Dolce & Italian Chocolate Block

Having started reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes made me almost obsessively think of all imaginable Italian food. As if I could magically transfer myself for a weekend in Italy or compensate for the lack of sun and fight the winter away, my weekly menu was full of Italian dishes like risotto and pizza. (I do hope to write about all of them soon!) For the weekend though I was planning to prepare something special. And sweet :) I made my hard choice and decided to indulge myself with dark chocolate block, full of almonds, dried apricots and amaretti cookies.
To my surprise and joy, after a long week of grey sky, Saturday welcomed us with sun, yet still no trams*. As our classes were starting just in the afternoon, we went for a beautiful walk in search of the only one missing ingredient for the chocolate block - amaretti cookies- ending up eating freshly baked pizza in a cozy Italian store Dolce**. Of course, I bought the cookies as well and therefore, I started my Sunday not with a long shower or some yummy breakfast but with preparing the chocolate block. It was worth it though! :)



Italian Chocolate Block
Original recipe comes from "Kuchnia włoska" by Penny Stephens. 

Fits a rectangular pan 11cm wide and 23cm long.

75g almonds, chopped
150g good quality chocolate (I used dark one, 70% cocoa)
75g butter
210g condensed milk (sweetened)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
75g amaretti cookies, crushed into big pieces
70g dried apricots, chopped

1. Line the pan with aluminium foil.
2. Put butter, condensed milk and cinnamon into a saucepan with a thick bottom. Cook over low heat, constantly stirring until butter melts, for about 3-4 minutes. Then add the chocolate cut into pieces and stir constantly until chocolate melts. Turn the heat off.
3. Mix in almonds, amaretti cookies and dried apricots. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and set aside in a cool place or refrigerator for at least 1 hour to set. Cut into big slices and enjoy with good latte macchiato :)

*BKV (Budapest public transportation company) was striking...
**Király u. 57., 1077 Budapest

My mum's barley soup

The taste of my childhood... simple soup that will warm you up on cold winter days. Its secret lies in the delicious vegetable stock and coarsely-ground barley groats. The soup is at its best when it's cooked by my mum of course :)

We start cooking barley soup with the preparation of vegetable stock:

2l water
1 onion, peeled
3 carrots, whole or chopped
1 parsnip
1/2 leek
1/2 root celery
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 grais allspice
around 15 grains black pepper
1 bay leaf


In a big stockpot bring to boil all the ingredients, then lower the heat and cook under the cover for about 20 - 25 minut until carrots and celery are soft. Then take out the vegetables and you'll have ready clean vegetable stock which can be a basis for many delicious soups.

Barley Soup "Krupnik" 

vegetable stock prepared according to the recipe above, BUT:
Add 2 - 3 dried boletus / porcini mushrooms to the stock's ingredients. Don't take them out as well as don't take the carrots out.
around 6 medium size potatoes, cut into cubes
125g - 150g coarsely-ground barley groats
chopped parsley leaves
pepper and salt

Add the potatoes cut into cubes & barley to the boiling stock. Cook for around 25 minutes until the barley and potatoes are soft (but don't overcook them!). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with chopped parsley leaves.

New Year resolution

This year is going to be really challenging for me. Two important things are awaiting us: we are moving to a different country and travelling to Buenos Aires for 3 months with the focus on developing as a teacher and dancer. My mind's already very busy and that's why I decided not to challenge myself anymore with numerous New Year resolutions. I commited only to one - I decided to bake sweet things (cakes, pastries etc.) only once a week. Inspired (among others) by Patrycja's blog and her post on sugar I felt there's too much sugar in my diet and I didn't feel well with it. I'm far away from any extreme - I'm not going to resign from sugar, the goal is simply to cut back on the quantity. I cook daily with lots of vegetables and non-refined products, and in general, I think that our diet is very healthy apart from the sweets I'm baking. Some time ago I started to cut the amount of sugar in the recipes and it turned out that you usually need half the amount of sugar in the recipe to enjoy the sweetness and without any harm to the taste. Still, I'm a crazy baker and I could bake daily, so even with the lower amount of sugar it was still quite a lot in terms of frequency...

To sum up: In 2010, for the sake of my wellbeing I'm going to bake sweets only once a week.
Observation no 1: This makes choosing the recipe more exciting and baking the cake even more enjoyable...
Observation no 2:  I had to find a vent for my baking passion so instead I will bake bread and savoury tarts - planning to bake a tart with beetroots and Russian bread this weekend :)

Today I would like to share with you the triple-almond cheesecake that I baked last weekend. I barely managed to save this one piece to take a picture of it :)

Italian Baked Almond Cheesecake
Recipe comes from a special edition of "Delicious" magazine - "Wicked Desserts".

Serves 8. One 20cm non-stick springform cake tin.
Preparation: 15 minutes.
Baking: 45 - 50 minutes.
Chilling: over 1 hour.

Base:*
200g amaretti biscuits, crushed
50g unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake:
500g ricotta
250g tub mascarpone
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped or sugar with real vanilla
125g golden caster sugar
100g ground almonds
2 tablespoons cornflour
3 large free-range eggs
grated zest of one lemon

Decoration:
handful of flaked almonds
icing sugar for dusting
whipped cream

1. Preaheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/ gas 4. Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter, tip into the base of a 20cm non-stick springform cake tin lined with baking paper. Press down firmly in an even layer with a spoon. Chill for 10 - 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, beat the ricotta, vanilla seeds, sugar, mascarpone, almonds, cornflour, eggs and lemon zest together in a bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into the prepared tin and scatter with the part of the flaked almonds.
3. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes until golden, set in the center but still a bit wobbly. Turn off the oven, open the door and leave the cheesecake inside to cool completely. Chill for a further hour or more. Remove from the tin and serve with icing sugar, remaining flaked almonds and some cream, if you like.

* In case you don't have amaretti biscuits you can do the base with these ingredients:
200g wholegrain Digestive biscuits
50g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur or almond aroma

Simple taste

During my stay in Poland I had a pleasure to visit Trafik in Gdynia. A new place on the culinary map of Tricity, definitely worth visiting on a regular basis for few reasons. First of all - the interior, minimalistic, modern yet so warm! I love retro, old and cozy, I usually avoid too modern places, still I was full of admiration for the decor. Secondly, food was prepared by the chef Michał Maj in an open kitchen. We took opportunity and tried out almost everything from a special daily lunch offer plus some of the dishes from the regular menu. I don't have to mention that everything was fresh and appetizing, because that should be self-understandable in every restaurant. What's more important, the balance of spices was perfect, the number of ingredients not overwhelming. The dishes were simple with some nice twists.
I won't shock anyone if I say that I went for my favourite vegetable - pumpkin - which is unfortunately not so popular in Poland and just seeing it in the menu made me happy. The taste of the pumpkin soup was very close to my Good Mood Pumpkin Soup, just missing bacon. Instead the soup was served with crunchy buttered pieces of wholegrain toast and grated cheese. Another yumminess that I tried out were pumpkin pancakes served with some sour cream and chives. I indecently ate two portions... I couldn't forget this taste so I had to make them at home. And here they are :) I made them two days in a row, eating them for dinner and supper :)

Pumpkin Pancakes

500g peeled & grated pumpkin*
3 large eggs
50ml olive oil**
160g all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sour cream (12% fat)
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to season

1. Combine the pumpkin with egg yolks, flour, sour cream, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper.
2. In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff. Delicately fold them into the pumpkin mixture.
3. Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat. Scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1 tablespoon for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot with light sour cream and chives. 

*again - I used my favourite butternut squash.
** another option: use 3-4 tablespoons melted butter

It's getting colder and I feel like a soup...

"Hallo, Eeyore," said Christopher Robin, as he opened
the door and came out. "How are you?"
"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.
"So it is."
"And freezing."
"Is it?"
"Yes," said Eeyore. "However," he said, brightening up
a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."
"Winnie-the-Pooh" by A.A.Milne

Thanks to some unexplained luck Budapest has so far avoided snowstorms and freezing temperatures... yesterday it was +5°C, today it's similiar in terms of temperature, however, there's some chill in the air...
In winter I'm really a homebody craving for warming-up food. Soups are my top food in this respect. In search of some good new recipes, I indulged myself in a book on Italian cuisine and found a dozen soup recipes that I want to try out. All of them feel so full of sunshine, light yet nourishing and full of vegetables. To start with I chose Pumpkin Soup with Orange and Thyme. So totally different from my Good Mood Pumpkin Soup. My first impression: it could almost be a dessert soup - it's so sweet and fruity. I served it with crunchy pieces of buttered toast which complimented it perfectly.

Pumpkin Soup with Orange and Thyme
Recipe comes from "Kuchnia włoska" by Penny Stephens.

Serves 4 to 6.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions or 1 large - chopped
2 crushed garlic cloves
900g pumpkin*, peeled and cut into cubes
1,5l vegetable stock
juice and zest from one orange
3 tablespoons fresh thyme or 1 tablespoon dried thyme
150ml milk
salt and freshly ground pepper to season

1. Warm up the olive oil in a big pot, then fry the onion in it until transparent, around 3-4 minutes. Then add garlic and pumpkin - fry for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.
2. Add the stock, orange juice, orange zest and thyme. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and cover the pot. Cook for 20 minutes until pumpkin becomes soft.
3. Let the soup cool down a bit and then blend it with a hand mixer until creamy. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Add milk, stir and serve with crunchy pieces of buttered toast.**

* I used my favourite butternut squash, but I'm sure the recipe will work with other types of pumpkin/ squash as well.
** Take a roll/ a piece of toast bread and cut into cubes. Melt two tablespoons of butter on a frying pan, then add pieces of toast and fry until golden on medium heat, stirring from time to time.

My breakfasts...

Inspired by Ania's post on breakfasts I simply couldn't resist the temptation and share with you two of my recent favourite recipes... Both are on the healthy side, still very very yummy, making me have a second helping (if there's any left by the time I finish eating...!).

Originally, the blueberries were added to the pancake batter. However, in the middle of winter, I didn't have any fresh blueberries, I skipped them and simply served them with home-made blueberry preserve (thanks Mom!). I can totally imagine them with fresh strawberries and some yoghurt sauce, some cooked apples or any other fruit. The batter from the recipe is enough for at least 4 servings. You can make up a batch and freeze them, then just thaw in microwave or an oven. Or you can use half of it one day and then put the rest of the batter into the fridge and fry pancakes the second day. This way with almost no effort you have two delicious and substantial breakfasts :)

Oatmeal Wholegrain Buttermilk Pancakes
Recipe comes from The New York Times, by Martha Rose Shulman.

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk (you can replace it with plain yoghurt)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons canola oil (you can replace it with rapeseed or grapeseed oil)

1. Combine the milk and rolled oats in a bowl, and set aside.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, then add the buttermilk and whisk together. Then whisk in the vanilla extract and the oil.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and quickly whisk together. Do not overbeat; a few lumps are okay. Fold in the oats and milk. Let sit for one hour (I didn't have time to wait for one hour, my batter sat for 15 minutes and the pancakes were totally fine) or refrigerate overnight.
5. If necessary, spray the hot griddle with pan spray. Drop by 3 to 4 tablespoons onto the hot griddle. Cook on a low to medium heat until bubbles begin to break through, two to three minutes. Turn and cook for about 30 seconds to a minute on the other side, or until nicely browned. Remove from the heat, and continue until all of the batter is used up. Serve with fresh fruit or some fruit preserve as well as with maple syrup.

The second recipe - for a detox smoothie - comes from "Healthy Dishes" (Love Food series) that I have received as a gift for Christmas this year. It's full of inspiring and still very simple ideas, that are easy to cook when time's short.

Detox Smoothie

Serves 2.

1 mango
4 kiwi fruit
350ml no added sugar pineapple juice
4 fresh mint leaves

1. Cut the mango into 2 thick slices as close to the stone as possible. Scoop out the flesh and chop coarsely. Cut off any flesh adhering to the stone. Peel the kiwi fruit with a sharp knife and chop the flesh.
2. Put the mango, kiwi fruit, pineapple juice and mint leaves in a blender and process until thorougly combined. (You can also use handheld blender to do so.)
3. Pour into chilled glasses and serve.