Cauliflower in a spicy coat

I absolutely love deep fried cauliflowers, but I rarely make it at home because it needs too much oil that I can't use afterwards, and also if I have a head of cauliflower I prefer cooking something light of it. This is how I got to the idea of rolling the florets into a spicy crumble and cook them in the oven, because the result is almost the same. It's crunchy and very delicious! I had a couple of pieces of dry bread and rolls so I used those to make homemade bread crumbs.

Ingredients

• 1 smaller head of cauliflower
• 3 eggs
• a little milk
• bread crumbs
• salt, freshly ground pepper
• ground cheese
• garlic salt
• ground nutmeg

Cut the cauliflower head in florets, so that you can handle them better. Sprinkle salt on them, and steam them almost until done. It shouldn't be too soft. Meanwhile, if you make your own bread crumble, grate or grind the dry bread, then add salt, pepper, cheese, ground nutmeg and the garlic salt. Let the cauliflower cool a bit. Beat 3 eggs, and add to it a little milk. Roll the florets in the eggs first, then the crumbs and put them on a tray covered with baking paper. Cook them in the oven for about 10 minutes until golden, at 180-190 degrees Celsius. I mixed some sour cream with lemon juice and rosemary leaves as a dip for the florets. 

Tartlets for onion lovers

These tartlets contain three types of onions: red ones, normal ones and leeks. This time I followed the thin layer of crust with lots of filling in the inside principle again. The crust is the same as the one of the apple pie posted below, in a salty version of course. The best thing about these tartlets is that they are filled with tons of onions, and that is, for a true onion lover, is heaven itself. And I'm proud to be one of them. 

Ingredients for roughly 10 tartlets

The crust:

• 10 dkg of full wheat flour
• 10 dkg of flour
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder 
• 5-10 dkg of butter
• oregano according to taste
• cold water

The filling:

• 3 red onions
• 2 onions
• half a leek
• salt, pepper
• 4 tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 eggs
• grated smoked cheese 

Measure the flour for the crust, add the baking soda and the oregano, add the bits of butter and make a crumble with the butter and the flour. When its done, add the water and kneed the dough. Let it rest in the fridge until you make the filling. 

Peel the onions, cut them in half, slice them and cook them on a mixture of oil and butter for 20 minutes with the lid on.Add salt and freshly ground pepper. When it's done let it cool for a bit. Add the sour cream and the 2 beaten eggs and mix it carefully. 

Roll the crust very thin, and with the help of some round object cut perfect circles out of it. Stick the edges together so that it has the shape of a little basket. Of course my tartlets lost their shape while they were in the oven, so you might want to use tartlet dishes. Fill the baskets with the sour cream and onion mixture, sprinkle them with the smoked cheese and put them into the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 15-20 minutes until golden. They are absolutely fantastic hot and cold as well.

A very easy fresh cheese spread

As per my friend's request, here comes the recipe for this fresh cheese cream.

Ingredients:

• fresh cheese or cottage cheese
• garlic
• basil
• rosemary
• thyme
• salt, pepper
• sour cream

Mix the sour cream with the fresh cheese. The amount of sour cream depends on how creamy you want it to be. All of the basil, rosemary and thyme has to be chopped fine, and the garlic needs to be smashed. Add everything to the mixture plus the salt and the pepper. Give it a thorough mix, and taste it.

Zucchini stew with sweetcorn

It's quick, light and easy. I ate without any garnish, but rice is perfect with it. You can leave the sausage out, then you get an even lighter and fully vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

• a couple of zucchinis
• canned sweet corn
• chorizo sausage, chopped
• sour cream
• spring onion
• salt, pepper, seasoning (according to taste)

Fry the onions in a bit of oil and add the pieces of sausage, let it fry for a bit. Cut the zucchinis in half, then in half again and then cut them into pieces of 1 cm. Add them to the onions. Add salt and cover it. When its soft, add the corn, the seasoning and the sour cream and cook them for some time more.

Soda bread with mushrooms

The original recipe is Rachel Allen's soda bread recipe, plus I added some tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions and grated cheese. The outcome is a filling, vegetarian and quick lunch.

Veggie soup with thyme and marjoram

The original recipe says chicken stock instead of the stock-cube but thats what we didnt have at home now, so I stuck with the good old cubes.
 Its the perfect lunch for Sister, and other job-seekers before an interview.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 sticks of celery
• 3 potatoes
• bit of olive oil
• marjoram
•  fresh thyme
• salt, pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 dl of sour cream
• about 1 and a half litre of water
• 2 stock-cubes

Chop the onion, not too fine and put them onto a bit of olive oil, start softening them, after adding salt to it. Meanwhile peel the carrots and slice them. Slice the sticks of celery too. Add them to the onion and stir them well. Braise them for a while and then add the thyme leaves , the bay leaf and the marjoram, and then add the water, bring it to a boil and then add the two cubes (this is whats on the box, I actually dissolved the cubes in the water and added it then, and it worked). During that peel the potatoes, and slice them into equal pieces, and when the carrots are 80% soft, add the potatoes. It softens in about 10 minutes. When its ready, get it off the heat so that it doesnt boil, and add the sour cream. Then put it back to the heat and bring it to a boil again. You can edd extra salt to taste and freshy ground pepper also fits it well.

Zuchini salad for rainy days

Because what else you can do when its gray and rainy outside than start cooking...:)

Ingredients for a relatively big batch

• 2 big zucchinis
• 2 smaller ones
• several cloves of garlic
• fresh basil leaves
• tomatoes
• olive oil, salt, ground black pepper
• 1 dl of sour cream
• juice of a quarter of a lemon
• roasted sesame and sunflower seeds

Wash the zucchinis. Pare the two bigger ones in order to obtain 3-4 mm thick circles. In a bit of olive oil start frying them, add a bit of salt and cover it. We dont want to overcook it, just until they become soft enough.
Chop the other two zucchinis into smaller pieces, and start frying them too in another pan. The point is to cook them absolutely soft, because it will be the basic element of the dressing. Add smashed garlic to the smaller zucchini pieces, add salt and freshly ground pepper and wait until its done.
When the zucchini circles are done, put them into the bowl where we will finally mix the salad and let it cool for a bit. Chop the tomatoes and the basil leaves and add them to the cool zucchini. Also add the lemon juice.
Add sour cream to the zucchini made for the dressing and mix it with the electric mixer. Taste it, if its salty enough then mix it with the rest of the salad.
In a dry pan roast the seeds and sprinkle them onto the salad.

Zucchini with walnut and feta cheese stuffing

Ingredients

• zucchini
• ground walnut
• feta cheese
• onions
• sour cream
• mexico grill seasoning
• condensed tomato can
• salt, pepper
• basil
• thyme
• rosemary

Chop the onions into circles and start frying them in a bit of oil while preparing the zucchinis. Cut the previously washed vegetables into halves alongside, and hollow them out. Not too much, just make some space for the filling. Add the inside parts to the onions which will be perfectly soft by then, and cover the saucer so that it cooks quicker. When its almost ready, add the seasoning and the condensed tomato sauce, leave it for a bit more, and then take it off the heat. Take a hotproof dish and pour this whole thing into it.
Mix the sour cream and the feta cheese and add the walnut, the thyme, the rosemary and the basil. You will need the least of the rosemary because it has the strongest taste. Taste it, and if its not salty enough, add some extra feta.
Put the cream into the zucchini halves and put them onto the zucchini inside and tomato mix. Cover it with aluminium foil and put it into the oven, 15 minutes at 180 should be enough to be ready but you can check its softness by sticking a fork into it.

The apetizer: eggplant

Yesterday I was watching Ainsley Harriot cooking something similar on the beach in Greece, so here it is, without the sea... We didn't have reason to complain though :)

Ingredients:

• eggplants
• tomatoes
• smoked cheese
• fresh basil leaves
• garlic
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
• toothpick

Cut slices of the eggplant, the same way as you would cut the bread. We dont need to thick slices but it shouldnt be too thin either. Start frying the slices in a pan, you can add some oil but be careful because the eggplant is spongy and absorbs everything really fast, and it becomes soft without the oil at all as well. Chop the garlic and fry it in a bit of olive oil. If all of this is done, let the whole thing cool for a bit. Then take a slice of eggplant, put a slice of tomato in the middle, then comes the thin slice of smoked cheese, the garlic and the basil. Fold back the endings of the eggplant and fix it with a toothpick, so that it wont fall apart in the oven. Put it in the oven, it needs 5-10 minutes at 180 deg, the cheese will melt a bit and the tomato will become just soft enough. A bit of fresh lemon juice is perfect with it. Its better to salt the eggplant while frying it, but you can add salt before eating it if its not salty enough.
(The original recipe had feta cheese in it, but we didnt have any at home.)

Champignon salad with lots of thyme

Ingredients (depending on the amount of salad we are making)

• champignons
• thyme
• garlic
• oolive oil
• sour cream
• salt, pepper

Wash the champignons, and cut the brown parts down if necessary. Cut them in not too smal pieces, four in the case of smaller ones and correlate the others to them. In a bit of olive oil fry the champignons, and add salt too, but just until it becomes soft but nbot too soft. When its done, add the thyme and part of the garlic. Let it cool, whilst add the salt and the rest of the garlic to the sour cream and mix it. When its cold, add the sour cream to the champignons, and let it rest in the fridge for some time.

Tomato salad by KGy :)

Ingredients:

• mellow tomatoes
• red onions
• fresh parsley

Dressing:

• 1 dl of corn oil
• vinegar
• a little bit of salt
• sugar or sweetening
• water

Dice the tomatoes and chop fine the onions. Put them into the dish by turns and sprinkle the fine chopped parsley onto the top. Shake the ingredients of the dressing in a bottle and taste it. If its allright, then pour into the dish and mix the salad carefully. Its good for the taste if you let it cool for a couple of hours in the fridge but its just as good inmediately served.

Carrots with balsamic vinegar and new potatoes with caraway seeds seeds

Ingredients for 2:

The carrots:

• 3 carrots
• thyme
• dark balm vinegar
• salt, pepper, olive oil
• garlic
• 1 onion

The potatos:

1. 5 new potatos
2. caraway seeds

Chop the peeled carrots, put it into a heatproof dish, add a little olive oil, salt, freshly grounded pepper, and the leaves of the thyme. Mix it, and add the cloves of garlic and pieces of onion. Cover it with aluminium foil and steam it until almost ready at 200 degrees in the oven. Remove the foil and pour the vinegar into it, but not too much. Put it back to the oven for 5-10 minutes until the acidity of the vinegar disappears, and the top of the carrots get a nice colour.

Wash the potatoes, and leaving their skins on them cut them in half. Pour a little olive oil onto them and add salt, the caraway seeds and freshly grounded pepper.Cover them with aluminium foil and keep them in the oven at 200 deg until they become soft. Remove the foil then and leave them in the oven until they get a nice golden colour on the top. It can be eaten with the skins on, its really crispy and delicious.

Vegetable korma curry

 Ingredients for 2:
-oil
-onion
-1 tablespoon of cream
-korma curry seasoning
-salt
-1 clove of garlic
-1 eggplant
-1 smaller cauliflower
-1 tomato
-1 potato
-dried chili

While frying the onion in the oil add 4 teaspoons of korma curry seasoning. Add the creme and 1 dl of water. Let it cook for a bit, then add the diced eggplant, potato, tomato, cauliflower and garlic. Add the chili, cover it and steam it until ready, add more seasoning if needed.