Zaalouk

Hello again, some new input for cooking - finally. I have discovered a new podcast which is about cooking - like the format because it is very entertaining, with good tips and various stuff, paleo, vegan, ketogenic - hadn't even heard this last one before.
So I got inspired by the recipe for Zaalouk, a Moroccon recipe. As I heard in the podcast, these are the ingredients: Garlic, shallots, olive oil, eggplant, diced tomatoes - very ripe or canned -, salt,
turmeric, cumin, paprika, black pepper, cilantro and parsley.
More or less it went like this:
make your base with olive oil, minced garlic and diced shallots, add diced eggplant and let it simmer with a medium low temperature. - It takes some patience because the eggplant needs time to take up the oil and get cooked, maybe even 30 minutes, add the rest and let it simmer for another 10 minutes. With a fork, mash the whole mixture up, so there will still be texture but not large pieces of eggplant
Since I still have frozen eggplant here which I brought from Italy, I took up the idea at once.
Here is what I did:
1 onion
1 cup of wild garlic
olive oil
1 eggplant
1 can of italian cherry tomatoes
turmeric
cumin
chili powder
cilantro
parsley

Zaalouk with home made spelt flour bread and white and red rice with avocado

I was a bit disappointed because it somehow seemed to bland for me, I would have thought that it is more interesting - and I am not talking about spiciness from the chili. Maybe it was the absence of garlic and the wild garlic wasn't strong enough in taste or just not enough, who knows.
So the next day, I cooked it some more, with a little water added, lots more of turmeric and cinnamon. I mashed it some more with a food processor and added a generous sprinkle of lemon.
Next time I would even add more of these spices, maybe roast the cumin in a pan first. However, it is a great vegan  and gluten-free dish to eat with some rice or couscous or use it as a spread on some toasted bread.
For the whole procedure, why don't you listen to this podcast. It is called harvest eating and really worth listening to.

Vegan Butternut-Zucchini Ceviche

Usually a Ceviche would be raw fish, marinated with lime, originally from Peru but I also tasted it in Costa Rica. Very yummy. This time I stole the word for a purely vegan dish. The important thing is to slice the pieces in very fine stripes and leave it at least two hours - better more with the marinade.

So here we go:

VERY thin slices of butternut and zucchini, marinate with lots of lime juice and sea salt. After two hours add the oil. I used grape-seed oil this time.

Quinoa Experiments and Vegetarian Stew

Quinoa must be really healthy, gluten free, much protein and it can be used in many different ways. Somehow this is also it's problem. I tried to cook it as written in the recipes for about 15-20 minutes and used it as side dish. Actually it didn't taste of much, now I understand why you can use it also for desserts. In a post I read that you must roast it in order to give it a more special nut-like taste. I also did that, still I am not very satisfied.
My next test was to make a hearty stew with little white beans, red lentils, and peeled tomatoes. That was really good, I like the veggie chili taste.

It is important to wash the quinoa with hot water before cooking it, otherwise it will keep a bitter taste of the saponin attached to it's shell.

Ingredients:
Onions, garlic, olive oil, quinoa, chili to taste, white beans, red lentils, diced peeled tomatoes, tomato puree, sea salt

If I remember, I put the white beans to soak the day before, this saves some cooking time, otherwise it will work just as well, you just have to let it boil for a little more.

Roast the onion dices and garlic until they are glassy, add water and the white beans. The white beans take the longest time to cook, about 30-40 minutes. When they are nearly ready, add the red lentils which have to cook about 5 minutes, in the end the already cooked quinoa.

Since I am still experimenting, I still had leftover cooked quinoa. If  you don't have it cooked yet, you can also add it directly to the stew calculating about 20 minutes of cooking time.

Add one can of peeled diced tomatoes and one of tomato puree, the chills, salt and try if you like to eat it with roasted cumin

What I added apart from that:
I had a cup of vegetable stock still frozen. I did this some time ago, it is a great plus for taste.

So next time you have some time, too much vegetables which have to be consumed, a large pot and some space in your freezer, prepare some of this stock, it can be used in so many ways. Any time you see a recipe which requires the addition of vegetable broth, you can use this. The only difference is that it has less liquid which will save space in your freezer - and there is a huuuuge difference to the vegetable broth you can buy in the supermarket in cans, powder or paste - lots of chemical ingredients and no taste.
Very easy: Start with the usual groundwork: Pot, olive oil, diced onions and garlic in very very thin slices, roast slowly until they have a glassy appearance.
Then add the vegetables cut in small dices, water and let it simmer until the vegetables are well done. I put them in small empty yogurt or curd cup which holdsabout 200 g (7 oz)

Furthermore some already cooked carrots and yellow zucchini, cut in a bit larger dices. I found this dish to be a really yummy alternative, a bit like a Chili sin Carne.
Topping: Sour cream and roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Without the sour cream topping it is a vegetarian, gluten-free, lactose-free and even absolutely vegan dish.

Fruit smoothie

Have you ever wondered what is inside these fruit smoothies they are selling everywhere now, even in the super market. I do so, too. Actually it is better to make it yourself, you spend less, know what is inside and can use up your leftovers in the fridge or the garden. Plus, it is super healthy and tastes good because you choose your ingredients. You can drink it as plain fruit smoothie or add some yogurt if you like it, add oat flakes ( not the whole grain ones but the ones which would melt) for more substance and you have a wonderful start for the day. If you don't have time in the morning, prepare it the day before and but it in your fridge.

Here we go, in this case I used apricots, peaches, red and black currant from the garden and a banana. Blend it with a hand blender - you don't need to have the most sophisticated kitchen tools, the hand blender is a tool you should have in your kitchen, though, for many purposes and it doesn't cost too much. Mine has at least 10 years now and is still going strong.
(Braun MQ 500 Soup Multiquick 5 Stabmixer)

Avocado hummus

Kevin has a great food blog and this inspired me for the avocado hummus. Practically hummus is a mix of chickpea puree and tahina - a sesame paste with salt and spice. He used chickpeas from a can, already cooked, I used some leftover already cooked chickpeas, left off the garlic as well.

Ingredients: Cooked chickpeas, tahina, avocado, salt, mint.

Procedure: Blend everything, time for preparation - 5 minutes (if you are slow)

Salad glut and how to fight it - first idea

We have really great salat in the garden, planted some time ago. Unfortunately salads tend to come all at once - and es much as I like salad - they got the better of us. So tonight there will be a new experiment, there was a recipe of a French salad soup on the internet. Soup is always good, especially as it isn't that hot here right now. So this will be the first one to try.

I mean - have a look at this salad field, it is also a pity to let it waste.

Ingredients (I won't put quantities):

olive oil, shallots and garlic, salad, cooked potatoes, salt and nutmeg

 Heat up some olive oil, throw in chopped shallots and garlic

Add the salad

Braise for a couple of minutes (5-10)

I had already cooked potatoes which I added.

Add salt and nutmeg.

Now this is a trick - I had some bacon left in the fridge, put it in a kitchen paper, roll it up and put it for a minute in the micro wave

I comes out really crispy because the lard is soaked up by the paper

Pass the mix of salad, potatoes and spice with a blender, add spoonful of sour 

cream and the cut bacon.

If vegetarian - without bacon, if vegan without bacon and sour  cream.

Preparation time - if you have cooked potatoes: no more than 15 minutes.

You might want to change the taste of it, so try this:

add some grated cheese, make it more hot with chili, vegan: add some roasted pumpkin seeds or sun-dried tomatoes, just try.

The soup is also great for putting into the freezer for a fast meal when you don't have the time to prepare - put some ice cubes in it and eat it cold on a hot summer day.

Glazed carrots

Very simple dish - I nearly always have carrots at home. You find them everywhere, they are cheap and don't get spoiled easily. However, If I see that they don't leave my fridge soon, I peel them, cut them into pieces and put them in the freezer. They are always useful for some soup or stew.

I got inspired by a video from Youtube this time, it is in German but you will understand anyway.
He is using butter in this video instead of olive oil.

My version:

Ingredients:
carrots
olive oil
1-2 tea spoons of sugar (preferably brown sugar)
1 pinch of slt
(white wine)

Heat up a pan, put olive oil in it, roast the cut carrots together with the sugar, do not heat too much and let them simmer slowly, add the salt and a little wine to taste. It is ready when a small kitchen knife enters easily in the carrots, takes about 10 minutes

Pimientos del padron

Pimientos del padron is a dish I see often in Spain used as one tipe of tapas among many others. I was lucky to get some of these in my local supermarket. The ones I ate in spain were always a kind of "Russian Spicy Roulette": you might eat 5 mild ones of them and then get an extemely spicy one, in fact, that's the fun of it, especially the people's face when they get the spicy surprise.

The ones I got weren't spicy at all, unfortunately, but good all the same.
Fast recipe too:
Heat up some olive oil in a pan and roast the peppers slowly, they may have some darker bits, no problem. Throw in medium sea salt in the end on the peppers. You can eat them hot or cold.

Cucumber raita my way

I got inspired by this one by a facebook post in one of my Giant Schnauzer groups.
Look at that cute picture:

Isn't that sweet? So I wondered what is a raita? Found out that it is an Indian recipe with cucumbers, yogurt and other ingredients like cumin seeds, garlic, coriander and cayenne.

Here is my raita recipe:
1 cucumber
2 cups of whole-milk yogurt
2 or 3 table spoons of pomegranate seeds
2 table spoons of roasted squash and sunflower seeds
sea salt (always use sea salt!)
Fresh mint leaves

How to:
Roast the seeds in a pan until they have a golden color
Grate the cucumber with a medium vegetable grater
Mix cucumber, yogurt, pomegranate and squash/sunflower seeds and salt
Garnish with chopped mint leaves.
Here we go, enjoy! - I love the crunchy taste of the seeds and the
lemony fresh flavor of the pomegranate with this dish

By the way, had to make my comment to the little dog which inspired me: