Pistachio Shortbread

Shortbreads in general are my husband favorite biscuit type. He loves them and can’t get enough.


I bought a magazine the other day and I saw this recipe for Pistachio shortbread that I thought was worth sharing with you. 
It would be the perfect match for a cup of tea or coffee.


It takes around 30 minutes to cook it and it makes around 30 to 35 biscuits.


You will need:
80g of caster sugar
300g plain flour
250g unsalted butter, softened
2tsp vanilla extract (Remember here, vanilla essence is 100% artificial and never tastes that good)
200g unsalted pistachio kernels, finely chopped or roughly smashed (You can put them in a tea towel and use a hammer to roughly smash them, but be careful not to make a flour / meal)
Icing sugar for dusting.


Method:
Pre – heat the oven to 180º (160º Fan-Forced). Grease 2 oven trays and line with baking paper.


Beat the butter, sugar and the vanilla in a bowl with an electric mixer until it gets ligh and fluffy. If your bowl is small, transfer to a bowl big enough to fit all ingredients.
Stir in sifted flour and nuts.

Roll level tablespoons of the mixture into 7cm lenghts. Shape them into crescents, hearts, circles…you choose. Place them 3cm apart on the oven trays.


Bake them for around 20 minutes or until it gets pale golden. Cool on trays. Dust with icing sugar while still warm.


The Pistachio shortbread can be stored in a glass jar and can be frozen, but its not suitable for microwave.

Happy Halloween

Source: http://www.twoheartstogether.com

Tzatziki

have you ever tried Tzatziki?

It is so simple to make and it’s a match made in heaven. It gives a fresh Mediterranean taste and reminds me of summer. 


Here is a simple recipe of Tzatziki that would easily serve 10 people and you can prepare in 10 minutes.
Attention, I don’t know about other recipes, but this one can’t be frozen so if you think you wont eat it, you can try and make it in smaller quantities.


You will need:
3 Lebanese cucumbers, halved, seeded, and grated coarsely.
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
500g Greek-style or natural plain yogurt
2 tbsp shredded fresh mint leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice


Method:
1. Using absorbent paper, gently squeeze out the excess liquid from the grated cucumber.
2. in a large bowl, combine the cucumber, yogurt, garlic, lemon juice and mint. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Salmon with Avocado Salsa

This recipe is from Julie Goodwin, the first Australian masterchef ever. I didn’t know that, but apparently she has a tv show, on the nine network every Saturday at 5:30 pm.


Here is one of her recipes: Salmon with avocado salsa. It is delicious and can be made in around 20 minutes.

You will need (For 4 people):
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
2 small French shallots, sliced
3 medium tomatoes, seeded, chopped
1 small red capsicum, chopped
1 medium ripe avocado, chopped
4 salmon fillets (around 800g)
1 tbsp good quality olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice


Method: 


Combine the tomato, coriander, shallots, capsicum, avocado and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently to avoid mashing the avocado.


Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick frying pan. Brush the salmon with the olive oil. Place the skin side down in the pan and press gently to keep the skin in contact with the hot surface of the pan. Season the top of the salmon with a little bit of salt and pepper. After 3 minutes. turn the salmon and cook the other side for a further 2 minutes or until is done as desired. 
Salmon is best served a little rare in the centre. Remove from the pan and cover loosely with foil for 2 minutes before serving.


Plate it with the Avocado salsa.
You can also add steamed new potatoes.


Bon Appetit. 

5 minutes microwave white cake in a mug

Do you remember the 5 minutes microwave chocolate cake in a mug?
So what about a variation without Chocolate? I am trying to avoid chocolate at all cost, given is my weakness, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have a dessert, right? 😉

There is another recipe, let’s call it the 5 minute microwave white cake in a mug.

You will need (For 1 mug cake)
6 tbsp all purpose flour
4 tbsp caster sugar
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp water
1 dash of Orange Extract, or Vanilla Extract, or….be creative.

Method:
Add all the dry ingredients to the mug and mix it to combine.
Add the egg, water, oil and extract, and stir well.
Microwave it for 3 minutes in high

Voilá!

Puff Pastry and Shortcrust Pastry. what’s the difference?

We see all this options of pastry available in the supermarket. So what is what? what to use for what?

Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/pastry

At its most basic, pastry is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste. Historically it was used as a case for baking other items, but people eventually realised the pastry was worth eating too. The wide range of pastries made today vary in texture and taste according to the proportion of fats used, the way in which it is incorporated with the flour, and the method used to shape the dough


Puff pastry can generally be described as flaky, light and buttery, good for pies and pastries; while shortcrust pastry has a more crumbly, biscuit-like texture which is good for tart or quiche cases. Sweet puff pastry is literally puff pastry with sugar added to it, while sweet shortcrust pastry is not commercially available. When making a pie, many cooks use shortcrust on the bottom and puff pastry for the lid.

Puff pastry Puff pastry is best for pastries, sausage rolls, sweet or savoury pies, turnovers and palmiers. Puff pastry is usually made with canola or a vegetable oil. Butter puff pastry is puff pastry made with butter instead of the vegetable oil and no sugar. Whether you use normal puff pastry or butter puff pastry is entirely a matter of personal preference. Sweet puff pastry is puff pastry made using sugar. In Australia, it is not available ready-made. It is used in sweet recipes that require a flaky, buttery pastry such as a sweet pie.

Shortcrust pastry Shortcrust has a slightly biscuity, crumbly texture that is resistant to soaking up fluids so is perfect for quiches, tarts, samosas and other savoury delights with wet fillings or those that are not being served immediately. It is surprisingly sturdy when removed from its tin. Plain shortcrust is usually used for savoury fillings but can be a good counterpoint to very sweet fillings too so it is an all-purpose option. Pate sablee is a sweetened shortcrust pastry, though more like a biscuit dough, in that butter and sugar are beaten together before the flour and liquid are added. The word sablee means sandy or grainy and this effect is sometimes enhanced by the addition of ground almonds.

Fillo Fillo is wafer thin and crunchy and brown when cooked. Use fillo when a light, crunchy pastry is required, like a spinach pie, or where it will receive a good soaking in a syrupy liquid such as when making baklava.

Choux Choux has very specific uses such as for making eclairs, croquembouche and choux buns. When baked, it transforms into light-as-air puffs with hollow pockets perfect for filling with cream or chocolate.

Source: ninemsn and BBC

Empanadas Dough, now the original one

a while ago I published here Empanadas recipe. this recipe is more about how to cook the meat and assemble the empanadas.
Today I made some other empanadas. Bechamel, Ricotta and Corn, and Bechamel, Ricotta and Spinach and I made a dough that really reminds me to the ones from South America.
So here is the recipe:

To make around 30 to 33 3′ inches size empanadas “tapas” (Tapa is the dough, already cut in a circle shape)

Ingredients:
3 cups of all purpose flour, plus a little bit extra to roll the dough
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold water
1 egg
1 egg white (keep the egg yolk to brush the empanadas)
1 tsp wine vinegar
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

In a large bowl, add 3 cups of flour and salt.Add the oil and with a whisker or a knife mix it until it gets very mixed.
in a small bowl, add water, egg, egg white, vinegar and whisk it.
Make a wheel in the middle of the flour bowl, and add the liquid ingredients in the middle. Whisk all the wet ingredients with a fork until it gets so hard you cant keep whisking it / mixing it.

Add the mixture to a floured surface and knead it until all the flour is incorporate it and the dough feels soft.  Wrap it with cling wrap plastic and put in the fridge from 1 to 12 hours. If you will use it after 12 hours (longer than 12 hours) freeze it.

Roll out the dough and cut your circles.
Put your favorite filling and egg brush it.
bake it at 180º d (160 fan forced) for around 20 minutes.

I don’t have this ingredient in my pantry…..

Ok,
several times we decide to cook a recipe, and don’t quite check properly if we have all the ingredients (Well, I DONT, as you might imagine).
So what to do?

SUBSTITUTIONS. A lot of the times, the ingredients can be substituted. So here is a basic substitution table.

Arrowroot – substitute with cornstarch, potato starch or rice starch OR even all purpose flour, altought you will need to double the amount 1 measure of arrowroot – 2 measures of flour

Dry breadcrumbs  – substitute with crushed cracker crumbs, matzo meal, crushed cornflakes


Cream of Tartar – substitute with white vinegar or lemon juice 


Sour cream – substitute with plain yogurth, 


Bread Flour – for every 160g of bread flour, use 140g of all purpose flour




I will come back with more substitutions…soon!
Love,


Vic

A light Calorie Hummus recipe without Tahini

I don’t know if I mentioned that before, but I’ve been researching a lot about Low Fat, Low calories, Low GI Recipes…translation: I need to let some kilos go (OUCH!!!)


I found this cute BLOG with a lot of recipes including the nutritional value and they are all very low numbers, if you know what I mean.


Other fact is that my husband loves Hummus. So here we go:


Hummus recipe that doesn’t require Tahini – 77 calories per portion.
You will need (for 12 portions)
420g can chick peas beans
1 garlic clove, cut in half
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice


Method:
 – Drain the chick peas beans and reserve the liquid.
 – Place the reserved bean liquid, garlic and sesame seeds in the food processor. Cover and blend on high speed until mixed.
 – Add the chick peas, salt and lemon juice. Cover and process on high speed until smooth.
 – add some paprika and olive oil if you wish (If you add olive oil, you will have more calories)
 – Serve as a spread with crackers, wedges of pita bread or raw vegetables.

and here is the PLUS: Nutritional value per 1 serve
Calories: 77
Total fat: 3.4 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 203 mg
Total carbs: 9.7 g
Fiber: 2.3 g
Protein: 2.8 g

Apple Pie Bread in the Bread Machine

Apple Pie?

Apple cake?

Pie or Bread?

You choose, you can always put a little bit more sugar, and make it more cake”ish” (sweeter).


Anyway, here is the recipe:


you will need

Apple BREAD!

1 1/8 cups non fat milk 
3 tablespoons vegetable oil 
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar or honey 
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon 
1 1/2 teaspoons salt 
3 cups bread flour (Substitute for 2 and 1/2 of all purpose flower) 
1 1/2 teaspoons active yeast 
1 large apple — peeled, diced 





Place the ingredients in the bread pan in the order recommended by your
machine’s manufacturer. Choose appropriate cycle (preferable fruit / sweet cycle)

Add apples at beginning of second knead cycle. Apples add moisture to the
dough, so a little flour may have to be added to adjust the consistency.