Monthly Archives: August 2014

Raspberry financier

Almond financier with raspberries

I’ve wanted to prepare financiers for quite a while – I always enjoyed eating them but never dared to try to bake them. Next to the madeleine, the financier is probably the most popular little French cake, common for breakfast or afternoon snacking (or “goûter”). It is made of finely ground almonds, egg whites, butter and powdered sugar. The name comes from their shape: they are usually formed to look like a brick of gold. If they come out well, they should have crusty exterior and a moist interior, tasting almost as if they were filled with almond paste. To give them some summer taste, I’ve added raspberries and changed a bit the traditional form…and yes, they still taste very good!

raspberry financiers

Yield: 10 small size financiers

Ingredients:

110g powder sugar
100g butter (room Temperature)
45g flour
60g fine ground almonds
3 egg whites
20 raspberries – 2 for each
optional: 1 tea spoon of amaretto (my personal touch )

Fig & goat cheese salad

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Sweet summer salad

I’ve discovered fresh figs while living in Paris -before that, I had never tried them fresh, only dried. The fig is believed to come from Western Asia and to have been distributed later throughout the Mediterranean area. It is a rather sweet fruit with a tough peel and a jelly-like flesh. I like eating fresh figs alone, but the best combination I’ve discovered is a fig & goat cheese salad – a sweet & salty combination and a perfect starter for a summer dinner.

fig & goat cheese salad

Yield: 4 persons

Ingredients:

150g rocket leaves
10-15 fresh dark figs
100g goat cheese – any kind
walnuts – optional
olive oil
balsamico vinegar
2 tea spoons of honey
salt, pepper

Fudgy chocolate cake with blueberries

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Add some berries to delicious chocolate cake

I think that you may have already noticed that chocolate is one of my favorite ingredients This summer when I visited my family in Latvia, I went to a new restaurant in Jurmala called ¨Legend¨. This is a special place not only because my cousins’s husband, Janis Zvirbulis, is a chef there, but also because the food is delicious. Unfortunately I couldn’t try everything I wanted (yet!), but there is this one dessert that I still have dreams about: a chocolate cake with cream and blueberries on top. Wonderful combinations! I didn’t get the secret recipe but I’ve created my own version of a chocolate cake with blueberries and ice-cream.

fudgy chocolate cake

Yield: 8 portions Ingredients:

200g of dark chocolate
60g unsalted butter
100ml cream
6 eggs
150g sugar
a little bit of salt
one tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 spoon of cacao powder
some blueberries, icing sugar and ice cream for decoration

Black cherry-chocolate jam

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Prepare your special jam stock

Every year when summer arrives I try to prepare some jams to be able to enjoy them during the cold winter season, or to give them as a Christmast present to my loved ones. I found this recipe some years ago in a German magazine, which I’ve unfortunately lost in the meantime – this is a bit of a reinvention. It is perfect for toasts or pancakes, or even by itself: I love cherries and chocolate and this combination goes well together.

black-cherry chocolate jam

Yield: 6 jars of 350g jam

Ingredients:

1kg of black cherries (yields around 800g once they’re cleaned)
800g sugar – pick special “jam” sugar
50g of black chocolate – you can also choose for black chili chocolate
1 lemon juice