Russian Christmas Cookies

These cookies is one of our Christmas traditions. They might not be all that good -looking but they compensate by being absolutley delicious. They truly melt in your mouth and don't last more than a day (regardless of the quantity made).

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
6 tablespoons of powdered sugar
2 cups of flour
1 caup of chopped walnuts
powdered sugar for decoration

Process:
Preheat oven to 350F/175C
Cream butter with vanilla and sugar, add flour
Mix in nuts
Roll dough into 1-inch balls
Bake for 15 mins
Roll in the powdered sugar
Enjoy!

Tarte Tatin aux Pommes

I don't typically blog outside Daring Kitchen challenges but this tart is simply divine and I just have to share. Out of this world good!



Gazillion thanks to Belonika, http://belonika.livejournal.com/199040.html#cutid1, for the recipe and very detailed step-by-step instructions.

A quick recap:
- 220 g of sugar
- 1kg of sweet apples
- 100g of unsalted butter
- 1 sheet of puff pastry
- vanilla, cinnamon

Steps:
- peel, core and half apples
- dissolve sugar until golden brown
- arrange apples in the baking form
- cover with puff pastry
- bake 40 min at 180C/375F
- cool, flip over
- boil the caramel drippings and glaze the tart

Voila! Kick back and enjoy!

Crostata

And I am back...

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

Thank you for a wonderful challenge, Simona! It's been a while since my last BD challenge and crostata fit the bill -- how can you go wrong with a lemony flaky crust and some delicious filling? By over thinking it... I spent a long time wondering what to use as a filling -- apples? sweet potatoes? pumpkin? cranberries? Until it was the night before Thanksgiving and I needed to bring a desert. After hours of research, I decided to go with caramelized pumpkin. The crust was by far my favorite part of my crostata-- lemony, flaky, utterly delicious. The filling fell somewhat short -- it was too sweet and I tried to correct it by adding lemon juice and zest, quite bland and pumpkin pie spices went in. As some point I was close to giving up and swinging by the store to pick a dessert but somehow, after cooling, the flavor somehow blended wonderfully. I will not be using the pumpkin recipe again, will some more worth while filling.

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Thai... Satay... and Homemade Peanut Butter

After a somewhat lengthy break from all types of daring challenges, I came back. To my surprise, the daring recipe was satay. Yum. This is the food I can eat every day. So, without much hesitation and before I knew it, I was chopping the onions and garlic and digging through my spice cabinet in search of coriander. Voila! My chicken breast was marinating. Then I started to read comments and got a bit concerned -- is this too simple? What if it does not taste like satay that I love? By the following morning, I decided to put the worries behind and also do shrimp satay while I am at it.

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Vegan Indian Dosas

This month’s Daring Cooks Challenge was hosted by Debyi of Healthy Vegan Kitchen. She chose Indian Dosas for this month's challenge.

Despite my claims to be an omnivore, I do not think I ever had ventured into the vegan world. And I was excited. In retrospect, I should not have decided to make this challenge and the Dobos Torte at the same time. But at that time, I did not know any better.

So, the challenge was really a three-part adventure: the dosas (pancake/crepes), the filling and the sauce or topping. I started with the filling and the first thing I did was to dump quite a bit of oil into the skillet. I did not realize that I should not have done that until a few minutes into cooking. No biggie, I thought, reluctant to re-chop the veggies and determined to read the instructions carefully. Until I reached "mash the chickpeas" part. I mashed them for a while but really should have used processor to save time and get finer texture -- the chickpeas skins did not really go too well with this delicate meal. The pancakes turned out quite well, I ended up making another batch of it and the sauce was quite good. Overall, this was an interesting experiment (albeit quite time consuming). I don't know if I'll make this very recipe again, maybe with some modifications.

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Dobos Torte

It is time for another Daring Bakers update.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

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Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes

This month's Daring Cooks challenge hosted by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes is Rice with Mushrooms, Cuttlefish and Artichokes.

I have tried to make paella a few times before but could never duplicate that incredible flavor that somehow makes Spanish paella oh-so-good. While this is not traditional paella, its flavors reminded me of all those wonderful meals years ago. I could not have enough and quite possibly could finish the entire pan all by myself. But my family enjoyed it as much as I did.

I could not find cuttlefish when I decided to make the dish, so I used a frozen mix of seafood instead. And I was not disappointed-- mussels, octopus, shrimp, calamari, and clams made this dish so flavorful. My family is not a big fan of garlic, so I opted to skip the Allioli. I have also discovered something new for myself -- Sogregit! I love that stuff! Not only it adds all that rich flavor to the rice, it makes one fantastic pasta sauce! :)

I cannot thank Olga enough for a fantastic meal that brought back all those wonderful memories.

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