what's for dinner - couscous

wander into the kitchen, bleary-eyed from a day at the computer, and more than a little shocked that it's already 5:45. pour self glass of cold white wine. take a sip. open refrigerator to see what's there. clear out the crisper. put carrots, half a zucchini (left over from yesterday's pizza), half a cabbage (left over from saturday's stir fry), a handful of green beans, half a box of mushrooms and an onion on the counter. check the cupboard, see if there's some couscous left in that box. there is. breathe sigh of relief. take another sip of wine.

set kettle to boil, pour boiling water over one bouillon cube (flavor of your choice - i used beef, tho' to keep this dish vegetarian, you can use a veggie one). meanwhile, put a cup of couscous into a shallow bowl, then pour the bouillon over it and place a plate over the top of the bowl and leave it to soak in. meanwhile, chop all of the assorted veggies you found in the fridge. start by tossing diced onions into pan and sweat them off in a good glug of olive oil. add a grated carrot and grated zucchini (courgette), then chopped mushrooms, then some chopped cabbage and green beans cut into bite-size. sauté them until they're done just enough - it's ok if the beans are still slightly crunchy. you can cover with a lid for a couple of minutes while you have a well-deserved sip of wine, but don't let them lose their bright color. and don't forget to season with salt & pepper.

toast off some hazelnuts or almonds or pine nuts - whatever you've got. chop a handful of dried apricots (or dates) for a little element of sweetness. toss it all together with the couscous (which you've fluffed with a fork), stir it together, take another sip of wine and call the family for dinner.  if you're lucky, there might be just enough left for you for lunch tomorrow.

this is a vegetarian dish, but if you had some leftover meat from another meal, you could toss that in, but the dish doesn't need meat.

what's for dinner? - pizza

i suspect i'm not alone in having a daily struggle with figuring out what to make for dinner. so i thought i'd share that struggle with you here, all week. some days are more inspired than others. it's hard when you've worked all day to find the energy to make a meal for the family. while i do cook to unwind, sometimes, i simply don't feel like cooking. but the fact is, we've got to eat, and so i find ways to put dinner on the table anyway. so i hereby give you the first installment in a week of everyday meals.

when you don't feel like cooking, the temptation to run down to the local pizza place is strong. however, making homemade pizza is easy and so much more delicious than any pizza from the local pizza joint. if you get creative, you can probably use the ingredients you have in the fridge and not even have to go to the grocery store.

potato slices, chicken, mozarella, prima donna cheese

pizza crust

250ml (1 cup) warm water

1/2 package of yeast (half a cube of fresh yeast is what i use, but dry is fine too)

1 squeeze of runny honey

1 tsp. salt

2 T olive oil

3 C flour (you may need a bit more if the dough is too wet)

mix the warm water, yeast and honey in the mixer bowl and let them sit for 5 minutes 'til the yeast begins to bubble. add the salt, olive oil and flour and allow the mixer to knead it for you (or mix it well and knead it for a few minutes if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook). place it in a large bowl, greased with olive oil and allow it to rise in a warm spot while you prepare the toppings. it's enough for two crusts. 

suggested toppings:

for all: 3 kinds of cheese - 1 ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced, freshly-grated parmesan, grated prima donna (or whatever cheese you have on hand)

olive oil & garlic base:

3 T good olive oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

mix the olive oil & minced garlic in a bowl, spread it over the crust. top with cheese. you can also add leftover chicken if you have some. a couple of thinly-sliced potatoes are good too. or maybe carmelized onions.

tomato sauce base:

the quick version: keep a jar of good quality tomato/pasta sauce on hand (ours is called dolmio). (i know this goes against our own "what is not a domestic sensualist" philosophy, but sometimes, it's needed.)

toppings:

sliced tomato + cheese (the classic margarita)

grated zucchini

thinly-sliced mushrooms

chorizo

pesto base: 

keep a jar or tub of good quality pesto on hand for those don't-want-to-cook days. but pesto is also easy and can even be made of arugula, pine nuts and a dash of olive oil in the food processor in a hurry. but sometimes, you don't have basil or fresh arugula at hand, so a jar of it is fine.

ideal topped with leftover chicken or leftover flank steak and a few fresh veggies - peppers, mushrooms, eggplant.

bake for 20+ minutes in a 180°C/350°F oven, 'til the crust is crispy. eat immediately.

not the best pic, but it was getting a bit dark.

you can throw some mixed salad leaves right on top, for a healthy kick.

get as fancy and creative as you want with the toppings, but the simpler the better. and don't be afraid to use up leftovers as toppings.

cake pops!

Hey, thanks julochka and Bee for letting me be silly here - for silly I plan on being ... I mean, what could be sillier than cake pops?!

I'll give you the short version first (and because I have no step-by-step photos - sorry!):
Bake a cake. Deconstruct it completely - as in reduce it to a pile of fine crumbs. Mix crumbs with icing (frosting) to desired consistency. Roll mix into lollipop sized balls. Freeze balls. Cover in chocolate. Decorate.
Silly huh?
From the first time I saw them, I just knew I had to try them.

cake pops

Your favourite cake recipe.

Now's a good time to decide whether you want chocolate pops, red velvet pops, vanilla pops ... try anything as long it produces a nice fine cake crumb. 

The original instructions call for a cake box mix, I know how we feel about those here but in all honesty, and especially the first time you make these, it's not such a bad idea.

Bake cake as usual. 

Allow to cool completely. Crumble (I know, I know ... it feels wrong, get over it).

I baked my cake in two halves and after I'd crumbled one I decided I had more than enough to work with, so froze the other half. One half produced over 50 cake pops.

Mix up your favourite icing.

Something nice and sticky, and preferably not too sweet. I think cream cheese icing or julochka's fabulous creamy vanilla frosting is a good call.

Again, you probably won't use it all - but I find emergency frozen icing never goes unused.

Spoon icing into crumbs slowly, mixing all the while, to get desired consistency. 

Truthfully I added too much icing to this batch, the texture of the cake balls were a little smooth (a bit more like truffles than cake) and they were a little too sweet. You're trying for a mix which will ball nicely but still have a cake-like texture when you bite into them.

Freeze balls on a baking sheet or tray.

Prevent husband from devouring them just like this.
I left mine overnight. A long time to fight off the devouring.

When you're ready to start icing, gather together all the bits you'll need before you start.
- lollipop sticks
- sprinkles and any other decorative elements
- a block or sheet of styrafoam with holes already pegged out in it (you don't want to be doing this with a top-heavy lollipop stick dripping chocolate, trust me).
- a damp cloth (for fingers)
- toothpicks, useful for all manner of reasons
- your sense of humour


Melt chocolate, either using a broken up bar or chocolate melts (also known as buttons or tabs). Apparently melts are better designed to be heated and reheated so you should probably go with those.
If you want to be authentic, melt chocolate over a double-boiler but let me assure you - the microwave works just as well.

Working with only a few balls out of the freezer at a time, dip the tip of a lollipop stick into the melted chocolate then slowly ease it into one of the balls.
Dunk ball in chocolate, swirling it around for overall coverage, patching and smoothing with a toothpick, tapping stick lightly against the side of the bowl to tap off excess chocolate.

Working quickly, before it sets, swirl chocolate covered ball through your sprinkles. Now's when you can add all manner of other decorative bits too. For more decorating tips and techniques it's best to visit the cake pop queen herself.

Now stand your cake pop up in the styrafoam and keep on going!

Awesomely impressive - if a little sweet - these might not appeal to all palates, but they certainly qualify as some delightful eye candy.

 

And just a couple of tips bakerella won't give you:

- make sure you pee before starting the decorating process

- have a hearty breakfast 

- if you live in a hot, bug-infested climate, make sure you've a pop-up fly net handy to keep your completed pops covered

- watch out for eyelashes, it seems you'll never lose more eyelashes than when working with melted chocolate

- have no, repeat NO, small children present at any stage of the procedure (at least not the first time you do it)

- when using a piece of styrafoam you dug out of the garden shed remember to wipe the underside before it's loaded with completed cake pops

- strictly make these at most a couple of hours before serving. Drooping sticks, cracked chocolate, cake oozes - let's just say they start looking a whole lot less attractive if they stand around for too long.

Get popping!

chai cake

i've been trying to devote my fridays to finishing projects that i have underway. but it seems that every friday, when i should be sitting down to do that, my mind wanders off to something new. today, i had a hankering to make a cake. sabin and i have been watching ultimate cake off, with the ambitious 5' tall structures of cake and fondant, but i wanted to do something a bit more simple. but still with a twist. i decided to make a chai cake.  and i began searching for recipes online. the more i looked, the more i thought that i could come up with something myself. so i embarked on an experiment.

we love chai and we love loose-leaf tea. however, our favorite chai is only available in a grocery store called Irma, that doesn't exist in this part of denmark - it's apparently a "city" grocery store and we live in the countryside. just this week, i had run out of that precious elixir, but i still had some of this:

it's a pretty good instant chai mix (tho' a bit sweet for my taste as a drink), that you mix with hot water. i thought it would taste delicious as a cake.  i started with a martha stewart butter cake as my base - martha knows her cakes and they always have lots of real ingredients - like butter and loads of eggs and they never call for a box cake mix (very surprising how many cake recipes out there do).

chai layer cake

250 grams butter (i always use salted because i think it tastes better, but you can choose) (that's 2 sticks to y'all in the US)

2 C organic sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

2 and 1/3 C of flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2/3 C instant chai mixture

1 C (250ml) milk 

cream the butter in the mixer using the paddle. slowly add the sugar until it's a creamy, light yellow. mix in the four eggs one at a time, mixing well between each egg. meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, chai mixture and salt. add the vanilla to your egg mixture. begin to add flour and milk alternating each until it's all combined in a velvety dough.

butter and flour two round (9"/23cm) cake pans. i lined the very bottom with baking paper for ease of removal (i just trace around it with the pan and cut it out to fit it perfectly). i never used baking paper when i lived in the US, but i have to admit i don't know how i did without it!  i really highly recommend it.

bake the two cakes at 180°C/375°F for 30-40 minutes (again, my oven is faster than others, but you know yours best). take them out and leave them to cool. 

i would have liked to get creative on the frosting (something maple came to mind), but my family loves a good, classic vanilla buttercream, so i pleased them.

classic buttercream frosting

250 grams butter

500 grams powdered sugar

1 tsp. real vanilla

2 T milk

cream the butter, then slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla. add only as much milk as you need to make a creamy, spreadable consistency. this can differ based on the weather (i swear). chill for a few minutes (up to 15) in the refrigerator, then spread on the cooled cakes. 

we didn't decorate or anything, we just ate thick slices with a steaming mug of tea. it tasted great, but i would say it was just a tad on the dry side, but that was undoubtedly because i baked it a bit too long. better to under bake just a titch than overbake. again, i make the mistakes so you don't have to!  enjoy!

boutique flours and the baking of bread

i don't know if it's the same everywhere, but increasingly here in denmark, there are exciting and interesting new varieties of flour on the market. especially flour for baking bread. denmark is full of good bread (which is why husband is always shell-shocked when we go to the US and encounter the bread there). the danes do an excellent rye (rugbrød) that's excellent no matter where you buy it - from the discount supermarket to the local bakery - so i don't really tackle the dark breads. but 2-3 times a week, i bake a loaf of ordinary white or lighter brown bread. and these newly available flours are taking those loaves from ordinary to extraordinary.

a number of the new types of flour are from grains that were found in the nordic seed gene bank and which have been revived and cultivated back to commercial capacity in recent years. my weekly organic box provider has recently added baking boxes which include a variety of these newly-available flours.


~ ølandshvede - with higher protein and gluten content than ordinary flour - the dough you make with it tends to have excellent elasticity and thread very nicely. the ølands wheat flour that i get is stone ground, and they say that stone ground wheat keeps more of the nutrition and taste.

- emmermel - this is a heavier flour, also stone ground. it tends more towards the rye-type and you mix it with wheat flour to get a dough that you can form into a good bread that can stand on its own. the dough is quite soft and ends up a more golden brown (the loaf below used emmermel) and has an almost nutty, hearty flavor.

~ svejderug - a revived grain related to rye, but which gives a lighter bread than rye bread. the seeds were found in norway and it has taken forty years to bring them back to commercial production.

~ spelt - spelt probably makes the most reliably good, hearty bread. you want the dough to be quite moist and loose and it's best to use a bread pan, but if you mix half spelt and half ordinary flour, you can easily form a free-standing loaf. i often use spelt when i make focaccia, as you spread it out over the pan anyway.

i tend as well to buy organic wheat flour as my everyday white flour and that's both widely available in any grocery store and some rather special ones are available through aarstiderne, the folks who bring my weekly organic box. the wheat flour i'm using right now, for cakes as well as bread consists of 75% organically-grown wheat and 25% biodynamic, which has even stricter guidelines. it's also stone ground and is made by aurion.

we intend to get our own flour mill as well and we'll be able to source the grains for grinding ourselves through aurion, so we've got no intentions of going into farming them ourselves. but for now, i'm really happy with what's commercially available. plus, the good folks at aarstiderne bring it straight to my door - what could be easier?

emmerbrød (adapted from aarstiderne)

500ml warm water (2 C)

1 cube of fresh yeast or a generous spoonful of dry

a generous pinch of salt

1 spoonful of honey

1.5 C of emmer flour (or other special wheat sorts)

3.5 C of wheat flour (preferably organic)  (depending on the weather and your flour, you may need more than this)

combine the warm water, yeast, salt and honey in your mixer bowl and let it stand 5 minutes or so. add the emmer flour. once it's mixed, begin to add the regular flour until you have a soft, pliable dough. i let my kitchen-aid do this entire process, but you can also mix by hand in a bowl and then knead. the dough hook on the kitchen-aid does all of this for me, freeing me to do other things (like make a coffee).

place it in a large bowl that you've wiped with olive oil and allow it to rise for several hours, covered with a clean tea towel. turn it out onto the counter, sprinkled with a bit of the emmer flour and fold it over onto itself repeatedly until you have a nice, tight round loaf. place it on a baking sheet (i always use baking paper underneath, for ease of cleanup), slash across the top with a sharp knife, so it looks pretty, sprinkle with flaky salt and allow it to rise again for 30 minutes to an hour. if you lack time, you can actually put it directly into the oven and it'll be fine. bake for 30-40 minutes at 180°C/375°F. 

another bread i've been baking a lot of lately is this:

feta & pine nut bread

500ml (2 C) warm water

1 cube of fresh yeast (or a generous spoonful of dry)

generous pinch of salt

a good glug of a tasty, fragrant olive oil

1 spoonful of honey

6 C of flour - it can be a mixture of organic white flour and spelt or other wheat varieties (i use ølandshvede lately)

120 grams of feta, crumbled

100 grams of toasted pine nuts

a bit of chopped rosemary if you have it

combine the water, yeast, olive oil and honey and allow it to stand until the yeast bubbles. slowly add the flour and salt until it begins to form a ball on your dough hook (again, i totally let the kitchen-aid do the work). add the crumbled feta and pine nuts and rosemary. it may go rather loose after this and so you can add a bit more flour if desired. but better to leave the dough a bit more wet than you think it should be - it makes for a more moist loaf of bread.

set it to rise in a large bowl that you've wiped with olive oil. let it rise for several hours in a warm place under a clean tea towel. turn it out onto a floured countertop and form it into a nice round loaf. slash the top for prettiness and sprinkle with salt. allow it to rise for 30-60 minutes and bake. you can also just pop it into the oven, no problem. bake for 30-40 minutes at 180°C/375°F. you can tell it's done by knocking on it. it's hard to describe, but it just sounds done and you'll know what i mean if you try it.

* * *

baking bread is easy, but you can have the odd day where it behaves in a temperamental way. last friday, my bread was an utter failure and i'm honestly not sure why, but i do think the weather and especially the barometric pressure can have an effect. i had a loaf of feta & pine nut spelt that just would not bake properly - it was still strangely doughy on the inside, despite nearly an hour in the oven at 180°C. some brownies i baked the same day turned out strangely as well. some days are like that and you just have to try again.

i realize that many of you won't find these same sorts of grains, but i'll bet this phenomenon isn't unique to denmark - so check your grocery store and see if there aren't some special kinds of flour available. it is well worth it to try them out.

making marmalade

as always at christmas, we gorged ourselves silly on sweet, succulent little clementines. however, once christmas was over, our consumption tapered off significantly. i didn't pick up on this fast enough and got another big box of them delivered with our weekly organic box in early january. thus, i found myself with a load of clementines in the basket and no one interested in eating them. so i went in search of a marmalade recipe.  i found one here, on an australian food blog (do go check it out, as his light was much better than mine and so the pictures are great). of course, i couldn't just follow the recipe, i had to stray from it, but he offered some good advice...like on saving all of the pith and seeds, wrapping them up in a little piece of muslin and throw it into your boil in order to take advantage of the natural pectin that's in the seeds.

mandarin marmalade

20 mandarins or clementines (approx. 2 kilos)

1 kilo organic caster sugar

1 vanilla pod

juice of 1 lemon

6 C (750ml) water

makes 3 250ml jars of marmalade.

1. peel your oranges, saving about half of the best skins and all of the seeds and pith.
2. break the mandarins apart (i made the mistake of leaving them in halves and oddly, they didn't really come apart, so my marmalade is rather...ah...chunky.
3. place the pith and seeds in a small square of muslin cloth and either tie it shut, or sew a quick seam around the entire edge of it (like i did) to keep them trapped inside.
4. finely slice the peel into small strips (see the original recipe website, he's got great pix of this step).
5. place all of the ingredients in a heavy pan and stir. put it on the stove over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar is melted and it comes to a gentle boil.
6. turn down the heat to very low and allow it to simmer gently for at least two hours, stirring it occasionally. i actually left mine on the stove the whole afternoon - more like 4 hours or so - because it made the house smell heavenly.
7. prepare your jars...i give mine a tour in the dishwasher and then boil the little rubber seals in a pan. the site where i got the inspiration for the recipe has an interesting method of setting them in the oven that i'm going to try the next time.
8. fish out the parcel of seeds and pour the marmalade into the jars and seal them. if you have enough seeds, there should be enough natural pectin that the marmalade will set up, otherwise, you can use some purchased pectin.

it was enough to fill three 250 ml. jars - you could use smaller ones and give them as gifts. we've already used up one entire jar - i used the dregs yesterday when i made beth's bread & butter pudding, and i can highly recommend doing that.  and i'll admit that i have, more than once, just had a little saucer of the marmalade with my tea. i find this very russian of myself. and it feels a bit decadent, but virtuous too, since i made it myself with organic clementines that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Raspberry Linzer Hearts

I grew up making cookies with my mother and I've passed the same tradition down to my two daughters.
Tonight I was talking on the phone to my oldest daughter . . . and I told her that I had made Raspberry Linzer Hearts for Valentine's Day.  "Ohhh," she said, and I definitely caught a plaintive note in her voice.
I promised to freeze a few of them for her -- not knowing for sure if they DO freeze -- but just in case, here is an offering from mother to daughter:  a virtual "love heart."

This recipe comes from Mary Englebreit's Cookie Cookbook which I bought for my girls when they were beginning bakers.  The subtitle of the book is "The Queen's Best Recipes" -- which reminds me of my bossy older daughter, who has ruled over us all since she was about two years old.

Here's the editorial recommendation:
Don't bring these out for the Super Bowl:  they are labors of love for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and ladies' teas.

They actually aren't that difficult, especially if you are used to working with roll-out cookie dough.
But make them for family and friends and let them be impressed by how very hard you labored . . .

Ingredients:
1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) walnuts*
1 cup (4 ounces) whole blanched almonds* (ensure your nuts are fresh)
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' (icing) sugar, plus a bit extra for decoration
2 large egg yolks
2 1/2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1/2 cornstarch (cornflour)
1 cup seedless raspberry jam

You will also need two heart-shaped cookie cutters -- approximately 2 1/2 inch and 1 1/2 inch.

Method:
Using a food processor, combine the walnuts and almonds and process, pulsing, until finely ground.  Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg yolks.  On a low speed, gradually add the flour and cornstarch, mixing just until incorporated.  Add the ground nuts and mix until blended.
Divide the dough (it will be stiff) into four pieces -- and shape each of these into a disk.  Wrap the disks in plastic and refrigerate until firm (2 to 4 hours).
Preheat the oven to 325F/160C.  Grease two baking sheets -- unless you use Silpats, as I do.  Or, use parchment paper to line your cookie sheets.
On a floured surface, roll out one piece of dough at a time until approximately 1/4 inch thick.
Usint a 2 1/2 inch heart-shaped cutter, cut out as many cookies as possible.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes -- depending on how thinly you rolled your cookies.  They should just be starting to turn slightly golden, but you don't want to brown them.  After they have slightly cooled on the baking sheet, transfer them to wire cooling racks.
For half of the cookies, you will need to cut out the large heart shape -- and then use a smaller (1 1/2 inch) heart-shaped cutter centered in the middle. 
Bake and cool the cutout hearts.
Very important:  Dust the cutout hearts with confectioners' sugar BEFORE you assemble them.
Spread a rounded teaspoon of jam onto each whole heart cookie bottom and then cover with the cutout heart tops.

Happy Valentine's Day!