Goodbye dry January welcome wet January!

Hubby and I have been testing dry January for 10 days. We read about big improvement in sleep quality, the way skin looks, and all sorts of other benefits. For 10 days we saw hardly any of that. Perhaps because we don't drink every day and have a relatively healthy life style therefore on Saturday we decided that it was time to say goodbye to dry January and welcome wet January!

For the celebration we choose Sicilian whites, wonderful Malvasia which is one of my favourites among whites and typical Sicilian catarratto grape. Both great Malvasia absolutely brilliant - full of flavour, round and rich. Catarratto lighter, more mineral very good for a warm day like today in London was around +3C in the night;)
Both from a really great wine shop in South Kensington Handford Wines

We did a wonderful walk today and it was all in all such a beatiful and full of small adventures day. We discovered this amazing little museum house which belonged to a Victorian artist Frederic Leighton. Throughly worth recommending - Leighton House

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!