I'm back!

When, back in May, I said how I'm busy I didn't think it will take me soo long to come back to this blog. Yes I was really busy, I'll post about it, but after some time away from blog it was hard to start posting again.

But, what is better time to start something if not this season when we all make plans for our new year's resolution!

For the beginning I have to show you my "alternative Christmas tree". I got inspired whit some great suggestions from Apartment Therapy and I simply couldn't resist try to do something myself.

Hope you like it! I'm completely proud of myself!

Too busy...

...to blog, to bake... to live!
It's a sad, sad life... but every now and then we all have such a period, we just have to hold on... dreaming of a better tomorrow without so much obligation....
I send you all lots of kisses...
Eat well!

DB challenge: Cheesecake Pops

All I can say for April DB challenge is: This was really fun! And the measurements from the recipe make enormous quantities of cheesecake pops so we were eating thought all April! Great! Love it! Will definitely make more and again!

I couldn't find popsticks so I had to improvise with edible chocolate sticks but I think that made my pops even better!

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

Challenge host were: FeedingMyEnthusiasms and Taste and Tell

Stuffed Adriatic Squid

This post is dedicated to my very dear friend Maja, who lives in Brooklyn. Maja is real nomad, she lived all around Europe and America. We met working on some film production and we developed one great friendship.

In fact, Maja was one of the two person to who I firstly "discovered" my blog. From the moment she discovered I have a food blog she is tampering me to write about my "stuffed squids".

Well, this recipe that I use is certainly not mine. It is traditional dalmatian recipe and according to great tradition of Dalmatian Cuisine it very simple, healthy and tasty!

Few days ago my brother visited Zagreb and I decide to prepare Stuffed Squids for lunch. Off course, since my brother is great gourmet and great cook he jointed me in kitchen and we prepared lunch together.

Stuffed Adriatic Squid

Ingredients:

9 mid size Adriatic Squids*
3 large potatoes
1 carrot
1 spoon of breadcrumbs
olive oil
1 cup red or white wine
1 onion
garlic
parsley
bay leafs
salt
pepper

Separate the tentacles from the body of the squids. Clean the body cavity and carefully remove the backbone without damaging the body of the squid. Wash the squids and the tentacles. Drain and set aside.


Finely chop the tentacles.


Mix chopped tentacles with chopped garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs. Add salt and pepper according to your personal taste. Add some olive oil to make the mixture moist.

You can get creative with this staffing and you can add different ingredients like Parmesan or ricotta cheese, various herbs and spices, pine nuts or even raisins...

I must admit I prefer the simplest combination: only tentacles, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and superb Dalmatian Olive Oli.

Stuff the squid sacs with the mixture using...


... a very small spoon...


... or your fingers


Seal opening with skewers or toothpicks. Be aware that the stuffing will "grow" so do not overload the sacs or it will break.


Place the stuffed sacs in a baking-serving dish over the already seasoned vegetables: potato, carrot, onion...


Add few bey leafs. If any of the stuffing has been left, just sprinkle it over the vegetables.


Pour over some good quality red or white wine, according to taste.


Cover the dish and cook for about 1 hour, then uncover it and cook for additional 15 minutes.


Stuffed squids cooked in traditional way, "ispod peke" are especially delicious but oven baked squid are quite tasty too.

* NOTE: Adriatic squid (lat. Loligo vulgaris; hr. Lignja) is belonging to the family Loliginidae, and it is preferred in Dalmatian cuisine. Since I couldn't fined any squids in fish market that day I bought Totani or Flaying Squid (lat. Illex coindeti; hr. Totanj or Lignjuni) which resemble to common squid but it's less appreciated since its meet is more rigid. Nevertheless some people prefer Totani over Squids.

Daring Bakers: French Bread

For February Daring Bakers challenge Mary of The Sour Dough and Sara of I like to cook picked the French bread recipe from Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 2". According to Mary and Sara the original recipe from Julia Child cookbook takes up to 18 pages. That made me nervous.

I'm quite proud of my bread baking skills, but till now I never made French bread. I usually bake with whole corn or rye flour and the process is in general much simpler than the process described in DB / Julia Child recipe. And I do not have the strict recipe that I fallow. I know in general what is needed to make a bread, but I usually do something different, always adding something like olives, capers, caramelized onion...

At the first I was overwhelm with the length and the precisions of the DB recipe. And I was sure it will be to complicated for me. Especially the part of the recipe that describes the kneading, rupture and all then hard "hand working" that I couldn't quite visualize.

Luckily for me, and all of you who need AV assistance when cooking something for the first time, I found a great video from PBS with Julia Child and Danielle Forestier that helped me understand what I'm supposed to do!

The process in video was a bit different from DB recipe and since DB rules request to follow the recipe I had no option but to follow the DB recipe and to use video only to help me with kneading and other technics.

From the very beginning I felt something was wrong. The dough was to hard to knead. I suppose I didn't add enough water, so for the next time I'll be sure to add more water. That was more or less the only problem, but it followed me trough whole process... dough couldn't rise enough, it was hard to knead and rupture...

I realized very soon that it needed more water but I was not sure could I just add it after the first rise. Well, next time I'll know better at the beginning.

The final result was excellent, no matter the problem I had during the process. Maybe it would be better if bread was little bit more "spongy", with more holes... I suppose it is connected with the lack of water... but it tasted great!

So, all I can say to all of you who are afraid of 18 pages long recipe is: "Do not fear!" Take one step at the time and just follow the recipe... it will take you there... "Let the force be with you!"

Jota - the Comfort Food Queen

If you ask me, when we talk about comfort food, nothing can beat Jota - thick bean and sauerkraut soup. It's one of those ancient dishes that no one can really tell where and when was prepared for the first time. It is topical staple food in Dalmatia, Istria, Slovenia and part of northmen Italy (around Trieste). Each region has its own variant, but two main ingredients beans and sauerkraut are the basics! If you are interested to learn more about history of this meal, original recipes... read the article about it.

I'm bringing you the recipe that I use. I do make variations with meat that I use. This time I used sausages but any other smoked meat like the knuckle of prosciutto, or pork ribs will do just fine if not even better.

Jota - bean and sauerkraut soup

250 gram beans

500 gram sauerkraut

sausages or other smoked meat according preference

100 gram fine-cut bacon

1 onion, fine-cut

2 cloves of garlic

carrot, according preference (I like to use lots of carrot)

parsley and celery root

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper to taste

0.5 dl olive oil

veal stock

Soak the beans overnight. I didn't have to do this since I had young beans that didn't needed soaking and long cooking. Instead I precook it for 1 hour.

Heath the olive oil in the large pot, add bacon and fry for 2-3 minutes on medium heath.


Add onion and brown it.

Add sliced carrot, parsley and celery root. This is not the part of the original recipe but I prefer it this way.

Add the sausages and let them burn a bit just to add the taste of sausage to the aromats.

Pour in the stock, bay leaf, salt, paper to taste. Add beans and cook until beans are almost completely soft.

Add sauerkraut. Pour more stock if needed.


Cook until beans and sauerkraut are completely tender.

Jota lets you be creative so use that. You can make numberless variations in every step of the recipe. You can use meat, but Jota can be great vegetarian dish too. Instead of sauerkraut you can use soured swede (purist will insist it is not Jota anymore, but trust me it is delicious too). Some add sour cream, some like to tick it with pestata...

Be careful with beans. If us "old" beans it will need longer time to cook. I do not cook sauerkraut too long for two reasons. The first is that I like to "feel" the crispy sauerkraut and secondly because Jota is one of those dishes that you prepare to eat for at least two days so you will re-heath it few times and sauerkraut will get very soft at the end.

As you can see, Jota is "flexible" so there are no reason not to do cook it today. Let me know how it worked for you.

My Very First Daring Bakers Challenge: Lemon Meringue Pie

I've been stoking Daring Bakers for a while, but never felt brave enough to join them. Is not that I'm bad baker in general, but only when it comes to bake a pastry, cakes... It takes discipline, precision, patients that I simply do not have. With cooking you can always improvise, but with cakes... it still quantum physics for me...

Nevertheless, last December something strange happened to me and I joined DB. Well, not exactly. I got ill and I couldn't participate at December challenge. I felt like it was a message from "above" that baking is not for me. That pissed me off and I decided that nothing could stop me of participating in January challenge, not even me being ill again!

So last Saturday, although I had temperature and feeling slightly weak, I gathered all my strength and confronted the evil three: the Lemon, the Meringue and the Pie!

As DB rules request I followed the recipe without any complain, I didn't ask "Why this?", I didn't think of giving up, not even in the most painful moments when dough seemed stronger then me... I continued... not even the extreme mess (that somehow just happened in my kitchen) couldn't stop me... the flour was flaying around, lemon juice flow from counter top, sugar rolled over the floor... but after that tough battle... here it is... my very first Daring Bakers challenge finished!

Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you... Lemon Meringue Pie!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie

For the Crust:

¾ cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces

2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour

¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar

¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt

⅓ cup (80 mL) ice water

For the Filling:

2 cups (475 mL) water

1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar

½ cup (120 mL) cornstarch

5 egg yolks, beaten

¼ cup (60 mL) butter

¾ cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest

1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

For the Meringue:

5 egg whites, room temperature

½ tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar

¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt

½ tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract

¾ cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

For the Crust: Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the Filling: Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.

Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

For the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.

WTSIM... Macaroni&Cheese Terrine

Whenever I'm without inspiration for lunch preparation I like to jump to one very simple but effective recipe: Macaroni with cheese. And if you find it too boring, just dress it up! I baked it in loaf tin and, viola, an exciting and fresh new meal was created!

Macaroni with cheese are quite simple to prepare but it does required some patience and attention because milk in which macaroni are cooked can easily burn. And the smell and taste of the burned milk are the most terrible ones. Trust me, you do not need that in your life!

Macaroni and Cheese Terrine

250 g of macaroni

2 eggs

500 ml milk

100 g fresh cow cheese

100 ml heavy cream

20 g mozzarella (chopped)

20 g Gorgonzola like cheese (chopped)

20 g Parmigiano (grind)

salt, nutmeg

In a large pot mix beaten eggs, milk, cheeses, cream, salt. Add macaroni (row, not cooked). Let it rest for 30 min.

Put the on the low heath and bring it to boil stirring constantly because it can burn really fast.

Transfer to the buttered loaf tin, put it into the oven and beak for 40 minutes on 170 C°.

Let it cool and serve with fresh rocket salad. the combination of creamy macaroni wnd cheese with bitter rocket salad is simple divine!

Enjoy it and check out this month WTSIM... round up!

Lazy Fresh Adriatic Fish

How young and naive I was on that January 1st. I woke up full with energy and hight hopes of better me. I was sure I'll change, that in 2008 I'll be more discipline and diligent, I'll post more regularly. I decided that I do not need new year's resolution to make a positive change in my life, I need to decide what I want and just do it!

Well... you see the date, you can figure out yourself.

You do not need me to tell you...

...I'm in mess. It's always like that when I come back from Split to Zagreb, I always need at least two weeks to "get together".

That shouldn't surprise me or you if you know that only few weeks ago this was my breakfast in sunny Split...

and this was my breakfast in foggy Zagreb few day ago...

Don't get me wrong, both cakes were tasty, but the scenery was quite different... you know.. sun and sea on one side, and fog, rain and asphalt on the other...

Today, finely, it was sunny in Zagreb too so I feel like I have "wake up" after two weeks of fog and rain and I'm now ready to dedicate some of my time and energy to bloging!

Orange Pudding: for boosting energy and beating hangover!

Here it is, a delicious vitamin bomb to boost the bigging of the new year!

Enjoy it!

PS: it will help to beat hangover too!

Orange Pudding

¾ cup water

½ cup orange juice

Rind of 1 small orange

2 tablespoons lemon juice

½ cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 egg separated

A few grains of salt

Rind the orange. Make it finer then on this image. They were too big.

Mix orange rind with fluids: water, orange and lemon juices. Cook on the light heath to a boil.

Carefully mix sugar and cornstarch.

Pour the boiling liquid into the sugar and cornstarch mixture. Stir until smooth.

Return it to the heath, stir until comes to a boil.

Beat the egg whites.

Slowly pour the fruit miture into the beaten white, beating lightly. Mix well.

Wet the cupcakes pots.

Pour into molds and let cool

Custard Sauce

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon lemon zests

A few grains salt

Save out one tablespoon of the milk.

Heat the remainder of the milk together with lemon zests.

Mix together sugar, cornstarch.

Stir in the tablespoon of milk and the egg yolk.

Stir this mixture into the hot milk, and cook till thicken.

Pour over orange pudding.