Czech in the Kitchen

Trifle for T

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | Leave a comment

5October2014

It was my oldest daughter’s birthday yesterday and so tonight we had dinner and I made dinner as per her requests… Lemon Curry Chicken, baked potatoes and asparagus. I didn’t have much time this week to make a fancy cake but I did have a pound cake left over from a gathering we had a couple of weeks ago. The cake didn’t all get eaten and it wasn’t iced so I threw it in the freezer. Today I turned it into a yummy trifle with pudding and whipping cream. I have to say it was pretty yummy.

The pound cake came from this recipe except instead of using blueberries I used cranberries this time. I chopped up half the cake and put it in the bottom of the bowl then poured the hot pudding over top of it to let it soak the cake. Then a layer of whipping cream. The next layer was vanilla pudding with chunks of cake in it and I also added fresh cranberries and slivered almonds, then another layer of whipping cream and topped with candied cranberries… so easy and delicious.

Ingredients:

2 packages of Pudding (I used Dr. Oetker and only added half the recommended sugar)
- I package chocolate pudding
- 1 package vanilla pudding
1 left over pound cake
large handful of slivered almonds
half of a bag of cranberries (to add with the vanilla layer)
half of a bag of cranberries (sugared for the top)

To sugar the cranberries bring a small pot of water to a boil and scald the cranberries, then in a bowl add a cup or so of sugar. Drop the cranberries in the hot water and then with a slotted spoon pull them out and drop them into the sugar. Roll them around to coat and then place on parchment paper for a bit to let them dry. They looks so beautiful and are so good, the tart and the sweet… YUMMY… it’s a great topping I’m thinking for some Christmas favourites coming up in the next few months…

This was a great way to repurpose leftover cake… and now I’ll have to remember to make extra cake so we can have this more often!

What do you do with your extra cakes… if you have any… 😉

Happy Birthday “T”… we love you!

Devilled Eggs with Cream Cheese and Smoked Salmon

Posted by Pussycat in Sides | 1 Comment

19September2014

We’re having a whole host of folks over tomorrow for a dinner and a bonfire and I wanted to make something that would combat all the less than healthy food we’ll be eating. I also wanted to make something that could be snacked on easily. Now I know that Devilled Eggs are often thought of as something of the past but seriously is there anything more perfect than an egg? I love eggs as does most of my family. In face, despite arguments with my doctor about high cholesterol I continue to eat them. I’m just not convinced that they are be bad for me. In fact one of these little devils 😉 keeps me full for the whole morning if I have it for breakfast unlike oatmeal or other carbohydrates. So I will stick with eggs…. When you’re putting them out for others a plain boiled egg isn’t very inviting so I had to spruce them up.

I saw someone on a website, sorry can’t remember where as it was a while go, make devilled eggs with smoked salmon and I thought … What a great idea… so here we go.

Devilled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Capers… Yes… I know cream cheese isn’t the best thing for someone with high cholesterol but I’m a work in progress! Also I would have added in some finely dices purple onions but someone in this house doesn’t like raw onions… oh well.. maybe when I just make them for myself.

Recipe

10 eggs hard boiled (I boil mine for about 9 minutes when I do this many)
2 Tablespoons Cream Cheese
3-4 slices of Smoked Salmon (chopped)
2 Tablespoons diced Green Onions
1 Tablespoon Capers (rough chopped)
Splash of Caper juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish with green onions or paprika

Boil the eggs and let cool, peel them and slice lengthwise, then carefully pop out the yolk and place into a bowl. To the yolk, add cream cheese, chopped smoked salmon, green onions, capers. Once you have all this together then mix it up and add some juice from the capers until you have a consistency of stiff whipped cream. Salt and pepper to taste. Put the mixture in a piping bag (or plastic bag and snip off a corner) and pipe the filling back into the egg bowls. You don’t actually have to add much salt as the juice from the capers will do that for you so add the juice before you salt.

Garnish with slices of green onions or paprika and serve. So Yummy!

Super Tart Lemon Curd

Posted by Pussycat in Sweets | 10 Comments

14September2014

I love lemon curd, but I also love tart lemon as opposed to sweet lemon. I was looking for a way to make my lemon curd even more tart recognizing that sugar is essential to the consistency of the recipes. Then in a moment I had it. Though this may not be a ‘purist’ version of lemon curd it certainly served my purposes.

I made the lemon curd from a previous post…. here… then I added 1/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a tablespoon of cornstarch (mixed while cold) then added to the mixture. This allowed me to make more of the curd without adding more sugar, thus a more tart lemon curd.

Juice of 5-6 large lemons (1 cup fresh lemon juice) and zest
½ (or less) cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small parts
1Tablespoon cornstarch

Using a double boiler, combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and zest in a metal or glass heat-resistant bowl and whisk until smooth. Set the bowl over the simmering water, without letting the bottom touch, and continue to whisk. Whisk until the curd has doubled in volume and is very thick and yellow. Don’t let it boil but bring it up to just about the point of boiling. Remove the bowl from heat and whisk in the butter, a couple of chunks at a time, until melted.

I used this curd to cut the sweetness of a pavlova that I made…that’s why I wanted something with a strong tart component…. recipe of that and pics still to come! 🙂

Northern Manitoba Whitefish

Posted by Pussycat in Main Dishes | 1 Comment

4September2014

Yum

I had a busy August and haven’t posted in while, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking. I have to admit that I’ve been looking for quick things to cook and on one of my rounds to the grocery store I found this Northern Manitoba Whitefish… looked intriguing. I’ve long since loved pickerel and well… any kind of fish but I’d never come across this fish before… so I just had to try it.

I didn’t really have the time to find a creative way to make this so I pretty much stuck to ‘simple’ also I’m trying to stick to healthy foods so baking it was my method of choice.

I have to say that the fish was moist and so good. The preparation made for an easy, healthy meal. You can certainly use any kind of whitefish… or any fish for that matter. No need to spend a whole lot of time preparing… just season, stuff, layer and bake… easy… easy… and so good. I also think that by keeping it simple you really get to taste the fish, and this fish is very good.

Recipe

1 whole cleaned fish
1 sliced lemon
1 sliced onion (I used a purple one, hence the coloring)
Salt and Pepper

Grease a baking pan or cover and then grease. Rinse the fish and salt and pepper inside and out. Layer the onion and lemon slices inside the fish and cover with several slices of each.

Bake in preheated oven at 450 degrees and bake until done. I baked mine for about 35 minutes. How long you bake it will really depend on how hot your oven is and how big your fish is but you can tell it’s done when it flakes with a fork and is opaque inside. Also, once it starts to look nice and golden around the edges it’s pretty much done.

Enjoy!