Apple Financiers
Financiers are a small french teacake. They are similar to madeleines, but smaller and more tender. They are usually rectangular, but they can be found in many shapes. They can be plain or filled with any fruit that can be baked in the oven (such as blueberries, raspberries, apple, pear or mango). These financiers are filled with sautéed apple and baked in rose-shaped molds.
Financiers
135 g egg whites (about 4 medium ones)
125 g hazelnut butter
75 g almonds
150 g sugar
13 g honey
50 g flour
Instructions
Beurre noisette or hazelnut butter is a heated butter used in french cuisine. It is made by heating regular unsalted butter over medium heat until the whey caramelizes. The resulting butter has a nutty aroma and remains liquid at room temperature, keeping the financiers moist once out of the oven.
To make the butter, melt it over medium heat on a pan. Let it stand over the heat until foam starts to form on the surface of the butter. The foam will start to sink and caramelize. When the bottom of the pan is coated with a golden substance, remove butter from heat, strain through a fine sieve and reserve.
Grind the almonds with the sugar in an electric mixer with short pulses. Grind for a couple of seconds and let the mixture cool down before continuing the grinding process. This is to prevent the almonds from losing oil and creating a paste. The final product should be a flour-like mixture.
Sift flour with the ground almond and sugar mixture. Add the egg whites and mix with the help of a whisk. Add the hazelnut butter at room temperature and mix until incorporated. Chill batter in the freezer for about an hour.
Filling
1 Russet apple
Lemon juice
Cinnamon
Butter
Sugar
Instructions
Peel, core and finely dice the apple. Drizzle with lemon juice to prevent oxidation. Place a dollop of butter and a couple tablespoons of sugar on a pan, and melt over low heat. Add the apple, sprinkle with cinnamon and sautée until golden but still firm.
Assembly
Remove batter from freezer and introduce it in a piping bag. Pipe some on the filling on the bottom of each mold. Place a lump of apple filling on each mold and cover with some more batter. Fill only up to two thirds of the mold, as the financiers will rise. Bake at 190 ºC for about 10 minutes or until the top of the financiers is cracked and golden.
Casadielles
Casadielles are a typical dessert from Asturias, which is a region at the north-west of Spain. They are some sort of pasties with a sweet filling. The dough is usually puff pastry although when made at home, a simpler dough is used. The filling is normally made with walnuts but it can be made with any nut.
Filling
About 3 tablespoons anise liqueur
80 g (3/8 cups) sugar
1 cup walnuts
Instructions
Crack walnuts open and place them on top of a clean kitchen cloth. Cover with another cloth and crush them with the help of a glass bottle.
Crush walnuts until a fine texture is obtained. This can also be done with a food processor, but it is hard to get the right texture. I would recommend trying the traditional way because it is always nice to remember the way things used to be done by our elders. Also, crushing nuts with a bottle is way more fun than pressing a button.
Transfer walnuts to a mixing bowl and add sugar, mix with a spoon and add the liqueur. Keep mixing until the sugar is incorporated and all the nuts are coated with liqueur and moist.
Dough
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup white wine
1 cup olive oil
Flour
Instructions
Mix wine and oil in a mixing bowl and add the baking soda and baking powder. Start sifting the flour on top of the liquid mix.
Mix well and keep sifting flour until thickened.
Keep adding flour and start kneading by hand.
Transfer the dough to a clean surface and keep kneading until a smooth texture is obtained, adding more flour if needed.
On a lightly floured surface, spread dough with the help of a rolling pin. Cut rectangles with a pastry cutter or knife.
Place a spoonful of the nut filling on the center of the dough rectangle.
Fold dough to form the casadiella and reserve. Meanwhile, heat a pan with a generous amount of olive oil. When the casadielles are shaped, place them on the pan and fry until golden brown. Remove from oil, drain well and sprinkle generously with sugar. Serve and enjoy!
Pil-Pil Cod
Bacalao al pil-pil is a traditional recipe from the Basque Country or País Vasco, which is a region in the north of Spain. Bacalao is Spanish for cod and pil-pil is the name of the sauce you serve the cod with. In Spain it is common to find salt cod (which is salted and dried cod) as opposed to fresh one. For the fish to be suitable to eat, it needs to be prepared a couple of days in advance to eliminate all the salt in the flesh.
To eliminate the salt, rinse the cod fillets with cold running water. Then place the cod in a container big enough to form a single layer of fish (don't stack the pieces one on top of the other). Cover the fish with water and place in the refrigerator for at about 36 hours, changing the water every eight hours. Once unsalted and ready to use, remove cod from water and dry with the help of paper towels. When the fish is ready, it's time to prepare the sauce.
Ingredients
Red Chilli Pepper, cut in rings
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic, thinly sliced
Instructions
As you can see, there are no measurements on the ingredients, because they depend on the amount of cod you are going to cook. Use one clove of garlic and two or three rings of chilly (you can add more if you enjoy hot food) per cod fillet. The amount of oil should be enough to cover 3/4 of the height of your fish when placed in a saucepan.
Place oil in a wide and low saucepan and heat it over low heat. Add the thinly sliced garlic to the oil and let it simmer. This should be done slowly so that the garlic golds evenly. When the slices just start to brown, add small rings of chilly to the oil. Let it fry until golden brown. Remove garlic and chilly from the sauce pan and reserve.
Add the cod fillets skin-side-up. The oil should be hot enough to form bubbles around the fish pieces but not so hot as to splatter violently.
It should be more a cooking over low heat than a frying process. Keep the fish a couple minutes with its skin up and then turn it and cook for a couple more minutes. You will notice that the skin releases a whitish substance, which is the gelatin that will thicken the sauce. The gelatin will form bubbles and sink to the bottom of the pan.
Remove the fish from the oil and reserve on a plate. Cover to maintain heat. Remove oil from heat and let cool. When lukewarm, start stirring the sauce (at this point it will be oil with bubbles of gelatin at the bottom) with a fine sieve or a slotted spoon, in a circular motion. Start working on a small area on the edge of the pan and don't move to the next area until the sauce is ready.
You will notice the white bubbles on the bottom of the pan will emulsify with the oil, creating a mayonnaise-like sauce. Keep working all around the pan until all of the oil is emulsified. The sauce must be under 80 ºC (176 F) or it will never emulsify, no matter how much time you spend stirring it.
Check the temperature of the fish. If it is too cold, reheat it in the oven for a couple of minutes, making sure it never surpasses the 80 ºC limit. You can reheat the sauce too, taking into account the same consideration. You can also add the fish to the sauce and heat them at the same time. To serve, place sauce on the bottom of a plate, put a cod fillet on top and decorate with a slice of garlic and chilli.
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