Posts Tagged ‘butter’


Three varieties of homemade easter eggs

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

 

Easter is over, I do realize that. But I cannot blog about my making easter eggs myself before the fact, now can I? There you go.

The Saturday before Easter Sunday was spent in my tiny kitchen with the unfathomable carpet in it, spreading melted chocolate over half of my kitchen equipment as well as some dark chocolate, white chocolate lemon, and coconut easter eggs. The latter taste a lot like those Bounty (in the US: Mounds) candy bars, which is not bad at all.

I may or may not post a plethora of pictures of the easter eggs later but I will tell you that I am eating another one of those delicious coconut candies right from the fridge this very moment.

In the meantime, one may follow my chocolatey endeavors on Tasty Kitchen, where I got (and reviewed) two of the recipes and posted the third.

Look!

Lemon Truffle “Eggs”

Coconut Eggs (see my Review for the changes I made). Here is a picture of them still naked and awaiting their chocolate coats:

Chocolate Truffle Eggs (again, see my review; I also added honey which was hardly traceable in the finished candy)

For this time of year, I think the dark chocolate truffles are a bit heavy, but the lemon truffles are really dreamy and so fluffy and light… Yum! :-)

Tomato and Basil Compound Butter

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

This is my sister-in-law’s mother’s recipe, and the former passed it on to me during the time the two of us shared an apartment with my brother. That sentence sounds weird but I’m pretty sure it’s grammatically and factually correct.

Anyway, this is tasty stuff and very easy to whip up. When I made the batch pictured here, I was going to “soften” the butter in the microwave and ended up liquefying it completely. Turns out the only thing hurt by this was my nuke-timer-setting-pride. And I’m sure she’ll be okay. :-)

So anyway, here’s what you do if you want a change from all those herbs and garlic in your rad bread spread:

Get…

1 Onion
2 cloves Garlic, or more to taste
Fresh Basil – to taste
½ cups Tomato Paste, more to taste
4 sticks Butter, softened (NOT necessarily liquefied, but, you know, whatever floods your boot)
Salt And Pepper, to taste

… and proceed to…

Finely chop the onion, garlic, and basil. Mash all the ingredients together with a fork until the tomato purée is incorporated. Cover with cling film and stick it in the fridge to give the flavors a chance to really meld (at least 1/2 hour).

Enjoy!

This stuff, like every compound butter I’ve met, also freezes very well wrapped in cling film and rolled into a cute (or mighty, depending on quantities) lump.

Garlicky Hasselback Potatoes

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Hasselback Potatoes are one of those dishes I’ve been meaning to try out for a while now, but never got around to it because it always seemed easier to just boil and mash the potatoes I had. And I adore mashed potaoes. They’re my favorite food at the moment. Especially with some roast garlic and cream cheese in them. And nutmeg. I love nutmeg. It’s important.

Anywho, I finally made Hasselback Potatoes last week, and since they were a success and are bound to be made again by me, I thought I’d share. Because sharing is nice. And being nice is important. Like nutmeg.

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The Secret is in the Sauce

Friday, May 14th, 2010

… even if the sauce does not consist of anthropophile’s delight (in case you don’t know the movie, I’m not gonna spoil it for you by naming it) but of another very special ingredient. Introducing

Beurre Noisette

The best one-ingredient-sauce you’ll ever meet. (more…)