Food And Recipe Blog | Little Miss Dids

Spinach, broad bean and cauliflower spelt cakes with poached egg

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:30:00 +0000

I love risotto. I love making it, I love eating it, I love how comforting it is, I love how versatile it is, I love that it's always welcome when I don't know what to cook, I love how it's never exactly the same. Whenever someone asks me what they should cook, I pretend to think about it before saying 'risotto'. I just love it. I really think a few forkfuls of risotto on a bleak, gray winter day can make absolutely everything better.

Alas, this is not a post on risotto.

The other day at work we were testing a recipe with pearled spelt. I've never cooked spelt before, and, intrigued by the idea, I began reading the back of the package. I saw that one way to use it was to treat it like rice and make a risotto. Speltotto. Or something like that. Obviously, I had to try.

Using what I had in the fridge, in an attempt not to let anything go to waste (7.2 million tonnes of food go to waste every year in the UK - pretty terrifying if you ask me), I made a spinach, broad bean and cauliflower speltotto. The result was good, but couldn't quite compete with risotto.* I had some left over, and stored it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I woke up craving a poached egg. On something bready? Crispy? Fried? And then it hit me. I'd turn the leftover speltotto into 'arancini' or spelt cakes, as you wish, which would be the perfect accompaniment to my little poached egg. And that, people, was the best idea I had all weekend. It was definitely better than deciding to bike home at 1 am in -5°C, along the river. Definitely.

I absolutely loved the crunch on the outside of these little cakes, and the richness of the yolk coating every individual spelt gave this dish the creaminess it was lacking the night before. A total winner. Something so good, I was finally beckoned back here to share it. I urge you to make this next weekend, using whatever veg you have on hand.

*Also - though not entirely - due to the fact that, in an attempt to cut down on cheese and booze this January, I had omitted both the parmesan and the wine, which made it a lot less creamy than a typical risotto. Sadface.

Spinach, broad bean and cauliflower spelt cakes

Makes 6 to 8 spelt cakes, depending on their size

Speltotto

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

200g pearled spelt

about 1 litre of warm vegetable stock

1/2 head of cauliflower, cut into little florets, blanched and refreshed

100g shelled fresh broad beans, blanched then peeled, or double peeled frozen, thawed

100g baby leaf spinach

Coating

40g to 50g flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten

100g panko bread crumbs

Oil for frying

Heat the oil in a pan over moderate heat and fry onion until soft. Add the garlic fry for one minute, then add the pearled spelt and stir well. Add a good ladleful of the hot stock and stir continuously. When all the stock has been absorbed, add more stock. Continue adding more stock, a ladleful at a time, until the pearled spelt is cooked but still has some bite (about 18 to 20 minutes). Stir in the cauliflower, broad beans and baby leaf spinach, season with salt and pepper and leave to cool.

To make the spelt cakes, add the flour and egg to the mixture, then form patties, about 1.5cm thick and 7 or 8 cm in diameter. Coat in breadcrumbs.

Heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Fry spelt cakes, in batches, over moderate heat for about 2 to 3 min on each side, until golden and crisp. Remove onto a plate lined with kitchen towel before placing on a serving plate and topping with a lovely poached egg.

Enjoy immediately.

I'll be back soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Jenna) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 19:17:00 +0000

I'm very sorry for the lack of updates. The final term of culinary school has left me little time to actually stand in my own kitchen at home. But I'm entering the final week of school (which I cannot believe!!!) so you can be expecting some updates very soon.

I can't wait to be back!

Pizza, how I crave it.

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

People, I am excited. Very excited. I've finally perfected pizza at home, and this, after years of trying, is no small feat.

You see, I've always enjoyed making pizza at home and I've always strived to get it pizzeria-like. I've experimented with the dough in more ways than I can possibly list (from adding a bit of olive oil, to a bit of honey, to white wine and combinations thereof, working with fresh and dry yeast, various flours - you get the point), and playing around with oven temperatures and shelves.

And while the results have generally been quite good, and all pizza eaters were pleased - truth be told, it never actually tasted like a pizza from the pizzeria down the road. It was always slightly too thick and by the time the dough was cooked, the tomato sauce had almost entirely dried out. The sides never had those lovely little blisters, and, not that shapes really matter, but I could never get it to that rustically round shape. And square pizza - just tastes different.

But then I came across this article. And knew I had to test the method: to sum up, you preheat an empty cast iron skillet on your stove and turn your oven's broiler on to full whack. You prep your pizza in the meantime, making sure it's not larger than the base of the skillet. When the cast iron skillet is dangerously hot (along with your entire kitchen, and you, yourself), using very good oven mitts, you put the cast iron skillet, upside down on the oven shelf, right under the broiler. Close the oven door, wait for a minute or two for everything to heat up again, and then, working quickly and carefully, slide the pizza onto the cast iron skillet. Close the oven door immediately, and watch the pizza closely. In about 1.5 to 2 minutes you will have a pizzeria-like, blisters and all, pizza.

The technique sounded pretty genius to me. And so I set out to try it.

I preheated everything, although I preheated the cast iron skillet in the oven instead of on the stove (simply because I forgot you were supposed to do it on the stove - I read the article a while ago!). And prepped my pizza. I like keeping things simple. Tomato sauce with a bit of salt and oregano, buffalo mozzarella, thinly sliced onions, olives.

I carefully slid the pizza onto the skillet and waited. Because I didn't preheat the skillet on the stove it took about 5 minutes - but was perfect. Absolutely faultless. I don't know if it's better than the one at my all time favorite pizza place (though my friends think so), but it's hands down the best pizza I've ever had on this little island.

So excited, so very excited indeed.

And as for the dough I used to test the method? By now I know Peter Reinhart will never let me down. He's given me the best bagels, amazing English muffins and sandwich loafs. He just knows his doughs. If you are looking for one bread book to buy, then buy his. Really, I cannot recommend it enough.

The perfect pizza dough

adapted very slightly from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Everyday

Here are the measurements I used for the dough. For the instructions, on making and shaping the dough, check out Peter Reinhart's site. When it comes to baking I really, really urge you to try the technique I described above (and again below, in more detail)!

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680g // 5 1/3 cups of bread flour
14g // 2 teaspoons of salt
3g // 1 teaspoon instant yeast
28.5g // 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar (or normal sugar, or 1 1/2 tablespoons of honey)
482ml // 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of water, at room temperature
28.5g // 2 tablespoons of olive oil

+ your favorite toppings (I always go for a simple tomato sauce with salt and oregano, thinly sliced onions, olives and buffalo mozzarella)

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About a half an hour before you bake the pizzas, turn your oven on to full blast (broiler function). 10 to 15 minutes before you bake your pizza, place an empty, clean cast iron skillet on your stove on high heat. In the meantime, prep your pizza.

When the skillet is very, very hot - carefully, using very good oven mitts - place the skillet, upside-down under the oven's broiler. Wait a few minutes for everything to heat up again and then slide your prepared pizza directly onto the top of the skillet, directly under the broiler. Watch the pizza carefully, as it will bake very quickly and go from perfect to burnt rather fast!! In about 1.5 to 2 minutes, you'll have the perfect pizza.

Enjoy!!!

Onion and parmesan risotto and some exciting news

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:40:00 +0000

About a month ago Katharina asked me if she could interview me and feature Little Miss Dids on the Hotel Wiesler Blog. It took me all of 0.5 seconds to think that one through and answer with a very flattered yes. And so, a few days later, she sent me the questions.

Apart from realizing that the last proper thing I've written in German was for my end of high school exam (aka a really long time ago) and that I have since forgotten how to write coherent, non-South-Tyrolean-dialect-tainted German sentences (okay, maybe that's slightly exaggerated, but it took me longer to write up than I care to admit), the questions made me reflect on my cooking style, influences and favorite ingredients and dishes.

One of the questions that really made me think, was the simple question of which dish I've probably cooked most often.

The thing is, once I feel like I got the dish right (and it's blog-worthy), I rarely - if ever - make it again. My sister can confirm this - the only time I grant her her beloved Spargelstrudel is on her birthday - even though she begs me all year-round. I'm not trying to be mean, it's just with 100s of recipes bookmarked, food magazines stacked high, and more cookbook pages marked than I can ever actually get to, I simply feel like there's not enough time! to make things twice.

That being said, I like making variations of certain types of dishes. Quiches and tarts, different lasagne and pasta sauces, risotto. I really like making risotto.

The thing about risotto, is that it never tastes exactly the same. Even with the same ingredients, it will taste slightly different every time - depending on the stock and wine you use, the size of the knob of butter or handful of parmesan going in. So even though it's familiar, there's always an element of surprise.

I also love risotto because there's something so comforting about it. The slight creaminess and richness, the warmth it exudes, is enough to make any rainy, long and cold day seem a lot less dull. And finally, I really enjoy the process of making risotto. I love the constant stirring - I find it so relaxing - therapeutic, even.

So, yes. I'd say the dish I probably make most often is risotto. And while you can make it with whatever vegetable happens to be in season - right now, I'm sure an artichoke risotto would be lovely - in the winter, radicchio and salsiccia would work great - I have to say, the other day we had nothing in the fridge except for a humble onion and a nice chunk of parmesan cheese.

My sister might have said it was the best risotto she's ever eaten.

My verdict? Well, I always say, all good things start with an onion, and that everything tastes better with a grating of parmesan cheese, so really, how could I not love this one?

Possibly, my favorite risotto to date.

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For more on my love of onions and the passion behind this blog, check out the interview on the Hotel Wiesler Blog (in German). Thank you again for having me! :-)

Onion and parmesan risotto
This dish pretty much sums up my cooking philosophy: you don't need lots of (fancy) ingredients to make something spectacular - a few simple, good ingredients go a long way. Trust me on this one.

My tips for a great risotto: have everything measured out and prepared before you start; use good quality ingredients (good stock, wine, rice, parmesan); stir, stir, stir; lots of love. ;)

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30g of butter + an additional knob of butter for stirring in at the end
1 medium onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
220g of risotto rice (such as Carnaroli, Arborio)
1/2 cup of good quality white wine (I used a Pinot Bianco)
1.1 liters of good quality vegetable stock (brought up to the boil, and then kept warm, at the back of the stove)
40g of parmesan cheese, grated
Salt, pepper and thyme

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Melt butter in a saucepan over moderate heat, add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add rice, and toast for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the wine, and cook, stirring, until absorbed. Then add a ladle-full of stock, continue to stir until all liquid has been absorbed. Then add the next ladle-full. Continue this process, stirring as you go, always waiting for the stock to be fully absorbed, before adding the next ladle-full, until the rice is just tender (the rice should be cooked, but still have some bite to it). It'll take around 20 minutes and you might not need all the liquid. Remove the pot from the heat, add a nice knob of butter, and the parmesan cheese and stir. Taste. You might not need any salt, but add a nice grinding of pepper and a little bit of fresh thyme.

Enjoy immediately!

Oven-baked pasta with mushrooms and mozzarella

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 09:06:00 +0000

I confessed in the previous post of having a slight obsession with cheese lately. And I said that this is partially do to a magazine I bought last week, which has basically not left my side since the purchase. It contains 60 mouth-watering recipes, in which Italian cheeses are the stars, and I would simply like to cook them all. I can't stop looking at them, and I also can't decide what to try next.

Pasticcio di chifferi e scamorza?

Lasagne con ragù ai due formaggi?

Polentina tartufata ai formaggi?

Yes, these are difficult decisions.

But I can tell you about the first dish I tried. Mezze maniche con funghi e mozzarella - an oven-baked pasta dish with spring onions, mushrooms, mozzarella, parmesan and thyme.

Oh yeah, and a bechamel made from milk and the liquid which was used to hydrate the dried mushrooms. Genius.

Choosing to make this dish was easy. You see, it incorporates two more of my current obsessions: mezze maniche and oven-baked pasta (pasta al forno). I have my friend Marco to thank for that, who hosted a dinner last week at his house and made an amazing oven-baked pasta using mezze maniche, ragù, bechamel and lots of provolone. So good.

Since then, I've been wanting to make something similar at home - I just didn't know when I'd have time to make the ragù. So when I spotted this, I was sold. It was so easy and quick. There's about 10 to 15 minutes of active work - slicing and grating cheese, chopping mushrooms and onions and making a bechamel, throwing pasta into salted, boiling water. But after that, your work is basically done.

You coat the partially cooked pasta in the bechamel.

Then you layer on the mozzarella.

And because that's not enough cheese, you add a nice sprinkling of parmesan.

And finally, you add little flakes of butter. (Though, you could probably leave that out, but really, at this point, you might as well just go with it...)

Then you bake it for 15 minutes, passing it under the grill for the last two.

Simple, unfussy, cheesy goodness.

There's really not much else to say. Except for: make it. Make it now.

Mezze maniche with mushrooms, mozzarella and parmesan
adapted from Il meglio di Sale e Pepe, April 2012

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320g mezze maniche
20g flour
200ml milk
200g of mozzarella, patted dry with a kitchen towel and sliced; alternatively you can use smoked scamorza or provolone (piquant or sweet)
20g of dried mushrooms
2 to 3 spring onions
30g of parmesan cheese, grated
1 bunch of thyme
40g of butter, divided
Olive oil, salt, pepper

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Soak mushrooms in 200ml of lukewarm water. Preheat oven to 180°C // 350°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

Start by making the bechamel: Melt 15g of butter and a little bit of olive oil in a saucepan. Stir in flour and cook out for 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat. Strain the mushrooms, reserving their liquid and combine the liquid with the milk. Gradually add the liquid mix to the flour and butter, stirring continuously. Once all the liquid has been added, return the saucepan to the heat and let it come up to the boil, while continuously stirring. Once mixture boils, turn down heat and let the sauce simmer for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Cook pasta in boiling water for about 4 minutes less than it says on the package. While the pasta cooks, clean the spring onions, discard the roots and the green parts, and finely chop. Rinse mushrooms and chop as well. Heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan and fry onions, mushrooms and thyme.
Drain pasta, and toss with the fried onions and mushrooms and the bechamel.

Transfer pasta to a buttered, ovenproof dish and layer in the mozzarella. (I placed all my mozzarella on top, but I should really have layered it in with the pasta). Top with grated parmesan cheese and remaining butter, if using.

Bake for 13 minutes, then finish under the grill for a further 2 minutes.

Enjoy!

Kasspatzln - cheese spätzle with fried onions

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 07:19:00 +0000

I've been a bit cheese obsessed lately. Maybe it's because I'm finally back in a place where I don't have to take out a loan to actually buy good cheese. Ahem. Or maybe it's because I've been working on my portfolio and bought the magazine Sale e pepe, which came with an additional smaller magazine entirely dedicated to recipes using Italian cheeses. 60 mouth-watering, cheese-heavy recipes, which I may or may not have looked at a good ten times. For portfolio purposes, naturally.

For whatever it's worth, in the last week we've had farfalle with gorgonzola, prosciutto and walnuts; oven-baked mezze maniche with mushrooms, mozzarella and parmesan; a pizza strudel with mozzarella and burrata; and now this - Kasspatzln, made with a mixture of parmesan and Bergkäse (literally: mountain cheese).

For those unfamiliar with Spatzln (aka Spatzlen/Spätzle/Spätzli/Knöpfle/Nockerl etc, depending on their from or where you eat them), they are a type of 'noodle' - for lack of a better word - most commonly associated with Swabian cuisine, but are also used very often in Austrian, Swiss, Hungarian and South Tyrolean dishes.

They're made from a simple, rather 'tough' dough of flour, eggs, salt, water/milk. Traditionally, the dough is then placed on a small chopping board, and little bits are flicked off the edge into salted, boiling water. They're cooked very briefly, and as soon as they rise up to the surface of the water, they're ready to be removed with a slotted spoon.

Since flicking off little bits of dough can be rather time consuming, nowadays there are spätzle devices which resemble coarse strainers/potato ricers or graters. I use the latter. They make the whole process a cinch.

Spatzln are often served as a side for meat dishes - growing up I most often had them along with gulasch - or they can shine on their own. A South Tyrolean specialty is to add spinach to the dough, to make Spinatspatzln, which are then tossed in a ham and cream sauce and served with a grating of parmesan cheese. They are quite lovely. In fact, that was actually the dish I was meant to be making today, but then I realized we were out of spinach and didn't have time to run to the store.

Luckily, we had plenty of cheese.

So I made Kasspatzln instead.

I should probably lay off the cheese for a while, but in my defense I almost had to make this recipe. As part of my portfolio, I'm compiling a list of typical South Tyrolean dishes, which of course need to be tested...

So this was simply part of my homework.

If only all homework was always this delicious.

Kasspatzln // Cheese spätzle with fried onions

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400g flour

1 teaspoon of salt

3 medium eggs

250ml milk

150g Bergkäse ('mountain cheese') - though you can use any semi-hard, aromatic cheese you like, such as Emmentaler, Edamer, or a good cheddar, grated

30-50g Parmesan cheese, grated

2 to 3 onions, thinly sliced

Butter or oil for frying

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Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Preheat oven to 180°C // 350°C.

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and eggs. Gradually add the milk. Using a wooden spoon and some elbow grease, stir the dough until it has come together, little bubbles form, and is rather tough. It should be quite thick and run off the spoon very slowly.

Once the water is boiling, prepare a large bowl to place the cooked spatzln in and have a slotted spoon on hand to remove the cooked ones from the pot. Using your spätzle device (or any gadget in your kitchen which you can place over a pan of boiling water and has small holes to press the dough through)* press a portion of the dough through the device into the boiling water and cook the spatzln for about 2 to 3 minutes. Once they rise to the surface, fish them out of the water with the slotted spoon and place them in the bowl. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Once all the spatzln are cooked, place half the spatzln in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle half of both cheeses onto the spatzln, then top with the remaining spatzln and cheese. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, fry onions over low/medium heat until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little bit of salt.

When the Kasspatzln are done, remove from oven and top with onions.

Enjoy with a green salad, which makes this whole dish seem a lot healthier!!

*If you don't have any such device, you can simply place a portion of the dough on the corner of a chopping board, and, using a knife, flick off little pieces of the dough into the water.

Profiteroles and escaping the city

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:50:00 +0000

March flew by. There were the last couple of weeks of an intermediate term, stressful theory and practical exams (and a wish to never ever again make a bavarois), and somewhere in between there was a birthday. These weeks were followed by two days of tension release, which included an egg hunt, a visit to Gordon's Wine Bar and a goodbye dinner at Taqueria. All three of which were much needed and made me feel a lot more 'human' and in sync with London once again.

Still, I couldn't wait to go home. It had been too long. I was very much craving some South Tyrolean air, my family and friends, and a break from the busyness that is London. Sometimes you can get so caught up in the big city life that it can become too much.

And I needed out.

I was looking forward to the familiar, the small, the quiet. Home is where I don't need Google Maps, where I sleep better than anywhere else, where I know where to find the best pizzeria, where I can cook till my heart's content because we're not only a two person household and I can be sure that the food I make will actually disappear - especially if my sister's around (ha! sorry, sis).

I arrived in Verona and spent the afternoon/evening/night (we "missed" our trains...) with a friend who I hadn't seen in almost a year. We wandered around the city, and ended up in a wonderful little osteria where we caught up over ~~one, two~~, a few spritz. As I glanced around the bar front and listened to the chattering of Italians, while they held their bright orange drink and nibbled on whatever the bar had to offer, I realized just how much I had missed this place.

And how good it was to be back.

The next day, we celebrated the 30th birthday of a friend of mine at a pizzeria. For dessert, two of my friends ordered profiteroles. Now, while this is, they assured me, the 'typical' dessert you have after eating a pizza, the only time I've ever had profiteroles, or any choux pastry for that matter, was at school. And we didn't serve ours chilled from the fridge and covered with a chocolate-mousse like sauce. Rather, we served them at room temperature, filled them with sweetened cream and drizzled some chocolate sauce over them.

And to be fair, I thought we did them better. I felt the sauce and sitting time in the fridge had made the dough go too soft. Of course, I couldn't keep my mouth shut, and had to point that out. And they, obviously, wanted a comparison. So I ended up making a batch together with my friend for a dinner he hosted two days later to prove it.

Luckily, they agreed.

Profiteroles // Choux pastry
When we learnt this pastry at school, one of the teachers told us that we would love making this, especially if we were having problems with mastering shortcrust pastry. Cough. Because this pastry is forgiving and easy. And I have to say that choux pastry is one of my favorite pastries to make.

It is so, so simple.

5 ingredients, which include salt and water.

It's also so versatile. You can fill these 'balls of loveliness' with basically anything you want, making them sweet or savory. Or you can fry them, fill them and toss them in cinnamon-sugar.

Make sure you weigh out your ingredients accurately.

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220ml water
85g butter, diced
105g flour, sifted three times
pinch of salt
3 eggs

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In a saucepan, melt butter in water over low heat. Once the butter has fully melted turn the heat up and let the mixture come to a rolling boil. As soon as it reaches that, remove saucepan from heat and quickly add the flour. Stir quickly and efficiently until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. (Shouldn't take more than 15 seconds). Spread out on a plate and let it cool. Don't wash the pan. Preheat the oven to 200°C // 400°F. Very lightly oil a large baking sheet. Crack open eggs into a jug and beat lightly with a fork.

Once the panade is no longer hot, return it to the pan and little by little incorporate the eggs using a wooden spoon - it will take about 6 additions. Make sure you beat the mixture well after each addition. You may not need all the egg - you are looking for the mixture to reluctantly drop from the wooden spoon.

Once the mixture reaches the desired consistency, dollop teaspoonfuls onto the oiled baking sheet. There should be at least 4cm // 1 1/2 inches of space between each dollop.

Bake the choux in the top 1/3 of the oven for about 25 minutes. Do not open the oven for the first 20 minutes.

When they have puffed up, are golden brown and their sides are set, remove them from the oven and prick a hole on the bottom of each one. Return them to the oven, hole side up, to dry out for another 5 minutes. Then let them cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, prepare the chocolate sauce.

Once they are cool, you can fill them with whatever you like. I chose to sweeten double cream with a generous amount of sifted icing sugar and lightly whip it. Alternatively you can make a creme patissiere, a coffee or chocolate filling. Whatever you choose, fill it into a piping bag, place the nozzle inside the hole you made on the bottom of the choux and pipe until the filling starts coming out of the hole - then you'll know they've been generously filled! ;-)

Place on a plate, drizzle with chocolate sauce and enjoy immediately!

Chocolate sauce
I was looking for a chocolate sauce that didn't involve corn syrup. I found a similar one to this on Baked Bree, but thought it was much too sweet and not chocolately enough. So I added lots more chocolate and I think this one's a winner.

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1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 teaspoons of cornflour
100g // 1/2 cup of sugar
120ml // 1/2 cup of water
Seeds of half a vanilla pod
30g // 2 tablespoons of butter, diced
60g of dark chocolate (I used 70%), cut into chunks

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Combine cocoa powder, cornflour, sugar, water and vanilla pod in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Once it boils, remove from heat, add butter and chocolate. Stir gently, until both butter and chocolate has melted.

Enjoy!

Simple orange and nutmeg cake

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:28:00 +0000

I've been feeling a bit 'blah' the last three days - not blah enough to call myself sick, but blah enough to feel sapped of any energy, enough to hope not to cough again, because coughing hurts (so, so much) and enough not to want to enter the kitchen.

This blahness did, however, make me feel incredibly bored. I am not used to being home during the day, and if I am home, I'm always in the kitchen where time flies and, well, by day three I couldn't take it anymore. Even though I wasn't hungry, I wanted to get back into the kitchen and bake something. Under the conditions that this something didn't involve me standing up for too long, or ingredients I didn't have, or too much thinking. I wanted something simple, quick, uncomplicated - but satisfying. Something to make me feel better.

Then I remembered Edna's Busy Day Cake, a simple creamed cake with added nutmeg, that has gotten rave reviews from bloggers and has its name due to the fact that it's so simple and quick to make that you can even make it on a busy day. Perfect. I did end up tweaking the recipe to my liking - using less sugar, more milk, different types of flours, and orange zest. Because you know, sick people and vitamin C...

I also sprinkled a tablespoon of demerara sugar on top about 30 minutes into baking, to give it an extra crunch.

The cake fulfilled all my demands and then some - I had forgotten how therapeutic the smell of a cake filling your apartment can be. The cake itself was exactly what I needed - nothing fussy or complicated, not a birthday or dinner party type cake. Just a humble, barely sweet creamed cake, with a hint of nutmeg and orange. It's the kind of cake you crave in the late afternoon and have along with a cup of tea. Or the kind of cake you fancy in the morning with your coffee while reading the newspaper.

Or simply the kind of cake that will lift you up when you're feeling blah and make you feel... well, much less so. This one is definitely going to become a regular.

Simple orange and nutmeg scented cake

I adapted this recipe quite a bit from its original source (s). I used 60g less sugar, light brown flour instead of all plain flour, added the zest of one orange, 1/4 cup more milk, changed the baking temperature and sprinkled a tablespoon of demerara sugar on top. I'm pretty sure that counts as basically a new recipe, but I want to credit the source of inspiration!

I should note that after baking this I realized that I now had a 9-inch cake in my flat and nobody to share it with... Luckily this cake tastes even better on the second day and I was able to bring it to school. Phew.

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113g // 4oz of butter, at room temperature, cubed

200g // 1 cup granulated sugar

3 medium eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

135g // 1 cup plain flour

130g // 1 cup light brown flour

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt

a very generous grating of nutmeg

zest of one medium orange

3/4 cup of whole milk, at room temperature

1 tablespoon of demerara sugar, for sprinkling on top

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Preheat oven to 180°C // 350°C. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and orange zest.

In a second medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy - this will take a few minutes. You can pause now and then to scrape down any sugar/butter bits on the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Once the butter and sugar have been well creamed, add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. Beat briefly to incorporate.

Add about 1/4 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low speed to just combine. Add 1/3 of the milk, and again just beat to combine. Add the flour mixture in three more additions, alternating each time with a bit of the milk and beating to just combine. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir to incorporate any flour not yet absorbed.

Pour batter into prepared pan, spread evenly and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. If you want - about 30 minutes in - you can sprinkle 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar on the top. This will give the cake a little something extra.

Remove from oven, let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10-20 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan and continue to cool.

Serve at room temperature with a little bit of cream, some tea or coffee. Or eat for breakfast with some sliced oranges or....

Enjoy!

Homemade ravioli all' amatriciana - and a very bold statement

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:04:00 +0000

So on Sunday I was sitting at my desk, diligently working on my portfolio, making lists of recipes and putting them into categories, thinking up different menus for different occasions, and to be honest, I was feeling quite smug. Things were moving swiftly and, for once, I wasn't getting distracted. I'd be done within the hour, I thought. But then, of course, as I was working on the category of South Tyrolean Cuisine - my workflow stopped. I came across a recipe for tortelloni all'amatriciana by South Tyrolean chef Herbert Hintner, and suddenly I was in the kitchen measuring flours and egg yolks.

I couldn't help myself. We've been doing a lot of pasta at school recently and I wanted to see how his recipe compared to what we had been shown at school (which hadn't convinced me). My instincts told me it'd be a lot better. I also told myself that the more recipes I tested for the portfolio, the better.

I need to stand behind the recipes, after all.

Finally, I rationalized that since pasta dough needs to rest, I'd simply continue with my portfolio right after I had whizzed up the dough in the food processor, which would merely be a few moments later.

But once I was in the kitchen I decided to try Hintner's cinnamon ice cream as well. After that, I needed to run to the shop to buy the ingredients for the pasta filling and then... oh it was suddenly 4pm and my laptop had long gone into sleep mode.

Ironically, only as I started shaping the tortelloni did I suddenly feel a sense of time - so after making three tortellini, I decided that if I ever wanted to get back to work, I'd have to make ravioli, which are much quicker to make.

Still, by the time all of them were shaped and cooking away in plenty of boiling, generously salted water, all I could muster as a sauce was some melted salted butter with a bit of (very coarsley chopped) parsley.

Turns out, that's exactly what they needed. The dish was perfect.

Possibly the best ravioli I'ver ever tasted.

They were so good, that I immediately had to write down my adaptations as to not forget. And I had to call my friends and report. And then I had to write this post about them. In fact, they were so good, that it's almost 24 hours later and I've still not managed to get back to my portfolio.

But at least, when I finally do, I know which recipe won't be missing.

And that must count for something, right?

Ravioli all'amatriciana
adapted from Herbert Hinter (if you are ever in South Tyrol, I highly recommend his restaurant, Zur Rose)

Pasta dough
The original recipe calls for yolks only - I found that I needed some egg white to make the dough come together - about 1 tablespoon's worth.

This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled. This makes about two appetizer portions.

---------------------------------------------

100g // scant cup 00 flour
25g // 2 tablespoons semolina flour
4 egg yolks (the recipe didn't specify how large - I used medium ones and then added 1 tablespoon worth of egg whites to make it come together)
8g // 2 scant teaspoons olive oil
3g // scant teaspoon of salt

Like a typical Italian grandmother - place everything in the food processor and pulse a good few times until dough is starting to come together. Before it does, tip it out onto a lightly floured surface, gather the bits into a ball and knead for 1 to 2 minutes. Wrap tightly in foil and refrigerate for at least a 1/2 hour, ideally 2 to 3.

In the meantime you can make the filling.

---------------------------------------------

Filling
100g // 1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
150g of good quality smoked bacon or pancetta
80g // 2.8oz of your favorite tomato sauce
10g // about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 spring of rosemary
1 spring of thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauce
Knob of your favorite butter
Some curly parsley, roughly chopped
Parmesan cheese

---------------------------------------------

Fry onion in a little bit of olive oil on medium heat until it has softened and is beginning to color. Add garlic, fry for a minute, then add bacon or pancetta, and fry, stirring frequently, for a further 5 minutes or until crispy. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, rosemary and thyme, reduce heat and let it simmer slightly for 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Leave to cool.

When you are ready to roll out the pasta, divide dough into two parts. Keep one half well wrapped in foil, and shape the other half into a rectangle. If you are rolling by hand, roll the dough as thinly as you can on a very lightly floured surface. You are aiming for a very long, thin strip, about 12cm // 4 1/2 to 5 inches wide.

If you are using a pasta machine, start on the widest setting and roll your dough through a few times, folding the dough in half after each time before rolling it through again. After about 4 or 5 rolls on the widest setting, you can then roll your dough through once on each of the other settings, until you reach the penultimate one. Once there, roll dough through 2-3 times. And you'll be ready to fill.

Place the long strip in front of you and place a teaspoon worth of filling in 2.5cm // 1 inch intervals on the top half of the strip, leaving a space of about 1 cm from the top. Brush top with water. Fold bottom half of pasta over the filling, pressing down on the rim you just brushed with water. Cut between the fillings so that you obtain more or less perfect squares of ravioli. Using a fork, press down on the sides. (And because this might have sounded very confusing, just look at the photos above - it will become clear!)

Cook in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. In the mean time, melt a knob of your most favorite butter, roughly chop some parsley and grate parmesan cheese.

Once the ravioli are cooked, toss with melted butter, sprinkle with parsley and parmesan cheese and enjoy immediately!

Polenta-crusted mushroom, speck and cheese tart

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:30:00 +0000

You may not know this by looking at the recipes on this site, but I love polenta. I really, really love polenta. Especially when it's firmed up, grilled, served with mushrooms and some good cheese. In a ski hut in the alps. Sigh. That to me is simplicity at its finest, proof that you don't need any fancy ingredients to eat something incredibly satisfying. It's also proof that there actually is a northern Italian in me somewhere.

I also love tarts. That might come less as a surprise. Sweet or savory, I just love the fact that the crust works as a 'basket', as a vessel which you're allowed to fill with anything you fancy or happen to have on hand.

So, not surprisingly, when I stumbled upon Luisa's artichoke tart with polenta crust I spent 30 seconds wondering why I had never made a tart using polenta as the crust before wandering into the kitchen to rectify that misdoing immediately.

Of course, I swapped the artichokes with mushrooms, added some good cheese and a little bit of Speck. And then, instead of opting for a cream-laden tart filling, I chose milk to give it a somewhat lighter feel.

The tart came together in moments (no chilling or blind baking of the crust, after all!) and I was actually able to enjoy lunch at lunch time for once. Even better, the first bite propelled me back home. Well the flavors did, anyway - I'm not quite sure tarts can be found in Alpine ski huts... yet.

Polenta-crusted mushroom, speck and cheese tart
crust slightly adapted from Luisa, filling inspired by what I was craving

For the crust:

150g // Scant 3/4 cup polenta

350ml // 1 1/2 cups water or vegetable broth, or a combination of both

35g // generous 1/4 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese

1 large egg
Salt and pepper

Bring water/broth to a boil over medium-high heat. Slowly add polenta in a thin stream, whisking constantly. Continue to stir until the polenta comes away from the bottom. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it sit, covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (in the meantime you can prep the filling). Then stir in cheese and egg and season with salt and pepper.

Grease a 9-inch tart with olive oil, spoon the polenta into the pan and press it out, pushing it up the sides. You might find it easier to do with slightly wet hands. Set aside for a few minutes to harden, then form an even rim about 1 cm thick with moist fingers, pressing firmly against the sides. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect!

For the filling:

1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

1 small onion, chopped

35g // 1.2oz speck, slivered (alternatively you can use prosciutto/pancetta/bacon, or leave it out entirely and make it vegetarian!)

250g // 8oz chestnut mushrooms, sliced

225g // scant cup of milk

1 large egg

1 medium egg yolk

60g // 2oz Stilfser cheese, coarsely grated (alternatively you can use any semi-hard cheese with an aromatic, powerful flavor)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 160°C//325°F.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry onion for 2-3 minutes. Then add the speck and fry for a further 2 minutes before adding the mushrooms. Fry until soft.

Combine milk, whole egg and egg yolk in a bowl. Pass through a sieve (this gets rid of the chalaza of the egg, which can cause bitterness) into a large bowl. Add cheese and the mushroom mixture to the bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Using a slotted spoon spread the mushroom/cheese mixture onto the base of the tart, then pour the liquid over it. You might have some liquid left over, depending on the deepness of your tart pan (I did).

Bake in the oven until the filling is set, about 25 to 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Gelato al pistacchio - because cravings don't care about seasonality

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:27:00 +0000

For the past three days I've had pistachio gelato for dinner. Not a very balanced diet, some might say, but I say if it makes you happy, go for it. Especially if it's home-made, light on the cream and eggs and exactly the kind of pistachio gelato you normally go crazy over at the gelateria. Then, yes, by all means, dig in.

I know it's ~~January~~ February (probably, by the time this post goes up), and it's actually gotten cold in London, and gelato might be the farthest thing from a normal person's mind. But I've never claimed to be completely normal, and therefore, for a week now the only thing I've been wanting to eat after school has been gelato. Pistachio, to be exact, because it is, when done right, my all time favorite flavor. And I know I could have simply stopped by Oddono's - which makes incredibly good gelato and is literally 110m away from my place - to get my fix, but I've been on a I totally can make gelato/ice cream/frozen things without an ice-cream maker binge lately, and I really wanted to try and perfect this flavor at home. I've wanted to do this since spotting this recipe, several months back - in the summer, was it? ...

Anyway, this Saturday I finally got around to making it. Why it took me that long to get around to something that literally takes less than 5 minutes active time, I do not know, nor do I want to think about. Fact is, I am going to be making this again and again. Because not only does it work without an ice cream machine, it's also one of the simplest gelato recipes I've ever come across, and an extremely delicious one at that. I am really very excited about this.

So much so, that I could care less about the fact that it's -2°C outside and that hot soups and hearty stews might be better suited for this time of year.

Nope. Not for me, I say. I really just want this.

Gelato al pistacchio
adapted from Croce-delizia

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85g pistachios, toasted and skinned
265g semi-skimmed milk*
65g double cream
1 egg yolk
90g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

------------------------------

Toast pistachios in a large dry skillet over high heat for a few minutes, shaking the pan frequently, keeping a close eye on them and making sure they don't burn! Let them cool slightly, then remove their skins. (To be totally honest, I did not remove all of their skins...) Place them in a food processor and whizz them to a paste. This might take up to 10 minutes.

In the meantime measure out everything else, place everything in a medium sized pot and blend well, using an immersion blender. Then heat the mixture on low-medium heat until it reaches about 80°C (almost starting to form the first bubbles) - be very careful not to overheat mixture or it will start to cook the egg (do not let the mixture go above 85°C)! Remove the pot from the heat and add the pistachio paste. Blend again using the immersion blender. Pour mixture into a freezable container and allow to cool completely (I normally let it cool slightly at room temperature, then pop it into the fridge).

For those lucky enough to own an ice cream machine: once cool, freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

For those without an ice cream machine: Once cool, freeze overnight. The next day you can cut it into chunks and pulse it in the food processor to break up the ice crystals. (Be careful not to take it too far, though). Freeze again for several hours or overnight.

Enjoy!

*The original recipe calls for 330g of whole milk, which I would have used, if I had had some at home. This combination of semi-skimmed milk and double cream worked perfectly, though!

Onion and olive baps - and possibly the best bread I've ever made

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:29:00 +0000

This shall be the post in which I lament the fact that I've been deprived of olives for the majority of my life. This shall be the post where I blame my - otherwise quite lovely - mother for that deprivation. This shall be the post where I tell you a sad story. So here goes.

"Whatever you do, don't eat those," my mom said and pointed to a small glass bowl filled with little black marbles. "Why not?" I asked. "Oh, because olives are disgusting," she replied.

Okay, so she probably didn't use the word disgusting, but something to that effect and for whatever it's worth her words had a hard impact on my six-year-old self. For the next 12 years I didn't so much as touch those things.

Until, one day I did.

I was at a party and, once again, olives were right in front of me for the grabbing. Instead though, I pushed them away, mumbling "bleeeh" under my breath. My friend stared at me in disbelief. "Don't tell me you don't like olives," he said, happily plopping one into his mouth. "Um.." I twirled my hair, a thing I do when I'm embarrassed. "Well, I've never actually tried one," I replied. "You have to." I hesitated. "Just taste," he insisted. And so I did.

And I tasted pure deliciousness. That and regret. And anger. Why had I listened to my mom anyway? After all, she is most definitely the pickiest eater I know. She rejects everything from fish, to yogurt, to chestnuts to any cheese that actually tastes like something.

Sometimes I seriously think I've been adopted.

For whatever it's worth, ever since that olive-tasting, life-changing day I decided a) never to trust my mother in food related affairs again and b) that olives are amazing, and that together with bread and some good cheese they can save an otherwise terrible day. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I didn't have olives at home.

Ironically, my brother has an almost identical story to tell. He too was olive deprived for many a year and now loves olives, and, especially, olive bread. A while ago, and possibly after one too many olive baguettes from Gail's, he asked me to give it a go at home. Ever since, I have been searching for the perfect recipe (because there's nothing more frustrating than baking bread that isn't everything home-made bread should be..) I finally came across a recipe that looked very promising.

And, in fact, it turned out to be a true winner. My brother was absolutely impressed ("you made these?!?" - though he could have masked his amazement a little), and I, too, was so very, very pleased. I'll definitely be making these baps again and again. Which is good, because we've got a lot of olive-eating catching up to do. 18 years to be exact.

Thanks mom.

Onion and olive baps

As stated above, I spent some time searching for a good recipe. When I spotted this one in Dan Lepard's new book Short and Sweet, I knew I had to try it. Since moving to London, I've been following Dan's baking contributions for the Guardian - and yet I've never tried any of his recipes. Short and Sweet came out last fall to rave reviews, and when I finally got my hands on it, I could see why. I nearly bookmarked every recipe.

I only made slight changes to his original recipe - I didn't have any red onions so I used 200g yellow ones and I also used a mix of olives (125g)- black Anfissa olives, whole green olives and Pimento stuffed Kalkidis olives. Oh, and I ran out of strong flour, so I used 100g of 00 flour. And they were amazing.

Update - sorry guys, I've been asked to take the recipe down, but you can find the full recipe here.

Enjoy!

Chili and cumin spiced butternut squash and sweet potato soup

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:08:00 +0000

I kicked off the new year in India, surrounded by friends and family, to celebrate my brother's wedding. It was an amazing way to start off and by the time I had to leave, I really didn't want to go. I fell in love with Mumbai, its people, the flow of life, and, of course, the food. I must have eaten more sev puris than I could possibly count. If nothing else, I at least wanted to take the taste of India with me.

And so on my last day there, a friend and I hopped into a taxi and drove to Motilal Masalawala to load up on spices. We weren't planning on buying the whole shop, but in our grand fashion, we might have exaggerated. And ended up walking out of there with nearly every spice imaginable.

On the plus side, I was finally looking forward to going back to London and heading back into the kitchen. Though I found that once back, I was no longer craving cool sev puris, but rather flavorful, dense soups more suitable for the British winter. Spicy and warming. And with an English touch - some butternut squash and sweet potatoes - along with garlic, fresh red chili, cumin and a pinch of chili pepper.

Simple ingredients cooked up into something special and hot. So very, very hot - but nothing we couldn't handle with a crusty baguette by our side. And so we happily sat down and let the warmth and flavors of the soup transport us back to India. If only briefly.

Chili and cumin spiced butternut squash and sweet potato soup

Two notes.
1. This makes a very thick soup, exactly how I like them. If you want a thinner consistancy, you'll need to add more stock/water and adjust seasonings accordingly.
2. The heat of chilis and dried chili pepper varies immensely. Below, you'll find the quantities of chili and dried chili pepper I used for my soup. As stated above, the soup was QUITE spicy, possibly too spicy for many. So I strongly advise you to start with less fresh and ground chili and taste your way through. And if you end up making it too spicy, add some cream to mellow it out. Don't do spicy? Simply leave the chilis out - it will still be a lovely soup!

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1 medium onion, diced

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

2 celery sticks, thinly sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 to 2 red chillis, finely chopped (see note above)

350g butternut squash, about 2.5cm cubes

350g sweet potatoes, about 2.5cm cubes

1/4 teaspoon ground red chili pepper (note - that is not the same as chili powder! also: see note above)
1 teaspoon thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
500ml good quality vegetable stock (no added salt) + 1 cup of water (well I ran out of vegetable stock - if you have more vegetable stock add that instead)

salt to taste

1 baguette, optional (but not really!)

------------------------------

In large pot over gentle heat sweat onion until nice and soft, about 15 minutes. Then add celery, garlic, chilis, butternut squash and sweet potatoes as well as the spices. Cook, stirring frequently for about 5 minutes. Add vegetable stock and about one cup of water (the liquid should cover all the vegetables) and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, or till potatoes and butternut squash is soft. Remove pot from heat, let it cool slightly, then puree using an immersion blender or liquidizer. Taste and season with salt (and more spices if needed).

Enjoy!

Banana Tarte Tatin - welcome back and Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:08:00 +0000

Sugar. Butter. Bananas. Homemade flaky pastry.

I figure, I shouldn't dare show up here again, if I'm not going to bring the good stuff. I also figure - though I admit I'm no diet expert - that any New Year's Resolution Diets people might have that don't involve these things, are not worth pursuing. We're supposed to welcome and celebrate the new year, and I believe you can't do that with celery sticks.

I actually did have a New Year's Resolution - to be more patient, take things more lightly, and not be as stubborn - (okay, make that resolutionS), but I'm pretty sure I broke all of those within the first 35 minutes of being awake on New Year's Day. And I am totally sure that I broke all of those while making this tarte. You see, at first, not wanting to be patient, I melted down my sugar in a little bit of water over way too high a heat. As a result, the mixture was all bubbly and caramely but the sugar hadn't had time to dissolve, leaving the caramel full of sugar crystals - not okay.

Then I did it right, but tried to pour the caramel from the skillet into a smaller baking form to bake the tarte in. But the caramel ended up sticking everywhere except for in the form and I started cussing and gesticulating, hence not taking things lightly at all. But of course, being as stubborn as I am - and having my head set on making this tarte and making it right, regardless of whether I had the correct form, (or the right amount of bananas, for that matter) I didn't give up.

I stuck the smaller form into the skillet, (and tried my best to ignore the caramel that seeped through underneath), cut the banana chunks thinner, so that they would line the surface of the form and hoped for the best.

And you know what?

Maybe we shouldn't nix all of our bad habits after all.* Because it would have been a shame if my less stubborn self had simply given up.

4 ingredients, 10 minute assembly if you are not as ridiculous as me, and a completely satisfying, deliciously sweet (but not cloyingly so) dessert. That looks impressive and will be gone in a flash.

In other words: Happy New Year, I'm back and please, help yourself to a slice of this Banana Tarte Tatin.

Banana Tarte Tatin

for 1 20cm // 8-inch skillet (because why overcomplicate things and try and do them in a 6-inch form?)

-------------------

200-250g // 7-9oz homemade flaky pastry** or top quality, store bought all butter puff pastry

100g // 1/2 cup of granulated sugar

40g // 3 tablespoons of butter, cut into little pieces

3 to 4 large, ripe bananas, sliced into 2.5 // 1-inch pieces

-------------------

Roll out flaky pastry/puff pastry onto parchment paper sheet and with sharp cuts (no "sawing actions") cut a 10-inch round dough from the pastry, then prick the entire surface of the round with a fork (I forgot to do that...). If you want, you can brush the pastry with an egg wash (combine one egg with a pinch of salt and pass it through a sieve). Place on baking sheet and refrigerate until use.

Preheat the oven to 190°C // 375°F.

In a 20cm // 8-inch, ovenproof skillet, melt the sugar with 2 tablespoons of water over low heat, without stirring, making sure the sugar dissolves before the mixture starts to bubble and caramelize. Once the sugar has dissolved you can turn the heat up. Watch the pan closely - you are looking for a deep golden color. Remove the skillet from the heat and whisk in the butter.

Lay the banana pieces, cut-side down and close together in an even layer over the caramel. Cover with the puff pastry round. If using egg wash, brush the surface of the pastry again.

Place skillet on baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 50 minutes, making sure you do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes. The tarte is baked when the pastry has puffed and has a nice golden brown color. Carefully transfer skillet to wire rack and let the tarte cool, so that the bananas continue to absorb the caramel.

To serve, rewarm in the oven at 180°C // 350°F for 10 minutes, then invert carefully onto serving plate. The tarte is best eaten the day it's made and right after it has been flipped, to ensure that the pastry stays crisp (but that shouldn't be a problem...).

Enjoy!

*I am, however, going to try to post on this site more regularly, again. I really love this place and miss you all. Here's to hoping I can juggle this site, school, and a social life.
**The homemade flaky pastry is from school. It's really not as difficult as people make it out to be and if anyone wants the recipe, let me know and I'll post it.

I'm coming back soon, I promise!

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:56:00 +0000

Autumn crumble with pears, apples, blackberries and a hazelnut topping

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Every now and then the teachers give us a break from pastry making (sigh) and butter and sugar creaming (as it turns out, a 15 minute event when you have to do it by hand, with a wooden spoon) and allow us make something so simple, so quick, so easy that you start to wonder whether there's a catch. Of course there is. You realize that this simple dish is just one component of the two hour cooking-morning which also consists of a roast pork with gravy, applesauce, roast parsnips and roast potatoes, French beans, carrot batons and crème Anglaise. And those carrot batons better be perfect.

Luckily, the morning went much smoother than expected and we were able to enjoy a truly incredible lunch. Being weird, what I took away from it was that I really, really like roast parsnips and that crumbles should be made more often. Because they are indeed a cinch to make and turn out wonderfully with almost any fruit you have on hand. Being autumn, we opted for pears, apples and, strangely, also blackberries. I thought any decent blackberries were long gone. I was wrong, they were delicious and my favorite part of the crumble, along with the chopped hazelnuts which added an extra crunch and depth of flavor.

This was one of the few things that didn't make it home with me - it was just too good to last. In fact, I was finishing it as I received a text from my roommate (and rent payer) asking whether I was bringing home any food. I felt a bit guilty, so when I spotted a beautiful little carton of blackberries in this wonderful little shop two days ago, I knew what I had to do.* And when you spot some as well, you should know too.

*Totally also made this for me, I'm not that nice.

Autumn crumble with pears, apples, blackberries and a hazelnut topping

Of course, you don't need to wait to spot some blackberries, you can use any fruit you'd like.

------------------------------

3 pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

2 cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

granulated sugar for tossing

1 carton of blackberries (around 100-150g)

170g // slightly over 1 1/2 cups of plain flour

pinch of salt

110g // 8 tablespoons of butter

55g // 1/4 cup of granulated sugar

55g // 1/4 cup of demerara sugar

85g // 2/3 cup of whole skinless hazelnuts, chopped

------------------------------

Preheat oven to 200°C // 390°F.

Sift together flour and salt, rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in sugars and hazelnuts.

Toss fruit with some granulated sugar and lay the fruit into a large baking dish or in individual ramekins.

Sprinkle crumb mixture over fruit and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes, until the fruit has softened and the topping is slightly bronwed.

Enjoy warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Chicken salad with peanut, chili and ginger dressing

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 15:16:00 +0000

We're a little short on meat recipes here on Little Miss Dids. I say, that's mostly because I never crave meat (the side dishes always steal the show for me), but some might argue it's because I can never get it right. The few times I've tried making anything meat related, I failed. Pretty badly. And this failure did nothing to help my enthusiasm for anything non-veg.

However, these days I am making a lot of things that I have always lacked enthusiasm for - from fish pie to egg custards to meringues. And as it turns out, done correctly, these things can be amazing. So yesterday I decided to buy a chicken at the farmers market and poach it. And shred it. And make a chicken salad with a tangy dressing. I say it was to practice my poaching skills, but because little to no skill is involved in poaching things, I'll confess to the real reason behind the purchase. I tasted this salad in one of the demonstrations two weeks ago and haven't stopped thinking about the flavors since.

Which is surprising - anyone who knows me, knows I really do not like chicken. I always find it so, so bland and dry. However, I discovered that tossed in a dressing of garlic, red chili, peanut butter, ginger stem syrup, soy and sweet chili sauce, topped with slivers of cucumber, spring onions and coriander, chicken suddenly becomes anything but that. And I can't stop eating it.

Not your average chicken salad (aka chicken salad with peanut, chili and ginger dressing, cucumber, spring onions and coriander)

You could poach the chicken in an Asian stock (150ml of soy sauce, a small piece of fresh, peeled ginger, 1 red chili split in half seeds removed, 2 cloves of garlic, bruised + water to cover) or you could poach it in a more neutral poaching style as I have done. That way, the chicken you do not use for this salad can be used for other dishes as well (if your chicken, like mine, is surprisingly big and you don't want to use all of it).

--------------------------------------

Poaching

1 whole chicken

2 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

2 springs of thyme

3 parsley stalks

lemon wedge

salt

Dressing

1/2 of a typical jar of crunchy peanut butter

1 clove of garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons of sesame oil

3 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup

3 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce

a few tablespoons of poaching liquid

1/2 red chili, optional

a few small splashes of soy sauce, optional

Salad

1 cucumber, sliced thinly into matchsticks

4 spring onions, thinly sliced into rounds

30g toasted sesame seeds (not pictured, because I forgot)

1/2 bunch coriander, picked

--------------------------------------

Put the chicken into a large pot with the poaching ingredients and cover with cold water. Cover with wet greaseproof paper and cover the pan with a lid. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and poach (water should have the barest tremble) the chicken until it is cooked - the legs will feel loose and wobbly. Once the chicken is cooked, remove the pot from the heat and let the chicken cool in the poaching liquid.

Once cool, remove the skin from the chicken and shred the chicken into bite sized pieces.

For the dressing, combine peanut butter, garlic, sesame oil, stem ginger syrup, sweet chili sauce in a food processor. Blend till smooth. Add a little of the poaching liquid, taste and adjust seasoning. I found it needed some red chili and a few splashes of soy sauce. I also added a little bit more of the sweet chili sauce. Play around a bit, until you have the desired consistency. It should just cling to the back of a spoon.

Toss chicken with dressing, top with cucumber and spring onions, then sprinkle with sesame seeds and coriander.

Enjoy!

Swiss meringues - on egg whisking and other difficulties

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:11:00 +0000

I think the first few weeks of culinary school exist solely to bust your confidence. The simplest things - like boiling an egg or making an omelet suddenly become daunting tasks, and more than half the class is asked to do them again. You go in thinking, hey I can cook, and two days later you're thinking ...or maybe not. You start questioning everything, and think back to those days when you still had faith in your butter melting abilities.

Or egg whisking. Take meringues for example. I always thought they must be pretty simple to make - all you have to do is whisk egg whites and sugar. Ha. Add the sugar too quickly, you'll end up with a mixture with no definition. Whisk too long, ditto. Sugar beads are weeping out? Sugar may have been over or underwhisked. Oh boy.

Most of us had to give it at least a second go (I whisked too long after the sugar was added) and some had to try it three times. I got the hang of it the second time around, and went home to practice some more. I hadn't planned on sharing these, because I had been fully convinced I was not going to like them. I have never been a fan of meringues.

But after two days of storing the unfilled meringues in an airtight container, I thought I might as well fill them. And once I had piled three of them on a plate and had taken a photo, I thought, I might as well taste them. A taste turned into a few bites, and suddenly all three were gone. And I had been converted to a meringue fan. I guess, all it took to convert me was a good meringue, done right.

Swiss meringues

So all this being said, I hope I haven't scared you off. Really, the photo collage above should provide the necessary guidelines.

Before you start, make sure your egg whites are at room temperature and have absolutely no yolk in them. Place them in a clean bowl, and make sure the beaters of your electric mixer are clean as well. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and have your piping bag ready. Preheat the oven to 110°C // 230°F. Have sugar measured out and a tablespoon next to you to scoop out the sugar.

The basic ratio is
60g egg whites // about the egg whites of two medium sized eggs
110g // 1/2 cup of caster sugar

Filling
Heavy cream for whipping
Icing sugar

With your egg whites in a medium bowl, start beating them with an electric mixer on slow speed, until they start to foam and turn lightly golden. At that point you can up the speed and beat until the egg whites form stiff speaks (as pictured in the photo collage above, first on the bottom). To check whether your egg whites are there, simply turn off the mixer and lift the beaters up in the air. If the bits of egg white on them stand up, you're there - if they slightly flop continue beating - but make sure you do not overbeat, so check frequently.

Once your egg whites have reached stiff peaks, add one tablespoon of the measured out caster sugar. Beat again, until the egg whites form stiff peaks again (shouldn't take that long). Once they're there, add another tablespoon of sugar and beat again until you have stiff peaks.

The first two additions are key. Do not add the sugar too soon or too much sugar at once. It just won't work. Once two tablespoons have been incorporated, you can gradually add more and more sugar, with the beaters running. The key here is that you always see a "trail" in your egg whites (see photo collage above, second photo on the bottom). Once all the sugar has been whisked in stop beating. Applaud yourself for having done it in one go.

Then fill your mixture into a piping bag and pipe out little cones onto the prepared baking sheet, trying to make them all of similar size.

Bake for 45 minutes, then turn the oven off and let them sit in the oven for another hour. They are done when they are dry, and come off the parchment paper effortlessly.

Allow them to cool on wire rack. Once cool you can fill them with sweetened whip cream (alternatively you can store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days).

Pour cream into a bowl, sweeten with sifted icing sugar and whip up. Place a teaspoonful on the bottom of one cone, then sandwich it together with another cone.

Enjoy!

Irish soda bread, a World Bread Day tribute and a long overdue return

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 14:40:00 +0000

When you've been gone for a month you start wondering which recipe is worthy enough of your "comeback" post. A hearty stew which will get you through the colder months? Maybe, but it's nowhere near cold over here. Coffee éclairs? Possibly, if you hadn't run out of icing sugar. A lemon meringue pie? It would have been impressive, if it hadn't collapsed on you.

And just when you think you might as well never come back, because nothing seems to be working, you find out it's World Bread Day, and instead of wondering who comes up with these food days, you simply think thank you, because it just so happens you've been dying to share an extremely easy and quick bread recipe.

So here's a recipe (and a variation) for soda bread. For those of you unfamiliar with soda bread, it's a quick bread which uses baking soda as its rising agent rather than yeast. So no waiting around for the dough to rise, no kneading for 8 minutes. Just sift the flour, salt, baking soda; rub some butter in (optional!), add some buttermilk, mix, mix, form and bake. That's it. That's all there is to it.

Though this bread does come with a warning for those of you who have never had it. This bread has a very particular taste. I remember the first time I came across and tried it was during my year in Dublin. We had all decided to buy soda bread, because it was by far the cheapest bread we could find in what at the time was a very thriving and expensive Ireland. As we excitedly bit into the bread, however, the happiness on some of our faces faded. A few of us couldn't get ourselves to like it. However many, myself included, loved the taste and I found myself craving it in the months after leaving Dublin.

Not being able to find it anywhere in Vienna, I googled the recipe and discovered that there were thousands of different ways to make it. I decided to go with a recipe from the Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread (because, why not?), and never looked back. Well, until I decided to make it with butter. Because it seemed like a smart thing to do. So here you go guys. One recipe + a variation for soda bread.

I urge you to give them a try.

Happy Bread Day!

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So um, I'm back with no explanation of where I have been? No, no. That wouldn't be very nice. If you were wondering about my absence - well, I was in the States for all of September with limited internet access and from there I flew back to London and started culinary school the next day. Which is now going into its fourth (fourth!!) week. And I honestly do not know where the past 21 days have gone, because really, I could have sworn it's only been three very long days. I've gotten more cuts and burns in the last 21 days than in my whole life combined. I have never been more nervous about boiling an egg in my life. I have met some wonderful friends and have had the honor to work with amazingly talented people. The past 21 days have been the most exhausting, physically and mentally draining days of my life (hence my absence, as I was literally falling asleep at 7pm). But they have also been the most exciting, fun, interesting, insightful and happiest days of my life.

For whatever it's worth, dear readers, here's what I've got to say. Find what you love in life and do that. Because suddenly, you'll love getting up in the morning, you'll stop looking at the watch all the time wondering when you can go home and, well, you might even start to find weekends rather boring. And you'll quite definitely find yourself walking around with a smile on your face. Because life is great when you're doing what you love.

I would like to thank everyone who encouraged me to do this, to sign up and go for it. Who believed in me and nudged me to take this leap when I was hesitant. I thank you so, so much.

I hope, as I get settled into this routine I will not be as exhausted any more and will find the time to regularly update this site. Because I've missed you and this site very much!

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Irish Soda Bread

adapted from Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread

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340g // 3 cups of whole wheat flour

110 // 1 cup of plain white flour
410 ml // 14 ounces of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda.

Variation: 55g / 2 oz of butter

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Preheat the oven to 220°C // 425 F. Lightly flour a baking sheet.

In a large bowl sieve together flours, salt and baking soda. If using butter, rub it in until the flour is crumbly. Add the buttermilk and mix quickly with a wooden spoon and then bring it together with your hands - there is no need to knead. Gather the dough into a ball and place it on the baking sheet. Pat the dough down to flatten it and cut a cross on the top of the dough. Cover the dough with a pan/upside down roasting tin and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

When the bread is baked, the bottom of the bread with have a hollow sound when tapped. Cover bread with a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the top of the cloth to keep the bread moist.

Let it cool, then enjoy with a slathering of salted butter!

While I am away from the kitchen I leave you with pictures of flowers...

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 05:31:00 +0000

And a picture of a squirrel.

And of trees.

And, of course, some travel recommendations. If you are ever in the San Francisco area, check out Tartine Bakery for their amazing croissants.

Nopa for a fantastic dinner. I really enjoyed their flatbread with fennel sausage, eggplant, sweet corn and Gruyère and their dessert of cornbread with roasted corn ice cream and bacon brittle.

The Slanted Door for incredible modern Vietnamese cuisine - they only use organic produce and ecologically farmed meat. We loved every single dish we ordered, from the crispy vegetable spring rolls to the barbecued willis ranch pork spareribs with honey-hoisin sauce,

to the hodo soy beanery yuba with glass noodles, parsnips and pioppini mushrooms,

to the stir fried organic chicken with gingko, raisins, walnuts and cashews.

And don't get me started on the dessert (warm, spiced sugar beignets with mascarpone sabayon...). Just take my word: eat there. And make a reservation in advance, every single table was taken.

Chez Panisse. But you probably don't need me to tell you to go there if you're ever in Berkley. We had lunch at the café and it was truly memorable. I'll be talking more about our meal when I finally get back into the kitchen and try to recreate one of the dishes we ate there.

Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena. They served the best bread I have ever tasted in my life. Hands down. No exaggeration. I would drive all the way back, just for another slice (or three). And besides that, the atmosphere, their burgers and salads were fantastic.

And lastly, hit up the Farmer's Market in Marin County, the third largest farmer's market in California with nearly 200 stands of local farmers, specialty food purveyors and artisans. You can get pink fleshed apples and pluots (part plum, part apricot, and totally my new favorite fruit) and any type of tomato imaginable.

And with that I wish you all a great weekend and hope to be back soon with a new recipe to share!

On organic hot dog stands and other NYC treats

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:17:00 +0000

Since I am in NYC at the moment and am not able to do that much cooking/baking (not that I'd really want to...), I thought I'd share a few of my favorite places to grab a bite in NYC with you. Obviously there are (what seems like) infinite places to eat oneself through in this city, and I continuously discover new gems, so simply consider this a short little list of a few locations I believe are worthy of a visit.

On the Go

1. The Good To Go Organics hot dog stand in Central Park. I believe that no trip to NYC is complete without at least one hot dog eaten on a bench in central park while people watching. I also believe you can enjoy them even more, if you know where your meat came from.

2. A pork bun from Momofuku. I got mine at the Milk Bar. Also tasted their famous crackpie, compost cookie and b'day truffle - however, I can't say I'm a big fan of those. But the pork bun - so very good.

3. A doughnut (or three) from the Doughnut Plant. Their doughnuts are free from preservatives, trans fats and artificial flavors. And you know that's the truth after your first bite. They have yeasted and cake doughnuts. I preferred the cake doughnuts, and especially the Valrhona chocolate - chocolate cake doughnut, chocolate filling, chocolate topping. Not for the faint of heart.

4. A bagel from Ess a bagel. New York City and bagels, what a lovely couple. These are my favorite, though Murray's and the Pick a Bagel on 77th and Lex are also great.

5. A pretzel croissant from City Bakery. One of the best 'croissants' I've ever had.

6. Two Little Red Hens - cute little bakery with delicious NY cheesecake, decadent chocolate cupcakes (aka The Brooklyn Blackout) and friendly service.

7. A burger, fries and shake from Shake Shack. Great food, and, being located in Madison Square Park, it's the perfect place to grab a bite on a warm summer day.

Restaurants

8. Other great burgers (as well as overall great food, nice atmosphere): The Spotted Pig (the cuisine here is British/Italian, so besides the burger, the fish and gnudi are definitely worth a try!) Corner Shop Cafe (also great Mac N Cheese), Burger and Barrel (especially the Bash Burger with caramelized onions and bacon jam, bacon jam! genius), Joseph Leonard (fried chicken sandwich is great as well).

9. Le Bistro Steak, reasonable and delicious French restaurant on the Upper East Side.

10. Yuca Bar - great pan-Latin cuisine restaurant in the East village. Definitely get the Yuca fries, but their burgers, and sandwiches (especially the Cuban) are great as well. Sometimes LOUD!

11. Clinton St Baking Company (especially for breakfast or brunch, they're famous for their pancakes and biscuits but honestly, I have never eaten anything there that I didn't like)

12. Land (Thai - a friend and avid Thai food lover highly recommended this place)

13. Pizza at Pala (I tend to stay away from Italian food outside of Italy but their pizza here is unbelieveable - and in no way Italian); also good Pizza at A&J on Austin Street in Forest Hills.

14. Westville and The Rabbithole - solid American food, great vibe.

15. Cafe Luka - excellent diner on the Upper East Side. Great food, fast and friendly service.

.... to be continued!

Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream - smiles guaranteed.

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:29:00 +0000

First I say that I have trouble putting berries into baked goods once we've passed the height of summer, and then I go making these scones and now these cupcakes. I don't know what came over me, but I am so glad that it did.

I know I've also said - maybe not on this site, but plenty of times offline - that I am not much of a cupcake person. Mostly because I all too often find the cake base too dry and the frosting cloyingly sweet. And then it is often topped with sparkly stuff or colored red (as for the famous red velvet cupcakes) and I can't help but think no glitter on my food please, and save the colors for the coloring books. Maybe I'm a bit picky, but I much prefer its more humble cousin, the muffin. As one can clearly see.

So, why these cupcakes?

Well, we had friends staying over, and one of them, being a cupcake lover, was on the hunt to find the best one in London. (According to her - not at Ella's Bakehouse, much better ones at The Hummingbird Bakery, and the best ones at Peggy Porschen). She brought home a few from Peggy's and I was blown away. They were amazing. So much so, that I was determined to re-create them at home. But sadly, my first-ever batch of cupcakes were nothing like Peggy's (I really don't want to talk about the frosting and the cake base was a little too dense). I was ashamed to offer them to her and promised that by the next time I'd see her, I would have perfected them.

And so, I was determined. Also, I blamed the unsuccessful first batch on the recipe I had used. This time around, I'd choose the recipe more carefully. I researched cupcakes on different blogs, browsed through the Amazon bookstore and then went through over a dozen of cupcake cookbooks.

And finally, I hit the jackpot.

Oh people, people. Make these. Make these now. Because strawberry season is almost over and it would be a crime to wait another year. The base is so moist, with just the right amount of a strawberry jam filled centre - the frosting is so easy to make and tastes incredible. Not too sweet, but just right. These are so good, even a dieter had to take at least a bite and a person who had sworn off sweets after a slight overdose (no, I'm actually not talking about myself!) caved and ate one (and possibly a second one)... because, yes, they are simply irresistible.

Also, I think my muffins just got competition.

Strawberry cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting
from Pimrose Bakery

It's important to have all ingredients at room temperature. And use the best-quality ingredients you can find! Also - the key to baking is precision. Weigh your ingredients rather than using cups! Lastly, if you have a food processor this recipe truly is a cinch!

These cupcakes are best the day they are made. But you can store cupcakes, unfrosted, in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to three days. The icing also keeps well at room temperature in a airtight container for three days.

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For the base
225g // 1 1/8 cups of caster sugar
210g // 1 3/4 (scant!) cups (see note above) of self-raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
25g // 2 tablespoons cornflour
125g // 1/2 cup of fresh strawberries, hulled and crushed (I very elegantly crushed them with my fingers directly into the mixture)
225g // 7.94 oz of butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces.
4 large eggs, at room temperature

To decorate
Good quality strawberry jam (1 teaspoon per cupcake)
Vanilla buttercream frosting (recipe follows)
12 small strawberries

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Start by making the base. Preheat oven to 180°C // 356°F. Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.

Combine caster sugar, flour, baking powder, cornflour and strawberries in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it comes together (about 4 seconds). Add butter and eggs and process briefly until you have a smooth mixture (about 10 seconds). (If you are using a handmixer, first cream butter and sugar, then add the eggs, and then add flour mixture).

Divide mixture evenly among cupcake cases, filling each case 2/3. Bake in oven for 25 minutes. The cupcakes will still be fairly moist once removed.

Let them cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then remove them and let them cool off on a rack completely.

Once cool, you can begin to decorate.

Make a small hole in the centre on the top of each cupcake (I used a chopstick to do this!). Then place one teaspoon of strawberry jam into the hole (again, I used a chopstick to force the jam down...). Wash 12 small strawberries, thinly slice off one side of each strawberry (this one can then be placed in the centre of the cupcake) and dice the rest. Place them on a paper towel to let them dry and to avoid excess water dripping into the vanilla buttercream frosting once they are placed on top! Frost cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting and decorate with sliced and diced strawberries.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

This makes slightly more than needed for 12 cupcakes (probably enough for 15).

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110g // 3.88oz of unsalted butter, at room temperature
60ml // 1/4 cup of semi-skinned milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
500g // 4 cups of powdered sugar, sifted

--------------------------------

Cream together butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the powdered sugar until smooth. This can take a few minutes. Once smooth, gradually add the remaining powdered sugar. The buttercream should be smooth and creamy.

Enjoy!

Strawberry blackberry scones and the English Coast

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:05:00 +0000

Sorry about that - I did not mean to disappear for over a week! But there have been guests from India, guests from Italy and a road trip along the east/south coast of England that have kept me busy and away from this site. But I'm back! And I have brought something quintessentially English with me: scones. But before I get to them, let me briefly talk about what I learnt while I was gone.

It's very easy to rent a car, travel without an agenda and have an incredibly fun time.

The English coast is beautiful. The English towns are lovely. And don't get me started on the sheep, flowers, and skies.

I learned that owls are kissable (but still really, really scare me), that there are streets named Beer Cart Lane, and that, if you want to eat dinner or lunch, you better be at the pub between 12pm and 2pm or 7pm and 9pm, respectively, or you will end up with nothing.

I learned that fish and chips taste even better when you eat them while staring out into the sea.

And I learned that my cousins and I are definitely related, no question (okay, I kind of knew that). Because when, at the end of the trip, we were talking about our favorite moment - all three of us agreed: breakfast at Tiny Tims Tearoom. Tiny Tims was such a lovely little place, so warm and welcoming, and offered a delicious variety of home-baked goods as well as a wide selection of teas. We ate warm strawberry blackberry scones with butter and home made jam, drank rooibos tea and talked about the day ahead. It was the perfect way to start it.

Interestingly enough, I have never been much of a scone person, and though I did debate briefly, I decided I had to order one (it just seems like the thing to do when you are eating breakfast in a cute little English town). And I am so happy I did. In fact, their strawberry blackberry scones just left me yearning for more. And I decided this was the perfect opportunity for me to start baking my own scones. As soon as I got back I started my research - I found a highly rated scone recipe on the British Good Food website, swapped the milk and lemon for buttermilk, added a half a cup of sliced strawberries, a half a cup of blackberries and a little bit more flour.

And you know what? Much to my surprise and happiness - these scones rival those of Tiny Tim's Tearoom.

They might even be better. These scones are everything I dream up a scone to be - and then some. Especially when eaten warm, straight from the oven with some butter and strawberry jam from the Kentish Pine Trees Farm.

In fact, these are so good I do believe these will motivate you to get up in the morning just so you can eat them. And I also believe these totally make up for my absence last week. Ahem.

Strawberry blackberry scones

inspired by Tiny Tims Tearoom and adapted from the highly praised scone recipe on Good Food

Tips for successful scone making:

The key to the sky high scones is that you pat the dough out a bit thicker than you think you should - about 4cm // 1.6in thick. Also, when cutting out scones with a round pastry cutter (about 5cm // 2in), put the cutter into the dough and take it out - without twisting or turing it. That way the scones will keep their shape.

Try not to work the dough too much - it will become tough.

Use the dough immediately and help the scones' rise with a pre-heated, hot baking tray!

Scones are best eaten warm out of the oven on the day they were made, but you can also freeze baked scones once they are completely cooled off and defrost them at 160°C for a few minutes.

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350g // around 2 3/4 cups of self-rising flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

85g // 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter, cut into cubes

3 tablespoons of caster sugar

175ml // 3/4 cup of buttermilk

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of thinly sliced strawberries

1/2 cup of blackberries

1 egg, beaten to glaze

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Preheat oven to 220°C//430°F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper but don't place it into the oven yet.

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and baking powder. Add butter, and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingers, until the mix resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in sugar.

Heat buttermilk until just warm (not hot!), add vanilla. Set aside for a moment and put the prepared baking sheet in the oven.

Make a well in the dry mix and pour in the buttermilk. Using a cutlery knife quickly combine the mixture. Add the berries and stir once or twice more.

Dip out mix onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour top of the dough and your hands, then fold dough over 2 to 3 times until it's a little smoother. Pat into a round about 4cm thick.

Take a cutter (about 5cm) and cut into dough, without twisting or turing. Repeat - you'll get about 4 scones out of the round. Press the remaining dough into another round and cut out another four. Brush the tops with the beaten egg, then place the scones onto the hot baking tray.

Bake for 10 minutes, until risen and golden on top. Eat warm from the oven, with some butter (or clotted cream) and jam. And tea.

Enjoy!

Spicy black bean quesadillas with fresh tomato-avocado salsa

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 10:12:00 +0000

I love it when I am browsing through a cookbook and come across a recipe that literally makes me drop the book, grab a piece of paper, scribble down ingredients and run to the store so that I can immediately get cooking. And I love it even more when that happens after days of not craving anything (I blame the unhealthy amounts of butter and eggs I consumed at the beginning of last week, which left me feeling rather, um, uneasy). But when I saw these spicy black bean quesadillas in Ottolenghi's second cookbook Plenty, and was chopping tomatoes 20 minutes later, I knew I was cured.

Luckily, for everyone.

Because this recipe is a keeper. It's simple, yet surprising, the amounts can easily be doubled or halved, depending on the mouths, it can be a perfect appetizer at a party, stand alone as a meal (along with a nice fresh salad) or be a snack for in between.

Even though the recipe involves a few steps, it comes together very quickly. A little bit of chopping, some whizzing, spreading, four minutes of browning - and you'll be munching.

So why don't you follow my lead, drop everything now and get on it...

Spicy black bean quesadillas with fresh tomato-avocado salsa

adapted from Ottolenghi's Plenty

While the ingredient list might seem long, most of the ingredients (spices, beans, cheese, tomatoes, garlic etc.) you might already have at home!

I tweaked the recipe a little bit - I doubled the amount of black bean paste, as I felt the original recipe made too little. I used more onion and also added a spicy red chili to the tomato avocado salsa to kick it up a notch. I used less cilantro than called for and more cheddar. Feel free to adapt this recipe to your taste!

Serves 4 as main or many as an appetizer

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8 small flour tortillas

180ml // about 3/4 cup of sour cream

120g // 1 cup good quality grated Cheddar

6 tablespoons jarred jalapeños, roughly chopped (mine were in brine)

Black bean paste

460g of cooked black beans (I cooked mine, but you can definitely use canned beans)

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of cumin

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

Juice of two limes

1/2 teaspoon of table salt

Tomato-avocado salsa

1/2 medium red onion, sliced thinly

1/2 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

3 spring onions, thinly sliced

5 medium ripe tomatoes (I used a mix), diced

2 ripe avocados, diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 fresh red chili, diced

Juice of 1/2 lime

3/4 teaspoon of table salt

Bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped

------------------------------------

Start by making the bean paste: add all ingredients to the food processor and pulse a few times, until you have a rough paste - this shouldn't take more than 15 seconds.

For the salsa, soak the red onion in a large bowl with the vinegar for a few minutes, then add all the other ingredients and stir well.

Heat griddle pan on medium heat.

For each quesadilla, take one flour tortilla and spread about 3 tablespoons of bean paste over it, creating a large circle in the centre, but leaving about a 2 cm rim from the edge. Over one half of the bean spread, spread about 1 tablespoon of sour cream, sprinkle with cheddar and top with about 1.5 tablespoons of salsa. Top with some jalapeños. Fold over the other tortilla half.

To cook, carefully place each quesadilla on hot griddle pan and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. The filling should be warm and the tortillas nicely charred.

Transfer quesadillas to a serving place, slice in half (or quarters) and enjoy immediately!

English muffins and an excuse to perfect Eggs Benedict at home

noreply@blogger.com (littlemissdids) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:02:00 +0000

I don't know where to start this, because I'm not exactly sure what it's about. At first, I thought it was about an English muffin. I decided to bake English muffins, because I've been seeing them everywhere yet they never look (or taste) as good as I think they should. So I prepared the batter yesterday evening and placed it into the fridge for a slow, overnight rise. I thought I was going to wake up in the morning, bake up a batch and enjoy a still warm English muffin, sliced and topped with a slathering of fresh farm butter and home-made jam. It was going to be an easy, satisfying, fuss-free breakfast.

But then, as I was falling asleep, I started to think that once I was going to make English muffins, I might as well make Eggs Benedict (nevermind the fact that I have never poached an egg in my life, or made Hollandaise or have ham lying around - or actually like eggs that much). That all seemed beyond the point. For some reason I got fixated on the idea that there's nothing worthier for an English muffin than to be topped by a poached egg (and ham, and Hollandaise sauce).

So today I started reading up on egg poaching. I quickly realized that there are about as many methods as there are cookbooks. Seriously. Poach in water with vinegar or without? By first boiling the egg for 30 seconds to harden the shell? In a frying pan or pot? In just before the simmer, barely simmering, simmering water? For one minute, two minutes or 3.45? Some even advocate putting the egg into cling film (not advised in cookbooks, thankfully). None of the authors seemed to agree and worse, they all claimed that only their method was fail proof.

And thus my breakfast making of trial and error began. With, um, the emphasis on error. Eggs were ruined (I say no to pre-boiling, no to the frying pan, no to the simmering water). Then sauces didn't emulsify (because I wisely chose to go with a recipe that sounded much too complicated for its own good), and I may have spent 12 minutes trying to make a metal ring holder out of a tuna can to bake my muffins in before caving and running to the store - but I'd prefer not to talk about that.

Yet after more hours than I'll admit to, I finally sat down for ~~breakfast brunch lunch~~ post lunch (it was afternoon, people). By that time I had gone through four cookbooks, three internet sites, 7 eggs, 226g of butter and three espresso. I had dirtied pots and pans and felt rather exhausted, and technically I hadn't even started the day.

But then my fork slid through the Hollandaise sauce, into the poached egg - bursting open the most vibrant egg yolk (thank you, Rookery farm!) - through the ham and finally the English muffin. Things got messy. And it wasn't elegant. But for the lack of a better description: it was so, so good. The English muffin was everything I want English muffins to be, the ham was crisp, the eggs poached to perfection and the Hollandaise was just right. This is how Eggs Benedict should be. This was actually worth the effort, I thought....

Still, tomorrow I might just reach for the jam.

Eggs Benedict

You'll need

English Muffins

Smoked ham

Poached Eggs

Hollandaise Sauce

English Muffins

Recipe by my favorite bread baker, Peter Reinhart.

Prepare the batter the night before (can sit in the fridge for up to four days).

Special equipment: English muffin rings

14g // 2 teaspoons of honey

14g // 1 tablespoon of vegetable or olive oil

340g // 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm whole or low-fat milk (about 95°F or 35°C)

340g // 2 2/3 cups of unbleached bread flour

5.5g // 3/4 teaspoons of salt

6g // 2 teaspoons of instant yeast

2g // 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

43g // 3 tablespoons of warm water

Cornmeal for dusting

Combine honey with oil and milk and stir to dissolve honey. In another bowl whisk together flour, salt and yeast, then add the milk mixture. Whisk by hand for one minute, then scrape down bowl with a spatula, and mix again for a few more seconds. Scrape down bowl again, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, remove bowl from fridge two hours before you want to bake the muffins. When you are ready to bake them, dissolve baking soda in warm water and then gently and carefully fold the mixture into the batter (as if you were folding egg whites into a cake batter). Let the batter stand for 5 to 10 minutes, until it starts to bubble.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Brush with oil and dust with cornmeal. Brush the English muffin rings with oil as well, and dust with cornmeal. Place the rings on the skillet and lower heat to medium-low, but more towards the low end.

Fill a 1/3 cup with batter and pour the dough into a ring - the ring should be about two-thirds full. Don't worry if the dough doesn't fill the ring immediately - it will rise and fill it out while cooking. Fill all rings this way, then sprinkle cornmeal over each muffin.

Cook the muffins for 12 minutes, until the bottom is golden brown. Then flip them over (in their rings) and cook for another 12 minutes. If it takes less than 12 minutes, then your griddle is probably set too high and you will end up with undercooked muffins!

When both sides are golden brown and the dough is springy to the touch, remove the muffins from the pan. Cool them in their rings for 2 minutes, then remove the rings and place the muffins on their edge to cool - this will help them from sinking and shrinking. Cool for about 30 minutes before serving.

Poached Eggs

Thank you Clinton Street Baking Company and Smitten Kitchen

As I mentioned above, after multiple misses, I finally found a technique that worked perfectly.

Here's how. In a medium sized pot, bring about 1.7 liters // 1.5 quarts of water along with one tablespoon of white wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of salt to just before a simmer. In the mean time, crack an egg into a small bowl. Using a spoon stir the water, creating a whirlpool effect. Then lower the bowl with the egg to the surface of the water, and gently plop it into the centre of the pot. Set the timer for 3 (to 4) minutes and stand back. And watch. It will come together perfectly. Scoop out egg with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel, if you are not using it immediately. When you need it, you can re-heat the egg by briefly placing it in hot water.

Hollandaise Sauce

After one epic fail, this is the recipe I turned to. It's from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of boiling water

226g // 2 sticks of butter, melted and hot

2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt to taste

Using a stick blender, blend yolks for a few seconds, then add the boiling water - slowly. Now add the melted butter in a very slow stream (almost in drops). Gradually it will thicken. Once all the butter has been added you should have a smooth, pale yellow sauce. Whisk in lemon juice and season with salt. If it is too thick, you can add a little more boiling water. It will keep for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature.

To assemble

Place a cast iron skillet on low heat. Brush with butter. Slice English muffin in half and place the halves, sliced side down, in the skillet, until slightly browned. Using the same skillet, fry the ham until crispy. Place a slice of ham on each muffin half, top each half with a poached egg and top the poached egg with a few tablespoons of Hollandaise.

Enjoy immediately!