apple tart: puff pastry and home-grown apples

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Cakes + Cookies
Sometimes it’s so easy to make my family happy. For example with an unexpected and beautiful dessert.

A few sheets of puff pastry and enough apple slices to cover the bottom of a baking dish.  Apricot jam to be brushed onto the tart while it’s still hot. That’s it. (Although I have to admit that a leftover of sirupy mirabelle liqueur in my fridge came perfectly well to marinate the apple slices. ) If you don’t have mirabelle liqueur lemon juice will be equally fine.

apple tart: puff pastry and home-grown apples
 
4 sheets of frozen puff pastry
3-4 apples, quartered and finely sliced
apricot jam
mirabelle liqueur or freshly squeezed lemon juice to marinate the apple slices
icing sugar
While the puff pastry thaws, peel, quarter and finely slice the apples. Marinate the apples with liqueur or lemon juice.
Roll out the thawed sheets of puff pastry. Put one of them aside to later form the covering grid. Butter the baking dish and cover the bottom with the remaining puff pastry.
Spread the apple slices evenly onto the pastry dough and finally cover with the pastry grid.

Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C or until the pastry dough turns golden. Out of the oven, brush the tart generously with apricot jam. Before serving, sprinkle the tart with icing sugar.

Donna Hay’s spiced chickpea salad

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Lunch / Salads

Donna Hay’s cookbook Fresh and Light is the quintessence of 21st century cuisine. She offers a joyful, varied and sensible kitchen that gives an alternative to the current trend of restrictive cooking, wheat-free, sugar-free, lactose-free, gluten-free, fruit-free, to name a few. She invites to use fresh, seasonal and regional products, and substitutes traditional ingredients for their healthier equivalent.  Donna made sure that all her recipes are easy and quick to prepare.

After all; overly complicated cooking instructions just make convenience food seem all the more appealing.

It was hard to pick just one of her enticing dishes for this introduction of her book.  She actually translates my own way of thinking  and cooking into beautiful creations….

Donna Hay’s spiced chickpea salad
(slightly adapted)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon smokes sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds
250g chickpeas (soaked over night and cooked )
3 carrots , peeled and shredded using a julienne peeler
a few mint leaves
a few coriander (cilantro) leaves
some dollops fresh goat cheese (combine wonderfully with the dressing!)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon olive oil, extra

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add the oil, cumin, paprika, salt and ground fennel seeds. Cook for two minutes or until fragrant. Add the chickpeas and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the chickpea are toasted and coated in spices.

Place the carrots, coriander, mint, lemon juice, honey and extra olive oil in a bowl and toss to combine. Add the chickpeas and mix in gently. Divide between serving plates and top with the dollops of goat cheese.

clafoutis aux mirabelles

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Cakes + Cookies

Yesterday we picked the first sun-kissed mirabelles from the tree. Although the season has not yet started I love to enjoy the first bright yellow, but still firm and slightly acidic mirabelles in a clafoutis, sooo good!

Clafoutis aux mirabelles

1 tablespoon butter, softened
5 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons mirabelle brandy (kirsch or rum are fine)
5 eggs
3/4 cups flour
a pinch of sea salt
3 cups mirabelles, pitted

Distribute the mirabelles evenly in a buttered baking dish.
Combine butter, milk, eggs, sugar, salt, brandy and vanilla in a blender. Blend for a few seconds, add the flour and blend again until smooth. Pour the mixture over the mirabelles.
Bake at 180°C for 35 minutes, until golden brown.  It’s fine if the clafoutis is still moist inside.

Sprinkle with dusting powder. Enjoy!

raw pasta sauce: double tomato, caper and basil sauce

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Dinner / Lunch

double tomato, caper and basil sauce
serves 2

2 fresh and ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and soaked
a few basil leaves
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
grated parmesan

While cooking the pasta, chop the tomatoes and the basil. Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Toss through 200g hot pasta, sprinkle with parmesan, pepper and salt.

Hope you’ll feel inspired by our delicious lunch today!

dukkah

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Snacks

Dukkah is an Egyptian spiced nut and seed mix. Perfect to enjoy just with bread and olive oil.
Today I paired it with fresh ricotta and Duca Carlo Guarini’s L’Agrumato al Limone, a native olive oil infused with the aroma of Apulian lemons. Add a glass of Campo di Mare  Negroamaro  from the same Apulian Azienda Agraria and you are in heaven!

Dukkah

1/2 cup hazelnuts
1/3 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
1 teaspoon sea salt

The basic ingredients are always nuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, cumin, black pepper and salt. As for the range of nuts you may substitute the hazelnuts by almonds, you may add pine nuts, pistachios  or cashews. If you like you may also experiment with dried thyme, mint, anise seeds, fennel seeds or chili.

Roast the nuts in the oven for 8-10 minutes at 180°C.

Roast the seeds in a skillet over medium heat. Sake and stir them frequently, until they crackle and become slightly browned.

Scrape them into a bowl together with the hazelnuts. Add the salt.

You may grind the mixture in a mortar or in a food processor until the mixture is well ground, but not too fine. I pestle the nuts, seeds and spices in my suribachi because there’s no better way to inhale the still warm flavours of Egypt!

Store dukkah in an airtight glass at room temperature.

 

Russell James’ Mexican tomato soup

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Lunch / Soups

Lately I discovered Russell James, England’s leading raw chef. I browsed through his food blog and watched a couple of his videos. He made me curious. What would be hiding behind his “top 10 most-loved raw recipes”? I must confess, until now raw cuisine hadn’t convinced me: too fat, too sweet, too many dates and soaked cashews.

“Amazing recipe n°8”, however, caught my immediate attention. The result? Absolutely delicious!

mexican tomato soup
(slightly adapted)

1 cup ripe tomatoes
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for an hour
1/2 avocado
1 tablespoon red onion
a few twigs of fresh cilantro
a few leaves of fresh mint
a small piece fresh chili pepper
1 clove garlic
2 soft (or soaked) dates
1/2 teaspoon dried coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
juice from 1/2 lime

500ml hot or cold water

Mix all ingredients in a blender, before serving decorate with chopped spring onions, chives, cilantro and slices of lime.
As an additional topping I roasted cashes and sunflower seeds.

 

juicy breakfast

23. August 2014
by troutandhawk
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Breakfast / Drinks

Jason Vale’s Minty Sunshine, Tahini Beaney, and Veggie Power, all freshly juiced and blended!  Except for the pink intruder. I bought it because I wanted the little glass bottle, perfect for take-away…. Nevertheless in comparison to our  fresh juices it was the perfect proof that the difference fresh versus pasteurized is enormous.

Minty Sunshine 

2 oranges
3 carrots
1-2 cm chunk root ginger
4 sprigs fresh mint
a small handful ice cubes

Juice all ingredients. Pour the juice over ice and enjoy!

Veggie Power Smoothie

2 apples
1 handful spinach
1 handful kale
1/2 lemon, wax free with the skin on)
1/2 stick celery
1/4 cucumber
2 cm chunk broccoli stem
1/2 avocado
a small handful ice cubes

Juice all ingredients except the avocado and the ice. Pour the juice into the blendert along with the avocado and the ice and blend until smooth.

Tahini Beaney

almond milk
1 large teaspoon honey
1 small teaspoon tahini
1 banana
a small handful ice cubes

Put the ice, banana, tahini and honey in a blender and fill up to the 500ml line with almond milk  and blend.

Fresh juices are true nutritional powerhouses which give you the energy to get you through the day without snacking.