Garlicky Potatoes Au Gratin - by Gynelle Alves

A couple steps longer than scalloped potatoes but a gorgeous side or with some extras like broccoli, mushroom, spinach, sausage… a comfort food spectacular. 

Ingredients:

6 big potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

2 cups grated cheese

2-3 cups milk (or half milk, half cream)

6 cloves of garlic, finely minced

4 tbsp refined flour

4-6 tbsp butter

1 tsp grated nutmeg / powdered

Freshly ground pepper

Salt to taste (keeping in mind saltiness of cheese)

1/4 cup dry toasted breadcrumbs + 1/4 cup grated parmesan

Method:

Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan (non-stick if you have it). Turn the heat to low, add in the garlic, nutmeg… then flour whisking till it absorbs the butter. Take it off the heat and briskly whisk or blend in your milk salt and pepper. Put it back on the hob and add your potatoes.

Simmer, stirring gently occasionally till the potatoes are just about done, adding more milk if needed. Turn off heat and add the cheese, letting it melt through. (Now you have scalloped potatoes!) Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C. Pour your potatoes into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle over with breadcrumbs and parmesan and bake for 20 minutes longer, till the top is crispy and the potatoes cheesy-creamy tender.

Leek & Potato Soup - by Gynelle Alves

This soup is very, very easy to make. You can use vegetable stock, but I actually prefer to build up the onion and leek quantities and use regular water to keep it subtle and focused on the earthy loveliness of the title ingredients.

Ingredients:

4-6 big potatoes, peeled

2 large red onions

4 fat leeks, washed and trimmed off any brown bits

Splash of Olive Oil

2 tsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried rosemary

6 cups water

1 generous knob of butter

1/2 cup cream (optional)

Fresh chives or parsley chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method:

Finely slice your potatoes, onions and heads of the leeks (saving the greens). In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, add a decent splash of olive oil. Add potatoes, leek heads and onions, lower the flame and stir about so they get nicely tossed up with the oil. Add dried herbs once the onions and leeks go all pinky-translucent. Add water. Bring this to a gentle boil then lower and let simmer till the potatoes are super tender. Add the leek greens and let simmer for a couple more minutes till they go really green. Once marginally cooled down, blend all this (an immersion hand held blender is perfect!) Adjust seasonings, mount with a little butter or cream if you want luxury, sprinkle freshly chopped herbs and eat up!

Brioche - by Gynelle Alves

Brioche tastes best fresh with their rich buttery-sweet crumb and flaky top. Stale, toast it up to eat with chai, rich meaty stews, as bruschetta or even (like with croissants) reinvented as a bread and butter pudding.
 

 

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup butter (softened)

3 eggs beaten + 1 for the wash

1/3 cup sugar + 2 tsp for the wash

Yeast 3 tbsp

1/3 warm milk

Salt, about 1 1/2 tsp

Method:

In a large bowl, mix yeast in with the warm milk and sugar and leave for 10 minutes. Add flour and then slowly, the butter, making sure each piece is fully incorporated before adding the next.  Slowly add your beaten egg in mixing well. Knead the dough till very elastic and leaving your hands and sides of the bowl easily. Don’t panic if it’s too sticky! Just keep kneading and it will be fine. Shape into a big ball, cover and leave to rise in a warm, dry place for 1-2 hours.

Oil your baking tin, and lightly dust with flour, shaking out the extra. Gently knock back the dough and divide it into four balls. Put these into your tin just touching, cover and let this rise for another hour. When your hour is nearly up, heat up the oven to 200 degrees C.

Make a wash with a beaten egg and 2 tsp of sugar and gently brush over your brioche, taking care not to deflate the balls. With a pair of scissors make a small cut on top of each ball. Bake your bread for 10 minutes at full 200 before reducing heat to 180 and bake for a further 25 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack. Slice up and serve.

Black Olive Foccacia - by Gynelle Alves

This is a very basic recipe. Eat it warm, dipped in some quality olive oil or lightly toasted with soup or topped or stuffed with sandwichy things.

Ingredients - Basic:

3 tsp active dry yeast / fresh bakers yeast

1 tsp sugar

5 cups all-purpose flour

11/2 tsp salt

2-3 tsp herbs (rosemary / sage / thyme – fresh or dried)

1/2 cup olive oil + a bit more for brushing

1 1/2 warm water

Toppings (Optional):

Olives / chopped garlic / sun-dried tomato / finely sliced onions / paprika flakes / parmesan / coarse sea or black salt / slivers of cured meats…

Method:

Mix the yeast, sugar and lukewarm water. Set aside for 5-10 minutes. In a big mixing bowl add flour, salt and olive oil and mix. Add yeast mixture and knead into soft dough. If too sticky, knead in a little more flour. Form this into a ball. Oil your hands and gently rub them over the ball, oiling it entirely. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm, dry place for an hour, till your dough has nicely puffed up to twice its size.

Oil and lightly flour your baking tray. Punch your dough down gently with fists, and press into the tray. Add herbs and optional toppings and press these into the dough. Cover lightly and let sit for half to one hour. When the time is almost up, preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. With your fingertips, poke the dough to dimple it and generously brush with olive oil. Bake for 40-45 minutes till done and golden on top. 

Transfer to a rack and while still warm brush with a little more olive oil, sprinkle with salt, cut into squares and eat!

Croissants - By Gynelle Alves

Easier than you think!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose refine flour

1/3 cup fine sugar

3-4 tbsp fresh yeast

2 eggs

1/2 cup warm milk

3/4 cup salted butter

1 tsp salt

1 egg + 2 tsp sugar to glaze

Method:

Mix sugar, yeast, eggs and little of the milk together to form a paste. Add flour and the rest of the milk in slowly and knead well to a soft dough. Take a tbsp of the butter and cream in the salt. Knead it into the dough. Cover the dough with a moistened cloth and set aside. Cream the rest of the butter till soft. 

Generously flour your work surface and then roll out your dough into a big circle. Spread the remaining softened butter over it entirely. Divide and cut the dough into three pieces – small, medium and large, lengthwise. Roll your small strip first. Then place it onto your medium strip and roll them up. Then roll up both into the largest piece.(Fig 1) 

Pat down slightly and seal the ends of your dough pillow. Cover this with your moist cloth and let it rest in your freezer for about 20 minutes till nice and cold.

On a floured surface roll this out into a wide rectangle about 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick. Divide the whole into half. Then divide each half into five triangles. Your triangles should look like party hats with two longer sides and one shorter base. (Fig 2)

Take a triangle, make a small slit in the base and roll it up base to narrow tip. Twist the ends inwards to form crescents and place on an oiled and floured baking sheet. When done, brush these with your egg and sugar wash ad leave to prove for 20-30 minutes. Bake at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes and they’re done!

Glazed Doughnuts - By Gynelle Alves

This recipe is for 2 dozen doughnuts. You can halve this but I warn you, you may regret it. 

Tip: If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, improvise… neatly cut out the bottom of a big plastic bottle – you get a big round cutter on one end and small one on the other! Simple.

Ingredients for Doughnuts:

1/2 oz instant yeast or 3-4 tbsp fresh yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 1/2 cup warm milk

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/3 cup butter

5 cups all purpose refined flour

Oil for frying

Ingredients for Glaze:

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 – 2 cups icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup hot water

This dough is supposed to be really fluffy light and is a bit delicate to handle being just sticky to touch. So, don’t add more flour! I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to flour everything used, so generously flour your hands, work area and tools.

Method:

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Whisk in milk, sugar, eggs, butter and 2 cups of the flour, scraping down the sides as you go. Stir in the remaining flour and mix till smooth. Cover, and place the bowl in a warm, dry place for at least an hour and let this puff out double.

DoughnutsTip the dough out onto a very well floured surface. Flour your hands and pat down gently to about an inch thickness. Cut you doughnuts with your well floured cutter and with a sharp, wide floured spatula transfer the doughnuts to well floured trays, removing the centers (saving them as is for frying or re-incorporating them into the dough). Gather together the remaining dough, pat down and repeat till you have or have had enough.

Cover these lightly and leave to rise for 40 minutes to an hour. Heat oil up to very hot but not smoking. Test it with a centre ball. If it bobs up immediately, it’s perfect. With floured hands or spatula slide your doughnuts into the hot oil, about 3-4 at a time so the temperature of the oil doesn’t drop. Fry them for about a minute on each side, remove and drain on crushed paper towels. Eat as is, dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon or cool slightly and glaze them.

To glaze, briskly whisk together the melted butter, extract and sugar, adding water spoon by spoon till the glaze leaves a trail. Gently dip the doughnuts one at a time into the glaze and let set on a rack. To make a chocolate glaze, add dark cocoa powder to the melted butter and proceed. If you have fried the centers, Genesia liked hers dusted with parmesan.

P.S. Extra dough can also be kneaded into a ball, left to rise, glazed and baked for 20-30 minutes to yield a soft, sweet bun.

Onion Jam

 

Pictured: Bacon, onion jam, gouda, romaine lettuce on multi-grain ciabatta (from Theobroma)

As with all super simple recipes, time is the secret ingredient to making an onion jam sublime. And again, as with all basics, the sky’s the limit as far as tweaking, twisting or evolving the recipe is concerned to suit your specific purpose. Simply used, for a salty, roast meat sandwich, you can elevate it by adding strong, fragrant herbs like rosemary or thyme. Add more vinegar, slap some mustard on and it brings authenticity to hot-dogs. Switch sugar for bitter-orange marmalade and its something else entirely. Or you can use it as a base for soup. Either ways, contrast its soft texture with something with bite and its sweetness with something salty or smoky. 

Ingredients:

6 large onions finely chopped

1 tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons of olive oil

1 tablespoon of butter

2 – 3 teaspoons of cane sugar (less is more)

A small pinch of salt

Method: Heat olive oil in a wide saucepan (preferably with a lid), stir in the chopped onions until they are evenly coated in the olive oil and on a low heat, cover for about 5 – 8 minutes until the onions start to sweat. Now uncover slightly and stirring every 6 – 8 minutes to avoid burning, let the onions begin to caramelize. This should take about 20 – 40 minutes. When the onions begin to colour deeply and are soft and yielding when tasted, stir in your salt, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Keep stirring until you get a deep, shiny brown mass.