Zebra Cake

Source

My friend Irina

Taste 4 (out of 5) - both versions

Difficulty 3 (out of 5) - both versions

Ingredients - the original version

- 5 eggs (350 cal)

- 2 cups sugar (1640 cal)

- 100 g butter (750 cal)

- 400 g sour cream (855 cal)

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 3 cups flour (1350 cal)

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (25 cal)

Total 5070, 2 loaves, 20 servings, 254 cal/serving

Ingredients - healthier version

- 3 eggs (210 cal)
- 4 egg whites (60 cal)

- 1 cups sugar (820 cal)

- 2/3 cups agave nectar (550 cal)

- 100 g non hydrogenated margarine (750 cal)

- 400 g non fat yogurt (180 cal)

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 3 cups flour (1350 cal)

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (25 cal)

Total 3945, 2 loaves, 20 servings, 197 cal/serving

Instructions

1. Mix all the ingredients except cocoa powder until smooth.

2. Divide the dough into 2 halves, and move one half to a separate bowl. Add the cocoa powder to one of the halves.

3. Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Place half of the dark dough at the bottom, add one half of the white dough on top, repeat similarly with the rest of the dough to create interchanging black and white layers.

4. Bake in an oven preheated to 375F for about an hour for the original version, or bake on 375F for the first half hour and on 350F for an additional half hour for the healthy version.

Afterthoughts

- This is quite a moist cake. Bake it longer if you want a dryer consistency.

- For the healthier version the dough is much more liquid, so it is easier to pour it into the form, but you don’t get such a pronounced zebra pattern.

- I tried substituting 1/3 of the cocoa powder with instant coffee. It turned out more bitter than I expected, and I will probably not do it in the future. But someone who really loves coffee, might like the idea.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Meat and Potato Gratin

Source

Bistro - French country recipes for home cooks by Laura Washburn with changes

Taste 4 (out of 5)

Difficulty 4 (out of 5)

Ingredients

Beef layer

- 3 tbsp unsalted butter or 2 tbsp oil (240 cal)

- 2 onions chopped (120 cal)

- 2 garlic cloves (10 cal)

- 1 1/2 lb = 700 g ground beef, turkey, chicken or mix of the three (1820 cal - if using beef)

- 4 tbsp brandy or 1/2 cup of white wine (50 cal)

- handful of flat leafed parsley chopped

- spring of thyme leaves chopped

- 2 tbsp sun dried tomatoes or tomato paste (20 cal - if using tomato paste)

- 2 oz/ 3/4 cups freshly grated hard cheese, preferably Gruyere (240 cal)

- 1 cup corn kernels (120 cal) - optional

- salt and black pepper to taste

Puree layers

- 3 lb potatoes (1040 cal)

- 1 lb turnips (130 cal) - optional, can be substituted with 1 lb of potatoes

- 1 fresh bay leaf

- 1/2 cup of hot milk (65 cal)

- 2 tbsp unsalted butter cut into pieces (200 cal)

- salt to taste

Total 4055 calories, 8 servings, 505 cal / serving

Instructions

1. Put potatoes, turnips and bay leaf into a saucepan of cold water. Bring to a boil, cook until tender and drain.

2. Mash potatoes coarsely with a wooden spoon. Using an electronic mixer add milk, butter and salt, beating until the mixture is smooth. Mix the turnips with a little milk and salt in a separate bowl to have layers in different colors, or together with potatoes if you prefer one color.

3. Heat the butter in the skillet and add the onions. Cook over high heat for 3-5 minutes until brown. Add garlic and meat and cook until completely done. Add the wine (or the brandy) and cook until almost evaporated. Steer in the parsley, thyme leaves, tomato paste; taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

4. Spread half the potatoes in a 19’‘x13’’ greased baking dish, add the meat mixture and level with a spoon, place the corn on top of the meat, add the turnip layer, spread the remaining potatoes and sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake in a preheated oven at 400F for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Afterthoughts

- The original recipe only called for 2 potato layer and 1 meat layer. I just try to make it a little more colorful. It turns out really good either way.

- Next time, to save some calories, I might substitute turnips for 1/2 the potatoes - and have the lower layer of turnips and the upper layer of potatoes. Should save about 30 calories per serving. - I used Mozzarella and Havarti cheeses on top instead of Gruyere, and liked both variations.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Fruit and Nut Loaf

Source

“Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking” by Jenny Stacey with small modifications

Taste 4 (out of 5)

Difficulty 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 225 g/ 8 oz white bread flour

- 2.5 g/ 1/2 tsp salt

- 15 g/ 1 tbsp polyunsaturated margarine

- 15 g/ 1 tbsp caster sugar

- 75 g/ 3 oz raisins

- 25 g/ 1 oz walnuts, chopped

- 10 g/ 2 tsp active dry yeast

- 150 ml low fat milk

- 15 ml/ 1 tbsp honey

Total 12 servings, 139 cal/ serving

Instructions

1. Sieve the flour and salt into a bowl. Rub the margarine, then stir in the sugar, raisins, walnuts and yeast.

2. Place the milk in a pan and heat gently until lukewarm, but do not boil. Add the lukewarm milk to dry ingredients and bring the mixture together to form a dough.

3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5-7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round, cover and let proof in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size.

4. Preheat the oven with the baking stone on the middle rack (if available) to 425F/ 220C.

5. Cut 3 parallel slashes on top of the bread, rotate the bread 90 degrees and make 3 more slashes to form a grid. Bake the bread for 35 minutes, until nice a brown.

6. Place on a wire rack and brush with honey. Cool and serve.

Afterthoughts

- Good sweet bread with semi soft crust. Not quite a cake, but could be one if you add more sugar. Seems like a perfect breakfast loaf with jam and butter.

- There seem to be too many raisins, they kept falling out of the dough as I was kneading it. Maybe the raisins I had were too hard. I might try soaking them in water for about an hour before adding them to the dough - maybe they will be more elastic and stickier. Also the raisins on top of the dough turned out too dry. Hopefully soaking will resolve that too. Or I should just be using a very wet and soft type of raisins.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Prune Truffles

Source

Improvised

Taste 5 (out of 5)

Difficulty 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 240 g bittersweet chocolate (410 cal)

- 120 g prunes (290 cal)

- 200 g heavy whipping cream (690 cal)

- 1 tbsp brandy (10 cal)

- cocoa powder (20 cal) or shredded roasted walnuts for coating

Total 1420 cal, 20 truffles, 71 cal/truffle

Instructions

1. Coarsely chop the chocolate. Puree the prunes in a blender.

2. Bring the whipping cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and mix well until all the chocolate melts and you get a smooth paste. Add the prunes and the brandy and mix in. Let the mix cool in the fridge overnight.

3. Using a teaspoon scoop out small pieces of the cold mix, form balls with your hands, dip in the cocoa powder or the shredded walnuts to coat. Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to chill again. Store in the refrigerator.

Afterthoughts

These truffles are very soft, partially thanks to the prunes. The prunes also add a light sourish flavor. I love these.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Chicken Thigh with Leeks in Orange Sauce

Source

Inspired by Joylicious

Taste 4 (out of 5)

Difficulty 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 1 boneless, skinless chicken thigh (110 cal)

- 1/4 cup chicken broth (5 cal)

- 1 tsp butter (35 cal)

- 1 leek (55 cal)

- salt and pepper to taste

For the sauce

- 1/4 cup water

- 2 tsp brown sugar (20 cal)

- 2 tbsp orange juice (15 cal)

- 1 tbsp soy sauce (10 cal)

- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar (5 cal)

- 1 tbsp orange zest

Total 255 cal, 1 serving

Instructions

1. In a small sauce pan heat the water, stir in the sugar and bring to a boil. Add the orange zest, orange juice, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, reduce the heat and continue cooking on medium low heat stirring occasionally.

2. Heat the chicken broth in a frying pan. Add the butter and when it melts add chicken seasoned with salt and pepper. Cover and let cook on medium heat for 8 minutes.

3. In the meantime, cut the leek lengthwise, wash it and chop into 1/4 inch strips.

4. After 8 minutes, flip the chicken onto the other side. You might need to add a little more broth if the pan is dry. Add the leeks to the pan, cover and let cook for another 8 minutes. Stir the leeks once or twice during this time.

5. Once the chicken is ready, pour the sauce over it and serve.

Afterthoughts

- It’s a very nice, light lunch dish and only takes about 20 minutes to make.

- I actually used only half the sauce, so it ended up being 230 cal.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Persian Eggplant Spread - Kashk-E-Bademjan

Source

Here

Taste (out of 5)

Difficulty 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 2 large eggplants (260 cal)

- 4 tbsp olive oil (480 cal)

- 1 medium onion, chopped fine (60 cal)

- 4-5 garlic cloves, chopped fine (20 cal)

- 1/2 cup sour cream (250 cal)

- dried mint

- salt and pepper

Total 1070 cal, 4 servings, 270 cal/serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Peel the eggplant, and cut a slit along the side. Salt it, and let it sit and drain for half an hour. Rinse salt off.

3. Slice the two eggplants thin lengthwise into 5 or 6 pieces each.

4. Baste in 2 tbsp olive oil on both sides.

5. Lay these in an oven proof dish. Cook until golden brown.

6. Chop the onion and garlic cloves, and fry in a pan with 1 tbsp olive oil.

7. Remove eggplants from oven, add to onion/garlic mix. Puree mix in a food processor until chunky but smooth. Return to pan. 8. Add sour cream, simmer for fifteen minutes. Place in serving dish. 9. In a smaller pan, fry the mint in 1 tbsp oil. Drizzle or spoon over the eggplant as garnish.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Napoleon

Source

Grandma

Taste 5 (out of 5)

Difficulty 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients

For the dough

- 2 10’’x10’’ (25cm x 25cm) puff pastry sheets (1520 cal)

For the cream

- 1 cup sugar (830 cal)

- 1 cup flour (450 cal)

- 1 liter/ 1/4 gallon milk (520 cal)

- 3 large eggs (210 cal)

Total 3530 cal, 9 servings, 392 cal/serving

Instructions

1. First prepare the dough. Depending on the manufacturer of the puff pastry, you might need to defrost the dough, and either roll out or cut the sheets to the desired size.

2. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bake each puff pastry sheet for 20 minutes on the middle rack. After 10 minutes you might want to rotate the cookie sheet 180 degrees to ensure equal baking. When the pastry is puffed and light golden brown it is ready.

3. Let the puff pastry cool, and then cut each sheet horizontally into 2 layers, basically making 4 thin sheets. You will need 3 of them for the actual sheets and 1 for decorative crumbs, which you can easily make with your fingers.

4. Now for the cream: Beat the eggs with the sugar and flour. Boil the milk. While the milk is warming, pour about 1/2 cup into the egg mix and stir well to gradually increase its temperature. This way the eggs won’t curdle when you add them to boiling milk. Repeat this step 2-3 more times as the milk approaches boiling temperature.

5. Once the milk boils, pour the warm egg mix into the boiling milk, constantly stirring, to prevent lumps from forming. Keep on the stove for several 3 more minutes, continue stirring. It’s best to use hand held mixer in this stage.

6. Remove the cream from heat, let cool, and spread on the puff pastry sheets, creating alternating layers of puff pastry and cream (3 layers of each type, 6 total).

7. Spread the pastry puff crumbs on top of the upper cream layer.

8. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.

Afterthoughts

I absolutely love it, and it looks much more difficult to make than it actually is.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Coffee Shortbread

Source

Suzie the foodie blog or Taste.au

Taste 3 (out of 5)

Difficulty 3 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 250g butter, at room temperature (1850 cal)

- 1 cup/ 150g icing sugar (580 cal)

- 3 tsp instant coffee (6 cal)

- 3 tsp water

- 2 3/4 cups (415g) plain flour (1510 cal)

- demerara sugar, to sprinkle (120 cal for 2 tbsp) (optional)

Total 4066 cal, 45 cookies, 90 cal/cookie

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. With an electric beater, mix 250g butter, at room temperature and 1 cup (150g) icing sugar until pale and creamy (almost white). Dissolve 3 tsp instant coffee in 3 tsp water. Beat into butter mix.

2. Stir in 2 3/4 cups (415g) plain flour until well combined (the mixture will appear crumbly at first − keep stirring). Roll walnut-sized balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

3. Use a fork to flatten the balls and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and crisp. Set aside to cool.

Afterthoughts

- The coffee smell in the cookies is a little unusual, but the taste is subtle and very interesting.

- I cooked 2 batches - 1 on the lower rack and one on the upper rack, and even though I rotated them after 10 minutes, the batch that stayed on the lower rack for the last 10 minutes was slightly burnt at the bottom. It might be better to take the lower rack batch after 7-8 minutes.

- The dough is very crumbly, as you might be expecting from the short bread, and it’s hard to maintain a smooth round form when pressing with a fork. It might be better to roll the dough and cut out the individual cookies, to make the edges smoother.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Orange Loaf

Source

Joy of Baking blog, Cranberry Orange Bread recipe adapted

Taste 3 (out of 5)

Difficulty 1 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 1/2 cup/ 50 gr pecans or walnuts coarsely chopped

- 2 cups/ 280 gr all-purpose flour

- 1 cup/ 200 gr light brown sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 tbsp ground orange or other citrus zest

- 4 tbsp/ 57 gr softened margarine

- 1 large egg, well beaten

- 1 cup/ 240 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1/2 tsp orange extract

Instructions

1. Mix baking soda with the orange juice, stir well, until bubbles appear and all the baking soda dissolves. If you skip this stage, the cake might have a bitter trace of baking soda.

2. Beat all ingredients except the nuts together, preferably with an electric mixer. The batter will be rather firm. Add the nuts and mix gently with a spatula.

3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan and pour the batter. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

4. Let cool in the loaf pan, remove and let cool completely on a wire rack. Serve warm or cold, with cranberry sauce, jam or whipped cream.

Afterthoughts

- Taste-wise it’s great. The texture could be better.

- This cake is a bit too heavy for my taste. I like lighter loaf, so in the future I would add milk or yogurt. But then the cake would not be dairy free.

- Another option might be pouring a citrus syrup over the loaf to make it wetter.

To Recipe...

Summary only...

Loobia Polo - Persian Green Bean Pilaf

Source

Improvised

Taste 4 (out of 5)

Difficulty 4 (out of 5)

Ingredients

- 2 lb / 900 gr ground beef or lamb

- 2 lb / 900 gr green beans

- 1 large onion

- 2 tomatoes

- 3 tbsp tomato sauce

- 1 tbsp lemon juice

- 4 cups rice

- 1 tsp turmeric

- 4 tbsp canola oil

- salt and black pepper to taste

Total 6-8 servings

Instructions

1. Place the rice in a bowl, fill the bowl with warm water and gently wash with your fingers. The starch from rice will make the water white. Drain the rice and repeat 3-4 times until the water remains clear. Washing out the starch makes the rice less sticky, so that the grains remain separate after cooking. Fill the bowl with water, add about a teaspoon of salt and let stand, preferably for 3-4 hours, but can be less if you did not plan it ahead of time.

2. In a large pot, preheat 2 tbsp canola oil. Slice the onion and fry on low-medium heat until golden brown for about 10-15 minutes. Remove the onions from the pot, add the ground meat and saute on medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3. In a separate medium sized pot boil water. Place the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 30 seconds to a minute. Remove the tomatoes and let cool or wash under cold water to speed up the cooling. Now it should be easy to peel to tomato skin with your fingers.

4. Now use the boiling water for the rice. Wash the rice one last time and add to the boiling water. Let boil for 5 minutes, at the end add the turmeric, stir until all the rice is equally yellow colored, remove from the stove top and drain.

5. In the meantime grind the onion and the peeled tomatoes in a blender. Add the resulting mixture to the meat. Cut the green beans in halves and also add to the pot. Stir in the tomato sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper and let simmer for 15 more minutes.

6. Temporarily remove the meat into another dish. Do not wash the large pot. Add 2 tbsp of canola oil and let warm a little. Now spread a layer of rice at the bottom of the pot. Add a layer of meat. Continue building layers of rice and then meat until you have about 3 layers of each kind (6 layers total). Do not stir. With an end of a wooden spoon, create 3 holes across all the layers touching the bottom of the pan (to allow the steam to escape from the bottom). Cover the pot and place a paper towel right below the cover to absorb the vapors. Cook over medium-low heat for 30 minutes without lifting the lid. This process will allow the rice to cook evenly and will generate a crispy rice layer at the bottom, called tah-deeg.

Afterthoughts

This is a nice warm dish, great for cold evenings. Once ready it’s easy to store and reheat for later use, since it’s a one pot dish. But cooking takes a while, so it’s much more fun if you have company.

To Recipe...

Summary only...