GAZPACHO WITH ROASTED RED PEPPER

Gazpacho is a typical summer food. Specially if You serve it on ice cubes in a hot summer day. To be honest this was the first time I made it as far as I recall so I really didn't like this kind of soups. But my husband likes it so much that I couldn't resist further to give the gazp another chance and try my own version..... AND, it got really delicious!  Usually I prefer the foods that are cooked under an hour, can be kept in the fridge for up to two days, and flexible enough to swap some ingredients  if cannot find one in my fridge.... and this recipe fits all criteria.

You may recall that a few months ago I've won a lovely, handy Vitamix at the amazing food photography workshop by Meeta. Since then I've often used it in my kitchen and sometimes I just wonder how I could have lived without it in the past. Its engine is so strong that even the hardest nuts are quickly and easily grounded, just like ice cubes when I make slush poppies for my boys. They are also big fans of this brilliant staff. 

The only thing I really miss is sunshine. Here is a typical english summer with lots of rain, wind and 15-17 C..... it's under my expectation. What about You?

Ingredients: 

Serves 4-6

2 red bell peppers

1 whole garlic

some olive oil

salt

600 ml vegetable stock (at room temperature)

2 big, ripe tomatoes

3 spring onions

5 radishes

half a cucumber

small bunch of fresh basil leaves

small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley

freshly ground pepper

for the garnish:

croutons

sherry vinegar to taste 

some ice cubes

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a kitchen foil on board and sprinkle with some olive oil. Place the washed peppers on that, salt lightly and wrap carefully. Cut the upper third part of the garlic bulb. Place an other foil on board, and sprinkle with oil and salt, place the garlic on that and wrap this parcel, too. Put the parcels on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes, or until they become tender. Set aside and leave to cool to room temperature. 
2. Boil some water in a small pan. Wash tomatoes, sign a cross with a sharp knife on the bottom and put them into the boiling water for a few minutes. Lift up, and carefully remove the skin of tomatoes. Dice roughly and set aside. 
3. Wash onion, radish and cucumber. Take a small quantity of each of the vegetables, finely dice them and reserve for garnishing. Roughly dice all the rest of the vegetables, and place in a blender or Vitamix.   
4. Peel the skin of peppers, discard the seeds. Add the flesh to vegetables. Take the roasted garlic and pull or squeeze  the roasted cloves out of the skin.  Add to the vegetables.  Pour with stock, add the roughly chopped basil and parsley leaves. Mix on medium speed for a 45-60 seconds. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste. 
5. Chill for an hour or better for a night before serving. 
6. Serve the soup in nice tall glasses with the reserved vegetables, ice cubes ad vinegar to taste. Garnish with croutons as well.  

CHERRY AND HAZELNUT CAKE FOR FATHER'S DAY

To be honest I have never known when Father's Day is when I lived in Europe. But in UK, You cannot miss the date at all. You are constantly faced the very special Father's Day gift advertisements in shop windows and TV channels. Some are really cute, but the most are total rubbish. So me and my boys decided to bake a cake for Daddy who really likes these sorts of treats without frosting. 

So far I haven't recognised that hazelnut-chocolate-cherry is an outstanding combination. The process of baking is very simple, as you don't need dozen of bowls for whipping this and that. One bowl of a stand mixer is more than enough, beside that you just need your fav, handy food processor to finely ground the toasted nuts. Under an hour You can serve for the ever best Dad!

Ingredients for a 22 cm diameter cake tin:

160 gr soft butter (unsalted)

100 gr granulated sugar

60 gr light brown sugar

3 "s" size eggs

160 gr plain flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

450 gr cherries (measured with seeds)

80 gr hazelnuts

80 gr almonds
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

45 gr good quality dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa) 

pinch of salt

2 tbsp natural yoghurt

for the topping:

1 tbsp runny honey

some freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. Take the cake tin, and line the bottom with baking parchment. Grease the sides then dust with some flour. Preheat oven to 180C. 
2. Wash the cherries with cool water, remove the stems then put in  a colander. Pit them and put into a bowl, then set aside. 
3. Take a dry, clean frying pan. Put the almond, nut in that and toast on medium for a few minutes. Shake the pan quite often not leave to burn! When it's getting to smell toasty remove from the hob and lave to cool. 
4. Put the butter with two different kind of sugars into the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on medium until gets pale and fluffy. Add the eggs each by each and mix on low speed. 
5. Meanwhile put the nuts and almonds into the food processor and chop on medium for a few minutes. Add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix again for a few seconds. 
6. Mix the finely ground nut mixture with flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the mixture to the butter and stir carefully with a rubber spatula. Fold the cherries, then the yoghurt carefully in. Always keep in your mind not to overmix the batter. 
7. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. 
8. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean. 
9. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. Mix honey with lemon juice, and when it has been cooled to room temperature brush the top of the cake with this mixture. 
10. Serve plain or with vanilla ice cream, and fresh cherries. 

The recipe is based on a lovely hungarian blog's recipe with some minor changes: 
http://mimiesmamaminikonyhaja.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/cseresznye-csoki-es-mogyoro-egy-tortaban.html

RHUBARB-CARAMEL- WHITE CHOCOLATE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE AND A PIECE OF PARIS

If You follow me on Facebook probably know that we spent some days in Paris, Disneyland at half term. So before leaving I had been quite busy and had no chance to post this lovely, super-fast upside-down cake recipe with caramel-rhubarb-white chocolate combo.

But here You go, rhubarb is in season right now so if the weather is as cold there as here, just take your  apron, spend about 30 minutes in the kitchen and then You can serve this heart warming treat. 

The recipe is based on Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson. All the recipes of this book work pretty well, so if You are fancy baking delicious go for it,  and won't be disappointed.  

Ingredients for a 22 cm diameter cake-tin:

for the topping:

3/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp unsalted butter

approx 2-3 rhubarb stalks, cut into small pieces

for the cake:

100 gr white chocolate

1/4 cup boiling water

1,5 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1,5 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

1/2 cup unsalted butter (cc 100 gr) at room temperature

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste

1. Prepare the cake tin: place baking parchment on the bottom of the tin lightly grease it and the sides as well. Cover the bottom of tin from outside with large aluminum foil. ( it will prevent caramel to leek from the tin. But if You want to be on the safe side place the covered bottomed tin on a baking tray.) Preheat oven to 170 C.
2. To make the topping, place sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan. Never stir sugar otherwise it will be crystallized instead of caramelizing! Bring to boil then cook for 2 minutes, or until the color turn into nice dark brown. Add the diced butter, but be careful it will foam up! Swirl the pan to melt the butter. 
3. Pour the caramel into the prepared tin. Arrange  rhubarb slices nicely in the tin, and never forget that the downside will be upside when your cake is ready!
   And be careful as caramel can burn your fingers!
4. Cut the chocolate into small pieces, put into a small glass bowl. Add boiling water, stir with a teaspoon until dissolved then set aside. 
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger and salt on low speed. 
6. Add the diced butter, buttermilk and mix on medium until all dry ingredients get moistened. Now add the eggs, one by one. Mix on medium for a minute. 
7. Pour the chocolate, add vanilla and mix for 45-60 seconds. 
8. Pour the batter over the rhubarb, smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. 
9. Place the cake on a wire rack and leave to cool for an hour. Then turn out the cake on a cake stand and leave the tin on the cake until served.
10. Before serving remove the tin, then the baking parchment from the top and serve immediately. 

And if You don't mind I share some lovely photos from Disneyland. My boys enjoyed it more than expected, they got very tired. I'm sure we'll visit again in a couple of years. 

Actually we spent 2 days in the park, but it was not enough. There are so many things to do and the park itself is huge, so if You really want to discover all the attractions You need more days. 

If I went back I would spend much more time in the studios where the shows are featured to be enjoyed  specially by adults. I really liked that kids in all ages can find the appropriate activity, meanwhile parents can feel they arrived to America. 

As the park is much more american (apparently) than european, You can totally forget that You are in France. 

And you may forget France when you get hungry: the food in the park doesn't fit the foodblogger's expectations: junk food is everywhere. My boys got a massive stomach ache on the second day as they had not been used to it. I dislike it but totally understand it's not the right place to take a seat in a French restaurant and have traditional, tasty food. Kids are too excited to miss anything so can't wait for a properly served meal they just want to get some food immediately. 

Anyway, apart from food the pageant was gorgeous. I wish all kids could have spent at least one day in the park just  had an impression to be in a story world where all their story figures came alive and they had chance to meet them, wave them and possibly petting them. 

It's a real fairy tale!

at the entrance

in the wild west

at the pirates ship

Oh, this lovely chipmunk!

when it rains.....

one of his favorite from Ratatouille

big discussion: where are we now?

he's got tired

Can You recognize the figures and stories?

fairy tale......

ASPARAGUS SALAD

I have been disappeared for the last few weeks so my days were quite busy. I've been  taking a lots of photo shots as the weather became a bit more sunny, so it's time to go out with my new camera. Shooting here, shooting there. But I've been struggling in the wind. And wind is always blowing here, always! So if You have any idea how I can come across with taking photos in wind, just leave a message here below. But I'm delighted with my new baby, my real fav is the live view function. It's new to me, and I really enjoy the challenges I face to. And if You are wondering what is going to happen to my hundreds of photos, they're going to light soon. Very soon. 

Back to asparagus, I have to tell you I have preferred the white one so far. But the things are changing and the freshly picked, british green one tastes better now. When it's in season I usually prepare just a quick and healthy salad, and it's really gorgeous. It's been completed in15 minutes also including the peeling. (I usually not just cut the bottom but peel it in the upper section.)

Ingredients for  3-4:

250-300 gr asparagus

4 hard boiled eggs

two big handful of fresh baby spincah

2 ciabattas or 4 slices toasted breads

8-10 baby vine tomatoes

a couple of spring onions or quarter of leek

some olive oil

salt

for the dressing:

4 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

one drop runny honey

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

salt

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Lay some baking parchment on a baking tray. Dice ciabatta and put on the tray. Bake in the oven until golden and crispy. (If You use bread, just toast them for a few minutes, then dice on a board. ) Set aside and leave to cool. 
2. Wash spinach and dry carefully with a sheet of kitchen towel.
3. Heat a frying pan on medium. Clean the asparagus, cut the end of stalks and discard them. Cut into 3-4 cm sticks.  Pour some olive oil into the pan, add the asparagus sticks, some salt and fry for a few minutes until golden. Set aside and keep warm until served. 
4. Take a quite big bowl for the salad. Place the spinach leaves, add the roughly chopped  tomatoes, finely sliced leek or onion, toasted bread and finally asparagus sticks. Carefully mix them then place the quartered hard boiled eggs on the top. 
5. For the dressing mix all the ingredientes into a small jar. Stir well and set aside until served. Pour over the salad just right before serving. 

POPPY SEED AND LEMON CURD ROLLED CAKE

When I saw this rolled cake  on a lovely site a couple of weeks ago, it was a love at first sight.
Specially the form of the cake was impressive, and then I just wanted to challenge my skills if I was able to bake such an amazing rolled cake. The first two time was a total disaster. At the very fist time I rolled the cake before cooled to room temperature, just as I usually do with a simple roulade. But this cake can not be rolled warm, otherwise fall apart as has been cooled. At my second trial I substituted oil with butter. Please, never do this! It doesn't work! So my suggestion is: strictly  follow the recipe!
The recipe is based on Vintage Cakes book, by Julie Richardson  but I applied several changes according to my taste not just in terms of the batter but the frosting as well. (:-) this time it really works
Poppy seed and lemon are hand-in-hand, so after I decided the key flavor of the cake itself lemon filling was obvious. I just made a very simple lemon curd (homemade of course:-) and mixed with  mascarpone, garnished with some lovely passion fruit and violet.

Ingredients:

for the cake (for a 35 X 26 cm rectangle tin):

6 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
2 tbsp lukewarm  water
160 gr granulated sugar
100 gr plain flour
50 gr ground poppy seed
1 tbsp coconut oil (melted)
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract

for the filling:

1 large egg
1-2 tbsp granulated sugar (or to taste)
1 tbsp butter (diced)
1 lemon zest
1 lemon juice

300 gr mascarpone

2 passion fruits and some violet for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. 
2. To make the cake sift the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seed in a large bowl, then mix well with a spoon. 
3. Melt the coconut oil in microwave oven on low heat.
4. In the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment whip the egg yolks with half of sugar until pale and fluffy. Then add the water, vanilla, oil and whisk on medium for a few minutes. Set aside. 
5. In a clean bowl of stand mixer whip the egg whites on high until frothy. Add the remaining sugar spoon by spoon and reduce speed to medium whipping until the whites just form a soft peak. Return the mixer to high and continue whipping until the whites begin to hold shiny peaks. 
6. With a rubber spatula fold the flour mixture into the yolks mixture. Mix well. 
7.  Then fold the third of whites to the batter. Try to homogenize. Add the remaining whites folding carefully. 
8. Pour the batter into a pan, previously lined with a baking parchment.
9. Smooth the top of batter, and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean. 
10. Cool the cake completely to room temperature on a wire rack.

Make the frosting:

1. Wash the lemon carefully. Put the egg, sugar, butter, lemon juice, finely grated lemon zest into a stainless steel bowl. 
2. Place the bowl over a pan with simmering water on low temperature (au bain marie). The bottom of bowl can not reach the water. Mix with wire whisk continuosly until the mixture gets thick and silky. Never allow to boil! 
3. Remove the bowl from the pan and leave to cool, stirring occasionally. 

Assembling:

1.  Lift the cake out from the pan with baking parchment to a board. To cut the cake, you have to half it  accurately. Use a string to measure the short side of the cake, half the string and mark the cake using the folded string. Cut it precisely, otherwise the cake will be leaning at th end.
2. Cut through the underlying parchment paper with a pair of scissors in the same place where you cut before with a knife. Now You have two halves to be moved independently. 
3. Leave the cakes close to each other as they were baked and spread over the two third of filling. 
4. And now You can roll the cake carefully: using the paper as a help try to form the cake into a roll meanwhile removing the paper. Be careful, as at the begging of the roll the cake has to take a big bow and scratches can occur. But later you can hide it with the frosting. 
5. Take the next half, put some frosting to edge, stick together the fitting edges, then wrap it around the roll. 
6. Take the remaining frosting and cover the side of the cake. Leave the top plain, just garnish with some passion fruit to show off the nice spiral.
7. Keep in the fridge before serving to set well. 

RHUBARB AND ELDERFLOWER SEMI FREDDO

Who follow me on Fbook they probably know that recently I changed my camera. The reason of that was very simple: I was not satisfied with the color of that any more. Most of the food photos I find on food sharing sites and  enjoyable to me have  shiny, alive color and I always felt it was totally eliminated from my pics. I had a 5D camera, which is a well structured, reliable one. But cameras and electronics had  a significant progress in the past 2-3 years, my camera was behind the newer models nowadays. So me and my husband decided to be faithful to our favourite camera brand but upgrade our photography equipment to 6D.
So it's my pleasure to show all of You the first photos I have taken with my new partner! I'm totally satisfied with it, most of the functions are a bit different than in the previous, though.  I'm sure I need some time to get familiar with this as far as I can.

And what could have been the very first subject of my learning process? Rhubarb of course with it's lovely ruby color and simply  because it's in season right now....

Ingredients:

Serves 4-6

400 gr rhubarb
6 tbsp granulated sugar
3 medium eggs
3 tbsp elderflower cordial
1 teaspoon vanilla paste

1. Clean rhubarb stalks, then cut into 2 cm long sticks.
2. Put in a pan, add 3 tbsp sugar, vanilla paste and heat on medium stirring occasionally until tender. It takes about 5-8 minutes, then mash with a fork and set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. Pour the egg yolks in a bowl, add 1 tbsp sugar and whisk well with a wire whisk.
4. Put the egg whites into the bowl of stand mixer. Start to whisk on medium until has become bubbly, then add gradually the remaining sugar spoon by spoon. Switch to high speed and whisk until stands up in well defined peaks. 
5. Gently fold in the egg yolks. Add the cordial to the cooled rhubarb mixture, and fold in the egg whites. Carefully try to homogenize with a wooden spoon.
6. Pour the mixture into a plastic or enamel bowl, smooth the top with a spoon or spatula. 
7. Put into the freezer for a night. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving.
8. Garnish with some roughly chopped pistachios or candied flowers. 

COURGETTE SALAD WITH FETA AND WILD GARLIC DRESSING

Wild garlic is a real present of woods. The very first sign of spring has arrived, and it's full with lots of flavor and  vitamin. To be honest I'm not aware at all where I could find some fresh bunch of that in my near, so this surprise arrived from Hungary with me in my luggage in safe. It was not alone, as my favorite white asparagus and a special hungarian pasta was accompanied by.
So if anyone knows about the best places of wild garlic to be harvested near to Lincolnshire in UK, please let me know asap! Thanks in advance!

Ingredients:

Serves 2

1 baby courgette

half red onion

50 gr feta cheese

for the dressing

50 ml extra virgin olive oil

half lemon juice

half teaspoon runny honey

salt

5 pieces wild garlic leaves, finely chopped

1. Wash courgettes, and slice finely. Arrange in a circle on a plate. 
2. Mix all the ingredients of dressing in a jar. Cover and shake well. 
3. Spoon the dressing over courgette, tear some feta over the top, garnish with finely sliced red onion. 
4. Cool in fridge at least 30 minutes (better for an hour) before serving.