Vegetable Breakfast Hash with Fried Bread Croutons

This breakfast just kind of happened at one of the last weekends. It's a beautiful chance marriage of ingredients that I threw together after a quick kitchen raid. I felt like having a fry-up, but did not want to eat meat, did not have beans, had only the butt end of a loaf of bread left, and definitely did not want to change out of my PJs to go to the shop. What I ended up with was way more interesting to eat than a greasy plate of eggs, sausages and bacon (although that also has its merits) and was probably even a tad healthier. A tiny tad. 

I liked this dish a lot, if I say so myself, and wrote down the super-simple recipe so I'd be able to make it again. The vegetables are only suggestions here, you could substitute any other varieties you have at hand (mushrooms, green beans, peas, tomatoes, kale, celery, broccoli, you get the gist).

EASY BREAKFAST HASH (serves 2)

NEED:

glug of olive oil

1 thick slice of bread (brioche, or any other soft bread), cubed

1/2 red onion, roughly diced

1 red pepper, roughly diced

1 small eggplant, cubed

1 small zucchini, cubed

1 generous handful fesh spinach

1 handful fresh basil, chopped

salt

pepper

2 eggs

DO:

Heat the olive oil in a deep pan and turn heat down to medium. Fry bread cubes until they are golden brown on each side, but be careful: if the pan is too hot, they will burn easily. Set fried bread aside on a plate lined with kitchen towel.

Add more oil to the pan if necessary, and fry onion until it starts looking translucent. Add diced pepper and stir-fry until that starts too soften, about 5 minutes. Add eggplant and zucchini and stir-fry for another few minutes, until all the vegetables are almost at the point of softness you like them to be. Stir in the spinach and basil, season to taste.

Clear two little spaces in your vegetable hash, so you can see the bottom of the pan. They should be the size of fried eggs. Crack one egg into each space. Turn the heat down low and cook until the eggs are set. It helps if you have a lid to cover the pan with for two minutes or so. If you do not like your eggs sunny side up, you can also fry them in a different pan to a finish of your liking.

When the eggs are done, add the fried bread back to the pan and serve it all up.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Zesty Potato Salad with Crème Fraîche

Another barbecue season, another potato salad recipe. Looking back at this old blog post, and also this one, it seems like I am creating a tradition...
This time, the salad is the lucky result of a fridge raid and a quick online search around the things I found on my foray. It is based on this Jamie Oliver recipe. It can call itself zesty because of the fresh mint and lemon that cut through the rich creme fraîche and make your potatoes taste of summer.

ZESTY POTATO SALAD WITH CREME FRAICHE
(serves 4 as a side)

NEED:

600g new potatoes, with skin scrubbed clean
2 mint sprigs, leaves only
1 spring onion
zest of one lemon
salt
black pepper
2 generous tablespoons of crème fraîche

DO:

In a medium saucepan, cover the potatoes with water, bring to the boil and cook for about 15 minutes, until tender. Drain and set aside to cool. Chop the mint leaves and spring onion finely. 

When the potatoes have cooled down, cut them into bite-sized pieces and put them in a bowl. Throw in the mint and onion, the lemon zest, and a few good pinches of salt and pepper to taste. Finally, add the crème fraîche and gently stir everything together to cover the potatoes.

This salad can be eaten at room temperature or kept in the fridge until you're ready for it.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Ice Cream Bread

A few days ago, I didn't even know about ice cream bread. Then I saw a post on Katie Loves Cooking. Then I went WHAT?! and started a googling spree. And apparently the whole internet knows that this is a thing, but simply just chose not to tell me about it. 
Thanks, internet.
Anyhow. Katie's post was swiftly pinned, and instead of leaving it at that (as I normally do), I instructed Marco to bring some ice cream home from his next trip to the grocery store. The only specification I gave was that it be chunky, because that is meant to make the bread more interesting. He choose some chocolate fudge with brownie bits. The only other things you need for this are plain flour and baking powder (or self-raising flour to make it even easier) and I always have those at home. Thinking about it, it really is no wonder that this recipe works, seeing as ice cream has most of the ingredients you need for successful baking: milk, eggs, sugar, and fat.
While the recipe was super-easy and fun to throw together, the end result was slightly disappointing. Not to say very. The bread has the texture of pound cake, but even though the chocolate ice cream was almost too sweet to eat plain, most of the sweetness had disappeared after baking. I did heed the advice to use chunky, but the brownie bits were too similar to the rest of the loaf to make a difference. I did throw some chopped dark chocolate on top just before it all went into the oven, and that was this concoction's saving grace. It tasted best with a bit of butter spread on it, and one morning I used it as a base for French toast and that also wasn't too bad.
I might try this again using an even chunkier variety of ice cream (cookie dough or nuts are supposed to work well), but for now I can only give the recipe points for it's gimmickiness. 
Have you made ice cream bread? Did you like it? Let me know if you give it a try, I'd love to hear how yours turned out!

ICE CREAM BREAD (adapted from Katie Loves Cooking)
Need:
500ml ice cream 250g flour 1 tbsp baking powder
Do:
Let ice cream thaw until quite soft. Preheat oven to 175°C. Mix ice cream, flour and baking powder until just combined. You can use your mixer or a spoon for this. 
Pour batter into a lined loaf tin and bake for about 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before transferring the loaf to a cooling rack.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Chicken Dinner

Do you get that? When you have a craving, and it lasts for days until you actually satisfy it? I sometimes do. And this time it was chicken. I had been daydreaming of a roast bird. Skin all salty and crisp, white succulent flesh underneath, the kitchen filled with its savoury smell. This had been my food fantasy for at least a week. I actually asked Marco to pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store the other night, but they were out. Noooo!

But then yesterday my dream materialized. And in a better way than having a poor tortured cheap chicken out of a thermal bag. I've had the last few days off, and wanted to use my last day of blissfully doing nothing to give in to my craving. I went shopping in the morning and a big, organic piece of beautiful (albeit dead) poultry came home with me. I knew exactly what I wanted to happen to it. Nothing fussy. Something easy, but satisfying to eat. Just roasting it with a lemon, some garlic and an onion nestled around it at the bottom of the pan. 
I had a 3/4 full pot of Labneh in the fridge, which is a thick Lebanese yoghurt that I bought when trawling the Middle Eastern shops on the Edgware Road last Friday. I remembered reading about this yoghurt eaten as a dip, with lots of garlic and fresh herbs, sprinkled with a mix of dried herbs and sesame seeds. So I also bought some pitta bread, stocked up on parsley and dill, picked mint from a pot in my garden and then went to work, making Labneh with Herbs and Za'atar as an accompaniment for my chicken. You'll find the recipe below the photo.

LABNEH WITH HERBS AND ZA'ATAR (serves 4)
First, make the za'atar. This recipe will make more than you need and will fill a small jar, but the spice mix keeps well  for a few weeks. You can use it to up the flavour of steak, tomato soup, popcorn, french fries, eggs, or hummus, for example.
ZA'ATAR
NEED:
2 tbsp sesame seeds 1 tbsp dried thyme 1 tbsp dried oregano 1 tbsp dried marjoram 1 tbsp sumac 1 tsp rock salt
DO:
In a small pan over a low to medium heat, toast the sesame seeds until golden, about 5 minutes. Make sure to shake them around or stir them, as they will burn easily. Once toasted, remove from pan on to a small plate or bowl to cool.
Add all the herbs and salt to a spice grinder. Add 2 teaspoons of the sesame seeds and grind everything to a powder. Add the rest of the sesame, stir through and fill into a glass jar or similar container.
And now for the yoghurt dip:
LABNEH & HERB DIP
NEED: 
250g labneh (or other thick yoghurt, i.e. Greek) 2 cloves garlic, minced handful fresh mint leaves handful fresh flat leaf parsley (leaves only) handful fresh dill (frondy bits only) 2 spring onions salt pepper olive oil za'atar
DO:
Spoon the labneh into a bowl. Add the garlic. Finely chop all the herbs and the spring onions and add to the yoghurt and garlic. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and liberally sprinkle with za'atar. Serve with pitta bread or vegetables, or whatever else takes your fancy. Maybe chicken?
© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Apricot Bites

This is a recipe for sweet, raw apricot bites with coconut and a lemon twist. They taste more like candy than health food and are really easy to whiz together in a food processor. I first made them using this recipe, but have changed it a bit over time to suit my liking. I recently included them in one of my foodie pen pal parcels, and they were well received. The make an excellent little edible gift. I hope you'll like them, too.

APRICOT BITES (adapted from Tiny Happy, makes about 20 to 25)

NEED:

250g dried apricots

60g golden caster sugar

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1/2 lemon

80g desiccated coconut, more for coating

DO:

Put apricots, sugar, lemon zest and juice into a food processor. Process until the mix starts to form a paste. You may have to pulse to achieve this and scrape any reluctant bits of the sides with a spatula during the process. Add the coconut and process until paste shapes into a loose ball.

Sprinkle some of the extra coconut into a shallow dish. Use your hands to roll the apricot paste into small , bite-sized balls, then roll them around in the coconut until covered. Place in the fridge for at least an hour to firm up.

The apricot bites will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container. Keep them in the fridge in very warm weather.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Potato Salad with Sauerkraut & Pineapple

Are you still reading? Or did you already balk at the seemingly odd combination of ingredients in this post title? Trust me, this salad sounds weird, but it actually tastes pretty darn good. It's a recipe that my paternal Oma makes quite often for family gatherings, and my Mama requests it a lot when there's a party at her house, too.
The salad tastes best when you make it the night before you plan to have it, so that the cabbage, the fruit and the potatoes have ample time to get to know each other and mingle. 

POTATO SALAD WITH SAUERKRAUT & PINEAPPLE (serves 4 - 6)
NEED:
6 salad potatoes 300g sauerkraut 1 small onion, halfed and finely sliced 1 small (227g) can of pineapple pieces 1 tbsp cider vinegar salt pepper
DO:
Boil the potatoes in their skin until done, let cool, then peel them and cut into bite-sized chunks.
In a big salad bowl, combine the potatoes, sauerkraut, sliced onion, pineapple pieces (juice and all) and the vinegar. Season vigourously and carefully mix together. 
Keep in the fridge for at least an hour to marinade, but ideally leave over night.
© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Foodie Pen Pals - May 2013

For this month, I got pen-palled up with Joan from Glasgow. Usually, I give my pen pals free reign with their parcel, but I am slowly starting to change my diet a bit, so I asked Joan to send me more or less healthy stuff and to go easy on the dairy, refined sugar, caffeine and a few other random things that I am trying to cut out. 

Here is what I got:

First up, a quintessentially Scottish postcard with a cute highland cow.

Then , and I was pretty thrilled by this, Joan baked for me! I got some apple sauce muffins and a carrot-and-ginger cake, all made with pretty healthy ingredients. She also included the recipes for both. The cake was really nice, with a big citrussy hit from the orange, and the muffins were just the right mix of sweet and wholesome. I will definitely make them again myself.

I also got some delicious Lindt chocolate, again with orange notes and some almond pieces, which I really enjoyed. And don't you tell me that chocolate is not healthy. All I'm saying is superfood! 

I think Joan laughed when I asked her if there were any good-for-you Scottish delicacies (and in the light of deep-fried everything, whisky, and buttery shortbread that is probably a justified reaction), but she found one and included oat cakes in the parcel. I think I will need to eat those quick, before I give up cheese...

Joan gave me a silicone cooking liner, similar to ones I am actually already using, so this will be good when I've worn those out. I can really recommend these sheets, I use them for baking and oven-frying. They really work, you can omit any oils or butter for greasing as absolutely nothing sticks to them, and they can be cut to size and used over and over again. 

The second non-edible item I got were toastie pockets, which I have been forever curious to try, but was always too sensible to buy. I've tried them now, and I think my toaster is not made for these. Instead of 'use up to 100 times', I used the first one exactly once and already melted a hole through it. Sorry, Joan! 

Last, but not least, I got some rice paper cake decorations. Joan was really sweet and wrote that these were  meant as a reminder to show myself some love. I really appreciate the care that Joan took in assembling my parcel and loved unpacking it. Thank you!

If you want to find out more about Foodie Pen Pals, you can click here or the link in my sidebar. The swap is organized by Carol Anne from Rock Salt. The whole idea originated in North America, so if you are a state side or Canadian foodie, you can also sign up over there.

Oh, and my parcel went to Lithuania.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Barley & Feta Salad with Avocado

Every year when winter turns into spring, my comfort food cravings turn from hearty, warming soups to fresh salads. And recently I've been very into using grains and legumes combined with vegetables. My favourites are pearl barley, quinoa, or puy lentils. They give my salads body and bite and make them into light but filling meals.
I made this salad a few days ago, using just a few ingredients that I had a home. It was easy to assemble and I really loved how it turned out, taste-wise and in the looks department, what with the specks of green and yellow running through it and the zing of the lemon against the saltiness of the cheese. It's also quite good for you, I think.

BARLEY & FETA SALAD WITH AVOCADO (serves 2 as a light meal)
Need:
1 cup pearl barley, soaked over night 1 avocado, cubed 80 g feta, roughly crumbled 2 spring onions, finely sliced 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted 1 tbsp chia seeds (optional)  1 tbsp coriander (fresh or frozen), finely chopped a splash of macadamia oil (or any other oil at hand) 1 small lemon, juice and zest salt  black pepper
Do:
In a small saucepan, cover the barley with water and bring to the boil. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until grains are nice and soft but still retain some bite. Drain into a sieve and cool down under running cold water.
In a salad bowl, combine the cooled barley with all the other ingredients and mix well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Enjoy. © Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Orange Baked Yogurt

I love desserts. I usually try and have some kind of dessert option at hand after dinner, even if it's just fruit or a piece of chocolate. For me, dessert completes a meal and is that little something extra that allows you to linger at the dining table and enjoy whatever company you're in just a little longer. Even if it's just the company of a book.
Sometimes, though - and I know this probably shows me as the glutton I am in a really bad light - I even feel like having dessert without having had a main dish prior. Say, around Kaffee-und-Kuchen time, for example. Or at midnight, during the last episode of Dexter before finally deciding to go to bed.
This is where today's recipe comes in. It's right up there with cake-in-a-cup. Albeit possibly a tad bit healthier. You can make it within half an hour with things you probably have around the house and then sneak back onto the sofa with a little pot of something warm and sweet. Or, as actually intended for this dish, you can make it a day ahead and give it the time it deserves to cool and infuse inside your fridge, waiting patiently for you to savour it. 
I first discovered baked yogurt on My Saffron Kitchen a few weeks ago. Arundhuti wrote that she almost decided not to share the recipe, because it was so easy, but I am glad she did. Because it IS so easy. I have since played around with the ingredients and have come up with an even simpler formula. The basis for this dessert is Greek yogurt with condensed milk, and on top of that you can pretty much go into any direction you fancy with the flavouring. I've tried crushed cardamom seeds, lavender & honey, and cocoa & cinnamon. They all tasted pretty good, with a tangy hint of cheesecake and the texture of one of my favourite desserts, Rasmalai. But my choice combination thus far is the orange-vanilla variety I am telling you about now. The citrus cuts through the sweetness of the milk and vanilla and makes the whole thing just right. 
If you feel inspired to try this, let me know how it turned out and what new flavours you gave it!
ORANGE BAKED YOGURT (inspired by My Saffron Kitchen)(serves 2)
NEED:
1 cup greek yogurt1/2 cup condensed milk1/3 of a vanilla podzest of 1 orange, finely gratednuts for garnish (optional)
DO:
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
In a small bowl, combine the yogurt and condensed milk and whisk until smooth.
Scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and add them to the mixture, together with the orange zest. Whisk again until well mixed through.
Pour yogurt mixture into two ramekins and bake for 25 minutes, until yogurt is set and starts to turn slightly golden. If you are using just one, bigger baking dish, you may need to adjust the temperature and timing slightly.
Take pots out of the oven and let cool slightly. If you're keen, eat now. If you can wait (and it'll be worth it!), let the baked yogurt cool to room temperature and then refrigerate over night. I serve mine with candied almond slices to add additional texture. Chopped pistachios work well, too.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Chai with Vanessa from Nifty Thrifty Things

 

My guest poster for today is Vanessa from Nifty Thrifty Things. You should definitely check out her blog. Vanessa is a graphic designer, and that absolutely shows in her elegant blog design and her eye for all things beautiful. She regularly posts recipes, craft tutorials, and floral inspiration and takes gorgeous photos to boot, and all of this with a focus on being frugal.   Vanessa was kind enough to share one of her recipes. This one is for a chai tea concentrate, which will be wonderful to use during the colder  days here in the Northern Hemisphere. Chai is one of my favourite drinks in winter, and after trying Vanessa's recipe I can vouch for it's yumminess. It tasted like I imagine a spice market in India would smell.   But I'll let her tell you about it herself...

***

When my mom and I meet up for our (almost) weekly crafting dates, we usually start off the day with a nice and warm cup of chai with steamed milk. It helps us get in the mood for crafting, and during winter, warm up from the cold outside.

While the store brand mix is already pretty delicious, it can get a little pricey and we decided to make our own chai tea mix.

Best decision ever! The homemade chai tea is DELICIOUS!

{chai concentrate}

• PREP: 5 mins
• COOK: 60 mins
• READY IN: 1 hr 5 mins

a delicious, spice infused tea! Yum!

INGREDIENTS

·     4 1/2 cups water

·     10 pods cardamom

·     1/2 — 1 tsp. ground pepper

·     1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

·     3 sticks cinnamon

·     5 pods star anise

·     10 seeds pimento

·     1 vanilla bean

·     1 stalk lemongrass

·     4 in. ginger

·     2 tbsp. brown sugar or honey

·     10 bags black tea

        

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Add the spices and tea bags and boil at a low temperature for about 1 hour.
3. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the concentrate through a sieve.
4. Add the brown sugar or honey and stir to combine.
5. Allow the mixture to cool before filling it in little bottles or jars.
6.  Mix 1 part of the concentrate with 1 part of milk.
7. NOTES: Personally I prefer my chai latte with steamed low-fat milk. But you can use regular milk, almond milk, soy milk. Serve your chai hot or on ice. Also, play around with the ingredients to get it perfect for your liking. Stronger, weaker, more spicy.

© www.niftythriftythings.com

Banana Ketchup

 

Usually, when I watch Man V Food, it just makes me feel like I want to move to the States and stuff my face with ridiculously high stacks of ridiculously bad-for-me food. Sometimes, it inspires me to recreate said food in my own kitchen. (If you have never heard of this show, I encourage you to spend a little time watching these videos before you read on...)

Like the time when I watched the episode in which Adam Richman goes to The Black Sheep in Richmond, VA. There, he eats a 2-foot-long sandwich with jerk chicken, cole slaw and banana ketchup. 

Hang on. BANANA ketchup? I had never heard of that before. Sounds interesting. Adam describes it as a mixture of bananas, brown sugar, soy sauce, rum and jerk seasoning. I want it. And I just so happen to have a bunch of lovely brown bananas in the fruit bowl that realistically will probably not be eaten by anybody anymore in the state they are in.

So, a quick googling spree for banana ketchup inspiration later, I have moved from my sofa to my kitchen and am standing over a hot pot, stirring a spicy fragrant banana mush.

The end result turned out really tasty. It is indeed good on a chicken sandwich, as well as with grilled meats or as a fiery partner to homemade fries. You can control the level of spiciness by choosing chillies that are the right hotness for your taste buds. Here is my recipe:

BANANA KETCHUP (makes about 500 ml)

NEED:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

salt

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 red chillies, roughly chopped

thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated

1 tsp coriander seeds

5 cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp allspice, ground

1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/3 cup dark rum

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

5 overripe bananas, mashed

1 lemon, juice & zest

1 lime, juice & zest

1 tsp dried thyme

1 bay leave

DO:

Heat the oil in a medium pot. Add the onions and a little bit of salt and sweat them over a medium heat until they turn soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chillies, ginger and dried spices and fry over a low heat for about a minute, stirring all the time, until the mix starts to give off a fragrant smell.

Add sugar, vinegar, rum, soy sauce, bananas and the citrus and herbs. Stir well and bring to a boil. Cover and let simmer over a low heat for about an hour. Stir from time to time to check nothing is burning.

Remove from heat. Fish out the cinnamon stick and the bay leave and discard . Blend the rest of the liquid to a fine sauce. I used my immersion blender for this directly in the pot, but you could also transfer the ketchup to a blender with a glass jug. Be very careful, though, as the liquid will be very hot.

Fill your ketchup into a suitable vessel using a funnel (I re-used a squeezy ketchup bottle that I cleaned with hot water and soap) and let cool. The ketchup will keep for a few weeks in the fridge.

  © Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Spiced Elderberry Cordial

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, have you made use of the abundance of free food that is available at this time of year? Unless you live somewhere deep in the city, you will be able to find trees laden with fall fruit if you go on a walk. Even if you are a townie, have you checked your local park? You might just find that you discover elderberries, rowan berries, rose hips and other delicacies just waiting to be picked. 
Some fruit, like blackberries, are easily identifiable. For others, you might want to consult a nature guide in order to avoid upset stomachs or worse. As a rule: if you are not 100% sure what you are looking at, do not pick and cook with it, okay?
Marco and I went walking on the local river marshes on the weekend. I took some plastic containers just in case we might happen upon a harvesting opportunity. I was rewarded. We came home with a good amount of rose hips and elderberries, and a handful of blackberries.

The blackberries were consumed as compote straight away, I am going to turn the rose hips into syrup using Big Home Bird's recipe, and I made the elderberries into cordial. Wild berries are an excellent source of vitamin C, so this cordial is going to come in handy as the weather turns colder and the lurgies are just waiting to spring themselves on us.

To harvest elderberries, take some kitchen scissors with you and cut them off the tree just above the fruits. At home, you can easily get the berries off the stalks by running the prongs of a fork along them. Make sure to boil the elderberries really well and do not feel tempted to try them raw. First of all they will be very bitter, second of all, they will give you a tummy ache. 

The cordial will taste nice on its own, diluted with some hot water. Or you could add it to a variety of alcoholic beverages, like sparkling wine or as a mixer for vodka and gin.

SPICED ELDERBERRY CORDIAL (makes about 400 ml)

NEED:

600g elderberries, washed and off the stalks

2 cinnamon sticks, slightly bashed

5 cloves

1 allspice berry

1 lemon, juice

3/4 cups dark brown soft sugar (or to taste)

DO:

Place the elderberries in a medium pot and cover with water, to about a finger's width. Bring to the boil, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Make sure to turn the heat down low, as the juice easily boils over.

Remove from heat and carefully strain through a fine sieve into a large measuring jug. Press the pulp down with a spoon to get as much juice as possible out of the berries. You should end up with about 500ml of liquid. If you have significantly less, top up with some more water.

Return the juice to the cleaned pot and add the spices, the lemon juice and the sugar. Heat up over a low heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then bring to a rapid boil and let bubble uncovered over a high heat for about 10 minutes. This will slightly reduce the liquid and make the cordial more concentrated.

Prepare a large-enough bottle and again strain the cordial into it, using a funnel. Be careful with this as the cordial will be very hot and stain anything that is not wipe-clean.

If you sterilize your bottle before filling it, you should be able to keep the cordial in a dark cool place for a few weeks, only refrigerating it after it has been opened. Otherwise, it will keep in the fridge for at least two weeks.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).

Lemon Mousse

Last Saturday a week ago Marco and I had friends over for lunch. Seeing as I had just gotten The Little Paris Kitchen for my birthday, the whole meal was made up of Rachel Khoo's recipes. We had trout tartare with a rhubarb and cucumber relish for starters and Venison Wellington with asparagus and a white sauce for mains. Everything was so easy and quick to prepare, I had never felt that relaxed before a lunch date before. Yet I got compliments for the food. Happy!

For dessert, I had planned to make Rachel's Orange Mousse, but when I read through the recipe I realized that I could as well adapt it to make a lemon mousse, for which I had nearly all ingredients at home. I also increased the quantity, because in the book the mousse is a part of a trio of desserts and I wanted to serve it by itself. I still had an unopened jar of lemon marmalade that I brought back from Italy when I went to see my friend Ceci. I used that instead of regular marmalade and I substituted the original Cointreau with Limoncello. You need to start this recipe the day before you intend to serve it, as the pastry cream needs overnight chilling.

LEMON MOUSSE (adapted from The Little Paris Kitchen)

(serves 4)

NEED:

For the pastry cream:

3 medium egg yolks

50g caster sugar

20g cornflour

250ml milk

zest of one lemon, finely grated

To assemble:

2 tbsp Limoncello

5 tbsp lemon marmalade

300 ml double cream

zest of  lemon

1/2 tsp caster sugar

DO:

To make the pastry cream, beat the egg yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until the mix becomes lighter in colour and thickens up a bit. Then add the cornflour and beat until combined.

In a small saucepan, combine the milk and lemon zest. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring all the time. Take off the heat and gradually add to the egg mixture. Make sure to add the milk in small quantities and to whisk vigorously while you do, otherwise the eggs might scramble. 

Pour the mixture in a pot and return to a medium heat. Heat, stirring, until the mixture starts to thicken and throws bubble. Do not bring to a boil, remove it from the heat as soon as bubbles appear.

Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Push the clingfilm right down onto the top of the pastry cream, this will prevent a skin from forming. Place in the fridge and leave to chill overnight.

The next day, mix the Limoncello with the marmalade. Set aside.

Take the prepared pastry cream and whisk it until smooth. Whisk the double cream until stiff and fold half of  it into the pastry cream until well combined, then fold in the rest of the whipped cream.

Carefully fill one third of the cream mix into a small glass with a teaspoon. Gently knock it on your work surface to get rid of any air. 

Then layer half of the marmalade mix on top of the cream. Repeat the two layers and finish with cream. To garnish, mix the lemon zest and caster sugar and sprinkle this on top of the dessert. Serve with small galette or tuile biscuits if you like.

© Text & Photos - Annika - All The Live Long Day (unless otherwise stated).