Tasty snacks for dinner

If you fancy a light supper, then prepare some nice snacks. Home-made focaccia really is worth trying and will definitely impress the guest(s). Below you’ll find the recipe for focaccia that I made and also some of the other snacks I’ve tried over time and which have been favorites in the house. 

Focaccia

I combined these two recipes. Was quite pleased with the end result… but if you have any further tips to keep in mind when making focaccia, do let me know. 

350 g flour
200 ml warm water
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
7 g dry yeast
0.5 tsp salt

 

In case the yeast needs to be activated, stir together  lukewarm water and yeast in bowl and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. (otherwise mix yeast with other dry ingredients and then add all the wet ingredients). 

Add activated yeast to flour, oil, and salt and mix with your hands until a dough forms. Knead dough until soft, smooth, and sticky, 3 to 4 minutes.

Then transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and turn it to coat with oil. Let rise, covered, at warm room temperature, until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. I was in a rush and placed the bowl to the oven (50 C), to speed up the rising. I doubt it is the proper way, but…worked well. 

When the dough has doubled, press it evenly into a generously oiled baking pan. Let it rise again, covered with a kitchen towel, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Then cover focaccia with some seasoning. I chose sea salt, black olives, fresh rosemary leaves and of course olive oil. Before drizzling the dough with olive oil, press the olives into the dough, making shallow indentation. Oil will then pool in indentations. Sprinkle sea salt evenly over focaccia and bake in middle of 200 degrees C oven until golden, about 30 minutes.

Serve warm!

 

Tomato-bruschettas

fresh baguette or ciabatta
a couple of tomatoes
chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper
olive oil
crushed garlic

 

Place tomatoes into hot water for a couple of minutes. Remove from water, peel the tomatoes and clean from the seeds. Chop the flesh. 

Mix tomatoes with basil, salt, pepper and garlic. If there are some garlic non-lovers among the guests, you might want to divide the mixture in two and add garlic to just one part of the mixture. But it’s better with garlic, that’s for sure. 

Slice the bread and brush each slice with olive oil. If you are a garlic lover, brush the slices with garlic as well. Then place the bread into oven (200 degrees C) for a couple of minutes, to achieve some crispness. Don’t over-bake though, you don’t want your bruschettas to be hard to bite. 

When the slices are out from the oven, cover them with  the tomato-basil mix and serve. 

 

Rice croquettes 

I first wanted to make Gorgonzola Bamboloni which I have already made once (see the picture here). But as I had some leftover rice in the fridge, I decided to look for a recipe where I could use it up. Gourmet site offered a recipe for rice croquettes which I liked, so I went for it (btw, you can find thousands of other delicious recipes there). 

It’s very simple and foolproof recipe, and you can play around with it any way you want: in addition to cheese and ham, you might want to add some chopped vegetables or your favorite seasoning (e.g. curry powder) to the rice. I had some mushrooms at hand, so I decided to chop them in the mix as well, together with the cheese and ham. You’ll get about 10 croquettes from the amounts showed below (depending on how big you’ll make them). 

250 g boiled rice
100 g chopped ham and the same amount grated cheese, also add a couple of chopped mushrooms
2 tablespoon grated Parmesan
2 eggs

oil and breadcrumbs 

 

Mix the rice with ham, cheeses (and mushrooms or other vegetables, if you are using them). Season with salt and pepper in case the rice was not seasoned before (feel free to add some other seasoning as well). Add one lightly beaten egg and mix.

Put remaining egg (lightly beaten) and bread crumbs in separate shallow bowls.

Heat 3-4 cm oil in a skillet over high heat.

Dampen your hands and form croquettes from the rice mixture. Lightly coat with egg, then with breadcrumbs. Prepare all the croquettes before you’ll start frying them.

Fry croquettes in hot oil about 3-4 minutes, turning occasionally. When golden, place them on kitchen paper towel and pat dry. Best when warm (not hot!). 

 

Asparagus with bacon

I guess this recipe need little introduction. Just wrap the bacon slices around asparagus and broil in the oven at 200 degrees C until the bacon is cooked. Don’t over-bake it though – the asparagus should remain crispy, then it is easier to eat the snack. 

Instead of bacon, you might want to try wrapping prosciutto or smoked salmon around asparagus – the end-result should be just as tasty! 

Daring bakers: cheesecake

The April 2009 Daring Bakers challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I made little cheesecakes instead, around Easter time, so that I could give them to my friends rather than having to eat the whole cake by myself. Those yellow things on top of the cheesecakes are peaches – not marzipan – and I think they gave the cakes a nice Eastery look. In case you go for small cakes instead of a large one, remember that the baking time shortens quite remarkably…I forgot about it when the first batch was in the oven…

Daring bakers: lasagne

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Baked at the very last minute, here is my this month’s Daring Bakers challenge. See the recipe here. I think I made it in record time, just in less than 3 hours, and at the moment it is actually sitting downstaris on the kithcen table, waiting to be eaten. It is late, yes, but it is exam period and the being awake-eating-sleeping time is mixed anyway. So I will not stop for long – because I am hungry.

I used the recipe that was requested, but I had to half it because I only had a small loaf tin that I could use.  I used the same tin in which I did the French Yule Log a couple of months ago (something that did not work out very well for me – see here). So I was a bit scared that this tin might be cursed and that the lasagne would come out inedable. But there was no reason to be scared – and as I have now tasted a tiny bit of it already, I can say that it came out pretty tasty. Spinach makes the dish! The only problem is that making it is quite time consuming…but no great things come without downsides anyway, right?

Well, I’m off to my late night snack now. Until the next challenge!

Fine dining

I have found a soulmate at school – somebody who is obsessed with food  as much as I am (she must be, she used to be a chef).  She is extremely knowledgeable and  knows which ingredients go well together and how to pair food and wine, also knows which cheese to choose, what vegetables are in season and where to buy the best food at Borough market. Whenever she talks about food, I wish I had a dictaphone, because I’m scared I’ll forget everything. I want to know that much about food as well! One day maybe…

Actually I feel more comfortable in the kitchen than I did a year ago – around the time when I started this blog – so this is progress, right? I guess it all comes with practice. Same time next year I’ll be making tender horseradish terrine with one hand and chicken liver mousse  with other, and in the mean time, put together a roasted cod with sea beans and oysters and matzo almond brittles. Or maybe that is too ambitious. After all, it’s the credit crunch, nobody could obviously afford to buy oysters. 

Enough of that. Actually I wanted to tell you about a dinner party I recently hosted with my friend. It was great fun putting together the menu, discussing the seasonal food and shopping for the necessary ingredients. To everyone who is planning a dinner party – or just likes to cook – keep an eye on the BBC’s seasonal calendar.  It’ll give you the list of ingredients that are in season and suggest the recipes to use. A very useful tool! 

But now about the dinner party. This was the table setting.

This was the menu:

Sea scallops with winter salad & salsa verde

Veal cacciatore with polenta & bitter greens

Cheese

Petits Fours

We started with rich seared scallops with crunchy salad of white beans and red onion, topped with oven-roasted bread. I hope I remember the recipe:

# Soak cannellini beans in water overnight. On the day of the dinner,  boil the beans in salted water together with a carrot and an onion (cut into two), a couple of bay leaves and rosemary springs. When beans are ready (still a bit crunchy, not mushy) drain them, and save the stock (you can use it for soups or whatever you wish the next day).

# Prepare salsa verde: mix 2 tbsp coarsely chopped parsley with minced garlic clove, 1 tbsp capers and 100 ml olive oil. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. For smooth consistency, you might want to blend the sauce. We didn’t.

# Chop red onion and sauté in oil to bring out the flavour. Then mix onions with the boiled beans. Stir in generous handful of chopped parsley and black olives, also add a tablespoon of capers. Season with salsa verde and lemon juice.

# Prepare the bread: place bread slices on an oven dish, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toast at 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes, or until the bread is crunchy (not burned). 

# Prepare the scallops just before serving the dish. Here are some tips for searing the scallops. I learned from my friend that you need to wash scallops with ice-cold water and make sure that they are patted dry before you start searing them, otherwise they will not brown. That is the reason why my seafood snacks did not brown (I placed them on a grill pan ‘wet’, straight after removing from the marinade). Also, the pan needs to be hot when you start searing the scallops. To prevent olive oil from burning, take a spring of rosemary leave and twirl it on the pan in the hot oil for a couple of seconds prior searing the scallops. 

# To serve: place the salad on the serving plate, top with scallops (we used 2 scallops per portion) and bread. Drizzle with salsa verde and serve. 

For the main course, we served veal with polenta and sauteed pak choi. 

For veal, we used this recipe. My friend did most of the work, seasoning and browning the huge veal shoulder and chopping all the stuff for the sauce. I was basically watching and taking notes. We cooked the veal the day before, so that in case we mess it up, we would still have time to buy some roast chicken at the local Morrison’s. Luckily, everything went well. I had some trouble slicing the veal (it was a HUGE piece of meat) – so here’s a tip: if you are buying a veal shoulder for 6 people, make sure it is properly sealed together, otherwise the slices won’t hold together.

Witnessing the cooking of polenta was also a new experience for me. At first glance, it seemed super-easy: just boil the water, add salt and stir cornmeal into the bubbling water, keep stirring for about an hour [sic!], then add butter and grated Parmesan cheese and serve. Make sure you don’t add the polenta too quickly to the water or it will turn lumpy (in the end, we needed to sieve some of the polenta, but it was still quite creamy). Check the approximate quantities here. All in all, polenta is easy to make, you just have to make sure that you have :

a) a right-sized heavy-bottomed pan (if the pan is not very big, it is hard to stir)

b) boiling water at hand so that you could add it to the polenta when there is a need; and

c) strong biceps for stirring. 

Cook it slowly, stirring constantly, over very low heat. The hot polenta may spatter as it cooks, so use a long-handled wooden spoon. Here are some more tips for polenta:

■ Use a whisk when adding polenta to simmering water.

■ A flat, wooden paddle is the best stirring device and will help prevent lumps.

■ Keep stove heat low while stirring.

■ Add salt to water and check for seasoning before allowing polenta to set.

■ Polenta can be cooked in stock instead of water for extra flavour.

■ Slabs of cooked, set polenta can be frozen, but will be watery. Drain well before using.

■ Too much butter or cheese will prevent setting.

■ Add a little extra water for soft polenta and serve immediately.

■ The leftover can be cooked in the oven the next day.

For the greens, we washed and chopped pak choi (placed stems and leaves on separate bowls) and sautéed with oil just before serving. First sauté the stems and then add the leaves – otherwise, the leaves will go mushy.

When serving the dish, place a generous spoonful of polenta on the plate, top with a slice of veal, sauce and greens and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Voila!

Cheese course was served with fresh bread and quince paste  - something I have to admit that I tasted for the first time in my life. It was great! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to offer petits fours instead of a ‘proper’ dessert as the cheese course was quite rich – and also, because I did not have enough plates for 3 courses for 6 people…but it turned out quite well. Petits fours consisted of almond biscotti and truffles. For the latter, I used the recipes that I have tried before: oreo truffles,  white chocolate truffles with pepper-warm coating and peanut butter truffles, experimenting a bit with the latter by adding some Baileys to some of the batter. Also, different from Bakerella’s recipe, I coated oreo truffles in dark chocolate and then in unsweetened cocoa powder – there is obviously no such thing as TOO much chocolate in a truffle.

The biscotti came out quite nice as well. Firstly, I have to say that I had no idea making biscotti can be that easy! If you want to impress your guests, biscotti should definitely be on your menu – just don’t tell anyone that those divine Italian cookies are super-easy to make. The recipe is below; note that there is no butter in the recipe – that is no mistake (you don’t need it):

# Toast 150 g almonds at 160 degrees C for about 10 minutes. Cool and chop coarsely. Set aside. 

# Mix 300 g flour, 1 tsp baking powder and  ¾ tsp aniseed (I did not have it at hand, so I used cardamon instead). 

# In another bowl, combine 3 eggs, 200 g sugar and a bit of lemon zest (not necessary if using cardamon). Using a mixer, beat the batter into thick consistency.

# Carefully fold flour into the batter. Add chopped almonds. 

# Prepare two loafs of ‘bread’ from the batter on a pan covered with parchment paper (make sure that there is enough room between the loafs, about 8 cm, otherwise the loafs might melt into one big biscotti). Bake at 180 degrees C for about 25 minutes. 

# Using a sharp bread knife, slice the hot loafs into 1-cm thick slices, place them back on the pan and roast in the oven at 160 degrees C for 10 more minutes to get the crunchy texture. 

# Store in covered container at room temperature (not in the fridge). 

It was a lovely evening and we agreed to continue the dinner party tradition. Actually I have already learned about the secrets and wonders of Indian cuisine. Will blog about this experience shortly. In the mean time, keep on cooking! 

Daring bakers: chocolate we love!

The compulsory introduction:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

When I looked at the recipe, I was stunned. Only a couple of lines for the cake and only 3 ingredients! I thought it was a mistake…and I was right: I also needed to make ice cream myself. That was the tricky part…But the cake was very easy to make:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

 

# Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

# While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

# Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

# Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

# Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

# Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C (mine was done already in 20 minutes). If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

# Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold. Serve with ice cream. I baked it in a round tin and for serving, cut out rounds with the help of a glass, to make a nicer presentation. 

The cake was really yummy! It was like a big chunk of moist chocolate, an extremely pleasant thing for eat for a sweet-tooth like me. 

For ice cream, I tried to make this ginger ice cream just because I don’t have an ice cream maker. It turned out…edible, to say the least. The taste was nothing near to regular ice cream, it was too eggy. And the texture was all wrong, it was difficult to scoop it (because it was totally frozen). When I waited for it to soften into scoopable consistency, it just melted into a sauce. A disaster so to say. At least I had some nice vanilla ice cream supplies at the freezer for such a case…