Strawberry Swing - Asparagus Strawberry Salad

I felt like cooking something a bit different today, and got the idea of making a salad using asparagus and strawberries.  It looks like lots of other people beat me to it, though; the internet seems to be full of asparagus strawberry salad recipes. Anyway, this is my version of the salad. The idea of the spicy strawberry sauce, which gives the salad a great punch, is mine. 



STRAWBERRY SWING

Salad:

160 grams strawberries (~2/3 of a 250-gram package)
300 grams asparagus
12 large walnuts
leek
sea salt

Sauce:

90 grams strawberries (~1/3 of a 250-gram package)
half of a large, juicy lemon
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoons chilli powder
sea salt

Preparing the salad:

1. Wash the asparagus spears, cut off the woody bits, and cut the rest of the spears into 3-cm-long pieces. Divide the pieces into three groups: the ones that come from the bottom (the hardest), middle and top (the softest) of the spears.
2. Put a tiny bit of water and some sea salt on the bottom of a pot, and bring to the boil.
3. Add the asparagus pieces into the pot in three stages, starting from the harder bottom bits. Let them steam under a lid until tender. Mix the asparagus pieces a few times so that all of them will get salted.
4. Pour the water out of the pot, and let the asparagus cool down completely.
5. Shell the walnuts and break them into smaller pieces.
6. Heat a frying pan over medium heat, add the walnuts into the hot pan and stir frequently, until the walnuts start to brown and smell toasted (~5 min).
7. Let the walnuts cool down completely.
8. Wash and trim the strawberries, and cut them in half (or in more pieces in case they are quite big).
9. Wash the leek, cut very thin slices of the white part, and cut those in half. The leek I had was really thin, and I used about 4 cm of it for the recipe.
10. Mix all the ingredients in a salad bowl and put the bowl in the fridge.

Preparing the sauce:

1. Squeeze the juice of the lemon (about 3 tablespoons) into a small bowl.
2. Add the olive oil.
3. Add the chilli powder and a pinch of sea salt.
4. Add the strawberries and blend until smooth.
5. Let the sauce stand for about 10 minutes before serving it with the salad.

Annika

Cocoa Loco - Fudgey Chocolate-Ginger Cake

I've recently been looking for gluten-free cake/muffin/biscuit recipes. The impression that I have is that, to bake gluten-free, you need to buy lots of exotic flours and ingredients (or a gluten-free baking mix but that would be cheating, wouldn't it?). Considering how rarely I bake (this was my second ever gluten-free baking experiment), I don't really feel like buying all that stuff, and none of the recipes I came across really took my fancy... until I happened to find this exciting cake recipe that uses beans instead of flour: 
http://www.healthyindulgences.net/2009/05/healthy-chocolate-cake-with-secret.html 


I guess that the word "bean" is enough to turn a lot of people off but I can guarantee that there really isn't a hint of bean taste in the end product.


Anyway, instead of using the original recipe, I decided to try to replace the eggs with something else... but what?! I did some research on vegan egg replacements, and decided to try to replace some of the eggs with banana and some of them with agar agar, which I had never used before. I spread the batter between two cake pans, one of which I took out of the oven after 45 minutes, after I had come to the conclusion that the batter wouldn't really solidify (or rise). At that point, the texture was similar to that of Finnish chocolate kissel, and I happily ate it all(!) while it was still hot. I left the other cake pan in the oven for 25 minutes more but the batter still hadn't solidified properly after an hour and ten minutes, and the cake was still as flat as a pancake. I left the cake pan to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes and, encouraged by the fact that the batter had started solidifying (thanks to the agar agar?!), put it in the fridge for another 20 minutes. After that, the texture was sort of fudgey, and the cake was easy to cut. My camera is broken at the moment so, if you want to get an idea of the texture, please check out the pictures of this cake, whose texture looks very, very similar to mine:
http://www.egglesscooking.com/2012/02/22/gluten-free-flourless-vegan-chocolate-cake-recipe/


The recipe in this post is the recipe for the fudgey cake, which I will definitely make again. I'm now thinking, though, that it might be easier to try to bake gluten- and egg-free biscuits than cakes to get a more "conventional" end result. So, please stay tuned for my upcoming biscuit experiments!


If anyone has any ideas for egg replacements that would result in a crumbly cake rather than a fudgey one, do leave me a comment with your advice :-)


COCOA LOCO


1.8 dl cooked white beans (I soaked 1 dl of white beans, and was left over with some after using 1.8 dl for the recipe)
5 tablespoons agar agar flakes
1 1/2 small ripe bananas
1 1/3 tablespoons ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
3 tablespoons unrefined coconut oil
0.6 dl honey
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda


0. Soak the beans overnight, then cook and drain them.
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease two 15-cm round cake pans (or one cake pan with the same total area) with coconut oil, and dust cocoa over the inside of the pans.
3. Mash the bananas using a spoon.
4. Place the beans, the mashed bananas, the ginger and the salt into a blender, and blend until smooth.
5. Whish together the cocoa powder, the baking soda and the baking powder.
6. Beat the coconut oil with the honey until light and fluffy.
7. Pour the bean batter into the coconut oil/honey mixture and mix well.
8. Mix the agar agar flakes with a little bit of water (I started with just 8 tablespoons) and boil for about five minutes, stirring constantly (keep adding water until there is enough for the agar agar flakes to melt).
9. Add the agar agar mix in the batter and mix well.
10. Stir in the cocoa powder/baking soda/baking powder mixture, and beat until smooth.
11. Pour the batter into the cake pans and smooth the tops.
12. Bake for 1 h 10 min.
13. Allow to cool down in room temperature for 20 minutes.
14. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
15. Enjoy!


Annika

Spicy Spinato - Spicy Spinach Stew (or Pasta Sauce)

SPICY SPINATO

6-7 desilitres of washed, chopped fresh spinach
1 tomato
1 clove of garlic
0.75-1 teaspoon of curcuma
pinch of chilli powder
sea salt

1. Wash and chop the fresh spinach.
2. Wash the tomato and cut it into small pieces.
3. Chop the garlic finely.
4. Put a tiny bit of water on the bottom of a pot. Mix the curcuma, a little bit of sea salt, and a pinch of chilli powder with the water. Add the garlic, the tomatoes and the spinach on top - in that order.
5. Heat the ingredients under a lid, until the spinach has wilted.
6. Occasionally stirring, let the dish simmer under the lid for about ten minutes.
7. Serve as a stew/soup with 20-25 almonds (enough for one person), or as a pasta sauce with gluten-free pasta (enough for two people).

Annika

Fluey Lewis and the News - Warming Ginger-Eucalyptus Drink

I have been down with a nasty cold for the past few days, and I wanted to come up with something nice to drink - something that would keep me warm and... well... help me get rid of the mucus. This is what I came up with.

FLUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS

0.5 liter of water
1-1.5 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh ginger
2-3 dried eucalyptus leaves
the juice of half a (small) lemon

1. Bring the water to the boil in a pan.
2. While the water is heating, peel the ginger and chop it finely.
3. When the water starts boiling, turn off the heat.
4. Add the ginger, the eucalyptus leaves and the lemon juice into the water.
5. Cover the pan and allow to steep for about 10 minutes.
6. Pour the drink through a sieve, removing all the solids.
6. Enjoy.

Annika

Work Your Mojo - Sweet Potatoes with Garlic Sauce

A year or so ago, I went to a Caribbean restaurant in Seville, Spain. I randomly selected a few tapas-sized dishes that had been marked both vegetarian and gluten-free on the menu. One of the dishes that I ended up being served was a gorgeous Yuca Con Mojo, boiled cassava with garlic sauce. This very quick and extremely simple dish was inspired by that Yuca Con Mojo.

WORK YOUR MOJO (for 1 person)

1 small sweet potato

extra virgin olive oil

2 medium-sized cloves of garlic

chili powder

sea salt

1. Wash the sweet potato well and cut it in thick (about 1 cm) slices.

2. Pour a little bit of water on the bottom of a pot, add a little bit of sea salt, cover the pot with a lid and bring to the boil. The idea is to steam the sweet potato slices rather than boil them, so it really has to be very little water.

3. Add the sweet potato slices into the boiling water an cover the pot with a lid.

4. Chop the garlic cloves finely. 

5. Peel the sweet potato slices when they are ready. Keep them under a lid so that they will stay hot.

6. Pour some olive oil into a small saucepan and mix in the finely chopped garlic and a touch of chili powder. Heat the oil until it starts bubbling. While waiting for the oil to start bubbling, move the sweet potato slices on a plate. When the oil starts bubbling, pour it over the sweet potato slices.

7. Enjoy.

Annika

P.S. The same sauce goes well, for instance, with steamed cauliflower, as well.

Lingoist Ice Cream - Lingonberry-Banana Ice Cream

I'm back in the homeland, and eating loads of local berries. Here's a new ice cream recipe that I came up with the other day. To be honest, I don't know how widely available lingonberries are. I think I saw them in the Alps in Italy but, when I asked about them, was told, "Oh no! We don't eat THOSE!" Well, we do!

LINGOIST ICE CREAM

200 grams of frozen lingonberries
1 ripe banana, sliced
2-3 tablespoons of coconut milk

1. Take the lingonberries out of the freezer and leave them in room temperature for a few minutes.

2. Put the ingredients in a bowl and mix them with a blender until you have a smooth paste.

3. Enjoy.

Annika

Polenta Lenta - Polenta with Radicchio and Sheep Cheese

Did you know that the Slow Food movement started from a Piedmontese town called Bra, and did you know that polenta is one of the traditional dishes here in Piedmont? And did you know that "lenta" means "slow" in Italian? Well, now you do.

Anyway, a while ago, I went to a mountain refuge where I had gorgeous polenta with radicchio and cheese. This recipe is inspired by that polenta that I had at Rifugio Levi (which is also a great place to go bouldering, by the way).




POLENTA LENTA (FOR ONE PERSON)

3 dl water
slow-cooking polenta flour
140 grams of semi-soft sheep cheese (I used a local "Toma di Pecora")
about 8 medium-sized leaves of red radicchio (Italian chicory)
1 large clove of garlic
sea salt

1. Pour the water in a pan and heat it until it's about to reach boiling point. Turn the heat low.

2. Mix polenta flour with the water, little by little, using a whisk - to make sure that the polenta does not become lumpy. Add polenta flour until you feel like the the mixture is starting to get thicker - not so thick that it becomes heavy to mix but enough to make sure that it is not fluid.

3. Add salt, and let the polenta cook under a lid for about 20 minutes.

4. In the meantime, chop the garlic finely, cut the radicchio into fine strips, and cut the sheep cheese into small cubes.

5. When the 20 minutes have passed, mix the garlic and the radicchio with the polenta, and let the polenta cook under the lid for about five more minutes.

6. Add the cheese cubes, and let the polenta cook for 5-10 minutes, or until the sheep cheese has melted and the radicchio is not too crisp anymore.

7. Enjoy.

Annika