New Year's Eve wine and Dry January

I am not a big fan of bubbles so this year hubby and I decided to buy a good (or two) bottle of white to welcome 2014. As it happened that we were in Wimbledon we went to the local wine merchant and here is what we got.

Bandol - this was a curious one, strangely oily to start and very soft to finish. It was a good one but at a price of £32 I may not be buying it again and frankly I know many better wines for less than that. I love Bandol rose and for now it will remain my favourite Bandol. Eventhough I will try to find Bandol white again just to see if it might be a better one just to make the final judgement on it.

The other Sicilian Gruali was a beautiful one, straw color, rich - I absolutely loved this one and will happily buy it again, even for £20. However this will need to wait for a while, at least until February as hubby and I signed up to Dry January so no alcohol for us for 31 days! Bring it on!

Happy New Year!

Xmas baking - stollen and spiced sables

There's been so much baking and cooking going on in my house recently and I feel ashamed that I did not do a post since 17 November. Oahu time flies!

For Christmas I baked a few cakes but these are very worth noticing. One is by Ruby Tandoh's Cherry stollen with pistachio marzipan and the other is for spiced sable biscuits by Will Torrent from his amazing book Patisserie at Home

Cherry stollen with pistachio marzipan

Ingredients:
250g strong white flour

 ½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp cinnamon¼ tsp ground cloves
1 (7g) sachet instant dried yeast
20g sugar
¾ tsp salt
150g butter, divided in half
115ml milk
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
125g dried cherries, roughly chopped
75g mixed peel
30g icing sugar, for dusting

For the marzipan
150g pistachio kernels
130g icing sugar
⅛ tsp salt
30g egg white

Let's do it:
In a bowl combine flour, spices, yeast, sugar and salt remembering to not to put together or directly on each other yeast and salt. In a small pan melt 75g of butter, remove from the gas and add milk, vanilla extract, orange zest and egg. Mix well and then check if the mixture is tepid to warm which should be. If not gently heat it up and add to the dry ingredients. Mix well until all ingredients are well combined and form a dough, move to a kitchen top and knead for 10 minutes and then knead in the peel and dried cherries.  Put the dough ball in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave until doubles it size. This will take up to 2 hours.
In the meantime to make marzipan: using a food processor blitz pistachio kernels until breadcrumbs, add icing sugar, salt and blitz very briefly, next transfer to a bowl. Add 2/3 of the egg white and mix well. My marzipan was too wet so I rescued it with adding ground almond. Form into a 20cm log and leave on the side.
After the dough doubled its size gently knock it back and roll into a 20x30cm rectangle. Put in the middle the marzipan log and roll the dough around to ensure the seam being in the bottom and fold the ends underneath. Transfer to a baking tray with a baking parchment on and leave to rise for 45 minutes. In the meantime preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted)
Bake for 35-40 minutes checking towards the end. Melt the remaining 75g of butter and as soon as stollen is done brush all the butter into the cake including bottom and sides. Once cooled dust with icing sugar.


Cinnamon, orange and cloves sables

Ingredients:
75g icing sugar
150g softened butter
1 vanilla bean
grated zest of 2 oranges

2 eggs lightly beaten
250g all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Let's do it:

In a bowl beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy, you can use a wooden spoon or a hand held mixer. It will take 5-6 minutes.
Split the vanilla bean, scrape seeds out into the bowl and beat in the orange zest.
Gradually add eggs until well incorporated then fold in the flour, cinnamon and cloves with a metal spoon. Make sure that all ingredients are well combined but don't over mix it. Form dough into a bowl wrap in a cling film and allow it to rest in the fridge for 1 hour. In the meantime prepare a big or two big flat baking trays with baking parchment on and lightly dust with flour.

Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted). Take the dough out of the fridge and on a lightly floured surface roll out with a rolling pin until 5mm thick. Using cookie cutters cut out the sables and arrange on the baking trays. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
When cooled you can either dust with icing sugar or make a quick icing and decorate like I did:-)

Happy Festive Season!

Orange and coconut cake

Orange and coconut cake

It is a surprisingly moist and not so sweet cake, in fact very much on a moist side. It has a distinctive and beautiful orange and coconut flavors, this is incredibly comforting on a cold November day.

The recipe was slightly adapted from  One Bite More


Ingredients:

200g of butter softened at room temperature
25g of coconut oil
1cup of caster sugar
2tbsp brown or dark muscovado sugar
4 eggs
¼ cup of orange juice
orange zest from 2 oranges
1 cup - 250ml natural yogurt
1,5 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup dessicated coconut

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 170C and using a brush grease a 20-23cm fluted cake tin with 1tsp of sunflower oil.
Cut the butter and coconut oil into smaller chunks, transfer to a big bowl together with sugar/s. Using a hand mixer beat until light and fluffy, this will take at least 5 minutes.
Next add eggs, orange zest, juice and yogurt. Mix well, the batter will curdle but this does not affect the final product.
Next sift in flower with soda and mix well, finally stir in dessicated coconut.
Transfer to the cake tin and bake for 50 min - 1 hr until a skewer comes clean. Leave in the tin until completely cooled.

Turkish Jewish and Georgian feast

This is what I call a proper feast - mixed flavors from different countries, food that awakes passion and imagination and all washed down with a good bottle of red. This reward is certainly worth three hours in the kitchen!

Wheat dish is one of my all time favourite dishes, it is a such a simple but beautiful creation with a wonderfully addictive taste of pomegranate molasses. The only downside is that the dish does not look as appetising as the description and even in  Ottolenghi's Jerusalem was published with a photo of the ingredients before cooking:) What is important to remember is that it tastes heavenly.
I first saw the recipe in Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast on Channel 4 (episode 4 - Israel) and cooked it from memory a few times. Also the tomato and cheese salad is inspired by the Istanbul episode from the same programme; Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Fest episode guide

Wheat, leek and Swiss chard with pomegranate molasses
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
200 g whole wheat
2 large leeks - only white and pale green parts thinly sliced
600g of Swiss chard or mixture of various rainbow, red etc. chard - stalks cut out and cut into 1cm slices; leaves into 2cm slices
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp light brown sugar
3-5 tbsp pomegranate molasses
500ml veggie stock
salt, pepper and yogurt to serve (labneh or Onken natural are my favourite)

Let' s do it:
Heat the oil and butter in a large heavy based pan, add the leak and cook for 3-4 minutes; add the stalks and cook for 3 minutes; add the leaves and cook for further 3 minutes. Next stir in the sugar, pomegranate molasses and wheat. Add the stock, some salt and pepper and cook on a low heat for around 70-80 minutes when the wheat is al dente.  Remove the lead, slightly increase the heat to allow the liquid to evaporate and caramelise the  food so keep on the gas until the base of the pan has a bit of burnt caramel on it. It may take up to 30 minutes but it will allow to cook the wheat properly. Before serving add more salt, pepper and pomegranate molasses to your liking. 

Istanbul episode inspired tomato and apetina cheese salad
 I use to go Turkish groceries to get the cheese and bread for this feast but since I am making my own bread I found a good substitute for the cheese which is apetina - it is alike feta but not as salty so ideal for the salad.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
4 small well ripen tomatoes
pack of apetina cheese, cheese cut into big cubes
a handful of roughly chopped roasted nuts (hazelnuts or mix of nuts)
Olive oil
Dry thyme
Dry oregano
Nigella seeds
Pomegranate molasses
Raspberry vinegar

Let's do it:
In a bowl mix apetina cubes with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, Nigella seeds, dry thyme and oregano. Leave on the side.
Slice or cut tomatoes into big chunks and transfer to a serving bowl. Mix pomegranate molasses with raspberry vinegar and pour over the tomatoes. Arrange the cheese on the top and garnish with chopped roasted nuts.

Georgian inspired salad of beans and walnuts
Serves 2-4

Ingredients:
a tin of borlotti beans or kidney beans
a small handfull of walnuts
a big handful of fresh chopped parsley
a small red onion diced
olive oil
salt, pepper

Let's do it:
Rinse beans well in a colender and leave to dry, then transfer to a serving bowl, add the onion, parsley, salt and pepper and some olive oil - mix well. Using a pestle and mortar crash walnuts with some salt and sprinkle on the top.


Finally a great accompaniement to all - Turkish bread
This recipe should be really on the top of the post as although the bread is very easy to make it takes 2 hours before it is ready to serve due to the rising time.

Ingredients for a one big flatbread: 

230g of strong white flour
1 tsp of yeast
1 tbsp sugar
200ml warm water
1tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
egg wash - egg beaten with 1tbsp of milk
Nigella seeds
Sesame seeds

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 230C (fan assisted)
In a bowl mix warm water with sugar, little flour and yeast - leave to stand for 30 minutes until there is a little foam on the top. Next add flour, salt and oil  mix well and knead briefly. Grease a clean bowl with little oil, transfer the dough and leave for 1 hour until it doubles it size.

Sprinkle some flour on the flat baking tray and transfer the dought using your hand to flaten and give it a shape of the flatbread. Along the whole dough make marks with your fingers, next brush the top evenly with the eggwash. Sprinkle both seeds generously and leave to stand for further 20 minutes.
Bake for around 12 minutes until golden.

Quick butternut squash and carrot soup with toasted pine nuts

Hubby and I came back from run and starving. What do we (meaning I) do? Of course I cook!
Here is a quick, veggie and healthy soup.

Butternut squash and carrot soup with pine nuts
Serves 2


Ingredients:
Half a small butternut quash - peeled, deseeded and diced into 0.5cm cubes

Two medium - big carrots peeled and sliced rather thinly
Veggie stock pot (1) or veggie stock cubes (2)
1 shallot - peeled and diced
Chili flakes
Dash of milk
Salt, pepper
Little oil

Let's do it:
Heat the oil with a small knob of butter in a pan and gently fry diced shallot for 5 minutes adding some chili flakes. Next stir in diced butternut squash and carrots, then add enough water to cover vegetables and veggie stock (1 stock pot but 2 stock cubes).Bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes until carrots and butternut squash are tender. Add some salt and pepper and a dash of milk and blitz with a hand blender.
In the meantime heat the frying pan and toast without any fat a small hand full of pine nuts.

Serve with creme fraiche, pine nuts and a sprinkle of paprika and bread if you wish to make it a more substantial meal.

Superawsome jam swirl cake

For the first time ever I made jam and not only this but I engaged hubby in the process. Surprisingly we both enjoyed it a lot and end up with a few jars of a very tasty fig & pear homemade preserve.

As I did not cut the fruit in smaller chunks perhaps I should rather call it a conserve than preserve or jam? Hmmm... Anyway I thought it will be a splendid idea to use it in a cake! And it is! This is one of the best cakes ever, perhaps proving that it is not always about something fancy and complicated. Perhaps sometimes the devil is in simplicity.
Please note that measurements are in cups - a cup is a 250ml glass.

Jam swirl cake

Ingredients:
2 cups sifted flour
slightly less than 1/2 cup of caster sugar, light brown sugar - any sugar really
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
75g butter
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 cup of your favourite preserve/ conserve
almond flakes

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 190C (fan assisted) and grease 1kg loaf tin.
Into a bowl sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.  Transfer to a food processor add butter and blitz until fine crumbs. Return to the bowl and stir in milk and beaten egg until just mixed, transfer the batter into the baking tin, spoon the preserve on the top and swirl through the butter using a knife or a fork. It may seem that there is little batter for a 1kg loaf tin but the cake rises a lot so it is fine.
Sprinkle almond flakes on the top and bake for 30-35 minutes until the skewer comes clean.

When cooled sprinkle some icing sugar on the top. Enjoy!

Yogurt and oil cake with fresh fruit

It is getting significantly cooler, you can feel autumn in the air. Is there anything more pleasant than a slice of homemade cake on a rainy day? Most certainly the answer is yes:) Nevertheless the cake is also a big pleasure.

I had a pot of natural yogurt and wondered what do I do with it? If it was warm I'd had hundreds of ideas but when it's cold out there somehow yogurt stops appearing on my -favourite food of the season list-
But as in 9 out of 10 cake does become an answer.

I used a polish recipe as a base to this cake. I also what I do not do often these days used a cup measurement for the recipe. In Poland when we use a cup in a recipe it usually means a 250ml glass which makes things easy when you use the same glass to measure all ingeredients.
I used blueberries and raspberries in the cake but this is that kind of cake that would welcome any kind of fruit.

Yogurt and oil cake with blueberries, raspberries and almond flakes

Ingredients:

3 medium eggs
1 1/2 cup of sugar
3 cups of all purpose flour
2tsp of baking powder
1 cup of natural yogurt
1 tbsp of vanilla paste
1/2 of cup of oil
150g punnet of raspberries
200g punnet of blueberries
almond flakes
icing sugar

Let's do it:

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted) and grease your baking tin. Again I used my fluted cake ring as recently I love using it for all cakes so I greased it with a bit of sunflower oil using a brush.

In a big bowl using a hand mixer beat sugar and eggs until pale, this will take around 3-4 minutes. Add vanilla paste, then yogurt and oil and mix with the hand mixer.
Sieve flour into a separate bowl with the baking powder and then slowly keep adding to the batter only a bit at the time until well incorporated. Pour the batter into the greased tin, spread blueberries, raspberries and almond flakes around. Bakes 50 minutes until the clean skewer. Remove from the oven, make sure that it completely cools before removing from the tin. Sprinkle some icing sugar on the top.

Eggless cider cake with pear and sultanas

Egg less cider cake with pear and sultanas

This is a very easy and quick to assemble cake. It is a pure pleasure to eat on a weekend with a cuppa enjoying the time off and then on a week day with a cuppa at work, remembering that there is always another weekend to come.

Inspired by Hugh F-W, was published in the guardian Cooking with cider recipes

Ingredients:

250g self-raising flour
125g cold butter cubed
60g muscovado sugar
125g sultanas
100ml apple cider
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 large or 2 small pears peeled and sliced
1 - 2 tbsp demerara sugar

Let's do it:

Preheat the oven to 190C, grease your cake tin and line with a baking parchment. As I used the fluted tube tin I only greased it with a bit sunflower oil using a brush. In a food processor or using your good hands mix the flour and butter until reaches breadcrumbs consistency, next stir in sugar and sultanas. Separately mix cider with cider vinegar, pour into the dry ingredients and mix well but gently. Lastly add sliced pear again gently folding in. Bake 45 minutes or to the clean skewer.

Courgette and carrot rosti with smoked salmon and creme fraiche

Deliciously light and summery Sunday night supper!

Courgette & carrot rosti with smoked salmon and creme fraiche

Serves 3-4

Ingredients: 
3 medium courgettes washed and grated
3 medium carrots peeled and grated
2 small/ medium eggs
4 tbs of flour
salt and pepper
oil

To serve:
smoked salmon
creme fraiche
chopped dill
lemon slices/ wedges


Let's do it:
Place grated courgettes in a kitchen tea towel and squeeze the excess moisture out. Transfer to a big bowl and add grated carrots, eggs and flour and seasoning, mix well.  Heat the oil in the frying pan. Using a table spoon form a rosti in the frying pan and fry until golden brown on both sides, this will take around 10 minutes, around 5 minutes on each side. Try to make them fairly flat to make sure that they are cooked inside.
Use a paper towel to remove excess oil.

To assemble put rosti on a plate, top with bits of smoked salmon add a blob of creme fraiche, sprinkle dill and lemon juice. Enjoy!

Chocolate cake with fig jam and mascarpone frosting

Chocolate cake with fig jam and mascarpone frosting

I love Harry Eastwood's cake recipes. Almost every cake contains some vegetable - either courgettes, aubergines, butternut squash or others.

In this one I used Harry's recipe for a chocolate sponge with butternut squash, but the rest is my twist - jam from fresh figs and mascarpone frosting.
However Harry's original recipe sounds great and can be found in a Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache book which I thoroughly recommend.

Ingredients:

For the cake
3 eggs
200 g peeled and grated butternut squash
120g rice flour
160 g caster sugar
3 tbsp cocoa powder
80g ground almonds
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
125ml buttermilk (easy to make - pour a tsp of lemon juice into a glass followed by 125ml of milk, let it stand for at least 10-15min)

For the fig jam
5-6 well ripen figs quartered
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1-2 tbsp sweetener of your choice - sugar, honey, agave syrup or I used sumac syrup


For the mascarpone frosting
250g tube of mascarpone cheese
2 or more tbs cocoa
2-3 tbs icing sugar
1 generous tsp vanilla paste
1 tbsp milk

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180C fan assisted, you will need two 18cm loose bottom tins - greased with a little of vegetable oil and lined with a baking parchment.
In a large bowl whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, I used a helpful hand of my husband and this took around 8 minutes. Next beat in butternut squash and add all remained ingredients: flour, cocoa, ground almonds, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and lastly buttermilk. Mix well to ensure that all ingredients are well incorporated.
Pour the mixture to both tins, make sure that it's roughly the same amount of it and evenly spread. Bake for 30 minutes both tins should be on the same oven shelf.

Once baked remove from the oven and let them cool completely.

Fig jam - place figs in a saucepan, stir the pomegranate molasses and the sweetening agent. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn off the gas and let it cool completely.

Mascarpone frosting: place mascarpone in a big bowl and sift icing sugar and cocoa powder, add milk and vanilla paste and stir well. If you prefer the frosting sweeter or more chocolaty add more icing sugar and/or cocoa powder respectively, but remember to sift it to the mixture.

Assemble the cake only when all ingredients are completely cooled. Enjoy!

Bank Holiday weekend wine discovery

It's the weekend and it's bank holiday weekend! Hurrah:) and I am drinking good stuff! It is incredibly exciting to discover a new grape, new wine which turns up to be amazing:) We went on a stroll down King's Road and reached World's End when you can find Vivienne Westwood boutique shop with a big clock going very fast anticlockwise and next to it there is a wine shop Blanco & Gomez where the wine was discovered, wine merchant's website

Godello is a grape from the north of Spain, the wine is very elegant almost creamy but also have a slightly mineral note. Disadvantage as always the same - it's almost £30 but then again you only live once;)


Happy Bank Holiday!

Hairy bikers inspired post war eggless cake

I needed to bake and I needed to bake something quick and easy. I made up my mind and then a disaster struck. Hubby ate all eggs! What do I do? Egg-less cake was the answer. I like this recipe as it's easy, almost effortless but I adapted to it suit my vision. Nevertheless inspired by Egg-free sponge cake by Hairy Bikers

Egg-free cake with blackcurrants and almond flakes

Ingredients:
175g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
70g margarine/ soft butter

60 g light brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
125ml milk
50ml double cream
small punnet (approx 120g of blackcurrants)
almond flakes

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted) and grease a tube cake pan- round or a spring cake form (circa 20-25cm) 
With a hand mixer beat margarine/ butter with sugar and honey until light and fluffy. Add a little flour and milk, keep beating and adding little flour and then little milk at a time until well combined. Add cream and more milk if batter is too thick. Transfer to the baking form and arrange blackcurrants and almond flakes on the top, bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. 

Siciliana la dolce vita!

Gambino wine tasting menu

I'm back older and wiser after a long break...Perhaps not so much wiser but definitely older, last Sunday I celebrated my 40tieth! Hubby planned a secret birthday-trip-treat:)
For weeks he was showing me photos of places that could be anywhere in this world, gave me conflicting tips including: take your swim-suit, next Friday (one tip every Friday!) he said take your walking boots and fleece. I pretended that I don't care and whatever but it was a torture not to know:)))
Turned out it was Sicily:) La dolce vita and 5 happy sweet full of wonderful food, wine, desserts days! Can I please be back there? This is a message to the universe! Please hear me!

Everything we tasted was so wonderfully full of flavour, simple non-pretentious and made you want more! Wine was great, but we enjoy trying all sorts of fortified wine and here malvasia stands out for me but also passito was amazing.
Cannolo became my favourite treat of every day:) Among many other treats:) But la dolce vita is a commitment:)

Here are two shots from Gambino vineyard. Beautiful place run by a charming and committed family. Wine tasting is 4 wines but they leave bottles on the table and offer you to drink as much as you like. Wine is accompanied by a platter of local cheese, vegetables, delicious bread. And on top of that my fellow coutrywoman works there, thank you for everything Hanna! Na zdrowie! Cin cin!

Me in Gambino enjoying myself a lot:)

Tofu cheescake

I love the Cook supplement which is every Saturday added to the Guardian. Yesterday in Felicity Cloake's section were vegan recipes. This one is inspired by one of the recipes - Chocolate Truffle Torte
Please note that mine is not a vegan recipe.

Tofu cheesecake
Serves 6

Ingredients:

For the base:
50g roasted and cooled hazelnuts
10 hobnobs or digestive biscuits
20g melted butter/ margarine
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp icing sugar

For the cheesecake:
300g silken tofu
50g white chocolate
50g dark chocolate
1tbsp vanilla paste
2tbsp icing sugar

Using a food processor blitz hazelnuts until finely ground, remove and put aside. Now blitz hobnobs, add hazelnuts, cocoa powder, icing sugar and melted butter. Blitz to mix it all.

Transfer into a lose base cake tin and spread evenly, refrigerate.

Melt both chocolates in a microwave. In a clean food processor blitz tofu and add melted chocolates, vanilla paste, icing sugar and blitz. Transfer onto the base and refrigerate for at least two hours.
I was thinking of options for toppings - loads, possibly fresh fruit the best - fresh strawberries/ fresh raspberries.
I had no fresh fruit in the house so soaked dry cherries in Marsala wine and water (2tbsp each) for 30 minutes, drained and arranged on the top of the cheesecake with a bit of chocolate flakes on the top. The flakes can be easily done, holding the knife edge upright like a razor blade shave off flakes of chocolate as you drag it towards you.
 

Butternut squash with feta and white wine sauce, served with cornbread

Here we are having a glorious weather weekend! Finally summer arrived to England:-)

My body is craving all sorts of food which perhaps not necessarily is in demand during colder months. Although this one can easily be converted into risotto, pasta or pearl barlotto. 

Butternut squash in butter, white wine sauce with cornbread
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter

Ingredients:
500g peeled and cubed butternut squash
2 medium shallots finely chopped
20g butter 

2-3 medium cloves of garlic, minced
100ml white wine
2 veggie stock cubes or 1 knorr veggie stockpot
water
100g feta cheese
1 tsp dry sage
parsley 
chili flakes
salt & pepper

Let's do it:
In a big pan melt butter with a little bit of oil, add shallots and fry for a few minutes stirring once in a while. Add garlic, dry sage and chili flakes and fry a bit longer, pour in white wine and cook until wine is reduced and almost gone stirring from time to time (this will take around 5 minutes). Stir in butternut squash, cook for 2-3 minutes add stock and water, if it would be for a pasta or pearl barley sauce I would add no more than a 200ml water. I added around 500ml as I wanted to have some sauce to dip bread in it. Simmer until butternut squash is tender (around 15 min) and cooked, season well. Serve with crumbled feta and some chopped parsley.

Cornbread 
Recipe from Hugh F/W book, River Cottage Everyday
Very quick and easy to make - makes 12 slices/ pieces

Ingredients:
125g polenta
125g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 medium eggs
1 tbsp runny honey or soft brown sugar
150g yogurt or buttermilk
150ml whole milk
25g melted unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 220C and grease 23cm square baking tray. In a bowl mix together polenta, flour, baking powder, salt and bicarbonate soda and make a well in the middle. Add eggs, yogurt, honey, milk and melted butter and whisk it quickly, do not overdo it, quickly stir in extra ingredients (see below) - mine were chili flakes and chopped black olives. Pour the batter into the baking tray an place in the oven. Bake until golden.
Hugh F/W recommendations for extra ingredients:
- mushrooms (fried with garlic first)
- sweetcorn
- herbs
Virtually anything can be added as cornbread although nice on its own is rather plain.

Spaghetti puttanesca

 I love some of Jamie's ideas and this is a one of all time favourites and quick to make - spaghetti puttanesca.


Spaghetti puttanesca - Jamie Oliver's recipe (link to the tv series 30-Minute Meals)
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
tin of tuna in olive oil/ sunflower oil
small tin of anchovies
small bunch of parsley - chopped - separately leaves and stalks
2 garlic cloves crashed
800g of chopped tomatoes or a mix of passata and chopped tomatoes - I used 500g carton of passata and 400g carton of chopped tomatoes
2tsp of capers - drained
2 generous handfuls of black pitted olives
pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp of chili flakes
salt and pepper
lemon juice from half - whole lemon

500g spaghetti

Let's do it:
Cook the spaghetti according to the instruction on the packet.
In the meantime in a pan pour the oil from the tuna tin and add crashed garlic, fried gently until garlic starts being golden add chopped parsley stalks, chili flakes, capers, anchovies and anchovies oil  (don't be alarmed if it looks like a lot of oil) Fry for a minute or two and add broken into pieces tuna and passata/ chopped tomatoes with a pinch of cinnamon and some black pepper. Boil for a short while, add chopped parsley leaves season with salt and pepper.
When draining spaghetti save some of the liquid (not more than 100ml depending on how thin/ thick your sauce is) I always add a bit, perhaps 50ml to the sauce. Sprinkle lemon juice over the pasta, add the sauce and mix well. Buon appetito!

Saturday night wine - Errazuriz The Blend

Here is one of my favourite reds (pardon the stain on the bottle:)

Unfortunately not a cheap one - currently £18.99 in Waitrose, but drinking this is an utter pleasure that makes you feeling less guilty about the money spent:) But I suppose I drink anything that contains Mourvèdre! Should not mentioned that while having the blend I watched The Rum Diary which is not about drinking at all:)))

Fraisier

Fraisier - just a one small word, but what a cake! but so much so much to do! 
Results in a wonderful delicacy that leaves you eating it all in no time and still wanting more!
I did recently a one day patisserie course at Le Cordon Blue, thoroughly enjoyed it and here is my achievement of the day:) Hubby said that it was the best cake ever!:) Do you need a better complement?:-) But be prepared this is not a quickie!

I will write the recipe soon, I am afraid that I can't face it now as it quite a lot to write.

Pasta con salmone

We recently came back from Paxos and after having a Greek feast for over a week we are craving different type of food so here is simple and super quick pasta with salmon, this time linguine because this was available from the storage cupboard.

Creamy linguine with salmon

Serves 3

Ingredients:
200g smoked salmon, roughly cut into chunks
200ml pot of single or double cream (with double cream tastes better but...calories so make your own judgement)
50-80ml of milk
3 tbsp of drained capers
350g of linguine
handful of fresh, chopped dill 

Let's do it:
Cook the linguine according to instructions on the package. When draining keep a bit of the pasta liquid to add to the sauce - more or less 50ml.
In another pan gently bring to boil salmon, capers, cream and milk.; simmer briefly, add dill and season well. Turn of the gas add pasta with the saved liquid.
Served with lemon wedges.

Lemons of Paxos - nostalgia

Post about nostalgia

Hubby and I recently came back from Paxos. We love there because it is all about enjoying life in a simple way but oh boy what a way this is! Let me tell you this - the most challenging task for the day is to make sure that you catch a boat that takes you to Antipaxos to this beach as on the picture! Other than that all is about good food, good wine and good views while enjoying the first two!
 
Our friend Alex gave us this lemon, so it is more than obvious that not only people are happy in Paxos:)

Quick summer salmon and crushed new potatoes lunch

Here is lunchtime on bank holiday Monday. Looking into the fridge what can I make quickly and efortless and of course what goes together well. So here it is salmon, potatoes and french beans - they certainly do not dislike each other:)

Salmon crushed potatoes and french beans quick assemble
Serves 2

Ingredients:

120g of smoked salmon - cut into smaller strips
150-200g boiled new potatoes
50g boiled and halved french beans
half a lemon cut into wedges
100g of cream cheese
3 tbsp of natural yogurt
dill
2 spring onions or chives
salt and pepper
1tsp of drained capers

Let's do it:
 
Mix cream cheese with yogurt, add some lemon juice, dill, spring onions, capers and season. Check if the flavours are to your liking. Using fork crush the potatoes with 2tbps of the cheese/yogurt mixture and transfer to a plate. On top of potatoes arrange the salmon and beans. Cover with the rest of the cheese/ yogurt mixture. Decorate with lemon wedges/ slices. Serve with bread.

Berry crustless cheescake

We've been having a really nice weather this bank holiday weekend! This awaken a desire for a summer dessert, which in this instance is a crustless cheescake.
This is inspired by Hugh F-W 's recipe published in the Guardian in September 2012: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/sep/07/damson-recipes-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall

Summer berry crustless cheesecake

Ingredients:
500g ricotta
100g light cream cheese
50g unsalted butter - melted and cooled slightly
2 tbsp semolina
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
grated zest of one lemon and one lime

Berries:
1 punnet of raspberries, one of strawberries and one of blueberries but any fruit combination will do - all together around 500-600g of fruit

Let's do it:
Preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) and butter a springform cake, preferably 20cm - mine is 24cm which worked well although the cheesecake was flatter. 
Mix the cheeses with a wooden spoon until smooth and stir in all other ingredients. Transfer into the springform and bake for around 30-35 minutes until set.
Serve with fresh berries, berries compote (which I made with 50g of caster sugar and good squeeze of lemon juice). Also good addition make ice cream, frozen yogurt or plain yogurt.
Happy Bank Holiday;)

Back with the cake - Very berry courgette lime and coconut cake

I can't believe that it's been so long since my last post, I guess it only proves that time flies:) And what a cliche this is;-)
Anyway back with a cake recipe. Adding vegetables to your cake is no longer a strange idea. This one is with a courgette but also coconut berries and lime.

It is adapted from Harry Eastwood's book Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache

Very berry courgette lime and coconut cake

Ingredients:

for the base
80g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter
pinch of salt
120g desiccated coconut
30g fine semolina

for the sponge:
2 medium free range eggs
150g caster sugar
150 g peeled and finely grated courgette
zest and juice of 2 limes

120g white rice flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
200 g of frozen berries mix

Let's do it:

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted) Line the base of the spring form tin with a baking paper and brush sides of the tin with a bit of sunflower or any other oil.
Base - butter, sugar and a pinch of salt put in a saucepan and dissolve until it becomes a paste on a low gas. Tip the coconut and semolina to a bowl add the paste and mix together with your hand, it will be loose and crumbly. Transfer this into the spring form and bake for up to 15minutes. Be careful as sugar and coconut burn easily so 12-13 minutes maybe enough.
Sponge - beat the eggs with sugar using a hand mixer until light and pale. Add the courgette and lime zest and beat shortly. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and lime juice. As the rice flour is very light I stir all the remained ingredients with a spoon as the batter was very spluttering when I was using the hand mixer. Pour the mixture over the base. Gently rub little flour on berries which will prevent them falling to the bottom of the cake and scatter them over the top. Bake for 30 minutes.
Take out of the oven and cool in the spring form before removing.
Taste wonderful but even better on the next day!

Quick healthy veggie supper - veggie chorizo, egg and spinach salad and papaya yogurt mix

Super quick supper on a warm evening (finally the spring arrived:)

Veggie chorizo, egg and spinach salad
Serves generously 2 hungry veggie individuals


Ingredients:
150g of baby spinach
3 hard boiled eggs, cooled and peeled and quartered
1 red pepper cut into strips or cubes
1 tomato halved and cut into slices
a handful of green or black olives halved 
a pack of veggie chorizo
olive oil or rapeseed oil 
salt & pepper

Let's do it:
Arrange on a bed of spinach in a salad bowl layers of vegetables and chorizo, add some olive oil or rapeseed oil and season well. Top with egg quarters.

And for the dessert healthy papaya&yogurt fix. Everything that is not full of fat and sugar is sort of ok;) but it is a quick and healthy sugar fix!




Papaya with yogurt
 Serves 1 or 2modest individuals

Ingredients:
papaya, peeled deseeded and cubed
100g greek style yogurt
1 tbsp of lime juice
1 tsp of desiccated coconut (optional)
blackberries to serve (optional)

Let's do it:
Blitz papaya in the food processor until smooth. Beat the yogurt with a whisk and add half of the papaya puree and the lime juice. In a big wine glass pour the papaya puree and then the yogurt mix. Top with dessicated coconut and blackberries or any other fruit of your choice.

Almond biscotti time

Tonight I am making biscotti. I have been trying many cakes lately, some with a greater result and some with not so great:-) Some of those lesser episodes made me want to stop but here I am! And no I am not going to give up!


Almond biscotti
Makes approx. 20 biscotti

Ingredients:
2 medium eggs 
a pinch of salt
80g of ground almonds
140g of flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp of vanilla extract
50g of icing sugar
90g of  mix of dried fruit & nut - as I had bits and bobs of all sorts I ended up adding sultanas, dried cranberries, almond flakes and blanched almonds, but ideally next time it will be just dried cranberries or sour cherries and blanched almonds.

Let's do it
Preheat the oven to 160C. In a bowl beat eggs with a pinch of salt and then add flour, ground almonds, vanilla extract, baking powder icing sugar and the mix of fruit and nuts and form a dough. It is a bit sticky so sprinkle some flour on the worktop. Roll the dough into a log - around 8cm wide and 2cm thick. Transfer onto a flat baking tray with a baking paper on. Bake for 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it cool for around 10-15 minutes. Then cut into slices 1cm thick with a serrated knife. Arrange in the same baking tray on the paper. Bake 5 minutes on each side. Allow to cool completely. Store in a sealed container for up to a week.

Baked salmon with crushed potatoes, green beans and black olive tapenade

I think I fell into a time whole as I did not post anything for ages. Finally it's warmer in London and a kind of spring arrived;) 

Baked salmon with crushed potatoes, green beans and black olive tapenade
Serves 2

Salmon
Two frozen salmon fillets
 Butter
Oil
Slices of lemon

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted). Pour a tablespoon or two of oil into a baking tray and put the fillets in. Top each fillet with a couple of small slices of butter, black pepper and slices of lemon. Bake for 35 minutes.

Crushed potatoes
250g of new potatoes/ Charlotte potatoes
Olive oil/ rapeseed oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped chives

Wash the potatoes and cut into smaller pieces, boil in salted water until tender for 15 - 18 minutes and drain. Pour over 2 tablespoons of olive oil or rapeseed oil, season and crush the potatoes with a fork.

Tapenade
This makes more tapenade than you need for your dinner but it's so delicious that can be eaten with anything! Can be stored in a sealed container in a fridge for up to two weeks.
180g black pitted olives
a juice of one small lemon
2 tbsp of capers, drained
6 anchovies fillets, rinsed
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped finely
 parsley
basil leaves
salt and pepper
2-4 tbsp of olive oil or rapeseed oil

Tip all the ingredients to a food processor and whizz briefly if you prefer a coarse texture or for longer if you prefer a smooth texture.

Serve as on the picture below:) Enjoy!

One of the quickest breads I know

I was about to polish off the cauliflower and almond soup from last night but all of a sudden I realised that all those wonderful three breads I baked for Easter are now gone. How can have a bowl of soup without bread? So I started thinking what's the quickest bread to make? I eagerly searched on-line and here is what resulted in this quick creation. Within 40 minutes of starting the preps the bread was ready. 

Very quick rye soda bread
Adapted from Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's Rye and honey soda bread

Ingredients
250 g stoneground rye flour
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
1/4 tsp salt
80g seed mix of your choice, I added the omega sprinkle mix from Holland& Barret
100ml full fat milk
100ml natural yogurt
5tbsp agave nectar
1 tbs rapeseed oil


Let's do it
Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted) and grease a flat baking tray with oil and sprinkle with flour.
Mix the flour with bicarb soda, salt and the seeds. 
In a separate bowl or measuring jug mix milk, yogurt, agave nectar and rapeseed oil. Pour over the dry ingredients and mix quickly but thoroughly. The dough will be sticky, so using a spatula transfer it onto the baking tray and shape into a more or less round loaf 7-8 cm high,  sprinkle over some rye flour and make a halfway through cross incision. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Take out of the oven and tap the bottom of the bread, if it sounds hollow than the bread is done. Cool on a wire rack.

Cauliflower and almond soup

I love soups and I love making them too! They are a balm for my body and soul:)
This one is a particularly favourite one.

Cauliflower and almond soup
Adapted from Allegra McEvedy's Leon book, also published in the Guardian
Allegra McEvedy's recipe for cauliflower& almond soup

Serves 3-4

Ingredients
medium fresh cauliflower (700g)
25g butter
1 medium onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp ground ginger
35g ground almonds
500 ml veggie stock
300ml full-fat milk
salt and pepper

To serve: chopped parsley, almond flakes, lemon wedges - 1 for each portion, bread

Let's do it
Cut the cauliflower florets of the central trunk and roughly chopped, also roughly chop the trunk.
Melt the butter in a pan with a splash of oil add the onion, garlic, spices and the chopped trunk and cook until onion starts to soften. Stir in the ground almond and ensure that all is well coated then pour the stock into the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes and add the cauliflower florets, they will not be completely covered but as they continue to cook they will be covered, stir from time to time and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the cauliflower is tender. Stir in the milk and using a hand blender blitz until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with almond flakes, freshly squeezed lemon juice from a lemon wedge, chopped parsley and bread or baguette.

Two Krantz cakes according to Jerusalem

I love the Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamini , not only for its recipes but also for wonderful shots of Jerusalem which is one of the top places of my list to visit before I die.
Hubby bought the book for me for Christmas. Ever since I have been hypnotised by the krantz cake. Somehow it always felt a bit Polish to me, a bit familiar and I always wanted to make it but being warned by the two authors that it is a time intensive recipe I was waiting for the right time. And this was Easter! Oh boy indeed it took a solid few hours to make. Also having a cheap mixer did not help as making the dough requires a powerful mixer with a dough hook, however I made it partly using a cheap mixer and partly with my own hands:)
Here it is below - by no means as beautiful as in the book but my krantz cake was produced in two versions - chocolate& pecan and butter & walnut.

Krantz cake (makes 2)
From Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Important note: Make the dough a day in advance and refrigerate overnight
 
Ingredients:
530g of plain flour
100g caster sugar
2 tsp fast-action yeast 
grated zest of 1 small lemon
3 large free range eggs or 4 medium eggs
120ml water
1/3 tsp salt
150g unsalted butter cut into cubes, at room temperature
sunflower oil for greasing

Place the flour, sugar, yeast and zest in a bowl and mix for 1 minute to stir all together. Add the eggs, water and mix further on a medium speed for 3 minutes until the dough comes together. I did this stage in a food processor, it worked although the food processor didn't like it, basically because the dough sticks to everything. Add salt and start adding the butter, a few cubes at a time. At this stage my food processor refused to co-operate, my cheap hand mixer also failed me so all I had left were my hands! I dusted the working surface with some flour and I kneaded the remained butter into the dough and then kept kneading for a few minutes until the dough was elastic and shiny. If however you have a good mixer the recipe instructs to mix the dough for 10 minutes on medium speed with the dough hook.
Place the dough in a large oiled bowl and refrigerate overnight.
Next morning you should have a beautifully risen dough ready to work on further. 
Following this I did the two recommended fillings - chocolate&pecan filling and butter &walnut, so the proportions below are for one cake, double up if you want to have two krantzes with the same filling.

Chocolate filling
25g icing sugar
15g cocoa powder
65g chocolate and 60g unsalted butter melted in bain-marie
50g pecans roughly chopped
1 tbs caster sugar
Mix together all ingredients to a paste and allow it to cool.

Butter and walnut filling
80g unsalted butter melted
60g light muscovado sugar
50g roughly chopped walnuts
1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon

Grease two 1kg loaf tins with sunflower oil and line the bottom with a baking paper. 

Coming back to the dough. Take it out of the fridge and cut into two halves. put one half back to the fridge. Sprinkle some flour on the work top and roll the dough out flat into a 38cm x 28cm rectangle. Trim the sides so they are more or less even. Spread the chocolate mixture and

leave 2cm on each side free of the mixture. Sprinkle the pecans and 1tbsp of caster sugar.
Brush one of the longer sides with a bit of water. Start rolling out from the opposite side into a roulade. Press to seal with the water ended bit. Roll into a cigar and trim around 2cm from each end with a serrated knife. Now cut the roulade lengthways and with the cut side facing up gently press together ends of each half and then lift the right half over the left half and alternate so you are making a plait. Gently squeeze the other ends together. Carefully place the cake in the tin cover with a wet tea-towel and leave to rise for 1 1/2 hours. 

Krantz before baking

In the meantime preheat the oven to 170C (fan assisted) and take the other half of the dough out of the fridge and roll into the same size rectangle as previously, also cutting uneven parts away. Brush with butter, sprinkle walnuts, sugar and cinnamon then roll and create the plait exactly the same way as with the chocolate version. Carefully transfer into the other tin and allow to rest and rise for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the tea towels and put krantzes in the oven for about 30minutes, run the skewer test.
In the meantime make the syrup.

Syrup
 260g caster sugar
160ml water

Ready krantz, behind the chocolate one

Mix the water and sugar in a saucepan over the medium gas. As soon as the syrup boils turn off the gas.


Brush all the syrup over the two cakes as soon as they are taken out of the oven. Leave the cakes until just warm and then transfer to a plate or cooling rack to allow to cool completely.


 As I had some dough leftover and I would hate to discard them I kneaded it briefly and created some buns which I called "platted krantzies" and sprinkled them over with caster sugar and cinnamon.  With coffee they were a piece of heaven in my mouth! I baked them slighly shorter (around 20minutes) until nicely brown.

Ready plait krantzies

Plait krantzies before baking