Sweet Risotto with Fig compote

The fig season is in full swing in my garden. Since last week I can grab a few every day.  Some are so ripe, they had to be eaten immediately. But I had 5 of them at the office today and did not want to eat more raw.
A compote was the way to prepare more.
I cooked my risotto with carneroli rice and used coconut flower sugar. That lets the rice get a rich caramel flavour and a darker colour.

Recipe for 3:
700 ml whole milk
175 g risotto rice
40 g butter
3 tbsp coconut flower sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 egg
1/2 lemon

5 figs
1 tbsp butter
100 ml mirabelle syrup water
1/2 lemon

In a pot melt the butter and coat the rice by stirring it for 2 min
Add milk, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar and bring to a boil while constantly stirring.
Reduce the heat to low and let it cook for 20 min. Taste it and look if the rice grains are soft but not mushy.
Add egg yolk  and lemon juice.
Beat the egg white and fold it in.

In a small pot melt the butter and cook the figs for 2 min, add mirabelle juice and lemon and cook for 5 min.

Squid and Prawn Spaghetti with Parsley Oil

Strips of squid and lovely king prawns were bought at the French supermarket. A spaghetti dish was planned.
We checked the veg section of the supermarket again and bought a piece of leek and a huge bundle of parsley.
A light meal after a long and overly hot week was our goal.
I love the seafood sections at French supermarkets. Such a choice of different fish and shellfish. A bit pricy, but the quality is always worth the money.

A plate full of large white strips caught my eye - squid. My friend wanted king prawns, so we took some of each.

Recipe for 2:
220 g spaghetti
300 g squid strips
10 king prawns
1 leek
1 bunch of parsley
Some mixed fresh herbs (mint, thyme, celery greens, ysop, orange verbena and majoram)
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp roasted hazelnuts
Salt and pepper
Lemon zest and juice of halve lemon
A bit of red chili
1/ cup olive oil

Clean and chop the leek into halve rings, saute in olive oil for 5 min.

Start the spaghetti in salted boiling water.
In a mini chopper blend the herbs, garlic, chili and lemon and add olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Push the leek to one side of the pan and toss in squid and prawns and cook on high heat for 2 min. Add the al dente spaghetti directly out of the water and put 2/3 of the parsley oil or pesto in. Mix well and serve the rest of the green sauce on top.

Fried Green Tomatoes

I went grocery shopping in France with a friend today. The fruit and vegetable section was the first part we went through. They had different coloured varieties of tomatoes on display. My friend was intrigued by the green zebra tomatoes.

Since that old movie from the South of the US "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" she wanted to try that recipe.
I told her, that the recipe calls for unripe tomatoes, that's why green.

But we bought some anyhow. We wanted to try to fry these. They were a bit on the soft and ripe side.

Recipe for 4 tomatoes:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large free range egg
Spicy seasoning
Salt and pepper
Oil for frying

Prepare a 3 bowl station for panning.
Mix the buttermilk with the egg and put that in one bowl.
1/4 cup of flour in one bowl.
1/4 cup of flour and the cornmeal in the third bowl. Season quite well.
Cut the tomatoes in 1/2 inch slices and season with salt.
Put them through flour, egg mix and cornmeal mix.
Heat up the oil to 180 C or 365 F.
Fry for 2 to 3 min on each side. Rest on kitchen paper.
Serve either with sweet chili sauce or Sriracha.

Wedding Reception at a Farmhouse Cafe

Being invited to the wedding of very good friends is lovely. Having the ceremony on an old castle up a steep hill is wonderful.
But doing this on a day with 39 C or 102,2 F is no fun. We had to climb up the hill to get to the festivity and stayed up there after the ceremony quite a while. We just had 2 umbrellas to duck under and that meant a lot of bright sun. Afterwards we went down the hill to reach our cars and drove to the farmhouse cafe, where the wedding reception was held.

They have a huge inner court Yard when you step through the door and then a big former stable, where the actual Restaurant is in. Sitting outside at 39 C at 5 : 30 PM was not an option and we went inside where it was a lot cooler.

After a lot of Cold Drinks like water and other non alcoholic beverages we were ready to get to dinner.

A creamy bell pepper soup with a skewered king prawn was the start. So delicious.

Then we had time to go to the salad buffet. It was not the usual greens and tomatoes or cucumbers, but cauliflower salad with sour cream and chives, red lentil salad with lots of cumin, a chickpea salad and a tabbouleh salad. These are great in this weather and standing in bowls of ice, really refreshing.

Next course was the entree. There was a choice of a couple different plates. For the less adventures there was the German Schnitzel with different sauces. Always a winner with the older folks.

Then there was pulled pork with sweet potato fries, cherry BBQ sauce and Cole slaw. Very good. The sweet potato fries were crunchy and nicely seasoned. The pork was juicy and sauce and slaw were good.

For the whole group there was coconut tiramisu as dessert.
Since I was full and wanted to drive home, I did not try it.

Fig Salad with Rakomelo-Dressing

My figs are finally starting to get ripe. In this heat wave they gotten to this state a lot faster then usual. My fig tree in the front yard thinks he is somewhere in the South of Europe. I went out with a large bowl and a pair of scissors and harvested the first batch. Over the next couple of days  I can get a lot more.

This salad dressing is from Greece. Rakomelo is a golden spirit with Raki and honey. I did not have Rakomelo at home and used Ouzo instead. Not truly the same, but that worked fine.

Dressing recipe for 4:
3 tbsp Raki
2 1/2 tbsp honey
1 clove
1 small cinnamon stick
3 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
5 tbsp olive oil
5 tbsp sunflower oil

salad:
400 g salad leaves
4 fresh figs
1 pear
salt
250 g Haloumi cheese
1 hand full of whole hazelnuts

Wash the salad, peel the pear and cut it into small pieces. Top and take of the bottom of the figs and cut them into 6 pieces.
Roast the hazelnuts and chop them.

Make the dressing. In a small pot heat up 1 tbsp Raki with the clove and the cinnamon and 1/2 tbsp of honey until it is completely dissolved. Let it cool down. Get the clove and stick out.
Pour it into a blender, where you can add liquid while mixing.
Add the rest of the Raki, honey, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper and give it a good blitz.

While mixing add the oil tablespoon after tablespoon into the running mixer to make a emulsion.
Toss the Haloumi in herbs and oil and put into a griddle pan to sear on both sides.
Dress the salad the the rakomelo dressing and mix everything. Get the nuts and cheese on top.

Since I am not a huge fan of Haloumi - it reminds me of a grilled eraser - I will use goat cheese the next time.

Linguine with creamy Scallions white and red

Linguine con crema di cipollotti bianchi e rossi.    VEGAN

That sounds so much more appealing to me. The idea for this recipe is from an Italian cooking magazine issue: Giallo Zafferano. Sometimes I watch his YT videos.
My Italian is good enough to read and understand easy vocabulary. I just am able to speak the most basic holiday Italian. But that is ok.

I was on a trip yesterday and on the way back discovered a Supermarket chain that is not available in our region. It was huge and reminded me of French super centres. I just wanted to get my weekend groceries and ended up buying a suitcase set for the next holiday. I had to stuff my groceries into the shopping cart and was only buying the essentials. No more room in the cart and I was too lazy to go through the cashier twice.

They had great bundles of scallions or spring onions as I always call them. They were super fresh and crunchy and I bought two large bundles.

The recipe calls for dried tomatoes in olive oil. I am not a huge fan of these and did not buy any. But I had a jar of peperonata in olive oil. I just used that instead.

recipe for 3:
400 g Linguine
10 spring onions White and red
3 cloves of garlic
75 g peperonata in oil
1 tsp dried peperoncini
salt and pepper
olive oil
120 ml White wine
1 Lemon zest and Juice
salt and pepper
parsley

Chop the Ends of the spring onions and wash them. Use wide green stems and make Long fine Strands, About 50g.
Chop the rest.
Get the peperonata out of the oil and cut it in bite size pieces.
Chop the garlic.
Zest and juice the lemon.
Cook the Linguine after you cooked the spring onions for 15 min. But first blanche the onion strips for 1 min, cool in ice water.
Heat up the oil, add peperonicini and sweat the onions without the strips and the garlic for 10 min. Use a lid. Season and add the wine.
Add the peperonata and cook for 20 min more.Get the zest and Juice and and taste for seasoning.
Get the cooked linguine out of the pot with tongs directly into the pan to finish the sauce.
Dress each plate with some onion strips and parsley.

If you like, get some Pecorino on top -not vegan!

Okroschka - a cold Russian Soup

Our summer is  back. After half a July of cold temperatures with mornings dressed in warm jackets now we are back to hot summer.
Cold soups are great on these days. Not only in Spain, were they serve Gazpacho.

I was in the Baltic states a while ago where they serve cold beetroot soup with hot potatoes. The blog Lithuanian cold red beet soup- Saltibarsciai can be found here too.

Potatoes are an ingredient in this soup too, but they are served cold. Some boiled eggs and a bit of sausage are the protein in the soup.

recipes:
5 small new potatoes
2 hard boiled eggs
150 g Bologna sausage
1 bunch red radishes
1/2 cucumber
Greens of 3 spring onions
half bunch of parsley
half bunch of dill
300 ml kefir
150 ml bubbly water
salt and pepper

Start with the potatoes and cook them in their Skin. Save water and put the eggs in to cook with the potatoes later.
Cool both down.

Peel and cut in to slices.
Clean radishes and cut out the wet middle bit of the cucumber. Cut into slices.
Chop the spring onions, parsley and dill.
Season and mix the kefir with the water.
Put the servíng size in a bowl and pour over the kefir water dressing.

Plantain and Sweet Potato Dal -vegan

What is sitting in my veg box in the fridge? A lot of things that are going to waste if I do not eat them soon. 1 sweet potato, some plantains, spring onions and other onions. The best idea was Indian food. Since I needed some protein, I used up some yellow and red lentils. Now I can call it a Dal.

The first thing to do was zi wash the lentils. Then I put them with 3 times the amount of water in a pot - No Salt! Cooking time about 7 min.

Indian food without some spices is unheard of. My trusty treasure chest with ground spices was coming in first. Then I used my electric blender to make the paste of onions, garlic, chili. I only saved the red onion for later to put in in slices.

Chopping the peeled sweet potato was no fuss, but getting the peel off the plantain was not so easy.


Recipe for 3:
1 plantain
1 Sweet potato
2 spring onions
1 Red onion
2 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
2 knobs of ginger
1/2 red chili
65 g red lentils
65 g yellow lentils
200 ml veg stock
3 tbsp mustard oil
1/2 piece of hard palm sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper

Ground spices:
1/3 tsp cumin
1/3 tsp coriander
1/3 tsp tumeric
1/3 tsp fenugreek
a good pinch of Asant or Asa Foetida

Cook the spices in the hot mustard oil, then add the onion paste and fry off.
Drain the lentils and add 1 tbsp of the fryed paste to it.
In the pan the red onion slices next
 You will need some liquid now. Add 50 ml veg stock.
Get the veggies in and stir well. Add all the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and close the lid. Cook for 15 min.
During that time cook the Basmati rice

Add palm sugar flecks to the veggies and the cooked lentils. Add the lemon zest and juice.
Season with salt and pepper.

With a cup of Basmati rice and just the fingers of your right hand the fun starts

Courgette Bacon and Beef

Courgettes are in season and growing like weed in this strange kind of summer weather.
A pan with bacon bits and some.
 minced beef and a whole lot of onions are a good company to some chunks of courgette.

I served them with little potato dumplings that are rolled in a special way. You can make them yourself, but I opted for some store bought ones.

I had a third of a jar red Mojo sitzing around from the Papas Arugadas from last week. The spicy red sauce went in as well.

Recipe for 2:
300 g minced beef
120 g smoked bacon cubes
2 small courgettes
2 spring onions
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
100 ml white wine
1tsp thyme
Pepper
1 tbsp red hot sauce
60 ml water
400 g potato dumplings or gnocchis

Chop onions and garlic and cube the courgettes.
In a wide pan without oil start the bacon until it looses a lot of grease. Get some of that out with a paper towel.
Brown the beef in the pan, when it is no longer red, add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are softened. Add the courgettes and stir them through. Add wine and water and seasoning.
Finish with the red sauce.

In a second pan brown the already cooked potato dumplings and mix them with the other stuff.

Cherry Spit Cake

Spit Cake with Cherries brings back memories of summer holidays at my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles house about 75 km to the North of here. During School summer holidays I had to stay there for 4 to 5 weeks, because my parents had to work and I would have been alone at home.

They packed me and my bag and we went by 3 different trains. That was always exciting. We had no car and a tour on the train was something special.

Summer time is cherry time. In my grandparents garden was an old cherry tree. My Uncle had to take the ladder and pick all the cherries no one of us could reach from below. Grams baked this cake at least 2 or 3 times during the cherry season.
I do not know if she was too lazy to pit the cherries, or if the way of baking with whole fruits gave it a special taste.


It was always fun to eat. A bit crazy sitting outside on the grass and spitting out cherry pits while eating a cake. Well, that was only the way my little cousin and I did it. The grown ups used a fork and took the pits out that way, very polite.

When I was 12 my Uncle picked cherries again and fell off the tree and broke his leg. When I came back for a visit at Christmas, the old cherry tree was gone.

recipe for a 25x35 cm baking dish:
250 g soft unsalted butter
250 g icing sugar
1/2 tsp Ground vanilla bean
pinch of salt
zest of an organic Lemon
200 g all Purpose flour
200 g whole wheat or 1050 flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 large free range eggs
200 ml whole milk at room temperature
500 g whole cherries
2 tbsp chopped pistachios
2 tbsp chopped almonds

Preheat the oven to 180 C

In a stand mixer cream together butter, sugar, salt and zest.
Sift the 2 flours and baking powder together.
Add one egg and 1 tbsp of flour and give it a mix, repeat. Add half of the milk and half of the flour then the rest of both.

Do not over mix the batter.
Butter the baking dish and put baking paper on the bottom.
Pour in the batter and smooth it out.
Wash the cherries and pat them dry. Remove the stalks.

Get them on the batter and press a bit in.
Top with pistachios and almond slices.
Bake for 75 min or a wooden pick comes out clean.