Monday, 6 May 2019

Strawberry Millfai



Strawberry
🍓 Millfai 

Ingredients
For cream

1 liter milk
100 g corn starch 
3 egg yolks
270 g granulated sugar
1 vanilla pod
100 g butter
200 g whipped cream
200g Extra whipped cream for the topping

For the base

2 puff pastry sheets (850 g)
12 large strawberries sliced and dipped in vanilla sugar 
100 g icing sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, for serving if you like (I don’t use Cinnamon)

Method
For the cream

In a pot, add 900 g of the milk and half of the sugar.
Slice the vanilla pod open with a small knife and scrape out the seeds. Add them to the pot along with the pod.
Place over medium heat for 5 minutes, until it comes to a boil.
In a bowl, add the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar. Whisk.
Add the milk and corn starch. Whisk until the ingredients are completely combined.
As soon as the milk comes to a boil, gradually add the egg yolk mixture while whisking continuously.
Transfer all of the mixture to the pot and place over heat.
Whisk continuously for 2-3 minutes, until the cream thickens.
Remove from heat, add the butter and whisk until it melts.
Remove the vanilla pod and transfer cream to a bowl.
Cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic touches the surface of the cream directly so that a film does not form.
Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
For the base

Preheat oven to 190* C (374* F) Fan.
Spread the puff pastry out on a working surface and cut each sheet into 12 pieces. You want 24 pieces total.
Dust one side of the puff pastry pieces with icing sugar and transfer to 2 baking pans lined with parchment paper.
Pierce them with a fork all over so that they don’t puff up while baking.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.
To assemble

Remove the cream from the refrigerator and mix with a spatula so that it can fluff up.
Add the whipped cream and mix until incorporated.
Spread some of the whipped cream on a serving platter so that the sweet won’t slide.
Add 6 pieces of the puff pastry and spread the cream over their surface with a spatula.
Top with strawberries and repeat the same process until you have created 3 layers of puff pastry and cream.
Spread the remaining cream over the whole surface of the dessert.
Beat some fresh cream with one vanilla sugar until thick and spread on top of custard then. Crush the remaining 6 puff pastry pieces with your hands and sprinkle them over the whole surface of the mille feuille.
Serve with icing sugar and ground cinnamon.































































Sunday, 3 February 2019

Keto Crab meat cakes




Ingredients


  • 2 ½ cups crab meat boiled fresh or caned
  • 1 large egg 
  • 1/2 cup pork rind  crushed
  • 1/4 cup of Mayonnaise 
  • 1 large Avocado 
  • 1 to 1 ½ teaspoon of  Seasoning of your choise 
  • 1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt 
  • I red onion chopped 
  • 4 spring onions chopped 
  • 4 Tablespoons of Tapioca flour 
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice divided
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • olive oil or coconut oil for frying
  • Fresh parsley
    extra fresh parsley & lemon slices for garnishing




Instructions

  •  In a bowl, combine cooked crab meat, egg yolk, crushed pork rinds, the flour mayonnaise, seasoning, onions Avocado 1 tablespoon lemon juice, salt and ground pepper mix altogether but do not over mix.
  • Form crab meat mixture into patties.
  •  In a skillet or non-stick pan with low to medium heat, lay crab meat patties gently and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden in color.
  • Drain crab cakes, drizzle the remaining lemon juice, garnish with fresh parsley and serve with a nice green salad.













Wednesday, 26 December 2018

Mushrooms

Fay’s stuffed Portobello Mushrooms 


Ingredients 

6 large Portobello Mushrooms 

2 slices of bacon diced

1 egg

I small onion diced 

Half  cup of sliced leeks

1 glove of Garlic diced 

3 cups of spinach leaves 

125 grams of Philadelphia cheese 

1 cup of mozzarella grated cheese

1 tbs of olive oil 

Salt and black coarse pepper 


Method

For the Mushrooms 

Clean Mushrooms by taking the outer skin of and cut the stems off and dice them and add them also in the frypan to the rest of the veggies 

Rub the Mushrooms with olive oil salt and pepper and live them in a tray until ready to be stuffed.

For the stuffing 

Cut all ingredients in to small cubes 

Place the olive oil in a frypan and sauté the bacon onion the leeks and garlic until they become translucent add the spinach leaves and stirring well until spinach has welted then taking the frypan away from the heat stir in the cream cheese together with the cup of mozzarella and the one egg mixing until all have combined.

With a spoon fill all the Mushrooms with the stuffing and add some more of the mozzarella cheese on top. 

Bake in a 180* preheated oven until cheese has melted and is golden brown enjoy! 


If you don’t have enough Mushrooms you can also use any other vegetables of your choice I also used zucchini.



















Souzoukakia stuffed with feta and Kassery Cheese



Ingredients 

500 g. minced beef meat
Two gloves of crushed garlic
2 tbs olive oil
1 tsp cumin
2 slices stale bread
1 cup. Mavrodafni or any good red wine
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup of feta cheese crumbled 
1 cup of thickly grated Kassery or any yellow cheese of your choice
1/2 bunch of fresh parsley 

For serving
yoghurt
parsley

For the sauce
1 kg grated tomatoes
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbsp paste
1 pinch of sugar
2-3 grains of allspice
1/4 tsp of Cinnamon or half a stick 
1 tsp of cumin powder
1 tsp of sweet paprika powder 
salt
Freshly grated black pepper

For the almond pilaf
2 tbs butter
3 tbsp of crushed almonds with out the skin 
2 cup of Jasmine  rice
4 cups. hot water or broth
salt
pepper

Soak the bread in the wine. The squeeze and place in bowl. Add all the ingredients of minced meat and knead together until fluffy minced.
Mix together the cheeses and chopped parsley add some black pepper and mix well until it's all combined in to a firm mixture. 
Simultaneously boil together all the ingredients of the sauce for 15 minutes until the sauce thickens. Dip hands in wine and mold into small meatballs and flatten it down and with a small spoon add a small amount of the cheese mixture in the middle of the meatball and shape in to oblong meatballs and placer hem in a well greased oven tray and sprinkle some olive oil over them and bake for 20min minutes to brown. When meatballs have browned take out of the oven and pore the red sauce on top of meatballs and cover with airfoil and place in moderate oven for a further 20min 

For the Almond rice

Brown the butter with almonds in the pan. Preheat the oven to 200ºC in the air, on the middle rack and heat the pan. Pour in the hot pan butter and almonds, add the warm water or broth and rice and cook for 25 minutes, stirring 1-2 times.











EKMEK


Greek Ekmek Kataifi recipe (Custard and whipped cream pastry with syrup)

Base ingredients

  • 250g kataifi dough (9 oz.)
  • 50g butter, melted (2 oz.)
  • 80-100g pistachios, chopped (3.5 oz.)

For the syrup

  • 200g sugar (7 oz.)
  • 200g water (4/5 of a cup)
  • lemon peel from half a lemon
  • 1 cinammon stick

For the custard

  • 750g whole milk, cold (3 cups)
  • 150g sugar (5.5 0z.)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 75g corn starch (2.6 oz.)
  • 4-5 egg yolks (depending on the size of the eggs)
  • 75g butter (2.6 oz.)
  • a pinch of powdered mastic (

For the whipped cream

  • 500g cold heavy whipping cream (2 cups)
  • 60g icing sugar (2 oz.)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

























Directions

  • To prepare this traditional Ekmek kataifi recipe start by making the base. Preheat the oven to 170C and unroll the kataifi dough from the plastic sleeve. Work the kataifi dough with your hands, tearing apart the shreds and spreading the strands out a bit if they clump together, in order to get fluffy. For this ekmek kataifi recipe you will need a 25cm square non-sticking baking dish. Butter the bottom of the baking dish and spread the kataifi dough to form the base of the ekmek kataifi. Pour over the melted butter and bake in preheated oven for 30-45 minutes depending on your oven, until crispy and nicely coloured.
  • In the meantime prepare the custard for the ekmek kataifi (steps 2-4). Add in a large bowl the egg yolks with half the sugar (100g) and whisk until fluffy. Add 3-4 tbsps of the milk and the corn starch and whisk again until the corn starch has dissolved. Set aside.
  • Pour the rest of the milk in a large non-sticking pan and add the sugar and the vanilla extract. Place the pan over high heat and bring to the boil. As soon as the milk comes to the boil, remove from the heat and ladle gradually 1/3 of the milk into the egg mixture, whilst whisking. Place the pan (with the remaining milk) again on the stove and turn the heat down to medium. Add the egg mixture into the pan with the remaining warm milk. Whisk continuously, until the mixture has thickened and is smooth and creamy. Remove the pan from the stove, add the butter and stir.
  • Pour the custard in a large tray, cover with some plastic wrap (the plastic wrarp should be touching the custard, so that it doesn’t form a crust) and let it cool, while you prepare the rest of the ekmek kataifi recipe.
  • Turn the kataifi out of the oven and let it cool down completely.
  • Prepare the syrup for the ekmek kataifi. Add all the ingredients for the syrup into a small pot and bring to the boil. Simmer the syrup of 3 minutes (without stirring), until slightly thickened and remove from the stove. Leave the syrup aside to cool down for a while, until lukewarm. Ladle slowly the lukewarm syrup over the cold baked pastry, enabling each ladle to be absorbed. Set aside to cool down for a while.
  • Prepare the whipped cream and assemble the ekmek kataifi. Top the kataifi base with the custard and even out using a spatula. Put the cold heavy cream into a mixer’s bowl, add the icing sugar and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, about 1 minute. Top the ekmek kataifi with the whipped cream and even out. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios and a pinch of cinnamon.
  • Store the ekmek kataifi in the fridge and serve cold. Enjoy!