Pearl Barley Risotto

Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto 
serves 4 pax

Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock

salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle

Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin & chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes,  tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot, Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve

Quick & Easy Donuts

Quick & Easy Donuts
Source : Ste/ A te recepted Sep 2011
Makes 12-16 donuts

Ingredients
150gm plain flour (changed to 130gm)
pinch of salt
1 sachet x 10gm baking powder (half baking powder + baking soda)
1 egg
150gm yoghurt, natural flavoured (changed to 1x130gm tub)
Oil for frying

To serve with dips
sweet option Good quality fruit preserves/jam or dust with powdered sugar,
savoury option sour cream and grated cheese

Method
1) Whisk together  egg and yoghurt, then mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well combine. Let it rest for 10 mins. Meanwhile , heat oil in frying pan
2) Make sure oil is hot enough, or it will be too greasy. Use a spoon to scoop out batter and fry 1.5 mins. each side until golden brown. Drain fried donuts on kitchen paper.
3) Serve while still warm with preferred dipping sauces.

Quick Herb Aioli

Quick Herb Aioli
serves 2
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3746/open-swordfish-burgers-with-herb-aoli

Ingredients
4 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard (used regular mustard)
1 tbsp lemon juice
shallot, chopped (to taste)
garlic clove , crushed (to taste, I used a squirt of garlic paste)
3 tbsp tarragon, chives, parsley , use 1 or a mixture (used only 1 small bunch of parsley)

Method
Mix together all the ingredients for the herb aïoli in a small bowl and set aside. Serve at room temperature.

Easy baked potatoes

Easy baked potatoes
serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
4 large pcs. potatoes, slice thinly
butter / oil to grease pan
200ml milk
4 tsp. sour cream
Garlic paste, to taste
vegetable seasoning (vegeta) , to taste
bunch of parsley, chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste
100gm morzarella cheese
1 slice of cheddar cheese

1) Pre-heat oven at 200°c (400°F, Gas mark 6)
2) Grease medium-sized baking pan with butter or oil
3) Whisk together milk, sour cream, garlic paste and vegetable seasoning. Stir in the finely chopped parsley and set aside.
4) Place a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, tear pieces of cheddar and morzarella cheese and sprinkle over the layer of potatoes , next sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
5) Repeat step 4 until you finish the potatoes (3 layers). Once layering is done, pour the milk-cream mixture over the potatoes.
6) Bake covered with alum. foil for 30 mins. After 30 mins., remove alum. foil from baking dish, lower temp. to gas mark 2 and continue to bake for another 20 mins. until the top layer is nicely browned. Check for doneness, let it rest a bit and serve warm.

Chocolate swiss roll with coconut butter cream

Chocolate swiss Roll
source : Hungarian cookery

Ingredients

For sponge cake
4 eggs, separated
salt
90gm sugar
90gm flour (minus 2 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
1tsp baking powder
1 sachet vanilla sugar

For coconut butter cream-
100gm butter , softened
100gm powdered sugar
50gm desiccated coconut

For Glazing
Apricot jam, heated
60gm chocolate, melted
cooking oil, as need if chocolate is not spreadable
1 tsp Rum



Method

To make sponge cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c.

2. Whisk egg whites with a pinch of salt until it become stiff foam. Set aside

3. In a bowl combine together dry ingredients - flour, cocoa powder, baking powder. In another bowl beat egg yolks with sugar (+vanilla sugar) until creamy. When eggs mixture is creamy, add in the dry ingredients and combine well.

4. Fold egg white into egg yolk mixture carefully.

5. Prepare baking dish by lining it with parchment paper. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 10-12 mins. It is ready when cake is springy when touched.

6. Remove cake from oven. Let it cool for a while ; but roll up cake when it is still hot. When cake is cooled completely, unrolled it and spread with your favourite jam or whipped cream.

To make coconut butter cream
1. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Fold in desiccated coconut.
3. Fill cake as mentioned in point 6. above.

To finish
1. Heat apricot jam in microwave (30 seconds) for easier application.
2. Brush heated apricot jam all-over rolled cake
3. Melt chocolate using microwave or double-boiler, once melted, if consistency is not spreadable, add cooking oil (vege. oil) to loosen and give a nice shine. Spread all over roll-caked and let it set before serving.

Hungary's national (birthday) cake 2011 - Peach cream millet cake

When this year's winning cake was announced , I was curious of the millet cake base. I like millet as substitute for rice but in a cake? Turns out the texture of the cake is very similar to semolina (sugee) cake ; which I love!

Taste wise was much better than I've anticipated considering that it is a "healthy" dessert. The cake is not too sweet as it was created with diabetics in mind. Personally, I can do away with the peach cream and tempered chocolate. I would have simply paired the millet cake with toasted almond flakes.



source : http://magyarorszagtortaja2011.hu/

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

whisk together
2 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 - 2 Tbsp sugar (brown, white or palm)
5 - 6 dashes of white vinegar (or half - 1 lime, adjust to balance sweet and sour)
a pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
few dashes of chilli flakes , to taste
1 spring onions, finely chopped - green part only
few leaves of parsley, finely chopped