A Spicy Delicious Lamb Recipe

I am not posting so often meaty recipes, but lately, I've fall in love with lamb and its rich texture and tastes, therefore, it was a great experiment to test a couple of delicious spicy matches. As usual, the mixture between sweet and savory is one of my favorite combinations, therefore, expect a lot of unusual matches in this recipe. Unfortunatelly, for various - very serious reasons - I did not keep any picture of the ready meal...As for now, you should believe my genuine words.

Ingredients

450 gr. lamb

100 ml. lime juice

50 gr. grated ginger

150 ml. honey

2 tablespoon Ras el Hanout spices from Spice Kitchen UK, part of the Brand Ambassador Programme

50 ml. walnut oil

9 medium-sized walnut cloves

150 ml. red wine

Directions

Rub the lime and the ginger on both side of the meat. It will help to diminish the unpleasant lamb smell which is obvious especially when the meat was deeply frosten before being used. Rub the honey on both sides and the Ras el Hanout spices. 

In a pan, add the red wine, the walnut oil and the cloves.

Heat the oven at 250C.

Turn the meat on both sides every 45 minutes. If you want it throughout, it will last at least 2h30 until perfectly ready.

As lamb is a bit difficult kind of meat, you better eat it warm, shortly after preparing it. After heating and reheating for a couple of times, the meat will most likely have the texture of a plastic sponge (unfortunatelly).

As a side dish, roasted potatoes with rosmarin, plus a fresh tomatoes and cucumber salad will be a very good choice. A glass of red wine with an aromated fruity texture is the best match, with add-on to the wine-soaked meat.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 3 hrs.

Bon Appétit!

Cornbread Muffins instead of Bread

When I am out of bread in the house, I don't worry, as I always have in my pantry enough ingredients to create fast savory substitutes which might be much better than any other baking product I can find on the market. 

I've tried the zucchini and savory muffins recently, but this time I wanted to learn better how to use the cornflour which is an ingredient I hardly use more than once the year, if ever. 

The following improvised recipe was easy to prepare and bake and delicious enough to disappear in less than half a day. 

Ingredients

250 gr. cornflour

2 cups white flour

8 gr. baking powder

2 medium eggs

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

500 gr. butter milk

1 tablespoon Osem consomme

150 gr. black sesame for decoration

Directions

Warm the oven at 250C, at least 15 minutes before you are ready. In a muffin iron, add 12 colourful muffin sheets.

Mix the ingredients well, until you have a compact paste. Pour it into the muffin papers. In the end, spread the black sesame seeds.

Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes.

I served it with yellow cheese, ricotta and spicy black olives. It is a perfect afternoon and breakfast snack, or some take away travel goodies.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 45 minutes

Serves: 12

Bon Appétit!

Delicious Ricotta Cheese Quiche with Tomatoes and Basilicum

I love quiches, especially during the winter, and as an easy meal to kill some short days when I am not too in the mood for cooking. Although I know that it is easy to make and hard to finish, I do not credit myself too often for such a culinary adventure, not because I might have some unpleasant cooking failures memories, but simply because baking requires on my side a lot of attention and focus which I am not always have in excess - especially when the baby chooses to roam around the kitchen exactly in the moment when I am about to prepare some complicated recipe.

A couple of weeks ago, I had a look at a German cooking book - Biergarten Cookbook, by Julia Skowronek - dealing with the usual food served in the famous local beer garten. Most of the recipes were not my cup of tea, but the ricotta cheese quiche with tomaotes and basilicum rang a bell home and decided to try my hand to something new.

The following recipe is a slight adaptation from the book. 
Ingredients
1 ready made Filo pastry
250 gr. ricotta cheese
200 gr. sour cream
4 eggs, medium size
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
5 shallots, finelly chopped
20 cherry tomatoes, halved
100 gr. Pecorino hard cheese
12 fresh Basilicum leaves
I used a 50cm. diameter baking pan.

 Directions
Heat the oven at 250C, at least 15 minutes before baking.
Add the ricotta, sour cream, eggs, shallots and mix well. Continue to add the salt, pepper, olive oil and mix until creamy.

Set the pastry in the pan and pour the cheesy content. Add the tomatoes and the leaves, and spread the hard cheese on the top. You can also add the basilicum when the quiche is ready to keep the leaves fresh, but I loved how the taste of basilicum infuses the mix of ingredients. You can leave to rest before putting to the oven for a couple of minutes - 5 to maximum 10.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 45-50 minutes

Serves: 7

Bon Appétit!

Veggie salad for the hot days

With summer such a high commodity in Europe, I prefer as much as I can to spend most of the hot and sunny days outdoors. Either taking short trips, either going out with the baby, my time spent indoors is significantly limited. But we also need to eat, even only once in a while. For such situations, fresh salads are there to feed your hunger.

A couple of weeks ago, I did some creative salad cooking and the result was very healthy and fit for every kind of meals: either company for pasta, or for some chicken or just as an individual healthy meal.

The preparation took around 20 minutes. It serves 3.

Ingredients:

250 brown champignons, finely chopped

250 fresh tomatoes, finely chopped

3 yellow paprika, finely chopped

1 big cucumber, finely chopped

250 gr. corn

200 gr. water creast

salt, on taste

black pepper, on taste

dried oregano, on taste

150 ml. olive oil

Directions:

Mix well all the ingredients together and let to rest in the fridge for half an hour. 

Bon Appetit!

Pesto hamburger for lunch

I am a very big meat eater, but as finding the right kosher products is not always easy in Berlin, I resigned to a couple of meals the month and the promise of intensive meat treatments in kosher paradises such as US, UK or Israel. The choice of products is not great either and I am very much against buying ready-made hamburgers or schnitzels at a high price and with a doubtful - plastic like - taste. 

Yesterday, after many days without meat, I challenged myself to get to search some meat for a hamburger. I never did one before but felt confident enough to not search for any recipe. I just used my imagination and here is what we had on the plate.

Ingredients:
500 gr. beef meat
3 big scalions, finely chopped - Alternatively, garlic can be used too; the more the better.
200 gr. pesto
200 gr. crumbs
2 tablespoon oil for the tray

Directions:

Mix each and every one of the ingredients, one by one. I mixed all by hands to be sure that everything got mixed well. 

Take one hand of meat and roll it by the hand. You can use the same mixture for boulettes too, but you need more oil to fry.

Put them in a tray covered with baking paper where the oil was spread.

Cook it at 200C. Try to turn it from a part to another every 10-15 minutes to be sure that it is well cooked.

Serves: 7 hamburgers
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes, at 200C

It tastes very good, a full fresh taste made by the pesto and scalions. As I did not use too much oil it does not taste or look greasy. I prepared as side dishes a fresh leaves salat - spinach and rocket and tomatoes and cucumber, without oil - and baked potatoes in olive oil. Very healthy and good enough to use the recipe again and again in the near future. 

Recipe of the week: Apple mousse Emmental scones

Breakfast is my favourite and sometimes most consistent meal of the day, and I keep trying to find easy - as usual - but satisfying recipes. As I love the sweet-sour combination, this recipe of Apple mousse Emmental scones is everything I need in the morning, besides the big mug of Turkish coffee. 

It can be done fast, with relatively few ingredients.

It serves 3 hungry breakfasters or one hungry breakfaster for 5 mornings.

Ingredients:

300 gr. white floor

1 tablespoon backpowder

1 teaspoon salt

100 gr. butter

200 gr. Emmetal cheese. Alternatively, other yellow cheese sort can be used as well

2 full tablespoons sunflower seeds

4 tablespoons apple mousse

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking: 20 minutes

Add the floor, poweder and salt and let to rest for around 5 minutes. Add the butter and mix, preferably with the hands, followed by the seeds, the Emmentaler finelly cut, and the apple mousse. 

Heat the oven at 250C. Pour the mixture in muffin forms and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes. If you want them less burn, do it for only 15 minutes.

I wanted them more crunchy so the result was a biscuit feeling. The salt of the cheese is mixing very well with the natural sweetness of the apples. You can have them for tea or coffee, as an afternoon snack or a child school treat.

Black lentils: the healthy side and an easy recipe

I am very clumsy with lentils and till the last year I hardly had too many encouters with them. I loved to admire their colour and texture but hardly had any idea how to prepare them and not memory of taste hence, the impossibility to imagine how the tastes can match. However, courageous as I am, I tried little by little to expand my senses, and dared to cook simple lentils recipes, usually added with some olive oil and sour cream or yoghurt. 

The best of lentils were the black ones tasted for two years in a row at my breakfast in Tel Aviv a couple of months ago: simple cold black lentils, with olive oils and sour cream, plus a lazy Jerusalem artichoke. Once returned back home, I longed for recrating if not the same sunny experience near Gordon beach, at least the beautiful taste. 

I bought from an Allnatura shop some black lentils called Beluga, inspired by their physical ressemblance with the caviar. They are small, black and round and need some extra time - around 15 minutes of boiling - till they are ready. Originally from South Asia, the black lentils have a mild eartly flavor, a soft texture and are high-fiber and protein rich. They contain: potassium, Vitamin B1, copper, manganese and phosphorus. Compared to other types of lentils - till now, I only tried the orange red ones and this is true - the experts say, the black ones remain intact after boiling. They are good served  both cold and hot.

For the preparation of the lentils, I went through the following steps:

- Cleaned the beans in cold water for a couple of minutes. Although the product was bought from a respectable bio shop, still doing some safety cleaning is a good idea.

- Once in and boiling, the water is getting black. The first time was thinking at some very artificial colours that maybe were added, but ended up believing the experienced black lentils experts and assumed that in fact there are some natural colours instead.

- I boiled for around 15-20 minutes, but it can last for around 30-40 minutes, without any risk. 

For the recipe:

- 1 cup of hard boiled black lentils

- 7 small cherry tomatoes, halved

- 1 middle size onion, finelly chopped

After the first 15 minutes of boiling, I added the other ingredients and some extra pinch of kosher salt. 

I regularly simmer doing boiling and if needed, added some extra water.

Once the water got out, I put to rest in a bowl, and also added some 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, plus some fresh sour cream.

The preparation time is of around 40 minutes. 

This recipe serves two and it can be tasted either as a side dish, maybe with some meat or some fried veggies, or like a healthy individual dish in the morning or in the evening.

Salmon thyme pastry, easiest recipe on earth

I am so afraid of new failures of pastry experiences that I almost always prefer to buy the ready made frozen bourekas. From time to time, I have the chutzpe to try something on my own, but only to have the confirmation that the bourekas from the shop are always the best. Till today, when too busy with the Rosh Hashana menu I forgot the previous lack of success and simply proceeded to the preparation of some salmon pastry. The investment made was minimal: the thyme, 350 gr. natural salmon and some ready made dough. I cut the dough into medium sized squares, and added the salmon with the thyme in the middle.

I packed the four corners of the square and made a kind of kreplach-like size: small squares with the salmon in the middle carefully protected by the dough.

With the oven heated at 250C, the salmon pastry went ready very fast, in almost 20 minutes. A bit burned on the sides, but looking and smelling too good to be made in my own kitchen. Can't wait to taste the result, in only a couple of hours. 

Apparently, it seems that I start the New Year at least with a clear objective: baking and cooking at home as often as possible. It's time to try even more new recipes, forgetting about all the previous failures. Maybe this perspective matches other life achievements too...

Chocolate Coconut (easy) cake

Shabbes starts late so I have more time to think about the menu. But when it comes to cakes, it seems that I'm very often out of inspiration and I need a longer research than usual. This time, I tried to be fast yet creative and using the available ingredients. 

The results were not bad, not bad at all.

Here are the magic ingredients leading to the big piece of cake serving 8 (at least).

350 gr. flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

250 gr. melted butter of veggie margarine

200 gr. baking chocolate

5 beaten eggs

200 gr. sugar - I rather wanted a less sugarly cake, otherwise, you can add 50 gr. more eventually

200 gr. dessicated coconut -if you want a stronger taste, you can add more.

Directions - preparation time 15 minutes

Add the baking powder to the flour and mix it well.

Beat the eggs and add them. Mix well again.

Melt the chocolate and the butter or margarine. Add them to the mixture.

Continue with the sugar and coconut.

Mix them for around 5 minutes till you have a perfect pasta.

Heat the oven at 200C. Bake it for around 45 minutes.

To be served with green tea or a nesscafé.

Bon Appétit!

Passion for pita bread

For each of the last two Shabbos, we had on the table a special basket with pita bread. As part of my project of doing something new each week - at least once - I wanted to try my skills by cooking a good pita and after a second try a succeeded to reach the level of 80% of the pita I used to eat when I was a child. 

I was very strict in following the ingredients and the main steps of the recipe and thus I did not have too many surprised. I would love to try pita in combination with garlic and cheese and to add some olive oil as well. My mother zt''l, used to add some fruits or jam and maybe I can make one a combination between pita and pancakes.

I decide to arrange by hand each pita and the outlook improved on my second try. You need to manage properly the time for the preparation of the dough and the cooking as such, but the result is always unforgettable delicious!

Bon Appetit

Hungarian Fruit Soup for the summer

Due to my French-oriented education, I was always taught to think that the best fruit soup is French. However, when years ago I was invited to a veritable Hungarian restaurant, the fruit soup was not only part of the menu, but unforgettable. Since then - more than 10 years - I did not taste any other delicious soup. 

When I saw this Hungarian Fruit Soup recipe, the temptation was to hurry up to buy the ingredients as soon as possible. I am not a regular soup eater, but due to the hot weather outside, I decided that it is exactly what I need for a good and refresing afternoon. 

I decided to do not change too much from the original recipe and the result was excellent. The sour taste of the fruits and the sour cream created a special combination that did not compare with nothing I tried till then. Most probably, it could work well also with yogourt. 

Bon Appetit!

Thai coconut fish

For the first time in a long time, I follow exactly the letter of this recipe, posted on gourmetkoshercooking. The result was a perfect combination, with a special taste.

The mixture between lemon and ginger plus tomatoes gave a special flavor to the meal that goes very well with a good white wine.

Most probably, I should do more cooking experiments that includes as ingredients coconut milk, ginger and lemon. 

To be continued!

Neapolitan Eggplants

Openly speaking, at the first sight you don't know exactly what it is all about in this picture...Also openly speaking, I didn't know exactly what wonderful food I am eating when I had the first bite of this.

I started to cook eggplants only a couple of months ago - due to an unhappy allergic experience a couple of years ago - but since then I love to introduce it on my menu at least every month.

This week, for the Shabbat menu, I wanted something new and thus, I tried another recommendation from The Classic Kosher Cooking, by Sara Finkel (p.142).

I did some changes but overall I kept the main narrative.

What do you need:

2 moderate eggplants

1 teaspoon salt 

1/3 cup oil

2 small red onions finely diced

3 gloves garlic, minced

1 cup grated Emmentaler

I cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven for around 30 minutes. After, I cut out the pulp, chop it and fried together with the oil and onion for 10 minutes. I added the cheese, the garlic and the salt for another 5 minutes, then put together in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. The taste is so wonderful that you don't know exactly what you are eating. 

A real pleasure!

A fresh salad for a new beginning

This wonderfully green-looking salad was part of the never ending menu prepared for Rosh Hashanah.

The ingredients:
lettuce
avocado - half, finelly chopped
pomegranate seeds - 1/4
olive oil
1 table spoon of honey
Mixed them all together and serve them as often as possible. The final taste is delicious.

Sugar roasted figs with cinnamon

 
All you need, besides love, is: a couple of nicely cut figs, the sugar sauce - 2-3 spoons of sugar in water - and some nails of cinnamon powder. All together are introduced in a moderately heated oven and used to live together for a couple of minutes - maximum 20. To be served with fresh water in a sunny afternoon on the beach.

Another spring salad

The image of the following salad is the result of my wanderings in town. I only tasted and didn't tried it yet. Most probably, I would add or subtract some ingredients.
The ingredients used, hidden and visible are:
salad
cucumber
tomatoes
feta cheese
corn
peanuts
yogurt
For me, it was enough for a good lunch, before continuing my busy schedule.

A lovely spring salat

I owe the recipe of this salad to my lovely one and only. Actually, he recommended his version that I changed and adapted according to what we had in the fridge at that moment. It's an easy and fresh recipe (ready in maximum 15 minutes) and very tasty in various combinations (including with crunchy toast)

What do you need:

1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped too/onion

4 tomatoes, very finely chopped

4 boiled eggs

250 Patros cheese

salt

Mix all of them together - with a wood spoon or with your lovely clean hands (our variant). Two persons and half can eat this in less than 10 minutes.

Time for a change.

My Carrot Sticks

Very often, a picture could be a good inspiration for a successful recipe. Sometimes, it is a measure of the success - or failure - of an amateur cook. 

In my case, I started by being mesmerized for a couple of seconds by this wonderful picture, and went as far as away as I dared to try my own variant. In my picture, the result doesn't look too tasty. Or even not tasty at all. But, believe me, at the end of the first 5 minutes of complaining about how unskillful cook I am, half of the products were eaten - and not by me, as a form of extreme punishment. At the end of the day, maybe I am only a bad photographer.

The ingredients, for 2 persons:
10 carrots peeled and boiled and thereafter sliced
2 cloves of garlic
100 ml. sesame oil
2 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
All ingredients are fried at 250C for between 15 - 20 minutes.
Bon Appetit!

Broccoli and sesame

As in other cases, this tasty recipe is the result of a cross-reading of various recipes, to which I added a tablespoon - or two - of creativity.

The recipe is for 3 persons.

Ingredients

400 gr. broccoli - boiled

200 gr. mushrooms - half-fried

100 ml. sesame oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Sliced and carefully mixed, the composition is fried for almost 20 minutes and then served on a place. Adding yogurth and salt might be very good ideas for having a light, healthy and tasty dinner.

Where to keep your recipes?

Browsing the shelves of a bookstore those days, I found out some nice things, reminding me of my childhood. My mother used to keep a lot of recipes, written by hand, copied from various books or reviews, in colourful binded notebooks. There were not the Moleskine I am addicted too, but common notebooks, ennobilated by her writings and notes.

In the favorite one is this nice "Meine liebsten Rezepte", Bassermann Verlag, 2009. An oldies but goldies classical cover, where you could share 89 recipes. The content is set at the beginning and you can further organize it on categories: Fish, Meat, Salats, Vegetables, Desserts, Cookies, Marmelades, Fast meals...One page is dedicated to the measures. For each recipe, you can mention the details for the number of persons, ingredients, preparation time, observations. From the editor, for each recipe you have a smart tip. 

The other one, "Lieblingsrezepte fur dich" is having a childish design, colourful pages and allow you to save only 50 recipes. You don't have a content page, but there are almost the same categories organizing the booklet, plus the tips. 

Time ago, those recipes used to be transmitted from a generation to another, a testimony of the tradition and the need to keep it. We don't write too often and we forget sometimes that we have an obligation to offer part of our heritage to our children. But, if we really want to, we have this opportunity and the two nice notebooks I discovered blushed my optimism.

Or maybe we'll transmit to our children a link to our cooking blog? Why not?