Corn and bacon chowder

OK, so I'm not dead. It just took me a year (and six days) to think about what I wanted to do with this blog. I know I don't sound very smart right now, but I am, or at least that's what I like to consider myself. The truth is I kept delaying to publish new recipes but that didn't stop the days, weeks and months from passing by. It seems like it was only yesterday that my hubby designed my logo and I started this blog. Except it wasn't.

All in all, this blog isn't going to be all about desserts anymore. Because I can cook, too, not just bake. Well, I'm a better baker than I am a cook, but still... If I can do it, well, I guess you can, too. This being said, let's cook!

I have been wanting to try a corn soup/chowder for a while now, so I have decided to give it a go; after all, if it wasn't going to taste good, my dog would love it anyway. 

Here's what you need in case you decide to try this chowder: 

150 grams frozen corn

150 grams bacon

200 grams champignon mushrooms (optional)

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1 small celery root (smaller than the potato), peeled and diced

1 small onion, diced

750 ml to 1 l water. You can use chicken stock if you prefer, I have only tried this with water.

250 ml milk or sour cream

salt, pepper

chives for garnish

I used a 2,5 l Dutch oven for this recipe, but you can use any pot you have on hand, it really doesn't matter.

Start by heating the pot over medium heat and add the diced bacon. Cook until the bacon is crisp and golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove the bacon and set it aside on a paper towel to absorb the grease. Discard all but 1 tbsp of bacon fat, add the onion and sautee for 5 minutes. Add the diced potato, the celery root and about 400 ml of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 30 min. Some of the potatoes will have broken up, but most should retain their shape. This is a good time to use the back of your spoon to smash the vegetables against the side of the pot. Or you could place half the amount in a blender and process until smooth, adding it back to the pot once you have reached the desired texture. For the record, I did not smash or mix or blend the vegetables, I am a rebel like that. Or lazy.

Add the corn (I haven't defrosted it, I've just pulled it out of the freezer when I was preparing all the ingredients, so it was just beginning to thaw) and the chopped mushrooms, if using. This chowder works just fine without mushrooms, but I had a few left from the day before and I thought what the heck! let's be creative!

Stir in the milk and the remaining water (if necessary). My advice is to add the milk or sour cream first, and then the water (or chicken stock) until you reach the desired consistency. Season with pepper and a very small amount of salt, keeping in mind that the bacon may be salty.

Increase the heat and as soon as the chowder has come back to a boil and thickened slightly, reduce the heat to low and add the bacon. Simmer for about 10 minutes, remove from the heat. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

Let it sit at room temperature for up to an hour, allowing the flavors to develop and blend. When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and sprinkle with the chopped chives.

Carrot horn rolls

Let me start by saying these cookies have the silliest name: horn rolls. Really? At first I thought it was a mot-à-mot translation from Romanian and had a good laugh with my hubby, but it turns out that's what they call them. Still silly, but if you have a better name for them, please let me know. Until then, let's prepare our ingredients, shall we?

Ingredients:

250 g all purpose flour

125 g mascarpone

100 g caster sugar

40 g finely shredded carrot

1 large egg

5 g orange zest

3 g baking powder (roughly 1/2 teaspoon, if you are a fan on the imperial system)

pinch of salt

fruit preserve (jam) of your choice

1 egg yolk

powder sugar

Directions:

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, the orange zest and the shredded carrot and mix well, using a rubber spatula. Gradually add the flour mixture. You have now reached the point where you need to get the spatula out of the way and start using your hand(s). Knead the dough until it's soft and does not stick to your hands, form a ball, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about half an hour. Meantime clean the flour from the kitchen counter, table, floor, and your pet, if you happen to own one. Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center. Line your tray with baking paper. You might still have some flour on your face and, of course, your clothes. I always do. Ask your husband to open than preserve jar, you won't be able to do it and ladies must not spew profanities, goddamned jars! As you can see, those 30 minutes are now long gone, so get the dough out of the fridge.

Dust some flour on a wooden surface and roll the dough into a circle 0,5 cm (0,2 inch) thick. Using a sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut the disk into 8 equal-sized wedges. If you want the horn rolls to be a little smaller (mine were close to ginormous), cut the dough into 10 wedges. Or, even better, cut the dough in half and roll each piece into a 0,3 cm thick disk. Then cut six wedges out of every disk. There's not much science here, so feel free to divide the dough as you like, keeping in mind that smaller horn rolls need to be watched closely toward the end of the baking time (smaller amounts of dough need a shorter baking time).

Put the jam (I used quince preserve on half of them and strawberry on the other half) on each triangle, not too much because it will ooze out. Starting at the wide end of the wedge, roll the dough into a crescent shape. Brush the pastry with the remaining egg yolk and bake for about 25 minutes or until the top and the bottom are golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack and dust with powder sugar.
As you can see in the picture above, I only have seven horn rolls in the tray. That is because I ate one before taking the picture. I am like that, you know?

Recipe slightly adapted from Laura Adamache.

Shortbread lavender cookies

Christmas is coming, I hear. I'm not saying another word, but I truly hope you've been good this year.

I felt like baking something festive and since I have an impressive amount of dried lavender (I have nice neighbors, what can I say?) just waiting to be used, I thought what the heck, let's live dangerously! After countless hours (more like 10 minutes or so) of online research my mind was made: shortbread lavender it is.

Ingredients:

350 grams (1 1/2 cup) room temperature butter

130 grams (2/3 cups) fine sugar

25 grams (1/4 cup) powder sugar

20 (2 tbsp) grams dried lavender

5 grams (1 tsp) lemon zest

400 grams (3 1/4 cups) flour

pinch of salt

Directions:

Chop the lavender or use a coffee grinder to get it to a fine consistency. Sift the flour, set aside.

Cream the butter, caster sugar and salt in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the lavender and mix to incorporate.

Slowly add the flour and mix well. Mixing is complete when there are no visible lumps of butter in the dough.

Form the dough into a disk (or two, if you want it to cool faster), wrap it in plastic, and chill it in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Preheat you oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 3/4 cm (1/4-inch) thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into the desired shape and (using a spatula or a wide blade knife) transfer the cookies to a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Roll the excess dough into a ball and repeat the process until you have used it all.

Bake for about 15 minutes until pale and barely golden, then remove from oven and cool completely before serving.

Lemon poppy seed bundt cake

I bought a bag of poppy seeds. That's it. Then I had to bake something, right? Luckily, I also had two lemons on the kitchen counter so there weren't so many options without going to the grocery store. Again. On foot. Because it's ridiculously close to use the car but still far enough to be annoyed by the mere thought of walking all the way there. It's a five minute walk, darn it!

So, if you have a bag of poppy seeds and one or two lemons, you're all set. I'm sure it works just fine with oranges, too.

Ingredients:

110 grams butter (1/2 cup), room temperature

300 grams (1 1/2 cups) caster sugar

4 eggs

260 grams (2 cups) flour

5 grams (1 teaspoon) baking powder

80 ml (1/3 cup) sour cream

50 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

20 grams (approx. 3 tablespoons) poppy seeds

zest from 2 lemons

(optional) 1/2 teaspoon aniseed (not star anise, the other one) and the seeds from two cardamom pods, crushed together in a mortar

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and grease well a 25 cm (10 inch) bunt pan. Take my advice and grease it well, you'll thank me later, when it's time to invert the cake on a plate.

Using your mixer, cream the butter, add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, two minutes or so. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the sour cream, lemon juice, lemon zest, poppy seed, aniseed, cardamom (if using) and beat until incorporated. I hope you have already sifted together the flour and baking powder, have you now? Fold the flour mixture into the batter using a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the pan and bake it for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

I always let the cake cool completely before inverting it on a plate, if you try inverting it while it's still hot, well, you may regret it. I have. Many times. So do as I say.

Notes:
This recipe works just fine with oranges, too. If you find your oranges to be particularly sweet, reduce the amount of sugar to 270 grams or less. Remember to replace the lemon juice with freshly squeezed orange juice .

Beetroot chocolate cake

When my neighbor asked me if I wanted a beetroot from her vegetable garden, my first thought was „yay, natural food coloring!”. But then, as she handed me the beetroot, I realized it was way too big to use it only just to make juice and then color the frosting with it, since I wasn't planning to bake cupcakes for the entire neighborhood. So I decided to look around for a dessert recipe that uses beetroot. I found Nigella's recipe and I must say I was intrigued by this odd combination: cocoa and beetroot. Odd to say the least, but why not give it a try? If you feel adventurous enough (and I think you do, because you are reading this, and that's the first step) give it a try and I promise you won't be sorry.

Ingredients:

For the cake

175 grams plain flour

5 grams baking powder

75 grams cocoa powder

225 grams caster sugar

3 eggs

225 grams raw beetroot (roasted, peeled and chopped)

200 ml sunflower oil

pinch of salt

For the frosting

200 grams mascarpone cheese

start with 75 grams confectioner's sugar and work your way up, until you get the desired consistency and sweetness

beetroot juice for the color (optional)

Directions:

Wash the beetroot first, peel and cut into quarters. Place it in a pot and cover it with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook it until soft when poked with a fork (depending on the size, this may take up to 30 minutes). Remove from the pot and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center of the oven. Grease a 20 centimeters (8 inch) bundt pan.

When the beetroot has cooled completely, place it in a blender and puree it. Add the eggs (one at a time) and the oil, beat well after each addition. It is possible not to puree the beetroot and only slightly mash it with a fork in order to have larger chunks of beet in the cake, if you think you would like it better that way. In that case, beat the eggs in a separate bowl before pouring them over the beet, and fold the rest of the ingredients with a silicone spatula, careful not to smash the beetroot chunks.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa, add the sugar. Fold the flour mixture into the beet mixture with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level with the back of a spoon. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan, once chilled invert on a wire rack.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing the mascarpone with the icing sugar. The beauty of this frosting is that you decide how sweet (and how pink) you want it, so stop from time to time to lick the spoon. The one that you're using to mix the cheese and the sugar, there's no point in licking another. You may add a few drops of beetroot juice, if you like it pink. But I guess everybody likes pink, so why not?

Peanut butter cookies

When I have first tasted peanut butter I was absolutely grossed out. I still don't like it as is, but when it comes to peanut butter cookies, well, things change. I believe that if you grow up accustomed to certain flavors, you are most likely to accept and like them as a grown up, but it takes tame to accept (or even like in the end) new flavors, new ingredients, new combinations. That's me and peanut butter. Peanut butter cookies – good. Peanut butter without cookies – not so good.

Ingredients:

200 g unsalted butter

200 g superfine sugar

1 large egg

200 g peanut butter. Creamy or crunchy, as you wish.

350 g flour

5 g baking powder

pinch of salt

Directions:

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and peanut butter, beat until well blended. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.

Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes and in the meantime preheat you oven to 180 ºC (350 ºF).

Shape dough into 2,5 cm (1 inch) balls, place balls on a baking sheet about 5 cm apart (2 inches). Make a crisscross patter using a fork, or, even better, use the meat hammer (meat tenderizer). You may consider yourself especially lucky if the pounding surface is round and large, enabling you to get an even pattern and the job done much quicker. Who's the mother of all cookies now? You, of course.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

Notes:

If you don't have superfine (caster) sugar, you can make your own. Place granulated sugar in a food processor or coffee grinder and pulse until it reaches a super-fine, but not powdery consistency.

When making the pattern on the cookies, try to use a meat hammer instead of a fork. It's quicker and the pattern will look better.

Mini cheesecake

Everybody loves cheesecake, so let's get down to business. For this recipe I use pressed cottage cheese, because, well, there's a problem with cream cheese around here. And by 'problem' I mean we can only find salted cream cheese, yuck, so we're forced to be creative. Looking for a solution to the cheesecake problem, I've had one of my friends tell me she buys excellent cottage cheese from a local farmer and I've decided to give it a try. The result was even tastier than I could have hoped for, so if you're looking for a cream cheese replacement in this recipe, pressed cottage cheese is my solution. However, I have never used the store bought kind, quark or curd cheese, but if you get to do it, please let me know how it goes.

Ingredients for six 10 centimeters (4 inch) tartlets.

If you decide to bake a dozen tartlets, please remember to double all quantities

170 grams digestive biscuits

90 grams butter

250 grams pressed cottage cheese

1 large egg

200 ml sour cream

100 ml milk

75 grams sugar

5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla extract

15 grams flour

pinch of salt

Directions:
Preheat you oven to 160ºC (320ºF) and place rack in center.

Process the biscuits until fine, transfer to a medium bowl. Stir in the melted butter until evenly moistened. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom and up the sides of your tartlet pans and bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack while preparing the filling.

Beat the cottage cheese, sugar and egg until combined. Add the sour cream, flour, salt, and vanilla extract, mix well. Gradually add the milk, scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time. Depending on the consistency of your cottage cheese and sour cream the amount of milk needed in this recipe may vary. My advice is to add it gradually, until your reach the desired consistency, rather creamy than runny.

Spread the filling into the pans; bake the cheesecake for about 30 minutes or until just set. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecakes cool inside with the door ajar (this prevents them from cracking).

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Serve with fresh fruit or berry reduction (recipe coming soon).