gooseberry tart

It´s not like I´ve taken an oath to produce tart tarts solely from now on, I promise you this was only a coincidence. I craved something summery for my afternoon tea but didn´t have any other summer fruit but a litre of red gooseberries in the freezer. I have been looking for a recipe to use them for quite a time now, but I couldn´t really find anything that appealed to me. When searching in my Hungarian cookbooks I found a sauce that goes well with rich steaks and the Swedish cookbooks "promoted"recipes for stewed gooseberry purée served with milk for breakfast. I found a recipe for clafoutis in Nigella´s How To Be A Domestic Goddess but I craved something more substantial so I decided to make a tart.



I made a shortcrust pastry with

300ml of flour

1 egg

1 tbs sugar and

150g butter

Let rest in the fridge for about 1 hour. I knew about the gooseberry elderflower combination but I wanted to try something new, so I surfed the web in English, Swedish and Hungarian but found very little. There was a recipe where cinnamon was used, then another one with lemon zest but then that was about it. I decided to use Nigella´s idea from her clafoutis recipe (the orange flower water) and the lemon zest, just because I absolutely love the flavour.

I baked the pastry shell for 15 minutes on 225C degrees then filled it with the

gooseberries (1 litre)

sprinkled 100ml sugar

1 tbs potato starch

some vanilla sugar

few sprinklings of lemon zest and

1 tbs of orange flower water over the fruit.

(You could also stew the fruit first by crushing the gooseberries and cook i´t with the other ingredients for a few minutes) but I like a bit texture, so I just used the raw fruit.)

I baked it for another 25 minutes and served it with Greek yogurt (yes, I know, I use Greek yogurt to everything but it actually went very well with this tart). You can serve it with cream, custard or like Delia Smith, with a nice elderflower ice cream.

Note: I couldn´t wait for the tart to cool completely but I would advise you to make your very best and wait, because my second slice tasted so much better! It really makes a difference. The tart was perfectly sweet-and-sour, if you like rhubarb you will love gooseberries. I couldn´t taste the orange flower water at all but the lemon zest complemented the gooseberries perfectly. This time I only used 1 tbs of orange flower water as I didn´t want my tart to taste soapy, but I´ll might give it another try with at least 2 tsp next time. Also I can imagine using orange zest, it should be delicious.

I made myself a nice cup of tea on my new PG loose tea that I bought yesterday at the English shop and I was happy and contented for the rest of my Sunday afternoon :)

tart leek tart

The next recipe that I´ve tried from Twelve was this Leek Tart. It sounded delicious on reading through it as it contains several of my favourite ingredients in food: booze (this time white wine :D), nutmeg, parmesan and cream. Oh, and of course our main character: leek! I was really looking forward to this treat and even "Feng-shui"d it a bit: I put two pastry hearts on top to attract The Knight.

Well, after tasting it I realized that this tart tart won´t attract any Knight if they have the same palate as I :) The wine and nutmeg didn´t harmonize with the leek, I can´t say why but it just didn´t taste good. It tasted as if it has turned sour. I won´t give a recipe for this one as I don´t feel I can recommend it, but if you are brave enough or just want to give it a chance and cook it anyway, it would be nice to hear another opinion. Also, if anyone has a tried and tested leek tart recipe, would you please share it with me?

Oh, and another thing! I am sooooo happy that I finally have Tamasin Day Lewis´ West of Ireland Summers- Recipes and Memories from an Irish Childhood ! I have been on the hunt for this book for at least two years but couldn´t find it for a reasonable price. It is out of print and on Amazon there are three copies right now for £42 and four copies for £118,48!!!!! Crazy people... I happened to check in last Saturday and found a copy for £10, bought it the same second and yesterday the book has moved into my bookshelf :)

lamb stew with egg and lemon sauce

It started with a friend not wanting her copy of World Food Cafe, because it was the English edition and she wanted it in Swedish. I offered her a swap, she kind of liked Tessa Kiros´ Twelve and I have only cooked from it once (the plum cake) and wasn´t too satisfied. The book simply never inspired me (before!!) opposed to her Falling Cloudberries that I adore. My friends said she will think about it and tell me the next day, so that night I went to bed with Twelve.

Needless to say, I have leafed through this book several times before, but now that I was about to "loose" it, I suddenly found more than a few recipes that looked interesting that I somehow have missed before. (The Lemon Tart, Ricotta Tart, Apricot Ice Cream, Leek Tart, Chicken in Lemon, Green Nettle Frittata and the Green Nettle Gnocchi are on my "to try" list now)

I have asked for recipe recommendations from this book before, both on n.com and Vi´s, but nobody seemed to have cooked that much from it. For those of you who don´t have the book, the photography and layout is beautiful, as all of her books´. It is called Twelve because it is divided in twelve chapters, one for each month, so in a way it is seasonal cooking, although it doesn´t translate well to Sweden...we are a bit late up here :) There is also a chapter called The store cupboard with tips on useful ingredients, then Wine notes (unfortunately totally wasted on me) and my favourite: Basics. In Basics you find recipes for fresh pasta, white country-style bread, anchovy sauce, Béchamel, Ragù, Pasta brisée, Crème anglaise and mascarpone cream.
There is a short chatty-informative intro to each month, although it becomes a bit qualmish from time to time - in true Tessa style. (sorry! but thankfully that doesn´t affect her recipes)

So today I made the Agnello in Fricassea -lamb stew with lemon and egg sauce and although it´s not a good-looking dish and therefore not a first choice blogging stuff, I just couldn't not share it with you. Very often when I try new dishes, they are nice, they are OK, but they are very seldom fantastic. Well, this one is. Fantastic. If you like lamb, I urge you to try it.

My first thought when I saw the egg and lemon sauce was the Greek Avgolemono but this was a Tuscan cookbook ?! As Tessa mentions in the introduction of the recipe the sauce is a popular Mediterranean feature, so that explains the usage of it.

The recipe calls for rosemary that I didn´t have, I just threw it out the other day, as it seemed to have caught some strange disease just a few days after I bought it. So instead of the rosemary I used thyme and Greek oregano that I bought on Alonnisos last summer. I made another minor adjustment, I added a few lemon rinds because I love the citrusy freshness it gives to the dish. I used more spring onions and also bayleaf.

If I were to grade this dish, I would give it a ten out of ten.




Lamb stew with egg and lemon sauce
serves 2

about 500-600g shoulder or leg of lamb trimmed and cut into chunks
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 pinch of dried oregano
1 pinch of dried thyme
2 bay leaves
80 ml of white wine (or more ;P)
350ml water
1 egg
juice of 1 lemon (I used 1/2 lemon 1/2 lime)
2 tbsp of chopped parsley

Heat olive oil, brown lamb on all sides. Add spring onions and sauté for a little longer.
Add herbs and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine and cook until it has evaporated then add the warm water and cook for 45-60 minutes until the lamb is very tender. Add more hot water if necessary so that you have about 250ml of sauce in the pan at all times.

Lightly whip the egg in a bowl, add a little of the hot sauce from the pan to the eggs and whisk to prevent them from scrambling. Whisk in the lemon juice.
Make sure the lamb is on a very low heat when you add the egg mixture to the pan, very slowly, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon. Heat through for a couple of minutes carefully not cooking the egg. Remove from heat, stir in the parsley and serve.

I have also made the Tiramisu from the same book, but no photos or verdict yet because it is still in the fridge.

Shall I add that my friend haven´t mention the swap yet and even if she will, it´s too late now. The deal is off :D This recipe alone makes it worth owning this book and of course I am hoping for more fabulous discoveries.

Update: here is the Tiramisu made from Twelve. Delicious! The only change I made was that I was using STROH rum instead of the Marsala and I must say I prefer this dessert with the rum. Also I couldn´t find Mascarpone, so I used homemade Mascarpone from Ursula Ferrigno´s book Trattoria.

greek food

Just a short note about a new blog I found the other day, called Greek Food. Most of you know about my almost-obsession about Greece and Greek food, so I was more then happy when I saw that this blog unites many of the elements I love: food with recipes, family stories, history of food and mythology of course!

I have a few previous posts about Greek food, but I look forward to cook more of that, gaining inspiration from Sam, the host over at Greek Food. So if you, like me, like Greek food, then you will absolutely like Greek Food (I know, that last sentence became more twisted then usual) :D

the cutest general store on my beloved Alonnisos

wasp nests (darázsfészek)

Darázsfészek is a typical Hungarian roll and there are a few different versions out there - as always - but I am giving you my mothers recipe. Last Easter we had all kinds of "new" things, but this year I asked my mother to cook up a traditional Easter breakfast/lunch/dinner. Of course I couldn´t resist to bake brioches that we ate warm with homemade mango ice cream (a winning combination!) but baking the wasp buns was (IS) my mother´s thing.

The wasp nests look a bit like Swedish cinnamon buns but there is no cinnamon involved in these, only a sweet butter filling. Another difference is that while the buns in the oven, you "sprinkle" (can´t find the right word for that, feels like it´s more then sprinkling...if you have a suggestion, please tell me, don´t hesitate, I would like to use the right term. thanks :)) them with sweetened milk so they get a crispy caramely surface, remaining soft and moist inside.
Yesterday a kind soul enlightened me so now I have the word: it´s baste!!! Thanks again, Anonymous :)

From Merriam-Webster: (this is a note for myself and other non-english speakers)
2baste
bast·ed; bast·ing
: to moisten (as meat) at intervals with a liquid (as melted butter, fat, or pan drippings) especially during cooking

Darázsfészek - Wasp Nests

15g yeast
2 tbsp flour
200ml lukewarm milk
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
500g flour
3 egg yolks


Filling:
200g butter
150g sugar
1tsp vanilla

For the basting:
250-300ml milk
add sugar and vanilla to taste

Start with combining the yeast, sugar, milk and the 2tbsp flour, cover and set aside until it starts to bubble. Measure up the flour in a large bowl, make a well in the middle and add the egg yolks, salt and the yeast mixture. Combine with a wooden spoon or your hands and turn the dough onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Place in a floured bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it into a rectangle (about 1 cm thick). Spread with filling and roll up from a long side. Cut into 3cm slices and place with cut side down in a greased baking pan. Cover and let rise again, until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 200 degrees C until golden brown (it takes about 30 minutes). Now, here comes what makes the difference. When the rolls start to get a slight color, take out from oven and baste with the sweet warm milk. It´s the same thought as with a steak here, you don´t want it to dry out, so you can "ladle" 2-3 tbsp of milk on every roll. Put back in the oven and when the rolls start to have more color and start drying out, you take it out again and repeat the sprinkling procedure a second time. And don´t be shy with the milk! :)

Best eaten warm!!! (Umm, not for your tummy, but it´s the best thing you can have with a glass of cold milk)

First basting

Round two

Note: This is the original taste, then there are several varieties: you can add 100g of walnuts or shredded coconut to the filling or 2 tsp of cocoa.

turnip soup - karalábé leves

Today I worked afternoon and evening and I needed something quick, easy and springy to eat before leaving. Yesterday when buying rocket for one of my favourite salads, I noticed the shop had fresh turnips and couldn´t resist to buy just a few. At that point I didn´t know what I will make with it but I knew I´ll come up with something.

So, today I remembered a spring soup that is quite common where I come from, and these tender turnips are just perfect for it. There are several versions, you can make a cream soup and serve with tiny meatballs but that recipe uses both milk and flour and that´s too much for my stomach. Then there is another version that contains many typical Hungarian elements: you don´t saute the turnip, just start cooking in water, then use roux (it is frequently used in traditional Hungarian cooking) with paprika (gives you a guaranteed heartburn if you have a week stomach :D)and is served with galuska (dumpling). Of course you can add other vegetables too, like green peas or/and carrot, parsnip but then it becomes a vegetable soup, according to my opinion. Finally I settled for a lighter version that tasted lots of turnip and spring.

What you need for 2-3 bowls of soup:


1 tbsp lard (or vegetable oil)
3 smallish turnips, diced
1 tbsp flour
a handful of rice
salt
one good handful of parsley (or more)
1-2 tbsp Greek yogurt
broth or water

My mother uses one egg yolk and sour cream (of course) instead of the yogurt. I found that the creaminess of the yogurt made up for the lack of the egg and I was perfectly satisfied. I tried this version because: first, I didn´t want to use one egg for such a small portion (yes, I am a bit economic;P) and second, I don´t have access to organic eggs and then I rather pass on the raw egg yolks.

Melt lard or butter over medium heat. Add turnip, salt and half the parsley and saute until the turnip is translucent. Sprinkle with the flour, stir it until smooth, add the broth or water. Bring to boil, then Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until vegetable is half done, add the rice and cook til rice is ready too.

Combine egg yolk, sour cream and remaining parsley if you are making this version, otherwise just the yogurt and parsley, take 2 tsp of this creamy mixture in a bowl and ladle hot soup over it. Bon Appetit!

The tender turnip has got a wonderfully sweet taste that I love, especially when it blends with the tartness of the yogurt or sour cream. Oh, I love spring!

e for excellent

Two days ago I received my first blog award (see the optimist here? am I unconsciously hoping for more? ;)) from Kitchen Goddess over at Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess...Usually I have difficulties with accepting things, favors, gifts and compliments and this time was no exception. I didn´t feel that I have been doing my best lately and so on, but somewhere deep inside it feels just wonderfully warming and energizing :) Therefore I decided to accept AND thank George for this award, I know it´s not an Oscar or something but I do feel honoured ;P

Also, I would like to forward the baton to some bloggers who inspire me:)

Lisa at The Chambermaid
Paula at In My Life
Eszter at Fûszer és Lélek (Spice and Soul?)
Shaun at Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow
Pistachio at Pistachio en la Cocina

Yay!!! This feeeeeels good! :D