Marmalade

My husband, as any good Briton, loves marmalade. And the bitterer it is, the better, which is something I still don’t fully understand… But if he is happy with his super bitter marmalade, here I am willing to harvest the entire crop from the promenade’s trees.

Here is the recipe. I got it from an English cookery book and it is called “Busy woman’s marmalade”. I don’t want to even imagine how the recipe would be for “Woman with a lot of free time marmalade”.

MARMALADE

8 seville oranges

1 juicy orange

1 juicy lemon

1 litre of water

1.5 kg of sugar

Squeeze out juice from all the fruit. Put pips in a jug with some water. This will provide pectin that will thicken the marmalade.

Put the halved fruit cases through a mincer using finest blades.

Put the minced fruit into the juice and water and leave to soak until the next day.

Then turn soaked fruit, juice and water into a pot adding the strained water from the pips. 

Bring to boil and boil gently until peel is soft when pinched between finger and thumb.

Add sugar and boil rapidly until marmalade sets when tested. To do this, take a teaspoonful of marmalade on to a cold plate. Allow to cool. The surface should set and wrinkle when pushed with the finger.

Allow to cool a little but pot while still warm into sterilised jars. Fill jars to the very top, close with the lid and place upside down until they have completely cool down.

Apple tart

I first tried this tart at my neighbour’s and I found it delicious. I think it's a recipe from one of the Thermomix’s books, but you do not need to have one to make it. The most laborious part is to prepare the apples and this must be done by hand.

This tart is bound to be a success!

APPLE TART

6 (or more) Golden or Pippin apples

2 egg yolks

1 egg

150 g of white sugar

130 g unsalted butter

1 Tbsp. of brandy

170 g flour

1 sachet of baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 lemon

Ground cinnamon and brown sugar (for topping)

Peel, remove the core and cut the apples into quarters. Finely slice the outside of each quarter without separating them. Sprinkle some lemon juice to prevent browning.

Mix the eggs, sugar, butter and brandy. Then add to this mixture the flour with the baking powder and salt.

Put the mixture in a baking mould. It should be large enough so that it spreads into a not too thick layer. Cover as much as possible with the apple quarters, exposing the slices. Sprinkle generously with a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon.

Bake at 180 degrees C for 45 minutes or until the cake is completely done.

Green Asparagus Soup

Certainly, this is one of my favourite soups. I had to wait for a few months until I could find local green asparagus.

This soup is made with bread and almonds, what makes it quite filling. With this soup and not much more you have a proper lunch. You have to try it.

Instead of asparagus, you can also make this soup with monkfish or shrimp, clams and any fish and you get a delicious fish soup.

GREEN ASPARAGUS SOUP

1 bunch of green asparagus

8 or 10 peeled raw almonds

1 slice of bread

2 cloves of garlic

1 onion

2 tomatoes, peeled

Olive oil

A sprig of parsley

Ground cumin

Ground black pepper

Yellow food colouring

In a pot put plenty of water and some salt and cook the asparagus, rinsed and chopped.

Meanwhile, fry until golden the almonds, garlic and bread in a frying pan with a good splash of oil. As they are ready, take them out and put them in the mixer. In the remaining oil fry the onion and tomatoes cut into chunks. Add the parsley at the last minute to prevent burning. Pour this chunky sauce into the mixer (along with almonds, bread and garlic), add water and liquidise thoroughly.

Pour this mixture into the boiling water with the asparagus. Add ground cumin and ground pepper to taste. You can also add some yellow colouring to make it look even more appetizing. Let it boil for 5 minutes and ready.

It goes very well accompanied by croutons and chopped hard boiled egg.

Homemade white bread

My adventures as a home baker started many months ago. I live in the outskirts of a town and do not have a nearby bakery where I could go walking, and to be honest I don’t feel like driving just to buy bread. Normally, I buy bread at the supermarket and freeze it, but half the time is burned or undercooked. On the other hand, my kids do not like the industrial sandwich bread. Result: I started making bread myself.

I did not have any kneading machine so I had to do all the work by hand. Something very comforting to the first two or three times, but since I don’t have much spare time, I soon got bored of my baking-hobby (in addition, hand kneading is very tiring!).

And that was it, until a couple of months ago when I got a bread machine; one of those they sell in Lidl. You just have to put the ingredients into the container, press the program and it does everything by itself! You do not have to worry about rising time or about not burning the bread in the oven. Fantastic!

Since then I make bread almost every week. This is the basic recipe for white bread. It is based on one included in the book "Pan" by Xavier Barriga, I just add some olive oil.

WHITE BREAD (for 750 g bread)

500 g flour (I use all-purpose flour)

2 teaspoons salt

300 ml of water

5 g of fresh yeast

1 tablespoon olive oil

• Using a bread machine

The procedure is very simple. Put all ingredients in the container, starting with the liquids. Chose program 1 (Normal) that lasts 3 hours, weight 750g, medium roast (or more you like it). When the bread is ready, remove from the container and put it in a rack to cool.

• Mixing by hand

Put all ingredients except the yeast and water in a bowl. Add the water slowly while mix by hand.

When the dough has absorbed all the water take it out of the bowl and put it on a floured surface. Stretch and fold the dough over itself several times until the dough acquires a smooth appearance. It's time to put the yeast and a little water in the center of the dough and continue kneading until fully incorporated. Form a ball with the dough and put it in a bowl covered with a damp cloth in a warm place until doubles its volume.

Then, shape the bread. For example, you can make baguettes, or put the dough into a rectangular mold. Cover with a damp cloth and let the dough ferment, i.e. doubles its volume again.

Preheat oven to 230 degrees C and placed inside a small saucepan with wet rags (this will generate steam during the baking and it will help to form the crust).

With a sharp knife, make a couple of cuts in the bread and put it in the oven. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees C. Cook the bread until it is ready (the time depends on the shape and size of the bread). To find out if it's cooked inside, when tapping the bottom of the bread it should sound hollow.