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.

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.

Asparagus and potato tart

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's show, "Jamie at home", more specifically from the second season, the episode about asparagus. Its quite easy and quick but really filling, we liked it a lot :)

Ingredients

• a packet of filo pastry
• 2 bunches of green asparagus
• 8-10 potatoes
• 2 dl of cream
• 10-15 dkg of grated cheese
• 3 eggs
•  2.5 dkg of butter, melted

Blanch the asparagus in boiling salt water in about 5-10 minutes. Peel the potatoes and cook them in salt water as well. While doing that, get the filo pastry, do a little bit of wallpapering with the melted butter on each of the layers, and lay them in the tart pan. Drain the asparagus and let it cool. Drain the potatoes as well and start mashing them in a dish. Add the cheese, the cream, salt and pepper and basically make mashed potatoes. Add the 3 eggs and mix the whole thing. Pour the mashed potatoes into the pan and lay the asparagus on top of it. Cover them with the rest of the melted butter so that it doesnt dry out in the oven. My tart spent 30 minutes in the oven at 180 C, but Jamie said 20 minutes, anyways you can always check it with a needle or knife. Allow it cool for 20 minutes, and serve it.

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.