gingered beans with hijiki

29. August 2013
by troutandhawk
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Dinner / Lunch / Snacks

My international family of favourite green bean recipes (German with tomatoes, onions and vinaigrette, Spanish with fried garlic and almonds) welcomes a new brother in their midst: Asian gingered beans with hijiki.

This recipe is full of flavour and makes use of the beautiful hijiki algae, and fancy yet very easy to prepare.

 

dry and soaked hijiki




















gingered beans  with hijiki (inspired by Alicia Silverstone)

1/2 cup dried hijiki

1 tablespoon tamari

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup onions, chopped

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

pinch of sea salt

2 cups fresh geen beans

2 tablespoons grated ginger

Place the hijiki in a small bowl with hot water. Let it soak for about 30 minutes, then drain and rinse.

Combine the hijiki with the tamari, add waterto almost cover in a saucepan.Cook, uncovered over medium heat until the water has nearly evaporated.

While the hijiki cooks, heat the oil, add onion, garlicand salt and sauté for about 4 minutes, or until translucent. Add the green beans. Cover and cook until the beans are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.

Add the hijiki and ginger.

Mix well and cook for 1 to 2 minutes longer to marry the flavours.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Michael’s meadows and a lunch al fresco

28. August 2013
by troutandhawk
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Lunch / Salads




Michael Simonsen, of Simonsen Freianlagen, the landscape designer and family friend, has a beautiful garden, that we were very eager to visit. Whenever we asked, “can we come see your garden this weekend?” He said “No no noooo, it needs a little more time to show the whole variety of flowers! Half of them didn’t blossom yet!” or “Just a little more patience, I am still waiting for the sunflowers!”

Finally, on a sunny day towards the end of August, we decided “now or never” and called Michael to tell him the day of our visit had come, and that we didn’t want to wait for the sunflowers any longer.




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The walk through the meadows was delightful; we saw a real-life deer and some of the flowers smelled like honey.

For lunch Michael sent us off to the vegetable patch in the beautiful kitchen garden equipped with a washing basket to pick our ingredients. Warty cucumbers, the most differently shaped and coloured tomatoes and little leafy greens and herbs made a wonderful salad.

semi-dried tomatoes overnight

1. August 2013
by troutandhawk
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Dinner / Lunch / Snacks

 

Every now and then the overnight tomatoes make their appearance on various food blogs I follow. They have many fancy names like night blushed tomatoes or moon dried tomatoes, but I think the flavour speaks for itself.  When I talked with my local vegetable shopkeeper about the many possibilities to enjoy the little heirloom tomatoes I remembered the overnight method and promised to share it with him.

It’s super easy and the result is irresistible. While you heat your oven up to the maximum (250°C), you cut the tomatoes in halves, put them on a baking tray and season them to your liking.
I love to sprinkle them with salt, brown sugar (or maple syrup) and a bit of ground caraway. That’s it.

The moment you put the tomatoes in the oven you turn off the heat and go to bed.

When you open the oven the next morning, you’ll find the most sweet, tasty, semi-dried, wonderful, delicious tomatoes you hardly can contain yourself from eating them right from the tray.

 

The tiny tomatoes of the middle row didn’t survive until we had prepared the rest of the lunch (the smaller the tomatoes the better for the overnight method!)

 

smoothie and raw food combination tips!

31. July 2013
by troutandhawk
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Breakfast / Drinks / Guest Post / Lunch

Smoothies make a great breakfast (and if you like, you can continue drinking them all day). They replenish your cells with water, minerals and natural sugars! Here a few tips, to make your smoothie experience very enjoyable!!

1. Melon should always be the first meal of the day (never in between other meals) and in a smoothie also best just by itself. The reason why it doesn’t mix well, is, that is has a very high water content, and digests very fast. So if you ate something more dense before, it may cause bloating or even stomach cramps.

2. Smoothies (for the exact same reason) make a great first meal (and also second and third…) but don’t go well after a denser meal. As a general rule of thumb, try to eat foods that are digest faster (high water content = fresh fruit and vegetables, smoothies) first and earlier in the day, and foods that digest slower (less water content = cooked or baked foods) later, or in the evening.

3. Good raw food combinations (apply also for smoothies!):

  • Greens go with everything
  • Melon goes by itself
  • Very sweet fruits (bananas, dates, figs, persimmon,..) go well together and with greens
  • Semi sour fruits (all fruits with stones and berries, some apples) go well together and with greens and some sour fruits
  • Sour fruits (citrus fruits and tomatoes, pineapple, some apples) go well together and with greens, and with fats (avocados, nuts, flaxseed, coconut) and with some semi sour fruits
  • Fats don’t mix well within their own group, but go with sour fruits and greens

These combination guidelines shouldn’t limit you in any way! In fact many many raw food and smoothie recipes break these rules (for example combining fat with sweet fruits, or fat with other fat) and create absolutely delicious treats. Just if you aim to include a lot of raw fruits and veggies in your diet, paying attention to the combinations is gonna safe you a lot of bloating and stomach pains, I promise!

Some of my recent favourite smoothie are:

Bananas + swiss chard leaves + basil + ice
Bananas + dates + vanilla + lupine flour + ice
Strawberries + peaches + ice

I hope this was a helpful introduction to smoothie and raw food combinations!
Much love, Vik (guest blogger today!)

raw pad thai

28. July 2013
by troutandhawk
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Dinner / Lunch
Raw Pad Thai



2 baby cucumbers
1 zucchino
1 big red bell pepper
1 onion (chopped for garnish)
a handful of fresh sprouts (for garnish)
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (chopped, plus a few sprigs for garnish)
1 lime

Using a mandoline or a knife slice the cucumbers, the zucchino and the bell pepper in very thin, noodle sized stripes. Mix to combine.

Dressing


3 tablespoons raw almond cream
1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
1 tablespoon tamari
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cilantro
1/4 small jalapeno , chopped

In a blender combine all the ingredients for a dressing, blending until smooth. Pour over the vegetable mixture and toss to coat.  Top with the garnish and squeeze fresh lime juice over the pad thai. Enjoy!

The original recipe with zucchini and carrots you find in The Sweet Life.

a week of vegan specials

27. July 2013
by troutandhawk
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Drinks
fresh coconut-agave-strawberry smoothie

If you, like me, have dipped your foot in vegan waters already, you will know that this week you won’t have to expect any hay, straw and treetasting foods. Especially in summer I crave nothing more than light crunchy vegetables and fruit in all variations, and my daughter Vik, a true vegan and expert cook, has inspired many groundbreaking recipes. Moreover, she knows how to combine food the most effective way, what works best in the morning and evening and especially after a workout.

This week you are in for a treat, and hopefully discover that cooking completely plant based is never getting boring. You can look forward to multiple sauces and dressings, that go with pretty much anything, ice creams, warm and cold soups, even some raw vegan dishes, and some delicious foods that we yet have to name. And for your sweet tooth: I don’t exaggerate, when I say that our chocolated, sea salt sprinkled dates are better than any truffle.

 

Pink Mojito Granita

23. July 2013
by troutandhawk
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Sweets

Mojitos are always irresistible; this one is non- alcoholic and frozen, which makes it the best cool down drink after a run through the countryside.
The original recipe will give you a granita that looks like a real mojito. If you want it pink like in the picture above, just before serving throw it into your blender with a couple of spoons of a berry sorbet.

Mojito Granita
(original recipe by David Lebovitz)

2 1/2 cups (625ml) water
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
2 limes
1 cup (40g) lightly packed fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup (125ml) freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 6 limes)
3 tablespoons (45ml) white rum (leave out the rum for the non-alcoholic version)

Mix water, sugar and the grated zest of 2 limes in a saucepan. Cook the mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Reserve 5 of the mint leaves, add the remaining mint to the saucepan and remove from the heat. Let cool to room temperature.
Once cool strain the mixture in the container you plan to freeze the granita, pressing firmly on the leaves to extract the flavourful liquid. Discard the mint leaves. Stir in the lime juice and, optionally, the rum, then finely chop the reserved mint leaves and add them as well.
How to freeze a granita you find in my recipe for granita de caffé.

 

Grandma’s Classics: Black Current & Black Cherry Jam

19. July 2013
by troutandhawk
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Jams + Preserves
 

When Grandma cooks jam, she will make her choice of fruit dependent on what special fruits are in season, the lushest offers at the farmer’s market, and on cases of uncontrollable fruit abundance in the neighbours’ gardens. She quickly cooks 2 or 3 jars between her usual cooking, gardening and housework.  The black fruit jam however is one of her true classics.
The fruit/ sugar ratio is always the same: fruit to sugar, 2:1.  The rest is stirring. First hot, while simmering, then cold to enjoy the reliable process of thickening.

Today she combined
250g black currants
250g black and sweet cherries, pitted
250g sugar.

Click here for a more detailed description of the cooking process.