Give chicken (not pigeon) a chance!

Chicken  is a relatively cheap meat, especially chicken wings. However it seems that it lost popularity in Czech and people are eating less chicken. With this post today I am going to show you some great way to prepare chicken by following the vietnamese cuisine, which will make you change your mind (especially if you are czech).

 

For this recipe you need a hand mixer, small piece of ginger (cca 2 cm), one onion, one clove of garlic, soy sauce, cane sugar and chicken wings (500 g). Of course you can use different part of the chicken, but I personally prefer chicken wings, because it has less meat and you enjoy more the taste of the skin.

Cut the onion, the garlic and the ginger into smaller pieces. Put them to the mixer. Add 3 spoons of  cane sugar and mix all until you obtain a creamy sauce. Add one shot (cca 0,05 l)  of soy sauce and the marinating sauce is ready! Leave the chicken wings to marinate for few hour or over night.

Before baking put a small piece of butter on the meat. Bake slowly at 180°C for about one hour depending on the chicken size. If you want a crispier crust regularly pour the  the liquified butter over the chicken.

Serve with nuts and fresh herbs. I recommend pistachios and mint or parsley and shallot.

Attention! Backing this chicken generates a very tempting smell which requires a strong will not to eat it raw!

Elderflower syrup

Finally, it's time! Elderflower (European elder(berry)) smells wonderful and now it is the best time to make a delicious syrup out of it.

What do we need?  Pick about 25 large elderflowers per liter of syrup. Keep in mind that of course you are free to add more if you prefer a more intense flavor. Remember to pick only  blooming flowers without beatles or insects.

Boil water for few minutes and then let it cool. When water reaches room temperature, add citric acid (approx. one tablespoons per liter of water) and add the elderflowers. Let it rest  for 24 hours.

Sieve the liquid through a strainer with a gauze or cloth in it and add sugar (1 kg sugar per 1 liter of juice).  Squeeze a bit of lemon if you prefer a more acidolous taste. Warm it up to 30-40 ° C.  As a final step, pour the liquid into the prepared sterile jars and close them. 

Elderflower syrup in  is especially healthy and people drink it to alleviate cold's symptoms. As an additional suggestion, you can even add it to tea as it helps if you suffer urological problems. It is also recommended for drinking to breastfeeding women.

Note: The syrup can be done without citric acid, only with lemon, but it lasts in the fridge for a shorter period of time. With acid it can be stored for a year.

Meat ball again and better!

This year I became a gardener and I began to grow my own vegetables. I have so many seedlings of aubergine, zucchini and tomatoes that if the harvest will be good, I will have so many that my belly will explode :)

Today for lunch I wanted to make meatballs and I picked aubergine and tomatoes from the fridge. I decided to modify a bit the standard recipe to improve the meatballs by using my vegetables.

How I did it? The recipe for meatballs is same until the moment when we put the balls in the fridge. Meanwhile, we cut slices of aubergine and put some salt on them and leave them to rest until part of the water goes out. Once they are ready we cut them together with  the tomatoes into smaller cubes. After it, we can prepare all ingredients (red wine or water, vinegar, oregano, cinnamon, black olives) and then we can start.

We fry all the meatballs on both sides on a larger pan or pot. When it is light brown, remove it for a while to second pot. Add aubergine and tomatoes, some oregano, a tablespoon of vinegar and wine (or water). In the end add some salt and bring to boil. Then add the balls, reduce the flame and sprinkle with cinnamon. Let them cook slowly for about 45 minutes until the sauce thicken.

P.S. My mum was totaly crazy about them. How do you like them?

P.P.S In the end I have to show future star on my blog – seedlings of aubergine. Yes I have to show off! J

Piadina Romagnola

As a huge lover of "flat" breads (Mexican tortilla, Arabian pita bread or Indian chapati bread, etc.) I immediately fell in love with the Italian piadina. Moreover, it is a type of food that you can easily prepare and is healthy and creative. You can enjoy it with almost everything.

Italians traditionally prepare it with stracchino cheese and some (dried) prosciutto crudo. Personally, I prefer it with prosciutto di Parma, parmesan and arugula. I also really like piadina with caprese salad (mozzarella di Bufala, juicy tomatoes, basil, quality extra virgin olive oil and sea salt).

You can buy piadina in shops which sell Italian products (for example in Gran Moravia), in some better supermarkets or during the "Italian week" in Lidl. Naturally, I decided to make piadina at home, because it is everytime better!

In order to make four pieces (25 cm) you need: 500 g of flour (preferably Italian, type 00), 75 g of lard, 200 ml of milk or water, 6 grams of salt and 2 g of baking soda.

Mix the dough and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Then divide the dough into portions. Work every piece up and make a flat "pancake". Cook them on a pan, preferably  a nonstick or pancake one and you're done!

Make a round shape or you will have a funny piadina as I did :D

If you serve piadina as a side dish, I recommend pouring on it a bit of quality extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt.

If you keep piadina for later, I recommend before serving to cook it on a pan, preferably grilling.

Meat ball deluxe!

Fast, healthy, colorful and absolutely perfect! That's this meat ball. The secret is a combination of  mint and cinamon. Does it sound weird? After you  will try it,  you will fall in love with it like I did.

The preparation is easy. First off, we need a kitchen robot or a hand blender, a good deep pan or pot and the willingness to eat something good.  :-)

Put the minced meat (the best choice would be beef, but any will like the mix of beef and pork; about 500 grams), one onion chopped into large pieces, a clove of garlic, egg, a handful of mint and sea salt into a dish . If you like nutmeg, add some. Blend everything. Make your hands wet and create spherical meat balls from the mix. After then, put  them to rest for few minutes in a cold place.

Heat the olive oil on pan and roast the meat balls few minutes from all sides. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes (about 400 g), a tablespoon of vinegar (preferably apple vinegar or wine vinegar) and pour a little broth or  red wine (about 80 ml, depending on the pan) if you like.

And here is the interesting part! Add about one fourth af teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of oregano. I recommend to add to the sauce two handfuls of black olives. According to your taste add salt. Bring it to a boil. Cook until the sauce thickens before (around 30 minutes).

As a side dish to meat balls you can have piadina spilled by olive oil and sea salt. But I'm sure it will be tasty even with basmati rice!

Do not forget to sprinkle the meat balls by some fresh mint!

Colomba di Pasqua (2/2)

STEP 1 (I started to make the dough at 4:30 p.m.)

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and add 25 ml of warm milk, 50 grams of flour. Mix well and put it to grow in a bowl covered with a plastic wrap in a warm place for at least 30 minutes.

STEP 2 (5:00 p. m.)

Take the leavened dough and mix it with 40 ml of warm milk and 50 grams of flour: you'll have to make a soft dough and leave to rise in the same conditions as the previous one for at least 30 minutes.

STEP 3 (5:30 p.m.)

Unit leavened dough 75 g flour, 40 g sugar, 50 ml of warm milk and knead the dough for at least 15 minutes, then add 80 grams of softened butter, little by little until complete absorption of the dough. When you obtain a homogeneous and elastic dough, form a ball and put it inside a bowl covered with plastic wrap and keep it in warm place for at least 2 hours.

STEP 4 (8:00 p.m.)

Add to dough a bit of salt, 50 grams of sugar, the vanilla, the grated peel of citrus fruits, 25 grams of honey and 3 egg yolks, alternating adding flour 100-150; finally add 85 grams of softened butter a little at a time. Knead well until the mixture is smooth and elastic, then finally joined 75 g candied orange and citrus cubes. Form a ball and let rise the dough in a large bowl brushed with softened butter for about 12 hours

STEP 5 (8:00 a.m. second day)

Take the leavened dough and knead for a few minutes, then lay them in the form of a paper dove and let rise until doubled in volume (at least 3 hours). 

Meanwhile, prepare the icing for the dove. Beat with a fork the egg whites in a bowl, gradually adding the 50 g sugar  and 40 g the almond flour. You will need to obtain a thick that once you put on the dove does not leak to the sides.

(11:00 a.m.)

Bake the dove in oven preheated to 200 degrees for the first 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 180 degrees continue for another 40 minutes.

Colomba di Pasqua (1/2)

The first recipe on a blog should be interesting, catchy and fast. I had some initial ideas about different recipes such as cheesecake, meat balls, vegetarian burgers, home made pasta...but then it came to my mind a traditional italian pastry, the Colomba di Pasqua (in translation "The Easter Dove"). This is something I really like and that I will miss during this Easter. 

So I said to myself, why not making it at home? Ok, after reading different recipes I found that this one requires time, a lot of time. Preparing it takes around 20 hours!  It is quiet hard to prepare, but I like challenges in kitchen.

Easter is coming and to celebrate the creation of The Hungry Pigeon making a dove-shaped pastry seemed very appropriate. :)

In the end it looks like this recipe will be interesting but for sure not fast! so I apologize to all the readers which were expecting a fancy burger.

INGREDIENTS (dough):

90 ml warm milk (cca 37°C)

6 g (beer) yeast

125-135 g soft butter

275 g flour

25 g honey

3  yolks

90 g sugar

vanilla

orange and lemon skin

cca 75 g candied citrus (orange, lemon, citrus)

bit of salt

Before starting, something interesting about Colomba:

Colomba has a long tradition in Italy. The inhabitants of Pavia offered this pastry to king Alboin like a symbol of peace in the sixth century. Last time this recipe was changed was in the start of the 20th century. The company Motta from Milano started to offer this pastry like Easter pastry. The traditional recipe of Colomba contains candied citruses and oranges and it is covered by almond crust.

Italians protect the original repice and the name of Colomba by law, in short if you name something colomba it must follow certain rules and ingredients. They have also a strong tradition, which means that you can buy Colomba only during Easter.