A tuna “empanada gallega” and a thank you!

One of the reasons for writing this blog was to somehow “pay back” for all the valuable information I’ve learnt (and learn day after day) from so many fantastic food bloggers out there, by sharing recipes that work (for me) in as a reliable way as possible.

This simple and traditional spanish dish is an example of the many little details I’ve learnt from others that put together after various testings made me reach my “ideal” recipe. It’s not only the measures of the ingredients, but rather the little tricks & techniques that make it rise from good to outstanding. Also, it is knowing those basic guidelines what gives you the freedom to play around a recipe to adapt it to your preference in textures, flavour or availability of ingredients still getting it right.

I learnt to make “empanada” dough at school, but there was too much information lost in translation…maybe the teachers didn’t even know, or they weren’t motivated to teach us all those details. I knew it wasn’t my “ideal” but I didn’t have any reliable source on how to make the real deal. Internet has changed that, it has made all the information readily available (with a lot of junk to fill the spaces too, though) when before I could only rely on other chefs I knew or on the books that I kept adding to my library. So as I began to question recipes and read those from fellow bloggers and most importantly tried them to test the outcome I began to modify the bland basic dough recipe I had once been taught, the dry or tomato loaded filling to finally get to the level of the best “empanadas” my memory had held on to.

So, I’d like to take this chance to thank all those people that have and continue to share so much through their recipes, many passed on from generation to generation and now available to us. In this particular recipe I’d like to mention and thank Pilar from “La Cocina de Lechuza” and Carmen from “Madrid Tiene Miga”, both from Galicia, who have shared their family’s recipes and been so kind to put up with all my doubts and questions over time!This simple yet satisfying recipe is a result of their advice.

“Empanada gallega” filled with tuna

(enough for 1 large oven tray or a 40cm in diameter “paella”)

For the dough:

500g flour*

aprox. 250g tepid water

aprox. 60g paprika olive oil** or oil/juices from the filling sofrito

8g salt

5g instant dry baker’s yeast or 15g fresh yeast

optional: substitute some of the water with an egg to enrich the dough

For the filling:

aprox. 25g of olive oil***

around 500g of peeled onions (3-4)

1/2 of an italian green pepper (50g)

1/3 of a red pepper (50g)

1 small tomato (aprox. 150g)

pinch of “pimentón dulce” (I used a smoky hot one from León!:))

300g of canned tuna, strained

*I used to make “empanada dough” with all-purpose flour, but since Carmen suggested I try the difference with strong bread flour, I always substitute some (in this case 150g) of the AP flour for strong flour (depending on it’s protein content)for a better texture and a more sturdy dough.

**If you use the oil from the “sofrito” to enrich & flavour the dough (recommended) remember to add that much oil to strain and cool beforehand. If not prepare as follows a “paprika” infused oil to add some flavour and colour. If you forget to prepare either, you can simply use olive oil, though it won’t be as tasty!

***As mentioned on the above note, if you plan on using the “sofrito” oil to enrich the dough, increase the amount of oil to about 85-90g.

 

If you can get organised and prepare the filling ahead to strain excess oil & juices to use in the dough recipe, then obviously begin with the filling. Remember, as noted, to add extra olive oil to then have enough to strain, but not completely to keep the filling lightly lubricated and juicy.

Otherwise, as I did for this post (I know I know, I ought to have planned ahead to preach with the example) you can prepare a “pimentón” oil as Pilar suggests on her blog to make up for it :)

To make the paprika oil, simply warm up lightly some olive oil, do not heat too much or the paprika will burn and turn bitter, and add a pinch of paprika. I suggest you make slightly more than needed, as you’ll lose some as the oil is decanted from the sedimented paprika and it’s also nice to use it to brush onto the empanada before and/or after baking to give it more flavour and colour. I prepared around 150g of oil and added about a teaspoon of paprika, but adjust to your liking. I prefer keeping it light in flavour and colour.

Leave to cool and once the paprika sediments, decant onto another bowl or flask.

If you decided to prepare the paprika oil, then go ahead and prepare the dough. Place the flours in a bowl, add the salt, the instant dried yeast (not right over the salt) and then add the water (the temperature together with the amount of yeast will determine the fermentation rate, so if you want a quicker fermentation you can warm it a little, though I still would suggest to avoid warming over 26ºC),the room temperature egg if you are using it) and the cooled strained oil and mix until all the flour gets wet. Rest for about 10 minutes to allow for the flour to hydrate and absorb excess moisture and begin to knead the dough until you get a smooth and soft dough. If you find it’s too dry, add some more water, if it completely sticks to you (this depends on the flour you are using) add flour by flour little by little.

Shape into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl,well covered, to ferment (if it is cold in your kitchen, try placing it in a warmish place, like inside the oven (turned off) and placing a bowl of hot water in the bottom. It will take around 1,5-2 hours depending on the temperature.

Try to avoid overfermentation, which will affect the gluten, thus the texture of the dough. You are aiming to almost double in size, about 80% increase in volume, though in this particular case, unlike bread, if you fall short it’s ok, as the yeast is mainly used to avoid getting a raw dough. To know how it’s going, lightly poke it with a finger, if the indentation stays there, you’ve gone too far, ideally when pressed, the dough should somewhat come back slowly halfway to it’s original position.

While the dough is fermenting prepare the filling. The tuna one is probably the simplest filling, though as I’ve mentioned in the introduction, it seems difficult to find right, as often, there is not enough onion “sofrito” which is what gives it it’s mellow juiciness, rather than a bulk of dry tuna or you may find some with a generous amount of tomato sauce added to make up for that lack of onion.

So, whichever filling you choose to do, be it octopus, bacalao (salted cod), mussels, chicken, etc. be generous with the onions!

Chop them up in brunoise, as the red and green peppers and slowly cook with the oil. If it begins browning, lower the heat, you want them to get translucent and slightly softer. No need to have them completely done as they’ll continue to cook in the oven inside the dough, but don’t leave the “al dente” either

When they are softer, add a pinch of paprika to taste and then the tomato (cut in half horizontally and use a coarse grater to grate both halves). Cook until the tomato pulp is reduced/evaporated, season with salt and pepper to taste and leave to cool.

Then, add the tuna and mix in.

When the dough is ready, divide in two halves, one slightly bigger than the other as the bottom is always a bit thicker to suck up the juices and avoid breaking.

Dust the working surface lightly with flour and stretch the dough to the shape you want. That is, to either cover the oven tray or the “paella”. It should be about 4mm thick or so. Place on a parchment paper or an oiled tray/paella and trim off excess.

Add the cool filling and stretch the top half to 2-3mm and cover.Fold the sides to close the empanada and make a small hole in the center to allow steam to escape so it doesn’t rise.

You may decorate it with the left over dough, but I like to keep it plain and simple.

Before going into the oven, you can either brush it with egg wash (beaten egg) for a shiny finish or with some of paprika oil or olive oil, which I prefer.

Bake in a preheated oven 180ºC convection or slightly higher (200ºC) if not fan-assisted for about 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Check the bottom to make sure it is cooked through. If the top is golden but the bottom needs a bit more cooking, cover with some aluminum paper and leave a bit longer. This time I tried a trick Pilar’s (Lechuza’s) mother in law uses for her empanadas, typical from Noia, which is to turn the empanada over, like a spanish tortilla, so the juices from the filling soak the top too and you get an even cooking on both sides…I loved it!!

Another great idea I learnt from here, is to use scallop shells as moulds for individual empanadas! It is fantastic! Just oil the shell, roll the dough fairly thin and be generous with the filling, cover with the top dough and press down to trim off the excess with the scallop shell itself.

Bake similarly until golden brown and unmold for a perfect individual empanada!

Here it is!

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Powdery orange and cardamom "polvorones"

I’m not a big fan of christmas sweets, rarely do I buy “turrones” as I find them overly sweet. But, I’ve always had a special fondness for polvorones”. Since I was a kid, I loved to crash them in between my hands to then slowly enjoy the powdery and cinnamon-spiced mixture…also to try to speak with my mouth full with one! So, when I was in cooking school and they taught us how to make it, I was thrilled that I’d learnt to make it myself (very easy, in fact!)! Since,I haven’t tweaked the recipe much, just adjusted the amount of toasted almond powder (it’s gone to double now) and slightly lowered the sugar.

This treat is from the family of “mantecados”, sweets prepared with flour, “manteca” (that is, pork fat), powdered sugar and flavourings of choice (cinnamon, lemon rind, coconut). What differs the “polvorones”, which were developed in La Estepa (Sevilla) is that they include almond (almond meal and sometimes also chopped up almonds..I prefer it just plain powdery!).

One of the key aspects of their preparation is that the flour used must be slightly toasted. This is done for two reasons, first, to dry up the flour, but most importantly to break up the gluten proteins. I think I read it in my food science book of reference “McGee’s On Food and Cooking” who recommends it for sweet pastry for crumbly tart bases. Well, also the lightly toasted flour brings out a very particular flavour…so, make it 3 reasons!

Although polvorones are often sold just around christmas time, I like to prepare them any time of the year as a “petit four”, that is, just as a small sweet treat after dessert or to go with a coffee etc. So I play around with the flavours used, the traditional include cinnamon and toasted sesame seeds, sometimes lemon rind. So, I use different citrus peels as flavouring, add some coffee powder, cocoa (substituting some of the flour) or other spices, like in this case, cardamom. Feel free to add your favourite spices and even substitute the almond powder for some toasted hazelnut powder. Just note that in that case a little less “manteca” is used, since hazelnuts have more fat content as compared to almonds.

Orange and cardamom polvorones

aprox 240g all purpose flour* (once toasted only 200g will be used)

100g of toasted almond powder

75g of icing sugar (or prepare your own, processing with a spice mill)

100g of pork manteca (I like to use iberian pork fat, from El Pozo)

pinch of salt

grated rind of 1 medium orange (or 1 small lemon if you prefer)

about 1 1/2 tsp of powdered cardamom (or substitute for 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder

*As the flour toasts, it will lose some weight, so make sure to always account for that loss toasting more than the amount you really need.

Preheat your oven to around 160ºC (best without the fan or some of the flour will blow around!)

Place 2 trays, one with the almond powder, the other with the flour and turn around once in a while so they toast homogeneously. Otherwise they will burn on the sides and be pale in the center!

You are aiming to get the almond powder like this, to bring out it’s beautiful flavour!

And though I forgot to take one of the flour on it’s own, here are both almond and flour toasted. I hope you can see the lightly toasted colour of the flour as compared to the white bowl. Just do not toast too much or it will get bitter!:

I like to sift the almond powder a bit, to remove any bigger pieces first and then mix with in a bowl sifting in the flour (remember to weight the right amount) and sugar. Add the spices and rind and the pork fat into chunks.

Begin mixing, at the begining it will seem like it’s never going to come together, just go on a bit and in no time you’ll magically see how it all forms a dough. That’s when to stop! Don’t keep on going or it will get greasier…The right texture is that it comes together, so if you shape a ball and press it down, which is the way it was traditionally hand shaped, it doesn’t crack..if it does knead a tad more, or if it doesn’t work, add a tiny bit more “manteca”.

By the way, for those of you thinking “yack, pork fat, I’ll just use butter instead”…I thought that too as I’m not a fan of “manteca”, but it just doesn’t work the same!It doesn’t come together the same way. You need much more butter to get a similar texture (which considering “manteca” is pure fat and butter is only about 82% fat, it’s quite reasonable, plus you’d be adding water, so the resulting texture is not as powdery, melt in your mouth!

So believe me, in this recipe, you won’t feel or taste at all the pork fat. First because it is a fairly generously “spiced” dough, but most importantly you need to cook it enough and any “manteca” flavour will be gone!By the way, here is the manteca I use:

Back to the recipe, once the texture feels right, shape into a flattened round (for easier stretching afterwards) and wrap it in some film and rest it for about 20-30 minutes well covered in the fridge.

You could stretch it with a rolling pin into 1,5-2cm thick with a bit of flour, but I prefer to do so in between some cling film pieces, or some parchment paper.

Cut into the desired size, I make them small, for a bite size, but it’s up to you (you can cut shapes or shape individually, just avoid cutters with very thin strips, as they are fairly delicate!)

When you are done cutting up, reshape all the dough into a ball and stretch again (that’s one of the reasons I use cling film, to avoid adding any raw flour into it). Then, cut some more..repeat until finished with the dough.

If you like you can lightly press some toasted sesame seeds over the tops of the cut “polvorones”.

Bake in a 200ºC over for about 8 minutes for cookies under 4cm in diameter, like these ones. Note that all ovens heat differently so check yours, you may need to lower it to 180ºC. You are aiming to get a medium toasted surface all over (you’ll smell it too!). So, adjust if it is colouring too much, as you want the inside to cook as well.

Remove from the oven and DO NOT TOUCH! They are super delicate warm! You must let them cool completely before attempting to move them around!

Dust with some icing sugar if you like…and enjoy!

Either biting into it or crushing it first (best if wrapped individually, though ;)this was just to show you the smooth & delicate texture!

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An apple strudel to die for…

This is my first try at apfelstrudel, and though there’s always room for improvement, I was so overwhelmed by the results, I had to share it! I thought it’d be difficult and end up with a dough full of holes if I managed to get it thin enough to read through it. I researched all I could, read various recipes, watched videos to get a feel of what I was to do and put it all together in a recipe picking ideas from here and there. Though it is mostly known as an austrian specialty (from Viena) it is a dessert inherited from the austro-hungarian empire, which in turn adapted it from the turks. So, you can find excellent versions from Slovenia, Hungary, Trentino in the Alto Adige region of Italy and Austria amongst others.
Anyway, about the recipe, making the dough was a clear choice, as phyllo is too brittle and though it gives a crunchy result, it doesn’t take up flavours as well. I gotta also say that 3 days later, the strudel made with homemade dough is still crunchy!Just had to think about flour choice to have enough gluten to get that elastic but strong network (in Austria they seem to use a 700 type flour, with a higher gluten content, for what I’ve managed to find). Then, deciding the kind of apple to use, cooking or dessert apples, sweet or sour. I went for granny smith, as I wanted sour notes and figured they would lose less water to get the dough soggy. Maybe next time I’ll try “reinetas” (very sour cooking variety) or a mix of both, to get a more compote-like texture. I also preferred thinly sliced apples rather than grated ones and to marinate them a while before using to let the flavours blend before baking.

All strudel recipes include some ingredient to soak up the juices released from the cooking apples, traditionally breadcrumbs, either fresh or crisped golden with a bit of butter for better flavour (even with some sugar to lightly caramelise). I went for those, which I often use as sweet “migas” (crumbs) in various desserts. But other choices include finely processed almonds or walnuts (other than the ones added for a crunch) or crumbled up cookies, wafer etc. so choose to your preference.
Finally the distribution of filling before rolling; many recipes distribute all filling ingredients throughout the whole stretched dough, while others only across the bottom third. I though this to be better as the roll is reinforced so the filling doesn’t pierce the dough through the final layers. Also, it results in really crisp, well defined outer layers encasing the soft interior. So, unless (and even still if) you are using grated apples as a filling, I’d definately go for this procedure for a flaky outer layer that doesn’t get soggy. Whichever choices you make to adapt the recipe to your taste..do try it! It is easier than it seems, you just gotta keep some key points to get the dough right and the rest comes along and sooo very worth it!!Once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to adapt it to other fillings, sweet or savoury!


Apple strudel
(for 1 50-60cm long strudel or 2 half the size)
For the dough:

200g of AP flour

20g butter or vegetable oil
pinch of salt
about 90g of lukewarm water*

*you can substitute some water for an egg (the original recipe I meant to use included 1 small egg, as most recipes do) but I forgot to add it! but since the Rick Rodgers recipe used by Daring Bakers did not include I went on with it. Also you’ll see some recipes substituting water for milk, but it isn’t as common.

For the filling:

3-4 granny smith apples (about 700g, peeled and cored)
about 60g of brown sugar (granulated white can be used instead too)
60g of chopped up walnuts (I used pecans)
20g of raisins (you can add more to taste, or skip them)
some rhum to hydrate the raisins, about 30g
50g of fresh bread crumbs
25g-30g of butter to toast the breadcrumbs

Also:

100g-125g of butter, melted (or even better, clarified) to drizzle/brush over the stretched dough
some icing sugar to decorate

I suggest you first watch this video by Greg Patent to get an idea of the texture of the dough and the technique for stretching the dough. For stretching and filling this other video from an german bakery in Argentina is a good aid. Finally, in spanish this series of 3 videos by crazy argentinian chef Ariel Palacios is great to get an idea on some keys for a great elastic dough, though he makes it a bit more complicated. You can also refer to this excellent post for some step by step photos.
So let’s begin with the dough! simply place the flour in a bowl and mix in the salt to distribute it a bit. Add the egg, melted butter (or oil) and add the lukewarm water with some vinegar as you stir with a spatula or scraper until you get a rough mass.
*I think the lukewarm water is used to help developing the gluten, also the dough stretches best at  room temperature rather than cold (some traditional recipes even suggest placing the worked dough on a warm bowl or over a warm place).
Place the dough onto a work surface and knead it a bit. It ought to be slightly tacky at the beginning. Neither excessively sticky (in which case add some extra flour) nor hard, in which case add extra water.
Then you can knead the traditional way or slam it against the surface to work it for over 5 minutes until you get a smooth and soft dough. I checked gluten development with a membrane test, just to make sure, and it was almost fully developed.
Then, coat with some vegetable oil and wrap with cling film to rest for at least half an hour. I left it for about an hour, as I find longer resting helps with stretching afterwards. I read a Viennese trick to help making the dough elastic, but haven’t tried it: to place the dough in a bowl and cover with vegetable oil for at least 15 minutes. I just cannot be bothered to use that much oil just for this purpose…
Meanwhile prepare the filling. You could keep everything separate and arrange it over the pastry as you fill it, but I think macerating all together blends the flavours better. Plus you remove excess water from the apples. So, peel and core the apples and cut in half or fourths into thin slices. Drizzle with some lemon juice to avoid browning.
Grate in the peel of half a lemon (optional but it is sooo good!orange can go well too), add the sugar and cinnamon to taste (if you use sweet apples I suggest you cut down on the sugar).
Hydrate the raisins with the rhum. The quick way is to place in a small pan, cover with the rum, bring to a boil and simmer until the rhum is completely evaporated. Let cool and add the the apples as well.
Chop up the walnut to the size you like, I wanted them finely chopped.
Prepare the bread crumbs, just place bread in a food processor to get coarse crumbs and then fry with the 30g of butter over medium heat until you get a nice homegeneous golden colour. If you like, you can finish it off in the pan adding a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of sugar to let it caramelise a bit. Remove and cool.
Time to stretch the dough. Ideally do so in a table where you can go around, at least 2 or 3 sides to help you with the stretching from all sides.
Get an old smooth blanket or table cloth and place it over the table. This will help rolling later, as it will be so thin, it would break otherwise. Flour lightly and roll with a pin at first as thin as you can. Then, the hand stretching begins. Roll up your sleeven and lightly flour your forearms. You can use either, your palms or the back of your hand, whichever works best for you to stretch, just make sure you have no watch, no rings that could damage the dough (watch out for long nails too!).

Begin tugging softly in a center to otward motion  going around the dough to do so evenly from all sides. Continue until you can read through it or see your patterned tablecloth! If you get any holes, though some recipes suggest patching, I wouldn’t bother, as it will be rolled over, so it’s not that big of a deal, until it is all broken up!
Aim to get bigger than 60 cm x 90cm, as the thicker sides with be cut/ripped off. When ready do cut the thicker sides and drizzle the whole of the surface with the melted or clarified butter.
I found it best to lightly distribute it with my hands as a brush can damage the thin dough. Some recipes even suggest drizzling after filling to avoid that precisely. Try what works for you.You don’t need a lot of butter or it will be greasy rather than absorbed by the dough (as in puff pastry). So just enough for a light coat to avoid the paper thin dough from drying out.
Then, distribute the bread crumbs throughout the whole surface (it could be just the bottom third, as the apples, but since it will not wet the dough, I preferred it throughout to enhance the layers). Then, the nuts (if they are very roughly chopped you may prefer to add them just to the bottom, as they can damage the layers. Finally place the macerated apples (not taking their juices in the bottom of the bowl, which can be used to make a sauce, they are sooo tasty!) in the shape of a log in the bottom.

Take the end of the cloth closer to you and roll away to encase the apples. “Strudel” in german literally means vortex, which is the motion of rolling the dough with the help of the tablecloth. If needed, add a bit more butter in the end, so the ends sticks.

The ends you can tuck underneath or twist (if too long, cut off a bit).
Now another tricky part…tranferring to your baking tray! You supposedly should use the cloth to slide it into your tray, but mine was so long, I used a thin board (left over from some Ikea furniture) which I used as a baguette board.

If the log is too long, you can either cut into portions that fit, in this case, in half (some people divide the dough in half to begin with to make two strudels, but I find it a waste of time) and bake it as such, or even stretch some leftover dough to close the open ends (no apple fell off during baking in my case, though).

Brush with extra melted butter and place in a 180ºC (fan assisted) or 200ºC preheated oven for about 40 minutes until nicely golden. Halfway through baking, brush with butter again and if you like at the end of baking a light brushing too.
Give it at least 20-30 minutes to cool a bit, sprinkle icing/confectioner’s sugar to taste and enjoy!!!

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For autumn,two delicious butternut squash starters

 

One from Ottolenghi, the other from Jamie Oliver…This year we planted a seed from a butternut squash that we particularly liked last winter and saved. Up until recently we’ve been enjoying the blossoms day after day but finally the few fruits the plant gives have ripened into extraordinary sweet and tasty butternut squashes.

I had not long ago watched some of Jamie Oliver’s 30 minute meals videos and in amongst others a sweet potato, potato, feta and coriander salad caught my attention. When I picked our first squash and decided what to use it for…Why not that salad substituiting the sweet potato for the butternut squash? I tried it and we loved it!!Super quick to make, incredibly tasty, a burst of flavours, sooo comforting! I still haven’t tried it with sweet potato, but I doubt it can be any better than this!

The other simple dish is from Ottolenghi’s book Plenty, I wasn’t too convinced if I would like it when I tried it, as I’m not a big fan of toasted cured cheese (I love parmesan, but have never really appreciated those toasted parmesan lollies which every “fashion” restaurant seem to offer as an appetiser. But combined with the lemon rind and garlic flavours, the results are super crusty butternut squash slices on one side and a creamy baked texture on the other. I acompanied it with a quick version of a lemongrass and ginger crème fraîche from another recipe, which I find is a must to go on the side (and everyone from my family who’s tried it agrees!).

Butternut squash, potato, feta and coriander warm salad

250g piece of butternut squash

200g of potatoes

1/2 a lemon

a handful of fresh coriander leaves

about 70g of greek feta cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

I suggest you watch the Jamie Oliver video in which he makes the sweet potato original recipe. Though you can find it in youtube, I suggest you go to this page (as the blog has all his 30 minute meals videos organised, in case you are interested) and watch the second video starting from minute 8 to get to that recipe. I love how he does everything so rustic and with that laid-off style!

Anyhow, even if you dont, wash your potatoes and butternut squash skin well, as all goes in! Cut the potatoes in half or 3, depending how big they are and similarly the squash piece in 3 or 4.

Place all in a microwave-proof bowl with the half lemon right on top. Cover 2 or 3 times with cling film (if you have a flimsy cling film that doesn’t stick very well, I suggest you turn it around the bowl rather than cutting two pieces to cover the top)

Microwave at full power (mine goes to 1000 watt) for about 12-14 minutes..You’ll see it looks like it has made a vacuum. Break it open.

While it’s cooking, chop up 1 chilli finely (if you prefer, you can skip it) the bunch of coriander roughly and cumble the feta on top.

Mash the cooked potatoes and squash with a fork a bit and dump over the feta and coriander (or dump and chop together). Season with some salt (maldon is nicer) and pepper and a drizzle of oil and mix it all together as you chop a bit more with the knife. If you have a nice board, like Jamie, serve right as it is, topping with a bit more fresh crumbled feta, coriander leaves and an extra drizzle of oil. If not, pour in the dish or platter of taste and do that.

Ottolenghi’s crusty butternut squash with lemon grass & ginger crème fraîche

about 500g of butternut squash

olive oil, to drizzle over the squash

40g grated cured cheese*

20g breadcrumbs **

2 garlic cloves, grated

rind of 1 large lemon or more to taste, grated

pinch of salt and freshly fround pepper

optional: some fresh herb of choice finely chopped, I used lemon thyme (he uses a lot of parsley and thyme

*The original recipe suggests 50g of parmesan. I like to mix it with a cured cheese with milder flavour. My favourite test yet was with a smoked cheese similar to idiazabal.So, to me parmesan is not essential.

**if you can get hold of Panko, do so for a crunchier texture!if not it’s better to coarsely grate you own dried bread rather than getting the fine powder crumbs usually available.

For the sauce:

125g of crème fraîche (or sour cream)

1 lemongrass stalk, outer layer removed & finely chopped

1-2 tsp of finely grated fresh ginger

pinch of salt

drizzle of lemon or lime juice

Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, then cut in about 1cm thick slices (just try not to make it too thin as you loose the creamy texture of the bottom part to contrast with the crunchy top)

Arrange over some parchment in an oven tray. Meanwhile preheat the oven to around 190ºC.

Mix all the other ingredients (I used a microplane fine grater for all; cheese, garlic and lemon rind) except the olive oil in a bowl. Drizzle some lemon juice over the butternut squash slices and distribute the crust ingredients amongst them.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top and tender inside. If you find it is toasting too soon, you can lower the heat to 180ºC.

For the sauce, simply mix up all ingredients, add lemon or lime juice to taste.

Hope you enjoy them both!

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Greek roasted aubergine and feta salad

 

Over 10 years ago I spent some time in Greece at a close friend’s house. At that time I was pursuing a completely different career, far from the culinary world. But already one of the things that fascinated me most during my stay was watching my friend’s mom cook. She was a brilliant cook, from her I tried (and did my best at learning) the best spanakopita I have ever had, phyllo also from scratch! amongst other things. The family had a restaurant and one of the things that was love at first bite was “melintzanosalata”, the Greek take at a dip like baba ganoush. It literally means aubergine salad and even more than on baba ganoush (or muttabal)  it’s focus is further on the aubergine, the smoked flavour of the aubergine in particular. That was the first time I ever encountered that “smoky” taste, I didn’t even know how they achieved it, but it blew me away.

Since, I am addicted to that flavour, which they later showed me it was imparted by roasting the whole aubergines over coals (I’ve achieved it by roasting it over flames, see the photo below). Anyhow, the dip was simply that smoky aubergine flesh, a tiny bit of garlic, lemon juice, a tiny amount of olive oil and after analyzing the dip day after day biting into tiny white speckles scattered in the creamy dip, what I figured to be feta cheese (here is a simpler version without the feta); all barely adorned with chopped fresh parsley. Aside from that dish, my friend’s mom also made a dish she named “melintzanosalata” by roasting the aubergines, opening them in half and turning the flesh into a paste quickly grating with a fork and mixing the same ingredients over it for a more appealing presentation served with red peppers roasted at the same time. It was heavenly!

Since this week I’ve been compulsively testing a few recipes that just don’t get where I want them to be, I present you that simple yet super tasty version of that melintzanosalata. You’ll find that not much explanation is needed as it’s a very simple dish which just involves roasting (whole or halved) seasoning to taste with salt, lemon juice and olive oil, that bit of garlic and scattered feta and some fresh herbs. Just decide if you’d rather roast whole for smoky notes (and less than 10 minutes once the fire is going!) or halved in the oven to not even waste the skin!

Roasted aubergine and feta salad

2 aubergines

1 red pepper

salt & pepper to taste

1 small clove of garlic

40g olive oil plus extra to finish

drizzle of lemon juice

about 50g greek feta cheese (more or less to taste)

fresh parsley or oregano (I also used some lemon thyme)

If you are going to roast the aubergines in the oven, turn the heat on to about 220ºC. It’s pretty high so the aubergines roast rather than stew). Halve them, make 3 or 4 parallel cuts with a knife across the flesh (not reaching the skin) and repeat in the other direction to form a diamond pattern.

Brush the 40g of oil amongst all halves. It’s generous so that the aubergine cooks to a meltingly soft texture, without the oil it dries up and feels spongy. Then, season with some salt and pepper (just take into account that fetta is fairly salty, so don’t be overly generous!)

Roast with the pepper on the side over some foil to avoid dirtying the oven. I made more peppers for other dishes…

Roast the peppers until blackened on the outside or very blistered so it get’s buttery soft inside and very flavourful.

Roast the aubergines for about 25-30 minutes or until nicely golden and soft (sorry I forgot to take a shot!)

Serve on a platter, board or dish (or even on the baking dish if it’s nice looking!) grate the tops with the tips of a fork and taste to make sure it isn’t bland, in which case add a bit more salt…then will come the feta!

Finely grate a garlic with a microplane or pound well to a paste (otherwise you’ll get chunks that are not nice to find) and distribute amongst all halves.

Drizzle a bit of lemon juice, scatter the feta over, the peeled and chopped pepper and herbs of choice (as you know I like coriander a lot…well, here it goes well too, just a different flavour, not so mediterranean but still good). Drizzle with olive oil and serve!

If you prefer it cool, you can roast the aubergines a day ahead and then just do all the seasoning and scattering when you are ready to serve. Easy, simple, quick and tasty!

You can eat it all up with fork and knife…you’ll be just left with the stems of the aubergines!

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Late end of summer natural leaven pizzas

It’s been a while since I last wrote. Since the end of summer I felt like everything was on an uphill road and as I’ve had a difficult time picking up the pace. I needed some time to disappear into my shell (I wonder if that has to do with the fact that I’m a cancer) to see things from a different perspective. I’m not there yet, but beginning to see the light, so it’s about time I get out and back into real life.

I have been cooking quite a bit, so I have some stories I wanted to share but had been put on hold. Like these end of summer pizzas, made with butternut squash and courgette blossoms and cherry vine tomatoes from our orchard (the only ones that made it, actually!). There’s an incredible sense of satisfaction and being rooted that comes from growing your own food; that paired with a making your natural leaven dough makes the result the ultimate comfort food for me. This is what these two pizzas are, all ingredients home-made or home-grown, even the ricotta, which rise this humble dish to the ultimate comfort food! So appreciated when that feeling is a need.

I remember how I saved a few seeds from a butternut squash, sweet as honey and full of flavour that I bought last year that. This year Linguini planted them and though so far we’ve only picked up 4 squashes, I was amazed by the amount of flowers it produced! The plant grows spectacularly fast and if you can tell from the photo at each intersection a flower grows. So, each morning I visited the orchard, the ground appeared flecked with yellow spots from the fully blossomed ones that very day. It was incredible! And this is still going since June, so if you are after the blossoms, this plant is well worth it if you have some space.

For the pizza dough, after a try at a few different recipes, I’ve so far stuck with QJones recipe which he posted in “Madrid Tiene Miga”, but of course you can use any pizza dough recipe you like. I just liked the sweet touch from the fine semolina, the perfect slightly chewy crumb texture but crispy crust of this one made without added yeast but from a fresh very mildly sour leaven (that’s why I avoid using the word sourdough in this case, because it’s not sour!). I made a recipe for 250g of flour, which was enough for 2 medium pizzas.

I made the “unorthodox” ricotta (in between ricotta and mascarpone) a day earlier using Smitten Kitchen’s recipe, which I already mentioned in this post (aha, I just realised I even showed a picture of the first pizzas I tried!).

Late end of summer pizzas

For the chunky confit tomato sauce:

about 200g of fresh tomatoes

2-3 garlic cloves

2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Also:

200g-250g of ricotta cheese 

freshly ground black pepper

8-10 courgette and/or squash blossoms

extra drizzle of olive oil

optional: some grated parmesan & some grated lemon rind (for the blossom pizza)

about 200g of cherry tomatoes

ideally: some fresh basil or oregano to taste (I had to do with dried oregano!)

Make your favourite pizza dough or buy a pizza base you like…Here’s the velvety texture of the dough, after an initial rest period without salt added (autolysis) and light kneading. Isn’t it beautiful!Then, it was left to almost double (bulk fermentation) and then, taking care to avoid degassing much, divided into 2, preshaped and then shaped into boules and left to proof a bit for about 30 minutes or retarded in the fridge until ready to use and then brought to room temperature before stretching.

If you do make the pizza dough yourself following any other recipe I do have a few recommendations:

1)I think much of the success is about using the right flours (or it has been for me), I find it best not too use a flour that is too strong unless you like a really chewy crumb!

2)if you like neapolitan style pizza, with some  cornicione and those burst slightly charred bubles, take into account that the more hydrated the dough, the more holes in the structure, so make a dough as hydrated as you can handle to shape comfortably for your experience. I’d say no less than 65%…even for this recipe I often add a bit more water (but that depends on the flour).

3)If you like the above mentioned texture and look, do not  use a rolling pin to stretch out the dough. You will get rid of all the work from the yeast by forcing all the gas out and get flat “sides” (unless that is what you are looking for, that is). You do not need to know how to flip the dough in the air or any fine moves, just generously dust both sides with flour to avoid stick and lift the disc of dough (after lightly flattening the center of the ball of dough) with both your knuckes and let the own weight of the dough do the rest. It does take a bit of practice…but who cares if it is not perfectly round, I find it tastes soo much better!;)

4)for a darn good crust a high oven temperature is key (most pizza ovens are about 400ºC) so get your oven as high as possible, so the dough puffs up and charrs on the surface as quickly as possible without drying out! Check out Jeff Varasano’s site for some excellent info and watch the Heston Blumenthal video that follows for the cast iron pan trick that really works (he is not an experience pizzaiolo for all those who might have criticised him, but the point is that the trick to get as close to that temperature without playing with your oven pirolysis system does work! I used this until I got a decent stone to retain good heat). Here’s the youtube link in case you experience any problems or want to watch the other 2 that precede.

Anyway, as for the toppings go, I use my favourite quick tomato confit sauce, similar to the one I used here either peeling and deseeding or not the tomatoes (depends on how much time I’ve got :) either is good! I often prefer to peel by blanching and not bother deseeding because the skin dries up a bit and is more noticeable, but if not, you can leave as it is or pass through a food mill.

So, slowly fry the chopped up garlic cloves (or leave whole, just lightly crushed to release their flavour if you cannot bother with chopping) just make sure the heat is low so they release their flavour but don’t colour. Then, add the chopped up tomato, raise the heat, cover so that the tomato flesh softens quickly, then, remove the cover to evaporate until the oil begins to separate again!Tasty & quick!

Time to get your pizzas ready for the oven, full blast (mine goes up to 275ºC (or so it says in the thermostat! but if I can get it to 250ºC I’m happy) I just preheat the stone and place it on the top third so it is closer to the grill.

For the squash blossom one, once the dough is stretched cover lightly the bottom with the cooled tomato sauce, distributing it so it is a thin layer and leaving 2cm off the edges clean so the cornicione raises properly. Scatter knobs of ricotta here and there, place the thoroughly washed blossoms over in a pattern you like or just not arranged and season with some salt, pepper and a light drizzle of olive oil. Also,if you like some finely grated lemon rind and some shaved parmesan.

In it goes while we prepare the next one!

Cover the bottom with ricotta, also a light hand. Then, charr your tomatoes using a torch! An excellent idea I learnt the blog Ideas in Food and used to get that charr flavour and look in this pizza that won’t be enough time in the over to give that colour!

I was amazed with the results! The tomatoes get a bbq flavour but become soft and this brings out their sweetness (Ok, these were good tomatoes) but the flavour and texture this charring exposed is beautiful!

Since I was left with some tomato sauce, I scattered that bit around and then the tomatoes. Finally I seasoned with the pepper and oregano (some fresh herbs would be nicer!but didn’t have any at the time!) a drizzle of oil and ready for the next batch after the first one came out!

In and out it goes!

I didn’t get to take a photo of the crumb, but here’s one of the previous batch. I’ve been needing a lot of comfort food!:)

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