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Posts Tagged ‘sugar’

Tuna over bed of caramelized onion

February 12, 2014 1 comment

Hello,

While on the macrocasting for the second edition of MasterChef in Spain I saw this recipe from another contestant, and I could not help ask him the recipe I bring to you today. That’s very easy to do and it’s delicious, unless you don’t like fish near raw.

Ingredients:

  • Tuna
  • Onion
  • Teriyaki sauce
  • Sugar
  • Ginger

As long as tuna will be for a small period of time cooking, to avoid anisakis you can froze tuna about 48 hours and get out of freezer 8 hours before preparing the recipe. Prepare a sauce to marinate the tuna with teriyaki sauce, salt, ground pepper, and grated ginger, mix well and keep the tuna 20 minutes on each side.

To prepare the caramelized onion, cut one onion onto strips, add olive oil in a pan and the onion and some salt. Keep stirring all the time until the onion start to turn golden, then add a bit of sugar and some drops of teriyaki sauce. Keep stirring until the liquid is evaporated.

To cook the tuna, use a griddle very hot, add a bit of sesame oil and cook the tuna about 30 seconds on each side. Place the tuna over the caramelized onion and enjoy.

Tuna over bed of caramelized onion

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Panellets

Hello,

On 1st November it’s also a bank holiday in Spain, it’s now common to make some celebrations based on Halloween (or at least what we know about Halloween from TV and movies) like wearing like zombie on party, or kids asking for trick or treat on some homes. But it’s more common (at least in Catalania) to eat sweet potatoes or chestnuts roasted, with lot of places in the street offering them to you. Also is very traditional to buy panellets in bakeries, and this is the recipe I present to you today. They are absolutely delicious, easy to prepare, but they are not quick to cook.

Ingredients:

  • 1 sweet potato or potato
  • ½ kg icing sugar (or even regular sugar)
  • ½ kg ground almonds
  • 200 gr pine seeds
  • 200 gr almond in small pieces
  • Lemon zest
  • 100 gr ground coconut
  • 2 eggs
  • Quince

So lets lets start boiling one sweet potato or regular potato in water for about half hour. Then wait about 25 minutes so you can peel the sweet potato easily and without burning your hands. Crush the sweet potato until you obtain a puree and place in a bowl. Add to the bowl lemon zest,  ½ kg of icing sugar, ½ kg of ground almonds, a few drops of vanilla, and a whisked egg. Mix well everything until you obtain an homogeneous dough, then wrap it in transparent film and let rest in the fridge one night.

Next day divide the dough in 2, with one of the parts make small balls and reserve them. Divide again the remaining dough in two, to one of the parts add ground coconut, mix well and make a cylinder with the dough, cut in small pieces and with your hands give each piece conical shape. Add some flour on the surface you’re working and form a cylinder with the remaining dough, flatten the dough and place strips of quince all along the dough, then wrap the quince with the dough and cut in small pieces.

Now to make the almond panellets we will pass them through a whisked egg and then pass them through almond in very small pieces so this almond pieces stick to the ball. To make the pine seed panellets, pass the balls through the pine seed dish and press the pine seed against the ball so they stick to it. Just pass the quince panellets through the whisked egg. And with the coconut panellets pass each conical piece through egg and then spread ground coconut over them.

Finally before baking paint the almond and pine  seeds panellets with whisked egg. Bake in the oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for 18 minutes and then let rest at least 2 hours before eating them.

Panellets

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Chocolate buns

Hello,

In Spain there are a very popular chocolate buns called bollycao, specially popular on the youngest population, and on this recipe I emulate these popular chocolate buns. They taste truly amazing but there is a lot of work behind, having some robot to perform the kneading will be great to save a lot of time.

Ingredients (to obtain about 8 buns):

  • 500 gr flour
  • 400 gr milk
  • 175 gr sugar
  • 100 gr butter
  • 300 gr chocolate

Let’s start preparing a preferment with 100 gr of flour, 5 gr of dry baker’s yeast (and if you have fresh baker’s yeast use about 15 gr dissolved in milk) and 100 gr of milk. Mix well and let rest all night cover with transparent film.

Next day add 400 gr of flour, 300 gr of milk, 175 gr of sugar and one tea spoon of salt. First mix everything in the bowl and then you should start to knead this dough, as you can see in the video this dough is like processed baby food really difficult to work due it’s high percentage of liquids. You can knead using the technique of lifting the dough, turn 90 degrees bash it to the table drag to you and fold over itself, after time and time it will become more handleable.

When the dough is quite handleable add 100 gr of butter, which must be some hours out of fridge. Integrate the butter in the dough and again it starts a knightmare in your kitchen, you will believe Gordon Ramsay will enter through your door and blame you for quite long. I took about 2 hours kneading, it is good to make some pauses like kneading 5 minutes, resting 5 minutes and knead again, these pauses help the dough to be more handleable. Of course if you have a food processor able to knead, it will save you lots of time.  As a tip, to clean your hands, instead of water get some flour and rub your hands, this way the rests of dough in your hands will dry and will be easier to wash, avoiding also obstruct your pipes.

When you feel the dough is handleable enough, let rest covered with transparent film for at least 4 hours.

After resting knead again the dough, but just about one minute. Spread some flour over the surface, cut a bit of dough and extend it over the surface with flour, place over the dough pieces of chocolate and then wrap the cocholate with the dough and roll it to get the chocolate sealed. You can fill them with dark or white chocolate, even with frozen custard or a mix of them.

Finally bake in the oven at 430 F (220º C) for 12 minutes.

Chocolate buns

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

St John’s coca

Hello,

This dessert very typical in Catalonia on St John’s day, you can find them on each bakery, pastry shop, take away food store, supermarkets. And you can also find a wide range of them, but my favorite one is this one I show you on this recipe, with custard on top. It’s completely amazing, and it’s not me saying it, the same said my family and my colleagues in work (who also had the choice to taste it). The only con, it takes some time to cook it, but no pain no gain 🙂

Ingredients (to cook 2 of them):

  • 500 gr flour
  • 50 gr butter
  • Corn flour
  • 1 litre of milk
  • 250 gr sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • Cinnamon
  • Lemon zest
  • Baker’s yeast (5gr dry, 15 gr if it’s fresh)
  • Vanilla extract
  • Pine seeds
  • Laminated almonds
  • Candied cherries
  • Anise

Let’s start heating 400 gr of milk, with a stick of cinnamon and lemon (or orange) zest. Simmer until the milk boils, then maintain in the fire for 2 minutes and let cold. When milk is warm, add 100 gr of flour in a bowl, 5 gr of dry baker’s yeast (if it’s fresh use 15 gr dissolved in milk) mix well and add 100 gr of previously heated milk passing it through a colander. Mix well with a spatula or a wooden spoon, cover with transparent film and let rest all night. Prepare also mix of 2 tablespoons of sugar, a bit of anise and water, if the mix seems too wet add some extra sugar.

Next day add 400 gr of flour in the bowl, 100 gr of sugar, 200 grams of the milk heated the day before and half teaspoon of salt. Mix well everything first in the bowl and then knead it to obtain a soft and silky dough. To knead it I lift it with my hands, turn 90 degrees, dash to the table, drag a bit to me and then with a wrist move fold over itself, you need to repeat these movement for quite a long time, perhaps 8 to 15 minutes until the dough looks silky. Now spread the dough and add over 50 gr of butter in small pieces, the butter should be for some hours out of fridge so it will be easier to integrate in the dough. Once the butter is well integrated in the dough we need to knead again in the same way as before, and again for some quite long time. Once you finished kneading keep the dough on the bowl covered with a transparent film and let rest about 4-5 hours.

You can do the custard now, to prepare it add on a bowl half litre of milk, 100 gr of sugar and 3 egg yolks. To keep away the egg yolks, crash the egg and move the egg yolk from each half part of the egg shell. Add also a tablespoon of corn flour and whisk it with energy. You can also add some ground cinnamon and vanilla extract to make it more tasty. Put this mix on a pot and simmer while stiring with a wooden spoon. Take patience as you will need to stir until it reduces and gets consistent, and this could take about 20 minutes. Cover and let cold.

After resting the dough it’s time to take it out of the bowl and knead it a bit, like a minute, divide the dough in 2 pieces and spread it over a baking paper, with your hand or with a rolling pin. And let rest for 3 hours. Don’t worry if you see the dough too thick and fragile, it will grow again.

Last steps! Paint the surface with a whisked egg and then cover with custard, well in the video I did upside down, as it is easier to paint first. Spread over also the sugar mixed with anise and water, pine seeds, laminated almonds and some candied cherries. Bake them at 400ºF 15 minutes and let cold before eating.

If you try it, you will love this recipe!

st john's coca

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Tocino de cielo

Hello,

Tocino de cielo is a very typical dessert in Andalucia (region at south of Spain), it seems it was invented by nuns long time ago when they received a lot of egg yolks discarded from the wine clarification process (done with egg white) in Jerez de la Frontera (widely known for it’s Xerez wine). It’s very similar to creme caramel but with a stronger taste. A really delicious and easy dessert to cook.

Ingredients (for 3 people):

  • 6 eggs
  • 150 gr of sugar
  • 200 gr of water

First step is to prepare the syrup, on a sauce pan add 200 gr of sugar and 150 gr of water, move in order to dissolve the sugar on the water, once the water starts to boil maintain with low fire for about 12 to 15 minutes. Move some times carefully. Once the syrup is prepared, let it cold.

While the syrup reduces its temperature separate the egg yolk from the egg white, to do so break the eggs and pass the egg yolk from half egg shell to other half until you get only with the egg yolk, add the egg yolks on a bowl and whisk them.

When the syrup it’s warm add it slowly to the whisked egg yolks while whisking.

Now let’s prepare the caramel, putting on a pan 2 tablespoons of sugar and half tablespoon of water, start stiring when the water boils and maintain in the fire until turns to toasted colour. Then without wasting a second (otherwise the caramel will solidify and become useless) add a bit of caramel in each mold, and with the help of a cloth make the caramel stain a bit the walls of the mold. Then add the mix of egg yolk and syrup on each mold. Cover the molds with tin foil, to prevent them being filled with water, cause we will cook them on bain marie.

On a pot place the molds and add water until more than half height of the molds, cover the pot with a lid and cook for half hour once the water starts to boil. Once cooked keep on the fridge for at least one night and delight yourself with this dessert.

Tocino de cielo

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Chocolate and walnuts cookies

Hi,

It was a long time ago I did my first cookies, but for some reasons or other never end with a record session so I can upload the video. Sometimes there was a problem with the ingredients proportions, specially with the butter which (with that formula at least) to be added in a very exact measure: if not enough was added it did not melt enough in the oven so you get a spherical cookie, it too much was added then they melted too much until join all them in a super big cookie (of the size of the oven tray). With the recipe I present to you this time the result is pretty good and don’t need to worry about being so precise with the butter.

Ingredients (for about 25 – 30 cookies):

  • 500 gr flour
  • 1 lemon (for lemon zest)
  • 100 gr sugar
  • 80-120 gr chocolate
  • 8-12 walnuts
  • 4 eggs
  • 100 gr butter

Before preparing the cookies dough we will chop 80-120 gr of chocolate and 8-12 walnuts. Chop both without chopping to the point they became dust. Regarding the walnuts I prefer to use nuts with shell, because I find some of the nuts without shell I bought had rancid flavor.

Now let’s prepare the dough adding on a bowl 500 gr of flour, 100 gr of sugar, 4 eggs (you can whisk them before adding), 100 gr of butter cut in small pieces and out of fridge for some hours so it will be integrated easier in the dough, add lemon zest to add extra flavor, you can replace or add also ground cinnamon, orange zest, vanilla extract (or even rum or Baileys). Finally add the already chopped chocolate and walnuts.

Mix well until everything is well integrated. When you have all the ingredients well integrated, give it a rectangular shape, cover with transparent film and let rest in the fridge for at least one hour. After resting cut the dough in small portions and give them spherical shape working them with your hands. Finally cover the oven tray with oven paper, smash all spherical portions to get a round cookie shape and place on the tray, probably you will need to bake them in several batches. Bake in the oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for 18-20 minutes, and don’t eat them until some hours.

http://alosfogones.com/2013/04/28/galletas-de-chocolate-y-nueces/

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Bandullo

Hello,

This recipe it’s a kind of sponge cake replacing flour with bread (with some days), the result is an hybrid between a cake and torrijas, very interesting:

Ingredients:

  • Bread (some days old)
  • Lemon zest
  • 50 gr butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 70 gr sugar
  • ½ litre of milk
  • Ground cinnamon
  • Baking powder (aprox 16 gr)

On a blender cup add the bread and half litre of milk. Add also baking powder, 50 gr of butter, 70 grams of sugar, 3 eggs, some lemon zest and a bit of ground cinnamon. Mix well.

Add a bit of vegetable oil in the mold and paint all the mold with a brush. Add the mix on the mold and bake in the oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for 40-45 minutes.

Bandullo

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Coffee and walnuts sponge cake

Hi,

Some weeks ago while visiting a FNAC store I saw a book (Saved by cake) and just take a look on it, I opened it randomly and found a title which caught my eyes on “Coffee and walnuts sponge cake”, I did not read the recipe just try to cook one which can fit on the title, and this is the result.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 200 gr sugar
  • 80 gr coffee
  • 120 gr condensated milk
  • 50 gr olive oil (or 100 gr melted butter)
  • Lemon zest
  • 350 gr flour
  • Baking powder
  • 100-150 gr walnuts

Hi, this is special way to prepare sponge cake, it’s a really simple recipe and delicious.

Let’s start adding 3 eggs on a bowl, also add 200 gr of sugar, a mix of 80 gr of expresso coffee, 120g of condensated milk, and 50 gr of olive oil (or 100 gr melted butter). Whisk it until well mixed. Then add lemon zest and 350 gr of flour with baking powder (about 16 gr), add the flour on 3-4 batches passing it through a colander, on each batch whisk it well until everything is well combined. Finally add 100-150 gr of walnuts and mix uniformly.

To bake it brush a mold with a bit of olive oil or butter, the base and the walls. Put the sponge cake dough on the mold, and let rest while the oven heat to 350º F (180ºC) then bake the sponge cake for 30 minutes, let cold and it’s ready to eat.

As you can see a super easy recipe, and it worths to taste it 🙂

Coffee and walnuts sponge cake

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

King Cake (Roscón de Reyes)

Hi,

Someweeks ago Ibán Yarza, which is a bread enthusiast and translator into spanish of Dan Lepard’s books about bread, give a training session about Christmas breads, focusing on panettone and King Cake (Roscón de Reyes in Spanish); cooking a panettone is a way complicated but the King Cake is more affordable, even it has a considerable amount of work behind. You need patience and time to prepare it, and on this recipe I will show you how to cook 2 King Cakes.

This cake is very typical in Spain on Epiphany day. Sometime some surprises are hidden in the dough: a king and a bean, the one finding the king is crowned and the one finding the bean must pay  the cake 🙂

Ingredients (for 2 king bakes):

  • 250 ml milk
  • Skin of a lemon and an orage
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 440 gr flour
  • 80 gr sugar
  • 5 gr dry baker’s yeast (or 15-20 if it is fresh)
  • 3 eggs
  • 60 g unsalted butter
  • 2 teaspoons of orange blossom water
  • 4 teaspoons of rum
  • Candied fruit (for decoration)
  • Sliced almonds (for decoration)

First day we will prepare a preferment, to prepare it add about 250 ml of milk in a pot, adding also the skin of a lemon and an orange and a cinnamon stick. Let the milk boil for 2 or 3 minutes taking care it does not overflood the pot. Wait for the milk to reach ambient temperature and add on a bowl 100gr of flour, half teaspoon of dry baker’s yeast and 60 gr of previously boiled milk, knead it in the same bowl, form a ball and cover with transparent film, let rest for at least a night.

Next day remove the film and add 340gr of flour, 80 gr of sugar, about 4 gr of dry baker’s yeast, half teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of orange blossom water, 4 teaspoons of rum, 2 eggs and 120 gr of milk boiled the day before. Mix well all ingredients helping you first with a spoon or spatula and then use your hands. When everything is well mixed it’s time to knead on the table, so put the content of bowl in the table and help you with a spatula to get the most part of dough which will be stick to the walls of the bowl.

And now it’s time to knead, use your hands as showels with all your 4 fingers stuck on each other (the less surface you offer to the dough the less will get stuck to your hands), pass your hands under the dough touching your fingers, hold (without pressing) the dough with your thumbs in the middle of dough, lift the dough, drop it to the table, drag it to you and with a wrist move fold the dough and separate your hands, now you need to repeat the move placing your hands on 90 degrees. Hope it is more clear watching the video 🙂

It will take you some time to knead it, about 10 to 15 minutes, you can take some rests collecting the dough stuck on the table with the help of a spatula, let the dough rest for 2-3 minutes and it will be more easy to handle. No stress no hurry up, just take your time, and take as rests as you need. After kneading, kneading and kneading the dough will be less sticky, and each time you lift it there will be almost no dough on the table, when the dough is in this state help you with a spatula to give the dough a round form as you can see in the video. Cover with a dishcloth and let ferment for about 1 hour.

You will see how the dough increased it’s volume, this  is always amazing to see. Extend with your hands the dough and place over it 60 gr of unsalted butter, take the butter out of fridge some hours before. Integrate the butter on the dough and knead again as before, until you get a shiny and soft silky dough, again give it a round form with a spatula and cover with a dishcloth and let ferment for about an hour.

Divide the dough in 2 parts. With each part we will knead it for just one minute or two and help again with the spatula to give int a round form. Insert a finger in the middle and then with some skill form a kind of bagel. When formed put each part over an oven paper and brush them with a whisked egg, taking care to brush all the dough. Let rest for some hours.

After resting we can brush it again the the whisked egg, and decorate them with candied fruit (I used oranges and cherries) sliced almods, even you can place bands of sugar.

Cook in the oven at 400ºF (200º C) for 14-17 minutes, until it gets a nice colour. Let cold and enjoy! You can also cut it in half and stuff with cream, custard, chocolate …

King cake

Here you can take a look on how it is cooked in the oven on a high speed camera 🙂

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.

Sweet potato sponge cake

Hello,

In Catalonia is very typical to see small stands on the street selling roasted chestnuts and sweet potatos when Halloween it’s getting close. In fact Halloween for us in the “chestnut day” and it is very typical to eat roasted chestnuts often also with sweet potatoes and with a special sweet wine called Moscatel (Muscat). But as long as I really like sweet potatos, I like to try another ways to eat them besides roasted. So I experimented time ago trying to use the sweet potato in a sponge cake with really nice results, and I come to you today with this recipe. And perhaps you can replace sweet potato with pumpkin, for a halloween sweet recipe 🙂

Ingredients:

In a big bowl let’s add 350 gr of flour, passed through a colander, one baking powder envelope, 200 gr of sugar, 100 gr of olive oil or vegetable oil, 200 gr of milk, 4 eggs, grate some lemon skin (try to grate only the yellow part, as the white one is bitter) and finally peel a sweet potato, grate it and add to the bowl.

Now whisk everything for some minutes until it’s well combined.

Use a bit of butter to grease the mold you will use to bake the sponge cake. Empty the bowl in the mold and cook in the oven at 350 F (180 C) for 30 minutes, let cold and it’s ready to eat.

sweet potato sponge cake

Music played in the video (Airport Lounge) was composed by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), also he is the owner of song’s rights which are released under a CC-BY license.