Sunday, September 23, 2007

Switzerland. Aargau Carrot Cake.

In her 700 years history, Switzerland has a reputation as a peace loving nation. The Swiss love confections and cakes of all kinds. The Aargau Carrot Cake have a 500 year-old tradition that has made the cake world-renowned.

ingredients:

  • 6 egg yolks
  • 6 egg whites
  • peel of one lemon
  • 300 g sugar
  • 50 g flour
  • 300 g ground almonds
  • 300 g carrots
  • 2 Tbs Kirsch
  • powdered sugar
  • marzipan carrots
Beat egg yolks with sugar till creamy. Add lemon peel and Kirsch. Add grated carrots, flour, almonds and mix well. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mixture. Pour the carrot cake mixture into a spring form and bake in preheated oven (180 C) for about 60 minutes. Sprinkle the cooled Aargau Carrot Cake with powdered sugar and garnish with marzipan carrots.


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Sunday, September 09, 2007

England. What are the differences between pies and puddings. Steak and kidney pudding recipe.



There are the differences between pies and puddings:

  1. Pies are cooked in not deep pans which are rarely taller than about 5 cm. Puddings are cooked in deep tall bowls .
  2. The dough for a pies consists flour, fat, salt, pepper and cold water. For pudding dough the fat is replaced with beef suet and used self-raising flour.
  3. Pies are cooked in the oven. Puddings cooked steamed.
Steak and Kidney Pudding

Dough:
  • 400 g self-raising flour
  • 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
  • 200 g beef suet, grated or chopped
Filling:
  • 1 kg rump steak
  • 250 g veal kidney
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 tbs flour
  • 4 tbs chopped onions
  • 125 ml port or strong ale
  • 125 ml beef stock
  • 2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
Make the pudding dough. Grease the pudding basin (a deep round bowl used for cooking steamed puddings) and line it with the dough, keeping a little back. Put the meat and kidneys with onions into the basin. Mix well port, beef stock and Worcestershire sauce. Pour the sauce mixture over the filling. Cover with rest of dough, pressing the edges together firmly so that the dough encloses the pudding completely. Wrap the pudding basin in a cloth and steam for 3-4 hours ina bain-marie. The crust will appear at the end of cooking.


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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Today everything is about Greek.

The Greeks don't like sweets or puddings or musses for dessert. They prefer to finish a meal with fresh fruit which they have in magnificent selection. Oranges and mandarins that ripen in the winter and followed by medlars, which ripen in spring. Excellent strawberries and very popular cherries are the next in season. In early summer they have apricots, plums and peaches. Then come melons and bananas with their distinctive flavor, apples and pears and grapes.
Of coarse, Greece is well-known with a large variety of sweet specialties. The Geeks don't eat them as a pudding , but consume them in the afternoon or later in the evening. Often sweets that have to be consumed with a spoon served with glika koutaliou. As custom claims they are served in a silver bowl, from it a hang spoons with which guests help them selfs. The bowl contains fruit in syrup: figs, cherries, grapes, apricots and even green tomatoes, bitter oranges.



Balklawas
Nut pastry
ingredients:

  • 250 g butter 500 g sheets of Fillo pastry
  • 1 kg almonds chopped
  • 3 tsp cinnamon
  • 650 g sugar
  • Peel of 1 orange
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 tsp rose water
  • 3 cloves

Melt the butter. Line a rectangular baking form, greased with butter, a sheet of Fillo and brush the Fillo sheet with melted butter. Butter another nine pastry sheets and add them one by one to the baking form. Cover upper layer with damp of cloth to prevent from drying out. Mix almonds, cinnamon and 125 g of sugar. Spread a thin layer of almond mixture over the pastry and cover with more 3 sheets of Fillo, each brushed with butter. Spread another layer of almond mixture and cover again with Fillo sheet as before and continue in this way until all the almonds filling has been used. The upper layer must be one of Fillo. Brush all over hanging pastry with butter and tuck it in. Mark the forms with a very sharp knife or with diamond-shaped pattern. Brush more butter and moisten with water. Bake in preheated oven (160 C) for about 75 minutes until baklawas is golden.
During baking, mix the remaining sugar with orange peel, cloves and cinnamon with 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes and remove spices and orange peel. Add honey and the rose-water and continue to stirring well for some seconds. Remove from the flame and let it cool. Pour the syrup over the finished baklawas and leave over night. Don't refrigerate it! Cut into portions like marked and serve your really Greek baklawas.


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