Inspiration

The last few days have been calm, filled with sunlight, walks around the city, yellow and purple autumn leaves that get stuck under the heel of my shoes and good food at home and elsewhere.

Inspiration is all around me; autumn does that to me.

Close to home. Vredespaleis (Peace Palace) aka International Court of Justice, The Hague

I've been listening to this song non stop.

I discovered instagram a mere week ago. After several months, I decided to use my iphone, one handed down to me by S as he got a new and shiny one to play with. I have an addictive personality so I was reluctant to use it, I knew instagram was going to get the best of me and it did. I'm trying to restrain myself from sharing too many photos. I share one a day. No promises made here, the numbers can go up at any moment. It's a struggle, I tell you.

This photo series by Anna Williams, part of her personal project, The Voracity.

Paris versus New York. I love this site not only because I love the two cities (Paris I've been to several times, going to New York is a dream of mine) but because the concept is so incredibly clever.
Also, now in video.

This is so S and I, it's scary.

And this is the internet, which is also scary.

Loved reading this. Why start a food blog? an excerpt from Luisa Weiss' book, My Berlin Kitchen.

I'm a sucker for an exotic cake and when it comes with a tutorial on how to decorate it, it's even more special.

I'm currently watching Downton Abbey and I have to say, I'm kind of hooked. I still think this was better, though.

I'd love to buy this calendar for the new year. It's coming up rather fast.

Sky monsters.

I owe the discovery of the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi to my Japanese friend M. If you like sushi, or even if you don't, you must see it. It's brilliant.

Sources of continuous inspiration has always been other bloggers. The food blogging community is an ever-expanding one and to keep up with it, there's nothing better than a link list (plus it's good karma). I will be adding more blogs to the list whenever I discover new and interesting ones that I believe you'll enjoy as well. So go on, have a look. Some blogs I'm sure you know, some you'll discover now, but what they all have in common is that they deserve a visit from you.
Oh, and if you're Greek, make sure to check the link list on my Greek page for blogs that are written in Greek.

See you soon!


Previously: Inspiration November 2011, March and July 2012.

At times

As always, I'm not about to stop eating ice cream just because the first rain falls or because I can't go out of my house anymore without putting my jacket and my boots on.

I am and I will always be the one who desperately clings on to the warmer days, the sunnier days, the days when the sun doesn't set at six o' clock and doesn't rise at seven-thirty.

Possibly it's the fact that I'm a Greek living in Northern Europe. I'm programmed to get cold around December and not October. I'm programmed to wear less layers of clothing. I'm programmed to need more sunlight, more warmth, more laughter, more spontaneity, more outgoingness, more of the things I miss here.

I have been eating this ice cream every day this week. It's been a tough week, with hospital visits and doctors and nurses trying to stick needles into arms and time refusing to pass. With waiting rooms and books that keep you company, notebooks filled with random thoughts, ideas that seemed clever at first and quotes you wished could come true.

All is well that ends well, and everything ended well. And then there was ice cream. Because at times, it's one of the things you're looking forward to the most. Getting home from a tough day at work or out in the world, fantasizing about that first spoonful, licking the bowl, the smell of the coffee, the sweetness of the custard, the smoothness, the creaminess, the richness.

This is good ice cream, a proper coffee ice cream with an intense coffee flavor that isn't masked by the sugar and paired with the hazelnut biscotti, the harmony of flavors and textures is simply divine.

Slightly bitter espresso flavor with that aroma of freshly ground coffee hitting you straight away, only to be replaced by the fragrance of butter and orange when you bite into the crispy and luscious biscotti.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I will have one more bowlful of this.

Coffee Ice Cream
Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

This ice cream is made with freshly ground espresso beans. I used mild-flavored beans and I suggest you do the same, since the flavor of the coffee is really pronounced in the ice cream and you don't want it to be overwhelming. It's a dessert after all.

Yield: about 900 g

Ingredients
50 g espresso coffee beans
500 ml whole milk
6 egg yolks, from medium-sized eggs
60 g soft, light-brown sugar
120 g caster sugar
300 ml cream, full-fat
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Special equipment: coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, fine sieve, muslin cloth or coffee filter, ice cream machine


Preparation
Place the coffee beans in a coffee grinder (or use a mortar and pestle) and coarsely grind them. Don't grind them finely because they will create sediment in the ice cream that will ruin its texture.

Place the ground coffee beans in a small saucepan, add the milk and stir with a spoon. Heat over medium-high heat until tiny bubbles appear around the edges of the pan and be careful not to boil the milk. Remove the pan from the heat, put the lid on and allow the coffee to infuse into the milk for 30 minutes.
Pour the milk through a fine sieve lined with muslin cloth or coffee filters and into a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to keep the milk warm.

In a medium-sized bowl, add the egg yolks, soft light-brown sugar and caster sugar and whisk with a hand whisk until you have a thick and creamy mixture. Add the warm, coffee-infused milk and mix with the whisk.

Empty the mixture into a medium-sized saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. It will take about 5 minutes.
Pour the custard through the fine sieve and into a clean bowl and then add the cream, the vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Stir with a spatula to mix and leave to cool. Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about 1 hour so the mixture gets really cold.

Then, whisk the mixture and pour it into your ice cream maker. Churn, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Once the ice cream is ready, empty it into a container suitable for the freezer and freeze it for at least 4 hours before serving.

Hazelnut and Orange Biscotti
Adapted from Tartine

Biscotti are Italian cookies that are baked twice in order to have that characteristic crispy texture. These are not too dry though.
Since they are traditionally served with coffee, I thought it was a great idea to serve them with the coffee ice cream.

Yield: about 12 biscotti

Ingredients
35 g blanched (skinned) hazelnuts
65 g unsalted butter, softened
80 g caster sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp Grand Marnier (orange-flavored liqueur)
Zest of a small orange
160 g all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Special equipment: stand or hand-held mixer, medium-sized baking sheet, baking paper


Preparation
Place the hazelnuts in a small pan set over a medium heat and toast them until they become fragrant, stirring them around frequently so they don't catch. Take them out of the pan and chop them coarsely.

Line the bottom of a baking sheet with baking paper.
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius / 320 Fahrenheit.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), add the softened butter and beat with the paddle attachment (or with your hand-held mixer) on medium-high speed, until creamy and light. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy and light-colored. Add the egg and beat until the mixture is smooth. Add the Grand Marnier and orange zest and beat until incorporated and then add the flour, the baking powder and salt and beat on low speed until just combined. Add the chopped hazelnuts and mix with a spatula. The dough will be a little soft and ever-so-slightly sticky.

Empty the biscotti dough onto a lightly floured work surface and shape it into a log, about 3.5-4 cm in diameter. If it sticks to your hands and you can't shape it, flour your hands.
Place the log onto the lined baking sheet and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the log is set to the touch and has taken on a light-brown color on top.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the log to a wire rack. Allow the log to cool slightly and then transfer to a cutting board. Cut the log into 1 cm thick slices on the diagonal with a serrated knife. Place the slices on the baking sheet, cut side down, and bake the biscotti for 6-8 minutes on one side and 1 minute on the other, until their edges are lightly toasted. Remove them from the oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

You can keep the biscotti in a container, tightly covered, at room temperature for a couple of weeks.

The Pizza, Part Three: 3 Pizzas

So, about two weeks ago, I decided to do a trilogy about pizza. Of course that meant making the dough, the sauce, preparing the toppings for the pizzas I wanted to share with you and, I did all that. I took down notes, I baked, I snapped photographs. Afterwards, S and I devoured them, naturally.

When I began posting about said pizzas a week later, I started craving their flavor. Looking at the photos made me hungry, not an uncommon thing. Therefore, making them again was imperative.

I prepared my dough, my sauce, my toppings, and I put the first pizza in the oven. The whole house smelled of the good things that were about to be eaten greedily and I was getting excited. It was almost ready. I went to take it out of the oven, hot air wafting on my face as soon as I opened the door, placed my pizza peel underneath the bubbling pie, lifted it up and, in one fell swoop, it slipped from the peel and fell on the floor. Not on the bottom side, because who are we kidding, that pizza could have been saved, right? Five seconds rule, anyone? But no, it fell on the top side, the good side, the melting cheese and sizzling pork sausage side. I cursed, I cursed badly. But I pressed on.

Then it was time for S's pizza, the one with eggs and ham. I did everything right; the egg yolks didn't break when I cracked the eggs open straight onto the pizza, they didn't spill when I moved the pizza to the oven even though I knew I should have cracked the eggs on top of the pizza once the pizza was in the oven, but then, the eggs decided to act all insane and started sliding off the sides of the pizza. I ended up with sunny side up eggs baked on a pizza stone. Not a good thing, I tell you.

I gathered myself, I pressed on once again, thinking happy thoughts, all the while our stomachs rumbling with hunger, making weird noises, and I thought to myself, okay, let's clean this stone and let's get moving. I put the stone in the kitchen sink, turned the hot water on and started scraping the eggs off. And then, the pizza stone broke. Into three pieces. Right under my hands. Damn it! I cursed a little, then I cursed a little more, and then S got in on the action.
We didn't have pizza that night.

The End.

Now, for those of you with better luck than ours in the pizza department, you need to try these, as soon as possible.

1. Pizza with mozzarella, prosciutto and fresh oregano.
What can one say about this pizza. It's a classic. Well, almost, because I was about to make a margherita* but the carnivore in me started whispering in my ear: "C'mon, add some meat", and of course I yielded to the temptation. I won't bore you with adjectives and similes. It is the perfect pizza.

* Yes, I know that margherita has basil and not oregano but as I have stated a million times before, basil is not welcome in my kitchen.

2. Pizza with Gruyère cheese, ham, eggs and spring onions.
This one is inspired by a variety of pizzas that I have seen and eaten, with eggs being the key ingredient. Even though I don't like eggs that much, or better yet, because I don't like eggs that much, I try to sneak them into things I know I enjoy so that I can eat my share of eggs once in a while. It's like those kids that their mothers chase around the house trying to feed them their daily egg, only that in my case, I'm the one doing the chasing and I'm the one playing hard to get at the same time. If you've never tried pizza with eggs before and you find it to be a strange combination, let me assure you that it's surprisingly delicious, and combined with the freshness of the spring onions and the salty ham, the result, flavor-wise and texture-wise, is very interesting indeed.

3. Pizza with French Neufchâtel cheese, saucisson sec (French dried, pork salami) and fresh thyme.
In Holland, it's very easy to find French ingredients. Sometimes it's even easier than finding certain Dutch ingredients. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I chose a French cheese and a French salami to add to my pizza. If I was in Greece, I would have gone for a different combination but, c'est la vie mes amis. Neufchâtel is a unique cheese, one of the oldest French cheeses, and sometimes, if you're lucky, you can find it shaped as a heart. It's creamy and soft and crumbly and extremely tasty, and it is made from raw cow's milk, which makes it particularly milky and luscious. When you combine it with a salami full of delicious fat, then you have a marriage made in heaven, no?

So, choose the pizza you like best and if you have any favorites of your own, a pizza that you believe I absolutely have to taste, then by no means, leave me a note.

Pizza with Buffalo Mozzarella, Prosciutto and Fresh Oregano

The mozzarella I prefer to use is fresh buffalo mozzarella (packed in water). There's also mozzarella made from cow's milk but in my opinion it does not compare to the one made with buffalo milk. It is rather hard and dry and not as flavorful. Having said that, both types of mozzarella work well for pizza, having different moisture levels and texture so in each case, the pizza has a different character.

Yield: 1 large pizza

Ingredients
Pizza dough (recipe here)
Fresh tomato sauce (recipe here)
4-5 slices prosciutto
6-7 slices fresh buffalo mozzarella
Fresh oregano leaves
Freshly ground white pepper

Flour or cornmeal for sprinkling on top of the pizza stone or baking sheet

Special equipment: pizza peel, pizza stone (both optional)


Preparation
Make and roll out the pizza dough following the recipe and instructions in this post.
Make the fresh tomato sauce following the recipe and instructions in this post.

If you have a pizza peel, it is best that you roll out the pizza onto that so it will be easier to transfer to the oven. If not, I suggest you roll out the pizza on a cutting board or other portable surface, so that it will be easier to transfer the pizza to the oven.

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees Celsius / 435 Fahrenheit, making sure to put your pizza stone or baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven to preheat as well.

Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce on your rolled out pizza dough and spread it around evenly, leaving a rim around the edges of the dough that is not covered with sauce.
Add the prosciutto slices, the mozzarella slices and then some small leaves of oregano on top.

Once the oven has come up to temperature, sprinkle with flour or cornmeal your preheated pizza stone or baking sheet and transfer your pizza onto it.
If you're baking your pizza on a baking sheet, place it on the middle rack of the oven, otherwise the bottom of your pizza will get burned.

Bake the pizza for about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the dough is crunchy and bubbly and the cheese has melted.
Remove it from the oven and onto a cutting board. Add some fresh oregano leaves, sprinkle with some freshly ground white pepper, cut into slices and serve immediately.

Pizza with Gruyère Cheese, Ham, Eggs and Spring Onions

You can substitute Gruyère cheese for a Greek Graviera or a Swiss Emmentaler. They are both perfect for pizza as they have excellent melting qualities.

Yield: 1 large pizza

Ingredients
Pizza dough (recipe here)
Fresh tomato sauce (recipe here)
70 g Gruyère cheese, grated
3 large slices of ham, teared
3 medium-sized eggs
2 spring onions, white and pale green parts only, sliced
A handful of chopped fresh chives

Flour or cornmeal for sprinkling on top of the pizza stone or baking sheet

Special equipment: pizza peel, pizza stone (both optional)


Preparation
Make and roll out the pizza dough following the recipe and instructions in this post.
Make the fresh tomato sauce following the recipe and instructions in this post.

If you have a pizza peel, it is best that you roll out the pizza onto that so it will be easier to transfer to the oven. If not, I suggest you roll out the pizza on a cutting board or other portable surface so that it will be easier to transfer to the oven.

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees Celsius / 435 Fahrenheit, making sure to put your pizza stone or baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven to preheat as well.

Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce on your rolled out pizza dough and spread it around evenly, leaving a rim around the edges of the dough that is not covered with sauce.
Add the grated Gruyère cheese, sprinkling it all around the base of the pizza and then add the ham slices. Don't add the eggs now but once the pizza is in the oven.

Once the oven has come up to temperature, sprinkle with flour or cornmeal your preheated pizza stone or baking sheet and transfer your pizza onto it.
If you're baking your pizza on a baking sheet, place it on the middle rack of the oven, otherwise the bottom of your pizza will get burned.
Once your pizza is in the oven, crack the eggs open on top of the ham slices.

Bake the pizza for about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the dough is crunchy and bubbly and the eggs have cooked.
Remove it from the oven and onto a cutting board. Sprinkle the pizza with the chopped spring onions and chives, cut into slices and serve immediately.

Pizza with French Neufchâtel Cheese, Dried Pork Salami and Fresh Thyme

If you can't find French Neufchâtel cheese (and I say French because there's an American version, a rather unsuccessful imitation, which I wouldn't advise you to use), use Camembert. It's not exactly the same but it's a worthy substitute.

The kind of thyme I used was lemon thyme. It's a special kind of thyme, with larger leaves, that has hints of lemon. Do try it if you can find it where you live.

Yield: 1 large pizza

Ingredients
Pizza dough (recipe here)
Fresh tomato sauce (recipe here)
10-12 thin slices dried, pork salami
70-80 g French Neufchâtel cheese, thickly sliced (6-7 slices)
Fresh thyme leaves

Flour or cornmeal for sprinkling on top of the pizza stone or baking sheet

Special equipment: pizza peel, pizza stone (both optional)


Preparation
Make and roll out the pizza dough following the recipe and instructions in this post.
Make the fresh tomato sauce following the recipe and instructions in this post.

If you have a pizza peel, it is best that you roll out the pizza onto that so it will be easier to transfer to the oven. If not, I suggest you roll out the pizza on a cutting board or other portable surface so that it will be easier to transfer to the oven.

Preheat your oven to 225 degrees Celsius / 435 Fahrenheit, making sure to put your pizza stone or baking sheet on the lower rack of the oven to preheat as well.

Add a couple of tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce on your rolled out pizza dough and spread it around evenly, leaving a rim around the edges of the dough that is not covered with sauce.
Arrange the salami slices around the base of the pizza, add the sliced Neufchâtel cheese on top and then sprinkle with some thyme leaves.

Once the oven has come up to temperature, sprinkle with flour or cornmeal your preheated pizza stone or baking sheet and transfer your pizza onto it.
If you're baking your pizza on a baking sheet, place it on the middle rack of the oven, otherwise the bottom of your pizza will get burned.

Bake the pizza for about 12 minutes, rotating halfway through, until the dough is crunchy and bubbly and the cheese has melted.
Remove it from the oven and onto a cutting board. Sprinkle the pizza with some extra thyme leaves, cut into slices and serve immediately.

Previously: The Pizza, Part One: The Dough and The Pizza, Part Two: The Sauce