Hummus with Cumin, Paprika and Fresh Coriander

There already is a basic hummus recipe in this blog but I do like this version so much I decided it deserved its own entry.

1 440 ml tin of chickpeas in water
3-4 tbsp tahini
juice of a lemon
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground toasted cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1 garlic clove, squeezed through a garlic press

Drain the chickpeas but catch the liquor. You'll need about one-third of it to ensure the hummus is creamy rather than dry.

Place all the ingredients into the beaker that comes with your hand blender or into the food processor. Whizz and check the flavour.

Beetroot, Carrot and Strawberry Salad

We eat salad year round but I am looking forward to the warmer months when salad as a main dish is irresistable.

Today at the supermarket, I couldn't resist the shiny, plump looking strawberries from Spain but I should have shown some restraint. They taste only faintly of strawberries. Ach well, as we say in Scotland. I'm not going to waste them. Some of them, I spontaneously added to a side salad tonight.

I think that some toasted chopped walnuts would go well with this. For a non-vegan version, add chunks of buffalo mozzarella or goats cheese.

1 carrot
1 raw beetroot
1 handful of strawberries
1-2 tbsp fresh basil
1-2 tbsp fresh parsley
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp maple syrup (or honey)
2 tbsp balsamic
4 tbsp extra virgine olive oil
juice of half an orange

Peel the carrot and beetroot, then coarsely shred. Chop the herbs. Half the strawberries lengthways and slice. Mix the veg, herbs and fruit. Make the dressing and toss the salad. Leave to marinate at room temperature for at least 15 minutes.

Cooked vegetable salad with mozzarella and croutons

1 head of broccoli
frozen or fresh green beans
frozen or fresh peas
1 (buffalo) mozzarella
1 bunch of basil
2 tbsp red onion
bread
olive oil
vinaigrette

Cut the broccoli into florets and steam for 5 minutes. Steam the beans and peas for 3-5 minutes. Rinse under cold water. Drain and pat dry. Place into a serving bowl and dress with a generous amount of vinaigrette.

Finely chop the onion. Tear the basil and break the mozzarella into bite-sized chunks. Scatter over the vegetables and toss the salad.

Cut the bread into bite-sized pieces. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the bread until golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Top the salad with the croutons.

Fast(ish) Pizza

We love home made pizza but making a proper yeast dough takes time, even in the breadmaker. My other half runs a cooking group at work but there's no time to make a "proper" dough, cook and eat within 2 hours. Somewhere on the internet she found an alternative recipe. In fact, it's similar to a recipe for a Flammkuchen base I brought back from my last visit in Germany. So lately, we've been making a lovely, crusty pizza base with baking powder. We like it so much we're having pizza once a week these days.

With regards to the topping, we use a "standard" method: drained chopped tomatoes out of a tin and sautéd vegetables. We vary the veg, the cheeses, the meats (see the picture legends for details). I do recommend using drained tinned tomatoes rather than tomato purée which IMHO is vile as a pizza "sauce". Plus, it goes black in those areas that aren't covered with topping.

The recipe below is from a couple of days ago. Feel free to get creative or check out the photos and captions at the end of this post, which I keep adding.

BTW, for two servings we use just 300 g of flour but roll it out very thinly so it still covers most of the tin.

Base:
400 g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp of salt, which we find far too much)
2 tsp baking powder
150 ml water
olive oil for brushing

Topping:
1 tin of chopped tomatoes, drained of all the juice
freshly ground pepper
grated garlic
1/2 chili, deseeded
dried herbs (basil, oregano or Herbes de Provence)
1/2 courgette, cored and cut into strips
1/2 aubergine, cut into strips
1 pointed red pepper, cut into strips
1 bunch of spring onions, but into 4 cm pieces
1/2 chili, sliced
garlic, grated
freshly ground pepper
sea salt
1/2 avocado, sliced
1 mozzarella, cut into thin slices
1 kabanossi sausage, thinly sliced
parmesan shavings
olive oil

Mix flour, salt, baking powder and water until most of the water is absorbred. Then put on a floured worktop and knead until just workable and spreadable. This takes about 2 minutes. Add a little more water, if necessary, to achieve the desired consistency

Roll out on a floured surface and line your baking tray. Brush the dough with some olive oil to prevent the tomatoes from soaking in.

Sauté the courgette, aubergine, pepper, spring onion, garlic and chili in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes at a medium heat.

Mix the tomatoes, garlic and chili and season with pepper. Spread onto the base. Place the mozzarella slices on top of the tomatoes, then scatter the sautéd vegetables, kabanossi and sliced avocado over the mozzarella. Bake at 220 °C/gas mark 7 for 15 minutes. Scatter the parmesan over the top and bake for another 5 minutes.

Sautéd red onion and mushrooms, mozzarella slices and feta, chopped up cooked ham/ham sausage/Schinkenwurst, uncooked green asparagus, halved lengthways, drizzled with oil and seasoned with a touch of salt and pepper.

Sautéd red onion, pointed red and yellow peppers, salami slices (quartered), crumbled feta cheese.

Thinly spread tomato sauce, sautéd onion, red onion, red pointed pepper, quartered slices of salami-style chorizo, gorgonzola, fresh, finely chopped rosemary

Cauliflower "Schnitzels" with Fruity Salsa

I was a vegetarian for 22 years, at times eating fish and at times eating vegan. Yet, I never felt the need to eat meat replacements. So no veggie sausages and the like for me. During my transition in the mid- to late 80's I tried soja mince and tofu but both left me cold. I realised that eating vegetarian food can be very satisfying and emulating your meat and two veg was completely unnecessary.

About five years ago, I started eating meat again because my body craved it though most of our meals are still vegetarian.

The other day I wondered what it would be like to do something different with cauliflower and the "schnitzels" – though I don't like calling them that but can't think of anything else –were the result. We had them tonight and, OMG, they were sooooo yummy. I think this may very well become one of our staples.

Instead of simply drizzling the schnitzels with lemon juice, I concocted a fruity salsa that is really gorgeous and would also go well with steamed or fried fish.

Cauliflower schnitzels:
1 cauliflower
bread crumbs
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
olive oil

Fruity salsa:
2 kiwis, finely cubed, half of the cubes mashed
zest of half a lime
juice of half a lime
juice and flesh of half an orange
1/2 red chili, deseeded and finely sliced
fresh coriander chopped, if at hand
1 tsp of honey
pepper
salt

1.First  made the salsa by mixing all the above ingredients to give them a chance to marinate. I didn't have any coriander but think it would go really well with this salsa.

2. Next, I removed the leaves from the cauliflower and cut it into 2 cm thick slices. I cut off too much of the stalk and ended up with lots of bits and only two actual slices. Lesson learned.

3. Boils plenty of water, add salt and pepper and blanch the cauliflower for 3 minutes. Remove and plunge into iced water to prevent it from cooking further. Pat dry with paper towel or a clean dish towel.

4. Beat the egg in a deep plate, season with pepper and salt. Pour the breadcrumbs onto a dinner plate. Dip the cauliflower slices into the egg first and into the breadcrumbs next. Do the same with the remainder of the cauliflower

5. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Fry the cauliflower schnitzels and florets over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until they're golden and the vegetables are tender.

6. Serve with the salsa.

Cauliflower and Broccoli Bake with Breadcrumb Topping

The aubergine is optional. I put it in because I didn't want to waste it. Great as a side dish or  with a leafy salad as a main dish.

1 small cauliflower
1 head of broccoli
1 Kabanossi sausage
1/2 aubergine
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
200 g sourdough bread
fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme & sage or basil, thyme & oregano or coriander & lime zest
1 garlic clove
1 red chili
extra virgin olive oi
fresh lime or lemon juice

1. Cut the bread into chunks. Peel the garlic. Half and deseed the chili. Wash the herbs and chop very coarsely. Place all the ingredients into a food processor. Season with pepper and add some olive oil. Add more olive oil as required. Set aside.

2. Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into florets. Place into two separate steamer inserts. Start with the cauliflower. Steam for 5 minutes. Place the steamer insert with the broccoli on top and steam for a further 3 minutes. Remove and rinse both vegetables immediately under very cold water or plunge into a bowl of water and ice cubes. Drain and pat dry.

3. Slice the aubergine and cut into small bits. Finely slice the Kabanossi.

4. Lightly oil an oven-proof dish an add all the vegetables, season with pepper and salt and drizzle with oil. Scatter the Kabanossi slices over the top. Cover with tin foil and bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C/gas mark 5 for 30 minutes.

5. Remove the cover and top with the breadcrumbs. Bake for a further 10 minutes until the breadcrumbs are golden. To serve drizzle with a little lime or lemon juice.

Variations:
1. For a vegetarian version omit the sausage. It'll still be as tasty.
2. Use chorizo instead of Kabanossi sausage.

Pork Tenderloin in Filo Pastry

I got the idea for this recipe from something my mum told me about involving puff pastry and bratwurst sausage meat (Bratwurstbrät, for my German readers). But I thought puff pastry would make this dish really rich and I do love filo pastry. Also, I can't get the raw bratwurst meat here in the UK but there are lots of sausages, all raw, to choose from. In the end, we settled on cippolatas and I had a rough idea what I was going to do with the ingredients when a thought struck me. Apples! I love apples with pork. So here's how it turned out. Do I have to say that it was just D E L I C I O U S? ;)

As there are just two of us, I cut the pork fillet in half and made two parcels one of which I popped in the freezer for another time.

Also, I'll leave the quantities for potatoes and broccoli up to you. We eat a lot of vegetables, a whole 500 g head of broccoli in this instance, and didn't have a starter or dessert with this.

(serves 4-6)

1 large pork tenderloin, approx. 500 g
400 g of pork sausages of your choice
2 apples
1 packet of filo pastry, 250 g
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2-3 garlic cloves
butter
olive oil
broccoli florets
small potatoes

1. Place the potatoes in the bottom part of a steamer, add salt and pepper. Boil some water and pour over the potatoes. Cover and boil for 5 minutes. In the meantime, cut the broccoloi into florets, wash and place into the steamer section. Season with pepper and salt. Place on top of the potatoes, cover and steam for 3 minutes. Remove the broccoli and rinse under icecold water to prevent the veg from cooking further. Pat dry with kitchen paper. Boil the potatoes for another 2 minutes, then drain. Place the potatoes and broccoli into a roasting tray, season with pepper and salt and drizzle with olive oil. Set aside.

2. Remove the skin from the sausages and place the meat into a bowl or plate. Crush the garlic and mix. Set aside.

3. Quarter and core the apples and cut into thin slices. Heat a little butter in a frying pan and fry the apples until golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.

4. Heat a little olive oil in the same frying pan. Season the meat with pepper and salt on both sides and fry for a minute on each side until browned. Remove and set aside.

5. Pour a generous amount of olive oil into a small dish. Place the first sheet of filo pastry on your worktop and lightly oil it. Add the next sheet and keep repeating until all the filo sheets have been used up.

6. Now assemble the dish. Spread the sausage meat onto the filo pastry leaving a generous rim to allow the pastry to be folded over and seal the contents in. Next, scatter the apple slices over the sausage meat. Now, place the tenderloin on top of the apples. Fold the pastry in from the sides, then from the top and bottom. Lightly oil all around. Turn so the seam is underneath. With a sharp knife cut a couple of crosses into the pastry and peal back the four corners. This will allow the steam to exit while cooking the meat.

7. Heat the oven to 200 °C/gas mark 5. Make room in the middle of the roasting tray and add the meat. Cook in the oven for approx. 45 minutes until the pastry is golden and the meat is cooked.