Essecke: July 2015

Wednesday 15 July 2015

Apricot / Thyme / Basil

apricot parfait with white portwine / thyme-pistachio financier / honeycomb / basil cremeux / tuile

Tuile

100 g wheat flour

100 g icing sugar

100 g egg white

100 g butter

The recipe is from Pauli Lehrbuch der Küche. Mix all the ingrediets into a spreadable dough. To get nice forms use a stencil when you spread the mass on the baking sheet. Bake at 180 celsius for 3-4 minutes. If you want to form the tuiles, do it right after taking the tray from the oven.

Making pistachio paste for the financiers

Pistachio Financier

50 g pistachio paste

50 g sugar

50 g butter

65 g eggs

25 g cake flour

3 g fresh thyme

I used a recipe from Mastering the art and craft: Baking and Pastry of the Culinary Institute of America. But I had to do some changes to make the recipe okay for me.

Financiers going to the oven

A ready thyme-pistachio financier

For the honeycomb you need a thermometer

Honeycomb

35 g honey

70 g glucose

200 g sugar

30 g water

10 g baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)

I got this recipe when I was doing a practicum in Restaurant Savoy in Helsinki. Thermometer is very important. Mix honey, sugar, glucose and water in a pot. Cook until it reaches 158 celsius and immediately move from the stove. If the sirup is let cook any longer the honeycomb will taste burned. Mix the baking soda into the sirup. Work quickly. Pour the mixture into a mold and let cool down and harden.

Honeycomb cooling down in a silicone mold

This is why it's called honeycomb

Apricot parfait

French meringue

80 g egg white

pinch of salt

125 g sugar

Pâte à bombe

80 g egg yolk

75 ml cold water

100 g caster sugar

300 g apricot purée (250g fresh apricots, 50g sugar)

150 ml double cream

3 cl white port wine

This recipe is a very good basic recipe for parfaits. The original recipe I got in the cooking school and it calls for ripe bananas. Because bananas are somewhat sweeter than apricots I added some sugar to the apricot purée. The alcohol can be left out or replaced with something else.

Basil cremeux

85 ml basil juice

50 g sugar

55 g eggs

45 g egg yolk

1 g gelatin

50 g butter

Thyme-pistachio financier with basil cremeux

Monday 13 July 2015

Mal wieder etwas gekocht...

Keeping it simple: spicy meatballs, zucchini filled with ebly, carrots and topped with cheese, joghurt sauce and piment d'espelette

You can read more about Ebly here: www.ebly.com

Small tortoiseshell / Kleiner Fuchs / Nokkosperhonen

Monday 6 July 2015

Cold Rooibos Drinks

Rooibos citrus ice tea

It is hot here in Switzerland!! Fantastic!! For the passed week we have been basking in the hot sunshine and the temperatures of around 35 Celsius. That calls for some refreshing ice tea and cocktails. For the ideas I used the book "A touch of rooibos" of the Rooibos Limited wich we bought in South Africa. It has won a price in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. I love it that each recipe is accompanied by a photo. For ideas the photos are for me often more important the actual recipe.

Rooibos Citrus Ice Tea (alcohol free)

1500 ml water

500 ml fresh pressed orange juice

150 ml lemon juice concentrate

20 g rooibos leaves

50 g brown sugar

lemon and orange for the bottles

Bring the water to boil and move the pot to the side of the stove. Add the rooibos leaves and let infuse for about ten minutes. Sieve. Add the lemon concentrate, orange juice and brown sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. If you bottle the mix choose bottles with big mouth so that you can place some orange and lemon slices n to the bottles. Cool down. Serve with lots of ice, orange and lemon slices and fresh mint.

Rooibos syrup

Rooibos syrup

2000 ml water

30 g rooibos

50 g honey

280 g white sugar

30 ml lemon juice

Use a cheese cloth or something similar to bind the rooibos into a big "tea bag". You can also use rooibos teabags but I only have unbaged tea. Combine all the ingredients in a large pot and bring to boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Boil over moderate heat until reduced and syrupy. Remove the rooibos tea bag. Bottle and let cool down before using. This siryp can be mixed with mineral water to make schorle or it can be used for cocktails and why not, also to some desserts.

Syrup on the plate

It's pretty thick

Rooibos Sun

2 cl rooibos syrup

4 cl white rum

sparkling water as needed

ice

orange slices

lemon thyme

Rooibos, rum, orange, lemon thyme

Rooibos Orange

2 cl rooibos syrup

4 cl vodka

4 cl orange juice

lemon slice

thyme

sparkling water as needed

ice

Summer drink

Friday 3 July 2015

A piece of South Africa

The cover

I love history and real stories, history of the common people. It was a damn close thing that I had ended up to undust books in a history department of some university. Of course I love food and cooking as well or otherwise I wouln't be doing what I am doing now. All these themes are combined in one of my favourite cooking book "Karoo kitchen" of Sydda Essop which we bought in our last holiday in South Africa. I have not cooked very much out of this book but I love the photos and the people in it. The whole book is built around people living in the area of Karoo in South Africa. They all have a diffrent background and family heritage and the one thing common is the Karoo. Each of them shares the story of their life and some recipes. I have longing a piece of South African Melktert, milktart, so I wanted to try the Old-fashioned milk tart recipe of this book.

The cover

One of the recipes in the book...I could die for the fantastic savoury pies sold in South Africa

One of the persons in the book telling her story.

This is the recipe I used as the basis for my recipe...with some minor changes

Milk Tart

250 g flour

125 g butter

1 tsp baking powder

40 g water

60 g milk

1 yolk

2 eggs

120 g sugar

17 g flour

17 g corn starch

45 g butter

pinch of salt

I followed the instructions of the book. After cooling the tart down shortly in the fridge I served it with marinated strawberries. Just cut the strawberries in pieces, place them in the bowl and add some sugar, vanilla seeds, orange juice and Aperol. Let them marinate for about half an hour. Strain and thicken the liquid with a little bit of potato starch.

The pie crust before baking

The Milk tart after baking

My first try...didn't like it how it looked.

One of the beautiful pictures in the book.

Maybe I am a bit oldfashioned girl but but there is nothing better than a white round plate for a beautiful plating.

Milk tart with marinated strawberries

The mini flour bouquet consists of cornflower, lavendel, coriander flower, peppermint and lemon verbena.

The back cover

Thursday 2 July 2015

Summer days in the garden

Neighbour's common lavender (Echter Lavendel/Tähkälaventeli) garden

We have a couple of flower pots...

Real tangerine tree (Mandarinenbaum / Mandariinipuu) , two scented geraniums (Duftpelargonien / tuoksupelargonia), chilli (Chilli / chili), lemon thyme (Zitronenthymian / sitruunatimjami) and pink hanging geranium (Riippupelargonia)

Lemon verbena (Zitronenverbene/Sitruunaverbena) and Curry plant (Currykraut/No idea: "karrikasvi")

Curry plant (Currykraut/No idea: "karrikasvi")

The tangerine tree is about to start to bloom

On the left Thunbergie Schwarzäugige Susanne (Black-eyed Susan vine / Mustasilmäsusanna) which I grew fom the seed.

Iceland poppy (Islandmohn / Siperianunikko)

Habanero chilli

Hot purple chilli which I got from Hubby as a birthday present some years back

Tomato (Tomate / tomaatti). The first box has four and the second three plats and they are all different.

Looks like we will soon be able to make some tomato salad...

Our pea harvest isn't looking good: we will only get two pods :D One for Hubby one for me...I did plant some new seeds so we will see if we get some more before the end of the summer.