After the holiday time, with the tons of cookies and the heavy food, I really needed a break. I guess, I am not the only one! Therefore I haven't cooked much this year, yet. Basically, because I spend a lot of time reading cookbooks, that I enjoy very much and time just runs so fast. In fact, I wanted to serve my favourite coleslaw for dinner with some leftoever cold meat. But, then I opened the fridge and I discovered some forgetten vegetables that inspired me to use as many different ones as possible. That is how this salad was created.
Ingredients:
150 g white cabbage
150 g red cabbage
3 carrots
1 fennel
1 red beet
1 piece of celery root
1 piece of black radish
1 onion
200 g kefir
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
chervil
parsley
salt, pepper
Shred vegetables as fine as possbile and sprinkle with salt and pepper. For the sauce just whisk the kefir, mustard, olive oil and the lemon juice together, season and pour it over the salad. Add chervil and parsley leaves and serve.
The dessert, well, yeah! I was dreaming of chocolate, coffee and whiskey and if possible all in one! I decided to prepare a cake that is going to be served with ice cream, a warm chocolate and caramel sauce, of course everything home made. For the crunch I baked some pistachio sprinkled tuiles. As the basis I chose a sponge, but I didn't want the usual one, so I picked one by Gordon Ramsay. The next layer was an oven baked coffee créme - basically a not caramelised créme brulée flavoured with coffee. Above it a simple dark chocolate mousse by Pierre Hermé. And the whiskey? Well it came in form of a gorgeous ice cream and I also sprinkled the sponge with some whiskey syrup.
Ingredients:For the sponge:130 g butter, room temperature110 g icing sugar
6 eggs
130 g dark chocolate
200 g sugar130 g flour
For the coffee créme:
15 g ground coffee
115g heavy cream (35% fat content) 115g whole milk 4 egg yolks
25g sugar For the chocolate mousse:
170 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
80 ml milk1 egg yolk
4 egg whites
20 g sugar
For the sponge preheat the oven to 160°C. Beat butter and icing sugar until creamy. Beat in the egg yolks and fold in the melted chocolate. Whisk egg whites to firm peaks and then slowly whisk in the sugar. Fold flour into the chocolate batter and fold in the beaten egg whites. Spread mixture in a prepared baking tin (30 cm square) and bake for 50-60 minutes. ( I only used half of the sponge for the cake.) For the coffee créme heat the milk, cream, and the coffee to just boiling. Remove and sieve. Whisk the sugar and the egg yolks and pour the milk over the mixture. Cover a baking mold with baking paper and pour the cream into the mold and bake for an hour or until firm on 100°C in a water bath. Let it cool and firm over night and place it the next day on the sponge. For the mousse melt chocolate over a water bath. Heat milk and pour it over the chocolate and mix well and stir in the egg yolk. Beat egg whites with the sugar and fold it to the chocolate mix. Pour it over the coffee layer and leave it at least for an hour in the fridge, or even better over night.
In the first post about my Christmas menu, I mentioned that I ended up in chaos! After the 3rd course, which was the most challenging to me, I was extremly exhausted.
Well, no wonder, after all I started the prepartions the day before, then I spent about 12 hours in the kitchen, it was loads of fun and I enjoyed every moment of it. I was quite happy and slept well. Actually the next day began pretty well (...except the spinach custard, that didn't set.), until I started the main course. I realised that I forgot to chop the vegetables in advance, but for God's sake I already reduced the red wine, so I only had to add the 2 liters of veal stock and reduce...I just thought oh gosh, that takes too long. Indeed it did! I only hoped that the dessert is going to make them forget about the long waiting for the main course and the well done meat...I even forgot to serve the lime sorbet before the dessert! You can see how lost I have been, if you see how terrible the plate looks with the main course! Agree? Brrr! The only positive was that they loved the sauce and the though the meat was well done, it wasn't dry at all! Oh, I have even forget to mention what this course was: venison steak with dark chocolate sauce and root vegetables. Anyway, see you soon in my next post with the dessert!
No, of course I haven't only served the eggs as the 3rd course, but those were definitely the highlight. In fact this dish was the most complicated of all in this menu. I served fried quail breasts and legs on a potato millefeuille - based on Gordon Ramsay's recipe, but without artichoke, using normal and purple potatoes and instead truffle I flavoured it with porcini oil, though I had some truffle paste in the fridge, but I totally forgot about it, besides that wouldn't been the real stuff, if you know what I mean... - with ahorn syrup glazed parsnip and pecan nuts, a small salad with chive vinaigrette and a port wine reduction, among a fried and a deep fried quail egg.
So let's talk about the deep fried quail eggs in macadamia nut and breadcrumbs on a spinach coulis. The spinach coulis is pretty simple, just boil spinach leaves for 2 minutes, refresh in iced water and drain. Bring some double cream to boil together with chopped shallot and smoked garlic, season and add some milk and puree all in a blender.
For the deep fried quail eggs boil eggs for 2 and a half minutes, then cool immediately in cold water and peel. Mix breadcrumbs and chopped macadamia nuts and coat the eggs using flour, eggs so the usual stuff. Heat a deep frier to 180°C and fry the eggs for 30 seconds. I think the result is just amazing! Ah and there was also some sauce, basically a reduced quail fond. Well that's it! Phew!
Well, nobody on Earth should prepare a tomato consommé in winter. One can discuss about using canned tomatoes, but I am not going to be part of that. So why did I serve it as the 2nd course? When I prepared last year my first tomato consommé, I told my mom about it. She was curious so, I thought to surprise her with it when they come to visit me the next time. Therefore I froze a portion enough for 4 persons as a starter or so. Of course I didn't want to serve a cold soup, therefore I warmed it and served among some ricotta-parmesan balls. She was thrilled and told me that this was the best soup she ever had.
Ingredients:
(recipe adapted from kísérleti konyha)100 g ricotta30 g parmesan
1,5-2 tablespoons flour
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
Grate parmesan and mix with the ricotta, flour, egg yolk and the breadcrumbs. Season with a touch of nutmeg and freshly ground pepper. Let it stand for a while, so that the breadcrumbs can soak. With wet hands roll small balls and cook them in boiling water. They are ready when they swim on top.
First of all, I must say that compared to the Christmas menu of the year 2008, this one was totally unorganised. I had no time to plan it, or rather I had time, but I overestimated and started it far too late. Until the day of cooking, I still didn't know how many courses I am actually going to serve, had also no idea of the order and so on and on. Pure chaos! And I can tell you, that nothing good may be the result of such an organisation or rather inorganisation! But post by post you will see what I am talking about. Now, let's see the first course: clarified butter poached rabbit with a "supposed to be" spinach custard and salad with walnut dressing. I haven't had rabbbit ever before, but I was very curious about it. I wanted to choose a very tender way of preparation for such a tender pieace of meat therefore I poached it.
The spinach custard simply didn't set, so it ended up as a "sauce" on the plate, I think I used too little agartine, but who knows. Ah! I almost forgot the best part of this dish, at least the best for me. I am talking about fried black radish flavoured with sumac. I love freshly garted black radish with some salt, okay, let's forget its smell, many people don't like it, but! If you haven't had black radish yet, give it a go and fry it in some butter or olive oil!
Ingredients: 4 rabbit fillets250 g clarifed butter
3 garlic cloves
few thyme and rosemary sprigs
salt, pepper
Place the clarifed butter among the herbs and the garlic into a saucepan. Heat the butter, but do not let it boil, it should have a temperature around 70-80°C. Season the fillets with salt and pepper and place them to the warmed butter. Poach for about 35-45 minutes, depending on its size. When cooked, roll them in chopped herbs (like parsley, chervil) and serve.
...but Happy New Year to everyone who comes along my blog! I hope all of you had a wonderful time during the Holidays. I am feeling kind of "overcooked", but for this reason I have a lot of food to post about. For now, I only would like to share my favourite "not posted" photograph of last year. See you soon with the 1st course of my Christmas menu!
