PARIS-BREST (salty version)

Here's a salty version of the famous dessert Paris-Brest. I filled them with a salmon mousse. I also sprinkled some poppy seeds over the "pâte à choux" dough.

we can make it also as an "éclair" :

SESAME SEEDS BREAD

Another bread with sesame seeds. This time I only put the seeds over the crust.

Room temperature : 22-24°c
Dough hydration : 64%
1° rise : 1h30
2° rise (proofing) : 1h
baking time : 22 min at 240°c
steam : yes.

MERENDEIRAS 2 (BROINHAS DE ABOBORA)

As I wasn't totally pleased with my first attempt, I decided to do a second try today.
I steamed 150 gr of pumpkin (you also can cook it in water), then I minced it with a fork and mixed it with an egg. In 330 gr of flour I added 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of anise, a pinch of salt and 150 gr of sugar. Of course I also put 1 tsp of dry yeast in 2 tbsp of warm water for 5 minutes and then I blend all the ingredients together. I finally kneaded the dough for 10 minutes (at this time the dough is very sticky) before to let it rest for 3 hours. After that I blend carefully 50 gr of raisins (soaked in hot water for 2-3 minutes) and 50 gr of walnuts in the dough folding it several times. Then I shaped carefully as well the "merendeiras" (I managed to shape 12 of them) and let them rest one more hour.

For the last step, I sprinkled them with some flour and finally put them for 20 minutes in a preheated and steamed oven (180~200°c).

And voilà ! And this time I can say that I'm really satisfied, they are very smooth and soft and obviously with a great taste !!!

shaped and second rise...

20 minutes in the oven (preheated and steamed)...

yummy !

FOUGASSE

Fougasse is a kind of french bread. It's a bread dough blended with different ingredients like bacon cubes, olives, cheese, onions, aromatic herbs, etc...
I just made one with bacon cubes and cheese.
Then, we need (for 4 persons as a starter) :
- 150 gr all purpose flour (I added 1 tbsp wholemeal flour)
- 90 gr water
- 1/2 tsp dry yeast (or 3 gr fresh yeast)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 50 gr bacon cubes
- 25 gr cheese cut in cubes as well (plus a bit of grated cheese to put on the top side)

Blend the flour with the water, yeast, salt and olive oil and then knead for 10 minutes. Then add the bacon (cooked 3 minutes in a frying pan) and the cubes of cheese, knead for 1 minute more. Let rest for about 1 hour.
After the rise, make the dough a fougasse shape and give some scores, then add the grated cheese on the top and put in a preheated oven (and steamed) for about 15 minutes !
And voilà !

... the dough is rising...


...shaping...


...the scores...



...the grated cheese..

and voilà !

TATIN OF COURGETTE

This is a salty version of the very famous Tarte Tatin.

For this salty version I used courgettes instead of the traditional apples. I also used Parmesan cheese, mince meat, shallots, garlic and of course an ashamed amount of butter ! I made myself the shortcrust pastry (250 gr flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 egg, 25 gr water and 125 gr butter)

... the shortcrust pastry...

...shallot, garlic and mince meat...

...courgette...

...I cooked in a pan the slices of courgette and garlic for about 3 minutes with bit of butter, and then I put them down on the pie pan, put more 50 gr of butter (I guess it was more... but 50 gr it's good) and then I added the grated parmesan...

... I cooked the mince meat with the shallot and butter on a frying pan and I put it down on the courgettes...

...rolling out the pastry...

...shaping...

...30 minutes later, the tart upside down...

... I'm not a fan of courgettes and for me this recipe gives really an interest to this vegetable.


Yummy !!!!

THE MEGA "GRIGNE"

Lately I really like to bake bread because it's always a surprise, not always a good one sometimes but today it's a pretty good surprise ! I just made a cereal and seed bread and happily the slash became so so huge !!!!! Too huge probably for some, but for me it's perfect ! The slashing, "grignage" in French, is very usual in French breads. It's one or more cuts done with a razor blade in the loaf before baking, it allows an expansion of the dough without any undesirable break. And of course it gives bread a style since we can do different kind of cuts.

MERENDEIRAS

Today I want to suggest you one more portuguese recipe, the merendeiras, a typical Easter pastry but of course we can eat them when we want ;) It's interesting to know that each family has its own recipe, some add potatoes or also pumpkin but here I'm gonna show you a recipe with pumpkin since Halloween is almost there ;)

Then, we need 380 gr of all purpose flour and about 200 gr of pumpkin cooked in water...

1 whole egg...

175 gr of sugar...

1 good teaspoon of cinnamon...

1 good teaspoon of anise (erva doce in portuguese)...

raisins (soaked in hot water for about 2-3 min)

walnuts...

Blend the flour with the sugar, the pumpkin, the egg, the cinnamon, the anise and 1 level teaspoon of dry yeast (reactivated in a bit of water). Then, knead for about 5 min and then add the raisins and the walnuts, knead once again for 1 minute...

and let rest for 1 or 2 hours (first rise)...

then shape the merendeiras and let them rest for 1 more hour covered with a damp kitchen towel(second rise)...

and finally put them in a preheated and steamed oven for 20 minutes.

I have to confess that I'm not totally satisfied, they didn't rise as I wanted. But the taste is amazing !!!

SESAME SEEDS BREAD

My bread with sesame seeds (french baguette style)

Ingredients :
- 200 gr all purpose flour
- 128 gr water (64%)
- 3 gr dry yeast (the dry yeast has to be reactivated in a bit of the water for 5 minutes)
- 4 gr salt
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds (or any other seeds like flax, sunflower, poppy...)

Mix all the ingredients except the seeds and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes. After this time add the sesame seeds and knead for 2-3 more minutes. Then cover with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour (first rise). Then, punch it down and shape the dough into your favorite bread shape (roll out delicately and fold it in 3 or roll it up). Cover one more time with a wet kitchen towel and let rest for 45 min (second rise).
Preheat the oven (240°c), put down the dripping pan in the bottom of the oven, after 5 minutes throw a glass of water over the dripping pan in order to make steam. Do it again after 5 another minutes. The oven has to be saturate with steam (this is very important if you want a fine crust).
Then give some cuts on the surface of the dough with a razor blade and put in the oven. Throw one more time a glass of water over the dripping pan after 5 and 10 minutes.
Bake for 25 minutes.

THE FALL IS COMING...

"Hoho the fall is there...

Who wants to run in the fall

Around the lake or on the great wall ?

How I love to run in the fall

Just 'cause I feel invincible !

Whether you're tall or small

Come on, set your goal

And let's run in the fall !"

AUGUST SUM UP

August was an amazing month, I never run as much, sometimes I even ran two times a day. It was just happiness.

Check out the sum up below :

- 319 is the amount of kilometers I ran. (it's just the distance between Porto and Lisbon)

- 31 is the number of hours I spent running.

- 5'46"/km is my average pace (i.e 10,4 km/h).

- 26.261 is the total amount of calories I burnt ! This whole energy is equivalent to 210 bananas (about 30 kg of them).

- 21.797 of the overall calories is sugar (i.e 5,45 kg of sugar) and which is equivalent to 1090 pieces of sugar !!!

- and 4.464 of the overall calories is fat (i.e 500 grams of fat) which is equivalent to 600 grams of butter (or about half a liter of olive oil).

- and the last but not the least : 100% is the percentage of happiness I felt when I was running.

LOSE WEIGHT TO RUN FASTER (OR TO RUN FARTHER)

I saw a chart very interesting in a running magazine. It shows the time we can save in a race if we lose some weight. As you can see in the chart below, you can really run faster if you lose some weight. Keep in mind that it works only if you are not in shape yet, I mean don't cut a leg to lose even more weight, you definitely won't run faster... :)

(click to enlarge)

Let's imagine, if you lose 4,5 kg (9,92 lbs) you can save almost 3 minutes in a 10k race. If you get used to run 10 km in 45 minutes, then now you can run this same distance in 42 minutes ! Isn't that a huge difference ??? Basically it's a pace of 4'13"/km instead of 4'30"/km if you see what I mean... ;)

But, of course you might think that this chart is a bit weird or not convincing. I thought all the same. How could we spare 3 minutes in a 10k race with our same usual training, only because of a 4,5 kg loss ? I mean why ?

Actually, it's quite obvious. I'm gonna show you...

It's maths time folks... (fasten your seat belt and stay focus !) lol

Ok, to show you why we can run faster after a weight loss diet you have to know some informations :

- When we run we spend energy depending on the distance and not on the time. It means we spend almost the same amount of energy if we run a 10k distance in 45 min or in 1:15' hour. This energy also depends on our bodyweight. The more you weigh the more you'll spend energy, it's easy to understand.

- To calculate the energy spent during a race we just need to know our bodyweight and the distance. Then, the overall amount of calories burnt is : 1 Calorie per kilometer and per kg of bodyweight. If you weigh 80 kg and you run 10 km, you'll burn 1 (cal) x 80 (kg) x 10 (km) = 800 calories.

Ok, now that you know these informations let's do maths...

We know that an 80 kg athlete burn 800 calories to run 10 km.

Now if this athlete lose 4,5 kg he'll only weigh 75,5 kg. And then to run those 10 km he'll burn only 755 calories. ( 1 cal x 75,5 kg x 10 km = 755 cal)

As you can see, now he doesn't need to burn as many calories as before.

Let's imagine that this athlete was able to run this distance in 45 minutes, then he spent 800 cal/45 min = 17,78 calories per minute. We can say that this is his maximum capacity of energy consumption per minute (the oxydation of inner fuels with the maximum volume of oxygen the athlete can sustain for the specific distance).

But now that he lost weight he won't need to burn 800 calories anymore but only 755. But of course he's still able to burn 17,78 calories per min. And 755 (cal) / 17,78 (cal per min) = 42 min 28 sec !!! It means that he can now run 10 km in 42'28" instead of 45' !!! And then the chart is actually quite accurate and convincing. Obviously, he can also run farther with the same energy than before : 800 (cal) / 75,5 (kg) = 10,60 km. He can now run 600 meters more than before in the same time than before (45 min).

You can see now how important our weight is when we want to be as efficient as possible.

Hope you liked this post, as usual leave a comment if you want to add anything or if you have any doubt.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION : FAT/SUGAR SHARE

"We lose fat only from 45 minutes of exercise" ...I heard that thousand times yet and sincerely I cannot hear it anymore, it's a nonsense !

You know, I'm always looking forward for some informations about the consumption of energy when we're practicing sports. And I just found out some very good ones !!!

- What we know : We know that our body uses sugar (glucose) and fat (fatty acids) as energy source when we run. The sugar delivers 4 Calories per gram and the fat, 9 Calories. Of course our body uses in the same time these two kind of energies.
Then, what we have to understand is that the sugar is easier and faster to oxidize than the fat, then the sugar delivers its energy much more promptly. That's why the sugar is almost the only energy source when we have to run very fast (or when we do a very powerful exercise).
On the other hand the fat is the energy of slowlyness or better, the energy of long duration exercises (like marathon or ironman héhé). Actually, our stocks of fat are almost unlimited. A 70 kg fellow who has a fat percentage of 15% means that he has 10,5 kg of fat in his body. In comparison we have only about 500 gr of sugar stored in our body, 400 gr into our whole muscles and about 100 gr in the liver. The sugar which is into the muscles cannot get out to refuel other muscles or even the nervous system, it's inside then it keeps inside. Plus, 70 % of the blood stream is reserved for our central nervous system and then, it's good to preserve the sugar because we only burn the fat in the presence of sugar. So, no more sugar = no more energy even if you are the most fat guy of the earth ! Of course our body knows how to create sugar without sugar (gluconeogenesis) but it's another tale...

- How many energy are we using when we're running ?
It's quite simple to figure out. It's 1 Calorie per kilometer and per kg of bodyweight. The speed has a too little effect to be relevant, it's 0,95 to 1,06 Calories from 7,5 km/h to 21km/h. Then I guess it's better to use the average of 1 calorie as a basis.

Ex : I weigh 80 kg. Then when I run a 10 km distance I burn : 1 (Cal) x 80 (kg) x 10 (km) = 800 calories. The problem is I don't know which part of these 800 calories is sugar or is fat...

- Now that we know how to calculate the energy used, we can try to figure out the distribution between the sugar and the fat of this amount of energy ! Then I did a graph that shows us the share of each energy source depending on the time of exercise.

(click to enlarge)

As you can see the more your workout lasts the more you will burn fat. Hey! You people who are doing diets, you know now what you have to do... run slowly and longer ;)
Ex : last thursday I ran 21 km. Then I burn, 1(Cal) x80(kg) x 21 (km) = 1680 Calories.
I ran during about 2 hours, then the part of the fat burnt is 31%, then 1680 X 0,31 = 520,8 Calories (of fat). We know that each gram of fat gets 9 Calories, so I burnt an amount of 520,8/9 = 57,87 grams of fat ! Wow ! It's just the amount of butter contained in 2 croissants ! ;)

In conclusion, we do use fat since the beginning of the workout (not only since 45 min of exercise). Of course just a little part of it but even if you run only half a hour you will burn 10% of fat from the whole calories burnt, it's more than nothing. And keep in mind that the more you'll train the more you will able to use fat as source of energy.

Hope you liked this post, for any further informations, any doubts or even to rectify some stuff you can leave a comment.

Keep running...

RAVIOLI (HOMEMADE)

Today I made some fresh homemade ravioli.
As usual the fresh pasta is made of 1 egg for each 100 gr of flour. The stuffing is made of ricotta and spinach. The sauce is made with shallots, butter, cream and grana padano.

It's a lot of work (yes, it was really a lot of work) but I guess it's worth it !

FRENCH BAGUETTES

I go on with my breads serie. Today I made the most typical french bread, "la baguette" ! Nothing better to do good sandwiches ! ;) It ended up quite good :p

SHOYU RAMEN

I'm very curious about Japan. For me it's just the country of the art of life. Well, I know that is not just like that... but I just like to think it is. Japanese food isn't just sushi, maki or even yakitori !!! For me, the best is ramen ! Ramen is the name of the noodles, and then it's also the name of the soup prepared with ramen.

I made a shoyu ramen, based on soy sauce. Of course I also made the pork stock and the shrimps tempura. I didn't have nori but it's a soup, then we put in it what we want to eat ;)

BROA

"Broa" is a typical portuguese bread. It's mainly made of cornmeal.

PLAITED BRIOCHE

Let me introduce you my first plaited brioche. Brioche is a french pastry which is basically flour, eggs, milk, sugar, a lot of butter and yeast. For the fermentation I used an old technique which is called poolish. It's the fermentation of a mixture of an equal amount of water and flour with just a bit of yeast, much less yeast as usual and this has to be prepared one day before (12 h before at least). The interest of this methode is obviously the fact that we can use less yeast, very interesting because some people, me included, doesn't like the flavour of the yeast.

the dough after the first rise ...

dividing in three in order...

...to make three "wires"...

starting the braiding...

the finished braid on the oven tray waiting for a second rise...

after the second rise and covered with a mixture of yolk and milk...

25 minutes in the oven...

details...

If you want I can give you the recipe, I'm just not motivated today to write it.

HOW TO MAKE ICE CREAM

This heat kills me, I hate this, I hate I hate I hate !

I keep running in the morning but even in the morning we have 21°c (yesterday 23°c). Of course I give up intervals for the moment, I don't wanna die while running.

Well, I don't know how to make ice cream but I'll find out and very soon I'll share with you... I hope before the end of summer lolol

HAMBURGERS (HOMEMADE OF COURSE)

I had to try it one day then I did it today, bread for hamburgers... Unfortunately I didn't have the sesame seeds to put on the top, maybe next time.
I also made a secret sauce which is... secret !!! What ? Hey, you have to deserve it my friends. Ok, ok, I'll give you the recipie very soon.

I'm sorry, the pictures aren't very good, but you know it's the problem with culinary photographs, either you try to do great pictures and you have to eat cold or you do worthless photographs and you can make the most of your warm meal. Of course I had to choose the second solution...

For 2 big hamburger loaves :

- 150 gr all purpose flour (for this kind of bread the most white flour the better, in my humble opinion)

- 40 gr water

- 43 gr milk

- 12 gr butter

- 4,5 gr sugar

- 3 gr salt

- 2/3 teaspoon dry yeast.

Let the dry yeast "wake up" in the warm water and a pinch of flour during 5 minutes, then mix all the ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. After what you have to let the dough raise during at least 1 hour (or more depending the temperature room). After that, cut the dough to shape the two breads and put them in little tins (I guess we can do them without a tin but into it we can control better the size of them). Let raise again half a hour or more (they have to double size), and put in the oven for 15 minutes. Don't forget to put a little container with water into the oven in order to create steam, it's to prevent the formation of a thickest crust.

And that's it, all you have to do now is to let the loaves cool down (it's better) and then you can make your very own hamburgers with the ingredients you like !

FRESH PASTA WITH FAVA BEANS

Oh believe me, there's nothing better than fresh pasta homemade !!!! After my cannelloni with ricotta and spinach, after my tagliatelle alla carbonara, I decided today to try tagliatelle with fava beans. As a matter of fact, it's quite simple to make fresh pasta, that's only flour, eggs and salt ! Actually it's one egg for each 100 gr of flour, very easy to remember.

Here we go :

1 egg for 100 gr of all purpose flour... (you can also add a bit of wholemeal flour)

knead the flour with the eggs and salt, I added tomato paste in one half to get 2 colors...

Roll out each dough, flour the table otherwise the dough will stick...


and shape the tagliatelle...

aren't they tempting ?

Of course we need fava beans...

Boil them for 2 or 3 minutes, then remove the peal it's better...

Here comes the calories : butter !!!!! Sorry but it's so good :( We can replace the butter by olive oil, it's obvious (it's so good as well) ! Cook with chopped garlic for 1 or 2 minutes...

Then, cook the pasta in a vegetable broth (or just in water) for 3 minutes and then mix it with the fava beans...

I added a bit of cream (optional), serve hot without further delay !

Try it ! You'll see, you won't buy pasta anymore ! ;)