Almond Corner

RSS Feed Homepage

Mango Ice Cream - Cinco de Mango!
2008-04-28 08:54:00
I have discovered a blog event about the queen of fruits. I had one beautiful mango at home and wanted to eat something sweet, so I prepared mango ice cream served in a filo basket with white chocolate bottom.Ingredients:1 mangojuice of 1 lime1 tabelspoon sugar100 ml heavy cream1 egg yolkfilo doughbutter, meltedwhite chocolateCut mango in chunks and puree with lime juice. Add heavy cream, egg yolk, sugar and let the ice cream maker do the rest of the job. Butter a muffin form, add one sheet filo, butter it and add two more. Bake for 40-50 seconds on 200°C. While they are still hot add chopped chocolate. After they are cool add mango ice cream and some choco chunks on top.
More About: Ice Cream , Mango , Cream

Hoist The Sails!
2008-04-27 13:18:00
I love to improvise in the kitchen especially on the weekend when I have plenty of time. I wanted to cook something fresh. While looking around in my pantry I saw that I have plenty of lemons. I remembered that once I made some lemony pork cutlet that was very yummy, as I am a big lemon fan, no wonder that I loved it. So far so good. Now I only needed a sauce and some vegetables. Green beans! Yeah that is good. Lately I am on the sabayon run, so it was clear that I am going to whisk a white wine-lemon zabaglione. Some pototaes sure also fit the whole thing, and here I go with the potato-sage leaf sails!Ingredients:1 pork tenderloinjuice of one lemon1 tablespoon dijon mustard1 tablespoon honeybuttersalt, pepper250 g green beans5 slices ementaler cheese9 slices of baconflour, 1 egg, breadcrumbsoilpotatoes, sage leaves, olive oil100 ml white wine100 ml beef stookthymejuice and zest of 1 lemonsalt, pepper4 egg yolksSlice pork and marinate for 30 minutes. Heat butter and fry meat.With a ...

Cheesecake Pops - Daring Bakers
2008-04-27 08:27:00
This challenge was so much fun!!! The result absolutely yummy!!!I have never baked cheese cake before, at least not of this kind of cream cheese and not this type. I was a bit afraid that it will not work out. I have already seen that the cheesecake is not stable enough, that the pops melt while I am trying to get chocolate on them. So after I put the cake to the ofen I checked it about every minute to see what is going on.I was so happy when I have seen that it looks pretty good for a first cheese cake! I am not a patient person, so while waiting for the cake to cool down, I tought it is better to take the dog for a walk, before I go on with the pops.The fun started! It was so easy to form the pops, I could not understand anymore why I was worried at all! I loved it! So fast I have put them into the freezer and the waiting begun, but it had an end. Of course after a few pops were ready, I could not resist to try one. Oh gosh these were fantastic! Mmm still frozen and yummy! I knew ...
More About: Bakers , Cheesecake

Cinnamon Floating Island - Show Us Your?Spice Collection!
2008-04-26 18:13:00
There is a great event floating around in the cyber space called Show Us Your...and this time it is about our spice collection.I remember at the begining of my cooking "career" I had only salt, black pepper and some paprika powder in my pantry. No wonder, because opening a pack of sausages and ready made pasta is not cooking. With the time I developed myself there where I am today. I think I can say that my spice collection is not small. Meanwhile I have more than three kinds of salt, including the French fleur de sel, himalayan salt, coarse-grained sea salt, Portuguese flor de sal. Of course my collection of pepper is also expanded: white, rose, lemon pepper, szechuan pepper in no way may be missed in my kitchen.Beside the Hungarian paprika powder there is hot paprika powder, cayenne pepper, that is red hot chili pepper, and of course some dried chilies and chili flakes. Coriander is also a stable member of my spice collection, together with bay leaves, that I dry myself, oregnao,...
More About: Island , Floating , Cinnamon , Spice

Smoked Cheese Triangles
2008-04-25 18:01:00
Fast afternoon or party snack with delicious smoked cheese on top. They harmonise perfect with apples.Ingredients:250 g flour125 g butter100 g cream cheese5 g baking soda1 teaspoon saltsmoked cheese, gratedMix all ingredients to a dough, roll out, add grated smoked cheese on top. Bake for 7-10 minutes on 200°C.
More About: Cheese

My Herb Garden
2008-04-25 11:01:00
Unfortunatly I have a very small kitchen with one tiny window in the roof, so the only place for my herbs is the window ledge in the living room. It seems that they like it a lot, except of my problemchild the thyme.Rosemary is there since last december, growing and growing, just like the pot of lemon balm. It might be important to mention that the heating is right under the window ledge, so this is probably the reason why thyme always almost dried out after 2 weeks. Actually it is not a big problem because it is nice to use my own dried thyme, but I would love to have it fresh and green! In summer I also have bay leaf. The pot of sage is almost a month old and still in great condition! I do not know what I do wrong, because even basil survives long, the one I have now it is already 2 weeks old and I have heared that it is difficult to keep them. I would not say that I regulary water them, I check them maybe once in 3 days and if the soil is dry I give them water, but that way I ove...
More About: Garden , Herb

Double DB Challenge: Biscotti Bliss
2008-04-24 17:35:00
Here we go again on the Double DB Challenge with my dear friend Amy ! First we baked the pretzels and this time we took the challenge on the biscotti. I am always a bit worried about the recepies that I have to convert, but luckily so far all worked out. Phew... Amy even baked the cinnamon version that I am also going to try as I adore cinnamon.
More About: Biscotti

Mr. Pomelo and the bittersweet seduction
2008-04-23 17:36:00
Let me introduce Mr. Pomelo to you. We had our very first date today afternoon. First I thought he is charming, but after removing his yellow-green cloth I was disappointed. Only that small? The whole pomelo only so so so small under that thick peel? I was a bit shocked. Not bigger than an ordinary grapefruit.Nevertheless our first kiss was an explosion. I loved his taste. Mmm... I saw on the sideboard Miss Ananas waiting and looking pretty sad. I felt I must introduce them each other. All of a sudden I rememered a recepie from Pierre Hermé that I have seen on a website published by Dorie Greenspan. Once more I was disappointed! No orange marmalde in my pantry and no way to get a glass! I looked at Mr. Pomelo and decided to cook a syrup out of him and use that instead of the marmalde. The dessert was a truly bittersweet dream. A lovely harmony between the coconuty tapioca and the pomelo syrup marinated ananas with the touch of the parfume of the lime zest!What I most love about pom...
More About: Seduction , Bittersweet

Hungarian Rakott Krumpli - Art You Eat #3:Go Local!
2008-04-23 11:51:00
The theme of this month's Art You Eat blog event is to go local, that means to cook something including any local product. I was thinking a lot about this event and it was not easy for me to find the right recepie. Finally I have found what I was looking for! In this hungarian recepie you use only local products and this is what I wanted. For this scalloped potatoes dish there are many many versions. I decided to cook the way my mom does. I always buy products when they have their season after all only then they have their real and natural taste. But of course there are some exotic fruits that sometimes I can not resist. You can already buy fresh young potatoes or still the old ones that were grown localy. However it is impossible to cook only with local products. It is enough if one thinks of black pepper that is essencial in any kitchen. Vietnam has recently become the world's largest producer and exporter of pepper. Other major producers include Indonesia, India, Brazil, Malays...
More About: Local , Hungarian

Do you know my name?
2008-04-23 08:22:00
I wear a small hat and I am never alone. The mouth who ate me guessed my name is Shimeji mushroom, however she received me from a friend who could not tell her who I am. So please look at me and tell me if she was right!Yeah about the mushroom name I am really a bit confused because its colour were darker than the Shimeji I have seen before. I prepared a salad for dinner yesterday out of the leftovers in the fridge and as it was so tasty I wanted to share it with you.Ingredients:5-6 green beans3 radish1 onion1 small lettuce2-3 tomatoes100 g baconsome mushroom1 tablespoon grape seed oil1 tablespoon elder vinegar or white vinegar1 teaspoon pumpkin seed oil3 tablespoon milkjuice of a half limesalt, pepperSlice beans and cook in some vegetable stock. Chop the rest of the veggies as you like to.Mix dressing out of grape seed oil, elder vinegar, pumpkin seed oil, milk and lime juice. Season with salt and pepper, also you can add some dried salad herbs. Fry bacon and after it is ready fry ...

Chocolate Croquettes
2008-04-22 11:20:00
Yesterday evening I had the feeling that I need to bake or at least to prepare something sweet. I thought it is just the right moment to try another recepie by Pierre Hermé. In the book I found these lovely chocolate croquettes which are not time consuming and quite fast. Besides I thought it is a nice challenge to try something new. While cutting the chocolate mixture in pieces I found out that it is better to use a spoon instead of the knife because with the help of the spoon I could get the small pieces better out of the form and still could form them while coating in coconut flakes.Ingredients:145 g dark chocolate115 g butter3 drops tabasco1 egg3 egg yolks30 g sugar1 egg and coconut flakes for coatingoilMelt chocolate over stream. Melt butter together with tabasco and put aside. Whisk sugar with egg and egg yolks, add molten chocolate, mix well. Stir in melted butter. Pour mixture in a form so that it is about 2,5 cm thick. Put for 2 hours in the fridge. Cut in small pieces and...
More About: Chocolate

White Tomato Foam
2008-04-21 12:41:00
I was so curious about white tomato foam. I remember that I have seen it on tv in some kind of cooking show where they wanted to cook a white tomato soup and it was screwed up completly, because it was all red. I was wondering if I can make it. After some research online I felt like doing it today. It is surprisingly easy!Ingredients:400 g tomatoes2-3 basil leaves1 twig thyme1 teaspoon sugar1/2 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon elder vinegar or white wine vinegar2 gelatine leaves100 ml heavy creamChop tomatos and mash. Add herbs, sugar, salt and bring to boil. Put a kitchen cloth in a sieve and let the white tomato juice drip. Warm it, add gelatine and vinegar. Beat over icy water until frothy. Stir in beaten heavy cream. Leave for 1 hour in the fridge.
More About: White , Tomato , Foam

White Asparagus Soup
2008-04-21 08:08:00
Light and refreshing with the touch of lemon that is very decent. On top with roasted asparagus spears sprinkeled with fleur de sel.Ingredients:500 g white asparagus1 lemon2 tablespoon heavy creamwater1/2 teaspoon sugarsaltpepperoilfleur de selPeel asparagus and cut the ends. Do not throw away! Bring it to cook together with 500 ml water, sugar, salt and lemon zest.Reduce half. Chop the rest of the asparagus and put spears aside. Cook asparagus stock with the chopped asparagus and puree. Add juice of the half lemon, pepper and heavy cream. Cook for 1 minute. Heat olive oil and fry spears, sprinkle with fleur de sel.
More About: White , Soup , Asparagus

Wiener Schnitzel, well not exactly!
2008-04-20 19:08:00
Wiener schnitzel or Viennese cutlet is a traditional Austrian dish. It consists a thin slice of veal coated in breadcrumbs and fried. In Austria the dish is traditionally served with a lemon slice, and either potato salad or potatoes with parsley and butter. There are many types of this dish all over the world. My personal favourite schnitzel I prepare out of pork tenderloin. Using only salt and pepper. The meat is so tender, absolutely tasty and you can taste its natural flavour as no herbs, mustard or anything else is used. I served with some young parsley potatoes as that is typical for spring to me. Today I baked my mom`s white russian cake, so that is also why I had to prepare a fast lunch. Ah and the reason why I mentioned is that I used grated hazelnut instead of walnuts. Yumm!Ingredients:1 pork tenderloin2 eggsflourbreadcrumbsoilsalt, pepperyoung potatoesfresh parsleybutterSlice pork, salt, pepper. Coat pork with flour, egg and breadcrumbs. Fry in oil over medium heat. P...
More About: Schnitzel

Baked Paprika Salad
2008-04-20 10:14:00
This salad is one of my favourites since my childhood. It is important that the paprika flesh feels thick when you touch the fresh vegetable, otherwise the whole flesh will be removed together with the peel. I have seen many versions of this salad, some people flavour it with garlic, other with different herbs. Personally I prefer it simply, with salt, vinegar and sugar. That is also the way how my mom prepares it.Ingredients:paprika1 tablespoon vinegar (20%)1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon sugar1 tabelspoon oilPreheat oven to 200°C and bake paprika for 25-30 minutes. Put it into a pot, cover and leave it for about 30 minutes. Add some water over and peel. In a bowl prepare the marinade, mix water with salt, sugar and vinegar. Add oil on top. Leave over night in the fridge, serve chilled.
More About: Baked , Salad , Paprika

Undercover
2008-04-19 17:51:00
As the lack of posts shows I am still sort of on the run and have almost no time to cook. I have discovered some desperate bell peppers in the bottom of the fridge so I prepared this improvised and surprisingly delicious soup.Ingredients:2 bell peppers1 onion1 teaspoon fresh ginger1 tablespoon mascarponejuice of 1 limechicken stocksalt, peppertabasco1 tablespoon oilHeat oil, add chopped onion, bell pepper and grated ginger. Add stock so that it is covered and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes. Puree, add salt, pepper, tabasco, lime juice and mascarpone.
More About: Undercover

On the run
2008-04-16 13:05:00
These days I had no time to cook, but still my goal is always to have a warm dish for lunch. As it is finally spring it is nice to have something green on the plate. That is why I got some peas out of the freezer and cooked this quick and tasty pea puree, that I served with crispy bacon.Ingredients:400 g peasbouillon1 tablespoon oil1 tablespoon flour1 teaspoon paprika powderCook peas for 15 minutes in bouillon, so that they are slightly covered. Puree after and with a help of a sifter sieve the puree. Heat oil, add paprika and flour and add to the puree. Cook it for a minute and serve.

My favourite pasta from my childhood
2008-04-16 10:54:00
I would like to share this simple, fast and tasty mushroom sauce from my childhood. I remember that I even ate it for breakfast. I requested it from my mom every week. I love it with some pickled cucumber or sauerkraut. It needed some experiments until I have found the right combination of sour cream, heavy cream and crème fraîche, but now here it is. Yumm! I confess, I still can not resist.Ingredients:250 g champignon200 ml heavy cream200 ml 10% sour cream200 ml 20-30% crème fraîche2 tablespoon flour1 homemade bouillon cube1 teaspoon paprika powderoilsalt, pepperSlice mushroom and fry in oil. Add bouillon and paprika mix well. Stir flour in 100 ml heavy cream. Add the remaining 100 ml heavy cream and the other 400 ml cream and stir in with the flour mixed heavy cream. Let it cook for 10 minutes on medium heat. Season with salt and pepper.
More About: Childhood , Pasta

Oat flakes Bread - Bread Baking Day #09
2008-04-13 19:33:00
This is already the third BBD for me, time runs. This round is hosted by Paulchens FoodBlog and the task is to bake bread with oats. Monthes ago I baked this bread already, however I was not completly happy with it and it was the perfect occasion to retry. I like its taste very much, but it might be that the crust is a bit too hard.Ingredients:100 g oat flakes200 g wheat flour200 g rye wholemeal flour1 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon sugar20 g fresh yeast300 ml milk&water mixRoast oat flakes. In a bowl add yeast, sugar and lukewarm milk-water mixture. As soon as yeast is swimming on top, add flour, oat flakes, salt and knead a dough. Let the dough go for an hour. Place dough in a form, sprinke the top with water, add some oat flakes on top and let it go for another 30 minutes. Bake for 1 hour on 180°C.
More About: Baking , Bread , Flakes

Chocolate&Espresso Crêpes
2008-04-13 16:20:00
Since a while I had a pack of mascarpone in the fridge. As I am a huge crêpes fan I had the idea to make espresso crêpes with a mascarpone cream. It was an experiment which turned to be very yummy! On top you can see an army of raspberries filled with pistachios.Ingredients:For the Crêpes :2 eggs1 tablespoon sugar4 tablespoon flour1 tablespoon cocoa powder100 ml milk2 tablespoon espresso1 teaspoon butterFor the marsala-mascarpone cream:100 g mascarpone1 tablespoon espresso1 tablespoon marsala2 packs vanilla sugarraspberry (half frozen)Prepare chocolate crêpes :Mix eggs, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, milk and espresso. Let it stay for a half an hour and bake them.For the marsala-mascarpone whisk all ingredients together.Puree raspberry with 1 tablespoon espresso and 1 pack vanilla or leave it natural.
More About: Chocolate , Espresso

The quest
2008-04-13 12:19:00
Before I started to cook, I mean really to cook, as I do not consider cooking if one opens a package and turns twice and it is ready, I often ate sauces from the package. Yeah shame on me, however I still was a teenager. Meanwhile I could not imagine to open any kind of sauce powder and mix with water or milk. Brrrr...No matter how attractive these sauce packages or even glasses look there is no way that they would land in my shopping cart. Even if it happens that I have to eat some fast food on the way, I always order it without sauce. I am anyway not the type of person who likes if the food swims in the sauce, but of course I love tasty, savoury sauces. I think less is more, that is also the reason why I slice cheese almost that thin that one can see through, this applies to salami as well, except salame di Milano. So anyway, now back to the sauces. I had discussions about Entrecôte Café de Paris. I was searching hours and hours about various wannabe café de paris sauce/butter rec...
More About: Quest

Zucchini Risotto
2008-04-11 16:42:00
So after the devilfish incident I wanted to cook something for lunch. Brrrr, I still shake if I think of that fish. I found zucchinis so I cooked a risotto. I used arborio, however I like vialone nano a lot more. Just to have some more colour I added one carrot. Anyway I think I messed this risotto a bit up, which does not wonder me after the devilfish disaster.Ingredients:2 young zucchinis1 carrot1 shallot5 tablespoon olive oil250 g risotto rice 200 ml white wine 500 ml bouillon50 g freshly grated parmesan50 g buttersalt, pepperPeel carrot and cut in small cubes, cut zucchini.Heat olive oil, add chopped shallot and rice. Mix until rice is well covered with oil.In a separate large saucepan bring the bouillon to simmer and add asparagus water to it, and keep it hot.Add wine, increase heat to medium, and stir constantly. When the wine has been absorbed, add a little of the hot bouillon.Add salt and pepper.Once the stock is absorbed, add a little more; repeat this process, stirring c...
More About: Risotto , Zucchini

Devilfish flushed!
2008-04-11 12:47:00
Certainly I was curious about devilfish, well I wish I would not have been. I thouht pangasius is the worst fish for me, I was wrong. I have never been a fish fan, and devilfish did not convince me to become one. It is already on its way back to the sea. Anyway, I write about it only because I served it with sherry-saffron sabayon which was very delicous.Ingredients:3 egg yolks100 ml sherry150 ml chicken stocksaffronsalt, pepperIn a pot bring water to simmer while you whisk egg yolks frothy add sherry,chicken stock and saffron threads. Beat for 10-15 minutes.

Hollandaise sauce with Asparagus
2008-04-10 14:15:00
François Pierre La Varenne in 1651 describes a a sauce : "avec du bon beurre frais, un peu de vinaigre, sel et muscade, et un jaune d??uf pour lier la sauce" "make a sauce with good fresh butter, a little vinegar, salt, and nutmeg, and an egg yolk to bind the sauce; take care that it doesn't curdle...".Ingredients:125 g butter3 egg yolks2 tablespoon white winesalt, pepper1 tablespoon lemon juiceMelt butter and remove the whey. In a pot bring water to boil and in another bowl add egg yolks, wine and 1 pinch of salt. Over steam beat egg white until it gets thick and foamy. Add butter in thin spurt and keep on whisking. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
More About: Asparagus , Sauce

The Bison Supremacy
2008-04-10 13:26:00
While standing in the kitchen, peeling asparagus and listening to the raindrops knocking on the window, I was wondering how I should prepare those two perfect slices of bison entrecôte. I decided to leave it natural without a marinade, because I wanted to feel the real taste. This gave me the perfect occassion to finally open the glass of the Portuguese flor de sal. I prepared some herb butter, and all of a sudden I knew that I am going to make French fries because that is simply the perfect match. I was guessing about the bison meat taste in comparison to the beef which I made last time instead of bison as it was sold out. It seems to be a bison hype out there that I understand now! Bison is the most tender meat I have ever tasted! It is simply superior. It deserves a big wow! I have never been a huge fan of beef because for me it always was somehow too heavy and too intense. Bison is a lot more delcious and somehow I feel it really does not need anything but a pinch of salt before...