cognac coffee marinated steaks

around new year's certain someone and i had dinner at my uncles's, his wife is an amazing cook. we had steaks with sauteed mushrooms and crepe suzettes for dessert. the steaks were cognac-coffee marinaded, the suzettes were flambeed...

this weekend i drove to my brother's for a visit, and ended up cooking for the whole crew. as i was going thru lunch options i remembered the steaks we'd had at my uncles. i decided to serve them with roasted fingerling potatoes and brussels sprouts. the little niece got her steak "au naturel", others marinated. the recipe in the link in in finnish, couldn't find one close enough in english. marinating steaks for four you'll need:

2 dl bbq sauce (any ready made, or your own)
½ dl cognac / brandy
½ dl strong coffee







as luck would have it, once in a blue moon, when i cook in a kitchen where there's natural light for great pictures, i forget my "good" camera home, and the battery in the small one was running down...so, instead of giving you the whole PW tutorial, you'll get one lousy picture of everything on the plate.

the fingerlings went to oven with rapeseed oil, dried thyme and rosmary. the sprouts (which, by now, i'm starting to really like...) got my usual treatment, medium hot pan, no fat until slightly caramelized, slivered almonds for garnish.

for the sauce for the steak i used 200 gr cream cheese with black pepper (lots of it), 2dl water and ½ dl cognac. first cook the cheese & water un medium heat until smooth, then add cognac (and pepper if your cheese doesn't come flavoured) and some of the marinade to taste. i did add some sugar to round up the taste. i'm no sauce/gravy master, but this turned out so good, ask my brother, he dunked his bread in it...

i'm not going to tell you how to cook your steaks, some much depends on some many different things. this was first time cooking steaks at my brother's so i was more or less playing hazards...i was aiming for medium, we got medium plus, which i consider not so bad.

well, great lunch calls for dessert, right? my nephew asked for "english" apple pie. after asking him to define "english" here, he said "a pie with a lid". i went to martha for a recipe for pate brisee for the filling we peeled and chopped 5 granny smiths, added some sugar, cinnamon, all purpose flour and butter, filled the pie and put the "lid" on. i did make fancy holes on the top...







with apple pie you gotta have something vanilla...i was going to make vanilla custard from scratch but got lazy and ended up with store bought custard







the pie was gone in no time...i think my best apple pie ever, seriously. i'm blaming the amount of butter in it...







my sister in law suffers from the same disorder i do...or maybe it's because we're both virgoes...here is her "holiday destination brochure project" (she's going to be so mad at me for posting this picture...)





ps. another take on the steaks here.

nectarine pie, not for therapy

i happened on the taste of the taste kitchen blog a few days back, and saw pictures of a therapy pie. i was sold, had to bake it, soon. and i did, yesterday. you should, too. just don't burn your tongue with the steaming hot goodness!







there is a fat war going on in finland, animal fats versus vegetable fats, what is healthier and why, and whatnot. i have made my peace with fats, use very little when cooking, if at all, but will use the real stuff when baking, like here. oh, no, i didn't use all of that!

i don't like the packages of butter in finland, can't they understand the difficulties of measuring 227gr out of a 500gr package. butter people, sell you butter in sticks! (phew, that made me feel so much better)

i did, however, mess with the recipe a bit and replaced ½ a cup of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour (with visible grain particles)







was feeling lazy and used the machine







gosh, i should use it more often, didn't even break a sweat







spread out some cling film, makes rolling the dough, and clean-up, so much easier







packed well and refridgerated for an hour







rolled it out on the cling film







then placed the pan on the dough upside down, put my hand under the cling film and turned the whole thing over, ta-daa!







took the film out (you should do that, it might not survive the oven later on...) and placed the pan in the fridge while preparing the filling







i love the taste of peaches but the little furry stuff on the skins makes my lips feel funny, therefore i don't buy peaches but nectarines, they worked fine in this recipe







aren't you loving my mise en place?







mix well before placing on the cold dough, bake in 180C oven for 45 mins







i moved the pie to the bottom rack for the last 15 mins, and put the convection on as well. i think the whole wheat flour gave more texture to the crust.

the smell was amazing! and yes, i did burn my tongue!

souvenir apple torte

certain someone's cousin's wife baked this buttery apple torte in ontario while we were visiting. the torte was lovely and certainly interesting (and i love her kitchen, have i mentioned that?) (well, while i'm at it, i love their house).

anyways, since the apples are plentifull, i decided to try this at the shack. now, planning is good, i most often plan, but this time something happened and this torte got to drive around a bit...

the recipe calls for either raspberry or apricot jam, i used my mom's raspberry jam that i thinned out a bit. kami's (the wife) recipe is originally from the magazine canadian family, but the recipe in the link is the same, brand names have been changed







i used 8 of these beauties, cored, halved and thinly sliced







my dough was a lot drier than kami's, but i managed to spread it on the pan quite evenly







this part was all new to me, jam between the dough and cream cheese







i used 5% fat cream cheese, not good. after adding one egg to it, i could pour the mixture onto the dough and jam. will definitely use full fat cream cheese next time to get a more substantial layer of cream cheese







sliced apples rolled in sugar and cinnamon went on top, with some sliced almonds







by the time i had put the torte into the oven i realized that i had an hour and a half to get the torte out of the oven and be at work on time...i ended up taking the piping hot torte with me in a huge pan with a lid. left the pan in my car to cool off while i was working...

and ended up having a slice at midnight when i got home. as you can see, the torte could have used a few more minutes in the oven...next time it will. i did like the cream cheese in the middle, it's almost like having vanilla pudding with the torte

3 pies

last saturday, after work, i thought i'd make a quick detour to the grocery store on my way home to get something light for dinner...well, it got me wanting some ham pie, kind of quiche lorraine. as most of my "motorized tools" are at the shack, i opted for frozen pie doughs.

got a medium size leek, halved it and rinsed under runnign water to get rid of possible grime in between the leaves. most cookbooks will tell you to mince/chop the leek and then rinse it in a collander under running water. i guess the main point would be to get rid of the grime, not how it's done...







but, would you have spotted this if you'd mince it first...







minced the dark green part of leek quite fine as it cooks longer, the white part got an easier handling. i got 400 gr smoked ham which got diced into 1cm pieces







sauteed the leeks on medium high heat in olive oil until wilted, let it cool while...







rolling out the dough...if i have a rolling pin at my apartment, i don't know where it is hiding. this thermos bottle came in as a handy replacement. for this pie i got a rye dough, therefore the darker color







bought i big bunch of parsley as well, minced some for the filling







grated some emmental to go in as well. i so need to update my grater...i know what i'll bring for myself from our upcoming trip to toronto and nyc







not too much...approx ½ cup







this mess would be 2 eggs, 2 dl sour cream, 1 dl cream, mixed well before adding on the filling







plenty of black pepper to season the filling







first mixed leek/ham/emmental/black pepper, the placed the mixture on the dough







then poured in the egg/sour cream mixture and added some grated parmesan on top before putting it into 200C oven for 40 mins







the smell was amazing...







but i only had one small piece, honest!







because i had this mess to clean up before starting the next pie...







the other pie was veggies with two cheeses







this mix is called american, i have no idea why, maybe for the mini corn?







used this pie dough, it's lactose free and made of vegetable fat, and spreads easy into a round pie form







i have a mini silicone rolling-pin for this task, i don't know why as a glass works fine, if not better







one of the cheeses, cottage cheese







this pie got the same egg/sour cream mixture, seasoned it with chili powder and thyme







the other cheese was the emmental, approx 2 dl







also this got grated parmesan on top







40 mins in 180C on the lower rack in the oven







had to have a tiny slice, quality control, you know







had to make one sweet pie as well. this here is blueberries with jamming sugar and corn starch







40 mins in 180C. by the time i pulled this out of the oven it was quite late so no tasters of this one







this here was my dinner...with butter, not exactly light