150 g flour
150 g grated cheddar cheese
150 g butter
1 egg yolk
sesame seeds for sprinkle
Mix together the flour & grated cheese.
Add butter pieces & rub everything using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Add egg yolk & knead until you get smooth dough.
Chill ca 30 min.
Roll out the pastry onto the floured surface, you want the dough to be fairly thin. Cut ca 6 cm rounds & place onto the prepared baking sheet.
Brush with whisked egg white, sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake at 200C for 20 min until golden.
Cool on the wire rack.
100 g plain flour
80 g butter
4 eggs, beaten
160 ml water
For the filling
350 ml fresh cream
vanilla extract
75 g sugar
handful of frozen blackcurrants & redcurrants
Preheat oven to 200 C.
Line 2 large baking trays with grease proof paper.
Put the butter & water into a small saucepan & cook, stirring with wooden spoon for 3-4 min or until the butter melts & the mixture is just coming to the boil.
Add flour at once & beat quickly with the wooden spoon until well combined.
Place over a low heat & cook, stirring, for 1-2 min or until the mixture forms a ball & begins to come away from the side of the saucepan.
Set aside for a 5 min to cool slightly.
Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition to form glossy & thick paste. Last egg whisk at first & then add bit by bit, beat until the mixture just falls from the spoon but still holds its shape (you may only need half of the egg or so).
Form the dough into walnut-sized balls using 2 dessert spoons (or pipe it) & place them well spaced on to the trays.
Bake for 20-25 min. They should be well-risen & golden color when baked. Make sure they are nice & dry in the center too.
Remove from the oven & use a sharp knife to make a slit in the side of each puff. Cool on the wire rack completely.
When ready to serve, whip the cream with vanilla & sugar, stir in the berry's. Pipe cream into each choux bun.
Serve with chocolate sauce or icing sugar.
PINEAPPLE & SMOKED HAM FILLING:
200 g cream cheese
100 g smoked ham
small can pineapple pieces
Fresh dill for decorating
Chop ham & pineapples, stir it into the cream cheese. Season as you like.
SALMON FILLING:
200 g cream cheese
100 g smoked salmon
1 tbsp chopped dill
ground white pepper
Blend it all & season.
ROASTED TOMATO FILLING:
200 g cream cheese
2 tomatoes
butter
parsley, chopped
salt, pepper
Place sliced tomatoes under the grill on to the buttered baking tray. Season with salt & pepper.
Grill until done. You can just fry chopped tomatoes on the pan in the butter.
Blend in a bowl, add cheese, parsley & season if you like.
100g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
250 g liver
Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange, plus 1 tbsp juice
1 tbsp brandy (optional)
Melt half the butter in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat.
Add the onion & cook for 6-8 minutes, stirring, until soft.
Add the garlic & cook for 1 minute.
Remove with a slotted spoon & set aside.
Cut away any discolored bits from the liver, which will taste bitter.
Rinse under cold running water, then pat dry with kitchen paper.
Return the frying pan to a medium-high heat.
When the butter from cooking the onions is hot, add the liver & zest.
Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until browned but the liver is still pink in the middle.
Add the brandy, if using, to the pan & bubble for 30 seconds.
Transfer the liver & any juices to the bowl of onions.
Set aside to cool slightly, then tip everything into a food processor.
Add the remaining butter & the orange juice & whizz for a few minutes, until really smooth.
Season & spoon into a bowl.
Cover & chill for 1 hour, until firmed up.
Serve at room temperature.
Its time to get in mood with all these carved pumpkins, dancing skeletons, smiling ghosts & witches riding on brooms.
Samhain is the most important holiday of the Celtic calendar. It is the start of the Celtic New Year. This is a good time to make new year resolutions (I make them twice in a year now, just in case I fail, I'll still have 1.January for a second chance :)). In addition to celebrating the year’s end, it is also a celebration of the beginning of Winter.
The doors are opened between the worlds & the paths are travelled by the spirits going back & forth on this night. This world & the Otherworld become equivalent to each other & no barriers exist between the dead & the living, that is, the “Veil” is at its thinnest.
Light a candle for a loved one who has passed on.
Don't forget to leave out food for the fairies on Halloween night at home or at the nearest hawthorn or white-thorn bush to appease the spirits.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds:
Whilst carving your Jack O’Lantern,save the seeds. Roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious & are rich in nutritious minerals such as zinc.
Preheat the oven to 120C.
Wash the pumpkin seeds to remove all the pulp & place in a bowl. Melt a bit of butter in a pan & then pour in the seeds slowly, tossing while you go. Do not use too much butter, but just enough to lightly coat the seeds. Add salt, spread the seeds out over a baking pan & bake, turning occasionally, until crisp & lightly golden browned. Overcooking causes the nuts to toughen and lose flavor.
Irish Champ:
Classic Irish recipe of mashed potato & scallions or spring onions (you can use leeks instead).
750 g-1 kg potatoes, peeled & quartered
1 cup scallions/spring onions
55-75 g butter
75-100 ml milk
Salt and pepper
Simmer the potatoes in lightly salted water until cooked.
Finely chop the white part of the scallion/spring onion & roughly chop the green part. Keep to one side.
Drain the potatoes & add the butter & milk & mash until smooth & creamy.
Add the finely chopped white part of the onion and mix well.
Season well with salt and pepper. Serve with the green part of the onion sprinkled on the top.
Colcannon also has a special meaning at Samhain. On Samhain, colcannon has divination properties, it contains charms -- a ring to symbolize a marriage, a coin to symbolize wealth, a pea to symbolize poverty, a thimble to symbolize spinsterhood & a stick to symbolize "one who will travel far."
1 kg (2 lbs) potatoes, freshly cooked & mashed
250 g ( ½ lb) kale or white cabbage, just cooked, drained & finely chopped
Milk, butter, salt & black pepper
Mix potatoes & kale or cabbage together. Heat some milk with a generous knob of butter. Beat it into the potato mixture until smooth & creamy. Season well.
Did You Ever Eat Colcannon?*
(Traditional)
Did you ever eat Colcannon
When 'twas made with thick'n'd cream
& the greens & scallions blended
Like a picture in a dream?
Did you ever scoop a hole on top
To hold the melting cake
Of clover-flavoured butter
That your mother used to make?
Did you ever eat & eat, afrain
You'd let the ring go past,
& some old married sprissman
Would get it at the last?
Gods be with the happy times
When trouble we had not
& our mother made Colcannon
In the little, three-legged pot.
Another Halloween treat is a Barmbrack, a rich Irish fruit bread. Again, the “charms” baked into each loaf would foretell the future of the recipient. Placed in the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth & a ring. Whoever received in their slice the pea, would be unmarried; the stick, would be a fighter; the cloth or rag, would be poor;& the ring, would get married within the year.
Barmbrack is usually baked in a round (20 cm or 8″) cake tin with a loose base.
2 tea bags, or 3 tsp. loose tea (a strong black blend works best)
350 g mixed dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins/sultanas, currants, candied peel)
240 ml milk
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. dried active yeast or 25 g fresh yeast
450 g strong bread flour
1 tsp. salt
25 g brown sugar
75 g butter
1 beaten egg
1 tsp. mixed spice
Make 2 cups of strong black tea.
Soak the dried fruit in the tea for few hours or up to overnight.
Warm the milk until it is hand-hot. Stir in the teaspoon of sugar & the yeast & leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes or until it becomes frothy.
Mix the flour, salt & brown sugar in a large bowl.
Rub in the butter or margarine.
Add the yeast, the beaten egg & the spice.
Drain any remaining liquid from the fruit, then add the fruit to the mixture.
Mix well to make a smooth dough (add extra flour if the mixture is too wet).
Turn the dough onto a floured board & knead it thoroughly.
Place it in a buttered tin, cover with a clean towel or cling film & leave in a warm place to rise for 45 – 60 minutes; the dough should have doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Place the tin in the oven & bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the loaf from the tin, turn it upside down & put it back in the tin or directly on the oven shelf.
Bake for another 20 minutes or so. The loaf will be ready when it sounds hollow when you tap on each of the sides.
Cool the loaf on a wire rack before serving.
3 eggs
250 ml sugar
400 ml flour
0,5 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
200 g butter,melted
400 ml grated carrots
100 ml pineapple in juice,drain,crush with back of the fork (you can use pears instead) Glaze:
350 g soft cheese (Philadelphia)
200 ml dusting sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar or drop of vanilla essence
Handful of pecan nuts
Slightly whisk the eggs with sugar.
Mix the rest of the dry ingredients.
Add to the flour mixture the crushed pineapple & grated carrots.
Mix a little.
Now mix in the butter & eggs. Don't over mix just to combine everything.
Pour the mixture to the prepared baking tray (ca 25X35cm).
Bake at 200 C for 20 min.
Check with toothpick if comes out clean, its ready.
Cool on the wire rack.
For a filling mix soft cheese, sugar & vanilla. Cover the cake.
Decorate with pecans.
