Meat me half way

The best recipes come of necessities.. or so we've discovered. Our culinary creativity was put to the test this week, as our choice of ingredients was pretty limited. With only a few foods for our taking, we doled out a dish worthy of a mention- or so we hope. Don't be put off by the unusual combination of flavors, it's surprisingly tasty.

Ini's Cheesy Bolognese Pie

Ingredients (Bolognese)

• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 1/2 onions finely chopped
• 1 stick of celery chopped
• 450g minced meat
• 1tsp olive oil
• 1tsp red wine
• 400g of tomatoes puree
• 1 tbsp oregano
• Salt and pepper

Ingredients for pie

• Half puff pastry block (around 250g)
• 1 Ball of sliced mozzarella
• 5 Slices of thin sliced salami

Method

• Cook the onions in olive oil until softened, add carrots and celery
• Saute vegetables for 4-5 minutes
• Add minced meat and brown for 10 minutes
• Pour tomato, red wine and let simmer for 45 -50 minutes
• Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the oregano

Method (For pie)

• Roll half the puff pastry and line a pastry dish
• Fill with meat and layer sliced cheese and salami on top
• Roll the other half of puff pastry and line the top of pie
• Poke holes
• Bake at 190C for 20 - 30 minutes or until browned

Pumpkin, won't you please come home?

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Won't_You_Come_Home_Bill_Bailey
Most people associate pumpkin with Halloween or Thanksgiving. But in the Ini home, everyday is pumpkin day! That's right, this weeks baked babies were born from none other than Libby's own can. And we have to say, even with the sun shining and the temperatures rising- the pie, and other pumpkin based goods, were pleasing to our orange palates.
We made a Pumpkin Spice Cake sans frosting (Recipe below) and a small pie. We think Libby's Pumpkin Pie recipe is the most reliable, but the search for the better recipe continues...

Pumpkin Spice Cake

http://www.joyofbaking.com/PumpkinSpiceCake.html

Mamma Mia!

As much as we love dedicating the day to Mommie dearest, this year's Mother's day was more of an excuse to sample some Haute Cuisine recipes we had bubbling in our broiler. Rather than a midday feast, we opted for a lighter yet still satisfying combination of flavours. Our main dish was a refreshing Lemon Glazed Salmon Filet, with a side of Roast New Potatoes, Boiled Asparagus and a tangy Mustard Cream Sauce. The Hors d'œuvre consisted of Puff Pastry, Roast Leeks, Goat's Cheese and Thyme. And the dessert was a delectable Moist Sour Cream Coffee Cake. All three dishes were successful, so we posted the recipes below, as well as pictures of our meal.

Salmon

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2200/salmon-baked-with-herbs-and-caramelised-lemons

Leek, Thyme & Goats Cheese Puffs

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/236614/leek-and-goats-cheese-tartlets

Coffee Cake

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moist-Sour-Cream-Coffee-Cake-2/Detail.aspx

Buttermilk galore

So we found ourselves with some leftover buttermilk from last week's endeavors, and as we hate to waste, the buttermilk was then recycled into a number of baked goods. Both our scones and fantails were successful, not to mention the Stromboli that followed (Recipes&photos below!) If you have a bit of a sweet tooth, or any taste buds at all, we recommend adding a few extra tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla to the fantails.

Buttermilk Fantails

(http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/02/buttermilk-fantails)

Ingredients (Fantails)

• 113g melted butter
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 59ml warm water 
• 1 tablespoon mild honey or sugar
• 375g all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 177ml cup well-shaken buttermilk

Method

• Preheat oven to 375°F 
• Butter muffin tins with 1 Tbsp melted butter.
• Stir together yeast, warm water, and honey in a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Mix flour, salt, buttermilk, and 6 Tbsp melted butter into yeast mixture
• Turn out dough onto a well-floured surface and knead for 6-8Minutes
• Put dough in an oiled large bowl 

• Cover bowl with plastic wrap/a kitchen towel and let dough rise until doubled, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
• Punch down dough (do not knead), then halve.
• Roll out half of dough on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin into a 12-inch square 
• Brush dough with 1/2 Tbsp butter and cut into 6 equal strips. Stack strips, buttered sides up, and cut crosswise into 6 equal pieces. Turn each piece on a side and put into a muffin cup.
•  Make more rolls with remaining dough in same way. Separate outer layers of each roll to fan outward.

• Bake rolls until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Brush tops with remaining 2 Tbsp butter, then transfer rolls to a rack and cool at least 20 minutes.

Buttermilk Scones

Ingredients

• 450g Self Raising Flour
• 1/4 Tsp Salt
• 100g Butter
• 85g Sugar
• 284ml Buttermilk
• 2Tsp Vanilla Extract
• Splash Milk

Method

• Heat oven to 220C/200C fan
• Put the flour, salt and butter into a food processor and pulse (or rub in butter with fingers). Pulse in the sugar.
• Gently warm the buttermilk and vanilla 
• In a large bowl, tip in some of the flour mix, followed by some of the buttermilk mix, repeating until everything is in the bowl. 
• Mix together to form a dough
• Tip onto a floured surface and lightly bring together with your hands 
•  Press out gently to about 4cm thick and stamp out rounds with a cutter
•  Spread out on a lightly floured baking sheet 
• Glaze the top of each scone with milk and bake for 10-12 mins until golden and well risen.

Ini's Stromboli

Ingredients

Dough

• 500g strong white flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 sachet active dry yeast
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 300ml water

Filling

• 3 bacon rashers
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 mozzarella ball
• 3 tbsp ricotta
• 3 ham slices
• oregano&herbes de provence

Method

• For dough, mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl
• Make a well in the center and pour in olive oil and water
• Mix well
• Tip onto a floured surface and knead for 6-7 minutes
• Roll out dough into  a large circle or square
  
• Cook bacon in its own fat, remove and cook broccoli in bacon drippings
• Slice the mozzarella into 1 inch slices
• Layer the ham onto one side of the rolled out dough

• Next, layer half the mozzarella on top of the ham

• Arrange the broccoli on top of the mozzarella

• Layer bacon on the broccoli

• Add the rest of the mozzarella on top

• Sprinkle the herbs onto the layers

• Finish with a dollop of ricotta cheese on top 

• Fold the other side of the dough over

• Bake for 20 - 30 minutes or until golden brown

Oh my whoopie pie!

These little devils are something between cake and cookie but graced with the name of 'Pie'. Baking the infamously delectable whoopie pies was high on our list of priorities this weekend, and let's just say they lived up to our expectations. We adapted the recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/WhoopiePies.html. Our version contains some minor adjustments which only helps improve the pies. Also, our cocoa had some sugar granules in it (make sure to look out for that in drinking cocoa) so we reduced the amount of sugar by 20g.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Ingredients (Cake)

• 230g all purpose flour
• 100g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 170 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
• 150 grams granulated white sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 60ml buttermilk
• 60ml lukewarm strong coffee 1 tsp vanillaPreheat the oven to 375F/Gas 5, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper 
• 60ml lukewarm water

• 100g butter
• 200g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tspb food colouring (optional)

Method

• Sieve together flour, salt, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda in a large bowl
• In a smaller bowl, cream butter and sugar until pale yellow
• Add egg and vanilla to cream and butter and mix well
• In a small measuring jug/cup mix the buttercream, water and coffee
• Add the buttercream mixture and flour mixture alternatively to the butter&sugar, blending well after each addition
• Drop the batter by heaped tablespoon onto tray
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the cake springs back

• To make the buttercream, slightly soften the butter and cream
• Add icing sugar in small batches, and once its creamed add vanilla extract and food colourig
• Spread buttercream icing between two whoopie pies



Shut the stuff up!

When it comes to Italian food we wave our tricolored flag high. Pasta being a staple food in our diet, its not uncommon for us for dish up a little something from that boot-shaped-pizza-capital. In fact, this week's main meal was none other than Homemade Beef Ravioli, a combination of flavorful beef and flaky pasta dough that we found surprisingly tasty. 

Although we chose to make our own dough (recipe below), store-bought fresh pasta sheets like these http://www.tesco.com/superstore/xpi/4/xpi52414094.htm will do just fine.

Beef Ravioli

Ingredients:

Pasta Dough-

• 250 Plain Flour
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 2 Eggs
• Half glass water (This is an estimate but you may need more)

Filling-                           

• 480g cubed/ground beef
• 1 Grated carrot
• 1 Onion
• 1 Garlic clove
• Olive oil
• Salt&Pepper
• Red wine
• Water

Method for pasta

• Stir the salt into flour and make a small hill with the flour
• Dent the top of the hill, crack both eggs into the dent, and mix into the flour
• Blend in water, and mix into dough

Method for filling

• Chop the onion and garlic
• Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, and fry the onions and garlic until soft
• Add meat, carrots, salt and pepper
• Cook for 15-20 minutes
• Splash 1-2 tablespoons of red wine
• Cook for another 15-20 minutes (or until cooked through)
• Put meat mixture into blender, and blend until finely ground

Method for assembling

• Roll the dough into one large sheet, and use a fluted edge circle pastry cutter to cut circles
• Stretch the circles slightly, and brush water around the edge

• Place one teaspoon of meat mixture in the center of the dough, and place another circle of dough on top

• Squeeze the edges and place into a pot of boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes or until they rise to the top

• Serve with melted butter and sage

Losing our 'post-virginity' to chicken fajitas

This is our first post, but definitely not our first creation. In fact we often get in touch with our Mexican side, as we did last wednesday, and this week's experiment turned out to be especially tasty. Thanks to a recent revelation, we have now started to incorporate peppers into our fajitas.
Although we sometimes tend to the mild side, we recommend adding chilli or hot sauce to our recipes if you like your sombrero to fly a little higher (olé!).
For a while now we've started making our own tortillas, because they taste better hot off the grill, like these http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Homemade-Flour-Tortillas/Detail.aspx
(However store-bought tortillas do the job just as nicely)

El Pollo Bailarín Recipe (Chicken and Pepper Fajitas)

Ingredients

• Cubed chicken breasts (we use one per portion)
• A drop of oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 medium white onion
• Salt & pepper
• Chopped peppers (we used one yellow and half a red)
• Greek yoghurt or sour cream
• Avocado, cubed or sliced
• Cheese of preferrence, such as mature cheddar

Method

• Heat the oil in a medium pan, then add finely chopped garlic
• Chop the onion and add it to the pan, leaving it for about 5 minutes
• Add the seasoned chicken and stir occasionally for about 10 minutes
• When the chicken is nearly cooked, add the chopped peppers
• Now you may want to add some other spices of your choice, as well as salt & pepper
•  Once chicken is cooked and the peppers have absorbed some juices, remove from heat.
• Serve the chicken with a dollop of yoghurt, avocado and cheese.
• Wrap in a tortilla, eat warm