for gluten-free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars:

• Glutinous rice flour does not contain any gluten, as it is made from a type of rice called glutinous (or sweet) rice.
• The graham wafer dough is very sticky. Make sure you are flouring (with sweet rice flour) well, or the dough will be difficult to remove from the surface you roll it out on. Also be sure to keep it cold. You do not want the butter to melt.
• I chose these flours because of their availability. Tapioca starch/flour and sweet rice flour can often be found in Asian grocery stores, or in the Asian section of you grocery store. Sorghum can be slightly more difficult to find, but it can be replaced with brown rice flour, millet flour or other alternatives.
• In the Nanaimo Bars, it is very important that the chocolate be cool but still a liquid, otherwise the custard layer will melt, and it will mix with the chocolate, being difficult to spread. Allow the chocolate mixture to come to room temperature but not solidify before spreading the top layer on.

Variations allowed:
• Although I highly recommend using gluten-free flours, as the chemistry is very interesting and the end result can be amazing, you are allowed to use wheat.
• If making them gluten-free, no wheat, barley, rye, triticale, kamut, spelt, durum, semolina, or other gluten containing ingredients may be used. Removing those ingredients ensures it is safe for those with Celiac Disease and other health issues where gluten causes problems. If you do plan on serving this to someone on a gluten-free diet, also ensure no cross-contamination occurs.

Preparation time:
• Graham Wafers: 30 to 45 minutes total active prep, 2 ½ hours to overnight and 45 minutes inactive prep.
• Nanaimo Bars: 30 minutes.

Equipment required:
• Food Processor
• Bowls
• Parchment paper or silpats
• Cookie sheets
• Double boiler or pot and heatproof bowl
• 8 by 8 inch square pan
• Hand mixer or stand mixer (You may use a wooden spoon, but this makes it much easier!)
• Saucepan

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
Ingredients
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 mL) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 mL ) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions:
1. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.
2. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.
3. Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.
5. Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).
6. Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.
7. Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.
9. When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients:

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter

Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

-------------------------------
Additional Information:

These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.

The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Mine lasted about that long.

If making the graham crackers with wheat, replace the gluten-free flours (tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and sorghum flour) with 2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose wheat flour, or wheat pastry flour. Watch the wheat-based graham wafers very closely in the oven, as they bake faster than the gluten-free ones, sometimes only 12 minutes.

For the Nanaimo Bars, if making with wheat, replace the gluten-free graham wafer crumbs with equal parts wheat graham wafer crumbs!

Discovering Asia : Thai Spring Rolls with Pork

2010-01-25T22:22:00.000+01:00

All long time ago, it must have been a long time ago because I was 18 at that time, I discovered my love for Chinese food.

I love the spices and the fast and easy way of cooking. Next I took a interest in Japanese food. I was amazed by the differences and at the same time I loved the similarities.

In no way would I say I was bored but now I just have to take a look into Thai food.

A good friend of us is in love, he is in love with a woman that makes the best Spring Rolls, maybe because she is Thai.

If he listens to me he will make sure that she keeps him, what means I will get a insights into this amazing culture and some recipes.

This spring roll recipe can be made vegetarian or with chicken or with shrimp or with tofu.

Give it a try, believe me that you will love it.

Thai Spring Rolls with Pork

Ingredients:

2 minced cloves garlic

1 Tbsp grated galangal

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 sliced green onions

1/2 minced red chilli ( you can add more, this is enough to give it flavour but no real heat)

1/2 cup shredded or finely chopped cabbage

4-6 cut shiitake mushrooms

1/2 cup cooked pork ground meat ( I like to mix the meat with a tsp cornstarch before I fry it, it stays juicier that way)

2 cups bean sprouts

1/2 cooked Chinese vermicelli

1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

2 Tbsp. oil, plus more for frying (I like to just fry them in a pan)

1 pkg. spring roll wrappers (thawed if frozen)

2 Tbsp. regular soy sauce

2 Tbsp. fish sauce ( oyster sauce works too)

2 Tbsp. lime juice

1/4 tsp. sugar

Add oil into a deep frying pan or if you have one into a wok. Add the garlic, galangal and ginger, the green onion and chilli. Stir-fry for about a minute. It may look like it`s not enough oil in the pan but believe me it is.

Now it`s time to add the cabbage, mushrooms and meat to the pan. Add the soy and fish ( oyster) sauce, not to forget the lime juice and the sugar to the mix. Stir-fry for 2 to 3 more minutes.

Remove the pan/wok from the heat and add the sprouts.

Give the filling a taste for seasoning let it cool for a few minutes. Add the basil and coriander and vermicelli.

Assemble the rolls:

Place a spring roll wrapper on the working surface. Place one heaping Tbsp. of the filling on the wrapper fold the sides of wrapper over filling, then lift up the wide end nearest you and tuck overtop.

Roll to the other end. Secure the roll by dipping your fingers in some water and wetting the end, "pasting" it shut.

Now you can deep fry the rolls or bake them in the pan/wok that has about 1 inch of oil heated over medium high heat.

Allow them to fry for 1 minute on each side. We only have to give them a nice golden brown color the filling is already cook so we only heating it.

Drain on a paper towel while frying the rest.

You can serve the rolls with a dipping sauce ( most people like Thai Sweet Chili Sauce ) or you can just eat them with a nice tossed salad.

Kids in the Kitchen: They made Breakfast alone...

2010-01-15T09:14:00.000+01:00

Why do they do this to me?

I could tell you all kind of cute stories about my boys. I could tell you that I love them, that they are clever, but you see maybe they are to clever.

Each Day this two can help me cooking, I always think about something for them to do. Because they are only allowed in the kitchen with a grownup. you want to know why? look at the pictures.

Yes I know they are just playing, but can`t they use there own kitchen?

But the biggest problem is on the second Picture to see.

Yes I am happy they were unable to open the Milk and yes I was lucky this time that they had not come to the eggs yet. But do you also see that sharp knife??

They make me so mad, in the middle of the night they get up and do things like that. should I stop cooking with them? cook more with them?

The only thing I know is that I will sure make some Pictures. This little Top chefs want to cook so why not show it to you.

Have a lovely Day and let somebody cook for you.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' January Challenge Thai-inspired Chicken Satay

2010-01-08T19:05:00.001+01:00

The January 2010 DC challenge was hosted by Cuppy of Cuppylicious and she chose a delicious Thai-inspired recipe for Pork Satay from the book 1000 Recipes by Martha Day.

I must say that I had Satay a few times, a few ways. This version was new to me.

As it is with most new recipes I will have to work, to make it more fitting for our taste buds, but this one has potential.

Cuppy was kind enough to not only give us the receipt for the Satay we were also given a recipe for a Peanut Sauce.

On to the challenge, we don`t eat much Pork, we just don`t like it. So I used chicken breasts. Normally I would have used chicken tights but I was just not in the mood for the longer wait.

The sliced up chicken breast only took 15 minutes to marinate and this time I used to make the Peanut Sauce. I used a double broiler to heat up the Sauce, it`s important to let it not get to hot.

The recipes are pretty easy and most of the ingredients I usually have at home, not that this stopped me from having a little fun in the Asia shop ( 45 Euro to be exact).

It`s not really Thai, it tastes more Indian. One of the twins was running away screaming that he would not eat it. My husband took one bite and mumbled that it was not so bad, but he would not eat it.

So the younger one of the twins and I shared them. He liked the chicken a lot, but the sauce had too much chili so I did not let him taste it.

I think the marinade needs a little more salt, which would have been added with the optional fish sauce, I forgot to buy ( only I can buy half of the Asia Shop and forget the reason I was there in the first place).

It was fun, it was nice, will I do it again?

Yes but I would marinade bigger pieces of meat. Add salt. Roast the coriander and cumin in the oil to give it a more powerful ( more Indian ) taste.

Give it a try and take a look at the amazing things all the other Daring Cooks did with this Challenge. You can find pictures and the original Challenge here.

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay Marinade

1/2 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)

2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)

1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)

1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)

2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)

1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)

Feeling the need to make it more Thai? Try adding a dragon chili, an extra tablespoon of ginger root, and 1 tablespoon (0.5 oz or 15 mls) of fish sauce. (I keep some premature (still green) dragon chili peppers in the freezer for just such an occasion.)

Directions:

1a. Cheater alert: If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.

2a. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.

3a. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Faster (cheaper!) marinade:

2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (1 oz or 30 mls)

2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)

1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp ginger powder (5 mls)

1 tsp garlic powder (5 mls)

1 tsp cayenne pepper (5 mls)

Directions:

1b. Mix well.

2b. Cut pork into 1 inch thick strips (2-2.5 cm thick), any length.

3b. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.

Cooking Directions (continued):

4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.

5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers. Discard leftover marinade.*

6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.

* If you’re grilling or broiling, you could definitely brush once with extra marinade when you flip the skewers.

Peanut Sauce

3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)

4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)

1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)

1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)

1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)

1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.

2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.

3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

Let us eat Cake: Lemon Yogurt Cake

2010-01-06T14:50:00.000+01:00

I love lemons, they are pretty, they smell clean and fresh, they are so useful.

I always buy lemons, each time I go into the supermarket I buy some, when I go to the farmers market I buy some. I always have them at home.

The only problem is that nobody wants to eat them. I tried lemon chicken, they did not like it. I gave lemon pound cake a try, they did not like it.

I made lemon curd. My hubby not even gave it a try.

I baked this cake, using the muffin method and they ate it all. There is no cake left. 3 hours after the cake was baked it was gone.

And I don`t want to tell you the horrible things my twin boys did. I only will say that while I was cleaning the bathroom they ate the cake, ripping it apart in their haste to get it all.

Next time I will buy one or two more lemons.

Lemon Yogurt Cake

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegtable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons powdered sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 175C. butter a round cake pan, line with a parchment circle.

In a bowl mix the flour and the baking powder. I another bowl now mix the yogurt, sugar, zest, oil and all 3 eggs. Now just if you would bake muffins add the flour mix and stir just to combine.

Don`t over work the batter or you will have a tough cake with ugly air holes in it.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the cake tester is clean. My cake was finished after 28 minutes so I would take a look after the cake baked for 25 minutes. The baking time depends on how large your eggs are and how much water is in your yogurt.

Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then gently remove it.

While the cake is still hot combine the lemon juice and the powered sugar, slowly spoon it gently over the cake. Making sure that the cake has a chance to soak up as much of the tart syrup as possible.

Let the cake cool completely. Before serving give it a sprinkle of fresh powdered sugar.

Playing with dough: Chives Rolls

2010-01-06T13:36:00.000+01:00

Finally I can bake again. I am so happy that I don`t have to bake cookies.

I love to bake bread, it makes me happy and so I thought why not bake some rolls to be eaten with a nice hot bowl of soup.

We love potato soup and like to sprinkle fresh chives over the top. The only problem is that I don`t have fresh chives at the moment.

Not in the Garden because its freezing, not on the windowsill because I am unable to keep it alive.

Yes I kill herbs. In my kitchen.

Then I remembered that I had a cup of frozen chives, they are not as good as the fresh ones but I think they are good enough for what I had in mind.

So after a trip into the snow, we had our potato soup and we had chives. just not as usual.

They are delicious and have a nice chive flavor to them, give them a try and tell me what you think. I am so proud of them I’m sending this over to YeastSpotting.

Chives Rolls

250g bread flour

250g all-purpose flour

40g fresh yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

330g milk

1 cup cut chives

3 tablespoons oil ( I like to use canola oil)

1 teaspoon salt

sesame seed

In the bowl of a stand mixer with dough hook, combine the bread and the all-purpose flour, mix the sugar the milk and the yeast and add it to the flour. Knead on low speed until combined.

Let it rest for 10 minutes.

Add the salt, the oil and the chives. Knead the dough until it`s smooth and elastic. Put it into a bowl, cover and ferment for 30 minutes.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface.

Divide into 16 pieces for the rolls.

Shape the dough pieces into balls and for a sesame seed topping, roll the top surface of the dough on a wet towel and then in sesame seeds.

Place the rolls, seam-side-down, onto a baking tray, I like to use baking parchment but this is up to you. Slash each roll with two cuts.

Proof, covered, for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 225C.

Bake for 10 minutes, lower the temperature to 200C and bake for 20 more minutes.

Cool on a wire rack.

You can eat them with soup, or make little ham and cheese sandwiches or just with some cream cheese. Either way we sure will make some more.

Challenging myself: Daring Bakers December Challenge Gingerbread (Bird) House

2009-12-27T17:33:00.000+01:00

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

This was a fun challenge especially since I as a child each year had a gingerbread house. My grandmother made the best one. You could not eat the house itself but believe me she put enough candy onto this things to last into the next year.

I am always amazed that grownups can get this exited about a little dough if they can build a candy covered house with it.

From the start it was clear that I would first build one with each of my boys.

I wanted something different and at the same time I wanted to follow the challenge so my gingerbread house is a gingerbread birdhouse.

The kid decorated it and even if I wanted to make something more grown up it just was more fun this way.

So how about building your own?

Do it, if you have kids do it with them. And don`t forget to let them eat at least the candy. You can find everything you need here.

See you next time.

Going Christmas Crazy: My Version of Christmas Rocky Road

2009-12-19T20:35:00.000+01:00

I adore Nigella and I love to watch this beautiful woman on TV, I watch her while reading, I watch her while I clean the mess that is our flat. She cooks what I would cook if I had the money and a family that would eat something this sophisticated.

I adore her Christmas series ( would love to get my hands on the book) and I just love her Christmas Rocky Road.

But I am lazy and I bake and bake Christmas Cookies when I have time so why should I go shopping just for this Chocolate covered mix?

I look and I have the answer. I use what is laying around from my baking.

Christmas Rocky Road the leftover way

150g dark chocolate, chopped

250g milk chocolate, chopped

175g softened butter, plus extra for greasing

4 tbsp golden syrup

200g Spekulatius (spiced almond biscuit) or amaretti

100g peanuts

100g red glace cherries ( I love them and would have added 100g more, but I ate them)

125g marshmallows (I used the big ones and cut them up, easier would be to use the mini marshmallows)

1 tbsp icing sugar

Place the chocolate, butter and golden syrup into a heavy-based pan. Cook over low heat until melted.

Place the cookies into a frezzer bad and bash with a rolling pin or a pan to brake them up, you should stop as soon as you have crumbs of various sizes.

Do the same with the nuts.

Now add the nuts and the cookie crumbs to the chocolate and mix. Next you add the cherries and the marshmallows. Fold the mixture until everything is coatet.

Pour the mixture into a 25cm x 30cm/12in greased and lined baking tray and smooth the surface as much as possible.

Refrigerate until firm enough to cut. Dust with icing sugar.

Remove the block of rocky road from the tray and cut into 24 rectangles.

Eat and tell me what you think. See you next time.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' December Challenge – Salmon en Croute

2009-12-14T10:16:00.000+01:00

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

This months challenge was not as easy as I hoped. The Recipe was amazing don`t get me wrong, the problem was that there was not the time I wanted.

And nobody wanted to eat.

At all.

I can proudly say that the whole family has been able to catch the flu, no not the swine flu. The “normal” flue.

It was horrible. As some of you know I have 3 ½ year old twin boys and the flu is dangerous for children. My husband is diabetic and so it was a problem to get the right medication and make sure he eats enough to make sure he is not getting real problems.

And there is little old me with a lung that has not more than 70% capacity on a good day.

Let`s just say the last 3 week were no picnic.

But finally we feel a little better. And yesterday I gave the challenge a try.

I wanted to make the original, but I just could not bring myself to go shopping.

So I changed the recipe a little and hope Simone is not to broken up about it.

I used char in place of salmon, I love char if you never had one you should give it a try.

I made the short-crust pastry myself using Simone`s recipe and it tasted great but it broke a lot. So next time I will use a pasty recipe with a egg. This makes the dough more workable. I also used almonds to give the impression of scales. and to be honest I just love the taste of fish wish almonds.

The result was tasty and I think even by husband would have eaten it, if we would eat.

I will do it again and I can only advise you to give it a try. See you next time.

Salmon en croute:

Ingredients

Mascarpone or creamcheese 5.2 ounces/150 gr

Watercress, rocket (arugula) and spinach - 0.6 cup/4.2 ounces/120 gr

Shortcrust pastry - 17.6 ounces, 500 gr. Use a butterversion such as Jus-rol which is frozen or dorset pastry. or... make your own!

Salmon fillet (skinless)- 17.6 ounce/500 gr

egg - 1 medium sized

Directions:

1.Heat the oven to 200°C/390 F. Put the mascarpone or cream cheese in a food processor with the watercress, spinach and rocket and whizz the lot until you have a creamy green puree. Season well.

2. Roll the pastry out so you can wrap the salmon in it completely (approx. 2-3 mm thick) and lay it on a buttered or oiled baking sheet (it will hang over the edges). Put the salmon in the middle. If it has a thinner tail end, tuck it under. Spoon half of the watercress mixture onto the salmon. Now fold the pastry over into a neat parcel (the join will be at the top, so trim the edge neatly), making sure you don’t have any thick lumps of pastry as these won’t cook through properly. Trim off any excess as you need to. Make 3 neat cuts in the pastry to allow steam to escape and make some decorations with the off-cuts to disguise the join if you like. Brush with the egg glaze.

3. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is crisp and browned. To test wether the salmon is cooked, push a sharp knife through one of the cuts into the flesh, wait for 3 seconds then test it against the inside of your wrist; if it is hot, the salmon is cooked. Serve with the rest of the watercress puree as a sauce.

Shortcrust pastry

While this is not mandatory to do, I highly recommend making your own shortcrust pastry as it is very simple to do! As mentioned in the notes; please make sure to not add too much water as that is the key to having a successful shortcrust pastry. Watch this video to check the correct consistency of the dough Making shortcrust pastry

Ingredients:

450 gr (15.8 ounces or 3.2 cups ) of plain all purpose flour

200 gr ( 7 ounce) cold butter

pinch of salt

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. If you have a food processor you can use that as shown in the above video.

Stir in the salt, then add 2-3 tbsp of water and mix to a firm dough. Knead the dough briefly and gently on a floured surface. Wrap in cling film and chill while preparing the filling.

For best results make sure the butter is very cold.

Challenging myself : The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge – Cannoli

2009-11-27T22:26:00.000+01:00

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

As you can see I did a little MacGyver here.

I never had Cannolo myself, but I knew what they are and how to make them. So this Months Challenge was a nice surprise.

I love to fry thing so this was no Problem for me. But I just don`t wanted to make one of the big Cannolis, I wanted something small, cute and more like a Praline.

isn't it cute?

So the first try was with cacao and red wine. I was not really happy with it, it puffed up like mad, but believe me this cute little things filled with plain butter cream were divine.

So I had done what I wanted, but still there had to be more fun to be had.

And let's not forget the fresh Ricotta I especially made for this occasion. ( find the receipt here).

So I made this little tower with Ricotta and Mascarpone and paired it fresh pineapple. Oh believe me the crispy discs ( this time with white wine and without cacao) with the fatty creaminess were delicious. And who does not love Pineapple?

So please try it. And don`t forget to take a look at the lovely things the others did.

You can find the Receipt for this Challenge here.

The Fast Way: Stuffed Pasta Shells with Ricotta

2009-11-24T22:26:00.000+01:00

Sometimes you just don't have the time.

You have to do it.

Fast.

No I don't mean the cooking, I mean the preparing. While this dish is in the oven you can do all the things that need to be done before the hungry hordes come home.

You know how it is. There is the bathroom that's need cleaning, the carped needs a little vacuum cleaner loving.

Not to forget the mountain of ironing.

So here something fast and delicious, that even looks pretty.

See you next time.

Stuffed Pasta Shells with Ricotta

Ingredients

50g Grated Parmesan cheese

250g ricotta cheese ( I used homemade ricotta you can find the receipt here)

1 clove minced garlic

1 tablespoons chopped fresh or 1 teaspoon dry basil

salt and pepper to taste

2 egg yolks

500g Pasta shells ( I like the really big ones )

2 teaspoons Olive oil

2 c Spaghetti sauce; homemade OR purchased

1/2 c Grated Parmesan cheese for sprinkling ( I use a lot more, but I am in love with this stuff)

Preheat oven to 190C.

Boil pasta shells until still slightly underdone, about 10 minutes.

Mix cheeses, garlic, basil, salt and pepper. Add the Egg yolks. Drain the Pasta and fill each shell with 1 tablespoon of the Ricotta mixture. Put the filled shells into a dish large enough to hold the pasta shells in one layer. Spread the Pasta sauce over the Shells, sprinkle the Parmesan over the top, cover with foil and put it into the oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, get ride of the foil and give it 5 minutes more.

Serve with a nice green Salad and enjoy.

child's play in the kitchen: chocolate chip scones

2009-11-20T21:23:00.000+01:00

I love to cook with my boys. They make me crazy most of the time, always opening cupboards they should not. Asking Questions and looking longingly at sharp knifes and kitchen sheers.

They are little Devils wanting to make mischief.

But how can I not call them into the kitchen?

They love to get down and dirty with the flour, love to stir the soup or wash the salad.

I come from a family in which child labour in the kitchen is a must.

I had to help, they will have to help.

And if I am lucky they will love it, just like I did.

See you next time.

chocolate chip scones

Ingredients:

280g all purpose flour

60g sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

110g butter or lard, cold and cut into pieces ( I like to use lard)

100g chocolate chips

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

160 ml buttermilk

Egg white for brushing tops

Cinnamon Sugar:

30g sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180C and place rack in middle of oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a fork or two knives.

Stir in the chocolate chips. In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk and vanilla and then add to the flour mixture.

Stir just until the dough comes together.

Do not over mix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and pat the dough into a circle that is about 17 cm round and about 3,5 cm thick.

Cut this circle in half, then cut each half into 4 wedges.

Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with this egg white.

Sprinkle the tops of the scones with a little of the cinnamon sugar.

Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Makes 8 scones.

Do it yourself: Homemade Ricotta

2009-11-18T11:01:00.001+01:00

I have no idea why it took me so long to come back to this.

A few Years back you could not buy Ricotta in Germany so my Stepfather at that time (who was an Italian chef) each week made a big Pot of Ricotta.

I watched but never did it myself. After the divorce, I just forgot about it.

So now I can buy Ricotta but it’s pretty expensive and we don’t have this much money. What means my boys don’t know the pleasure of Ricotta Cakes, Ricotta Bund Cake, Pasta filled with Ricotta and so on.

What a good thing I finally did it.

Yesterday I made Ricotta and let me tell you it’s easy, cheaper and if you are using a bigger pot ( so it will not cook over and make a mess) it’s painless.

Give it a try and please tell me how you like it.

This Pot is to small!

Great Ricotta. Great Mess.

Homemade Ricotta

Ingredients:

2l whole Milk

200ml cream

½ - 1 teaspoon salt (if you like I like your Ricotta salty you use 1 teaspoon)

3 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice OR if not available 3 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Little Tip: Each time I cook milk I rinse the pot with cold water before use. This helps to prevent scorching the milk.

Place the Milk, cream and salt into the pot. Place the pot onto the stovetop and heat slowly, stirring occasionally.

Just before the Milk boils add the lemon juice/vinegar and stir. The curds form immediately.

Reduce the head to low and cook the mixture for one more minute.

Put a piece dampened cheesecloth into a colander and the colander into a bowl.

Careful pour the mixture into the cloth. Let it drain for at least half an hour. If you like your can lift the cheesecloth up by the four corners hang it up and let it’s own weight do the work.

Now your Ricotta is finished.

Put it into the refrigerator for up to a week, use it immediately.

Don’t freeze it, Ricotta does not freeze well.

look at the mess and know it was worth it.

Challenging myself : Daring Cooks' November Challenge – Sushi

2009-11-13T14:23:00.000+01:00

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge.

The Challenge came in 4 Parts.

Part 1: Making proper sushi rice – you will wash, rinse, drain, soak, cook, dress, and cool short grain rice until each grain is sticky enough to hold toppings or bind ingredients. Then you will use the cooked rice to form three types of sushi:

Part 2: Dragon sushi roll – an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling

Part 3: Decorative sushi – a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut

Part 4: Nigiri sushi – hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings

This is my first Daring Cooks Challenge and after some interesting results in my Daring Baker Challenges I was ready to do what has to be done. I wanted this to be a story of success not failure.

Believe me I was shocked as I got it right at first try. It was so easy , it was so pretty and tasted so good that I had to stop myself from eating all the rice before I started rolling.

I had fun and each and everyone should at least ones try it.

But you don’t really believe that it would be that easy. No not for this little Daring Cook.

A few hours after my victory dance, after cleaning my kitchen ( this rice is sticky stuff) I became problems breathing. My ears started to itch. There were read spots all over me, and boy did they itch.

You already know it don’t you? I had an allergic reaction to the Nori.

So I will have to make Sushi without it in the future. No Problem.

It’s delicious and I will make it again.

Thanks to Audax and Rose my little world got a little bigger.

And don’t you think my Dragon looks cute? Now go and make some Sushi and don`t forget to take a look at the fantastic creations of all the others.

You can find the recipe right here.

Playing with dough : Sourdough Potato Bread

2009-11-02T04:33:00.000+01:00

I adore everything Potato, there is not a week going by without a big bowl of mashed potato in this house. The kids like it, hubby is not averse to it and it’s so easy.

All the great things you and I can make with the leftovers.

Not to forget that Hilde, that’s the name of my starter, is eager to go to work. I will tell you some more about my little feisty girl in one of my coming posts.

Because now that my twins are finally are on Kindergarten I have two more people that want a delicious filled lunchbox. So what better start can there be. Lets bake some bread.

Potato bread, soft fragrant delicious Bread.

Until next time

Sourdough Potato Bread

Ingredients:

Sponge:

1 cup sourdough starter, bring to room temp

1½ cup warm water

2 cups bread flour

dough:

1 cup mashed potatoes

¾ cup warm water

2 tsp salt

½ cup oil

⅓ cup sugar

6½ cup bread flour

Combine the Ingredient for the sponge and let them become light and bubbly. You can let them stand on the kitchen counter for 3-5 hours or you put it over night in the fridge.

Put the sponge into a mixing bowl, ad the water, the potatoes, salt and oil. Now you add the first 3 cups of flour. Mix well. Gradually stir in enough remaining flour until you create a soft pliable, non sticky dough.

The Dough should be soft and smooth and at the same time pliable. Place dough in an oiled bowl, turn to coat, cover and let rise double in a warm place. This will take 1 ½ to 2 hours.

Punch down dough with floured hands and cut dough in half. Let rest 10 minutes on the counter. Now it’s time to shape the dough, you can make what loaves and place into 2 greased 9 x 5x 3 inch loaf pans or you can use a bowl or basket (Gärkorb) to let it rise. Cover and let rise.

Preheat the oven. You can bake this Bread on a stone, a baking sheet or as I like to do in a roasting dish. I place it just like you would a stone in the oven to heat up.

Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 25-35 minutes or until golden and done.

If you used a loaf pan remove from pan to finish cooling on racks, if you baked it.

Granny love: German Waffles with Redcurrant Jelly

2009-11-01T07:13:00.000+01:00

I love Waffles, my Kids love them. German Waffles are not like American or Belgium Waffles. Our Waffles are more cake like. We do not eat them as Breakfast ( not usually ) we eat them like Cake, with a little hot cacao or coffee.

We eat them as dessert.

In my family we even make a meal out of them, the kids love them in the Advent Season. For a snack on St. Nicholas' Day right before the good man stops by.

We eat them fresh and hot with powdered sugar on top, the little dents filled with homemade jam. Fresh cooked compote is always welcome and fresh fruit will not be rejected.We love them with fresh whipped cream.

I use the recipe and waffle iron from my Grandmother. It is as old as I am, it’s ugly and if the fire department knew what I was doing they would scream. But if you have a Waffles Iron that makes great waffles and they don’t stick to often keep it.

So if you want to give this Waffles a try here is the receipt . I would love to hear how you like them. See you next time.

German Waffles

Makes 12 waffles

Ingredients:

200 g butter, room temperature

120 g sugar

Pinch of salt

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract or if you are so inclined some lemon peel

100 g all-purpose flour

100 g cornstarch

1 ½ tsp baking powder

powdered sugar to garnish

First step should be preheating the waffle maker/iron, if you need to grease it with oil or Pam.

Separate the eggs and beet the egg withes to a soft peak.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and salt.

Add eggs and vanilla extract to the mixture and beat well.

Mix Flour, Cornstarch and Baking powder and stir into the Butter Egg mixture.

Don’t overwork the batter. Fold in the egg withes and you are ready to bake our Waffles.

Now it’s time to bake the Waffles.

Pour approximately 1/4 cup of batter for each waffle into the griddle and bake golden brown and delicious. Repeat for the remainder of the batter.

Serve and indulge.

A little known Waffle Fact :

Medieval waffle law

In medieval Europe, vendors were permitted to sell their waffles outside of churches on saints' days and during other special religious celebrations. Competition at the churches eventually became very heated, and at times violent, so that King Charles IX of France imposed a regulation on waffle sales, requiring vendors to maintain a distance of at least deux toises (4 m/12 ft) from one another.

If you want to know more about waffles go here.

Challenging myself: Daring Bakers' Challenge Macaroons

2009-10-27T15:13:00.000+01:00

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macaroons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

If I would tell you that I had fun with this Challenge I would lie. This Month’s task fast became a traumatic experience for me. One more time I have to confess I don’t like them. Not that they would taste bad it’s just not something we would eat.
So I from the start had to work a little harder to come into the mood.

To bad that the mood and I were not able to make some decent Macaroons.
Yes I failed. A lot. I tried it 9 times, that means a lot of wasted eggs, to be honest 48 eggs.
This clearly shows that there is something wrong with me. No I am not talking about me being unable to make some little Macaroons. I talk about my obsession to get it right.
On the pictures you can see different stages of different batches. Please be kind with me.

48 little harmless free range eggs later we have a little batch of Black Forest Macaroon.
Some of you might know I am a Swabian and proud of it. I bake 6-8 Black Forest Cakes each year. The original one, with Cherries from the garden, Black Forest kirsch from the Black Forest ( I only have to drive half an hour to get there). This is the reason I had the idea to come up with Black Forest Macaroons. The Cake part of the Torte is made with Eggs, Cacao and Almonds, just like my Macaroons. Instead of the fresh cream, I used an cooked sugar buttercream that had cherries in it. And let me tell you this Cherries have a little kick to them. I soaked them half an hour in Kirsch.

They look not nearly as nice as the things my fellow daring Bakers came up with, you should take a look at the smooth and delicious looking Macaroons they baked.
So go take a look and bake some yourself I wish you luck.

Claudia Fleming’s Macaroons

Ingredients
Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen.

Trying something new: King Arthur’s Almost-No-Knead Baguette

2009-10-26T15:33:00.000+01:00

I love to bake Bread, each Day I make a new Batch of dough. I adore the smell and feel of fresh yeast, the tangy smell of the sourdough starter. I like the silky feeling of the plum dough after it has risen just before you use your hands to give it shape.
I know that a lot of people will never understand why I can cry over a starter that has died or a bread that taste like cardboard because I again forgot to add salt.
All I know is that I need this time in the kitchen kneading my dough like I need the bread to feed my family.
This was the first time I tried to bake a Baguette. And since I wanted to at least have a chance to bake something that while maybe not become a Baguette would at least taste good I took a chance on this little Almost No Knead Baguette from Kind Arthur’s.

It is so easy and tastes divine. My mother in lay always takes some dough home to bake it for herself.

I also use the dough for Pizza if I have some left. I made little Baguette Rolls the other day and some Bread sticks. I love to play with it.

Try it and tell me what you came up with.

See you next time.

King Arthur’s Almost-No-Knead Baguette

Ingredients
3 cups lukewarm water ( I use 3 ½ cups )
8 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon table salt or 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon instant yeast (I use 20g fresh yeast)

Directions
1) Find a large (6-quart) bowl or bucket, for dough storage in the fridge. Lightly grease the bowl or bucket.

2) Place the water directly into the bowl or or other large container.

3) Add the dry ingredients to the water, and stir to combine. Mix until there are no dry spots; the texture of the dough should be fairly soft.

4) Knead the dough gently for a few minutes, by hand; it'll be very sticky. Or knead for 1 or 2 minutes in a stand mixer. Cover the container, and let the dough rest at room temperature for 2 hours.

5) Refrigerate overnight, or for up to 7 days.

6) To bake bread: Scoop out a scant 1 pound of dough (about ¼ of the batch, about 14 ½ ounces). Place on a greased work surface.

7) Shape the dough into a rough, slightly flattened oval, cover with greased plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes.

8) Fold the dough in half lengthwise, and seal the edges with the heel of your hand. Flatten slightly, and fold lengthwise and seal again.

9) With the seam side down, cup your fingers and gently roll the of dough into a 15" log.

10) Place the log seam-side down onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet, or into the well of a baguette pan.

11) Cover and allow the baguette to rise till it's very puffy, about 1 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450°F.

12) Slash the baguette three or four times on the diagonal.

13) Spritz the baguette heavily with warm water, and bake until a very deep golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

Yield: 1 large baguette.

Granny love: Semmelknödel - Bread Dumplings

2009-10-15T23:28:00.000+02:00

My best Friend growing up was my paternal Grandmother. She cave me everything that I needed and could not get at home. She was listening, loving, interested. She was my world. If at home there was fighting, beating and terror. She gave me peace, fun and time. The weekends at my grandmothers were heaven on earth.

Later as my Mother moved out and away, my Father kicked me out. She gave me money, food and a place to wash my clothes. She was always there for me and I hope I was there for her.
I would do almost anything to have a chance to see her again, to tell her that I miss her and her cooking.
But that is not possible and so I cook from time to time a little something, she would have cooked.
And when I see my little boys eating it, loving it, I know she knows I think about her.

Semmelknödel - Bread Dumplings

Ingredients

500g stale bread, (you can use Bread Rolls or Baguette, even Bagels it’s up to you)
4 Eggs
400ml warmed Milk
1 – 2 teaspoons Salt ( if the bread has a good amount of salt you will need just 1 teaspoon)
250g Flour
1 small Onion, fine diced
½ cup chopped Parsley
½ teaspoon Butter
Salt for the Water

Optional: a little Nutmeg, cubed bacon, diced Spinach

Cut the bread into small cubes. The smaller the better.
Take the Onion and the chopped Parsley and nuke them in the microwave for 1 Minute with the Butter to soften them. Let them cool.

Take the remaining Ingredients and mix them into a batter. Now you add the bread and the Onion/Parsley Mix.
The Dough goes now into the Refrigerator to rest for at least 45 minutes.
If the dough is to soft add some more flour, but please don’t forget that the bread will soak up the fluid and the dough will become firmer. The more Flour you add, the firmer the texture will get.
You will need a big pot with salt water, now is the time to put it onto the stove.
After the resting period you can take a teaspoon of the mixture put it into the Microwave, to cook the egg. So you can taste and adjust the seasoning without having to eat raw egg.
This is the fast way. Another way to cook it would be to make a small test dumpling cook it up and then taste it. If you do it this way you can be sure that your dumplings will not fall apart while cooking.
If you are happy with the seasoning shape the Knöddel (Dumplings). You can make any size you like. Small dumplings for soup, bigger ones as side dish or big ones that will be a meal with a nice sauce.

Put them into the cooking water, lower the temperature and let them cook.
The smaller the dumpling the faster they are finished.

I hope you try this recipe and if I would love to hear from you.
See you in the next session.

Romancing in the Kitchen: Ten years Good Eats or how to Brine Turkey Alton Style

2009-10-10T20:05:00.000+02:00

It was 6 years ago. I saw the best and craziest cooking show and I fell in love. Good Eats is not just a cooking show it’s Entertainment, with a pinch of History and a Tablespoon of Science. Host Alton Brown is a man that learned early that if you want really good food, you have to make it yourself.

In this show you learn and you laugh what better cooking show can there be?

There are episodes I love and some I adore. I love it when he bakes with his Grandmother "Ma" Mae Skelton ( The Dough Also Rises) because I myself had a special relationship with my Oma. All the episodes with Brown's nephew and his sister are worth watching a few times.
Not to forget his bad twin B.A.

Alton was the one that told me about brining. He showed me what Americans do to make turkey delicious. And today I tried it myself.

I learned from my grandmother how to make turkey. With a lot of bacon and chestnuts. Good Eats but maybe a little Alton Science can make it even better.

So let’s take a look at the little Bird and if you want to know more about the Show or Alton you just have to take a look at the Good Eats Fan Page or Foodnetwork.com.

So lets congratulate Alton and his Crew and Romance The Bird!

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Ingredients

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced ( I used 1 Onion)
1 cinnamon stick ( I left that out)
1 cup water (I had good fresh apples and so I don’t used the Water)
4 sprigs rosemary ( only 2 for us )
6 leaves sage ( I am allgergic to the stuff so no sage for this little Bird)
Canola oil ( Olive oil was just fine )

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed ( I used a Brig packed into a Ziploc bag), cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes.

In this Episode Alton tells us to make a little foil breast armour and that’s what I did as you can see on this Picture. It was formed before the Turkey came into the oven and I put it after the first 30 minutes onto the Breast.

Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

I served the Bird with Semmelknödel (bread dumpling) I will post the recipe soon.

This Turkey was divine. Believe me I am not just saying this so you think Alton is the Genius I think he is. I will from this point on brine the birds.

If you not already doing it, try and tell me about it.
Have a great time and a little good eats.

Get comfort from home: German Pancake soup or Flädlesuppe

2009-10-08T10:05:00.000+02:00

I am a schwabe, do you know what a schwabe is? Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg Germany, but the people that live in the western region of Baden are not schwaben, they are Badener.

Already confused?
It’s pretty easy just think about Porsche, Mercedes, Black Forest cake, Black Forest ham or kirsch and not to forget spaetzle.
We are often called thrifty, because a good schwab does never put good food in the garbage.
This is reflected in out cooking. We use easy and relatively cheap ingredients and work our magic.

Give us Eggs, water a little salt and we go crazy.

In the next few weeks I will try to give you a little glimpse into the schwaben kitchen.
Today there will be a soup that is so important that no weeding in our family would happen without it.

First you will need to make a good Fleischbrühe ( Meat Broth ), we use Beef for this but if you want to use a chicken or veal that is fine too. You can even use a broth from the store that is fine, if I cook this in the middle of the week for a fast dinner I do too.

The broth will take a little time but it will be worth it. you can cook some more and freeze it. it will refrigerate for 2 Days without a problem and if you freeze it you can hold onto it for up to 3 months.

Fleischbrühe (meat broth)

Ingredients

1kg meaty beef soup bones
3 ½ L water
8 whole black peppercorns
1 Bay leaf
2 Cloves
2 tablespoons Salt
2 Leek; trimmed, cut in chunks
5 carrots, cut in chunks
2 turnips or Parsley roots, cut in chunks
2 stalks celery, cut in half
1 onion cut in half ( don’t peel it )

place a small pan onto the stove and lay the onion cut side down into the dry pan. Put the heat on and roast the onion until the bottom is black. Don’t panic it will smell a little but this will give the broth a deeper flavour and colour without you having to roast all the bones and veggies. Let the onion cool enough to be touch. Now lay the bay leave over one side of the onion and pin it onto the skin using the cloves as thumbtacks. This way you will not have to search for them.
Wash and clean not to forget cut everything and put it into a big and I mean big pot. Cover with the water, bring to a boil and skim foam from surface until clear.
Now the hardest part is done. Reduce heat and let everything simmer for at least 2 hours better 3.
Strain broth, discarding meat scraps, bones and cooked vegetables. season to taste with salt and pepper.
Now you can let it cool and refrigerate to be able to take of the fat.
I don’t do it. If you feel it’s too much fat just skim it off like you did with the foam.

Now it’s time to learn how to make Fladle. If you can make crepe you can make Flädle.

Flädle

Ingredients

400 g flour
4 eggs
1/4 l milk
1/4 l cold water
½ teaspoon salt
Fat for frying

Chives for sprinkling

Mix the flour and milk and water, then add the eggs and salt. The batter should be a little dicker than a crepe batter.

Put a little fat into the pan and heat it up. As soon as the fat is hot, hold the skillet at a slight angle and pour on ladle of batter into is. Now you have to be fast, you have to roll the batter around in the pan to cover the whole bottom with a thin layer.

As soon as the bottom of the pancake is done and starts to get colour loosen the edges and flip. Put it onto a plate and bake the next one. At the end you will have a lovely little pancake tower.

Take 2 or 3 Pancakes and roll them up and cut them into small stripes.

Now you have Flädle.

Bring the broth to a boil. Add Flädle into a deep plate or bowl now sprinkle with some chives and ad a ladle of broth.

Please don’t add the Flädle to soon into the broth they will become soggy and all your work will be for nothing.

Tip: We always keep a few pancakes and fill them with Nutella or Jam for dessert.

Kids love it. you can even make it ahead, since it all gets heated with the broth.

Give it a try and let me know if you liked it. I hope we see us in the next session.

Challenging myself: Daring Bakers' Challenge Vols-au-Vent

2009-09-27T12:17:00.000+02:00

Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon was the gracious hostess of this month's Daring Bakers' challenge. She chose vols-au-vents made with homemade puff pastry.

This was my first time doing a DB Challenge, not the first time making puff pastry.
I have a training as a housekeeper, in which you had to take cooking lessons. And one of them was making puff pastry.

Puff Pastry is called Blätterteig in German, which means leaved dough. Vols-au-vents are Königinnenpastete, which means pie of the Queens.

It’s a good recipe, I think at least ones in your life you should make homemade puff pastry.

The only problem is I don’t like puff pastry. My Family doesn’t likes puff pastry.

A shame.

But you should try yourself.

The first two weeks of the month it was still to warm, so the first two batches did not deliver.
Since I have a really small refrigerator it was almost impossible to cool the dough enough without having big 4-6 hours pauses between the turns.

Frustrating.

The third time was the charm. This time it was already cool enough outside to work with a open window what made it finally possible for me to finish the challenge.

I made some Vols-au-Vent and nobody wanted to eat them. Don’t get me wrong they taste good the look pretty it’s just that they are to buttery for us.
So what to do?

Let them be snacks and even we eat them.

I filled some with Salad,

some with goats cheese and fresh figs to top them with Honey.

There was a cheesecake mousse with redcurrants from our garden.

Fresh Ham with Parmesan.

Not to forget a lovely little canapé filled with Pate and chives.

It was all really tasty, so please try this lovely vols-au-vent.

Now go and make some pastry and don’t forget to have fun. See you next time.

the challenge: You must make Michel Richard’s recipe for puff pastry (as seen below), and form at least part of it into vols-au-vent (instructions below).

Optional parts of the challenge: You may make your vols-au-vent large or small, and may fill them with whatever you choose (savory or sweet).

Equipment:
-food processor (will make mixing dough easy, but I imagine this can be done by hand as well)
-rolling pin
-pastry brush
-metal bench scraper (optional, but recommended)
-plastic wrap
-baking sheet
-parchment paper
-silicone baking mat (optional, but recommended)
-set of round cutters (optional, but recommended)
-sharp chef’s knife
-fork
-oven
-cooling rack

Prep Times:
-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)
-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete
Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent

Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
-your filling of choice

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.

(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)

Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)

Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)

Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.

Fill and serve.

*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.

*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.

*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough

From: Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan
Yield: 2-1/2 pounds dough

Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.

There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter

plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing the Dough:

Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.

Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)

Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter:

Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps.

Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.

To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns:

Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).

With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.

Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough:

If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.

The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

2009-08-31T18:12:00.000+02:00

Sweating for the soul: Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce

Its summer, the sky is blue, no cloud in sight.

The kids will go swimming and my hubby is home.
It’s bloody hot in the kitchen and I have the glorious idea to cook.
Not a nice little salad or a refreshing cold soup.
I tell my boys and mother-in-law that I will make them Gnocchi.
The way I always do them. No not the easy ones with quark (curd cheese), I will make the ones with potato.
Heating up the kitchen with a big pot full of boiling potato, starting to make the Tomato sauce I already start to regret it.
Peeling the hot little sprouts I start to curse and pray.
While getting into a fight with the potato ricer I am ready to surrender.
But as soon as the first Gnocchi is in the water I smile.

It will take at least an hour to clean everything and I am no longer in the mood to eat something as hearty as this little Italian dumplings.

I am still smiling as I clean the dishes and put the last Gnocchi away.

Ingredients

1 1/2 kg whole potatoes (the kind you would use for mashed potatoes)
3 eggs
350 – 400g flour plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons salt
Nutmeg to taste
Your favourite pasta sauce (for example, this basic, delicious roasted tomato sauce)

Place the potatoes in a pan of cold water, bring to a boil, add a bit of coarse salt, and boil until a knife can be inserted easily through their center.
Drain and peel the potatoes while still hot and mash the peeled potatoes into a medium mixing bowl, using a potato masher or ricer.
Let them now sit for 3 to 5 minutes. There will lose a little moister and the Potato will get a little colder so you can better work with them.
Don’t let them get to cold. Now you should put a lot of water onto the stove, like Spätzle and all the other pasta, Gnocchi need a lot of salted water to cook in.
Now you have to stir in the salt and flour. Add the eggs one at the time. Now its time to turn the dough out on a floured work surface.
Knead it quickly until smooth. Be fast and don’t overwork the dough.
Don’t use too much flour or the gnocchi will be tuff and heavy.
Divide the dough in six to pieces.
Take one peace and roll it with the palms of your hands into long sausages, about 2 cm in diameter. Now with a knife/ palette knife you cut down peaces with a width of 2 – 21/2 cm.

Now if you like it fancy you can shape them with a fork or a whisk giving them the special look.

To cook just drop them into the pan of simmering salted water, working in batches so they're not crowded.

When the gnocchi rise to the surface, they're cooked.

Fish them out of the water with a slotted spoon and reserve in a colander while you cook the remaining batches.

Now you have some choices.

I just reheated them in a little tomato sauce and served them. You can do that or sauté the gnocchi in a little butter and sage. Pile them into an oven proved dish and top them with cheese, fry them and make a salad.

Have a great time. And don’t let it get to hot in the kitchen.

2009-08-29T22:26:00.000+02:00

Aromatherapy: oven roasted tomato sauce

I love to cook Tomato-sauce; the whole house smells after tomato and summer.

I cook sauce low and slow like my Italian Step-dad showed me or fast and short like a mother of twins has to.

But If I have time, if I have ripe tomatoes, if I really want an easy way to have a lot of flavour I roast them in the oven.

Ingredients

5 pounds ripe tomatoes
2 or 3 large smashed garlic cloves unpeeled
¼ Cup Olive Oil (I like to use one that is flavoured with a little rosemary)

¼ - ½ Cup fresh herbs (you can use anything from parsley to basil, rosemary, thyme…)

Sea salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat to 400 degrees F

Wash the tomatoes and cut them into halves, you can now cut out the stems. Sprinkle a baking pan with the salt and pepper, add the garlic and herbs, lay the tomatoes cut side down into the dish.
Now you only have to drizzle the oil all over the tomatoes and transfer it into the oven.
Let it cook for 1-½ hours. The smell will make you hungry but be strong.
Ad this point you should let the tomatoes cool down enough to be handled. Remove the skins they are not longer needed.
Now you have to decide if you like your sauce to be smooth or chunky.
You can just put everything into the blender and mix until it has the desired texture. Or you use your trusty potato masher to crush the bigger chunks.

Now you can just cook a little pasta, put the sauce onto some fresh baked bread, use it as a base for a dip, cook with it.

See you next time.