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.

Tiramisù

Tiramisù is the one of the most famous Italian cake, and the most common dessert that Italian people eat at the restaurant after the meal. class- mate invited us in Sicily to spend the holiday.
During this holiday she celebrated her birthday
This summer our classmate invited us to spend our holiday in Sicily.
During this holiday she celebrated her birthday, so for this occasion we cooked a traditional cake for her: Tiramisù. Celebrating together that special day for our friend was really beautiful: we had a lot of fun and we talked about different traditional cakes in our countries.
When we have finished to eat the cake she told us that the peculiarity of this cake is that she used to prepare this cake with her mother, but now her mother has gone. That’s why this cake means a lot to her: when we were celebrating her birthday she was very happy and she was thinking that her mother was there to celebrate her birthday too.
She said that it was the best gift that she has ever received and she will always remember this day because we prepared Tiramisù with love and affection for her 18th birthday.

INGREDIENTS

400 g of biscuits ladyfinger
250 g mascarpone cheese
250 g fresh cream
12 cups of coffee
3 eggs yolks
2 cups of milk
3 tablespoons of sugar
Bitter cocoa

PREPARATION

 

Put the sugar and the eggs yolks in a large bowl. 

Beat well until the mixtures is light and creamy

Add mascarpone cheese and beat well

Beat the eggs white until stiff and add them in the mascarpone cream.

Mix gently. 

Quick dip each ladyfinger biscuit in the mixture until they are nicely soaked. 

Cover with the remaining biscuits and spread over the remaining cream.

Dust with the cocoa.

Chill in the fridge for 4-5 hours or better overnight.

GLOSSARY
Ladyfinger biscuits: they are low density, dry, egg-based and sweet biscuits roughly shaped like a large finger
Mascarpone cheese: it is a cream obtained from cheese by the addition of certain substances such as lemon juice
Cream: the fatty part of milk, which rises to the surface when the liquid is allowed to stand unless homogenized
Coffee: a dark brown powder with a strong flavor and smell that is made by crushing coffee beans
Eggs yolk: the yellow part of an egg
Milk: this liquid is used by humans for food or as a source for butter, cheeses, yogurt
Sugar: a sweet substance especially from the plants sugar cane and sugar beet, used to make food and drinks sweeter
Cocoa: a powder made from roasted seeds of the cacao

ALBANIAN BAKLLAVA

Albanian Team

Bakllava is the Middle Eastern dessert par excellence, but it’s also part of Balkan traditions.
We chose this sweet because it is good, it is often cooked for religious parties.One day, a Ramadam’s day, my friends Abdyl, Adrian and I went to have lunch at an Albanian’s post which makes pizzas, kebabs and other traditional things from Albania. After eating, we decided to take a slice of bakllava, and we really liked it, for this reason we decided to choose this sweet, also because it is a traditional dessert in Albania.
The Baklava is a layered sweet of thin phyllo dough, just like leaves or sheets of paper, grated and leaned in a pan: chopped nuts
together with pistachios, are scattered over the various layers, which are then rolled and baked in the oven before being soaked with a solution of sugar and lemon juice or honey and spices with water.

Ingredients

- 500 gr phyllo dough
- 200 gr chopped nuts
- 150 gr crushed pistachios

- cinnamon powder
- 180 gr melted butter

Ingredients for the syrup
- 50 gr honey
- 450 gr sugar
- 300 ml water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Preparation
1-Prepare the syrup making it melt on the fire with water, honey and lemon juice. After a few minutes of cooking you will see that it becomes dense: take it out of the fire and cool it in the fridge.

2-Divide the dough into at least 12 parts and roll with the help of a rolling pin so that you get 12 thin sheets that you will lay in a rectangular.

3-Paint the first pie with melted butter and lay on top of another 5 sheets that will squeeze each with butter. On these first 6 layers sprinkle the crushed nuts and pistachios not too big; finish with powdered cinnamon powder. Cover everything with the other 6 sheets that will be scrubbed each, including the surface of the last, with the remaining butter.

4-Take a knife and cut the dough until it touches the bottom of the pan, diagonally in both directions to get rhombuses.

5-Bake at 180º for about 40 minutes until the dough is cooked well and is golden.

6-Take the baklava from the oven and pour over it the hot syrup.

GLOSSARY
phyllo dough: pasta of Greek origin made from flour, water, corn starch and sale, made of thin layers, of a consistency similar to that of a leaf, used in the kitchen for sweet and salty preparations.
syrup: a solution of sugar dissolved in water and often flavoured with fruit juice. It is used for sweetening fruit, etc.
cinnamon powder: a sweet-smelling spice made from the inner bark of Asian trees.

See you again

“See You Again” is a song by US rapper Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth, published in 2015. The song is the final soundtrack of the movie “Fast & Furious 7”.

Fast & Furious 7 was published in 2015 and is the penultimate of a series of action movies produced in USA, in which the most important elements are racing cars.

The author of the song, Cameron Jibril Thomaz (stage name Wiz Khalifa), was born on 8 September 1987 in Minot (North Dakota) and he is specialized in pop/rap songs.

The song holds the record for the highest rating, exceeding three billions views. It received some awards as the best song in 2015 at the “Hollywood Film Festival” and in 2016 at the “Golden Globe”.

It was written as a tribute to the actor Paul Walker, who died in a car accident in November 2013.

The song is played in the final scene of the film, in which the protagonists Brian (Paul Walker) and Toretto (Vin Diesel) run on two different streets on their own cars representing Brian’s farewell.

The lyrics of the song is about the death of a dear friend, and it gives strength to face the problems of life, giving hope to meet again ...

"It was a long day without you my friend, and I'll tell you everything when I see you again"

We have chosen this phrase, taken from the lyrics of the song, because it makes us realize that we need to give importance to close people because they could leave us at any time.

GLOSSARY
Featuring: collaboration between two singers
Publish: when a film or a book comes out
Soundtrack: song as background music in a film
Action Movie: movie with many thrilling scenes
Stage Name: an unreal name used by famous characters
Rap/Pop: music genre from the street, freestyle-based
Exceeding: verb synonymous to overcome
Views: number of person that see the video
Award: trophy got in a competition
Tribute: an action made in honor of a person
Car accident: car crash
Farewell: last goodbye
Split: when people take different way
Strength: quality of strong person

Mattoncini cake

Why the name “Mattoncini”? The cake we propose is made of various icing layers and biscuits: looking at this cake makes you think of the bricks that build a house and when you cuts a slice…well, the similarity stands out!
The last days of summer are over and you can see new autumn colours. It’s the best time to say goodbye to a beautiful season. We are going to propose you a great way to say goodbye to the best time of the year and to our favourite season: let’s prepare a tasty cake! You could enjoy this dessert with your friends and family. It is hard to resist the temptation of a sweet, especially if it is homemade! In fact I remember that when I came to come over my grandparents, the first thing at once I've seen at once was this beautiful cake that reminded me of my childhood.

Preparation time: 30/35 minutes

Recipe for 6 people

- a pack of biscuits.
- 125g whipping cream
- 125g cream.
- 50g cocoa powder.
- half a cup of milk.
- chocolate bar.


Step 1
For the icing, mix the whipping cream and a half cup of milk in a pan and fry so that it becomes creamy, follow the same procedure in another container by adding half a cup of cocoa powder.

Step 2
Place the biscuits in the cooking tray then spread on them one of the glaze to your liking. For the second layer of cake, dunk the cookies in the milk, then put them in the baking tray together with the glaze.

Step 3
Continue until you reach enough layers, then finish decorating the cake with some bars of chocolate.

Glossary
Among: within, amidst (eg. Their music’s popular among college students)
Clear: eg. He poured water into a clear glass
Layers: overlay, tier, coating, encrustation (eg. The chef layered the chocolate frosting of the cake)
Baking tray: tin, container for biscuits, etc.
Icing: frost, frosting, ice, icing the puck, etc (eg. to pipe icing onto a cake)
Dunk: to dip, to plunge (eg. I dunk the cookies in the milk)

Lose yourself

China Clan

“Lose yourself” is a song that speaks of Marshall Bruce Mathers III’s life, better known as Slim Shady or with his most popular name: Eminem. “Lose yourself” was published on 28 October 2002; for that song Eminem was awarded the Oscar for Best Song in 2003 and the Golden Disk in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and Greece, while the Platinum Disk in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Norway, USA, UK, Sweden and Switzerland. This song speaks of Eminem’s life in his neighborhood and 8Mile, a disastrous street in Detroit that divides the white quarter from the black one. We have chosen this song because it is one of his most famous songs, that made Eminem known all over the world. Eminem is one of our favorite singers because he is the best rapper in the world: in spite of his difficult childhood, thanks to his music he has become someone, so we admire him for his strength and for his willfulness. In addition to this reason we have chosen “Lose yourself” because we like its meaning. The message this song gives us is: you have to take advantage of the chance of life, give the maximum for what you want to get it, if you fail you will hardly have these possibilities, as the song says

“you better never let it go, 

you only get one shot, 

do not miss your chance to blow, 

this opportunity comes once in a lifetime”.

GLOSSARY
Published: reproduction through the printing of drawings or images, intended for distribution and generally for sale.
Golden disk: is a recognition made up of a golden disk that represents a record, which is given to musicians to certify a number of copies sold.
Neighborhood: a city area known for its particular economic, functional and historical features.
Street: ground strip drawn to connect different places and paths from pedestrians and vehicles.
Childhood: it is the life period of a child who begins with birth and ends with pre-adolescence.
Willfulness: it is when a person doesn’t move from his own ideas.
Message: a communication sent or delivered in writing, speech, ecc…
Chance: a possibility or probability of anything happening.
Miss: to stay deprived of a thing or an important person.