Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Velvet scrambled eggs

Today was not the best day in my life, but I'd end it up in a gracious way, with the lecture of an interesting article about how to make better scrambled eggs: use a saucepan, add butter and be ready to eat only after 30 minutes. 
Honestly, I wondered for a long time why my scrambled eggs are always looking pathetic. This recipe gave me the hope that one day I will be able to make a good morning omlette with the texture of the velvet.
Bon Appetit!
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Paprika stuffed with quinoa

Quinoa is relatively newly entered into my food universe. Openly speaking I don't like it too much, as I did not find (yet) its specific taste. From my point of view, it is like eating nothing. 

Last week, I wanted to diversify a bit our menu - but still keeping the main vegetarian line. After reading various posts and closing a bit my eyes in order to imagine some interesting combinations, it resulted the following wonder:

boiled quinoa - max. 15 minutes
finely chopped mushrooms fried together with equally finelly chopped garlic
quinoa+mushrooms+garlic are fried together with avocado oil
The fresh paprika is delicately stuffed with the fried mixture and put in oven for another 15 minutes.
To be served fresh and warm. 

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Sunday, January 8, 2012

Neapolitan Eggplants

Openly speaking, at the first sight you don't know exactly what it is all about in this picture...Also openly speaking, I didn't know exactly what wonderful food I am eating when I had the first bite of this.
I started to cook eggplants only a couple of months ago - due to an unhappy allergic experience a couple of years ago - but since then I love to introduce it on my menu at least every month.
This week, for the Shabbat menu, I wanted something new and thus, I tried another recommendation from The Classic Kosher Cooking, by Sara Finkel (p.142).
I did some changes but overall I kept the main narrative.

What do you need:
2 moderate eggplants
1 teaspoon salt 
1/3 cup oil
2 small red onions finely diced
3 gloves garlic, minced
1 cup grated Emmentaler

I cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven for around 30 minutes. After, I cut out the pulp, chop it and fried together with the oil and onion for 10 minutes. I added the cheese, the garlic and the salt for another 5 minutes, then put together in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The taste is so wonderful that you don't know exactly what you are eating. 
A real pleasure!
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Friday, January 6, 2012

Rice Latkes

This Hanukka I kept a very classical menu and when I've read this Rice Latkes recipe the last week, I couldn't stop thinking about preparing it as the sweet part of the Shabbat menu. This time, I used the recipe without too many modifications - maybe more sugar and cinnamon than recommended.

2 coups white rice, cooked. If you want to know more about cooked rice, I found a very good and simple reference here.

2 eggs, well beaten

3 tablespoon wheat germ or whole wheat flour

2 tablespoon sugar

generous pinch of cinnamon

oil, for frying

Combine all ingredients, mixing thoroughly. Drop by tablespoonful into hot oil and fry on both sides until golden brown. Yields 8-12 latkes. 

Bon Appetit!
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Sponge cake with orange

I couldn't resist and wanted to taste the original variant of sponge cake with orange.
The orange juice from a big orange is added to the beated yolks, before blending the flour, baking powder and vanilla extract. This time - because of temperature variations - the texture wasn't as spongy as the first time - as usual in my case, the first time I am trying a recipe I obtain the best results, but the taste was fresher. 
You can try to have this delicious sponge cake with orange with a mint tea. Or with some hot milk with honey. We all need some extra warm during the winter season.
The source for the recipe is from Classic Kosher Cooking, by Sara Finkel, p. 216
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Monday, January 2, 2012

Coffee with cononut milk

Do you want to know a big and well kept secret about myself? I am a passionate coffee' lover. Coffee - but not cocoa - in every possible combination is always welcomed with a big smile and a hungry sip. You can ask me to give up any pleasure in my life, excepting coffee. I love the taste and the smell so much that once the year when I should live without it for 25 hours - because of Yom Kippur - I am experiencing various difficulties and I should prepare the moment carefully weeks in advance, by progressively limiting the amount of coffeine ingurgitated daily.

My artistic feelings are always encouraging me to find various creative combinations of coffees: I know the one with wkiskey, vodka, various spices and, of course, milk. 

Today, I was able to satisfy an old dream: drinking coffee with coconut milk. The verdict: something new, indeed, with a persistent - pleasant - smell of coconut, but not extremely pleasant by taste. The coconut gave to the coffee an oily consistence and a sour taste. Not something to turn your stomach upside down, but not a combination I would like to try again.
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