Monday 30 January 2012

fIG and gOAT cheese

This CHRISTMAS I made a 13 dish Dinner for my fAMIly. Actually I didn't make it, I was the CHEF. My Mom, my Grandma and my Grandpa made it :)

The WARM entrĂ©e was goat cheese with figue. The INSPIRATION is from here: http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/keksajttal-toltott-fuge but my ONE is completely Different.

This recipe is for approximately 10 person.

The ingredients:
1 roll of mature GOAT Cheese
1,5 bag of dried Fig (In FIG season you can use fresh ones)
a bag of pine seeds
A SWEET sauce - You can use anything, the more interesting taste it has the better. here are some tips

  • mix a little truffle tapenade (you can buy it in ITALIAN food stores) in honey [That's what I wanted to do but I didn't know yet where can I buy TRUFFLE tapenade...]
  • Balsamic Vinegar with CaCao - sounds weird heh? It is AWESOME! Disadvantage: I doubt that it is easy to find in an average grocery store... I bought it in a random store (Xenos), they sell all kinds of stuff really cheap. Anyways if you are determined to get it, here is the homepage:  http://www.sodastudio.it/ftp/carandiniweb/eng/index.php . 
  • PAPRIKA syrup. Smash the paprika, filter it and cook it together with a lot of sugar.
  • wINE SYRUP. Put 2-3 dl of wine in a pot with a lot of sugar, cook it until it gets DENSE.

First of ALL put the fig in hot water.When they get Big & SOFT chop them really small. Take a baking sheet and put baking paper on it. Take a STAR form and put the fig mass in it, SMOOTh its way with a small SPOON. Cut about 1 cm slices of the goat CHEESE and put them on the top of the stars.
This is how it is supposed to look like:
Just before serving, put them in the OVEN for 10 minutes. SPRINKLE some pine nut over it and decorate it with your EXCITING sauce.

Unfortunately you don't see much... again the helicopter-view... :) 
Ps.: Not recommended for retired with false teeth!

Useless information of the day: Food Porn

 Dear YOU who did not know the existence of this eXpression... About a minute ago I was also living in the DARK but now I know what FOOD PORN is.
Check wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_porn 


Sunday 29 January 2012

Latest trend: Tube it!

First time I have met with the TUBES with edible content was a couple weeks ago when I was working on a CHRISTMAS PARTY. They put some spread in the tubes, so I had to do something even COOLer. I was thinking and thinking and thinking... and finally I came up with the idea: I am going to put a CAKE IN THE TUBE.

There you go:

Recipe: 
Take as many tubes as many servings you wish for. Where the hell will I get empty tubes? VERY GOOD QUESTION! I went to a PHARMACY, some of them don't even ask you what do you need it for, some of them won't give it to you. Anyways, if you have time just order a box from the internet.

So you have your tube now, all you need is the CAKE. Basically any cake will do. For the first time I choose a CHOCOLATE cake. The best if you have three components: the cake, cream and fruit.
I will show you my version (the components are separately and carefully stolen from more experienced bloggers).

The CAKE
I made a Sacher cake which I have found on izletes.hu. In case you don't speak Hungarian here it is in English:

10-12 servings
18 dkg dark CHOCOLATE
18 dkg butter
12 dkg SUGAR
3 eggs
14 dkg flour
1 spoon of water

Mix the butter, sugar and the EGG YOLKS in a bowl. Melt the chocolate over boiling water and add it to the mix (not when its SUPERHOT unless you want scrambled eggs...). Add the water and flour. BEAT the egg whites and carefully mix it in. Bake it on 175 C for HALF an HOUR.

Creeeeeaaaaaaammmmmmm ....
 This recipe is from KISKUKTA ( http://kiskukta.blogspot.com/2011/06/kedvenc-csokikremem-dobos-torta-krem.html ) because she is obviously the QUEEN OF CAKES. It is a DOBOS cake filling. Again in eNGLISH:

4 eggs
200 g sugar
2 spoosns of CACAO
100 g dark chocolate
200 g BUTTER


Mix the eggs and the sugar. Put it over boiling water and keep beating it. Do it with an electronic handmixer. ATTENTION! It will become HUGE and FLUFFY. So pick BIG pots. When its big and fluffy, put the chocolate and the cacao in and cool it down. When it is cold enough mix it together with the butter.


Then you only need some FRUIT COMPOTE. I used cHERRIES. Just take some of the JAR and SMASH it. Important that you use some of the liquid the fruit is in. This will wet the cake and you will be able to PUSH it from the TUBE.

aaand the exciting part: JOIN UP the puzzle
CUT an approximately 1 cm layer of the cake. Use the OPEN side of the tube to cut little CIRCLES. The cream and the smashed fruit has to be in filling BAGS. Put the tube up-side down and you can start: cream, cake, fruit, cream, cake, fruit etc... until you have 2 cm left. FLAT the back of the tube with a bUTTER KNIFe and fold it up. YIIIHAAAW! READY!


You can wash it and decorate it as you like.

Don't worry about the WASTE. Ms Bakerella ( http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/ ) has a SOLuTION for you!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Avocado-feta salad

Most of the time I use recipes from the internet but this recipe is completely mine. It is a very simple SALAD that you can eat with fish or poltry or just as it is.

Ingredients:
2 AVOCADOS - The best if it is ripe but not creamy ripe
1 jar of Olives (approx 500 gr jar) - It's better if you buy the ones that are already cut, so you don't have to...
3/4 jar sUNDRIED tOMATOEs in oil (approx 400 gr jar)
300 gr FETA cheese
Grean leaves - I used BIRD salad (I am not sure if that is the correct name)
1/2 small PURPLE ONION (optional)
a bag of salted CaSheWs

Preparation:
Cut all the ingredients into 0,5-1 cm CUBES, (the onions have to be really small) and MIX them together except the cashews. sPRINKLE cashews only when you SERVE IT otherwise they get soft. Ta-daaam ready.

I served it with tuna and LEMON SAUCE. Sorry the picture is not the best, my grand-dad has a thing about making pictures of food in a "helicopter-view" STYLE :)

First entry....

This is my FIRST blog entry... in my life... I am eXcITED :)
It took me ages to start up this blog. I was always thinking about it but you know how it goes... never actually came to the POINT. Then I just did it about a month ago and I got stock with the name and background picture. I still haven't found the right picture but here you go at least I have a first entry : NOT too BAD... Anyways I'll tell you what I am trying to share with you. RECIPES, I don't have much but I'll share them... I rather have IDEAS, inSPIRATIONs. I will give some ideas how to present the dishes how to make a menu etc... If I see something interesting, a cool restaurant or CRAZY food creation I will update you as well. I guess... We'll see how it goes :)