Oreo Kiwi Tartlets

Summer is completly gone, and you can see everywhere Halloween and even Christmas stuff, some people are crazy! I have to confess you somehting, I love cold weather, otherwise I would not have moved to the Netherlands. My favorite season is Autunm, the colors of the landscapes, the warm clothes, the rain! yes I love the rain! Now it makes me remeber when I was a child and school just started, and days were going shorter and shorter, at that time I hate it, now I enjoy it a lot and cold and rainy days makes me do things  at home which I love such as crochet, painting  and of course baking.

Today I want to show you my last recipe, no baking required for these tartalets, the only thing you will need to do is the pastry cream, which must be preapared in advance, so you can do it the day before, and then you will need to preapare the tins, wait until the crust is ready and fill it with your favorite fruit, in my case kiwis. I keep cheated myself thinking as it contains kiwis I will get less fat, what a dreamer...

INGREDIENTS Serves 4

Vanilla Pastry Cream {recipe of Martha Stewart}
1 cup milk

1/2 tbs vanilla extract or vanilla bean

2 large egg yolks

50 g sugar

15 g cornstarch

Put the milk and vanilla in a saucepan until starts boiling. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 20 minutes.

Whisk egg yolks until smooth and reserve.

Put sugar and cronstarch in a saucepan and add gradually the milk mixture and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thikens and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

Whisking constantly, slowly pour one-third of milk mixture into egg yolks. Pour mixture into remaining milk in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough.

Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly on surface. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days. Before using whisk to soften slightly.

For the crust:
32 oreo cookies, finely chopped
100 g unsalted butter

Chop the cookies in a food processor and mix it with the melted butter.

Line the tart pans with the cookie mixture and store it in the fridge at least 30 minutes or until the mixture has solidified.

Make sure you use tartlet tins which are easy to unmold tart otherwise they could break when you unmold them.

Pour enough pastry cream into each tartalet to fill the shell and top with sliced kiwis.

Enjoy ♥

Mango Lassi

Summer is almost gone... and while we are waiting for the Fall I take advantage of the last warm and sunny days preparing refreshing recipes such as this Lassi. As I told you this summer my new blender has become a good friend in the kitchen, also making smoothies and all kind of milkschakes.

         

The first time I hear the word Lassi, it attracted my attention, and when I realized where it was originated even more. This recipe comes from India, and I have to tell you I love that country. I've never been there but is already waiting in my whishing list of trips! I love the music, the movies and of course the food.

Lassi can be sweet or salty, both are very refreshing, has a large range of combination possibilities and used to be flavored with species such as cardamom, ginger, black peper, comin, coriander and many others. Mango lassi is the most common of the fruits lassis, and is really the one I like the most. Mixed with yogurt, milk and water you will enjoy in less of 10 minutes a refreshing famous indian drink. 

The mango is sweet enough so it is not necessary to add sugar, but if you prefer is also common to add some honey spoons or some sugar as well.

There are several versions of Mango Lassi, most of them cointain more yogurt and milk than mango, and I prefer the other way around. I rather have more mango taste and also because of the final result with more mango it get a gorgeous color. After testing some of them this is my version:

INGREDIENTS serves 2

275 g ripe mango cubed
100 g greek yogurt
60 ml milk
1 or 2 cardamom pods (cardamon powder or some other species)
crushed ice cubes
chopped pistachios and cardamon powder for granish

Crush cardamom pods and combine all ingredients less pistachios and ice cubes in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Throw in some ice cubes. Serve and top with some pistachios and cardamon powder.


Enjoy ♥♥♥



 

Chocolate Pots with Cardamom and Cookies

Hello!!! I am back of my vacation, with some nostalgia of my trip, but this does not mean I had not missed your blogs,  and of course I missed my cooking moments in my kitchen. But my trip was amazing. I did more than 1700 pictures, I know is crazy, but I can not resist when I see somehting what I like to grab my camera and take a picture, to remember it forever. Somebody told me that important moments remain in your memory, but I can't control myself with a camara in my hands!

So here I am again with a lot to tell you, I would like to show you some pictures of my trip as well, but it will take some time until I prepare a nice post. At the moment here you have a quick and nice recipe.

This is actually a chocolate panna cotta, but I prefer to call them chocolate pots, since they are served in smalls pots. Instead of unmolding them onto a plate , I think is more easy to serve them. and this way you also avoid posibles cracks because I added chopped cookies. Personally I think the cookies give a great touch to this kind of dessert, but the special ingredient is cardamom.

Cardamom has a unique taste and is intensily aromatic. It is traditionally used in the Indian cousine, and it gives taste and aroma to a large varieties of plates such as rices, drinks, bread, currys and a lot of other dishes. I rather use cardamom pods than cardamon powder. Instead of cardamomo you can use other spices such as vanilla, cinnamon or even black peper.

I did not use sugar to make these chocolate pots but if you prefer you can add some. This dessert has a strong chocolate taste, perfect for chocolate lovers, but if you wish just use semisweet chocolate and do not add the cacao powder.

INGREDIENTS serves 4-5

250 ml heavy cream

150 ml milk (I used half fat)

125 g bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

4 sheets plain gelatin

4 cardamom pods or 1 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp pure cocoa powder (optional)

6 cookies (I used dark chocolate digestives)

Pour gelatin sheets into a bowl with cold water, or just follow the directions of manufacter depending on the kind of gelatin you will use.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan pour the heavy cream, the milk, the opened cardamom pods and the chopped chocolate and wisk over medium heat. Stir constantly until smooth. Drain the gelatin and add into the mixture. Stir until completly disolved and well blended.

Remove from the heat and strain the mixture. If you use cardamom powder add it now, stir and let it cold down. 

Once the mixture is completly cold add chopped cookies, stir and divide the mixture among the pots.

Refrigerate until set and thoroughly chilled, 3-4 hours or overnight.

Enjoy ♥