HURMI TWIST

" VERY BERRIE" BREAKFAST BOWL

PINK PANTER

 

 

MONDAY MIX

RAW CARROT SPAGHETTI

I love to eat healthy and yummy food. The RAW food wave is all around me last months. No matter if I read some articles about healthy food, go trough recipes, surf the Instagram or Pinterest – RAW is everywhere. In cakes, pasta, salads, wraps sushi…. So why not to try it? It want become the center of universe for me, but I should give it a try. Yesterday I’ve made my self my very first raw spaghetti. Here is the recipe:

RAW CARROT SPAGHETTI 

what you need for one portion

1 large carrot

½ avocado

½ of tomato

¼ of fennel

¼ of salad cucumber

2 large spoons of virgin olive oil

½ of lemon

Flore de salt

black pepper

red pepper (whole)

1 spoon of honey

step by step

Use the spiral machine (if you don’t have any, you my use the carrot cleaner to get thin slices – like tagliatelle pasta) to get nice thin carrot spaghetti. Cut tomato and cucumber in to small squares, then fennel in to thin slices. Clean ½ of avocado, leave 3-4 slices for decoration and cut the rest also in to small squares. Place carrots on the plate (like you would do with plane pasta), and then start to top with all the other vegetable (pretend it’s the base of Bolognese sauceJ). Make nice decoration with avocado slices and young fennel leafs at the end.

Then add olive oil, sprinkle of Fore de Salt (I have plane and lemon flavor at home, have used the lemon one this time), grain black pepper and few red pepper seeds. Squeeze ½ of lemon and use the juice for the topping. Add sweet liquid honey which gives the whole dish nice semi sweet taste.

Hope you’ll enjoy!

AUTUMN HUMMUS

Hummus - Middle Eastern Cookery. A paste or dip made of chickpeas mashed with oil, garlic, lemon juice, and Tahiti and usually eaten with pita – that is what you find browsing at Google. But do you know that this delicious dish can be also served as main course? It’s very healthy, refreshing, tasty and nutritious. Let’s see what happens when you mix it with autumn season vegetable – pumpkin. Z iVery simple but interesting recipe:

AUTUMN HUMMUS

1,5 kg of fresh pumpkin, you may use Hokkaido – nice sweet taste

1 can of pre cooked chickpeas (or 1 large cup of dry chickpeas - cooked)

½ cup of fresh yogurt

olive oil

garlic clove

bunch of cherry tomatoes per one person

small spoon of fennel seeds

small spoon of cumin

black pepper

salt (I have used Flore de salt  - lemon taste)

bread – brown, pita, tortilla – depending on you - bio if possible

1 large cup of vegetable stock

½ of lemon

4 large portions

 

 

Step by step:

Clean the pumpkin and cut in two similar halves. Cut the first half in small pieces, add butter, pepper, salt, vegetable stock – and then cook in a pot for max 10 minutes, till it gets soft, but still compact in texture.

Pre heat the oven to 185 degree Celsius, cut the second half of pumpkin in to suitable pieces (depending if you wish to serve one big piece or several small pieces on one plate), use baking paper as a base in the pot, then place the pumpkin, cherry tomatoes. Use salt (Flore de salt), pepper, olive oil, and fresh herbs (what you have by hand – basil, rosemary, thymine – they all fit great with this dish). Cover nicely all the vegetable with oil and then bake for aprox 25 – 30 minutes, till they get nice & crispy.

While baking concentrate on the first part of pumpkin – cooked! Drain the cooked water, pour the pumpkin in to a higher bowl (or mixer – Vitamix) and add cooked chickpeas, yogurt, 4-5 spoons of olive oil, grain one garlic clove. Mine while take the fennel seeds, cumin, salt and pinch of brown sugar. Bake them on a pan, till you smell the flavors – 3-4 minutes. Then use a mortar to crush the hot mixture. This is a traditional way, how rise the flavors and taste of the herbs and spices. You will fall in love with this procedure. I always feel like a old witch – hahahahaaaa! Add the spices and lemon juice to the pumpkin / chickpea bowl – and mix till you get nice smooth compact texture. And yes – our pumpkin hummus is ready. Always taste your result. It may happen, that you’ll have to balance the flavors little bit.

The rest is very easy. Just place the hummus on a plate. Add crispy baked pumpkin & tomatoes, sliced bread. Give it the last touch of olive oil, Flore de salt and pepper…..and enjoy!

 

SUNNY SALAD

Well what can I say? We should not complain about silly things and be grateful for all what we have. Everyone around me knows that I’m not that kind of person complaining about small thing sin life. I’m a very happy person 99,9% of my life. But there is this one thing I miss so much – summer sunshine! We can’t fight the nature, but why did someone up there decided to pour rain on our heads for more than a month??? I really charge my batteries each summer. There fore this colorful salad full of summer flavors:

SUNNY SALAD

1 large yellow zucchini

1 large cucumber

1 fresh fennel

8 – 10 cherry tomatoes

15 pc anchovies

1 lemon

1/3 cup of olive oil

large spoon of honey (or two if you feel like it!)

chili

½ spoon of estragon mustard

black pepper

salt

4-5 portions

 

Step by step:

Use the carrot peeler. Peal the zucchini in to thin slices. Bring a pot of water to boil and let the zucchini cook for 2-3 minutes. Then take out the zucchini and let it cool down under cold water – Blanche it! This process helps to keep the zucchini in nice color& softens the structure.

Peal cucumber the same way, cut fennel in to nice thin pieces. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.

Place all vegetable in to salad bowl. Add anchovies.

Prepare the vinaigrette as follows:

Mix olive oil, estragon mustard, honey, juice from ½ lemon, cut chili, pinch of salt, pepper in to a nice vinaigrette sauce. To smooth the thickness of the sauce, add 2-3 large spoons of cold water.

Pore the vinaigrette over the salad and leave it for at least 30 minutes, till the flavors combine.

Serve it as a main course, but is also suitable as adding to meats, or dips for party. Enjoy!

CRISPY CHICKEN AND PORK PAN

With three kids and full time job, I may not find enough time for cooking in the working week. But I just can’t imagine leaving my kids without honest home made food. Therefore I try to cook fresh, easy and as simple as possible. Here is my recipe for nice meat & vegetable dinner. Enjoy!

CRISPY CHICKEN AND PORK PAN

2 pc of pork flitch

6 pc chicken leg

4 large carrots

1 large onion

¼ kg Brussels sprouts

medium pumpkin  - any kind

1 big lemon

garlic

olive oil

salt

pepper – black & red

fennel

cumin

honey

 

For 3-4 person

 

Place meat in to pan, sprinkle with salt, black pepper, cumin & fennel. Add ½ of fresh squeezed lemon juice, olive oil & large spoon of honey. Use your hands and mix the meat with all the flavors. Add bits of lemon and garlic (just cut the whole bunch of garlic in to half, and place it in to pan – you’ll gen a nice sweet garlic paste after baking) and pure one cup of water in to the pan. Heat up the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Cover the pan with foil and bake covered for 35 minutes. Then take of the foil and bake for another 15 minutes uncovered. Sprinkle the meat with gravy from the pan now and then – it will give the meat a nice crispy touch.

Meanwhile cut the vegetable in nice thick pieces (carrot, onion, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts), add olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin. Then place on to oven next to the meat and bake on the dame temperature, till it gets nice crunchy.

And that is it! If you wish, you may prepare nice fresh tomato/cucumber salad as addition to the warm dinner. My kids loved this meal, and the empty plates have been the proof!

SATURDAY KICK OFF SMOOTHIE

Smoothie definition

Green smoothies are a type of health shake or smoothie, made by blending green raw leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, swiss chard, collard greens, celery, parsley or broccoli with fruit such as oranges, kiwis, apples, mangoes, pears, and bananas, some of which may be frozen, and water or ice.To balance flavor and nutrition the typical ratio in a green smoothie is about 60% fruit to 40% leafy greens. (Wikipedia)

SATURDAY KICK OFF SMOOTHIE

½ red grapefruit

½ lemon

½ banana

1 green apple

fresh ginger root (depending how spicy you like your smoothie)

mint

2 cups fresh coconut water

1 tea spoon of honey

ice

Preparation 5 minutes, 2-3 portions

Place it all in to a blender. Mix it well. I do personally use Vitamix blender.

Store the smoothie in glass cups or bottles.

Serve cold & enjoy!

SUMMER ON YOUR PLATE

Summer on your plate

There is nothing better than to enjoy tasty food prepared with fresh seasonal ingredients. Summer gives us so many options and varieties when it comes to vegetables and fruit, as a great base for a light summer lunch or dinner. I got some fresh cod fish at the Saturday morning market and I had some turkey breast waiting for me in the kitchen, therefore I decided to prepare a light meal of both – they fit nicely together. 

COD FISH & TURKEY STEAKS WITH NATURAL RICE, YELLOW ZUCCHINI AND TZATZIKI SALAD

300g fresh turkey steaks

300g fresh cod fish fillet

1 large yellow zucchini

2 carrots

6 spring onions

1 cucumber

1 lemon

2 – 3 garlic cloves

fresh herbs – rosemary, sage, oregano, tarragon

2 cups of natural rice

150g  plain yoghurt

olive oil

butter or ghee butter

salt

pepper

Preparation time 30 – 40 minutes

Rice:

Melt 1 teaspoon of butter or ghee butter in a small pot. Add 1 cup young onion and carrots, stir for 2-3 minutes. Add natural rice and stir well again for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper and add water – 2 cm above the rice (you may also use chicken/vegetable stock). Wait until it starts to boil, then lower the temperature, cover with lid and let it cook for 25-30 minutes on low heat. The natural rice needs aprox. 10-15 minutes longer than standard white rice to cook well. When cooked, turn off the heat, stir and let it cool with the lid on.

Zucchini:

Cut the zucchini into quarters, then cut out the soft middle part with seeds (not necessary if they are not too hard – it is mainly done because of the high level of water in the middle part which can make the zucchini soggy in the grilling process), cut into nice half moon shapes. Add olive oil and a bit of butter into the pan,  add spring onions and zucchini once the pan is hot. Stir over and over and add salt and pepper. You want to end up with lovely pan baked zucchini - kind of grilled. Easy and tasty side dish, ideal for fish & meat. Preheat the oven to 40 grades Celsius to keep the zucchini warm.

Meat:

Use two grill plates. The only difference between fish & turkey preparation is mainly in the herbs added. If you have time, you may marinate the turkey in a mixture of salt and pepper, crushed garlic, spring onion, rosemary and oregano marinade. Mix with your hands and leave covered in a cold place for at least 30 minutes. But you may also do it without marinade. Just sprinkle salt and pepper over the meat and grease the pan with olive oil or ghee butter. Add herbs, garlic and onion to the hot pan to build a base for the meat. Ad turkey at the end and grill aprox 2 - 3 minutes on each side (turkey steak max 3 cm thick). When ready, place the turkey next to the zucchini into the oven – the meat needs to rest in a nice warm temperature for a few minutes to be ready. Get the fish ready in the meantime!

The preparation is a bit easier with the cod fish. Just sprinkle fresh salt (pepper is optional) over the fillet and squeeze fresh lime juice over it. Heat up olive oil mixed with herbs – sage, tarragon, add garlic, spring onion (you may also use slices of lemon – I like this option a lot!) to get the base. Make sure the pan gets nicely hot. Then grill fish from both sides – at most 2 minutes on each side. Careful – fish gets dry easily!

Salad:

Cut cucumber into small pieces and place into the bowl, add plain white yoghurt, 1 clove of crushed garlic (depending how much garlic you like in your food – you may use less or even more), salt, pepper, 2 tea spoons of olive oil. Give it all a nice toss. 

Well and that’s it! Serve with love and enjoy pure summer on your plate. Bon Appetit!

LEFTOVERS

MORNING SMOOTHIE

1x pink grapefruit

1x green apple

½ lime

1 banana

1x pear

1 cup of almond milk

Agave syrup (not necessary)

And this is what I left from it….