"Vegetables are a must on a diet...I suggest carrot cake"

So, I was supposed to be in Milan this weekend for a reunion with some friends. But, due to extenuating circumstances, I was not able to make it. I spent yesterday morning at the airport trying to get on my plane and yesterday afternoon on the internet trying to buy a second ticket. Both attempts failed, and so my only solution was to bake something. :-)

This is the result. 


Carrot Cake Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
for the muffins
2 cups of flour
2 t baking soda
1 t cream of tartar
4 eggs
1/2 cup olive oil
1 c. sugar
3 c. grated carrots
1 T cinnamon


for the frosting
1 stick butter
10 oz cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
vanilla extract

Preparation

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the egg and oil mixture. Add carrots and blend together. Fill muffin cups to 2/3 full. Bake muffins for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. 

While the muffins are baking, make the frosting. Cream together butter and cream cheese. Add vanilla and icing sugar. Mix until frosting is thick. Refrigerate. 

When muffins are cool, use a spatula to frost them. Let sit 10 minutes and enjoy!

En passant par la Lorraine...

For some reason, quiche always impresses people. And really, its so simple to make. It's basically a flan with cream instead of milk. The traditional one is Quiche Lorraine, which is made with cubes of bacon (lardons). Later on, gruyère was added to the recipe, but I still make mine the old fashioned way.

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients

for the crust- 

1.5 cups flour

1 stick butter

1/2 cup water

salt

for the filling - 

6 eggs

40 cL heavy cream

2 T butter

100 g cubes bacon (lardons)

salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

The first step is to make the pate brisée - a basic pie crust. In a medium bowl, measure out the flour. Add the cold butter, cut into slices. With your hands, mix the butter into the flour until you get a crumbly mixture. Add the water in stages, kneading the dough until a solid ball forms (you might need more or less water) refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, an hour if possible. 

While the dough is resting, mix the filling. In a medium bowl crack the eggs and mix, as for an omelette. Add the cream slowly while mixing. 

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. After an hour, take the dough out of refrigerator, and on a floured surface, roll it out about 1/2 cm thick. Carefully move it into a buttered pie tin. With a fork, make some holes in the crust to help it cook evenly. Evenly place pats of butter on the bottom of the pie crust and add cubed bacon, pressing it gently into the dough so that they do not float when adding the egg mixture. 

Pour the egg mixture over the pie crust. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the egg mixture is set. Serve warm or at room temperature, with a side salad.

Chocolate is healthy. Right?

If I take all the allergens out of chocolate cake, does it automatically become healthy? Unfortunately, probably not...but it still tastes good.
Chocolate cake is one of those things that should be so easy to make, even for those people who are allergic to all the good things that go into cake. Thank goodness for Joy, whose "Sunday Panics" have brought us this delight.

I've realised, looking at my recipe index, that I am amassing a long list of desserts, and that the cooking bit is lapsing...and yet, here I am with another dessert. Those who know me will tell you that when I'm stressed, I bake. I don't necessarily eat the baked goods...and usually I feel guilty and then go running, but in general, baking (and cooking as well, but somehow it doesn't give me the same satisfaction as a stress reliever) is my way to release some frustration.


Vegan Chocolate Cake 
adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used chestnut and rice flour with 1 t xanthan gum)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

2 t baking soda

1 t cream of tartar

1/2 t salt

1 cup warm coffee

1/2 cup olive oil

1 T vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chunks

Preparation

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Butter a bundt pan and sprinkle with cocoa powder. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate medium bowl, mix wet ingredients. All at once, add liquid mixture to dry mixture. Mix. The batter should be quite thick. Add chocolate chunks. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn over onto serving plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Optional: Drizzle chocolate ganache on top. 

Shh....it's a secret

You know those old family recipes that no one seems to know the recipe to? You know, those ones you're grandmother used to make...
Well, ragù alla bolognese is generally one of those. Everyone has a different way of making it. But there are some basic rules to follow, the main one being that it must be cooked for at least 5 hours!
That's right, this is not going to be something you just decide to have for dinner. And you know what? The anticipation makes it even more worth the wait.
Outside of Italy, Bolognese can be spooned over spaghetti (Spag-bo anyone? tragic butchering of the language - and apparently the dish as well) or layered with Bechamel and pasta to make Lasagne alla Bolognese (from the Bologna region). The current recipe is considered best served over fresh tagliatelle.
The two main ingredients are meat and tomato, and then everything else can vary; and since there is no authoritative recipe for Ragù alla Bolognese, it's up to you to explore the possibilities!

An Italian friend of mine gave me this recipe, and I am publishing it here with his consent.


Ragù alla Bolognese 

Ingredients

1 large onion

500g minced meat (beef, veal, pork, or a mix of these)

1 can whole tomatoes

300 g carrots (approximately 5)

salt, pepper

red wine (optional)

celery (optional)

bay leaf (optional)

olive oil

Preparation

cut the onion and carrots in a small dice. heat the olive oil until just below smoking point. on high heat, add onion and cook 5 minutes, until translucent. Add carrots. After about 5 minutes, add the minced meat. Break into small pieces and let brown, about 10 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes, and twice the volume of the can in water (fill the can twice with water). Stir together, and lower the heat to a low setting. Let simmer, stirring every once in a while. After a minimum of 4 hours, but can take up to 6, the water should have mostly evaporated, leaving you with a more consistent sauce. 

* the bay leaf should be added before the onions

* in case you choose to add celery, dice and add at the same time as the carrots.

* the wine should be added at the same time as the tomatoes

Serve over fresh tagliatelle or reserve for Lasagne alla Bolognese

Champagne anyone?

Decadence...

Chocolate Covered Strawberries
makes 30 strawberries


Ingredients:
100 grams semi-sweet chocolate
fresh strawberries


Melt chocolate. Remove from heat. Holding the strawberries by the stem, dip into chocolate, making sure the whole fruit is coated. Lay carefully on parchement paper. Let cool. Refrigerate. The chocolate will harden. 


Want to really impress? 
Drizzle with white chocolate and serve with champagne. 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

The apartment smells so good. Mushroom soup has been simmering for quite a while now, which wasn't the point. I wanted to cook in order to take a break from all the other things I'm supposed to be doing today. I think it's almost done. I'm going to have enough soup for the whole week I think. :)

I know mushrooms are only just starting be in season right now, and if the ones in your supermarket don't look so good, feel free to supplement with frozen ones. Mushrooms should not be slimy. (I'm guessing that's why you never liked them right?)

Last summer, I went for a hike and was determined to find some mushrooms. Although the hunt wasn't altogether successful, it was definitely fun and eventually rewarding to eat the few mushrooms we had picked.

Cream of Mushroom Soup
Recipe from a friend of mine and adapted with Deb's at Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:
1 kg mushrooms (I used a mix of white mushrooms and cèpes (porcini) mushrooms)
2 teaspoons mushroom extract
1/3 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt
white pepper
1 bay leaf
1 t rosemary
1 t oregano
1 t  thyme
6 cups chicken stock (can be substituted for 1/2 beef stock)
2 T olive oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic

Preparation:
First de-stem the mushroom. (This is important as the flavour and texture of the soup will not be the same). Reserve the stems, they can come in handy to thicken your soup.
Then slice the mushrooms. Set aside. Create a bouquet out of the herbs (in a cheesecloth bag is fine as well) Finely dice the onion and the garlic.
In a separate pan, brown half the mushrooms. Melt butter and cook mushrooms, being careful not to crowd them in the pan.
Reserve 1/4 cup for serving.
Turn heat on high and heat olive oil until just prior to smoking point. Add the herbs, salt and pepper. Add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute and add the onions. Cook until translucent but not brown.
Add the mushrooms and let cook on high for about 10 minutes. The mushrooms should lose their water and reduce significantly.
Then, turn down the heat and add chicken stock and mushroom extract. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes until the mushrooms are tender and the flavours have spread.
Add the butter. Remove from heat and add cream.
Using a blender, blend the soup in batches, making sure that all pieces are gone.
Serve with a dollop of cream and a couple browned mushrooms. Finish off with a sprig of fresh parsley.

St. Patrick's Day

Warm. Buttery, with a slight tang from the buttermilk. Irish Soda Bread - the traditional recipe made from a low-gluten flour and which uses baking soda instead of yeast as a leavening agent.

Because tomorrow is St. Paddy's Day, I decided to try making some. It turned out ok, I think, although it's the wrong shape because I don't own the right kind of pan. 

St. Patrick's Day is the saint's day of the patron saint of Ireland. It commemorates the conversion of the Irish to Christianity in the 5th century. Folklore tells that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the pagan Irish, hence the use of the colour green. It is a day of celebration whence the Lenten restrictions were lifted, and is now the most widely celebrated saint's day, both in Ireland and in the diaspora. 

Soda bread dates back to the 18th century when before the arrival of European settlers, indigenous people in the Americas used potassium carbonate to make quick breads. Soda bread arrived in Europe in the mid-19th century when bicarbonate of soda became more widely available. 

Recipes for soda bread first appeared in the early American cooking cookbooks, such as Amelia Simmons' American Cookery and Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife, the first published at the turn of the 19th century and the second published about thirty years later. 

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients:

130 g flour (as usual, I used a GF mix, but if you are using regular flour, try and use a wheat flour with a low gluten content)

30 g and another 15 g of sugar

150 g butter

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

1.5 teaspoon cream of tartar 

(OR 1 t baking soda and 2 t baking powder)

250 mL buttermilk

180 g raisins

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease the baking pan. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Create a well in the middle of the dough and slowly add buttermilk, mixing gently with a fork. Add the raisins

It should look something like this: 

Put dough into greased baking pan. Sprinkle remaining sugar on top. Bake for 40 minutes, or until he top is golden brown and a knife comes out clean. 

Enjoy!

Adventures in Baking

The best kind of days are the ones where something unexpected happens. Today, it was muffins. A friend, J. was over for lunch and we started talking about food...predictably, as it's tradition for me to talk about what foods I enjoy and what I will eat, then about the food I'm eating, and finally to remember the foods I ate. :)
We were talking about Carrot Cake and Zucchini Bread, and naturally, Banana bread came into the conversation. And why not spice it up by adding white chocolate and toasted walnuts? And making muffins instead of bread, because the smaller the better right? (And maybe you feel less guilty eating two muffins than half a loaf of bread, right?!?)


White Chocolate Banana Nut Muffins

doesn't that make you want to run home and bake?

Ingredients:

Makes 18 muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup light brown sugar 

1 T vanilla

200g white chocolate

1 T cinnamon

1 T nutmeg

1/3 cup of butter

4 ripe bananas

1 egg

1 T baking powder

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 degrees fahrenheit)

Mash the bananas and the butter together in a separate bowl

Mix the egg, the sugar, the spices, and the vanilla

Add the bananas and butter mix

Mix in the flour and baking powder

Using a large spoon, spoon batter into a lined muffin tin, until 2/3 full. 

Sprinkle chopped walnuts on top. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean. 

Let cool in tin for 5 minutes before placing on cooling rack. 

Enjoy!

I'm going to be experimenting with some changes in the layout. Please let me know what you think!

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion
olive oil
1 cube bouillon
1 liter water
500g pumpkin - about 2 cups puréed
fresh ginger
2 triangles of laughing cow cheese
coriander
curry
salt and pepper

Preparation:
Dice the onion and sauté in olive oil until translucent. Add bouillon. Add cubed pumpkin and water. Simmer for about 15 minutes on medium heat. Add ginger, spices, and laughing cow cheese. Blend together. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

Zitouna

Tunisia is one the world's largest exporters of olive oil outside Europe. Besides eating 5kg per capita per year, it is one of the main exports of the country with around 160,000 tons being produced each year. 

But the remarkable thing is not only its taste, but also how it is representative of bringing the differences together. The olive tree and its oil are referenced in all three texts of the Abrahamic religions as being holy - with the command to use it as an anointment and as a light. Besides Tunisia, olive oil production is prevalent in Christian Spain, Jewish Israel, and Muslim Morocco.

It has the power to bring people together. 

And doesn't it also look so appetizing?

A plate of olive oil with some olives placed in the centre of the table and served with some fresh bread...is there a better idea?