Easy latkes recipe

To latkes or not to latkes...this was my question Saturday evening on the first day of Hanukkah - Jewish holidays start in the evening -, when I knew that for the next days all the food stores are closed and thus, most probably I cannot prepare a great deal of food for the next days. Relying on the welcoming invitations from friends is a great solution too, but I am stubborn enough to not accept that my Hanukkah will be latkes-less. Thus, yesterday morning, the cooking fever finally returned into my life and I decided that, among other recipes that I did - more updates in my next posts - I should also prepare for the lunch with baby D. and me some latkes. I made a short tour of my pantry and realized that, in fact, I had enough ingredients for a fresh portion of latkes. Because the baby D. is still quite sensitive to spices, I eliminated garlic or onions from the recipe, and had the following combination of ingredients:

7 small and medium potatoes, peeled and finelly grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pinch of za'atar
2 small eggs beaten - one was enough also
15 gr. baking powder - it make the composition fluffy but it might leave a taste so you can easily forget about it
1 tablespoon margarine for a milky creamy taste and appearance
Mix well everything. Try to pour the extra water out by using a strainer.
Meanwhile, pour generously oil in the pan and wait to get warmer at around 250C. I used peanut oil because I tried to see how the final result comes out in terms of taste but it was not a big deal.

I preferred to fry in batches of three, leaving more space in the pan. The warm is easier distributed when there are not too many items frying. It resulted 9 small latkes, that I left to rest and get the oil out of it on a parchment paper. 

The entire preparation and frying process lasted around 45 minutes and although baby D. wasn't too keen to taste it - and it seems is his problem with latkes in general - I enjoyed my portion and the spirit of the holidays. 

Now, I wonder if I am brave enough to try some sufganiyot too. Why not? Given my passion for home made cook, a final - positive - decision may be only a matter of days, or rather hours.

Fast tofu-based breakfast

If you follow this blog for a while, you might know how much I praise and appreciate breakfast. Once upon a time, when I had to be at work around 8 o'clock, I used to wake up very early in the morning to catch at least one full day of breakfast. 

Nowadays, I do have my natural clock who wakes me up in due time to prepare a tasty breakfast, either I am on the road or at home. My usual breakfast menu includes fruits and veggies - avocado and tomatoes are a must -, a big mug of coffee, an egg and cheese - as much cheese as possible. When I am really in a hungry mood, I can accept some salmon and some fried mushrooms too.

Today, I really wanted to try something different, and thanks to my early morning son, I got the chance to actually do it. I used various items available in my kitchen:

- peanut oil

- Taifun tofu cheese

- a ripe bio avocado

- a Arche Teriyaki sauce which has an excellent taste and I plan to use in various combinations. One observation though: why, oh why, the bottle is sealed straighter than the Alcazar prison and in order to open it, I had to almost cut a finger while trying different desperate methods...To be continued...

The preparation of this delicious dish, lasts around 15 minutes. 

First, you need to pour the oil in the pan and wait for around 5 minutes until it got hot.

Slice the tofu and put in the pan and turn on sides every couple of minutes. I didn't wanted too fried, so after around 10 minutes, everything was ready.

I added the sliced avocado and spread the sauce and that's it!

The Taifun tofu I tried doesn't have any specific taste, but it receives from the peanut oil and the sauce.

That's it! 

Have your coffee ready and your orange juice, and have a great start into the day! 

Bon Appetit!

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.

Getting used with Chia. One seed at a time

I am not a fashionable person when it comes to foods and I prefer to wait till testing foods or recipes or food trends everyone is recommending. I had and still have my own reserves regarding quinoa - not tasty enough for my preferences - and had some time till I decided to test some chia-based recipes. 

Compared to quinoa, chia is even more difficult to match because it has no taste at all. So, why to pay a lot of money - everywhere the seeds are very expensive and are mostly available at the bio/organic shops - when you cannot get any specific experience? This was the question that kept me quite a long time away from it. 

My first experience with chia was in the form of a coconut blueberry pudding at the Einstein Coffee. Served cold, the black chia bubbles were just part of the decorations, but I love the coconut milk so was not worried about wasting my money. Later on, I decided to try myself through a couple of recipes. 

The tiny tasteless seeds are rich in protein, fiber, calcium, zinc, magnesium, omega-3, B1, B2, phosphors. Quite an impressive line of vitamins. Add to the list the anti-oxidants, with significant anti-aging contribution.

Their preparation is easy. Soak them in cold water twice the quantity of the seeds and wait between 2 and 10 hours. They expand multiple times in size and gives you a feeling of fullness when eaten in various combinations. Till now, I used two tablespoons of chia and 1 cup water, and kept them together for around 2 hours. 

You cannot eat them raw - or you can, but doesn't make too much sense - but in combination to smoothies or puddings. Some may even sprinkle it on some rice dishes. Another idea is to ground them in the machine and use as a powder basis only. This variant I haven't tested yet.

Chia - the Maya word for strength - is recommended as part of various diets as it delivers a massive amount of nutrients with only few calories. Easy to incorporate in any kind of diets, it is considers also as a factor of improving blood markers, decreasing the risk of heart diseases and of the type 2 diabetes, improving the digestive health and possibly fighting against breast and cervical cancer. The combination between Calcium, Phosphorus and Vitamin A contributes to maintaining the dental health. It is compared to sport drinks, as it improve the exercise performance. Sometimes, the energy boost is too much, as it happened when I finished one of the coconut milk puddings in the evening and cut my appetite for sleep - already limited - considerably. 

Recipes

In both cases I used 2 tablespoons of chia - around 140 calories - with 1 cup of water for preparing the seeds. Let to soak for around 2 hours.I added fresh blueberries and slices of bananas, plus 200 ml. coconut milk. Left in the fridge for around 2 hours and served it as breakfast treat. It serves three.

For diversity, the next time I also added some raspberries and was even happier with the result. Some other ideas will be to add some dried apricots, dates, pineapple. Right now, I am thinking about a simple banana coconut pudding. I haven't feel the need to add any sugar, as the fruits do have enough natural sweetness already. 

As for now, I will probably keep trying more recipes. If you keep the seeds in a dry cool place, the long shelf life is guaranteed so I don't have to worry about wasting the money.

Recipe of the week: Quinoa salad with pear, avocado and blue cheese

I continued my experiments with quinoa with an exquisite salad which combines different tastes. It has enough energy to keep you strong during the day or to finish your evening. If you have all the different ingredients, in less than 30 minutes - most precisely 25 minutes - it is ready. You can prepare it and store in the fridge for a couple of hours. Served cold is a very refreshing snack during the hot days of summer - not the German summer anyway.

Ingredients

100 gr. quinoa

200 ml. water

50 gr. butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

10 walnuts cut into little pieces

2 pears peeled and cut into little pieces

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

100 gr. blue cheese

1 ripe avocado, medium size, cut into little cubes

Directions

Boil the water. Add the salt and the butter. Clean and add the quinoa and let boil for another 5 minutes.

Add the cheese when the quinoa is still warm, it will melt nicely.

Add the olive and lemon juice and mix.

Add the walnuts, pears, avocado and mix well.

Let it rest for a couple of minutes.

If this pleasant mixtures of tastes it is not enough for you, add also some cherry tomatoes. 

Bon Appetit!