Crevettes "cachées" - "Hidden" crevettes...

This year the winter lasts quite long and the desire for some sun, the seaside, tropical flowers grows day by day...
So a dish with some crevettes might bring a little bit of  a kind of "sunny seaside feeling" into those grey winter days..

 What you need:
Peeled Crevettes (about 4 pieces / Person)
1 tablespoon Gomasio, 1 teaspoon dark Soy sauce,
2 teaspoon sesam oil and a roll of puff pastry

1. Preheat the oven at 180 C
2. Prepare the marinade for the crevettes: Put the Gomasio together with the soy sauce and the sesam oil in a mortar and mix all until obtaining a smooth sauce out of the ingredients.
3. Then pour this mixture over the crevettes and let them rest for about 10 minutes.

 4. Cut the puff pastry into squares (the size depends on the size of your crevettes) and wrap each crevette into one of those squares. (the crevettes should not be too moist..)

5. Put those "Hidden" crevettes on a baking tray with parchement paper and put them in the preheated

    oven for about 18 minutes (until the puff pastry is golden brown)

Enjoy the meal with some salad and perhaps listen to some Reggae Music or .....

Mozarella: a never ending story....

I think there is no one who did not taste Mozzarella once in his life.
Quite always one receive Mozarella in the so called "Mozarella caprese" way...
Quite tasty..yes..but it becomes a little bit boring... So why not making a variation? 

So may I present you "Cape Mozzarella":

What you need:

Mozarella (if possible the much more delicious, but also more expansive buffalo mozarella)

a glass of caper, a palmful walnut, black pepper, salt, olive oil, 1 lemon (or some Verjus)

1. Squeeze the lemon to get some lemon juice.

2. In a bowl blend together with a fork the olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice (or Verjus).

    Adjust to your taste (one may prefer more lemon, one more spices...)

3. Now add the caper and the coarsely chopped walnuts to this mixture

4. Cut the Mozzarella into rather thin slices and arrange them on a plate

4. Pour the caper-walnut-vinaigrette over the mozzarella

....And now enjoy it with some fresh baguette or foccaccia or...

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Vanilla Cupcakes with Chai Tea Latte Frosting

 

Cupcakes are definitely not an every day treat.

But sometimes such sweet dreams are allowed and sometimes one may need them….

So here is the recipe for the Vanilla Cupcakes with Chai Tea Latte frosting.

(the recipe is based on the wonderful recipes from the Hummingbird Bakery in London) 

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What we need:

 For the Cupcakes:

1 egg

120 g self raising flour

140 g sugar

40 g  butter (at room temperature)

120 ml Milk

20 g chocolate chips

Vanilla extract (or  the scratched mark of 1/2 vanilla pod)

Some grease proof cupcake paper cases and a cupcake tray

For the Frosting:

250 g icing sugar

80 g butter (at room temperature)

25 ml Milk

1 ½ Teaspoon Chai Tea Latte powder

Food colouring powder (the choice of the colour is up to you…)

Doing the Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180⁰ C

(I would not recommend to use convection..)

2. Mix the egg, a dash of vanilla extract and 60 ml of the milk in a small bowl with a fork.

3. In another bowl mix the flour with sugar and butter using an electric mixer. Go on with slow speed until everything is well combined (it turns to a sandy consistency). (if you go ahead with high speed your kitchen will turn into something like a snowscape…)

4. Now you first incorporate to this mixture 60 ml of the milk. In a second step you add the prepared egg-milk mixture. Now you can get on with higher mixing speed…At the end you should obtain a smooth and well combined mixture. Now add with a spoon the chocolate chips to this mixture.

5. Put the paper cupcake case into the cupcake tray and fill them with your dough.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 min.

Doing the Frosting:

1. Mix the icing sugar, the Chai Tea Latte powder. (normaly this powder is intended to obtain a delicious instant Chai Tea Latte Drink..) with the soft butter at low speed with the mixer. Don’t be afraid: at the beginning you want believe that this could become a smooth Frosting…..

3. Add the milk to the butter-sugar cream and gradually turn the mixer to high speed. If you want to give some colour to your frosting: now it is the moment to add the food colouring (the amount depends on the desired intensity). To get a fine Frosting one should beat these mixture for some minutes.

Finishing the Cupcakes:

The cupcakes should be completely cooled down.

With a knife or a kitchen spatula spoon the frosting on the cakes to create a “little mountain”.

Feel free to decorate each Cupcake with some sugar sprinkles, nuts or what ever…

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Here they are: the promised Cupcakes with Chai Tea Latte Frosting!

The transformation from a simple Muffin......

   

...into a Cupcake with Chai Tea Latte Frosting...

Chai Tea Latte Cupcake

For the Recipe... Have a look within the next days.....

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La Patisserie des reves à Paris...

I think the next travel should be to Paris.....



http://www.lapatisseriedesreves.com/

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In reminiscence of my stay in Kazakhstan



Lemon Chicken



First we went to the 24h open Market in Astana and got a lot of delicious things and then we made this Lemon chicken...
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1. You need a fresh chicken, some herbs (like thyme, sage, rosmarin...what ever you like), one organic lemon, olive oil...potatoes, 2-3 onions, salt, pepper and paprika.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

3. First cut herbs and mix them up with some butter. With your fingers divide the skin from the meat of the chicken and place your butter mixture under the skin.
4. With a fork or a fine knive make some holes in the lemon before you put it in the middle of the chicken (as you can see it on the picture).  
5. Rub the skin of the chicken with a mixture of olive oil, salt, pepper and paprikaspice.
6. Cut the potatoes into wedges (it is not necessary to peel the potatoes) as well as the onions and the peeled butternut squash. 
7. Drizzle a oven tray with enough olive oil and put the onions, potatoes, butternutsquash on it. Season with some coarsely minced herbs, salt and pepper. Than put the prepared chicken on it. 
8. Place the tray in the oven for about 50 minutes (depends on the size of your chicken). After 20 minutes turn the chicken to get it well roasted on each side.. 
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And then enjoy it with a good glass of wine and good friends...

My favourite Parmeggiano Grater:

Grater: La "Nonna" from Pylones

http://www.pylones.com/ 

My beloved Teapot....

My english Teapot that I found at 
Portobello Road Market in London




Some Tulips from the Market

 

Sweets and....

I love sweets and I love to cook... As the days continue to be grey some cupcakes could make the days a little bit brighter... So I think I will do some tomorrow.. Meanwhile some Tea and the tulips bring the brightness and the warm feeling that we need...