Humble cake

There are certain smells which embrace us when they travel from our kitchens right straight to our senses. Smells and aromas which provide us with wonderful and comforting sensations. The aroma of a freshly baked apple pie or sponge is one of these. There´s something weird with me and the apples, I just can´t seem to eat them raw, I rather wait and cook them, caramelize them, roast them, bake them and enjoy them like that. being part of the inside of a cake, o crowning a spongy sponge and filling my mouth with all these sensations and making me even more happier...

These apple rectangles are ideal as they are individuals and they are coated in a lovely and velvety brandy Butterscotch sauce, which make them irresistible. You need to let the sponges rest once they are baked, just for a while, and then serve them warm. You can as well use this recipe for a normal cake or muffins.

Here comes the recipe

Ingredients

125 g softened butter

½ cup (110g) sugar

2 eggs

150 g plain four

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon milk

3 granny smith or golden delicious apples

½ cup (160g) warm apricot jam

Brandy butterscotch sauce

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ cup thickened cream

100g butter, chopped

2 tablespoons brandy

Method

Preheat oven to 180. Grease the tin or tray you are using.

Beat butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, stir in sifted flour and baking powder then add the milk, spread mixture into prepared pans.

Peel, core and halve apples, slice thinly and push gently into surface of cake mixture. Brush apple with the warm apricot jam and bake for 40 minutes. Stand cakes 10 minutes before turning, top-side up onto a wire rack to cool slightly.

For the sauce, combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered without stirring for about 3 minutes or until it thickens slightly.

Serve warm drizzled with the brandy butterscotch sauce and double cream.

Tagine, a tasty mirage in my oasis.

Moroccan food is exotic, aromatic and full of colour. Its amazing array of ingredients is a pleasure for all of our senses. There's no doubt about it, Moroccan cuisine is full of quality, plus,  the variety of sweets, very sweet, the combination of spices, and the mix of the sweet and sour, makes this unique gastronomy one of the best in the world. Moroccan cuisine is a mix of cultures, and one of its star dishes is the lovely Tagine. It can be made with chicken, lamb, fish or vegetables. 

 This is an excellent recipe by Claudia Roden, and from her book Arabesque. The tagine is the name of the dish the food is cooked in. The conic shape helps the steam flowing and cooking the interior of the dish giving the food its distinctive flavour. If we add the preserved lemons, one of the most essential ingredients the Moroccan cuisine, then the colour of the dish becomes amazing and the flavour explodes in your mouth. You must prepare the lemons a month in advance. 

You can find the preserved lemons in selected stores, but they are so easy to prepare that it seems to me a waste of money, for they are quite expensive to buy and so much cheap to prepare at home. For this dish you only use the skin of the lemons. If you decide to go ahead and prepare the tagine, you only need to remember to preserve the lemons four weeks before.



Preserved lemons

Ingredients:

5 or 6 big unwaxed lemons
rock salt ( quite a lot)
The juice of three lemons

Method

Wash the lemons and cut them from the stem end into quarters almost through the base. Insert one tablespoon rock salt into each lemon, close it up and place in the sterilized jar. Repeat until the jar is filled, sprinkling 1 tablespoon salt between the layers. Pack the lemons into the jar as tightly as possible. Add a bay leaf an a few peppercorns is you want. Add the lemon juice and fill with slightly cool boiled water.

Seal the jar and store in a cool dark place for 4 weeks. Shake the jar daily for the first week in order to dissolve the salt. Once it´s opened store in the fridge. Before adding to the recipe, you need to rinse the lemon with water and discard the pulp.





Chicken tagine with olives and preserved lemons

Ingredients

3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 onions finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 chicken cut into pieces (I used a poussin)
salt and black pepper
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Peel of 1 large preserved lemons
12-16 green olives
300mil chicken stock or water

Method

In a tagine or a wide caserole dish, heat the oil and add the oinions, saute until they are soft then stir in the garlic, ginger and saffron.
Put in the chicken pieces season with salt and pepper and por in abut 300ml chicken stock or water. Simmer, covered. turning the pieces over a few times, and adding a little more water if it becomes too dry.

Stir in the lemon juice, the chopped coriander and parsley, the preserved lemon peel cut into strips and the olives. Cook uncovered for 5 to 10 minutes until the sauce is reduced and thick. Serve the chicken with the olives and lemon strips on top of the meat. You can serve it along with an almond and pistachio couscous. And don't be surprised when the chicken melts in your mouth.

And they thought they were joking!

Last April, one of the papers published an article about a new fruit called “Pineberry”, a white strawberry that tasted like pineapple, many people didn’t believe it, they thought it was an April’s food joke...I have a radar when it comes to find new foods n the supermarkets, so I found them and I was pleasantly surprised. They were quite expensive, £4 a punnet (250G) but they really worth it.

As soon as I bought them, I could smell the aromatic essence of the strawberry but more intense than a normal one. I couldn´t resist and on my way home, on the train, I try them and I have to say that I have never tasted such a sweet and aromatic fruit. I couldn´t find the pineapple taste, it was more like a super intense and delicate strawberry, even to the touch, it felt like velvet. Honoring this little beauties, I give you an intense dark chocolate, with a chocolate ganache. 

Of course you can use any other fruit, raspberries are perfect or normal strawberries or even kumquats. These pineberries were on sale for a limited period only, ans although I tried hard, I couldn’t find them again. See you next year, I hope ...

Ingredients:

150g softened butter

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

4 eggs

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup plain flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Method:

Grease a medium loaf pan and preheat the oven to 180.

Cream the butter and the sugars with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla extract, the eggs, one at a time. In a big bowl sift the flour, the bicarbonate of soda, the salt, the baking powder and the cocoa. Add the dry ingredients to the egg and butter mixture with a wooden spoon. Pour this mixture on the tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer comes away clean. Cool in the tin, and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Ingredients for the chocolate sauce:

200g dark chocolate

150 single cream

30g butter

1 tablespoon rum (optional)

Method:

Cut the chocolate and melt it in a double boiler over boiling water or in the microwave. Heat the cream and butter in a pan until is very hot. Mix in the melted chocolate and um and ice the cake with the sauce. Decorate with the white strawberries or with any other fruit. Serve with some more of the chocolate sauce, in case somebody “needs” and extra dose. Yes, please!

Roasts of the World II- Porchetta, ti amo!

Welcome to the second instalment of the series Roasts of the world. This one is dedicated to the magnificent Italy and its varied and delicious gastronomy. And the main protagonist of the post is the “Porchetta” which is so popular that the Italian Ministry of agriculture has place it on the list of the most traditional Italian foods.  The “Porchetta” is a piece of pork meat, usually pork belly, you can kindly ask your butcher to butterfly it for you, or you can try yourself, which is not difficult. The meat is stuffed with herbs and fennel, then rolled and roasted. It’s important to keep the skin on since it gives the meat a wonderful taste and texture. It’s usually sliced very thinly and is traditionally served in a sandwich around the streets in Italy where you can get it from the vans selling it everywhere. It’s a dish of celebration and party with friends and family. I have been wanting to make this dish since I saw it at Borough market, and I have to say that everybody who tried this after I cooked was so pleased that I am going to cook this many many times. I used half a pork loin for this, which I bought at the Smithfiedls Market in London, one day, early in the morning, where I travelled with the idea of getting some of that wonderful wagyu beef, but that, ladies and gentlemen, is another story...

You can served this as a roast, or as a smart main course, inspired in a recipe by Jason Neroni, with cannellini beans and salsa verda, or as I mentioned earlier, in a sandwich, the proper way. This meat and the way of cooking it is extremely  grateful to be eaten, Mrs Porchetta lets herself go and she lets you stuff her, roast her and slice her with a fully submissive attitude, because she knows that, in the end, she is going to please our palates and we are going to love her. Forza Italia!

Ingredients for the meat

5 onions

3 bay leaves

¼ cup olive oil

1 bulb fennel, finely sliced, reserve the fronds

2 tablespoon fennel seeds

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped

6 garlic cloves, finely sliced

Salt and pepper

1 piece of pork belly or pork loin with the skin on

Method

 Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Butterfly the meat if the butcher hasn't done it for you.  Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle a pan with olive oil and chopped two of the onion, add to the oil with the fennel and cook for ten minutes. Add the fennel seed more pepper, the rosemary and the garlic cloves, and cook for another ten minutes. Turn off the heat and add the fennel fronds, and spread this mixture on top of the open meat. Roll out the meat like a Swiss roll. Tied with twine and place on a bed of the rest of the onions, roughly chopped and the bay leaves, drizzle the meat with more olive oil and roast in the oven for 2 ½ hours. Remove from the oven and let it rest on the kitchen counter for 20 minutes before slicing it and serve.

For the two gravies. Pass the sauce through a sieve (onions included) and the coking juices. For the other gravy, blend everything. 

 

For the salsa verde

 1 tablespoon chopped basil

1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 onion

Salt and pepper

¼ cup olive oil

 

Method

 Blend all the ingredients and drizzle the olive oil until everything is combined, reserve.

For the potatoes

 1 kilo baby potatoes, sliced

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

 Method

 Place the potatoes in boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Fry in oil until they start to get brown and place them in an oven tray. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. 

 To serve, slice the meat very thick and cut into rectangles. Heat some of the cannellini beans and pace on the plate with some of the salsa verde on top. Place the meat on a bed of gravy and serve with the roast potatoes and more gravy on the side. 

 The other option is the sandwich, for this, spread the gravy on crusty bread. Slice the meat very thinly and place on the bread along with some lettuce leaves if you want. 

Buon appetito! 

Polenta cake

After the killer onion, this is a quieter recipe. No more scares, I just keep on chewing for longer, just in case...

Another blood orange recipe. I have to take advantage whilst is still in the markets! This is one of those recipe where polenta is used in a cake, and it really work, it gives the cake a wonderful texture and flavour.  Polenta is a main ingredient in Italian cuisine, its not only a side dish, but a main one. Its really more important than pasta in northern Italy, and its versatility is enormous, you can use it in a casserole, for polenta gnocchi, with melted cheese, as a filling for different vegetables. Etc. There are two kinds of polenta, the fine ground and the coarse one, and you also get the quick and the normal version. Polenta is one of those ingredients which you either love or hate. I love it...

This is a sponge with toasted pistachios, and it’s drizzled with a blood orange syrup after it’s baked. The blood orange gives the syrup a very attractive colour and its distinctive sweetness. You can use ground almond instead, and normal orange if you can’t find blood oranges and the result will be also delicious.  The original recipe has sour cream but if you can’t find it, you can use buttermilk, or yogurt.

Ingredients for the cake

300g sour cram

125g softened butter

1 cup, caster sugar

2 cups self raising flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2/3 cup polenta

1 teaspoon finely grated blood orange rind

¾ cup water

2/3 cup toasted shelled pistachios

 

For the Blood orange syrup

1 cup blood orange juice

1 cup caster sugar

1 cinnamon stick

Method

Preheat oven to moderately slow. Grease deep 20cm round cake tin.

Make blood syrup by combining all the ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat, simmer for about 15 minutes or until syrup thickens. Cool to room temperature.

Place sour cream, butter, sugar, sifted flour, and soda, polenta, rind and the water in a large bowl. Beat on medium speed until it changes to a pale colour. Stir in pistachios. Spread cake mixture into prepare tin. And bake for about 1 hour. Stand cake in tin for 10 minutes; turn cake, top side up, onto cooling rack. Serve cake warm or cold with strained blood orange syrup.

My posthumous post...nearly.

When it comes to cooking, French people have a “je ne sais quoi” , it’s in their blood. Cooking and eating is a daily experience but is something mystical at the same time. People gather around the table, to share and eat. Same as the rest of us Latin people! Celebration around a table full of food, family and friends, who can ask for anything more? French cuisine is different to Italian or Spanish food, when it comes to the way they cook some ingredients, but there us no doubt about it: French people are real masters in the art of food, and because of this, they are known worldwide. Escoffier would be so proud...

Beef bourguignon, was a recipe originally made by peasants, it has climbed up in the culinary scale, it was very popular in the sixties and it’s now coming back, and I am glad about it, because I really like this recipe, it’s not a simple one, but its elegance and flavour its guaranteed. You need to marinate the meat overnight, and that will give it a lovely flavour.

I have to say that this could have been my last post in my blog, and not because my blog is in danger, but because when i finish the cooking the recipe, after setting everything for the photo shoot, and after looking the plate and decorate and garnish it, after taking all the photos, I finally sat down exhausted, and hungry, so I ate it...I was really enjoying it, but suddenly a bothering baby onion got stuck in my throat and I was literally choking! T was then when I felt, that my time had come. I couldn’t breath and my heart was jumping in my chest, so scared. So, I got ready to see all my like in pictures as they say it happens when, you are going to die, but instead, I rebel myself, It was impossible that my time had come, so soon? So, since I was on my own, and there was nobody to perform the Heimlich manouver, and the cat was not helping, I went for a big jump, and it worked! ...the cat run away and the killer onion jumped the other way...and so I carried on eating...

My time has not yet come, apparently.

Ingredients:

For the marinade

A big carrot chopped

An onion chopped

1 Bouquet garni (make a bouquet with the green part of a llek, add some thyme, parsley and celery leaves)

1 celery stick, chopped

2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons brandy

10 peppercorns

1 1/5 litrers good red wine

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 kilo beef, diced

Method for the marinade:

Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl and let rest overnight in the fridge.

Ingredients for the casserole:

200 g bacon, diced

150 mushrooms

1 tablespoon butter

400ml beef stock or water

150g button onions

1 tablespoon tomato puree

½ tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon chopped garlic

2 tablespoon flour

2 slices white bread cut in triangles

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Method

Sieve the marinade over a saucepan, and bring to the boil, reserve the vegetables and the bouquet garni. Keep the meat in another plate. When it boils, cook for five minutes and pass through A SIEVE. In another saucepan, heat some oil and butter, and fry the meat, until golden brown, keep the beef in a plate while you add the vegetables from the marinade and fry. Put back the meat, and add the tomato puree and the flour, add the liquid from the marinade and bring to the boil, and stirring, add the stock or water and the bouquet garni, bring to the boil again, cover with a lid and bake in the oven for an hour and a half.

Whilst the meat is cooking, get a small saucepan and place the baby onions, butter, sugar and salt, and cover with water. Cook on a medium heat, until the water has evaporated, shake the saucepan, so the onions get golden brown. In a frying pan, fry the mushroom in butter and ad the onion, apart, fry the garlic and bacon and add to the onions and mushrooms.

When the meat is tender, pass the sauce through a sieve, and return to the heat. Cook on a medium heat for 15 minutes, add the mushrooms and the bacon, and turn off the heat.

For the bread, butter the slices and bake in the oven until they are golden. Dip one tip in the cooking sauce and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

When you are ready to serve, sprinkle more parsley on the meat. And be very careful with those killer onions!

Three of a kind

I guess many of you know by now that I love cooking and baking with fruits and you are not wrong. I love it because if the versatility that gives to a dish and a pudding, or a sponge, I love because of the natural sweetness, and because it’s healthier as well. One may think that by cooking with fruits, you are being “less naughty” and you can afford a treat if it’s made out with fruit. Te original recipe of these pancakes is made with just strawberries , but you can use up any other fruit, in my case I used kumquats( to which I am addicted), blueberries and cherries, but it’s also delicious with sliced oranges, and blackberries or raspberries. Everybody seems to like pancakes, specially children. So, here they are:

Ingredients for the pancakes

4 eggs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ cups buttermilk (if you don´t have any, you can easily make some at home by mixing one a half cups of milk with one a half tablespoon lemon juice, leave for 15 minutes and it´s done)

100butter melted

1 ½ cups self raising flour

Method

Beat eggs and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until thick, stir in buttermilk and half of the butter. Sift flour into large bowl, whisk egg mixture gradually into flour until batter is smooth, Heat frying pan, brush it with some of the remaining butter. Pour ¼ cup of the batter into pan, cook, uncovered, until bubbles appear on surface of pancake, turn pancake and cook until browned. Remove from pan, cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining butter and batter.

For the glazed fruit

250g each fruit (pitted cherries, kumquats and blueberrries)

1/3 cup water

½ cup jam (strawberry jam for the cherries, orange marmalade for the kumquats and blackberry jam for the blueberries)

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon lemon juice

Method

Place the water, jam, sugar, and juice in small saucepan. Add strawberries, or the fruit you are going to use, reduce heat, simmer uncovered about w minutes or until the fruit is hot.

To serve, pile up the pancakes, and spread the fruit on top, garnish with some whipped cream and fresh mint.