Valentina

Homemade Flatbread with Potatoes and Feta !

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.
Gabriel García Márquez

Dough ingredients:
– 300g all-purpose flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 20g fresh yeast
– 150ml warm water
– 1 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 400g new potatoes (weight unpeeled)
– 150g Feta cheese
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Serving/baking ingredients:
– 1 tbsp olive oil for brushing the flatbreads before baking
– chopped tomatoes for serving

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Crush yeast into warm (30-35C) water, add 1 tbsp sugar: mix well until sugar an yeast are dissolved and leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour and salt: knead the dough and leave it under cloth for 30 minutes (make the filling meanwhile)
2 Filling
2.1 Peel potatoes and boil until ready: drain extra water
2.2 Combine potatoes with feta and black pepper: mash until smooth
3 Flatbread
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts: roll out each part into 16-20cm round
3.3 Put 1-2tbsp filling in the middle of each round
3.4 Lift up ends of each round to the centre and seal them tight with the fingers. Then gently flatten into 15cm round.
3.5 Brush each flatbread both sides with olive oil and put on the baking paper
3.6 Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C until golden and serve warm!
4 Enjoy with a cup of coffee and a good company 😉

Spring Salad with Chicken, Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers !

No one’s serious at seventeen
When lindens line the promenade.
Arthur Rimbaud

Chicken Salad with Prunes, Walnuts and Cucumbers

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 300g chicken breasts
– 2 eggs
– 3 cucumbers
– 70g walnuts
– 14 prunes
– 2 tbsp mayonnaise
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1 Boil chicken breasts until ready and chop
2 Boil eggs until ready and chop
3 Wash and chop cucumbers, prunes and walnuts
4 Combine chicken, eggs, cucumbers, prunes, walnuts and season with salt & mayonnaise: serve !

My first Kaiserschmarrn !

I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Batter ingredients:
– 360ml milk
– 130g flour
– 3-4 tbsp sugar
– 4 eggs
– 1 pinch of salt
– 50g butter for frying

Applesauce ingredients:
– 4 apples
– 100ml water
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 tbsp sugar

Method:
1 Applesauce:
1.1 Wash, peel and cut apples
1.2 Put into the skillet 4 apples, 100ml water, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 8g vanilla sugar, 1tbsp sugar: boil until apples are soft ~10 minutes
1.3 Mash the apples with a blender until smooth
2 Kaiserschmarrn
2.1 Whisk 4 egg whites with a pinch of salt for 4-5 minutes
2.2 Combine 130g flour, 3 tbsp sugar, 4 yolks, 360ml milk and mix until smooth
2.3 Combine egg whites with the rest of dough and carefully mix
2.4 Preheat the skillet with 50g butter
2.5 Pour the batter on the skillet and cook for 7-8 minutes at medium heat
2.6 Carefully flip the batter – do not worry, it will not be perfect anyway 🙂
2.7 Separate flipped part into 2x3cm pieces with forks and cook for another 3-4 minutes
2.8 Serve Kaiserschmarrn with powdered sugar and applesauce !

Simple and Healthy Lunch: Asparagus, Salmon and Mustard Sauce !

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 500g white asparagus
– 200g salmon

Mustard sauce ingredients:
– 1 tsp Dijon mustard
– 2 boiled eggs (or 2 boiled eggs)
– 3 tsp mayonnaise
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil

Serving ingredients:
– fresh parsley

Method:
1 Mustard sauce: combine sauce ingredients and mix
2 Asparagus with salmon
2.1 Wash and peel white asparagus
2.2 Boil asparagus in the pan with salmon for 14 minutes in salted water
3 Serve boiled asparagus and salmon with mustard sauce and chopped fresh parsley !

Home-made Flatbread with Tomatoes, Zucchini, Rucola and Pine Nuts !

With life as short as a half taken breath, don’t plant anything but love.
Rumi

Dough ingredients:
– 300g all-purpose flour
– 1 tbsp sugar
– 20g fresh yeast
– 150ml warm water
– 1 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 1 cup dried tomatoes
– 250g mozzarella
– 1/2 medium zucchini
– 50g rucola
– 50g pine nuts
– 50g grated Grana Padano
– 2 tbsps olive oil
– salt & pepper if dried tomatoes are unsalted

Serving/baking ingredients:
– 1 tbsp olive oil for brushing the flatbread before baking
– fresh dill for serving

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Crush yeast into warm (30-35C) water, add 1 tbsp sugar: mix well until sugar an yeast are dissolved and leave the mixture for 15 minutes
1.2 Add flour and salt: knead the dough and leave it under cloth for 30 minutes
2 Filling
2.1 Make tomato pesto: mash in the blender dried tomatoes, pine nuts, olive oil, parmesan (add salt and pepper if dried tomatoes are not spiced)
2.2 Wash and slice 1/2 zucchini
2.3 Wash rucola and let it dry
2.4 Slice mozzarella
3 Flatbread
3.1 Preheat the oven to 210C
3.2 Separate the dough into 4 equal parts: roll out each part into 16-20cm round
3.3 Put in the middle of each round: tomato pesto, zucchini, mozzarella, rucola
3.4 Lift up ends of each round to the center and seal them tight with the fingers. Then gently flatten into 15cm round.
3.5 Brush each flatbread two sides with olive oil and put on the baking paper
3.6 Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200C until golden: let them cool down and serve with a fresh dill
4 Enjoy with a cup of coffee

Warm rice salad with mushrooms and green peas: quick and healthy lunch!

If it rubs off, it means I’m in love
Ray Bradbury

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 120g boiled basmati rice
– 400-600g unpeeled green peas
– 10-12 medium button mushrooms
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
– salt and pepper
– dill for serving

Method:
1 Boil basmati rice until ready and drain water
2 Peel and wash green peas
3 Peel and wash (remove dirt with a paper towel) button mushrooms , then slice them
4 Wash and chop dill
5 Preheat the skillet with 1 tbsp olive oil and add sliced mushrooms and green peas: cook for 10 minutes, constantly stirring
6 Add to vegetables: boiled rice, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper: cook for another 5 minutes
7 Serve with chopped dill and enjoy!

Quick and Delicious Pasta for a working lunch !

I don’t feel particularly proud of myself. But when I walk alone in the woods or lie in the meadows, all is well.
Franz Kafka

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g spaghetti
– 10-12 button mushrooms
– 1/2 bunch of parsley
– 50g grated Grana Padano
– 1tbsp olive oil
– 1tsp salt

Method:
1 Mushrooms
1.1 Remove dirt from mushrooms with a wet paper towel, then slice the mushrooms finely
1.2 Wash and chop parsley
1.3 Fry champignons for 3-4 minutes in olive oil, then add parsley and fry for another 3-4 minutes constantly stirring
2 Spaghetti
2.1 Boil spaghetti al dente in salted water, drain water
2.2 Combine spaghetti with mushrooms & parsley & grated Grana Padano: mix well
2.3 Serve and enjoy quick and delicious lunch !

Braided Easter Bread

“I don’t see much sense in that,” said Rabbit.
“No,” said Pooh humbly, “there isn’t. But there was going to be when I began it. It’s just that something happened to it along the way.”
A.A. Milne

Dough ingredients:
– 450g all purpose flour
– 200ml 33% cream
– 20g fresh yeast
– 2 eggs and 1 egg white
– 60g sugar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1 dash of salt
– 4g lemon zest
– 250g raisins

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk
– 1 tbsp milk
– 20g almond petals

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Pre-heat the 33% cream to 30-34C in a saucepan
1.2 Add to warm 33% cream: crushed fresh yeast and 2 tbsp sugar. Whisk until smooth and let it stay for 15 minutes covered with the cloth
1.3 Add to cream & yeast: 2 eggs and 1 egg white, sugar and Vanilla sugar, salt, lemon zest: whisk until smooth
1.4 Gradually add flour and raisins: knead a dough. Let dough stay in a warm place covered with a cloth for 30 minutes to let it raise 🙂
2 Braided bread
2.1 Separate raised dough into 5 equal parts, then form a 40cm long sausages out of each piece
2.2 Join all the sausages at top firmly with fingers, then braid them taking the left most and putting in the middle, then right most and putting it in the middle: repeat until you braid all the length through 🙂

2.3 Join the sausages in the end firmly.
2.4 Whisk an egg yolk with 1 tbsp milk and brush well the bread-to-be
2.5 Sprinkle the bread-to-be with almond petals
2.6 Let the bread raise for another 15 minutes (no cover now) and meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 180C
2.7 Bake the bread for 25 minutes on the baking paper at 180C
3 Let the bread cool down and serve with butter. Enjoy and Happy Easter!

Bunny cookies with almond !

The Duchess! The Duchess! Oh my dear paws! Oh my fur and whiskers! She’ll get me executed, as sure as ferrets are ferrets!
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Ingredients (14-18 bunnies):
– 110g all-purpose flour
– 50g butter
– 40-50g sugar
– 50g chopped almond
– 1 small egg
– several chocolate buttons for baking

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 190C
2 Chop almond to 0.2-0.5cm pieces (I used pre-chopped 1cm x 0.3cm almond stripes from the shop) – do not chop too finely to make super-crusty cookies 😉
3 Mix flour, sugar and grated butter until smooth
4 Add an egg and chopped almonds: mix well
5 Roll out the dough to 0.5cm width, cut the cookies with a bunny cookie cutter, put the cookies on the baking paper. Put chocolate buttons – bunnies eyes
6 Bake the cookies for 15 min at 190C
7 Serve with a cup of black coffee and have a wonderful and sunny weekend !

Simple Butter Cookies with Chopped Almond !

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Lewis Carroll

Ingredients:
– 110g all-purpose flour
– 50g butter
– 40-50g sugar
– 50g chopped almond
– 1 small egg

Method:
1 Pre-heat the oven to 190C
2 Chop almond to 0.2-0.5cm pieces (I used pre-chopped 1cm x 0.3cm almond stripes from the shop) – this is important to chop almonds not too finely to make crusty cookies 🙂
3 Mix flour, sugar and grated butter until smooth
4 Add an egg and chopped almonds: mix well
5 Form cookies out of the dough and put on the baking paper: bake 15 min at 190C
6 Serve with a cup of black coffee and have a wonderful Sunday !

Cabbage Rolls with Minced Beef: tasty and healthy lunch

…nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book…
Nikolai Gogol

Ingredients (for 12 cabbage rolls):
– 1 pointed head cabbage (it is more tender for this recipe than white cabbage)
– 4oog minced beef
– 120g rice
– 1 red onion
– 250g mashed tomatoes (tomato passata) 🍅
– 1.5 tsp salt
– 0.5 tsp black pepper
– 200g sour cream for serving

Directions:
1 Boil rice until ready
2 Carefully separate cabbage leaves and boil them for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a plate to cool down
3 Chop onion
4 Mix minced beef with boiled rice, chopped onion, salt and black pepper
5 Put 1-2 tbsp beef mixture on one cabbage leave and pack into a roll 🙂
6 Put cabbage rolls side to side in the saucepan and cover with water 1-2 cm above, then add mashed tomatoes: I cooked in 2 saucepans with 125g mashed tomatoes in each
7 Boil cabbage rolls for 30-35 minutes covered with a lid
8 Serve cabbage rolls with cooking broth, sour cream and chopped parsley!

Pancakes with Apple Rings or Racuchy z jabłkami !

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
Kenneth Grahame

Ingredients (for 20 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 1 cup (200ml) milk
– 250g flour
– 1/2 tsp baking soda + 1/2 tsp vinegar
– 8g Vanilla sugar
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4 apples
– sunflower oil for frying
– powdered sugar or jam or honey for serving

Directions:
1 Apples
1.1 Wash apples and remove the apples core carefully with a knife: first from the top, then from the bottom and then the remaining hard parts in the middle keeping the apple unbroken
1.2 Cut apples in 0.8-1cm width rings
2 Batter
2.1 Whisk eggs with milk, then add flour & sugar & salt: mix well until smooth
2.2 Add baking soda and vinegar in the same teaspoon to the batter and mix
3 Pancakes
3.1 Preheat two skillets with sunflower oil: it’s quicker to cook with 2 skillets!
3.2 For each pancake soak the apple ring well in a batter and put on the skillet: fry each side until golden for 2-3 minutes
3.3 Since there is little sugar in the pancakes, serve them with powdered sugar or honey or marmalade!
4 Enjoy!

Simple Tarte Flambée Feta-Olive !

Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.
Gustave Flaubert, November

Dough:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 100ml warm water
– 1 pinch salt

Filling:
– 200g sour cream
– 2 small red onions
– 150g Feta cheese
– 15 green olives without stone

Directions:
1 Dough
1.1 Preheat the oven to 220C
1.2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 min
1.3 Roll out the dough into a 3mm height oval
1.4 Transfer the dough on the baking paper: bake (without filling) at 220C for 8 min
2 Filling and Tarte Flambee
2.1 Chop red onions, feta cheese and olives
2.2 Spread the sour cream over the baked dough; sprinkle with onion, feta cheese and olives: bake for another 10 min at 220C
3 Serve and enjoy with a cup of coffee or a glass of Pinot Noir

Quick and delicious Tomato-Onion-Mozzarella and Garlic Toasts !

It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?”
A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Ingredients (for 4 toasts):
– 4 rye or potato bread slices
– 100g Mozarella
– 1 tomato
– half a small red onion
– 2 garlic cloves
– 1-2 tbsp olive oil
– salt & pepper

Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Peel, wash and chop garlic
3 Peel, wash and slice red onion in 3-5mm width slices
4 Slice tomato and mozzarella in 6-8mm width slices
5 Put bread slices on the baking paper
6 Distribute chopped garlic evenly on the bread slices
7 Sprinkle olive oil on the bread slices evenly
8 Put onion slices on the bread slices over the chopped garlic
10 Put tomato slices over the onions slices, sprinkle black pepper and salt!
11 Finally put mozzarella slices over the tomato slices
12 Bake the toasts 10-14 minutes at 200C, serve hot 🙂

Crumble Apple Cake with Walnuts !

The cup of tea on arrival at a country house is a thing which, as a rule, I particularly enjoy. I like the crackling logs, the shaded lights, the scent of buttered toast, the general atmosphere of leisured cosiness.
P.G. Wodehouse

Dough ingredients:
– 400g flour
– 250g butter
– 2tbsp sugar
– 2 packets (each 8g) Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2tsp baking soda + 1/2tsp vinegar

Filling ingredients:
– 5 medium apples
– 100g chopped walnuts
– 3tbsp sugar

Method:
1 Dough
1.1 Combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar and add chopped butter: mix to crumbles
1.2 Add baking soda + vinegar in the same teaspoon and mix in to flour&sugar&butter
1.3 Add an egg and knead the dough
2 Filling
2.1 Wash, peel and grate apples
2.2 Wash, dry and chop walnuts
2.3 Combine grates apples, chopped walnuts and sugar: carefully mix
3 Cake
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Separate the dough into 2 equal parts
3.3 Put the first of dough into 28cm diameter buttered baking form and flatten
3.4 Distribute the filling over the dough equally
3.5 Grate the remaining part of dough over the filling 🙂
3.6 Bake 35-40 minutes at 190C
3.7 Let the cake cool down and sprinkle with sugar powder
3.8 Enjoy the cake one Sunday morning with your favourite detective movie and a cup of strong black coffee !

Homemade Tarte Flambée with Apples and Cinnamon !

After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.
Kenneth Grahame

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tablespoons olive oil
– 100ml warm water
– 1 pinch salt

Filling ingredients:
– 200ml 10% sour cream
– 2 apples
– 1 tbsp cane sugar
– 3/4 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into a 3mm height oval
4 Put the dough on the baking paper: bake at 220C for 5-8 minutes without filling
5 Meanwhile wash and finely slice the apples
6 Remove the baking tray from the oven, spread the sour cream over the baked dough and put apples slices over sour cream
7 Mix sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle over apples
8 Bake Tarte Flambée for another 5-8 minutes at 220C
9 Serve and have a nice weekend !

Creamy Salmon and Rice: quick and delicious lunch !

No one’s serious at seventeen,
When lindens line the promenades
A. Rimbaud

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 100ml 33% cream
– 180g Basmati rice
– salt for boiling rice
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 60g Parmesan
– 2-3 scallion sprigs
– 1/2 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge
2 Wash and cut scallion into thin rings, put in a separate bowl
3 Boil rice in salted water until ready and keep it warm while cooking salmon
4 Wash salmon and cut into 1-1.5cm cubes
5 Fry salmon for 5 min in olive oil at middle heat, add 33% cream and stew for another 5 min
6 Transfer the rice into the serving bowls and put the salmon over the rice
7 Sprinkle the dish with grated Parmesan, chopped scallion and black pepper
8 Serve !

Very Quick Homemade Pizza with Buffalo Mozzarella and Tomatoes !

“And what if the abbot finds us?”
“We will pretend to be a pair of ghosts”
Umberto Eco

Dough ingredients:
– 1 and 1/2 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/2 cup water
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Sauce ingredients:
– 300ml mashed tomatoes
– 1 tsp olive oil
– salt and pepper

Filling ingredients:
– 200g buffalo mozzarella
– 50g Grana Padano

Serving ingredients:
– 1/2 bunch of scallion for serving

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Combine dough ingredients and knead the dough
3 Roll out the dough to the 3-5mm width round
4 Put the dough round on the baking paper and bake for 8 min (no filling yet)
5 Sauce: mix mashed tomatoes, 1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper
6 Distribute the sauce evenly over the baked dough round
7 Add mozzarella slices and sprinkle with grated Grana Padano
8 Bake the pizza for 10-15 minutes
9 Sprinkle with scallion and and enjoy

Cottage Cheese Cake with Berries !

But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn’t depend on will because it comes from love.
Henryk Sienkiewicz

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour
– 150g cottage cheese or quark
– 80g sugar
– 4 tbsp olive oil
– 1 egg
– 1 pinch salt
– 1/2 tsp butter for buttering the baking form

Filling ingredients:
– 300g berries mix (blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries), I used frozen ones
– sugar to taste

Method:
1 Filling
1.1 Wash (unfreeze) berries and let them dry for 20-30 minutes
1.2 Add 20-40g sugar and mix (I do not add sugar to the filling as the cake is sweet enough without it but one can add some sugar!)
2 Dough and cake
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough
2.3 Separate the dough into 2/3 (for the base part) and 1/3 (for the upper part)
2.4 Roll out 2/3 dough part into 20cm round and put in the buttered form
2.5 Put the berries mixture over the dough
2.6 Roll out 1/3 dough and cut 1cm width stripes out of it. One can also make some decorations with a cookie cutter 🙂
2.7 Put the stripes over the berries mixture
2.8 Bake the cake at 200C 25-35 minutes
2.9 Sprinkle with sugar powder and serve with a cup of green tea !

Warm Avocado-Potato Salad with Dijon Mustard !

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter
John Keats

Ingredients (2 large servings):
– 8-10 medium potatoes
– 2 avocados
– 1 red onion
– 1 tsp Dijon mustard
– 2-3 tsp mayonnaise
– salt and black pepper

Method:
1 Peel and wash potatoes and avocados
2 Cut potatoes into 0.3 cm slices and boil in salted water for 10-12 minutes, then drain water
3 Peel and cut avocados
4 Peel and chop red onion
5 Combine boiled potatoes, avocados, chopped onion, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard: carefully mix
6 Spice with salt and pepper, serve warm !

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