Month: December 2020

Egg Salad with Garlic Toasts: quick and delicious !

Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.

Vladimir Nabokov

Salad ingredients:
– 4 eggs
– 150g Butterkäse or cheddar
– 1 small red onion
– 1-1.5 tbsp mayonnaise
– a few dill sprigs for serving

Toasts ingredients:
– 2 slices of ciabatta
– 1 garlic clove
– 2 tsp olive oil

Method:
1 Salad
1.1 Hard boil eggs, cool them down in cold water, then peel
1.2 Grate cheese
1.3 Peel and chop red onion
1.3 Combine eggs+grated cheese+chopped onion+mayonnaise: mix well
2 Toasts
2.1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2.2 Peel and chop a garlic clove
2.3 Combine olive oil with chopped garlic
2.4 Brush ciabatta pieces with garlic olive oil and bake for 4-5 minutes at 180C
3 Salad & Toasts
3.1 Transfer the eggs salad in the cup and then on the serving plate
3.2 Serve the salad with a few dill sprigs & warm garlic toasts ! Enjoy !

Christmas Cranberry-Apricot-Raisin Cake !

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!

 Francis P. Church
Christmas Cake

Dough ingredients:
– 150g wheat flour
– 70g sugar
– 4g Vanila sugar
– 70g butter
– 2 eggs
– dash of salt
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 50ml milk
– 4g orange zest

Fruit ingredients:
– 100g dried cranberries
– 50g dried apricots
– 50 g raisins
– 100ml juice mixture (elder+grapes+orange+apple juices)
– 5g spices mixture (cinnamon+clove+ginger+orange zest)
– 1-2 tbsp wheat flour

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Fruits
2.1 Wash and chop dired fruits
2.2 Soak dried fruits for 10-20 minutes in juice mixture with spices mixture
3 Batter
3.1 Combine sugar+vanilla sugar+salt+butter: mix well until smooth
3.2 Add 2 eggs and whisk
3.3 Add milk and flour: mix well until smooth
3.4 Add orange zest and baking soda with vinegar in the same teaspoon: mix well
4 Cake
4.1 Drain extra liquid from the fruits in the separate bowl (we will need this liquid yet!)
4.2 Mix dried fruits with 1 tbsp of flour
4.3 Add dried fruits to the batter and mix well
4.4 Pour batter into the buttered baking form
4.5 Bake at 180C for 40-50 minutes
4.6 Remove the cake from the oven: cover it with a juice mixture with a brush
4.7 Sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar
5 Serve ! 🎄🎄🎄Merry Christmas !🎄🎄🎄

Baked Pears with Feta, Walnuts and Honey !

At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled shows

William Shakespeare

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 conference pears
– 50g Feta or Gorgonzola cheese
– 6 walnuts
– a few dill sprigs
– 2 tsp acacia honey

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C
2 Wash the pears, half them and de-seed
3 Cut Feta cheese in cubes
4 Put Feta cubes in the de-seeded pears and bake for 5-7 minutes at 180C
5 Serve warm pears with walnuts, dill sprigs and acacia honey.
6 Enjoy and have a great Sunday!

Notes: be careful, this recipe has an aroma of a holiday season 😉

Biscotti: Italian almond biscuits for Sunday morning !

If you pressed me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.

Michel de Montaigne
Biscotti

Ingredients (for 12 Biscotti):
– 130g wheat flour
– 78g sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp orange zest
– 1/2 tsp rum or Amaretto
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 63g almonds

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2 Wash almonds and dry with paper towels.
3 Combine in a bowl: flour + sugar + Vanilla sugar + egg + orange zest + rum.
4 Add to the dough baking soda in the same teaspoon as vinegar: knead the dough.
5 Mix the almonds in the dough and distribute uniformly.
6 Form ~3cm width & ~30cm length log from the dough and put it on the baking paper.
7 Bake the log for 20min at 180C until golden.
8 Remove the log from the oven and let it cool down for 5 min. Do not turn off the oven.
9 Cut the log with diagonal cuts into 1.5cm width Biscotti.
10 Put Biscotti back on the baking paper and bake for 5-10 minutes.
11 Enjoy Biscotti some nice Sunday morning with a cup of black coffee and your favourite Christmas movie. Would it be this, this, this, this or this movie? 😉

Potato Pancakes with Homemade Apple Compote

I sincerely hope your Christmas…may abound in the gaieties which the season generally brings…

Jane Austen

Potato pancakes ingredients (12-14 pancakes):
– 10 medium mashed potatoes
– 2 small eggs
– 1 chopped onion
– 2 tbsp wheat flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper

Apple compote ingredients:
– 2 apples
– 4-6 tbsp lemon juice

Method:
1 Apple compote
1.1 Wash and de-seed apples
1.2 Chop the apples
1.3 Cook the apples with lemon juice at medium heat until tender in the pan for 4-6 minutes
1.4 Mash the apples until smooth with an immersive blender
2 Potato pancakes
2.1 Peel the potatoes and boil them until ready
2.2 Batter: mix well mashed potatoes & chopped onion & salt & pepper & eggs & flour
2.3 Pre-heat the non-sticking skillet with one olive oil
2.4 Fry 1 tbsp batter for each pancake for 2-3 minutes each side
2.5 Put the ready pancake on the paper towel to get rid off extra oil
3 Serve potato pancakes with a warm apple compote and fresh miner’s lettuce !

Huevos Rancheros for Breakfast !

I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Huevos Rancheros

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 2 Cubanelle peppers
– 80g ham
– 80g grated Cheddar
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Wash the beautiful Cubanelle peppers and accurately cut out the upper part to form the boats 🙂
2 Carefully de-seed the peppers
3 Boil in the water the peppers for 5 minutes under a lid at medium heat
4 Drain water
5 Pre-heat the pan with some olive oil for frying the peppers
6 Put the peppers in the pan
7 Put grated Cheddar and chopped ham inside the pepper boats
8 Carefully pour 1 egg in each pepper over the chopped ham and grated cheddar
9 Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat
10 Serve and enjoy delicious breakfast !

Notes: many thanks to Jacques Pépin for the inspiration and for making my Saturday better !

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