Dessert

Baklava.

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As I thought yesterday, I ran to get some nuts and butter today and got cracking.  As usual with the things I’m making for the first time ever, I compared a few recipes online and chose what I liked most of all of them.

And so I went for the nuts I like most- pistachios, pecans , almonds and hazelnuts. Having blitzed them not too finely I added lots of cinnamon and a bit of sugar.

When assembling the baklava I prepared the tray with baking paper, buttered it, then 5 layers of filo, each buttered, then a layer of nut mixture, 5 layers of filo, buttered thoroughly again, nuts and 5 layers of filo, all the same procedure, except that the last layers I slit slightly, it was supposed to make the slicing easier I think, but also the visual effect, when first peeked into the oven  after 15 minutes made it worth while- it looked great, as the pastry puffed up slightly and started to become golden.

I baked it in about 150 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes and while that was happening, I made the syrup- simmered some water with sugar, about 10 cloves,lemon rind,  at the end added a juice of half a lemon and a small spoon of vanilla paste. The syrup took about 20 minutes.

Having taken the lovely golden beauty out of the oven I pricked it in between the diamonds with a sharp knife and then spooned the syrup all over. I intended to let it all soak in before tasting, but I couldn’t. It’s lovely, nutty, sweet, but not heavy and not sickly like some shop bought baklava.

A good pat on the back. 😉

Good Food, Room for improvement

Spring rolls

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Filo pastry has been bought today and I thought it would be nice to make some spring rolls. The filling was a veggie one, maybe next time I’ll play around with some seafood. This time it was a mix of bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms and leeks, all chopped to look like sprouts.I quickly fried them on the wok and flavoured with soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil and sugar. When it cooled slightly I wrapped it in filo, not tight enough, cause they were a bit too oily- and deep fried them for about 3 minutes. I served them with some Blue Dragon sweet chilli dipping sauce. They were very nice, for a debut.

With the rest of the filo I think I will try to make a baklava tomorrow.

Eaten out, Good Food

First taste of Dinings

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I had a trial shift at Dinings last night.

Dinings is a place that looks like a bunker, it’s tiny, 11 tables downstairs, 6 at the sushi bar, tiny kitchen, everything is tiny. But the food……my God. It felt like coming home, although I  didn’t come for dinner ( damn! ) but for a trial. Surely thanks to the Chefs’ training at Nobu the food looked incredible and smelled just like heaven. Even the smell of  hot sake, of which I’ve never been a fan was pleasant. The smokey kitchen when tobanyaki was getting prepared- down the memory lane. But most of all the sushi. According to Fuku san, whom I’ve known from Ubon, I’ve done a good job last night, so I was pleasantly surprised with  2 small boxes of sushi to take home with me. The smell of this beautifully flavoured rice was killing me on the train back home. There was also a salad, green salad they serve with some chilli dressing with tempura prawns as big as  a small fist, the image of it is still in my head.

Well, whether I’ve done well enough to get the job I will find out when they call me.

Tick, tock..

Good Food

Friday night variety.

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Our tonight’s dinner was very simple, but what we loved about it was a variety of different flavours and textures on the table. So there were home made sausage rolls, raw sausages wrapped up in puff pastry, seasoned with fennel seeds and covered in parmesan and then baked off. There were potato wedges, spicy with cayenne pepper. There were  marinated red peppers, that I stuffed with chunks of cheddar and warmed up until the cheese melted ( next time I will close them with toothpicks, so that the cheese stayed inside), sooooo simple, but surprisingly yummy. And there was a rocket, avo and parmesan salad. And some nice English ale to go with it all. Yum.

Dessert, Room for improvement

Sticky toffee pud.

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First ever, quite well executed, I have to say. Greg Wallace’s recipe, that I have actually followed step by step, as I have never made it before, hoping for an honest opinion from Florek, who loves everything that’s toffee.

For 2 portions I chopped about 40g of dates and simmered them in a little water until nice and mushy. About 40g of butter, 25g of brown sugar, one egg, 80g self raising flour and a touch of baking powder all made a nice, thick mixture, plus the dates. It was all baked in a bain marie for about 35 minutes in 180 Celsius. Mine had a slightly crispy bottom- wrong, apparently, will cover them with foil next time. While they’re baking, I made a nice and simple toffee sauce. 150 ml double cream, 75 g of brown sugar, 25 g of butter went into it. I heated up half of the cream and all the butter and sugar, stirring often, let it bubble for about 5 minutes until glossy and thick, then added the remaining cream. Very nice sauce and bloody simple.

The taste of the  pud itself, I thought can be improved by a bit of cinnamon, maybe even a few chopped hazelnuts, to be done next time.

The photo does it justice today, does it not?

Dessert, Room for improvement

Millefuille,first attempt.

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Presentation – wise, not as stunning as I was hoping it would be, but just had a look at other pictures on the net and it really is not too bad! And Florian just had the second helping. 😉

I baked the puff pastry in between two sheets of baking paper, with a heavy baking dish on top to keep it even. It worked quite well. I then sliced it in 3 layers.

The filling is a whipped double cream + vanilla paste, lemon zest and icing sugar with chopped fresh strawberries, all folded in. I grated some white chocolate as well and put in between the layers, as well as on top. And chilled for about an hour before serving.

Looking at the pictures I think I will click the Room for Improvement box as well, as the bottom layer of the pastry is not baked well enough. It tastes very nice though!

Good Food

A slightly different take on Pesto.

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Jamie Oliver again.

Florian loves his pesto, but the traditional one, the basil, roasted pine nuts, parmesan, garlic and olive oil pesto. Actually once, when he made it himself and added far too much garlic, it was one of the best ones ever.

But today I tried something that Mr Chav calls ” Sicilian pesto”, it would be worth asking Michele what he makes of it.

No expensive pine nuts, almonds instead, some basil, parmesan, garlic, chillies- the red ones and…tomatoes. Lots of olive oil as usual, seasoning and blitz to a nice paste. It was surprisingly good, but  not as awesome as the traditional basil pesto.

But still, let’s have it…

Dessert

Eggless tiramisu with a twist.

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The idea is Jamie Oliver’s. Nice and quick and eggless. And with no coffee. So perhaps the only common thing with tiramisu is mascarpone, that I mixed with some milk, a tea spoon of vanilla paste ( what an awesome invention!) and some icing sugar. It went onto the biscuits soaked in… orange juice. Jamie recommends orange juice as well as some limoncello, that I happen to dislike, it reminds me of washing up liquid.

On top the cheese I put some raspberries and lots of chocolate flakes to disguise the taste of January raspberries. And some icing sugar on top.

The first dessert ever to be served in the dishes I got from my Mum for Christmas.

Dessert, Room for improvement

Baked caramelised bananas.

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Last weekend on a random visit to Tk Maxx with Moka I bought 2 iron dishes, heavy, nice ones, wasn’t quite sure what for, but I bought them. This evening I though I’d have a great use for them, I could make the dessert that used to make us drool over the table in Zizzi’s in Canary Wharf, where we used to spend our breaks ( and money).

It took me 5 minutes to place sliced bananas in the dishes, pour over them a mixture of honey, lemon juice, cinnamon and brown sugar, dot them with butter and bake off for about 12 minutes. Next time though I will take my time and make proper caramel for them. Those in Zizzi used to be served with delicious pistachio ice cream, I didn’t have pistachio, I had coffee ice cream. I served it hot, with slightly melting ice cream on top.

Yum.

Dessert

Berry brulee tartlet

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I had a few friends over for dinner on Monday night and got an unexpected present from Nikosia, ” The Art of Pastry” cookbook. Really nice present, I hope it will genuinely get me off my arse and make my own pastry more often. I did tonight.

From 125g flour,20g ground almonds, 15g icing sugar, 75g buter, an egg yolk and a bit of cold water I made a pastry and blind baked it for about 15 minutes, trimmed when it cooled and patted myself on the back. 🙂

THE CUSTARD WORKED AS WELL!!!!! 2 egg yolks,150 ml fat milk,25g of icing sugar and some vanilla paste, as well as a tea spoon of…potato flour ( didn’t have any cornstarch as the recipe required). I’ve beaten the eggs with sugar, vanilla and flour and then poured very warm milk while still beating it, then transferred back into the pan and heated up slowly until it thickened. Patted myself on the back again, jumped twice and left it to cool.

I filled my tartlets with some berries, which I first defrosted and heated up with some honey, topped it up with custard and chilled for 3 hours. The book recommends caramelising the icing sugar on top right before serving, but icing sugar doesn’t really do the magic like caster sugar…! Not to worry, 2 more tartlets in the fridge.

On the joys of cooking and eating