Red lentil puree soup

I have been so incredibly busy over the past couple of months that I haven't really had any time to post anything. Due to lack of time I've really resorted to batch-cooking - anything that I can make in large quantities and freeze goes. I received a cookbook for Christmas two years ago and when I got it I marked a recipe I wanted to try the very same day. Fast forward nearly two years and I've finally gotten around to making it. I'm a big fan of Arabic food in general and when a dear friend of mine got me this book called "Araabia Köögi Radadel" (basically "On the tracks of Arabic Cuisine" or something along those lines) I was absolutely thrilled.

So after eating my usual puree soups (you can find all of them on this blog) I really felt the need for a change - it was about time I switched one of them for something new. As I was flicking through my recipe collection on my computer and failed to find something that really appealed to me that day I had a quick glance at the cookbooks I have. And then it hit me that I had bookmarked this and it was just waiting for its turn! Also, I happened to have all the ingredients at home so I took the book with me and headed straight into the kitchen.

This is incredibly easy to make (to be fair, most soups are) and tastes divine. And a huge perk is that it is so warming and filling - exactly what one needs on a cold autumn / winter evening. Also, I love the vibrant yellow colour, kind of feels like eating a bit of sunshine. Definitely one of my new favourites and I've already bought all the ingredients for a next batch. I think it is also worth noting that this soup freezes well. All you need to do is take it out the night before and let it defrost in the fridge. For a really indulgent dinner, enjoy with a dollop of creme fraiche and a warm pita bread.

Ingredients
(Serves 4)
- 1 mug red lentils (approx 250ml)
- 1 small potato, peeled and cubed
- 1/2 small tomato
- 1 small carrot, cubed
- 1 onion, cubed
- 1 glove of garlic
- 5 mugs of chicken stock (approx 1,25l)
- Pita bread, to serve

Directions
Put the lentils into the pot. Add potato, tomato, carrot, onion and garlic and cover with chicken stock. Bring to boil and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or until the lentils have softened and turned yellow. Then either puree the soup in the food processor or use handheld mixer for that. If necessary add a bit more water. When serving pour the soup through a sieve to achieve a silky smooth consistency. Serve immediately with some warm pita bread. Enjoy!

Recipe from the book "Araabia Köögi Radadel"

Apple juice

For as long as I can remember autumn has pretty much been synonymous with apples. Every year we went down to the countryside to pick the apples and then spend a good evening or two making apple juice. And I'm not talking about a couple of kilos of apples and a couple of bottles of juice. I'm talking about a massive cartload of apples and litres and litres of juice - it was enough to last us the whole year. And bearing in mind that we drank apple juice all the time and it was 5 of us, we made a lot of juice. I went to the countryside yesterday and had the chance to pick some apples, nothing compared to the amounts we do back in Estonia, but still a decent quantity to help to fill out the pantry.

Making juice today at home was miles apart from doing that in Estonia - instead of the crushing machine and the juice press I used my small juicer. And I have to admit that when I was finally done with the juice my kitchen looked like a battlefield - splashes of apple juice on the counter and cupboards and incredibly sticky everywhere else. But the smell of fresh apple juice made it so worth the mess. 

I can honestly say that making apple juice is a bit of a hassle, but it is so worth it. Store bought juices have never even come close to the real home made ones and I am so glad that I got myself together and made some. In all honesty, in a couple of days time I might go through the hassle once more, so I'd have a nice supply for when my friends and family come to visit or when I just feel like treating myself to something that reminds me of Estonia. 

Ingredients

- 4.5 l freshly pressed apple juice

- 100 g sugar

- Sterilised glass bottles / jars

Directions

First put the apples through the juicer until you have a good 4.5 litres of apple juice. Then strain the juice through a muslin cloth to remove all the tiny bits. 

Place everything into a large pot and bring up to 85C. Skim the foam and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so. Then add the sugar. If you want yours sweeter add more than that, but I prefer mine quite sour (and to quote my mum - you can always buy the sugary syrup "apple juice" from the shops). Stir until the sugar has dissolved completely. 

Then pour the juice into the bottles / jars and close the caps whilst the juice is still hot. Let it cool down and label it. Enjoy immediately or put away for the cold winter months to come. To serve, dilute it with water and for added twist serve with lemon and orange slices. 

Gnocchi with chicken & courgette sauce

When I made this beauty for dinner last night it didn't cross my mind that I might jinx the beautiful weather we've been having over the past couple of days - it still felt like summer. But this morning when I woke up the autumn has finally arrived with it's grey sky and rain. So in hindsight I'm actually quite happy that I've got three more portions of this lovely and filling pasta left to eat over the next couple of days. I've put two portions of it in the freezer and will let you know whether it turns out alright or not.

I decided to make this because for the couple of days before, all I could think about was that I really-really want something with courgette in it. I probably spent a good couple of hours trying to find that something that just popped out and made me rush to the store. However as I did not manage to find that something special I decided to experiment and I had no idea how it would turn out. And oh my did it turn out well, even if I do say so myself.

It's easy and quite quick to make and I love that the portion sizes are really generous. It's really filling and warming, but at the same time no too heavy. I was really surprised that I did not have to add any water or chicken stock as the courgettes helped to keep it liquid enough throughout the whole process. This is definitely something that I'll make again over the coming months to keep the grey and cold from getting to me.

Ingredients
(Serves 4)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 500g courgette, cubed
- 380g chicken breast, cubed
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- Parmesan cheese
- 500g gnocchi
- Fresh basil
- Salt
- Pepper
- Mixed italian herbs

Directions
Heat the oil in a thick bottomed pot and fry the onion and garlic for around 10 minutes until soft and fragrant. Add the chicken and fry until seared on all sides. Then add the courgette and fry for another 5 minutes unit it starts to soften. Then add the chopped tomatoes and season with salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Bring to simmer and place the lid on the pot and simmer for 30 minutes or so.

Then add some torn basil, a bit of parmesan cheese and the gnocchi and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Place on a plate and serve immediately with some basil, fresh pepper and parmesan.

Inspired by the BBC Good Food recipe "Tomato & Courgette stew"

 

Prawn & Harissa stew with couscous

One of my go to meals during revision period was this lovely Middle Eastern flavoured stew. It is really filling, incredibly quick to make (it literally takes 10 minutes) and so flavourful. And as an added bonus it is healthy as well! The only problem with stews of any description is that they are not the most "photogenic" of foods, but I just had to really share this one with you.

Like with so many of my recipes, I had bookmarked it ages ago and when I finally got around to make it I was more than pleasantly surprised. Sometimes the problem with healthier options is that they are not the most flavourful and even worse, still leave you feeling hungry after eating them. Whereas this is exactly the opposite.

This dish also has a very nice mixture of different textures - soft grainy texture, semi-crunchy onions, juicy prawns complimented by a creamy tomato sauce. Top that off with amazing flavours and you've got a real crowd pleaser. It is worth mentioning that if you're not a big fan of spicy food then it might be a good idea to reduce the amount of harissa paste you add into the stew - I like my food quite spicy and found that the 2 tbsp was just enough for my liking. But that's another perk of cooking at home - if you don't like an ingredient, leave it out and the same way if you like less spicy, add less spices.

All in all, this is a lovely and incredibly quick stew that makes a perfect and filling mid-week meal.

Ingredients

(Serves 1)
- 50g couscous
- Olive oil, for frying
- 100ml chicken stock
- 1/2 red onion, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 200g tinned chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp harissa
- 75g raw peeled prawns
- Coriander leaves, to serve

Directions
Put the couscous in a bowl with a tiny splash of olive oil and cover with boiling chicken stock. Cover and let it swell until you prepare the stew.

To make the stew, heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic and fry until just tender. Add the cumin and fry for another minute. Then add the tomatoes and harissa and bubble everything together until it thickens. Lastly, stir in the prawns and cook for 3 more minutes (or until the prawns have turned pink).

To serve, fluff the couscous with a fork, pour the stew over it and scatter the coriander over. Serve immediately.

Recipe from BBC Good Food 

Marble cheesecake

So I'm finally done with my LPC exams and it feels so good to know that I'm done with exams for the rest of my life (at least I hope so!). I've spent a couple of days at my parents' place now and to celebrate the end of my school year and I decided to bake a lovely cheesecake. I usually make the classic cheesecake, but I wanted to try something new. Most of my favourite cheesecake recipes come from a book called Juustukoogid by Lia Virkus and Angeelika Kang (sorry my dear non-Estonian reads, but this book is only in Estonian) as they are relatively easy to make, don't require a huge array of different ingredients and so far every last one of them has come out absolutely amazing.

As the weather has been really bad here lately - I honestly can't remember the last time it was only +8C in the beginning of June - I wanted something slightly richer and less fruity that I usually would go for in the summer. So we were flicking through the book and a couple of possibilities caught our eye - carrot cake cheesecake, peanut butter cheesecake and Daim chocolate cheesecake to name a few - but the one that really stood out was this Marble cheesecake.

It takes slightly more time to prepare than the other baked cheesecakes I've made because you need to melt the chocolate, but leaving that aside it is as quick and straightforward to make as all the other ones. I love how you could taste a hint of curd cheese / quark (kohupiim - творог) in the cake itself and how the base reminded me of a chocolate version of a cheesecake I used to eat as a child more than 10 years ago. The cake is perfectly balanced - not too chocolatey and not too sweet and perfectly creamy. It makes a perfect teatime treat, which is guaranteed to please everyone. It tastes delicious either on its own or if you want to make it more summery or just add a twist, serve it with a lovely dollop of homemade jam or with fresh berries. 

Ingredients

(Serves 12)
Base:
- 130g butter, melted
- 75ml sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 50g dark chocolate, melted
- 250ml flour
- 1/2 tsp salt

Filling:
- 500g curd / quark / kohupiim / or ricotta cheese
- 500g Philadelphia cream cheese
- 250ml sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 2 tbsp flour
- 4 eggs
- 50ml milk
- 250g sour cream
- 100g dark chocolate, melted

Directions
To make the base whip together warm butter, sugar and vanilla sugar. Then add melted dark chocolate and the egg yolk. Finally add flour and salt. Put the base batter in a lined 24-cm springform tin and cook at 180C (fan) for 15 minutes.

For the filling, mix together curd, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla sugar, flour, eggs, milk and sour cream until smooth and creamy. Then divide the mixture into two parts - keep 2/3 in the same bowl and place 1/3 of it in another bowl and mix that smaller batch with the melted chocolate. Pour the light mixture on top of the base and then top it off with the chocolate mixture. To mix the layers a bit draw 8-shaped circles with a sharp knife, but be careful not to overdo it as you don't want the cake to look muddy.

Bake at 175C (fan) for 1 hour. Then let the cake cool down in the oven with the door open for another hour and then chill the cake overnight (or at least for 5 hours) before serving. In order to make it easier to take it out of the tin place the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes and then place on a serving plate, slice, top the individual slices with fruit / name if you wish and enjoy!

Recipe from a book "Juustukoogid"

  

Sea bass with ginger, garlic & chilli

With the summer fast approaching I've slowly started moving away from eating soups for dinner and looking for lighter and fresher options. To me white fish has always been a kind of summery food as it's really light and I can't honestly imagine eating white fish as a comfort food during a cold winter evening. Unless of course, when it's inside a fish pie, but then it is a totally different story.

Another great perk of cooking white fish is that it is so quick to make. It took me longer to chop up the ginger, garlic, chilli and the spring onions than to fry the fish. And if you're short of time and what to have a decisions dinner on the table in 10 minutes then white fish is a perfect way to go.

I really love sea bass and I have to say that it's probably my favourite white fish. It's really easy to pair with everything and I've fried and steamed it and it has come out great whichever way I've decided to prepare it.

I came across this recipe when I was looking through BBC Good Food website again, and it really stood out because of its simplicity. Don't get me wrong, I love trying out new and different things and testing ingredients I haven't used before. But sometimes it's quite nice to just do something really simple and fuss free, which also means that there was no need for me to go out and buy a whole load of new ingredients that would just take up cupboard space, or even worse - would go off before I had a chance to use them up.

I love how the flavours and different textures work together in this recipe. And I have to admit that the Asian twist really took me back to my Singapore times and made me feel slightly nostalgic. The fish was lovely and crispy on the outside, but oh so tender and juicy on the inside. The chilli added the extra bit of spiciness, as did the crispy garlic, and the ginger just added that extra layer of flavour.

Quick, light, tasty and incredibly fuss free to make - harder to find a more suitable mid-week dinner recipe. Serve with some rice or enjoy on its own.

Ingredients

(Serves 1)
- 1 sea bass fillet, skin on
- 1 tsp sunflower oil
- Small piece of ginger, peeled and cut into matchsticks
- 1/2 garlic clove, thinly sliced
- 1/2 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced
- Spring onion, to serve
- Salt, pepper, to season
- 1 tsp soy sauce

Directions
Pat the fish dry, slash the skin 3 times and season the fish with salt and pepper. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and add the fish skin side down once its hot. Fry for 5 minutes or so until the skin is crisp and golden and then turn over and try for another minute or so and then transfer the fish to a plate. Add the ginger, garlic and chillies and fry them for about 2 minutes until golden and crispy. Pour the soy sauce over the fish, spoon the ginger, garlic and chillies on top of it and garnish with spring onions. Serve immediately and enjoy!

Recipe from bbcgoodfood.com

 

Salmon & poached egg on rye bread

Up to that morning I had never poached an egg in my life. It always seemed like too much of a hassle and reading all the comments online regarding how difficult it is to do it properly I just never got the courage to give it a shot. However, as I am a huge fan of having smoked salmon with scrambled eggs on a slice of toast I finally decided to give poaching a try - it's basically the same thing, just looks a lot fancier.

It goes without saying that I did quite a bit of research into how to poach an egg and it was surprising how many different - and conflicting - options were out there. Put salt, don't put salt, add vinegar, no need to add vinegar etc. So when it came down to making the decision which one to follow I decided to go with Gordon Ramsay's version that I found on BBC Good Food and purely for the reason that every other recipe by him that I've tried has come out amazing. And I can now report back that the poached egg was a success as well!

I rarely eat eggs during the week and consider them to be kind of a treat for breakfast as I am great believer that every bite should be savoured, not just swallowed down as quickly as possible. So it is quite nice every now and then to take the extra 20 minutes to prepare something nice and tasty and then enjoy eating it as well. I love how the rye bread provides substance, salmon the richness the poached egg adds just the right amount of creaminess. It's definitely a treat that I'll make for myself again!

Ingredients
(Serves 1)
- 25g smoked salmon
- Slice of rye bread (or any other bread)
- 1 egg
- Pepper, to serve
- 1l water
- 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
- Butter

Directions
Firstly, place the water in a saucepan, add the vinegar and bring to simmer over medium heat. Then, use a spoon to create a vortex and drop in the egg, this way the egg white will automatically curl around the yolk and leave it in for 3 minutes if you like your yolk creamy (for less if you like it very runny and for longer if you prefer it more solid). In the meantime prepare the salmon sandwich - rye bread, butter and salmon - and place on a plate. When the egg is done, take it out with a slotted spoon and dry with a peace of kitchen towel, making sure you don't pat too hard (don't want to brake it). Place the egg on top of the sandwich and serve immediately with some freshly ground pepper. Enjoy!

Egg with asparagus, grilled ham and onion jam

I know I haven't put up a single recipe in over a month, but in my defence I'm bang on in the middle of my exam period and I have to admit that preparing food has not been my top priority. I basically live off porridge for breakfast, fruits and yogurts for lunch and for dinner I just have some soup that I've prepared in batches in advance. And weekends aren't any different. But after weeks of doing that I really started craving for something different. Having bought a couple of cookbooks for my mum I flicked through them and decided that I should get those for myself as there were a couple of recipes that really appealed to me. And one of them was this one.

If I have the time I love eating breakfast at the weekends at the dining table and trying out new recipes. So when I saw this one I knew I had to have it (and make time for it!). I love having eggs for breakfast - they keep me full for hours. Couple that with crispy ham, juicy asparagus and sweet caramelised onions and what you get is a delicious and filling breakfast. And not just that - on top of everything it is healthy as well!

I can honestly say that I savoured every single bite. Furthermore, I'm already looking forward to the Friday that all my exams are done and I can treat myself to another one of those ...

Ingredients

(Serves 1)
- Olive oil
- 1 small red onion (85g), thinly sliced
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- 1 tsp water
- 25g shaved light ham
- 170g asparagus, trimmed
- 1 egg

Directions
Heat up the gill in the oven.

Firstly prepare the onion jam: heat some oil in the pan and cook onion over medium heat and stirring it constantly. When it is alms soft add vinegar and sugar and stir it until sugar dissolves. Add water and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Prepare the asparagus by boiling it for around 5 minutes. In the meanwhile place the ham in a single layer on an over tray. Cook under hot grill until browned lightly.

Lastly, heat the same pan that you used for making the onion jam and fry the egg until cooks as desired.

Place everything on the plate and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Recipe from book AWW's "21-day low-fat diet"