Lisa the Patissiere!

I know that sounds a bit ahead of things, but that's really how I felt yesterday!
I have been baking a lot lately as I need to practice on my patissier skills for who knows when...

I've been making all sorts of sweets. Such as the ordinary cake in all kinds of varieties such as chocolate/orange, lemon/almond, apple/marzipan. And last tuesday I made the famous Italian (from Napoli but introduced there by French cooks) dolce 'Baba al rum', which turned out to be the favorite dessert of my Love's colleague who I always send sweets to taste, which she doesn't seem to mind. I gave the original recipe a twist by filling them with orange-blossom-water marzipan, I made that morning.
It's a sort of brioche type of dough, which is (just after baking) soaked in a sugar syrup and liqueur. I chose Gran Marnier as it suited the marzipan so well.

For a while a had been looking for the recipe of my grandfathers favorite pastry 'Hazelnoot-schuim gebakje' but I could not find it anywhere. Yesterday I took the courage to make these sweet-bombs by putting a few recipes together.

Here is how I got to work:

For 4 individual cakes you'll need:

For the praline: (and a good amount extra to poor over ice, yoghurt,..)
- 250 gr hazelnuts, and about 12 hole ones for decoration (peeled and roasted)
- 50 ml water
- 250 gr sugar

Heat the nuts in a frying pan for a couple of minutes. In the meantime you put a thick-bottomed pan on the heat with the water and sugar, bring to boil. Chop the nuts finely in you blender ( not too fine, you want some crunchiness). When the syrup starts to brown,take off the heat, poor in the nuts and stir quickly. Poor the praline on a sheet of parchment paper and spread out. Leave to cool.
Crush with you rolling pin until fine. Prepare a plate with a good layer of the praline to roll your pastry in later on.

For the meringues:
- 150 gr egg whites
- 40 gr of praline (hey, you just made that, how convenient!)
- 175 gr of fine white sugar

Preheat the oven on 140 degrees C. Prepare two baking trays with parchment paper.
Beat the egg whites with the sugar (in three parts) until stiff and shiny. Mix in the praline with a spoon.
Fill a pastry bag (spuitzak/ sachetto per dolci) with the egg whites and make round shapes with a diameter of ca. 6 centimeter. You should get about 20 pieces.
Bake them for 65 minutes. And leave to cool.

Then for the mocha-cream you'll need:
- 60 gr of egg yolks
- 50 ml water
- 75 gr of white sugar
- 180 gr of butter (room temperature)
- a few drops of vanilla essence
- 2 spoons of strong coffee, cold

Beat the egg yolks with a dash of salt until light and airy. Make a syrup with the water and sugar in a thick-bottomed pan, boil until reduced to a semi-thick syrup without coloring! Poor the syrup slowly in with the egg yolks while beating. Beat until cooled to room-temperature. Beat, in another bowl, the butter until sof and airy. Mix in the vanilla. Then mix the butter in with the egg yolks, spoon by spoon. Until you have a smooth cream. Mix in the coffee until smooth again. Prepare a pastry bag with the cream.

To make all the ingredients into those fancy looking cakes:

Take a meringue as the bottom. With your pastry bag, make a layer of cream on top of it. Then put the next meringue on top. Fill up the space between the meringues and make a thin layer of cream all around the side, not on the top, so the praline sticks to it. Roll it trough the praline and so the side is completely covered. Take your pastry bag with cream and make those fabulous dots on the top until covered. sprinkle some whole nuts on the top.....Done! Now, just repeat for another three times and you're done!

Hazelnoot-schuim gebakje
My granddads favorite 

Meringues in the oven

Half 'Baba al Rum' with homemade apple compote and vanilla yoghurt

Lisa's patisserie

Christmas dinner 2010

I know it's a bit late but as I had to inform you about this christmas dinner anyway. I thought, better late then never.

However, it is not a very christmassy dinner at all. We started with a light aperativo just like the one we have in Como at our favorite bar 'da Gigi'; little pieces of bread with cream of pumpkin, sage and lard with honey. Accompanied by a light prosecco.

Then I made a sashimi of tuna and salmon bought by my aunt at the very nice organic supermarket in Amsterdam called 'Marqt'. I marinated the cubes in soy-sauce and served it with some wasabi and ginger past and a green salad.

Next was the main dish, marinated lamb chops with a dried fruit-sauce, steamed spinach and oven-baked potatoes.

And last but not least, my favorite part of almost every meal, the desert. A chipolata bavarois with savoiardi on the outside, Mmmmm! I made it the day before so the different flavors were all nicely combined. It was a fluffy sweet tasty pretty thing!

Ape da Gigi

Organic Tuna and Salmon sashimi

lambchops with spinach and patatoes

Bavarois

My mom's after desert

the table

My shop...

Yesterday I was flipping through my new cookbook 'Parijs' and I thought of all the things I would like to sell in my 'Dream-shop'...the shop I have in mind to open in the future.

It will be a shop with delicious straight-forward sweets, pretty wanna-have things like books and scarves and great music in the background.
I made a list of the things that made me hungry and things I like to eat the most. And that I would like to sell in my shop...
Do you think it's a good list?

Drinks:

- Good coffee like Lavazza or Illy with organic milk. All the classic Italian styles.
I don't like coco-powder on my coffee, I prefer a dash of cinnamon instead.
- Great aromatic teas like Chinese and Japanese green tea. A classic Ceylon black tea, for the ones that need a bit of a kick. Then some herbal infusions like ginger lemon or orange cinnamon, which I can make myself. Served with local honey or cane-sugar.
- Home-made hot chocolate with organic milk and a bit of cinnamon( if you like). With or without hand-whipped cream.
- Organic apple juice, fresh orange juice and superfresh centrifuged juices-mixes like green apple and lime.

Sweets:

- Several kinds of cake, like chocolate/orange, lemon/poppyseed, apple/almond.
- Madeleines in naturally colored shades of pink.
- The unmistakable 'Tarte-Tatin'.
- Dutch apple pie, on a special 'Apple-pie-Day'. With cream of course!
- Fudgy chocolate cake, when you're feeling lonely or when it's just raining outside...
- Lemoncurd pie in Summer.
- Tiramisu with raspberries or ripe pears.
- A variety of cookies, like american chocolate chip and Dutch 'speculaasjes'.
- Eclairs.
- Blueberry muffins.
- Carrotcake with orange-flavoured icing.

I can't wait!

Strong cuppa coffee!

Lemoncake

Carrotcake

Lemoncurd-pie

'goodbye-from-work-blueberry-muffins'

'Dutch apple-pie'

Oatmeal-chocolate chip

Free your mind!

I was just thinking about the things that free my mind. I mean, that make my worries go away for a while and that make me feel light and airy, free.
Today it's another very beautiful, sunny, cold day in Como which already makes me feel free to do what I want. The strong bright light on the city makes it live.

I think getting on my racing bike and riding 45 km an hour down the hill is one of the things that make me feel most free. It feels almost like you're flying off a mountain with just a safety parachute on your back.
You're completely alone, one with the road, the wind and your bike.

I know I sound like a very experienced cyclist, but even after a year I know how it feels to be free on your bike. I had the same feeling last night during our spinning course. I was going pretty fast and was sweating like an otter (as we say in Dutch). It always surprises me what a body can do, not excluding the mind.

Then there is something else I got to experience through my new life, Love here in Italy...the Opera.
On one of our many surprise date my Love took me to 'La Traviata' by Giuseppe Verdi in Varese.
The first time I went to this opera, it's my loves favorite. The story is heartbreaking and at some points it felt like my blood stopped flowing and I could't breath. The music gets right into your system and makes you feel all the drama, the power of opera that is.

We have also seen 'Il Trovatore' in the very impressive opera of Verona on the lovely warm summer night of my mom's birthday. What a magical experience, and what an amazing decor!

To me the freedom in going to the opera is that you can let your emotions go wherever they want to go. Their even triggered out of their shell.

The next one we'll be going to is 'Tosca' by Giacomo Puccini in Teatro della Scala in Milano! I'm really looking forward to another 'Julia Roberts in Pretty woman experience' (god, I love that movie!). And I have the music on my Ipod, sung by Maria Callas, so beautiful.

Don't forget the food!

Off course I wasn't forgetting about the food. I've been cooking, baking, eating and tasting just as much as before, so I have a whole bunch of new things to show you.

I'll start simple, with the 'Wentelteefje'. This is a traditional Dutch recipe that I love to make on sunday morning when I'm feeling hungry. All you need is a bit of old bread (white preferably), some milk, an egg and some sugar and cinnamon.
You mix the milk, about a cup, with the egg and a pinch of cinnamon. In that mix you soak your slice(s) of bread for a couple of minutes until it becomes all soft and spongy. Then you heat a knob of butter in a frying pan and bake the 'Wentelteefjes' on both sides until golden-brown. I always drizzle a lot of 'Lyle's Golden Syrup' on top and some extra cinnamon dusting. You can serve them with any fruit you like!

'Wentelteefjes' with banana

Then I made this funky filled bread by Jamie Oliver. The recipe is in his third book 'Happy days with the naked chef', I love that book. I really rediscovered it a couple of weeks ago. I often make the puddings that are in it too. The bread was filled with raw ham, soft cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil and some boiled eggs. I only made half the recipe of the bread, but it became huge anyway. I still have half of it in the freezer, Yum!

Then we made some 'lovely speculaasjes' also a typical Dutch cookie with a mix of spices in them. We eat them on the 5th of december which is Sinterklaas, a national holiday with lots of presents and sweets.
This year we made them for our Italian friends to let them have a taste of a Dutch tradition.

It's a very simple recipe with flour, sugar and butter and the spices. But they have a lovely warm old-fashioned taste to them.
If you want I'll give you the recipe, just let me know!

Heart 'Speculaasjes' by my Love

And speaking of cookies, my Love gave me these German gingerbread cookies that are a bit like the 'speculaasjes' but soft and a bit tough. My parents used to bring me one of these hearts with 'Ich liebe dich' written on it. I especially love the ones coated with white icing. I have to find me a shop where they sell them. Or I could try to make them myself.

Guten appetit!

Love is all around!

Yes, today I could really feel that, Love is all around! Yesterday my brother and I Skyped about some very exciting new plans I have. He helped me a great deal, just by being enthusiastic and excited about it. He's also a very talented 'marketing man' which comes in handy too when it comes to new plans...

I just went out to do some shopping in Como, which can be a bit 'down' sometimes, the people in the streets do not always look as happy as I would like them to be. But today I could still feel the Love around me. It might sound a bit 'cloudy' but it feels good anyway.

It is sort of a happy feeling, you know that there are many people who Love you. Who are there for you and will support whatever you wish to do with your life. As long as it's really what you love to do.

When you make a life changing decision or start something new from the heart, from your core. There will be this Love, or 'happy feeling' to carry you and make you take the right turns...

At least that is what I feel. Sometimes it gets stronger, sometimes it's barely there. But I need to say that it always keeps me going.

I decided that 2011 is going to be a 'learning year' for me.

I still need to get my drivers license at the age of 27! I will be tackling the Italian road-rules, which they seem to make up themselves. I've already found a very kind instructor to help me with this.

And I will be (again) learning how to ski. I must say, with my fancy all-black outfit and new skies (second hand, got them from a very generous friend last weekend!) I feel all ready to, elegantly, slide off a crisp white mountain, before having my 'Bombardino'. A very alcoholic beverage with lots of cream on top, this is why I started liking skiing in the first place. I always get one as a reward for having skied down a slope without falling.

I'm sure there are many more things I will be learning this year, I'll keep you posted on the progress!

Me, in my snow suit in Bormio

'Snowbird'

Tea and a Bombardino, Mmm!

Ready for our hike up the hill

'Love salad' by my Love

Pretty things

Over the last year and a half I have been seeing, hearing, tasting and feeling so many new things. I've been trying to record some of it on my Iphone by taking pictures. I noticed that I have a library of 1.817 photo's. Most of them are of food, pretty skies, my Love ( so I could show him to my friends back in Holland) and a lot of, according to me, pretty things.
I just wanted to show you a very small selection of them.

Love oranges in Oga, where we ski

Button book in the FAR museum

Me, feeling like a bird

Sign on a stone, during a sunday walk

Big white flower at Villa Olmo, Como

The bin at Mantero

Me and my pigeon friend at lunchtime