Saffron cauliflower soup

Lately my cooking is all about colours. The gray dullness outside makes me crave vibrant foods and what better way then to use blooms to spice things up. As saffron is strong enough to tint the textiles, it is also used to clear away the blues as it is an antidepressant. So, here is a soup to warm and energize.

Saffron Cauliflower Soup

1 head cauliflower florets, broken into pieces
1 small peice of celeriac, diced
1 medium diced onion
2 peices of garlic
2 Tbsp ghee
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish
1 Tbsp sliced almonds for garnish
1 tsp saffron
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

In a heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the onions and garlic in the melted ghee until fragrant.  Add the celeriac and cauliflower.  Pour in the stock and bring the mixture to a boil.  In a small saucepan, warm a bit of ghee and heat the saffron, releasing its flavor and color.  Add to the soup mixture.  Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cauliflower is tender.  Use a stick blender to puree the soup until smooth.  Taste and add salt, if needed, garnish with parsley and almonds.

Sea bass in salt crust

I’m covered in salt, my hair is curled up with crystals and pine needles. Quite appropriate for salt baking post. Sure grilling is great, but when salt baking you get to play with salt like beach sand, break the salt crust at the end and taste the rich juicy meat infused with lemon and rosemary. Time to be outside, so forgive me on this short post, but the sun and sea are calling.

Wild on sugar

Sugar and flowers. With tiny white blossoms. The only thing missing is a dash of pink and washi tapes. I find myself awkward and clumsy in this lady settings, with mud on polished shoes, patches of green grass stains and bruises on my knees. But yet as girly as the elderflower blossoms are, they have their pure wilderness and this is what makes them interesting. Dipping the blossoms in thin pancake batter feels like soaking a paintbrush in paint. But the best comes when releasing it in hot oil where it automatically spreads back into full bloom. Generously sprinkle powder sugar before serving, to retreat their fluffy white quality.

If frying elderflowers seemed like a crime against natural beauty, drowning baby pine sprouts in sugar is kitch overload. Basically, if you add enough  sugar to almost anything, the kids will love it. Even the cough syrup. I once faked a sore throat to my grandma just to get a spoon full of pine syrup. Again, not very lady like. Aside from anti cough properties the syrup is an amazing topping for ice creams, fruit salads and oh, do try it with cottage cheese and blueberries. Preparation takes time, but very little effort. Stack layers of pine sprouts and sugar in a jar, leave sunbathing until the sugar dissolves into syrup. Filter and store for serious sugar drops khm…coughs.

This article is featured in latest edition of Mrvica food mag. Turn to page 8, this issue is another best of in a series of “great content meets pleasure for the eyes”. Immensely happy to be part of the team.

Gnocchi zen

Not so fast, don’t judge a text by it’s title. I see you, rolling your eyes thinking “another recipe transformed into a spiritual experience”.  I’m not getting too deep to the bottom of the pot but yes, cooking is meditative. Having mind focused on only one thing, without effort. Setting everything aside – the problems can wait, tasks can wait, even hunger can wait. All that matters is the process, getting it right, making sure it is as good as it gets. This is what meditation is all about, having being here at this very moment and yet feeling distant, disappearing for a while losing track of time.

These small sized dumplings are ideal for getting lost. No need to measure out the ingredients, simply observe and follow the texture. No hurry to keep the ingredients cold, fluffy,… Just working with the dough is the best of experience – like making a zen garden with sand and round smooth stones.

Sweet potato gnocchi filled with goat cheese:

3 cups of cooked mashed sweet potatoes (approx. 3 large potatoes)
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 cups rice flour
3  cups tapioca flour

1/2 cup goat cheese

Note: The amount of flour variates, depending on the wetness of the potatoes. Add it gradually when mixing with mash and egg, to get the right consistency of gnocchi dough barely holding together so you can shape it in gnocchi. This resoults in fluffiest gnocchi.

Mix mashed sweet potatoes with eggs in a separate bowl combine the flours and salt. Gradually add four mixture to potatoes. You will end up with soft dough, transfer it to a well floured surface, roll out and cut in 2×2 cm squares. Add small piece of goat cheese in the middle, wrap it up, seal the edges, roll a ball and flatten it just a little bit. Repeat till you have used up all of the dough.

Put the gnocchis in boiling water, cook until they start to float. Drain, add basil pesto and sprinkle with some pine nuts.

Tears of pie

Red onions are incredibly beautiful… so beautiful they make you cry.

A few weeks ago I was asked a few questions by the editor of Mrvica magazine, one of them was: “What would you prepare, if you would have onions as the only fresh ingredient?” My answer was onion pie with bacon, a pie that existed only in my mind and never experienced on the taste buds. I put my words to the test, and baked one with prosciutto.

Make sure to use oat flour and cold ingredients for the crust and you’ll end up with flakiest crust possible. And do not over complicate it, it is supposed to be a dead easy meal for the hollow pantry days. A good bottle of wine will suffice.

For the pie crust:

• 1,5 cups oat flour
• 1 cup white flour
• 3/4 cup cold butter
• 6-8 tbsp ice-cold water
• half tsp salt

In a bowl whisk together flours and salt. Dice cold butter and sprinkle them over the flour. For the best results use blender, so that the warmth of your hands don’t melt the butter, when mixing. When the mixture is crumbly, start drizzling ice-cold water over, one spoon at the time. Gather the disparate damp clumps together into one mound, kneading them gently together.

Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. Let the dough chill in the fridge for one hour, preferably at least two, before rolling it out. In the meantime prepare the filing – slice the onions thinly, sprinkle with nutmeg, pepper and teeny tiny little bit of salt and sauté them quickly on olive oil. Once of the heat, cut prosciutto in small strips and add them to the onions.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Roll out the first half of the dough, use it to cover buttered pie pan. Use the fork and punch holes in the bottom pastry. Roll the other half of the dough. Fill pie with onion and prosciutto, cover with remaining pastry, again cut holes for hot air on top. Set the pie on the pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes.

Seasonal spectacles – Yay or Nay?

Do you consider yourself a christmas freak or a grinch? No matter which side you take, the holiday season is jumping in our faces from all sides. Whether you frown upon the megaxlbonusconsumerisim there is a soft spot in everyone. Perhaps you melt in the first snowy morning or sight when you hear George Michael singing “Last Christmas”.

We have forgotten about the seasons and rituals along with the natural pace and rhythm. But they are here for a reason. December as the darkest, coldest time, when the spring is still so far and distant, seem like people needed to keep warm and joyful at this time, and therefore emphasized the positive and joyfulness of the season. In today’s central heating and all year round abundance there is different drive to it, but nevertheless we still fall for the same predetermined meanings and emotions.

It is not necessarily naive and part of the mob like behavior, take it as you want it, enjoy it as you want it, or suffer over it.  So, call me a sucker, but batch of ginger cookies is a must when the first snow appears. And it is not just the christmasy flavor that makes it the perfect snack , ginger and spices keep you warm, boost the immune system, plus ginger is a very efficient natural way to prevent any kind of sickness – be it hangover or kitsch overload.

The recipe for these Triple ginger cookies is adapted from here, mine are made bigger, with mashed banana instead of an egg, butter replaced with coconut oil and there is no turbinado sugar sprinkeld at the end.

Triple ginger cookies

2 cups spelt flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon star anise powder
4 1/2 teaspoons ground dry ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup coconut oil, room temperature
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and diced
1 mashed banana
1 cup crystallized ginger, finely minced
2 lemons, zest only

Preheat the oven to 350F degree. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, star anise, ground ginger, and salt.

Melt the butter, stir in the molasses and sugar. Blend the mashed banana and fresh ginger cubes in a fine smoothie like mixture and whisk it in the butter and sugar mixture. Now pour this over the flour mixture, add the crystallized ginger (make sure it isn’t too clumpy), and lemon zest. Stir until just combined. Scoop out the dough and place individual spoons of dough a few inches apart on the baking paper. Bake for 7-10 minutes and enjoy the smell.

The road not found, please try later

There is so much said about the information saturation in today societies. Internet, media, all of the world’s knowledge at the simple reach of our finger. Despite the fact there is pouring information flooding us on our every move, I started noticing it is not broadening our horizons, but still rather streaming it to known and established highways. There is no such thing as coincidence on internet, stumbling on something, is better put as, randomly selected one of the top visited websites. The same goes for choice: so much to choose from and yet behind the branded images there are mainly 30 forms, ingredients or contents repeating in one way or another.

We search for perfect spots or favorite corners, get used and adapted to them and frame our pathways around them into our own perfect niche – a subculture of all our interests and likes. Think about it: your day revolves around you favorite information points, with plenty of newness every day, but it is all in the same flow.

Getting lost these days is practically impossible (yet, still very common) with satellite support. It is there to help us stay on the right path to the best restaurant, nearest attraction and at the end of the road famous cemetery, you simply can not miss. I like getting lost in unknown lands, somehow I always find myself on the right places, which were unable to predict. Whether it is the no signal or some other limitation, it’s the obstacles that seem to push us to explore off the beaten paths. Like weird food allergies forcing you to search for replacements for your beloved cravings. So here is newly discovered carob, for all of us not following the chocolate brick road.

Carob macadamia cookies

2 1/2 cups spelt flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla sugar
6 tbsp carob powder
1/4 cups milk
1 cup coarsely chopped roasted and salted macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix flour, soda, and salt. In a separate bowl cream the butter, sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar. Mix the milk and carob into the butter mixture. Add flour mixture slowly at low speed to the butter and carob mixture, later fold in macadamia nuts. Drop a big spoon full of batter onto a baking sheet, repeat until you use up the entire batter.  Bake 20 minutes or until the tops look crunchy dry.

 

Classical tragedies

Buckwheat and walnuts are one of the established flavour pairings. The classical combinations should be used on the lazy days, when you feel like trying something new but fuss free, without the possible miserable outcome. Ah yes, the disasters in the kitchen… always present as part of the learning process (tap on the shoulder).

This walnut rolls are tested to be foolproof, as long as you stick to the recipe. You can experiment with the filling, but I discourage you from adding to much ingredients to it (yes, lesson learned). Rather use one simple ingredient and make it top-notch good; complicate to achieve quality, not complexity. Use fresh grounded walnuts, as the they tend to go rancid quickly once exposed to air, so use the Nutcracker  – another classics with guaranteed happy ending.

Note to Slovenian readers: Tele rolice, so zelo poenostavljena varianta orehove potice, brez vzhajanja in neskončnega gnetenja. Pride prav za bolj lene dni.

Buckwheat rolls with walnuts and honey filling

For the Dough (adapted from here):
2 cups spelt flour + 3⁄4 cup buckwheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 1⁄4 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp baking soda
3⁄4 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
6 tbsp coconut butter

For the filling:
1 cup freshly grounded walnuts
1 tbsp. sugar and 1 tbsp of honey
3 tbsp melted coconut butter
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425°F or 220°C. Mix the dry ingredients for the dough (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt) in a bowl, stir in the butter and buttermilk.

You’ll end up with quite sticky dough, it’s ok, just transfer it to a well floured surface.With floured hands, gently knead the flour into the dough (adding more flour if necessary) until the dough is manageable and is fairly smooth. Roll the dough out into a rectangle/square of approximately 0,5 cm (1⁄2 inch) thick.

Now add the filling – spread the dough with melted coconut butter, sprinkle walnuts, cinnamon, honey and sugar. Roll the dough, and cut the roll to smaller rolls. Place the individual rolls in a pan greased with coconut butter, leave space between them as the will grow during baking. Bake at 220°C (425°F) for about 20 mins.

Hamstering⎬ verb

“The act of being busy and spending a lot of time on something, but not getting anything accomplished, just like a hamster exercising on a hamster wheel.”

“When a person or company tries to get out of a situation, by finding a loophole to get through, or coming up with some kind of bullshit excuse. Much like a hamster tries anything to escape its cage.”

“The Act of going into towns and begging for food until your packs and bags are full, similar to how a hamster stuffs it’s cheeks with food.” (def. Urban dictionary)

Although not approved by spell check, hamstering is a word with multiple meanings in various contexts. I use it to add connotational hint of desperateness and also emphasize the meaning of gathering, accumulating and hoarding everything precious and remotely potentialy practical. The autumn is the peek season to visit Hamster Islands where everything is fully loaded and waiting for the perfect occasion worthy of the hidden jewels.

With desperate trials to keep the fresh ingredients lasting as long as possible each year I stock on pumpkins. Being so versatile and delicious in almost every form, plus very durable in the pantry, makes them the ultimate hamster treasure. The stocks usually last till early spring and roll around forgotten, after cocky first fresh asparaguses appear. And again I have to remind myself to enjoy things in the present moment without fear of running out of the good stuff, as there always are new coming our way. Enjoy them now when they taste best with this simple single pan dish.

Roasted panceta wrapped pumpkin with chestnut and shallots

Cut the chesnuts and put them in salted boiling water for 30 minutes. Peel and set aside. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (400F).  Mean while cut bigger sized pumpkin in the 1,5 cm thick wedges, add peeled shallots and garlic in roast pan. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and dash of nutmeg. Put in the oven for 20 minutes, adding the cooked chestnuts in the last 10 minutes. Serve straight from the oven and enjoy the buttery creaminess, with crunchy panceta and sweet nutty flavor of chestnuts.