No-knead easy crusty bread

Homemade bread. Just looking at this picture makes my mouth water.I love how a simple party involving yeast, flour and a sprinkle of salt can result in something so beautiful. I'm still learning my way around the potential of yeast so pulling this gorgeous loaf out of the oven did make my heart flutter just a little.This recipe has been doing the rounds all over the internet. It's not hard to see

I love our new citrus juicer

Our KitchenAid stand mixer is still my favourite kitchen gadget, but the recently acquired Philips food processor has a very efficient citrus juicer attached. So apart from drinking copious amounts of freshly collected birch sap, we're also drinking lots of freshly squeezed orange juice..

a day of food. (discovering sardines, 10-hour chicken soup.)

Yesterday I woke up at 7 a.m. and broke down a chicken. My husband and son are recovering from a bout of the sniffles (NOT SWINE FLU, THANKS) so I wanted to make a big batch of chicken soup to fortify their souls. I needed to get it going before my son woke up and demanded my full attention, so I was in the kitchen bright and early, shoving my hands up a chicken, slicing it apart, and starting a big pot of stock.



Because I'm a huge weirdo about leaving things on my stove when I'm not home (I even called my mom the first time I used a crock pot to verify that it was REALLY OKAY to leave it plugged it when you leave the house. Duh, that's the whole point.) and because I find myself having to constantly adjust the temperature on my stupid range to keep my stock from bubbling too much, I sat around the house with my son yesterday for like 4 straight hours while I made stock. I drained it and chilled it around lunch time, and made myself a snack.



So, everyone knows I'm trying to be more health conscious and blah blah. I'm still in the process of losing all my 'baby weight' (or maybe should I call it "daily milkshake binge" weight, because let's be honest- Eli didn't hold me down and force feed me all that Mike's Drive-in while I was pregnant) and I get really bored eating the same crap all the time. I first got the idea to start snacking on sardines from The 10 Cent Designer, and as it weaseled its way into my noggin, I started picking up tidbits here and there about how sardines were like, the only sustainable seafood, and how they don't have a bunch of mercury and blah blah blah. Awesome! I don't particularly like canned tuna, and I'm freaked out by all the warnings about mothers/children consuming too much, so I like that I can sit and polish off a tin of sardines without DAMAGING MY BRAINZ.



But, I'm also broke-ass. Student loans: NOT A GOOD IDEA. Just sayin. So, tins of sardines are the logical choice for someone who wants to enjoy the health benefits of those lovely omega-3's, not melt their brains with mercury poisoning, and only spend like 2 bucks. I bought this package of Moroccan sardines packed in olive oil at (duh) Trader Joe's for less than 2 dollars (I think. Maybe they were 2.50, I don't know.) and they were pretty tasty. I guess I have no idea what canned sardines are supposed to taste like, but I keep hearing horror stories of fishy little bites packed in slimy tomato sauce or whatever, so I guess I lucked out for my first try.







All I did was mash them up and throw them on top of a green salad- not very creative, I know. A friend of mine told me, "Try making a fennel slaw with some heat to it and putting the slaw and sardines on a soft roll." which is exactly what I plan to do next week when I go grocery shopping again.

Oh, but wait! I still have soup to make! So anyway, after lunch I had to run out for parsley (and I just needed to get the hell out after the whole 4-hour stock wait) so I did. Then I got home and realized I only had 1 tiny carrot, so I ran back out for carrots. Then I started the soup!



If you've invested enough time in this post to get to this point, I guess I should reward you with some kind of recipe, but let's be honest- I put like 10 hours of my day into this soup. Unless you're a stay at home mom with no life like I am, I don't expect the same level of commitment out of you. Go ahead and use store-bought stock, or make some in advance, I don't care.

For my sick family, I knew I wanted a traditional, don't-screw-around chicken soup. All that went into it was fresh homemade stock, 3 small carrots, 3 celery stalks, 1 onion, 3 cloves of garlic, a handful of chopped parsley, and 2 chicken legs. I sauteed the vegetables, added hot stock, let it simmer for a few minutes, and then added 2 whole chicken legs (bone-in) with most of the skin removed and let it simmer on low heat. After the legs were cooked through (about half an hour later) I pulled them out, shredded the meat off the bone, and added it back into the soup. I seasoned it with salt and pepper, and served it to my family with wheat toast and butter.



I don't think I need to tell you that it really fit the bill for MOST PERFECT CHICKEN SOUP EVER. Maybe it was just that I devoted my whole day to it, maybe it was the quality of the ingredients, but it was hella good and I think it helped everyone's immune systems tackle this bug that's going around. I'm going to eat the leftovers today for lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Stomach's Eleven and a whole suckling pig

Crisping the crackling on the suckling pigI know. The irony of a post on suckling pig in the midst of a swine flu outbreak is not lost on me.But this pig. It was consumed last week in a world where pork still made people happy. It made us very happy. Oh happy indeed.Ru zhu quang tiBarbecue whole pigletPerhaps not so happy for the piglet. He in his silver-lined red cardboard box, skull flayed in

Salmon en Croûte Recipe

On our resurrected Scrabble night some 10 days ago (after a 3-month gap since the birth of our daughter), we had this Jamie's dish on the table. Well, almost his dish, as I made several improvements to it, you see :) For the original version, see Jamie's Ministry of Food. I thought it was quite a looker, and would happily make it again. My much-less-tapenade and cherry-tomatoes-instead-of-regular-ones version, that is...

Salmon en Croûte
(Lehttainas küpsetatud lõhe- või forellifilee)
Serves 4

500 g puff pastry (I used yeast puff pastry)
600 g trout or salmon filet (skinned, if possible)
olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp tapenade (I used Belazu)
a small bunch of fresh basil (just leaves)
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
150 g mozzarella cheese
1 egg, for brushing

Carefully remove all pin-bones from the fish filet. (I like to cut off the thin side of the salmon filet and use that for another dish - perhaps soup - on the following day. I think the thick part of the filet looks much more festive, plus you it's easier to cook the fish uniformly). Skin the fish, if you wish.
Roll out the pastry into a 30x40 cm rectangle, transfer into a lightly floured oven tray.
Place the fish filet on top, right in the middle. Season the fish with salt and pepper, drizzle with some olive oil.
Spread the tapenade thinly on top. Place halved cherry tomatoes, cut-side down, over the fish. Top with basil leaves (I left them whole). Finally, shred the mozzarella cheese and place on top.
Fold the pastry over the filling, leaving an opening in the middle to show off some of the filling.
Lightly whisk an egg and brush the pastry with it.

Bake in the middle of a pre-heated 200 C/400 F oven for 30 minutes, until the fish is cooked and puff pastry lovely golden brown.

Serve warm, with some green salad.

What we are drinking right now

Collecting fresh birch sap in our back yard.

For a few days now, we've been drinking lots of freshly collected birch sap instead of table water. It's very refreshing, and tastes like a mildly sweetened water. According to folk medicine, birch sap helps to combat 101 illnesses. It's detoxifying, contains C and PP vitamins, carotene, various sugars and malic acid.

But most importantly, it tastes good.

Grotta Capri, Kensington, Sydney

If you've been watching the second series of Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, you cannot have missed noticing the scenes featuring Robert "Aussie Bob" Trimbole in his favourite restaurant Grotta Capri.I'd first noticed this restaurant when we'd dined at Sushi Tengoku, only a few doors up the road, but for many older Sydneysiders, it's one filled with memories having been a fixture on the dining

A Table for Nine

My camera parking spotGiven that we were in his 'hood, Billy was recently kind enough to invite us to an Easter barbecue lunch. It was not his usual Table For Two, but rather a table for nine, and a great chance to catch up with mutual friends over good food and tasty sangria.Snapper stuffed with lemon slicesIf there's one thing I admire in any home chef, it's the presence of calm. Billy has

It's my day today

Photo by Krista Kõiv, taken a fortnight ago.

It's my birthday, again :) After a few chilly days and frosty mornings, the sun is suddenly really shining and it's lovely and warm outside. K. stayed home late this morning, giving me a chance to enjoy a leisurely breakfast consisting of a cup of coffee and a whole tub of Fage Total Greek yogurt topped with homemade sour cherry jam, while admiring the gorgeous birthday present he gave me. I'm baking a strawberry cake for the party tonight, and then head off for a walk with Nora Adeele, who has doubled her birth weight already (she was 2456 g when born and is now, at 12 weeks, around 5300 g). Our little girl surely has a good appetite :)

Right now, there's nothing to complain about - life's beautiful :)


Normal food postings resume next week.

pizza!

I've been in the market for a good pizza dough recipe for ages. Usually, when we decided to do homemade pizzas, we opt for the Trader Joe's pre-made dough, and it works just fine. It's not the best dough in the world, but it's cheap and made from decent ingredients. I even tried the Pastaworks dough one time, just for variety. It was good, but not something I'd go out of my way to get. Plus, I love making stuff from scratch.



When my friend Alia had us over for dinner one night, she presented us with a couple of lovely homemade pizzas. She'd made the dough herself, and it was thick, chewy, puffy in all the right places, and very tasty. When it comes to pizza, everyone is really picky, of course. Personally, when I go to a restaurant for pizza, I like the thin, slightly charred, chewy-crispy crust- like the famed Apizza Scholls makes. But, when making pizza at home, I accept the limitations of my small oven and opt for a more bread-like crust.



So, when pizza made its way onto our grocery menu for the week, I decided that I'd go ahead and whip up a batch of dough myself. I emailed my buddy and asked for her recipe, and through a convoluted series of attempts to connect, I ended up heading over to her house with a bag of flour and a packet of yeast, ready to be coached through my first pizza dough.

Her recipe comes from Vegan with a Vengeance, which surprised me- frankly, it's never been my favorite cookbook. I've never gone through it recipe by recipe, but the few things I've tried didn't really blow me away. Of course, I'm not vegan, and I never have been. I understand the scavenger-hunt like enthusiasm vegans have for trying to find good recipes, but it gets kind of old when things that are just vegan by default (salads, smoothies, etc.) start popping up. BUT! This was an excellent, easy-to-follow recipe (even though the instructions are way too long- even the author pokes fun at herself by titling the recipe, "Pizza Dough: A novel.) and I'm keeping it in my recipe box as my official pizza dough.



Pizza Dough: the condensed novel
From Vegan with a Vengeance, transcribed in my chicken scratch as a bare-bones recipe, then re-elaborated at home.

1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 (1/4 oz) packet of active dry yeast (the book says "not the rapid-rise stuff!" but that's what I used and it was fine.)
2 tablespoons olive oil (and more for drizzling)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
cornmeal for dusting

In a small bowl, proof the yeast for 10 minutes by stirring in into the cup of warm water. If your yeast doesn't foam up within 10 minutes, it's dead and you should start over. (Apparently this doesn't really happen anymore, but just so you know.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk together. Add yeast water and oil, and mix up until a dough forms. It will form quickly, and if you have leftover flour at the bottom of the bowl, just set it aside. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is elastic and somewhat firm. If it's too sticky, you can add in small amounts of flour. When finished kneading, form into a tight ball.
In another large, oiled bowl, place the ball and turn to coat the entire thing with a thin film of oil, then cover bowl with a damp cloth. Let rise for 1 hour, then punch down (it feels so good to punch dough, haha!) and knead for another minute, dusting with flour if necessary, until dough begins to feel less like a sponge (it should be spongy) and more like dough. Form into a ball again, place back in the bowl, and let it rest for AT LEAST 10 minutes, but really more like an hour or two. You can also freeze it and use it another time!

When it's time to make pizza, cut the dough into equal sections (you can do 2 medium sized pizzas, 1 really big one- tonight we made 3 smallish ones) and roll/stretch out into shape. This dough rolls GREAT- I rolled it out into super thin pies and it puffed up pretty nicely anyway.

Preheat your oven to 500ºf, (preheat your pizza stone if you have one. I wish I had one!) slide your pie onto a baking pan, and let it go until it's done- 8-10 minutes.



I think it goes without saying that you can put whatever you'd like on a pizza, but if you're curious about what you see above, I'll tell you. We made 1 traditional-type pizza with red sauce (it was just classico pasta sauce, haha) and mozzarella. We did a white pie with garlic paste (garlic smashed up with salt), olive oil, caramelized onions, and mozzarella. (Go easy on the garlic, I overdid it and I was a little bummed.) And lastly, a pesto pie, because why not? It only takes a few seconds to whip up a pesto, and now I have some leftovers kicking around my fridge for later.



3 small pizzas happily fed 3 adults and 2 toddlers, but you could probably even squeeze in one more person and if you served it with a big salad, everyone would fill up.



Also, on the recommendation of several readers, I picked up a copy of Real Food: What to Eat and Why from the library and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a pretty fascinating read, especially as a former vegetarian. If what she has to say is true, (that buttered bacon is delicious AND HEALTHY, in a nutshell) its kind of shocking to realize how much misinformation we are given about our diets growing up. I'm hoping that it will help me get over some of my food neuroses. It definitely reinforces most of my ideals about food- now if I could just find a book called, "IT'S OKAY, WHITE FLOUR IS STILL GOOD FOR YOU. EAT PIZZA AND PASTA EVERY DAY FOREVER." that would rule. Maybe I should just write one and see if I can sucker my body into agreeing with me?

ALSO! My friends The Klines are having us over for dinner this weekend to share the bounty of their first ever asparagus harvest! Holla! I can't wait to eat some home grown asparagus. Apparently it takes like 3 years after planting before you can actually harvest any, but after that it comes up every year like clockwork. Yum! I will post pictures, for sure.

Markets, Mingara and mementoes at The Entrance

The Entrance Lions Club MarketsMarkets. We'd barely left our holiday apartment at The Entrance when we pulled over to the side of the road upon spotting the local markets. I love scouring second-hand stalls - an irresistible combination of shopping and bargain hunting, not to mention a chance to mosey at other people's eclectic wares and ponder their history.Local ocean honey $4and Trinidad

Surf Spot Cafe, The Entrance

Jackie's Bowls ShopA week without internet? It's enough to make any twitterer clutch their chest with panic.But you know what? It is possible. Truly.I spent my Easter break up at The Entrance with family and it's amazing how much free time you have if you're forcibly disconnected from online distractions. I made good use of the pool and the sauna after dinner, or found myself curled up on the

Almondy Almond Tarta with Daim

I first sampled the Almondy Daim (formerly Dime bar) tart in a branch of Ikea amongst a range of other Swedish produce, and it was an instant hit. The pastry free (and therefore also gluten free) tart is made with layers of layers of ground almonds, a vanilla-ish buttercream, and in this instance a chocolate topping with lots of bits of Daim bar caramel. Despite all the potential sugar overload, it is remarkably non-sickly and exceedingly moreish.
The tart comes frozen, but defrosts in around 10 minutes so none of that remembering to put it in the fridge the night before that you get with some other frozen deserts.
Price: Can vary depending on retailer, but around the £2.70 mark.
I rate it 9/10.

Zucchini Rolls with Goat's Cheese aka "Makis" au Chèvre

One of the items served at the Nami-Nami 2009 Easter Brunch were courgette/zucchini rolls stuffed with goat's cheese. The recipe is adapted from a French food magazine that we get by subscription, Régal, and it was K. who made these. However, he's authorised me to blog about making these :)

They're really quick to make, and the unusual stuffing really works.

Zucchini Rolls with Goat's Cheese aka "Makis" au Chèvre
(Suvikõrvitsarullid kitsejuustutäidisega)
Makes about 3 dozens



300 g creamy goat's cheese
4 medium-sized courgettes/zucchinis
6 dried soft figs
50 g hazelnuts, peeled, toasted and coarsely chopped
a large handful of fresh mint leaves
2 Tbsp good-quality fruity extra virgin olive oil
a good pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes
freshly ground black pepper

Wash the courgettes/zucchinis. Take a vegetable peeler* and cut thin long strips of the courgette, first along the lenght of one side, when seeds appear, then another side. Put aside.
Make a filling. Chop figs finely, toast the hazelnuts, cool and chop. Chop the mint leaves.
Mix the goat cheese, figs, hazelnuts, mint and olive oil in a bowl, season with salt and pepper.
Take a strip of zucchini, place a teaspoonful of goat's cheese filling at one end and roll tightly. Repeat.
Place the zucchini rolls alongside each other on a plate.

Will keep for a few hours in a fridge.

TIP: One of my Estonian readers suggests grilling the zucchini strips lightly before using, as otherwise they might taste 'raw'. If you like the taste of fresh and raw courgette, there's no need to do that. If you dislike the flavour, then grill the vegetable strips first.

* I like the V-shaped vegetable peelers, something like this.

Sydney Royal Easter Show 2009: The Racing and Diving Pigs

Mogul Miss Fontenot 12thBrahman cattle femaleAfter covering the Woolworths Fresh Food Dome and the cake decorating at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, it was time to move onto the animals and the food.But first we needed sustenance.Cheese on a stick with fresh lemonadeChocolatesuze likes her cheese. This was her second cheese on a stick for the day. She would later have one more for a personal Show

last soup of the season? and cheddar biscuits.

Good gracious. Let's hope I never have to complain about my computer here again. ANYWAY, last night, my husband and I tossed together what might be our last soup of the chilly season. The sun is peeking out more and more frequently, and we'll probably be trading our hearty bowls of soup for light salads as the weather gets hot.



This simple vegetable soup follows pretty much the same formula as all of our other soups- broth, mirepoix, and a handful of extra veggies and spices. My husband was in the mood for something more like a minestrone, so we tossed in a can of tomatoes and shaved some parmesan on top to finish. We served it with a big plate of cheddar onion biscuits, and stuffed ourselves on broth-soaked bread product. It was great!



Springtime Vegetable Soup:

6 cups of vegetable broth (I made mine the same afternoon- in a big pot with carrot, onion, shallot, celery, garlic, and bay leaf- I simmered about 8 or 9 cups of water for about 2 hours. Strained, cooled, and refrigerated it to be used at dinner. )
chopped vegetables- carrot, celery, onion, garlic, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper
1 can of fire roasted diced tomatoes
can of kidney beans
bay leaf
butter
white wine
a tiny pinch of rosemary
lemon
fresh basil, if you have it
salt & pepper
egg noodles, if you want them.
red chili flakes

In a large pot, saute onions & garlic in a little bit of butter. Cook for a few minutes, then splash in some white wine. Reduce for a moment, then add the rest of the chopped vegetables. Saute until soft, then add vegetable stock and bay leaf. Add fire roasted diced tomatoes. Season with salt, pepper (we used a pinch of steak seasoning because we didn't have any 'italian seasoning' kicking around) and a small pinch of rosemary (fresh is better, dried is fine). Simmer for an hour or so, or until vegetables are soft and the flavors melt together and get all delicious. When it's getting close to serving time, add the can of kidney beans. (If you add them too early, they can get mushy.) Add a pinch of lemon zest or just a squeeze of lemon juice for a little bit of acid, and garnish with fresh basil and shaved parmesan. Serve over a bed of egg noodles. We added chili flakes to our noodles but omitted them from the big pot because our 2 year old son doesn't dig spicy stuff very much.

This makes a giant pot of soup, but we love having leftovers for the next few days.

Now- the cheddar biscuits.



Sorry, I had to use this ridiculous picture. I was trying to be all adorable and model the biscuits, but my husband came up behind me and started doing something to me (moose antlers? bunny ears?) and I cracked up just as the shutter clicked.

Anyway, I just pulled up this recipe from my friend Alia and modified it based on the ingredients I had on hand and added cheese for deliciousness.

Altered rom the cookbook "How It All Vegan!" by Tanya Barnard & Sarah Kramer

"Fancy Biscuits"
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil -or- shortening
1 cup sour milk (milk + 1 tsp vinegar) (hey vegans- just use soy milk.)
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 tbsp dried dill (I didn't have any dill. I never have dried dill! I should get some.)
1/4 tsp pepper (I was very liberal with my pepper cracker, I wanted them to be peppery!)
A large handful of grated cheddar cheese.

Preheat oven to 450ºF. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Crack in some pepper, and toss the cheese and onions into the mixture until it's all evenly distributed. Add the oil and sour milk, and mix together gently until "just mixed." Spoon into lightly oiled muffin tins (Or just spoon onto a baking sheet. My husband claims that biscuits should be "rugged."). Bake for 12-18 minutes. Makes about 6 biscuits. (Or a random assortment of oddly sized biscuits, if you're me.)

Eat soup while it's still (sorta) chilly!

Sydney Royal Easter Show 2009

Ahhh the Easter Show. It brings out the kid in all of us doesn't it?A celebration of agriculture and livestock, it's one of the few times in which we all earnestly celebrate our ties to the land.Whilst childhood memories are inevitably tinted with sentimentality, attending as an adult gives you free financial rein to create your own version of an idyllic day out. Deep-fried food included.Queuing

grumble grumble.

Do you miss me? My laptop is back in the shop. Hopefully the second set of repairs will do the trick, and I will be able to joyfully return to real internet, instead of this craptastic mostly-text version I am forced to use to feed my addiction on my husband's blackberry. Boooo! (I know, I know. First world problems. Poor me.)

Nami-Nami Easter Brunch 2009

Here are couple of photos from our Easter Brunch 2009. We've had friends over for Easter brunch before, but never so many at once. But K's colleagues were keen to greet our little daughter Nora Adeele, and so it happened that last Sunday we had 14 adults and 5 children (incl. our own) over for some food.

In Estonia, Easter is all about eggs and curd cheese/farmer's cheese. And I mean real eggs, not the chocolate ones (as far as I remember, all British food magazines were focusing on chocolate at this time of the year. Not here, luckily). So our table was laden with curd cheese and eggs, and we tried to keep the colours spring-like (green and yellow).

To start with, we had Mimosas with freshly squeezed orange juice and some Cremant:


K. had contributed two dishes to the buffet table, both from a French food magazine Regal that we get by subscription. First bright green Pea Soup Shots, served, appropriately, in small shot glasses:


His other dish was also beautifully green: Courgette 'Maki' rolls, stuffed with goat cheese, hazelnuts, dried figs and chopped mint:


I made a peppered beef filet, using whole black, white and pink peppercorns. I must admit I was pretty pleased with the result - the meat was perfectly pink, and oh-so-meltingly tender (I served it thinly sliced, and the dish was cold):


There were two types of marbled eggs. My old favourites, beetroot-marbled eggs (the purple ones), and an idea that I got from the above-mentioned Regal food magazine, marbled eggs dyed with turmeric:


More nibbles - small pieces of feta-spinach frittatas and Molly's tuna bouchons (not photographed):


There was a layered salad with surimi ('crab noodles'), eggs, onion and cheese:



And of course there was Pashka, the traditional Easter dessert made with curd cheese. I made two pashkas for that brunch - my usual one (still a favourite), as well as a chocolate pashka. The first is garnished with chopped lemon balm and orange zest, the second one is decorated with candied kumquats:




The very yellow dessert was sort of pineapple 'carpaccio' sprinkled with mint and sugar:


And the green dessert was: Matcha Madeleines:


Here's another view of the whole spread:


And of course, there were the Easter eggs, lots of them:


What did you have on your Easter table? It'd be nice to read about that (you can leave a comment with the menu or a link to your blog post).

Happy Easter, everybody!

My Easter Chick and a tray of beautiful Easter eggs, naturally dyed with yellow onion skins.

Sesame Prawn Toast- M&S

Sesame prawn toast, a perennial Chinese takeaway favourite. I have grave reservations about the authenticity of this item; chopped up prawns spread on white bread with a coating of sesame seeds doesn't exactly scream out a taste of Canton but in terms of tastiness it's hard to go wrong with fried bread and seafood.
This M&S version is definitely one of the superior examples of what supermarkets offer in this field. The bread is golden and crispy without being greasy and there are proper chunks of chopped up pink prawn meat rather an unidentifiable grey gloop. A thin layer of sesame seeds adds a contrasting texture without their strong flavour becoming overwhelming. These toasts also contain ginger in the prawn mix, which was a little unexpected. I am not a huge ginger fan but they do add a little extra element to a dish that some might find a bit bland otherwise. So, in terms of texture and taste this product is definitely one of the best sesame prawn toasts that I've tried so far. It makes a nice side dish to have with a noodle stir fry, and overall works out cheaper (and probably healthier) than a takeaway. Just set those authenticity concerns to one side.
Price: £2.99 for 8 pieces
I rate them 7.5/10.

Recipe: Hot cross buns

There's something so satisfying about baking with yeast. The transformation of yeast and flour into something alive and growing is magical indeed, and there's a certain empowering pleasure in transforming a warm and fermenting blob of grey into great big pillows of fluffy bread that looks and smells fantastic.Hot cross buns are always a crowd favourite and homemade versions taste like no other.

Nami-Nami @ El Bulli: the first 10 dishes

El Bulli dining room.
All photos by Pille & K of Nami-Nami

The surprising thing about El Bulli is that despite of their fame and the number of dishes served each night, they still take great interest in each diner's special wishes. While there is no traditional menu to choose from as such, they do want you to be able to enjoy all 30 dishes. When confirming our booking, they wanted to know about any food allergies or dietary considerations (yes, you can order a vegetarian or even a vegan meal). When we were seated, the waiter told us that the Chef has designed a 30-course meal for us, and that each dish will be explained as it is served. He then informed us that some items might be a bit unusual and off-putting - in our case razor clams and veal marrow - and could be changed for something more preferable. (I must confess I wasn't too keen on the razor clams, so I got an alternative dish. Funny enough, they forgot to mention that sea cucumber was on the menu as well. More about it later:)).

Ready? The menu could be split into five parts - savoury snacks, tapas, main tastes, (pre-dessert), desserts and morphings. However, I've opted to split the menu into three posts, explaining the various phases as we go.

Tangerine / Mandarina

The first dish we were served consisted of two parts. On a small black folded square paper were two tiny rose-scented granules. We were instructed to pop the rose granule into our mouth, and then drink the slightly foamy tangerine drink. As a result, the whole tangerine drink tastes strongly of rose :) 

Spherical Olives / Aceitunas verdes sfericas

I was so excited to see this dish! The spherical olives is probably one of the best known dishes on El Bulli's menu, and it was cool to have a chance to try them ourselves. It's an encapsulated pure olive pureé, marinated in olive oil, garlic, thyme and rosemary. We got two olives each, served with a special tiny spoon. You put the 'olive' into your mouth and when gently pressing it with your tongue, it bursts, leaving you with the taste of the best olive you've ever had. Very intense, very tasty. 

El Bulli/Ferran Adria is famous for playing with textures, tastes and temperatures. The spherical olive is a great texture-teaser - you expect it to 'feel' like an olive, and although it tastes like one, it feels totally different.  

Note that many of the dishes were to be consumed with our hands - utensils were rarely seen. Knife, for instance, was only brought to the table once (and I didn't really know how to use it then anyway :))

LYO Fruits / Frutas LYO (Pineapple chips)

Pineapple chips came on a typical plate that looked a bit like crunched sheet of metal. LYO is short for lyophilization aka freeze-drying. The freeze-dried pineapple chips look like your regular chips, but taste like pineapple and have a very fragile and slightly flaky texture.

Salty 'catanias' / Catanias saladas


Toasted walnuts covered in walnut praline and dusted with bitter cocoa powder. These managed to taste sweet and salty at the same time, and were apparently a play on a much-loved Catalonian chocolate-almond bon-bon.

Nori-trias

Lightly salted and creamy black sesame paste filling, wrapped into a fragile-crispy nori sheet.

Tomato cookie / Galleta de tomate

Intensely tomato-flavoured crispy cookie, garnished with a gold leaf and wasabi dot. Very interesting texture.

Beetroot coral / Coral de remolacha



Slightly similar to the tomato cookie texture-wise (a bit crunchier, perhaps), but intensely beet-flavoured. First the crispy beetroot 'coral', then a spoonful of beet juice :)

The above small dishes fell into the savoury snacks category, and were served several at the time. The following few dishes are the tapas-dishes, served one at the time.

Shiso flexia caramel with its own soft candy / Shiso caramelo flexia sus gominolas





This was one of the trickiest dishes to eat. The soft candies were VERY soft, and almost burst between our fingers (our only 'utensils' at this point). The 'flexia caramel' contained flecks of shiso (leaf? flower?) that were prone to fall all over the place when not eaten carefully. But flavour-wise, it was a lovely combination of mildly sour and sweet.

Pistachio sponge cake with acid milk mousse / Bizcocho de pistachios con mousse de leche acida



At first we thought this is the same pistachio mousse dish that Ferran Adria shares in the Foams and Espumas chapter of The Cook's Book (a brilliant book, by the way!) - we had tried that at home. However, it wasn't - the visual similarity was all that was common. This pistachio cake was dry and fragile - as a result of lyophilization - and not moist and sponge-like. The pistachio cake was served with acid milk mousse (photo below) and we were given a tiny spatula for scooping up the mousse.


That red tome? Oh, that's their modest wine list :)

Black sesame sponge cake with miso / Bizcocho de sesamo negro y miso

This was one of my favourite dishes - with a cool texture and lots of flavour. Toasted black sesame seeds have been ground into a paste, mixed with egg and flour, pressed through an ISI Gourmet Whip and then microwaved until cooked and fluffy. (We had tried a similar recipe with pistachios, printed in The Cook's Book: Step-by-step techniques & recipes for success every time from the world's top chefs). We were instructed to devour the sponge in two mouthfuls, starting with the miso paste part. Again, a great combination of textures (remember, we were holding the 'sponge' with our fingers) and flavours.