Valentina

Rhubarb Pancakes for a perfect Saturday breakfast !

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Ingredients (for 12-14 pancakes):
– 2 stalks (200g) rhubarb
– 120g flour
– 90g milk
– 50g sugar
– 3g Vanilla sugar (Vanilla sugar adds a wonderful flavour to the taste!)
– 1 egg
– pinch of salt
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
– [optional] 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Method:
1 Peel washed rhubarb and cut it into 20-30mm width pieces
2 Mix well in a bowl flour+milk+sugar+Vanilla sugar+egg+salt+oil and whisk a little bit
3 [Optional] Mix in baking soda & vinegar in the batter if you want to make your pancakes fluffy 😉
4 Carefully mix in rhubarb slices in the batter
5 Preheat a skillet over a medium heat, add some sunflower oil
6 Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto the skillet for each pancake and cook until golden on both sides (flip pancakes with a spatula, add sunflower oil when needed)
7 Transfer the pancakes onto the paper towels to get rid of extra oil
8 Serve pancakes with sour cream, strawberries or cooked rhubarb and … enjoy !

Hint:
Sour & sweet combination makes these pancakes truly delicious 😉

Strawberry Panna Cotta !

“Honey or condensed milk with your bread” he was so excited that he said, “Both,” and then, so as not to seem greedy, he added, “but don’t bother about the bread, please.”
A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Panna Cotta Ingredients:
– 300ml 33% cream
– 150ml milk
– 90g sugar
– 1g vanilla
– 1/3 tsp agar agar powder
– 100g strawberry

Serving ingredients:
– 100g strawberry

Method:
1 Slice washed strawberries and put them in the glasses
2 Combine in a pan milk+33% cream+sugar+vanilla+agar agar powder
3 Warm up the mixture until boiling constantly stirring
4 Set the pan aside for 3 minutes
5 Pour the creamy mixture from the pan into the glasses over the strawberries
6 Put the glasses in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight and enjoy Panna Cotta with fresh strawberries and … wonderful mood !

Hints:
1 Some agar agar powders are different from others. One might need to make a first try to adjust agar agar amount 🙂
2 Before serving let Panna Cotta stay a little bit outside the fridge, it is tastier when it is not completely cold !

Cauliflower pancakes with Roquefort-garlic sauce !

Sitting with her on Sunday evening — a wet Sunday evening — the very time of all others when if a friend is at hand the heart must be opened, and every thing told…
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Pancakes ingredients:
– 1 cauliflower head cut into florets
– 2 eggs
– 3 tablespoons wheat flour
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
– 4 sprigs green onions
– 1-2 tablespoons olive oil for frying

Roquefort-garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 40g Roquefort cheese
– 3 cloves garlic
– a few branches chopped parsley

Method:
1 Wash a cauliflower head and separate into florets
2 Boil the cauliflower florets in salty water for 10 minutes, then drain water
3 Mash the cauliflower florets with eggs, flour, species, finally mix in chopped green onions
4 Line a plate with paper towels to put there pancakes afterwards to get rid of extra oil
5 Put some olive oil on a skillet and set the medium-low heat
6 Put 1 tablespoon of cauliflower batter for 1 pancake on a skillet and flatten with a spatula (my 29cm diameter skillet allows cooking 3-4 pancakes simultaneously)
7 Cook pancakes for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden, then transfer them onto the paper towels
8 While cooking pancakes, make a Roquefort-garlic sauce: mash grated garlic with sour cream, Roquefort cheese and chopped parsley
9 Serve cauliflower pancakes hot with fresh baby spinach, chopped green onions and Roquefort-garlic sauce !

Saturday pleasures: Rhubarb Meringue Cake !

Most of the dandelions had changed from suns into moons.
Vladimir Nabokov

Sponge cake ingredients (19cm diameter baking form):
– 2 eggs
– 2/3 cup wheat flour
– 2/3 cup sugar
– 3g Vanilla sugar
– 1 stalk rhubarb (150-200g)

Meringue ingredients:
– 2 egg whites
– 4 tablespoons sugar

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Make the batter: whisk eggs with sugar, then carefully mix in the flour
3 Pour the batter into the buttered baking form
4 Peel rhubarb and slice it into ~0.5cm pieces and put them over the batter
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C (check if it is ready with a wooden stick, it should come out clean)
6 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
7 Whisk the egg whites with sugar until firm peaks for 5-10 minutes
8 Carefully put the whisked egg whites over the cake and bake for 30 minutes at 120C
9 Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down
10 Serve with fresh strawberries !

Hint:
1 Meringue can stick to the baking form if you do not let the cake cool down before putting whisked egg whites on it 😉

Paccheri con Salmone !

Show not what has been done, but what can be. How beautiful the world would be if there were a procedure for moving through labyrinths.
Umberto Eco

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 180g salmon
– 100ml 33% cream
– 300g durum wheat semolina pasta (ideally, Italian Pasta Superior Semola)
– 3 garlic clothes
– 80g Parmesan
– 1/2 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying

Method:
1 Grate Parmesan into a bowl and put in the fridge for now
2 Cut salmon into 1.5cm cubes
3 Chop garlic into 0.5cm cubes
4 Simultaneously start boiling pasta (5) and cooking salmon (6)
5 Boil pasta in the salty water until ready and drain the water
6 Cook salmon for 5 minutes in olive oil with garlic, then add 33% cream and stew for another 5 minutes
7 Put the pasta in the frying pan with salmon for 1 minute, carefully mix and transfer to the serving plates
8 Sprinkle pasta with grated Parmesan, add black pepper and serve immediately !

Spinach Fatayer: serving ideas !

You would not enjoy Nietzsche, sir. He is fundamentally unsound.
P.G. Wodehouse

Spinach Fatayer Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/4 cup warm water
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Spinach Fatayer filling ingredients:
– 120g fresh baby spinach
– 1/2 small chopped onion
– 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven at 220C !
2 Combine flour+salt+warm water in a bowl: knead the dough well for 5-6 minutes
3 Make a filling: combine chopped spinach & onion & walnuts & oil & salt & pepper
4 Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and form balls out of them
5 Roll out each ball into a 8-10cm diameter circle: put 2 teaspoons of a filling in the centre of each circle
6 Lift up ends of each circle to the centre to form with your fingers rhombuses-like Fatayers 🙂
7 Put the Fatayers on a baking paper: bake for 15 minutes at 220C
8 Serve with a vegetable soup (see Leek-potato soup recipe here) or black coffee !

Healthy Banana Oatmeal Muffins !

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.
“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Ingredients (for 10-12 muffins):
– 90g oat flour
– 120g ripe bananas
– 75g quark or cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp salt

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix all ingredients in a bowl (baking soda+vinegar at the last step)
3 Pour the dough into a buttered muffin form
4 Decorate muffins with oat flakes and bake for 30-35 minutes at 180C
5 Serve with Kefir or black coffee

Homemade potato gnocchi with spinach-gorgonzola sauce !

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

Potato Gnocchi with Spinach-Gorgonzola sauce Recipe

Gnocchi ingredients:
– 400g baked or boiled potatoes
– 1 egg
– 80g wheat flour
– 1g salt
– 1g pepper

Sauce ingredients:
– 100g Gorgonzola
– 100ml 33% cream
– 125g baby spinach
– 30g pine nuts
– 4 sprigs green onions

Method:
1 Peel and wash potatoes, cut them into 1cm cubes
2 Boil potatoes cubes for 10 minutes, drain the water and let them cool down
3 Knead a dough from the dough ingredients and divide it into 4 equal parts
4 Make a 1.5cm diameter sausage out of each piece of dough
5 Cut each sausage into 0.7cm-width gnocchi and put them on a floured plate
6 Gorgonzola sauce:
6.1 Toast the pine nuts without oil until golden, put them in a bowl aside
6.2 Wash baby spinach and let it dry
6.3 Melt Gorgonzola in 33% cream on a frying pan
6.4 When Gorgonzola is melted, add spinach to the frying pan: simmer for 4 minutes
7 Put gnocchi in a boiling salted water, cook for 4 minutes
8 Drain the water and carefully mix the gnocchi in the Gorgonzola sauce: gnocchi are ready !
9 Decorate gnocchi with toasted pine nuts and green onions !

Raspberry Cocoa Mascarpone Mini-Cakes !

“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”
A. A. Milne

Cocoa cake ingredients:
– 1 tablespoon cocoa
– 80 g sugar
– 75 g wheat flour
– 3 eggs
– 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
– 1/2 teaspoon vinegar

Cream ingredients:
– 250 g Mascarpone
– 3 tablespoons 33% cream
– 2 tablespoons sugar

Raspberry ingredients:
– 250g raspberries

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Whisk sugar with eggs for 3 minutes
3 Mix in flour and cocoa to whisked sugar&eggs, then add baking soda&vinegar
4 Pour the dough on the baking paper in a large baking form
5 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes at 180C, remove it from the oven and let it cool down
6 Cut the cake with your favorite cookie cutters 😉
7 Make the Mascarpone cream: whisk 33% cream and sugar & Mascarpone
8 Put Mascarpone cream on the cakes and decorate with raspberries & mint leaves
9 Put the cakes in the fridge overnight
10 Enjoy it next morning with a cup of green tea and have a great day ! 🙂

Strawberry custard mini-cakes !

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”
A.A. Milne

Mini-cakes ingredients:
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 cup sugar
– 1/2 cup flour

Custard cream ingredients:
– 1 egg
– 300-350ml milk
– 75g sugar
– [optional] 2g vanilla sugar
– 20g flour
– 30g butter

Strawberries ingredients:
– 400g strawberries

Method:
1 Make sponge cakes:
1.1 Preheat the oven to 180C
1.2 Whisk eggs with sugar and finely mix in flour
1.3 Put the dough in the buttered baking form and bake for 25-30 minutes
1.4 If you want to make mini-cakes, fill muffin cups to a 1/4-1/3 height since we will need a space for cream!
2 Wash strawberries and let them dry
3 Make custard cream
3.1 Put butter in the bowl and let it wait while we are making 3.2 and 3.3
3.2 Whisk for 2 minutes milk+sugar+egg+flour (if you are not afraid of making a super-tasty custard cream, add 2g vanilla sugar, but it will add a little darker tint to the custard)
3.3 Pour the mixture from 3.2 into a saucepan and warm it over middle heat constantly stirring until it gets thicker
3.4 Remove the cream from the heat, then quickly and finely mix in butter
3.5 Let the custard cream cool down
4 Put the custard cream on the cakes, decorate with halved strawberries and put in the fridge overnight to let the custard cream penetrate the cakes and make them delicious 😉
5 Have a great weekend !

Saturday Apples Pleasures !

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
W.B. Yeats

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) flour
– 150g cottage cheese
– 80g sugar
– 5 tablespoons olive oil
– 1 egg
– 1 pinch salt
– 1/2 teaspoon butter for buttering the muffin form

Filling ingredients:
– 2 small apples finely sliced

Beautifying ingredients:
– 1 egg yolk

Method:
1 Knead the dough from dough ingredients and let it rest for 30 minutes in the fridge (cover it with a plate)
2 Preheat the oven to 200C
3 Divide the dough into 2 equal parts
4 Cut out a 10x10cm square of a white paper
5 Roll off the first piece of dough to be a 20x30cm rectangular
6 Using the 10x10cm paper square, cut out 6 squares from the dough
7 Repeat 5 and 6 for the second piece of dough
8 Put the 12 dough squares in the 12 buttered muffin form baking cups
9 Finely slice the apples and put them beautifully in the middle of each bag
10 Whisk a yolk in a glass and yolk all apple-bag-edges
11 Bake 25-30 minutes at 200C
12 Enjoy the Apple-Bags some Saturday morning with a cup of black coffee on a balcony when sun is shining, when cherry trees are blossoming and everything will be well!

My first rye bread !

He had only just had break fast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good
J.R.R. Tolkien, Hobbit

Ingredients (small portion like on photo):
– 115g rye flour
– 120g wheat flour
– 155ml water
– 7g salt
– 5g sourdough

Method (27 hours):
1 Knead a dough from all the ingredients in a bowl, put under a damp cloth. The dough is ready when it can be easily removed from the edges of the bowl.
2 Leave the dough in the bowl covered with the damp cloth for 24 hours. Stretch and fold the dough every 6-8 hours
3 After 24 hours stretch and fold the dough one last time, then carefully shape the ball out of it
4 Roll the dough ball in the flour and put it into another well-floured bowl
5 Preheat the oven to 250C
6 Put the bread in the oven in the baking pan with a lid (without a lid, the bread gets too crusty) and bake in three steps
6.1 with a lid for 10 minutes at 250C
6.2 with a lid for 30 minutes at 230C
6.3 without a lid for 10 minutes at 230C
7 Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool before you cut it

Easter Mini-Cakes (Russian style) !

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

Dough ingredients (4 servings):
– 350g flour
– 300ml Kefir
– 1 teaspoon baking soda
– 100g butter
– 130g sugar
– 1 egg yolk
– 3g Vanilla sugar
– 80g raisins
– lemon zest (1 lemon)
– 20g candied orange peel

Icing ingredients:
– 1 egg white
– 1 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 10g grated pistachio
– 20g candied orange peel

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Wash the raisins and let them dry
3 Mix in the 1st bowl Kefir with baking soda, leave it rest for 5 minutes
4 Mix finely in the 2nd bowl butter, lemon zest, sugar and flour
5 Add Kefir from the 1st bowl and an egg yolk in the 2nd bowl, mix finely
6 Add candied oranges and raisins in the 2d bowl
7 Put the dough in the buttered muffin cup forms till ~1/2 height
8 Bake 25-30 minutes at 180C and let the cakes cool for 20 minutes
9 Icing: whip for 5 minutes an egg white with sugar & lemon juice
10 Put the icing immediately after whipping on top of the cakes with a teaspoon & decorate with candied orange peel mixed with grated pistachio
11 Let the egg whites dry overnight (or you can put the cakes already with an icing in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 100C to fix the whites)
12 Enjoy and Happy Easter !

Mini Pavlova Vanilla-Strawberry Cakes: the first attempt !

The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.
Haruki Murakami

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 egg whites
– 2 tbs sugar for meringues
– 1 tsp sugar for whipped cream
– 3g vanilla sugar
– 100ml 33% cream
– 6 large strawberries

Method:
1 Start making Pavlova cakes in the evening to have them ready next morning 🙂
2 Preheat the oven to 200C (reduce it to 100C when putting the meringues to bake)
3 Whisk egg whites with sugar & vanilla sugar for 5-10 minutes until strong peaks
4 Put the whisked egg whites on a parchment paper on drawn circles: build the edge slightly with some depression in the middle
5 Put our meringues-to-be in the oven and bake for 1.5 hour at 100C. Do not open the oven and leave the meringues to rest there overnight
6 In the morning whip the 33% cream with sugar
7 Put the the whipped cream on the meringues. Decorate with sliced fresh strawberries and enjoy !

Chocolate cookies for a perfect coffee-break !

Now, Watson, there is cocoa ready in the next room. I must beg you to hurry, for we have a great day before us.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Ingredients (4 servings):
– 1 cup (1cup = 250ml) wholegrain flour
– 100g butter
– 1/4 cup sugar
– 1/4 cup cocoa
– 30g orange zest

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix flour, butter, sugar and cocoa
3 Form cookies from the dough & put them on a baking parchment
4 Decorate the cookies with orange zest
5 Bake for 25 minutes at 180C and enjoy with a cup of strong black coffee 😉

Sandwich au Roquefort !

‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 100g du fromage de Roquefort
– 6 prunes
– 2 large slices of rye bread
– 1 small onion
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 1 tsp vinegar

Method:
1 Spread the cheese on the rye bread slices with a knife
2 Cut an onion into thin half rings and soak them in olive oil with vinegar for 5 minutes
3 Put the onion half rings over the cheese
4 Put the chopped prunes slices over the onion half rings
5 Serve with a vegetable soup !

Grapefruit Vanilla-Mascarpone dessert !

All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 grapefruits
– 200g Mascarpone
– 50ml 33% cream
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 6 Savoiardi biscuits

Method:
1 Crumble Savoiardi biscuits in a bowl
2 Make Mascarpone cream: mix Mascarpone + 33% cream + sugar
3 Peel grapefruits & remove membranes: cut each grapefruit slice in 3 pieces
4 Arrange in the glass the following layers:
4.1 Savoiardi crumble/ Mascarpone cream/ grapefruit pieces
4.2 Repeat 4.1 until the glass is full with the colorful layers, then serve !

Red Bell Pepper Soup with Pistachio !

As for the ball, it is quite a settled thing; and as soon as Nicholls has made white soup enough, I shall send round my cards.
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 2 large red bell peppers
– 6 baby potatoes
– 1 small onion
– optional: 60ml 33% cream
– 400ml water or chicken broth
– 0.5 tsp salt
– 25g green unsalted raw pistachios
– green onions for serving

Method:
1 Roughly chop peeled potato, de-seeded bell peppers & onion
2 Finely grate pistachios
3 Boil potato in a broth for 5 minutes
4 Add bell peppers & onion, simmer for another 10 minutes
5 Add (optional!) 33% cream to the soup-to-be, transfer to the blender, puree until smooth
6 Garnish with chopped green onions & grated pistachios

Monday morning orange and cocoa meringues !

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten’s fault entirely
Lewis Carroll

Ingredients (for 14 meringues):
– 2 egg whites
– 2.5 tablespoons sugar
– 4g vanilla sugar
– 1 teaspoon cocoa
– 2g orange zest

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C (reduce it to 100C when putting meringues to bake)
2 Whisk egg whites with sugar and vanilla sugar for 5-10 minutes until strong peaks
3 Add orange zest and carefully mix it in, then separate whisked whites mixture into 2 halves and add cocoa only to one to give them different color !
4 Now start putting whisked whites on a parchment paper in small portions. I used a cookie cutter to give them a nice shape. Well, it takes time, but with a help of 2 teaspoons one can manage it perfectly 😉
5 Put our meringues-to-be in the oven and bake for 1.5 hour at 100C
6 Do not open the oven! At best, leave the meringues rest there overnight (-:
7 Enjoy it with a cup of strong black coffee some nice and sunny Monday morning !

Rye-bread tuna sandwiches !

Ce fut le temps sous de clairs ciels…
Paul Verlaine

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 130g canned tuna fish
– 120g Almette or another soft creamy cheese
– 1/2 chopped onion
– 1/2 finely chopped dill bunch
– 1 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
– pinch of salt & a bit of black pepper
– 6-8 triangle slices of rye bread
– one sprig of green onions for serving

Method:
1 Prepare tuna mixture = tuna fish + cheese + chopped onion + chopped dill + mayonnaise + lemon juice + salt + pepper
2 Cut rye bread into triangle slices and toast them if you prefer them toasted 😉
3 Put the tuna mixture on the slices, enjoy it and have a great Sunday !

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