Blog by Eniko Fejer RSS

There is a special place in my heart for walnuts. In the garden of our family home back in Hungary we have an almost 60-year-old walnut tree that witnessed all our important family occasions (both happy and sad). My grandparents planted it when they bought the land and built the house on it in the 1970s.

I remember collecting the walnuts, drying them in the garage for weeks in sacks, collecting the fallen leaves from the ground and towards the end of November cracking the walnuts open inside the house. We had years when the tree produced around 8-12 kg of walnuts. After I moved out my mum always made sure we had enough so she always...

It’s easy to make and perfect for the cosy autumn weekends. 🍂 

The recipe serves 4-6 people.

 
Shortcrust pastry
 
450g plain flour
225g butter
1 whole egg
75g water
6g salt
 
Sift the flour into a bowl. Dice the butter and rub it with the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the rest of the ingredients and knead the dough gently. Divide the dough into two balls and put one in the freezer for later.
Let it rest in the fridge for about an hour before using.
 
Preheat the oven to 180C / fan 160C.
 
Caramel and apple
 
110g caster sugar
80g cold diced butter
2 large cooking apples
 
Use a heavy-based non-stick pan which is suitable to put it to the oven.
Peel and slice the apples.
Make a dark caramel, gradually...

When I was a child, in front of our house we had 3 sour cherry trees. The sour cherry was abundant in our household. We made them into jams, cordials, compotes, we ate them raw straight from the trees as an afternoon snack, made cold soup with them, and we baked them into sweets and cakes. One of the bakes were poppy seed and sour cherry strudel. I was a child in the 1990s, ready-made filo pastry was not available on the supermarket shelves yet. Making strudel dough from scratch is an art itself (and takes a village), so strudel was a luxurious summer treat that took a day to...

Gazpacho is a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables. It originated in the southern regions of the Iberian Peninsula and spread into other areas. It's widely eaten in Spain and Portugal, particularly in summer, since it's refreshing and cool.

Currently, everything is in season in the gardens that is needed to make this delicious starter.

Ingredients; 4 portions

1/2 cucumber
1/2 red onion
6 tomatoes
1.5 red peppers
2 slices of white bread
Olive oil
Salt
1 drop of Tabasco + extra for seasoning
1 tsp sherry vinegar + extra for seasoning
1 drop of Worcester sauce + extra for seasoning

To garnish
1/2 mozzarella, diced
1/4 cucumber, diced
Basil oil (optional)

Wash the vegetables and dice them. Mix everything and let it sit in the fridge for...