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.