Hidden veggies, Take 2: Broinhas de Abóbora

As you may have read on my previous post, this month Daring baker's challenge was about hiding vegetables into something sweet. I don't know if this can really be called "hidden", because the color gives it a bit away, and I'm not even sure if you can categorize pumpkin as a vegetable, so I made a second post for this recipe (also I was running out of time to include it in the first one).

Broinhas is a small cake or cookie traditionally made of cornflour and honey. I like making "Broinhas de Natal" during christmas time, those include pumpkin and all the seasonal spicies, but I try to stay clear from christmasy baking the rest of the year, otherwise it feels less special. This one has pumpkin too, but with dried fruits and almonds. It turned out to be a lovely breakfast brioche.

Broinhas de Abóbora / Cornflour and Pumpkin Brioche (based on a recipe from 7gramas de ternura)

550gr of Pumpkin, skinned and diced
150gr of Brown Sugar
1 Lemon
1 Stick of Cinnamom
50gr of Butter
400gr of Flour
300gr of Cornflour
1 pack of Instant Dried Yeast
100gr of Shaved Almonds
50gr of Grouns Almonds
100gr of Dried Raisins
100gr of Dried Apricot, diced
Icing Sugar, for dusting

In a pan, place the pumpkin, sugar, lemon zest and cinnamom stick on a medium flame and let cook for about 20 minutes, until the pumpkin is cooked, stir every now and than. Off the heat, take out the cinnamom stick, add the butter, and using a plunging mixer, make a purée with your pumpkin, set aside.

In a big bowl, combine all the dry ingredients (both flours, yeast, almonds, raisins and apricot) and make a well in the middle, pour in the (cooled) purée and start stiring with a wooden spoon, or in a standmixer. If it's too wet to shape the dough, add some more flour, if it's too dry, add a bit of milk. Leave the dough for 2 hours in a warm place.

Line your oven trays with parchement paper, place the little brioche you've formed on them and leave them to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cook the brioche for about 15 to 20 minutes and leave them to cool on a rack before dusting them with icing sugar.

Daring Baker - March 2013: Hidden Veggies!

Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

I don't have children of my own, but I have nieces and nephew that I'm in charge of every once in a while, and let me tell you, preparing lunch for them is not an easy task... They are really picky, seem to steer away from most vegetables and anything that looks healthy. Sometimes a recipe they liked a few weeks back is all of the sudden not good anymore... go figure!

I'm pretty sure I wasn't this difficult as a child, or maybe that's how I want to remember. But I'm very happy I didn't grew up on fast food and frozen ready made meals. So I really liked this month challenge, it gave me a chance to sneek in a few extra vegetables and making it to a game of "guess what the secret ingredient is".

I've made a chocolate cake with raw beetroot that was interesting in texture and taste, even if it won't be my standard chocolate cake, it's definetly worth a try. I also made some kind of pumpkin brioche called Broinhas de Abobora, that I liked very much and will share in my next post. Otherwise I invite you all to check the best vegetable cake there is (in my humble opinion) which is the swiss carrot cake! Still my favorit one.

Beetroot Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Ganache (based on a recipe from Cook yourself thin)

250gr of Dark Chocolate (60%)
3 Eggs
250gr of Brown Sugar
1 Vanilla pod
60ml of Honey
80gr of Flour
1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
a Pinch of Salt
a Pinch of Bicarb
25gr of Cocoa Powder
50gr of Ground Almonds
250gr raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated
100ml of Tea
30ml of sunflower oil
180gr of White Chocolate
100ml of Cream
Poppy Seeds

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a round cake tin.

Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie (over simmering water) and set aside.

In a standmixer, beat the eggs and the sugar with the seeds of the vanilla pod, add the honey, mix for a couple of minutes. Than add the dry ingredients (flour, bicarb, salt, cocoa and ground almonds).

After you dried out the beetroot with some kitchen towel, you can fold them into your previous batter, adding also the cooled chocolate, the (cold) tea and the oil with a spatula.

When everything is folded in properly, pour it into your cake tin and cook it in the oven for about 1 hour. Leave it to cool completly.

In a sauce pan, break the white chocolate into little pieces and heat it up gently on a low heat with the cream, stir with a wooden spoon to keep an eye on it. When the chocolate it melted, take it off the heat and pour it on your cooled cake. Sprinkle with poppy seeds.

I'd advice you to make this cake one day ahead of time, as it seems better to me the day after.

Winter is back?

Apparently, that's what the forecast is telling us for the upcoming week where I live. I was getting used to have one less layer of clothes, to see the flowers starting to bloom, the days getting longer and the temperatures being above 10°C. But I believe I'm a patient person, I can wait a little longer until we get to those nice spring days.

In the meantime, nothing beats a one dish tasty casserole. It takes a while to cook, but once it's prepared, those recipes have great advantages: you can make one big batch to freeze, or reheat. Because to me, those dishes are even better the second time around. I think it's the cabage, it works the same with sauerkraut, which I'm not a big fan of, but I think it gets more interesting in taste when you warm them up.

So this might not be the prettiest dish around, but it's a good option to start on a cold monday, and help you get thru the week. The chouriço de porco preto, and bay leaf, is to give it a portuguese touch, but you can easily choose bacon or any pork sausages you like, I think it will do the trick. So instead of having a warm sun above your head, you'll have at least a warm tummy.

Cabbage Casserole

Serves 2

1/2 Cabbage Head
2 Carrots
1 Onion
1 Potato
1 Glass of White Wine
1 liter of Chicken Broth
2 Bay Leaves
100gr of Chouriço Porco Preto
Olive Oil
Coarse Salt

Wash the vegetables, peel the onion, the carrots and the potato. Chop the onion quite thinly, cut the carrots and dice the potato.

In a big pan, heat up some olive oil on a medium to high flame. Add the vegetables you've cut so far, add a pinch of salt, and let them cook for 5 minutes, stir so it doesn't attach.

Chop the cabbage and add it to the vegetables, keep stiring for about 3 minutes. Pour in the white wine, and let it steam out a little before adding the broth. Lower the heat, add the bay leaves, the chouriço and let it cook for 2 to 3 hours, lid off, so most of the liquid steams out. To serve, sprinkle with some coarse salt.

Beetroot and Pear Carpaccio with Tuna, Horseradish Cream

Communication is fascinating. Semantic, the meaning of words, the way we use them, how they evolved thru time and the differences between languages. I don't know if any of you ever seen "Quest for fire", but can you imagine going from basically grunts, to such an evolved vocabulary that we can express our every feeling.

I pride myself to be able to speak in different languages, to even do my work in the ones I'm fluent in. I love learning a new one, and hope to be fluent in that one too, one day. But sometimes I wonder, no matter how educated we are, is what we say going to be understood? Is how we tell things, the same as how people are going to hear them? Beyond knowlegde, isn't our own experience going to influence our understanding.

Take music for instance, I might find a meaning in a song that reflects on my life, where the musician might have ment something completly different. Or you might be wondering if you're still on a food blog by reading this. Well no worries, you are! And this blogger has spend last week-end in her favorit city, enjoying sun, music and food. It was also a reminder of all the things I've learned so far, aswell as all the lessons I still have ahead of me.

Beetroot and Pear Carpaccio with Tuna, Horseradish Cream

Serves 1

1 Small Beetroot, cooked
1 Pear (Rocha)
150gr Tuna Fillet (mine was canned and Portuguese)
10cl of Cream
1 Teaspoon of Horseradish
1 Tablespoon of Chive, freshly choped
1 Tablespoon of Dill
Walnut Oil
Lemon juice
Coarse salt, Pepper

Using preferably a mandoline, slice the beetroot and the pear as finely as possible. Season them with lemon juice, so the pear won't turn brown.

Whip the cream, add the horseradish and whip again until it's nice and fluffy.

To serve, place the beetroot and pear around the plate, in the middle add the tuna. Season with the walnut oil, if needed add some lemon juice. Sprinkle with fresh chive, the dill, a little bit of salt and pepper. To finish, add some of the horseradish cream.

Daring Baker - February 2013: Crisp Crackers and Flatbread

Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers!

I though I wouldn't make it this month, life is so hectic these days. But spending time in the kitchen feels like a breath of fresh air. Even if the fresh air smells like onion! (which it did). I'm not a peanut, potato chips and crackers kind of girl. I prefer to save up on the appetizer and have a dessert instead. Plus I'm not a fan of buying things that have been ready-made industrialy (and I'm sure, a lot of people are agreeing with me on that these days).

But I was curious on this month challenge, and always ready to do things myself. Many recipes were proposed, some I never heard of, like those raincoast crisps, that I liked a lot. All the flatbread I had in mind were on the soft side, like mexican Tortilla or swedish Tunnbröd. So I tried the onion and poppy seed crackers instead, that turned out to be so easy and addictiv. I'm sure I'll make some more in the futur.

Raincoast Crisps

From Dinner with Julie blog with Julie van Rosendahl
Servings: About 8 dozen

Ingredients
280 gr all-purpose (plain) flour
10 gr baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
480 ml buttermilk
50 gr brown sugar, firmly packed
60 ml honey
180 gr raisins
60 gr chopped pecans
125 gr roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
30 gr sesame seeds
30 gr flax seed, ground
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

Directions
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda and salt. Add the buttermilk, brown sugar and honey and stir a few strokes. Add the raisins, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seed and rosemary and stir just until blended.
Pour the batter into two 8”x4” (20cmx10cm) loaf pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for about 45 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack.
The cooler the bread, the easier it is to slice really thin. You can leave it until the next day or pop it in the freezer. Slice the loaves as thin as you can and place the slices in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. Slice so thin that they are almost lacy. Reduce the oven heat to slow 150°C and bake them for about 15 minutes, then flip them over and bake for another 10 minutes, until crisp and deep golden. You can also cut in half before the second baking. This is the way I like them. The size works better. Be careful not to burn.
Storage and Freezing Instructions/Tips: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month. Prolong the freshness by freezing for up to 3 months.

Onion and Poppy Seed Crackers

From “Menus from an Orchard Table” by Heidi Noble featured on Sarah’s blog.
Servings: About 6 dozen

Ingredients:
1 medium onion
1 large egg
80 ml vegetable oil
2 teaspoons salt
280 gr all-purpose (plain) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, puree the onion. One medium onion will yield approximately 1 cup puree. Measure 1 cup puree and liquid from the onion and return to the food processor. Add the egg, oil and salt and blend until well incorporated.
In another bowl, measure the dry ingredients. Mix lightly to combine. Make a well in the center and add the liquids in this well. Mix in one direction until the dough is fully combined. Lightly knead the dough, flouring as needed, for 2 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C.
This is a very soft dough and you may find it best to roll it between two sheets of parchment paper. Roll as thinly as possible. In fact, it is best if rolled as thinly as a strudel dough. But don't worry if you can't get it that thin. The crackers will still be fine. Cut into desired shapes.
Bake until evenly golden. The time required will depend upon thickness but anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes. If they are thicker, the crackers will puff up like little pitas. Cool thoroughly before storing in air tight container.

Storage and Freezing Instructions/Tips: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month. Prolong the freshness by freezing for up to 3 months.

Avocado Pasta

I believe in indulging our cravings, afterall, why should that only work for pregnant women? There are enough frustration we have to deal with on a daily basis, not to have some more when we come to the kitchen. Obviously, that doesn't mean diving spoon first into a huge pot of Nutella (and no, I've almost never done that).

I was in the mood for avocado, which I don't have that often, because I try to stay reasonnable with the "exotic" fruits and vegetables. So an avocado and shrimp salad was on the menu of a lovely diner, but then I was left with with one extra avocado, so I just started browsing thru picture (that's how I mostly choose recipes over the internet) and came accross this creamy avocado pasta recipe.

Expressions like "it is to die for" or "heaven on a plate", always seems like a bit of an exageration. But without going this far, this is damn good for something so easy. The oily consistancy of the avocado  replaces the olive oil you'd use to make some pesto, garlic gives it taste and lemon a bit of a kick. This is a must try!

Avocado Pasta (from a recipe of Oh She Glows)

Serves 2

150gr of Soba Noodles (or any pasta)
1 Avocado
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
1 Teaspoon of Kosher Salt
10 Leaves of Fresh Basil
Freshly Ground Pepper

Bring a pot of water to a boil in order to cook your pasta or noodles.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce in a food processor: blend the avocado, the garlic, the lemon juice, the salt and basil together until it's nice and creamy.

Sieve the pasta and serve dividing the sauce and add some freshly ground pepper to taste. See easy peasy!

Sweet and Sour Pork Belly with Apples

And it's February already! Have you seen it coming? Me, not really. I guess I was just too busy to realise the weeks were going by. February being the shortest month of the year, I guess I will hardly see this one go by either.
I remember being a kid, thinking everything takes a long time to happen: summer holidays to arrive, being allowed to do "grown up" things... And now I'm in my 30's and keep wondering, where has all this time gone by. I guess that's me getting old...er.

Plus February is cold, the school holidays will make my schedule even busier, and I will get bothered by all the lovey dovey stuff going on around Valentin's day. So we might aswell switch to March, where at least I know I'll have a few days off.
But let's not jump the gun, as a child my favorit movie was "Dead poets society", and I still try to do my best on the carpe diem motto. It's just easier on some days.

So I don't know if this fits the whole "let's eat healthy" approach to this new year, but it's a recipe I really enjoyed. I kept reading in british magazins recipe combining pork and apples, so I try to have a take on it. I'm a big fan of sweet and sour dish, though I wouldn't have it on the weekly basis, but more because of the calories than of the taste, because I though it worked very well together.

Sweet and Sour Pork Belly with Apples

Serves 1

1 Slice of Pork Belly, preferably unsalted
2 Tablespoons of Soja Sauce
3 Tablespoons of Honey
3 Tablespoons of Water
1 Clove of Garlic
1 Small piece of Fresh Ginger
2-3 Apples (I used braeburn)
1 Teaspoon of All Spices
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Chive

Prepare the marinade first: in a small bowl, using a spoon, stir the soja sauce, the honey and the water together. Peel the garlic and remove the root inside, dice it or use a garlic crusher and add it to the previous mix. Peel the ginger (about the size of the tip of your thumb) and grate it into your marinade.
Pour your marinade over the pork belly, and leave it for at least 2 hours in it, turn it over half way thru.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Place the pork belly in the oven, with the marinade, and baste it every 10 minute or so, turn it a few times aswell and cook it for about 30 minutes, until it has a nice color.

Peel and core the apples, cut them into cubes. Place a pan on a low to medium heat, start cooking the apples with the teaspoon of all spices, leave the lid on and stir every now and than, cook for about 20 minutes, slowly.

To serve, place the pork belly on the cooked apples and sprinkle with some freshly chopped chive.