Tag: vegetarian

Fast One-Hour Buns




I love everything that remotely resembles to bread, but if I’d have to choose between a slice of bread and a bun I’d choose the latter. And I have 2 main reasons:

  1. I’m the “crust” type of person, the crunchier, the better.
  2. I’m incapable of evenly slicing a bread. And I’ve tried. A lot. And don’t get me started on the cake-slicing topic.

These being said, I think I found the perfect buns. They are dense without being tough and they have a wonderful crunchy crust. Oh, I almost forgot the best part. These buns are made in 40 minutes.

Ingredients (for 10 Buns):

  • 250g strong white flour (+ extra 10g for kneading)
  • 25g beaten egg (1/2 egg)
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 120ml lukewarm water (36-38°C)
  • 35ml Tbsp olive oil
  • 15g granulated sugar (I used packed brown sugar)
  • 1 envelope active dry yeast (7g)

  • Method:

    1. Preheat the oven at 400°F/204°C (gas mark 6).
    2. In a small bowl combine water, oil, sugar and yeast and let aside for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the mixture should be really foamy (picture).
    3. In a large bowl combine white flour, oat flour and salt and make a well in the center.
    4. Add the yeast mixture and ½ an egg and mix with a wooden spatula until you form a ball.
    5. Bring the sticky dough on a floured working surface and knead it for 2 minutes.
    6. Place dough in the bowl, cover and let it rise in a warm place for 10 minutes.
    7. After 10 minutes, place the dough back on the working surface and knead vigorously to knock out the air bubbles.
    8. Divide dough into 10 pieces and shape them into 10 balls (I had 10 balls x 53g).
    9. Place them on a tray lined with parchment paper, give them a quick egg wash, sprinkle some cumin seeds and bake them for 12 minutes or until golden.


    Source: www.kitchemeetsgirl.com

Grilled Quail Eggs With Sweet & Salty Sesame Dust

These soft boiled quail eggs are marinates in soy sauce, charred on the grill and served with a sweet and salty sesame dust. Given my almost annoying culinary curiosity and the fact that I never run short of eggs, I often discover new and exciting quail egg recipes. This recipe is definitely exciting, it is both visually pleasing and extremely delicious. Not to mention that the technique is really simple.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

  • 24 quail eggs
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tasp dark Muscovado sugar
  • 1/8 tsp chili powder

 

Method:

  1. Fill a medium saucepan with water and cover with a lid. Bring the water to a boil and add the eggs. Reduce heat to minimum and let eggs simmer for 2 minutes. Drain eggs, let them cool in cold water and peel them.
  2. Take a zip-lock bag and prepare the marinade by mixing together the soy sauce and the olive oil.
  3. Rinse the soft-boiled eggs, pat them dry and add them to the bag. Mix well and leave the eggs to marinate for 30 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile toast the sesame seeds in a skillet until golden brown over medium temperature. Let them reach room temperature and spoon them in a mortar. Add the salt, sugar and chili and break the seeds down with a pestle.
  5. Heat grill pan over medium – high temperature. Drain the eggs and carefully place them on the grill. Grill them for 20 -30 seconds on each side, until browned.
  6. Serve them warm, on a skewer, dipping them in the sweet and salty sesame powder.

Source: www.ottolenghi.co.uk








Farfalle Caprese

This lovely pasta salad with tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil is ready in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes on the clock! It is hearty, it’s colorful and it’s packed with bold flavors! It’s hands down my favorite salad and I’ve been making it since the Cretaceous period, since I was in the second grade to be more accurate. This salad is perfect for lunch or dinner and it’s also a wonderful dish to bring to a picnic.

For this salad I used mozzarella boconcini and cherry tomatoes picked from my own veggie garden, which I’ve seasoned with fresh basil and homemade balsamic vinegar reduction. For pasta I chose farfalle (penne, fusilli or rigatoni are also delicious in this salad) which I’ve flavored with finely chopped shallot. Although I cannot tolerate onion in traditional Caprese salad, I always add finely chopped shallot in the pasta version. I find that it seasons discretely the pasta, without overpowering the rest of the ingredients. Continue reading Farfalle Caprese

Duck Egg Frittata with Zucchini and Parmesan



 

Duck egg frittata with zucchini is the answer to the question “what can I make for dinner from basically nothing and in less than 20 minutes?”. Frittata is such a simple dish, it requires about 4 or 5 ingredients and a non-stick pan (my cast iron skillet works great). This fancy omelet is so satisfying, creamy and flavorful and it practically prepares itself. I like to pair it with a crusty slice of bread and with a large bowl of salad, and that’s how I get a tasty vegetarian dinner in no time.

Duck eggs are quite fatty, which makes them absolutely tasty, although they are a great source of omega 3 fatty acids, they also provide a large quantity of cholesterol which doesn’t make them suitable for daily consumption. On the other hand, duck eggs are also a great source of vitamin B complex, vitamin A, selenium and phosphorus. So, eaten in moderate amounts, duck eggs are not delicious, but also nutritious. Continue reading Duck Egg Frittata with Zucchini and Parmesan

Quail Eggs with Garlic & Greek Yogurt Sauce



Since my adorable pultry farm has seen the light of he day Ițve been testing and developing lots of egg-based recipes. We enjoy chicken eggs as well es quail eggs, goose eggs, duck eggs, guinea fowl eggs and if I forgot to mention any other cute feathered creature that carelessly lounges in backyarg, I ask for forgiveness. The business is quite simple we give them love (and corn) and they give us eggs. I’ve noticed that I tend to cook quail eggs more often than any other variety of eggs and I base my decision not as much on the nutrition aspect, but on the fact that it takes no time for them to cook. An whenever I eat a whole quail egg I like to pretend that I’m having a regular-sized egg and I’m just a giant but that’s a whole other level of childness.

My favorite quail egg recipe is also the simplest recipe I know, not to mention it hardly takes more than 15 minutes. For this recipe I like to boil the egg for about 3 minutes. I remove their shell and I serve them with a velvety garlic and Greek yogurt sauce. I don’t know exactly what makes them perfect. Maybe the fact that the simplicity of the sauce make the eggs shine. Maybe the fact that making the aioli sauce reminds me of graceful my grandmother used to make the mayonnaise. Or maybe hypnotic traces the torn bread leave in the yellow sauce. I simply don’t know. Continue reading Quail Eggs with Garlic & Greek Yogurt Sauce

Pull-Apart Garlic & Herb Bread


This flavorful pull-apart bread is by far my favorite kind of bread. It is so soft and airy and I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it tastes. Although it may look fancy, it is in fact very easy to make. If you have a bit of extra time on your hands, you can make this beauty from scratch, using just a few budget-friendly ingredients. Not to mention the fact that you don’t need a knife to slice it, you just tear it apart.

This loaf is the piece de resistence that you proudly place in the middle of the table during a dinner among friends. You just have to sit and enjoy how everyone tears it apart, piece by piece. This loaf obviously has the wow factor, but it is also extremely delicious. It’s something inexplicably satisfactory about tearing it into pieces, pieces that simply melt in your mouth and delight you with a buttery roasted garlic aroma. This bread is simply madness!

Continue reading Pull-Apart Garlic & Herb Bread

Cherry and Almond Crumble

Sometimes, I’m simply not looking for symmetries, geometries and flawlessness. Sometimes, a rustic dessert chaotically dropped on a white plate creates for me an ecstatic state of mind, a genuine satisfaction that no other form of perfection could ever bring. Moments like that tell me it’s time to make a crumble.

Fruit crumble isn’t the most aesthetic dessert that you could think of, I give you that, but the taste is simply divine. Those fresh fruit that bake in their own juice, creating a silky, flavorful sauce go wonderfully with the crunchy buttery crust. For this particular crumble I used meaty June cherries, I flavored them with rose water (vanilla or almond extract work beautifully too) and I topped them with a buttery almond flake mixture. A delicious madness! Continue reading Cherry and Almond Crumble

Goat Cream Cheese, Pea and Quail Egg Triangles



These goat cheese, pea and quail egg triangles are simply extraordinary. They are delicious, flavorful and the fresh green peas add a lovely spring quality to the dish. What I like the most about the appetizers is they are a crowd-pleaser. These adorable guys are also a wonderful alternative to conventional appetizers, letting aside the fact that they’re ready in less than 30 minutes. To ease up my work, I use store-bought puff pastry and I bake it between two trays. This method keeps the dough from rising excessively in the oven, which leads to a relatively thin, golden and flaky crust. Those crispy rectangles are then iced with a tangy and flavorful goat cheese cream, topped with peas and quail eggs arranged chaotically. Continue reading Goat Cream Cheese, Pea and Quail Egg Triangles

Whole – Wheat French Toast



French toast (or Pain perdu) is an absolutely divine breakfast. It’s nothing else but day-old bread soaked in a milk and egg mixture flavored with cinnamon and than fried in butter and served with honey and berries. I make this wonderful treat everytime I find myself in the position of throwing away stale bread. I find it fascinating how an unappealing slice of bread metamorphoses into something sublime.

For French toast I’ve used all sorts of bread, from plain white bread, to whole – wheat, focaccia, or ciabatta, from Romanian sweet bredt, babka or challah. I often use whole-wheat bread soaked in a flavorful egg, milk and brown sugar mixture. The fact that the bread is old gives the final product its fluffiness and keeps the slice together when soaked. If you have only fresh bread, you can always toast it in the oven for 10 minutes. Continue reading Whole – Wheat French Toast

Lascute (homemade square pasta)

Lascute (quadratini / quadrucci in Italian) are the adorable small pasta that my grandmother used to make when I was a child. They are nothing else but some tiny squares with 5 mm side length. They are so delicious in chicken soups, tomato or bean-based soups. They are really easy to make, they require just a few things: some flour, salt and eggs. You also need a rolling pin, a sharp knife and some spare time. I like to make a large batch and I dry them overnight. Once nice and dry, they last for weeks.

For this pasta recipe I use all-purpose white flour, chicken or duck eggs and Himalayan salt. Chicken eggs make some delicious homemade pasta, but duck eggs simply elevate the dish. Duck eggs are higher in fat, compared to chicken eggs, which improves both the texture and the taste of the pasta. Also, duck eggs have a higher yolk to white ratio than chicken eggs, which provides a more vibrant color to the final product. Continue reading Lascute (homemade square pasta)