Hungarian Walnut / Poppy Seeds Rolls { Bejgli }

The real thing doesn't look anything like what I took out from the oven haha!! My pastry was flaky unlike the traditional christmas treat. Whatever it is, I am happy with the taste! Also, surpsingly, I enjoyed the poppy seeds filling this time; which normally is not my first choice .

Recipe and detailed instructions here.
 
My notes:-
Poppy seed fillings, mix together:-
100g poppy seeds, grounded
50g honey
50g water, heat and add to honey before combing with other ingredients
a bunch of dried cranberries or raisins - soaked in water
some grated lemon peel

Mixture should not be too watery and should just be easily spread on dough

Flourless Chestnut Chocolate Cake

A bit rich but definitely yum!
Recipe from here as seen on the F word

Note to self :-
Based on 3 eggs and portion according to this 0.75.
Used sweetened chestnut puree; hence have reduced sugar to only 50gm.

Hungarian Floating Island { Madártej }

Whenever we return to my in-laws, my m.i.l make this delicious Hungarian dessert for us. Although I love the dessert, I resisted from making it at home because I didn't want to know the calories which go inside it. But I was craving it very much today! So, I quickly checked online for a recipe. It is a good thing to know that it requires simple ingredients which is easily available at home and not as high-calorie as I thought.

As I am typing this, the floating island is still being chilled in the fridge. I did have a small sample of it. It is definitely not as good as my m.i.l's. oh well...it is my first attempt after all.

I found the process of boiling the beaten egg-white (island) a bit too delicate for me to handle; which created a mess. The "island" tasted salty ; while the milk is not thick enough ..may be it is due to that I halved the recipe... However, I do see myself making this again :) Just that I won't be serving it to any Hungarian guests soon..haha.

If made right, the island should be firm and light and the milk should have a consistency of light cream and give a scent of vanilla.

Madártej (Hungarian floating islands)

Ingredients for 6 portions: (I halved the recipe)

1 l milk
4 eggs
100 g + 2 spoonfuls sugar *** too sweet for me1 teaspoonful flour
1 pinch of salt
1 pod of vanilla *** you may substitute with vanilla sugarMethod :
Divide the eggs and whip the whites with the salt. When it is rather stiff add 2 spoonfuls of sugar and whip until glossy.

Warm the half of milk with the vanilla pod in a shallow saucepan and put dumplings of egg white into it with the help of a tablespoon. Boil the both sides of the dumplings for 1 minute each, then take them out on a sieve. Repeat it until all the egg whites are consumed. Don't overcrowd the pan because the dumplings grow during boiling.

Mix the egg yolks with the rest of sugar and beat until light and foamy. Add the flour, bit by bit the cold milk and in the end sieve the hot milk into it.

Boil the cream with continous stirring on low heat until thickens. Don't let it boil.

Divide immediately into small bowls and top with the white dumplings. Serve chilled.

Rum Balls

I have been wondering how to make the Hungarian kókusz golyó ( literally coconut balls) for quite sometime. My search online brought me to this recipe. Looks easy enough for me. And I'm telling you now it is very easy to prepare! Just make sure you make it a day in advance of the day you plan to serve it.

I've scaled down the recipe to suit the quantity of biscuits in hand (about 110g crushed); which yield about 18 balls. The end result I think is quite similar to the original and B said so ,too :)

Note to self
1) Replaced Nice biscuits to local Győri Albert biscuits - scale down to 110g
2) Replaced sweetened condensed milk to home-made sugar syrup -50g sugar + 20ml hot water
3) Used essence of rum instead
4) Soaked raisins (sultanas) in sugar syrup, rum and vanilla extract before adding to dry ingredients.

Zöldborsófőzelék, a dish of peas

A dish of peas, that's the result I got from the translator. This dish can be served as a starter or eaten as main meal together with meat fillets. I've always love anything-peas, so it's no surprise that this dish is one of my favourie Hungarian dishes. It's great especially on cold autumn and winter days...I simply eat them with bread, delicious :)

The translated recipe is as follows :-

Zöldborsófőzelek

Ingredients

300gm green peas (fresh or frozen)
Oil , for sauté
Salt, to taste
Marjoram , a pinch
2-3 Tbsp of Sugar or sweetener (you may adjust to taste)
Milk , enough to cover peas
3 Tbsp flour, as thickener (you may adjust to taste, although I find the result thicker than the ones I usually have)
Parseley, finely chopped


Method

1) Heat a little oil on a sauce pan, add green peas and cook for 5-6 mins.

2) Next add salt, marjoram and sugar to the green peas, and stir a little. Pour in the milk enough to cover peas.

3) Mix flour with a little milk and put aside. When peas are soft, stir in the flour mixture. Stir it for a few minutes and remove from heat.

4) Finally add finely chopped parsley before serving.

Barley and Sausages

Barley is usually prepared as sweet drink back home, never have I seen it being used in savoury dishes until I came here. I have to say that it took me some time to get used the savoury barley. Then last winter, I came accross this recipe and I am loving the savoury option more and more :)
I've just eliminated potatoes from the original recipe but added zuchinni and roasted pepper (not added yet in the photo). Simple ingredients but full of flavours !
 
Barley & Sausage
recipe via 80 Breakfasts 

Ingredients
1/2 cup barley, cooked as per package instructions 
200 grams country sausage, sliced 
1 medium potato, peeled and cubed 
1 big white onion, sliced into half moons 
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
a pinch dried thyme 
a pinch fennel seeds 
olive oil 
sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Method
1) Cook barley as per package instructions. Set aside.
2) Heat olive oil in a pan. Add onions and potatos and sautee for a couple of minutes. Add garlic, dried thyme, and fennel seeds. Toss. Add sausage and sautee until potatoes are soft, onions are slightly golden, and sausage is nice and seared in places.
3) Add cooked barley and toss so everything is evenly mixed. Season to taste with salt and pepper and sautee a bit more just to mingle flavors. Take of heat and serve.
4) Serves 2.

Chow Mein, Asian stir-fried noodles 炒麵

I think every Chinese household has a different versions of chow mein. This kyliekwong 's version (as seen on Tv Paprika) uses ginger, which I've never included in my version before this. Also, her soy base sauce was much more straight forward to prepare than mine. Anyway, here's how I tweaked her recipe based on what is available in my kitchen .

Chow Mein 炒麵

Serves : 1

Ingredients :-

One serving of spaghetti pasta (kw's recipe uses flat rice noodles)

few slices of ginger

2 cloves of garlic

half of red onion

cabbage (kw's uses chinese cabbage)

spring onions

white pepper to taste

thick soya sauce

light soya sauce

oil for stir-frying

* sesame seeds omitted (totally forgotten about it!)

* bean sprout was omitted (not available in my kitchen)

* You may also add any kind of meat / seafood of your choice.

Preparation :-

1) Cook spaghatti pasta according to your brand's instruction.

2) In the mean time, prepare sliced ginger, chopped onion , garlic, spring onions.

3) Heat oil in a wok, sauté ginger, onion and garlic until fragrant. Next in the same wok, put the dark soya sauce (enough to cover the pasta) , simmer it for a bit. Then toss-in the cooked pasta and stir-fry until soya sauce colour pasta fully. Next , toss-in cabbage, spring onion and neam sprout and continue to stir-fry for a bit. Add light soya sauce and white pepper to taste. Stir-fry for a about 3 minutes and it's ready.

4) Serve with toasted sesame seeds.

Moist Chocolate Cake

MMmmmmm..the taste does live up to the name - moist! The recipe made me 3 small alum. foil trays and I alone finished 3/4 of a tray..help, someone please hide it

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My normal practice whenever baking a cake is reduce the qty. of sugar stated, but somehow for this one I followed to the T and the sweetness was balanced with the after taste of cocoa / coffee...simply perfect!!

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Head over to Pusiva's for the recipe.

Moist Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp hot water
1 tsp instant coffee powder or granules

1 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup water

Method:

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.

Dissolve the coffee with hot water. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well. Beat in the coffee and vanilla essence. Gently fold in the flour mixture alternating with water. Start and end with the flour mixture.

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan. Bake at 175° C for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving or frosting it with your favourite cream, as per desired. The cake tastes better the next day. 

Coconut Yellow split peas dhal with Flat Breads

I've always dreaded making bread; however, this recipe is so easy I know it will be featured frequently on our dinner table. The breads were to accompany the coconut dhal (recipe below) but we had some left over of which we sandwiched the flat bread by spreading cucumber tzatziki and baked beans .... simply yummy!

Flat breads
adapted from BBC Good Food
Serves 8

Ingredients
140g plain flour
140g bread flour
1 tbsp vegetable oil
200ml water

Method
1) Put the flours and 1 tsp salt into a large bowl and mix. Stir 1 tbsp vegetable oil into 200ml water into , then mix this into the flour, stir until you have a smooth dough. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 5 mins, then return to the bowl, cover and leave in a warm place to rest for 20 minutes.

2) Divide the dough into 8 balls. Roll out each ball on a lightly floured surface to a rough 18cm circle the thickness of a 10p coin. Prick each one well with a fork to stop them rising. To cook on a barbecue: put the breads on the centre of the grill. Cook for a few mins, then turn and cook the other side.

3) Brush the breads with more melted butter. Reheat the griddle between batches and stack them on top of each other to keep warm

Coconut Yellow Split Peas "Dhal"Receipe from BBC Good Food

I've substitute red lentils with yellow split peas which works fine. This recipe is also a keeper :)

 

I've also served the with simple Sambal made with
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium-sized Onion
a touch of erős pista (hunagrian ground chilli)
a touch of fish sauce
sugar (to taste)

Hungarian Magic Cake { Tejes Pite }

credit: puszta.com

When I saw the photo above at the mentioned site, I knew I have to make this dessert. It looked delicious plus I haven't tasted one before :) Another reason I like this recipe is that the ingredients could be easily available in one's pantry.
So, yesterday I woke up early morning (4.30am) to make this custard cake in order for it to cool in time to bring along with us when we visit my M&FIL.
The recipe has been scaled down based on 2 eggs instead of five. Just do simple math to get the appropriate portion of each ingredients. Also, the baking time needs to be shorten in view of lesser liquid involved.
Verdict
It was indeed an easy dessert to whip up but with satisfying result. In fact, my MIL loved it! She told us that it brought back some childhood memories when her mom used to bake it for her. We found out that she doesn't have the recipe (No wonder she hasn't baked this for us!) So, I'll be printing the Hungarian version of this recipe for her to try out.
 

Tejes Pite
Puszta.com 

Ingredients:
5 egg yolks
30 g vanilla sugar
150 g sugar
100 g margarine
250 g flour
1 liter milk
5 egg whites
salt
zest of 1 lemon
margarine to grease baking pan
breadcrumbs

Method:

In a large bowl mix egg yolks, vanilla sugar, sugar, pinch of salt. Add margarine and the lemon zest. Add flour and milk gradually to sugar mixture, beating to a thin smooth batter.
Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt, until stiff peaks form, then add it carefully to the pancake dough.
Coat the bottom of a 26 cm baking pan with margarine, sprinkle with breadcrumbs and pour the dough into it. Sprinkle the top with small pieces of margarine. Put into a cold oven, then turn on the heat to 150 ºC and bake it for 1 hour.
When the pie is done, cool for a few minutes, then cut into 8-10 bars. Serve it with apricot jam, but it tastes delicious by itself as well.

Tips:

• Use hand mixer to get a smooth batter.
• Do not add baking powder or baking soda.
• Cool the egg whites before beating.
• Add a pinch of salt or a few drops of lemon juice to the egg whites, to make it easier to beat.
• Mix only half of the beaten egg whites to the dough, then carefully fold in the other half, without breaking it up much. 
  

Mango and Apple Salad

This salad was adapted from salt n tumeric 's recipe with couple of substitutes. The combination of aroma of lime , spiciness of Erős Pista , sweet and soury apple and mango make this a great dish as an appetiser.

Mango and apple salad

Ingredients:-
1 mango , roughly grated or julienned
1 apple , roughly grated or julienned
1 red onion, chopped
1 juice of lime
sugar , to taste
fish sauce , few dashes
Erős Pista (Hungarian sambal oelek ?) , to taste - substitute for Thai chilli
Peanuts , roughly ground

Prepare all ingredients and toss them together. Voila!

Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)

Don't they look mouth-watering? Thanks Do what I like for sharing this wonderful recipe. Taste wise is as good as the ones I usually get during dim sum breakfast or sunday market..light, crunchy on the outside, soft inside with a hint of sweetness!
Only thing to be aware of is the temprature of the oil when frying the dumplings. Do ensure oil is not too hot or dumplings and sesame seeds would burnt rather quickly. .
 
Chinese Laughing Dumplings (笑口棗)
click here for recipe.


Ingredients: (18 pieces)
90g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
40g sugar
1.5 tsp melted shortening (I used Crisco)
3 tbsp cold water
White sesame seeds for coating

Method:
1. Sieve flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in sugar.
2. Add in the melted shortening and water, mix to form a soft dough.
3. Rest dough for 30 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 10g pieces and shape it into round balls.
5. Wet the round dough balls with water and coat it with white sesame seeds.
6. Deep fry coated dough balls in oil, turning the dumplings with a ladle till golden brown.
7. Use absorbent kitchen paper towel to get rid of excess oil.
8. Cool before storing in an air-tight container.

Notes:1. Oil should not be too hot while you slide in the dough balls, otherwise the sesame seeds will get all burnt out. Increase the heat after you have slided in the dough balls. An easy snack to do but you have to control of the heat while deep frying. Would advise you to fry 2 at time until you get the rhythm of the heat control.
2. If you like the dumplings to be of larger size, you can increase the dough balls to 13g each.
3. Floured your hands if you find the dough a little sticky to handle.

 

Hungarian Ratatouille { Lecsó }

The base or basic ingredients for Lecsó (pronounced - Lecho) are tomatoes, onions and sweet paprika. Today I've included hard boiled eggs in the stew which tasted well together and finally, they're great with crusty bread :)

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The following recipe was extracted from the internet loooong time ago (sorry, i've lost the link) .

LECSÓ
with sausage
serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

5 large onions (cut them into half and slice them)

6 large cubanell or european style of green peppers (sliced into rings)(Do not use green bell peppers they have a bitter flavor.)

4 large very ripe tomatoes peeled and diced. If the skin is hard to peel put them into hot water for a minutes, then try it again.

150g. of bacon (cut into cubes)

250g. of smoked sausage (cut into rings)

1 Tbs. of tomatoe puree

1.1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. grated black pepper

1.1/2 Tbs. of sugar

1.1/2 Tbs. of paprika
METHOD

Fry the bacon cubes medium brown in a large frying pan. If you didn't get enough fat add a few Tbs. of oil. Sprinkle with the paprika and add the sliced onions. Cook it for 2 minutes and throw all the ingrediens and spices into the pan. Cook it for 1/2 hour with occasional stiring.Taste to see if more salt or sugar is needed.

Swiss Roll

Swiss roll is one of my favourite cakes. The humble eggy and light sponge cake filled with whipped cream and fruits can be very satisfying! I've used the following recipe many times with more failures than successes . Often it is due to the high room temperature the egg whites just didn't want to stiff as it should be; of which resulted in a heavy as rock cake :s

But last weekend all the failures were wiped out from memory as my swiss roll turned out fluffy and light ..even after two days!

Swiss Roll
source : Hungarian cookery

Ingredients

For sponge cake
90gm flour
4 eggs, separated
salt
120gm sugar
1tsp baking powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar

For fillings - as you wish ...but in this case
250ml whipped cream with 2-3 tsp powdered suger, or to taste
Apricot jam
Apricot fruit


Method
To make sponge cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c.

2. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until it become stiff foam. Set aside

3. In a bowl combine together dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar. In another bowl beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy. When eggs mixture is creamy, add in the dry ingredients and combine well.

4. Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture carefully.

5. Prepare baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 15 min.

6. Remove cake from oven. Let it cool for a while ; but roll up cake when it is still hot. When cake is cooled completely, unrolled it and spread with your favourite jam or whipped cream.

Crunchy Peanut slaw

Yummy new recipe from here !

Alterations :-
1) I didn't follow the quantity exactly but based the quantity on my own preference. For example, I dislike using too much of sesame oil which I've reduced to only a few drops.

2) Replaced rice wine vinegar with white vinegar. 

3) Replaced corriander with parsley. Not available in the shops near me* sigh* ..with corriander the taste would have been more interesting for sure.
 

Crunchy Peanut Slaw 

serving: 1 big bowl of slaw, serves at least 8

Ingredients
1 medium head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
1 1/2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 bunch green onions
1 cup chopped cilantro (about two big handfuls unchopped)
Salt and pepper
Dressing:
1/2 cup light oil, like canola
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce (or more, to taste)
 
Method
Shred the cabbage very finely. The fineness of the shredded cabbage is really what makes this salad; you want it in in threads, almost, and with the threads chopped into bite-size lengths. Toss with the peanuts in a large bowl. Chop the scallions, including the green and white parts. Toss the scallions and chopped cilantro with the cabbage, seasoning very lightly with salt and pepper.
Whisk the dressing until emulsified, then taste and adjust to your own preferences of sweetness and saltiness.
Toss with the cabbage. Garnish with a few more peanuts and serve.

Bibimbap Imitation { Korean cuisine }

You know sometimes when you see a dish that you really fancy in magazines, etc..but it didn't come with a recipe, what do you do? Me, imitate!! I'll lock that dish in mind or if i'm not tooo lazy to get a pen and paper, i'll quickly write down with guesses on what goes into the mysterious dish and hopefully be able to cook it as soon as possible ;)

So, the following dish was inspired under similar situation..Tadaa! my version of Bibimbap!

Bibim bap is Korean and it simply means mixed (=Bibim) rice (=bap) . After researching online, the way to eat this meal is to mix the rice/vege whatnots thoroughly with spoon or in this case, chopsticks. See here for the original serving of Bibim bap.

I didn't bother to look for the actual recipe, the ingredient was "what you see is what you get" basis minus some bits which are not available in the 'super' i.e. a bit of Hungarian pickled cabbage, 1 egg -sunny side-up, spring onions, toasted sesame and dash of soya sauce and its ready!

The crunchy soury taste of pickled vege. and everything else matches so well, an appetising comfort food, and a keeper for those lazy days. 

Red Onion Relish

We just had this very simple and refreshing relish for the past 2 days.. with our hamburgers. Yeah I know it is not a healthy diet but I was thinking about this relish so much that I had to make the hamburger again for dinner tonight. Of course you can accompany it with other meat dishes but hamburger was the easy way for me ;)

I tweaked the ingredients a little based on what I have in the fridge. Here's the recipe

Red Onion Relish
adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 pickle red chillies (an asian brand-vietnamese specifically) , slice finely
small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 small red onion, cut into wafer-thin slices
a few dashes of fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
freshly milled black pepper

just toss all ingredients together and top it on the hamburger!

Custard Cake

I knew baking this perfect custard cake would be a minor challenge with my novice baking skills. Sure enough the egg white didn't turn out right! Hence, when pouring the cake mixture on to the custard mix, the cake mixture sank right to the bottom... I proceeded to baking it nonetheless.
After 25 minutes (shorter time due to reducing of custard topping), the cake came out nice and brown. It appeared ok after all ! We enjoyed this cake very much and sure that it will be a regular for special occasions :)
Thanks Pinoy Cook for sharing!

Stuffed Chilli Peppers

That's the recipe I tried for yesterday's lunch. The usual stuffings that I'm familiar with are mince pork+rice or fish paste. I think meat or fish stuffing + pepper helps to balance the spiciness of the pepper. While this vegetarian version that I tested was packed with spices, take a bite and it'll woken up all your senses! This dish is great with a plate of steamed rice... Ooh la la. This is certainly a keeper!

Stuffed chilli peppers
Recipe from Spice Hut

Ingredients:
8 chilli peppers
2 large potatoes
1 small onion
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp MDH Pav Bhaaji Masala (omitted, since not available)
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt to taste, oil for saute

Method:
Peel the potatoes, wrap them in paper towels and cook in the microwave for 8-9 min. Remove, crumble them. Keep aside. Place coriander seeds in a ziploc bag& pound roughly with a rolling pin. Finely chop the onion.

Hold the chilli pepper in the palm of your hand and make a long slit along one side, using a small knife. Remove the seeds & white part inside the pepper with your fingers or spoon. Repeat with all the peppers. When done make sure to clean your hands with soap. Preferrably wear gloves.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add the onion, saute till translucent. Add the Pav Bhaaji Masala, red chilli powder, cumin seeds, crushed coriander seeds, salt to taste. Saute for 2 min. Add the crumbled potatoes & adjust salt. Mix well till potatoes are coated well with the masalas. Turn off stove. Cool this stuffing for a bit.

Pack the stuffing in the prepared chilli peppers. In the same non-stick pan, heat more oil. Once oil is hot, reduce heat to medium low &carefully (use tongs) place the stuffed peppers into the oil, slit side up. Let it cook like this for 5 min.

Turn off stove, remove stuffed chillies and place them in a baking dish. Bake for 15-20 min in a preheated 325 degrees oven. Serve hot.

My version of Mille Crepe

The long list of ingredients required for mille crepe puts me off from trying out the recipe. It is far too complicated for my attention span :p Perhaps some other time...
So, the next best solution for me was to use the Hungarian crepe (palacsinta) recipe by June meyer instead and by stacking up layers of palacsinta to imitate the mille crepe look ;)

Pancakes (Palacsinta)
Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients
4 whole eggs
2 cups milk
2 tsp. sugar
2 cups sifted flour
Butter

1) Mix flour, salt and sugar.Combine well beaten eggs and milk.Add egg and milk gradually to flour mixture, beating to a thin smooth batter.Let batter sit for 1/2 hour. This gets rid of the raw flour taste.

2) Spoon 3 Tbls. on hot buttered skillet. Will be very thin. Tilt skillet quickly in a circular motion to distribute batter over skillet. Brown lightly on both sides.Continue this until batter is used up.

To make Chocolate syrup1 bar of dark chcolate

1) Break chocolate into pieces and melt it using double boiler.

Assembling the cake

Almond flakes or grated walnut and powdered sugar for sprinkling

1) spread melted chocolate lightly on every crepe, meanwhile stacking it up til the desired height.
2) Finish off with more melted chocolate on top, sprinkle almond flakes all over.
3) When serving, sprinkle with some powdered sugar and a dollop of cream.

Asian Peanuts Pancake { Mi Jian Kueh }

Thanks food blogger Aunty Yochana for sharing this recipe. If you read the comments in her blog, you'd realise that many Malaysians/Singaporeans living abroad miss it ; something which used to be easily available at their neighbourhood morning market and never thought of making it at home!

As advised by Aunty yochana I've replaced the fruit salt with instant yeast since Eno (a kind of fruit salt) wasn't available here. And I've apportioned the recipe acording to 200gm of plain flour i.e. 2/5 of the original recipe which yield 5 pancakes.

Verdict :-
I couldn't stop munching !
Texture wise it is not very near to honeycomb surface that I'm familiar with, perhaps that is due to the substitution of Eno.
Anyway, I'll definately make this again :)

Walnut cookies

Chinese new year is fast approaching, this year falling on valentine's day! This cookie is one of the must treats during the festive season. Coarsely ground peanuts are the main ingredients ; however, I have substituted it with left over ground walnut which worked out fine .
Recipe from here

Baked fish with spicy stuffing

Seafood is rather expensive here as Hungary is a landlock country. On top of that the current economy only result in even higher prices for "fresh" sea fish. So I've opted for frozen fish from the hyper mart to sooth my craving for sea fish. Last week, I tried this "HEKK" brand and it tasted fine; unlike some of the frozen fish on sale, this doesn't smell and taste too fishy. Sorry I couldn't recognise and name the type of fish that I ate (!) because I just realised that it only says tengeri hal (sea fish) on the packet ... hmm..

If you can find fresh mackerel in your market, this recipe would work well with it! If not, you can always trial on other fish available to you.

Baked fish with spicy "salsa" stuffing 
Serves : 2

Ingredients
450gm Fish, washed and cleaned
salt & white pepper, to taste
rice flour (or plain flour) , for coating
oil for frying

Spicy "salsa" stuffing
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
parsley, chopped
salt & pepper, to taste
soya sauce, to taste
sugar, to taste
erős pista (or sambal oelek), to taste

1) Pre-heat oven @180°c.
2) Blend together ingredients for salsa.
3) Pat dry fish after washing and cleaning. Slit the top part of fish for stuffing.
4) With high heat, heat oil in a non-stick pan or wok. *oil must be hot otherwise fish will soaked up oil*
5) Season fish with salt and white pepper to taste
6) Stuff the salsa into the slit, keeping aside some for topping *do not over stuffed as it would result in stuffing spill out during frying*
7) Lightly coat fish with rice flour (or plain flour)
8) When oil is hot, carefully place fish in pan/wok and fry until lightly golden
7) Remove lightly golden fish from frying pan/wok, drain away access oil and place fish in baking dish. Top remaining salsa on fish. Bake until salsa is browned and crispy.
8) Serve immediately with rice.

** You can also grill fish in banana leaf. Even more YUMMY!

Review : Dr. Oetker Muffin Mix

This box of muffin mix kept staring at me in the kitchen since Christmas (got it in a set of gifts). I counldn't resist anymore, I have to give it a go!

Due to my first bad experience (once only) with muffin mix (another brand), which turned out dry, hard, powdery and the taste ....artificial ; I didn't have too high of expection this time round.

Dr. Oetker chocolate chips muffin mix changed my perception of pre-mixes. The muffins were fluffy, wholesome, and didn't taste artificial at all. If you want to spice it up, try twirling in some peanut butter (which i did) or any other jams before baking. It was great for tea time...yum ..satisfying ;)

Note : Included in the box was 1 pkt. of choc. chips, flour mix, 12 muffin cups. Additional fresh ingredients - eggs, milks and oil

Guacamole

The last time I had mexican food was about eight years ago (I think..). Although it was a nice experience , it didn't inspire me to cook it at home (also because I hardly cook those days!). Tortilla chips during movie sessions don't count ;)

The recipe for the dip is from Recipezaar. It was good! However, I'll probably leave out the onion the next time. It's just too overpowering for my taste.

Easy Guacamole

Ingredients
3 ripe avocados (ripe as in really dark in color and super soft when squeezed)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 medium tomato, diced
sour cream *optional
salt and pepper, to taste

Methods
1)Take avocados and cut into the avocado until you come to the large seed inside.
2)Cut around the circumference of the seed.
3)With both hands twist the two halves in opposite directions and pull apart.
4)Now if your avocados are ripe enough they will separate easily.
5)Now carve out each half with a tablespoon.
6)Place avocados into a medium bowl and mash and stir until moderately creamy.
7)Some people like the avocados more chunky than others-- either way it tastes great.
8)Add diced onion and tomatoes to the avocados.
9)Add your preference of salt and pepper and taste to see if salty enough.
10)In a separate small bowl put in 2 tablespoons of the dip.
11)Add 1 tbsp of sour cream and salt again.
12)Taste it.
13)And decide if you prefer your guacamole with or without sour cream.
14)If you like with sour cream add 4 tablespoons or more to the avocado mixture and salt again.
15)If not, do nothing and leave it like it is.
16)You can do the same with the Tabasco sauce if you like Tabasco sauce.
17)Serve chilled with chips or add a little to your taco salad.

Simple Millet as carb

Wanting to add more varieties of grains in our diet, I decided to check out quinoa at the bio (organic) foods section of my local supermart. But I didn't find any and so I bought a pack of millet instead. Later, I read that it is also a good substitute for rice and it is gluten free!
The taste was neutral, at least we didn't dislike it :D I can see myself cooking it again and substitute it for rice once in a while.
How to cook millet from goodness.com

Simple milk buns

Snaps of my first successful batch of bread were posted on my flickr but somehow I didn't write about it here. The recipe was through the food blog The cocoanut . Since the link to the blog is inactive currently, I've pasted the recipe below for anyone interested in trying out this lovely loaf (made into buns).

Simple Milk Buns
Source : The cocoanut

Ingredients
500 g plain white flour*
350g milk (I used skim milk)
20 g honey, about a tablespoon-and-a-bit’s worth
25g warm melted butter
1 x 7g sachet instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt

Method
In a large bowl, whisk the yeast with the milk and honey. Add the flour and salt, and combine until you get a soft, sticky dough. Pour over the warm melted butter, and mix this into the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, or if you have an electric mixer like me, you can use that instead. Simply attach a dough hook and let it do all the work for you, around 7-10 minutes.

Leave the dough in the bowl for an hour to proof. After an hour has passed, punch down the dough to release all the carbon dioxide. Transfer the dough to a loaf tin, and let it proof for another hour. The dough will rise again to about twice its size, and this time you want all that gas inside to remain. At this stage, I like to brush the top of the dough with water and sprinkle poppy seeds. This is entirely optional, and I only did it because I happen to have a jar of poppy seeds in the pantry.

Set the oven to 210oC, and when hot enough carefully place the dough into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 180oC and bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until the top of the loaf is dark brown. Remove from the tin, and leave to cool on a wire rack.

*I used all purpose flour, because that’s what I had at home. However, you might want to try using strong white flour or bread flour, which are more glutinous and will ‘jump’ over the top of the tin much more than normal flour.

Basic Sponge Cake

The result of this very simple recipe is a very fluffy sponge cake!

Basic Sponge Cake
Ingredients
4 eggs, separated
4 tbsp sugar, combine with a bit of vanilla sugar
4 tbsp flour
1 tsp baking powder
pince of salt

Fillings
Hazelnut cream spread (example nutella)

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at gas mark 3.
2) Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt. Beat until stiff. Set aside
3) Beat egg yolks with sugar (including vanilla sugar) until creammy. Combine flour and baking powder into egg yolks -sugar mixture and mix well. Next, fold in the egg white (beaten earlier) carefully into the until well integrated.
4) Pour cake batter into lined baking tin and bake for 15 mins.
5) Spread hazelnut cream spread or any other fillings you like when cake is completely cooled.

Tiramisu

This is my first tiramisu recipe that I've ever made and tasted nearest to the ones served in an Italian restaurant I once worked in. They are absolutely addictive! Cream is rich with a hint of rum..yum! Hope you'll try it!

Tiramisu
Ingredients:
4 cartons (1x250g) mascarpone cheese
41g castor sugar3 eggs, separated
250ml kahlua or other coffee-flavoured liqueur
425ml very strong cold black coffee
30 sponge fingerscocoa powder, for sprinkling

Method:
1. Put the mascarpone cheese, sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until evenly blended

2. Whisk the egg whites until standing in stiff peaks. Fold into the mascarone mixture until evenly incorporated. Spoon a quarter of the mixture into the base of a glass serving bowl.

3. Mix the liqueur and coffee together in shallow dish.

4. One at a time, dip one the sponge fingers in this mixture for 10-15 seconds, turning once so they become soaked through but do not lose their shape.

5. After each one has been dipped , place it on top of the mascarpone in the bowl, making a single layer of sponge fingers that covers the mascarpone completely.

6. Continue to layer the mascarpone mixture and sponge fingers alternatively, finishing off with the mascarpone.

7. Sift cocoa powder liberally over the top.

8. Cover the bowl and chill in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Serve chilled.

Rice Noodles dry style { Kon low }

Finding asian cooking ingredients here hasn't been easy. Fortunately, Tesco has a section of shelves that fulfil my needs. Though the supplies are limited, they do stocked general ingredients i.e. the soya sauce, curry powder, various instant sauces, etc. One of the best finds is rice noodle. This rice noodle is not quite like the fine rice vermicelli but some what similar to kway teow.

On the packing, it suggested to pour any flavour of hot soup over the rice noodle. However, for my taste, I prefer dry version instead. The following recipe was inspired whilst watching Nigella 's cooking programme with minor additions.

As you can see, I've prepared a small portion of each ingredients as we're going to toss these ingredients with the ready noodles. Clockwise - stir fried mince pork, toasted sesame seeds, stir fried button mushrooms, fried onions in oil, finally spring onions.

Usually, the tossing is done for one portion of noodle. In an empty bowl, first put the fried onions in oil, mushrooms, mince pork, dash of soya sauce and pepper to taste, mix the ingredient, then put in the rice noodles, toss til consistent, finished off with a sprinkle of spring onions and sesame seeds. Repeat the same for 2nd portion. This way, the unfinished ingredients can be kept in the fridge and heated up until the next meal :)

Verdict : the rice noodle were smooth and firm. Slurping was very easy! Give it a try :)