Profiterole with bannana cream and chocolate souce

   Yesterday evening I decided one more time to give a try  and make profiterole. I've made  them three times and every time I make I have to pray to cookie god  for good dough, the right temperature in the oven  and so on and so on... However, it's quite simple to make if you follow the right steps.

So what we need for the dough:

100gr of unsalted butter,

1 water glass of flour and 1 glass of water,

1 tea spoon of sugar and 1 tea spoon of salt,

4 room temperature eggs.

Pour the water into a pot, add the butter and leave it until it starts boiling. Add flour and mix carefully until everything turns into a  big lump . Take it out into a cool bowl, let it cool down and add 4 eggs, one by one. Mix carefully! Bake it in a 220C oven for 15 min and then reduce the temperature until 190C and bake for another 20 min. Don't open the oven doors!. When the cookies turn yellow, take it out. Leave it until they are cool  and add the cream and chocolate on the top!!! Enjoy!!! 

If you are lazy as I was yesterday evening, you can use a ready made cream, which takes 3 min to make! A really good friend Dr. Orteker... :) Chocolate source I make by melting 200gr of bitter chocolate, 50ml of milk and a table spoon of butter. It's just a pity that there's no one to eat it at home!!! 

Carrot, apple and celery salad

Mushrooms with feta cheese, garlic and parsley

Well, not the very best photo at all. But it doesn't change the taste!  I boiled these mushrooms for 5 min, then filled with feta cheese mixed with garlic, pepper, a bit of gauda cheese and parsley. Put in the oven ( 180C) for 15 min. Delish!!!

Fish for Saturday dinner with rocket salad

At least once a week  we have fish dinner.  Last week it was on Saturday.  My husband brought about 2 kg of seabass ( tr. levrek) and suddenly I got an idea to make it  with a touch of Thai spices, especially with a lot of ginger and nutmeg.

What we need:

fish

grated ginger

salt and pepper

nutmeg

soya souce

lemon juice

What we have to do:

1. Clean the fish. Take out the main bone ( but it's up to you!).

2. Season the fish with salt and pepper, ginger, nutmeg. Add soya souce and lemon juice. Let it sit for an hour.

3. Heat the grill. Add the fish fillet when it's hot. Sprinkle some olive oil. If you are using fillet, put the skin side first and leave it for 6 min and only then turn. Cook for 5 min on the other side. Don't grill for too long because it may become dry and tasteless.

4. Serve with rocket salad or any other green salad.

My Baltic Sea

Pasiilgau Lietuvos juros... jausmo, kai tikrai esi namuose, kai salia esancia pagyvenusia moteri gali pavadinti mama, kai draugei papasakojus juokeli gali nuosirdziai pasijuokti! Kai gali praleisti visa nakti prie putojancio vyno taures ir nepastebeti kaip prabego laikas... Velniskai pasiilgau namu... 

Spinach stem salad

A very unusual salad for my Lithuanian eyes. But I'm always ready to taste something new. So one day we bought a huge pile of spinach and as usually I seperated the green leaves from the stems. And suddenly an idea popped into my head! Stem salad!

What we need:

spinach stems

water to boil the stems

a pinch of salt

a pinch of red pepper flakes

a clove of garlic

lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil for the dressing

What we have to do:

1. Boil the stems for a few minutes only not to let them turn fluffy!

2. Drain them and let it cool down.

3. Mix the souce in a seperate bowl: lemon juice, salt and pepper, chopped garlic and olive oil.

4. Pour the souce over the spinach stems and leave it for a few minutes and serve!!!

Tuna fish pie

Naan bread

Naan is traditionally cooked in a clay oven or “tandoor.” I used a regular home oven.

What we need:

2 cups of flour

1 tea spoon active dry yeast

1 tea spoon of  salt

1 tea spoon of sugar

1 tea spoon of baking soda

2 tablespoons of oil

2 1/2 tablespoons yogurt

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1 teaspoon of clear butter to butter the Naan
1/4 cup of flour for rolling

What we have to do:

1. Dissolve active dry yeast in lukewarm water and let it sit for 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes bubbly.

2. Add sugar, salt and baking soda to the flour and mix well.

3. Add the oil and yogurt mix.

4. Add the water/yeast mixture and make into soft dough.

5.Knead until the dough is smooth. Cover the dough and keep in a warm place for 3-4 hours. The dough should almost be double in volume.

6. Heat the oven to 250 degrees. (Use a pizza stone if you have, it will help to give naan close to same kind of heat as clay tandoor. I put the naan straight onto the  rail tray.)

7. Knead the dough for about two to three minutes and divide the dough into six equal parts.

8. Take each piece of dough, one at a time, and roll into 8-inch oval shape. Dust lightly with dry flour to help with the rolling.

9. You can place about 2 Naan on the baking/pizza stone at a time. The Naan will take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook, depending upon your oven. Naan should be golden brown color on top.

10. Take naan out of the oven and brush lightly with clear butter.

Plum pie

Every evening we have a tradition to sit in a sitting room and drink a glass of Turkish tea. This time with a plum pie.

We need for a pie crust:

200 gr of unsalted butter

2 cups of flour

a pinch of salt and sugar

2 -3 spoons of milk

vanilla sugar

1 tea spoon of baking powder

Mix the butter and the flour with hand until these ingredients combine, then add salt and sugar, baking powder and water. Make the crust, put into the plastic wrap and put it into the fridge for 1 hour.

Cut 6-8 plums into slices, add 5 spoons of sugar, 1 tea spoon of cinammon and a clove. When some juice appear add a table spoon of corn starch. Mix.

Roll out the pie crust, put it into a heat proof tray, add the plums, put three small pieces of butter on the top. Sprinkle the remaining crust over the top. 

Bake it for about an hour in 180C oven. Let it cool and serve!!!

Chicken rolls with spinach and feta cheese

This recipe I made up remembering the times when I worked in a Greek restaurant in Hagen, Germany. 

We need:

1 chicken breast

a bunch of spinach

a slice of feta cheese

bell pepper 

sweet cream

salt and pepper

How to make it:

1. Cut the chicken breast in the middle to make a 'heart shape' and spang whith whatever you have next to you to make the breast flatter.

2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the boiled spinach and a slice of feta cheese. Roll the chicken and stick it with toothpicks.

3. Fry it in a pan with a bit of olive oil for about 4 min each side.

4. Add the cream and let it simmer for another 5 min. 

5. Serve with rice and spinach souce and salad if there's a wish!!! Enjoy!

Makizushi rolls

Makizushi roll is one of my favourite type of sushi and really the easiest to make. Even if you fail to make perfect sushi rice, the seaweed or nori will help to keep the shape. Sushi can be eaten either by hand or using chopsticks, although traditionally it is eaten with fingers because the rice is packed loosely so as to fall apart in your mouth, and would 'disintegrate on chopsticks'. That's why I follow the basics and prefer eating sushi with hands. :D Vasabi souce, soya souce anf pickled ginger is served together with rolls.

What we need for the simplest Makizushi:

Sheets of nori

boiled rice and mixed with 2 table spoons of rice vinegar, 1 table spoon of salt and sugar

Any ingredients you want for the inside of the suchi: raw or smoked fish, shrimps, crabstisks ( I like to use them because they are just tasty!!! ), etc.

Avocado

Cucumber

How to make it: 

Put nori on the bamboo pad, spread the rice, add the fish, cucumber and avocado, roll it. Slice one roll into six pieces. Serve with vasabi and soya souce.

Personally, I like to roll in canned tuna mixed with onion and mayonnaise. Sorry, Japanese... But this is my favourite... :) 

Viennese Chocolate Sables

Sables, also known as a French Butter Cookie, is a classic French cookie originating in Normandy France. The name 'Sables' is French for "sand", which refers to the sandy texture of this delicate and crumbly cookie. The traditional shape is round with fluted edges and the tops of the cookies are usually brushed with an egg wash to make them shiny. The finishing touch, which makes them instantly recognizable, is to score a criss-cross pattern on the top of each cookie. The recipe that I used for my sables  I borrowed from a blog of one of  Lithuanian bloggers Sonatina( http://sonatinos-receptai.blogspot.com/search/label/Sausainiai). Check her website for more great cookie recipes!! I really loved it! However, the shape doesn't remind the traditional cookie, that's why it's Viennese Chocolate Sables.

What we need:

260 gr flour

5  table spoons of cacoa

250 gr of soft butter

100 gr of sugar powder

a pinch of salt

1 egg white ( lightly wisked)

half of tea spoon of baking powder

some more sugar powder for coating the cookies

What we have to do:

1. Mix the butter until it's feather light, add sugar powder, salt and cacoa, a pinch of baking powder, egg white. Mix it properly.

2. Add flour and mix it again.

3. Put the dough into confectionary bag and make W-shaped cookies.

4. Bake in 180C oven for 15-20 min. 

5. Let it cool and sprinkle with sugar powder.

Three Pizzas

Whenever I want something different but have no inspiration, I always make pizza. Yesterday I remembered watching Jamie Oliver At Home where he spoke about Italian pizzas and made otto gusto pizza or pizza with eight different flavours, in other words, the pizza pad was divided into eight parts by adding stripes of pizza dough along the pad thus enabling to make eight pizzas in one ( we like coffee 3 in 1!!! :) ). Such pizzas are generally sold in Italian markets but personally I think it's a really good idea to make such pizza for a family with different preferances. In my family the story is the same, one person doesn't eat red meat, the other - doesn't like fish. So that's why I made pizza with two different flavours and called DUE GUSTO pizza ( it. due - two, gusto - taste).

Pizza dough:

1 pack of dry yeast (7gr)

1 glass of warm water ( 235 ml)

1 table spoon of salt

1 table spoon of sugar

2 - 3 glasses of all purpose flour

2 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil

What we have to do:

1. Mix the yeast with sugar and salt, add warm water. Let it rest for 30 min until the yeast activates and the bowl covers with bubbles.

2. Add 2 glasses of flour into the bowl,  make a hole in the middle, add 2 table spoons of extra virgin olive oil and the bubbling yeast liquid. Mix it until it turns into the dough. If it still sticks to your fingers add about 0,5 glass of flour.  Let it rest for at least 1 hour in a warm place. Don't forget to cover the dough with a wet kitchen towel or any  clean plastic wrap.

3. Roll out square-shaped pizza pad. Use some dough to make a long stripe. Plate the strap onto the main pad to divide the pad into 2 parts. 

4. Add the topping and bake it for 20 min in a regular oven in 180C temperature ( This is definitely the way I make: I wish I had a perfect oven or at least a pizza stone!!!)

Topping:

1. The first part of my due gusto was with a can of tuna fish, peeled and chopped tomato, green bell pepper and onion rings with gauda cheese.

2. The second part was inspired by Greece with tomato souce, boiled spinach, pepperoni sausage, onion, white feta cheese and a bit of gauda cheese.

I didn't use tomato souce with tuna fish because then the pizza dough becomes too wet. After baking the pizza, I put some oregano on top!

Calzone is one more way to make pizza - make a regular pizza dough, put your favourite pizza topping on one half of the pizza pad and fold it, brush with olive oil! And Buon Appetito!

Yesterday I made calzone with tomatoes, green bell pepper, onion, fried chicken stripes, rosemary leaves and mozzarella. After brushing the top with olive oil, I added some more rosemary leaves. As one of my friend once told me - the smell of rosemary reminds me of warm Christmas...  

And one more photo of the pizza made last summer while visiting my mother in Lithuania. All the ingredients were freshly picked from her garden! Yummy!!!

Japanese style cucumber salad

Recently I got really interested in Japanese cuisine for its simplicity and seasonality of food. After watching some video blogs and reading a book 'Cooking the Japanese way' by Reiko Weston, I gave myself a try to make some simple Japanese recipes. One of the first dishes was this cucumber salad and it definitely became one of my favourites. You may wonder why? Seems too simple!!! But may be just by adding some Japanese ingredients a simple cucumber can reveal a very different flavour!!!

We need for one portion:

1 cucumber

1 clove of garlic

half of a small onion

1 table spoon of soya souce

1 table spoon of rice vinegar

1 table spoon of olive oil

salt

pepper

sesame seeds

What we have to do:

1. Peel the cucumber and cut it into any shape you want! ( I like thin stripes)

2. Add salt, pepper and sesame seeds.

3. Peel the onion and garlic. Chop into small cubes.

4. Mix the onion and garlic with the cucumber.

5. In a seperate bowl mix the soya souce and rice vinegar, slowly add olive oil. Pour over the cucumber salad and slowly mix it.

6. Serve it!!! 

Fried Cauliflower and Broccoli Thai style

If someone asked me, what my favourite veggies are, without thinking I'd tell them - cabbages, cauliflowers and broccolies!!! In the UK sometimes you can hear these vegetables to be called Brassicas and that's how their species is called. Brassicas also include kale, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, etc. They are really nutritious, a great source of vitamin C and low in calories!!!

Last weekend I was doing the weekly shopping in a supermarket and I saw a huge pile of beautiful broccolies and cauliflowers. So what's for dinner tonight? Thai style fried veggies my way... :D

What we need:

Half of a broccoli and cauliflower

200 ml of all purpose flower

1/5 tea spoon of baking powder

2 eggs

100ml milk ( cocconut milk would be perfect!)

a pinch of salt

spices: chopped garlic, black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, sesame seeds and lime juice ( lovely Thai combination!)

Corn or sunflower oil for deep frying ( it gets hotter than olive oil)

What we have to do:

1. Clean and slice the veggies into flat pieces, season with some salt and black pepper and leave it aside.

2. Mix the eggs with milk, add flour, baking powder and crushed or grinded spices.

3. Heat the oil.

4. Put a piece of broccoli or cauliflower into the mixture and carefully place into the hot oil. Cook until it gets light brown.

5. Place the veggies onto the kitchen paper towel and let it absorb the extra oil.

6. Serve it with sweet or spicy chilly source! Enjoy!!!

P.S. If you want to keep the veggies crunchy, serve it as soon as possible!!!

Turkish chickpea dip - HUMUS

Firstly, HUMUS has nothing to do with the soil. It is a mediterranean dip, sometimes eaten as a main dish if served with veggies or fried egg. This recipe was inspired by my husband's mother. The way my husband likes... spicy...very spicy...

300gr of boiled chickpeas

4 cloves of garlic

5 table spoons of lemon juice

salt and pepper

5 table spoons of olive oil ( plus 2 table spoons of oil for garnish)

3 table spoons of sesam seed puree ( tahini)

some water

parsley

red pepper flakes ( TR. - pul biber)

Instructions: 

1. Put the boiled chickpeas, garlic, salt and pepper, lemon juice and olive oil into a blender and blend until it turns into a puree. Add water if it gets too thick. Add sesam seed puree and mix it.

2. Serve humus on the plate, spread it evenly with a knife. Sprinkle some spices and some olive oil. Garnish with fresh parsley or mint!

3. Enjoy!!! :)

Challenge

While surfing the internet I couldn't catch a glimpse of Lithuanian blogs. And frankly speaking I was more than amazed!!!

As I wrote yesterday, starting this blog is definately a challange for me. But after reading the blog '52 skanios savaites' (52 tasty weeks), I decided to join one more challange! This week's challange is COFFEE!!!

As this month my focus is on Italian cuisine, the recipe I decided to try is called Amaretto Cafi ( http://recipes.recipeland.com/recipes/recipe/show/Amaretto_Cafi_Italian_Coffee_3034).

What we need:

a cup of coffee ( I used expresso)

1 spoon of Amaretto ( I used coffee liquer)

wipped cream

cinammon

1. Make a cup of coffee

2. Pour the liquer into the cup or a serving glass and stir in.

3.  Top the coffee with wipped cream and sprinkle some cinammon on the top ( or you can decorate with cherry if you used cherry amaretto).

4. Sit into a comfortable armchair and enjoy the moment!!!

Brownie :)

When I spoke to one of my Turkish students, he claimed that brownie originates from Turkey!!! And nothing made him believe otherwise, despite the fact that 'brownie' as a name doesn't even sound Turkish! The fact that is true in Turkey - it is one of the most favourite cakes. Whenever I go to someone's birthday, I'm almost sure that there will be some brownies or at least a huge chocolate cake! Everyone likes that little chocolate enriched sin...

What our good friend Wilkipedia says: the first recorded recipe for a brownie appeared in the 1906 edition of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer. So it's definately not in Turkey!!! Sorry to dissapoint you fellow... :D

Yesterday evening my sister-in-law was in a mood for something sweet... So it was time for brownies!!! This recipe is inspired by a well-known Turkish chef Oktay Usta. 

We need:

4 eggs

1 glass of sugar powder

1 glass of brown sugar

2 glases of milk

1 glass of melted butter

2 table spoons of cacoa

100gr bitter chocolate

1 glass of grated hazel nut and wallnut.

about 1 1/5 glasses of flower 

vanilla sugar

1 table spoon of baking powder

Now it time for baking:

1. Mix eggs and brown sugar and slowly pour melted and a bit cooled butter. Mix again.

2. Melt 50gr of bitter chocolate and mix with the batter.

3. Add half of the nuts.

4. Mix the flour, vanilla sugar and baking powder and add it into the egg, sugar, butter and chocolate mixture.

5. Pour the batter into the baking tray and bake for about 30 min. It's important not to overbake the brownie because it still must be a bit wet and so to say clumpy. 

6. If you want you can make a chocolate source: melt 50gr of remaining chocolate, add a table spoon of butter and 3 spoons of milk. Mix it over the boiling water. The cut the cake into the squares and pour the source over it! Decorate it with some roasted nuts or melted chocolate. Enjoy!!!

Pizzoccheri soup my way

Pizzoccheri is a kind of pasta which is made from buckweat flour, white flour, eggs and a pinch of salt. The dish that I was innitially planning to cook was Pizzocceri pasta soup with cabbage. This dish originates from north Italy and as it was said by Claudia Baggiani (http://mestolando.com/recipes/pizzoccheri-pasta-savoy-cabbage-potatoes-cheese) it is a northern Italian pasta favourite and also a poor-man's-fair because it includes basic Italian ingredients! 

However, I live in Istanbul, Turkey and the choice of Italian ingredients is rather limitedin here. So this is my choice of ingredients:

2 potatoes

half of shredded cabbage

one onion

one carrot

one spoon of tomato paste

two cloves of garlic

four leaves of sage

wholeweat pasta

water

salt and pepper

some chicken cut into very small pieces ( about 2 table spoons)

1. Peel the potatoes, carrots and onions.

2. Cut cabbage into quite big chunks.

3. Put cubbed potatoes and carrots into boiling water and add a pinch of salt. Let it boil for 5 min.

4. Chop the onion and fry it with chicken and a drop of olive oil. Add chopped garlic and sage leaves.

5. Put the cabbage and the chicken with onions into the pot with potatoes and carrots. Let it simmer for 5 more minutes. 

6. Add tomato paste and some more salt and pepper if you want.

7. Finally, add a small handful of wholeweat pasta and boil it for 10 min.

8. Time to serve!!! Sprinkle some permesan on the top and enjoy the dish!!!

 

Italian cuisine

I believe that you won't find a single person who hasn't heard about Italian cuisine. What amazes me most is the Italian eating culture! How complex and vibrant it is! 

What is a traditional Italian dinner? It starts with a little bit of 'booze' as one of my favourite chefs Jemie Oliver would say. Aperitifs include well-known Italian drinks such as compari, cinzano or my favourite vermouth and so on. What follows is a hot or cold apetizer and then a dish with Italian pasta or gnocci or any of amazing Italian soups. The second course generally consists of fish or meat dish which is served with fresh or cooked vegetable salads as side dishes. Then it's time for a lovely Italian dessert with fruits and cakes or cookies. All this is finished with one more 'digestive' drink like grappa, nocino, sambuca, etc.

My this week's resolution is to make one Italian dish that I have never tasted before. Any ideas? Keep on surfing...

Off we go!!!

Hi, it's been long since my first thought about posting my blog, however good things need time before they turn into something real. Anyway, as my friend told me not long ago, everything starts from a thought...

Let's start from something sweet... tiramisu... I have never met anyone who doesn't like it... but a number of people who think it's terribly difficult to make! No way!!!

We need:

1 package of lady fingers ( cute finger-shaped biscuits)

2 cups of expresso with a drop of rum or brandy ( I always like a bit of a kick in Italian desserts)

3 table spoons of cacoa or grated chocolate for decoration.

Cream:

200 gr of mascapone cheese

3 egg yoks

3 table spoons of sugar

a few drops of vanilla

3 table spoons of sweet wine

1. Wisk the mascapone cheese and set aside.

2. Put the egg yoks, sugar and wine into a bowl above the pot with boiling water. Wisk until the cream doubles.

3. Pour the egg cream into mascapone cheese and mix it slowly.

4. Take the lady fingers and give them a bath in expresso and quickly put them in a serving dish next to each other. 

5. Cover the cream over the fingers.

6. Repeat the second layer of lady fingers bathed in coffee.

7. Put the rest of the cream on the top. And let it rest in the fridge for 1 or 2 hours. 

8. If you want, you can add wipped cream over the mascapone cream ( but I never do that... )

9. Decorate the tiramisu with cacoa or grated chocolate!!! Enjoy!!!