Almond Corner

Beetroot-blood orange parfait and raspberry sorbet with chocolate, coconut tuile, rose pepper meringue on chocolate sand

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:22:00 +0000

It's time for dessert! In fact I had the idea of this beetroot-blood orange parfait already for monthes, but never really had time and lust to make it. It is just wasn't clear how and with what to serve it, until yesterday. Besides it was the perfect opportunity to bring beetroot, raspberry and chocolate onto one plate. That is also something I wanted to try for such a long time. First I simply wanted to hide the raspberry sorbet into the parfait, but then I changed the whole concept and so this dessert was born. The parfait is so fluffy and light thank to the Italian meringue and the beaten coconut milk. The slightly tart rapsberry sorbet goes perfectly well with the sweet parfait. But the dessert is only complete with the other elements: the thin chocolate, the coconut tuiles, the chocolate sand and the meringue melts everything into one and the rose pepper brings the last touch of excitement.

Ingredients:
for the beetroot-blood orange parfait :
200 ml blood orange juice
2 tablespoons beet juice
4 eggs
80 g sugar
250 ml coconut milk

for the raspberry sorbet:
500 g raspberry
2 tablespoons vodka
1/2 vanilla pod
50 g invert sugar
110 g water

for the coconut tuiles:
1 egg white
50 g sugar
40 g flour
20 g shredded coconut flakes
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the meringue:
30 g egg white (about 1 egg)
30 g sugar
25 g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of salt

valamint még:
70 g dark chocolate
1 teaspoon cocoa butter
leftover cocoa pastry

For the parfait first chill coconut milk over night. Open the can and remove that thick and creamy layer, you will not need the water underneath. Seperate eggs (you will need 2 egg whites for the parfait, the other 2 will be used for the meringue and the tuiles). Add half of the sugar to the egg yolks among the beet juice and the sieved blood orange juice. Beat it over a bain-marie until thick and fluffy. Bring the rest of the sugar with a tablespoon water to the boil. In the meantime beat 2 egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then add the 120°C hot syrup in a thin strain and beat egg white until stiff. Beat the coconut cream until it becomes light and fluffy. Fold beaten egg white and beaten coconut cream to the beetroot-blood orange cream. Fill it into any kind of shape you liek and chill for 2-3 hours.
For the sorbet puree raspberries and mash it through a sieve to discard seeds. You should have about 250 g of puree. Bring invert sugar with the water to the boil and cook for about 5 minutes. Add vanilla seeds and vodka to the puree, stir in the syrup and pour it to an ice cream maker. When the sorbet is ready fill it into any kind of shape you desire and keep it in the freezer until serving.

For the tuiles beat egg white with sugar until frothy, then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Smear batter onto a baking sheet and bake until the sides are golden brown. With a help of a cookie cutter cut out circles as long as the tuiles is still warm, then let it cool down.

For the meringue beat egg white with a pinch of salt until almost stiff, then add sugar and keep on beating until it is stiff. Fold in the icing sugar and the cornstarch. Pipe it in any shape you like onto a baking sheep, it doesn't really matter, after all you will crumble it later. Dry in a 90°C hot oven for 90-120 minutes. Add rose pepper to the crumbled meringue. Use only the outer red skin, this will give enough peppery flavour to the dessert and it will not be dominant, but will do the job.

For the chocolate decoration melt chocolate and cocoa butter in a bain-marie, then temper and brush onto sheets of baking paper. Place paper into dessert rings and chill. Remove paper right before serving.
For the chocolate sand I simply ground some leftover baked cocoa pastry.

Sheep's milk cheese gnocchi on basil scented pea puree, parma ham-walnut crumble, parsley foam and fava bean ragout

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:02:00 +0000

It's been snowing all day long and meanwhile everything turned white! Was that sunny and warm Sunday only a dream? It seems so! So until spring decides to come back again and finally stay for a while, at least I can turn my plate into green! Most of the ingredients came out of the freezer like the fava beans, peas and the sheep's milk cheese. In this case I am talking about the Slovakian bryndza that is both available made of cow or sheep milk. It is really hard to find it here in Switzerland, therefore my mom always brings me from Hungary. So if you are not able to find it made of sheep milk, then use goat's milk cheese instead. I suggest the same for the spinach rolls that I posted some days ago. The components of this dish go so well together! I am especially in love with the walnut-parma ham crumble that is just amazing together with the pea puree. Of course the ragout would be best with morels, but I had no dried ones left and fresh is not yet available, at least not local ones. The whole thing is complete with fresh parmesan cheese, parsley foam and a few basil leaves.

Ingredients:
for the gnocchi:
125 g bryndza or goat's milk cheese
50-70 g white spelt flour
1 egg white
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt
pepper

for the pea puree:
150 g pea
enough stock so that the peas are covered
1 teaspoon butter
5-6 basil leaves
sal
pepper
for the parsley foam:
100 ml heavy cream
50 g freshly grated parmesan
1/2 bunc parsley
salt
pepper

for the parma ham - walnut crumble:
3 slices of parma ham
5-6 walnuts
2-3 black peppercorns

For the gnocchi knead all the ingredients together, cut it in half and roll out about 1 cm thick and slice it about 1,5 cm long. Cook gnocchi in salted simmering water, then let it dry on kitchen paper. Fry in the mixture of butter and olive oil until golden brown.

For the puree cook peas in stock for a few minutes. Drain but reserve some of the stock. Puree pea with butter and as much stock as needed to achieve the desired consistency. Mash puree through a fine sieve, season with salt and pepper and keep it warm until serving.

For the foam bring cream to the boil, stir in the cheese and as soon as it is molten add parsley and blend it. Season with salt and pepper and foam it with a blender right before serving.

For the crumble preheat the oven to 150°C and dry ham. Let it cool and break into pieces. Crumble ham, walnut and black pepper in a mortar.
For the vegetable ragout simply sautee fava beans, peas, mushroom and green aspararagus (once it is in season) and mix it with the gnocchi before serving. Season with salt, pepper and chervil.

Dark chocolate mousse, caramelised banana mousse and salty caramelised white chocolate ganache tartelettes

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:10:00 +0000

Dark chocolate, salted caramel and banana are just fabulous together! It was no longer a question, I finally had to try the caramelised white chocolate that I first saw on Zsuzsi's amazing blog. The tartelettes are topped with coarsly chopped peanut that is not salted. The salty component is the caramelised white chocoalte ganache that is boosted with fleur de sel. I must say that this caramelised chocolate thing is pretty dangerous because it is just so addictive! One thing is important about this dessert: use organic and very ripe bananas to achieve maximum taste and do not skip the part of mashing the banana puree through a strainer. It is tedious, but your reward is going to be a nice and smooth mousse.

Ingredients:
for 4 tartelettes

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
for the dark chocolate mousse:
3 egg yolks
85 ml simple syrup (cooked out of 90 g sugar and 90 ml water)
150 g dark chocolate minimum 60%
300 ml heavy cream

for the caramelised banana mousse:
probably enough for 8 tartelettes
200 g very ripe bananas
50 g cane sugar
20 g butter
50 ml rum + 1 tablespoon
1 gelatine sheet
1 egg white
25 g sugar
150 ml heavy cream

for the salted caramelised white chocolate ganache:
200 g caramelised white chocolate
140 g heavy cream
fleur de sel as desired

chopped peanuts and white chocolate for decoration

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.
For the mousse melt chocolate over steam, beat egg yolks with simple syrup in water bath, so that half of the bowl is covered with water, beat until thick and creamy. Remove and beat until it cooles. Stir molten chocolate to the beaten egg yolks and fold in beaten cream. Pour into a plastic bag and chill for 2 hours.

Peel and chop bananas about 1 cm thick. Melt butter, add cane sugar and let it caramelise. Add sliced banana and stir until it is well coated with caramel, then pour rum over it and cook until reduced. Puree bananas and mash them through a strainer. That is an important step, it is pretty tedious but defintely worth the effort. Warm the leftover one teaspoon rum and dissolve the previously soaked gelatine sheet in it and whisk it to the puree. Bring sugar with one teaspoon of water to the boil and as soon as it has reached 120°C pour it to the halfly beaten egg white and keep on beating until it form stiff peaks. Fold beaten egg white and beaten cream into the banana puree. Pour mousse into a bag and chill for 2 hours.

For the ganache bring cream to the boil and pour it over the caramelised white chocolate and stir until dissolved. Season with fleur de sel. If you want that the ganache is less liquid stir in 2-3 tablespoons of soft butter (it will set without butter also very nicely, but for that you gotta leave it in the fridge over night, and i had no time for that now). Divide ganache between the 4 tartelettes shells and chill for 2 hours. After that you can play with the two mousses and fill the tartelettes shells. Decorate with chopped peanuts and white chocolate. It is worth to chill the finished tartelettes over night so that the flavours can develop.

Spinach-sheep's milk cheese rolls

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 13:45:00 +0000

We had such a wonderful spring day yesterday, however it is raining now and it is so cold. Brrrrr...! Although there are still plenty of typical winter ingredients in my pantry, I decided to bring some spring onto the table. We still have to wait for all those beautiful spring veggies, but I found some spinach at my green grocer. I couldn't think of anything else, but to pair it with sheep's milk cheese. A good old classic combnation that never disappoints you.

Ingredients:
for the dough:
400 g flour + extra for dusting
75 g butter
250 ml milk
25 g fresh yeast
¼ teaspoon salt
for the filling:
250 g sheep's milk cheese
300 g spinach
1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon butter
salt
pepper
nutmeg
sliced almond
1 egg for brushing

Melt butter, add milk and let it cool until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in the milk-butter mixture. Sift flour into a bowl, add the milk-butter-yeast mixture, salt and knead a smooth dough. Let it rise on room temperature for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180°C. For the filling melt butter, add finely chopped garlic and sautee spinach just until it wilts. Remove from the heat and pour everything into a strainer. With the help of a wooden spoon press out any liquid. Cut dough in half and roll out each piece about 5 mm thick. Spread half of the sheep's milk cheese, top with the spinach and roll it up. Cut rolls in about 2 cm thick pieces. Brush rolls with egg and sprinkle with sliced almond. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Avocado soup shots

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:18:00 +0000

It seems that lately I have a crash on avocados, altough in the past I did not really pay much attention to this gorgeous green fruit. It is good to know that unripe fruits are poisonous, and if you cook avocado it might turn bitter. I think this soup here has a serious chance to became the most favourite of the comming summer! It has such a silky texture that strokes your throat like nothing else. Play with the spices, just do not forget: less is more! It is also important that it has a nice consistency, not too thick! Therefore I used coconut water and served it with a coconut milk. Boost it with freshly ground pepper, chili or tequila.

Ingredients:
2 small ripe avocados
500 ml coconut water
1 lemongrass
1 lime
1/2 bunch of mint
chili
tequila
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk
salt
pepper

Bring coconut water with the chopped lemongrass to the boil, remove from the heat and let it infuse for 30 minutes. Half avocados, remove the core and scrap out the flesh. Puree avocado together with the cool coconut water, lime zest, half of the mint and chili as much as you desire. If it turns to be too thick add more coconut water or even some vegetable stock. Season with salt, pepper and lime juice. If you like boost it with a little tequila. Chill and serve with mint leaves and some coconut milk.

Sweet potato bread with gorgonzola and bacon

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:04:00 +0000

I almost completly forgot about the sweet potatoes that were hiding in the fridge for about 3 weeks. Luckily, they looked still good so I started to seek for other ingredients to combine with. I found a leftover piece of gorgonzola and all of a sudden it was everything clear about what I am going to make. Be careful with adding salt to the batter, because you never know how salty the bacon is and also the gorgonzola is intense. If you have some fresh rosemary, then add some to it to make the bread sing! It is lovely as a starter on a salad, but it goes also well with a bottle of beer or wine.

Ingredients:
for a 30 cm long baking form
300 g sweet potato (weighed baked and peeled)
250 g white spelt flour
100 g butter
100 g yoghurt
4 eggs
15 g baking powder
50 g gorgonzola
100 g bacon
butter and flour for the form
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Wrap sweet potatoes into foil and bake for 40 minutes or until soft and let them cool down. Set oven temperature to 180°C. Peel and puree sweet potatoes. Sfit flour and baking powder into a bowl. Melt butter over low heat. Whisk together eggs with yoghurt and the melted butter. Stir in sweet potato puree and finally fold in the flour-baking powder mixture. Season with salt, pepper, stir in gorgonzola and bacon. Butter and flour a baking form and pour batter into it. Bake for 40-50 minutes.

Salted caramel stuffed baked apple

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:36:00 +0000

Oh yes, finally spring has arrived! I really adore this time of the year. The daily walks with my dog are getting longer, she enjoys having fun in the creek while I am seeking for snowdrops on the brown ground. However it is still pretty cold. The good thing about this is that you still can enjoy some soul warming meals. These baked apples with salted caramel make a perfect dessert in a "say goodbye to winter" menu, agree?

Ingredients:
4 apples
8 butter caramels (see recipe below)
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons coarsly chopped hazelnut or walnut
2 tablespoons cane sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
for the butter caramels:
3 tablespoons butter
360 ml cream
225 g sugar
225 g honey
salt as you fancy
for the caramel sauce:
10 g cane sugar
400 ml cream

Cover a baking pan with baking paper or butter it. Mix butter, cream, sugar, honey and salt in a pot and let it melt over medium heat and cook until it reaches 120°C degrees, this is going to take about 30-40 minutes. Stir mixture once in a while, when it has reached the temperature pour it into the baking pan and let it cool for a few hours. As soon as it has the right consistency cut it in pieces and wrap in baking paper or anything else, except those that you need for the baked apples.
For the sauce melt cane sugar over low heat and let it caramelise. Remove from the heat, add cream and cook for 4-5 minutes or until it has reached the desired thickness.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Wash and remove the cores of the apples. In a bowl mix together flour, cane sugar, butter and coarsly chopped nuts. Put 2 butter caramels into each apple and top with the nut curst. Bake for 15-20 minutes and serve with the caramel sauce.
Recipe originally published in the Kifőztük magazin November 2012 issue.

Chestnut flour cookies with coffee and chocolate chip

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:43:00 +0000

It is great to be back on track! Okay, it's been only a few days, but I caught something that kept me away from cooking and even eating! Anyway, today when cleaning the kitchen I found some leftover chestnut flour. Immediately I had the idea to bake some kind of cookie. Dark chocolate and coffee seemed to be a good idea to combine with the intense chestnut flour.

Ingredients:
100 g chestnut flour
50 g butter
30 g cane sugar
2 tablespoons dark chocolate chip
2-3 tablespoons coffee

For the cookies mix all the ingredients together and knead a smooth dough. Form a roll and wrap in plastic foil. Chill for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Unwrap dough and cut in about half a centimeter thick slices and bake for 8-10 minutes.

White chocolate - ginger milk rice with blueberries and lime

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:33:00 +0000

Spring, where are you? What are you waiting for? If at least the sun would shine more! Just a little more sunshine could make things so much better. Anyway, I was pretty keen to boost my mood with some kind of sweet treat. Luck me found the last bag of frozen blueberries. And when it comes to blueberres lime is a must. I grabbed a bar of white chocolate and some ground ginger and so this fragant milk rice was born.

Ingredients:
for the milk rice:
400 ml milk
100 g short grain rice
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or a vanilla pod
1 lime
for the white chocolate sauce:
100 ml milk
100 ml cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
200 g white chocolate
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
bluberries and coarsly chopped pistachio for serving

Bring milk together with the vanilla paste or the vanilla pod and the scrapped seeds. Add rice, reduce the heat to low and cook it with the lid on for 30-35 minutes. Do not forget to give it a stir once in a while. Once the rice is cooked remove from the heat and stir in the zest of a lime. For the sauce start to warm milk and cream. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar until pale. As soon as it has reached 85°C stir in the egg yolk-sugar mixture and keep on stirring for 2 more mintues. Set aside and add chopped chocolate and ground ginger. Let it stand for minute, so that the chocolate gets the same temperature like the mixture and stir until smooth. Stir half of the sauce to the milk rice. Warm blueberries with sugar and lime juice, do not cook it. Remove from the heat as soon as sugar is molten. Serve milk rice with blueberries, some of the leftover sauce and coarsly chopped pistachio.

Ricotta fritters with rosemary-orange syrup

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:24:00 +0000

Okay folks, I am finished! I quit the sugar and white flour free month, I just had enough! I am not keen to eat sweets, it is not the point but I miss baking extremly! I can't help it. My mind is full with ideas, combinations and I gotta let myself go and bake! Yeah, sure I could bake and give it as a gift to a friend or something, I normally anyway give away half of the cakes or cookies or anything I bake. But I must try it if I experiment around! So today I am here with ricotta fritters, that I actually made using Hungarian túró. The recipe is pretty popular at the moment among a couple of fellow Hungarian foodies, so I had to give these ago. I had the idea to serve it with rosemary-orange syrup, let's enjoy the last days of the citrus season!

Ingredients:
for the ricotta fritters:
original recipe of the fritters here
500 g ricotta or Hungarian túró
100 g vanilla sugar
3 eggs
250 g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
zest of 1 lemon
peanut oil for deep frying
for the syrup:
100 g sugar
100 g water
1 orange
1 twig rosemary

For the fritters whisk together ricotta (use real ricotta, not the creamy stuff!) with vanilla sugar, eggs and lemon zest. Finally fold in flour and baking powder. Form small balls out of the batter with wet hands and fry them in 180°C hot oil. Serve with the syrup or sprinkle with icing sugar.
Bring sugar with water to the boil and cook for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat. Peel orange and add it to the syrup among the rosemary and let it infuse for an hour. Drain and fill into a bottle.

Breaded chicken drumstick confit with pommes frites

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:05:00 +0000

There is actually nothing that I do not like doing in the kitchen, even the washing up is fine with me, however what I absolutely dislike is breading. It takes me hours to overcome my "i hate breading"-mood and get going. And no, it is not because it sticks to my fingers and afterwards you have to scrub, no. In fact I can not even explain why! Maybe the mess, though it does not actually have to be a messy task, but still, there is always some breadcrumbs and flour flying onto the kitchen flour. Grrr! So it is rare that we have Wiener Schnitzel for lunch on a Sunday. In Hungary it is pretty common to eat rántott hús on Sundays, so in my family. As a child I enjoyed helping mom with breading meat or veggies, but not nowdays. But when my mom is not there to preapre my most favourite breaded chicken wings for me, I do not eat. That simple it is. However, now I simply could not resist to try this thing out. Chicken confit breaded and deep fried. I bet, you have never had such a tender drumstick under crisp breadcrumbs, like this!

Ingredients:
6 chicken drumsticks
1 liter olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 twigs rosemary
salt
pepper
flour
eggs
breadcrumbs
for the pommes frites:
4 large potatoes
peanut oil
salt

Remove the skin from the chicken drumsticks, season with salt and pepper. Put drumsticks into a bowl, and pack them really thight. Add halved garlic clove, rosemary and pour the olive oil over it. The drumsticks should be covered completly. Preheat the oven to 140°C. Cover and leave it in the oven for 2 hours, then allow to cool until lukewarm, remove from the oil and dry with kitchen paper. Roll drumsticks in flour, then in beaten egg and finally coat with breadcrumbs. Deep fry within a few minutes in 190°C hot oil. You can do this right after you fried the last batch of pommes frites. Peel and cut potatoes in sticks and place in a bowl filled with ice water for at least 30 minutes or over night. After wash it again under running water and dry with a help of a kitchen cloth. Heat the deep fryer to 140°C and fry potatoes in small portions for 6-8 minutes. Let them cool for 15 minutes while heat the deep fryer to 190°C. Now it is time for the second frying for 2-3 minutes. Place a kitchen cloth into a bowl, add fries on it, sprinkle with salt, remove the cloth and shake it for a moment or two. Serve immediately.

Cayenne pepper spiced chicken breast with avocado, mango, sesonal salads and basil-yoghurt dressing

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:56:00 +0000

After I managed to put an end to my sugar and white flour free month, which frankly I do not really mind, I thought to prepare something light for lunch. It is time to enjoy winter salads as long as they are still available, though I know most of them you can buy throughout the year, but mâche and red chicory taste best right now. Agree? There is not much to tell about this salad: a spicy and hot chicken breast served with bunch of different greens, mango, avocado with a basil-yoghurt dressing. Perfect on a busy day, as you are done within 10 minutes with the whole thing!

Ingredients:
per person:
half of a chicken breast
1 handful mâche
1 radicchio
1 red chicory
1/2 mango
1/2 avocado
1 small onion
saltcayenne pepper
peanut oil

for the dressing:
100 ml yoghurt
1/2 garlic clove
handful basil leaves
juice and zest of 1/2 lime
3 tablespoons rapeseed oil
salt
pepper

Season chicken with salt and cayenne pepper. If you do not want it to be very hot mix cayenne pepper with paprika powder. Wash and drain salads, slice avocado and mango. Sprinkle avocado with lime juice to prevent it from turning brown. For the dressing put the ingredients into a mixer and blend it and season. Fry chicken breast over medium heat and serve on the salad.

Kakaós csiga - a guest post for samtundsahne

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:06:00 +0000

I think it was more or less a week ago, that I've received a mail from Nancy, who is the author of the inspiring blog samtundsahne. Although, I am on a sugar and white flour free month, I had to take a tiny break to bake these cocoa rolls. I was wondering for a while about with what kind of treat I should surprise Nancy, but for a couple of reasons it was absolutaly clear, that it must be kakaós csiga and nothing else! I hoped to wake up some childhood memories with it, and I think I managed to do so! If you would like to know more about kakaós csiga, then please head over to her blog!

Potato salad with chorizo

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:52:00 +0000

Two of my very favourite ingredients meet in this salad: chorizo and sherry vinegar. For quite a long time I am totally crazy for chorizo, its piquant taste is so addictive! But before I start to write an ode to that Spanish sausage, I rather come to the details of the salad. Needless to say that chorizo and sherry vinegar are amazing together, so it was more than obvious that I must include them in one dish. Look for rather sweet onions for this dish, you do not want anything that might want to compete the hotness of the chorizo. Fresh parsley is a absolute must for this potato salad, without it would be just naked and it brings so much flavour. Dijon mustard with seeds, fennel seeds and black olives add to the excitement of each bite.

Ingredients:
1 kg red skin potatoes
150 g chorizo
2 onions
bunch of parsley
4 tablespoons rapeseed oil
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoons dijon mustard with seeds
100 ml stock or leftover bouillon
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
handful of black olives
salt
pepper

Boil potatoes and peel them as long as they are still warm. Slive chorizo and fry it over medium heat until crispy, but be careful that the ground paprik don't burn, then let it drain in a strainer. Peel and slice onion thinly. Roast fennel seeds and crush with a help of a pestle. For the dressing mix everything together and pour it over the lukewarm potato slices. Season with salt and pepper and fold in onion, olives and coarsly chopped parsley and let it stand for 7 minutes. Fold in fried chorizo right before serving. In case the potatoes soaked in too much of the dressing (depends on the type you use), then just prepare half of the dressing and pour it over the salad before serving.

Thai fish curry

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Well, I certainly have no clue how authentic this fish curry turned out. Unlike to my usual routine, this time I did not do any reserach about the food, just headed over to the kitchen and started to cook. So maybe I should simply call it fish in coconut milk with thai flavours. After all it is full with delicious ingredients from the thai cuisine. Served it with jasmine rice, fresh coriander and chili.

Ingredients:
3 red chili
2 cm ginger
3 lemongrass
1 onion
1 bunch of coriander
2 kaffir lime leaves
3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
400 ml coconut milk
200 ml fish stock
1 lime
500 g white fish - in my case zander

Half and scrape out the seeds of the chillies. Cut ginger, 2 lemongrass and onion in chunks and put it into a blender. Add kaffir lime leaves - if not available add a zest of a lime- koriander and 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and puree. Heat oil and fry curry paste for 1-2 minutes, then add fish stock and coconut milk. Add lemongrass and cook for 10 minutes. Finally add diced fish and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Season with fish sauce, lime juice and serve with coriander, chili and rice.

Pumpkin curry and homemade papadums

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:31:00 +0000

Some years ago I've managed to make spring roll wraps from scratch for the first time, so I thought why shouldn't I give papadums a go? Papadum is a thin and crispy flat bread or cracker and is usually served as a side with curry, but also as a snack. I bet there are at least as many different versions as regions and of course it sure differes from family to family. The dough is either made of lentil flour, chickpea flour or black gram, but may also contain rice or potato flour. The raw dough is dried under the sun and then it is either deep fried in oil, roasted over open flame or baked in a tandoori oven. It is seasoned with various spices such as cumin, black pepper, chili or even sesame seeds. The most popular recipes use urad dal, but I just couldn't find it so I decided to try it with chickpea flour.

Well, I had more than one attempt and the third one worked out pretty good, I think. The first batch (see the photo above) I prepared using chickpea flour and black cumin seeds. I simply rolled it out on an oily surface with a rolling pin and dried in the oven, then deep fried it. They were much too thick! So a complete fail! My second attempt would have worked, but because of the seeds it was impossible to roll it out thin enough with the pasta machine. In the third batch I've added ground spices and used a mixture of chickpea and rice flour. Well, you need a lot of patience, but it works! It is possible to roll out the dough as thin as a baking paper, the drying time is also shorter and the result is crisp and pale, just as it supposed to be! However, it is not quite possible to make big round ones, mine were 6 cm diameter. Besides it is not worth to spend hours with shaping, unless you wanna show off. So just roll it out, chop it up, dry and fry. I served the papadums among a hot pumpkin curry with loads of black mustard seeds. On the photo of the curry, you see the first papadums which were too dark and too thick.

Ingredients:
500 g pumpkin
1 tablespoon ghee
1 onion
1 cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon black cumin
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
4-5 dried curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried chili or as desired
1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
400 ml coconut milk
250 ml passata
salt

Peel and cut pumpkin in more or less equal pieces. Chop onion and garlic, finely grate ginger. Melt ghee in a pot and sautee onion for a few minutes, add ginger, garlic and spices and sautee for a few more minutes. Then add pumpkin, passata and coconut milk. Cook over medium heat for 35-40 minutes. Season with salt and chili flakes.

100 g chickpea flour
100 g rice flour
50-70 ml water
salt
ground cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper
vegetable oil for frying

Mix flours with spices, add enough water so that you get a pretty hard dough. Slice it in equal portions and with a help of a pasta machine roll it out very thin. Now you have two options: either you play around and cut out circles or you just cut it in more or less equal pieces. Preheat the oven to 70°C and dry the raw papadums for 20-40 minutes. That way you can keep these for quite a long time in an air tight container. Heat oil in a pot and fry dried papadums, but do not let them get brown. Season additionally with some cayenne pepper or anything you desire.

Banana-coconut pancake with mango

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Well, it seems that I am really getting comfortable with this no sugar, no white flour way of life, though I am happy to know that it is gonna end in a few weeks. What bothers me most is that I actually may not bake and therefore no experimenting with new combinations. But it is totally okay to be without chocolate, it is not that challenging as I expected. After all a nice cup of tea warms you just perfectly well after a long walk in the snow. It doesn't stroke your soul quite as nice as a velvety hot chocolate, but still! On the other hand it is so challenging to prepare a sweet treat that is actually absolutely yummy and you do not miss sugar, honey or any kind of syrups. I was afraid of these pancakes, but they convinced me! These are definietly a keeper and they might even make their way to the all time favourites.

Ingredients:
2 bananas
100 g buckwheat flour
50 g shredded coconut
1 egg
100 g coconut milk
100 ml milk (i used oat milk)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon rapeseed oil
1/2 teaspoon butter
1 mango
1 blood orange

Peel and cut one of the bananas in chunks and puree with the coconut milk. Pour mixture into a bowl and add buckwheat flour, shredded coconut, bakind powder and milk. Whisk it together. Depending on the consistency of the coconut milk and the type of the other milk you use, you might need more or less of it. Finally stir in rapeseed oil. Peel and slice the other banana. Bake pancakes over medium heat and if you like add a few slices on top of the batter and when you flip them over, the banana is going to caramelise a little. Take the rest of the banana, the diced mango and sautee in butter for a few minutes, add blood orange juice and cook until reduced. Serve the fruit ragu with the pancakes and few fresh mint leaves.

Eglifilets im Teig mit Pommes Frites

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:43:00 +0000

Or fish & chips the Swiss way made with European perch, the so called Egli. Deep fried in beer batter or simply dusted with some flour and herbs, every time a delight. Served with a nice portion of pommes frites and tartar sauce. Yummy!

Ingredients:
500 g fillet of European perch
100 g flour + 2 tablespoons for dusting
150 g white wine
2 eggs
salt
pepper
4 large potatoes
peanut oil
salt

Season perch fillets with salt and pepper. Sift flour, add egg yolks and white wine and whisk everything together, finally fold in beaten egg white. Dust fillets with flour and coat them with the batter. Deep fry in hot oil in 2-3 minutes. Peel and cut potatoes in sticks and place in a bowl filled with ice water for at least 30 minutes or over night. After wash it again under running water and dry with a help of a kitchen cloth. Heat the deep fryer to 140°C and fry potatoes in small portions for 6-8 minutes. Let them cool for 15 minutes while heat the deep fryer to 190°C. Now it is time for the second frying for 2-3 minutes. Place a kitchen cloth into a bowl, add fries on it, sprinkle with salt, remove the cloth and shake it for a moment or two. Serve immediately.

Sweet potato gnocchi in sage butter with walnut, date and a touch of freshly grated orange zest

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Being on a sugar free month, it took me a while to get back on track. Zizi, a fellow Hungarian blogger invited us to join her challenge, and I felt it would be a great idea, so I started it also. After a few days, surprisingly, I am not so eager to have a bite of chocolate or a piece of cake, however it is indeed tough! So today's lunch was cooked in order to please my sweet tooth, without any type of sugar, honey or syrup. In order to get most out of the sweet potato I baked it in the oven. Among sugar I also leave white flour aside for a month, so therefore I used chestnut flour. The gnocchi was served with date, walnut and crispy sage leaves. The secret ingredient is the fresh orange zest that gives it a great kick at the end. Don't worry, sweet is not the main flavour of the dish, because some vintage gouda just brings the perfect balance!

Ingredients:
250 g sweet potato (weighed baked and peeled)
50 g cream cheese
30 g vintage gouda
100 g chestnut flour
butter
date
walnut
few sage leaves
gouda
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C, wrap sweet potatoes in foil and bake for 50-60 minutes. Peel baked sweet potatoes and once cool puree together with the cream cheese. Stir in grated cheese, chestnut flour and season with sald and pepper. Pour mixture into a plastic bag and over simmering water cut it into the desired size with a help of scissors. Gnocchi are ready when they swim on top. In a saucepan melt butter over low heat and bake sage leaves until crispy. Add sliced date and chopped walnut and fry for a few minutes. During that the butter will turn brown, that is exactly what you want. Now add gnocchi and mix everything together, finally stir in some freshly grated orange zest and serve with vintage gouda.

Blood orange - beetroot jam

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Just a quick post this evening where my two absolute favourites come together: beetroot and blood oranges. Both are in season, both have gorgeous colours so no wonder that the jam looks just amazing. Nothing can beat beets, that is for sure!

Ingredients:
200 g beetroot (weighed peeled)
200 g blood orange (weighed peeled)
1 organic orange and its juice
juice of 1 lemon
pinch of ground clove
250 g sugar
2 tablespoons agar-agar

Finely grate beetroot. If you manage to get organic blood oranges, then grate the peel finely, if not cut it off and cut out the segments of the oranges. Grate peel of the organic orange and juice. Put everything into a pot, add sugar, ground clove and agar-agar and bring it to the boil. As soon as it starts to thicken remove from the heat and pour into jars.

Cinnamon-cocoa sugar coated beignets

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:10:00 +0000

This is a quite old childhood favourite and strangely it has never been prepared at home. I remember, I was 8 or 9 years old when I had these for the very last time. In the small town where we used to live there was a big factory that of course had a canteen. These beignets come from that canteen and I was lucky to get the recipe from them. Nothing special, but it brings back some beautiful memories from those days. It is best served with cinnamon-cocoa sugar, but it is also a treat with apricot jam.

Ingredients:
500 g flour
500 ml milk
50 g butter
6 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
vegetable oil for frying
icing sugar, icing sugar-cocoa powder or cinnamon-cocoa sugar for coating

Bring milk with butter and salt to the boil, then pour in all the flour at once and whisk together. Transfer batter into a bowl and when it is lukewarm stir in the eggs one by one and the baking powder. Heat oil and with a help of an ice cream scooper add portions of batter to the hot oil and bake for 10-13 minutes or until golden. Coat the lukewarm beignets in cinnamon-cocoa sugar.

Citrus-fennel salad with pistachios

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:05:00 +0000

As much as possible I really care to cook with local and seasonal produce, however once in a while I just have to make an exception. After all there are a couple of classical combinations that are just not in season at the same time, like fennel and orange. And I think it is best to prepare this salad when oranges are in season, rather then during summer-autumn, when we have local fennel. This time I gave it a kind of oriental touch with cardamom, rose water and pistachio.

Ingredients:
1 fennel
2 oranges
1 grapefruit
1 mandarin
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon honey
2-3 green cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon rose water
50 g unsalted pistachio
salt
freshly ground pepper

Slice fennel thinly with the help of a mandoline and set its is green aside for garnish. Grate the zest of the orange, then prepare it among the other citrus fruits. Cut off the top and the bottom and cut off the peel following the shape of the fruit with a knife. Then slice fruits and prepare the dressing. Crush cardamom and ground seeds in a mortar, if you want to skip that, just use ground cardamom, about 1/8 teaspoon. Just don't forget, less is more! Mix dressing with fennel and put a bunch on top of the fruit, sprinkle the rest of it over the sliced ruit. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with coarsly chopped pistachio.

Fasnachtschüechli

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:50:00 +0000

The carnival season here in Switzerland wouldn't be the same without the so called Fastnachtschüechli which you find in every shop throughout the country during this time of the year. I think the store bought chüechli is crispier and also thinner, but the home made one is tastier. Not to mention that you are free to boost the flavours with anything you can think of. I decided to add some lemon zest and vanilla, but orange zest with a few pinches of ground anise might work well too!

Hozzávalók:
based on a recipy by Saisonküche
25 g butter
3 eggs
75 ml heavy cream
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
zest of 1 lemon
pinch of salt
320 g flour
oil for deep frying

Melt butter over low heat, in the meantime whisk together heavy cream with the eggs, vanilla sugar, lemon zest and salt. Stir in molten butter and sift flour on top. Knead a dough, it shouldn't be stick, so if that's the case and more flour. Let the dough rest on room temperature for 1 hour. Cut dough in 15 equal pieces and roll each as thin as possible with a rolling pin. Deep fry in hot oil and serve it sprinkled with icing sugar.

Prawns with shiitake mushroom and noodles

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:06:00 +0000

Hunger is the best cook, and that's just so true! I've been craving for Asian flavors in the past days, so yesterday I sort of cooked the mother of today's lunch. Originally, I wanted to combine prawns with a juicy mango, but I changed my mind. In a way I rediscovered shiitake, I must say that I didn't liked it at all, so I felt it is time to give the mushroom a new chance. What a great idea it was! For this quick stir fry you only need a couple of ingredients and only a few minutes in the kitchen. Personally, I think the less ingredients the better stir fry you get. Of course it should be hot, but not that kind that makes you wrap up the fridge's door for a glass of cold milk.

Ingredients:
2-4 prawns per person
2 medium onions
100 g bean sprouts
8 shiitake mushroom
200 g asian noodles (any type you fancy)
2 cm ginger
2 cloves garlic
4-5 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
pinch of sugar and a few splash of rice vinegar if desired
ground chili or chili sauce as desired
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Prepare the noodles according the instructions on the package. Cut mushroom and onion in slices, and rinse prawns with cold water. Heat oil in a wok and add grated ginger and garlic and stir fry prawns for about 2 minutes, then set aside. Now add mushroom, onion and bean sprouts and fry for another 2 minutes. Add the sauces, put back the prawns and after a minute or two add the noodles. Season with a pinch of sugar, rice vinegar and chilisauce as needed. Sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.

Fried anchovies

noreply@blogger.com (chriesi) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:36:00 +0000

Just squeeze some lemon juice over the hot anchovies and you are in culinary heaven. It doesn't really need anything else, however some capers and glass of cold beer goes pretty well with it. Some say, the smaller the fish the better, others swear that the bigger the better. Frankly, no need for a recipe for this one, but maybe there are some beginners out there who appriciate an advice or two.

Ingredients:
bunch of anchovies
semolina flour or corn grits
some herbs if desired
oil for deep frying
salt
pepper
lemon for serving

Some say just take the anchovies as they are, but if you ask me, I suggest to remove the head and the guts. Once done, rinse them carefully in cold water. After just coat them in semolina, or corn grits, but even in flour and deep fry in hot oil. Serve immediately with some freshly squeezed lemon juice and capers.