Cold Tomato sauce

Fresh and Cold Tomato Sauce

This was one of my grandmothers favourites – and so easy to make. We would use this cold sauce over meatballs.

Ingredients:
6 large tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
½ a green pepper
1 clove of garlic
Some mint or basil
Some capers
Some olives

Proportions are according to taste.
Put everything into a food processor…READY!!

Kipferl - Austrian Cookies

Another great recipe given to me by Nikki. These are rather short biscuits, great with coffee or a glass of wine. Very popular around the Christmas season. The central and northern European countries have great recipes for Christmas cookies...hopefully I will find some more!

Just a word of advice...these cookies are not the prettiest to look at...but they taste excellent! You can also dip one side in chocolate to make chocolate kipferl though i personally prefer the original type.

INGREDIENTS

250gms flour

1 egg plus one yolk, beaten

1 pack vanilla sugar

120gms grated, unpeeled roasted almonds

200gms butter or 100gms vegetable oil

grated peel of 1 lemon

METHOD

Sift flour and sugar.

Add almonds and lemon peel

Add beaten eggs and fats.

Form a dough then roll out strips, cut into about 3" pieces and curve to make 'moon shapes'

Cook at 180C or until brown (about 12 mins) take out of oven a dredge with powdered sugar. Let cool - then dredge with sugar again

Choux Pastry

Choux pastry/profiteroles/eclairs

I think i have tried about 4 different recipes for this..none worked....so I turned to the best cook i know...MAMA!!!

She got out here recipe book and here it is!

To make about a dozen puffs:

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter (cut in pieces)

1 cup flour

4 eggs (beaten)

1 tsp salt

or

1 tbs sugar and 1/8 tsp salt (for sweet puffs)

Heat oven to 400F

Put water, butter and salt (or sugar and salt) in a pan and over medium heat melt the butter.

Remove from the heat, add the flour and put back on the heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until the mixture forms a ball.

Remove from the heat and add the eggs bit by by bit beating well all the time. The mixture will seem to separate but as you keep on beating it slowly all gets incorporated.

When mixture is smooth the pastry is done!!

I used a piping bag but you can also fill the puffs the old fashioned way using two teaspoons.

Bake for about 20 mins or until golden.

When cool, make a hole in the bottom to let the air out so that the puffs won't get soggy. You can then use the hole to fill them with pate, custard, cream or whatever tickles your fancy!

Laham Fuq il-Fwar - Maltese Steamed Beef

This dish brings back many fond memories...Our family had a 'maid', well, she was part of the family (my sons god mother in fact) called Tereza. She had gone to work with my grandma when she was just 14 years old, and when my grandma died came to work with me

For many years, girls from the rural part of Malta would go to work for urban families - and in many cases, like in ours, become part of the family. Tereza would insist on doing the cooking while I was at university and I actually learnt many traditional Maltese dishes from her.

To make this dish, she would put the meat in a Pyrex plate over a big pot of simmering broth that would then be served as the first course - frugal cooking to save electricity - she would say - when in actually fact it killed 2 birds with one stone (or two dishes with one pot!)

my old kitchen...

Ingredients
8 very thin slices of beef
3 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
2 tomatoes
1 celery head (just the leaves)
4 strips of bacon, chopped
1 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

METHOD:
Place the meat, garlic, bacon,tomatoes, celery and chopped parsley in a large plate.
Drizzle the oil on top and season with salt and pepper.
Cover with foil or another plate and steam over hot water or a saucepan of simmering soup for about an hour.
When the meat is tender, serve with mash or boiled potatoes.

Apricot Cake

Most recipes are for the upsidedown type...this isn't! Thanks to my Austrian friend, Nikki, this is ever so easy. I always used fresh apricots but i guess canned could also do...never tried that though. Great with a cuppa tea !

Ingredients:

100gms butter

200 gms sugar

3 egg yolks

300 gms self rising flour

3 egg whites (beaten to a froth)

1/8 to 1/4 milk

Pack of vanilla sugar

1 1/2 lb apricots - stoned and halved

Method:
Beat the butter, sugar and egg yolks till smooth.

Add the flour, egg whites and milk.

Pour into pan

Top with Apricots.

Cook at 200C for 30-40 mins.

Let Cool

Dust with powdered sugar (optional)

enjoy!

Little Pies using left overs

These 'pies' can be made using any type of left overs for filling. I used bacon mushrooms and onions, you can use left over chicken, just mix in some herbs and seasoning, ricotta and spinach or even pureed fruit or jam!
The cheesy pastry makes a great combination of flavours. I am just giving the recipe for the pastry as the filling is up to you! I rolled the pastry out medium thin, cut in circles and folded over.

I use a food processor for the pastry, just using the pulse button.

Ingredients
2 2/3 cups flour,
3 oz.finely shredded aged gouda or gruyère cheese,
6 1/2 oz.butter, cut into chunks.
10 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into chunks
3 egg yolks

Pulse flour, shredded cheese and butter until coarse crumbs form (mixture will be lumpy).
Add cream cheese and pulse a few times.

Add egg yolks and pulse until dough begins to hold together.
Place dough onto lightly floured board and knead until it forms a ball, about 10 times.
Use immediately, or refrigerate or freeze (wrapped in an air tight bag) and use when needed.

Panna Cotta

This recipe was sent to me by a friend back home in Malta. I believe she got it from a restauranteur friend of hers so if so, kudos to the chef! I tried this yesterday and its is YUMMY!

INGREDIENTS:
4 cups heavy cream
2 packets powdered gelatin
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbs cold water
Strawberries, sliced, for the top


METHOD
Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 5 to 10 minutes.in the meantime, put the milk and cream in a pan, add the sugar and, on a low heat, bring to a boil.
As soon as it boils, take of the heat and add the vanilla
Pour the Panna Cotta mixture over the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved.
Divide the Panna Cotta mixture into the prepared cups, then chill them until firm, about 2-3 hrs.
Slide the panna cotta out of the cups using the blunt edge of a knife
Add the strawberries, maybe a twist of mint and serve