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

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.

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!

Step By Step Photo Recipe: Bolognese Tart

We were making Pasta alla Bolognese, but I decided to try something little different - Bolognese Tart. And the result was great!

Bolognese is so well known sauce that sometimes it's seams to me that we take it for granted. Well I encourage you to play with it because it is so simple sauce but and it can surprise you what wonderful combinations with Bolognese sauce are out there which just wait to be discovered!

For tart dough I used recipe from Lentils Patties.

Once you prepare Bolognese and dough , rest was quite simple and I believe the photo guide will be sufficient...

PS: I'll send this recipe for this months WTSIM... Topless Tart

I'm the fourth of six Finalist - Green Tomato Contest

I can't believe, my recipe for Green Tomatoes and Aceto Balsamico Jam entered among six finalist of Green Tomato Contest at Apartment Therapy: the Kitchen

Check it out here and vote for my recipe - off course only if you think it deserves it!

Than you all in advance!

Green Tomatoes and Aceto Balsmico Jam - Why not?!

I never ate green tomatoes. I only saw the movie. So I was surprised when I stumble upon bench with green tomatoes last Sunday on Dolac (the biggest open market in Zagreb). I remember reading about green tomatoes contest at Apartment Therapy, so I thought: "Why not?!"

The farmer who sold them told me that they are used for pickling, but I was feeling little more adventurous than that. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to play with my green tomatoes during the weekend so, once again, I had to improvise. I, literally, run trough Google search results for "green tomatoes" and end up with something completely new.

I decided to do some kind of jam, but I discovered that I do not have any lemon, and all of the green tomatoes jam recipes I found used lemon. Since it was Sunday, late at night, I decided to use Aceto Balsamico instead of lemon. And what a great combination Aceto Balsmico and green tomatoes turn out to be.

I have to admit I'm really very proud of this one because it was complete improvisation with something I've never not just cooked but not even tasted before.

Green Tomatoes and Aceto Balsmico Jam

5 green tomatoes

Aceto Balsamico

Brown Shugar

3 pieces of Clove

2,5 gr gelatin

cinnamon, pimenta, honey

In a stainless bowl, layer thin slices of green tomatoes and dark brown sugar, sprinkle with Aceto balsamico. let macerate overnight.

This is how it looked in the morning.

The next day, separate tomatoes from liquid. Put liquid into pan. Add amount of water equal to amount of liquid from tomatoes . Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add tomatoes, cloves, cinnamon, piment and more sugar (the amount of sugar depends of your taste. I added less sugar but I did add more honey at the end to make it sweeter).

Cook jam for one hour, boiling briskly and stirring so it doesn’t burn.

Mix the gelatin with 3 spoons of cold water and leave it for 10 minutes to swell up.

Take the tomatoes mixture off the heath. Add one spoon of honey. Add gelatin and stir for additional 5 - 10 minutes until gelatin melt completely.

Transfer to a warmed sterile jars.

Pumpkin and Pomegranate Layered Cake

This was busy weekend. I played a lot with pumpkin preparing sauce, dessert... And once I started I couldn't stop playing! So I decide to try some new fun staff and I prepared this layered so called cake which I'll send to this months WTSIM...

I just hope it will be accepted as layered cake since it is not baked, but I'll try and we will see!

Pumpkin and pomegranate layered cake

Prepare Pumpkin Pudding as described here. Once pudding has completely set up, cut it carefully into three slices.

Mix 5g of gelatin with 2 spoons of cold water and leave it for 10 minutes to swell up.

In medium saucepan bring to boil 250 ml of water and 2 spoons of brawn sugar. Add 150g of pomegranate. Simmer for 3-5 minutes. Move from the heath, add gelatin and stir for additional 5 minutes. Live it to chill for about 15 minutes, Stirring occasionally.

Rinse quickly under cold water four cups wider than molds used for pumpkin pudding. Don't dry cups in order to facilitate unmolding them.

First pour small amount of pomegranate mixture in cup, just to cover the bottom. Put one slice of pumpkin pudding in the center. Cover with some more pomegranate mixture. Be sure to pour mixture around the pumpkin pudding slice too. Add another slice of pumpkin pudding. Pour more pomegranate mixture to cover it. If your cup is big enough add one more pudding slice and cover it with pomegranate mixture.

Let it cool first on room temperature and then transfer them into fridge to set up which will take at least 4 hours.

To unmold, carefully dip bottom of the cup in hot water briefly. Run a thin knife around edge of the cup. Place the cup on chilled serving plate (topside down). Shake gently to release cake from the cup and carefully lift it off.

Pumpkin &Me

When I first came to Zagreb, some 14 years ago, I wasn't really fan of pumpkins. In Dalmatia we do not use it much (if at all), and I have to admit that the first pumpkin based meal I had , most probably, I had after I arrived in Zagreb, and, again most probably since I do not really remember it, it was cake called Bučnica (after Buča - pumpkin) which is very popular in Zagreb and continental part of Croatia.

I fall in love with bučnica immediately but it took me few more years before I started to cook with pumpkin myself.

Well, to be honest, I did start just last year. But it was a good start and I couldn't wait this year fall to go to the open market (it is called Dolac) which turn all pumpkin-orange in this part of the year, and by myself some pumpkin!

I started with the Pumpkin and Shitaki sauce for "In The Bag" event, but I wanted to do something sweet so I started my search. On Internet, off course! I find so many great recipes like Pumpkin Creme Brulee or Pumpkin Panna Cotta.

And I did what I do best, read all recipes, commingle them a bit, and voilà!... I'll name it Pumpkin and Coconut Pudding! (not to original but... whatever...)

Pumpkin and Coconut Pudding
300g pumpkin (peeled, de-seeded)
180ml milk
180ml cream
50g brown sugar
50g coconut flour
10 g of powered gelatin

Cut the pumpkin into small cubes. Cook it in medium saucepan together with milk and sugar. Bring it to boil stirring constantly. When pumpkin starts to soften add coconut flour and cook on medium heath for additional 10 minutes. Add the cream and simmer for 5 more minutes.

Mix the gelatin with 3 spoons of cold water and leave it for 10 minutes to swell up.
Puree the pumpkin mixture (with stick blender of in food processor), add gelatin and stir (without bringing it beck to heath) for additional 5 - 10 minutes until gelatin melt completely.
Pour the mixture into cups and let it cool first on thee room temperature and then transfer them into fridge to set up which will take at least 3 hours.

FAF gone crazy: Leeks are not Lentils!

I've already stated that I'm going crazy, and this is the true story that proves that actually I have completely gone crazy.

When I first read the list of ingredients for this month In the Bag: Pumpkin, Mushrooms and Leeks, it seemed to me it will not be easy to combine them. I spent few days thinking what could I do since I really wonted to take a part in this blogevent.

After some serious thinking I realize that I've came up with several solutions and I can't decide which one to choose. At the end I reduced my dilemma to two choices:
Pumpkin gnocchi in mushrooms and leek sauce
or
Leek patties in Pumpkin and Mushrooms sauce

I decided for the later thanks for my broken English. I mistakenly took leeks for lentils. And I realized my mistake just today, three days after I have prepared the meal and ate it!

Well, history is full of fortunate mistakes and I'm so happy for this one because thanks to it I prepared delicious meal that I'll for sure prepare very often in the future.

Luckily I did use leeks too and I could use this recipe for "In the Bag" event!

So, what I really did prepare was Lentil patties in Pumpkin and Mushrooms sauce.

And I choose lentil patties solely because I remembered one recipe I read long ago that sounded very interesting but I've never try it. It was combination of lentil and walnuts and I remembered author claimed that he succeeded to convince his friends that it was meat patties. And since S. isn't trilled to have meatless lunch this seamed as very good compromise.

Since I couldn't remembered exactly were did I find this recipe I had to improvise. As a starting point I took recipe from Aine McAteer's cookbook Recipes to Nurture for Lentil loaf. Interestingly, Aine also noted next to this recipe that she served it to some young surfers and they were also convinced that it was meat.

In her recipe Aine didn't use walnuts, but that didn't stop me since, as we have already affirm, I'm crazy.

At the end it all turned just fine and Lentil patties were such a success with S. although he didn't confused it for meat (or leeks?!). The walnuts are great combination with lentil giving it smooth, discrete taste while melting in your mouths. Infect they go so well together that I'm planing to pair them in some sweet combination like Lentil and walnuts cookies!

Lentil patties in Pumpkin and Mushrooms sauce

Lentil patties (it makes +/- 30 patties)
If you prefer visual recipe you can read step by step photo recipe.
2 cups of lentil puree
1 cup of chopped walnuts
1 cup of breadcrumbs
1 cup of finely sliced onion
1-2 spoons of tomato puree
tomato juice
water
salt

Mix all ingredients. Add tomato juice to help you form the patties. Preheat your oven to 180 C. Put patties on oven pan and bake it in oven for 20 - 25 minutes.


Pumpkin and Shitake sauce
30 dag of pumpkin
4 pieces of Shitake mushrooms
5 dag of butter
1 glass of white wine
1 leek (yeaaa!!!!)
rosemary
salt, paper
1 cup of stock

Peel, de-seed and cut pumpkin into small cubes.
Slice leek into thin slices and fry them in deep pen with butter. Add pumpkin cubes, splash with with wine and cook until wine evaporates then add 1 cup of stock.
Cook until pumpkin turns soft and fluids evaporate. It will take around 30 minutes.
Take half amount of pumpkin from the pan and mince it in food processor. Meanwhile, clean Shitake and sliced them into thin slices.
Put the minced pumpkin back in pan and add sliced mushrooms. Stir lightly for additional 10 minutes. At the very end add rosemary, salt and paper.

Teach a Man to Fish...

...and you have fed him for a lifetime.

There is little hero fish that has fed generations of fisherman and their families for thousands of years. Of course, it is sardine! It is typical staple food of Dalmatia. And it is considered prefect sustainable seafood choice.

Today Sardines are popular as "brain food" thanks to the high level of omega 3 acids and many others nutrition elements like vitamin D, vitamin B, Calcium...

You can enjoy sardine in so many different ways: fried, marinated, pickled, salted, grilled, raw...

I'll send this simple fisherman lunch to blogevent Sustainable Seafood Blog Event organized by Leather District Gourmet.


Fried sardines with "restovani" potatoes


How to prepare fries sardines you can read in my post Fried fish.

"Restovani" potatoes
This is my favorite to eat potatoes. I do not know what would be English name (or in any other language) for this way of preparing potatoes and I'll be more than glad if anyone could inform me about it.

The preparation is quite simple.

Cook the whole potatoes without peeling them.
This way all nutrition elements will be kept in potato and will not dissolve in water.
When potatoes are almost cooked, take them out, peel them and slice into small cubes.

Meanwhile, in the pan heat plenty of oil and fry the onion sliced in tin "moon halves".
When onion has turn gold add potatoes.
Fray the potatoes so that they get golden-brown crust.
Potatoes should "burn" a little. when they are nicely golden-brown, put them on the plate and season with sweet paprika, salt and lots of fresh parsley.

Links:
Buying fresh fish
Fried fish
Grilled fish