Category: cooking

Last weekend I spent it with Q, and we had a great time. I tried a couple of new things food-wise that really impressed. This is one of them.

Initially I thought it was a burger but then my friend told me that it was zucchini/courgette. So we gave it a try, and it was really good (and we were a bit hungry too 🙂 So I tried to find something in the Internet and I went for this recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 medium zucchini/courgette shredded (you can try 3)
• 1 small onion shredded or 4-5 spring onions chopped
• 1 small potato shredded
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 bunch of dill
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• 100g feta cheese
• 150g plain flour
• salt + pepper
• sunflower oil for frying.

Process:

• Squeeze the liquid from the zucchini. Leave the zucchini in a bowl
• Add onion, potato to the zucchini.
• Add finely chopped dill and parsley to the zuchini
• Whisk the eggs a bit and add it to the mix.
• Add the feta cheese shredded too with your fingers.
• Mix all well. Add salt and pepper. Taste it.
• Add the flour and mix well. You should have a nice butter.
• In a deep pan, heat up the sunflower oil. Once it is hot, put a big spoon of the butter and deep fry until golden. Turn over and do the same.
• Remove the fritter from the pan and put it on paper towels to absorbe the oil
• Repeat the process until the butter is over.

This is my butter:#

And this is after frying:

To be honest, I think it didnt’t taste like the ones I tried last weekend, but it was good enough! Maybe more salt/pepper and one more courgette (total 3) and a bit less dill/parsley?

This makes approx 6 muffins.

Ingredients:

• 110g plain flour
• 110g butter
• 65g caster sugar
• 2 free-range eggs mixed
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• pinch of nutmeg
• Muffin cases

Process

• Pre-heat oven at 200C
• Cream the butter and sugar. It should double in size and it should look like a cream. You shouldnt feel the sugar granes. This is slow and a bit painful 😛
• Slowly, add 1/4 of egg to the cream, mix until all combined. Add another 1/4 of egg, mix until all combined. Repeat until all egg is in.
• Add the flour, baking powder and nutmeg. Mix all well.
• Cover the mix and let it rest for 10 minutes.
• Prepare two cases per muffin if you dont have special muffin tray.
• Take a piping bag, you dont need any special head. Put the mix into the bag. Cut the tip of the bag, it should be 1.5cm max diameter.
• Pipe the mix vertically! (very important) on the bottom of the cases. Fill a bit less than half the case.
• Add blueberries on top of each dollop of mix. 5-6 blueberries.
• Then add another layer of mix on top of the blueberries. Remember to pipe vertically!. Fill until the top of the case. Add again 5-6 blueberries.
• Put the muffins in the oven for 20 minutes aprox or until golden on top.
• Before removing from oven, use a tooth stick and check it comes out clean.
• Let it cool for a bit.
• Optionally, you can use a bit of icing sugar on top for decoration.

This makes aprox 6 scones

Ingredients

• 225g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (double effect: fizzy with water -> bubbles -> in the oven expand)
• pinch salt
• 25g caster sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 150ml whole milk
• 1 egg bitten for washing

Decoration:

• Clotted Cream
• Jam
• icing sugar

Process:

• Prepare a baking tray. Wash with a bit of melted butter, then spread some flour and finally smack the tray to remove the flour. You should have a light dusted tray.
• Pre-heat oven at 220C
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Stir in the sugar.
• Add the butter and “rub” with the flour mix until it looks like breadcrumbs. Tosh a bit the bowl and check there is no butter pieces.
• Add the milk bit a bit. Mixing with one hand.
• Put the dough on the work surface and knead it for 7-8 minutes. It is a very wet dough so use a scrapper to help you. At then it should be a bit more manageable , then form a ball with your hands and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Put flour on your rolling pin and spread the dough until it is aprox 2cm thick. If it is thinner than this, the scone will not rise much!.
• Use a pastry cutter of 8-10cm diameter. Cut the dough with one strong move, dont twist it! Remove the cutter, and do the same in different part of the dough until you can use it anymore. Remove the leftover dough with the help of a spoon or similar without breaking the scone shape.
• If you have dough left, repeat the process. Spread to 2cm thick, use cutter, etc
• Transfer the scones to the tray. Wash only the top with the egg wash. Rest for 10 minutes.
• Wash again the top of the scones and transfer to the oven.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes until the top is golden brown. Use a tooth pick to be sure the inside of the scone is baked. The pick should come out clean.
• Let the scone cool down.
• For serving, use a bread knife and cut approx by the middle. You can use anything you like, the typical fillings is clotted cream and jam!
• You can spread some icing sugar on top for decoration

Ingredients:

• 100g butter
• 125g icing sugar
• 100g flour
• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 vanilla paste

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 180C
• Cream butter and icing sugar with your hand.
• Add the egg whites in three times. Mix with your hand.
• Add the flour bit a bit and keep mixing.
• Add the vanilla, mix a bit.
• Prepare a piping bag with a small nozzle. As usual, twist the bag with your index finger in the nozzle so it keeps the form, fold the pipe to the middle and then add the cream.
• On the back of a tray, wash it with a bit of butter, add flour and then smack it with one hit so it get a soft non-sticky cover.
• Using a butter block, make two vertical lines using thumb and index finger.
• ^^ This is the same as the eclairs ^^
• Pipe the cream horizontally, hold the pipe with your left hand and squeeze with the right. Be sure the lines are uniform (parts with more cream than other, etc), the cream doesnt have bubbles.
• Then trim the edges with a sharp knife, the lines should be well inside the tray. This is important because once in the oven, they will expand and you dont want the biscuit bend down the tray edge.
• Bake for 10 minutes aprox, until the biscuit edges are golden brown.
• Remove from oven and let them cool down
• Optionally, you can dust half of the biscuit with icing sugar.

The biscuits were tasty but the form was really bad. My piping wasnt good I think as some parts had more cream and they expanded more. Need to try again!

Brandy Snap Ingredients:

• 55g butter
• 55g demanara sugar
• 55g golden syrup (put 10sec in microwave once ready to use it so it is liquid)
• 50g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp lemon (stops crystalizing the sugar)
• optional: Silpat matt (Non-Stick Silicone Baking Mat)

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 180C.
• In sauce pan, put butter, sugar and syrup. Heat gently at low heat, until everything is disolved. Don’t boil it!!! Stir with a spoon, until you dont feel the grains of sugar. If should look like “caramel”. It will take 10-15 minutes. Dont rush it.
• Let the sugar mix to cool down for 1-2 minutes, add the flour and ginger. Mix well but just a bit. You dont want to split the mix.
• Add the lemon, mix well but like above.
• In the baking try with non-sticking paper or similar, drop 4 small balls of “caramel”. Around 1/2 tsp. It looks small but then in the oven they will spread out a lot. They need to become flat, and “toasted”. A bit less than 10 minutes.
• When the circules have a nice brown color, remove the try from the oven.
• Wait 30 sec or so. Then with a circle cookie cutter, cut a circumference from each melted caramel. If it is too soft, wait for a bit, then remove the sides around the cutter with the handle of a fork or spoon. The “cookie” should be pliable.
• Use the handle of the whisk, with a bit of oil, and put the “cookie” to form a “canoli”. Try to connect the sides. Wait until the “cookie” is a bit hard and remove from the handle. Let it rest in a cooling rack
  • Very likely from the 4 caramel melts, one or two will be hard and you will not be able to cut it or put the cookie in the handle without breaking it. If you think they are going to break, put them back in the oven for 1 minute and will be come soft again. So start the process again, use cutter, help with fork to remove excess sides, then handle to form a “canoli”.
  • Once you have all “canoli” resting, make the filling below:

Cream Ingredients:

• 200ml double cream
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Cream process:

• Whisk the cream, sugar and vanilla until it starts to become solid. Don’t go to stiff peaks!!! This is not merengue. If you do, once you try to pipe it, the cream will spilt in something similar to butter and water.
• Use a cross end for the pipe. As usual, twist the bag with the index finger so it stays, the put the cream in the bag, twist the bag until all cream is together and then pipe one hand in the bottom and the other squeezing.
• Fill each canoli a bit from each side.
• Optional, dip each side in pistachio

I tried one after cooling down and I felt it was too sweet. But maybe because I ate a bit of the “cookie” leftover that are nearly purely sugar.

The next day, I tried another and felt much better. The cream is not sweet at all so it balance the “biscuit”.

This is a typical cake from the Veneto region in Italy. I tasted it in Venice and wanted to try myself at some point, and that happened this weekend.

I used this video and this blog as inspiration.

Ingredients:

• 1 litre whole milk (have some more extra just in case)
• 200g corn flour (semolina)
• 70g 00′ flour (plain can work too)
• 80g butter
• 100g sugar
• 50g walnuts (chopped) – optional
• 70ml Sambuca (didnt have Grappa)
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (I used caraway as I didnt have fennel)
  • 1 tsp anis seeds
  • 1 orange: zest + juice
  • 1 lemon: zest
  • 2 apples chopped in small pieces
• 8 dried figs chopped
• 50g raisins

Process:

• Pre-heat the oven at 180C.
• Prepare a tray and spread some butter.
• Soak the raisins, seeds, orange and lemon zest, juice and figs in Sambuca
• In a big pan, bring to boil the milk. Immediately add corn and flour whisking without stopping to avoid lumps. Put at low heat now!
• If it is too thick, you can add more milk. (I think I used 1.2l milk at the end and still quite thick!!!)
• Cook for a couple of minutes at low heat, keep whisking, don’t burn it!
  • Remove from heat and add butter, sugar, and the mix fruit with sambuca. Add walnuts.
  • Mix all well with a spoon.
  • Pour in the tray. Level it with the spoon.
  • Put in the oven for 50-60 minutes.
  • Should be brown on top and quite moist inside if you dip a knife on it. The knife shouldnt come out clean.
  • Remove from oven and let it cool down for 1h at least before trying. The polenta is very moist so it takes time to get “solid”. Next day is even better taste!

This is the result!

It wasnt as the one I tasted in Venice but still was pretty good!

I tried Dal from this place and I was amazed. It was so good that I wanted to try and some time later I found this recipe. I failed miserably. Again I tried last week using a different recipe, that doesn’t looks like very authentic after reading others but still I went for it.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup of lentils put in water the night before
• 1 can of beans (mixed, kidney, etc)
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp garlic chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger grated
• 2 tbsp medium curry powder
• ping of chilli paste.
• 75g butter
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• 150g spinach
• 3/4 cup of rice + 1 star anise

Process:

• Put same amount of rice and boiling water in a pan at medium heat. Put the star anise in the middle.
• After a couple of minutes reduce to low heat the rice. Dont stir and check from time to time to avoid getting burn.
• In a medium-heat frying pan, put half of butter, onion, garlic, ginger, curry powder and chilli paste. Cook until the onions are soft.
• Pour the coconut milk and tomatoes, season with salt/pepper. Bring to boil and then to simmer.
• Add beans, lentils and remaining butter. Simmer for 30 minutes or so.
• Taste it! When ready, add the spinach and stir.
• Ready to eat with the rice!

Ingredients:

• 3 wheat biscuits, crumbled (aprox 50gr)
• 100gr sultanas or prunes
• 150ml milk
• 250gr dark brown sugar
• 2 large free range eggs
• 2 large ripe bananas mashed
• 120g butter melted
• 150g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsb ground cinnamon
• 1 tsb groud ginger

Process:

• Pre-heat oven at 170C.
• Prepare a loaf tin and grease it with a bit of butter.
• In a bowl, mix the wheat biscuits, milk and sultanas. Set aside.
• In another bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until pale.
• Then add banana, butter, flour, bicarbonate, cinnamon and ginger. Mix well.
• Then add to the banana mix, the wheat mix. Mix properly with a spoon.
• Pour the mix into the tin. Bake for 1h or until top is golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let it cool down in a rack.

Very tasty and moist (although the pic is not great…) cake. It is super quick to do too.

Pastry Ingredients:

• 175g plain flour
• 100g cold butter in small cubes
• 25g icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk + pinch salt
• 1 tbsp cold water

Filling Ingredients:

• 125ml free range eggs (2.5 eggs aprox)
• 62.5ml double cream
• 112gr caster sugar
• Juice of 2 lemons (do a syrup with the zest)
• icing sugar for dusting

Process

• Start with the pastry. Rub the flour, butter and icing sugar until you get something like breadcrumbs. You shouldn’t have lumps of butter. Tip the bowl and check the surface.
• Add the egg yolk and cold water. Form a dough, flat it a bit and wrap in cling film. Rest in fridge for 1h.
• Pre-heat oven at 220C. Prepare a try with baking paper (just to cover the tin!) and the tin on it. The tin can be from 16 to 20cm diameter. The dough will cover all.
• Take the pastry out of the fridge. With your fingers, bend the edges of the pastry as they will be hard due to the butter.
• In a lightly dusted surface, roll the pastry with a pin. Add flour to the pin not the dough. Roll until you have 0.5cm thick (or so). Clean excess of flour.
• Roll the dough with the pin and then lay it over the tin. Gently push the pastry into the tin with your fingers. Be sure there are not air pockets between the tin and the pastry.
• Trim the top excess with the rolling pin. Then with your thumbs be sure the side of the tin are the same thickness with dough everywhere. Dont make it too thin!
• With a knife, trim the top, be sure that cut is even.
• With your thumbs nail, go through the top an separate a bit the pastry from the tin.
• With cling film or baking paper, cover the pastry. Then fill the pastry with rice, beans or similar. Be sure it is properly full.
• Bake for 20 minutes at 175C. Be sure the edges are golden brown.
• Remove beans/rice and bake for 5-10 minutes until bottom is baked.
• Remove from oven and leave to cool down.
• Leave the oven at 120C
• Prepare lemon filling. In a bowl, whisk sugar and lemon juice.
• Add the eggs, mix with a spoon. DONT WHISK! You dont want bubbles.
• Pour the cream and keep mixing with the spoon.
• Pass the lemon mix through a strainer so the mix is super smooth and there are not bits of anything. You can taste it 🙂
• Put the lemon in the mix if the base is not cool down.
• Once the base is ready, put the tray half way in the oven so you can pour the lemon filling. Stir the filling before pouring if it was in the fridge!!!!
• Pour slowly the filling, until it nearly reaches the top.
• Bake for 25 minutes aprox at 120C.
• Be sure the filling is set, just a slight wobble in the center, before removing from oven.
• Let it rest for 15 minutes, remove the tin.
• Dust the top with icing sugar.

This is the result!

Still the edges are not even…. but it is tasty 🙂

Stock Syrup:

• 50% water
• 50% sugar

Process

• Mix water and sugar. Then heat until boil.
• Add the lemon peel or any fruit peel you dont want to through away.
• Let it at low heat for 30 minutes.
• Remove from heat.
• You can taste the syrup and even the peels!

Watched this video and I liked the broccoli dish so I tried!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup of chopped peanuts (any nuts to be honest)
• 1 big broccoli
• 8-9 garlic cloves.
• Optiona: 1 can of chickpeas.
• 25ml soy sauce aprox
• 2 tsp of chilli sauce
• 1 tsp of corn flour
• 1 cup of couscous.

Process:

• Chop the nuts
• Chop the broccoli head. Put apart
• Chop the broccoli stalks. Put apart (nothing wasted!)
• Chop the garlic cloves.
• Boil a cup of water.
• Add the cup of water to the couscous and put apart. You can add some mint, butter, etc.
• In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, chilli sauce and corn flour. Put apart
• In a big pan, at medium heat. Add a gulp of olive oil.
• Add the garlic, saute for a bit.
• Add the broccoli stalks. Cook for a bit.
• Optional, add the chickpeas.
• Add the broccoli floretees and the soy mix.
• Cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the nuts and mix for a bit.
• Taste it, broccoli should be crunchy!

Ready to serve!

My broccoli was quite dark because I used dark soy sauce.

To be honest quite easy recipe, and tasty!