gazelle Horns - Cornes de gazelles

 Years ago at the occasion of an invitation I ate for the first time this sort of a biscuit and felt immediatly in love with it.... But in my country it is not really known. Not so long ago I found it in on the menu of a teahouse and of course had to try it. But I was very disappointed. because it was not as delicious as I had it in my mind. So was it my memory who fooled me or was it just a bad quality ? So more than ever I wanted to find a recipe and much more difficult the ingredients to make it. In fact it is one ingredeinet that might be not so easy to find. Becaus to make those Gazelle Horns you need "Eau de fleurs d´orangers" - "Orange blossom water". I love the odour and the taste of orange blossoms. In France and especially in the south of France it is very common and used in different sweet treats or as fragrance in soaps, perfumed oils .... But it is not usual or even well known in my homecountry. First I discovered it in a deli in the center of the city. But for an incredible price and as you need quite a lot to get the Horns really tasty I resisted the temptation to buy it immediatly. As often by mere chance I met a lovely friend that I had not seen for quite a while. She is originary from Lebanon and therefore knows all those french-arab treats. So of course I had to ask her if she knows Gazelle Horns and where she gets all the ingredinets to cook tradtional meals from her country. And yippee she even had a easy to make - and as she told me tremendous delicious - recipe to bake those Horns. So first she gave me the recipe and  then the adress of a wholesale trade in my town where you  also can buy as a"normal" people. You may imagine that by the first occasion I had time, I went to this wholesale. I bought there olive oil, olives, falafellmix.. and of course also my "Eau de Fleurs d´orangers". And the best was for a more than fair price! The sky looking grey all the time, some rain falling...what else could one do than bake Gazelle  Horns? And really the recipe is easy, the taste is great and is for sure one of my favourite treat for the next time.

You need (for about 30 Gazelle Horns):

For the pastry:
- 200 g Wheat flour
- 80 g Melted butter

- 6 - 7 Tbsp. Eau de fleurs d´orangers

For the filling:

- 6 Tbsp. Eau de fleurs d´orangers

- 200 g finely ground and peeled Almonds (Almondflour)

- 70 g icing sugar

- 4 - 5 Tbsp. Eau de fleurs d´orangers

To finish:

- 50 ml Eau de fleurs d´orangers

- 150 g icing sugar

To prepare:

1. Mix together flour, melted butter and the blossom water until you get a smooth dough and let rest until you have finished the filling

2. Mix Almondflour, icingsugar and gradually add blossom water until you get a creamy consistency (a little bit like almond paste)

 

3. Roll the dough with a rolling pin as thin as possible and with a round cookie cutter  (I used one about 7 cm diameter) cut out rounds.

4. Form out of the Filling small rolls and place them on each dough round.

5. Then wrap the filling in the dough by folding  and then squeezing the edges tightly and sligthly curve them to get them in the shape of a horn

6. Place the Gazelle Horns on the oven tray armed with parchment paper and  bake in the preheated (180 C) oven for about 10 minutes (the Horns should stay pale)

7. To finish pour  Blossom water in a bowl and in another one the icing sugar. Soon after having taken out of the oven your horns, first dip them into the Blossom water and then roll them in the icing sugar. That way you will get a little bit crispy sugarcover.

Finally sit down, take a cup of tea and try the first bite of your Gazelle Horns....

5-Minute Appletart

If you ever had nightshifts in your life you know how vulnerable you feel the morning after. You also feel a strong need to do something good for you, to get into your cosiest cardigan, wear some warm socks.... and of course including something delectable treats for your breakfast or for later, after having slept a little bit... to enjoy a cup of tea with some fresh, homemade piece of a cake or a tart... This are the good moments in life! So on the way home this sunday, after having been on duty the whole saturday, I was thinking about what treat I could do without too much effort and satisfying nonetheless my need for something sweet and regarding the morning freshness giving a little warm feeling...

I remembered my puff pastry and lots of apples waiting... As I was not in the mood to spend too much time in the kitchen but strongly wanted my selfmade cake, I decided to make my 5-minute Appletart. Believe me you want need much more time, excluded of course the time to bake the tart. But meanwhile the tart bakes you can browse some journals and enjoy the odour coming out of your oven and filling your home, cuddle in your duvet and waiting for the tart coming out of the oven.... So you can imagine my sunday morning?

You need (for a tart of aprox. 20 cm):

- 1 ready to use roll of puff pastry (250 g)

- 500g sweet-sour apples

- 3 Tbsp. brown sugar

- 1 Tbsp. honey

To prepare:

1. Cut out of your puff pastry a circle in the size you want. I made a circle from about 20 cm

2. Put the puff pastry circle on your baking tray armed with parchment paper
3. Cut your apples in rather thick slices (i did not peel the apples) and put them on your pastrybase

4. Disperse the brown sugar on the apples

5. Put the tart in the lower part of your preheated oven (180 C) and bake for about 30 min.

6. Heat up the honey and brush over the apples with it to glaze them

 

And now relax and savour.... and enjoy a quite day...

Lemoncream with summerberrie compote

Time is running... the last fresh berries coming from around the country in our supermarkets and on the farmers market. Fall is definitely here. The mornings are really fresh. In the afternoon we enjoy bright sunshine. So in fact you are ever wrong dressed and the first flu is here.... At the moment quite everybody is complaining about a little bit of a "running nose", some sore throat ... not much but on the other hand too much for not looking about somebody that could complainand pamper you  a little bit .... This lemoncream is definitely something for those days: full of vitamins ( is´nt it true :) and the best reason to enjoy a desert?), soft and sweet....

You need (serves about 6 but depending on the size of you serving glasses):

4 Gelatin sheets

2 organic lemons

3 large eggs

100g sugar

250 g cream

400 g of different berries (blueberries, raspberries...)

1 Tbsp. icing sugar

3 figs for decoration

To prepare:

1. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze them. Reserve the juice and the grated peel

2. Mix eggs and sugar together until foamy (takes about 3 minutes)

3. Soak the gelatine in cold water for some minutes

4. Heat up 5 Tbsp. of the lemonjuice, drain the gelatin and dissolve them in the lemonjuice

5. Toss together your egg-sugar cream with the gelatin-lemonjuice and fold in the graed lemonpeel

6. Whip you cream and fold in your lemoncream

7. Pour the cream in some glasses and chill in the fridge for some hours or over night.

8. For the compote put your berries together with the icing sugar and 2 tbsp. water in a pan and cook for 5 minutes. Let cool down and top the lemoncream with this compote and the halves of the fig just before serving

Seabass in salt bed

 

I like to stroll on the food market, to see all the delicacies, to smell the different odours of vegetables, fruits... But if I go there without having a defined shopping list it ends up dramatically :). Meaning that I don´t know how to carry all the things I bought, who will eat all the staff, where I can store everything ? (my freezer, my cupboards sighing in advance..)... So I was tempted by a fish stand showing mussels, fish filet, whole fishes ..and I conquered a seabass. After having carried and stored everything at home the fish was looking at me and asking about my intentions to cook him. Quite some time ago a friend of mine served us on the occasion of a dinnerparty a whole fish prepared in a salt bed and I also have read about this way to cook a fish but I never tried to make it by my own. Also because I was afraid about the idea how to serve the fish in a propper manner without bones, skin...just as a filet.. But this day I was determined to rise this challenge and went to the supermarket to buy the amount of salt needed. And it is a lot of salt you need, so the till girl looked at me a little bit intrigued when I came over with my 2,5 kg of salt.... Finally to resume my experience: I love fish in salt bed. It is easy to prepare and I can´t remember having eaten a better tasting fish. It went very tender with a great, refined taste and a fingerlicking odour filled my kitchen and dining room...Curious?

You need (1 fish about 800g):

- 1 prepared Seabass

- 2, 5 kg of coarse sea salt (look for a cheap one as you throw it away afterwards..)

- 1 bunch of different herbs like thyme, oregano, basil
- 200 ml of cold water
To prepare:

1. Put the salt in a bowl and pour in the water and mix with your hands together until the whole salt is soaked with water.

2. Wash the fish, dry him with some kitchen paper and put in his belly the cleaned herbs

3. On a oven tray or in a oven proved form (I like to cover first with parchment paper to reduce cleaningwork afterwords) put almost 1/3 of the wet salt (it has the consistence of wet sand, means that you can form it a little bit..)

4. Place the fish on this salt bed and cover allover with the rest of the salt and press a little bit with your hands

 

5. Put in the oven (preheated  to 200 C) for 20 minutes.

6. Carefully remove the upper part of the salt by cutting along with a sharp knife. The skin of the fish can be easily removed and then you have to cut along the spine of the fish to cut in filets first on one side and then turn the fish around and repeat to cut on this side the filets in same manner

7. Serve with a drizzle of olive. You want need salt as it has got a fine, slightly salted taste. But have a try

by your own and enjoy....

Socca with Chanterelle Ragout

Since a long time I associated chickpeas only with humus. But some days ago a friend told me about a pancake like treat made with chickpea flour called Socca.. and then I found a recipe in a cookbook with recipes from the south of France. In this recipe they make out of chickpeaflour somewhat of a crispy bread..they called it Soccer....have to try it soon. But to start I made those chickpea flour pancake called Socca that my friend was telling me about. As Fall starts I found some delicious looking Chanterelles at the Farmers Market and so I made Socca with Chanterelle Ragout. The chickpea flour gives a very definite taste to the pancakes and paired with the creamy Ragout resulted in a very fine, easy done dish.

Here to the recipe...

You need:

For Socca:

- 230 g chickpea flour

- 2 Egg whites

- 450 ml water

- 1 1/2 Tbsp. Olive oil

- 1/2 Tsp. salt

- Some more olive oil to bake the pancakes

For Chanterelle Ragout:

- 500g Chanterelles

- 1 small onion, cut in small cubes

- 150 g Crème fraiche

- 3 Tbsp Olive oil

- 1 bunch parsley, chopped

Salt and Pepper to season the Ragout.

To prepare:

1. Start by preparing the batter for Socca by mixing together the chickpea flour, water, 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil and salt.

2. Whis the egg whites with a hand whisk until it forms soft peaks

3. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter

4. Reserve the pancake batter for 30 minutes

5. Meanwhile clean gently the chanterelles by brushing them, cut them in halves or quarters (depending on their size)

6. Heat up a small amount of olive oil in a non sticking pan and pour in some of your socca batter (so that it is about 5 mm thick). When you see some sort of bubbles appearing on your pancake surface, turn it to the other side and continue cooking the second side until slightly golden brown.

Proceed in the same way until you have used the whole batter. Reserve the pancakes in the to 50 C preheated oven

7. Heat up 3 Tbsp. olive oil in a pan. Sear the onion and than add the chanterelles, stir from time to time until they start to get soft

8. Add the crème fraiche to the Chanterelles and season with salt and pepper to your taste and fold in the chopped parsley (but do not cook anymore)

9. Place the Socca on a plate, cover with some Chanterelle Ragout and disperse some chopped parsley over all