May 31, 2008

Walnut chocolate torte


There is no story with this one, it is simply delicious!!! Walnuts, chocolate buttercream, what else do you need? Just ask my neighbor. This one is for you my friend! :)

Walnut chocolate torte
(Adapted from coolinarika.com)

For the butter cream:
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 oz of baking chocolate
2 sticks, plus 2tbs of unsalted butter, or margarine (250 g)

juice of one lemon

Mix eggs and sugar until creamy, and sugar has dissolved. Cook in a pot over another pot with boiling water in it, or double boiler. Mix constantly, and cook until it starts thickening; add chocolate, and mix well. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and let it cool down completely. Then add butter (or margarine), juice of one lemon, and mix to get silky, nice buttercream.

For the cake:
6 eggs

1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp plain bread crumbs
250 g (3 cups ground walnuts)


Preheat oven to 390 F. In one bowl mix egg whites until stiff. In a separate bowl mix egg yolks with sugar for few minutes, until creamy. Add ground walnuts, and bread crumbs. It will be quite dry, then fold in egg whites. Mix until all is blended nicely, but don’t over mix.
Bake in preheated oven for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool, and then cut into two and sprinkle with a little milk, just couple of tablespoons each.
Now fill the cake layers with buttercream inside, and spread all around the outside. Sprinkle generously with ground walnuts, and decorate if you wish. Enjoy!



May 29, 2008

Any time is...

Call it an entrée, a side dish, a salad! Whatever! Just don’t touch my plate, make your own! : )
You can try new things, like the new things, change your taste, and preferences, but when it comes to food, one is for sure, you never let go of your childhood favorites. This was another one of mine…


I was a picky eater, NO, scratch that! I was a pain in a you know what!!! I was not only picky, but I barely ate. Well, you can’t blame me, I had too much work building a school for chicken, trying to raise few dozen bunnies, and saving, and bringing home any animal that needed to (or not) be helped.

Chicken Elementary School was closed soon after my mother realized that in order to keep the chicken in the classroom, the corn was being used up very fast… : )

…anyway, back to pasta. I simply love this dish, and even as picky as I was, I was sure to clean up my plate. The onions and paprika give this pasta/potato dish a really nice flavor, and beautiful color too.

There is a dish almost identical to this one called “Granadir marsh”, only the pasta part is sort of like gnocchi, and it is widely popular in the Balkans, so I guess what was done in part where I grew up, someone simplified it. In any case, flavorful, colorful, and my favorite!

Simple potato pasta dish
1 lb pasta (like mostaccioli, rigatoni, rotini, elbows, penne, you get the idea)
1 lb potatoes, peeled, cut up
2 medium onions
3-4 Tbs of oil, or enough to caramelize the onions
2 Tbsp of paprika seasoning
Salt to taste
Parsley to garnish

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain, and set aside.
Boil potatoes, and mash them (just potatoes, no butter or anything).
Salt pasta and potatoes, and combine them now into one bowl.
Chop, and then caramelize the onions, add paprika, and then pasta/potato mixture.
Mix gently, but thoroughly. Best served immediately - garnish with parsley, and enjoy!
I usually serve it with chicken strips, but it works alone for me too. Feel free to add some other seasonings as well.
For end result, refer to top :)

May 28, 2008

Blogging with purpose :)

I can’t believe I have lived a walking distance from this farm, and missed out on these great farm fresh eggs for almost 3 years! Well, now that I have discovered them, I am buying like there is no tomorrow.

Baking with fresh eggs is way better. I have recently gotten a “Baking, from my home to yours” book, by Dorie Greenspan, and just the following week, when I finally got Madeline molds from Marshalls, Madelines were all the buzz all over the foodie community. Well, I made them too, and my kids loved them! We are hooked! I just used orange peel instead of lemon, as I know that is usually my preference with citrus.

I must not forget!
It’s been a while now that I was awarded this awesome award by TM girl of Taste Memory! Blogging with purpose! I like to think that I am serving some purpose in this foodie world of ours, and being recognized inspires me to contribute more, and be part of this great community! Thank you TM Girl!!! I am honored!

Now I am baffled as to whom to pass it on, as really there are so many of you out there who blog with purpose, and love, and it’s hard to keep track who has already received which award.

So I will use a strategy that I believe HoneyB from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch has used once; the award goes to all of my dear foodies on my list to the right. Those are the blogs/sites I frequently visit, and enjoy! Please pay them a visit, lots of taste to be discovered, great recipes, posts, and fun!

May 9, 2008

Citrus Love!


This month Tartlette is hosting Sugar High Friday #43, which is a monthly event created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess.Tartlette chose citrus theme, which is sure to produce yummy posts!!!

Just like Tartelette has mentioned, citrus, after chocolate, is her favorite flavor---well, I am sure it is for many people. I find myself always squeezing that lemon/orange juice over my cakes, regardless the recipe. It adds magic!

I chose this roll because it is my favorite roll/cake when it comes to taste (thanks to orange juice), and I love that it is simple to make. The first delicacy I thought of when thought about participating for this event was this roll, because of the aroma that orange gives it, with chocolate butter cream, it’s a winner!

You can dress it up many different ways, use it for other cake creations, and so on. I make it often; my husband loves it, his mom used to make it a lot (what a way to score points with my hubby, ha? Hahaha!)

Orange Infused Chocolate Buttercream Roll

For the jelly roll:
(this recipe can also be found here)
6 eggs
6 Tbsp of AP flour
6 Tbsp of sugar
½ Tsp of baking powder

Mix the egg whites with sugar until stiff, then add the yolks, one by one, then flour mixed with baking power. Bake in a jelly roll pan lined with parchment paper, @ 385 F until lightly golden (not too long). Transfer onto damp kitchen towel, along with the parchment paper, and roll it up.

Chocolate butter cream:
(I use this one in many cakes, love it! Like Dobos Torte)
4 eggs
5 oz granulated sugar
3 ½ oz bakers chocolate
1 ½ stick (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter

Mix eggs and sugar until frothy, then cook in a double boiler , stirring constantly until it starts to thicken. Then add chocolate, and mix it in. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and let it cool down, later put it in the fridge. When completely add butter cut up into pieces, and mix well with a mixer, until you get a silky textured butter cream.

Unroll the roll, sprinkle generously with freshly squeezed juice of 2-3 oranges, or about 1 cup or orange juice. In the event you don’t have oranges, you can use orange flavored juice box. Roll it up, and decorate any way you like, and enjoy!

To contribute a little more, I have also made some fruit made out of almond meal/flour.
It is so easy, seriously. You feel like a kid while you are making them, and it’s so much fun!!!


Fast too, so if you want to ad flare to your creations quickly, here is your solution, and you can make all kinds of fruit. I have learned a technique from a lovely cook from Canada, goes by name Cipelica, and she post on a Croatian cooking website (Coolinarika).

Fruit

125 g (4.41 oz)almond flour/meal
125 sugar (4.41 oz)
50 ml (1.69 fl. oz.) water (Updated, not 100ml, it's 50ml)
½ Tsp of margarine
Food colors (yellow, red, green)
(this is how much I have used this time, you can increase accordingly, if you need more)


Boil water and sugar, then add almond flour, and mix well. Add margarine, and let it cool down. Divide into parts, and color each part any color you want by adding drops of food colors slowly.

Play with it, every time you will get better.
For citrus fruit, I have shaped it, and then poked the fruit with a toothpick to create more authentic look.
For more citrus cravings you might like Torta della Nonna!
 
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