Ice cold cucumber soup

The moment when you realize that you still have some of yesterday's cucumber soup left in the fridge is priceless in 36 degrees. This soup is something woth eating even in the biggest heat, because it's light and cool and you can eat as much as you want. Usually it doesn't take a long time to eat all of it in our family....:)

Ingredients, serves 4

• 3-4 cucumbers
• 3-4 dls of plain youghurt
• 2 ls of cold water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and freshly ground pepper

Peel the cucumbers and rasp them. Pour the water, and add the smashed garlic. Use a blender or a mixer to blend it. Stir the yoghurt in and add some salt and pepper. Taste it and if it needs anything else, add some more. Let it cool in the fridge for a couple of hours and then you can eat all you want. 

Summer style potato with basil and tomato

Basically this is a copy of  the basil potatoes that my mum used to make when we were little. I asked her for the recipe many times but I always forget it, so now I came up with my own. My brain seriously stopped today while writing my essay so I needed something to get it to function again. However, it's a fact that with new potatoes, fresh basil and ripe tomatoes, you cannot really fail... :)

Ingredients:

• 6 new potatoes
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• half a red onion
• 10-12 leaves of fresh basil
• a hanful of fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons of sour cream
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a tiny bit of oil

Wash the potatoes but you can leave the skin on, if it's nice. Wash the tomatoes as well, and peel the onion.  What we need is to have equal sied potato slices, which is also true for the onin and the tomaotes. So slice everything up and then you can start puting together the dish. Pour a bit of olive oil into a heatproof dish and lay the firs layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them. Lay a couple of slices of tomatoes on the top of the potatoes and some onion as well. Season it with the basil and the thyme. Continue with the layers until you run out of potatoes. The top layer has to be potatoes because the final step is spreading some sour cream on top. Put the whole thing in the oven for about an hour at 180 degrees, preferably covered with aluminium foil, which you can remove in the last 10 minutes so that the top can roast a bit. 

Cinnamon - banana rolls with whole wheat flour

Unfortunately not all of it is made of whole wheat flour, because I'm always afraid that the dough is gonna be too thick if I only use whole wheat (although the yeast made it quite airy). At the beginning I wanted to put the banana in the dough but it would have been too soft, so the banana became the stuffing. Maybe it's better like this, the taste is stronger. 

Ingredients

• 20 dkg of whole wheat flour
• 25 dkg of Graham flour
• 20 dkg of plain flour
• 10 dkg of sugar
• 4 dl of milk
• 10 dkg of butter
• 1 egg
• 1 packet of instant yeast
• a pinch of salt 
• 3 bananas 
• 2 tbl spoons of ground cinnamon 
• 1 egg for the wash

Put the milk, the butter and the sugar in a pan and start cooking it on a very low fire. You don't need to boil it, just make the sugar and the butter melt in the milk. Meanwhile measure the flour and mix it with the salt and the yeast. I usually make the dough in a bread baking machine. When the milk is ready stir a beaten egg into it. Pour the mixture into the machine with the flour and start making the dough. 

While the machine is doing its job, smash the bananas with a fork and mix it with the cinnamon. Strech the dough quite big and slush the stuffing on it. Start rolling it up starting from the longer side. When it's done, start cutting it in 2 cm wide slices. Put the pieces on an oven pan and give them an egg wash. Cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 15 minutes. Let it cool and then you can eat it.

Tuna casserole with peas

I'm having minor kitchen accidents these days so I got a two piece casserole dish set as a consolation gift. In the bigger one you can cook for two people and the smaller one is enough for one. I tried the bigger dish out the next day with this tuna casserole :) 

Ingredients

• half a packet of penne 
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 3 drops of liquid sweetener
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of tuna (in brine)
• peas according to taste
• grated cheese
• salt, pepper

First you have to cook the penne in boiling salted water. Then chop the onion and the garlic fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan. Chop the canned tomatos up and pour it into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, a bit of water and the 2 drops of sweetener. Pour in the peas and cover it with a lid. Cook it until the peas are fine, then remove the lid and let it boil for a while so that it gets thicker. Then lay one third of the penne on the bottom of the casserole dish, then one third of the tuna and one third of the tomato sauce. Repeat this twice and sprinkle the cheese on top of it in the end. You need to cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the cheese becomes golden. 

Red currant and raspberry sponge cake

The garden is full of red currant and raspberries and luckily the family loves sour fruits so this is why this very easy sponge cake was born last week. I found a perfect sponge cake recipe on the internet once and it is practically impossible to mess it up. Before that my sponge cakes were never really good but with this recipe you can always make a perfect one without baking soda. The only flaw of it could be that it's a little bit dry because the recipe doesn't include any butter but you can always add some, according to your taste.

Ingredients 

• 6 eggs
• 25 dkg of plain flour
• 12 dkg of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or flavour
• red currrant and raspberries

When you make a sponge cake, always use cold eggs! Separate the eggs. Beat the whites up with the sugar until it's firm enough. This is the most important movement in making a sponge cake, because if you beat the whites up with the sugar in it, it's gonna be much firmer. This way the sponge cake won't collapse in the oven and it will rise nicely. Stir the yolks with the vanilla extract and if you want to, this is the time to add the lukewarm butter too. Pour this mixture onto the beat up egg whites and give it a careful stir. Then you will have to sift the flour into the whites and stir it very carefully, just until it's homogenous. Line some baking paper into an oven pan (that has at least 6 cm high sides) and pour the mixture into the pan. Put the fruits on top and put it in the oven at 160 deg Celsius for about 35-40 minutes. When it's done, let it cool down in the oven so that it doesnt't collapse.

Courgettes with walnut and cream stuffing and couscous with golden onions

I am condemned not to eat meat and any kind of animal derived products for two weeks so I'm constantly cooking vegetable dishes. The day before yesterday I made chili with squash and beans with a sotre-bought chili con carne spice mix and I have to admit, it might sound weird but it was absolutely yummy. Next time I cook it I will put the recipe in here, just to shock you people :) 

This dish I made today is a good one too, the walnut is a very dear friend of the courgettes and the couscous is always delicious, no matter what you do with it. I did however violate the prohibition because this dish contains at least three tablespoons of sour cream but  a must is a must, if it's the only thing you have in your fridge.

Ingredients  

• 4 courgettes
• 2 big handfuls of walnut
• 3 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 tbl spoon of starch
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt, freshly ground pepper

Wash the courgettes and cut them in halves alongside. Hollow them out and chop the inside parts fine. Start cooking it in a bit of oil, while you add a little salt. The walnuts also need to be chopped fine. For the garlic use the garlic press and press them onto the courgettes, cook them together for a few minutes. Then you can add the walnut, and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Take it off the heat. Stir the starch into the sour cream and add it to the walnut mixture and give it a good stir. Place the courgettes halves onto an oven pan and sprinkle some salt on them. Fill the hollow parts with the stuffing and cook them in the oven at 190 deg Celsius until the top gets golden and the courgettes are soft. It's safer if you pour a little water into the pan. 

Couscous for 2

• 1.5 dl of couscous
• 3 dl of boiling water
• salt
• 2 onions

Chop the onions fine and cook them in a bit of oil until it becomes golden. Pour the water onto the couscous and cover it, let it rest for 20 minutes. When it's done stir the onions in the couscous. I also put some fresh thyme leaves in it.

Garlic coated turkey bites with zucchini salad

The 3 bites of pasta salad and 8 pieces of strawberries I had for lunch have taken their toll and in the middle of the afternoon I felt the urge to cook something delicious. Good thing I bought a couple of beautiful zucchinis this morning, and I had turkey breast in the freezer. Now the only thing I have to do is wait for the rain which these days often comes at the end of the day :)

Ingredients for the turkey bites

• turkey breast
• garlic granule
• a little bit of white pepper
• a bit of cinnamon
• eggs, flour and bread crumbs for the coating
• salt

Cut the turkey breast in bite-sized pieces. Mix the spices in a bowl and add one half of it to the flour, the other half to the crumbs. Sprinkle salt on the turkey bits and coat them first with the flour, then the eggs and finally the crumbs. Put the pieces on a baking tin filled with baking paper. Pour a little bit of oil onto the turkey, it's even better if you oil the paper too before putting the turkey on it. Cook them in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until they become golden. When the upper side is done turn them over so that the lower parts get crispy too.

Ingredients for the salad

• 2 zucchinis
• 2 dl of plain yogurt
• 2 tbl spoons of sour cream
• 1 teaspoon of madras curry powder
• a teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of curry powder
• salt

Grate the zucchinis and cook them in a pan, but you just want to give it a bit of heat, they don't need to cook entirely. Meanwhile mix the ingredients of the dressing and when the zucchini is ready add them to the dressing. Let it cool to room temepratue at least, but you can put it in the fridge to be even cooler.