Tag Archives: salt

Gravadlax

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Gravlax

Gravadlax sounded like the perfect recipe to come back writing on this blog.

I have the great fortune to have found a wonderful fishmonger at the Saint Louis (in Alsace, France) market on saturdays morning: she has everything fished, nothing from farms, and most of the fish is from French part of sea and ocean.

She has an outstanding salmon, fished in the Atlantic ocean. So what a better use for a wonderful fish to be cured in the traditional Swedish way?

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet, skin on, approximately 1 kg
500 g vergeoise (if you don’t find it you can use cane sugar)
350 g sea salt
3 oranges
1 lime
100 g de ginger
1 bunch of dill

For 6-8 people

  1. Wash the salmon under fresh water and pat dry.
  2. Lay the salmon, skin down, in a glass baking dish.
  3. In a bowl mix together salt, sugar and the roughly chopped dill.
  4. Directly over the salmon, grate the zest of oranges and lime, then the ginger. Cover with the salt mixture.
  5. Cover with film or close hermetically.
  6. Let it marinate in the fridge for at least 48 hours.
  7. Scrap away all the marinade from the salmon and pat dry.
  8. Cut it the thinest you can and serve with black bread.

Freely adapted from this recipe, first found on the printed copy, december 2011.

Pizza dough

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If I say pizza and what do you think?

I hope you think of Italy, because it comes from here and more precisely Naples. No pineapple, no salami, no strange, exotic  toppings.

The one I prefer is the simplest of all, a pizza margherita: tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil. Sometimes the better pleasure in life are most simple.

But today we concentrate on how to make a good pizza dough at home. Then, in the privacy of your homes, I won’t advocate on how you top your own pizza ;) .

Basic Recipe

500 g flour, a mix of 0 (or manitoba) and 00

12,5 g fresh yeast, o 3,5 g dry yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

280-300 ml warm water

1 heaped teaspoon of salt

1 spoon of extra virgin olive oil + more for baking

For 2 30 cm circular pizzas

  1. In a large bowl mix crumbled yeast (if fresh), sugar and water. Be careful with water temperature: it must not be hot, but just warm. Otherwise it will kill the yeast.
  2. When it begin to bubble, add the rest of the ingredients.
  3. Begin to mix to amalgamate all the ingredients. When you have a bowl, transfer everything on a floured working surface and begin to knead. Keep kneading for at least 10-15 minutes, until your dough is silky and not sticky any more.
  4. Lay your dough in a large bowl, cover with a wet tea towel and let it rise for at least 2 hours or when it double its volume.
  5. When is risen, punch it, knead it briefly and let it rise for a second time, for at least 1 hour. (if you have no such time, let it rise the first time the night before in the fridge, then let it rise for a second time during the day, always in the fridge, and then at night it’s ready to be cooked once it’s a room temperature).
  6. Oil 2 baking tins (better glass or no stick), divide your dough in half and roll it out on the tins with you hands, with circular movements. The dough doesn’t have to fill completely the tin, as raising again it will expand. Let it rise for at least 30 minutes.
  7. Preheat your oven at 220° C or full rack.
  8. Once the oven is hot, top your pizza the way you prefer and cook it for at least 15.20 minutes, or until slightly golden.

Now that you have your pizza dough, how will you top it?

Finnish buns

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Buns with jam

This buns are just perfect! There is nothing more to say about this velvety dough and sensational French brioche texture!

The original recipe is from Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes, by Tessa Kiros: I recommend this book to anyone interested in real, down to hearth, simple and satisfying recipes! I’ve tried many and none was a disappointment, from a potato salad to the ultimate roasted chicken.

And those buns! Even the making of them is so satisfying I could make them everyday!

Ingredients

250 ml tiepid milk

100 g sugar

25 g fresh yeast (I made them even with 7 g of dry yeast: perfect!)

1 egg, slightly beaten

125 softened butter

2 teaspoons of ground cardamom

1 teaspoon of salt

650 g flour 0 (you can make them even with normal 00 flour, but flour 0 helps to develop a better texture)

For the filling

Jam (I’ve used my father in law figs and honey jam: whole figs cooked in sugar and honey. The original recipe calls for cinnamon butter, but I do pefer them with jam). I think next time I try to add fresh fruits, like berries or sliced apples, to the filling.

I normally make the dough in my Kenwood Chef: easier, faster, no fuss. But you can make it by hand (brave!).

Makes about 20 big buns

  1. Crumble the yeast in the milk with the sugar and let it bubble.
  2. Add the egg, butter, cardamom and salt. Mix.
  3. Add the flour, mixing with a fork, then by hand.
  4. Knead by hand until the dough is silky and smooth.
  5. Cover with a clean dump cloth and let it rise in a warm place for at least 2 hours on until it doubled the size.
  6. On a floured surface, roll out the dough 2-3 millimetres thick.
  7. Spread the jam and beginning for the larger side, roll it up to make a big sausage.
  8. Cut the sausage in 3 centimetres thick slices. Lay them, cut side up, on a tray covered with oven-proof paper, 2-3 centimetres far from one another. Let it rise.
  9. Preheat the oven at 180° C.
  10. When the oven is hot, bake the buns for 15 minutes or until golden.
  11. Let them cool, if you can resist!

Special Edition: World Nutella Day – Nutella Crêpes

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Crêpe with Nutella

Last 2nd February in France was Chandeleur, a holiday once religious, known now days as the Crêpes Day! It’s basically a day dedicated to crêpes, during which all French eat crêpes.

As it was in the middle of the week, and despite the fact that making a single crêpe is fairly quick, but making them for 3 people is a job, we decided to post pone the celebrations to this Saturday, uniting them with the celebrations for World Nutella Day hosted by Sara and Michelle!

And, apart the usual savoury crêpes, with ham, mushrooms and Ementhal, we decided to end our crêpes meal with simple Nutella crêpes!

Ingredients

For the crêpes (make the mix the night before)

125 g flour 00

125 g buckwheat flour

250 ml milk

250 g beer

3 eggs

1 pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of seed oil

For the filling

Nutella, as much as you like

For 10-12 crêpes

  1. The night before: in a large bowl mix flour, eggs, salt and oil. Slowly add milk and beer, stirring constantly, even with a whisk. You have to obtain a smooth, airy and velvety mix. Cover it with a tea towel and let it rest for the night.
  2. The day of the crêpes, whisk the mix vigorously.
  3. Heat a large heavy non stick pan (24 centimetres). Add a little knob of butter (or a few drops of oil) and let it melt. Wipe it away with a piece of kitchen paper.
  4. Add a ladle of crêpes mix and spread it all around your pan, moving it all around with the handle of the pan. If the first crêpe don’t come out nicely, do not worry: it always happen! Eat it right away and adjust the amount of mix you put in the pan.
  5. Continue to make crêpes until you finish you mix.

Now you have three styling choice:

  • Classic triangle (as in the picture above): spread your nutella all around a crêpe, fold it in half, and then in half again to form a triangle. Eat it.
  • Classic roll: spread your nutella all around a crêpe, roll it. Eat it.
  • Stack: spread your nutella all around each crêpes and stack them one over the other, to form a round cake. Sprinkle with nuts brittle and serve.

If you dare, mix nutella with mascarpone (the quantity you like) and use the cream for the filling of the crêpes. Then, after eating them, slowly sink in you sofa and sleep, heavenly in peace with the world!

Chocolate biscotti

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Cantuccini al cioccolato

Those are real bis-cotti, which in Italian means cooked twice.
The inspiration comes from Cantucci, the world wide acclaimed Tuscan biscotti, made with almonds.

Those are a little different, and they probably look like a heresy to Tuscan people ;)

They are part of my hamper for Menu for Hope (read about the whole hamper here).

For around 50 biscotti

200 g flour
60 g cocoa
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100 g sugar
60 g chocolate chips
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50 g pistachio
50 g pine nuts

Preheat the oven at 180° C.

Mix with a mixer, or by hand, all the ingredients, except pistachio and pine nuts.

Once the mixture is smooth, but still coarse, add, by hand, pistachio and pine nuts.

Dust your hands with flour and form 3-4 sausages 2,5 cm wide and 30 cm long.
Bake for 25 minutes.

Take them out of the oven, and let them rest for 5 minutes, or until you can touch them without burning yourself.

With a jagged knife, cut each sausage in 5 millimeters  thin diagonal slices and arrange them on the baking sheet, well apart.

Bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Let them cool on a rack.

Store in an aright container for up to three weeks.

Cantuccini al cioccolato

Recipe inspired by Hors d’Oeuvres, by Eric Treuille and Victoria Blashford-Snell

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