Steak was on sale, so I got some to grill out on the bbq, with some oak wood chips.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
veggie and fruit salad for summer
Steak was on sale, so I got some to grill out on the bbq, with some oak wood chips.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Dark fudge chocolate brownies by the fire
When time will add actual recipe. It´s very easy, one bowl, only a few ingredients. Absolutely no rising agents, no baking soda, no baking powder. These are dense, chocolate fudge brownies, made with cocoa, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and pecans.
This next one is supposed to be a video how to make the brownies, but keeps coming out only as a still photo.
Pour evenly into two round cake pans...
Cool when finished baking. Burns really easy, so must keep an eye on. Any more baked than this, and they will be burnt.
Cold butter on the top:). My brother W used to do that all the time when we were young, and sometimes I still do now. It´s unfortunately, very very moreish.
All by the fireside, snuggled up in woolen blankets....reading a book or watching classic movies like Gone With the Wind, Dr Zhivago, Key Largo, or Jezebel....
Monday, January 21, 2013
English Tea: butter shortbreads: 3- 4 ingredients
* will get back with exact quantities when time.
If you have a tiny cookie cutter, and time mind you, if you cut out 5 tiny hearts, then barely overlap them into a round flower (see below) pressing down gently and overlapping as below, it makes a pretty pansy flower. After making the raw dough flower, I chill in the fridge til the dough is cold and firm again. Then bake, then cool. Once cool, then I take edible white and pale bright colored powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar, little lemon or orange juice) or similar and "paint" the color onto the flower petal. Once dry, then add details with a darker color of glaze or cake gel.
Was in a hurry, making butter shortbreads for a boozy English tea (recipe on my YT add it here when time). Mix together soft butter, white sugar, and flour. Mush, literally yes mush, all this into a brownie pan in one layer to the edges, leaving the unsmooth surface like it is. Take a fork and add the holes, then take a knife and cut into the size pieces you´d like by just marking the lines. Bake in a preheated oven.
This is the very quick version, just mixed, mushed into a pan, marked, cooked, cooled, cut apart, put on a serving dish, and set out on the table.
For lemon shortbreads, add some fresh lemon juice. I made lemon shortbreads.
When slightly cool, take a spatula and finish dividing the pieces, then when cool, take out the cookies.
----------
Typical fancy English tea. A "typical" English tea might be just tea with one type of biscuit (cookie), or one type of sandwich, such as cold sliced roast beef from the Sunday leftover roast. And the sandwiches would not be fancy like this with the crusts cut off. I usually use homemade bread, or rustic bakery bread, and do not slice off the edges or crusts. But I like all the pretty cups, saucers etc. Usually, I use my plain brown Norwegian flint stone cups, or mismatched floral English cups and saucers. Sometimes I use my Grandma´s German china with tiny gold roses handpainted on the edges. And I like T´s mother´s miscellaneous endless different choices of cups and saucers with different florals or patterns. My fave is a tiny blue and white pattern, and I like it for hot cocoas.
Made a poppy seed cake too. Add recipe when time.
Below is my quick version of a English Tea, with teas, and some wine and Prosecco (not shown)
Quickly stopped off at the local shoppes, got some roses half plus off, put them quickly in a old container with water. They´re actually quite pretty...and the "vase" doesn´t tip over easily.
If you have a tiny cookie cutter, and time mind you, if you cut out 5 tiny hearts, then barely overlap them into a round flower (see below) pressing down gently and overlapping as below, it makes a pretty pansy flower. After making the raw dough flower, I chill in the fridge til the dough is cold and firm again. Then bake, then cool. Once cool, then I take edible white and pale bright colored powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar, little lemon or orange juice) or similar and "paint" the color onto the flower petal. Once dry, then add details with a darker color of glaze or cake gel.
Was in a hurry, making butter shortbreads for a boozy English tea (recipe on my YT add it here when time). Mix together soft butter, white sugar, and flour. Mush, literally yes mush, all this into a brownie pan in one layer to the edges, leaving the unsmooth surface like it is. Take a fork and add the holes, then take a knife and cut into the size pieces you´d like by just marking the lines. Bake in a preheated oven.
This is the very quick version, just mixed, mushed into a pan, marked, cooked, cooled, cut apart, put on a serving dish, and set out on the table.
For lemon shortbreads, add some fresh lemon juice. I made lemon shortbreads.
When slightly cool, take a spatula and finish dividing the pieces, then when cool, take out the cookies.
----------
Typical fancy English tea. A "typical" English tea might be just tea with one type of biscuit (cookie), or one type of sandwich, such as cold sliced roast beef from the Sunday leftover roast. And the sandwiches would not be fancy like this with the crusts cut off. I usually use homemade bread, or rustic bakery bread, and do not slice off the edges or crusts. But I like all the pretty cups, saucers etc. Usually, I use my plain brown Norwegian flint stone cups, or mismatched floral English cups and saucers. Sometimes I use my Grandma´s German china with tiny gold roses handpainted on the edges. And I like T´s mother´s miscellaneous endless different choices of cups and saucers with different florals or patterns. My fave is a tiny blue and white pattern, and I like it for hot cocoas.
Below is my quick version of a English Tea, with teas, and some wine and Prosecco (not shown)
Quickly stopped off at the local shoppes, got some roses half plus off, put them quickly in a old container with water. They´re actually quite pretty...and the "vase" doesn´t tip over easily.
citrus solboller, and quick solboller
The variations to solboller I do make are plain, without the vanilla custard, and with lemon custard in the middle instead of vanilla custard. Some recipes put orange juice in the dough, but I´ve not tried that...
And for future reference, today was running late, and did a few things wrong and different, as I was hurrying, but the buns turned out great anyway! So, this is much quicker,)
--
I put all the ingredients in at once, forgot the egg and put it in nearly last. Put the dough in a warm oven for half an hour til it had risen double, kneaded it a few minutes, wasn´t sure the dough was still ok, so started to make a large loaf, then rolled it up, then cut it into pieces, and ended up making small buns anyway. Didn´t have time for any eggwash, just baked them like that. Still perfect! And made lemon custard as I had an extra lemon. Tried to upload the actual making the buns video I made to YT, but it won´t upload after ten tries, so will make another one in a few weeks, with the lemon custard, and try to upload that.
yawn, am waiting for a flight. had a few hours sleep. That tired wide awake state.
And for future reference, today was running late, and did a few things wrong and different, as I was hurrying, but the buns turned out great anyway! So, this is much quicker,)
--
I put all the ingredients in at once, forgot the egg and put it in nearly last. Put the dough in a warm oven for half an hour til it had risen double, kneaded it a few minutes, wasn´t sure the dough was still ok, so started to make a large loaf, then rolled it up, then cut it into pieces, and ended up making small buns anyway. Didn´t have time for any eggwash, just baked them like that. Still perfect! And made lemon custard as I had an extra lemon. Tried to upload the actual making the buns video I made to YT, but it won´t upload after ten tries, so will make another one in a few weeks, with the lemon custard, and try to upload that.
yawn, am waiting for a flight. had a few hours sleep. That tired wide awake state.
solboller
Traditional kardamom yeast bun filled with vanilla egg custard, made and eaten to celebrate the return of sunshine and more hours of light each day.
This is an Italian pastry similar to a solboller variation, swirling like a cinnamon bun (with or without adding cinnamon sugar in that layer), sprinkled with a few raisins or currants, with a little icing sugar glaze on top. The creme custard center is vanilla custard, not lemon. Of course eaten with either an espresso or cappuccino. Very easy to make at home, but in Italy I usually get them for breakfast already made, with a double espresso or a cappuccino, or both (very often both!).
If you live in Norway, the winter is dark, with not much actual hours of daylight. The sun does not rise up and down, but across the horizon, slowly moving lower across the horizon each day til hardly any sun is seen for most of the day, til finally it begins to slightly rise each day across the horizon. Depending upon where in Norway you live, the actual day for this varies, but here it started maybe a week or so ago, but today is the traditional day to make the buns. So, today I´m making solboller. Sol is Norwegian for sun. Boller is Norwegian for yeast buns. So, loosely translated as sunshine yeast rolls.
WHEN TIME will ADD PHOTO OF NORWEGIAN homemade
Make the two parts, the dough, and the thick vanilla egg custard filling. Eggwash the buns, then fill an indention in the middle of the bun with some of the custard (maybe a TBS or so), then bake for about 10 minutes in a hot preheated oven, 200C. Can decorate with icing sugar glaze, or a lemon icing sugar glaze. Usually I think they´re fine with just the custard, but the lemon icing glaze is what I choose if I drizzle any of that also on to decorate.
Some people add tumeric for color, but I think it adds an odd flavour, and I never ever add tumeric. The yolks here are yellow enough to color the custard yellow, or if not, that´s fine. Tumeric imho ruins the flavour.
Vanilla custard:
Split a vanilla pod down the center, scrape out the seeds into a saucepan, and add the vanilla pod. Pour in 2.5 dl whole milk, and the same amount full fat cream. Heat to warm, do not boil or it will split the cream. Add 40 g cornflour to 90 g sugar, mix well, then add all this to the warming milk. Then add 4 whole eggs, one at a time, into the liquid. Heat to hot, but do not boil, and keep stirring. When this thickens, then turn off heat, take off the heat, and set aside. Take out the vanilla pod, quickly rinse off, then put in your sugar container, to make vanilla sugar.
----
Yeast roll dough:
half liter whole milk, slightly warmed to body temperature
1.5 dl sugar
50 g gjær (fresh yeast cake/fresh yeast)
Add the milk, sugar and fresh yeast. Let sit til bubbly, then add
1 egg
2 TBS cardamom
optional other spice, I add a little fresh nutmeg, more fresh ground cardamom, a tiny bit cinnamon. The main spice is still cardamom.
Mix together, then add
130 g butter, melted (measure the butter, then melt)
Mix together
Then add slowly about a cup or so at a time, 600 g flour. I usually use either all plain flour or half and half plain white flour with whole wheat flour. Add enough that you make a dough that forms a ball, but is not too firm or dry, but not too sticky or wet. Add a bit more or less that the 600 g, what you need to make the dough the right consistency to make the yeast buns.
Let rise, about an hour til doubled in size, in a warm place lightly covered with a tea towel. Then punch down, and divide to make the buns.
Either make the solid round balls into buns, or form these into snakes and twist or roll into rounds, like if making cinnamon buns.
Either way, then push a bit of a hallowed out area into the center, where you will eventually put about a TBS of the cooked cooled thick custard. But before you add the custard, first make all the buns, make the slight hallow indention centers, then brush with an eggwash (a bit of beaten egg), then add the TBS or so of thick custard.
At this point you can also add raisins, or pecans, or both, which I often do. Let sit a few minutes to rise a tiny bit, then put the tray into the preheated hot oven, 200C, and bake for about 10 minutes. The color will be slightly browned, but not so much that the buns are hard, or burnt.
Let cool.
Optional, to now decorate with a icing sugar glaze. I usually do not do this, but when I do, I make the icing sugar glaze with fresh squeezed lemon (like for a pound cake glaze), and drizzle it on slightly in lines randomly across, or a large thin daisy outline shape.
Some people instead dust the top with powdered sugar. I don´t usually ever do this, as I don´t like icing sugar/powdered sugar much except on fresh hot beignets.
Enjoy the sun, and the solboller.
There are various recipes, and a few different names. This is my version of the recipe.
Another option is to sprinkle the top with coconut. I don´t usually do that either. Some places only have these at this time of year, but here the bakeries have something similar all year long. The homemade version is much better tasting, easy and quick to make, can be frozen for later, and costs much less! The kids like to help too, it´s a fun indoor activity, and great to teach math skills with the measurements, or converting the US measurements to the metric, etc too.
Will add photos, when I´m done baking and have time.
-----------
Another version of solboller. A soft sugar glazed double pretzel from Vienna, Austria. Similar in Germany also. Both very good!
If you live in Norway, the winter is dark, with not much actual hours of daylight. The sun does not rise up and down, but across the horizon, slowly moving lower across the horizon each day til hardly any sun is seen for most of the day, til finally it begins to slightly rise each day across the horizon. Depending upon where in Norway you live, the actual day for this varies, but here it started maybe a week or so ago, but today is the traditional day to make the buns. So, today I´m making solboller. Sol is Norwegian for sun. Boller is Norwegian for yeast buns. So, loosely translated as sunshine yeast rolls.
WHEN TIME will ADD PHOTO OF NORWEGIAN homemade
Make the two parts, the dough, and the thick vanilla egg custard filling. Eggwash the buns, then fill an indention in the middle of the bun with some of the custard (maybe a TBS or so), then bake for about 10 minutes in a hot preheated oven, 200C. Can decorate with icing sugar glaze, or a lemon icing sugar glaze. Usually I think they´re fine with just the custard, but the lemon icing glaze is what I choose if I drizzle any of that also on to decorate.
Some people add tumeric for color, but I think it adds an odd flavour, and I never ever add tumeric. The yolks here are yellow enough to color the custard yellow, or if not, that´s fine. Tumeric imho ruins the flavour.
Vanilla custard:
Split a vanilla pod down the center, scrape out the seeds into a saucepan, and add the vanilla pod. Pour in 2.5 dl whole milk, and the same amount full fat cream. Heat to warm, do not boil or it will split the cream. Add 40 g cornflour to 90 g sugar, mix well, then add all this to the warming milk. Then add 4 whole eggs, one at a time, into the liquid. Heat to hot, but do not boil, and keep stirring. When this thickens, then turn off heat, take off the heat, and set aside. Take out the vanilla pod, quickly rinse off, then put in your sugar container, to make vanilla sugar.
----
Yeast roll dough:
half liter whole milk, slightly warmed to body temperature
1.5 dl sugar
50 g gjær (fresh yeast cake/fresh yeast)
Add the milk, sugar and fresh yeast. Let sit til bubbly, then add
1 egg
2 TBS cardamom
optional other spice, I add a little fresh nutmeg, more fresh ground cardamom, a tiny bit cinnamon. The main spice is still cardamom.
Mix together, then add
130 g butter, melted (measure the butter, then melt)
Mix together
Then add slowly about a cup or so at a time, 600 g flour. I usually use either all plain flour or half and half plain white flour with whole wheat flour. Add enough that you make a dough that forms a ball, but is not too firm or dry, but not too sticky or wet. Add a bit more or less that the 600 g, what you need to make the dough the right consistency to make the yeast buns.
Let rise, about an hour til doubled in size, in a warm place lightly covered with a tea towel. Then punch down, and divide to make the buns.
Either make the solid round balls into buns, or form these into snakes and twist or roll into rounds, like if making cinnamon buns.
Either way, then push a bit of a hallowed out area into the center, where you will eventually put about a TBS of the cooked cooled thick custard. But before you add the custard, first make all the buns, make the slight hallow indention centers, then brush with an eggwash (a bit of beaten egg), then add the TBS or so of thick custard.
At this point you can also add raisins, or pecans, or both, which I often do. Let sit a few minutes to rise a tiny bit, then put the tray into the preheated hot oven, 200C, and bake for about 10 minutes. The color will be slightly browned, but not so much that the buns are hard, or burnt.
Let cool.
Optional, to now decorate with a icing sugar glaze. I usually do not do this, but when I do, I make the icing sugar glaze with fresh squeezed lemon (like for a pound cake glaze), and drizzle it on slightly in lines randomly across, or a large thin daisy outline shape.
Some people instead dust the top with powdered sugar. I don´t usually ever do this, as I don´t like icing sugar/powdered sugar much except on fresh hot beignets.
Enjoy the sun, and the solboller.
There are various recipes, and a few different names. This is my version of the recipe.
Another option is to sprinkle the top with coconut. I don´t usually do that either. Some places only have these at this time of year, but here the bakeries have something similar all year long. The homemade version is much better tasting, easy and quick to make, can be frozen for later, and costs much less! The kids like to help too, it´s a fun indoor activity, and great to teach math skills with the measurements, or converting the US measurements to the metric, etc too.
Will add photos, when I´m done baking and have time.
-----------
Another version of solboller. A soft sugar glazed double pretzel from Vienna, Austria. Similar in Germany also. Both very good!
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Pecan ambrosia. Devil´d Eggs & 1000 eye glass
This is my recipe, so is a mixture of two salads I like which I put together: ambrosia and Waldorf.
Chopped apples (red and green), pecan halves, chopped celery stalks, a bit of mayo, a few oranges peeled and cut into small random pieces. Coconut, flakes or fresh, sugared or not. A little spices such as fresh nutmeg. If you like a few large marshmallows randomly chopped into smaller pieces (I usually leave this out). Enough mayo or Miracle Whip to bind it all together, but not a huge amount so it´s all mayo.
Mix gently together. Serve cold.
-------------------------------------------
Another recipe of mine, my version of Devil´d Eggs:
1) cold, chilled hard boiled eggs or just under hard boiled eggs. (Boiling the eggs is the hardest part, and I always have to look up my recipe for how to, in order to use the correct age eggs which then means the shells will easily and quickly peel off in mostly one large piece).
Cool the eggs, peel, then chill them.
2) With a sharp knife, carefully cut all chilled eggs in half, lengthwise, and carefully remove the cooked cold yellow insides. The yolks should be cooked thru enough to mash.
Put all the yellow cooked yolks into a bowl, and mash together, so it is smooth. SAVE the white, as they will be the shells for the filling. Try to keep the shells in nice perfect halves, so try not to tear them. If you do, oh well, they won´t look so perfect, but will still taste great. Save them for you later,) Though, I am sure your guests and family will still like this enough they won´t care if you ended up with some wonky looking ones--they´ll still eat them too! This recipe hardly lasts to the table, and even the wonky one are gobbled up quickly,)
Best solution is to make extra eggs. I usually end up cooking atleast 12 eggs. That gives 24 halves, to fill. If you make this a lot like I do, it is great to have devil´d egg dishes to put the egg halves in so they stay put, and do not slide around as on flat plates. I have about 4 deviled egg plates. Mine are called Indian Thousand Eyed Glass, or other various names---such as hobeyed glass. I got mine at an old barn antique flea market type place in The Deep South in the US a few summers ago, as I wanted a proper plate for them and couldn´t find any here in Norway. They´re real pretty, and work great to keep the eggs from sliding around! I paid about 15 USD for two of mine in person. And I was also told the history of each plate. The ladies who used to own them cooked wonderful foods for their families to, and used the plates in their own homes. I like that I know where the plates come from, and I am continuing a tradition, and have such lovely old well-loved and well-used things in my kitchen that others used for their families.
Here is a link to hob-eyed glass on ebay.
So, here is my "recipe"
1) Mash up the chilled cooked yellow yolks, and see how much I have.
2)When the cooked yolks are mashed smooth, then I add, by eye:
a little salt, a little pepper, enough sugar to make sure the yolks in the end will be slightly sweet, a little vinegar usually white plain vinegar (not sure why, but that´s how my Mamma always did it!), a little tiny tiny bit of fresh nutmeg for color not taste, And enough mayo to bind it all, then a bit more mayo to make it not dry and not dense.
Taste, then when I get the taste with a slight sweet or slightly more sweet flavour, it´s done.
Fill up the white egg shells halves, to heaping filling, rounded tops. Dividing equally among all the shells, usually there is leftover filling. Either eat on celery stalks, or just add a bit more to each shell.
Sprinkle each slightly, just barely, with some paprika. Nothing fancy or hot, just basic mild paprika, for color, not flavor.
Get out your Thousand Eye hobnail Deviled egg dishes, and fill each indention with an egg shell half. OR, if you have flat plates or trays, lay a thin tea towel which is slightly damp on top, then the eggs. The tea towel keeps them from sliding as much on a flat surface.
Serve cold.
I like them this way, and this is how my Mamma, my grandmothers and great gran always made devil´d eggs. I learned by watching and helping them. They never measured either,). It was all by "look".
Other versions, that I have tried, but our family still likes mine the best, is to add some chopped pimento, or minced green or black olive, or leave out the sugar for a savoury taste. Ot top with fancy pretty red or black caviar, or fresh herbs. I do sometimes add minced cilantro, and we like that too (but still with the slightly sweet version).
The filling is great on crackers, or in celery stalks if you have any left over.
Deviléd eggs is very popular with my family, and I have to keep an eagle eye on them if I hope to have any on the actual table during the actual meal,)
------
I will try to make a video in the new year for each of these recipes. As I know it is hard to follow a recipe if you have no measurements and are not sure what the end result should taste or look like
Chopped apples (red and green), pecan halves, chopped celery stalks, a bit of mayo, a few oranges peeled and cut into small random pieces. Coconut, flakes or fresh, sugared or not. A little spices such as fresh nutmeg. If you like a few large marshmallows randomly chopped into smaller pieces (I usually leave this out). Enough mayo or Miracle Whip to bind it all together, but not a huge amount so it´s all mayo.
Mix gently together. Serve cold.
-------------------------------------------
Another recipe of mine, my version of Devil´d Eggs:
1) cold, chilled hard boiled eggs or just under hard boiled eggs. (Boiling the eggs is the hardest part, and I always have to look up my recipe for how to, in order to use the correct age eggs which then means the shells will easily and quickly peel off in mostly one large piece).
Cool the eggs, peel, then chill them.
2) With a sharp knife, carefully cut all chilled eggs in half, lengthwise, and carefully remove the cooked cold yellow insides. The yolks should be cooked thru enough to mash.
Put all the yellow cooked yolks into a bowl, and mash together, so it is smooth. SAVE the white, as they will be the shells for the filling. Try to keep the shells in nice perfect halves, so try not to tear them. If you do, oh well, they won´t look so perfect, but will still taste great. Save them for you later,) Though, I am sure your guests and family will still like this enough they won´t care if you ended up with some wonky looking ones--they´ll still eat them too! This recipe hardly lasts to the table, and even the wonky one are gobbled up quickly,)
Best solution is to make extra eggs. I usually end up cooking atleast 12 eggs. That gives 24 halves, to fill. If you make this a lot like I do, it is great to have devil´d egg dishes to put the egg halves in so they stay put, and do not slide around as on flat plates. I have about 4 deviled egg plates. Mine are called Indian Thousand Eyed Glass, or other various names---such as hobeyed glass. I got mine at an old barn antique flea market type place in The Deep South in the US a few summers ago, as I wanted a proper plate for them and couldn´t find any here in Norway. They´re real pretty, and work great to keep the eggs from sliding around! I paid about 15 USD for two of mine in person. And I was also told the history of each plate. The ladies who used to own them cooked wonderful foods for their families to, and used the plates in their own homes. I like that I know where the plates come from, and I am continuing a tradition, and have such lovely old well-loved and well-used things in my kitchen that others used for their families.
Here is a link to hob-eyed glass on ebay.
So, here is my "recipe"
1) Mash up the chilled cooked yellow yolks, and see how much I have.
2)When the cooked yolks are mashed smooth, then I add, by eye:
a little salt, a little pepper, enough sugar to make sure the yolks in the end will be slightly sweet, a little vinegar usually white plain vinegar (not sure why, but that´s how my Mamma always did it!), a little tiny tiny bit of fresh nutmeg for color not taste, And enough mayo to bind it all, then a bit more mayo to make it not dry and not dense.
Taste, then when I get the taste with a slight sweet or slightly more sweet flavour, it´s done.
Fill up the white egg shells halves, to heaping filling, rounded tops. Dividing equally among all the shells, usually there is leftover filling. Either eat on celery stalks, or just add a bit more to each shell.
Sprinkle each slightly, just barely, with some paprika. Nothing fancy or hot, just basic mild paprika, for color, not flavor.
Get out your Thousand Eye hobnail Deviled egg dishes, and fill each indention with an egg shell half. OR, if you have flat plates or trays, lay a thin tea towel which is slightly damp on top, then the eggs. The tea towel keeps them from sliding as much on a flat surface.
Serve cold.
I like them this way, and this is how my Mamma, my grandmothers and great gran always made devil´d eggs. I learned by watching and helping them. They never measured either,). It was all by "look".
Other versions, that I have tried, but our family still likes mine the best, is to add some chopped pimento, or minced green or black olive, or leave out the sugar for a savoury taste. Ot top with fancy pretty red or black caviar, or fresh herbs. I do sometimes add minced cilantro, and we like that too (but still with the slightly sweet version).
The filling is great on crackers, or in celery stalks if you have any left over.
Deviléd eggs is very popular with my family, and I have to keep an eagle eye on them if I hope to have any on the actual table during the actual meal,)
------
I will try to make a video in the new year for each of these recipes. As I know it is hard to follow a recipe if you have no measurements and are not sure what the end result should taste or look like
Green broth, cuz I´m ill:)
Unfortunately,I´ve gotten a case of flu or something Christmas night, which has prevented me from eating anything, or hardly anything more than broth. Here is a good broth that I ended up making from Christmas food "scraps",)
1) Forage thru the fridge and kitchen to see what you have to make a broth. Put it all in a large pot, top up with water, then simmer for about an hour or so, til the flavour mingles. Strain off everything except the liquid.
For my green broth, I used:
-After roasting a poussin (small chicken), I had the remainder, which I used as the main base of the broth. I put this entirely into the pot, then everything else, water last.
-A large bunch of fresh herbs thyme, rosemary,rosemary, stems, leaves and all, just put all of it into the pot (it will give flavor and will be strained off, so adding the stems only add flavour)
-another large bunch of fresh cilantro, added all of it after taking off the roots. No need to chop, just throw it in
-whole coriander seeds (2 tsp or so), whole peppercorns (just a few maybe 4), whole black cumin seeds (maybe a tsp)
-4-5 baby carrots, whole
-remainder of a whole onion, about 1/4 cup of onion, left as is, including a little bit of the dry skin (remove if you like, but it will just be strained off later)
-package of baby spinach, after about an hour of simmering the broth, to add color, vitamins and flavour. Also, as I had it already, was a few days old so needed to be eaten or go bad anyway. It really added a great flavour with the fresh herbs, and I will definitely add this on purpose again to any broth next time! The fresh cilantro leaves also added a wonderful flavor and slight green colour.
Enjoy! Hopefully you can eat more than this,). But it is good. At the end, after straining, and returning the liquid to the pot, I added a few drops of tabasco, a few drops of Worchestershire sauce (spelling!), black pepper, and sea salt, til it was perfect. Lots of flavour, not too spicy. The tabasco was perfect. The Worchest. Sauce just adds a little flavour.
------
1) Forage thru the fridge and kitchen to see what you have to make a broth. Put it all in a large pot, top up with water, then simmer for about an hour or so, til the flavour mingles. Strain off everything except the liquid.
For my green broth, I used:
-After roasting a poussin (small chicken), I had the remainder, which I used as the main base of the broth. I put this entirely into the pot, then everything else, water last.
-A large bunch of fresh herbs thyme, rosemary,rosemary, stems, leaves and all, just put all of it into the pot (it will give flavor and will be strained off, so adding the stems only add flavour)
-another large bunch of fresh cilantro, added all of it after taking off the roots. No need to chop, just throw it in
-whole coriander seeds (2 tsp or so), whole peppercorns (just a few maybe 4), whole black cumin seeds (maybe a tsp)
-4-5 baby carrots, whole
-remainder of a whole onion, about 1/4 cup of onion, left as is, including a little bit of the dry skin (remove if you like, but it will just be strained off later)
-package of baby spinach, after about an hour of simmering the broth, to add color, vitamins and flavour. Also, as I had it already, was a few days old so needed to be eaten or go bad anyway. It really added a great flavour with the fresh herbs, and I will definitely add this on purpose again to any broth next time! The fresh cilantro leaves also added a wonderful flavor and slight green colour.
Enjoy! Hopefully you can eat more than this,). But it is good. At the end, after straining, and returning the liquid to the pot, I added a few drops of tabasco, a few drops of Worchestershire sauce (spelling!), black pepper, and sea salt, til it was perfect. Lots of flavour, not too spicy. The tabasco was perfect. The Worchest. Sauce just adds a little flavour.
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Italian Christmas bread panattone w homemade clotted cream
There are longer and more complicated versions, which I also do, but this one is my fave. Panattone is one of my favourite breads, a bit imho like a really good raisin bread, and this is my quick easy version. I usually use only raisins, or mixture of raisins both golden and dark, dried currants, crainsins (dried cranberries). Sometimes I use chopped pecans and pistachios for the nuts. You can use what you like. Chopped dark baking chocolate bar is very good. White chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts is also very good with or without chopped pistachios. Pistachio and dried raisins. Or whatever you have and like.
1)Make a basic white yeast bread recipe using whole egg, and a tiny amount of finely milled yellow corn meal for a slight creamy color to the bread. Add a little bit of spice, such as cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg--but just a hint! It is not a spicy Christmas bread. Add your extras (such as raisins) in the middle of adding all the flour into the recipe, whilst the batter is still a bit wet. Finish the bread dough, let rise. Punch down, let rise again.
2) whilst rising the second time, prepare your pan, a round cake pan or tiny round cake pans, by buttering them, then cutting out parchment paper to fit. One circle of parchment for the bottom circle. The butter helps keep the paper in place! Then cut a rectangle to fit in the inside, with enough paper to rise above the pan, making the pan taller---this is how you get the tall shape of the bread. The bread will rise tall and up, then form the dome at the top slightly higher than the parchment paper rim.
3)For the last rising, place appropriate sized dough in corresponding pan size, so the dough rises up not out. Then bake til done (about 45 minutes in a hot oven) just like any bread. Let cool, then take off the parchment paper. Serve with butter, jams, sliced meat and cheeses, pickles...or fresh fruit and some butter.
Clotted cream is good on the bread too.
To make clotted cream, let some fresh double cream stay overnight out of the fridge in a slightly warm kitchen or cold kitchen. Then instead of turning to whipping cream when you whip it, it will turn to either butter with some liquid, or clotted cream. Use either, both are really good on the bread!
If you´ve made butter with the cream, you can add either a little flaked salt, or some fresh and dried herbs/spices, such as lavender buds and nutmeg, which is also good on the bread.
1)Make a basic white yeast bread recipe using whole egg, and a tiny amount of finely milled yellow corn meal for a slight creamy color to the bread. Add a little bit of spice, such as cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg--but just a hint! It is not a spicy Christmas bread. Add your extras (such as raisins) in the middle of adding all the flour into the recipe, whilst the batter is still a bit wet. Finish the bread dough, let rise. Punch down, let rise again.
2) whilst rising the second time, prepare your pan, a round cake pan or tiny round cake pans, by buttering them, then cutting out parchment paper to fit. One circle of parchment for the bottom circle. The butter helps keep the paper in place! Then cut a rectangle to fit in the inside, with enough paper to rise above the pan, making the pan taller---this is how you get the tall shape of the bread. The bread will rise tall and up, then form the dome at the top slightly higher than the parchment paper rim.
3)For the last rising, place appropriate sized dough in corresponding pan size, so the dough rises up not out. Then bake til done (about 45 minutes in a hot oven) just like any bread. Let cool, then take off the parchment paper. Serve with butter, jams, sliced meat and cheeses, pickles...or fresh fruit and some butter.
Clotted cream is good on the bread too.
To make clotted cream, let some fresh double cream stay overnight out of the fridge in a slightly warm kitchen or cold kitchen. Then instead of turning to whipping cream when you whip it, it will turn to either butter with some liquid, or clotted cream. Use either, both are really good on the bread!
If you´ve made butter with the cream, you can add either a little flaked salt, or some fresh and dried herbs/spices, such as lavender buds and nutmeg, which is also good on the bread.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Birthday: antipasto, Prosecco, lussekatter, lasagna...
Can´t decide what to make for my birthday--love my Google doodle below!:). I got a really nice Italian Prosecco, so want to do something I can drink the Prosecco with. And I´ll be studying most of the day...so quick things. (edit: had wonderful birthday...with my family, 4 kids and T, etc).
Thinking outblog,) maybe....
Breakfast: croissant with a few square of dark chocolate, and a cappuccino. Then an espresso shot using an Italian Press. And glass of water.
Second Breakfast: espresso. And some iced tea, and a lussekatter bun (recipe below). And another glass of water, as I do with all my meals.
Brunch: Glass of Prosecco. Italian bread salad (greens, buffalo mozzarella, sliced tomato, basil, spicy green olives, artichokes, tuna, boiled egg half, and a few torn up pieces of crusty Peasant bread). H20.
Supper: Antipasto/leftovers. Artichokes, steamed veggies, sliced meat, etc like I had in Rome. Minestrone (recipe below).And would like to make some tiramisu for dessert, with coffees. H20.
Late supper: similar to above, with warmed up ratatouille lasagna, Prosecco, and a coffee. and, the H20.
:)
(My birthday gift to myself is this, a new Italian Press, the Prosecco, studying Norwegian, so I can enrol in the uni here, and finish my science degree. Am very excited, the programme includes the option to study in Svalbard. Well all the best plans and all that, we´ll see how it goes...but that´s my birthday present to me this year).
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TIRAMISU (find recipe for tiramisu and for the biscuits lady fingers that goes with)
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Quick Minestrone:
Just made some minestrone, thrown together with whatever was in the larder so I didn´t have to go shopping. Chopped half an onion, two shallots, celery stalk and leaves, one whole zucchini cut up into large pieces, black spicy olives after pitting them plus a bit of the liquid, tabasco, can of crushed tomatoes, can of water or so, sea salt, pepper, coriander seeds, cilantro. Simmered all that til the onions and shallots were tender, then let it boil and added a few handfuls of twisty pasta, with enough water to keep it a soup. Once pasta done, added more salt, a bit more water, and a can of black beans as that is what I had. It´s very good! Will be good Monday if there´s any leftovers from tomorrow,).
(Link when time to the usual minestrones I make, including the one from the old actual Italian cookbook, and the version I make of Olive Garden´s minestrone. Yes it isn´t Italian, but I still like it, and with homemade bread or pretzel bread sticks, and with a similar salad. )
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LUSSEKATTER RECIPE PHOTOS
1. Make the dough, let it rise til double.
So I cut long slivers of "snakes" to save time rolling them out
Rolled each "snake" into a fancy S shape, just roll each end in the opposite direction..
Usually, I make two pans, and space the lussekatter further apart, but this time I made one pan, with the lussekatter all touching.
Finished baked lussekatter. The second batch, below, I crossed the S shapes, to make each bun have a square shape with two S shapes crossed together.
Before baking, what the S shapes crossed into a square S shape.
King Ranch Chicken and Beef enchiladas, half beef, half chicken
Enchiladas, fruit, salad, mincemeat pie
Thinking outblog,) maybe....
Breakfast: croissant with a few square of dark chocolate, and a cappuccino. Then an espresso shot using an Italian Press. And glass of water.
Second Breakfast: espresso. And some iced tea, and a lussekatter bun (recipe below). And another glass of water, as I do with all my meals.
Brunch: Glass of Prosecco. Italian bread salad (greens, buffalo mozzarella, sliced tomato, basil, spicy green olives, artichokes, tuna, boiled egg half, and a few torn up pieces of crusty Peasant bread). H20.
Supper: Antipasto/leftovers. Artichokes, steamed veggies, sliced meat, etc like I had in Rome. Minestrone (recipe below).And would like to make some tiramisu for dessert, with coffees. H20.
Late supper: similar to above, with warmed up ratatouille lasagna, Prosecco, and a coffee. and, the H20.
:)
(My birthday gift to myself is this, a new Italian Press, the Prosecco, studying Norwegian, so I can enrol in the uni here, and finish my science degree. Am very excited, the programme includes the option to study in Svalbard. Well all the best plans and all that, we´ll see how it goes...but that´s my birthday present to me this year).
---------
TIRAMISU (find recipe for tiramisu and for the biscuits lady fingers that goes with)
-------
Quick Minestrone:
Just made some minestrone, thrown together with whatever was in the larder so I didn´t have to go shopping. Chopped half an onion, two shallots, celery stalk and leaves, one whole zucchini cut up into large pieces, black spicy olives after pitting them plus a bit of the liquid, tabasco, can of crushed tomatoes, can of water or so, sea salt, pepper, coriander seeds, cilantro. Simmered all that til the onions and shallots were tender, then let it boil and added a few handfuls of twisty pasta, with enough water to keep it a soup. Once pasta done, added more salt, a bit more water, and a can of black beans as that is what I had. It´s very good! Will be good Monday if there´s any leftovers from tomorrow,).
(Link when time to the usual minestrones I make, including the one from the old actual Italian cookbook, and the version I make of Olive Garden´s minestrone. Yes it isn´t Italian, but I still like it, and with homemade bread or pretzel bread sticks, and with a similar salad. )
------
LUSSEKATTER RECIPE PHOTOS
2. Push dough down, roll out onto a lightly floured counter, gently roll out, then cut into even sections. Divide each section into smaller pieces, usually I do this by hand, but was in a hurry...
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