Monthly Archives: September 2017

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Amaretto macarons.

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On a visit to Whole Foods yesterday I had a peek at their macarons display and saw champagne flavoured ones, which inspired me to try something a little different. We’re not big champagne drinkers, Florek and I, I do like a glass of prosecco every now and then, but we hardly ever have bubbles at home. What we do happen to have is a handsome bottle of Disaronno. I’ve made a Disaronno jelly out of 100 ml of the liqueur and a gelatine leaf, while the perfect batch of macarons were baking.  I also replaced 65 g of almonds with toasted and ground walnuts in the original recipe, but I can’t say it massively revolutionized the taste.  The jelly was nicely set, enough to cut it out with a round cake nozzle, but in the end I just spooned it out onto the shells.

Onto those I added a ring of chocolate ganache. As the shells were perfect today, they needed no time to soak, they were good to eat pretty much straight away. I have to say- exquisite. The jelly is very strong when tasted on its own, but with the ganache and meringue makes for a real treat.  Another door opened, getting ideas for the festive season in 3 months time. 🙂

Good Food

Leczo.

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Polish spelling, I’m not even sure where the name came from, but when I think about this hearty courgette stew, I think of my parents’ allotment and all the good stuff it produced over the years. Like courgettes, which Lisa shares with me this summer- produce from her garden.  They were fabulous just chargrilled as a side of the steaks, they make great courgette fritters, which Izzie and Bess devoured on Wednesday and today I thought- let’s go back down the memory lane. I had a decent idea what it should look and taste like, I thought about calling Mum, but she was on hospital run today, so I got cracking using my experience and all I remembered from years ago.

Some pork shoulder, cubed, seasoned and sprinkled with flour quickly browned, 2 chopped shallots, a big fat clove of garlic in. 2 small sweet peppers, a good pinch of chili flakes. Cherry tomatoes, some green beans. All stewing rather quickly, it’s essential that the pork is lovely and soft, tough meat would ruin the whole dish. Finally, towards the end, cubed courgette. It’s to be cooked, but keep its shape and have a bit of a crunch still. A little of coriander to finish with.

I served with freshly baked ciabatta( no, not totally fresh, Waitrose!). It soaked all the lovely juices up nicely. And also I decided next year I’ll be growing courgettes, there will be a greenhouse too, for the tomatoes and cucumbers. Exciting!

Baking

Matcha roulade.

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Finally something I’m happy with enough to blog. My last few bakes were less than impressive,  but watching the classic Bake Off I thought of a nice roulade, checked out a few recipes and came up with a piece, that is disappearing so quickly, I might make another one for the weekend, maybe something with hazelnuts…..

This is also the first roulade that I managed to roll perfectly and not one bit cracked. And it’s moist and tastes great.  Good old Dorota! The sponge recipe is from mojewypieki.com with a teaspoon of matcha added.  3 eggs, separated, whites whipped with a pinch of salt and 50 g of sugar. Yolks added, one by one. 3,5 tbsps of plain flour added, 2 tbsps of potato starch, 1/4 tsp of baking powder and the said matcha. Once gently combined, all baked in lined large tin for 8 minutes in 190 degrees. A linen towel was waiting, a sprinkle of vanilla sugar on it, when baked I flipped the sponge onto the sugar, peeled off the paper and immediately rolled it, leaving it to cool in this state. Worked great!

While the sponge was resting, Izzie and I went to the shops, as Florian cleaned up the remaining pepperoni and there was none for the planned pizza. We bought some mascarpone too and stopped at the charity shop, where we found a lovely jug for me and a wooden toy for Iz, of which a wooden hammer was a particular joy to acquire. 🙂

Back at home about 150 ml of double cream, roughly same amount of mascarpone got whipped up, sweetened to taste, a good 2 tsps of matcha dissolved in some milk added, a touch of vanilla essence and it was ready to go into the roll, alongside some raspberries. On top a little more of the filling and some chopped pistachios.

The whole thing looks great, tastes of matcha, but not to the point of bitterness, it’s not too sweet and will be made again.

Good Food

Parmesan puffs with parma ham.

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Giorgio Locatelli’s.  I’ve made 2 things by that very ragazzo Italiano today, I’ve baked his baci di dama, little cocoa biscuits which I’ve managed to overbake and will most likely chuck them by the end of the day. I mean my teeth are not amazing and attempting to enjoy those particular baci might result in injuries. 🙂

The puffs however are a completely different story. When I tasted the first one I thought- fabulous party food. Not cheap, with all that parmesan in it, but tasty and moreish. The original recipe calls for Grana Padano,  but I happened to have lots of parmesan, so that’s what I used.  First 200 g of potatoes, boiled and squeezed through the ricer, same amount of plain flour. 75 g of grated parmesan- a lot! 9g of fresh yeast, same amount of salt, but not together, as salt kills yeast. 300 ml of water. All this made quite a runny batter, which then gets spooned into the hot oil, I find 2 teaspoons useful in this operation, no need for fancy gadgets. They fry quite quickly, until golden, a final sprinkling of parmesan and onto the table, where some delicious parma ham awaited, a great salad and a bottle of Viognier.

Puffs are rather filling, which is not surprising, as they’re deep fried. I would imagine them as a real treat somewhere on a terrace with a good view, Tuscany maybe. That’s where we will be in 5 weeks. 🙂

Baking

Sachertorte.

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Made specifically on Florek’s request.  I went with Mary Berry’s recipe, poshed it up by using 66% Valrhona chocolate and Bonne Maman apricot conserve and ended up with extremely good and luxurious chocolate treat.

140 g of Valrhona melted and cooled slightly, while 140 g of soft butter got creamed up in the kitchen aid with 115 g of caster sugar. Chocolate in, 5 egg yolks one by one, a touch of vanilla extract. 85 g of ground almonds, 55 g of plain flour. 5 egg whites whipped stiff and slowly added to the rest. Baked for about 40 minutes in 180 degrees. The house smelled like chocolate heaven.

Once baked and cooled, I sliced it in half and generously spread the jam, then brushed it on top and the sides of the cake as well. And finally a fab, silky ganache made of 140 g of Valrhona and 200 ml of double cream.  Better the next day, we both agreed. 🙂