Cake "Dubrvnik"

Imagine yourself in a breezy summer night. Walking the narrow, stone paved alleyways. Admiring the centuries old houses and castles. And when the feet are to tired to continue the lovely stroll, you find a beautiful, small restaurant. Entering you can't stop to notice a chocolate brown topping on a round cake that looks simply yummy. You order and the super walnut pleasure melts in your mouth...
And if you are somewhat far from Dubrovnik, Croatia, I present one of the best recipes for this cake... Enjoy

INGREDIENTS
8 eggs
250g icing sugar
6 spoons flour
100g chocolate
350g grind walnuts
250g butter
1 cup black tea
1spoon rum
100g grind biscuits
100g sugar
2 spoons juice

Beat 6 yolks with the icing sugar. In another bowl whisk the 6 egg whites until they form peaks.  Mix together the yolks and the egg whites. Mix together the 6 spoons of flour and 50g walnuts and add them to the mixture. Preheat the oven to 200C and bake it in a pan with 26cm diametre. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until it has a brownish - golden color. Let the cake cool, cut the cake in 3 layers, and damp it with the black tea mixed with the rhum  

The topping

Beat the butter for 10min. Add 2eggs and continue beating.  Add the sugar, the biscuits, the walnuts and the juice. Mix all well. Divide the mixture in two. Add melted chocolate to one part. Spread around the first layer the mixture without chocolate. Add the otr=her layer and spread once again with the white mixture. At the last layer spread the  chocolate mixture.

AJVAR

When I see Ajvar, I can't stop the thoughts to wander back in my childhood memories, where my friends and I were carelessly running and playing games out on the streets. But when the time for afternoon tea came, all of us would stop playing and eat what our mothers or grandmothers would prepare. Bread, ajvar, white cheese. The perfect afternoon tea, the perfect snack. And we would have orange around our mouths and maybe some orange stains on our shirts, but it didn't matter we were happy just to continue doing what we loved the most, playing...

Today I give you a recipe how to prepare this delicious pasta, that you can use as a dip for cheese, or you can try and put it as a sauce for your meat.

INGREDIENTS

6 red peppers

1 eggplant

200ml oil

1 chilly pepper (optionally)

salt

PREPARATION

Heat the oven and put the peppers and the eggplant to bake for about 30min. Turn them from one side to another in order to bake them on every side. When they are baked, put them in a plastic bag and let them chill for about an hour or more if they are still very hot. Peel the skin from the eggplant and the peppers. Put them in a strainer and leave them to dry for one night. 

Process all of the peppers and eggplant in the food processor, but don't liquify them. 

Preheat the oil and fry them for an hour without stopping to stir. 

You can eat it hot or cold, with bread, with cheese, with a tasteful beef or a soft chicken, with fried crispy chicken wings or with scrambled eggs.

  

Chicken and vegetables with curry

The Curry is a name for a combination of spices used in oriental foods such as Indian, Pakistani, Thai, and others. The oriental cuisines however uses different spices and different mixtures of spices for different dishes. But since the curry was brought in Europe as a mixture by Indian merchants, today we eat it as curry powder. Sometimes is chilly, sometimes sweet, sometimes it has ocher color and sometimes yellow. Today I'll introduce you to Chicken and vegetables with curry.
DIFFICULTY                                                                                                            TIME

INGREDIENTS

600g Chicken
1/2 Red pepper
1/2 Green pepper
1/2 Yellow pepper
1 Big Onion
2 Carrots
2 Eggplants
1 Spoon Curry powder
Salt and pepper

Cut the chicken into cubes of 3cm. Cut the vegetables into circles.
Put the chicken in a greased wok. Cook it for about 15min. Add the carrot and cook for 10min. Add the onion, cook it for 5 more minutes. Add the peppers and cook for 5 minutes. Add the eggplants and stir well for about 5-10 minutes. Don't let the vegetables to get to soft.
At the very and put the curry, salt and pepper.

Accompany this dish with a soft red wine.

BEEF IN BALSAMIC MARINADE

The balsamic is a typical condiment from south Italy. It's principal use is as a salad condiment together with the olive oil. It's history dates way back to the Middle Ages. The city of Modena is the most famous producer of Aceto Balsamico Tradicionale, that many chefs and gourmets treasure. But as thew legend says the German emperor Henry II was obsessed with this condiment that he ordered to be made by his taste.
Today you can try and prepare a delicious Beef with balsamic sauce or just marinade.


                    DIFFICULTY                                                                           TIME

INGREDIENTS

4 Beefs

200cc Balsamic vinegar 

200cc Oil

1 Spoon  mustard 

Salt and pepper 

2 Onions

1/2 Tea spoon ginger

1 Spoon brown sugar

Cut off the . 

Put the oil and the balsamic vinegar in a bowl. Put mustard and salt and pepper on both sides of the beef. Grate some ginger on top of the beef and put them in the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave it for more than 2 hours, if you could it's preferable for a day. 




Cut the onion in circles. Take the beefs out of the marinade but don't throw the liquid that is left in the bowl. Fry the beefs on both sides for 5 minutes. Take them out and in the same pan fry the onions just enough to get brown color. Add the beefs on top of the onions and the marinade from the bowl add the brown sugar too. Add water to cover the beefs and cook them for two hours on medium heat. If you want to be dry leave the water to evaporate.
You can make some vegetable wok as a garnish. Cut the vegetables such as carrot, pepper, zucchini, eggplant and other in stripes. Grease the wok with some olive oil and add the vegetables starting with the carrots. Don't over cook them.  


A good dry red wine will be a great choice to accompany the beef.

Goulash with Spätzle

Have you ever tried Goulash? Have you ever made one? I'm sure many people will say to the first yes, to the second no, not really. And when you ask how was it made, what ingredients were there, million varietes will surface with pepper, with garlic, with onion, with tomato, with tomato pure... 
The Hungarian cowboys made it simple: beef (not the best one), onion, lots of water and paprika. They would leave it for hours to boil and when they came from the fields a hot, good meal would await them. 
Today I'll give you my recipe, Goulash accompanied with Spätzle (a home made Hungarian pasta) it's easy to make and it can last for a few days in the fridge.

DIFFICULTY                                                                        TIME

                     

INGREDIENTES

500g beef 

2 carrots

1 big onion

1/2 red pepper

2 spoons paprika

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 hot pepper

salt

FOR THE PASTA

250g Flour 000

90ml Milk

2 Eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

PREPARATION

The Goulash

Cut the meat in cubes of 2cm. Also cut the onion, the carrot and the pepper in cubes of 2cm. In a pot greased with oil put the meat until all sides have a brownish color, or some ten minutes. When the beef has changed it's color put the carrots, onion, pepper and the chilly pepper. Fry them for 3-5 minutes. Add the paprika and fry all together for 5 minutes.

Put hot water, 2 l, and leave until it starts to boil. When it starts to boil turn the stove to minimum and leave it for two hours.  

The Spätzle

In a bowl mix the flour, the salt and the white pepper. In another bowl beat the eggs, until they get yellowish color. Add the milk and the eggs in the bowl with the flour and mix well to obtain a sticky dough. 

Put water in a pot to boil. When the water is boiling put the grater (if you don't have the spätzle grater use the normal but add flour to the dough and knead it a bit). Grate the dough in the water. Let the spätzle boil for 5-7 minutes.

En un bol mezclar la harina, la sal y la pimienta blanca. En otro bol batir los huevos, hasta 

Serve the Goulash with the Spätzle.

Jó étvágyat!

Lahmacun

Once I went to a Turkish restaurant in Skopje, Macedonia. It was well hidden from the eyes of the busy workers. It was too modest and besides the few but huge paintings on the wall there was nothing to decorate the place. I thought ''Are we really going to eat in this place?''. It turns out that I ate not one but two weird pizza looking Lahmacuns, that were simply delicious. Almost ten years have past since I ate those two to die for Lahmacuns, and this is the best recipe I've got.

 DIFFICULTY                                                                                                           TIME                                                  

                                                          

INGREDIENTS


For the dough

200g flour
40g yeast
1 1/2 tea spoon salt
1 tea spoon sugar
190ml water

For the topping

150g lamb or beef chopped in small cubes
4 spoons tomato puree
1 spoon chopped parsley
1/2 tea spoon pepper
1/8 tea spoon cinnamon
1/4 tea spoon poppy seeds
1/4 tea spoon paprika
1 small onion chopped in small pieces
2 cloves of garlic chopped in small pieces
1 cherry tomato chopped in small pieces
65ml olive oil



In a bowl put the yeast, the sugar and the water. Stir the mix and leave it 3-5 minutes, until it makes bubbles. In another bowl mix the flour with the salt and add the yeast. Mix until the dough until it gets smooth and a bit sticky.
Knead the dough 5-6 minutes.
Put the dough in another bowl already greased with oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic film. Leave the dough for an hour to rise, until it gets double of its volume.
When the dough is ready divide it in 4 equal parts. From every part make a ball and put it on a plate with flour. Cover the 4 balls with a wet kitchen cloth and leave them 45 minutes.
While you wait for the dough you can make the topping.
In a bowl mix the olive oil, the tomato puree, the parsley, the pepper, the poppy seeds, the paprika and the cinnamon.
In the mix add the meat, garlic, cherry tomato, the onion and salt and continue mixing.
Preheat the oven to 250°C.
Put the balls of dough on a baking paper and roll them to a flat circles with 25cm in diameter. 
With a spoon put the topping and spread equally around the circle. 
Bake 5 -8 minutes, until the dough has a golden brown color.
Serve it with lettuce and drops of lemon juice on top of the lajmacun.
It's best accompanied by Yogurt natural.