Coconut cake

COCONUT CAKE

Ingredients

260 g. self rising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

160 g. grated coconut

150 g. butter + 50 g. of margarine

200 g. sugar

4 large eggs

180 ml milk

250 g. whipping cream 35% fat

3 tbsp lemon juice

The zest of 2 lemons

70 g. chocolate drops

Instructions

Knock in the mixer the butter and the sugar until the butter whitens slightly and becomes fluffy.

Continuing the hitting add the eggs one by one.

Knock these ingredients together for 3-4 minutes.

Add the cream and knock two more minutes.

Stop the beating. Take off the mixer bowl from its base.

Add the milk little by little stirring gently with the wire.

Mix the baking powder with flour.

Add the flour little by little into the bowl stirring gently with a whisk.

Add coconut and mix gently.

Add the drops of chocolate and stir until they are evenly distributed everywhere.

Grease a cake mold 26 cm in diameter and sprinkle it with sugar.

Turn upside down the form and knock gently to remove the excess sugar.

Pour the mixture into the mold and spread it evenly.

Put the cake mold on the bottom rack of the oven.

Bake at 180 C degrees for about 45 minutes.                                                                                         Nail a clean knife into the cake.

Pull the knife and doff. If the knife is clean, the cake is ready.

If dough is stuck on the knife, the cake needs more baking.

When the cake is ready remove the cake mold from the oven and leave it aside to cool.

When the cake has cooled, turn it upside down on serving platter.

Sprinkle grated coconut over the cake..

Dessert with yoghurt and fruit jelly

DESSERT WITH YOGHURT AND FRUIT JELLY

Base

Ingredients

500 g. yoghurt

130 g. whipping cream 35% fat

160 g. sugar or more, if you want it too sweet                                                                 

150 ml milk

25g. unflavored gelatin Knox

Fruit jelly

Ingredients

2.5 cups of any fruit juice

25g. unflavored gelatin Knox

100 g. about sugar (If you like the desserts too sweet, put more sugar)

A little grated coconut for the decoration

1/3 of a cup blanched almonds for the decoration

Instructions

Gelatin

Commercially you can find grated gelatin Knox in boxes. Each box contains 4 sachets of gelatin.

Each sachet weights 10 g.  

You can find also leaves of gelatin inside envelopes.

Both are suitable for this dessert. The total amount of gelatin you need is 50 g.

That means that you need 5 sachets of gelatin.

If you are going to use leaves of gelatin, you must know the weight of each leaf, to figure out how many envelopes you need. 

Put in small coffee pot 1 cup water.

Pour into the pot the gelatin.

Stir with a spoon. Leave the gelatin 5 min to absorb water and become soft and transparent.

You must warn up slightly the water and the gelatin.

Put the pot with the gelatin over very low heat and stir.

A few min are enough to transform the gelatin into a transparent liquid.

Once the gelatin is melted remove the pot from the heat and leave it to cool a bit.

Stir with a whisk the yoghurt, the cream, the sugar and the milk.

Mix until the mixture homogenizes.

Pour into the yoghurt half of the melted gelatin and stir again. 

You will use the rest of the gelatin to make the fruit jelly.

Try the mixture of yoghurt, to see if it's quite sweet. If you think that it needs more sugar, add some.

Pour the mixture of yoghurt in Pyrex dimensional 32CH22 X 5 cm. 

Put the Pyrex in the fridge and leave it there to cool.

It is necessary to thicken the mixture of yogurt, to form a solid foundation on which you will spread the fruit jelly.

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Jelly

For the jelly you need 2.5 cups fresh squeezed fruit juice.

The most suitable fruits for this are water melon, strawberries and cherries.

If you decide to make watermelon jelly you must prepare the watermelon juice.

Cut some watermelon slices. Clean them from their peel.

Put in a food processor the watermelon pieces and squeeze them.

Pass the juice through a strainer.

You must prepare 2.5 cups of juice.

If you choose to make strawberry jelly, you must buy 1/2 kilo of strawberries.

Thoroughly wash the strawberries and cut their stalks.

Pour the strawberries in the food processor and 1 cup water and half a cup of sugar.

Beat the strawberries until they become juice.

Pass the juice from the strainer.

Count the juice. It must be 2.5 cups.

If it is less, add water until it becomes 2.5 cups.

Try the taste of the juice. If it is sour add sugar.

If you choose to make juice from cherries you need more work.

Buy 600 grams of ripe cherries.

Wash them thoroughly and remove their stalks.

Then remove the kernel from each cherry.

Pour in the food processor the cherries, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 cup of water.

Knock all the ingredients until the cherries are mashed.

Strain the juice and measure it.

If the juice is not 2.5 cups add water until done.

Try the taste of the juice if it is not sweet enough, add sugar.

Put in a bowl the fruit juice you have chosen. Pour into it the bowl the melted gelatin you have kept.

Mix well and taste the mixture to see if it needs more sugar.

Remove the Pyrex from the refrigerator.

Pour evenly the mixture of fruit juice and gelatin over the base of yoghurt.

When the jelly thickens well, garnish the top of the dessert with almonds.

You can make any shape you like.

White daisies over the red jelly look nice.

Or you may chose to make waves of circles or any other shape.

You may use coconut to enrich your decoration.

This is a very light and refreshing summer dessert.

Posted by Katy hat-K

Meat with pasta in the oven

MEAT WITH PASTA IN THE OVEN

Ingredients

1 kilo of meat from the leg (lamb or goat or beef)

500 g. ripe tomatoes

400 g. Gemelli pasta or spaghetti or penne

Salt, oregano, pepper, savory

1 tablespoon grated coriander,

100 g. olive oil

Instructions

Buy the meat two days ahead.

Ask the butcher to cut the meat into three pieces.

Rinse with water to remove any small bones that have been plunged into the meat.

Put the meat into a baking pan with dimensions 31CH41CH6 cm.

Sprinkle around the meat salt, pepper, oregano, savory and grated coriander.

Rub gently the meat with the herbs and coat it with oil.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge to marinate for two days.

On the third day, add water to the pan until it covers the meat.

Cover the pan with non-stick grease-proof paper and put in the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 250 C degrees for one hour.

After that time uncover the pan, turn the meat upside down. Cover again the pan with the non stick paper.

Continue roasting for half an hour more at the same temperature.

Remove the meat with a long fork from the pan and put it into a platter.

Leave the pan with the meat broth in the oven to boil.

Scour the meat from the bones and cut into pieces.

Other pieces are small and others are larger, as a walnut.

Put the pieces of the meat in the pan and stir.

Wash the tomatoes and cut them into pieces.

Put those pieces in a food processor and make them pulp.

Pour the tomato pulp into the pan in the oven.

Let the tomato and the meat to cook for 15 min.

Check the meat to see if it is very soft. If so, pour into the pan the pasta you have chosen.

Stir well and cover the pan with non-stick grease-proof paper.

After 15 minutes uncover the pan and stir the pasta.

Try the taste and if is something missing add it.

Do not overcook the pasta.

For each kind of pasta it is written on its package the proper cooking time.

When the food is ready, remove the pan from the oven.