Duck Pate

There was this restaurant in my town, years ago, when I was a girl... For some reason it was thought to be quite fashionable, to me then it was quite strange, now I know it was just very ugly. Anyway, there were two reasons why I liked when our parents took me and my sister for a dinner to that place. The first reason was that there was a fountain in the middle of the room and if we were lucky we could sit right next to it. Ugly or not, I have always liked water. The second reason was food - and to be more precise it was duck. They had this wonderful duck pate which was well worth spending time in ugly surroundings...
Anyway, one day the restaurant disappeared and so did the duck pate, naturally. I have never found anything similar to it in any other place (not that I was looking for it especially hard, possibly I just happened to be going to the wrong duck-pate-free places, that's all), so at some point I figured I should try to make something similar at home. It didn't take long to figure out the basic recipe, but getting the spices right has taken some time. But at the end it worked and this is all that counts. I'm quite happy with the results - and I enjoy my pate every time I make it.

 

Duck Pate
(two small loaves)

600 g duck fillet (with fat and skin)
400g chicken livers
250 g chicken fillet
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons finely chopped corriander
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, shredded
2 teaspoons cardamon
2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Bring water to boiling in a very big pot.
In the meantime separate skin and fat from the duck meat.
Cut the skin, fat, 1/2 duck meat, chicken livers and chicken fillet into pieces, put them in the bowl of a food processor together with egg, milk, salt and pepper. Process on high speed until the mixture is smooth. Add breadcrumbs and process one minute more.
Add the spices and mix well.
Cut the remaining duck meat into small pieces (1x1 cm), add to the mixture and stir.
Divide the mixture in halves. Put each half on a sheet of aluminum foil, form it into a loaf fitting your pot and wrap carefully with foil making sure there are no openings or holes through which the mixture could escape.
Put rolls into boiling water, cook for 90 minutes. When cooked, place them side by side on a wooden board and top with another board and something heavy (like a pot filled with water, few bags of flour or sugar or a few books). Leave the rolls like this to cool completely, then remove the aluminum foil and place loaves in a fridge. When thoroughly chilled slice and serve with fruit (fresh or canned). The pate also goes very well with cranberry preserve.

I Like It Black

Wherever I go I like to try the regional and traditional food. As long as it's safe, I mean... I have to know what I am eating and there are some things I would never touch even if eating them would make me a millionaire. I am being careful mostly when it comes to meat, but trying bread in most cases is absolutely safe.
So, trying different breads in different places I have come to the conclusion that very often bread eaten far away from home somehow is tasting better, at least for the first few days. After the first few days very often I notice it is not that good after all and I start to be missing my favorite bread from the bakery next to my place (next to my old place I should say, since I am speaking of Poland. I haven't been missing Belgian bread for a single day in my life and I will leave it with no comments. I love Belgian croissants, though.).
Anyway, trying all those breads that cannot really compete with the bread from "my" bakery I have discovered few that actually can. It's not that they would win, because they all are quite different, but I would place all of them together on the highest level of my private bread-podium.
But if I really had to pick a winner... Well, in that case the gold goes to the traditional Lithuanian bread (sorry, my favorite bakery round the corner).
You can get "Lithuanian Black Bread" in some supermarkets in Poland and it is not bad, even though it's not extremely nice either. But you can go up to the north-east of Poland, or even to Lithuania itself, and there you will get the real stuff (plus few other very nice regional treats and beautiful surroundings to spend time in) which is very well worth the trip . And when you are back home there is a big chance you will start trying to bake your own black bread - at least I did. And I must say it was not easy... I have tried quite a few recipes, and it never was what I wanted - until I tried a recipe for Peasant Black Bread out of a book that I brought many years ago from... the USA. It is not exactly the same bread, but close enough. Delicious. I love it, my kid's love it as well... OK, my husband does not love it, but actually I don't mind at all. That means that I can have more, so why would I worry? ;-)

Peasant Black Bread
(two loaves)

3.1/2 cups rye flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons caraway seed
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon instant coffee (powder or crystals)
3 teaspoons salt
2.1/2 cups hot water
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
5-6 cups unbleached or all-purpose flour

Thoroughly mix rye flour, cocoa, sugar, caraway, yeast, coffee and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Stir in water, vinegar, molasses, and oil; beat until smooth.
Stir in enough unbleached flour to make a soft dough.
Turn onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5-7 minutes).
Place in an oiled bowl; turn to oil top of dough. Cover, let rise in a warm place until doubled (about 1 hour).
Punch dough down. Divide in halves, shape each half into a ball and place on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in bulk (about 1 hour).
Bake at 180ºC 45-50 minutes, or until done.

Back to Cloves

There were those wonderful pear desserts that my Grandma would make when we were coming over for a Sunday dinner. Pears cooked in syrup, served with velvety egg-vanilla cream... Delicious... Grandma knew I and my sister loved them, so mostly there were extra servings waiting for the two of us. I still remember the flavor and aroma of those pears - and I admit that I have never managed to get even close to them with the ones I am making sometimes. And I guess I never will - the dinners at Grandma's, blue chairs that I hated because the textile on them was so rough, old white plates with some floral border, big forks and knives (those I hated just as much as I hated the blue chairs. They were so damn heavy...), all these are beautiful memories of my childhood. You can't compete with memories, can you? So, I stopped trying to reproduce that taste I remember. Let it belong to my Grandma's pears in cream, let it be ever special and ever the best. Let it come to me in memories every time I am cooking pears and the kitchen is full of the cloves' aroma. Good thing there are cloves and they always smell the same...

Pears in Wine
(4 servings)

4 big pears
1.1/2 glass white wine
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cranberry preserve
4 -5 whole cloves
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons sherry
whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve to serve (optional) 

Pare the pears, leaving them whole with the stems attached.
Put all the ingredients except sherry in a skillet, bring to boiling.
Turn down the heat, add the pears and let them simmer for about 40-45 minutes - just until they become transparent at the edges. Get pears out and set them aside to cool.
Add sherry to the syrup, bring it to boiling and let boil for another 20-25 minutes, until it becomes very thick. Pour syrup over the pears, chill thoroughly.
You can serve these pears with whipped cream and a little bit of cranberry preserve, but they also taste very nice just by themselves.

I Hate Bananas

If somebody asked me to name the fruit I don't like I wouldn't think twice. Bananas. That's the correct answer.
For some reason I have never liked bananas, banana drinks, banana puddings, banana candy or anything that looks, smells or tastes like bananas. Things that have to do with bananas are not for me - that is the rule and I'm not going to change it. I don't have an impression I'm missing anything by not eating bananas - but still world would be less beautiful without them.
See, As I have already stated I don't like bananas and that's the rule. It's holy. But what kind of a rule would it be if there were no exception on it? So. To make my rule quite perfect I have found an exception - and that's banana bread. I love it.
The thing about banana bread is that even though it has to do with bananas the banana taste and flavor are not very obvious. It doesn't smell like raw bananas, nor like artificial banana aroma. It just smells like... well, like banana bread, I would say. No more and no less. And, what is even more important, it does not have the consistency of bananas - even though when I think of the consistency of those mashed bananas that I put in there... OK. let's say the consistency part has not been mentioned here ;-)
Anyway, banana bread I could eat every day. Still warm out of the oven, toasted with butter, not toasted with or without butter, with whipped cream or without it... Banana bread is very flexible, takes pretty much everything. I like flexibility.

Banana Bread
(proportion for two loaves)

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 cups fully ripe bananas, mashed (5-6 bananas)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3.1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine sugar, shortening, bananas, eggs and milk in a mixing bowl, beat well.
Blend remaining ingredients, add to banana mixture and mix until blended.
Turn into two greased loaf pans.
Bake at 180ºC  45 to 50 minutes, or until done.
Get the pans out of the oven, leave the loaves in pans  to cool.
Enjoy your banana bread :-) 
 

Sugar Waffles from Liege

 

There are some things about Belgium that are really bad, like Belgian drivers and the overall chaos...

But there are also some things about Belgium that are wonderful - like Belgian beers (Kriek being my favorite), Belgian chocolate and Belgian waffless. 

There are many sorts of waffles: with or without yeast, with or without beer, not sweet at all or extremely sweet. One thing they have in common (at least those that I have already tried) is that they are very, very nice. The nicer the colder the weather is and the waffles warmer.

In Belgium you can get waffles anywhere: in a supermarket, at a restaurant, on a street corner. Or you can make them at home - then not only will you get the great taste of waffles, but also your kids, husbands, boyfriends etc. will simply adore you.

Liege Sugar Waffles
(about 20 small waffles)


750 g flour
270 ml lukewarm milk
70 g fresh yeast
3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
15 g salt
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
400 g very soft butter
500 g pearl sugar

Put all the ingredients except for butter and sugar into a bowl and mix until the dough is smooth. Cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm place to rise for about 45-60 minutes.
Punch dough down, add butter and sugar and work the dough for a short while - only until the butter is well mixed in. You don't want the sugar to dissolve.
Divide the dough into 20 balls (can be less or more - the thing is they have to fit into your waffle iron), place them on a board and place in a warm place to rise.
Preheat the waffle iron - remember not to grease it! When the iron is hot, start frying the waffles: place the dough balls in the iron (possibly two at a time), close the lid and let the waffles fry for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown.
Because of the amount of butter and sugar in the dough your iron will be a total mess at the end, but the waffles are worth it :-)

Valentine's Day

 

 It's not that I am especially crazy about all that Valentine's Day stuff. To tell tre truth, I'm not. All those hearts, cards, sweets and such... They are trashy and meaningless to me, one does not really need those things to show that there are some feelings involved. But on the other hand... any occasion is good to prepare something very special for the other one, isn't it? Let it even be the Valentine's Day.

A few days ago I came across a post on  5 Types of Sugar . I saw a beautiful Valentine's cake there - made of white chocolate, rosewater and pistachios. The combination seemed quite great to me, I decided to give it a try in my kitchen. I already had a recipe for a flourless white chocolate cake, replaced the buttercream with one of my favorite icings to which I added white chocolate and some rose petals' preserve... The result of my kitchen activities was very pretty, very sweet and very tasty as well. Altogether I am very happy with it, I must say. Big thank you to Christy for the inspiration!

White Chocolate Valentine's Day Cake

(one big cake or 5 small ones + some edible leftovers)

for the cake

170 g white chocolate

3 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup sugar

8 eggs, separated

for the icing

1/2 cup milk

1.1/2 tablespoons potato flour

35 g sugar

1 egg yolk

45 g white chocolate

1/2 cup cream (36%)

2 teaspoons rose petal preserve

1 teaspoon lemon juice

chopped pistachios

shredded white chocolate

Preheat the oven to 120ºC.

Melt the white chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring constantly. Set aside.

Place the egg yolks in a bowl and beat well. Fold in the white chocolate mixture.

In another bowl, whip the egg whites to soft peaks; add the sugar.

Gently fold the egg yolk-chocolate mixture into the egg whites, stir gently.

Turn the batter into a prepared 23cm spring-form pan, bake 75-80 minutes.

Remove the cake from the oven. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut around the edge of the pan. Allow the cake to cool to room temperature.

Now you either can keep the cake as a whole, or cut out smaller cakes (knife works the best).

For the icing, mix well milk, potato flour, sugar and egg yolks in a small pot. Bring it to boiling stirring constantly. When the mixture is thick turn off the heat, add the chocolate and stir until it dissolves. Set it aside to cool.

When the pudding mixture is cool whip the cream until peaks are formed. Mix it gently with pudding, adding the rose preserve and lemon juice.

Put the icing over the sides and top of the cake(s). Spread the shredded white chocolate over the sides and put pistachios on top. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.

Winter...

 

Winters in Belgium are quite horrible. Usually they are cold, windy and wet. And gray. This year the winter is different: it's snowy, icy and cold. And, of course, gray. As always. Altogether it's exactly as horrible as all the other winters I have seen here.

And it's not that I do not like winters. But I like the pretty winters, the ones that are crispy and white... When the sky is blue and the sun is shining on the tree tops that are covered with snow. Really, winters can be so beautiful in some parts of the world.

And they can be tasty, as well. Apple pies and apple cakes never taste as good as in the wintertime, that's my personal opinion at least.

Luckily they do have apples and cinnamon in Belgium. Not being able to see much of the winter prettiness I can at least get some of the nice tastes of winter. Taking a bite of my apple cake I can close my eyes and ignore the gray weather for a while.

Apple Cake with Nutty Crumble on Top

(proportions for a 30x40cm baking pan)

for the cake:

250 g fine brown sugar

250 g soft butter

4 eggs

250 g flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon very finely chopped candied orange peel

3-4 big apples

for the crumble:

120 g soft butter

100 g fine brown sugar

120 g ground walnuts

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Peel apples and remove the cores. Cut them first into quarters, then into slices.

In a mixer bowl beat sugar with butter until creamy. Slowly add the remaining ingredients, mix well.

Turn batter  into the floured and sprinkled with flour baking pan, spread evenly.

Densely stick apple slices halfway into the batter.

Mix all the crumble ingredients in a bowl until the mixture is forming into little balls. Spread crumble over the cake.

Bake at 180ºC 40 minutes.

Breadtime Story

 

What is the best time to bake bread? If you'd asked me this question not so long ago I'd have said any time is good for baking bread - as long as you have the time to knead, then wait for the dough to raise, then form, than wait again... and wait even more for the bread to bake and cool down just enough for you to eat it when it's still nicely warm...
But now I think there is such a thing as the best time for baking bread - that's Sunday afternoon.
My Sundays are usually lazier than all the other days. No work, no shopping to be done... Sunday is a perfect day for spending some time in the kitchen. And why do I prefer afternoons over mornings? Well, to me it's quite obvious: when I start the bread-baking process in the afternoon, my bread is ready to be tasted somewhere in the evening. Just when I'm sitting on the couch and watching TV and feel like having a little bite of something. Fresh bread with butter is one of the best somethings I can think of, really.
And if anybody wonders why Saturday afternoons and evenings should be any worse - here comes the answer.
I am not one of those TV addicted folks. I hardly ever watch anything (unless there is some interesting sports events, but that's something else - sports events do not go well with baking anything when it comes to me), but now for a couple weeks I have been watching a series that happens to be shown just on Sunday evenings...

Round Sesame Bread
(two loaves)

2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk, scalded
3 tablespoons sugar
1 to 1,1/2 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces
1 egg
6-7 cups flour
2 to 3 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons sesame seed

Add yeast to lukewarm water and stir until dissolved.
In a big cup combine scalded milk, sugar, salt, and butter and stir until dissolved. Cool to lukewarm.
Beat egg lightly. Add egg and yeast mixture to cooled milk mixture.
Divide flour and liquid ingredients in halves.
Put 2 cups of flour into the bowl of food processor (with the steel blade attached), add half of the liquid. Process a few seconds until thoroughly blended. Start adding the rest of one half flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Keep doing this until dough forms into a sticky, smooth ball around edge of bowl.Let the ball of dough spin around for 2o to 3o seconds, then turn the dough onto floured board and knead by hand for a minute or two. Form the dough into a neat ball.
Transfer dough into a greased bowl and rotate to coat all sides. Cover with a towel and place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for 1,1/2 to 2 hours, or until double in bulk.
Repeat procedure, using the other half of flour and liquid ingredients. Do not combine the two balls of dough, unless you want to make one really huge loaf.
When the balls of dough sitting in the bowls are double in bulk, punch them down and turn onto a lightly floured board; form into balls again. Place the balls on baking sheets, lightly sprinkled with flour (I use pizza sheets with holes in the bottom) and form them into nice loaves.
Brush each loaf with milk and sprinkle with sesame seed. Cover and put in a warm place to rise for 1,1/2 to 2 hours.
Bake at 180ºC for 40 minutes or until the loaves are nicely browned and crusty.

 

 

Red or Green?

 

The good thing is that everybody in our family likes lasagne. The bad thing is that not everybody likes every sort of lasagne. And to be more specific, there is exactly one somebody* who does not like exactly one sort** of lasagne at all and simply refuses to eat it, which is making my life a bit miserable.  See,exactly that one sort happens to be exactly my favorite...

Anyway, normally I cook things that everybody is eating - and I wait for vacation when my kids are gone and when for a few weeks I can be cooking all the things that we (me and my husband) like and they (my son and my daughter) would rather not see on the table. But sometimes it happens that for one reason or another I prepare two different dishes at one time. Then everybody is happy, at least for a while.

* my son

** spinach lasagne, of course (actually, the guy doesn't like spinach in any form at all)

 

Sauce for Red Lasagne with Meat and Vegetables

(for a 35x25cm pan)

4 tablespoons olive oil

500g ground meat (beef or pork-beef)

8 big garlic cloves

2 medium onions

2 medium carrots

2 red peppers

1 small zucchini

1 medium (young) eggplant

3 to 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1l good and thick tomato paste

salt, pepper, basil to taste

for white sauce:

4 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

1l milk

salt pepper and nutmeg to taste

grated cheese of your favorite kind

Prepare the vegetables: peel them, de-seed the peppers and (if needed) the eggplant. 

Slice finely 4 garlic cloves, the other 4 chop very finely (but do not press).

Cut all the vegetables finely - the finer you cut them, the better the sauce will be.

Heat olive oil in a big pot, put in the sliced garlic and let it fry for about a minute, then add the meat and fry it, stirring occasionally,  until nicely browned. 

Add the onions and fry 2-3 minutes more, stirring from time to time. Now add the rest of vegetables except for the remaining garlic, pour in balsamic vinegar and cook everything until the carrots are just starting to be getting tender - again, don't forget about stirring. When the carrots are at the right stage add tomato paste, salt, pepper and basil to taste and let everything cook for 2-3 more minutes (stirring again). 

Set the pan aside but don't forget about it - you still will have to add the remaining garlic. I do this when the sauce is still very warm, but not hot anymore. After adding the garlic you are done with the red sauce - or actually red stuffing, since what you have in the pot should be quite thick.

Stuffing for Green Lasagne with Spinach and Goat Cheese

(for a 20x30cm pan)

1kg frozen spinach (leaves)

250g goat chese (I use Chavroux)

4 big garlic cloves

2 tablespoons butter

salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste

for white sauce:

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

3/4 l milk

salt pepper and nutmeg to taste

grated cheese of your favorite kind

Thaw the  spinach on a sieve, then press it with a paper towel to get rid of excess water.
Heat butter in a pan, put in the spinach and cook it for 5 minutes, not more. Stir in the cheese, cook for another minute then turn off the heat. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste and voila! Your stuffing is ready.

Now, having the stuffing ready you need to prepare the white sauce, which is really easy. 

First, you need to heat butter in a pan - just heat, don't let it brown. Add flour and whisk it with butter so that you end up with a smooth mixture. Let it bubble for a minute or so, whisking or stirring constantly to make sure it does not burn or even get brown. Then you quickly pour in cold milk and bring everything to boiling not giving up the stirring. The sauce should be quite thick - if it is too thin you just let it boil for a couple minutes. Turn the heat off and add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste and you are done.

Now comes the final part - it is same for both kinds of today's lasagne.
Pour some white sauce into the baking pan - just enough to cover the bottom. Then arrange the first layer of lasagne leaves, you can do it as you like (I like when the leaves overlap each other a bit, so that at the end I get something in between a single and a double layer).
Spread about 1/3 of the stuffing over the leaves, then pour some white sauce and spread it over the stuffing, cover it with a layer of lasagne leaves again. You repeat it two more times - and at this point you should be left with enough white sauce to nicely cover the top layer of leaves. The last thing to do is spread cheese on top of everything - be generous. About 1cm thick layer will give your lasagne a nice and crispy crust.
Put the baking pan into a preheated oven (180ºC) for about 40 minutes or until the top is bubbly and nicely browned. Get the pan out of the oven and let it stand 10-15 minutes before serving to let the layers set.

Against Bad Moods

Sometimes I don't feel like doing much. I just want to sit on a couch, read a book, enjoy a cup of aromatic tea and a piece of cake. Since I don't feel like doing much, the cake must be easy to make. Since I want to enjoy it - it has to be extremely nice. What kind of a cake should I bake today?...

Chocolate Cake with a Touch of Orange *
(one 30x40cm pan)

225 gram dark chocolate, broken into little pieces
125 gram butter
grated rind and juice of 1 big orange
6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
your favorite topping/frosting (optional)


Melt chocolate with butter in a small pot, put it aside to cool down a bit. When chocolate is lukewarm, beat the egg yolks with sugar until white and creamy, then - beating constantly at a low speed of the mixer - gradually add the chocolate, orange rind and juice. Gradually add flour and baking powder.
In another bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Pour chocolate mixture over whites, folding gently until just blended.
Turn mixture into a buttered and floured baking pan, bake at 180ºC for 30 minutes.
When the cake is done, leave it in the pan to cool.
You can put your favorite chocolate topping over the cake and sprinkle it without even more chocolate or finely grated and dried orange peel.

I must say the cake is nicer after few hours, or even on the next day - if it gets a chance to wait ;-)

*The original recipe is not mine. I got it from M. on a forum that normally has not much to do with cooking - that proves that you can find interesting things in places where normally you would not be looking for them ;-) Anyway, I have modified the original a bit: I use more chocolate and the orange rind is completely my idea. I think it is adding a lot to the taste, but maybe it's just my opinion.

Food Is Sexy

Well, food can be sexy, to be precise. It all goes about the right attitude and some little details.
Think, what is this little something that makes a person sexy? Is it just the looks? Somehow, I don't think so... Personally I do not see anything sexy about beautiful people who do not have anything but the looks to offer. To me the most exciting people are the ones who do not show everything on the outside, they just give some hint: "hey, there is something about me you might want to discover". If they are not liars and there really is something to be discovered - they are sexy to me. And if the discovery part can last forever and I never get even close to getting bored and saying "Hey, now I know everything about you" - well, I would call it damn sexy, to be honest. But to be even more honest, if those damn sexy people are handsome at the same time... well, it doesn't hurt at all.
The same rule applies to food - for me, at least. I don't want those perfect supermarket apples of same shape, same size and same color, but with no taste at all. I don't like food arranged on a plate in a fancy way when the fancy look is about the only thing the plate has to offer. You see it, you want to try it, and when you do - there goes the disappointment... What I like - and what I think exciting - is food in which I can taste something new with almost every bite. Food, that does not unveil all of it's secrets until I taste it - and when I taste it I want to taste more, because there still seems to be something hidden... And when the food is looking exciting as well... This is what I call sexy food. Exactly.

Melon and pomegranate salad

(4 servings)

1 tasty melon

1 pomegranate

1 lime, juiced

100ml pale sherry

1 teaspoon castor sugar

freshly ground pepper

Spoon out the melon flesh - you can either have it in little balls or in thin slices (this is how I prefer it).

De-seed the pomegranate making sure that the seeds are clean of any bits of the membrane. Doing this carefully, so that the juice doesn't stain your clothes and half of your kitchen ;)

Put the melon and pomegranate seeds in layers into the serving bowls or glasses and place them in a fridge to cool down nicely.

Before serving mix lime juice with sherry and sugar, pour it over the fruit and top everything with a dash or two of freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy your salad :)

Who Bakes Bread, Anyway?

I do, sometimes. And some other people I know. And many, many people that I don't know - of that I'm sure, somehow.
And why bake bread when there is a great choice in supermarkets and bakeries? Well, I don't know some other people's reasons, but I do know mine - and I have to admit they are not rational at all. It is cheaper and easier to buy bread at a supermarket or at a bakery, and some sorts of bread that you can buy are quite excellent. The thing is, you can buy nice stuff, but by buying it you will not get your kitchen full of this wonderful aroma of freshly-baked bread - and I love that smell. I also like to watch bread in the oven and then taste it when it's still quite hot. And I simply think there is something special about baking bread in the times when everybody is in a hurry and nobody has time - baking bread is making me slow down...

Basic Dinner Rolls
(16 rolls)

4 to 4.3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 egg (at room temperature)
*1 egg beaten with a little bit of milk, poppy seed, sesame seed - optional

Combine 1.1/2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a mixing bowl.
Heat milk, water and butter until very warm. Add liquid and egg to flour mixture; beat until smooth (about 3 to 4 minutes).
Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface, continue to work in flour until dough can be kneaded. Knead until smooth and elastic, but still soft (about 5 to 7 minutes).
Cover dough with a bowl or a pan, let it rest about 20 minutes.
Shape rolls as desired. Place them on a greased baking sheet, cover and let rise until double in bulk (about 15-20 minutes).
Now you can brush the rolls with the egg-milk mixture and sprinkle them with poppy or sesame seed.
Place the sheet in the oven and bake at 220ºC about 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Speaking of Cloves...

Why about cloves?
And why not?
Cloves are good for everything - they go well with meat, vegetables, fruit and cakes.
They smell nice. They look pretty. What else might one want from cloves?
So, having this straight I can say hello to everybody and move on :-)