Well, it seems that the beetroot-blood orange combination is unstoppable at least here at the "corner". However, after yesterday's soufflé it was not my intention to include sunchoke in this dessert, not at all! However now I am happy, that my original idea did not work out. First I planned to repeat the poppy seed mousse, but this time using white poppy. However, it just did not work out, because the components didn't stay together, so it ended up in the garbage. I thought, it is time to say good bye to this dessert, but then I remembered the sunchoke-white chocolate cake and I decided to use that combination in form of a mousse. The jelly on top turned out just perfect thanks to a blood orange and a half-blood orange that I mixed with the beetroot jelly. You can taste the beet, but it is not dominating, just right there, where it should be. If I would make these tartelettes again, I would use a dark chocolate ganache as the first layer, instead of some molten chocolate.
Ingredients:
for the cocoa pastry (adapted from Johnny Iuzzini)
140 g cold butter
150 g sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 egg white
310 g flour
50 g cocoa powder
4 g baking powder
Cream butter with sugar and salt. Whisk in the egg and the egg white, then add the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Knead a dough, flatten and put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour. I have used about half of it, and that made 4 tartelettes, you can easily freeze the rest of the pastry. Blind bake the tart shells at 180°C in 10 cm diameter tartelette rings for about 10 minutes.
100 g white chocolate
50 g baked sunchoke + 1 tablespoon cream
60 g simple syrup
2 egg yolks
2 sheets gelatine
200 ml cream
Puree baked and peeled sunchoke with cream and stir in the previously soaked gelaint sheets into the still warm puree. Beat egg yolks with simple syrup over steam, so that the bowl is half way in the hot water. Beat until thick and creamy, then remove and keep on beating until it cools. Stir in molten white chocolate, then the sunchoke puree and finally fold in the beaten cream.
100 ml blood orange juice
100 ml cream
100 ml milk
1 vanilla pod
2 tablespoons sugar
2 gelatine sheets
Bring milk, cream with sugar and the vanilla seeds and pod to the boil. As soon as it is boiling remove from the heat, add blood orange jucei and discard the vanilla pod. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine sheets and let it cool to room temperature.
100 ml blood orange juice
50 ml beet juice
1 gelatine sheet
Bring blood orange and beet juice to the boil and stir in the previously soaked gelatine sheet. Let it cool to room temperature.Take the blind baked tartelettes shells and brush with molten chocolate or pour a layer of chocolate ganache on the bottom. Chill until it sets. Then pour a layer of room temperature panna cotta on it and chill for 1-2 hours. Put 4 desserts rings on top and pour white chocolate-sunchoke mousse into the ring and chill for 2-3 hours. Finally pour a layer of blood orange-beetroot jelly on top and chill until it sets. Sprinkle with poppy seeds before serving.
Actually, this supposed to be yesterday's lunch, but I simply had no time to prepare it, because I started with this year's spring cleaning. Altough there is still a lot to do, I could not resist and had to get back in the kitchen because I have so many ideas that are must be tested before all the gorgeous spring vegetables arrive! I must say, that I still haven't had enough of beets, sunchokes and blood oranges. Still so many possiblites and ideas opn my mind. Really, can't wait to test them all! Though it would also be great to try new combinations, but not yet. I hope you are also not bored of it! As far as the soufflé is concerned, well if you ask me these ingredients harmonise just perfectly together and the blood orange salad with the salty feta cheese and chervil made a great match.
Ingredients:
150 g baked sunchoke (weighed peeled)
50 g baked beetroot (weighed peeled)
20 g butter
20 g flour
125 ml beet juice
3 eggs
salt, pepper
2-3 tablespoons poppy seeds + butter for the forms
Puree sunchoke and beet in a mixer. Melt butter, stir in flour then add beet juice while whisking, cook over low heat until it thickens. Remove from the heat, stir in sunchoke-beet puree, then the egg yolks. Season with salt and pepper. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt, then fold it into the batter. Pour it in buttered and with poppy seed coated ramequins and bake for 6-8 minutes over 200°C.
What a coincidence! Yesterday, I was wondering how would it be possible to get a bigger amount of white poppy seeds. Some years ago I bought a small package in a store, I guess I haven't used it since then. However, my plan is to prepare the poppy seed mousse again, but this time white. Today morning I recieved a package from a Robert, who by the way writes the amazing blog myBites. And guess what was in the package?! Yep, right! Among other exiciting ingredients, like nutmeg oil, a big portion of white poppy seeds. What a surprise! Meanwhile I do not even know what else I could have cooked, because it was such a perfect harmony on the plate! Each bite was like a melody and they came together to a song. The white poppy is much less intense then the black or the blue. Therefore it was really great together with the fish and beets. My newest discovery that I am absolutely passionate about is sea-buckthorn. Unfortunately, I could get only in form of syrup, but I am more than happy about it. I used some to caramelise the yellow beet slices, that were scented by mace and that way the nutmeg oil has just made perfect sense. Chioggia beet is so sweet and its beautiful pattern is visiable at its best when it is prepared as chips or served raw. The beet foam would have looked a lot more exicting if I would finally give in and use lecithin, but somehow I just do not want to use powders in my kitchen. However, it is really tempting, so I might reconsider it.
Ingredients:
4 zander fillets
4-5 tablespoons white poppy seeds
olive oil for frying
1 teaspoon butter
salt pepper
for the yellow beet puree:
1 shallot
1 teaspoon butter
100 g yellow beet (peeled and diced)
200 ml orange juice
2 cardamom
some cumin seeds
piece of long pepper
5-6 tablespoons rapeseed oil
salt
for the sea-buckthorn gel:
100 ml orange juice
5-6 tablespoons sea-buckthorn syrup
1 1/2 teáskanál zselatina
for the beet foam:
70 ml beet juice
50 ml fish stock
25 ml vermouth
3 tablespoons milk
salt, pepper
and these you need also:
1 Chioggia beet
sunflower oil
1 yellow beet
juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoons sea-buckthorn syrup
mace
1 teaspoon cold water
nutmeg oil
oyster mushroom
thyme
salt, pepper
For the puree sautee chopped shallot in butter, add diced beet, spices and orange juice and cook it over low heat until soft. Once it is cooked remove spices and puree with rapeseed oil, season with salt. For the sea-buckthorn gel warm orange juice with the szirup then stir in the gelatine and chill for a few hours. Pulse in a mixer before serving. For th foam bring fish stock and vermouth to the boil and reduce by half, then add beet juice and season. Add milk before serving and foam with a mixer. Cook sliced yellow beat in orange juice with mace and when there is almost no liquid left add sea-buckthorn and butter and let it caramelise. Season fish with salt and sear in oil, then add butter. Remove from the pan and coat with white poppy seeds. Fry oyster mushroom in butter, season with thyme, salt and pepper.
A fellow Hungarian foodie, Gabojsza has prepared some anchovy meatballs lately. I liked the idea a lot, and wanted to cook it somewhen as a quick dinner. Here I must confess, that I have never had spaghetti with meatballs before. The reason is simply: I hated tomato sauce, so no meatballs or anything else. Now this has changed already long ago, but I always ended up with a bolognese instead of meatballs. I had some leftover anchovies so the opportunity was just perfect to make it. I have changed the recipe which inspired me and added capers and oregano to the mince. Star anise, clove and coriander seeds make the tomato sauce exciting.
Ingredients:
for the meatballs:
500 g beef mince
50 g breadcrumbs
1 twig fresh oregano or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 onion
1 teaspoon olive oil
8 anchovy fillets
zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons capers
salt, pepper
for the tomato sauce:
500 g passata
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
2 celery stalks
1 big garlic clove
100 ml white wine
1 star anise
2 cloves
1/4 teaspoon coriander seeds
handful of black olives
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
1 twig thyme
1 bay leaf
bunch of fresh basil
salt, pepper
To make the meatballs, first chop onion and sautee in oilve oil, then add oregano. Remove from the heat and transfer into a bowl, add mince, chopped anchovy fillet, capers and lemon zest. Mix it well together and season with a little salt and pepper. Form about walnut size balls and fry them in a really hot pan. For the sauce grate onion, carrot, celery stalk and sautee in olive oil. Then add garlic, spices (use a bag or something so that you can remove it easy when ready), thyme and bay leaf. Pour white wine over it and as soon as it has absorbed add meatballs, passata and black olives. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Then season with salt, pepper and sherry vinegar. Add basil and let it stand for 5-10 minutes, then remove basil and spices.
Huh, that was a long day! I can hardly get my thoughts together, but I did not want to wait until tomorrow to share this tiny treat with you. It reminds me of an old fashioned hat, I can't explain it, but that is what I had to think about all the time, while taking the photos. I was once again so stupid! I had the idea of this poppy mousse already about three years ago, but I did not dare to go for it! Yeah, once more! But today, while checking out my notes, I found it again, and I felt like if not now, then I will probably never try to make it. I was so nervous! Originally, I planned to take my mom's delicious poppy pie and turn it into a parfait, but never done. As time passed by, the parfait turned into mousse and finally it is here. Poppy and lemon are inseparable in my eyes, though orange is also great, but it will never be the same like with lemon. So I decided to add a layer of blood orange and lemon based on the beet tart from earlier. I do not even know how to call it, after all it. It is like a curd, but I am not sure if that's the proper name for it. It is actually like a silky pudding and just perfect with the poppy mousse. The base is a joconde and its colour comes from beet, just like the meringue, but you do not taste it. However, coffee is also there in the background in form of a ganache, but it stays there!
Ingredients:
makes 5 8 cm round cakes
50 g ground almond
50 g powder sugar
30 g egg yolks
30 g egg whites
10 g beetroot juice
50 g flour
100 g egg whites
60 g sugar
Mix together the almond with powder sugar, add 30 g egg yolk and 30 g egg white and whisk until fluffy. Whisk in the beet juice and keep on whisking for about 5 minutes. Stir in flour, while that beat 100 g egg white with sugar until it forms soft peaks and fold it into the almond mixture. Bake for 5-6 minutes over 230°C.
100 ml blood orange juice
25 ml lemon juice
120 g sugar
150 ml cream
3 eggs
1/2 egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 120ºC. Put the ingredients of the filling into a heatproof bowl, mix it together and leave it over a bain marie until it reaches 60ºC. Now pour it over a sieve, remove any bubbles and pour it into silicon form. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until it has reached 70ºC in a water bath. Let it cool and chill, and before assembling the cakes freeze it for 30 minutes.
100 g poppy seed
100 ml milk
3 tablespoon vanilla sugar
zest of a lemon
4 egg yolks
120 ml simple syrup
150 ml cream
4 sheets gelatine
Ground poppy seed, add vanilla sugar and cook it in the milk over low heat until it has absorbed. Stir in freshly grated lemon zest. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine and set aside. Beat egg yolks over steam with the simply syrup until fluffly and thick, then remove it from the heat and keep on beating until cool. Fold it into the poppy mixture, then fold in beaten cream.
50 g egg whites
50 g sugar
50 g powder sugar
10 g beet juice
Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt, then add sugar gradually and beat it into stiff peaks. Fold in powder sugar and beat juice. Pipe it onto a baking sheet and dry over 100°C for 30-45 minutes.
Today I managed to have breakfast twice, but I do not mind it at all! I wasn't fully awake when I discovered these wafers and I did not give much attention to it. But then, when I checked back again I was totally thrilled about them, and I felt like I must have them, NOW! After all cinnamon buns are one of my favourites, though we call them snails in Hungary. But this here is a lot more exciting! These are baked in a waffle iron, just a gorgeous idea! I have only changed a few things like I added coffee extract to the yeast dough and as I had no pearl sugar I doubled the amount of the butter and used cane sugar instead. The smell was just gorgous while the wafers were baking!
Ingredients:
(based on a recipe by paules ki(t)chen)
350 g strong flour
160 g milk
20 g fresh yeast
50 g butter
30 g cane sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon coffee extract
1 teaspoon salt
for the filling:
100 g butter
70 g cane sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Warm milk over low heat, then remove 3 tablespoons and crumble yeast into the lukewarm milk then set aside. Add sugar and butter to the rest of the milk and warm it until it has molten, then stir in coffee extract. Sift flour into a bowl, add four, the warm sugar-butter- milk, the yeast milk and knead a dough. Let it rise over room temperature for an hour. For the filling cream together soft butter with sugar and cinnamon. Roll out dough and smear filling on to, then roll it up and cut in slices. Bake them in the hot waffle iron.
Lately I have posted a couple of salads, that's mainly beacause I am on diet, well, not on a stirct one, but once in a while I like to serve something light. But do not worry, I will not stop baking, in fact I have already planned two desserts for this week, I only hope to have the time to make them. But now back to the salad! The possibilities seems to be endless as far as beetroot and blood orange in combination is concerned. Be sure that I am going to bring them back here over and over again. Once I have heared that beet and raspberry is great together, but haven't tried them until today. The reason is simply, usually I cook beets during winter, and when raspberries are in season I never think of them. I gotta change that! Anyway, I did not want to wait any longer, so I bought a bag of frozen berries. The vinaigrette is made of blood orange juice, raspberry vinegar and rosemary. The salad was served with sheep'S milk cheese, fresh horseradish and roasted pine nuts.
Ingredients:
per person:
2 small beetroots and 1 blood orange
20-30 g raspberry
1 teaspoon roasted pine nuts
40-50 g sheep's milk cheese
1 piece of fresh horseradish
for the vinaigrette:
juice of 1 blood orange
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
1 twig rosemary
1-2 teaspoons rose water
salt, pepper
Roast beetroot in foil together with anise, black cumin or cumin, as you desire. Fry slices of sheep's milk cheese in a hot pan until golden brown, then turn it over and remove it from the pan after 30 seconds and put it on a slice of bread. For the vinaigrette mix together all the ingredients, add chopped rosemary, then season with salt and pepper. Mix together diced beet and blood oranges fillets and season with the vinaigrette. Sprinkle raspberries, roasted pine nuts and freshly grated horseradish on top and serve.
