The king of cakes

Honestly, for me this cake was the best ever. I discovered it by chance, as me and J were called over at our firends place after work and I wanted to bring something sweet. At first I thought I’ll prepare a chocolate cake as it is simple to make and you can’t go wrong with it. And I only had an hour an 15 minutes to prepare something, so the last thing I should have done, was to start making something really fancy and then realise that I don’t have all the ingredients nor the skills to finish it. But, but, but – I had some pistachois and I thought there is no harm in just looking what kind of cakes one can prepare with those tasty nuts. And there you go – I ended up finding this recipe and it was decided that I won’t do some boring chocolate cake but will prepare this lovely Gateau Surprise Chocolat Pistache. The pictures were so lovely already, so I couldn’t resist. I quickly scribbled the recipe on paper, rushed into the kitchen (it actually took me 3 steps, our apartment is not that big) and started to mix the ingredients together. After all, I only had 1 hour and 10 minutes left.

You’ll have two possible ways to prepare it – either in a springform pan (23-25 cm) or in small cake pans (around 5 cm wide, 12 cakes). I chose to use the springform pan, cause it seemed easier to me and also, because I didn’t have any small cake pans. In many cases my cakes have fallen down once they are ready, so to prevent this, I decided to use this kind of pan – it seemed to me that there was so little of the batter and if I use a regular round-shaped pan, the cake might turn out very thin…I was wrong, because the batter rose significantly – so the next time I would use the regular pan.

You’ll need two bowls for mixing the batter. An electric mixer would also be nice, as with it help you’ll be able to prepare the cake more quickly.

270g plain all-purpose flour, divided in half

2 tsp baking powder, divided in half

1 tsp baking soda, divided in half

150g unsalted butter, room temperature, divided in half

250g caster sugar, divided in half (I used regular sugar, and it came out nice as well)

4 eggs

275 ml plain yogurt or sour cream, divided in half

1½ tsp vanilla extract, divided in half

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

125-200 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

100 g shelled pistachio, chopped finely

# Prepare the chocolate batter first: in a food processor or with an electric mixer mix together half of the sugar, butter until fluffy. Add in two eggs one at a time, pulsing in between each addition.

# Add in half of the yogurt and half of the vanilla extract, pulse again.

# In a medium bowl, combine half of the flour, half of the baking powder and baking soda. Also add the cocoa powder.

# Add the flour mixture into the food processor and mix again until the flour is just incorporated.

# Pour the batter into the cake pan, or if you are using individual cake cases, then using an ice cream scoop, place one scoop of batter into each case. Place the chocolate batter into the fridge.

# Rinse the bowl of the food processor and prepare the pistachio batter: mix together the rest of the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the last two eggs one at a time, pulsing in between each addition.

# Add the remaining yogurt and vanilla extract, pulse again.

# In a medium bowl, combine the rest of the flour, baking powder, baking soda and all of the chopped pistachios (don’t chop pistachios too small – the cake is nicer, when you’ll feel crunchy pistachios under your teeth).

# Add this flour mixture into the batter and process again until the flour is just combined.

# Remove the chocolate batter from the fridge. Sprinkle the chocolate pieces evenly and liberally over the surface of the batter (I used the principle “the more the merrier”, and it turned out fabulous).

# Gently pour over the pistachio batter on top of the chocolate pieces, or alternatively if you are using the individual cases, then use an ice scoop to place the pistachio batter on top. Smooth out the surface using a spatula.

# Bake at 180 degrees C for 50 minutes, or if you are making the individual cakes, then for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

# Allow to rest for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

The recipe suggests to cool the cake completely, but I did not have time for that. So after the 5 minutes passed, I rushed off to the friends’ place, holding the hot cake in my hands (in a plate of course). The nice chocolaty smell was surrounding me while I was walking in the street and I bet people I passed, were dying to get a piece of the cake.

So, we ate the cake when it was still warm, not cooled, because then the chocolate was still soft in the middle and it made the whole cake very soft and moist.

A nice treat, I would say…or unbelievably good even! I was surprised how moist it turned out, actually. It is a perfect combination of pistachios and chocolate, very dense and delicious.

For blue cheese lovers

Sometimes one can afford to eat something heavy, right? Especially if you have had a rough day at work and you haven’t have time to eat lunch. When you finally get home, you obviously want something which does not demand a lot of work (chopping and cleaning the ingredients for example) and which can be prepared in the oven, so that while the food is cooking, you can make yourself ready for enjoying the evening. On an evening like this I decided to use up the Gorgonzola cheese I had in my fridge. Broccoli was also in the vegetable shelf, so that is how this casserole was born.

300 g chopped broccoli florets

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

200 g cream cheese

100 g blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola)

100 ml cream(20%)

200 g chopped bacon (optional)

About 3 tbsp breadcrumbs and some small  pieces of butter for the topping.

 

# Boil (in water seasoned with salt) or steam broccoli florets until tender. Drain and pat dry with paper towels. If you prefer firm broccoli, don’t bother steaming or boiling – it will soften a bit in the oven (but will stay crunchy).

# Melt 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan. Add flour and stir.  Also add cream cheese, crumbeled blue cheese and cream. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Stir in broccoli florets.

# If you use bacon or some other kind of meat, fry it in a pan and stir it into the cheese mixture as well.

#  Pour mixture into a medium-sized casserole dish (I used an oval dish, 23 cm diameter). Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and place some small pieces of butter on top.

# Bake at 180 degrees C for about 30 minutes. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

I served it without any side dish as I did not want to ruin the lovely blue cheese taste with anything. It was rather tasty, but it was a bit difficult to get it out of the casserole dish - it was not firm enough. Kind of like eating some kind of stew. So maybe you should add one lightly beaten egg to the cheese mixture to get a bit more firm result.

Apricot in foam

This dessert is a bit of lemon mousse and a bit of something else. You see, I wanted to prepare lemon mousse, but I did not have lemon, nor whipping cream, so I had to improvise a bit. I did have some apricot leftovers from making the panna cottas, so I decided to use them up.

You’ll get three bowls of foamy dessert:

2 large eggs

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 sheet gelatin

50 ml water

2 ripe apricots

# Separate the eggs.

# Place egg yolks and lemon juice and sugar in a pot. Simmer at low heat for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly until sauce is thickened. Whip egg whites with sugar until stiff.

# Soften gelatin sheets in cold water for a few minutes. Remove excess water and place sheets to a dry bowl, pour over with 50 ml hot water. Stir, until the sheets have melted. Add gelatin into the egg yolk’s mixture, stir well.

# Chop the apricots and transfer into egg yolk’s mix. Gently fold stiff egg whites into the mixture.

# Pour into three individual glasses, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set.

It is a nice and light dessert, very foamy and with a totally different texture than the lemon mousse (of course it had to be different as I omitted or substituted half of the ingredients). Tasty though, I’d do it again.

Ripe bananas are good for many cakes

I have already tried banana bread. Several times now, because whenever I have some totally ripe bananas sitting on the table, they are asking to become a moist and tasty bread. Well, one day I discovered there are other things you can do with them. A banana-bread-like cake for example. Super-easy. You only need two bowls and 15 minutes to mix the ingredients together, no messing around with electric mixers or other gadgets. It tastes a bit like banana bread, but is a lot more moist and tender. A keeper, definite keeper.

You’ll need a 23×33 cm baking pan or a round 23 cm baking pan and the following ingredients:

2 cups (400 grams) granulated white sugar

1 3/4 cups (245 grams) flour

3/4 cup (75 grams) cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

 2 mashed medium sized bananas

1 cup (240 ml) warm water

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk

1/2 cup (120 ml) safflower or canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

 

# In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

# In another large bowl, whisk together the eggs, mashed bananas, water, milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir, or whisk, until combined. You will notice that the batter is quite thin.

# Pour the batter into the pan and bake at 180 degrees C for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  

# Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Prepare the frosting. You might wanto to use Chocolate Ganache for frosting, like the original recipe says. I improvised a bit (tried to use up some cream cheese leftovers), so I made this kind of a frosting (similar to the one for the carrot cake): mixed together soft butter (1 tbsp) and cream cheese (3 tbsp); added some powder sugar and some melted chocolate. Then I spread the frosting on top of the cake. Made a kind of decoration with a fork, as you can see…You might want to top the cake with some dried banana  chips, but I didn’t have any…

Creamy baked salmon

Salmon is good, right? Pretty, tasty and healthy. I especially love it when they have some campaigns at the store and they sell salmon with the tiniest price ever. I haven’t had the courage yet to go and buy the cheaper salmon in the market, as…it seems so unhygienic. Let’s face it – if you see the lady selling the fish in the market picking up garbage from the ground and a few seconds later going through the fish pile with her dirty hands, you don’t feel like buying the fish. At least in the store you don’t see any of that – you’ll get a clean and nice fish in a package. No germs. And don’t you dare break my illusions that before reaching the fish counters at the store, there might still be a possibility that the fish goes through oh-how-very-messy-and-dirty production process.

So, anyway. I bought salmon lately. More than once actually and prepared the same dish every time. It was just so good! I have baked salmon in the oven before, you know, with some lemon juice, salt, pepper and butter, but often the salmon comes out dry. With this creamy topping you won’t have this kind of a problem and that is why I like it that much. I got the idea from here, and combined the following cream topping (serves two):

250 – 300 g salmon pieces (my pieces were about 5×6 cm)

2 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp dill

1 crushed garlic glove

some salt, pepper, ground paprika

some slices of tomato, optional

 

# Wash salmon and pat dry.  Arrange salmon fillets, skin side down, in a single layer on a foiled pan.

# In a bowl, mix together sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, dill, cream cheese and garlic until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Spread over fish and sprinkle lightly with paprika.

# Bake at 200 degrees C, uncovered, approximately 20 minutes (depending on how thick the salmon is). Remember the salmon continues to cook after it is removed from the heat source, so if you think that the salmon is almost ready and would need a few more minutes, then it IS ready and you should remove it from the oven.

Serve immediately. I offered rice as a side dish, but some steamed or boiled veggies would be good as well I guess. As you can see from the pictures, I tried two kinds of rice – the regular jasmine rice and brown rice with bell pepper and carrots (I boiled the rice in one saucepan and vegetable cubes in another saucepan; when rice was cooked and vegetables tender, I mixed them together).

This easy-to-make salmon comes out very rich and juicy. J voted it as the top-fish-dish. I did too.

Only one thing to complain about – the presentation. I just think that those fish pieces look so miserable on the plate…but at least the presentation does not have an effect on the taste. Still, if you like eating with your eyes, as I do, then you can’t be 100% satisfied. So I keep on trying to get it right. And I don’t mind trying actually, because it tastes oh so good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, I remembered now that one time I used a cream cheese flavoured with garlic and herbs and thus omitted the extra garlic glove. Tasted the same – and the herbs actually gave the cream a very nice kick. So, feel free to add some extra herbs to the cream, it should only improve the taste.