What are you cooking today?

[Fraufruit]

Of course. Just like he used to do after I cooked. I stopped cooking when he retired.

[snowingagain]

Alone today on Shrove Tuesday. UK style pancakes (though I love them) too much of a faff. So planning a (horribly named) Dutch Baby. Which is just a German style oven pancake. A savoury one using a simple bbc recipe. Ham, cheese egg. And a salad.

And sod it, I admit I am gaga. Forgotten again again how to post images.

[editorL]

And sod it, I admit I am gaga. Forgotten again again how to post images.

After you clicked on "Post reply" or on the Quotation button, you can enter your text, you've been there, you've done that...

Now, let's assume you managed (before starting to write) to have the picture on your computer's disk in a common format like jpg ...

Below the place where you can enter your text should be this:

p1.jpg (48.75 KiB) Viewed 1381 times

Simply click on Attachments, and this should show up:

p2.jpg (70.43 KiB) Viewed 1381 times

Once you click on "Add files" you will get a window to select the file (that you want to attach) from your hard disk. Once you have selected all (or one) file, it should look like this:

p3.jpg (103.84 KiB) Viewed 1381 times

You can leave things like that and press on submit at this point, the pictures will all be shown at the end of your post.

However, If you're telling a story or want to show a progress while coooking, you might want the pictures to appear in dedicated positions within the posting: Move the cursor to the desired position and select "Place Inline",the result will be that this picture is shown at that position, not at the end of the posting. Keep doing that for all uploaded pictures, one after another.

(And I definitely need to redo the FAQ's. But not today )

[kiplette]

Alone today on Shrove Tuesday.

Rats. Remembered, forgot, remembered, forgot, did chilli, ate it, read this.

I hope your Dutch Baby (as you say, eeurgh) was delicious

[Frantic]

Few days ago was my birthday and I prepared a cake...i guess in english is called sponge cake, in italian we call simply "torta" and the base is "Pan di Spagna".

The sponge is made just with egg, sugar, flour, vanilla essence. No baking powder or other stuff. I messed up a bit with the internal custards (?), they should have been less liquid. Anyway was my first time doing custards from scratch without using dk okter magic powders. Second time I did a Spongecake tough.

Custards: Chocolate (with a bit of cream added) and Italian Chantilly (we call "Diplomatica" custard).
Cake soak: mix of Bailey liquor, milk, water, sugar.
Topping Cream: not spray one, whipped cream...used schlagsahne with min 35% fat and bit of sugar.

Final note: only by preparing yourself a cake you realize what a calories bomb they are.

Overview

Spongecake.jpg (454.83 KiB) Viewed 1321 times

Section. Note the melting custards

Spongecake - Section.jpg (405.65 KiB) Viewed 1321 times

[Frantic]

A pair of days after my birthday I cooked a Risotto with Pumpkin, Porcini Mushrooms and Fennel Sausages.

For the rice I used Arborio type. The fennel Sausages you can find in Aldi or Kaufland, usually sold as BBQ stuff.

Most of the pumpkin you will cook with onion oil rosemary and then you blend. You will add it to the rice at half of risotto cooking
You just leave some dices that you will separately fries in olive oil on a pan till they roast. You have to check and turn them one by one to be sure they get roasted properly. Bit, but just a bit, of salt at the end. These are the dices you see on top.

Porcini Mushrooms will be the frozen one. Cooked on a pan with olive oil, piece of garlics (which you will remove), pepper, thyme. WHen they are almost cooked (soft and melted) you add the Fennel Sausage which you have previously made in small pieces after removing the skin. It has to be just a kind of rough pork minced meat.

When you think the risotto will need just 5 minutes to be completely cooked you add also the cooked mushrooms/sausage mix.

No need to say, when you turn off the fire, you add butter and shredded parmesan (or grana padano) and you steer/whisk it.

Serve on flat plate, decorate with the pumpkins dices previously roasted. They are actually not just a simple decoration but their sweetness will explode in your mouth balancing and giving you a break from the high sapidity coming from the sausage and mushrooms.

Risotto alla Zucca con Porcini e Salsiccia al Finocchio.jpg (484.09 KiB) Viewed 1321 times

[Fraufruit]

Looks lovely, Frantic. What a beautiful plate.

Can you tell me what fennel sausages are called at Aldi, please? I'd like to get some for my next lasagne.

[Frantic]

Looks lovely, Frantic. What a beautiful plate.

Can you tell me what fennel sausages are called at Aldi, please? I'd like to get some for my next lasagne.

In Aldi the brand should be Cucina Nobile, Salsiccia.
I don't know if, still in ALDI, the Gourmet product line (black packagin) is making the one with rosemary or fenchel. For sure is making the one with Truffel but it can be a too much strong flavour for your lasagne.

Otherwise Kaufland, again salsiccia italiana (or toscana ? dont remember). YOu will find the standard one, the one with chili, the one with fennel.

[Fraufruit]

Thank you!

[kiplette]

That all looks delicious, and Happy Belated Birthday to you, Frantic!

[Frantic]

Salmon, Broccoli and "slim" French Fries

On Sunday at lunch I cooked "Impepata di Cozze" (Peppered Mussels) as starter and Spaghetti with Mussels as main but I forgot to take pornfood pictures so let's skip to the sunday dinner

Preparation

- Salmon
Cut in half some cherry tomatoes (I remove the seed) and put to fry in a pan with olive oil and 4 half gloves of garlic. Add immediately salt and cover with a lid.
After one/two minutes add chopped onions. Keep cooking for 3 minutes at medium fire. Onion should not roast or complete their cooking.
Add Taggiasche Olives (I found them in Aldi, Gourmet product line) but also "Kalamata" ones are ok. I strongly suggest to buy the one with seeds and remove the seeds, they are more tasty. Add capers. Let all fries for another minute and then add the salmon pieces, with the skin touching the pan. It will protect the rest of the meat. You can add just half glass of white wine (not mandatory) and wait the alchool evaporate. After that add pepper, salt and oregano and remove the garlic gloves. Cover the pan with a lid and keep cooking at 60/70% fire power. From time to time steer a bit so that the sauce components do not stick and burn. Anyway the final result is to have onions caramelized and probably some of them will burn (you will avoid to take them from the pan).

- Broccoli
Just boil in salted hot water. When you compose the plate, add a spoon of olive oil. They needs to be served cold or warm, not hot. Beside the Broccoli I have put a generous spoon of Cottage Cheese. The idea is to balance the sweetness of the Broccoli with the sourness of the cottage cheese.

- Slim French Fries
They are cooked in microwave (the one which can work also as a normal oven) with french fries program. The oil added before cooking them is very minimal

Salmon with Broccoli and Slim Frech Fries.jpg (827.88 KiB) Viewed 1128 times

[Sannerl]

Salmon, Broccoli and "slim" Frenc Fries

Sounds (and looks) good - but maybe you should check your spell ~? Not just the quoted part...
Peace.

[Frantic]

Few days ago I prepared what, I guess, in English is called Pie. In Italy we call it "Pizza Rustica" (in the south) or "Torta Salata" (although the "torta" tends to be without topping dough).

I prepared two, one with minced meat and one with spinach. I have used puff pastry (?). I have to say that the quantity of meat was too much for the puff pastry....for that quantity I should have used another type of dough like a shortcrust pastry (?). In Italy usually if we do puff pastry stuffed with minced meat we use lot less of meat.

SPINACH STUFFING.
Spinach previously cooked with olive oil and piece of garlic and then shredded (not blended) in small pieces. Then I have mixed them with Ricotta Cheese, Grana Cheese, previously fried bacon dices, one egg, bit of nutmeg, pepper, salt.

MINCED MEAT STUFFING.
I cooked with olive oil and piece of garlic around 300g of Tomato Sauce for at least 30 minutes. On a pan I have fried a mix of, diced, carrots, celery, onions then I have added 1kg of Minced meat. WHen the meat was not anymore pink I have added a glass of white wine and wait the alcohol evaporates. When the meat was cooked I added the tomato sauce, pepper, salt, bit of nutmeg, one egg, previously fried bacon dices, previously cooked (with olive oil onion water) green peas, some pieces of smoked cheese, Grana cheese.

EDIT: of course the garlic used for preparing some ingredients is then removed. It doesn'T stay in the stuffing.

Pie.jpg (230.86 KiB) Viewed 79 times

SpinachPie.jpg (372.59 KiB) Viewed 79 times

MincedMeat.jpg (318.16 KiB) Viewed 79 times

[Fraufruit]

Looks delish!!!