Passion (for) fruit

Passion fruit, also known as Granadilla or Maracujá, depending on country of its origin, gives such a wonderful touch to desserts and drinks! As many of the exotic fruit kinds, passion fruit at the Swedish food stores is always available, unfortunately, quality of the fruit that has crossed oceans before it got here, varies. I was lucky and got some really wonderful passion fruits - in size of a small lemon, full of juice and flavor. 

Now that my "dessert period" is at its end (I make and believe this statement regularly - every Monday :)) I want to share a recipe on passion fruit pie. Once again, I found it amusing to experiment and didn't follow any recipe which means that there are things that you can make better in case you'll find it interesting enough to test and try. It is a no-bake dessert, well, if we don't consider the digestive crust visiting oven for 10 minutes. 

Passion fruit pie

You need:
for the crust:
digestives (I used approx. 2 digestives per portion, made 5 portions)
butter, melted (40-50 g for about 10 digestives)
1 tsp ginger (optional)

for the filling:
1 can coconut milk (400 ml) or a coconut cream (I reduced the watery part of the coconut milk to a half which turned out as a smart move)
4 gelatine sheets (I used Dr. Oetker gelatine sheets that recommend using 3 sheets per 2 dl fluid)
3 Tbsp sugar
3 small or 2 big passion fruits 

heavy cream (36% fat) to serve with and 1 passion fruit for decorating


Method:
1. Crush the digestives - the best way to do this is to use a food processor. Mix the crushed digestives with melted butter (and ginger). Press the mixture into the pie pan or individual pie molds. Bake at 180 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. Cool down completely.
2. Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water for 5 - 10 minutes.
3. For the filling, put the coconut milk (reduce the water first) in a pan. Add sugar and the spoon out the passion fruits. Heat up until it almost boils. Remove from the heat. Squeeze out water from the gelatine sheets and dissolve them one by one in the warm mixture. Let cool  for a while and pour on the prepared crust. Place in the fridge over night or for at least 4 hours. 
4. Serve with a table spoon of cream and some more passion fruit.


To make it better: Sieve the coconut-passion fruit mixture before using it to get a rid of the fruit seeds. You can add some lime zest to the mixture as well. I added lime juice but it made the mixture a little too watery.

Rhubarb&raspberry mini cakes

 

A lovely rhubarb pound cake recipe that I've adapted from a gifted Swedish food blogger Linnéa Seidel. In her recipe on rhubarb squares, she chose to marry rhubarb with strawberries. And I agree with Linnéa who says that rhubarb can just as well shake it up with raspberries, blueberries, blackberries or the very special cloudberries.

What I like about this recipe is the mix of spices used to marinade the fruit. Imagine cardamom, ginger and cinnamon together with honey. Sounds like Christmas but it works perfectly well with the sour rhubarb. Try and see! As usual, I cut down on sugar a bit in my recipe and as it turns out, I could have gone for even less sugar in the cake.

Rhubarb&raspberry mini cakes

 

inspiration: http://www.linneasskafferi.se/2010/06/sommarkaka-med-rabarber-jordgubbar/

Ingredients: (6 mini cakes)

1- 2 stalks rhubarb

150 g raspberries /fresh or frozen/

3 Tbsp honey /or golden syrup/

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp cinnamon

100 g butter

2 dl granulated sugar

0,5 dl golden syrup

2 eggs

3 dl flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

0,5 tsp salt

Method:

Preparation: Marinade the fruit first. Cut the rhubarb into 3 cm pieces and put it in a bowl together with raspeberries. Combine with honey (or golden syrup) and spices.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and flour a standard pie mold or 6 individual mini molds.

1. Let the eggs rest at a room temperature for about 30 minutes before you start.

2. Melt the butter in a pan, add sugar and the golden syrup. Let the sugar dissolve a little. Let cool to a room temperature before you beat in eggs.

3. Beat in the eggs, one by one.

4. Mix the flour with salt and vanilla sugar and combine it in the butter-egg mixture. You'll get a smooth and rather thick mixture.

5. Fill the mini molds to a half and divide the fruit mixture on the top of each. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the cakes are golden on the sides.

Express feel good dessert

Fresh figs! Very exotic. Very challenging. And a perfect picture object. I don't think that these figs would win a beauty or taste contest worldwide, but they definitely won today in my kitchen :) My philosophy of a perfect one-minute dessert comes right here:

You'll need: Mediterranean style yoghurt / Turkish, Greek etc., fresh figs, maple syrup. Done!

A Thank you cake

Hate saying goodbye so I choose to say thank you instead :) Today I had my last lecture with a very small but very nice group of 4 students. We had so much fun together, at least I hope they also had fun and that they learned. 

Last week I tried a lovely sour cream pound cake recipe. Even though I searched for a new inspiration this week, I turned to the one I already tried in the end. To make it new, I went for blueberries and lemon this time. My lovely mum picked some most wonderful blueberries last summer for me. Just look at the size of those! No wonder I'm always having a hard time deciding how to use them. I usually take a spoonful or two with a bowl of yoghurt or oatmeal in the morning but that's about it. I tend not to "waste" them to baking but today they were totally worth the "waste"! Who wouldn't like a moist, lemony cake with the precious blueberries? I think I can tell that the cake was appreciated! :)

Blueberry&lemon sour cream pound cake

Ingredients:

100 g butter softened

1 cup caster sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 dl sour cream

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

about 1 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) + 1 tablespoon plain flour

Method:

1. Store the eggs, sour cream and butter at the room temperature for about 30 minutes before you start.

2. Set oven to 175 degrees. Grease and flour a high rectangular cake mold.

3. You can soften the butter a little by using a microwave oven.

4. Beat the butter and add sugar, beat again until fluffy and smooth.

5. Beat in eggs, one by one. Mix in the zest and juice of 1 lemon.

6. Mix in the mixture of flour, baking soda and baking powder alternately with the sour cream.

7. Put the frozen or fresh blueberries in a bowl together with the tablespoon of flour. Toss the bowl so that the blueberries are evenly floured. This procedure is to prevent the fruit from sinking to the bottom of the cake.

8. Gently mix the blueberries into the dough. Transfer into the cake mold and bake for about 45-50 minutes.

I wish I had baked the cake a little bit longer, but I was in a hurry and when the cake was just done, it had to get out from the oven..Next time it'll be just perfect! :)

Pearspotting :)

 

Pears, pears and more pears. These last few days I've been hooked on pears, you might have noticed :) I know, it's so not their season this time a year but..It started when I was making oven baked root vegetables. I thought that it wouldn't hurt mixing pears with carrots, parsnips, potatoes and red onions. And yesterday. Avocado&pear kidney bean salsa for lunch. Today I was searching for a pear dessert recipe and found loads of them that I plan to try. The first one makes itself in the oven, just what I need when I'm preparing for an exam.

Baked pear with cinnamon&ginger butter

Ingredients: (2 servings)

1 pear (I used Conference)
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger spice
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
 tin foil
 hasselnuts (or almonds, walnuts, pecans..)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Cut the pear diagonally and remove the core, leaving a scoop in the middle.
3. Mix together butter, sugar and spices. Spoon the mixture in the scoop.
4. Place each pear half on a separate square of tin foil, scooped side up, and wrap so that it does not leave any opening.
5. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Spiced butter together with sugar and pear juice make a wonderful syrup. Serve with toasted nuts and creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream.

Catchin' up..

Gosh, it's been a busy week and went by fast like hell! I didn't have a spare moment to spend with my blog so now I'm catching up. Amazing things have happened in the food blogger world this week. The best Slovak food bloggers I'm following have made some seriously wonderful stuff in their kitchens that made me wanna Cook, eat and photograph :), they made me wanna enjoy!

I'm having a day off which means that the kitchen is full of me! Why should I bother making plans for cooking when my first (or second?) thought after waking up is that I'd fancy a fruity "sponge cake" (bublanina). Having thoughts like this is not unusual for me but they usually attack my brain when I'm fully awake.
Bublanina is a very easy made and very common Slovak dessert. When I'm thinking "bublanina" I recall a hot summer day at my grandad's garden with an odour of fresh rape fruits like apricots or peaches in the air. I made just a couple of bublaninas over the last few years so maybe that's why my craving for making one today was so intense..

Bublanina with pears and raspberries

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
lemon zest of a half lemon
0, 75 dl milk
0,75 dl canola oil
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp baking powder
1 pear and a half a cup raspberries (frozen or fresh)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy. Add milk, oil and lemon zest. Stir in flour and baking powder, pour it in a medium oven ware dish. Clean the pear and cut into pieces. Powder the fruit with a little bit of flour in case you don't want it to sink on the bottom of the cake while baking (I didn't do this and look what happened :)). Place the fruit randomly on the cake dough and bake until the top is golden brown, for about 25-30 minutes. Check after 20 minutes, the baking time very much depends on the oven type, dish depth, dough etc..

 

Lunching for me is almost always a spontanious thing. All I knew today was that I'd make something of avocado. I had my favorite avocado soup earlier this week so I was gonna let my imagination go a bit further this time. The result was decent and took only 5 minutes to accomplish. Having a spare pear that I didn't use when baking, I'd decided that I'd put these two lovely fruits together. Tada, they totally match! Kidney beans made the "avocado-pear marriage" a legitimate lunch material :)

Avocado&pear kidney bean salsa

Cut the fruit of avocado and pear, mix in a bowl, add lime juice, a little bit of sea salt and kidney beans of a good quality.  

Enjoy!

White chocolate and vanilla bean panna cotta with mashed raspberries

After what seems like ages, it's panna cotta time! I couldn't resist the temptation of making one as I was salivating through the latest Daring Bakers' challenge on Tastespotting.
This panna cotta is my favorite for two reasons: 1. No added sugar and 2. (rasp)Berries!
I'm stuck in the heavenly combination of white chocolate dissolved in heavy cream and topped with the freshness of juicy raspberries.

I only dare to make this dessert either on special occassions or when i know that there is a chance for hours of sweating at the gym! And never more often than once-twice a year :)) It's highly addictive!

White chocolate and vanilla bean panna cotta with mashed raspberries

Ingredients: (2 servings)
2,5 dl heavy cream
50 g white chocolate
2 gelatine sheets
a pinch of vanilla bean powder
about 100-150 g raspberries
(sugar)

Method:
1. Put the gelatine sheets in a cold water and let them soak for about 10 minutes.
2. Heat up the heavy cream and remove from the heat when it starts simmering (do not cook).
3. Squeeze water out of the sheets of gelatine and stir so that it dissolves in the heavy cream.
4. Add the chopped white chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Add vanilla bean powder (and some sugar if you like).
5. Pour into a serving bowles and refrigirate for about 4 hours.
6. Before serving, mash the raspberries and spoon them on the top of the panna cotta.

A as in avocado

I didn't know the taste of avocado until I was about 25 years old. We were having dinner with friends in a cosy mexican restaurant in Prague and had guacamole among the dishes we ordered. I remember there was a "mexican" restaurant in my home town Nitra, but I don't remember anything made of avocado on the menu! :) Today avocado is a often on my menu. My two favorite recipes, a soup and a dessert with avocado, follow:

Avocado soup with lime and chilli

Ingredients: (makes about 3 portions)
2 avocados
1/2 liter vegetable stock
1 lime, juiced
1 clove of garlic (optional)
chillipepper (fresh or dried)
sea salt

Method:
1. Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Spoon the avocados into a blender and puree together with a little bit of the semi-cold vegetable stock.
2. Add chilli, lime juice, garlic and the remaining vegetable stock. Blend until smooth.
3. Season with sea salt and serve.

Trust me, it's wonderful. I make this soup very often and I never get tired of it :)

Recipe adapted from 500 soppor, den enda bok med soppor du behöver by Susannah Blake.

Avocado mousse

 Avocado in a dessert? Oh my, it's so surprisingly good! I can only recommend because even Andreas, who is not an avocado fan, liked it!

Ingredients: (makes 2 portions)
1 avocado
zest and juice of 1/2 lime
100 ml heavy cream
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar

Method:
1. Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed and peel. Mix the avocado together with the sugar, lime juice and zest until smooth. Use a handheld blender.
2. Whip the heavy cream and blend it into the avocado mix.
3. Cool for about 2 hours before serving. Yummie! :)

Recipe adapted from Höstens goda mat, Ica Kvantum.

Avocado+Mango=Love

My two favorites on one plate. Refreshing. Delicious. Made of 4 ingredients: avocado, mango, lemon juice (lime juice), sea salt.

................................................ Loooooooove :) .............................................