What do you get when you cross a beetroot, a carrot and some ginger? A BEETROTINGER! Sorry that’s quite bad but when I saw this month’s in the bag challenge I wasn’t quite sure what to make of beetroot, carrot and celery. Maybe some sort of bloody maryesque cocktail but that defeats the purpose of doing a detox…After lots of hum and ar-ring. I decided to forget the celery and replace it with some ginger which is very good for detox aswell. And to be quite honest a cake is not very detox at all. So I suggest eating some celery to balance it out Celery is actually one of the few negative calorie foods which means that it takes the body more energy to digest than what the body consumes.

Beetrotinger cake

125g finely grated carrots
125g finely grated raw beetroot
10g finely grated fresh ginger
100g brown sugar
125g ground hazelnuts
50g flour
3 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter
2 eggs

Preheat the oven 180°c. Grease a tin 15 x 15 cm. Mix flour, hazelnuts, baking powder together add the grated carrot, beetroot and ginger. Mix again and then crack the eggs and add the butter. Combine all the ingredients. Spoon into the tin and smooth out. Bake for 20-25minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Gung Hai Fat Choy! The year of the Ox kicks off today which means it’s going to be more of a conservative year: sure and steady. Apparently those who have sown seeds will see the benefits this year as long as they look after their business. This recipe was inspired by the tradition of making sticky glutinous cakes for Chinese New Year. Apparently offering sticky glutinous cakes to family signifies cohesiveness (represented by the gluton). These sweet treats are also offered to the kitchen god who resides in Buddhist chinese families in the hope that bringing sweet offerings the kitchen God will only have sweet things to give in the coming year.

I really went overboard with the red colouring as red symbolises good fortune in Chinese culture. Reduce the amount if you want something a little less in your face.

Chinese New Year delights

500ml water
450g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp red food colouring
150g cornflour
4 tbsp rose water
1 tsp ground mixed spice
1 tsp powdered agar agar*

Dusting mixture
2 tbsp cornflour
5 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp ground mixed spice

Pour half of the water into a heavy based saucepan and add the sugars. Heat until the sugar has dissolved and then bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture reaches 115°c on a sugar thermometer (soft ball stage). Remove from the heat.

In a separate saucepan, mix the cornflour and agar agar with the remaining water until the mixture is smooth. Cook over a medium heat until the mixture thickens.

Gradually pour the hot sugar syrup into the cornflour paste, stirring continuously. Make sure to stir well, so none of the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pot and burns. Return the mixture to the heat and simmer for about one hour, until the mixture is pale and feels stringy when a little of the cold mixture is pulled between the fingers. Stir in the rose water, mixed spice and red colouring.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and leave to set overnight.

Cut into squares. Mix the cornflour, mixed spice and icing sugar together and toss the delights in it. Store in an airtight container, between layers of greaseproof paper.

*Note: I found that the agar agar helps set the mixture as without it tends to stay gooey.

Check out Jugabandi Photography’s food blog event: Click for more red inspired food.

Here’s another christmassy biscuit…

This time last year my tiny studio turned into a mini biscuit factory. Like my aunts in Austria who bake tons of Christmas biscuits every year I like to carry on the tradition (maybe not as well and in smaller quantities). Unfortunately this year I just haven’t had the time to bake as much (slightly due to the fact that I’ve been baking about 500 biscuits a week at La Cocotte recently) so I came up with this easy but just as delicious recipe.

If you’re having problems finding a gift (or you fancy treating yourself) why not buy some Menu for Hope raffle tickets…you could be in for a chance of winning some once in a life time prizes. And at the same time you’ld be doing something great for the people in Lesotho.

I just want to say THANK YOU to all my readers. Your visits and comments are greatly appreciated (to say the least). I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and munch through lots of delicious dishes. I’ll be tucking into some mince pies and no doubt plenty of other scrummy English things when I get back to the UK.

Chocolate & cinnamon cantucci

240g flour
30g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
165g sugar
100g dark chocolate, chopped in large chunks
100g hazelnuts
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 160°c. Sieve together flour, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon. Whisk together eggs and sugar until foamy, add nuts and chopped chocolate followed by flour mixture. Combine, at the end you may need to knead the ingredients together. Divide dough into two parts. Roll each into a log shape. Bake for 35 minutes. Leave to cool and then cut into 5mm slices. Bake again at 160°c for about 15 minutes or until crispy.

It’s the season of falling leaves and the markets in Paris are fall of lots of yummy seasonal produce. One of them being pumpkins. There are many different varieties and one of my favourites are “Potimarron”(transl. Pumpkin-chestnut). This particular type has a very nutty/chestnutty taste. I simply roast mine, chopped up, in the oven and eat with a little butter, salt and pepper. However if you fancy something more sophisticated or sweet you could try making a Pumpkin & Chestnut millefeuille.

Millefeuille means a thousand leaves in French which I thought was quite fitting with so many leaves falling at the moment. Traditional it’s made with puff pastry but I had filo pastry in the fridge which needed to be used. The chestnut comes in the form of a chestnut spread which is easier found in the supermarkets over here. It’s like a jam and often used as a filling for crêpes. My version is a little more rustic compared to the classic ones you find in the Parisian pâtisseries.

If you’re looking for some more pumpkin inspired recipes, take a long at the “In the bag” event on A slice of cherry pie’s blog.

Pumpkin & Chestnut Millefeuille

Makes 2 large portions.

Roasted potimarron purée:

750g potimarron or regular pumpkin
2 tbsp spoons
100ml single cream

For the rest:

1 small tin of chestnut spread
100g melted butter
20 rectangles of filo pastry (15cm x 10cm)

To make the roast potimarron purée: Chop the potimarron into cubes (with the skin removed). Place in a roasting tray with 2 tbsp of butter. Roast at 180°c for 30 minutes or until tender. Stir the pumpkin pieces half way through roasting. Leave it to cool slightly. Blitz in a mixer with the single cream until lump free and very smooth (think baby food consistancy).

Preheat the over to 170°c. Melt the butter. Grease a baking sheet with some of the melted butter. Place 2 sheets of filo pastry on tray and then brush some melted butter on top of the sheets, repeat. Spread a layer of potimarron purée on top of the sheets and then place two more sheets of filo pastry. Making sure to brush butter in between the sheets. Then spread a layer of chestnut jam. Repeat by alternating layers of filo pastry and pumpkin purée/chestnut jam. For the top brush some more butter. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until the top is golden and the pastry is crisp. Eat while warm. You may want to serve it with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

I posted this almost 2 years ago (wow, can’t believe I’ve been blogging for that long). Anyway I dug it out of the backwaters of this blog for Meeta’s Monthly mingle “Coffee & Tea”. Take a look at her site for this great tea and coffee inspired recipes.

Here are some other tea inspired recipes on this blog:

Green tea & raspberry ice cream sandwich

A nice cup of tea & biscuit

Scones & clotted cream

Post from November 2006:

So I thought it was just the English who are crazy about tea. Pas vrai! This week I went to ‘Le festival du Thé’. Tons of tea, non of your cheap stuff. Lot more upmarket, hand picked in moonlight…Well you get my gist. Anyway in honour of all the free tea bags I got. I thought I’ld make something more than a cup of tea. I tried doing this with a fancy green tea but the flavours didn’t work so well. Go with your bog standard English ‘black’ tea, even PG tips will do. The tea flavour complements the creaminess of this dessert well.

Thé crème brûlée

2 x tea bags
2 x tbsp caster sugar
400ml double cream
4 x egg yolks
caster sugar for topping

Set oven at 170°c. Boil some hot water enough for the ‘bain-mairie’.
Bring cream to boil, switch off heat. Add tea bags, brew for 5 – 8 minutes, depending on how strong you liike your tea. Meanwhile ‘blanche’ = whisk yolks with sugar. Add hot tea/cream mixture to yolks. Whisk at the same time otherwise you’re get scrambled eggs.
Pour mixture into 4 ramekins or 4 small tea cups. Place in tin and pop it into the oven for 10 minutes. Chill overnight. Before serving sprinkle even layer (about 5mm thick) of sugar and set under grill on the highest heat. Watch carefully. Turn ramekins if the caramel isn’t browning evenly. Wait for caramel to set before serving.

“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going!” Everyone has some phrase or another for times which are trying. I’ve been hearing a lot of them recently. And I think the saying above is great way of handling things. So I went on a bit of a mission this weekend. Sleeping was definetly not on the menu. Discovering new things, places and lots of dancing (I love dancing = instant happiness for me). On Saturday I came across a new blog which described an exhibition in Paris I just had to go to. I instantly rang to make a reservation, crossing my fingers they would have some spaces free.

Luckily they did, so the next day I made my way to find this 3 day only café/exhibition. Hidden behind a heavy door and up some winding steps, the gallery was situated in two apartments. Anne, the curator and creator of the exhibition gave me a guilded tour. Explaining the work of Guillaume Hillairet and the beautiful ceramic objects she had made. The tea salon was situated in the living room which had wonky doors and floors. She served a warm orange flowerwater rice pudding with orange compote and a buckwheat biscuit. The tea cup (which was designed by Anne like all the tableware) came wrapped up in the cutest red and white polka dot fabric. She also had a very interesting documentary on Japanese food preparation running on two screens in the tea salon.

So all in all I had a delightful Sunday afternoon and weekend. No recipe unfortunately but I thought I’ld share this with you instead!

Talking about sharing some gems, a while ago I was awarded an Excellent blog award by Happy Love Strawberry. The idea is you pass on the award to 5 other food bloggers. It’s a pretty difficult one to do as there are so many beautiful food blogs out there. But here’s my selection (in no particular order):

Whiteplate

The fact I don’t understand what Liska @ Whiteplate writes about (although she does translate the recipes sometimes) is outshone by her tasty and beautifully photographed recipes.

Fayeki

With recipes like Cherry blossom cardamom English cream or Raspberry swirl brownies and stunning photography, how could you resist?

Sooishi

Ok, it’s in French (but google does a fairly good translation and I’m sure Sooishi would help you if you ask nicely ) Great inspiration if you want to try something a little different.

Nordljus

If only I had just half the patience and skill to make these amazing dishes.

Nectar & Light

A little less foody but there’s just something about these images. Looking at them you know that the dishes have been made with a lot of love.

And voilà my little selection. Tough one to make with so many amazing blogs out there.

Just a quick mention: Last week I won the DMBGLIT edibility category for my Blueberry pancakes. Thanks you judging panel! I could not believe it. I had to do a little celebration dance when I saw the results announced on Cookbook catchall.

]]> http://www.rkhooks.net/2008/04/08/hidden-tasty-treasures/feed/ 4 http://www.rkhooks.net/2008/03/22/theyre-not-bobs-muffinstheyre-mine-all-mine/ http://www.rkhooks.net/2008/03/22/theyre-not-bobs-muffinstheyre-mine-all-mine/#comments Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:57:18 +0000 rkhooks http://rkhooks.net/?p=475

Remember back in October my fifth time lucky muffins? Well, this week the book came out for which we (La Cocotte and I) wrote the recipe for. The delivery guy hardly made it through the bookshop’s door this Tuesday I was so excited. Like a kid on Christmas day I ripped open the box and flicked through the book to find my recipe. Very very happy with the result (I’m even in the picture, well half of me is ) and the book has lots of other amazingly delicious recipes too (Rhubarb & strawberry, sticky toffee…the list goes on). Taking a leaf out of the book, my mum and I decided to invent our own muffin recipe. Currently at my parents this weekend, with the weather being snowy one minute, sunshiny the other, the best bet is to stay inside.

If you’re in Paris on the 29th March we’ll be having a “Muffin” booklaunch at La Cocotte. So do pop by if you’re around. There’ll be lots of tasty muffins to eat.

These muffins would be for a perfect packed lunch. Easy to make, with sunflower seeds and a fruit component. This is a much healthier dessert option than a chocolate bar. Check out Coffee & Vanilla’s Wholesome lunchbox event for other great ideas!

Lemon, sunflower seed & plum compote Muffins
taken from “Les recettes de Bob: Muffins originaux et authentiques”

Muffin mixture

2 eggs
110ml sunflower oil
150ml milk
110g sugar
240g self raising flower
75g sunflower seeds, chopped
1 lemon

Plum/Oat mix
75g oats
100g plum purée/compoté*
1 tablespoon sugar (optional)

12 hole muffin tin with papercases

Preheat the oven to 160°c. Grate the zest of the lemon and then juice it. Add all the other ingredients to the bowl except the plum/oat mix. Mix together (if there are a few lumps, don’t worry. It’s better not to overmix , otherwise the muffins will come out brick like). Mix together the oats and plum purée add some sugar if the mixture is not sweet enough. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the muffin mixture into each papercase and then add a heaped teaspoon of the plum/oat topping. Slightly fold (or marble) the mixtures together using a knife. Bake for 25-35 minutes.

*My mum just chopped up some plums and boiled them with a little water until they were soft enough to purée. She added no sugar as the plums were sweet enough.

Last weekend I had Mr Soul & City and Mr Bump for dinner. My friend, Mr Bump is exactly like the Roger Hargreaves’s character, always falling over/down, bumping into, tripping up…A good week for him is to have only 3 bruises. Mr B and I both have a malay/chinese food fetish and often drool over Rasa Malaysia’s delicious posts.

So Asian food was on the menu with dim sum to start off, a crunchy fresh pineapple, cucumber, bean sprout and mint salad. Followed by, what was supposed to be an Assam laksa but unfortunately I couldn’t find all the ingredients in Chinatown.

But I did find some fresh pandan leaves or screwpine leaves. I did a little jump for joy when I found them in the supermarket (I’ve found the essence before but that’s nothing in comparison). Sweet “vanillery” smell…their perfume brings back memories of me eating malay delicacies when I was back visiting my relatives. Pandan is what vanilla is for the western world. It flavours almost all desserts and plenty savoury dishes in South East Asia.

The idea of a chilled soufflé came from eating at La Gazetta (excellent restaurant in the 12th Arrondissement, make sure to book well in advance). I had a delicious dessert which I thought at first was a mousse, only to be told by my “chefy” friend that it was actually a soufflé baked and then chilled. Unfortunately I don’t have an oven in my kitchen so I had find another way to recreate the same sensation.
I came across quite a few recipes for “cold soufflés” while surfing. The idea is to create a “fake” soufflé head. Nice idea but I couldn’t really be bothered with all that faffing around so I used the pandan leaves as the “ramekins”.
Anyway my guests *hearted* their sweet little pandan gifts…and so will you.

For other “Sugar high” treats, check out the Sugar High Friday event hosted by Habaes Brulee.

Chilled pandan soufflé

Crème pâtissière

Egg white mixture

4x 3″metal rings

To make the pandan soufflé cases. Wrap a pandan leaf around a metal ring, cut to the right length. Place inside the ring. Cover a board or flat plate with plastic film and place all the pandan cases on the plate/board.

For a “soufflé” effect: Cut 4 strips of parchment paper about 1 inch longer than the circumference and at least 1 1/2 inches taller than a 6-ounce ramekin. Wrap a parchment-paper strip around each of 4 ramekins to form a collar, and secure with tape.

Crème pâtissière
Heat the milk, cream and the rest of the pandan leaves in a heavy-based pan. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes (or until the leaves have softened). Take off the heat and leave to infuse for 30 minutes. Remove the leaves. Bring the cream mixture back to the boil. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with half of the sugar, then gradually beat in the cornflour. Meanwhile soak the gelatin in cold water.
When the milk and cream begin to scald, remove from the heat and slowly trickle the hot liquid over the egg mixture, whisking thoroughly as you do so. Transfer the mixture back into the pan, add the pandan essence and stir over gentle heat for about 3-5 minutes until it is smooth and thick. Transfer the crème patissière to a bowl.

Whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak, add the rest of the sugar half way through. Squeeze the water out of the gelatin. Dissolve it in a pot over a gentle heat and mix into the crème patissière. Fold the egg whites into the crème patissière.

Spoon the mixture into the pandan cases. Refridgerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Things this Sunday are quite blissful in the world of R khooks. No rushing off to a big food festival, no lying in bed with an awful flu…The sun is shining and I’ve had time to get my groceries from the local market, have a cup of tea and listen to my favourite radio show. There’s a pot bubbling on the stove with an experiment (I’ll be testing it out on my local guinea pigs later today and if it’s good, you’re be hearing about it too). So in all in all quite perfect =)

I made this soup last week while I was suffering from a cold which just wouldn’t go away. Inspired by my Austrian Grandma who used to make a Grießnockerl soup (Grießknockerl = semolina dumplings). The dumplings were always soft and had a delicious buttery taste. A steaming bowl of this is just what you need when you’re stuck in bed with a red nose.

While I was coughing, sneezing and spluttering germs I spent a lot of time reading up on “superfoods” and came across this about parsley,

“When tested in laboratory research, chlorophyll from parsley showed slight anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activity. Thus, it may be used to enhance immune response and to relieve mucus congestion, sinusitis and other ‘damp’ conditions.“

So there’s my “prescription” with natural anti bacterial elements plus some carrots for the vitamin C.

Baby parsley carrots & parsley Grießnockerl Bouillon

Baby parsley carrots

3 carrots
Handful of leaves of parsley (keep a bit of the stalk on)

Peel the carrots. Chop the carrot in 2.5cm pieces. Using a knife or a potato peeler “sculpt” or peel off some of the carrot to make the tip. Using a skewer poke a whole in the top and insert the stalk of the parsley leaf into the carrot.

Parsley Grießnockerl (or semolina dumplings)

1/2 bunch of parsley
2 cloves of garlic
100g semolina
30g butter, melted
1 egg
salt
pepper

1.5l stock (I used chicken stock but use vegetable is fine too)

Whizz the parsley with the garlic in a blender until you have a paste. In a bowl combine all the ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Make the dumplings by taking a teaspoon of the mixture and rolling it into a ball.

Bring the stock to the boil with carrots. Once the stock is boiling add the dumplings. Boil for 5 minutes. Take the pot of the heat. Cover and leave for 5 minutes. Garnish with a few fresh parsley leaves and serve.

Take a look at Cookthink “Parsley”/Root source food blog event for more “anti bacterial” recipes

“Won’t you be my valentine?” A question which will be on many people’s tongues this 14th. Not mine though. I tend to be a bit more cynical and find the whole thing way too commercial. But then I guess if you’re unluckily attached to someone who needs that kind of reminder, than once a year is better than none a year.
I may be cynical in regards to valentines but I do have a small weakness for anything in a heart shape, though. For some reason I often end up making a cake, biscuits or other foods in heart shapes.
I’ve been wanting to make mooncakes ever since I saw this. Mooncakes are a chinese pâtisserie eaten normally for the mid-autumn moon festival. The traditional ones are baked whereas the new wave are “no cook”. Either jelly/agar agar or kao fen “fried glutinous rice flour” based. They’re usually sliced in wedges and served with tea.

It was the first time I ever attempted a mooncake. It’s definetly something which takes practice. Sorry about the “vague” recipe. You may end up with leftover filling or snowskin. Let me know if you try it out. Here are a few tips:

1. You need cold/dry hands. The dough warms up quickly and starts melting when you handle it too much.
2. Use a 50/50 icing sugar and kao fen flour to dust the rolling pin, hands and surfaces
3. Using bigger cutters/moulds makes it easier to work with. I tried small but it’s quite fiddly. Oh, and if anybody knows where I can get hold of mooncake moulds in France please email me.

Valentine mooncakes

Ingredients for snowskin (the outside bit of the cake):
(adapted from various sites)
120 g Kao fen – fried glutinous rice flour
130 g icing sugar
125 g coconut milk
50 g shortening, cold and cubed
Mix all the dried ingredients together. Add the shortening and rub into flour mixture until you have a “crumble/sand” like texture. Pour in the coconut milk and form into a dough. Wrap and chill for 10 minutes.

Ingredients for dulce de leche & coconut filling:
50g dulce de leche
50g Kao fen – fried glutinous rice flour
50g dessicated coconut

Mix together until you can form a dough. If the mixture is too crumbly, add a tiny bit more of dulce de leche.

Ingredients for chocolate centre:
50g icing sugar
50g cacao powder
1 tablespoon golden syrup
Couple of tablespoons coconut milk

Mix together all the ingredients apart from the coconut milk. Add the coconut milk by a tablespoon. Stop adding the coconut milk when you can form a dough.

To make:
The size of the mooncake really depends on your mould. It’s a bit trial and error. Basically the smallest part will be the chocolate filling, make a small ball. Then take a slightly larger amount of dulce de leche dough. Roll into a ball and then flatter out. Place the chocolate ball in the center and wrap the dulce de leche dough around it. Form a ball.

Now take a larger amount of the snowskin dough. Roll out to an even thickness (enough to wrap the filling). Place the filling in the middle and wrap the skin around. Form into a rough heart shape (similar to the one you’re using as a mould). Push into flour dusted mould/cutter and knock out. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

This recipe in taking part in “A heart for your valentine”. Take a look for other “hearty” recipes.