Red peppers wiht couscous and yogurt her sauce - WHB

This week’s Weekend Herb Blogging evTent is being hosted by Zorra from Kochtopf. As you all must know by now, Kalyn from Kalyn’s kitchen is the master mind of this great idea that has been going very successfully for the last two years. She has got a very faithful bunch of bloggers who contributed regularly. The recipe I chose for this week had been prepared previously for the event but in the end I decided to go for a completely different one. This time I prepared it again and I am glad that I am going ahead with it.

Capsicum is native to the Americas, and they were already cultivated by the native people of that continent. It can now be found worldwide.There can be red, green or even yellow. Each 100g contains 29kg calories, 1,3g proteins, 0,1g fat, vitamin A, B1, B2, B5, C, 140mg potassium, 16mg sodium, 20mg calcium, 0,5mg iron. I much prefer them roasted as their flavour seems at its best in my opinion. Stuffing them is a great way to prepare. I have done loads of stuffings with meat and herbs, or even rice,meat and herbs. I do much prefer the couscous stuffing. It adds a nice texture, together with the pine nuts. Oh pine nuts, they just lift most of the dishes they are added to. The first time I prepared this dish I added some chopped anchovies to it and the result was quite exciting. I had none in the house this time so had to leave them out. Perhaps you would like to try the combination yourself.

Ingredients:
2-3 medium to large, ripe peppers
200g couscous
6 spring onions
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp ground paprika
Grated zest of half lemon
Large handful chopped mint leaves
Large handful chopped coriander
75g toastes pine nuts

For the yogurt sauce:
200g plain,thick yogurt
Handful each of chopped coriander and mint
Pinch of paprika

Preparation:
Preheat the oven at 180oC. Cut the peppers in half, clean them out from seeds and lay all of them cut side up in a baking tin.
To prepare the stuffing, prepare the couscous as per instructions in the packet. I like to use vegetable stock instead of water.
Meanwhile finely chop the spring onions and let them soft in a glug or two of olive oil over a moderate heat. Just before they start to colour, add the garlic, paprika and grated lemon zest ( reserve the lemon juice). Stir in the chopped herbs and the toasted pine nuts. When all is fragrant and starting to darken a little in colour, stir in the couscous and lemon juice. Season to taste.
Pie the stuffing into the peppers, sprinkle some ground black pepper over it and drizzle over a little more olive oil. Cover loosely with foil and bake for about 45 minutes.
Mix the yogurt with the coriander, mint and paprika and serve.

Pasta with aubergine and pine kernels - Weekend Herb Blogging

I spend my whole week thinking of a recipe that is good enough to take part in Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging event - click on the logo above to be taken to the site and find out more about it. I prepare various things and in the end I post my favourite item. This week the event is being hosted by Gretchen from Canela & Comino . I already had a lovely red pepper dish to post, but when I got the paper this morning I came across this aubergine pasta dish, and I decided that I had to prepare it because it might be worth taking it into consideration. In the end I chose this recipe. If anything because it was such a different way to prepare aubergine with pasta.

Did you know that aubergines and tomatoes are related? That’s right. They are from the same family, and some say that growing them can be similar to growing tomatoes. They don't like cold weather.
They are also known in the English speaking world as eggplant or brinjal. My friends from India always say brinjal which makes me think of 'berinjela'which is the portuguese world. Their shapes go from oval to round to sausage shaped. They also come in a variety of colours: dark purple, violet, stripy purple, yellow, white. There are big ones, little ones. When buying them it is best to look for smooth, unblemished and glossy skinned ones. They should feel firm to the touch. They are apparently not particularly high in any single vitamin or mineral. However, they do have the benefit of supplying few calories and being virtually fat free. I was amazed to read that for a while in Europe it was believed that they could cause madness, leprosy, cancer and even bad breath. Only on 18^th century it was established that it was a good food item both in Italy and in France.
There are so many ways of preparing them, and I just loved this new way – new to me anyway. I got the recipe from Nigel Slater.

Ingredients:
measure pasta for four people
2 large aubergines
Olive oil
A large handful of basil leaves
½ lemon
4 tbsp pine kernels

Preparation:
Preheat oven – 200oC- 180oC fan assisted. Cut each aubergine in half lenghtway, then make criss cross cuts on the flesh nearly all the way down to the skin. Brush with olive oil and bake for 25 minutes or until soft.
Boil the water for the pasta and whilst that is getting ready toast the pine nuts on a non stick frying pan.
When ready scrape the flesh out of the aubergine skins to a mixing bowl. Pour the olive oil gradually mixing it with the aubergine flesh until you get to a smooth paste. Season it to taste. I used salt and black pepper but next time I might use some cumin.
Drain the pasta, and mix it with the aubergine to coat it really well. Add shredded basil and the pine nuts. Be generous with them as they add a lovely nutty taste to the dish. As a last touch squeeze a wee bit of lemon. That will bring all the flavours together. Enjoy!!!

Onion, sweet corn and mascarpone tart - Weekend Herb Blogging

This week’s Weekend Herb Blogging event is being host by Ulrike from the bilingual blog Kuchenlatein. Kalyn from Kalyn’s kitchen is the master mind of this great idea that has been going very successfully for the last two years. Every week it is hosted by a different blog host.This week I wanted to make a tart. I took the base from an old recipe favourite – with walnut. I also usesd buckwheat flour instead of normal flour. I do have to say that perhaps I ought to have mixed buckwheat with normal flour as I feel that the final result was not the best. I do list only normal flour in the ingredients as this base recipe has been tested and approved. I just love the filling of this tart as I have been getting so much corn at the moment. I lived for a long time in a part of Brazil where corn is very abundant, and we also had it in our diets: corn soup, corn sauce, corn croquettes, corn dessert..Corn is high in nutrients: vitamin B1 ( aids the digestion of carbohydrates), vitamin B5 (helps with physiological functions), vitamin C ( fights diseases), folate ( generation of new cells), rich in fiber..so many goodness in it. And it tastes just wonderful. You can use frozen corn here but I had my kernels taken straight from the cob.
It is thererefore a very seasonal recipe.And with a great green salad it constitutes a meal in itself.

Walnut tart ingredients – 6 of 10 cm tart tins
250g flour
40g natural yoghurt
100ml walnuts, toasted and ground
125 cold butter, grated
Cold water

Mix the flour, yoghurt and walnuts in a bown, then add the butter and mix it all with your fingertips until you have a crumb like texture. Start adding water bit by bit until you reach an uniform dough. Wrap with cling film and rest for 2 hours in the fridge.

Filling:
2 talblespoon olive oil
1 ½ cups sliced onions/leeks
1 ½ cups slightly cooked corn grains
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 cup mascarpone
½ cup heavy cream
2 large eggs at room temperature
3 tablespoon finely grated parmegianno cheese

To prepare the filling:

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the corn and cook, stirring often for 2 minutes. Stir in the basil, salt and pepper. Remove from the heat, transfer to a large bowl, and cool for 10 minutes.

To prepare the crust:
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it in out. Distribute it among the six tart tins. Take it back to the fridge for 30 minutes.

Back to the filling:
In a medium-size bowl, beat together the mascarpone, cream and eggs until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Add to the onions and corn mixture and mix together until the ingredients are well blended. Transfer the filling into the crusts, and sprinkle lightly with the Parmesan. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the filling is set. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Serve it on a bed of greens.

Tomatoes in Coconut Cream - Weekend Herb Blogging

This week’s Weekend Herb Blogging event is being host by Katie from the exciting blog Thyme for Cooking. Kalyn from Kalyn’s kitchen is the creator of this lovely event that has been taking place every week for the last two years. Every week it is hosted by a different blog host.
I am rushing to post this recipe. It has been a very busy week as I hold a blog in Portuguese which is only about events and this week I had loads to do on it.This beautiful recipe was one I prepared for WHB as it just seemed perfect. It is a gorgeous tomato dish with beautiful spices and coconut cream. I could not stop eating it. Honestly. I baked some ciabatta bread and just over ate. I know, not a nice thing to admit to.
Tomatoes are just so wonderful and full of goodness. Tomato is a good blood purifier, it is a natural antiseptic therefore it can help protect against infection, they can be helpful to reduce blood cholesterol, thus helps prevent heart diseases, they contain lycopene (the red pigment in tomato), this pigment is a powerful antioxidant that can also fight cancer cells.
In the summer they are plentiful and I am always looking for different ways of preparing it. This time Nigel Slater inspired me with this beautiful dish which was in the Sunday issue of the Observer Magazine.

Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive or groundnut oil
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 hot, green chillie chopped with seed and all – ok. If you don’t like heat, leave the seeds out of it
A thumb-sized piece of ginger, chopped really finely
½ tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp cumin seeds
6 green cardamom seeds, slightly crushed
12 moderately large tomatoes, cut into slices
50g creamed coconut
Handful of coriander leaves

Preparation: Heat the oil on a high-sided frying pan and then add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Let it all soften over a moderate heat without colouring it. Add the chilli flakes, coriander, turmeric, cumin seeds and cardamom and stir them in. Once they have warmed through throw in 4 of the chopped tomatoes and stir in 100ml water. Mix it all and bring it to the boil. Add the remaining tomatoes, add the coconut cream, mix it all, let the coconut cream dissolve and warm through. From now on the sauce should not boil, just keep the heat. Once the tomatoes are tender, sprinkle the coriander leaves and serve with slices of toasted lovely bread.

fennel and feta with pomegranate seeds with sumac

This week’s Weekend Herb Blogging event is being host by Srivalli from the wonderful blog Cooking 4 all Seasons. Kalyn from Kalyn’s kitchen is the creator of this lovely event that has been taking place every week for the last two years. Every week it is hosted by a different blog host.

I bought the Ottolenghi cookbook for the cakes recipes. Having been to their stores many times I just dreamt of being able to recreate some of their creation. Funny enough I have used a lot of their salad recipes quite intensively. In fact I have barely baked any of its cakes. I hear that Kalyn has purchased it as well and I really hope that she I enjoying it.
One of the things that drive me to choosing this or that recipe to take part in the weekly Weekend herb Blogging is trying to add something new and exiting to this event. Kalyn is always preparing amazing salads in her blog and I feel that I ought to keep the game up.

This salad is so refreshing and crunchy. As I have already mentioned here, crunchiness in a salad is something that I cannot resist. The original recipe had salt in it but I chose not to use because of the feta cheese.
Tarragon which is used here, is a herb full of medicinal properties. The ancient greeks chewed it to treat tooth infection I have read.Why you might ask, because it numbs the mouth. It is also known to being a very good digestive. Fennel which is the main actor, is full of so many great properties: vitamin C, dietary fiber, potassium, manganese, folate..Not only is this salad delicious as it delivers a handful of healthy benefits in very mouthful. I had mine with some smoked trout. And it worked a treat.

Ingredients:

½ pomegranate
2 medium fennel heads
1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoon sumac
Juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoons tarragon leaves
2 tablespoon roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
70g greek feta cheese pieces
Sal and black pepper to taste

Preparation:

1.Start by releasing the pomegranate seeds. Some people swear by the wooden spoon treatment: Place half of the pomegranate on one hand, cut side facing down. Hit it with the back of the spoon and you will see the seeds start falling on your hand
2. Remove the leaves of the fennel, keeping a few to garnish and the rest for future use. Trim the base of the fennels, and slice it very thinly lengthwise – I chose not to. Put the olive oil, black pepper, sumac, lemon juice and herbs in a bowl and mix. Throw the fennel slices in the bowl and toss well. I chose not to add salt because the feta cheese has enough salt on it.
3. When ready to serve, place the fennel on the serving dish first, followed by the feta cheese and pomegranate seeds. Garnish with the dill leaves and sprinkle some sumac if you like

Mixed mushrooms with cinnamon and lemon

This is my contribution to this week Weekend Herb Blogging event which is being hosted by Marija from the blog Palachinka. To the blogsphere novices, this event was created by the lovely Kalyn from the lovely blog Kalyn's Kitchen which is packed with great recipe and posts. WHB is now 2 years old and it is a very successful event.

This week I have opted for a mushroom salad. As last week's, this recipe was taken from the Ottolenghi the cookbook. It is one of my favourite books at the moment.

I read that mushrooms contain vitamins A, B, C 7 D. There is a cancer research facility that even suggested that they may prevent cancer.

When it comes to preparing them, remember that they should not be washed. Instead, they should be brushed to remove the dirt on them. The only mushroom that should be washed before cooking is the morel variety.

Every one has a favourite mushroom. I am personally very addicted to shitake. Unfortunatelly I could not get hold of any for this dish. I used button, oysters, enoki and abalone. You can pick your own selection. A lovely thing is to have a nice bread to eat with this salad- use it to mop up the juices

Ingredients for 6-8 people – adapt the quantities depending on how many you will feed:

400g button mushrooms

400g chestnut mushrooms

300g shitake mushrooms

400g oyster mushrooms

200g enoki mushrooms

160ml olive oil

30g chopped thyme

10 garlic cloves, chopped (I crushed mine)

100g flat leaf parsley, chopped

6 cinnamon sticks

25g coarse sea salt

1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper

60ml lemon juice

Preparation:

1. Get your mushrooms ready – clean them without adding water, just using a brush;
2. put a large non-stick frying pan over medium-heat and add the olive oil to it so that it can heat slightly. Then sprinkle the thyme, the garlic, the parsley and cinnamon stalks. Add the button mushrooms and let them cook for about 5 mins without disturbing them. Then give the pan a good shake and add the oyster mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Stir it a bit and then let it cook for about 3 minutes. Add the enoki mushrooms and then turn the heat off. Add the lemon juice, give it a good shake. Serve still warm with slices of brown bread.

Asparagus salad with brown butter

I remember my first encounter with asparagus: mum used to cook this beautiful and deadly easy chicken with asparagus sauce dish. A dish that I even cooked in my university days. I remember vividly asking this good friend who was 10 years older than me how to cut a whole chicken. Mum used to go for a lot of fresh vegetables, loads of fruit, we never had fried food at home...but the asparagus wasn’t fresh. I think that in the part of Brazil we lived then it was nearly impossible to find it in those days- I am talking 1982. When I buy asparagus these days, and even mum, all beautiful and fresh, it is hard to understand how we could eat and enjoy that dish. Canned asparagus is just so soft that I call it mushy. I could not touch it with a barge pole nowadays. Funny thing life.

So on a very different note; I prepared this beautiful salad over the weekend. It is a Joanne Weir dish. So simple and so utterly delicious. The dressing is nothing without the brown butter. I tasted it before the butter was added, and I can say that the butter adds a depth to the sauce that had me asking for more. I went for some brown bread to mop up the sauce left on the dish. It is a sin to waste a single drop in my opinion.

I thought that it would be the ideal contribution for this week’s WHB. Beautiful asparagus, in a gorgeous sauce. So seasonal, simple and a great starter. The dressing can be used with other salads as well. I have sent my email to Ellie from Kitchen Wench with my contribution. Hope she likes it!

Asparagus salad with brown butter and lemons

2 eggs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 shallot, chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ pounds fresh asparagus ends removed

Steps:

1^st: boil the eggs, remove them when ready, chop them up and reserve them until they are required.

2^nd: this is the trickiest part – and the maker of the recipe in my opinion, place the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook the butter until it begins to foam and then the foam subsides. Continue to cook until the white solids turn into a rich golden brown and the butter just begins to smoke. Remove from the heat immediately and,

3^rd. throw the melted butter in a bowl, followed by the olive oil, lemon juice, white wine vinegar and the chopped shallots. Mix well.

4^th. Right before serving steam the spinach. When it is ready place the asparagus on a plate, drizzle the dressing over it and sprinkle the boiled egg on top.

If you have some lovely brown bread hanging around use it to mop up the juices as they cannot be wasted.

Avocado and chickpea salad

I have already spoken about the way we eat avocado in Brazil here. In my new phase, I have become a great eater of avocado in salads. This time I went for a simple but fairly delicious specimen where creamy avocado contrasts with crunchy chickpeas. Both embrace the delicious taste of mint – cooling and warming at the same time, and you are in for a delicious dish of greenery. It is such a green salad, perfect for spring. It lifts your spirit just looking at it. Back home we say that green means hope, good vibes and this dish surely embodies it. Hope of lovelier spring days ahead, hope that there will be more gorgeous salads like this one, hope that you will all feel tempted and give it a go as well.

This was just the dish I chose for Weekend Herb Blogging, this time hosted by Rinku of Cooking in Westchester. I missed WHB last week, with me going away for the weekend and all, plus working late every single day, I did not get the time to prepare my post.So t his week I just cannot miss it as it is an event I have very much grown to like.

Avocado and chickpea salad

400g cooked chickpeas ( if using uncooked you will need about 250g before you cook them)

1 avocado, peeled and quartered

½ cup mint leaves

Lettuce leaves

¼ cup lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ teaspoon sugar

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

If you are a pacient person, roughly chop the chickpeas. I am not patient to this extent so I had my chickpeas as they were supposed to be eaten: whole. Combine the chickpeas with the avocado slices and mint – I love mint! Arrange the lettuce leaves on a serving plate/salad dish and place the chickpea,mint & avocado combo on top. In a separate small bowl mix the lime juice, olive oil, sal and black pepper. Give it a good mix and pour over this beautiful salad.

Tomato, Quinoa, Chillie, Lime and Avocado

When I first saw this salad in my Observer Food Monthly magazine I said to myself straight away: got to make it. I just so happen to be madly in love with quinoa. Not only does it looks gorgeous, little golden balls, that brighten up any salad, but they are also so good for you that one would be a fool not to have them every so often. Did you know that they are claimed to be the one of the most complete foods there are? The first time I had them was in this one delicious salad where they were coupled up with corn kernels. I only posted it in my Portuguese language blog. I will post it here as well since it will certainly be done over the summer at my house. Going back to the salad, in addition to the lovely quinoa, it also has beautifully red and ripe tomatoes, sexy wedges of avocado, and parsley plus coriander (cilantro to many of you). Visually, it won my heart. In a rational-brainy way, it won my mind and heart again. Well, stomach had to be pampered as well. So on Monday I was already preparing it as soon as got home from work. And Tuesday we had a repeat.

The picture does not make it justice. A picture taken at night is never the same. A spring/summer salad certainly deserves to be shone upon by sunlight. However, as we say back home ‘If your hunting dog is not available, take your cat hunting with you’ (make do with what you have). I took the picture with artificial light.

I have been getting avocadoes delivered with my organic box for the last three weeks now. And it is all in the name of lovely salads and spring/summer meals. I was brought up in a culture which treats avocado as a fruit which is used in sweet dishes, smoothies.. So avocado in salads and other savoury concoctions is an eating habit I developed quite recently. I remember my school days and the countless number of avocado shakes/smoothies mum used to feed us with at breakfast, before going to school. It used to be pretty filling. Deliciously creamy. The native avocado variety in Brasil (excuse the ‘s’and not the ‘z’ – I’m going native here) is different from the one I purchase in Europe. Our variety is bigger, and the flavour is not as concentrated as the one we find in the neck of the woods where I live. I also remember a very delicious and terribly simple dessert made out of avocado, condensed milk and a little bit of milk. You would pour the three ingredients in the blender and give it a whiz until you had a good creamy end result. It was a delicious creamy dish that would be kept in the top section of the fridge in order to firm up and also to get really, really cold, and work as a ‘God’s send’ in the very hot Brasilian summer days.

This salad seemed to me as the perfect late evening meal and my special post for the WHB which this week is being looked after by the lovely Kalyn. It is pretty simple to make – check it out:

100g of quinoa – ¾ cup

1 good handful of parsley

2 good handfuls of coriander (cilantro)

Cherry tomatoes – loads ( this time I used vine tomatoes chopped in four as I have quite a lot of them hanging around)

2 small ripe avocadoes, sliced in wedges

One red chilli, deseeded and cut into little, thin strips

For the beautiful dressing which I unfairly forgot to talk about above – it is the soul of the salad in my opinion:

a lime

a small clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil – be generous without being unhealthy on the amount used

Cook the quinoa first by boiling plenty of water and adding salt to it, as soon as it reaches boiling point. Add the quinoa grains to it, reduce the heat and let it cook for around 15 minutes. Whilst the quinoa is busy getting ready, get a salad bowl (or whatever you find appropriate for your salad) and place the herbs on it, then the tomatoes and the avocado wedges. If you are using chilli as well, scatter them over the salad at this stage. Once the quinoa is ready drain it and quickly run it under a tap of cold water. Then throw it over the salad.

To prepare the dressing just put your clove of garlic (no skin please!!) in a mortar and crush it. Then add the salt and black pepper crush it a bit more. Add the lime juice and olive oil. God, it is good.

Drizzle the dressing over the salad, get some charming salad ‘mixers’(often in long spoons shape) and toss everything together nicely. Then, what are you waiting for?

Confit leeks, tomatoes and mushrooms with arak and almonds

I have already told you about this wonderful book Saha. This wonderful recipe was in the section entitled vegetable mezze. It was really hard to pick a recipe up amongst so many. I really liked the idea of stewing the vegetables in such wonderful broth – with the arak (or a substitute in my case) At first I got a bit worried about the fennel – ‘is it going to work well with all these vegetables?’’ I didn’t want anything too sweet. I did not have the arak, in fact I had no idea what it was. After reading about it in the introductory note to the chapter I decided to use Pernod instead as it was the only thing I had at home. Arak to the ones of you, who don’t know, is an aniseed-flavoured spirit like so many others which are popular around the Mediterranean. The only difference seems to be that Ouzo, Raki, Sambucca and Pastis all are very sweet. Arak is set apart by the fact that it is pure, only containing two ingredients: grapes and the aniseed. Its flavour seems to be a great cleanser to the palate. I will most certainly check it out one day.

I found this dish to be a delicious and elegant mezze. I had it with toasted bread and it just proved delicious. There were some leftovers the next day and it tasted even more delicious than I remembered.

I though that it would be a wonderful contribution to this week’s WHB that is being held by Sher at What did you eat?

Confit leeks, tomatoes and mushrooms with arak and almonds

3 leeks, white part only, cut into 4cm rounds

8 shallots, peeled

4 cloves garlic, peeled

2 bay leaves

Few sprigs of thyme

1 teaspoon black peppercorns, lightly crushed

1 teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed

Juice of 5 lemons

400ml dry white whine

500ml water

400ml extra-virgin olive oil

½ teaspoon salt

8 medium Portobello mushrooms, trimmed

6 small vine-ripened tomatoes

80ml arak or another aniseed liqueur

Freshly ground sea salt to taste

Extra-virgin olive oil

60g flaked almonds, fried golden brown

Put the leeks, shallots, garlic, herbs and spices into a large, heavy-based non-reactive saucepan. Pour on the lemon juice, wine, water and olive oil and stir in the salt.

Cut a circle of baking paper to fit the saucepan and sit it on top of the vegetables. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and cook at a very gentle simmer for 20 minutes. Lift up the paper and slip the mushrooms and tomatoes in amongst the vegetables. Replace the paper and simmer gently for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the arak. Leave the vegetables to cool slightly in the liquid.

When ready to serve, lift the vegetables out of the stewing liquor into a serving dish, season with a little salt, drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with flaked almonds.