Minta Eats

Ohh, it was sooo cold today morning. No doubt – it won’t get warmer till April. For such chilly Autumn mornings it is really hard to mobilize yourself, get up, walk the dog (or rather make him do some short walk – Lola doesn’t like chill as well) etc. To help yourself you need some sparkle of warmth and summer. Cup of warm tea and something wholesome, a bit sweet and warming yet simple to eat. My type – Banana Bread from the Sophie Dahl’s book “Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights”

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
150 g sugar (I have used 100 g of light muscavado sugar)
75 g butter, melted (or 1/4 cup oil)
1 egg, room temperature, beaten
170 g flour (I have used 120 g flour and 50 g oats; if the batter would seem to you to wet, add some oats)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

Grease rectangular form (I have used 25 cm-long one) and sprinkle with some bread crumbs.Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Mash bananas with fork. Sift flour with all other dry ingredients. Mix beaten egg with butter and add to bananas. Add flour and mix well. Pour batter into the prepared form and bake for 40-50 minutes. Cool (just until cake won’t burn) and eat eat eat!

Sophie Dahl's Banana Bread

Oj, dzisiaj rano, mimo pięknego słonka, było zimno. Rześko. Zimno. NIe ma żadnych wątpliwości – ciepło znowu zrobi się dopiero w kwietniu, jak nie później. W te pierwsze chłodne poranki naprawdę trudno jest się zmobilizować, by wstać, wygramolić się z ciepłego łóżka, wyjść z psem na spacer (a raczej nakłonić psa, by zechciał na ten spacer wyjść – Loli chyba też niespecjalnie się podoba taka zmiana temperatur). Trzeba sobie jakoś pomóc. Rzogrzać się od środka. Moja propozycja – chleb bananowy. Tym razem upiekłam go z przepisu Sophie Dahl z książki “Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights”. Dygresja książkowa : Sophie Dahl jest modelką, pisarką, a MDVD to jej pierwsza książka kucharska (od kilku miesięcy Sopie jest także stałą autorką magazynu Waitrose Food Illustrated). Książka Dahl należy do gatunku tych domowo-rodzinnych, przepisy przeplatane są wspomnieniami z dzieciśstwa, rodzinnych uroczystości i codziennych dni. NIe ma w niej zbyt wielu odkrywczych rzeczy – proste przepisy na proste dania, ale zaprezentowane w bardzo ciepły sposón. Ja takie książki lubię.
Chleb ten nie jest w żaden sposób szczególny – ba, jest nawet prostszy niż większość banana breadów, obfitujących w orzechy lub kawałki czekolady. Tu są tylko banany i cynamon i wanilia. Kropka. Taki prosty chclebek można lekko opiec, posmarować masłem, Nutellą czy miodem. Z kubkiem dobrej herbaty sprawdzi się jako jesienne śniadanie.

Składniki:
4 bardzo dojrzałe banany
150 g cukru (ja dałam 100 g)
75 g masła, stopionego (lub 1,4 szkl oleju)
1 jajko, ubite
170 g mąki (ja dałam 100 g mąki i 100 g płatków owsianych; jeśłi ciasto ļędzie zbyt lejące, polecam dodanie właśniepłatkow)
1 łyżeczka esencji waniliowej
1/2 łyżeczki cynamonu
1 łyżeczka sody oczyszczonej
szczypta soli

Wysmaruj masłem lub olejem prostokątną foremkę-keksówkę i obsyp bułką tartą. Nagrzej peikarnik do 170 stopni C. Ugnieć banany widelcem. W misce wymieszaj mąkę z pozostałymi suchymi składnikami. Do babanów dodaj masło i jajko, wymieszaj i dodawaj partiami makę. Przelej ciasto do foremki i piecz 40-50 minut. Odstaw do wystudzenia – ale tylko na tyle, by nie poparzyć się kawałkami świeżo upieczonego ciasta

Chleb Bananowy Sophie Dahl

Chocolate is good by its self but it goes wonderfully with four particular ingredients: chili, mint, orange and pear. Chili makes it a pure aphrodisiac – just melt some dark chocolate with milk in a small pot, add some sugar and a tiny pinch of red powder and…well, you can imagine what comes next, especially when it’s dark and cold outside;-). Chocolate and mint is a real classic and I think this combination will never wear off. Chill of mint (especially spearmint) is something so alternative to warming and comforting chocolate and both are making a really elegant and balanced (yet not boring) couple. Then comes the orange. I think that if joy would have some taste  it would be the taste of orangettes. Last but not least – pear. As opposed to the previous ones, pear has very delicate taste but with some stronger, more aromatic ingredient it develops its own flavor beautifully. Think of pear Belle Helene or pears in wine. Or this chocolate cake. As a base I have used the good ol’ one recipe from the Nigella Lawson book “Nigella Bites”. It works great with fudge icing, as in original recipe or layered with some mascarpone and vanilla cream. Or as a base for this super chocolate pear cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake (from Nigella Lawson’s “Nigella Bites” and Nigella.com)

Ingredients:
400 g plain flour
250 g caster sugar (I have added just 150 g)
100 g light muscavado sugar
50 g best cocoa + more for the form
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
3 eggs
150 ml sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
175 g butter
125 ml oil
300 ml cold water
In my version: 3 hard pears

Peel the pears, remove seeds and cut into eights. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Grease large (29 cm) or two small (20 cm)  spring form and sprinkle with some cocoa. In a bowl mixx all dry ingredients, so the cocoa is well combined with flour. In a separate bowl beat eggs with sour cream and vanilla essence. In third bowl mix oil with melted butter; when beaten well add cold water. Add gry ingredients to the butter and oil, mix and then add the eggy mixture. Beat the batter till all lumps disappear.
Pour the batter into prepared form. put pears on top and bake for 50 minutes (or till stick plunged into cake will come out clean).
Serve with custard or some whipped cream.

Chocolate Cake with Pears

Choć czekolada jest pyszna sama w sobie to w połączeniu z pewnymi smakami odrywa swoje nowe, oblicze. Moim zdaniem, jak żenić czekoladę, to z: chili, miętą, pomarańczami i gruszkami.
Z chili czekolada staje się prawdziwym afrodyzjakiem. Wystarczy w garnuszku roztopić kilka kawałków dobrej, gorzkiej czekolady z mlekiem i cukrem i szczyptą czerwonego proszku. A potem…chyba nie muszę mówić co potem, zwłaszcza, gdy nie pijemy tej czekolady sami, za oknem jest szaro-buro i zimno, a obok leży ciepły koc;-).
Zupełnie inna jest czekolada z mięto. Dla mnie to połączenie wybitnie klasyczne – tak klasyczne, jak brytyjska monarchia i czekoladki After Eight. świeżość i chłód mięty świetnie kontrastują z ciepłem i ukojeniem, dając w efekcie świetnie wyważone (ale w żadnym razie nudne) i eleganckie połączenie.Trzeci smak to pomarańcza. Tu powiem tylko tyle, że gdyby radość miała smak, to pewnie smakowałaby jak oranżetki, czyli paski kandyzowanej skórki pomarańczowej w deserowej czekoladzie.
Last but not least – gruszka. W przeciwieństwie do wymienionych wcześniej dodatków, gruszka ma niezwykle delikatny aromat, który  jednak pięknie rozwija się w pewnych połączeniach. Pomyślcie o deserze Belle Helene albo o gruszkach w winie. Albo o tym  bardzo czekoladowym cieście z gruszkami.
Jako bazy na ciasto użyłam sprawdzonego przepisu na Chocolate fudge cake Nigelli Lawson z książki “Nigella Bites”. receptura sprawdza się świetnie w oryginalnym wydaniu – tj. z krówkowym lukrem lub z masą z mascarpone, vanilii i bitej śmietany. Albo z gruszkami.

Chocolate Fudge Cake  z Gruszkami (adaptowane z “Nigella Bites” Nigelli Lawson i  Nigella.com)

Składniki:
400 g mąki pszennej
250 g cukru (ja użyłam tylko 150 g)
100 g jasnego cukru muscavado
50 g dobrego kakao w proszku + nieco do przygotowania formy
2 łyżeczki proszku do pieczenia
1 łyżeczka sody oczyszczonej
szczypta soli
1 łyżka esencji waniliowej
3 jajka
150 ml kwaśnej śmietany
175 g masła (stopionego)
125 ml oleju
300 ml wody
3 twarde, zielone gruszki

Obierz gruszki, usuń gniazda nasienne i pokrój na ósemki. Nagrzej piekarnik do 200 stopni C. wysmaruj masłem dużą okrągłą formę (o średnicy 29 cm) lub dwie mniejsze (20 cm) i obsyp wnętrze kakao.
W dużej misce wymieszaj wszystkie suche składniki (tak, by kakao dobrze wymieszało się z mąką). W osobnym naczyniu ubij jajka ze śmietaną i esencją waniliową. W trzeciej misce (najlepiej w tej w której ostatecznie będziemy mieszać ciasto) ubij olej z masłem, dodaj wodę. Do masła dodaj suche składniki i wymieszaj. Dodaj masę jajeczną i dokładnie wymieszaj, by pozbyć się grudek mąki. Przelej ciasto do formy, na wierzchu ułóż kawałki gruszek. piecz 50 minut lub do momentu, aż wbity w ciasto patyczek wyjdzie czysty.
Ciasto podawaj z sosem waniliowym lub bitą śmietaną.

Do You like pears? I do. A lot. Especially when used as an ingredients of some dish, instead of eaten raw. Chocolate mousse with pears? Or maybe carrot and pear soup with a pinch of curry? Or a classical pear cake. This one is more traditional than the cake presented previously here. Easy to make. Comfort to eat.

Pear

Classical Pear Cake

Ingredients:
4 hard pears
2 cups of flour
70 g butter
100 g sugar (I have used light muscavado sugar here)
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs

Peel pears and cut them into eights. Mix the sugar with butter till pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one after another, mixing the batter. Sift the flour with baking powder and add to the eggy mixture. Whisk again and add some vanilla and salt. Pour the batter into prepared spring form, top with slices of pears. Bake in 175 degrees for 40 minutes.

You can replace vanilla with cinnamon or with cardamon (form 4-5 pods).

Yesterday I asked my friends of FB whether I shall bake macarons or brioche-like cake with plums. The result was simple – everyone was for the latter option. Polish “ciasto drożdzowe”, yeast dough, frequently called “Kuchen”  with plums, strawberries or even without anything except streusel is the most traditional bake I can imagine. Not cheesecakes, chocolate cake, apple pies, but “drożdżowe”. Especially the one you can make in few minutes with no fear that it will collapse under the weight of fruit or do other mean thing.

Drożdżowe with Plums

“Drożdżowe” with Plums
3 teaspoons of dry yeasts
1 cup of warm milk
1/2 cup sugar
500 g plain flour
100 g butter, melted
2 eggs, room temoerature
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
pinch of salt
1 kg plums, stoned and halved

optionally: Streusel
100 g butter, soft
20 tablespoons flour (or 10 tbsp flour and 10 tbsp almond powder)
10 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt

Mix the yeast with 1/2 cup milk, 4 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Leave for few minutes so the yeasts start to work. Add sifted flour, rest of sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, vanilla and salt. Mix all ingredients till they will combine, knead the dough until it will became elastic and easy to handle. Leave for 1 hour or till the dough will double in size.
Preheat the oven for 180 degrees Celsius.
Grease a round spring form or a rectangular backing tray, place the dough inside and stretch inside the pan. Top with plums (skins down) and  – if you wish – sprinkle with some streusel. bake for 30-40 minutes. Eat (still warm, straight from the tray with cup of tea or warm milk.

Drożdżowe with Plums

I have stopped buying plums. No, I’m not sick or mad. I just have another wonderful source of those great late-summer fruit – garden by the house my Mum’s company is in. In the garden you can find five or six different varieties of plums. Small “węgierki”, perfect for jams and big Parisiens, sweet and gold inside. And others which names I don’t know (yet;-). So today I came back home with ca. 3 kilos (!) of perfectly ripe plums). With the aim of baking a good ol’ plum cake. It is easy to make (especially if you have some KitchenAid-like helper;-), great for five o’clock tea, for chatting with friends, for sweet breakfast. Yum.

Dimply Plum Cake (adapted from Dorie Greenspan “Baking: From my home to yours”)

Ingredients (for small, 19 cm springform; I have used 28-cm form and doubled the ingredients)

1 1/2 cups  plain or all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt
75 g  butter
100 g brown sugar
2 eggs,
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
8 plums cut in half and pitted
optionally: 1/2 spoon of orange zest and 1/4 teaspoon of powdered cardamon

Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and flour a round cake form. In a bowl beat butter with sugar till pale and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well. Add vanilla essence and give it another stir. In a bowl mix all dry ingredients and add them into buttery-eggy mixture (not everything at one time, but part after part). Mix until just incorporated. Pour the batter into prepared form, place halved plums on the top (skins down) and put into hot oven. Bake for 25-35 minutes, till golden.

Dimply Plum Cake

Are you a peach person or a nectarine person? I’ve always perceived myself as the latter one. Though I have grown up in a house with garden with 10 or so peach trees of different varieties, they have never been my favourits. Definitely  I was more keen on huge plums, golden inside and sweet as honey. And nectarines, but those I had chance to eat only when on holidays in France with my parents – believe me, 20 or even 15 years ago nectarines were hardly to be found in Poland. I like their “bold” furry less skins and crunchy, still hard center. My best are the white nectarines, not so popular yet beautiful with pink blush inside and delicate flavour. Now they are nearly as popular as peaches so I devour on them as much as I can.

Yet, despite my nectarine orientation, yesterday I have bought some peaches. Nice looking ones, rather big, still hard with orange-pink skin and deep yellow center. I bought them …well, I don’t know exactly why but I knew that I can use them to something delicious. For example – late summer, buttery cake with oatmeal and vanilla.

Ingredients

3 big peaches, still hard
2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup oats
100 g butter
1/2 vanilla pod
150 g brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Grease 20 cm in diameter spring form and sprinkle with crumbs. Wash peaches and cut them on half, than again and again to receive 8 pieces from one fruit. Beat the butter with sugar, add vanilla beans removed from the pod. Add one egg after one, mixing the batter simultaneously . Sift in flour and other dry ingredients, mix well and pour the batter into the prepared form (if it’s to dry you can ad some 2-3 spoons of yogurth). Top with peaches and bake in 180 degrees Celsius for 45-50 minutes.

First, there are strawberries. After few months of gray days and cold weather, with oranges and last year’s apples I wait for those red little ones as impatiently, as small kids wait for Christmas Eve. In highest point of my fruit desperation I buy those from Argentina or other exotic place, which only look like strawberries but taste like water (ok, red-colored, sweetened water). After obvious disappointment I try to wait for the first REAL strawberries made in Poland. And then I eat them and eat them…and wait so for the first cherries to arrive. (Beware! Digression: When I was 4 or 5 I came up with a great (or at least so had I thought) that if I will pick up unripe cherries and put them aside in a dosh, they will ripe like for example hard pears are getting softer after some time on the table. So I picked a nice bowl of cherries and put them under my desk And forgot about them absolutely. Four weeks after I made a quite interesting discovery, founding nice colony of white mold.)
Now, after straws, raspberries and apricots I awaited pears. Though the arrival of pears means, that Autumns is standing by the corner, I was really happy to find brand new, hard as rock yet sweet pears on my small market. And I have bought 3 kilos of them. So without moral dilemmas I could use them to make a moist, vanilla scented pear cake:

Ingredients:
4 hard pears, peeled and sliced
2-2,5 cups flour (I have used 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of quick oats)
150 g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1,5 teaspoon baking powder
1 spoon vanilla essence or beans from half of vanilla pod
1 cup natural yogurt
pumpkin or sunflower seeds to sprinkle, if you wish

Heat the oven for 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a 25 cm spring-form and cover with breadcrumbs or semolina.
Beat the butter with sugar till fluffy. Add eggs, one after one. Add vanilla essence or beans and yogurt. Sift in flour with baking powder and mix well.
Add slices of fruit and pour dough into the form. Sprinkle with some pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Bake for 45-60 minutes (check with toothpick if its OK). Cool on wire rack.

Yep, summer is totally out of here these days. Today it was only 12 C, can you believe it? And of course when I finally manage to change from PJ’s to something more public and go out to buy some strawberries and other necessary things it started to rain. I mean, RAIN! In one second I was wet as hell (though I guess hell must be rather dry place…never mind, will figure this one later).
One good thing about bad weather is that I bought strawberries at half the regular price (Kent variety, yummy). And I have a good explanation to get back to bed with some tea and book („A Table in the Tarn“ by Orlando Murrin, being precise).

And to bake some cake. It had to be sunny, summery. Orange and rosemary cake? Let’s give it a try:

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbsp. orange zest, freshly grated
1 Tbsp. rosemary leaves, finely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour

Method:
Preheat oven to 175 C. Grease the 25 cm diameter cake pan with some olive oil or butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs or flour.
In a mixing bowl beat the eggs. Carefully add the yogurt, sugar, oil, vanilla, orange zest, and rosemary, mix well.
In another bowl mix all dry ingredients and then stir them into the eggy mixture, adding it part by part.
Mix the batter till smooth with no flour lumps. Pour into pan and bake for 30-40 minutes (till golden brown on top).
When baked, take out from the oven and leave on rack to cool down. Serve with some yogurt mixed with tangy orange marmalade. Or orange slices grilled on a pan with some honey.

After few absoltuely summerish days the weather has decided to remind us what the rain is. No sun, just some dark clouds and rain. There are two good things about such a weather thugh. Well, even three. irst – I don’t need to water my plants (my dear daisies, I love You). Second – no more fighthing with that stupid cotton-like thing from the poplar threes. I haven’t told You but since week or soo I am using my vacuum cleaner at least 4 times a day. FOUR TIMES! One person is even suspecting that iI have some kind of OCD. I hope not..but really I cannot stand eating, sleeping, breathing and drinkig those cotton. I think that it would be much better idea for a really really scary movie than all kinds of bloodsucking spiders from Pluto or 30-meter-long man-eating sea cucumbers. So – coming to the point at last – when it rains, all cotton is washed down and don’t fly inside my home. COOL!
And the third thing great about rainy days is cake. Any cake You want. The simpliest, no-fuss, mix’n'bake cake. With strawberries. Here’s what I’ve made today.

My Strawberry Cake:
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat brans
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
100 g butter, melted
2/3 – 1 cup of plain yoghurt or buttermilk (You must add 2/3 first and see how the flour will absord the fluid)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
500 g starwberries, washed and cleaned

Heat the oven for 180 C.
Mix all dry ingridients in a big bowl. Beat eggs with buttermilk and ,elted and cooled butter, pour into the bowl and mix quite well.
Pour the mixture into a prepared pan (I’ve used a bit to big one here, the 20 cm diameter one would be great). Put strawberries on the top (don’t give too much of them dough, I think You won’t mind eating some fresh fruit waiting for the cake to bake .
Bake for approx. 40 minutes, till golden brown on the top.

Last night we had here a real springtime storm -with thunders and warm rain. So today everything is fresh, more green and happy. Especially my ruccola growing in the window boxes. Maybe it’s because of the weather, but this Saturday seems to be very lazy. Everything seems to go a bit slower and the thing You want most is to lay down with book and cuppa tea. Or bake some spring cake. What You say on buttermilk cake with rhubarb? I’ve made this using a recipe for the Raspberry Buttermilk Cake from the Smitten Kitchen.

Easy peasy Rhubrab Buttermilk Cake:

Ingridients:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup whet brans
1 cup sugar (I used brown)
3 eggs
1 cup of buttermilk or plain youghurt
1/2 cup of oil or melted butter
4 staks of rhubarb
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
pinch of salt

Wash and trim rhubarb stalks, cut in 1 cm pieces, put into a bowl and sprinkle with 3-4 spoons of sugar and lay aside.

Turn the oven on, 180 C.
Mix the eggs with sugar, add buttermilk and vanilla essence. Add all dry ingridients and mix well. Pour the bater into a form, scatter drained rhubarb pieces over the top and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake for 40-60 minutes, till golden on the top.
After cooling down sprinkle with some honey or icing sugar.