Thursday 5 December 2013

Das perfekte Dinner - Teil 2


So here we are once again; dinner number two of our cooking contest has taken place yesterday and guess where? At my place! This time it was our turn: my brother and I (Duplex Pludex) have been the hosts of this fun evening with good food and good friends.
For our dinner we chose to focus on some typical dishes of the Triestine culinary tradition: gnocchi, cevapcici, and crema carsolina. I also made a lovely walnuts bread, which earned us 2 extra points! So the first course was a variation of pumpkin, spinach, and potato gnocchi with butter, parmesan, and sage. The second course was cevapcici with ajvar sauce and a salted spinach and ricotta cake. Last but not least, the dessert! A lovely puff pastry and cream cake with warm berries. The decoration? We decided to transform our dining room in a small trattoria with wooden table, checked napkins, felt sets, chestnuts, pinecones, and a rustic flower decoration. We also named our restaurant "De Uma" which is the combination of our names: UMberto & MArtina. Do you like it? Do you want to see our menu?


Our joker was our friend Anna, who luckily enough helped me resolve last-minute dramas, since my brother was at work and could not collaborate for the preparation of the whole dinner. And of course she gave us 10 points ;) hehehe! But who knows what the rest of the jury thinks of our cooking… one thing is sure, we managed to spend a lot less than the maximum budget, which allows us to earn a lot of extra points. I personally thought that the gnocchi were really good, especially the potatoes and spinach ones, the pumpkin ones could have been better. The savoury cake was a hit, but of course I had to cook some meat for the boys, and since I am vegetarian I do hope that it was good too. The dessert was delicious, but I could have made it more creamy. Overall I would have given our team a 9 out of 10. But we will wait and see, two more dinners have yet to come and I just can´t wait!

Our "trattoria"
walnut bread and salami make a perfect rustic aperitivo
in the kitchen….before...
in the plate after ….Gnocchi variation, yummy
Cevapcici & savoury ricotta and spinach cake
The proud cook!
homemade crema carsolina!!!
Happy guests
Team Duplex Pludex with joker Anna
And here it is! Ta daaaaaaa! The trailer of our dinner with unique scenes of the cooks at work and the delighted guests. We also had an experts jury: our cats and dog which seemed very interested in the cevapcici and were allowed to taste them and give me their feedback. Which was of course very positive. Hahaha, enjoy!


Sunday 1 December 2013

Vanilla wonderland

Happy 1st Advent Sunday to all of you! The Christmas countdown has officially started and as you light one by one the candles of your Advent garland, the Home sweet Bakery will unveil four of its easy Christmas recipes. Cooking in this time of the ear can be quite stressful, so why not spare some time on the dessert without giving up on its taste?
The first recipe is a light vanilla pudding with warm berries, perfect after a big meal because jelly and cream free.
Ingredients:
500 ml. milk
70 gr. sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsp of Maizena
1 fresh vanilla pod
frozen berries

Method:
Beat the eggs with the sugar until foamy, then add the Maizena. Start heating the milk with the vanilla pod and when slightly warm remove the vanilla pod and add the other mixture. Keep stirring being careful not to cook the eggs and when compact let it cool. Put your pudding in a big mould or in various smaller ones and place in the fridge for at least a couple of hours. Take the berries out of the freezer and warm them up with a spoon of sugar. When you have a nice warm sauce put it on top of your pudding.

Enjoy this vanilla wonderland
Martina
Tiny Hand With Heart