Zucchini - Cheese Pastry

I don´t know why but at the moment I seem to be in love with puff pastry. Probably because it is very variable and you can make in a short time a great treat...sweet or salty..... So you can find puff pastry in my fridge quite on all time as well as some cheese. I like those Zucchini-cheese pastries beeing served as a little dish with salad.
What you need (serve 4 - 5 person):
1 roll of puff pastry (275 g)
1 medium sized zucchini
200 g Camembert
2 Tsp of a dried herbs mix (like Herbes de Provences)
Some fresh thyme, salt, pepper and olive oil
For the salad:
1 small lettuce, 1 little onion, ketchup, mustard, white vine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper
To prepare:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 C
2. Cut the puff pastry in some rectangles

3. Slice the washed zucchini, as well as the camembert

4. Put the zuccini on the puff pastry, season with herbs, salt and pepper. Top with the cheese, fresh thyme and drizzle with some olive oil

5. Bake in the preheated oven on a paper lined tray for about 20 minutes until golden brown and the cheese is melted (I did meanwhile the pastries baking too much things and nearly forgot them, so they turned a little bit too brown..... : ) )

6. While the pastries bake: wash, cut and season your salad. I mixed for the salad a vinaigrette out of sliced onion, 2 Tsp mustard, 2 Tsp ketchup 3 Tbsp white vine vinegar, 6 Tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper.
I put everything in a little jar, close it with a lid and shake until well combined. Pour the vinaigrette over your salad.

7. Prepare for each person a plate with some salad and the quantity of zucchini-cheese pastries you like.

"Forferl" - a way of "material recovery" in our daily kitchenworld.....

When I was a little girl, whenever my Mom made a dish with breadcrumb coating, mainly it was Wiener Schnitzel (i.e. Viennese Escalope), she made out of the remaining flour, egg and breadcrumbs what we call "Forferl". As she had not so much ingredients remaining, most of the time she made only 1 of those Forferl.... I remember more than 1 dispute about which one of us children would get this  delicacy : ). To share it with my sister...never : )..... Talking about that with my friends quite any of them reminds this "leftover treat". In reality a Forferl is a very simple thing but children loves it....

To prepare: You use the rest of your ingredients that you need while preparing a dish with breadcrumb coating. So of course first you prepare as usual your dish with the breadcrumbs. Then you simply mix together the remaining ingredients: Add step by step a little amount of breadcrumbs and flour to your remaining whisked egg  until you get a sort of a dough; season with some salt and pepper and form some little loaf. If you want you can put some parsley on the Forferl (fix it with a toothpick) and then fry it in some hot oil until golden brown.

Beeing a child we loved it with a lot of ketchup or/and mayo................

Viola Cupcakes - the result of a Jogging round.....

As the weather was quite good and I was not too busy, I decided to make a little Jogginground in the parc nearby. The grass is green, the flowers are growing..and hundreds of violets... They look so cute and so I made a little pause and started to collect flowers... Hmmm the violet smells wonderful! Starting once again to jogg I came to another part of the parc where there was a complete different odour in the air: the strong smell of garlic. You guess which plant was growing there? Yes, the so called bear´s or wild garlic. Reminds me of a tasty wild garlic soup...but no, today we stay with the violets.... Coming home some of the violets was arranged in small vases and with some of them I went to my kitchen... Before starting I had to buy some violet flavour that I could get in the Center of the City in a special shop for bakers supply. So I had to reserve the violets for at least one day before starting to bake my intended Viola Cupcakes. As Violets inclines to fade quite quick I gave them in a freezer bag, added some drops of water and blew some air into the bag (as if you would blow a balloon) and then tied him up. Then I placed the bag in the lowest part of my fridge where the violets waited until their final destination....and really they stayed as fresh...

Makes about 7 cupcakes, the needed ingredients are:

120 g Wheat Flour

140 g sugar

40 g soft butter

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 Tbsp. ground almonds

1Egg

120 ml milk

6 drops of violet flavour (according to your taste add more or less)

For the Frosting:

250g icing sugar

25 ml milk

80 g soft butter

4 drops of violet flavour (take less if you like it more subtle)

Food colouring powder, I choosed a red one

Paper liners for the 12-cup muffin tray

To prepare:

1. Start preparing the cupcakes by mixing flour, baking powder and sugar with butter until you get a sandy consistency.

2. Ad 120 ml of the milk until everything is well combined

3. Add the egg and the violet flavour

5. Spoon in the paper liners (that you have placed in the muffin tray) and disperse some violets on the each cupcake

6. Bake in the 180 C preheated oven for about 25 minutes.

7. Meanwhile the cupcakes bake you can prepare your frosting:

Beat the icing sugar and the soft butter until the mixture is well combined. Then incorporate the milk and the violet flovour slowly in your mixture (add food colouring if you want; if you use food colouring powder take care to add only a very small amount...) and continue beating until the frosting gets fluffy.

8. When your cupcakes have cooled down spoon your frosting on top with a knife and decorate with some violets 

Featured on Facebook and Twitter from NOMU

Having found a product I like, I stay a real true friend of it and like to recommand it to my friends. So I discovered some time ago the products from a south african brand called Nomu. Looking into my blog you will find their products from time to time in my recipes. On one hand I like the history of the brand and also their  sympathic and modern productstyling... Therefore I was very pleased that Nomu featured me on Facebook and Twitter  : ) :http://www.facebook.com/NoMUBrands#!/NoMUBrands?sk=wall. Unfortunately I can not get the whole product range of Nomu in my hometown and to let it come per post is a little bit to expansive as it comes from South Africa.... Travelling to South Africa would be an option..but also a little bit expansive : )......

Cinnamon Polenta with Smoked Trout Filet

Of course I had bought more of the smoked trout filet then needed... Eat it cold with some bread...ok would be an option but not very fancy.... In my cupboard I found some instant Polenta... I dont know why but I tried Polenta more then one time and never could get it really creamy... But ok why not try it once more..and yeahh this time the Polenta become really smooth and creamy and that little touch of cinnamon... I think I´ll do Polenta soon once again :).

You need for 4 person:
Smoked Trout Filet (about 100 g p.P)
200 g instant Polenta

500 ml warm vegetable stock

400 ml lukewarm milk
1/2 medium sized onion
6 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. cinnamon

2 medium sized Zucchini

Some olive oil, some fresh thyme

To prepare:

1. Cut the Onion in small cubes and sweat in 2 Tbsp. butter until slightly brown

2. Cut the Zucchini into slices and grill them in a pan with some good lug of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to your taste

3. Pour the stock and the milk into the pan and add gradually, while stirring, the polenta

4. Stir from time to time until you get a creamy consistence.

5. Meanwhile heat up the Trout Filet (I did in the microwaveoven for only some few seconds but one could also heat it up in some of those asian bamboo baskets in which you can heat up over vapour - as if you would cook some DimSums....)

6. When your Polenta has the right consistence stir in the ground cinnamon and 4 Tbsp. butter

Serve on preheated plates with the trout filet and the grilled Zucchini and drizzle some hot butter with thymeleaves over all