Technicolor Kitchen - English version

Christmas is coming and I have a gift for you, my dear readers: Zinio has given me 5 free magazine subscriptions to share with you! If you’re not familiar with Zinio, take a look at their website and you’ll see that there are hundreds of wonderful digital magazines for you to choose, including my favorites Donna Hay and Delicious Australia.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment on this post between today, December 17th and December 31st – only one entry per person, no anonymous comment will be eligible. I’ll announce the winners on January, 3rd. Good luck!

And while you take part in this great giveaway, I’ll leave you with some delicious and boozy jelly, a nice dessert idea for Christmas since it can be made in advance, and the recipe comes from DH mag, one of the great digital magazines you’ll find at Zinio.

Mulled wine jelly
from the always beautiful Donna Hay Magazine

1 ½ tablespoons gelatin powder
2 cups (480ml) cranberry juice
4 cups (960ml) red wine, such as Pinot Noir – I used Shiraz*
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
2 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 whole nutmeg
rind of 1 orange, remove with a vegetable peeler
1 cup heavy cream, whipped with 2 teaspoons icing sugar until soft peaks form

In a small bowl, combine the gelatin with ¼ cup of the cranberry juice. Set aside.
In a medium saucepan combine the red wine, remaining cranberry juice, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange rind and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir through the gelatin. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a 3-liter capacity serving dish (or individual cups as I did). Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until set.
Serve with a dollop of the whipped cream.

* the jelly tasted great but to my taste it was a bit too strong on the alcoholic side – I would definitely use less wine and more cranberry juice next time

Serves 8-10

We all have our favorites: the little black dress for special occasions, the CD that is always on the glove compartment, or the movie we watch over and over again and never tire of. Lately I’ve been feeling the same way about jellies – they’re the first thing that pops in my mind when I want to make (and eat) spoon desserts. I guess that once the days get colder here I might change my mind, but for now I’m kind of obsessed. :)

Not only are these delicious, they're also very easy to make, but I should warn you: once you have a taste of jellies made with real fruit you’ll never go back to artificial jellies again. You have my word on that.

Orange lime jelly
adapted from the great Modern Classics 2

1/3 cup (80ml) water
5 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2 ¾ cups (660ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
2/3 cup (160ml) freshly squeezed lime juice
5 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar, or to taste
sweetened whipped cream, to serve

Place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin. Allow to stand for 5 minutes.
Combine the orange and lime juices and the sugar in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring until sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to low, add the gelatin and whisk until dissolved. Remove from heat, strain mixture into a jug, then divide evenly among eight ½ cup (120ml) capacity glasses or cups. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate for 4-5 hours or until firm.
Top jellies with whipped cream and serve.

Serves 8

Blogging has made me change my mind about lots of foods: dishes I did not like, or should I say thought I did not like, have become favorites. And jellies are a good example: I thought they were boring until I tried the ones made with real fruit juice.

This passion fruit jelly is a bit different from the one I made before – the other recipe mixed passion fruit and orange – and goes really well with the panna cotta; the only “but” for me here was the panna cotta – I prefer it creamier and would use less gelatin next time.

Passion fruit jelly panna cotta
from Donna Hay magazine

Jelly:
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon gelatin powder
4 passion fruit – it will depend on their size, you might need less
½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) caster sugar
1 ¼ cups (300ml) water, extra

Panna cotta:
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons gelatin powder*
2 cups (480ml) single or pouring cream
1/3 cup (47g) icing sugar, sifted
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

To make the jelly, place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin. Stand for 5 minutes or until the gelatin absorbs the water. Strain the passion fruit pulp through a fine sieve – you should have approximately ¼ cup (60ml) juice.
Place the juice, sugar and extra water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Add the gelatin mixture and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the gelatin. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and divide between six ½ cup (120ml) capacity molds/glasses (if you intend to unmold the dessert, lightly grease the molds with neutral vegetable oil). Refrigerate until set (4-5 hours).
Make the panna cotta: place the water in a small bowl and sprinkle over the gelatin. Stand for 5 minutes or until the gelatin absorbs the water. Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat with the sugar, vanilla bean and seeds. Stir occasionally, allowing the cream to come to the boil. Add the gelatin and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or just until gelatin is dissolved. Pass mixture through a fine sieve and allow to cool to room temperature before pouring over the firm passion fruit jelly. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.
Serve in the glasses or unmold into plates.

* if you’re not unmolding the dessert, use less gelatin in the panna cotta – it is much more delicious when it’s creamier

Serves 6

I usually write about myself, my family and friends here. I share info about my favorite food, music and movies with you, my dear readers. But today I am going to tell you a story that happened to someone else – Neusa, a coworker of mine.

She was once at her mother-in-law’s and was served a beautiful, delicious cake for tea. The cake was on Neusa’s mind for a while – that was, for sure, a fantastic dessert. She finally asked her MIL for the recipe. The answer came as a surprise, though: “You must be confused; I have never served such thing. Sorry, but I don’t know what you are talking about.”

Neusa knew she wasn’t confused and she hadn’t dreamed the cake either. But some mothers-in-law are not very good at dialogues, and she soon learned that hers fit that bill, even though the woman was an extremely refined person.

We know great things come for those who wait and one day Neusa felt like she had been hit by something – while flipping through one of her cousin’s cookbooks, she found a photo of the cake. THAT cake. The “I-have-never-served-you-this-you-must-be-confused” cake. I don’t even have to tell you that she got a copy of the recipe and made the cake herself, do I??

She did and the cake was wonderful. Guess what she served her MIL the next time she visited? Oh, vendetta can be such a sweet thing sometimes. :)

Neusa has given me the mission of making the cake, too - a Zuger Kirschtorte. She wants me to spread the word – by posting the recipe here, many people will have access to it, which is something her MIL never intended to happen. Neusa told me that her MIL was born in 1914 and, for many people from her generation, family recipes are precious things that are not supposed to be shared. They are supposed to be prepared and served to guests who will be in awe with the food without ever knowing how to make it.

The recipe on Neusa’s book was not as accurate as I expected it to be and it kicked my a** a bit. But I finally got around and made it and I post the recipe as full as details as I possibly can.

She was also kind enough to lend me this absolutely gorgeous plate – a German piece – so I could photograph the cake on a family treasure. See how posh she is – an extremely refined person herself.

Zuger Kirschtorte

Almond meringue:
4 egg whites
120g confectioners’ sugar
20g corn starch
100g almond meal/ground almonds

Genoise:
3 eggs, egg whites and yolks separated
3 tablespoons hot water
80g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
10g caster sugar
50g all purpose flour
50g corn starch
pinch of baking powder

Buttercream:
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
50g currant jam – I used blackberry jam

Syrup:
4 tablespoons water
20g caster sugar
120ml kirsch

For sprinkling:
100g almonds, toasted and chopped – I kept the skin to add some color to the cake
70g confectioners’ sugar

Start by making the meringue discs: preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. Draw two 25cm (10in) circles in a large piece of parchment/baking paper, on a baking sheet. Generously butter the insides of each circle.
Sift the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl, add the corn starch and almond meal; set aside.
Beat the egg whites until stiff; remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, delicately fold the reserved ingredients into the egg whites. Spread the mixture inside the circles, leaving 0.5cm of the edges free of meringue – it will spread. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the meringue is golden. Turn off the oven and allow meringue to cool inside, for at least 4 hours (can be made overnight).

Biscuit: preheat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF; butter a 25cm (10in) springform round cake pan (I used one with a removable bottom), line the bottom with baking paper and butter the paper as well.
Using a mixer, beat the egg yolks with the water until thick and light. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually and beat well. Set aside.
Beat the egg whites until stiff; add the caster sugar and beat well. Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the yolk cream to the egg whites. Sift the flour, corn starch and baking powder over the mixture and fold in carefully with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through – the cake will pull apart from the sides of the pan when baked.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Buttercream: using a mixer, beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the confectioners’ sugar gradually, beating well. Add the egg yolk and jam, beat well until smooth.

Syrup: in a small saucepan, combine water and sugar over medium-high heat until it starts boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Add the kirsch and mix well. Set aside.

Assembling the cake: very carefully, peel the meringue discs off the baking paper and place one of them on a serving plate. Spread 1/3 of the buttercream over the meringue. Place the biscuit cake on top of it and brush it generously with the syrup. Carefully spread 1/3 of the buttercream over the biscuit cake. Cover with the other meringue disc.
Spread the remaining buttercream on the sides of the cake and “stick” the chopped almonds on the cream. Using a sieve, sprinkle the top of the cake with the confectioners’ sugar. Draw a criss-cross pattern on the sugar using the back of a knife.
Keep it refrigerated, but serve it at room temperature – the cake gets hard in the fridge.

Recipe from a book by Roland Gööck + a little help from here.