Tuesday, March 8 Kitchen Mess | Water Cake

Just wait, I know this probably has a weird name for you. As you know, translating things from Portuguese to English doesn't always turn up alright, but that's it's the name of the cake I'm sharing with you today!

As the name suggests the cake is supposed to be made with water, but me and my mom always do with milk, but this time we tried something new and I must say that turned out very good.

You'll need:
4 eggs, 3 cups of white sugar, 1 cup of cream (or water, if you wan't to try this way), 3 cups of all purpose flour, dash of vanilla extract, dash of lemon zest, 1 tea spoon of yeast.

Preparation:
So, instead of using water we are going to use cream, but you can always try how it turns out with water.
Start by separating the yolks from the whites, hand put the whites aside. Then add the sugar to the yolks and beat it until it's all combined (if you think 3 cups of sugar is too much you can always take a lit bit, I always do that).When it's all mixed in start adding the cream, the lemon zest and the dash of vanilla and mix in, after that add the flour in stages so it doesn't create lumps.
Now back to the whites, we have to beat them until they form peaks, when that happens it means that is on point, and then you can add that to your previous mixture, mix in very carefully!
Last thing, and the most important: put in the oven and bake the cake. I'll recommend at 170ºC and keep an eye, I don't usually use a determined time, I only check the cake every ten minutes.

Hope you enjoy, and if you try it let me know int the comments.

Thursday, February 18 Kitchen Mess | Cod with Cream

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to eat and make is cod with cream, here in Portugal is a very well known meal, and one of the most easy to make.


You'll need:
200g of Codfish, 100ml of Cream, 200ml of White Sauce, 500g of Cube Fries, 1/2 Onion, 1 Garlic Clove, Dash of Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Breadcrumbs


Preparation:
To be honest, most of the time I only use the measures above as a guide line, you can follow them or do as I do
and impersonate or inner chef! I tend to leave the codfish in warm water overnight, but it depends in the kind of codfish you use, mostly I use one that comes already shredded.

First thing you do is cut the onion and garlic to a pan, and then add the salt (if needed, because codfish can be a little salty) and pepper and let them be until the onion becomes a translucent. In the meantime you can start frying your fries (I use frozen ones, but you can cut yours) and shredding your codfish (if not shredded yet).
When it's all done you just have to add everything to prep done with the onion: first the codfish and let cook until there's no water, then you add the fries, the cream and the white sauce and mix in (you can do this last part with the stove off).

After all is mixed pour into a serving dish and powder with some breadcrumbs (some people and cheese to it) and bake in the oven until the breadcrumbs are a gold-ish color, and voilà!

I actually made my own white sauce, it's easy and you can follow the recipe below if you want to make your own, although I have to warn you, this measure is not 200ml.

You'll need:
3dl of Milk, 1 tablespoon of Unsalted Butter, 1 table spoon of all purpose Flour, Nutmeg, Salt, Pepper


Preparation:
Melt the butter with the flour in a low heat and mix it until it's combined. And the milk (at room temperature) all at once and mix until you no longer see crumbs of the previous mixture, then you can season with the nutmeg, salt and peeper, and keep stirring until it starts getting thick.

Take it from the stove. And it's done!

Hope you enjoy it and give it a try.