Parsley Cream Soup

What are you to do with a huge bunch of parsley, one bunch of spring onions and no real motivation to cook?

A classic German celebration First Course - bound herb soup - served as dinner!

Thought this was real good, so I'll post it here.

Ingredients

big bunch  (about 4 oz.) parsley
8-10  spring onions
1-1/2 cups cream
1 quart chicken broth
salt, pepper, nutmeg, pinch of sugar, juice of half a lemon
2 -4 egg yolks

Method


Roughly chop white & light green parts of the onions, saute in 2 tbsp. butter. Don't let them brown. If you like you can add 2 tbsp. flour and make a roux here but the soup will be fine without this step. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling Add the cream, boil again and reduce to medium high. Boil about 10 mins. until slightly reduced. Add the chopped green parts of the onions, salt, pepper, sugar. Simmer 5 mins. more.

Chop the parsley (rough is enough:-) Either put in a large blender or add to the pot and puree the whole soup with an immersion blender until really fine and foamy. Or add the soup to the blender and blend on high until real fine.

You can pass the soup through a sieve if you want it extremely silky or leave as is. Heat well again but don't boil. Add lemon juice and nutmeg to taste. Beat the yolks carefully with some of the hot soup, add to the pot and stir on the turned off stove until hot enough and slightly thickened ( being careful not to curdle the egg - don`'t boil again!).

Enjoy!

Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

Ingredients
 

• 1 pieChange Servings
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 pound fresh rhubarb, chopped
• 2 pints fresh strawberries
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

In a large bowl, mix flour and sugar. Add strawberries and chopped rhubarb. Toss with sugar and flour and let stand for 30 minutes.

Pour filling into pie crust. Dot top with butter, and cover with top crust. Seal edges of top and bottom crust with water.

Apply yolk to top of pie, using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sugar. Cut small holes in top to let steam escape.

Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C), for 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly and brown. Cool on rack.

Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie

 

Recipe Type: Entree, Main

Prep time: 40 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 10 mins

Serves: 8

 

 

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds (1 kg + 130 g) Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into bigger pieces
• 8 garlic gloves, peeled
• 1 cup (240 ml) whole milk, heated
• 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, unsalted
• salt, to taste
•  2 pounds (1 kg) organic ground lamb (or beef)
• 6 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 7 ounces (200 g) frozen peas
• 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cups (480-500 ml) beef broth (I used organic chicken base)
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup sharp Cheddar cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Preheat you oven to 425 F (220 C). Butter a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Set aside.
2. Place potatoes and garlic in a bigger pot. Cover with water.
3. Bring to a boil, add some salt and cook until the potatoes are cooked, about 30 minutes.
4. Drain the water and add the butter. Let it melt.
5. Mash potatoes with the milk. Season with salt to your liking. Set aside.
6.  Heat a larger pan over medium heat and cook the bacon until browned and crisp. Transfer the bacon, without the drippings to a plate. Set aside. Leave about 2 Tablespoons of bacon drippings in the pan. Remove the rest.
7. Add onions to the pan and cook for a few minutes. Add the carrots and cook both veggies for about 7 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan and set aside.
8. Add ground lamb to the pan and cook on medium high heat until done, stirring occasionally.
9. Return the onions and carrots to the pan and sprinkle with the flour. Stir and cook for 2 minutes.
10. Stir in the peas, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and tomato paste. Scraping up browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
11. Simmer on low heat until thickened, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
12. Spoon lamb mixture in prepared baking dish. Spread mashed potatoes on top, evenly. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until edges are bubbly and topping is lightly browned.
13. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 10 minutes.
14. Let rest for a few minutes before serving.

Luscious Lemon Pound Cake Recipe

The recipe is truly luscious. This particular cake recipe is like d by all and also easy to prepare with easily available ingredients. Given below the ingredient required and method.

Ingredients:

1 packet of lemon cake mix
1 packet of jell-o cream flavor instant pudding
1 ¼ cups of water
½ cup of oil.
4 eggs
1 tub of whipped frosting
1 jar lemon curd

Procedure:

· Step 1: Keep the oven to preheat at 350 degrees F

· Step 2: Take a bowl, add in lemon cake mix, jell-o cream flavor instant pudding, water,oil and 4 eggs. Blend this mixture properly and pour it into the baking tin. Grease the baking tin before pouring the batter. Grease it with flour and butter.

· Step 3: Bake the batter for 50 minutes or for 1 hour. Insert toothpick in the cake check if it is baked properly or not. Let the cake to cool for 20 minutes. With the help of knife, loosen the cake from all sides. Remould the cake from the pan and let it cool completely.

· Step 4: Take frosting in a bowl, stir it gently with lemon curd. Spread this frosting over the top of the cake. Cover the cake with the frosting and keep in refrigerator to cool and set.

· Step 5: Keep the cake in refrigerator when frosted. Serve it child to enjoy its taste.

Tip:

To know of the cake is perfectly baked, the best way to test it is by using spatted stead. If it comes out clean after inserting it in the center of the cake, then the cake is perfectly baked. If the cake is not baked then, there would be cake particularized stocked on the spaghetti.

How to make cheesecake

Baked cheesecake with vanilla and strawberries is a perfect pudding with a light and creamy texture.

 

Ingredients:

For the base

125g/4½oz unsalted butter
250g/9oz digestive biscuits

For the cheesecake

3 eggs and 2 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla paste)
900g/2lb cream cheese, at room temperature
200g/7oz golden caster sugar
300ml/½ pint full-fat crème fraîche

For the fresh strawberry sauce

200g/7oz strawberries
25g/1oz icing sugar

Method:

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a gentle heat. Brush a little of the melted butter around the base and sides of a 23cm/9in springform tin, then line the base with a circle of baking parchment.

Put the biscuits into a large sealable freezer bag, squeeze out the air and seal the top. Use a rolling pin, or a bottle, to crush the biscuits to fine crumbs.

Stir the crumbs into the melted butter until completely combined. Press the crumbs into the tin. Use the back of the spoon to compact the crumbs as much as you can in an even layer. Put into the fridge to firm up while you make the cheesecake, roughly 30 mins - 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

To separate the eggs, have three small bowls ready, preferably glass or ceramic. Gently crack the shell against the side of a small bowl. Slowly pull the shell apart as cleanly as possible along the crack, tipping the yolk into one half of the shell. Let the white drain away into the bowl below. Drop the yolk into another small bowl. Separate the next egg over a third bowl - that way if you accidentally break the yolk, it won’t contaminate the clean whites. (The egg whites will keep for a week in the fridge, and can be whipped up to lighten pancakes.)

Slit the vanilla pod lengthwise, and scrape the seeds out with the blunt side of your knife. Scrape the seeds from your knife (or spoon the vanilla paste) into a large mixing bowl with the cream cheese. Beat the cheese and vanilla together with a wooden spoon or a hand-held mixer until smooth.

Add the sugar, then beat again till smooth. Now add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, followed by half of the crème fraîche.

When the base is well chilled, wrap the outside of the tin in two sheets of wide foil. Ensure that the foil covers the sides of the tin more than halfway, then sit the wrapped tin in a deep roasting tin. Spoon in the cheesecake filling and smooth the top.

Boil a kettle full of water. Then place the roasting tin with the cheesecake on the top shelf of the oven. Pour the hot water from the kettle into the roasting tin around the cheesecake so that it comes halfway up the sides and carefully slide the tin into the oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 180C/350F/Gas 4, then turn the oven down to 140C/275F/Gas 1 and cook for another 40-50 minutes until the cheesecake is set, with a slight wobble in the middle.

Turn the oven off, and let the cheesecake cool in the oven, with the door ajar. When cool, remove from the oven and chill thoroughly. Cooling the cheesecake slowly will help to prevent the top from cracking.

For strawberry sauce, put half of the strawberries into a food processor or blender, add the icing sugar then pulse until smooth. Slice the remaining strawberries and set aside.
About half an hour before you want to eat the cheesecake, remove it from the fridge.
Sweep a palette knife between the cake and the side of the tin, then carefully unclip the springform. Transfer the cheesecake to a serving plate. Spread the remaining crème fraîche over the surface of the cheesecake - this will cover any cracks that might have appeared. Decorate the top with the sliced strawberries - then cut into wedges and serve with the strawberry sauce poured over.

By Stacie Stewart

Mango cake bites

Ingredients:

• 1 large or 2 small ripe mangoes, cut into very small chunks, divided
• 1 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup fine yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method:

 Set aside 1/2 cup of the mango pieces. Purée remaining mango in a blender or food processor until very smooth. Set aside 1 cup purée and reserve any remaining for another use.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, whisk together almond flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add mango purée and vanilla, and whisk again, just until combined.

To form each cake bite, mound about 1 tablespoon batter onto a large, parchment-paper-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Press a reserved mango piece into the top of each and bake until firm and deep-golden brown on the bottom, 16 to 18 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Nutritional Info:

Per Serving:Serving size: 2 bites, 80 calories (45 from fat), 5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 8g carbohydrate (2g dietary fiber, 3g sugar), 2g protein

Easy Lemon Sheet Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package of lemon cake mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 can of lemon pie filling
• 1 package of softened cream cheese
• ½ cup of softened butter
• 2 cups of confectioners’ sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons of lemon extract

Procedure:

· Step 1: Take a large bowl, add cake mix and eggs. Beat this mixture until it gets blended completely.

· Step 2: fold in pie filling in the batter.

· Step 3: Grease the baking tin with butter and flour.

· Step 4: Pour the cake batter into the greased tin.

· Step 5: keep the oven to preheat to 350 degree F.

· Step 6: keep the baking tin filled with cake batter to bake in preheat oven for 18 to 20 minutes.

· Step 7: To check if the cake is baked, insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean then your cake is ready.

· Step 8: let the cake cool for sometime

· Step 9: in a small bowl, beat cream cheese. Meted butter and confectioners’ sugar until it gets smooth. Stir in lemon flavoring.

· Step 10: spread the cream over the cake and on the side of the cake.Keep this cake in refrigerator. Always store it in refrigerator.