As far as I remember, Mom first learned this recipe from one of those promotional brochures that arrive with Tupperware equipment. She has experimented with different kinds of yogurt and fruit ever since, so I am not sure how close this is to the original recipe. Anyway, this jelly makes a perfect summer dessert – light, fruity and extremely versatile as you have two layers to play with: one is made with yogurt or sour cream, and another with fresh or canned fruit or berries. Whatever your choice, this dessert will always look neat, glossy, and colourful. You might be surprised how little ingredients it requires – for example, to make this jelly we used only 2 canned peaches, 10 grapes, 500ml yogurt – which yields 7-8 servings. And, if you choose to freeze the jelly instead of refrigerating it, this can be a real time-saver. In a word, I’m happy I have now learned how to make this jelly too!
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A few days ago I discovered this amazing blog The Stone Soup that suggests lots of simple recipes with the minimum of ingredients and equipment, which really appeals to me. And can you imagine - Jules, the author of this blog, possesses the secret of making ice-cream without an ice-cream machine! Isn’t this wonderful? It’s only made with cream and honey. Which means my ice-cream mixture was ready in about 10 minutes, plus about 6 hours for freezing. Or maybe 7. That’s it. I left it in the freezer overnight and it still remained soft and creamy - simply unbelievable! I really like the idea of making 100% natural (well, as natural as store-bought cream can be) ice-cream at home. Until now I’ve only experimented with different kinds of sorbet.
I couldn’t resist decorating my ice-cream with pictachios just as Jules did it - mine were slightly salted and this touch of salt worked great with the sweetness of the honey-flavoured ice-cream and the dried dates that I also used as a garnish.
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I’ve done a little study on poached pears last night and found out there were so many ways to make this dessert that I could easily try one recipe per day for a whole week and still the desserts would be very different. The one I had in mind for a long time was Blushing Pears as posted on Foododelmundo, but then I realized I didn’t have any cranberries or raspberries for the juice, so I decided to try a very basic recipe for a start. I combined several recipes for pears poached in sugar syrup, added some honey and a splash of wine (I’m trying to avoid taking alcohol at the moment so just a little splash was good for me), plus some spice that I thought would go along well (it might sound bizarre but I really wanted some cilantro seeds in the syrup!!). I also added a few strips of orange peel and let them boil in the syrup for some 10-15 minutes until they turned translucent. Then I left them to cool and used as a decoration for the dessert.
I also have to note that while most recipes direct to poach pears for 10 to 20 minutes, I kept them simmering for almost 30 minutes. The South African pears I had were not too tender, but I wanted to have them as tender as possible without them losing their shape or becoming mushy of course. I was extremely careful to control their readiness, and about 27 minutes was just the perfect cooking time for me.
The poached pears had a pleasant yellow, translucent colour, a mild flavour with a subtle hint of spice, and tasted wonderful with syrup and vanilla ice cream. I also thought a pinch of diced nuts such as pistachios would be good to add, but unfortunately I didn’t have any at hand.
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I’ve always loved burnt sugar. I love the simplicity and rusticity of those hard, translucent lollipops that you can make by chilling burnt sugar syrup; they’re golden-brown like amber and smooth like ice. We found this recipe of burnt sugar sauce in our old Rumanian cookbook (I’ve mentioned it before). I’m used to trusting their recipes, but the first attempt with the sauce resulted in a very runny, thin substance, so we had to considerably reduce the amount of water and milk. Also, I found out that the sauce needed to be cooled well before serving: it’s still too runny when warm. The sauce tasted of milky caramel with a hint of bitterness – that mild kind of bitterness that you find in, say, coffee.
I’ve always loved apples as well. Tart or honey-sweet, green or red, almost any kind, as long they are hard (can’t stand those mushy sorts) and as long as they smell like apples. Not like apple candy, apple shampoo or apple bubble gum, but like real, organic apples! The smell of fresh apples is charming and modest, it’s delicate like silk and melancholic like autumn; it’s one of Nature’s greatest, basic perfumes.
These pancakes are made with local apples that smell of rainy days, and kefir* – sour fermented milk drink. That’s why the pancakes are pleasantly sour-ish.
*If you cannot find kefir, try using buttermilk or a sour thin yogurt instead!
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First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very happy year 2010. Hope you had a lovely Christmas and an exciting New Year’s party! With lots of delish food and drink, of course :)
I’ve spent ten marvellous days in Slovakia, where I’ve been eating so much that I was about to buy myself that T-shirt with the slogan “Please don’t feed me; I want to be a model” written across the chest. But I’d be lying to myself if I did so: those home-made Slovak foods were irresistible!
And this large and festive cake we made for our New Year’s party in Riga. We wrote the recipe from scratch. Actually we have baked a heavier version of this cake (with 4 layers of sponge cake instead of 2, as you will see from the pictures) because we wanted a really huge one, for 12 persons or so. But even in its lighter variation (as posted below), this is definitely a cake for special occasions. The preparations are quite time-consuming too. But we’re sure your guests will appreciate the result!
A walnut sponge cake serves as a base for this cake; it is topped with chocolate butter mousse and crispy walnut meringues; then comes a thick layer of whipped cream sprinkled with toasted walnuts and dried plums soaked in cognac - pleasantly sharp and fruity. And finally, another walnut sponge cake and a thin layer of glossy chocolate icing. Happy New Year!!
We both agreed however that the chocolate icing we used was a big mistake. Much as I like Dansukker, their chocolate icing turned out below average. Manufacturer’s instructions on the package were lame and they said nothing about the icing never freezing or being soft and sticky forever! There was too much sugar and too much starch in it. Next time we’ll choose another brand or simply melt a bar of dark chocolate!
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As I already wrote, Latvians have some incredibly delicious desserts, a lot of them are made with rye bread, which is an essential part of traditional Latvian cuisine. There’s even rye breadcrumb ice-cream over here and yogurt with rye breadcrumbs – very tasty. Not to mention cream of bread, bread soup, etc etc. Even nowadays, as bread is losing its popularity (a lot of people are on a diet and think it’s too fattening), public opinion polls say an average Latvian eats up to 50 kg bread per year. And coarse rye bread is the sort which remains favourite throughout the years.
The dessert we will be talking about today is originally called Rūpjmaizes kārtojums, which means layers of bread. The most common method is to layer rye breadcrumbs, whipped cream, and cranberry or cowberry jam. Sometimes cream of cottage cheese is used instead. The dessert can be made in small individual ice-cream bowls or in a larger bowl and then cut in portions. We made it in a larger container for four and used mascarpone instead of whipped cream. Mascarpone has a richer taste than whipped cream; the only shortcoming is that it’s thicker and you’ll probably need to let sit your Rūpjmaizes kārtojums for at least 5 hours until the breadcrumbs saturate in jam and mascarpone. At least that’s what we did – and the result was very pleasing! Imagine rye breadcrumbs toasted with sugar and cinnamon, layered with tangy mashed cranberries, and topped with soft, vanilla-flavoured mascarpone; repeat once and top with those crunchy breadcrumbs. Sounds good, uh? And those fresh forest cranberries that Mom pureed with sugar came up really handy here: we store them in refrigerator and use for time-saving baking and dessert-making. Fresh cranberries can be replaced with cranberry jam, if you prefer.
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