Apple pie cake

Ingredients:

 The crust:

•  40 dkgs of flour (plain and whole wheat)
• 10 dkgs of caster sugar
• 10 dkg cold butter
• 1 packet of instant yeast
• half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1-1,5 dls of milk approx. 

 The filling:

• 6 big Granny Smith apples and the same amount of smaller red apples
• liquid sweetener
• zest and juice of one lemon
• a handful of raisins
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• quarter of a teaspoon of ground clove

Measure the flour for the dough and mix it with the sugar, the yeast and the cinnamon. Get the butter and crumble it with the flour mixture. Then put the whole mixture into a bread machine and start kneading it, gradually adding the milk. You have to get a flexible and non-sticky dough as a result. You don't have to wait until it rises, the yeast will do its thing in the oven when you bake it. Let it rest while you prepare the filling.

Peel the apples and grate them. Then you have to squeeze the juice out of the grated apple. Providing that you use a clean bowl and your hands are also clean, don't even think about throwing the juice out, you can filter it and then you have a pure, truly 100% fruit content apple juice :) Then put the apple in a saucer pan and add the lemon juice, the zest, the raisins and the spices. Add the sweetener as well. You only have to cook it until it becomes soft which takes about 10-15 minutes. Let it cool down and then taste it, add some more lemon or sweetener if needed.

Then you can just put the cake together. If you want to put the emphasis on the cake part, you can bake a layer of crust beforehand and place it between two layers of apple filling. If you have some leftover dough you can decorate the top of the cake with it, just don't forget to eggwash the joining surfaces. Also when you are done with the decorating, give an eggwash to the whole top of the cake. Bake it in the oven at 190 deg Celsius until golden on the top.

Spicy fried noodles

Apparently having a cold has its advantages. First of all, you go out and buy a nice piece of ginger so that you can make some tea for your cough. Secondly you have some free time to cook in a slow, moderate way. This whole recipe started out from the fact that I had some ginger at home, so I said let's cook something with it. This something turned out to be these fried noodles, one of my few recipes that I was satisfied with a 100% right for the first time. 

Ingredients for 4:

• 40 dkgs of pork leg, cut in thin slices
• 4-5 spring onions
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 5 dkgs of fresh ginger 
• 1 big carrot
• 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds
• 1 fresh chilli
• 1 pack of your preferred type of noodle
• 1 dl of soy sauce
• 1 dl of oil
• 1 tablespoon of caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon of hazelnut oil
• additional soy sauce
• salt, pepper

The first step is to sprinkle the caster sugar on the sliced meat. Then you can add the soy sauce and the oil. You need to chop the garlic and the ginger fine, slice the spring onions and the chili up (after taking out the seeds) and add everything to the meat. Give it a good stir and let it rest until you slice the carrot too. You can grate it too if that's easier. 

In a hot pan start frying the meat and when the juice starts to come out, cover it with a lid and let it cook for about 25 minutes until it gets soft. You might need to pour a little bit of water into the pan from time to time, but only a little. When it's almost done, add the carrot and keep cooking them together. When it's done, remove the lid and let all of the water disappear. You can add some more salt and pepper, if needed.

Meanwhile cook the noodles in boiling water. Then put the noodles in a pan with the hazelnut oil and some soy sauce and fry them for about 10 minutes, giving it a good stir from time to time. In the end mix the noodles with the meat and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds that you previously roasted in a pan until they got a golden colour. You can put some chili sauce on top as well. 

Swiss roll in half an hour

On my granny's request I made a swiss roll today instead of a punch cake, now that I have some free time I can spend in the kitchen. (This doesn't mean of course, that I will give up on my plans of making a traditional sticky punch cake with pink icing on the top:) The good thing about a swiss roll is that it can really be done in half an hour and you don't need a whole lot of ingredients either.The even better thing about this swiss roll is that I used my home made spicy plum jam with cinnamon and red wine.

Ingredients:

• 4 cold eggs
• 3 tablespoons of caster sugar
• 1 coffee spoon of vanilia extract or flavour
• 10 dkgs of plain flour
• jam

Separate the 4 eggs. Put the whites into a bigger bowl and start whipping them while you add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. You have to whip it until it gets solid and very white. Then you can add the yolks and the sifted flour. You have to carefully mix it together strictly with a spoon until it becomes homogenous. Line some baking paper onto a bigger baking pan and spread the mixture evenly on the baking paper. Put it in the oven at 160 deg Celsius for about 15 minutes. It doesn't take long to get ready so be careful. You can take it out once the top gets a light golden colour. While it's still warm, put the sponge cake on a wet dish towel and roll it up and leave it like that until it cools down. Then you can roll it out and remove the baking paper. Spread the jam on the inside and roll it up again.

Cherry cake with dried fruits

Basically this is Mrs. Lipton's most excellent cherry cake or at least a version of it, since I put more cherries and some dried fruits in it this time. It tastes very different so I decided to publish it again as a different recipe. It's quite tempting, it was still warm when I tasted it and it was already really good, so I'm not sure there will be plenty left for tomorrow... :)

Ingredients:

• 20 dkgs of butter
• 20 dkgs of sugar
• 4 eggs 
• 20 dkgs of flour
• one teaspoon of baking powder
• 10 dkgs of grated almonds
• 250 dkgs of sour cherries
• 2 tbslpoons of brown sugar
• zest of one lemon
• candied orange zest
• raisins
• candied lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

Stir the soft butter with the sugar until it's fluffy and add the eggs too, one after the other, and keep stiring it meanwhile. Then add the flour and the almonds too, plus the lemon and orange zest and raisins that you previously mix with the flour, give it a good stir, then add the cherries without the seeds. Put it in the preheated oven at 180 deg Celsius for an hour.

Turkey breast with sun dried tomatoes and chili

This absolutely improvised turkey breast "stew" was made together with the above detailed rustic rosemary bread. I can't figure out why these dishes are always the best, the ones that you didn't even plan on making... Well, all the more reason to just cook all the time :)

Ingredients, serves 2

• 40 dkgs of turkey breast fillet
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes
• 5-6 sun dried tomatoes
• half a can of sweet corn
• 1 teaspoon of chili powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 3 cloves of garlic
• a bit of mexican seasoning

Chop the onions fine and start frying them in a bit of oil, they have to be brown. Meanwhile you can cut the turkey breast in smaller pieces, and then if the onions are done, add the meat. Cover it with a lid for 15 minutes and then remove the lid. Fry it until there isn't any water left under it. Add the seasoning and keep cooking it. Then you can add the tomatoes and the sweet corn, cook for another 5 minutes. If it's too sour, you can add a tiny bit of sweetener or sugar.

Rustic rosemary - garlic bread

 

The original idea of this bread is not my own, Jamie made something like this in Jamie at home, and it made me think that I could do a different version with more herbs and not only with plain flour. I'm sure it's totally different than the one he made, but it is really delicious. Not very complicated, can be easily made in the oven and even if you don't have anything else to eat, it's perfect for lunch or dinner. 

Ingredients for a big oven pan

• a total of 75 dkgs of flour, the percentage of plain and whole grain flour depends on your taste
• 420 mls of warm water
• 2 packets of dried yeast
• 3 teaspoons of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• one big handful of chives
• a couple of thyme springs
• 5-6 springs of fresh rosemary
• 4-5 cloves of garlic chopped
• olive oil

Measure the flour and mix it with the yeast, the sugar and the salt plus the finely chopped herbs. If you are using a break baking machine, you only have to pour the flour in and then the water and the machine will do the rest. If not, make a whole in the middle of the flour for the water and then you can start kneading the dough until you get a flexible but soft dough. When it is ready, let it raise until it becomes double the original size. Line some baking paper into an oven pan and roll the dough to the size of the pan, lay it onto the pan and sprinkle the olive oil, the garlic and the rosemary leaves onto the dough. Then press your fingers into the dough all over the surface, but not all the way in, just make little "craters". Then put it in the oven at 200 degrees and bake it until the top becomes golden brown. 

Post Mother's day lunch

We  had a postponed Mother's day lunch this weekend, the menu was green asparagus rolled into bacon, mushrooms stuffed with apples and smoked cheese, roasted chicken breast and spicy potato wedges baked in the oven. It was surprisingly quick to make and it even took less time to eat it all. I am too tired to upload the recipes tough but here are some pictures... :)