Tuna cream with celery

So far I have only made tuna cream with mayo and lemon juice but this time I tried this recipe I found in a book that uses celery and hard boiled eggs. I must say, it was surprising how good it was, it is already my favourite. 

Ingredients for a smaller batch:

• 1 can of tuna (approx. 15 dkgs) 
• 2 tbl spoons of grated celery
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• 2 spring onions
• 1 tbl spoon of olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and pepper 

Chop the eggs fine and add to the tuna. Then add the celery, the onions, the oil, the lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stir it well and taste it, you can add more of any ingredient, according to taste. Let it rest for a couple of hours because that's when the flavours really come out.  
 

Mustard and chili chicken wings with roasted red beet

This dish is not very complicated but rather slow because of the red beets, it takes at least an hour and a half to cook and roast. The chicken wings cook quickly, 30-45 minutes in the oven. This is a square meal but but not very heavy, it's perfect for a weekday lunch that you can easily  put together if you have chicken wings in the freezer and some red beets.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

• 10 chicken wings
• 2 tbl spoons of mustard
• 2 tbl spoons of chili sauce
• 2 teaspoons of honey
• 2 teaspoons of barbecue sauce
• 4 red beets
• 2 big tbl spoons of sour cream 
• 4 cloves of garlic
• oil, salt, freshly ground pepper

Peel the beets ( I suggest using rubber gloves ) and dice them. Sprinkle some salt on them and put them in a pan with some oil. Cover the pan and let the beet become soft, stir it from time to time. Meanwhile chop the garlic fine and add to the beets at some point. 

Lay the chickens into a fireproof dish, add salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients of the marinade together and pour it onto the chicken. Stir it well so that all the pieces are covered in the marinade. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and put it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 30-45 minutes, then remove the cover and roast the chickens until the skin becomes golden and crispy. 

When the beets are done, pour them into another fireproof dish, add the sour cream, stir it well, add some salt if neccessary, then put this into the oven too. Roast them until the sour cream becomes creamy, stir it from time to time. And it's done! :) 

Walnut filled crescent rolls

Now, that I finally have some free time, I can start baking more complicated pastries too, and these crescent rolls are always a huge hit around Christmas time. I saw a very good recipe on a blog for this lovely cake but I wanted to make a sugar free version so I modified it a little. I substituted sugar with xylitol and liquid sweetener. Just a note: they can be made with poppy seed filling as well.

Ingredients for the pastry:

• 40 dkgs of sifted plain flour 
• 16 dks of cold butter 
• 6 dkgs of xylitol
• half a coffee spoon of baking soda
• half a coffee spoon of dried yeast
• two big tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Ingredients for the walnut filling:

• 50 dkgs of ground walnut
• 10 dkgs of xylitol 
• liquid sweetener according to taste
• zest of one lemon
• 2 packs of vanilin sugar
• rum flavour

For the eggwash:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 egg white

The first step of making the pastry is mixing the flour with the baking soda and the xylitol. Separately, mix the milk with the yeast. Cut the cold butter in pieces and crumble it with the flour, then pour the milk into the bowl, add the egg yolks, the salt and the sour cream. Start kneading the dough. At first it will fall apart but if you keep kneading, in the end it surrenders and sticks together. Let it rest for half an hour in the fridge, wrapped into kitchen foil. 

For the filling you have to grate the walnuts. Mix the milk with the xylitol, the vanilin sugar and lemon zest,s start heating it up and when it comes to a boil, add the walnuts. With a wooden spoon keep stirring it until it becomes a thick filling. While stirring, you can add more sweetener and the rum flavour.  I advise you to make it two grades sweeter than you want it to be in the end because it looses its sweetness when cools down.

Divide the pastry into 24 equal pieces and form little balls from the pieces. One of the biggest advantages of this pastry is that it can be rolled out very well and thin. Place a portion of the filling in the middle of the rolled out pastry and just wrap it up so that it has a crescent roll shape. When all of them are done, give them an egg wash, first with the yolks. Let it dry and then give the rolls a wash again but now with the egg whites. Again, let the egg dry and then put the rolls into the oven, at 190 degrees until they become golden brown.

Chocolate macaroons with walnut and orange

This recipe is not my own creation this time, it's from a very famous hungarian chef named Judit Stahl. I picked this recipe because I wanted to bake something small but delicious to have something to snack when I'm watching Lost in the evening. I doubled the amount of ingredients in the recipe because I was sure one batch wouldn't be enough. Turns out I was right...:) 

Ingredients for approx. 30 pieces

• 2 egg whites
• 2 big tablespoons of brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon of whole wheat flour
• 10 dkgs of walnuts
• 16 dkgs of dark chocolate
•  zest of 1 bigger orange

First I roasted the walnuts in a dry pan for a while because I took them out of the freezer and if you don't roast them they will keep this freezer taste that I don't really like. Then melt the chocolate over hot water. Add the sugar to the egg whites and beat them up until it's hard enough. Chop the walnuts fine and add it to the flour along with the zest of the orange. When it's done, add the flour mixture to the eggs, then the chocolate and stir it gently. Line baking paper into an oven pan and put teaspoon sized amounts of dough onto the pan. It needs 10 minutes at most at 175 deg Celsius. When you take it out from the oven it needs to be soft because when it cools down it will become crunchy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside.

Whole grain, sugarfree and still delicious

I have been thinking about baking a whole grain sponge cake, I wasn't even sure that it was possible, but I gathered confidence and finally made it. The outcome was shocking; whole grain flour behaves the same as plain flour. It didn't collapse and it didn't become heavy, it didn't even have such different taste. According to my sources at home, it was "top notch".

Ingredients for approx. 12 pieces:

• 18 dkgs of whole grain flour
• 6-7 cold eggs according to size
• 10 dkgs of sugar

• 1 can of plain greek yoghurt
• 1 can of plain yoghurt, normal
• 10 gr of gelatine
• zest of 1 lemon and some of its juice
• sweetener according to taste
• a bit of grated cinnamon
• a bit of vanilla aroma or extract
• one can of peaches or any other fruit

Separate the cold eggs and beat the whites up along with the sugar. Stir the yolks and gently mix them into the beaten whites. Add the flour in smaller portions, and stir it gently after every portion of flour. Line some baking paper into an oven pan and pour the mixture into it. It needs at least 25 minutes at 160 deg Celsius, you can check if it's done with a needle or a knife. When it's done take it out and let it cool down, then cut it in half horizontally, and put the lower part back into the oven pan (this time you have to line it with kitchen film). 

For the cream, mix the two types of yoghurts together and grate the lemon zest into it, add the vanilla and the cinnamon too and stir it well. You can adjust the taste with sweetener and lemon juice until it's sweet and sour enough. Then dissolve the gelatine in some cold water and put it on the heat until it starts boiling. Take it off the heat, wait a couple of seconds and then add some of the yoghurt mixture to the gelatine. Stir it and then pour it back to the rest of the yoghurt, and mix it well. Slice the peaches and lay them on the lower part of the sponge cake, then pour the cream onto it and put the whole thing into the fridge until the cream becomes solid. Then you can cut it up :)

Turkey leg roast with garlic and red lentil casserole

I haven't posted in the blog for quite a long time, I didn't reallly cook anything new either, but today I managed to go to the farmer's market and buy a really nice turkey leg. Since today isn't that hot, I thought it was time to bring out the more substantial ingredients. I forgot to soak the lentils yesterday, I made this dish with red lentils, but I think this recipe might even work better with them. It's not a very complicated thing to do, although you want to start roasting the turkey because it needs at least 2 hours in the oven to be completely soft. Those of you who like chili con carne, but want to cook something lighter with the same spices, I recommend this recipe.

Ingredients for the turkey: 

• 1 turkey leg, the upper part, without bone
• mustard accodring to taste
•  2 cloves of garlic
• salt

Ingredients for the red lentil casserole:

• a big cup of red lentils
• 2 corns on the cob or 1 can of corn
• 1 carrot
• 2 onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 4 tomatoes
• 1 can of creamed tomato
• salt, pepper
• 1 coffee spoon of chili powder or cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of grated cumin
• 3 bay leaves
• water

Take the bone out of the turkey leg and put it into a fireproof dish with the skin on the bottom. Cut match sized pieces of the garlic and cut little wholes into the meat and push the garlic into the wholes. Sprinkle salt on the turkey and spread the mustard on it. Cover it with tin foil and roast it at 200 deg Celsius at least for 2 hours. Pour some water under it from time to time to avoid burning the bottom half of the meat (this will become the gravy for the meat in the end). 

For the casserole, chop the onion fine and start cooking it with the cover on because we want to cook it, not to fry it. Chop the tomatoes fine and add them to the onions after 15 minutes. Add the bay leaves too and cover the dish. Cook it until the tomato becomes totally soft. Meanwhile dice the carrot and chop the garlic fine. Cook the corn on the cob for 10 minutes in boiling water and then cut the grains off the cob. When the tomatoes are cooked, add the carrot and cook it until it's half done. Pour some water in it, and then add the corn and the seasoning. Pour approx. 1/2 litre of water into the dish and finally, add the lentils. Keep stiring because the lentils can stick to the bottom of the dish. The lentils will soak most of the water so you will have to pour some more into it in the end. Add the creamed tomato and some more salt and seasoning if neccessary.

Chocolate chip cake with zucchini

Lately I have seen so many zucchini cake recipes on the net and I had heard of it before but until now I haven't had the opportunity to give it a try. Now that's changed and I proudly present to you the first zucchini cake of my life. To be honest I haven't got the foggiest idea why the zucchini is needed in the dough, or how does it make a difference but it doesn't really matter in the long run. It gives you an extremely flexible and soft cake with lots of cocoa and chocolate. I couldn't tell what difference the zucchini makes but honestly I don't really want to...:)

Ingredients:

• 20 dkgs of grated zucchini (approx. one and a half pieces)
• 10 dkgs of butter
• 370 g of plain flour
• 3 tbl spoons of cocoa powder
• 10 dkgs of dark chocolate
• 15 dkgs of icing sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of rum flavour

Wash the zucchinis, cut the ends off and grate them. It's important to grate them as fine as possible, we don't want big pieces of zucchini in the cake. It still needs to be in pieces though, don't mush them. When it's done, squeeze the juice out of it and put the zucchini aside. Mix the flour with the baking soda, the cocoa and the finely chopped chocolate. Add the zucchini too. In another bowl stir the eggs with the sugar and the butter and the rum flavour. Put the two parts of the dough together and if it's too thick (as it wa for me) then you can add a tablespoon of plain yoghurt in the end. It needs at least half an hour or 40 minutes in the oven at 180 deg Celsius. 

Pangasius and potatoes roasted in beer

We have this old recipe for pangasius fish cooked in beer with bacon, so now I upgraded it a little into a one course dish. In this new version the fish fillet is cut into little pieces and the bacon is also minced. I have to admit the result was quite delicious :)

Ingredients for 4

• 1 kg of potatoes
• 2 big pieces of pangasius fillet
• 10 leaves of rosemary
• 2 onions 
• 10 dkgs of sliced bacon
• 2,5 dl of lager
• salt and pepper

Cut the potatoes in quarters and put them into a pan. Add some salt and pepper. Get the onions and the bacon into a frood processor and grind them. Stir the mixture in the pan with the potatoes. Chop the rosemary fine and sprinkle it onto the potatoes. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the potato is done. Then put the cut up fish fillet on top and pour the beer too. Cover it again and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. After that remove the cover and let the fluids disappear and the top of the potatoes become golden. 

Beetroot with balsamic vinegar and walnuts

Ingredients

• beetroot
• a bit of oil
• walnuts, roughly chopped
• dark balsamic vinegar
• salt and pepper

Cook the beetroot in water and peel them wearing plastic gloves. Cut them in equally sized circles with a plane and put the circles in a pan, formerly oiled. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, and cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius. At half time give them a good stir and sprinkle the walnut. Cook it until the vingear becomes gluey.

Ice cold cucumber soup

The moment when you realize that you still have some of yesterday's cucumber soup left in the fridge is priceless in 36 degrees. This soup is something woth eating even in the biggest heat, because it's light and cool and you can eat as much as you want. Usually it doesn't take a long time to eat all of it in our family....:)

Ingredients, serves 4

• 3-4 cucumbers
• 3-4 dls of plain youghurt
• 2 ls of cold water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Peel the cucumbers and rasp them. Pour the water, and add the smashed garlic. Use a blender or a mixer to blend it. Stir the yoghurt in and add some salt and pepper. Taste it and if it needs anything else, add some more. Let it cool in the fridge for a couple of hours and then you can eat all you want. 

Summer style potato with basil and tomato

Basically this is a copy of  the basil potatoes that my mum used to make when we were little. I asked her for the recipe many times but I always forget it, so now I came up with my own. My brain seriously stopped today while writing my essay so I needed something to get it to function again. However, it's a fact that with new potatoes, fresh basil and ripe tomatoes, you cannot really fail... :)

Ingredients:

• 6 new potatoes
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• half a red onion
• 10-12 leaves of fresh basil
• a hanful of fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons of sour cream
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a tiny bit of oil

Wash the potatoes but you can leave the skin on, if it's nice. Wash the tomatoes as well, and peel the onion.  What we need is to have equal sied potato slices, which is also true for the onin and the tomaotes. So slice everything up and then you can start puting together the dish. Pour a bit of olive oil into a heatproof dish and lay the firs layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them. Lay a couple of slices of tomatoes on the top of the potatoes and some onion as well. Season it with the basil and the thyme. Continue with the layers until you run out of potatoes. The top layer has to be potatoes because the final step is spreading some sour cream on top. Put the whole thing in the oven for about an hour at 180 degrees, preferably covered with aluminium foil, which you can remove in the last 10 minutes so that the top can roast a bit. 

Cinnamon - banana rolls with whole wheat flour

Unfortunately not all of it is made of whole wheat flour, because I'm always afraid that the dough is gonna be too thick if I only use whole wheat (although the yeast made it quite airy). At the beginning I wanted to put the banana in the dough but it would have been too soft, so the banana became the stuffing. Maybe it's better like this, the taste is stronger. 

Ingredients

• 20 dkg of whole wheat flour
• 25 dkg of Graham flour
• 20 dkg of plain flour
• 10 dkg of sugar
• 4 dl of milk
• 10 dkg of butter
• 1 egg
• 1 packet of instant yeast
• a pinch of salt 
• 3 bananas 
• 2 tbl spoons of ground cinnamon 
• 1 egg for the wash

Put the milk, the butter and the sugar in a pan and start cooking it on a very low fire. You don't need to boil it, just make the sugar and the butter melt in the milk. Meanwhile measure the flour and mix it with the salt and the yeast. I usually make the dough in a bread baking machine. When the milk is ready stir a beaten egg into it. Pour the mixture into the machine with the flour and start making the dough. 

While the machine is doing its job, smash the bananas with a fork and mix it with the cinnamon. Strech the dough quite big and slush the stuffing on it. Start rolling it up starting from the longer side. When it's done, start cutting it in 2 cm wide slices. Put the pieces on an oven pan and give them an egg wash. Cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 15 minutes. Let it cool and then you can eat it.

Tuna casserole with peas

I'm having minor kitchen accidents these days so I got a two piece casserole dish set as a consolation gift. In the bigger one you can cook for two people and the smaller one is enough for one. I tried the bigger dish out the next day with this tuna casserole :) 

Ingredients

• half a packet of penne 
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 3 drops of liquid sweetener
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of tuna (in brine)
• peas according to taste
• grated cheese
• salt, pepper

First you have to cook the penne in boiling salted water. Then chop the onion and the garlic fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan. Chop the canned tomatos up and pour it into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, a bit of water and the 2 drops of sweetener. Pour in the peas and cover it with a lid. Cook it until the peas are fine, then remove the lid and let it boil for a while so that it gets thicker. Then lay one third of the penne on the bottom of the casserole dish, then one third of the tuna and one third of the tomato sauce. Repeat this twice and sprinkle the cheese on top of it in the end. You need to cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the cheese becomes golden. 

Red currant and raspberry sponge cake

The garden is full of red currant and raspberries and luckily the family loves sour fruits so this is why this very easy sponge cake was born last week. I found a perfect sponge cake recipe on the internet once and it is practically impossible to mess it up. Before that my sponge cakes were never really good but with this recipe you can always make a perfect one without baking soda. The only flaw of it could be that it's a little bit dry because the recipe doesn't include any butter but you can always add some, according to your taste.

Ingredients 

• 6 eggs
• 25 dkg of plain flour
• 12 dkg of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or flavour
• red currrant and raspberries

When you make a sponge cake, always use cold eggs! Separate the eggs. Beat the whites up with the sugar until it's firm enough. This is the most important movement in making a sponge cake, because if you beat the whites up with the sugar in it, it's gonna be much firmer. This way the sponge cake won't collapse in the oven and it will rise nicely. Stir the yolks with the vanilla extract and if you want to, this is the time to add the lukewarm butter too. Pour this mixture onto the beat up egg whites and give it a careful stir. Then you will have to sift the flour into the whites and stir it very carefully, just until it's homogenous. Line some baking paper into an oven pan (that has at least 6 cm high sides) and pour the mixture into the pan. Put the fruits on top and put it in the oven at 160 deg Celsius for about 35-40 minutes. When it's done, let it cool down in the oven so that it doesnt't collapse.

Courgettes with walnut and cream stuffing and couscous with golden onions

I am condemned not to eat meat and any kind of animal derived products for two weeks so I'm constantly cooking vegetable dishes. The day before yesterday I made chili with squash and beans with a sotre-bought chili con carne spice mix and I have to admit, it might sound weird but it was absolutely yummy. Next time I cook it I will put the recipe in here, just to shock you people :) 

This dish I made today is a good one too, the walnut is a very dear friend of the courgettes and the couscous is always delicious, no matter what you do with it. I did however violate the prohibition because this dish contains at least three tablespoons of sour cream but  a must is a must, if it's the only thing you have in your fridge.

Ingredients  

• 4 courgettes
• 2 big handfuls of walnut
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of starch
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Wash the courgettes and cut them in halves alongside. Hollow them out and chop the inside parts fine. Start cooking it in a bit of oil, while you add a little salt. The walnuts also need to be chopped fine. For the garlic use the garlic press and press them onto the courgettes, cook them together for a few minutes. Then you can add the walnut, and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat. Stir the starch into the sour cream and add it to the walnut mixture and give it a good stir. Place the courgettes halves onto an oven pan and sprinkle some salt on them. Fill the hollow parts with the stuffing and cook them in the oven at 190 deg Celsius until the top gets golden and the courgettes are soft. It's safer if you pour a little water into the pan. 

Couscous for 2

• 1.5 dl of couscous
• 3 dl of boiling water
• salt
• 2 onions

Chop the onions fine and cook them in a bit of oil until it becomes golden. Pour the water onto the couscous and cover it, let it rest for 20 minutes. When it's done stir the onions in the couscous. I also put some fresh thyme leaves in it.