DECEMBER FAMILY TRADITION

I may call my self very old fashioned person. I like to keep up traditions and habits in our family. All kinds of activities, that keep on loosing the meaning these days in the modern world. Baking sweets for X - mass, crafting Eastern eggs, picking grapes in autumn, making own sour cabbage and many more. For me it’s important to show my children the basic, simple and beautiful things in life.

I do live healthy life, eat light and fresh meals with less meat, but on this one special day in year I do forget everything around me. All the childhood memories, tastes, smell come back to me, when I visit my uncle Miloš for the traditional shambles (I hope to use the right word for explanation). Teaching kids to be great full for what the nature gives to us, we all enjoy the tasty home made meals. It’s always a sad day for the poor pigs, but I try not to think about it too much. Well, life must go on!

JEMINE COOKING CLASS FOR KIDS

Every kid loves to play. The funny thing about them is, that even if we think that toys would make them happy, they love to explore the simple things in life at the end. My girls are great example for it.  They always love to watch and to help in the kitchen, join me at work, help everyone around them. My friend Barborka told me about the cooking class for kids at Jemine few days ago. Without thinking, I knew right away, what to do on Saturday morning with my kids.

Anet and Janica from Jemine – official ambassadors of Jamie Olivier & Food Revolution Day for Slovak Republic, who I may call my friends, are two great young woman, who put all their energy behind teaching young generation, school kids and even grownups how to eat proper healthy and tasty food. Few months ago they have opened their Cooking school at Stará Tržnica. Great project, beautiful interiors, marvelous kitchen, tasty recipes. As you may see on the pictures, our kids have really enjoyed every minute of their cooking class. Just have look on their web side for more info about their work and coming cooking classes at www.jemine.sk .

Have fun while cooking! 

XXX M.

GINGERBREAD MAN FRIDAY

.... Friday visit in my friends house....

" 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!