Spicy Soup with Orange Sparkles

What you need to have (for you and 3 others)… 500g carrots, 2 onions (one red, one white), 5 garlic cloves, 2 cm ginger, 1 spoon coriander seeds, 2 seeds newspice, juice and zest of 1 orange, salt, 1 spoon olive oil

 

What you need to do… heat oil and fry onions for 5 min. Add crushed newspice and coriander seeds. Add chopped carrots and garlic and sote for a few more minutes. Add 1 l boiling water; after it boils lower the fire and simmer for some 20 min (until carrots are soft). After it cools a bit mix with a blender. Add orange juice and zest and stir well.

Enjoy!

Heatproof Electoral Campaign Delice

The only connection between the recipe below and electoral campaign is this: the idea was born and implemented during times of intense political turmoil in Mioritza-land. Today people are called to vote for or against suspending the president. In case you’re around and feel that there’s way too much heat in the air, irradiating from the tv-set, form the newspapers, from the electoral banners on the streets, etc. have a break and give the ice cream a chance.

What you need to have… 400 g apricots, peaches, and mango (the proportion is up to you), 200 ml liquid whipping cream, 250 ml condensed milk, fresh ginger, peel of 1 lemon, a couple of hours in proximity of the freezer, patience

What you need to do… use a blender to make a fruit pure out of 1/3 of the fruits and 1/2 ginger piece. Dice the rest. Beat whipping cream, condensed milk, lemon peal, the other half of ginger piece (grated). If you’re using not sweetened condensed milk, add some 3 tablespoons in the mix. When it becomes stiff, add fruit pure, diced fruit, and mix gently. Transfer everything in a freezer-friendly container, and put in the freezer. After 1 1/2 hour, take out and mix. Do this 3-4 more times. This is really important because otherwise the ice cream will be less creamy, and it will have “ice needles” in it (the Squirrel is actually very happy to have recently learnt this trick, so now she’s happily spreading the word).

It’s best if you leave it in the freezer overnight. It goes great with melon – cut a melon in half, remove seeds, and add a few ice-cream scoops in the half-melon bowl. Enjoy, cool down, forget about politics for a while.

The Zucchini Revenge

If you’re among the ones who make a weary face when they hear about zucchini, stop complaining  and give this a chance.

What you need to have… 1 zucchini, 2 eggs, 50 g (whole grain) flour, 50 g yoghurt, 1 garlic clove, a few leaves basil and sage, freshly ground chilli, oil for frying (the Squirrel used olive oil)

What you need to do… put flour in a bowl, make a well in the center, pour in eggs, and mix well. Add yoghurt. Grate the zucchini. Add the chopped basil and sage leaves, ground chilli, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. You should end up with a pancake kind of batter. Heat a frying pan and sprinkle with oil. Scoop the batter into the pan. Allow them to cook for 3-4 minutes on each side. There

Enjoy!

It goes great with Pesto and fresh tomatoes. 

The Heatproof -IL: basil lentil stew

What you need to have (for 2 servings for 2 hungry ones)… 150 g lentils, 1 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 2 carrots,  2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 glass tomato juice (if you have tomato paste, dilute it with water and you’re fine), 1/2 glass wine, 2 bay leaves, fresh basil, salt, pepper

What you need to do… soak the lentils in water for about half an hour. Rinse well. Put in a pan and cover with water. Chop onion, garlic, slice carrots (thinly), and throw them over the lentils. Add one tablespoon of salt, some pepper, the bay leaves, some basil buds (save the leaves for later), the oil, and the wine, and put on high fire until it boils. Lower fire to a minimum, and add tomato juice. Stir well and allow to simmer for some 20 minutes. Check every now and then, and if necessary add more water. If you think it’s not soft enough in 20 minutes, leave it for some 10 more. After you remove it from fire, add the chopped basil leaves. Take out bay leaves (unless you have a masochist preference for bitterness). And you’re there!

It goes great with smoked fish (e.g. smoked trout), and some dry white wine. And it’s well tolerated on high temperatures, so don’t postpone trying it until the weather cools down a little 😉 If anything, leave the kitchen during the 20 minutes, close the door, and drink the first glass of wine protected by a fan. 

Hot Sexy Muffins

What you need to have… 150 g dark chocolate, 100 g butter, 25 g peanut butter (preferably crunchy), 125 g brown sugar, a few rose pepper grains, 2 large eggs, 70 g flour, 50 g cocoa, 200 g raspberries, 2 6-hole muffin pans (preferably… if not, a regular oven tray should do)

What you need to do… Preheat oven at 180. Break the chocolate in small pieces. Melt (bain marie or microwave) chocolate, butter, peanut butter, ground pepper, and sugar. When melted, add eggs one by one. Sieve flour and cocoa. Mix everything. Add 150 g raspberries and gently stir (you don’t want raspberry pure in chocolate sauce, do you? well of course, in case you do, then stir thoroughly). Fill in the muffin holes. Sprinkle with the rest of the raspberries. Bake for some 45-50 minutes. 

Enjoy!

The Pisces King

What you need to have… 1-1.5 kg whole carp, 1 l dry white wine, 300 g carrots, 4 red onions, 8 garlic cloves, 50 g raisins, 50 g cashew nuts, 1 chilli pepper, 2 spoons olive oil, mustard seeds, whole pepper, 1 bunch fresh parsley, 1 spoon curry, salt

What you need to do… wash fish (assuming that someone else did the dirty job of cleaning it from intestines, scales, and other  such things). Slice carrots, onion, and garlic. Chop chilli pepper and partly remove seeds. Mix veggies in a large bowl. Add oil, salt, pepper, mustard seeds, curry, nuts, parsley. Mix well. Add wine and stir. Place fish in a large, deep oven tray. Flood  with the vegetable-and-spice mix. Add some inside the fish, aka “artificially inseminate the carp”  – it’s Annunciation Day after all. Cover tray and leave in the fridge for about 1 h. Preheat oven at 200. Put tray in, leave for approx 1.5h. Check every 20-30 min, sprinkle top of the fish with wine sauce. If necessary add some more wine.

That’s it. Goes great with some savory dry white wine, e.g. dry Muscat Ottonel.

Flying Chickeny Mushroom

What you need to have… 45 min at your disposal, 1 chicken breast, 300 g mushrooms, 1 green bell pepper, 1 big red onion, 4 garlic cloves, a spoon of butter, 250 ml dry white wine, 1 can tomato paste (50 g), 2 bay leaves, dry basil, freshly ground pepper, 2 spoons sour cream, Queen playing on the background

What you may have… a hangover to get over with, and/ or a stick up your ass to be removed, a post-psychedelic Huxley book awaiting to be continued

What you need to do… chop finely onion, garlic and bell pepper. Dice chicken breast. Melt butter in a pan and throw them in. Chop mushrooms (better if you have small ones; if so leave the top part whole, and just chop tails). When chicken is golden brown and feels ready to learn to fly, throw mushrooms in. Add bay leaves, basil, salt, and pepper. Lower fire and leave pan alone until all liquid is absorbed. Separately, mix tomato paste with wine. Add to pan. Stir well and wait until sauce reduces to half. Add sour cream. Wait some 2-3 more minutes. Turn off fire. Mushrooms and chicken must have all learnt by now  what’s to fly.

Enjoy! Goes well with cherry radishes. Have a nice encounter with Huxley afterwards.

Sweet & Zen Wintertime

What you need to have… huge snow flakes falling down, a window in between, warmth coming both from within and from without (i.e., an oven) in a cosy kitchen, 500 g cottage cheese, 250 g sour cream, 4 eggs, 1 orange, 3 apples, a fistful of roasted walnuts, 4 spoons coarse wheat meal, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 200 g brown sugar or fructose, some butter to grease the pan, some cinnamon to sprinkle on top

What you need to do… Preheat oven at 200. Mix in a large bowl cottage cheese, sour cream, orange peel, wheat meal, eggs, sugar. You can always use fructose (same amount), just keep in mind that then you should lower the oven temperature and increase cooking time. Butter the pan. Peel and slice apples. Cover pan bottom with apple slices and sprinkle with nuts. Pour the cheese mix. Cover the top with the rest of the apple slices, nuts, and cinnamon. Leave in the oven for some 50 minutes.

In the mean time keep watching the snow falling. You’ll soon start to feel a wonderful fragrance coming from the direction of the oven. Go with the flow, sit down, smile childishly, and enjoy. If you feel childish & strong enough, you can also go out, smell some cold snowy air, and have a snow fight in the meantime, and save the Zen mood for after you taste the cake.

Enjoy &

Finally, some visuals 🙂 As you can see, the Squirrel has already tried it, and only after, she was so overwhelmed by pleasure that decided to post the recipe. And to finally provide visual support, like people kept asking for.

Good night!

I’m a Rainbow Too – Poetic Salad for an Uncertain Beginning

What you need to have… 2 black radishes, 50 g pumpkin seeds, 1 red grapefruit, 1 big orange, 1 spoon olive oil, 50 g baked walnuts, salt, beginning of the year enthusiasm, some Mircea Dinescu inspiration

What you need to do… grate the radishes. Peel the pumpkin seeds, throw the shells in the thrash bin (doh!), throw the kernels in the salad bowl (doh doh!). In case you start to feel hungry and wanna throw the kernels in your mouth instead, have a sip of some sweet&strong liquor (e.g. sour cherry liquor – vishinata). It will cut down (for a while…) your desire for salty hunger-cuts. So… back to grating the radishes. Peel the grapefruit and orange. Make sure you remove all the bitter peel of the grapefruit. Do the peeling on top of the salad bowl, so that you keep all the yummy&healthy juices. Chop the walnuts and throw them in the bowl. Add salt and olive oil; stir well. It may well be that the radishes call for some extra oil. It all depends on you if you wanna give in or not to the call 😉 The Squirrel can testify that not giving in does not in any way diminish the pleasure of the ingesting the final Rainbow.

There! Happy new year! Many thanks Mr. Mircea Dinescu and his “Lacrimi si sfinti” (Tears and saints) new restaurant for providing inspiration on December 31st, that is put to a practical good use on January 5th (as you may well see for yourselves in a couple of minutes, and as the Squirrel & Collaborator already have) 😉

Some theory on cullinary creativity that does not go off limits

http://gizmodo.com/5869188/why-does-asian-food-taste-so-different-from-western-food Many thanks to Dotty for bringing this to my attention. And here’s the link to the paper in Nature referred to in gizmodo http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/111215/srep00196/full/srep00196.html. And some more theoretical buzz http://www.foodpairing.com/.

Enjoy and good luck with practical implementations!