Torrijas

Mmmh, an old time favorite, brought back from Tenerife (Spain). 
You need 6 or more thick slices of stale white bread (use a dense bread - not something to fluffy). Spread the bread slices on a plate (or deep dish) and heat 500 ml milk with some sugar (and vanilla). Pour warm milk over bread and let it rest for 30 min, until all milk is soaked up. Heat up 500 ml of olive oil (or a little more, the deep pan should be filled with 2 cm of oil). Beat up 2 eggs and turn the bread in them. Only when the oil is really hot bake the bread slices (in batches) until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and turn in a sugar and cinnamon mix. Enjoy hot or cold (although warm is the best ;o). 


Und die deutsche Fassung: 
6 daumendicke Scheiben Weißbrot (altbacken) in einer tiefen Platte auslegen. 

1/2 l Milch mit 1 El Zucker + Vanille o. Vanillezucker erhitzen und über das Brot geben und ca. 30 min. ziehen lassen. 

2 Eier verquirlen und die Brotscheiben vorsichtig darin wenden. 

Währenddessen 1/2 - 1 l Olivenöl (ca. 2 cm Öl in Topf oder Pfanne) erhitzen und Brotscheiben nacheinander darin ausbacken. 

Auf Küchenpapier abtropfen lassen und in 5 El Zucker-Zimt-Mischung wälzen. 

Heiß oder kalt servieren. 

Flan Casero / Flan Caramel

We are just back from Patagonia and finally I tried one of our most favorite 'postres' from Spain and Southamerica. This time not the stuff from Royal, but the real 'casero'-style. I used the following recipe:

Heat 1/3 cup (75 g) sugar with some lemon juice (just a few drops) until caramelised.

Fill 5-6 cups (ramequins) with the caramel.

Heat 2 cups (500 ml) milk with some lemon zest and mark of a vanilla pod until boiling, then put aside to cool a bit.

Crack 4 eggs and beat until smooth. Stir in the hand warm milk, mix well and fill the cups (ramequins) to the top.

All the ramequins should fit into a pan/oven dish that you fill with a bit of water (some recipes say it should be hot water, I used cold one). I found a recipe that said you should cook the flan at 150 °C for 20-30 min, but I found out that this is not true, as you need nearly 60 min with that temperature. So next time I try it at 180 °C and see how long that takes. However, I also found out that the higher temperature will increase the risks of getting air bubbles in the flan (as I like it smooth, but also with bubbles I wouldn't care to much.)

Leave the flan in the oven to cool down and store in the fridge for a day or two (if you can wait that long) to let the caramel soak into the custard.

OK, we couldn't wait and tried the first flan 2 hours after coming out of the oven. 1 h at 150 °C gives a brilliant very creamy, smooth result. Yummie...

And now the German Cheesecake 'Käsekuchen'

Yuppie, I will get a cheesecake today ;o)).

Make a pie-pastry from 200 g Flour, 125 g Sugar, 1 tsp Baking Powder, Vanilla Sugar, 130 g Butter, 1 Egg and put in the fridge for at least 30 min.

Roll out to a thin crust and fill a round form with it. Bake at 175 °C for about 20 min.

For the filling: Mix 3 Egg, 180 g Sugar and 100 g Butter until creamy. Add 5 tbsp Flour and mix into the cream. Add 750 g Quark (curd cheese, fromage frais) and 200 g Sour Cream, Juice of 1 Lemon and a handful of Raisins stir until smooth,

Take the crust out of the oven and fill the Quark-mix into it.

Bake at 175 °C for another 1.5 hours.

Cake w/ Raspbeeries

Another 'cup'-cake, it seems I can't stop baking at the moment ;o). This time it's a cake with buttermilk and raspberries.

3 Eggs, 1.5 cups Sugar (1 cup white, 1/2 cup brown), Vanilla Sugar, 4 cups Flour, 2 cups Buttermilk, 400 g Raspberries (I justed frozen ones - warmed up at room temperature), 1 tbsp Baking Soda, 100 g Butter Flakes, 1 cup Almond Flakes

Beat the eggs with sugar until it's creamy. Add the flour, mix slowly into the egg-mix and pour in the buttermilk. Mix well together, at the baking soda for the last view moments.

Fill the cake in a deep baking tray (greased) and bake for 20 min at around 180 °C (depending on your oven). Get the cake out and sprinkle with the butter and almond flakes. Bake for another 20-30 min at 180° C (if it gets to dark use some kitchen foil - the silver one - to cover the cake).

Quarkkuchen m. Kirschen

And another cake. After getting this brilliant new baking tray, I decided to try a new cake. It's with Quark (or Fromage Frais) and cherries.

6 Eggs, 150 Sugar (I always mix white and brown sugar), 300 g Butter (liquid), 400 g Flour, 1 tsp Baking Powder, White Chocolate Flakes, 2 handful of Cherries (or other fruit), Juice from 1 Lemon, 500 g Quark (Fromage Frais), 150 g Sour Cream, Rasperry Jam.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until creamy. Add the butter carefully and afterwards put in the flour, lemon juice and baking powder.

Divide the mixture in 2 portions and pour one half into a baking tray (greased). Sprinkle with cherries and chocolate flakes.

Add quark and sour cream to the second portion and mix well. Pour onto the cherries mix.

Dig some small holes into the mixture and fill with rasperry jam. Use the back of the spoon to make some nice design with the rasperry.

"Cup"-Cake with Hazelnuts

Originally, I was hoping for a real German cheesecake baked by my better half (as he is making the best one), but getting Quark (or even Fromage Frais) in Ireland is not an easy feat, and mostly can't be done without a proper shopping strategy. So, no cheesecake this weekend.

But after having a wonderful Tassenkuchen at my aunt's while visiting Germany two weeks ago, I decided to try my luck as well.

Tassenkuchen (literally translated to cup-cakes) is just a way to describe a cake baked using cups as measurments instead of putting it into grams or mililiter as I think most European countries do. However, this easy (American?) way to bake cake has become quite popular in Germany and therefore we have Tassenkuchen and although it literally translate to cup-cake it's not a cupcake ;o).

As I didn't ask my aunt for her recipe, I just browsed the internet to get some ideas. And here is what I did:

Beat 4 eggs with 1/2 cup of sugar (1/3 cup of it white sugar and the rest brown sugar - I like the flavor).

Add 1 cup of oil, 2 cups of ground hazelnuts (about 200 grams - in Germany you get them ready prepared to buy), 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sparkling water, 1 cup of chocolate bits (I love the Dutch hagelslag from De Ruijter), 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 tablespoon of Rum and 1 almond essence and mix together.

Bake at 180 °C for about an hour or so.

Not sure, if I am happy with this one. Although it tastes lovely, I think it didn't rise enough...

I'll try again. Just checked some other recipes (German only) and they use 2 cups of flour, might try this next time.

Kedgeree

work in progress...

Although, not as breakfast (my better half didn't want to start his bank holiday without porridge) we had Kedgeree today. I used Jamie Oliver's recipe as a starting point and then did what I want anyway (that's my usual way to do things, not just when cooking ;o)).

So here is what I did:

First I boiled 2 eggs and cooked 1 cup basmati rice. Next time I won't cook the rice sperately, as I think you can just add with the other ingredients. So for the following recipe, consider that the rice isn't cooked yet.

Finely chop 1 onion, 1 piece of fresh ginger (garlic clove size) and 1 clove of garlic.

Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a deep frying pan and add the onion, ginger and galic. Stir for a couple of minutes until the onions start to get golden.

Add 2 tbsp curry powder (be careful - that was a mistake, but I liked it that spicey) and

1 tsp mustard seeds and stir again for a couple of minutes, add 1 tomato and the juice of 1 lemon.

Pour in 1 shot of vodka (I like a shot of vodka in some curry rice, as it will get even hotter) and 1 cup of basmati rice - stir for 1 min and add enough hot water to cove the rice. Stir for about 10-15 min, add more hot water when necessary. A couple of minutes before the rice is done, add 1 good handful of smoked salmon chunks (in Ireland you can by them pre-packed for sandwiches) and finely chop some parsely (or cilantro/coriander if you prefer). Cut the eggs in quarters and mix them into the rice, together with the parsely.

Next time - when I do it properly - I will add a picture as well.