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.

Chipsuri de malai cu chives, parmezan, si sos de avocado cu iaurt

Who thought that polenta can become a fast food snack?
Thank you Mazilique for the recipe!

For polenta chips: 750 ml vegetable soup, 160g polenta, 10g chives, 30g shaved Parmesan, 100g semolina, approx. 300 ml sunflower oil (for frying), salt and fresh pepper
For the Avocado sauce: 2 avocado, 100g Greek yogurt, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, 1 lemon peel, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

In a medium sized pot, put the vegetable soup and let it boil.
Add the polenta, stir and cook for 10-15 minutes until the liquid has been absorbed and the composition thickened. Add the Parmesan flakes and mix until incorporated. Chop the chives and add them to the polenta, add salt if necessary.
Transfer the composition to chopper, and, using a spatula, stretch it in a thin layer. Transfer it to the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes.
After it has cooled completely, cut the polenta sheet into pieces and dredge them in semolina.
Heat the sunflower oil, and when it's hot, add the polenta pieces. Turn the pieces from one side to the other until they become golden (each piece needs about 5 minutes). The edges will become crisp, and the interior will remain soft and golden.
Absorb the excess oil with a paper napkin.
For sauce, add all the ingredients in a bowl or kitchen robot and mix them carefully until you get a creamy composition. You cand add if you wish, more lemon juice, Maldon salt flakes, freshly squeezed pepper, chopped chilli peppers or cayenne pepper powder.
Serve the chips with the sauce.

Brownie Cheesecake Petits Fours

I tried this German recipe from Lecker.de and the result what a tasty brownie with a twist.

125 g of butter, 150 g dark chocolate, 150 g dark chocolate, 4 Eggs, 125 g brown sugar, salt, 100 g of flour, 1 tbsp cocoa, 1 glass (à 720 ml) cherries, 500 g double cream cheese, 100 g of sour cream, 75 g of sugar, 1 packet vanilla sugar, 5 tablespoons whipped cream, baking paper

For the brownie: melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Break 150 g of chocolate into pieces, add and melt while stirring in the warm butter. Beat 2 eggs, brown sugar and a pinch of salt with the whisk of the mixer until creamy for 3-4 minutes. Stir in chocolate butter. Mix flour and cocoa. Quickly stir under the chocolate egg mixture.
Drain the cherries in a sieve. 

For the cheese biscuit mix cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla sugar and 2 eggs with the whisk of the mixer until smooth.
Preheat oven (electric cooker: 180 ° C / circulating air: 160 ° C). Lay out the bottom of a square springform pan (24 x 24 cm) with baking paper. Add brown dough, smooth. Distribute cherries on top. Sprinkle cheese biscuit and bake in a hot oven for about 40 minutes.
Remove cake, allow to cool and leave to cool for approx. 1 hour. 

Break 150 g of chocolate into pieces. Heat the cream lightly in a small pan. Melt chocolate in the cream over low heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Loosen the cake from the mold, cut into small cubes (à 4 x 4 cm). Stir again the chocolate cream and pour over the brownie cubes.

Baked Apple Roses

Sometimes you find interesting recipes on the web.

Tried this one and it was quite tasty and pretty at the same time.

1 large red apple, cored and very thinly sliced, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons water, 1 teaspoon confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter 2 small ramekins (6 to 8 ounce) and dust with white sugar.
Place apple slices on a plate, overlapping slightly if necessary. Microwave on High about 45 seconds just until slices have softened a bit. Cover plate with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.
Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
Roll puff pastry sheet to less than 1/8-inch thickness. Using a pizza cutter, cut two 3-inch by 12-inch rectangles. Reserve remaining pieces for another use.
Spread melted butter over dough; top with a generous amount of cinnamon-sugar. Place apple slices along 1 long edge of dough, about 1/4 inch beyond edge of dough, overlapping slices slightly. Fold bottom half of dough over the apple slices to form a long "folder" of dough with rounded edges of apple slices exposed.
Beat egg and water together in a bowl. Paint surface of dough with egg wash. Sprinkle with more cinnamon-sugar, to taste.
Starting from one end, roll dough not too tightly to form a rose-shaped pastry. Seal roll with end of dough strip.
Transfer roses to prepared ramekins. Sprinkle with a little more cinnamon-sugar. Place ramekins directly on middle rack of preheated oven.
Bake until well browned, about 45 minutes. Remove ramekins with tongs and place on baking sheet to cool 5 to 10 minutes. Remove apple roses from ramekins and finish cooling on rack. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving

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Pestera Muierii, Romania

Food Bloggers Conference Summer Edition

Finally the Summer Edition has arrived.

The speakers, the people, the bloggers and the food, everything was great.

It is soo nice to meet people with similar interests, and a place you can just forget all the daily stress and problems and just have fun for a couple of hours.

And not forget the main sponsor, LIDL, which I think is the best supermarket in Romania. And because of him, I discovered last year, the program Paine si Maine which helps children from poor neighbourhoods to go to school and have a warm meal a day.

Can't wait for the Winter Edition and its surprises.

 

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Quartier des Grottes, Geneva, Switzerland

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The Famine in Ireland sells well...