Monday, November 30, 2009

"And now for something completely different..."* - hummus & falafel



As much as I'm open to experimenting and like to try out new tastes, I'm not particularly fond of Arab food. Probably my hesitation to try out dishes from this cuisine is connected with the countless Arab bars popping up like mushrooms. They usually offer cheap and low quality food in not so clean conditions, the smells are usually not encouraging either. There's one place in Budapest though where you can get a great salad bar and good falafels with hummus. Still, I wanted to have my own version of hummus with real tahini (sesame paste) and freshly prepared falafels. A good opportunity arose when I bought "The Cook's Book" with an incredible chapter on grains and pulses by Paul Gayler. The chapter among other yummy things, contained the recipe for hummus and falafel both of which use chickpeas as the main ingredient.
Hummus is a Middle Eastern dip from puréed chickpeas with the addition of tahini - sesame paste - and lemon juice. It's a traditional dip to be served with falafels - for me they form an inseparable pair. Falafels are deep-fried croquettes / balls made of chickpeas and/or beans. Coming originally from Egypt, it's a traditional street food in all Middle East countries. Served as mezze (appetizers) or as a snack in pitta bread. Apart from hummus, they're almost always accompanied by a tomato and cucumber salad.
I serve hummus and falafels for lunch. They're also a great idea to serve as snacks for a party.



Hummus

150g dried chickpeas
600ml water
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
juice of 2 small lemons (or 1 big)
75ml olive oil
150ml tahini (sesame seed pasta) - you can easily buy it in almost all bio-stores
cayenne pepper

To serve:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
pinch of cayenne pepper

1. A day ahead: rinse the chickpeas, soak them overnight.
2. Drain the chickpeas. Put them in 600ml fresh water in a large pan. Bring to boil, then partly cover and simmer for around 2 hours, or until tender. Drain, reserving the liquid. Set aside 2 tablespoons chickpeas. Put the remainder in the blender with the garlic (you can use also handheld mixer, but blender is easier).
3. Add the lemon juice, olive oil and 150ml of the reserved cooking liquid. Process to purée. Add the tahini and process until smooth. Season with salt and cayee pepper, then transfer to a bowl.
4. Drizzle over the olive oil. Garnish with the parsley, cayenne and reserved chickpeas. You can store it in the fridge for around 2-3 days.




Falafel

Makes around 25 (4cm falafels).

600g dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, then drained
1 onion, finely chopped
40g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 spring onions, finely chopped
small pinch of hot chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander (I couldn't buy it anywhere, so I had to skip it and added a bit of cayenne pepper instead)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
salt
vegetable oil, for deep-frying

1. Process the chickpeas in a food processor to a grainy texture, Add the onion and process until fine. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the parsley, garlic, spring onions, spices, salt, soda and seasoning. Leave to rest for one hour.



2. Using your hands mould the mixture into 4cm balls and flatten them slightly. Leave to rest for 30 minutes, then deep fry in oil heated to 180°C for 3-4 minutes, or until golden all over. Drain on the kitchen paper and serve with hummus. **






* from Monty Python's Flying Circus
** I divided the mixture into two parts - I put one of them in the fridge and made falafels out of it the next day.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Orange Walnut Muffins with White Chocolate Topping



Uff... what a great weekend. A bit in a hurry, but still this type of hurry was positive. Only now - having come back from our milonga - I have found a moment to check my blog out and fulfil the promise of publishing the recipe for muffins. It will be my only one contribution to the Citrus Weekend... even though I was dreaming of preparing 7 other citrus delicacies. As a dancer and tango teacher, paradoxically I have plenty of free time on Monday mornings (I mean: after 11 a.m.) and during the weekdays before noon. Weekends are evenings are the busiest so I just simply didn't have enough time for a citrus frenzy (though I managed to bake two delicious loaves of bread, one of which was handed over to my friends, the other one was handed out partially and partially eaten by us).
Anyway, with a small delay (it's after midnight so theoretically it's already Monday) I would like to share with you the recipe for Orange Walnut Muffins with White Chocolate Topping. Sweet and fruity oranges and crunchy toasted walnuts make these muffins perfect for breakfast with a glass of milk. Yet, just a bit of white chocolate as a topping and you get an elegant afternoon treat. They smell  and taste very Christmassy and I have a feeling that you will be able to try them out very soon in Tango Cafe :)

Orange Walnut Muffins 
with White Chocolate Topping
(inspired by the recipe for Orange Muffins from the Ultimate Muffin Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein Mark Scarbrough)

Wet ingredients:
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 cup (125g) natural yogurt
85g (6 tablespoons, 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
3/4 cup freshly squeezed out orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g walnuts, toasted (around 6min. in 200°C / 400°F) and chopped

Dry ingredients:
240 g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
185g (3/4 cup) sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
a pinch of cinnamon

Topping:
100g good quality white chocolate

Makes around 12 medium / standard size muffins (5cm in diameter).

1. Mix all wet ingredients together until uniform.
2. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Prepare the muffin tins: line them with paper muffin cups or cut pieces of baking paper.
3. Dry ingredients: whisk the dry ingredients in a second bowl until well uniform.
4.
Add the dry ingredients bowl into wet ingredients bowl, stir in just until incorporated. Don't overmix! Fill the prepared tins (mine are pretty shallow and I filled them to the brim, instead of the usual three-quarters full). Bake for 22 minutes, until the muffins are light brown and have rounded tops. The muffins are ready when the toothpick or cake tester comes out almost clean (can be one or two crumbs attached). Set the pan onto the rack and let the muffins cool down for 10 minutes.
5. Chop the chocolate and put into a small pan. Place the small pan above a large pan with boiling water. Important: the pan with chocolate cannot touch the boiling water. Melt the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Spread the warm melted chocolate over the muffins with a tablespoon.

Friday, November 27, 2009

"Oranges and tangerines..."

"Pani pyta, czy walca tańczę?
Ach, zatańczę... jak sen dziewczynki!
Mandarynki i pomarańcze,
Pomarańcze i mandarynki..."




Today we have ORANGE milonga and the begining of Citrus Weekend. Orange Walnut Muffins (with white chocolate topping) and Orange Gingerbread Muffins are ready for tonight's evening. It's high time to think about the orange outfit and the music - for now I'm only sure that Marek Grechuta and his famous "Pomarańcze i mandarynki" will be my cortina tonight. Come and join us :)
PS. Recipes for the muffins: tomorrow.




Thursday, November 26, 2009

Red Lentil Soup



Red Lentil Soup is one of the first soups that I learnt from my mum... (the memory makes me feel warm and makes me smile immediately to Her). It's nourishing in every meaning of the word. As I already wrote yesterday, this soup is my favourite for cold winter days -- together with home-baked bread, it makes a whole meal that will satisfy even a meat eater (I mean P. of course ;) ). I cooked it countless number of times and every time it tastes a bit different (though it's yummy every time). Feel free to change the proportions of the vegetables -- add or take away some potatoes, carrots, play with the amount of celery root etc.

Red Lentil Soup

Serves 4 portions as a main dish, 8 as a side dish.

1 big onion
4 carrots
1/2 celery root / knob celery
5 potatoes
1 parsnip
250g red lentils
300ml tomato purée (passata di pomodori)
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon marjoram
around 4-5 tablespoons olive oil
salt, freshly ground pepper, fresh parsley leaves


1. Prepare the vegetables: wash them, peel and cut into cubes.
2. In a big stockpot warm up the olive oil and fry the onion until transparent. Add the remaining vegetables: carrots, celery root, potatoes, parsnip and fry for 4-5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
3. Add boiling water - around 1,5l, cover the vegetables with two times their volume. Stir.
4. Place the lentils in sieve and rinse them well under cold running water. Add to the soup, bring to boil, then lower the heat to medium and cook for around 15 to 20 minutes until lentils are soft. You might need to add more hot water.
5. At the end add tomato purée and season the soup with salt, pepper, marjoram and pressed garlic. Serve with chopped fresh parsley leaves. Bon appétit!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Warm & sunny November day... sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

Yet, it was 17°C and sunny as if it was spring. We couldn't belive it... A call from a friend and we got outside and tried to enjoy every ray of sunshine as much as possible. Some trees were already totally naked (must have felt ashamed and weird with this amount of sunshine today), some of them had their leaves in orange brown colour... only one tree - gingko biloba - was unbeliveably yellow. Sunny yellow. I found a walnut tree with 3 squirrels on it, enjoying a crunchy nutty lunch :D
Full of energy we got home and ate red lentil soup. My number one for winter days, yet yummy even on a spring-at-the-end-of-November day :)
Today pictures of the squirrels, recipe for the red lentil soup - tomorrow :)









Caramel Pumpkin Tartelettes



To be honest - I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie, even though I'm a pumpkin addict. Caramel Pumpkin Tartelettes are not too far from the traditional pumpkin pie, but far enough for me to fall in love with their caramel delicately spiced taste.  The idea comes from Gourmet magazine, though I used Pierre Hermé's recipe for the shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée) and instead of preparing one big pie I went for small and cute tartelettes.
The tartelettes are rich with caramel, whose sweetness is contrasted with the spiciness of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger added to the pumpkin. The pastry's texture is delicate and buttery... Just poetry :)
Bon appétit! :)

Caramel Pumpkin Tartelettes 

Makes 8 tartelettes - 11cm in diameter each or 1 big (26cm - 10 1/2 in)

For shortcrust pastry - pâte brisée by Pierre Hermé*:

188g butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
250g plain white flour
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 scant teaspoon caster sugar
50ml full fat milk at room temperature

1. Place the butter in a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon to soften. Stir in the salt and egg yolk. Stir the sugar into the milk in a bowl. Pour this onto the softened butter in a thin stream, stirring constantly.
2. Sift the flour into a shallow bowl and steadily stir it into the butter mixture. Mix by stirring with a wooden spoon or gently bring it together by hand in the bowl.
3. On a floured work surface and using the palm of your hand, lightly knead the pastry just until it forms a soft, moist dough. Ligthness of hand and speed are very important, and the whole process shouldn't take longer than 4-5minutes or the pastry will be tough.
4. Shape the dough into 8 equal balls, flatten slightly, and wrap in cling film. Leave in the fridge to rest for at least 2 hours. The resting time in the refrigerator gives the gluten in the flour a chance to relax. Effective chilling will prevent the dough from shrinking too much when it goes into the hot oven.
5. After the chilling time, roll the dough out between two large sheets of baking parchment. Make sure to lift the top sheet of parchment from time to time so that it doesn't crease into the dough. When it's 3-5mm thick, move each piece into the bottom of the pan. It should cover the bottom and the sides, cut off  the excess pastry.
6. Using your fingertips, press the pastry into and up the sides of the ring. If the dough splits or cracks as you work, then simply patch the split with small scraps of pastry using your fingers to glue them into place. Don't strech the pastry. Prick the base all over with a fork. Refrigerate for 30minutes.
7. In the meantime, cut out a circle of baking parchment slightly larger than the tart ring or tin. Fold the disc in half several times to make a triangular shape, then clip the outer edge with scissors. Clipping the edge ensures a close fit against the rim when the paper is placed in the tart ring.
8. Take the tart rings with the pastry out from the fridge. Cover the base and sides of the pastry with the prepared baking parchment, taking the paper above the sides of the ring. Fill with dried beans- the tarts will keep the form and won't rise during baking.
9. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the pans in the oven and bake for 18-20minutes. After that time it will be partially baked. Remove the beans and lining paper, then return the tart pans to oven and bake for 6-7 minutes longer. Cool the shells on a wire rack.

*recipe comes from "The Cook's Book"

For caramel-pumpkin filling:

200g (1 cup) sugar
1/3 cup water
500ml (2 cups) heavy cream (I used whipping cream, 30%)
420g (1 can 15-oz solid-pack pumpkin, not pie filling) pumpkin purée
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (best if freshly grated)
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of salt
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1. Bring sugar and water to a boil in a heavy saucepan. stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil syrup, gently swirling pan (do not stir!), until mixture is a deep golden caramel, about 10 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to moderate and carefully add 1 cup cream (mixture will bubble vigorously, don't be intimidated by that ;) ), stirring until caramel is dissolved. Stir in the remaining cup cream and bring just to a simmer.
3. Whisk together pumpkin purée, spices and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in hot cream mixture, then add eggs whisking until combined well. Pour filling into cooled crusts and bake until puffed and center is just set, 55 to 60 minutes. Cool on a rack, about 2 hours at least before serving - tartelettes will continue to set as they cool. Enjoy with some whipped cream :)

NOTES:
- dough can be chilled up to 1 day or frozen, wrapped well in foil, 1 month.
- the shells can be baked 1 day ahead and kept wrapped in a plastic wrap (after cooling) at room temperature.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Caramel & pumpkin - could you resist such a temptation? | Karmel i dynia - któż oparłby się takiej pokusie?



I couldn't and I ended up baking these yummy Caramel Pumpkin Tartelettes almost in the middle of the night... (Instead of going to bed, resting and getting a good night's sleep before a second day of teaching workshops. ) Anyway - I didn't regret it at all :)
The recipe coming tomorrow :)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Foretaste of Christmas

Days started to grow shorter significantly and the autumn dimness and chill finally reached Budapest as well. I'm wandering around the stores looking for gingerbread cutters (I came up with the idea that I want an angel gingerbreat cutter). I'm working out a winter & Christmas menu for the cafe... In my favourite English bookstore I bury myself in reading the Christmas edition of Good Food magazine, looking through the cookbooks trying to decide which ones should be mentioned in a letter to the Santa Claus (my family tradition - impossible to skip).

Yesterday I received an amazing parcel - full of teas and Christmas accents, straight from my mum. Sweet Pear, Cinnamon Start Sencha (Japanese green tea), St. Claus Favourite, Banana Sencha, Chocolate Rooibos... smells like Christmas, doesn't it?



Beautiful scents of apples and cinnamon are floating in the air at home... I baked Swedish cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) and have started to test different recipes for "szarlotka" - Polish apple cake/pie - in search of the best one, one that I could call my favourite. The recipe for the buns comes from Liska's blog (thank you!). I modified it a bit because I didn't have cardamon and instead of it, I used gingerbread spices (which worked really well). Liska calls the buns 'cardamon', however, I know them under the name 'cinnamon' (in Swedish - 'kanel'). The buns are the best just out of the oven, still warm with a glass of milk (P.'s version) or Cinnamon Star Sencha (my version). On the following day, I made a bread & butter pudding with them and it was equally good to the one based on croissants. I have two more recipes: one for the cinnamon buns and one for the saffron ones - both straight from Sweden. Hope to try them out soon :)



Kanelbullar (Swedish cinnamon buns)

12 buns

1 tablespoon sugar
50ml warm water
2 1/4 teaspoon dry/ instant yeast
200 ml milk
1 teaspoon cream
100g butter
450g all-purpose flour
120g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon gingerbread spices (or green freshly grated cardamon)

Filling:
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled down
3 tablespoons sugar + 2 teaspoons cinnamon - mixed together

Glaze:
1 egg beaten with one teaspoon water
almond flakes and brown sugar (I used demerara sugar)

1. In a bowl mix together 1 tablespoon sugar, warm water and yeast. Put aside for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble a bit.

2.  In a pan mix together milk, cream and butter. Warm them up until butter melts. Put aside to cool down a bit and then mix with the yeast. In a seperate big bowl mix flour, sugar, salt and gingerbread spices together. Connect them with the wet ingredients and knead the dough (you can use the mixer). Let the dough rise in a warm place while covered (around 1h).

3. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Roll out the dough - you want to get a rectangle (40 x 45cm). Spread the butter on top, sprinkle with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Roll the dough the long way and the cut the roll into about 12 pieces 3,5cm thick. Place them with the cut edge upward onto a baking sheet. Spread the remaining butter on them. Let the buns rise in warm place while covered for about 30 - 60 minutes. (though they won't rise too much).

4. Brush the buns carefully with the mixture of egg & water, sprinkle with brown sugar and almond flakes. Bake for around 25 minutes, until the buns are golden.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Few words about culinary experiments...



Having bought two pumpkins, I figured out that one of them would be transformed into a a lasagne and the other one - into a soup. Since quite a time, I've been dreaming of a combination of pasta, béchamel sauce and smoked cheese... I had a vague idea how to prepare a lasagne - never done it before - yet, I decided to give it a try. Having said that, I ate almost half of it. Still, I wasn't happy... the proportions were off - too little pasta and cheese, too much béchamel sauce, the butternut squash was cut into too big cubes, the carrots were too big as well, there could be more onion, a bit more garlic and I totally forgot about parsley (how could I..!). I used too little spices also. My intuition as to the combination of the ingredients was basically good, still, so many things missing... Thankfully, I still have some of the pasta and butternut squash left, so I'm going to try it out one more time sometime next week and hope to share a recipe with you then. Of course, only if it's good enough :) Perfection is amazing, but as Whitney Otto writes in A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity "perfect things are easy to forget"*. I love this quote and it could refer also to my cooking. I'm always aiming at being perfect but most often the result is imperfect and I need to check out the idea a few more times to find the appropriate balance of flavours. Still, even having the right proportions, the dish is different every time depending on the ingredients, especially produce and my mood given day. So the idea of "perfect taste" is changing as I'm changing. To cut the long story about a very imperfect butternut squash lasagne, what I like most about my cooking is the possibility to experiment, explore, and the flexibility: I change proportions again and again until I find the taste closest to perfect :)

The second experiment** - with a soup - was a success, so without hesitation I'm posting the recipe here :)

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup

1 medium size pumpkin or squash
2 sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
50g of smoked bacon
1 small red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon sage
0,5l chicken stock
0,5l vegetarian stock
olive oil, salt and fresh pepper to season to taste

1. Peel and coarsely chop the potatoes and pumpkin. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F). In a bowl mix together potatoes with pumpkin, drizzle generously with olive oil, , season with salt, pepper and brown sugar. Mix well. Put the vegetables onto a flat baking pan and bake for 40 minutes till they're soft. Put aside.
2.  Cube bacon, slice garlic (very thinly) and dice the onion. Prepare the stocks - if possible, use the ones sold in bio-stores. The difference in quality is huge. Warm up the large stockpan (at medium heat), add the bacon and fry (stirring often) until almost all the fat from bacon is melted. Shouldn't take longer than 2-3 minutes. Lower the heat, add few tablespoons of olive oil, onion, garlic and fry for 5 minutes.
3. Add the roasted vegetables to the pan. Add the stock and the spices - thyme and sage. Mix well. The vegetables should be just covered by stock - if it's not the case, add additional water. Bring to boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 20 - 25 minutes, stirring from time to time.
4. Let the soup cool down then puree the soup with a handheld blender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with garlic toasts*** or simply bread with garlic butter. You can also add a dollop of sour cream to the soup. 

*I read the book in Polish and the original quote is: "Skończone doskonałości zapomina się łatwo". The translation is made by me as to reflect the sense in the book, not direct meaning of the words.
**Inspired by Bea's post on roasting vegetables and making a soup out of them and this post from Chocolate Shaving's blog.
***Chop a roll or 2-3 pieces of toast bread, warm up the frying pan with 3-4 tablespoons of garlic butter in it and then fry them on medium heat till they're golden.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Pumpkin season is not over... :)


                                         to be continued... / cdn.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Citrus weekend



In the meantime - I am planning to take part in the Citrus Weekend (November 27 -28) organized by Tatter. Two days of baking and cooking with any citrus fruit (as one of the main ingredients): oranges, lemons, mandarines, pomelos, grapefruits etc. At the same time - November 27th - we are organizing an Orange Milonga, so I see it as a perfect opportunity to try out some of the recipes and bring some of the goodies to the milonga. And there are few of them:
1) Chocolate Orange Tart
2) Tarte Au Citron (lemon tart)
3) Mini-orange cheesecakes
4) Orange White Chocolate Muffins
5) Orange Walnut Crunch Muffins
6) Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
7) Orange Poppy Seed Muffins
8) Clementine Tarts from Good Food
Hmmm... 8 recipes and two days... I guess I'll have to resign from something. What are your favourites? Which ones should I prepare?

Poppyseed Rice on Milk with Pomegranate



Having searched the internet for pomegranate recipes, I've come across a recipe for rice on milk with poppyseed and pomegranate sauce. I've found it on Ela's beautiful blog that hypnotized me with the perfect, almost mouthwatering pictures and with the indescribable warmth.

I've prepared rice on milk many times - serving it mainly with some fresh raspberries or blueberries as light and yummy breakfast. It's a very comforting food for two reasons. First, the taste and the sweetness of rice, milk and vanilla brings back the memories of my childhood. Second, the preparation is a whole ritual which requires both your time and attention. And there's something definitely positive about that... to focus on cooking, the smells, aromas, softness of rice takes your mind into a different world. Good rice on milk takes at least an hour to cook, but it's worth the effort :) The addition of poppyseed and pomegranate makes the ordinary rice almost a gourmet food. And the visual side - just enchanting.A bit like from a magical world of Amelie Poulain.




Poppyseed Rice on Milk with Pomegranate

Serves 2 portions.

125g rice
700ml milk
a pinch of salt
1/2 (5g) vanilla sugar with real vanilla
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon blue poppyseed
1 big pomegranate

Boil the milk with a pinch of salt, add rice and constantly stirring cook for 5 minutes. Cover the pot and put it aside for 30 minutes, allowing the rice to absorb the milk. After that time, cook for 10- 15 minutes on medium/low heat (stirring all the time), add sugar and poppyseed, cover the pot and put aside for another 10 minutes. Repeat the procedure in shorter (5 minutes) installements until the rice is soft and has absorbed all the milk. Serve warm or cold with pomegranate arils (seeds).

Monday, November 16, 2009

Her Majesty Pear & The Prince Walnut



I love pears - even more than apples. I love them because of their feminine shape, beautiful yellow color, juicy sweetnes and the fact that they go so well with another of my favourites - walnuts. Especially here, in Budapest, you can find them big, yet full of flavour, in many varieties. The best walnuts I've ever eaten are also from Budapest - on the Market Hall (Vasarcsarnok) starting in September/October you'll find them fresh, in a beautiful golden colour, with no hint of bitternes. Pear Walnut Muffins combine two of my favourites. Furthermore, they take so little time to prepare yet the taste is really amazing - these are the best muffins I've ever done. (Though P. says that the best were Apple Raisin Muffins.) You should try them out with cinnamon latte... and a good cooking book. Mmm.. indulgence... - a perfect way to spend a dark autumn afternoon or evening.

Pear Walnut Muffins
(inspired by the recipe for Pear Muffins from the Ultimate Muffin Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein Mark Scarbrough)

Wet ingredients:
3 medium pears (around 230g each/8 ounces)
160g (3/4 cup) light brown sugar
120g (1 cup) walnuts
1 large egg, lightly beaten, at room temperature
1 small natural yogurt (150g)
60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Dry ingredients:
250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Makes around 12 medium / standard size muffins (5cm in diameter).

1. Wet ingredients:
Peel and core the pears. Two of them mash with a blender, the third one cut into small cubes. Stir in the brown sugar, toss well and set aside for 15 - 30 minutes (depending how ripe your pears are, if a lot - then 15 minutes is plenty, if they're firm and not too ripe - then 30 minutes should be fine.) In the meantime, chop walnuts and toast them in the oven for 5-7 minutes. After that time, using a wooden spoon, stir the egg into the pears, then stir in the rest of the wet ingredients (including walnuts) until smooth.

2. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Prepare the muffin tins: line them with paper muffin cups or cut pieces of baking paper.

3. Dry ingredients:
Whisk the dry ingredients in a second bowl until well uniform.

4. Add the dry ingredients bowl into wet ingredients bowl, stir in just until incorporated. Don't overmix! Fill the prepared tins (mine are pretty shallow and I filled them to the brim, instead of the usual three-quarters full). Bake for 23 minutes, until the muffins are light brown and have rounded tops. The muffins are ready when the toothpick or cake tester comes out almost clean (can be one or two crumbs attached). Set the pan onto the rack and let the muffins cool down for 10 minutes before taking them out and serving.


Sunday, November 15, 2009

Very Nutty Banana Bread



This simple, yet so rich and luscious bread is based on the recipe for Sophie Dahl's Banana Bread. I could call it my banana bread as it combines all my favourite qualities a cake should have: it's moist, full of natural flavours and has 'something crunchy' - in this case my favourite nuts. Honestly, I cannot resist it and never finish with only one or two pieces. I love it with a mug of rooibos tea or a glass of warm milk. Bon apétit!



Very Nutty Banana Bread

4 very ripe bananas
100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
75g butter, softened (1/3bar or 2/3stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon rum extract
50g raisins
50g walnuts
50g cashew nuts
25g hazelnuts
25g almonds (can be whole or cut)
170g all purpose flour (1 1/3cup)
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda

Fits a rectangular loaf pan (30cm long, 11cm wide, 7cm deep).

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cover the baking form with a baking paper. Mash the bananas with a fork or a hand blender/mixer. Add sugar, egg, butter, vanilla & rum extract. Chop the nuts and scald the raisins. If you want a stronger nut taste you can toast the nuts in the oven for 5 - 7 minutes (in 180°C). Add the nuts and raisins to the banana mix. In a seperate bowl mix the flour with baking soda and salt. Add the flour, mix only until everything is combined, the batter doesn't need to be perfectly smooth - don't overmix it though! Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for 50 - 60minutes. (In my oven it was 50minutes). The batter is not rising in the begining, but it will later. Wait for 10minutes to cool down a bit and then enjoy! :)


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Bread baking madness...

The main symptom of the advancing bread baking madness is simply uncontrollable baking, connected with flour shopping spree and sourdough production. Yesterday I baked two breads - one of them was the Easy Sunflowerseed Bread, the second one was based on the same idea, however, with the addition of rye flour and sun-dried tomatoes - Easy Sun-Dried Tomato Bread. Both breads are very simple and based on yeast.



My ambition though was to have real bread, which means for me a one that is based on levain, not yeast. I thought that it's a difficult, complex process, nearly a closed book to an amateur baker like me. But no! I've found words of encouragement and easy, step by step instructions on Liska's baking blog. Therefore, since five days I've been growing my my first levain - a sourdough bacteria (&a bit of wild yeast) culture, a natural pre-ferment based on whole-grain rye flour. In levain a natural fermentation occurs whose major by-products are carbon dioxide and alcohol (for yeast) and lactic acid & acetic acid (for bacteria). It is the yeast that primarily leavens a dough, but it is the bacteria that create acids that promote strength and flavor in bread.*




Today my patience was rewarded and I took out of the oven a gorgeous loaf of Hungarian Sourdough Rye Bread. From the original recipe (coming also from Liska's blog) I skipped cumin seeds which neither of us likes. The bread is moist thanks to potatoes but not too heavy. Ideal for sandwiches and as a compliment to a soup. 

Easy Sun-Dried Tomato Bread

100g whole-grain rye flour
300g all-purpose wheat flour (type 550)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2g fresh yeast
250ml water
8 sun-dried tomatoes (in oil), cut into small pieces

Fits rectangular loaf  form 25cm long.

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover with a cotton kitchen cloth and leave for 12-18 hours. Cover the pan with the vegetable oil and sprinkle with bran. After 12-18h put the dough in the baking pan, sprinkle the flour onto the top and the leave in a warm place to rise. The dough should fill the baking pan within approximately 30 - 60minutes. Preheat the oven to 230°C. Onto the bottom of the oven (or the bottom flat baking pan) spill a glass of ice-cubes. Put the pan into the oven (only once it has risen). After 10minutes lower the temperature to 210°C and bake for 30-40minutes more.



Enjoy with some cream cheese and tomatoes... mmm :)

Hungarian Sourdough Rye Bread

200g water
3 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
450g rye sourdough / rye levain**
450g wheat bread flour (I used wheat all-purpose type 550 flour and it worked well)
3 flat teaspoons marine salt
150g cooked potatoes (pressed or mashed)
1 tablespoon cumin (I skipped it)

Fits rectangular loaf  form 30cm long.

Mix the instant yeast with sugar and water. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Then add the rest ingredients in order of liquidity - the most liquid first, then dry ones. Knead the dough - you can use a mixer with a hook. The dough should be quite loose and a bit sticky. Move the dough into a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes. In the meantime, cover the pan with the vegetable oil and sprinkle with bran. Put the dough into the pan, cover with a cotton kitchen cloth and set aside in a warm place to rise. It should fill in the pan - it took me about 2 hours (Liska says in her blog that it took her about 3 hours.)
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the pan into the oven (only once it has risen!) and bake for 45 minutes. Let the bread cool down before cutting. Enjoy! :)



*For more information have a look into a chapter 5 from "Bread Baking - An Artisan's Perspective" by Daniel T. DiMuzio
**recipe coming soon!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins



Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins are yet another autumn treat - dense and very moist, in an intense orange colour. The preparation is fast as with any other muffins. There's one condition: you need to have already prepared the pumpkin puree. I used the butternut squash puree for these muffins and it worked really well. The addition of dried cranberries makes the pumpkin much more interesting and reduces the need for sugar in the batter, especially if your cranberries have been sweetened with a maple syrup. The recipe comes from the Ultimate Muffin Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein Mark Scarbrough - expect few more coming soon... out of 600 recipes that are in the book, I limited myself to only around 20 to be tried out in the future... ;)




Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bran
25g (1/4 cup) white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
50g (1/2 cup) brown sugar (I used demerara sugar)
425g (1 1/2 cup) pumpkin puree
100g dried cranberries, chopped into small pieces
180ml (3/4cup) buttermilk*
85g (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Makes around 12 medium / standard size muffins (5cm in diameter).

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Prepare the muffin tins: line them with paper muffin cups or cut pieces of baking paper.
Whisk the flour, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl until well combined.  In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten, then whisk in the brown sugar. Continue whisking until the mixture is thick and pale brown, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the pumpkin, cranberries, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Once the mixture is smooth, stir in the prepared flour mixture until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Fill the prepared tins (mine are pretty shallow and I filled them almost to the brim, instead of the usual three-quarters full). Bake for 22 minutes, until the muffins have rounded, slightly cracked tops. The muffins are ready when the toothpick or cake tester comes out almost clean - it can be wet, as these muffins are very moist. Set the pan onto the rack and let the muffins cool down for 10 minutes before taking them out and serving. I recommend it with black cranberry tea or green Japanese sencha with cranberries (in our Przystanek Tango Cafe under the name 'sencha americana') as well as a glass of warm milk. Bon apétit!

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can replace it with the same amount of full fat milk, kefir or plain natural full fat yoghurt. 



Both Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins and Apple Raisin Muffins (about which I wrote yesterday) were taken to our milonga - an evening party during which people dance Argentine tango. Even though the milonga wasn't crowded, they all disappeared quickly and were highly praised to my satisfaction. Viva tango & food :)

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Apple Raisin Muffins



I like simple combinations - sometimes you could call them even rustic - so the final choice was Apple Raisin Muffins. The recipe came from the Ultimate Muffin Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, however, as with almost any recipe from that book, I had to cut down on sugar. I added also two tablespoons of bran and lowered a bit the amount of baking powder (I don't like the metallic aftertaste when there's too much of it). As the apples are first macereted in sugar and oil, the result was a really nice and moist batter. I also added three big apples, instead of the medium ones recommended in the recipe. Basically, there are more apples than batter in the muffins - which I myself enjoyed a lot, especially when they were warm. Big chunks of warm aromatic apples, raisins... mmm... I only wished I had a cinnamon latte at home to accompany them.



3 medium apples, peeled, cored and diced
100g raisins
150g (3/4 cup) white sugar
100ml (almost 1/2 cup) vegetable oil (I use grapeseed oil)
250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bran
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmed
125ml (1/2 cup) milk (can be whole or low-fat)
1 large egg, lightly beaten, at room temperature

Makes around 12 medium / standard size muffins (5cm in diameter).

Toss the diced apples with raisins and sugar in a medium bowl. Pour the oil over the top, stir well and set aside at room temperature for 45 minutes. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Prepare the muffin tins: line them with paper muffin cups or cut pieces of baking paper.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg in a second bowl until well uniform. Using a wooden spoon, stir the milk and egg into the apple mixture until smooth. Then stir in the prepared flour mixture only until moistened. Don't overmix! Fill the prepared tins (mine are pretty shallow and I filled them to the brim, instead of the usual three-quarters full). Bake for 25 minutes, until the muffins have rounded, slightly cracked tops. Warning: muffins don't really brown! The muffins are ready when the toothpick or cake tester comes out almost clean. Set the pan onto the rack and let the muffins cool down for 10 minutes before taking them out and serving. Enjoy with some good tea or a cinnamon latte! :)

Margit Island and...

For the last few days it's been raining and raining and it seemed that overcast sky took over Budapest for good. Today - to our surprise and joy - we were woken up by the sunrays and warm 12°C temperature. In the middle of November! Not waiting too long we ate breakfast and headed off to Margitsziget (Margit Island) to catch a bit of the sun and enjoy the blue sky...











On the way back we did some shopping and bought these amazing apples... I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with them but as I don't have too much time on hands today it will have to be something quick and easy. Apple Raisin Muffins? Apple Walnut Muffins? Apple Cranberry Muffins? I'll let you know in the evening what I've decided... :)