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Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts

Wednesday 27 March 2019

Sweet pie crust

A sudden urge to eat a bakewell tart turned in to an experiment with sweet pie crust. Usually I use one of two recipes. One which I learned from my mother many many moons ago (click here for recipe) and the other from my "Spago desserts" recipe book. As I was looking for my recipe for bakewell tart I discovered yet another pie crust recipe.


This one came from the same friend who gave me the bakewell tart recipe. It came with the note "you probably have your own recipe, but here's one just in case". Now I'm not too keen on recipes that use either just egg yolks or just the whites. I think that this is a waste of half an egg. I guess if you could coordinate things well you could make two things in parallel. One that uses the whites and one that uses the yolks. However, I usually only have time to make one thing and then the rest of the egg gets forgotten in the fridge until it is rescued by someone who asks who's science experiment it is! So I've never used my friends crust recipe. In fact, I must admit, I never quite got past the list of ingredients. Since I had some time on my hands I read through it and although I still did not like the ingredients I found the method to be rather intriguing. So I combined a dough recipe from "Spago" together with the technique I learned from my mum to make dough and the technique from my friend as to setting up the pie crust. And what turned out is definitely a keeper. It's delicious, crisp and light.

The smaller ones are a bit over done!

Preparation time: 3 hours (but if you don't let it sit then it's done in an hour); makes 3 9" pie crusts


Ingredients:

4 ozGround almonds
1 lb 2 ozFlour 
12 ozButter, cold
8 ozSugar
Egg, lightly beaten

Method:
Ground almonds or almond meal is readily available in Germany (which is where I live). In the USA you may have to make your own. To do this put your almonds in an oven at 375 F and toast until golden 12-15 minutes. You will need to turn them so that they are evenly browned so after around 6 minutes. Allow your nuts to cool completely and then grind them. If you are in a country where almonds are scarce you have two options either omit them completely or substitute with a different nut. Whichever nut you use make sure you roast it first so that the crust is crunchy. Also if you use a different nut and it works please let everyone know in the comments below.

Put the ground almonds (or other nuts) together with the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix briefly. Then cut up the butter into small pieces and work it into the flour mixture using the technique described here.

Once your mixture looks like bread crumbs add the egg and mix everything together until it is just combined. Don't over knead your dough. It will become tough and will not taste good.

Now roll your dough into a sausage, wrap it in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, preferably overnight (If you are a busy mum use immediately. It won't be fabulous but it will be good enough for the masses).


About an hour before you plan on baking your pie take the dough out of the fridge. Cut it into thin slices and line your baking tray. Fill the gaps by pressing larger pieces gently together or by filling with small pieces of dough. The resulting pie will look like a most delicious patchwork quilt.


If you have the time put the pie crust in the fridge for another hour, or over night.

If you need to pre-bake your pie crust bake at 180 C (in a fan oven) for around 10 minutes (yes, this crust bakes really quickly). Fill your pie with filling and return to oven.
If you need just a pastry shell to fill with a cold filling then bake for 15 minutes until golden brown. The pie crust below is filled with lemon curd.

The recipe gives enough dough for 3 pie crusts. You can freeze the rest of the dough for later use. You can also just bake it in slivers for a crunchy cookie. 

Friday 6 November 2015

Cup Cakes - Simple and Delicious


My nephew is turning 1 and my sister-in-law asked me for a cake recipe. I told her where to find the recipe that I use and then turned to my blog to find out where I wrote down the European measurements. Turned out... I never did. How could I not have I've given this link to many people here in Europe. The cupcakes turn out absolutely wonderful and they are super easy to make.
So here is the link to the recipe I use:

http://www.glorioustreats.com/2011/07/perfect-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe.html


And here is the recipe with some European measurements:

Preparation time: 45 min. Makes 15 - 16 cupcakes/ twice the recipe makes a 9" round


Ingredients:

150 gFlour
1 1/4 tsp.Baking Powder
1/2 tsp.Baking Soda (Natron/Sodium Bicarbonate)
1/2 tsp.Salt 
Eggs (large)
150 gSugar 
1 1/2 tsp.Vanilla (optional)
120 mlOil (sunflower, canola, etc.)
120 mlButter milk (or substitute with regular or soya milk)


Method:


Well please forgive me but let me just forward you again to the original website. That person spent so much time putting this recipe together she should at least get a few more hits!!


Just waiting to be decorated

And then there were minions!
For the soccer fan
Fun with left over icing!







Wednesday 10 September 2014

Tamarind Liquid - Preparation

Oh my goodness I totally forgot that I had promised to post a recipe for tamarind liquid (see Pad Thai recipe)! So sorry to all of you who are close to a tamarind tree and not to an oak!! I'm wishing I was closer to the tamarind right now because autumn has decided to come early and I'm cold. At least this morning everyone agreed that it is now autumn and no longer summer. Thus, I am now able to put the heating on without feeling bad about it!

But yes, back to the tamarind liquid.

Tamarind Fruit

If you happen to be able to buy tamarind pulp, great! Tamarind pulp is semi-processed tamarind, i.e. it has the shell and the seeds removed but still has the fibers in tact. If you can't get the pulp then you have to process the tamarind yourself.

I'm not exactly sure how many kilo's of tamarind fruit you need to get 1/2 cup (8 fl. oz.) of pulp so you'll have to experiment, but my guess it's quite a bit. Make sure your tamarind is very, very ripe and I would advise that you wear gloves because the acid in the tamarind can ruin your hands. This I know for sure because we used to have two tamarind trees and my dad would hire people to come and process them to be sold. The poor ladies who did the shelling ... , but there were no rubber gloves back then in Sri Lanka.

A tamarind tree

Remove the shell and the seed and then you have pulp! It's a good idea to remove the fibers on the sides too.

For the tamarind liquid you need 1/2 cup of pulp and 1 cup of warm water.

Place the tamarind liquid in a bowl and pour the warm water over it. Let it stand for 20 - 30 minutes, poking and mashing it occasionally with a spoon so that it breaks up.

Next pour the liquid through a sieve pushing the pulp against the sieve with the back of a spoon to get as much of the juice out as possible. Add water so that the liquid is about the consistency of softly whipped cream or a thick pancake batter.

This should make about 1 cup.

Tuesday 26 August 2014

Pad Thai Recipe

After 3 weeks in China everyone's been craving their favourite, non-Chinese, foods and been literally begging for them. I caved in to the craving for Pad Thai today and thought I'd share the recipe. It does take a while to make (1 hour from start to finish) but we find it delicious. Full of protein which is perfect for our vegetarian table. Although I do put some fish sauce into this recipe but that's because I've never been able to figure out what the original recipe meant by "Asian bean sauce". Actually if anyone knows what this is please be so kind as to help me find it.

After this description you'll find a pdf with the recipe in black and white. This is the best thing to use when you are actually cooking the Pad Thai. I'm never very good with a recipe which has pictures in the middle :(

This recipe serves 4 - 6 hungry adults (depending on the extent of hunger!) and is made with a whole pack of rice noodles. It makes things much easier to use a whole pack because halving a pack of rice noodles is a nightmare. 


Ingredients:

14 oz     Rice noodles (with the width of linguine)
12 oz     Firm tofu (1 pack in the USA or one block in Germany)
2 tbsp    Minced garlic
4            Eggs, lightly beaten
200 ml   Water
1/2         A vegetable cube
3 tbsp    Tamarind liquid or 7 tbsp freshly squeezed lime/lemon juice
4 tbsp    Water
3.5 tbsp Fish sauce (or Asian bean sauce)
3.5 tbsp Sugar
7 tsp      Soya sauce
1/2 tsp   Ground red chili pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 cup  Non-sweetened peanut butter (optional)
3 cups   Bean sprouts
6           Green onions
1           Lemon or Lime
Approx. 5 tbsp oil

Method:

First take your pack of rice noodles and dump the noodles into a bowl of very hot, but not boiling water. Boiling water makes the noodles all soggy. I just use hot water from the tap but our hot water is usually too hot to put your hands under.

Next comes the tofu. How much you actually use will depend on your taste. Sometimes I use one block, sometimes two. It's not a very exact science. When I use two my wok tends to overflow a bit!

Next the tofu needs to cut and then pan fried. Now if you have extra time (ha, ha, who are we kidding!) you can elevate one side of your chopping board slightly and then put a weight on the block of tofu to remove any extra water. Your tofu will fry better and be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Cut your tofu into cubes (or any other bite sized shape that you like).


Put about 3 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan, heat it up over medium high heat and fry the tofu. Make sure you have a pan that doesn't stick. It doesn't have to be a non-stick pan, actually it's better if it's not. The tofu needs to be occasionally turned.
While the tofu is doing it's thing take your eggs and beat them lightly (or not so lightly if you need to relieve some stress). Peel your garlic and pulverize it.

Now mix the garlic and the egg together.
By the time you've done this your tofu is probably looking like this:

and it's time to remove it from the stove. I just flip it into a bowl add a few more tablespoons of oil to the pan and then throw the egg right in there. All you need to do is prepare scrambled eggs and in your hot pan this should take no time at all.

Now is a good time to drain your noodles and fill up the bowl with some new hot water.
Once you've done this it's time for the sauce. Now as you can see below I've put all the ingredients for the sauce into separate bowls but this is purely for the photograph. I never do this when I am not photographing my food (which really saves time). All you need is a one pint/ 2 cup/ 500 ml measuring jug and you can just pour everything into it.

So for the sauce mix together the water, veggie cube, tamarind paste, water, fish sauce, sugar, soy sauce, chili pepper and peanuts.

So here's the deal. The water is actually supposed to be vegetable stock, so if you have that great. Go ahead and use it. I never have veggie stock around because 1. I can't be bothered making it and 2. if I buy it I end up using 200 ml and having to trash the rest because it rots in my fridge. Veggie cubes work fine for me.
The tamarind paste I buy in a jar and I have to add the extra water because if there is not enough sauce the noodles tend to be too dry. Here is a picture of the type of paste I buy. It's pretty thick which is why I dilute it with water. I'll try and post how to make tamarind liquid from scratch for my wonderful Sri Lankan friends who have access to the most delicious tamarind ever. But if you use tamarind liquid you should use 7 tablespoons of it and no extra water.

Again, the fish sauce should be Asian bean sauce and I'd love to find it but have been unsuccessful in the USA, Germany and Sri Lanka (well the last is only to be expected, no?)
I never put chili in my Pad Thai and I really cannot be bothered to grind my own peanuts thus the peanut butter. The ingredients of your peanut butter should be "peanuts" and "salt" and nothing else. If you have sugar in there you might compensate by reducing the amount of sugar that you add into the sauce. If you have no access to peanut butter you probably can take roasted peanuts and grind them up (this might actually taste better!). When I don't have peanut butter, or I don't have enough, I still go ahead and make the noodles. It's just a matter of taste.
Now mix up your sauce and don't worry too much about the bits you can mix them in better once the sauce is hot in the pan.

Next get those noodles out of the water and drain them. Put a largish wok on the cooker add in a couple of tablespoons of oil and heat up the oil on medium high. A non-stick wok is a good idea! Add the noodles to the pan and fry them until they become transparent. Something like this:

Then add the sauce and watch it sizzle! Mix it all up nicely and let it cook. In the mean time wash and chop your green onions. Thinly slice the white parts and chop the green parts to about 1 inch in length.


Now add the tofu and the egg to the noodles and mix it all up. While the egg and tofu are absorbing all that wonderful sauce wash your bean sprouts and cut up some lime (or lemon).
Add 2 cups of the bean sprouts and all the green onion into the wok and mix it up again and after a few minutes you should have something that looks like this:


Yummy, yummy Pad Thai.
To serve, put the rest of the bean sprouts in a bowl together with the lime slices and have your gourmets sprinkle fresh sprouts over their noodles, add a squeeze of lime, mix and enjoy.