Time to bake good cake!

Well... I'm sure that lots of you guys have moments like: "I must eat something sweet now!" and then you just check all your cupboards in the kitchen to find something that has a little sugar. But what will you do when you find that there is no candies and the only sweet thing is just one or two bags of sugar? If you have oven in your kitchen there is no problem with it - bake a cake!
Cheesecake is one of my favourite cakes. It's really simple and quick to prepare. I learned to bake this cake with a small, old book, where you can find a simple and very reliable recipes for the tastiest cakes in the world. And I'm not talking about those for which you need expensive ingredients, special decorations or something like that. Of course I don't assume that everyone has one kg quark in his fridge, but as you know, it's not a problem to go to the nearest store with dairy products and just buy what you need (at least in Poland :)). So here we go!

Exquisite Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 kg quark (cheese)
• 8 eggs
• 400 g (about 2 cups) confectioners' sugar
• 250 g butter
• 40 g (2 tablespoon) farina
• 15 g (1 tablespoon) potato flour
• 300 g (2 teaspoon) baking powder
• 1 g (1/3 teaspoon) lemon oil
• 100 g raisins - if you want, but if not just don't add them

The Recipe:
1. Beat egg whites till stiff.
2. Cream quark, part of sugar and butter.
3. Add remaning sugar to egg yolks and whisk until white.
4. Mix farina, baking powder and flour. Combine quark, whisked egg yolks, farina and flour and mix well.
5. Add previously soaked and drained raisins and lemon oil. Mix well again briefly.
6. Finally add egg whites and fold delicately (it's really important!)
7. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake at 170°C, 50 minutes.
8. After baking wait until it cool down and then put it to fridge for a few hours. Then you can be sure that the cake won't fall apart while cutting.

Thai-style chicken

Here is a nice recipe to use your freshly made curry paste :) I have never been to Thailand, so I cannot comment on authenticity, but it's as close as you can get to dishes from Thai restaurants. Mixture of curry paste and coconut milk gives it a distinct flavor. You can flavor chicken with additional spices (even something like berbere or pepperoncini ) for more kick :)

Thai-Style Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
• 1 medium onion, cut into  1/4-inch-wedges
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon red curry paste
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 pound chicken breast tenders
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 (~250g) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and coarsely chopped

The Recipe:
1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion, cook 4 minutes or until onion is golden, stirring frequently.
3. Stir in coconut milk, curry paste, and black pepper.
4. Add chicken, bring to a simmer. Cook 8 minutes or until chicken is done, stirring frequently.
5. Stir in cilantro and remaining ingredients, cook 1 minute.
Serves 4.

Red and green curry pastes

Well, here is recipe for something you can probably find in a supermarket. And if you don't have it then it may be even harder to get ingredients mentioned here... Anyway, it's just so much better than the store-bought thing that you should try making it. Flavors are so richer, try it with thai-style dishes, like coconut chicken :)

Red curry paste

Makes: about 3/4 cup
Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 10 Thai or other medium to hot dried red chiles, seeded, or to taste
• 4 dried lime leaves, fresh lime leaves, finely chopped, or 1 tablespoon minced lime zest
• One 1/2-inch piece fresh galangal or 4 dried quarter-sized pieces or one 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 stalks lemongrass, peeled, trimmed and roughly chopped
• 2 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 tablespoons cilantro roots, rinsed well, or 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro stems
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil

The Recipe:

1. Soak the chiles, along with the lime leaves and galangal, if using dried, in warm water for about 15 minutes.
2. Put the coriander and cumin seeds in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until lighly browned and fragrant, abotu 3 minutes. Cool, then grind to a powder in a spice or coffee grinder.
3. Drain the chiles and lime leaves and, along with all the remaining ingredients except the oil, transfer to a blender or food processor; grind to a paste, stopping the machine to scrape down the sides as necessary. Gradually add the oil while blending; you're looking for a fairly smooth, thick paste. Store in a tightly covered container and refregerate for up to 2 weeks.

Green curry paste: Subtitute fresh green chiles for the red chilles and add 1 tablespoon ground turmeric in Step 3.

We are still here :)

Sorry for a bit long break, we are in the process of moving to a new place and all that is involved with that. The worst thing is lack of Internet connection, it's taking ages to connect the line... I hope it will be over soon and we can show you plenty of new recipes. Especially considering new oven at our place - which we have tested already. So expect recipes for blue meringues, superb cheesecake, onion soup (well, not from oven, but we have a new stockpot too), coconut chicken and many more :) Meanwhile I will post some tested recipes, unfortunately without photos, yet...