Molten chocolate deliciousness

I happen to like chocolate. No, not like it, more like love it. So the following recipe is for those who are like me and can’t get through weekends without a good chocolate-y dessert.

Molten lava cake. It was a something I was always intrigued by, but I haven’t tried it, because… well, it’s whole point is to be a tad under baked, and I don’t like under baked things. But today I gave in. I made my first ever lava cake.

First Try at Stir-Fry

First of all, excuse me the horrible title. I just had to do that. Now let’s move on.

You see, I know nothing about food photography. So that’s why I started reading a book about it. I want to do it properly. I even bought a tripod for my Canon Powershot SX150 IS, which is... well, not the most professional of cameras. (Although I think it would help if I cooked in daylight, and photographed everything on a white tablecloth. Maybe next time...)

So new photography equipment equals something interesting and new on the plate. Something I’ve never done before. And that’s how I ended up cooking a vegetable stir fry.

Curd cheese return

Hi, everyone! So, after months and months of hiatus I guess it’s time for a new post. I have been away for too long, and it has been a time filled great things, like a birthday, a new translating job, new friends and a newly found passion for food magazines and baking. (Although it’s gotten a bit obsessive – I have way too many kitchenware for the size of our cupboards.)

During these months cooking and baking has taken a back seat, mainly because I didn’t have the time and energy too cook on weekdays. But I’ve certainly tried a couple of recipes, one of which I’m going to share with you now.

This is a family recipe, it doesn’t even have a real name, but I’m sure every family in Hungary has their own version of it. It takes less time to make it than to read through my instructions.

New Year's Eve treats (part 2.)

As I promised now I’m gonna show you how to bake some last-minute coconut-white chocolate biscuits. Sadly, in the midst of today’s preparations I don’t have enough time to write a post about the coconut roll, but worry not, it’s gonna happen.

So. The recipe.

New Year's Eve treats (part 1.)

Although I hardly notice it, 2014 is just around the corner. Sure, the neighbours practiced their firework skills and I (with some help) made 3 different dishes in a couple of hours. That’s all well and fine and needed, even, but I’m not particularly in a New Year’s Eve kinda spirit. Of course I could look forward to drink some champagne, but the fact that I’m not fond of alcohol... well, it doesn’t help much.

Rolls and roulades

I’ve studied German for 10 years. That’s a little bit less than half of my life. It seems such a long time, doesn’t it? And yet, if you try to speak to me in German, I would ask you to try again in English. Well, thank you very much, Hungarian education system – there’s nothing better than wasting your time on a language you’re eventually going to hate and banish from your life altogether (and I won’t get started on the real baddies: the incompetent teachers).

So today I was chatting with a middle-aged lady on the train who happened to be of German or Austrian origin. And she asked with her light accent: why zon’t you speak German? And when I told her part of the truth, that I haven’t used it in about 6 years, she said: “Oh, so you make English better for you”. And in a way she was right. I was thinking about our conversation during the better part of the journey, even after we said our “Happy New Years” to each other. (Oh, she was lovely. A bit scary, like a mother dragon, but really nice.) I could revive my German knowledge, but I doubt I ever will. German is something that I don’t really like; therefore I’d rather stay away from it.

Pork with honey and ginger

Life has been really busy in the past few weeks. New job, new people, new challenges, so that’s why this post is so very late. But I hope the wait was worth it. The following dish is simple, yet amazingly tasty. One of my favourites and it’s surprising, because it contains pork. A lot of pork, really. But you know, at the end you get this meaty ... meat, and it doesn’t taste like one. It’s sweet, a bit savoury and not very pork-like. So those of you who aren’t exactly pork-fans: try it out! And be a convert.

Don’t be intimidated by the length of the ingredients list, the most expensive part is the pork itself. As you will notice, the preparation can be quickly done, since it’s just a matter of rough chopping.

Vegetable stock from scratch

So, as I said in my previous post, the time of comfort food has come. Thankfully there are some great recipes in Italian cuisine, like the one I’m going to talk about in my next post. But first, you will need to learn how to make some proper vegetable stock. And here’s how you do it the healthy way. If you can’t be bothered with the real deal, use a stock cube, but that’s cheating. Just sayin’.