Beef cheek with red wine

I just bought a slow cooker and this is the first recipe I tried.

It's really easy to make and quite tasty.

2 beef cheeks (1 kg), 150 gr chopped onions, 75 gr chopped carrots, 75 gr chopped celery, 2 cloves of garlic, rosemary, thyme, 500 ml beef stock, 250 ml red wine dry, 30 gr honey, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 30 gr butter, salt & pepper

Grease the beef cheeks with olive oil, salt and pepper. Leave at the room temperature for 1 hour before cooking.

Fry the meat for 3-4 minutes on each side, in a tablespoon of olive oil. Put the meat in a slow cooker.

Fry the vegetables in the rest of olive oil for 5 minutes. Add the stock and wine and let it boil. Spice it up with the honey, salt and pepper.

Put everything in the slowcooker and cook it for 8 hours on low setting.

Take the meat out and keep it warm.

Strain the sauce and puree it with a little bit of butter. Add salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve the meat with the sauce and a potato puree.

Maple Chicken 'N' Ribs

This is a mixture of chicken & ribs Nigella style

12 pork spare ribs, 12 chicken thighs with skin and bone still on, 250 millilitres apple juice (as sharp as possible), 4 tablespoons maple syrup, 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick (halved)

Put the ribs and chicken pieces in a couple of large freezer bags or into a dish.
Add the remaining ingredients, squelching everything together well, before sealing the bag or covering the dish.
Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to two days.
When the marinating time is up, take the dish out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF.
Pour the contents of the freezer bag into one or two large roasting tins (making sure the chicken is skin-side up), place in the oven and cook for about an hour and a quarter, by which time everything should be sticky and glossed conker-brown.

Food Bloggers Conference Winter Edition

It's december, so the long awaited Food Bloggers Conference has arrived.

It's a great opportunity to meet twice a year people with similar interests, to exchange ideas and see the newest trends in food.

And of course to try all the delicious food prepared with lots of love and attention.

Very interesting discussions about Instagram and food photography.

I was very happy that one of the guest speakers was Ciprian Muntele, whose blog I read regularly and sometimes I try his recipes.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake

This is from Ottolenghi cookbook and it's absolutely divine

3 large eggs, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (225 grams) granulated sugar, 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) heavy cream, 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing, 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, finely grated zest of 3 lemons (1 tablespoon), 1 1/3 cups (170 grams) all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup (90 grams) confectioners' sugar, sifted, 2 tablespoons lemon juice 

Heat the oven to 350° (180° C). Grease the loaf pan and line with parchment paper, then set aside.
Place the eggs and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and frothy. Add the cream and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture has combined, thickened a little, and turned pale.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stir in the poppy seeds and lemon zest, and set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl, then use a rubber spatula to fold this into the egg mixture before folding in the butter, poppy seeds, and zest.
Spoon the mixture into the loaf pan(s) so that it rises three-quarters of the way up the sides. Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
To make the glaze, whisk the confectioners' sugar with the lemon juice in a bowl.
Pour the glaze over the top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, spreading it over the top so that it sinks in and creates a nice coating. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan. Leave to come to room temperature before serving.

Hackfleisch Cannelloni

Easy recipe from the MAGGI website

150 g cream cheese, 1 tablespoon tomato paste, 2 tbsp THOMY Pure Sunflower Oil, 1 sachet Maggi fix & fresh macaroni lasagna, 8 pieces of cannelloni, 1 chilli pepper, 250 g minced meat, 125 g mozzarella, 400 ml of water, 1 onion

 

Preheat oven to 200 ° C top / bottom heat (170 ° C convection).
Peel the onion and cut into fine cubes. Finely chop the chili pepper.

Heat THOMY pure sunflower oil in a pan. Fry minced meat in hot oil. Add onion, chili and tomato paste and fry. Stir in 100 g cream cheese. Fill the mass into cannelloni and place in a casserole dish .
Pour water into the pan. Stir in the MAGGI fix & fresh macaroni sachet and bring to a boil. Stir in 50 g cream cheese. Pour evenly the sauce over the cannelloni.
Slice the mozzarella. Cover the cannelloni with the mozzarella slices and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Fursecuri fragede cu unt 321

Another success from Savori Urbane site...

 

300 g white flour, 200 g soft butter with at least 80% fat, 100 g of powdered sugar, 1 whole egg, extract or vanilla, a drop of salt
Filling: apricot jam, raspberry, currant, or cream of vanilla, lemon, chocolate or coffee
Sugar vanilla powder

It is important that the butter is soft, removed from the refrigerator at least 1-2 hours before. In the mixer bowl I placed the soft butter, cut into the cubes and mixed it well with powdered sugar, salt and a few drops of vanilla extract.
When the butter becomes creamy we add the whole egg and mixed it a little. Finally add the white flour in the bowl and mixed lightly with a spatula, manually. Put the dough, covered with plastic foil, in the fridge for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes stretch it in a thin sheet of about 3-4 mm thick. Cut it in circles of 6 cm diameter. In half of them punch a hole of 2 cm diameter.

Heat  the oven to 180 ° C (medium to high with gas). Put the cookies on a sheet of baking paper and bake them for  8-9 minutes at 180 ° C, taking care to remain as white as possible. 

Leave them 5 minutes to cool, then fill them with jam. Glue them 2 by 2 (one disc + 1 ring on top). Dust them with powdered sugar.

They are delicious after a day, and they can be kept for 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Crema de mascarpone cu ness si cafea

Tried this easy recipe from Savori Urbane, it's perfect for tiramisu, cupackes and cakes in general...

750 g mascarpone, 400 ml natural whipped cream with min. 30% fat, 150 g of powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons of ness, 1 tablespoon of concentrated coffee made from espresso, a little vanilla
Make a strong espresso coffee. While the coffee is still hot, take a good spoon out of it. In this liquid we dissolve two tablespoons of ness and leave everything to cool.
If there is not enough liquid, add a few drops of coffee. Do not add the undissolved ness to the cream because the ness drops will remain, especially if you use ness with large granulation. In addition, this espresso coffee adds extra flavor to our mascarpone cream.
Ingredients must be cold, both mascarpone and whipped cream. In a bowl place all the ingredients: mascarpone, natural cream, powdered sugar, the dissolved ness in coffee and vanilla.
Then beat it all with the kitchen robot until it gets fluffly. Depending on the performance of the robot, beating can take from 3-4 minutes to 10. Do not over beat it, because it will cut it.