And we are 5 now...

...Adele is our new little pumpkin and it's almost hard to believe she will be 5 months in two days. She has been tasting a few things here and there, like cooked pear and carrot, but she's taking it slowly and still prefers the comfort of a warm bottle of milk...

The cold days are coming and I'm feeling that cooking vibe coming back. Nothing breaks a cold day like baking a big loaf of bread and having the oven warm up the kitchen. Oh and the smell! 

I have recently made the most amazing discovery and though it has been pretty much all over the web, I just have to share it with you all. It all started when searching for a good recipe for pillowy white bread, a bit like wonder-bread, without the bad stuff in it. I personally love crusty bread with a fair amount of rye, but lets be honest, my two toddlers don't agree with that when it comes to making sandwiches. After many loafs going straight to the bin and a month hiatus from baking altogether, I discovered it. 

TangZhong!

Now that I got your full attention, let me tell you that it's the best method I ever found for making that illusive wonder-bread. The bread retains just enough moisture, the crumb melts in the mouth, the crust is thin and light golden, the taste is just right... and if that wasn't enough, it's super easy to make and keeps for days without any chemicals added to it (if it lasts that long!). 

Now, I don't know the exact science behind it, but I challenge you all to give it a try! The only problem you might encounter is that a bread box (Pullman) is absolutely necessary to pull this off. These might be found in speciality shops, but I also seen them on ebay and several websites. They are a bit costly, but completely worth it. 

The recipe is basically that of an enriched bread, with milk powder and butter added to the dough (no eggs). The trick that changes everything is the Tangzhong, which is a mixture of flour and water, cooked until it reaches 140F (60C).

The result? Take a look!

 

No inside pictures yet, the bread was so hot that I decided to wait and ended up falling asleep. Will be coming soon!

So here's the recipe! Enjoy and let me know how it turns out!

TangZhong Bread

TangZhong

250 ml of water

50 g of all purpose flour

Bread Ingredients

500 g of all purpose flour

2 tbsp of skim milk powder

160 g of prepared tangzhong

210 ml of warm water

8 g of salt

50 of sugar

10 g of dry instant yeast

50 g of unsalted butter

Prepare the tangzhong, by whisking the flour and water together in a small pan. Cook on low heat without letting it boil (until 60C). It should thicken but still be quite runny. Set aside to cool. (you can keep any extra tangzhong in the fridge for a few days).

Now, mix all the dry ingredients for the bread, add the water, tangzhong and melted butter. Start working the dough until it becomes soft and elastic (about 10 minutes by hand). Let the dough rise in a well oiled and covered bowl for 1 hour (in a warm spot, like a barely heated oven). Punch down and let rest for 15 minutes. 

Pour the dough on a floured surface and punch it down gently, shaping it into a rectangle, the same length as the bread box. Roll it tightly and drop it into the pullman box with the seam down. 

Turn on the oven at 180C and let the dough rise in the box (without the lid) and just covered with plastic wrap (so you can see what's going on). That's about 25 minutes. 

When the top of the dough is just about to reach the top of the box, put the lid on (it shouldn't touch the dough yet. Now give it another 10 minutes to fill the box a bit more and bake for 40 minutes (35 if you like it whiter). Remove the bread from the box immediately after baking and let it cool on a rack.

This recipe is exactly the right amount to fill one pullman bread pan with the lid on.

Enjoy! 

Passion Fruit Pie - a sweet little piece of sunshine

My husband's recent birthday was the perfect excuse to prepare something sweet. 

Our passion fruit vine has been giving us so much fruit this year that it was meant to be... passion fruit pie. 

It's like a little piece of sunshine... and it's hard to just have one slice. Enjoy! 

Passion Fruit Pie 

Bottom Crust
1 package of butter cookies (about 20)
1/2 cup of melted salted butter
1 teaspoon of water (if necessary)

Easy, just run the cookies in a blender, add the butter and the water and mix for about 10 seconds. Pour everything in a medium size pie mold or any other pan. Press the crust tightly. It should not be thicker than 1 cm (4 inch). Leave aside.

Passion Fruit Cream
1 small can of sweetened condensed milk
1 small pack of whipping cream (38% fat)
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet
Pulp from 8 passion fruits

Remove the pulp from you passion fruit before you start anything else. Set aside.

Start whipping your cream until firm. Now dissolve the gelatin in a little bit of hot water. Add the condensed milk, the gelatin and the passion fruit pulp to the whipped cream and fold gently. Pour it into the crust you previously prepared and let set in the fridge for at least an hour.

Passion Fruit jelly topping
Pulp from 6 to 8 passion fruit
1/2 glass of natural peach juice (nectar)
1 tablespoon of sugar
10 g of powdered gelatin or 1 sheet

Now that the cream as set, remove the pulp from you passion fruit, add the peach juice and sugar and mix well. As before dissolve your gelatin in a bit of hot water and add it to rest. Stir very well and carefully pour over the cream. Return to the fridge for at least another couple of hours, just to be sure it won't fall apart and you get nice slices. 

Cheers all!

"1929 Gateau au Chocolat" aka Depression Cake by Chef Lida M. Touzalin

Like many of you foodies out there, I own more cookbooks than I can actually keep up with and wonder if I am the only one to fantasize about actually buying a book and making each and every recipe in it. Either for the sheer challenge of it or because well, some of those cookbooks turned out pretty expensive and I'm just feeling guilty for only making a couple of recipes from them... all the while planning my next buy.  

Today, I picked one of my oldest cookbooks that was given to me by my grandmother, who, in her youth, lived in the Belgian Congo, and mingled with the partying local Belgian/Jewish community. It was by then that she acquired a french cookbook called "L'Art Culinaire Français" (The French Culinary Art, 1950). A must in those days. 

It is a huge fat brick, full of not so well explained recipes and quite honestly, some are just enigmatic, both technically and linguistically. The book is filled with recipes from the greatest chefs like Brillat-Savarin, Escoffier, Pellaprat and many many others, so there we have an amazing compilation that spread from how to cook "cuisse de grenouille" (frog legs) up to... the most simple chocolate cake. That was more up my alley.

The Chocolate Cake recipe I picked was from a chef called Touzalin's, author of the book "L'Amérique À Table" (America at the Table). A quick search on the internet turned out that this was actually a lady called Lida Miller Touzalin, who was not only an accomplished cook, she also happened to be the daughter of Justice Samuel Freeman Miller. a very powerful court man. 

It also turned out that the book she wrote was published in 1929, the year of the Great Depression. 

Going back to the my big book, I then understood why there was a small reference at the bottom of the recipe (which was written by Touzalin herself) that the recipe is very cheap to make.

I don't know about you, but I love a recipe to which I can tie a story, a mood. 

This chocolate cake is indeed very cheap to make, extremely easy and while I was a bit reluctant about it's simplicity, it was delicious, airy, moist and... gone a couple of hours later. 

 Approved

 "1929 Gateau au Chocolat" aka Depression Cake 

by Chef Lida M. Touzalin

1 egg

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of milk

1 1/2 cup of flour

10 g of baking soda

70 g of bittersweet chocolate

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Separate the egg yolk from the egg white.

Beat the egg white to stiff peaks, set a aside for a moment.

Beat the yolk with the sugar for a couple of minutes, add the milk and keep beating.

Mix the flour with the baking soda and add to the previous mixture.

Beat until the batter is nice and smooth.

Meanwhile, melt the butter with the chocolate (I did it in the microwave, 30 seconds at the time and stirring) and mix until the chocolate is perfectly melted and blended with the butter.

 You'll need less than a tablet

Now add the chocolate to the previous batter and mix well. 

Fold the egg whites into the batter, carefully.

Pour into a well buttered mold and cook at 180 degrees Celsius for about 35 minutes.

Et Voilá! 

 Light, moist and delicious

Cheers all!

Alex's Dixie Chicken Wings

Dixie in Tel Aviv has been a long time favorite and unlike many other restaurants, it has been standing the test of time in the Israeli food scene. Though I think it's menu lacks cohesion (too much foods from too many different places), it is nevertheless quite good and the atmosphere is classy, yet casual. For anyone who has ever been there, the chicken wings and the Caesar salad are a must. I tasted both, and surprisingly, I was more impressed with the salad than with the wings, which they are mostly known for. 

Now, for someone who cooks and is aware of food prices and confection methods, I felt a bit dishearten to pay so much money for about 8 chicken wings. Yes, they are good, but they are also highly reproducible. The moment I mentioned this, I was challenged to make them at home. And I did.

Alex's Dixie Chicken Wings

1 kg of chicken wings ( clean and divided in two at the joint)
1 cup Flour
Black pepper (to taste)
Frying oil

Sauce:
60 g of sweet chili thai sauce
100 g of sriracha hot sauce
100 g  of butter (cut in small pieces) - or butter flavored margarine
1 clove of garlic chopped finely (opt.)

Clean and pat dry your wings and cut any tips.

Mix the flour with the black pepper and coat the wings. Deep fry them in hot oil  or in a skillet., until golden brown (about 10 to 15 minutes).

 If you can, pick nice plump wings, like this one!

Flour coated wings, ready for the fryer

To prepare the sauce, mix the sweet chili sauce and the sriracha in a small pan. heat until it almost boils. Remove from heat and add in the butter and whisk energetically.  The sauce will turn creamy and lighter in color.

 Thai sriracha and sweet chili sauce

Transfer your chicken wings to a large bowl and pour the hot sauce. Toss until the wings are well coated. 

Serve warm.

 

Optionally, if you want to give it more zing, you can add finely chopped garlic to the sauce, at the same time you mixed the chili and sriracha sauce.

As a side note, this sauce also works wonderfully with other dishes, like deep fried fish, onion rings or even roasted potatoes.

You'll have people raving about it, I promise!

Have a great weekend all!

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Semla - Because there's more to Sweden than Ikea, blondes and nice cars.

Jag åt kakan!
(subtitle: I ate the cake!)

King Adolf Frederick of Sweden was, according to history, a "bon vivant". He never had much trouble on his mind, liked making little snuff boxes and loved food, so much in fact, that he dropped dead after an hefty meal that was topped with not one, not two, but fourteen cream cakes! 

He became know as the man who ate himself to death and on a more happy note, it made many of us very curious about this Swedish pastry called semla.

Semla is a cardamom scented pastry filled with creamy almond paste and topped with a fabulous amount of freshly whipped cream. 

I don't think I ever ate or prepared any Swedish sweets, so I was feeling a bit unsure about this. The many pictures I googled seemed to indicate this was a simple brioche filled with whipped cream. I was obviously wrong. 

I was specially happy to read it was made with almond paste, which I had plenty of and not much to do with. Perfect.  

I found so many recipes for semla, I ended up creating an hybrid out of several recipes, including  one of mine. The cake itself is indeed similar to a brioche, but more bread like and less eggy... it's like the brioche's big brother, who happens to live in the mountains and chops his own wood. It's earthy.

The addition of cardamon gives the cake a surprising kick. Together with the almond flavor and the whipped cream, you'll be eating this treat with your eyes closed. And so the sake of history, go ahead and get yourself a warm bowl of milk. Fred would have said Ja!  

Semla - Swedish Cream Cakes

Pastry Dough

300 g of flour

12 g of instant yeast

40 g of sugar

4 g of salt

4 g of ground cardamom

 125 ml of milk
1 egg

 60 g of unsalted butter

1 egg white with a bit of milk (egg wash)

Mix all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, except the butter.
Warm up the milk (lukewarm) whisk in the egg and add this to the flour mix.
Work the dough on medium speed for about 5 minutes.
Add the softened butter and mix until it is well blended into the dough (2 minutes).
Do not be tempted to add more flour at this point.

 The dough should be a bit sticky

Take the dough out, make a ball and put in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise for about 40 minutes (in a warm place).

Meanwhile, prepare the Crème pâtissière (pastry cream)

We only need a small amount of it, but I believe it's up to you how much you'll want to mix with your almond paste. I like to have a clear feel of the taste of almonds, but adding more pastry cream will soften that flavor and make the cream lighter, though less contrasting against the taste of the cardamom in the bun.

The pastry cream is very easy to make, specially in such a small amount, so don't let this turn you down!

240 ml of milk
1 coffee spoon of vanilla extract
15 g of cornstarch
60 g granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
20 g of butter

Pour the milk in a small pan and start heating slowly.
Meanwhile, beat together the egg, sugar, vanilla, cornstarch and salt in a bowl.
Now, when the milk is nearly boiling, lower the heat, take your bowl and with a whisk ready, pour in the egg mix a tablespoon of hot milk and whisk quickly. Add another tablespoon of hot milk, and a couple more after, always whisking.
Now, add all your egg mixture to the remaining hot milk in the pan, whisk quickly, rise the heat a little bit and keep whisking until the mixture starts to thicken. It usually takes about 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in the butter.
That's it!
Ps: in the unlikely event that your cream curdles, stay calm. Just give it a good mix with the blender and it will be alright.

By the way, I happened to have made almond paste just some days ago, but you can just as well buy it.

Pastry cream and almond paste

So, take 100 g of almond paste, put it in a bowl and add a couple of tablespoons of pastry cream and whisk until the almond paste is dissolved. Add a couple more tablespoons, keep mixing until you get a texture similar to thick porridge. My almond paste was quite a bit sweet, so I decided not to add more pastry cream and mixed in a tablespoon of milk to soften the cream a little more.

Now is a good time to turn on your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Take you dough, work it a little bit and divide it into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a nice tight ball.
Place on a baking sheet, cover lightly and let it rise for 30 minutes in a warm place.

 Last rise

After this time, mix 1 egg white with a little milk. Brush the buns and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Let them cool on a rack.

 Right out of the oven

And the fun part! Take each bun and with a small sharp knife, cut out the top of the bun, any shape you like. I went the traditional way and did triangles. Remove the cap (try to keep it intact) and scrap all the bread that's right below the shape you cut out, meaning, don't scrap all the crumb!

 Haven't remove the crumb on this one yet

Take all those crumbs and crumble them with your hands over the bowl with the almond cream. Mix. At this point you will probably need to add a bit of milk if it's too thick. Again, it should be similar to porridge.

 I mixed in the bread crumb and added a little milk to soften

Fill your pastry up to the rim with the cream, making sure it reaches everywhere inside the bun.

Prepare your whipped cream:
250 ml of whipping cream (very cold)
2 tablespoon of vanilla sugar (avoid using liquid vanilla extract)

Whip the cream with the sugar to stiff peaks. Pour it into a pipping bag (or do it by hand, it will be just as good!) and pipe the cream on top of the bun (be generous). Put back the little lid on top of the whipped cream and give your buns a good sprinkling of powdered sugar.

 More whipped cream maybe? Probably. More filling wouldn't hurt either.

Try not to eat more than 2 in a day. Seriously.

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Frittata with Oyster Mushrooms and garlic

8:00 a.m

To the horror of many of you, I'll say it. I love mornings! I wake up drowsy and, sometimes literally eyes closed, I march straight into the kitchen and mechanically press the espresso machine button. Everything is good.

I open the fridge. God it's packed. Must make same space. Quick scan. Eggs, oyster mushrooms, out.

I throw some butter into a skillet, add a couple of slivered garlic cloves. 

 Just when it starts to gain a little color, I add the oyster mushrooms and let it fry gently. Salt, pepper.

I beat 3 eggs with a pinch of salt, pour it over the mushrooms.

Lowered the heat and cook for about 8 minutes. As soon as the top isn't completely wobbly anymore, I put a plate upside down over the skillet, take the skillet and quickly flip it on the plate. Returned the frittata to the skillet, and gave it another 4 to 5 minutes for the other side to gain a pretty color.

Cut into large size quarters.

Served it over a nice warm toast, ripe tomatoes and freshly ground pepper on top. Added just a tiny pinch of kosher salt over the tomatoes and some drops of extra virgin olive oil. 

Eat 

Wishing you all a great morning!

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Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

You will have to to forgive me, but this time, the light wasn't on my side. As much as I tried to take a decent picture of my last creation, it just wouldn't come out right. I also hate using a flash, which makes everything look crude and over exposed. I'm trying to tell myself that after all, I'm not in a studio and my camera can only do so much. This is a real home and I have to work with what I have. 

What I can tell you for sure, is that this was one of the best pies I have eaten in the last few years. Yes, it was that good. I'll confess, I'm not even such a pie lover, but damn, it was good.

Without further ado, I present you...

Banana and Cream Cobbler Pie

There are basically three parts to this recipe. The pie crust, the filling and the crumble that goes on top. As you'll see, it's actually easier to make than it looks.

Ingredients

Pie crust

85 g unsalted butter
115 g sugar
3 g table salt
265 g flour
5 g baking powder
100 g cream (32%)

Cinnamon Crumble

120 g unsalted butter
175 g of sugar
140 g of flour
140 g of almond flour
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
12 g of cointreau

Banana and Cream Filling

500 g of ripe bananas
1/3 of a vanilla bean (grated) or 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
100 g of sugar
150 g of cream (32%)
20 g of corn flour
1/2 lemon juice

Method
The pie crust

Using a mixer, cream the butter with the sugar and the salt. Start adding the flour mixed with the baking soda and alternate with the cream, until the dough comes together. Do not over work. Wrap in cling film and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

The crumble topping

No need to wash your mixer. Just put all the ingredients for the crumble in it and run the mixer at medium speed for 4 to 5 minutes.

Pick all the bits together, cover and set aside.

The banana and cream filling

Mash the bananas with a fork and grate your vanilla bean. Put these in a small pan, together with the sugar, cream and lemon juice. Start cooking on low heat for about 10 minutes. Dissolve the corn flour with 1 to 2 tablespoons of cold water and add to the banana cream, letting it cook for just another minute.

Remove from heat and let it cool.

Putting everything together...

Start rolling out the dough for the pie crust (5 mm thick). This dough is not always easy to handle, so if you have a hard time, use a piece of waxed paper both under and over the dough while rolling it. 

Lay it down carefully in the pie pan. I used a 28 cm wide pan by the way.

Fill with the cooled banana cream, spreading it out nice and evenly.

To put the crumble on top,  I used a funnel with a large nozzle to push down thick ropes of crumble dough. I suppose there might be other ways, but this actually worked pretty well for me. Though it might seem like a good idea, don't try to use a pastry bag. 

Once you got all your dough made into little cylinders, spread it out over the banana filling.

Cook at 180 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes or until the top is nice and golden brown.

Let it cool a bit before removing from pan. Finish with a generous sifting of powdered sugar and serve warm with your favorite ice cream on top. Vanilla... chocolate... even strawberry. 

What I really love about this pie, is that the those big chunks on top actually become like crunchy cinnamon butter cookies. Yum.

Cheers all!

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Frango na Púcara - Portuguese Style Crock Pot Chicken

It's a cold and rainy day in Tel Aviv. 

All I want right now is to wrap myself in a blanket and watch Coupling. I also don't feel like cooking up a storm and I just thought of a recipe that would fit the bill.  This recipe comes straight from my grandmother's notebook and it proves beyond doubt that simple ingredients and ingenuity can go a long way. She wasn't a fussy lady. After all, she had to feed 5 children with very little resources, most of which, came from her own labor. She could do it all and it's pretty amazing by today's standards. 

This here her amazing crock pot chicken recipe.

Irene's Frango na Púcara

1 large chicken (cut into 8 pieces)

4 large onions (quartered)

2 garlic cloves (finely chopped)

1 shot glass of Porto Wine

1 shot glass of água ardente - the equivalent would be grappa or a fruit brandy

1 glass of white wine

2 tablespoons of butter or butter flavored margarine (if keeping it kosher)

1 large tablespoon of prepared mustard (I used French's Mustard)

Kosher salt

Black pepper

Start by gently melting the butter in the microwave and mix it with the mustard and garlic. It will look a bit like a vinaigrette. Set aside.

Take an heavy pan with a lid (oven proof, like a Le Creuset) and spread the onion at the bottom. 

Now put the chicken on top and pour the Porto, água ardente and white wine. 

Add the butter mixture on top of the chicken and season with a tablespoon of kosher salt and a little bit of black pepper.

Don't mix anything.

Before...

Cover with the lid and cook in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees celcius. Don't open the lid during the cooking time. 

In about 30 minutes, you're entire kitchen will be smelling so good, you'll know there's something out-worldly happening inside that pan.

Now, take the lid off and turn on the grill. Let the chicken brown for another 5 to 10 minutes.

And here it is...  

...and after.

The chicken is melt-in-your-mouth tender and the skin, which is now slightly roasted, is encrusted with a salty/garlicky/tangy layer which I can't resist. The onion at the bottom tastes so good, it's usually not enough. The original recipe calls for 2 onions, but I had to double it because it's almost a side dish all by itself.

Serve it with a simple basmati rice. 

Enjoy!

Never too late for Hamantaschen

...and as a matter of fact, I could just about eat them all year long.

This is the recipe I have been using for the last few years and it never failed me. It's easy to make, easy to work with and best of all, you can accidentally over stuff your hamantaschen and it won't open up. They stay exactly the way you make them. Picture perfect! 

Are they any good? You'll have to try for yourself, but I can assure you, they are the most tender, melt in the mouth hamantaschen you'll ever had. 

But! There are rules to get it right. 

1. Don't use fillings that you've never tried before, like jams, which will boil out of the cookie and make a mess.

2. Don't make short cuts if you don't have all the ingredients. 

3. Double check your oven's temperature.

To make hamantaschen, you need to make the dough and the filling. You can find many recipes for fillings, but I recommend giving this one a try, specially if you aren't a big fan of poppy seeds, like me.

Let's start with the dough:

Hamantaschen Dough

300 g of flour

100 g of powdered sugar

1/2 coffee spoon of baking soda

pinch of salt

200 g of butter

2 egg yolks

1/2  organic orange zest

1/2 orange juice

Take the zest from your half lemon and squeeze out the juice into a glass. Add an equal amount of cold water to it (it will make about 1/4 of a cup). 

Cut your butter into small pieces.

Put the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into the mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until it looks like coarse sand. 

Now, lower the speed to the minimum and add the 2 egg yolks, the orange zest and half the orange juice. Speed up the mixer just until the dough forms a ball and stop immediately. It's very important not to over work the dough. 

If you feel that the dough is still crumbly, add just a few more drops of orange juice and speed up your mixer for just a few seconds.

Remove from the mixer unto a working surface and make a neat ball. Put it in a plastic bag and let it rest while making the filling.

Spiced Almond Nut Filling

My favorite filling is by far medjool dates. I usually eye ball the recipe, but I'll post it as soon as I have it on paper. If you like almonds, you'll love this one!

100 ml of milk

100 g of sugar

50 g of butter

60 g of honey  

1/2 orange zest

cinnamon (to your taste)

large pinch of salt

pinch of ground clover (opt)

20 ml of arak (or any other liquor that you like)

100 g of almond meal (or ground poppy seeds)

30 of cranberries (raisins or chopped dates)

30 g of coarsely ground nuts (I like walnuts, but you can use pecans or even macadamia)

6 to 8 tablespoons of breadcrumbs (highly variable)

My favorite filling is by far medjool dates. I usually eye ball the recipe, but I'll post it as soon as I have it on paper. 

Start by gathering everything on the list. It will be much easier.

Warm up the milk in a small pan, add the butter, sugar, honey, zest, cinnamon, salt, clover and arak. Let it nearly boil, just so the flavors blend. Remove from the heat and add the almond meal, the cranberries and the nuts. Finally, add the breadcrumbs. Start with 3 to 4 tablespoons and give it a good stir. It should have approximately the same texture as the hamantaschen dough, so keep adding and stirring until you get the right consistency. Ideally, you should even be able to shape small balls with this filling. It should not be too stiff though!

Now is a good time to turn on your oven (turbo is fine) and heat it up to 190 degrees celcius.

Now, take your dough and gently flatten with the rolling pin, sprinkling flour both under and over. 

Sometimes, the dough will still stick to your counter top. Don't worry. Just scrap it off and shape it back into a ball. Work it a little bit and try again. When you dough is about 5mm thick, start cutting circles with a cookie cutter (no smaller than 8cm). Take all the scraps, shape a ball and repeat.

Put all your circles of dough on your floured working surface and have a little bowl with water nearby.  

Dip your fingers in the water and just moisten 3 or 4 circles. Drop about a coffee spoon of filling in the middle and gently close the dough around it, so you'll get 3 corners, leaving the filling visible in the center. Seal the seams well. Moisten another 3 or 4 circles and repeat.

Put your hamantaschen on a lined cooking tray (no need to leave much space between them, since they don't really rise). Cook for about 15 minutes or just until they start to be slightly golden.

 

 





This recipe usually makes two trays of cookies (25 to 30 cookies total)

If you have any trouble making this recipe, please let me know, I'll work with you until you get it right!

Mullard!

...Or more correctly, Mallard, is a wild duck which was the ancestor of most domestic ducks. It is less fatty, more meaty and less expensive than regular duck, making it a perfect option for preparing at home without spending too much. Today, I'll show you how to get a fantastic fancy looking meal for a fraction of what you would pay in a restaurant and the triple of what you would ever get. Each breast roughly weight between 300 and 400g and cost around 40 shekels each. One whole breast for each person makes a really large portion... but worry not, you won't hear any complaints... or see any leftovers. Only happy faces munching away.

So lets start with these two beautiful mallard breasts. They usually come frozen, so let them gently defrost in the fridge without removing from the plastic pouch.

Here they are, completely defrosted

With a sharp knife, slash the fat, just until reaching the meat. This will give the fat more surface to melt down and flavor the meat underneath.

Try not to reach the meat when slashing the fat!

Now, sprinkle the meat with coarse sea salt. Be generous, most of the salt will melt away with the fat and only a part of it will reach into the meat.

Here's our salted meat, nearly ready to be cooked!

Now, there are two ways to cook your mallard: On a heavy frying pan, skin down or under the oven grill, skin up. I prefer to do it in the oven, since the fat drips down and the skin crisps up far better than when frying in it's own fat.

Find yourself a griddle, like in the picture (this one is actually used for putting cookies and cakes to cool on). You can get one for around 30 shekels at any cooking store or improvise with the griddle from your barbecue. Put that griddle on top of any shallow pan (I usually line it with  foil to make cleaning easier). 

The main idea is to raise the meat so that the fat falls to the bottom and the meat stays out of the cooking juices.

Set your oven to around 250 degrees celcius (no need for turbo, just up and down heat).

Put your mallard breasts in the second top shelf of the oven and keep a close eye on the meat.

This is what it should look like after about 10 to 15 minutes later:

Don't worry about giving it another extra 5 minutes to have that super crispy skin . Any more than this, and your meat might start to overcook. You should aim for a slight tint of pink at the center of the meat. Practice makes perfect, so don't worry if you don't get it exactly right the first time. It will still be very tasty! If unsure, you can always use a meat thermometer.

And there we have it, oven roasted Mallard Breast:

A nice shade of pink on the inside

 Super crunchy salty skin...

More food porn...

Now, something like this is meant to be the star of the dinner, so you do not want to clutter your plate with too much things. This time, I decided to prepare a simple potato and apple medley  (I will write down the recipe at a later occasion) and serve the meat with a homemade berry sauce. You can always buy a good quality cherry or wild berry jam. Just try to pick something with a sour twist to it. Also, put it in a blender and add a little boiling water to give it a more sauce like texture.

So this is the time to keep you mallard breasts somewhere warm until ready to serve.

When your done with the side dishes of your choice, cut the breast into slices and make a pretty fan shape on the plate, add the side dishes and drizzle a bit of sauce over the meat. Leave on the table for anyone to add more. 

Here's my potato and apple spicy meddley:

And at last, but not the least, the berry sauce I made. Believe it or not, it was all gone at the end of the dinner!

Raspberry & blackcurrant sauce

Bon Appetit!