Quickbreads from the book Gabriel gave me - made with fine cornmeal and poppy seeds.

7/26/2013

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Quickbreads, this wonder of humanity!
In fact, I would call these tiny guys cakes, because they are made with baking powder, not yeast.
And this is the reason why you can whip up a batch so fast.
They are great as last-minute snacks, for those times when someone comes over and you're not ready for it, to serve as an excuse to turn on the oven on chilly days, this kind of thing...
The recipe comes from a book a friend gave me last year, it's called "Marvellous mini cakes" by Ilona Chavancova.

By the way: brush for roots and vegetables.

7/06/2013

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You might have noticed before that I really like to cook using the oven.
Breads, tarts, baked omelette, all kinds of oven roasted vegetable, fruits, chimia...
Particularly in the case of roots, I find it interesting to roast them with the peels on. Think beets, carrots, ginger, fresh turmeric, all kinds of potatoes, even some other foods that have slightly hard peels (squashes? apples?).
Baking/ roasting food with their peel helps preserve their nutritional value, even if you take it off later.
But for that, of course, the peels must be perfectly clean - after all, it's not pleasant at all to eat food with dirt.
My best friend in this task is a small nail brush. It's obvious that you need to buy a new one to use exclusively in the kitchen. The good thing about them is they fit nicely in your hand, and these ones that come with a handle don't slip away.
All you have to do is leave a string of running water and kindly brush each vegetable until you remove all of the dirt. Then you cut off the damaged parts, if there are any, and after rinsing you can proceed with the preparation of your food.
Rinse the brush as well, let it dry well hanging on a hook or on the dish drainer before storing (I keep mine on a hook by the tap.

It's always good to remember it is not interesting to eat with peel vegetables that are grown with pesticides, because most of them get stuck in the peels. In this case, you can stills wash them with the brush, but then cut peels off before cooking.

Now, some news: I've created a page on facebook for the blog, it's only in Portuguese, though.
Anyway, there I will publish the new posts & links I find interestig (it's quite possible they won't always be food-related).
If you feel like searching it, look for Blog É o que tem pra hoje.