Pastry Cinnamon Rolls

 The easiest dessert of the world is here. You only need this:

INGREDIENTS:

-1 butter flaky pastry.

-50 grams of brown sugar.

-2 tablespoons of cinnamon and mixed spices. 

-5 tablespoons of raisins.

-1 egg.

STEPS:

1. Spread the buttery flaky pastry on a surface.

2. Mix the brown sugar and the spices in a bowl and distribute evenly.

3. Now spread the raisins.

4. Roll the pastry on its longest side.

5. Now brush with some beaten egg.

6. Cut in pieces and place on tray on their side. 

7. Brush them again with the basting brush with egg.

8. Stick in oven to 180 degrees, only low heat for 20 minutes in the middle of the oven.

9. Check after 20 minutes and then if they look down turn on grill to give them a bit of colour. 

Be really careful cause the pastry can burn quick. Wonderful, warm dessert. How good and simple is cinnamon.

 

Chinese chicken with almonds--Pollo con almendras

Yesterday I had a horrible day. No energy to cook but we had to eat! Saw almonds in cupboard and immediately thought: let's try a Spanish-Chinese classic: pollo con almendras. It was so easy seriously, and it came out well in such an easy manner. Amazing. Cannot lose this one. This is the original recipe I followed. 

INGREDIENTS:

-4 chicken thighs cut up in pieces.
-50 grams of salty toasted or non salty almonds.

-2 carrots.

-1 sweet onion.

-some green onions.

-2 shitakee mushrooms.

-4 tablespoons of soy sauce.

-2 heaped teaspoons of cornstarch.

-300 ml of water.

-Some coconut oil, or canola oil or sunflower oil.

STEPS:

1. Dice up the meat of thighs (obviously leave the bone out) and dice and seal the meat in pretty high heat in a wok in oil. I used coconut oil but you can use the other I mentioned.

2. Add the almonds and continue cooking, but turn down heat so that it doesn't burn. Cook for about 5 more minutes all together. Set apart the chicken and almonds in a plate and start cooking the vegetables. 

3. Cut carrots in slices and onions in eigths, they have to look like the onions of the chinese. Chop up a few stems of green onions. (You can use any veggies, I just happened to have those, peppers and mushrooms also work wonderful). Cook veggies in medium fire for 10 minutes till they soften a little but are still crunchy.

4. Now add the chicken and almonds back to the wok and bring altogether for a few minutes. 

5. Now add the soy sauce, about 4 or 5 tablespoons and mix well for a couple of minutes.

6. Now add the cornstarch to 300 ml of very hot water and stir and add to the wok. This is your thickener and what will create a wonderful sauce. 

7. Bring everything to a boil and then reduce fire to a minimum and let it sit until the sauce reduces and becomes thick. 

That's it. Delicious, like so impressive. How this sauce turns out kinda sweet is beyond me cause it has no sugar. Serve with rice.  Pic: Hong Kong.

Koftas with Yoghurt Sauce

This is a good and different recipe. My mind kinda goes blank when I look at mince in the supermarket....does that happen to you? Like: what to do with it apart from the usual meatballs and spaghetti? 

The jews, greeks and arabs have pretty fun ways to flavor dull meat for sure. This is one!  By the way when I make this one I double the amounts and do one kilogram of meat. 

INGREDIENTS:

-500 grams of mince (mine was a mix of lamb, beef and pork!) definitely not kosher.
-1/2 purple onion.
-1 garlic clove.
-1 teaspoon of fresh grated ginger.
-1 teaspoon of paprika.
-1 teaspoon of cumin.
-grated peels of one lemon.
-a bunch of cilantro.
-salt and pepper.

For the yoghurt sauce:

-1 yoghurt.

-a bunch of cilantro chopped.

-1 clove of garlic minced.

-the juice of 1/4 of a lemon.

-salt and pepper. 

STEPS:

1. Simple stuff. Mix the mince meat with all the ingredients well, probably best way is with your hands. You can also let it all marinate in the fridge for a while. 

2. Then shape the koftas the way koftas are supposed to be, you do not need the stick, by the way....simply fry it in the saucepan with a tiny bit of oil. And turn it 4 ways so that all sides are a little grilled.

3. Then have some kind of youghurty sauce to go with it. Toss together the ingredients of the yoghurt sauce and serve. 

It is is a great meal, especially if you add a little lamb meat. When I made mine I added 1/2kg of lamb minced meat, and the other half a kilo of pork and beef and worked well.  

 

Tzatziki

So I found this wonderful jewish cooking book in the park one evening when Kenton and I went for a walk and it has been so fun to understand its ingredients and how it works. Also to understand more about Asquenazi jews, or Ashkenazi which are basically european jews from France all the way to Poland and Hungary and Russia! Did you know that Ashkenaz is one of the names of the descendants of Noah in Genesis 10:3?

So I found this recipe of Tzatziki which looked delicious and had no idea what it is, but have realized that it is a classic in jewish and greek cooking. This recipe is kinda elaborate, because you need creme fraiche, so either you buy it or you make it the day before, it is a very impressive cream you all, like any french food. But I have found othe recipes that simply call for greek yoghurt and that seems pretty good to me, but anyway here is the one from this book.

INGREDIENTS:

-1 big cucumber.
-a pinch of salt.

-a tablespoon of minced dill.

-a tablespoon of minced mint.

-150 grams of solid fresh cheese (Burgos type).

-150 of creme fraiche.

-a pinch of black pepper. 

STEPS: 

1. Peel and grate the cucumber with a thick grater. 

2. Then add a little salt and squeeze it with your hands until the water comes out. Put it on a drain and let it soak the water. Amazing how much water a cucumber has.

3. Now chope the spices in a bowl, with the pepper and add the cheeses and mix well.

4. Now add the cucumber and the party has started!

Real good. Again, you can simplify this recipe but using greek yoghurt instead of the creme fraiche and queso fresco. 

The photo below is someone coming towards the wailing wall....the temple was right behind that wall..in Temple Mount, where Jesus will come back to! my dad said he cried when he saw it for the first time, and this picture captures that amazement too of someone handicapped helped to get there to see it and praise God. The other photo is my jewish look in Jerusalem.

 

"Soupe à l'oignon" -- Onion soup

With my job I was able to go and visit the EU institutions. Brussels and Strasbough in meetings with the Council of Europe. Last year, I had this awesome dinner, right beside the Schuman building (see picture) and ended up in this very cute restaurant that had German

 and french food. I had my very first onion soup, and yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam it warmed my heart that night. 

It's been so long since all that and here I am now, to jot it down. Okay onion soup takes WORK AND TIME, like 2 hours total I would say, but it is worth it when you have time. I followed this recipe of Martha Stewart.  Okay, the trick of this soup is caramelizing the onions for a looooooooooooong time, like an hour. This is how you achieve this flavour that will knock the ball out of the park as well as your socks! both at the same time, trust me.

INGREDIENTS:

-4-5 big onions. 

-3 -4 tablespoons of butter.

-1 heaped teaspoon of white sugar.

-1 heaped teaspoon of flour.

-125 ml of white wine.

-1 litre of beef stock.

-2  bay leaves.

-1/2 teaspoon of thyme. 

-olive oil.

For the toast:

-Some toasted bread-

-Some grated strong cheese.

STEPS:

0. Step 0: Did you know that if you put the onions in the freezer for 20 minutes you don't cry when you cut them??? I tried that in this recipe and it worked! 

1. Drizzle the olive oil in a big saucepan or dutch oven. Heat up and then add the butter. Melt the butter.

2. In the meantime slice the onions, on the thin side, really, you do not want thick slices, but not transparent either! 

3. When they are sliced add to the butter and keep fire to like number 3 out of 6. Now stir the onions every once in a while and they progressively start browning. After 15 minutes add the sugar to start the caramelization process, which is truly amazing. 

4. Continue cooking the onions in low heat for an hour. Yes an hour, I know this is crazy long, but this how you get this succulent flavor where something as strong as onions become near candy.

5. After that hour your onions are probably brown and sweet! Great, now add the flour and continue stirring.

5. After 5 minutes, add the whine and deglaze the pan for about 5 minutes, so with the liquid lift up the brown spots on the pan.

6. Now add the beef stock, the thyme and the bay leaves and bring it to a boil.

7. Now let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

8. In the meantime, toast some bread on the oven. 

9. Now serve the soup in bowls and put on top the pieces of toast and the grated cheese and quickly grill it at maximum temperature for 5 minutes. The cheese will melt and toast toast more.

10. That's it. Ready to die of pleasure? 

Ah perfect for a wintery day.

Apple Struddel

Apple Struddle for January snowy days. It's been so beautiful lately with the snow. I followed this recipe pretty much.

INGREDIENTS:

-6 golden apples.

-4 tablespoons of raisins.

-1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

-4 flat (not heaped)tablespoons of brown sugar.

-2 teaspoons of cornstarch.

-1/2 cup of bread crumbs.

-1/2 cup of crushed peacans or wanuts.

-1 whole lemon (the zest).

-5 sheets of filo pastry.

-130 grams of butter.

-1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

-1/2 teaspoon of mixed spices.

-1 pinch of salt.

STEPS:

1. Melt the butter in saucepan and set it apart.

2. Put two of those tablespoons  of melted butter back in the a pan and add the breadcrumbs. Toast them till they brown a bit. Now reserve.

3. Now slice the apples in medium thickness and cut in half, creating little pieces.

4. In the same pot that you have used, now add the apples, the caster sugar, the brown sugar, the cinnamon, the salt, the mixed spices, the cornstarch, the raisins, the crushed peacans or walnuts and the zest of a whole lemon. Give it all a good stir and place in stove.

5. Cook it all together constantly stirring for 10 minutes in high heat, not low heat, or it will release too much juice. It will reduce but not that much. Also the cornstarch will absorb the liquid. Do not let it get burned.

6. Now prepare the filo pastry. Place each sheet of filo pastry and spread the melted butter with the basting brush. Continue placing each on top of the other until you do the 5 of them.

7. Now place the breadcrumbs on the last sheet and place the apple filling.

8. Now wrap it up as if you were wrapping a giant burrito.

9. Baste with melted butter and put in oven in 160 degrees low heat only, not grill for about 40 minutes. 

10. Keep a close eye to it and then turn the grill when you think it needs a little more toasting.

11. That's it.  Sprinkle caster sugar on top.

 

 

Update of this recipe. You can also make this recipe with puff pastry. In fact, I would venture to say that it was better with puff pastry.

  

Pollo a la Brasa--Peruvian Recipe

 

Anyone else sick of chicken all the time?? 

I love pollo a la brasa. And it isn't hard. I followed this video recipes and turned out pretty great. It is a great marinate for chicken, makes it succulent and super juicy cause it is very moist.  I followed this recipe and was pretty impressed. 

Here it is. 

INGREDIENTS:
-1 whole chicken.
-1 can of black beer.

-4 tbsp. of white vinegar.

-2 teaspoons of black pepper.

-1 teaspoon of cumin.

-1 teaspoon of oregano.

-1 teaspoon of rosemary.

-1 teaspoon of salt.

-1 teaspoon of aji panca. 

-1/2 teaspoon of paprika

-1 teaspoon of minced garlic. 

STEPS:

1.Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. 

2. Now pour mix over chicken and make holes with a knife in the chicken so that all this juice gets through the meat. Also pour the mix in the cavities of the chicken, inside and in between the skin and the meat. Basically you need to bathe the chicken with this juicy mix. Now let it marinate in a plastic bag for a couple of hours, or 4 hours or for the whole night! in the fridge. I only marinated mine for 1 hour cause I was in a rush, so imagine how good it would be for 3 or 4....

3. When you are ready to roast, bathe the chicken over and over with this juice. Make a bed of onions in the baking dish, and place there on baking tray and roast at 160 degrees for about 1 hour.

4. After the chicken is done then get it out and pour the juice of the tray again and again over the chicken so that it doesn't dry.

5. Now grill it and make it golden, and really when it's looking gold and toasted that's it. 

I took this chicken to a picnic and my my nephew said: it's so juicy!

I think the key ingredients of this recipe are: cumin, black beer aaaaaaaaaaaaaand suprise, surprise: the salt. This is one salty dish.