That's all I'm eating

I was thinking of telling you about my New Year's Day feast but then I thought it would be cruel to describe succulent pieces of roast pork with honey, thyme and orange juice, crispy pork skin, melt-in-the mouth potatoes and the best Politiki Vasilopita (New Year's Day Greek brioche-type bread) I have ever made, when all I'm going to share with you today is a salad.






A salad I did not serve at my New Year's Day feast but a salad I made and enjoyed the day after. I know it's not fair, but then again maybe it is. Because perhaps you're fed up with seeing pictures of fatty meat or better yet, fed up with eating it. I know I am. I think I'm all "meated" out.






My body yearns for salads and fruits, grains and legumes. That's all I'm eating these days. Greek lentil soup, clementines*, homemade barley bread and salads. This one here could easily be a part of a Christmas or New Year's dinner but I saved it for the following days on purpose. I don't want to lose all that glitz and glamor when January 2nd hits. I want my after-the-holidays salads to be just a tad superior to the everyday, middle-of-the-winter ones.






Last year's first post was again a salad—I guess I'm developing a pattern here. One with endives, apple, walnuts and Roquefort cheese. This year's salad though is not your typical winter salad. It's a herb salad. It is earthy, citrusy and well, herby.






Herb salads are nothing like vegetable salads. They're more pungent, more aromatic and their flavors can travel you to places you rarely visit. Places where parsley, mint and dill are treated not as your ordinary herbs but as stars in their own right.






The fresh herbs are paired with pomegranate seeds, winter carrot, fennel bulb and fennel seeds that are toasted and add another dimension of spiciness to the dish. And then my favorite citrus fruit, the orange, decorates the plate and enhances the overall flavor of the salad, firstly with its juicy segments and secondly as a reduced orange juice-syrup that is added to the dressing along with olive oil and lemon juice.






The result is an amazingly refreshing, vibrant and sweet-smelling salad. I'm not going to mention how healthy it is for you, that is obvious, I'm just going to tell you that it's guaranteed to boost your senses. Pinky swear.






P.S. I got this as a New Year's present from S. I foresee a lot of brûléeing in my future. Hang on tight!






* Whenever I talk about clementines, Kate Winslet (which I love) and this movie (which I also love) always come to mind.








Herb Salad with Fennel, Carrot, Pomegranate and Orange
Adapted from Nadia Zerouali & Merijn Tol

You can serve this salad with a grilled steak, chicken, a nice piece of fish or with some grilled cheese like halloumi or feta. Along with a glass of wine, you have dinner.






Yield: 6 salad servings

Ingredients
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
2 large oranges (the sweeter the better)
100 ml orange juice, freshly squeezed
1 small bunch of fresh dill
1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley
1 small bunch of fresh mint
1 pomegranate
1 medium-sized carrot
1 fennel bulb and fronds
80 ml extra virgin olive oil
Juice of ½ medium-sized lemon, freshly squeezed
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper


Preparation
Place the fennel seeds in a non-stick skillet and dry-fry them over medium-high heat, stirring them around constantly, until they become fragrant, for about 1 ½ minutes. Be careful not to burn them. Remove them from the skillet and let them cool.

Cut the oranges by using a sharp knife. First, cut off the peel, then the white pith all around the fruit, exposing the flesh, and finally, cut free the flesh of the fruit from the membranes that are in between the wedges. Put the orange segments in a bowl and set aside. Squeeze the rest of the orange and measure the juice. If you don't have 100 ml, add some ready-squeezed orange juice or squeeze it from another orange.

Place the orange juice in a small saucepan and boil it over medium heat until it becomes syrupy, for about 10 minutes. Be careful not to burn it or reduce it too much because it will become bitter. Leave it to cool.

Pick the leaves from the dill, parsley and mint and place them in a bowl. You can do this ahead of time and keep the herbs in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.

Cut the pomegranate in half and take the seeds out with a spoon. Place the seeds in a bowl.

Peel the carrot and cut it lengthwise into ribbons, using a sharp knife, a vegetable peeler or a mandoline.

Cut the fennel bulb lengthwise using a sharp knife or mandoline. Cut the fennel fronds and add them to the herbs.

You can cut the carrot and fennel ahead of time and keep it in a bowl filled with water and ice cubes so that the vegetables remain crisp.

Make the dressing by adding in a small bowl the reduced orange juice, the olive oil, lemon juice and a little salt and pepper. Mix together well, using a whisk.

Drain the carrot ribbons and the fennel in a tea towel.

In a large salad bowl or platter, combine the dill, parsley, mint, fennel fronds, carrot, fennel and pomegranate seeds. Add the orange segments and drizzle with the dressing. Sprinkle some toasted fennel seeds on top and serve.

New Year's chestnuts

There are not many things I can say about 2011 other than that it wasn't a very good year for me in many respects. I can't wait for it to end and for 2012 to begin.





I never do the whole 'resolutions' and 'looking back' kind of thing so I will spare you the trite speeches and grand declarations about the things I want to, will try to or never will change in the new year.






I am simply going to concentrate on chestnuts, mascarpone, savoiardi biscuits, brandy and what you can achieve by combining them together into a dessert. And that's an incredible chestnut tiramisu.






Yes, I'm aware that I have been posting a lot of sweets lately and no, I'm not turning this into a dessert blog. It's just that I'm in desperate need of sweet things in my life right now. Sweet, comforting and delicious things, and that's clearly what this tiramisu is.






Savoiardi biscuits, otherwise known as ladyfingers, are briefly soaked in a mixture of freshly brewed espresso coffee, sugar and brandy. I opted for Armagnac, a brandy made in the Armagnac region in the southwest of France, simply because that's what I had on hand, but the Greek Metaxa would do wonders too. Egg yolks are beaten with sugar to create a light and airy concoction, to which whipped cream and luscious mascarpone are added, followed by the chestnut purée.






Layers of plump, boozy savoiardi biscuits and sumptuous chestnut and mascarpone cream fill the glasses and are only separated by a light dusting of dark cocoa powder.
There may be many desserts with chestnuts out there but only few of them can achieve such a level of flavor complexity and yet be so simple at the same time.






Sweet, but not overly so, earthy, nutty and bursting with chestnut flavor, creamy but with a slight bite from the chestnut purée and positively elegant, this tiramisu is exactly what a New Year's dessert should be. Don't you think?






I'm wishing all of you a Happy New Year filled with health, love, good luck and happiness!

Thank you all for your friendship, love and support. They really mean a lot to me.










Chestnut Tiramisu
Adapted from here

Ideally, I would make my own chestnut purée for this dessert by roasting some chestnuts in the oven and then puréeing them, but quite frankly, store-bought chestnut purée is extremely good so I didn't bother doing it.

I used chestnut purée and not chestnut cream. What's the difference you might ask? Chestnut purée is cooked and puréed chestnuts, it is unsweetened and has a thick texture, whereas chestnut cream or crème de marrons is puréed chestnuts with sugar and vanilla, it is sweet and has (obviously) a creamy texture.

I used freshly brewed espresso coffee but you can also use instant granules. It's up to you.

As with all tiramisu recipes this one also has raw eggs. Make sure the eggs you use are as fresh as possible.
I want to remind you also that raw eggs should not be consumed by pregnant women, infants, the elderly and those whose immune system is compromised.






Yield: 6 small or 3 large glasses

Ingredients
3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
100 g caster sugar
130 ml cream, full-fat
250 g mascarpone
160 g unsweetened chestnut purée

250 g savoiardi biscuits (ladyfingers)
120 ml espresso coffee
35 g caster sugar
25 ml brandy of your choice

20-30 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Special equipment: stand or hand-held mixer, sieve for the cocoa powder


Preparation
In the bowl of the stand mixer or in a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the 100 g sugar on medium speed with the whisk attachment or with your hand-held mixer, until the mixture is white, light and fluffy. Add the chestnut purée and beat until incorporated. Because the chestnut purée has a thick texture, the texture of the mixture will be ever-so-slightly grainy after you beat it. The brilliant thing about this is that each time you eat a spoonful of the cream, you'll experience small chestnut-flavored bursts as you bite into the small granules.


In another bowl or in the bowl of the stand mixer (empty the chestnut mixture in another bowl and wash it), beat the cream on high speed with the whisk attachment, until it is thick. Add the mascarpone and beat on medium speed, until the mixture becomes creamy and fluffy.
Add the chestnut mixture to the mascarpone and cream mixture and mix it in gently with a spatula until incorporated, making sure it doesn't lose its volume.


Have your glasses ready to fill them with the components of the tiramisu.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the espresso coffee with the 35 g sugar and brandy.


Take the savoiardi and start dipping them one by one in the liquid mixture and placing them at the bottom of the glasses. You might need to cut them in half to fit the glass. Add a layer of cream on top and then a sprinkle of cocoa powder. Continue in the same manner, layering the tiramisu, until your glasses are full. I made 3 large glasses of tiramisu.


Place the tiramisu in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving them.

They will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, preferably covered with plastic wrap.

This Christmas...

... I will be cooking a goose. I will be making goose fat-roasted crunchy potatoes (one of the best kind of roasted potatoes, the recipe of which I definitely have to share with you sometime), glazed carrots and I will be baking my own bread.






I have already prepared a chicken liver parfait—parfait and not paté because parfait is simply smoother, creamier, better—, cranberry chutney and I will definitely be making a tray of tyropita (Greek cheese pie).
Yes, Christmas is going to be a full day in the kitchen for me.






But after that, I'm going to enjoy these little round-ish beauties. Because, let's face it, for a chocoholic like myself, no good meal can end without chocolate. And since I will have already stuffed myself with copious amounts of the aforementioned goose, potatoes etc, I thought I'd better keep dessert as small and simple as possible, for my own good.






I know they're not glamorous, extravagant or incredibly elaborate but they fit perfectly with my idea of a sweet and chocolaty Christmas treat. They are essentially ganache truffles (a simple cream and chocolate mixture) and they're cinnamon-infused, which makes them even more delicious, if that's possible. They are dense and rich and the cocoa powder that surrounds each little imperfect round, gives a welcomed bitterness and adds a contrast in texture.






During the following days I'll be catching up on my sleep, I'll be spending some much needed quality time with S, I'll be watching Christmas movies while drinking hot chocolate, I'll be eating leftover goose and chutney sandwiches, I'll be going for long walks around The Hague and I'll be staying away from my computer.






So I'll see you all next week!

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Holidays!












Cinnamon-Infused Chocolate Truffles

Make these for an after-dinner dessert or to give away during this festive season as a gift to loved ones or to have in the fridge for those late-night chocolate cravings.

Use good quality chocolate and/or a chocolate whose taste you really like as it will make all the difference in the flavor of these truffles.

You can alternatively coat them with melted chocolate (see here how to do it) or with chocolate sprinkles.






Yield: 25-30 truffles

Ingredients
250 ml cream, full-fat
2 cinnamon sticks
410 g good quality dark 55% chocolate (you can also use 70% if you like the taste of bitter chocolate), finely chopped
A pinch of sea salt
100 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Special equipment: small saucepan with lid, sieve


Preparation
Place the cream in a small saucepan and add the cinnamon sticks. Heat over medium-high heat and just before the cream comes to the boil, turn the heat off. Put the lid on the saucepan and leave to infuse for 1 hour.

Place the finely chopped chocolate in a large glass bowl.

Remove the cinnamon sticks from the cream and discard them. Turn the heat on to medium-high and when the cream starts to steam, pour it over the chopped chocolate. After 30 seconds, add a pinch of salt and stir the chocolate and cream with a spatula until the chocolate melts. If for some reason the chocolate doesn't melt completely, place the bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain-marie) and melt it.


Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, until the ganache is very cold and set but still pliable. Don't allow the ganache to set too hard, otherwise it'll be difficult to roll into balls.

Using a tablespoon as a measure, scoop balls of ganache, roll them in your hands to create a rough ball (it doesn't matter if they're not perfectly shaped) and drop them into a plate filled with sieved cocoa powder. Roll them around gently in the cocoa powder and place them on a clean serving dish.

You can serve them immediately or you can place them in the fridge (in an airtight container) to become a bit harder.

You can keep them in the refrigerator, in an airtight container, for a week. They will become harder but not rock-hard; they'll be fudgy and melt-in-the-mouth delicious.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!