Creme Brûlée

• 
  2 cups heavy cream
  
• 5 egg yolks
• ½ cup granulated sugar, plus more to sprinkle for topping
• 1½ tsp. vanilla extract or one vanilla bean
• optional: fresh berries or mint for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Whisk together the egg yolks and ½ cup sugar in a medium mixing bowl until smooth and creamy. Add cream and vanilla and gently stir to combine, taking care not to mix quickly so as not to introduce extra bubbles. Place un-filled ramekins in a baking or casserole dish and fill baking dish with hot water until about half-way up sides of ramekins. Pour egg mixture into ramekins.
3. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, checking every 10 minutes after 35-40 minutes. When done, a knife inserted into the center of the egg mixture should come out mostly clean.
4. Remove from baking dish (I use a spatula) and lay onto clean dish towel to dry, set and cool. Allow to sit for 15 minutes.
5. Set oven to low broiler setting.
6. Sprinkle a thin, even layer of granulated sugar over the top of the cooked custard. Completely, but lightly, cover the custard with the sugar. Place the ramekins back into the baking dish and surround by ice and cold water until the water almost reaches halfway up the sides (don't fill too high with water, as the ice will melt and add to the volume of water).
7. Place baking dish with ramekins under broiler (or use crème brûlée torch, if you'd prefer) for 3-5 minutes, or until the sugar has melted and creates a golden brown, caramelized crust.
8. Garnish with berries and/or some fresh mint leaves.

Baked sausage with mushrooms and onions

1kg of Italian Sausages
4 cups of your favorite fresh mushrooms
1 sliced onion
3 tbsp fresh parsley chopped
Olive oil to coat the pan (can also use truffle oil)
Salt & Pepper

In a big roasting pan, add all the ingredients and mix together very well! Bake in a high temperature oven, about 200C/220C for about 30/40 minutes or until the sausages are all the way cooked.
Optionally you can add gorgonzola cheese after is baked, mix all de ingredients again with the cheese will create a delicious sauce!
Serve wil polenta.

Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio

Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio is a Muscat wine made from Fior d'Arancio grapes grown in the Veneto wine region's Colli Euganei hills, in north-eastern Italy. These wines were sold asspumante and sweet, dried-grape passito forms.

Fior d'Arancio is a member of the Muscat family of grapes, and also goes by the name Orange Muscat and Muscat Fleur d'Oranger. Its name, more elegant in its French and Italian forms, means 'orange blossom'. This is appropriate: Fior d'Arancio wines have a fresh, delicate, slightly sweet, blossom-like aroma, very similar to that which blows around citrus groves on warm, breezy spring afternoons.

The ideal food matches for these wines are the locally made biscotti (biscuits) or sweet pastries,  also goes very well with cheeses like Gorgonzola and Taleggio.

Taleggio

Taleggio 

Taleggio is a smear-ripened Italian cheese named after the caves of Val Taleggio. It’s one of the oldest soft cheeses produced in every autumn and winter. During cheese making, the acidic milk is brought to the lab, and kept on the wood shelves in the chambers as well in caves according to tradition. In order to prevent it from mold infestation, the cheese is washed with seawater once a week. The maturation takes 6 - 10 weeks forming a thin crust.

This cheese has been granted a PDO designation and contains 48% fat. The cheese has a strong smell, but its taste is relatively mild with an unusual fruity tang. To make it brighter and moderate, factories add spices, raisins, nuts and some lemons to it. When grated on salads such as radicchio and rucola, it tastes like a wonder, as well melts well. Taleggio can be served with Italian Nebbiolo wines, and also a wide range of Reds, whites and dessert wines.

• Made from pasteurized cow's milk
• Country of origin: Italy
• Region: Val Taleggio
• Type: semi-soft, smear-ripened
• Fat content: 48%
• Texture: creamy
• Rind: washed
• Colour: pale yellow
• Flavour: fruity, mild, tangy
• Aroma: pungent, strong
• Vegetarian: no

Asiago 

Asiago, is a cow's milk cheese, produced only on the Asiago plateau in the Veneto foothills in Italy. The

cheese-making tradition in the provinces of  Vicenza and Trento dates back to more than thousand years. Traditionally, it was made from sheep's milk but today it is produced from unpasteurised cow's milk.

Texture wise, Asiago goes through many changes, assuming different textures, according to its aging. There are two types of Asiago - fresh Asiago (Asiago Pressato) has a smooth texture while the aged Asiago (Asiago d'allevo) has a crumbly texture. Asiago d’allevo is matured for different time periods; Mezzano for 4-6 months, Vecchio for more than ten months and Stravecchio for two years. On the other hand, Asiago Pressato made with whole milk is matured for a month and sold fresh as a softer, milder cheese.

Depending on age, the rinds of Asiago can be straw coloured and elastic to brownish gray and hard. The paste can be white to dark yellow, with small to medium irregular holes. Based on the aging, Asiago can be used for grating, melting, slicing on a variety of salads, sandwiches, soups, pastas, and sauces.

• Made from unpasteurized cow's milk
• Country of origin: Italy
• Region: Veneto, Trentino
• Type: hard
• Fat content: 34-48%
• Texture: compact, crumbly, open and smooth
• Rind: natural
• Colour: yellow
• Flavour: full-flavored, mild, milky, sharp
• Aroma: pungent
• Vegetarian: no

Ideas for winter classes (Dec/Jan/Feb)

Altopiano class

-Tasting of three kinds of Asiago cheese

-Homemade Bigoli with duck sauce

-Homemade beer bread 

-Polenta cake

Mountain class

-Tasting of two mountain cheeses

-Pizzoccheri

-Casunziei 

-Apple Strudel

Risotto class

-Risotto alla Milanese 

-Sausage and radicchio risotto

-Porcini and mascarpone risotto

-Taleggio cheese and Fior D'Arancio  

Venetian carnival class

-Cherry and thyme prosecco cocktail

-Squid ink risotto

-Baked fish with vegetables

-Fritelle with sugar and cinnamon

Roman class

-Bucatini alla Amatriciana

-Saltimbocca 

-Ricotta pie with pears

Polish Class

-Polish bread

-Pierogi filled with meat served with sauerkraut 

-Cheese Blintz (Jewish pancakes)

-Surprise shot!

French class

-French Onion soup

-Potato au gratin

-Coq au vin

-Creme brûlée 

Deep fried Italian

-Arancini

-Panzerotti (fried calzone)

-Frittelle 

Souther style

-Mussels in spicy sauce

-Baked orecchiette with spicy tuna with sauce

-Cannoli

Lasagna and ragu class

-Traditional Bolognese ragu served with homemade tagliatelle 

-Lasagne alla Bolognese 

-Tiramisu 

Pork chops with pumpkin sauce and Taleggio cheese

For the meat:

6 pork chops

1/2 cup apple vinager

6 bay-leafs

1 tea spoon coriander

1 clove

Salt & pepper

Olive oil 

Marinate overnight the pork with the vinegar and the herbs.  Next day in a heavy bottom frying pan, cook the meat until is done. When the meat is done add the Zucca sauce and reduce. Serve with Taleggio cheese on top and broil if necessary.

For the sauce:

2 cups butternut squash in cubes

1 cup leeks chopped

1 cup white wine

2 tbsp Mascarpone or cream

1 tbsp fresh parsley chopped or thyme

A pinch of cinnamon powder

Butter

Salt & Pepper

In a sauce pan, cook the leeks and squash until soft. Using a for, make a pure. Add the wine and cook for another 5 minutes. Then add the mascarpone and the condiments. Let reduce until the consistency is like a rich cream. 

Maiale al Prosecco

1,5kg of Pork
Pancetta or bacon enough
1 carrot
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
2 sticks of celery
1 tbsp of fennel seeds
3 leafs of sage chopped
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp parsley
2 sticks rosemary one chopped
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1 bottle of Prosecco
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup heavy cream

 Rub the meat with the herbs, salt & pepper.  With a kitchen twine, wrap the pancetta around the meat and add as well a rosemary. Marinate the meat with all the ingredients overnight.
On a frying pan sear the meat and bake on 180C (350F) for about one hour.  After baked, take the meat out and blend the vegetables, flour and prosecco.  In a sauce pan, add the sauce and the cream and let get thick.  Serve the meat with the sauce.

Quail filled with ham and Asiago, served with Gorgonzola and pear sauce.

Serves 6

For the quails:
6 quails
250g Asiago cheese in cubes
250g Ham in cubes
100g bread crumbs
Parsley
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil

For the sauce:
2 pears in cubes
1 shot of brandy/cognac or whiskey
1 cup whole milk
1 tbsp flour
1 chopped shallot
150g Gorgonzola
2 tbsp butter
Nutmeg
Salt & Pepper


Clean and wash the quails, season them with salt & Pepper. Fill them with the ham, cheese and parsley. Tie the quail legs, rub the quails with olive oil and bake for 30 minutes in 180C/350F.

For the sauce:
Sauce the shallot with the butter, add the pears and flambé with the brandy. Add the milk mixed with the flour, the gorgonzola and the nutmeg. Cook until is thick. Add salt and pepper just if necessary.

Hungarian Goulash

A Classical Hungarian Goulash Recipe

Authentic gulyás is a beef dish cooked with onions, Paprika, tomatoes and some green pepper.

Potato and noodles (csipetke in Hungarian) are also added according to some recipes.

Hungarian goulash is neither a soup nor a stew, it’s somewhere in between. Though in Hungary it’s considered rather to be a soup than a stew, so look for it among Soups on restaurant menus.

If cooked in the proper way goulash has a nice and evenly thick consistency, almost like a sauce. In Hungary gulyás is eaten as a main dish; noodle or pastry dishes, especially the ones made with cottage cheese (túrós csúsza, túrógombóc, strudel) go down well after the heavy soup.

Ingredients (for 4 persons)

• 600 g beef shin or shoulder, or any tender part of the beef cut into 2x2 cm cubes 
• 2 tablespoons oil or lard 
• 2 medium onions, chopped 
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 carrots, diced
• 1 parsnip, diced
• 1-2 celery leaves 
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 1 tbs. tomato paste 
• 2 fresh green peppers
• 2-3 medium potatoes, sliced 
• 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika powder
• 1 teaspoon ground caraway seed
• 1 bay leaf 
• ground black pepper and salt according to taste
• water 

For csipetke (Pinched noodles added to goulash or bean soup in Hungary. Csipetke comes from the word csípni, meaning pinch in English, referring to the way of making this noodle):

• 1 small egg,
• flour,
• a pinch of salt,
• cc. 1 teaspoon water

Goulash is hearty enough without csipetke, especially if you eat it with bread, so you can leave csipetke out. 

Instructions

1. Heat up the oil or lard in a pot and braise the chopped onions in it until they get a nice golden brown colour.
2. Sprinkle the braised onions with paprika powder while stirring them to prevent the paprika from burning.
3. Add the beef cubes and and sauté them till they turn white and get a bit of brownish colour as well.
4. The meat will probably let out its own juice, let the beef-cubes simmer in it while adding the grated or crushed and chopped garlic (grated garlic has stronger flavour), the ground caraway seeds, some salt and ground black pepper, the bay leaf, pour water enough to cover the content of the pan and let it simmer on low heat for a while.
5. When the meat is half-cooked (approx. in 1,5 hour, but it can take longer depending on the type and quality of the beef) add the diced carrots, parsnip and the potatoes, the celery leaf and some more salt if necessary (vegetables tend to call for more salt). You'll probably have to add some more (2-3 cups) water too.
6. When the vegetables and the meat are almost done add the tomato cubes and the sliced green peppers. Let it cook on low heat for another few minutes. You can remove the lid of the pan if you want the soup to thicken.
7. Bring the soup to the boil and add the csipetke dough, it needs about 5 minutes to get cooked. 
   

How to make the csipetke:

• Beat up a small egg, add a pinch of salt and as much flour as you need to knead a stiff dough (you can add some water if necessary).
• Flatten the dough between your palms (to about 1 cm thick) and pinch small, bean-sized pieces from it and add them to the boiling soup. They need about 5 minutes to get cooked.

Recipe taken from the Budapest by locals.

Challah bread

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast or one cube of fresh yeast

1 cup warm water (100 degrees F/40 degrees C)

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon salt

3 beaten eggs

3 1/2 cups bread, plus more for kneading

1 beaten egg yolk, or more if needed

1 tablespoon melted butter(optional)

In a large bowl, stir the yeast into the water, and let the mixture stand until a creamy layer forms on top, about 10 minutes. Stir in honey and salt until dissolved, and add the beaten eggs. Mix in the flour, a cupful at a time, until the dough is sticky. Sprinkle the dough with flour, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes.

Form the dough into a compact round shape, and place in an oiled bowl. Turn the dough over several times in the bowl to oil the surface of the dough, cover the bowl with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm area until doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Punch down the dough, and cut it into 3 equal-sized pieces. Working on a floured surface, roll the small dough pieces into ropes about the thickness of your thumb and about 12 inches long. Ropes should be fatter in the middle and thinner at the ends. Pinch 3 ropes together at the top and braid them. Starting with the strand to the right, move it to the left over the middle strand (that strand becomes the new middle strand.) Take the strand farthest to the left, and move it over the new middle strand. Continue braiding, alternating sides each time, until the loaf is braided, and pinch the ends together and fold them underneath for a neat look.

Place the braided loaf on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and brush the top with beaten egg yolk. (For a softer crust, brush with melted butter instead.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Bake the challah in the preheated oven until the top browns to a rich golden color and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it with a spoon, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Blintz - Jewish pancake

BLINTZ INGREDIENTS

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt
• Clarified butter

FILLING INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt

• Blend all of the blintz ingredients together using a food processor, blender, immersion blender or electric hand mixer. Consistency of the batter should be smooth (no lumps). Alternatively, you can use a fork to mix all ingredients together until the batter is smooth. Make sure you get rid of all the lumps.
• Warm up a nonstick skillet on medium heat until hot. The skillet is ready when a drop of water sizzles on the surface of the pan. If the water pops or jumps out of the pan, the skillet it too hot—let it cool slightly before starting. If the water sizzles, it’s at the perfect temperature. Grease the entire surface of the hot pan generously with oil.
• Pour the blintz batter by 1/3 cupfuls into the pan, then tilt the pan in a circular motion till the batter coats the entire bottom of the pan in a large, thin circular shape.
• Let each blintz cook for 60-75 seconds until the edges of the blintz brown and the bottom of the blintz is lightly golden. You can tell it's ready by touching the center of the pancake's surface-- it should be dry and slightly tacky to the touch. Do not flip the blintz to cook the other side. Use a spatula to take the blintz out of the pan and place it on a plate.
• Keep the blintzes separated by pieces of parchment paper, wax paper, or paper towels. This will help keep them from sticking together.
• When all of the blintzes are cooked, create your filling. Put all of the filling ingredients into a mixing bowl, then use a fork to mix them well. Filling should be well blended but slightly lumpy.
• Now you’re going to stuff and wrap up your blintzes! Put 3 tbsp of filling on the lower part of the blintz, about an inch from the edge.
• Fold the lower edge of the blintz up over the filling.
• Fold the sides of the blintz inward, as though you’re folding an envelope.
• Roll the blintz up and over the filling like a burrito, tucking the edges in as you roll.
• When the blintzes are stuffed and rolled, you are ready to fry them. Pour ¼ cup of clarified butter into the skillet and heat over medium until hot. Do not let the butter turn brown or start smoking—if this happens, discard and try again. Cook the blintzes in batches of 3--this will give you space to turn them easily in the pan. Carefully place the stuffed blintzes flap-side down into the hot oil. The blintzes should fry for 1 ½ to 2 minutes until they’re brown and crispy.
• Turn the blintzes carefully using a spatula and/or tongs, then fry for an additional 1 ½ - 2 minutes. Blintzes should be evenly browned on both sides.
• Serve blintzes warm. They can be served as-is or topped with fruit topping, sour cream, applesauce, whipped cream or maple syrup.

Meat pierogies, served with sour cream, kapusta and onion relish.

Olga Łozińska and me! 

During a big cycling trip I did in East Europe, I got a lot of inspiration for Eastern European food. I met so many nice people that also cooked for me and tough me how to cook some really good food! In Poland I met Olga, I arrived at her place so dirty, cold and wet. And I will never forget how nice she was with me. I had the opportunity to eat a delicious Pierogi made by her mom!  Now all the time I eat or made Pierogi I remember of Olga. Good memories!! :)

Ingredients for the filling:

1kg of pork shoulder
1 large white onion
1 large potato
Few dried porcini mushrooms
1 bayleaf
10 whole pepper corns
Few drops of Przyprawa (Polish) or Wurze (German)... Maggi seasoning in English...
Salt & Pepper

In a big pan, cook all the ingredients together until the meat is tender and cooked. It will be about one hour.
Take the meat out of the pan and using a food processor make a paste with all the ingredients, but not the potato. The potato needs to be squished with a fork. Mix all the ingredients and add the Przyprawa and a little bit of the stock if the filling is to dry.


For the dough:

4 cups of flour
Salt
Warm water

Mix all the ingredients until smooth and not sticky. With a rolling pin open the dough and cut in circles (you can use a beer glass to cut).  Make the pierogis and place them on a parchment paper so they will not stick on the table.
Cook the pierogis for about 10 minutes or until they float. Fry in butter or pork lard.


For the Kapusta:

2 cups sour kraut
1 tbsp pork lard
1 clove garlic
2 drops of Przyprawa
1/2 white onion chopped
Bacon thin sliced

Fry the bacon, onions and garlic on the lard. Add the sour kraut and the drops of Przyprawa. Add salt and pepper.