Category: cooking

Watched this video, and decided I had to try. My food processor is small so I can’t make that much.

Ingredients:

• 1 jar (480g) roasted red peppers: I used all pieces but one as I wasn’t sure if my mini processor was enough
• 120g walnuts
• 6 tbsp breadcrumbs
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp pure pomegranate molasses (I found it in a Turskish supermarket, but not sure if it is 100% pure pomegrenate)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin (I didnt have it)

Process:

• Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Toast the walnuts, stirring from time to time.
• Add the breadcrumbs to the walnuts, don’t burn them! Stir until brown.
• let it cool down for a couple of minutes.
• In the food processor, add the garlic, walnuts and breadcrumbs. Blend until getting fine crumbs.
• Add the roasted peppers (drained!), olive oil, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, all spices and salt.
• Pulse! don’t blend! Do several times until to get a consistency like the video.

Ready to eat. You can top it up with walnuts, pomegranate seeds, olive oil, mint, etc.

Very easy, quick and tasty!

This is a typical Portuguese cake. I have done it before, but some years ago so time to repeat. And this is the original recipe.

Carob can be used as a replacement for chocolate. It is a pity is not used much more.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs (divided into whites and yolks)
• 200g sugar (brown if possible)
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 200g melted butter
• 180g of self-rising cake flour (if not, normal flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 60g carob powder (as much pure as possible)
• 50g chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
• optional: 1 tbsp of alfarroba (carob) liquor or almond liquor (amarguinha)

Process:

• Pre-heat oven 180C
• Beat the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and butter until it becomes an aerated mix. You can use a hand mixer for this.
• Shift the flours and baking powder together, and add gradually into the wet mix. Mix with a wood spoon!
• Beat the egg whites into soft peaks, then fold into the batter.
• Once all mixed, add the chopped nuts. Be sure they spread equally
• Butter a cake pan. Then spread evenly the batter.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes. The goal is to have a kind of brownie, moist. So try to not get the center fully dry. This is the most difficult part for me. So if the top is baked (with a crust) and using a toothpick doesnt come 100% clean, it is ok.
• Take the cake and let it cool down

Before getting into the oven

Day after:

The look is quite “chocolaty” and tastes very good! But I overbaked it… the cake should be less dry.

I watched this video and I had to try.

Ingredients

• 2 eggplants sliced
• flour for coating the eggplants
• salt, honey (optional)
• Sunflower oil for frying the eggplants
• 700g good tomato passate
• 3-4 garlic gloves chopped without core.
• fresh basil or dried oregano if you dont have it
• 2 balls of mozarrella (or smoked mozarrela if you find it)
• Parmigiano

Process

• Spread salt generously over the eggplants. Let is rest for 30 minutes. This is very important step to remove the acidiness.
• The eggplants should have sweat some water. Clean all the slices with water and dried them with a towel.
• In a sauce plan at medium heat, pour a glop of olive oil, when hot, add the garlic. Dont burnt it !!! Then add the tomato passate and basil/oregano. Add salt/pepper. Add a bit of honey, optional. Simmer for 30 minutes or so. Leave aside.
• Heat up a pan with some sunflower oil to deep fry the eggplants. The oil is ready with you put the tip of a wood spoon and fezzes.
• Pre-heat oven at 200C
• Coat slightly the eggplant slices with flour and deep fry until golden in both sides. 2-3 minutes each side. This is the most tedious part. But it is worth it. After removing form the pan, use kitchen paper to absorbe excess oil.
• In an oven dish (metal/glass), pour a bit of the tomate sauce. Add a layer of eggplant, add slices of mozarella, add some basil/oregano, grated parmigiano . Repeat: tomate, eggplant, mozarella, basil/oregano, grated parmigiano.
• Bake in the oven at 200C for around 30 minutes of golden on top.

Really tasty!!!

This is a typical sweet from Portugal too and I wanted to make it for some time, and this was triggered by chance via this video. And then I checked this one for getting an idea about the quantities

Ingredients

• 250g maria biscuits (dont try to hard biscuits…)
• 150g dark chocolate chopped
• 50g cacao powder
• 50g pistachio chopped
• 70g butter

Process

• Smash the biscuits, but dont make it powder!
• Add the pistachios
• Melt the chocolate and butter
• Add to the biscuits
• Mix well, like a dough
• Pour the mix over clean film, try to roll like a chorizo
• Let it cool down in the fridge.

Then you can decorate it like a salami if you wish

Obviously, it doesn’t look like in the videos (although it was tasty). My main mistake was using oat biscuits that are quite hard.

2nd Attempt. A bit better but still not as I would like it:

I was curious about this cake and tried it.

Ingredients
800g Cooked chickpeas (2x cans)
200g peanut butter
120ml maple syrup
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2g salt
100g chocolate 90% chopped roughly

Decoration
150g melted chocolate 90%
150g peanuts crushed

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 190C
• Put all ingredients together but the chopped chocolate in a food processor.
• Once it is all mixed (it is like a very dense peanut butter), add the chocolate chips and mix with a spoon.
• Pour the mix into a mold of 25x10cm with parchment paper.
• Bake at 190C for 40-45m
• While it cools down, prepare the decoration. Melt chocolate using “mary bath” (you can add a bit of butter to make more glossy).
• Add the crashed peanuts to the chocolate and pour it over the cold cake. Spread in all sides.
• Let it cool down again.

Before getting into the oven

After letting it cool down:

To be honest, it is not very sweet. I used 90% chocolate but still is tasty. So you can put a bit more maple syrup and 70-80% chocolate.

It goes great with a glass of milk or even whipped cream!

This cake is a protein bomb!

Last Saturday while walking in the neighbourhood, I saw quince and decided to buy some to make membrillo, as it has been a long time since last time I did it. And I noticed I didn’t have a recipe for that online. I used to follow the recipe from this book, but honestly, it was never like the one my mum used to make when I was a kid.

So I decided to find a video and try again as I don’t have the book with me. A decided for this one as I liked her video about Tortas 🙂

Ingredients

• 4 quince/membrillo – 850g aprox after boiling
• 500g sugar
• Juice from one lemon
• 1 or 2 glass jars. Cleaned with boiling water

Process

• Peel the quince, remove the core as it bitter. You will think that you are removing a lot but that is how it is. Chop in pieces
• Put the quince in a big pan/pot. I don’t have express cooker. Cover in water and boil until it is soft. Use a knife, you should cut through the quince with ease.
• Drain the quince and weight it. Mine was 850g so I added 500g white granular sugar. Some other recipes add 1:1 quice/sugar but I didnt want to add that much.
• Add the juice of one lemon
• With a hand mixer, make a pure .

• Then starts the longest part. At low heat (use a glove!!!) start stirring the mix until it gets a dark orange color. Be sure it doesn’t stick! Keep in mind that it has a lot of sugar… and it is like molten lava when cooking! At the beginning the mix is white/yellow-ish, I think after 1h, it started to change the color and it is when you have to be very alert and stir often (each minute) to avoid burning.
• When you use the wooden spoon to make a line and it doesn’t come together, it should be ready

• Remove from heat and poor it in glass containers if possible, if not plastic.
• Let it cool down during the night at least.

And this is the result from this morning. This is like it was when a kid!!!!

This video is really good too: it uses the skin!! I will do the same next time

Second visit to KEIT: This time I tried “Weizenbrot” . Ingredients: Natural sourdough, red wheat, whole grain rye, wheat 550, water, thermal salt. Again, amazing bread!

Bäckerei Siebert: This is a very German bakery. There was a queue when I got there and it was going to close soon I think. I bought some pieces of cake and a small black brot. Maybe arriving earlier I could have seen a better selection of bread. My german is still pretty bad so I kind off pointed to the things I wanted to try without being too sure. One was carrot cake, other cherry cake, and the other not sure. They were tasty anyway.

Bäckerei Kädtler: via link. This is a kosher bakery. I got a bit late as is far from home, and it was nearly empty! So I only tried three biscuits. They were nice (nothing crazy) and not very sweet so I liked that. So need to get there first thing in the morning to really taste the good stuff.

Hacker Bäckerei: This was a visit just by chance after trying Kadtler (above). I was in the area, checked google maps, the pictures looked nice, went for it. It was a blast! I didn’t try any bread, nothing caught my eye but I tried two “cakes”: Splitterbrötchen (slivered rolls ) and Apfelsandkuchen (sand apple cake). The first one is like a slightly sweet/soft bread. And the second was a big piece of cake! and tasty! Really happy with the discovery. Later I checked in the internet about the place and has interesting reviews. link1 and link2. This a proper East Berlin bakery. I need to come back earlier and try other cakes and bread (sourdough). As I got pretty late the backerei was pretty low in product. It closes at 12:30 I think so that is a signal that is a very local shop 🙂 So next time I need to get there first thing in the morning. (I found this video by chance!!!)

I want to eat more broccoli. And this is a new recipe:

Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli
2-3 pieces garlic
small piece ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar (brown if possible)
olive oil
1 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Boil 1.5 litres of water in a saucepan
2. Remove the florets from the broccoli head. Be sure the head is cleaned.
3. Blench the broccoli in the boiling water for 30-45 sec. Just to see how it gets a bright green color! Remove from water and pass it via cold water. Set aside.
4. Grate the garlic and ginger.
5. Prepare the sauce by combining together soy sauce, sugar, oil, corn starch and water. Set the sauce.
6. Heat up a nonstick pan to medium heat. Add a bit of olive oil.
7. Cook the broccoli for 2-3min each side. Until you see a bit of char. Put aside
8. Clean the pan, and put at medium-low heat, add olive oil and paprika (replacement of chili oil). Mix clean so it doesnt burn.
9. Add the garlic and ginger. Gently cook for 2-3min
10. Add the broccoli and turn the heat to medium. Sauté for about 1min
11. Add in the stir fry sauce and if you have a lid, place it immediately so you can steam the broccoli steam for about 30-45 seconds. If not, just toss the broccoli so it gets the sauce spread in all bits.
12. Plate the broccoli and garnish with white sesame seeds