Basics in the kitchen

Here you will find some basic recipes that often will be referred to. I will complement this section as times goes by. I have arranged the basic recipes alphabetically.

B


Besciamel sauce - besciamella 

• 500 ml warmed milk
• 50 gr butter
• 40 gr white flour
• A pinch of salt and pepper and a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg.

Make the besciamella by melting the butter and then add the flour bit by bit. Stir with a wooden spoon until you get a yellowish thick paste in the pan. Gradually add the warm milk. Add at first 1 ladle of warm milk, then stir and add some more milk, repeat this until all the milk is mixed with the milk and butter. Add some salt, some pepper and some nutmeg. Whisk well from the beginning to avoid having lumps. Let the besciamella cook for 10 minutes on a very gentle heat. Keep stirring regularly! Now it is ready to be used in any recipe, warm or cold. 


S


Short crust pastry - pasta brisee
This easy-to-make crust pastry is used to make quiches. You could also use it for sweet cakes if the filling is really sweet. 


For the pasta brisee you will need:

• 200 gr butter
• 200 gr flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 100 ml ice-cold water, although you will probably not use all of it

Cut the butter into small pieces and put them in a big bowl. Add the flour and the salt and knead with your hands until you get a crumbly mixture. This is the moment you add the oil and the water, mix some more with your hands until you get a coherent mixture. Do not add all the water in one time as you will regret this as it will probably make the mixture to sticky. Add a spoon of water at the time until you think is enough. 
Divide the dough in two portions, flatten them a bit and wrap them in foil. You can put the dough in the fridge for one hour before you use it. If you do not need it immediately you can also freeze it. Or you could freeze one, in that case you can always make a quiche when you feel like, as most of the time it is the dough-making that takes up a lot of time.



Sweet short crust pastry - pasta frolla 
This sweet short crust pastry is often used in the Italian kitchen to make desserts, for example, the incredible delicious crostata di marmellata. This recipe is very versatile and you will find it very useful in your kitchen adventure. You can also double all below mentioned ingredients, divide the dough into two portions and put one (or both) dough-balls in the freezer. That always come in handy when you want to make a pie.

For the pasta frolla you will need (this will be enough for one pie form of 24 cm):

• 125 gr butter 
• 125 gr white sugar 
• 250 gr white all-purpose flour 
• a pinch of salt 
• grated zest of a small lemon. Or you can use the grated zest of a clementine, excellent around Christmas-time 
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk 

Cut the butter in small pieces and put them in a bowl. Add the sugar and stir it together with the butter with a wooden spoon. Add the flour, salt and the grated zest of the lemon. Mix everything in the bowl together with your fingertips. By doing this you get a crumbly mixture. Add now the egg and the egg yolk and work the mixture some more with your finger tips until you get a coherent pastry. If you think you need to add a little bit of ice-water and/or some flour do this. Be careful not to add too much of both as this can mess up your dough.

The dough should not be too sticky and it has to be yellowish and smooth. If you think it is too sticky, don't panic, just add a little bit more of flour. The trick of making pasta frolla is to not to knead it too much (around the 5 to 10 minutes), that gives the best result! Make a boll of the dough and wrap this with plastic film. Put the dough in the fridge for one hour. After one hour you can unroll it to make any pie you would like to make.