When I have spinach and feta available,
first thing that come to mind is spanakopita. It's an absolute favourite
filling for filo /phyllo pastry for me. Never in my life that I
would've imagined making filo / phyllo pastry though! I gave it a go on
and as usual it is not as scary or hard as I thought. What I did was
prep. and knead the dough a day ahead and let it rest in the fridge over
night.
Homemade Phyllo Dough
via http://korenainthekitchen.com/2011/06/27/daring-bakers-baklava-with-homemade-phyllo-pastry/
Ingredients
Dry
1 1/3 cup flour (type “00” or pizza flour, if possible – all purpose flour will do, though)
1/8 tsp salt
Wet
1/2 cup less 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
Filling
spinach (frozen, with access water removed)
feta cheese
sautéd garlic
salt, to taste
Method
1) Mix together dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine wet ingredients. Then pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour.
2) Continue mixing stirring until it comes together in a soft dough with no dry
flour bits left. You may need slightly less water, or slightly more (I
had about 1 tbsp of water left over) – just add it slowly, bit by bit,
to gauge how much you’ll need.
3) Knead the dough in mixing for about
20 minutes, until you have a soft, silky, smooth dough.
4) Then remove from bowl, on floured surface knead another 2 minutes, whacking the dough down hard on the counter a few times
during kneading.
5) Rub the dough with vegetable oil, wrap it in plastic, and let it rest for at least 2 hours – longer is better.
Rolling and stretching the dough
Divide the ball of dough in half, cut each half into thirds, and each
third into thirds again, to end up with 18 pieces. Roll each piece into
a ball and place them on a plate, covered with plastic wrap.
Flatten a ball out with your fingers and place on a well-floured
surface. Roll out with a floured rolling pin or dowel until it’s about
9″x5″ (mine was twice as large), picking up the dough and re-flouring
the surface underneath it every few strokes. Don’t be afraid of adding
too much flour – keeping everything properly floured will make it much
easier to roll, because if stuff starts to stick you’re in trouble! Let
the dough rest for a minute or two if it starts getting difficult to
roll out.
When the dough sheet is as thin as you can roll it, gently lift it and
stretch it with your fingers from underneath. Do this very s-l-o-w-l-y
and gently, using more of a stroking motion than a pulling motion, and
letting the dough rest every so often. Don’t worry if you get some rips
and holes – you only really need one perfect sheet for the top layer of
your baklava (it took me until sheet number 14 to get a perfect one, and
only about two out of 18 had no holes!).
When the dough is stretched thin enough to read through, place it on a
floured baking sheet, and lightly sprinkle flour between each sheet to
stop them from sticking together. The original recipe says that the
sheets won’t dry out, but it took me forever to roll them out so I
covered them lightly in plastic, just in case.
The #1 reason that puts me off making any kind of cake frosting is the
amount of sugar and butter used in a recipe. I know without these two
ingredients I won't achieve any good and stable frosting. So, I'm
constantly googling for frosting recipes that are not so caloric. My
search brought me to this recipe over at Kwanster.
I'm re-posting the whole recipe below in order for me to note down any
tweaking needed to suit my taste. In saying that, it is already great
recipe and you shouldn't hesitate to try it! And go over to Kwanster's
blog to thank him/her.
Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting (for 12-15 cupcakes)
via : link above
Ingredients
170g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped ** used 60% cocoa content, find the taste to dominating..
64g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted ** didn't follow exactly, adjusting to taste as I whisk
3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
Pinch of salt, sifted
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. sour cream , room temperature **20% fat
** added rum for extra flavour
Method:
- Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering
water. Set aside to cool until just barely warm.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-high speed until pale.
- Gradually mix in the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder and salt, beat until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the melted and cooled chocolate and then the sour cream.
- Continue beating until the mixture is smooth and well blended.
- Frost your cake immediately.
My note = **
1) as I was going through the process, the buttercream already tasted
good before the addition of chocolate. So, perhaps I'll try without the
chocolate next time
2) 60% cocoa content was overpowering the sponge cake as a whole.
Next time will use a lower cocoa content also lesser quantity, perhaps
100gm instead of 170gm.
Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust
source : Taste
Ingredients (serves 6)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
4 rashers bacon, rind removed, finely chopped
1 cup grated tasty cheese
3 eggs
1 teaspoon plain flour
300ml cream
1/2 cup milk
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a fluted 3cm deep, 23cm (base), loose-base flan pan.
- Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add
onion and bacon. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cool.
Sprinkle over pastry. Top with cheese.
- Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Whisk remaining
ingredients and salt and pepper in a jug. Pour over bacon. Place onto
tray. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until set. Stand for 5 minutes.
Serve.
Chestnust Puree Ice Cream with chocolate specks
makes about 450ml
Ingredients
For chestnut puree custard
3 Egg yolks
1 sachet Vanilla sugar
1 Tbsp Flour
150ml milk
175gm ready-made chestnut puree
30-50gm powdered sugar, to taste
(if chestnut puree has been sweetened beforehand, then less sugar should be added)
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
200ml whipping cream (30% fat content)
1/2 tsp rum
Steps
1) In a sauce pan, put egg yolks, vanilla sugar, powdered sugar and
flour. Mix-in a little bit of the milk and whisk until you get a smooth
paste before pouring in the remaining milk. Mix well.
2) Cook the mixture over low heat for a few minutes. Add in the
chestnut puree and let it melt slowly while stirring constantly.
3) The custard is ready when the mixture thickens and coats the back of
wooden spoon. You can stir in the cocoa powder. Set it aside to cool
completely.
4) When custard is cooled, start whisking the whipping cream until soft
peak. Add rum into whipped cream and whip a bit more. Then slowly mix in
the whipped cream into custard.
5) Pour the cream mixture into a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least half a day.
6) Before serving let it sit in room temperature for at least 15 mins.
Raffaello Cake
Ingredients
For the base
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
3-4 Tbsp sugar (incl. 1 sachet vanilla sugar)
100gm desiccated coconut
For the cream top
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp plain flour
250ml milk
1 sachet vanilla sugar / or vanilla extract
200ml whipping cream
3-4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp gelatine
For decoration
Toasted almond slices
Toasted desiccated coconut
Steps
1) Pre-heat oven at 160°c / Gas mark 3. Grease cake tin
2) In a bowl, pour in egg whites and pinch of salt. Beat egg whites
until soft peak. Add in sugar gradually and continue to beat egg whites
until stiff peak. Fold in desiccated coconut carefully.
3) Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 15 mins. or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
4) Set cake aside to cool.
5) In a sauce pan, mix together a little of milk with egg yolks and
flour until smooth in texture. Then gradually add in remaining milk.
6) Cook mixture over low heat until thicken by stirring continuously.
7) Once thicken to the right consistency, remove from heat and cover the custard directly with cling film. Set aside to cool.
8) Once custard is cool, you can start soaking gelatine powder by
sprinkling gelatine power over 60ml of cold water. Do not stir the
mixture! Leave to soak for 5 mins. Then cook gelatine over double boiler
until gelatine is fully dissolved. Do not boil the mixture. Set aside
to cool.
9) In a mixing bowl, pour whipping cream and 3 - 4 Tbsp of powdered sugar until stiff.
10) Mix half of whipped cream into cool custard and whipped until well
combined. Mix in a few table spoons of gelatine liquid into the custard
mixture, combine well and pour this custard cream onto cake.
11) Mix remaining whipped cream with a couple of spoons of gelatine, combine well and pour whipped cream over custard cream.
12) sprinkle a little of the toasted desiccated coconut over cake. Let cake chill in fridge over night.
13) sprinkle toasted almond slices over cake when serving.
Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto
serves 4 pax
Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock
salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle
Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out
some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until
translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce
pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin
& chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock
before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot,
Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off
to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve
Quick & Easy Donuts
Source : Ste/ A te recepted Sep 2011
Makes 12-16 donuts
Ingredients
150gm plain flour (changed to 130gm)
pinch of salt
1 sachet x 10gm baking powder (half baking powder + baking soda)
1 egg
150gm yoghurt, natural flavoured (changed to 1x130gm tub)
Oil for frying
To serve with dips
sweet option Good quality fruit preserves/jam or dust with powdered sugar,
savoury option sour cream and grated cheese
Method
1) Whisk together egg and yoghurt, then mix in flour, baking powder,
baking soda and salt. Mix until well combine. Let it rest for 10 mins.
Meanwhile , heat oil in frying pan
2) Make sure oil is hot enough, or it will be too greasy. Use a spoon to
scoop out batter and fry 1.5 mins. each side until golden brown. Drain
fried donuts on kitchen paper.
3) Serve while still warm with preferred dipping sauces.
