Patches 5th Edition: A Roundup

The Patches Market has come and gone... leaving behind memories of such a lovely day. I was actually surprised at how busy we were, since it was raining and very bleak :)

Luxury Nut brownies

Once again, the brownies were a huge hit, together with the cookies. The baked lemon cheesecake, topped with pistacchios and a homemade marmalade-honey sauce was also a great success - loved watching people drool over it :)

Biscotti, Cherries in Chocolate & Profiteroles

Yippeeee!! Couldn't have been happier! My wonderful nephew D. was as usual an enormous help, as was my better half M. Both helped man my stall while I sprinted around buying stuff on offer from the talented artists :-D.

Kwarezimal, & cookies displayed on the new cookie stand

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Handz by Patz @ Patches this weekend!

Paper cubes - for decorating my stall

It's been nice & hectic these past few days. I've been getting ready for the Patches market which takes place this Sunday, 13th March.

I've been printing out flyers, and labels... description sheets. I've also been making origami to decorate my stall... My friend C.S. took me out to a flea market, where we prowled for odd pieces of china... Love my new purchases... Have to scrub them well, before laying them out with the delicious sweets I'm baking next Saturday.



Authentic milk bottles found at a flea market

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Imbuljuta and an Imbuljuta-inspired brownie

Imbuljuta tal- Qastan

The Maltese culture presentation is tomorrow, and today (yes! the night before :p) I made the last recipe to finish it off - a brownie, inspired by a Maltese traditional chocolate-chestnut soup - the imbuljuta.

This soup, which is traditionally eaten at christmas time, right after mid-night mass, is a thick & hearthy drink,  flavoured with tangerine & orange peel, cinnamon & crushed cloves. I also like to add dark chocolate to the mix for an even more decadent drink.

The last time I drank the imbuljuta, the chocolate-ness of it reminded me of my favourite brownies... and when doing the above mentioned project, I thought of incorporating these two, excellent recipes to produce a brownie using chestnuts, orange zest & spices.

Imbujluta Brownie

I am happy to say that the result is a brownie, as fudgy and as soft as the nut brownies I usually make with an awesome citrusy, cinnamony flavour. OH YUM!!

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Xkunvat

Xkunvat knot

It all started with a project...and a book.


The project: a presentation for my Maltese Culture class about our ideas on modifying a traditional recipe.

The book: The way we ate a wonderful book about traditional Maltese recipes by Matty Cremona.

Inside this lovely and insightful book, I met a recipe I had never seen before. Xkunvat - a traditional, festive pastry which was prepared for carnival and the 'quccija'  (a baby's first birthday party). It is actually a pastry, prepared with Anisette liquer and deep fried... then drizzled with honey and sprinkled with hundreds & thousands.

Xkunvat pillows

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Eggs Florentine

I know! It’s been ages and ages and ages! But I’ve been busy with school and trying out recipes. It's going really well at school. Learning soooo much, and I'm gaining more confidence in the kitchen... paying more attention to the end presentation. It's great!! All I had hoped for.
I often post pictures on facebook about whatever I’ve been cooking, and I often get asked for recipes. I sometimes send a link, but more often than not, I’ve modified the recipe… or taken bits from here and there, so it’s not that easy. So here is my first try at providing a recipe, taken from here and there, with my modifications and all.

Now this recipe… it’s not quick... if you want to do everything from scratch. But there are alternatives… shortcuts, a quicker way of doing it. Let’s take the Mornay sauce part below: skip making the Bechamel sauce yourself and use a store bought packet, add an egg and some cheese, and voila! Don’t have fresh spinach? Frozen spinach is a great substitute. Still… here’s the full recipe below, split into the various parts required for this recipe, with shortcuts thrown in when possible.
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