Author: flipaoXIX

To be honest, I dont know how to translate it, but I found the video randomly and gave it a go. Quite happy with the result.

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes
• 1 leek
• 2 carrots
• 100 grams of spinach
• 1 red pepper
• 4 medium eggs
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil,
• 4 tablespoons of milk
• 4 tablespoons of flour
• 1/2 pack of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt, peppe
• 50 grams of grated cheese
• Sesame seeds

Process:

• 1) Slice the leeks, red pepper and spinach. The add the potatoes and carrots grated. Mix all together.
• 2) In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the oil. Add the flour and whisk. Add the milk and whisk. Add the baking powder and whisk. Add the salt and pepper and whisk.
• 3) Pour the butter into the veggie try. Mix everything. Try to flat out the mix as much as you can.
• 4) Put the try in a pre-heat oven at 180C for 25 minutes.
• 5) Remove from the oven and add the cheese and sesame seeds. Put back in the oven until cheese forms a crust.
• 6) Remove from oven and let is cool down for a bit. Then cut in squares.

Mine was a bit thick, but nonetheless, very good!

I wanted to make a gnocchi dish for some time. I had a recipe at hand so I went for it. I used this video as a based for the gnocchi

Gnocchi in mushroom and asparagus sauce.

Gnocchi:

• 1kg of boiled potatoes
• 2 medium eggs
• salt/pepper
• 20g Parmesan cheese
• 150g plain flour plus dusting

Mushroom and asparagus sauce:

• a couple of garlic cloves
• 200g mushrooms
• 150g asparagus
• 1/2 cup of white wine
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• Parmesan cheese
• optional: lemon zest

Gnocchi Process:

• 1) You can boil or bake the potatoes. Let it cool down a bit until you can manage with your hands. Keep the water for next steps.
• 2) Put in a bowl, use a potato smasher to break them a bit.
• 3) Add the eggs, salt, pepper and cheese. Mix a bit .and then
• 4) Add the flour. You should get a ball. Be sure everything is properly combined.
• 5) Get a saucepan with boiling water and salt from the first step.
• 6) In your work surface, dust it with flour, device your dough in several parts. Roll each one until you have a flaute form. Add flour if it sticks too much. Cut them in small pieces
• 7) Boil the gnocchi until the float. Remove from water and let them cool down in a try (put some olive oil so they dont stick to it)

Sauce Process:

• 1) Fry the garlic in a sauce pan
• 2) Add chopped mushrooms and asparagus. Salt and pepper. And other herbs you fancy
• 3) Once the veggies are fried (medium-high heat), add the wine. It should evaporate quickly and form some brown bits in the pan.
• 4) reduce heat, add the chicken stock. Stir from time to time until thickens a bit.
• 5) Add the gnocchi to the sauce, with some pasta water. Be sure they are fully coated.
• 6) You can fry a bit the gnocchi, be sure there is sauce left!
• 7) Optional, add a bit of lemon zest.
• 7) Remove pan from the heat, and let cool down for a bit. Ready to eat!

I was surprised by the gnocchi, they were much better than the ones you buy. It was like small dumplings balls! Very tasty.

It seems this is a typical Australian desert.

Sponge:

• 250g golden caster sugar
• 250g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 125g butter softened
• 3 medium eggs
• 3 tsb milk

Filling:

• 2 tsp icing sugar
• 250g double cream
• 200g jam (any red berries are nice)

Coating:

• 50g cocoa powder
• 200g icing sugar
• 80g butter melted
• 200g milk
• 200g desiccated coconut

Process:

• 1) Pre-heat oven at 200C. Grease a baking try
• 2) In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
• 3) Add the eggs, one at each time. Only add the next one when is everything is properly combined
• 4) Add the flour, milk and salt until fully combined. Pour the mix into the baking try.
• 5) Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Use a knife and be sure it comes up clean. Set aside to cool down
• 6) Filling: In a bowl, sift the icing sugar and add the double cream. Mix with a hand blender until thick.
• 7) Once the sponge is cold, slice it horizontally. In one side, pour the filling (use a spoon through boiling water to help you to spread it easier).
• 8) On top of the filling, pour the jam, use again the spoon through boiling water.
• 9) Sandwich the sponge back together. Let is chill in the fridge while preparing the coating.
• 10) Whisk together the melted butter and milk in a bowl. In other bowl, sieve the cocoa powder and icing sugar. Bit by bit, add the cocoa/sugar mix to the butter mix. Whisk until no lumps.
• 11) Cut the sponge in squares, dip each square in the cocoa mix until properly coated. Then roll in the desiccated coconut. Put aside.
• 12) Once all squares are done, sprinkle some more coconut.
• 13) Let the cocoa coating to settle for 1h. But next day are even better!

This is something I wanted to try from sometime. It is not my typical bread. I think I tried first time in a BBQ restaurant. I followed this recipe.

Ingredients

• 120g butter
• 1/2 bunch fresh sage + 1/2 bunch fresh thyme ( I used dried herbs I didnt have fresh)
• 180g plain flour
• 50g sugar
• 3 heap tablespoons light brown sugar
• 6g fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 180g yellow fine corn meal
• 2 eggs
• 350ml buttermilk ( I used milk + 2 tsp of white wine vinegar as I didnt have this)

Process

1- Brown the butter in a hot pan. Retire add the herbs.

Preheat the oven at 200C

2- Mix all dry ingredients.

3- Whisk the eggs, add the buttermilk, then add the butter.

4- Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture. Combine until there are no lumps.

5- Pour the mix in a dish oven (add a bit of butter to the surface so it doesnt stick)

6- Put in the oven for 25 minutes, top a bit brown. Be sure if you use a knife, it comes out clean. Then it is read.

7- Let it cool down and ready to eat!

Pasta bolognesa was my favourite dish as a kid. We had it I think once every week. Canelones was another big one but my mum didnt cook it that often as it was more time consuming assembling the canelones and preparing the white sauce.

Anyway, I wanted to try the spinach version so I found this recipe that looked nice. I used lasagna sheets cut in two for the canelones and worked nicely.

Ingredients for filling

• 12 lasagna sheets
• 250g frozen spinach (put in boiling water to unfreeze)
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 piece of garlic
• 1 boiled egg
• 20g of pine nuts
• a bit of grated parmesan cheese (or similar hard cheese)

Ingredients for bechamel sauce:

• 2-3 big tsp of plain flour
• 25g of butter
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 200ml milk
• grated parmesan cheese

Process

• Boil 1l water in a pan, with salt and a bit of olive oil. Once boiling, put lasagna sheet in 2-3 at each time. They should be ready in a couple of minutes (they should float). Remove and leave it rest.
• In a sauce pan, heat some oil, add the onion and garlic. Until soft
• Add the unfrozen spinach, keep stirring.
• Add the pine nuts and the boiled egg (cut in small pieces). Salt and pepper.
• Add a bit of cheese.
• Retire from the heat.
• In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour little by little until forming a paste.
• Start adding the milk, again little by little stirring without stopping. This is at low-medium heat. Add nutmet, salt and pepper. Taste from time to time. Add the cheese at the end.
• Once you have a sauce that is not very liquid neither thick, we are ready to assemble everything.
• Pre-heat oven at 200C
• Put some of the bechamel in the spinach mix and stir.
• Prepare an oven dish. Put some butter or bechamel sauce in the dish to avoid stickiness.
• Take the cold lasagne sheets, cut in two squares. In each square put a spoon of the spinach mix and roll like a canelone. Put in the oven dish in lines.
• Once you the oven dish covered with canelones, pour the bechamel soauce on top of them. Add some grated cheese. I had some tomato sauce left over and I add it too.
• Put the oven dish in the oven. 30m or until the top is grilled.
• Let it cool down a bit and ready to eat!

I read this book in 2019 about fermentation as I was already doing sourdough and wanted to learn more things. It is a great about anything related to fermentation. From there I started doing sauerkraut (still haven’t achieved the required results though). Another thing I wanted to try was kombucha, a fermented fizzy drink. I thought it was difficult to develop the scoby until I watched this video and learned that I can buy it! So I got my scobby and started the process:

1- Boil 900ml filtered water. Then add 50-60g sugar, stir well.

2- Add two bags of black tea for 10 minutes, then remove the bags.

3- Let it cool down to room temperature

4- Add the mixture to a 1 litre jar, add the scoby with its liquid.

5- Cover the jar with a cloth and leave it somewhere warm for 5 days without direct sunlight (I put it under the sink)

6- Remove the scoby and 100ml of the mix into a small jar, keep it in the fridge for the next batch.

7- Put the rest of the mix into a airtight glass 1l bottle at room temperature for 3-7 days until fizzy. I put it under the sink again. You may release a bit of gas after a couple of days if you dont want to see the bottle explode when opening…

8- Put the bottle in the fridge, and afterwards you can enjoy a refreshing fizzy homemade drink!!!

It is a slow process but it is easy. In my first bottle, I was surprised because it was actually quite fizzy!!! The taste was a kind of cider, redbull , etc without the after taste of dead by sugar.

I am doing my second bottle and at some point I would like to add flavours, like ginger… I need to check if this is consider ginger beer. Although no idea if it generates any alcohol… (there is a fermentation process involved and breakdown of sugars….)

Happy with it, and hopefully adding to my routine.