Montag, 29. Oktober 2012

Fresh handmade Pasta



Before the Christmascookie-Season begins (my traditional start is the 1st of november), I`d like to give you something salty, because it is getting sooo sweet soon!

There are a lot of recipes for fresh pasta in the web and in books.
But most of us buy the dried pasta from the supermarket, because we think, it is too hard and too complicate to do it by yourself.

Here is the wonderful message: It isn`t!
I tried it, and really, I swear - it isn`t!

I guess one thing is, that most of the recipes tell you to buy 00-flour, called “Semola”.
Because I live in the big wonderful city of Hamburg, it is no problem to get it. For some of you it could be (but in the Internet, for sure, you can order it!).
I don`t know how the dough behaves when you use all-purpose flour, but I heard it`s getting a bit slimy, and that is something you really really don`t need while making pasta.

Second is: The pasta-machine.
You can roll the dough by hand, for sure. Italian mamas often do that. But most people use pasta machines. But the good news are: they aren`t very expensive. You don`t need a high-class machine if you make pasta time by time and not every day for 5 families.



For the dough itself, you really need nearly nothing!
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FRESH PASTA
serves 4

Ingredients:
200 grams 00` Semola Flour
2 eggs
1 TSP olive oil
1 pinch of salt
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>> Mix all together and knead it. Knead knead knead, until you have a beautiful smooth elastic dough.
In former times in Italy (probably still today?) people put the dough into a plastic bag and knead it with the feet, because they have more power in there.
I tried it out. It`s a little bit strange in the beginning, and you need to find out a “feet-knead-technique”, but it helps if you do not have too much power or you don´t wanna leave half of your day-energy in kneading.


>> Then flatten the dough a little and put it into the pasta machine.
The important thing is, that you have to roll them through ALL the 8 or 9 steps, it`s getting thinner and thinner.
AND : the first 3 steps when it comes out, fold it again double and put it again through the same step.
Try it out, you will get a feeling for it.


Watch this video from GIULIA <3 when you wanna see how to use a pasta machine and how the dough should look like.



>> Boil enough salted water.

>> If the dough is ready, put it through the part of the machine where you can form long broad stripes.
If you wanna do it by hand, cut the dough to the length you want to have, than flour it generous and fold it softly (do NOT press it together!) a few times. Then take a knife and quickly (!) cut them into the thickness you wanna have. After you did that with the whole dough, unfold the single stripes quickly, put them unsorted on a floured plate.


>> Then put them into the salted water.
They only need a few minutes to cook, 2 or so (depends also on the thickness). If they stay longer, they`ll be sticky and slimy. So take care of them.

One last hint: Pasta (and this is also the same thing for all other food) won`t be good if you do not put all your patience and devotion in it.

Enjoy them with whatever you want. Pesto, tomato sauce or, like I love, just with olive oil and a few herbs or with butter and salt.



Dienstag, 16. Oktober 2012

What Katie Ate! ROCKS!

I guess a lot of foodblogger and foodies know this lady: KATIE!
Katie got a foodblog where she posts for already a long time stunning photographs and wonderful delicious recipes. She has her very own style in cooking and styling, so she is really popping out of all the stuff you can find in the web.


I follow her blog already a very long time.
She always tells a lot about what`s up in her life and it is quite fun, because you get the feeling to know her personally. She is so authentic and warm and funny, that it is a pleasure to "visit" her time by time.

One day she wrote that she was asked to make her own cookbook.
Well, she was SO happy and surprised! The first thing I thought was: "FINALLY!" - she is so damn talented that I asked myself why nobody else had this iodea before.
Well, she kept people update about her cookbook timetable and what happened, and now - the book is in stores!!!!!
I immediately ordered one, because I am so happy for her (and for the world) and I really really love her work!

And people, I got to tell you: She CAN cook! So...if you want to buy some very special cookbook with a rusty flavour, with no fear of meat or big meals - buy it! It`s so lovely!





© Katie Quinn Davies 2012 and Penguin Books, Australia


Freitag, 12. Oktober 2012

Pumpkin-Walnut-Tarte




Yepp...it`s pumpkin season!
Timo and me drove into the countryside, south of Hamburg, to buy some different pumpkins.
My idea was just the pumpkinsoup I made a week ago.
But when I put the "small" pumpkins on my kitchenscale, I had to realize: They are muuuch more heavier than I thought.
I made a whole huge pot of soup, put most of it in the freezer, and I still had two Hokkaido and two Butternut left.
So I made a pasta-sauce out of one Butternut.

So, now I still have more than the half of what we bought!
A friend of us from Switzerland, Zora, told me I should make a pumpkintarte. Why not?
It is easy to do and tadaaaa!...here it is!



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PUMPKIN-WALNUT-TARTE
28 cm diameter - tarte pan

INGREDIENTS
Dough (Shortcrust)
>> 250 grams flour
>> 50 grams icing sugar
>> 125 grams cold butter, cutted in little pieces
>> 1 egg (big)
>> little bit of milk
>> some oil or butter to  grease the pan

Filling
>> 500 grams pumpkin (pealed and diced)
>> 500 ml milk (full-fat)
>> 200 grams cane sugar
>> 1 vanilla bean
>> 2 eggs (big)
>> 3 TBSP sugar
>> 1 hand full of walnuts
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Preparing the dough:
NOTICE: All ingredients must be as cold as possible. I normally put the flour into the refrigerator the day before. If you can`t, no problem. You can wash your hands very cold, too, and so on.

>> Sieve icing sugar & flour onto a workplate
>> Just with your fingertips, knead the butter carefully into the flour (until u have crumbles)
>> Add eggs and a little shot of milk
>> Knead all together as quick and carefully as possible until it is a rough dough (no problem if you see  some butterflakes still)
>> sprinkle with flour, press it down to a thick plate, wrap it into foil, put into fridge for 30 minutes.
>> grease the pan
>> roll dough out (on a floured plate) until 5 mm thickness
>> put into greased pan, press it into form and cut off the overlapping dough
>> prick a few times with a fork
>> wrap in foil , put into fridge for 30 more minutes

>> preheat the oven: 180°C  (356°F)

Preparing the Filling:
>> put pumpkincubes, milk, vanilla bean (vanilla pulp and bean separated) and cane sugar into a pot
>> let it boil softly, stir steadily
>> let it simmer until pumpkin is soft (~30 minutes)
>> put out vanilla bean, purée all together with a blender.
>> Let it cool down

Preparing the Caramelized-Nuts-Topping:
You can do that while the pumpkin is boiling
>> Put sugar into a pan
>> heat softly, wait for the sugar getting golden and liquid (that takes time, be patient)
>> if you see, that all is liguid, quickly put the nuts into it, stir stir stir until every nut is caramellized and put them onto a plate

Dough:
>> Cover dough with baking paper, fill with lenses or rice until full
>> Bake for 10 minutes (called "blind-baking")
>> Take out baking paper with rice/lenses and bake for 10 more minutes
>> take out, let cool down
>> put down oven on 160° C (320°F)


>> Mix eggs a few minutes into pumpkinsauce with a blender
>> fill into tarte pan
>> bake for 30 minutes
>> take it out and immediately spread the nuts over it. They should sink down a litle bit. If not, softly press them just to combine it with the filling
>> let cool down

ENJOOOOY!
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Donnerstag, 11. Oktober 2012

~~~~~~~~ The RAINBOWCAKE RECIPE! ~~~~~~~~~


Lovely people!
I made it!!!

I promised you SOOO long to give you my recipe for the beautiful Rainbowcake.
So many people asked, and I always said "soon!".
It took a lot of effort, because I wanted to make it as beautiful as possible (well, I am an artist, not jonly a foodie :)), so it took longer.
But I never forget what I promised to all of you, and so:

HERE IT IS!
Bake the Rainbowcake and send me photos, please!
Create new ideas of the decor or topping and tell me about it, I am so curious!


FABI´S RAINBOWCAKE RECIPE FOR YOU! <<<< DOWNLOAD

Dienstag, 9. Oktober 2012

Pumpkin Soup



This is a "the-same-procedure-as-every-year"-recipe. When autumn arrives and everything gets color outside, pumpkins pop out here wherever you go. You can buy them everywhere!


What I REALLY love about pumpkin (except their wonderful taste) is, that you can store them for such a long time!
When you put them into a cold and dry place, you can use themn still in 4 or 5 months, some people say even longer!And because pumpkins are so HUGE (I mean here: the Hokkaido), you can get so much out of it. AND with Hokkaidos, you do not have to peel them - just cook it all together!

There a thousand of possibilitries to enjoy pumpkins.
But here is my basic one, a wonderful soup!

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PUMPKIN SOUP

>> 700 gramm of Hokkaido Pumpkin [diced, seeds removed]
                (= 900 gramms of Pumpkin before cutting)
>> 2 onions
>> 2 TBSP Aceto Balsamico
>> 40 gramm of butter 
>> 1000 ml vegetable stock
>> 200 gramm cream [optional, also just less, if you want]
>> 2 TSP honey
>> grounded nutmeg
>> salt & grounded pepper

> Dice onions and pumpkin
>  Melt butter in a big pan or pot and roast onions & pumpkin gently until they are lightly brown
    ( I put them in different pots and mix them together after, but you can do it also all in once)

>  Deglaze it with Aceto Balsamico
> Add vegetable stock
> Let gently boil it for 15 minutes (until pumpkin is very soft, test it)
> Purée it with a hand blender or whatever you have
> Flavor it with honey, salt, pepper and nutmeg
> If you want it more creamy: Add now the cream, mix it and let it boil up once more.

You can garnish it with whatever you want.
I prefer a blob of curd and some roasted pumpkin seeds. But chopped dill, parsley or some other herbs are wonderful, too! Pumpkin seed oil is a beautiful and tasty garnish, too.
I serve it always with some bread or baguette.

Enjoy your beautiful warm soup! Mother nature loves us :)