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April 30, 2008

Red Mullet with Saffron Sauce

After the devilfish catastrophy it was time for fish again! I had some beautiful red mullet filets that were waiting to be prepared. It made a jump to my fish list, as I loved its consistence and taste.


I think, I am slowly on the way to become a fish fan, but very slowly... I found a recepie in my collection for red mullet, that wrote "now season fish" but they forgot to mention with what, so I used only salt and pepper. I prepared a creamy saffron sauce that was great in combination with boiled the potatoes and the root vegetabels.


Ingredients:
2 red mullet filets
salt, pepper
butter
1 shallot

200 ml white wine
100 ml chicken stock
saffron

200 ml heavy cream
3 small potatoes

1 parsley root
2 carrots
2 celery stalks

white wine
chicken stock


Peel potatoes and cook them in salted water. Chop veggies and fry them in melted butter add a little white wine and some stock and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Melt butter, add chopped shallot, white wine. Reduce and sieve. Add saffron, 100 ml heavy cream and cook for 2 minutes. Beat the rest of the heavy cream, add to the sauce.
season fish with salt and pepper and fry in butter.

April 29, 2008

Apricot Jam - Putting Up

Every year my mom and me prepare preserves together. The favourites are strawberry, peach and apricot. I always buy apricot in Hungary because they have such a fabulous aroma. It is an old Hungarian type of apricot called rose apricot with a beautiful fragrance, mmm lovely. Intense taste, wonderful colour. I always have some packs frozen so I thought to prepare some more apricot jam, that I am going to submit to a great blog event organised by Pixie from You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato and by Rosie from Rosie Bakes A 'Peace' of Cake.


Ingredients:
5 kg apricot
3 kg sugar


Half apricot and remove the core. In a big pot add sugar over the fruit and cook for 20 minutes after it started to boil. When it is still hot add jam in glasses and cover with the top. Tuck glasses in a cloth and let it cool them that way for two days.

Leftovers For Lunch

Yesterday I cooked chicken stock because I had no more left in my freezer. What always bothers me when cooking stock is that one has to buy a huge head of celery and I never know what to do with the rest. While thinking about today's lunch my eyes stopped on the celery and I decided to cook a puree, because that is something I have heared a lot about and was anyway curios about its taste. I had some beans left from the sailing lunch from last Sunday so I grabbed these as well. I found champignons, sliced pork and a piece of herb butter that I prepared pretty long ago. Slowly I had a picture in front of me about the dish. While rolling pork with the fried mushrooms I remembered that I have some filo dough left that should be used! After I had a weird idea to wrap the meat in a leaf of chicory and after in the filo. My gosh that is a lovely combination, very tasty, I would have never thought but it harmonise very well!


Ingredients:
4 slices pork cutlet
200 g brown champignons
8 chicory leaves
filo dough
egg white

butter
salt, pepper
250 g green beans
50 g butter
60 g flour
250 ml milk
2 eggs

smoked cheese
butter for the forms
celery
1 tablespoon butter
50 ml milk
salt, pepper, nutmeg

200 ml chicken stock
100 ml white wine
1 shallot
1 tablespoon herb butter

Slice beans and cook in some stock. Melt butter, add flour and mix well. Let it cool. Stir in eggs and milk. Butter a muffin form of six, add from the béchamel on the bottom, add cooked beans, grated smoked cheese. Cover béchamel, add cheese on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes on 200°C. Slice celery and cook in salted water. Puree with butter and milk, season with pepper and nutmeg. Fry champignons and roll in the flattened pork. Heat butter and fry the rolls form both sides. Put a chichory leaf on a piece of filo dough, add pork roll and cover with another chicory leaf and roll into the filo dough. Butter a form add rolls and smear some egg white on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes.
For the sauce heat herb butter, add chopped shallot, white wine and chicken stock, reduce and pour into the saucepan where you fried pork and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Rhubarb Pancake

It is a kind of love between rhubarb and me. I can not resist if I see them and need to buy. I love its colour, its taste, its shape. I still have tons of it in my pantry and for this yummy breakfast I have used only one stem. I think it makes a great combination with cinnamon!


Ingredients:
1 rhubarb stem
1 egg
50 g flour
60 ml milk
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon corn starch
powder sugar
cinnamon
butter

Peel and slice rhubarb. Mix cinnamon with powder sugar, according to your taste and mix it with the sliced rhubarb. Whisk egg yolk with flour, milk, baking powder and corn starch. Beat egg white with a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon powder sugar. Mix beaten egg white with the pastry. Melt butter in a saucepan, add pastry with sliced rhubarb on top. Bake it in the oven for 8-10 minutes on 200°C. Serve with powder sugar.

April 28, 2008

Mango Ice Cream - Cinco de Mango!

I have discovered a blog event about the queen of fruits. I had one beautiful mango at home and wanted to eat something sweet, so I prepared mango ice cream served in a filo basket with white chocolate bottom.


Ingredients:
1 mango
juice of 1 lime
1 tabelspoon sugar

100 ml heavy cream
1 egg yolk
filo dough
butter, melted
white chocolate

Cut mango in chunks and puree with lime juice. Add heavy cream, egg yolk, sugar and let the ice cream maker do the rest of the job. Butter a muffin form, add one sheet filo, butter it and add two more. Bake for 40-50 seconds on 200°C. While they are still hot add chopped chocolate. After they are cool add mango ice cream and some choco chunks on top.

April 27, 2008

Hoist The Sails!

I love to improvise in the kitchen especially on the weekend when I have plenty of time. I wanted to cook something fresh. While looking around in my pantry I saw that I have plenty of lemons. I remembered that once I made some lemony pork cutlet that was very yummy, as I am a big lemon fan, no wonder that I loved it. So far so good. Now I only needed a sauce and some vegetables. Green beans! Yeah that is good. Lately I am on the sabayon run, so it was clear that I am going to whisk a white wine-lemon zabaglione. Some pototaes sure also fit the whole thing, and here I go with the potato-sage leaf sails!




Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
juice of one lemon

1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
butter

salt, pepper
250 g green beans

5 slices ementaler cheese
9 slices of bacon

flour, 1 egg, breadcrumbs
oil
potatoes, sage leaves, olive oil

100 ml white wine
100 ml beef stook
thyme
juice and zest of 1 lemon
salt, pepper

4 egg yolks


Slice pork and marinate for 30 minutes. Heat butter and fry meat.
With a mandoline slice potatoes and put a sage leaf between two slices. Deep fry in oil.
Cook beans and roll in cheese, bacon and cover in breadcrumbs. Deep fry.
For the zabaglione cook white wine, stock, lemon juice, thyme with salt and pepper, reduce.
Over steam whisk it together with egg yolks
for 10-15 minutes.

Cheesecake Pops - Daring Bakers

This challenge was so much fun!!! The result absolutely yummy!!!

I have never baked cheese cake before, at least not of this kind of cream cheese and not this type. I was a bit afraid that it will not work out. I have already seen that the cheesecake is not stable enough, that the pops melt while I am trying to get chocolate on them. So after I put the cake to the ofen I checked it about every minute to see what is going on.
I was so happy when I have seen that it looks pretty good for a first cheese cake! I am not a patient person, so while waiting for the cake to cool down, I tought it is better to take the dog for a walk, before I go on with the pops.
The fun started! It was so easy to form the pops, I could not understand anymore why I was worried at all! I loved it! So fast I have put them into the freezer and the waiting begun, but it had an end. Of course after a few pops were ready, I could not resist to try one. Oh gosh these were fantastic! Mmm still frozen and yummy! I knew that this going to be a favourite.

My neighbours got also a bunch and they loved it too! Great challenge! Thank you, Deborah and Elle! Do not forget to check out all those great daring bakers out there! This month's Double Challenge is also completed: Biscotti Bliss!

April 26, 2008

Cinnamon Floating Island - Show Us Your…Spice Collection!

There is a great event floating around in the cyber space called Show Us Your...and this time it is about our spice collection.

I remember at the begining of my cooking "career" I had only salt, black pepper and some paprika powder in my pantry. No wonder, because opening a pack of sausages and ready made pasta is not cooking. With the time I developed myself there where I am today. I think I can say that my spice collection is not small. Meanwhile I have more than three kinds of salt, including the French fleur de sel, himalayan salt, coarse-grained sea salt, Portuguese flor de sal. Of course my collection of pepper is also expanded: white, rose, lemon pepper, szechuan pepper in no way may be missed in my kitchen.

Beside the Hungarian paprika powder there is hot paprika powder, cayenne pepper, that is red hot chili pepper, and of course some dried chilies and chili flakes. Coriander is also a stable member of my spice collection, together with bay leaves, that I dry myself, oregnao, dried thyme and rosemary, caraway, majoram, kardamom, vanilla pods, saffron, mustard seeds and curcuma. I hope I have not forget anyone.

I store my spices actually everywhere in my small kitchen. Most I have in glasses on the shelves, except the paprika powder that I store in a steel box. Some of them that I do not use often are still in their original package closed with a clip. I would like to get steel boxes for my spices and store them on a magnet wall, I think that would look cute and would also be practical. My all time favourite spice is cinnamon.

I think it has somewhat a magical fragrance that can take you far away on a cold winter day or on a hot summer day flavouring a nice scoop of cinnamon ice, that is my favourite ice cream since my childhood. Before Christmas you can smell it everywhere in town. I love cinnamon because of its unique flavour, that you can not mix with anything else and somehow it has something mystical to me.

As this spice reminds me of my childhood I thought to prepare floating island that my mom often prepared for me using cinnamon to give it a special touch. I think I have always been a cinnamon fan!
Ingredients:
1 1/2 l milk
4 eggs
150 g sugar
2 packs vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour


Bring milk to boil and cook it on low heat.
Beat egg white with one pack vanilla and 3 tablespoon sugar. Beat in cocoa powder.
With a help of a spoon add beaten egg white and let it cook until it grows, turn and cook for
30 seconds, put aside.
Whisk the rest of the sugar, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, flour and egg yolks, add to the milk.
Stir constantly, but do not boil! When the milk begins to thicken turn off the heat. Add islands on top and let it cool. Serve chilled.

April 25, 2008

Smoked Cheese Triangles

Fast afternoon or party snack with delicious smoked cheese on top. They harmonise perfect with apples.


Ingredients:
250 g flour
125 g butter
100 g cream cheese
5 g baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

smoked cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients to a dough, roll out, add grated smoked cheese on top. Bake for 7-10 minutes on 200°C.

April 24, 2008

Double DB Challenge: Biscotti Bliss

Here we go again on the Double DB Challenge with my dear friend Amy ! First we baked the pretzels and this time we took the challenge on the biscotti. I am always a bit worried about the recepies that I have to convert, but luckily so far all worked out. Phew... Amy even baked the cinnamon version that I am also going to try as I adore cinnamon.


April 23, 2008

Mr. Pomelo and the bittersweet seduction

Let me introduce Mr. Pomelo to you. We had our very first date today afternoon. First I thought he is charming, but after removing his yellow-green cloth I was disappointed. Only that small? The whole pomelo only so so so small under that thick peel? I was a bit shocked. Not bigger than an ordinary grapefruit.

Nevertheless our first kiss was an explosion. I loved his taste. Mmm... I saw on the sideboard Miss Ananas waiting and looking pretty sad. I felt I must introduce them each other. All of a sudden I rememered a recepie from Pierre Hermé that I have seen on a website published by Dorie Greenspan. Once more I was disappointed! No orange marmalde in my pantry and no way to get a glass! I looked at Mr. Pomelo and decided to cook a syrup out of him and use that instead of the marmalde. The dessert was a truly bittersweet dream. A lovely harmony between the coconuty tapioca and the pomelo syrup marinated ananas with the touch of the parfume of the lime zest!

What I most love about pomelo is the way how the fruit flesh can be peeled! I had some problems with drying the pineapple because it was almost impossible to me to slice it thin enough, however they tasted great!

Hungarian Rakott Krumpli - Art You Eat #3:Go Local!

The theme of this month's Art You Eat blog event is to go local, that means to cook something including any local product. I was thinking a lot about this event and it was not easy for me to find the right recepie. Finally I have found what I was looking for! In this hungarian recepie you use only local products and this is what I wanted. For this scalloped potatoes dish there are many many versions. I decided to cook the way my mom does. I always buy products when they have their season after all only then they have their real and natural taste. But of course there are some exotic fruits that sometimes I can not resist. You can already buy fresh young potatoes or still the old ones that were grown localy. However it is impossible to cook only with local products. It is enough if one thinks of black pepper that is essencial in any kitchen. Vietnam has recently become the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper. Other major producers include Indonesia, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China. So this is definetly something that in no way you could get localy grown in any European country. All I want to say that it is very important to use local and seasonal products in order to reduce pollution, however some products that we are used to we still have to buy imported. I also could have mentioned salt, however here we have local salt, so this does not apply to me. Now here is the recepie for the scalloped potatoes using local potatoes, local eggs, local sour cream, local salt, local sunflower oil, local bacon and local breadcrumbs.

Ingredients:
600 g potato
3 eggs
150 g bacon

oil
breadcrumbs
300 ml sour cream

saltCook potatoes and eggs, peel both. Fry bacon in a little oil. Preheat oven to 200°C. Oil a heat proof form, add breadcrumbs on the bottom. Slice potato and put a layer of potato, add salt, sliced eggs, bacon, sour cream, some drops of oil and breadcrums, repeat this until you used all. Pour sour cream on top, add breadcrumbs. Bake for 30-35 minutes. It is best served luke warm.

Do you know my name?

I wear a small hat and I am never alone. The mouth who ate me guessed my name is Shimeji mushroom, however she received me from a friend who could not tell her who I am. So please look at me and tell me if she was right!

Yeah about the mushroom name I am really a bit confused because its colour were darker than the Shimeji I have seen before. I prepared a salad for dinner yesterday out of the leftovers in the fridge and as it was so tasty I wanted to share it with you.

Ingredients:
5-6 green beans
3 radish
1 onion

1 small lettuce
2-3 tomatoes
100 g bacon
some mushroom

1 tablespoon grape seed oil
1 tablespoon elder vinegar or white vinegar
1 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil

3 tablespoon milk
juice of a half lime
salt, pepper

Slice beans and cook in some vegetable stock. Chop the rest of the veggies as you like to.
Mix dressing out of grape seed oil, elder vinegar, pumpkin seed oil, milk and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper, also you can add some dried salad herbs. Fry bacon and after it is ready fry mushrooms in the same saucepan.

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