Clafoutis with Tomatoes

Clafoutis is a French sweet dessert with cherries. This is a savoury one with cheese and tomatoes.

It is easy to prepare and you have a great dish without much effort. I still have lots of cherry tomatoes sitting around and eating them raw is no option in the moment. This is great to get 120 g out of the way and enjoy them.
There are not much ingredients you will need, just fresh grated cheese and plucked thyme leaves.

I had a big problem today, I grated the cheese on top of a scale for the right amount, dropped in the thyme leaves and started cracking the organic eggs.
The first one looked good, the second one strange and the third one was off. I had to chuck the content of the whole bowl into the bin. I bought the eggs just a couple of days ago and they were fresh. I had a boiled egg with me for breakfast 2 days ago and had to throw it out because it looked strange and smelled strange. But that gave me no clue, that the rest was off too. I had to go out and buy a package of new organic eggs. This time it went well.

recipe for 2:_
30 g Peccorino cheese
3 stalks of fresh thyme
120 g cherry tomatoes
3 eggs
4 drops of tabasco
2 tbsp milk
a pinch of salt and pepper
1 pinch of sugar
60 g flour
1 tsp butter for the baking dish  13x19 cm

Preheat the oven 190C
Butter the dish and chuck the tomatoes in, strip two stalks of thyme on top.
Make the batter and pour it over.










Bake for 20 min

Tomatoes in Creme Fraiche

A vegetarian full meal or a side dish served with some fish or lamb.

I made it vegetarian and used up two larger of my tomatoes. Count 2 tomatoes per person and double or triple the ingredients and you will have the right amount for more.
I served them on top of rice, but you can eat them with Baguette if you like.

I seldom peel my tomatoes, I mostly do not take the effort and use them with the skin. But in this dish it is important that you take the skin off.
Easy way, just cross top and bottom with a knife, put the tomatoes then into a heatproof bowl and out of a kettle pour boiling water on top. Let them sit for 1 min, drain and put them into cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel.

recipe for 1:
2 larger size tomatoes
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
2 stalks of thyme
2 tbsp parsley
2 tsp Ayvar
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp creme fraiche
30 ml wine or broth or water

Cook the rice.
Chop onion and garlic and rip off the thyme leaves.
Saute them in oil on lower heat until they get soft, add Ayvar and wine.
Put the peeled tomatoes in and get the heat up a bit. Give them 3 minutes and add the creme fraiche, cook a bit more, maybe add more wine. Season and add the parsley.
Serve on a bed of rice.

Green Bean Hummus with Breadsticks

A can of very fine green bean kernels from France was sitting in my cupboard waiting for a purpose.
Today was the day for that.

We have once again a hot day today even it is September and something cold for dinner sounded nice. I love all kinds of hummus, not only the ones with chickpeas in it. I made some before and now these beans make a fine one.
Rye bread in olive oil, garlic and some Italian pasta herbs are great to dip.
You just need a kitchen blender to make the paste.

recipe for 2
400g/265g can of flagolets vert extra fin
1 spring onion
2 tbsp chives
1 tbsp other herbs
2 tbsp tahini paste
3 tbsp Greek yogurt
1/2 lemon juiced
salt and  pepper
chili ancho

Drain the beans and wash off the slime. Chop spring onion and herbs.
Get all into the blender and make a fine cream

Cut the bread slices lengthwise and in a small pan with a good gluck of olive oil,1 clove of garlic and some dried herbs give them 3 min on each side.

Serve with tomatoes.

Peach, Feta and Mint Salad

This salad is so satisfiying and fresh.

I found it in an organic food magazine issue and read just across it. Later I came back for it because the combination of peaches and mint sounded great.
I added a bit of Sumac and a little white balsamic to the original recipes.
That is great served on some lettuce greens. It makes a rounder taste with the leafy salad.

It is super easy to prepare- I cooked some yellow plum jam - Mirabelles- while I made the salad.

recipe for 2
5 flat white peaches
1 bunch of fresh mint
1 red onion small size
200 g sheep feta
1/2 juice of a lemon
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Sumac
red pepper flakes
a head of lettuce

The flat peaches have a thin skin so you can leave that on.
Cut around the stone in the mide fine thin slices.
Peel the red onion and halve it and cut it in small thin slices. I blanche them for 30 seconds.
Chop the cheese.
Get the mint leaves off the stalks and chop them coarse.
Make the dressing.
Serve on top of the salad greens.

Chicken and Veggie Sauce

This is a dish that takes 15 min to cook! Just don´t count the prep time. But all in all about 30 minutes. It is a carb free dinner for Business Ladies and a packed lunch for the next day.

A plethora of fresh veggies goes into my shopping basket everytime I go grocery shopping. I often do not know what to do with them, when they went into the basket. Inspiration hits me often at home and so many easy meals are on the table. Fresh cooked and I know what is inside.

recipe for 2:
500 g chicken breast
500g  brown button mushrooms
350 g cocktail tomatoes from my own plants
4 long red bell peppers
4 shallots
1 can passata
200 ml double cream
1 tbsp olive oil
red wine salt - home made
chili salt
pepper
Herbes de Provence

Chop everything.
In a wide pan in the oil start the shallots and then add the chicken breast strips. Let them turn to colour. That will take a couple of minutes.

Next the peppers and then the mushrooms. Season well and cook until everything has wilted down a bit, then you have room for the tomatoes.
The sauce is made from the passata and the cream. It needs a couple of min to thicken.

Eating it in front of the laptop is the daily occurence in my household. It was no time for a photo shoot.

Strawberry filled sweet Dumplings

Germknödel as they are called in Austria are some of my favourite dishes. I seldom do them for myself, because they are a lot of work.
The yeasty enriched dough is a great treat. My family used to make them 3 or 4 times a year and served them with different ingredients. I  wrote a blog about that a while ago.

This recipe is from the Thermomix magazine and all components are prepared in the pot. The steamer is the last thing that comes into use. This time it contains the dumplings proving in there and ready to go on top of the machine to be cooked.

recipe for 8 dumplings:
340 g all purpose flour
20 g fresh yeast
1/2 tsp salt
30 g vanilla sugar
100 g unsalted butter and a little to brush the baskets
100 g whole milk
1 egg
8 strawberries
8 tsp strawberry jam

recipe for the vanilla custard:  (either make it from scratch or like the Thermomix version)
500 g whole milk
1 package dessert sauce vanilla
2 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 tbsp sugar

Make the dough with the ingredients listed, except the strawberries and jam. Let it rest covered for 20 min. shape it into a huge sausage and divide it into 8 pieces.
Roll out each one on a floured surface into the shape of a disc. Drop some jam and a strawberry on top and fold the sides over to make a dumpling.

Put it in a buttered steamer and let all of them rest for 30 min covered with a dish towel.

Set them on top of the pot and steam them for 20 min.

Make the vanilla custard as you like it and cool it down.

Kohlrabi & Ham Soup

This is the last day of August and the temperatures dropped from the heat to a very low 17 degrees C.
That was so uncommon that I sat on my couch in the afternoon and started to feel cold.

First of all I changed my clothes to long sleaves and long pants and then I decided a hot pot of soup sounded great.

I bought a large head of kohlrabi last weekend and very tasty Black Forest ham in tiny chunks.
This was ment to be the star of my soup.
After cutting the kohlrabi, I discovered that it was a bit dry in the middle. Eating it raw like I often do would not been a pleasure. But for cooking it, that did not matter.

recipe for 2:
1 large kohlrabi
4 small potatoes
2 spring onions
1 clove of garlic
125g ham
1 bay leaf
2 stalks of thyme
salt and pepper
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sour cream
parsley

I cooked the soup in the Thermomix, but you can use a regular pot without any problems.

Peel onions, garlic, potatoes and kohlrabi. Chop them.
In oil start with onions, garlic and ham and give that 3 minutes.
Add potatoes, kohlrabi and thyme and bay lead and pour the broth on top.
Cook for 25 min, season to taste.
Get the bay leaf and the thyme stalk out and coarsly blend it with a stick blender.
But you can easily eat it without that step.
Finish with cream and parsley.