I love barley but I don’t cook some too often. An other curiosity of what happens in a kitchen! May be it’s because I have the impression it is only good for soup or that it takes too much time too cook. But actually it is not and in risotto style with veggies, or in salad it it really delicious and changes from classic recipes. And in the middle of winter, with winter veggies it is a delicious meal.
Barley risotto style with fresh veggies: 100g of barley, 1 leek, 1/3 cauliflower, 1 hand full of little spinach, olive oil, salt and pepper. In a pan heat the olive oil; cut the leek and add it to the oil, strir at low heat until soft. Add the barley and cover to twice the height with water. Cook under cover 15min at medium heat or until almost all the water is gone. Add salt pepper, the cauliflower washed and cut, the spinach washed and cut. Cook 3min and serve immediately.
The other day while browsing my IG feed, I saw the beautiful picture of grilled onigiri (rice balls) from my IG friend Junko @junkikat. And instantly I wanted to eat some. I love grilled miso onigiri, but for some obscure reason I never make some… Junko nicely gave me her recipe and I slightly adapted it to what I had in my fridge and my pantry. So here is what I did: first cook some Japanese rice. While it was cooking I prepare a mix of miso, I had only rustic granulous miso, so I used that one, 2 tsp. Then instead of the mirin I used a little bit of rice oil and vinegar, just a few drops. Vinegar can be replaced by a few drops of sake. And then added 1/2 tsp of sugar. Stir well to obtain a homogeneous mixture. Make the rice balls by taking 1/2 of rice in wet hand and shape them as you like with one flat surface for the miso. Spread the miso on the flat surface and then grill them in the oven or in a fry pan. I used the pan because I have a huge oven and I found that silly to turn it on just for that. So I flipped the onigiri miso side on the heated pan (grease it a bit if it is not anti-adhesive) and wait a few minutes until the miso starts to golden. Serve with what you like. For this time it was scrambled eggs and a simple salad with tomato, carrot and ice plant.
A. is always asking for burgers so I prepared him a special vegan burger with homemade vegan patties, avocado spread and plenty of salad, really plenty, as he lives salad a lot. I guess what he really wants when he says burger is a bloody steack and fries… but I tried to be inventivd and to have a very tasty combination and if worked cery very well. Beware, contrarily to most of the recipes I post this one takes a bit more time, but is very simple. I used what I had in the fridge for that so yoocan adjust easily with yours!
For the patties, inspired by Prunellia’s recipe of pancake seeds:
1 cup of quinoa, mind was black, but red or white works well, can be replaced by bulgur, red beans, rice…
a handfull of pumpkin seeds
a handfull of sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of flax seeds, here I used brown, but blond work too,
2 large sato/taro imo, can be replaced by boiled chickpeas, boiled red beans…
For the filling:
1 ripe avocado
lemon juice
salt and pepper
green beans sprouts or any other sprouts: brocoli, alfalfa…
a lettuce
First grill the sato/taro imo in the oven with the skin until soft and creamy inside. In the mean time boil the quinoa until slightly softer than usual and drain if needed. Peel the sato/taro imo and cut in pieces, add to the quinoa. Add all the seeds, stir well to obtain a thick paste. In a frypan greased with olive oil make 1-1.5cm thick patties of about 8-10cm diameter and cook them until golden on both side. I prepared 2 per person. They are good cold or warm. You can rheat them in the oven if needed. Manipulate with care because they can break easily.
Chop the lettuce, smash the avocado and add lemon juice, salt and pepper. Wash the sprouts. Now you are ready to make the burgers. I used half of the avocado spread per person. I spread a thick layer on on patty, added the sprouts and flipped over the other patty. Served on top of the lettuce, finish with a little of olive oil. Et voila!!!
The sato/taro imo give a very good texture to the patties and help them to keep their shape, the creamy avocado it perfect with the crunchy patties, and the sprouts add freshness. I’ll do it again!!!!
In a constant search for better quality and better taste I have almost completely stopped buying processed food. Only when we are in a rush/have forgotten do I buy bread at the combini, otherwise I prepare something: pancakes, scones, crepes, bread, or A. stops at the nearby bread artisan to buy some sordough bread. Of course it requires organization and a bit of effort in the morning but it is also very gratifying to eat freshly made food. And getting used to prepare quickly the routine gets easier and faster, mire accurate too. And it helps for fixing anything not only for breakfast but also lunch, dinner… so when my mum sent me some vegan spread (some kind of salty porridge, I’ll try to make someday) and we are waiting for dinner to be ready, it took me only 5min to prepare a corn flour dough and make some mini thick crepes to try the spread. I used 100g of corn flour, works as well with chickpea flour or whatever you like, 1 egg and s bit of water. The dough must be thick but not too much. Then in a heated pan greased with olive oil I made small crepes (3-4cm diameter) with one tbs of dough each. Flip when almost dry on top. Serve with the topping of your choice.
Because the recipe for the panettone (which was a total failure) was using only egg yolks I decided to make meringues with the whites. In the country house I opted for non electrical appliances in the kitchen, except for the blender, I knead manually and I beat my egg whites manually too. So I added a pinch of salt to 3 egg whites a beat them until firm. Then I added 70g of icing sugar, and 2 large tea spoons of matcha powder. It gives this shiny green mix. Then I preheat the oven to 110deg and on s cooking paper sheet I made small mounts of the mix. The shape and size won’t change much, so you can decide easily for the size and shape you want. And I cooked until dry and a little hard, because I like my meringues soft inside, if you like them hard and dry keep them longer. It took about 15min for 4cm meringues. If you notice the edge getting brown is that the oven is too hot, lower the temperature to 100deg.
This is the perfect winter dish for a busy evening! Super simple to prepare in a short time and you can prepare it before and reheat it just before eating. For two people I use 1/6 of kabocha, 5 mushrooms, risotto rice of your choice, olive oil, salt and pepper and I finished my plate with freshly grated parmigiano, but it is optional. I sliced thinly the kabocha and the mushrooms. In a fry pan I heated a bit of olive oil and through the vegetables and roasted them until golden and crispy. Then I add the rice and grilled it a bit before adding water and salt. Let cook at low heat until the water is almost gone. Remove from heat and keep until you want to eat. Before eating add a bit of olive oil, re-heat in the pan and stir softly if needed. Serve, add pepper, et voila!
A. cooks once a year and it is for making my birthday cake. I like to have it with tea, because then it all about the cake rather than having it for dessert. Every year I choose the cake I would like to eat and he makes it the way I like it. He usually searches for recipes on the internet, and from this base adjusts it to the gears and ingredients we have, and to my taste. Since he has little experience he usually gets a bit of help or some advises from who is available around. This year, since we were in Sicily, country of citrus fruits, I chose a lemon tart with meringue. But I like my cakes not too sweet, not too buttery, not too creamy, so my mum and I helped him a bit. The result was amazing. So here is what he did for a 25cm tart: first pre-heat to 180deg ghe oven.
for the dough: a classic sablé dough with 200g of flour, 1 egg, 75g of butter. Mix all the ingredients and roll the dough to the size of your pie dish. Bake for 10min, the dough must not change color too much.
for the lemon filling: instead of preparing lemon curd we opted for something easier. The zest and the juice of 2 lemons is mixed with 2 egg yolk and 1 egg, 120g of brown sugar, and 4tbs of fresh ricotta. Mix all the ingredients to obtain a smooth creamy texture. Set in the dough. And cook in the oven at 180deg for 30min.
for the meringue: 2 egg white, 70g of icing sugar, a pinch of salt. Beat the egg whites and the salt until firm, continue beating and add the icing sugar slowly until all is smooth, shiny white and firm. Put the mix in an icing bag and decorate the tart as you like. Bake at 180deg for 10min. Check to be sire the meringue doesn’t burn.
We finished the decoration with some very thin slices of Sicilian sweet lemon grilles on the oven for a few minutes.
Last winter I made some butternut squash ravioli with a very simple filling and in small size, with the ravioli plate I bought in Roma last year. This time I decided to add some nutmeg to the filling and to make large ones, where there is plenty of filling. And since I had plenty of sage in the garden seeved them with olive oil and sage. Simple and soooooooo delicious! How do you prefer your ravioli?
Rice, rice more rice, white, brown, red, black, wild, arborio, carnaroli, koshihikari, camargues. Whatever, we love rice!!! This time it’s a mix of koshihikari white and brown rice, served with enoki, these long, thin and white mushrooms so easy to find st that the time of the year, and lotus roots, cooked in a bit of oil until golden then glazed in soya sauce, and the all thing is topped by a poached egg for the creaminess. So simply delicious!
