Probaly, I haven't ever baked such tiny macarons before. Though they didn't turn out quite as green as I hoped. Maybe it is not even possible to get an intense green colour without some artificial colouring and that is something I would never use. Anyway, I was totally happy with the result and the taste...mmmhhh! Maybe even better than the hazelnut macs. The filling is a light and fluffy orange blossom mousse with a touch of cardamom. These two were made to be together, an unbeatable combination!
80 g aged egg whites
25 g sugar
100 g ground pistachios
100 g icing sugar
100 g sugar
35 g water
for the mousse:
2 egg yolks
70 g sugar
70 ml water
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 pinches of ground cardamom
2 gelatine sheets
250 ml heavy cream
Beat
40 g of egg whites with 25 g of sugar until it forms peaks. Meanwhile
make the syrup: bring 100 g sugar with 35 g water to boil and as soon as
it has reached 110°C remove it from the heat and add it to the beaten
egg whites in a thin stream while beating constantly. Keep on beating
until it has cooled down, this takes about 10 minutes. Stir the other 40
g of egg whites, unbeaten to the sieved pistachio-icing sugar mixture.
Preheat the oven to 150°C. Pipe macarons onto a silicon sheet or a
baking paper covered baking sheet. Bake macarons for 13-15 minutes
depending on the oven or a few minutes longer if you make bigger ones.
For the mousse bring sugar with water to the boil, add orange blossom water, lime juice and ground cardamom. Pour syrup to the egg yolks and whisk it over steam until it become thick and foamy. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine and finally fold in the beaten cream. Pour it into a piping bag and chill for at least 2 hours, then fill the macaron shells.
Mákos guba is a Hungarian bread pudding, usually made of leftover kifli (=crescent-shaped bread) or if you are luckier then from leftover kalács. Though that kind of mákos guba is not quite to my taste, because it has far too little poppy in it. Anyway, I am here with a dessert, that was inspired by the mákos guba. It is a cold version containing poppy parfait, vanilla sauce, sour cherries with port wine and kalács croutons.The whole thing is decorated with crystallized poppy petals.
Ingredients:
for the croutons:
500 g flour
40 g sugar
50 g butter
400 ml milk
15 g fresh yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
brown sugar
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
for the poppy parfait:
200 g ground poppy
150 g sugar
2 eggs
200 ml milk
zest of 1 lemon
150 ml cream
for the sour cherry sauce:
150 g pitted sour cherry
2-3 tablespoons sugar
50 ml port wine
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoons sour cherry juice
for the vanilla sauce:
250 ml milk
1 egg yolk
25 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon flour
1 vanilla pod
Heat
milk until lukewarm. Crumble yeast and sprinkle about a teaspoon of
sugar over it, then pour 100 ml lukewarm milk over it. Mix flour with
salt and the rest of the sugar. Pour yeasty milk into a mold in the
flour and start kneading, while adding the rest of the milk. As soon as
the dough seems to come together and it is almost smooth add lukewarm,
molten butter and knead until smooth. Let it rest in a warm place for
an hour. Braid a bread and put it into a buttered round cake pan and let it raise for another half an hour. Bake for 40-50 minutes over 160°C. Let it cool and slice into cubes. Sprinkle oil and sugar on the crutons and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown over 150°C.
Cook ground poppy in the milk. In the meantime cook a syrup out of the sugar and 60 ml water. Add egg yolks to the cooked poppy among the lemon zest. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until almost stiff, then add the 117°C syrup in a thin strain to it while beating constantly. Beat until the egg white is shiny and stiff. Fold it into the poppy base among the beaten cream and freeze for 3-4 hours in any kind of shape you desire.
Bring sour cherry with sugar, port wine to the boil. Dissolve cornstarch in cherry juice and stir it into the sauce. Cook until it thickens.
For the vanilla sauce whisk together the egg yolk with 50 ml milk, sugar and flour. Bring the rest of the milk together with the vanilla pod and seeds to the boil and pour it to the egg yolk mixture while stirring. Pour it back into the saucepan and warm it over low heat until it thinks. Chill for a few hours.
Woah, that's been a pretty long break and you have no idea how I missed cooking! We have a monthly event runing in the Hungarian food blog community and this time its all about edible flowers. I was wondering for a long while about what to prepare, I've almost missed the deadline! But finally, this light dish with kuruma prawns and ras el-hanout flavoured couscous with rose scented coconut foam was born. The fragant peach harmonise beautifully with the prawns, the rose and the hidden fennel in the couscous.
Ingredients:
for the couscous:
70 g couscous
100 g fish or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon ras el-hanout
1 small fennel
2 tablespoons coarsly chopped pistachio
salt, cayenne pepper
for the peach puree:
2 peaches
zest of 1/2 lime
for the foam:
1 teaspoon dried, fragant rose petals
100 ml coconut water
10 g lecithin
you'll also need:
2 prawns per person
1 clove garlic
salt, pepper
1 rose
Clean fennel and cut in about 1-2 mm cubes and set its green aside. Bring stock together with the diced fennel to the boil and cook for 1-2 minutes then add couscous and ras el-hanout. Set aside for 5-6 minutes, then stir in butter and pistachio. Check the instructions on the couscous pack, because you might need different amounts of liquid for the couscous and adjust it. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. For the puree use ripe peaches. Peel, remove the core and cut in chunks, then puree together with lime zest. For the foam warm half of the coconut water, add rose petals and let it stand for 5 minutes. Sieve and add to the rest of the coconut water, stir in lecithin and blend before serving.
The most elegant and probably the most innocent looking flower is poppy. There is no other that can compete its velvety petals. It's always been my favourite flower. I even remember that picnic with my parents, where I saw them for the first time in my life. Today, while making some crystallized petals I had the idea to cook a syrup. I am gonna tell you more about the petals in another post, now let's see that beautiful purple syrup with a light smell of freshly ground poppy.
Ingredients:
poppy petals (corn poppy / Papaver rhoeas)
sugar
Remove poppy petals (use only corn poppy, do not use garden or any other type of flowers) and put them into a saucepan. Pour just enough water over it so that it is covered. Start to warm it over medium heat and give it a stir once in a while. As soon as the petals turn white sieve and mesaure the liquid. Heat liquid with the same amount of sugar (so for 100 ml syrup you'll need 100 g of sugar) until it reaches 72, but not higher than 85°C. Now the syrup is ready to be filled into glasses. Consume only in small amounts.
Finally, summer has arrived! We had a couple of pretty cold and rainy days and I have been desperately looking forward to some sunshine. Luckily, it is not a heat wave but it is real warm and it is perfect to enjoy some cold soup. What could be more refreshing than a glass of cold cucumber soup? Well, a glass of cold coconut cucumber-gooseberry soup with thai basil and a touch of lime. The whole thing topped with roasted black mustard seeds and coriander seed oil.
Ingredients:
1 English cucumber
200 g gooseberry
400 ml coconut milk
5-6 thai basil leaves
1 lime
salt, chili
Wash cucumber, peel and cut in chunks. Put sliced cucumber, gooseberries, coconut milk and basil leaves into a blender and pulse until smooth. Sieve soup and season with salt, lime zest and little juice and chili. Serve with roasted black mustard seeds and corianderseed oil.
Lately, I realised that there are only a few ice crem recipes here at the corner. What a huge negligence! After all I am real ice cream freak. Ever since my childhood I can't get enough of this stuff. Even then, no matter if summer or winter, at least 10 balls of ice cream was a minimum to start. And this haven't changed much since then. My all time favourite flavour is cinnamon, I adore cinnamon. Even today, only a light smell of it and I am drooling. Today morning I was craving for cinnamon ice cream, but the ice cream machine wasn't ready, because I forgot to freeze it. So the only solution was to make popsicles, though I really recommand to make this ice cream in a machine, because only then you will feel that fluffy, velvety and creamy goodness melting on your tounge!
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
100 g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
600 ml milk
400 ml cream
Whisk egg yolks with brown sugar and cinnamon until creamy and pale. In small portions add milk and cream while whisking constantly. Warm it over low heat until it reaches 85°C, then set aside to cool. Sprinkle icing sugar in a thin layer on top to prevent the forming of a "skin" on top of the custard. Chill in the fridge over night or at least for 4-5 hours and leave to work for you ice cream machine. If you can't wait to eat some ice cream and like me forgot to freeze your ice cream maker, then use popsicle forms.
Lately, I am absolutely crazy about blueberries. Frankly, can you resist those bloomy blue beauties that through some kind of magic turn into the most gorgeous purple colour? While that they go through a change of flavour and get much more intense: a new dimension opens. The cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove boost the berries even more and finally the lime zest takes it to a whole new level! Actually, I haven't planned to post my breakfast, but it was such a hit that you must try it!
Ingredients:
for the waffles:
100 g butter, softened
30 g sugar + 1 tablespoons
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
2 eggs
5 tablespoon cream
120 g flour
for the blueberries:
150 g blueberries
4-5 tablespoons elderberry syrup
3-4 pinches speculoos spice mixture
2 tablespoons sherry
zest of 1 lime
Cream together butter with sugar, add the egg yolks, vanilla paste and cream and whisk until it is well incorporated. In the meantime beat egg whites with sugar. Stir in sifted flour into the batter, then fold in the beaten egg white. Bake waffles in the hot waffle iron. Take half of the blueberries and bring to the boil together with the syrup, sherry and spice mixture and cook for 2-3 minutes, then stir in the rest of the bluberries. Season with freshly grated lime zest and serve warm with the waffles.
For a moment it seemed impossible to decide which coloured beet I should use for the tart tatin. If I had picked the white one, it would have for sure disappeared under the layer of caramel. So probably noone would believe that these used to be white. However, I was sure from the first moment that I am going to make a rosemary flavoured goat's milk cheese "ice cream" to be served among it. Actually, it is not a real ice cream, just a frozen fresh cheese mixed with sour cream. I have seen plenty of beet tart tatins around the web, but haven't see any with thinly sliced beetroot. To me it was important to slice it as thin as possible in order to create an elegant starter. I must say that this even could be served for dessert! You only need need to make a pâte sucrée instead the salty pastry and there you go! Ah and of course you should leave out the vinegar. By the way, the speculoos spice mixture brings that missing kick to the whole thing. Being a beetroot junkie I had to make something using that white beauty. So I took the leftover pastry, blind baked it, filled with goat's milk cheese and served with a really fresh beetroot and raspberry salad.
Ingredients:
for the tart tatin:
250 g flour
125 g butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 tablespoons water
for 2 about 7 cm tart tatins:
1 small young beetroot
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1-2 pinches speculoos spice mixture (to be exact: cinnamon, orange and lemon zest (dried), cardamom, clove, coriander and nutmeg)
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
1 tablespoon butter
salt
for the frozen goat's milk fresh cheese:
100 g goat's milk fresh cheese
50 g sour cream
100 g heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
salt, pepper
Sift flour and form a mould in the middle. Addd butter, egg and salt and knead a smooth pastry. If needed add some water to get it together and chill for an hour before using. Peel beetroot and slice with the help of a mandoline. In a saucepan caramelise sugar, add vinegar and as soon as it has absorbed add butter and spice mixture. Then place the slices of beetroot into it and leave it on the stove for about a minute or until you see that the beet has softened a little. Place 2 desserts rings about 7 cm each onto a baking sheet that's covered with parchment paper. Place two layers of the prepared beetroot into each of the rings and cover with the thinly rolled pastry. Bake in the preheated oven on 200°C for 4-5 minutes. Remove the rings before serving and turn it carefully around. For the "ice cream" mix together the cheese with the sour cream, season with salt, pepper and rosemary. Finally fold in the beaten cream and freeze in an ice cream maker.
Blueberry and lime are just perfect together, and you can give them a tiny kick with a pinch of cinnamon. In this case less is more, only a touch of cinnamon lifts a blueberry onto another dimension and the acidity of the lime makes its flavor smoother. It is real refreshing combination for the summer, if there wouldn't be the baking part. But if you don't feel like switching on the oven, then get some ladyfingers and serve everything in a glass. In that case I would drunk the biscuit with some lime juice, then add a layer of lime curd, then some mascarpone mixed with beaten cream and finally top it with the marinated blueberries. Of course served ice cold!
Ingredients:
125 g flour
50 g soft butter
50 g powder sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
Pour
flour onto a clean surface and add diced butter, sugar and salt into a
mold. With a help of your fingers work the ingredients together until it
forms crumbles. Add the egg and knead a smooth dough. Put it to the
fridge for 1-2 hours. Blind bake the tart shells.
100 g butter
100 g sugar
juice and zest of 2 limes
2 egg yolks
100 g mascarpone
Put butter, sugar, lime juice and zest into a bowl and let it melt in a bain-marie. As soon as everything has molten mix well and stir in the egg yolks. Beat with a mixer for 10 minutes or until it thickens. Let it cool and chill for 2 hours. Stir in the mascarpone and fill the tart shells. Serve with lime juice and zest marinated blueberries with a few pinches of cinnamon.
The plan was something completly different, but I simply had no time to experiment around last Friday. Instead I was fighting with a portion of pâte brisée trying to bake small tart shells, that turned out to be quite a difficult task thanks to the hot weather. I spent almost the whole day with making the tart shells, because I had to chill the pastry every 20 minutes. Anyway, now the weather turned pretty cold and rainy and I even cought a cold so I needed something soul warming for lunch. Something spicy and flavourful. That's why I cooked this for sure not authentic cauliflower curry full of gorgeous spices like black mustard seeds, garam masala, fenugreek, black cumin, cinnamon and so and on!
Ingredients:
for the curry:
for the base:1 teaspoon ghee
1 tablespoon black mustard seed
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
2 cm fresh ginger
1 tablespoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon ground black cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
2 tomatoes
1 canned diced tomato
250 ml coconut milk
salt
for finishing the dish:
1 cauliflower
1 teaspoon ghee
1 onion
1 cm fresh ginger
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 tablespoon tomato puree
250 ml coconut milk
ground chili as desired
salt
for the roti:
200 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablepsoon oil
salt
For the curry cut cauliflower into florets and cook in salted water until it is cooked halfway through. For the base melt ghee and add spices and stir for 5-6 minutes. Then add diced onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, canned tomatoes and coconut milk. Cook over medium heat ofr 15-20 minutes. Season with salt, sieve and set aside. In the same pan melt ghee, add spiced and fry for a few minutes, then add grated onion, ginger and garlic and sautee for 5-6 minutes among the tomato puree. Now add the previsouly sieved sauce base, the precooked florets and the coconut milk and cook for 15-20 minutes. Season with salt and chili. For the roti sift flour, baking powder and salt. Then knead a soft but not sticky dough with 140-150 ml of water. Let it stand for 30 minutes, then cut in 6 equal pieces. Flatten the pieces and brush with oil the third of it and fold it into the middle. Now brush the upper third and fold it to the middle. Now turn about a quarter and repeat the brushing and turning. Let it rest for another 15 minutes. Now roll out with a help of a rolling pin and bake for 1-2 minutes on each side in a hot baking pan.
