Len Len's personal site: work, cooking, cycling, experiences

On my bicycle trip to Iezer mountains after successfully descending almost 1000m I’ve met a bunch of women collecting forest fruits. They asked me:

- you come from the top of the mountains, aren’t you?

- yes, I replied

- so you must have tasted all that ripe bilberry growing near the top (at almost 2400m)

At this point I said nothing since in the foggy, cold and wet morning I could not see, or pay attention at, any bilberry.

When I arrived home I went straight to the market and found a lot of it since it’s bilberry season indeed. I first though about a bilberry cake but since it was much warmer here in the city than in the mountains I decided on the very simple recipe of sorbet. In romanian this is called “sorbet de afine” (not to be confused with serbet) sau “inghetata de afine”.

Bilberry sorbet

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Pentru prima mea reteta de tort m-am inspirat dintr-o reteta care-mi tot face pofta inca de la ziua mea cu mici simplificari si modificari (merci Laura). Iata versiunea, adaptata si pipeline-ata pentru ziua lui Rodiq.

Tort

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A dessert I wanted to be a bit different for the new year. Inspired from many sources (1, 2, …), here is the “orange mousse” made with oranges, red grapefruit and mandarin oranges.

Orange mousse

This is a tasty Austrian dessert/main dish recipe. It’s mainly a form of dumpling filled with jam, boiled then served with vanilla sauce (check the romanian recipe here).

Germknoedel

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My neighbor which I occasionally help with PC problems seeing me in the street Friday gave me a bunch of apples saying these are “bio”-apples from his house in the mountains. I should take some since he has just picked up his apple tree and has too many apples and no idea what to do with them.

Starting with the apples and the sour cherry (or bilberries) cake recipe this was the result:

Apples and nuts cake

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Intr-un final am ajuns si eu la “next-evolution” in ceea ce priveste prajiturile cu faina. Iata rezultatul:

Pufoasa cu glazura (updated 19-oct-2009)

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As a child my grandmother would make this recipe and then defend each piece like a guardian. It seemed a magical threat. So when I tried it a few days ago and realized how easy the recipe is it seemed like gaining a new magical grade :)

Updated 2010-01-23 with new photo(s).

Naming: I did some research and found out that the “creme brulee” term is not the best. A more precise equivanlent is: “creme renverse au caramel”.

Crema de zahar ars

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Dupa mai mult de 3 ore de munca asteptat si pus tava, scos tava, racit tava iata rezultatul dupa reteta mai veche de aici. Cu lapte cald cu ciocolata :)

Choockies

The quince recipes are sweet memories from my grandmother, lost and then found again. This is a combination of 2 recipes which can be done in sequence from the quince fruit. I translated here the romanian recipe for Guy which grows quinces in his backyard for which I envy him.

Quince dish recipe

(photos updated 06-Dec-2009)

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Astazi pe la 3 tocmai am dat peste piata flotanta de la Academia Militara si cum era pe terminate am gasit doar 1kg de mere. Pe seara, dupa ce am spalat bicicleta de noroi, inghetat bocna m-am gandit ca n-ar strica sa fac o prajitura cu merele cumparate asa ca am facut un pic studiu de retete si am descoperit pe langa placinte, fie cu foi (romanesti) fie “apple pie” un alt tip de prajituri cu fructe si anume “apple crumble“. Dupa putin studiu am trecut la practica cu experimentul reteta urmatoare care s-a dovedit a fi una din cele mai bune prajituri cu mere pe care o stiu.

Prajitura cu mere si bezea

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