Friday 30 September 2016

Fish cakes with Awesomesauce



I love and adore fish. In (almost) all shapes and sizes. It's a little tricky to get my hands on the good stuff here in Berlin, though, which is a shame. On the other hand, then I don't feel it to be such a sacrilege to chop the fishy into tiny bits of mush. Like in this fish cake recipe.

I've been pretty sceptical about fish cakes in general since I had some in the University which were so appallingly bad that it almost put me off them for good. I've had better luck since, but they still hadn't become a favourite. This recipe does tip the scales to the other direction, namely the direction of awesomeness, though!

And since it's me and I love to bury everything under a delicious puddle of sauce, this recipe wouldn't be anything without the home made sriracha mayo. You can also buy both parts, the sriracha (which is a chili sauce for those who think it sounds like something of a Cthulhu monster. Cthulhu also doesn't ring a bell? Well, never mind. It's a chili sauce, yeah? That's all you need to know. Sriracha, I mean. Not Cthulhu. But I'm sure you catch my drift...) and the mayo, or you can make either or both yourself. I decided to take the homemade road, since I didn't want any additives or processed sugar in my sauce, and boy did it turn out DELISH! The only slight disappointment was the not-so-spiciness of the chilis I used. Make sure you choose properly hot ones to get more kick, or leave (at least some of) the seeds in.

The sriracha takes time to cool, so if you're making it yourself (Do try! It's soooo good!), either make it beforehand or take a small portion and stick it into the freezer for a little while to cool it down enough to be mixed with the mayo.


Fish cakes with superawesome sriracha mayo


Cake recipe again from the lovely Syötävän hyvä, Sriracha from Nomnompaleo and mayo from Herkkusuun lautasella

makes about 6 cakes


Cakes

ca. 400 g salmon

half of a red bell pepper (ca. 1 dl of cubes)

6 tbsp almond meal

1 egg

1/2 tsp soy sauce / tamari

1 tsp lemon juice

a dash of garlic powder

generously salt


Sriracha 

(I made half a portion, but here's the whole recipe)


700 g fresh red jalapeno peppers / chilis, stemmed seeded and roughly chopped

8 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp tomato paste

3 tbsp honey

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 1/2 tsp salt


Mayo

1 egg

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

2 dl neutral oil (I used sunflower)

some white pepper

some salt



To serve: mayonnaise, sriracha (or other chili sauce), rucola/salad, avocado, sesame seeds


Prepare sriracha and mayo first, or use shop bought.

Sriracha

Prep chilies. Pro tip: use gloves. Throw all ingredients into a high speed blender. Puree until smooth or leave a little chunkier, as you please. Pour into a saucepan/skillet, bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and let simmer for 5-10 min, stirring occasionally. By cooking the sauce we strengthen the flavour and cut the sharpness of raw garlic. Once the foam subsides, the sauce should be bright red and you shouldn't be able to detect any raw veggie smell. Taste and adjust seasoning. Transfer into sterilized glass jars (sterilize by soaking in boiling water for a minute or so) and let cool. If you're using it straight away with the fish cakes, take out a small portion and stick it into the freezer while you make the mayo.



Mayo

Pour all ingredients except the oil into a stick mixer jar. Keep the mixer in the bottom of the jar, start mixing and pour in the oil in a thin trickle while mixing. When the mayo is done, adjust taste. I added a little more mustard.

Cakes

Make sure to buy a de-skinned fish fillet, or remove skin by yourself if you know how. Chop salmon into small cubes either with a knife or give it a couple of pulses in a food processor. Try to leave it a bit chunky though, so don't blitz it into a puree.

Chop the pepper into small cubes, the smaller the better. I had slightly more cubes than 1 dl, and the cakes turned out great.

Mix the "dough" and pat into flat cakes. I don't remember how many I made, but the recipe says it should be roughly six.

Cook in butter/oil for about 3-4 mins per side. Watch out not to overcook, since no one likes dry salmon.

Mix about 3 tbsp of mayo with 1 tbsp of sriracha, or do a mixture that better suits your taste buds. Serve cakes with mayo, rucola and avocado. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Done!





Friday 2 September 2016

Fudgy vegan brownies with a secret




I don't think there's a person on this earth who doesn't like brownies. Or if there is (and the reason isn't chocolate or histamin intolerance), there must be something wrong with them. Or well, I don't want to be mean, so I take it back. You're allowed to dislike brownies (and that means there's more for me!) But at least I love and adore them in all shapes and sizes. I'm also very picky when it comes to The Perfect Brownie. Dry baked goods suck and brownies make no exception to the rule. I'm also very interested in using my baked goods to smuggle all sorts of veggies to unsuspecting customers, muahaha.

I have a vaque recollection of doing a beetroot chocolate cake in the "good old" GlutenSugar days, at least I've had it on my agenda for a while. But now I decided to try it as the first treat I made for a wonderful café I've been baking for a bit over a month now, Lykke. They cater for all sorts of special diet people so I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to bake for them and practice my skills without having to eat everything myself.




The recipe for these babies is from Unconventional baker, a wonderful blog for us who'd like our cakes without any conventional ingredients but still absolutely yummy. The first batch of the brownies that I fed to my girlfriends was a little too dense and smooth to my liking, plus the taste of beets was a bit too overpowering. And I managed to mess up the topping and it separated... It still tasted good but required a generous dusting with cocoa powder to make things photo worthy.

I changed things around a bit for the café version, replacing the beet boiling water with almond milk and adding chopped almonds into the batter for some texture. The result was much better, and it does say "fudgy brownies", not "fluffy brownies" in the recipe... They are dense, but super mega yummy, and I'll take a dense brownie against a dry one any day. Give them a go!




Fudgy beet brownies


Base

1/2 c wholemeal rice flour

6 tbsp sticky rice flour

1/4 c tapioca flour

1/4 tsp guar gum / xanthan gum

1/2 c cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c cooked beet puree

1 c maple syrup/other sweetener

1/2 c almond milk/other non-dairy milk (or beet water)

1 tbsp vanilla

chopped almonds/nuts


Topping

1 c non-dairy chocolate (chips or chopped block chocolate, preferably sugar free)

1/4 c margarine

(salt, if using unsalted margarine)

1/4 c almond milk/other non-dairy milk (or beet water)

(1/2 tsp amond extract, if you can get your hands on it. I couldn't)

cocoa powder for dusting


Heat oven to 175 C. Grease a 20 x 30 cm baking tray (or something roughly similar).

Make the beet puree first: plop beets into a kettle full of water and boil until soft. You can peel them before boiling of after, your call. Puree the boiled peets in a blender. Add a splash of beet boiling water to help things along, but don't thin out the puree too much, it needs to be nice and thick.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add in all remaining base ingredients except chopped almonds and mix everything with a mixer to combine. Fold in chopped almonds. Pour into prepared baking pan and level the top with a spatula to smooth out the batter.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out dry(ish). Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the chocolate topping by placing all ingredients in a glass or stainless steel bowl. Warm the mixture carefully on a double boiler and mix occasionally until everything is smooth and uniform. Once the brownie base has cooled a little, pour this mixture thinly and evenly over the brownies (use a spatula to spread it around evenly as needed). Allow the brownies to chill a little by placing them in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, once the tray has cooled enough to go in the fridge. This will allow the topping to get absorbed into the brownies, and that's when the magic happens.

Dust with some cocoa powder, cut into squares or hearts or dinosaurs or or or... and dig in :)

I knew I'd find a use to the dusting stencil I bought from Ikea way back when!



Zucchini noodle avocado sauce mush


Yes yes, I know. This dish has become such a cliché in food blogs, but since I don't give a damn about such things (plus I want to jot it down before it gets lost in the sea of recipes I have bookmarked), here goes.

I love love love zucchini spaghetti and finally decided to "splurge" and get a gadget for making the said delicacy. I had a julienne peeler before but was never really satisfied with the quality of the strips it produced, they were too thin for my liking. This new baby which cost all of 12 euros if I remember correctly delivers! No, it's not a spiralizer, but it takes much less space in my teeny tiny kitchen and the price was a definite bonus.




And it produces the cutest cones ever! Awww...

I found the recipe in Paleo Cupboard and the result was just absolutely amazingly scrumptious. The avocado sauce had exactly the right amount of flavour, although I think I used a little less garlic than the recipe, since I'm still getting used to it again after omitting it from my diet for quite a while due to sensitivities. But feel free to use all 3 cloves if you want yours more garlicky. You can either serve the noodles raw or cook them. I love them both ways but this time I cooked them and the result was really really good. So, anyway you go, you can't go wrong.

The pics also don't really do this dish justice. I wringed my poor zucchinis to within an inch of their lives while  trying to get the excess liquid out and didn't believe the recipe when it called for 6 large zucchinis, so the result is more a mush under a mush than noodles with a sauce. But hey, I'm always of the opinion that there can never be too much sauce and am known to drown all sorts of innocent cakes in something liquid and sweet, so I had no complaints. If you want a more photogenic dish, do as I say, not as I do. Yes? :) But now: Let me present: Miss Avocado meets Mr Zucchini, falls in love and decides it never wants to be separated from him ever again, aka Mush. Enjoy!




Zucchini noodles with avocado cream sauce


6 large zucchinis (yes it seems like a lot but they lose a lot of volume when squeezed)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp oil


Sauce 

2 large avocados, peeled and pitted

1/4 cup packed basil leaves

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 cloves of garlic, minced (or less, I think I had 2 small ones)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice


Julienne or spiral slice your zucchini and place in a strainer over a larger bowl or in the sink. Sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of salt over the zucchini and toss to coat. Allow the zucchini to sit for 15-20 minutes to allow excess liquid to drain. After the zucchini has drained, wrap it in a few paper towels and squeeze gently (don't wring it to death) to remove any remaining moisture. Wrap again in fresh paper towels and leave on the counter until ready to cook.

To make the sauce, place all of the sauce ingredients in a blender or a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if desired. 

Note: If serving raw, stop here and serve the sauce on top of the noodles.

To cook the noodles, pour oil in a large skillet and warm over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and cook for 2 minutes. Add the sauce and toss with the noodles to coat. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until heated through, then serve.