Winter, oranges and between...

I had some oranges in the fruit bowl, waiting for somebody to pick them up and eat them or squeez them and drink them. For heaven's sake just anything would be fine. But nothing, DD and DH didn't have the mood for oranges this year I guess and I was too busy and too lazy to peel an orange and eat it without beeing interupted by diaper changing,feeding or chasing after my little Mary Poppins.I felt really sorry for them, they were so beautiful ,round and juicy and I just didn't have the heart to let them rot in that fruit bowl.So I decided to make a cake with them. Why not? It's winter, oranges are in season, so they taste heaven, and so would the cake I believe.I looked in the internet for some orange cakes recipes,and I didn't like any of the recipes that I found. At the end, I remembered that I had a recipe for an easy Orange cake on my Moulinex booklet (As funny as it might sound, this cake was the best orange cake I have ever tasted so far) it is easy, rich and moist but there is one problem with this cake: It will not survive until the next day, and you will feel such a pig because of that!

Happy Baking!

Orange Cake
makes 6 servings

Ingredients
175 gr flour
175 gr custer sugar
175 gr butter (room tempreture)
2 ts baking powder
3 eggs
A juice of 4 oranges (1/4 for the cake and 3/4 for the orange glaze)
A zest of two oranges
Coconut flakes for garnish (optional)

For the glaze:
125 gr confectioners' sugar
3/4 orange juice

Method
Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for a minute.Add butter and mix for another minute.Add flour, baking powder and zest and mix just until incorporated.Finally, add 1/4 orange juice and mix for another 30 sec.Pour mixture into a greased and dusted 26cm pan and bake for 40 minutes at 160°c or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake, comes out clean.

Orange Glaze:
In a small saucepan,put together confectioners' sugar and 3/4 orange juice and bring to simmer for 7 minutes on a medium fire. when glaze is ready, pour on cake while still hot and sprinkle over the coconut flakes.

Soy and ketchup chicken

One year ago, in one of our visits to my family I happened to taste the most delicious and moist chicken I've ever had in my life. I am not exaggerating! I like to cook chicken because you can always vary with the recipe, plus children love chicken. So this one was my sister's recipe, she prepared it for us the night we came from the airport because she thought it was light enough.(considering the fact we arrived late that night) It was a chicken with soy and ketchup , it was really delicious and we devoured that chicken right away. I still cook this chicken and my husband is amazed everytime I cook it like it was the first time he tasted it.
This is one of the recipes you should keep for those evenings when you come back from work, open the fridge and ask yourself desperately :" What the hell am I going to cook tonight?"

Happy cooking!

Soy and ketchup chicken

Ingredients
Two portions

500 gr chicken with bones (any pieces of your preferance we just love the thighs)
1 tbs ketchup
5 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs olive oil
1 tb honey
1 ts salt

Method

Wash the chicken pieces thoroughly then pat dry. In a high edged bowl,put together soy sauce, ketchup, honey , olive oil and salt and mix. Put chicken inside the sauce and rub it well with your hands. Let marinate for half an hour in the sauce making sure to turn pieces over from time to time. Put chicken pieces in a pan then pour all sauce on it. Cook in a preheated oven at 180°-200° for 40 minutes.

Say it with a heart!

Valentine is right at the corner,you can tell by all the hearts and kitschy gifts shown at the displays at most shops here.It is funny that people spend so much money on a day when all you have to do is a little gesture of love, little words that mean a lot and little things that bring joy to the toughest guy on the block!
So to mark the occasion,I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes with a chocolate chantilly cream frosting and sugar hearts for decorations.After all, what is better than chocolate and hearts to tell your other half what's on your mind? These cupcakes are rich in a dark chocolate flavour and are so moist that you will reach on for the second cupcake before even you finish the first one!
I included a recipe and a tutorial for the sugar hearts at the end of this post.
I hope you'll enjoy making and eating these beautiful creatures as much as I did.

Happy Baking!

Valentine chocolate cupcakes with sugar hearts

Ingredients
makes 12 cupcakes

210 gr flour
200 gr sugar
3/4 cup dark cocoa
2 ts baking powder
1/4 ts baking soda
1/8 ts salt
1 ts rum (you can use vanilla if you wish)
1/3 cup oil (not olive oil)
1 cup milk

Method
Preheat oven to 175°,line a muffin tray with 12 muffin cups.
Sift together dry ingredients: flour,baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and salt and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk sugar and oil until light and fluffy.
Add rum and whisk gently just until incorporated. Pour mixture, using two table spoons ,into cups just until 3/4 of them. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cupcakes comes out clean. let cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate chantilly cream

Ingredients

150 gr fine dark chocolate
250 gr heavy cream

Method

Melt chocolate on a low fire in bain marie.
Let cool for 4-5 minutes.
Whipe the heavy cream then add one third of it to the chocolate and mix quickly. Add the remaining of the whipped cream to the chocolate and fold it gently with a spatula working from the bottom to the top, until well incorporated. If too dry, you can thin the cream with some liquid heavy cream. Frost cupcakes using a tip and a pipping bag or by just using a spoon (like I did)



Sugar Hearts

Ingredients
1 cup custer sugar
Some food coloring
1 egg white


Method

1-Put one cup sugar with a bit of food coloring (use a skewer or the tip of a knife) do not put a lot of food coloring because when you add the egg white color will darken.



2-Add one teaspoon egg white and mix, you should have a wet sand like texture (do not add too much egg white or else sugar will dissolve)



3-put sugar on a flat surafce and smooth it with a rolling pin,then use a heart shaped cookie cutter to form the hearts. Use a large plastic spatula to lift the hearts from the surface into the pan.You can save yourself the trouble of breaking these hearts by just rolling them and cutting them straight onto a baking paper. (Why didn't I think about that before?)If hearts will not hold their shape, add more egg white in small increments and mix thoroughly. If sugar builds up in cutter, rinse with warm water and pat dry before continuing.



4- Place hearts on a lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 180°.



5-Let cool for 10 minutes , then leave sugar hearts in a dry corner to harden over night.

Pashtida please!

One of things that I love in the Jewish cuisine is the Pashtida, which means a casserole or a dairy pie. I learnt few things about the origin of this word, and if you like ,you can also read about it here

I was looking for something with cheese and vegetables to cook (not pasta!) and I started to search my old cook book that I brought with me from back home.I found an endless number of Pashtida recipes with variations of vegetables and the kinds of cheese.One particular recipe that caught my eye was with bell peppers,black olives and basil.I gave it a try and it was superb (my husband is Italian, so he loves all recipes that contain cheese in them)
Usually,you don't use flour in pashtida but you put some breadcrumbs at the bottom of the pan and sides to support the pashtida mix and give it a body. I chose to go one step further and put some breadcrumbs inside the pashtida, this way it becomes more solid when you cut it.




Happy winter and happy baking!


Bell Peppers And Black Olives Pashtida
makes 4 servings

Ingredients

1 large red bell pepper
1 large yellow bell pepper
50 gr black olives
Half cup plain yogurt
150 gr ricotta cheese
150 gr cream cheese
100 gr grated emmental
2 eggs
4 table spoons milk
Half cup breadcrumbs
4-5 basil leaves
Salt
Some grated parmesan cheese

Method

Wash and cut bell peppers into four halves, remove seeds and place in a pan in a preheated oven and leave to roast at 180°.When peppers are done, reomve gently the skin of them and cut into stripes.In a large bowl, put all cheese , eggs, yogurt,salt,bell peppers,olives , basil leaves and 3 tbs breadcrumbs.Mix all ingredients gently and pour into a 20cm rectangular pan that was greased with some oil and dusted with breadcrumbs. Finish by adding some grated parmesan to the top of the pashtida ,mix and bake in a preheated oven at 180° for 40 min. E voilà!