Red onion, cheese and bacon muffins

Posted: September 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Pastry and Baking | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

A totally unhealthy but delicious muffin… Definitely calories worthwhile ingesting. Better if eaten with wine or beer, and a little side salad.

The original recipe was found on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall‘s column in The Guardian. As you usual, I had to do a couple of tweaks. If you are novice to muffin baking, just follow his advice. You cannot go wrong…

Red onion, cheese and bacon muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 100g streaky bacon, cut into 1cm pieces
  • 1 red onion, finely diced
  • 250g flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 80g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 yogurt (the original recipe called for 200ml buttermilk)
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped chives (optional)
  • 150g gruyere (original recipe called for a strong cheddar)

 Method

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and line a muffin tin with 12 paper cases.

Warm the oil over a medium heat and fry the bacon in it until just crisp. Lift the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. In the same fat, sauté the onion until just softened, about five minutes, then set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. In a jug, whisk the eggs, butter and buttermilk, stir them into the flour mixture with a spatula until just combined, then fold in the cooled bacon, onion, chives, if using, and two-thirds of the cheese until just evenly distributed.

Spoon or scoop the mixture into the muffin tin, sprinkle on the rest of the cheese, and bake for about 18 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

Pizza Bianca with Potato and Anchovies

Posted: September 23, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Fish, Vegetables | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

You don’t like tomato sauce on your pizza? Don’t worry, we have  have something for you: a pizza bianca, courtesy of Gary Mehigan and Masterchef Australia  This elegant combination of flavours and textures is so good, you  will have you wish you had made two pizzas. The Classic Pizza Margherita  is good, but this one is something else…

Pizza Bianca with Potato and Anchovies

Ingredients

  •  semolina and plain flour, for dusting
  • 1 x 120g dough portion (I used already made pizza dough)
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and bruised
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese, coarsely grated (I replaced it with granna padano)
  • ½ cup aged provolone, coarsely grated (I replaced it with Gruyere)
  • 1 waxy potato, such as Desiree, very thinly sliced
  • ¼ cup wild rocket leaves, washed, drained (I replaced it with baby spinach)
  • 60g buffalo mozzarella, torn
  • 6 anchovy fillets (optional) (only had anchovy filled with cappers, so used it instead).

Method 

Place an unglazed terracotta tile into an oven and heat to 250°C. Sprinkle a clean work surface with semolina and flour and use your fingers or rolling pin to stretch out the dough until about 25cm in diameter or to desired thickness. Dust a wooden paddle or sheet of baking paper with semolina and flour and place dough on top.

Step 2: In a small bowl add garlic, 1 sprig of rosemary, 2 tablespoons of oil and a pinch of salt. Brush the dough with the oil.

Step 3: Combine cheeses and scatter over dough, leaving a 1cm border around the edge. Strip leaves from remaining rosemary and sprinkle over dough.

Step 4: Lay the potato slices evenly over the dough. Brush with oil and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.

Step 5: Slide pizza onto hot terracotta tile and bake for 5-6 minutes or until golden and crisp. Remove pizza from oven. Brush the crust with olive oil.

Step 6: Mix rocket with remaining olive oil and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Scatter mozzarella, anchovies, and rocket over pizza. Season with freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Viktualienmarkt

Posted: May 11, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Food Market | Tags: | Leave a comment
The Viktualienmarkt is a gourmet food market in the heart of Munich. It has developed from an original farmers’ market to a very popular place for foodies to find their favorite ingredients. On an area covering 22.000 square meters;, 140 stalls and shops offer flowers, exotic fruit, fish, vegetables, sausages, wines and cheeses. And, of course, the gourmet Biergarten.
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