Baby it's cold outside - Hungarian pogacsa a.k.a. cheese puffs

It's really cold outside, and I can't help it, and the classical Christmas hit sand by Tom Jones keep on going on in my head.

So it's time for comfort food and comfort baking and my grandma's best recipe, pogacsa with curd cheese. 

Ingredients: 

• 500 g plain flower
• 1 sachet of dried yeast
• 250 g butter
• 250 g quark or curd cheese
• 1 tbsp salt
• 3 eggs 
• 200 g cheddar or other hard cheese 

Mix all the ingredients except for the hard cheese and one egg in a bowl and knead it until they form a pasty.
Set aside, and let the yeast to the job and raise the dough. Cover the bowl with a cloth.

As Paul Hollywood  advised in the Great British Bake-Off, the key to a good pastry is folding (though I am not completely sure whether he would agree with me in this instance). However take the dough out from the bowl, sprinkle flour on the work surface, knead it through again (there's something oddly comforting about kneanding at this time of the year) and  roll the dough out with a rolling pin, rolling up from the middle then down from the middle. Then turn the dough by 90 degrees continue rolling, then fold it up, bu folding the sides to the middle, folding the opposite sites simultaneously and set aside for 25-30 minutes, making sure that the dough stays in a warm environment.

Repeat the folding once more, (sounds annoying, but really worth the effort as if this folding is done properly, the pastry will be nicely splitting into layers after being baked.
After the second folding wait 25-30 minutes until the dough rises again a bit.
Sprinkle flour on the work surface  and roll the dough out until it's 2 cm tall. Cut cut similar peaces with a cookie cutter (or with a glass like I do), spread the top of each with beaten egg, and put some grated cheese on top.

Place on a baking tray on some baking paper, and place into a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. Bake at 160 Celsius.

The result will be a really tasty, lovely savoury scone perfect party food, or just for munching.

Jo etvagyat! 

Bodi's Jokai style bean soup

This is a very hearty authentic Hungarian soup, and  Bodi is the master of soups, so here's his recipe.
The soup was named after one of my favorite authors Mor Jokai who apparently loved this soup so much that the his name stuck with the soup.

Bodi bought the ingredients on a Friday at the Fehervari Street market in Budapest. It's one of those not too interesting buildings from the end of the socialist era in Budapest, but has one of the best farmer's markets in town. With the vegetables bought there Bodi made this amazing dish.

Ingredients:

1 kg smoked pork shank (with bones)
1 pair of hot Hungarian paprika sausages (looks like chorizo and can be bought at Waitrose)
0,5 kg dry beans
1 yellow pepper (the ones you can buy at Turkish shops, the ones that look like a narrow v-shape)
2 tomatoes
2 medium onions
4 bigger carrots
2 white parsnips
1 smaller celeriac
4 cloves of garlic
2 fresh bunches of parsley
Sour cream
Spices: salt, pepper, ground cumin, bay leaf, Hungarian sweet paprika powder
2 tsp plain flour
sunflower oil

It's important to soak the beans at least 8 hours they'll be cooked in water otherwise it will take forever for them to turn soft while being cooked. The next step is to clean the smoked shank, and if it's way too big cutting it to smaller pieces. Boil some water and pour it on the tomatoes so that they could be peeled. Pour cold water into at least 5 l pot so that the water would cover the shank. Place the bones into the pot as well. Start boiling it as if making chicken soup. Put 3 bay leaves, the paprika, the whole onion into the water, and season it with salt, pepper and ground cumin according to taste. When the water starts to boil decrease the gas so that it would be slowly frothing, and leave it like this until the shank gets soft.

While the shank is boiling there is enough time to clean the roots and the remaining onions  including the garlic. Chop the roots and the onion. When the shank is ready take it out from the pot and place it on a plate, but leave the bones in. Remove the bay leaves. Rinse the beans ad place it into the pot with the roots, and boil the soup further on small gas.When the bean is almost soft, place the sausages into the soup for approximately 8 minutes, then tke them out and leave them to cool.

Slice the shank and the sausages, the shank into cubes the sausages into slice, and fry the latter on some oil. Place the shank and the fried sausage slices back into the soup and take out the bones. Use the same pan used for frying the sausages and use the oil that was used for frying and when it's hot enough add two tablespoons of plain flour to which we add the onions, and then the garlic after the minute. after having fried it for another minute, we take the pan of the heat and add the sweet paprika on top. Add a bit of water and stir until the mixture gets a creamy consistency, then add it to the soup while stirring continuously.   Leave the soup to boil for another ten minutes then serve with parsley and sour cream on top.

Hint: if the smoked shank is way to big, put it aside to prepare a lovely other dish. Recipe will follow soon!

Bodi

Mushroom risotto with truffle cream

The only thing I regret not having done in Tuscany was going on a truffle finding trail. So instead I bought myself a tiny little jar of truffle cream.
This gave me the idea to make mushroom risotto when I've opened up this week's vegetable box from Abel & Cole. There was a nice little box of champion mushrooms in it. A mushroom risotto would normally require more earthy mushrooms like porcini, however I thought with a little trick of adding the truffle cream to the risotto, the same could be achieved.
Well, it ended up to be better :)

Ingredients for 2-3 people:

• 250g mushrooms (I've used champions)
• 200 g arborio (risotto) rice
• 750 ml vegetable stock
• 1tbsp of truffle cream
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 glass dry white wine
• 5-6 sundried tomatoes
• butter for frying
• few stems of parsley
• Parmesan

Preparation:
Nothing can be simpler than this. I've sliced the mushrooms and chopped the onion. Have added the butter to a hot pan, (simply love it when it starts to sizzle), fryied the mushrooms first, then added the onion (the other way around than normal, because the onion was very sweet and soft and I wanted to avoid the onion getting burned). Once the onions have started to look like big pearls add the rice, and stir until the rice becomes pearly as well. Add the wine, and a bit of the stock and stir until the liquid evaporates. Keep on adding the stock until the rice is perfectly cooked and your risotto is creamy.
I have added the chopped sundried tomatoes and the truffle cream, mixed it.

Have served it with a bit a parsley on top, and then it was ready to go. Perfetto!

Jo etvagyat!

Anett's muffin with pudding

Ingredients for 10 muffins:

• 150 g plain flour 
• 1 tbsp baking powder 
• 3 tsp cocoa powder 
• 80 g sweetening powder or granulated sweetener 
• 1.5 dl milk 
• 0.5 dl oil 
• 1 tsp. almond extract 
• 1 egg 
• zest of a lemon 

For the pudding

• 2,5 dl milk 
• 0,5 package vanilla pudding 
• 5-6 sweetening tablets 

Mix the flour, baking powder, and cocoa in a bowl. Mix the milk, seetening powder, almond extract, lemon zest, oil and the egg in an othet bowl and whisk the ingredients. Add the dry ingredients, i.e. the content of the first bowl to the mix in the second bowl, and the batter is ready to go.

The next step is the pudding, mix the pudding powder with the milk and 6 sweetening tablets and prepare the pudding. Pour the ready pudding into a bowl and wait until it cools a little.

Place the muffinpapers into the baking form. I love these mosts, I got lovely golden ones for a change. Place a tablesppon of batter on the bottom of the paper, then 2 teaspoons of puddings and then cover the pudding with batter.

You can also decorate the muffins, I had cranberries, coconut flakes and decorating pearls at home this time, so this is what I've used before placing the muffins into a preheated over, at 180 Celsius. Take it out after 20 minutes and our lovely muffins are ready.

Carbohydrates per muffin: 20g/CH

Hints:

• If your goal is to avoid using sugar, do not use puddings that can be prepared without cooking, always use pudding that needs to be cooked and doesn't contain sugar (e.g.: Dr.Otker)
• From all the powders replacing sugar Haas Glukonon worked best for me, I use it every time I bake (Note it's not available in the UK) .
• Eat slowly absorbing carbohydrates (cakes, deserts like muffin) in the morning or evening if you fancy with a bit of milk or cafe latter. In the afternoon - highly recommended for those on a diet - choose quickly absorbing carbohydrates like diary products or fruit.
• The milk can be replaced by any lactose free milk in the recipe. 

Bodi's ceasar salad with thyme and rye bread crouton

Ingredients: 

• 300 g iceberg lettuce and radicchio in a 3:1 ratio torn into small pieces (or ready-made salad mix)  
• 350 g chicken breast fillet
• 2-3 thin slices of bacon  
• 1 clove of garlic 
• 4 slices rye bread  
• Spices: salt, pepper, ground cumin, thyme
• sunflower oil for  frying 

for the dressing:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 egg yolks 
• 2 tspn Dijon mustard
• 100 ml single cream
• lemon juice
• sunflower oil and extra virgin olive oil
• spices: salt, pepper, thyme

Slice the chicken breast fillets, place them in a bowl and season them with pepper and ground cumin, making sure it's all rightly covered with the spices. Do not yet put any salt. Heat up the pan and add the sunflower oil places the half of the chicken breast slices into the pan so the slices would actually fry and not boil. When the meat starts to brown, season it with thyme and salt.Don't throw away the oil yet, it will be perfect for frying the bacon and the croutons.

The next step is to prepare the dressing. Separate the egg yolks and place them in a mixing bowl. Add 2 small teaspoons of Dijon mustard and the mix the whisk them together, then while continuing to whisk add the sunflower oil and a little bit of olive oil. Keep whisking until you get a thick dressing. Add the chopped garlic cloves, salt and thyme. Add the cream and give it yet another whisk.

Heat the pan again you've used to fry the chicken and fry the bacon. Remove the ready bacon slices. Cut the rye bread into cubes and fry them, and when the bread becomes brown, add a bit of garlic if you fancy, but only right in the end otherwise the garlic becomes bitter.

Mix the salad, the chicken and dressing  making sure that the whole mix is well covered with dressing. Add the croutons only in the end, to make sure they stay crunchy!

Hint: Bodi likes using up the remaining ingredients, like egg whites in this case. He made scrambled eggs in a pan, and then served in on the top of the salad, and ate it all.

New year, new beginning :)

This is our Blog. Anett's, Bodi's and mine.

Anett and me we are cousins, Bodi is married to Anett, and we speak way too much about food, above food, having food...

The idea to do Angels and Spice was born after Anett and Bodi visitied me from Hungary in London, and we've spent significant time planning what cafe we'd launch. This planning continued when they went back to Budapest, and we've often found ourselves talking on Skype, sharing with each other on video-chat what we've just cooked.

So we've decided to share it with the world instead, and we've done this blog as part of our new year's resolution. Hope it'll last longer than my resolutions normally would though...

Anett is Type 1 diabetic, so she'll be sharing baking recipes that are suitable for those with this sickness, and those who just want to avoid getting a high blood sugar levels or a hyperglycemic crises after eating a cake, Bodi is studying to become a chef, and myself just an enthusiast who loves to experiment with different vegetables and ingredients, so you can image the theme:)

Hope you'll enjoy cooking with us!

Jo etvagyat! (Bon appetit in Hungarian!)

P.S. Forgot to say, that this blog is just mirroring the content of Spiceangels which is the original of each recipe can be found. I just wanted to share what I am doing with my English speaking friends, hence the reason for the duplicaton.