lis-bonne! food inspired by the capital of portugal

the mister and i just spent 4 glorious days in portugal--a welcome place to thumb one's nose at the winter (of course, the locals all thought it was cold and were bundled up, and all the museums had space heaters going... made us laugh)--and now that we're home, it's time to do some kitchen exploration.

we stayed at a welcoming guesthouse that provided us with a delightful breakfast every morning--fresh fruit! (FRESH FRUIT!) breakfast cakes! coffee! juice! cheese! eggs! yogurt! so many choices. this morning, waking up in our own bed, i decided i wanted to make us something warm and comforting. i usually make us a healthy bowl of oatmeal, but we we were out of milk. we did have a few apples laying around... and some orange juice... and one pot of yogurt.... and that's how i found myself making us a delightful breakfast bread (the mister insists on calling it cake) to warm our bones.

i gave the raisins a healthy soak in some orange juice. in the trusty kitchenaide, i creamed the butter and sugars, slowly added an egg, and the yogurt. smittenkitchen's apple muffins call for a cup of yogurt. our pots are a little over half a cup. i supplemented the rest of the cup with orange juice from the raisins, and a splash more for kicks. i combined all the dry goods and slowly added them to the batter.


113ish g butter
a little less than 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sucre complet du canne, divided in 2
1 egg
1 pot of yogurt (i used honey greek)
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
lots of cinnamon and a shake or two of cloves
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/4ish cup raisins
orange juice
small handful of pecans

i oiled a bread pan, poured the batter in, and sprinkled a mixture of the rest of the sucre complet, pecans, and a healthy few shakes of cinnamon. all was shoved into an oven warmed to 175, and it baked for about an hour. the smell woke up the mister. he says he'll keep me.

whenever we travel, my eyes are open to a whole new world of yum--our trip to tenerife created a mojo addiction--and this trip also inspired me culinarily.

the mister speaks spanish but neither of us speak portuguese. It's similar enough to spanish that we could figure out things, and the mister's amazing language skillz proved to be most helpful throughout the trip. most of the restaurants had a standard menu, and a selection of plates of the day. our first day there, i ordered the "fish with rice" (arroz de peixe) not knowing what to expect.

what i got was tasty tasty tasty.

it was, as advertised, fish with rice in a rich and spicy tomato sauce with shrimp and fresh parsley.

this is the dish i have recreated for dinner. mostly. i picked up some staple spices at a market during one of our jaunts--pepper combined with bay leaf, and paprika--and combined them with some canned tomato, stock, fresh red pepper, onion, and garlic. and you know what? it was deeelicious.


1 onion
garlic, as you please
1 red pepper
spices--sweet paprika, bay leaf
tomato paste
1 can chopped tomatoes
fish filets of choice
shrimp
2 cups stock of choice (i used fish stock)
1 cup of rice


i started out by sweating the onion.  i added the garlic and then the spices.  i was heavy on the sweet paprika. when the smell was intoxicating, i added a spoonful of tomato paste and the coarsely chopped red peppers. i let it all hang out for a while then added the can of tomatoes. i put on the lid and let it go for about 5 minutes. meanwhile, i defrosted some shrimp we had in the freezer. i added the fish, scooped the tomato over the top, and put the lid back on. after around 7ish minutes, i added the stock, brought it to a boil, and added the rice. lid back on, down to simmer. when the rice was nearly done, i added the shrimp, put back on the lid, and turned off the heat.

success! the mister says maybe i should try it again, you know, to make sure i have it right.

bon app!

more lisbon inspired foods are on the way...

ginger up!

right now in the oven are yesterday's pumpkin cinnamon rolls. im warming them up to devour. my mother-in-law gave us some puree for soup (there's not a lot of pumpkin creativity here--it's soup or soup. boggles the mind. i'm all, people! this is a PUMPKIN! do you know what you can do with a pumpkin?!), and while i do adore a lovely pumpkin soup (the mister made a delightful soup with potato and parsley), i also had some fun with the orangey goo. i made pumpkin macaroni and cheese, the afore mentioned cinnamon rolls, and a sponge cake with ginger cream.

because ginger is glorious. first, i made a simple syrup--one cup water, one cup sugar--and then i added huge chunks of ginger.

i let that cook for a long time.



the flavour was sharp and gingerlicious.

the cake itself was based on what i've done before, but i wanted to be sure i got the ratio right. adding chocolate is one thing. adding pumpkin is another. i found a recipe that suited my needs and the only thing i changed was adding less sugar.

for the filling, i whipped 2.5 dl of cream, and slowly poured in a few glugs of my ginger syrup.

then the mister and i ate some ginger chunks. it was an important part of the process!

the cake was almost pumpkin pie-ish, with the added texture of the hazelnuts. delicious!  everyone enjoyed it.

but oh! my stars! i still had syrup left over! and pumpkin!!

what's a girl to do but keep on baking. the next morning, i was on a cinnamon roll mission.

brown sugar doesnt exist here, so i used some sucre complet de canne i found in france.

 i added some orange juice to the syrup and boiled it down.


when the rolls came out, i poured the glaze over them... and lo we had a fabulous breakfast

and a bonus: orange ginger candy

birthday brown butter almond cake

it was our friend michel's birthday yesterday, and well, i mean, a birthday does require cake, no?

inspired by the always fabulous smittenkitchen, i dreamt of cake the night before last. yesterday morning, i decided, most resolutely, that i must make a brown butter cake. hers is with hazelnuts. but you know what i had in the cupboard? almonds. an lo a substitution was made. plus i didnt have to remove any hazelnut skins. i also changed the sugar--she used powdered sugar in her cake batter and i didnt. i used regular sugar. well, ok, i used some powdered sugar but i didnt have enough for the whole lot. note to self: we are out of powdered sugar.

ingredients include:
150 g almonds
225 g butter
4 tbsp powdered sugar
5 tbsp flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg whites






first, the almonds were pan roasted and the butter was browned. once the almonds were cool, i combined the almonds with 4 tbsp of powdered sugar that i did have on hand, and gave them a whirl in the ol' food processor. once ground, i added the flour and combined.

the eggs whites and sugar went for a spin in the kitchen aid until soft peaks formed. then the butter and almond mixture took turns combining with the fluffy eggs until i had myself an amazing smelling batter.

i oiled and papered my springform pan, poured in the batter, and baked at 175 for about a half an hour. all the while, i was making carrot soup. and prepping raspberries for curd.



i decided to use my food mill to prep the raspberries. you'll forgive me for not knowing the quantity. i used 2 boxes of frozen berries, and the mister has already dutifully taken out the recycling so i cant look. im going to guess 600 g because it sounds like a nice number. once defrosted, the berries were mashed and deseeded, leaving me with a gorgeous red puree. i did not get all the seeds out, and you know what? it's fine by me.  i looked up a number of curd recipes and no one tempered their eggs. i found this to be strange. my recipe was cobbled together based on what others have done, ingredient-wise, and what i thought i should do for creation.

85 g butter
raspberries
4 egg yolks (i saved the yolks when i separated the eggs for the cake)
1/2 cup sugar
cornstarch

butter and sugar were creamed together, and then i added the puree. everything was placed in a saucepan and warmed up, slowly, until the butter melted. i let it get a bit warmer, but still not boiling, and tempered the eggs. then i put the mixture back into the saucepan and returned it to the stove. cook, cook, cook... cook, cook, cool. i kept stirring and stirring all the while. once it was cooled significantly, i realised it was not thick enough, so i made a cornstarch slurry and threw that in.

lastly, i prepped the ganache. this time i used cream.

1 container whole cream (just a little over a cup)
1 bar bakers chocolate
1 small blob of butter

i broke the chocolate into bits, warmed the cream, and then poured the cream over the chocolate. i let it sit for a moment then stirred until it was shiny. i let it cool for a bit, on its own, and then it was shoved into the fridge to help it along. then it was whipped.


and then, assembly time! i cut the cake into two layers and piped a round of ganache on the outer edge. i spread the curd on the inner circle and plunked the cake back together together. i did a crumb coat and then, using a turntable (my mother is not lazy, thankyouverymuch), i frosted the cake.




and then it was party time!

happy new year! we'll take a cake o' kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

for new year's, the mister and i headed over to the warm home of our friends for dinner and revelry. the mister made GF french onion soup, his own recipe that he's been making for years, and i made a layered GF chocolate cake to share. after spending the christmas holiday at my in-laws house, and watching my mother-in-law make two yule logs, i decided i needed to make a light and fluffy sponge cake. with booze. and chocolate. and brown butter.

egg yolks and sugar 

6 eggs were separated, 120 g of dark chocolate was melted (i used callier's baking chocolate), and the oven was warmed to 175C.

with the trusty kitchen aid, i paddled the egg yolk and 1/4 cup sugar until thick and ribbony. i added a drop of almond extract, and then the melted and cooled chocolate.

i took a baking sheet, olive oiled it, then put down a layer of parchment paper and olive oiled and GF floured it.

the yokes were transported to a new bowl and then i worked on the egg whites. they were beat until foamy, and then i added a pinch of salt. i continued to beat until i got soft peaks, then added sugar, and beat some more.


so fluffy.

the whites were gently folded into the chocolate, and then i poured the batter into the prepared pan. i dropped it on the counter to pop the air bubbles.

folding in whites

6 large eggs, separated
200 grams chocolate (divided--120g and 80g)
1 pinch of salt
1/4 cup + 1 generous spoonful of sugar
almond extract


for good measure, i sprinkled the batter with edible glitter.

i knew i would be making a ganache, but i was hoping the glitter might peek through now and again. these days i am resisting the urge to sprinkle edible glitter on everything. want to make that pasta dish seem more festive? GLITTER! oh, is that a plain bowl of oatmeal? GLITTER. im glad the mister loves me no matter what.

the cake baked for roughly 15 minutes. i covered it with a damp towel to keep it moist. then i made some cream for the filling.

i whipped some heavy cream until just so, and then added some cointreau. and then a little more cointreau.

and you know what goes with chocolate and orange? cinnamon. for the ganache, i made browned butter and combined it with the remaining chocolate. i added just a pinch of cinnamon. the ganache was stashed in the fridge to cool, and then i layered the cake with the cream and frosted it when the time came.

and yum.

Ode on a Kitchen Aid (with apologies to keats)
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever baking, and for ever young;

let us eat cake! for breakfast!

it's our birthday! i made us breakfast cake! yay for our birthday! yay for cake!



½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
lemon zest
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup corn flour
1 cup regular ol' whatever-you-got flour (we're out of wheat so i just used unbleached all-purpose)
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 apples, diced
½ cup DIY buttermilk

preheat to 350F/175C.

i zested and juiced the lemon. the zest went into the mixer with the butter and sugar, and the juice had a few jobs: i put a splash in a bowl for the apples, so they didnt brown while they were waiting to go for a ride in the mixing bowl, and another splash went into the milk. why? well, because i never just happen to have buttermilk handy (ive in fact never seen it here but then again i havent looked too hard) and my mumsie taught me a trick years and years ago--if you take some milk, and put in a splash of lemon juice 
and a splash of vinegar, ta-da! sour milk at your service.

the butter, zest, and sugar were creamed together, and then i added the egg. the flours, baking powder, and salt were combined. then i alternated adding the milk mixture and flour mixture to the bowl.

that done, i peeled and cored 2 apples, chopped em up, and let them hang out in the lemon juice.

the casserole was oiled, and the apples and remaining lemon juice were added to the batter. everything was poured into the baking dish, sprinkled with sugar and nutmeg, and in the oven it went for about 40-ish minutes.

then we had breakfast birthday cake.