Scampi Diabolique

I don't know from were the orgin of this recipe is from, I know it is a very known dish in Belgium.
Maybe I should have asked Hans more about it before he went for work and now it is too late as I had promised my sister I will post the recipe today.
She has been asking me for this recipe for so long.
Every time I made the dish I didn't take a picture , I told her I have taken the step by step pic how to make them and I know I had taken them but I don't find them in any of my maps and I looked but it is not there.
And I know she likes it when I put the step by step pics and if I had known I had losted the step by step pics, I would have taken the pictures of making them when I made this sepcially for posting here yesterdey evening.
Ofcourse when Hans came home he was like, a creamy dish on a weekday is there something to celebrate, but then when I told him the reason, he is like, why am I not surprised :-)

We love this creamy a bit spicy scampi dish, ofcourse if you are used to Indian spicy dishes this is not spicy at all but for belgian pallet it is a spicy dish :-)
The recipe is for 2 person, When i serve this as a main dish as I did yesterday, then I give some 8 scampi's per person, if you are giving this as a starter you can give 4 scampi per person.
Tip: If you think your sauce is a bit runny you can thicken it up with a bit of corn flour and water mix in the end.
I fry the scampis for 1 1/2 minutes each side and then combine together with the bubbling sauce and give a stir or two so the scampis are fully cooked.
Don't  over cook the scampi's nothing worse that eating overcooked rubbery tasting scampi's.
I also keep few chopped pieces of tomatoes and a table spoon or two of the chives to sprinkle on the top of the dish when I serve the dish.

Ingridients.
16 Scampi's peeled and veins removed I keep the tails on as it give a good look ( I used deepfreezed scampi's, just remember to take them out from you freezer early so that you cen defrost them)
4 shallots very finley chopped
2 garlic cloves, you can finley chop but I amways use my garlic press
1 1/2 tablespoon of curry powder
2 table spoon paprika powder
1 tsp cayanne peper ( I am sure belgians here woudn't add so much but I love the spicy ness )
125 ml ketchup
100 ml white wine
I have never measured the water, but i would say few tablespoon of water
150 to 175 ml thick cream
3 big tomatoes skin removed, seed removes and chopped up in small cubes
1/4 cup of chopped chives
2 to 3 tablespoon of olive oil
A little knob of butter for frying the scampi's
Pepper and salt to taste

Add the oil in a pan and when it is hot add the shalots fry for few minutes ( glaze them don't color them) Add the garlic puree fry for a minute or two.
Add then the curry powder, paprika powder, and the cayanee. Fry for few minutes till the raw taste is gone ( make sure you dodn't burn them)
Add the Ketchup and give it a good mix.
Now add the wine and the splash of water and let it boil
Add the cream to the pan and in the mean time heat a griddle pan , add the knob of butter and fry the scampis for the minutes mentioned above.
When the sauce is fully bubbling up check it is too think if it is add alittle corn flour and makes the sauce thick.
Now add the tomatoe pieces and the chives and the fried scampis and give a good mix so everything is totally heated up. Cheeck for salt and peper.
Serve with a sprinkling of cubed tomatoes and chive.
Enjoy them with bagutte especially to scoop up all that delicious creamy sauce.



 

Ginger Bread House

I have always wanted to make a Ginger Bread House. And if i say always I mean for years, around every Christmas I will be like this year I will make one, but then I will be busy and the christmas season will be gone and then I will say to myself and my family well I will make next year then.
I must have told every year that I want / will make a ginger bread house, that even Shyama knows that is something I find beautiful and I want to make.

So the first year Shyama was in College ( the city she lives has this beautiful baking / kitcenware store, which I always go when ever I visit her) so as she knows her mom likes baking she went to this shop for looking for a New years presents and she saw the cutter to make Ginger bread house and that was one of her gifts for me for my New years from her . And this happend in 2009 and two chirstmas came after getting the present and I didn't use them.
So as you can see this year I made them :-)

I must say I had so much fun in making them and I loved doing all the sweet decorations, I was like a small child.
Hans saw me all excited doing this and he Now calls me the builder of Hansel and Gretel house :-)

In   my town there is a famous pasty shop and their bakes are so delicious and so good.
Every year during this season they start selling these ginger bread house and me naturally always watch their collection when I pass.

So i will be outside the shop window watching :-) together with other people who passes by as everybody stop there and watch these beautiful houses.
They all say wow it is beautiful but then they also remark it is very expensive isn't it for 32 euros and the houses are half the size or more less of the house I made.

Gingerbread is a sweet food-product flavored with ginger and typically using honey or molasses (treacle) rather than just sugar. Gingerbread foods vary, ranging from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger biscuit. The different types likely share a common origin.

The harder German-style gingerbread is often used to build gingerbread houses similar to the "witch's house" encountered by Hansel and Gretel. (The witch's name is Frau Pfefferkuchenhaus; "pfefferkuchenhaus" is the German name for "gingerbread house".) These houses, covered with a variety of candies and icing, are popular Christmas decorations, often built by children with the help of their parents

 I didn't had to use their template as I had one here at home. And I have give the decoration idea they have given but as you can see you don't have to stick to any particular decoration you can decorate accodring to your liking.



The recipe for the Ginger Bread is from BBC Good Food.

I would have taken more pictures how to make them, but mt hands were sticky Ididn't want my camera getting stickt too.



For the Ginger bread
250g unsalted butter
200g dark muscovado sugar
7 tbsp golden syrup
600g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp ground ginger
TO DECORATE
 200g bag flaked almonds
2 egg whites
500g icing sugar , plus extra to dust
125g pack mini chocolate fingers
generous selcetion sweets of your choice, choose your own colour theme
1 mini chocolate roll or a dipped chocolate flake
few edible silver balls

1.Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into a large bowl, then stir in the butter mixture to make a stiff dough. If it won't quite come together, add a tiny splash of water.
2. Cut out the template (see below to download). Put a sheet of baking paper on your work surface and roll about one quarter of the dough to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out one of the sections, then slide the gingerbread, still on its baking paper, onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, re-rolling the trimmings, until you have two side walls, a front and back wall and two roof panels. Any leftover dough can be cut into Christmas trees, if you like.

3. Pick out the most intact flaked almonds and gently poke them into the roof sections, pointy-end first, to look like roof tiles. Bake all the sections for 12 mins or until firm and just a little darker at the edges. Leave to cool for a few mins to firm up, then trim around the templates again to give clean, sharp edges. Leave to cool completely.
4. Put the egg whites in a large bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then stir to make a thick, smooth icing. Spoon into a piping bag with a medium nozzle. Pipe generous snakes of icing along the wall edges, one by one, to join the walls together. Use a small bowl to support the walls from the inside, then allow to dry, ideally for a few hours.

5. Once dry, remove the supports and fix the roof panels on. The angle is steep so you may need to hold these on firmly for a few mins until the icing starts to dry. Dry completely, ideally overnight. To decorate, pipe a little icing along the length of 20 mini chocolate fingers and stick these lengthways onto the side walls of the house. Use three, upright, for the door. Using the icing, stick sweets around the door and on the front of the house. To make the icicles, start with the nozzle at a 90-degree angle to the roof and squeeze out a pea-sized blob of icing.

Keeping the pressure on, pull the nozzle down and then off - the icing will pull away, leaving a pointy trail. Repeat all around the front of the house. Cut the chocolate mini roll or dipped Flake on an angle, then fix with icing to make a chimney. Pipe a little icing around the top. If you've made gingerbread trees, decorate these now, too, topping each with a silver ball, if using. Dust the roof with icing sugar for a snowy effect. Lay a winding path of sweets, and fix gingerbread trees around and about using blobs of icing. Your gingerbread house will be edible for about a week but will last a lot longer.
As you can see I am posting in my Name Finla. Removed the Happy Cook :-)