See you soon and apple sorbet

I'm going on a holiday and I've found no better way to say goodbye than to make a completely natural and super organic sorbet with the apples from my apple-tree. The apples I've picked are not very ripe, because until this summer the apple-tree would only produce gnome-size apples. Therefore we hadn't cared much for its apples and we've never hung any bird-scaring device. But whimsical as it is, the apple-tree has decided to produce normal-size apples this season. The bad thing is that we are compelled then to be faster than the birds, difficult thing when you're already over 40... The moment any apple starts to blush... there go the birds. They devour the apple, lovely little birds... ahem. Nature is a wonderful thing.


This is one of those Frankenstein-recipes, gathered from various patches from here and there, quite simple though:

Apple and cider sorbet

• 1 small bottle cider (250 ml)
• Juice from one and a half lemon
  
• 6 green apples
  
• 3 tbsp agave syrup
• 2 tsp apple and pear syrup
  
• 1 dash apple liqueur (optional, I added it to boost the apple flavour, but I'm sure that more ripe apples than mine would do the trick)
  

Put the cider in a pot and bring to a boil along with both syrups. Turn off the heat and let cool. I don't use sugar if I can avoid it, but go ahead, you can ruin your health if you like.

Peel, core and cut the apples. Sprinkle them with the lemon juice as you go, to prevent them from browning. Add the cider syrup and process it to a fine puree. Try for sweetness and adjust if necessary. It should be slightly on the excess side, because once it is frozen it will taste less sweet. Apple and pear syrup is a natural sweetener, consisting of concentrated juice. It's perfect to boost the flavour in apple desserts. It only has one disadvantage: the color, dark as molasses. In fact I added a bit too much and the resulting color was strange, to put it mildly, like that of a cinammon sorbet instead of apple´s. That's why the size of the picture is so small, not to ruin my slender reputation.


Once the puree is sweet to your taste, just freeze it in an ice cream maker (if you're lucky to have one) or in the freezer, beating it every now and then, till it reaches sorbet consistency.


And... I hope you can excuse me for not answering your comments within 15 days. Happy holidays, everyone!

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Sweet and sour red pepper sauce

This is one of those recipes that go from mouth to ear, I learnt it from my mother so I really don't know where it comes from exactly. It reminds of ketchup, but with red pepper instead of tomato. It is delicious, a simple yet effective recipe, wonderful with grilled meat and cheeses, like fried brie or grilled provolone.



Here goes the recipe:

• 400 g red peppers, home-roasted or canned
  
• 200 g sugar
• 100 g vinegar (I use organic cider vinegar, I like it best)
  
• 50 g water

This time I decided to skip the sugar (cringe) and use 110 g agave syrup instead, which makes it diabetic-friendly as far as I know. Being that the syrup is already liquid, I skipped the water too. Yet at the end of the boiling I had to add a couple of tablespoons of water, because I found the sauce a bit too thick. I could have reduced the cooking time too, but I wasn't in time.


You can roast the red peppers yourself (that's what I usually do), but canned peppers work just as well. You start by cutting the peeled peppers in pieces, put them in a pan, add the rest of ingredients and cook the mixture for half an hour, stirring every now and then. If you use a Thermomix, 30 minutes at Varoma temperature and speed 1 (Thermomix 21). It's possible to leave a chunky consistency or you can just process it and get a final consistency like a thick tomato sauce.

You need to sterilize previously a couple of small glass jars with lid. Just boil them in water for half an hour, with a cloth on the bottom of the pan to prevent them from breaking (the final sauce amount is not more than two small jars, but it's not something you eat by the bucket, it's very flavourful). Took the jars out of the water and let them drain on a clean kitchen towel. Pour the sauce in the jars almost to the brim. Then sterilize the filled jars in the same pan and water you used previously, with the water level just below the lids, during another half hour.


Let them cool in an upside down position and... enjoy!

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Barley, rye and spelt sourdough bread

Being that I liked so much the taste of barley in this bread, I wanted to try barley in a softer bread. Can you guess where I got this recipe from? Mmmm, (clock ticking...) you're right, from Dan Lepard's book again! That's what I call tiresome. (I think I've gone a bit too far with the picture size, have I not? I go blinder everyday.)


And without further delay, here's the recipe, adapted for spelt sourdough. The original recipe calls for white wheat sourdough:

Barley, rye and spelt sourdough bread

• 250 g spelt sourdough (100% hydration)
  
• 300 g water
• 175 g spelt flour (I used semi-whole)
• 225 g rye flour (I used white)
• 100 g barley flour (I used whole)
• 1 1/2 tsp good sea salt
  

You know you can find everything you wanted to know about sourdough but never dared to ask in The Fresh Loaf.

Well then... mix all the ingredients except the salt. I didn't allow for the 20 minutes autolysis because rumour has it that the benefits are only really noticeable in white breads (my source for this statement is the book by Nancy Silverton, Breads from the La Brea Bakery. She's very clever, so I believe her). As this is rather a sticky dough because of so much whole and rye flour, I used my mixer for kneading, to make things easier. I added the salt halfway and I kneaded for around 5 minutes. And then all the dough went to a well oiled bowl, I covered it with a plastic shower cap and left it to ferment.



I then went out for dinner (I know this is not related to the recipe, it's just for you to see that I have some social life, not only blogging life) around half past eight and when I came back home around twelve the dough had more than doubled and looked beauuutiful... so plump and round, like a little baby... sorry, I get carried away. I decided to form a small boule and a ficelle for a change. Then I put both in the fridge inside a plastic bag, the boule in my one and only banneton (for the time being).

The next day I took them out of the fridge around ten in the morning, while I started the oven, because it takes nearly an hour to get to 250 ºC. Around eleven I put the ficelle into the oven, which baked nicely on the garden tiles for 20 minutes, and then I baked the boule inside my red dutch oven. Half an hour was enough. I always follow Peter Reinhart's advice and I control that the final inner temperature of the loaf is 92-95 ºC with roast-beef thermometer (I looove kitchen gadgets).


Result: ex-cel-lent, the ficelle was so cute and the boule... oooohhh, it's the first time that I get a a boule that looks like the ones in the books, with the nice banneton marks and all. Besides, I love the baking in the dutch oven, it's more thrilling that the bread is concealed and then when the time comes to open the treasure chest... I love it. The scoring was not so good, because I did it when the boule was already in the pot (mistake) and manouvering around it was more difficult. The crumb was dense, but soft and moist. Perfect for nordic accompaniments like smoked salmon, caviar with hard boiled egg and that type of thing. I guess I'm going to have it for breakfast the whole week.

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Tuna fish in escabeche

In the summer I always make tuna in escabeche. Served on top of a nice bed of salad it is a wholesome and delicious dish, good as single course. Perfect for hot weather and nourishing at the same time. Regarding the explanation about the different tuna species included in this previous post, I can tell you I have used both northern bluefin and albacore and the latter works much better.


Tuna fish in escabeche

• 1,350 kg white tuna (the original recipe calls for 1 kg; I had bought three beautiful tuna tails and used them all)
  
• 1 medium onion
  
• 1 large carrot
  
• 3 cloves garlic
• A good dash of virgin olive oil for the sofrito
  
• 250 g cider vinegar (I prefer cider vinegar to wine vinegar, it is softer)
  
• 250 g good white wine
  
• 150 g water
• 3 bay leaves
  
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  
• Salt to taste
  

This is adapted from a recipe by Thermomix. It calls for steaming the fish with the escabeche sauce. This means that first you prepare the sofrito, then the whole escabeche sauce and then it is used to steam the fish on top of it. The traditional method for escabeche is to boil the fish directly in the sauce. If you use the steaming method, the fish must be allowed to rest in the sauce at least one whole day, so that it soaks the juices and the flavours mingle. Escabeche is always tastier after some days rest.

So... make a sofrito with the onion, carrot and garlic, all finely diced, in the olive oil. When the vegetables are soft, add the liquid ingredients: water, wine and vinegar, along with the bay leaves, the peppercorns and the salt. Put the tuna to steam o directly into the liquid, whichever method you prefer. Bring the liquid to a boil and then leave for 20-25 minutes. The cooking time depends on the size of the fish pieces. Mine took 25 minutes. After 20 minutes, test for doneness (cut the center of a piece so that you can see the inner color). Leave for some more time if it is not cooked. Leave to cool. If you have steamed the tuna, put it now into the sauce. Leave to rest for a day, then enjoy this scrumptious and very Spanish dish. It is superb accompanied by shredded cabbage and carrot.


I put a portion into jars for preserving, which I sterilized in a pressure cooker this time... I don't know why but I hardly ever use my pressure cooker, it gives me the creeps. It makes no sense, because I'm a chemist and I've done far worse things when I was at college. When I use it I need to stay in the kitchen and watch it closely. It seems I want to be there if it explodes and be hit... Should consult my therapist. And this much stress is useless anyway, the preserved escabeche won't last very long...

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Barley flatbread by Dan Lepard

I keep on choosing the weirdest recipes out of The Handmade Loaf, the book by the English breadmaker Dan Lepard, it's already well-thumbed. I try to avoid normal white wheat flour for diet reasons, that's why I usually prefer to use other flours for breadmaking, which undoubtedly make things more difficult for me. Now I wanted to try my hand at these barley flatbreads... it's the first time I ever taste barley in my life. A short time ago I bought a bag of whole barley flour at the health shop, so I needed to use it. That's right, that's the way I do things, first I buy the ingredients and then I find out what to do with them. I know, it's not the best method, but I know no other way. I'm already too old to change. And by the way, this recipe goes to Susan/Wild Yeast and her Yeastspotting, although this week it will be hosted by Nick.


Barley flatbread

Overnight batter:

• 200 g water
• 50 g barley flour
  

Dough:

• Overnight batter
  
• 150 g barley flour
  
• 1 tsp ground malted barley
  
• 1/2 tsp fresh yeast
  
• 1/2 tsp good sea salt
  
• Additional flour for dusting
  

You have to start the day before by preparing the batter. The purpose of this batter is, according to the author, to give more elasticity to the bread, otherwise it would be too brittle. Bring the water to a boil and then let cool to 80 ºC. Add the flour, mix well to avoid any lumps and leave to cool and rest overnight.


The next day mix the batter with the rest of the ingredients till you have a soft dough (it looks a bit like cement, I must say...). Then leave it to rest for 2 hours or until you notice that it has puffed up a bit. Tip the dough onto a floured counter and roll it to around 5 mm thick. Then cut it in rectangles and put them on a floured oven tray to proof for another 45 minutes, well covered, especially if you live in a very dry climate like me (I put them inside bin bags).

In the meantime heat the oven to 210 ºC (slightly less if your oven is convection type, I had to lower the temperature a little bit). Put the trays in the oven and bake the breads for 15 minutes. Then lower the temperature to around 180 ºC and cook for some 10 minutes longer for the bread to crisp. The recipe indicates 25 minutes, my breads didn't take that long, it depends on the oven. Watch them closely to prevent them from overbrowning. Once baked, take them out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Result: I don't know why, but I love these weird and dry breads, the same happens with rye breads. They taste different from regular bread and are perfect for spreading soft cheeses or with a lot of other things, from smoked salmon to butter and jam. Now that I've tried barley in breads, I will definitely bake more of these breads in the future. And now, will you excuse me, I must be going, I need to try the combination with some olives paté I keep in my fridge...

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How to make preserved tuna in oil

Canned tuna... I love the word... In Spain everybody likes tuna in oil or escabeche... in a salad, in stuffed eggs, in a pincho, oozing juices on the bread... mmm, I get carried away. All peculiar people in the world who don't like canned tuna, please stop reading this post, because it deals with how to preserve tuna fish. The concept and recipe comes from the blog Milcolores, although I made a mix with some recommendations from the blog Mercado Calabajío. I love these mixes... first you read 12 recipes about the same dish, then you do the average, you trim here, you add there, add a pinch of salt and check what comes out. Some times it turns out like Frankenstein, but some others the result is a real success, like in this case.


Ah... tuna fish. I'm bound to tuna fish by unbreakable bonds. I still recall a certain tuna fish festival we attended at Burela, Galicia, a few years ago. For a ridiculous price you could get a very elegant plastic plate with tuna empanada, two or three chunks of Galician bread and two or three chunks the size of my fist of tuna fish from Burela in escabeche... and a glass of Valdepeñas wine. The tuna fish was so sturdy that you could feel it soaking your vital juices, but in spite of that the empanada... the sunset... the atmosphere... the wine oozing out the corner of my mouth ... I will never forget that tuna fish... I can cry when I recall that tuna... I love you, tuna.


If you want to know about the different species of tuna, check this link. What I used for my tuna fish pie was northern blue fin tuna, and also for this recipe.

Now to the point, here's what I did:

• Here in Spain tuna fish is present in the market mainly in the Summer and it can be specially cheap at the end of it; buy a fair amount of tuna whenever you find it at a good price. Ask for the fish to be cut in rounds or on any way that let you fit it comfortably into a large pan. I bought 1,5 kg in rounds of 1 inch thick approx.
• Lay an awful lot of bay leaves on the bottom of the pan. I used an enameled Le Creuset pan.
  
• Lay the chunks of tuna fish on top of the bay and cover with water. It is important to measure the amount of water added, in order to calculate the salt to be added. The recommended amount is 85-95 g salt per liter of water. I used this ratio and I was satisfied with the result, although saltiness is a very personal thing.
  
• Cover the fish with another lot of bay leaves. Don't restrain yourself, the bay flavour is not strong in the final result, in spite of adding so many leaves.
  
• Boil the fish for 20-30 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces. Then put off the heat and let it cool.
  
• When the fish is cool to the touch, take it off the pan, drain it and eliminate skin and bones, in case you have boiled it whole.
• In the meantime you should have sterilized the glass jars you've chosen for the preserving, boiling the jars and lids in water for half an hour. Just drain them on a clean towel, in an upside down position, don't dry them in any way.
• In some blogs there's a recommendation for letting the tuna fish harden in the fridge overnight, wrapped in aluminum foil. I was impatient and I didn't follow this instruction. The result was very good anyway, so I don't deem this step really necessary. Then put the tuna fish pieces on a cutting board and try to cut rectangular pieces that can fit into the jars. The pieces must fit tightly so that you don't need to use a lot of olive oil.
  
• Once all the tuna pieces are acommodated, fill the jars with olive oil. Some people use sunflower oil, but I think no other oil gives the same flavour.
  
• Cover tightly with the lids and sterilize again the filled the jars in a pan with boiling water, on bain marie, for half an hour. Use the same water you used for the previous sterilization (recycling!), keep the water level just below the lids. Sterilization can also be done in a pressure cooker, at a higher temperature, but I haven't tried this method.
  
• Let the jars cool and keep in the fridge, just in case. It shouldn't be necessary if the sterilization has been correctly done, but in my case some jars oozed a little bit of oil when I took them out of the pan, which led me to suspect that maybe they were not tightly sealed. And I prefer to be on the safe side.
  

And now you're ready to enjoy a homemade oil-preserved tuna, free from preserving and colouring agents... containing only all the heavy metals and chemicals that the poor fish swallows in the ocean... sigh (sorry, I have a pessimistic day). The making of tuna preserves is easier than you think, and if you have some doubt about the process, don't hesitate to ask me... :-)

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A voyage through time and organic cereals

Last weekend we have made a voyage through time, to the 14th century, where we have discovered beautiful romanic churches...




we've seen the work of artisans and we've witnessed how a Queen was sent to exile...


we've tasted Medieval delicatessen and admired the birds of prey of the falconers...


But for me the best discovery of all has been to find an enterprising producer of spelt and other organic products in the vicinity of Sigüenza, named deSpelta. Of course, I could not help taking hold of two bags of another type of wheat called "trigo negrillo", black wheat... couldn't resist when I learnt that it is a native crop of the area, not very productive, but with excellent nutritional qualities and perfectly adapted to the harsh climate of the Alcarria region. It is grown by these producers with great care to recover a type of production that it's not "fashionable" any more. As I learnt from the vendor, it's a soft kind of wheat, not fit for breadmaking unless mixed with some other higher-gluten flour. I expect to use this very special flour to prepare some homemade pasta and Spanish crepes very soon... so stay tuned!

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Apricots galore

What to do if life gives you 10 kilos of juicy organic apricots? Organic means that the only additive they carry is some bird's poop or some insect track... in short, they are lucky if anyone has given them a look or if they have been watered at all during Spring. Wild nature in full! The apricot-tree was old enough to get by on his own.


Therefore I had to ponder on what to do with all these apricots, a gentle gift from my sister. It couldn't be 10 tarts. I was compelled to process the apricots quickly, to prevent them from ruining in a kitchen at 28 ºC... my skin looks so good after getting rid of all those toxins by sweating. I should be grateful after all. Being that I'm not very imaginative I made:

Jam...


Apricot sorbet...


Apricot curd...


And the remaining apricots were locked up in the freezer, nicely cut in half and pitted.

Jam (shoddy recipe)

Fill an enameled pan with as much halved and pitted apricots as you can fit. Add sugar or fructose in my case, at a guess. No scientific method here. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring every now and then. I needed more than one hour, but the jam takes longer to thicken when you use fructose instead of sugar. Check the consistency and sweetness after half an hour and adjust the sugar/fructose if necessary. If the mixture is too fluid, then it needs to be concentrated further. Once attained the desired consistency, pour in reused glass jars, the kind you always keep and never get rid of. I have hundreds. These jars must be previously sterilized in boiling water for half an hour, well covered in water, and left to drain upside down on a clean towel. Then you pour the jam in the jars almost to the brim. You can use a large spoon too. Cover tightly with the lid and leave them to cool in an upside down position. By the way, you can process the fruit pieces or not. I processed it in the end because I found the apricot pieces were too large and recognizable.

Apricot sorbet (formal recipe, adapted from Not without salt)

• 6 cups frozen apricots
  
• Basil syrup made of:
• 3 large basil leaves
  
• 1 cup sugar or 1/2 cup fructose
• 1/2 cup water
  
• A dash of apricot or peach liqueur added to the syrup to make up 1 cup of liquid
  

Add the sugar or fructose to the water and bring to a boil, until all is dissolved. Put off the heat and add the basil leaves, leave to infuse. Let it cool to ambient. Add the liqueur to make up one cup. Put it in the fridge to cool thoroughly before use.

You must already have your apricots halved, pitted and frozen. Put them in the processor bowl with the syrup cup and process the whole until soft. You can serve it immediately (it makes a soft sorbet) or leave it in the freezer to harden further.

Apricot curd (a somewhat shoddy recipe)

Adapted from this recipe:

• 800 g apricots
• 530 g sugar
• 5 eggs
• 130 g butter

Halve and pit the apricots, put them in a pot. I use the Thermomix for that, because it let's you adjust the temperature. Otherwise you'll need a double boiler or a heatproof bowl inside a pan. Process the apricots and cook them only enough for them to soften a bit. Then process them to a very fine puree. The skins must be hardly noticeable, otherwise you'll have to strain the mixture and get rid of the coarser skins and bits. Add the butter to melt and cook at 80 ºC in the Thermomix or with a bain marie. Be careful not to overheat or it will separate. The amounts are a bit excessive for the traditional method, I would scale them down (remember I had a whole cargo of fruit to get rid of). Add the sugar and eggs and heat up the mixture stirring every now and them, till it thickens (speed 1 1/2 for Thermomix). It takes around 20-25 minutes to thicken, depending on the final amount of ingredients you use and on the eggs size. Check the consistency on the back of the spoon, if the custard covers it, it's done. Once the curd is done, fill sterilized jars to the brim. This is important because the curd shrinks on cooling. Cut a greased paper circle the size of the jar opening and lay it carefully on the curd. The curd forms a skin as any other custard. Cover with the lids, adjust them tightly and let cool to ambient. The curd keeps for three months in the fridge and six months in the pantry. But I don't think it will last that long once you try it... it's delicious! Mine was a bit too liquid, as you see in the picture. Maybe I should have cooked it at a higher temperature, but I didn't dare. Maybe the amount of fruit was too much. I will improve it next time.

And that's how I used all my beautiful apricots, not a single bit unused! Recession is leading us to a higher level of wisdom!

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Apricot flognarde

You'll probably be wondering what the h... is "flognarde"... I only learnt it recently. Check this explanation, I wouldn't say it better. I've been preparing cherry clafoutis for a long time, in fact it is one of my favourite tarts/pies, simple and very fruity, light, perfect for summer. Until recently any fruit tart of this type was a clafoutis for me, but according to the link, things are not that simple. You can prepare this kind of creme-caramel-like mixture of eggs, cream, milk and sugar with almost any kind of fruit, straight on the mold or with a pastry base. I personally prefer it with a nice homemade pastry base.


After this brainy introduction intended to raise the intellectual level of the blog... ahem (not sure I'm succeeding), let's get to the point:

Apricot flognarde

Amounts for a 28,5x4 cm mold (fairly big)

Pastry dough:

• 280 g all-purpose flour
  
• 125 g diced butter (not very hard, not very soft)
  
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 or 2 tablespoons sugar if you like it sweet
  
• 100 g cold water
  

This yields dough for two tarts.

If you prepare the dough in a food processor, put all the ingredients in the bowl and mix until they form a ball. I used my Thermomix to make it in a more traditional way: first I mixed the dry ingredients with the diced butter until it resembled crumbs and then I added the cold water and mixed to form a ball. I'm not sure that there is any difference in the final result, all I can say is my dough was delicious! You can also make the dough by hand, mixing the dry ingredients with your fingers until you get the crumbly texture and then adding the water. Then divide the ball in two and put one half aside; you can freeze it if you like.

Once you have a nice ball of dough, roll it to the desired size. Lay it on a buttered and floured mold and trim the edges. Prick it with a fork and put it in the oven, preheated to 180 ºC, for 10 minutes, to seal it and prevent it from absorbing the liquid of the filling.

Filling:

• 1 kg apricots (maybe you won't use them all, it depends on the size of your mold)
• 5 eggs
• 200 ml cream
• 125 ml milk
• 2 tbsp sugar (adjust to your taste, I don't like my filling very sweet)
• 2 tbsp ground almonds (to make the filling a little bit "frangipanic")

Cut the apricots in half and pit them. I cut them further in fourths, I find them easier to pack that way on the base. Lay them on the partially baked base in a nice pattern. Then put the tart in the oven to soften the apricots a bit, for 5-10 minutes, while you prepare the rest of the filling.



Mix all the ingredients. I always have vanilla pods inside my sugar; I'm crazy about vanilla. Mix everything thoroughly and pour the mixture on the apricots. Return the flognarde to the oven and bake it at 180 ºC around 40 minutes. The exact time depends on the fruit size. When the top is nicely browned, check for doneness with a toothpick or any similar thing.

Clafoutis/flognardes/whatever-you-call-them are easy to make and good for showing off. I recommend them if you want to please and impress family and/or friends...

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