Brazil vs Croatia - Filé à Osvaldo Aranha vs Fritule

Finally, this is the day where the World Cup 2014 in Brazil starts. Brazil and Croatia will kick off in the opening game in São Paulo. Who will win? I don't know and I don't favour any country is this tournament. Whoever wins, wins.
However, when it comes to individual cuisines of the various countries, things are different. There I know what I am looking for, great taste and lovely food.
All that leads us to the Bloggers Around the World: World Cup 2014 Brazil. From today on things get serious. At a day such as this you can share Brazilian and Croatian dishes. Watch out for more tweets or post on the Cooking Around the World Facebook page to find out what you can share with us on what day. Or simply keep up to date the real World Cup.

Well then, today it's Brazil vs Croatia and while it's the opening, I decided to do a food Brazil vs Croatia as well. Since I can't eat two large savoury dishes in one day, I went for one savoury and one sweet.

Let's go Brazil first ...

Filé à Osvaldo Aranha

Ingredients:
Fillets of beef
One onion, chopped up
One beaten egg
Two large knobs of butter
80 g cassava flour
Garlic, finely sliced and fried
Salt, Pepper
Flat leaved parsley, coarsely chopped
One spring onion,chopped in rings
A few potatoes to make potato chips

Method:
Things are quite fast paced here. The fillets of beef need 3-4 minutes on each side a brief time for resting. The potato chips won't take too long, once you have cut the potatoes in shape.
The bit that takes slightly more time is the Farofa. So I decided to start with this one. All the other jobs you can do in between.
Have a sufficiently large pan ready and melt some butter. Then add the chopped up onions and soften them. After that you add the beaten egg and scramble it. Finally you add the cassava flour and season with salt and pepper ... not too much salt.
Stir the whole bit ... eh ... a bit and let it go until it gains some colour.
As I mentioned, the beef needs 3-4 minutes on each side. Use a frying pan for that with some butter in it.
Be careful, when you fry the potato chips. Make sure, you patted the potato bits dry before tossing them into the hot oil.
A general reminder, don't burn anything ... especially not your fingers or any other body parts.

When everything is ready, plate up. The amount of Farofa should be enough for four people. In order to assure that, you can also serve steamed rice alongside. I read, that this is done in Brazil, too. For me, that was fine. I wasn't in need of any rice here.
Anyway, serve he fillet of beef with the fried garlic on top. On the side you put the Farofa, which you garnish with the parsley and spring onion rings. Of course, don't forget the chips and ... whatever drink you need alongside it.
That was a quick and lovely dish. However, I would recommend not to use too much salt on the Farofa and I guess, a small serving of the Farofa is sufficient.

Onward to Croatia ...

Fritule

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla sugar
3 tbsp. sugar
50 g raisins
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. plum brandy (or brandy or rum)
1 sachet of dried yeast (7 g)
500 g flour
Water, if the dough is still too dry (we want it slightly sticky)
Oil for frying

Method:
Let's make the dough for the fritule. Ahem, what else should we be doing?!
Get a large bowl and crack the eggs into it. Add the sugar, including vanilla sugar, and whisk it together. Then add the raisins, lemon zest and juice, vegetable oil and the plum brandy. Thoroughly mix things up ... no ... through.
Combine the yeast with the flour and then add it to the bowl. Bring all the ingredients together. Use as much water to get the right dough, not too dry, but not too wet either, you know. No? You will see, slightly wet that is.
Cover the bowl and leave to rise until doubled in size.
After that make small balls from the dough. Does that not remind you of football a little bit. You could even serve the finished product to the football watching persons in your household ... but don't forget, there is booze in these small donuts.
Yes, we got carried away. we won't have a finished product unless we do some frying for those balls. Have sufficient vegetable oil in a pan for it. The fritule need to have the chance to float in the oil without touching the bottom of the pan.
A sensible thing to do is to put the small donuts onto kitchen paper after remove them from the oil. Later you can put them into an appropriate bowl for serving.

Hm ... eh ... well, it's best to sprinkle them with some icing sugar before serving and you can also use some wooden sticks for people to help themselves to the fritule.

I reckon, as a snack for the game they would just do or ... have them any other time you want. Well, I was satisfied here, too.

What should I say to this? Brazil vs Croatia: 1 - 1. I hope we get some more lovely dishes for Bloggers Around the World during the World Cup.

However, we don't want to focus all our activities just around the World Cup. This post goes also very well to the No Waste Food Challenge, which Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary is managing together with some other lovely bloggers. This month it's Michelle turn from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families (I just love that title).

I was really lucky I still had cassava flour in my pantry or otherwise the Brazilian dish would not have been complete. However, I don't know, why I had cassava flour in the first place. Finally I found a way to use it.

As for the fritule, they were a brilliant opportunity to use the plum brandy on, which I kind of made myself, but never drink from it. So, I could even add this post to the No Waste Food Challenge twice.

Besides all this ... hm ... eh ... whatever ... don't forget to have fun and ... some delicious food from around the world ...

Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart

Finally I managed to buy a loose bottom tart tin. I was looking for it every ... I went to and thought they might have one. Now I managed. Therefore I can go for it and bake madly as ... eh ... I want to.
The first thing on my list of things I wanted to bake was a frangipane tart. This almond filling taste so gorgeous, at least in my mind. Here we go then. Over enthusiastically as I am at times I had stocked myself with lemons that I didn't actually have a plan for. Apart from that there was some basil growing on the windowsill, which wasn't too sure about whether to die or still live on happy ever after ... or rather until dying a natural basil's death of being used up in cooking.
To cut a long story short, before I go overboard here, the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart was about to rise from the ashes of the basil ... no, the basil wasn't that bad, in fact it wasn't looking bad at all, but that could have changed any day now, kind of unstable that herb is.
Anyway, top talking, start baking ... Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.

Ingredients:
For the pastry:
150 g butter
100 g sugar
Pinch of salt
250 g flour
Zest of 1 lemon
Handful of chopped up basil leaves (use more, if you need more basil in your life)
1 egg
For the frangipane filling:
1 egg
100 g ground almonds
100 g butter
90 g sugar
Juice of one lemon (how would that lemon have looked otherwise)
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
100 g icing sugar
Apart from that:
100 g raspberry jam
Icing sugar
Melted chocolate

Method:
We like to start with the pastry for the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart. First of all we cream the butter and the sugar so that you don't see any loose sugar grains anymore, but instead everything should have been assimilated by the butter. While you are at it sneak the salt in, too.
Next goes in the flour. Sometimes I like to massage it in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. At other days I simply go for it and add the remaining ingredients as well. In this case, the lemon zest, basil and the egg.
Carefully bring all the ingredients together into a fine lump of dough. Wrap it into clingfilm and place it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
After that it's time to get your loose bottom tart tin (I love it now) ready. Rub some butter all over the tin and push the dough into the tin. Well, you could roll out the dough first and then go for it. The good thing with this kind of pastry is, you can still push it everywhere you want, even if the rolled out dough tears.
Whatever, that same pastry now needs some serious blind baking for about 15 minutes at 180 ºC.
Meanwhile, we can make the frangipane filling. Honestly, I don't want to make any fuss about it. Get a sufficiently sized bowl and mix all the ingredients for the frangipane filling thoroughly.
The 15 minutes of the blind baking should be over at one point ... about 15 minutes after they started, I reckon, unless you prove me wrong here.
Here a little picture, I tried to put together, showing the different steps of the tart until the product is finished.

To follow those steps, spread the raspberry jam on the blind baked pastry and after that try to top it with the frangipane filling. At least that was the idea originally. During that process the jam and the frangipane filling rather might mix a bit. No worries, though, it's part of the package.
Having now an empty bowl, where the frangipane filling used to be and a filled pastry case, I'd say it's a rather good time to put the tart into the oven, which is now at 190 ºC.
Further 18 minutes will bake things right.
Sadly, as some might see it, you have to cool down the Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart.
At this point it doesn't look too gorgeous as would everyone agree on, I suppose.
Have some icing sugar on it. Oh, that's better, but ... we can do even better. We need something that'll always do: CHOCOLATE. No, not that much, just sprinkle a few fine lines on top of the tart ... blob. Great, no fine lines! We can attempt a few fine lines and put here and there some occasional blobs to make it appear to the beholder it was on purpose. Said and done ...

... I am rather pleased with the outcome. While being at it, I just simulated the case I would have a guest for tea time enjoying this delicious tart together with me. I even put on a candle. At other times it might give the impression of being romantic, but ...
I simply wanted a yummy frangipane tart. 
Now have a closer look at the tart in the next picture and have a guess of what it reminded my malfunctioning brain! 

Anyway, the taste of the frangipane tart was so temptingly dangerously good I even could here the tart calling from the kitchen: "Come and get me, get another slice ...!" Great!
Then it wasn't even a shame that it didn't taste that much of basil. You get more taste from the raspberry jam and the frangipane filling. However, there is a slight hint of basil. Therefore, if you have the feeling, there hasn't been enough basil in your life, feel free to increase the amount until the dough has the colour of your lawn, reminds you of Ireland or until you are well pleased with it.

Things were fine with me. Right, apart from the fact of what I had to do with the tart in the course of days that followed ... it wasn't my fault, was it? Yes,I could have, but I didn't.
However, have an even closer look and tell me ... right to my face ... how you could possibly resist a piece of that tart. 

So, once more, totally heart-broken and shattered I have to admit, it was all my fault entirely, for who has created this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart ...

While still being in grief ...over various things, I can't change now anymore anyway, I like to move on and submit this Basil and Lemon Frangipane Tart to a cleverly devised selection of blog challenges, due to various reasons ...

Let's do it in alphabetical order then. I might not have used mint in this tart, although I could have, based on the behaviour of the mint on my windowsill, but I didn't want to have an ill-behaved Mint and Lemon Frangipane Tart. Karen from Lavender and Lovage said, it would be alright, if I use any kind of herb to join the Cooking with Herbs challenge, which I from the bottom of my heart want to do.

That brings us already to the letter 'M' and Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. Just to make sure you can use homemade quick raspberry jam with raspberries and sugar, but since I couldn't get that many raspberries I had to go with the nearly as good as homemade raspberry jam to have a from scratch recipe for the Made with Love Mondays.

Then I like to talk again about the lemon and the basil. I didn't want any of those two go to waste, that is let them die before I get the chance to use them. Therefore, I like to add this to the No Waste Food Challenge, which is brought to us by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. However, this month, the challenge is hosted by Ness from Jibber Jabber UK.

So, if you want to count in, that I ate the whole cake as well to the not wasting food, then ... oops. Now it's out!

Quickly, on with the fourth and final challenge. We go back to Karen, although it is a joined challenge by Lavender and Lovage and The Hedgecombers. However, this month it's Karen's turn and the chosen theme is: Jams, Curds and Preserves. Hopefully, at this point you don't have to guess for too long which of the three I used in my recipe.

Having reached this point of the post, I wish to say thank you to all those, who have continued reading this far into the post. You are wonderful people, thank you for being out there!!! Really, I mean it, it's not just a phrase. I hope to see you again. You can bring friends, too.

Now I have some work to do. Whatever that may be ...

Still Italian - Saltimbocca alla Romana with Roasted Vegs

I am still in the mood for Italy or was it Italian food? I would right away do a food trip to Italy, if I could. However, as there is no room for thinking about that at the moment I have some more Italian food: Saltimbocca. It may be strangely, but that was something popping into my mind when thinking further about Italian food. I wanted to make it for some time now. The only problem so far was, to come across some nice veal escalopes.
A few days then, it was the case, so I started searching for some ideas and found something from the Jamie Oliver magazine: Saltimbocca alla Romana.

That sounded perfectly good for me ... eh ... almost good for me. I just made a tiny bit of adjustment.
First of all, I concentrated on what to have with my saltimbocca. The original idea was to have some rosemary potatoes. Instead I went for a bit more colour. So, feel free to use any kind of vegetables you love to have or want to use up.
I used potato, courgette, carrot and celery. I simple chopped up the vegetables in different shapes, seasoned them with some dried rosemary and salt and dripped enough olive oil on top of them.

Because that wasn't good enough for me, I tossed in some whole garlic cloves, which to squeeze over the vegs after roasting them for about 30 minutes at 200 °C in the oven.

Just before the roasted vegetables are ready, you can prepare the saltimbocca.

Ingredients (for 1 person):
1 veal escalope (about 100 g)
Black pepper
Some sage leaves
2 slices of Parma ham
A splash of olive oil
2 knobs of butter
A splash of sweet white wine

Method:
I started my saltimbocca with flattening it out. Sometimes I need to make some noise, so the neighbours know I am still alive.

Then I went on seasoning the meat with some black pepper. After that I placed a few of the tiny sage leaves I still had left from the bunch of sage I had bought a few weeks ago.
Just a few stems had survived them. I had put them in a glass with some water. One of the stems had developed some roots now. So I planted that one into a pot and used the leaves from the other stem.
Over the sage leaves then, the two slices of Parma ham were placed.

Time to heat up the pan with some olive oil and a knob of butter. From here on, things go quite fast. The saltimbocca needs two minutes on each side. Then you remove it from the pan, cover it with aluminium foil and leave it to rest until you are finished with the sauce.
In order to do that, you add another knob of butter and a splash of sweet white wine to the pan you have still on the heat. Add some more sage leaves to the pan and quickly reduce the sauce, because I am hungry.

Plate up the Saltimbocca alla Romana with some of the roasted vegetables and enjoy a very delicious meal. Now I remember, why I always wanted to make saltimbocca, because it tastes so great - that is, if you have used good quality ingredients.

Before I come to end here I like to add this post to some challenges.
First of all to Javelin Warrior's Made with Love Mondays. I didn't see anything wrong in the ingredients I used. It's all from scratch here.

The herbs in that dish are obvious. You can even see them on the photos, the rosemary and the sage. So I even used herbs according to this month's Cooking with Herbs, which is managed by Karen from Lavender & Lovage.

Now it's just time to continue thinking of Italy. I don't know whether reading Romeo & Juliet will help ... or some Italian wine is necessary ... who knows!?

Breaking Bad ... ? ... Baking Bread ... BAT sandwich ... ?

Sometimes things can be quite confusing and get mixed up. Because of that, at times I end up writing the second word even before I have started finishing the first word. Therefore baking bread can easily turn into breaking bad. Not that I want to write about any analogies between the crime drama series and the production of baked goods. I wouldn't have any ideas regarding that ... right now.
Anyway, why the confusion? Is it because of limited rain capacity, stress, information overload or any kind of subconscious dealings with hidden problems from the past. No, I don't want to take a psychological approach to bread baking either, although ... as far as I see it,breaking your own bread can be quite relaxing and you have a wonderful smell in the house and ... if you do not mess it up totally... you get a lovely tasting bread and ... for example ... you could do a delicious sandwich with your own bread, like this Open BAT sandwich ...

No, that wasn't a reference to Batman, just Bacon Avocado Tomato Sandwich.
What is your favourite approach ... no, I'm not referring to the psychological thing again ... method and way of baking your own bread?