Iberian pie

Leftovers used to drive me crazy, I would always look towards the bin first, then a guilty conscious would  kick in, and they ended up in the fridge constantly being in my way, before I gave it one OH well, and reached for the bin. It almost became a ritual, until a while ago, I'd had enough and decided to put an end to it and give my best to find a way to use the leftovers.  Pies, one pot dishes and casseroles are great for that, as long as you don't throw things completely randomly into your pan ( sometimes even that works).

 Over time I became pretty good  at it and built a small Clear the fridge cooking collection  and this recipe is one of them. Strictly speaking, it belongs to the great Spanish nation, it was brought to my attention by Eric Lanlard, but for me it's a work in progress, and simply a variation of home made Iberian meat pie. 

Whether you use chicken, turkey or pork, even beef, is fine as long as you put a slice or two of chorizo or any similar type of cooking sausage with paprika. I had roast turkey leftovers and some chicken from the soup I made the day before. You can always use fresh diced meat, chicken and turkey work best.

Iberian pie
For the shortcrust pastry:
250 g flour
100 g unsalted butter, chopped
50 g lard, chopped
1tsp salt
1 egg
drop of milk
egg for brushing

Rub the butter and lard with flour and salt until the mixture resembles fine crumbs, add beaten egg and a tablespoon of milk - make smooth dough and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

For the filling:

1-2 tbsp olive oil
400 g chicken or turkey cut into bite size pieces.
1 garlic slove
100 g chorizo sausage, chopped
1/2 - 1 can of tomato, or glass of passata
handful of chopped parsley

Saute the chorizo until it starts to release its oils, add the finely chopped garlic, then the meat. Cook over low heat for few minutes and pour the tomato over. Bring to boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, add parsley at the end. Set aside to cool down. 

Now, you can spoon it into a large oven-proof dish ( about 30x20x5cm), roll out the pastry, brush the rim of the dish with some beaten egg and cover the pie with the pastry. Press the pastry edges against the rim of the dish to seal and trim off any excess, which you can use to make the decoration . Brash the pastry all over with the beaten egg.

Or, you can make smaller individual portions - which I did time. Also I made double crust pies.  After laying the bottom of the dishes I put them in a freezer for 20 minutes, pricked the bottom with fork, then  spooned the filling in which I added a bit of the cornflour to thicken it up a bit. The top half of the pastry and the decoration I kept in the fridge When the oven is heated, spoon the filling,cover with pastry round, put the decoration  if using, brush with the egg glaze and bake for 25 minutes in oven preheated to 170C/350F/gas4 You probably noticed that I didn't press the pastry against the rim - it held the shape, because it was baked from frozen.  

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Surprise Cake(s)

Daring Baker's Challenge July 2014

 For the July Daring Baker’s Challenge, Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to bake a cake. But not just any cake; she asked us to add in a special surprise for our eyes as well as our taste buds!

  Ruth gave us an excellent inspirational board with plenty of pictures and recipes to get our ideas flowing and I initially did one with a flower shape in the middle (below), following one of the Dr Oetker recipes. It turned out pretty good, but then, it didn't feel like I contributed to the challenge at all. All I did was follow the recipe and the idea, using different shape cutters. 

I almost made my peace with it, until one day my daughter asked me to bake few mini doughnuts. Hmm! brilliant idea - by the end of the afternoon I had my Neapolitan doughnuts and glazed cherries surprise cake. Ok, certain things didn't turn out as I wanted them, (the natural red food colouring turned out grey - don't ask me how and a few doughnuts didn't hold their shape) but who cares, it was my surprise cake! With few minor changes, it could be perfect looking and very tasty too.

My Neapolitan Doughnut Surprise Cake 

Baked Doughnuts:
130 g flour
150 g sugar
1 tsp baking poder
1 egg
2 tbsp melted butter
150 ml milk
tbsp vanilla sugar (or extract)
pinch of salt

Mix separately dry ingredients in one bowl, wet in another, then combine them together into a smooth batter. Spread it into a doughnut pan and bake in the oven preheated to 180C/350F for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the doughnuts. When cooled down, stick glazed cherry in the middle.

I used 18 mini doughnuts. If you want to decorate your cake with them, double the recipe and have few spear ones to dip into melted chocolate.

For the cake:

250 g self raising flour

250 g soft unsalted butter

250 g sugar

2 tbsp vanilla sugar 

5 eggs

pinch of salt

35 ml milk

30 g chocolate powder

red food colouring

For the syrup:

100 ml water

100 ml sugar

26 cm bundt cake tin

 oven temperature 170 C

Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until pale and fluffy then add eggs one at the time while whisking quickly,add milk at the end. Sift the flour and stir to combine. Divide the batter into 2 equal parts. add the chocolate powder to one, red colouring to other. Pour the chocolate batter onto the bottom of the prepared tin then arrange the doughnuts in the middle all the way around the pan, top with the pink (red, or in my case grey) batter. Bake for about 1 hour. Take it out and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Make the syrup by placing the water and sugar over medium heat, bring to boil, and simmer until the sugar dissolved. Leave it to cool for few minutes, then brush the cake, while still warm.

Decorate as you wish. I mixed some icing sugar with a little bit of warm water and red colouring. Use a cup of sugar and add spoon of water; keep adding in turns until you reach desired consistency, add drop of the colouring at the time.

To decorate with doughnuts, dip them into melted chocolate and "glue" them to the freshly made icing cover.

Have fun!! 

Surprise cake

All credits for this cake go to Dr Oetker, including the chocolate cover.

I have to say, that I found it a bit dry, but I think that could be fixed with few spoons of sugar syrup, as I used in the for the Neapolitan cake.

It still looks pretty!!

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Koh - Cold Milk Cakes

According to my Mum, the world of home made desserts was introduced to me with this simple bake. No, it wasn't the first thing I baked - I was always for some reason tempted to run before I walked and I always do the most complicated things first - no this was the one I tasted first. As the matter of fact, I think many toddlers of my generation (do you ever think of yourself having been a toddler once upon a time?) shared the same experience. It was convenient, and still is, for both mothers and children - a soft, milky treat that almost doesn't require chewing, just melts in your mouth - heaven!  The toddler in me, that apparently exists, highly recommends it, to all generations, for every season, any time of the week when you crave for something sweet, simple and yet delicious. 

Koh

6 eggs, separated

6 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp flour

3 tbsp fine semolina 

2 sachets vanilla sugar

plus 1l cold milk mixed with 4 tbsp sugar 

Preheat the oven 180 C/350F/gas 4

grease 20x30cm baking tin, or 5-6 ramekins 

Combine the cold milk with  4 tbsp of sugar and stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Set aside.

Beat the egg whites, add the sugar, until stiff, then add the yolks and whisk to combine. Add the vanilla sugar. If you are using a mixing machine or a hand mixer, turn it of and fold the flour and semolina using a wooden spoon or spatula. 

Bake for 15 minutes, or until the sponge comes apart from the pan.

Pour the cold milk over the hot cake and leave it to cool. Best left in a fridge for couple of hours.

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Torta Rustica

The great thing about this rustic country style pie, which is perfect for the days out in a park, is that you can use whatever you have available in your fridge as long as you use ricotta and mozzarella cheese as you base ingredients.  It's very generous is size,( individual pies would be even better for picnics) so all you need to add to it for a tasty fulfilling br(l)unch is a handful of green salad.

Torta Rustica

Makes 1 pie, 26 cm springform cake pan, oven temperature: 180C/350F/gas 4

to make the dough follow my Basic pizza dough

For the filling:

5 eggs, separated

6

300 g ricotta cheese

200 g mozzarella, diced

100 g salami, ham or similar 

30 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Make the dough, cover and leave it to rest until doubled in size. 

Beat 4 of the egg yolks, add salt and pepper, then mix with the ricotta. Whisk all the egg whites until stiff and fold into he ricotta mixture and combine with the rest of the ingredients that you are using. 

Uncover  the dough, punch the air out and pull the 2/3 of the dough into a circle big enough to cover the bottom and sides of the cake pan, about 35 cm in diameter. Drape the extra dough over the edge. Spoon in the filling and cover with the remaining dough, thinly rolled out and cut into 8 strips. Use them to make a lattice top over the top of the pie. Trim around the edge and place halved cherry tomatoes in each square of the lattice. Brush the strips with the beaten remained egg yolk.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cold with your favourite salad.

Adapted from the Easy Kitchen

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Miller's biscuits on corncob

and the story of the watermills in Serbia 

 I was looking forward to this outing even before we departed from London but exploring the surroundings of the town I left almost two decades ago proved to be more than I expected. That afternoon I aimed for a relaxed time out spent surrounded by nature with friends that I don't get to see very often and I got that, and a bit more, as I was overwhelmed with the simplicity of living and realisation that you don't need much to be happy in your heart and your stomach.

From the road above, all I was able to see were contours of what appeared to be a small derelict, stone lodges hidden between the greenery and I began to wander where our host was taking us, as the watermill that we were going to visit,was nowhere to be seen. No sign of the idyllic postcard picture of a wood log house with a water wheel on a side, that I had in mind. 

To my surprise, we entered that dusty, stone house I saw from the main road and if it wasn't for the miller's warm welcome at the door, the whole experience might have had a bit of spookiness added to it.
It took all but a few seconds after we entered for the smell of freshly stone-ground flour to hit our nostrils and to start breathing the dusty air smelling of life. My friend Bilja (picture below) and I share a love for making and baking dough and always taste the flour before we use it, so I suppose that it's probably totally pointless to say here that neither of us had tried flour like this before - the whole grain, organic flour, still warm coming underneath of the grounding stones. 

This area rich in fast mountain waters  occasionally looking more like a brook, used to have at least 13 watermills.We visited two on  the River Vucjanka that runs from the Kukavica mountain through Southern Serbia.  No one could tell us for certain how old they really were. 

I did a little bit of research which led me to an interesting article, claiming that Serbia had 7125  watermills  in 1876. There is no evidence of how many survived or are in use today but since they were predominately made out of wood, most of them are gone or are beyond repair. Still, the author claims that there is a trend to get as many as possible working  and as we witnessed,some of them not only survived,but are making noise again,  producing some great  flour.

In the second mill which was a bit modernised and didn't give us the same feeling of stepping into the last century, we met uncle Stanko whose father and grandfather were both millers and today he shares the watermill with at least 18 other users. I wished I had a recorder, or just a plain piece of paper and a pencil with me. Uncle Stanko was a living watermill encyclopaedia.

It was obvious from his stories that they played a very important part of peoples life in the old days. I suppose the fact that the mills were a main food supply source for both people and cattle gave the watermills a whole new level of importance, so big that the gathering to make important community decisions would take place there, healing rituals took place there, and they were  places to avoid at night as all sort of dangerous creatures, like vampires were coming alive. It's said that every miller claims that he is not afraid to sleep in his mill, but that actually none of them ever did it. Not alone.

Before we left  for the 100 years old Hydro-power Plant ( I will write about it sometime during the summer) further into the mountains I was given a going-away present, a bag of freshly ground flour and bunch of dry corncobs. That was all I needed to make my biscuits .

The two of us could't wait to start baking when we got home that night. We made the dough straight away, but because it was quite late we had to  placed  in the fridge overnight. We met at her place at 9 o'clock the following morning. 

Miller's biscuits on the corncob

Oven temperature 180C/356F/gas 4

500 g flour

250 ml milk

1/4 packet of fresh yeast ( 1 tsp dry)

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp lard (or oil)

50 g raisins (optional)

mixed cinnamon and sugar for dusting (optional)

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in warm milk, then make  quite soft dough with the rest of the ingredients,. Add the raising at the end if using. You can leave it in a fridge overnight, or make two small bowl spread some lard over and let it rise in a warm place for one hour. 

Roll the each dough into a thin rectangular and cut into at least 4 long strips. Roll the strips around dry corncob creating a spiral then place onto a lined baking tin to rest. You can use your cone, or any other mold you might have. 

You could egg-wash them and sprinkle with some sugar before they go to the oven.

Let it rest for half an hour, the bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until light golden in colour. Leave them to cool, then gently take the cob out. You can dust them with icing sugar and chocolate powder, or cinnamon, or fill with whipped cream, maybe ricotta cheese. 

Me? I like them plain, pealed off  from the cob and just taken out from the oven.

This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting

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Lemon and Yoghurt Pan-cake

I just woke up with the idea of making a pancake cake, which was very odd, since I never liked them. These type of cakes were in fashion decades ago and I always thought of them as ruined pancakes. What possessed me, I have no idea, but I am glad it did.  It's not that I wanted to make any pancake cake, I had a specific cake in mind that I saw in the food addition in one of my magazines a few weeks ago.

Apparently your taste for food changes as you get older. Well, mine certainly has, as I never liked lemon pancakes either. I followed the urge I woke up with and I certainly didn't regret it. The cake was left in a fridge overnight and the following day we had a perfect, cold dessert, right on time to refresh us on rarely warm days in London.

Lemon and Yoghurt Pan-cake

20 to 25 thin pancakes not bigger then 18 cm in diameter
When making the batter, add one spoon of vanilla sugar and zest of 1 lemon then leave it to rest  for at least half an hour.

Filling:
350ml double cream
3 sachets vanilla sugar or 1 spoon of essence
300ml thick natural yoghurt
1 lemon

For syrup:
1 lemon
100g sugar
2 spoons water

Make pancakes and leave to cool.  Set 4 aside for the decoration.

Beat the cream until very stiff with vanilla sugar, add the yoghurt then the lemon juice. Stir until well combined. Spread generously on each cold pancake and place them on the top of each other. Take the pancakes you set aside and cut 3 of them in half. Use a little bit of filling to spread in thin layer all over the cake. Now wrap your halved pancakes cut side down around the cake, making sure that the halves overlap slightly. Place the remaining pancake on the top.  

To make the syrup sprinkle the sugar over thinly sliced lemon and top with couple of spoons of water. Cook it over low heat until sugar dissolves. Leave it to cool then slowly pour over the cake, arrange the lemon slices on the top. 

The cake could be served immediately, I just think that the yoghurt-lemon-double cream combination tastes better cold. 

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Ice Cream Waffle Cones

baskets and ice cream

I've got a present from the Nederlands. It's a thin waffle maker, which I was keen to get since I tried the Stroopwafel while visiting Amsterdam last year. And I made the famous wafels straight away, but they didn't live long enough to tell the story. Same old story repeated, I take few pictures at night they don't turn out well, I decide to do it in the morning, but as usual - my secret stash was discovered overnight and by the time the Sun came out the following morning, all I had to photograph were ice cream cones. So instead of having a supporting role in this post, the waffle cones became the main actors. Since I wasn't prepared for that, and as some of you who actually read my posts from time to time, already know - I don't eat nor make  the ice cream, I will provide you with a recipe from a very reliable source.

As for the cones, they are very easy and quick to make, even if you don't have a waffle maker, use your pancake pan instead. With the waffle maker, or without it, make sure that you are satisfied with the thickness of the batter, some makers are very shallow, while others give you thicker cones, adjust it to your liking by adding milk slowly and by making one or two cones to test it.

Waffle Cones

85 g flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
100 g sugar
56 g melted and cooled butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
60 ml milk

Preheat the waffle-cone maker, or your pancake pan.

Mix the flour and salt, then in a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, add the flour mixture, stir to combine, then pour the butter, vanilla and milk. Make sure that all ingrediants are well incorporated.

Using offset spatula, spread about 60ml (1/4 cup) of the batter evenly over the hot surface. It takes about 2 minutes for each waffle to be ready in the waffle maker. When using a pan,  a minute or so for each side would be enough.

When waffle is done, quickly remove it from the heath,and immediately roll it into a cone shape ( there is a cone shaped tool with waffle maker) and place to cool down. You can also use your rolling pin and up side down turn glass to make a shape of cigar or a basket.

This measure is enough to make 10 cones .

To make the ice cream I recommend my friend Lana's recipe - Mixed berries ice cream

You will need : 200 g berries, 200 ml natural pouring yoghurt, 150-200g sugar, 200 ml double cream (or crème fresh)
Mix the berries into purée, add sugar, then yoghurt. Mix the double cream and combine with the berries mixture. Put into a container, until frozen. Before it freezes completely it can be used as a cold crème in addition to the cakes.

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Green Lentil Cornmeal Pie

I watched Two Greedy Italians making a delicious mixed meat dish with polenta the other day and I was completely taken by that experience. It's was perfection, meant to be enjoyed on Sundays, or any other day when you can afford to slow down and dedicate your time to making a beautiful slow cooked lunch.
 I liked the idea of baking with cornmeal and while trying to figure out what to do I was researching for a new recipe for green lentils potage which I fancied for dinner. And an idea was born, I adapted a vegetarian shepherd's pie recipe found on-line for my Green Lentil Cornmeal Pie

Green Lentil Polenta Pie

150g green lentils

1 carrot

2 tommatoes

1 onion

1/2  leek stalk

1 celery stalk

1 carrot

1 tsp paprika

300 g chopped mushrooms

2tbsp parsley

salt, pepper

Polenta:

300ml water or chicken (vegetable) stock

1 tbsp chopped parsley

140 g cornmeal

salt, pepper

 Cook the lentils in cold water over medium heat for about half an hour, drain and set aside.

Fry the onion and leek until tender, then add finely chopped carrots, celery and tomato add the mushrooms a few minutes before the potage is ready. Cook for 15 minutes and mix with the lentils and few tbsp of chicken stock. season well with salt, pepper and finely chopped parsley. Spoon it into an oiled baking dish (I used individual pie dishes), set aside.

For polenta, bring the rest of the stock to boil, add chopped parsley and add cornmeal a bit at the time, stirring constantly.When it thickness, but it's not fully cooked, spread in a thick layer over the lentils and put in the  oven 1 preheated to 180C  for 7-8 minutes to warm through and top crust forms, or place it under the grill for couple of  minutes in which case,your polenta should be thoroughly cooked. Serve hot.

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