Blueberry Soufflé

Well, for some reason I am not able to get back on track, and maybe I do not even want to. I haven't cooked much these days, so it was time to go back to the kitchen. The summer seems to turned into autumn, at least it feels very much like that with the rain and even already some leaves turned to red. So it was more than welcome to turn on the oven in a cold and rainy afternoon. I had the spontanous idea to bake a soufflés that turned out so fluffy. First I wanted to make it with blueberry puree, but then I decided to leave the fruits as they are and that way the soufflés looked like blueberry muffins.

Ingredients:

175 ml milk

35 g sugar

3 egg yolks

25 g flour

4 egg whites

40 g sugar

200 g blueberries
juice of a 1/4 lemon
cinnamon
allspice
vanilla pod

sugar and butter for the forms

Butter 6 small or 4 large soufflé forms and sprinkle with sugar, then put it into the fridge. Marinate blueberries with lemon juice, ground cinnamon and allspice. Bring 150 ml of milk together with a vanilla pod and 20 g of sugar to the boil. Whisk egg yolks until plate with another 20 g of sugar, stir in flour and the rest of the milk. Pour hot milk to the egg yolk mixture while stirring. Put it back to the heat and as soon as it has thickened, set aside. Beat egg whites until half stiff, then add the 35 g of sugar and beat until stiff. Stir marinated bluebeeries into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the beaten egg whites. Bake for 10-12 minutes on 200°C.

Weekend Herb Blogging #293 - Roundup

Weekend Herb Blogging, that was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and now managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once is already in its 5th year. Anh of A Food Lover's Journey is going to be next week's host. If you'd like to participate, make sure you check out the rules and send your entries to anhnguyen118 AT gmail DOT com . Now let's see the entries!

The first entry has arrived right away from New York Citry, from Peggy from The Blog that Ate Manhattan. She shares a recipe for "Summer Sunday Pesto" with Mint, Basil and Parsley.

Tigerfish from teczcape - an escape to food from California, USA has posted about lotus root and you are going to find a recipe for a Lotus Root, Celery and Squash Stir-Fry.

 

Janet from The Taste Space from Toronto, Canada shares a delicious recipe for a miso-walnut dressing with asparagus and carrot salad.

 

Cheah from No-Frills Recipes from Malaysia, shares a recipe for long bean chicken noodles that is perfect for a lazy evening.

Stash from The Spamwise Chronicles from New York, USA, shares a recipe for braised lettuce, that nowdays forgotten French classic, served this time with peas, young onions, baby squash and mint.

Eve from The Garden of Eating  from Woodstock, NY, shares a lovely recipe for roasted fennel.

Elly from Nutmegs, seven from Cambridge has rarely and very little time to make desserts, however now she shares a gorgeous recipe for a greengage and almond cake.

Sra from When My Soup Came Alive from India, shares a recipe for a curry with drumsticks. Curious? Check it out!

Elizabeth from OUR Kitchen from Toronto, Canada shares a recipe that is just perfect for a hot summer evening: lemongrass chicken on vermicelli rice noodles.

Rinku from  Cooking in Westchester from Westchester County, New York brought a recipe for a refreshing Chilled Cucumber and Tomato Soup.

Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once from Melbourne, Australia was craving for Sformato di Broccoli, that is similar to a soufflé, but it is much easier to get it right.

 

Cinzia from Cindystar from the Garda Lake, Italy shares a unique entry for a body scrub.

Finally my entry with sour cherries:

Thank you all for participating! I hope you had as much fun as I did hosting.  See you next time!

Weekend Herb Blogging #293 - Sour Cherry

It is already the 5th time, that I am allowed to host the Weekend Herb Blogging, that is by the way already in its 5th Year! A weekly blog event was created by Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen and since a long while it is managed by Haalo, of Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. I am looking forward to your entries!

Here is what you have to do: prepare a recipe using herbs, vegetables, plants, edible flowers or fruit on your own blog, and email the link over to me ( almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com) before Sunday the 24th July.

Post about any herb, plant, fruit, vegetable or flower - read the rules to ensure that your post does qualify. Please include a link to both this post and to Haalo’s announcement post.

Send an email to almondcorner [at] gmail [dot] com with WHB#293 in the subject line and the following details:

Your Name

Your Blog Name/URLYour Post URL

Your Location

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Emails must be received by:

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or you can use this converter to find out the corresponding time in your location.

You can also check out who’s hosting for the rest of the year at this post and find information about hosting WHB.

Sour cherries were already know by the Greeks in 300 BC. They were also very popular with Persians and Romans. There are two varieties of sour cherry: the dark-red morello cherry and the lighter-red amarelle cherry. Sour cherries, unlike their sweet counterpart, are too sour for some people's tastes to be eaten fresh, although Europeans and Middle Easterners regularly do so. The taste is a unique blend of tartness, with perfume-like aromas that affect the over-all flavor. They can also be used in cooking, especially in soups and pork dishes, cakes, tarts, and pies. Also dried sour cherries are commonly used in cooking. They are also used in combination with sugar, which balances the acidity and brings out the fruit's aroma and flavor. Thus a variety of liqueurs, desserts, preserves and drinks are made with sour cherries or sour cherry syrup. (source:wikipedia) I do love sour cherries ever since my childhood, and today I am here with an old fashioned, english cherry cake, that I baked with sour cherries.

Ingredients:

(based on a recipe by Delia Smith)

200 g butter

200 g sugar

4 eggs

200 g flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

100 g ground almond

250 g sour cherries or cherries

2 tablespoons brown sugar

 

Beat soft butter together with sugar until foamy, beat in eggs one by one. Fold in sifted flour, baking powder and ground almond. Fold in pitted cherries and sprinkle the top with brown sugar. Bake the cake in the preheated oven  on 180°C for 1 hour, then cover the top and bake for another 20-30 minutes.

Gooseberry Sorbet with Rose Pepper - White Chocolate Sauce

It is almost impossible to resist this gorgeous berry season! My fridge is filled with beautiful berries and other seasonal fruits, like sour cherries, cherries and even prunes. I could not imagine any better dessert than a nice scoop of fruit sorbet in this really hot weather. Gooseberries seemed just to be the perfect fruit for a refreshing sorbet. Though not everyone in my family likes sour desserts, therefore I also made a portion of rose pepper flavoured white chocolate sauce. In case you rather prefer sweet sorbets, well you might want to double the syrup, however I think the sauce is just perfectly enough.

Ingredients:

500 g gooseberry puree

150 g invert sugar

130 g water

250 g white chocolate

100 ml milk

250 ml double cream

1 teaspoon rose pepper

Cook a syrup with the water and invert sugar, then add it to the puree. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker or whisk it with a mixer every 30 minutes while freezing. For the sauce bring milk and cream to the boil, add rose pepper, remove it from the heat and let it stand for 10 minutes. Melt chocolate over steam and pour milk mixture to the molten chocolate, mix well. Pour sauce into a clean saucepan and bring it to the boil. Let it bubble for a few seconds, then set aside and serve immediately.

Sole with Fava Bean Puree, Saffron Kohlrabi and Anise Hollandaise

It seems, that lately desserts dominate my cooking, so it was time for a change and to let myself go in the kitchen. I was afraid, that I have lost all my inspiraton, but luckily, I was wrong. Even my ideas that I wrote down weeks ago felt stupid and nonsense. Besides, lately I have cooked childhood favourites, like potato salad, lángos, pea soup or pancakes. No fancy food can ever take the place of an old favourite, no matter how flavourful it is. Besides during this very warm period I did not feel like standing for long time in the kitchen over the steaming pots.

By the way, I have restarted the project for emptying the freezer, and finally I can see the bottom of the shelves. Only one is full with food for my dog, because her freezer is almost exploding with a lot of yummy stuff for her. Such as paunch, beef liver and kidney, udder and so on. So I had to move the bones and the treats into ours. But beside that, there is only some frozen stock, Hungarian kolbász (sausage) and peas. So that is going to be easy to get it finally empty. Even today's lunch comes straight from the freezer. Sole with broad bean puree, saffron kohlrabi and anise flavoured sauce Hollandaise.

Raspberry Parfait

Last friday I baked two more bunches of macarons, half of them ended up as a birthday gift. While waiting for the lemon macarons to be baked, I was a bit nervous because of the additional tumeric powder, but all worked out well. The only difference was that those were flatter, but still had nice feets. The lemon macarons were filled with lemon curd, the normal ones I decorated with dried rose petals and filled with rose water scented wild raspberry parfait. This year there are a whole lot more raspberries available in the woods, like any other year before. So after this tiny macaron overdose, I am going to come back with something salty this week, though, desserts are also on my plan.

Ingredients:

250 g  raspberry puree

1-2 teaspoon rose water

2 gelatine sheets

40 g egg white

100 g sugar

35 g water

100 ml cream

Cook a syrup with the sugar and water and as soon as it boils and has reached 120°C pour it in a thin stream into the halfly beaten egg whites, and beat until stiff and it cooles down. Melt the previously soaked gelatine in a tablespoon of water over low heat and stir it into the raspberry puree. Stir in the italian meringue and the beaten cream. Freeze for 2-3 hours.

Hazelnut Macaron with Caramel-Coffee Ganache

Well, macarons again, and hold on, I am right on my way to bake another bunch with fruit filling. I haven't decided yet, if it should be lemon or raspberry, but probably, I am going to make both versions. Nah, what should I do, I still have leftover egg whites. Anyway, today I decided to try yesterday's recipe with hazelnut and cocoa powder. You can imagine how nervous I was while waiting for the feets to appear. Oh, and they did! Though I had some macarons with cracked top, but this happens always. Half of them I filled with dark chocolate ganache, the other half with a caramel-coffee ganache.

Ingredients: 

(based on a recipe by Pierre Hermé)

70 g sugar

30 g cream

1 teaspoon instant coffee

30 g butter

30 g white chocolate

 

Melt sugar over low heat and let it caramelise. Meanwhile bring cream together with the coffee to the boil and pour it over the amber caramel. Pour caramel-cream mixture over the chopped white chocolate and stir until it is molten, then stir in the butter.