Panna Cotta with Rhubarb Purée and Strawberries

May is a month in which a lot of fruit and vegetables are in season that taste good only when they are really, really fresh such as asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries. I personally have the tendency to gorge myself on these things until it almost comes out of my ears and I have to wait the rest of the year to regain my appetite ;-).
Except for strawberries, which I would not mind eating all year in huge quantities.
Conveniently, rhubarb and strawberries go together really well which is why we came up with this delicious and easy to prepare dessert.

Dessert for 4 persons (4 bowls of 200 ml)
Preparation time: 20 minutes, + 4 hours cooling

Ingredients
Panna Cotta
500 ml single cream or cream
50 g sugar
1 vanilla bean
4 leaves of gelatine

Rhubarb purée
150 g rhubarb
2 tablespoons honey
100 ml water

4 strawberries

Soak the gelatine in cold water. To prepare the Panna Cotta, bring the cream to a boil and add the sugar. Cut the vanilla bean in half, scrape out the marrow and add it to the cream.
Wring out the gelatine and let it dissolve in the cream while stirring. Fill the cream into small bowls and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Peel the rhubarb and cut into chunks. Put it in a saucepan with the water and the honey and bring to a boil. Let simmer for approx. 5 minutes until the rhubarb starts falling apart.
Allow to cool down and purée it later with an immersion blender.

Just before serving, spread the purée evenly on the Panna Cotta . Decorate with a few fresh strawberries.

Enjoy!
-Kessy –

Salmon with Cream Cheese and Pesto and Asparagus gratinated with Parmesan

Perhaps you know the situation, when you haven’t anything proper in the fridge and you start combining what is left and suddenly you have a great result of which you think “Hey, that’s great! Let’s always do it like that!”?

This is what happened this weekend. On Friday we bought a bunch of green asparagus, but did not really know what we were going to with it. If nothing better had come to mind, we would have just simply prepared a hollandaise sauce and added it to the “pure asparagus”.
At home, it occurred to us that we still had a piece of salmon fillet in the freezer. Umm … asparagus and salmon? Should go well together. And what else? There is still one opened package of cream cheese and a jar of pesto. Let’s put this on the salmon! And the asparagus? We could top it with the leftover Parmesan.

And the result? Let’s just say – we gave each other a High-Five after the first few bites 😉

Serves 4 people
Preparation time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients

600 g salmon fillet, skinned
approx. 20 g flour
4 tbsp green pesto
4 tbsp cream cheese
1 kg green asparagus
50 g butter, melted
150 g Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Wash the asparagus and cut off the woody end if needed. Place in a pot with plenty of salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer for approx. 8 minutes.

In the meantime, wash the salmon fillet, pat dry and cut into four equal-sized pieces.
Turn the salmon pieces in some flour and then fry in a pan all around for a total of 8-10 minutes or until the salmon is lightly browned. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 240° C / 465° F grill.

Drain the asparagus and place in a baking dish. Pour over with the melted butter, grate the Parmesan cheese and spread on top. Sprinkle with ground pepper.

Place the salmon in an ovenproof dish. Put a tablespoon of cream cheese and a tablespoon of pesto on each piece of salmon.

Put both forms side by side on a baking sheet and bake for about 7 minutes in the upper half of the oven.

Enjoy!
-Kessy –

Tarte Flambee with sun-dried Tomatoes, Feta and Olives

This week we have once again made one of our favorite dishes: Tarte Flambee or “Flammkuchen” as it is called in Switzerland. It is a kind of “French pizza” from Alsace made from a very thin layer of pastry (a bit like flatbread) topped with sour cream, chopped onions and bacon.
It is usually rather some cold weather comfort food, but we have made this little gem fit for springtime and came up with a Mediterranean version.
Admittedly, the dough is the only reminder left of Flammkuchen, but we are not too strict about it, as the result was finger licking good :-).

Main course for 2 people, appetizer for 4 people
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
200 g flour (we usually use 100 g white flour and 100 g wholemeal flour )
125ml water
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

about 16 sun-dried tomatoes
15-20 black olives
200 g feta
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 220° C / 430° F.

Mix the flour and the salt in a bowl. Pour in water and oil and knead to a smooth dough. When the dough should be too sticky, add a little more flour.
Roll out the dough thinly (2 mm) to the size of a baking tray. We usually roll out the dough directly on the baking paper, as it is then easier to place on the baking tray without tearing it.

Coarsely chop the tomatoes and olives, crumble the feta and distribute everything evenly on the dough. Pluck the thyme leaves from the sprigs and season the tarte with it. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for approx. 20 minutes in the lower half of the oven until the cheese and the tarte are slightly browned.

Enjoy!
-Kessy-

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Today’s recipe from “Kessy’s Bakery” comes just in time to sweeten your weekend. The nice spring weather calls for something light and fluffy, so I decided to transform a delicious tiramisu into handy cupcakes. You will be surprised how much they taste like real tiramisu!

Preparation time: 20 minutes + baking 20 minutes
Ingredients for 12 cupcakes

Cupcakes
3 eggs
100 g sugar
50 g flour
50 g cornstarch
1 tbsp custard powder
½ tsp baking powder

Frosting
about 2 little espresso cups of strong espresso or coffee
250 g mascarpone
50 g powdered sugar
100 ml cream
Cocoa powder for dusting

Preheat the oven to 175° C / 350° F.

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg whites until very stiff. Gradually trickle in the sugar and continue stirring until you have a shiny mass.
Fold in the egg yolks.

Mix flour, cornstarch, custard powder and baking powder. Carefully add to the beaten egg whites.
Place paper liners in a cupcake tin and fill in the batter about ¾ full. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

In the meantime, cook the espresso. Add powdered sugar to the mascarpone and beat until it is light and fluffy. Stir in 2 tablespoons of espresso. Whip the cream until stiff and fold into the mascarpone.

Repeatedly stab the surface of the cooled cupcakes with a fork. Drizzle approx. 2-3 tsp of espresso on each cupcake and let seep.
Spread the mascarpone cream on the cupcakes. Leave them in a cool place and sprinkle with cocoa powder just before serving.

Enjoy!
-Kessy-

Warm Lentil Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Feta

In time for the weekend, Peter has managed to get a cold – so much for our weekend plans. Duhh!
But it was a bit rainy anyway, so we just used the opportunity to snuggle up on the couch with a big pot of tea and some cookies and watched a few movies.
Corresponding to our weekend lethargy, we just prepared something from the category “cooking without cooking”. For this recipe you really only have to cook the lentils, the rest is only a little cutting and stirring.

The salad can be enjoyed warm as a light main course, but is also very good as an appetizer or side dish.

Serves 4 people
Preparation time: about 40 minutes

Ingredients

250 g green lentils
about 8 sun dried tomatoes
1 small onion
100 g feta
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ bunch of parsley
¼ bunch of chives
¼ bunch of dill
1 tsp Fleur de Sel
pepper

Place the lentils in a pan with water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes until they are cooked.

In the meantime, cut the onion into rings; place them in a bowl and drizzle with balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with salt and leave for it for a few minutes.

Cut the dried tomatoes and feta into small pieces and mix with the olive oil, crushed garlic and pepper. Chop the herbs and mix in. Finally, add in the onion.

When the lentils are cooked, let them cool down a bit. Then fold in with the rest of the salad while still warm.

Goes well with pita bread.

Enjoy!
-Kessy-

Gratinated Beetroot with Almond & Feta Crust

Until a few years ago beetroot was a vegetable that I never would have bought / cooked myself. Then we had a “vegetable subscription”, where a basket of fresh organic vegetables was delivered each week directly from a local farm. The only snag was that we could not choose the content.

And then there we were, with two huge red-purple lumps in our fridge, with which we had to do… well… something.
Although beetroot is still not one of my favorite vegetables, there are now 2-3 recipes, which I really like. Also, they are full of minerals, vitamin C and folic acid, which is not a bad thing especially in winter. 🙂

Serves 4 people
Preparation time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients

800 g beetroot
2 apples
1 onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
150 ml vegetable stock
60 g almonds
60 g buckwheat
100 g feta
thyme
salt and pepper

Clean and chop the beetroot and apples. Peel the onions and slice finely. Heat a pan with oil and sauté beetroot, apples and onion in it. Add the honey to slightly caramelize the vegetables.
Pour in the vegetable stock, cover and let simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes until the beetroot is firm to the bite.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 °C / 390 °F. Coarsely chop almonds and roast them with the buckwheat.

Season the vegetables with thyme, salt and pepper, then pour into a baking dish. Sprinkle with almonds and buckwheat, and crumble over the feta cheese. Gratinate for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!
-Kessy –

Baked Butternut Squash with Tahini & Za’atar

Although we also like to eat a juicy steak once in a while, for both of us meat is not a must for a delicious menu. This is not really a conscious decision against meat, but for us it is just a side dish / ingredient as any other. And same as we do not want to eat something with potatoes every single day, we do not eat meat on a daily basis, but quite often vegetarian food.

And of course vegetarian does not have to mean only eating raw food or bland vegetables without any taste. We enjoy cooking and eating way too much to bother with food that does not taste good!
Many recipes from one of our favorite cookbooks “Jerusalem” are vegetarian, which we do not mind at all, as they are always well-seasoned and tasty – and that’s the main thing!

Serves 4 people
Preparation time: 15 minutes + 35 minutes baking

Ingredients

1.5 kg butternut squash
2 onions
50 ml olive oil
4 tablespoons tahini
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed ,
30 g pine nuts
1 tablespoon za’atar
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped parsley
Salt and pepper

Cut butternut and onions into slices. Preheat oven to 240 °C / 460 °F. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons oil and scatter over 1 teaspoon salt and some pepper, then toss well to coat with even layer.

Lay out the slices on a baking tray with baking paper and bake 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and slightly browned.

For the sauce, mix the tahini with lemon juice, 2 tablespoons water, crushed garlic and ¼ teaspoon salt. The consistency should be similar to liquid honey.

Heat up the remaining oil in a small pan and fry the pine nuts with half a teaspoon of salt until golden brown (about 2 minutes).

Arrange the vegetables on a plate and drizzle the tahini sauce over. Spread pine nuts on it and sprinkle with za’atar and parsley.

Enjoy!
-Kessy –

Fattoush with Feta and Quinoa

Last month spent a wonderful week in Jordan and of course we would like to share not only recipes, but also a few travel tips. So here our top 5:

• The city of Petra in southern Jordan: really impressive and beautiful. The city was rediscovered 200 years ago by a guy from Basel, unfortunately there was no “hometown discount” for us 😉
• The Dead Sea: wade in the water, pull up your knees or lie down flatly, and bob up and down in the water like a little cork. It’s fun and also good for your skin.
• The Citadel and the amphitheater in Amman: Amman isn’t called the “Rome of the Middle East” for nothing. Between the ruins of the roman temple, enjoy the little island of silence within the hubbub of the city.
• Souq: buy fresh pomegranates in the Food Souq in Amman. They taste heavenly, but we made a really big mess in the hotel room 😉 Furthermore, you can stock up here with all kinds of exotic spices such as sumac, za’atar and so on.
• Arabic Cooking Class: Authentic Arabic cooking with Maria of “Beit Sitti”. Our course took place on the terrace of the restaurant with a view over Amman. Info and registration at www.beitsittijo.com

Which brings us to today’s recipe. Of course we have not only enjoyed the Arabic cuisine during our trip, but also brought couple of recipes with us to try out at home.
Today: a traditional Fattoush (tomato bread salad) supplemented with quinoa and feta.

Serves 4 people
Preparation time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients

50 g quinoa
½ pita bread or 4 slices of toast
30 ml olive oil for brushing the bread
Fleur de Sel
4 tomatoes
1 cucumber
100 g feta
1 small red onion
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon lemon juice
70 ml olive oil (dressing)
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon sumac
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 °C  / 350 °F.
Boil the quinoa in a pot with water and let simmer for about 15 minutes until it is cooked. Then drain well.

The cut pita bread in half and sprinkle the slices of bread with a little olive oil and fleur de sel. Put the slices on a baking sheet and bake one site at a time (about 5 minutes each).The bread should be dry and crispy in the end. Remove from the oven, allow to cool and cut or break the bread into bite-sized pieces.

Chop the tomatoes, cucumber and feta into cubes and place in a bowl. The slice the onion into thin rings, chop the herbs and press the garlic. Add everything to the salad bowl.
Fold in the quinoa and pieces of bread pieces.

Mix the dressing from the rest of the olive oil, vinegar, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper, pour it over the salad and mix well. Generously sprinkle with sumac before serving the salad.

Enjoy!
-Kessy-

Black Olive and Mozzarella Roll

Dear all, spring is here! And – according to meteorologists – even three weeks early. Personally, I can live very well with that. 🙂
According to today’s glorious weather we are in the mood for something Mediterranean for dinner – and pronto! Because honestly, we’d rather prefer to grab a glass of white wine and enjoy the evening sun on the balcony, than to spend too much time in the kitchen.
So based on the motto “favorite dishes for those in a hurry and with spring fever” we’ll have a delicious olive and mozzarella roll today.

Main course for 2 people or appetizer for 4 people
Preparation time: 10 minutes + 20 minutes baking

Ingredients

120 g pickled black olives , pitted
150 g mozzarella cheese
½ sheet / roll pizza dough (300 g)
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoon oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
chili flakes
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220 °C / 430 °F.

Finely chop or puree the olives. Cut the mozzarella into cubes and mix both with 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese and 1 teaspoon oregano.

Put the pizza dough on a sheet of parchment paper (first spread the dough thinly to a rectangle, if you have not already bought rolled out dough) and evenly distribute the olive and mozzarella mixture on it.
Roll up the dough from the long side. Then sprinkle the roll with olive oil, the remaining Parmesan cheese, oregano and chili flakes.
(It also goes very well with za’atar or dried thyme.)

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until it is nicely golden brown.

Serve with antipasti or salad.

Sunny greetings & enjoy!
-Kessy –

Vegi Quesadillas

Actually, we are not particularly fond of Mexican food. We cook fajitas now and then, as they are quick to prepare and we both love guacamole or avocados in general, but otherwise Mexican dishes are usually too heavy, too greasy and too heavy on meat.

Of course, we’ve never been to Mexico and if the local specialties should be quite different to what we usually get served as Mexican food here in Switzerland, please forgive us this opinion.

Anyway, while browsing through our cookbook “Plenty”, we came across a vegetarian quesadilla version, which we now have given a try. And what shall we say: Viva Mexico!

The quesadillas are prepared ​​quite quickly despite various components and two days later we are still licking our fingers at the thought of these treats!

Serves 4 people
Preparation time : about 30 minutes

Ingredients

8 soft flour tortillas
180 g sour cream
120 g grated cheese
8 teaspoons pickled jalapeno chilies, chopped

Bean paste
1 can red beans (about 220 g)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ bunch coriander
1 lime
½ teaspoon salt

Salsa
½ onion
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
3 spring onions
5 tomatoes
2 ripe avocados
1 clove of garlic
1 red chili
½ bunch of coriander
1 teaspoon salt
1 lime

For the bean paste, squeeze the lime and coarsely mash in a blender with the remaining ingredients.

To prepare the salsa, finely slice the onion into thin rings and put them in a large bowl. Add the vinegar and leave to stand for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the spring onions and dice tomatoes and avocados. Slice the chili into small pieces. If you do not like your food too spicy, remove the seeds. Add everything to the onion in the bowl. Finely chop the coriander, peel and press the garlic, squeeze the lime, and mix well with the salsa. Season to taste with salt.

Preheat the oven (grill) to 200 °C / 390 °F.

To prepare the quesadillas evenly spread the bean paste (about 2 tablespoons) on each tortilla, leaving out the edge. On one half of each tortilla add a tablespoon of sour cream, sprinkle the grated cheese on top, then add about 2-3 tablespoons of salsa and a teaspoon of jalapeno chilies. Fold over the other half of the tortilla or roll like a wrap.

Put the quesadillas in the oven for about 5-7 minutes and broil until golden brown.

If you have leftover salsa, serve with the quesadillas as a salad.

Enjoy!
-Kessy –