Aureus cook-off winners
17 June 2020
We hereby announce the winners of the big Aureus cook-off competition. We received some nice recipes but only three of them could win.
On the third place we have two winners:
Marie Krumbein: Apple Pie based on my granny’s recipe with a vegan twist
You need 100g of almonds, 150ml soy milk, 120g brown sugar, 300g flour, baking powder, 150g apple sauce and two sour apples. Stir all the ingredients together except for the apples, peel the apples and slice their backs. After that, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake it for 30-35 minutes. And then – enjoy some vegan heaven on earth!
Sofía Vargas: Alfajores de maicena
Alfajores are very common and traditional „cookies“ in Chile (my country) and Argentina. The unique flavour always makes me feel close to home.
Maybe you saw a recent post of Queen Maxima baking them as well! I will share my recipe too, that’s a bit different.
First, mix together all the dry ingredients:
300 gr of cornstarch
200gr of common flour
150 gr of extra-fine sugar
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Then, incorporate:
200 gr of semi-melted butter
3 yolks plus 1 whole egg
1 teaspoon of essence or vanilla extract
Lemon zest
Mix well the dry and the wet ingredients until it becomes a homogenize dough.
Afterwards, we will stretch it and with a cutter or circular moulds, we will shape the cookies. At a medium temperature (180C) they will go to the oven for 10-12 minutes approx.
Once we let them chill for a couple of minutes, we can fill them with manjar/dulce de leche (which is caramel-like), you can buy in some particular stores or do it yourself at home either from condensed milk or whole milk, depending on how patient you are!
Then we will put a teaspoon of dulce de leche in between 2 of the cookies we just baked. Roll it with grated coconut and it‘s done!
On the second place:
Krista Jansen: Sushi (self-made)
For 4 persons
For the rice:
500 grams of sushi rice
6 tablespoons rice vinegar
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt (plus a pinch for cooking water)
The exterior and padding:
8 nori skins (seaweed skins)
Piece of salmon fillet
Piece of tuna fillet
1 avocado in thin strips
1/2 cucumber without seeds, in strips not exceeding half a centimetre in size
White sesame seeds
Black sesame seeds (optional)
Good to go:
Soy sauce
Wasabi
Edamame beans (optional)
Extra needed:
Sushi mat
A cup of water to dip your fingers while rolling
A sheet of cling film
Sticks to eat your sushi wit
Just put everything together and klaar is kees!
And then last but not least in the first place:
Najla Barikzai: Afghan caramelized rice with lamb meat, carrots and raisins, the side dish is fried eggplant
1. Pour rice into a large bowl and wash the rice and soak it for around 4 hours
2. For the toppings of the rice, fry strips of carrots in a pan with medium hot oil for 2/3 min. When the carrots are soft (not brown), take them out of the pan and soak on a paper towel. Do the same with the raisins but only 1 minute.
3. To prepare the lamb meat, heat some oil in a pressure cooker over medium-high heat, add the chopped onions and cook for 1 minute until the onions are caramelized. Add the meat, salt and pepper and cook until browned. Add grinded cardamom, masala spice mix, water and cook in a pressure cooker for around 20/25 minutes. Simmer until the meat is tender. Drain and reserve the liquid from meat. Transfer meat into a separate bowl.
4. Boil water in a large pot (enough to cover the rice, I usually use my fingertip for measurement, google it!) and add rice and salt. Cover the pot and cook the rice. Do not overcook the rice since we will still steam the rice. Once the rice is cooked, drain it.
5. Off the heat, put the rice back in the pot and add the reserved liquid from the meat and mix through. Add 2 tablespoons of masala spice mix, 1 tablespoon of cumin, a pinch of cardamom and stir. Use the end of a spatula to poke holes in the rice (this allows steam to escape) and drizzle with a little bit of oil (vegetable oil).
6. Place the meat on top of the rice. Wrap the saucepan lid with a towel or aluminium foil to absorb the steam and place the lid back on top.
7. Cook on maximum heat for around 4/5 minutes until steam can be seen coming out from the pot. Reduce heat to low and cook for around 25 minutes.
8. Take the pot off the heat and leave it for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes mix the rice thoroughly before serving.
9. Serve the rice into a large platter, then place the meat in the middle and cover the rice with the raisins and carrots.