Yoghurt and Oil Dough

Fresh Pea Quiche

In Germany, many cakes and savoury dishes are made with a quark and oil dough, which is a lot lighter than a shortcrust pastry. However, finding quark in the UK is really difficult. 20 years ago I would have bought French fromage frais but nowadays I can only find 0% fat fromage frais, which means this product has thickeners added to it. And I refuse to buy processed foods like that. Ricotta might be a good alternative but it's expensive (in comparison) so I've experimented with yoghurt and I've finally come up with a recipe that work. Only, it was a wee bit too much dough for my 26 cm flan dish and as you can see there's rather a lot of pastry for my fresh pea quiche. But that's okay, I'll reduce the amount of dough next time or buy a larger tin. It's delicious at any rate.

200 g strong white bread flour
100 g wholemeal flour
15 g baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 tbsp olive oil
200 g yoghurt/Greek-style yoghurt/soured cream

Combine all the ingredients either by hand or using the kneading hooks of an electric mixer/the kneading knife of a food processor. Roll out and line a lightly greased 30 cm cake tin.

Top with a quiche mix of your choice.

Aubergine and Sundried Tomato Dip

Today, I really needed to use up two aubergines I bought last week and decided on a baba ganoush. Only, I had no tahini in the house. After raking through the food cupboard to find something to thicken the dip with – I like using this kind of thing as a spread – I spotted a pouch of sundried tomatoes. These are soft but don't have any oil on them, other than what's needed to separate them, a bit like raisins. The result is really tasty. Will have to do this again. If you don't have this type of sundried tomatoes to hand just use the ones in oil and don't add any oil to the dip until it's been blended and you know if it needs more oil

2 aubergines
juice of 1/2 lemon
5-6 sundried tomatoes
1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp toasted, ground cumin
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Pierce the aubergines all over with a fork and roast in the oven at 220° C/ gas mark 7 for 90 minutes. Scoop out the flesh and leave to cool.

Combine all the ingredients and blend. Check the seasoning. Serve sprinkled with some chopped herbs, e. g. basil, coriander.

Paprika pork strips with red peppers, cherry tomatoes and red onion

Another idea for marinating meat for a barbecue turned into something else when the wheather didn't play ball. Based on a recipe for spare ribs from "More fired up" by Ross Dobson.

(serves 4)

4 pork loin steaks, cut into strips

Marinade:
60 ml sherry vinegar
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1.5 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Mix all the ingredients, pour over the meat, toss the meat and marinate in the fridge over night.

3 sweet red peppers
1 large red onion
400 g cherry tomatoes
olive oil

roughly torn fresh basil, optional

Slice the peppers, half and slice the red onion. Drain the marinate off the meat and toss the veggies in it. Pour a little olive oil into a frying pan and sauté the peppers and onions until they start to brown. Add the tomatoes. Cook over a medium heat until the vegetables are tender. Transfer into a warmed bolw and set aside. Add a bit more oil to the same frying pan and fry the strips of pork for about 5 minutes until done. Mix in the vegetables and serve with pasta. Scatter with the basil, if used.

Vegetarian variation: Marinate the veggies for 1-2 hours and cook as above.

Hot fruity salsa

I saw this recipe in one of our BBQ books to be served with prawns but didn't have all the ingredients so I improvised (with peach, apricot and pink grapefruit, parsley instead of coriander, 1 green chili instead of 2 red chilis)

2 apricots
1 peach
1 pink grapefruit, juice and flesh of
1 lime, juice of
pepper
salt
fresh parsley
fresh mint
1 clove of garlic
1 green chili, with seeds
1 red chili, with seeds

Blend all the ingredients. It's hot hot hot. I couldn't eat it. Next time I'm going to deseed the chillis. Serve with prawns, other fish, white meat or veggie kebabs/barbecued veggies.)

Mascarpone-and-Berry Dessert

Use whatever berries you like with this. It'll be wonderful.

(serves 4-6)

250 g mascarpone
100 g natural yoghurt (3.5 %)
200 g strawberries
100 g blackberries
maple syrup to taste
toasted, chopped pistachios for sprinkling

Blend all the ingredients. Check the flavour. Chill for an hour.

Avodcado and Strawberry Dip

I'm not sure why but I'm crazy about strawberries this year. I've served them with roasted asparagus and scattered them over spaghetti with pesto. After slicing some over mashed avocado I wondered if I could blend the two together and the experiment worked, even though the colour is a bit insipid. You can really taste the strawberries. For my next experiment, I'm going to make a dessert of avocado and strawberries. Watch this space.

1 large, very ripe avocado
125 g straberries
2 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
2 tsp parseley-and-lime oil
1 small garlic clove, crushed
lime juice to taste
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

Place all the ingredients in a blender. Chill for an hour to firm up. Use as a dip or spread on toast, crisp bread or crackers.

Marinated Mozzarella di Bufala

1 mozzarella di Bufala
1 tbsp coriander and lime oil
freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Rip the mozzarella into chunks, mix with the herb oil and marinate in the fridge for an hour or longer. Optionally sprinkle with some freshly ground black pepper before serving. Delicious!