Mamaliga

Courtesy of Divid Gilkey/NPR

By now I expect that most of you know of the devastating Haitian earthquake, seen the pictures and reports of the survivors that now need to battle hunger and thirst. No need to update you on that.
You are probably left with the daunting question of “Why it happened to them and not us?” and feel the urge of somehow helping out in some way or another. Without going into deep thinking, can it be that those of us with resources are spared so that in situations like these we can share and help those in need? Just a thought…

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Popularity: 74% [?]

Panettone

Merry Christmas! This is the second time me baking the Panettone from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice for the BBA Challenge. I didn’t blog about it since there were some things I wanted to tweak and adapt from his original formula (that, with all respect to the man, doesn’t even come close to the quintessential Panettone Milanese). Quite a few changes. Now I know why Nicole calls the BBA Challenge a ‘challenge’…

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Popularity: 92% [?]

Chocolate Tart

Don’t be fooled. This humble chocolate tart is packed with enough potential to turn even the most chocolate-disciplined person into a dessert-ivore. So much more that is so easy and fast – if you read my previous post on baking short crust sweet pastry tart shells and you have two or three of them in the freezer.

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Popularity: 93% [?]

Short Crust

In days when I crave something sweet and classy (and that’s daily, lately) this flexible short crust I discovered in Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef cook book saves me of going through intense labor to create a delicious tart.

I will be referring to this short crust many times so you better give it a try and familiarize yourself with it.

The next post will be a simple wicked chocolate filling that paired with this crust produces a sublime chocolate tart.

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Popularity: 100% [?]

Hey Mamaliga fans!

A quick one. One of the reference voices and food bloggers in Hungarian, Central and Eastern European cuisine, travel and culture Suzanne Urpecz from The Hungarian Girl blog, took an interview with me that is featured on her blog – some exciting stuff if you want to know more about the one behind the Mamaliga blog.

In the mean time make sure you read through Suzanne’s posts and fill up on the wealth of information for those of you traveling to Europe, or looking for precious info on European wines,  or simply eager to try out some of the most delicious recipes from the same region.

Thanks Suzanne!

Popularity: 71% [?]

Cedar Picnic Table

Only so you know on what am I spending usually the hot summer weekends, this post is about a picnic cedar table I built (commissioned by my wife) out of these six sided hexagonal picnic patio table plans

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Popularity: 74% [?]

Bacon Explosion

Had to do it. I knew it was going to come. The notorious creation of the BBQ Addicts, The Bacon Explosion a scandalous arteries clogging log of sausage, with crispy bacon bits, wrapped in … you guessed a layer of thick bacon! No trace of a vegetable in sight! None.

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Popularity: 80% [?]

Turkey Burger on Top 9 on Foodbuzz!

I didn’t even dream at the time of creating it that my humble Turkey Burger would make it to Top 9 on FoodBuzz! How cool is that! I might need to pay more attention to it later in a dedicated post with a recipe. Any takers? Anyway – check it out! It is mouth drooling and it can easily compete with the cover picture of the Saveur magazine (September 2009 issue)!

If you are a FoodBuzz member (and if you are a foodie – YOU SHOULD) please add Mamaliga (me) as a Foodie Pal would love to keep in touch!

Popularity: 56% [?]

Spinach Ravioli

This Wordless Friday’s cooking was (among others) a superb spinach ravioli with a 4-cheese filling (Blue, Feta, Parmesan and Cream cheese) sprinkled with sauteed sage, and in a fennel-butter-anchovies sauce. As always, let me know if you need the recipe.

Popularity: 54% [?]

Home grown arugula & tomato salad

There’s nothing like an arugula and tomato salad that was grown in your backyard – our plot in my case. The nutty arugula flavor combines sublimely with the acidity of the tomato. No comparison with store bought produce. The porcini risotto was my first try to stick with the original recipe. But for some reason I had to go 8 minutes over the religious 14 minutes of cooking the risotto after the first stock scoop. Nevertheless it turned out wicked!

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Popularity: 50% [?]