Basic Spanish omelette

This dish isn't new for me, indeed I've make it lots of times, but I thought that it would be a good idea to share it because I've seen in internet some crazy recipes calling for medium eggs and load of potatoes O_O

The basic Spanish omelette uses one large egg and one medium sized potato per person (if you're making an omelette to feed 4 people then you must use 4 large eggs and 4 medium sized potatoes) apart from salt for seasoning and olive oil for frying. This is the very basic recipe, and from here you can make a wiiiiiiiide variety of omelettes. The most common ones add chorizo or ham and cheese or onion to the basic recipe or they put some topping on it (anchovies, peppers...). The options are uncountable: the Spanish omelette is like a sandwich, you can add anything to it and it will taste great ^^

Personally, I love it with chorizo or morcilla or garlic. The ham and cheese one also tastes good, but it's a bit more complicated to make because you can't add the ingredients to the mixture of egg and potatoes, you have to first put in the pan some egg and potato mixture, then layer the ham and the cheese and finally add some more egg and potatoes.

So, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:        

1 large egg per ration
1 medium sized potato per ration
Salt for seasoning
Olive oil

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan (about 1 inch).
2. Peel the potatoes and chop them very fine.
3. Season the potatoes with the salt.
4. Fry the potatoes in the preheated oil.
5. Beat the eggs and add a pinch of salt.
6. Take out the potatoes from the oil and add them to the eggs. Mix until well combined (this is the point in wich you could add other ingredients).
7. Put very little oil from frying the potatoes in another pan and heat it.
8. Put the egg and potato mixture into the pan and fry until the egg seems to be less runy.
9. Put a plate over the pan and flip it. Then add again very little oil to the pan and slide back into the pan the semi-cooked omelette. Cook for a minute or two and take it out.

Chocolate and walnut cookies

Yesterday I decided to give a try to these cookies because I still have in my pantry some of the walnuts that I bought for the Banana walnut cake.
I love these cookies, they're delicious! I couldn't stop eating them and was not at all willing to give some away to my boyfriend but, well, they were meant to be for him so I had already told him that I was making them...

This recipe comes from the book Chocolate Galore (in Spanish is Chocolate a gogó) wich was a present from my boyfriend for my last birdthday. The original recipe from the book uses white chocolate and pecans but, as I've said, I had walnuts instead, so I went on with them and my boyfriend prefers milk chocolate rather than white chocolate so I used that one. Another thing that I changed, apart from making half the ammount stated in the recipe, was the huge cuantity of sugar that it called for (in the original recipe it was 120g brown sugar and 150g white sugar) which doesn't suit our taste and scares the hell out of us thinking how our teeth are going to fall down if we dare to take a bit.
So, the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:        

75g salted butter (at room temperature)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
30g brown sugar
40g white sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
150g all-purpose flour
50g chocolate chunks
50g toasted walnuts (chopped)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
2. Cream butter and sugar (add the sugar little by little) until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in the egg and then the vanilla extract until well combined.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients in order.
5. Take a small amount of cookie dough onto your palm and roll into a ball.
6. Put the balls onto a baking tray and press them slightly.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes until the borders brown.
8. Take the cookies out from the oven and let them cool completely in the tray before transfering them to a wire rack.

Banana walnut cake

I had bookmarked this recipe from Grace's Kitchen Corner long time ago, but somehow I totally forgot about it until 2 days ago, when I re-found it while browsing through the recipes that I have in the to-do list.
Well, I love bananas and I love walnuts, so puting them together in a cake sounded like a great idea to me and I already had some bananas and walnuts at home, so I inmediately decided to do it ^^
I only did a few changes because I didn't want to go to the store just to buy some baking soda and butter so I used salted butter and more baking powder, but nevertheless the cake was (please note the use of the word "was" XD) still moist and delicious.
So, the recipe I used is as follows:

Ingredients:        

60g salted butter (at room temperature)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
80g low fat natural yoghurt
1 large egg
120g all-purpose flour
80g sugar
100g mashed banana
Toasted walnuts (chopped)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
2. Butter a small (about 17x8x6cm) loaf pan.
3. Cream butter and sugar (add the sugar little by little) until light and pale in color.
4. Mix in the egg and then the baking powder until well combined.
5. Add in the mashed banana and mix until combine (not mix too much).
6. Add 1/3 of the flour, mix well and then add the rest of the flour.
7. Mix in the yogurt until well combined and then fold in the chopped walnuts.
8. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes
9. Let it cool completely in the loaf pan on a rack before unmoulding.

Omu rice

This post comes a bit late as I made the omu rice last sunday for lunch ^^U Of course the only one to blame is my usual lazyness.

Although it wasn't the first time I was making this recipe (it's soooo great!), it's the first time that I prepared it since I started this blog (what a shame!), therefore I'm sharing now the recipe I usually follow which is an adaptation of the one showed in this video. I changed the ingredients accompaning the chicken rice because I don't like to eat onions, garlic or mushrooms (but I do like things cooked with them).

Ingredients (for 1 person):

1 serving (a handful for me) of cooked plain rice
1 thin chicken breast, cut into bite size
1 sausage, cut into bite size
1 tablespoon cheese, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 eggs
A pinch of salt
Cooking oil (I use olive oil)

Method:

1. Heat a little oil in a frying pan.
2. Add the chicken and the sausage and fry until the chicken is cooked.
3. Add the tomato sauce and stir through until well mixed, but be careful to not let the sauce get dry.
4. Add in cooked rice and stir just for a bit.
5. Put the cooked ingredients in a dish and set aside.
6. In another plate, whisk the eggs and add some salt to taste.
7. Heat again a little oil in a frying pan.
8. Pour in the egg mixture and tilt the pan to coat the base.
9. Cook until the eggs are almost set but still a little runny in the middle.
10. Lower the heat and put the fried rice mixture in the middle of the omelette.
11. Add the cheese over the rice.
12. With a spatula, flip the sides of the omelette over the rice mixture.
13. Put a plate over the pan and flip it quickly (thanks to making lots of spanish omelettes I have a nice fliping technique ^^). If you find it too difficult try doing as the video lady. Serve immediately.

Orange Chiffon Cake

I got this cake on my first attempt, but only because I used the lemon chiffon recipe I've done many times already ^^U

I made a few changes to the recipe in order to adecuate it to the orange flavour. The changes were:

1. Instead of using 40g+20g+1 tablespoon of honey I used the original 40g+40g of sugar.  
2. Instead of using all the juice of a lemon I used the juice of a half BIG orange.  
3. I added some orange wedges, completely peeled, to add some extra flavour.  

So, my recipe it's as follows:

Ingredients:

100g cake flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks

3 egg whites
80g caster sugar
50ml vegetable oil
50ml water
juice of 1/2 big sized orange
zest of 1 big sized orange

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 170ºC.
2. Grease the bottom of the mould with butter.
3. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
4. Separate egg yolks/whites.
5. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add 40g of sugar in 2 separate additions and whisk till the mixture becomes sticky and turns pale (it doesn't really matter if the wisk is manual or electric).
6. Pour in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the water, followed by the orange juice. Add the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the orange zest and mix well.
7. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Gradually beat in the rest of the sugar and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.
8. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
9. Pour batter into the mould. Tap the mould lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
10. OPTIONAL. Peel some orange wedges and add them to the top of the batter. The wedges will start to fall slowly to the bottom but don't worry, they won't get cooked (though the'll make the botton of the chiffon look ugly -_-U).
11. Bake in the pre-heated oven at 170ºC for 45 minutes (for me this is the exact time and temperature, but it can vary from one oven to another) or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
12. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before unmould (if you're using a metal pan then you should invert it inmediatly after taking it from the oven).

The idea of adding the orange wedges resulted to be one of the best ones I've had so far ^^ The wedges were uncooked, which helped to keep the cake moist for a few days and gave a fresher taste to it. Also, I was scared of not getting enough orange flavour but my worries proved to be unnecessary, because the cake had a nice and strong flavour ^o^

August 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Baked Alaska

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

This challenge has been quite tiring for me because I don't own an ice cream maker, which means that I had to take the ice cream out of the freezer every half an hour and stir it vigorously with a spatula. And it took me 3 hours to complete the vanilla ice cream!

I did the ice cream on monday and, on tuesday, I put it in the tea cups and baked the brown butter pound cake. Later on, before dinner, I assembled the pound cake + ice cream and left it in the freezer until wednesday, when I made the meringue and baked the completely assembled Baked Alaska. That makes 3 days to complete the challenge!

The easiest part was to make the meringue (of course! XD), but I had never made a meringue cover before and wasn't really fond of using the piping bag, so instead of that I chose to put the meringue on top of the ice cream and then try to make some spikes with the help of the spatula.

It's not that bad to be the first time, isn't it?

The recipes:

Ingredients for the vanilla ice cream:

250 ml whole milk
A pinch of salt
500 ml heavy cream
165g sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
5 large egg yolks

Method for the vanilla ice cream:

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2 litre bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together.
4. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour 1/4 cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling.
5. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
6. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
7. Put a deep baking dish, or bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable in the freezer, and pour your custard mixture into it.
8. After 45 minutes, open the door and check it. As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk to break up any frozen sections. Return to freezer.
9. Continue to check the mixture every 30 minutes, stirring vigorously as it's freezing. Keep checking periodically and stirring while it freezes until the ice cream is frozen. It will likely take 2-3 hours to be ready.

Ingredients for the Brown Butter Pound Cake (I made half of the recipe, thus I'm posting the ammounts I used):

125g unsalted butter
100g sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
55g packed light brown sugar
35g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for the Brown Butter Pound Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 23cm x 23cm square pan.
2. Place the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. In another bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and tap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.
7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Ingredients for the Meringue:

2 large egg white
110g granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cream tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Method for the Meringue:

1. Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
2. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembling instructions:

1. Line 2 10cm diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid. 

2. Line 2 10cm diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid. 
3. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out 2 10cm diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.
4. Unwrap the ice cream "cups" and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Smooth the meringue over the ice cream and cake with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.
6. Bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 260°C pre-heated oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

The Baked Alaska is really a stressing cake when it comes the part of "baking" the ice cream, but its worth the worries because it tastes wonderful! ^^

Back from blogging holidays: chocolate crackle cookies

I know I didn't say that I was going on holidays, but it's because I didn't plan it.
Well, I did plan the holidays from work, but I didn't plan the blogging holidays. That's because I felt soooooo lazy that I didn't want to bake anything, therefore I had nothing to show. It felt good being on holidays and it feels horrible going back to work, but I suppose I'm left with no other alternative T_T

So, lets focus on the cookies: this isn't the first time that I bake this cookies, but it's the first time that I bake them not following the original recipe step by step.
A friend of mine gave me this recipe a year ago and I tried it inmediatly, but the cookies were too sweet for me and thus I decided that I was going to make them again but with some modifications. But I eventually forgot about doing that. Till now. Yesterday, while browsing through some old papers, I found the recipe and decided to try it again. Fortunately I wrote down last time the modifications that I wanted to do next time! Basicaly, I've cut down by half the amount of sugar and double the amount of vanila extract and baking powder (last time I thought the were a bit "hard" -_-U).
I prefer them now, they are not as dry as last time and you can taste better the chocolate flavour.

So, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:        

60g of butter
1 box of Nestle's chocolate fondue or 250g of cooking chocolate
50g of white granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp of vanilla
210g of flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
(Optional)confectioners' sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.
2. Add the butter and let it cool sighly.
3. In a bowl, whisk together the granulated sugar and the eggs until it doubles it's size.
4. Add the chocolate and the vanila extract to the egg mixture and whisk until well combined.
5. Measure the flour into a small bowl, and stir in the baking powder and salt, blending well.
6. With a wooden spoon, stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
7. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge for 1 hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
9. Take the bowl out of the fridge and, with your hands, take a small amount of dough, roll it into a ball shape and put it in a baking sheet. Here you can roll the balls in confectioners' sugar to give them a white coating. I ommited this step because I think that the cookies taste too sweet if I do it.
10. Bake in the pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 10 minutes.
11. Transfer from oven to a wire rack and let them cool completely before storing in an airtight container.