Plum linzer tart

If we talk about plum season in August, the first thing what I remember is that plum linzer tart which springs from one of our old family cake recipe book with purple cover included 800 salt and sweet recipes. When I was small we opened it many times with mum, we always wrote remarks on the margin next to recipes with our experiences and modifications or with just a simple comment that it's "very delicious" or "don't try it again"! 

A few years ago I borrowed this book from mum and for sure this will be also the first one what I'll put in my luggage when I move to Stockholm. It contains several salt and sweet, basic and special, easy and difficult recipes from all over the world but especially from the Hungarian kitchen.

Since we are in the thick of the plum season, I bought half kilo plum at the fruiterer on the way home yesterday. My day was quite stressful at work yesterday so I was looking forward to arrive home and start to bake which means entertainment for me in the end of the day.

This was my and my colleague's brekfast today.The result was perfect as always, my colleagues seemed satisfied. :)

Ingredients:

For the dough:
30 dkg flour (15 dkg spelt + 15 dkg all purpose flour)
12 dkg butter or marge
5 dkg sugar
10 g vanilla sugar
1/2 lemon's zest
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon rum flavour

For the filling:
50 dkg plum
1/2 lemon's zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoon castorsugar

+ semolina

1. Knead the short pastry as usual. In a big bowl crumb the flour with the butter, add the castor sugar, vanilla sugar, egg yolks, lemon zest and rum, mix the ingredients and knead the pastry by hand very quickly. Put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill.

2. While the dough chills in the fridge, wash the plums, cut into 4-8 pieces (depend on their size), sprinkle with the cinnamon, castorsugar, lemon zest and mix with a wooden spoon.

3. After 30 minutes preheat the oven to 200°C and as preparing a 26-28 cm round and 2cm deep pie plate, oil properly in order the pastry not to get stuck in it. Cut off a third of the pastry and set aside while you roll out the rest. Roll the dough to 26-28 cm round shape, leaving a slight overhang. Roll it up to the rolling pin and place the dough in the pie plate.

4. Sprinkle some semolina on the bottom of the tart (so the dough won't get soaked by the plum) and pile the plum on the pastry-lined pie plate. Roll the remaining third of pastry to a rectangular shape, with a knife or a pizza cutter cut 1 cm wide pastry stripes and place on the plum in lattice shape.

5. Bake the tart in the preheated oven for 15 minutes with 200°C, then turn to 180°C and bake for another 15 minutes. If the bottom is not baked yet but the top is golden brown, cover the tart with aluminium foil and bake until ready.

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Turkish Fried Zucchini Salad - Gazientep style (Kızarmıs Kabak Pıyazı)

And here is another Turkish appetizer for the hot summer days. It can be prepared as appetizer, meze or as a light lunch.

Where is Gazientep and what is its cuisine famous for? 

Gazientep is a city in south-east Turkey and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city's local dishes are many and very various which is the result of besides the history, the geography. The Gazientep kitchen includes a lot of meat, yoghurt, vegetables, red pepper, garlic, baked goods. The city is also famous for its special cooking techniques and utensils and also for the spices they use. Such as saffron (hasbir), tarragon (tarhın) stb.

The area's popular dishes which are counted here:

- lahmacun (a.k.a Turkish pizza, a thin dough topped with minced meat, generally lamb or beef. It's sprinkled with lemon juice, wrapped up with lettuce)

- çiğ köfte (meatball made with raw meat)

- zerde (Turkish dessert, sort of sweet pudding made from rice and coloured with saffron)

- firik pilav

- sarma and dolma (stuffed vegetables, stuffed cabbage and grape leave) 

Ingredients:
small zucchini(s) 
olive oil
boiled egg(s)
tomato(s)
red pepper flakes (if you like hot, you can use chili flakes as well)
salt, pepper to taste

Put a saucepan of water to boil on medium heat. When it boils, place the eggs in it and after reboiling cook them for 10-12 minutes.

While the eggs cook, wash the zucchini, cut in round slices. Heat up a pan with some olive oil and fry the zucchini slices until both sides take a light golden colour.

When everything is ready, place the zucchini slices in the middle of a plate, cut the eggs and tomatos into slices and arrange them around the zucchinis on the plate as well. Sprinkle with some salt, pepper and red pepper (or chili) flakes. In the end pour some olive oil on everything.

Afiyet olsun!

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Lemony cottage-cheese cake with blackberry

On Friday afternoon I went to the market for some vegetables for the weekend then when I saw the fresh blackberries, my fantasy started up. I imagined that I prepare something creamy, light summerish cake for what it's not necessary to warm up the oven when it's 37 degrees outside and it fits to the blackberry.

I remembered the eternal favorite no-bake cake what my best friend's mum made when we went to grammar school and what I prepare several times every summer since then. Thank you for it Évi!!:)

I guarantee that everyone will love this light cake which is an unbelievably fresh dessert because of the lemony cottage cheese cream. 

Ingredients:

For the base:
25 dkg ground digestive biscuits
7,5 dkg butter (or marge)
2 tablespoon castor sugar

For the filling:
30 dkg cottage cheese
175 g plain yoghurt
7 dkg sugar
10 g gelatin
2 lemons

For the top:
blackberry (or any other seasonal fruits)

Make the base: Grind the digestive biscuits with a nut grinder into a big bowl or put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush to crumbs using a rolling pin. Mix with the sugar, add the melted butter and knead into a well-shapable dough adding some milk if it's needed.

Butter a 21 cm loose-bottmed tin then tip the dough into it and press firmly down into the base to create an even layer. Set aside until we prepare the filling.

Make the filling: Place the cottage cheese, the yoghurt, sugar and grated lemon zest in a bowl then beat with an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Squeeze the juice of lemons out in a small pan, mix with the gelatin, add 2 tablespoon water and boil stirring continuously. Let it cool for a while then when it's lukewarm, admix to the cottage-cheese mixture and spoon on the biscuit base.

Cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge after approx.half an hour.

Place the fruits on it only when the filling has chilled.

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Medley of Mini sablées

In my post about the basic recipe of the French shortcust pastry, the pâte sablée I promised that I show also what was made from it. Here you are! I haven't forgot it but I was above myself not to share my experiences at the gastro weekend at first.

In the thematic book with ten different pastry chapters the author gives ideas for salty and sweet use as well after the introduction of each pastries.

The recipes connected with pâte sablée:

- Pastry baskets, fruit tarts, ice-cream tarts

- Catalan cake

- Pecan pie

- Pear clafoutis

- Mini mince pies

- Sablé with blueberry

- Medley of mini sablés (biscuits)

Ingredients:

550 g pâte sablée

Filling to taste:

home made apricot jam(or whatever you like)

1 teaspoon instant coffee

On the top:

eggwash (1 egg yolk mixing with 1 tabelspoon milk)

Mini sablé with apricot jam

Roll the pastry 2-3 mm thick on a floured surface. With optional cookie cutter (this time with wavy one) we cut normal and leaky cookies as much as we want then place them in pairs on baking paper on an oven pan. We water their tops with a wet brush.

We can fill them with jam two different way. Either we place the leaky cookie on the normal one and feel only the hole with jam, or first we grease a bit the normal cookie with some jam then place the leaky one on it.

Coffee mini sablé

From the rolled pastry we cut the desired number of cookies which we also place on the oven pan next to the others. Dissolve the coffee in one tablespoon lukewarm water then brush the cookies with this by the help of a brush. If you want to make the cookies special, you can draw several patterns with a fork on its top.

Vanilla thumbprints with apricot jam

Knead the leftover pastry, shape a roll from it then divide it into same-size pieces and form them into small balls with your hand. Plate them softly (I did with a knife's steel), compose a small crater with your forefinger in the center. The jam will get into this what we put only straight before baking.

When all our pastry runs out, preheat the oven into 170°C. Bake the cookies approx. 6-10 minutes depend on the thickness of our tiny cookies. When they are ready take them out very carefully from the pan (i used a knife for this also because the lukewarm cookie can break very easily), place on grill and let them cool.

Be careful, because the certain cookies don't bake within the same time.

30 pieces of mini sablées were made.

It's delicious freshly as well, but next day it's best!

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Gastro experiences at the weekend - last stop: Promenade of Hungarian Flavours

The gastro weekend arrived at its last stop on 20th August. This day we celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian State. There are a lot of traditional programme year by year such raising of the national flag and ceremonial officer inauguration, aerial and water parade on the Danube, ceremonial holy mass and procession of the Holy Right Hand (of our King Stephen, Founder of the State) and of course at the end of the day firework.

The Promenade of Hungarian Flavours is organized on the Danube bank every year where you can find traditional Hungarian products which are famous on account of their special ingredients, preparation.

Walking around the promenade we could see bakeries with fine breads, cheese specialities, special organic products, jams, marmalades, fruits and vegetables of primary producers, suprisingly numerous fröccs stands.

What is fröccs? Fröccs a.k.a Spitzer is a very popular alcoholic drinks in Hungary. It's wine (mostly white one) mixed with soda water. We know million different kind of fröccs, depend on the rate of wine-soda.

Turning back to the choice of the Promenade of Hungarian Flavours, I was focusing on the desserts of course.

Raj Ráchel's Flodni

This was the second year when Raj Rachel and her flodni showed up at the Promenade of Hungarian Flavours. Shame on me, I need to confess that even if I live for 2 minutes from Ráchel's confectionery, Café Noé at Wesselényi street, I have never turned into it. This statement was true until 20th August. When I saw that her stand, I didn't hesitate, I enrolled in the serpentine queue in front of it and I patiently waited for my turn comes in 35 degrees. It was worth!!! She can be rightly proud of her family recipe. I expected exactly such harmony of flavours. The plum jam, walnut, apple and poppy seed created a percfect combination of flavours. Sweet but not cloying. I just understood what Ráchel talked in one of her interview about. I can feel in the flodni that she makes it with love. Furthermore, it made her more likeable for me that she was at her stand all day and served her guests personally.

I stop talking now but I send word to who hasn't tasted this superdelicious Jewish cake yet, get to Ráchel's café immediately!

Noé Café

Address: 1072 Budapest, Wesselényi utca 13.

Open: every day 10:00-19:00, except of Friday, when 10:00-17:00

The bread of Hungary

This year the bread of St Stephen's Day was the special hops-potato bread of Gere Bakery. Its consistence was perfectly traditional Hungarian, in its flavour I felt the hops...a bit bitter with beer after-taste :) 

The cake of Hungary 2012

When I heard that this year the cake of Hungary is the apple poppy-seed cake from Szabolcs County, the creation of a confectioner, Zsolt Pintér, I was sure I will love it. Because of the poppy-seed. The Zsolt Pintér used poppy-seed, apple, a hint of cinnamon and vanilla cream for the cake. The poppy-seed with the relishable, sourish apple and soft vanilla cream was great combination.

The sugar-free cake of Hungary 2012

This year, for the first time, the sugar-free version was selected as well. The winner was an apple cake with gooseberry, made by László Zila. Unfortunately this cake was finished before I had a chance to take a photo about it.

I support the initiation of Foundation of One Drop Attention that they can show that is possible to prepare delicious cakes for the people with diabetes without processed flour or sugar and additives as well.

I like both of the cakes but I prefered the apple poppy-seed cake, on the one hand because of the poppy-seed, on the other hand because it was lighter and less sweet.

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