Creamy Salad { Francia Saláta }

Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.
Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : No salty
Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Ischler Cookies

For this Christmas, I've written Ischler cookies in my baking list, thinking that I would use the recipe featured here before but then I came across this one from The Eccentric Cook . Hers look absolutely scrumptious, so I thought "why not give it a try?".
These turned out crumbly and nutty, just the way I (or we) like it! Since these cookies are better the longer you keep them, you could bake them few days before serving. Just keep in an air-tight container and store in a cool place.
Ischler Cookies
makes about 15 cookie sandwiches (or depending on the cutter you used)
source : http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.hu/2012/12/ischler-cookies.html

Ingredients

200 grams flour

100 grams ground walnut or almond meal

1/2 tsp salt

150 grams butter

50 grams sugar

1 lemon's zest

1 Tbsp rum

for the filling

fruit preserve of your choice

for the chocolate coat

180 grams chocolate

2 Tbsp oil

Process

For the linzer cookie dough, mix the flour, ground walnut, salt and sugar together. Cut the butter in it. Add in the lemon zest and the rum. You can use an electric mixer but I found that after a while you should switch to working with your hands. The dough will be very crumbly but after 5 minutes it will come together. Form the dough into a ball and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dust a bread board or your counter with flour and roll the dough into about 1/2 cm. I didn't really know how thick 1/2 cm is in a dough form so I just trusted my eyes. It should look like this:

The dough will be very sticky so it will be a bit tricky to roll it out but sprinkle some flour on it and you'll be fine. It's essential for the dough to be this sticky, that's why it will have the perfect crumble to it. 

Preheat your oven to 170C or 350F.

Cut rounds in the dough with a cutter. My cutter was too small so I just used a glass :)

Once you cut all the holes, collect the remaining dough and roll it out again and cut the rounds the same way.

Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake them for 12-13 minutes. They should have a very light color, don't wait until they brown because it will dry the cookies.

Chill the cookies for 10 minutes. Then take one cookie and spread a fruit preserve of your choice on it lightly.

Press the other side of the cookie on the preserve and repeat the same method with all the other cookies.

When you're done, melt the chocolate and oil over boiling water. Place the cookies on a cooling rack. Put a baking sheet or foil under it. Then pour the chocolate over the cookies.

The chocolate will need time to harden so it's advised not to touch for a couple of hours. Decorate the cookies with an almond or walnut on top! The cookies taste better after time so if you make this for a gathering, make it 1 day prior! 

Hungarian Fish Soup

Hungarian fish soup is a must during Christmas time; however, we love our fish soup, so I try to cook it as often as possible. The recipe that I am about to share might not be from scratch as most Hungarian would cook it, but this is how my late father-in-law did his. And this version is so easy that it is ready in just an hour!

Hungarian Fish Soup
Serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 whole carp, filleted or 3 frozen fillets of white wish (defrosted)
1 medium-size Onion, sliced or minced
1 medium-size tomato, quartered
1 Hungarian green pepper, halved
3 tsp of smoked paprika powder (spicy or sweet) - you can also mix, eg. 1/3 sweet + 2/3 spicy
1 ltr of water
fish paste concentrate,
fish stock cubes, to taste

To serve : Match stick pasta

Method
1) Sauté onion with some oil in a pot. When onion is soften, remove from heat and put in the smoked paprika. Stir it a bit , add a little cold water and return it to the stove, let it come to a boil.
2) When the liquid boils, you can add in the green pepper,  tomtato and salt. Cook until pepper and tomato are almost done. Then add in fish paste and fish stock cube and simmer further for 20 mins.
3) Add in the fish fillets and cook until done. Do not over cook fish.
4) Serve very hot with match stick pasta.

If you wish to try cooking the soup from scratch, this link may be helpful.

Chocolate chips and raisins cookies

As much as I like chocolate chip cookies, I haven't tried baking them before this. Turns out, it is so easy to just bake it at home with just some basic pantry staples.

Chocolate chip & Raisins cookies

source : ohbin

Ingredients :

100g butter (room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg *
170g flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/8 tsp salt

170g choc chips

60g walnuts (chopped into small pieces)**

* I've used only left over egg white, as a result, the cookies weren't yellow in colour. 

** Replace walnuts with raisins (soaked in milk for one hour prior to baking, just drain milk before putting into cookie mixture)

Method:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2) Mix butter + sugar until fluffy.

3) Crack in egg and mix
4) Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.

5) Put in choc chips and walnuts, mix a bit.
6) Put a tsp full of dough onto the baking tray (with baking sheet on it) and bake for 10-15mins

Apricot Butter Biscuits

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }
source : Orang Blossom Water

Ingredients
1 cup (226 g) butter, at room temperature  
3/4 cup sugar **will lessen sugar the next time
2 large eggs yolks  
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 cups all purpose flour  
1/2 tsp salt About 
1/2 cup apricot jam  
1/2 zest of lemon
 
Method :-  
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter and sugar until smooth.  
Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until well blended. 
Mix in the lemon zest Stir in flour and salt and beat just until dough comes together. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. 
Place about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment lined 12 by 15 inch baking sheets. 
Press your thumb gently into the center of each cookie to make an indentation.  
Bake cookies in a 325 °F (163 °C) oven until lightly browned, 18 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. 
Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely. Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon jam into the center of each cooled cookie.

Vegetables Croquette

Vegetables Croquettes

Makes : 12 Croquettes

Receipe from My Kitchen Snippetsy

Ingredients:

Vegetables to be roasted

800gm potatoes

2 carrots

1 onions

1 Kolhrabi

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp of regular breadcrumbs (added sour cream as mixture too dry)

3 spring onions – chopped
2 tbsp grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating:

½ cup flour (omitted)
2 eggs – beaten
2 cups regular bread crumbs 

1. Roast vegetables on medium heat (180°c) until golden and al-dente (30 mins + 20 mins. + 15mins)

2. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor and give it a few pulses. It should not be too fine. 

3. Remove and add in the spring onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb (if needed), salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape the mixture into croquettes. 

4. Let the croquettes rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Heat up oil over medium high for deep frying. Dust each croquette with flour, coat in beaten eggs and then roll it on the breadcrumb.

5. Heat up some vegetable oil over medium heat for deep frying. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry croquettes, flipping once, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. (Adjust heat between batches as needed to keep oil at a steady temperature.)
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite dipping sauce.

Fried Pizza base

There's no way I'm turning on the oven in summer; so, I thought let's try fried pizza!
My pizza dough recipe was based on http://www.italianrecipesmadeeasy.com/fried-pizza.html . Please visit the link to see different stages of this recipe but I'll still post the recipe below just in case the link doesn't work in the future.
 
Fried Pizza
Italian Recipes Made Easy
serving : For about 8 mini pizzas
300g of strong white flour
1 tea spoon of dry yeast
1 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar
20ml of extra virgin olive oil
190ml of warm water
vegetable oil
1)For the dough put flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil in a bowl.
2)Using your hands and adding slowly the water mix all the ingredients together until you obtain a soft and smooth dough (if too dry add more water, if too sticky add more flour).
3)Cover and let the dough rise for a couple of hours or until has doubled in size.
4) At this point take small pieces of dough, shape them into mini pizzas and fry in hot vegetable oil. Drain them on kitchen paper.  To me this recipe is good not only to top with pizza garnishes but also good with sour cream, cheese or just plain powdered sugar.
To make into pizza :-
5) In the middle of each mini pizza pour one or two table spoons of the tomatoes sauce and grated parmigiano to your taste.
Serve immediately.

Spinach & Potato Cake

I have misplaced the link to this recipe but I'll look again and give the proper credit when I've found it.


Spinach & Potato cakes
Makes : 10 cakes
450gm fresh spinach, blanch and chopped coarsely, cooled
2 medium potatoes, boiled, mashed and cooled
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used spring onion)
2 eggs
6 Tsp herbs/spices (I used garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika)
2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, finely chopped (I used parsley)
2 Tbsp flour salt & pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs for coating
Vegetable oil, for frying
Method
1) Mix everything except for bread crumbs until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. start heating oil. Meanwhile start shaping mixture into balls and coat with bread crumbs.
3) When oil is hot enough, fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot with yoghurt, chilli sauce or sour cream.