hello sweet friends, have you noticed that we are already close to the weekend? how was your week? i must confess that although being quite busy, being on vacations for a couple of days made it very easy, and it feels like it was actually a light week. approaching christmas… planning for new year’s eve, which by the way will be spent in a very snowy place (hola españa, hola sierra nevada!), makes this month one of my favourites! the other one i believe it is june… days are much brighter, we are almost on vacations… summer is just around the corner, and in june we tipically have a week with two holidays and it is always an excellent idea to reserve some vacations to start enjoying the first summer days… and do this…
well… but we are so far from summer that we need something to help us get through winter, and one thing i can remember right now is… food. food is one comforting thing… and i must confess i have quite a relationship with food, mostly due to the fact that for me a well spent evening is spent over a meal with friends, talking while eating, drinking red wine while talking. and though one may consider me a thin person, i eat way more than i look like… and sometimes i have to control myself, in order to not eat too much.
so, let us keep going… today we have something sweet to delight ourselves into the weekend, and maybe you will feel the urge to give it a try, as it is quite simple. today’s cook has a very sweet name… {vanille} and she comes all the way from new zealand. she says that this dessert is one of her favourites, very comforting and versatile.
{vanille via flickr}
what is the recipe?
cardamom & orange blossom creme with pistachio
ingredients:
2 eggs
3 tbsp honey
500ml milk
seeds from 3-4 cardamim pods
1tbsp orange blossom water
handful pistachio, coarsely chopped
how do we bake it?
in a sauce pan, bring to a boil the milk and add cardamom seeds. remove from the heat and let it cool down while stirring. preheat oven at 150ºC.
{vanille’s images for this feature}
in a large bowl, beat eggs with honey for one minute, then pour warm milk slowly and keep on whipping. add orange blossom water and stir.
{vanille’s images for this feature}
filter the preparation through a sieve, to remove the foam and then pour it equal amount in small ramekins. with a kettle bring water to boil. place ramekins in a dish and fill the dish with hot boiling water, so that the ramekins are half immersed. place in the oven and cook for about 30-35 minutes or until set.
the center will be wobbly a little but will firm up as it cool down. remove ramekins from the oven and let them cool down completely. the créme can be enjoyed at room temperature or cold after a couple of hours wrapped in the fridge, just place pistachio on top before serving.
{vanille’s images for this feature}
dear kicthen…
you are one of my favourite places in the house and you never cease to stimulate my senses. such pleasure to knead a dough, look at a cake rising through the oven window, smell the aromas of a delicious meal, listen to the whistling of a freshly baked bread, and taste all the delicious food that we both made together…
hum, did you like the sweet taste of orange blossom water & pistachio? i do not know if we have that water around here, but i am sure that maybe in a gourmet store i might be successful though.
you can all sneak-peek into vanille’s {stream} & {blog}… she really has them both really sweet and charming… refreshing for these cold days!
have a bright & shiny friday! it is the end of the week…
twiggs
all images not stated: my own
