Eggplant - Scamorza Heaven

Ok I promised some vegan recipes. Pardon me, but I´ll start witch something veggie but not vegan as I use also Scamorza (kind of a smoked Mozarella). But it is a very easy recipe and so tasty that I had to share it with you. Or you eat it as a samll dish wirh some fresh Ciabatta or you serve is as a side dish together with some fisch or meat or....



What you need is (for 2 - 3 persons):
1 Eggplant
1 good Scamorza (about 200 g)
2 big Tomato
Olive oil
Fresh Basil
Some salt and pepper, parchment paper
To prepare:
1. First preheat your oven to 180 C.
2. Take the parchment paper (long enough to form later a sort of a little package) and fold it so that you have it double layered. Place on each paper a good dash of olive oil.
3. Cut Eggplant, Tomatoes and Scamorza in about 5 mm thick rounds
4. Make directly on the prepared parchment paper sort of little "towers" starting with Eggplant, than Tomato (season with a little salt and pepper), 1 basil leave and to finisch the Scamorza and one more basil leave.

Adjust with some oilve oil and close the Paper in a more or less air tight way - means that you form a little package. (Make one or two towers per package but not much more as it would be difficult ot handle the package..)
5. Place those packages on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes

Serve the packages right from the oven and let open every person his package (attention it´s really hot!)... and a mouthwatering odour ....

roasted rosemary Almonds

Ok I´m not in the mood for much words.. but you also would´nt if you could smell what I smell :). So here is the recipe for roasted rosemary almonds and smell the odour....
You need:
100 g almonds
100 g almonds without skin
1 good lug of olive oil
a bunch rosemary (= 2 Tbsp chopped rosemary)
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
1 Tsp cayenne pepper
To prepare:
1. Preheat your oven to 200 C
2. Chop the rosemary; you should get about 2 Tbsp.
3. Toss together all the ingredients and the almonds.

4. Put the almonds in a quite big oven proved pan or directly on the oven tray
5. Roast for 12 min in the oven

And now....... let´s see how long this almonds will last

Summer Abundance - fresh fruits, vegetables, salad....

On saturday I went to the farmer´s market- First I was a little bit depressed because it had started to rain when I was on the way to the market. But who cares. Umbrella in one hand, shopping basket in the other and here we go..

During summer I especially love to go there. It is a feast for eyes and nose. I have bought a lot more things then we needed... Flowers, apples, raspberries, blackberries, bread, chanterelles.. oh chanterelles..for me on of the first signs that summer is soon over and fall is knocking on the door... But no later on rain stopped and the day become very sunny and warm... And I had to store alle my conquest and think about their use... I started with a quick Mozarella - Blackberrie - Summer salad. Not everyones taste.. my daughter refused the addition of blackberries with the words: "thats too weird Mom!". Ok more berries for us others :) .

You need (for 4 persons):

- Mix of different Salads

- 100 g blackberries

- 3 Tbsp. mapple sirup

- 250 g cocktail tomatoes (if possible in different colours)

- 250 g Mozarella

- Cucumber

- 50 g cashew nuts

- Lemonjuice (from 2 lemons)

- fruity olive oil (for ex. italian oil. You need the same Quantity then lemon juice)

- 1 Tbsp. mustard

- salt and pepper

To prepare:

1. Cut the tomatoes in halves, the mozarella in about 5 mm slices and the cucumber in thin slices

2. Put all together in a bowl

3. In a pan roast the cashews

4. In another pan heat up the mapple sirup and add the blackberries. Cover them all over with sirup and cook for about 1 - 2 minutes

5. Mix in a glass with a lid lemonjuice, oil, mustard, salt an pepper and shake

6. Pour the dressing (reserve 2 Tbsp.) over your salad  and toss together.

7. Arrange the salad on a plate, then the Mozarella slices. Drizzle the rest of the dressing over the cheese, scatter the nuts all over and now add the hot blackberries and their juice.

Weird ? Perhaps. But yummm, together with some fresh baguette....

Aubergine with Yoghurt-Buttermilk sauce

Now, as I was in London and visited one of the Restaurants from Ottolenghi I naturally also bought one of his books. Browsing through the cookbook I was planning to try some of the recipes.. My only problem is when to do all those things and also who should eat all those things... :) and wasn´nt there some other recipes that I wanted to try some day...? On the market I found some pretty, tempting aubergines and in Ottolenghis book a interesting recipe to prepare them. He roast the aubergines in the oven and top them with a youghurt-buttermilk sauce. Really simple but very tasty.. together with some Pita bread yumm.

You need (serves 2 persons as a starter):

1 medium sized aubergine

40 ml + 1 Tbsp. olive oil 

1 Tsp. thyme leaves + some fresh sprigs

70 ml buttermilk

60 g greek yoghurt
1 small garlic clove, crushed

salt and pepper to season

To prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C

2. Cut the Aubergines in halves (also throught the stalk) and cut in a diamond shaped way the cut-side of each aubergine

3. Put the Aubergines cut-side up on a oven tray armed with parchement paper.

4. Drizzle the olive oil on the olive oil until all the oil has been absorbed by the flesh
5. Season with salt, pepper and thyme leaves

6. Put in the oven for about 40 minutes

7. Meanwhile the Aubergines roast in the oven prepare the sauce by whisking together in a bowl buttermilk, greek yoghurt, the crushed garlic clove and season with salt, pepper and 1 Tbsp. olive oil.

8. When the flesh of the Aubergines is soft, remove from the oven and let cool down.

 9. Place the Aubergines on a plate, top the flesh with plenty of the yoghurt-buttermilk sauce and decorate with some fresh thyme sprigs.

Play some songs from Kate Yanai (Summer feeling / Bacardi song), savour the Aubergines and you feel like beeing somewhere on a Beach, looking the sunset....

Parmeggiano-basil Cracker

Once again I should learn... next week I have my next exam: Controlling... not really fascinating... During learning I need something to crunch... Chips are already gone.. So I went to the kitchen and made my own crackers. This time with parmeggiano and basil. Easily done, so I could soon start again to look into the papers... But first I wanna share the recipe with you and then I promise I´ll look into those books :) !

You need (makes about 30 cracker, amount depending on the size of your cookie cutter)

100 g fresh grated Parmeggiano

100g melted butter

100g all purpose flour

a small bunch of basil

To prepare:

1. Knead together butter, parmeggiano, flour and the chopped basil leaves

2. Roll out the dough on a parchement paper dusted with some flour until the dough is about 3 mm thick

3. With as cookie cutter you cut out the crackers and place them on a oven tray armed with parchement paper

4. Preheat the oven to 200 C and place meanwhile the oven tray with the crackers in your fridge for 10 minutes
5. Bake the Parmeggiano-basil crackers for 10 minutes until slightly golden brown

Mmmhh who cares about controlling :) ?

Cottagecheese - Trout - Puffs

 The sun is shining bright and we have real springtime temperature.. and in the radio they tell me that it will get rainy within the next days :(( !!! Some of my friends are taking the occasion to go for the last time this year skiing, other one are starting to buy plants for their garden and looking about some decorations for Eastern.

I also already started with painted eggs hanging on catkins and primroses in different colours, daffodills all around in my flat...

So I was also in the mood for some light, tasty treat that may be a good "companion" for some of the young white wines from my homecountry. Already some days ago I was thinking about puffs. I´haven´t done them for quite a long time. Mainly they are known as desert. I decided to do some salty filled puffs. As I had quite a lot of dough I made 2 different forms: one round and one longer - little bit like bones. Regarding the bone look-a-like, I decided to use them for my salty filling.  The round one, I got them into my freezer and reserved for some sweet filling that I could do within the next days or weeks, or..lets see when I´ll be in the mood..

As ingredients you will need:

200 g all purpose flour

250g water

100 g soft butter

1/4 tsp. salt

4 medium sized eggs

8 g baking powder

50 g smoked trout filet (p.P.)

Some iceberg lettuce

100 g Cottage cheese

Some parsley

Some balsamic glaze

Directions to prepare the puffs:

1. In a large saucepan, bring water, salt and butter to boil.

2. Add flour and baking powder, stirring until the mixture forms a smooth ball. Remove from the heat; let stand for about 10  minutes.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition and continue beating until mixture is smooth.

4. Fill the dough in a piping bag and pipe small amounts of the dough (in a round or bone like shape) on a oven tray (armed with parchement paper)

5. Bake for about 25 minutes in the preheated oven (200 C). Do not open your oven during the baking time, otherwise your puffs will not rise!

6. Let cool down on a wire rack before fillig your puffs.

To fill the puffs:

1. Cut them in two halves

2. First put some chopped lettuce on the base

3. Put about 1 tsp  cheese (or more regarding the size of your puffs) on the lettuce

3. Top with a small slice of smoked trout and some parsley and cover with the second part of your shell

4. Put the puffs on a plate and disperse some balsamic glaze over them

The puffs should be eaten the same day within some hours.....

 

Minced Meat Appetizer

As I had not used all the puff pastry last time when I made my Peanut cracker I was thinking about a "utilization" for the rest. There was also a rest of minced meat and as I was not in the mood for a really great dinner but more for some different small snacks.... I decided to do those cute little minced meat Appetizer.                                                  You need:  Puff Pastry (275 g), 1 medium sized onion, 250 g minced meat,  3 teaspoon tomatopaste concentrate, little bit of oil, chive  and 1 small egg. Salt, pepper and dried oregano to season your minced meat.                                         

                                                     1. Cut the onion into small cubes and fry them in a pan with some oil until they are golden brown. Add the minced meat, the tomato paste and roast all before you season to your taste with salt, pepper, and dried  oregano. 2. Let cool down your meat for some minutes                                                                                               3. Meanwhile you cut the puff pastry into squares and preheat the oven to 200 C.  4. Cut the puff pastry into squares and put on every square 1 teaspoon of the prepared minced meat. Than wrap the pastry over the meat to form a sort of a small package.                                                   

5. Pour some hot water in a bowl and put the chive for about 30 sec in the water. So you will get a softened, flexible chive that you can  wrap around your puff pastry packages.  Paint all over those packages with the beaten egg using a baking brush. Put those packages on a oven tray armed with parchment paper and bake for about 20 minutes.
Serve warm or cool as ever you like.....

   

Homemade Peanut Cracker

Ok, one can graze quite a lot of things .... like chips, popcorn, salted almonds, peanuts... But sometimes I prefer to have some really good snack while looking tv or tattling with friends. Than I do my "Homemade Crackers" which can be varied easily. Today I made my Crackers with:

- Salted and roasted Peanuts

- Black olive paste

- Puff pastry

- 1 Egg

- Dried Herbes provencal

1. Cut the puff pastry in rectangles

2. Beat the egg with a fork and paint it with a pastry brush allover your puff pastry rectangles

3. Disperse some olive paste, peanuts on the puff pastry and sprinkle the herbs over all
4. Bake for 18 min. in the preheated oven (200 C ) until golden brown

Enjoy them with your friends, your family....

Humus – Hummus – Houmus

There are different ways to write Humus and I confess that I don´t know which spelling is the right one. Perhaps all of them are right..? But who cares, it is not my intension to make an orthography lesson. Humus is a traditional dish from Mediterranean, oriental and Arab countries that is easily done and tastes great with some Pita-, Naan-Bread, Focaccia or Baguette.

I use tinned chikpeas (I find no difference in taste when using dried one…and it is much easier as you only have to open the tin…), Tahin (= special sesam paste that you can find meanwhile quite easily in stores selling oriental, arab or Turkish ingredients), salt, pepper, fresh Lemon and Orange Juice, pine nuts and of course some good quality extra vergin olive oil.

1. Drain the chickpeas in a colander and squeeze one lemon and one orange, reserve the juice.

2. Roast about 20 g pine nuts in a pan until they turn slightly brown and start to deliberate a delicious odour

3. Now you mix together 450 g chickpeas, 4 Tablespoons Tahin and the juice from 1 lemon + 1 little Orange in a blender until you obtain a smooth, fluffy paste

4. Season with salt and pepper and add more Tahin or lemon juice regarding your taste.

5. Top the Humus with the roasted pine nuts and drizzle some olive oil over it.

(If possible prepare the humus one day before you intend to eat it. I find that the Humus takes than the flavour from the pine nuts.)

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