I guess the cooking list of a foodie is almost unending. This crust is something I wanted to prepare since quite a while. After the first bit I knew, this is going to be something that will visit my kitchen again and again. I am talking about an almond-celery crust with majoram, sage and parsley. I coated a piece of pork tenderloin with it. In the saucepan, where I fried the meat before adding the crust on top, I added sliced mushrooms, salt pepper and some veggie stock. I poured some white wine under the meat, and when it was ready I added this white wine to the mushrooms with some heavy cream and got a yummy sauce that went really well with this dish.
Ingredients:200 g celerybunch of parsley
2-3 sage leaves3-4 majoram leaves
100 g almond, coarsly grated1 egg
2 tablespoon breadcrumbs2 tablespoon sour cream
1 pork tenderloin
dijon mustardwhite wine
salt, pepper
butter
Salt, pepper meat, marinate with dijon mustard and fry in butter. Prepare crust: chop herbs, add almond, egg, breadcrumbs, sour cream. Add crust on top of the pork, pour white wine under it and put it in the oven for 30-40 minutes on 200°C.
This dish is today's experiment, that was a success. The experiment part was not the cauliflower panna cotta, but the spinach sponge under it. I consulted with my mom and she was not sure if a sponge would not be too flat without sugar. First I had the idea to add a pack of vanilla sugar, but then I thought no risk, no fun. I flavoured the panna cotta with truffle oil, well next time I am going to leave that, because after experiencing black truffle three times, I am sure now, it is not my cup of tea.
Ingredients:For the spinach sponge:1 egg1 tablespoon spinach
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
salt, pepper, nutmeg
For the panna cotta:200 g cauliflower
30 g butter
40 ml vegetable stock
25 ml heavy cream2 gelatine sheetssalt, pepper, nutmeg
optional truffle oil
Whisk egg yolk with spinach, salt, pepper, nutmeg and flour. Stir in beaten egg white and bake on 200°C for about 3-5 minutes in any kind of form you want.
Cook cauliflower roses in water, or stock until ready. Melt butter, add 40 ml veggie stock and puree together with the cauliflower. Add heavy cream, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in gelatine and fill into forms, let it cool until stiff.
I was wondering if I should post about this or not. Well...now I am here writing a few lines about today's lunch. I received a bunch of beautiful swiss green asparagus. Fresh and thin.
I had the idea to bake sort of a quiche. For this purpose I wanted to use that gorgeous and absolutely yummy Velouté sauce that I prepared lately. I already felt the taste explosion in my mouth: asparagus, Emmentaler, Black Forest ham and THE sauce with a crispy pastry. Well the crust was a huge catastrophy. I guess I did not bake it long enough. I prepared it out of flour and grated almonds. No matter why, but fact is I screwed it up. Still the sauce and the asparagus with the cheese...mmm that was yummy with some bread. For sure I am going to try again, but then with a traditional and not experimental pastry.
I was curious about chilli con carne since my childhood. I have seen it in many movies and I thought it must be really yummy. I confess that I do not like tomatoes either canned or boiled, that is why it took me so long to cook my first ever chilli. I could not imagine that a dish contaning canned tomatoes would taste so savoury! I am in love with the intense taste of the chilli. What a fantastic symphony of fresh and canned tomatoes. I am really surprised. The only change I made is that I used minced turkey, as I had no beef in the fridge. I served it with rice, however I think bread is the perfect match.
Ingredients:
1 large onion or 2 banana shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli deseeded or keep half with seeds if you like it spicy2 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked and roughly choppedolive oil, for frying500g good quality beef mince1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika1 tsp dried oregano
3 fresh tomatoes or 1 beef tomato, roughly chopped
400g chopped tomatoes2 tbsp tomato puree100-200ml chicken or beef stock
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf400g kidney beans, drained and rinsedsalt and pepper
handful of chives, chopped
200ml soured cream
boiled rice, to serve
Sweat the onion, garlic, chilli and thyme in 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan. At the same time, brown the mince in a separate pan over moderate heat in a little oil.
Add the dried spices to the onion mixture and cook until they release their aroma. Then stir in the beef and mix well. Add the fresh and tinned tomatoes and leave to cook down a little for about 5 minutes.
Pour in the chicken or beef stock and stir in tomato puree to taste. Drop the cinnamon and bay leaf in then bring to the boil and leave to simmer.
Once the sauce is beginning to thicken add the kidney beans and leave to cook for another 5-10 minutes to allow the beans to soak up the flavours. Check for seasoning.
Mix the chives and soured cream together. To serve, spoon the chilli into the centre of a mound of rice, with the soured cream and chives in a separate bowl on the side.
(source:channel4.com)
Tropical shrimps, both farmed and wild caught.
Coldwater shrimps.
As I have already mentioned in a previous post, I am not a seafood fan, but this recepie, that I created today was so delicous! I am surprised and can not wait to prepare it again. I am really thrilled! Now I have to write it down fast, before I forget it. I fried half of the patties without flour, and half with. I think the only difference is that without they look more delcious, I just was not sure if without flour they would fall apart or not. But it worked out!
Ingredients:250 g prawns
1 shallot
2 celery stalks
1 piece of fresh chili
1 piece of fresh ginger
juice of 1 lime
100 g coarsly grated almond
5 drops dark sesame oil
1 egg
Chop shallot, celery stalks, prawns, chili. Add grated ginger, lime juice, almond, sesame oil and egg. Whisk all together, add a tablespoon flour if you do not feel comfortable without. Fry patties in oil. I served it with a mixture of sour cream and mustard.
By the way, this month is one old recepie of mine is online on Culinary Seductions!
When I saw the theme of this month's SHF hosted by Tartelette, I was delighted! I adore lemons, so I was sure I am going to make something using them. I was thinking days about what I should do and I just had no inspiration...until today! As one of my favourite ice cream is lemon, I thought why not make my own lemon sorbet. Each time I buy ice cream on the street I check how the lemon tastes, if it is yummy I buy other flavours, so that is the ultimate ice cream test for me. If lemon is good, the rest should rock as well. On the other hand side I thought only a sorbet is not enough, so that is how I ended up preparing orange crêpes. To give the missing kick to the whole dessert, I took some tablespoon of the grapefruit jam, that I cooked recently, added some orange juice and lemon pepper to have a sauce going with the rest. While taking photos I remembered my orange pastry I made a day before yesterday and decorated the whole thing with it. That is how I managed to use more than one citrus for this great theme!
Ingredients:For the Crêpes:2 eggs
2 tablespoon flour2 tablespoon powder sugar
4 tablespoon milkzest and juice of 1 orange
butter
For the lemon sorbet:275 ml milk
275 g sugarzest and juice of 3 lemons1 egg white
For the crêpe whisk all ingredients together and put aside for about 30 minutes.
Bake them in buttered saucepan.
For the sorbet cook milk with sugar and let it cool. Add zest and juice of the lemon and whipped egg white. Let the ice cream machine do the rest.
The plan was to cook something with champignons for lunch, because I had about a half pound in the fridge and it was time to use them. Crêpes, I adore them just like I adore mushrooms. So I prepared this absolutely fantastic recipe that supposed to be today's appetizer. While preparing it I felt that is perfectly enough for lunch, no need for anything else. However I knew that not everyone enjoys mushroom among my birthday guests, so I also prepared some dijon mustard marinated pork tenderloin with some cognac on young rosemary potatoes and an improvised zabaglione. I did not want to spend too much time on my birthday in the kitchen so it had to be fast and considering that the weather is getting warmer and warmer it is like in a sauna if the oven is working. I am totally thrilled about this crêpes dish! Creamy, tasty and the cheese on top is irresistible!
Ingredients:For the Crêpes:150 g flour
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon melted butterFor the filling:375 g Champignons
4 tablespoon butter
1 shallot
1 teaspoon parsley
salt, pepper
For the Velouté sauce:
6 tablespoon butter
75 g flour2,5 cups chicken stock, hot
2 egg yolks
1-1,5 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juicegrated ementaler cheese
For the Crêpes whisk all ingredients together and let it cool for an hour, after bake them.
Slice champignons, add shallot in melted butter, add champignons and fry. When ready stir in chopped parsley, season with salt and pepper.
Prepare the sauce: melt butter, add flour and whisk until it is well corporated. Remove from fire, add stock and mix well. Cook for another minute. Whisk egg yolks with heavy cream, add half of it to the mixture. To the rest of the egg yolk-heavy cream add the sauce and whisk well. After whisk all together. Cook it for some second, season with salt, pepper, lemon juice.
Preheat oven to 180°C. On the bottom of a heat proof bowl add some sauce. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the sauce to the mushroom. Fill crêpes with mushroom and roll it up. Place them to the form, add the rest of the sauce and the cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is light brown.
For the flavouring I used orange and elderberry. My first DB Challenge was the Party Cake and there I screwed up the buttercream. This time it was really good and I loved its orange flavour. However as my baking form was too big the cream was almost not enough, I should have doubled it. 
I still have problems with white chocolate so the glaze was not nice at all and the joconde got also too brown. 
Do not forget to check out all those great daring bakers out there! The Double DB is also completed: croissants.
