Italian Sausage & Vegetable Soup

This recipe is one of those that just has to do be in my blog. I have always loved Italian sausage soup since I lived in the USA. This recipe is perfect and not hard.

INGREDIENTS:

-6 medium sausages.
-2 carrots.
-1 zuchinni.
-1 medium onion.
-3 celery stalks.
-1 clove of garlic.
-1,5 litres of water.
-1/2 of vegetable stock.
-1 tspoon of thyme.
-400 grams of diced tomatoes.
-a bundle of some frozen spinach.
-pepper and salt.
-optional: some pasta/potatoes.
-optional: white beans.

STEPS:

1. Brown the sausages in a pot and set apart. I use the same one for the entire recipe.
2. Dice up the vegetables, including the garlic in little squares and sautee in the pot in which you have just fried the sausages a bit. Sautee them for 10 minutes until they soften up a little.
3. Now add the pepper and salt and add the can of diced tomatoes the thyme and the water and stock.
4. Add the sausage that you have sliced up and bring everything to a boil. 
5. Now reduce heat and let it simmer to medium fire. 
6. After another 10 minute add the pasta, spinach and beans.
7. After 10-15 minutes pasta should be done and it will all have come together nicely.

Yum, serve with bread, crisps, etc. I add the beans and the pasta to make it a complete meal and forget about it all. 

Rhubarb & Apple Crumble

Yum!
One of the best thing of living in other countries is the different fruits and classics you can do. Another classic, rhubarb crumble, rhubarb does not even exist in Spain.

I followed another BBC recipe and worked out great. 

INGREDIENTS:

For the fruit mix:
-500 grms of rhubarb.
-500 grms of apples.
-180 grms of sugar (aprox).

For the crumble:
(this crumble is for 2 pies, and you can freeze it)
-250 grms of flour.
-160 grms of cold butter.
-80 grms of oats
-100 grms of brown sugar.

STEPS:

1.  Cut up the fruit (rhubarb and apples into pieces) and coat it in sugar. 
2. Stick in oven for 20 minutes and roast, turning it every once in a while. It will caramelize a little....yes drooling. The fruit will soften and roast. 
3. Now in the meantime, make the crumble. Add the ingredients above together and dissolve with hands. The butter has to be COLD and hard. Stick in the freezer if it isn't.
4. Now transfer the cooked fruit to your pretty dish that you will use. The fruit will have shrunk so you need a smaller dish. Now add the crumble on top and be generous.
5. Stick in oven again for 20 minutes or until the crumble is golden. 

Ready! 
I find that the proportion of sugar to the sourness is the tricky part in these desserts. In my opinion the British recipes are better than American ones, which contain so much sugar you'd be running marathons, every single day to burn off. I read MANY recipes to understand that this is a pretty good proportion. Let me know what you think.

Toad in the Hole

A super British classic now that we are in the Lake District. Wow this area is sooooo spectacular. Highly recommend it. I NEEDED to do this one being here and it came out pretty great! I'm doing this one back in Spain for sure. A comforting pub dish, pretty decently healthy, original recipe here from BBC.

INGREDIENTS

-300 grms of flour
-4 eggs
-400 ml of milk
-12 sausages.
-oil
-a bunch of fresh rosemary.
-salt&pepper.


STEPS

1. First prepare the sausages. Brown sausages in the oven to 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes and flip them so that they are brown on both sides. Drizzle them with olive oil.
2. In the meantime, prepare the batter for the Yorkshire pudding, which is the yellowy doughy blanket around them. For that you need to put the flour in a big container and make a space in the centre and there put the eggs. Now mix it all gently.
3. You will get a big lump of dough and egg and now add the milk and whisk until it is very smooth, it has to be slightly runny, not too doughy, but more on the liquidy side. 
4. Now add the salt and pepper (1/2 teaspoon of each) and stick in the freezer for a while or oven for an hour (I put it in the freezer because I had no time) until it gets cold.
5. Get the sausages out of the oven and now pour the batter in the container. The sausages should be half covered in the batter ideally. 
6. Now add the rosemary leaves on top. This is a great great touch that adds a lot.
7. Stick in oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees and let the batter rise, do NOT open the door of the oven.
8. Check if the batter is golden and has risen and if that is the case it is ready! At this point you can also turn the temperature down a little so the the dough is fully cooked and leave it for 5 minutes.
9. And that's it. Serve with gravy (granules one will do) and of course Brussels sprouts will make you feel like you are back to 

           

How to Make Butter

 I had no idea butter was so easy to do. I mean who wants to make butter right when you can buy it in the supermarket...but it is so useful to know things like this I find. Just so plain gratifying.  Found it in Bigger Bolder Baking.

All you need to make butter is:

INGREDIENTS:

-200 ml of 36% fat cream 
(nata para montar in Spanish or double cream in UK). 
-a blender.
-some clean cloth.
-salt? if you want.

STEPS:

1. There are basically no steps. Simply put the cream in bowl and mix with the blender for about 6-7 minutes until it becomes butter! It will go through the stages of nice creamy cream for cakes, and then it gets yellowy and then the water separates and you butter left.

2. Now place in a cloth with a spoon and drain as hard as you can. The water is actually buttermilk, so you can save it for cakes, pancakes, etc. 

3. Now scoop it out. Season it with salt and that's it.

            

          

Wow, we need to go back to the basics in this life.

                       

How to Make Sour Cream

Sour cream is not easy to recreate. I have found it the hardest of all the experiments I have been doing. But you can create something similar to the stuff you find in supermarkets in the USA. I have done 3 experiments and so far this has been the most convincing one. I am open to better recipes you all, if you have any. Consistency wise I was happy but flavour not so much. Also you do not need lemon and vinegar as some recipes call, vinegar is way too much in my view for sour cream, even lemon can be too much, but yes with lemon is the best I have found.

Anyway, this is my recipe for now 

INGREDIENTS:

-200 Ml of double cream (nata de montar with 36% fat).
-2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

STEPS:

1. Add the lemon to the cream in a bowl and stir with energy.

2. Let it sit for 24 hours (in the winter I put it near my heating, around 20 degrees, otherwise it will not ferment).
3. The following day just stir it all again and now put in fridge for a few hours.

4. That's it. It will have thicken quite a bit. Now  add caster sugar if you want, a tiny, but it is not necessary.  

Not perfect, I know, but at least in case you need it, you can recreate it. I used it for a dessert and it was real good.

How to make Crême Fraîche

So I was doing a jewish recipe and came across this nata fresca or creme fraiche. 

I was like: okay and what the heck is that now? and it is NOT SOUR CREAM, NOPE!  This cream is fermented with dariy ferments and sour cream is fermented with acidic ferments like vinegar and lemon so it is a lot more acidic. This cream is so nice but has a tang to it, but not that much. 

So another new concept, it never ends, but hey this is why cooking is so fun, isn't it? It is like a wonderful lesson of interesting chemistry that you actually get to eat later. This post was probably the best. 

But it isn't hard, you only need 2 things.

INGREDIENTS:

-1.5 tablespoons of natural yogurt.

-250 ml of heavy cream.

No steps, just mix it all together at room temperature and then let it sit for 24 hours near the heating, so around 20 degrees. It will thicken, after the 24 hours, stir together and place in fridge and it will thicken even more in a mason jar. 

Voila, le secret de la francaise cuisine. 

So the photos here below are the one on the left, after the 24 hours, it was ready, and had thicken and then the photo on the right is after one night in the fridge. It was so so good, and the texture like a dream come true. Imagine adding sugar to it.....

How to make Buttermilk (buttermilk substitute really)

What is buttermilk? it it the milk that is left when one makes butter. So yeah, that white liquid that comes out once you beat the cream and it separates, into water aka buttermilk! and the butter. See my recipe of butter to see it with your own eyes in a bowl.

 

But today's brands make it by adding acidity to the milk. So it is not buttermilk per se,but the closest apparently. Super easy and quick. These experiments are worth doing because, who has time to learn this stuff when you actually need it?? I followed for this recipe this fun blogger.  She was the clearest. Also if you are in a crazy rush you can even put everything in the microwave in 45 seconds! But here is the traditional method.

INGREDIENTS:  
-1 cup of milk. 
-2 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar. 

STEPS:

1. In the cup of milk, place the lemon juice and stir. 
2. Now let it sit for 30 minutes. It will start to curdle. 
3. Give it all a good stir after 30 minutes and you got it. Your pancakes are ready to rock.

How to make basic & easy Granola

Granola is super easy. All you need to do is find the right mix of sweet and salty in your mix.
I followed this recipe, with a few alterations and it was a real success. I thought I would post immediately to not forget.

INGREDIENTS:

-300 grms of oats.
-100 ml or 1/2 american cup of honey.
-50 ml of sunflower oil 
(or a neutral oil)
-1/2 teaspoon of salt (very important)
-1/2 of nutmeg, cinnamon and mixed spices that are cinnamony.
-100 grms of mixed nuts.
-50 grms of dried fruit.

STEPS

1. Mix the oil, honey, spices and salt in a bowl and whisk together.
2. Add the oats and stir to coat evenly.
3. Try and see if it needs more salt. If you have put too much honey just compensate with salt. It is very important to find the balance of sweet and salty.
4. Now stick in oven to 170 degrees on baking paper both high and top for 10 minutes. 
5. Bring it out of the oven and stir the oats and put it in the oven again for another 5-10 minutes until it is toasted. 
6. Keep an eye on the oven so that it doesn't burn!  and now, it should be done. Add the dried fruit and stir and let it cool off.

Yum! seriously so good. Kenton was so impressed. The key is to find the balance of flavours, also don't put too much cinnamon but use nutmeg to tame that flavour. Wow.