Milan Cookies : The July Daring Bakers' Challenge

Beat the drum, Turn on the spot lights, it is the end of the month, time for another Daring Bakers' challenge.

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
As we know I am not very good at following recipes to the letter and the Mallows seemed too complicated therefore I opted for the Milan Cookies.

All what you need for this recipe is in your already in your cupboard. these cookies are delicious, very quick to make. Some Daring Bakers were concerned because the result was too chewy and I don't know the secret to avoid that. Mine were not perfect but they tasted great, though my tip is : bake them in a muffin tray or use a cookie cutter so that you get a nice shape.

The recipe is for 3 dozen cookies which is quite a lot so divide according to your needs.
There are really worth trying

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: 0 min
Cook Time: 1 hr 0 min (15 minutes did the trick, longer they would have burnt)
Serves: about 3 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested (I did not use this, I hear mint flavouring is good too)

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

A Dessert for Complete Beginners: Rhubarb and Banana Yoghurt Fool

This is a lovely recipe which make you feel like a really good cook. May be that is the reason why it is called fool. It is also an excellent way of using the bananas which are languish in the fruit bowl.

40g/1lb rhubarb, cut into chunks

15ml/1tbsp clear honey

5ml/1tsp ground cinnamon

450g/1lb ripe bananas, peeled and halved

300ml/1/2 pint/1 1/4 cups plain yoghurt

50g/2oz/1/2 cup toasted chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Put the rhubarb, honey, cinnamon and 45ml/3tbsp cold water in a pan and stew gently until the rhubarb is tender. Cool slightly and place in a blender of food processor with the bananas. Run the machine until the mixture is smooth (you can also use an hand blender). Leave until cold, then fold the yoghurt. Turn into individual serving dishes and decorate with hazelnuts or a biscuit. Chill before serving.

The is a version for the autumn collection where the rhubarb is replaced by apple and 1/4 tsp of ground cloves is the substitute for cinnamon

I made this recipe with Rhubarb from Anne and Oliver's allotement. It is wonderful to see all what they have managed to grow over 3 seasons so as home grown deserve a bit more publicity, I thought it would be good to link this post to Andrea Myers' Grow Your Own and enter the round up.

Edible Flowers: Caesar Salad with Chive flowers

On Saturday I was asked if I had ever used flowers in salads. Flowers in salads? NOooOOo.

I left it to that and went about my week-end activities, visiting friends on their allotment where I notice that some people grew Marigolds close to their vegetables. Could that be because they eat flowers too?

That was it! my curiosity had been pricked with consequences....

I am a little careful careful picking things "willy, neely" from the garden since I mistakenly cooked next door neighbour's weed, genuinely believing they was chard, almost poisoning him.

So this time, I opted for the upmarket grocery store in Greenwich, where I was explained that if I wanted to add a romantic touch to my Caesar Salad by adding edible flowers, I could not do so on the spur of the moment. Petals had to be ordered, and I was given a list of "Favorite Edible Flowers for Salads"

Cornflowers
Borage
Calendulas (Marigold)
Carnations
Herb flowers (basil, rosemary)
Aliums (leeks, chives, garlic)
Nasturtiums
Violas, (pansies and Johnny-jump-ups)

I was not going to be discouraged, this time round Chives flowers would do, my research provided me with another couple of tips:

• Pick flowers just before you are going to use them. Wash them quickly in cool water, shake them out and dry on a paper towel.
• Make sure that the flowers are organic or in other term have not been treated with pesticide which rules out almost all garden center flowers (not that I am advising anybody to go the garden center to scissor away their edible flowers)
  
  
  

  It would be nice to see more recipes with edible flowers, they make a dish look rather special and surprise for the taste buds.

Caesar Salad with Chive flowers

• Good quality olive oil
• 1 tsp vinegar (balsamic or flavored)
• salt & pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1/2 juice of a lemon
• 1 egg

• chive flowers freshly cut and rinsed
• freshly made croutons
• Romain lettuce
• croutons
• grated Parmesan

Wash the lettuce, spin dry, and cut small, wash the flowers and dry

Make the sauce by whisking all the top ingredients, if you are concerned about using a raw egg, cut it out of the recipe

In a bowl or on a serving plate, place all the other ingredients making sure that the chives flowers are at their best advantage and dress sparingly

Why Do Waiters lie? Tomato & Chilli Salsa

You know the fridge magnet effect, well the following question "do you want to bet?" has the same effect on me. As a rule, I never go to the bookies, as a consequence, the house resonates with the question, "do you want to bet?"

I could bet on anything, and lately a recurrent bet has been going on: the number of roses we will get on each rose bush. I WON the white roses, that was the big prize: dinner for 2 at a restaurant of MY choice.

Locally there are 2 Argentinian restaurants. I fancied steak and chips with a bottle of Malbec and gooey Dulce de Leche. everything was nice, setting looking over the heath is very nice on a summer evening, food was good, company lovely but the waiters felt the need to lie.

Looking back, I came to the grim realisation that given the chance to waiters will far too often do.

This time, we were left in front of a glass of water for a little while, they obviously had forgotten to bring the wine, apologies accepted, no harm done. But it did not stop there, main course got forgotten too.

After 20 minutes, I looked pale and faint, when a waitress spotted my distress, she rushed to the table; " you have not been forgotten", could have fooled me. She dashes towards the kitchen, comes back beaming, "it take longer because his, is well done" blimey! half an hour on the parilla (grill) that surely should do the trick.

See, here, there was no need for a little white lie, the restaurant was packed, orders get forgotten, shouldn't happen but it does, so what? Erase the service charge, bring me a complementary whatever, and I will be happy.

Aren't waiters trained for the eventuality of something going wrong? because it seems to me that in restaurants there is no lack of opportunity for things to go wrong and something always does.

Here is a great Tomato & Chilli Salsa which I found in "one hundred Home-made dips" by Dawn Stock, a great little book completely unpretentious, packed full with recipes that work.

Makes about 450ml

• 2 large tomatoes deseeded and finely diced
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 Tsp fresh coriander, chopped
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Wide strips of red, yellow and orange peppers and tortilla crisps

Place the tomatoes, onion, chillies and coriander in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Season well with freshly ground pepper. Cover and chill.

Transfer the salsa to a serving dish and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve pieces of different coloured peppers, cut wide enough to scoop up the salsa and tortilla as accompaniments.

A great idea for Sunday Big Lunch

What's in Your Cupboard? Split Peas

In the series "What is in your cupboard?" I rediscover a packet of organic dry split peas. A whole packet which was trying to negotiate its way towards the back of the cupboard.

Day in, day out, I noticed that it was slowly but surely wiggling towards obscurity. "right this is it", I thought, grabbing the shifty packet.

On closer examination, the recipe printed on it did not appear too difficult: Split Pea & Lemongrass Croquettes. don't be put off by the word lemongrass paste, I made my own by whizzing a lemongrass in the blender, and that is rather easy to find in grocery shops, I got my lemon grass in the local supermarket.

The consistency is the key of theses croquettes, it has to be rather thick prior adding the egg, on my first attempt, I was tempted to add a little water and that was a mistake. You may be correct to think that this recipe is time consuming, however most of the time goes in soaking and simmering which does not need you to be around.

Split Pea and Croquettes

Serves 4 (2 each) or vise-versa

Soak time 1 hour

Prep time 10 minutes

Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 250 g dried yellow split peas
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp lemongrass paste
• 1 pinch chili powder
• 75 g breadcrumbs
• 1beaten egg
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• salt and pepper
• Chili oil for frying ( I did not have that so I used vegetable oil)

Method
In a saucepan place yellow split peas and bring to the boil in the stock.

Reduce and simmer for 20 minutes, stir occasionally until peas are soft and sticky.

Take the pan off the heat, add the lemongrass paste and chili powder and mash them and leave to cool

Once coll stir in the breadcrumbs, beaten egg, lemon juice, coriander, salt and pepper to taste. Then leave to cool again

Scoop out enough mixture to shape a small sausage shape. Gently fry these in frying pan until golden brown and serve while warm.

The croquettes themselves are rather nice, perfect picnic material, shame that it was raining on and off, last Saturday when the Beer & Jazz festival was in full swing. Croquettes had to be devored some place dryer, on that occasion.

Courgettes Ricotta, Pine nuts Tart

During the week, I was commissioned to write a piece about the end of the year Master Fine Art Degree show at Goldsmiths' university. As a result, last night, I attended the preview. I, he, BBC4, and hundred of others it was rather crowded.

I had forgotten what the London's art scene was really like, it is so vibrant, really quiet exciting so if you fancy an exhibition with a difference this week-end get to New-cross, under Goldsmiths' big squiggle, there is rather a lot happening.

If July means end of the year shows it also means courgettes harvest and we know what that entails: tonnes of the green cucurbitas and never enough recipes. Good little Pebble that I am, I am here to the rescue with this delicious Courgettes, Ricotta and Pine nuts tart which takes no time to make

Broad Beans Pâté

What next, well, I challenged myself to find a challenge, I settled upon "My Legume Love Affaire" may be because this is the 13th edition, not that I am superstitious, oh no, no, no, no, only because I wanted to share this super recipe found on the Vegetarian Society website, no, no, no, I have not become vegetarian either.

This is my entry to MLLA 13 conceived by Susan of the "Well-Seasoned Cook" and currently hosted by Sunshinemom of "Tongue Ticklers..."

BROAD BEAN PÂTÉ

A word of warning, try to enrol an unsuspecting passer by to shell the beans as this takes a considerable time.

2lb/900g broad beans, shelled
2tsp/10ml ground coriander
2tsp/10ml ground cumin
2tsp/10ml turmeric
2 cloves garlic, crushed
juice of 1 lemon
4tbsp/60ml olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Cook the beans in boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain, reserving the liquid.

2. Place the beans and spices in a liquidiser and blend for 30 seconds.

3. Add the lemon juice and garlic, thin the mixture with a little of the reserved liquid, to form a thick purée.

4. Gradually stir in the oil a little at a time, until the desired thickness of pâté is reached.

5. Season to taste and serve with crudités or bread and a sprinkle of turmeric.

Feta

I would like to start this post, by thanking you for reading Pebble Soup.

Pebble Soup is now read in 27 countries, not bad. If you have a local recipe which you would like to share, I will be more than happy to cook it and write the results up. We tried this before and it was great fun

I was trying out Abel & Cole's Feta Cheese (more about this in a minute) when I suddenly had a "doubt attack". What exactly is feta cheese? Naturally, I would ask a greek reader but sadly, Google tells me that nobody, yes not a soul, UNbelivable, reads Pebble Soup in Greece.

But I found this great website, "fetamania"
Websites don't come like this anymore, down to the "plooouooop, plooouooop" when one hovers over internal links. See, I was after the fat and salt content. With summer every magazine I pick, goes on and on about plumpness, and as a result I fixate on fats and salt.

Now let concentrate on reviewing Abel & Cole Feta. On the 2 occasions I went to Greece, Feta cheese was a great joy, soft, crumbly and fresh in the mouth texture. I have never found a commercial feta which comes close.

Same for Abel and Cole's but at least, theirs is very good, unlike s, me you find in supermarkets. It is not too salty and just crumbly enough to seat nicely on tomato in a salad.