September Culinary Creations

[Voodoo]

Culinary Challenge: September!

Nickolai Marin and the Council of Chefs have prepared a challenge for the people of Mizahar: a culinary contest! Those who complete the challenge will see their efforts rewarded with a medal! Keeping true to tradition, this month's challenge will feature a theme. So, for the month of September, our theme is:

Harvest, with a Twist!

In honor of the arrival of Fall, you can make anything that falls into the theme of harvest. Make it colorful! Make it unique! However, there is a catch...You cannot use Pumpkin at all! Here are the requirements to get the September Medal:

1. Provide the name of the recipe you used. (This way, others in the future can enjoy your culinary masterpiece)
   .
2. Pictures must be provided! There is no minimum on the number of pictures. Points to whoever makes a mess of themselves and takes a picture of it as well!
   .
3. Your dish MUST meet this month's theme, be it in colors, ingredients, or otherwise.
   .
4. You must have your dish completed by September 31, 2014 and have submitted the results to this thread.

Now, in the immortal words of Voodoo:

"Set your timers and sharpen your knives! Ready, set, COOK!"

.

[M'Wanii]

Harvest with a Twist My twist for the harvest dish is that it is Myrian based. So according to the calendar the Myrians have been collecting rare fruits this season. I suspect one type of these fruits will be bananas which from experience I know go off very rapidly. This recipe uses almost mouldy bananas and tastes amazing! So here we go; Banana Bread Ingredients 3oz butter 4oz sugar 1egg 8 oz self raising flour 4 bananas (the browner the better BUT PLEASE DO NOT USE MOULDY BANANAS. If they are going fluffy, bin them.) 2 oz raisins (or nuts or other dried fruit. Just make sure the total weight of it all is 2 oz.) Hold up, you are British, why are you using ounces to cook? Because I learned to cook in ounces thus I use ounces, deal with it. In which dodgy corner of Sunberth did you get those bananas?!?! They are frozen. Why? Because otherwise they would have gone off before I was able to have time to bake. The bananas you use don't have to be frozen. Note though that if you do freeze your bananas that peeling them first, before you freeze them, will make your life so much easily. Trying to peel the skin off a frozen banana is not fun. Equipment A bowl A giant spoon A masher A way to measure weights A baking dish A way to measure time ( and I also used a butter knife from easing the bread out the tin afterwards.) Recipe Preheat oven to roughly 160C Measure and mix together sugar, flour, butter and egg in a bowl. Mash the bananas! Add mashed bananas to bowl. Also add raisins or nuts or dried fruit at this stage. (As you can see I forgot to so ended up adding it on top as decoration.) Mix like a mad person. Grease up/line with baking parchment your baking dish. Put mixture from bowl into greased/lined dish. Put in the oven for an hour. Leave to cool for 20 minutes. Eat the darn thing! The end product is a fairly soft sweet cakey thing that makes good use of the bananas and is very more-ish. Enjoy!

[Maro]

Huckleberry Pie Ingredients -2 Pie Crusts (one for top and the other for bottom) -4 Cups of Huckleberries -3/4 Cup White Sugar -1 Tbsp. Flour -½ tsp. Cinnamon -1 Tbsp. Cornstarch -1 Lemon -2 Tbsp. Butter -2 Tbsp. Heavy Whipping Cream -2 tsp. White Sugar Directions -Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. -Line a 9-inch pie pan with one pie crust. -Pour in huckleberries. (If you do not have enough huckleberries to fill the pie, add in some blueberries or blackberries or whatever other berries are on hand). -Mix the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, cornstarch, and cinnamon) in bowl and spoon this evenly over the huckleberries. -Zest one lemon, then cut it and squeeze out its juices. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of the zest across the top of the huckleberries. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp of the juice across the top as well. -Dot with the butter. -Add the top crust and seal the edges. Cut vents into the top of the pie. -Feel free to use excess pie crust dough to add decorations to the pie (just to make it pretty). -Brush the top with the cream and sprinkle it with sugar. -Bake for 15 minutes. Then, reduce the heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake 25 more minutes or until the crust is golden-brown.

[Adelaide Sitai]

Gateau Automnal

This is the recipe I used:
Gateau Automnal

Forgive me in advance for the poor photos - I went to fetch a camera and by the time I came back to see if the camera was already in the kitchen, one of the (awful) impatient people I live with had already taken a slice. So that I would still have cake left to photograph, I opted to take a photo with my webcam instead of my camera so that I'd have photographic evidence. Don't be too worried by how it looks, it tastes very nice and is a staple of traditional harvest food in France.

As promised, a translation of the recipe. "Gateau Automnal" means "Autumnal Cake" - if you hadn't guessed. In France, there is a long agricultural tradition and this was originally "une recette paysanne" meaning "a peasant recipe". It's old-fashioned and simple but sometimes that's all you need.

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients (serves 8):
- 5 large apples - sliced (I picked smaller apples from our orchard and used 9)
- 100g coarsely chopped walnuts
- 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
- 200 g of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 glass oil
- 210g flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preparation of the recipe:

Preheat oven to 200 ° C.

1) In a bowl, place the sliced apples with chopped nuts and 100g sugar. Mix and leave time to make the dough.

2) Mix the eggs with 100g sugar, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, oil, flour and baking powder. Mix in another bowl.

3) Combine apples, nuts (as apple juice) with the paste.

4) Place in a baking pan and bake 50 minutes at 200 °C (gas mark 6-7).

Tips: I'd advise checking after 40 minutes. I waited exactly 50 minutes and I'm fairly sure it overcooked.

[Estrellir Konrath]

.

Microwave Apple Chocolate Cake

So I decided to participate in this contest... two hours ago because I had a great idea. Why not go for the cheap and lazy cake? (Being a student, I do cheap and lazy in the kitchen all the time.) So I decided for my favorite delicious and easy to bake cake and added a little twist in honor of the theme: apples!

Recipe :

This is the recipe. My mum found it in the newspaper years ago. Don't worry, I'll translate. You make this cake in a simple coffee mug and with few ingredients which is another reason why I love it.

Ingredients:
4 spoonful flour
4 sp sugar
2 sp cocoa powder
1 egg
3 sp milk
3 sp oil (I use canola)
special ingredient: 1 apple!

How to bake:
Put flour, sugar and cocoa powder in the mug and mix. Add the egg and mix well. Add milk and oil and mix again.* Put the coffee mug into the microwave and bake at 1000 watt for 3 minutes. Turn out and serve.

*Part added by me:
Peel and grate part of the apple (I used less than a third, but more than a slice) and add as last ingredient. It'll keep the cake soft and act as a great substitute for baking powder!

All ingredients.


Mix and mix and mix.


In the microwave. It's safer to put a plate under the mug. Why?
Some time ago I made this without apples, but with too much baking powder.
The cake 'boiled over' and I had to clean the microwave...


Best served in slices!

.

[Sheaya]

"Apple" Pie Fall makes me think of apples as that's when I generally pick them at my grandparents, so I thought I would go this route. Special Note: This recipe is unique in the fact that I use honey in my baking due to diet reasons, but it is fine to use sugar in the same measurements on the pie filling. The pie crust is also unique in the fact that I use almond flour in baking, so if you don't want to use this I would recommend a different recipe or buying one to use for this, Ingredients Pie Filling *6 Granny Smith Apples *1/4th cup of honey *1/4th TSP cinnamon Crust 1 1/2 cups of Almond Flour 3 TBS of butter 3 TBS of honey Pre-heat to 375 First step it to clean and cut the top off of 4 of your apples and using a spoon to gut them. Toss the cores, but you can use the good flesh for your filling by setting it aside in your filling bowl. Make sure to not go through the skin on the apples! The tops are yummy to nibble on too <3 Next up make your crust. In a bowl mix your ingredients until it's tact and balls up. Make sure you scrape the edges of the bowl as the honey and flour like to stick there! When you're done mixing you should be able to push it all into a ball that holds it's shape. Fun fact for the day!: Honey is easier on your body to digest then sugar. Cane sugar is made up of two molecules while sugar is made up of one, so it takes half the magnesium in your body to break it down. Next get your filling ready. With the last two apples skin the apples (potato pillers are a saint if you have one) and chop up the apples to add to your filling bowl. It's very easy to do if you just cut the flesh off four sides, leaving the core in a cube like shape and then dicing the apple in to small pieces. With your bowl full of apple bites mix in your honey and cinnamon. I actually doubled my cinnamon as I am an addict. Mix them all together well until you have an evenly coated mixture. Don't worry if you have a puddle of honey and apple juice on the bottom of the bowl, that's a tasty marinate for your apples to sit in. In an 8x8 pan sit your hollowed apples in them and fill them with your apple filling. Once their brimming with apple pie goodness cover them with your crust. Section out your dough into 5 portions and roll them into balls before smooshing it flat between your palms until you can cover your apples. Once this is done fill the bottom of the pan with just enough water to coat the bottom to soften the apple shell. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. If you have left over filling use that 5th ball of crust to make a small tart in a small oven safe bowl and bake for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes, remove the foil covering and bake for another 20 minutes or until crust is a golden brown. Remove the pies from the water (this could look a little nasty) and serve warm. ENJOY!

[Summer Dole]

Appleslaw

For fall I went with apples because the only other thing I eat for fall is butternut squash...and I don't like it much :/ So, this is the fall dish I make cause it's quick and easy! Before I list the 'recipe' I'm mentioning beforehand that it isn't a real recipe with exact amounts, I just eyeball it.

Ingredients:

• Apples (you can mix and match with whatever type you want, I usually go with Gala. Just remember, sweet makes it sweeter and tart makes it tarter)
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Mayo or Miracle Whip (preference to taste is all that matters here)
• Lemon Juice (Optional. I don't use it if I use mustard)
• Brown Sugar
• Mustard (Optional. I don't use it if I use lemon juice)

Tools:

• Knife
• Shredder
• Mixing Bowl
• Tablespoon (regular or those fancy ones, doesn't matter for this recipe)

Steps:

1. Gather your ingredients
2. Core your apples, cut your cabbage (as needed), peel carrots (if desired)
   
   1. Note: I didn't put measurements because how much or little you shred is up to you. For this particular day I did half a cabbage, one apple, and several baby carrots. Again, it's all about taste preference.
3. Shred all your veggies and fruits into a large mixing bowl.
   
4. Add in two to four tablespoons of mayo or Miracle Whip and mix well.
   
   1. Note: I don't use exact tablespoons here, it's more like a scoopful and how many depends on how dry or wet you like your slaw.
5. Add one to two tablespoons of lemon juice, mustard or both and mix well.
6. Add brown sugar one tablespoon at a time as desired and mix well.
   
7. Chill for at least an hour or two then enjoy!
   
   Note: Best if eaten with two-three days or else the apples get brown and disgusting.