Date Diamonds - (Imqaret)

 

For the pastry:

400g flour

75g sugar

pinch baking powder

100g margarine

1 egg

For the filling:

400g dates

lemon zest

orange zest

some brandy or anisette

Method

Mix margerine, flour and baking powder together and work until smooth

Mix sugar and egg together, add the flour and work to a smooth dough.

Leave to rest for 2 hours.

Put the dates with two tablespoons of water in a small pan and heat for a few minutes.

Add zests and brandy and work the mixture with a fork.

Open the pastry into long strips about 10cms wide.  Brush the edges with water.

Put a little filling in the centre.  Fold pastry.

Press both edges to keep the filling in.

Using a ravioli cutter cut into large diamond shaped slices about 40cms long.

Cook in plenty of hot oil until golden brown or else bake at 200 degrees C for 15 minutes or until golden.

 

Butternut Squash & Bacon Risotto

Here's one of my latest healthy recipes using butternut squash / pumpkin.  Both marry superbly with bacon in this tasty risotto.  Enjoy!

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves crushed
115g streaky bacon, chopped
1 butternut squash / pumpkin (about 900g, peeled, seeded and cut into small chunks)
1 cup arborio rice
750 ml chicken stock
40g freshly grated  Parmesan cheese.
1 tbsp fresh parsley
salt and pepper





Method



Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic for about 3-4minutes, stirring frequently until beginning to soften.  Add the bacon and continue frying until both the onion and bacon are lightly golden.

Add the squash or pumpkin and stir-fry for a few minutes.  Add the rice and stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Gradually add the hot stock and simmer, stirring frequently.

Add a little of the stock and stir well.  Simmer, stirring frequently until the rice has absorbed almost all of the liquid.  The risotto should be bubble but not boil fiercely.

Add some more of the simmering stock and cook, stirring, until it is almost all absorbed.  Continue adding the stock in this way until the grains of rice are tender and the risotto is creamy but not runny.  Use smaller quantities of stock towards the end of cooking.  The risotto will take about 30 minutes to cook in total.
 
When the rice and squash are tender, season to taste with salt and pepper.  Stir in the grated Parmesan.  Sprinkle over the parsley and parmesan shavings and serve.

Pumpkin Pie Spice

This is very easy to do and use in all your delicious pumpkin concoctions, from pie to soup to pumpkin pie spice lattes...

Just mix the ingredients together and keep in a jar.

Creme Anglaise

Ingredients

2 Vanilla beans
250g heavy cream
125 g whole milk
50g sugar
113 egg yolk
4.5g salt


Method

Chop vanilla beans

Combine ingredients in a pot
Whisk by hand to incorporate.
 
Heat ingredients
On medium-high heat, heat to 180 °F / 82 °C, whisking constantly.

If you don't have a thermometer, simply check for consistency: The texture should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, and should hold its structure when you swipe your finger tip across it.
 
Strain; cool at room temperature
Pass the heated liquid through a sieve. Cool at room temperature.

Enjoy 

Molten chocolate souffle

Ingredients

188g whole milk
34g flour
34g butter
98g sugar
68g egg yolk (about 3 eggs)
112g egg white (about 5 eggs)
135g dark chocolate 70%
7g salt

Preheat oven

Heat oven to 375 °F / 191 °C.

Prepare ramekins

Butter each ramekin thoroughly, being careful not to miss any spots. (Unbuttered spots will cause your soufflé to stick.)

Add a small amount of sugar to one of the ramekins. On its side over another ramekin, rotate to allow the sugar to adhere to all the buttered surfaces. Catch excess sugar with the other ramekin. Repeat until all your molds are coated evenly with sugar. 

Combine flour, butter, and salt

Combine ingredients with your hands until they form together, leaving no dry flour.

Heat milk and sugar

In a small pot, combine ingredients and bring to a boil on medium heat.

Add flour mixture to pot

Add the flour and butter mixture to the hot milk and whisk until dissolved.

Cook for 4 minutes on low heat until the mixture has a thick, gummy texture.

Add chocolate

Add chocolate and stir until melted and well-incorporated.

Add egg yolk

Add egg yolk to chocolate base and whisk until well-incorporated.

Whip egg whites

Using a whisk, whip egg whites into a light foam.

Add sugar and continue to whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Fold meringue into soufflé base

Gently fold meringue into soufflé base in three stages.

Fill ramekins

Fill soufflé molds to the very top. Use the back of a knife to remove excess batter from the rim, creating a level surface. Use a dry paper towel to wipe any excess batter off the side.

Bake

Place the ramekins on a baking sheet, and bake for 17 minutes.

NOTE: Baking for 17 minutes will yield a soufflé with a custardy texture and a molten center. Increase time to 18–19 minutes for a fully-set soufflé with a springy texture.

Garnish

Using a small sieve, dust powdered sugar over the top and serve immediately. (Finished soufflés will quickly crack and deflate if not served immediately.)

Serve as is, or split open and fill with creme anglais

Pumpkin spice pie

Super easy pumpkin pie. 

Ingredients:

1 can condensed milk

400g cooked pumpkin

1 egg

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix

Pie shell or shortcrust pastry for pie shell

Method:

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Prepare pie shell by opening pastry and covering your pie dish with the pastry. 

Cover with oven paper and fill with ceramic beads or dried beans. 

Bake for 20 min. 

In the meantime steam or cook the pumpkin in any way you prefer and when done, blend to make pumpkin purée. 

In a bowl beat the egg, condenced milk and pumpkin purée together with the spice mixture. 

When the pie shell is ready, remove beans and paper and fill with the pumpkin condenced milk mixture. 

Bake in the oven for another 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

Remove from oven. 

Let it cool and voila. You can slice and serve alone or with a scoop of ice cream. 

Spiced pumpkin soup

With all the pumpkin carving happening at home, I ended up with loads of fresh pumpkin.

This soup is simple, creamy and delicious...

Eggplant Parmigiana

This is an amazing mediterranean dish.  Very healthy and extremely tasty.  I promise you will keep doing this recipe over and over either as an appetizer, side dish or main course.  I just can't keep my hands off this one!

The method might look a little overwhelming at first but it is not.

Believe me it's worth the preparation time!



Ingredients

    Eggplant 1.5 kg
    Onions 2
    Basil a few leaves
    Parmesan cheese 150g
    olive oil 
    coarse salt 100g
    Salt to taste
    Cheese (smoked) or mozzarella 500g
    Garlic 1 clove
    Tomatoes concentrate 2 tablespoons 
    Tomato puree' 1.4 lt

Method:

Let’s start with the tomato sauce

• In a pan pour some oil, and add the garlic and onion. Fry for a few minutes, then add the puree’ and the tomato paste dissolved in a little water, salt and pepper to taste and simmer until the sauce thickens

•  When the sauce has thickened, add the basil leaves and turn off the heat. Cut the cheese into thin slices

•  Wash and dry the eggplants and cut them into 1 inch thick slices lengthwise

• Arrange in layers in a large colander and sprinkle each layer with coarse salt. 

•  Let rest your eggplant slices for at least 1 hour, so that they release all the bitter liquid that produce. After an hour remove from the bowl, rinse thoroughly under running water and dry thoroughly.

• In a large skillet pour abundant oil, then fry the eggplant, a few at a time so as not to lower the temperature of the oil ;  turn them from both sides then drain on a sheet of absorbent paper.

• Grease a 15x20 baking dish with oil with the aid of a brush from the kitchen and sprinkle the bottom with a little sauce 

• Lay three slices of eggplant, a bit of sauce and grated Parmesan and a layer of sliced ​​cheese

• Place another layer of eggplant and one of sauce, then again Parmesan, slices of cheese and start with a layer of eggplant.

•  Continue until all ingredients are used, ending with eggplant. Cover with the remaining sauce and Parmesan cheese. 

•  Bake in preheated oven at 200 ° for 40 minutes (if ventilated at 180 ° for 30-35 minutes).
•    Let it rest for some minutes and serve warm or cold!

 

Pasta with mushroom, bacon & ġbejna (goat cheese)

Ingredients

• 200 g mushrooms
• 50 g smoked bacon cut in cubes
• rosemary
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 50 ml dry white wine
• sale
• 250 g pasta
• 1 peppered goat cheese

  Method

• Wash mushrooms and slice
• Cut the bacon in cubes
• Wash the rosemary and finely chop
• In a pan add the olive oil together with a clove of garlic.  Cook on medium heat until golden, then add the bacon and rosemary.  Cook on high until nearly crispy. 

•   Remove the garlic and add the mushrooms.  Cook on high for some minutes, add the white wine and cook until reduced.

• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Add spaghetti to the boiling water and cook according to type of pasta.
• Add a little bit of the boiling water to the bacon and mushrooms mixture.
• Sieve pasta and add to the mixture.
• Heat through.  Add sliced peppered goat cheese and mix until it melts.

Serve immediately. Enjoy.