Apple pancakes with maple syrup

The amount of the ingredients depends on how many pancakes we want to make. Actually this is the usual pancake dough (the hungarian version), but I whipped the egg whites separately and added them in the end, which made the dough so light and spumy. 4 smaller apples, 40 dkg of flour, 3 eggs, this amount is enough for at least 4 people.

Ingredients:

• flour
• eggs
• 1 packet of vanilin sugar
• sparkling water or milk
• apples
• ground cinnamon
• skin of 1 lemon

Grate the apples and squeeze most of its juice out of it (and of course we filter the juice and drink it afterwards..:) ). Separate the 3 eggs. We will whip the whites in the end. Add a bit of milk or water to the yolks, the vanilin sugar and the apples. Also add a bit of cinnamon and mix the whole thing. Add the flour in smaller amounts, and if it gets too stiff then add water. In the end beat the egg whites and mix it with the dough. It fries quickly in the pan and its very delicious. To eat maple syrup with it is almost an obligation, thats what makes it so autumny :)

Chocolate cupcakes with ginger and chili

Last week I had a dream about me baking this exact type of muffin so I thought why not try it, so here is the dream muffin. :)

Ingredients for 12 pieces

• 25 dkg of flour
• one packet of baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 10 dkg of sugar
• 2 dl of milk
• ginger
• 10 dkg of chocolate
• chili powder
• 2 spoons of coca powder

Measure the sugar. Separate the two eggs, add the yolks to the sugar, add the milk too and mix it. Chop the ginger fine and add to this mix.
Measure the flour, add the cocoa, the baking powder and the chili powder, and the chopped chocolate too and mix it. Finally mix the wet part with the dry part. Beat the egg white up and add it to the dough. It takes about 25 minutes at 160-170 deg to get ready.

Chili-lime chiken with ginger-garlic seasoned pumpkin

Its easy and quick to make, but special and filling.The lime sets off the sweetness of the pumpkin perfeclty, and garlic and ginger is a wonderful match anyways.

Ingredients for the chiken

• chicken breast
• ginger
• juice of one lime
• salt, pepper
• chili powder

Ingredients for the pumpkin

• half of a pumpkin
• fresh ginger
• fresh garlic
• salt, pepper
• aluminium foil for the bundle

Cut the pumpkin in half and scrape the seeds out. Peel it and cut it into equal pieces. The amount of the garlic and the ginger depends on how strong you want it to taste in the end. Chop them fine and mix them with the pumpkin. Add salt and freshly ground pepper, and steam it in an aluminium foil bundle at 200 deg.
Meanwhile cut the chicken breast into pieces, and start cooking it in a bit of oil. Add salt and pepper, and when it becomes white add the chili powder and right after the lime juice. Cover it and let it cook for 5-10 minutes. Then remove the cover and let the sauce densify a little. The chicken is ready, all you have to do is wait for the pumpkin to soften and then you can eat.

Apple-peach-blackberry crumbs

The blackberry is our own from the garden :) This one is an energy-free version, with very little sugar and margarine, but its really good like this as well, because the own flavour of the fruits is very nice without sugar.

 

 Ingredients for 4:

• Fruits:
• 3 bigger peaches
• 3 apples
• one bowl of blackberries
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• a very little bit of brown sugar

The crumbs:
The amount depends on how much crumble you want to put on it.

• whole grain flour
• margarine
• sugar

Preparation:
Cut the apples in half, and slice them, not too thick. Dice the peaches too. Put them into a pan, and add the brown sugar, and steam them until the apple softens. Meanwhile mix the flour with the sugar, and add the cold margarine. Start crumbling it, it doesnt have to be consistent, the point is to keep it a crumble. When the fruits are ready, pour them into the dish in which you will bake it, and add the berries. Sprinkle the crumlbe onto the top and keep it in the oven at 180 degrees until it becomes golden.

Veggie soup with thyme and marjoram

The original recipe says chicken stock instead of the stock-cube but thats what we didnt have at home now, so I stuck with the good old cubes.
 Its the perfect lunch for Sister, and other job-seekers before an interview.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 sticks of celery
• 3 potatoes
• bit of olive oil
• marjoram
•  fresh thyme
• salt, pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 dl of sour cream
• about 1 and a half litre of water
• 2 stock-cubes

Chop the onion, not too fine and put them onto a bit of olive oil, start softening them, after adding salt to it. Meanwhile peel the carrots and slice them. Slice the sticks of celery too. Add them to the onion and stir them well. Braise them for a while and then add the thyme leaves , the bay leaf and the marjoram, and then add the water, bring it to a boil and then add the two cubes (this is whats on the box, I actually dissolved the cubes in the water and added it then, and it worked). During that peel the potatoes, and slice them into equal pieces, and when the carrots are 80% soft, add the potatoes. It softens in about 10 minutes. When its ready, get it off the heat so that it doesnt boil, and add the sour cream. Then put it back to the heat and bring it to a boil again. You can edd extra salt to taste and freshy ground pepper also fits it well.

Peach cake with a banana impulse

Ingredients (for a cake frame of 28 cm)

The crust

• 10 dkg of stone ground wheat
• 2 eggs
• half a dl of oil
• 2 packets of vanilin sugar
• 8 ladyfingers smashed
• uice of half a lemon
• peel of a lemon
• additional sweetening if necessary

The filling

• one banana
• two packets of canned peaches
• apricot jam
• walnut
• almond chips
• sesame seeds

Measure the wheat for the crust and add the two eggs. Add the vanilin sugar, the lemon juice, the peel of the lemon, the oil and the ladyfingers. Knead the whole thing until you get a batter that you can stretch. Strech it according to the size of the frame and put it into the frame in which you previously put baking paper.
Put apricot jam onto the batter, and put the sliced banana onto the jammed layer. Start laying the peach sliced too. In an appropiate moment add some extra apricot jam between two layers of peach. Then comes the rest of the peach. Sprinkle the sesame seeds, almond chips and the chopped walnuts onto the whole cake. It needs 20-30 minutes at 180 deg.

Zuchini salad for rainy days

Because what else you can do when its gray and rainy outside than start cooking...:)

Ingredients for a relatively big batch

• 2 big zucchinis
• 2 smaller ones
• several cloves of garlic
• fresh basil leaves
• tomatoes
• olive oil, salt, ground black pepper
• 1 dl of sour cream
• juice of a quarter of a lemon
• roasted sesame and sunflower seeds

Wash the zucchinis. Pare the two bigger ones in order to obtain 3-4 mm thick circles. In a bit of olive oil start frying them, add a bit of salt and cover it. We dont want to overcook it, just until they become soft enough.
Chop the other two zucchinis into smaller pieces, and start frying them too in another pan. The point is to cook them absolutely soft, because it will be the basic element of the dressing. Add smashed garlic to the smaller zucchini pieces, add salt and freshly ground pepper and wait until its done.
When the zucchini circles are done, put them into the bowl where we will finally mix the salad and let it cool for a bit. Chop the tomatoes and the basil leaves and add them to the cool zucchini. Also add the lemon juice.
Add sour cream to the zucchini made for the dressing and mix it with the electric mixer. Taste it, if its salty enough then mix it with the rest of the salad.
In a dry pan roast the seeds and sprinkle them onto the salad.

Zucchini with walnut and feta cheese stuffing

Ingredients

• zucchini
• ground walnut
• feta cheese
• onions
• sour cream
• mexico grill seasoning
• condensed tomato can
• salt, pepper
• basil
• thyme
• rosemary

Chop the onions into circles and start frying them in a bit of oil while preparing the zucchinis. Cut the previously washed vegetables into halves alongside, and hollow them out. Not too much, just make some space for the filling. Add the inside parts to the onions which will be perfectly soft by then, and cover the saucer so that it cooks quicker. When its almost ready, add the seasoning and the condensed tomato sauce, leave it for a bit more, and then take it off the heat. Take a hotproof dish and pour this whole thing into it.
Mix the sour cream and the feta cheese and add the walnut, the thyme, the rosemary and the basil. You will need the least of the rosemary because it has the strongest taste. Taste it, and if its not salty enough, add some extra feta.
Put the cream into the zucchini halves and put them onto the zucchini inside and tomato mix. Cover it with aluminium foil and put it into the oven, 15 minutes at 180 should be enough to be ready but you can check its softness by sticking a fork into it.

Corn biscuits, Italian style and curry flavoured

The basic dough (for 2-3 baking pans, depending on the size of the biscuits):

• 200 grs of corn flour
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 dkgs of of melted butter
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• bout 1 dl of milk, or the amount that sticks the pastry together
• grated hard Italian and smoked cheese, about 60 grs
• a pinch of baking powder

For the Italian seasoning:

1. a can of mashed tomatoes
2. lots of Italian seasoning or fresh basil, rosemary, thyme etc

For the curry seasoned version:

• some ground cumin
• as much madras curry seasoning as you dare to add

First mix the dry ingredients in a dish (the seasonings are also added now in both cases). Whisk the eggs, pour them into the dish and mix. Melt the butter, let it cool down a bit, then add it to the pastry. Knead it a bit, then add the milk (in the Italian version, mix the tomato juice with the milk before it) gradually, careful not to make the pastry too sticky or too dry. Now knead it thouroughly. Make little balls of it the size you want the biscuits to be, them flatten them with a fork. Bake them in pan, on baking paper, at 200° until the top of the biscuits starts to get brown.

Turkey breast rolled into seeds

Ingredients:

• turkey breast fillet
• corn flour
• wheat flour
• ground walnut
• sunflower seeds
• sesame seeds (black or yellow)
• almond chips
• eggs
• roasted chicken seasoning

Sprinkle the seasoning to the meat, its salty enough so you won't have to add extra salt. Mix the eggs. Add the walnut, and the other seeds to the wheat flour and a bit of seasoning so that it gives it a nice colour and taste.
First roll the meat into the corn wheat, then to the eggs, and finally to the mix of wheat and seeds. In a bit of oil fry it, slowly so that the meat doesnt stay raw. When it has a nice colour on bith sides, take it out and put it onto a paper which will absorb the unnecessary oil.

Broccoli souffle

Ingredients:

• broccoli (fresh or frozen)
• 3 eggs
• 2 not too big onions
• smoked cheese
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
• nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. Steam the broccoli. Chop the onions and fry them in a bit of olive oil. When its done, take a dish which is big enough for mixing the whole thing in it later on, and put the onions and the broccoli in it. Smash the broccoli with a fork, add the smoked cheese, the salt, pepper,ground nutmeg, and pulp the whole thing with a mixer.
Separate the two eggs, add the yolk to the broccoli cream, and beat the egg-whites, and add them to the cream to. Mix it, and pour it into the souffle' cups. Its better to grease them beforehand, but I forgot to do so and it didnt stick in the cup. It spent about 20 minutes in the oven, but the needle test can tell you when its ready.

The apetizer: eggplant

Yesterday I was watching Ainsley Harriot cooking something similar on the beach in Greece, so here it is, without the sea... We didn't have reason to complain though :)

Ingredients:

• eggplants
• tomatoes
• smoked cheese
• fresh basil leaves
• garlic
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
• toothpick

Cut slices of the eggplant, the same way as you would cut the bread. We dont need to thick slices but it shouldnt be too thin either. Start frying the slices in a pan, you can add some oil but be careful because the eggplant is spongy and absorbs everything really fast, and it becomes soft without the oil at all as well. Chop the garlic and fry it in a bit of olive oil. If all of this is done, let the whole thing cool for a bit. Then take a slice of eggplant, put a slice of tomato in the middle, then comes the thin slice of smoked cheese, the garlic and the basil. Fold back the endings of the eggplant and fix it with a toothpick, so that it wont fall apart in the oven. Put it in the oven, it needs 5-10 minutes at 180 deg, the cheese will melt a bit and the tomato will become just soft enough. A bit of fresh lemon juice is perfect with it. Its better to salt the eggplant while frying it, but you can add salt before eating it if its not salty enough.
(The original recipe had feta cheese in it, but we didnt have any at home.)

Champignon salad with lots of thyme

Ingredients (depending on the amount of salad we are making)

• champignons
• thyme
• garlic
• oolive oil
• sour cream
• salt, pepper

Wash the champignons, and cut the brown parts down if necessary. Cut them in not too smal pieces, four in the case of smaller ones and correlate the others to them. In a bit of olive oil fry the champignons, and add salt too, but just until it becomes soft but nbot too soft. When its done, add the thyme and part of the garlic. Let it cool, whilst add the salt and the rest of the garlic to the sour cream and mix it. When its cold, add the sour cream to the champignons, and let it rest in the fridge for some time.

Hummus

The way I make it, and the way the Sister liked it too. :)

Ingredients for a big batch:

• 200 g of garbanzo beans
• 1 tablespoon of dried vegetable seasoning
• 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds
• 3 cloves of garlic
• cumin
• salt

Steep the garbanzo beans in water for a day (24 hours!). This is important because otherwise we would have to cook it forever.
After this take the beans, put them into a pan with the dried vegetable seasoning, some salt, and at least as much water as covers it. Cover it and cook until the beans can be mashed easily.
Then sieve the beans and put away the water they were cooked in (it will be needed for the next recipe too ;D). Put the beans in some taller dish.
Toast the cumin and the sesame seeds, then add them to the beans, along with the cloves of garlic. Add two dippers of the cooking water and mash the whole thing with a hand blender. If it is too dry, add more of the cooking water.

Upgraded sugar free fruit cake, presents itself as a birthday cake.

I deleted the previous fruit cake recipe, because this is practically the same, except for being better because I made the bottom crust of the cake as well. And we managed to take a picture of it this time :)

 Its the same thing as muffin dough, a bit changed, so that it wont be too heavy or light either. Its about the half of the normal amount that I would use for cupcakes.

Ingredients for the bottom crust  (12 slices):
It contains some sugar just because I wasn't sure it would work out without it, but it can absolutely be left out!

• 13 dkg-s of wheat
•  2 eggs, divided
• 10dkgs of sugar, or sweetening instead
• half of a packet of baking powder
• a little bit of vanilla flavour
• about a half dl of milk

Mix the sugar with the egg yolk and the milk and add the vanilla flavour. Mix the flour with the baking powder. Add the flour to the moist ingredients, and stir it with a whisk. It has to be like a cream. Beat the egg-white and add it to the rest, stir it with a spoon. Pour it into the frame, and bake it for 20 minutes at most, at 165-170 deg. Mine became a bit downy, so i cut off those parts :)

Ingredients for the cream:

• 8 dls of yoghurt
• sweetening
• the grated skin of one lemon
• the juice of half of the lemon
• raisins according to taste
• 1 packet of gelatine sheets
• some of the strawberries, chopped

Mix the yoghurt with the sweetening, the lemon juice and the lemon skin. You can add the raisins and the strawberries. Disolve the gelatine sheets in hot water, and add it to the youghurt. Pour it onto the bottom of the cake and let it cool for an hour in the fridge.

Trick: If you put some apicot jam mixed with gelatine onto the bottom of the cake, it wont get soaked.

Fruits:

• strawberries, banana, orange
• 2-3 dls of orange juice
• another packet of gelatine sheets

The cream in the fridge in an hour hardens just enough that we can put the fruits on it. I put a layer of bananas under the strawberries, and it spiced it up really good. If we have everything we wanted on it, pour the previously heated orange juice, which contains the disolved gelatine already. Put it back to the fridge, until the whole stuff hardens perfectly.

Mustard and rosemary drumsticks

Ingredients for 4:

• 8 drumsticks
• 2 onions
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• mustard
• rosmary
• thyme
• garlic and onion pasta

Smash the garlic and put it under the skin on the chicken. Salt both sides. Try to push the rosmary into the meat by the bone. Sprinkle the thyme leaves onto the chicken. Put some garlic and onion pasta, and some mustard on it. You can add some round peppers, and the 2 onions chopped into bigger pieces, and maybe tomatoes. It needs at least one hour at 200 deg, covered with aluminium foil. When its all soft, remove the foil and let it get a nice reddish colour. If you put all of the pastas on the chicken the day before, it will taste much better.

Hungarian style chinese, which we call 'szukijaki'

Meat can be left out, or chicken can be replaced by turkey breast. I will only mark the amounts where important, other than that it only depends on your taste, you can add more or less of each one of the ingredients according to the wishes of the family.

Ingredients for 4 (or just 3 and you have some leftovers for the next day ;)

• 1 half of a bigger chicken breast
• peas (frozen is perfect)
• 1 bigger carrot
• 2 packets of mung beans seed
• leek or red onions
• 3-4 eggs, beaten
• sliced bacon
• 0.5 kg of champignons
• rice-flour paste or rice
• lots and lots of garlic
• a bigger piece of ginger root
• soy sauce
• a little bit of sugar
• oil, salt, pepper

Preparations:

Its a quite a meticulous job to do, but the result speaks for itself. It's better to chop all the ingredients first, then you'll only have to do the frying and stuff - much quicker this way! We usually pare the carrots, to the size of a match stick, cut the onion in half and then into circles, slice the chicken in streaks and the mushrooms (the size of the bits mustn't be too small). You can also slice the bacon across - the smaller the better. Then pitch the eggs and beat them like you do when making scrambled eggs, you can also add a bit of soy sauce. Chop the garlic and the ginger fine, you'll need them twice. Don't do anything with the bean seed, the peas are fine as well just frozen.

The fun part :

Take a frying pan, the best would be a deeper one and put it onto the largest place of the stove. You will need another dish, from which you can serve the food, you will put the continually prepared ingredients in this one. First fry the bacon, it doesnt need any additional oil, it will give its grease out. When its done, get the pieces of bacon out, and leave the grease in the pan, and put the onions in it. Sounds strange but add a littlebit of sugar to the onions, it wont make it sweet but will give it a really nice taste and colour (you can add salt to it a bit later). Dont need to steam it over, just until it becomes soft. Add the onions to the bacon too. Put a little bit of oil into the pan and add the carrots, and a bit of sugar again. It needs a couple of minutes to soften a little bit, its perfect when its still a little crispy. Then come the peas, they're done when you can smash them on the wooden spoon, it takes a couple of minutes in case of tender peas. The next one is the champignons, add salt and freshly grounded pepper to it. Dont need to wait until all the water disappears from the bottom. Next comes the chicken, add salt and soy sauce, and the half of the garlic and ginger. Let it cook until the meat gets white in the middle too. The bean seeds only need a short time, just until its gets a glassy colour, then its ready. Finally comes the egg, pour it into the pan, and basically make scrambled eggs, the only difference is that you need to cut it into little bits. When all of this is done, in a little bit of oil fry the rest of the garlic and ginger, but pay attention to it, if it burns, it will become bitter. The final step is to cook the paste, it only takes 2 minutes. When everythings ready, you just have to mix the whole thing carefully. You can add soy or chili sauce before you start eating, it will give it a good taste. If you use a non stick frying pan, you can skimp the oil.

Tomato salad by KGy :)

Ingredients:

• mellow tomatoes
• red onions
• fresh parsley

Dressing:

• 1 dl of corn oil
• vinegar
• a little bit of salt
• sugar or sweetening
• water

Dice the tomatoes and chop fine the onions. Put them into the dish by turns and sprinkle the fine chopped parsley onto the top. Shake the ingredients of the dressing in a bottle and taste it. If its allright, then pour into the dish and mix the salad carefully. Its good for the taste if you let it cool for a couple of hours in the fridge but its just as good inmediately served.

Carrots with balsamic vinegar and new potatoes with caraway seeds seeds

Ingredients for 2:

The carrots:

• 3 carrots
• thyme
• dark balm vinegar
• salt, pepper, olive oil
• garlic
• 1 onion

The potatos:

1. 5 new potatos
2. caraway seeds

Chop the peeled carrots, put it into a heatproof dish, add a little olive oil, salt, freshly grounded pepper, and the leaves of the thyme. Mix it, and add the cloves of garlic and pieces of onion. Cover it with aluminium foil and steam it until almost ready at 200 degrees in the oven. Remove the foil and pour the vinegar into it, but not too much. Put it back to the oven for 5-10 minutes until the acidity of the vinegar disappears, and the top of the carrots get a nice colour.

Wash the potatoes, and leaving their skins on them cut them in half. Pour a little olive oil onto them and add salt, the caraway seeds and freshly grounded pepper.Cover them with aluminium foil and keep them in the oven at 200 deg until they become soft. Remove the foil then and leave them in the oven until they get a nice golden colour on the top. It can be eaten with the skins on, its really crispy and delicious.

Enchilada, hungarian version

 Ingredients:

• 1 bottle of enchilada sauce
• 1 chicken breast
• 1/2 of 1 tinned sweet corn
• 1/2 of 1 tinned red beans
• onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• oil, salt, mexico grill seasoning
• 8 round tortillas
• grated cheese to taste

Fry the onions in the oil for a bit, then add the sliced chicken breast, add salt and cover it so that the frozen chicken melts and cooks. Remove the cover when ready, add the seasoning, and frizzle it. Add the beans, the smashed garlic, and the corn with the half of the bottle of sauce. Let it cook for a bit and then take it off the heat. Let it cool for a couple of minutes. Get a tortilla, and put some of the filling in it, roll it up and put it into a bigger ovenproof dish. Go on like this until you run out of tortillas or space in the dish. Put the remaining half of the sauce onto the tortillas, and sprinkle the cheese on it. Chives freshly cut from the garden can make a serious effect on the taste:) It needs ten minutes at 200 degrees to go golden and then you can serve it inmediately.

Key Lime Pie

This recipe is not our own, but it's a very tasty and unique kind of cake.

Layered rice

This recipe is the typical case of making an enjoyable meal out of leftovers. We had a big pot of cooked rice with vegetables from the day before, our story starts there...

Ingredients:
a pot of cooked rice with vegetables :)
2 dl yoghurt
2 dl cream
Italian seasoning
black pepper
a few slices of bacon
leek
 two tomatoes
cheese

Mix the rice with the yoghurt and cream, add the bacon sliced in little pieces and the chopped leek. Grind black pepper into it to taste and add plenty of Italian seasoning. Put the whole thing in a heat-proof glass dish, cover the top with tomato slices, and put cheese over the tomatoes. Bake it in the oven at 150°C until the cheese melts and the most of the humidity evaporates from the bottom of the dish.

Vegetable korma curry

 Ingredients for 2:
-oil
-onion
-1 tablespoon of cream
-korma curry seasoning
-salt
-1 clove of garlic
-1 eggplant
-1 smaller cauliflower
-1 tomato
-1 potato
-dried chili

While frying the onion in the oil add 4 teaspoons of korma curry seasoning. Add the creme and 1 dl of water. Let it cook for a bit, then add the diced eggplant, potato, tomato, cauliflower and garlic. Add the chili, cover it and steam it until ready, add more seasoning if needed.