How to be excluded from Masterchef... for sure

                                                                                                                                       Identity crisis

MasterChef is an American competitive cooking reality show. In the reality the competitors have to prove their skills in the culinary field and the best one wins. The winner gets $ 100.000,00 in gold coins and the opportunity to publish a book with his/her recipes.

Taking part to MasterChef would be a dream, but in our case it’s not a good idea… since the last time we cooked piadina we burnt the kitchen! Luckily… we are survivors!

After this bad adventure we understood that we really love eating food but we aren’t really gifted at cooking. Anyway… we will try to cook the Mug Cake. We discovered this recipe thanks to our friend that is a chef. He told us that to improve we must start from an easy recipe and keep going with harder recipes.

Our thought was: if we can cook the Mug Cake then everybody can do it! And now we are going to teach you how to make it. The ingredients are not so many, you just need:

- 180 g of sugar;

- 160 g of flour 00;

- 120 g of powdered milk;

- 40 g of powdered bitter cocoa;

- 6 g of yeast for cakes;

- 2 eggs.

To prepare the mug cake you need to beat the eggs and the sugar with an electric whisker or hand whisker. When you get a white and foamy mixture, in a bowl sieve and mix the flour, the bitter chocolate powder and the yeast for cakes. Add the powders little by little to the mixture together with the milk.

Then, continue to mix the ingredients with a whisker. When you get a fluid mixture transfer it into the mug.

Add the white chocolate previously cut in small pieces then cover the cup with transparent film suitable for cooking in microwave. Then cook in microwave at 600 watts (or maximum power for your microwave) for about 1-2 minutes: it depends on your microwave. If you like a consistency more similar to a cake you can leave the mug in the microwave for a bit more.

When the mug cake is ready take it out from the microwave and let it chill!

Now you have your “mug cake” ready to eat. Enjoy your meal and see you next time!

Glossary

Piadina: lethal weapon that was killing me. I’m joking, it is a simple Italian recipe.

Mug: where you put your milk when you have breakfast.

Improve: when we stop burning the kitchen cooking a piadina.

Ingredients: what you need to prepare a recipe.

Powdered: how your mother reduces you if you don’t listen to her.

Bitter: when you don’t put sugar in your coffee.

Electric whisker: a special tool to mix ingredients used in the kitchen.

Mixture: mix of ingredients.

Sieve: a special tool to remove lumps from flour.

Little by little: slowly, gradually.

Fluid: one of three states of substance.

Pieces: how Joe Bastianich reduces a dish when he doesn’t like it.

Film: a type of cover that you use to cover food.

Microwave: a domestic appliance that serves to heat up a food.

Chill: what you need when you are warm.

Kosovan Pite

Moonlight

When I woke up in the morning I opened the window with a big smile on my face: the sun was rising. I went downstairs and I gave my mum a kiss on her cheek. As usually, I went to brush my teeth and she prepared my breakfast. When I was checking my backpack for school and I was about to go out, she suddenly told me that that evening we would cook “pite”! I screamed of joy. I really love preparing Pite!!!
I went to school and the lessons seemed endless: I wanted those five hours to become five minutes. When I turned back home I threw my backpack on the floor, I washed my hands and I was ready to put them in the dough.

Pastry dishes are very popular in Kosovo and the most consumed is “Pite”: that’s a pie filled with beef, spinach or cheese.

If you want to prepare a special Pite here is the recipe for 6 people

 For making pite with cheese you need only few ingredients: cheese, cream, salt, oil, yeast and flour.

For the dough: take a bowl and start putting your flour in it, begin to pour some warm water, put some salt and a bit of yeast. Mix then all the ingredients together then let it rest for approximately 30 minutes.

 Preheat the oven at 200 °C and take the dough and roll it up into balls in order to obtain 10/12 balls.

Take the balls and roll them one by one using a rolling pin: you will get the phyllo dough. Then put the cheese and the cream in order to have ropes: put all those ropes next to each other and put some oil and cream on top to make them crispy. 

Put your pite in the oven for 45 minutes and don’t forget to have a look at it from time to time or it will get burnt! Once out of the oven let it rest and cut it in some slices: the dish is now ready! You can taste it with peppers, pickles or tomatoes salad. But remember... drink a lot of water because it’s a very salted dish!!!

Glossary

Rising: (to rise) something going from a low position to a higher (in our case the sun was going to a higher position)
Downstairs: the lower floor of a house
Scream of joy: when someone screams because he’s/she’s happy

Dough: it is a thick mixture of flour and other ingredients that can be kneaded, baked and eaten
Bowl: a round container that is open on the top and is deep enough to hold fruit, sugar, etc.
Pastry dishes: some dishes (such as pies) are made of pastry casing that covers or completely contains a filling of a variety of sweet or savory ingredients
Pie: a baked dish with fruit/meat/vegetables, typically with a top and base of pastry. You can have sweet pies or salted pies
Few: a small/ non- specific number
Yeast: bakers use yeast to turn flat, sticky, dough into tall, fluffy bread
Pour: to make a substance flow from a container into another container
Rolling pin: a cylinder used to roll out dough to make it flatten
Phyllo dough: it is a very thin part of dough used for making pastries such as baklava or borek (pite) in Middle Eastern and Balkan cuisine
Pickles: vegetables that have been preserved in a vinegar sauce or salty water.